Random thing you loathe right now.

I have a really uncommon last name but it's a common misspelling of another word so that makes up a majority of the search results on it.

This whole thing is baffling to me. Here, there’s no way you would be able to access the account without a PIN number which would be mailed to you by secured mail.

But then again this is the EU and we have things like GDPR.

I used to have a never-ending nightmare. Some dude from the States shared the same name as me and built up a bad reputation of owing money everywhere. I would constantly get calls from collection agencies and insist that I have never been to Texas and didn't have a driver's license so I sure wasn't behind on my payments of a Ford truck from there. As a naïve young adult, I also learned pretty quick that collection agencies just assume you are lying so sending them any evidence in good faith proving you are not the guy they are looking for just means you then have to explain to the next collection agency why the phone number and address on the file matches my own if it's a different guy. It obliterated my ability to have a credit card for over a decade until it all got figured out.

My dad has it worse though. There's someone in the same country as him who is a convicted pedophile and shares the same first, middle and last name. It almost ruined a vacation plan. He eventually managed to get a stamped official letter from the Government of Canada letting anyone at the airport scanning his passport know that he is not the person related to the alert that just came on their screen.

The first website that comes up when I search my name is totally amazing, and should keep people distracted from ever caring about whatever original reason they were searching my name in the first place.

Chairman_Mao wrote:

The first website that comes up when I search my name is totally amazing, and should keep people distracted from ever caring about whatever original reason they were searching my name in the first place.

Indeed, Mr Timecube, indeed.

Chairman_Mao wrote:

The first website that comes up when I search my name is totally amazing, and should keep people distracted from ever caring about whatever original reason they were searching my name in the first place.

This site?

Chairman_Mao wrote:

The first website that comes up when I search my name is totally amazing, and should keep people distracted from ever caring about whatever original reason they were searching my name in the first place.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Zedong

I am blessed by having a famous dart player share my name, so nothing about comes up for 3 google pages (and thus may as well not exist)

I've got a rare last name, but a common first one, so searches for me are half me, and half my immediate family

The closest match for me beside stuff linking to people searches is to a very outdated Staff page from my last job (that doesn't actually seem to be the current page but still somehow shows up via a google search) and an old Flickr account I deleted. Some of the people search things do come up with old email addresses I forgot I ever had and an old address that is almost 20 years out of date. Also shows a bunch of info that isn't related to me.

One of the first times I applied for credit they asked me about a car loan from 1992 and I was like "Well I was 13 years old in 1992 so no I didn't take out a car loan" and they cleared that up pretty quickly. Looks like there are a few people spread around with the same first and last as me (plus a few Stephens) as well as one or two with the same middle initial. Also a good number in Oklahoma and some of them are for sure relatives if the Related To info on the people finder sites is correct.

Searching my first and last name pulls up a large list of people with that name. Had to go to a web site on the second page that listed public record information, including my old phone number and junk mail addresses (not my current number or actual email addresses).

Oddly enough, searching my full name had me searching till the third page to find something on myself, and that just listed license from the CA BSIS. This was mostly because the first page was bloated with search results for the middle and last name, excluding my first name.

Now middle initial? First result is my far neglected deviantart page and the second is my correct address (but nothing else is correct).

I’m also starting to wonder if one or both parents have been living double lives, given how many different names these websites give them.

I share a name with two saints... and my parents and I are not even religious, let alone Catholic. The best part is no one really spells my name correctly in the first place, I've given up trying to correct it when it happens even though it's still a major cause of frustration. I've turned it into a game to see how badly they spell/pronounce it.
Edited to remove misleading phrasing

ClockworkHouse wrote:
Chairman_Mao wrote:

The first website that comes up when I search my name is totally amazing, and should keep people distracted from ever caring about whatever original reason they were searching my name in the first place.

This site?

Nah, my alter ego name. I can pm you the site.

Do phone books even collect and publish mobile phone numbers if you don't explicitly give them? I'm not sure they really exist in Australia any more, outside of an online directory.

I'm aware there are a ton of "reverse number" lookup sites, some of dubious quality.

Mermaidpirate wrote:

Do phone books even collect and publish mobile phone numbers if you don't explicitly give them? I'm not sure they really exist in Australia any more, outside of an online directory.

I'm aware there are a ton of "reverse number" lookup sites, some of dubious quality.

In the US, there's a government website you can visit to remove your name from phonebooks and commercial call lists. Putting your number on the phonebook no-list register seems to work, but the no-call list basically makes it "illegal" for commercial entities to call you without your consent, but does absolutely nothing to enforce it. To make it even worse, people tend to give their names, numbers, email addresses to just about everybody these days and when that includes commercial entities, they often have a clause somewhere that says by agreeing to provide that information, you are agreeing with them sharing it with everyone else.

So, yeah...

I had a bit of a social implosion last week over a bad social experience, so I deleted all of my friends off Steam and Discord. So I'm gradually trying to re-friend people. So if you see me re-adding you, I apologize.

I’m the only person ever with my name and I’ve not been shy about my name on the internet. My last name is exceedingly rare and anyone with it is related to me.

Jingleheimer-Schmidt? I hate to break it to you Vector, but that's our name too.

Alzheimer's & Dementia. Finally claimed my grandma. She had a horrid time off it. At least she's at peace now. Wish I knew how to better comfort grandpa and mum now.

RnRClown wrote:

Alzheimer's & Dementia. Finally claimed my grandma. She had a horrid time off it. At least she's at peace now. Wish I knew how to better comfort grandpa and mum now.

Been there too many times to count and you have my condolences. I watched two of my great grandfathers waste away in under two months after losing their wives of over 65 years. There's not much you can say - just be there and let him know you love him.

The family and I actually leave for a 8 hour drive in the morning because my grandma has lost 10lbs in the last week alone and is suspected to have pancreatic cancer, but is too old and has too many other health issues to survive the necessary diagnostic testing. While she is currently her usual self, still living at home and running around having a mostly normal life for the moment, they don't expect her to be around too long. Getting the wife and kids up there to say goodbye before it's too late.

Diabetes. Initial diagnosis sucked, as did going on insulin. Giving yourself a shot every morning does not make for a wonderful start to each day. Been dealing with it fairly well over the past 5 years. Then came yesterday morning.

Woke up and my sugar was at 117. For me, that is good. Doc wants me under 120 in the morning. Take my usual dosage of insulin and go downstairs for breakfast. Before I can even take 3 bites of cereal my eyesight begins to get blotchy. Well, it's early and I'm still tried. Probably just that. Then my heart begins to race. Start feeling a bit dizzy. Within 15 minutes of being at 117 I'm on the floor. Vision is spots, like I just looked into the sun. Sweating bullets and I can barely get back up. Manage to take my sugar and it's now at 50. Managed to get a few Starburst down.

Woke up an hour later feeling like garbage. That is the single most terrifying diabetes scare I've had by far. I've had drops of 50 points after exercising, but nothing that literally knocked me to the floor and messed my vision up like that. With those I felt dizzy and nauseous, but could still function.

The wort part is not knowing why it happened. Insulin is slow release and should not have done that. Never has before in all the time I've been taking it.

Might I suggest discussing it with your doc?

MattDaddy wrote:

Diabetes. Initial diagnosis sucked, as did going on insulin. Giving yourself a shot every morning does not make for a wonderful start to each day. Been dealing with it fairly well over the past 5 years. Then came yesterday morning.

Woke up and my sugar was at 117. For me, that is good. Doc wants me under 120 in the morning. Take my usual dosage of insulin and go downstairs for breakfast. Before I can even take 3 bites of cereal my eyesight begins to get blotchy. Well, it's early and I'm still tried. Probably just that. Then my heart begins to race. Start feeling a bit dizzy. Within 15 minutes of being at 117 I'm on the floor. Vision is spots, like I just looked into the sun. Sweating bullets and I can barely get back up. Manage to take my sugar and it's now at 50. Managed to get a few Starburst down.

Woke up an hour later feeling like garbage. That is the single most terrifying diabetes scare I've had by far. I've had drops of 50 points after exercising, but nothing that literally knocked me to the floor and messed my vision up like that. With those I felt dizzy and nauseous, but could still function.

The wort part is not knowing why it happened. Insulin is slow release and should not have done that. Never has before in all the time I've been taking it.

This is one of the reasons I say no every time my doctor brings up switching me to insulin. I have never had a low blood sugar incident on the various pills I am on. My A1C is high normal and she says we could get it down more with insulin, but I am good with high normal.

I was on Metformin, but it stopped working a while back. I was at the max dosage and it wasn't keeping me down enough, even with exercise and an improved diet. I'm 6"1' and 180, so I don't need to lose weight.

This is the first incident I've had with my sugar getting that so that fast. Already have a call in to my doc to try and figure out what happened. BTW, I did get the 50 point drops when I was just on Metformin and not insulin, but never anything that quick with either at any time before.

Work laptop has been getting more and more sluggish last couple month, kept locking up today just doing menial things. Have had multiple tickets with help desk. Finally they took it today and re imaged it, 3.5 hours later, now I have to download all my programs I use to do my job as help desk won't. Sigh. Totally non productive day.

I feel you Rainsmercy. I have 800 emails, 100 tickets to reassign, and my personal to do list to work on. Not to mention home life and the 55 hout week I just came off. Finally getting an extra pm to help but not looking forward to digging out.

One of the cats has been vomitting a lot lately, so took a trip to the vets last night. £200 ($300?) worth of tests later they found........ nothing. He's on a special diet now though which means he's half starved and has spent most of the evening sat on the kitchen counter yowling his head off. bless him.

I don't begrudge the money (he's insured if it gets worse) but leave of the yowling. It's enough already!

I hate Facebook. I only opened it so that I could log into a dooffy mobile game. That’s when I saw that my mom had made a rather lengthy post. It didn’t even occur to me that reading her post was a bad idea. I’m 48yo. I guess it’s never too late to be embarrassed by your parents.

Chris Rock did this funny bit a long time ago about people who expect praise and recognition for doing the things in life that you’re supposed to do. Like, “I take care of MY kids.” Of course you do. That’s what you’re supposed to do. You shouldn’t ever need to say that out loud. Or, “I’ve never been to jail.” You get the idea.

So, my mom’s big post is about how she found a check for $3500.00 on the ground outside of a store. The check had already been signed yet the pay to line is completely empty. She then goes on to dislocate her shoulder due to patting herself on the back with the fervor of a conga player in a salsa band during a big drum break. Why? Because she walked inside the store and found the poor fellow who dropped the check and gave it to him.

The story itself is worth telling because it’s not something that happens all the time, and it’s got a happy ending. But where does she get off pumping herself up about it. What else was she going to do with it? Write her name on the line and go cash it? Wad it up and toss it in the trash?
Sheesh!

Facebook has been like a needy ex-girlfriend that I've been trying to ghost. Several times a day it sends me a new notification of a friend suggestion- and it's never anybody that I know. I've been using it less and less, and it keeps sending me these stupid things to try and get me to interact with it. But then when someone actually does something like post on my timeline, I don't get a notification. I hate it, and only keep it because for some relatives and old friends it's the only way to keep in touch if I ever needed to.

Bad airport security experience and a flight delayed then canceled due to weather. On my way home from a couple of weeks overseas.