The use of the word "basically" as a conversational filler word has become pretty frequent around me. I thought it was just people in my office and a few of my other friends, but then the other day I was interviewing someone who flew in from Canada and I noticed that he used it too. It's possible he had picked up on it from my office mates, but it still surprised me. Basically is the latest in the tradition of other great filler words including "like", "you know", and more recently in my group of friends "apparently". I expect I'll start all my blog posts with basically now.

Basically, I had a dream that I had my identity stolen and someone stole all the money in my bank account. That sucked, thankfully I woke up. Identity theft really is a problem, which is why privacy advocates are so up in arms. I know at least 3 people who have had it done to them. It usually didn't cost the person that much money, but it was a lot of trouble for all of them, and there's not really any justice. The perps(that's TV cop-speak shorthand for perpetrators) are rarely caught and prosecuted. And spyware these days makes it even easier. People need to know how to practice safe browsing.

In other privacy news, today California opened up their registered sex offender database to the web. This information was available before, but in a harder to obtain manner. So now it just takes a second for me to find out what child molesters live on my block. I am not completely decided on how I feel about this, but right now I'm not too enthused about it. If a person has been let out of prison, don't they deserve to live free like everyone else? If they are a danger, shouldn't they be just kept in prison instead of letting them out? There were 18 sex offenders listed in my city, which is more than I expected, but I am a bit sympathetic to their right to privacy. I don't have kids so I am sure most parents have a different view of the situation.