Forgot My Security Answers for Security Questions

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Did God ask Moses any security question ?

I am never into brief explanations. If everyone was to be short winded there would be no Gone With the Wind , Grapes of Wrath, Infinite Jest, or Catch 22.  When you have some free time in the afternoon read David Foster Wallace. Somewhere in South Pasadena lies a  my copy signed by Wallace.

Blue Heron in Palm Tree

Ketch 22 has 2 masts but Catch 22 has one question and lately I find this  confusion when dealing with cell phones or submitting comments on the web.

"If you wish to report your cell phone is not working and need a replacement Please call #1-213-312-1234" How do you call when your phone doesn't work? 

Another similar situation is when your phone quits and the other party wants to confirm your identification by texting you. How can you answer the text if your phone doesn't work?

If you are connected to the web you are able to e-mail and you can send messages but you can't answer a SMS  message.

Landing Heron

This subject may have been discussed in an earlier blog but I forget as I have often mentioned. My Samsung Galaxy S6 met the hardware floor like a roller skater first learning at a roller rink and never recovered. AT&T refused to make any efforts to replace my phone at a price outside of Trump's Budget. 

What do they rent at Trump's Budget Car Rental ? 

Fred our local bicycle nut at our marina referred me to the 99 cent store here in San Pedro where I could hook up with a freebie phone. 

Red Fox

Two trips later between me and the sailboat and the store traveling by my trusty bicycle I had a new phone and a new telephone number. The phone is an ANS UL 40 small and cheap (free is not cheap) Learning how to use it after over a decade of cell phones experience was frustrating. The POS had a mind of its own, swiping and touching worked better on my German Shepherd or Yorkshire.

Recently it turned into a brick and it stayed that way. This happened once before but neglect got it going again. If you discharge the battery completely you can restart charging if you are in a zero state. 

Please comment if you currently live in a Zero state.

These guys are needed to kill feral cats

So I finally figured it was time to deep six the brick but I didn't toss it into the ocean as I have done accidentally several times before. So I went to Assurance Web Site (where the phone came from) and got a redirect to Virgin Mobile Web site. I had never any past experience with virgins recently so this was quite a surprise considering my age. 

(My middle name is discursive) 

Just last week a sweet child named Sandy told me I was probably the fittest person in the whole marina. 

Super friendly

Virgin Mobile owned Assurance Wireless so at Virgin's web sight I sent an e-mail about needing a phone replacement. Their reply was prompt giving me a reference number and saying they would be back with me in 24 to 48 hours. The next day I got additional e-mail saying "do to security restrictions" I would have to supply my PIN and answer a question. The question was "What is my favorite city?" Now this was strange as no one had every asked me that question before on line. I sent a reply to them with  PIN request and "

Santa Monica".  They replied that my answers were incorrect. Nonplussed as never having been turned down before by a virgin I silently mussed and slept on it. When I awoke I heard an epiphany but then discovered it was only the German Shepherd dreaming. I realized then I had never had a reason to provide Virgin Mobile with any answers as I never had ever made any contact with them. I sent them another e-mail and tried to explain that and have not received any reply.

(maybe the Virgins are sleeping)

Corvus are my friends

Sometime and somewhere yesterday I took the bricked phone to the Sprint Store as the phone had a Sprint SIM installed. The Sprint store is San Pedro now is located in the former Radio Shack location. The Sprint agent told me they were no longer involved with Virgin Mobile after the merger and he said I should go to the mobile store across the street from Vons store  on GaffeyStreet. I went to both stories across from Vons,  one next to the tattoo parlor and the other next to Meat Ball Express. At the Boost store the fellow told me they had did some service for Virgin Mobile in the past but no longer did so. My phone was quickly becoming an orphan.

Happy is my German Shepherd

The battery on my brick can not be replaced or removed and you can not do a master reset if you can not get to the screen. So I tried another approach that worked once before which is leave it alone and like small children they will solve the problem by them self. So the brick went without charging for 24 hours discharging it self. And this morning, I like the Greek in the bathtub (not the sailor in the shower) exclaimed Eureka (420 growing center) as the brick started to show its evil red led that it was alive and charging again.

Lucky is a Yorkshire Monster

Several Samsung I have had were reset by removing the battery and reinstalling it. I would surmise that when the hardware awakes and sees the battery in a discharged state although connected to a charger it could possible reset to a previous state and lie idle while recovering. So this brick probably need to go to what we used to call the "All Bets Are Off State", Last century we designed and built a RJE 2780 lookalike  terminal that had  hardwired logic and the master reset logic was wired to every flip flop in the machine and was anded with power on reset. So the device always started in the same logical state.

Wild animal on patrol

So the brick has returned from the darkness of the undersea where  light stops after too many fathoms of depth. (Have you ever read Rachel Carson's The Sea Around Us ?) and my brick is now chirping away similar to the birdsong of a Chickadee or a nearby Mocking Bird telling me that another Twitter is in the notification box or more often that the Bank of America bill is due.

How long my phone remains active and in working conditions is a good question. A good question also is "Can you live without your cell phone roosting in your pocket?" Could that Apple phone or Samsung be another cuckoo laying parasitic ideas that bloom into ideas that are not your own?

Many years ago I was introduced to Sisyphus by a recently Engineer from MIT that had moved to UCI so his wife could attend Medical School there.

My sliding rock over the last decade started in 2007 with the introduction of the Iphone and my son wanting one. I had a cell phone starting before 1989 where my first or maybe a second phone was stolen out of my car.

So the not so smart phone becomes another lamprey draining my cash and my wits.

So many of the above text has nothing to do with the enclosed pictures.

All the pictures were taken by my Nikon's not a smart phone.