I do a lot more reading these day! Books are my friends LOL I have found in doing some investigating that in all of the big hotmail changes (whether we want them or not unfortunately) they are also making some very sneaky changes and putting some peoples info out there with out them knowing it. I have zero info about me on my hotmail info so nothing to share there but here are some interesting things pointed out in windows secrets article. Hotmail's social networking busts your privacy I never look at the new today page I have mine set to go directly to my inbox so I had no idea about all the stuff that is now shown on that page. I just looked at mine and I can see lists of several people that I know and in the lists it tells who they are new friends with! I am sure these people have no idea this info is being broadcast all over the place. for those that use hotmail, windows live, messenger etc any of those you should definitely read the article and check out these settings. Here is a link that might be useful: hotmail settings

Wow; what a happining site you all have here. My garden sites don't move along like this. Thanks for the good information. I will find a new email to link with as suggested. Part of the reason I didn't already try that, was because I was concerned that someone might have been using my account somehow. Of course, I haven't seen any indication of damage other than the above problem of google saying i have and then dont have an account. I also was asked an unusual login question via utube when I attempted to start an account. That was what got me started on trying to reactivate in the first place. Since then my memory has kicked in a bit and suggested I might have used that unusual question after all. That probably means all is well. Maybe the utube attempt is actually the hang up. I may even try to get back to the utube startup and see if I can answer the unusual question to get me in from that side. I suppose putting my logins and passwords in a book is a plausable idea, and it certainly would have prevented this thread. HOWEVER: to ravencajun and your accurate detection of my upset with google; may I at least claim 'contributary neglegence'. Loogin appears to be a major problem and it is absurd to require 'login' to get on the google help forum that is the only form of google help; and secondly re a book of logins; that seems to be a great way to get on a ton of threads of police, attorney's, banks and God knows what for ten years trying to recover your life savings, credit and whatever following a break in or a questionable friend. I suppose a compromise is in order. I think I might try putting such a list in a real book in the book case and not the computer desk. Unfortunately that reminds me of a day several decades ago (when I actually had a functioning memory) when my young son opened up a random book and a pile of twentys or hundreds fell out from whence they had been placed for secure keeping several years before and been completely forgotten!

First of all, if someone is young and healthy and doesn't want health insurance (maybe they get sick once a year and it doesn't benefit them to pay for a policy), why should they HAVE to buy it? The answer is that those young and healthy people spending $X,XXX a year on health insurance, but only using a very small amount of it, will be paying for the people who use more than their $X,XXX of health insurance. How is that democratic? Let me put it this way...say you take great care of yourself. Don't smoke, don't drink alcohol, workout, take vitamins, get plenty of rest, go to your wellness exams, blah, blah, blah. Your neighbor, on the other hand, stays up late, parties all night, smokes like 2 packs of ciggarettes a day, drinks like a fish, never works out, smokes something out of a pipe, and has already had a heart attack or two. It's his right to treat his body however he wants.....right, but still pay the same amount of insurance premiums you do? I believe our health insurance industry needs reform. How about starting with taking the government's hands out of it? The government isn't a business. Businesses create jobs and produce something, whether it be a product or a service. The government creates jobs, sure, but doesn't produce a single product or service. Yet they suck the money out of the businesses that DO produce a product or service in the form of regulations, taxes, and CAFE standards. Here's my other major problem with this whole 'health care' reform: I know a girl who is 29, married and has 3 kids. Her last 2 kids were very pre-term due to her hereditary high blood pressure (which she knew about after the 1st one). She doesn't plan to take any precautions to not get pregnant again, even though she would be risking her life and the baby's if she did. Not my problem. I love her and I would never want anything to happen to her or a baby of her's, but ultimately it's her decision. Also, she is receiving Medicaid for herself and her 3 kids and lying to get it. She sent an e-mail out about how she can't wait for universal healthcare (but aren't we really talking about health 'insurance' and not 'care'; let's face it...we can get health 'care' in any emergency room in the US). Her point is that her family can't afford $200/month for insurance, and she asked "how are we supposed to afford health insurance?" I answered her back and said "It's all about priorities...you have 2 vehicles, a motorcycle (that has been wrecked and repaired), 2 laptops, and 2 flat-screen TVs. If health insurance was a priority for you, you would give anything to have it, and maybe forgoe things that aren't essential to living." She is representative of SOOOOOO many people! Cell phones, fake nails, expensive hair-dos, cars, computers, iPods and what-not are a bigger priority to them than health insurance. And these are the people that are screaming for universal health insurance when they already have it! See, they have this misconception that it will bring their standard of care up. But in reality, it will bring everyone else's down to their level. My parents, my sister and her family and my brother all have Tricare (military insurance). You can't find a doctor, dentist or pharmacy within 20 miles of my house that accepts it. Why? Beacause they never pay what they say they will, and payments are 6 months behind.

Please, please, please never use any link sent in an email to input a password. It's a huge issue. Never. Once thieves get a password they will work the variations to try to get into all your stuff. On my blog I have something like 650 attempts to log in by hackers. You'd think they have better things to do but they don't. They just steal. To change a password always go directly into the account from you main device. If someone is trying to hack you, the best defense is a really long password. I often save tracking numbers from shipping purchases and use those as they are long and nonsense strings Of course, if you do that it needs to be accurately saved someplace secure. I have an old school paper password book. I love those IRS and calls from "Apple" and "Microsoft" that tell me there's something wrong and they can fix it. I am so rude and scream so loud at them that they usually hang up. They don't call back.