Tag: Facebook

I was minding my business, checking a former college classmate’s Facebook when I saw a name that I recognized and that I actively try not to think of whenever I can. Of course I gave in to my worst instincts and clicked. And what did I find? A post that made me roll my eyes.

Positivity+ is a proven application that provides students and members with affordable coaching, therapy and assessment support through Teletherapy Services. Check it out, free service offered this week. Telll [sic] a friend. Download the app! So many young people and individuals in general are having a hard time now. Assistance with any concern/issue; college, relationships with friends, classmates, professors and or mental health; Positivity+ can help.

It’s interesting she cares so much about the mental health of young people or people having a hard time or people with issues with professors now. She didn’t care about them when she was my professor and she marked off on tests where my handwriting was shaky due to lithium. She didn’t care when she refused throughout Fall 2006 to find a placement for my internship until the last moment (because I couldn’t drive at the time due to my disability) and she had no problem ending that internship prematurely either.

She didn’t care when she mocked me publicly as she taught Art of Interviewing and when she mocked me in front of my internship class. She didn’t care as she mocked me privately to my classmates, who would later tell me about it. She didn’t care when she mocked my family being too poor to afford Caller ID or when she knew I couldn’t afford nicer shoes or better clothes because of my being poor. She didn’t care that her decision (along with another professor) to coerce me into allowing them to attend a therapy/psychiatrist appointment with me caused me emotional distress & was traumatizing; nor did she care when it nearly caused me to be hospitalized. She didn’t care when she told me to my face that my diagnosis of bipolar disorder meant that I wouldn’t be allowed to graduate from the program when I had 11 hours to go in the program, that should get a degree in business instead (which I’ve never understood where that came from), and that I really shouldn’t be around people at all. She didn’t actually care when she said I could complete my internship Fall 2007 in January 2007, for me to call her about it in February or early March; nor did she care when she ghosted me on that until the fateful meeting in Fall 2007.

She didn’t care about healthy interactions between professors and students. She didn’t care that her actions and her words caused my mental health to worsen for a variety of reasons and that she made it harder for me to trust authority figures. She didn’t care that she violated my rights or that her actions caused me to be unable to not only get my degree but to get a job, thus making it almost impossible for me to escape poverty.

Maybe she’s not the woman she once was. Maybe she actually gives a shit about mentally ill people like she claims on her Facebook profile. I sincerely hope she’s changed but I doubt it with every fiber of my being because I don’t know that she’s capable of ever having that kind of empathy. I used to question why someone like her would become a social worker, but I’ve learned over the years that social work isn’t free of ableism. In fact, it may be more prevalent in this field than in others; and part of that is probably because people who lack empathy or basic compassion toward disabled people know that they can get away with taking advantage of them very easily in it.

Yes, it’s time for another tale from the hacking of my Facebook account. Do you know how the motherfucking hacker got into my account? You will absolutely never guess it.

Do you remember my message boards? They started as fps.com message boards. Then we had a contest to rename them and the name Celestial was chosen. For a while I used the email address janet@celestialmb.org for logins and communicating with people online. But it wasn’t a really long time. By 2008-2009, I had stopped, but I put that in as an email I’d had that people could search for me on Facebook—back when that’s a way you could find friends. I left it on there with the setting “only me” to keep it private. And since they’d been in my account earlier, thus my change of passwords that night, they’d been able to see the list of current and former email addresses.

I quit renewing that domain years ago, and forgot it existed. Well, this motherfucker decided to resurrect it so that they could make an email address. Not just any email address.

My. old. fucking. email. address.

Mine.

With my goddamn name on it.

After they set up my old fucking email address, they just submitted a password reset and got the code there. They found a workaround to two factor authentication. They’re probably why the code generator quit working.

A few people I had told about the hack had been kind of placating and some had even talked down to me. This morning I saw an email saying they were sure the PayPal being compromised was just a simple mistake:

Given my 4-decades of doing networks/cyber, I have yet to see Facebook (Meta) hack PayPal accounts to increase their ad revenue. I am also not aware of any Cyber-Crime wave where hackers target PayPal accounts to purchase ads on Facebook (steal your money, yes. Run a Facebook Ad, no.)

Again, with the information I have, I would suspect that a simple mistake was made somewhere. An errant click on something bound to the PayPal account, or some such. Facebook is not above trickery, but not outright theft. Hanlon’s Razor states “never attribute to malice what is adequately explained by stupidity”, and while I don’t think this was an act of stupidity, the most likely and plausible explanation was a mistake.

Admittedly, he wasn’t included in all of the emails about my hacked account, but most of the other folks in the email were. And most had been acting like it was unfortunate but no big deal, so I decided to give them an idea of just how everything happened and when my problem became their problem too. His response was leas condescending, but still a tad clueless:

That was clearly information that I was not privy too. Perhaps the ad buys were just a probe to see if the PP account was valid, before a full scale compromise.

I don’t think this was about HAL’s PayPal or HAL in general. Why would someone hack my account to get at them? Why would they buy a domain name that belonged to me to do this from? It doesn’t make sense to me.

So you know how my Facebook was hacked over the weekend? I might have mentioned it in the last blog post about my shitty week. Basically, someone hacked into my account while I was sleeping on Saturday night/Sunday morning, changed the password, took one of my emails off the account, added some of their accounts to the Huntsville Art League business/ad account, and did enough to get my account disabled & put on a thirty day countdown for permanent deletion. I’m having it reviewed by Facebook but there’s little to no hope of recovering it.

Well, today it got worse.

When I realized what went down Sunday, I messaged two HAL members to let them know that the organization’s Facebook was compromised. The guy in charge of the page kept telling me that he didn’t see any of what Facebook had emailed to tell me happened. I couldn’t check because my account is disabled, so I had to take his word for it.

Today, I got notifications for Facebook ads that were being paid for via HAL’s PayPal. The treasurer got notifications from PayPal. The same two guys I’d told focused on changing passwords, but I told them they had to cancel/pull the merchant agreement to cut off the money. They told me again that they’d changed the passwords so it should be fine, but the treasurer listened and pulled the agreement. Now, HAL should be safe, but it looks like they’ve started charging a former President of HAL. I’ve contacted her on Instagram and I hope she can pull hers too.

I don’t think they can access my bank/credit cards because I had terminated my agreements a long time ago. But if they do, I’ll file a dispute at the bank and update the FTC and IC3 complaints.

I still don’t know how any of this could have happened.

This past week has been a struggle. No, really it has. There have been several times where I wanted to scream into a pillow or start crying and never stop. It’s been bad enough that I can’t even remember all of the badness.

The worst of it started on Monday morning. (Prior to this, the freezer we keep my ice packs in died.) Mom had a steroid injection in her neck. She’d thought it was funny when they scheduled it that they could either do it on Valentine’s Day or on my birthday (Thursday); and she didn’t understand the concept of: I have plans those days that don’t involve hours of waiting in a car for a shot that never actually gives any lasting relief. But I agreed to Valentine’s Day because I knew it’d be easier that day than on my birthday.

So because of their newest Covid protocols, I sat in the car for three hours. When you have a notoriously bad hip, sitting in the car can be beyond painful. I was stiff and in a lot of pain during my date with Chris, but the date was nice, cute, and fun. We watched YouTube videos afterwards.

An hour before my dad had to leave for an appointment on Tuesday morning, mom fell. I checked on her and asked if I needed to take him. She said she was okay, and she took him to his appointment. When they got back, she was talking about how the next afternoon he needed to go to the pharmacy to get his pneumonia vaccine. I told her that wasn’t possible since I had to work Wednesday. She then said she’d do it on Thursday afternoon. When I reminded her I had plans on Thursday, she told me other people in the house have plans too and she didn’t understand why I had to do whatever it was on Thursday. I told her she could take him early on Thursday, but I wasn’t going to give up that afternoon. She never seemed to recognize why I was so adamant about Thursday.

I had to take her to a lab appointment that afternoon and I had to sit in the car in the parking lot for another hour, which inflamed my hip even more. When we got home, I went to grab my bag and I saw that a painting of mine had been cut in two places. I assumed it was damaged by my dad because he does that with my stuff quite a bit. I showed my mom and she didn’t seem to understand why I would be so upset.

Normally, Tuesday is Writers’ Club night. So I would usually be staying at Chris’s overnight after we all went home. But Tuesday it was canceled. I texted to make sure I could still stay over, since I know sometimes he might not feel like it, and he said of course I could. So I went over and started napping on the bed with him at around 5 pm.

Text from mom: Janet I think I may need to go to the ER. I'm choking on drainage in my throat. It doesn't matter what I do, it won't go up or down. My throat feels like it's being cut with a thousand knives. And my doctor is not in tomorrow. Also my back is killing me. It hurts so bad that I can't stand to get up and down. Any suggestions of what to do?

At 5:59, we both woke up to a special ringtone I have set for mom. She might need to go to the ER. Her throat hurt, she couldn’t swallow, her back hurt, she couldn’t move, and she couldn’t see her doctor the next day because he wasn’t going to be in. I drove home and picked her up; I waited while she got ready. Then I drove her to the ER and, at about 7 pm, let her out before I went to park the car in the parking deck. That’s when it happened, and, by it, I mean I wrecked my car.

Car in parking deck with damage to front right headlight and fender.

I hit a concrete pillar/support/column as I was entering the parking space. A doctor witnessed it and tried to prevent my oncoming panic attack. This led to an asthma attack and texts to Ashley, Chris, mom, my aunt, Laura, and Kitty. They helped calm me down.

While in the ER’s visitor waiting area out in the parking deck, there was a guy who was reciting rap lyrics, yelling obscenities & slurs, and said “I’m going to fucking kill you” as a state trooper headed into the ER. The cop grabbed his vest and turned really quickly. I was sure something bad was about to go down. It didn’t. Security moved the guy a few times. Eventually Chris suggested I go wait in my car, so I did.

At about 1:45, mom texted me that she got a room in the ER. This meant I could go wait with her in the hospital, which I did. We were told that the doctor would be in soon. Soon ended up being 5:30. He said she pulled a muscle and just had a sore throat; her throat had already started feeling better by now. He said we’d get discharged soon. Soon ended up being 7 am.

Around 24 hours after I first woke up.

I went home to take a nap before my HAL shift, and got about 4.5 hours sleep in. Luckily, things were fairly dead on Wednesday, so I just sat and watched my friend Sara get married via livestream. Oh, and I answered a new text from mom about how I needed to change my birthday plans. (Not because she was in pain.)

Text from mom: Storms and supposed to come through from 4 to 8 pm tomorrow. That will probably make them very strong. My response: Ugh. That’s not good. Mom: I know. It throws a kink in your birthday plans doesn't it? I'm sorry. I want you and Chris to have a nice time together. Can you take something to his house to have for dinner and go to the Cheesecake Factory another day? Me: It does. We should be able to get food at the Cheesecake Factory at/around lunchtime and get back to his house before the storms get here. And I'll take dad in the morning to get his pneumonia vaccine if you want me to.

She told me that there would be storms the next day and there was a risk they’d been strong. I had been monitoring the system for days. She wanted us to cancel our plans to go to The Cheesecake Factory. I told her that I would just make sure we got there and back to Chris’s house before the storms arrived. So even though I suck at time management, I worked out a timeline for the next day so that we could do what we’d planned on doing for months. (Mom had been told a while before that this was our plan.)

Because of the importance of the timeline, I was the one who took dad to get his vaccine, not her. And I was able to get to Chris’s house well before I needed to to make sure we could go to The Cheesecake Factory.

Chicken Parmesan Pizza Style at The Cheesecake Factory

Our date was actually one of the best birthdays ever, and not just because I was finally able to try Chicken Parmesan Pizza Style, which I loved. No, it was one of the best because I was with Chris.

Chris smiling at The Cheesecake Factory

He’s so pretty.

At 4:54, mom texted to check if we’d gotten back. We had been back since shortly before 3:30, which was when I had told Chris we needed to be back. She asked if I was staying overnight and I told her I was. She said that was fine.

Mom: Be glad you're not home tonight. Dad is having fits over his new glucose monitor. Every thing about it is wrong. He is snapping and yelling and losing control of his senses. I'll stay out of his way and let him implode. Say a prayer for me. Me: I will. Maybe he'll calm down soon. Mom: If not I may have to call HEMSI to take him to the hospital. I'll be fine. ☺️☺️☺️ Me: Is there any curling or anything on? That might soothe him.

Two hours later, she let me know that dad was upset by his new glucose monitor. She was describing him as losing control, snapping, and yelling, which he does these things as part of his dementia and his bipolar disorder and his sparkling personality. He can be violent and it’s important to keep him as calm as possible to prevent that violence. His violence is something that mom knows scares the shit out of me because I’m usually the person he targets. So bringing it up was a good way to make me come home. But I sensed that he wasn’t really in that mind frame, so I tried giving ideas to soothe him. She told me nothing could soothe him but she’d leave him alone. Chris asked if she realized how her texts sound. I told him that she says she doesn’t, but that I’ve told her in the past and she claims that isn’t her intention.

I don’t think anything major happened on Friday, but on Saturday night while I was sleeping my Facebook got hacked. I was able to convince Facebook to let me change the password, but my account is currently disabled, pending a review.

From what I’ve gathered, the hackers posted an ad for some kind of good or service that violates Facebook’s Terms of Service. The community standards link leads to this page. If they compared the ads to any other post I’ve made since 2007, they’d notice that none of those goods/services line up with my values.

So, in 28 days, I may officially have a permanently disabled Facebook profile for things I didn’t even do. Fun. Things will get better soon. They have to.

The “friend” struck again. This time they added some unabashed racism and support of the terrorists of January 6. Oh, and they are still pissed about wearing masks and having COVID restrictions.

Happy January 6th everyone!
No really, he just said that.

But maybe he’s just being edgy, you might think. I don’t buy that. I’ve seen him support a literal fucking neo-Nazi. This ain’t a bug, it’s a goddamn feature and it’s so sick that only 3 people (one of his family members, a friend of his, and me) are publicly telling him to sit down and shut the fuck up.

If you see someone saying this kind of crap, how do you not speak up?

What happened January 6th is indefensible, and if you think it was a good thing, you need to examine yourself & think about why you are okay with trying to overthrow a democracy. You’re literally celebrating a seditious conspiracy, bro. That’s fucked up.

This is insane. JK Rowling hasn’t ever said anything against trans people. She’s spoken facts about them. But never leveled any kind of hateful or “phobic” comments.
It doesn’t matter how often you defend her, she ain’t gonna fuck you, bro.

If you think that his racism and support of terror means he’s changed his other views, don’t worry. He’s still a transphobic lout who thinks JK has never said anything transphobic whilst he’s probably in denial that he’s ever said anything transphobic.

So why have I not taken this asshole off my friends list? Honestly I’m wondering that myself. He glared at me at his sister-in-law’s wedding, so I’m guessing that I’m not the only one contemplating ending our association with one another. He’s such an awful person and I hate that he’s the brother-in-law of a person I truly adore. If I still had friendly feelings towards his wife, I’d be sad about them being married to one another, but I genuinely think they are perfect for one another based on things she’s said to me & others.

Post 1: How are you celebrating today?! 😜 Post 2: …so, Jan 6 is going to be compared to 9/11 now? Pearl Harbor? Seriously? 🙄
It’s compared to both because it’s a terror attack and an act of war against this country. You’re just okay with it because the perpetrators are people with your skin color and beliefs.
The riots in the name of “racial equality” were far worse than what happened on January 6.
For the first time since 1814, and for the first time in the 200+ years of our nation's history our own citizens, ransacked our Capitol on January 6 with the intent to (1) stop the results of a popular election from being certified, (2) hang the United States' Vice President, and (3) harm their political enemies. See our 50 states had all conducted elections and had certified the results of those elections, some of them after three recounts. That's actually what states do under the federal system our Constitution establishes. And those felons who stormed the Capitol that day tried to overthrow that Constitutional exercise of state and popular sovereignty—because they just couldn't bear the thought of anyone other than their lame duck Savior being President. So, please, explain by what measure those riots were worse than January 6.
Dollar value? Come on. And, while you're at it, please also explain why all those smashed windows and beaten cops and the images of the Traitors' flag (the stars and bars) being flown in the Union's Capitol amount to an "enhanced tour."
Notice how he never answered.
…more indoctrination by Facebook. I don’t need to care about this at all. Unlike some of the stuff they throw at me … I can’t seem to turn this one off. Strange.
Heaven forbid non-binary people want to be treated like people & have folks understand them.
This is so sad. This guy easily crushed his competition. Transgenders should just compete within their own category, if they want to compete.
While it is the very beginning of my day, this is the stupidest thing I’ve read so far. Rowling never made transphobic comments. Not agreeing with a lifestyle choice doesn’t earn the “phobic” suffix. A book series can be fun without needing to try and include every race and wacky sexuality a person may dream up. She has no obligation to anyone in her writing, except her own conscience. … and how weak-minded are these readers that they fall apart and can’t enjoy a story apart from the author’s tweets.

Chris and I were sitting at Waffle House this afternoon waiting for food. I was showing him some of the Facebook posts that were a tad fucked up—mostly science-denying, anti-mask, anti-vaxx stuff—before reporting them for spreading false information about Covid, as one does. I found a post by a “friend” about what they called: lifestyle choices.

Oh you know what they meant by that. In the year of our Lord 2021, motherfuckers are still calling being LGBTQ+a lifestyle choice. So what we’re going to is talk about some lifestyle choices.

Being a science-denying nincompoop is a lifestyle choice. It may not be a long lasting one, but it’s still one. Although one could argue that the consequences of that decision last for-fucking-ever.

It’s the one and only D-O-double G.

Getting your Thanksgiving recipes from Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg instead of Rachael Ray is a lifestyle choice. It’s also obviously the only correct choice. No, really. If you’ve never watched Martha and Snoop, you’ve missed out.

Drinking water vs. drinking soda is a lifestyle choice. Reading more vs. watching television is a lifestyle choice. Going to church vs. not is a lifestyle choice. Wearing dresses vs. pants is a lifestyle choice. Recycling vs. not recycling is a lifestyle choice. (And I judge people who choose not to recycle.)

A lifestyle choice is something where you actually have a choice to make. Sexuality and gender identity are not choices. I’ll say it louder for the people in the back:

SEXUALITY AND GENDER IDENTITY ARE NOT CHOICES.

They are part of who you are.

Assuming you’re cisgender, did you wake up one day and decide you were going to identify most with the gender that you were assigned at birth? Or did you always feel that gender fit you?

Assuming you’re heterosexual, did you wake up one day and decide you were going to date or fall in love with people of a different gender? Or have you always been attracted to that gender?

It was the latter on both, wasn’t it?

Because. It’s. Not. A. Choice.

Common myths about being LGBTQ from edcan.ca

And it never has been a choice.

The individual who called it a choice in their post also suggested that J.K. Rowling never said anything transphobic. I’m gonna spell this out for them and anyone else who doesn’t get it, yes, she fucking did. She’s been transphobic repeatedly. She has promoted transphobia. She has denied transphobia is real. So you can fuck all the way off with that bullshit!

I’m okay. I promise. I’m calm. I’m centered. I may need to prune my friend list of transphobic, homophobic, antisemitic science-deniers. Sometimes you have to let the toxic people in your life go.