The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Being On the Internet

Coffee in the Los Angeles skyline mug, "Out Here In the Middle" by James McMurtry on iTunes. It's random, but if I'd picked, it's the one I would've picked. Last night I Googled Siyeh Studio--as I periodically do just to see what's out there on the great, big interweb thingie--and I was shocked to find my name, address, phone number, email address, and Visa credit card number and expiration date on the web! There is an Arabic language youth site called Dos1.com that has a message forum which Google translates as "Forum Credit Card world of credit cards". Someone hacked the EZ Pedestal site back in April and posted dozens of credit card numbers with the corresponding personal information on the forum.

Was I surprised to find my info there? Absolutely! Should I have been? Probably not. This is the world in which we live, and I had someone tell me today (in connection with this credit card issue) that Americans are perceived to be naive because we are not taught from infancy how to work the system, to cheat, to lie and to steal well. Two of my clients and two other artists I know were also on the list. Small, sad, world. An interesting note: I was also able to get right to the page where my info was listed by doing a web search on my credit card number.... A useful Google tip if you think your credit info is out in the world and you want to find where.

Other searches turned up more positive results. Profitable Glass Magazine has their on-line profile of Siyeh Studio up. I found myself credited (in a former life) on the acknowledgments page of the book "The Life of Arseniev: Youth" by Ivan Bunin, Andrew Baruch Wachtel--I went to get the book on Amazon, but the price for vanity was a bit too dear.

I also found a cool blog called Made in the USA which features reviews and giveaways of American-made goods, and they featured one of my platters donated by Best American Arts! The comments about my work were especially gratifying (and that could have been ugly). The give-away itself was linked on another site.

I guess the post should have just been the Good and the Bad--though the Bad was pretty Ugly too.