Net Crimes & Misdemeanors

I've become involved in several different kinds of legislation, online dating being one of them. I was interviewing people for a chapter about online dating for my next book when I came across True.com . They do criminal background checks of everyone who joins. I went back to the other dating web sites I'd been looking at. None did background checks of any kind. So I contacted True.com and got an email back from Terra Gray. I asked her how this worked and she said it cuts down on anyone with felony convictions, making their members safer. Intriguing! True.com also prosecutes anyone who is found to be married after joining their web site. They do NOT tolerate this at all. Terra told me about some legislation they were trying to get passed in several states. It would require all online dating web sites to disclose whether they did criminal background checks or not. Simple, yes? You'd think the world was coming down from the whining from the opponents to this. Everything from ...

Perfect for those who sometimes hate their computer: Mad Computer

I bought my BMW 528e in 1990 when we lived in California. It was only five years old. It was in storage while we lived in Okinawa, has been driven cross country and been lovingly cared for. I always got the oil changed every three months, whether it needed it or not. When things broke, they got fixed. I had a new muffler put on last year and new rims and tires two years ago. When I got back from my recent trip, my Beemer's front end was kinda shaky. So I took it to a Sullivan Tire, thinking it needed a front end alignment. Nope. It needed a new idler arm for the right side, front brakes, new front tires and an alignment. All told, over $500 worth of work. The Kelly Blue Book on the car was $238 because of its age and the mileage (186,000). I had planned on getting a newer car in May or June, when the payments on Chris' Jeep were done. But I called him and he said it was time to get a new car. So I started looking online Friday afternoon at local dealers. I wanted to get another...

Flew to Chattanooga on US Airways out of Boston on March 14th. The first flight was late arriving in Charlotte, so I had to run to my next flight, which was three terminals away. Phew! Got to Chattanooga on time, but my luggage didn’t. I no longer do just carry-on because of some back problems, so my two bags were coming in on a later flight. No biggie. Andy, the guy who booked me to speak, picked me up to take me to my hotel, the Sheraton Read Hotel, most of which was built on top of a civil war hospital. Cool! Andy reminds me of a cross between Richard Dreyfuss and Omar Sharif. Yes, a weird combo, but he looked like Dreyfuss in Jaws and sounded like Sharif when he talked. Andy was so busy, he needs a vacation. More than me! The hotel was wonderful. All that’s left of the civil war hospital is the basement. A hotel was built on top of it in 1929. About eight years ago, the Sheraton chain bought it, completely refurbished it and added an annex. When I went to the Sheraton web site, a...

If you go back through my posts to January, you'll see where I spoke at Olean High School. Well, two girls emailed me and were NOT happy with my talk. They just didn't get the point, did they? See for yourself (although the first one did take my advice, LOL): ----------------- Original Message ----------------- From: Kayla Date: Mar 18, 2006 5:35 PM thank you very much my profile is private so you can just go on and get a life....and stop screwing with teenagers minds and teaching them how to find random ppl online okay buh bye ----------------- Original Message ----------------- From: JA Hitchcock Date: Mar 18, 2006 11:19 AM I guess you missed the point - ANYONE anywhere on the internet can access your profile. Not just me. So the more info you put up, the more bad things can happen to you. I'd suggest making your blog private if you don't want anyone on line to view it. ----------------- Original Message ----------------- From: Kayla Date: Feb 3, 2006 5:13 PM Im sorry...

Boy, have I been busy! On Saturday, march 11, I was asked to speak at the Feel Safe Again Second Annual Benefit Dinner . Cheryl Darisse, who founded the organization in memory of her sister, met me when she came to one of my book signings a year or so ago. The dinner was held at the Pearl Street Station Restaurant in Malden, Massachusetts. I hate driving to Massachusetts, but I think Cheryl is wonderful, so she twisted my arm to come (ha ha). One of the other speakers was an old friend, George Wattendorf, who retired from the Dover, NH police department last year. He has his own law firm now, Wattendorf & Nary, P.A. . If you need a good New Hampshire lawyer, call George! I got there early to set up. I borrowed an LCD projector from the wonderful folks at the Email Sender and Provider Coalition and had to ask the waitress to find an extension cord. Then I had to find a wall where we could take down oversized framed photos. The room was adjacent to the lounge. That should have been...

Got a bit of a scare a week ago. A letter came to the house from an ad agency in NYC. Hmm. But it was the name written above the name of the agency that caused my heart to stop for a moment - John Leonard. One of my cyberstalkers went by James Leonard, John Lawrence, or a combination of the two. So I kind of freaked out for a bit, considering his probation is up this April. Then I remembered I'd won an online gift for being part of a panel for Premiere magazine and realized it was my prize - a $20 gift card to Blockbuster. My heart started beating again. ---------------------- I got a voicemail message *and* an email from a Jay Jones with the Tyra Banks talk show. He sounded desperated to have me come on the show as a cyber crime expert. So I called and emailed him three times. I gave up. Why do media do that, then not have the courtesy of returning your reply to them? Here's what he sent: Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2006 17:58:13 -0800 Subject: The Tyra Banks Show From: Jay Jones To: Th...