Curdled Milk at Brothers Campfire

Hello, Benjamin from Brothers Campfire here!

I woke up an hour before my alarm and went back to sleep. I feel all sorts of new muscles after playing volleyball yesterday. It was a blast, and I need every chance possible to recouperate!

I was getting paid to work through my lunch break and now no longer will be, so I will make the best use possible of this “lunch hour” to be productive for my personal endeavors.

Last night, I was famished due to the day’s elevated physical activity and poured a bowl of cereal. There was a little bit of curdled, old milk in the bottom of a gallon jug and I informed everyone that we were out of milk.

I was then redirected to another container and enjoyed some knockoff brand of cereal.

This morning, illuminated by the light of the microwave clock was the milk jug.

I hope one of my children did this…

That… was a fast evolution to sentience, and a little unsettling.

You know what else is unsettling? Google. I suppose it always has been.

It looks like Google wants another level of control. Two-step verification starts becoming mandatory soon according to this email.

I use a lot of workstations for my work email, so this is frustrating to me.

I work with four google accounts; Work, personal, blog, and YouTube.

Tying all those and affiliated Google products to my phone is kinda scary, but not for security reasons or fear of being tracked, but the concern of not being able to access my account in a pinch without my phone as verification.

Ah well.

Author: Benjamin

Benjamin Thiel is a husband, father, correctional professional and author of The Ongoing Tale at Brothers Campfire.

25 thoughts on “Curdled Milk at Brothers Campfire

  1. Geoff Stamper says:

    I have been mocked for decades because I once found some eggnog in a shared refrigerator that was four or five months old and I taped a note of warning instead of throwing it out.

    Reply
    1. WebbBlogs says:

      I did the same thing many years ago but with butter milk. Do they even have butter milk anymore? 😆 🤣

      Reply
  2. TamrahJo says:

    2 step log ins/tie ins – two words – “backup codes’ – print, save – in fireproof safe, if ya must to feel truly safe – if ya lose your phone or it dies – 😀

    Reply
    1. leendadll says:

      2 step verification doesn’t care about your codes and passwords. No phone = no way to get the live msg = can’t get to app. Uber mess if you have to change phone numbers.

      Reply
      1. TamrahJo says:

        I will revisit – for my tools I use 2fa app for on phone, etc. I have recovery codes to use if something happens to my phone – put that in place after dropping my phone in the mop bucket while trying to clean house AND chat with my mama – years ago – LOL

        Reply
        1. leendadll says:

          LOL!!! I have a habit of misplacing phones and after I completely lost the last one, I finally put everything on backup to cloud.

          Reply
          1. TamrahJo says:

            I usually ‘lose phones’ due to trying to multi-task and clean my house while returning calls to folks that just cry over the fact I don’t keep my entire house ‘company ready’ 24/7 – I’m like Jeff Foxworthy and his take on “Flight of the Bumblebee” – “Sure, it would be great to see ya” and then hanging up the phone and furiously cleaning – open the door and say, “excuse the house,” and hope they don’t know that’s the cleanest my house has been all year – – – LOL

          2. TamrahJo says:

            LOL – if only, for me, that was an option – alas, I live in a small community and well – if I don’t insta answer call/text/email? Folks just ‘drop’ by to say “Hey, why aren’t ya answering your phone?? Now, here’s what I need….” – 😀 Me? “Hello there! Welcome to Sh*t Show Central – I would have tidied up a bit, for you, had I known you’re were dropping in sometime in the next 48 hours or so…..” – – LOL
            Double-edged sword – on the one hand, I don’t have to worry about accidentally killing myself due to home DIY projects and no one finding my body until a month from time of death – or lay at bottom of cellar stairs with busted hip, before someone checks on me, cuz I left my phone upstairs – – on the other hand – sigh – never have things ‘ready’ to play gracious host to drop in visitors – either – meh – it is, all it is – on every front – 😀

          3. leendadll says:

            Yeah… the injured & not found thing is a legit concern for me. I’ve been looking at smartwatches with fall detection.

          4. TamrahJo says:

            Take care of you! Best as ya can without being rendered totally vulnerable! me? well – over time, with a variety of folks, for ever or just for now, there is a ‘just checking in on ya ‘ protocol – phone, txt, email, waving to each other over the fence/across the street as we gaze out on ‘our own yard – to check in on the other’ – that’s all it took – neighbor calls when my truck hasn’t moved – calls to let me know she’s going on walkabout and won’t be home for awhile – calls because she saw a strange truck park in my yard that stayed a long time (girl’s night in at my house! and sadly – that gal owned a close in model/color of the local town bad boy that was the love ’em/leave ’em type – – LOL YES! My neighbor called me to check in and ALSO say, “What the heck ya doin’? You KNOW he is bad news” and me? “He….who??? No he’s here – ..what ya talking about? I have a friend here and we are discussing gardening or theology as the conversation morphs ” 😀

            And yet – I always cry when those still living, mourn deeply over a neighbor that is ‘discovered’ much later – even while, my check ins on others or calls out to others contain, “I’m gonna go tackle this – in crawl space – if I don’t check in 20 minutes – would you call 911 to send help? I might have just injured myself – ” – sigh – and yet, for so many, there is such a fear of dying a slow. lingering, death, and no one comes – I get that – Ain’t none of us really want to sign up for that! Even IF we are of mindset – “Well – this is what it is – if I die, I die” but no one really signs up for “okay – so I die – after long time of suffering at hands of this/that – ” – – lying in pain and waiting for someone to notice you are gone from expected daily communications? Not anyone’s idea of fun, me things – get what ya need – use tech – but have back up plan, too – cuz tech is awesome but it is vulnerable, too – just like me and the are should we decide ‘no big deal – can do this by myself’…. 😀

          5. leendadll says:

            Aw, the bad boy sounds more fun!!

            I repeatedly tried to set upcheck ins woth people but they all havefamily and none appreciate the fact tgat I have no one. I get it – but it sucks. I was once bedridden for several days – lights off and backdoor (which goes to my bedroom and is clearly visible from the neighbor’s door) was open the entire time. They didn’t even yell over the fence to check on me.

            On the other hand, when I went silent on wordpress for 2 wks, I returned to find commenters msging each other and making plans for someone to drive from NorCal (to DoCal) to check on me. I appreciated it but, people, no meed to drive several hundred miles. Police will do a welfare check if you call them!!

            I’ve accepted that I could end up dying a slow painful death from a fall. Not happy about it – and it would suck to have conciousness about it – but it is what it is.

            If not for my billion cats, I’d prob move to a 50+ community.

          6. TamrahJo says:

            I had a typo in my comment – the “local bad boy’ was no longer a boy – and WAS NOT here – but well – a rebellious ‘girlfriend’ older than me, that loved and cared for the close to same model year/color truck HE owned, was – LOL – – Me? I just rather, always, get fascinated by bad girls/boys – on any front – sometimes in pure fascination over how they get away with such things over and over – sometimes to understand better and fly cover for others – and sometimes, just to try to think like them in order to outfox them on the battle field they chose to start – makes no never mind to me – but here and there – me or others really depend upon my own curiosity over the whole thingee – for better or worse – me? NONE of that is ever, anymore, done for pure pleasure on my fronts – ever – it’s work – now – has been for a long time – and well – a billion cats – hmmm – certain folks here, in excess of 600+, are split and warring – still! over whether the local feral cat population should be captured, ‘fixed’ to be sterile, then get grant money to ‘feed the poor things’ vs. ‘either they hunt down the rodents and provide a service or they die – I don’t care’ fronts – and well – small enough community – me and my not shooing away, while not feeding the local cat population in any form? Well – I’m reallky NOT the local crazy cat lady – but well, ya want to move here and take that label on – sigh – I’ll check in on ya while yelling over the roadway – or if I haven’t seen/talked to ya for awhile sans you telling me ya need quiet time to heal/think about -it – other than that? Best stay put where you’re at – stick with not being afraid to die and wonder how it is some folks are considering personal checkins when they could just as easily, make a phone call -sigh – but that’s another ‘whole story’ that I won’t go into just now – but once – under extreme durress, of potential loss of loved one, in hospital, in middle of the night – I only remembered by heart – two numbers – the one my childhood home – to far away to want to drive back over and make it ‘in time’ to say goodbye – and the local law enforcement number I dialed over and over to do my job in the community of hand-offs of calls in jurisdictional boundaries – one I said, “Just letting ya know – now – you don’t need to come for you? I don’t need ya here for me” and the other, “Um, do you have enough staff to do a door knock notification – I can’t remember any of their cell phone numbers while using the in room phone I’m allowed to use – – “

          7. leendadll says:

            I admit, phones are no good for checking on me because I never have the ringer turned on. And unless I heard POLICE, their drive would have been wasted because I rarely answer the door. At that time, I was in a deep funk and only wanted to be alone.

            Badboys used to make fun boytoys but the last one – plus ages, menopause, & cats – got me over that. No more boytoys or even considering dating/sex… too much work and too little reward!! A weitd development after a lifetime priding myself in being an open-minded pervert!!

  3. leendadll says:

    I DESPISE all the forced phone verification!! I rarely carry my phone and often misplace it. I totally disagree with work expecting me to use my persobal phone (they don’t provide phones at all – we use Teams for computer-based calls). And what about people who don’t have txt?

    Reply
    1. Benjamin says:

      Me as well. I have many of my projects in Google products for “safe keeping.” Stresses me out.

      Reply
  4. TamrahJo says:

    While I’m rather a Conagher Fan, regarding, “Ya take a man’s money, ya ride for the brand’ type personage, I’m ALSO a hard arse on some things – i.e. – if ya want all this security/infrastructure re: software/hardware, for me to be on call, etc.? than ya best be lining up the tools for it – if ya ask of me what you don’t provide the tools for, don’t come crying to me when I streamline myself out of a job OR ya lay me off after I saved ya time/money – cuz me? um, sure, buckle down and invest the time/resources for me to ‘hand it off’ to you – otherwise?

    I do not care – and there is a time limit – don’t call me a year after ya laid me off and said I wasn’t needed, asking, ‘can you remind us of….we lost the ‘red file’ you left/gave us on steps to take to get all you built under our total control – ” –

    Me? “um, I told ya – I signed an NDA, I gave ya time line – checked in with ya up to 3 months and then I deleted it all – just to save you the hassle of trying track down potential breach fronts, because you were all ‘la-la-la – not important – so sorry – but ya should have listened when I said, “either take this over or let it go – here’s the scoop’ – some have dubbed this as being ‘vengeful’ and I disagree – either it’s a priority or it isn’t and well – for me?

    Either employers/clients pay for phone/software/tools or they don’t – quite frankly? They don’t get my personal tools (including phone) nor do I EVER take a stipend from them to offset costs – because then? They get themselves in trouble from short-sighted decisions, they think they have a right to my tools – and me? I’ll work to achieve what I can, when I can, with what’ve I got – but I learned long ago not to lease/loan/ my soul or my own infrastructure to others, in permanence – 😀 As I’ve read the comments here?

    Um, this – – THIS RIGHT here! Is to me, the majority core, of individual stories, that are a contributing factor, over many years to the ‘what’s going on???” headlines in the news about “The Great Resignation” and “Quiet Quitting” – the signs have been here and there, or across many industry/employer fronts for decades – it just rather, all came to a head – and yet those writing currently on these ‘trending topics’ seem to still think this is some ‘out of the blue/COVID ripple affect’ thingee – overall –

    Me? This has been coming on for a long, long time – 😀

    Reply

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