Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

After spending half the day in the DMV - I've come to the conclusion that all that I am is four sheets of paper.  And at the end I'm gonna say - yep. This sums it up.

Monday, January 29, 2018

No one told these guys about the mallpocolypse.



Westfield is right across the street from Santana Row where I go see all those high end cars. Santana Row is why I didn't think the mallpocolypse was going to be a problem at all because that mall is the new gold standard for mixed use living. It's wildly popular. There is a good mix of food and shops. And they have events there all the time like the cars.

But Westfield is still an old timey box mall, but I guess they feel confident enough to have two cranes over their site. And they are adding new square footage.

I think we just don't like old timey box malls anymore. Since the strip mall, our tastes for malls have changed. One of these days I'm going to have to cross the street to see what they are putting in over there.

Sunday, January 28, 2018

Dogs are living their best life.



This thing caught my eye this weekend because it wasn't shaped like any bicycle I'd ever seen. Most of the bike is actually for carrying things. Like dogs. Or anything obviously. It's a petal assist electric bike. I kinda liked that the dogs where in the front.  It's from Urban Arrow. They said there is a place in San Fransisco that sells them.

I guess these are popular in Dutch type towns where people don't really use cars anymore. This is how they get around and get their stuff around. Goes about 50 miles on a charge. Costs about 6 grand though. I just like that it was something I hadn't seen before. And it's sort of more dignified for a dog than being carted around in a baby carrier. I see that crap all the time.



Saturday, January 27, 2018

It's going to be a surlier than average year.



All the stuff from CES is starting to hit the stores. And now Best Buy is starting to look like Babies R Us with all their internet enabled smart app products.

The problem with Silicon Valley right now is everyone has Steve Jobs syndrome. "Everybody wants to change the world" instead of just making fun stuff for us to play with. Now every stupid thing has a smart app applied to it.

You have been warned. It's going to be bitchy around here.

I was complaining to Mr S. about how small this market must be. I mean, babies are only babies for a baby amount of time. He said - yeah .... this is clever marketing because technology doesn't really get handed down. So these products are really only useful for a few months.

The other thing that is sort of pissing me off is - Silicon Valley used to be able to do multiple product cycles at once. But since the Obama Administration tried to strangle the economy - now there is really only product cycle at a time. Meaning if they think anything at all will sell - that is what EVERYONE is going to do. And it just makes these product cycles crazy short.

So for instance, bitcoin is cannibalising tech because that's the only game in town right now. And it's stupid and I'm lashing out.

Yeah - I'm thirsty.



Whatduya gonna say about it? Literally everything was brown before I left for Vegas. Came back one week later and everything was green. With these winters not having a lot of rain, brown town sticks around for most of the year. It's great to see the color green again, and a blush of yellow. I'm not even waiting for it to get good to post pictures. Any color will do. Even if it's just a view of the power lines.

Friday, January 26, 2018

Told ya.

Stocks Storm To Best Start Since 1987 Amid Dollar-Devastation.

Oh wow. Dollar devastation. Things are getting serious!  And honestly I'd like to say that I hate when people cherry pick charts. I mean, I guess he's "technically" right based on what the dollar was trading at right at start of the year.

The dollar was trading at 103 around Jan first 2018, and technically it hasn't been that exact price since 1987 at Jan 1. There have been infinitely more dramatic falls since then.

The last time the dollar traded at 103 was Sept of 2003. Four months shy of his narative Then falling 19 cents to 84 cents in 2008. But his headline makes it sound so much more dramatic! and terrifying. The dollar had already fallen 25 cents by the time Jan 1987 came around. Where it kept falling about 25 cents bottoming out in the year 1995 at 84 cents. Just for reference, the dollar traded around 84 cents for most of the Obama administration.

Yet, in the same article everyone seemed happy that bitcoin had stabilized at 11,000. It's still swinging 1500 bucks a day. But the dollar goes down 9 cents and it's "devastation".

BITCOIN / U.S. DOLLAR BTCUSD Market Open 10785.0 362.0 (3.25%)

Prev 11147.0 Open 11147.0 Volume 55.44K 1 Day Range 10276.0 - 11700.0

Is inflation stirring? Hell yes. But inflation is the norm in the economy, and deflation is NOT. This means we are returning to more healthy economy.  Inflation also brings wage pressure - deflation DOES NOT. Pick your poison.

This phoney outrage is getting old.

2018

President Trump on Monday imposed tariffs of 30 percent on imported solar panel technology in a bid to protect domestic manufacturers while signaling a more aggressive approach toward China.

The move is a major blow for the $28 billion solar industry, which gets about 80 percent of its solar panel products from imports.

The Solar Energy Industries Association predicted the tariffs would increase prices and kill 23,000 jobs. The group represents manufacturers as well as installers, sellers and others in the field. Source.


2014 under Obama.

The department announced anti-dumping duties of 26.71 percent to 78.42 percent on imports of most solar panels made in China, and rates of 11.45 percent to 27.55 percent on imports of solar cells made in Taiwan. In addition, the department announced anti-subsidy duties of 27.64 percent to 49.79 percent for Chinese modules.

“These remedies come just in time to enable the domestic industry to return to conditions of fair trade,” said Mukesh Dulani, president of SolarWorld Americas. “The tariffs and scope set the stage for companies to create new jobs and build or expand factories on U.S. soil.” Source.

Listen I'm for trade. People who trade with each other are less likely to go to war. Having said that - most of the agreements we have with China were made before China was a developed economy. We of course gave them an advantage because they were weaker. Now that China is mature - they should be treated as an equal rather than the third world China I grew up with.

Seriously San Fransisco?

"Of the more than 81,000 online reports of auto break-ins that victims filed in San Francisco over the past seven years, a mere 13 cases resulted in arrests, officials with the district attorney’s office said Thursday.

The news of the trifling total comes as the number of vehicle break-ins has exploded in the city, reaching an all-time high last year.

In 2017, there were more than 30,000 car break-ins in San Francisco. In 2011, there were fewer than 11,000. Rather than filing in person, victims have increasingly been directed to file reports online or call 311 when they discover their windows smashed and belongings pilfered." Source.

I'm pretty sure the online system was hooked up to the paper shredder. Who's with me?

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Whatever Dudes.

The War On Bitcoin Is Proof Crypto Is Winning.

"What becomes immediately obvious is that governments and the banking industry/cartel are fighting a war of attrition against cryptocurrencies. By consistently throwing up roadblocks, perceived or real, to their adoption, they seek to simply slow down their development as a challenge to the existing financial order."

These crypto guys have literally lost their minds.

Every third article I read today is about people freaking out about the weaker dollar. It's down 8 cents. Yet bitcoin swings only about a thousand dollars a day now.

That is why it is not a currency. Never will be a currency. No matter what kind of illuminati conspiracy you come up with. Can you imagine if the dollar was cut in half in value? Or swung wildly from day to day. The world would literally be on fire.

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

People are just being foolish.

It's really funny to see everyone freaking out about the dollar right now.

The dollar was well lower than it is now for SIX years of the Obama administration, and no one gave any fucks. Then when the dollar started rising in the last two years of his administration,  and the media were completely unable to comprehend how that would hurt our exports because other countries then had to spend more money on energy because oil is traded in dollars. The strong dollar really hurts emerging markets leaving them less money to buy other goods and services.

Our exports were crushed the last two years of Obama. And we need people to buy our stuff! So I don't know where the "right" area for the dollar is... but there is an equilibrium out there somewhere.

This is why Facebook is evil.

"STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) -- A Northern California city plans to give several dozen families $500 a month for a year as part of a program to study the economic and social impacts of giving people a basic income.

San Francisco radio station KQED reports the program in Stockton will track what residents do with the money and how having a universal basic income affects their self-esteem and identity.

The Economic Security Project, co-led by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, is contributing $1 million to the yearlong research project in Stockton." Source.

If the founders of Facebook want to give their money away - I have no problem with that. But lets be honest - a million dollars doesn't go a long way and soon this will be a government program that every single taxpayer will then pay for. They are capitalists with their money, but socialists with your money.

It's sort of weird to see free companies be more socialist than the governments they reside under. And that's saying a lot for California. Things are getting really weird in California these days. I mean, it's like they are saying "you aren't socialist enough for us", we have some ideas to help you.

I mean, Facebook stopped being against censorship in China, and then basically said if manipulating search results is good enough for China - it's good enough for the US too.

Now they are going to lure a city that has already claimed bankruptcy into being a socialist hell hole. And all it took was a million dollars. Now for Stockton, a million dollars is a lot of money.

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Today I just feel like Silicon Valley is working on a lot of stuff that most people don't really give a shit about.

The world really moves much more slowly than they think it does.

Saturday, January 20, 2018

YouTube University rocks.



You can learn ANYTHING on youtube.

A ton of years back Mr S. and I would have home repair problems and I'd always say - I bet youtube has a video. And they always did. Now this is where Mr S. starts with me. Like, hey Honey - the heater in the Solstice has a problem and then he just starts sending me videos. Then he lets the video convince me if I want to do it or not. It's a genius husband move really. Men spend their whole lives trying to convince us to do stuff. I think you guys need all the help you can get. Even if it's youtube.

So anyway..... guess what we were doing today?

Well, more me because any man bigger than me would have a problem fixing that. I was head down into foot compartment. Legs up at the head rests under the steering compartment. Mr S. was of course getting me all the tools I needed so I didn't have to move. That is a tiny car. But the part only cost 30 bucks! So it's worth standing on your head a bit.

We actually took that car in to have that problem fixed once and they completely didn't fix it. The whole time I was down there I was like - yeah... I get why. And I have tiny girl hands! There was only one area where I could get a fist into. So, that helped me with exactly one screw. If I was a mechanic I'd put that request on ignore too.

But we fixed it. Mr S. is pretty good at finding videos that get right to the point. And I love that. It helps in the convincing and the fixing because repairing cars is sort of on the fringe of things we know how to fix.

Friday, January 19, 2018

More BTC down side to come.

"On January 22, the US Marshals Service will auction 3,813 bitcoins that were seized during various criminal and civil forfeitures.

Altogether, the bitcoins are worth just under $40 million at the time of writing. Given Bitcoin’s wild price fluctuations, however, they could soon be worth much more. This was the case with the 144,336 Silk Road bitcoins auctioned over the past few years by the Department of Justice for a paltry $48 million. Today those bitcoins would be worth nearly $1.5 billion. 

With this potential for a massive return, one has to wonder: Why isn’t the government keeping seized bitcoins for itself and then selling them for a premium months or years later instead?
Source. 


Oooh! Maybe because they know it's a con?

Well..... I guess the government didn't get out at the top. But those coins have lost nearly half their value. The knife catchers didn't seem to re-inflate the sector that much, so....I'm guessing the elevator will be making stops on lower floors. Sundays seem to be a sluggish day for bitcoin trading.

Commies.

"A proposed Assembly Constitutional Amendment by Assemblymen Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, and Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, would create a tax surcharge on California companies making more than $1 million so that half of their federal tax cut would instead go to programs that benefit low-income and middle-class families."  Source.

Huh... through out the whole Obama administration rich people kept saying they would love to pay more in taxes. Of course it was because they knew higher taxes would hurt you more than them, making them more of a monopoly by crushing all other small business.

You don't think they were lying do you? Said in the most sarcastic way. Because now California seems to think they need to make a law to confiscate half your money.

I especially love the next paragraph because it makes no sense. Rich people aren't going to pay these new taxes. A mean, a million dollars isn't really that much these days in a state like California if you are a business. It's the people in the middle.

"“Trump’s tax reform plan was nothing more than a middle-class tax increase,” Ting said in a statement. “It is unconscionable to force working families to pay the price for tax breaks and loopholes benefiting corporations and wealthy individuals. This bill will help blunt the impact of the federal tax plan on everyday Californians by protecting funding for education, affordable health care, and other core priorities.”

Thursday, January 18, 2018

Textbook inflation sign.

"Aging millennials and young families may be able to find more affordable new homes for sale this year, but they'll most likely be in further-flung suburbs with more grueling commutes to urban job centers," said Aaron Terrazas, a senior economist at Zillow.

He added that tax cuts would put more money in buyers' pockets, increasing demand at a time when builders continue to struggle with rising land and labor costs. Source.

Emphasis mine. Too much money chasing too few products or services.

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

It's worth noting that the Government pricked the Bitcoin bubble. It started falling right after they reported they were moving to sell seized bitcoin then worth 8.4 million. I wrote about it here. The three month chart of bitcoin shows that it started falling about the middle of December right after the article was released.

So, the government managed to get out at the top. And good for them I guess.

I wouldn't normally be so happy about people losing money, but the bitcoiners had gone a little crazy. Saying people were just jealous because the right people were now getting rich.

"So it all boils down to this: the wrong people--rebels, outsiders, nerds and techies-- got on the cryptocurrency boat while their insider/rentier "betters" blew it and are now raging bitterly onshore, not just resentful but indignant that this mania didn't enrich insiders like it should have."

If you get rich quick - it's likely you get get poor quick too.
Everyone is trying to NOT admit CES this year was the saddest year ever. Have any of you read the "best of's" from any site? Super sad. And I've been there when the world was literally falling to pieces. They still managed to have stuff I've never seen before.

On the flip side, Vegas seemed more optimistic than I've ever seen it. The people who work there. We are just going to have a rough tech year. I mean - Silicon Valley has been so focused on selling all your data I'm not sure they know how to make products people actually want to buy anymore. The operative word there is WANT not forced. When they didn't know what to sell - they sold YOU.
People lose their minds if the dollar falls 10 cents, yet bitcoin swings thousands of dollars very day. Makes sense. Said in the most sarcastic way.

It feels a lot like irrational exuberance.

I think this is one hell of a scary market. It's up 3000 points in three months! That is not real.

The past few weeks I've been trying to figure out what would take this market down. It seems like nothing. But I've lived in Silicon Valley long enough to know that is not real. And this run is really long in the tooth. Before bitcoin crashed 50% I was sure the only thing that could take it down was interest rates. Interest rates are ALWAYS the thing that pop these bubbles. And I'm pretty sure most people are in more debt than ever. I think people are completely underestimating pent up demand because they've all been brainwashed into thinking that people have taken a vow of poverty in the Obama administration. I can assure you - that is not the case. I grew up poor and the only people that think you need to take a vow of poverty is rich people.

People still want the things they've always wanted and they've been guilted into thinking they didn't want it for the past 10 years. It does turn out that people will accept malaise for a lot longer than I thought. If you just get the crowd to all think it at once. Peer pressure is one hell of an amazing force.

The government printed a lot of money that people then hoarded for many, many, reasons. Obamacare being one of them. I always said that one day they will unearth all that money they buried in the back yard and they will eventually spend it.

I just think it's really fascinating that all of the same people who lost their mind over so much monetary printing, now all of a sudden don't see inflation anywhere on the horizon. And I don't feel that way at all. The last part of 2017 I started to see a lot of wage pressure in engineering. Which really hasn't been the case in a really long time. The government can't manipulate that as much like the minimum wage. So that is REAL wage pressure.

Back in the 80's they always said that by the time you feel inflation - it's already too late. I think we are seeing the signs, people are just ignoring it because it feels good right now. The Obama administration gutted our country, and it's going to take a while to build that back up.

Inflation is too much money chasing too few goods and services. And I think we will tick that box very very soon.

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

BTCUSD - 10618.29 2988.75 


I told you John McAffe was my counter economic indicator. He's almost 50% poorer right now.

Monday, January 15, 2018

Delivery bot or Sous-Vide machine?

Learning male dominance.

I'm not a man hater or a SJW, but there are a couple things guys do that annoy me at trade shows. I kept bitching about these things to Mr S. Because when you are doing a 10K at a conference - lots of things start to annoy you.

Me - I don't know why I always have to yield the right away when I run into a guy here. It really makes it so you have to walk so much more. It's annoying.

Mr S. - They aren't doing it because you are a girl, they're doing it because you're smaller than they are. The unspoken rule is the smaller man typically yields.   It's an unconscious, instinctive behavior.   And you are small. But it's not just about size, it's about alpha dominance. So a lot of times you can get people to get out of your way by exerting dominance, such as look them in the eye and refuse to move.

I look at him sort of confused. So I just stare them in the eye. That's all?

Him - Yes. Just stare at them. Often, they will move.

Later in the day.

Me - I've been doing that stare thing with mixed results. Girls aren't really wired to stare guys in the eyes. It's sort of an invitation. So it's hard to hold the gaze.

Him - Well, how do you figure out how to walk around people?

Me - You just look at their bodies. We don't really stare people down. You think girls are complicated,  but, man rules seem really complicated.

Him. Man rules are easy if you know what they are.

Sunday, January 14, 2018

Fisker EMotion.



My favorite moment at CES this year was happened while I was trying to get shots of the new Emotion. They always box these new cars in so tight that you pretty much need a wide angle lens to get the whole thing in. Add people, and you want to pull your hair out. I was hanging out on the outskirts in a ragey funk trying to get a clear shot.

Some people from the booth came out and put some stairs right in front of the butterfly doors and I thought - oh that's nice. They are going to give us better access to this car. And at that very moment Henrick Fisker appeared and went up the stairs. And no one seemed to recognize who he was but the booth people. I immediately started taking pictures of him and people were kinda looking at me like I was the weird one. But it was magical in a way. Because there was literally no reaction from the people around me. Even there people with professional cameras kept just shooting the car.







CES was basically a retread this year.


I didn't see anything that I hadn't already seen. And hell... I think I was carrying one of the only thing that other people hadn't seen. I will write about that later. Even the reviews from the gadget blogs were pretty uninspiring. From Engadget. From Lifehacker. Everything was pretty meh.

Normally whatever is at CES will be in the stores within six months. And if there is anything I've learned from CES this year - you are going to be forced to buy a lot of smart stuff you don't want. Everything is internet enabled now.

They have great new finishes on appliances. But you will be forced to have an Alexa enabled appliance to get that new finish. There is literally nothing they won't make internet enabled. I even saw a "smart saddle". Yeah....for horses. I'll post pictures later.

There were more K T.V.'s - but who cares? Last year I saw a 10K T.V. Yet we still don't even really have enough bandwidth for 4K content. At least that is why I assume I can barely rent or stream 4k television shows or movies even though I've had a 4K T.V. for at least two years.

Robots are in the same place. There are tons of delivery bots. Seen it.

There is really nothing new about all the driverless cars. Or 360 cameras. There are a ton of new lidar players on the field though.

VR might be a little better but I wasn't going to find out there. Curiously - Magic Leap did not have a presence there either.

There were also a lot of drones. But none I hadn't really seen before. Rescue drones are going to become a big deal.

Sometimes the present is more sci-fi than the future. That is where we are right now. So.... I might wind up being a fairly surly blogger this year. And I thought last year was horrible. I"m gonna flip out over this smart crap.

I had to replace a light late last year and got a light with bluetooth. You literally can not use the bluetooth unless you are two feet away from it. Now, I don't want my neighbors seeing my signal, but I do want to be able to use it at least from my living room. So there is going to be a tons of that crap. Useless smart crap.

Saturday, January 13, 2018

Robots are still pretty stupid.



The past year has been pretty frustrating for me. To watch the media whip the public into a frenzy about robots taking their jobs was heartbreaking. That only comes from the kind of hopelessness of a socialistic system. And ignorance really. If people really understood the glacial nature that robots are taking they would be embarrassed by all the crap they write.

I mean, I've been writing about robots for more than a decade now and we really haven't made that much progress. It's just that oblivious people all of a sudden see a robot that can pick something up and lose their minds. Robots ~can~ pick things up and have been able to for a decade. It still takes them a really really long time to do so even with buzzword helper of A.I.

I'm not even going to give names because we aren't really anywhere that new.

The guy working the robot above enthusiastically came up to tell me the this was a "wellbeing robot" that is suppose to help you.

Me - So, how does it help you? Give you directions or deliver you something? (Because I'm at CES and a robot that roamed the halls and gave directions would be trade show GOLD. If you knew how hard it was trying to find your way around that conference - as I write this I can't even believe not one of the robot companies is doing that. Screw telepresence.)

Him - Well, it roams buildings testing the air and controlling the temperature. We are using this in France right now.

Now people.....tell me how many jobs that is going to take? Oh right - none, because no one does that now. That is a useless robot. IMO. Another robot in search of a problem.



This robot was billed as having A.I. (and what doesn't these days). All he needed to do is pick up that stuffed animal. It must have taken it ten minutes and the girl kept having to kick the kitten closer and closer to the robots vision. She kept saying it was tired from working all day.



The things that robots can do really good these days is moving heavy stuff like boxes.





But honestly, most of these jobs were done by conveyer belts. The above robot would be used in an airport setting to carry baggage.



This company was trying to kill two birds with one stone. A robot that attaches to your vacuum cleaner.






I was actually impressed by the Walker robot, but Mr S. wasn't. We both compared it to the Honda Asimo and I felt that given the footprint of the bot, there actually had been a slight improvement in size. It doesn't have a huge battery pack on it's back. But the Asimo was created in the YEAR 2000! So, maybe I've just slid to Mr S.'s side. That's 17 years!



The media was on fire about these delivery bots. I'm skeptical. This robot is suppose to be a like a grocery store on wheels. The sample set of deliverable food is too small. The first person on the delivery schedule will get the best pick and the person at the end will get shafted. Maybe that is not how it will work,  but that is how I think it will work because that is how people work. I've never ordered perishables by delivery because I like my produce a certain ripeness. I've been training my husband for a LONG time now, and he's just getting it right. So some rando robot stocker probably won't make me happy.

Also.... how long until they make these bots to be like door to door sales bots? They come if you summon them to or not.



Segway is still trying to make a go at it. This is a security bot that you can also ride on like a hover board. And it's modular - I guess? You can add some storage space. I guess you can still ride it at this point but it doesn't seem comfortable.






These robots are like luggage bots. They have storage space inside and follow you around. The follow feature on the one below was pretty impressive.  You push a button and it bonds to you, then follows you around. Since the halls are super crowded I didn't do much but have it follow me for a few feet and then switchback on my route. It was able to pick me out of a crowd and find me when I was completely behind it. And it did so quickly.

I think I will grow to hate these though because with humans you can see their heads and you can navigate around them. These are like rolling luggage  that you can't see until you trip over it if you are in a crowd. But the tech was pretty good. But I do have to add - they have been doing this since the beginning of robot time too. You used to have an ankle strap and that's how it knew how to follow you.



Look at this giant rig that plays table tennis.





We all know the shopping cart bot is right around the corner right? That will make shopping fun. Said in the most sarcastic way. Not only will you have to wait five minutes for the woman to figure out what kind of cheese she wants, but you also have to wait for their bot to move.

I didn't get any VR stuff so don't ask.



Those people are suckers. They will be sick in 7 days flat. I've been to CES for enough years now that I am not sticking anything near my eyes. And I almost brought a VR condom. CES is a Petri dish of viruses, and EVERYONE gets sick when they get back. There was no way I was doing any VR. Plus I can see all that stuff here without the annoying crowds at CES.

But, you will be able to canoe from the comfort of your home.

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

You know the drill. Twitter. And no - Robots are NOT coming to take your jobs.

Monday, January 08, 2018

I just asked a girl I dont know to walk around in circles and make noise in a single stall restroom because I have a shy bladder.

Sunday, January 07, 2018

I'm driving through the desert with a storm with no name,

Alright Chillin's. I think this is how things are going to work. Best chance of following me is going go to be through twitter. @snarkolepsy. And you know I'm going for the cars first.

You ~might~ get more, but I wouldn't count on it. Everyone just eats bandwidth. I've even tried one year to do a wifi hotspot, and it's just crazy. I will be on the road all of tomorrow in a pretty awesome subtropical storm. And while that sounds sucky - I bet nobody is getting out of San Fransisco tomorrow.

And then by the end of the day you just want to find grub and a place to rub your feet. CES is like being stuck in 10 super Ikeas.

Saturday, January 06, 2018

Toys 'R Us is still storing cars.



I had to make my way out to San Jose Camera and decided to circle back around to this lot. At least they seem to be rotating through their inventory. The stickers I could see said they were 2018's. And there seemed to be a lot more SUV's than what I saw last time.

Also they have a development sign up on this property now. Thank gawd for places like this dieing. I'm sure they are going to put a bunch of condos on that spot.









Friday, January 05, 2018

Today at the Golden Arches.



This guy broke down apparently after he ordered and the guys from the McDonalds pushed him to the pay window and waited. Then pushed him to the pickup window then waited. Then pushed him all the way around the front and then parked him.

The guy inside never made an attempt to help. I don't even think most people these days know they can push their own cars. The first car I bought was a beater, so even though I'm a girl - I can hella push a car.

The pick up window was obviously entertained because they took pictures.

Even stripper jobs aren't safe from Robots?



I'm starting to think CES is going to be a little trippy this year. And I've been there when the AVN's were still co-located.

Thursday, January 04, 2018

So pyramid schemey.

I sort of LOVE infomercials. I think it's because my Uncle went after every get rich quick scheme he could find. And then he wouldn't even do the work, but those companies still took money straight out of my Aunt and Uncles bank account every single month.

So I really became fascinated with infomercials because they are so manipulative. I literally will watch every single infomercial that comes across the TV.

Last night I ran across a tweet about Ripple which forwarded me to this site. I admit up front I don't quite understand it. Somehow you are earning interest for just sitting on your Ripple coins. Banks loan money with the money you give them and then pay you interest on that money. So, I don't really get where the interest money they are paying you is coming from. But it seems like a pyramid scheme to me. All the way down to the adoring comments. It's like watching QVC and having the guys in the backroom call in and gush over a product.

The sad thing is they are goading these people into buy and holders, and I'm betting these are the least sophisticated investors on the planet. Like.... my Uncle. I could totally see him doing this.

Wednesday, January 03, 2018

I honestly don't give a crap who they fire in Washington. Fire them all. This love fest for politicians is creepy on ALL sides.

Shouldn't we give Twitter credit for preventing nuclear war?

I mean seriously - this shit could have all been handled with a couple of Tweets? That is the funniest crap ever.

I've got one of those Light cameras.



A lot of my shots over the Holidays (all of the holiday lights) have been with my new camera the L16. I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about it. It is really awkwardly shaped, but the images are more dimensional because it takes pictures from slightly different angles and stitches them together in on camera software.

I took it out to the Santa Row car show on Christmas Eve where a couple of people actually recognized what it was. I don't really want a lot of attention so I was glad it wasn't more. But I did let one of the guys handle it and the first thing I asked was how it felt in his hands. He said it didn't feel as bad as he thought. Which made me laugh. Because when you first see the thing in real life you feel a little confused about it's shape.

Notably when you reach your hand inside your bag to pull it out, 80% of the time (for me) it's upside down. There is obviously a rubberized side, but I've noticed that men hold this thing very differently than a woman (me) would hold it. And since the device is basically weighted the same I didn't even notice there was an indented side to the grip because my hand is smaller than a mans and I just don't hold it the same way.

I will probably have more to say about it after next week because that is when it's really going to get a work out. It will be super interesting to see just how much of the public knows about this product in a place where there will be a zillion cameras.

Tuesday, January 02, 2018

So....... where are we in the bubble cycle when I get cold called by a pump and dump penny stock company? Ticker tptw on the OTC.

That is some 2008 shit.

Let them die already.

"2017 was a record year for both store closings and retail bankruptcies. Dozens of retailers including Macy's, Sears, and J.C. Penney shuttered an estimated 9,000 stores — far exceeding recessionary levels — and 50 chains filed for bankruptcy."

I'm guessing anyone who has ever complained about Sears closing hasn't shopped at Sears lately. I hadn't even shopped at Sears for years before this weekend. The stores are so dark and prisoney inside.

But this weekend Mr S. and I needed some corner wood clamps and Sears was literally the only place we could find on line I could get them the same day. And not the Sears in the town next to me, the Sears on the other side of San Jose. I live in the East Bay.

So Mr S. placed the order. Their website said we could pick them up the same day, and we left to get our 4 clamps.

We get to the store only to find out that we could not in fact get these clamps the same day. They would come on Tuesday (today). Which I could have just had Amazon send them to me. The store did have three of these clamps in the tool isle - but those couldn't 't be used to to complete our order.

We actually had to pay for those three clamps and then cancel the first order for 4. But while we were paying for them the sales guy wanted to sell us other stuff.

"We have some great garden tools he says" No thanks we reply, but he starts walking over the the garden tool area to plead his case where we again decline. And everyone wonders why Amazon is eating these stores lunch. You know who doesn't try to upsell me? Amazon.

Mr S. said canceling the original order of four clamps was the easiest thing about the whole ordeal.  Which we couldn't even do at the store, we had to call in. And I kind thought that was retarded. It should be easy to take your money, and not as easy to get it back. Or hell, lets go crazy and get both. Easy to order and easy to return. Oh right. That's Amazon. Never mind.
Called in my neighbors dog to animal control this morning at 7:30am. Happy effing new year.