I am a 69 year old receiving Security Supplemental Income. I have my own room in a house with 4 other men. We cannot do drugs or drink alcohol and we must smoke outside. I have no car. The city bus is now free to senior citizens (and junior citizens (under 18). I have a Certificate in Data Processing earned in 2001 and a degree in Psychology with a focus on substance abuse from Argosy University Online earned in 2014. Argosy University is now defunct. My entire 2 years needed to earn the degree were completed online.
I have followed Siddha Yoga but am currently disillusioned with it. Accepted knowledge from Prem Rawat but do not practice. I was very interested in the prophecy of Maitreya, Christ, Imam Mahdi reappearing, but I have found little in that regard in Siddha Yoga.
I am earning money through a website called Remotasks.
I live on SSI and SNAP benefits. I get Medicare and have an Advantage Plan. I need dental work but the plan cannot pay entirely for the work, so I have a kind of ugly smile. I was happy to get cataract surgeries for free, both eyes, a few years ago. I am a type 2 diabetic and have recently gotten below a 7 A1c. I owe that to NOOM and their weight loss program. I lost 30 lbs. I fear I am getting it back now though. I was down to 160 but now I’m at 180. The calorie counting I found hard. Working with the exercise, 10,000 steps a day. I do recall being regularly at 205. An illness got me down to 193 and that’s when I began NOOM. I’ve been unemployed all my life so I didn’t qualify for regular social security. There are rules to SSI, like income allowed to be made. I have followed Siddha Yoga for many years, but I got involved with a Urantia Book that divided my devotion. Also got knowledge from Prem Rawat. Read A.A. Bailey and started to believe I was her Avatar/Bodhisattva/Imam. Tragic, really. I was on temporary suspension at UF then and other friends had graduated and gone on with their lives. I was ALONE IN THE WORLD. I lived with my parents who did not really love one another. I got trapped in their home. Dad got skin cancer that kept him inside and he a fisherman. He died in 1992. My mom died of a stroke in 2007. I miss her. Chronic unemployment left me homeless by 2012. I got help until I was 65 and could receive SSI. I live with other men where no drugs are allowed.
[ I might have mentioned my degree from the now defunct Argosy University Online in Psychology with a focus on substance abuse.]
Me: Isn’t the sim in a little side drawer on the side of the phone? Some way to open that?
Assurance Wireless: Please insert the sim card eject tool into the tiny hole next to the sim tray slot. And gently push it in until the tray pops. Out. Pull out the sim tray. Erlyn B.
Me: I’m afraid I don’t have the sim card eject tool.
Assurance: Can you take a picture of the little side drawer on the side of the phone, just to make sure that we got the right spot? Erlyn B.
Me: Actually, no, my webcam isn’t working either.
Assurance: If you don’t have a sim card eject too, you can use a paper clip. Erlyn B
Me: I guess I will have to go buy some.
Assurance: Please once you re-insert the SIM, try to make a test call and let us know the outcome. Erlyn B
Me: okay
Assurance: We appreciate it, Eddie. Erlyn B
Me: Okay, so replaced the sim card and still have the issue.
Assurance:Do you mean you already tried to re-insert the SIM? Erlyn B.
Me: A fellow at Office Depot gave me a paper clip. Actually opened and replaced the sim, too, but I did it again back home. No difference either time.
Me: Maybe activating that other phone has done this and when you get it and wipe the info clean it will work again. Just have to wait.
Assurance: May I know when did you receive that phone? Erlyn B.
Me: Yes. We’ve done it twice. Just good for emergency calls, the phone is telling me.
Me: Back in March, I believe.
Assurance: Is that your initial or replacement phone? Erlyn B.
Me This is a phone I bought. A previous phone had serious battery issues. I had bought replacement batteries and they too went dead, allowing me to use the phone for a minute or two before dying. Anyway. This was not a replacement phone in the sense that I ordered a replacement phone. No, this phone I purchased outright from Assurance. It was ove3r $100, as I recall. Looking for the charge at my credit union but I can’t find it. I think it was actually February or this year. I was so happy to get it. There were some mistakes in getting it shipped to me as I recall. I might have started in December of last year to get the phone and then had to wake folks up in January. It was late January or early February. Isn’t there an account?
Assurance: Hello, Eddie. We need to call you to check and verify your account. Erlyn B.
Me: I don’t think I’ll be able to receive a call.
Assurance: Do you have a home phone? Erlyn B.
Me: no
Me: This is ridiculous. Don’t you keep records? Even this messenger conversation. I remember messaging you here early in the year.
Me: There is the account pin at the website.
Me: Conversations here, you know, go back to 2015.
Me: I guess this was a replacement phone. It is mentioned on Jan 18, 2022.
Assurance: We apologize for the inconvenience, Eddie. We need to verify some information on your account. We need to access it to check what phone was activated. Is there a way you can borrow a friend’s phone? Erlyn B.
Me: Not right now.
Me: I know I activated the phone that I sent back. I was meaning to ask you about deactivating it before I sent it back, but it’s too late now.
Assurance: Hi there, Eddie! Please keep us posted once you have an alternate phone number ready. Or for your convenience, you may contact customer service directly at 888-321-5880 during our operation hours.
Our centers operate during the following hours:
Monday – Friday: 7 a.m. – 10 p.m. CST
Saturday – Sunday: 7 a.m. – 8 p.m. CST – Carlos B.
Assurance: Hello, Eddie. We appreciate that you’re getting back to us. We know how important it is to have a great connection wherever you spend your time. Let me help. Are you expecting an initial or replacement phone? Liezel A
Me: I’m sending you a phone. It was a replacement phone. I am sending it for a refund.
Me: I am sending it back as my original phone was found. It does not work though, no calls, as I suppose, having activated the replacement, it was excluded from use. I also suppose that the replacement phone I have sent cannot be deactivated until it is received, which UPS predicts at act Oct. 13th.
Assurance: I was confused. May I ask that you send back the device to Assurance? Liezel A
Me: Are you kidding?
Me: I don’t mean to confuse you. I am sending you a phone already. It is being shipped.
Me: I have had a busy day. I am tired. It hasn’t helped that I had no working phone.
Assurance: Hi, Eddie. We got you! Let’s wait for the package to be receive and validated return before processing your refund request. Fernandito M.
Oct. 13thm 11:22 a.m.
Me: I got an email from UPS telling me the package has arrived.
Me: I called that number yesterday, though I was stressed out and go confused. Do I swap phones or something? It’s an automated system. I can call via Skype.
Assurance: Thanks, Eddie. We can already create a refund request on your account.-Pg O
Me: Great. Thank you.
Me: I still have to get myself together a little before I
Me: Before I skype your number again. Do I need anything besides my sim to do that? I opened it up and took down the numbers on it. Will that be helpful?
Assurance: You can provide the order number and the return tracking number on the new phone.-Pg O
Me: The new phone? Not sure I know the order number.
Me: I have the order on my bank statement. Is the order number somewhere there?
Me: I returned the box and everything so I guess any receipt is there.
Me: I don’t keep a neat house.
Assurance: You may check and see the order numbers on your account history, Eddie.-Pg O
Me: A number that comes before my card number is 0 2276349373 0 4814. Would that be it?
Me: so I do use the swap phone? or do I press the number for technical help?
Assurance: Hi Eddie. How many Assurance Wireless phone you have on hand?-Pg O
Me: I just have the one Motorola Moto G Pure
Me: Thumbs Up emoji
Assurance: I see. Yes, you can do the swap, Eddie.-Pg O
Me: Well, I got technical (customer) support and we’ve got it going again. Thanks for your help.
Assurance: You are very much welcome, Eddie. Did you get the reference number for your Refund request?-Pg O
Me: No.
Me: I have this temporary pin in my text messages. Do you need that?
Me: 366984
Assurance: Hi Eddie. The Temporary pin expires immediately. You can later have us create the refund request.-Pg O
Me: I don’t understand.
Me: How can I create this refund request? I don’t understand. I thought it would be automatic when you received the phone.
Assurance: We need to create it over the phone, Eddie.-Pg O
Me:So, I have to call again?
Assurance: Yes, Eddie. I’m sorry for the hassle.-Pg O
Me: I just don’t see what number I should press to process the refund.
Assurance: Hi, Eddie. There is no option on the Automated System. We need to be connected to you again on the line.-Pg O
Me: I was just told on the phone that because the phone was activated they cannot refund my money. WHAT TOTAL BULLSHIT!!! Some simple Asian woman that I could hardly understand and who didn’t understand me but she sees some debit in my account for $3 and some cents which has been there for like forever and she cannot refund the $43.19 that apparently ASSURANCE has not created a RECORD FOR. But Campus USA paid that money to Assurance and now after waiting all this time for the phone to arrive as you said I had to I find out YOU are not going to refund my money. There has gotta be a law or a LAWYER.
Assurance: Hello, Eddie. That’s now what we like you to experience. I will look into this for you.-Pg O
Me:I lost my phone and I got a replacement today, but at the webpage all I see is reactivate which I suppose is a reactivation of the phone I lost. How do I activate this replacement phone. I have charged it for 3 hours.
Me:I’m very confused about this Google sign in. Does it have anything to do with activating this replacement phone, really?
Me:I just called and supposedly got my phone set up. I gave numbers on the box, but now I see no difference in the phone. I see no phone number. Going back to MyAccount at the website, there doesn’t seem to be an account anymore, not for the phone I had. Can you help me, please?
Me:I’m told I have to wait 24 hours for my Google Account to be verified.
Well, looks like I’ve got it set up, anyway. Just needed a little time.
Assurance: Hi there, Eddie! Sorry for the delay. May we verify if your new phone is already activated on your account? Have you made a test call to see if the services are working? ~Catherine O.
Me: Haven’t made a call but I have been able to get all my contacts over to it. That made me happy.
Me: Number I called was disconnected.
Me: Another had calling restrictions that didn’t allow the completion of my call.
Me: I did get a menu at my dentist’s office.
Me: Yeah, I don’t do a lot of calling. I get numbers and menus from places I’ve called, so I think I’m cooking with gas here. Know what I mean?
Me: Installing apps and all. Cool.
Assurance: Hi, Eddie. Thank you for messaging us. Allow me to assist you. May I know if you are still not able to make phone calls? Erlyn B.
Me: My original phone was found today. How can I use it again?
Me: Is it okay to use both? I see I am able to use the old phone with no problem.
Assurance: Hi Eddie. That’s good to know. You can only use one phone for the service.-Pg O
Me: Can I return the new one for a refund?
Me: How do I tell the service which I intend to use?
Me: It would be great to get a refund on the new phone.
Me:I have the box and everything.
Assurance: Is the other phone working?-Pg O
Me: Yes
Assurance: That’s good, Eddie. For sending back the new phone, customers will shoulder the shipping.-Pg O
Me: That’s cool. What is the address to send it to?
Me: Would take it to the UPS here. Okay?
Assurance: Let me verify the correct shipping address , Eddie.-Pg O
Me: Thumbs Up emoji
Assurance: Hi Eddie. Here is the return shipping address.
Assurance Wireless c/o Ingram
2675 Reeves Rd., Suite 190
Plainfield, IN 46168. -Pg O
Me: Thank you.
Assurance: You are very much welcome, Eddie. Do not forget the return tracking number and you need to send it back as soon as possible.-Pg O
Me: Yes. I will take it to the UPS Store tomorrow. They will give me a return tracking number, won’t they?
Assurance: Yes. They should give you a tracking number, That’s important on returning the device.-Pg O
Me: Yes, important to know you receive it.
Assurance: Exactly, Eddie. The box is untouched, correct?-Pg O
Me: What do you mean? There was something about the label on it. You could or needed to remove it to see something beneaath it. Turned out to be about activating and/or returning. Very tiny print, but the label could be reattached as its back had still sticky adhesive and I did that.
Me: UPS will help with securely taping it, the outer box. Did I need to erase the phone or something like that? Bubble wrap still there and I put the phone in it. Also, stuff to secure the bubble wrapped phone from damage. On delivery though it did bounce about even though of course it was secure then.
Me: Thumbs Up emoji.
Me: UPS Store here is open frmo 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. tomorrow so I plan to go there and send it from there. They are staffed with helpful people. I have used it often before.
Assurance: That is nice of them, Eddie. You may send us here the tracking number for the record.-Pg O
Me: Thumbs Up emoji
Assurance: After you get the tracking number, and the package is in transit. You can call us back to create the refund request.-Pg O
Me: Thumbs Up emoji
Assurance: Thanks, Eddie. Have a great night!-Pg O
Me: Been to UPS Store and shipped. This is the tracking number 129X70140307658094
Assurance: Been to UPS Store and shipped. This is the tracking number 129X70140307658094
Me: I did that, too. Didn’t show for me. Guess it’s because it’s not out yet or something. It’s on a receipt and it’s real small but I’m sure that’s it. I should have asked the young man to write it down for me.
Me: almost an hour now since I was there.
Assuramce: Do you have the receipt, Eddie?-Pg O
Me: yes
Assurance: Do you have the receipt, Eddie?-Pg O
Me: I’m working on it.
Me: oh, i see. that’s 1z9
Assurance: Thanks, Eddie. It already shows as UPS tracking but no details yet.-Pg O
Assurance: Thanks for the details, Eddie. Let’s wait tomorrow. -Pg O
Me: I’m having issues with making calls. Cellular network not available for voice calls, it says.
Assurance: Hello, Eddie. we appreciate you reaching us. Let me help. May I know when did the issue start? Erlyn B.
Me: Seems to have started today but I did notice last night text messages weren’t sending. I am receiving them, though.
Me: I’m heading over to the UPS Store to figure out this tracking number thing.
Assurance: Have you tried to restart your phone? Erlyn B.
Me: Tried that. No effect, no change. BTW the UPS Store said we will not get a nod on the tracking number until 9 p.m. tonight. They haven’t come to pick up yet. The phone is still there in the store waiting for a truck.
Assurance: It’s okay, Eddie. Just let us know once you have it. Let’s proceed with the issue with your phone. Can you please check how many signal bars you have? Erlyn B.
Me: This signal bars are in the little right triangle at the top? There are none, strangely enough. Is that about connection to my wifi?
Me: Indications are I am connected to my wifi.
Assurance: Can you try to re-insert the SIM, please? Erlyn B.
Me: is there a simple way to open up the phone. very difficult.
Me: Do you know any tricks to it?
Assurance: May I know the make and model of your phone? Erlyn B.
Me: I have the box it came in if that information can be useful to you. My phone is a Motorola Moto G Pure.
I shared this site with Hit Record as my webpage. I’ve written a lot here though not in the last 10 years or so. I might come back to it. Joseph Gordon-Levitt shares the page and offers ideas for writing and other creative pursuits through it. I like Joseph’s work.
I started this blog but lost the password. WordPress did not accept what I told them about the blog. That was there prerequisite to resetting the password in those days. Seems like it was 2011 then. My email had changed. That was the big snafu and I could not receive mail there. Sometimes you can set up an email you are resigning to continue to accept email for you but I could not do that.
Spontaneous. It’s a moment. You don’t know why, but you just do it. Like sharing this to your current blog or social media site. Why? You don’t know. You like Baba? You like this picture of him?
It’s interesting that people bemoan all the safety for kids these days. Maybe they have no kids. Maybe they have never seen their own kids fall off bikes and suffer sundry other unfortunate accidents. I knew 2 kids who got killed trying to beat a train. If they make those crossings safer, impossible for kids to try to beat them I think I will be happy. Yeah, I know, tragedy will find some other way to enter my life. It’s a matter of karma, of samskaras, impressions left in the mind from incarnation to incarnation. Kind of a new thing to me the samskaras. I knew the Buddhist’s view of the mentality going from body to body. They said we find this bardo after death. I read of it in the Tibetan Book of the Dead or else somewhere else. It was common talk, the bardo. Hindus speak of astral planets. Could they be the same? I mean whatever happens happens doesn’t it? A book I was given in 1980, not long after a disastrous attempt at being born again and at a time when I had decided to join my father in the Freemasons, the Urantia Book, says there is another world we go to and there we exist as a morontia form. We sow a mortal body and reap a morontia form. Pretty Christ oriented this book, but will not state that we go to Heaven or Hell or that there is some period of sleep before the Final Judgment of the world, but let’s forget about that. I am always looking for other versions of what happened 2020 years ago, 2024 or 2017 years ago that is. Now I find there are other versions of what happened 200 years ago when America was born, 250 years ago now, really 244 years ago and since. This morontia world I think is also referred to as the Mansion World. There are a plurality of them the book refers to, so, mansion worlds. So, what does that have to do with kids and safety? Will we confuse these truer versions of the Christ story and of our own relationship to the universe for a softening of real life. Is real life ending up in a wheel chair? I hope not. So, tough, hard, real, are they all synonyms for each other? There is nothing like the real. I chanted Hare Krsna once. Their mantra is in full Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. It was quite an experience but I couldn’t get from from my home, my family. I just couldn’t live that way inside my family’s house. It would be like smoking dope and sleeping with women there, two things I could never do. It was nonetheless a miraculous kind of experience and I found much frustration in not being able to pursue it. One barrier and you might think of this when talking about tough and real and hard is the vow to not have sex (except for procreation), not use drugs (including stimulants in coffee, tea and chocolate) and not to eat meat (including fish and eggs). I was willing at the time because life had become quite a void. I was unwanted and not just by businesses and the schools but by personal friends and in general the counter-culture. I had some experiences though. Before the chanting of the Hare Krsna mantra I had experiences with Alice A. Bailey’s books. The fascination I had with them actually pursued me beyond the chanting of Hare Krsna. If you haven’t you should look into those books. They speak of cosmic fire and white magic, they speak of rays and the reappearance of the Christ. Give them a look. Maybe they will be tough enough for you.
Was just thinking how hard my life has been. Many people do their best to defeat the notion that you had a hard life when you have lived with your parents up to and including their very death but I think that is a hard thing. That isn’t having a job, it isn’t hanging out, it isn’t going places. It’s being stuck there with the dad you disagreed with and the mom who was married to him. So, how did I get stuck there. Well, it had to do with a fight and non-violence and homosexuality. You could involve drugs and rock music in that if you like as well as art and poetry, but just musing on it lately I feel like I was shunned for not sticking with Mahatma Gandhi but instead going for the eye for the eye mentality. I think that was my sin and why nobody liked me anymore. Perfect justice, don’t you think? No. I mean people talk about punishments not fitting crimes and I don’t think a guy who goes and gets even with a guy who done something wrong to him deserves to be shunned by every Tom, Dick and Harriet he ever knew. ‘Nuf said.
Let Me 