I'll bet the Union and Confederate soldiers never dreamed that their battles would eventually be "celebrated," eh? Well, we aren't exactly celebrating.. more like remembering.

It's been only 150 years since the Civil War. Can you believe that? It seems like thousands of years ago. Truly, life has changed so much in the past 100 years.

Anyway, we are going to go to the Civil War Reenactment Festival next weekend! I can't wait! We have attempted to go to a number of reenactments but the show is either washed out from rain and canceled, or we don't make it in time. THIS time we are going to make it and no Golden Eagle silver panda is going to keep us away! LOL

I wrote about the event to come at my other travel blog: NewYorkTraveler.net Civil War Event.

I'll have lots of photos and stories (and maybe a few videos!). I also intend to blog "live" on my Facebook page. This looks to be a great day. I just hope it doesn't rain!

The hackers are getting sophisticated, that's for sure.

Earlier this month, the FBI issued a warning to travelers about possible malicious software downloads on certain hotel Internet connections. Scary stuff.

The FBI wasn't specific about any particular hotel chain, nor the software involved but stated: "Recent analysis from the FBI and other government agencies demonstrates that malicious actors are targeting travelers abroad through pop-up windows while they are establishing an Internet connection in their hotel rooms.

...The FBI said typically travelers attempting to set up a hotel room Internet connection were presented with a pop-up window notifying the user to update a widely used software product. If the user clicked to accept and install the update, malicious software was installed on the laptop. The pop-up window appeared to be offering a routine update to a legitimate software product for which updates are frequently available.

Years ago, at a hotel, I was on my netbook and was actually prompted to update Adobe Flash. I have no idea if that was credible or not, but I remember getting pretty annoyed that Adobe wanted me to update while I was busy on the computer away from home! Of course, Adobe had no idea of my location (I don't think, anyway!) but it goes to show that there are too many updates far too often. In general, NEVER EVER click a pop-up window. If it persists, shut the machine down or unplug it. Also, use an update-checking software program such as Secunia

I'd also heard yesterday in the news that a Capital One employee was recently discovered selling bank members' financial information and stealing money directly from bank accounts. This activity is very distressing. We have virtually no control anymore over our own money, our own identity. Better get a reliable raleigh nc accounting service and keep watch on your accounts.

If I had $1 million dollars to spare, I think the last thing I'd buy is a parking spot. BUT have you ever tried to DRIVE through New York City, let alone PARK there?! I thought parking in Syracuse, Albany, and Utica was bad. It is INSANE in New York City.

So naturally my interest was piqued when I read that a $1,000,000.000 parking spot is for sale in the Big Apple. According to Yahoo! News:

The New York Post reports the parking spot will be about 12 feet wide and 23 feet long. It will be located inside an eight-story luxury condominium building at 66 E. 11th St. The $1 million parking spot is likely to be leased to the future owner of the building's "centerpiece," an 8,000-square-foot duplex penthouse.

"It's for someone who wants complete privacy," Prudential Douglas Elliman Vice Chairman Dolly Lenz tells the Post. "You can drive in and not be seen again. It's for the type of person who finds that attractive. It could be a celebrity or a business person who is camera shy."

Oh, and the $1 million price tag doesn't include maintenance fees. Hoh boy! At the end of the story, it tempers the inanity with this little snippet:

Back in 2002, it was reported that comedian Jerry Seinfeld was spending more than $1 million to build his own private parking garage. But that was to house his private luxury car collection, with an estimated 20 parking spots.

Oh. OK, then.

O.o

I finally got a new post up about our March trip to the Cloisters in Manhattan. The museum is stunning; we had a wonderful trip.



I'm all excited about going to New York City again, now! While researching information about the Cloisters, I came across some stuff on the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (The MMoA runs the Cloisters). The MMoA became my second home in NYC when I attended school in Manhattan. I visited very frequently. Despite all my visits, I don't think I ever saw everything in the entire museum, either! I read that it is a 1/4 mile long, 2,000,000 square feet!

So I think, Lord willing, we will go see it sometime. I do like NYC. It's a place where you can see and do so many wonderful things, from buying clothes and discount perfumes to walking through museums and historic places to eating the most amazing foods... and more.

It's May. The end of the month is usually when the New York State travel season gets underway. By the end of the month, we can generally expect no more snow (generally, mind you), open roads clear of snow and ice, and the end of the heating season. I have long lamented the fact that most New York tourist sites shut down for the winter, from October to May. That leaves us with only SIX months of tourism, folks. And the New York State powers that be still expect to meet or exceed revenues every year.

Such is incredible. Think about it-- in other states (southern ones), they have a year round tourism industry. I wonder what their revenues are, compared to New York's?

Here in the frigid winter months, the only real entertainment we get is from the direct tv, huddled around our tubes or computers. OK OK, yeah, there's the Iditarod and the Snow Festivals. Oh, and there's the swimming in the 10-degree-lakes, just for kicks. (Actually, I'd rather be huddled around my directtv instead of that). But what else is there for us, for half the year? Not much.

I think the tourist places should be open for a longer period of time. Thanks to improved weather forecasting and snow plows and such, roads are better maintained. Winter is a wonderful time to remember historic things-- some historic houses do open briefly for Christmas, which I think is lovely.

But the real contender comes with winter's very high energy bills. Most tourist places cannot afford the extremely high heating and electricity costs. Heck, most New Yorkers can't either.

I like traveling in the winter-- when the roads are clear! In winter, there are fewer crowds, fewer bugs, and less humidity. I like the weather, I like snow. Maybe someday, the tourist places will expand their seasons. For now, I'm stuck waiting another 3,4 weeks until anything opens. Oh well, at least there's
www.dx3.net.

Remember just two weeks ago how I gleefully celebrated the new look to my other travel blog, NewYorkTraveler.net? Well, I'm eating my words because it was hacked a week later. :( What a mess.

It seems that there is a lot of hacking of WordPress blogs going on. I can immediately think of at least a dozen people I personally know who have had their blogs hacked. Usually, a hacker inserts hidden, malicious links and/or images. Some redirect the blog to a malicious site. It's getting pretty fierce.

I had all my blogs updated and everything. My blogs may have been hacked a few times, without me knowing! I have no idea exactly how they got in. For one instance, I installed a plugin whose owner had evil intent. In another instance, maybe it was through the WooThemes theme I was using (which had a vulnerability). But the day I found out about that, I'd updated the theme. According to MySQL backups, someone had hacked into the blog previously, before those issues.

Anyway, lots of other bloggers are getting hacked, and they don't have the same plugins or themes. What the heck is going on?! And why can't these hacking idiots get THEIR OWN WEBSITES?

Oh this is so sad. An end of an era.

The New York Times reports that Amtrak is slowly introducing new technology to scan passengers' rial tickets. Instead of the familiar "click click" of the hole punchers, we will now hear the "BEEEEEP" of a scanned ticket. :( I like the hole punchers.

Amtrak, the government-owned corporation that oversees the nation’s railroad train services, has been training conductors since November to use the Apple handset as an electronic ticket scanner on a few routes, including from Boston to Portland, Me., and San Jose, Calif., to Sacramento.

By late summer, 1,700 conductors will be using the devices on Amtrak trains across the country, the company said.

With the new system, passengers will be able to print tickets or load a special bar code on their smartphone screens for conductors to scan, and conductors will be able to keep track of passengers on board, Amtrak said.

Apple iPhone, even. Woo woo, betcha Apple is happy about that. Amtrak says they are developing Android capability, too. The two companies are gonna be raking in the cash, as Amtrak is spending $7.5 million for this new system. I wonder, will they buy it all outright for opt for structured settlement payments? What about software security? Abuses of the system? power outages or bugs?

What I also DON'T like is that this new technology will track passengers on board. That's creepy. iPhones and Droids are so very cool, but the last thing I want is to be monitored because of them.

So while I love the iPhone and think technology is very cool, there are definite caveats, Technology is wonderful in the right hands and when it works... but when it's hacked or something goes wrong, it's an absolute nightmare.

Plus, I will certainly miss the clackety-clack of the hole punchers.