More Bad Buzz

So, I’ve finally done a little bit of research into Google Buzz, which launched earlier this week.  I haven’t paid much attention to it because (1) I don’t use my Gmail account all that much to start with, and have relatively few contacts there anyway, and (2) I don’t really use other Google services for things I want kept particularly secret.  But I could see that it was probably going to have all kinds of privacy problems.

So, I did some reading up today on the various inevitable privacy issues.  Further research has indicated that, according to Google, “Your Google Reader shared items, Picasa Web public albums, and Google Chat status messages automatically appear as posts in Buzz.”  “Well,” I thought to myself, “I don’t really use any of those three, so I guess I personally don’t have anything to worry about.”  I don’t use Google Reader, the only stuff that goes into my Picasa Web albums are the photos that also go in my blog because Blogger automatically stores them there – and they don’t go up as public there anyway, and Google Chat has always been way overrated.

But then I thought to myself, wait!  I actually was using Picasa majorly, all week (starting last Saturday) to discuss wedding dress options with lots of people.  I used their public albums to upload hundreds of photos of me in various dresses and didn’t mention it to Nick, because he’s the last one to go poking around online when he’s bored, and, like I said, I hardly ever use Picasa.  (The albums are locked down now that I’ve finally chosen a dress.)

But it turns out that Nick is actually one of my few automatic followers on Buzz, and had I waited just a handful of days to upload all those wedding dress photos to Picasa, he would have gotten emails about all of them.  Which would have sucked; both he and Zeb have specifically requested that my dress be a surprise to Nick.

Some people complain that concerns about web privacy are overwrought (and sometimes they’re not wrong).  They think that if you need privacy online that means that you’re doing something bad.  But I don’t think that going over my wedding dress options was something bad, and I still would have been bummed if Nick had seen all the photos.

Latest Cause

So, if Nick ever gets his interview at the U.S. Embassy in London for his K-1 Visa, he’s going to need to provide a notarized letter of intent from me that basically says that we’re still planning to get married and our status hasn’t changed.

Normally I get things notarized at the Town Hall in Westborough, which is actually really great – I always get things done successfully there without much hassle.  However, the Cambridge Town Hall is far away and only open inconvenient hours, so I did some research, saw that UPS notarizes things, and went to Store 1520 at 1770 Mass Ave.

I also did some more research, and saw that pursuant to Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 262, § 41, notaries, as public servants, definitely cannot charge more than $1.25 for signing that my signature is authentic on a single sheet of paper that is about me marrying Nick.

So, that’s where the trouble starts.  At the UPS today, all they did was check that my driver’s license identified me correctly when I signed the form.  They also recorded my name in a little book (the “official journal” that notaries have to keep under Executive Order 455 § 11).  That was it.  I’m pretty sure the guy didn’t even look at the letter he notarized, other than to check that the name matched my driver’s license.

But they charged me $5!  I paid, but looked at the receipt later.  There was a charge for $1.25 for “Notary,” and a charge for $3.75 for “Notary Service Fee.”  What is a “Notary Service Fee,” and why do I have to pay it?  (For that matter, why did I pay $1.25 for “Notary” – I didn’t buy a notary, did I?)

So, I’ve sent them a stroppy email pointing out that they’re systematically violating Massachusetts State Law, and saying that I want them to either (1) give me a detailed explanation of what I got for my “Notary Service Fee” or (2) give me my $3.75 back.  (Okay I really want 2.  But curiosity would lead me to accept 1 as an alternative.)  I’m not expecting a response but I might get one – you never know.

Unfortunately, there’s no place on the MA website, or on the MA Secretary of State website, to report misbehaving notaries (some states do give you a place to report right online).  If I get more wound up maybe I’ll write them a letter.

So now this is my latest campaign (not that I expect much to come of it).  If I end up getting fired from all my jobs, my new plan is to initiate a class action suit against UPS for their totally illegal “Notary Service Fees” (which I think they use in other states, too – not just MA).  Stay tuned for that…

I have a dress!

Good news.  After subjecting many people to many emails, I have finally chosen a wedding dress.  It wasn't the one that both Hannah and Sage called "elegant" -- but it was the one that probably inspired the most conversation overall.  Zeb "put all [his] money on it," and also thought it was most likely to make me cry (because it will immobilize me, according to him).  Mombie concurs that I will be unable to move.  Sage calls it "the peacock," and considers me choosing it to be "doing things the hard way."  Krissy calls it "a lot of look."  Hannah and Rachel concur that while they certainly wouldn't do it themselves, it might be just about right for me.  I figure anything that gets that much attention is probably going to be fun.  So I'm doing it the hard way.  We'll see how it works out.  Stay tuned!

LOST

Tomorrow night is the premier of the final season of LOST.  SO excited.  I won’t actually have time to watch it until Wednesday particularly because it takes me like three hours to watch an episode.  I watch it, and then spend another 2+ hours reading articles on Lostpedia and various blogs analyzing it.  Everyone else should watch it, too, so that I can tell everyone all my thoughts and theories about it.

For example, one small thing I’d like to see resolved in a particular way:  The Numbers.  Now, Hurley thinks the numbers are cursed, right, because after he won the lottery using them a lot of bad stuff started happening to him.  But how did he come up with the Numbers to use for the lottery?  By listening to a crazy guy at the hospital repeat them over and over.  Why was the crazy guy repeating them?  Because they had been transmitted to him over and over while he was out stranded on the ocean somewhere near the island radio tower that was broadcasting them.  The way I’d like to see this resolved would be for time-traveling Hurley to be the one who had left them broadcasting from the radio tower to begin with.  That way, the Numbers would truly have been a monster of his own creation.

Unfortunately, it looks like that’s probably not happening since signs say that there will be no more time traveling this season.  Which is too bad, because I feel like that would be a particularly satisfying resolution of the Numbers.

Anyways, I have all sorts of theories and ideas about LOST and am so excited to watch on Wednesday!

Heart of Stupid

This weekend was the Heart of Steel comp, which was pretty overpriced and crowded.  The consensus was that the organizers put a lot of effort into promoting the comp and not enough into setting/organization – all the subsequent problems (I can give you a complete list…) seemed to stem from that.

The finals were more tricksy than satisfying, but people seemed to like watching them.  I was trying to see if anyone was going to lose a finger or a head to the stupid power crystal.  Zeb climbed in a “prefinal superfinal,” which he lost by public opinion (everyone said “aww” when he fell off), but which he actually tied on by standard bouldering competition “control is what matters” rules.  Public opinion won and he didn’t climb in finals.

In other, unrelated news, the wedding invitations are now in sealed, addressed envelopes.  They just need dragging to the post office.  So, if you don’t get yours within the next week or two, quiz me because it might have gotten lost in the mail.