Greetings from the land of COVID isolation


I started writing again a a few weeks back in my online journal, but no one can reads that (thankfully) because most of it’s ranting and boring drivel anyway, and yes I do talk about the weather. We live in Canada, it’s a thing. However, there’s no one who can read it. So I thought I’d start yammering along on here too. (Not that anyone will read it either, but at least here there’s a slight chance someone might come across it and either respond or have it help them through something.)

I’m pretty happy for the most part but I miss having someone to talk to on the regular. I miss having someone to call up and tell them all my little daily accomplishments. Silly things like I got a new shower curtain …

I had something happen that made my world shift a little and now I’m dealing with my “new world” which unfortunately doesn’t include a bestie that I can call up every day. Don’t get me wrong, I have several really good awesome gal pals (kind of sucks that three of them are across the country …) but I don’t have someone close by that I want to hang out with on the regular, you know? I miss having someone to stay up late with and giggle about men and stuff. I used to have a couple of men friends too but they seemed to have all but disappeared. Well one is a conspiracy theorist, anti-masker so I just couldn’t even in that conversation and we haven’t talked since.

And it’s not like I’m not trying either, I’m reaching out to people, making myself available – trying to kick it up a notch in the friendship department but people aren’t even responding for the most part, never mind making excuses. (Except as above, certain gal pals aside.)

I gave up the whole missing having a boyfriend thing quite some time ago. I’m trying to make my peace with the idea of not having one of those in the foreseeable or maybe ever. I’m very sad that I never got to get married. Not sad I didn’t have kids, especially now. Honestly I think bringing a child into the world at this point in time is morally reprehensible but that’s just my opinion.

SIM Card Hijacking – Some Advice


Okay I thought I was safe, I have antivirus on my phone, I have two step authentication for a lot of stuff however Rogers had not encrypted my port as yet and so my SIM card got hijacked. Before I could put a halt to all that went on they also managed to hack my PayPal account and make an online purchase for $1,400.

So some things I think people might want to know that no one really says in any of the articles I’ve read.

First of all – the order of things:

simjacker-sim-card-hacking

1.     Cancel all your credit cards and bank cards immediately! Yes, it’s going to be a hassle to replace them but you have no idea how deep the hack has gone so cover your assets!

2.     Call the police – although this is merely a going through the motions process, you should file a police report with cyber crimes. In Toronto they will call you back in 4 or 5 days so obviously this is not enough but it’s a good start.

3.      Change all your important passwords – this may seem like a laborious task (and it is believe me – I think I spent about 5 hours total on this alone) but again, better safe than sorry. Anywhere you can implement two-factor authentication, do it.

4.               Set up notifications for any changes on any websites you can. This way any time your password gets changed or something is off, you will get notified.

5.      They say don’t write down your passwords but how the fuck are you supposed to remember them all? Okay you can do one of two things, you can use an encrypted program that stores all your passwords – personally this made me feel more vulnerable – or create a document that is password protected that has your passwords in it. This is what I did.

One of the things that I found truly disconcerting was that after I got my number back from Rogers (the hijackers had transferred it over to Bell) and asked them if there was anything I should be doing further they just said no, everything’s fine. The police were also useless. No suggestions, no steps of procedure, bupkus.

By the way PayPal was also utterly fucking useless and didn’t help me whatsoever. I did manage to contact the merchant and get the purchase refunded that way.

Oh yes, and another sage piece of advice I did receive along the way, if a fraudulent purchase has been made, you are best off contacting the merchant to put a stop to it. Makes sense really but you are usually inclined to call the credit card company or the bank. The only reason I ended up going this route was I had already cancelled my cards and had no other recourse, a very happy accident.

I hope this helps someone should they come across this situation in their lives. Good luck! Stay safe! And being hyper vigilant and a little paranoid might serve as a bonus in this instance.

Stardate Log – Supplemental


I hardly ever write here anymore, sad really but no one reads it anyway – but just in case I started to relegate my writing to an online journal so I could write about all my mundane, petty shit and not bore the snot out of anyone. Also not have to worry about offending all those fucking shrinking violets out there that are ranting and raving about the most unimportant and unnecessary stuff I have ever heard in my life. I’m not going to tout my opinion about it, I’m just going to quietly sit back and try not to be sad as I watch them dig their own graves for themselves.

So yeah, it’s 2020, a new year, a new decade and interestingly for me, only a few more decades to go. I have come to terms with the fact that I am winding down this mortal coil and I’m not sorry or sad about it. I’m fucking thrilled that I have been allowed to live the life I have lived.

I was going to say I’ve never really suffered, but that’s not entirely true, I’ve had adversity that some people have not had to deal with, sexual abuse, losing several loved ones, getting schmucked by a car … which still years later is leaving me contending with painful dental work and the possibility of missing front teeth – uggghhhh! I am currently in the process of getting work done in the hopes of getting and implant/bridge combo. It’s painful, extremely expensive and a little bit scary.

Went for my first colonoscopy – not nearly as traumatic as I thought it would be (except the nurse who was so fucking distracted that she didn’t even seat my i.v. properly, my hand was bruised for weeks and I woke up during the procedure) – interesting actually, big huge screen that they look at while they parade through your colon. I guess all was well because the doctor didn’t even come see me afterwards, although a little disconcerting because he said he would. In any event that humiliation is done and dusted for a while.

Had a lovely holiday with my family, feel pretty blessed to have family nearby that I can spend time with over the holidays and my brother and his wife are just awesome which makes it even better. The kids are fun too but holy smokes I forgot how loud kids are! And they like to scream a lot. And the little one cries when she gets frustrated, which I totally get. I used to do that a lot too, right up into my forties actually.

Another thing that has been great about getting older is menopause. Oh sure I don’t have much of a sex drive comparatively speaking but dude, I am sooooooooooooooo much calmer now. I like this version of me much better. I will thoroughly enjoy the next 20 odd years of my life (you know until I croak or get some looney tunes disease. I’m hoping for physical deterioration over mental.

My Mom’s 81 now, she’s had a helluva a year – “worst year of my life” as she said and understandable too. Two major operations, (one to repair a heart valve condition that apparently she’s had all her life but went undetected and one for a lumpectomy) so two general anesthetics and a round of chemo. They wanted her to go under the knife again for a further lumpectomy and she said Danielle, I don’t want to do it, three anesthetics in one year! And I said Mom, you do what you like, I totally support that! I had a general in my twenties and it took me two years to fully recover so yeah, fuck that shit Mom and you be you! I still admire the hell out of her though, still bike riding, participating in her choir (and this is no, sing on Sundays shit, this is some brutal three and four hour practices and before a performance two or three nights a week) and still cross-country skiing. She’s so cute, “but Danielle, I get so tired now” – Mom you’re still managing to do all that stuff – that’s pretty epic to me. Also thank you for still being here!

To be honest I was a little worried – still am. But she seems to be doing okay. She lost way too much weight but it’s expected in the circumstances, but she doesn’t look emaciated – just a bit too skinny. Hopefully she put on a little bit over the holidays. Hubert got her some CBD drops and I was going to ask for them back because I thought she wasn’t using them, but Jason told me apparently she is which is awesome. I’m so glad that Canada has legalized that stuff for use especially for people with health issues! So ironic, I was chronic for years and now I can’t abide smoking at all. Wish I could say the same about cigarettes … Welp, duty calls. Happy New Year to anyone who actually reads this. Thinking I might just start using this as a journal instead, at least that way when I keel over, some of my writing would be somewhere accessible. But then again no, ’cause I die my domain dies with it and ipso facto, no more WordPress account … hmmm. They should do something about that, public archives or something….

 

When You Want to Post It on Crackbook but Do Not Want to Deal with the Shitstorm that will ensue …


Okay I have to say this because … moth memes are a thing and people are losing their minds and paying thousands of dollars for a crown on MF avatar! PEOPLE WE HAVE COMPLETELY LOST THE PLOT! RETREAT! Okay, yeah, I know, it’s too late for that … I’m so glad I grew up when I did, it was at the pinnacle of the Roman Empire as far as I’m concerned, the height of hedonism and decadence and it’s all downhill from here folks – Rome is falling and we are entering into the Roman Greco era and I feel SO LUCKY for all the freedom and wanderlust I’ve had/have and that I’m still in touch without be totally entrenched. It’s gonna happen people, deal with it. Evolve, adapt or perish … I’ma go with the latter myself and glad I won’t be around to see what transpires in another 100 years.