How to block cellphone spam

Well, maybe I'm the only person left in the universe who doesn't have a txting plan, and thus I pay per text message. But, that's me, and I've gotten two spam txt messages in the past couple days, and I refuse to continue paying for them. Mind you, this started after I ordered something from Amazon.com - which has pissed me off incredibly to begin with and I would not be surprised if this txt spam comes somehow through them (it's all a conspiracy!).

Anyway, found a great article on the web on how to block cellphone spam, at least through AT&T and Verizon.

* AT&T: Log in at mymessages.wireless.att.com. Under Preferences, you’ll see the text-blocking and alias options. Here’s also where you can block messages from specific e-mail addresses or Web sites.

* Verizon Wireless: Log in at vtext.com. Under Text Messaging, click Preferences. Click Text Blocking. You’re offered choices to block text messages from e-mail or from the Web. Here again, you can block specific addresses or Web sites. (Here’s where you set up your aliases, too.)

Here's the full blog post which explains things much better than I ever could since I don't really understand it.

PSA - Free Krispy Kreme Donut if you Vote

Habits of the Mind for Critical Thinking

- Confidence
- Contextual perspective
- Creativity
- Flexibility
- Inquisitiveness
- Intellectual integrity
- Intuition
- Open-mindedness
- Perseverance
- Reflection

I get paid to be a critical thinker, but don't always have these traits at work. Gotta work on them.

Tire tips

I did some research after my trip to NTB. Here's interesting information. (It's not me speaking.)

I had always thought that if it's a front wheel drive car, then surely I want my good tires on the front, right?

However, when installing 2 new tires with a deeper tread than the other two, they should be placed in the rear to minimize the chance of oversteer.

What is oversteer?

OVERSTEER:
The tendency of a vehicle to steer into a sharper turn than the driver intends, sometimes with a thrusting of the rear of the vehicle to the outside. Example a vehicle is said to have an oversteer condition during a turn when the rear tires have less grip on the driving service than the front tires have. The tendency is for the rear of the vehicle to slide out toward the outside of the turn. Oversteer is also referred to by the term Loose.

The tire manufacturer's have been saying for years that the better tires, when they are not matched, should go on the rear of the car. I had just never heard it until recently when my tire guy informed me.

They maintain that it's all about control and you have less control in the rear, so the better tires should be back there so you don't lose control/oversteer. (You don't want the back end coming around on you!)

Check out some links I dug up, especially that last one...

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/t...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tires
(Look under tread section.)

http://www.michelinman.com/care/reartire...
(Download the larger 9 meg video if you have high speed internet. It's worth it.)

Go with what your tire stores and tire manufactuer's are telling you and not what your friend, your dad, or some so-called answer's expert says. That includes me.

Preserve Social Security and Medicare

So, I went to the 25th Anniversary luncheon (this link brings you to the blog and the description of the event) of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare today. As a guest. Amazingly enough, it wasn't boring as many luncheons are. In fact, if was very interesting to hear the grandson of Roosevelt and the daughter of Lyndon Johnson, both of whom were great speakers. In addition, a blogger that I had heard of through My Mom's Blog/Thoroughly Modern Millie received an award. Ronnie Bennett of Time Goes By was honored for her writing on, amazingly enough, Social Security and Medicare. :-)

I really encourage you to take a look at all the links to learn about how Social Security and Medicare can be preserved, and to look at Ronnie's blog to begin to understand issues from the perspective of aging individuals.

Do the test

I love it. Do NOT read the comments before you do it since some[Heather]one gave it away.

Going on Now - Sunshine Week

Sunshine Week is a national initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants include print, broadcast and online news media, civic groups, libraries, non-profits, schools and others interested in the public's right to know.

Sunshine Week is led by the American Society of Newspaper Editors and is funded primarily by a challenge grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation of Miami.

Though spearheaded by journalists, Sunshine Week is about the public's right to know what its government is doing, and why. Sunshine Week seeks to enlighten and empower people to play an active role in their government at all levels, and to give them access to information that makes their lives better and their communities stronger.

Sunshine Week is a non-partisan initiative whose supporters are conservative, liberal and everything in between.

Amber Alert Text Notification

About a month ago I found out about Wireless Amber Alerts, I forget how. And then a week ago I heard an ad on the radio about it, so thought I would pass along to you. I haven't yet done it so I can't give my first hand experience, but it sounds like a good idea. From the website:

The wireless industry has officially partnered with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to distribute AMBER Alerts to wireless consumers who opt in to receive geographically specified messages on their wireless devices through an AMBER Alert wireless messaging system.

ALLTEL Mobile, Cingular Wireless, Dobson Communications, First Cellular of Southern Illinois, Nextel Communications, Rural Cellular Corporation, Sprint, U.S. Cellular, Verizon Wireless and Western Wireless will offer Wireless AMBER Alerts to their subscribers at launch. Other wireless carriers will join shortly. Syniverse Technologies has donated the necessary equipment, development and operation of the Wireless AMBER Alerts Initiative to The Wireless Foundation.

Subscribers capable of receiving text messages, and whose wireless provider is participating in the Wireless AMBER Alerts Initiative, may opt in to receive alerts by registering at www.wirelessamberalerts.org and designating up to five ZIP Codes from which they’d like to be alerted in the case of an AMBER Alert activation.