Mischief

This is prompted by a news item I saw today that there are two lottery prizes worth a total of $5,000,000 unclaimed in the Toronto area.

The thought occurred to me “what if one of those tickets was mine?”, which is not possible for in order to have a chance I’d have to buy a ticket. But keeping in mind the title of this piece, what if that were true.

In Ontario the winner’s names are available on the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission website – it’s a legal requirement I understand. But since the names are known it would be possible to track me down on social media. I’ve read other winners say that a major win has resulted in people from their past suddenly appearing in their lives again. And that could lead to all kinds of, as the title indicates, mischief on my part.

First, a bit about me. I make no secret that I’m trans so the name I now have isn’t the same name I had in highschool. And, to further frustrate any attempted requests, I was an army brat and attended three different highschools. Picture it now. I’ve won a seven or eight figure jackpot and someone tracks me down on Facebook. I imagine the exchange might go something like this:

Random Guy (RG): Hey Cat! Remember me? I sat behind you in math class and you helped me when I had trouble. I know it’s been a while, but I’d really like to reconnect.

Me: Not off hand. What year?

RG: Grade 12.

Me: What was the name of the highschool again?

RG: Eastside.

Me: Get lost. I never attended Eastside and I never made Grade 12 because I dropped out to join the army. Oh, and my name wasn’t Cat in highschool. Better luck next time.

This whole thing is fiction because in order to even have a chance at winning a lottery, I’d need to buy a ticket, which I rarely do. But I hope this imagined exchange at least brought a smile to your face.

Have a safe and happy New Year’s Eve and a prosperous and healthy 2023. And remember to hug an artist we need love (and a winning lottery ticket) too.

Cat.

Random and various

1 – Let’s get the big one over with first: Justin Trudeau. How many of us, excluding Andrew Scheer who claims to have never done anything, did some kind of dumb-ass shit in our twenties? For me, that was the sixties and personal video cameras and social media didn’t exist then, so there’s no proof I was anything other than an angel. (And I’m sticking to that story.)

2 – Sticking with the upcoming Canadian election, I won’t try to influence how you vote – there are plenty of fake news sites already doing that. I’m just going to suggest that rather than just accept a single source for information, check other legitimate sites as well and if it is a third party ad google them to see if they have any obvious bias. You may find that ad you saw that said so-and-so is a complete incompetent idiot is a troll site based in some foreign country. CPAC, the channel that provides coverage from inside the House of Commons, is also offering election coverage and I would think their election reporting would be as even-handed as their Commons coverage. But, where you choose to get your information, and what you choose to believe of that information, is up to you. Question claims, no matter the source and vote according to your conscience, but vote.

3 – I’ve seen some ads on television lately for Quickbooks, an online business accounting system. One of the claims of these ads is that you can get paid quicker. I must take exception to that claim. Yes, you can issue an invoice faster, but you have no control over when it gets paid. Unless the terms of the invoice are “2% 10, net 30 days” I’m not paying it until I have to.

4 – I got an interesting text message last night claiming to be from the Simcoe County District School Board, a legitimate school board in Ontario, telling me my phone number has just won me $3,000,000 US funds. Several things wrong with this. First, Simcoe County is north of Toronto, so why would they choose a telephone number with a Toronto area code as a “winner” in a contest I never entered. Second, this is Ontario and Premier Doug Ford is slashing education budgets on a grand scale, so I highly doubt Simcoe County could afford to give away three million. If they had that kind of money lying around, they’d sink it into the system, not award it to some random stranger. I forwarded the message to the School Board. They thanked me and said they were aware of the scam and are investigating.

Okay, rant finished. Since this is the first day of autumn, treasure the few warm days that remain and enjoy the fall colours. Winter will soon be upon us.

Remember to hug an artist – we need love too.

Cat.

Are you for real?

Following is an exchange on Facebook that took place between December 12 and today, when I lost patience and blocked the man.

01/12/2015 17:03
Hello,My name is R. I saw your Face book and profile and became interested in you, i will also like to know you the more.

Me: Everything I’m willing to divulge is available in the “about” tab

02/12/2015 02:48
R: How are you doing, thanks for your respond to my message and I know long distance is a challenge but if two people are determined the moments spent together can be magical.good morning.

02/12/2015 14:17
Me: It is even more of a challenge when one of those people isn’t interested.

06/12/2015 15:15
R:What do you mean my dearest please try to bare with me and keep in touch.

Wed 03:52
R:Happy new year to you my dearest, I can’t wait to hear from you as well. Please try to be honest with me because I do want to meet you in person.

Me: R:

1 – I do not appreciate being called “my dearest” even by people whom I know.
2 – I’m a lesbian and am involved with someone.

03:19
R:I am sorry for been called you that, and what do you mean by Lisbian..Well how old are you…It we be a great time to meet you here C, you are so pretty and I do love your appearance as well. How are you today? Its nice to hear from you, I am R. I am 49yrs from British. An Engineer. Is nice to meet you here. let me know your Age.

This man is scary on a couple of levels. First, from his messages, he doesn’t seem that intelligent. His name indicates he may be foreign born, so English may not be his first language and if so, I can forgive his syntax. If the content of the messages is indicative of his thought processes, and he says he’s an engineer (doesn’t say what kind) I’d worry if I was anywhere near anything he worked on or operated.

“What do you mean by Lisbian” (sic). First thought – nobody can be that dumb in today’s age and media saturation. I was tempted to explain to him the origin of the term, but decided doing so would just be a waste of energy.

Second thought – if he didn’t understand Lesbian, at least the “I’m involved with someone” should have sunk in. But no, not him. As you can see in his last message, he still wants to get together with me. And notice he wants me to travel to England. Most days I’m doing well if I have bus fare to go downtown, never mind a flight to England. As for my age, as I told him, that’s in my “about me” tab on Facebook (I’m 71 by the way).

Reading these messages from him, I conclude that either (a) he is as dumb as he appears from this correspondence; or (b) he’s jerking my chain. Either way, it still comes down to “are you for real?”

Enjoy your day and remember to hug an artist – we need love too.

Cat.
If you’re reading this through Facebook, and interested, send me a private message and I’ll tell you his full name. C.

Enough is enough

I’ve been running four separate Facebook profiles – one for my writing; one for each of the photo businesses, and one personal. Yesterday I deactivated three of them, leaving only the personal account open.

I did so for a variety of reasons, perhaps the prime one being these arbitrary changes Facebook keeps inflicting upon its users. In most cases, there is no opt-out option for these. For each profile I provided such information as I felt comfortable disclosing. Every so often I would get a notification from Facebook that my profile was only 30% complete and ask me to answer such questions as where I live; what high school I went to and where I attended university. I didn’t want to provide that information and was able to just close those sections still blank. Until last week. That was when I discovered that unless I answered the damn questions I couldn’t close the section. Sorry Facebook, I’ve given you all the information I feel necessary.

Another thing Facebook does is change settings. In the newsfeed, there is a choice of “top stories” or “latest news”, with the default being “top stories”. Now I would rather see the latest news from my friends rather than whatever inanity FB feels I would consider a top story and set the filter accordingly. And at least twice a week I find it changed back. Facebook has no idea of my interests (because I didn’t fill out that part of the information) so how can they honestly determine what I consider a top story?

If Facebook continues to force these changes upon their users, they are going to find themselves going the way of MySpace, which tried the same tactics and found people left in droves.

Another reason I’ve closed these profiles is that I’m tired of all the drama some people post. With some, it seems that every little thought they have makes it to their status. I don’t give a rat’s ass. You are not the only person in the world with problems in your lives, so please, please stop posting this nonsense. Keep your problems to yourself or discuss them with close friends in personal messages, not in an open forum.

Others insist upon posting a detailed itinerary of their day (going shopping as I need a loaf of bread). Who cares?? Or they will post recipes containing ingredients I either don’t like, can’t afford to buy, or both. I live alone so why would I care about a recipe that serves 6? One day I deleted 14 recipes from one person. No status report, nothing of interest, just 14 recipes.

As I wrote above, I still have my personal profile, but I can’t guarantee how long that will be open for I know Facebook will introduce some other stupidity that will finally force me out.

Does anyone know of any other social networks? I’ve tried Google+ but find it all but undecipherable.

Enjoy your day and remember to hug an artist – we need love too.

Cat.

Stop being so helpful

I don’t know how many of my readers are on Facebook, but I have a question for those who, like me, are part of the 900 million.

Do you find it as annoying as do I when Facebook suggests friends with whom you share no mutual friends or any common interests?  Do you also find it annoying when you decide to look at one of these people only to find they’ve got their profile set on private so you can’t even find out if you have any common interests?  I’d love to know what criteria Facebook uses when suggesting these people as friends.  Is it that we’re both in North America, or is the geographic area broader, like say,  planet earth?

My profile says I’m a photographer and writer.  Most of the friends I have follow similar pursuits and in some cases, are known to me personally.  This fact makes me wonder why Facebook is suggesting as a friend a thirty-something bodybuilder.  Where’s the common ground?  Granted it’s always nice to expand one’s horizons, but in this case, what possible mutual interest could we have to even start a discussion?

I recall reading somewhere that Facebook was proud of its various programmes that could and would match people who had something in common with a particular user and suggest them as friends.  If so, I think they need to refine that just a tad so it considers more than the fact we’re both human beings living on this planet.

Yes, there have been occasions when I’ve become friends with someone Facebook suggested, but only when I’ve been able to look at their profile and see their photography or read their writing, but that doesn’t happen very often.

To Facebook, I say – I plead – “stop being so helpful”.

To my readers, enjoy your day and remember to hug an artist – we need love too.

Cat.