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stochastic obstacle
Monday, December 1 2025
For a couple weeks now I've been caught in some sort of limbo regarding my unemployment benefits. I'd filled out the necessary web forms immediately after I'd lost my job and then received a letter in the mail saying I had to call a number to claim credit for my "waiting week" (a week where I am not employed but also am not getting benefits). But when I called that number, I was told to either call a different number or do something online. When I would try to do the online thing, the web page would say I definitely had to call someone. But when I tried to call at this other Department of Labor hotline, a process that always forced me to listen to a long-winded message about support for handicapped callers before making me enter my social security number and a PIN, I would be greeted with a message that "due to high call volume" my call could not be answered. And it would hang up. There was no queue I could join, I was just told to call back later, with the implication that later the call volume would not be as high. But no matter when I called (and one could only call during business hours!), the same thing happened. It felt like I would have to make it my full-time job just calling that number in the hope that the patron saint of lottery winners would intervene on my behalf. (This seemed like the kind of stochastic obstacle erected by a red state in hopes of discouraging the needy from taking advantage of public services, which is not normally how applying for a benefit goes in a blue state like New York.) At some point I asked ChatGPT if there is a better way, and it suggested that I use the messaging function on the Department of Labor's website. I soon discovered that this messaging app has some problems. You are expected to pick a subject from the dropdown. And then you are expected to select another subject. Once you do that, you are presented with "Quick Info" and can no longer type a message. When I selected subjects pertaining to my situation, that was what I saw. But I found that if I selected a different, irrelevant set of subjects, then I was allowed to type a message. So that was what I did. [Ultimately this trick paid off, as the next day a real human woman from the Department of Labor called me after receiving this message, and she was able to fix whatever was wrong with my unemployment application.]
Throughout the day, while periodically stopping to make another doomed call to the Department of Labor hotline, I was gradually fixing the issues with the latest version of the ESP8266 firmware for my remote control system. This is the firmware that allows me to easily change configuration parameters remotely during runtime. The problem with crashes I was seeing turned out to be the result of me thinking I was using a BME680 as the weather sensor, when in fact I was using the cheaper BME280. But before I knew that, I had ChatGPT optimize a few of my functions so that they would rely less on the expensive C++ String object. To help me plow through these issues, I'd taken a recreational 120 mg dose of pseudoephedrine.
Later this afternoon, I took Charlotte for a modest walk up the Farm Road and then back through the scrub forest to its west. Since we have a lot of leftovers, I opted not to cook a real meal. Instead I made a pot of rice, which I later mixed with some delicious beans leftover from Thanksgiving (those were the beans that ended up being more like a chili after Gretchen accidentally doubled the amount of beans without doubling the amount of water).
Later this evening Gretchen drove up to Saugerties to meet up with Jeff and Alana to see a documentary about the Fugs, a countercultural rock band from the 1960s. I took advantage of my alone time to take a nice hot bath.
For linking purposes this article's URL is:
http://asecular.com/blog.php?251201 feedback
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