life long learner – Page 2 – Schpilkes The Blog

My Facebook was hacked this week

My Facebook was hacked this week, there is nothing special about it. I hardly use my Facebook and I very rarely post on it, if anything I only post stuff that is related to my blog. I lost control over my account for several hours, mostly because I don’t go on my Facebook often and because the email I used for the account was my trash email that I rarely check. I would I would have seen the notification that my email and contact information was changed. Definitely an oversight on my side and will not happen again. I spent several late night hours recovering my account successfully and then changing all passwords on all my other accounts and adding as many layers of security that are available now.

I was done with all this at 1am and then took several hours to calm down and decompress as I was extremely angry and that created even more anger and aggravation in me. This anger woke up my internal Liam Neeson as in the Taken movie series, and I am filled with fury and obsession. Or as my husband says there is nothing more worrisome than me with a vendetta.

Despite being a middle aged woman with liberal arts degrees I figured out how to get my account back, find the hackers email (which I assume to be their junk email), track their IP address and block their devices. I have not decided on what to do with this information yet. But I have become a little neurotic, I check everything many times a week and too many during the day now,

Add the extra security to all your accounts, create your recovery codes, make sure your email that is connected to the account is updated and stay vigilante.

My Emogi Stone

In July 1799 Napoleon’s army found the Rosetta stone and ever since then hieroglyphs have been interpreted and understood. This was a great moment in history for the human kind and as someone could finally interpret the hieroglyphs in Egypt.

And then in the 2000 we had another monumental discovery, emojis. Ever since then humanity went back and humans started conversing again in pictures, apparently the cave man had it right. I recently received a text from a prospective client of mine on my work phone in response to something I texted them. Instead of a real conversation I received a text back with 5 faces with tears, 10 praying hands and 3 hearts. Mind you, this prospective client is an adult and this was a business text. We have never met each other. As I am an adult who only uses emojis in texts with immediate family and friends, I was a little dumbfounded as I had no clue on how I am supposed to respond to this.

What happened to business writing or texting? A couple of years ago I took a great class through Coursera on Business writing, professional texting etiquette was not part of the course. Neither was interpreting emojis part of the course. I am aware I am a little older and don’t use emojis that often and I do use real words and sentences so I am not always sure what the interpretations for emojis are. I am debating creating an “ Emogi Stone” to help people interpret what other people are texting us or to make sure we are not texting something weird to others.

However, in my own personal humble opinion, there is no room for emojis in business emails and texts unless you work for a software company that creates emojis as part of their business. It seems like we regressed back a couple of hundred of years. So in your personal life go ahead, and if you really feel inclined to send me a business text, please 📧 🔠🙏

Eternal student

Every Tuesday I wake up very early for my language class. It is an international class so people log in literally from all corners of the earth. It is still dark outside, cold and everyone else is still sleeping. Even the dog does not understand what I am doing up at this crazy time. And every Tuesday when the alarm goes off and I get dressed quietly in the dark so I will not wake my husband up, I ask myself – are you crazy, why on earth are you doing this? Go back to sleep.

And yet, after each class I am happy and I smile, as tired as I am, I really enjoy this class even though I am not really good in this class.

As an adult it is fun for me to learn new languages and just learn new skills. I find it really good for my soul as it brings me joy and probably helps combat dementia or alzheimer. Some tell me I am nuts for taking on new study areas. After I finally finished my MBA my husband looked at me and asked when I am going to get my PHD, I said never. But these days I am reconsidering.

We are never too old to learn and yes I finished my masters at 54, but who says I can’t get a PHD by 65, I am not in a hurry and I don’t mind being an old woman when I get my degree. This is part of the fun of doing new things when you are older and have the freedom to follow whatever your heart desires. Macrame, new language, or anything else that suits me at the time.

And if waking up in the dark, logging in to a class with people from all around the world makes me happy albeit tired, great. I shall continue, who knows maybe I did find my new calling as the eternal student.

When unprepared for class – regressing back to high school.

I woke up early today for my 7am zoom class, I was very tired. I got home from work the night before at 9:30pm and after walking the dog and decompressing I ended up going to sleep pretty late. And yet, when the alarm rang this morning I crawled out of bed and made myself a strong cup of coffee and logged into my class. Up to now all sounds good, except when I logged in I realized I forgot to submit my homework. Me, the mom who always yelled at my kids when they forgot to submit their homework , actually forgot her homework.

My fight or flight response kicked in and I felt back in school. In one moment I regressed back 40 years to a 15 years old me, waiting for my parents to be called because I didn’t do my homework, except that I was a nerd and always did my homework so this was worse.

Many times I can talk myself out of situations, but when it’s a language class and you’re a beginner it is not that easy. After my first freak out moment, I calmed down. I remembered that this class is with all adults who do have work and other commitments and is full of curious people who are taking the class to enrich their lives and not from a need to gain a grade, certificate or advancement in the workplace. Did I like joining class feeling unprepared? Nope, definitely not. But I can guarantee that I will not forget to do my homework again, at least not for this class. I will start on my homework at some point today or tomorrow and will even submit.

What I found amusing is that even as an adult when you are not prepared you regress back to your highschool self, being called to the board and having no answer. Luckily I can also laugh about this and make fun of myself.

Next I am going to review the quadratic equation in case I am ever asked, no, not really!