Good morning. Hello. How are you? #645
At war with the Squirrels. How to write a when-I-die doc for your loved ones. What happened to the Boston Bike Couriers.
Good morning. Hello there. How are you? I am pretty good. I never should have bought these security cameras and put them in the garden. I have learned just how wily and unstoppable the squirrels are. It is insane! I keep catching them in the cucumber bed. And then I run out there and catch them in the bed, and they freak out and start jumping around and losing it. Like, they were obviously smart enough to get in there, but once they see me, they panic, and they can’t remember how they got in, and they just start going crazy. But eventually, they get out, then I clamp up that part of the netting where they got in, and the cycle begins anew.
The problem, as I see it, is three-fold: 1) Emma’s bird feeder is right above this bed. It wasn’t, originally, but it’s on a sort of swinging arm, and it has swung over to be above this bed. 2) It’s filled with black sunflower seeds, which make squirrels absolutely crazy, and they will do anything for it. And 3) most problematically, they can chew through the netting. This is insane. This is bad. This undercuts my entire approach here. Maybe. At the very least it could be very expensive, as I try and obtain a different, squirrel-proof netting. These beasts are animals.
I do think it we move the bird feeder (hopefully Emma will do this today), and get a different type of sunflower seed (I’m picking this up today), they will stop targeting this one, specific bed. Like… Despite them routinely getting in there, and then jumping around like punks on pogo sticks once I catch them, the plants themselves, thus far, seem relatively undamaged. Maybe a little trampled. So. If we can get that feeder filled differently and moved before we leave for Salem and Boston, maybe things will be okay while I’m gone. I might also give this specific bed an iron dome of chicken wire netting before I go.
God.
Got my work laptop refreshed and ready to go on this trip. I’d forgotten I had used it not too too long ago, last December, when I went on my trip to New York and quarantined at the hotel afterward, so it was in pretty good shape. Simultaneously, I’ve had about a week-long saga with Chase, Timehop’s bank, trying to get access to the bank account again since they accidentally turned off my hardware security token when I was replacing Matt’s, then blamed me, then wouldn’t send me a new one without talking to someone on the phone who was going to call me from an unknown number at some random time, which meant that for an entire day I had to answer every spam call, that was fun. I have three different 2FA methods for work, one involving a hardware token with rotating numbers, one a Yubikey, and one a 2FA app on a dedicated, separate phone. Gotta remember to bring all of them on the trip.
Several friends have been talking about making “when I die” docs for their loved-ones and partners, and I really should write a separate, single-topic, actually-searchable-by-Google post about the topic, but in lieu of that, here is a list of the contents of my master “when I die” document for Emma. At the very least, you can just email me and I will re-send you this link someday.
First, I have a physical printout of the document stored somewhere in the house, and Emma knows where it is. This is all she has to actually remember. When I die, go get the document from its spot. For obvious reasons, we re-visited this topic this week and showed her, again, where the document is.
Next, the document is a Google Doc, but the first thing on the first page is a big QR code, so she can link to the digital version, making it easier to click on links and such. There are plenty of free-QR-code-from-URL-making apps online. Here’s the one I use. This also lets you share the doc with someone but not have it sitting in their Google Drive for their whole life bumming them out.
Next, in addition to the entire doc, there is a printout of every password recovery code from every major site and app I use. This is doubly convenient. You should be printing these out and saving them anyway, so kill two birds with one stone and save them with your “when I die” doc, so your partner has easy access to your major accounts, no matter what happens.
There is also a sheet of paper with the actual passwords of a few of my most important sites and apps, specifically my main gmail account, my dropbox, and my 1password. This actually isn’t that useful on its own, given that everything has a 2FA, but it’s a nice to have.
Then I have a USB stick with my DNA, but that is just a weird thing of mine, because I signed up for 23andme back in the beginning, and then I deeply regretted it once it turned into a tool of the police state, so I downloaded my entire genome, put it on a USB stick, and deleted my data from the site. Whether they actually deleted it is dubious, but they said they did, California law requires them to, and in any case, it’s all I can do about it.
Then the doc, itself. Here are the major sections:
Last updated date. Handy to have at the top so they can take into account if any major events have changed since you last wrote it. I, personally, update it every January, but a) I might not someday, b) Emma might forget this
Family contact info. It doesn’t really matter how close you are, there’s always some family member, aunts, uncles, whatever, that they probably would have a hard time contacting. Put them here.
Lawyer’s contact. This raises another topic: Have a will. Especially if you have children. Put their contact info here. In my case, I have a few lawyers, one for startup work, one for my current job, one for Alaskan real estate stuff.
Tech section:
Photo of, location of, and brief tutorial on what a Yubikey is and how to use one. I actually have a backup Yubikey, so it explains where that is too, though now that I’m writing that, I may as well keep it in the box with this letter. Also includes a list of major sites with which I use the Yubikey.
Information on Authy, my 2FA app, it’s recovery password, how to use it, which sites it’s used with.
“Legacy functionality.” Turn on Legacy functionality on sites that have it. Facebook has it, so does Apple, so does Google. I tell her here that it’s turned on, how long it’ll take, and which email I use.
My computer’s master password. Emma and I are weirdos and we both know each other’s passwords, but in theory we don’t have to, any of us might change them at any time, we don’t really keep each other informed. So I keep the master password here as a safety.
I then tell her the things she needs on my computer, where they are, and then how to wipe it. There’s very little on my computer that’s not elsewhere, and it is generally safe to wipe the thing.
Google Apps for Domains info, I still run Stodgy.com and archenemy.com for a few friends, info on how to manage that.
Evernote info and Notes.app info, where most of my info she would ever need are kept.
A list of accounts she can delete right away upon dying, all my superfluous twitter accoutns, my ebay account, my LIvejournal, Github, etc., and which ones she should keep.
Information on the QNAP, our home server, how to access it as an admin, what each drive and volume is
Information on our Backblaze account, our off-site backup, and how to manage it
Financial section: Emma and I are also weirdoes in the sense that we both have (multiple) separate bank accounts. We have a joint account for house bills, but keep it pretty light. Most of my money is in places she can’t easily get to, so this section lists institutions, account numbers, how to log in, etc.
It also includes a section on all my angel investments, contact info for the lawyer who handles these, a brief tutorial on Carta, contact info for my VC partners, and their lawyer, and a link to a Google sheet with all my angel investments, though I’m terrible about keeping that up to date.
The contact info of our accountant since I handle the taxes.
The contact info of our insurance broker since I handle the insurance.
Login info for my joke of a Robinhood account.
Info on Coinbase and Metamask/Rainbow and my Crypto stuff. Brief tutorial on how to move it out.
Basic Opensea/NFT overview.
401k login info and contact info for the backup administrator (since I’m the administrator) and the contact info for the account guy at the firm who runs it.
Login and payment info on our mortgage account, which is set to autopay.
Contact for royalty statements from Agency, and contact info for the agent involved in that book.
Login info for Amazon’s KDP portal and how to manage royalties for the other books.
Login info and how to manage my Squarespace store and how to shut it down.
All the info about my various non-moneymaking musical endeavors, brief tutorial about my Distrokid, Spotify and Bandcamp accounts, how they pay out.
Info on my Discogs account and how it pays out.
Info on what each of my Paypal accounts is and what they’r efor.
Info on our neighborhood’s HOA, for which I am the treasurer.
Medical - overview of where I keep my medical files, and how to use my Mychart, since all my doctors are in there. More or less.
Posessions
Info on our (ha, well, mine) storage unit, where it is, combo, etc. How to pay for it. What to do with the stuff in there.
Info about the DNA key
Overview of what’s in my library by shelf and file box.
Where our physical tax backups are.
Where other important physical files are.
Info on my endless knick knack collection, link to its catalog.
Overview of the CD collection, how to dispose of it more quickly than I am now.
How to deal with my record collection, along with links to its Discogs catalog, and links to four stores who will do bids on bulk collections from Discogs links.
How to deak with my rare book collection, including links to dealers who may buy in bulk, a dealer in New York for the Anaïs stuff, and few local estate-type dealers, and a list of sample books to send to those dealers to gauge interest.
An overview of my musical gear, what’s rare and what not, some suggestions on where to sell, and some friends who might want things or would help
Overview of my art and any that might have value to dealers or friends.
Overview of the Factory Records memoribilia and what to do with it
Guide to all my physical photo boxes
Then, a very long sort-of normal will-style list of individual posessions and who might want them, not legally binding, just trying to be helpful. Many of them have links to photos.
Info on the “Jane Book,” a book I am writing for our daughter, one letter, per month, that I’m gonna give her when she’s 18 or so, but obviously if i die before then, it’ll be more important.
There you go.
Gawd, right after I finished that I caught another squirrel in the cuke bed. Went out there. Took him five minutes to find his way out, even as I held a door open for him with a long bamboo stick. Will this stop him from coming back, this getting caught and utter panic? nope.
Anyway. I hope that was helpful.
A final question for the Bostonians: What’s up with the Boston Bike Courier scene? Is it still a thing? Do they all still hang out in that one square downtown? Do they still wear those very specific courier bags with the front buckle button to un-strap it? I wonder how they fared during the pandemic. Or even if they made it to the pandemic, I haven’t thought about that posse in years. What a very specific subculture. They had their own rules and code and way of dressing and hairstyle and bars and language.
I kinda miss those guys.
Today’s mix is just a mix. I made it yesterday. Man, there used to be a time I had four or five mixes tee’d up and ready to go. LOL. Yeah that doesn’t happen anymore. Everything falls apart. This is a good one though I like its weird mix of sort-of Madchester-era hits, couple old punkers, couple geniune oldies, loose theme of friends, and the awesome new SPICE single, god that band is so good I wish they had a better name and some decent SEO they’d be huge.
Okay. Jane is off at Grammy’s this morning so I am going on errands now. Very exciting. Until tomorrow.
i just engaged an estate attorney (not that i have an estate per se) a couple weeks ago and naturally that got me thinking about how i can alleviate friction for whomever is left to deal with mess. i have been meaning to reach out to you and ask about how you organize passwords/instructions/account info, now i don’t need to. so thank you! sidenote: i have felt an overwhelming sense of calm in preparing for my departure. i chalk that up to my love for planning…
Very much appreciate all of that doc info. I'm terrible at this stuff in general, nice to see an example of all of these major tentpole items gathered in one place