Sunday, April 29, 2012

For all you "smart" phone users out there

I just had a disturbing thing happen...  I received a text message yesterday that looked like this:

     IQQuizApp Fun Facts billed @ $9.99/mo 3msgs/wk renews on 05-01-2012. Reply HELP for help, 
     Reply STOP to cancel. Msg&Data Rates May Apply. 8888906150 for help

So of course I immediately replied "STOP"...but then today I realized there was this mysterious $9.99 charge on my Verizon phone bill, which actually happened from another one of these messages last month!  I thought I had replied STOP to that also and for sure I didn't ever authorize a charge...so I called Verizon just now and got it all straightened out very easily.  The kind lady that helped me immediately removed the charge from my bill, made sure the one from yesterday won't be charged, and blocked "Premium messaging" on my phone (which I figured out I could have done myself -- it's free, either way -- except I didn't know what it was.)  Anyhow, it's disturbing that this kind of thing goes on, and apparently it isn't illegal.  So here's a heads up to all of you with "smart" phones to watch out for this kind of thing, and if you're on Verizon you can circumvent the nastiness by blocking premium messages on your account on the Verizon website or calling them and asking them to do it.

Friday, April 06, 2012

LP nostalgia... input welcome!

Okay, I've been doing some research...  A couple of the records I have are just about irreplaceable (well, of the ones I've chosen to research) and a couple others are hard to find.  But I don't have a turntable and am not likely to get one, ever.  I can do a little more research and see if anyone in this area is making copies of these for $$ or I can send them to one of you.  The records are:
 "17 songs from The Pooh Song Book, starring Jack Gilford"  (Jack Gilford's Wikipedia bio is very interesting...) This music is special to me as it is the first music for children I remember listening to.  (We had an old 78 of the music when I was little; this record is not the one we had, but the music is the same.)
"The BabySitters", is an album of "folk songs for babies, small children, parents and baby sitters" by the group, The BabySitters which was Alan Arkin, Keremy Arkin, Lee Hays, and Doris Kaplan.  The group only made this and two other albums, in the late 60's, and then Vanguard made a compilation CD of these in 1991 which is unavailable.

Other albums which I have but am getting rid of I'm not too worried about, as Peter, Paul and Mary and Simon and Garfunkel are pretty widely available, and the few other albums I have I am not so attached to. 

One other that I have a sentimental attachment to: my Dad's copy of The In Crowd, by The Ramsey Lewis Trio. Unfortunately, the autographed jacket is badly damaged on one edge, though the record itself appears to be unaffected by the damage.  The autograph is intact: "To Frank -- Ramsey Lewis".

Where do I go from here?