Casey-Lee

Dear disgruntled parent,

HauntingEchoes.com is COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 [COPPA]) compliant. Users are asked to confirm that they are 13 years or older during the registration process, prior to using our services. Any child under the age of 13 is not granted membership. As you have pointed out, your daughter is 13 years old and meets the minimum registration requirements for HauntingEchoes.com. We are not legally required to deny her membership and we do not need written parental consent for her to use our services. As a side note, COPPA is American law and as the website is owned and operated by an Australian citizen it does not legally apply. Contrary to your condescending jabs at my morality, I am an advocate of the protection of children online and comply with the Act regardless, and not just because I use American services.

Entering an age into the profile display post-registration is not compulsory, nor does it affect a members usability of the website. We do not collect personal information, including “real” names, and any information provided is for display purposes only and is provided at the discretion of the member. Information is not harvested and members are advised not to provide personally identifiable information - this is enforced by the staff of the website. Any information that members deem to include on their profiles is for the sole purpose of meeting other members of similar ages and interests. HauntingEchoes.com holds no responsibility for users entering incorrect or misleading information.

It is not the responsibility of the “Internet” as a collective to ensure that your children only view content that you personally deem appropriate, that is your job as a parent. I take responsibility for my website and ensure that content is legally compliant, but I am not responsible for your child. Obviously, I can’t expect anything more from you than petty insults at my expense so I’m not going to waste my valuable time responding to your jabs regarding “suicidal vampires”.

I have deleted your daughters account from my website, not because I had to and not because I felt obliged to. I’m deleting it out of pity for your daughter, because if this is the kind of harpy bitching that she receives from you just for browsing a website coloured black, then I’m happy to do her a favour and shut you up.

You have a nice day, okay?

Why is it always the most annoying, ear-bleed inducing songs that seem to be constantly playing on the radio?  For the past two days, every time I’ve been in my car or in the shower with the radio on, That’s Not My Name by The Ting Tings has been playing.  The song is about as ridiculous as their band name.

As an alternative to removing the song from my head with a bullet or the nearest pickaxe, I’ve decided to dull my pain by inflicting it onto others via sharing the music video.  Enjoy!

For two days now I’ve had missed calls from a certain number.  Being the suspicious (and maybe slightly paranoid?) person that I am, I googled the phone number before calling back.  I found a mountain of complaints about the number, 02 9112 5000 (Aussie number), in relation to automated telemarketing scams.

Now, I’ve had a brief stint of employment as a telemarketer and I have a certain amount of sympathy for any that call me; HOWEVER, I truly believe that people who work for automated telemarketing companies have no soul.  What makes automated telemarketing more annoying than regular telemarketing is that the company thinks so very little of its potential customers that they can’t even allocate a human being to make the call.  Basically, the system mass-dials a block of phone numbers and routes the first person to answer to an available telemarketer - everyone else is either dropped or greeted with a recorded message.  Those that don’t answer, or are dropped, go back into rotation for another re-call.

This isn’t standard practice and, from my experience, companies that use this method are all kinds of dodgy.   What makes it appealing to scam artists is that they can hire a limited number of telemarketers to handle a high volume of calls.  Unfortunately for us, if we want to get off the rotation we need to be connected to a telemarketer, reject the pitch, and get taken off the list.

Directly after googling the number I registered myself on the Do Not Call Register.  Unfortunately it takes 30 days for my numbers to be applied, so at this point I’m torn between answering the moment it rings and telling them to swallow a razorblade, or just ignoring it until the DNC registration kicks in (if it even makes any difference at all).  From what I’ve read about this particular number, there are people who have been persistently called for months.  Those who have answered have reported scams regarding Commonwealth Bank health insurance, and Optus scams.  If you receive a call from this number, do not give them any personal information (like many of the reports I’ve read), or you may as well walk outside and hand your credit card to the nearest passer-by.

Even while posting this blog, I received yet another call from 02 9112 5000.  It’s like it’s lurking in wait of the most opportune moment to annoy the absolute crap out of me.

(16:31:27) caseylee: oh get fudged.
(16:31:29) caseylee: it’s calling me again
(16:31:33) sanjin: thinking about buying all the har…wow :[
(16:31:39) sanjin: put the phone on silent!
(16:31:48) caseylee: i’m writing a blog about it and it calls me
(16:31:50) caseylee: how poetic
(16:31:57) sanjin: lol :[

Today, on a whim (like most of my major purchases are), I bought two bunnies.  I have one rabbit already (previously three, but two died mysteriously in the past month) and he’s been lonely for the past few weeks, so I decided to bring him home some bunny buddies.

While playing with the smallest of the two, who was the runt of the litter and just too tiny/cute to resist, it started browsing the interwebs.  I no longer have a mouse, I have a bunny.

After a bit of a browse, she started chatting to Sanjin.  Too bad he doesn’t speak rabbit.

Step 2: training them to code.