Grasshopper Thoughts, Vol. IV, April 2011

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A friend mentioned on her Facebook wall today that she had insulted her cell phone by dropping it in tanning oil. This drew me inevitably into a typical spiral of thought.  I had to ask the obvious question:  "More importantly, does the cell phone now have a lovely peachy warm glow?"  Because that's the whole point of tanning oil, yes?  I say "peachy warm glow" because that's about as close to tan as my skin gets.  I got slapped with all the Irish genes in the family, while my brother, sister and Mom got the Cherokee genes.  Unfair, I say.  They all have that lovely true red-olive undertone to their skin and they stay dark year round.  I have to work really hard to get anything resembling a tan, with the result being that I look like a peach with a smattering of freckles.  *sigh* 

Auto-pilot Journey

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Has anyone had the experience of being hacked lately?  In this electronic age, I doubt that many reading this post have been untouched by this nasty issue.  It happened to me very recently, and in stages that I later learned were interconnected.  It started with my Facebook account being hacked, then progressed a week later to my primary email account getting hit, and finally, my banking account was infiltrated.  Each occurrence was time consuming to address, and annoying in the extreme.  Thankfully, the majority of people who know me are aware that I wouldn't ever send spamming links (via email), or post similar links on my Facebook page.  The banking account hacking was obviously the most concerning episode of this whole experience, as it could have had extremely damaging repercussions.  I am fortunate that I bank with a federal credit union, and that my credit/debit card that was tied to this account was 100% protected.  This did not, however, keep me from going through protracted clean-up of the whole mess.  In fact, not a day has gone by in the two weeks since this happened without me remembering one more company I need to contact about the cancelled credit card.

A mousetrap of the writerly variety

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For those who have been blogging for a while, you're probably familiar with the concept of guest posting.  That's when another blogger invites you to write a blog article that will be featured on their blog.  It gives you more exposure to a completely different demographic (depending on the focus of that other blog); you meet new people and if you're lucky, people will enjoy your guest post enough to investigate your blog and you'll grow your readership.

Perfectly Placed In Time

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I've written before that I enjoy rainy days (Free Flight, Healing Morning, 1/24/2010).  Particularly, I enjoy the ones where the rain visits for several days and gives us that soft, misty gray quality to enjoy.  To me, the world takes on a different energy, one that is a bit slower, a bit more deliberate and a bit more profound...if we pause long enough to embrace it.  Rainy days have a sleepy quality, and for some reason, I seem to be given clear direction and guidance on those days. Perhaps this happens simply because rainy days force us to slow down in our overall pace, and we have more time to pay attention to feelings and impressions.