Clear and Cold

It's really cold today. I didn't realize that there was such a temperature out, it's about 20 degrees Fahrenheit and the winds are strong.

I will have to bundle up pretty well if I want to be out and about.

Anyway, it seems like there is always going to be something that would otherwise keep me from doing what I want to do, whether it is cold temperature, insecurity, fear, or unease.
I'll just do it, and deal with the consequences. Out the door I go, next stop (hopefully) a nice place that I haven't seen before.

This post was originally posted on Bubblews.com at the following address: http://www.bubblews.com/news/9766592-clear-and-cold

A Strange Intersection of Anonymity and Vanity

I've been more and more in tune to the ways that people seem to motivate themselves to do things online.

Lately there has been a trend for people to reveal deeply personal and controversial things about themselves, but without revealing their identities.

When you think it over, it seems silly to make a confession anonymously, and even sillier to do it in a public forum for open discussion.

I think that the base cause of these types of things may lie in a fundamental difference between all of these temporarily anonymous people posting with "throwaway" user profiles, and myself, a steadfastly anonymous person that maintains a stable, anonymous identity.

I'm not vain, and they are.
These people do things that they don't really agree with, and seek confirmation from others without the coloration of acquaintanceship or familiarity.

This was originally published on Bubblews.com at:

http://www.bubblews.com/news/9766612-a-strange-intersection-of-anonymity-and-vanity

Brilliant Earth Jewelers

Do you like jewelry?
I like jewelry.
I actually have a bit of an understanding of the geology and gemology that underlies the trade of jewelry making, and as a youngster I wanted to be a lapidary, a jewel cutter and polisher, one of the legion that is responsible for turning worthless mineral substances into valuable trinkets through the clever use of facets and band saws.

I recently found out about a new company, that offers silver and gold alloys inlaid with conflict free diamonds.

It's a solid company, and the trinkets are at market rates.
I'd buy from them, if I was in the market for a thing.

This post was originally published on Bubblews.com at the following address:

http://www.bubblews.com/news/9766638-brilliant-earth

Glitches in Cyberspace: This Year's Y2K

The international dateline, in combination with the spread of time zones and the variability in web hosting from server to server and site to site, means that every year, web based businesses and services face a mountain of glitches and errors.

On the lower levels, our emails may be lost or arrive late. As you go higher though, things get more serious. Bank transfers either don't go through or end up sitting too long, transactions go unpaid, merchants lose access to necessary operating funds, and international loans, administered by the IMF and UN, may sit in escrow for an unscheduled day.

It reminds one of the debacle that preceded and followed the year 2000, when all the software needed to be rewritten for dates with 4 digits instead of 2.

This was originally written and published on Bubblews.com at http://www.bubblews.com/news/9766654-glitches-in-cyberspace-this-years-y2k

Getting "Nerfed" On Swagbucks

Are you familiar with this term?
Before I started in on the forums, the closest thing that I ever guessed that it could mean was being hit with a soft plastic dart or baton.

In modern parlance, getting nerfed is used to refer to a program or profitable opportunity or offering becoming crippled by design, in order to prevent potential harm for users or reduce liability on the part of manufacturers or service providers.

Over the past couple of days, I've come to the realization that I'm getting nerfed on Swagbucks, as the mobile apps are freezing up multiple times in a given 10 minute period as opposed to running without interruption for hours at a time.

It's to the point where I'm not guaranteed to earn a full nickel before the app conks out, as compared to the summer of 2014 when I could easily earn 2 dollars without tapping on the screen or resetting the programs more than 3 times in a day.

Still, it's a free dollar every day. I'll jump through a few hoops for a dollar a day. Not many, but then again, I'm only moving one hand.

I originally posted this as content to Bubblews.com at this address: http://www.bubblews.com/news/9769349-getting-quotnerfedquot-on-swagbucks

The Tech World is Insular

I consider myself a member of Generation @, the group of people that is really focused in on the news and developments in technology, but it occurs to me that this obsession as a culture and a global generation with tech, in the sense of programming, applications and online activity, is probably not a good thing.

The world is a wide open place full of different kinds of things, and the focus of humanity on the one area of development, electronics and programming, is probably coming at the cost of developments in other areas that are more critical, like food security and sustainability, life science, genetics and mechanical advances.

It is currently a problem for us to house, feed and support structurally all of the people that populate our planet, and this is only going to worsen as time passes and the population grows.

We need another tech boom, but this one can't be online. It's got to happen in the real world.


If you like what you see, check out some other posts that I have written:

It Doesn't Matter What you Do As Long as You Keep Things In Perspective
http://www.bubblews.com/news/9603904-it-doesn039t-matter-what-you-do-as-long-as-you-keep-things-in-perspective

Supporting Small Business
http://www.bubblews.com/news/9603588-supporting-small-businesses

The New Economy

In the old economy, the one that most of our parents probably took part in, when you took a job you took it long term. That job was going to pay you enough for you to live in the town where you worked, you would be able to afford necessities, you could expect raises if you performed well, and you would get benefits while working and when you retired.

In the new economy, jobs are taken with the expectation that there will only be so long for you to work there, and you will probably leave within 10 years. Jobs will pay you literally as little as regulations will allow and the market will permit, and you can only expect as much in benefits as you are willing to sacrifice in salary or status.

Many people, such as myself, work but cannot actually afford necessities or the cost of living in the city that we work, so we either find a second job or make do by cutting costs or increasing income in various ways.

Even college education, the hallmark of social advancement, no longer has the same effect on lifetime income as it once did, since so much of the additional benefit is siphoned off to pay student debt.

So, the new economy is not a very happy place.

But it offers some unique upward potential, especially for those who have education, skills, training, and the passion to pursue innovative business ideas. If you can pitch it, sell your idea to investors or the big companies, or run a business successfully, you can skyrocket in popularity from one day to the next, and make it big in this new economy.

But nothing is guaranteed.

This post was originally published on Bubblews.com here