So I have a set of wheels and tires I've been trying to sell for a little while. I've had them in the recycler and on Craig's list, and still no real interest. But, what I do get is emails for this scam. They are all basically the same, for some reason they make up, someone in another country wants to buy the stuff. The plan is that they have someone here who owes them money supposedly, so that person will be sending me a bank check, which I deposit, then wire the rest to this overseas buyer, then they'll have someone come pick up the stuff. Actually, it's a counterfeit check which will take about 1 to 2 weeks to bounce back to my bank, in the meantime, the scammer will have removed the money that I wired, and now I'm out the cash. The stories all change a little, sometimes it's a company who wants to hire me to collect checks, and deposit them, but usually it's supposedly to buy the stuff. The emails never mention the wheels, and usually ask for a picture, which there are 4 of with the article.
This one is my favorite so far, got it last night. Completely unedited, mind you...

Hello,

I already scrutinize through the site, I saw your goods and service which turn out to be impressive to me. My interest is not only captured but I have the zeal to patronize you for effective and prolong transaction.

I am hoping to get you directly involve in my sequence of market, where I sell in unit and buy either whole sale price or unit depending on the taste and request of my customers. So, I do not mind the price but to get in race with the request of my customers because business is all about promise and deliver.

I will be glad if you would turn out the mode at which you have loved to be paid, after I purchase from you. Then I will turn out the list of items I have pegged to buy from you. And please you can help me with the picture of your product.

Your quick respond is always a gesture of strong dedication and wiliness and that is my principle, and I will be hoping to hear from you. I don’t like gaps between myself my business associate, so don’t hesitate to reply me via this mail.


Thanks

Yours Faithfully
Ray

It's even more fun if you read it out loud to someone standing close by. Do people actually fall for this? I guess they must, but to me, even if it was worded correctly, it would reek of scam.
Good times.

Now all we need is pirate warrior

http://www.g4tv.com/ninjawarrior/index.html
This show is awesome, awesome, and more awesome, with a side of sauteed awesome, scalloped awesomes, and awesome brulee for dessert.
I'm not joking. I love the Japanese.

sweet...?

Got this picture sent to me from the Texas friend.
This is the backyard of one of his employees.
Yes, the bathtub works, and has hot water. Apparently he likes to fall asleep in it, until the water gets too cold and it wakes him up. Then he drains the water, and refills it and goes back to sleep. I'm pretty confused within my own head as to weather or not this is really awesome and I wish I had a backyard to do the same thing in, or kinda weird.
Oh, and I have no idea whether or not he actually bathes in it (au natural style) or just soaks like a hot tub. I guess the answer to that would have an impact on my opinion...

Only sure things in life? Death and Texas

So, my buddy who moved to Texas (Dallas area, not middle of nowhere) this past weekend went to a mud bog event. Was this at some sort of arena, or park, or racetrack you might ask? Nope, in some guy's backyard. Yikes.
I guess this is what you do in Texas, go to a backyard, drink beers, and watch guys who have drank a lot of beers drive their trucks that they've spent a lot of money on through a lot of mud.

WoW

So, yeah I'm still playing the game, but I'm also having fun messing with pictures. So this is the new version of the cover, with me and my little niece on it. Good times!

So I had a pretty good scare yesterday. Well, not just me, there were plenty of people who had some stress-filled days yesterday. Everything turned out great, but man, I already knew I wasn't ready for my dad to go, but now I really know it. So, if you're reading this pops, keep up the good work of being healthy. I'm not done learning from you yet!

Mini Angel

Took the car to the church, it was a lot of fun. There were a number of people who were just and entertained at the mini as Jen and I were. I also got Garret Anderson to sign my Angels hat, so it was double fun! Also met and got an autograph from Mike Sweeney, who was a really nice guy. Makes me all ready for baseball to start.

mini doesn't mean small, it means awesome!

They're having a combo little league spring training clinic (with Garrett Anderson there) and classic car thingy at the church this weekend, so we're taking the mini. I'm looking forward to being that guy sitting in his fold-out chair next to the car. Should also be entertaining because it's in now way close to being restored, so I hope to park it next to the nicest looking old car, just for the amusing contrast. Good times. I'll try to remember to bring the camera and take some pics to post.

Yikes Dykes!

For those of you who don't know, Doyle Dykes (www.doyledykes.com) is a crazy awesome guitar player. He was at our church this weekend, and played a concert after the Sunday night service, which Jen and I stayed for. We were kinda hesitant to stay, just because we weren't sure if we wanted to stay up or not, but we were very glad we did. Amazing. During the show, while tuning his guiter, he told a story about why all of his guitars have a white rose on the end. (is that part called the head? i don't know) I'll do my best to recreate it.

When his oldest daughter was 4 years old, Doyle was in her room with her, and she said she wanted to pray and ask God for a rose. So, Doyle prayed with her, then forgot all about it. The next day, his daughter asked him why God didn't bring him a rose. Doyle, not sure how to respond, told her that it was because she didn't ask for a specific color. So, they prayed again, and she asked for a white rose. Doyle had a show that night, and didn't really make any plans about getting her a flower or anything like that. At the end of the show at this little church, a lady came walking up to the front. She was special needs, about 30 years old, but mentally about six. She had a piece of aluminum foil wrapped around something and said to Doyle, "God told me today that I was supposed to give you something from my garden." Doyle thanked her, and told her that he would enjoy eating it. She kinda laughed and said, "I sure hope you don't eat it." Doyle opened it up, and sure enough, inside it was a white rose. He told the lady that the rose actually wasn't for him. She again told him that God had told her to give him something from her garden. He took it home with him, and as soon as he pulled up, his daughter came running out to him, gave him a big hug, and said, "He brung it to me, didn't he?" (they're from the south, he actually did say brung, i didn't make that part up)

Let me tell you something, that story really got me. Miracles happen everyday, but it sometimes seems like people could explain them away as coincidences, or a doctor who went to a good school, or something like that. But things like this, things that you cannot explain away, are the ones that you remember. I don't claim to have any clue as to the big plan, but I'm sure at some point, someone asked why God would let that girl be born with special needs, and that story, I'm positive, is one of the reasons.

slumber par-tay!

For Christmas, Jen decided to give her cousins (9 & 14, both girls) and invite over to our place for a good old fashioned slumber party! They did finger painting, facials, backrubs, slept in a tent in the living room, ate pizzas and ice cream sundaes, watched a movie, and stayed up late. Then this morning, I made french toast with some orange rind, cinnamon, and a touch of mint in the egg mixture. It was a good time. I spent the evening playing WoW. Of course, it made us doubt our abilities for parenting, but we realized that starting off with one brand new one at a time is way different than suddenly have two that have personalities that we're not used to.
So, I guess we'll have them at some point, when is still our own little secret.
heh heh heh.

Confirmation of awesomeness

No, not the confirmation of my awesomeness, that was confirmed a long time ago, I'm referring to the awesomeness of the expansion for WoW.
Stepped through the portal to find two large stone elemental creatures battling two large demons. Behind them, was a half dragon/half man thingy about 3 times the size of the first four, just watching. All were a level so significantly higher than me (at 60), that I don't actually know their levels. So, following the quest set before me, I just skipped around them and flew to some castle. Their I had to logout due to lack of time, but rest assured, I'll find out all about it tonight, after the gym, and after finishing my bible study for Thursday night.
I'm a busy guy I guess!

Sorry, I can't....

You see, unfortunately, for the unforseeable future, I'm busy....

Burning

Well, it's a big day. Technically tomorrow is the big day, but today is when I reactivate my WoW account, in preparation of tomorrow, when the expansion pack comes out. Gotta make sure that I have all the patches downloaded before tomorrow night, want to get all installed as fast as I can, after I get home from Improv.
Not so sure if Jen is as excited as I am, but that's just because she doesn't have her own account, I'm still pushing for that, but not holding my breath.
The rough part is that it came faster than I expected it to, so Final Fantasy XII isn't quite finished yet, in fact, I don't really know how much more there is to it. I've read something like 100 hours to finish it, and since I'm at about 30, I just don't know. Although, that 100 hour mark was how long to complete every aspect of the game, and that's not what I'm after, I wanna defeat the big boss. The weird part is that at this point in the game, I still don't know who it is. Oh well, just have to do it.

I'm dreaming of a galaxy far far away

Ok, so I've had a couple very odd dreams/talking while sleeping the past few days. First, on the morning of tuesday, at some point, if I remember correctly, I had some sort of dream about how Jen and I came into posession of the Death Star. In my dream, I think that Jen wanted to destroy it, because it had been built and used for destruction, but I wanted to keep it, just because it was the Death Star. So, when Jen woke me up to leave for work, apparently (i don't really remember this part too well) the first thing out of my mouth was, "If we got the death star, would you want to keep it or destroy it?" And my wonderful wifey, without hesitation, I'm sure, responded with, "I'd keep it, so I could have all the paper and pens and computers." To which I responded, "yeah". I'm pretty good at holding a conversation with people while sleeping and not remembering any of it.
The next night, I had a dream that Jen and I had a baby boy, and he and I were hanging out on the bed one day. He just figured out how to make himself sit up on his own, which meant to me that it was time. Time for what, you might ask? Well, time to test him to see if he was force sensitive, and if we were going to have to send him to the Jedi academy. I tested this by rolling a ball to him to see if he had faster than human reflexes. He, unfortunately, did not. But, he scooted himself towards the edge of the bed, and just before it happened, I felt through the force that he was going to lean too far back and fall off the bed. So, just as he started to lean back, I put my hands on his legs and pulled him back onto the bed, and he just giggled away.
Jen thinks I've got too much Star Wars on the brain, but I think it's awesome, and it makes me want to watch a movie, or read a book every day to help promote star wars related dreams.

Not a very merry unbirthday to me

Well, I'm 33 today. And, since 33 has been my 'lucky' number, I guess this means I'm going to have a great year, or it's going to be one that I'll want to quickly forget. My wifey is very optimistic about 2007, she feels like good things are going to happen, my mom, feels kinda like something not so good is going to happen. So, one of the girls in my life will be very right!
I'm pushing for if Jen and I have a set of twins boy and girl, that she lets me name them Luke and Leia. I don't think I have much of a chance to get that motion to pass the vote.
That was off topic, back to my birthday! Apparently, there is a bag, in a very visible place in our living room that contains wrapped birthday presents for me. I just learned this a little bit ago from Jen during our daily lunch chit chat. I didn't know it was there, she said she probably could have not wrapped the presents and I wouldn't have noticed, and I think she's right! I guess I'm pretty oblivious about some things. Usually not so much about my surroundings, but maybe I turn that observation switch off when I'm at home. I don't know.
I'm learning how to write estimates at work, which I am enjoying so far, so that's good. And, being an estimator pays more, so that can't be all that bad for our debt elimination goals.
Jen got a gift certificate for a restaurant in San Clemente called Gordan James, or something like that, so we're going there for my bday tonight. Pretty sweet.
Back to work, lunch time is just about over, and the company's website blocker is about to turn back on pretty soon too.

thanks!

Thanksgiving weekend, 2006, has consisted of eating, and tv... and that's pretty much it. Actually, more has occurred, one (of three) of my brothers in law came and stayed with us, which is always nice. Saturday, we used the Los Angeles public transit system, the green, blue, and red lines, to be specific. It was great! Only 3 bucks for unlimited use the whole day. Only bad part is that we had to drive up to Norwalk to the nearest station. We could have walked down to the nearest metrolink station, which is close, and taken it up to Union Station in downtown LA, but that would have added 15 bucks for each of us, round trip. Too bad we don't have those trains coming all the way down here, or at least somewhere closer. But, it's really not all that much longer than driving the whole way.. it took just over an hour and a half to get from hollywood home, which is probably about how long it would have taken driving the whole way. So, it was definitely worth it. We also bought our tickets to see Wicked, in April from the theater, so no Ticketmaster fees!
I did have to "work" on Friday, but I put it in quotes because it was super slow, and only half a day, so no big deal. Plus, since I worked that day, I get the day after Christmas off, which is a much better deal, if you ask me, and you should!

Chone Dijon Murphree

Well, this is what's new, this little car. We made all the agreement/arrangements yesterday, and will probably be picking him up next Saturday. He is a 1974 Clubman Mini. He runs just fine, and is quite fun to drive. he has a few problem areas, but that's just fine with us, we both were in the hunt for a project that we can work on every once in a while, and still be able to drive right away.

As you can see, it's definately seen some moisture and rusted a bit, but it's actually not nearly as bad as minis can get. This one came from New Zealand, instead of England, so there was less moisture, and less salt on the roads it lived on. Oh, and yup, it's a right hand drive. It actually didn't feel weird to sit on that side, what took getting used to is shifting with my left hand. On the test drive, I frequently hit the door with my right hand as I went to shift. It drives like a little go kart, is loads of fun. The steering has barely any play, the suspension still feels tight, the transmission didn't have much play. Overall, it's in really good condition. Once we have him in our posession, and own a digital camera, we'll be able to post more pictures, of the engine, and the boot (the trunk).
Good times!

Nothing is final

So, I decided last week (with the permission of my wife, who does all the bills, thank you Jesus for that) that it was time to finally break down and be one of the last people in the world to get a little game called Final Fantasy XII (it came out the day before, I'm so behind on the times). Yup, they're on their 12th installment, which means is 12 times awesome! The problem, of course, is now how do I spend my time? On WoW, which I've devoted many hours/days to, or to the brand new, never before seen content of FFXII? Easy choice, my friend. Does this mean the end of my WoW playing days? I don't think so, but honestly, you never know. I've pretty much done everything I am able to do, with the amount of time I can play, and when those times are. I mean, to do anything significant in it now, I have to have at least 2 hours free, and that's just a minimum. I can play FFXII for 30 minutes, save, and have advanced something. I'm just saying....
Ok, weekly mac and cheese dinner is eaten, time to get moving.

Snip Snip

So, one of my best friends, whom I've known for the majority of my life, got the old vasectomy today. I talked to him, and how he has described the procedure, and how he feels now, well, made me cross my legs. But, has not made me change my mind about whether or not I'll be doing the same thing some time in the future. I mean, going through a small, quick thing, is way better than my way better half having to endure actual surgery. The thing that I find kinda odd is that not every guy in the world feels this way. Maybe I'm naive, but how any guy could think that it's not ok for him to do that and make his wife go through worse, is beyond me.

So, you know how it feels when you are the recipient of a solid strike in the junk? Ok, the females will not, but the guys do. That feeling after the initial pain, when you feel like your testes are lodged in your throat? My friend is experiencing that part, non stop. Yikes. Also, he said that during the procedure, when she (yeah, it was a she) was pulling on the first tube, he could feel it in his stomach. And then she had to do the second one. Ugh. Plus, the actual smell of them cutting the tubes (with some sort of blowtorch device) was the worst smell he's ever endured.
So, that's about it for now, I want to try and get to this more often, because I enjoy it quite a bit, but we'll see.. it's so hard to not play WoW when I have free computer time.

Loco Roco
For those of you that have a psp, stop reading this, and go to psp land, then the downloads section, then download the demo for this game. You'll need the updated software, but it's completely worth it. This game is beyond description. The song, although of unknown language, is so annoyingly catchy, but at the same time, makes you smile, even though you'll have it in your head all day. And, I'm not talkin about the song on the website, I mean the actual one in the game. I'm trying to figure out a way to have a good reason to buy it, but with the WoW expansion coming sometime soon, and FFXII soon as well, and Spore somewhere on the horizon, I'm not so sure it's gonna be possible.
As a side note, I went to culinary school, and it never fails that when someone finds that out, they always want to know what my speciality is. Well, I've never had an answer until now. This answer might be because I'm starving, and this was the easiest thing to make, or maybe it's also because it's one of my favorite foods, but anyway, enjoy.

NOBODY calls me chicken

So, I just couldn't help but link this little gem of news. The thing that really was interesting to me was that it didn't happen in a place you might expect, like Kentucky, or Texas.
Enjoy

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14702323/