December 3

 Sunny at the moment. We have been fortunate so far--most of the lake effect snow went east of us. It must be very cold because the frost on the roofs hasn't disappeared yet and we have had sun for about 4 hours. We don't have any errands until Friday at the earliest--probably next Monday. During cold (or hot) weather we don't go outside much. I managed to get some more squares woven over the last couple of days (for a new scrap buster lap/baby blanket) and a couple of rows of crochet on a doily. I had to remove some stitching because of mistakes. The last was earlier today because the pattern just didn't look right. That took me a bit to realize that I was misreading the pattern. Crochet patterns can be as eccentric as their designers especially working with patterns written more than 50 years ago. Luckily I don't have to translate from British notation to American though I do have a few patterns following the British scheme.

I follow various stories on NAKED CAPITALISM especially their coverage of the efforts of governments and central banks in various countries to abolish cash. Those have been most successful in parts of Europe especially the Nordic countries. This article indicates that a more aggressive Russia is forcing the powers that be to rethink the utility of cash. We still keep cash on hand here because 1) we patronize a couple of small businesses that take cash or checks but not credit/debit cards, 2) we might have an electrical or internet outage just when we have to purchase something, 3) most of the credit card companies we have had recent experience with are more trouble than they are worth. If the communications are out and our debit card won't work our cash will. The author noted that the worst electronic payments outage wasn't due to Russian cyber attack but because of system "botched internal processes" at banks and other financial institutions.

File this one under "if you didn't have bad luck you wouldn't have any luck at all." In the midst of an mpox epidemic the Democratic Republic of Congo has discovered an unknown disease that has killed 67 in two weeks.

The early news this morning noted that Rep. Jamie Raskin (age 61) is running to replace the long time ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Jerry Nadler (age 77). This Punchbowl article indicates that not only are a number of younger Democrats seeking to replace much older Democrats on various committees but there is also a move to replace older Democrats with long seniority on committees.

 Good December 1 to anyone out there. I was a good morning for me until we got four calls within half an hour about "new" "benefits" from Medicare and all the agent has to do is "confirm" that we have Social Security, and Medicare A and B. Bullshit!! They don't have to "confirm" anything and what ever "benefits" they are offering we have already been informed about and few "new" (if they are really new) "benefits" are things we find useful. I am so utterly sick of these calls. What really burns me up is there is NO WAY TO TELL THE BASTARDS NOT TO CALL US. Yeah, I am shouting. I am tired of being abused by this damned system. I tried being polite when this all started but I found that, if there was an actual person on the other end, they simply didn't understand the concept of NO. They usually tried to talk over me. Lately I have had the feeling that it isn't an actual person but some damned computer programed to mimic a person. Damn, Damn, Double Damn!! I have begun simply hanging up but simply closing the flip phone isn't nearly as satisfying as slamming the handset down on the base was when we had rotary phones.

Ah, GIZMODO has a perfect article for my mood today. "Enshitification" has become the big word of the year for the national dictionary of Australia. That term refers to the frustration we all feel dealing with the technology that seems to run our lives. Or ruin them. But I think Ives Smith at NAKED CAPITALISM had a broader term: crapification. And that perfectly encapsulates my feelings about more than just the tech itself. Has anyone noticed that the commercials on TV have become really weird? One commercial starts and suddenly, only a second or two into the spiel, it gets cut off for an entirely different one. Or, have you seen the commercial breaks in which the same commercial appears two or even three times in the same sequence? Or how badly the program gets cut up by the commercials? Or how producers change their products without much notice? A while back I read a blogger who complained that a batch of pickles didn't work out and found that the vinegar she customarily bought was no longer 5% acetic acid which is required for pickling. I thought I would check it out at our supermarket and sure enough the vinegar was 4%. Though the store did have the usual 5% as well, I was struck by the fact that the prices weren't very different. Crapification/enshitification basically describes things very well.