Trader Joe's

I am not sure if you all have been exposed to the hype of the Trader Joe's grocery chain. I know many people who always talk about them going to or what they got from Trader Joe's. My first time hearing of Trader Joe's was back in 2019. However, my first time going to Trader Joe's was this past Monday but only for a short time.

We had stopped there to get a few things to bring to brunch. It didn't take me long to know I would be back. What I did not know was I would be back the next day. I had seen so many things I wanted to purchase the day before that I could not stay away. I came to the store with intentions to browse the entire store. It was pretty crowded when I got there so I decided to grab a few items and leave.

I bought this blueberry goat cheese, pita crackers, spinach dip, frozen orange chicken personal meal, a pancake bread loaf, family size frozen orange chicken, and frozen lo mein. I had previously tried the goat cheese at the brunch I attended on Monday, I had the frozen orange chicken meal for lunch, and it is probably the best personal frozen meal I've had. On Tuesday and Wednesday, my family tried many of the things from Trader Joe's and we have all really enjoyed everything.

I wanted to get some more of the frozen meals to eat at work but I just could not find the time to get there Wednesday or Thursday after work. I decided to go before work yesterday (Friday) because I really wanted to try something else from there. My quick stop at Trader Joe's lasted a bit longer than I expected, and when I walked out I knew that I would be back later that day.

Going Home

I have lived in Las Vegas for almost two years now, and it has been an experience for me. Nevada is the first place that I have lived other than my birthplace. I am from Texas, specifically Arlington, Texas. Arlington is in north Texas and is a part of the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) Metroplex. I lived there for 22 years of my life. When I was 21 I moved from Arlington to Dallas, it was different than what I was used to even though it was only 40 minutes from my hometown. I went from the suburbs to the city.

Las Vegas has been great to me overall. There are many reasons I love being here including, the weather, mountains, and lack of mosquitoes. I also really enjoy the amount of entertainment I can always find. My absolute favorite part of Las Vegas (coming from a born and raised Texan) is being able to buy liquor/spirits at any time, any day, and almost anywhere. In Texas, they only sell beer and wine at grocery stores and convenience stores and that's after 11 AM. You have to go to the liquor store to buy spirits. Oh yeah, they also close at 9:00 PM, are closed on Sundays.

Over the past month, my wife and I have been discussing moving back to Texas. Our main reason for even thinking about moving back is that we want to start a family. Other than that both of our immediate families live in the DFW, and all of our friends. We have built many meaningful relationships here, and I love that I was able to meet the people I call my friends. Last week, we decided that we are going to move back to Texas. We have many things to do before that is possible but, if everything goes as planned we should be back in Texas by July 1, 2022. I am not sure if I want to move back to the DFW or try somewhere new like Austin or San Antonio. All I know right now is that I need to prepare myself for the year-round mosquitoes, humidity, and bipolar weather.

Las Vegas has been good to me, I know I will miss being here.

I Can Share That?

Something new I learned in chapter 2 was in section 3: File Management specifically 2.3.6 Sharing Storage Facts. First off, I did not know it was possible to share files and folders in the file explorer. I guess I should have known since I share files and folders in Google Drive daily with my traveling friends.

I would like to use the Windows file sharing at work because being able to just have access to files without having to email them to my coworkers or ask for them to be sent to me. It will alleviate issues when finding or accessing files when someone misses a day at work.

I am excited to bring this up to my Office Manager because all the office computers are on a shared network. He is often not in the office but is the only one with certain master copies from many documents we use to print patient paperwork or referrals. I am also the only Medical Assistant in the office and the only one who has access to certain laboratory information and, I now work part-time. If I could just store the lab results in a shared network folder then everyone including our physician will have access if I am not there to send or print out results when the reports are first published.

I am looking forward to being able to manage my workload better even when I am not in the office.

LOOK OUT: Social Engineering Attacks

Most of us know to always be cautious when using the internet to ensure our sensitive information is always safe. The need to use the World Wide Web is only increasing which means we have new internet users all the time, and we aren't always sure of what to look out for. Testout Office Pro LabSim 1.4.8 Internet Safety Facts, provided me with many precaution tips for internet use, specifically:

• Never implicitly trust information from the Internet. This includes web pages, email messages, social media posts, and downloaded files. Always validate such information against reliable sources.

To dive a little deeper into why we should not trust all information on the internet let's discuss common social engineering attacks seen on the internet and examples of how they are used. Four common engineering attacks are Reconnaissance, Pretexting, Email Attacks, and Browser Attacks.

• Reconnaissance passively gathers information about a potential victim. The goal is to identify key information needed to further exploit the victim. Forms include shoulder surfing, eavesdropping, and dumpster diving.
• Pretexting attempts to trick the victim into revealing sensitive information under false pretenses. Some forms of pretexting are Intimidation, social validation, and familiarity.
• Email attacks attempt to exploit a victim using email messages, which include phishing, spear phishing, Nigerian scams, and email hoaxes.
• Browser attacks convince the victim that they are performing a legitimate task within their browser window, when in fact they are being tricked into revealing sensitive information or installing malware on their computer. Some examples are pharming and rogue antivirus attacks.

After reading about these engineering attack types and looking up situation scenarios for each I feel more equipped to spot spam and fraudulent attack attempts more efficiently to ensure I'm keeping my sensitive information internet safe.