keeping it safe

i took an internet and social networking security workshop yesterday at my office and i learned a few things that i thought i would share in case they are useful to anyone else.

• do not post status updates about your whereabouts, especially if you are going to be out of town.  in fact, the police will now ask you if you posted online if you would be away when they investigate break and enters.
• never use third party application in facebook, they do not have to follow any rules set by facebook and can have harmful effects on your computer or system.
• make sure you have anti-virus software installed AND that it is turned on.
• banks have decreased their liability for covering fraudulent charges with the new chip and pin cards, so you should be exceptionally protective of your pin (unlike i was today during a visa purchase when i had to look up my pin and was obtuse about making obvious what i was doing).
• have other manners of communicating with your contacts so that if you social networking site is hacked into and someone claims to be you, you can clarify it immediately before money is sent or your reputation is damaged.
• set up a google alert for your name so you will be notified if anything new is posted on the internet about you.  this goes along with googling yourself to see what is out there (especially important to those of us dating or looking for a job, because you know they are doing it too!)
• you do not own any of the material posted on facebook (and most other social networking sites), including wall posts, photos, and videos.
• if you would like something removed from facebook or youtube because it has you in it, just email the company and they will likely have it removed rather than have to deal with lawsuits.
• canada's privacy laws are making it difficult for facebook as they have to change some of their practices to be in compliance with our systems and laws.

some of it seems pretty simple, but a few of them i had never thought of before.  if you get the chance to take such a workshop, i do recommend it.

found out?

i am working from home today and i am giving my laptop a run for her money, but i am happy to report that she is performing splendidly (even though her battery doesn't last nearly as long as it used to).

and in my productivity, i keep having the thought that one day i will be found out that my job isn't supposed to be this good, my supervisors aren't supposed to be this flexible, and the people i work with aren't supposed to be this awesome.

the nice thing about being at home is that i have not only made a dent in my professional to do list, but my personal to do list as well. i have put my name on a waiting list for a photography class, called my dad and left him a message so he does not think i have forgotten him, caught up on a lot of cbc podcasts, made dinner reservations for saturday night, and reorganised my running playlist. and all this while also staying abrest of my work commitments!

i think i should work from home at least once a week!

isolation, no more!

i just want to say to the internet, i am back and that i am SO happy that i am no longer feeling isolated from the world without internet at home.

i am not sure if that is a sad example of our inability to be 'alone in the world' or a demonstration of the connective powers of the www, but i am back and couldn't be happier to have lucille up and running on the internet (and for free for the time being courtesy of a little deutsche telekom mix up).

podcasts, email, job applications, travel planning, blogs, amazon, facebook - here i come.

relaxashon

(april 28, 2008)

i have been missing in action since i arrived in south africa over a week ago, but i am sure you will forgive me as i don’t think i have relaxed like this since last summer. i have seen and done so much and thought many times, ‘oh, i should write about that,’ but then life got in the way and i would end up playing scrabble with a soldier, sharing a bottle of wine with new friends, eating meat, or been touring around and to be honest, was much happier than sitting in front of my laptop.

to be brief, i have, in the past week or so:

• had a love actually-style, moderately obnoxious, very affectionate airport reunion
• gone to an old car show, drank beer, and admired old south african men’s bellies (and they are a sight to behold)
• roadtripped to the drakensberg mountains, which although i mocked, are a stunning range
• hiked up to the top of a mini mountain, where we enjoyed beer and pretzels
• kicked some irish south african butt at scrabble
• found my new favourite south african coffee shop that reminds just enough of starbies, t ho’s, and second cup
• consumed more chips than i have in the past year
• ran for half an hour in the hilliest place ever
• fought off a group of would-be muggers (not so much fought off as stood sort of clueless as you-know-who yelled and made a fuss so we could leave with all our bits)
• toured battlefields of the boer war where i hiked through cow poo and long grasses for love
• frozen my buns off and bought sheep skin slippers that are delicious
• burnt my face and shoulders in the african sun
• climbed up the voortrekker monument in pretoria and admired it in all its afrikaner-ness
• poked not-so-nice fun at someone’s newfound fear of heights
• overheard the delicious english
• laughed a lot and made myself at home with the fam

and now i am off for more south african roadtrips, food, wine, and company!

a list for procrastination

• i have heart burn and have had 4 orange-flavoured Tums since this morning. i am not sure that this is a lot because i never get heart burn, but it seems like a lot to me
• it has been raining a lot lately, which is no fun when i come to work and sit in my soggy pants (haha, soggy pants, but really just the bottoms of them are wet and then just stay damp all day) and freeze
• uncertainty freaking sucks. and it sucks x2 when there are 2 people involved
• it is official, i am the least patient person on earth
• yesterday i was a productivity machine, today, not so much
• i have been troubling accessing my blog lately, which is rather annoying but i did find a wireless provider that i could access from home on lucille the laptop. and people think i am roughing it...
• i have my own intern now. ok not my very own intern to make me coffee but someone to help me do my work. because i actually have real work. and that is good
• elections are in a month in kenya and there has been some pretty awful electoral violence, especially against female aspirants. just because you don't want someone to run doesn't mean you get to beat them up. start acting like a democratic country, is all i have to say
• i might get to go to a refugee camp
• i do get to go back to the coast next week and this time i am stretching out my trip for some beach time
• when other people are bustling around me and stressing out, it cramps my productivity style
• i get to go home in 20 days! and i already have a lunch date, a dinner date, a sushi date, and a cabin date

confessions

(september 5, 2007)

• i have not been for a run since last thursday and am feeling rather guilty about it


• i had chocolate fudge cake for lunch twice last week


• i have made a rule that i cannot have chocolate fudge cake again until i have been for 3 runs


• i feel as though my life makes more sense when there are rules


• i did do pilates tonight and i really need to get a yoga mat because otherwise my flatmate is going to start wondering why his keeps disappearing and coming back smelling like my feet


• i am having lunch with a man i hope is in uniform tomorrow


• i am pretty sure that i am in over my head at work, but shhhhhhhhhhh..... don’t tell anyone


• i have also been given an opportunity to demonstrate that i can do it


• i am beginning to like the feeling of being protected and taken care of, it is an adjustment


• i made leek and potato soup last night, it was a bit too salty but won rave reviews


• i have been trouble getting up in the mornings lately so i have instituted a bedtime of 9:30pm but it is currently 10:15pm


• i took my newly named laptop (lucille, if you were wondering) for her first spin on kenyan wireless and i think she liked it


• even though i made a rule that i was not allowed to buy peanut butter (due to the unfortunate incident(s) of eating it right out of the jar with a spoon...), i bought a jar but it is just a little one and i have yet to use it for anything but spreading on toast


• i can’t get into The L Word but am really enjoying the first season of Six Feet Under – i am also really enjoying renting bootleg copies of tv shows for my evenings’ entertainment


• i watched Brokeback Mountain for the 4th or 5th time last night and it is still as heartbreaking as ever, i swear it is the music


• i spent last weekend napping, reading, drinking tea, running from monkeys, watching elephants and hippos sloosh around in swamps, trying to locate the top of kilimanjaro through the clouds, eating, and drinking wine and i am not sure why i am so lucky to be able to do that on a random september weekend

• i also spent some time last friday night on the side of a dirt road after dark with a flat tire about 20km outside of the park gates and with a jack that did not work – my job was to sit in the car and not be noticed and not protest about being told to sit in the car, i did pretty well at my job but it was damn scary and thanks only to a truck full of nice men in suits am i not trampled by an elephant, eaten by a tiger, the victim of armed robbery, or any number of other roadside calamities you hear about in this country


• i’d rather be at home today sitting at the kitchen table with a glass of wine with my mom than anywhere in the world – happy birthday momsy