SPAM BULLIES

I have belonged to Social Media Girlfriends (#SMGirlfriends on Twitter) ever since its inception. I enjoy it so much. Dabney Porte, the charming woman who started it is absolutely wonderful. She is intelligent, beautiful, mindful, and one of the best Social Media Coaches around. She has helped us all through some sticky situations. She does Social Media Manners (SMManners) on Tuesday nights and knows more about Internet etiquette than anyone I know. She has built a wonderful following of some of the most caring women around.

Over the past months, our social media girlfriends community of global brilliance has been under attack.  These attacks have targeted Dabney directly, and our community as a whole via both documented/reported defaming/slanderous phone calls ( I received such a call from the lead bully/hater in attempts to defame Dabney) and a full out bot/spam account within our #SmGirlfriends community on Twitter. 

We all know that those who hate others are typically women or men who lack self esteem and do not feel worthy of their own success.  I see it via these attacks and others on social media each day.  In this case however, it seems the behavior is led by the very person who called me and it is my opinion that she is emotionally unwell and very unstable. 

As a community it is our goal to empower women.  To inspire and lift each of us up so we can continue to spread true friendship and women empowerment.  To do this, we must together protect our nest on Twitter and each other. 

The following are copies of the spams sent into our #SmGirlfriends nest on Twitter. Each tweet is sent by a bot account. They use different names but the tweets are the same. I recognized them, because they were my mostly my tweets originally.

• SMgirlfriends "Remember this  December, that love weighs more than gold!" ~Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon #SMgirlfriends
• smgirlfriends TL2U *Good friends are like four-leaf-clovers, lucky to have and hard to find. #smgirlfriends#TL2U
• SMgirlfriends “Most important in a friendship? Tolerance and loyalty.” J.K. Rowling #SMgirlfriends
• smgirlfriends Thanks for bringing your global brilliance to our #smgirlfriends community! We love you all 
• smgirlfriends Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow ~ Melody Beattie #smgirlfriends
• SMgirlfriends “Friendship is a word, the very sight of which in print makes the heart warm” Augustine Birrell #SMgirlfriends 
• TL2U SMGirlfriends *I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow #TL2U#SMGirlfriends
• smgirlfriends "To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, subtract things every day." Lao Tzu #smgirlfriend 
• SMgirlfriends "Laughter is the shortest distance between two friends." -Victor Borge #SMgirlfriends
• smgirlfriends Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don't unravel. ~Author Unknown Happy Thanksgiving #smgirlfriends
• SMgirlfriends “Friendship is a word, the very sight of which in print makes the heart warm” - Augustine Birrell #SMgirlfriends

This is an example of the type of behavior observed over the last six months and is clearly seen as attempts to dilute our community conversations as the pace picks up during key community events.   I consider it SPAM BULLYING, Don't you? I report and block each one, even though it takes time. I just hope that the spammers will get tired of creating names or tired of paying some people in a 3rd World Country that cannot spell to create Twitter accounts to keep doing this. 

How can YOU help to protect GLOBAL BRILLIANCE? 

• First of all, if you are asked to get on a call with someone form Twitter  be sure you who this person is.  If you take a call that is clearly one like I received, stand your ground.  Ask questions.  This particular bully and her cheer squad have no evidence to back the claims they make against Dabney, our community and many of us.  I did this and do you know what happened? SHE hung up on me.  I simply told "her" that I have known/worked with Dabney for years, and she was completely out of line and character to tell me the things she did.  She even told me I was not a Christian if I spoke to/followed Dabney.  You see, the BULLY goes after what you love the most.  I love GOD, so she threatened me with this. 

• If you receive such a call that is slanderous/defaming to Dabney or her community, let Dabney know immediately. Both her legal team and Twitter are watching closely and investigations are under way.  The best way to stop a BULLY is to question and report to the proper authorities. 

•  If you see an account that has only a few tweets or followers with lousy spelling, you probably have found profanity or even some weird pictures. The names more often than not, are strange too. Women's names with men's pictures and vice versa. Hit the BLOCK/REPORT button

• If you see a tweet in our #SmGirlfriends stream that starts with smgirlfriends, it is likely a bot spam account, as they appear to be using an automated RT system of our hashtag tweets while removing the RT. BLOCK/REPORT 

I am a Professional Encourager and at all times try to focus on the good in life and business.  However, this harassment must end.  I think what tipped the tide was, those sending spam via created fake/bot accounts have used a squished picture of me in many profile pictures.  They have also used our community trademarked logo, Dabney's profile information, guns to scare us in logo pictures and much, much more. If you are with us on #smgirlfriends, please be careful not to even follow the spammers or any member of their team. I will be unfollowing people who are following the SpamBully this week. 

I have prayed about this and I think this is the only way to go. This person has not asked for forgiveness and is only motivated by revenge. Evidently, the only way they think they can build their business is to tear down our community. 

"If there is a choice, choose kindness" is one of my favorite sayings. I think in this case, the kind thing would be to ignore this person and her community. She continually defames Dabney and she won't listen to reason. For some unknown reason, she has even purchased over 10,000 bot followers for #smgirlfriends. Why would anyone but someone that is purely evil do such a ghastly thing. I have seen this myself and documented many things over the past months. I am ready to go to court, if necessary, to make sure this person goes to jail or at least pays a whopping fine. 

SMGirlfriends has helped me more than any of you know. You were there for me when I have been ill and always praying for me. I love you all and I am so sorry that one of our own has turned against us for no concrete reason other than jealousy.

Got to go for now. Leave comments if you like. I would love to hear from you.

GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME!

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sugar free cookies.

Sequestration for Real People

Sequestration - The seizure of property for creditors or the state. 

Sounds like we are in Bankruptcy to me. Does this mean that the government (We, the people) are going to have to give up our "stuff"? Or, have a huge garage sale and give the government all our money. 

I heard yesterday that the State of Washington has already put restrictions on paying for subsidized housing. Does that mean that the less fortunate people, elderly and children, will have no place to live?

Are we all going to end up in the streets? I remember when I was a child. I lived in Mississippi and John F. Kennedy was running for President. I liked him and even voted for him in the school mock election, but our feelings then were that the Democrats were the Fat Cats with the big wallets because they helped the under-privileged and were working to even help them more. 

So, now as an adult, the Republicans are considered the Fat Cats. What goes with this? There may be a few, but I would say that most Republicans are Christians who have jobs and pay most of the taxes. I only know one or two families that are "rich", most are just hard working families who would not think of letting "We The People" pay their bills. They pull themselves up and keep going. They are in debt, paying for college for their children, because they make a little too much money to qualify for government assistance.

I did not get to go to college right after high school and married too young because my family could not afford for me to stay at home. I was told that when I got a job, I would have to pay room and board. That would have taken most of what I made. And, I would still have to babysit my little brother and sister for free. I had been babysitting and keeping house since I was twelve when my sister was born and her crib was put in my room. Also, when she was born, my little brother who had been in the crib had to sleep with me.

My mother did upholstery in the garage for cash so that we could have food when my stepfather lost his job. I do not know what we would have done if he had not had his military retirement. They even declared bankruptcy at one point. We did not own a house, so we did not lose one. We never asked for assistance from the government. We did what we had to do to make money. I remember a Christmas that mother made 150 aprons out of scrap fabric ($1.25 each) so we would have a Christmas. We ate fatback and cornbread on Wednesdays to make things stretch. I worked washing dishes in school at 12 years old to pay for my lunch so I could keep the nineteen cents that lunch cost. Soon, I didn't even get to keep the nineteen cents.

We were considered as lower middle class. My parents were able to increase their status to upper-middle class, but that was many years after I left home. I taught myself to sew, so I could have something decent to wear. Then, I made clothes for my daughter when she was born. I made my own drapes from patterns in decorating books at the library. You can make cheap sheets look pretty good if you can sew. 

I married a military man, and nine months later our daughter was born. We barely had enough money to last from one month to another. I lived with his parents for a few months when he went on assignment to Okinawa. I couldn't go because the government would not pay for a family move when you were in your first enlistment. I got a job at Carolina Telephone and was able, with his parents' help, to afford a ticket for me and our daughter to fly to Okinawa. 

I scrimped and saved the whole time we were married. We always lived from payday to payday. Save money, how? When you need to feed your children, you have to put off saving for retirement and vacations. You drive whatever car you can afford.

Sequestration: I have been living with that most of my life. Now I am retired from Civil Service and on disability. My present husband has his own business and is still working every day, even though he is having his 76th birthday this month. We are not rich, at least not in money. We are rich in  our faith in God, our family, and our friends. We are happy. So what does this mean? 

The Congress and the President should be ashamed of themselves, Democrat and Republican alike. How did they grow into men who think they can run this country? This country was built on Christian values; I do not care what anyone says. We guaranteed freedom of religion as long as our values were followed. Our God was the founding force of this country, but we have allowed others to take away the spirit of our country.

Over the years, more and more immigrants have joined us because of the injustice in their home countries. They have brought that feeling that they need someone to take care of them, because they were used to a government that controlled everything they did. Americans are free to work, play, and live a good life. 

God is not dead, but I am sure he is tired of people trying to take him out of our every day lives. We may be judged sooner, rather than later for allowing morality to founder in the United States. 

As one of "We the People" I am asking you this:

Do not let others change our way of life. 

GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!

ALL THE TIME, GOD IS GOOD!

Look Forward with Anticipation

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Are you looking forward to the New Year coming up? Some people are spooked by the thirteen in 2013. Most buildings do not even have a thirteenth floor. What is that about? In a country of some people who say they do not believe in God, but they are afraid of mumbo-jumbo. Funny, I believe in God and I am not afraid of thirteen. Someone told me that 2013 is going to be a terrific year for me. I believe that, but I believed that before they even said it. Life is only going to be great if we believe it is going to be great. 

If we go around thinking things are going to be bad, they will be. I know that you have probably heard all this before, but sometimes you just need to hear it again or just from a different person. We listen to so much nowadays, TV, YouTube, phone,  classes, news radio: it is just so difficult to figure it all out. One person says do it this way and one person says do it that way. My mother gave me some of the best advice I have ever had about child-rearing. She told me to listen to everyone, note it in my mind, then do it my way. That is exactly what I did and I did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself.

People are like stained glass windows. 

They sparkle and shine when the sun is out. 

But in the darkness, beauty is seen only if there is light within. -Anonymous

I think everyone should listen to what others have to say, but they need to remember that they are the master of their life (other than God). Other people do not know what is the best thing for you all the time. If you listen to your parents, that is usually a good thing. Most parents have your best interest at heart, but they are not infallible. 

Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...

it is about learning how to dance in the rain. -Anonymous

Lately, people have been calling and asking me for advise. I don't really have much time for talking on the phone, but I do the best I can. I think I have been able to help a few. Sometimes you just need to talk to someone. 

Keep smiling, keep being kind, 

and be someone's friend. 

Everyone needs a good friend.

FACEBOOK R US

    Have you ever thought about how many hours you have been on Facebook since you joined? All I can come up with is "Countless." Did I, or you, ever pay anything to use Facebook, other than our time?" "NO!"

    I read the other day that if Facebook stock tanks any more than it has, it will be very bad for those people working there. They get a bonus for their hard work paid to them in stock. What kind of bonus is it to get something that is not worth anything. Countless people will be out of work, if the stock does not rise. 

    And, no, I do not know Mark Zuckerberg. But, to show my support for Facebook, I purchased 50 shares of stock for around $20 each ($1k) this past Monday morning. I am not saying that you should buy 50 shares, but maybe 10 or whatever you can afford. This could be our way to show Facebook our thanks for all those hours of free use. 

    There were employees who made millions in the beginning of Facebook because their stock shares rose so fast. Loads of them retired or started businesses of their own. 

    So, lets see, I am not so good with math, but what if my stock tripled in value, it would be worth 3K, or more considering it probably would not triple all at once. I am sure there is someone that could explain it better than I can. I am certainly not doing this for myself, but for those people that I would like to be able to help in this world. I believe that the only way to serve God is to serve others. If by following my lead, others are helped, so much the better. 

    My whole point is encouragement. Lets encourage Facebook and its employees with the purchase of stock. These things can build. Some people help, their friends help, and their families help, before you know it Facebook shares are valued where they should be, and we are all much better off. 

    Can you pay-it-forward? Facebook has paid it forward for years. Their service is free all over the world. People who own Internet services like Verizon, Cox, Century Link, etc., all benefit from Facebook. People want good service and Facebook provides good service. They fix problems as soon as possible and they upgrade all the time. 

   Let us show Facebook that we are really interested in their future, because they have always been interested in ours. 

Nothing is Impossible!

   By the way, I used Scottrade for my stock, but there are lots of other companies that can do the same for you. They only charge $7 a trade, per purchase, whatever. Nice people too. By the way, if you use Scottrade, use the link above. This is a link to the real site, not a clone. I had to go through some other sites from Google that have similar names, but are not actually Scottrade.

   Here is to your good graces. You are all in my prayers. Who knows, we could inspire our entire country and bring us out of this slump. 

Invest in America

It is the only home we have! 

Love to you All

  Let me know if you invest by tweeting me at @barbaraduke on Twitter, make a comment here, or even just Barbara Duke on Facebook. I know that we can do this. Lets show those people who wonder what we are doing on the web and make bad comments about people who are just playing with their computer. 

LET'S SHOW THEM THE 

POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA!

     

Vigilant Parents Rule!

Recently, I went to a movie. I haven't been to one in over 10 years, but I let my daughter and my granddaughter talk me into it. My granddaughter brought two of her little girlfriends with her. They were all so cute; they had just had their tenth birthdays in the past month. We went to see "Madagascar 3," which I enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would.

The children went into the theater and sat in the middle  together. My daughter and I sat in the back, but had a good view of them. We had thought about leaving them and seeing the movie in the next theater, but intuition helped us to decide to stay there with them.

There were only two families of three in the theater, then I noticed someone to my left; it was a heavy set man in his 30s/40s. He stood there for three or four minutes, then he proceeded in and sat down right in front of the girls. I mean he was in the next row in front of the middle girl. I wanted to see what was happening; I went down and asked them if they could see alright. They were so excited and staring straight up at the movie, so probably didn't pay the man any attention. They said they could see fine. I told them if they wanted to move or needed anything, I was in the back of the theater, and to raise their hand to let me know.

I made sure that the man could hear what I said. I went back to my seat and in a couple of minutes, the man made like he had a phone call and got up and left.
I thought "Whew!" After a few minutes, the man came back in and stood in the doorway for a couple of minutes. It was as if I could feel his eyes on me and then went back in to sit directly in front of the girls again. I was tempted to go move them, but waited to see what was happening.

Meanwhile, the girls were still staring up, mesmerized by the exciting movie. The man sat there for about five minutes and then pretended to get another phone call. He went out and I thought he would be back, but he never came back into the movie. Now, that was strange, but we were able to view the movie in much more ease after he left.

My point is this! Don't leave your children alone in a public venue without supervision. We tend to think our children are smart and can take care of themselves by the time they reach 10 years old. Especially if they are almost 5 feet tall. But, they are still not old enough to be unsupervised. It is not necessarily that you don't trust them, but you cannot trust strangers to behave.

This man may not have had any ulterior motive, but it was very strange, to say the least. What if he was a pervert that exposed himself to the little girls? You may think that I am a hyper-vigilant nut, but what kind of memory would that left in their minds for the rest of their lives? We want to make sure that our children have happy childhoods and reach adulthood with a reasonably well-adjusted mindset.

Do not just drop your children at the movie or any other public venue, thinking there is safety in numbers! When they are young, our children are not equipped to handle uncomfortable situations. You need to have "the talk" with them, without       scaring them. My granddaughter has a cell phone and has been instructed to call her mom or dad if anything doesn't feel comfortable to her.

Do not scare the children, just let them know that they need to be focused and aware of their surroundings at all times.

Be vigilant, be loving, be intuitive, be good parents!

 Just Saying!

Social Media Girlfriend of the Month

In January 2009, I had surgery for breast cancer. It was like being hit over the head by a large club when the doctor had said the word “cancer” earlier in the month. I never thought I would accept that diagnosis, but I did, finally. When I recovered somewhat from the surgery, I had an appointment at Riverside Hospital Cancer Center. The doctor that I saw was only there for that first visit and his opinion has led me down a dark road. There was still minute evidence of cancer in the lymph nodes. He sent me to radiation for a series of 28 treatments, which ended up taking about six weeks altogether. Radiation was chosen first because my results had not come back from the BRAC genetic test. By the time I finished the radiation, the BRAC test was back and I was put on chemotherapy. The breast cancer was NOT genetic. If it is not genetic, then it is environmental. I knew right away the cause was the sick building that I had worked in at Langley AFB. Working there made me ill almost every day for years.

During recovery, I had a chance to put my new laptop to work. Someone said to join Facebook, but I really did not find much to do there. I did not want to play games, so someone suggested Twitter. I found my niche. There were some awesome people, who befriended me right away. I spent a lot of time reading other people’s tweets and finally decided that a way for me to engage with more people was to make my tweets “quotes.” I made a Word document and started to save quotes from Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and quote websites. Some were either profane or not very positive. I decided that positive tweets would be the best idea, since my goal was to make people feel better about themselves and their environment. It was the beginning of a wonderful journey.

I started to blog. My blog, Thoughts of Pink, has chronicled my journey. I did not write everything I thought about or it would be a lot longer.

There was a lovely lady whose Twitter name was @QueenMisha. She helped me along when I had questions. Funny how she never shared much about herself. In 2010, I kept looking for her online, but she never answered my tweets. Then about 2 months after I first started searching for her, I received a tweet. It was not Misha, but her daughter. Misha had died of ovarian cancer. All that time that she was helping me, she was going through this horrible disease and did not want anyone to know and feel sorry for her. I renamed my Word file, QueenMisha.doc so that every day I would remember her kindness to me.

My next friend was Sarah Marshall, @AmericanWomannn, from Louisiana. She is so positive and I love the smile on her face on Tweetdeck every morning. It made my day. We were on a website where you could elect your favorite Tweet, we were always trying to get votes for each month. I think I made it for favorite blog once. We never got the “Miss Twitter” award though. Soon, Sarah decided to remodel her kitchen, so the tweets stopped for a long time. After about a year, she came back and now is working on a website about her wonderful Southern Cooking.

#SweetTweets are my followers. I love them all. I use Tweepi.com to keep the spambots and pornbots off my follower list, so if you look at my followers, you usually will find a nice group of people. I delete names from the list of people who have not tweeted in 6 months and people who do not follow me back. That way, I can keep my ratio so I can follow some more “good” followers. I enjoy engaging with them all. 

If someone is a Troll, I block them. A Troll is someone who will never agree with anything tweeted or bait people to cause an argument. I expanded the definition to profanity also. Some people seem to think that profanity is acceptable, to prove a point, but if profanity is in your tweet, the next tweet you see from me is “Profanity is the effort of feeble mind to express itself forcefully.” Social media is not the place for profanity; it is rude and totally uncalled-for.

In 2011, I found @DabneyPorte who is one of the most inspirational women I have ever met. She soon developed Social MediaGirlfriends with Britt Michaelian, @MamaBritt. Britt was one of the first people that I had followed on Twitter. There seemed to be a group of women that tweeted each other every day and I wanted to be one of the group. I think I did eventually but it was not until Dabney came on the scene that I really found my niche. Dabney is marvelous, fabulous, and the most energetic person I have ever met. She honestly loves and helps her friends. Now, that I have been name as the 

“Girlfriend of the Month for Social Media Girlfriends” I want to do even more to further the cause for women in the future.

After joining #SMGirlfriends and then #FriendsofRicki (Ricki Lake), I have many friends. They really do care what is going on with me. The other day I tweeted that I would be back later, that I thought I had picked up a virus. You should have seen the tweets. Everyone was wishing me well or praying for my recovery. I should have elaborated that the “virus” was on my computer. They were all so great and relieved when I told them. They have been my rock as I try to improve my health.

The girlfriends understand when I have to go to quilting on Thursday afternoons. They like that I am doing something good for others. I tweet and blog pictures. The quilts go to the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters for the children going through chemotherapy. They get to take them home when therapy is finished, so there is a constant need for them. Now we are making lap quilts for nursing home patients who do not have one. We have been talking about making Quilts of Valor for the soldiers in the VA Hospital in Hampton. I told them I do not really think that I can sew full time. It is quite a production on Thursday to set everything up and put it all back in the cabinet, not to mention loading things back in the car. My dream is to convert my garage into a room where I can work on them whenever I want; not just on Thursday.

I am starting a class on Thursday with some lovely ladies that Dabney has connected me with to learn more about social media. Social Media Manager School is run by Andrea Vahl and Phyllis Khare. I know a lot about social media and this will give me a better understanding of how to help people achieve their dreams.

Sorry for being so long-winded, I was trying to give you a bigger picture of me. If you want to read more, you can go to my blog, Thoughtsof Pink – Breast Cancer. 

Thank you for making me the Girlfriend for the Month of June 2011. I love you all more than you know. You have been there for me a while, even before we got together with hashtags. Although, hashtags have made it more fun. I am deeply appreciative of all your fabulous support and love. Thank you, #SMGirlfriends, @DabneyPorte, and @MamaBritt. 

  Awesome is the word that comes to mind!

 

Pinterest Postings

This morning as I was playing with my Boards on Pinterest, I decided to do a Comedians Board. You can type in by name in the search or just type in "comedians" to find lots of comedians. I typed in the names of ones I could remember at first and then decided to try the general term. Guess what? Lots of comedians, and many that I have never heard of. Now, I have seen pictures of them but I have no idea WHO they are. They are someone's "favorite comedian or best comedian ever."

As Americans, we tend to think that we all know the same things. I don't go to comedy clubs, Las Vegas, or even watch Saturday Night Live on a regular basis anymore. My memory may not be as good as it once was or I might be young and I have never seen these people. So, how do I know who they are? Please put the person's name on the picture when you post to Pinterest. 

For that matter, when you post a picture of a place, please put the name of the place in the description box if it is not on the picture. I have not traveled the world lately and have no idea where some of these beautiful pictures were taken. Why would you be so impressed by a place and not enter the name of the place, at least what country it is in. WHO took the picture would be nice also.

I know, I have been guilty of this in the past, but I have decided to go back and put in the names of the people or places whenever I find out who or where they are. That will be a big deal for someone who has over 98 boards and almost 13K pins.

I think we should remember that people from other countries are looking at our Pinterest Boards. Why should they know American celebrities? The same goes for people in countries other than America, how would Americans know their celebrities? Just because someone is popular in your world, does not mean that every person in the world recognizes their face.

If everyone would put a comment on their pins, we all might learn something.

Just my opinion. It is okay if you disagree. Barbara Duke