***Color Challenge?***

I suppose I’m resorting to a bit of a “fluff” post this morning, for several reasons.

For one, our Internet has been completely *out* — or at least dodgy — since very early Friday morning. And I just don’t have the bandwidth to put into a long and involved post… only to get an *“unable to resolve host”* message, or a *“not connected to the Internet”* screen.

For two, if memory serves me, today is also *Hardfork-24 day,* and experience tells me that it is wise to count on *nothing* to work exactly right during these changeovers.

So, have some pictures of sunflowers!

![0122Sunflower5.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/denmarkguy/q85tUYdl-0122-Sunflower5.jpg)

Admittedly, they *ARE* our own sunflowers in our own garden, so this is not a complete “no-effort post.”

## *Color Challenge*

Truth is, I used to create quite a few **#colorchallenge** posts back in the earlier days of Steem. And I really didn’t think of them as *”trash posts.”*

Makes me ponder whether we’ve gotten a little out of control on the whole *”what constitutes worthy content”* issue. 

Seems to me that maybe the whole *point* is simply to not overdo any one thing... and to create *your own original content.*

![0122Sunflower4.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/denmarkguy/2YQ0IidV-0122-Sunflower4.jpg)

## *When the Technology Fails*

So the Internet went out in the middle of the night/early morning on Friday.

Not *that* unusual because we live in a wooded area, and when there’s rain and high winds, branches and trees fall on the pretty antiquated network of above-ground lines. And then things typically come back up after an hour or two.

To be honest, I can’t actually remember *ever* living anywhere where *“the Internet is out”* wasn’t a regular occurrence... even though Mrs. Denmarkguy insists that she has *NEVER* experienced anything like it, any place *she* has lived.

At times it makes me ponder the whole *“we create our own reality”* thing. 

Is *"this is unreliable shit"* my reality that I have created?

![0122Sunflower2.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/denmarkguy/9mZGDitu-0122-Sunflower2.jpg)

First attempt at a fix is always *“reboot the modem and router,”* but that turned out to do no good, in this particular instance.

Next step on the road would be to call the provider... which involves a series of holds, and dealing with an automated system that relies on voice recognition and can’t actually detect what you say half the time because we live in an area with limited cell service. The rest of the time, the robo-system doesn’t actually *offer* the options you *really* need... so after a few minutes I end up hanging up, having experienced little more than *“Customer DIS-service.”*

![0122Sunflower3.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/denmarkguy/eL02MQ9F-0122-Sunflower3.jpg)

## *Sidetracking, for a Moment...* 

You know all those articles I’ve written about how jobs will *“go away”* and be replaced by AI and automation? Yup. That. Right there. Prime example. Our Internet provider has replaced locally sourced and *English speaking* service reps with an automated answering system.

Oddly enough, the *price* of our Internet service recently went *UP,* in spite of the fact they are no longer having to pay some hundreds of *humans* a salary.

The whole notion that all our services will become *cheaper* as a result of automation is basically a wishful crock of shit purveyed by theoretical economists who have never lived outside the protective bubbles of their own intellectual ideologies. 

But I digress.

![0122Sunflower1.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/denmarkguy/y4vt9Fi2-0122-Sunflower1.jpg)

## *Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch...*

In the meantime, it's still Friday morning and I find some things to do that do *NOT* involve an Internet connection (no shortage of those!), wait 30 minutes, power cycle again.

Nothing doing!

Then a call back to Wave Broadband. Going through the automated system. Eventually, I managed to press *"0"* enough times to arrive at *"Please hold for the next available service technician"* followed by *“Expected wait time till next free technician is 19 minutes.”*

Jeopardy music plays.

A generally very helpful rep — who *did*, in fact, speak English — tried various kinds of remote resets and eventually came to the conclusion that we would need a technician to come on-site to have a look at the issue, which probably *“means”* that we need a new modem. But who knows?

 ![0122Sunflower6.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/denmarkguy/H27KfZx3-0122-Sunflower6.jpg)

But here was the issue: It’s 9:15 on *Friday* morning, and the soonest they could have a technician out here was *Tuesday* between 8:00am and 12:00 noon. *“We just don’t have as many technicians willing to work and make house calls at the moment, so we’re a bit backlogged.”*

Grumble, grumble, grumble... Covid, you got us again!

Of course, there was no shortage of work to be done around here. I worked on my art, I worked on photography for future eBay listings, I worked on organizing my writing *(I actually have FIVE books "in progress!"),* I started organizing the messy closet in my office.

I unplugged all our gear — modem, router, boosters, cables, power sources — *completely* on Saturday afternoon, following a number of *failed* attempts at rebooting the equipment. I let everything go *"completely cold."*

Just for grins, I reconnected everything on Sunday night, and *guess what?* We at least had *a shitty* connection, most of the time! But I still kept the appointment and had an on-site technician run diagnostics and we *DID* have so issues, which have now been fixed.

![0122Sunflower7.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/denmarkguy/NXXxtAqi-0122-Sunflower7.jpg)

## *As for This Hardfork...?*

Not sure what’s going on with that. 

Checking the witness list on PeakD shows that a *lot* of witnesses are signaling version 24.2, but currently *nine* of the all-important top-20 are *not.* So that means... it's not yet *"official?"*

I realize the witnesses are acting on an abundance of caution, given past hardfork disasters *AND* this all-important factor that we are about to truly give the Hive chain *"its own identity."*

Decentralization is an interesting beast. 

I admire the fact that there’s a group of people who are able to keep this whole *”by consensus”* show running... while it also amuses me just how *much* the entire notion of *”decision making by committee”* is the sort of *”Liberal/Leftist/Communist”* progress-clogging organizational structure freedom loving Libertarians and Anarchists are always railing *against.*

Yeah, I *know.* There are *457 million reasons* why *”it’s NOT the same thing!”*

Well, there’s my morning shitpost! That wasn’t so terrible, was it? 

Thanks for reading, and I hope you’ve all been having a good week!

***How about YOU? How often do you not have Internet service? Does it bother you a lot when it goes out, or is it no big deal? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!***

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Created at 20201014 11:15 PDT*
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