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Praetorium Honoris

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Sigh...

No, I don't know what all of those symbols are. Let's get that out of the way right up front. The only social media I use on a regular basis is Facebook, it's a pretty good way to keep in touch with the kids without running up a phone bill. (Is that even a thing anymore?)

I have a Twitter account, I think I've used it less than 20 times. It's basically there so I can "follow" people, read their tweets, some of 'em are pretty hilarious. It's also fun to hear how the Prez's latest tweet has made heads explode. But maybe that's just me.

I've been awfully ill-tempered as of late, I blame the steroids I drip into my eye thrice a day. But those are almost gone, so next week I'll blame a lack of sleep, or the never ending political ads which seem to be everywhere. (Yes, Facebook, I'm looking at you too.) Soon that will pass, 6th of November, neh?

Anyhoo, Facebook. While I enjoy it most of the time, I've noticed lately that there is a certain type of person on Facebook who just has to comment on everything. What, a simple "like," "laugh," "love," "wow," "sad," or "mad" just not expressive enough for you?

One of my favorites is something my fellow veterans do, and yes, I'm guilty of it from time to time. Bitching about the state of "today's" military. Uniforms, attitudes, training, and the like were all better/smarter/tougher in "my day." Maybe they were, maybe they weren't.

I'm sure the Roman legionaries who left the legions before the Marian reforms were instituted whined about how "soft" the new legionaries had it. The more things change, the more they stay the same. (And yes, I'm going to make you look "Marian reforms" up yourselves. Like I said, ill-tempered.)

Also, I get a kick out of the "if you remember this, like it and share it!" Which I don't. My account is where chain messages, lists, and "share this" memes come to die. Do you really think that you will go to Hell if you don't type "Amen" and share every Jesus-meme which comes over your feed?

Nope. Not gonna happen.

Occasionally someone will do one of those "about me" lists, which can be kind of fun. But share those on Facebook? Nah, not when I can get a blog post out of it. (If you go through the archives, a post or three exists which I "stole" from Facebook. Well, the idea anyway.)

Facebook has this Messanger thingy which you can have on your phone (calm down, calm down, I have a point) which lately has been amusing in an unintended way. I received one message from a very nice looking middle-aged white woman, think someone's grandmother, with an indication of a desire to communicate with me. Facebook actually suggested that this was a bad idea, as the phone message originated in Nigeria from an account created that very day. No, I didn't answer it.

Happened again a day later, from a guy I'd served with in the Air Force. I thought it odd that he was in Nigeria. Also that we'd been friends for a while on Facebook, yet his account had been created that very day. A lot of people think they've been "hacked" when that happens. Only sort of, hacking is way more sophisticated than that. What these assclowns are doing is copying someone's profile photo and using that to create an account, often using the same name as the account they copied, or cloned if you will. (A term some have used but isn't really accurate in computer terms.)

After they do that, they start messaging all of the "cloned" account's friends list. People respond, and the mess spreads. Stop the mess, don't respond to odd messages, never copy something and send it to all of your friends. Ever.

Anyhoo, I use Messanger on my phone because it's easy to stay in touch with people without giving one's phone number away. Not that every scammer on the planet doesn't already have my number. Oh, that "No Call List"? Yup, kind of a waste of time. Most scammers ignore it because they know most people won't report it. Also, it was a program set up by Congress. Just how effective have they been over the past couple of decades? If your answer was, "Not very," you get my point.

At any rate, I am getting tired of some of the crap on Facebook, even from some of my friends, who I won't mention, who should know better.

But hey, it's the easiest way to get pictures of my grandkids. So there.

I've got that going for me.

But hey, how about those ridiculous uniforms the [insert your service here] are wearing these days? Why I remember when all we had was a loincloth and sandals. Dammit. If it was good enough for us back then, it should be good enough for the young whippersnappers these days.

Heh.


42 comments:

  1. Created a Facebook account to counter a critical review that I thought was unfair left for a neighborhood business. Never used that account, never posted ANY info from myself on it and just deleted it a couple months ago when I ran across an example of how to do that. I don't believe in posting personal info even with privacy settings since Facebook can do what they want when they want. Don't understand why so many people post so much of their personal lives so openly..... why not have glass walls in your home then? Well.... rant over....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Never post anything that you don't want the entire world to see. Which has worked for me for over ten years.

      But it's not everyone's cup o' tea.

      Delete
  2. "But hey, it's the easiest way to get pictures of my grandkids."

    I got no grandkids, so no facebook.

    Thanks for the post.
    Paul L. Quandt

    ReplyDelete
  3. Its FB only for me. And, I promise I'll try and do better.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Took a long time, but I eventually quit FB entirely. The DT's have stopped and I feel much better, more energy, sleep better. As for Twitter, I've always believed that any issue that can be described entirely in 140 characters isn't worth discussing at all. So, none of that. Now, if/when Grandkids arrive, I may revisit the issue.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Depends a lot on the geographical separation. All four grandkids in California means I don't get to see them as much as I would like to, so FB fills a gap for me.

      Delete
  5. Since you mentioned uniforms, allow me to interject that putting sailors into camo working uniforms was an inane decision. Ships are industrial environments.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I would think that if you'd fallen overboard the last thing you'd want to be wearing was a blue camo uniform. Incandescent Orange might have been better.

      Delete
    2. Comrade Misfit - Hear, hear! Not sure if any thought at all went into that decision.

      Delete
    3. Juvat - Yeah, how not to get found at sea...

      Look just like the sea.

      Delete
    4. I appreciated the Air Force general (who shall remain unnamed) who refereed to the AF camo as "cubicle camo."

      Delete
    5. Now that right there is funny!

      Good one Dave.

      Delete
    6. My guess: No thought. Maybe corruption. I've beaten this horsefr awhile.

      Delete
  6. With 50+ first cousins it is a good way to keep up with the ones I like.

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  7. When I was at the PD, watched people's careers and lives get destroyed over 'citizens' using the officers' social media to attack them. Like seeing an officer with guns on his/her facebook page, oh must be a survivalist. Carp like that.

    Not to mention the officers using perps' social media to attack them (the perps.)( I mean, how stupid can you be when on probation or parole to have photos of you with alcohol, drugs, guns and other felons, and then for you to openly brag about the felonies you just committed that your parole/probation officer will never find out? Yeesh.)

    So for years I kept off social media because I didn't want it to negatively affect my career. Little did I know it wasn't the weird and creepy public tha tI had to worry about.

    Now that I don't have a career, I let my hair down, well, what I have left, here on this and a few other blogs. Wooooo. Living the high life. I think I check email once a week because otherwise it fills up, mostly with junk.

    Don't have kids, don't skype.

    Now, I do read Twitchy, which is a twitter aggregator, for all the nasty comments and poo flinging, especially from Dana Loesh or Sean Spicier (a spoof account of Sean Spicer.) And I only read that stuff when I want to, maybe every other day.

    I am kinda addicted to reading some people's blogs, one is this one.

    Other than that, if I don't have to talk or see anyone besides Mrs. Andrew for a week or two on end, well, that's perfectly great. Did I ever mention that I was a grumpy hermit dude for the most part.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Our first PC had Win 95. I do email and text messages. Period. Even at that, a few weeks back my email and Amazon account got hacked.

    I could receive email, but not send (Thunderbird). Attempting to send resulted in this error message---

    "An error occurred while sending mail. The mail server responded: 5.7.1 We were unable to deliver your message.
    Please try resending your message by adding some text. Please check the message and try again."

    It would seem somebody used my email address to hack into my account on the server (Yahoo mail) and was probably
    using it to send volumes of spam, triggering a spam filter block.

    The Amazon account hack was partly my fault as I forgot about setting up two step ID. So, duh, stolen email (no surprise there) and "Hi, I forgot my password" and presto, they are in. Then they set up their own two step ID and locked me out. They also used the filter function on the server to set all amazon email to go to archive, so I didn't see the Amazon response until I dug around. All is up and running now. The less they know about me, the better.

    Uniforms. Not to rag on the Navy too much, but if the enemy can see your ship, I don't see how it makes much difference what color you are wearing.

    When I was Regular Army, the uniform was till OD green, 100% cotton. Starch was a big thing. On my first leave back home, I went to the PX at (gasp!) Travis AFB because I knew the Air Force had permanent press OD's. Vive la différence.

    I saw my very first Woodland Camo uniform just before I got out. That was a good uniform. Durable, available in rip-stop fabric, and much better cargo pockets.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I liked the woodland camo as well. Comfy.

      Delete
    2. Feel free to rag on Navy Uni's. We all do. Green frickin cammies for the Navy? Stupidest thing ever. I'm glad I never had to wear the blueberries, which are almost all gone, in favor of the avocados. Flight suits were always in style and always in favor over anything else. Navy is looking at some other stuff now. Again- stupid imho, which makes me sound like one of those curmudgeony old retirees.

      Delete
    3. Yeah, but...

      How much money do the taxpayers need to waste on these uniform follies? Newer and tougher materials, sure. A complete redesign every cuppla? Dumb with a capital D.

      Delete
    4. Tuna, I was long gone, as well, before the Blueberries and the Avocados. Both uniforms look stupid, like something that the soldiers o some fifth-rate banana republic might wear.

      Delete
  9. I won't use FB...no trust. I have such a suspicious nature.
    If anyone wants to talk to me they can call me up or email me.
    I do have a Twitter account tho...just to see what others are saying about what's going on.
    Sheesh! I might be too privet a person.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd have to say that being "too private" is a feature, not a bug.

      Delete
  10. I have a shirt that says everything I need to say about the Navy.

    I like to think I use fb rather than having it use me.
    I’ve managed to become reacquainted with a number of folks from my youth.
    I am pretty selective, today, about who I “friend” now.
    Texting is my go to form of communication when it isn’t face to face.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Texting? Skip, how 21st century of you! Texting makes my thumbs hurt. ;)

      Delete
  11. I love how Facebook makes people, especially older people angry. "I don't use that damn face thing!" Like almost anything, Facebook can be used correctly or incorrectly...think driving a car rationally or driving a car at 120 MPH with a buzz on. I have slowly learned to use Facebook more rationally. I ignore the crap (most of the time) and I realized that the more friends I have does not really make me a popular person, as such I have unfriended high school people that never talked to me in high school, second cousins once removed and random people who just wanted to be friends. I do not miss seeing what those people are having for dinner or what their cute cat is up to.

    Twitter I just do not understand, I can read the Presidents tweets when they make the news.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Concur with all. I et a kick out of the folks who get so wound up that they leave Facebook, or take a break from Facebook.

      The car analogy fits nicely.

      Delete
  12. Definitely avoid those "about me" lists. I think they are data mining for future hacking attempts.

    ReplyDelete
  13. The only reason I have a fb page is because my step-daughter signed me up. "So I can send you messages Susie." "Call me on the phone Shel, or send me a text."
    So, no, don't have grandkiddos, yet. So maybe my attitude would change. I would delete it if I could figure it out. I do have all the privacy stuff shut down. And I never post anything, any place, that I wouldn't want Mom or Gramma to see...that was the rule I taught my son about being discreet on line.

    So if that makes me a grumpy old lady...I'm good with that...now, get off my lawn!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Navy camo.
    If camo is supposed to make you vanish into your background, then shouldn't the engineering pattern be machinery grey trousers and a steampipe lagging white top?
    A sailor wearing that pattern would truly vanish in an engineering space.
    As the others said, Navy camo is a truly stupid idea.

    Commenting will be spotty for a couple of weeks as we are taking the little people around our house to a couple of theme parks on Florida. (Hint. The two little people are my wife and me)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think the guy who came up with the blueberries kinda lost focus on what he was supposed to do. "Hhmm, army and Marines wear camo to blend in with the terrain they fight on, Navy fights on water..."

      I'm surprised they didn't come up with camouflaged uniforms for aircrew, sky blue with white splotches?

      You and your Missus have fun!

      Delete
  15. You had sandals!!!!! You was lucky! In my outfit we only had.......

    ReplyDelete

Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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