Today is Tuesday and Guess What

CISPA still sucks.

Go here for some tweets if Twitter is not loading them here for you:
https://cyberspying.eff.org/

BlackOut in Protest of CISPA

Variations on a Pattern

If you want any of these, please right-click to save to your computer.  No hot-linking.  I made these.  You can use them as is or add to them as you will. 

All Your Info Belongs to Us-- No. I Resist.

I've been here with Google for  a bunch of years now.  And I don't like what I've been seeing lately.

Specifically, when using a v.p.n. plus a proxy, I get the error message from hell.  The particular wording of the message involves the accusation that my computer network is having unusual traffic and thus may be using automated queries.  There is no option for a capscha to "prove" my humanity.  This pisses me off.  What pisses me off also is a visit to the Google forum reveals that I am not the only customer with the problem.  The help page advising me that somehow my computer is infected with malware is totally not helpful.  It isn't.  Period.  In the age of tell-all, v.p.n.s are bad m'kay and apparently proxies are too.

Let me be quite clear.  This pisses me off to the point where I am now exploring the possibility of moving the whole shebang over to Wordpress and/or using one my domains with hosting in a non-u.s.a. country to publish my blogs.  And yes, I am also checking out other search engines whose mission does not involve data-mining things such as how big my snots are.  I am not the product.  That is why you have ads, Google.  A big fruck you to you and to the fact that the words "Google support department" is an oxymoron.

I am absolutely sick of the mindset that says "All your information belongs to us."  I am sick of being blocked from searching Google News because I use a proxy and a vpn.  I am sick of the assumption that the opposite of the word privacy is the word security.  I am sick of Big Brother-- which unfortunately now in my brain includes Google-- and sick of the shenanigans of The Big Five [cable companies] in cahoots with Big Hollywood doing deep packet inspections in order to "catch" a few pirates sharing [not stealing] files.  By the way,  stealing means I am claiming that I authored the work in question when I did not.  I suspect that the deep packet inspections are or will ultimately be used for something more than having some pirates arrested and hot-footed off to kangaroo courts and then to jail.  No love there folks, none.

I will throw in the Facebook I mean Fedbook phenomena which requires folks to grant access to all kinds of personal and wallet info to like eighty percent of the universe.  I don't really understand why folks would ever give their real names to Fedbook, never mind all the other stuff that in a civilized society used to qualify as t.m.i., or too much information.  

I sort of blame those teevee talk shows for the Fedbook phenomena.  It appears to me that the same folks who were spell-bound by the dirty laundry of total strangers are the same kind of folks who wish to display their own.  Of course, no one is forced to use Fedbook, Google, or any other service.  And yes, since we are playing on their playgrounds, we have to at least make an attempt to look like we are following their rules.  One of these days, I will be taking my business elsewhere and I will leave a forwarding address.

No love to Big Brother, The Big 5, or the Police State that some politicians are bent on the United States of America becoming.   

Re-Print

The following is a reprint of the post I made on Chrystal Mahan's There is More to Life than Chocolate blog.  Her blog is definitely worth a look for anyone that is endeavoring to achieve a healthy lifestyle as well as for folks who like yummy low-carb recipes.

Me Too

Yes, I am a food addict too.  I am currently struggling with developing a healthy relationship with food.  I love to eat.  I love food.  I love almost all food.  There is hardly a food I've met that I didn't like.

I was thin growing up although I ate as much as I could when I was awake.  I too have summer memories of food binges.  A high school buddy and I would get together, walk to the store on the corner, and walk back with our own individual half gallon of ice cream.  We would sit in her bedroom, each of us holding our own box of ice cream and eat until they were gone.  

As I got into my twenties, the weight piled on gradually until I was thirty pounds overweight.  I lost that weight and then a bit more because I wasn't eating enough due to something personal happening that I could not cope with.  Needless to say, I gained it all back and then some.

I tried a stint in T.O.P.S.-- that stands for "Take Off Pounds Sensibly."  I did reach my goal weight and maintained it for over a year.  But the pounds came creeping back.  Right now I am about seventeen pounds over my goal weight.

The thing that bothered me while I was in TOPS was the tendency of some of the members, myself included, to eat much less for a couple of days before weigh-ins.  To me, this smacked of eating-disordered behavior.  I was dissatisfied.  I didn't like this thing I was doing in order to try to maintain my goal weight.

So I have quit TOPS for the time being and am working hard to establish healthy eating habits everyday.  I know that eating like I always ate for four days and then eating hardly anything for three days is not the way to a healthy relationship with food.  I am disappointed that I am above my goal weight.  I am hopeful that by doing what I have to do in order to eat smart every day, I will achieve my goal weight and stick to it without engaging in eating-disordered behavior.  It may take a bit longer this way but that is alright.

I am striving to do this in a healthier way than I have been.  For that I endorse myself as I continue to grapple with food.

sapphoq