It's Not My Birthday

So somewhere in the last few years, in it's meglomaniacal attempt to rule the world, Facebook forced users to provide a birth date and I provided one of the fake birth dates I use online because I am aware of how easy it is to steal someone's identity with just a few key pieces of information, a birth date being one of them. Just think about what they ask you to verify your identify it you call your bank or utility company or any merchant. I set the privacy settings to private so the birth date would not appear on my profile and it would not be announced publicly because that is (sarcastic remark approaching) certainly a secure way to protect sensitive identity information. Today I find more than a hundred Happy Birthday wishes on Facebook. Facebook changed the privacy setting in my profile without letting me know and more than a hundred people were duped, but worse, my credibility is affected because so many people will feel betrayed or lied to because they assume the date I put online was accurate because they do not understand the risk they take in putting their actual birth date with year online for anyone to see.

You ever click on a Facebook advertisement? So you then see that website everywhere you go online? Whenever I am on Facebook, I get more unsolicited telephone calls that are illegal because my number is on the National Do Not Call list. Does Facebook care? No, because they likely profit from selling our personal information. How else do you think they've become a multi-billion dollar business by offering millions of people a free service? I tolerate the advertising, but when they change personal privacy settings on sensitive identify information like birth dates, how can they be trusted with driver's licences, birth certificates, passports, social security numbers, or any of the things they demand in order to verify your real name under their "no fictitious name" policy?

Whatever, I am done with Facebook for a while and friends who do not understand why I am not there can make of my absence what they want it to be. I know some get offended or feel hurt or neglected, but I will not give into peer pressure when it is harmful and trusting Facebook as much as people do these days is harmful. Depending on it for social life and communication the way many do these days is not healthy. I wish my friends would see that and spend more time offline actually caring about each other in the physical world.

Meanwhile, in the physical world, the interview went well. I headed out to Wal-Mart for cheap fast pants and the first pair I tried on, flat front 36/32 fit perfectly except they were just a bit short, so I tried a 36/34 and all they had were pleated and cuffed and these were loose around the waist and just a tad long, but they served their purpose. I might return them for 34/34 after taking a bit more time to try others one. At least they fit and I was not pants-less at the interview. There were three interviewers, two men in the room and one woman watching by camera by skype. They kept the screen turned away from me so I did not see her talking or see her reactions to my responses which was weird because she shook my hand before the interview and then disappeared. Maybe she had to be somewhere and was travelling so she did the interview by phone. One guy did almost all of the talking, asking all of the questions. I am on the short list, but it's no guarantee. I probably won't hear back until early next year.

After the interview I headed back here and updated yesterday's entry. Life goes on.

Returning here now, after midnight, I rewind the time date stamp clock so the first of December has an entry. It used to be a profound personal holiday for me and somewhere deep inside, it still is. One of these days maybe will let it inspire me the way it used to. For now, it's not my birthday.

I was out playing cards tonight. Thursday Night Bridge. Curly and The Commodore are much better players than Curly and I and they don't seem to see how they are terrible sports about it. Excel was more frustrated tonight than I was, but it's sad, especially when it comes to Curly because he is the most pissy of all of us when he is not winning and the most gleeful when he is winning, laughing at our mistakes. When he talks during play. it's ok. When I talk during play, he calls it cheating. The double standard is so childish, yet he doesn't see it. The Commodore just plays and he's been playing for many decades so he sometimes just messes with us. He did that one time when Excel had her best hand of the night and she just shut down tonight and was not enjoying playing at all. I wasn't really playing attention tonight, so it didn't bother me. Curly won, so all was well for him. I felt bad for Excel though.

So that is the day that was. I am hungry now, but it is late for food. After 2am. The Maharaja is not home yet which is later than usual for him for a week night. Part of me wants to head somewhere for food, but I should not spend money. I had one slice of leftover pizza and some shrimp for lunch and then a half portion of shrimp and vegetables (with very little rice) for dinner. I forgot to bring my carrots. I suppose I could eat some carrots now. That would be wise. I apparently do not want to be wise. Life is like this sometimes. Must be the date.

Are we having too much fun or what?

Narf :)