Net Crimes & Misdemeanors

Before I post about what happened, a good friend sent me a link to Peeking In on Teens' Private Web Pages . I ended up sending the following email to the "ethicist." He quite obviously has no clue: "I agree with Mr. Cohen that the football players in question should not have been suspended for being in photos that showed them at a party where there was a beer can showing in the background. However, I disagree with him that kids/teen Facebook, Myspace, etc profiles are "off limits" to adults. That's burying your head in the sand. If kids and teens *publicly* post information, photos, etc of themselves online where anyone, anywhere in the world can view it, then they need to face the consequences. If they don't want everyone to see photos of them drinking alcohol underage, smoking marijuana, doing drugs,being topless, writing in their blogs obscenities and/or creating hate groups about teachers they don't like, etc, then make them private so that ...

on the motorcycle. The dealership is asking $7500; a guy offered $7000; I countered with $7250 plus a Triumph coffee cup and two Bonneville T-100 drink coasters. Cross your fingers that he takes the counteroffer!

I've been in touch with the man who put this together and it's a great survey to take part in. I hope you add your input to it: Interpersonal Communications Survey Jayne

You need to be on my friends list at LJ to read this post. If you're not a friend already, don't try to get on my list.

Oh, you know you want to see it. And no, the waiter wouldn't let me keep the glass. Dammit. The "P" Glass Make sure you scroll down. To review just what the heck this is about, see the original post

The Jeep sold today for $6,500 - $500 less than what I was asking for it. Hooray! So, my trip to Tallahassee. I had to meet my sister in Concord, NH to pick up my mom so that she could dogsit for me. When we met at Borders, it was raining. The nor'easter was starting. We browsed, bought books, I called my brother in law to see what books he wanted and he said there was snow covering their driveway and to tell my sister to get home. On the way back to my house, mom and I stopped at a restaurant for lunch. By now it was snowing. Hard. We ate, kept going towards home. When we hit Portsmouth, NH the snow was slush, then became rain. Not too bad. The night was quiet until about midnight. Then the high winds woke me up. I prayed the electricity wouldn't go out. It didn't. The next morning, I got up, checked my flights and US Airways was claiming my Boston flight was leaving on time. Okey dokey. The car service picked me up and sure enough, my flight was leaving on time. Or so I t...

That last bit caught your eye, eh? LOL. I love the new series "30 Rock," that Baldwin co-stars in. His voice is so sexy that he could read me the phone book and I'd melt. I'd go out on a date with him in a minute - anyone want to fix us up? Mission one has been accomplished. Chippy is now eating out of my hand again. Hooray! Met with my CFP yesterday to go over my new investments. It's a bit overwhelming, but I'm glad I did it. I have bought flowers from Proflowers.com for several years and have never had a problem. In fact, I love their overnight service (which doesn't cost an arm and a leg) and their low prices and high quality flowers. So I decided to send my sister flowers to cheer her up after her unpleasant emergency room visit. I then said to myself, "Self, why not send flowers to you as well?" So I did. I ordered us each a bouquet of 36 petite roses to arrive Wednesday at both of our homes. Nancy got hers at around noon or so and was th...

Prank or harassment? Fake online profiles of principal continue to pop up on the web (note: go to the link of the article, which has links within it for some of the things mentioned) For high school principal Eric Trosch, the abuse just keeps coming. We reported earlier this week how Trosch, a Pennsylvania school administrator, became the target of fake MySpace profiles back in 2005, profiles that accused the man of everything from having sex with his students to rolling doobies in his spare time. The whole fiasco ended with one of the students suing Trosch in federal court after being placed in an alternative education program, and Trosch filing his own lawsuit this week against the students responsible. But the profiles keep on coming—a new one was recently erected in Trosch's name on LinkedIn. Ars spoke with Jayne Hitchcock, a cybercrime expert and anti-harassment advocate who has been involved in the case since being contacted by the Trosch family last year. Hitchcock calls the...

I've been involved from this from almost the beginning. The principal suing the students came to me for help when he wasn't getting any from local police or the DAs office. I even talked with the DA, Ristvey, myself a couple of times. And the bastard lied to me both times. I noted this in my blog when this happened and the followup . Someone posted a comment basically claiming I would be sued if I didn't stop posting "lies" about DAs. I am not easily amused or scared off. I've already told the principal that I am more than willing to testify in his case as an expert and witness. He and his wife have been giving the media my contact info, but heck if they're contacting me. I hope the principal wins. There is another false profile currently up that was recently placed on the web on the LinkedIn web site. This is not cute or funny. These kids need to be punished or they will continue to harass, bully and stalk others online, or worse. Oh well. Here's the...

is in full swing. Chippy has been watching me from afar, mainly because he's been in hiding because of this crazy cold weather and snow. He did pop his head out of his hole today to watch me put sunflower seeds on the deck. More work is needed to make him mine again (insert evil laugh). My mom called - my sister had to go to the emergency room last night. She's home and fine now, but I wish someone had called me last night. I would've been there fast. I told my mom to tell Nancy that she can't be sick like this - I just made her beneficiary for everything of mine! (that should make her laugh, I hope) I hired a Certified Financial Planner. Actually, he's part of my bank's parent company and I showed him the financial plan my friend Steve had put together for me. He was very impressed and said it was a great plan. I'd already opened two accounts with Janus , which this CFP heartily approved of. I'm firing my accountant after the 2006 taxes are done. He mad...

Wednesday afternoon, Rob, the construction guy, came over. Not five minutes before, the power had gone out and for me that meant the electricity, cable and Internet (I have one of the all-in-one packages). So he couldn't do any work downstairs. He'd brought some beer with him, so I drank Vitamin Water, he drank beer and we talked in the dining room for two hours, trading stories about various things. It was actually fun. He left around 6:30, once the power had come back on the snow had started falling pretty heavily. LOST was back to true form that night. Thank god. The next morning, the plow guy came by around 6:30, so I was out to move the Jeep and shovel the front walk. Rob came by at around 11 am, and went downstairs to work. I'd already taken photos of the downstairs with the framing up, so I was anxious to see what he'd do. I'll end up posting the before/after photos when it's all done. Got a letter from my lawyer, then called him. The defense decided not ...

So on Saturday I'm talking to a cop friend and catching up on things. My sister called twice (I have call waiting), but I figured I'd call her when I was done. The third time her number came up, I told my friend I'd talk to him later and asked her what was up. She says, "Webkins Emergency!" I was like, "What?!!" She's been looking for five Webkins for my niece's birthday and had called everywhere. Turns out they were available at a gift shop here in town. The deal is you buy the little stuffed animal, which had a code you input at the Webkins web site. This brings up the avatar of your stuffed animal and you can interact with other Webkins creatures, play games to get points to get things, etc. It's very kid safe and fun. The catch was that the store was closing in 20 minutes. So I told her to call and have them hold the Webkins. I told Rob (the guy putting my new office together) that I had to run out, drove to this gift shop and the Webkin...

Well, the couch came, but the recliner did not. It's coming in two weeks. But the couch is gorgeous: It's a microfiber that is faux leather and looks old, but is sooooo comfortable. In fact, the first night when Guin got up on it, she promptly sat in my spot, curled up and went to sleep. She didn't move the rest of the night until we went to bed. So the couch gets the official Guin: Chippy came on the deck this morning. I think he's confused because my little screen house isn't up yet. So I sat cross-legged on the deck and laid out sunflower seeds in front of me and talked to him. He finally came up and slowly got closer, stuffing those cheeks. He went back to his home and back to the deck a few times and came very close to my leg, but didn't come up on my knee or eat out of my hand. So, I have a mission I'm calling Operation RTC Rob, my contractor, got a kick out of this and was excited to see Chippy in the bird feeder in the backyard when he came over. I w...

WTF is up with LOST? If you're not watching it, skip to the next paragraph. If you are, you know what I'm talking about. The producers kept saying Paolo and Nikki were going to be "very important" to the LOST storyline. So WTF was this week's episode? It had nothing to do with anything and I sincerely feel they jumped the shark big time. And the show was getting so much better since it came back from hiatus. Next week's episode HAS got to be better or I'm going to be ticked off. Again. I can't go into my court appearance this week, as it is going to be appealed. Let's just say the evidence showed that the defendant was responsible. But because of the confusing wording the judge told the jury and a very confused question from the jury foreman, we lost. The jury had no clue. So it will be appealed. It also didn't help that the defendant's lawyer was very familiar with the courthouse and everyone there. I felt we didn't get a just and fair...

Finally! You can view them on our site . Enjoy and pass the word along! Jayne A. Hitchcock President, WHOA Working to Halt Online Abuse

This is last minute - they are taping the show this Wednesday. They do pay all expenses (airfare, hotel, etc). We are looking for compelling stories of people who were failed by the system, either from a scam, fraud, identity theft, false imprisonment, etc. We are hoping to find a story where there has been some sort of resolution. If anyone is interested, they can contact Erin at 1-800-987-5446 x317 - or directly at 212-830-0317.

The other day we had 60+ degree weather. I looked out on the deck and there was Sweetie! I was so excited to see one of the chipmunks! This means that Spring is definitely around the corner. I hope Chippy and Julian are okay and will be popping out soon. I had to fly to Springfield, Illinois last week to testify for the online dating bill there. It was written so that online dating web sites would put a disclosure on their "front" page whether or not they do background screenings (not background "checks" - the difference is that the latter is extensive, with fingerprints, SSNs, etc). If they don't do screenings, then they would put links to web sites that do them and leave it up to the person viewing their site as to whether they want to join or not. That was it. It should have passed. But it didn't. Because politicians suck. I really, really hate testifying for bills sometime. The representative who sponsored this bill was clueless. I met him the first nig...

TV Pilot Looking for Guests: Have you been the victim of an internet crime, but when you went to prosecute the person, you learned the laws don’t consider it a crime? Have you been the victim of internet defamation where someone posted photos or personal and/or false information about you without your consent? Are you involved in a dispute with someone and you’d like to settle the matter on a TV court show, instead of paying legal fees and attorney fees? Or, do you have a story that’s not listed that you’d like to share? If so, please email Stacy at blueshadow121212@yahoo.com (please write an email detailing the situation, and include your name and contact phone numbers)

Watch me on NHPTV this weekend - check your cable listings for the correct channel (although on most it's Channel 11), It's supposed to also be available on their web site. NH Talks: Internet Safety Airs Sunday, March 18 at 9:30 a.m. and Monday, March 19 at 7:30 p.m. http://www.nhptv.org/outlook/ New Hampshire is among the states with the highest number of households with computers and most of those households have access to the Internet. What are the dangers and how do we keep our children safe online? We explore the issue with our guests: NH Attorney General Kelly Ayotte; Det. James McLaughlin from the Keene Police Department; and Jayne Hitchcock, author and President of WHOA- Working to Halt Online Abuse.

Sunday afternoon the dogs and I headed to Norwell, MA, which turned out to be a two hour drive due to traffic. The library is very nice and in a beautiful wooded area, which was good, since I had to leave Bandit and Guin in the car. Lugged my books inside, met fellow authors, Margaret Press and Paul E. Doyle . She wrote a book about a murder that took place in Salem, MA, her hometown, A Scream On The Water and he wrote about his undercover experiences as a DEA Agent in Hot Shots and Heavy Hits . His book may be made into a TV series. I got signed books from both and gave them signed copies of mine. Such a deal! We had a good crowd, about 30-40 people. Margaret started off by introducing all of us, then we each talked about how we got into writing and what motivated us to write our latest books. Then it was Q&A time. Two hours went by very quickly! I sold 10 books, which was great and the library bought one as well and paid us each $100 for coming down. I was surprised at that. Mo...