Karin's Adventures

Just about four months ago roughly 143 million people – pretty much every adult in the USA – fell victim to Equifax’s lax handling of highly sensitive personal information. While the initial outrage lasted in the media, everybody was eagerly trying to protect what they could – but by now it’s eerily quiet out there.

It’s not over, though. It will never be over. For the rest of your life you will have to watch your credit file, not just with Equifax, but with all three reporting agencies. Good for you, if you placed a security freeze on your credit file with every one of the bureaus. Once your accounts are “frozen”, identity thieves will have to find your PIN code to “unfreeze” them before they can cause you harm.

Since I am a bit paranoid, I add an extra layer of protection by placing what is called an “initial 90 day fraud alert” with each of the credit bureaus every 100 days. That way, whenever anybody applies for new credit using your personal data, the creditor will have to call a phone number you supplied to make sure it is really you. Also, each time you place an initial fraud alert, you are entitled to another free credit report from that agency.

Now, these credit reporting agencies are not in the business of making your life easier, so they try hard to hide the place where you need to go to fill out their fraud alert form. I bookmarked those links for you, though. You’re welcome.

Equifax fraud alert
Experian fraud alert
Transunion fraud alert

My general approach to life is to not overthink it. I’m keeping it simple, easy, practical, just letting nature run its course, and going with the flow. I realize that this may not be the best way to handle all aspects of everybody’s life on a global level, but I believe it works very well for most of the situations I have encountered in my little niche of the Universe.

Usually I let everybody come to their own conclusions about how to handle things, I don’t give advice unasked for – but when somebody asks for it, I’ll freely share my opinion – keep it simple, don’t overthink it, doing less is often more.
So, when somebody asks me “What do you do to your skin that it looks so good?”, I will thank them for this lovely compliment – and then tell them: “not much.”

Actually, I do almost nothing to my face: I wash it twice a day with lukewarm water (absolutely no soap, or any other additives), and then I apply Nivea Creme lightly to the drier areas (on the cheeks, and around the eyes) without rubbing too much. When I spend a lot of time outside in the sun, I might apply sunscreen on top of that, or try to stay in the shade. I never use any kind of make-up, except during Carnival or Halloween to go with my costume.

If you want to try it for yourself, make sure you get the original Nivea Creme, made in Germany. I import my supply for a year when I travel to Germany for vacation, but you can also order it on Amazon: original German Nivea Creme

Just make sure you are getting the genuine German product, really made in Germany – not Mexico, Thailand, or wherever else.

Some companies don’t seem to hesitate when it comes down to maximizing profits. Consumers’ health doesn’t matter. You have to be vigilant, continuously expect to be taken advantage of, even with – or especially with – something as innocent looking as gummy bears.

Some of you may know that I am a huge fan of Haribo gummy bears. While I still lived in Munich, I used to go through a pound of those per week. Then we moved to Fort Wayne, and my initial joy about finding “Haribo Gold Bears” in local grocery stores was immediately stifled when I realized they tasted very different. Reading the ingredients list on the package, I noticed that these Haribo gummys sold in the USA contain artificial colors you shouldn’t eat. Things like yellow #5, red #40, or blue #1, are nothing I would want to consume daily.

So I started to search for sources online. When I learned that Haribo produces gummy bears for the US market in Turkey, where regulations aren’t as strict, and consumers aren’t as “picky”. I thought that simply checking for “made in Germany” would be the safe way to go, if I wanted to keep eating Haribo’s gummy bears. I started ordering my beloved “Goldbären” on eBay and Amazon, paying about $15 for a pound of gummy bears, directly imported from Germany – no artificial colors involved.

Today, however, I found out that simply looking for “made in Germany” is not sufficient anymore! A colleague brought a bag of Haribo gummy bears into the office to share, claiming that they were the “real thing”, made in Germany. The label did really say “made in Germany” for Haribo USA. But the ingredients where the same as that stuff they make in Turkey. Apparently, if you produce candy for the USA, you can now get away with using harmful chemicals, even if production happens in Germany.

From now on I’ll be extra careful when buying Haribo. Not just “made in Germany”, it has to be imported from Germany, sold in Germany, and without artificial ingredients.