Good morning. Hello. How are you? #923
Bluesky is a privacy disaster. Dottie is at an end. The mystery of illegal window tinting.
Oh shit oh shit. I’m in trouble here. I even got up early. But I thought to myself, “this is great, it’s Tuesday, I won’t have to do a GMHHAY because I can keep going on the Dottie ghost story.” Except NOPE. That’s it. That’s all I’ve written about Dottie. I mean, I have about six partial chapters after that, and the outline for the rest of the novel, but that’s all that’s written. I have the whole thing worked out in my head too. But man, writing fiction is hard. I am not super good at it. Except upon re-reading this Dottie story with you, a few years after I wrote it, it wasn’t bad! I should really continue but. But I don’t have that kind of time at the moment, what with a kid and a job and all. But I really should finish it in this lifetime. That’s where we’re at now with the projects: “please allocate some time before you die to finish this one.”
So I guess now the question is do I start sharing with you another piece of fiction. Maybe? That could be fun. Looking in my writing folder, lotta abandoned novels in there. Hugo novel. Mars Novel. The first book. The 2nd book (Zenman prototype). That one’s pretty funny. About a man who gets the stigmata and DGAF. Somewhere I have a short stories book which I suppose would be more appropriate for this endeavor. Plus Kevin book. Did a lot of work on that one. But Dottie was the only one I started at the beginning I think.
Hrm actually, in looking a the Kevin novel, it’s 34,000 words! Damn! I did a lot on that one. I wonder if it’s any good. Lemme just export a PDF here and send it to my Kindle Scribe and read it one of these days. We shall see. Maybe I’ll share it with you.
Anyway! Hello! Good morning! How are you? All well? Tuesday. Oof. The day with all the one-on-ones. Gotta be on my game on Tuesdays. And a five-day workweek this week. Five day workweeks are too much. Workweeks oughta be four days, tops. Not a fan of the five-bag.
So the Town Clerk of Carrboro emailed me and thanked me for alerting him to the expiration of the campaign finance law, which expires today. They had meant to extend it at the last town council meeting of the year, but forgot. So they are calling a quickie session today or tomorrow to extend the law. Because I inquired. I guess I feel good about this, getting some campaign finance laws enacted. But I also think it would have been fun to somehow exploit the law and donate like $5,000 to a campaign today. Or maybe just $251. Just because I had some secret information that no one else had. But I got that loophole closed. You guys are welcome, Carrboro politicians. Unless you’re annoyed. Then ha ha joke’s on you.
Oh wow so I invited my friend Jenna in Europe to Bluesky. Sent her a code, asked her to take screenshots of the registration process, and she just sent them to me. And Bluesky is operating in the EU without any GDPR implementation. None. Well. They have one line in their terms and conditions about relying on “standard contractual clauses” for the basis of their information gathering, which is complete BS and the EU has repeatedly said cannot be used in replacement of affirmative consent. And they do not gather it.
I had a hunch this was true already because last week I asked them for my personal data, and while it’s only been a week and they have 30 days to fulfill that request under the terms of California’s CCPA, I am not optimistic. Of course, CCPA is a California law, so Bluesky is not actually legally required to send me my data, since I’m not in California, but I don’t recall them asking me where I’m at. So, you know, maybe they’re using some sort of IP address analysis but a) lol yeah right and b) it’s a lame org that applies CCPA to just California instead of all of America (or even the world). Threads, meanwhile, has full CCPA implementation because of its piggybacking on top of of Instagram.
So for all of you people sharing that article about how Threads has not launched in the EU yet because they can’t make it work legally, the only difference here from Bluesky is that Threads has actually bothered to try following the law, and Bluesky is just flouting it. Also Bluesky is not a non-profit, they can do whatever they want with your data just like Meta can. And so far haven’t said they won’t. So, you know, you may not agree, but “devil you know” is a perfectly rational approach here to this decision.
Also, tell me what important personal data I’ve given Threads that I had not already given to Insta and Facebook and Whatsapp.
I was enjoying Bluesky a lot until Threads launched. Then Threads came along and it was more fun, and Bluesky got bitter AF going on about how awful Threads was and it seemed somewhat pointless to log into a social network to just see a lot of bitching about another social network. Because if we’re going to do that it should be the Judean People’s Front. Er, I mean the Romans. Er, I mean Elon Musk. Of course some part of that is the graph of people I follow, but it’s not like I’m only following happy influencers from Instagram on Threads.
Man I really did not grasp how 100% spot on that Monty Python scene was when I was a kid but it really is perfect.
Thank you Jenna for giving me a writing topic today I really was staring at a blank wall of writer’s block.
At the risk of sounding like that Seinfeld episode about getting key copies made, what the hell is up with all of the illegal window tinting on people’s cars around here? North Carolina has a window tinting law, and I swear to god, something like 25% of the cars on the street completely violate this law. When we moved here, our window tinting was too dark on Emma’s old car from Florida, and it failed inspection and we had to get it replaced with lighter tint. But there are TONS of cars on the road with too dark tint. Do they know where to go to pass an inspection with dark window tint? Do they all have medical exemptions? Do they go get their inspection passed and then immediately re-tint their windows darker? And what is even the point of this law? So cops can see into your car? It really is stunning to me the weird-ass things that conservatives get their bee in a bonnet about in the name of privacy and governmental overreach and the things they leave alone. I suspect they could get twice as many votes rampaging about something like window tinting or emissions testing or property tax inspectors than they will ever get ranting about the gays and the transes. Woah that got dark. But I am legit curious how, exactly, so many people get past this law and if they suffer any repercussions whatsoever. Because if I knew, I’d do it, but then, of course, knowing my luck, I would 100% immediately get a ticket. Maybe that’s it maybe they just accept the tickets cuz they’re not the kind of tickets that take points off your license?
Jane was an absolute peach last night, great Daddy bedtime. We danced to the Breeders and Diet Cig and Samia and Garbage and Pet Shop Boys. We did some parkour. I am thinking the source of my arm pain is all of Janes swinging around during dance time. But why wouldn’t it have hurt each arm equally. A mystery. She handled Camp just great yesterday, and had a good time. That’s a relief. Today she has swim lessons and camp and she even said “that’s too much.” But I have hope it will all work just fine. Fingers crossed. Also they gave the kids naps, at age five, which is just bonkers. And! They give snacks to the kids, which sucks, Jane is not a snacker. But they do at Kindergarten too. I’m super annoyed about this. They told us to raise our kids with no snacks and we did and now they’re like “lol never mind.”
I suspect the explanation to this is that there is no “they.”
Justa mix for you, the 200th one. Man that is crazy. 200! Mostly new, except for John Stewart and David Sylvian. Been on a David Sylvian kick this week. Thanks to the Reds, Pinks and Purples for being the first band I followed on Threads and writing a song about tme.
Until tomorrow, fare friend. I am sorry about Dottie. She misses you already.