Spamming Theft

OH MY GOD! My online ME is in danger! Last weekend someone hacked into my email account and sent spam to all my contacts. I don't just mean any email account. I mean THE email account. The one I've had for about a decade. The one I've used when making a personal account in any other website, including Blogger. The one that I use in MSN messenger. This email account is so thoroughly rooted in all my Internet activity that it is practically like my online spirit, my Internet alter ego. Sending out so much spam has got me listed in some email black lists and now several emails that were sent to me bounced back with some comment about untrustworthy recipient. I can still use the email address to log into Blogger, for example. At least Hotmail didn't freeze my account because I got a few new emails today.

It is distressing that THE email address is now unreliable, though. Not to mention it's quite embarrassing to send spam to all those people , including professors, ancient romantic interests, former acquaintances, and all the other people I had gladly forgotten. I really hope no one fell for the "DEAR FRIEND" beginning and I hope no one clicked on that link.

It would be wise to avoid relying on one email account for everything. I have had several other email accounts but I keep forgetting their passwords and then forgetting I even had an account there until it expires. It would be easy if I used one of those (whatchama-call-it) email browsers like Outlook so I could just direct all my emails there but they are all SO UGLY. Like the 90ies exploded all over freeware. Just white boxes and gray edges. Oh I'm sure you can visit options and make it green boxes and blue edges if you want, but in the end it still looks worse than your average beginner web page made by some friendly colorblind highschool geek.

Yet I'm not nearly as freaked out about the entire event as I could be. I wasn't even all that freaked out when I thought Hotmail froze my account and I have to make a new account in every website I use. At first I thought I'm taking it so lightly because I'm mentally in some serene breastfeeding mother's limbo. I have been unusually serene and blissfully calm (most of the time) ever since Siiri was born for which I "blame" breastfeeding hormones. Now I realize my reaction is mostly RELIEF! I'm so calm because I'm relieved!

Think about it this way: I sent all my friends and former friends and all the important and less important acquaintances an email promoting low price "Computers, Televisions,Cell Phones,MP3/MP4 Players,Digital Cameras, Camcorders, Video Games Consoles,GPS and Motorcycles". I COULD have sent them advertising for penis enlargers, xxx-content sites, 50% off breast implants. Or I could have sent them a horrible malware that wipes their computers clean, and not in the good and tidy way. Even those money scams "please send me money so I can give you the millions you inherited" would have been worse. I don't even know how my email account was stolen so it really could have been any random spam. Actually I don't know if I linked everyone to a nasty malware site. I didn't try clicking it.

On other news, Siiri has started to pull herself up. She crawl to a higher obstacle and then just keeps on crawling. Carefully places her hand, then the other one and then tries to pull her knees closer for better balance. Then she carefully places one feet sole to the floor and becomes very wobbly as she tries to get the other sole to the floor and both legs straight. And then she falls down sitting. But sometimes she doesn't fall - she gets a good starting position and manages to get both legs straight with her feet firmly on the ground. She gets really excited with her success and tries to jump up and down, except she CAN'T jump yet. As she tries to flex her knees, her legs get all stiff and start trembling. She can't even sit back down carefully so she lets go with her hands and falls down sitting from quite a high position.

So far I have managed to ease her fall a bit but now she learned that pulling herself up is much easier in her crib. She can simply slide her hands higher and gradually straighten her body. She got an unusual mischievous laugh when she discovered it, as if saying, "What a neat trick! This I have to practice when Mommy's not here to read stories to me". I can already imagine waking up to horrible pain cries and running in to discover that Siiri pulled herself up and then fell head-first into crib bars. I have crib padding but it won't protect her.

Oh well, it appears I'm trying to protect her against the most baby-safe object in out apartment so perhaps I should just forget those over-protecting thoughts.

Meanwhile, during daytime Siiri crawls around this electronics-friendly apartment with barely any doors to stop her and we haven't even begun to turn this place child-safe. It seems it won't be necessary. We'll eliminate some obvious lethal hazards but other than that it's not worth the trouble! An 8-month old baby is perfectly capable of understanding that No means No. We keep a perfectly good laptop on the floor with it's keyboard in Siiri's reach, yet Siiri just sits nearby and plays with boring plastic shapes. No violence or punishing or "quick hand taps" involved. Not even yelling or anger. Simply a lot of persistence with clear serious voice, "No, don't. No, don't. No, don't. No, don't. No, don't. No, don't.". She has a lot of freedom with a few rules she already understands. Lovely smart baby.