Nigerian Scam Response or "Have Fun With Police Brutality"...

unfortunately, I don't think Dr. John West really read my response...

-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Haughton
Sent: Monday, April 06, 2009 4:45 PM
To: 'johnwest1@post.ro'
Subject: RE: You Have A Package.

Dear Sir,
I have directed your information to my good friend Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr Marvel Akpoyibo at the command's headquarters in Ikeja. He will be arranging for proper completion of this transaction. I beseech you to contact Mr Akpoyibo at your earliest convenience so that we may properly take care of this matter. My good friend will make sure you are properly rewarded for your efforts in this matter. He may actually have already sent out some officers to assist you. Thank you so kindly and God bless.
Tom

-----Original Message-----
From: FedExpress [mailto:info@FedEx.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 9:39 AM
To: undisclosed-recipients
Subject: You Have A Package.

FEDEX COURIER MANAGING DIRECTOR.
Victoria Island,lagos Nigeria.
Direct Line: +234-12202708
Plot 8,Ahmed Way,
Victoria Island,Lagos Nigeria.
Email: johnwest1@post.ro

Custormers Service Hours--Monday To Saturday:Office Hours Monday To
Saturday:

The FedEx courier Service Company are hereby passing an essential massage to all our valuable customers to be very careful while presenting their receivers residential address to avoid wrong delivery.
This is the FedEx courier service company mailing you as per your parcel that was brought to this company to be delivered to you by one Mrs.alice & Marcia Fert,along the delivery process there came a misunderstanding between you and the Nicon Insurance Company inregard of their request as per their insurance certificate which happens to be course of your parcel pending for the past one year..Meanwhile we are hereby happy to inform you that the FedEx Company has finalized everything with the Nicon Insurance Company of Nigeria as the company organization has also listed 4 valuable parcel's to be intact in their office after the released of the parcel's from the Nicon Insurance Company.
We are happy to inform you once again that your parcel that contain the sum of $2.5 million dollars is among the 4 parcel's listed which is now in our office and also with your name as the receiver despite that we lost your private residential address, which is an indication that you can now re-send your residential address back to the FedEx company where your parcel can be delivered to you without hesitation with this e-mail(johnwest1@post.ro)

Meanwhile remember that the sender of this parcel Mrs.alice & Marcia Fert still owes this company the sum of $ 125 before the incident occured, know you that this company has spent out of their incomes in the process of recovering back your parcel's so dear sir/madam we once again appreciate your patronage in our favour.

Without hesitations you are to pay the required sum of $125 via Money Gram Money Transfer so that your parcel can be delivered to your residential address before it accumulate a demurrage after one week only,as you know your parcel is not just an ordinary parcel but with a huge amount and I think you understand what I mean by accumulating demurrages Which you will not allow to happen to your recovery parcel that was almost gone if not for the love that the good God.

We assure you that your parcel will arrive at your country in two days time and it will get to your door step the second OR third day as soon as this company receive the balance left by your sender and the tracking number of your parcel will be sent to you via e-mail immediately so that you can track it yourself to see your parcel coming on the way and you will also know when it will arrive at your country because we operate in trust and loyalty in your favour. And also the FedEx courier Service
Company is hereby to inform all their customers by eradicating all their communication with the scam mails that are going all-over the world be careful with their e-mails so that your parcel will not be in danger with their evil plans.FedEx provides access to a growing global marketplace through a network of supply chain,transportation,business and related information services for the payment.

PAYMENT INFORMATION OFFICE
SENDERS NAME------
RECIEVERS NAME------OKORIE STEPHEN
SENDERS COUNTRY-----
RECIEVERS COUNTRY----LAGOS NIGERIA.
TEXT QUESTION------------WHAT COLOR
TEXT ANSWER---------------.RED
AMOUNT TO BE PAID---------$ 125
AND ALSO WITH THE CONTROL NUMBER(MTCN)

FedEx is one of the world's great success stories, the start-up that revolutionized the delivery of packages and information. In the past 30 years,we've grown up and grown into a diverse family of companies -a FedEx that's bigger, stronger, better than ever.

WAITING TO READ YOUR E-MAIL.

Dr John west.
FEDEX COURIER MANAGING DIRECTOR..
For the Victoria Island Manager FedEx Express Services Lagos -Nigeria .

Mood buttons you can't wear to work

Ryan Seacrest Leaks "Coachella Lineup"

here is the 2009 lineup that was pulled and was officially stated to be "completely wrong":

FRIDAY

Nine Inch Nails
Morrissey
Orbital
Franz Ferdinand
Puscifer
Katy Perry
Digitalism (live)
The Presets
K's Choice
Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band
X
Metric
The Black Keys
Shpongle
Turbonegro
Bassnectar
Fair To Midland
Ladytron
Cage
Brian Jonestown Massacre
Hercules & Love Affair
Mickey Avalon
The Gaslight Anthem
Laura Marling
The Whip
The Bloody Beetroots
Kristina Sky
The Airborne Toxic Event
Friendly Fires
Straight Line Stitch
Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.
Shadrach Kabango
Los Campesinos
O'Death
The Wishing Tree
Floater
Alias Westlord
Snailhouse
Asteroids Galaxy Tour
Miyavi
Kevin Rudolf
TINARIWEN
Heartless Bastards
Drop The Lime
Lucent Dossier


SATURDAY

The Killers
Neil Young
Primus
Basement Jaxx
TV on the Radio
Mike Patton Rahzel
Adele
Immortal Technique
Atmosphere
One Day as a Lion
Girl Talk
Primal Scream
Coolof (of The Knife) (DJ set)
KT Tunstall
Crystal Castles
Amon Tobin
M.A.N.D.Y.
She & Him
Roni Size
Kimya Dawson
Glasvegas
The Black Marquee
Jade Everett
Jamie T
Foals
Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
No Age
Late of the Pier
Sebastian Tellier
Peanut Butter Wolf
The Flobots
Radio Luxembourg
Ice Cream Floats
Flying Lotus
Kitty, Daisy & Lewis
The Bug
White Lies
The Knux
The Captains Intangible
Mad Marge & The Stonecutters
N.A.S.A.
Mexican Institute of Sound
Eric Mcfadden Trio
Soniko
Kira Willey
Lucent Dossier
KIM H & DANNY R


SUNDAY

Paul McCartney
Foo Fighters
Public Enemy
Chemical Brothers
Keane
Poe
MSTRKRFT
Fleet Foxes
Band of Horses
Lupe Fiasco
Skunk Anansie
Planet of the Drums
Jenny Lewis
Imogen Heap
The Heavy
The Shins
Black Mountain
Asobi Seksu
Gus Black
Alabama 3
The Faint
The Sounds
The Ting Tings
Yeasayer
Conjure One
The Bees
Bizarre
Surkin
The Greencards
The Hold Steady
Uh Huh Her
Christopher Lawrence
a place to bury strangers
Carolina Chocolate Drops
The Death Set
Florence & The Machine
Anna Ternheim
Weston Boys
Tommy Mills & The Jade Amenity
Gutevolk
Buraka Som Sistema
Lucent Dossier

"feeding the chicken"...

a project management term I coined.

Deep in the heart of every software project is a guy whose job it is to feed a chicken that is supposed to type out all the code and documentation. Usually the guy finds it easier to do the chicken's job himself.

Do you ever find yourself feeding the chicken?

it's a Death Valley Christmas!

click to get the full wide angle shot

burning questions...

getting evacuated from your home is stressful. the freeway complex fire this past weekend came within a mile of our home. I don't know anyone whose home burned, but I do know at least 4 families who got evacuated. all the homes on one coworker's street in Yorba Linda burned except for hers. I thought of calling my boss in Diamond Bar, but I wasn't ready to hear bad news -- so I chickened out and waited till Monday morning. her house (on Running Branch) survived. cool. but just imagine having to leave wondering if your house will survive. gotta be hard. we weren't evacuated, but still, this event literally struck close to home. I can't remember another time when my neighborhood was in national news.

my kids in Telegraph Canyon, Chino Hills State Park the week before the fire:

I don't consider myself that much of a materialist -- not totally spartan, but I try to not be defined or ruled by my possessions. despite this, I have acquired much over the years, and parting with things can be difficult. so the idea of having just a few minutes, hours, day or actually any length of time to determine what to take with and what to leave behind is a difficult proposition. sure there's the box of important papers, some photo albums. actually the first priority is to get my family out safely. the pet cat is easy - I'll get her outside but then she's on her own. I'm not going to try to keep her in a car that I'm packing! let's see, my laptop should taken as well as my Palm, phone and portfolio. then what? a knapsack with basics? I keep thinking - "gotta bring deoderant". hmm, some clothes, shoes. now what? I still have ten minutes and the car is not full... what else to pack? maybe a couple books I've not yet read? some food? what else can I not sacrifice? so many objects with memories attached. it's a tough thought process, I tell you!

the other thing I was considering which also quickly turned into a disorganized morass of disorganization is this: what do you do to prevent your house from catching fire?. seems simple enough to start. but when you come down to it, nothing is going to be 100%. keep the lawn watered? cut down all plants/trees near the house? get rid of the wood pile at the side of the house? hmm, what to do with that can of gas? are all the vents screeened small enough to prevent an ember from getting blown in? do all of this and there is still fate to deal with and you'll never control all the variables. so again, I fall into the paralysis of analysis.

so it was an eventful weekend. we were out of town and in our own world celebrating my wife's birthday camping and rock climbing in Joshua Tree. awesome time learning top rope (TR) and rappelling basics from a friend who generously came out with his wife Saturday and showed us the ropes -- as well as chocks, cams, quickdraws and other interesting climbing paraphanalia. the best routes up Cap Rock, our first choice for learning, were already taken at 9:30am, so we went instead to a little used spot called "Lizards Hangout" I believe. the air was warm, the sky blue and we all had a great time.
coming back Sunday afternoon I could see that fires were still burning in the LA basin. I figured it was probably somewhere in the San Gabriels. so it was a bit of shock to hear when I turned on the radio that it was actually happening close by to our own neighborhood - Diamond Bar, Yorba Linda and Brea! we had to go home in a roundabout way because the 57 freeway was closed. I should've taken a picture of the empty freeway. yup, kinda different...



good fire pics

so twitter is down...

(right now anyway... click the link above to see current status) and here I had a little thing I wanted to post. I'll do it here instead --- so I thought up this word "thongathon" and wondered what would google up on the term... found a flickr site, but it wasn't what I expected. check it out.