Post Race!

I'm being targeted by scammers through PayPal. Yesterday I had an email from PayPal for $369. I use PayPal once in a while but didn't remember using it lately. The email address was paypal.com so I went to paypal to check what the invoice was about. Wasn't really any information, looked like paypal was the sender and the charge was for "internal transaction". There was a warning and a phone number to call if I had questions. There was also another Larger warning and a customer service link at the bottom. Luckily I chose that one, after a 40minute wait online I got a rep and they were very familiar with this scam. If I had called the first number the person would have tried to get me to download an app that would have given them access to my device.

The thing that bothered me most is, paypal has known of this scam since the middle of last year. All the scammers do is create a paypal account and them start sending out invoices, the invoice actually is from paypal.

I got another invoice today.

Yeah, I hate the need to go in regularly to delete mass quantities of spam.

Some of it is "legit" and a lot just scams. I cringe every time I see yet another thread here asking how to write spambots.

Spam is evolutionary. They just keep on trying new things. This too, will pass....eventually.

Spam is eternal. After we're gone the giant cockroach people evolved in Portland will still have to deal with it.

It will keep them fed for a very long time...though it tends to have a high salt content.

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Spam is eternal

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Only if you don't open the tin. After that it goes off pretty quick, actually.
Attachment 186950

Fried Spam sandwich, yum!!!

It's interesting that spam is so highly favored in some parts. I haven't had any in a very long time, but I remember it as being too salty and somewhat bitter. I've seen spam rolls on the menu at some sushi places.

Three days of meetings out of the way. Some interesting stuff, really. I expect to be sniffing many a rotting fish this fall.

Not everybody looks forward to that. Some look forward to spam.

Just watched a Season 3 trailer for "Picard."

Lots of outsider critics, even those who haven't been happy at all with any of the "New Trek" with its angry women, fungal Spore Drives, and Robot Picards seem to be giving it their approval. But I wonder if some of that could be the bribes, i.e. getting early access to the entire season before the unwashed masses? Nothing like a nerd when it comes to buying them with cheap swag, eh?

In any case... it looks like they took the old "Next Gen" stories and actors then chopped, blended, formed, and preserved them as a big can of Spam.

I wonder if it set a record for biggest cane and walker budget of any TV season? I'm all for using older actors in media, but wow. Even the androids aged in this one. Yes, even that tall leprechaun guy from the "Holmes" holodeck program got older and more whiskery.

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Originally Posted by dilettante

Just watched a Season 3 trailer for "Picard.

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OMG don't even get me started. As a long time Star Trek fan, Picard was the biggest disappointment I've seen since Discovery. Discovery's primary problem is it's overzealous wokeness and while Picard is a bit woke, it suffers from a different problem. It's extremely childish. The plot is childish, it's characters are childish, the themes are childish. This abomination feels like it was written by hormonal teenagers with no real life experience. The old Star Trek had themes of honor, duty, sacrifice, responsibility and accountability. Adult themes! These new Star Trek shows is all about what everyone feels. It's like a melodramatic CW teenybopper show where everyone's always crying about how they feel. Absolute rubbish!

I'll give you an example from Picard of the kind of thing that drove me crazy. There was a point in the show where Rios wanted to stay in the past because he liked the pretty doctor woman. In the Star Trek universe, this was a big no-no. There are very strict rules concerning time travel. Now Rios was an adult with military and combat experience in the Starfleet organization. This is the kind of person you would expect to act responsibly and in the best interest of those around him even when it hurts. This is what responsible people do. This is how mature adults act. Yet in the show he was ready to risk the future of the entire human race over some tail. This rubbish would have NEVER flied on the old days of Star Trek. I wanted to smash something when I saw this. I was like "who wrote this trash?". An experienced, battle hardened, world wearied military man would NEVER behave like this. This is how children behave, they act on their feelings and consequences be damned. Star Trek Picard is filled with this kind of rubbish. I don't think I even want to see season 3 of this trash.

I only brought it up because of the Spam, silliness of the trailer, yet quite a few reviewers saying they've watched Season 3 and promise that it doesn't suffer from the problems or prior ones. Not sure a TV show can reboot and redeem itself, but who knows?

So while I didn't have much hope I'll probably at least start watching the new attempt as long as I can find it for free.

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Originally Posted by dilettante

yet quite a few reviewers saying they've watched Season 3 and promise that it doesn't suffer from the problems or prior ones.

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This assumes they even understand what the problem is in the first place, something I sincerely doubt. The biggest difference I've noticed with this new generation is that they are not serious people and it is reflected in the art they produce. This generation could NEVER capture the magic of older Star Trek shows. They lack the proper perspective necessary to even begin to comprehend it.

Lets take the idea of sacrifice for example. Older generations understood that to get the outcomes you want meant that you sometimes had to eat a lot of dirt, sometimes for years just to build the foundation for your later successes. This new generation skips all that and blames their lack of success on racism/sexism/homophobia/patriarchy etc and their solution is to throw tantrums until someone gets tired of their whining and give them the things they want. This attitude is reflected in the art they produce and it's broadly unappealing.

When you talk about old Star Trek, do you mean the original series or the original Next Generation series?

When it comes to Star Trek, there are enough generations, by now, that you have to be a bit clear as to what the definition of 'old' is.

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Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker

When you talk about old Star Trek, do you mean the original series or the original Next Generation series?

When it comes to Star Trek, there are enough generations, by now, that you have to be a bit clear as to what the definition of 'old' is.

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The amount of Star Trek based TV shows is pretty incredible. I just looked it up and they listed 11.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...evision_series

I wonder if that's a record for spin offs. The last one I watched with any regularity was Deep Space Nine. The sad part is I was around when the original came out. lol

I've probably seen most of the originals, over the decades, but only a few of the rest. That's why I asked that question of Niya, though. I don't know whether he's referring to something I kind of know about, or something I don't know anything about.

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Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker

When you talk about old Star Trek, do you mean the original series or the original Next Generation series?

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I was thinking of the Next Generation era while posting.

However if you want to be exact. All Star Trek made after Enterprise is Star Trek in name only. From Enterprise all the way back to the Original Series is real Star Trek.

I don't know enough about that series to understand anything other than the first sentence of that post. I don't even know what Enterprise is...unless we're talking about Microsoft products...and then I'd be a bit cynical.

I am aware of the original series, followed by what I thought was Next Generation (perhaps people call it something else), which is where Captain Picard first showed up. I was also aware of Deep Space Nine, though I never watched any episodes. I don't know where it fits in the timeline. And then there was Voyager (which I might even have the name wrong on), of which I saw a couple episodes at some point in time.

So, if there are 11, then I have seen episodes of three of them, am pretty sure of the names of three, and only feel pretty certain as to which was the second, and very certain as to which was the first.

Since this is Post Race, feel free to list them, but don't expect me to care.