Peak Stupidity 2025

At 2am on Thursday morning last week, the fire alarm in the “old folks home” in Waikiki was triggered by yet another moron cooking (read: burning) food with the mausoleum door wide open. The Fire Department arrived fifteen minutes later and reset the alarm system. They didn’t even bother to check every floor. Obviously, everyone “knows the drill.” Then, the fire alarm was triggered again at 2:35am. The Fire Department was dispatched again to reset the alarm system. Peak stupidity.

Well, at least a brief conversation with neighbor Ignacio was facilitated by the latter stupidity. Of course, no attempt was made to evacuate the building. Ignacio is still being tormented by the management. He was given an eviction notice for a bogus claim, but the threat has long passed. Obviously, the charade was a petty and illegal bluff.

Nonetheless, peak stupidity continues to “lower the bar” on itself in all of empire. The original Notes post of the same title in the 2021 year predicted the advent of peak stupidity. However, who could have imagined that “circumstances” could increase sheer stupidity at such an accelerated pace?

The dinner conundrum continues unabated. Subway® sandwiches have been curtailed. Now, Panda Express® may face the same outcome. The recommended fare, as detailed previously in Notes, is now the chief suspect in the mystery of sleep deprivation. Even with the blotting of the sauces and vegetable oil with napkins, the cuisine proved problematic. The issue was isolated when several consecutive dinners of salads (courtesy the ABC Store) was followed by a Panda Express® meal. Sleep had actually improved during consumption of the salads.

Incidentally, purchasing salads and other prepared food at the ABC Store in the last two weeks produced over $100 in expenditures. The amount qualified for a free gift when the sales receipts were presented. A genuine Hawai’i tourist coffee mug was chosen. At this point in time, the current sales receipts are adding up for another coffee mug.

The vast hurdy-gurdy video library (HGVL) is now down to 300 choice selections. The intermittent auditing process has been slow, since the latter is obviously a waste of time. Heck, the HGVL serves no purpose. The project itself was a complete waste of time. Sheesh!

On a side note, the antics of the “Orange Bad Man” administration seemed confusing at first. Now, the true motives are coming to the forefront. The Great Re-shit (read: “Great Reset”) is what its policies should be labeled, albeit a more crude Fascist version. The administration appears to be “hell-bent” on bringing about the collapse of empire and its debased society. Klaus Swab (WEF) would be elated. No complaints here. Bring it on!

Addendum: Ignacio relayed sad information about two mutual acquaintances in the “old folks home.” One passed on a week ago. The other suffered from increasing dementia and was released into family care.

8 Ok 13 K’ayab

The situation with personal finances is troublesome. Dividends from the investment accounts and the meager retirement stipend exceed all expenses. Currently, “all expenses” is defined as rent for the “old folks home” in Waikiki and food. Other expenses are somewhat minuscule in comparison. So, obviously, the aggregate amount of “savings” is increasing much more than anticipated.

There are no “big ticket” purchases in the queue. All of the electronic “toys” are fairly new, and none will be replaced in the 2025 year. In all honesty, most of the clothes and other sundries will remain viable for several years, if not the remainder of this lifetime. Replacement costs are minimal. So, what to do?

Currently, the only increase in spending has been on food. Since no cooking is done in the mausoleum, food purchases only include ready-to-eat fare. That alone is costly. Nonetheless, personal restraint must be lifted. Discounts will still be a priority, but better quality and healthier food options must be pursued.

Salads (with 20% expiry discount) have been purchased from the ABC Store for dinner from Saturday to Tuesday this week. The salads are actually quite delicious. Sometimes, salads are procured at the Waikiki Market, which are also pretty good and reasonably priced. Unfortunately, salads are not very filling. Within an hour, there is a desire for more food. Thus, other prepared food products must be purchased, which add to daily expenses. Obviously, the latter is a trivial concern at this point in time.

Sleep quality continues to be poor. So, late afternoon outings to the International Marketplace has been limited to about 6pm. The primary purpose is the daily shopping at Target® for fruit and Chobani® Greek yogurt (for dessert). There’s not much to do after returning to the mausoleum. However, staying out later only increases the fatigue.

Of course, poor quality of sleep and fatigue go “hand-in-hand.” Yet, the root cause may be old age. The body is signaling that it can no longer keep up with the same regimen, particularly the gym workouts. The latter is a melancholic and sobering realization.

There have been no additions to the vast hurdy-gurdy video library (HGVL), only occasional subtractions. The HGVL is essentially deprecated. Incidentally, the LaCie® SSD has increased in price to $149 (up $40 from last year). Inflation? Yeah, that’s ridiculous.

After a long hiatus, the on-line personal health directive on the MyDirectives® site is receiving some attention. The process is tedious, mainly because the substance deals with the final exodus. Being an old codger is a real burden. Oh, the agony!

Miscellany: After serious deliberation, the most valuable technology “toy” in possession has been identified. Yes, the Panasonic® nose hair trimmer is the clear winner!

Nihilistic Updates 2025

There has been little personal desire to add new posts to Notes, obviously because of … well, same ol’ shit. The routine remains the same. For how long, though? Can this insanity continue until 80 years of age? Who knows? Who cares?

All tax returns (including the 2022 amended) for Hawai’i have been completed and submitted by regular mail. The tax form for empire was printed locally, completed, and submitted as well. Thus, another stress factor has been eliminated.

The weather remains quite mild, considering this is the middle of the Winter season. So far, the Mainstays® quartz heater has not been deployed. Heck, even the blanket has not been unpacked from the storage suitcase. The pleasant weather has been a welcome relief, what with the fragile mental state and all.

Superfluous on-line accounts (including DeepSeek) are being mummified once again. The on-line “footprint” needs to be reduced further. The only copy of the personal Curriculum Vitae has been permanently deleted from cloud storage. Employment history is gone. Why? Preparations, no doubt, for the final exodus.

On Tuesday, the sump pump gave out at the gym in town. The staff had to close the gym at 1pm because of the sewage flooding in the locker rooms. The main portion of the gym resides on the basement level, so wastewater must be pumped up to the street level to discharge into the municipal sewage lines. The second half of the workout regimen had to be completed at the Kapi’olani location. What a “pain in the ass”!

Another Night at the “Old Folks Home” in Waikiki

The scene above was captured on Wednesday evening at 9:30pm. Lots of police vehicles are visible. Old folks acting up again? Yeah, just another night at the “old folks home” in Waikiki. At least the Night Mode on the iPhone 16 Pro camera proved to be quite good, eh?

On a side note, sleep is still an issue. What could be the problem? Death anxiety, you think? At least there are a few good House Music mixes to broadcast throughout the mausoleum with the Beats® Pill to soothe the troubled mind. Baha! Ha! Ha! Haaa!

Miscellany: Notes has been passively monitoring the “shock and awe” domestic policies being deployed by the “Orange Bad Man” administration. The speed at which events are transpiring is mind boggling. Clearly, “Orange Bad Man” did not spend the last four years only teeing off at his golf course. He evidently assembled a crack team that put those policies in queue to commence on Day One.

Notes Music Break

Hypnotic Progressions — Nuelton Lake Mix

Fulcrum

Baha! Ha! Ha! Haaa!

The “Orange Bad Man” administration has been tearing through the “woke” government bureaucracy and running roughshod over the entirety of empire. On domestic issues, the administration is forging ahead in the right direction. Unfortunately, foreign policy, specifically the Levant, is going to be its undoing. No surprise, eh?

Very little of interest has been transpiring here in “Paradise.” The weather has remained mild after a brief inclement period about a week ago. A heavy rainstorm on one of those days rendered the Under Armour® rain gear useless. Water soaked right through. Hanging it up to dry only caused the rain gear to acquire a pungent moldy odor. So, it was washed in the laundry. The residual waterproofing is surely gone now.

The tax forms for Hawai’i were completed and mailed. The amended tax return for the 2022 year is still a “work in progress” because of one missing form. Hawai’i tax forms can be ordered by e-mail, by the way, so there’s no going through all the phone bullshit anymore. The tax forms for empire have yet to arrive. A PDF file has been downloaded, and may be printed locally to expedite the process.

Personal recycling of paper, cardboard, and plastic has been officially mummified. Recycling bins at the “old folks home” in Waikiki are no longer serviced, so all of the recyclables end up in the regular trash anyway. Well, so much for the environment.

The DuckDuckGo Web browser was uninstalled from the iPhone 16 Pro as a “final nail in the coffin” of the vast hurdy-gurdy video library (HGVL) stored on the LaCie® SSD. The browser was used to download files since the Safari downloader is malfunctioning. In addition, another 80+ selections have been purged from the HGVL (322 remaining).

On a sad note, the faithful Nike® gym bag finally gave out. It had to be over 20 years in personal possession. The new Adidas® gym bag, which was acquired many moons ago, has entered into service. The “footprint” is about the same, but it is about four inches taller. To say that the new gym bag is cumbersome is an understatement. There was much grief while disposing of the old gym bag. So sad.

Miscellany: The iPad Pro M4 is now in full deployment using the Visible personal hotspot on the iPhone for connectivity.

7 Ahau 3 Pax

Collapse of Empire

The first cold front of the season arrived on Wednesday of last week and continued for three days. Ambient temperature at night was about 60^o F. The first heavy rain appeared during the walk back to the “old folks home” in Waikiki on Sunday after a brief late afternoon outing to the International Marketplace (read: Target®). Winter is here!

An account was established for the new Chinese AI startup, DeepSeek (open source). The “app” was installed on the iPhone 16 Pro briefly, but uninstalled when no difference was noted between the latter and the Web site. There is one unidentified tracker associated with the site, if anyone is concerned about privacy. So, what about Apple® Intelligence? Yeah, what about it?

DeepSeek is apparently causing much grief with the technology sector of empire, so much so that a correction was forthcoming in the equities market. Coincidentally, DeepSeek servers were subject to a major DDoS attack. Oh, who could possible be responsible?

The vast hurdy-gurdy video library (HGVL) has been reduced by at least 150 choice selections (402 remaining). Another audit is in the works, although there is no valid reason why the LaCie® SSD should not just be reformatted. Then, the HGVL would be instantly deprecated. In addition, new downloads have been paused.

Observations reveal that there really aren’t that many 80-year-old members at the gym, if any. The safest assumption is that most seniors are between 65 and 75 years of age, the point being that only a handful of viable years are remaining before the inevitable rapid physical degeneration occurs. A chilling thought.

Incidentally, the MIAs at the gym still remain MIA. And, Pat and pops’ second wife have both gone MIA again. Only the worst can be assumed.

On a side note, personal social life has been completely mummified. There is absolutely no social interaction with anyone, by choice. Any interaction initiated by a friendly second party is immediately extinguished by apathy and the patented “stoneface.” Acquaintances are not exempted. Any verbal discourse is terse. In this era of extreme narcissism, all social interactions are unilateral and meaningless. Better off alone.

Addendum: Although a DeepSeek account was established, the service has not been used. The latter is still categorized as AI bullshit.

Notes Music Break

Betsy & Мария Янковская — Сигма Бой

MLK Day 2025

Very little of personal relevance is worthy of chronicling today. The routine was the same, and much effort was required to circumvent the usual holiday obstacles.

“Orange Bad Man” was inaugurated as emperor of empire. Surprisingly, he and his team “hit the ground running.” A slew of executive orders were signed, which were of some significance. Of note, he pardoned the “January 6th” protesters. And, the immigration and “woke” issues are at the forefront. Unfortunately, the time is still too early for an assessment.

“Joe Headroom,” former emperor, laid bare the extreme corruption in empire as he executed “preemptive pardons” for his family and criminals like High Priest Fauci (of the Church of Comirnaty) on his last day. Good riddance.

As far as empire is concerned, it is too far gone. Well, the entire “Western” society is a lost cause. Why? There is no society, just a collective of stupid, arrogant, inconsiderate shitheads. Even the simplest rules of society are ignored by the masses. Hence, no one “gives a shit” about anything (except themselves, supposedly). In addition, the majority of the rank-and-file peons are fat and ugly. Their faces are hideous and gargoyle-like. Their bodies are like blobs of shit. And, they are loud and obnoxious. They all need to be rounded up and “recycled.”

Personal finances have taken a turn for the worse … or better. The miserly ways are being phased out. There is little concern now about exceeding arbitrary expenditure limits. Actuarial life expectancy is about ten more years. Unfortunately, there are no more “big ticket” purchases to make. So, the increase in spending involves mostly food.

Fretting over the useless personal possessions (e.g., iPad Pro M4, Beats® Pill) is also fruitless. All that “stuff” can be given away to random strangers, and no loss of sleep will occur. The value of that “stuff” is “chump change.”

The main concern at this moment in time is when the body will commence rapid degradation. The gym workouts have staved off that process successfully. However, this cannot go on forever. The physique is essentially the same as it was over 20 years ago, just a little leaner. Quite surprising considering that all peers have already gone through rapid physical degradation. Of course, the mind is going through extreme duress at the thought of such a prospect.

Aside from the aforementioned nonsense, the follow-up medical examination at the Ohua Clinic has still not been scheduled. No dental examination was scheduled either, now past three years overdue. The digital blood pressure monitor has not been unboxed yet. The iPad Pro M4 is only used sporadically. The vast hurdy-gurdy video library (HGVL) on the LaCie® SSD is slated for deprecation in … who knows when?

Miscellany: The TikTok shutdown caused ProtonVPN to become unusable on Saturday morning. The masses of idiots were panicking over the loss of a social media platform. Little wonder why society no longer exists.

Ghost Town Redux

Well, the novelty of the iPhone 16 Pro wore off about one hour after its acquisition. With the exception of Camera Control and the dimmer yellow-tinted screen, the device is exactly the same as the iPhone 15 Pro. The new wallpaper is mesmerizing, though. Of course, all of the features, including the AI bullshit, have been disabled.

The gym membership was in limbo for nearly two weeks. For some reason, the Silver Sneakers® senior citizen subsidy was not being accepted. So, finally, a new account was established by the gym staff. A new on-line account had to be set up, too. Lots of “welcome, new member” e-mail was received subsequently.

The Subway® “app” and Web site became dysfunctional about two weeks ago. On-line orders were “hit or miss” with odd cancellations occurring most of the time. The composition of the orders was also screwed up. Successful order frequency was about once per week. So, the one-and-only credit card was removed as the payment method, and the “app” was mummified. No big loss. The sandwiches were becoming even more pathetic anyway, what with the baguette-sized bread and all. The plan is to use the remaining cash rewards and phase-out dining there. Sandwiches will be ordered in-person at the storefront during the interim.

The downtown Ross® store is now history. The signage was removed the day after closure. Oddly, there are still a lot of people loitering in town. On a positive note, there is a rumor that Target® is going to open a store in town. The only place large enough is the old Ross® location. Incidentally, the former Walmart® store is going to be converted into a huge pickleball complex. Sounds like a winner, eh?

The only good news is that the weather is still quite mild for Winter. The days and evenings are cooler, but not cold. Shorts and tank tops are still being worn when out and about.

iPhone 16 Pro

The iPhone 16 Pro is here! Well, there’s not much to be excited about. Rather than sit in the Makai Market food court for two hours this morning, the impulsive decision was made to procure the new iPhone 16 Pro and exploit the $520 trade-in for the older device.

The set-up process was much longer than expected. Visible has added a new “line lock” feature that requires 20 minutes to deactivate. No eSIM transfer can be made during that time. As usual, Visible never informs its customers about new features. Aside from that annoyance, the process was smooth.

The iPhone 16 Pro was not a compelling upgrade. The device looks the same as the iPhone 15 Pro, although it has better cameras and improved hardware. Unfortunately, the OLED screen is disappointing. The new screen is much dimmer and has a strong yellow tint. Disabling True Tone seems to reduce the yellow tint.

Why was the iPhone 15 Pro divested? Although the battery had accumulated 210 charge cycles, the usually inaccurate “battery health” was still at 97% capacity. The OLED screen was way better. The only plausible answer is that money needs to be spent. The preliminary tax calculations reveal that a total refund of $1,921 (overpaid estimated taxes) is expected. Good excuse, eh?

In any case, the iPhone 16 Pro will be in possession until January 2026 at the least. Heck, the iPhone 17 Pro upgrade may be skipped entirely. As for the iPad Pro M4, it will not be divested. Using the tax spreadsheet on the device is a definite qualitative improvement over the iPhone.