Everything does not need a rechargeable battery

 I'm becoming more and more annoyed by the way that rechargeable batteries are being included in everything.

Rechargeable batteries are not the ideal solution when:

a) the device is used infrequently, largely unpredictable intervals.  It may be a year or two down the road that you need that tire inflator with a rechargeable battery.  And when was the last time you recharged it?  If you have rechargeable batteries, you'd better have a calendar marked with recharging intervals so you don't forget.  Furthermore, without regular use (not to mention charging) rechargeable batteries will go bad long before they would otherwise.  Rechargeable batteries are like a pet, they need a custodian, it's an awesome responsibility.

b) you have something that you'd like to leave on the whole time, or have it come on when external power is provided.  Nowadays, with rechargeable batteries, you often can't even operate the device when it is connected to external power.  You have to wait to charge up the batteries first, then disconnect power, then you can use the device.  And go through that same ritual next time the batteries need charging.  In this case, it would be better if the device in question had a "time-out" feature, to time out after 3 or 6 hours or so, in case you left it turned on, you wouldn't want the frequent rude experience of learning you can't get started again the very next day without recharging again.

For things used infrequently, disposable batteries are the better solution, they can last for a decade (best stored outside of any device with trickle usage) or more.  So you just keep the batteries there next to the device, ready whenever you need it again (and not discharged again, dammit).

For things you'd just as soon keep running all day or a good part of it, they should be designed to run on widely available power (USB 5V, AC 120V) and only have optional batteries.

Amazon becoming impossible

Unless you know exactly what you want to order, you are not likely to find anything you want just by "searching" on Amazon anymore.  (And it's not much better on Google either.)

Searching for something more and more resembles calling in your song request to a 1950's "Top 40" radio station.  Whatever you ask for, it will get translated to one of those Top 40.

Speaking of which, something very much like that is true for virtually everything that sells or serves, including streaming music services.  No matter what you ask for, you will get steered to something they have an extra interest in selling.  You will have to try really really hard to find something with which you were previously familiar, unless you remember the exact title and artist, and perhaps even then.

And on Amazon, this almost always means being steered to a very similar looking set of Chinese knock-offs.  I remember when I was looking for motorized window shades.  Many with different names looked like they could have been made in the same Chinese factory. 

Most people are long familiar with these things, and perhaps one of the reasons why brick and mortar stores haven't entirely faded away, just all become big chains.

Today I wanted a glass jar with a glass top.  Without knowing the exact name for what I was looking for (a Bell Top Jar), it was simply impossible to find.  Actually, on Amazon, even if I do type in "Bell Top Jar" it still can't find it.  Google does find them.  Amazon will find everything BUT what I want.  It will even find Bell Jars, but not Bell Top Jars.

If I type in the name of a specific bell top jar made by Anchor Hocking, the Anchor Hocking Heritage Hill Jar, it will find that.

When I tried constructions like "Jar with glass top" hardly any of the jars actually had a glass top, and if they did they were inevitably Mason Jars.

Amazon was happy to show me endless varieties of mason jars, but not any other kind of jar with a glass top than a mason jar, no matter how I phrased it.

Little else online was helpful either, though finally I stumbled upon the correct hame.

Blocking

Curiously, but perhaps not surprisingly, some "Family Therapist" on X who endlessly rails about free speech, and says things I agree with 100%, has nevertheless blocked me.  His byline is "Freedom of speech gives me the right to hurt your feelings and it gives you the right to cry about it."

Several times now I've tried to like his posts, but I can't like them, nor can I repost, nor can I quote.   I suppose I could photograph them (I've seen people do that, it's a hassle).  He's a favorite of some other guy I follow (who in fact follows me) so I see these posts a lot.

I might have said something that pissed him off, but I don't even ever remember disagreeing with him.

I think what happened is I replied correctively to another poster who was criticizing him.*

(*Sometimes in these sorts of situations people don't like it when outsiders stupidly try to "help" with an argument.  I might have said something stupid, based only on partial understanding.  But it was certainly not threatening, I never do that, and probably not even inflammatory, just perhaps slightly mistaken.  I was thinking of the Three Pashas were zionist figures in the Ottoman Empire who were favorable to Zionism, and were much hated by Turks later.  So in some thread I called Erdogan the "Fourth Pasha" after he unleashed the "rebels" in Syria.  I think that statement may have been the one that got me banned by Mr Family Therapist because I noticed immediately afterwards he had blocked me, but possibly he had blocked me before.  I thought of it as a clever joke, but perhaps it was peculiarly offensive to people who have views similar to mine but know more about the background and context.  I was hoping that, in that case, I might get a reply to correct me, but I didn't, I only got blocked, or so it seemed.)

Ever time I get shown this guy's posts, and try to like them because I agree, which I always do, and find I can't like them for reasons that I can't understand, I feel very dejected.

I feel like turning off X.  And that's probably a good thing.

X could just stop showing me these posts, and that would be fine with me, I'd probably spend more time on X.  But block him?  No way!  I believe in free speech.

It surprises me that X doesn't already do something like that.  Why endlessly show me posts from someone who has blocked me only because they are reposted by someone who hasn't?  Also why does this guy with cranky ideas like mine, combined with a penchant for blocking on the slightest provocation, have 65k followers?