Octopus Overlords

Thnx for the 3d credit place.

I asked all about the freeze if I did it. It freezes it total..no in or out and it cant be unfrozen at will or in spurts. Have to have the new account.

As for who i talked to..no one at that one. I tried but got the run around..OR maybe that was the site that was online only. Like I said Im tired and really dont know what Im doing at this point never mind remember stuff from today. Just give out.

Cant even type..having to fix multiple typos. Think ill leave them next post

Oh..I wish social security had an easy way to monitor your SS card and any activity at all they dont allow until they call the actual person like me. Or SOMETHING. SS has zero ways to help or do anything. Rediculus in this day and age of scammers and shits. At least give me a new card. But nope.

I will throw in my recommendation that you start writing stuff down...

- what you need to do
- each place you need to contact
- phone numbers
- URL links
- who you talk to
- when you talk to them
- summary of the discussion

Hopefully you'll be able to start checking some of the things off and narrowing the list.

Also, again (actually more like again again again again!), make sure you are talking to the main fraud department for the bank. Not a local branch. Not a local person.

Im not sure I can make a police report. It will be like a couple other places..have to actually be a victim of identity theft activity on me...accounts made or stuff bought in my name..loans taken out. That sorta stuff.

Daehawk wrote: Thu Aug 24, 2023 8:06 pm Im not sure I can make a police report. It will be like a couple other places..have to actually be a victim of identity theft activity on me...accounts made or stuff bought in my name..loans taken out. That sorta stuff.

Try. Maybe you'll be able to file. Maybe you'll be told no, at which point you can shrug and do whatever's next.

Daehawk wrote: Thu Aug 24, 2023 8:06 pm Im not sure I can make a police report. It will be like a couple other places..have to actually be a victim of identity theft activity on me...accounts made or stuff bought in my name..loans taken out. That sorta stuff.

That is so. Police won't get interested unless a crime is committed.

I ran into a small version of this a few years ago. Someone stole enough identifying info from my trash to open a Comcast account in my name, which I didn't find out about until Comcast came after me for delinquent bills. I had to convince them that I did not live at the address they were servicing and had never lived there, and in fact had never been a Comcast customer, and in fact was getting my cable service at my real address from another company. But they wouldn't stop dunning me for payment until I got a police report, which I did after showing them all of my correspondence. The police might have arrested the scammers if they'd wanted to, since they had their address, but IDK if they ever followed up.

This was just one amateur opening one fraudulent account for small potatoes, and it took me months to resolve.

A few months ago, in a moment of weakness, I fell for a phishing scam and gave out way too much info before I figured it out. I immediately froze the credit bureaus and issued fraud alerts, canceled the debit card that was involved, and changed the logins and passwords to all of my bank accounts. That seems to have headed off the attack. But I know that my personal info is out there on the black market, so I have to stay vigilant.

BTW, the credit agencies make it easy to snooze your freeze for an interval that you request. I did that for a few days when we applied for a mortgage pre-qualification.

The only time i was ever taken for someone else and accused of owing money was early 90s at a movie rental place. Some of guy had my exact name and late charges. They kept hassling me for the money. I even had them look him up in the system and sure enough there was two of us...yet they wouldn't stop hounding me. I finally totally ignored them and blocked them. Screw them.

If you do file a police report I believe you'll be able to place a seven year fraud alert with the credit bureaus instead of just a one year.

Maybe you can talk to those people who were going to pay you to take a course in personal finance about your mortgage, and what happens after that last payment and if there is a final balloon payment. You need to eventually start planning for how to deal with that if it's true.

I really hate when an article gives a credit for a header image but no description. Especially with astronomy stuff. Where you don't know if it's a real image vs. an interpretation, how it's been achieved, etc.

Neighbor called in a frizzy. Seems there's a big pool of water in my front yard. Then he's tell where it was bubbling from. Then a couple of minutes he'd call again. And again,and again. I finally stopped answering the phone. I appreciate his help but enough already. Saw it last night on the way to the emergency room and just thought we'd had some rain. Called the water dept and hope like hell it's on their side of the water meter.

I saw the water company drive by, turned around and went back uphill. So the leak must have been up there or I'm having one hell of a water bill.

Didn't we used to have an "I'm drunk!" thread?

Today I found out that two failed daiquiri experiments make me feel much more buzzed than a couple of 16oz craft beers. I like playing around with the flavors even when they don't turn out great but I'm going to nod off if I try to watch a movie or read tonight.

Madmarcus wrote: Sat Aug 26, 2023 8:34 pm Didn't we used to have an "I'm drunk!" thread?

I don't know, but we used to have lots of discussions about something similar that really didn't age well.

Hmm, now you are making me want to go back and examine our shameful past at least a little.

Madmarcus wrote: Sat Aug 26, 2023 8:34 pm Didn't we used to have an "I'm drunk!" thread?

Today I found out that two failed daiquiri experiments make me feel much more buzzed than a couple of 16oz craft beers. I like playing around with the flavors even when they don't turn out great but I'm going to nod off if I try to watch a movie or read tonight.

Do you mean Whatcha drinking?

Not really as that one is focused on beer.

In this case it's a first step into adult rums. Years ago in college or just after college I remember rum being also like vodka; a sort of flavorless base spirit for making sweet drinks. Now I'm into different things but seeing my brother in laws' collection of 30+ bourbons made me realize that I've never tried rum as a spirit outside of the concept of buying the cheap stuff and adding a lot of fruit and sugar. So I picked up some Barbancourt Haitian rhum to try the agricole style. It's not technically argicole as it's not from the proper island (Martinique or Guadeloupe) but it is the same process from sugar cane juice instead of molasses.

The end result is that it's fine but not exciting on it's own but both attempts at a daiquiri tasted salty. I didn't find a shot of Barbancourt to taste salty but somehow lime brought it out. Plus I'm feeling the buzz after 1 shot of rum plus 2 more in the two attempts at making a decent drink. I have one more things I'd like to try but it is going to have to wait until another night.

I only ever drank rum mixed with Coke when I was a kid. I was into sweets then. I did try Kraken spiced rum several years ago because of course I did, and I liked that well enough straight up. Never had a daiquiri though.

Other than a rum and coke or rum and dr pepper I only had cocktails at bars in the late 80s. I love cocktails though just don't care to go to a bar.

I only drink straight drinks when I do..or did. One day again. But I love rum the most. Stuff like Pyrat Rum, Kraken Black, Appleton Estate, and sometimes coconut or spiced rums...like that Kraken.

When I was a kid (I did most of my drinking before I finished high school - I haven't been drunk in decades, and have no desire to be again), it was either whatever beer or wine was cheapest or straight liquor. The one exception was that if we got cheap vodka (the kind they sell by the half-gallon), we'd buy cheap 2-liters to dump it in, but that was more about masking the taste than the quality of the finished product.

For most of my 20s, my drink of choice was a whiskey sour. Since then? I'm more likely to have a beer, but if I do get a mixed drink, it's probably a vodka collins.

My niece introduced me to Total Wine's version of Fireball.

Normally I'm a beer person. I like hard spirits and have a simple drink (gin and tonic, whiskey and ginger beer) occasionally but mostly beer.

On the other hand I love to cook and experiment with flavors and all IPAs are starting to blend together. My inner chemist clicks with the idea that many drinks are fundamentally the same ratios. A daiquiri is two parts rum, one part simply syrup, and one part lime juice. But what if you use a sweet liqueur in place of the simple syrup? Are there other sour liquids that would work in drinks besides citrus juice? Then what about making my own liqueurs that aren't quite as sweet, have unusual flavors, or are made with allulose to make them better for a low carb diet (which is also a knock against beer).

Blackhawk wrote: Sat Aug 26, 2023 10:24 pm When I was a kid (I did most of my drinking before I finished high school - I haven't been drunk in decades, and have no desire to be again),

Well, I'm a daily drinker but I can't remember the last time I got drunk.

I know my tolerance and almost never exceed it, but I do love my beer.

Oh as a teen I liked Schnapps when we could get some. Rootbeer, peach, and last would be peppermint. Wish Id got to try apple. Have to fix that one day.

What so bad about being drunk?

…

Ask a glass of water.

I dont get the hoarding of treasure by DnD dragons. they love it, sit on it, sleep on it....yet they cant go to town and spend any of it. Why bother. Why not hoard chickens or something..they could at least eat those.

I'm continuing my journey of sobriety, but I fondly recall a coworker who kept a bottle of Captain Morgan in his desk.

We worked in a bookstore, and he always taped a copy of Walt Whitman's poem "Oh Captain! My Captain!" across the label.

Daehawk wrote: Sun Aug 27, 2023 5:46 pm I dont get the hoarding of treasure by DnD dragons. they love it, sit on it, sleep on it....yet they cant go to town and spend any of it. Why bother. Why not hoard chickens or something..they could at least eat those.

Dragons are an important part of managing inflation in fantasy-medieval economies. While safely dragoned, the hoarded gold is out of circulation.

In theory, the death of Smaug should have collapsed the entire monetary economy of Middle-earth.

Ask the Spaniards about all that silver they brought back.

Isgrimnur wrote: Sun Aug 27, 2023 5:59 pm Ask the Spaniards about all that silver they brought back.

Ah, another Europa Universalis player!

Holman wrote: Sun Aug 27, 2023 6:17 pm

Isgrimnur wrote: Sun Aug 27, 2023 5:59 pm Ask the Spaniards about all that silver they brought back.

Ah, another Europa Universalis player!

I most recently ran into that factoid by listening to a Behind the Bastards podcast.

Daehawk wrote: Sun Aug 27, 2023 5:46 pm I dont get the hoarding of treasure by DnD dragons. they love it, sit on it, sleep on it....yet they cant go to town and spend any of it. Why bother. Why not hoard chickens or something..they could at least eat those.

You could say the same thing about giant mansions you never see more than three rooms in, $500,000 cars, diamonds, million-dollar paintings you never look at, solid gold toilet seats, or any other status symbol whose function is absolutely not worth the price.

D&D dragons are ancient, super-intelligent (most of them), and have a complex society. For them, the contents of the hoard is representative of their power. It's prestige and respect.

Blackhawk wrote: Sun Aug 27, 2023 7:00 pm For them, the contents of the hoard is representative of their power. It's prestige and respect.

I've found my spirit animal! My hoard represents lack of trust in fiat currency.

After 18.5 years it's moving day - wife and I got a much nicer place about a mile away. Spent the weekend packing everything we own (and boy does the stuff accumulate over nearly two decades) and the movers come today to get the furniture and boxes.

It's a little bittersweet. This is the home purchased with my first wife so long ago. It's the only home my 18 year old daughter has ever known and she's struggling with moving just a few weeks before going off to college. The new home is a massive upgrade and while I always appreciate how my second wife joined the family with little friction I think this has always felt like "my house" instead of "our house."

Honestly the biggest hurdle is the cats. We've got three and one of them is a runner. If she sees an open door she makes a dash for it but she's too dumb to trust out on her own. I'm terrified that she's going to get out at the new place and either just get lost or try to find her way back to the old house. It's not a long journey but there's a pretty major 4 lane road between them that I don't want her to try to cross.

When I was 5 we moved to California to a new house of course and I too would run out the door when it was opened.
I always came back tho.

I bought my last house about 4 months before I met my now wife, and we lived there for about 15 years. One of the sneaky benefits about moving to the new house is that she now has to share the blame when something goes wrong with the house!

Exodor wrote: Mon Aug 28, 2023 8:34 am
Honestly the biggest hurdle is the cats. We've got three and one of them is a runner. If she sees an open door she makes a dash for it but she's too dumb to trust out on her own. I'm terrified that she's going to get out at the new place and either just get lost or try to find her way back to the old house. It's not a long journey but there's a pretty major 4 lane road between them that I don't want her to try to cross.

Cat security is a concern as we shop for a new house. Warren gets out about once a week; he loves to run and I like to watch him do it. He comes in after an hour or two at most, but we're looking at rural houses in the Berkshires, where there are bears and fishers and other critters that can make short work of a naive housecat. Ideally we want a place with a "catio" where they can both hang out and an "airlock" main entrance so they can't do the door dash.

Catio was one of the most important purchases as soon as we moved into our new house.

Biggest question for me when the oldest goes to college next year is what happens to his cat. The cat has slept in my son's room (mostly so he will leave the crated dogs alone) every night for most of his life. I am not sure which of them is going to be more upset by the change.

I hate wearing XL shirts. Some years before my wife died I got down into L again and loved it. Was proud. But after she passed I jumped back up to XL. Hate it. I mean they look fine and I look fine its me personally that dislikes it. I gained belly fat at 50. I turned 50 4 months after losing her. I think between the loss, the age, and all the mental stuff I just got my dad's belly suddenly. And it wont go away. Doesn't matter if all I have is half a sandwich all day or a plate of spaghetti. It stays.

I got it smaller but it has bounced back in the last few weeks. Guess the new stress. I NEVER once in my life before 50 had a tummy. Life is life. I think im 25. Until I pass the mirror and wonder who that is. I dont think I look my ago but I sure dont look 25 now.

One of my pigeons is perched on the fan.

I hope I don't discover the truth of a certain saying...

I cant get to the laundry mat until my car is running. i looked into hoem service. Nice but they want $2 per pound with a 15lb minimum ouch. I dont think i have 15 lbs worth but I am out of home / yard work clothes. I dont have many clothes so I usually wash every couple weeks. my step mom washed once a week. But i put it off. But ive been out of a car over 2 weeks now.

Fun continues.

I did get some happy news on my mortgage. i was worried about it not paying off but they assured me it will. Thank God. I knew how long it was and how much we pay plus we never missed any payments. So it HAD to pay off.

One thing is I used a couple of amortization calcs online. With the stats of our mortgage all of them listed the monthly payment as about $380 . I pay $447. I put in the right interest and all...strange i pay more than the calcs suggested it should be.