Words on the Page

Monthly Assessment: September 2012

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: Almost Famous by Eminem How was the weekend? Ours was an emotional roller coaster of sorts. We went from a funeral to a Celtic festival on the same day. His coworker, a lovely, 31-year-old woman, succumbed to sarcoma. It was a lump that appeared two weeks after the birth of her…

Things That Make My Head Explode

Posted on by lwidmer

Welcome to Friday! After having spent the last two weeks in full-on, all-out writing mode, I’m kicking back a little. I have a lunch date with a friend, then two phone calls. Beyond that, the day is nice and easy. Time for a little venting of those things that make the head thump. This time,…

Accepting No Less

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: Naked Kids by Grouplove What a change! Yesterday was quiet, almost relaxing. I’ve finally caught up with all the work for the client project, and we’re moving on to another, much smaller project tomorrow. I was able to get a smaller project in (and done) and put some polish on an…

Five Ways to Set Better Goals

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: All At Once by The Airborne Toxic Event Exhale…… Hear that? That’s the sound of a huge chunk of my work being completed. Amen. More is expected by the end of the week, but for now, I can breathe again. Time again for me to revisit my monthly earnings goal. Not…

Giving Good Blog

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: The Graveyard Near the House by The Airborne Toxic Event Good day yesterday. I managed another article, two interviews, three revisions, and a conference call. The pace has slowed, amen, but I still have things to tick off the list, so back to it this morning. I was thinking about what…

Of Audubon and Alba

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: Caledonia by Amy MacDonald Have you ever been so mentally exhausted that when you lie down to sleep, it doesn’t come? That was much of my weekend. Friday night I was just spent, but could not sleep. After a restless night, I spent Saturday in a bit of a daze. I…

What’s That Smell?

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: That Smell by Lynyrd Skynyrd Who says music can’t inspire a blog post? I heard this song as I was about to put some thoughts down. It reminded me that I’ve seen some pretty smelly stuff lately. But more on that later. Yesterday was fruitful. I may have salvaged my weekend…

The Price and the Client

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: Beautiful Day by U2 Another busy one yesterday, and I’m expecting it to repeat today. I did manage to move one of the interviews to email, which frees up a lot of time and helps both the interviewee and me get the story straight the first time. Also, I kept chasing…

Drive

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: All at Once by The Airborne Toxic Event This pace shall be the end of me if it continues. Yesterday I had two more interviews, two more articles to write, and more coordination of interviews for the magazine piece. Today, four interviews for four different stories. Tomorrow, more of the same….

If You Say You’re Not a Scammer, Does That Make it True?

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: Hospital by Counting Crows Yesterday was a sprint for which I felt seriously out of shape. I knew I’d be busy when I returned from California, but I didn’t realize just how busy. By noon I’d finished a blog post, sat in on a team conference call, reviewed one set of…

Cathy Miller

LOL (and in relief) that somehow I have been missed by this sad (?) soul. She seems to be doing the writer route. Sometimes it's good to be off radar. 🙂

I just received an email from a client's personal email address. She is currently vacationing in California, but lo and behold, the email says she and her family were mugged in United Arab Emirates and had all their cash and credit cards stolen. Not to worry, they have their tickets back home but need help settling their hotel bill.

Don't you just hate when they route California trips through U.A.E.?

Granted, some are not so obvious, but always pay attention to your gut or little inner voice. Verify before doing anything if you think it's real.

Scammers are the sum of the earth.

Lori

Cathy, that's hilarious, and all too common. We had an email not long ago from one of the monks in our meditation group. Same thing. Lost his credit cards and had no money. The last part I believe (they take a vow of poverty), but the first part? Yea, they don't carry credit cards. When my husband wrote back and asked what the problem was exactly, the response was "Just help me!"

Big, wildly waving red flag.

Allie

I haven't been spammed like that, but I have had people e-mail me requests to guest post on my blog purely in order to increase their Google backlinks. One even wanted me to provide them a topic to write! If they had looked through my blog at all, they would see I've never accepted a single guest post and they would know what topics I'm interested in covering! I'm all for helping other people grow their business, but not at the expense of my own.
It's a shame that people aren't willing to do any research before sending blind requests.

Cathy Miller

And that was supposed to be scum of the earth-I hope scammers aren't the SUM of the earth. LOL!!

Allie-those "guest bloggers" are spammers in the most annoying fashion!

Paula

I guess my spam filters (e-mail and for the blog) do a good job of screening out the spam (so much so that sometimes legitimate e-mails wind up in my spam folder). Phone calls? I get those all the time.

Yesterday I got one from some vaguely named police-related beneficent fund. First, local news has been full of reports about such scams. Second, when I said I wasn't donating the guy said I'd donated last year. Excuse me? He wouldn't back down in saying how "generous" I was last year, and that it would be great if I could donate again, even just a little. No matter how many times I said I'd never donated to them before, he was insistent that I had. Huge red flag. Another red flag? If I were a past donor, don't you think he would have known my first name – or at least the initial?

The only donations I've made in the past couple of years have been in clothes, winter coats, shoes or non-perishable food items I've given to local clothing and food drives. Oh, I also texted in a Red Cross donation after the Japanese tsunami because I have dear friends in Japan.

My guess is he was trying to get me to agree to "donate" so he could ask me to confirm some credit card information or a bank routing number. After the third or forth time I told him there was no way on earth I had ever donated to them before, he launched into phase two of his pitch and I hung up.

By phone or e-mail, scammers are seldom as slick as they think they are.

Lori

Paula, I wouldn't be so sure. I ran across one once who was so slick he was like Clark Griswald flying down that hill in Christmas Vacation. In less than five minutes, he had told me his story and, without even asking, had found a way to get me to volunteer my time writing a release for him. He wore sincerity in his voice and was way too good at it. Turns out he's a career scam artist who knows which buttons to push and when to back off and just let it happen.

Made me doubt nearly everyone after him.

Paula

I suppose there are a few masters of manipulation out there. But most of the spammer/phishing types don't have that snake oily quality.

Lori

Allie, I get a lot of those, too. Tiring, aren't they?

Anne Wayman

The sad truth also is that if someone weren't responding to spam it would go away… but it pays and pays and pays.

Wade Finnegan

Lori, I'm pretty sure we got the exact same email. The boldness of some people really blows me away.

Lori

Wade, we probably did. I get that sometimes life kicks us and we need a hand up, but don't ask people you don't know! Ask friends, family, colleagues with whom you've communicated.