No acrostics here, but I know someone reading one...

It's true - I know someone (Tay) reading a "memoir" of a musician, where the book is loaded with acrostics. All iterations of the autobiography are apparently loaded with secret messages. If you want to get lost down a rabbit hole, I can cite examples and links to the information I've been given. 

Today (this post) is not that moment where I'm debunking the theories and looking for answers, even though I've been on the same flight of thought for a while. It just took my friend 18 years to own up to sharing both what he knew and that we kind of have similar questions. 

What I've got going on here is an update on the whole Hotwire shenanigans. 

I was able to get in contact (via email) with the launch coordinator for my community. I had asked him some simple questions and received some answers. 

• Is there any way to add my name as a secondary user (to the account) in case I need to call Hotwire on my mother's behalf?
• "Yes, we have the ability to add secondary users onto accounts."

I just needed to supply her PIN number and I would be on the list. 

• I have been using a Roku streaming device on my bedroom TV. I have been able to sign in to specific apps (Fox, History Channel) with my Comcast email address. Now that we do not have a subscription with the company, I can not use those channels on my streaming device without logging in to an existing cable account. Is there a way to fix this and still use the Roku?
• "Hotwire also subscribes to the TV Everywhere platform, which allows cable customers to sign in with their hotwire credentials provided those apps support Hotwire.  History Channel for instance, while we aren't front facing as a cable provider like Xfinity is, the more providers section allows you to search for Hotwire and find us and sign in once you are installed with your Hotwire services"

So there IS the ability to sign in with a username. However, I did ask something relating to usernames:

• When it is set up, do I get my own (separate) username or am I using hers for log in purposes? If I get my own username, does that mean I get my own PIN as well? 
• As far as actual logins/usernames go?  Unlike Xfinity, there is only one per account.  Xfinity provides multiple since they also do email based services but as we don't, it's only one per.

In other words, because Hotwire offers internet but not email services, there's no way to have multiple user on the account and each have their own log in information. The guy added me as a secondary user to be able to make calls, but that's it. I don't have a separate user name or PIN number or any other access besides being able to talk to someone in case of breakage. 

Which means I need my mother's username and password to log in to the activation screens of all my apps. 

When you go to activate the services, you have to go to a specific website (something like the channel name dot com / activate). On the television screen, it tells you the link and the code to enter. You've usually got to select your streaming device, then your cable provider and then enter the code. From there, it goes to a new page to have you log in to that provider's website to validate the app / make sure you have a current subscription. 

I've chose the A&E landing page for this demonstration.

I didn't clip the next page, which would the after the "continue" because I don't have anything loaded right now to be able to activate the app. I made that attempt the other day. 

Yes, I logged in to my mother's account and am using her name to verify all 18 apps. I don't think I should have to, but if people are sharing other services, why should this one be so difficult? I live in the house and am the watcher of the shows. I pay my mother half of the bill. It's what it is. 

Just that Hotwire seems to have half their shit together, to offer people various forms of entertainment. 

It's funny how when the techs were here installing everything, they all said just to go to the Google Play store and download the app. 

Which, by the way, you need a Google account to do any of that - totally presumptuous, isn't it? Way to assume people have an account and are doing downloading that way. Not everyone has an Android just like not everyone has an Apple. TiVo running an Android system and making users log into their Google account to download apps is a giant ask. At least with Comcast, any app you put on the box was via their server on their box and you were logged in to their account. Free or not, at least Comcast kept everything in their environment. 

Anyway, by logging in to Google and downloading the apps, you then watch them on the Fusion / TiVo box because you don't need the Roku or any other streaming device because now everything is on this box. 

Well, having now signed into all the apps on my Roku blows the "you don't need your Roku" comment out of the water, as it's just as important to add that one of the techs who was here to figure out what became the casting issue, said outright that he doesn't trust the devices himself, for personal log in information. He refuses to use these smart boxes because he knows how dysfunctional they are and doesn't want his credentials anywhere inside the box. 

By the way, he's supposed to be a lead tech person for the company, not one of the third party contracted techs. 

Kind of sad when they gripe to you about what they're installing. 

But at the point he said all this, he was way too super frustrated because he didn't know why the box kept freezing and going out. He's so smart, he should have realized it's a main setting issue with mirroring. 

Even after I asked if there was a setting problem, he said no. So he leaves and I went in my damn self and turned off the casting option on all three boxes. It's a deep rooted system setting, but I did it. I figured it out. 

Yet I can't get a tech job. Or any decent job for that matter. 

That's neither here nor there. 

So yeah... for right now, I'm logged in to my Roku under my mother's screen name for all the cable stations. I don't need to use the TiVo box and download any app. 

Yes, in the end, part of my squawking about Hotwire has been accomplished, but it's not all there. I'm still mad we had to go through all these different steps, as well as not having my own username and other issues. There should be a way to split things up and make it less confusing, but according to the social network pages for the community, people are having more challenges as the days go by, and we aren't even a full 3 months into a 10 year contract. 

Someone said we (as a community) should get some sort of lawsuit going about this. I didn't read the whole comment, but a lawsuit was mentioned regarding how we get played by the master board (members who live in this community, to boot). It's too long a detail to go into so I'm not going to try to rehash the suggestions. 

I guess I'll find out later if all this was for nothing, if I go to watch something. 

Until that happens, it's time to get ready for the day.

Cheers;

Everything will be okay?

I have been meaning to take a picture of a sign that's by the exit of my community since it was staked in the grass after the Hurricane. 

Well, four months (?) later, I finally went and got it taken care of. 

"Everything Will Be Okay 💓" it reads, but I don't know who has printed and distributed it among communities, because I've seen it in other places. 

While I was at the corner, I decided to take photos of what the area outside my door still looks like. Including the plaza across the street getting a new roof, tarps still on other buildings (including the clubhouse at my community) and as I was standing in various spots, a few birds flew by - both metal and feathered. 

Plus, I decided to capture the moon.

Yes, its out in full force. 

I did some editing on them (like I did on the plane ones too). The darker images are on auto edit and the lighter  / what looks like nothing has been touched is the original. 

There's a downed sign by the exit too.

It says "WARNING: Unlicensed contracting is a felony during the existence of a state of emergency" and lists a phone number to call to "report Unlicensed Activity" and says what Florida statute its referencing.

To give context to the FEMA sign, the library located at the next intersection has been "hosting one of Lee County's Multi-Agency Resource Center (MARC) and FEMA’s Disaster Recovery Center to aid residents impacted by Hurricane Ian". So the library is still closed. They still don't know when it'll reopen as the library, as someone said there was also some internal damage to the facility they need to work on. Which doesn't make sense if FEMA and MARC are there.

To give other context to the lights - like most intersections, the one leading out is still mising some signage (left turn only, no U-turn, etc). Plus not all lights are hanging on the line. Arrow only lights are missing along with multiple lights - some lines had 3 hanging instead of one or two. 

The fence on the way out looks like it's been partying a little too much... someone needs to straighten it out. 

Since the plaza across the street needs a new roof, a construction company has been working on it all day. It's now getting late in the afternoon, so they are taking a break before they wrap up for the day.

They are dressed head to toe in long sleeves and pants, in the 90° heat. But they need to be fully covered since they are on a roof dealing with plywood, nails and other miscellaneous hazards. I was sweating when I took the photos prior to the roofers, but I'm also a fat kid out in the sun. To each his own. 

All photo taken with a Canon EOS Rebel T7i DSLR. It's no longer available as "new" on Amazon, as it's an older model. To get the zoomed in photos, I used Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III Telephoto Zoom Lens. Edited it all on Photoshop CS5 (no longer available except subscription) and uploaded here. 

Overall, the city is still has a lot of destruction in some places. A neighbor said today, that he took a friend over to Sanibel the other day and it was so sad and heartbreaking because you can finally get across the bridge but there's literally nothing there. You finally get to go there to see what's going on and it's still completely in ruins. The same goes for Fort Myers Beach. "Times Square FMB" is still looking like the day after the world ended. The whole area won't be tourist ready for years to come, unfortunately. I don't like to always link to other news outlets, but the NY Times has an interesting write up from the 13th of this month - ‘There’s No Spring Break Here’: Florida’s Gulf Coast Fights to Rebound After Hurricane Ian. I am not a subscriber to the paper, but I had seen the article at work the day it was printed. 

I have an update for the Hotwire situation, but that'll be another post, as I think I've written enough for today.

I'll catch up with the internet thing another day. 

Cheers;