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Tag Archives: everyone is stupid
Sprechen Sie?
My dad gets a small German pension, or I should say he did get a small German pension. Every year they send a proof of life form and last year I did the form and called a mobile notary to come over and give it an official stamp and then I mailed it. Dad got one pension check and then they stopped.
I emailed all the documents again. I wrote a snail mail. I sent all the POA documents in case they needed power of attorney to deal with me. I emailed all the documents again. No response.
I had pretty much given up. What else could I do?
Then, I got a letter at my house addressed to me that said I need to do a proof of life form. While I was navigating this packet, I found a letter at Dad’s apartment from them explaining that they couldn’t mail him his pension checks because they had been returned as undeliverable.
Can we all just pause for a second on this? Let’s send a letter to the address where we’re telling you we can’t send things.
I filled out all the paperwork, got all the signatures, gathered all the things they wanted. I also took a picture of Dad holding their letter: that’s Proof of Life.
According to the instructions you can submit this all online but it’s not in English. FINE. I understand a little plus its 2024. We have Google Translate.
I commence with the website. There are lots of things to translate. It was a long and tedious process but also kind-of funny because it was like all the aggravation of doing a bureaucratic process via a confusing-to-navigate website, but also frantically cutting and pasting back and forth with Google Translate.
Inevitably, I got to the part where I had to “choose one” to tell them what form I was completing and you’ll never guess what happened? Mine wasn’t one of the choices. The form that I was filling was not there. But I had to translate about 16 choices to be sure. If you asked AI to go through every episode of I Love Lucy and then write an episode where Lucy needs to use Google Translate — this is what it would come up with.
I gave up for now. I’m going to try again after I’ve reviewed all the paperwork again and my brain is fresh.
Everything Is Stupid
As per every time, I have no time and no energy and I’m trying to quickly post and everything is broken and doesn’t work like it used to.
I would love to post a photo but my FTP is all messed up and I vaguely remember I have to do something different but I can’t remember and the things I tried didn’t work.
I would love to embed the video above but somehow I can’t find my DumbTube channel. I have been clicking and searching in a calm and sensible manner and all it does is give me Bridgerton clips which is great because I love Bridgerton clips but that is not what I am doing right now.
My story is that I went to Chicago back at the beginning of June. I thought I didn’t have anything to post because we didn’t do much except visit with friends.
Then I remembered DOH! We went to an all romance bookstore in Chicago called The Last Chapter Bookshop and for fun I went to see if they have pen name’s book. It’s a very tiny and well curated bookstore with very few self-published books. But they had three in my series!! I was very overwhelmed and happy and a little emotional to find a book I wrote at a real bookstore.
They encouraged me to sign my books and put them in the front on the signed books table. It was a huge day for me!
Meanwhile: I have so many things going on right now including but not limited to: giant garden bounty that needs attention daily, a possibly dying outdoor beer fridge, a neighborhood association situation, sports, dry hot weather, uneven public transportation and summer traffic meaning longer trips home.
I have a long list of things to catch up here but I need to figure out the photo situation and DumbTube situation and will try to update more later.
Also, I think my story comes out in Apex tomorrow. Here is the link to the main site. My story is called Loss Prevention and I hope to pimp it more later.
Posted in doing it wrong, garden, sleepless in Vancouver
Tagged everyone is stupid
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Twenty-Five Years
I was unexpectedly reminded that 25 years ago yesterday I started blogging. I was ahead of my time and now I’m behind it. I have grown less interested in the digital world now that it’s so terrible.
Last weekend I said to Bob, remember when we looked forward to email?
I’m still going to slog along here at least once a week until I don’t want to any longer. It’s not that I don’t want to but more like once I get around to it, I don’t have much energy to put into it.
Last week I went to the eye doctor including the part where they dilate your eyes. It was a bright day and the light so painfully sparkly it was like living inside of a diamond.
I just bought a new phone and I picked it up. They told me when I turned the phone on, it would be on, so I decided to charge it so it would be ready when I was ready to turn it on. Except when I plugged it in, it was on.
This led to a bunch of panicked phone maneuvers with my eyes scrunched half-shut and the phone screen a blur in my hands. I won’t elaborate except to say the transition did not go smoothly and there were customer service calls involved including one where I had to find the serial number, written in .0005 sized type on the side of the box, with a magnifying glass.
But the fun wasn’t over.
Our soccer team opened the stadium to partial capacity and we had a time and a code to login and try for tickets. Ticket partner was traveling at our appointed time and I was at the doctor but the minute I got in, I booted up colleague’s computer and attempted to get into his email. His office was as bright as the surface of the sun and I was closing shades and shielding my eyes while whimpering.
From what I could tell, I was getting an error message that either said, it was too early to get tickets or there weren’t tickets available. But I could not troubleshoot while half-blind.
Ticket partner tried to log in when he had a chance and also had no luck. We did not get tickets so it was really interesting to see so many tickets available online yesterday before the match. By then, we had other plans.
Hello Daffodils
I haven’t gotten around to my usual endless photo session in the garden. These are few half-hearted snaps from my phone when I was waiting for Bob out front.
Dad had cataract surgery and there was a wee complication (don’t worry, everything is fine) but we ended up doing an emergency trip to the clinic on a Saturday when it was normally closed.
We arrived and waited in the lobby. The doctor showed up and stuck his head out the door and said, “It looks like our offices have been ransacked. I’m going to ask you to wait outside while I call security.”
It was kind-of exciting but Dad was glum about his eye so we were also: Really? Not one thing can go smoothly?
A single security person arrived and wandered through the suite and we had our check-up and left.
When we went back for our next appointment I asked the medical tech checking us in what happened.
Someone(s) broke in sometime Saturday morning. They took “stupid stuff, our broken scanner, our laminator, equipment made specifically for the surgeons that would be useless to resell.” The went through all the lockers and drawers and cupboards. Mostly they made a mess and inconvenienced everyone. They said it was good that the doctor was called in so they were aware of the problem but I’m sure the doctor didn’t feel that way. hehe.
They arrested one guy and we did not hear of any further developments.
The Faulty Burrito
A long time ago when I worked in LA and we still got handed a check for payday, I would go out on my lunch break to my credit union to deposit my check.
There was a well known taco chain restaurant near the credit union and sometimes I would stop there and pick up lunch for myself and some of my colleagues.
One time I was in there and while I was waiting this lady went up to the counter and started berating the clerk because her burrito was folded wrong (her actual complaint) and when she took a bite, she spilled taco sauce on her fancy work dress. She demanded that she be reimbursed for her dry cleaning expense. It’s probably worth mentioning that I was in an area populated with people from the entertainment industry.
I don’t know how it came out but I would die of embarrassment before I asked a restaurant to pay for my dry cleaning because I spilled food on myself.
Too Much Content
I have a relatively small list of movies I want to see — movies that won awards or got great reviews.
I can never seem to get to them. Part of the problem is that I rarely sit down to watch TV early enough to finish something before it’s time for bed. Another problem is that I am trying to keep up with the shows I want to see. I finally made it through season 1 of The Crown, which I loved. A third problem is that often the movies I want to see have a heavy subject and after a long day, I don’t want to challenge my brain with deep drama. The final reason is that we pay a fortune for cable and channels and subscriptions and it never fails that the one movie I really want to see, is only available for an additional charge.
This isn’t to show off but I can’t stand seeing the meter at zero.
2434 / 50000 words. 5% done!
Enough With Terrible Websites
I uploaded this photo last weekend and then never had time to write a post.
Mother Nature schedules everything using my soccer schedule. Early season match in March? That calls for 40 degrees and driving rain for the duration. First midday match in May? Ninety degrees, you’re welcome!
I bought a sun hat and sprayed 45 spf all over my arms, feet, and neck-front and back: TWICE. Plus I put one of those waterproof 45 spf special for your face all over including my ears and into my hairline. We only had the sun on us for half the time and I was hot and sweaty but not lobstered.
Tomorrow we have a nooner but supposedly it will be 75 and partially cloudy. I’m still going to drench in sunscreen.
The Project of Everything: URGH. I am still losing more words than adding. I am still fighting back distress about the whole thing and giving myself positive feedback. Words are going to fly out of my brain when I need them, right? Hopefully a better update at the end of the weekend.
Today’s Technology Rager: My doctor clinic emailed me a note about a preventative exam I need to schedule. I can’t get into my account. It says my password is wrong.
I went to change password and they asked me a security question. I don’t have the slightest idea what answer I might have given since the thing does not exist for me. I probably made something up but when I do that, I usually write a note on this piece of paper next to my computer with approximately 9000 pieces of information that I need to get into websites. I wrote nothing on this item.
Now I’m all worked up and I couldn’t take care of the problem. I had to send an email to the help desk which says it will get back to me in 72 hours. Well, yahoo. What’s that? Monday?
I already know what they want from me because they also robocall me on it. Also: I ALREADY HAD THE EXAM AT THE CLINIC.
Sunshine on the Water
Destination reunion weekend turned out spectacular. Sunshine and beach views were incredible.
It was fun to spend time with people I share history with – there were a lot of great memories and laughter. It was also validating to be in a room of all women my age and most of them didn’t understand how their smart phones worked, either.
The only problem with going away is coming back. I’m still trying to get my act back together. The writing project has stalled and I haven’t managed to get it restarted yet. Oof.
It’s a predictable part of my process but I panic every time which leads to more stalling which makes me panic more. Not a great loop to be stuck in. I’m hoping some good quality sleep and a healthy diet and some magical beans will get me going again.
Last night there was another party at the rental house next door. I thought things had settled down over there. It seemed like there were semi-regular cars parked out front. They woke me up at 2:30 and kept going until 4am when they moved to the front and then stood around talking and shouting and laughing for another half hour. I am now regretful that I did not complain at the beginning. I hate being confrontational but I also hate being woken up by people who aren’t even pretending they care about being considerate. That is all changing. Knowing my luck these will be the kind of people who react by putting dog poop on my lawn and throwing rocks at my car.
There was a commuter bus that was scheduled for 5 minutes after my work day ends. Every day I would walk up the hill to catch this bus and every day it would pass me going to the next stop. I started leaving my desk a few minutes early hoping to catch it. I still missed it.
I began to build up some major outrage that the bus was so consistently leaving ahead of schedule.
Then I remembered that time this lady complained that her bus was late every single day and I suggested that if it was late every single day, maybe she was expecting it at the wrong time. I checked the bus schedule and guess what? It was changed five minutes earlier. “File complaint about bus” has been removed from my list.
Searching for Consciousness
I was going to break my social media ban to tweet these today but a ban is a ban so I am posting here. (Anything that involves opening Twitter is banned. Blogging is fine.)
Item 1 is this article that was in the NYT food section and caused me to almost sprain myself from the full body shudders of WTF?
It’s hard to pull the best quotes when the entire thing is best quotes but here you go:
“…glass orbs containing 2.5 gallons of what is billed as ‘raw water’ unfiltered, untreated, unsterilized spring water, $36.99 each and $14.99 per refill…”
“He said ‘real water’ should expire after a few months. His does. “It stays most fresh within one lunar cycle of delivery,”he said. “If it sits around too long, it’ll turn green. People don’t even realize that because all their water is dead, so they never see it turn green.”
And here is an opposite article — a really good one about great progress with Native voting rights, also from the NYT:
“[I]n late December, after a federal judge ruled that San Juan County’s longtime practice of packing Navajo voters into one voting district violated the United States Constitution, the county was ordered to draw new district lines for local elections.”
Posted in doing it wrong
Tagged everyone is stupid, Ndns
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RadioShack Is Finished
Once when Bob and I were in Germany, we went to visit this castle at the end of the day. The ticket office was closing as we walked up and the clerk came out and waved his arms at us and hollered: The castle is finished!
That sentence construction is still our favorite.
I can’t recall a pleasant experience in a RadioShack, well, ever. How did it even last as long as it did?
I went into that shop in the last couple of years and it was one of my most unpleasant retail experiences in recent memory. I think they were really into micromanagement? Some person in charge pretended to do something while narrating everything the clerk was supposed to be doing while he was helping me. It was awful and I’m not sad to see them go.
