Opinions are like assholes

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I’m very careful when it comes to opinions. Everybody has the right to an opinion and so do I. You also have the right not to care about or read or listen to mine, just as I have the right to do to yours.

In short: Opinions are like assholes. Everybody has one, but you don’t need to show yours to everybody, because not everybody wants to see it.

How not to be a Winer

It’s easy. All you have to do is to state your opinion about something only once.

“It’s hot today!” is Acceptable once and only once. When you say it more than once, you are becoming a complaining person.

“Load shedding is a bitch!” is something many South Africans open a conversation with. Yes, we all know it, because all of us experience it. Constantly talking about the government’s shortfalls is going to change exactly nothing. Stop reminding people about the negative and become a change for the posative.

And should your conversational companions tell you to “quit complaining” if you stated your opinion once, and only once, tell them to fuck off. Remember: You do have the right to a opinion — just like everybody else does.

Is your Wi-Fi being Hacked?

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I tried hacking my own wi-fi network and let me tell you, it takes time. Now, before you start howling about how illegal hacking is, it was my network, and I gave myself permission to hack it. I had the correct wi-fi card, but not a GPU and with a slow computer, it would have taken about sixty-seven years to crack my wi-fi password. Besides, having the equipment to perform hacking is not illegal, because it’s not the equipment that hack people. It’s people who hack other people. If you are still not convinced, let me explain it to you this way:

You are a rapist. Whether you’re a man or woman, doesn’t matter, because you have the equipment for it, don’t you?

It’s a well-known secret that you are tracked on the internet and social media. Hell, perhaps our smart speakers are listening to us — and what about our cell phones? But what is less well-known, is how easy it is to hack wireless networks. All you need is a bit of patience, a bit of technical skills, the correct (and often expensive) hardware, and Bob’s your uncle.

Wi-fi is Easy to hack…

David Bombal explains just how easy it is to break wireless networks in this Youtube video. Please watch it and follow his suggestions.

Now, before you get paranoid, run to your router, unplug it and smash it with a hammer, sit and think. Is your wi-fi really hacked? Mister Bombal is not trying to scare you; he is trying to educate you on password strength and cyber safety. Follow his suggestions and you should be just fine.

Your Wi-fi isn’t hacked because…

To understand how hackers function, you need to think like they do. What is their mane motivation?

Money.

Some people say it is information and money, but I disagree. If they capture information, they either sell it or hold it ransomed. The end result is the same: Money.

It takes time to hack something. Not just time, but a great deal of patience and some skills. Depending on the target, more skills are needed. The more skills a hacker has, the more valuable his time is, because even in the grey world of hacking, time equals money.

So, the simple question is not “Is my wi-fi hacked?”, but rather “Why would anybody try to hack my wi-fi network?” If you are not a business, financial institution or a billionaire. then you should be safe, simply because you are not worth their time and effort. I’m not talking about script kiddies.

They may hack you simply for the sake of bragging to their friends or to get free wi-fi, but, once again, are you worth the time and effort?

How can you protect yourself?

You can’t — at least not with a hundred percent guarantee. If they want in badly enough, they will. This is not just true for hackers, but for any kind of criminal. I have been on break-in scenes where they pulled over the front wall of the house with a jeep to get inside. It was worth it for them to do it, and so they did.

The only real precaution you can take is to use strong passwords. Don’t give these passwords out. If you have guests who want to use your wi-fi, enter the password for them and change it once they leave. Don’t tell people how many characters your password contains. If you have the know-how, apply good network segregation and hope you are safe.

Last, but not least: Don’t become complacent. Safety starts at home. Change your password ever so often. Don’t be lazy. If it means you have to find where to connect to the network in your big screen TV’s control panel, so be it.

Vigilance is key.

Sticks and stones may break my bones…

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This old, English proverb is well-known, but it’s also a load of bullshit.

Everything we do, we do in language. We speak in language (sometimes body language), but language, nevertheless. We think in language and language defines our identities. He is possibly a man, a woman, a cat or an it. The same goes for the third-person term “she”. In short, language makes us who we are.

Proverbs and their meanings

Proverbs are short little sayings containing sometimes wisdom and sometimes humour. They are defined to teach little life lessons or provide comfort. Examples are:

• The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. …
• All that glitters is not gold. …
• A picture is worth a thousand words. …
• Beggars can’t be choosers. …
• A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. …
• An apple a day keeps the doctor away. …
• Better safe than sorry. …
• Blood is thicker than water.

And, of course, the title of this post.

Different kinds of abuse

Abuse could be either verbally or physically. Physical abuse takes a bit more effort on the part of the abuser, but both of these kinds of abuse could have terrible concequences.

If language is so deeply interwoven into our every fiber and if “words can never harm me”, why do school children commit suicide after being verbally abused by their peers?

Should words not be able to harm me, why does it hurt so much when your partner tells you that things are not working out and that it’s time to move on?

If words won’t hurt you, why does it feels like you are going to shit yourself whenever you receive mail from the revenue services?

If one of your parents is a bad person and someone tells you that “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”, why does it make you angry or sad?

The list can go on and on, but by this time, you should get the message: Sticks and stones may break your bones and words can most surely hurt you.

But there is one piece of folk wisdom or proverb that I strongly believe in: What you sow, so shall you reap. So, think before you speak. Let your words define you as either a man of wisdom and compassion or a man of selfishness and foolishness.

The Furries Phenomenon

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Whatever you do behind closed doors as an adult is your business. I don’t hate furries; live and let live and all of that, but for children to use something like this as an excuse is just fucked-up.

I was creating a Mastodon account and I found a server for furries. I checked it out and you won’t believe what I found. I googled it and found the following from a dictionary definition: an enthusiast for animal characters with human characteristics, in particular a person who dresses up in costume as such a character or uses one as an avatar online.

Not so bad, hey? But a bit further down the page I found an article about an 8th year female Sidney student who thinks she’s a cat – trying to support and justify her behavior. They also tell the story about a boy who thought of himself and identified himself as being a dog.

My mouth was hanging open and drool was dripping from my lips onto my computer keyboard, but the worst was still to come…

Allegations were made against a school in the US by a lady. She said that the school provided litterboxes to students who thought they were animals. These allegations were denied, but where there is smoke…

Our future has too much time on their hands — time they don’t use constructively, because they don’t know how. They are exposed to social media and the world wide web and everything it contains. Children don’t play outside any more, because there is television and games to keep them busy. There is also the criminal element to keep in mind — especially in South Africa where a life is worth less than a cell phone. It’s time for us to step up to our future and do one of two things: Either give it the hiding of a lifetime or go out and buy pet food. Either solution will work. One day with only pet food to eat, no snacks, bed, toilet, television, cell phones and the other amenities of human civilization and I can virtually guarantee you that our future will look at life, the universe and everything, a bit differently.

But this is not only limited to our future, but also to our current and our previous generations as, according to the article, even elderly people believe themselves to be animals. And did I tell you about the school uniforms with the hole at the back for a tail?

The author of the article used the words “romanticized animals”. These obviously come from television, books and movies where animals can talk, they can help you if you are in trouble and where a lion is a noble beast. It’s up to us to put the record straight and teach our future that a lion will probably kill you out in the bush, that an elephant will stomp on you and that a wild cat will claw out your eyes if provoked. We are allowing our future to watch this kind of shit, so we need to put it straight.

If you ever get the chance to get close to a lion, do it. Smell the air. A lion really fucking stinks – just like our future does now. And, if you still don’t get it, I am using the word “Children” and “our future” interchangeably, because they really are humanity’s future.

What are we thinking? Are we so scared of our children that we are willing to put up with this shit? Our future is in jeopardy, people. Society is degrading at a rapid and rapidly accelerating pace. What are we going to do? What can we do? And this is where the psychologist takes the stage saying to the Furry:

“It’s fine. We understand that you have stresses in your life. We understand that you will take great offence should you get a hiding or get pet food for dinner. We also understand that you may be too fucking lazy to do exercises in a gym or at home to get rid of these stresses. It’s OK. We will talk about these stresses once per week for however long I feel it’s necessary and for however long your medical insurance will allow.”

It’s not that I hate psychology, I just don’t like it very much. Please read the previous sentence again: It’s not that I hate psychology, I just don’t like it very much and I have nothing against most of the people in the profession – just a lot against the profession.

I also pretended that I was a horse or a lion or even a ship when I was a kid, but when I went home, the fun was over, and I was a little boy again. I never felt that I needed to wear a costume or use my behavior as an excuse for the way I acted.

Dear Jesus (I am saying this with the greatest respect), please have mercy on us for I believe we don’t know what we’re doing. I am the last person to go through life with the Bible under my arm, but I do come from a Christian background – more particularly the NG church. This has made me change my views on religion somewhat – perhaps a topic for later discussion. All I am trying to say is: Be glad I am not God. I would be tempted to wipe the slate clean and start over…

The Mercy of Strangers

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A few years ago, we went to a big shopping mall. It was a rainy Saturday and my dad forgot to turn off the lights on our vehicle. Needless to say, when we got back, it wouldn’t start.

We were good and stuck. My dad took a rope from the back of our vehicle and stood out in the rain. Many people passed us by, but one, a man we have never seen before, stopped and asked what was wrong.

My dad explained the situation. The man was not very friendly, but he did agree to give us a tow to get us started. He kept his word, and it didn’t take long to get us going.

And all of a sudden it hit me: Are we not all, at one time or another, dependent on the mercy of a stranger? And what if you look at this from the other side: Is a stranger not some time at the mercy of our kindness?

Why do people not help one another more often? The man who helped us was clearly not in the mood for long chit-chat. One could speculate that it was because it was cold and miserable outside, but it will remain speculation as we never saw him again. And yet he helped by not only offering up his time, but also a small amount of fuel..

The answer to the question of why people don’t help each other more often is complicated. Life has gotten very fast: You rush to get dressed, drop off the kids at school, get to work in time, finish the report before the next meeting, finish your lunch, finish that last email… It’s just too frenetic. But I think it’s more than that: We don’t want to get involved in other peoples’ affairs, because it could be dangerous.

How often do you read in the news of people who stopped next to a road to help a stranger with a broken-down vehicle only to get their own vehicle stolen and, sometimes, paying for their own kindness with their lives? How often do you hear of someone who tried to save the life of a stranger by taking to them to the emergency room in their own vehicles, because an ambulance would take too long to arrive — only for the stranger to die on the way to hospital and the remaining family memebers suing the Samarithan for everything he has and then a small bit extra.

I think the human rase shot themselves in the foot by making it too easy to sue each other and the criminal element did not help either. So the question should not be “Am I going to help?”, but rather: “Should I help?”

This is a question only you can answer, and your answer will not be the same for each situation. Trust your gut. Man has done that since time began and he is still around today. This should tell you something about the “gut feeling”.

Should you not help, just because you’re a selfish person, just remember that you may be at the mercy of a stranger’s kindness one day and what you sow you will reap. Never say never…

I Don’t Give a Fuck, but I feel Guilty about it

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There’s a guy who writes books and blogs for a living. His name is Mark Manson. I like his books, because he talks a lot of sense and unlike other self-help books where they use academic expressions and language with such a high register that even Shakespeare would have needed a dictionary to make sense … Read more