Well great. I’ve been notified that my debit card info is among the 40 million that got stolen in the Target hack last month. They’re issuing me a new card. So far there are not any fraudulent purchases. I’ve enabled text-me-on-purchase so I will know about fraudulent activity immediately.
The good news is, if they do try to use my debit card number to ring up charges, they’re not going to get all the money in my bank account. About a year ago, when a lot of my friends were getting their card info skimmed at local bars, I took steps to protect myself. I stopped using my bank debit card and got a PayPal debit card. I can transfer funds from the bank to PayPal, and then from PayPal to the card, so I control how much money is available. I keep enough on the card to cover me in case of an emergency, as well for cases where I have to pay with a card, like online purchases or reserving a hotel room. If hackers/skimmers get me, though, they only have access to what’s on the card, and not what’s in my bank account. I’m probably paying a few extra dollars in fees, but for the peace of mind it’s worth it.
One of my Facebook friends posted a great article called How to Name a Baby that was really good and I thought I’d share it here. It discusses name fads and graphs some of them. For example:
- “Jennifer” peaked in popularity from 1965 to 1985 but hardly anyone gets named Jennifer now. Sounds right; I went to school with lots of Jennifers.
- “Ashley” peaked in the 1980s and is on its way out as a name now. I went to school with plenty of Ashleys too, but they were almost always younger than me.
- “Shirley” peaked in the 1930s. The card game I work with for my job appeals to an older generation (although we’re working to change that) and I get lots of calls and emails from Shirleys.
- “Emma” was a fad in our great-grandmothers’ time, and is again now. I didn’t go to school with any Emmas because it was considered an antiquated name at the time.
- Presidents cause name fads to happen. “Theodore” was especially popular in the first decade of the 20th century. “Calvin” has remained somewhat steadily popular, but peaked in 1923 to 1929 when Coolidge was president.
- Adolph was a popular name for years, but declined in the 1940s. You can figure that one out, I hope.
- If you want to avoid name fads and pick a timeless boy name, you can’t go wrong with “William.”
Next time you go to Central BBQ in the South Main district, be sure to save room for some peanut butter pie. There’s a pic on the Hungry Memphis blog.
Now this is cool: Montreal just got some new street lights that look like cartoon speech bubbles. Nice way to subtly communicate “we have fun here” to visitors.
Act now to save AutoZone Park. The link shares ways you can let the City Council know that you want the city to purchase the park and keep the Redbirds here.
If you’re looking to buy a Downtown condo, Memphis real estate broker Joe Spake has been tweeting/pinning some good leads today. Follow him on Twitter at @joespake.
The Grizzlies play an away game vs. the Detroit Pistons at noon. You can watch it locally on SportSouth. Thanks to @MemphisOnTV on Twitter for the info.
The usual idiot who shows up wherever I am showed up at Bardog yesterday about noon. He always tries to sit right in my line of sight, so I have no choice but to look at him. Geez. Later in the day he followed me to Silly Goose. I guess I should just publish my schedule to Google Calendar to make life easier for him. I hear that people have been unfriending him and blocking him on Facebook lately. Since Christmas week I’ve had three people tell me, “You know, Paul, I have to admit you’ve been right about him all along.” Just think if he’d taken all the time, energy, and money he spent in 2013 on passive-aggressive attempts to get even with me for not liking him, and instead diverted that to something positive, such as developing new career skills. I’ve seen several skills-certification courses on Groupon lately…
This morning I’m putting together a bag of clothes that I don’t wear anymore to donate to the homeless. I’ll take the clothes to the Blind Bear, where there will be a donation box through Wednesday. There are also boxes at Bardog, Aldo’s Pizza Pies, Slider Inn, Local, and Newby’s. I found some nice polos that would help the homeless look good for potential jobs. I also found a Flying Saucer “GOOD BEER” shirt. Maybe I should leave that one out of the bag, to avoid encouraging bad habits.
I want to take a moment to apologize for the number of days I’ve gone without posting lately. I usually try not to skip days. The past three weeks, though, I’ve been dealing with a car that broke down, a car repair that has now been delayed twice, a parking garage pass that stopped working, fighting off a cold, dealing with my debit card being hacked, and the blasted holidays on top of everything else. I’ve been stressed out and just not at the top of my game. Hopefully I will be back in top form this week. Thanks everyone for sticking with me.
Time to put on 4 layers of clothes and go out. It will be 50 when I leave the apartment. When I walk home around 10 tonight after winning Blind Bear poker, Weatherbug predicts it will be 20. By the way, 20 is warmer than it will be at any point on Monday. Nothing to do but get ready for the big chill.