#one of our clients had a website change and i've been walking old people through password resets for the past three weeks

[the-crooked-library]

i am so serious when i say that the popularization of tablets and phones prevents inexperienced users and especially seniors from accessing online services and exploring technology in general. i am so serious

the degree to which they strip the control from the user, rely on automated functions, and sacrifice ease of navigation for sleekness is atrocious. pair that with smaller screens, tendency of heavier websites to freeze or just straight up refuse to open, and you get someone who's online by technicality but can't actually do anything there except go on facebook or some shit

[violetsystems]

#personal

I can start by saying I'm in the middle of a full blown malware infection on a hosting provider. It's so relentless that even after trashing everything, the senior admins are stalling so you pay for their services instead of removing it yourself. The insult to injury is that every folder out of 16,000 files still infected and hidden in the trash won't delete until you remove the .htacess from each one. I'm about three fourths of the way through but thankfully they are billable hours. The sad part of it was it feels like targeting again because it affects both my professional and client websites. Been having weird shit happen in front of my place too. Strange people trying to sell me salt the day before passover. Yesterday our neighborhood does an elaborate Good Friday procession. They blocked off the street. A person rolled by really slowly in a car staring at me so I looked back. They pulled the car back in front of my house as I was talking on the phone about the malware to a client. They rolled down the window and said "Do you have something to say to me?" I had the client on speaker so I tried my best to ask him what was wrong. I explained I thought they were lost and this was my home. I even told them that if they were lost the stations of the cross happened on the next block over. "You assume a lot of things about me." he said in an angry voice. It felt like it was going to get into a discussion about race which isn't the first conversation I've had like that behind my gate from the street. So I just walked away. And as my back turned to lock the gate he said "Yeah you go do that." Fucking infantile. When I came back out to check the mail he was parked down the street and gave me a goofy wave. Then on a routine trip past the FBI to go to the dispensary somebody had the nerve to film me from the highway median in front of the FBI with a tripod and what looked like a RED HD camera. There's clear signs over there that say there's no filming allowed since it's government property but that's not my problem. I assume this guy who I've seen before was trying to punk me into lecturing him on behalf of the FBI. But I just kept walking. Everybody at the dispensary was fairly friendly. And the FBI is just a building. So the things that stick out to me seem far more intentional. Including the ex sys admin from my old job stalking my Linkedin profile.

I think the intent of all of this is a provocation. They have all this graffiti up in parts of the neighborhood. These murals with the lofty saying "Provoke Culture." And I used to believe that that meant something. But really all anyone ever does is harass a person to knock them out of their financial position. Sometimes out of greed and other times out of manipulation. A class war is pretty evident these days. The mayor's race was more about turnout than it was about race, pardon the pun. I had some severe ideological problems with the candidate I voted for. But I trusted the democratic party to hold him to the party line. Now I don't really trust politics whatsoever in this city or country. So that's a good exit interview. But around here, people are actively trying to guerrilla develop our neighborhood and wrench control out of families and historical businesses. This is probably most related to their own property value which as it rises with new construction chokes less wealthy people out. I've rented here for twelve years. People forget who I am a lot because they don't really care to know me. So sometimes when I have a problem like yesterday at the gate, I'll just change my entire outfit and demeanor and nobody remembers who I am. This doesn't explain why the pretentious nepo babies of any race in this town seem to think they can turn my life into a movie without signing a contract or a waiver. But if you are going to do it in front of anyone I'd rather it be the FBI. You see after writing all this shit for years I've just come to the conclusion it's everyone else who is out of order. I haven't seen politicians do anything out here except wrestle. Things seem like you have a voice in them and I still believe it's a very sacred thing to vote here. But the election process from personal experience favors this weird sort of world building socialism that lurks into the scary German territory. And I'm also dealing with calling out a load of the same white supremes that I called out back in College at the local Denny's. Some of these assholes I used to even work with at the concentration camp turned clown college. Just recently caught that dude stalking my LinkedIn too poised to give me retirement and investment fund advice at exactly the wrong time. So that's why I may be a little reluctant to engage in social justice race theory with a strange man in a white truck who doesn't like me assuming I live here.

If one thing is for sure, I don't think anybody is safe right now or should risk too much of their own shelter in place. I know pretty well that if I stay out of it, this "test" about my constitutional rights in America will be more of a background check. But it doesn't really change the fact that this malicious behavior is meant for me to feel miserable. I would blame capitalism but it's worse than that. It's an advertising shame based surveillance state that hasn't been properly regulated by our government because there's nobody young enough to understand computers with a sort of ethical culture rather than a pigheaded nerd pride mentality. That's kind of why I've stuck to writing here. But I can't really continue to live my life locked in a fucking shed waiting for people to admit that they owe me a settlement check. So that's why I feel like things are about to take a long walk off a high cliff. And if I weren't prepared for it, I'd be more surprised. I just don't like being yelled at and confronted by people who have conned their way into social justice movement to make it their soapbox for their confidence issues. Just the same rappers turned actors and ball players. On the other hand, people like myself who people should know better before fucking with have to realize that these people are the weakest of the weak. They're looking to explode in the moment and harness the energy of bringing you pain. They want to be right in an argument that is controlled by rich white male insittutions and think tanks that act like we're at the table. None of us are. Even if we bang on it repeatedly, they will pretend you don't exist. It's that fucking feeling right there. That you pretend I don't have a point. That you pretend I'll go away. That you'll pretend I'll mismanage my money worse than you. That you'll just assume the victim gave up. I'm not really a victim. I can't say it doesn't bother me physically. But I get better at knowing when to walk away from defending myself or even taking part in an argument. But it is getting bad. And I am stuck in place in a very real hurtful way. And I still have to spend about eight hours pointing and clicking the same hidden file until the trash has manually been removed. Sounds like a metaphor? A poor performance piece. A cult more likely. And at least we all know how hard it is to detach from the cult of America that bought out the political dialogue. There still are these things as an individual called constitutional rights that the FBI protects. I'm an individual. Not a mob. Not a gang. Not a terrorist. Not a spy or a cybercriminal. No matter how much you want to stereotype me. And so I'm at peace with my side of the bargain. I don't really need to prove anything other than what you allowed to film me in front of the FBI on a tripod. You wish you could see what's on my phone. In the eyes of God, I feel pretty confident that these people have no point other than to need me to stay relevant. So that's why I'm trying to choke them out by cutting everything off and focusing on what matters. <3 Tim