Happy Labor Day to those who Labor

Trying out what happens if I post from phone app and too hard to type much on tiny screen. Quick way to ensure I do/be short and concise.

No pics of storm, shares of documentaries listened to or books added to library loan hold or wish lists.

P.S. recent phone update must have turned auto correct back on. Typo in “library” morphed into “unearthed”.

Saw it. Hopefully fixed. Sigh.

Shout Out to Prompt, Transparent, Privacy Policy for GE and….

Okay – you know I just rather write on things important to my soul when I’ve had enough, right?   (if you don’t, just visit Writer’s Wanted, Peaceful Souls Need Not Apply – and you’ll get some insight into imperfect me, in…a….nutshell….)

But, in my inner world, if one is going to rant/rave/comment on the things you do not support…..

(you know how that goes –  share cool memes others share on social media, or sign petitions or donate to campaign finance across the spectrum from GoFundMe to Presidential candidates (with a few ecosystem orgs in between – sigh….)

THEN, it is only fair, just, proper, to give a Shout Out to those who DO their best to promptly meet what you say you want – –

Thus, I’m Giving GE Appliances a Shout-Out

For the following reasons:

• Yes, I FINALLY got a new refrigerator for me tiny home
  • P.S. – NO – um-the old one hadn’t actually ‘died’ yet, but, I’ve wanted my ‘dream, tiny home/sq ft sized fridge for like, 3+ years?  
  • P.S.S. And NO – um – I don’t have the skills or tools or desire to convert the old one into a kegarator, (how cool IF I was actually brewing kegs of my own homebrew – but….
  • P.S.S.S. – I’m not qualified to on purpose hope I ‘decommissioned an old fridge and made an ‘insulated raised bed out of…
  • P.S.S.S.S. – I cannot, at this time, risk having a dead fridge just hanging out on the place until I have the tools, skills, know-how, etc., to put it to local recycling use – cuz ya know – IF only I had a 1968 Dodge Charger up on blocks that I was slowly restoring, well, maybe, JUST maybe, I could avoid ‘ a keep our town purdy’ violation ticket
    
    • PPSS – I AM skirting the edges of violations with weeds gone out of control between blessed moisture, hoarded straw bales, mulch piles, pallets of stone/pavers/pvc and wood to get hammered into a cottage garden area – someday, when I can pay my bills AND also wake up on the weekend and say, “Coolio!  I’m puttering around the garden today
  • And…the old one’s seals were starting to get rather smarmy – I’d walk out and think, “Did I leave the freezer door open?  HOLY COW!  HOW much Electric bill, adding to global warming issues, climate, being a concientious consumer ….” Yes, that’s all the crap my mind serves up the minute I walk into kitchen and see the top freezer door with a 3 inch gap/no seal -welcome to ‘my world’ – 🙂

Oops!  Got Sidetracked …

…sharing the back story – can you read further than 419 words?  Can ya?  🙂

The real story that started this mess…

I received delivery, of a new refigerater/freezer on bottom, 24″ wide, made Consumer Reports ‘good buy’ – list, was on sale, supposed to get a rebate from my local electric power provider, that has a working light bulb, no handles that will break off during normal use on year 5 of living in home (not sure how old the prior one really was – – )  AND is Energy Star rated –

Cuz ya know, I’d love to go solar – but can’t figure out how to finance it, even though except in July/August my electric usage is less than grid connect fee, AND, while I use tech/electrical powered thingees – I try to be somewhat responsible on whether I should stationary bike pedal while I build websites, or not – –

See?  Got sidetracked again….

But, in the end, I really wanted to make clear to you, (if you’re a bloggy pal, you already know and may/may not have read, and are chuckling and thinking, “Well, she’s a hoot/idiot, but she’s OUR hoot/idiot” –

And if you’re new to visiting Bally Bin?

Get used to it – – this is what it looks like, just now – maybe it’ll get better, maybe it won’t – place your bet and take yer chances –

🙂

Why, Yes!  Here’s the Shout Out – awesome! portion…

I took delivery – I scanned, documented, submitted rebate information –

(not because I’m so frickin’ global environment conscientious, but, I STILL haven’t gotten the re-insulate job done and I could use the credit to defray electrical costs for keeping cool via window A/C, this late arriving summer (less each year as outside plants grow in size – but seriously – – insulation – – – coupled with repaired holes in 80 year lathe/plaster walls that are STILL opened up, due to great electrical re-do/upgrade of 2016  – yes, still trying to find time to patch those things correctly, save what is beautiful, turn into what is functional….)

Then I went over to register purchase online…

The top meandering reasons why I’m VERY Happy with GE Appliances/registration site –

1. I Didn’t have to install an app on my phone to use (seriously, the phone that works for my life is seen as a ‘mini phone’  cuz it’s screen is small – If it’s small, I’ll take care to not lose it, knowing I will be prone to, right?
2. I signed up, logged in, registered my appliance for warranty needs, BUT before I hit “SUBMIT” –
3. I ALSO read the Terms Conditions AND the quick/easy linked Privacy Policy pages
4. Didn’t like everything I saw – had quick links to follow and not spend days of my life figuring out how to opt out –
5. Submitted my ‘opt out’ request –
6. Got a website page that basically said, “This is your reference number, thanks for contacting us – we’ll be in touch…”
7. I saved a screenshot – I no longer trust any of this cyberland world – 🙂
8. I figured to do the ‘wait/see’ how it plays out, REALLY!!!

Less than 24 hours later…

I get an email –

It acknowledged my following of their full stated privacy policy,  to my less-than-nice request sent,

Please remove my information from any sharing or use for direct marketing activities. Please limit communications to those related to the proper care of, information on or related missives regarding the items I have purchased from/registered with you. Thank you.

And here’s the response I received – in less than 24 hours, mind you – this:

Thank you for reaching out to GE Appliances.

We will remove you from all of our solicitation list.

Signed by a unique name, who through signature line, wished me the best – –

Okay – still waiting to see how it all plays out – really – folks can have their policies, their online protocols, their GDPR, Privacy, Cookie mandates ALL in place –

Doesn’t matter really, in the end, unless they are serious about avoiding lawsuits, while engaging in nefarious, non-transparent, company/biz ways –

I recently worked to the background of Boston Legal TV series –

Funny – history repeating itself, playing out, in shorter time frames, ever more – I’m glad I’ve lived long enough to observe this shit show happening, once again –

Seriously!

I am glad I’ve managed to survive this long – why?

Cuz ya know…I read at night – I’m convinced I have cognitive bias in regards to how much we should depend upon newsletter emailed thingees, social media shares, AI customer service bots, or software that promises the world, but has the fine-print buried about what it really costs you in using the ‘free’ service.

Conclusion

You Made It!!!  Through an experential, multi-faceted/topic post, to get to the conclusion!

(…or…You just jumped through heading tags, to get to what you really wanted – I’ll provide you that too, to avoid the pain of such things – like reading all the way through a 2,000 word post to find out, you can just skip to the recipe, bullet list of ‘instructions’ whatever – IF you wish to spend your time here at Bally Bin, THANK YOU!  I swear to all that is holy, I don’t on purpose design stuff to make sure you spend as much time here as possible to get what I want…)

Ahem – The REAL Conclusion:

So far, I’m fairly impressed with the overall results from doing what’s in my best interest, in compliance with the rules set out forth by the one who said, “We’ll give you the world in easy way, here’s what it looks like – if you don’t want?  Tell us -”

I will wait to see how it plays out – I’m rather cynical on all of this  topic – – unsubscribe links that don’t really unsubscribe you – the time consuming ways one spends to navigate daily life of paying bills, getting insurance or ‘bridge the gap’ ways of online worlds that believe everyone has high-speed internet access, and/or can afford it, whether they are affluent enough to remember my joy at getting my Ham Radio Operator’s Tech license nearly a year ago?

Um…that joy diminished – once I actually signed up, paid my membership for associated .org entities – well – I got a LOT of junk email, junk snail mail, etc.

While I’m all for .orgs to keep operations going, best as they can, and while I’m all for keeping our national postal/mail system flourishing AND, don’t ya know, if we all write letters, cards – send thank you notes, etc, via other methods than digital – we ALSO preserve the possibility for someone to accurately report….later….what was going on at the time….

Emails?  Not certain – how could Ken Burns wade his way through the congested, archived, saved, algorthim infested Inboxes of folks and tell the REAL story about someone, ever, in a timely fashion, IF we all only use text/digital to speak of our challenges and joys?

Especially going into this next year – aka – election year –

But, for the past 24 hours – I ‘took the time to read’, was able to navigate the site using my preferred browser, with security (HA!) functions implemented as best as I know how – and – at least someone replied within less than 3 weeks – better than, um ‘never replied’ –

All of this crap has been on the radar of MANY for MANY years –

The wheels of societal change, justice, law, government grind slow, yes they do –

Until such time as folks pull their heads out to remember recorded history whenever we make a ‘tech leap’ between what we can do and perhaps, what we ‘should do’ – whether building, providing, partaking in, etc, the things that drive us all crazy and make daily life a…well…shit show of wasted time just to file forms or what have ya – 🙂

For me?  I can only continue to show up to serve ‘boots on the ground’ reality/goals, if I deem it is beneficial to others than just me – (see?  It’s all about me – since this is my free blog – and you chose to read this far, you already know that…)

I can only speak up and say, personally, to providers –

“this sucked – given your ‘stated market’ copy on ‘who you prefer to provide services to’ – either you’re under the gun trying to live up to promises (I’m guilty of that) and/or you’re lying –

But in my world?  IF one is going to use free blog/free speech thingees to gripe, they had best show up and say “albeit” a long winded, non-social share friendly way of saying,

” So far, so good and living up to online copy – “

I could tell you about what it costs, nowadays to hire geeks to get this online ‘done well’ stuff really aces –

I could also tell you about how it’s a growing in complexity layered system where either you deal with front line staff, a well run global biz or take the wannabees that just had a dream and realized, they need to go big or go home –

I could tell you about Social Media wars, how sized media plays into that, how true graphic designers who blog to inform, instead of blogging to sell –

I could also tell you about a wealth of folks willing to show up and ‘pay’ for the services provided, HOWEVER, I could also tell you about the number of folks who think there is still a free lunch to be had…But you already know all of this – but…sigh…just how things are, right?

Nope, call folks out – thank them, point out crap, whatever – this is what social/civil activism looks like on daily level for those who can’t ‘buy a loudspeaker/voice’ – with $ –

But I can’t – OOPS!  Think I just morphed over 2,000+ words – yup – I could edit, make better – but let’s close with pictures of my morphing, get by with tiny appliances/old appliances removed pics, shall we?

Yes, I purchased toxic (so folks say) magnetic primer and chalkboard paint to finish the cabinet, in defiance of all tiny home builders that tell me to stick with light colors in small space – especially since I have solar screens on windows to cut down on heat transference to home in our ‘dog days/hot days’ of summer – I may/may not properly use safety things other than throwing up a window while I do *gasp* the unthinkable! Make a magnet note/art holder while providing way for me to leave notes to myself without stapling a sticky note to my forehead – or finger –

 

Made my long un-used no-knead pizza dough recipe since I’m cooking for me self and the man-child again – figured out how to do in cast iron skillet – tried new recipe of crockpot sauce that I veered wildly from the ‘simple, fast,
DON”T add…” instructions –

 

 

 

IF I were a REAL…..

Poet, artist, photographer, novelist….

Or any of about another gazillion options for being a true creative, inspiring, prodigy –

Perhaps I could properly convey to you the depths of beauty I find in the ever changing of moment of now – –

Archeologist, Sociologist, Philosopher, Historian,  Cosmologist, Astrophysicist, Quantum Mechanics Mathematician, (or, face it, even a basic High School level Calculus student….)….

I could simply tell you why I see what I see in what is not working, hasn’t ever worked and why, without serious modifications, never will –

IF I were a REAL person –

Yum – yup – I would LOSE MY FOCUS and TOTALLY Lose My Cool – and throw s@!t fit on Wednesday, in the middle of a productive work morning, just cuz a software provider forgot to update their changelog link to be viewable – another software provider indicated something changed, but numerous testings later – um, nope – stuff trucking right along -changes expected didn’t happen…. and so….

Here I sit, tonight – after a day full of finally having my ‘fill’ cuz ya know – writers like me don’t show up to wax eloquent on topics when they are busy doing needed work –

Sigh –

Mother Nature is the REAL me –

Tonight – as I came back down to earth trying to make sense of a myriad of events the past year or two, I truly focused in on jus….

Now!

The sound of thunder rolling….

The Pitter Patter of rain…no wait…small hail?  Nope – just hard rain – and I just sunk into the blessed relief of Mother Nature doing her thing –

Despite storm warnings that said the newly recovered flower/plants (that somehow survived the 3 massive hail storms back in June – and are beautiful, just cuz I wasn’t in a toot to go rip them out the minute I figured to give ’em up for ‘deader than doornail’ status – ) were probably in imminent danger of being busted back to nothing – once more….

It didn’t happen – seriously – why the heck do I pay attention to such things and think planning on my part may, somehow, avoid disaster?

And so life trucks on – bindweed and weeds, and works in progress and folks who think it’s too hot, too cold, to wet, too dry, etc., once more are relegated to ‘historical footnote commentary’ in me life’s memories – cuz ya know what?

Yup – that’s bindweed – ain’t it loving all this moisture?  Funny, how the areas where it is, aren’t getting flooded –

Deep rooted, it must be – – sigh –

I’m Announcing Publicly, the fact I JUST NOW saw the beauty to be had in Bindweed…

Not that I’m cutting it any slack or giving it opportunity if I can help it to take the place over –

Just saying – I get it –

Still Waiting for the Wisdom of Mosquitoes to show up….

Oops!  Promised myself I’d just write what I was thinking, once more on, in less than 400 words – and actually publish – but…don’t ya know – I remembered to take pics earlier today – they are resized and sent to Mama Bear for my ‘touch base and here’s the report from here’ – and…if anyone can actually see the 10,000 words+ conveyed in these pictures, well – thanks!

Cuz, If I were a REAL photographer…..

🙂

Fall 2019

P.S. – And CURSES to the software providers AND the Accessibility Watchdogs that cannot make up their mind on what is the ‘rule of thumb’ for Alt-text Required/Nope, not needed if picture named descriptively enough –

sigh –

IF someone must use a ‘screen reader’ to navigate the web?

Good luck – maybe the Fates/Gods of Cyberland smile upon you – they change their mind more often than your software to keep up with it, will, most likely –

But then, I can throw such stones – I see all the warnings thrown by such tests/algorithms, can read the articles calling for ‘such and such’ and then see how they stack up against reality – and doable, for less than 5 full-time jobs just maintaining a basic sites content to meet the latest ‘touted’ requirements – – me things cyberland believes itself the end all – instead of just the ‘archived report of how history is changing faster than one can keep up,,,:

But I’m OLLLDDDDD!  And BIASED!!!!   And I confess to believing that tech will not save me or anyone else – cuz we are all mortal – Thank Goodness!   Cuz ya know?  I STILL believe our own mortality and understanding of it, is the only thing that provides us the space in which to practice our free will to create a life of meaning – but again –

If I were eloquent……