Recent Posts
How wide spread is your email address?
There is no question about it, internet scammers are morons.
On a frequent enough basis to be noticed, I get an email from some scammer trying to get me to click a link, send them money, or send them bitcoin—or anything else that they want me to do. And 9 times out of 10, they are badly worded, trying to sound official, but really have no clue about how English grammar actually works.
And they expect “me” to fall for the scam?
I will grant you that I’m not your typical internet user. I know better. And I know the tricks of the game that your average internet user doesn’t know.
But seriously, dudes, you could at least learn how to use MS Word’s grammar checker. I know it’s not the best, but at least it would deal with the lack of capitalizations in your emails.
While I can spot the scammer a mile away, there will be many unsuspecting people out there who will be gullible enough to fall for the scam. It may be only say one in 10,000 people, but it’s statistically significant enough for the scammers to keep doing it.
And a scammer’s favorite playground is email. Far too many people get emails and blindly click on the links without understanding what they’re clicking on.
Of course, the first question that people ask is how did the scammer get your email in the first place. Well, let me tell you exactly how they got it.
We Let the Strangers In: The Hunting Trolls
Anyone who has ever worked on social media will know what the troll behavior is like. The trolls are the people who seem to take pleasure out of creating animosity and hatred. They will say things to provoke a reaction. And when they catch someone in their sights, they decide it’s time to play.
The best advice that anyone can be given when it comes to dealing with trolls is to just ignore them. Most of the time, if you don’t entertain them, they will give up and move on.
But there is a rare breed of troll who develops a vendetta—and no amount of ignoring them will make them go away. The trolls see something in you that makes them think that you’re vulnerable and they attack. And they keep attacking until you finally break down.
Living in a Near-Cashless Society
Conversations within my various editors’ groups occasionally turn to ways of accepting payments from clients. You get the conversations about using PayPal and similar services. There are the conversations about payments in cash. You get those hilarious conversations about clients wanting to pay via a royalty share, complete with boasted claims that the royalty share would be worth millions.
But whenever the conversation turns to clients paying by check, the group is often amazed by my response.
As much as checks might be nice for some people, I can never accept payment via check. No bank within New Zealand will allow you to deposit checks anymore. Even cashier’s checks are now a thing of the past.
There is normally one person who asks how we pay our bills if checks are no longer accepted, likely assuming that we pay for everything via cash. But my answer to this question tends to shock them even more.
New Zealand has become a near-cashless society. Everything is paid for by way of electronic transactions, most of which occur via internet banking.
LGBTQ+ Terms: A Glossary for the Unknowing Parent
I’ll admit it: I liked the Netflix series of Sex Education. It’s a racy show that explores the concepts of gender and sexual identity while at the same time reminding us that we are all human. And it is seriously funny. I still see Gillian Anderson as Scully from X-Files, but in every single one of the characters on the show, I can see someone that I know in person.
The show is aimed at teenagers, primarily those 16 years old and older. But if you have never seen the show, let me warn you now that there is open-door sex throughout the show, including in the opening scene of the premiere episode. But the show is not about sex. It’s about understanding who we are as human beings, and yes, sex is a part of that.
This post uses medically correct terminology for human reproductive organs. If you are not comfortable with that, then you can stop reading right here.
Advice out of the mouths of babes
Some years ago, my daughter and I were having a conversation about what it was she would like to do for the coming year. She’s a dancer, and at the time, she was interested in the idea of turning her dancing into a career. She was only 13 at the time, but even then, she knew that if she wanted to go professional, she was going to have to work hard to be the best she could be—and some.
The performing arts are just as competitive as the publishing industry, if not more so.
Anyway, I had received an email from her dance school about auditions for a competition dance team. She had never been part of a competition team, but she was being invited specifically to audition. When I asked her if she was interested, she hummed and hawed for a bit, then she said something that hit a little closer to home than she realized.
“I’m never going to make it if I don’t take a risk and put myself out there.”
BAM! The fist hit me in the gut, and she never lifted a finger. She was talking about her own dreams and her own aspirations, yet her words carried a message that was powerful.
The #DigitalDetox Poem
As part of a #DigitalDetox challenge (something that I failed at miserably), I was supposed to write a poem. Well, this is the poem I wrote.
It’s not a masterpiece by no stretch of the word, but it’s not a disaster either. However, there was a theme to it that sort of shows where my mental mindset is at the moment.
It was written while I was driving, using the dictation app that I discovered on my phone.
Enjoy.