Snow trouble...

I am continually amazed at the lack of vision in the UK.  A blind acceptance of a condition and an unwavering hope that it will go away.  Over the last few weeks we have seen the country grind to a shuddering halt because of 3cm of snow.

Call me old fashioned but...come on!!!  Other countries around Europe see it as a mild irritation but in the UK...it's almost the end of the world.  I do understand the issues that parts of the UK had, especially Scotland who suffered more than most but I have been to Scotland many times and the weather was always bad and snow is part and parcel of the winter and yet they came unstuck and the authorities were surprised by its arrival! 

• People were trapped on the motorways in cars up and down the UK.
• Shops were running out of bread and milk because some stupid people were panic buying as if we were at war.
• Airports were closed.
• Train services were cancelled.
• The streets were like ice rinks and the pavements were lethal.
• We had tons of salt and, most likely, still have because even in this day and age we did not get the salt down on the roads because we were caught napping...

Wonderful.

So, what do we do?  Dig ourselves out of it?  Err...No. We waited for it to go away.
Personally I would have galvanised the army into action, commandeered as many snow ploughs and bulldozers as I could get and cleared the streets, motorways and airport runways and got the country back on track.  Once the streets and pavements were clear I would have organised the salt to go down.
No.  We waited until it melted and suffered the knock on effects of people having to queue for days at airports,

Now I see that New York has suffered a thirty inch snow fall and temperatures have dropped to record levels.  What did they do?  The cleared it with snow ploughs and bulldozers and even got Kennedy airport open after one day...

Will we NEVER learn?

Become a Key Person of Influence

I would recommend that you go along to your local bookstore or click onto Amazon and grab a copy of this book.  Daniel Priestley has written a valuable and instructive book that contains The 5 Step Sequence to becoming one of the most highly valued and highly paid people in your industry and will help you increase not only your web visability but also your bank balance.  It's a well written and clearly laid out book of common sense tips and techniques that will help you build your business and your brand.  I have given a couple of copies to my friends and I suggest you do the same.

"Why's that Dave?" I hear you ask.  Well...

Every industry has an inner-circle full of “Key People of Influence” …
■Their names come up in conversation … for all the right reasons

■They attract opportunities … the right sort

■They earn more money … and it isn’t a struggle
 
That could be you, that's why!!!  If you want a piece of THAT action, buy the book! 

Let it Snow - Let it Snow - Let it Snow...

As the UK is braced for the possibility of snow next week I want all of the door to door salespeople to take heart from the fact that this is the BEST time to get knocking and selling.  Simply because your PB, Probable Buyer, will be indoors because of the weather.  It gets dark at 4pm and the lights come on.  You can even SEE them indoors.  Your contact rate will skyrocket and so will your commission which means your bank balance will be as full as Santas sack!

Just remember.  Your PB will give you all the information you need if you ask the right questions.  By right questions I mean, questions that make your customer think.  Questions that make them give you information about them and why they buy.  When you get the sign to go in, or to ask for the business, take it.  Don't keep talking about who you are and how great your company is...take action, get the deal and get the business.

Your customer will give you all the information you need.  Listen to them, hear it, read it, use it.  Don't be the guy in the cartoon at the top of this post.  See the sign...

All Hallows Eve

As I am so busy training at the moment I take this opportunity to say Happy Halloween to you all. 

Well, not ALL of you, and there are a few people who know I mean them when I say that (and to one of you in particular, you are on the shitlist! - And you don't need a mask on Sunday night!!!).

And so here is a pic of my favourite Halloween character...Enjoy!

Always have a Shit List! Dont wait for revenge to be a cold dish before you Serve It Up!

I do not classify myself as a guru. I am a personal development trainer. I coach people, I teach people how to sell. I help people using NLP, Hypnosis and Persuasion. I teach people how to walk on fire and glass...Thats REAL Burning Embers, not ashes and dust from a very poor fire...ok?  I read the Secret. I studied it and read other books in the same genre and came to the conclusion that it was a pile of Diarhoretic pigeon shit. Sit around and wish for things for as long as you want pal but it wont happen. You have to take some action. Sit around and wait for people to change, grow a pair, get organised, get educated or behave themselves....no, it wont happen unless you get them to do it!

I tend ro rail against the normal (?) protocol of personal development trainers. Coaches and personal gurus tell you that revenge is 'negative energy'. I believe that we should direct our energy at things that serve us and not waste energy on things that do NOT serve us. I also believe that sometimes we should direct our energies at lying, scheming bastards who warrant a fucking good clumping.

Thats why I have a shit list. A bucket list is a list of things to do if you are about to die. A shit list is a list of people to do again and again while you are living!

A shit list is something I carry around with me. Its physical. Its a notebook with names and details of people who, in moments of boredom, I target with a few choice words or actions and make their life a complete and utter gangfuck. A few calls and suddenly they are standing in a swirling shitstorm. This pleases me no end.

I have on that list people I have worked with who for some reason or another said or did something that annoyed me.
Ex sales managers when I was learning the trade over twenty years ago.
Even after ten years something happens that makes me remember and I look at the list and...napalm.

New people offer themselves up on a regular basis. Especially the ones who think they are being clever and draw other fuckwits into their web and brainwash them to help them in their misguided and pointless endeavours.

I sit in my own personal hollowed out volcano formulating revenge that strikes back tenfold.  I am doing it at the moment on a poor excuse for a human being. Some complete waste of DNA, a delux willy warmer of a dead friend.

Lots of self help people tell you that revenge is negative and does not serve you. Do you know what? They are wrong. It doesn't serve you to let them get away with anything. The feeling of grinding the other person to dust is FANTASTIC.

Its not time consuming. It takes no time at all. The other person is most likely sitting in front of a PC all day looking at and reading about what it is I am doing when all I have to do is wave my hand and wallop. Like swatting a mildly annoying but just as dirty fly. At least I know they are not doing any business when they have their energies directed at me and my friends and business colleagues.

Revenge is a dish you should serve cold or hot. Why wait. But remember. I can wait days, weeks months and years. I plot, scheme and wait for the right moment to launch a weapon of mass destruction. Always out of the blue. Always leaving them burning. I am the man with two brains. One thinking of what I am saying or doing right now. The other brain is always planning a ruthless search-and-destroy mission with all the technical capability of an Exocet missile.

I know what the issue with a lot of them is. Especially one of them; they want to be me. They want to have my brains, intelligence and ability. Jealousy. Get over it love, I am a firm believer that the person who studies, trains, educates and teaches over years will always be ahead of the person who just inherits the title.

Sharon Osbourne is surely the Queen of Mean when it comes to revenge. She's admitted sending people who denigrated her or her family Tiffany gift boxes, which, when unwrapped, are found to contain brown stuff of an unmentionable nature. Whether its her own or not begs debate.

A Shit list is a list of offending people who, over the years, you'll be enacting revenge on.

Once they're on the list, you can even let them know. They are not going to be warned in advance when revenge will happen; it will just occur, out of the blue.

Sometimes, you can forget why someone's on your Shit List. Take TB, the MD of an advertising company. Three years ago he showed me and a friend of mine a photograph of him posing on his motorbike. He is a red head so thats TWO on the Shit list! His bike was red. His leathers were red. His face was red and his hair is red. He is bald on top, and looks like he has a slice of spam on his head. He enlarged the pic on his PC while my pal Mark and I looked at it with disgust. It was like looking at a leather clad swan vesta match on a bike. He then did the unforgivable. He nodded at his own picture, grinned and said 'Hmmmm, cooooool!' which consigned him immediately to my shit list. I met him six months ago and he was chatting away about a load of bollocks. Within ten minutes he had annoyed me again, slagged off the writer of a book I was reading (Martina Cole funnily enough - "so working class" he said) and reverted to type. That was it; I told him he was back on the Shit List and stormed off in search of a Tiffany gift box.

I loved the TV show Room 101 where you could throw 5 things that annoyed you down a schute. I could not have gone on that program because I have a notebook with 180 names and objects I hate neatly listed. Not every one of them will warrant an act of revenge on a regular basis but some of them will.

God has a way of dealing with revenge for me if I am a little bit too busy - it's called a slow painful death. I was spared the need to exact revenge a couple of years ago when God intevened and blew the Blazing Flame out on someone who was causing me and a few people I worked with unnecessary aggravation. Unlike his arse kissers and brainwashed disciples I danced around my living room when I heard of his death. No fires in Heaven though...so it must have been the other place. If it was then I am bound to meet him again one day. I hope so!

Now, wheres my notebook?

Thank God the TV has an off button...

I used to love TV but having seen TV's obsession with getting the public involved in entertaining itself and the lack of ideas for new programs I started turning off and have not looked back.  I saw the XFactor and Strictly Come Dancing last night.  After that I seriously contemplated eating my own head.  But during this last week I was unlucky to see Emmerdale and wondered who all the people are as I have never seen them before.  No tourists or visitors to the village, so thats self funding.  A pub that sells food.  A sweet shop that sells food and a food shop.  The only other business is a garage which comes in handy if you need new springs on your car after eating your way through the village and a church for the funeral if you dont make it to the car before your cholestorol levels shoot up and blows your hat off.

I dont recognise Eastenders as it is turning into a kids program, like some morbid version of 'The Double Deckers' and doesnt in any way resemble the East End of London I was born and grew up in.  These characters plead poverty but live in a £500,000 house.  Does no one own a washing machine in a soap?  No one lives outside the square.  No one works outside the square.  If one of the characters decides to 'go up west' (in itself, a term I have never heard used in the east end) a black cab will materialise like the Tardis and whisk them away.
 
Coronation Street if populated with people wearing designer clothes and no visible sign of an income that can sustain that level of buying. I am sure they have played musical houses at some point as a couple of the families seem to have been swapping homes.  The Rovers is the most out dated pub in England and the landlady Liz looks like a cross between Lily Savage and Owen Wilson in drag...I am sure its the pout or just the shape of her mouth but she and Owen have the same affliction, like they are sucking an invisible straw.
Emmerdale had a Death.  Eastenders has Phil who has made the fastest recovery from Crack Cocaine and Heroin in history and Coronation Street is like a depressing version of the Sims.
If theres a lesbian, a murder, a car crash or any death in one soap, switch over to one of the others as there will be another one along in a minute.  One Christmas someone fell out of a window and died in Eastenders at the same time as someone else was THROWN out of a window at his wedding reception in Emmerdale.  Nobody went upstairs in Coronation Street.

If this week has been anything to go by they should give a box a razorblades away free with the Radio Times.

I suppose there is a reason for the sameness of the soaps...the viewers are the same.  Box of chocolates, bottle of wine and four solid hours of regurgitated tripe.  Now I know why I hate TV.

Tony Curtis

What a shame...another of the BIG BIG stars has gone...we wont see his like again. RIP

What Is Wrong With This World?



There are three kinds of people in the world:


* Those who do what they're told without question,


* Those who control them, and-


* Those who refuse to play that game - ENVIED AND HATED BY THE OTHER TWO.


What is wrong with this world? Why all those civil wars, why all this chaos and disaster? Why can't people just live together in peace? When conflicts arise, why is it so hard for the United Nations and other parties to stop the killing, despite peace negotiators and ambassadors?


Is it that man is basically evil? Is it just human behavior? Lots of questions. When we look around, it may seem like man is basically evil, but that is not true. There is good and evil within us all; it needs to be there for our basic survival, and they are subjective terms in the sense that we can define good and evil in whatever way we want. What's good for one person, may be considered evil by another and vice versa. However, the society will eventually reflect the minds of their leaders, and if the leaders are implementing what the majority perceives as evil, the society will be evil as well, and people affected by a malevolent government will start acting like them. However, WE are the ones who appoint and accept our leaders, so ultimately the responsibility is yours and mine.

All this chaos, genocide, ethnic cleansing and the overall disasters have a genuine purpose. It is all very carefully planned by a few people, mostly men, behind the scenes, high up in the society, above any power structure that the ordinary citizen is aware of. It is a modern extension of an old theme to "take over the world". To those people, power, control and wealth is their true religion and they use any means they can to maintain their power and control, including murder and genocide.


These people on top, who basically are of Royal Bloodlines, are currently working on reducing the world population in order to easier maintain their control, and ultimately the strive towards a centralization of power, which will include the whole world.


This is a very old plan; something the same bloodlines have been working towards for millennia. However, now is the time when they have the means to accomplish their goal and fulfill the "Work of the Ages". They see us citizens as inferior and are dehumanizing us in their own minds to the extent that they don't care if we live or if we die. In a future Global Society, if they manage to accomplish this to its full extent, you and I will be no more than slaves, whom they can kill and treat as they want anytime they want.

Budget cuts force CERN to shut accelerators for year

Europe’s particle research center CERN unveiled budget cuts Friday that will force it to temporarily close its accelerators for a year in 2012, but said its flagship “Big Bang” machine will mainly be unaffected.

Announcing the trimmed-down budget, in which governments will provide 135 million Swiss francs ($133.4 million) less over a five-year period to 2015, CERN said its high-profile drive to study the origins of the cosmos would continue as planned.

It said it would delay upgrades to the Large Hadron Collider’s beam intensity by one year, achieving this in 2016 instead of 2015, meaning scientists will have to wait longer for experiments to gather data at a faster rate.

A particle accelerator is a machine that propels a beam of sub-atomic particles at high speed. Physicists use the machines to create high-energy collisions so they can study the properties of the fundamental building-blocks of matter.

CERN operates a network of accelerators, including the world’s biggest, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which opened two years ago to test predictions of high-energy physics.

CERN had previously announced that the LHC would not run in 2012 “for purely technical reasons.” It said it would now also shut down all of its other accelerators in 2012 as it focuses its resources on the most critical research.

“The whole CERN accelerator complex will now join the LHC in a year-long shutdown,” the institute said in a statement. “CERN management considers this a good result for the laboratory given the current financial environment.”

Scientists and technical staff staged a protest outside CERN’s main building on the French-Swiss border near Geneva last month over the possibility of budget cuts.”

Another classic email exchange

From: Jeff Peters

Date: Wednesday 8 April 2009 10.22am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Membership Renewal

Dear David
This is a friendly reminder to let you know your gym membership expired last week. Your membership is important to us and we would like to take this opportunity to show our appreciation by offering you a 20% discount on your membership renewal. We look forward to seeing you again soon.

All the best, Jeff Peters

From: David Thorne
Date: Wednesday 8 April 2009 1.37pm
To: Jeff Peters
Subject: Re: Membership Renewal

Dear Jeff,

Thankyou for your friendly reminder and the kind offer to reduce my membership by twenty percent. I own a calculator but I could not work out how to do percentages on it so have estimated that I save around £372.10 off the normal price of £420.00 - Please confirm that this is correct and I will renew my membership immediately. Also, do I get a Fitness First sports bag with towel and drinking bottle included in the price? I own my own legwarmers and headband.

Regards, David.


From: Jeff Peters
Date: Thursday 9 April 2009 10.01am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Membership Renewal Due

Hello David
How did you come to that amount? Our half year membership fees are actually £460 but with the 20% discount as an existing member your renewing membership fee would be only £368 for the six months saving you almost £100 off the normal price. We are not Fitness First so do not have those bags.
Cheers, Jeff


From: David Thorne
Date: Thursday 9 April 2009 10.18am
To: Jeff Peters
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Membership Renewal Due

Dear Jeff,
Do I get free shipping with that?

Regards, David.


From: Jeff Peters
Date: Thursday 9 April 2009 12.48pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Membership Renewal Due

Free shipping with what? The £368 covers your membership fees for six months.


From: David Thorne
Date: Thursday 9 April 2009 2.26pm
To: Jeff Peters
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Membership Renewal Due

Dear Jeff,
By the power of Greyskull that is a lot of money but I admit to being in desperate need of increasing my body strength. My pals ten year old child often turns the taps off in the bathroom very tightly and I have to go several days without washing. I feel bad constantly having to ask the lady from next door to come over and loosen them for me, what with her arthritis and limited wheelchair access to my apartment.
To be honest, I originally joined your gym with full intentions of attending every few days but after waiting in vain for someone to offer me steroids, I began to suspect this was not going to happen and the realisation that I may have to exercise instead was, quite frankly, horrifying. My aversion to work, along with the fact one of your employees, Justin, was rather rude, telling me to 'lift this', ''push that' dulled my initial enthusiasm of becoming muscular and I stopped attending.

Regards, David.


From: Jeff Peters
Date: Friday 10 April 2009 9.17am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Membership Renewal Due

Hello David
Nobody here would offer you steroids, it is illegal and none of our staff would do this. Justin is one of our most experienced trainers and if you found him rude while he was trying to be helpful and just doing his job then there are plenty of other gyms you could look at joining instead.

Cheers, Jeff


From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 10 April 2009 10.02am
To: Jeff Peters
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Membership Renewal Due

Dear Jeff,
Yes, I have noticed that there are many gyms in my area. I assume the low qualification requirements of fitness trainers means that there is an over supply of these buffed but essentially otherwise purposeless professionals.
I knew a guy in high school who couldn't talk very well and collected sticks, he used to call the teacher 'mum' and during recess we would give him money to dance. Then sell him sticks to get our money back. He went on to become a fitness instructor so I view gyms as kind of like those factories that provide a community service by employing people with down syndrome to lick stamps and pack boxes. Except with more Spandex obviously.

Regards, David.


From: Jeff Peters
Date: Friday 10 April 2009 10.32am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Membership Renewal Due

Go fuck yourself.


From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 10 April 2009 11.38am
To: Jeff Peters
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Membership Renewal Due

Dear Jeff,
I was, at first, quite surprised at your response; one minute you are inviting me to renew my membership and asking me for money, the next insulting me. After doing a little research however, I have learnt that mood swings are an expected side effect of steroid abuse. As another side effect is a reduction in the size of your penis, this gives you understandable cause to be an angry person. I have also learnt that Spandex contains carcinogenic properties so this does not bode well for yourself and your shiny friends. If I woke up one morning and my penis was a quarter of the size AND I had testicular cancer, I would probably take my anger out on those around me as well.
There are probably support groups or websites that could help you manage your problem more effectively and picture based books available on the subject. When I am angry I like to listen to music by Linkin Park. The added angst and desire to cut myself works similarly to the way firefighters fight forest fires by burning off sections, effectively canceling each other out and I find myself at peace. As you guys usually listen to Pet Shop Boys or Frankie Goes to Hollywood, this may be worth a try.

Regards, David.

From: Jeff Peters
Date: Friday 10 April 2009 1.04pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Membership Renewal Due

DO NOT EMAIL ME AGAIN

From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 10 April 2009 1.15pm
To: Jeff Peters
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Membership Renewal Due

Ok.


From: Jeff Peters
Date: Friday 10 April 2009 1.25pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Membership Renewal Due

Is that you being a smartarse or agreeing not to email me again?


From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 10 April 2009 1.32pm
To: Jeff Peters
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Membership Renewal Due

The middle one.

The Pope Doesn't Wear Prada!

So the Bob Hope doesn't wear Prada!!! They are handmade Adriano Stefanelli, Novara loafers...well, whaddya know? Very Godfather!!!

Warren Greshes

For some time now, and thinking about it I reckon it must be 15 years, I have been following the career of Warren Greshes.  I would recommend anyone who has an interest in sales to visit his website right now.  He is a class act!

http://www.greshes.com/

Blockbuster Video.....WOW!

From: David Thorne

Date: Sunday 8 November 2009 2.16pm
To: Megan Roberts
Subject: DVDs

Dear Megan,
Thank you for your letter regarding overdue fees. As all four movies were outstanding examples of modern cinematic masterpieces, your assumption that I would wish to retain them in my possession is understandable, but incorrect. Please check your records as these movies were returned, on time, over three weeks ago.
I remember specifically driving there and having someone run them in due to the fact that I was wearing shorts and did not want the girl behind the counter to see my white hairy legs.

Regards, David.

From: Megan Roberts
Date: Monday 9 November 2009 11.09am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: DVDs

Hi David

Our computer system indicates otherwise. Please recheck and get back to me.

Kind regards,

Megan

From: David Thorne
Date: Monday 9 November 2009 11.36am
To: Megan Roberts
Subject: Re: Re: DVDs

Dear Megan,

Yes, they are definitely white and hairy. Viewed from the knees down, the similarity to two large albino caterpillars in parallel formation is frightening. People who knew what the word meant might describe them as 'piliferous', although there is something quite sexy about that word so perhaps they wouldn't.

Regards, David.

From: Megan Roberts
Date: Monday 9 November 2009 1.44pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: DVDs

Hi David

No I mean our records indicate that the DVDs have not been returned. Please check and return as soon as possible.

Kind regards,

Megan

From: David Thorne
Date: Monday 9 November 2009 4.19pm
To: Megan Roberts
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: DVDs

Dear Megan,

With the possible exception of Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, the movies were not worth watching let alone stealing. In Logan's Run, for example, the computer crashed at the end when presented with conflicting facts and blew up destroying the entire city. When my computer crashes I carry on a little bit and have a cigarette while it is rebooting. I don't have to search through rubble for my loved ones. The same programmers probably designed the Blockbuster 'returned or not' database.
Also, while one would assume the title Journey to the Centre of the Earth to be a metaphor, the movie was actually set in the centre of the earth which, being a solid core of iron with temperatures exceeding 4300˚ Celcius and pressures of 3900 tons per square centimetre, does not seem very likely.
Waterworld was actually pretty good though. My favourite bit was when they were on the water but the scene when Kevin Costner negotiated for peace, ending the war between fish and mankind moments before the whale army attacked was also very good.

Regards, David.

From: Megan Roberts
Date: Tuesday 10 November 2009 3.57pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: DVDs

David

The DVDs are listed as not returned. If you cant locate the DVDs, you will be charged for the replacement cost.

Megan

From: David Thorne
Date: Tuesday 10 November 2009 5.12pm
To: Megan Roberts
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: DVDs

Dear Megan,

I have checked pricing at the DVD Warehouse and the cost of replacing your lost movies with new ones is as follows:
Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay £7.95
Waterworld £4.95
Journey to the Centre of the Earth £9.95
Logan's Run £12.95
I have no idea why Logan's Run is the most expensive of the four movies as it was definitely the worst. Have you seen it? I wouldn't pay £12.95 for that. I would use the money to buy a good movie instead. Probably something with Steven Seagal in it. The entire premise comprised of living a utopian and carefree lifestyle with only three drawbacks - wearing seventies jumpsuits, living in what looks like a giant shopping centre and not being allowed to live past thirty. This would seem logical though as I would not want a bunch of old people hanging around complaining about their arthritis while I am trying to relax at the shopping centre in my jumpsuit trying not to think about the computer crashing.
I was recently forced to do volunteer work at an aged care hospital. Footage of these people during Tuesday night line dancing could be used as an advertisement for the Logan's Run solution. The only good aspect of working there was that I halved their medication, pocketing and selling the remainder, explaining the computer listed that as their dose and they were welcome to check knowing their abject fear of anything produced after the eighteenth century would prevent them from doing so.
I also swapped my Sanyo fourteen inch portable television for their Panasonic wide screen plasma while they were sleeping, explaining that it had always been that way and their senility was simply playing up due to the reduced dosage of drugs.

Regards, David.

From: Megan Roberts
Date: Wednesday 11 November 2009 1.21pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: DVDs

Hi David

I have not seen those movies so I dont know what you are talking about. I prefer romantic comedies. If you have the movies we can't rent them so we lose money and the fees are based on what we we would have made from renting them and we also have to purchase movies through our suppliers not from DVD Warehouse.

Megan

From: David Thorne
Date: Wednesday 11 November 2009 3.28pm
To: Megan Roberts
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: DVDs

Dear Megan,

I myself am also a huge fan of romantic comedies. Perhaps we could watch one together. I have a new Panasonic wide screen plasma. My favourite romantic comedy is Fatal Attraction although it did not contain enough robots or explosions in my opinion and I was therefore unable to truly identify with the main characters on a personal and emotional level.
Recently, I was tricked into watching The Notebook which was about geese. Lots of geese. It also had something to do with an old lady who conveniently lost her memory so she could not remember being a whore throughout the entire film. I don't recall a lot of it as I was too busy being cross about watching it. In a utopian future society she would have been hunted down and killed at thirty.
In regards to the late fees, I understand the amount is based on what you lose by not being able to rent the movies out. You probably had people lined up around the block waiting to rent Logan's Run. For eighty two dollars though, I could have purchased six copies of it from DVD Warehouse or, as I have heard he is a bit strapped for cash, had Kevin Costner visit my house in person and re-enact key scenes from Waterworld in my bathroom.

Regards, David.

From: Megan Roberts
Date: Thursday 12 November 2009 3.16pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: DVDs

Hi David.

Restocking fees are:
002190382 Journey to the Centre of the Earth £9.30
003103119 Logans Run £7.90
008629103 Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay £6.30
000721082 Waterworld £5.70
Total: £29.20 - I have deleted your late fees and noted on the computer that the amount owed is for the replacement movies not fees.

Kind regards,

Megan

From: David Thorne
Date: Thursday 12 November 2009 7.42pm
To: Megan Roberts
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: DVDs


Dear Megan,

Those prices seem reasonable. I do not want Logan's Run but will pick up the other three when I come in next.

Regards, David.

From: Megan Roberts
Date: Friday 13 November 2009 12.51pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: DVDs

What? The £29.20 is the cost of the replacement DVDs for the store.

Megan

From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 13 November 2009 1.15pm
To: Megan Roberts
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: DVDs

Dear Megan,

That makes more sense, I was wondering what I was going to do with two copies of each movie.

Regards, David.

From: Megan Roberts
Date: Friday 13 November 2009 2.33pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: DVDs

What do you mean by two copies? Are you saying you found the four movies?
Megan

From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 13 November 2009 2.57pm
To: Megan Roberts
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: DVDs

Dear Megan,

Yes, they were on top of my fridge the whole time. Unfortunately I have a blind spot that prevents me from seeing this area of the kitchen as it is also where I keep my pile of unpaid bills.
Last night I slept on the kitchen floor with the fridge door open due to my air conditioner being broken and the temperature outside exceeding that of the centre of the earth. As my fridge emits a high pitched 'beep' every thirty seconds when left open, the vibrations from this caused the DVDs to wriggle forward over the space of many hours before toppling from the edge and I awoke to find them beside me on the pillow. As you have already waived the late fees, I will drop them off tonight and we will call it even.

Regards, David.

From: Megan Roberts
Date: Friday 13 November 2009 3.43pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: DVDs


Ok.

A Fantastic Email Exchange

From: George Lewis

Date: Thursday 2 September 2010 6.51pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: No Subject


I have read your website and it is obviously that your a foggot.






From: David Thorne
Date: Thursday 2 September 2010 8.07pm
To: George Lewis
Subject: Re: No Subject


Dear George,


Thank you for your email. While I have no idea what a foggot is, I will assume it is a term of endearment and appreciate you taking time out from calculating launch trajectories or removing temporal lobe tumors to contact me with such. I have attached a signed photo as per your request.


Regards, David.






From: George Lewis
Date: Thursday 2 September 2010 8.49pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: No Subject


I didnt ask for a photo fag. and I meant faggot you homo. im not a fan so you can shove your signed photo up your ass. You would probably enjoy that. LOL!!!! Go suck your boyfriends dick in a gay club.






From: David Thorne
Date: Thursday 2 September 2010 9.17pm
To: George Lewis
Subject: Re: Re: Re: No Subject


Dear George,


While I do not have a boyfriend, I do have a friend who is homosexual and I once asked him "Do you ever think about having sex with me because you are gay?" to which he replied "Do you ever think about having sex with Rosie O'Donnell because you are straight? Same thing." If I was inclined to have a boyfriend, I would select one my height and weight to save having to readjust the driver's seat position. I am not interested in doubling my wardrobe as I wear the same outfit everyday to facilitate speedy identification should I ever be in a boating accident.
Although I have never been to a gay club as such, when I was about ten, a friend and I constructed a club house in my backyard using timber stolen from a building site down the street. Our club, which we named 'The Kiss Club' due to a certain band being popular at the time, employed an intensive entry exam in which the applicant had to know all the words to Love Gun and not be a girl. As we had no other friends and knew no girls apart from my sister, this made sense at the time. The next day after school, having managed to recruit several new members by promising laminated membership cards and changing the entry exam to 'knowing the names of the band members', we all rode to my place to partricipate in our first club meeting only to discover my sister, outraged by the 'no girls' rule and armed with four litres of paint left over from a recent bedroom redesign, had painted the clubhouse pink and added 'ing' to the end of the word 'Kiss'.


Also, despite your inference, I have managed, up to this point, to avoid putting most things in my bottom. Primarily due to the possibility that I might enjoy it, get carried away, and move on to watermelons or midsize family autos. When I was about eight, I drew a face on my hand and practiced kissing it, which I will admit is a little gay, and I have often thought there would be advantages to homosexuality such as Abercrombie & Fitch reward points, successful couch fabric selection capabilities and the gift of dance. With or without a top on. This would come in extremely useful if I needed five hundred dollars and saw a poster advertising a dance competition with a first prize of five hundred dollars.


Regards, David.






From: George Lewis
Date: Thursday 2 September 2010 9.33pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: No Subject


If you livd close by gaycunt I would be over your place with five friends tonight.






From: David Thorne
Date: Thursday 2 September 2010 10.08pm
To: George Lewis
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: No Subject


Dear George,


I knew we would get along well. We have only known each other for one day and already you are organising a party. I am not sure where Gaycunt is but if I did "livd close by" to it, I would definitely be up for that.
We could all sit outside on banana lounges discussing the best way to rebuild a 4WD transmission and agree, through shared stories of conquests supporting our assertions, that there is no basis to the proposition that those least assured of their persuasions are the first to condemn others for theirs. Although the ideal would be for everyone to be capable of love without fear, restraint, or obligation, clearly this does not apply to homosexuals.
At no time during the night would you comment on how much you liked my Abercrombie & Fitch pants or ask "is that a Marcel Breuer couch? I love the fabric selection" and when we danced, we would all leave our tops on.


Regards, David.






From: George Lewis
Date: Friday 3 September 2010 1.18pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: No Subject


no fag I live in Charleston west virginia the best country in the world. I wasnt sying it would be a party. we would smash your fucking skull in and if you are calling me a fag you can get fucked becasue I have a girlfriend.






From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 3 September 2010 1.56pm
To: George Lewis
Subject: Yeehaw y'all


Dear George,


Is she also your sister? I checked out her photos on your Facebook page and while she is not exactly my type, I accept that other people have different preferences. Even when those preferences include facial tattoos and stretch pants constructed from sufficient material to shelter a small village. And their livestock. Some men enjoy dancing with other men without their tops on while others prefer the company of a woman two KFC family buckets away from upsetting the planet's rotational axis.
I read somewhere that Eskimos prefer women of girth as it provides warmth at night. I have seen the size of those igloos though and there is no way your girlfriend would make it through the opening. You could probably just construct one around her and despite the hassle of having to trudge out into the snow every day to catch and prepare the eighty seals required to maintain her mass, it would be like a kiln in there.
If I were an Eskimo, I would build my igloo next to a supermarket or on a tropical beach.


Regards, David.






From: George Lewis
Date: Friday 3 September 2010 2.01pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Yeehaw y'all


She isnt fat you fag. and that she got that tattoo is a teardrop becasue her family is dead.






From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 3 September 2010 2.06pm
To: George Lewis
Subject: Re: Re: Yeehaw y'all




Did she eat them?






From: George Lewis
Date: Friday 3 September 2010 2.32pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Yeehaw y'all


Get fucked fag her family they died in a traffic accident. have some respect. Go put some more gel in your hair and dye it balck like a emo skinny fag. And how can you see my facebook page pictures?






From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 3 September 2010 3.02pm
To: George Lewis
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Yeehaw y'all


Dear George,
Yes, I have heard those motorhomes can be a bitch to steer. Especially around tight corners during a police chase or moonshine run.
I will concede to fifty percent of your description of me as a "skinny fag" being correct. If our bodies are temples, mine would be a heavily shelled Iranian mosque express. To rectify this, I have instigated a fitness and weight training regime. Once a week I carry two heavy garbage bags out to the sidewalk and jog back. As this week was my first session and I did not want to over exert myself, I took the car. Obviously with a few breaks in between to re-hydrate and stretch.






Although hardly an emo, I understand their pain. If I looked in the mirror and saw an anorexic version of Pugsly Adams staring back at me I would probably start cutting myself as well. I will admit to having dyed my hair once though. The product, misrepresented as 'Natural Black' instead of 'Astro Boy black', turned my hair as dark as an adequate simile describing just how black it actually was and stained my forehead and ears purple. In an attempt to blend the colour, I rubbed the remainder of the mixture onto my face, figuring it might look like a tan. I spent the following two weeks telling people that I could not leave the house due to agoraphobia, an illness usually self-diagnosed by the unemployed as an excuse to stay home and masturbate or play Wii.
I have access to your Facebook page due to the friend request you accepted from the Oscar Wilde profile I constructed yesterday. I assumed the name would hold no relevance to you and, consistency being the last refuge of the unimaginative, I typed 'Redneck wearing baseball cap' into google images to locate a photo you would identify and feel comfortable with.


Regards, David.






From: George Lewis
Date: Friday 3 September 2010 4.48pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Yeehaw y'all


Thats fraud. I will report you to the police and to facebook fag. i would shoot you in the face with my .32 if you were here right now.






From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 3 September 2010 5.19pm
To: George Lewis
Subject: tarded






Dear George,


Yes, I'm fairly certain there is a worldwide criminal investigation network dedicated solely to bringing those who construct fake Facebook profiles to justice. I believe the punishment is tar and feathering in most parts of the world except West Virginia where you are stripped naked, oiled up and chased around a paddock while wearing a pig mask.
Apparently in West Virginia, this is also known as a 'date'. Variations include substituting the paddock with a motorhome or the person with an actual pig. Or in your case, both.
Also, as it is probably far more acceptable for men in West Virginia to hold guns than hands, I will assume the term 'shooting me in the face with your .32' is not a euphemism.


Regards, David.






From: George Lewis
Date: Friday 3 September 2010 7.04pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: tarded


Ive deleted you from my facebook and reported you. i hope you die of aids fag. Dont bothering emailing me again becasue I wont read it.






From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 3 September 2010 7.12pm
To: George Lewis
Subject: dneck


Yes you will.






From: George Lewis
Date: Friday 3 September 2010 7.16pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: dneck




No I fucking wont fag

BONDED BY BLOOD

I recommend that you take a trip along to the cinema and forgo the rubbish like Salt and whatever romcom lovey dovey jennifer anniston crap there is and see Bonded by Blood. Tamer Hassan, Terry Stone in the true story of the essex boys range rover burder from 1995. Based on the books by Bernard O'Mahoney.

You will not be disappointed. If you liked Essex Boys, or rise of the Footsoldier you will absolutely LOVE this!!!



YouTube - BONDED BY BLOOD (2010) OFFICIAL TRAILER

Oprah Winfrey Network

This is the original email that could press the button to launch the next stage of The Moore Consortium...

Ross Jeffries Seminar, Novotel Hammersmith Sunday August 15th 2010

Thanks Ross for inviting me to your London Seminar. It's always a pleasure and here is a pic of Me with Ross Jeffries and our Rings of Power! lol

MIB Pics

***Newsflash 2***

It could be that certain things like airsoft guns, crash mats, body armour and maybe, just maybe, wood and turf could be coming out of the store cupboard...

...fights, stunts, fire and glass, explosions all wrapped up in corporate training may be about to explode back on the personal development scene...

...This will, if done right, with the right people, be AWESOME!!

**Newsflash***

There could be a big announcement soon about the reformation of a force of nature...an unstoppable force with the intent and knowledge to change...stay tuned!!

The Raft of Knowledge

Have you ever read a post on here and wondered what it was about and then, for whatever mysterious reason, you started to think differently and realise that this is one of the most relevant posts to you?

I find that when I, think about the other possibilities these teachings will give you, and you open your mind, to me, its as if this is going to help take you to the next stage.

For all the new fish out there, the leap from “new to sales” to “Experienced Salsperson” is a small but difficult leap. There are a lot of patterns, exercises, beliefs, understandings and attitudinal work that you need to take on board. There are lots of people who have a wealth of knowledge and there is lot to be said for reading tons of information before even thinking of saying something yourself.


In my career I have trained people in how to sell. That's what I do. I teach people how to Firewalk, Glasswalk and smash wood Karate style. I have done this all over the world. In all that time I see common thread throughout all of those seminars. The successful people are the ones who study, listen, learn and then go out and do it. The Mega-Successful are the ones who do it without thinking about it. It has become part of them, its second nature.


Selling is the oldest profession there is. Some say prostitution is the oldest but even that is someone selling themselves to someone else. Wherever you are reading this, if you are at work, in an Internet cafe or at home, look around you. Apart from nature, everything you see was sold to someone by someone else. If you have skill in selling you can sell yourself and that's what allows you to sell the product. We put ourselves in the market and we make ourselves a hot commodity. We have all the tools we need within us. I run workshops and seminars on a number of subjects and all the time I hear of "rejection" and "objection". These are related, you reject because you object and vica versa. In a sale if they object, what do you do? I spent years looking at and learning different ways to counter objections, what to say when they say...etc. These were really good but they didn't work well in the real world and then I had what is known as a BGO. A Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious. Objections are state related. I hear people like Bandler and Ross Jeffries saying the same thing. If you don't like the answer, change the state! The objection is now over there, they can't cling onto it.


The point I am making is that in the teaching of all of these tools and techniques you have to take them on and make them second nature.


Basic facts of approaching anyone to sell them something are:


1. Never take their first response as being something written in stone.


2. Anything they offer is a toy for me to play with. Like Jeet Kune Do.


3. They can say and do what they want; I control where my energy goes.


4. Anything they offer is information I can use.


5. 90% of people are running on autopilot 90% of the time.


6. Never attach excessive meaning. Nothing has any meaning except the meaning you give it


7. Never think by your own agenda. Don't bait your hook with food you like.


That is the 7-step rule that will allow you to walk through the world getting the best of anything you want. Do not make the mistake that these tips are exclusively for sales. You can use them on anyone to get anything. You will have the tools and techniques at hand and you can call on them without thinking. Once you have the techniques, don't stress about them. Don't even attempt to remember them. Just use them. It’s like a new language. After a while you think in two ways.


We have 2 brains. We have 2 different kinds of intelligence; rational and emotional. When we cannot decide we say we are 'in 2 minds'.


The techniques you are learning form a part of your EQ. That's your Emotional Intelligence. Your EQ is more important than your IQ. The IQ test may help you get a job but your EQ will help you keep it. A high IQ is around 135. Many people with IQ's of 135 and above work for people with IQ's of 100 or less. Why? Because the person with the high EQ, the one who knows how to relate to other people, talk to other people and interact with other people in a manner they like, is always going to be way ahead of the game and have people following him. Because they do it naturally. Far better than knowing how long it takes three men to fill a bath with water halfway up a mountain in a thunderstorm. That IQ. You put people at ease and have them jumping through hoops. That’s EQ. That’s where the results are.


I always, now, describe the techniques, tools, patterns, closes, etc as a raft. A raft is very handy if you want to get from one side of a river to another. You may want to get from the unsuccessful side of the river to the side where infinite power and success are available. But once you have reached the other side, you no longer need the raft itself. In fact, if you want to grow, and continue your journey, you have to leave the raft behind.


The challenge that we have, as humans, is that we tend to fall in love with the raft. We start to think, "This raft has been good. It's a useful raft. It's served me well. This raft is tip top!" But if we hang on to the teachings they will become a hindrance. No words, anyone's, can see for you. You must do that yourself


The trick is this. By integrating the raft, or what we took on board while on the journey, into our being and into our unconsciousness it becomes second nature and we see opportunity, we hear opportunity and we create opportunity all around us.


Being awake to openings, opportunity and life is the best way to be. Your energy level is high, your awareness is at peak level and your state is at optimum level. You become a magnet for opportunity. It seeks you out. And once you become one with the teachings, you will always be ready.

Date My Mate Firewalk

THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY 'Music' - Francis Monkman (HQ + ending)

If this doesn't make you want to put the DVD on then you must be dead already!
Greatest film EVER made!

It's a Religious Thang!

Have they found the tomb of Christ?  Well...
I understand the importance the resurrection story holds in our particular religion. If I too knew some guy that had been killed and placed inside a cave with a rock in front of it and I visited the cave to find the rock moved and his body gone, the only logical assumption would be that he had risen from the dead and is the son of God. Once, my friend Steve was rushed to hospital to have his appendix removed and I visited him the next day to find his bed empty. I immediately sacrificed a goat and burnt a witch in his name but it turned out that he had not had appendicitis, just a very dodgy burger from a van, and was at home playing Playstation.



Someone probably should have asked "So the rock has been moved and he's gone... has anyone checked his house?" I realise Playstation was not around in those days but they probably had the equivalent. A muddy stick or something. I would have said "Can someone please check if Jesus is at home playing with his muddy stick, if not, then and only then should we all assume, logically, that he has risen from the dead and is the son of God."


If we accept though, that Jesus was the son of an Infinite Being capable of anything, he probably did have a Playstation. Probably a Playstation 7. God would probably have said to him, "I was going to wait another two thousand years to give you this but seeing as you have been good... just don't tell your mother about Grand Theft Auto."

Russia's rich keep spending

What Credit Crunch???

In Context: Who is Boris Berezovsky?

Very Interesting!

Bulgarian AGM

According to the caption in the book, these are bulgarian businessmen at their beach hel AGM.  Just LOOK at the jewellery...very tasteful and understated...

One angry copper with a taser....

Obviously, Raoul Moat did some terrible things and was mentally disturbed.  I don't condone what he did and it was always going to end messy, but its strange that this picture now has the stungun coppers face blurred out...due to the enquiry...but here's the original and does that look like one angry copper who cant wait to play roy rogers!!!  It's almost as if every punishment or beating up he suffered at school is coming out.  I can almost hear him thinking 'let me shoot him - let me shoot him!!' Pathetic!

Ross Jeffries in London

Please click on this link to get information regarding Ross Jeffries Seminar in London in August.

http://www.rjseminar.com/davidmoore/

Do Or Do Not, There Is No Try!

The best advice in the world! (or out of it!)

Leigh on Sea hasn't got the hang of flying the flag yet!!!

Leigh on Sea hasn't got the hang of flying the flag yet!!!

Kenneth Clarke: Fewer criminals will go to prison - Telegraph

Looks like the wheels are in motion....

Kenneth Clarke: Fewer criminals will go to prison - Telegraph

Moses Meets Big Brother: The Ten Commandments of Privacy by John Featherman

Nineteen eighty-four has come and gone. Big Brother is still watching you, however, even all these years later. Thanks in large part to computerization, your private life is an open book -- now more than ever.

The information revolution is rapidly transforming the way people live. Recent evelopments in information technology have made it possible to bring news, entertainment and communication right into every living room or boardroom in the world. Consequently, the world has become a marketplace for information.

From a technological perspective, the features of this revolution are mind-boggling -- instant or near-instant access to any available information. For private citizens, this means access via their cable company or phone company to thousands of television shows, games, records, phone calls/video conferencing calls, libraries, news programs, catalogs. . . the list goes on and on. For businesses, information technology provides the opportunity for managers to add value and gain competitive advantage through dramatic cutbacks in the cost of acquiring, storing, processing, retrieving and transmitting time-sensitive business information.


Yet, despite all the potential benefits of these advances in information technology, they unfortunately offer a darker side. Many individuals who embrace the principle of personal freedom believe that the information age is assisting Big Brother and his associates tremendously in their quest to control personal information. Consequently, privacy has emerged as a central topic of discussion throughout the world.


Back in 1994, I started the Privacy Newsletter to assist consumers concerned with personal freedom and personal privacy. In every issue, I've offered a wealth of specialized information that privacy seekers cannot obtain from any single newspaper, magazine, radio program, television show or computer database.


Yet before my publication, individuals concerned with privacy have managed to get along without a wholly consumer-oriented privacy source. How did they do it? Essentially, they safeguarded their personal information using common sense. They used cash for discrete transactions; they held truly private conversations (meaning in person rather than by telephone, fax, modem or video communications); they went to private doctors rather than hospitals for routine examinations. However, with the trend toward a cashless society. . . with the trend toward telecommunications. . . with the trend toward clinics and hospitals with shared information systems and medical reporting bureaus. . . and most of all with the trend toward computerization of almost every quantifiable and qualifiable action, individuals can no longer feasibly control the collection, processing, storage, retrieval or dissemination of what they consider their personal information. Consumers have to use more than common sense to minimize Big Brother's invasion. They need information, and they need advice. They need to know what laws protect them and what laws do not. They want to know how other people have succeeded in achieving personal freedom. And most of all, they want to keep an edge on Big Brother and his associates by staying on top of developments. For after all, isn't protecting your privacy a cat-and-mouse game anyway?


If you have something to hide -- and most of us do -- then they will need good, solid practical solutions that will help them increase their privacy.


You might wish to protect yourself from nosy employers, co-workers, neighbors, stalkers, hackers, politicians or assorted low-lives who have no respect for your privacy. Since we all need some breathing space, regardless of how much we are loved by another, we must learn techniques to keep things private from even our most loved ones.


While there are many sophisticated methods to protect your privacy, the truth is that if you incorporate a few general strategies into your everyday behavior, you can win the war against the privacy invaders.
So without further ado, join me now, as we begin our journey back to a missing portion of the Old Testament -- the Ten Commandments of Privacy!






1. Thou shalt keep sensitive information private.
Even in today's computer age, you control 90% of what you want most people to know about you. While it is true that your name, address, telephone number, social security number and other personal information are floating around in thousands -- if not hundreds of thousands -- of databases, most snoops don't need to check your background formally because they know that most targets are pleased to volunteer sensitive information. While there are times when you have to divulge personal information (credit card applications, insurance applications, etc.), insist that the people who receive this information keep it confidential. Have them agree in writing that personal information obtained for one purpose will not be used for another purpose without your prior consent. The best strategy is to keep people on a need-to-know basis.


2. Thou shalt pay in cash whenever possible.
Using cash can protect your financial privacy. Cash is preferable to money orders, which are preferable to personal cheques, which are in turn preferable to credit cards. Even though most countries are placing serial numbers on currency, cash is difficult to trace, unlike cheques. It's like a trail of rice.  It leads back home. The Government and your bank can put together a dossier of almost any aspect of your life. While money orders are also recorded, they are recorded under the name of the issuer, not the purchaser; so your transaction is lost in the shuffle. While credit card purchases are the best from a security point of view, they sacrifice privacy, since most credit card companies sell cardholders' spending habits unless the cardholders specifically request otherwise.  And watch out for those mobile card readers...don't let it out of your sight.  If a waiter or barman or whoever walks off with it stop them and take your card out of the machine.  Before you know it there will be thirty cloned versions of your card hitting the ATMs


3. Thou shalt guard thy social security number and other identification numbers with thy life.
The SSN has turned into a de facto national identifier, as have driver's license numbers (which are the same as the SSNs in many counties), telephone numbers and passport numbers. The best strategy is to provide alternate identification numbers and never write your social security number on cheques or credit card receipts.

4. Thou shalt use a paper shredder in thy daily life.

Court decisions over the past few years have decided that whatever ends up in the trash is fair game. But let's face it, some documents just aren't meant to be shared. So get a shredder. If your budget allows, buy one that cross-cuts rather than strip-cuts. And shred everything from bills to CD's.  Shred it, Burn it, then forget it!

5. Thou shalt use a post office box or, better yet, a mail drop.

Post office boxes and mail drops make it difficult for people to find out where you live. They generally provide better security than residential mailboxes, and they offer a permanent mailing address in this day and age when people are moving all the time. For a variety of reasons, I believe that mail drops are superior to post office boxes.

6. Thou shalt inspect thy credit, medical and other personal information files often.

You would be surprised to know what kind of information is kept about you. And much of the time, it's not accurate. Mistakes can lead to financial ruin as well as emotional distress, so request your credit and medical reports often, and use the Freedom of Information Act to inspect any federal files involving you. When inspecting and repairing personal data, you're up against a huge bureaucracy. But if you develop a consistent strategy, you can wipe the slate clean.

7. Thou shalt be circumspect in thy computer affairs.

Make no bones about it: the Government wants your data. And so do a few hackers and other riffraff who have no respect for your privacy. They want your spreadsheets, your databases and your word processing files. They want to know what you are sending and receiving on your fax/modem, and they want to decrypt any files that you have encrypted. They have the best encryption programs off the market, making their task easier. What can you do? For starters, encrypt files using the best encryption software you can find (we

like PGP [Pretty Good Privacy], developed by Phil Zimmerman).

8. Thou shalt be extremely discreet when communicating.

Whether you are using a normal phone, portable phone, Mobile phone, fax, modem or some other high-tech device, be careful what you say. You never know who is listening. When in doubt, remember what your parents told you when you were a kid -- "Don't say it over the phone unless you are prepared to see it on the front page of the newspaper."

9. Thou shalt be diligent when choosing passwords and shalt change them periodically.

Passwords are critical in today's world. Automated Teller Machine cards, computer accounts, home security systems. . . you name it. But many of us choose the wrong passwords and never change them.

10. Thou shalt make a lifetime commitment to protecting your privacy.

Protecting one's privacy does not mean being a hermit. It does mean keeping abreast of new technology and its ramifications (i.e., Caller ID etc.); encouraging privacy legislation; and using common sense. The Privacy Newsletter offers you a forum for mutual support and the exchange of useful ideas. Privacy advocates -- let's join forces!