I’ve done this for all my online life. In fact, here are some closing parens to make up for some of the ones I’ve omitted in the past:
))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
Well, looks like I’m between the proverbial rock and hard place, don’t it?
On the one hand, I might not should work or do the bike ride because it may affect my SSDI approval, but on the other hand, if I don’t work or do the ride, I sit here and stagnate and am not any help to my wife with the bills, groceries, etc.
I can still think (reasonably well)! I just have short-term memory problems to the point where my docs say I’m demented and depressed.
Jesus! Just saying that word demented makes me cringe.
I’m on the horns of one o’ them “dillemmers”, looks like to me.
Thanks
Q
Twickster, I was looking for you to jump in as soon as Quasi brought that issue up!
Now, Quasi, it occurred to me, that if you are advised (by your lawyers or your physician) that riding your bike in the spay & neuter festivities would be, well, inadvisible, could there be some sort of compromise? Are there side cars for bicycles? (That’s a serious question. I honestly don’t know.) Would some sort of motorized scooter chair be permitted? Could you ride shotgun in a golf cart?
Hey, Sweetie Pea!
It’s always good to get input and I do pay close attention to what y’all advise, thanks.
Here’s some answers to your questions:
No sidecars for bicycles (that I know of, anyway:))
Even if I were a complete moron, I’d remember how to pedal a bicycle, and that’s what I’ll be doing, fate permitting!
So no golf carts, no bicycle side cars, no scooter chair (which would have to be re-charged… what?.. every frickin’ 15 minutes as I try to negotiate those hills inbetween the two Carrolltons?)
No nothing.
Just Quasi on da bike! For the 4-leggers!
Thanks
Q
Bike it is then. Hope it works out for you!
Oh, it will!
Might be the last time I can do this, but at 60, I need to do this for our animals and our pets!
My saying is, “We domesticated them! That makes US responsible!”
Thanks!
Quasi
:(Sorry about that. It was honestly just a suggestion. But then again, its not even reconized medical treatment or anything. Sorry, just trying to help. Always stick with what your doc tells you.
You gotta do what’s ultimately the most right thing for you hon. Just remember that and everything’ll work out.
… is what it is all about.
Your friend,
Quasi
Quasi, just wanted to say that on your worst days, your English grammar and punctuation are better than 80% of the students I teach at a college.
I blame the current US educational system, but regardless - I wish my students even knew what a comma was, let alone use one occasionally.
Dmark, I majored in English Lit and minored in Education.
One of the reasons I am so “anal” about forgetting my *own * grammar training, is that I don’t only “gloss over” posts which interest me, I really do read them.
It helps the dementia.
Also, I learned to speak English from a German-English dictionary, so I focus like a hawk on any word I see.
One of my many shortcomings with writing/answering posts and threads here is that I sometimes capitalize nouns.
It’s the “German” in me, ah reckon!
Plus, and in addition, I tend to get redundatious again and again.
Thanks
Quasi
(pm: This took about 25 minutes to type!)
Quasi, have you considered a tandem bicycle for your ride? If you’re ok’d by your attorney for the ride, this may be an option. It would have the added bonus of having a partner right there on the bike with you should you become disoriented.
To change the subject, your spelling and grammar are still as good or better than a lot of us Dopers’.
missred,
Have not considered it until now, but it would be very hard to get another cyclist to commit to 9 days of riding.
Regarding the disorientation, I would have a support van with me at all times, and I still have a lot of cognitive function left, so I am hoping that wouldn’t happen.
In regards to the work thing, my lawyers have advised me to wait till after March 9th, since that would be one full year that I have been out of work. I just have to let them know how many hours a week (VERY sporadic) and any restrictions.
Finally, I know all of this is a very “sticky” situation, but man, I feel so letting her do all the work.
I just hope everything works out and thanks for the compliments about the grammar. I DO lapse into “southern speak” sometimes, but that just for comic relief.
Thanks
Quasi
Got a letter from the “big dawgs” at Binder & Binder recently informing me they had requested a hearing for me with SSDI.
That’s (I guess) the “good news”.
The bad news is they also told me that on the average it takes 475 days from the date one applies for disability to get that hearing. I checked this out and sure enough, that’s what they say. That’s from March of 2009, by the way.
Then Mr. Binder goes on to tell me that sometimes a “video hearing” can be conducted utilizing a “judge who may not be otherwise occupied”.
Charles Binder also wrote, " On our recent television commercials, I’ve promsed that, ‘We’ll deal with the government. You have enough to worry about.’ I know that one of the biggest worries you have is the time it usually takes to schedule your hearing…" and then he goes on to tell me about the video thing.
This hearing, if it happens, will be administered by an ALJ (administrative law judge) and my B&B advocate would be present.
Meanwhile, back on the farm, the short term memory loss is getting worse and the anti-depression meds are still at their max. The endorphins released from my cycling are helping, but it’s so damn hot down here in Georgia, that I can’t ride for very long at a time without having to stop for rest and rehydration.
One reason I say they are “getting worse” is that a week ago we all went out to dinner to celebrate my niece’s birthday and today I asked her husband if we were planning on doing anything for her birthday this weekend.
Just a heads-up if you have a friend and/or loved one in the same predicament as me.
Thanks for keeping me in your thoughts
Quasi
I have a friend who has some brain damage, from alcohol - not alzheimers, who went to hospital for some extensive memory training (two weeks 24/7). It helped him a lot, now he can actually remember what happened yesterday, while before he couldn’t remember if you had called him a few hours before. He used to do exactly what you describe.
I can ask him about it if you want me to, there may be a program like it in USA.
I hope I may say that I admire your courage.
Today I checked my e-mail from my phone and found one from someone named Melanie and here is what was in the message area:
“Your Social Security Claim has been approved.”
Well, my heart took a leap, because that’s a very big retroactive check which would come in very handy.
But then I looked at the sender’s address, Melanie@dawprty.com (left off some letters so no one would click on the address), and did a search and of course that address brought up “Object not found” with a google search.
When I looked further, she had written: “Go here” and when I looked at the link it was a very long one beginning with “firelightcrew” and then a slash and a bunch of numbers and letters and I knew for sure I’d been had.
I wasn’t thinking straight then, but later I said to myself, “The only way that could have been legit was if it had come from your lawyers and/or SSDI and THEY would have written a letter.”
I also did a search on her message content, thinking it was viral, but again, nothing came up, so I have to think it was specifically for me.
Why? Maybe because of this thread (although I am not accusing ANY ONE of you, my friends!) And maybe also because of the blog which, if you do a search of my name, brings up my entries.
And there’s one more suspicious item: The 3 first letters of her name. It was a nickname I used for someone in my past, although Melanie wasn’t her name. We didn’t part on good terms.
I know. It’s good I didn’t click on the link, because I could have downloaded a virus.
So am I just being paranoid? I left off the back part of the link, but if anyone wants to see the whole thing let me know and I’ll forward it to you. There’s a bit more on the bottom: an address for firelightcrew.com and an option to block any further mail.
I also did a full header thing, but hell, I can’t figure it out.
I sat there in my car, shook my head and just couldn’t believe that someone would be that mean-spirited.
Bill
That just totally sucks ass =( You can try reporting it to the ISP as spam, and if it claims to be official, report it to the SSN authorities …
That just isn’t nice.
I know there are Dopers here who are very good at tracking down such things. I’m not one of them, and I doubt it would be allowed. But if one wanted to take it off-board he or she could PM you.
Hi Quasi
You probably got a generic email. I’ll bet the subject line included your email address or, if part of your email address resembled a name, a fragment to make it look personalised. For example, if my email address was billybazonka@gmail.com, I would expect spam generating software to try and recognise a name and refer to me (in the subject line or first line of email body) as “billybazonka”. That’s the most common alarm to watch out for.
So, let’s take an extreme example of an email like this:
*Hi billybazonka
Did you know that you can increase your breasts by three cup sizes by doing a few simple and totally free exercises each day? Click [Here[/] to learn how.
(NOTE: DO NOT CLICK THE ABOVE LINK)
The first thing to do is hover your mouse over the “here” link and look at what is shows in the email client’s or browser’s Status bar at the bottom (usually left) of your open window. If you don’t see your Status Bar, then do as follows:
Internet Explorer\Firefox\Opera > View menu > Toolbars > click “Status Bar” or View menu > click “Status Bar”.
Google Chrome shows the status bar as a blue highlit area at the bottom left that pops up when needed.
Email clients like Outlook Express, Outlook, Windows Live Mail, etc all have a Status Bar that can usually be shown or hidden too.
In general, the web address (URL) that shows in the status bar when you hover over a link is where it will take you when you click on it, but not always. You can make the status bar show something entirely different, and a good way to ascertain the true link is to Right-Click on it and “Copy Shortcut” (or equivalents like “Copy link location” in other browsers). Open a plain text editor like Windows Notepad (not a “rich text” editor like word processing applications) and paste what you copied - usually Edit menu > Paste. (Ctrl key and V key also pastes).
In the above example the web address of the link is:
http://www.hugemelons.com/aby7q?=zxty68v996#hflem0007g[/]
(DON’T CLICK ON IT!)
OK, so you want to check out the “hugemelons.com” domain first. Every “domain name” has to be registered, and the database is overseen and maintained by the “Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers” or ICANN. There are millions of Domain Name Registrants who can allow you to search for your own new domain name and buy it from them, so a lookup is possible and quite easy to do using any of a number of “WhoIs” lookup sites. For example a domain name search at:
http://www.whois-search.com/](http://www.hugemelons.com/aby7q?=zxty68v996#hflem0007g)
for “straightdope.com”
will give you the name and address of the "Registrant"and Administrative Contact, and most often the email to contact if you are receiving spam, etc from that domain.
Another good source of information is http://www.internic.net/
You’re gonna go and look up “hugemelons.com”, aren’t you? I knew it, you already have! People and companies snatch up domain names that are likely to be either useful in reflecting the nature of their business, or to get an innocuous sounding domain name to disguies the fact that you are being taken to a porn, scam, phishing, or advertising site. They also get domain names that mimic legitimate and well known domains, eg. gooogle.com instead of google.com. These sites take advantage of mistyped web addresses or mimic the real site. Would you have noticed the extra “o” in the Status Bar or up in your Address Bar? In fact Google has already registered gooogle.com as a preventative measure and it will just resolve to the real google web address.
The other thing to look for in determining if an email has been personalised to you is the content. I’m aroused - or should I say that my suspicions are aroused - by the fact that I am being offered the secrets of breast enlargement, but I am a man!! A dead give away don’t you think?
Of course that is a comical example of quite obvious spam, but that link would very possibly result in you being locked into an endless cycle of porn pages that re-generated as you kept trying to close them, and offered a dialog like "Bookmark this page - Yes or cancel buttons which could be doing anything to your computer including the download of viruses or spyware. Tip: Alt and F4 Keys used together normally close each window or dialog quickly in such circumstances, sometimes allowing you to exit without clicking any buttons.
Anyway, by referring to me in the email as Dear billybazonka" rather than “Dear Mr. Bazonka” or “Billy Bazonka” should set the alert flag straight off. The inclusion of your own email address in the Subject Line of an email as a prefix of, or suffix to, the actual subject is also the tell-tale trademark of an auto-generated malicious or spam message. You would be unlikely to see a subject like “Billy Bazonka, your SSDI application has been approved” from the official and genuine source. The recipient already knows who he or she is and doesn’t need to be told that, but in a spammy email it adds extra weight to induce the person to believe they are the only recipient.
If you have ever used a word processing application’s “Mail Merge” function, you will be aware that you can create one letter and have various fields automatically populated on each separate and different letter as you print the document. It fetches the names, addresses, etc from a database source, just as mass emailing software makes you think you were the only recipient.
Just as google scans the planet’s web pages and stores them away for use in its searches, so too do malicious “spiders” that look for email addresses in peoples’ web pages to grab and store in mass mailing databases.
So, the email you received is preying on probably about 2% of the population of America who may have actually applied for Social Security Benefits in the same way that a phishing email inducing you to “update your details with PayPal” could well seem genuine to the millions of Internet users who have ever bought something on eBay.
Another thing to watch for. Any link that would take you to a page to see what amounts to personal and confidential information should always have https:// rather than http://
The “S” means “Secure”, and most browsers will show an icon like a padlock or change the colour of the Address Bar to show that it is a secure site.
Your email address is clearly in the database of some mass mailer out there somewhere. You can usually create spam “rules” in your email software to look for messages with commonly used phrases, but it takes ages maintaining the rules and sometimes you block legitimate emails. This is something that affects all of us and makes us mad, but unfortunately is something we have to live with to use Internet Email in the same way that we have to tolerate assholes who live with their mobile phones stuck to their ears and bellow out private conversation to their phone friend in public places.
Just look for and try to recognise the signs without opening an email and, if in any doubt, DON’T CLICK! I know a lot of business communication now passes by email, but if it is important they will mail a printed and official letter to you.
Billy
OMG, Billy! Thanks for taking the time and trouble to write all of that and educate me! I do understand more now what went on and what I have to look out for.
One question: should I report this to any legal entity? I am thinking of all the poor guys like me who’d walk around with shit-eating grins on their faces thinking, “finally!!!” and waiting in vain for a check for back benefits which will never come.
Thanks again for that very insightful and thoughtful answer to my post!
Quasi