hummingwolf | (no subject)

Today we've had the kind of weather my family always used to refer to as "gringy," as in "a dingy gray, gringy day." Cold and overcast shading to rainy, it's the kind of weather best spent in your cozy home, drinking tea and reading a favorite book. So, naturally, I went out to deal with bureaucracy.

I know people who are worried about the government collecting information on them in some grand conspiracy to find out all about everybody's private life. If there is some vast government conspiracy related to our information, I believe that in reality it is a conspiracy to make sure that no two governmental organizations have the same information about you. Or maybe they're just trying to make sure that no two offices will have accurate information about me. Seriously, on January 30 I was talking to the nice people of the Social Security Administration about what paperwork I need to turn in in order to get my benefits, and today I find out that the state of Maryland thinks that my Social Security appeal was denied on January 30. No wonder I hadn't heard anything about the medical benefits I'm supposed to be getting along with the SSI, eh? Sheesh.

I've already got 1.5 of the 3 pieces of paperwork the SSA wants from me, so here's hoping all the local & federal benefits stuff can be straightened out soon. We live in hope.

In other news: On Wednesday, I went to the library & to Stitch & Bitch, enjoying myself rather a lot in both places and walking about 2.5 miles total during the day. Thursday, I never left home, spending the day resting, reading various things, and making some necessary phone calls. Today I walked a little over a mile, sniffling and sneezing all the while. (I didn't plan to make previous sentence rhyme, but it decided to anyway.)

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in reality it is a conspiracy to make sure that no two governmental organizations have the same information about you

SERIOUSLY.

Aww, it's a cute little rhyme, though.

And I've wondered about people who have those odd ideas about our government, too. I mean, this is the same government that can't even get all of its Here To Protect You! departments to play nicely with one another, why would it be able to coordinate that massive a information gathering and storing operation?

Good luck getting them to play nicely with you, though.

I hear ya on the paperwork.

At one point, J had launched into a rant about how they were asking for more and more information and identification and something about privacy and... stuff. I wasn't paying much attention (he rants a lot), until something he said made me perk up a bit. It had gone from paperwork and the government into some kind of conspiricy, Big Brother, and then on into the End Times and microchips.
"Wait. They'll want to put a microchip under my skin that had *all* of my information?"
"Yes!!! And they..."
"It will have my identification. And *everything*?"
"Exactly!!!! It's..."
"And I won't have to worry about losing paperwork or my IDs or any of that?"
"Umm. Yeah. But that's not the..."
"And if this is the universal system, then the same chip will work *everywhere*!"
*sigh* "Hon, I don't think you Get this. It's not a *good* thing."
"Oh? You've never been on government assistance, have you?"

So it's not just me, then?

Thank you!

There is no doubt in my mind that many folks in government would love to coordinate such a massive operation. So far, their efforts seem to be blocked by basic human error and human unwillingness to work well with people they think are rivals. If everything becomes automated, maybe the Grand Conspiracy to Invade Your Private Life will have a chance of working; but as long as so much relies on human memory and humans typing stuff into a database, there's not much chance of that.

Thanks again!

Hee!

If there's ever accurate information collected about everybody, I bet it'll be the corporations that manage it. The supermarket and drug store chains know more about me than the SSA, though they don't not quite as much as they think they do. (No, my purchase of dark chocolate does not mean I also need feminine hygiene products today, thank you.)