Do you guys get the ones that tell you they are a person from another country needing your help and they are hoping you will keep this corrospondance private? I only have 1 e-mail that I use for everything, I have another one I set up, but being technological challenged as I am I can't remember how to switch to it:( I keep getting the ones that say I have won the lottery too. I have learned not to open anything unless I know the person. Oh yeah and I got a nasty one too, that one really ticked me off, what if one of my kids had seen that? something to do with male enhancement, could see the pic just fine, but couldn't understand the paragraph. GW is really the only place I go to for the most part, but I do plant identification lookups, Travis gets on the Mustang sites for car parts, thats it, they are just plain creepy.

Still going through over 20 pgs of small-type print, but I wanted to drop in to clarify a couple of points really fast. 1) DD has no "problems" socially. She tells me often about how people react with disbelief at the fact that 1) she's really smart even though she wears mascara and straightens her hair (quiet laughter on my part here--such a HUGE change from last year!) and 2) she homeschooled up until last year, because she 'seems so normal' (makes her laugh every time). We learned through our years of homeschooling that stereotypes are powerful and can be powerfully misleading, and often say more about the person who's making the assumptions than they do about the person who's being stereotyped. She's made many people reconsider their stereotypes and pigeonholes. It's eerie how quickly and easily she slid into complete comfort at this mega-size school, but I give lots of credit not only to her but to the atmosphere the school creates - so far, people seem to fall over themselves to say sweet, supportive things to each other. She's got a wide circle of social friends and a good tight circle of close friends. She's got no fear at all, and is happy being id'd as a 'music nerd' since the music program at the school is big and high-profile. In fact, the one time some of the 'popular' girls tried to do a 'mean girls' thing to her in science class, she laughed at them and acted it right back at them (at least I did my homework preparing her by having her read all the 'Reviving Ophelia' and Queen Bee' -type books--thanks, Amy!!) so hilariously that they ended up inviting her to their table and have become good friends (I've seen it corroborated when I pick her up from things). Those aren't the kids she prefers to hang out with, but I mention it to show that she's got social skills that people may not associate with the stereotypical 'homeschooler'. Our world-learning wasn't stereotypical, either -- I hardly taught her anything, actually -- I was more like the concierge who found resources to facilitate her exploring her interests, and chauffeur to her various classes/activities. She's also comfortable being in advanced classes, has no problem with it, and she'll be doing AP classes next year and IB after that, and there are always options to take more advanced math at a local CC or state U. My only problem is that she's now letting the institution determine how curious she is about something--if she does enough to meet an assignment, she's done. No more investigating something for its own sake. It's *sad* to watch that really exciting drive in her life extinct itself (or more hopefully, go dormant). Which leads me to 2) A couple of years ago, I started volunteering solidly back in my field, and I'm gearing up to try to find paying work in it, albeit at a much lower level than before. I love what I do, I'm *thrilled* to be back in it, and I'm seriously not a stereotypical 'helicopter' mom. So not. Since she was about 10, I've actually tried not to be too involved, so she can have her own space in her activities. A somewhat extreme example: DD keeps asking me to be an orchestra-mum in the city orchestra she's in (you sit through all rehearsals and do volunteer work), but I just won't do it. The vast majority of those are stage-moms who make my skin crawl--the ones I think I talked about in another thread who seem to think that nonstop bragging is the highest form of conversation, and I don't want to be around them because they feel toxic to me. I want to relate to her orchestra in a positive way without all the drama. So I take her there and pick her up but don't prostrate myself before the altar of the conductor. We did arrange to have DH's company match our donation to this group, though -- the first time an employee had donated to the group at all, which is really strange, considering my DH's company's dominant position in the area. So we give in the way we feel most comfortable without hovering or pushing. I'll let moms who want to do that have the face time with the conductor. So I hope these further details maybe clarify some vaguenesses or misconceptions. I also hope you all know how unbelievably much your thoughts and support, and individual stories you've shared mean to me and my DH. He's reading the printout too and we'll have more specific thoughts later. The folks who come to this forum are gems, every one. And beyond that, the web is phenomenal, and not at all just a replacement for RL relationships; as you have pointed out, it offers opportunities and resources that RL just can't, sometimes. Anyway, I lerve you all : ) (oh, and the Greece thing -- I realize it may sound like she was sitting in a closet coming up with plans for the world, but it was actually for Model UN and is documented in her position papers as Greece's "Environmental Minister" (LOL) from last year. She actively participated in MUN with her resource center's team last year even though she was only an '8th grader', but this year at the huge/high school, MUN is overenrolled, so only Juniors and Seniors actually get to go to the event. There's an example of a very tangible difference in activities/involvements available to homeschoolers and to public schoolers...: ()

Spam, eggs, sausage and Spam, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, lovely Spam, lovely Spam... lovely Spam, lovely Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam..... Can't get the song out of my mind. Actually Caroline, "SPAM" refers to the canned product. Both "Spam" and "SPAM" are registered trademarks of Hormel and should refer to the canned item while "spam" is the unsolicited commercial email, though when used to start a sentence, it would be appropriate to capitalize it. Just FYI. Occasionally that greasy canned stuff is ok, fried and served with eggs, potatoes and toast. I don't really care for canned meats of any kind and don't care for any unsolicited commercial email of any kind! Just because email is unsolicited does not make it spam. If I send you, well, let's put it this way, if YOU send ME an email and say "hi" or ask a question, that's unsolicited but not spam. The ones that are commercially motivated, i.e. trying to make money, via semi-legitimate or scam methods is the key to truly calling it "spam". There's many ways to recognize the UCE spam. As mentioned, but when they put your name, and several others in various forms, for instance, yourname@yourisp, yorname@yourisp, yourname@yoisp... you know it's a spammer. If it shows your address as the sender? It's spam. I always tell people for instance if they're contacting me through GW, to put in the subject something like "it's (sender) from GW" and I always do that too. Then the recipient can choose to open it or not. Let's face it, spam works. People buy the stuff. People send the personal info they ask for. People are STOOPID! And because of this we all suffer. And the forward button should be removed from all browsers. People forward garbage and that is conspiring with spammers and makes you a spammer when you do it. People are too lazy to check to see if it's true, they'll just send it to their address book just in case or because it coincides with their political or religious belief and it doesn't matter if it's a lie.

There are 3 management ills released by this change: 1. Apparently, a person unqualified for IT work made the decision to go with the lower cost application. That sounds very much like purchasing making a co-called cost reduction so they can put this on their list of accomplishments. A new, very important, untried application was not tried out before unleashing it system wide. A dummy account should have been created in the "sandbox" region of the server and the application tried there for a period of time. Many of the ills you mentioned should have shown up in the sandbox version and would have been contained. This would have given the system operators a chance either correct the software or reject it. Somehow, the system's virus checker was disabled or uninstalled. The SANDBOX: Many years ago, makers of large servers included a "sandbox" in their operating system. This is a feature that carves off a section of memory, and isolates it from the remainder of the computer. When accessed from outside the installation, it appears like a complete system. Its a place to experiment and give neophytes a place to roam. Any damage done is confined to the sandbox. Also, the system operators can use the sandbox to test to see if their corporate system is under attack by intruders, by lowering the protection on the sandbox and then watching for what comes in.