I feel like Kanye West was writing about my life in the songs “Runaway” and “Blame Game”.

I felt particularly connected with this poem at the end of the song portion of “Blame Game”

Things used to be
Now they’re not
Anything but us is who we are
Disguising ourselves as secret lovers
We’ve become public enemies
We walk away like strangers in the street
Gone for eternity
We erased one another
So far from where we came
With so much of everything
How do we leave with nothing
Lack of visual empathy equates the meaning of L-O-V-E
Hatred and attitude tear us entirely

-Chloe Mitchell

march seems to be an incredibly tragic month for me. i have always owned up to the fact that i was a bit of a terror in my youth, so maybe this is kharma. sigh.

had and still having a very rough few days, but so unsubstantial compared to whats going on in Japan.  hoping dearly that those nukes stay contained and the people stay safe.

when i finally thought things were starting to look my way, reality slaps me square in the face. seems like things never change.

Happy New Year

from 7th Heaven @ Whisterler-Blackcomb

…from Machu Picchu

a few weeks ago, over late night chinese food while slightly inebriated, it came to light that my friend had a few houses in Peru, as well as a bar there.  the obvious question came out of my mouth.  “wtf are we not there?”  i mean, it’s the beginning of summer in Peru, so why not get the hell away from the bay area winter and enjoy some sun.  a week later tickets were bought, and here i am in Peru. i’ve never really had much interest in going to Peru, however, when opportunity knocks, you have to answer the door.

i’m staying in a humble little town called Chincha Alta, and i was told, before the 2008 earthquake that leveled much of the area, the town was quite nice.  right now its in rebuild mode, and it almost looks like a war zone out of a video game.  nonetheless, i’m relaxed, had some good food, warm, and was able to finish another book.  yesterday i took a dune buggy ride up some incredible sand dunes, as well as went sand boarding.  quite fun.

it’s been 6 days in Chincha, and i’ll be spending a few days in Lima, before heading to Cusco to go experience Machu Picchu

as i start traveling again, i know i will be using public wifi zones like that from coffee shops and airports.  like many, i have seen on the news in the last few months regarding a program that can take control over your account.  i wanted to see exactly how this works, so i can better protect myself. i installed the program and tried it at home with a friend as my test subject.

so first and foremost, this program can not (yet?) pull your password.  what it does is leverage your existing log in and basically continues your session.

amazingly, within seconds of him turning on his web browser (he was using chrome, but we tried this with ie and firefox and all are vulnerable), i had FULL ACCESS to his facebook account.  i also had his log in name for amazon, yahoo, and gmail.  i could see his amazon history, but could not modify his account, as it required me to enter his password. i could see part of his my.yahoo.com page and part of his igoogle page.

he did not even have to login. he had his credentials stored in cookies on his computer, so right when he turned on his browser, the program grabbed it right out of the air.

i read that using an https (vs http) on sites will block this program.  this is partially true.  gmail, yahoo, hotmail, and most of your banks out there use these secure connections.  even facebook can be forced to use the https (by default it only uses http) to log in.  however, once you get to the main page, it switches back to http, and i was able to take full control again.  so all you facebook heads out there, i highly highly suggest you wait till you get home, have a wired connection, or tether through your cell phone before using your facebook in public.  this applies to your cellphone or ipad or whatever else if you connect through public wifi.

if you must use a public wifi, i would suggest either setting your browser to clear cookies when you shut it down so when you turn it back on it won’t get snatched.  but if you’re like me (lazy) and like my credential loaded and ready to go, then i would suggest designating a second web browser that is dedicated to public use, and make sure that it is only used to access non private data, like weather, flight information, maps, etc….

this past saturday, i met up with my old drinking buddy, her husband and her little sister. it was to celebrate lil sis’ birthday. the birthday girl, who at the age of 26 has never had a boyfriend or much dating experience. there was a guy there that she liked and she was a little bummed that he wasn’t “getting the hint.” i advised her that if she wants to get his attention, just lean in like you’re going to kiss him, but only do it 3/4 of the way, and he WILL come the other 1/4 of the way (assuming he’s interested). and if he’s not, no harm no foul. her and her girlfriends didn’t believe me. i told them, you can see that the guy is shy, probably doesn’t have a lot of dating experience either, and being a friend, he’s probably scared to cross that line. later on that night she was making out with the dude, and she thanked me for the advice and proclaimed “your 3/4 thing does work!” what she didn’t know was, i told the guy that she was interested and if he was interested back, he needs to do something. i think i’m going to keep this little tidbit to myself and let her keep her new found confidence