long time no post
Mar. 5th, 2020 07:47 pmNOTE: I was writing this on March 4th. However, my writing got interrupted by my eldest slicing their finger open while making dinner, and I've not gotten back to it. I need to reboot my machine, and am posting this so I don't lose it. No clue when I'll get back to it...
I sort of rely on having tabs open and being able to cruise through them. A while back the tab for this fell off my standard 'open all these when I reboot', so I haven't read in a while.
Things with me:
A) Otter's still dead.
B) Since my local IT department is no longer answering their phone calls (see previous sentence), which was a pain in the ass when my disk drive decided it couldn't find its boot sector with both hands and a map.(0) I have, however, purchased a new computer, in pieces, that was put together in store.(1)The guy at the Microcenter Build-It-Yourself counter claimed to recognize me, which is interesting. He also knew Otter's RL name, so he certainly did do it accurately. He looked familiar, but so do many people. He was quite fine, however, neither talking down to me nor obnoxiously upselling me, and was happy to deduct $50 for not putting Windows on the machine. ("you're sure? just checking..." "Yes, I'm quite sure that I'm happy to not pay $50 for software that I'm never, ever, going to use.") I also Installed Linux (tm) with much help from![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bikergeek (thank you very much) (no clue if that's going to link properly... probably not, but I don't recall how to link to people anymore).
C) A FoaF visited (along with the relevant F) with a device to hook up my old disk. His Clonezilla-on-a-stick in my laptop couldn't find it, but when we booted the laptop and su'ed to root, it was visible. Now, there's some suspicion that the disk is having problems spinning up fast enough for the rest of the computer to be happy booting from it, so it's unclear if the problem was clonezilla weirdness, lack of root, or laggy spinup. Because the drive didn't give any errors before that, just wasn't seen, and when it was seen there were no errors being thrown. *shrug*. I tried just copying things up to my new desktop (yes, over wifi); I had it showing me what files it was copying, and the fourth time it named the same files (discord...) I decided that there was a weird loop somewhere. I'm *pretty* sure I don't have 4 differnet copies of discord on that drive... So then I used tar, and it globbed up 750gig - which was about the right amount of stuff. And then I tried to zip it (because I hadn't found the 'while you're doing this, compress it too' option) and that didn't have enough space on the 2 terabyte drive. So, I just copied the file up to my desktop, 24 hours ish over wifi. Whee? Next thing is to untar the glob and make sure it's functional. In the meantime, I tried to check the disk (using the innate tester thing on the Disks tool in the System menu...) and it .... refused. Again, I put the error into the geek discord channel, andbikergeek found me information. Following further commands in that information doesn't throw errors. So that's where that sits - on the dining room table downstairs, to be fussed with when I have the energy to fuss iwth it. Which means I don't have a laptop up here to do things iwth in other rooms. *sigh*
(0) "Please install boot media and reboot." was the message, I think.
(1) I'd been thinking of upgrading in pieces, since the new WoW xpac dropping in August was likely to stress my machine too much, but apparently many components have shifted in the last 5+ years and would no longer even plug into other pieces of my computer. So, new pieces.
(2) I rarely turn my machine actually all the way off. I reboot it periodically, mostly when swap, as displayed on my tracker in a panel, shows full - usually a result of running with too much memory use at a time, like 3 different browsers with multiple tabs each, plus WoW character/zone swapping. I'd done so in July when I went away for a week, and the machine had whined about booting but had done so on the second try. I'd done so in December when I went away for a week, and the machine had thrown actual errors at me, but finally booted on the third try. Then I powered it down overnight, cause swap was full and I was going to bed, and 15 hours later when I powered it up, it had lost its little mind. I didn't try waiting, at that point, just yelled for Younger Child to come disconnect it and drive me to Microcenter, because (reasonably so or not) I trust them to give me a reasonable answer to things.
D) Social Security, however, can't find its collective ass with both hands, a map, helpful people on Discord, a properly catalogued collection of help files, OR a flashlight. In October 2018, I was finally going to have my appeal hearing for the reflexive denial that had come when Otter was still alive, for my Disability application. The day before, I got a call from the lawyer to go over things, and found out that the judge had been sick for a week and his cases had been reassigned, so she didn't know which judge we'd get. She apparently ALSO didn't know that Otter had died, and This Made Everything Different, and she would refile things before the judge. However, the next morning (fortunately before I left) I got called - the judge had died. ANd so, instead of reassigning his cases LIKE THEY'D BEEN DOING FOR A WEEK ALREADY, everything was CANCELLED. Like, wtf? So there was dead silence for a few months, till apparently I got scheduled for a telepresence hearing with a judge from Boston. On April 1st. Yes, feel free to notice the foreboding. THAT judge didn't die. However, because there was a NEW application for subtly different benefits, the old application (the appeal of the denial of which he was ruling on) was no longer valid, and not useful. AND he didn't have any standing to rule on the new application, because it hadn't been through the denial/appeal process. So he said he was dismissing the old appeal. I managed to NOT start ranting and raving about this already 20 month delay after my husband died, because I didn't want to be escorted from the room.
So, around September/October or so, I call the lawyer to find out what's going on. Well, 6 months is not an unreasonable time to wait, so everything's probably fine, but we'll check anyway. 2 weeks later, I call to find out what's going on. Nothing much, still waiting, they'll contact them again and see if there's any hold up. Couple of weeks later, .... lather rinse repeat. Finally, around November, the office staff that I've been mostly talking to realizes that yes, ti's been over a month! Well, she'll just write the office a letter. 2 weeks later, She hasn't heard from them, she'll write another letter. Mid-December, I get a call - somehow, the judge dismissing the one application had dismissed the other one, also, and I have to start over. From. Scratch. *sigh* Finally - finally - later in December, I get the Actual Lawyer on the phone. Who seems to be equally baffled. She announces that she's going to call the Actual Lawyer Telephone Number, which staff can't use, but Actual Lawyers can, and Get Some Answers. About 2 hours later she calls me back. I don't recall all the bullshit that was going on, but AMONG the bullshit was that, between the Federal office and the Local office, one had me listed as Too Old for Disabled Widow's benefits, and the other had me listed as Too Young. (*headdesk*) So the current plan is for me to go through with the from-scratch application - with them helping me as much as possible with re-using old paperwork that is still valid (like the work history) - and then try to convince SocSec to retro date it to October 2018, which is when the Disabled Widow's application went through.
E) I've gotten lots of games off kickstarter. Lots.
I sort of rely on having tabs open and being able to cruise through them. A while back the tab for this fell off my standard 'open all these when I reboot', so I haven't read in a while.
Things with me:
A) Otter's still dead.
B) Since my local IT department is no longer answering their phone calls (see previous sentence), which was a pain in the ass when my disk drive decided it couldn't find its boot sector with both hands and a map.(0) I have, however, purchased a new computer, in pieces, that was put together in store.(1)The guy at the Microcenter Build-It-Yourself counter claimed to recognize me, which is interesting. He also knew Otter's RL name, so he certainly did do it accurately. He looked familiar, but so do many people. He was quite fine, however, neither talking down to me nor obnoxiously upselling me, and was happy to deduct $50 for not putting Windows on the machine. ("you're sure? just checking..." "Yes, I'm quite sure that I'm happy to not pay $50 for software that I'm never, ever, going to use.") I also Installed Linux (tm) with much help from
bikergeek (thank you very much) (no clue if that's going to link properly... probably not, but I don't recall how to link to people anymore). C) A FoaF visited (along with the relevant F) with a device to hook up my old disk. His Clonezilla-on-a-stick in my laptop couldn't find it, but when we booted the laptop and su'ed to root, it was visible. Now, there's some suspicion that the disk is having problems spinning up fast enough for the rest of the computer to be happy booting from it, so it's unclear if the problem was clonezilla weirdness, lack of root, or laggy spinup. Because the drive didn't give any errors before that, just wasn't seen, and when it was seen there were no errors being thrown. *shrug*. I tried just copying things up to my new desktop (yes, over wifi); I had it showing me what files it was copying, and the fourth time it named the same files (discord...) I decided that there was a weird loop somewhere. I'm *pretty* sure I don't have 4 differnet copies of discord on that drive... So then I used tar, and it globbed up 750gig - which was about the right amount of stuff. And then I tried to zip it (because I hadn't found the 'while you're doing this, compress it too' option) and that didn't have enough space on the 2 terabyte drive. So, I just copied the file up to my desktop, 24 hours ish over wifi. Whee? Next thing is to untar the glob and make sure it's functional. In the meantime, I tried to check the disk (using the innate tester thing on the Disks tool in the System menu...) and it .... refused. Again, I put the error into the geek discord channel, and
bikergeek found me information. Following further commands in that information doesn't throw errors. So that's where that sits - on the dining room table downstairs, to be fussed with when I have the energy to fuss iwth it. Which means I don't have a laptop up here to do things iwth in other rooms. *sigh*(0) "Please install boot media and reboot." was the message, I think.
(1) I'd been thinking of upgrading in pieces, since the new WoW xpac dropping in August was likely to stress my machine too much, but apparently many components have shifted in the last 5+ years and would no longer even plug into other pieces of my computer. So, new pieces.
(2) I rarely turn my machine actually all the way off. I reboot it periodically, mostly when swap, as displayed on my tracker in a panel, shows full - usually a result of running with too much memory use at a time, like 3 different browsers with multiple tabs each, plus WoW character/zone swapping. I'd done so in July when I went away for a week, and the machine had whined about booting but had done so on the second try. I'd done so in December when I went away for a week, and the machine had thrown actual errors at me, but finally booted on the third try. Then I powered it down overnight, cause swap was full and I was going to bed, and 15 hours later when I powered it up, it had lost its little mind. I didn't try waiting, at that point, just yelled for Younger Child to come disconnect it and drive me to Microcenter, because (reasonably so or not) I trust them to give me a reasonable answer to things.
D) Social Security, however, can't find its collective ass with both hands, a map, helpful people on Discord, a properly catalogued collection of help files, OR a flashlight. In October 2018, I was finally going to have my appeal hearing for the reflexive denial that had come when Otter was still alive, for my Disability application. The day before, I got a call from the lawyer to go over things, and found out that the judge had been sick for a week and his cases had been reassigned, so she didn't know which judge we'd get. She apparently ALSO didn't know that Otter had died, and This Made Everything Different, and she would refile things before the judge. However, the next morning (fortunately before I left) I got called - the judge had died. ANd so, instead of reassigning his cases LIKE THEY'D BEEN DOING FOR A WEEK ALREADY, everything was CANCELLED. Like, wtf? So there was dead silence for a few months, till apparently I got scheduled for a telepresence hearing with a judge from Boston. On April 1st. Yes, feel free to notice the foreboding. THAT judge didn't die. However, because there was a NEW application for subtly different benefits, the old application (the appeal of the denial of which he was ruling on) was no longer valid, and not useful. AND he didn't have any standing to rule on the new application, because it hadn't been through the denial/appeal process. So he said he was dismissing the old appeal. I managed to NOT start ranting and raving about this already 20 month delay after my husband died, because I didn't want to be escorted from the room.
So, around September/October or so, I call the lawyer to find out what's going on. Well, 6 months is not an unreasonable time to wait, so everything's probably fine, but we'll check anyway. 2 weeks later, I call to find out what's going on. Nothing much, still waiting, they'll contact them again and see if there's any hold up. Couple of weeks later, .... lather rinse repeat. Finally, around November, the office staff that I've been mostly talking to realizes that yes, ti's been over a month! Well, she'll just write the office a letter. 2 weeks later, She hasn't heard from them, she'll write another letter. Mid-December, I get a call - somehow, the judge dismissing the one application had dismissed the other one, also, and I have to start over. From. Scratch. *sigh* Finally - finally - later in December, I get the Actual Lawyer on the phone. Who seems to be equally baffled. She announces that she's going to call the Actual Lawyer Telephone Number, which staff can't use, but Actual Lawyers can, and Get Some Answers. About 2 hours later she calls me back. I don't recall all the bullshit that was going on, but AMONG the bullshit was that, between the Federal office and the Local office, one had me listed as Too Old for Disabled Widow's benefits, and the other had me listed as Too Young. (*headdesk*) So the current plan is for me to go through with the from-scratch application - with them helping me as much as possible with re-using old paperwork that is still valid (like the work history) - and then try to convince SocSec to retro date it to October 2018, which is when the Disabled Widow's application went through.
E) I've gotten lots of games off kickstarter. Lots.
