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 payment method and the “app” was mummified. No big loss. The sandwiches were becoming even more pathetic, 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.

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. 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% or so. 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 $1,770 (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.

Notes Music Break

Hypnotic Progressions — Lago Buenos Aires Mix

The Levant 2025

An interesting comment appeared under the article titled, “The Syria Carve-Up Creates a de facto Israel-Turkey Border Ensuring a Broader ME War," by Mike Whitney. The article appeared on the Unz Review site on January 6th. The commenter used the pseudonym, Armageddon, and stated:

Israel has walked into a trap designed by Iran and the Axis of Resistance. A trap that would have been obvious to any sane and rational entity. The genocidal entity is high on their own supply and cannot understand that they are marching toward their own doom the deeper they entrench themselves in Syria.

I don’t know if this gambit was ever part of Soleimani’s grand strategy, but it might as well have been, especially after Russia refused to take Idlib and compromised with Turkey. It was certainly clear to him and other Resistance leaders that Assad was not going to ever become a full member of the Axis, nor was he ever going to allow Iran to attack Israel from Syrian territory.

Most Western observers are unable to see or understand this, but Syria was a lost cause the moment Hafez Assad passed away and Bashar was selected to replace him. He never wanted the job, nor did he have any proper political education or military background. He was easily manipulated by Western forces and never heeded Iranian advice, such as when he agreed to withdraw Syrian forces from Lebanon, giving Israel and the anti-Hezbollah forces in Lebanon a gift early on.

Iran always knew Assad was a weak link, but gave him many chances and opportunities to turn against the West and join the Resistance. He refused many times to allow the IRGC to train and equip Alawite and Christian militias that would be totally loyal to the Resistance, as was done in Iraq with the PMU. He never listened when Soleimani and other Iranian leaders told him that he needed to learn from the mistakes of past leaders like Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was distant from his own subjects and allowed his government to become fully autocratic and beholden to Zionist machinations.

The irony in all this is that Iran was always his greatest ally and yet he sought to keep Iran at a distance, preferring to listen to Russia and the Persian Gulf regimes. Even at the very end, with the barbarians literally at the gates, Iran still offered to help save the Syrian Arab Republic from total destruction, but in a rare moment of lucidity he told them that there was no point, as his own military had abandoned him. He realized all too late that his perfidy against Iran with Saudi Arabia and the GCC had been a catastrophic mistake, that in his betrayal of Iran, he himself had been betrayed and sold out by the Arabs.

Iran always has contingencies and where possible, it prefers to allow its enemies to destroy themselves rather than involve itself directly in direct conflict. People are easily fooled by what turn out of be pyrrhic victories, which is the only kind of victory the United States and Israel are capable of achieving. These two terrorist entities are so blinded by their genocidal bloodlust and hegemonic delusions of grandeur that they walked right into a quagmire exactly as Iran had expected them to.

And amazingly, rather than realize their mistake, they are digging themselves in even further. They are really that stupid. Iran needs them to think they are winning, which is precisely why Hezbollah agreed to the ceasefire, to give Israel the opportunity to step into the quagmire, and why Iran has delayed responding to Israel. We are only just beginning to witness the grand strategy of the Axis of Resistance unfolding, but the godless Zionists are completely blind to what is obvious to any keen observer.

Israel is destroying itself and it is inevitable that American imperialism and terrorism in West Asia will come to an end. They have always been their own worst enemies.

Notes analysis is in full agreement with the summary. A keen observer would also note the deafening silence about the Syrian debacle form the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Russian Federation, and certainly not because of a humiliating defeat. And, not a “peep” from Hezbollah either.

In addition, Bashar al-Assad had intended to remain in Syria to the bitter end. However, Russian officials had requested to evacuate al-Assad and his family for their safety. Sadly, the only people who will end up suffering are the citizens of former Syria.

7 Kab’an 0 Muwan

A bit of time has been invested in changing the e-mail sign-in for a few of the personal on-line accounts. First, a personal Duck e-mail address (DuckDuckGo e-mail protection) was established. Then, the new e-mail address replaced the iCloud equivalent (the one that was implicated in the NPD breach and forwards e-mail to the Proton Mail account). Of course, the primary purpose was to deprecate the iCloud e-mail address for sign-ins. Unfortunately, the sign-ins for some of the more important on-line accounts have not been changed yet (but are currently protected with one-time authenticator codes).

A preliminary accounting of 2024 dividends from the taxable investment account along with the retirement stipend were used to determine the tax liability for the year in question. Long story short, there will be major tax refunds coming because of the foolishly overpaid estimated taxes.

The dividends from all investment accounts and the retirement stipend covered all expenses for the year. The aggregate amount in the latter accounts increased slightly. In other words, the entire year was financed for “free.” That will all change when ZIRP is fully implemented by the central bank of empire sometime this year.

So far, ProtonVPV has proven to be reliable when using the associated “app.” The only drawback is that VPN servers cannot be selected by users of the free account. Thus, undesired connections to Japan, Netherlands, Romania, and Poland are routine. Obviously, some Web sites will then display in the language of the server location. The only mitigation is to revert to the Wireguard “app” wherein specific VPN server configurations can be installed.

The novelty of the vast hurdy-gurdy video library (HGVL) has worn off. An audit of the latter (on the LaCie® SSD) was conducted and many of the selections were deleted. Searching for new choice videos has become tiresome since they serve absolutely no purpose. And, the availability of choice videos has dropped down to near zero.

The daily late afternoon outings to the International Marketplace have been brief. There’s no reason to loiter in the mall unless there is a need to use the free wireless network (e.g., downloading choice hurdy-gurdy videos). So, the daily shopping at Target® is the only agenda. In addition, the “mob mentality” of this latest generation of assholic tourists is intolerable.

The Watch Series 9 continues to monitor heart rate data only. There have been no SVT cardiac events since last reported a while back. HRV is the only criterion that is scrutinized, although the data seems to make no sense (i.e., no correlation to anything except any huge spike occurs after midnight). The device also erroneously reports the base sleeping heart rate as resting heart rate (with sleep monitoring disabled). Resting heart rate is about 10pm higher.

The local weather has been exceptional, quite moderate for Winter. Ambient temperatures are cooler, but not cold. No heavy rain or even mild precipitation. Trade winds have been mild as well. Days are sunny or partly cloudy. Much gratitude can be expressed for the good weather. It offsets all of the other bullshit.

Addendum: Notifications from Google® and Proton Mail were received recently about personal data appearing on the “Dark Web” from the Virgin Impulse data breach. How is that possible? Identity theft, you think?

Miscellany: Subsequent to the first OTA firmware update, the Beats® Pill seems to sound better. The midrange is not as muffled (especially with bass-heavy House Music). The internal equalization must have been tweaked, although the latter supposition cannot be verified.

Wing It Wednesday - 5

Wing It Wednesday (WIW)! Sporadic news and commentary of no particular interest to anyone ... WIW! The same ol’ shit is the primary focus of this edition.

Same ol’ shit? Yeah, new year, same ol’ shit. The routine for the day remained the same with the exception of morning coffee time at Ala Moana Center (essentially the Sunday morning routine). The mall was packed with idiotic shoppers, all lining up in queue before the any of the establishments opened. Can these fools get enough of shopping?

The Watch Series 9 logged an alert sometime this morning. Slight apprehension ensued. Was it a cardiac event notification? Alas, the message stated, “Happy New Year!” The device is a prized possession. And, thankfully, it has no AI bullshit. 

A couple of chance encounters with Ignacio occurred earlier in the week at the “old folks home” in Waikiki. He rarely leaves his mausoleum anymore. He gifted a new Macys® sports coat, one that he purchased a few months ago and has never worn, even though he was told that there is no personal need for such a coat. Heck, there isn’t even one pair of slacks in personal possession.

Divesting personal possessions appears to a fixation with senior citizens, most likely because they know they have little time left. With that said, the iPad Pro M4 may be traded for an Apple® gift card. The trade-in value is $555 or less. Yeah, that’s a big loss. The device is now deployed almost daily, but only for brief sessions. Nothing to justify its existence.

In the days of old, “stuff” was sold on eBay® and Craigslist. However, that process is beyond the patience of an old codger. Too much bullshit.

The Ross® store is closing for good next Friday. As of yesterday, the entire store was nearly empty. Very few merchandise remains. That’s it for downtown Honolulu. It’s officially dead.

The ProtonVPN “app” is now confirmed to be the best method of deployment. The VPN works quite well. And, it has remedied the strange DNS issue on free wireless networks (as described previously in Notes). The VPN will now be diligently used with any critical on-line accounts. Consider the latter as another step to insure data security subsequent to the dreadful NPD breach (which exposed personal data on the “Dark Web”).

The situation in the collective “West” continues to rapidly deteriorate. The best evidence is the sheer number of peon assholes who fester in the disintegrating social fabric. In the meantime, the governments (sic) of the “West” have been given a “blank check” by the aforementioned assholes to run roughshod and destroy global security. There is no “happy” new year. The “garden variety” Fascists are winning. Go ahead and celebrate, if you will. Celebrate your demise. Otherwise, the best advice is to just wing it!

Miscellany: There’s actually no reason to deploy a VPN at all, especially on a full-time basis. The shortlist of the approved Web sites is … well, short. Nothing controversial. And, the only on-line account that is accessed regularly is Proton Mail. The Daily Stormer is the only site that requires a VPN to access on free wireless networks.

VPN 2024

Back in August of this year, the IKEv2 profile of ProtonVPN abruptly and mysteriously became non-functional on the iPhone 15 Pro. So, it was mummified. The use of the ProtonVPN “app” was not a consideration at the time.

Recently, all available free wireless networks have been behaving strangely. Many Web sites, not just Sputnik News and RT, were loading slowly or not at all. Opening the sites in a new browser tab did or did not alleviate the problem. The issue is likely originating at the DNS service of the hosting ISPs. Why?

Whether the problem is nefarious or not, the only mitigation is the use of a VPN. The free version of ProtonVPN is the best option for casual users. So, the ProtonVPN profile (configuration) was generated for the trial installation of OpenVPN and Wireguard “apps.” The ProtonVPN “app” was also downloaded and installed on the iPhone. Long story short, the best case scenario is the ProtonVPN “app.” Thus, the other two “apps” were mummified.

While researching information about the various types of VPN protocols (i.e., OpenVPN, Wireguard, Stealth), the discovery was made that ProtonVPN ended support for the IKEv2 protocol. So, that explains why the VPN stopped functioning.

Most of the advanced features in the ProtonVPN “app” are disabled for the free account. However, for casual users, the latter features are overkill. People who are using P2P, downloading torrents, or bypassing border restrictions on streaming media are the best customers for the paid plans. Since none of those activities are of personal interest, the free account is the best option.

Obviously, sheer boredom has “reared its ugly head.” What else could explain the latest fixation with VPNs? Of course, the “inner miser” is always still lurking. That’s why the use of free wireless networks is a big priority. Never mind that only a fraction of the monthly prioritized cellular data is exploited (deprioritized cellular data is always unlimited). Sheesh!

Saturnalia 2024

Io Saturnalia!

Yesterday was fairly uneventful. The weather was quite nice. The gym closed at 2pm, so an extremely early dinner was procured at Panda Express® on King Street. Thank Molech, the business hours were not shortened.

Upon return to the mausoleum at the “old folks home” in Waikiki, another chance encounter with Ignacio occurred on the street fronting the “old folks home.” He was on his way to an afternoon service at an unnamed church. He briefly mentioned his latest travails with the new management. Of course, the response from the management was extreme obstinance.

Later, a brief outing to the International Marketplace was in order. A few more choice hurdy-gurdy videos were downloaded using the fast wireless network. Then, a pint of Häagen-Dazs® ice cream was procured at Target®. A lot of ice cream has been consumed as of late. Later, all the technology toys were deployed. A brief one-man House Party added to the ambiance. Well, so much for the Eve of Saturnalia festivities.

Io Saturnalia! Praise Molech! The annual Saturnalia trek to Kahala Mall commenced at 8:45am this morning. Upon arrival at Kahala Mall, a pair of shorts and the Apple® silicone case (for iPhone 15 Pro) were donated at the Goodwill kiosk, an annual ritual. Breakfast (oatmeal and coffee) was courtesy the fast food joint. The cost for the exact same breakfast was over $1 less than the fast food joint in town.

Loitering in the mall itself is always part of the agenda. The mall is exactly the same as last year with no changes in shops. The peace and quiet was thoroughly enjoyable. Not having to encounter dickheads and asswipes in a public environment is a cherished blessing.

Lunch, a couple of greasy hamburgers, was procured at the fast food joint. By then, myriad dickheads and asswipes were festering in the establishment. So much so, that the meal was transported back to the mall and consumed in silence. Subsequently, a feeling of indigestion brought on “buyer’s remorse.”

Arrival back in Waikiki was around 1:30pm. Immediately, dickheads and asswipes made themselves conspicuously manifest, just like swarm of detestable roaches. The “garden variety” Fascists can’t exterminate them quick enough. Sheesh!

The rest of the afternoon in the mausoleum was consumed by houseboy chores. Specifically, the linoleum floor was thoroughly cleaned (wet and dry) with the Swiffer® tool. Other major cleaning tasks were deferred until the mood is accommodating.

A shower was undertaken in the mausoleum, the only shower in the latter for a year. Then, the annual shower stall cleaning ensued. Incidentally, since cooking in the mausoleum kitchen is non-existent, none of appliances need to be cleaned. Oh, the retirement life!

A salad was procured for dinner from the ABC Store. So far, these “big ticket” products have been fortunately purchased at a discount (freshness expiry). No afternoon outing to International Marketplace occurred since Target was closed. There were no choice hurdy-gurdy videos to download either. So, another Saturnalia holiday has come and gone.

Ol’ Lavahead Show 2024

Don’t miss the reruns!

Welcome back to the Ol’ Lavahead Show! Alas, there’s nothing new to discuss. In other words, the year is ending on the same note … same ol’ shit, that is. Maybe the time has come to “cancel” the Ol’ Lavahead Show, eh?

The central bank of empire quietly reduced short-term interest rates again. ZIRP is estimated to be here by Summer of next year. With that said, there is some level of “buyer’s remorse” insofar as the acquisition of the iPad Pro M4 and the Beats® Pill. Well, the AirPods Pro 2 as well. A lot of oatmeal breakfasts could have been purchased with that money instead. The devices are being used sporadically just to justify their existence. Heck, this Notes post is being composed on the iPad (for the first time). And, sadly, with the very limited approved Web sites and “apps,” the iPhone could be used exclusively. None of the other devices are needed.

The situation at the “old folks home” in Waikiki remains grim. The parking lot has emptied out, what with all of the disgruntled residents moving out. Ignacio has only been seen once in over a month. He has been experiencing more health issues. Thus, he hasn’t stepped out of his mausoleum much. Part of the problem is that Ignacio has taken the “old folks home” too seriously. He is overly concerned, and that’s affecting his health. He should know by now that the more he complains to the so-called “management,” the more obstinate they become.

Otherwise, the routine remains the same. Same ol’ shit. The late afternoon outings to the International Marketplace have been brief. The days of loitering there for an hour or so are long gone. The only purpose for the outings is to procure food products at Target®. So, much more time is being spent in the mausoleum. After the Winter Solstice, the sun will be setting later. The outings will commence later and the duration may increase. Ho-hum.

Mundtadar al-Zaidi Day 2024

A Memorable Moment in Time

On this day in the 2008 year, the heroic journalist, Mundtadar al-Zaidi, threw his shoes at Bush Jr. (aka “Shrub”) to protest the illegal invasion of Iraq. Praise Molech!

The local weather has been quite mild for Winter. The ambient temperature is a little cooler than a month ago. Last year, there were multiple cold fronts and a lot of rain. So, there’s something to be grateful for.

The fast food joint in town is not closing down after all. However, the prices have gone up yet again. A typical meager breakfast with coffee runs about $10 or so. The survey coupon is used to purchase two Egg McMuffins for the price of one. No discounts for the oatmeal however.

Quite a few of the senior citizen tenants are moving out of the “old folks home” in Waikiki. The dissatisfaction with the new management is ubiquitous. Well, as with everything else in empire, “(all) things fall apart.” Society is gradually crumbling into a collective of duffers. What more can be said?

On a side note, the iPad Pro M4 is being deployed on a casual basis using the personal hotspot on the iPhone 15 Pro. The big screen is much easier on the eyes. The hideous wallpaper was replaced with the one that comes with the MacBook Pro models.

The iOS/iPadOS 18.2 update has screwed up the Safari browser download utility. Large files (e.g., hurdy-gurdy videos) fail to download. So, the DuckDuckGo browser was installed to handle downloading. What happened? Well, so many resources have been reallocated to Apple® Intelligence, and subsequently “things fall apart.”

The massive hurdy-gurdy video library (HGVL) was actually a foolish adventure. There are now about 460 selections, even after the latest purge of 70 videos. What purpose does the HGVL serve? It is all stored on the LaCie® SSD and never reviewed. Well, the HGVL has more value than AI, which isn’t saying much. Baha! Ha! Ha! Haaa!