Smart Technology Verses Human Dumbness

"We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works."

~Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt

What a day yesterday was! When I woke up, and logged online, one of my email accounts began self generating emails and sending them to folks in my address book. Fortunately I realized it soon, and contained it. Changed all my passwords. Ran multiple virus and malware scans. And deleted the original email the started the whole mess to begin with! 

I knew as soon as I saw the mess, exactly where it came from. It can from the insurance carrier who handles my car insurence! Frankly... I am mad at myself, because when I asked them to send me over a quote on how much the new car would add to my overall payment, there was a strange attachment. It indicated a photo, which I assumed was part of the brochure, and when it loaded empty, I just didn't put two and two together. 

I know better.

Anyway luckily the offensive email opened in my business account, which has very few direct contacts. So, the virus sent emails, sometimes multiple times, but they ended up bouncing back as undeliverable.A lucky break? Well, yes and no. You see, when I jumped onto the WWW I did a lot of reading about online safety, and took those pointers to heart. One such being that it is never wise to do business out of an account you share social media with.

Keep friends and business separate.

So, all's well that ends well.

Mostly.

My brand new Samsung Galaxy tablet arrived yesterday, amid all the fun, but somehow it just doesn't thrill me! I have been wanting a tablet for a long time, so when I got that included in an offer from AT&T when I signed up for broadband and Uverse, I jumped at the offer. It was going to save us a few dollars every month, and it included a nifty tablet and a $100 gift card. Win... Win. But as it sat in it's box on my desk, I couldn't help but wonder what new wonderful trouble might come by way of it. 

Hmmm?

Still... it's a cute little thing, and I have ordered a new leather case for it, so I am sure I will get over the grr. I will. 

But you know... sometimes...

Mood: Not Happy But It Will Pass

~Me

It's Not That He's Wrong, It's That He's Not Right :)

"I am all for curses and superstition, but there's a point at which they start getting in the way. That point had arrived."

"Curses are like chickens, they always come home to roost."

~Proverb

My friend Paul came by yesterday and left his opinion about what December 10th is about, for me, and in general. His opinion isn't wrong. It's true that sometimes we mortals tend to put more belief and emphasis on things that can't be proven. Faith is a lot like that. Faith can be a good thing or a bad thing, and it cane be neither one of those things. Sometimes faith just is what it is. Speaking for me, I think I take a lot of things on faith. I have faith in the chair I am sitting on right now to hold me up. I have faith in the fact that the very next thing out of Sarah Palin's mouth with be idiotic, bordering on moronic. I have faith that if I punch that punkass little shit neighbor next door I will be arrested. I have faith that God loves me. I have faith that my friends are there for me. I have faith in Alan, and that we will be married forever, regardless of any silly curse.

And along with all that specific faith in things good and bad, I have faith that next year something odd, probably financial, with occur on or very near December 10th.

Why? You ask.

Well, because tonight Alan received a call from our bank's fraud department, which called to tell us someone was trying to purchase $2 in gas from an Exxon station in North Carolina.

When you have gone to your local sheriffs department 2 years in a row, within a day or so of December 10th, after having experienced 20 some odd years of strange occurrences in and around that date, when do you give in and say... okay... it's a thing. The Curse Of December 10th is a thing.

Paul couldn't be more right about what he said. We mortals do sometimes reach into the metaphysical or the mystical to explain away everything from our character flaws, to our poor decisions. But in my own defense, I have tried over the years to change my thinking. I have laughed at the occurrences. I have ignored the occurrences. Just last year, I had asked Alan if we could just take that day off to kind of hide a bit. He laughed and reminded me that even if something did happen, his being home wouldn't stop it.

It only took a moment for me to realize he was right. What could he do?

Well, as it turns out HE WAS WRONG.

Something did happen. Someone tried to charge a great deal of money, using an ATM card in my name with my number.

And it has happened again this year.

The odds of it happening in the exact same way, exactly a year apart, kinda gives me a bit of validation don't you think?

I don't know. I know there are lots of things that humans can't explain away, and yet I always find it humorous that folks refuse to believe in science and think it borders on heresy to believe that anyone or anything other than God makes the world go round.

Without getting too far into my beliefs and my faith, I believe that science absolutely created everything, and science and the ability to use it, came from GOD. The two thoughts DO NOT have to be mutually exclusive.

But back to December 10th.

It is what it is. Whatever it is. After 20 years of odd happenings I have learned to give it a proper amount of respect, and not be surprised by it when it happens. What else can I do? But I no longer shove it to the side as a coincidence.

It's not.

It's December 10th.

How many times does a person need to be hit over the head with an anvil before they say...

"OUCH."

So Paul, it's not that you are wrong, it's just that you aren't right. But thank you nice man, it's always good to hear from you! :)

"All of us have our individual curses, something that we are uncomfortable with and something that we have to deal with, like me making horror films, perhaps."

~Wes Craven

~Me :)