When I started out as a mere peon at good, ole JPMorgan Chase & Company, one of my favorite retreats from the day to day grind was to run over (with my Manager at the time Jonah “the jackal”) and have ourselves some real greasy spoon comfort food within walking distance (East 45th Street location).

Alas, it has been YEARS since I visited this last vestige of home cookery, and now I may never enjoy their sweet potato fries again.  And the odds of me EVER going to Staten Island are pretty slim!

In our time here we’ve served more than two million meals,

but it’s the relationship we’ve formed with you, our customers

that means the most to us. We have experienced so

many wonderful moments and been here to offer

Comfort in those good times as well as during some of the harder times.

While we say goodbye with sadness,

we look forward to writing the next chapters in our future

and having you along as our co-authors.

In our time here we’ve served more than two million meals, but it’s the relationship we’ve formed with you, our customers that means the most to us. We have experienced so many wonderful moments and been here to offer Comfort in those good times as well as during some of the harder times.
While we say goodbye with sadness, we look forward to writing the next chapters in our future and having you along as our co-authors.

Farewell Comfort Diner, you will be missed!

I have  recently found out that the police were called during Christmas and new year’s eve, exact time/day is not yet known but my neighbors reported that there were 2 incidents during that holiday week, on my property, and that is unacceptable.  The court will have to issue a request for the police records during that time in addition to the call traces (using *57 on my land-line via Verizon and TAP service) to add some weight of urgency to this case.

Since my original post, many concerned  citizens have forwarded very valuable information regarding harassment enabled by the use of blocked/restricted calls and of course stalking – there is a much deeper psychology that plays into the reasons why any of this may occur, there is a very fine line between stalking and harassment in the eyes of the law and reparations will happen differently depending on how the judge or court hears the claim – I have provided some links to useful information that could help you to keep these types of situations from escalating.

For New York State:  http://www.safehorizon.org/page.php?page=stalking_nylaw

Most statutes define stalking as the willful, malicious and repeated following and harassing of another person. In addition to a pattern of conduct, many state laws mandate that an imminent, credible threat of violence be made against the victim for the activity to be considered stalking. But thirty-two states also consider the stalker’s intent to instill fear as illegal, with all but six states defining criminal stalking as any activity that would instill fear in a reasonable person.

Why do I take this so seriously, here is a report from last week, of a 23-year-old woman killed outside her Orlando office by a stalker had asked for a protective order but was denied.  http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,585535,00.html

Resources:

- For Blackberry users, a new service that will be offering more options as they develop and expand their product line, thanks Roseann for reaching out to me!  http://www.privacystar.com/Default.aspx

- Very valuable information regarding recent rulings, i.e. California Penal Code 646.9, www.leginfo.ca.gov –>  http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs14-stk.htm

- http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs3-hrs2.htm#2

- http://news.cnet.com/FAQ-The-new-annoy-law-explained/2100-1028_3-6025396.html

- http://www.stalkingvictims.com/home.htm

- A very informative site:  http://www.safehorizon.org/page.php?page=stalking_nylaw

-  http://trac.syr.edu/laws/47/47USC00223.html

- http://www.wiredsafety.org/cyberstalking_harassment/stalker.html

Of course, it is very difficult to get a restraining order or order of protection, BUT if you can prove reasonable damages in Civil Court, there are ways to effect change.   Preliminary Hearing is next week and hopefully, with an Advocate on Privacy Policy and support from the Telco’s , maybe we can effect some change.

Why do I care so much?

I lived over a year with fear and helplessness every time my phone rang from a blocked number over and over again, late at night, early in the morning – it effected my ability to work, to sleep and to simply answer my phone – I missed a great deal of work because of the harassment!  Since I began writing about  it has stopped, but that does not make it “ok“.

Remember, when you sign up for your mobile phone, you are agreeing NOT to abuse the use of said device.

Thank you to all those who reached out to me and shared their stories, I hear you loud and clear!

For those of you who know me well, Valentine’s Day is a very special holiday for me – ever since I was a little girl, I would hand out heart shaped lollipops & chocolate roses to strangers on the street and those I love and care about!  I seriously love love-day, I still have the roses my honey gave me from last year, I dried them and they look very goth on my desk!  (I am sending you all Virtual Hearts & chocolates in my mind right now!)   I hope you all have special plans for this day, as for me?  I am going to my FAVORITE restaurant in NYC, with my honey, for the Valentine’s Day “Special Course” at Gyu-Kaku in the East Village, a place I have been going to with friends and family since it first opened!!  I have introduced so many people to this place over the years and now my favorite server was let go, poor Ramon!  He was awesome, but due to the economy business slowed down and they had to make cut backs.  SO PLEASE, If you will be in NYC, I strongly suggest you go… HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!

I know a lot of my readers are more interested in the geek stuff, so on that note my honey got me a pair of sexy Lowel Tota-light’s to go with my on-the-road HD production kit! Now how’s that for a fabulous gift for a geek like me?

As you may or may not have noticed, since my post in December about getting engaged in “life” first “career” second I have been writing less about the daily geek freak stuff, it IS possible to wrap the two up together if you do it right.  Thank you for all the concerned queries about my health, I will be doing a before and after update with pictures so you can see my “transformation” ( a picture is worth a gazillion words, after-all!).

I have an article that will be out in the 2010 Streaming Media Source Book – The Enterprise Year in Review – and a second article due out in the next issue of Streaming Media Magazine – VIDEO SEO: How To.

I will be kicking off a Health & Lifestyle site that will feature what I did to get back to being healthy and, my favorite part,  this site will also feature my mother as a co-chef/co-host in some video segments on how to ‘tweak’ recipies to make them heart healthy – she suffered a massive heart attack over a year ago and I am so proud of how she took control of her diet, took up exercising and reclaimed her LIFE, it is so important.

An update on the stalking situation, about two maybe three days after I posted about it on this site, the calls finally stopped.  I did get a lot of weird feed back via email and comments, but the big question everyone is asking is ‘how did I get the carriers to pull the records on who was calling me? ‘  The short answer is I provided a list of numbers of the suspects and they can go and track if there are any matches on those specific accounts/numbers.

It is virtually impossible to just go and run a massive search on everyone dialing everyone, but if you think you know the actual phone number(s) of the suspects, they can go and track those specific records for those specific numbers - as for stalking/harassment cases, my brilliant advisor on the matter said that usually it winds up being someone you know or close to someone you know… SO, if you are being harassed you need to really think about who would do such a thing and go to civil court and pursue your rights like I am!  I am going to be seeking damages.  We’ll see, can’t hurt to try!  I would love to effect an FCC ruling on the matter, but one step at a time… thanks all for your support!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!