Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 05:49 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 197 words, total size 1 kb.

With no one in the house to disturb, I've started practicing the piano again for the first time in 15 or 20 years. The first obstacle to overcome was the lack of any sheet music, but I scrounged up an old hymnal. My first indication of how daunting the task ahead of me is was wasting a moment remembering what the squigglypoo and the backwards C were called. Upon starting to play beat upon keys I realized that my basic hand coordination had atrophied BADLY. I've got a lot of work to do.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 05:31 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 123 words, total size 1 kb.

As I mentioned in the update to the previous post, my parents met with multiple calamities in the Gulf. They made it back to Key West and my father determined that the damage is not fixable in the short term  They are going to attempt limp back to Portsmouth where we can work on it at a more leisurely pace and where professional assistance is much cheaper. 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 07:32 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 193 words, total size 1 kb.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 04:40 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 1169 words, total size 8 kb.

Finally,  some cheesecake.....

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:08 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 169 words, total size 1 kb.

I'm in the middle of exams and final papers. I really don't have time to deal with this.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:55 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 198 words, total size 3 kb.

1 Anyone can send mail using anyone's From address, and spammers did it for years. If you are sure that your account is secure, there's nothing for you to worry about.
"Working on a patch" may mean them turning DMARC on. Haha.
Best of all, find someone who received one of those "spoofed" mails and who knows how Internet works (tough condition to satisfy, but try). Ask him to save the mail with headers and then ask someone else, or him actually, to look at Received: chain. See if it was sent by AOL or not.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Mon Apr 21 21:55:03 2014 (RqRa5)

2 It sounds like AOL's address book thing might have been hacked, but not the email service itself.  Which sucks (if true) because now the spammers have your address book, and changing your password doesn't help.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tue Apr 22 00:55:11 2014 (PiXy!)

3

I received one of them. It claimed to be from you but the actual sender was 119.154.65.238.

Which seems to be in Pakistan.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Tue Apr 22 08:43:21 2014 (+rSRq)

4

I received one of them. It claimed to be from you but the actual sender was 119.154.65.238.

Which seems to be in Pakistan.

Yeah, that can't be Brickmuppet - not enough hurricanes there... 

Posted by: Siergen at Tue Apr 22 17:37:20 2014 (WVGDf)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

S. Zenith Lee captures the essence if not the specifics of my week.
more...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:44 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 35 words, total size 1 kb.

^{They're gonna do WHAT!?}

A quick status update for those who follow such things.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:30 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 706 words, total size 5 kb.

Just some kibitzing below the fold.
In lieu of content here is a Dame with a cutlass and a really big cutty thing storming a castle.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:43 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 223 words, total size 2 kb.

Banality is below the fold.
For those rationally dis-interested in such matters, here is something for the Tsukasa fans amongst you.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 02:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 708 words, total size 5 kb.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:16 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 9 words, total size 1 kb.

Today I learned two new words.

Posterior tibial tendonitis and Osteochondral lesion of the talus.

Vocabulary sucks.

^{" Well, I learned the words peristerophilist and peristerophily today. I..what? No... ..OH GOD NOT THE EYES!"}

I start physical therapy Monday.

_{.gif is from Laputa: Castle in the Sky.
(Spoiler: Sheeta keeps her eyes)}

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 07:48 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 58 words, total size 1 kb.

The foot still hurts a bit, but I'm FINALLY caught up on the schoolwork that I missed due to the injury.

Well, almost...there's a big assignment due Friday that I haven't started on yet due to the backlog, but time-wise I'm 'in the black' as it were.

Speaking of which...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:15 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 57 words, total size 1 kb.

I should count my blessings.
 


Malevolent nightwear is not amongst my life's irritants.

more...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 04:31 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 582 words, total size 3 kb.

Sleet.....mostly.
It was about 60 today. It'll be 17 in a few hours.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 14 words, total size 1 kb.

...is below the fold.

For those understandably disinterested in such matters, there is this...

...which, while neat, is of unknown provenance, so take the caption with a grain of salt.

UPDATE: In the comments, J Greely has the goods.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 05:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 1478 words, total size 45 kb.

....be nice to them.
They are having a hard day. They cannot return to the building until all residential packages on their trucks are delivered.
They have quite a few this evening.

Oh look...winter clothing.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 03:29 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 56 words, total size 1 kb.

....combine to thwart my blogging.

I get up for work at midnight....I work till 9ish then go to school, then work on my term paper and cram. Sleep brings the day planner to 31 hours but there's not enough space on the page for that so there may need to be additional adjustments to my schedule.

There's not much to add...except perhaps this...
more...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 105 words, total size 1 kb.

This dinner came at great cost.


  You see, my father managed cut the end of his finger off (about a centimeter actually) yesterday morning. There was blood spurting EVERYWHERE. Of course we could not get him to go to the emergency room...because...Thanksgiving.
He didn't want to ruin Thanksgiving...
I tried to explain to him that having dinner a couple of hours late would involve less ruination than it being "....that Thanksgiving where Dad bled to death". This admonition did not have the desired effect...so there was stitching, gauze pads, a finger splint, surgical tape, peroxide and duct tape. Ironically, after the blood was cleaned off the ceiling, cooking resumed and the decision made to ummm...not serve ham or potato salad this year...the relatives ended up being three hours late anyway.

Beyond that dinner was uneventful. There were no fanatical partisan cultists in attendance to ruin the get-together for which I am quite thankful. The only further unexpected incidents involved my 18 month old niece demonstrating that she can count to 13 and the comet exploding.

Dad has had to change his dressing twice but still refuses to go to the ER. OTOH there is no longer any spurting so hopefully he is on the mend

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 07:35 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 208 words, total size 2 kb.

Some months ago I was informed that I was to recieve veterans disability benefits. This caused me some concern as I'm not disabled. Although it was hard to get hold of the proper people to resolve that, once I did it was resolved quickly and hopefully that money is now helping a disabled vet. 

Well, a bit over a week ago I received a check from the VA for a tad less than 900 dollars.

This was...unexpected. I was surprised to find that I was still eligible for any VA benefits. What's more I'm a part time student this semester so that seemed like an excessive amount.

Anyway, I called the VA and after some PEBKAC errors with the phone tree and a 27 minute wait I got an operator. After answering some questions I learned that I was indeed eligible for some educational benefits. I explained that I was a part-time student this semester. The operator confirmed this, told me what courses I was taking and that I should be receiving a check so everything was fine.  I pointed out that the amount she quoted was substantially less than the amount the check was written for. The operator said that this was probably back pay and not to worry about it.

Ummm...NO!

So...I ended up speaking to her supervisor. After some digging It was revealed that the check was not, in fact, vaguely rationalized "back pay" but rather educational benefits for the full course load I took during the summer semester.

This sounded much more in line with the amount the check was written out for and would have resolved the matter if I had, in fact, taken any classes during the summer.

I explained the discrepancy.
I was told that since they had received confirmation of of my enrollment that the check was indeed for the proper amount. I pointed out that it was improper due to the fact that I had not taken the classes. She then asked if I had in fact enrolled in the classes.

I said yes.

She then said that as I had just confirmed what was on the screen the matter was closed. I pointed out that had withdrawn from the classes whereupon I was asked 'WHY I would do that'? I explained that My father had a hernia operation and my mother had back to back gall bladder and foot surgeries at the beginning of the summer and that given my domestic responsibilities it seemed unwise to take the classes.

I ended up talking to her supervisor.

The supervisor implied that if I tore up the check another one would be reissued after a year*. She further explained that the only way to make the check be not officially mine was to go to the VA office at the school, and have them send confirmation of my withdrawal to the VA. At that point I would be mailed a letter containing a kit for the proper disposal of the letter (presumably a SASE).

So I hightailed it through rush hour traffic on a Friday, went to the info desk and talked to the VA rep. He was sympathetic but couldn't do anything right then. You see, in order to process this claim he needed an E-mail from me..which he would forward with the proper information. So I walked down the hall and found a workstation, logged onto my University E-mail account, sent him an E-mail explaining my worrisome windfall and why I'd withdrawn. I walked back down the hall and he verbally confirmed that he'd gotten it and Monday I received E-mail notification from the school that the mater had been resolved.

The matter is still not resolved.

I just received a terse letter from the VA (sans 'kit") informing me that I owed them nearly 900 dollars. There is no return address beyond the PO Box on the letter and I'm antsy about just sending the check out.

I hope to get this matter finally resolved this week.

_{*I'm uncertain on this particular point.}

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:18 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 678 words, total size 4 kb.