Trip to PVD

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Originally uploaded by norwinespiritu

my fam flew over from bay for the weekend. mom really wanted to go to providence, so off we went in a zipcar.

providence is much much smaller than boston. it's pretty much known for brown university and a big italian population possibly harboring mafia (thanks chiara for that info). the above pic is of brown's mascot.....a bear. (brown bears < golden bears) brown also has thayer st which is equivalent to berkeley's telegraph minus blondie's, bums, and diversity. it's worth visiting since it's an old historic ivy league university with a nice looking campus.

not much else going on in PVD. has a big mall with a D&Bs and Tiffany's. didn't get a chance to go to federal hill which is where you'll find the italian restaurants and such. PVD is also known for it's annual waterfire festival where they light bonfires in the river. nice place to go, but i don't see myself going there too often.

got a few other pics here.

Snow Surfing

I've been fortunate enough to have the chance to snowboard on two coasts this past Winter season. Twice in Vermont, three times in Tahoe. I've been to two Vermont resorts--Killington and Sugar Bush. They're great resorts, but they simply don't beat Tahoe. They're just as far from Boston as they the Tahoe resorts are from the Bay. But here in the East, it sucks that I don't have a car nor do I have the same group of friends that I would normally go boarding with.

Every time you board, I recommend climbing to the very top of the summit. At Sugar Bush, I went atop Mt. Ellen, the highest peak at the resort. Really amazing views. I felt like I was away from all of the craziness in the world. Peace and tranquility settle in when you begin to look at the world below. Then all of that shatters when the excitement and adrenaline kick in when you realize that you have to cruise down the mountain to the bottom, back to reality. I love how no matter how early you wake up or how little sleep you get, the adrenaline you get while boarding keeps you going.

I'm really hoping to snowboard at least one more time before the snow melts. 2nd week of March in Tahoe anyone??

Check out my other Sugar Bush pics

security breach

anyone else a victim of credit card fraud??

recently i found out that someone has my credit card info and has been using it attempt to make some expensive and inexpensive purchases. good thing i caught it when i did...

my dad has a card for my account and his purchases kept declining. then i saw that there was this strange transaction on my online statement titled "fglhelp.com." found out it was linked to a porn/live cam/adult dating website! Chase told me that there were other attempts to for purchases in addition to those my dad tried to make. what triggered their suspicions and their action to freeze my account was a purchase of $150 through Zynga, the facebook/iphone game company. then this criminal tried to purchase membership through that same porn website for $9 and $35, with the latter being successful. and also an attempt to charge $253 through Comcast was also made. So basically the only charge came through was the $35 porn website charge.

my sense of security has suddenly become shattered. i use this credit card for the majority of my transactions. i use it almost carelessly. there are so many ways my credit card info could have fell into the wrong hands:
-while making a purchase online some one could have been recording my info
-someone could have hacked into a website where my card info was being stored
-at a restaurant someone could have wrote down or took a pic of my card after the waiter/tress took my card
-there were a couple of times i gave my credit card info over the phone
-anybody at any company where i used my credit card or even someone at my credit card company could have used my info illegally

it's creepy to think that this bastard has my name, credit card number, and possibly my address. you need all of that, in addition to the security code on the back of your card and the expiration date, to make a successful transaction online.

so be cautious and be vigilant people. pay attention to your credit card statements. watch where your credit card goes in a restaurant or store (even fancy ones). pay cash if u can. i'd seriously consider canceling all my credit cards but it's sorta hard not to have one when u can get rewards and helps you pay for stuff temporarily. i think i'll be using my card less. be careful people!