So, when an attractive stranger asks me if I want to grab some coffee, all common sense totally flies out the window, and what do I say?

“Sure!” (Insert a little drooling)
And then the worrying begins.

I know, I know, grabbing coffee is totally innocent. Yada yada. But, years of motherly concern, “What time are you going to be back?”, “Be careful when you drink”, have been totally ingrained into my thinking. I mean, I’ve been on the streets at two at night. Alone. In some of the roughest parts of London (yes, I’m a Brit), but those worries don’t stop flying around my head. No matter what. Read More »

Okay, I’ll admit it: I’m paranoid. Seriously. I look over my shoulder when I walk home at night. I don’t accept phone calls from numbers I don’t know. It’s not a fear thing; it’s more irritation that I can be tracked down.

Which is why I am fascinated by all the little internet thingies that claim to be able to find personal information (location, phone number, etc.) if you only just plug in the name. I mean, are they accurate? Are some better than others?

I tried to use some of them to track down an old friend, but given that old friend’s name is Jen Jones, I had way too many results with no real way to tell if I was getting the right person.

So I decided to test some of them with my own name (I mean, I know my own information, right? I hope?) and here are the results:

Intelius People Search

There were a LOT of possible me’s, but, voila! There I was, nestled in between my name dopplegangers, there for the world to see. It even listed my correct age (and my middle initial!). However, they made a little mistake–I’m listed as living in my hometown, where I haven’t lived for over 6 years and definitely haven’t been registered at for almost 3. Still, pretty impressive. Read More »

Honda rolled out a brand-new feature in Japan on April 22nd—a built-in navigation add-on that points out questionable locales on maps. I have affectionately dubbed this feature the Sketchometer.

I don’t know how the system does it (does anyone? even Honda?), but its ability to pinpoint specific locations where car jackings and thefts have occurred in the past is more than a little freaky. I mean, what if you lived in one of those areas?

I wouldn’t want my fancy new car feature warning me not to go down the street where my favorite supermarket is or beeping whenever I drove within ten feet of anyplace nebulous.

From an objective standpoint, the feature really isn’t a bad idea. It’s great to know, for example, if you’re parked in a neighborhood where you should probably lock your doors. From a sane-person standpoint, though, it’s kind of absurd. Read More »

I spend a lot of time telling myself to relax.

Relax, I tell myself. It’s okay that you didn’t have time to straighten your bangs this morning–no one is looking at you. It’s okay that you just said something really stupid to a tourist on the subway–no one is noticing you. No one else really knows you exist. RELAX.

Unfortunately, my seemingly-insane paranoia was validated yesterday.

My boyfriend and I went into a diner that I haven’t been to for about three years. And this is Manhattan, right, so there have been millions of patrons since the last time I’ve been there. And I was never a regular customer or anything like that.

So yesterday I’m in this diner and the waiter brings me my cup of tea and he says, didn’t you used to wear glasses? i remember you–you came in here a few years ago.

And I almost peed myself. Read More »