two things that don't go together

[cornerofmadness]

deep thoughts and babbling about halloween decorations.

Just let me say when you see the pictures (tomorrow probably) keep in mind that they are apparently making these things out of the cheapest crap possible. They're broken before you get them out of the box. I am SO glad I got marcus the carcass (who's glowing in the garden at the moment), the skull lights and a few other things last year after the season because if i had paid the full asking price I would have been furious. Roy is very unimpressed that part of HIS porch is now a graveyard.

the deep thoughts...well one is I am starting to grow a little. Remember me mentioning I wanted to make changes in my life and I'm starting that. For instance I'm learning not to argue over piddly crap that doesn't really matter, even if friends are involved. Yeah I still give my opinion but i'm doing it less and less when I know I'm on the opposite side of the issue. I mean, what's the point? It's not going to do anything but upset me.

The other deep thought has to do with having a journal at all. When everyone was getting all bent out of shape over LJ's less than wonderful handling of censorship, I made a comment and no one said a word. I'm going to repeat that now with a tag. I had heard this before and it's becoming more prevalent and it IS something we need to worry about. We all love our blogs. We say things that maybe we wouldn't say at work (notice how very little I've said about school lately. realizing people can break the locks on this had a LOT to do with that) we rant. We share our political/religious/sexual views. We should be allowed to do this.

However, there was a reason that my facebook is only a place holder. My college wanted us to have them. That meant using our names. Now it occurs to me i don't know if LJ has my real name (or GJ or IJ, i don't think they do but i could be wrong). Guess whose looking at your blog? potential and current employers. Well in some ways I'm fairly safe. I don't normally talk about politics for instance (since I'm fairly sure that the three fastest ways to lose friends is to debate religion, politics and money) Here's an article on it. I've seen others like it in my professional magazines.

No, i don't like this at all and there's probably nothing much anyone can do about it other than obscure your connections to your own blog and it's offensive to me to have to do that in many ways. (and yes I have thought about going back and changing the name on my website for this reason). Also found out employers can check your credit as well. There's a pleasant thought.

Comments

[rahirah]

I rarely talk about work in my journal because I know my employers are very vigilant about their public image, and understandably so. But anything else...well, I figure that if a prospective employer doesn't want to hire me because of my political, religious, or sexual opinions, I probably don't want to work for them, either.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

there is always that aspect of it too. i wouldn't want to be working at a place that's diametrically opposed to my beliefs but sometimes you don't know...like now. Again, I don't talk religion at work but they know I was raised Catholic and only because I was trying to ward off certain people from forcing me into baptist camps that I had no interest in. I could only imagine if they knew how far in the past that upbringing is for me

Big Brother, Fuck Off!

[rain-oubliette.livejournal.com]

In the information age, it has become that Joe Shmuck can have access to all your private data. While it sickens me that this is so, I have no way around it. I don't have the hacking skills needed to prevent some dork at Wal-Mart from perusing my information.

As for prospective employers looking at a person's data before hire, I can understand a criminal background check but why the hell would they need to know my personal credit score if I don't work in purchasing?! It is private data that should not be shared.

Lastly, a journal is a private place to collect ones thoughts and situations of life. If I choose to share it with friends, that is fine but I don't think those who are just snooping around should have access to it.

One other tidbit, concerning friends who are on opposite views as you are. I think that is a good thing to avoid getting into with others. I have friends who are on the opposite view of mine but I let them think what they want. However, when they're about to do something stupid, I warn them and leave it at that. And when their adventure becomes a MISadventure, I just hold my tongue and nurse them through it. Mind you, this was all learned the hard way and through one friend in particular... who still faulters through life as if she has no clue.

I shall shut up now.

Re: Big Brother, Fuck Off!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

it goes deeper than that. I can be fired for thisbankruptcuy I'm considering. I could be discharged from the military if i were so employed.

yes i do try to warn people especially if it's something I've personally fucked up in the past too

as for them snooping, I hate it. I guess they can legitimize it by saying they want to know if youre a whacko but still

Re: Big Brother, Fuck Off!

[rain-oubliette.livejournal.com]

Wackos rarely keep journals. I feel that if they have the right to know this crap about me, then I have a right to know crap about the company. If they test on animals or something. Financial misconduct. That type of thing.

If you show up on time, do the work correctly and don't steal from the company, they shouldn't give three shits what you do in your spare time. So long as you're legal and not doing any crimes, it's none of their fucking business.

As for the friends making mistakes, I have a friend who I could write a novel about all the stupid crap she's done... no publisher would touch because it would sound too far fetched. And I only hear about what she tells me... which I think is only, maybe 50% of the stupid crap she does. What gets me, is that she does the same stupid stuff over and over. *Stares in blank amazement* No, she isn't the comic character Moira, either. Heh.

Re: Big Brother, Fuck Off!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

well there is public image to be concerned with and I'm sure that's where a lot of this stems from. Like it or not.


oh i hear you. I have a few of those myself. Usually being stupid about men or career

Re: Big Brother, Fuck Off!

[rain-oubliette.livejournal.com]

"oh i hear you. I have a few of those myself. Usually being stupid about men or career"

She's stupid mostly about men. Oh, and her health. She was in denial about having diabetes until it nearly killed her. Now she wants to have a baby. That's all she talks about... sadly, she can't even take care of herself, so there is no way she could care for a kid, too. :-S

These are the friends I'm glad that they live out of state and I don't see them every day. For, if I did work with them or live next to them, I'd have to kill them and bury them under the porch because they're such LOSERS sometimes.

I could go on... but why take up your journal space. Hee hee.

Be happy that you aren't one of those friends. :-) I actually have a lot of respect for you.

Re: Big Brother, Fuck Off!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

These are the friends I'm glad that they live out of state and I don't see them every day. For, if I did work with them or live next to them, I'd have to kill them and bury them under the porch because they're such LOSERS sometimes

i know the feeling

[dknightshade.livejournal.com]

You're making me think that I should decorate for Halloween. We never do, but it would be fun to do.

Yeah on the blog thing. I've never connected my real name to this journal and I've started to lock anything related to work or most personal life stuff, but I know that's not fulproof. It's a tough thing, wanting to be part of an online community, but also having to think about that spreading wider than I intend it to.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

that's why facebook STILL has nothing. I don't know what to say there since it WILL be read by my bosses and potential bosses. Maybe a few inane posts about what the math/science clubis doing.

[dknightshade.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's a lot of pressure - your employer saying 'here, be on facebook' and knowing that they'll be reading it. I guess you keep that to strictly your office hours and syllibi and whatever.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

right now i have NOTHING on it

[chaos-by-design.livejournal.com]

yeah, the degree to which potential employers can snoop on your private life is creepy.

i have done google searches on my name and nothing too bad has ever come up, which is good. livejournal must have my real name because i pay for this account with a debit card and even though they say they don't store that information i wouldn't be surprised if it isn't actually sitting in a database somewhere. but i don't know if they'd just give it out to anyone who asked for it, and also the amount of information a person is able to get about you online is related to how much technical skill they actually have concerning the internet. you have to know *how* to look, and that isn't information everyone has.

i do friends-lock everything now and back when i had a more public journal i always locked anything about work. sure, LJ can be hacked and that information could leak that way but I really doubt that potential employers are going to be actively trying to break websites for this information.

I guess I figure it's certainly worthwhile to be cautious, but I try to put some realistic constraints on how paranoid I let myself get. You can drive yourself crazy thinking about this kind of stuff sometimes.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

i know. I figure they would have to do a credit check or something to find me here in LJ land. facbook is another matter which is why i've put nothing there yet and don't really plan on it. Nothing that would get me in trouble at any rate.

[silvrethorn.livejournal.com]

Probably nobody commented on the censorship post because it was so darn sensible. There wasn't anything more to add, or at least that's how I saw it. I have no stake in the censorship thing, obviously, since I don't write sexy fanfic, but it did seem to upset those who haven't ridden out as many cycles of hysteria/loss of interest as we old fossils have.

I saw that hearse decoration you pointed out to us some time back, fully inflated and on display at Wal-Mart. It's so cool in person. I'd want one if I didn't know it would promptly get stolen. (And besides, the yard ornament I _really_ want to waste money on is the $40 Celtic knotwork birdbath at Lowe's.)

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

well yes sensible has little place in this world. and yeah I've been thru too much to get too bent out of shape about well much of anything any more

isn't the hearse cool? Our wal mart sold all of them and mom said the guy down the road has one. But the bird bath is far more practical especially in your area

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

the pictures will be going up tonight.

yeah I do have my real birthday (mostly because I wanted people to know it) but not much else. I don't think they have my zip. I should look...change it to one of my many many old ones

[0-mother-0.livejournal.com]

Youtube and most others, I gave the wrong bday. LJ has my real month and day (I don't think they asked for the year... can't remember, but if they did I probably skewed it).

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

lj asks the year but you can opt out of giving it

[0-mother-0.livejournal.com]

Marcus the Carcus... *snicker* (can't wait to see the pictures!)

And kudos on 'letting it go' and not arguing, esp over the piddly crap. We shouldn't try to change other people's minds about such things any more than we want them trying to change ours. Now, if they're hurting themselves or someone else, I'll argue till I'm blue and fight if I have to.

And online I usually use my screenname for my real name, like I did for LJ and YouTube. First name: Mother. Last name: Hope. I also usually lie about my birth date. I always register with 1-1- and my real birth year. Plus I always give a Houston zip code (the same one each time to make it easy to remember). There's no need for them to have our real info anyways. If a site needs that, I'll think twice about using them.

-deleted and re-posted to fix a horrible, glaring, grammatical booboo that would have driven us all mad-

[kashicat.livejournal.com]

When some place asks my birth date, I usually make myself either 20 or 90. None of their beeswax.

I don't blame you for being cautious, especially if your job could be in jeopardy if you aren't. I've seen the odd case of cyber stalking as well. And I know some employers or even insurers try to find people online so they can decide not to hire them if they've got a health problem the employer or insurer don't want to deal with. Bastards.

I contract with an insurance company, doing projects with all their records, so I've become very familiar with pretty much every department in the company. I don't mention any of their policy holders, or any confidential details about anything they do, and as far as I'm concerned, they'd better not expect anything more than that. I think they sense that I couldn't even be bribed to do espionage-type stuff because IT WOULD BE BORING. Give me a million bucks to write a fanfic -- but I wouldn't take ten billion to spy. Big yawn.

I use Facebook for playing Pirates. :-) But when I set it up, I added stuff like the daily quote from the Satanic Bible, plus I've got the modules where you calculate your carbon footprint, and I've joined groups like the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

They don't like me being a pinko Canadian, tough titty. Fie on 'em.

All of that said, I know a lot of my blase attitude comes from just being a defiant sort to begin with, plus I've had enough bad financial luck in the past decade that I doubt anyone could do much worse to me, apart from maybe sending me somewhere on one of those CIA planes... So I worry about this sort of thing a lot less.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

i think my overconcern is i used to deal with medicine and patients which was bad enough and now i deal with students. Worse yet.

[mulzrule.livejournal.com]

It really irritates me that my employers, who are county oriented so they probably do this, can go online and find my personal info. Not too many of us are savvy enough to hide said info. Yet when I had orientation, they explicated stated that if we are in their personal systems (ok, so that's still hacking) we will be severely punished. How is this different from what they do to us? Argh! (ie: the difference is that they can sue our asses!) >_

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

pretty much if you put it out there for the public to see, guess you have to expect them TO see it

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

i'm not sure all how but there are people who purposely do it, i know that much

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

? no, not yet but there could be for all of us and we should be aware of it