The Folk Prophet

I've had similar thoughts often.... and yet.... I actually never learn said valuable lessons. Because...dang it...I deserve a nice car!

I have a distinct memory of singing: "Don't hide it under a basket...a basket...a basket...", while holding up a finger and cupping the other hand over said finger every time we sang "basket", in primary as a little kid. Was some version of this song in an old-timey children's song book? Must have been. Or we had a rogue song leader. I looked it up and the lyrics are typically showing as "Hide it under a bushel? No!" So apparently our song leader was rogue any way you cut it.

I might add... it depends on the subject a bit too...and a bit who's being advised. My dad saying, "I think you ought to get a reasonable car instead of that thing," wouldn't be an issue. I'd take the advice if I agreed and ignore it if I didn't. But when my father-in-law gives my wife unsolicited parenting advice it comes across to her as him telling her she's a bad mother. And it's not good.

Well, it's more than just that. It's also (among other things) that even if the parent can teach things, it can damage relationships, which damages the parent's ability to continue to teach....and... moreover, Parents can be wrong.

In my opinion, this should be the general rule with adult children -- the exception being if they are mooching off you somehow (still living at home, etc.), but even then...it's a judgement call. But otherwise....butt out unless asked.

Technically, only for 7.57% of it.

I'd like to add that I spent 80% of my life with no gospel app and somehow managed to learn the gospel and the scriptures pretty well, prepare talks, Bible bash, and/or etc. And I walked uphill both to and from school. (I really did!) That being said... the search engine on the church site is terrible too. But there's no question things are improving there and in the app.

I wonder if, some day, people will react to Jordan Peterson the same way. Some guy made millions telling people to make their bed. Maybe I can get rich writing a book. The One Rule of Highly Successful People Rule #1: Grow up

Yep. And insecurities driving those emotions. Inside I'm still a 12-year-old kid who doesn't understand much about much.

Yep. But...man...that caller ID threw me. It's funny how some little thing like that can make some logic just kind of disappear because you're down the rabbit hole. I felt really ashamed and stupid after the experience (I'm over it now). Because, you know...I'm actually a moderately smart guy.

We put our car up for sale on KSL last month. Holy....crap! I've sold vehicles that way before. It was fine. A few dirtbags who low balled you. But overall...fine. And not that long ago. Like...I dunno...4 or 5 years back. But now.... all I got was scams and ridiculous low-balls. It was....shocking. It's gotten SO bad. The latest scam, apparently (of which I got 20 or more) is they show interest, even offer to come see it tomorrow to test drive, suggest they're willing to pay a good price, etc... but then they say they need a car report. Then they send you a link to pay for one (that's a reasonable price)...and I think (I didn't fall for any) you actually even get a report....but they and the money disappear then. It's numbers game scam. They hit every new car that goes up for sale. Fortunately on that one I had heard of the scam. And, moreover, I won't run a car report when selling a car. They're useless. If someone's buying a car and wants to validate it, take it to a mechanic. I told one of the early scammers that (not knowing it was a scam yet for sure), and he said..."I understand. Unfortunately my mechanic is out of town and I wanted to purchase before he comes back...." I not only literally laughed out loud but replied with a "Hahahahahahah!" My mechanic is out of town? That was funny. Edit: I had another one, when I said no to the car report (once again, early before I learned to start ignoring the obvious scripts they're using), that I was making her uncomfortable with my lack of trust. It wasn't a laugh out loud funny. But still.

I only lost money one time. It was pretty early in the ebay world...and I sold an expensive camera lens for $1800. The person then told me they were on vacation and that's why they needed/wanted it, and asked if I could ship it to them in Europe. Sure! That's good customer service, right? A day after I shipped it Ebay notified me that the $1800 that had been paid to me had been pulled back out of my bank account because it had been a fraud transaction, and because I hadn't followed Ebay's rules (only ship to the address on the account), I was liable. I tried to stop the shipment...but it was already out of the country. Gone. That was early on though, like I said. I've wizened up a lot. And yet....

So...another path down a scammer's scammy scam...much further than I wish I'd gone. Another, you ask? Why yes. Another. I don't remember if I've shared this before, so forgive me if so. Maybe months ago I had a phone call come through and the caller ID says, "Utah County Sherriff's office". So I answered it and.... Well...before I complete the story...it wasn't the Sherriff's office, and there were MANY signs that it wasn't. But.... the caller ID sold me. And once sold.... So the guy introduces himself as officer something or what-have-you and then tells me they've been trying to reach me because I have a warrant out for missing jury duty. He texts me the warrant...which was for a ridiculous amount (I can't remember, but something like $40,000), and then tells me I need to pay a refundable deposit on it or they would have to come and physically arrest me. And it can't be a credit card (of course). It's 10%...so $4000. But it's refundable after I get it resolved...it's just to keep me from getting physically arrested. And it has to be paid in person at the Sherriff's office. And he has to stay on the phone with me while I drive to the Sherriff's office (or, once again, they'll immediately come for my physical arrest.) I'll interject here... I was shaking scared. This guy was GOOD. And, like I said... the caller ID. So onward with the story. I get in my car and drive, but... I have to stop at the bank for the money (no problem he says...). About every 2 minutes he pipes up wanting a status report. Where are you now? Etc. How far out are you? Etc. So I get the money from the bank...and then he says the quickest way to clear the warrant is to pay the deposit at a "bonding" machine... which...the closest one too me looks like it's at the Smiths.... So I drive to the Smith's parking lot. Okay, in the meantime my wife is frantically texting me..."This doesn't feel right." But I wouldn't hear it. I was scared. They were going to arrest me. Etc. But then.... she finally texts me. "My dad called the city offices. The Sherriff dept. doesn't handle jury duty warrants." I still wasn't convinced. He had explicitly said it was a Federal trial and so-forth. So the city wouldn't know.... or something like that I'd convinced myself of... but....the crack appeared and, finally, I got a wee bit suspicious. So I (sitting in the Smith's parking lot), looked up 2 things on the internet. 1. The sherriff's office number, and 2. Bonding machine at Smiths. As I was doing this the guy pipes in "What's going on?" To which I reply, "I'm contacting the Sherriff's office to verify." He almost yells back, "This IS the Sherriff's office." And I hung up on him. Now...I would like to say that when I hung up on him I didn't have the feelings of dread and fear that I'd just assured my arrest and etc.... but I did. Regardless, I called the Sherriff's office and... yep... turns out that's who my father-in-law had called too. And they don't do that. There was no warrant for my arrest. Etc. Then I looked up the bonding machines and.... they're for buying bitcoin. Bitcoin!!! Are you freaking kidding me? Now...I would like to think that I'm smart enough that if I'd actually gone into Smiths to pay the "bond" and seen that it was bitcoin I would have known and been done with it, at the very least, by that point. But.... I went WAY further down the path of belief than I should have. First of all....they wouldn't call. They'd knock. Second. $40,000? For missing jury duty? (It might have been more. I can't remember. It was ridiculous.) Can't use a credit card? Have to stay on the phone and check in every minute. Threats of physical arrest. Giving me an "easier" way out by going to Smiths? That, of course, is weighed against the STINKING caller ID that said Utah County Sherriff's Dept. or something, Fear of being arrested, convincing acting (it wasn't some guy with an Indian accent or the like), and...the fact that they were sending me to the Sherriff's office (they introduced the idea of paying at a "bonding" machine later). It's embarrassing. But that's the story. (Once again, if I've shared it before, I apologize). So...today: I bought an Echo Show 21 for my wife. (That I did mention in another thread.) It was having some issues with bluetooth disconnecting in certain circumstances that seemed software related. Well...just contacting Amazon tech support is... well... let's say not easy (or my A.D.D. means it is easy but I can't figure it out). But they had a link for "asking the community" in the forums, which I've seen, at other times, is often answered by an Amazon associate. So I posted my question there: Shortly thereafter, I got a message as follows: Amazon Chat Support Agent 771 Please click "Chat Now" to connect with Amazon customer Support. Click Here So I (thoughtlessly, because... you know...expectations were set...Amazon associates reply and help here...which is just what happened....) clicked. And...sure enough...chat window. Legit looking. How can I help you today? So I explain my problem. They confirm my identity with my phone and email associated with my account (whoops), and then ask for my serial number for the device. I say it's attached to a mount and the SN is covered. Do I need to unmount it? No... are you at your computer? Okay...I'm sending you a link. And... a link comes through the chat that's an .exe file. I literally replied, "No way, no how am I clicking on that." And then said the same to the guy. He told me...something...but I said "no...I'm not clicking on a link that give access to my computer. Why do you need access to my computer anyhow?" Now I would have been on the verge of hanging up...but he says, casually, "No biggie. It's just on the same network and allows us to troubleshoot. But we don't need it." Okay...so he's not pushing it...so maybe it was legit (I'm still not clicking on that thing!). And I told him I didn't even know if I was speaking with Amazon. I noted (at that point) that the url of the chat window wasn't even Amazon, but was a google address. He said it was just the tool being used (in retrospect...yeah...right. Amazon is using google? Give me a break...but in the moment... I let it go enough to stay on the call.) So he has me remove the mount and get him my serial number (in retrospect... whoops)... and then has me reset the device. And.... he doesn't seem very familiar with it... I have to explain what buttons it has.... but... you know...that's not uncommon. He's just some guy in India (this one had an Indian accent) who they hired on the cheap an run him through scripts.... so I'm still not hanging up. But he has me reset the device (turn it off and back on again) and then try again. Which...of course didn't fix it. I'd tried that already. So he says that he'll need to escalate the issue to the development team and someone would call me back. Which someone won't, I now realize. Dang it! It wasn't until after the fact that I concluded it was a scam. I mean like 2 seconds after the call. As soon as the stress (minor stress, but stress still) of being on the call left... duh. I was being scammed. I only gave out my phone, email, and serial number of the machine. Which ticks me off...but.... you know...plenty of scam emails and phone calls come through. I'm pretty good at ignoring them (unless the caller ID says it's the Sherriff...apparently... But lesson learned on that. Here's the deal. I DON'T ANSWER MY PHONE. EVER! Leave a message! (which...to be fair...that's what happened with the "Sherriff". They left a message, but the caller ID...and the message that sounded like the Sherriff's office.... I called them back. Argh.) I digress. But I don't trust my Show 21 now. I don't know how compromised someone having the SN makes it. But there's a possibility that it means they could hack it. So it's being returned. The summary. Apparently I'm a sucker. Let your con-men friends know. They can easily find my number and email because I keep giving them out to other con-men.

My point is that it won't be forgotten and over by 2027. And it leaves out the terrible social contagion and the effects of that.

If only things were this simple.

Nazi!!!

It's literally what he asked me for. Sent an image of the strip as reference.

Finished the "Far Side" style hat I made for my brother too: (...which basically looks exactly the same except the hat band. But it has a liner, etc., too inside.)

Finally got the chance to deliver my dad's hat to him:

Yeah, I knew about most of this gimmicky stuff. One of the reasons I was never into it!

Oh...technically I think we have a "smart" fridge too. But even if we connected it into Alexa...we'd be able to, perhaps, tell it to turn on ice-plus or change the temperature from 40 to 39 or something. Pretty useless. When fridges get smart enough to scan what you have and intuit adding milk or bacon or something to your shopping list automatically, or the like, then maybe useful. Maybe. That's the intrusive side of it that people don't like in cases though (including me).

So my home hasn't been smart. In fact, the only "smart" thing I've owned has been my phone...which I never used the "smart" aspects of it. Meaning the ask-it-questions or A.I. features. I guess my PCs have the same things...which I've also ignored. So.... 2 things happened: 1st. We went to my wife's parents house to take them to the temple, rang the doorbell...and within a few seconds my father-in-law was talking to us through the doorbell saying they weren't home yet. And I was like, "That's awesome!" 2nd. We got a new vehicle that had "Alexa" and we understood we could start it, lock or unlock it, check it's location, etc., etc., with an Alexa device. So.... We ordered an Echo Pop -- the cheapest Echo device. Well darn it all....I think I fell in love! Within a week, I bought a Ring doorbell, an Echo Show 21 for my wife to use in the kitchen (more on this in a moment), and have an Echo Spot ordered for the bedroom. And I've ordered a bunch of smart lightbulbs. You see... I didn't know. I didn't know I could control things so easily and so, relatively, cheaply. The echo pop was $40. The Spot is normally $80, but I found one on sale for $40. The lightbulbs I got were between $3 and $7. I got 5 at $6 ($35ish) and 6 at $3 ($18ish). (The "ish" is because I rounded, and there was tax, and etc.) The Ring was $50ish. So all in, minus the Show, under $200 to make our home "Smart". We already had a Nest thermostat that we got for free when we installed solar a few years back -- so I guess we have had a smart device. Well...and we have some Samsung TVs that are smart. They even include Alexa. Never used it though. Until now! So the only pricey thing was the Echo Show 21. That was $400. Yes, I splurged a bit. But here's the deal: It's an Echo device just like the others, but also...streams video with Fire TV (my wife likes turning on shows while cooking), and displays the ring doorbell camera when there's motion or the like. Plus video calls (she calls a family member when making dinner almost daily, often with video). And all the visual things like lists, shopping, etc. So I got it for her as a "Valentine's Day" gift (bought her 15 roses with it too...way cheaper in Jan than waiting till just before Valentines!...to make it more romantic). Of course it's a gift for the whole family. But she'll appreciate it the most. I live in my office (which is where the Pop moved after the Show arrived). So even making it $600... that's still, relatively, cheap compared to what I thought. I had no idea there were smart lightbulbs. I thought I'd have to rewire the house to make is smart. Or...something. I just thought it would be out of reach to make one's home smart unless wealthy or better and money management than I am. Maybe the novelty will wear off. But it's amazing! The best part is I changed the wake word in my office from "Alexa" to "Computer"... I'm freaking living in Star Trek! Anyhow... I know this is a case of an "old" man being behind the tech times to an extent. I'm tech savvy (I mean, I program computers for a living..so....), I just never got into the "Siri" or "Alexa" or A.I., or that side of things, so I didn't know. But it's SO cool. We had one smart lightbulb I'd purchased to test (the others are ordered but haven't arrived), and put it in a lamp on the kitchen counter. This morning I got up at around 5:30 and came upstairs and it was quite dark. Seemed darker than normal. I couldn't see...I went to fumble for a light switch, worried I'd crash into something on the way, and then remembered.... So I said (pretty softly), "Alexa, turn on the lamp"....and, yep. Awesome! No bruised shins! Feeling cold? "Computer, what's the temperature inside?" "Set it to 74." Music? "Computer, play my country playlist." Want to ask my wife a quick question? "Computer, drop in on the kitchen." (boom...talking to my wife!) Out of soda or gum? "Alexa, add Diet Dr. Pepper to the shopping list." "Computer, order some more cinnamon gum." Too lazy to find the remote? "Alexa, turn off the TV." And, of course, "Alexa, start the car." or "Alexa, lock the car." (It's a bit more than that because you need a code and have to go through a "skill" (basically an add-on to Alexa), but basically.) And so forth. As I was typing this it just said, "Someone was detected at your front door." And I went and got the package that had just been delivered. (Nothing related...just some daily delivery junk we tend to get most days.) Thanks Alexa! That was helpful! In fact the only real downside, so far, has been that for my wife to do her video calls the other end needs to install the Alexa app. That's only a problem for one of her brothers that she video calls...and he said he was willing if he could remember his Amazon login. Well...I guess one of the other issue is that I have 2 routers to cover the house, and that's caused some grief. I may have to spend more money to get a single wifi connection to cover the home. But I ought to upgrade anyhow as my routers are a bit dated. Eventually I'll get smart locks for the doors, Ring cameras for some rooms, plus a few more outside. I might actually start trusting babysitters....since I'll be able to watch them from my phone the entire time...and whatever else I decide will be awesome. I need to hold off on buying too much more now though. Otherwise I'll put the lie to "cheap" on making my home smart. To be fair, I didn't have to buy the expensive Show 21 to make it smart. I don't even think we needed any Echo devices. We could have just installed Alexa on our phones. And...there's a computer Windows App too, so I could have just run it that way. So the cheap thing still holds true. But, like with many things, you can get into it cheap, but then make it pricey pretty quick. But even smart cameras and lights and whatever. There are cheaper versions. You don't need to get the Echos and the Rings and the bigger brand names. There are cheap smart cameras for like $20. I can't say how good or bad they are. But...you can do it! But, like I said...sold my soul to Alexa. I'm sure Amazon is on the verge of developing a food replicator and a transporter! And I'm in! Amazon owns me now. Oh well. They sort of have for several decades now anyhow. When they require me to tattoo a 666 on my forehead to access my devices I'll know I chose poorly.

To make a coon-skin hat? Haha. Yeah. Not gonna do that.

Yeah, that's what I imagined. Which...yeah. Maybe it was a davy crocket. That might muffle the voice a bit I suppose. Doubtful enough to matter in an otherwise quiet room.

Ditto! I think I'm smart enough to be good at chess...if it wasn't for the darned A.D.D. attention span lack of patience impulsivity things. In other words...if I wasn't me, I'd be awesome at chess!! I know it!