Irritated

 I'm pretty strongly irritated over something that happened recently. One day, when I was at work, I felt my personal phone go off in my pocket at the same time as my hospital cell gave the sound for a text. No one uses texting on the hospital phones, so that was weird. I checked it & found a spam text. To stop getting the texts, it said, reply with "STOP". Sounded a bit too much like phishing to me, so I didn't. I was surprised to find the same message on my personal phone. When I left that patient's room, I found that several other nurses had gotten those texts, as well as most of the hospital phones. Some people replied with STOP, some didn't.  As it turns out, people from all over had gotten them. Bryan was one of them, & he replied to stop the texts. 

It apparently didn't matter. When we received our bill this month, it was $20 more than it usually is. I called AT&T (Bryan is the money manager but I'm the public relations contact in this relationship. As Bryan says, "Hillary casts Phone! It is super effective!"), & asked what was up with the extra $20. We thought perhaps my employer discount hadn't gone through this month. Instead, we found two charges for $9.99 each from a place called mblox.com.  The customer service lady told me that it was from a "purchase" via text. I explained that we both have iPhones, & any purchases on our account would have gone through the iTunes store or the app store. We didn't buy ANYTHING via text. She took the charges off our account & gave me the website attached to the charges (mblox.com), along with a toll-free number. 

I called the number, & I got an answering service or call center, I assume. I asked what mblox.com was, & the gentleman told me they were a monthly mobile content subscription service. (Who on earth needs that in the age of the smart phone & mobile Internet, I couldn't tell you.) When I asked exactly how I was signed up for such a thing when I didn't do it myself, I was asked for a LOT of information: my full name, phone number, email, the text message & the short code from whence the text came. At this point I became rather furious. I very coldly asked the gentleman why I should entrust him with that information, as his company had already proved its willingness to use my information to attempt to steal from me by charging me for things I never agreed to buy in the first place. He didn't have much of an answer beyond telling me that he couldn't tell how I was signed up unless he had that info. Which makes sense, but also does NOT make me want to fork that info over any more than I already did. 

So. Long story short: mblox.com is a mobile subscription company that will add your number to their subscription service with a random text, bill you regardless of whether you stop the texts or not, & then hope you don't notice an extra $10 charge or two on your phone bill. In what way is that NOT fraud? In what way is that NOT theft?

Coffee Paradox

 There is something of a paradox to being a dedicated coffee nerd. As a woman with ADD (side note: people, please stop confusing this with ADHD. They aren't the same & maybe I'm being nitpicky, but it does bug me) & one who needs a certain amount of sleep to function properly, I appreciate being able to start the day with a drink I enjoy & one that gives me a bit of an energy shove. 

On the other hand, this is what it takes to make my cup of coffee. 

 Let's see. There's honey, an airtight container to store my ground coffee, a teapot to our it out of the coffee press when it's done, the coffee press itself, an electric kettle, a burr grinder, & coffee (from Fresh Beanz in Eureka Springs; locally roasted coffee is awesomer). 

As you can probably see, some mornings it can be a bit hard to get all this stuff together. I just about need a caffineinated drink before I make the coffee. ;)

New blogging app

 I'm testing out a new "thing"; it's an app called Blogsy. It posts to Posterous, which is good for just tossing off my iPhone photos as a snap them, but also Blogspot, which is better for actually presenting things. Both are what I consider my "public faces", since my LJ is locked down. I have to have SOME place where HIPAA isn't the first thing on my mind, but I'd also like a public face where I can send iPhone acquaintances to look at my pics. So, testing. ;) 

Ooh, this is quite nice about uploading photos. Hmmm. 

Posted via email from What I Need is All Around Me

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I've been trying all sorts of new & shiny things lately! The first is Harp's Food Store. We've had one in Jonesboro for quite some time, but it was tiny & had hardly any selection. Recently they built a big, fancy new building & moved about a block from the old location. I went to check it out, & WHAT A CHANGE. This is definitely a Kroger competitor, & in fact, it beats Kroger in several key areas important to me. The gas is cheaper & the attached convenience store is better. The bakery is downright awesome, with a larger selection of breads & they're good; the Martha Harp home style bread is so fine & dense its almost creamy tasting. It's definitely my new go-to for specialty bread when I can't get Three Birds Baking at the market. I also bought a half-pie there: peach praline. OH WOW. Just...wow. There's a GOOD cheese selection, unlike anyone else in Jonesboro. They had HUNTSMAN. REAL IMPORTED HUNTSMAN, not the "double Gloucester with Stilton" knockoff at Kroger. Their produce section has far more variety, which is a big plus for Ganon. The organic section is oddly smaller, but stocked with selections I can't get at Kroger; most notably they have almost the entire range of Izze sodas & Naked smoothies. I got a 4-pack of blueberry Izze, which hasn't been available anywhere in town before! They had a huge meat sale last week & I got an incredible roast for only $6. As if it needed anything else to recommend it, it's closer to my house than Kroger! I'm afraid my grocery shopping will be done at Harp's from now on. Found a Valentine's Day (Lupercalia?) wreath at Target in the dollar section. Now that I have a wreath location, I plan to keep it decorated all year. :) Ganon wanted to help show you the wreath.

Two new chocolate items: raspberry dark chocolate M&Ms and dark chocolate strawberry Godiva Gems. I found the raspberry M&Ms at Walmart. They're unusual & quite tasty. They're raspberry flavored & not filled, but I dig them. I'd love to sneak some into a movie. Wonder what's playing?

The Godiva Gems are EPIC, Y'ALL! You can always get strawberry Gems but they're normally milk chocolate, which I don't care for. These are limited edition Valentine's Day ones at Target. Oh I'm going to eat the whole package today, I know I am.

Three new makeup tries:

Two-Faced Shadow Insurance eyeshadow primer: it goes on colorless, & a tiny, minuscule dot covers the lid. It works pretty much exactly like Urban Decay Primer Potion, but it's more expensive. I'll probably stick with UDPP, but I am glad I got to try this as a deluxe sample from Sephora.

Makeup Forever waterproof lip liner: Very nice! Goes on smooth & precise. Like all other MUFE items, it's highly pigmented. I will be purchasing more colors. Here it is on: it's dark purple & I'm wearing it with a pink tinted nude.

Cover Girl Blast Flipstick: two lipsticks in one package. They're meant to coordinate. I got the pair called "Intense", with a nude shimmery beige gold & a deep cool plum. VERY good pigmentation for a drug store brand lipstick! I am impressed. It's definitely a worthwhile buy for a $7 lipstick.

Posted via email from What I Need is All Around Me

Untitled

See the full gallery on Posterous

I've been trying all sorts of new & shiny things lately! The first is Harp's Food Store. We've had one in Jonesboro for quite some time, but it was tiny & had hardly any selection. Recently they built a big, fancy new building & moved about a block from the old location. I went to check it out, & WHAT A CHANGE. This is definitely a Kroger competitor, & in fact, it beats Kroger in several key areas important to me. The gas is cheaper & the attached convenience store is better. The bakery is downright awesome, with a larger selection of breads & they're good; the Martha Harp home style bread is so fine & dense its almost creamy tasting. It's definitely my new go-to for specialty bread when I can't get Three Birds Baking at the market. I also bought a half-pie there: peach praline. OH WOW. Just...wow. There's a GOOD cheese selection, unlike anyone else in Jonesboro. They had HUNTSMAN. REAL IMPORTED HUNTSMAN, not the "double Gloucester with Stilton" knockoff at Kroger. Their produce section has far more variety, which is a big plus for Ganon. The organic section is oddly smaller, but stocked with selections I can't get at Kroger; most notably they have almost the entire range of Izze sodas & Naked smoothies. I got a 4-pack of blueberry Izze, which hasn't been available anywhere in town before! They had a huge meat sale last week & I got an incredible roast for only $6. As if it needed anything else to recommend it, it's closer to my house than Kroger! I'm afraid my grocery shopping will be done at Harp's from now on. Found a Valentine's Day (Lupercalia?) wreath at Target in the dollar section. Now that I have a wreath location, I plan to keep it decorated all year. :) Ganon wanted to help show you the wreath.

Two new chocolate items: raspberry dark chocolate M&Ms and dark chocolate strawberry Godiva Gems. I found the raspberry M&Ms at Walmart. They're unusual & quite tasty. They're raspberry flavored & not filled, but I dig them. I'd love to sneak some into a movie. Wonder what's playing?

The Godiva Gems are EPIC, Y'ALL! You can always get strawberry Gems but they're normally milk chocolate, which I don't care for. These are limited edition Valentine's Day ones at Target. Oh I'm going to eat the whole package today, I know I am.

Three new makeup tries:

Two-Faced Shadow Insurance eyeshadow primer: it goes on colorless, & a tiny, minuscule dot covers the lid. It works pretty much exactly like Urban Decay Primer Potion, but it's more expensive. I'll probably stick with UDPP, but I am glad I got to try this as a deluxe sample from Sephora.

Makeup Forever waterproof lip liner: Very nice! Goes on smooth & precise. Like all other MUFE items, it's highly pigmented. I will be purchasing more colors. Here it is on: it's dark purple & I'm wearing it with a pink tinted nude.

Cover Girl Blast Flipstick: two lipsticks in one package. They're meant to coordinate. I got the pair called "Intense", with a nude shimmery beige gold & a deep cool plum. VERY good pigmentation for a drug store brand lipstick! I am impressed. It's definitely a worthwhile buy for a $7 lipstick.

Posted via email from What I Need is All Around Me