Buyers beware!

My last post about being robbed in Brooklyn hasn't even been published long enough to get stale and a friend just called me to say he also has now been hit by card # stealing bandits!! Apparently having a fun day out on the town on someone else's dime is easier than ever!

Anytime you swipe a credit card or debit card, say if you're buying discount office supplies, it gets processed in mass transactions and those who know how to...can and will hack in and gain access to our card #s. Supposedly they don't have the actual expiration dates so a successful transaction on their end is not guaranteed. However, I don't think they care! If they go to one store and shop to their heart's content and get turned down every other time, they just move on to the next store of their choice. I'm guessing they are still happy with those odds. My friend got robbed in Virginia, still on the East Coast but I seriously doubt it's the same person. Unfortunately, there are more than a couple bandits among us. My friend vented, "$160 at Game Stop and then a nice restaurant after; sounds like a fun day...too bad I wasn't there even though I paid for it!"

He'll get his money back, I just hope it goes quickly. I was so very pleased with the way PayPal handled my fraudulent charge. I had the $ back in my PayPal account within 24 hours of it being cleared through and the balance from my PayPal account has now been completely deposited back into my checking account and it's only 4 days later (and the Christmas holidays were in there too!). All-in-all I was only "out" the money for about 6 days. Great job PayPal!

I got robbed in Brooklyn, NY...

while I was in St. Louis! That's right, some crafty hacker got away with $215 worth of liquor in Brooklyn, NY on my dime. It's a good thing there are companies paid to monitor account activity. A local transaction I did here on Saturday prompted a raised eyebrow when a card transaction also was initiated from the East Coast at the same time.

Thanks to Google Maps, this is the actual liquor store in Brooklyn.

Of course, the $215 transaction has to actually post and be deducted in order to be disputed as fraudulent. I will get my money back, not too worried about that. It will just be a hassle until it gets straightened out. Of course, I had no choice but to put off Christmas shopping until the last week due to other circumstances & now because of this, it might mean I won't be able to get anything at all until later. Christmas shopping is not like shopping for cheap auto insurance, you have to actually have *something* to wrap up. It'll all work out, I'm not worried about it, to be honest. If I can't get anything else right now, that's that then. I'm sure everyone will understand. Except the kiddos :(

Something tells me, I've seen this before.

For the past few years, I have saved my own Christmas cards and collected them from anyone else who wanted to give me theirs after Christmas was over. "Why?" you ask? Well, I had this idea of taking the Christmas greetings and refurbishing them into NEW Christmas greetings!

At first I had decided to send the recycled Christmas cards back to the same people they originally came from the previous year. However, once I cut them down into usable 'parts', the signed portion has been disconnected and disregarded. Makes it virtually impossible to keep track of which ones came from where. Now, I'm not talking about recycled Christmas cards as in, made from recycled materials of various other kinds. I am talking about a more hands on and organic recycling, a transformation. Cutting the front off and putting it onto a back color and mounting it onto a new card altogether!

Only trouble is, it's an extremely time consuming process and I haven't yet been successful in completing enough of them to send them out. Normally I go out on Dec. 26th and buy boxed cards for cheap and put them back for the next year. But in an effort to ensure I would work on them enough throughout the year, I failed to buy any last year. Of course, I haven't had the time to work on them enough this year so...in other words, don't get your feelers hurt if you don't get a Christmas greeting from me this year. :( I'll try again next year so keep the cards coming and you may be surprised next year and think...something tells me, I've seen this before.

Un-Silent Night

For the past 4 nights, I have had a hard time falling asleep. Even after successfully falling asleep, I've been unable to stay asleep. It's just not like me, at all. Once or twice a year, I experience a bit of insomnia like this. I can sometimes relate it to stress or other factors but lately I can't pin it down.

Last night was no exception. I cleaned for about 3 hours before turning off the tv and trying to fall asleep. I was *almost* there when I became suddenly annoyed by an unidentified repetitive noise coming from the kitchen. It was like that nagging sound you get in your head when you are trying to remember to pick up ink cartridges after forgetting to do it for the 100th time. So I quickly hopped out of bed to investigate. I have no idea what's going on inside of it to make that gurgling noise but after taking a little aggression out on it by bumping and thumping it, the sound did not relent. In the end, I had to shut my bedroom door and luckily, was later able to fall asleep. Finally.

For the next 2 nights, I am house/dog/teenager sitting for a friend and will be completely out of my element. I hear Mr. Boots, a beautiful brindle colored Boxer, will be my bedmate (something I am NOT used to having) but hopefully that won't affect my ability to fall asleep and stay asleep. I'll keep you updated.

Clown Face

I wore makeup today. "So what, you're a woman! Why is that a big deal?" you ask? Ever since I was a teenager, I always felt like a clown when I have makeup on. Not that I really ever knew the proper ways of applying it. Even when wearing the basics and being told it looked great, I *felt* like I looked like a clown.

I recently decided to start wearing eye liner only. I figure you can't go too wrong with just eye liner, right? Well, like most things I decide to start, it quickly faded and now it's been a few months or longer since I last put some on. Today I wore eye liner. At home I thought it looked ok but in the light of my office...clown face has reared it's ugly head! I don't know if it's because I'm just not used to the look of it or I honestly just don't like the look of it on me. It's just not fair that others can wear some makeup and look great and feel great about it. I guess I also need to find some eye creams that work. Maybe it would help if my face was firm and rested looking before I put it on. Well, anyway, if I just try it again and again, perhaps it will grow on me. Only time will tell, I guess!!