Spam

Lately I have been receiving an abundance of spam email from Russia or Ukraine. Whenever I open my email I get three or four of these.

They all - more or less - look like this. (Snipped from my preview in Outlook)

The worst part is that most of them are supposedly coming from g-i-r-l-s who all covet my oh so hot body and wonderful personality.

I would really appreciate it if the spammers targeted me with more suitable mail.

90.000 Passwords Astray

Loads of journalists (which makes for a big news coverage) and many others have reported to the police that the password to their email accounts and other accounts have been compromised and published via a Twitter account.

As many as 90 000 or more passwords and so called "hashcodes" (whatever they are) from a hacked site may be in the hands of wrong users.

The passwords to the journalists email accounts were published on the parliamentarian William Petzäll´s Twitter account. Petzäll was formerly a Swedish Democrat - the ultra nationalistic and xenophobe party in Sweden -but was recently kicked out of the party for among other things his excessive drug abuse. He of course claims he is innocent and that his own accounts were hacked also. 

All the lost codes come from a single database that has been hacked.

The news about this has of course led to some panic and we - the users - are now being told what to do and how to create stronger passwords.

In my mind the fault must be placed elsewhere. Of course the users should and must create stronger passwords but the prime responsibility must always rest with the companies that ask us for them without taking the necessary safeguards to protect them.properly and safely.

William Petzälls role in this mess must still be considered "unclear" at the best.

Happy Rezday, Babe!

My love, the beautiful avatar Ars Northmead first rezzed into SecondLife on October 25th, 2006. Today would have been his fifth rezday.

Happy rezday, babe, and thanks for the help with the email yesterday! Love you forever!

Rereading emails

I have just been rereading my email correspondence with my Ars.

I saved them all. 34 emails in total during the period from February 26th, 2008, to September 19th, 2009.

Not that many considering the almost two and a half years we were together, but then again we were mostly in-world.

25 of the emails were reminders that one of us would be away a certain day (mostly Ars to me because he knew what a scatterbrain I am), one of us having login-failures and that we would keep trying or just  a fast "love you" in passing when one of us wasn't in-world for some reason or other.

Three were rather funny to read because it was Ars being the good father and trying to calm me down after "his son" (as I called Guyke in that conversation) and I had had a huge fight where "the self-centered little brat" (my words) had removed me from his friends list in the middle of it and I refused to accept him back on - in spite of repeated requests from him - for a week or so. I told Ars I wanted "the little shit" to suffer so he learned never, ever, to do it again, but that I certainly would eventually accept his friendship offer when I was good and ready.

Two were from Ars explaining the deal he had struck with our former landlady for the transfer of ownership of Southern Charm to us.

The last four were from a quarrel we had once early in our relationship about some really stupid and  unimportant thing, where I mostly complained extensively about how infuriated I was that Ars just logged off in the middle of the argument. (Men huh?) He told me that I had really pissed him off because I stopped listening. (Well, true enough I do that.) The amazing thing is we still ended each e-mail with "Love you, babe!"

I am not sure I can recommend doing what I did, at least when you are not in a happy mood from the start.

Modern Tecnology

There is this amazing thing called "modern technology". Among other things it makes it possible for you to communicate with others electronically with the use of something called "email". It´s something like a digitally produced letter that get´s sent from your computer to the recipients computer instantly.

It would be a really wonderful invention if it weren't for the fact we have humans using it. Sometimes they forget to check, other times they forget to answer and then there are times that they mean to answer but forget about it.

Of course we mustn't forget there are also the times when they just don´t feel like answering or may even have blocked you or marked you as spam.

I sent a mail over a month ago to someone I thought cared and still have received an answer. And two days ago I sent one to my darling friend Millimina - and would you believe it - she actually hasn't answered yet!

We should start digitizing humans so they at least send out auto-responses "Thanks for your mail. I am not in the office right now but will get back to you a.s.a.p!"

Millimina, You´ve Got Mail!

UPDATE: Now I feel really guilty, because shortly after I had published this post I got a response from dearest Milli, she must have been writing it while I was posting. Sorry darling, ILY-A!

Email for Easter

Från: XX [mailto:x.x@y.se]
Skickat: den 21 April 2011 19:04
Till: Debbie Z
Ämne: Happy Easter

Dear Debbie, Marie and Mr. X and all the others of what I feel is my American family,

Today I have been thinking of you all and of Doug for reasons you are well aware of.

I was very grateful for your last mail giving me an update on how the others in the X-family are doing.

On this side of the big pond things are going well now. Both my elderly parents (81 and 82 years old) are doing well and we are still celebrating the fact that – according to the last report – there is still no sign of the bladder cancer that has been bothering my father the last five years. It actually looks like they managed to remove it altogether in the latest of the four operations. My parents spirits are up, and when they go up so do mine. Our family keeps on growing every year as two of my three nieces and my nephew seem to be taking turns in reproducing. We are happy for all the new girls, for yes it´s always girls! My third niece is only twenty still so she hasn´t started yet but she has a longtime boyfriend now, so who knows…

Well, perhaps my family is here to correct the global gender imbalance caused by the Chinese and the Indians.

Spring has finally come to southern Sweden now. We see much more of the sun again and the temperatures are slowly rising and are now in the low 60´s (F). The forsythia bushes are glowing in yellow and the trees have started to grow leaves, it´s a wonderful time of year. I am still tinkering along but am still on my antidepressants. Most of the time it gets better, but I still get bad periods but the periods are shorter and further between. My doctor tells me he is happy with my progress so...  A few of my closest friends – people that I love and trust - have started telling me that I need to move along or at least start thinking about it. My answer to these kindhearted and loving friends has been that I am sure I will do that in time, but that I am not ready to do so yet. I am on my own timetable and follow my emotions in this. I am not going to be rushed into or out of something to satisfy anyone except myself.

In SecondLife I am still the proud owner of the Southern Charm sim that Ars and I had together, everything is still the same except that my last renter left around new year. I have the money for it so I am keeping it as long as SecondLife exists. The money would only go into a pension fund otherwise and I do not believe I will ever get as old as my parents so what the heck. You and the rest of the Wilsons will always have a virtual home there if you ever decide to revisit us.

I would like to wish you all a very happy Easter and hope you have a nice time during the holidays!

Hugs to you all,

Bock

The Best Present

Well, you all know how it is, some presents are better than others and this one really made me warm inside!

...except I always hated Bloody Mary-drinks, maybe because they seem more like a meal than a drink to me.