Miscellaneous Mondays: Privacy is a Privilege

by in Miscellaneous Mondays and tagged
Is Privacy our Right or Our Privilege?
 
 
I do not have the privilege of keeping my personal information private. Granted, I gave away some of that information willingly when I joined the internet social media phenomenon. However, nowadays I am not privileged to make those choices. Did I join facebook and provide email address and personal information to the site? Do I provide personal information to other users on my page? Yes. Nowadays, however, I do not have a choice. How can this be, you ask? Simple. 
 
Scenario:
 
Girl walks into a bar. 
 
“Are you hiring?” The girl asks.
 
“Of course. If you go online to our website and click on the employment tab you will find the link to our application process and once you fill that out and send it in, our hiring manager will review it.” The employee responds.
 
“Can I give you a resume now? Can I speak to the manager in person?” The girl asks.
 
“Um. No. You can only fill it out online. That’s the way the process works.” The employee answers.
 
“Okay. Thank you.” The girl responds.
 
 
Okay, so this may not happen at a bar, per se, but it does and did happen to me quite a few times. Doesn’t it show how industrious I am that I WALK INTO THE ESTABLISHMENT to apply? I mean, wouldn’t you weed out some applicants if you simply had a policy that each and every applicant had to walk in the door to apply? I blame regulation….
 
So, back to my privacy issue. I go online to fill out the application  Short of my social security number (and some applications want even that for “background checks” I am giving out any and all information regarding who I am, who I was, and who I will be. Information on the internet is always there somewhere. They may claim that my privacy is retained and that they won’t use this information in any other way except in the application process but there is still the possibility of information leaks… Never heard of them? Yeah, that’s what I thought. 
 
Identity theft is an issue but I’m not privileged enough to be able to guard my personal information like I guard my valuables. 
 
Not only are there the direct website job applications that ask – and require- personal information but also websites such as Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com, Linkedin.com etc that you WILLINGLY and PUBLICLY proclaim certain personal information tidbits. Who’s invisible now? 
 
But it’s all worth it, right? To get that job? Figure me this, I have applied to hundreds of jobs (mostly online) and some in person. My information is floating all over the internet like plastic in the ocean. No matter how much I try to clean it up, the ocean is so vast and the particles so small it is an impossible task. The plastic is there FOREVER! What do I have to show for all this eternal lack of privacy? I have several lengthy excel sheets detailing all my efforts trying to find a job. I’ll tell you what I don’t have: a job. 
 
 
 

Seattle Specific Saturdays: The Gum Wall

by in Ataxia and the Ravine of Lost Dreams, Geocaching, Seattle Specific Saturdays
Located a 30 second walk from Pike Place Market:

I added something of my own, can you spot it?

 

Miscellaneous Mondays: Meet Your Idol

by in Miscellaneous Mondays
Celebrities and Dictators
I recently attended an author event at the local library. The author, Terry Brooks, discussed his latest novels and how he became a writer. Without using the phrase, he talked about “the good old days.” I rather enjoyed his firsthand account of his early encounters with writing/publishing. I have read about 10 pages of his 35 novels. I personally met him and he wrote an encouraging note in my copy of the Sword of Shannara (which I am in the process of reading). I liked meeting a noted author, however I would not sell soul and self to shake his hand. 
Many people, when asked who are they dying to meet, answer with a big-name celebrity or a dictator with whom they would like to have a word or two. My response is, eh whatever. I’m not a fanatic but I wouldn’t mind a personal recounting of their life, how they went from no-name to big-deal. But then I figure, that’s what documentaries and memoirs are for! 
To me it’s the experience and the humanization of a celebrity rather than the bragging rights enabled that I like about meeting an idol/famous person. 

Foodie Fridays: Microsize Me

by in Foodie Fridays
Our eyes are no longer bigger than our stomachs in America

Taking this to heart, as well as the obesity epidemic in America and the fact that portion sizes are out of control whenever I eat out, I go with the micro-size me policy. Instead of super sizing portions, going Xlarge/Venti/Super etc I ask for the kid’s size or the smallest size. Ice cream? Small please. Coffee? Small/Tall please. Dinner size? I’ll split it with my companion please.

It seems like everybody these days is on a diet. My “diet” consists of trying to eat wholeful foods, such as veggies, sweet potatoes, fruits, brown rice, and fish instead of all the other food options out there. However, good luck trying to eat on the healthier side when you go out. I have found that the majority of restaurants will resort to the cheapest food option or the food option that will appeal to your taste buds. Did you know that when you take excessive sugars and salts out of your diet you appreciate the natural taste of food more? Then you don’t need sugar or salt added for ‘flavor’ because the dish has enough flavor for your taste buds. My new beef with eating out is 1. I can make it better in terms of healthy ingredients, 2. I can make it better in terms of what I like regarding taste about half the time, and 3. I can make it cheaper. That’s why my favorite restaurants are ethnic, I can’t make good Indian or Thai food.

My real issue is not what I eat but how I move, or rather don’t. I like to sit. All my daily activities seem to involve sitting; driving, working, writing, reading. I dislike traditional exercise. My favorite form of movement was dodge-ball but I have outgrown that sport. Sometime in the near-far future I would like to start playing volleyball but in the meantime I have picked up one of my favorite pastimes as a form of exercise: dancing. I enjoy dancing because it is a challenge for me. It is exciting and fun. So far I am currently doing zumba. I’d like to find some hip hop classes and perhaps some belly-dancing classes as well.

Author Thursdays: Write from the Middle

by in Author Thursdays


I read or heard from someone that when writing you don’t have to finish at a stopping point like at the end of the chapter. It is better to finish in the midst of an action so that when you start back up you have an immediate opening point and will be able to get right back into the action. If you have to start after a stopping point you may sit there twiddling your thumbs trying to think of where the story should go.