RFID and Freedom

I just saw this Duracell commercial that freaked me out. I did a little research this morning and found out it has been out for a while, but I don’t watch much television.

In case you don’t either, here’s the commercial.



The product being advertised in the commercial is the long-lasting battery, but it was the tracking device that bothered me. I immediately thought about RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). Ever hear of it? When I worked at the sign shop, we sold a sign to a company not far from here that produces these devices for use in animals and (yes, true) human beings. That was my first exposure to RFIDs.

(The particular product they mention in the commercial does not have a component embedded in the skin as something like the Verachip does, but it is actually less effective because of that. A small tag is simply clipped on the child’s clothing somewhere but could be easily removed. A Verachip is—ick—inserted under the skin.)

Now, I'll admit that the RFID technology makes perfect sense in terms of people (and animal) tracking, information storage, even financial management. Imagine a world where you never have to worry again about cash, credit cards or even your identity being stolen—a cashless society devoid of counterfeit currency or even illegal drug and arms sales—heck, the government could finally manage to control that, couldn’t they? Imagine a world where no one could grab your kid and carry them off without you knowing exactly where they went. A world where I have a severe allergy to penicillin and take a load of medications and am wheeled unconscious to a hospital—but I can still be cared for properly. A world where escaped criminals can easily be found because they, too, are tagged permanently.

Sounds like pretty good benefits. Logical. Reasonable. Organized even. I love logical, reasonable and organized...

But, then the bigger picture creeps in. Complete loss of privacy comes immediately to mind with a loss of control sneaking in right behind it.

I’ll no longer determine what information I share or when I’ll spend my money, and it’s the money end that bothers me the most.

I don’t get to wait to pay the electric bill (deciding to pay the late fees because I want to buy a new pair of sneakers). Bills come due, and I can’t kid myself into thinking the funds won’t be immediately withdrawn from my electronic financial account. They will be. Just like my house payment is now.

Hey, I owe them! I should pay them, right? That’s not a bad thing! What about all those people who don’t pay their bills now? That would sure fix their wagons, wouldn’t it? Would help fix the whole financial debacle the United States is in right now. You don’t have it...you can’t spend it.

Problem is, I’m talking about freedom—my choice to decide. It’s gone. When people control how *my money* is spent, I just lost it. Poof.

Maybe some would say it should be gone. I can’t be trusted to make the right choice. I’ll pick the sneakers—can’t have me doing that. I owe, and I should pay. And I will be paying, just not of my own responsible volition anymore. And look at the added benefit: we won’t need laws anymore to handle this. The payments are automatically taken care of. The IRS won’t audit you and fine you anymore...they have your money. They took it when it came due.

But, I pay my bills. So, my real concern is this: somebody is in control of all this information now that I’ve been “chipped”. One day, they decide to “turn off” my chip’s buying power? For a good reason? Maybe or maybe not.

Maybe a law comes down that said I’m no longer allowed to drive my foreign car. It’s hurting our economy, and I need to turn in my little Civic and buy American-made! I don’t want to—I like my Honda. Besides that, I bought that car legally, and it belongs to me! It was my free choice to do so!

Problem is, it’s the law now. Fair or not...it’s the law. But, I’m still driving it around, getting 40 mpg and running like new for more than 85,000 miles while my old Ford Mustang never made it to 50,000 miles. (Outside the purposes of this scenario, I will say that I’d give my right arm to have my Mustang back...mileage and mechanical problems be damned.)

So, I’m driving my Honda and need gas one day and poof! My chip power is off, and I can’t do squat with my money. Can’t buy gas. Can’t buy anything, actually. Not even a Diet Coke.

And now...oops, know what else? I can’t eat either. Freedom to choose is gone because “they” turned my chip off, took control of my money and left me and my Honda on the side of the road. Bad news is...I’m hungry.

I refuse to give up my Honda. Just not going to do it—it’s not right they made the law, and I’m hard at work to get that law changed. Meanwhile, I’m starving.

So, I decide I want to trade some of the junk in my house for food since I can’t buy it anymore, and guess what? They can find me. Quickly, too—awesome GPS tracking. And they can stop me because trading for food isn’t allowed. You buy it, or you don’t get it.

NOW, THE KEY QUESTION: Who’s “they”? Are “they” trustworthy? Do “they” have my best interests at heart? Do "they" always make fair laws? Since I’m not quite sure who “they” are yet, I have a hard time trusting “them” with all my money, my personal information, and my whereabouts.

Let’s assume for a second that “they” are a wonderful, fabulous, caring group. They always make the right decisions, are always fair and just, and always know what’s best for me.

Hell, people, I don’t even always make the right decisions and know what’s best for me...you think I’m going to trust someone else to do that?

It’s about freedom and responsibility. And privacy. And control. I’m a human being on this planet, and I want all those things. They are mine now, and I want to keep them. I want the freedom to make wrong choices and screw up. I don’t need anyone else controlling how I spend my money or knowing all my personal information or knowing where I am at any given moment.

While I can completely see the logic and “reasonableness” behind RFID technology, I’m here to tell you that it is evil. It’s insidious and coated in “reason” but it’s evil. Anything that takes away my freedom to choose (and face the consequences of my own choices) is just plain evil.

This is something that isn’t going away. I can promise you that. It makes too much sense in so many ways...until you start to think about it from the other side. The system we have isn’t perfect, but it does still allow the freedom of choice (and provides for the repercussions to those choices). RFID technology and the like is NOT the solution. It’s a logical, reasonable trap.

13 Authors, 16 Paranormal books TO WIN!

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Code Monkey and Writer Monkey

Getting a lot of writing done and my house is cleaner than it has ever been. LOL I've even cooked a couple of times with all my free time. That's kinda different. When I only had 4 or 5 hours a day to write, I was getting in about 1000-2000 words (4-8 pages) a day. Yesterday, I wrote 8500 words (34 pages). That's what extra hours can get you. (It also gets you a really numb butt.)

Oh, one of my writer buddies showed me this (she's a computer programmer). I really like it...plus, the guy has a nice voice. Oh, and it has the added bonus of being funny.

Inspiration from Anthony Robbins...

"You are now at a crossroads. This is your opportunity to make the most important decision you will ever make. Forget your past. Who are you now? Who have you decided you really are now? Don't think about who you have been. Who are you now? Who have you decided to become? Make this decision consciously. Make it carefully. Make it powerfully."

 

"I believe life is constantly testing us for our level of commitment, and life's greatest rewards are reserved for those who demonstrate a never-ending commitment to act until they achieve. This level of resolve can move mountains, but it must be constant and consistent. As simplistic as this may sound, it is still the common denominator separating those who live their dreams from those who live in regret."

 

"Live life fully while you're here. Experience everything. Take care of yourself and your friends. Have fun, be crazy, be weird. Go out and screw up! You're going to anyway, so you might as well enjoy the process. Take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes: find the cause of your problem and eliminate it. Don't try to be perfect; just be an excellent example of being human."

3 Years of Blogging!

Just noticed today that tomorrow is my blog's 3-year anniversary! I had no idea I'd been doing this for so long. If someone had asked me, I would have guessed 2 at the most.

 

My first blog post: Sept 2005:

Today is my first blog. This is my method of staying focused on daily goals for my writing. I'm going for 4 pages a day, every day.

 

A man asked me the other evening at a party how many books I'd published. I made a guess at 10, and he looked surprised that I didn't know. Pathetic that I didn't, actually, but once I finish a book, I pretty much go on from there. I got to thinking I really *should* know the answer to that, so I came to the blog to check. I had to check my other blogs too since I write under a few different names. In the interest of keeping the identities separate, I'll not mention the book titles for my other pennames.

 

Since September 2005, I've written/published:

Hawkes Abandon, sold 1/07 - full length novel

Pay Dirt, sold 9/07 - full length novel

Paid in Full, sold 9/07 - novella

Seduction 101, sold 12/07 - novella

Sunlight, sold 2/08 - novella

(Title hidden), sold 3/07 - novella

(Title hidden), sold 8/07 - novella

(Title hidden), sold 12/07 - novella

(Title hidden), sold 3/08 - novella

(Title hidden), sold 8/08 - novella

 

Finished but not yet sold:

Dangerous Truth - full length novel

Deep Cover (ET Book 1)- full length novel

Rent A Husband - novella

Seducing Sabine - novella

Tessa's Treasure- full length novel

(Title hidden) - novella

(Title hidden) - novella

 

I also started this bunch, got stuck, and shelved them for a while. (I call them my "stories going nowhere"):

A Dish Served Cold - 75,000 words

Altered Secrets - 20,000 words

Meeting in Secret - 41,000 words

Live Until You Die - 8000 words

The Watch - 6000 words

Untitled ET Sequel - 87,000 words (working on this one now)

 

I started the blog to get myself focused, and all in all, I've met my original blog goal of writing 4 pages a day. I didn't do an exact count, but if it's not 4 pages, it's pretty darn close. (And I really need to take a look at some of those shelved stories one of these days after I finish the next draft of the ET sequel. There might be something in there worth saving...)

Paid in Full Joyfully Reviewed

Savannah Spencer is desperate to find a good man.  After trying everything she can think of and lucking out, she joined the exclusive Internet dating service elovepro.  Out came the weirdoes.  Fortunately, elovepro has a double-your-money-back guarantee and Savannah definitely wants a refund.  However, before she can get her refund, she has to go on one more date.  Will this be the one?

Paid in Full was fun to read.  Moira Reid made Savannah's experiences so real that I found myself laughing out loud at times.  It was delightful.

--

Paid in Full by Moira Reid

The Valentine Monologues

Cobblestone Press

Contemporary

ISBN: 978-1-60088-224-1

Reviewed by Zayn

Fly in the Ointment...and getting it out

Small fly in the ointment...and a good reason to always check contracts before you sign then. (As if anyone ever needed that reminder.)

 

The story Shannon and I were working on was going to mention our two vampires from the Oracle books (Dillon from Love and Johnathan from Sunlight), but...those characters are actually the property of Cobblestone Press, not us. Ooops. Since we were considering submitting the manuscript to various places, that's a problem. If I'd read the contract again before we began the draft, I would have noticed that. And I will add that a buddy of mine told me to double-check on this before beginning, but I didn't. Dumb mistake. Not the end of the world, but definitely a dumb mistake. I would still have signed the contract; I just wouldn't have started a story planning to put my guy in it.

 

The good news is that it's not that big of a deal--this is not a novel about either of those guys. But we both liked Dillon and Johnathan, so we were going to have a scene where they had a small "walk-on". So, we'll just have to leave those two guys out of the story because the rights to use either of them in any story will never belong to us. The bad news is that fact took a little wind out of our sails, so we decided to table it for a while.

 

It's not like Shannon and I don't have plenty to do anyway. She's working on Dead Men's Nails. I recently finished the first draft of my second ET book (which had a title but it's going to change). It's time for the second draft now, and a lot of stuff in addition to the title needs to change. It took me a while to figure out what the story was about, so yeah. Plenty to add/subtract/change. The first draft ran 65k or so, and I can easily see 45-50k of it biting the dust. Doesn't sound like a very efficient way to write a book, does it? LOL

 

In other news, I no longer work at the sign shop. After 12 years, it was time for a change anyway, so it's all good. I'm deep in the "send resumes and get interviews" stage of job hunting at the moment. There's something very humbling about the process and in a lot of ways reminds me of submitting manuscripts to publishers (because that always feels like interviewing for "a job"). I guess it feels that way because that's really what it is. Everything you have to say for yourself is on the paper you send to someone...and it had better be enough to convince them you're the right person for the job. There's no "right" answer either. It's either "a good fit" in either case, or it isn't. Doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the applicant or the manuscript. "The fit" just to be right.

 

And so, yesterday I went through the whole story and replotted how it should go. I feel much better about the whole thing now...all that's left is to rewrite it. Today, the rewrite begins.

 

Oh, a buddy of mine just sent me this. How timely.

 

God is always giving us opportunities to move forward in life. It is God's desire that you grow and reach your full potential. Anytime you take a step forward, the enemy will try to bring opposition and adversity against you. But God also promises that through Him, you can overcome any opposition the enemy brings your way.

When you step out in faith and the opposition comes, stand your ground and keep doing what you know to do. Keep walking in love and forgiveness, and keep your heart tender. When the enemy sees that you are more determined than he is, he'll back down and you will move forward to new levels of victory! Stay focused and full of joy no matter what comes against you. As you do, you will overcome opposition and discover the champion in you!