Friday, November 25, 2022

Buy-Nothing Day

 I got things together to list last night but didn't list them. 

I watched a movie called "In The Garden Of The Finzi" which is one of those "arty" Italian films. The atmosphere of it, needless to say, is wonderful. The main family depicted in it are wealthy, and the secondary protagonists really and truly wealthy, living on a huge estate and in a genuine castle. All are Jews, and as the racial laws of Mussolini-led Italy clamp down, the first group along with other Jews, take some refuge in the huge estate, playing tennis and engaging in various interpersonal dramas. Eventually are all rounded up and sent to the death camps of course. One young man and a gal, hopefully, have escaped. 

This was a movie that was part of a list someone on Reddit said they've watched in preparation for times to come. I don't think they're Jewish, but it doesn't matter as the Nazis 1.0 happily killed off as many non-Jews as Jews, even erstwhile good Nazis who'd been insufficiently loyal. 

I did my practice while watching this, and it went kinda Meh. I think I'd skipped two days' practice due to my headache. 

I woke up, finally, at about 6PM (I'd been up until 10 or 11AM) and my headache is there, but very slight. It appears most people have been taking this day off too, as there's usually all kinds of noise, big trucks going in and out and so on, in the morning here.  But it's been very, very quiet. 

Now's as good a time as any to talk about how tone-deaf the internet is. I see tons of ads everywhere, and they're all for things I either hate like cars, will never buy again, like alcohol, weird shit like large ladies' yoga pants (wtf?), or moving to Portugal (uhh, it's very expensive to emigrate from the US and not at all within my reach) or even really off-the-wall stuff like advertisements for fantanyl. Honestly! Tons of ads popping up in Reddit , saying essentially, "You ought to try Fantanyl, you won't even taste it or smell it, mixed into your food or drink etc., and it's really nice and strong!". 

Like fucking hell, fentanyl, really? If I get seriously bunged up and am given pain killers, anything with opiates in it like Vicodin or whatever, I'll probably never fill the prescription and get by with aspirin or even booze. Because I know how to quit booze. 

I've actually used it for a root canal I had. That thing hurt and on my way home (was going to ride my bike home but was in too much pain and called a friend to come and get me. On the way back, he suggested I buy a bottle of E&J brandy and I did. I went to bed on a coffee cup of the stuff and when pain woke me up, had another cupful and went back to sleep. It was a boozy couple of days but then I was fine and went back to my "ground level" of drinking of a beer or two at night. 

What I'm getting at, though, is I'm not even sure the internet is sane any more. Tons of money being spent on ads and they can't be having more than a very slight effect. 

Not only that, but that Bozos guy who owns Amazon complaining about lack of sales, yet Amazon's effectively walled me out and I'm not welcome back until I spend hundreds for a smart phone and more hundreds a year to keep it connected. I was already on the fence about whether Prime is worth it, and now they want me to spend over a thousand more? 

As for cars, every car ad I see makes me hate the things even more. I'm seriously considering, when I'm back in Hawaii, just getting the state ID card. That would mean using Uber or taxis if I really need to go someplace in a car. Otherwise it'd walk, bike, bus etc., and only the slower and lighter of things like electric bikes and scooters. Which is fine with me. 

Over the last few years I've voluntarily gone to doing something like 80% of my shopping in Asian markets, and 19% more in Walmart. The booze companies aren't getting money from me any more. And of the things I used to get on Amazon, I can find those in other places and who cares if I spend a little more? And then The Internet complains about decreased sales and cranks up the advertising. 



No comments:

Post a Comment

The once and future cornet

 The reason I dug the Connstellation out and replaced the errant screw and put in new water key corks is that last week I'd gone by Park...