Woke up pre-dawn at a truck stop near St. Louis: Eddie’s Travel Center. Thought I’d finish up some film editing I was too tired for last night when I pulled in and found myself hurrying to get it done so I could get some early mileage in. Kept looking out the window where the dawn was gathering, itching to hit the road before the sun did. I was about to fire up the rig, let her warm while I futzed with some GoPro road images from yesterday, when I realized that, given the lifestyle I’m involved in, being in any sort of hurry at all is at best un-insightful, at worst flat ridiculous. Sort of like looking at your watch and thinking, ‘Shit, I wish it was a little later in the day.’
The other thing being that among the projects I’ve swamped myself with is a film about… what? Right. Truck stops. So how dumb is it to be at a truck stop impatient to hit the road to find… a truck stop. (Among the other projects are a film about my Germany trip, i.e., the film festival plus my high speed reunion with my Pavones cohort; another film about why I left Montauk, which is getting pretty ambitious in my head, plus finish Part Two of Water Time, which is another full-blown documentary on why the world is the way it is. Lotsa stuff.)
Eddie’s Travel Center, last night.
So I ended up taking Gus for a walk, snapping some pics, figuring to hit the road south (and west) after my second cup and some cereal (I generally try to get two road hours in early then stop for breakfast). Then I noticed that Eddie provides free wifi for travelers so why not read some emails, maybe send you all another postcard (my not-a-film/not-a-photo images are now officially ‘Postcards from the Road’)…
Hey, why leave at all today? Maybe I will, maybe I won’t. Maybe this post I’ve just now decided to do will turn into a book that I’ll finish right here at Eddie’s Travel Center, near St. Louis… finish it sometime next year…
Always Open. That’s the name of my truck stop film, right? Should be my attitude as well.
Shot from Eddie’s. Notice the ‘geo-engineering’ (chemtrails) above the truck. No matter where I go, there they are.
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Not to harp on this business of subscribers, but some of you have misinterpreted my ‘threat’ to unsubscribe folks who don’t ‘watch my film.’ Two incoming emails opined words to the effect that the 21 people who unsubscribed instantly upon receiving my ‘threat’ were doing so because they objected to my ‘looking into’ what they’ve doing online. One person even used the term ‘creepy’ to describe this sort of invasion of privacy.
If you’re even close to thinking along these lines, the phrase ‘we gotta talk’ comes to mind.
Ohio rest stop, yesterday.
It’s tough to get people to read essays, especially lengthy ones with political ramifications, but those of you who care about your Net privacy, in fact, your basic rights as a human being, should peruse (or carefully read) an essay I had published in Veterans Today a bit over a year ago, just after the Edward Snowden affair exploded in the media. (Some of you have read it and responded very favorably; for that, the reading and the response, I thank you.)
Assuming you’re too busy or cranky to read the essay, I’ll sum it up by asking a few questions:
You do know that every electronic communication – cell phone content (not just meta-data), plus anything you do on the net, including email and google searches, every keystroke – is being seized and archived by the NSA for future reference? (Key strokes are archived as they occur so encryption does you no good – whatever you’ve done is recorded before encryption.)
At Fundy I met a guy who works for DARPA (the Defense Department’s dirty tricks ‘Q’ Branch), who told me that he personally is working on an algorithm (yes, Big Al) that will identify a person via his ‘style’ of hitting the keys. So they’ll know who you are regardless of the use of an ‘anonymous’ computer. He said it works really well. Like 95% reliability. (I taped our interview.)
He also told me that Big Al is in the early stages of being able to I.D. you by the way you hold your cell phone. You know how the smart ones (like the Samsung I introduced to Rich Grove’s sledgehammer last time) sense movement, go from vertical to horizontal at the twist of a wrist? That offshoot of Big Al will blow the whistle on who’s making a call or just holding the device (to take a picture, say). So next time someone says, ‘Try this’ or ‘Look at this photo’ and hands you a device, be advised you will be algorithmically ‘related’ to that person for all time.
You heard it here first, folks.
Not only is your every electronic move seized and archived, but where you were and what time it was. Your cell phone, whether ‘smart’ or not, is the perfect track-and-bug device; turning it off does no good; you have to take out the battery to prevent yourself from being continually tracked and bugged. If you’re thinking ‘Why would they bug-and-track me?’ the answer is this: They do it because they can. And because it increases their sense of power. And in the event that you ever rise to any real power yourself, it increases their actual power. As in blackmail.
That this is a clear violation of the 4th Amendment to the Constitution means nothing to these people: They are doing exactly what I say. They are wiretapping virtually everything you do. Now. If you don’t believe me, you have some research to do.
If your car is a newer model (around 2010 or later), it too is a bug-and-track device and you cannot turn it off without disabling the vehicle. If you should especially displease them, they can override your brakes and steering – the Michael Hastings assassination was undoubtedly an example of that (google it).
You may think it absurd and unbelievable that every conversation you have in your (late model) car (plus via your cell phone) is being bugged and archived, but this is the case.
I’ve said this before but will repeat it here: Just with my cheapo email list-sending arrangement I have the ability to find out all kinds of stuff about you, including where you live and some of your interests and habits. But I have no intention of doing so; you have my word on that. Which is why I never had the intention of unsubscribing anyone who did not watch my film; in fact I never made that threat. The farthest I am willing to go in cyber-snooping is culling people who did not open two emails in succession. That’s what I said and that’s all I ever intended to do. That would get done without even knowing your email address, let alone anything about you.
Okay, courtesy of Eddie’s Travel Center I just checked my email. Mailchimp.com sent me their latest update on how my blog is doing. Today I got three new subscribers and two unsubscribes.
First day since starting this blog that I got more than I lost. Whoppee!
Allan