Man…YouTube really sucks now with the proliferation of artificial “intelligence” in videos. Most of the videos are utter shit now thanks to lazy people thinking computers can do everything for them. Most of them are now right down on the bottom of the barrel with most influencers.

They are not only done horribly and are laughably bad, but the robot voices and stupid commentaries are ridiculous. On top of that, I am hard of hearing so I use closed captioning and most of that is AI transcribed – meaning not only are the captions garbage and unreadable, but for some reason AI is programmed to remove curse words and that takes away from action movies and videos. I also see the same word spelled a different way each time it shows up in the CC.

I want it as it is scripted and should be said/captioned – I do not need AI, religion, or government telling me what is right and wrong and what I can and cannot see, read and hear since they quite obviously have no clue what real life is like. Plus, I want it grammatically correct – I am literate and know how to spell. Makes me wonder about copyright violations if they are not done verbatim, too.

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While perusing said videos, I came across an interesting one about a topic I covered a month or two ago – your phone (and you) being tracked in stores. One thing I never thought about – and another video pointed out – is that it is not just the stores tracking you.

We all know Google thrives on monetizing personal info, but it is not just about what you search for. It also pieces together a pretty accurate profile about you and your habits. Google knows not only your searches and any personal info you give them in your account, but they look at where you go – your routes, what locations you frequent (not just stores but literally anywhere you go), and even how long you spend there so it knows where you. live even though you did not give them your address.

Apple claims to be privacy-oriented, but they lie and pull the same BS even though they do it a little differently with things like your Maps routes are anonymized. However, they still know where you stop, live, shop, eat, etc. So yes…they are more privacy-focused…but only to a point. So Apple is not really telling the whole truth. They are collecting info on you and your habits.

When it comes to apps, they are just as bad. I always check an app the see what info they get from my hone and many apps that seem innocent actually gather a LOT of info. Local news apps are really bad, and the Weather Channel app is one of the worst. You are really much better off doing what I do; that is to avoid the app and use the website of the company I need to look at. I use very few apps for news, weather and shopping. Merchant apps track you wherever you go and greet you at the door when you walk in or offer you a huge coupon if you are in a competitor’s store.

Add into the mix that when you shop at stores and merchants – and there are MANY that do this – they track your phone by its information like its IMEI and such – as they follow you and your device up and down every aisle., watching every damn thing you do. And now, with the electronic price tags it is game on for screwing the customer and stealing your info.

Now we all use our devices for everything, but I draw the line at monitoring my devices, This is just as, if not more, invasive as Google and Apple following your life, except stores are using these things to screw us on prices on the things we need to live and that is bullshit.

I have started turning off or leaving my watch and phone in my vehicle when I shop so me & my device are not tracked. It is a huge pain in the ass because I use a shopping list on my phone, and sometimes I want to look up info or pricing on a product.

The interesting video I found has a solution that is not as free as leaving your devices behind or shutting them off, but still quite reasonable. The guy tested Faraday cage bags for phones. If you have ever been inside a metal building and had a problem getting signal, that is basically a Faraday cage. It is similar to RFID protection for your credit cards but that will not protect you from being tracked because it only stops a certain wavelength. You need full isolation and that is where these bags come in. All of the bags stopped WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, cellular, and even key fob signals.

I realize that as a smartphone owner it is on me to protect my information and myself. Many people are so dependent on their devices that they don’t care and will die and be buried with their phones in their hands. Not me. I do use a map program to find my way around, I have my appointments in my calendar, it is my camera, and my music is on my phone, but I limit what I can to the best of my abilities.

I just wanted to share the info I found for those who are interested. As always, do your research as I saw some reviews that some of the cheaper bags (along with a foil chip bag) do not work.

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It is a flurry of animal activity in my yard. My desk looks out the living room window into the back yard and on the back part of my land. The squirrels are scurrying around gathering and hiding acorns; how they remember where they dig holes and bury stuff I don’t know. The woodpeckers, towhees, blue jays, and a bunch of LBB (“little brown birds” in birder-speak) are all digging in the leaves for things to eat. The last few days the weather has been very untypical and reminded me of Washington with the gray skies. It has been foggy the past three days, and everything has been damp so I have not gotten outdoors much.

Today it started out the same but the fog burned off and it got to 63 today. I got outside for a bit to get some things done. I had to fix my portable propane grill. The little brackets holding the flame shields up under the grate are tack welded and some of those welds broke so my grill was not usable. I got them all drilled and riveted into place so that should hold until it wears out.

I have had this little grill a while and it is like the ones you see on the back of bigger boats. I spent about $125 on it 7-8 years ago and have used the heck out of it. It is easy to cook on and is great for travel. My trailer has a flattop griddle on it that is good for some things, but I usually don’t want to fry my dinner; you just want to go caveman and grill something over some fire. I even bought a quick-connect hose that hooks it up to the gas line on the trailer for the griddle so I do not have to mess with the 1-lb. tanks or haul an extra big tank.

I was going to take the jacks off the trailer to paint but, as with other things I need, the tools I need to remove them are in South Dakota in storage. I have some box-end wrenches but that would take forever. I know because I put a couple of them on a bolt to try, I did find that since I sprayed them before, the one I checked loosened right up but it is just a pain to do it that way. Looks like that won’t be happening quite yet.

Since I have plenty of propane now, getting firewood is not as much of a priority. I still conserve it because, well, that is what I do but the less I burn the more I get back when I sell the house. Even though it is in the 60s outdoors, it is still lower than the thermostat. I will get the stuff I need to cut more wood in the next week or two. I do have some wood left still which is good since it will be in the 20s again next week.

That is it for this post. Hope everyone is having a good holiday season. See ya next time.

Shawn