IDENTITY THEFT PROTECTION FOR DUMMIES

This is why I carry a camera with me most of the time. If not just my cell phone, my handy dandy Kodak HD V1073.

I am in the local Walmart the other day and I saw some pretty interesting things. One that caught my attention was a product basically calling us " Dummies " We've all heard of the wonderful products stemming from the " For Dummies" people. Well this one took the cake. It deserves to have a small article written about it.

Identity theft as we all know is on the rise, I mean it's not hard to figure out that people will go through your trash to get your info. That's why the shredder is NOW a common household item. This product brought to you by the " For Dummies " group has called us out on being LAZY & CARELESS. I recommend that if you do purchase this item, it better be in the middle of the night. I wouldn't want anyone thinking I didn't know how to protect my vital information.

INSIDE THE BOX:
(1) One ULTRA quiet microcut shredder for the ULTIMATE in document security. It cuts one page into 2235 pieces. ( WOW )
(4) Check fraud prevention pens ( DOUBLE WOW ) Basically non erase ink, ink pens.
(1) Book on how to prevent identity theft.
(1) 90 DAY trial of LifeLock* ( LifeLock is basically a credit monitoring service that provides an ironclad $1,000,000.00 guarantee that even if someone gets your vital info they will insure you up to $1,000,000 in fraud right offs. However they will still have your vital info. WHICH if I remember correctly is why we bought this package to begin with, RIGHT ?

It just amazes me how carefree we have become with our information. I don't know about you, but I don't even have my paystubs, bank statements, or credit card statements come in the mail anymore. I save tree's. I view it all online.

THE HOME DEPOT EXPERIENCE in Cockeysville, Md 21030

WOW, Let's begin by saying I went to the Home Depot in Cockeysville, Md earlier today. I was kind of in a rush, I had plans to be somewhere at 4:00pm. I strolled inside with everything I had to get on my mind. It was a simple list. 1 1/2" wooden dowel, one piece of wood, one bracket set to hold the wood dowel up and a stud finder.

I'm racing down the main drag towards the wood isle. Now mind you it's ONLY 2 isles... not really hard to figure out where things are. So I grab the first employee at the end of that isle, She was all about helping me, So i felt comfortable asking her if she could kindly point me in the direction of the wooden dowels, I described what i wanted and the look on her face, was telling me I picked the wrong person in the wood section to ask.

She tells me I have to go and see Tony. Just then she screams down the isle for him. Mind you there was a body down at the other end, but it was female... so I thought ok, she knows what's up. She screams again for Tony & asks if "HE's " down there, looks at me asks me if I know him. Just as I'm about to run away, I see a thumb pop up and she says, " there he is " At this point she should have just said, walk down the end of the isle, you'll see a cadillac with no wheels on it sitting on blocks, talk to the man inside and for $5 bucks, he'd give me directions on where to go.

So I walk down, Tony and I meet. He is a young kid, looking hungover as hell sitting on a bucket. I repeat my request... again understand there is only 2 isles of wood. This crack monster tells me that he has no clue what I'm talking about and to go to the " ORANGE " info desk down the main isle and he points in the direction. I just look at him like I want to kick the bucket from underneath him and walk down the magic isle. I say that b/c I walk the entire store length and the only thing orange I see is a HD bucket. This is where the hero of the day comes in.

As I made my journey down the magic main isle I spot 3 employee's in the blinds section, speak my request and low and behold, Jason says to me, Follow me, I'll take care of everything. This employee should be recognized 100% and given a raise and his picture put on the wall.. He got me everything I needed. Kept me on my time frame and hell, he even cut the wood for me and he didn't work in the " wood " dept. I made a decision to seek out his name on his apron, especially for this blog. If you happen to find yourself in the Home Depot in Cockeysville, Md. Don't waste your time on anyone else. Find Jason. He's about 5'8" wears glasses and can probably be found in the blinds section. Kudos to you my friend. You took real good care of me!!

SUBWAY'S NEW CHICKEN FLORENTINE AND SOUTHER STYLE CHICKEN & DUMPLINGS

I have to say, I'm a sucker for a good bowl of soup. I usually only eat it during the winter time. Mainly because anything hot in the summer time doesn't help me keep cool. I sweat bad enough as it is, I don't need to ingest any hot liquids when it's 103 degrees outside.

I walked in to the local subway during lunch one day. It's a common spot for us cubicle dwellers during that time since it's so close to the industrial park I work in.

They had a few new sandwiches on the menu. The Steak & Bacon Melt and the Chicken Florentine, Both on flat bread. I chose the Chicken Florentine. I must say, the way they serve it up is perfect. It comes with tender, juicy chicken, olives, tomatoes, Tuscan spices and melted cheese, all topped off with our creamy spinach artichoke spread. I chose to get mine a little different.


I'm not a fan of olives and I only eat tomatoes with certain foods. I got my sandwich with spices, red onions, spinach artichoke spread and parmesan cheese. Toasted of course.





I complimented my sandwich with a nice bowl of Southern style chicken & dumplings soup. This soup was so good, so thick, and full of flavor. I did the spoon test* for thickness and was very pleased. I almost made a second trip for a second bowl. The only disappointing thing was they didn't have any crackers. However, it didn't need it, I just add crackers to every soup I eat. It's a preference.




Kudos are in order for Subway. They kicked off my winter soup eating addiction in the right direction. I can't wait to get it again !!

*** SPOON TEST: Stick the spoon in a bowl of soup. If it stands upright on it's own, it's almost a guaranteed reward for your taste buds!


** SANDWICH NUTRITION INFORMATION

** SOUP NUTRITION INFORMATION

BURNING A CD TO PLAY IN MY JEEP

Let's just say when I'm driving down the road, I like to listen to good tunes just like everyone else. I have an Ipod that lives with me. Such a great thing. I don't think honestly that I could live without it now that I actually broke down and bought one.

Well, to be honest, I don't want to put headphones on while driving, One it's illegal in most states, and two I like to blare my tunes. Windows open or closed, it doesn't matter to me.

I started this quest about 1.5 days ago. I thought about burning a cd. I have limewire and all my tunes are ripped right onto my pod. My friend burns them for me every once in a while and we jam out on the way to the bar. It's always a new one when he gets in.

I compiled a list of good stuff. Mostly techno and juggalo junk, thru it into windows media player and poof the CD was created. Or so I thought. i was excited. I was hanging out with a friend and wanted to set the mood for the pre flight to the bar and wouldn't you know. NOTHING. My stupid radio said error. Man, what a bummer that was.

I went over my friends yesterday and said, " man you gotta do this for me asap. burn this CD list for me, I can't get it to work for shit on my computer, I watched what he was doing and followed everything else from there when I got home. STILL this error message began to haunt me. The funny thing about it is that I am pretty much a computer expert on things like this. I can take a PC apart, repair it, upgrade it, and throw it back together pretty much in one hour.

I said screw WMP ( windows media player ) and downloaded NERO did the same thing, popped in a new CD and after about 2 hours of downloading NERO the CD burning took about 20 minutes and i was ready to test it in the jeep. I went out to get a pack of smokes and popped it in, LOW AND BEHOLD this error message won't leave me alone.

THERE IS NOTHING IN THE WORLD THAT IS MORE ANNOYING THEN REPEATING THE SAME MISTAKES WHEN YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE YOU WENT WRONG. I tossed this CD right out the window at 30 miles and hour, cussed it for a few seconds as it whizzed across someone's front yard. Man are they going to have some great music if they can get it to play in the car. It works in the PC. However I can't strap my SPECIAL NEEDS DELL COMPUTER in my jeep. It might CURSE my ride.

The worst thing in the world that I ever did was buy this crappy dell computer. I miss my old E-machines. Those babies are the best computer in the world.

So i dig out a CDRW from somewhere, dust it off and pop in a fresh baby since the last one might have been spotted and identified as a UFO as it left my Jeep so fast.

Everything is loaded on Itunes remember, since I have an Ipod and I know it plays good there, so I'm going to burn this last and final CD from there and pray to all that is holy that it works for the ride into work.

The only thing that i can think of at this point is that either I got a bad batch of CD's which I seriously doubt, Or I was lied to when my dvd-rw drive DOESN'T burn CD's. Which I know some do and some don't. If that is the case then I will just have to beat the fuck out of my computer and build one myself where I know exactly what it does and doesn't do.

I mean I already had to replace the hard drive in the thing MYSELF b/c STEVE JOHNSTON from Dell through his INSANELY thick INDIAN accent told me that it didn't work when I woke up one day and it said some crazy ass error that I knew the hdd had crashed during the night, However I had to go through 99.5 steps for him to tell me that. However rest assured that they would be sending a technician out immediately to replace it. Well 6 months later I'm still waiting for him to show up. Good thing I went out THAT day and bought one myself and through it in there.

So Itunes just finished burning this CD, but it's 2:11 am and i'm NOT going out to my Jeep to test it... It's raining outside and it's cold. Well wish me luck in the AM.


****** UPDATE ******

I couldn't wait, I broke down and went outside in the freezing cold, in my boxers and t-shirt popped that baby in there and guess what... ERROR I almost had an anyurism on the spot. I'm convinced now that this stupid ass cd is cursed. I will be taking out my cdrw burner from my old gateway that is still next to my old computer, and I will be hooking it up tonight, burning the cd and will placing it in my lovely Jeep radio tomorrow with confidence, b/c I know there is no fucking way it won't work.