Friday Five: Hacked!

Happy Friday! I’m off today so you get a special mid-morning blog post!

Here’s this week’s Friday Five: HACKED!

1. When did someone last break something of yours?
On Labor Day, in the Peddler’s village parking lot, someone backed into my car. He scratched the heck out of my driver’s side rear panel, but left a note with his name/phone number. I was a bonehead and decided to do the “right” thing and go through GEICO. They were happy to pursue, and since I pay them heaps of cash each year, I was happy to let them. So I sat back and waited for them to tell me what to do next.

Unfortunately, the guy won’t deal with them at all, preferring to pay me out of pocket. So now I have to call this guy and go through heaps of extra inconvenience. If I go outside of GEICO, I don’t get the rental car coverage or anything that I, you know, pay for. If I deal with him out of pocket and go through GEICO, he’s going to have to pony up at least my $500 deductible and my rates will go up anyway, right?

Not to mention, he probably hates my guts for going to my insurance company in the first place. And I hate confrontation. So bleah.

2. When did you last play hackysack, if ever?
Never!

3. What was your most dramatic haircut like?
Back in college I had it really short, to the point where it was wedgy-looking in the back, and the stylist actually had to take clippers to the back of my neck for strays. I wore a baseball cap for months.

4. Hacking is basically breaking through the security that protects a computer or a website. What’s the closest you’ve come to doing something similar in real life?
Somebody here in my building never changed their default wireless router settings. So the network name is linksys and the password is admin. So I use their wireless connection from time to time.

5. In the world of stand-up comedy, a hack is a comic who steals jokes from other comics. Have you ever known a hack in your own field?
I’m a web designer! We’re all hacks! We always go online for snippets of code to solve problems, or for free javascript to do neat things.

~~~
Did you know that next week is October? Even after my planned days off — 2 for Boston/Blogher*, 3 for trip to see WM’s family in Michigan, 1 for Black Friday — I still have 5 days left. Our vacation days don’t roll over (and really, who knows if we’ll all be employed by December anyway?) so I decided to take today off. As usual, it’s crappy out. But I’m headed out to lunch with a friend, and will swing by Target afterward. So I’ll get my puttering in.

~~~
This Sunday, weather permitting, we’ll be at the Pennsauken Fall Festival (PDF). It promises the three “Cs” of a successful outdoor event, crafts, classic cars, and carny food. Okay, that’s four.

Have a wonderful weekend!

*I’m terrified about this. I won’t know anybody there, and I get very shy around people I don’t know. I feel like I need to be there though.