So, I get a call at about 7:30 this morning from what I think may be a new phishing scam. He calls up saying "I'm the guy you *explitive deleted* on the internet the last two days." Loudly and beligerantly declares that I stole $1100 from him, and mentions western union (??).
At this point, I've had a couple hours of sleep sleep and I'm trying to catch up. I encourage him to go to the police, because I can't help him. I figure at this point it's one of two things.
1. He's some poor guy dumb enough to send $1100 to crooks who were spoofing an ID, then decided he was a detective and looked my number up in WhoIs and gave a call.
2. This is an phishing scheme (or just plain attempted intimidation and extortion) and I'm not buying.
The kicker came when he claimed to be the chief of the RCMP in Quebec (or Montreal) :). At that point I started to laugh and told him to go away and not to ever call back.
It appears he's called back a couple more times, too chicken to say anything, and becoming annoying. Again, I wish he would say something so I could encourage him to go to the (real) police, who can do a (real) investigation.
I'm working with the Raleigh police and the phone company to get this tracked down. Don't wake me up on a holiday, it pisses me off.
Hmmm... He claimed to be a police chief and demanded money. Can you say "impersonating a police officer" and "extortion"?
Here's a question that's been bouncing around in all the free space left in my skull...
Could I be elected president if I manged to get my name changed legally to "none of the above" and get enough signatures to get on the ballots?
Well, the election hype spigot has been shut down, and I'm so grateful. An interesting thing about living in North Carolina is that you get calls from NASCAR drivers urging you to vote their way. How's that for reaching your demographic. I haven't seen anything that targeted sync Jerry Springer had a contest with a double-wide trailer as the prize. I'm not saying anything bad about Springer viewers or trailers... It just seemed appropriate.
Well, what brought me here today is I remembered a site I wanted to post about: http://www.electoral-vote.com. Besides an interesting story of trying to fight off attacks the night of the election, the actual election information available was interesting.
The one part found most interesting is the cartogram. Looking at the map on the front page, it looked like Bush whomped up on Kerry pretty strongly. The cartogram assigns the states size to scale with the number of electoral votes, and is more revealing of how close the race was. That would have been an interesting graphic for the news feeds to use, I think.
Anyway, I enjoyed the site and thought the cartogram was neat. And, since while talking about politics with some of my former Oculan colleges makes me feel like I brought a knife to a gunfight (I mean, Darrek was on the staff of a congresscritter), I'll decline any comments on the merits of the various candidates. Besides, too late now to make a change, huh?
I think this is the post I was thinking of the other night that I woke up unable to remember...
In case anyone was wondering, yes, I do realize that the spaces after my periods disappear. I don't type them that way. I suppose I'm going to have to put in some non-breaking spaces or something to fix this.
Hmm... maybe I'll try that.
sentence one. Not a sentence. A phrase. no verb.
Well, OK, guess that didn't take that long to figure out after all...
So, it figures of course that I can't sleep at night now. The last two weekends I worked 7pm-7am, and couldn't stay awake. Now, this is the second night in a row I'm up way past a normal bed time. It's what, 2:30 now?
Rachel and Brandon are getting up at 5 or 5:30 to go on a field trip. 3 hours of sleep... fun!
If I were working nights next weekend, I'd figure cool, that works for me, I'll put up with this, and be awake at work next weekend. But, of course, next weekend is when I work 7am-7pm, then days all the next week. 8 days in a row, I can't wait.
The worst part is I'm now over the tired part of the night, and convinced I could stay up all night with no problem. When I worked at Oculan and this happened, I'd just get a shower and go into work. I'm going to have to find something to do tonight, I guess. Like blog. :)
On another exciting note, the estimate came back for the car. The good news is that it's less than the car is worth. Barely. Hmm... I wonder if I could stick a paypal link up here and beg for contributions?
Do you think anyone would believe the car just "accidently" blew up while waiting for a new head gasket? Hehe.. I probably shouldn't even joke like that, the way my luck runs...
Anyway, that's enough for a while, I just thought of something I'd like to try on my server here. Been wrestling with some ideas about web hosting lately and think it's time to dig in a little further.
Rachel has Brandon and two friends in the car over the weekend, and all of a sudden it overheats and loses power. She pulls over and has a friend (Thanks Pam!) come get them and take them home. We go back the next morning (after I've had 1-1/2 hours of sleep) and take a look. No antifreeze, things sound wrong, but I nothing else is obvious. I handle it in my normal, even-tempered way (remember that 1-1/2 hours sleep? Sorry Rachel!). Have it towed (gotta love AAA) to a mechanic.
Now, realize that this is the same mechanic that replaced the manifold gasket in the car for $1000 3 months ago. He comes up with the joyous news today that the head gasket is shot.
I'm thinking the car should be shot.
We don't have an estimate yet, but I'm not liking this a bit.
To top it off, remember the manifold issue. Have a good time, search the web for "GM V6 manifold lemon". I don't even want to talk about it.
Time to start looking for a new car, I think. @%#^~!
So, I'm lying in bed late last week, just drifting off to sleep at about 4 in the morning and thought of something I need to write about.
Instead of taking a minute to write it down (I've had a pen and paper by the bed all the time for the last 15 years or so), I thought... "I can remember that" and went to sleep.
Now all I can remember is that I had an idea... but not what it was. Go figure. So, I take that as a sign that early senility is setting in. Not that anyone would be able to tell the difference...
So, here I am working... sort of. Tonight it seems my main function is staying awake... I'm basically nocturnal anyway, but I only like it until about 3:00am, after that I want to sleep. So, I'm partially nocturnal. I let the early birds go ahead and get that worm. Who wants a worm anyway. Besides, it's the second mouse that gets the cheese!
Working weekends, actually weekend nights mostly, puts you really out of sync with the world. Everyone else is working during the week, and you're home. When they're home, you're working. Kinda wierd. I also seem to get in a kinda almost awake state that leaves me babbling meaninglessly in my blog. Had you noticed?
Anyway, Brandon is now 11. Wow. He's certainly getting bigger, but growing up more every day. I'm not sure I'm ready for it, and I KNOW his Mom isn't! I'm really proud of him.
Maybe next time I'll remember what I was going to write about... then again, maybe I won't.
TICKBITE CHILI!!!!!!!!
Two posts in a row... look out!
OK, time for me to put on my Bill hat and review a movie.
Went to see Ladder 49 with what I hoped were low enough expectations. I promised myself I wouldn't spend the entire time noticing (or worse, pointing out to Rachel) all the technical flubs. I barely even snorted when it turned out that not one of them had apparently heard of a nomex hood too keep their ears and necks protected from steam burns. Just go and enjoy the movie.
I've already gone on about Travolta. And, the performance was a little better than I'd expected. Mind you, that wasn't a high bar to start with.
The movie overall though was a pleasant suprise, it didn't suck. There was no "firefighter gone bad" back story like backdraft and the other one about the smoke jumpers... hot shots? It just followed a firefighter's career in the fire service as a series of flashbacks against a backdrop of a crisis situation where the firefighter is trapped in a large industrial fire.
The fires looked pretty real, and though there was a lot of light during a search scene, if you're paying attention you can tell the firefighters can't actually see anything. One of those annoying "cameras need light" things.
Another interesting thing... While you can hear echos of September 11, it's not mentioned at all that I remember. I will never downplay the losses of Sept. 11, or the heroism of the Police, EMS and Firefighters who stayed to do their jobs and paid for it. But, it's nice to see the recognition move beyond that day. I think that's part of the reason the story is set in Baltimore instead of NYC.
The rescues and dangers were a little sensationalized, and a lot of attention was placed on firehouse pranks, but none of it was annoying enough to distract from the story.
Overall... It was an enjoyable movie that I'll probably see again, at least on DVD.
Just in case anyone was wondering...
Tickbite Chili is the name of the chili created by a gentleman named Jeff at Rachel's office. Not me, a different Jeff. That can cook. Chili, anyway...
Tickbite Chili is also promoted (loudly, in a single "TICKBITE CHILI!!!!" call at random intervals) by Dave Miller, the owner of D. Miller and Associates, PA, and Rachel's boss.
Dave also generously agreed to sponser tickbite chili in a chili cookoff benefit for the local domestic violence shelter in Wilminton last weekend. And took the company, and families, down to help out (party) with the tent.
Overall, good chili all around. Jeff got robbed, he had the best chili in the place, but only got fourth place. OK, they only announced 3 places, but no one can prove we weren't in 4th.
Everyone worked hard, Brandon helped Pam and others pass out 20 gallons of chili in an endless series of tiny little cups. He has a couple pics with battle scars to prove it! The gentleman on the far right with a red shirt and sane expression (no beer) is Chef Jeff. The other gentleman on the right, also in a red shirt, but not matching the other criteria is Dave. The others are Brandon, Pam, and Drew (I'll leave who's who as an exercise for the reader).
A couple of important lessons learned that weekend...
1. A whole lot of fermented beverages and multiple varieties of Chili are not necessarily a good combination.
2. Everyone in Rachel's office, and pretty much everyone those people know, are certifiably insane.
All in all, a good weekend and a good cause, what more could you ask for?
TICKBITE CHILI!!!!!!!!