In the first part of October the database for the Oregon Employment Deparment was breached. Two weeks later I received a letter informing me that I was one of the affected, although it had been over 6 years since I used the WorkSource site.
I wasn't happy. Why had the state kept my info for so long and why did the media not report the breach till a week later and those affected weren't notified till after another week had passed.
Am also upset that the following article doesn't explain everything well: Oregon Employment Department notifies customers of data breach
So what all is lacking from the article?
According to the back of the form letter, one must first relog into WorkSoucre and change their password, hard to do if it has been over six years! Second call the company they are using for the credit monitoring and get their free service. Third, get a copy of their credit report, fourth sign up for another credit monitoring from one of the three big credit bureaus, and lastly sign up for credit fraud alerts via one of the three credit sites. And no...these are NOT free.
That is what angered me. If their so called free monitoring wasn't going to be enough, they should have admitted that. I am now going to be out some money using TransUnion and Equifax to have security freezes and Fraud Alerts on my credit. What the form doesn't say either is contacting ones various banks after all this to inform them before they attempt to look at your score, as they just might do if you call them and want your credit card payments reduced or apply for a loan. The letter also doesn't say one should alert the IRS, FTC, and other such government companies AHEAD of any possible id theft. Helps to cover your rear end.
The State of Oregon should be doing more.
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Entitlements
I believe there is a heavy case of entitlement personality disorder in this town I live in.
Today I was out shopping and people were above their usual rudeness. Example when asked one person why they left their cart out in the parking lot instead of taking it to a corral, the person responded with:
"Why should I do their job?"
However the big pinch of the day was at Dollar Tree where I witnessed the following. The customer is putting her items on the belt and telling the cashier to check the lids, although she already was. The cashier jokily explained that the lids were often loosen by people who actually sell the liquids and leave only half a bottle behind. to this the customer said:
"I work with the homeless and a dollar saved is a dollar earned"
At this point I had to bite my tongue, it is still stealing.
Then the customer was trying to use the belt area to dump her money out. Only it was still going. She demanded the cashier stop it. Turns out the money was triggering it to go. Then when picking up her bags "You need to double bag this."
It was a big of napkins! Seriously?! She made the cashier double every bag and triple bag the napkins. All the time saying this like "You should have someone here bagging for you"
The cashier responded with "I had to send her on a break. We were slow and state law requires a ten minute break."
I could go on with this example but you get the idea. Also seen today in many places, a woman arguing over her gift card that no longer worked, wanting her money back. Gift cards themselves say that they can not be exchanged for cash. I listened to a man scream, yes scream, at a cashier wanting to exchange a dollar for quarters when he couldn't open his till because he was ringing up a customer. A worker had to get off a ladder to help a elderly woman pick up something and another shopper grabbed the ladder and used it themselves to get something down. I saw security drag someone out of a stock room and heard just this part: "We told only employees are allowed in there." I watched a man demand a second cashier when he was not only the next on in line but the customer in front of him was already paying. on that same vein, a saw a woman try to stop a cashier while she was working to tell her she needed a another cashier and then spend several minutes telling her how to do her job.
I could go on.
If this is the retail world before Halloween then I'm not shopping at all in November or December.
.
My opinion, YOU the customer are NOT entitled to be rude. YOU are NOT entitled to have the rules and law bent around your world, your life. Deal with it.
Today I was out shopping and people were above their usual rudeness. Example when asked one person why they left their cart out in the parking lot instead of taking it to a corral, the person responded with:
"Why should I do their job?"
However the big pinch of the day was at Dollar Tree where I witnessed the following. The customer is putting her items on the belt and telling the cashier to check the lids, although she already was. The cashier jokily explained that the lids were often loosen by people who actually sell the liquids and leave only half a bottle behind. to this the customer said:
"I work with the homeless and a dollar saved is a dollar earned"
At this point I had to bite my tongue, it is still stealing.
Then the customer was trying to use the belt area to dump her money out. Only it was still going. She demanded the cashier stop it. Turns out the money was triggering it to go. Then when picking up her bags "You need to double bag this."
It was a big of napkins! Seriously?! She made the cashier double every bag and triple bag the napkins. All the time saying this like "You should have someone here bagging for you"
The cashier responded with "I had to send her on a break. We were slow and state law requires a ten minute break."
I could go on with this example but you get the idea. Also seen today in many places, a woman arguing over her gift card that no longer worked, wanting her money back. Gift cards themselves say that they can not be exchanged for cash. I listened to a man scream, yes scream, at a cashier wanting to exchange a dollar for quarters when he couldn't open his till because he was ringing up a customer. A worker had to get off a ladder to help a elderly woman pick up something and another shopper grabbed the ladder and used it themselves to get something down. I saw security drag someone out of a stock room and heard just this part: "We told only employees are allowed in there." I watched a man demand a second cashier when he was not only the next on in line but the customer in front of him was already paying. on that same vein, a saw a woman try to stop a cashier while she was working to tell her she needed a another cashier and then spend several minutes telling her how to do her job.
I could go on.
If this is the retail world before Halloween then I'm not shopping at all in November or December.
.
My opinion, YOU the customer are NOT entitled to be rude. YOU are NOT entitled to have the rules and law bent around your world, your life. Deal with it.
Jodi Arias
I am disgusted by the media trashing of Jodi Arias. If she smiles, she is evil. If she frowns, she is evil. I just don't get it.
My thoughts on the case.
She didn't plan to kill Travis.
There I said it. On this. On my internet troll free blog. Yes comments are still disabled. Forever!
Travis did use her. He treated her like a object. Did he deserve to die, of course not but she didn't want to kill him.
However right now her fate has been decided by a jury and all that is left is her sentencing. Does she live or die? I chose life.
That is all I want to say today, or maybe ever, about the subject.
My thoughts on the case.
She didn't plan to kill Travis.
There I said it. On this. On my internet troll free blog. Yes comments are still disabled. Forever!
Travis did use her. He treated her like a object. Did he deserve to die, of course not but she didn't want to kill him.
However right now her fate has been decided by a jury and all that is left is her sentencing. Does she live or die? I chose life.
That is all I want to say today, or maybe ever, about the subject.
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Food Fight
Do you know what you are eating?
This is all true. GMOS are everywhere. And many food companies that appear to be rivals are actually owned by the same company, which makes it hard to separate out true food. (Explained more here: GMO Free USA) But what does one do if one is poor and those cheap, high in GMO foods are all there is??
I wish I knew. I tried to find a way and haven't succeeded yet. Framers Markets are very limited in my area and often the local farmers charge above and beyond my budget when purchased from them directly. If you are like me, in the same boat, doesn't despair if you, like me, end up buying a GMO food or starve to death.
IT WILL GET BETTER!
How? Isn't that what the horrible Monsanto and others want?
Yes that is what they want. However NEVER EVER let that stop you from fighting for more affordable organic food. Never let that stop you from explaining to farmers that if you only have a few bucks to your name, that there has to be a way to buy fresh food from them. Bargain, deal, barter...you get the idea. In my area the only way to get the council to extend the farmers market to more than a few days a year is to get the local growers to understand the need to beg more fresh foods to more people.
Till the fight grows and those that are against GMOS win, there will be too many poor people in my town given money for places like Dollar Tree for food, instead of the farms.
And once again, many foods in stores are all the same....
This is all true. GMOS are everywhere. And many food companies that appear to be rivals are actually owned by the same company, which makes it hard to separate out true food. (Explained more here: GMO Free USA) But what does one do if one is poor and those cheap, high in GMO foods are all there is??
I wish I knew. I tried to find a way and haven't succeeded yet. Framers Markets are very limited in my area and often the local farmers charge above and beyond my budget when purchased from them directly. If you are like me, in the same boat, doesn't despair if you, like me, end up buying a GMO food or starve to death.
IT WILL GET BETTER!
How? Isn't that what the horrible Monsanto and others want?
Yes that is what they want. However NEVER EVER let that stop you from fighting for more affordable organic food. Never let that stop you from explaining to farmers that if you only have a few bucks to your name, that there has to be a way to buy fresh food from them. Bargain, deal, barter...you get the idea. In my area the only way to get the council to extend the farmers market to more than a few days a year is to get the local growers to understand the need to beg more fresh foods to more people.
Till the fight grows and those that are against GMOS win, there will be too many poor people in my town given money for places like Dollar Tree for food, instead of the farms.
And once again, many foods in stores are all the same....
Friday, May 23, 2014
Sad state of affairs.
Today Greenpeace blocked the entrance to Lumber Liquidators in protest of their involvement with the destruction of the rainforest. I admire the way the police handled it. No arrests. No tear gas. It is the reaction of the people following the media reports that upset me. When one person commented that:
"its sad the way we treat our planet. one day when the trees are all gone and nothing remains but sand we will wonder why we cant breathe. hopefully we can obtain the technological and social standards needed for intergalactic space travel for I fear our races only hope of survival with the continuation of its current practices is to find another planet to suck dry of resources somewhere else. We will pretty much have to become the evil space aliens that run around killing off other planets to sustain their own societies."
another responded with the ever classic answer of idiocy:
"we have more trees now then in the past" followed by another ones comment of: "we have never run out of anything - Plenty to last your lifetime and more to come"
My answer to this is a big NO. The effect trees has on us is more than the number of them. Size, age, type, location on earth, etc all play a big part of our health and well being. If you cut down one big 100 plus year old tree and plant two small ones it will not replace the other. All planting trees does is help repair the damage but it will never replace what was missing. To fix the rainforest we need to stop destroying it! Nothing we plant in Oregon, or Russia, or Hawaii can ever replace the rainforest.
Lumber Liquidators is only a small part of the puzzle. Stopping them will only cause anther rainforest hungry company to take over.
A note on todays peaceful protest. It was wonderful of the community to allow the protest to be peaceful. In my area you attempt any such thing and it will get ugly. If more communities followed the examples of Toano then maybe there will be more public displays of outrage towards the damage to not just the rainforest but beyond.
News link:
Greenpeace protests Lumber Liquidators
"its sad the way we treat our planet. one day when the trees are all gone and nothing remains but sand we will wonder why we cant breathe. hopefully we can obtain the technological and social standards needed for intergalactic space travel for I fear our races only hope of survival with the continuation of its current practices is to find another planet to suck dry of resources somewhere else. We will pretty much have to become the evil space aliens that run around killing off other planets to sustain their own societies."
another responded with the ever classic answer of idiocy:
"we have more trees now then in the past" followed by another ones comment of: "we have never run out of anything - Plenty to last your lifetime and more to come"
My answer to this is a big NO. The effect trees has on us is more than the number of them. Size, age, type, location on earth, etc all play a big part of our health and well being. If you cut down one big 100 plus year old tree and plant two small ones it will not replace the other. All planting trees does is help repair the damage but it will never replace what was missing. To fix the rainforest we need to stop destroying it! Nothing we plant in Oregon, or Russia, or Hawaii can ever replace the rainforest.
Lumber Liquidators is only a small part of the puzzle. Stopping them will only cause anther rainforest hungry company to take over.
A note on todays peaceful protest. It was wonderful of the community to allow the protest to be peaceful. In my area you attempt any such thing and it will get ugly. If more communities followed the examples of Toano then maybe there will be more public displays of outrage towards the damage to not just the rainforest but beyond.
News link:
Greenpeace protests Lumber Liquidators
About the name
I have had many blogs before. And I had to take a personal hiatus for awhile. The name for this blog, this redo of random thoughts, was one that I choose for deep personal reasons. It is not a reflection of the contents. I will not force my blog to be any one style, nor will I allow the tile to reflect just one part of my soul.
Monday, February 24, 2014
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