hope that i get old before i die…

it’s amazing to me how gullible some people can be if the person trying to scam them comes off as “official” enough by whatever standard people use to judge these things. someone called our office last friday pretending to be from the phone company and talked to one of our users. this person told my co-worker that he was from the phone company and needed the password to their account so they could “do some testing” of the line. so what does said co-worker do? promptly gives this stranger their password and doesn’t mention it until monday when we discover that an outsider has been making thousands of dollars of international calls from our phone system. well, it took us over a day to lock this hacker out of the phones and sure enough they called another person and asked them the same thing. even worse, this other person gave out their password too! luckily this person remembered the company wide email that went out the day before warning everyone not to give out their passwords to ANYONE not part of the IT department and we were able to lock their account before any damage could be done.

or so we thought…

about 30 minutes after this scenario, our phones were *flooded* with calls from an asian/oriental sounding person claiming to be part of some phone company and/or phone software vendor asking everyone for their passwords. luckily this time nobody gave out their password to this guy, but it got kind of comical near the end because he would call one extension, get rejected, and then that person’s neighbor’s phone would ring with the same guy with the same story. hopefully this is the end of the story from our side, but i do believe the FBI are now involved in the case since the numbers this guy was calling from were also hijacked phone systems.

but i do believe the lesson was learned by all: NEVER give out personal information over the phone to ANYBODY, no matter how trustworthy. even the companies who already have your personal data are willing to let you give a partial password since you’re just verifying what you already share between you. but they should never push you into revealing more than you’re willing to reveal, and if they do you should hang up and call back and hope you get someone else on the phone. just remember to keep your info safe and secure at all times or else you never know what might happen….

with the recent passage of the military commission act of 2006 i have to wonder where our priorities are in this country. i know there is a lot of “rah rah” patriotism running rampant across this country, but what exactly does this law do to serve the american people? all it takes is the president declaring you an “enemy combatant” and you are GONE. down the memory hole. maybe you’ll wake up on some island with a number instead of your given name. or maybe you’ll just end up in a “detention facility” where you *might* be subject to torture, assuming you’re not sent to some secret prison in the first place. and we’re supposed to be the “land of the free”??? are we going to start rounding up undesirables and sending them off to concentration camps in the near future?? this shit is serious, people! our society has always prided itself on allowing personal freedoms to rule in everyday life, now more and more those freedoms are being taken away. the current administration wants us to believe that the people who attack us do so because they “hate our freedoms”. but is the answer to take those freedoms away from us, one by one? to pass laws that say the president has the ultimate authority to determine your guilt or innocence (or lack thereof) whether you’ve committed a crime or not? i am going to wrap this up with a poem by martin niemoller, who wrote this piece just after the end of world war 2. his words are much more eloquent than i can hope to be, and yet even though this was written 60 years ago, sadly it still seems to be true…..

They came first for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

so almost every night this past week i have been having some of the strangest dreams about people close to me. i had a very strange dream about my mom wanting me to steal some hanging plants from her neighbor’s yard. i got all but one that was hanging up in a tree, and when i went to try to jump up and get it, the pope put up a ladder and got it down for me. yeah, that’s what i said, the pope. don’t ask me where he came from, it is a dream after all… then i had another dream about a friend who said she wanted to have her bf’s kids but not marry him. this wasn’t *that* weird, except i’m pretty sure she’s said she doesn’t want kids but she does want to get married. o_O

anyway, last night i had a dream about another friend and in this dream she lived on the 13th floor of a high rise apartment building which had an elevator without an elevator shaft, so it kind of dangled there while you ascended. i remember being in the elevator with some other woman who got out on the 7th floor and then the elevator just swung back and forth like a big pendulum with me in it until it got to the 11th where it promptly broke down and i had to walk all over the building to find the correct stairway that would put me near her apartment. when i got on the correct floor, i happened to come up behind her and her bf and we went into her place. she had three drum kits laid out around the living room because apparently the bf is an amazing drummer and to prove it he started drumming while we sat and talked. then a couple other guys came over and they were all drumming together but not so loud we couldn’t hear each other talk. then i had to leave and i watched tv with someone whose apartment was part of the stairwell, so i had to literally walk through their living room to get to the next floor. i’m sure i’ll have another dream about someone else soon enough at this rate. if you see me in your dreams, please be sure to let me know. i’ll only be visiting for a little while it seems, so we should make the most of our dream time together….

so the new job is only 4 miles away — at most! — but i happen to live near one of the most congested freeways in the los angeles area, the dreaded 405. because of this, everyone and their mother wants to get on this road at the same time every day. the only way to work for me is to drive past at least two on-ramps for the 405 no matter which way i go. of course, going home only takes me 15 minutes, i am still wondering how that works….

so i start the new job in less than 8 hours. i’m feeling kind of nervous because it seems like i am always thinking that i find a great fit with some company only to watch things fall apart for one reason or another. there’s not much i can do about getting laid off for lack of work, but i’m hoping i get along with the people i work with. at least, i know i’ll probably get along with my manager this time since we both have already established that we have some things in common. whether that translates into a good working relationship remains to be seen.

it’s interesting too because i have been hanging out with some guys who work together but they are equals at work and have been friends for many years. i’m sure if i could just find one place to stay for some time that i’d have friends i’ve known for years, but it seems like most of my lifelong friends are always somewhere else. or at least, too far away to hang out with them.

anyway, i know i only have to get to work and get settled and the rest should fall into place for me. this nervousness will go away and i should be able to handle the job no problem. it’s nothing i haven’t seen before, and if it is, there are people to help me out. so i guess eventually tonight i’ll lay down and try to fall asleep, but we’ll see how much sleep i’ll actually get…..

i was getting tired of that old template so i’m trying a new one for now. not sure if i like it yet, but it definitely is a needed change from what i was doing before. i’m sure i’ll find something to change to again but for now it stays