The end of the Internet Part 2

Well, I'm finally back and more reasons why the internet should just die.  If it won't then we can just ignore it.

Recently, a friend of mine got a message, I'm not naming names or where the message was received, but one of his Internet accounts was hacked and a photo, a not so safe for work type photo was downloaded from his hacked account and he is being blackmailed.  The basis of it is, is that if he doesn't pay up, they will release the photo via personal messages to everybody in his friends list.  This could include parents, siblings, all relatives and friends.  It could ruin him.

You see, this is what the Internet has become.  A filthy wasteland of hackers, crackers and thieves.  It's not safe anymore.  It's like, just to be mean, they could hack your hulu account and cancel it, or change your lists, delete things, change passwords... just to be mean.  They think it's funny, but you know how frustrating all such things could be.  Is it even safe to use public WiFi anymore, was it ever safe?  Turn off your WiFi, and just stick with the 4G that your phone came with.  Sure, it may be slow in some parts of a city or town, but it's safer than connecting to some public hotspot and having your information hacked.  They could even "clone" your phone and hear every conversation you have, maybe even download your photos and post the worst ones on social media.

It's horrible to think that the technological world is just trashy these days.  However, we have choices.  We can either accept them or avoid them.

I want us to start a revolution.  Put down the Internet, cancel your social medias, use your phone to make actual phone calls and stop depending on "looking it up" to answer every question.  It's time to use the Internet for it's intended purpose.  News, Information and some Entertainment.

Lets be honest, none of us are going to really be able to cancel our netflix or hulu.  We watch YouTube all the time because you can learn from so many people.

However, and I must stress this.  It's Social Media that has blackened the eye of World Wide Web.  It's online shopping that has made us lazy.  It's the impatience of "overnight express" that has turned us and the younger generations into materialistic consumers of excess.  We need to stop this.  We need to stop this now.

1:  Get rid of your Social Media accounts
2:  Get rid of those adult site accouns
3:  Delete useless bookmarks
4:  Stop going to a search engine for every question
5:  If you must, research the days before the Internet and utilize some of those ideas
6:  Step outside and start seeing the real world.

These are just the beginning steps.  The rest is up to us to start following through and finding new steps to detox ourselves from the dankness of the modern cyber world.

I hope this sees you well

DarHalen

The end of the Internet: Part 1

Do you know, that today is the beginning of the end of the Internet?  It's true.  Look around you, I mean... actually look up from your mobile devices and look around you.  People are taking the digital world and it's Internet heart for granted.  Technology should be used as a tool, not a crutch.  Yet, we see too many people who barely watch where they're walking, or driving.  We can blame so many people for this phenomenon.  The inventors, the tech companies, the parents who sit their kids in the back seat of their SUV's and let the kids watch movies instead of playing road travel games or watching the beautiful scenery of the real world.  That last one is what I see way too often.   

However, lets look a little closer to home.  I mean, within ourselves.  We have allowed this to happen to ourselves.  We take too much like so many before us that want the new and improved, we play with with one-ups, the tense moments awaiting the doors to open to buy the latest version of that smart device.  The stupidity of smart phones.  I swear, my phone is smarter than me, or at least it makes me feel a little less intelligent every time I use it.  I've simplified it as best I can, but app after app to make things easier, seems to make more confusion.  Of course, that's just a phone, it's what happens at home on the main home network router that drives me bonkers.

So, the Internet goes down in the middle of streaming American Horror Story on Netflix, and I go stark raving insane.  I check the router, no internet, then check the logs... to find a long list, several days, maybe weeks, of Ddos attack:  ack scan, udp/tcp chargen, echos, ip spoofing, rst scan blah blah blah.  I have no flipping idea what any of that means, so I google the situation, find a lot of forums, questions, support sites, this, that, the other and absolutely no answers... except one.  The one that tells me that if you see it in your router logs, then your router is doing it's job and blocking those.  Oh, so my router is telling me that I have scummy people knocking on my cyber door and getting locked out.  So if it's listing the ones it blocked, does is not list the ones that get through?  Is there a hacker sitting in my digital living room, stealing my cache and taking bytes from my virtual cake?  I bet they didn't even wipe their feet.  Thanks a lot!

Perhaps, I should, like so many other people, decide to take a higher dive off the board of the status quo and splash into the ever deepening end of the new pool.  People who stop.  Stop over using the internet.  How about if I just pay my bills, use my Roku to watch my shows and stop worrying about what people think of my new post on twitter.  Maybe it's time to step back about twenty years and actually read a book again instead of a flowchart of stories from one website to another because I showed interest in the subject.  I love being ad targeted.  Just type "what did Justin Bieber do this time" and suddenly, the internet thinks I'm a fan.  AAAHHH!  More importantly, why didn't my spell check give me a red underline under "Bieber"?

I keep hearing about the dark web, or deep web is another term for it, and I think to myself "isn't it dark enough"?  But no, now you can buy hard contraband from a hidden website.  Sure, lets just get a bunch of gun swinging meth heads surfing the net for the perfect plastic surgeon to help them rob a bank of millions and live it up on the beaches of a tropical paradise with a whole new face, or body, or both.  Hell, technology can help with the most finite of medical practices, I bet it can give you a totally new body in record time.

Who needs file sharing.  If I like the song, I can watch the music video a thousand times on YouTube and I can play all sorts of music on Pandora.  I can watch adult entertainment of many sites, so I don't need file sharing for that either.  I mean, what's left?  Dark, disgusting, perversions of mind, body and soul.  But sure, those people are very useful, they prove my point about humanity getting worse.  I mean, I still can't answer my one internet question.  Did the Internet make humanity more perverted or just expose the perversion already there?  Maybe the exponentially increasing human population breeds an exponentially growing population of weirdos.  They still use P2P.  OK, but is file sharing actually still around, or is it just like a busy signal on a phone.  You don't see them anymore, but ISP's still have policies on use of them, and they are actually still around.  I mean, we know about torrents.  Those things are used by legitimate businesses to get their digital products out to the world wide web.

I remember, you know, back in the day... when we had to go to the computer store and buy a damn floppy disc with a program on it.  There was no downloading of anything.  It was complete, it didn't need to connect to a network to download additional files to complete installation.  I hate the modern computer technology.  It's taking away our souls. It's turning us into slaves to the giant corporations that produce all the junk.  But HEY, let get some real exercise, I heard there's a lot of Pokemon in the park.

OK, more to come later.  I need to bang my head into a brick wall for a while and then get some sleep. 

Scything Video

Wow. Look at me and my fancy shmancy video.

Promised photos and video

This is me scything the lawn. It's just the start, so it looks odd. You have to start somewhere to create a clear space and work from there.

I decided to concentrate on the area around my laundry line.

Scything my lawn

So, In case anybody is wondering where the hell I am, I'm actually outside.  You know, that place that's behind the living room wall, the wall with the window... just in case you were thinking of the bedroom.  I get a lot of exercise "outside" in the open air, huffing and puffing as I'm digging holes for planting rose bushes, small fig trees and setting up my raised bed garden.  But most importantly is the need to maintain a yard that people won't get lost in.

I know, a lot of people have a jungle, they don't have time, two jobs, kids, financial problems, broken down lawn mower.  Have I got a solution for you.  The SCYTHE!

I love my scythe, and I've gotten a lot of exercise, muscle (aches and pains), and chores done at the same time.  What a money saver!  No gas, no oil, no loud noise, no dirt and no tiny clippings flying all over the place getting you dirty and killing your allergies.  Bonus, a scythe doesn't gum up and jam in moist grass.  As a matter of fact, it cuts right through like a champ even better than it does with dry grass.  I am so happy with it.

Minor problem to overcome... using the peening jig to flatten the edge of the blade and make it sharp again. That is an educational experience.  I watched all the YouTube videos on the subject and read the book that came with it.  By the way, I ordered it from Lehman's.  It's a complete kit, it comes with two blades, snath (the wooden handle), peening  jig for sharpening, book on the subject and guide.  It's simply the most wonderful thing I have ever used in my yard.

I promise, I will have pictures of me using it soon, possibly a video... not sure on the video thing yet though. While backtracking away from modern technology, I don't have to have to use it to prove my point, because then, I won't be doing so.

So, I'm about to go to bed.  My next day off is April 4th, but I won't be on during the day.  Blogging is more of an evening thing, after all the work is done.

So contact me if you think I would post other things here, such as recipes and how to's, or whatever.  I think those would be great, but I would like to know what you would like to see.

Blessed Be.

DarHalen

The Hypocritical article

Ok, so why that title?  Because I'm using a Chromebook while writing this little piece about the dependency on technology.  I personally giggle at the very thought of it myself.  So let me begin.

To those who know me, you will not see me on the internet very often because I have been so successfully capable of reducing my need for it.  Though from time to time, I tweet, Instagram, and blog, I spend most of my time off line.  It's easier and gives me plenty of time to accomplish many other pursuits.

I understand that we are living in a digital age, and I understand that you get regular newspapers, phone books, letters in the mail, or any of the daily digital things we had an older fashioned way of getting them.
Does anybody actually remember sending a check in the mail with the order for when you bought from a catalog?  I still get those in the post, but I admit, it go to their website and buy from there.  Oh, the instant satisfaction of choosing express air delivery.  What the flip have we gotten ourselves into?

You do realize that when all is said and done and the world craps out, either through economic collapse, electromagnetic pulse, war, or whatever... we will have to remember those good old days when you couldn't just watch what you want, when you want or text the people sitting in the same room.  OMFG Becky!  You mean I will actually have to open my mouth, utilize my vocal chords and use spoken word? SAD.  OK, that was a Trump slam.

Seriously, why does everything have to have rechargeable batteries or even a battery at all?  So yeah, I ordered a wind up pocket watch and various non-electric things recently.  I just can't trust technology anymore.  I'm flippin' poor!  I can't afford to replace everything.  So when the tablet dies, I will go without.  I will spend my time thinking about other more productive ways to spend my hard earned money instead of touch screen game time.

Sure, I'm keeping the cell phone, and I have lots of features there, and of course the Chromebook, because I can't type on an itty bitty touchscreen keyboard all the time and I have books to finish.

So this is just the start.  I will be posting some new stuff soon.  I have to take time to remember that I can't print up a bunch of flyers and just throw them into the air.  That kiddos is called "littering".  Instead, I will post here for many more people to read then the wind can reach.

I will "attempt" to post as often as possible, hopefully on my days off, which allows my work days to gather information, thoughts and observations.

See You soon.

DarHalen

Quintessence

In dreams, we're shared with me , not so secret understandings of many things.  Throughout my life, I could never accept the limits of the mainstream organized religions. Thus I followed the path of Wicca, nature's way. Accepting what was, is and ever shall be the truest path of all things in the universe.

At first, I was confused by my dreams. They were just images. Some still, some in motion. It was not until many weeks of persistent REM sleep, each invading my mind with some sort of mental snapping of fingers, as if to tell me "pay attention", that I finally pieced the entirety of my life and understanding.

Our bodies are nothing but mere pots of soil. Our souls, our quintessence, a seed within the pot. We must care for the soil and the pot. The soul is energy, the same energy that is throughout the Earth and the universe. 

As we care for our bodies, we gain strength, we grow, learn and share our energies with others.  All things are but collectives of energy. Earth, plants, trees, all animals... and us.

Like the old pot of soil, perhaps weakened with age, we give up our physical body, which is unable to maintain the strength of our souls, and we are released. Not dead, just free from physical bonds so that we can continue to grow in the depths of never ending fields of the universal flow of energy.

Yes. I know what a soul looks like. It's a sparkling visage. The remnants of our old bodies. Twinkling along the old paths of bio-electric fields.  The brain, with all its neurons, the paths of nerves, the transparent flesh of ourselves, just a memory that our quintessence has yet to let go until it is ready.

This is obvious as you can see the roots of the plant take upon the shape of the pot when you pull it out.  Yes, the soul remembers the body as the roots remember the pot.

Our entire consciousness is there. We can still love and feel sadness, until the time we adjust to our new expanse, but love remains strong as sadness fades.  They visit us still.  Have you ever felt the strange tingling upon you? The hand of a recently passed loved one?  Have you ever noticed how a cat watches something you cannot see, or the dog that barks at nothing in the corner?  It is the quintessence of "guests" still looking over us... or perhaps passers-by just wandering about.

Thus, we must care for our bodies, to live as old as we can, to grow. Though it is not because of any wrong doing that many are released so soon, but the way of nature. Our bodies are weak and can break like a flower pot dropped upon rocks. Our polluted world is weakening all of us with GMO's, processed food, chlorinated water and choking gasses spewed by our modern world.

It is time for change. Time to give the roots more time to grow, learn and achieve what we need to expand and convert to the universal energy, to become one with all.

Blessed Be

Laundry day

Ah yes. Laundry. Clean clothes for the self respecting appearance. Seen here is my laundry sink and washboard.

Additions of washing soda, fels  naphtha soap, an antique wringer and a laundry line, my clothes come cleaner than ever. Better than a mechanical washing machine.

By washing by hand, I can concentrate on trouble areas, save water, get needed chores done and get some exercise. It's not as hard as you think. You don't need to push the laundry into the washboard hard. Your washing, not trying to shred.

So I'm saving money on electricity, water AND gym membership.😊

Will be posting video soon. Next day off. Possibly starting a YouTube channel about it.

welcome to my new paganite blog.

While I'm still keeping the Celtic Prince name for this blog, the previous entries have been deleted for this new format. Paganites are like Menonites, only instead of being Christian, we are... well... Pagans.

I have limited myself from most modern technology and have consolidated my home to live simply.

Obviously I'm not giving it all up, or you would not be reading this on the Internet.

I will be posting more later about my simplified life style and giving advice on many daily subjects.

You can also follow twitter @DarHalen.

Blessed Be.