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Mad eBay Dash to Mask Up!

With the novel Coronavirus in full flush, I have never been more self-educated in needing to know more about protective masks. Since the beginning of April, I have wondered at all the face covering options, while knowing, and accepting that the medical grade masks — the now non-ubiquitous N95 masks — are not available to the public. I’ve been searching everywhere for a lead on a KN95 mask or a surgical mask — the lesser protective cousin to the full N95 mask — or some sort of other, non-optimal mask that can protect Janna and me from the vulgarities of Covid-19. We are not having any luck.

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How to Lock Down Your Verizon Wireless Account

Identity Theft is big business for the unforsaken. The Equifax hack is a jinx that will never be forgiven, or soon forgotten, for most Americans. Our Social Security numbers have become our public identifiers for accessing private information and our mobile phone numbers, and SMS text messages, have become our rooted record of no return as the bad actors try to become us by stealing, tainting, or compromising, our sacred identifier streams.

We can try our best to harden what belongs to us — or at least make it more difficult for those who actively choose to harm us to create lasting damage. Unfortunately, 15 minutes of lost control of your phone number can be enough to steal many other founts of treasure that should belong only to you. Control the phone number; manipulate the person; win the assets.

In a recent Reddit thread, I shared some of the following information in this article. As I republish, and rethink, my original warnings here with you today, I want to make sure you are aware of the dangers around you beyond someone just stealing your mobile phone number. You don’t have to be famous, or have a lot of money, to be an identity theft target. Some people get a thrill just knowing they’re ruining your day.

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The Canny and the Dead Canary

We live in perilous times. Those sworn to protect us, betray us. Those set apart to foment dissent are too frightened to stand against the tide for fear of drowning; and so all the rest of us are left to perish, withering in the plains, dissolving along the plattes — but never resuscitating in the pinnacles — and so we are forever, longingly, tripping into the pits of the Uncanny Valley.

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The Eggshell Generation: No Freedom for Danger Children

Life has changed for modern children.  When I was growing up in the Midwest, you sought freedom — and if it wasn’t granted with a bicycle, then you found other, more nefarious ways, to run away and play far away from your doorstep.

It isn’t that way any longer.  Today, kids are protected and driven and supervised in organized sports and cultural events.  There’s no spontaneity now because there’s fear of the unknown and danger in the creative.  No sandlot baseball.  No football games with self-set boundaries and special scoring.  Everything is regulation.  There can be no divergence from the norm.

We’re creating a society of young people who are risk-averse and too frightened to set their own agendas and follow their own, unblazed, pathway. Fun is the new mysterious stranger. “Do what you want” is the new monster under the bed.

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Reviewing the Tom Bihn Cadet Bag for MacBook Air

When I recently tripped in Times Square and nearly fell flat on my face, the one thing that saved me from a smashed pelvis was the Tom Bihn Cadet bag I use every day to protect my 11-Inch MacBook Air.  My iPhone and computer and teaching materials were in my Tom Bihn bag and, even though I fell, full-force on that bag, nothing was damaged except my ego and a few scrapes and bruises won on the way down.

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A Strip Club, a Liquor Store, and a Bus Stop

A Strip Club, A Liquor Store, And A Bus Stop — it sounds remarkably like the beginning of a joke but it is anything but humor. Consider the role of a bus stop — it is meant to be a place to allow children to congregate and wait for a bus to take them to school and then later drop them off after work. The transition from home to school and back has to be one that involves safety for the children — both in terms of their physical well being and what they see. Having a school bus stop sandwiched between a liquor store and a strip club puts children in danger on both ends.

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Protect Your Heart by Sleeping a Lot

If you have high blood pressure, you have a simple way to help make your heart feel better:  Sleep a Lot!

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