macular degeneration, macular, diagnosis Some of Yours – My Macular Degeneration Journey/Journal

Some of Yours

Just logged on to check my email and the first thing I found was another phishing attempt. Oh, for crying out loud! These things are coming faster and the ‘phishermen’ are getting bolder.

This one was ‘from’ my email provider. Not only did they want my username AND password but they were also trying for a credit card number. Good grief. Do I look like I just fell off the turnip truck?

The problem is, for every 999 people who have not just fallen off the turnip truck, there is one who has. That is all the scammers need to make a killing.

So, just in case we have a reader who is not ‘scam savvy’, a couple of tips: scammers are often non-English speakers but the messages are in English. Misspelled? Clumsy wording? Be aware. Ask for your password? Run the other way. Soliciting a credit card number from you? Contact customer service and ask them. Do not give a credit card number out to anyone who asks for it. Lastly, check the details on the email. If it come from Sylvester in Syracuse you probably have a scammer.

Anything suspicious can get forwarded to your service provider. I also label anything from that sender as spam so I don’t have to deal with him again.

Just another public service announcement.

Oh! And I just noticed something wild. My service provider lists as ‘tells’ for phishing attempts the following: asking for personal information, mass mailings and details (show details). That spells AMD. How about that? [Lin/Linda: ::groan:: you are REALLY stretching it!!!]

And after all that, I want to talk about pessimism/optimism. Another good grief. I know the shady morals of so many is not necessarily a reason to be upbeat and sunny. My delivery and timing stink. However, if you look at it another way, we are looking out for one another and that is positive. Yes? Yes!

Lin asked me to read Dan Roberts article about how so many of us see a more dismal future than others our age who do not have AMD. The piece says we expect health deterioration and Lord knows how many other bad things just because we have vision loss.

The first thing I thought about was why should vision loss lead to worse health than any other sensory or orthopedic or general health issue? Sounds like the depression talking to me.

Roberts emphasized there being so much reason for optimism with all the tools and medical breakthroughs. I agree with him totally on that. That is part of the reason we continually share news on research and ‘toys’.

However, what I think his real message was was this: the study did not differentiate between those actually getting the information, the training and the support and those who are not. Roberts asks what the differences would be. He also asks – about knowledge and skills training lapses – the question “why not?”.

You see things and ask “Why?” but I dream things and I say “Why not?” – George Bernard Shaw

(And, yes, JFK paraphrased it a bit but he took it from Shaw.)

Part of the reason for this website is to spread knowledge and to spread hope. Every day progress is being made. Every day things are happening to make our lives – as the visually impaired – easier.

Know someone without knowledge? Someone without hope? Give him some of yours. We want to be able to say “Dan, we hear you and we are trying to do our part.”

Written October 29th, 2017

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