“YOU TOO, CAN GET HACKED; THE NET’S NOT SAFE—IN EUGENE, OREGON, COMCAST INTERNET”

(Volunteer artist work locally)

It was a new year, and I went to my local,volunteer artist, who’s a retired 80- yr-old artist, does free artwork for my free blog on here.She draws online,on a big well-known site called “2draw.net”. But when I asked her if she had any new,free volunteer art to post on my blog.She got out a hanky and started to cry.

“My art portfolio on 2draw.net got hacked,” she said.”These idiot hackers on a movie site, were some kind of hacker-arab-terrorists, I had no idea, and suddenly all my art work is hacked!!I had to inform the head of “2draw.net” that his site was hacked,and the security lock was broken.they stole most of my artwork, and I had to delete the whole account on “2draw.net”.”

“where did this happen?” I asked her.”I was on some  chat room  on a movie– discussion fan site called,”Veehd.com”. I didn’t know they had professional hackers,a “Pompoy” and “running man” who broke into private websites, stole money and anything they could get their hands on, credit cards, etc. and this website,”Veehd.com” is also a rendezvous point for Internet terrorists, and members of “pirate Bay.com”.CRAP! If I had known that I never would’ve gone on there!.” “Was this only an American website?” I asked. “That was the problem,” she replied.”it was a big international site, which I found out, is a terrible idea to go on.”.

I was very surprised; “why is that such a horrible idea, to go on her international website?” I asked. “Would’nt  you meet lots of nice interesting people that way from all over the world?” “Yeah,” she said bitterly. “That’s the problem you meet people who are TOO INTERESTING, people who are professional hackers, and you don’t even know it! You don’t know who any of these people are! They’re complete strangers!”..

..”– – especially, don’t ever discuss POLITICS!” She continued, “you could be talking to an Arab terrorist, and he doesn’t like your antiterrorist viewpoint, suddenly, your financial account is HACKED INTO! BINGO! Very very FAST!”

“I already ran into that, one time,” I replied. “That’s why I don’t go on any chat rooms anymore, everybody from all over the globe is in it. So we had this French guy, chatting, and suddenly we find out, he’s a very discontented Muslim, in France, in Paris; and one of the other guys on the chat, is an American who hates radical Muslims, and the two get into a big fight!”

I thought about it. “But the worst one was, several of us were on another international chat room, and we found out the other person online was in communist Russia, I suddenly went ballistic, with another guy, and started yelling at him, “dirty commie!”   And we both got kicked off the chat room permanently. Ha ha!I regret that I lost my temper, but that’s what happens online; you hate Arab terrorists, or communists, and suddenly you’re confronted with them IN PERSON, live, talking to them, and they hate you and you hate them! Courtesy of the Internet. The world is no longer a big place between the two of you. That was the only thing that was keeping you guys from killing each other off or yelling at each other. And now, the Internet gets rid of all OCEANS and CONTINENTS between you!”.

INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD:BLAH!!.

“come to think of it,” I said, trying to think, “isn’t that the problem lately? The world is too close together now? For example, North Korea is banning us from showing the movie “the interview”, because it makes fun of their North Korean leader. And suddenly, we are so close to North Korea,  they clobber us on the INTERNET! They can clobber their movie COMPANY ONLINE! And they do! Supposedly.” (Unless it’s all just a big publicity stunt, but who wants to find out the hard way?).

“yes,” I further started to remember; “here in Eugene, in Lane County, the school system and the teachers take in children of illegal aliens, and spend the taxpayers money educating them, while their parents still work here illegally. Really great! Liberals, what can you do with them?vote them out?”.”not possible here in Oregon, in Eugene,” snickered my friend.” It is illegal to vote out liberals here; there’s plenty of laws against it.”

.”Did they do away with tarring and feathering and riding people out on a rail, out-of-town, here?” I asked again. “I think they did, but only because there’s no police actually here. If you have a crime, everybody just puts up with it.” Answered my friend.”well, that would explain the local government all right.” I said sadly. – – Noticing my pocketbook was completely empty again..

“my friend,” I said to my friend, sagely.” I have the cure for you; don’t go on any websites and make friends with anyone or socialize with anyone  online,anymore. You don’t know WHO you’re talking to, they could be a murderer like they had on match.com, who went around murdering women and dating them at the same time!””you’re right of course,” groaned my friend, returning my sage advice – sagely. “All those websites that socialize, all those people are usually CRAZY, ANGRY, full of HATRED, not able to get along with people in regular life, so they take it out on people online.I have noticed that!” “Then why do you try to make friends on those crazy websites full of demented people?” I asked, mysteriously.

my friend answered me,“because Eugene has huge snobby CLIQUES, who hate out-siders, or anybody different, than they are.

“they’re the biggest bunch of BIGOTS, without even having black people around!” “…”oh no, you can’t say that they’re bigoted against gay people here?” I said, and she answered:

“no, they’re extreme bigots against REPUBLICANS, CONSERVATIVES, anybody MIDDLE-CLASS, anybody who’s not a hippie, or nonorganic, or carbon footprint aware, or anything like that. In other words, anybody from Texas or Wisconsin would  be vaporized by screaming. Or, anybody who’s the least bit NOT LIBERAL.or,does not like to fight over politics constantly; they don’t want those people either.or, anybody who has a JOB and doesn’t work for the government.”

she added: “I forgot, they don’t like HETEROSEXUALS much either.”“that doesn’t leave much,” I answered gloomily. “Now you know why I tried to make friends online on those dumb websites,” she answered just as gloomily.” On the other hand, and you ever tried to exist on a website with all lesbians? And you’re not a lesbian?””you can’t really blame them,” I answered,” they have to put up with you as a completely different species.”

“Yeah, people just aren’t TOLERANT of each other anymore! Isn’t modern life wonderful?”I said wittily. “Now that we have the Internet, people can attack and crucify and hate each other online also! I just love technology!” I took out some champagne and toasted it.”glug glug – better living through electricity!”

My friend did solve her problem, of not being able to make friends on line, and not being able to make friends in EUGENE, that weren’t super snobs and phonies. She found out that CATS and DOGS were too dumb to be bigots, and they followed anyone around, who had BACON in their purse!!

(Sandraminadotty, in Eugene, Oregon, the Alaska-Black-Out of the Pacific Northwest, addicted to thousands of IUs of Vitamin-D, with a side of Fish Oil. )

“Maybe it’s because yer a OLD PERSON, you don’t got friends? After all, Old People aren’t really “Official-People” any more. They have to be locked up in “Old Peoples’ Homes,”taken away from the rest of society for fear of polluting it with OLD-FASHIONED IDEAS!!

” LIKE, morals, saving-money, “living within your means,” getting married to HAVE KIDS, NOT sucking your living off welfare & the govt., “BEING TOLERANT, and allowing other people to have their own opinions, too”,and not using technology as a complete basis of your LIFE; being respectful to your elders, and not stealing all their Medicare into OBAMA-CARE!!OH, yes, and Taking Your Fed. Govt. Back, by Hook or by Crook!!-and NOT PAYING IT ANYMORE TAXES, TO DO IT!!—NOR paying anymore huge local fucking taxes we have no money for!!–Plus, kicking out Local Govt. Crooks, so we can get some Business & Industry back into Lane County!!”

“Call it OLD-FASHIONED, WE LIKE IT!!!”—OLD PEOPLES’ LOCAL UNION..

” BED-BUGS LOVE THE EUGENE LIBRARY!! FLESH-EATING VIRUS INVADES MORSE FREEDOM SQUARE! EUGENE EMBRACES THE DISEASES OF THE WORLD!!HAPPY NEW YEAR!!”

(floating Asian icon symbolizing disgusting, icky disease)

.I had just come back from the Eugene public library downtown, where I had checked out a few books and read a couple of magazines. I had been distracted by the large amount of homeless people everywhere, and the increasing amount of FLEAS, everywhere you had to touch. Even on the computers! When I got home, I realized that I had lots of red itchy bumps, everywhere on my hands, and I decided to go crash a drop in clinic. This was unusual!

“those aren’t all fleas you have,” said the doctor, on duty; “you have bedbugs, and it looks like you might be getting ringworm on your fingers. Where have you been anyway?” I was flabbergasted! “I went to the Eugene Public Library,” I said, horrified; “and I didn’t even sit down on any of the chairs! How could I have gotten ringworm? That’s what little kids get!” “Not anymore,” sighed the doctor, trying to take a specimen, “the Eugene Public Library has so many homeless people sleeping there, and sitting there, we’re having to do investigative laboratory tests, to make sure that the library doesn’t get any of the FLESH-EATING VIRUS, that has been found in tests of Morse freedom Square downtown.”

He looked at me; “you’re only about the 25th patient I’ve had,coming from the Eugene Public Library, besides people coming from Morse freedom square, who have very bad bed bugs, fleas, and even the beginnings of ringworm. And yes, lots of them didn’t even sit down on the furniture either. We figure that there are many contaminating very easily caught diseases, all over the book-racks, all the computers, and even in the reference books.(???) Why these bugs would be doing such heavy reference work, I don’t know.

“But they’re getting ready to call out the hazmat-departments, of the federal government, because of the increasing amts. of FLESH-EATING-VIRUS getting positive testing on downtown-squares, Morse Freedom Square, – and – (I’m not supposed to talk about this, so don’t spread it around –) some of the art galleries have been testing positive for this stuff somehow. (???)that, we can’t really figure out.they have been trying to keep it quiet,because the art galleries don’t want to scare people away.”.

I was so horrified, I practically lifted off the ground! “Dr.,” I growled, unhappily, “how on earth could we be getting FLESH-EATING VIRUSES OR DISEASES like that, here? I don’t get it! Stuff like that is under closed hospital wards, at San Francisco General Hospital, in California or far-off places in Michigan! How in hell’s name could it get HERE?!”.

the doctor continued; “all I can tell you, is that the government of Lane County, and the city of Eugene leadership and officials, KNOW about all this. And they’re trying to keep it from the public, to keep panic and chaos under control. In fact, they’re suppressing knowledge of CHOLERA symptoms, and testing of the disease, hereabouts that we never would’ve thought possible!” I had visions of North Africa, and primitive countries in my mind. Surely this was a winter flu fever dream!?

.but my suspicions were further justified, when I got a phone call suddenly, at home. It was from Carolyn; she was in the peace health hospital ISOLATION WARD, while they were trying to diagnose something she’d caught. And she still didn’t know how she caught it!

When I consulted a health professional, he told me, “There’s a huge amount of imported disease because we have so many homeless in Lane County,coming from other states, & other states have legal and ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, ALL  bring in foreign and other-wise not too common diseases, which have become VERY common,& rampant.” “So we’ve become a diseased Banana Republic?” I asked.

 “The worlds’ diseases have increased because of the world climate change, (or  “global warming”) but the United States’ financial dive from a nation of middle-class to a surfeit of  unemployed  and homeless living in unhealthy circumstances, has multiplied the diseases. AND, EUGENE & LANE COUNTY takes in a huge amt. of homeless, poor, & even illegal aliens witth untreated diseases which thru public areas, will spread to the general population.”

(to be conntinued)

“are you trying to tell me, we will start getting epidemics? Even here in Eugene?”I said, startled. “They could easily START in Eugene Oregon, just like I tell you;” he responded. ” ALL HOMELESS EVERYWHERE! For example, I advise all you people who were not homeless to stop using the Eugene downtown public library. You are only going to catch all the diseases from everyone who goes there who is homeless.and I also advise people who are not sick, and who have kids, to stop going to the places that the homeless usually gather or live in or go to..”

“what do you advise to all those parents who have not IMMUNIZED their kids with shots of various diseases-preventions?” I answered back because I knew some of them and I knew there were a lot of people in Eugene who never got their kids immunized. They were  a perfect set up for an epidemic, starting with kids!” Sir, wouldn’t something like that go through all the kids? You’re starting to frighten me.”

“well I hope we can frighten all the parents of all those kids, we never got immunized, got shots, for serious diseases! Yes, they could be the very first victims and it’s very likely that they’ll die, before they spread it to us!” He replied again, getting serious. As far as me asking for information, to publish, about this subject, I was getting very apprehensive and anxious. Okay, so we’re trying to help all the homeless from other states and other parts of our state. What the heck are we supposed to do anyway? Not go to the library anymore because it’s off-limits?

as I got ready to leave, having gotten all the upsetting news I could stand, and information, he looked at my fingers again; “this is very rare nowadays, to have ringworm on your hands, but your cat Probably has it too.” “MY CAT?!” I rasped. “you mean my CAT is sick also?” I looked startled. “How the hell could mine cat, get it?” “No, you got it yourself, from going to the library and using the same reference books all the time. You gave your CAT RINGWORM!” I clearly wanted to get another opinion from another health Authority, I thought this one was really squirrely; ringworm on books? I don’t think so! It comes off of PEOPLE.

I had just about enough of this that I could take, and I was so worried about Carolyn, I would be calling her up, all the time asking how it was going in if she really did have a flesh eating virus. The thought was horrible. And here it was Christmas time! Well, on the outside all over Eugene, Oregon EVERYBODY was getting sick and being sick, bronchitis, the flu, sinus,and even PNEUMONIA. I knew a lot of people who were sick besides me and Carolyn. And people in other states I knew!

was the United States becoming as toxic as Mexico and South America, with very bad diseases running rampant? Was the Congress or Senate ever going to discuss it, unless their own kids started to die? Was the government ever going to function well enough to help all the people were getting sick? And were sick?I decided to count on my fingers all the places that I went, where there were homeless people there, and start to AVOID THEM.art galleries? How did the people catch stuff there?impossible! Well, the libraries were out. What other public buildings could I not go to without catching nice monstrous diseases?

one thing I was going to do right away; go home, and look at all my chair seats, Davenport, beds, bedding, sheets, pillows, everything that I snuggled down on and it could already have bed bugs. OUCH! And call up poor Carolyn in seclusion! I had remembered that old song from childhood, “go to sleep, and don’t let the bedbugs bite!” Good advice in Eugene Oregon..

(SCARY CHRISTMAS TO YOU! AND MAY YOUR NEW YEAR NOT BE DISEASED!

from Sandraminadotty, in Eugene Oregon, COUGH COUGH COUGH! Had the flu, having the sinus infection, and trying to ward off bronchitis! Have fun! Maybe the best gift you could give yourself is your health.  🙂 )…….

“HOW TO MAKE NEW FRIENDS IN EUGENE, OREGON–AND HAVE A SPIFFY-HOLIDAYS, TOO!!”

(modern menorah for Hanukkah, Oregon artist)

if you want to make new friends in Eugene Oregon, and Lane County, probably the holiday season is not a good time. If you are a senior, and you go to the big Christmas Day senior dinner, which is usually held at the local big hotel, if you go by yourself, you’re definitely not going to meet anybody except for that one day. Everyone goes to that with their husband or wife, or their social group, whatever it is, and if you go alone you might very well end up alone. Maybe someone will talk to you, and be friendly, have a nice Christmas dinner, but don’t expect to make any new friends out of it.

If you go to the very large synagogue in the Valley, it’s all cut up into segregated types of people, who don’t like to mix very much. For example, the Jews from San Diego, or other parts of California, who are pretty well off and all go everywhere in couples, don’t like to socialize with the Jews who are single, and much less fortunate. Sitting at a table with all women, who are seniors, and don’t have any family, can be depressing.all the couples who are seniors, like to sit in their own groups, with their own type of people.– – usually middle-class retired or upper-middle-class.I suppose because it’s such a large synagogue, it gets very segregated among social and financial groups.

So if it’s the holiday season, just about the only thing you can do, unless you already HAVE FRIENDS, is to go through the holidays with some of your family. If you don’t have any, that’s tough. And if you don’t ALREADY have friends, from most of your lifetime, making new ones is extremely hard here.people are very cliquey.people who are older are not ready to take on new friends, they rely on their old ones. If you have moved, as a senior, and are trying to make new friends again, good luck. You better have some kind of PARTNER to do it with. Doing it alone is much harder. People who try to meet others, by themselves always look lonely, and the instinct of social groups, is to be very suspicious of single people. Even churches and synagogues like family groups or couples a lot better.

Eugene Oregon has never been a very warmhearted and very friendly town. If you wanted to make friends, usually you had to join their church, and keep going to church. Or, join a lodge.The alternatives are to take on a “conformist – social – activist – subject – persona”, bone up on all the clichés, and all the stereo typical characteristics of that group, and then go and pretend that you’ve been doing this a long time,and that you are THAT CONFORMIST-GROUPPIE completely! 

one of the most conformist, stereotyped, group-think bunches in Eugene and Lane County, is being “organic, GREEN, vegetarian, against gluten, carbon footprint aware, environmentally conscious, small farmer, organic small farmer, and anti-GMO-produce or farming.”this is fairly simple, but you have to memorize all the rules, words, meanings, attitudes, and conformist saying and codewords.  

Don’t admit that you like carbonated, sugarless soda pop. Only admit that you drink plenty of green tea, and you’re up on all the latest very organic foods and stuff like soy. AND, this is very important, you have to make sure that you’re carrying around a lot of self righteous rage, against agribusiness, and anything that isn’t ORGANIC.it’s especially important to be passionate about this even if you’re fraudulently passionate.

If you can’t stomach this type of very conformist, often irrational attitude, and platitudes, you can always decide to be very  REALLY religious and go to a religious group or church. Those might be a lot easier to put up with; you don’t have to believe in Kale, you only have to believe in some type of God.of course, if you can’t stand studying the Bible regularly, and trying to quote out of it, and trying to figure out just WHAT you’re supposed to believe in, or not believe in, it can be confusing. Maybe for some people, believing in kale could be a lot easier.– – if you can stomach it all the time. Along with severe vegetarianism.

All right, maybe being a religious zealot is easier on the stomach.and the good thing about belonging to a church is, you probably get to do GOOD DEEDS. In fact, you’re probably going to be required to do some good deeds, because God would like it that way. If you’re like most people, doing good deeds does not come easily, some type of religious belief can make it a lot easier. For example, if you’re extremely rich, doing good deeds for ordinary people, like donating money, can be extremely hard. 

That’s because for very rich people, their religion IS MONEY.and if you don’t fight hard to hang onto it, and to make it, you’re not going to have it. It can be the whole basis for a person’s life, a really particularly sanctimonious religious belief, that you deserve so much more wealth than others, because you are completely justified. Justifying your wealth can be pretty sticky. So to justify that wealth, you have to SPEND IT.That can bring you a LOT of “friends”, although the downside is, of course you’re not sure whether they are friends of yours, or friends of your MONEY. And be careful if you ever want to marry one of these friends. It’s called “prenuptial agreement.”

if you still don’t want to go to all this trouble, to try and be particularly conformist, and being very rich could be difficult for you, you can settle for being extremely fond of beer and pizza, and even into “boutique and other fashionable beer and ale.” Since Oregonians tend to group largely into this,it’s at least better tasting than the vegetarianism. (And fattening.) You can really pick up a lot of nice lifelong friends, over a sixpack or two of Bud, Coors, or some hoitty-toitty Oregon craft beer that’s fashionable.just watch what you say, when you’ve had too many; don’t reveal yourself as a nonconformist, it could be especially bad here. Especially in this county of Lane, city of Eugene. 

If you work for the University of Oregon, of course you’re probably fairly liberal; you already know the right things to say, and even the right CLOTHES and hair-style. You probably know the attitudes and politics you need to know.Even the hobbies they have! Thus, socializing is fairly easy, even if you’re new. Ditto if you are a student; this is a very liberal university, if you’re very conservative maybe some college  OUTSIDE Oregon would be better.Ditto for workers or teachers; letting people know you are conservative could easily get the roaming internet Arab-Jihadist-Political group on you. They like to attack any online website comments-page of the good old RG from any of you who protest Terrorism or ISIS.

Gardening groups are popular, if you want to GROW SOMETHING in Oregon.Making new friends is not guaranteed, nor is being able to grow anything. Oregon weather freezes, hails, snows, rains,over-casts gloom, and rotts. A greenhouse & grow-lights, tools, soil, fertilizers, seeds, plants will run you much money.I forgot WORK; LOTS of WORK. And if you find making friends with the Earth is too much labor, consider something less strenuous. Beer-friending and bars, saloons,  and craft-beer-fairs is  still an Oregon favorite.

If you want to make gay friends, it’s probably easier if YOU are gay too.Running after gay friends might be fun,but gay people might get rather frustrated with you, after a while if you just ACT GAY,but refuse to DO anything gay.You can get accused of being “too much in the closet,” “in denial,” or of being a straight who is SLUMMING. Even without the “slums”, “SLUMMING” is a middle-class, or wealthier person’s idea of “having fun among the peons, where you don’t have to restrain your behavior. Or care what you do.”

If, after all these social groups, and volunteering, you still find it’s difficult to make friends here, consider this option; think seriously of moving AWAY  from Eugene, into Springfield or out of Lane county completely, off to one of the little towns further out.Junction City, Corvallis, there’s a whole list of them. They are probably not so “fashionable, very liberal, or fanactical. ” and you might not have to be so “liberal conformist” as you would in Eugene. As for “cliques, ” I can’t guarantee it; but liberal Eugene is notoriously cliquey, it can’t be much worse than Eugene.

You will be relieved cause making complex beaded jewelry, beading a CAMEL by hand, or buying $5,000. worth of jewelry-supplies won’t be necessary, and forgetting about breaking into the latest Jewelry-making group in Eugene,won’t require fanatical TINY beads and thin needles you can’t thread, and tissue-paper thread you can’t SEE. You’ll be relieved of the task of working with tiny beads the size of invisible shrimp-eggs, when other members of the group know how to TEACH jewelry already; and it’ll take you 20 yrs. to catch up to them.Twenty years you don’t HAVE.

At the end of this article, I advise you to make new friends by being who you REALLY ARE. Even if you’re in Eugene, that might at least at least keep fanactical hippies, greenies, & very fashionable “organic” people away  from you, and ease your  angst at having to put up with them. Beer-snobs are still better, at least they’re just BEER-DRINKERS in fashionable diguise. The same goes for church or religious organizations; how many of their members do you think REALLY BELIEVE everything about God that they say they do?Even the Minister!  But doing good deeds for others absolves them of any lack of faith. Believing in your fellow-man can be much more important. 

(Sandraminadotty, who is a “Friend of Life”, at least some of the time, and not “Organic” any time, and switched over to making “cranberry-orange relish” at Xmas time. That’s the only season they sell fresh cranberries!  🙂    )   :