Social Engineer me? I think not.

I'm in the middle of a book called "The Art of Deception" by Kevin Mitnick, an infamous world-renowned computer hacker turned good guy. It is just a bunch of little stories about how easy it is to get information from people just by asking for it, and I am just amazed at how easy it is to get information from people just by asking for it. All a guy has to do is familiarize himself with some industry terminology, have a level head, and boom, he's an insider. How easy it must be for these social engineers to pick up usable information about people just by browsing through blogs.

For this reason, I am now turning off the search feature so search engines don't find me anymore. Only about 8% of my readers (or should I say hits? since a hit doesn't necessarily mean a reader) come from search engines anyway, but I'll be saying goodbye to the faint amusement I get from seeing some of the keywords used in finding me.

Some recent ones:
Long black sock
do do la do do la do da lala
runaway chickens?
pieces of teeth falling out
cat vibrates
And there are a number of searches for upside down parabolas, viktor frankl, interpretive dance moves, routan babies, and kanye west lyrics. The riveting, educational and valuable content of my blog.

Goodbye keyword searchers.

I'll have two prescriptions, please

Awhile ago, Geoff had suggested that I refill my prescription at Wallyworld, because it is the closest place to our house and we are there all the time. So, since my automatic monthly refills at Place A ran out last month (or so I thought), I took my slip of paper to the Wallyworld pharmacy last Thursday night. I asked the kid behind the counter if they did automatic monthly refills. He didn't know, but pointed me to the older gentlman who said, yes, they did. Then they pointed me over to another kid at the computer who was to set me up - only, he didn't know how. So after verifying again that yes, they do do automatic monthly refills, he got instructions from the older gentleman on how to set me up, getting frustrated and exclaiming, "I'm doing my best!" when prodded by the old guy. He reminded me that, even though it was on automatic refill, it would probably be a good idea to call ahead of time anyway, to make sure they had it ready. He finished up and then closed the shutter without even saying goodbye.

Okay?

In the meantime, I got a call from Place A saying that my prescription was ready for pickup. I didn't know I had another one there? I guessed there was one more that I wasn't aware of, and went to pick it up. I told the pharmacy manager that I'd just set up the same prescription at Wallyworld and asked if he could transfer it back up to Place A, and he said yes. A minute later, I was paged back to the pharmacy at the back of the store, where the manager explained that I already had a whole 'nother year's worth of refills. When I said that should've been my last one, he said that sometimes they call the doctor's office and get the go-ahead for me. ? So, as of that point, I had two open prescriptions in two different places. (It's a good thing I'm not a drug addict or I might try to exploit that little loophole!)

I figured I should call Wallyworld back and cancel my prescription there, on the off-chance that it would mess my insurance up somehow. The girl on the phone asked my name, couldn't find it, then asked for my date of birth. My birthday is in August. She said, "Is that ten?" I said, "huh?" She said, "August, is that the tenth month?" I said, "August is the eighth month of the year." Then she cancelled it for me. I hope. I should never have gone there, I hope nothing gets screwed up. I have to admit, and not trying to be snotty, but I was quite shocked that they are letting that girl count pills. Kind of surprised at the whole operation, actually.

Funny

My coworker sent me this video that I thought maybe might be could be kind of somehow sort of related to the last little while. Enjoy.

Thank you

Thank you sooo much all who commented. I just appreciate each of your support so much, for real. Today was a better day. Got up early this morning (for the gym), and upon coming home had a good 20 minutes to just sit on the couch by myself in the quiet and meditate; to gear up for the day a little. And the drive to work was so beautiful because, for once, the sky was completely blue and clear. It was like a sigh of relief. So maybe all those things helped, because I felt much more in control today and actually got a lot of work done.

I mused at it today, about how I can just fall apart like so, even as good as I have it. What would happen when the real life-trials come along, as they surely will at some point. I've got to learn to center myself and get a grip. I think maybe a short, daily meditation would be a very good idea.

Anyway, the superbowl is almost here, eh? I hope everyone has a nice, enjoyable weekend planned. I am looking forward to it.

Flying my freak flag now

Do you ever get the feeling that you're literally losing your mind? I had to ask my boss to fix my timeclock today for like, the eighth time in two weeks. I know it's just the timeclock right? Big deal. But HOLY COW. It is representative of where my mind isn't. I can't seem to sit still. Can't focus. Can't seem to think clearly. I feel so terrible, too, like I can't decide whether to laugh out loud or bawl my eyes out. I seriously think I'm cracking up. This really isn't normal for me. What is happening? I'm so on top of this stuff normally. Cracking up, for real.

cat

WTF?

Boy never did I think our competition would generate SO much enTHUsiasm. (Thanks hun, for being my one supporter so far!) Ha ha. One person asked if they lost 80 pounds by cutting off their legs if that would work. Another asked if I was getting big and said losing my husband doesn't count as weight loss. (I told him off for his innapropriate comment. WTF man?)

With less schoolwork to worry about and quarterly taxes being done, the stress is considerably less. However, my mood is still shifting between stoic, despondent, and pissed off. As in, DON'T MESS. AND I'M NOT EVEN KIDDING.

.

Except for those few times I see hubby during the day (like on lunch break today) that make all my troubles disappear.

.

I long to get out from under these ugly clouds and into the sun.

Biggest Loser Competition! We want you!

Note - if you want to participate in this with us, let me know your email, so I can answer your questions and keep you updated on weekly weigh-ins and other stuff. Mine is calistanley at hotmail dot com. (I know you can put that together.) Thanks!

Also - If you aren't close enough to another competitor to have them view your scale, we can work around it! We still want you to play!

------------------------------
Hi friends and Family,

My good friend Cali and I want to start a “Biggest Loser” competition. It will be based on the percentage of body weight someone wins not just the amount of pounds. So, if someone who is 200 pounds lost 20 pounds, that would be 10 %, the same as if someone who is 100 pounds lost 10 pounds.

The competition begins February 1st and we are thinking either 2 or 3 months. Whatever the polls come back saying is what we will do. So cast your vote. Each person puts in 20 bucks of their own and whoever wins will get the pot!! Here are the rules:

1. Only honest people. . . if you are a cheater or a liar you aren’t allowed :)
2. Must weigh in wearing the EXACT same thing on the EXACT same scale at the EXACT same time once a week.
3. Must report your weight PERCENTAGE lost to Kayt or Cali every week. If you fail to do this you will be disqualified.
4. Each contestant puts in 20 dollars. Must have your money in no later than February 6th to Kayt or Cali. If you don’t trust one of us, you don’t know us well enough. :)
5. You must weigh in front of at least one other contestant in the competition.

(Note from Cali – after receiving everyone’s numbers, I can send around a spreadsheet to let you know where you are with respect to everyone else. If you want me to do that please let me know! Thanks)

This will be a fun way to get in shape and lose weight for anyone who wants to join!!! Let me know! Also, if you know any HONEST people that you really trust, feel free to send this email on to them.

Thanks!!!

Kayt

Mmmm ice cream

So it's after class and we're thinking we go to the gym... so we drive up there and the parking lot is packed and we're thinking... not so much. And we're thinking.... we're hungry and maybe.... ice cream sounds good... yeah that new Sub Zero over there, never been there before. I wish every trip to the gym was this good.

I could skate away on

Okay, so about two years ago, I heard a song on 101.9 the end on my lunch break. It was such a pretty song, and I thought I'd hear it again on the radio to find out who it was, but never did. So I just tried searching for it even though I didn't know who sang it or what the lyrics were. No luck. As a last-ditch effort to find the song, I emailed Chelsea at 101.9 the end and tried my best to describe this song I heard two years ago and... she totally got it right! (sweet! she's good!) You'd think I would've recognized it was Sarah Mclachlan. (I claim to be her biggest fan). I've added the song on the playlist at the right and included the lyrics. I love it.

"River"

It's coming on Christmas
They're cutting down trees
They're putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
But it don't snow here
It stays pretty green
I'm going to make a lot of money
Then I'm going to quit this crazy scene
I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I made my baby cry

He tried hard to help me
You know, he put me at ease
And he loved me so naughty
Made me weak in the knees
Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I'm so hard to handle
I'm selfish and I'm sad
Now I've gone and lost the best baby
That I ever had
Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly
Oh I wish I had a river
I made my baby say goodbye

It's coming on Christmas
They're cutting down trees
They're putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
I wish I had a river
I could skate away on

Ha ha silly Geoff

Cali asking Geoff about his upcoming eye exam

Cali: Do you want me to come with and help you pick out frames or do you want to do it yourself?

Geoff: Ummm aren't they all the same anyway?

Pause....

Cali: I'll meet you there.

"It's a scholarship pageant!" to quote a line from a favorite movie

My gorgeous littlest sister, Danielle, is officially in the running for the Miss "Hometown" pageant. I am so proud of her! That is something I would've never had the guts to do. She used to be so painfully shy and quiet. Apparently she has really come out of her shell in the time I've left home. The pageant is sometime in June. I am clearing my calendar so I can be there!

Or melk, as they say in Utah County

Every day a little old man in an old gold volvo pulls up to the house across the street from my office. He hobbles up to the front door - he's a pretty fast hobbler - and picks up two canning bottles of off-color milk from the lady who lives there. I've wondered what it was for. But I had also wondered about the hay in their backyard... Laura suspects goats. This morning the lady wasn't there. So, bewildered, he left, only to drive by again about three minutes later, peering at the house trying to figure out if she'd come home. He parked in front of the house and there he waited, cradling his little poodle in a blanket in his lap. He waited, and waited, it was sad. I wanted to run across the street and give him some goat's milk so he could go home.

Falafel?

So here's how it is. I dropped another class and am now left with just two, not-too-hard classes. Meaning I'm taking a break. On one side I'm thinking wow I suck/so many other people can do it why can't you/pushing graduation off yet another semester go smartie pants/what about the GH stuff like determination and will and wanting it enough to work for it/pain of effort cliches/you're too weak to discipline yourself/etc. etc. etc. On the other side, it's you know, you've been at this for seven straight semesters now, any other normal person would need a break too. Obviously my escalating mental state is telling me to give it a rest. (Because I'm not actually a fire-breathing dragon, I'm a sopping wet basket case). Geoff keeps saying, "we're not in a hurry, we're not in a hurry". Although, if his plans all go accordingly, he'll be well into his graduate degree while I'm still finishing up the stinking bachelors. Oh well. I'm just thinking about this too much. There is WAY too much thinking going on here. Time to turn it off.

..........................................Farfegnoogan........................................

I had a friend in high school; we used to look at each other and go, "Falafel?" if we didn't get it or sort of to shrug something off. Maybe it will become my mantra. (I had gotten a greeting card with a big picture of a salad on front and inside the card said "Falafel?" We had no idea what it meant)

phone call plus bad day = sad cali

Today after lunch a nasty phone call sent me over the edge. I escaped to the bathroom and had missef a good cry... twice. Feeling this way is.... weird. Unusual. I don't like it.

Bleh... sorry peoples

Got five minutes left of lunch break. Listened to what pieces of the inaugural speech I could this morning. Gosh I hate to be such a complainer. No one likes to be around a complainer. I'm almost done with quarterlies at work which is good. As far as school... I just feel like I'm running out of steam. Feel like starting to question whether accounting is really my alley. Bleh. Where is summer?

Just a little now

My cousin, Natalie, does everything to my hair. She just wove the pink into the bottom layer a little bit, so you can only see it if my hair is up or if it hangs in front of my shoulders. She did it without bleaching it, so it's a little darker than it normally would be. (I've worked too hard to grow the natural color back to just go bleaching it away). It's not garish or nightmarish at all (which I was a little afraid of). It's just enough to be fun. But, now that I've seen what "conservative pink" looks like, I might go a little more bold next time.

Diane wondered what blonde would look like. So I've just included a little picture of the blonde, from 2006: That was our little puppy Tajmahamalama Jabafaba (Taj for short)

(2006)

The blonde was fun but I had so much trouble keeping up the roots that I dyed it black. :( There are no pictures of the black hair, but I do have this one from 2002:

I love this picture. We were just being goofy that day. That wreath behind Alison's head looks like it could be her hair. I just picked it cuz it really shows the color. (Loreal Feria Chocolate Cherry). I loved the chocolate cherry but it was really hard to get rid of when the time came.

Do da do da do.... la la la....

Hmmmmm PINK.......

Now there's a color my hair's never been....

Thank goodness for GH

So, a couple of nights ago as Geoff and I were leaving class and walking out to the parking lot, I had this little mini-silent-mental-breakdown. It was partly "Wow, I suck," and partly "I am never gonna be able to do this." It came after the realization that I couldn't handle a full load of classes, that I'd dropped a class but still hoped to be able to do the gym-thing and now knew I could even do that. (The wow I suck part). And the knowledge that I am going to have to work harder to keep from recieving C's this semester even though I can't really dig into the homework until 8:30 at night at the earliest. (The I'm never gonna be able to do this part). I just try to think I'm wonderwoman or something, but I'm not and for some reason it's a tough pill to swallow. I fill my schedule with all these great, wonderful things, and can barely accomplish half of them. Sigh. The panicky-overwhelmed feeling is more or less gone now; just a resignation is left. It's a lesson in patience, I guess. Patience with the task at hand, and patience with myself and my own limitations.

During our human-performance meeting at work yesterday, I peeked back to my notes from the day we focused on my schooling, and read a statement that comforted me. It's the one statement that our instructor promised to deny he'd ever said: "There is no acheivement in life-balance." It reminded me to just embrace the current (but short-lived) sacrifice of time and mental comfort, and that pain of effort is better than pain of regret. Also, one of my co-workers spoke of a company he visited that morning that is teetering on the edge of its existence, and I felt overwhelmingly grateful to have what I do. My job that I sometimes take for granted that is more than I could ever ask for, my loving husband and family, my home. It is more than some people have in a lifetime. I am so blessed.

Second 12

Okay, so I think not a lot of people connected with my humor on my last post... er... um.... s'okay, s'okay. I often laugh at things that no one else thinks is funny, that's okay.

We had such a great weekend. We took off Friday after work and headed down to St. George. We didn't know where we were going to stay, and we actually ended up staying at the Casablanca in Mesquite, NV. It was so fun! Friday night after we got there, I was so tired that I stayed in the hotel room and watched Conan and fell asleep. Geoff went down to the casino and won $100 bucks right off the bat on a penny machine, then another $100 bucks on a quarter machine. (He's got the magic touch, I think. I never win more than $5, it's really boring). And he stayed to watch the band until around 2:00 when he came to bed.

The next morning we ate at a breakfast buffet and drove back up to St. George and did a little shopping and stopped at the St. George temple visitor center. The weather down there is gorgeous right now!! A cool (but warm) 50 degrees. We drove back to Mesquite and Geoff went to play some more while I took a nap. Then we went to a dinner buffet at the Virgin River casino and kind of casino-hopped after that. We watched the bands at three different places, and I even learned how to play roulette. It's actually pretty easy, and fun. I think we won about another $200 altogether on roulette. We stayed the longest watching the band at the Casablanca and watched the drunk people dance. One girl even went onto the stage and started dancing around the singer until a security guard kicked her off, it was funny. There was one slower song, Sarah Smile, (I don't know the song but I guess Geoff loves it), Geoff asked me to dance so we danced to that one. We haven't danced since Geoff proposed, I felt a little tongue-tied like in jr. high, but it was fun. And Geoff totally led, I was very impressed.

Then around 2 a.m. we went out to the jacuzzi and there was no on else out there (the pool-area is beautiful, by the way. If only it were warm enough to go swimming). So we had the whole jacuzzi to ourselves. Then we went back inside, showered, watched TV for a little while and fell asleep. The next morning we went to a breakfast buffet and left to come home around 11.

So, though we ate at three buffets in two and a half days, at least that was all we ate. And I had the funnest time hanging out with Geoff and relaxing. What a good time.

It made it that much harder to come back to the long days of work and school, but so worth it. And the hotel room and the meals (and even, surprisingly, the gas) were so cheap that the trip paid for itself. I'd love to do that more.