Mindconnection eNL, 2008-07-06

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In this issue:
Product Highlight | Brainpower | Finances | Security | Health/Fitness | Miscellany | Thought for the Day

This course was originally a short course on carpal tunnel syndrome and a primer for carpal tunnel surgery. Newly revised and over 100 pages long, it now completely addresses the issue of wrist pain and contains information that, if followed, will likely prevent the need for surgery at all. That surgery, in case you don't know, involves severing a tendon. Hardly a cure.

One such item is the book Distracted, which I reviewed here:

https://www.mindconnection.com/books/distracted.htm

• Gasoline is no more expensive to day than it was a decade ago, if you adjust for inflation. We just had a huge price break for a long time.
• Milk is about the same price.
• Bottled water costs more.

Still, there is something about a $50 tankup that makes you adjust your thinking if you haven't already done so. Those of us who don't buy gasoline every month (right--there are months when I don't buy it at all, because I use so little) are complaining far less than the SUV owners and long commuters who previously thought nothing of wasting everyone's resources and jacking the price up.

We can't undo previous stupidity. The high prices are here to stay.

If your fueling costs have doubled, does this put you in the poorhouse? No. In fact, you now have a nice incentive to actually cut your fueling costs and it's a nice incentive for others to help. For example:

• This is the perfect time to talk with your boss about telecommuting. If you work at the office 5 days a week and most of your time is spent hiding in a cubicle typing away, why can't you do that on Tuesdays and Thursdays?
• Car pooling. Jim and Bob have turned you down when you've talked about it, before. Now maybe they'll listen.
• Riding the bus. In most of America, this conveys a loss of status. Yet in big cities like New York and Chicago, it conveys nothing of the sort. Nor is it especially time-consuming. In fact, it's faster to zip around Manhattan on the subway than to crawl in surface traffic. If the bus is your thing, use the time to catch up on e-mail or just chill out.
• Your spouse has been against selling your aging car and leasing or buying a new one. It runs fine, so why make car payments? Now is a good time to re-do the math.

Think about how you can adjust to the higher fueling costs without tightening your belt in ways unrelated to transportation. If you have had a typical American transportation mentality, you will have no problems cutting your spending to half of what it was a year ago--even with today's higher prices.

Attorney's Advice

Read this and make a copy for your files in case you need to refer to it someday. Maybe we should all take some of his advice!

A corporate attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company.

1. The next time you order checks have only your initials (instead of first name and middle) and last name put on them.
If someone takes your check book, they will not know if you sign your checks with just your initials or your first name, but your bank will know how you sign your checks.

2. Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, put 'PHOTO ID REQUIRED.'

3. When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the 'For' line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check processing channels won't have access to it.

4. Put your work phone # on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a P.O. Box, use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a P.O. Box, use your work address. Never have your SS# printed on your checks.(DUH!) You can add it if it is necessary. But if you have it printed, anyone can get it.

5. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place. I also carry a photocopy of my passport when I travel either here or abroad. We've all heard horror stories about fraud that's committed on us in stealing a name, address, Social Security number, credit cards.

Unfortunately I, an attorney, have first hand knowledge because my wallet was stolen last month. Within a week, the thieve(s) ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information online, and more. But here's some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know:

1. We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. But the key is having the toll free numbers
and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them.

2. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one).

But here's what is perhaps most important of all: (I never thought to do this earlier.)

3. Call the 3 national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and Social Security number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit
was made over the Internet in my name. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit.

By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves' purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away. This weekend (someone turned it in.

It seems to have stopped them dead in their tracks.

Now, here are the numbers you always need to contact about your wallet, etc., has been stolen:

1.) Equifax: 1-800-525-6285

2.) Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742

3) Trans Union: 1-800-680-7289

4.) Social Security Administration (fraud line): 1-800-269-0271
 

How To Train For Fat Loss While Managing Back Pain

It will also help you if you're already in this predicament.

1. The first domain name ever registered was Symbolics.com. That was rather, er, symbolic.
    

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