Book Challenge

As my previous posts, “Hacked”  and “I Know You Didn't Just Unfriend Me!” probably inadvertently revealed, I am a Facebook junkie. There: I admitted it. I just love Facebook. No matter what time of the day or night, there is always something to do there. Although it might be said that I have spent an excessive amount of time, I have reduced the amount of time that I spend there, and am therefore doing better. After I reached Level 600, I quit playing Mafia Wars. I got bored with Poker and Bejeweled. Then I found Words With Friends: Oops! 


One application that I found via Facebook is Goodreads. I love this website! Goodreads is a social networking book site. A member can join for free and then log in the books that he or she has read and is reading. If someone wants to write a book review of a book, then there is a place for doing this. If you are considering getting a book, you can go here to read reviews and ratings for that book.


Goodreads encourages members to connect with one another and compare reading lists. I love to follow the reading of some of my friends, who have quite a repertoire. Sometimes, I select books on their lists for me to read. 


I was relating this to a friend, who was asking me why I was reading a “high-brow” book. I explained to her that I had found it on the reading list of a friend and decided to read it. She asked me, “Are you going to do the book report too?” Well, now, I can say yes. Because most of the books that I read are reviewed on this blog.

There is also a place for setting a reading goal for the year. Last year, I set my goal at thirty books. I met this goal the week of December 31. This year for my fourth challenge, I am setting my reading goal at forty books. I hope to surpass this, but I will stick to forty. I never tracked them for an entire year before until I joined Goodreads.


Something that I found on the site recently is book giveaways. So far, I have won three books from the book giveaways. They have all been great books, so far. I look at the long list of books, and put in an entry for the ones that interest me. As many books as I plan to read, winning books definitely helps my budget.


Join me in my quest to read in 2012. Better yet, click here to connect to my profile. 

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Thankfulness Challenge: Today, I am thankful for:

26. My son's 14th birthday today.
27. A wonderful thunderstorm with a lot of rain last night.
28. Friends who laugh with me at my mistakes.

copyright 2012 by Kathy Robbins

Hacked

We have all seen it. Someone gets hacked on Facebook and anything from offensive pictures to scams to deleting one’s account can happen.


The time that I got hacked was a little bit of my own fault. Someone was using my computer at the house, so I went to the office center at the apartments to use the common computer. Since I normally was on Facebook on my own computer, I never logged out. I just turned off the computer when I was finished. I did the same thing on the apartment computer. Note to self: that is fine on your personal computer, but never do it on one shared by strangers.


A teenage girl got on the computer after me, pulled up my Facebook, and wrote obscenities on my wall. She added, “I want to kill myself.” Then, she wrote, “I hate my fat-*** son” and several other terrible things.  I had no idea this was happening. I was at home watching Desperate Housewives on the TV.


I received a  phone call from my Pastor, Teresa Welborn, informing me of the activity on my account. Apparently, fellow church members who are Facebook friends were horrified at what they read, and called her, concerned about me. As soon as we got off of the phone, her kind husband wrote a note telling people that I had been hacked. 


When I got to my account and read the things that were written, I was embarrassed, horrified and angry. I printed out what was written, and then deleted it and put a note on my page that I had been hacked.

I had two new emails. One was from a high school teacher that I had telling me to please go talk to my pastor immediately. I had to laugh. I didn’t have to call my pastor. She called me. Another email was from a former boyfriend asking what was wrong. Now, I was really mad. Nobody wants a former boyfriend to think that anything is wrong….ever. We just want our former loves to think that our world is simply perfect; well, that is, since they have been gone. 

I did some investigation and found out who the teenager was who perpetrated this crime. For every story like mine, there are probably thousands more.

I learned the hard way to log out of Facebook anytime I am on a computer other than my own; even if I turn off the computer. I report suspicious activity to friends if I see it on their accounts, and I notify Facebook immediately about problems.

I am so thankful that Pastor Teresa called me when she did and that she felt comfortable with telling me. And I am thankful that no permanent damage was done. But I did miss the ending of Desperate Housewives.

copyright 2011 by Kathy Robbins