I'm a hairdresser who writes. Take your tech and shove it.

I've just wasted hundreds of dollars, many hours, months, stress and lots of karma points trying to apply tech blogger savvy to my writing. I have a damned good book to sell, Mafia Hairdresser, and I will do everything it takes to make sure that as many people read it as possible; BUT I am throwing in the towel trying to become a professional blogger to do it. By the way, this is my #TechWeek “tribute,” and my hats-off-to-bloggers, and my shitty apology to my BF & social media friends who said they’d love to help me.
If you know me, I hang around a very cool group of Chicago social media specialists. They have thier own companies, are paid handsomely for thier blogging or Twitter services, and they have all learned how to utilize their posts to drive search engine rankings to thier benefits and connect with other bloggers. It is my understanding that WordPress is now the ultimate blogging application and that it is magic and a must for linking people to your product, profile and services. All my friends use it and they strongly recommended that I use it. It only took me two months to discover that it’s not a website or host and that my website’s builder is not compatible. I had to learn what a MySQL, SEO and figure out File Transfer Protocol (FTP) was and why I needed it. I also learned there is a whole inner-sanctum of WordPress users that remind me of the Dungeons & Dragons clubs of the past: I just don't want to learn how to delve into the different levels--I just want to play!
You’d think that I would have asked my friends for some help after I bought a hosting service from Bluehost to replace my GoDaddy service and couldn’t figure out a new dashboard. But my BF is an IT specialist. Not a website builder, mind you, but he knows a hellava lot more about how to build a website and move a blogging application into it. Well, it turns out, it was the last thing he wanted to do and I tortured the poor man for two months so, by the time I had time to start asking help from friends, I was so brain-fried and frustrated that I got my money back from Bluehost (they were sweet & I'll be back!) and trashed the idea of using the culty Wordpress application and now I dare anyone to console me or tell me that they’d be glad to help me until I cool down. “I will cut you,” may not just be my motto.
I have read Smashwords Marketing Guide and WordPress All In One For Dummies, and countless manuals on how to upload my book for Kindle and iBook formats. I am as savvy as I’m going to get right now and I'm going reject anymore tech related material that comes my way. This Bloggy Blogger Blogspot will have to suffice for a while and now I will blog once a week here. I will still blog weekly for The Local Tourist magazine under my Twitter handle @mafiahairdreser and, hopefully, bloggers will blog about me. It’s enough, right?
So now, my immediate to-do list: I have book 2, The Glow Stick God, to get ready to be available on eBooks, Smashwords.com and MafiaHairdresser.com. That means promotional videos, press, social media and cover design before November. I am also writing book 3, Murder There’s An App For That, about the murder of a good friend and the sometimes dark and funny side of being plugged in all the time being a “social media expert.” Yes, friends, I’m writing about you. But, if you’ve read, Mafia Hairdresser, or the preview to The Glow Stick God on the eBook version, you wouldn’t worry-I'm nothing but a pissy hairdresser & an ex-professional party boy who writes--AND I fictionalize the truth & I don’t like to hurt anyone with my writing except, of course, myself.

Event for Silver LEED certified Apartment Building, The Morgan at Loyola Station

Did you know that apartment buildings are more energy efficient than single family homes? By their very nature, cities can drain less energy on the energy grid than spread out suburbs. Think about it: shared wall-space divides, core heating & air, and four or less window walls exposed to the elements. But what if an apartment building goes for the SILVER! and decides to get a Silver LEED certification? You have a Green building that is actually %60 more efficient than a standard high-rise or apartment building. For those of you who read my last blog, it was all about what a LEED building is and how much goes into getting a certification.
Chicago’s latest Silver LEED building is none other than the luxury apartment building: The Morgan at Loyola Station.
Please join them for a celebration and check out their beautiful eco-friendly apartments March 9th.
Right off the Loyola Station Redline, this event “tweetup!” will host you with delicious bites from Steve's Deli and Burrito Beach, cocktails, and you can mingle with local businesses, such as, I-GO Car Sharing, Tricoci University, Red Mango, PopChips, Washme-Envigreen and Lynfred Winery. They will have fun giveaways for attendees.
RSVP at http://tweetvite.com/event/TheMorgan
And contact the Retail and Residential Leasing office at The Morgan at Loyola Station if you are interested in their elite apartment or retail space along with CVS & Five Guys Burgers & Fries. 773-465-9400

Credit Card Fraud & The Elderly

I’ve heard that there was a lot of credit card theft and identity theft happening. Last year, someone, or some evil organization had, on two separate occasions, swiped my credit card information, and scammed money out of my checking account. But that’s totally boring compared to what I overheard a client tell one of my fellow stylists. (Yes, I listen! A lot!)
The client was an older lady: Gold Coast type, sweet, widowed, kids are grown up lawyers, three other residences, a maid she calls “her girl.” You get it. WELL, she shyly starts talking about a call she got the other night from a woman saying she was from the Credit Card Fraud Bureau and that one of her credit cards was being used at a Sears store, and the person using the card was using it at that very moment. But Gold Coast Widow says, “But my cards are right here in my possession!”
“We thought so,” says CC Fraud Bureau. And then CC Fraud Bureau tells the Gold Coast Widow that they are going to send the police straight to Sears to pick up the obviously thieving person using her duplicated credit card.
As the Gold Coast Widow was telling the story, she told her hairdresser that she is so completely embarrassed by the whole situation, especially with what she did next. (I love that people tell us everything! Everyone else’ job must suck boring.)
And this is what she did next. When the CC Fraud Bureau convinced Gold Coast Widow that all was going to be well, they both hung up only to have the CC Fraud Bureau call back ten minutes later. CC Fraud Bureau said that they caught the thief and wanted to know if she could send an undercover agent over to the Gold Coast to see the Widow’s credit cards; just to make sure that her credit cards were safe and to insure prosecution of the thief.
The Gold Coast Widow said that sounded acceptable, only she would meet the undercover in the lobby where there were cameras. When the undercover officer showed up, Gold Coast Widow asked to see his I.D.
“Ma’am,” he said smugly, “I don’t have I.D. I’m undercover.” And then she gave him her credit cards with her pin numbers when he asked for them!
I was not laughing at the end of the story, and the client was near to tears. The last thing I heard her telling the hairdresser was that she was very embarrassed but was not so embarrassed to say yes to a future TV interview to prevent this from happening again. I guess the police and media have been seeing this type of theft in Chicago for quite some time and they want to stop it.
And that is why I wrote about it. I’m just passing it along to you. If it can happen to her, it can happen to many others.
Epilogue: She was only out $50 because she called her son, the lawyer, after the obvious (to us!) theft. The police led her to call a local TV station. He told her she could help get the word out. I love her! The "undercover" was not visible on the lobby cameras. No one has been prosecuted or arrested in connection to this case yet.
click here for online detail on how to save elderly from credit card scam

And, don't forget to subscribe to this blog and by my first novel, Mafia Hairdresser, at http://www.mafiahairdresser.com/