So Much and So Very Little

Well, my little corner has had its own ups and downs in the last week.  Looking at the map I follow ( Here )  has been telling me a lot, none of it very good.  Even now, when the US seems to be starting to level off, there are still places that have me sad.  NYC is one of those mixed places.  An awful amount of illness and death there (5000+ dead), they have a designation as number #5 in a list of Countries (not cities) in the world in illness/death.  But, the city seems to be coming back slowly.  I notice a slowdown in new illnesses and even death there.  Gives me hope.  At the same time, I get worried when I don’t hear from athingirl, who is from NYC, but I did find she wrote a post about 12 hours ago that I must have missed.  Those things worry me now.

It’s the same with Blessed with a Star on the Forehead  is another from the NY state.  They are very different people, but I love both of them.  She also penned something today, so I feel glad that I have every reason to think her well, too.

Back to my area.  In the tri-county area of Indiana around my small town, there are about 59 occurrences and 11 deaths confirmed.  This has me worried because my Aunt is in a nursing home that had 11 who died (all of them? or are they missing some?).  She has had COVID-19 for over a week now.  I thought she was better (and may well be), but I am told she is having labored breathing problems but no fever and getting good meds.  Mixed blessing.  My own Mom (in her mid-80s) is stuck at home and is alone.  I call about twice a day and make sure I get her groceries and that she is doing okay.  I did a large grocery trip yesterday to Walmart (yes, the virus does, indeed, change things).  I was upset at all the people, young and old, who were not wearing gloves nor masks (I only saw 4 wearing masks and no gloves).  I saw a couple of workers in masks and gloves, but not my cashier.  I also noticed that she did not clean down the belt, even though I waited for her.  They did have food and I was able to get most of what I wanted and a lot of what I had to have in good quantities for both Mom and I.

What aggravated me the most, I think, was that in my little town of under 4,000 (maybe under 3,000), when I pulled into the larger gas station there, I saw a group of 4 female teens walking together (close) with no gloves and no masks on them.  Then, 2-3 boys pulled up to the station and they all stood around talking sans gloves/masks.  All I could think of was that they all have parents and grandparents who are NOT in the same risk category they are and even THEY should realize that just because you can do a thing doesn’t mean you should do a thing.

On the brighter side, I am okay with my own stay at home.  My housekeeper has not been able to clean here for about 3 weeks and it looks to me like another 2-3 before I will even THINK about it.  However, I am not making much of a mess and am doing some cleaning.  I use the computer and tablet as my escapes.  I binge Netflix (currently, 7 seasons of Voyager), watch several movies, play video games, and am still beta testing the up-coming DLC “Wastelanders” for Fallout 76 on April 14th.  Life is much quieter without the Scammers and Want-my-money people not calling.  I estimate I am now receiving about 4-6 calls a day less.

 

So, Mom and I both say “Hi” to all and may you have health and happiness in this mess of times.

The Law of Attraction and God look over you all (and I don’t think the two are separate),

Scott

Friday Fictioneers – Get With It – Humorous – PG

Rochelle graces us with another challenge from Friday Fictioneers.  Read mine below and then > HERE < for the rest.  Enjoy!!!

Copyright – Björn Rudberg

Get With It

Scott L Vannatter – 100 words

Horace could never hope to do as well as his brother Michael and their grandfather, Cecil.  Those two could play those strings with such pizazz!  How could he compete?  His life was tied up with electronics.  It was the 60’s for gosh sakes!  The world was full of songs and love and hunts for peace and tranquility.  What chance did he have with his dumb ideas for a future in which people could speak, write, and send their thoughts across vast distances through television screens?  It was ludicrous.  The only people he ever attracted attention from were those mathematician types.

_______________________________

Namaste,

Scott

WordPress May Get a Cold

Actually, WordPress may get a virus, not a cold.  I was perusing several articles today and noticed that WP was specifically mentioned as the target for one cyber attack.  The reason?   Well, not because we have such guarded military secrets or because our dialogues are so captivating.  No, it is mainly because WP isn’t well guarded enough.  The hackers can get in, so why not try?  We have become the target of ease.

I have listed the main article at the end of this post, so you can read what I did and try to follow it, too.  Personally, it was too much techie talk for me.  That world and I have parted company and I don’t want to talk about apache and admin passwords and file structures.  Just not me anymore.

However, I did follow enough to go back to saying what I have always said:  your password(s) is(are) very important.  The article suggested that one way these guys are trying to get into WP is through password guessing.  The spybots, it seems, go into the system and try to get in by guessing a few key passwords that are used a lot by admins and so forth.  They may only try a dozen and then move on to something else.  So?  What if they do get in?  Well, what they truly want is the account that belongs to  one of the more elite users or a person who helped to create the site.  Then, they hope to break through that person and into the root of the system or the core.  They look for plans, blueprints, file system structures, even emails, anything that will help them get a little more of that pie and on into the system itself.

So, back to passwords.  I try to keep up on things.  This article says WP is rather a weakly protected site, so I figure I used anti worm, virus, and such on my own computer and I put in a good password on the site.  This may well have to do.  I am not an expert nor a guru.  A lot of the other ideas for help involve knowing a lot more about computereze than I do.  I wrote a post about building a good password.  That can be found here.  The other articles are below.  Just know that one of the objects of hackers can be malicious:  they may get to the system from your account so they can shut down the entire WP.

Just wanting you to think.  Article:

Experts Warn Small Businesses

***Also, before I go I had better say this:  My modem is on the fritz.  It is scheduled to be replaced Thursday between 5 and 7pm.  It is possible I won’t be able to get on long enough tomorrow to post.  I know I can’t read the 50-70 posts I will be behind on by then.  Just letting you know.

Namaste,

Scott

What They Can Know

I was relearning how to get my messages in Facebook last night and today. It seems that I have had quite a few, actually, since July, and have not read them well. So, I took the time last night and today to catch up and answer a lot of them.

People were very patient with me. They picked right back up from almost 5 months ago and answered when I replied. Too bad work was never that way.

Anyway, while I was looking, I did some clicking and copy and paste on some things. I found a conversation I had with someone back in early May and read through it. It brought back memories.

Then, I copied/pasted that conversation forward. I had, when done, 205 pages of conversation with that one person! Now, it was spread out with the names and pictures included, but it also had words, times, and dates of all the conversations I have had with that person back through May and I didn’t see how far back I could to. I went to April 26th and my computer slowed way down and started having problems; however, Facebook was still showing that it was going back, so at least 6 months.

Do you realize that means FB has every conversation held between every person for at least 6 months back?

Wow! Now, let’s think about this. That’s Facebook. Let’s add to that all phone calls (places, times, dates, persons) back for however long. Then, you have emails (which may be kept a long, long time), bills, postal, and court records. Oh, yes, I forgot doctor records, hospitals, lawyers, school, and colleges, as well as work places.

I am sure there are more, but I will make my point. Today’s computers are fast and much cheaper than before. Storage space is ridiculously cheap. Companies can keep pretty much all the information they want for next to nothing in cost.

What this can mean (does mean) is that we are an open book to anyone with the time, money , and permissions to look us over. We are on cameras constantly at stop lights, in security in buildings, camera phones, and cameras. When you add to that how difficult it truly is to totally erase something from a hard drive or other computer component, you have a picture of each of us that is out there waiting to be put together.

Think about what people could know if they had access to all of this information on one computer and could rearrange it and search it. What would friends, relatives, co-workers and spouses know about and, perhaps, misunderstand if they could see it all?

It is a little scary when you think that our government is not that far away from keeping, tracking, and sorting all of the info on all of us. I like my private life. It is not terribly exciting, but it is mine and I am the only one that knows everything about it. I am not sure how I would feel if I knew that someone, anyone might be able to find out it all with a push of a few buttons.

Oh, did I mention blog information? 🙂

What do you think?

Tell me your thoughts on this issue of privacy. Tell me quick before I can read it on the nightly news!

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Namaste,
Scott