Recycling is not that hard (9/14/2022)
We lived in an apartment complex that had two big bins for the collection of recyclable materials. Now I believe we should keep stuff out of landfills as much as possible and be careful with our precious natural resources. So I made sure our aluminum cans, paper and plastic containers were properly disposed of.
And every time I made a trip to the dumpster I was amazed, and disgusted, to see that many people just didn’t care. Recyclables were carelessly thrown in the dumpster, while the dedicated bins were sitting right next to it. And at the same time garbage bags wound up in the recycle bins.
And of course there are always some litterers who just throw their beer cans and McDonald’s containers on the ground, but I’ll write about that some other time.
Just before we moved out, the recycle bins were removed, due to the fact that hardly anyone used them.
The same thing happened in the mobile home park were we lived for a few years. Two barrels, one for aluminum cans, the other for clear plastic bottles were clearly marked and positioned right next to dumpsters.
Buying and Selling online (9/5/2022)
Craigslist, Facebook, OfferUp and other platforms are basically great tools to buy and sell stuff.
Unfortunately, they also have become places where you can easily lose some of your hard-earned money to scammers who sell faulty products or who make you pay in advanced for a service that will never be provided. Frauds witch checks and money orders have been abundant and some of the scams are quite elaborate.
Now I’m not here to warn you about scams, plenty of other people have done so already. There are some other things that bother me and one of them is that very often I have to deal with people who are just rude and inconsiderate.
A while ago I offered some items in the ‘free stuff’ section and I got replies that said something like: ‘Where can I pick it up?’ They didn’t ask if they could have it and in most cases there was no name either. Another type of response I got was: ‘Call me,’ followed by a phone number. I don’t have to call anyone, and I certainly won’t do it if you can’t say ‘please.’
Instagram is losing it (9/2/2022)
Instagram used to be a good platform for photographers to display their work.
But Instagram now focuses more on video and reels (short clips a la TikTok) and many serious photographers are moving away from it. Instagram is dead, is a phrase I have heard quite a few times lately.
A real issue is that many likes are generated by bots, and not people. In other words, they are fake.
The same problem I had with a selling platform. They try to make you think that people are interested but all they do is fool you with system generated users and messages.
A platform called Vero is gaining a lot of attention lately and it is getting positive reviews. Some people on YouTube highly recommend it and that helps to evaluate the platform.
I decided to give a try, nothing to lose because it is free. I made an account, posted four pictures and in a few hours I had more likes than I got on a hundred posts Instagram in months.
They tried to trick me (8/31/2022)
Over the years people have come up with different tricks in an attempt to cheat me out of some money.
One of them came to buy a sander that was a no longer produced and sought-after model with a great reputation. As always I tested it before posting it and I put a very reasonable price on it.
A guy came over and I plugged it in for him. He listened to it for a minute and then said that the bearings were going out. I knew instantly that he was trying to pull a fast one. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it, he just tried to get me to lower the price.
He didn’t get his way though and I was not in the mood to argue with him either. I told him that I would just put it back in the shed and keep it.
Trying to give me the impression that he was going to walk away from it he went to his car. He opened the door and almost got in when he changed his mind and told me that he would take it after all.
