Category: Rev. Joe Dirt’s Ramblings

The unsolicited, unreasoned, uninformed, unapologetic opinions of Rev. Joe Dirt

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YouTube Curation

YouTube uses an algorithm to feed the user videos that they might like.  Of course the goal is to keep you on YouTube as long as possible to feed you the most advertisements possible.  I started to call this algorithm, curation, but the definition of curated is: “carefully chosen and thoughtfully organized or presented.“  While this may be what YouTube is doing on one level, it is more than a little nefarious on another.

As long time readers will know (ad nauseam) that I am studying Spanish.  As part of this journey I subscribe to various YouTube channels for learning Spanish and others in Spanish for their entertainment value.  So now the YouTube curation algorithm feeds me videos in English and Spanish.

A while back, for reasons unclear to me – perhaps it figured out that I am old and male, it fed me a video from an urologist.  The video captured my attention as the presenter was a very attractive young female who turned out to be a M.D. in the field.  Being a man of a certain age, urological topics have a bit of an interest for me.  Then you add in the mujer linda, and I just had to click. Bad move on my part. Now YouTube is feeding me tons of videos dealing with urological topics.  However, what really floored me was that it was also feeding me urological videos from urologists in Spanish speaking countries… in Spanish.

Everyone is concerned with Big Brother being the government, for my money, Big Brother is  here and he is the personification of these huge technology companies coming after your wallet and your mind.

And yes I know it is possible to erase your YouTube history and start fresh.  Or for that matter simply turn off their algorithm. But then how would I find videos of a pretty young urologist preaching to me about urological measures I should be following?

And so it goes in La Casa de Viejos.

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The Most Accurate STL Anthem Ever?

Song just about says it all, no need for comments from yours truly.

I came across it in an article in the alternative newspaper, Riverfront Times: ‘How Does St. Louis Do It’ Is the Most Accurate STL Anthem Ever

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #6,573

yeah I know you did not ask!

You should so be blessed – well cursed at times actually – with a mind such as mine, making all these weird connections between my rumored neurons. Just be thankful that I do not share all of my random thoughts.

 

El cascarrabias

I wish I could draw.  If I could I would create a cartoon and label it: The Typical American.

It would feature a grossly obese person of whatever sex, one whose gender was  indeterminante might even be more to the point. Our typical American would be sporting shorts, regardless of the season, that were much too big, a screen printed t-shirt pushing a political opinion, religion, vacation destination or sports team, the ubiquitous sneakers or flip-flops, and a baseball cap, more than likely worn backwards. They would be in a mega warehouse store, like Sam’s or Costco, pushing the oversized shopping cart mandatory at these venues.  The cart would be filled to overflowing with soft drinks and junk food. And, of course, teetering on top of all, there would be a brobdingnagian bail containing a two year supply of toilet paper.

Yup, I was recently in one of these stores. Yup, guess what I saw.

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It’s Not That Hard Folks | Golden Rule

I came across this cartoon this morning.

Which reminded me of a story I had read about Rabbi Hillel…

The Talmud is the second most important book of the Jewish faith. As described at the website Sefaria.org:

“The Talmud is the textual record of generations of rabbinic debate about law, philosophy, and biblical interpretation, compiled between the 3rd and 8th centuries and structured as commentary on the Mishnah with stories interwoven. The Talmud exists in two versions: the more commonly studied Babylonian Talmud was compiled in present-day Iraq, while the Jerusalem Talmud was compiled in Israel.”

There is a story attributed to two second century rabbinic scholars of this book , Hillel and Shammai. As recounted at the website Forward:

“[They were]…contemporaries paired together by Jewish tradition as archetypical opposites: Hillel the tolerant and liberal ‘loose constructionist’ of the Law, Shammai the exacting and inflexible ‘strict constructionist.’

In one story about them, a gentile comes to both and asks, with the obvious intention of provoking them, to be taught the whole Torah while standing on one leg. Shammai is indeed provoked and gives the man an angry whack with a measuring rod. Hillel replies, ‘That which is hateful to you, do not unto another: This is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary — [and now] go study.’“

How hard can this be people? Apparently too damn hard.


To see the Golden Rule as expressed by many other religions follow this link: The Universality of the Golden Rule in the World Religions

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #323

yeah I know you did not ask!

You should so be blessed – well cursed at times actually – with a mind such as mine, making all these weird connections between my rumored neurons. Just be thankful that I do not share all my random thoughts.

Indubitably, you are aware of the old saw, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”  Contemplating the recent drama in my abode, Matrimonial Log – Star Date 5784.304, I decided that we have had this prosaism  wrong all these long centuries.  I am thinking a more accurate platitude might have been, “An onion a day keeps the doctor away.”

Bear with me, here is my reasoning.  If you were to eat an onion everyday, then the likelihood of the majority of folks being close to you diminishes rapidly.  You would thus keep the opportunity for them to transmit any number of human illnesses to you at a very low percentage.  Thusly preserving yourself in a healthy state.  Ergo, the doctor would be a stranger. Without a doubt, a proof my logic professor would be proud of.

Just to be on the safe side, if you were to throw a couple cloves of garlic into the mix, then vampires would be out of the picture, while also eliminating those final few hardy souls not put off by your force field of onion infused belches.

Just saying.

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The Global Impact of Curmudgeon-Alley

The Global Impact of Curmudgeon-Alley

Okay, please be so kind as to pick yourself off the floor from laughing so uproariously at the title of this posting: The Global Impact of Curmudgeon-Alley.  It is not seemly to make such a display of yourself.

What Does It Signify

The above is a global hit map of the various places a page of my blog has been opened.  I did not add this little app to my website until I had been blogging for a few years, so many hits from my “early period” are lacking.  I did find what it says Continue reading “The Global Impact of Curmudgeon-Alley”

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #3,425

yeah I know you did not ask!

You should be blessed – well cursed at times actually – with a mind such as mine, making all these weird connections between neurons. Just be thankful that I do not share all of them.

Okay, this was not my random thought, but it could well have been.

One of my brothers, a fellow curmudgeon, passed this onto me.  He was at Wally World purchasing light bulbs utilizing the latest technology.  He had the random realization that, as he put it,  “the fire of these new light bulbs would, in all probability, be burning long after my fire has extinguished.”

It is interesting that my parents had five male progeny, four of us whom morphed into curmudgeons a loooonng time ago.  Oh well, as I am fond of saying some of my best friends are curmudgeons.

As I write this I had my own random thought.  Is there an Al-Anon group for partners of curmudgeons? Just saying…

And so it goes.

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #9,916


yeah I know you did not ask!

You should be blessed – well cursed at times actually – with a mind such as mine, making all these weird connections between neurons. Just be thankful that I do not share all of them.

I was cleaning up the phone log on my cellular telephone today.  I noticed that from all appearances my best friend – the one who the calls me the most – must be a person with the uncommon first name of Scam and the unlikely last name of Likely.

They must be reasonable thick skinned as they keep calling back even with me not being a very good friend/buddy.  If I just don’t ignore their call, I decline it immediately.

And so it goes.

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3 key principles for great conversation | A Short Video

Emily Chamlee-Wright discusses the principles of great conversations: humility, critical thinking, and sympathetic listening.

Three great rules for great conversations, and not easy to follow.

    1.  Humility: Get some techies or geeks together talking shop/their field of geekdom, and sit back and watch one-ups-manship on steroids.  Most of us want to show others how smart we are.  I know I do.  Dropping that and listening with humility opens up the doors of discovery.
    2. Critical thinking:  While it is sometimes important to point out the illogical or simply wrong comments of another person, all too often it is a conversation stopper and an argument starter.  As I age I found myself less inclined to do so. In all likelihood I am not changing their opinion anyway. If they are wrong on a factual matter, why embarrass them.  However, it does make me think of the young lady in Ecuador with whom I have visited via Skype for years for Spanish conversational practice. At times I think she is playing Devil’s Advocate to keep the conversation going.  Other times I think it is just her personality. If I say the sky is blue.  She will say it depends on the time of day, weather conditions, etc.  No silly I mean right now.  She reminds of a certain Springdale resident in this regard.
    3. Sympathetic listening:  This is the key. Do this and the others follow.  It is something I strive for, but my own need to interject all too often gets in the way.

Practice, practice, practice… poco, poco llegamos a la meta.

Enough of my silly two cents, the video follows:

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #1,858


yeah I know you did not ask!

Perhaps I am being paranoid, but perhaps I am not. I swear the maldito ChatBot was being condescending and sarcastic with me.   If I could have reached through the computer screen and slapped its non-existent face covered with bits and bytes, I would have done so.  AI, my derriere, more like Asinine Insolence.

Of course, I may have injured its fancied feelings when I made some not so subtle allusions to its parentage… something about being the illegitimate spawn of a Commodore 64 and Donovan’s “Mellow Yellow”.  Or perhaps saying its chips came from a third world factory utilizing child labor was a little over the top for its non-binary, woke being.

Which reminds me of when I worked in the labs at the Oklahoma Department of Health (ODH).  This was way before PCs ever came on the scene.  We would enter our results from various tests into a mainframe computer program that would then calculate the necessary statistics for us.  Well known among us lab techs was an Easter egg in this particular piece of software which is what we all used to sign out of the program.  If you typed in F#*@ You, it would ask if you just said F#*@ You.  If you responded with “yes”, it would display a middle finger constructed from keyboard characters and sign you out.

Somehow the new MD director of the ODH discovered this fun little game and made IT change it.  Obvious he/she had the same sense of humor as my contemptuous ChatBot.

And so it goes.