Still irritated after all these years…

I have written previously about things that make me worry and scurry, but now I feel compelled by recent events (insert puking sound) to rant and pontificate on things, in no particular prioritized order, that simply irritate the seven shades of shiny goat scat out of me.

Unsynchronized traffic lights. The light you are sitting at turns green. You drive less than a fifty yards or so and the next light turns red. How in the wide, wide, world of sports is this optimizing energy usage, driving patterns or time utilization? We have AI, computers, algorithms, cameras, automation and yet we cannot synchronize the stinking traffic lights, and unsynchronized should be a word.

Forecasting the weather. We have AI, computers, satellites, algorithms, cameras, automation and yet no one can accurately inform you about the weather today or tomorrow. Go to five different websites and you will see five different forecasts and, guess the &*$% what, they are all wrong. So, they can tell you with absolute surety about “climate change” but not the weather this afternoon. Permittas dubitare as our ancient ancestors phrased it — “Permit me to doubt.”

Grocery stores irritate me. Not the convenience of having eveything I need in one location – that’s great – but in an insane desire to increase in-store traffic and sales they are always moving things around from aisle to aisle, from section to section – you need a freaking GPS scanner and map to find things.

Speaking of grocery stores. How about going to the grocery store where the cashier (just doing their job) hands you the receipt and says “You saved $4.57.” Fine, except my half-basket of groceries just cost me $150 plus, %!^$& it.

Apparently the NSA and other government entities have the capability to remotely activate a cellphone, even when it’s seemingly turned off. Oh, joy, and modern cars can often be disabled remotely, though the specific methods and extent of the control vary (it’s a secret, more or less). Yeah, and highway signs everywhere say, “Don’t text and drive” and then the %!^$& car companies put gigantic touch screens on your dashboard. Fug.

About 20% of Americans (that’s 60 million people, for those scoring at home) are functionally illiterate and can barely read. There’s another 10% or so (30 million) who can only read at a 5^th or 6^th grade level. I’m not sure what the number is for those who cannot actually read anything in English… Guess this blog won’t be absorbed by any of them (unless they get AI to read it aloud).

Speaking of AI, it has both good and bad (evil in some cases) aspects. Some folks will find the good to enhance themselves and other people, and other folks will endorse the bad (evil); you know, like AI-generated music, books, art that violate copyrights and, oh yeah, porn. Plus, there is the danger that AI-generated video will soon reach the point that forensics cannot determine if the video is real or not — try to imagine how that will go…

Security. You know what really irks me – those websites that have the “Verify You Are Human” images and you have to check the boxes where a bus, motorcycle, crosswalk or other image is pictured – and then you have to do it over and over and over. Fudge-covered fartsicle of a farce. Plus, we also have two-factor verification where every damn site you go to wants to text or email you a code everytime you login. It is sad that because of bad (evil) humans we have to have such security, but as those bad (evil) humans ramp up efforts to use AI for fraudulent purposes, look out below…

Telephone poles. I mean, come on people – we started putting these things up in 1844. That’s 181 years ago, and we still have millions of the damn things marring the landscape. And electrical transformers, metal utility poles, metallic communication towers – more wires than a bad puppeteer. So, here we are in the advanced technology year of 2025 and are you telling me there is no other way to move electricity except by wires? No particle beams, lasers, quantum flux – are wires the only way to go?

Roads. Most of us own a vehicle, which means we drive. On roads. Roads that seem to require repair every year or less. So, here we are in the advanced technology year of 2025 and are you telling me we can’t come up with a material to make/repair roads that last a long time? The Roman Empire constructed roads and buildings thousands of years ago that still look good…

Junk mail. The more current term used for this is “SPAM” but I do not like that word — I think the canned food makers should sue the Internet.

That’s a joke. You can’t sue the Internet. Thus you see one of the bad things.

Before we launch ourselves in irascible jump over a cliff, let’s examine more good and bad.

Instantaneous communication. You have a friend in Beijing — give them a call. That’s good. The bad is junk calls. Yeah, you can block callers but the permutations in phone numbers mean you can try and control the spam calls, but you cannot stop them, especially with automated systems that simply rotates through numbers like some crazed drug dealer.

Video conferencing. Set up the cameras and it’s just like being there, but without the crowds, noises, crazy taxi drivers or other big city nuances (or nuisances as the case may be). This is great for business and also for the porn industry (insert sigh here) plus spying and surveillance, and by gawd there are cameras everywhere — oh, and they can read a license plate from a frelling satellite.

Access to knowledge. Want to read a book from the 16^th century — it’s on the Internet somewhere. You can search and find pretty much anything and now, here in the latter part of 2025, artificial intelligence (AI) systems make finding things very easy. You just have to constantly keep in mind that AI will often give you more information than knowledge because (let’s face it) AI systems are built and programmed by error-prone humans. You still gotta dig to find true knowledge.

Smartphones. Sort of a repeat on the instantaneous communication rant but the newest wave of smartphones can do everything — I mean, they have built in apps and functions for almost every damn thing you can think of or need to do. A very useful tool, except most folks just snap a selfie and chat with their friends in a never-ending cycle. I mean, you go to the restaurant and four people are at a table eating, and all four are messing with their phone. Doesn’t seem like we have enhanced human relations, but have enhanced machine relations.

Shopping. You can pretty much buy anything on the Internet and it will be shipped to your doorstep. Technically, with grocery delivery services you could use the Internet for the purchase of everything you need to survive and never leave your residence. Generally, though, when I think of someone who can’t leave their residence, I think of a prisoner. In a cell. In a prison. Oops, the bad crept in here… Oh, and much of the stuff you order is made in some foreign country, often by low-paid or quasi-slave labor. Just saying.

Entertainment. This one is painful, because we all enjoy technology to deliver us shows, movies, news and other digital streaming. Sadly, this content can often be manipulated in order to deliberately influence people in an incorrect fashion about important human topics. Plus, it seems like entertainment in the last decade has been targeting the lowest common denominator in our society with shows and movies that are full of sex, drugs, violence and bestiality. A Vaudeville circus without the good nature.

24-hour news. In the “old” days you could read a printed newspaper or wait for the six o’clock or maybe the ten o’clock news to find out what was happening in the world. Now it is a constant, unrelenting, continuous bombardment of news, and most of it is bull scat that even the most discerning mind has trouble deciphering — is it accurate and true, or manipulated and false?

Blogs. Every jack wipe in the universe (including me) has an opinion and while what such people say is often sensible and even amusing, sometimes it is pure rat snarf. Hopeully only part of this blog entry falls under that latter category.

Food. Things are processed so much you wonder if you are getting any real nourishment at all. And they substitute cheap ingredients for costly ones — you know, for your benefit as they try to keep the cost down (puke). Toss in preservatives, food coloring, artificial ingredients, hormones, and chemicals that even a dedicated chemist can’t spell and food irritates me.

Transportation. A Model T Ford from around 1910 got about twenty miles per gallon from gas. Well, crap, they haven’t improved on that very much in modern times have they? I get it — we should all switch to electric cars. You know, cars that take hours to charge, that get limited milage, that can blow up and whose primary ingredient (lithium) requires mining and creating vast cavernous gorges/gouches in the earth. Oh, and how about maintenence? It used to be that you, the owner of the damn car, could work on it. Now everything is computerized and you need a special hook-up and a degree in quantum freaking mechanics to even work on the car. Aargh.

Taxes. Look, I understand that governments have expenses and there are costs to keeping towns, cities, states and the country operating correctly. But, seriously, we are taxed on everything and no matter what transaction you are involved in, there is a tax. Go ask your fiendly (or friendly) AI to show you the list. Make sure you are sitting down.

I could go on but this blog is irriating me, so while I could rant about water, noise, digital streaming, insurance costs, and on and on and on, I think I’ll just sip on an adult beverage, relax, and contemplate how long the grass is in the yard and when should I mow it.

Very irritating.

E. Irritated. Out.