Eight'll get you Ten Mini-rants for October

They didn’t change usernames. They reset passwords to, well, something absurdly unsecure. Now I am trying to reset everything, which would be easy on my computer at home but frustratingly difficult on a mobile phone. Fucking assholes.

I pit the low life asshole that tried to hijack my computer. This dude sent me an email last Wednesday night saying he knew my username and password from browsing porn sites (and by the way I had good taste); only he called it a passcode. He said if I didn’t cough up $7000 in bitcoin in two days, that he would send porn videos starring me to all of my email contacts. He said he turned on my webcam and got a picture of me. I don’t have a webcam on this computer and my laptop has one, but it quit working after a Microsoft update about 5 months ago, so I uninstalled the software. I shut down this PC while I went out of town for 4 days and unplugged the cable modem. While I was gone, I had my laptop with me, and on Friday it appeared someone hacked into it, because I was unable to do anything for about 5 minutes. Long story short, I got rid of all of the crap he had put on my PC for $600, but I have 24/7 support for two years. By the way, I’m a 65 year old married female that doesn’t do porn!

I love* that my banks’ passwords are all numbers (and at least one is over four digits, hallellujah; the other one can’t be) and every time I type them my protection software goes nuts. “[Casper]Noooooo! Insecure paaaaaaasswoooooord![/Casper] [chirpy Casper]Would you like to change your password?[/chirpy Casper]” I wouldn’t mind but what can I say Casper, the banks won’t accept anything but numbers!

  • That’s sarcasm, in case anybody’s detector is broken.

Maybe he was offering you a job.

I got pretty much the same message yesterday, right down to the $7000 in bitcoin. Did some checking and shit-canned the message, but think I’ll run a full Norton sweep today.

As for my looking at porn (or not), ain’t nobody’s business but my own.

I just had a “more technical work interview” which sounded straight out of those certification exams I never bothered with. “What’s the menu path to configure XYZ situation?” Like I fucking remember dude. I know how to follow the menu paths, but I’ve never known anybody who could recite them by heart unless they were cramming for the cert, and then only those specific paths which are part of the prep.

It’s akin to a driver’s test where someone asked me what’s the route to go from Castellana 144 to Gran Vía 13 in Madrid. Assuming such street numbers exist (the streets themselves do), I can get from one to the other, but I’ve got no idea how many meters and in what cardinal direction would I need to move in between turns.

:):):slight_smile:

In your defense, those are some lovely pygmy llamas.

Eff that nonsense. It’s all about the keyboard shortcuts. :stuck_out_tongue:

Some asswipe stole my little FunkoPop figure off of my desk at work. :mad:

Ooh, but you can rejoice in my good fortune. Kind of a “Circle of Life” thing, except that your life is sucking and mine isn’t (for the past half hour…).

I popped into my favorite comic book shop on the way home, and the owner pulled out something he’d gotten in just because he thought I’d like it…

A Bob Ross PEZ Dispenser.

Ok, it’s not a cat, but we’re gonna need a pic.

Edit: never mind, Google has plenty of pics. Pretty cool.

Just popped in to report that I’m really looking forward to my spinal tap on Monday.

I put a sticker over the camera on all of my computers.

Freaking chemo - I had cold weather survival driven into my head growing up, I can gauge to a t how much in danger I am for hypothermia and frostbite … one of the tricks is knowing the feeling of when my toes are in danger, and judging how long I have been standing in snow by how far progressed the numbness is. Oxaliplatin gives me an exaggerated cold response [I can give my self hives with exposure to cold, it is sort of neat to watch, I can draw an ice cube down my forearm, get a long hive response, then cover it with a warm wash cloth and the hives go away =) ]
Right now, my toes are pretty much totally numb to the foot, the soles of my feet are numb back to the heel with a slow resumption of numb and tingly/pins and needles the further back on my foot I go, same with my hands, though there I get a loss coordination and hand strength. If I had to gauge things, I woudl say that my toes are in danger of severe frostbite, treated by submersion in body temp water and no rubbing, same with hands except I have full capillary refill and my extremities are warm to the touch. sigh I also have 55 000 platelets per whatever liquid measure. No wonder I am sleeping any time I am not doing anything and if I stand up I brown out.

Hang in. My spinal will let me know if I’m facing full-blown chemo or just Rituximab.

It turns out that it is indeed possible to simultaneously drive 50mph down a road with no shoulder and vomit into a grocery bag. And that there’s no high-stakes pressure quite like being in your car and realizing that no, the nausea is not going away with deep breaths, you are rapidly approaching the point of no return, there’s nowhere to safely pull over fast enough, and you have about 5 seconds to fumble around in the car and find some container to puke in. Decisions, decisions.

This morning’s commute was singularly unpleasant.

I have to ask…was the grocery bag filled with groceries at the time?

At least you had a bag. When I puked in my car, I was trying desperately to find an exit, but didn’t quite make it in time.

Had to tell the detail place the next day that “My friend borrowed my car and threw up in it”

$150 :frowning:

I managed to dump them into the passenger footwell with a second to spare.

Then there was the matter of arriving at work and furtively trying to dispose of a grocery bag of vomit.

And to forestall questions of why I went to work while throwing up, I’m on doxycycline for a sinus infection and severe nausea is one of the known possible side effects, so I knew if I could just ride it out I’d be OK in an hour or so. The pharmacy insert says to try to take it on an empty stomach but to take it with food if it causes major stomach upset, so I guess I passed that threshold.

How about going 70 mph on an interstate in a sketchy area (no pulling over!) while vomiting into a Ziploc baggie?

They should teach these skills in driver’s ed.