Pre-D-Day

Originally, I had been looking forward to Monday as a new day to canvas the town for jobs and accomplish things. However, when I realized that it was a national holiday (one of poor origin and depleted purpose) that became a thing of the past.

However, tragedy befell that day. Or, tragedy of a sort. An active World of Warcraft account is now considered, from the common hacker's viewpoint, of more value than a credit card. Credit card security is such that the damage one can do with the resource is more limited than would seem, and the repercussions are pretty heavy. WoW accounts, however... once you take virtual objects with value and sell them for cash, the trail stops. Game administrators can restore the accounts to their rightful owner, and can restore items to those accounts, but they can't undo the the transaction where the thief has gotten real value for virtual objects.

There's a pretty common ploy, for both identity theft and account theft called a phishing scam. Basically, phishers create a mock website that looks identical to a trusted site that would request your personal information. You enter your information thinking you're gaining access to a site that has a valid reason for your information, and the information actually ends up going into a database. They use the information to gain access to the original website (or WoW), change those details, and they now own whatever you have.

This is what happened to Sam, and her WoW account was taken by nameless, faceless and likely asiatic hackers. In their cleverness, they did so on a holiday and thus all the hotlines were closed, all password retrieval information was altered, and she was without recourse for the next 24 hours. She was upset by this, and when Sam came home from work an hour or two later, they departed for four or so hours... Sam to get her nails done, and Steph to get boarding for the basement floor.

I sank into a marathon of Criminal Minds. What a great show. I did laundry all day, and managed to clean all my clothes and linens while enjoying six hours of criminal forensic psychology. Makes me miss my Psychology classes. That night I made Carne Asada Tacos with Home-Made Nachos, and I reworked a tomatillo sauce recipe that came out really well. Success! Monday night I set out a list for myself for Tuesday. Organization! How strange from me...

Steph has lent me an iPod mini for my use around the house and at the gym, a (relatively) old hand-me-down of her own, and loaded it with a variety of music. She had accidentally taken this with her that morning throwing off my original plan of rising and immediately going to the gym. I continued to hunt down reference letters from my professors, got some guidance on how to handle a bank switch (mine is not regional to this area) and prepared a letter to go certified mail to my bank in NJ (they need to stop charging me account). When Steph got home, we passed off the iPod, I hit the post office and the gym, and then came back to make dinner. Chicken Chardon, Caesar Salad, Whole Wheat Spaghetti and some mashed potatoes. The potatoes were not part of the meal, but there was a foot tall box with barely an inch left in it and it was taking up space. Screw that!

One of Sam's grand children, Zion, is staying with us for a few days. Either he's home-schooled, or they simply don't care about his education. I don't really know, I'm not asking questions, he's not my kid. I'm good for the first few hours, then around three o'clock the sound proof head phones come on.

Tomorrow is a job interview at the Bungalow! I'm hoping it goes well, even though it'll be extremely part time. I've got copies of my resume prepared and the Bungalow is located in Broad Ripple, the heart of the "college town" part of Indianapolis. Perhaps I'll find more than one opportunity while I'm there.