Thursday, August 20, 2015

MotionX-GPS Track: 55 mile birthday bike ride, Start/end in Boulder,CO

Hello,

Connie O'Dell uses MotionX-GPS on the iPhone and is sharing with you the following track:

Name:55 mile birthday bike ride, Start/end in Boulder,CO
Date:Aug 20, 2015 6:02 am
Map:
(valid until Feb 16, 2016)
View on Map
Distance:55.8 miles
Elapsed Time:6:37:49
Avg Speed:8.4 mph
Max Speed:28.7 mph
Avg Pace: 7' 07" per mile
Min Altitude:4,986 ft
Max Altitude:5,737 ft
Start Time:2015-08-20T12:02:07Z
Start Location: 
 Latitude:39º 58' 16" N
 Longitude:105º 15' 56" W
End Location: 
 Latitude:39º 58' 17" N
 Longitude:105º 15' 55" W

 

MotionX-GPS Commonly Asked Questions

  1. What is MotionX-GPS?
    MotionX-GPS is the essential GPS application for outdoor enthusiasts. It puts an easy-to-use, state-of-the-art handheld GPS on your iPhone.

  2. Can I use MotionX-GPS?
    Sure! MotionX-GPS can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store.

  3. How can I display tracks in Google Earth?
    Follow the directions on the Google Earth web site to download and install the Google Earth program. Save the attached "55 mile birthday bike ride Startend in BoulderCO.kmz" file to your computer. Launch Google Earth, select File, Open, and open the saved "55 mile birthday bike ride Startend in BoulderCO.kmz" file.

  4. This email was forwarded to me. Where are the attachments?
    Some e-mail programs do not include the original attachments by default when forwarding an e-mail. In this case, the sender must reattach the original files for them to be included.

 

Please contact MotionX customer support with any comments or questions.

All the best,

The MotionX Team

US and Foreign Patents Granted and Pending. Fullpower® is a registered trademark of Fullpower Technologies, Inc. MotionX™ is a trademark of Fullpower Technologies, Inc. © Copyright 2003 - 2012 Fullpower Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved.

ver: ; ref-id:

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

LastPass Now Lets You Sync Passwords on Any One Platform for Free 

http://lifehacker.com/lastpass-now-lets-you-sync-passwords-on-any-one-platfor-1721827587?utm_campaign=socialflow_lifehacker_facebook&utm_source=lifehacker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow


Sent from my iPhone

Finding Professional Work Overseas

Listening to Zero To Travel Podcast : National Geographic Type Adventures, Lifestyle Design Like Tim Ferriss Plus Inspiration Like TED (How To Find Professional Work Overseas : Zero To Travel Podcast): http://zerototravel.com/podcast/how-to-find-professional-work-overseas-zero-to-travel-podcast/

In today's episode of the Zero To Travel Podcast we learn how to find professional work overseas. And who better to teach us than Troy Erstling. He has studied in Argentina, taught English in South Korea, took a fellowship in India, and worked for one of India's most promising startups.

Now Troy is speaking at universities inspiring students to travel and work abroad.  And he is the 'brainchild' of BrainGain. He is using his entrepreneurial spirit and travel education to help others find ways of exploring an international career.

Thinking about traveling and working abroad? Not sure where to start? Listen now and learn from someone who's done it!

You'll Learn:

  • What it's like to Teach English Abroad
  • How to transition from teaching/volunteering to Professional Work
  • How to utilize personal networks to find opportunities
  • Most realistic places to find work overseas
  • Step by Step process to finding work overseas
  • Typical duration of most jobs and where to find the most opportunity
  • Understanding Cultural differences when applying for jobs (and how to find the real cost of living estimates)
  • Going from a tourist visa to a permanent visa
  • Going to an International School to open up opportunities in your desired country
  • Ins and outs of BrainGain

Resources:

For more episodes of the Zero To Travel Podcast, check out the archives!

The post How To Find Professional Work Overseas : Zero To Travel Podcast appeared first on Zero to Travel.



Sent from my iPhone

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

MotionX-GPS Track: Brew tour:Boulder Beer, Redstone Meadery, Whole Foods for $3 wine bottles and free food! Nice bike ride!

Hello,

Connie O'Dell uses MotionX-GPS on the iPhone and is sharing with you the following track:

Name:Brew tour:Boulder Beer, Redstone Meadery, Whole Foods for $3 wine bottles and free food! Nice bike ride!
Date:Jul 21, 2015 9:39 am
Map:
(valid until Jan 17, 2016)
View on Map
Distance:19.8 miles
Elapsed Time:3:38:28
Avg Speed:5.4 mph
Max Speed:26.1 mph
Avg Pace:11' 03" per mile
Min Altitude:5,193 ft
Max Altitude:5,735 ft
Start Time:2015-07-21T15:39:28Z
Start Location: 
 Latitude:39º 58' 16" N
 Longitude:105º 15' 56" W
End Location: 
 Latitude:39º 58' 16" N
 Longitude:105º 15' 55" W

 

MotionX-GPS Commonly Asked Questions

  1. What is MotionX-GPS?
    MotionX-GPS is the essential GPS application for outdoor enthusiasts. It puts an easy-to-use, state-of-the-art handheld GPS on your iPhone.

  2. Can I use MotionX-GPS?
    Sure! MotionX-GPS can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store.

  3. How can I display tracks in Google Earth?
    Follow the directions on the Google Earth web site to download and install the Google Earth program. Save the attached "Brew tourBoulder Beer Redstone Meadery Whole Foods for 3 wine bottles and free food Nice bike ride.kmz" file to your computer. Launch Google Earth, select File, Open, and open the saved "Brew tourBoulder Beer Redstone Meadery Whole Foods for 3 wine bottles and free food Nice bike ride.kmz" file.

  4. This email was forwarded to me. Where are the attachments?
    Some e-mail programs do not include the original attachments by default when forwarding an e-mail. In this case, the sender must reattach the original files for them to be included.

 

Please contact MotionX customer support with any comments or questions.

All the best,

The MotionX Team

US and Foreign Patents Granted and Pending. Fullpower® is a registered trademark of Fullpower Technologies, Inc. MotionX™ is a trademark of Fullpower Technologies, Inc. © Copyright 2003 - 2012 Fullpower Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved.

ver: ; ref-id:

Cool podcast about the future: The Last Job)

Listening to Planet Money (#625: The Last Job): http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/blog/2015/05/20150522_blog_pmoney.mp3?orgId=1&d=999&p=510289&story=408313612&t=podcast&e=408313612&ft=pod&f=510289

What if robots did all the work? In today's show, we imagine a world without jobs.


Sent from my iPhone

Sunday, July 19, 2015

MotionX-GPS Track: Track 052

Hello,

Connie O'Dell uses MotionX-GPS on the iPhone and is sharing with you the following track:

Name:Track 052
Date:Jul 19, 2015 7:44 am
Map:
(valid until Jan 15, 2016)
View on Map
Distance:6.63 miles
Elapsed Time:2:32:34
Avg Speed:2.6 mph
Max Speed:6.9 mph
Avg Pace:23' 01" per mile
Min Altitude:5,669 ft
Max Altitude:6,594 ft
Start Time:2015-07-19T13:44:48Z
Start Location: 
 Latitude:39º 58' 15" N
 Longitude:105º 15' 56" W
End Location: 
 Latitude:39º 58' 16" N
 Longitude:105º 15' 55" W

 

MotionX-GPS Commonly Asked Questions

  1. What is MotionX-GPS?
    MotionX-GPS is the essential GPS application for outdoor enthusiasts. It puts an easy-to-use, state-of-the-art handheld GPS on your iPhone.

  2. Can I use MotionX-GPS?
    Sure! MotionX-GPS can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store.

  3. How can I display tracks in Google Earth?
    Follow the directions on the Google Earth web site to download and install the Google Earth program. Save the attached "Track 052.kmz" file to your computer. Launch Google Earth, select File, Open, and open the saved "Track 052.kmz" file.

  4. This email was forwarded to me. Where are the attachments?
    Some e-mail programs do not include the original attachments by default when forwarding an e-mail. In this case, the sender must reattach the original files for them to be included.

 

Please contact MotionX customer support with any comments or questions.

All the best,

The MotionX Team

US and Foreign Patents Granted and Pending. Fullpower® is a registered trademark of Fullpower Technologies, Inc. MotionX™ is a trademark of Fullpower Technologies, Inc. © Copyright 2003 - 2012 Fullpower Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved.

ver: ; ref-id:

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

The 20 Most Important Travel Hacks You Should Know

Shared from Zite

 

Connie shared with you:

 

[thumbnail]

The 20 Most Important Travel Hacks You Should Know

blog.tripadvisor.com - Over the years we've lived and learned from our own time spent on the road. We've chatted up fellow travel nuts, and we've done plenty of research to find the most clever, creative, and efficient time-saving and stress-reducing hacks every traveler should know–and we compiled them all into this handy list. We've included some obvious (yet oft-forgotten) tips, as well as some clever beat-the-system hacks, too. From the moment you book a ticket or tour till you're unpacking your souvenirs, these 20 time-saving travel hacks will help to streamline your trips, ease some headaches, and make sure you're spending as much time as possible in blissed-out vacation mode.

Zite logo

Available on the App Store.



Sent from my iPhone

Monday, June 29, 2015

Got a Call from 866-694-8573? Don't Fall for the "Comcast Loyalty Rewards" Scam, thanks to Stop the Cap!

Got a Call from 866-694-8573? Don't Fall for the "Comcast Loyalty Rewards" Scam • Stop the Cap!



If you saw my previous post, you know I just got a solicitation enough like this that I think it's just the same game with a few different details.  I also was surprised that they seemed to have access to the comcast info like what plan I was on, and what I was paying.  Pretty sad if comcast has had a breach into its customer database, and it just makes scams like this more plausible-sounding...



Got a Call from 866-694-8573? Don’t Fall for the “Comcast Loyalty Rewards” Scam

Phillip Dampier June 18, 2015 Comcast/XfinityCompetitionConsumer NewsPublic Policy & Gov'tVideo 4 Comments
scamA group misrepresenting itself as part of Comcast is offering customers substantial discounts on cable and broadband service, if they agree to pay in advance. Customers accepting the offer don’t get any upgrades and lose their money.
Stop the Cap! reader Don Nelson alerted us that a group calling itself the “Loyalty Rewards Department of Comcast” has called residents in Comcast service areas offering huge discounts and upgrades on cable and Internet service for as little as $80 a month.
Nelson was offered Extreme 105 Internet, HD Premier with an X1 set-top box, Unlimited Phone, and HBO, Starz, Showtime & Cinemax for $79.99 for 24 months if he agreed to pay $239.97 to cover the first three months of the promotion in advance. If he was willing to prepay for six months, Nelson would also receive a free Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 tablet as a gift. It sounded like a great deal. Comcast’s own website sells the same package for $159.99 a month for 24 months with a two-year contract.
“It’s a very slick operation and they have your personal information and exactly what services you receive from Comcast, so I strongly suspect Comcast’s systems have been breached or some of their employees are involved in the scam,” Nelson said.
When he told the representative it sounded like a deal too good to be true, Nelson was reassured he was speaking with Comcast by telling him his account number and current level of service, including the number and types of set-top boxes already in his home. They knew his street address and had two phone numbers on file, a fact that now bothers Nelson because one of them was an old throwaway prepaid cell phone number he gave Comcast five years ago when he signed up to avoid future telemarketing calls.
“Only four companies had that phone number, including Comcast, and now so do these guys,” Nelson told us. “Something is wrong at Comcast for these scammers to have this information.”
Comcast-LogoAs an extra assurance of good faith, the Indian-accented representative invited Nelson to call him back at 866-694-8573 — the same number displayed on Nelson’s Caller ID.
“Most of these scammers go fishing for your personal information, but the person I talked to didn’t ask me any personal details at all because he already had them,” Nelson said. “When I called back, the interactive system that answered sounded professional and authentic, with options to make a payment and report service problems.”
What started to raise Nelson’s suspicion was exactly how the “Loyalty Rewards Department of Comcast” expected to be paid.
Nelson was told he shouldn’t visit Comcast to make a payment, read his credit card number over the phone, or send a check in the mail. Instead, he was asked to acquire a Green Dot MoneyPak “Scratchable Prepaid Card” at his local CVS, Walgreens, or Kmart and load it with the expected pre-payment. Instead of mailing that card to the “Loyalty Department,” he was supposed to call back and read the numbers off the back of the Green Dot card.
“I was assured everything was okay and this was a co-promotion between Green Dot and Comcast that covered part of the cost of the cable deal I was getting,” Nelson said. “But that sounded strange and I requested an email confirmation to make sure I understood the offer.”
The “Loyalty Department” did, in fact, send an email “verification,” which only further raised suspicion because of its word choices and lack of familiarity with common colloquial expressions. The grammatical errors did not inspire confidence either:
No legitimate company will advise you to buy a prepaid card to make a payment.
No legitimate company will tell you to buy a prepaid card to make a payment. Scammers cannot afford to accept standard credit cards that can and will be traced back to them eventually.
Dear Customer,
Good Day!
This email refers to the promotion on your current/new services with Comcast Xfinity, this promotion offers you free upgrades in your existing (new services)services of Comcast.
With this up gradation you will be having i.e.
i) Up to 105Mbps download speed. This package gives you liberty to enjoy unlimited uploading and downloading with no fair usage policy applicable.
ii) The upgraded cable package will be Digital HD Premier Package with 260 digital channels with 40 premium movies and 25 sports packages.
iii) The upgraded Comcast voice package will give you unlimited Nationwide and North American talk and text.
A quick review of the available programming is mentioned below:
FAMILY CHANNEL:
ABC Family, Bloomberg TV, A&E, Cartoon network, Disney, Bravo, E!  etc.
MOVIE CHANNEL:
Action Max, AMC, HBO, CINEMAX, STARZ, SHOWTIME, HALLMARK, ENCORE etc.
SPORT CHANNEL:
Big Ten Network, CBS College Sports, ESPN, Fox Soccer Channel, NFL, NHL, NBA etc
NEWS CHANNEL:
ABC News, Weather, BBC, C SPAN, CNBC, FOX NEWS etc.
fraud
Green Dot offers this fraud advisory.
Payment Procedure:
This promotion is applicable once you prepay your account for $239.97 (good for 03 months).
As this promotion is brought to you with the Co-operation of Green Dot Inc.
So you have to pay Comcast for the promotion with Money Pak billing card by following 3 simple steps:
i) Go to any of your favorite leading chain store’s checkout counter e.g. CVS Pharmacy, Kroger, Walgreens’ 7/11, Kmart, Circle K, Rite Aid, RadioShack etc, and get Green Dot Money Pak Scratch-able prepaid card (This is a hard paper twofold card without any plastic wrapping in the color green)
ii) Carry enough cash. You can’t use your debit or credit card to buy this Card. ($4.95 Service fee applicable on top of your billing)
iii) Call back the Billing department of Comcast Xfinity at 1-866-694-8573 and pay your bill using that card.
This is a contract free offer for 24 months, with a fix monthly bill of $79.99 after the first three months of Subscription.
Bonus offer: If you are able to clear your billings within 24 hours,  you will automatically will be qualified to earn 100 Loyalty Reward points as good as cash from Comcast Xfinity that can be redeemed by you any time to get one month of extra services.
Bonus offer: If you are able to pay for 06 months of service up front, you will be qualified to receive a Samsung Galaxy Tab® 4 tablet free.
Please feel free to contact for further queries from 8am till 6:30pm PST (Operational timings) at 1-866-694-8573.
Regards,
David Clarke
Employee ID LHM
Loyalty Rewards Department
Comcast Xfinity
*  30 Days money back guarantee. No cancellation or recurring fee applied.
This is a service-related email. Comcast will occasionally send you service-related emails to inform you of service changes, upgrades or new benefits. Services and features are subject to Comcast’s standard terms and conditions of service and are subject to change. Copyright 2015 Comcast. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners. Comcast respects your privacy.


The Better Business Bureau offers its advice about how to avoid Green Dot MoneyPak schemes, which are increasingly common online. (:55)
“That email message convinced me it was all a scam,” Nelson said. “No cable company would write something like this and send it out to customers. They also don’t apparently realize Walgreens and 7-11 have nothing to do with each other. Can you imagine Comcast telling a customer they have to get the ‘green’ prepaid card -without- the plastic wrapping. Most of their customers cannot understand their monthly bill. They are not going to understand the confusing world of prepaid credit cards. It made no sense.”
Stop the Cap! called the “Loyalty Rewards Department of Comcast” and we were disconnected each time we asked a question that did not involve taking advantage of their offer. We called back, trying different departments, and each time we were connected to the same Indian-accented man who had hung up on us before. After the fifth call, they blocked our phone number from reaching them.
We next called Comcast’s security department and got nowhere. They were not interested because we were not Comcast customers inside a Comcast service area and invited us to have our reader call them directly. When Nelson tried, he was left on hold for over 45 minutes and when he finally spoke to someone, they couldn’t be bothered.
“It amazed me how little interest they showed in this operation, which has apparently suckered customers all over the country,” Nelson said. “I asked them to call the number and hear how these people are directly misrepresenting themselves as Comcast, right down to repeating their Xfinity slogans. The representative seemed to have heard the same story before and seemed mostly concerned about telling me Comcast was not responsible for any money paid to the scam artists. They did not even seem to care when I told them they had my personal Comcast account information and suggested the scammers got it off Facebook. Yeah, because I always put my Comcast account number on Facebook, if I used Facebook.”
With further investigation, Stop the Cap! identified several numbers (as well as currently active 866-694-8573) associated with this operation. If any of these numbers call you, hang up: 855-328-7913, 855-859-6946, 800-526-1037, and 800-399-5791.
If you were scammed by these people or have other useful information to share about your experiences with them, please share in the comment section.


WWMT in Kalamazoo, Mich. reports the Comcast Loyalty Rewards scam has affected customers across Michigan through aggressive telemarketing campaigns. (2:01)

Comcast/Capital One credit card scam that I reported to comcast, in case anyone else gets called

This scam calls on the phone first and claims to offer half off the comcast bill for 2 years if you also sign up for a capital one card through them as part of the promotion.  They seemed really legit on the phone, but I was very concerned the info they ask for below when they sent me the email, and also the spelling errors seemed like a red flag, and my son helped me decode the headers in the email, and you can see the emkei.cz origin.

My son says that comcast does not have their SPF set up correctly, and that that makes email spoofing like this possible. If that's true, you really ought to have your IT department fix it, because it makes comcast look bad to be lagging in internet security.

----------------------------------------------------
I will paste below both the original mail, and the one with the email headers decoded:
Original email:

Comcast Xfinity <no-reply@comcast.net>

11:46 AM (1 hour ago)
to me

Dear Customer,

Good Day!
This email refers to the promotion on your current/new services with COMCAST XFINITY, this promotion offers you 50% off in your monthly bill.

With this promotion your existing services i.e. "Comast Internet Blasty" will stay the same as they are right now. No change in equipments or services.


This is a contract free offer for 24 months, with a fix monthly bill of $33.47 per month.
Due balance (if any) will be waived off once you enroll for this new program.

Capital One® is the financial sponsor of this offer and you will keep getting discount as long as you have this card on file. Capital One® card will be shipped to you within 5 working days after subscribing to this promotion.

Kindly fill the following spaces to precede your order:
NAME             FIRST   LAST NAME               
DATE OF BIRTHMM/DD/YYYY
SOCIAL SECURITY #XXX-XX-XXXX
HOME PHONE #XXX-XXX-XXXX
ADDRESS
ADDRESS (with Residential Prove)

*First and Last name of the person who is applying for the card
*Date of Birth of the person who is applying for the card
*SSN of the person who is applying for the card
*applicable for Comcast Voice package (TRIPLE PLAY and DOUBLE PLAY)
*Picture ID (Social Security card/ Driving License/Passport)
*Residential Prove (copy of a bill with Name and address clearly mention)


Please For further queries feel free to call 1866-694-8573 (from 8:00 am till 6:00pm PST).



Regards,
Ross Taylor
Employee ID 36R1
Sales & Promotions Department
COMCAST XFINITY.


 
  
 * 30 Days money back guarantee. No cancellation or recurring fee applied.


This is a service-related email. COMCAST XFINITY occasionally sends you service-related emails to inform you of service changes, upgrades or new benefits. Services and features are subject to COMCAST XFINITY's standard terms and conditions of service and are subject to change. Copyright 2013 COMCAST XFINITY. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners. COMCAST XFINITY respects your privacy.



Email headers decoded:
Delivered-To: odellconnie@gmail.com
Received: by 10.31.221.131 with SMTP id u125csp1632020vkg;
        Mon, 29 Jun 2015 10:46:19 -0700 (PDT)
X-Received: by 10.180.91.107 with SMTP id cd11mr22839257wib.51.1435599979226;
        Mon, 29 Jun 2015 10:46:19 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path: <no-reply@comcast.net>
Received: from emkei.cz (emkei.cz. [46.167.245.71])
        by mx.google.com with ESMTP id fm10si74779774wjc.203.2015.06.29.10.46.18
        for <odellconnie@gmail.com>;
        Mon, 29 Jun 2015 10:46:19 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: neutral (google.com: 46.167.245.71 is neither permitted nor denied by domain of no-reply@comcast.net) client-ip=46.167.245.71;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com;
       spf=neutral (google.com: 46.167.245.71 is neither permitted nor denied by domain of no-reply@comcast.net) smtp.mail=no-reply@comcast.net;
       dmarc=fail (p=NONE dis=NONE) header.from=comcast.net
Received: by emkei.cz (Postfix, from userid 33)
 id E3CE6D57AF; Mon, 29 Jun 2015 19:46:15 +0200 (CEST)
To: odellconnie@gmail.com
Subject: Promotional Details
From: "Comcast Xfinity" <no-reply@comcast.net>
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Importance: Normal
Errors-To: no-reply@comcast.net
Reply-To: ross36r1@comcast.net
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Message-Id: <20150629174616.E3CE6D57AF@emkei.cz>
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2015 19:46:15 +0200 (CEST)

<p><img src="http://forums.comcast.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/14435i6E0FEDE67CAF2A8F/image-size/original?v=mpbl-1&amp;px=-1" alt="" width="125" height="70" /></p>
<p><em>Dear Customer,</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;</em></p>
<p><em>Good Day!</em></p>
<p><em>This email refers to the promotion on your current/new services with COMCAST XFINITY, this promotion offers you 50% off in your monthly bill.</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;</em></p>
<p><em>With this promotion your existing services i.e. <strong>"Comast Internet Blasty"</strong> will stay the same as they are right now. No change in equipments or services.</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;</em></p>
<p><em>This is a contract free offer for 24 months, with a fix monthly bill of $33.47 per month.</em></p>
<p><em>Due balance (if any) will be waived off once you enroll for this new program.</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;</em></p>
<p><em>Capital One&reg; is the financial sponsor of this offer and you will keep getting discount as long as you have this card on file. Capital One&reg; card will be shipped to you within 5 working days after subscribing to this promotion.</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;</em></p>
<p><strong><em>Kindly fill the following spaces to precede your order:</em></strong></p>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong><em>NAME&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</em></strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><em>FIRST&nbsp;&nbsp; LAST NAME&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</em></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong><em>DATE OF BIRTH</em></strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><em>MM/DD/YYYY</em></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong><em>SOCIAL SECURITY #</em></strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><em>XXX-XX-XXXX</em></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong><em>HOME PHONE #</em></strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><em>XXX-XXX-XXXX</em></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong><em>ADDRESS</em></strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><em>&nbsp;</em></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong><em>ADDRESS&nbsp;</em></strong><strong><em>(with Residential Prove)</em></strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><em>&nbsp;</em></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><em>&nbsp;</em></p>
<p><em>*First and Last name of the person who is applying for the card</em></p>
<p><em>*Date of Birth of the person who is applying for the card</em></p>
<p><strong><em>*</em></strong><em>SSN of the person who is applying for the card</em></p>
<p><strong><em>*</em></strong><em>applicable<strong>&nbsp;</strong>for Comcast Voice package (TRIPLE PLAY and DOUBLE PLAY)</em></p>
<p><em>*Picture ID (Social Security card/ Driving License/Passport)</em></p>
<p><strong><em>*</em></strong><em>Residential Prove (copy of a bill with Name and address clearly mention)</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;</em></p>
<p><em>Please For further queries feel free to call 1866-694-8573 (</em><em>from 8:00 am till 6:00pm PST).</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;</em></p>
<p><strong><em>&nbsp;</em></strong></p>
<p><strong><em>Regards,</em></strong></p>
<p><em>Ross Taylor</em></p>
<p><em>Employee ID 36R1</em></p>
<p><em>Sales &amp; Promotions Department</em></p>
<p><em>COMCAST XFINITY.</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;</em></p>
<p>&nbsp;<img src="http://cdn.comcast.com/~/Media/ImageLibrary/responsive-seo-local/customer-service-logo.png?vs=1" alt="" width="60" height="70" />&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>&nbsp;&nbsp;</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;<sub>* 30 Days money back guarantee. No cancellation or recurring fee applied.</sub></em></p>
<p><sub><em>&nbsp;</em></sub></p>
<p><sub><em>&nbsp;</em></sub></p>
<p><sub><em>This is a service-related email. COMCAST XFINITY occasionally sends you service-related emails to inform you of service changes, upgrades or new benefits. Services and features are subject to COMCAST XFINITY's standard terms and conditions of service and are subject to change. Copyright 2013 COMCAST XFINITY. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners. COMCAST XFINITY respects your privacy.</em></sub></p>
<p><sub>&nbsp;</sub></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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Monday, June 22, 2015

The funniest TED Talks | Playlist | TED.com

https://www.ted.com/playlists/235/the_funniest_ted_talks

Was just watching these, especially like the 2nd talk so far. Thought of you all and hope you enjoy too!

Sent from my iPhone

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Over-truthiness (ie, no tact) and "Full Disclosure": 552: Need To Know Basis, thanks to This American Life!

This great episode, especially the story "Full Disclosure", gives me something to hang onto, when dealing with someone who feels they are just telling you their honest opinion, and so why are you offended?   ;-)

Transcript: 552: Need To Know Basis
"

Ira Glass

Act One, Full Disclosure. You know, most of us, we basically just keep stuff to ourselves. Right? We withhold information. We do not say everything. You run into an acquaintance on the street, and they ask you, how are you? You generally do not tell them how you are, really. Adult life means we provide information on a need-to-know basis.
Your mom asks you on the phone about something you think that the two of you are just going to fight about. Sometimes you dodge, right? You do not talk about things that you don't want to talk about.
But what would it be like to not live like that? Well, Michael Leviton knows.

Michael Leviton

I just have a very unusual family. They valued honesty to an extreme extent.

Ira Glass

Michael's in his 30s, and he was raised by parents who encouraged him and his siblings to tell everything, the whole truth, all the time, believing that it hurts relationships when we avoid awkward truths, that we all should just man up and talk things through. We should work things out.
And being honest also means being true to who you are, right? Which, obviously, anybody wants for their kids. But hearing how far his family went with this, it makes you really understand how incredibly strange your daily life would be if you were to never withhold the truth. Like, for a long time, Michael believed that if somebody asked him a question-- I mean, like, any question at all-- he had to answer it honestly.

Michael Leviton

This is funny because in job interviews, people would ask me what my biggest flaw was. And I would go into a long rant about all my flaws and all the negative things anyone's ever said about me. And people would look at me-- I got used to this expression of horror. And sometimes it was kind of comic. People would laugh. Like, wow, you thought you had to actually answer that? You're clearly supposed--

Ira Glass

That's amazing. That's really amazing. Yeah, you are the only person in the history of job interviews to have ever done that.

Michael Leviton

Not the only person.

Ira Glass

That's true. His brother Josh does the same thing. More on that later. Let's stay with Michael for now.

Michael Leviton

OK. One time, I went on a date when I was in college. And I went on this date. And I spent the whole date explaining why she should want to be with me-- you know, what was great about me-- and also why other people didn't want to be with me. I'm saying all the bad things that ever happened to me, why I was rejected by the world.
Now, that was just being honest. I was just telling her all the information necessary, in my mind, to decide whether to be with me. I thought it was my responsibility as a person on a date to explain everything they were dealing with from the first moment of the date so that they could make an informed decision about how to move forward.

Ira Glass

That's what I love about this story, is that you thought you were doing a good job. You thought you were acing the date.

Michael Leviton

Oh, yes.

Ira Glass

For a long time, if Michael decided that he didn't want to hang out with somebody anymore, he would just, you know, come out and say it-- let's not be friends. When he would go and hear musician buddies of his perform, they would ask him afterwards, how'd you like the show? He would do the thing that nobody ever does. He would actually tell them, you know, the arrangements could have been better. You shouldn't play with this band. That first number should be in double time.
If somebody told Michael about a TV show that they liked, or really if they expressed any opinion at all on any subject-- like they told him they loved chocolate-- he could not help himself from offering his own opinion, forcefully. He hates chocolate.

Michael Leviton

And they would see it as, why would this person say this thing? Why would this person trash something I love so immediately? They must just be doing it as an act of aggression.
But really, it was more a gut instinct from my childhood, that conversation was expressing whatever was going on.

Ira Glass

In other words, you expressed your honest feelings about chocolate. Now it's my turn to express my honest feelings about chocolate.

Michael Leviton

Yeah.

Ira Glass

But would you do things, like, you would perceive, in a conversation with somebody you just met, oh, this person's kind of bossy. And then would you say, like, you know, I think you're very bossy?

Michael Leviton

A lot of the time, things like that would happen. Yeah. A lot of time, I would feel like it was my job to observe things and to tell people how they were and go like, oh, it's funny. You know, you do this thing.
And I wouldn't notice that it was triggering to people to say something like that, to go, oh, you notice you're very controlling? Have you noticed that? Like, why are you like that? And I would ask these questions that would lead in horrible directions all the time.

Ira Glass

See, I think all of us have met people who will say, well, I just tell it how it is. And people don't like to hear the truth. And I think most of us just feel like, well, that person is just an asshole or just has something wrong with them, that they don't give a damn about other people's feelings.
And what you're saying is somehow you learned this as a kind of, like, strategy for dealing with the world from the start.

Michael Leviton

Yeah. And to me, it was kind of like an exciting conversational thing to do, to be like, let's talk about ourselves. Everyone's having these small-talk conversations. They're so pointless and boring. Really, we should get to the real stuff immediately.
This is so interesting. I'm learning about you. And it'll be much more real and interesting.

Ira Glass

You know, which in a way is so idealistic. Think about for a second all the people pleasers who will say anything in a conversation just to kind of get by, all the folks who spend years in therapy getting the courage to tell people what they really think.
Speaking for myself, I feel like I don't even know what I think half the time or what I believe. And I have lots of conversations where I know what I believe, and I don't say it because I don't want to have conflict. I want to avoid conflict. And I think that lots of us are like that.
Not Michael. His parents taught him, be stronger than that.

Mark

I don't know what Michael talked to you about.

Ira Glass

This is Michael's dad, Mark. Everybody says that he was brutally honest when his kids were growing up. He made his living in the music business. And all of his life he has also worked, appropriately enough, as a professional critic. Michael's mom is a therapist who will tell you straight out--

Michael's Mom

I just can't lie.

Ira Glass

But Michael's dad told me he looks back on his kids' childhoods with a lot of regret for just how harshly he would tell everybody the truth all the time, as he saw it, and especially for how frank he was about things with his own kids.

Mark

From my point of view, some of my part was not very age appropriate, let's say. We kind of revealed to the children information about our marriage that most parents, I don't think, would reveal. And more or less left the kids to deal with it.

Ira Glass

Michael had told me about this. There were a few stories of parental over-sharing. But the one that I think captured just how disturbingly far this could go sometimes happened while his parents were splitting up. His parents divorced when he and his siblings were teenagers.
And every year back then, the family would go to a place I was really surprised to hear exists at all-- family therapy camp, where counseling sessions were done in public throughout the day in front of other people. And so they're at this camp, and their parents are having troubles. And in front of other families and therapists and also in front of their own children-- aged 13, 16, and 19-- Michael's parents hashed out their issues.

Michael Leviton

So, for instance, I remember one therapy session that my mother did that was all about how she felt being married to my dad. About feeling invisible, about these kinds of-- talking about very intense, personal-- like her despair and the things that she dealt with in that marriage.
And also, I got to see the man my mother was leaving my father for. They would all be there and talk about their feelings towards each other, talk about what had happened, talk about the grievances they had with each other, fights. They would yell at each other and accuse each other of things and kind of air dirt about what the other had done. And it was all in front of us.

Ira Glass

But did the parents understand like, oh, that was a problem?

Michael Leviton

I don't think so. I think that they, at the time, were very much like, we are speaking our truth. The kids should know what happened. And these are our feelings. And they can just imagine it, but it'd be better if they actually knew what was going on and they knew how we felt.

Ira Glass

Just to be clear, at the time, Michael agreed with this.

Michael Leviton

I was like, oh, this is great. This is how it should be. This is the honest way to deal with it. Everyone else would just hide their divorces, the cowards. They would deal with their divorce in private. And it would be very safe for everyone. But it was actually a lie. The kids wouldn't really know what was going on with their parents.

Ira Glass

So you felt, actually, superior to others.

Michael Leviton

That was a big part of it, I think, that other people are cowards. And they're very weak. And they can't handle the truth. And they're afraid to express who they really are. They're inauthentic out of fear. And we are actually bravely being authentic, expressing how we really feel and not hiding things.

Ira Glass

So these three children grow up like this. And they head out into the world as adults. And they had to confront the fact that these are not the rules that the rest of us are playing under. And the dad says that he knows that he trained them to live in a world that does not exist, a world where people are way more frank with each other than we really are.

Mark

Look, how do you create the world that should exist except by acting as if? Acting the way you want to to make the world through your own actions?

Ira Glass

Three siblings are now in their 20s and 30s. And being honest has meant different things to each of them. For Michael's sister Miriam, it's been the easiest. She said she knows that she is not somebody that anybody would ever tell a secret to. And there are times she can't help herself from saying the truth.

Miriam

Sometimes, like, in work meetings, I'll disagree with something. And then I think, why did I say that?

Ira Glass

But it's manageable, she says. No bad consequences. Michael's brother Josh is also still a believer, which is remarkable considering the one big life-changing way that this level of honesty has affected him. He trained for seven years to work in law enforcement, to be one of those experts who analyzes crime scenes and figures out what kind of gun was used and the bullet trajectories and all that stuff. He has a master's degree in forensic ballistics.
But he doesn't have a job doing this because when he's asked about his drug use in job interviews, he always admits that in 1997, when he was 14 years old, he tried mushrooms one time.

Josh

People always just ask me, well, why did you tell them about that? Is there a record of it? And no, there's not a record of anything. But I feel like I have to tell the truth. I just never thought about lying, even. I didn't even consider it.
And it seems like everybody's saying that it is OK to lie in certain circumstances because everybody else does. I kind of look at it like in sports. It's kind of saying, these athletes that take steroids, they have to do it because everybody takes steroids in order to compete. And I kind of want to succeed without taking steroids, even in a world that takes steroids, if that makes sense.

Ira Glass

Michael, meanwhile, seems to have had a much harder time than either of his siblings when it comes to honesty. By the time he was in his late 20s, Michael had noticed that acting exactly the way that he thought a principled person should be acting, he was constantly getting in all these awful clashes with people-- like, all the time. And it was confusing. And he didn't like it.
And the part of his life where it was especially vexing was dating. Over and over, he would meet somebody he really liked, go out on a date, and then they'd never want to see him again. And he had no idea what he did.

Michael Leviton

Well, that's the hard thing about dating. It's hard to learn when you're dating because people don't tell you what you did wrong. You don't know why you were rejected. You have to figure it out yourself.
And that's why a lot of dating is a very hard thing to improve. It's really hard to improve your dating because-- like, this is the thing that's famous. If you're a bad kisser, does anyone say, by the way, you're a bad kisser. Here's how to kiss better?

Ira Glass

They just never kiss you again.

Michael Leviton

It's not their responsibility. They never kiss you again.

Ira Glass

Right.

Michael Leviton

And you don't know why you were rejected. It could've been anything. You just have to have your paranoid fantasy of all the millions of things that you think you did wrong. But it could've been anything. Dating's chaos in that way.

Ira Glass

Even when he had dates that for a while seemed to be going OK, he would blurt out something honest, out of habit, and ruin them.

Michael Leviton

If anything beautiful or cool happens, I would stop everything and go, wasn't that an amazing moment? Let's just stop and, like, talk about how amazing that was. That barely ever happens.
And a lot of the time, the moment would be ruined by my commenting on it.

Ira Glass

Like what kind of moment are you talking about?

Michael Leviton

Well, OK. For instance, one time I was walking with this woman. And I was having this date that was going well. And she put a cigarette in her mouth to smoke it. And I grabbed the cigarette out of her mouth and kissed her. And it was great.
And then she stepped away. And we finished this kiss. And I said, wow. That's not something I usually do. That was really amazing. I was actually very inspired there. Usually, I'm just so awkward. And actually, that was much-- and I just ruined the whole thing. There was no reason for me to comment on how cool I had just been.

Ira Glass

Well, I think the key word there was "usually." I think "usually" kind of kills that moment.

Michael Leviton

Oh, yeah. Well, that's actually another thing here. It was my tendency to talk about my general dating experience and to talk about those things just because they were on my mind. When I was on a date, I was naturally thinking about other dates and other things that had happened. So I would say, oh yeah. I've done a couple other amazing things on dates like that. I would just start saying these things, and it would ruin everything.

Ira Glass

I feel like when you tell some of these stories, you're like somebody from another planet or something who got dropped into our world.

Michael Leviton

That's what it felt like. I was in the wrong world. And I didn't understand the concept of politeness. When I read-- I actually, at one point around the same time, read a politeness book. I actually read an etiquette book trying to figure it out. And it was just one advice-- every time, it was just lie, lie, lie.
It was just, oh, here's a situation-- you don't know someone's name? Lie. Here's a situation-- someone's gone through something horrible? Just lie. Here's another situation. It was just--

Ira Glass

Right. It didn't say on the page "lie."

Michael Leviton

No, it didn't say to lie. But every piece of advice looked like--

Ira Glass

That's what it came down to.

Michael Leviton

And it was all about other people's feelings.

Ira Glass

And at some point it occurred to Michael that honesty was coming in the way of noticing other people's feelings. And maybe he needed to change that. And so finally, at 29-- that's five years ago-- he decided he'd had enough, and he started experimenting on his dates with how he acted. Now, these were not complicated experiments by any means. He'd simply have something honest that would occur to him that he wanted to say, and he would not say it.

Michael Leviton

I saw in a very visceral way how I could change my behavior and it would go over better. And I could actually have a great time if I just shut up about certain things. I actually made a list of things not to talk about.

Ira Glass

You made a list of things not to talk about?

Michael Leviton

An actual written list of things not to talk about.

Ira Glass

Do you still have that list?

Michael Leviton

I actually do. Yeah. I add to it sometimes still because it's hard for me to remember. I have to concentrate very hard to not follow my gut instinct to tell the whole truth about things.

Ira Glass

On that list-- you don't have to give an opinion. You don't have to say things out loud. Just because they're true is not helpful. You can choose not to answer a question. Don't fully explain. Make it quick. Say you'll tell them later. End the conversation first. Don't try to impress.

Michael Leviton

One actually really good one was to stop explicitly describing myself in any way, positive or negative. That I didn't have to say, oh, I'm this kind of person. I do this.

Ira Glass

Why would that come up at all in a conversation? It would be like, I'm the sort of person who-- why would you be saying that?

Michael Leviton

Because I believed that's what conversation was. And they couldn't see those things. I didn't understand that they could see those things in your behavior, that they would read behind what you said and learn things. You had to say it explicitly. Otherwise, you were misleading them.

Ira Glass

OK. Next one?

Michael Leviton

At one point, I resolved that if I didn't recognize someone or I didn't remember their name to just pretend I did, which is something-- I used to always go, oh, I don't recognize you. Or, oh, we've met before? I don't remember. Or, I don't remember your name. I realized that I could pretend to know someone's name while I figured out what their name was. And that changed so much.

Ira Glass

One year his New Year's resolutions, typed out, were, quote, "tell no one about my problems. Listen to how others feel instead of telling them how I feel. Pretend more and people please. Remember to make others feel like I find them smart and cool. Act like I agree."
On the same page-- quote, "my list of things that I am not allowed to talk about-- ideological commentary, unnecessary brutal truths, triggering questions and unwanted inquiries. Avoid asking people what they mean when they use certain words." Or there's this one--

Michael Leviton

OK. So I wrote here, "Take nothing at face value. Don't investigate things people say. Remember their minds are chaos."

Ira Glass

Wait, what do you mean by that?

Michael Leviton

I know. It's a strange, strange thing to say. What I meant was that people-- I was of the mindset that other people were saying what they meant. And I would sometimes get into ideological battles with people who hadn't even really been thinking very hard about what they'd said. Because I would say, well, do you really mean that? I mean, what do you mean when you say that? And I would investigate it further. And it would become this attack, when really they didn't mean--

Ira Glass

They didn't mean anything.

Michael Leviton

They didn't mean anything by it. They were just saying things they thought were socially acceptable kind of conversations that I would agree with. But then it would devolve into this horrible discussion. And a lot of time, I would get kind of angry. And sometimes, they would say, you know, it's like I don't really mean anything by it. Like they would start to backtrack because they hadn't ever meant it in the first place.

Ira Glass

"Remember their minds are chaos"?

Michael Leviton

Yeah, meaning that there's lots of stuff going on that leads to why people say what they say and that I can't know what those things are. That their minds are chaos of feelings, that they're human beings.

Ira Glass

What was kind of inspiring talking to Michael is that although he seemed like somebody who'd dropped into our world without a clue about how the rest of us behave, he then made a study of why he was failing. And he came to conclusions on his own. And he made up this to-do list. And then, like a scientist in a science fiction film who brews up a miracle elixir in the lab and then decides that he should be one to try it first, Michael has put his theories into action.
And it's working. He's had girlfriends. Last November, he married one of those girlfriends. And so these days, when he's being, like, super-honest in some inappropriate situation, his wife will say to him, wow. That was an interesting way to handle that. Or wow, we're doing that now?
He says he still has a way to go with all this stuff. But what he's concluded after this lifelong experiment in honesty is that honesty is not enough. You have to read people for signs that they do not need or do not want to hear the entire truth. And in fact, the whole idea of a world where everybody is honest all the time?

Michael Leviton

It was almost a world where people didn't have feelings. The idea that someone would be upset-- that they weren't supposed to get upset. They were supposed to just hear what I said and go, oh, wow. OK. That's cool. You were honest. I value that.

Ira Glass

In the real world, Michael says, people have all kinds of feelings swirling around in their heads and insecurities and struggles. What they say may or may not be what they believe. And he says, that's great. That's normal. It's chaos.
"
Transcript: 552: Need To Know Basis