Occupation of Independence

To anyone else, it would be comical to see the efforts I will go to, to avoid paying for any kind of subscription on the internet. But it isn't funny to me. My face is red with fury whenever I go to a new website and they try to force me into setting up an account, providing my email address, come up with one more damn password, and get lured in a certain direction. I probably went to the website because it seemed to offer something interesting, for free. But then it starts: could you please turn off your adblocker?; if you upgrade to the Silver Plan, you will get an ad-free environment; or maybe I should install their app, which will take adblocking away from me. Consider music on the internet: an old school, first generation internetter wants to buy music -- rather then paying rent on it for the rest of your life.  There is something visceral in that issue to people of a certain age. When we were young we heard our relatives talk about some poor sap who paid rent all those year

  People usually don't take their own New Year's Resolutions all that seriously. In fact, failing at them is almost expected, or even joked about. Thus I am pleased to be doing rather well at reducing the amount of time squandered on the internet. It seems doomed to failure to focus on 'Thou Shalt Not.' That just fires up your own rebellion. It must be preferable to focus on what you will be doing with all the time previously squandered on the internet. That will be different for everybody so there is no point in wallowing in my own details. Suffice it to say that I feel mentally healthier and proud of the respect shown my own mind and life, by de-emphasizing the internet. It is strange how many health fads and food phobias there are in the world. Sharing a meal with another human being has become something to be avoided, and this was true long before the virus. And yet, where is the concern for what we are doing to our minds with all those hours on social media, news s

Despite being away from a northern or eastern climate for many years, I still expect some goodies in spring. I should know better by now. This part of the Southwest is nothing but tawny, dead grass in the spring. And flowerless. So what is supposed to delight you on an outing in such an environment? I was struggling with this question on the morning ride. The route was a good one. The weather was excellent. So who wants to entertain disappointments on a day like this? But when your dog slows down with age, a mountain biker can no longer get a buzz just from the exercise. On the way back, two ravens disported with the wind along a grassy ridgeline. Ahh, that is what I was looking for. Although my dog can no longer hear well, thereby killing her obsession with ravens, I remain infatuated with 'ridge lift.' And there is something expansive and liberating when a camper finally leaves the hideous rubble and thorn pit of the lower Colorado River.  Thus the only 'flowers' pos

  For once I did my TurboTax without steam coming out my ears. They finally provided sidebars that explained things as you moved through the software. So they are getting better. Of course they took the opportunity to try to upsell their products to the sucker (me), using fear and anxiety in subtle ways.  Amazingly they wanted another $40 to do my state taxes. (My state prefers we use a free program to do our state taxes.) Most state's taxes just work from a certain line in your federal taxes, such as the adjusted gross income, and add one or two things, usually optional. Done. Simple. And TurboTax wants $40 for that! How stupid we must be to pay for tax software, when the IRS has essentially already written the software that calculates what you owe, and what you would be penalized for. Of course, somebody would have to make a simpler and more taxpayer-friendly version of the IRS software. But, really, the IRS should just do our taxes for free. Some people are in such a good busi