That's why all my straight razors are in the display cabinet and not the bathroom.
Ageing without hoarding
- Thread starter AimlessWanderer
- Start date
Learned to knit in college. Joined a group called the "Stitchin Bitches". I was the only male in the group and had a great time. I learned of the rich history of male knitters...particularly fisherman. The more intricate the cable knit sweater the longer at sea the fisherman had been or something to that effect. Anyway, I became quite the stitcher making several hats, scarves and socks. A great skill to have. Enjoy it, glad to hear you're doing well!Four months since last purchase, and still very content. The Mylar pouches have been keeping the goods in impeccable order, and the 10 dinky jars are plenty of variety. Opened up a pouch each of Peterson Sherlock Holmes and Gawith Red this week. Great blends.
Glad I got finished when I did, with the cost of living rocketing. Still been finding other things to spend money on though.
I've not been posting as much on here lately, as I've been distracted with the new hobby. Knitting. I don't trust myself with power tools anymore, but making stuff does help the sanity. So I am learning the ancient gentlemanly art of intentional entanglement. Although the time I managed to knit my long hair into it, wasn't intentional at all....
- Thread starter
- #1,223
AimlessWanderer
Remember to forget me!
I managed nine months without a tobacco order, then had a blip. 5 x 50g pouches of Revor Plug, boosted the "Dark Strong" portion of my stash by 65%. I'd only got 7.1/2 tins/pouches worth of that category before.
As well as letting me add age tracking data, sticky address labels are also very good at covering up pictures of gangrenous feet...
I will transfer these to a better long term storage container soon anyway. Not the Solani Red peeking out of the top though. That whisky topped aro will be enjoyed over the rest of this winter.
This is how the revised percentages look. Virginia and Perique still accounting for half the ageing stash, with English and Dark taking up the third quarter, and Lakelands and Aromatics taking up the fourth quarter. That left hand side of the pie chart should still age well though, as nearly everything over here is Virginia led, and the few blends that have Cavendish, are all good quality (non-gloopy) and won't turn to mush. Most of the aromatic blends here are actually just cased Virginia/Burley blends anyway, like Firedance, University Flake, and of course the Lakelands.
Still a very humble cellar, but it does exactly what it was intended to do. The aged tobaccos I've smoked so far, do seem to be smoothing out nicely.
As well as letting me add age tracking data, sticky address labels are also very good at covering up pictures of gangrenous feet...
I will transfer these to a better long term storage container soon anyway. Not the Solani Red peeking out of the top though. That whisky topped aro will be enjoyed over the rest of this winter.
This is how the revised percentages look. Virginia and Perique still accounting for half the ageing stash, with English and Dark taking up the third quarter, and Lakelands and Aromatics taking up the fourth quarter. That left hand side of the pie chart should still age well though, as nearly everything over here is Virginia led, and the few blends that have Cavendish, are all good quality (non-gloopy) and won't turn to mush. Most of the aromatic blends here are actually just cased Virginia/Burley blends anyway, like Firedance, University Flake, and of course the Lakelands.
Still a very humble cellar, but it does exactly what it was intended to do. The aged tobaccos I've smoked so far, do seem to be smoothing out nicely.
- Thread starter
- #1,224
AimlessWanderer
Remember to forget me!
Well, my bank just played a huge part in curtailing my online spending, and not just on tobacco orientated spending.
A few days ago, I got an email from them. A "playback" as they call it, of 2022. Slap bang in the middle of this email, is a pie chart of last year's spending. How much I spent on leisure, homeware, groceries, eating out... and below that was a list of the top five places that I have done the most card transactions at.
What the
!?!?!?
I must stress this was done with neither request, nor with consent!!!
If I authorise my bank to make a payment, I don't intend them to log, analyse and then communicate what those payments were for. To anyone. Including me. Particularly via a means of communication, which is widely recognised in the banking industry as not being secure. It might sound melodramatic, but I felt somewhat violated.
I have already kicked off at them via a complaint form on their website, and they tried to call me about it, but they wanted me to confirm personal details over the phone. I told them that I don't do that, unless I have made the call myself, and have full confidence that I am indeed speaking to who they claim I am speaking to. So I told them to reply to my email... and they said we can't as it's not secure (no crap, Sherlock - yet you happily send unsolicited statistical models of my spending via it!!!).
I long suspected that financial entities were doing such stalking and data exploitation, but didn't expect them to so brazen flaunt it as if they were doing me a favour. Although I doubt my bank is a rogue exception, and It's probably industry wide.
So, the argument continues, and I just have to wait for their snail mail response before I make my next move. In the meantime (and I have said this to them already), I'll be taking steps to improve my data security. In this instance, there's really only one way I can do that, which is to revert back to cash purchases only, and only use digital purchasing where there is simply no viable alternative. It's simply the only way to obfuscate my spending, and give the "limited number of fingers salute" to the stalkers.
So back to pipes... there's no real tobacconists in town here. Sure, some of the newsagents carry the Gawith bulk blends, and some shops or supermarkets might have some Condor or St Bruno. No pipes though, and none of the wider range of blends that I can buy online. If I want to buy a new pipe or tinned blend with cash, I have to catch a train.
There's a couple of tobacconists less than an hour away on the train, or I can switch trains, carry on further, and visit a couple of tobacconists on the coast. Make a full day out of it, in effect.
I don't know if I have the self discipline to forego digital spending altogether, but I will certainly be trying my damnedest to avoid handing over data with my funds, whenever I buy anything. Dignity can be in short enough supply already, when you're living with a disability, and unable to do things a lot of things other people take for granted (I know I did before I lost them). I don't need the further loss of dignity from this kind of invasive behaviour.
There is no dignity without privacy.
Apologies for the rant, but this has gotten me rattled.
A few days ago, I got an email from them. A "playback" as they call it, of 2022. Slap bang in the middle of this email, is a pie chart of last year's spending. How much I spent on leisure, homeware, groceries, eating out... and below that was a list of the top five places that I have done the most card transactions at.
What the
!?!?!? I must stress this was done with neither request, nor with consent!!!
If I authorise my bank to make a payment, I don't intend them to log, analyse and then communicate what those payments were for. To anyone. Including me. Particularly via a means of communication, which is widely recognised in the banking industry as not being secure. It might sound melodramatic, but I felt somewhat violated.
I have already kicked off at them via a complaint form on their website, and they tried to call me about it, but they wanted me to confirm personal details over the phone. I told them that I don't do that, unless I have made the call myself, and have full confidence that I am indeed speaking to who they claim I am speaking to. So I told them to reply to my email... and they said we can't as it's not secure (no crap, Sherlock - yet you happily send unsolicited statistical models of my spending via it!!!).
I long suspected that financial entities were doing such stalking and data exploitation, but didn't expect them to so brazen flaunt it as if they were doing me a favour. Although I doubt my bank is a rogue exception, and It's probably industry wide.
So, the argument continues, and I just have to wait for their snail mail response before I make my next move. In the meantime (and I have said this to them already), I'll be taking steps to improve my data security. In this instance, there's really only one way I can do that, which is to revert back to cash purchases only, and only use digital purchasing where there is simply no viable alternative. It's simply the only way to obfuscate my spending, and give the "limited number of fingers salute" to the
stalkers.So back to pipes... there's no real tobacconists in town here. Sure, some of the newsagents carry the Gawith bulk blends, and some shops or supermarkets might have some Condor or St Bruno. No pipes though, and none of the wider range of blends that I can buy online. If I want to buy a new pipe or tinned blend with cash, I have to catch a train.
There's a couple of tobacconists less than an hour away on the train, or I can switch trains, carry on further, and visit a couple of tobacconists on the coast. Make a full day out of it, in effect.
I don't know if I have the self discipline to forego digital spending altogether, but I will certainly be trying my damnedest to avoid handing over data with my funds, whenever I buy anything. Dignity can be in short enough supply already, when you're living with a disability, and unable to do things a lot of things other people take for granted (I know I did before I lost them). I don't need the further loss of dignity from this kind of invasive behaviour.
There is no dignity without privacy.
Apologies for the rant, but this has gotten me rattled.
I am most sympathetic to your ire.Well, my bank just played a huge part in curtailing my online spending, and not just on tobacco orientated spending.
A few days ago, I got an email from them. A "playback" as they call it, of 2022. Slap bang in the middle of this email, is a pie chart of last year's spending. How much I spent on leisure, homeware, groceries, eating out... and below that was a list of the top five places that I have done the most card transactions at.
What the
I must stress this was done with neither request, nor with consent!!!
If I authorise my bank to make a payment, I don't intend them to log, analyse and then communicate what those payments were for. To anyone. Including me. Particularly via a means of communication, which is widely recognised in the banking industry as not being secure. It might sound melodramatic, but I felt somewhat violated.
I have already kicked off at them via a complaint form on their website, and they tried to call me about it, but they wanted me to confirm personal details over the phone. I told them that I don't do that, unless I have made the call myself, and have full confidence that I am indeed speaking to who they claim I am speaking to. So I told them to reply to my email... and they said we can't as it's not secure (no crap, Sherlock - yet you happily send unsolicited statistical models of my spending via it!!!).
I long suspected that financial entities were doing such stalking and data exploitation, but didn't expect them to so brazen flaunt it as if they were doing me a favour. Although I doubt my bank is a rogue exception, and It's probably industry wide.
So, the argument continues, and I just have to wait for their snail mail response before I make my next move. In the meantime (and I have said this to them already), I'll be taking steps to improve my data security. In this instance, there's really only one way I can do that, which is to revert back to cash purchases only, and only use digital purchasing where there is simply no viable alternative. It's simply the only way to obfuscate my spending, and give the "limited number of fingers salute" to the
So back to pipes... there's no real tobacconists in town here. Sure, some of the newsagents carry the Gawith bulk blends, and some shops or supermarkets might have some Condor or St Bruno. No pipes though, and none of the wider range of blends that I can buy online. If I want to buy a new pipe or tinned blend with cash, I have to catch a train.
There's a couple of tobacconists less than an hour away on the train, or I can switch trains, carry on further, and visit a couple of tobacconists on the coast. Make a full day out of it, in effect.
I don't know if I have the self discipline to forego digital spending altogether, but I will certainly be trying my damnedest to avoid handing over data with my funds, whenever I buy anything. Dignity can be in short enough supply already, when you're living with a disability, and unable to do things a lot of things other people take for granted (I know I did before I lost them). I don't need the further loss of dignity from this kind of invasive behaviour.
There is no dignity without privacy.
Apologies for the rant, but this has gotten me rattled.
Tracking is industry standard, and it doesn't matter what industry, they all do it.
Sometimes we have to live with it, but we never have to like it.
- Thread starter
- #1,226
AimlessWanderer
Remember to forget me!
Thank you, Phil.
Indeed, privacy and dignity are being engineered out of today's world. I am powerless to stop it altogether, but not altogether powerless to resist, or push back.
I already avoid the biggest data harvesters. I don't use
The more the stalkers encroach, the further back I retreat into analogue life. And for the most part, I am happier for it.
Pipes, knitting, reading, writing. Light switches and heating systems that don't need an app on my phone. Conversing in person, buying from real people, that feeling of having something in one hand, and the hard cash in the other, and that true and immediate awareness of which I would rather walk out of the store with. No having to wait home in case the postman might come.
I can live with that.
