Personal items, info and things that don’t fit into my other blog projects… including the occasional rant.
Tips on how to pack light enough to take just one carry-on on your trip, from SFGate.com:
Some general thoughts about the quite bearable being of lightness:
- The amount of stuff you think you need is directly related to the size of your luggage. Get a smaller bag and you’ll make do with fewer things.
- There’s really no difference between packing for a week and packing for a month or longer.
The list goes on, and on. These were my favorite.
(Found via 43 Folders.)
I’ve been going through old links lately and found one that reminded me I have to clean my closet, and I can do it for a good cause. From Shop Girl:
As a shopping columnist, I spend my days looking for hot buys, great deals and the latest must-haves. I know, though, that not everyone can pick up a new outfit for the weekend, just because. I know that many women don’t have confidence-boosting suits in their closets for important interviews.
That’s where nonprofit organizations such as Dress for Success and the Houston Area Women’s Center lend a hand, and those of us who have so much are able to help women make a fresh start.
More info:
I’ve already shared the fact that I keep learning, or at least try to keep learning. Then I came across this post in my del.icio.us account: “Information sharing: Don’t hoard your knowledge” by Blog Business World.
The quote I liked:
Along with the desire to help others accomplish their goals and objectives, I always make certain to learn more information on almost every topic. I am constantly buying books on subjects either practical or arcane. I try to learn as much as possible. The mind is a muscle that demands workouts to expand and develop. A few books are barbells for the brain.
Nice to have someone reinforce what I wrote. Of course, I think theirs is dated before mine. Oh well… still true.
I always kept a journal when I was a kid, and a teen, but I never had anything like this:
You and your BFF dish stuff you’d rather not fall into the wrong hands? Imagine exchanging vault-worthy secrets with no fear of prying peepers? Unlock the key to ultimate secrecy with voice-activated Password Journal®. You record a top-secret password, so nobody else can even open it! Password Journal® has a light to write at night, a calendar to keep track of the date and intruder alert to let you know when someone is snooping. Cool new tri-fold design is sleek and sophisticated.
(Found via Gizmodo.)
A LifeHacker reader provided a good tip on how to keep your phone number private:
With your cell, just start the number you are calling with the *67, as if the phone number begins with those three digits. The important thing to remember is that you will need to put the 1 in before the area code, as cells don’t normally need the 1.
For example, enter *6719175551212 before hitting the talk button will lead the receivers caller id to read “restricted.”
I haven’t tried it yet, but I trust LifeHacker to post useful things. Let me know what you think.
One of the things I’ve always loved is learning new things. I like absorbing information, knowledge, and adding to the things I already know. Every once in a while I’ll have a mental “aha!” moment where I link something I’ve just learned to something I’ve know for a long time.
Being a creative person, I absolutely believe that I will use every bit of information eventually.
Blog Business World recommends investing in yourself by building a personal library:
I do buy books often. Reference books and self-paced learning books I tend to get the at the annual used book sale (held by the local library). However, I mostly borrow the books I want (from the same library).
Right now I have checked out Blink, Blogging for Dummies and What Color Is Your Parachute? Next I’m thinking of re-reading Never Eat Alone.
How do you invest in yourself?
A reader at Consumerist sent them a great how-to for dealing with the repercussions of having your identity stolen.
1) Read everything here. http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/ [snip] There are links to information, forms, and information about exactly what steps to go though, including how to contact the credit reporting agencies.
2) Get your credit reports and look carefully. Even if everything looks okay, be suspicious of “credit inquires” that don’t look normal to you. A bad mark was the first indication that something was wrong. [snip]
3) Breathe. You CAN get through this. It feels totally violating and nasty and it is. You will care a lot and other people will not care so much and no one seems to understand the enormity of what you feel. This too shall pass. Breathe. [snip]
4) Be prepared for judgment and advice about how you got to be a victim. [snip]
5) Be prepared to spend at least ½-1 hour per day (or more) each and every day until the mess is cleared up
6) Be disciplined. You need to work on this each and every day. This is NOT the time to let the folder slip to the side. It’s not the time to bury your head in the sand and hope it will go away (yes, I’m talking to the procrastinators out there), it’s not the time to let weeks or months slip by without having taken action or done any follow up work.
7) When I found out where they lived, I called the gas/power company in their area to see if they had an account. I also called all the other cell phone providers I could find to verify if there were accounts using my SSN.
Fill out a police report and get a notarized copy of your affidavit of identify theft. Keep copies as you are going to have to send a copy out to each and every creditor, possibly numerous times.
9) Oh yeah, don’t really expect the police to DO anything about it. Even if you know the name and address of the person who did it (as in my case), they don’t do jack. You have to file with your own local police department who has way better things to do. If they live outside your city, oh well. Try not to be offended that they don’t actually care, spend the energy on getting it cleaned up. See Tip #3
10) Be organized. Keep a separate file for each creditor. Keep a running diary of each and every contact, letter, response, phone call. Keep a calendar of reminders and follow up tasks, like when you are supposed to receive xyz document or when to follow up after someone has agreed to take something off your report, finally.
11) I cannot stress this enough. When calling each creditor: Write down the number you called, the exact name, extension number, employee number and department of each and every person you talk to, even if they just want to transfer you to another department. Take down the time and date you called and brief synopsis of the conversation. Trust me this comes in handy later when you are able to say, “Sandy Smithers from the Credit department verified that she received the fax yesterday at 3PM and was going to doodledingle the snozit so I can get this removed from my credit report.”
12) Be prepared that all of these creditors are going to be suspicious of you. It doesn’t matter that you’ve been living at the same address 500 miles away for upteen years, have had a cell phone with the same company for upteen years (and never even once paid late), have otherwise perfect credit with zero late payments. To them, you are low-life scum sucking scamster who is trying to get out of a debt. Get used to it. To be fair, this is mostly true of the collection agencies and not the actual companies themselves, but there are some bad apples in there. Breathe. (See tip #3)
13) Contact the Credit Reporting Agencies and dispute each charge in writing and send them the police report and notarized affidavit.
14) Put a statement of identify theft on all three of your credit reports. After that, no new credit can be issued in your name unless the creditor calls the number on the credit report (the number you give them). It lasts for something like 7 years, if I recall. Right after I had this done I got a call from car dealership! Those SOBs were trying to buy a car with my SSN! As for me, I applied for a new credit card about 6 months ago and someone from the CC Company called to verify that I actually wanted to open the line of credit. Worked perfectly.
15) Be persistent. Follow through, follow through, and follow through. I can’t say that enough. When the collection agency says they need you to fill out their form and send it back, call and make sure they have received it. If they need to send the form to you first in the mail, cajole them in to faxing it to you. If they won’t fax it to you, call after 5 business days if you haven’t received it. I had to call one collection agency every day for a month before they would send me their “fraud packet” which they insisted I needed before they could proceed. What did the fraud packet consist of!? A letter with some boxes to check off stating that they needed the very documents I was telling them I already had.
16) Be completely relentless and follow through some more. When the collection agency, creditor or credit reporting agency has agreed to remove the offending bit of data from your record get it in writing and get it faxed to you immediately. If they are not going to fax it, follow through if it doesn’t come in the mail within a 5 business days. Then get a fresh copy of your report (all three of them) to verify that it has actually been removed. If it has not been removed, send your written proof to each agency. Follow up again with a copy of your report, ad nauseam.
17) Never, ever, under any circumstances throw away your file(s). I had a collection agency sell the account to another collection agency 4 years after it had been verified as fraud and supposedly cleared. Had I not had all of the correspondence from the last company, I would have had to go around and around with them again.
18) When it’s finally all clear (and not until then), take yourself on a much needed vacation.
(Found via LifeHacker.)
Related posts:
The AbsurdlyCool Freebie Finder does exactly what the title says, helps you find free stuff that’s… well, absurdly cool.
Freebie Finder is an automated free stuff aggregator. I’ve designed it to collect free stuff offers from top freebie sites, while filtering out most scams and referral pyramids.
I haven’t used it myself yet, but it looks promising. (Found via LifeHacker.)