In the last few days the temperature suddenly dropped about 15 degrees and I'm wearing sweaters inside. For some reason I still hear the neighbor's a.c. kick on; but maybe he's trying to dry out the air. The rain seems to be a visitor who won't let us alone, but stops in for at least a few minutes each day.

Other than not being able to see the MyBloggers site, I've been struggling to stay afloat, work-wise. Expenses are horrid, like health insurance. I'll have to find a new plan that's just not the great coverage I'm used to. Now I see what everyone else in the country has been dealing with. I was spoiled.

I'm always hesitant about what I write here, not just because I work online. Most of what I have to say is so depressed and so bleak that I think I shouldn't talk about it. But it's good to be able to read everyone's blogs and keep up. It helps.

It's easier to talk about political stuff, or the NSA, etc.

For instance -- (here I go again) -- what I'm surprised isn't getting more press is one of the things that the NSA has done. It goes beyond spying on the American public, and beyond the usual peering into what it can of other countries.

Now, the NSA are the codebreakers. That's their job. So it's natural that they'd try to crack into what they can. What they're not supposed to do, though, is to affect the standards of encryption.

But they have. They've watered down and weakened encryption itself -- the very thing that protects not only our email and the internet, but our financial institutions, utilities, air traffic, hospital records... etc., etc.

I don't want to exaggerate; people are saying that strong encryption (meaning, probably, that used for controlling the power grids, air traffic, and more) is still okay. But the encryption software used for many, many other things has been harmed. By the NSA.

They installed backdoors into the very software used to encrypt data; they covertly placed their own NSA people in software companies which create encryption software, and tech companies. These covert people actually replaced portions of code. They also apparently have changed the very chips used in technology. The NSA has been working on this for over a decade.

If you've seen enough movies you're aware that a backdoor in a program makes it more vulnerable. More hackable. So now it is possible that the entire world could start rejecting American technology as unreliable.

In fact -- I am trying to find that article again about it -- I believe some Japanese companies are already saying so.

Oh, and also the NSA can now crack most of what we choose to put on the internet, like our email, our files and such. They've broken ordinary encryption. We know this because they announced it to their other departments in an internal NSA update, which Edward Snowden leaked.

Oh, and also... the NSA has been found to be spoofing internet searches, and landing pages. They're getting in between Google and the internet user, and sometimes between you and the web page you think you're on. Then they can collect the password you use to log into your bank, etc.

It's all so crazy. My sisters can't listen to it when I talk. They say they just can't take it in and function, so they don't read much about it. I'm about ready to go live in the woods like a madwoman.

I really shouldn't be allowed to talk to people. I'll try to think of something more inspiring next time....