Net Crimes & Misdemeanors

40th birthday today!!!! Since he has some family illness to deal with today (no, not him), I'm hoping to cheer him up with a Madagascar (the movie, not the country)/Pirates party. Just him, me, Bandit and Guin. Sea chanties, pirate hats, eye patches, an Alex mask and much more. And lobstah for dinner, of course. Arrrrrrr!

Wow. These gamers are really ticked that I'm not fond of the bullying game coming out. They are actually advocating that victims of bullies beat the crap out of the bullies. When I mentioned in one interview that retaliating is not the answer and that makes the victim just as much of a bully, the fur really flew. One "man" who used the name MANHUNT666 emailed me: "Ok. I'm 26 years old. WHen I was in High School I was bullied. I did what you recommend. It DOESN'T work. In the case of bullies, violence is the ONLY way. I'm not saying beat the crap out of him with baseball bats, but a punch to the nose ended my bullying pretty quick, only if I had used it sooner. Whether or not you like the game doesn't matter. Myself along with millions of other people are going to buy this game, and enjoy it." Well, bully for you! (pun definitely intended) Another wrote: " However, I do take issue with your statement that someone who is defending himself from...

then don't post on your blog that I'm a "slag." Definition of slag from the Urban Dictionary : 1. An individual who cares not for relationships beyond the realm of the sexual, these people sleep with many partners not caring about anything save for the moment of climax. 2. Rubbish that is not worth the time or effort of paying attention to it, but none the less draws one in. Used to describe unpleasent situations. (there are other definitions) He also posted one of my copyrighted photos and invited people to respond to his lovely post, which one person had already labeled me a whore. Our press release about the bullying game is ticking off gamers, who are showing how immature they really are by contacting me, pretending to be media and railing against my opinions of the game. I don't mind if you don't agree with my opinions, but don't act like 12-year-olds. Geezus. As for the "slag" guy, after I emailed him asking him to remove the photo and tell...

Yikes. I think I'm going to have to have my dog, Bandit, do yoga with me from now on. I'll have to call it Doga, though (ha ha). I usually do an hour of yoga every other day in the living room. My fave yoga "master" is Rodney Yee . It took me a few yoga DVDs to find someone who I "clicked" with. The one I love right now is Power Yoga Total Body Workout . I do the first hour of it. I am just not limber enough for the rest of it yet. Especially the scary bend over backwards on the floor moves. Yikes! Anywho, Bandit decided to plop down in the middle of my yoga mat. And didn't move the entire time. I ended up doing my stances around him and actually got more of a workout than I usually do. I was sweating like crazy when I was done. Good Bandit! Chippy is getting possessive and demanding. Now he sits on the porch on the lounge chair and "chirps" until I come out. When I settle on the chair, then he leaps up and runs into my lap. I have him eating o...

I was overtired yesterday and running around doing errands. I stopped off at Rite Aid to get a small thing of wine for me for dinner. Chris is very good about not minding me having a drink once in a while and I don't flaunt it in front of him. I also got some wind chimes and a sun catcher for the yard. I went to check out and the cashier, a young guy in his 30s, looks at me, the wine, then asked me for my ID. I blinked. Asked if he was serious. He said yes. So I showed him my license and told him that he made my day. He said I don't look anywhere near my age. Sweetie, I'm married, but I am so over the moon you were flirting with me, ha ha. One of the other cashiers, who I see a lot, was laughing. I told her to keep this guy on the front registers. ------------------------ Forgot to mention yesterday that the radio host who was foaming at the mouth about the bullying game insinuated that I was becoming a zealot and that pretty soon WHOA was going to send out press releases f...

I really, really hate it when I am interviewed by the media and they either a) Get the facts wrong b) have a hidden agenda I had that happen twice this past week, and from two people I used to respect quite a bit. I will not be mentioning names because they don't deserve any publicity. The first was a book radio show. The female radio interviewer had been sent my book and even emailed me that the first chapter (about my personal cyberstalking case) was amazing! I had previously been scheduled to be on her show, but the electricity shut down and we had to rebook. So I was looking forward to the interview. She started it off trying to give a short description of what happened to me online and I almost wanted to ask her if she was sure she read the chapter in my book. She got so many things wrong. Then she asked how a book proposal got me nominated as Lifetime TV's Champion for Change . What? I was clearly flustered and told her I had no idea where she got that information from. ...

Some things I forget to mention from the trip: Atlanta was definitely Hotlanta and riding MARTA was easy to do. All I wanted was a darned Cox t-shirt. They gave everyone who attended the conference a Cox leather backpack with two notebooks and a thermos. With the new airline restrictions, I just couldn't fit the backpack in my luggage. And while everyone else got a t-shirt, I didn't. And one woman who worked for Cox (who was weird and apparently didn't like me, for whatever reason I don't know) wouldn't budge to give me one, even though there was a large box of ones that hadn't been given out yet. So I called Jay, our web site host and made a trade with him. I gave him the backpack and two notebooks (I kept the thermos) and he's sending me a Cox t-shirt. My tummy is better and I'm going to try lasagna tonight (Chris is making it). We had an adventure today. He decided to take his motorcycle out for a ride. In the rain. Told him not to. I get a phone call...

So, the dinner was a buffet, but with filet mignon and other goodies. After dinner was entertainment from an improv group called Laughing Matters . If you've ever watched "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" on TV, they are like that. They pulled people out from the audience to do skits and things and it was hilarious. And yes, they pulled me up there. It was a bit where I was to go out in the hallway with one of the comedians, Jamie Moore, while the audience gave the other three comedians a location, occupation and thing. Now, what I had to do was go in after Jamie and he was to communicate to me in pantomime and gibberish what they were. It's harder than it looks on TV, folks. Trust me. I was stymied a few times, but did the best I could and guessed a gay lumberjack under a spell. Then we went through each one. I got Florida, guessed Orlando and it was Tampa Bay. The lumberjack I got right. The last, where Jamie kept miming a witch, which I said, was a salamander. Try and mim...

On Monday night, I had dinner with Jay and Elizabeth Finch. Jay is the web host for the two WHOA web sites, my personal site, Chris' web site and the Net Crimes site. He's a very cool guy who has been a "temp" for Cox Communications for almost four years now. The last time I saw them was in 2004 when they had been together for a bit. Now they're married (in March was the wedding)! Elizabeth is a real estate agent, so if you need to buy a house in the Atlanta area, give her a shout! They took me to this wonderful restaurant, Mirage Persian Cuisine. I love different kinds of food and this was the best. I had chicken kabob that had several spices on it, sour cherry rice, stuffed grape leaves and for dessert, pistachio/rosewater ice cream and Turkish coffee. They are a very cute couple and finally going on their honeymoon - a cruise in Europe. Have fun, you two, and take loads of photos! ------------- I hit the Cox Security Conference before lunch to listen to the s...

1) When the car service driver calls you and is lost, you should cancel the pickup and drive yourself to the airport I love Great Bay Limo - they've been my car service for a few years now. So when I booked them for my trip to Atlanta, I asked for a pickup at 7 am because I was flying out of Boston and I was worried about the security lines, etc. My flight didn't leave until 10:16, but you never know. So I'm packed and ready, having gotten up at 5:30 am to do last minute packing, showering, letting the dogs out, feeding Chippy, etc. At 6:50 am, the phone rings. It's the driver. He said he'd done a drop off at Manchester's airport and there was a car accident, so he'd be about 10-15 minutes late. No problem. At 7:30, the phone rings again and the driver asks where off of Route 1A our house was. I gave him directions and he asked how far off Congress Street we were. Huh? Turns out he was in Portsmouth, NH, about 20 minutes away. I patiently gave him directions...

And it's not even fall yet! What am I so excited about? Chippy ate out of my hand this morning! I was worried about him yesterday because he didn't show up for his "breakfast." What was weird was that none of the birds that usually show up were there either. I wonder if that hawk came back and I just didn't see it. This morning, I fed Chippy as usual on his fence post in the backyard, then went inside to give the dogs their cheese (which hides their medicine) and make my coffee. I took the coffee out on the deck where we have one of those screened tent thingys. It's nice and cool today, so it was pleasant. Chippy saw me from his fence post and came running onto the deck. I sat perfectly still, talking to him as he ran around the lounge chair I was on, curious as to me being on the deck. When he left, I ran downstairs, grabbed a cupful of sunflower seeds and went back on the deck. I put some seeds on the deck floor, then talked to Chippy and he came and sat nex...

I tape Blade: The Series marathon and am halfway through. I do like it, but enquiring minds want to know: 1) Are all vampires sticks? I have yet to see in this series, or for that matter, in vampire movies, any vampires that are of normal weight or overweight. Every one of them so far is either so thin on camera that they must disappear in real life (the camera adds 10-20 pounds - explain this to me please? Why can't they make a camera that films you at your actual weight?) or bulked up from weightlifting and/or steroids. 2) On Blade: The Series there is a virtual "rainbow" of vampires. A Native American Indian, Brit, Asian (doesn't define which country she's from yet), American, I'm assuming Fritz was supposed to be German, African-American (or African, I can't tell because this character hasn't spoken yet). I'm waiting to see the Mexican vampire (I'll give you taco kisses. . .of blood!), Puerto Rican (so that's where the chupacabra really...

Self, do NOT wear your Net Crimes & Misdemeanors hunter green polo shirt when walking Guin to the beach. I wore it yesterday, with my NUMA baseball hat and aviator sunglasses. I had people beeping at me, so I waved. One woman stopped her car to ask me for directions to a store. No biggie, I get people asking for directions all the time. We got to the beach and I saw this family taking photos on the sidewalk. So I snuck up behind them and stuck two fingers up behind this guy's head. The women with him burst out laughing. Guin and I walked on. Since I had my iPod on, I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I think I made their day. More beeping. I waved. A guy fishing off the shore caught a fish. I saw a man sitting on the rocks and asked him what it was. A striper. Cool! He waved at me as we walked on. We rested for a bit on a rock to watch people on the beach, then headed back home. We passed the man on the rocks and he informed me that the seagulls were getting into th...

One interview is this afternoon at 4:30 pm EST on TechTalk Radio . It's pretaped, so you'll have to listen to it on Sunday or check the site when they post the interview. The other is Fran Silverman's Radio Show, the one where the power went kaplooey on me earlier this week. She rescheduled me originally for January, but called today to let me know a slot was available on Tuesday August 22nd at 2:30 pm EST. So mark your calendars and call in - this is going to be a LIVE show. Chris snoozed a lot yesterday. We still haven't heard from his doctor about his bloodwork, so I am guessing that no news is good news. Or else he would have called and told Chris to haul his butt back to the hospital by now. We had lobster last night, since that is one of the few foods his tummy can tolerate. I know, poor Chris, huh? Ha ha. My speaking schedule is crazy busy - take a look at my Schedule page . So if you know anyone who is interested in booking me for this fall, they'd better d...

You know, I really hate when people try to read between the lines in my posts to this blog. Chris' mom called last night, all upset because I posted in my blog the *2nd day* he was in the hospital that he wanted to make sure his will was up to date. It makes common sense to do that. And it made me realize I didn't have a will either. She was claiming we were hiding something from her (like he was dying or something) and she wanted to talk to his doctor. This not only upset his mom, but Chris as well and stress is not good for Chris right now. We're pretty sure we know who told his mom this and we are NOT happy about it. Mind you, I told his mother we were going to have wills done in person when I saw her and Dad at their house. She already knew we were doing this. So why now is she all upset? Because someone made her upset. Chris is NOT dying. Pancreatitis is a serious illness, but it will go away eventually. It just takes a while. Chris was right in wanting to make sure hi...

Yipes, it's hot. And I'm in Maine! The high was 98 degrees here today. How do I tell Guin I can't take her for her walk because I'll probably faint from heat exhaustion? She's giving me those big eyes "Let's go mom!" Bandit has just been laying on the floor. I haven't seen him actually move and think he's just pushing his body with his hind legs and sliding along the floor when I'm not looking. Even our A/C is tottering. I set the thermostat to 75 degrees and it's hovering between 77/78. No bath for me tonight. Maybe a lukewarm one. Chris is better. He had his bloodwork done this morning, then we had breakfast at the hospital cafeteria. He wanted to get his hair cut, so I dropped him off at Geraci's Barbershop and he regaled Tom and Sharon with his hospital stay and his "great (almost) escape." I ran across the street to a cool women's clothing store and bought some sweaters for the winter. Thinking cool! I took Chris ...

Chris had a rough night last night, couldn't get comfortable, was hot, then cold, then hot. He took three showers and I tried to help. I'm exhausted. He's better today. For me, I know this is last minute, but if you get the chance: Fran Silverman's 2 p.m. EST guest on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 on Book Marketing with Fran on Achieve Radio is Edward W. Smith, a motivational expert, self-published author of Sixty Seconds to Success (Bright Moment 2004), stand-up comic, cable TV host, instructor and operator of the Bright Moment Seminars. http://www.brightmoment.com Her 2:30 p.m. guest is Jayne Hitchcock, an internationally recognized cyber-crime expert and author of Net Crimes & Misdemeanors: Outmaneuvering Spammers, Stalkers, and Con Artists (Information Today, 2nd 2006). http://www.jahitchcock.com http://www.netcrimes.net The show airs live on Tuesday, noon to 1 p.m. (MST); 11 a.m., (PST), 1 p.m. (CST) and 2 p.m. (EST). During Daylight Savings Time, the show airs at 11...