The Coffee House-Come & Chat With Us! (June 2020)

[Amy SF]

I have a freebie tip for you if you live in the US, UK or Canada and you like free ebooks:

Google Simon & Schuster free ebook and sign up for their email list, and they’ll send you an email with a link to pick a free ebook. There are only a few titles, so if nothing interests you, wait a month. They actually send out those emails every month to their subscribers. You may have to install the Glose app, which is what I did. If you’re in the UK or Canada, insert the appropriate one after “Schuster” so you get the titles offered for those regions.

There are some decent titles included; it’s not all junk. One of the titles in the current offer is a memoir by Vince Lombardi, the celebrated coach of the Green Bay Packers. However, I ended up choosing the first in the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich.

 

[Urban Gardener]

 

[Chryssie]

Hey everyone! Work as a cashier today was routine. It was pretty steady as Monday is Senior Discount Day and has always been busy! People are getting annoying though with their comments on how empty the shelves are and some think we are going out of business. Come on people think a little! Everything was shut down for 6 weeks! And what stock we had got sold out fast too. It will take some time to get stocked back up. Warehouses are not operating everywhere yet and may not be at full worker capacity anymore due to the distancing guidelines.
I was pleasantly surprised when my granddaughter and her mom came up to my register! I couldn't chat much though but it was good to see them after all this time. Haley's 18th birthday is Friday.

 

[KLS52]

TJ Max is opening here in town. Woo hoo! ive been to TJ Max often as it was kind of far from my old house. But this one is five minutes away right in town.
Home Goods is opening too in the next town over home goods is my favorite but I’m happy to try out TJ Max.

 

[Val]

My bowels are moving but very slowly. I'm taking a whole bunch of different drugs for constipation (all recommended by the hospital). I'm still on a clear liquid diet.

However, I'm comfortable. going to just take it easy today.

Get well soon, Lou.

 

[Amy SF]

@Chryssie Wow, time flies! You’ve talked a lot about your grandkids over the years, so it’s hard to believe Haley is 18 already! She can register to vote!

 

[Val]

Wow! Instagram has blocked all videos related to protests. Instead of these videos, only black windows are displayed. At first i couldn't understand that they all are related to similar hashtags, and i even thought that the videos wouldn't play because i hadn't upgraded my app, like it happened a few times. The matter is that a lot of my followers and people whom i follow, recently uploaded videos with protests, and i saw a lot of black windows in my news feed,- therefore i got worried about my updates and adjustments. Other videos would play, but they were older. I was trying to find out what it was, until i tumbled upon a video which had been uploaded 9 minutes ago, and it was working (it was "harmless"). Then i noticed that all blocked videos belong to similar hashtags (something about that "Black lives matter", etc.). I opened these hashtags, and all content was blocked, except a few harmless photos. Yesterday, i saw in the news, that Trump was determined to suppress any protests. I guess, social media is the "battle field", they decided to begin with.

 

[Chryssie]

Morning/afternoon y'all! The sun is shining this morning but of course scattered showers are in the forecast. I am working as a cashier again 10-3.
I saw the black posts on Instagram but I had no idea it was censorship!

 

[Val]

Morning/afternoon y'all! The sun is shining this morning but of course scattered showers are in the forecast. I am working as a cashier again 10-3.
I saw the black posts on Instagram but I had no idea it was censorship!

Maybe i was mistaken... Now i start to think that it's what it was supposed to be like. Maybe they just posted black posts as a protest?

 

[Chryssie]

That is what I thought it was. I hope so! I hate censorship!

 

[KLS52]

Wow! Instagram has blocked all videos related to protests. Instead of these videos, only black windows are displayed. At first i couldn't understand that they all are related to similar hashtags, and i even thought that the videos wouldn't play because i hadn't upgraded my app, like it happened a few times. The matter is that a lot of my followers and people whom i follow, recently uploaded videos with protests, and i saw a lot of black windows in my news feed,- therefore i got worried about my updates and adjustments. Other videos would play, but they were older. I was trying to find out what it was, until i tumbled upon a video which had been uploaded 9 minutes ago, and it was working (it was "harmless"). Then i noticed that all blocked videos belong to similar hashtags (something about that "Black lives matter", etc.). I opened these hashtags, and all content was blocked, except a few harmless photos. Yesterday, i saw in the news, that Trump was determined to suppress any protests. I guess, social media is the "battle field", they decided to begin with.

Not sure if it’s related at all but I saw this on FB.

 

[Chryssie]

I bet that is what it is then!

 

[KLS52]

I haven’t seen any yet.

 

[Val]

Not sure if it’s related at all but I saw this on FB.
View attachment 21281

I agree: if it's called #blackouttuesday, then it should be a black out, i guess...

 

[Chryssie]

There is a protest downtown tonight but I am too much of a coward to go. I am not comfortable with large crowds even wearing masks!

 

[Val]

There is a protest downtown tonight but I am too much of a coward to go. I am not comfortable with large crowds even wearing masks!

Unghshu approves. People can not only get infected in that crowd, but accidentally (seriously) injured. People are better care of themselves and others by staying at home. (It's just my thoughts on the subject). Yesterday night, i saw a 1hour 8minute video by a russian man who permanently lives in New York. He and his buddy went to the streets where the density of protesters and police was maximal. He filmed everything and commented. That was an awful view. Protesters were constantly blowing up police vehicles, throwing stones, injuring police dudes, ambulances barely managed to get the injured, the frightened police dudes were spraying gas, fires and smoke were everywhere, chaos and screaming were all around... Sorry for my bad English, but i saw that very thorough video from the very middle of a protest spot (just one of them!), and i thought: "God save my friends from getting into that mess"! Most of the people who are blasting the cars and throwing stones, look very cheerful and it looks like they're having fun (some mad kind of fun). There happened a sad thing: the real tragedy (that black guy's death) gradually transformed into a reason to create total mayhem for those who actually don't care (i was looking from an indifferent perspective, and it looked like the major part of the protesters were under some kind of spell,- they were not afraid to injure someone, MOST of them were histerical). I would call it "mass histeria". The weirdest thing was religious leaders (a.k.a. sect leaders), who were yelling and moaning into speakers from the inside of their vehicles,- looked like witchcraft. I could tell a lot more impressions, and i think that that man (Denis) was crazy to get in the middle of a protest, but the camera filmed everything, and that's a "hell on wheels". Very, very dangerous.

 

[Urban Gardener]

Wow! Instagram has blocked all videos related to protests. Instead of these videos, only black windows are displayed. At first i couldn't understand that they all are related to similar hashtags, and i even thought that the videos wouldn't play because i hadn't upgraded my app, like it happened a few times. The matter is that a lot of my followers and people whom i follow, recently uploaded videos with protests, and i saw a lot of black windows in my news feed,- therefore i got worried about my updates and adjustments. Other videos would play, but they were older. I was trying to find out what it was, until i tumbled upon a video which had been uploaded 9 minutes ago, and it was working (it was "harmless"). Then i noticed that all blocked videos belong to similar hashtags (something about that "Black lives matter", etc.). I opened these hashtags, and all content was blocked, except a few harmless photos. Yesterday, i saw in the news, that Trump was determined to suppress any protests. I guess, social media is the "battle field", they decided to begin with.

It's probably also to avoid any legal issues. They don't want any part in: documenting things that could later lead to people being prosecuted (or just losing their jobs or housing), spreading the word about what's going on (ie supporting the more violent/controversial side of it), authorities finding out about what's going on and intervening. It's kind of a combo of keeping themselves out of trouble, staying out of the violent stuff, and protecting people who might not want to be filmed and have that posted online.

People don't realize that social media is a big source of info for the media and law enforcement. And that the content is collected and archived by third party companies. You could lose your job or face criminal charges years after something questionable was posted online somewhere. I think they're kind of supporting people's right to protest.

That is if it's also blocked in the US. It could be country-specific.

 

[Danielle]

I agree: if it's called #blackouttuesday, then it should be a black out, i guess...

The protests are too violent, the city I grew up in (Chicago) had so many buildings broken into, even Chicago Diner. A veg*n restaurant I used to go to a lot when I lived over there. They have great smoothies and cakes, sometimes I'll still get their cake slices from Whole Foods. For my birthday, sometimes I'll get a whole cake made from Chicago Diner.

 

[Raven]

I was waiting for my delivery order and it didn't arrive so I called up and the woman said I had booked it for 11pm tonight. Derr.

It's because all the slots keep getting booked up so I didn't notice the available slot was at night. My life has been based around ordering groceries during this lockdown!

It's really warm again. I rejigged my living room last night and it looks a lot better, I think. I really miss getting fresh flowers as none of the shops near me are selling them at the moment. I'm going to make sure I have a vase full of them every day when this is over.

 

[Chryssie]

It's probably also to avoid any legal issues. They don't want any part in: documenting things that could later lead to people being prosecuted (or just losing their jobs or housing), spreading the word about what's going on (ie supporting the more violent/controversial side of it), authorities finding out about what's going on and intervening. It's kind of a combo of keeping themselves out of trouble, staying out of the violent stuff, and protecting people who might not want to be filmed and have that posted online.

People don't realize that social media is a big source of info for the media and law enforcement. And that the content is collected and archived by third party companies. You could lose your job or face criminal charges years after something questionable was posted online somewhere. I think they're kind of supporting people's right to protest.

That is if it's also blocked in the US. It could be country-specific.

The black out Tuesday thing is happening. I saw several on my Facebook feed. The local protests have all been peaceful thank goodness. I was in college in the early 70's and I know about protests and did participate back then but now I am an old lady!