Hi-Jacked!

I spend hours and hours on line, and enjoy flitting back and forth between my Gmail inbox, Linked-In, Facebook, YouTube, the occasional celebrity gossip page, blogs of the moment, etc., like some dizzy little bee collecting pollen for honey (my own blog).

One of my favorite quick reads (and a favorite because it is short and sweet) is MarketingProfs snippets. Today’s article asked, What Will You Do if Your Brand Gets Jacked?

Worse, what will you do if the “brand” that gets jacked is YOU?

This week I’ve had to ask myself just that. I’ve had a profile posted on Match.com for a bit more than a year. An odd email was sent to me out of the blue by a tantalizing playboy/pilot type that had been torturing me with on and off flirtatious emails. The cryptic message he sent recently…”Now I know where you went!” with a subject line “Pond getting bigger!”. We went back and forth for a while, him teasing that I was up to some shenanigans with my profile, and me being clueless about what he was referring to.

Finally he writes me the profile name of my impostor, and sure enough, I did a search and there I was! My new handle–”Bellagirlforu.”

Bottom line, I’d been hi-jacked. Yes, Identity Theft 101. Apparently some shyster had downloaded my profile pictures and text, and uploaded them with a location of Yonkers, New York, for a probable funds-wiring scam.

Besides plagiarizing much of my original text, I’d been given some new past-times (watching hockey?!!), a promotion and raise (I’d become a VP of Sales & Marketing for an unspecified Ad Agency), and swapped my genetic make-up for a new ethnicity: “I am a mix of italian, greek & hungarian. What a mix!!” Among my alter-ego’s favorite things was posted the appalling: ” I love to cook almost any kind of food. I like the color red because it reminds me of excitment [sic] and passion.”

Well, I guess I can choose to do a few things…pursue some remediation, ask for pallitive measures from the Match wizard behind the machine and do as Yolanda of Match customer service instructs, write the executiveteam@match.com, and maybe I’ll escalate my concerns by dropping a note to folks like Craig Wax, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Match.com or some Chinese menu combination of these 4 options (thanks Jeremiah Owyang):

Option 1: Continue legal path: Rail against Match about the abuses of this invasion of privacy, holler ’til I’m blue in the gills and generally allow myself to feel violated.

Option 2: Join the campaign: See how I can help Match and others who use their site and other like CareerBuilder and Craig’slist learn to identify and thwart these pesky fake identities and apparent phishers.

Option 3: Redirect focus on issues: Just blog about it here, and perhaps be slightly flattered as well as amused that someone would think my photos scintillating enough topurloin for romance.

Option 4: Walk away: Fuh’get about it. Maybe that’s what will happen in a couple of weeks, as the sometimes bizarre parade of real characters flashing up through Match-generated emails blots out the odd events of the week.

Let’s see if Match will step up and deliver as they suggest their users do, and “Be a Good Citizen… Put your best self forward, be truthful, be courteous and be upfront” and help their subscribers to be able to do that as well. I promise to provide an update in a future blog installment if I hear anything back from the Match people.

It’s a small world

‘m fortunate to work for an organization that gives me daily exposure at least via email to people around the world. It’s always fascinating to read my the auto-return messages from emails I send out to the organization’s members across the globe. Some I understand a little, between my gringa Spanish and high school French, and some are simply beautiful hieroglyphics to me.

Here’s a smattering of these cryptic messages…most of them I noted where they originated from…

메일 받는 사람이 보낸 확인 메일입니다.
보낸 시각: 2008-03-19 오전 5:07

From Japan: メッセージ 宛先: 件名: 送信日時 に開封されました。

From Warszaw, Poland:
Twoja wiadomość… Wysłano: 2008-04-21 21:22
odczytano w dniu 2008-04-22 08:29.

From Verona, Italy:
Sarò fuori sede fino al giorno 28 Aprile 2008, con limitato accesso alla mia casella di posta elettronica. Grazie per l’attenzione.
********************************************
I will be out of the office until 28 April 2008, and I will have limited access to my e-mail. Thank you for your attention.

From Guatemala City, Guatemala:

Subject: VISITA A HONDURAS Queridos amigos, por favor enienme la direccion de correo de la oficina de Honduras para confirmar que en esta semana iremos a visitarlos.
Saludos

From Eindhoven, Netherlands:
Geachte heer/mevrouw,
Tot en met 5 mei a.s. ben ik afwezig. Voor dringende zaken kunt u telefonisch contact opnemen met …
Met vriendelijke groeten,

Op al onze diensten zijn onze algemene voorwaarden van toepassing zoals gedeponeerd bij de kamer van koophandel te Eindhoven en waarin onder meer een beperking van de aansprakelijkheid is opgenomen.

De informatie opgenomen in dit e-mailbericht is uitsluitend bestemd voor de geadresseerde(n) en kan vertrouwelijke informatie bevatten. Indien dit e-mailbericht niet aan u is geadresseerd, bent u niet gerechtigd tot kennisneming. Voorts is openbaarmaking, vermenigvuldiging, verspreiding en verstrekking van deze informatie aan derden niet toegestaan. Indien dit e-mailbericht abusievelijk aan u is verzonden, verzoeken wij u ons onverwijld op de hoogte te stellen en het originele e-mailbericht te vernietigen.

From Brussels, Belgium:
Automatisch antwoord bij afwezigheid: ik ben afwezig tot 14 november 2007-tijdens mijn afwezigheid wordt deze mail NIET gelezen! Voor dringende zaken kan u uw mail doorzenden naar Paulbergen@drtpartners.com of naar het kantoor bellen of faxen: el=016 55 33 40 fax = 016 56 72 98

From Stockholm, Sweden
Hej! Tack för ditt e-mail. Jag har semester och kommer åter till kontoret måndag den 5 november.Med vänlig hälsning

From Zürich, Switzerland:
Abwesenheits-Notiz:
Für Ihre E-Mail-Nachricht danke ich Ihnen bestens. Unsere Büros bleiben am Donnerstag, 1. Mai 2008 und Freitag, 2. Mai 2008 geschlossen.
Gerne werde ich nach diesem Datum Ihre E-Mail bearbeiten.
Freundliche Grüsse

From Moscow, Russia:
Ваше сообщение
Отправлено: Втр, 15 Апр 2008, 22:06
Просмотрено Срд, 16 Апр 2008, 15:55

From Helsinki, Finland:
Seuraava viesti on automaattinen vastaus —Olen 26.10. saakka osoitteessa www.mannerheim1906.com Tyttäreni Mikki huolehtii viestistäsi. My daughter Mikki will care for your email.

From Seoul, Korea:
>읽지 않음: January 2008 PI Monthly Update

From CopenhagenDenmark
Tak for mail. Jeg er ikke på kontoret i perioden fredag 6. juli 2007 - fredag den 13. juli 2007 og læser derfor ikke min mail før mandag den 16. juli 2007.

From Munich, Germany:
Ich bin vom 23.04.2008 bis zum 27.04.2008 nicht im Hause. Ich werde unregelmäßigen Zugriff auf meine E-Mails haben.In dringenden Fällen wenden Sie sich bitte telefonisch an unsere Zentrale unter …
I`m sorry, but I`m out of the office from 23.04.2008 until 27.04.2008. I will have irregular access to my
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Yours sincerely

From Paris, France:
Pendant mon absence, merci d’adresser vos e-mails à …

and a few more…

Notificación de lectura:
El mensaje que enviaste fue abierta por el destinatário.
Ese aviso no da garantías de que el mensaje fue debidamente leído o entendido.

받는 사람의 컴퓨터에 메시지가 표시된 시각은 다음과 같습니다. 2008-03-19 오전 9:44

수신자의 메시지 읽음 통지입니다.

수신자: omarov@eltal-uweman.com
원본 메시지 전송 날짜: 2008년 3월 17일 월요일
원본 메시지 ID: <EF89152D077A10478A04A6CC45A9E3E0443283@server.Polaris.local>
메시지 확인 날짜: 2008년 3월 18일 화요일

Social Networking spinning new webs

For people who like to read and write, social networking groups are a natural phenomenon of the internet world like blogging, and similarly huge potential distraction.

It’s no surprise that a 2008 PRWeekSurvey reveals that journalists are using social networking sites such as LinkedIn, MySpace and Facebook for sources, ideas, topic experts, and connecting with opinion leaders. Out of over 1,000 media members, a third have a profile on Facebook, one third are on LinkedIn, and a quarter have a MySpace profile. The growth of these sites according to Nielsen Online is amazing… between March of ‘07 and ‘08 these sites saw more users as reflected below

MySpace.com 8%
Facebook 98%
LinkedIn a whopping 319% annual growth!

Meanwhile, something I’m not yet familiar with called Buzznet.com is creeping up, with a 49% growth in users during the same period. It had a bit under 3 million users at the time of the study, but it will most definitely be growing, as the MySpace/YouTube/People.com audience looks for new sites related to music, trends, video and culture-vulturing. Personally, between Facebook and MySpace, I use Facebook and there’s an interesting comparison of the two by Ben Gold, called Facebook Hammers MySpace on Almost All Key Features, which I tend to agree with, being of the more nerdy camp, though I find some of the new apps on Facebook a bit annoying, time-frittering and downright juvenile. I don’t really need to know what kind of chocolate or anime girl I am or get into buying or selling people, sharing Hello Kitty Greetings, but then again, I like the Einstein Quotes, and free gifts application, which is a bit silly.

I do find there’s something sweet about the gesture of befriending new acquaintances on the site too, kind of like when you were a kid and you could outright say something like, “hey, would you be my friend?”

Perhaps I’m still on the naive learning curve of the medium, because I still thrill watching my friend count bump up, though at no where near the pace of young’uns in school or career socialites. I did encounter the weirdness of receiving a “friend” request from a total stranger. I enjoyed a colorful account of this and other issues in In-Your-Facebook, where the writer shares both the heady and the creepy side of Facebooking. I hope I don’t get to the point of having to pull the plug on this window to the world, but may have to limit the audience for my growing collection of older photos salvaged from magnetic photo pages and scanned into the present.

We must be careful what we ask for. I am thankful I can still pull my head into my shell like a tortoise and not have to run and dodge paparazzi.

Info Management Ideas

Recently I took one of those online surveys that is purported to help you figure yourself out. You would think I would know pretty much about myself by now at midlife, but I figure since I’m going to be traveling with me, myself and I for many more moons, I might as well acquaint each of these trinity pieces with each other and help them all manage. Reassuringly (and I am quite sure, falsely) I like smack in the middle between left and right-brained dominance. I already know I’m hugely right-brained, but the left brain leaning would impose some welcome order in my regular chaos.

“Me” in particular is fond of collecting, while “I” desire to organize this stuff, and “Myself” tries to chip in with some tools for doing so. (No dear reader, I’m not TRULY schizophrenic!) I’ve discovered I could use my Gmail contact list as a virtual filing system. I’ve got “contacts” which serve as individual file folder of sorts, set up with info that I want to have at my fingertips any time I log onto a computer. I keep each recurring bill as a contact, with the confirmation codes for recent payments and payment dates for online payments. I keep running lists under a separate contact name, like “Movies” for flicks I want to queue up on Netflicks when I re-enlist.  Currently I have over 300 entries in contacts between these file entities and real people, but the list is alphabetical, and can be sorted by key word, so it’s navigable so far.

I’ve tried some freebie online file storage sites, but so far though I haven’t used any with great frequency, I plan to. I also find keeping a running to-do list as a draft email helps me keep some ideas to follow up with on the radar. I add to items I want take care of to the draft email, and I can even include hyperlinks of sites I want to go back to with notes on what I want to do at the site. This list is good for computer-related “to-do’s” or noting when I’m one computer, like my office computer, things I need to take care of at home. I’m a big fan of bookmarking the sites I like (that greedy “Me” trying to gobble up the universe in bite-sized gulps!) and try to organize things in logical (?) and manageable folders…I use Mozilla Firefox as my browser, and these are some of my folders:

• Email (Caveat, okay, so I throw into that folder some non-email sites that I want to call up daily, like Facebook, Pandora radio)
• Dance (I’m currently a dance fiend, and have at least 4 studios I visit regularly for ballroom and tango lessons)
• Clips and Images (I have things like free greeting card sites such as egreetings.com, 123Greetings.com, and others for when my friends’ birthdays pop up from life- and face-saving entries on Birthday-Reminders.com, some great free clip art sites, and some other image sites like Yahoo.images.
  
• Blogs (for blogs I like to revisit), with a sub head “for Blog” for things I might want to opine on in future self therapy sessions
• Friends sites
• Reference (a catch all, with subcategories including Financial (all my bill-paying sites), Computer how-to’s (fixes, short-cuts, etc. on programs I use, like PageMaker, Photoshop, Excel, etc.), as well as things like Mapquest, weather sites, Wikipedia, Timeanddate.com, white pages links, USPS’s page, etc.)
  
• Marketing
  
• Calendaring Events (I do freelance PR for a few places, like one of my dance studios, and send events and class listings to local calendars, and also like to check out other cultural events in my ‘hood, in case I get bored–as if!).

I’ve yet to use Stumble Upon! for site investigation or also learn more about “digging” into other buried treasure yet, because at the moment I’m pretty maxed out/info-overloaded with self-punishment from my favorite opt-in emails, which include RainToday.com, Microsoft Inside Office newsletter, The BNET Report, MarketingProfs Today, CNET Membership, Monster Career News, Knowledge at Wharton, and some local email lists and the fun “forwards” that a few of my dependable jokester-junkie friends send me. Whew, now I know where my time’s been trickling off to!

Looking for a new place to sling hash?

It pays to have a sense of humor as well as an eagle eye when job seeking, or sitting on the other side of the desk and weeding, winnowing the pile of applicants’ letters and resumes. Resumania captures errors made by job seekers on resumes, applications and cover letters. Be sure to visit

the Resumania Archive while you’re there, and get a good dose of your daily mirth factor, with such resume blooper entries as: “EDUCATION: Watched the first season of The Apprentice and part of the second season.”

Also amusing are reader replies to the question, “What’s the strangest holiday gift you’ve ever received at the office?”:

• “Sea monkeys.” (A favorite fun gift…as much fun to feed as they are to hatch! They are really brine shrimp by the way, so I’m not sure they’ll really appreciate the SeaMonkey banana treat you can buy for $3. Look for a blog entry devoted to this fascinating topic soon!)
• “Reindeer pâté, from Finland, in a can.” (Ewww, that makes me want to renew my vegetarian pledge!)
• “A wild turkey.” (That even tops the live rabbit delivered to my office years ago by an admirer right before Easter…needless to say, I did not start dating him!)

If you or a friend is looking through online job boards, you may want to look into the PhishBucket, where job scams and questionable companies are kept tabs on by my cyberfriend Tab.

Ed Zimmer, from The Entrepreneur Network, shares some interesting ideas for employers in an article on Employee Motivation. Basically, these ideas are…”Be decisive in hiring. Treat employees as adults — not children. Avoid paternalism. Avoid timed bonuses. (All ‘Christmas’ bonuses after the first will become not ‘bonuses’ but ‘expecteds’.) Avoid incentive pay. Cross-train. Avoid long-term employees.”

Whoa! That last one merits a little more explanation. As Ed states, “Conventional wisdom admires companies who have retained employees for many years. That wisdom is wrong! A good employee is a good employee only so long as he is stimulated, challenged — and learning. Trying to retain employees after they’ve stopped learning is bad for the employee and bad for the company. Bad for the employee because they’ve stopped ‘growing’ — stopped improving their unique value in the job market. Bad for the company because it stifles the flow of new ideas, new insights, new views of the changing business environment.”

Interesting stuff. I guess one of the challenges is how to keep people learning and growing on the job? I worked for a company that keep me learning by having a corporate training center, with all kinds of self-study CDs on topics like computer software programs and planning better meetings. The also had interesting on-site training with staff trainers, and even offered on-site higher education after hours (that MBA was a hard road, but opened my eyes and provided invaluable lessons even beyond the curriculum).

Becoming a bag lady (now a socially desirable trait)

I wanted to kiss my Mom when we went grocery shopping together recently. In the check out line, out of her grab-bag of a purse she pulled a bunch of plastic bags that had carried previous groceries. That’s recycling at its best, when people use things for their original use over again. I have noticed more and more stores are selling their own branded totes for using as shopping bags, generally for around $1 a piece. Apparently Wal-Mart, Kroger, Publix and Winn-Dixie have them in most stores now, which is good, because despite those big cardboard boxes from depositing plastic bags from previous trips, only about 1% of them get recycled. All this means being a greenie is really getting mainstream. One eco-conscious shopper (economically and ecologically smart) even found Kroger that will pay you 5¢ per bag when you BYOB (bag, that is).

It’s reassuring to know that the trend is not just the province of sweet elderly ladies and soccer moms on a shoe-string. The April ‘08 Glamour magazine has jumped on the band wagon, and in an article “Every Woman’s Guide to Going Green” is making it au courant to sport totes for to lug one’s spuds or splurges, though I’m not sure one needs the Stella McCartney bag featured at a cool $350, even if it is fashioned from recycled nylon.

While we’re at it, consider what you pack in your travel bags. If you’re headed to a third-world country, consider putting somethings you might not need that will be appreciated at your destination. Visit www.stuffyourrucksack.com to discover who could use what, or to post needed items in a certain part of the world. Some sample items are shoes, children’s books, educational materials, and many other items those of us who can afford to travel may have in droves.

Eenie, Minie, Moe … Epaninandus, Epaminondas, Epandimimus

Calvin and Hobbes is one of my favorite cartoons. This particular strip reminded my of a favorite story from when I was a kid. Thank goodness for Google! though the story stuck with me, only I remembered a garbled version of the bumbling little protagonist’s name, thinking it was Epandimimus.

Well, a search for THAT name didn’t retrieve the saga so I tried a combination of key words I recalled from the little boy’s tribulations, and finally the combination of the words “story boy mother sent butter hat” struck gold and and I found a couple versions of the tale. The first is a well-spun rendition as told by Grandpa H (or Merlin Hiaring), who has little Epaminandus setting off to visit his grandma, and tripping his way back home in series of comic mishaps, complete with an Amelia Bedelia-like twist at the end. One reason the story is so memorable, I guess, is with or without illustrations it’s replete with the mental images that kids love, including my favorite scene, the one with the melted butter*.

A little more digging and I found another version of the tale, along with wonderful other stories and great vintage images. harking back to 1905, by a Sara Cone Bryant Borst. Now, as a note to parents, Sara’s version follows a slightly grim twist, like you might find in the Brothers Grimm tales. You might want to use the slightly less morbid spin on the puppy dog’s fate from Grandpa H’s rendition. However, the portal where I found the Sara Cone Bryant book is a truly a lovely site. I recommend lovers of children’s literature and parents, grandfolks, uncles or aunties to visit Kellscraft Studio and peruse their many free online books.Considering how awful “fairy tales” once were, one might be led to believe our word “grim” came from the above mentioned brothers. For example from Handsel and Gretel, the mother (!) says, “I’ll tell you what, husband,…Early to-morrow morning we will take the children out into the forest to where it is the thickest, there we will light a fire for them, and give each of them one more piece of bread more, and then we will go to our work and leave them alone. They will not find the way home again, and we shall be rid of them.” How sad! But fortunately, even back in the early 1800’s, these story tellers started cleaning up the stories and making them more fit for bedtime fare. A well designed site by National Geographic gives some insight into Grimm fairy tales and delivers up actual stories with a great graphic presentation.

——–

*Speaking of melted butter, what is it about melted butter in kid’s stories? There’s Little Black Sambo, the story of an Indian boy who made his debut in 1899 in a children’s book by the Scottish Helen Bannerman, who lived in India. Sambo is the proud owner of new clothes, including a green umbrella, a lovely little pair of purple shoes with crimson soles and crimson linings, which he has to fork over to a band of hungry tigers. Now at one point in the story, these famished tigers get “very, very angry, but still they would not let go of each others’ tails. And they were so angry that they ran round the tree, trying to eat each other up, and they ran faster and faster till they were whirling round so fast that you couldn’t see their legs at all. And they still ran faster and faster and faster, till they all just melted away, and then there was nothing left but a great big pool of melted butter (or “ghi” as it is called in India) round the foot of the tree.”

There are a lot of beautifully illustrated versions of Little Black Sambo on Amazon and other sources. The original illustrated version that I remember is Bannerman’s ,with elegant drawings by Florence White Williams, and the first image below is from that book. The book cover on the far right has some clever tiger claw marks that give it extra panache. Incidentally, since Sambo became a racially derogatory term later, a new edition features The Story of Little Babaji, using a more typical Indian name (last image).

Still discovering

Someone knows me pretty well and has insight I trust. This is the kind of person that you welcome into your life, despite fundamental political divides.

This friend has developed what I’d consider incredibly grounded insight–derived no doubt from his encounters with grizzly bears, the self-application required to build a log cabin, and a indigenous natural patience which enabled him to raise two wonderful and incredibly self-sufficient sons. It’s experience fortified by facing potentially life-dependent decisions, as which ice flows to land a little plane on in Alaska, en route to nailing dang poachers cutting dead wildlife without legal permission.

What did I want to say about him as I lost train of thought?

Oh yes. One thing that’s frustrating to him about me is that I’m still in the state of self-discovery. (see previous post)

My friend, on the other hand, KNOWS who he IS. In response to a an observation of his that I should know who I am by mid-life, I countered with a saucy retort (and perhaps humble acknowledgment of my probably delayed self-discovery process) that the day I stop learning about myself, is the day I’ll no longer be on this side of the turf. (Actually, I personally believe in cremation, but that’s a whole ‘nother ball of worms.)

Anyway, this blog clips closely on the heels of another abandoned blog, and tomorrow will undergo the insight of dispassionate editorial review. but Randy, I love you Sweetheart, don’t forget that, ever.

My life as an ENFP

No, I’m not some emergency technician. An ENFP is an Extravert, Intuitive, Feeler, Perceiver. I hope that doesn’t mean I’m wishy-washy, but it well may. It does say that I tend to be enthusiastic, talkative and outgoing; clever, curious and playful; deeply caring, sensitive and gentle; highly innovative, creative, optimistic and unique; adaptable and resourceful but sometimes disorganized.” It is true that I thrive with “freedom to see possibilities, make connections and be with a variety of people.”

Yes, I’m apt to agree with all of those traits. As a matter of fact, the very fact that I took this Personality/Perfect Career Quiz at the Monster website probably indicates some traits. If I’d taken the alternate answers for each of the four fields, I would have been an ISTJ (Intravert, Sensor, Thinker, Judger) and more “cautious, conservative and quiet; literal, realistic and practical; careful and precise; logical, honest and matter of fact; resistant to change and comfortable with routine; hardworking and responsible.” Whew! I get exhausted thinking about it! And I would have been working hard, and being responsible, not playing with a hypothetical application like this quiz. I would possibly doing my beat as a policeman or dutifully crunching numbers as an accountant, not dabbling at writing, thinking of images, wanting to help others discover their “inner selves.”

Virtual Hording

Wow, sometimes a message comes to us at just the right time! Here I was congratulating myself with the idea that I was conquering my squirreling tendencies that turn me into a paper pack rat by the use of scanning and bookmarking. Along comes an email that suggests that I’m doing myself a disservice!

As the product of two intellectual parents who are a twin-engined archival force, I’ve been known to have my own clipping, saving, and sometimes filing mania. I recently had been patting myself on the back for the discovery that I could convince myself to part with some papers and stuff that I’d been collecting if I scanned them for future reference. All well and good, but it does then lead to soft-copy file explosion, which is a little less annoying to the eye, and easily sorted and retrieve from with search functions.

Recently, however, I’ve become prey to a tendency to book mark sites for future reference like crazy. Another kind of collecting. I do tend to organize my bookmarks, but I think I’ve gotten into a new danger area. This suspicion was confirmed today when I read the daily email from the Messies Anonymous group…pasted below. Worth chewing on, and then maybe a little info diet discipline?

“INFORMATION ADDICT

Hooked on Information? Information
gives some of us a feeling of excitement. That’s why
we love magazines, newspapers, and books. We
use time and energy going through magazines and
newspapers, clipping as we go,. We use space storing them.
But it doesn’t stop with papers. The desire for
information drives us to stay on the computer looking up
more to learn. Sometimes we print it and then we have to
deal with the printed pages. In addition, wanting to know
more keeps us glued to our television sets.
The search for information feels exciting initially.
But it begins to drag us into uncontrollable messes. After a
while, we realize we are losing control over ourselves and
that becomes frightening.
Are you willing to get the information monkey on your back?

Would you be seriously willing to lessen or stop
pursuing information if it would improve the quality of your
life?
That might mean being willing to let go of the information urge. It
might mean giving up magazine articles, taking a whole different
approach to computer use, avoiding informative shows on TV. It might
mean abandoning the urge to cut out articles on important subjects for
yourself or others. Can you do it? Would it help you if you could?”

Many thanks to the The-Organizer-Lady@yahoogroups.com for her insight!

Post Script…stumbling and bumbling through the info sent by the above newsletter, I found a similar article CHRONIC DISORGANIZATION AND INFOMANIA, which indicates that many chronically disorganized people “care passionately about knowing things, being up on things, and not letting any information pass by. This kind of infomania is especially pernicious in a world of unlimited information brought to us by search engines, blogs, wikis, forums, social networks, RSS feeds, the traditional Internet and other media. ” Amen to that.  Now that we know the problem, it’s solutions to the problem we seek.  I think Zen Buddhism may have a hint of a cure.  Curious how others cope.  Drop me a line if you have any ideas on how to reduce this noise.