I hallucinate just fine on my own. That's why I write: to keep people from realizing I really am this strange.
What made me unhappy today ?
- Thread starter big soft moose
- Start date
I've found out that the US Real ID program is screwing up my life.
In my non-writing life, I have on my birth certificate a middle name I never particularly liked. About the time I turned 18, a good friend gave me another. That was over 50 years ago, and I've used it ever since. Bank accounts, car insurance, car registrations, house mortgage, email addresses-‐- all have the acquired initial. My passports have both middle names. But I've never changed it legally.
Formerly, my driver's license had both middle initials, or no initial at all. But when I got my Real ID, it defaulted to the full middle name that's on my birth certificate. That hasn't mattered, until now. Yesterday, I got a text from the dealership where I recently bought my new/used car. He says it's a problem for the titling that my license and my insurance have a different initial/middle name, and I have to get my policy reissued to match the license.
What else is this going to screw up? It all feels so oppressive and stupid.
Maybe I'll have to go to the hassle of making the legal change. But right now I just want all this to go away.
In my non-writing life, I have on my birth certificate a middle name I never particularly liked. About the time I turned 18, a good friend gave me another. That was over 50 years ago, and I've used it ever since. Bank accounts, car insurance, car registrations, house mortgage, email addresses-‐- all have the acquired initial. My passports have both middle names. But I've never changed it legally.
Formerly, my driver's license had both middle initials, or no initial at all. But when I got my Real ID, it defaulted to the full middle name that's on my birth certificate. That hasn't mattered, until now. Yesterday, I got a text from the dealership where I recently bought my new/used car. He says it's a problem for the titling that my license and my insurance have a different initial/middle name, and I have to get my policy reissued to match the license.
What else is this going to screw up? It all feels so oppressive and stupid.
Maybe I'll have to go to the hassle of making the legal change. But right now I just want all this to go away.
Well, I have screwed up.
I used to have a Dell laptop that I wrote some of my stories on. It died about two years ago, so I removed the little mSata SSD and attempted to use it in another laptop without success. I figured it was dead but kept it until last month, when I decided to throw it away. Why keep it, after all? It was dead.
Then today I realized that it might not be dead after all. To spare the details, it might just have been incompatible.
It's not the SSD I care about. It's the data inside it. My novels and shorts were there. So, now, they are likely out in the wild. I did research and found that most things in UK household waste bins end up either incinerated or in a massive landfill.
There is always the possibility that it ends up in the hands of someone who is knowledgable enough to extract them. Even in that scenario, I imagine the worst that could happen is that all of my stuff is read by some stranger. The nightmare scenario is that this stranger decides to start submitting my short stories as their own, or uploads them to the open Internet, which would then make submitting them to magazines impossible.
I know—I am just overthinking. But it still doesn't feel good. Its especially frustrating that I managed to screw up like this. I am usually a very careful person. I've barely studied today because I've been thinking about it.
In any case, I hope nothing comes out of this. It is unlikely. It does take some knowledge to extract the stories (it isn't hard but your average person wouldn't know). And on top of that, it would take some evil to do anything dishonest.
The good news is how I was working on my stories through a local file share (SMB). I'm sure I made local copies but there is a chance that my two trilogies aren't there. They are no good (certainly unpublishable) but I still don't want anyone reading them.
I used to have a Dell laptop that I wrote some of my stories on. It died about two years ago, so I removed the little mSata SSD and attempted to use it in another laptop without success. I figured it was dead but kept it until last month, when I decided to throw it away. Why keep it, after all? It was dead.
Then today I realized that it might not be dead after all. To spare the details, it might just have been incompatible.
It's not the SSD I care about. It's the data inside it. My novels and shorts were there. So, now, they are likely out in the wild. I did research and found that most things in UK household waste bins end up either incinerated or in a massive landfill.
There is always the possibility that it ends up in the hands of someone who is knowledgable enough to extract them. Even in that scenario, I imagine the worst that could happen is that all of my stuff is read by some stranger. The nightmare scenario is that this stranger decides to start submitting my short stories as their own, or uploads them to the open Internet, which would then make submitting them to magazines impossible.
I know—I am just overthinking. But it still doesn't feel good. Its especially frustrating that I managed to screw up like this. I am usually a very careful person. I've barely studied today because I've been thinking about it.
In any case, I hope nothing comes out of this. It is unlikely. It does take some knowledge to extract the stories (it isn't hard but your average person wouldn't know). And on top of that, it would take some evil to do anything dishonest.
The good news is how I was working on my stories through a local file share (SMB). I'm sure I made local copies but there is a chance that my two trilogies aren't there. They are no good (certainly unpublishable) but I still don't want anyone reading them.
That's because it is oppressive and stupid.
Maybe someone does find it, extracts it, and then contacts you to make sure it gets to its rightful owner?
I couldn't think of a less profitable way for somebody to use their hacking skills, so you're fine. It's like robbing lemonade stands when you have the ability to hit the You're.
The party is over with all that, for lack of a better term. One of the many reasons why I'm leaving my job is I don't want to deal with employee verifications and legal documentation in the age of ICE.
"All that" meaning innocent middle name flexibility? Yeah, looks like it.
One thing about getting the acquired name added legally, the process overlaps somewhat with what I had to do to get my publishing house DBA. So it'd be a hassle, but not intimidating.
Please tell me that you cloned the data from the discarded SSD to the one that fits your current laptop . . . ? You don't say anything about losing them altogether.
EDIT--- Just looked at your post again. Oh, dear, I guess you didn't. I wish I'd known in time. I've migrated data twice to new SSDs and could have walked you through it.
My name isn't there, so that's impossible. It was supposed to be a distraction free writing laptop, so I intentionally didn't login to anything. It was just Linux + LibreOffice.
I mean, the sort of "hacking" that you would have to do is: Insert the drive in an mSata slot (they are not common), boot a Linux live CD, mount the drive's EXT4 file system, and boom, the files are all there for easy access. You can even chroot into the drive, change the user password and boot into it.
Still not something your average person can do. If you insert that drive in a Windows machine, it won't even see it. Windows has no native EXT4 driver.
All of this would be preventable if I had encrypted the drive with Luks (the equivalent of BitLocker on Windows). Nobody can break that sort of protection—not even the FBI.
So, all in all, I think you are right at the end of the day. Nobody is going to bother with it... mostly because it's probably been crushed and burned already. Even if someone did get it for themselves, they would likely just format it and use it for their own purposes.
I lost nothing thankfully. In the first place, I was accessing my writing file from a home server that I have.
Lesson learned: Encrypt your drives because you never know where they'll end up. I've bought several used electronic devices that people forgot to format. I found something really disturbing that I shall not discuss in a DSi.
I've also found other interesting things though. I bought some old Toshiba Satellite from the 90s (I collect these). Its hard drive was still working and it booted right into Windows 95. It was some restaurant's computer and it had business plans and other such docs inside. It also had Simpsons videos. A lot of Simpsons videos. The whole thing reminded me of @Homer Potvin.
Bureaucracy often is. :-\ I speak from experience.
I've gone through that hassle myself. Being an immigrant, nobody in Australia could pronounce my first name properly, so my parents decided to give me the English equivalent. For years and years, this was just fine.
But when I had to get my driver's license, our equivalent-of-the-DMV decided to use my birth-name (that nobody could pronounce, or - infuriatingly - spell, not even our DMV, despite the fact that it was only 3 letters long).
Then it caused all kinds of complications when I was trying to find work, and when I bought an apartment ... at which point I decided to bite the bullet and get my name legally changed.
It took about 6 months, but eventually I got the name-change certification in the mail. Huzzah.
Then a week later, my gas company spelled my surname wrong. Sigh.
Not seriously unhappy, but . . . .today we interviewed a young pre-nursing student, to work as an intermittent respite care provider for our adult autistic son who lives at home. In trying to describe my son's eclectic tastes, I mentioned that he likes kids' videos about numbers, but also in-depth chemistry websites. "And," I cautiously mentioned, "the other day I found him listening to George Harrison's Brainwashed recordings."
I'd been hesitant to mention that because I feared what would happen, which in fact did happen. She looked at me politely but blankly. "Who," she asked, "is George Harrison?"
"You know," I said, "of the Beatles."
"Oh," she said dubiously, "of course. The Beatles."
Excuse me while I go lie (or is it "lay"?) down for a minute.
I'd been hesitant to mention that because I feared what would happen, which in fact did happen. She looked at me politely but blankly. "Who," she asked, "is George Harrison?"
"You know," I said, "of the Beatles."
"Oh," she said dubiously, "of course. The Beatles."
Excuse me while I go lie (or is it "lay"?) down for a minute.
The broke up, what... 50 years ago?
And your point is?
Everyone should know who The Beatles are. The fact that they broke up a long time ago doesn't make their impact on the music world any smaller.
Please excuse me while I gently weep, along with my guitar.
Please excuse me while I gently weep, along with my guitar.
You shouldn't be surprised when younger people don't know who they are. The culture they created has moved on as all cultures inevitably do.
I don't think The Beatles are a flash in the pan fad. They've gotta be pretty ubiquitous in music, like the names Beethoven and Mozart (or Elvis).
Immediately went to check some numbers for contemporary cultural relevance. As of a few months ago, their songs have over 22 billion streams on Spotify alone. Something like 60 songs with more than 100 million streams. Then there's Apple/Amazon/etc. Music services, and YouTube. And we've got 4 biopics coming up - one for each member.
Immediately went to check some numbers for contemporary cultural relevance. As of a few months ago, their songs have over 22 billion streams on Spotify alone. Something like 60 songs with more than 100 million streams. Then there's Apple/Amazon/etc. Music services, and YouTube. And we've got 4 biopics coming up - one for each member.
Kicked off a bad addiction. Feeling withdrawal and a twinge of guilt. It's natural byproducts, but it does suck.
Actually you and Homer are both right. There is no reason why a young person should know much if anything about the Beatles, the same way I have only the vaguest awareness of the music of the 1930s and 40s. Unless of course that person is a musician, perhaps. But no obligation.
And I wasn't really surprised or disappointed or anything like that. It just stung a bit. I guess I'm being dragged, kicking and screaming -- and soon enough flailing about with my cane -- into the 21st Century.
A lot of people who've heard of the Beatles probably can't name all the members... even in the UK most people know about Lennon and McCartney, but couldnt necessarily name Starr and Harrison, and hardly anyone can name the other short term members. Best, Sutcliffe, Nichol and um... other people.
its the same with even recent bands, like with oasis, most people know about Liam and Noel but couldn't tell you the others, most people know who Kurt Cobain was but couldn't tell you the other members of Nirvana, aside from maybe Dave Grohl because of the Foo Fighters
its the same with even recent bands, like with oasis, most people know about Liam and Noel but couldn't tell you the others, most people know who Kurt Cobain was but couldn't tell you the other members of Nirvana, aside from maybe Dave Grohl because of the Foo Fighters
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