Project: Figure out how to get a "Real ID"
Status: Nevermind

Looking over today's online Yahoo News articles early this morning, one caught my attention. It announced that we U.S. citizens (residents?) have until March 2023 to procure our "Real ID". My first thought, "What the heck is a "Real ID"." Second thought, "Why am I only now hearing of this?". Online research revealed that a "Real ID" will soon be needed for such things as entering a federal building and boarding an aircraft. I then checked with my state, again online, for what is required to get one. Here, they are part of an AR driver's license. A special "star" is printed at upper-right on the front. Lots of documents are needed. Stuff everyone ought to have on hand, some of which I suspect many people don't bother to save.

Packrat that I am, I have more than of enough on hand to meet requirements. Next step was to call our DMV and determine whether a special appointment or simply walking-in is required. It then came to me that 2023 might be the year I renew my license. If that were the case, I'd just wait and get my "Real ID" in January. I grabbed my current license to double-check. Nope, it expires in 2024. That's when I noticed the star at upper right on my license. I have a "Real ID"!

Hours later I finally recalled knowing about the "Real ID" requirement when it was first announced, and had at that time done what was necessary to obtain one. Some time later, I began recalling the process in detail, and remembered that I had helped my brother obtain his. Rather I helped him acquire a piece of two of misplaced documentation. Whether or not he actually followed through has faded from memory. I think he did, but . . .

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Dec 5 2022, 07:12 PM

Weren't you glad the project needed to be done was already done?

"Real ID". Sure. Hand in all your fake passports and finally get a real one! Whatever will they think of next.

Project: Stave off potential disaster
Status: Potentially solved (crosses finger)

When it rains, it pours, as they say. As if this past Saturday's deep lawn tire-rut dilemma (detailed elsewhere) wasn't enough, a new catastrophe reared its ugly head early yesterday evening. It began thus:

I seldom use Brave Browser on my Primary PC, though it is my second PC's primary browser. There are, however, certain things Brave handles better than Firefox, the printing of some emails among them. One such email arrived in my inbox yesterday. A receipt for a Train Simulator DLC purchased earlier in the day.

Having not launched Brave (on this PC) is quite a while, it had passed the two-week mark and been automatically signed out. No biggie, thought I. I sometimes have trouble signing in with Firefox (not recently, thankfully). Brave, on the other hand, signs in sans issue, barring user error.

Yesterday it didn't. I attempted to sign in as I always do. Now, with email address and password submitted, instead of opening my email client I'm greeted with a screen, stating that my account verification info needs updating. One of the two now-required fields is entry of my mobile-phone number. I neither have nor want one. Nothing I tried allowed me to bypass the mobile phone requirement.

Oddly, I could still sign in to myATT without issue on Brave. Which was of no help as there is no link to my email from there.

Lengthy web searches found others with this issue, though all discussions I unearthed were around four years old. Nothing I read provided a simple, ironclad solution. I eventually admitted defeat and called AT&T customer service. After several failed attempts to reach a live rep, I at last fooled the automated response system into transferring me.

There followed a LONG two-way discussion, the rep attempting to track down and solve the snafu. Turns out that, due to a recent policy change, the requirement to provide account verification info that isn't either an ATT email address or VoIP phone can not be bypassed.The most that could be done was for the rep to do something behind the scenes that allowed me to sign in at that particular time, but not again. Which only postpones the inevitable. No email access. Leaving me dead in the water for a good number of official interactions, such as ordering medicine via the military.

Then, when things looked to be drawing to an unsatisfactory close, the rep said to hang on. He had contacted another ATT section about my issue. A response had just been received. My account was now set so that, when the fatal verification screen appeared, I was to attempt to submit it with nothing in the mobile phone field. Several failed submissions later, lo and behold, an option appeared immediately below that accursed field. An option that allows entry of an email address. I was told to enter my AT&T email address, and warned that this was a short-term bandage only. Should I need to actually have my account verified for any reason, the AT&T address would not be accepted. At that point, my account would be locked, with nothing further they could (or would) do for me.

The solution, the rep said, was to sign up for an email account with someone else, then, at myATT, replace the AT&T address with the new, non AT&T email address. This was acceptable to me. It HAD to be acceptable. Certainly preferable to spending money on a mobile phone and plan that I'd likely not use enough to justify the expense.

My initial thought was to go with gmail. I have a Google account, after all. I believe it was required during YouTube channel creation. Now far past my normal bedtime, brain fried, enough was enough. I shut down both computers and retired to the sofa.

First thing this morning, I resumed my investigation. In the end, gmail required changes I did not wish to enact. I instead settled on the free version of ProtonMail. Sign up was easy. There, thankfully, we are given a choice between mobile phone and email verification from the get go. Since I already have AT&T email, that's what I chose. Once my new account had been verified, I returned to myATT and edited my profile to include the new ProtonMail address. AT&T sent verification email with code, Once submitted and approved, I was in theory good to go, with no fear of being unable to sign in or having my account locked. Indeed, I signed in on Brave not long afterward. Is this the end of it? Time will tell. I hope so, but am not holding my breath.

Oh modern times with all the high tech requirements...

This story reminds me of something that happened to me back around year 2000. I had to make an account with an American organisation - a scientific body, and the account was needed to register for a conference. No, they couldn't do it on-line, I had to call them. Fine. Calling from Europe. First we had the usual issues with our postal codes not adhering to the US standard. But the operator did some magic and my "all wrong" postal code was accepted. Then my phone number appeared to be a digit short... Err... and it didn't start with 1. Oh. Ah. Not in USA, eh? Ok, the operator managed to solve that dilemma too. Finally there was just one last check - my credit card number. I did not have a credit card (still don't) and our debit cards were not accepted (although cash machines in the US happily provided me with cash).

"I need your credit card number," says the operator.

"I don't have a credit card," says I.

"I need the number."

"Ain't got it."

"You must have a credit card!"

"Nope."

"It can't be."

"It is."

After some ten minutes going in circles, she still could not accept that a person might be able to survive without an internationally-accepted credit card. I was not able to register and had to miss the conference.

Project: Prepare of Monday morning Dental Exam/Cleaning

Status: Ya can't win

I'm an early-morning person. I like to accomplish all "must do" activities as early in the day as is possible. Medical appoints are scheduled for as close to 0800 as I can get them. This changes a bit during winter, scheduling appointments several hours later to allow the temperature to warm a bit.

My previous winter Dental Exam/Cleaning was scheduled for 0800 on 30 December 2021. As luck would have it, that proved to be one of our coldest days of the year. I spent a good 25min scraping car windows/windshields prior to departure, in sub-freezing weather. That afternoon, I took sick with a particularly unpleasant illness that plagued me off-and-on for months. (That first day, every symptom I had matched those on the CDC Covid checklist, but a C19 test gave negative results.)

Tomorrow's Exam/Cleaning is scheduled for 1000. I would have been better off keeping it at 0800. Not only is it not cold, but we are in the midst of a freak Winter heat wave, with temps in the 60s! A strong storm-front, with potentially heavy rain and tornadoes, is associated with the wave. As luck would have it, those storms pass through my area tomorrow. At the moment, the nasty stuff doesn't reach here until late morning. Being as I get groceries and need to make a pharmacy stop following my Exam/Cleaning, I'll not be able to avoid whatever nature has in store for us. Had my appointment been at 0800, there's a good chance that I might have had no more to deal with than a steady, light rain.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Jan 1 2023, 01:39 PM

Edit: link doesn't work.

This post has been edited by mirocu: Mar 12 2023, 03:18 PM

Hope you can get those lights working/adjusted how you want. They look pretty good!

Thanks!

This post has been edited by mirocu: Mar 12 2023, 03:19 PM

Project: restore power to two kitchen wall receptacles
Status: done

My micro didn't turn on while attempting to heat oatmeal for today's breakfast. I reckoned it couldn't be the micro itself, as it's a fairly recent purchase. Sure enough, the can opener, plugged into the same receptacle, didn't work either. Nor did my toaster, on a different receptacle on the same wall. No fuse had been tripped. I offed-and-oned several fuses labeled "kitchen", which made no difference. I recalled that one kitchen receptacle has two buttons, one labeled RESET. Found it. It's next to the still-working refrigerator with nothing plugged in to it. Resetting it made no difference.

As a temporary workaround, I connected a long heavy-duty extension cord from a kitchen receptacle on another wall to the micro. Soon as my oatmeal was ready the extension was removed. My thought was to visit Home Depot soon as it was warm enough to do so and buy a few replacement fuses, assuming that one of mine had bit the dust. I've not needed to replace a fuse in ever so long. It seems logical that I'm due for one to give up the ghost.

I then noticed something I'd totally forgotten about. I've a second kitchen receptacle that features a RESET button; the one my toaster is plugged in to. Pressed it. Voila, the micro's clock display lit up! All's well, at least for the short term. Hopefully for the long term. Should it begin to need resetting frequently, I know how to replace those on my own. (I replaced the one in the bathroom some years ago.)

Those Ground Fault Interrupt (GFI) receptacles are more common in bathrooms than kitchens, but belong anywhere there’s water near the outlets. Sometimes there are strange runs of wiring to put more receptacles on the same circuit, so they all get protected by the one expensive device. In my house a receptacle in the garage (into which the door was plugged) was linked with the upstairs bathrooms. So a faulty hairdryer could trip out the garage door. I had another installed for the garage alone.

Project: 2023 Car Tags
Status: Nothing's ever as simply as it ought to be

For the past some years, I've renewed my auto registration and acquired new tags online. In my state it's an easy process, and incurs no additional processing fees. Knowing I need to call in this year's property assessment beforehand, I did so early Tuesday morning, 3 Jan 2023, Monday the 2nd having been an observed holiday. In my experience, it normally takes, at most, one business-day for our local assessor's office to transfer data to State DMV. I therefore attempted to renew early Wednesday afternoon. Inserting my renewal PIN number and pressing ENTER, I was greeted to a screen telling me I had not been assessed. Same thing Thursday and Friday. Same thing late morning Monday, upon return from errands.

I called the County Assessor office and asked if I'd somehow slipped through the cracks and not had my info transferred. I was then told that the DMV online system is down, and to call them for further information, assuming I didn't want to use another means of renewal. DMV, however, told me that it is the County Assessor Office that is malfunctioning. There is nothing DMV can do about it. I called the Assessor and had my assessment receipt faxed to our local DMV office. I was then theoretically good to go for renewing in person.

My original thought was to wait and renew next Monday, as part of that week's errand run. But the more and pondered it, the more I felt I needed to get it done and over with ASAP. I dressed and drove to DMV that afternoon. It is good that I did. Posted on the DMV entrance door is a message announcing that DMV will be closed Monday the 16th. Thankfully, there wasn't much of a line waiting to renew, and folk were being processed speedily. Once my turn came, all went well. I remembered, from ye olden days, to carry my checkbook. I could have paid via debit-card, but would have to fork up an additional processing fee.

In any case, it's over and done with for another year.

Addendum: While at the DMV, I asked if my "real ID", which is on my driver license, will require any additional paperwork when I get a new one next year. According to them, once it's on a license it automatically transfers to the next license, no additional paperwork needed. I'm not sure I need a "real ID", but ya never know in this ever screwier world of ours.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Jan 10 2023, 07:51 PM

Project: place gas-bill payment in the mail
Statis: Whew!

I forgot to do so two days in a row. Thankfully, I remembered today, Saturday, a good thing since this coming Monday is an observed holiday. That this payment seems absurdly high is another matter altogether.

I likewise didn't get my city utilities' payment to City Hall as soon as intended. There, the culprit was me forgetting that Monday, January 2, was another observed holiday. No biggie. We've until mid-month before late-fees kick in. (I walked mine to City Hall later that same week.)

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Jan 26 2023, 10:30 PM

Project: Dispose of 3.5" floppy disks
Status: I put a decent dent in phase-1

I've got loads of 'em on hand. They need to go to open up storage space for important conventional personal records, which have grown too numerous to fit in my two two-drawer filing cabinets.

Many floppies can't, or at least shouldn't, be thrown in the trash as-in, containing official install files for ancient versions of once-expensive software, no longer needed personal files, and so on. The rest were unceremoniously tossed in the trash as soon as proved harmless.

For "dangerous" disks, my first thought was to use an el-cheapo UBS external floppy drive, bought a few years ago, to format each disk, rendering it "safe". It's finicky, doesn't work on my primary PC, and is slow as molasses, but gets the job done. Except for too many disks Windows says can't be formatted, and others that don't have adjustable protection tabs. For those, I began removing the metal part at the housing's insertion-end, then used a knife to cut multiple slashes into the resultant exposed "film". This proved super quick and easy. Far quicker than formatting. With that realization, I put away my USB floppy drive and used the procedure on all remaining disks, which was most of them. I've still a decent amount of floppies to examine via USB floppy drive, to determine if they need transferring to a more modern storage format.


Project: Correct what seems an unaccounted-for drastic reduction of my Military Retiree FITW
Status: SNAFU

This took me completely by surprise one Saturday earlier this month. A DFAS email informed me of a new Pay Statement ready to view online. I did so. Said reduction was noticed. No explanation was given. My first thought was to simply use the site's user-adjustable Additional-FITW feature to make up the difference. But I wanted to do a bit of investigating first.

Nothing found on any DFAS site hinted at any sort of tax-liability reduction, nor mentioned a retiree FITW drop. General web searches yielded nothing. First thing Monday, I phoned DFAS and laid out my situation and concern. The rep I spoke with was friendly and very helpful, even conferencing with other sections when he had no answer. We spent over an hour talking, yet came to no conclusion. The best he could come up with is that other people have been complaining of "oddness" when making adjustments via DFAS MyPay.

I mulled this over a few days, then called DFAS again, this time speaking directly with MyPay rather than the pay and benefits section. This rep was about as clueless as they come. (I might have guessed so when she didn't identify herself at the beginning.) After "assuring" me there is nothing amiss with MyPay, I asked again about using Addition-FITW to bring Total-FITW where it was pre-reduction. She stated that, no, I shouldn't do so, because it causes DFAS to automatically recompute/adjust FITW. This is of course total bovine-manure. Additional-FITW is exactly what it says it is. DFAS formulates FITW based on Total Taxable Income. Additional-FITW lets us deduct yet more from our monthly pay. Total Taxable Income is unaltered. (I've adjusted Addtional-FITW many times these past three decades, without issue.)

Where it stands now: I still have no explanation for the FITW reduction. If I use Additonal-FITW, will it trigger more "odd" behavior? Will I spend the entire year adjusting Additional-FITW due to a constantly-changing FITW? Will one Additional-FITW adjustment do the trick without issue?

As of now, I'm thinking to try Additional-FITW again next month and hope for the best. There seems to be no other alternative other than leaving things as-is and paying in big-time on next year's tax-return.

Gaaaaaaah!!!!! I have been finding agencies that demand I do business via a computer (just assuming everyone in the world has one and/or knows how to use one) = now demanding we have a cell phone too? (I actually have a cell phone and have for years, but don't like connecting it to the internet sites because then they gear advertising to sites I visit and attach that history to my phone number). And sites like Facebook are always trying to finagle you into giving them your phone number; (Google just spies on your keystrokes and usurps the info it gleans from spying) = But to actually have it required or else is like a step too far; what criteria do they have on their privacy issues and what they do with that info?




This post has been edited by mALX: Jan 29 2023, 03:24 PM

I know this had to be frustrating for you; but reading it had me laughing = just the way you said it was funny, lol.

By the way; since there is no actual topic to this thread and this was a project of yours anyway = just wanted to say how much I love your mods! Wow, they are great!!!







Gaaaaah, now how are you going to get to work in that car through all that deep snow?

Do you have a local IRS office you can ask? We have one that is more helpful than one would think the IRS would be, lol.

It was funny, really. But yeah, also frustrating.


Thanks! Are you actually playing them?

The thing is, I made them for myself. Nexus only provides me with free cloud storage, backups, a versioning system and free beta testers.

Inns Sleep Two and Edible Slaughterfish for Oblivion; and I loved them both!

The Inn mod was fantastic, and a very needed addition to the game!

The Edible Slaughterfish = that one was actually a part of my roleplay in the game! For a long time I had been making fishing poles and buckets and sticking them around any houses I modded for myself that were around water. Then I found a fishing mod that added fishing; and immediately installed it so I could fish off the banks and docks all over the game. That mod added a variety of fish you could fish for; (but not eat, unfortunately). It also added fishing poles (that you had to equip as weapons and then hope you didn't have to fight anything while fishing, lol).

Well, that mod added to the roleplay of going out fishing; but your mod made the other mod so much better because when you fished along the Rumare you could also grab a few slaughterfish and actually bring home something to eat from it.

I actually downloaded another mod because of your Edible Slaughterfish mod = (Meos Static Dishes) = plates of food for my game (where the food looked more edible than the vanilla food you ate in Oblivion) = downloaded it because it had a Slaughterfish selection in it. I had already been using RileyMarks's Static Dishes; but Meos took it a step further by making a few actual recipes with the vanilla plates.

I would put the static dishes in my game as containers, and put respawning food in them that you could take out and eat. So her slaughterfish plate and your Edible Slaughterfish got used A LOT in my game.


https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/1...-1302791082.jpg


Mods like yours and Meos's just added so much to the realism of the game and really enhanced the roleplay! I loved them!






This post has been edited by mALX: Jan 29 2023, 02:39 PM

*

Well, since we are on the projects page; I have been wanting to share this:

Early in December (or possibly late in November) my hubby asked me to build him a workbench for his Christmas present to him. So = yeah. I dug through the internet to plan out the best ideas other people had into one bench. (like a Miter saw that flipped under so you could use the full table top for a feed table for the Table saw; etc).

Anyway; I ended up deciding to make one work bench that split into two separate tables for if you wanted to use them apart and use them separately; or push them together when you needed one bit table surface; etc. (so of course both sides had to be on big casters so you could wheel them around at will or lock them in place when needed).

I had no idea how to plan something like that; so ended up finally just starting with no real plan = just an idea in my head. I guesstimated about how much lumber I would need (then had to go back for more, of course). Anyway; it actually isn't completed yet; but here it is (including a list of what isn't done on it yet) = my very first workbench:


https://imgur.com/a/rtrkoJB


What lacks being done on the workbench: I will still be installing a big wood vise at one end or side of each half table/bench; am halfway through building an extended 8' fence for the Table saw; and still plan to put a track/stop and built in measuring tape on the Miter saw side.

Also; I did add electric outlets to both sides; but haven't mounted them yet.

*

Have already started my next project: started demoing the kitchen; and going to attempt to make (by hand) cabinets for the kitchen, lol. Urgh.


** Update on the kitchen demo:

This house has the tiniest kitchen I have ever seen! It only had a sink cabinet and four wall cabinets total = NO storage at all for the kitchen (or anywhere else in the house, for that matter). There was 12" of counter space on either side of the sink; but that was the limit of the countertop space. It just wasn't functional at all; and it was really dark in there and closed off from the rest of the house by a big wall with a tiny doorway.

I have been wanting to do something about that kitchen since I moved in here over a year ago = well, I finally did start on it due to a door I wanted going on sale for a price I couldn't pass up; and then just recently Lowes had a sale on cabinet grade plywood (not to mention a construction site giving away a trailerload of lumber).

So within a week I was pitched headlong into remodeling this kitchen. The kitchen door was changed out a couple weeks ago from a solid wood one to a (single) French door with blinds built in = This is the same door style; we just don't have the second half:


https://americanthermalwindow.com/wp-conten...Blinds-Door.jpg


The wall removal between the kitchen and dining room = shockingly revealed an original wood "Ponderosa Pine" wall behind the drywall! Who would cover that up? It is in pristine shape; too!

That wall I had originally planned to be taken completely down; but with a find like that = couldn't do it. We decided to just take half the wall down to let the light come through (as planned) but keep the beauty of that Ponderosa Pine showing on the dining room side. The wall halving was a fantastic decision; letting all that natural light from the glass door and kitchen window out into the rest of the house now; and that wood wall looks wonderful!

Then when we pulled up the old (tattered) linoleum and plywood from the floor; we discovered oak hardwood flooring underneath!!! Who hides hardwood floors with linoleum and plywood? Gaaaaah!

The hardwood floors are not in pristine shape like the pine wall was; but after several days of sanding on it we haven't found a bad board in it yet!

This is like finding gold hidden on the property, lol. That floor is going to need A LOT more sanding; but we hope to start building cabinets next week. It will be both of our first time attempting to make a cabinet, so ... yeah.

I will post pics when everything is done unless the cabinets are embarrassing, lol.