When your email is hacked.

My oldest email account was hacked a few weeks ago sending spam to all of my contacts. ALL of my contacts. Every person/email address I deemed important enough to save as a contact since the time I created the account in 2002.

The first person to notify me was a friend from high school, who, thanks to facebook we're 'friends'. Though, funnily enough, she texted me and I didn't have her number stored. So my first thought was it was a hoax/part of the scam. Nope.

The next day I heard from the recruiter at my company who I'd corresponded with a few years ago in applying for my current job. Ugh. And shortly after that, I received another half dozen forwards that looked something like this:

Hey Lany,

Not sure if you knew this, but your hotmail is sending out this message. It looked odd to me, is it legit?

And some even continued to say 'I tried to click the link, too.'

PEOPLE:
1) Don't forward me spam.
2) DON'T CLICK THE LINK.
3) Offer a possible solution.

Since my now preferred email address was also saved as one of my contacts, I received the spam messages, all 5 or so of them. (I never clicked the link.)

Here's a rundown of who I think got the spam:

- Craigslist people from whom I bought furniture
- The Clark Alumni Association
- People who responded to my own craigslist adds for rugby recruitment
- My grandparents' email address, which goes unchecked now
- Guys I used to correspond with from match.com and jdate.com when I lived in upstate NY
- And perhaps women I've corresponded with more recently (recently as in 3 years ago) also from match.com

I've now changed my password, deleted all the stored contacts, and closed the email account.

My next project is clearing out my gmail contacts. All 500+ of them.

The world doesn't revolve around the US of A

I experienced that feeling where you realize that the world doesn't revolve around the United States.

I know that sounds harsh and ignorant, and coming from someone who is educated and listens to NPR every morning, this reaction surprised myself.

The women's rugby world cup kicks off in a few days in England. 13 games will be televised by Sky Sports in the UK. Their schedule reveals they'll show the Wales v Australia, New Zealand v South Africa, England v Ireland, France v Scotland, New Zealand v Australia, England v Khazakhstan, New Zealand v Wales, and Australia v South Africa matches as well as the semi-finals and final matches (teams to be determined).

Understanding that rugby in the United States is not as popular as American football or even baseball, or even soccer, and that women's rugby is even less so... and (unfortunately) I don't think the Eagles are favored to win (NOT my opinion!, just sayin') -- I was still surprised that their matches won't be shown on Sky. They are in the same bracket as England and Ireland, so I thought maybe those would be aired.

Luckily, the President of USA Rugby has confirmed that Universal Sports will broadcast some of the US Eagles matches AND it looks like all matches in the world cup will be available through the IRB's website.

In all honesty, I don't think you can get Sky Sports here -- well, I can't with the cable I currently have. It was just one of those moments that made me go 'wow. no kidding.' And I'm reminded that the world doesn't revolve around the US... nor does the women's world cup revolve around the US Eagles.

A few of us in Boston will likely be gathering to watch US matches projected onto a wall in someone's living room... or hopefully at PJ Ryan's (Teele Square, Somerville) on Sunday, August 29th (streamed on demand after their England and Ireland matches have occurred).