Protecting YOUR Identity & Information

So periodically something like this crops up (too often in my opinion) http://ht.ly/vAUjf

and what can we do about it??

I just called Paypal and a very helpful customer service person in the Business Security area (cause I have a business account at Paypal) advised:

1. change your passwords every 60 days (the IT dept I once worked in still says every 30 - depends on your tolerance for change I guess)

2. make your password more secure by NOT using the following as passwords: Password, default, 123456.

3. Do not use that same password across platforms. EVERY financial thing should have it's own separate, unrelated password and then the same for things like Ebay, Amazon, Gmail etc.

4. choose two numbers - say a year... that will be significant only to you   so for me it might be 14.  For you it can be any year that means something to you (so it makes it easier for you to remember)  but is not your birth year, your age  or the birth year of your kids or your husband ...

5. choose a word at random...

6 add two symbols.. like #

End result? A very strong password

AS for the Heartbleed bug?? follow the suggestions in that article.  And keep an eye on your financial accounts til this gets "plugged"

If you open a Hoagie shop, You should know what goes into a hoagie

Let me start by clarifying that i was raised in South Phila.  I'm old school South Philly - Irish Catholic, and I grew up on Hoagies, Cheesesteaks and pizza (oh and spaghetti with "red sauce").

So, why is it, these days, you go to your favorite "hoagie" shop and ask for a hoagie, and they ask what you want on it?  Do you want tomatoes, lettuce, onions, oregano, oil/vinegar or mayo?

 Let's set the record straight - lettuce, tomato and oregano are GIVENS.  They should automatically go on EVERY hoagie.  Onions are optional in my book and so is mayo but NOT mayo mixed with oil and vinegar.  If I say American hoagie, I want mayo, the non-spicy ham and american cheese.

 If I say Italian hoagie, I want oil and vinegar or hoagie dressing (a recent hybrid sold in some delis) and the spicy capacole and provolone cheese.  .

If you don't know what goes on a Hoagie, move back to NYC and make your stupid sandwiches there.

Here's a recipe for an Italian Hoagie..don't forget to drizzle some olive oil on the roll first and then put the other ingredients, red pepper, a pinch of oregano (chopped oregano) and some red wine vinegar..just a dribble  and then

1/4 lb prosciutto di Parma, thinly sliced
1/4 lb capicola, thinly sliced
1/4 lb genoa salami or 1/4 lb soprassata salami, thinly sliced
1/4 lb provolone cheese

top with shredded lettuce
1/4 lb provolone cheese
1 large tomato, thinly sliced
1 small onion, thinly sliced (I prefer the onion pulled into raw rings and cut in half and sprinkled throught the lenght of the hoagie.)

Time for lunch!!

PS this rant was brought to you by yet another Hoagie Shop employee asking, "ya want tomatoes and let_us on that?" DUH it's a hoagie right??? Of course I do.

I haven't said much about this BUT..it's time.  The Marketplace Fairness Act... that is SOOOOOOOOOOOO unfair to all of us...

Well this person said it better than I can so read this:

The Inside Scoop

Tell your congressman to GET BACK TO WORK and KILL THIS stupid act ok??

You can find the email address etc. here http://www.ebaymainstreet.com/region/united-states

Since When Did Having a Telephone?

Since when did having a telephone mean you were open to random stupid marketing phone calls at the whim of some slimeball marketing company??



In  the 1950's phone calls were for emergencies.  In the 60's for conversation. Now it seems like it's the toilet bowl of communication.  Every turd has my number and thinks they can use it.

First it was my house phone, so I got an unlisted phone number. Which GOOGLE choose to make public by crawling a press release with it on there, that had nothing to do with Google.





So I got my phone numbers on Pennsylvania's and the Fed DO NOT CALL LIST.  Fat lot of good that's done me. The worse annoyers are The Republican Party during the primary and election cycles.



They don't want to market to me, The Democrat.  They are after my husband for contributions and The Independent registered here who has moved on to a real life. 

To add to the "misery loves company" theory, some marketers are now sending text messages to my cell phones, costing me money (cause I'm not paying Verizon for texting ability) and waking me up at 3 AM.  Sure I'll buy your shit that you pushed to me in the middle of the night making me think someone died or had a horrific car accident on the way home from work. NO PROBLEM.  Here, hold your breath and I'll buy when you turn blue and die.


Today's recipient of PITA award is SENIOR BENEFITS.  

Do not call me. Don't call me manually. Don't call me on an automatic dialer and make me wait while your stupider than rat turds operator gets on the line and keeps pissing me off more and more asking dumber than dumb questions (sample: "Is this your own phone?"   I used my Dad's line, "No I was just passing by and hear the phone ringing so I came in and answered it").  If it's Not my phone what am I doing here??

DO NOT CALL ME.  IF i WANTED TO TALK TO YOU? I'D HAVE CALLED YOU ALREADY.

Top 5 Reasons I Miss The Kid Who Moved Out

So 6+ months ago, my kid moved out.  I'd say finally but that would imply I was waiting for him to go. Not really.  He was old enough and smart enough and knew how to wash his own clothes, run the vacuum and cook enough different foods to not get hungry when he was 15.  But he finished school, bought a truck and paid off about half his student loan, while finding the "right" room mate. (Who, frankly? I really like..........a lot)

So now that he's gone, I realized why I was never in a rush for him to leave.

1. HUGS - there were baby hugs, boy hugs, teenage "don't let anyone see me doing this hugs" and great hugs from the Man whom my son is now. I happen to love hugs.  I miss them the most!

2. Muscles and height. I'm 5'2" and shrinking, short, fat and out of shape.  He's Not.  He's 5'11.9999" so he can easily reach the top shelf in my kitchen cabinets and closets and frankly, he was quicker than me getting the step ladder and climbing (and less clumsy)

3. Security - really, how much "threat" is a short, fat 5'2" older woman if there are intruders or crazy people on the sidewalk?? He worked out, had muscles and although he's pretty mild-mannered, the deep baritone and his "shadow" are pretty effective deterents for some things.

4. Jokes and pranks...he snuck up on me all the time, and scared the bejesus out of me at least once a week.  So my heart has not been "restarted" since April 1.  He also has a dry sense of humor and had a way  of making my "kitchen disasters" into comedy that I lack.  I make them into sobstories...like the chocolate cake this week. The one that tried to kill me. Seriously, a murderous chocolate cake (a WHOLE other blog post)

5. The cat. He stole one of my cats when he left. Not immediately but about 6 weeks ago, he visited, and left with the cat in his pocket.


Ok, not really. I told him he could have the cat but I hadn't realized how much I'd miss the cat. Boy I hope he brings him to visit soon.         seriously, first the hugs and now the cat.  I might have to go visit for an extended visit.


Disclaimer: Beth's son lives about 20 min away and she drives right past his house regularly. She could certainly go get a hug from the cat at any time. If the cat would just answer the door.

More Takeaways from Ebay on Location - Philadelphia

Social Media session:

Pull not push (meaning stop with the Buy my Shi* Buy My Shi* posts and put soemthing interesting in )

Talk about what the customers want to talk about...

Blogging draws 25 Billion page views per month... (O HOLY COW!)

Twitter has 465 Million users and 33 Billion tweets...

Facebook has 1 BILLION users - 1,000,000,000,  (is that enough zeroes

Pinterest has 23 Million

People are spending equal amounts of time on Facebook and Pinterest... (go figure! ) 405 min..I forget if that's a month, or year or what..

Ok, just factoids but I find them interesting.

Suggestions from the Social Media Whiz Kids and Social Media team:

1 Conversation = Conversion..it's not selling, it's "talking, conversing" in other words...

2. Hone in on Personality

3. Content Rules -  Fresh content rules more..Google likes it and so do your followers/buyers/readers

4. Always consider - why am I doing this and where am I doing it.

5. Get to the point... 3 lines of text = 60 % more reading it than more lines.

6. Content Sets you apart as an expert (Of course, I say, that's if your content is EXPERT level and not kindergarden bullcrap)


Soon - part two... 2 I promise, it's coming soon.

Interesting Factoids from eBayOL-Philly

I know I'm 2 days late and a $1 short with blogging and tweeting about eBay On Location in Philadelphia. I'm blaming Verizon... my phone is carp.  If talking to my husband for 4 min burns the battery out?? WHAT were they thinking when they designed it that way. That is a whole other blog post.  Meanwhile, back at the ranch..err the Marriott in center city .........



These are some interesting facts I learned in various sessions at EOL-Philly
The mobile team leader, Chuck Pletcher, told us that 

• via Mobile eBay sells 93 pcs of clothing EVERY SECOND OF THE DAY!!  
• And $275 worth of merchandise EVERY SECOND OF THE DAY..
• Pictures in the body of the description mess with the readability of the listings on mobile. Has nothing to do with seeing the pictures...just makes the listing too wide to read or pushes everything off the right side of the screen. 
• HTML in the listing, like for a template, does the same thing
• There have been 100,000,000 (one hundred million) DOWNLOADS for the eBay Mobile app. That is 100,000,000 potential buyers, folks... and they’ve signed up 613,000 new buyers via Mobile

Of course, we all loved Rolf from the Moblile team too!  And we loved hearing his phone go CaCHing when he got bids. Now if I can learn to talk on mine, maybe I'll even let. it do the Caching thing once in a while..

BTW, if your sales are slow?? Just leave home for 3 days.  I mean I commuted to this event and the sales just kept happening. Imagine if I had actually gone away.

Ok folks...more tomorrow.  I didn't even touch on the Social Media presentation, the buyer panel, the seller panel or the awesome folks in the exhibit hall.