Random Thread ~Usagi-Chan ☮ Tūsurī~

[erilaz]

I got a completely unexpected gift in the mail today. My friends at the Tolkien Estate sent me one of the Royal Mint's new £2 coins commemorating J.R.R. Tolkien. September 2nd was the 50th anniversary of the Professor's passing.

Purely by chance ("if chance you call it") it arrived today of all days. September 14th on our calendar corresponds to Halimath 22 on the Shire Calendar, Yavannië 30 or Cormarë (Ringday) in the New Reckoning, Bilbo and Frodo's birthday.

[Zunu]

My friends at the Tolkien Estate

My friends at the Dunkin Estate gave me 6 hash browns when I bought a bacon, egg, and cheese samwich. My own little potato sackful-bag'uns. Wasn't quite my eleventy-first birthday but it's nor as far off as it used to be.

[Zunu]

Some days ago it appears that completely without my knowledge someone may have attempted or possibly succeeded in getting into a near-abandoned Facebook account of mine. So I got an email from Facebook management informing me of the issue, and telling me that my account was locked until I logged on with my identifying info to reset it. Despite my initial suspicions, I manually entered the Facebook site, and was greeted with confirmation when I went to log in that the problem was real.

I provided my email address and some personal info known to the Facebook server, and it had me reset my password. But...that wasn't sufficient. It then said I had to scan and upload document(s)! to prove that I was the owner of the account. Such as the following:

Spoiler: show

Government IDs
You can send us 1 government ID to confirm your name or regain access to your account.
Anything that you send us should contain either:
Your name and date of birth, or
Your name and a photo.
Some examples of government IDs we accept include:
Driver’s license
National identity card
Passport
Birth certificate
Non-Government IDs
We understand that your authentic name may not be represented on an official, government-issued ID, or you may not have access to this type of document.
If you can't provide a government ID, you can send us 2 different non-government IDs instead.
Keep in mind:
Anything that you send us must include your name.
At least 1 of the 2 documents should include your date of birth and/or photo.
The name on the items that you send must be the same name that you want to show on your profile.
If you've lost access to your account, you may be asked to provide something from the list that also shows a photo or date of birth that matches the details on your Facebook account. This extra precaution helps us ensure that only you have access to your account.
Examples of non-government IDs we accept:
Student card
Library card
Refugee card
Employment verification
Diploma
Loyalty card

Needless to say, I ain't uploading any of that crap to Facebook. And even if I wanted to, the name on my documents doesn't exactly match the name on my FB account, and there's no way I'm changing a gotdang social media account to my official name. So, goodbye Facebook (at least that account). If they come for my Insta I'll be pretty sad though. Anyway, so if anybody here gets a Facebook IM from me saying I'm stuck in Belarus and to please wire me 10,000 ruble, well, it's not from me, so don't! But if you really want to wire me 10,000 ruble anyway we can make it happen, I'll even eat the exchange costs!

[boinsie]

Ugh, that blows! Thankfully(??), I think the only you I ever followed on Facebook doesn't seem to exist anymore, so we're probably good.
But ooh! A Zuunsta?? This will be my white whale...

[TotallyUncool]

Too many web sites are asking for personal documents like they're some kind of secret police - it doesn't exactly inspire confidence in their intentions, particularly when it's a social media site.

Which reminds me of a dream that I had this morning, which I took as a comment on the current state of social media:

Spoiler: show

I was at a large, noisy, and brightly lit internet cafe / coffee house, hanging out with friends and talking, when the manager told me that I hand to leave. I asked why, and he said that it was because I hadn't shaved very well under my chin.
At that point, I started yelling at him - "THAT MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE! BESIDES, THERE ARE LOTS OF PEOPLE HERE WITH FULL BEARDS, AND YOU'RE NOT KICKING THEM OUT! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"
He said that his associate (some middle-aged guy in a suit) would explain it to me outside, so I went outside with Mr. Suit (even though I knew at that point that the place was run by a very low-budget spy ring operating out of Japan, and probably working for North Korea or Russia).
When we got outside, I grabbed Mr. Suit by the throat and started screaming in his face, demanding answers. He didn't say anything, so I picked him up by his ankles, walked back towards the cafe, and threw him at the manager, who was standing outside drinking something that looked a lot like Yakult.
"That should be cheap whiskey, after all the stupid things you've been doing!" I snarled at him as I walked by.
By that time, they were kicking everybody out. I caught up with my brother, and we walked outside, loudly talking about what an incompetent spy the manager was for having drawn so much attention to himself - saying that he was even more inept than Andrew Daulton Lee.
It was pretty clear in my dream that the internet cafe / coffee house was really just a mix of every major social media site that I spend much time at, so I guess that's what I think of them at this point.

[rikkikow]

^ Nice one. I dream every night. My dreams are more interesting than my real life.

I do not think I mentioned that I resubscribed to the San Francisco Chronicle a week ago after punishing them by canceling the paper for a year for not delivering my paper consistently. So far so good on the delivery. I resubscribed only to get the Sports, Jumble Puzzle, and the Comics. The rest is political garbage. It makes it so much easier to keep track of the college and pro basketball and football games. It is expensive though in my opinion.

I forgot how much I love the comics though. It is the only thing that makes any sense anymore.

Tuesday, September 19, 2023
https://comicskingdom.com/blondie/2023-09-19

You know you are right when Blondie agrees with you!

[Spaghetti-Western]

I had a bit of a digital hiccup here. Starting Monday afternoon, my Linux distro decided that I needed to do more hair pulling than previous So it's been a wrestling match to get back here - finally! Nothing happened while I was gone, right?

[Zunu]

^ We all musical-chaired our identities while you were gone. So I'm the former rikkikow (backyard bustard photos incoming). The person who is now using rikkikow is the former Yattaruchan. The former Yattaruchan has grabbed the Amped username. Former-Amped is now erilaz, our resident Entwife-whisperer now calls himself Ayin, previous Ayin is now Moh, etc.

So in other words, nope, nothing important happened!

[Amped]

I'm not worthy to represent the great erilaz. Zunu is the new me / celedam? He is cranking out the news before me. rikkikow and Yattaruchan are the same person.

[rikkikow]

^ I get it but the real truth can be found in the H!PS voting.