Tag: q
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It took 13 years to notice my invalid vehicle registration certificate!
Thirteen years ago, it seems, a DVLA form processor decided that my name must have been a company name, and incorrectly registered my car's keeper as being a non-existent company imagined to share my name. And I only just found out.
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A Random List of Silly Things I Hate
Just a list of eleven random silly things that I hate, to various degrees.
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Actually, Yes! (that IS what my birth certificate says)
There's a certain kind of person who, upon hearing my unusual name, immediately asks whether that's what's on my birth certificate (with an underlying implication that it's not my 'real' name, whatever that means, if it isn't). Well: as of this week, thanks to a quirk in Scottish law, the name I've used every day for almost two decades DOES appear my birth certificate. Fuck the haters.
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Sometimes people connect my unusual name to popular culture. They say things like "Oh, Q like James Bond?" or "Oh, Q like Star Trek?".
I think their choice of franchise tells me more about them than they learn from my answer, which is usually "No, Q like the set of rational numbers."
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Council Disenfranchisement
West Oxfordshire District Council seem to want to disenfranchise me by requiring that I bring photo ID to a polling station with a different name on it than the photo ID that they themselves issued.
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It Is Only Q
The programmers at British Gas are among the many who don't believe that a surname can be only a single character, and their customer service agents have clearly worked around their validations (or just left a note for themselves in the problematic field!)... leading to hilarious postal mail.
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I'd Like to Change my Mother's Maiden Name
LastPass users are having to cycle their passwords in the light of a recent security incident. That might well include their "security question" answers, which necessarily leads to some amusing conversations.
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Confused.com Confuses Me
Confused.com's user interface makes Dan cry when he tries to comparison-shop car insurance. Here's why.
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Found GC48ZDW The End Of The World is Nigh
This checkin to GC48ZDW The End Of The World is Nigh reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. Quick cache and dash while in the vicinity. Overshot the obvious parking place and so parked up the road at the premises of "Q Associates". Figured they wouldn't mind given than it's Sunday. …
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Hello, Friendly Insurance Salesman!
After a long chat with a car insurance salesman, Dan says thanks. Also: sorry.
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...you wouldn't believe how often I'm told I'm not allowed to use the letter "Q" in passwords...
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How My Stupid Bloody Name Finally Paid For Itself
For 11½ years, Dan's name's caused him trouble. But this month, for the first time, it earned him money.
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Just One Q
With the recent announcement that his friend Jimmy and his ex- Claire are engaged, Dan realises that he might somebody become the only person in the world with his surname.
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Hello, Facebook; Goodbye, Facebook
Inspired mostly by his experiences with Facebook over the last few weeks, Dan decides that it's time to hang up his Wall and quit. Goodbye, Facebook. There's also instructions in this post about how to keep in touch with him, if you've forgotten how to do that outside of repeatedly clicking "Poke" on his page.
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I'm banned from Facebook for having an unusual name. Any suggestions welcome!
I have an unusual name: I'm pretty sure I'm the only person with my name in the world. It's not the quirkiest name in the world - I have two names, the first one is pretty common, the second one is unusual but isn't a swearword or "Elephanthead" or something, it's all in …