I wrote something like this on June 16th but the issue is still on my mind…..sorry….
The only CONSTANT in life is CHANGE (Heraclitus). And changes to living off the grid are inevitable (which is good and makes life interesting). Of course, Sal and I tend to invite and experience more change than many and some of it is uninvited but, regardless of how it happens or the frequency thereof, change happens and keeps happening – whether you want it to or not. Right now the only change we want to see is just a little stability and sameness – the one thing that rarely happens!
Please! Gimme a couple of weeks of same ‘ol, same ‘ol!
The dogs are change-agents, to be sure, but that is not surprising. Puppies grow into adult dogs and that means all sorts of canine/family/scheduling/etc changes but we can handle that. We have guests arriving all the time and they are all different but we can handle that. The house is getting on to twenty years old and that means repairs and we can almost handle that, too – even the electrical system recently glitching out on us and no clue as to the problem…… but, well, we got that sorted out (I had a short in the workshop that somehow sent a message to the solar inverter and it registered ‘FLAW’ and so I kept looking at the inverter instead of the workshop. Who knew?).
The new boat still needs attention but I enjoy that……
I think, in general, change is a major spice in life and I usually like it. As a rule. Mostly. But not all change is good. Russia invading Ukraine, inflation, climate change, drought, flooding, hurricanes, viruses, catastrophes of various kinds….not all change is good. In fact, the occurrence of change, if too rapid, can go from being spicy to being discombobulating. It is hard sometimes to keep up. Which is the real topic of today’s blog…..
My brain has always been quick-ish. I was born with a better-than-average-Intel processor chip. My daughter’s is even faster. Ooohhhh, can we process or what!? But processing is not nearly enough. Processing does not make you intelligent or even smart. Processing is simply rpms. Useless for it’s own sake. And both of us can spin past the redline a lot (and we do) but what is gained? We just get to the WRONG answer faster! Without the right information (data) we get garbage in and garbage comes out. Processing speed just isn’t enough. Ya need the right information.
And that is what I am seeing right now. There is a lot of misinformation out there. A lot of garbage to process and one is still left confused. i.e. Roe v Wade reversed – Scotus is now corrupted? That was a surprise….didn’t see that coming. The Canadian government deciding that First Nations children need another $40 Billion!? What is that really about?The Conservatives shooting themselves in the foot even BEFORE they get close to being elected (they always shoot themselves in the foot and go to jail after they have had power but before...)? Trump actually being revealed for the collosal crook and con-man he is? I honestly didn’t think that would happen. The rise and fall of real estate values? (I did not see that happening when it did. I thought it would stabilize but falling is a rare occurrence) Covid coming back like a bad guest? (I am stunned to learn that Covid is still here and still just as contagious but we are carrying on as if it wasn’t?) Constant rain in May, June and July? Price spikes in so many things but not all of them? All those changes may be a bit much but I kinda feel that I used to be able to juggle all that…..
…I do not feel that way any more! It kinda feels like my inner hard-drive and my RAM is too damn full. I do not want any more information!*
A younger friend of mine often uses the term, “I just do not have the ‘bandwidth’ for that right now”. Another younger friend seemed overwhelmed by a seemingly mundane issue but I realized that that issue was really issue #93,641 for him and it was the accumulation of issues that was getting to him.
Theory: there is an undetected force at work out there that is confusing and overwhelming a lot of us. It is more than just information overload. It is more than social media. It is more than DIS/MIS information. Maybe it is just me being in my mid 70’s (a group not known for being all that ‘hip’ and ‘on the ball’ much) but it feels as if everyone I know is feeling it.
“What to do about it all, Dave”? I dunno……I simply do not have the bandwidth for that right now.
*I usually read at least a dozen sources of information a day NOT counting YOU TUBE DIY instructionals. Right now, that seems like too much.
Our Off the Grid Home 
Interesting.
I read a book about 10 years back on “information collection” that the CIA the NSA and other federal agencies gather on a daily basis.
I forget the name of the author but he was n’t a conspiracy theorist. He had worked for US intelligence and think tanks.
It was incredible.
They suck up all texts, all phone calls, all emails and store it for possible auditing at a later date.
The phone numbers and IP addresses are used to identify ownership.
If you become a suspect on their radar they can go back and see who you texted, talked or emailed for years.
The amount of info was the equivalent of 15 filing cabinets of info for every man woman and child in the US.
Information overload.
No one human can sort through it all . Even todays AI computers have a daunting task to identify, trace, follow criminals.
As for us poor schleps in the real world.
We dont stand a chance.
A study release on children before the internet showed low levels of depression, self mutilation and suicide.
With the advent of smartphones…all three levels have skyrocketed among teens and young adults.
I don’t think its any surprise “normal” kids are turning into gun blazing killers.
Anything for attention and a mention on Twitter.
Whats next?
Software designed to keep our attention hooked to the screen to sell advertising.
Read a story about Trump and Russian prostitutes?
Here’s 10 more stories just like it.
Cat videos?
100 more cuter kitties than the last.
Elon Musk’s latest Tweet?
Here’s everything you didnt want to know about Elon.
I’ve started reading a lot of books.
Much less distracting.
And a bit less depressing.
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It just came to me.
James Bamford
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow_Factory
A fascinating book.
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Thanks for that. You seem to ‘get’ me. That bodes scary for both of us.
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Thanks for the tip noncon, I will put it on my “to read list”. You are right JD, no human mind can absorb all the info that is released or forced on us. A study, revealed yesterday in Belgium, shows that burnouts have increased with 66% over the last years, and is becoming THE number 1 absence reason. People (not only young people) just can’t cope anymore with the bombardment of (mis)information. And the AI bots are getting smarter every day, luring us into more (mis)information. If you look at what’s coming next, the Metaverse”, that is becoming really scary. You can “escape” your real life and became “another” “you” “avatar” in some imaginary world. I wonder how many “mass shooters” that will produce. Can you grasp the mere fact that people are investing money in NFT’s? Selling/investing/speculating with computerclothing and shoes? How more crazy can this world get?
Reading books as noncon says always has been a good escape for me. I have at least 40 to 50 books waiting (not counting the hundreds of books my wife has that I haven’t read). Our house is stacked with books, we both like to buy and keep books oldstyle (we both don’t like the e-readers)
In a few weeks, we are leaving for hollidays in some remote area in Brittany with absolutely no internet/wifi (so a total digital detox). As I might have said before, my youngest daughter is coming over for 1 week. It scares the living daylight out of her that she will be disconnected for a whole week…it seems her whole world is falling apart.
That is 1 of the reasons i would love to move to Read Island and show her what rela life is….but she might hate it in the beginning….
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Probably she would. Those who come are usually WANTING to come and, if they drag along another (spouse or friend) that other either departs within the year or they fall in love, too. It is that first year or so that separates the wheat from the plastic wrapped, already-cooked and sliced bread. ……especially if they are not used to hard physical work. Don’t get me wrong: OTG is not all hard physical work but it is definitely hard in the first year or so and it only tapers to half after five or so years. Kids-on-phones don’t like that. Moms who love Starbucks, make-up and shopping don’t like that, either.
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Japan’s FORMER ex PM assassinated?
Crazy!
Japan has the most stringent firearms laws in the world and the gunman was still able to use a homemade gun?
That just sent a chill down the spine of a lot of famous people….
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Key word…is CRAZY. That may just be a lone Japanese ‘crazy’ but Japanese culture is also fraying badly. The men and women are not only NOT reproducing, they are not even having anywhere near as much sex, it seems. No one is all that interested! Plus, I have met a lot of Japanese living in Canada simply because they cannot tolerate the high stresses of Japanese culture. ‘Merica may be mad. Britain bonkers. Canada loony….. but Japan is ‘unstable’ – especially for them. The end of the world as we know it…..
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Your description of Japanese culture sounds like what North America is devolving into.
Perhaps their 30 years of “stagflation” is about to hit us and start the devolvement process….
:0
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The guy just shot him because he didn’t like the program of the ex-prime minister. Imagine same thing would happen all around the world…take cover JD, someone might not like an opinion in your blog. On the other hand, neither noncon or me disagree with you that much, so you might be safe
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Much bigger and more popular, attention-getting targets out there than me. The opinions expressed on my blog do not represent the standards of this family or this household. In fact, Sal wants me to put that disclaimer on everything I do. So do my kids. And you know I have only 7 readers.
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Some of us come for the pictures. Just saying.
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Of me? I doubt that very much but Sal takes nice photos and so do the dogs. I’ll try to do more of that, for ya, JA. Mind you, you KNOW there’ll be philosophy and griping and politics and all sorts of crap to accompany the pics, right?
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