Creative Nonfiction Essays – Page 2

The Challenge here is to use your creative talent to bring light into the current distress in the world around you, in whatever form that talent takes. Please remember that we are reaching out to a world that is facing upheaval and possibly a great number of changes. Let us reach out to that world and bring it the lessons we have learned by becoming artists and writers. “The word for this challenge is Threat.”

As both a writer and a U.S. citizen, the word “threat” has been in my vocabulary lately. I think many Americans have had that word in mind in recent weeks and even months when we think of the political situation in our country. The current administration has found out that Russia hacked the 2016 Presidential Election communications which may have affected the results of the election. Even if it did not affect the results of the election, it is alarming that Russia could have such easy access to computer records in our country.

The question is how do we know this is true and how is it a threat to the U.S.? That Russia did, indeed, hack into the computer records of those who had access to private election records. That Russia is a threat to the security of the U.S.

U.S. intelligence agencies were able to get evidence that Russian agencies tried to hack into the White House and the State Department. They also tried to hack into campaign officials for the Clinton campaign. They did this by sending out thousands of phishing emails and hoping someone clicked on them. John Podesta, campaign manager for Hilary Clinton, did. They targeted Clinton because they thought if Trump won the election, he was more likely to lift sanctions against Russia.

What is President-Elect Donald Trump’s connection to Russia? Trump has sold many high-end condos in New York and Florida. Russians seem to like Trump’s condos. He and his children have also traveled to Moscow to discuss building condos and other business dealings in Moscow. Nothing much came of that. Trump did make many powerful friends in Russia, including the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, since he has been not only interested in Russia but very complimentary of the country.

How is this a threat to the U.S.? First, U.S. President’s, according to the Constitution, are not supposed to profit from their relationships with other countries. There is a definite conflict of interest here. Second, if you factor in Rex Tillerson’s appointment to the position of Secretary of State, it appears that a foreign country has captured a number of U.S. interests given that country’s relationship with the man soon to be our President and with the man soon to be our Secretary of State. Rex Tillerson is a former Chairman of Exxon/Mobil and possesses much insider information about our oil and gas industry.

We must understand why this is so serious. Russia is another superpower like the United States. They do not have the same value system as the U.S. It is an authoritarian society while ours is a republic. World War II ended in the 1940s. It is now 2016. Generations of Russia’s have lived under Communist rule . They do not understand a market economy or a republic. Putin is a former KGB (Secret Police) officer.

The entire explanation for the animosity between Russia and the U.S.deserves its own blog post. But, briefly, after World War II, a Cold War began between the two superpowers. There were no diplomatic relations. There was constant fear, on both sides, that someone would push the red button. But, the Cold War eased in 1989 and gradually diplomatic and trade relationships between the two countries were established. There is, and has never been, trust between the governments and no understanding between the people.

If it is true that Russia has American secrets and did, indeed, try to throw the American election to Donald Trump, it is alarming and a threat to our country. Vladimir Putin does not wish us well. He wishes Russia well. Chances are, he considers those concepts mutually exclusive. If Donald Trump is either ignorant of this or complicit, that, in itself, is a threat.

#amblogging #amwriting #writing #Russia #politics

*This post is in response to Creativity Challenge 26

Creative Nonfiction Essays, Eastern Kentucky, Uncategorized, Writing

Mistakes: Trump and the American People

Posted on 12/15/201612/23/2016 by R.M. Carlson

Creativity Challenge 25

One thing I have learned as a writer is that words have impact. They have impact on those who read them. Oftentimes, you don’t know what impact your words have had until much later, when one of your readers tells you what impression they had on them. I know I have often been surprised at what significance some story or article I have written has had on a reader; perhaps a story that was just meant to be light-hearted, but a story that touched a reader in some fundamental way.

Writers aren’t the only ones with a responsibility since their story or non-fiction article seems to have imprinted on one or more people. So do our politicians. This was particularly evident in the 2016 Presidential Election in the U.S. Did this election add to the distress in the world around us? Without a doubt. The reason it did is because it was filled with hateful rhetoric. By both candidates, but particularly by President-elect Trump. Not in my lifetime do I remember a candidate for the Presidency of the United States calling other candidates, in the primary, or the candidate running against him in the general election, humiliating names. It was childish, bullying, school-yard behavior but it apparently appealed to some of the baser instincts of some sectors of our population. Some of the American people, Trump supporters, actually chanted, “KILL HILLARY,” at the end of Trump’s political rallies. Whoever thought the American people were capable of that? Clearly, that was a mistake. A mistake just as horrible as if I had written a story with those words, but about another person who opposed what I was saying.

That is called “herd mentality.” I guarantee you that some people who were chanting that phrases were just following other around them. They really were not asking for Hillary Clinton to be killed. This incident, however, was an example of how riots start. How revolutions start. I could just have easily written a book that would give people ideas about their ability to riot or undergo a revolution.

Donald Trump made a mistake. He played on the fears of a sector of the American population. The people who attended his rallies had lost their jobs due to globalization and technological innovation and robotics. Their unions had not protected them. They couldn’t find another job without re-training to which many are resistant? Their unemployment benefits had run out and they had to work menial jobs to even keep a roof over their head. Trump has promised them that he will bring the jobs back to America. But here’s the secret. That will be incredibly hard to do. The old plants stand empty and will have to be completely refitted. Trade agreements with other countries that make our products will have to be violated or repealed. In order to bring back jobs, wages will have to be low due to the other high fixed costs. It will take far more than four years if it can be done at all. Trump made a mistake by promising something to get himself elected that he cannot possibly know if he can deliver.

If I made promises as a writer that I could not deliver and I was a writer working for an employer, do you know what would happen? I would be fired.

Perhaps the most shameful mistake that Donald Trump made regarding domestic policy, and te one closest to my heart, is the promise to the coal miners of Kentucky and West Virginia. He said he is going to bring back coal mining. Because of the desperation of the coal miners for work, they believed him. They could not see the con. That all he was doing was promising them the world in order to get their vote. He got their vote, but he isn’t going to bring back coal mining. He can’t put the coal back in the ground. A lot of the mines are closed because they are mined out.

What is really driving the loss of coal jobs? It is not the federal government. Coal production is decreasing because producing natural gas is a lower cost operation. Any coal miner also knows that decades of increased mechanization in the coal mines is also taking away many coal jobs. Mechanization and the use of natural gas is not just going to go away because Donald Trump was elected President. That would put ever-increasing numbers of coal companies in bankruptcy. The cost of wind and solar power, renewable sources of energy, is also falling. Of course, there are increasing environmental regulations. But does anyone want the environment polluted? Our air and water?

I have relatives, grandparents and cousins, who lived in coal country. We couldn’t drink the water there. It smelled and tasted like sulphur. My grandparents always kept bottled water. Does coal pollute or not? Try to argue that point to the contrary. That would be another mistake. For all of Donald Trump’s rhetoric about bringing back coal, he can’t do it unless he can find a way to produce clean coal. Many environmental scientists have worked on that problem for decades. They have not found a solution yet. If I wrote anything to the contrary, I would be making a mistake.

There are many other mistakes being made today regarding the current political situation in the U.S. But, that is a blog post for another day. #amwriting #amblogging #writing #creativitychallenge25 #DonaldTrump #2016PresidentialElection

*Post in response to Creativity Challenge 25

Creative Nonfiction Essays, Finance, Writing

CQ: What does “Wealth” Mean to me?

Posted on 12/11/2016 by R.M. Carlson

Wealth. I suppose some would call defining the concept of wealth creative. I don’t. After being a finance professor for over 27 years, I take the word “wealth” in a very literal sense. No arguments! I’m the finance professor in the room.

In a capitalist society such as the one we live in here in the United States, wealth is simply defined as the monetary or exchange value of something. Economic value, if you will. An example. Investors and speculators own corporations. Each part of the corporation is called a share. Each share has a monetary value. If a share of XYZ, Inc. is worth $10, then an investor who owns 10 shares has $100 of value in that corporation. That is called shareholder’s “wealth.” After my own professors in my Ph.D program convinced me of this,, through fear of retribution, and teaching it for so many years, I do indeed believe that wealth can be defined in terms of economic or monetary value.

Wealth is used in a similar manner throughout the quantitative business disciplines. I take the concept of wealth as factual and accurate and as I defined it in the first paragraph.

Can “wealth” and “creative” be used in the same sentence? Some large banks, non-banking institutions, and other financiers certainly tried to do that during the recession of 2008 when they used all sorts of creative financing methods to lend money to homeowners who really didn’t qualify for mortgages. The economy almost collapsed due to such shenanigans. That’s what I call the creative use of the word “wealth.”

Are there other creative meanings to the word “wealth?” I suppose we could say we are wealthy if we have a plethora of kittens or puppies or the love of our families. That is the warm and fuzzy side of wealth and I think there should be another word to describe such states of mind, not the word “wealth” which is clearly so useful in the business world. Maybe we should say we have an abundance of kittens or our cornucopia runneth over with the love of our families instead of using the business-honored word of wealth. We certainly would not describe the state of our corporations’ shareholders by saying “shareholder’s abundance” or “the shareholder’s of XYZ, Inc.’s cornucopia runneth over,” would we? That would not be correct business terminology. Wealth has to be quantifiable, measurable. It’s hard to measure the value of said puppies or kittens or the love of our families.

Now you know this writer’s definition of wealth. What you don’t know is how much fun it has been writing this post and being the curmudgeon in the room! #amwriting #amblogging #writing #creativequestions

In response to Creative Questions

Creative Nonfiction Essays, Politics, Writing

We Can’t Stop Diversity

Posted on 12/02/2016 by R.M. Carlson

Group of Friends Smiling

The dictionary defines diversity as the state of being different between two individual entities when and only when they are not identical. Diversity came to America with the Pilgrims. When they stepped on American soil, the population became diverse because, up to that time, the primary population was the Native Americans.

Diversity in the United States is not a new concept. We hear this often, but the population of the United States is composed of individuals so diverse that it is called a melting pot. Diversity has been encouraged in America and made possible by our immigration policy.

Diversity within countries across the world may have taken a different path, but the result is the same. Any country that looks attractive to outsiders looking in is going to draw a diverse population. Who doesn’t want to improve their lot in life? In Iraq, for example, there are three diverse population groups. They have spent centuries fighting each other. It has stunted Iraq’s growth.

In America, our population is becoming more diverse. We now have a large Hispanic policy and many feel like those people are taking their jobs. If Americans would apply for and win their jobs, then do their jobs and work hard, they would have no fear of Hispanics taking their jobs. Instead of fixing what is wrong with our immigration policy and enforcing the immigration policy already on the books, the talk is of building a wall to keep Hispanics out. Do we really think a wall can stop increasing diversity in a country where so many want to live?

Diversity in religion often is what starts war. We can see that if we look all the way back to the Crusades. Look at the Middle East. The conflict there is all about religion. Oh, some say it’s about land. But if their religions had not been at war for hundreds of years, I think the property issue would have been resolved long ago.

Diversity in religion or skin color often leads to the persecution of the minority B groups in a population.

We began to focus more on diversity after the 9/11/2001 terror attack in New York City. We blamed an entire sector of our population, even though their numbers were reasonably small. When you think about it in that way, it makes very little sense.

Diversity is not the problem in America. Every single one of us is an immigrant from somewhere or have ancestors who were immigrants. There are bad, evil people in every religion and in every country. America has more than its share across all diversity boundaries. But, we blame Muslims for every single thing that happens in America.

We can’t round up illegal Hispanics and send them back to Mexico. We can’t put every Muslim in America in interment camps. That’s not who America is. That reeks of Fascism. We have to find another way to deal with the problems. If we let ourselves deal with diversity in this way, the shining city on the hill will be no more and the place we call America will be like every third world country on the planet. #amwriting #amblogging #writing #diversity

*This post sponsored by Creativity Challenge #12

Please! Come on in to my writing studio and join me for coffee, tea, or hot chocolate! It’s cold this morning – in the 30s. It has finally gotten cold here in the Ohio Valley. I think most of us here are welcoming a bit of normal weather for this time of year. I always welcome some cold in this age of global warming. It kills the bugs that would plague us in the spring. We will have a hard freeze tonight, I suspect.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I have my normal selections of coffee and tea to offer you, including chicory coffee and green teas. I also have, as something new for you, matcha green tea which I received as a gift this week. I would love to share it with you. Are you familiar with matcha? Matcha is a specially grown tea. It is grown in the shade for just three weeks and then ground into a fine powder. It is sort of a Zen thing as it supposedly calms the mind. But, the interesting thing about matcha is that it has unparalleled health benefits. One cute is equal to 10 cups of regular green tea. It is packed with antioxidants and nutrients. Check it out! Please let me make you a cup!

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that it has been an interesting and disturbing week in the United States because of our Presidential election. It was a contentious election and campaign. Many people are very happy with the outcome. My hope is that they knew exactly what they were voting for in terms of policy. Almost as many people were very disturbed at the outcome of the election. Those of us who are fearful of what could happen have to keep an eye of things and organize into groups that can lobby for our positions, such as women’s rights. I think we all realize that the international community thinks the U.S. has lost its collective mind and I’m not sure they are wrong. I find myself in a wait and see mode. I will try to keep all of you up-to-date here and with my blog postings, though I won’t post about politics very often.

If you are wondering about Americans leaving the country and relocating, I would say that many feel like I do – they will take a wait and see attitude. No one wants to abandon America. It depends on how untenable things become…..if they do. If we see any signs of the rise of Fascism at all, we will leave the country in droves, I am confident. Not all of us necessarily to Canada. There are other countries that would be attractive. Younger people would stay and fight but older people…..it would be hard for us to do that.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that Veteran’s Day was also this week. So many Americans had family members who fought in one war or another, from World War I through World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Desert Storm, and all the Iraqi/Afghanistan conflicts. I think Veterans’ Day meant something to all of us.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I find myself thinking about Eastern Kentucky today. They voted, almost exclusively, for a man who has threatened to take away services they depend on, such as Medicaid. He also promised to bring back coal mining, a promise that there is no way he can keep because that industry is dying.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I’ve spent the week writing. I’ve written many posts for this blog but I have also spent time working on my novel. For those of you also working on a novel, I have found an excellent novel writing program. If you are going to write a novel of around 80,000 words or so, the file on Microsoft Word just gets too big and difficult. It becomes too unwieldy to move scenes around. There is a program for those using a Windows-based computer called yWriter that helps you keep everything in order. For Apple computer users, the best novel writing program is Scrivner. You can download both off the Internet. I’m currently learning how to use yWriter. If you are using yWriter, get in touch and we will figure it out together!

To all the American writers. Regarding the Trump administration. Remember that we can write…..and write and write and write. There is power in the pen if we see this administration going off the rails.

I hope all of you have had a good week! Back to writing. Please come for coffee/tea/hot chocolate next week! #amwriting #amblogging #writing #coalmining #EasternKentucky #realDonaldTrump

*This blog post is sponsored by parttimemonsterblog.com

Thanks, Diana!

#weekendcoffeeshare 11/12/2016

Creative Nonfiction Essays, Eastern Kentucky, education, Higher Education

#SoCS November 12/16 Remembering my Dad….

Posted on 11/11/201611/12/2016 by R.M. Carlson

Yesterday was Veteran’s Day. Linda reminded us that it’s also Remembrance Day in Canada. I have remembering on my mind, particularly remembering my dad. He fought in World War II. It was his side of the family from which my Canadian relatives came. The Ottawa and Thunder Bay areas.

I was a Daddy’s girl. He was my hero from the time I have any memory. He had a big voice, a big laugh, big arms, and a bigger heart. He wasn’t home a lot. In those days, when a man couldn’t find work at home, he left home to find work as close as he could. It was the late 1950s when my memories of him start. The supposed halcyon days in the U.S. except they weren’t. Times were hard in northeastern Kentucky where I grew up. My dad worked hard.

He tried to come home on the weekends. That was my favorite time because no matter where he had to go and what he had to do on Saturday and Sunday, he took me with him. I went to lots of lumber companies, sawmills, and hardware stores! I learned about lots of things little girls didn’t often know. But, no curse words, nothing bad. My dad’s friends would never say or do anything bad in front of me. I wore little pairs of blue jeans and flannel shirts, just like he did. We took these weekend trips until I was 15 years old or so. Sometimes even after that. If he was going to work on someone’s house, I would even go with him to do that.

When I was in the third grade, my dad left home to work in Wisconsin. He was gone for an entire year. That was one of the hardest years of my life. I found out many years later that my parents had actually separated that year. I’m glad I didn’t know that then or I would have been terrified. I wrote him thousands of letters and he responded to every one. They apparently worked something out because, at the end of that year, he thankfully came home.

When I met my first boyfriend, I think it hurt him. He worried. I was only 15. He was 16. But sending me off in a car to be with our friends scared my dad to death. I see that now. Of course, I didn’t then. It turns out that he was right to be scared.

I went to college in my hometown and lived with my parents. That’s all they could afford and there really weren’t scholarships to go to the Ivy League like I wanted to do and like you can find now as a high school student. I graduated from college early. I was 20. I moved to Frankfort, KY, the state capitol, and worked in state government for six months. I’ll never forget the day I moved. My dad cried. That was before the days of cell phones. My dad gave me a telephone calling card. He told me to call him daily – more than daily if I wanted. I still had that credit card, and used it, the day he died about 10 years later.

I, then, moved to Lexington, KY, the second-largest city in the state. A wonderful city. As a girl from the country, it was pretty overwhelming. Daddy helped me find an apartment where I would be safe. I worked a few years but I wasn’t satisfied. I needed to go back to school. I was interested in teaching in a university. My dad had paid for my education as an undergraduate student. He then paid for me to get my Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree even though I was working and had married in the interim. He wouldn’t even discuss letting me pay for it myself.

My dad was a blue-collar worker. My parents weren’t exactly rolling in money. They got by. Financing several college educations for me could not have been easy in any way. There was no arguing with him.

That wasn’t all he did. My husband and I were married very young. We bought a small home in a nice section of Lexington. Not only did my dad fix everything that was wrong with it, he insisted on making the down payment and helping us with house payments until we got on our feet.

I finished my MBA at the University of Kentucky and was recruited by the Director of the doctoral program to go into that program which would lead me, if I wanted, to a career in college teaching and research. Since I loved living in Lexington, I decided to start the doctoral program there, at the University of Kentucky in 1981. Once again, my dad insisted on paying for it.

My area was finance and it was hard work. I studied a lot and when I wasn’t studying, I was teaching classes. I didn’t see my parents much, even though they only lived 70 miles away, during the next couple of years. They understood.

Then the unthinkable happened. My dad was 63 years old. He became ill. He was diagnosed with lung cancer the second week of November, 1983. I spent as much time as I could with him. It was hard. I was in denial. He wouldn’t talk to me about it. I was in school and working. A horrible time.

From the time he was diagnosed until the time he died, only six weeks passed. My mother called me on December 20, 1983 and told me to come home as soon as possible. My dad had surgery but the cancer had spread and he was home but in pain and having trouble breathing. As soon as I got there, we called an ambulance to take him to the hospital in Lexington. My dad, who loved Christmas and who had made me love Christmas, died on December 22, 1983 and was buried on Christmas Eve.

He talked to me some, as much as he could, those last two days in the hospital. I remember every word of those conversations. He was in a coma at the end, but if I would speak to him, he would nod his head and open his eyes. It must have taken a super human effort.

I was in shock and incredibly sad for a long time. When I went back to school in January, I found that he had already paid my tuition for the spring semester. I took incompletes in my classes that semester. I just couldn’t do it. By fall semester, 1984, I had pulled myself together and finished up the class work for my doctoral degree.

I’m retired now from my career as a Professor of Finance. I had a wonderful career. It was thanks to my dad.

Someday, I’m going to write a book about him, but probably a funny book because he could be a hilarious guy, especially when he was with his brothers and sister. He was the son of immigrants from Sweden, fought in the WWII, and had a really interesting life. It’s been 33 years since he died. Maybe, by then, I won’t cry when I write about him. #SoCS #family #amwriting #amblogging #writing #WWII #USSBlessman

*This post is sponsored by SoCS Nov 12/16

Thanks, Linda!

Creative Nonfiction Essays, Lifestyle, romance, Uncategorized

Control, Manipulation, Judgment, and Criticism

Posted on 11/08/201611/09/2016 by R.M. Carlson

People will do almost anything to get what they want. Some of it is evil. Some of it is just plain naive and stupid. My opinion is that using control, manipulation, judgment, and criticism to affect the actions of another person is just plain evil. When these tactics are used in the name of maintaining a relationship with another person, it is particularly evil.

Let’s take judgment and criticism, for example. If two people are in a relationship and one is a stronger personality than the other, then the stronger judging and criticizing the weaker’s actions can have rather dramatic effects. In the dictionary, the word “judgmental” refers to making judgements in an unhelpful or critical way. The stronger person can use this tactic in order to get the weaker to do their bidding in order to try to please them. Any behavior on the part of the weaker person in the relationship can bring judgement down on their head from the stronger one and they become like Pavlov’s dog. They start avoiding those supposed bad behaviors in order not to suffer the judgement and criticism of the stronger partner. The stronger partner may withhold affection in the form of love or sex or perform other punishments when bad behavior, or behavior they consider bad, happens.

If the weaker partner is dependent in some way on the stronger partner, this type of manipulation may simply make the weaker partner increasingly dependent. They start wanting the approval of the stronger partner and start modifying their behavior, even if there is nothing wrong with it at all.

As this occurs, the stronger partner is in control of the relationship and the weaker partner. Of course, this was the point of the judgement and criticism and manipulation. Control.

Would you want to be in a relationship if you had to have this type of control in order to keep it? No, I wouldn’t either. But, some people are insecure enough so that they think controlling another person is the only way they can have a relationship with another person.

Control, in a relationship, is not a good thing. There is something worse and it is called coercive control. Coercive control occurs when the following happens. Here are some coercive methods controlling partners use:

One partner tries to isolate the other partner and keep them from social interaction with other people unless they are together.
One partner tries to keep the other from leaving the house alone.
One partner monitors social media use, email, mail, and.phone conversations.
One partner spies on or stalks the other partner.
One partner may suggest to the other partner that they need some sort of drugs, either prescription drugs or other drugs for some sort of medical condition.

*Source: Huffington Post

Sometimes, the weaker partner just says “this is the way it is” and gives up their autonomy.

These are only five out of many methods of coercive control that controlling partners may use. The others are just as scary or more so.

What about the controlling partner? How did she/he become like this? Generally, due to childhood relationships. If a child feels no control in its life, that child may grow up as an insecure person who doesn’t feel they have any value in personal relationships. A minority of these children will grow up as people who participate in aberrant behavior. They will involve themselves in relationships with partners they can control which may devolve into coercive control. They can be quite dangerous.

If you find yourself in a relationship where your partner is judgemental and critical, which are both manipulative techniques that turn into control, find yourself another relationship. You may be with a person who is a sociopath or, at the very least, a person with few morals although they may appear to be a moral person on the surface. These people may try to persecute others for things they have done themselves. #amwriting #amblogging #writing #control #manipulation

Creative Nonfiction Essays, Uncategorized

Song Lyric Sunday – The Moody Blues

Posted on 10/30/201610/30/2016 by R.M. Carlson

The theme this week for Song Lyric Sunday is “scary.” On the surface, you may not seem why a song called “Forever Autumn” by The Moody Blues could be considered scary. Oh, not scary in the traditional sense of the world. Not haunted house scary where you walk through the house and creatures jump out at you, but the kind of scary that reaches down and freezes your soul.

The lyrics to “Forever Autumn” are below. As you read them, you’ll see that, in the first stanza, the season is changing from fall to winter and the writer feels the winter will be much more bitter because they have lost someone important to them. In fact, they want to leave they are so frightened of winter arriving. Scary. I know the feeling of losing someone important.

That scary feeling is reiterated in the chorus, which is the second stanza and again in the third stanza.

The Moody Blues convey, in Forever Autumn, what a frightening, panicked feeling it is to lose someone important to you, someone you love and they compare it to the feeling some get when the fall season changes to what could be a bitter winter. I know the feeling.

Lyrics to Forever Autumn by The Moody Blues
The summer sun is fading as the year grows old
And darker days are drawing near
The winter winds will be much colder
Now you’re not here.
I watch the birds fly south across the autumn sky
And one by one they disappear.
I wish that I was flying with them
Now you’re not here

Like a song through the trees you came to love me
Like a leaf on a breeze you blew away

Through autumn’s golden gown we used to kick our way
You always loved this time of year.
Those fallen leaves lie undisturbed now
Cause you’re not here

Like a song through the trees you came to love me
Like a leaf on a breeze you blew away

Forever Autumn album – Moody Blues

#SoCS – Oct. 29/16

Posted on 10/28/201610/28/2016 by R.M. Carlson

Sometimes I struggle with stream of consciousness writing. I have stuff in my head that is private and must remain private even though it would be cathartic to speak about it. I also have stuff in my head that I can speak about but it all gets mixed up together. I want to keep it in, but I want to get it out! Especially today. I’m dealing with a situation that I suspect some of you may have dealt with so I’m just going to put it out there and see if anyone has experienced something similar.

Someone is trying to steal my identity. I suppose that’s what she is trying to do unless she is simply trying to torment me, which is possible. Identity theft is the most horrible thing. In my case, the person I suspect is a computer hacker. So she plays with me as if I were a mouse and she is the cat. She thinks it bothers me a whole lot more than it does as I simply deal with each instance of possible identify theft as it happens. It is a lot easier to deal with than she thinks as companies, banks, other financial institutions have become more savvy about this problem and notify their customers immediately if anything at all suspicious occurs.

So as Ms. Computer Hacker attacks one account or a social media site, I simply close them. I figure she is doing me a favor. I don’t need as many credit cards as I have so, poof!…..they are gone. That much less for her to attack. She started this onslaught with my PayPal account. It’s closed. Somehow, she opened a new one in my name. It’s closed. I’m wondering how many times I will have to do that. She’s attacked my Facebook Messenger site. She wiped out many of my contacts and kept me from getting any Message Requests. Well, ok. I can restore my contacts. I have reported this to Facebook and we will see what happens. I would like to get my Message Requests. I’m hoping Facebook will go after her. I don’t think this kind of thing amuses them.

Then, she made a charge on my American Express card. That charge has been taken off. I’ve been issued a new card. I guess she will also try to hack it although American Express is now after her. There have been other things she has tried to do or done as well.

If you ever find that someone is trying to steal your identity, the thing to do is be vigilant. Check your bank account daily or more than once a day. Look at your credit card statements frequently. If you see anything strange on your social media sites, check it out.

You see, in my humble opinion, computer hackers, especially those people who do malicious things like create viruses. Or hack into other people’s lives such as what I’m experiencing, don’t have a life of their own. They sit all day and stare at a computer screen and have the screwed up idea that is a life. We all know it is not. In my case, working at a computer is my job. Of course, I do spend other time on the computer – shopping, talking to my friends, researching. The things we all do. What I don’t do is try to destroy other people’s’ lives.

These identify thieves enjoy that. I wonder what they would do if they actually had to live a real life. Oh, I know. They couldn’t. They wouldn’t have a clue how to live a real, fulfilling life. Would they try to destroy people’s lives in person as opposed from behind a computer screen? Probably not. They don’t have the guts. The fragile computer screen protects their fragile egos from the world. I hope my computer hacker winds up in prison. If she crosses the line and I can manage it, she will. #hackers #amwriting #amblogging #writing #SoCS

Category: Creative Nonfiction Essays

The Place I’m Most at Home

Threat – Trump and the Russian Connection

Mistakes: Trump and the American People

Creativity Challenge 25

CQ: What does “Wealth” Mean to me?

We Can’t Stop Diversity

#weekendcoffeeshare 11/12/2016

#SoCS November 12/16 Remembering my Dad….

Control, Manipulation, Judgment, and Criticism

Song Lyric Sunday – The Moody Blues

#SoCS – Oct. 29/16

Gone in a Flash

Destiny

Judging and Society

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Creativity Challenge 25

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