Random Thoughts Of My Life
I found this really great sight while I was reading one of the daily emails I get.
Check if you have an account that has been compromised in a data breach
Just key in your email address, the system will tell you whether you email has been pawned off. Unfortunately for me.. my email was pawned in 2015..
I’m always changing my passwords so I’m safe for now..
Enjoy!
Today is the first day of 2016 and I could not be happier that it is finally 2016. For Dad, 2015 was a mixed bag of good, bad and absolutely ugly. I can honestly say that regardless of the issues I faced (and I won’t go into them here), I forged ahead and dealt with the issues and tried to maintain some semblance of sanity in my life.. It was definitely not easy.. but I tried.
The start of every new year is an opportunity to start anew. Do something good! Both for yourself and the society you live in! Yes it may seem like a daunting task, but even if you do one thing, you can make difference!
At the start of every new year. Your prior year’s slate (and baggage) is (unofficially) cleared and you are starting a new year with a blank slate. Of course you will have baggage from the prior year that (ahem) that you will bring forward, but deal with each peace of baggage on a one by one basis.. but on the whole starting a new year gives you the opportunity to improve yourself emotionally, physically and at the financial level.
I know that I will be taking this opportunity to “live in the moment, and look forward”. I know I have a tendency to look back and be retrospective, but now I’m going to focus on the positive things in my life and build on that. How about you?
Look at the calendar below and what do you see? Well what I see is the opportunity to look forward and be a happier person. I also see this year as an opportunity to achieve a sense of inner peace.. This is something that everyone wants. How do you get to this point? Well look around and make a note of all the good things that exist in your life!
For me:
So take the first day to not just make resolution that you know you cannot keep, but take the new year as an opportunity to find inner peace and be grateful for what you have!
Remember happiness is what you make of it. Always look within your self for self actualization.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve gotten a few calls from a notorious scammer from 800.843.0000. (DO NOT CALL THIS NUMBER IT IS A SCAM)
Now this scammer thinks I’m going to go over to my computer and give him access so he can steal my financial information. I don’t think so!
When I ask him for more information, he just repeats the same thing over and over again (as do I!)
“Sir, please go to your computer, so I can help you remove the virus from your computer“.
So I ask him: “Which computer?”, to which he replies.. “Your personal computer“..
So I tell him “I have multiple computers, which one?”..
he replies “the one you are in front of”
I say: “But I’m on my phone and not in front of my computer”
He says: “Sir this is deep support (no relation to deep throat I assume), and we have noticed that your computer has a virus and we would like to help you”.
I say: “which computer???”
We volley back and forth for a few minutes and finally I just hang up on the creep!
I’ve hung up on this guy a few times already.. but he just seems to love to call Dad’s Taxi and waste my time when I’m busy..
So next time, I’m going to have some fun and ask him to let me log into his computer so I can help him remove the virus on his machine? What do you think of that plan?
Since I have an evil streak: Next time they call me, I’ll tell the scammer that I”ve been testing some nasty viruses on my machine and them calling me might have infected their computer via the SIP protocol (thank to my friend Mark W. for this one). Continue and harass them and reverse the call on them to ask if their computer has slowed down and they need to remove these nasty viruses simultaneously. otherwise their disk will crash!.. Won’t that be fun!
Ok.. so how do you defend yourself from these scammer’s and spammers?
Just for jollies see how many others have been calling with the same numbers with the various variations on the scam by calling who is calling me via the directory of unlisted callers (NO this will not give you a virus or malware.. it’s a legitimate site!)
You will see that there are various spins on these scam calls. I particularly love the “IRS” one.. that is bound to work on the elderly.. or the ones that are gullible.
Now excuse me as I just got a call I need to get back to that guy who has issued a warrant for my arrest and is from the IRS. Because I really don’t want to get arrested by the Sheriff for being stupid and being scammed.. right?
Don’t get scammed! always be alert!
I was talking to a friend of mine a few weeks ago and we were discussing the issue of morality.
Of course I had an opinion (as I always do) about this, and I came up with two words that describe the way I think.
Irrational Morality – My definition of this is when you do the right thing for the wrong reason. This could mean doing something for your spouse, children, friends for the wrong reason.. Now what exactly does that mean? Let’s talk of a few examples and of course you are free to chime in with your feedback if you have any.
Here are my thoughts and examples on Irrational Morality
Do you have any examples of irrational morality? If you do I’d like to hear about it.
So this is the spring of 2013. Yet when I go outside, it still feels like Winter of 2013. The temperature is still hovering in the mid 30’s and I’m cold.
To me this spring is always the start of something new. This year, it’s the end of a burden and the start of a fresh start for something that I’ve written about in many of my postings. This topic of course is the ugly head of debt.
For the first time in over 20 years, I can truly say that I have zero credit card debt. Unfortunately, I was able to achieve this success not due to my ability to save money and pay off debts but due to the passing of my elderly father and his ability to save money for his children, so they can have the fruits of his love. The art of being frugal and saving.
I tell you, to have this burden of debt lifted off my shoulders is like having this huge elephant (that has been following me around for so many years), disappear. Now the task that remains for me is to make sure that I NEVER EVER get into this situation.
Here are some of the things my dad taught me that I didn’t learn till after he left us:
Living in debt was part of my every day life and I was (am still) obsessive/compulsive about it. I wanted to defeat it.. on my own terms.. I failed miserably. To me debt was always a moving target that no matter what strategy I tried, I could not defeat.
Today, as I look forward, living debt free is not just my goal, it is my passion. The lessons I didn’t learn over the past 20+ years will be etched in my memories. I never ever want to go backwards into that hole of despair.
I guess that’s what spring time is for, as the seasons change, so must I and grow.
A friend of mine sent me the following in an email. It put many things in perspective for me as I go through a rough patch in my life.. I hope it helps you as much it helped me!
The Professor
In my line of work, I work with a dynamic team and many of these people have their unique personalities. Some are introverted, some are extroverted, some are passive/aggressive and many of them are good team players. This blog entry is not about the team players. It’s about the difficult people in your life and how to deal with them.
I was reading one of my favorite blogs Dumb little man – Tips for life and came across a great article that everyone should read. The blog posting hits it on the nail on the types of difficult people and how to deal with them.
In my daily life, my own family has stated many times, that Dad is indeed one of those difficult people both at work and at home.. Initially I didn’t want to admit it, but as I get older I realize that my DNA and tendencies to tend to swing towards the sarcastic and the difficult side. I tend to have rather sharp sense of humor which can be construed as being difficult, but most of the time, being direct can also be construed as being difficult. I guess that in a nutshell wraps up my personality.
I personally think that you are a product of your environment be it from your childhood (a huge factor in my case) as well as the levels of dysfunction that surrounds you.
In retrospective, if I didn’t utilize my unique brand of humor, I’m certain that:
My question to each one you is, what makes a person difficult? DNA or environment or just self preservation? Personally I think it’s a percentage of both. In my case I can say that it’s all of these 3 for certain!
As I read the article that I linked to below, one thing that struck me is that you have to understand the following factors of acknowledging difficult people:
One of the most important things that I’m learning every day is that I cannot “control my environment” but I can control my own behavior and I try to take baby steps in this direction every day.. I may not succeed every day, but I do move in that direction!
One of the post important lessons I learned was when I watched the 2006 DVD “the Secret”. This DVD taught me that for every ounce of positive energy you exude, the universe will give you back the same dosage and more!
How do you deal with difficult people? I’d like to know as I continue on the path of road of life and figure out myself how to deal with the cards that I work with every day!
Here’s a topic that I haven’t written about in a long time. Personal Finance.
I was reading about personal finance and paying off debt (credit card especially) and I came across a site that’s really great if you are into data analysis and are looking to utilize spreadsheets to manage your personal finances.
Even though this posting at Get Rich Slowly is from 2006, the listed sites and spreadsheets are excellent and allow you to figure out financially where you are and where you want to be.
Excel spreadsheets are useful because:
You can also go to Microsoft to get templates for personal finance. Of course you will need Excel to utilize these spreadsheets. 
On a more humorous note, I learned a new word today. Sploggers (Sites that act as SPAM in the form of blogging). To give an idea of this, I googled “free personal finance spreadsheets” and came across many of these sites.
I personally utilize Quicken to do most of my financial analysis. On this site I especially liked the personal finance calculators.
As a follow up on my last post about YOUR credit report, I found another site that is tremendously useful in protecting your identity. I was reading Clark Howard’s site when I came across this site about identity theft.
Karen Lodrick had her identity stolen and she fought back. Her site has been featured on many media sites and television shows
On her site, you will see pages dedicated to educating yourself and protecting yourself against identy theft.
To round out Karen’s site, I recommend you read her blog it’s truly a must read!
I will be using the one site that I need right now: Opting out of those pesky credit card offers which state how pre-qualified I am. Sometimes, I’ll get 2 or 3 of them from the same company on the same day.
In these tough times, your credit and name need to be protected!
Thanks to Karen for writing such an excellent tutorial and sharing her experience!
Today with the way technology is proceeding at a breakneck speed, we are all inundated with offers either via email, telephone or by on-line malware. This post talks about some tips to avoid being scammed. In today’s of technology overload, you are your own last line of defense against spam, phishing, malware, virus’s, and any web born aggrevation.
Hmm, do I sound like someone who has gone down this path?
To battle the scourge of being scammed or having your identity stolen, here are a couple of really good sites which help you follow up on this ageless motto:
“If it sounds too good to be true, it absolutely is”.
Some tips to avoid being scammed or having your identity stolen (my list of on-line NO-NO’s):
Overall, I can safely say: “If you encounter stangers bearing gifts, you can almost be assured that you will be given a gift that will last for a lifetime”.
If you know of any additional scambuster sites, leave me a comment.
Dad's Taxi 