Man of Extreme Leisure

opalescentluminescent:

Google is evil to the core.  Their motto used to be “Don’t Be Evil” but now they are just like a politician, always fucking you without the reach-around.

Google Glass.  Data collector.  The new vocal intelligent search.  Data collector.  Google +.  Data collector.  Everything that Google does is about data collection, and the way they try to tie all of a person’s data together in one mineable bundle is nauseating.  They try to push the idea that it’s good that they know your habits and it’s good they can push advertising and make suggestions.  How far in the shadows do you really think the U.S. government is lurking here?  How long until Google starts imposing a marketing-driven digital gated community like AOL used to?

I’ve already improved my life greatly by shutting down all my Google services except Gmail, and that’s next.  The instant they started tying things like Google+ and Youtube together it was time to leave them.  It greatly disturbs me that Google knows things about me across platforms and across programs.  

I don’t use an android phone or Iphone, those are like walking GPS transmitters.  Plus they are isolating and dehumanizing.  My phone is, in drug dealer slang, a burner.  A disposable untrackable pay by the minute phone that I can change as easy as walking into a convenience store.  I have only texted on it once, and it felt stupid.  

I also started using apps to block all ads everywhere.  An ad-free internet is soooooooo nice.  I stopped using Blogger.  I stopped using Flickr.  Any presence I voluntarily have online, like this Tumblr, is layers deep in fake identifying data.

Next step is getting rid of Chrome and Google search.  Opera browser is just as good and a million times less evil.  Using a different search will make it harder for Google to track you (but they still will…)  Getting rid of Gmail might cut the covert Google cord permanently.  I’m sure Google’s invisible spying tendrils somehow extend to the very center of the internet itself though.

Beyond that, using the Tor Browser is a logical next step.  The U.S. government is only slightly more trustable than a terrorist, and even that is debatable.  You know every interaction you have with the internet is sitting in government servers.  Just as a “FUCK YOU” to the 1984-ish surveillance of the populace using an anonymity/proxy network will be worth the added trouble.

This whole computer geek thing of being accessible online is idiotic and mind-controlling and isolating.  Look at the sheep walking down the street frantically staring into their smartphones.  When I see somebody walking down the street looking into their phone I see a potential victim.  An unaware oblivious potential robbery victim who doesn’t even hear traffic noises or bird songs or see other people.  Just a narcissistic zombie lost in their own head.  This is what we’ve become, and Google is a big part of the evil that got us here.

I’m no tech luddite, my whole job is done on the internet and my office is many times higher-tech than most.  Working at the headquarters of one of the largest companies in America we have to be out on the cutting edge.  I just don’t want to be a sheep.  I just want to always kick back at the pricks.  Google, and by extension the whole 24/7 connected data-mining social website personalized internet surveillance world, are pricks.

You might think it’s worth it to have Google suggest some new restaurant you might like.  Will you think it’s worth it when your door gets kicked in or you get audited or end up on a no-fly list?  Fuck Google.  You can never not be tracked, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make it as hard as possible for the pricks to do it.

The most suspicion-worthy types are the dudes who don’t use google. Opting out is a red flag.

This was the price of gas at the station by my house in St. Paul last night. First time I’ve seen gas over $4 locally, though in 2008 I saw it at $3.99.

I quit driving in 2004 when gas was under $1.50, as I recall. Becoming a daily bicyclist and non-driver has a profound effect on a person. Consider the default: For many people who drive, cars and driving are not only an essential part of life, but also a way to make a statement. People select their cars, in part, as a way to tell the world about themselves, as they are or as they wish to be (to express masculinity, femininity, patriotism, family values, wealth, social/environmental progressiveness or regressiveness, etc). So there’s a strong emotional connection to cars and driving because it’s more than just a daily tool, but (thanks to marketing) an extension of one’s ego. But as a cyclist, cars and driving get simplified: they’re all a threat to life and limb. You can get equally squished by either a Prius or a Hummer if the driver has an attention lapse while texting behind the wheel. They all seem like assholes and killers.

Back in 2003-2004, I’d had it with GW Bush and Dick Cheney and the daily casualties in the oil war in Iraq. In an email with my college buddy, I expressed this sentiment in a bitchy tone. My buddy turned it around on me and pointed out that as a daily driver, I was part of the problem I was critiquing. The next day, I pulled my Huffy out of the garage, rode to work, and never looked back (soon after, I got a better bike). For the past nine years, I haven’t owned a car, and I’ve driven only rarely. I’d be dishonest if I said that cycling was strictly a sacrifice for the common good though… I enjoy it. If it wasn’t fun, I’d rationalize my way out of it.

Anyway part of me sees this $4+ gas and thinks “hooray, more bikes, less cars, fuck the oil companies!” But I also know that the economy can be harmed by high transportation costs, and that some people will have a rough time as a result. So I have to be somewhat quiet in my cheerleading for high gas prices, because some think I’m wishing for the end of this arrangement we know as “society”. I’ve always been something of a rugged type who enjoys confronting adversity, and I’m invigorated by change. So this excites me more than it scares me.

faitharoni:

ensphere:

Grizzly family

This is the prettiest thing ever.

c0caino:

dude she did it all wrong, i could do a better job here hold my beer

I have had my nails painted like this many times. My daughters have mastered the technique to achieve this special look.

(via carnifora)

navisis:

Monument Valley

Navis Photography

(via arizonanature)

(via d0wninthef0rest)

mashmpls:

Time to go hicycling

Maybe it’s time I start smoking weed again. It’s not like I get tested at work.