I’m sharing one last tale from 2014, one of my stranger experiences.
It started when a friend and I took a bus to downtown Seattle in early December, and she showed me an app on her phone called OneBusAway. I downloaded it immediately, but on my phone screen the app didn’t show a map of buses coming our way like hers did. All I saw was the bus schedule. By the time I arrived home, I’d forgotten about the app, until the next time I rode the bus downtown.
When I boarded the bus, I clicked on OneBusAway to see if I could find the magic map. It asked permission to know my location, which I gave. A few minutes later, having no success finding the bus map, I turned to Facebook for entertainment. It didn’t fail me. About the time the bus pulled out of the Bellevue Transit Center, on my Facebook page was a local map with a dot on Medina, Washington and the notice, “Ann Oxrieder was at Bill Gates’ house. December 24 at 11:28 AM in Eastland, WA.”
Comments soon followed. “Say hi from me.” “Tell him my mom knew his mom, Mary.” “Nice!!!!” “Congratulations! Thanks to that incredible man, I have an education.” “So sad. Lizard Squad just hacked into his XBox system.”
I added my own comment to clarify: “I’m on the bus, actually, and Bill is nowhere in sight. This is crazy.” Apparently, this was too ambiguous for Facebook friends, nineteen of whom posted “likes.”
I forgot about my non-visit to Bill Gates’ house until I met two friends for lunch a few weeks later. They arrived at the restaurant together. “Well,” they said in unison, “Before we talk about anything else, we have to hear about Bill Gates’ house.”
When I said that I had commented that I was on a bus when this announcement came out, one responded, “We thought you were on a small tour bus.”
My New Years’ resolution is to delete OneBusAway from my phone. A friend who rides the bus from the University of Washington to the Eastside, jumped on the first bus he saw coming his way on the app. It was the wrong bus and it took him to the Microsoft campus. Is it possible that Bill Gates has taken control of the app and is using it to create mischief in our lives?
Still Life 
So glad that I have an ‘ancient’ phone onto which no ‘apps’ can be attached. I simply like phone calls & texts.
I got a notice from Paypal that there’s “suspicious” activity on my account. I went to Paypal with the intent of closing my account. The site tells me I can’t close my account because there’s an active unconfirmed email. I tried to remove the email, and Paypal tells me I can’t remove it because it’s my primary email, and I can’t change it. I can’t access my account because of the “suspicious” activity.” I’m wondering if the original email was simply a message from hell, the first shot over the bow for 2015. Meantime, checking my bank balance (which has no evidence of “suspicious activity”) I see that the bank has paid me a dividend of 6 cents interest for the past quarter.
I hate technology.
Amen.
Pingback: What does the internet say about you? | Still Life
I truly еnjoy reading on thiѕ site, it haas superb content .
“A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself.” byy Samuel Johnson.
są otwarte wyłożyć suma komedii matrymonialnych, wraz spośród
krępującymi, jeśliby przypuszczają iż upodobanie się na nie doniesie
im oczywistą zaletę. Stanowią szatańsko przebiegłe także jeżeli racja ostatnie mogę
ugadać – stałe. W 4 trafach na 5 wyraźnie zajęte nastawieniem przemawiaj do skupionego folwarku.