I.C.E.

Someone asked my opinion on the whole immigrant debacle going on in our country right now. I may have been reading too hard between the lines, but my impression was the person asking thought I’d be in support of it since “I have a strong sense of fairness.” Yeah, no.

The inference that I would be against people coming here illegally vs legally is a complete abandonment of the complexity surrounding the issue(s). In a perfect world maybe, but we are far from a perfect world. Our ancestors stole this land so we don’t really get to act too high and mighty over the idea of immigration.

First, human beings are not illegal, regardless of their country of origin. “Illegal Aliens” is just a dissociative attempt to create division. Ya know, those people.  This whole idea of “being illegal” based on geography needs to die a painful death. We do need some form of immigration rules but that doesn’t equate to humans being imprisoned or suffering any of the current atrocities being committed in the name of America.

Forgetting for a moment how convoluted, expensive, and laborious we’ve made legal immigration, immigrants (documented and undocumented) put far more money into our economy than they ever take out. [1]https://itep.org/undocumented-immigrants-taxes-2024/    And these numbers are often underreported. They take jobs no one else wants because they don’t pay well, including food picking. The latter also keeps our food prices lower because we are getting those prices off the backs of hard working immigrants getting paid below minimum wage.

There are simply no honest metrics you can find that lend itself to the idea of immigrants being bad for our way of life. If your only argument is they come here illegally, you’re really covering for other reasons. You can sell that narrative until the cows come home, but no one believes you.

References

References
↑1 https://itep.org/undocumented-immigrants-taxes-2024/ 

Cellular

I got asked how things were going with Verizon since I switched. It’s been a mixed bag actually.

The cellular service has been stellar. The difference is definitely noticeable, in all the areas that bothered me most with Tmo. It basically boils down to the lower LTE spectrum. Tmo and Verizon are mostly identical for their 5g offerings. However, when you drop down to LTE Tmo goes to shit, especially indoors.

There are dead spots for any carrier, but Verizon has really built out their networks to cover basically everything, at least here in SF.

The customer service is a whole other story though. For whatever reason I had significant technical difficulties getting my Android watch switched over. We spent over two hours at a Verizon store getting it set up. Even worse, because I had a temporary printout extension on my license, they had to officially put the account in the hubby’s name to get us started. It was “supposed” to be an easy switch once the weekday rolled around and I could call in and get it transferred. It could not have been more difficult. It went on for almost a month and I was seriously tempted to go back to Tmo.

I was finally assigned a level 3 tech support person and she was able to get things sorted after about a week. Even she couldn’t originally fix it. It turned out to be related to some internal upgrades that had nothing to do with me but somehow impacted my account. Once I got everything “fixed” it was pretty much smooth sailing. I’m hopeful I never need customer support ever again, because it was a painful experience.

Tmo may not be the best service but their customer support is several degrees of magnitude better than Verizon. And don’t even get me started on the absolute mess that is the Verizon app. Good lawd, what an absolute waste of time.

Everything is fixed and running smoothly now. I had one additional hiccup when I upgraded my Pixel watch. I had to go into a store but he had it sorted in less than 10 minutes.

So there ya go.

KTN

I finally got my Known Traveler Number. Shawn and I had originally applied before COVID. Everything shut down and we sort of forgot about it. Fast forward a year when things we open/closed depending on which shutdown we were dealing with to keep people alive, and we got notifications we could schedule the in-person appt. [1]Back then you couldn’t do the in person part until you had been pre-approved. Shawn promptly went and got his and I promptly forgot about mine.

Fast forward to our honeymoon to PV this year and he had it but I didn’t. He was kind enough to wait with me in the regular line.

*Procrastinate, procrastinate, procrastinate*

Here we are at the end of the year and I finally applied again. I went to an Office Depot for the in-person meeting. I thought there would be a significant questionnaire or interview. Nope. Fill out the application online bring your passport, confirm all the details in person, and apparently you’re done. I got my approval 24 hours after my meeting.

Unlike Clear, which is ridiculously expensive per year and not available everywhere, my KTN is good for 5 years and available at all US airports.

I guess I’m fancy now. 😂

References

References
↑1 Back then you couldn’t do the in person part until you had been pre-approved.

FU

Nothing vulgar, it stands for follow up in my line of work. We use a lot of abbreviations and trainees often giggle when they encounter this one, for the obvious reason.

I got several wonderful emails congratulating me on my pending retirement. Sadly, it still feels like forever away. Five years is still 5 years!

One person asked, “do you ever feel like your frustration interferes with your ability to help people?“

The easy answer is no, but that isn’t exactly true. Do I ever worry that I’ll deny someone in need of service? No. It’s just not my nature. Even if the person is absolutely terrible on the phone, if I get enough to determine a real need, I’ll send someone no matter what. Even for combative callers, if I can at least get a location I can send someone. It won’t be “lights and sirens,” but someone will respond.

Has it affected my general tolerance? Yes. While I’m never deliberately rude or mean, I do get annoyed more often with difficult or combative callers. As long as I can recognize the difference between annoyance and neglect I’m ok. It’s when I can’t recognize the difference that I’m in trouble.

In some ways I’m less fazed by critical calls, as at this point “I’ve heard it all before.” I still find myself attentive and concerned though. I strive to be good at my job not just “meeting standard” and I’m proud of that.

Another key sign is I don’t carry my anger over from one call to the next. I can have a truly terrible call and be pleasant and agreeable on the next call. We are allowed to take a very short break to collect ourselves if needed but I just don’t carry it over. I almost laugh sometimes when I go from a truly nasty call to a pleasant one. Callers have actually clocked my tone of voice a few times in those instances. 😂

So yes and no would be my answer. In some ways yes and others no. It is my nature to be helpful and neither my job nor life in general has broken that yet.

Hope springs eternal…

Five

I’m five years away from retirement. It feels weird. It was 10 years up until last November, but after two decades of trying to get my classification corrected, we succeeded thru a ballot initiative. Prior to that we were considered miscellaneous clerks instead of public safety. For real, I save lives for a living but was considered a clerk.

I should clarify, I’ll take my pension in 5 years but I won’t have the age for social security. The city has a program called Prop F that allows retirees to work for the city on a limited capacity without violating your pension rules. I can work roughly 1000 hours a year which works out to about 2 days a week. I’d love that to be honest. I’ll end up doing that for an additional 2 years until I can take social security. [1]If it still exists.

Anyway, it feels surreal. My job has been my life for so long, it’s hard to imagine not doing it. Oh, make no mistake I’m more than ready, but it doesn’t feel real yet. I don’t have an exact plan yet but there are things I want to do. I’m probably the odd man out in that I don’t have big plans to travel the world. I’m sure I’ll do some traveling, but it’s never been a driving force for me. There are still a few bucket list items to visit though.

I’ll probably end up volunteering again. I volunteered a lot when I first moved to SF and I enjoyed it. I really miss working with animals. I could see spending a lot more time with the SFSPCA here.

Depending on the state of the world, economy, etc, we might end up in a different country. Nothing is concrete yet. We’ll be in SF at least until I’m 62, but after that it’s still up for grabs. It also depends on what type of job Shawn has at the time as well.

I’m definitely looking forward to it. I never dreamed of a “retirement” growing up as poor as I did, but looking forward to it now feels like a full circle in many ways. I built a life and a career from the remains of my old self. Even then I didn’t dare dream, but here we are bouncing around that last corner into the hike stretch.

References

References
↑1 If it still exists.

Seedy

I’ve been drifting off/on social media as of late. (Not FB)  I get so tickled at some of the antics I often see of the more adult nature. I had to share today.

I went down the rabbit hole the other day on IG. While I don’t post there anymore, I still scan thru from time to time. I tend to follow a lot of bodybuilders, fitness fanatics, etc. It should come as no surprise I end up with digital slop in my “suggestions.” Anyway, I start seeing these reels where guys are showing off their goods via reflections and shadows. Y’all, I lost my mind laughing. One, who does that? Two, how is it no one realizes most of the reflections are toys? People were falling all over themselves in the comments with thirst. It was hysterical.

Ya know how at times you know you should scroll on but can’t…. 😂 I wasted over an hour before snapping out of it.

I did go on a blocking spree, but there were so many I finally moved on to other things. I did manage to block about 30 or so of the worst offenders. I know they just create multiple accounts, but it still felt good to block them. Hehehe

People are so gullible these days. When you see the same shape over and over and the bend is always the same, you have to know that it’s fake.  Many of the more clear ones, you can even see the latex color. 😂

On Tiktok, you have a random assortment of guys trying to beat the filters with the X-ray filter, but for whatever reason it seems to be flooding IG these days.

I started down voting to help get it out of my suggestions, but I still will randomly have a few pop up. I’m curious if I’m the minority in seeing this kind of slop?

Wish

I really wish all those people have been right about their rapture.

Think about it, we’d be rid of all those horrible humans that do nothing but cause pain and misery every day with their bias and hate. Imagine a world where people actually cared about others and tried to uplift each other, regardless of their sex, skin color, sexual orientation, country of origin, job etc.

Don’t get me wrong, I know it wouldn’t be perfect because human beings are flawed, but it would be a hell of a lot better than what we’re dealing with now.

No & No

After my last rant, I had a long term reader, as he claimed, state he would no longer read my content because I was now part of “the [in]tolerant left.” He then demanded that if I posted his long-winded nonsensical rant he’d consider staying.

  1. Bless your heart.
  2. No. We are not going to play linguistic gymnastics to sell a narrative that is blatantly false. Trying to say I’m intolerant of people who are intolerant is pure nonsense. It’s a pathetic attempt to justify the actions of “your side” by trying to argue everyone does the same thing.
  3. No. I don’t owe you any screen time here. This is my space. What I share (or not) is purely up to me. Had you made any cogent responses instead of regurgitating propaganda, I might have posted or shared it. Name calling, victim blaming, and racism is not something “we can agree to disagree on”, sweetie.

The liberals, as you put it, don’t always get points for doing the right thing. We can agree on that, but to infer they are the same as the so-called right is disingenuous at best. I’m curious if you have the same opinion now that it has been revealed the shooter was another radical extremist from the right? Hmmm?

Saying I’m part of the elite gays was pretty funny though. I did get a good chuckle out of that. I’m not exactly sure how or where you pulled that out of your ass, but points for humor. I won’t dignify the rest of your hateful comments with a response.

As for you leaving, bye Felisha. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

Redrum

I’m sure you’ve heard about the death of CK. [1]I won’t give any ad clicks by saying his full name here.  I got a surprising number of emails asking my opinion on his death. My opinion doesn’t really matter, but I clearly have some thoughts.

CK built a career of hatred in the name of christian (white) nationalism. He was openly and proudly racist, homophobic, xenophobic, and misogynist. He said black people were subhuman and steal everything they get from whites. He proclaimed gays were worthy of death and actively supported allowing men to openly attack trans women. He laughed at the idea of immigrants being eaten by alligators.

To say he was not a good human being is putting it mildly. He was a human devoid of any humanity.

It’s ironic his very last words were shrugging off mass shootings as gang violence. [2]More code switching for race baiting  He had previously proudly proclaimed, after yet another school shooting where innocent children died, that “some deaths were necessary to support our 2nd amendment rights.” One could say he died for that belief.

And yet, I’m expected to have empathy? The same empathy he denounced as not real and weak. No, I won’t mourn for a man who profited off spreading hatred. I won’t waste a 2nd thought on a “christian” that shrugged off the murder of children.

It’s a shame I don’t believe in Hell. If I did, I might find some comfort in knowing he would at least pay for all the harm he caused in life. No, he’s just dead and we’re left with the aftermath.

*

Let me be clear, calling out the cruelty of his life is not the same as celebrating his death. Murder is not ok. I don’t support murder. If they find his killer, he should face the judiciary process. But don’t ask me to mourn the loss of such a person. You are entitled to feel however you wish. Your feelings over my lack of empathy is just that…yours.

If you haven’t seen the video, it was brutal. He died just the way he lived, horribly.

References

References
↑1 I won’t give any ad clicks by saying his full name here.
↑2 More code switching for race baiting