Slave Labor Day 2023

Summer is officially over. Three months have passed. And, what exactly was accomplished? Absolutely nothing. Just more of the remainder of the “good years” being squandered. The “good years” could end abruptly at any time. Then, all that’s left is the exclusive horror of the degenerative “twilight years” (until death).

There have been a small number of evening outings to the International Marketplace this past week, usually spanning less than an hour. The mall still closes at 8pm, although pedestrian traffic continues steadily for several more hours. The point is to just escape the mausoleum at the “old folks home” in Waikiki. It’s a damned “old folks home,” a kind of purgatory preceding death. Digression.

The investment accounts continue to produce dividends that exceed total monthly expenditures (including rent) for the mausoleum. Actual increases in spending have been incremental. No desire exists to accumulate useless junk, miserly ways or not. Thus, a lot of “gnashing of teeth” has ensued.

Even the new Visible+ account has become a “pain in the ass.” Nearly all of the data-intensive activities have been offloaded to free wireless networks. Hence, daily cellular data usage is less than one gigabyte in order to remain within the boundaries of prioritized data. Of course, anyone can see the foolhardiness of the latter.

A new Reebok® gym bag was purchased at Ross for $13 (with senior citizen discount). It now joins the other new gym bag (purchased a few months ago) in the queue while the old gym bag continues to “soldier on.” Yeah, strange but true.

Garbage Truck

Addressing the current issue of sleep deprivation has become a priority. The culprit? Garbage trucks. Three private firms as well as the municipal entity service the Waikiki area. The problem is that the routes commence as early as 4am every damned day. In addition, the drivers seem to have a sadistic tendency to keep reversing the trucks and activating the OSHA beeping alarms. The fucktards often keep the trucks in reverse mode for over a minute at a time. The beeping can be heard across several city blocks, with the high rise residential towers amplifying the noise.

So, on Sunday, an evening outing to Ala Moana Center was in order. Dinner was courtesy Panda Express® and, sadly, the food tasted bad. No comparison to the King Street location. The “inner miser” precluded dining at Lahaina Chicken. What a mistake!

Beats® Studio Buds +

The reason for the outing was the purchase of new Beats® Studio Buds + for $130 (on sale) at Target®. Yeah, that’s right, even though the AirPods Pro 2 are sitting unused in the mausoleum. The Studio Buds + will be deployed to (hopefully) address the aforementioned noise problem while sleeping. Foam earplugs are more cost effective, but that option had been entertained several times previously with mixed results.

If the standalone noise cancellation is ineffective, the Studio Buds + can then be paired via Bluetooth® with the iPhone. The built-in background sound generator can further mask the noise.

The AirPods Pro 2 has better noise cancellation, but it is an expensive piece of audio gear. So, it has been relegated to music listening only. Of course, the Studio Buds + were auditioned with music and … whoa! … the sound was great! Probably even better than the AirPods Pro 2 with personal Spatial Audio. Say it ain’t so!

More dental products were purchased at Longs® to exhaust the balance on the Healthy Benefits+® card for the Summer quarter. There were a lot of assholes and dumbshits running amuck, by the way. Continued exposure to such fools may result in some kind of immunity and reduce the apprehension of going out in public.

Well, a small, expensive can of Guinness® stout was procured at the ABC Store on the way back to the “old folks home.” Why? To celebrate to the acquisition of another useless possession, of course!

Slave Labor Day is holiday for the rank-and-file peons. For the average senior citizen, a no-holiday holiday. The routine was the same as always. However, breakfast was relocated to the other fast food joint in town due to business holiday scheduling. Two greasy hamburgers were in order. Sadly, the high caloric meal did not agree with the stomach.

By late afternoon, a heat wave was evident. After exiting the gym, an early return was made to Waikiki. With nothing else to do, a trip on the bus was made to Ala Moana Center. A pint of Ben & Jerry’s® Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream and a banana were purchased for dinner. Dinner was consumed at one of the bus stops in the mall.

Arrival back in Waikiki was at 6:30pm. A stopover was made at the International Marketplace to loiter and exploit the free wireless network. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes were out in force. Later, a delicious Cobb salad was purchased for dessert at the Waikiki Market. Another day in the life of an old codger.

Addendum: The Beats® Studio Buds + are definitely recommended for anyone on a budget and desires true wireless earbuds with noise cancellation. The earbuds actually have the spatial audio feature, but it is activated automatically for specific content.

Miscellany: Apple® has quietly backed off from the deployment of its on-device AI “kiddie porn” scanner. Now, there’s backlash from certain “advocacy” groups (i.e., Heat Initiative) in the form of a smear campaign to resurrect the detestable scanner.