Presto Change-o

[susandennis]

So... Seattle City Light - apparently due to massive pressure from us victims - has changed their planned outage plans. Instead of Thursday, Feb 23rd from 9 am to 9 pm, they are going to be doing it on Sunday, March 5 from 4 pm to 4 am. MUCH more palatable. I canceled my AirBnB which I feel a little guilty about but at least it's more than a week out which isn't exactly last minute.

And I got into my Social Security account. My username is a fucked up mess because I must have been on drugs the day I set up the account. And of course, no way at all to change it. And the website has a 3 strikes you are out policy. Out in this case means you have to call them on the phone which is right up there with being water boarded in terms of fun times. So, I have written down the credentials in several places - security be damned. I did get the direct deposit move which is all I really wanted to do anyway.

Now I am going to listen to the very end of Liz Moore's The Unseen World. I only have 45 minutes left. I will miss the people in this story a great deal.

Comments

[touchofgr3y.livejournal.com]

I felt very much the same way about the characters in The Unseen World - I didn't want to leave them by the end.

[susandennis]

It was such a good book. I hope she has the next one nearly finished!

[touchofgr3y.livejournal.com]

Have you read her other books? I adored Heft, but haven't gotten to the other novel yet.

[susandennis]

Heft is probably the best thing I've read in the last 40 years - maybe in forever. But, no, I haven't read the first one.

[susandennis]

Actually, there are several websites that broadcast one or more of my webcams.

Why would you recommend my disabling it?

[allanh.livejournal.com]

As it turns out, I happened to create an account and sign into the Social Security website tonight.

You may not have been drunk or high when you created your username.

The website explicitly checks for, and does NOT allow the creation of a username that is similar to your real name.

So John X. Smith, for example, can't use "johnsmith" or "johns" or "jsmith" or "johnxsmith" as a username.

[susandennis]

Oh. I'd totally forgotten about that and it certainly would explain the mess of an ID I apparently chose for myself.

Thanks for the info. I feel better about my choice now.

[allanh.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, I suspect the person who set up the website may have been drunk or high. I understand that they want to do their best to prevent identity theft, but forcing one to NOT use any part of one's name to set up an account? That's just...stupid.

HINT: If you get the chance to do it again, it will "probably" accept a username format of LASTFIRSTMIDDLE, such as "SMITHJOHNX". :)

Not that I tried that for myself or anything...

[siobhan63.livejournal.com]

I've read more than one article about how forcing people to come up with really secure usernames/passwords isn't all that secure because they can't remember them and so write them down (or else get the browser to remember them, so anyone using the computer could then easily access the account).

At work, we have to change our password every three months. And we can't reuse any. Not even after a couple of years. It's so stupid.