For a couple of days, I fel really terrible about having to say goodbye to looking to crypto to supplement my income and scrape by with a little extra. I was just really scattered and couldn't concentrate, would have left my head somewhere and been unable to find it if it wasn't attached to my neck. Being unable to make use of any crypto I earn going forward hasn't changed; it's still no longer an option for me. What has changed is how I feel. I took the "fuck it"approach, spent two days focusing on doing exactly what I wanted to do to the exclusion of all else. Instead of worrying about how I'm going to make money, looking for work or reading my emails, I spent two days mucking about with Arduinos and electronic doodads, even designed a simple REPL that I'd like to expand into a tiny -like OS if I manage to get that far and don't run out of resources.
Doing this has made a world of difference, reminded me of something about which I'm passionate. and I feel great, renewed. I got stuff done purely because it's what I wanted to do and I've got my drive back, actually feel ready to get back to pursuing a way to make money and get some real work done (including software development, even if only for myself), for the first time in I don't know how long, maybe since I came out of the psych ward more than three years ago.
Plus, I got an apology from my family for pushing me so hard to give up anything that interfered with or prevented me from doing things that were only constructive if they brought in money. Maybe if I'd got back on meds and taken a couple of days to myself a lot sooner, things would have turned out differently, perhaps better.
Anyway, that chapter of my life is hopefully behind me and I can start a new one.
On that note, I happened to open my email after I'd had supper and noticed that I had an email supposedly from OPENSEA (except that the sender's address doesn't match OpenSea's domain and it had been flagged as a phishing attempt by ProtonMail). The mail claims that someone has made an offer on one or more of my NFTs listed on OpenSea. The "View more details" link doesn't point to OpenSea, but some site with which I'm unfamiliar, having never encountered it before.
The funny thing is that someone attempting to steal my NFTs on OpenSea is probably the only serious attention that anyone has given to them in a long time.
There's something phishy about this email ...
While I am no longer having anything to do with crypto income (legitimate or otherwise), I did think it prudent to write a warning in case anyone else receives the same (or similar) email. Even if the mail's content looks legitimate, here's how to be sure:
- Always check that an email purporting to be from a particular company or organisation matches the domain/account that the company uses to send email.
- Always check that links purporting to lead to a particular company's Website or affiliates actually point there, instead of to some random domain.
- Don't blindly trust; verify.
- If in doubt, forward the mail to the Support or Fraud department of the company/organisation in question and ask them to confirm that they sent it.
Here's hoping you stay safe out there, folks, and have a great rest of the week,
The Snark
Thumbnail image: screenshot of the flagged email
