Can't Stop Geeking

I don’t know about you, but I always found these commercials to be very clever and real catchy. That is, until I actually tried to get my free report. What I found was actually a bare-bones report and then a huge plug for a service with a monthly fee. Apparently, I’m not the only one. The FTC is making the company behind the website display a huge disclaimer about where to get a truly detailed credit report for free. Hopefully, the commercials will still remain entertaining.

Toyota is voluntarily recalling nine models of their vehicles to fix faulty accelerator issues.  The recall will include 2.3 million cars.  If you own a Toyota, take a look at the slideshow in foxnews.com here to see if your Toyota is one of the recalled models.  I know this is not really a IT thing, but I wanted to get the word out to people.

There’s a new study coming Britain that TV and video games may be the cause for a resurgence of rickets in children.  Rickets can lead to developmental abnormalities such bowed legs.  Rickets can occur when a child has chronic vitamin D deficiencies from too many hours out of direct sunlight and/or with poor nutrition.  Healthy exposure to sunlight helps the body produce vitamin D which promotes normal growth and development.

What’s the lesson to be learned here?  Connecting and playing in the cyber-world is fun, but balance your time between virtual reality and reality for healthy mind and body. Read the full story here.

As we wind down 2009 and prepare to celebrate new beginnings with 2010,  I want to wish everyone good fortune and health for this upcoming year.  If you plan to celebrate with friends tonight, please be careful.  Be safe, and be smart so you can be here to usher in next year.

While this is usually a tech and gadget blog, I just had to pass this along to everyone as a word of caution.  I was coming home after taking my niece to the baby sitter when I noticed a car in the ditch along side the road.  I pulled over, hit my hazards, and went to investigate.  An older lady had lost control of her car and had gotten the front end stuck in the ditch.  She had a cell phone that she had used to call someone in her family, but that person had not shown up yet or called to back to acknowledge the call.  I thought local law enforcement needed to be there since we didn’t know how long it would take for this ladies relative to arrive.  Unfortunately, I did not know nor did I have the non-emergency phone number for the local police department in my phone.  I actually had to call my wife, who was out of town at the time, and have her send me the number via text message.  The story does have a happy ending.  The local police sent someone out and just as I got off the phone, the older lady’s relative arrived and got her out of the ditch.

So, what’s the moral of the story?  Find your local police department’s non-emergency number and store it in your cell phone as a new contact.  You just never know when you might need it.