02:18 - 21.06.07
Media
Oh no! Deliver me from temptation and evil too. There was a report on a particular website that a hacker had managed to retrieve the ending of book seven in the Harry Potter series and had published it on their own site. The reporting site had even linked to the very well known and reputable news agency's original report, that in turn had published the address of the website of the hacker. How could they? Certainly any idiot can turn to the back of any book to find out how it ends. Sometimes I have done that with a really badly written item just to put an end to the experience without feeling my time was totally wasted. The whole point of reading books - whether novels, short stories or poetry - is the journey through the imagination shared by the writer and the reader together. For some stories such as Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings - to Mordor we will take you - a whole generation is captured and united by that shared enchantment/experience.
What was done by the hacker was like publishing the championship scores of the baseball, football or whichever sport one fancies, before the game(s) even begins. In the same way that fans go out to cheer their teams as a positive community building event, the same can be said for the release of the last Harry Potter book. Why would anyone spoil the shared enjoyment of so many young boys and girls who might not have seen the value of reading without being included in such a unique event. Shame on all those involved in trying to spoil their summer reading pleasure. Part of the frustration is that if the mainstream media decide to reveal any of the details it will be very hard to avoid seeing or hearing the information unless one totally turns off all media sources - something that is tempting at times any way. Bleagh.
To be brutally honest I was very tempted to go to that hacker website myself. I even copied down the address. But then I realized that it was the nuances of the story that make it so enjoyable. That is what I have been anticipating throughout the other books. Part of the fun has been in the speculating about all the possible twists and turns that could arise given the wealth of material from mythology and history that has been provided to date. I realized that all that would be achieved was to spoil my own pleasure in the series too. To keep myself from being sucked into the betrayal, I went to a website I visited earlier and signed up for the walking program I had considered earlier in the day. It has been many years since I participated in a marathon, but I need to have some concrete achievable goals of my own that help me stay positive right now. Then I went and did the manual rinse cycle for the clothes I had begun washing by hand earlier in the evening. As I noted a couple of posts ago, neither my youngest nor myself have managed to track down some flexible hosing to replace the torn bit inside the clothes washer barrel. There was some extra vigour in the wringing out of the clothes as I contemplated the thoughtlessness of that hacker though.
Today I got back into the routine of sending out resumes. A bit of mail at lunch time really made the paranoia about someone interfering with that process rise up again. There have been a number of attempts lately from a number of sources that indicate to me that someone really wants to know all the details of my finances and liabilities. I kept dismissing it as an overactive imagination and I hope that is still true. However, the letter came from a very large bank. It stated that it wanted a final reconciliation on the payments I had made to Legal Aid when I asked them to help me go through the courts to get support money from the boys' dad years ago. The agency did get a judgement but because the legislation had no teeth, there was no consistent enforcement of the judgement. My youngest was five when his Dad left and he was fifteen before there were any regular payments. When I had explained my dilemma to the original cousellor I met with, she had said that the agency would also help me with the divorce process since abuse had been involved. I hadn't known that was possible nor would I have requested it, but I didn't turn the offer down either. There was no other way I would ever have been able to manage freeing myself from that marriage. I made a point of paying off the legal fees as quickly as I could without taking food off the boys' plates. Many years have passed since then and I don't have any explanation as to why someone would revisit or investigate that debt now. The letter today stated that the agency owed me just under a dollar as a result of an overpayment on my account. Added in to that the phone conversation I had with the insurance agent who seemed to have been asked about my insurance status, as well as the one interviewer last year at city hall who asked if there was a linkage between the break-ins at the election office and the threats that I was receiving at the downtown job at the same time and it seems that other people than me have the same perception that someone wishes me harm.
One of the reasons I began posting to you nearly five years ago was because of what was occurring in the assignment I was in at that time. I was afraid that there might be a court case and I felt very strongly that I needed to protect myself by recording the daily details of the different staff's behaviour in case I found myself testifying in court. I tried very hard to just record what I saw without trying to interpret it - at least not in your electrons. It was an extremely difficult exercise - especially when one is afraid. Over the balance of the years the information I've coded in your posts have proved invaluable in keeping me aware and on track as the audits of the records and data continued to turn up information of white collar misdeeds and miscues. Sins of commission and omission both. Hopefully I'm just projecting my concern about not getting a lot of response to those resumes instead of the alternative. Bleagh again. All I want, dear diary, is a job that lets me pay my bills and maybe even have a little left over to fix up the house and have fun with the grandbabies. I don't think that is an unreasonable wish. Do you?
Any way time to cuddle with the cats. Good night.
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