Archive for April 25, 2009

Staying Healthy

{ April 25, 2009 @ 7:50 pm } · { Health }
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This week was my first week exercising and I can say that I feel great!  After reading the article in the Washington Post entitled, “Daily Red Meat Raises Chances Of Dying Early,” I have sworn off red meat and processed food and vowed to get healthy.

 

Now as I strive to stay healthy, I encourage you to do the same.  Some websites that are helpful in helping you find meals and track you weight lost:

 http://www.50millionpounds.com/ 

http://www.weightwatchers.com/food/index.aspx 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/healthy-eating/index.html

Let’s fight cancer, heart disease and other illnesess by aiming to stay healthy! In the words of  Tony Little the creator of Gazelle Freestyle, “The most important thing you own is your BODY.”

 

Washington Post article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/23/AR2009032301626.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR

Cyberstalking

{ April 25, 2009 @ 7:14 pm } · { Technology }
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cyber_stalking_This week was rather CRAZY for me.  What I love most about my life is that it’s DRAMA FREE.  While I like to keep my life free from DRAMA, this week DRAMA found me through Cyberstalking.

 

I never thought that I would be a victim of such behavior and thought it was something that only happens on tv or certain people like celebrities and popular people.  But to my dismay it has happened to me.  I had to change my settings on all my social networks to private and had to block a certain user from having access to my accounts.

 

Many may wonder what did I do to deserve this behavior or did I show him any sign of interest?  My answer would be NO.  I added him as a friend thinking he would conduct himself like the other users in my social network.  Also, when I added him as a friend I thought he was a friend I grew up with from church but when I told my sister about him she told me that he wasn’t the guy we grew up with after all. 

 

So, I thought nothing of it and just let him continue to be a part of my social network until one night he wrote all these compliments about my smile and beauty on my pictures.  Ok, I thought one compliment would do but thought nothing of it again.  Boy was I wrong!!!  A few days later he did the same thing and added me as a friend on my other social networks as well.  I finally replied to one of his messages that he left in my in-box when he stated that he hope he didn’t go overboard in which I told him he did and informed him of my relationship status. 

 

For some reason, I thought that was the end of that, how naïve I was again!!!  I get a message from my BFF telling me that he requested her as a friend and so she thought nothing of it and added him like I did; only to find out he requested her as friend to get to know me.  When I learned of this I was OUT-RAGED because I really could not believe I was being stalked in cyberspace!!

 

You may ask why I’m sharing my story.  It’s because I want others to be aware of this unwanted behavior that is hitting the internet.  This behavior is just like that of an in person stalker.  In fact this person is trying to go from cyberspace to in person stalking.

 

To safeguard yourself against these unwanted advances you should:

  • Be careful of the information you put on your profile like: where you live, schools attended, job information, telephone numbers etc.  You can always say that you live in the next town or state over especially if you don’t visit that area.

  • Set your privacy settings so that only your friends can view your information to avoid predators.

  • You shouldn’t always provide detail information regarding your status like: “I’m gone to the mall on Peachtree.” You should just say, “I’m gone to the mall.” 

  • If you discover that you are being stalked through cyberspace immediately block the user(s), print out any messages he/she may have sent you, and report the abuse to the social network.

I’m sure the creators of social networks like: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, MyLife, and other social networks intent was to create a network that allows users to re-connect with old friends, classmates and to even make some new friends not cyberstalking.

If you’re going to use these networks, please by all means use caution!

For more information about cyberstalking visit:

http://www.cyberguards.com/CyberStalking.html or

http://www.cleverdivas.com/2008/04/29/cyberstalking/