Midweek Memes

Digital Dystopia

The last week or so has been an insane whirlwind. I haven't been posting on substack because I could not figure out how to from a smart phone. My laptop keyboard fried out (yes the computer still works just not for writing) and I got to discover the not so wondrous world of Apps.

Everybody wants you to download their app but nothing works well in it or sometimes at all. I ordered a secondhand laptop from Lazada, which is like a Thai version of Amazon. I needed the computer to work and not be expensive. Of course they wanted me to download the app to complete my transaction, which for my convenience changed everything to Thai language. Which I cannot read.

Google’s AI had not very useful advice about going to account and settings and language preferences, which all seemed to be assuming that I was converting the language from English to English and not from strange foreign characters. I recognize the Thai for Thai and language and some other things, but unknown apps are difficult to navigate even if there is no translation difficulty. I'll circle back to that.

So Lazada had our old Maikhao address listed in their system with no easy way to change it. Actually their AI bot said the address couldn't be changed, then that the package was already delivered, then that there was no notebook. The driver made a failed delivery attempt on Monday night and my husband explained where we stay. Apparently the driver can only go where the navigator takes him to, which was not the case before. We set up a time for delivery the next morning at between 9 and 10 AM and rented a motorbike to go to our old address.

Nobody showed up and the driver's phone was turned off. After some hours Ka got the idea to try to go to the distribution center directly to check on the package. Seventeen wild goose chase trips ensued, with them ultimately telling us the driver has the package.

Substack app had no translation problems. It did have login problems, sign in problems, staying signed in problems, password problems and posting problems. Google's ownership of Captcha is problematic. Tonight I've been smart enough to delete the app and post from the Internet.

Every app has had problems. I cannot call my mother or daughters from my 2nd number, I cannot make a transfer for a cost of less than $30 from Bank of America to another US bank. I have no idea what posted and did not on substack or feedback regarding it because substack app always says it cannot load notes. I know a few messages went through due to direct replies. Most are anyone's guess.

A brave new world indeed…

I am not sure which aspect of this true news headline is more horrifying: the fact that there's a corpse aka dead man on the subway and nobody noticed, the fact that he was sexually assaulted, or the fact that he was robbed twice. To add insult here supposedly the suspect was an illegal who had been deported five times:

Are we reaping what we sow? Apparently it's illegal to not pay taxes to Israel

Is China in a mass depopulation spiral? I have been seeing this stuff on the Internet and am not sure what to make of it. Apparently flights to Thailand by Chinese Nationals are down like 15 percent year on year…so there's that

We're muddling through seizures and all. I haven't laughed as hard in ages as I did earlier: after the laptop repair shop being closed, 17 wasted trips, frantic calls to two different delivery drivers a change of address in the Lazada app and a request for English somebody on a new number called. I handed the phone to Ka who kept on screaming at them to speak Thai (the driver's have no English so don't talk to me). They kept on insisting on talking to me in English. I realized this might be my English speaking Lazada person. Instead it was a farang who wants me to watch his pets while he's out of town for a few weeks.

Such lovely timing of him. If any spooks do listen in to our conversations, if they are fluent in English and Thai, I suspect the entire exchange was quite funny. I still have no working laptop though. But at least without the app I seem to be able to post on substack.

Always look on the bright side…

It could be worse right?