I thought we got to choose whether or not we wanted to share are personal info... or am I wrong?

Good morning Jennifer

Upon investigating your concern, I would like to assure you that we have removed your details from our internal marketing list on 27 August 2009 and reassure you that no correspondence will be sent to you in the future.

As is our practice we followed the necessary procures with regards to contacting the Direct Marketing Association and checking to see if your name appeared as a do -not –mail. As your name didn’t appear, we went ahead and mailed you.

Your name was obtained from a reputable company specialising in the supplying of databases for direct marketing, and you should ensure that your name is lodged with this organisation as this is the recognised body that will hold your details and advise against any future communications.

Kind regards,

Dear Truworths,

Thank you for taking me off of your system.

I will be forwarding further complaints with the DMA. I did not even
know that they are privy to my details and may distribute them as they
please by default. Surely they need to ask for permission from
consumers that would like to opt-in by default!

However I understand this is not longer your issue.

Best Regards,



So this is all that Truworths can do for me. Fine. I understand.
What remains is the feeling of unease that anyone can get a hold of my information by default, unless i put myself on the do-not-mail list. I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THERE WAS A LIST!!!

How is it legal for our personal details to be distributed like this BY DEFAULT?? The government has clearly allowed for this to take place. When has it become allowed for government to decide that our privacy is no longer important and that businesses can have our details in order to market their own stuff. SURELY should a consumer WANT to receive marketing information they can have the choice whether or not to OPT IN. Not be put on a list WITHOUT OUR KNOWLEDGE, and then be told upon inquiry that we had to CHOOSE to opt out!!!

This entire schpheel has been educational. I know now to go opt out with the Direct Marketing Association. However this just means that they won't send me annoying mail. It says nothing about deleting my information from their lists - it just puts me on another one.

On the one hand I accept that technology makes the transfer of information, personal or otherwise much more easily collected, shared and sold. I cannot deny that I'm loving most of the good stuff that's coming out of this technological advancement - faster computers, better phones... I do enjoy. However, I certainly hope that more effort is being put in by people in government and legal sectors in order to protect the consumers. Businesses make the effort to appeal to government for more rights in order to further their businesses. They will fight to get such like our personal details in order to do "direct marketing", but them having access to these details means that even more people do, leading to the even easier identity theft. Consumers not involved in these businesses just want to get on with their lives most of the time... Buy the products they need, go home, kiss their husbands and kids goodnight... Could we not keep it this way? Or consumers need to make and absolute, unanimous outcry, will things only change then? Isn't it the job of the government to protect the majority of people? Well we'd be safer without the added risk of leaking personal info thanks... I'm good without the adverts!!

Business, Technology, Privacy, Service.

I target Truworths in this post because this is my personal experience, but I have spoken to some friends who have had similar experiences with other companies. Joy. I do love the way technology adds to my life, I won't for a second bother imagining my life without my cellphone and laptop - what's the point? There would Be no life...

This is still an ongoing event, so there is no final conclusion at the end of this post, however so far my attentions has been drawn to two points 1) Our personal details are much more easily available than I’d thought, and 2) bad service just keeps slapping me on the ass. Even if I was into S&M this wouldn't be fun...

So I get home one day and receive a Truworths card in my mail. Wtf? People need to go through credit checks to get these cards... how the F did they get that information on me, as well as my home and post box address no less! Realization 1.

So I decide to write them a letter:

Dear Truworths,
>
> How did you get my personal information in order to send me a Truworths card?
> Unlike what you may think, I am indeed NOT delighted that I can now
> get clothing on credit from your stores. In fact I am ANGRY that you
> may 1) think that you can decide for me that I’d like a Truworths
> card, and 2) that you have means to access my personal information in
> order to send me a card!
>
> Of course I never need to use this card, however the fact remains that
> you have gained access to my personal information somehow and I demand
> to know how that is allowed. Should you be purchasing or sharing such
> information from other companies, I demand to know which ones so that
> I may take it up with them too. I feel that my privacy has been
> violated and I am absolutely appalled at your audacity to think that
> you can make decisions like this for people. I’ve shopped with you
> less than 5 times in my life, and this will make that the finite
> number of times that I will indeed shop with you.

Regards,

I think it was pretty clear what I wanted to know and why. Right?

So then why did I get this response back?
On Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 9:29 AM, CallCentre wrote:
>
> Good day to you
>
> Thank you for your e-mail and for the opportunity to respond to you.
>
> Please supply me with your id number for me to check if we have sent you an account in the post.If we have ,then you have been selected as part of our ongoing strategy to identify people ,who we feel would see value in Truworths account offer and who conduct their retail accounts well.
>
> Hope to hear from your soon.
>
> Kind regards
> *I won't name her*
> Customer Service Consultant

SUrely. SURELY people should read and understand a letter before sending through a reply? What is the point of employing Customer service consultants if they don't provide any useful service?? Realization 2.

Of course, needing to point that out, I responded promptly:
Dear Truworths,

Please consider the response you have given me "you have been selected as part of our ongoing strategy to identify people, who we feel would see value in Truworths account offer and who conduct their retail accounts well", and relate that to my original complaint "I feel that my privacy has been violated and I am absolutely appalled at your audacity to think that you can make decisions like this for people." You have been completely unhelpful.

I certainly see no need to give you my id number; you already have it, along with my credit history, home and post box addresses. In case you want to check that I indeed have one of your cards, the number on the card that you have given me is xxx xxx xxxx xxxx. You can now link that to the rest of my life.

WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IS HOW YOU HAVE ACCESS TO MY PERSONAL INFORMATION WITHOUT MY CONSENT IN ORDER TO "SELECT" ME AS A PART OF YOUR "ONGOING STRATEGY". I GAVE NO SUCH PERMISSION FOR YOU TO INCLUDE ME IN THIS STRATEGY!!! I REITERATE: I DEMAND TO KNOW HOW YOU GET ACCESS TO MY PERSONAL INFORMATION AND WHO YOU GET IT FROM. I ALSO DEMAND TO KNOW WHO ELSE HAS ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION!! I am appalled and disgusted at the audacity of your company to think that you can make decisions for people by including them in a "strategy".

And now I wait to hear back from them again.

Yes, I know I’m making a deal out of this. I Could really just break the card and chuck it away. But I’m really interested to know. who else has access to my personal details? Yes, we've all heard horror stories, and have obviously watched movies about bad guys or the FBI being able to either hack or are given authority to get your entire background. But there are few hackers who'd bother, and the FBI doesn't really pester us in this country, so I’ve never seriously thought much about my privacy issues unless I’m paying by credit card online - and then I’m assuming that they use really good encryption to keep my info there safe. But it appears that things like my id number and my home address are out there, floating about, ready to be used by anyone. This information could easily lead to everything else that I have on record. It is potentially very dangerous. It’s identity theft made easy!
And the service consultant simply says that I have been selected as part of a "strategy". Way to make Anyone want to shop there ever again.

Quit your job lady. There's got to be something else you're better at. Something you'd actually enjoy doing. I feel bad for you sitting behind that keyboard.

Conversations with a Girl friend: Relationships and Mindgames

Do you Seriously, SERIOUSLY believe that mind-games assists in keeping your relationship going?

Are the qualities that i look for in a romantic relationship that different from yours?

In a romantic relationship I seek:
fun,
companionship,
great sex,
someone who keeps me in mind when he makes a decision that may involve me in the slightest - because I'm a part of his life that he takes into consideration,
someone for which I'd go out of my way to make their lives easier and better, because he enriches my life by loving me, and teaches me what it feels like to love someone back.
intelligence,
clarity of thought/logic,
ambition/knowing what he wants,
As far as I'm concerned, trust and good communication goes without saying most of the time, but i need to highlight something here - GOOD COMMUNICATION.

What do You look for?

Playing mind games is based on the assumption that the partners do not know what the other could possibly be thinking, and the partners keep each other guessing, which by definition is Bad Communication. Now, this could be fun if it were sex games and whether or not the partners guessed the correct thoughts, the outcome would be pleasurable. However, if guessing wrong could lead to negative and possibly serious consequences, that's just stupid.

Why go LOOKING for problems? Why go ADDING to them? Do you REALLY have nothing else to do with your time?
If the person you're with is so boring that you need to play mind games in order to create some semblance of mystery and stay interested in each other, you've Certainly found the wrong person, and should really be concentrating on finding someone who you'd want to spend Actual time talking to, someone who wants to make your life Better, Easier... that someone's life who You would like to ADD to...

Bad communication means that there is a super high probability that you're both on different pages, leading you to make decisions are not mutually beneficial. How does that make your lives better? how does that make your lives easier? Or is this kind of misunderstanding and drama what you're actually looking for in a relationship? Do you actually enjoy complaining to your friends about how your man/woman just does not understand you, does not know to buy flowers, or do your laundry along with his? Because i can tell you this - friends get lank tired of that kind of jabber. Lank, LANK tired.

If you need misunderstandings and that kind of drama so much that you are playing games in order to make them happen, well power to you for making what you want happen. But please don't pull me in to try guess what he's thinking. He probably does not know What to think because you're not telling him anything, and all of this is just a waste of time. yours, his, and most importantly MINE! Maybe you have nothing better to with your time, but i certainly have other things to do with Mine.

Maybe you'd call me a bad friend because i won't listen to this type of your troubles. However, if you were wrongfully accused for a crime i will be there to bail you out for sure. But paying games that aren't fun is a futile effort. And anyone who knows me knows that i do Not believe in those.

Mind games are a no. Be honest. Be simple. Be happy.

Being South African is apparently not enough to be welcome in South Africa

Dear O R Tambo International Airport

My name is Jennifer Hsieh. I am a Masters student studying Neurophysiology at the University of Cape Town. I write to you with deep regret and absolute disappointment, and being an airport that holds service in high regard, I know that you will hear my story out.

Recently, I was fortunate enough to go on a month trip to the USA, where I travelled the States of Kentucky, Florida, as well as spend time in Manhattan New York. I had learnt much on my travels, and certainly glad to have seen so much of the “Beautiful Country” that America is called in Mandarin. However, as great a country America is, I kept thinking, well, SA isn’t so bad. In fact, after making several comparisons, I was proud to say that I am happily South African. This country is full of culture, full of strength, and behind each face that I’ve met here, there has been such struggle, which give this country much character. I have lived here my whole life, and I love the life that I have and am still building. I could not wait to come home. When the plane landed on the morning of 7 August, my eyes brimmed with tears I was so elated.

I hurried off the plane with my maximum amount of hand luggage allowed, and headed toward Passport Control and stood in the line, still happy – A little line didn’t bug me at all because I was HOME! After a 14 hour flight and a month away that only strengthened my love for this country, I was smiling at everyone around me. As I walked up to booth 13 of Passport Control, it was 9am. The gentleman looked at me and asked me where I was from. I handed him my SA passport, and said with a huge smile, “I’m South African, I’m so happy to be HOME :D“, he shook his head, taking my passport and asked me again, “Where are you from?”, so I thought that perhaps he wanted to know where I just came from, and I replied “Oh, um, New York, I just came from JFK”. I’d figured that my smile would let him know that I’d had a good trip. By then he had stamped my passport and upon closing he said to me, without humour, “No. You are from Taiwan. You were only Naturalized in South Africa”, and with that he dismissed me by handing me my passport.

I was completely taken aback. And as I walked away, I was completely speechless. In all my 22 years, there have been few times that I have been this insulted. I am a proud South African. I defend this country when I’m abroad, whether in the USA, or in other Asian countries where I’ve certainly been met with countless criticisms about staying here. I fight with my parents and defend the potential and the worth of this country as they criticize. Not to mention other less proud South Africans who didn’t bother to vote, I fought them too, imploring them to take a stand, to use their voice, to make a difference... I participate in various student leadership roles, largely for driving community service programs in order to improve less advantaged schools, volunteering and rallying up further volunteers to tutor less advantaged students on weekends, leading committees of students to help me with these causes. I do this because I believe that South Africa can be improved through education, and since I’m an avid scholar, this is the best way in which I can make a contribution. In however small a way I can, I try.

But apparently loving and working and fighting for this country is not enough to deserve a welcome back, because I am “only naturalized in South Africa”. I’d thought we have worked past all of the idiocies of racism, at least at the GATES of this country will we show that the majority of us have learnt from our history and would now like to work to make this country a better place? That the men at our gates do not take one look at my Asian skin and tell me that I do not deserve to be welcome in my country! What reason do I have to carry on working for and loving this place if it clearly does not want me to be here? I don’t chase after a man that does not love me back, and the same applies for South Africa.

South Africa complains about the “brain drain”. Well the men at our gates are not making any effort to make us feel welcome enough to stay.

Edited a joke that was received from AJokeADay.com

An Israeli doctor says: "Medicine in my country is so advanced that we can take a kidney out of one man, put it in another, and have him looking for work in 6 weeks."

A British doctor says: "That is nothing; we can take a lung out of one person, put it in another, and have him looking for work in 4 weeks."

A Canadian doctor says: "In my country, medicine is so advanced that we can take half a heart out of one person, put it in another, and have them both looking for work in 2 weeks."

A South African doctor, not to be outdone, says: "You guys are way behind...... We just took a man with NO brain, made him President, and now the whole country is looking for work!

The 5 Minute Mug Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

Dry
4 tbsp Self raising flour
4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp cocoa
3 tbsp chocolate chips (optional)
Mix these together

Wet
3 tbsp oil
3 tbsp milk
1egg
splash vanilla essence

Mix ALL together and microwave for 3 minutes. Will need LARGE mug. Small flat dish also works.

Whoever invented this one is a Genius. I don't really cook per se... so this'll keep me nourished :p

Simple

Our hearts hold so much content, but we don't need many words.
You know I love you... and that's all that needs to be communicated.

It's simple for us like that.

My feelings for you aren't complicated.
There's no drama like they show on TV,
or like the love-lives of my friends.
I'm not confused as to whether I love you or not,
or whether you love me back.
I don't wonder if you're going to go off with another
woman without me knowing,
Or if you’d rather sleep at work
Even the anguish of you being far away is simple.
It just hurts.
Enduringly, all the time, everyday...
but it's the same dull ache...
It's not as bad when I know you're in Cape Town and are just a drive away,
but when you're not nearby, it's the same little haze of loneliness
that clings to me and makes sure that I
remember exactly
just how far you are away from me.

I Do enjoy the company of my friends, but past a certain time of night,
all I can do is to miss you.
I used to get so exhausted in the day
that the moment my head hits my pillow I sink straight to sleep.
but now
I spend some time thinking about you for a little bit, wishing you well,
hoping you're having fun where you are.
And I imagine you wrap your arms around me,
your chest against my back,
while I try to fall asleep.
But,
even as I feel you around me, I know that you are not,
and suddenly I am wracked by tears.
Tears of profound yearning of the impossible,
of surrendered helplessness,
and freshly, forcibly accepted pains.

I miss you.

And that's a Simple feeling too.

©HumbleAmbition 2009