Nigerian Scams

Once in a while when you are bored out of your skull and in a chat room, you run into scammers . It is interesting how they trap gullible folks, here is one such conversation.
scammer: hello
me: hello
scammer: pls can u assist me in a business transaction involve a huge amount of money and we both stand to make a good money out of it at the end

[ Ha ha ha ha Nigerian scammer in action]

me: really
scammer: where are u from?
me: US
scammer: 34f from lagos nigeria
scammer: i work as a banker
scammer: u?

[ Really? And we are so dumb]

me: I work as a assistant in an office
scammer: wat post?
me: administrative assistant
me: you know the kind that take calls and book appointments and plan conferences
scammer: oh ic
scammer: ur age and name pls?
me: david 22
scammer: nice meeting u david
me: what is your name
scammer: am Lauren by name
me: nice meeting you lauren
scammer: u are welcome

[ Yawn Pleasantries, establishing rapport]
scammer: i want u to assist me financially in a business transaction involve alot of money and we both stand to make a good profit out of it at the end
me: oh wow
me: how ?
scammer: i need ur assistant to stand as next of kin and sole beneficiary to the sum of $6.5million usd lying unclaimed in the bank i work
me: you are kidding right
scammer: this is not a joke or child play david
me: oh ok

[Show sense of indignation to establish that you are legit]

scammer: i want this transaction to be a top secret between u and me 'cos u know how much am talking about here
scammer: can u keep a top secret?
me: yes yes
scammer: alright
scammer: listen carefuly
me: ok
scammer: This funds was deposited here in the bank by Mr Toni Choate an american contractor who died wit wife and only daughter in an auto accident in the year 2001
me: oh
scammer: ever since the death of the late Mr Toni Choate this funds has been lying down unclaimed in the bank and all effort made by bank to locate the next of kin to this funds prove abbortives
scammer: u wit me?
me: yes
scammer: good
scammer: now i want u to act as the next of kin to the late Mr Toni Choate by contacting the bank managing director for the claim of the funds so this funds can be release into ur bank account in usa
me: huh? wont i get in trouble for acting ?
scammer: listen
scammer: there is no trouble involve in this business
scammer: i want u to be rest assured that this transaction is legal and %100 risk free which am going to protect u from any breach of the law
me: oh ok
scammer: all i just need from u here is ur deep trust and honesty that u wont betray me when u get this funds transfer into ur bank account
me: of course
me: you can trust me
scammer: good

[ Hilarious, trust, its legal, 100 risk free (rotfl), protection from law]

me: what do i do
scammer: if there is nobody found to claim out this funds from the bank the bank wil forfiet the funds and it wil be transfer into the bank treasury room which means this funds could be share among the bank top directors
me: oh, not the bankers!
scammer: good
scammer: i dont want this funds share among the bank top directors 'cos i believe this is a golden opportunity in life
me: yes it sounds like one
scammer: u wil write a letter to the bank email address explaining that Mr Toni Choate is ur late uncle and u are ready to claim out ur funds as the only beneficiary so the bank can instruct u on how the funds wil be wired into the bank account
me: ok and
scammer: at the conclusion of this business %40 wil be ur own share of the total amount of the money
me: oh wow
scammer: dont take this as a joke or child play
scammer: i wil also send u all legal documents that back up this transaction so u can know am for real

[ha ha ha ha legal documents!]

me: okay
me: u have a cell no to talk to you about this ?
scammer: yep
me: what is it
scammer: am contacting u here 'cos this funds can not be approve to a local person here in Nigeria except someone from foreign country who know and have adequate info about the funds can stand as the next of kin
me: i understand
scammer: am only contacting u here as the first foreigner wit believe in God u wil never let me down at the end
me: yes i will not let you down
me: what is your cell number ?
me: do you have a pic ?
scammer: thats my pic in the display
scammer: or u check my profile to see me pic
scammer: +2348080781092
me: okay
me: do you want me to call now ?
me: ur pic is not clear in profile
me: or display
scammer: alright
me: shall i call now ?
scammer: yes
me: says the number is busy
scammer: i got ur missed call
scammer: but is hidden number
me: yes i am using a calling card for international dialing

[ of course i am not gonna call you with my real number! that's what voip phones are for anyway]

scammer: ic
scammer: listen
scammer: before u apply for the claim of the funds there are some vital processing that need to be done by me here in the bank
me: why didn't u answer the phone
scammer: am at work
me: so what
scammer: u really want to speak wit me right?
me: yes
scammer: alright
scammer: call me
me: i can't understand a word
me: u said

[some unintelligible gibberish]

scammer: yep
me: what did you say
scammer: i said my boss is here wit me
scammer: come online so we can talk
scammer: i dont want to get myself in trouble
scammer: u know this as to be a top secret between u and me
me: yes yes

[sure top top top top secret, geez]

scammer: before u apply for the claim of the funds i have to first open a beneficiary file here in ur name
me: ok
scammer: and i wil also insert ur full info into the bank central computer as the next of kin to the late Mr Toni Choate so when u contact the bank managing director for the claim of the funds ur full details wil appear as the next of kin
me: ok
scammer: but if u contact and ur info is not found in the bank central computer the bank wil find it very difficult to believe u as the next of kin
me: of course
scammer: so i wil need the info as follow so i can start the processing rightaway
scammer: Full name
scammer: Residential address
scammer: Occupation
scammer: Fax and Mobile number
scammer: Date of birth
scammer: Email address

[first round of personal information, second round would be bank information anyway]

me: ok
me: and what other information do u need
scammer: thats all i need from u so do the processing
scammer: then after am done u can know apply for the claim of the funds
me: david fubar, 1650 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500, 202-001-0911, davidf@419eater.com
scammer: very funny david
scammer: wat do u mean by 419 eater?
me: that's the website i have an email address with
me: what'
me: what's funny about that
scammer: sound funny to me
scammer: well u know wat
scammer: i can never force u to do wat u are not sure of
scammer: i know and also understand how cheat is going on in the internet
scammer: so we dont know who to trust
me: that coming from you is hilarious
me: you complaining about cheating is hilarious
[silence :p]

For those who are wondering what the whole 419eaters.com is , well check it out it a site dedicated to busting Nigerian scams. You can read FBI's warning on these scams here

Arrrgh Winblows!

I hate windows! It is the bane in my life! I have a laptop's whose disk always trashing. I fire up a couple of softwares from sysinternals,

1. procmon
2. procexp
3. filemon
4. autoruns

Jeez, there are so many freaking apps that are running, here is the list that turn out to be the culprits.

1. Windword
2. symantec antivirus daemons
3. spysweeper
4. encryption daemon

2-4 are killing my laptop to the point of no productivity. The folks in IT and security would be very unhappy if I attempted to turn of 2-4. They have promised they are gonna improve performance by Jan. I hope so too. Time to run to my debian box!.

Wine and dine!

A Sunday afternoon, a snow storm raging, all cozy at home, sipping hot choc and I get call from my friend, yo, wanna come over for dinner, I am cooking dinner. Me goes,

Snow storm or not, me gonna have a delicious dinner ;)

Greeted with 4 different kinds of wine and cheese! Wooo hooo. With slices of home made bread, some wine and cheese and Christmas music, the evening is off to a good start! My friend who is a great cook made, sliced oven cooked potatoes, a dish of brussel sprouts, asparagus, baked lamb with gravy made with port, flour and butter and spinach cream. He followed it up desert wine and crepe with filling made from ricotta cheese and strawberry jelly! Yummmy. Following that was a movie screening of "Half Baked", Ha ha ha, it was fun seeing it again. Dave Chappell is hilarious.

Life is good! A fun evening

Credits: Image above can be found here

Warmth in the Cold

The snow storm is all raging, dropping loads of snows, the wind blowing and me driving up the street, slowwwwwwwlllllyyyyy. Yeah don't want my car to skid and slam into an ice bank. I see this guy who is like limping slowly bravely, mid 30's and seemed harmless. I pulled over and asked buddy do you need a ride, he was like yeah, a couple of blocks down. 10 mins later he is dropped off front of his house. He goes, "thanks man, thanks a lot, god bless you".

:) Yeah at 12.30am in the harsh snow storm, the warmth from helping another person is far higher! I hope someday someone would help me out when I am need of such help.

Earlier in the day I was reading a news article about a school student group that formed to give people hugs and do acts of kindess and a teacher told them "Go do your nice acts somewhere else" and called the cops on suspicious behaviour. The goal of the student who started it was that, yes it is still okay to help strangers and act of human kindness is still a good thing rather be wrapped in suspicion. I lost the link to that news. One can find the needle in the haystack of news aggregation sites.

Epic Fail!

Recipe for Disaster / What were you thinking / Dumbass moment

1) A snow storm
2) A good evening of fun
3) 1.00am
4) 1ft of snow in ur driveway
5) Broken shovel
6) No parking allowed on the streets.

What would you do? What would you do?


This is all that stands between my apt, my cup of hot choc and me! Snow!



A broken shovel can't be much of help, the dude who is supposed to plow the snow ain't gonna be here for another couple of hours.

A battle between intelligent decisions and stupidity reigns. Lo and behold stupidity wins! Yeah I know, evolution's flaw manifests itself in the combination of curiosity of what would happen if you did the dumbest thing, knowing it is the dumbest thing to do and it would cause you grief.

Well here is the aftermath!

ROTFL! Yup, I backed up my car and just drove through it and I got stuck in the snow. :D Yeah epic fail moment. Man and Machine vs Nature. Nature won. Humbled again.



I had to call a tow truck and got my car out.

FAQ:
1) What the hell were you thinking?
Nothing, just pure fun of challenge of the heavy car and the ability to drive through a couple of feet of fresh layer of snow that hadn't hardened yet. The snow along the kerb was tad harder than the fluffy snow in the driveway. Damn plow trucks!

Credits:
Thinking cap pic source Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com"

Coffee Art 1

What do you do when you get a new mini camera, a real cheap one, a 5 ft coffee machine and free coffee mug from work?

1. Just drink coffee and get on with life
2. Don't drink coffee and be healthy
3. Take pics and drink coffee
4. Take pics and not drink coffee
5. Take pics of you drinking coffee
6. Take pics of just you
7. Other...

Mua, chose other. I looked at the coffee mug after I got some random coffee and I was immediately struck by the spirals. My mind is churning away, fractals, spirals in bubbles, oil films and I never cease to be amazed by the beauty of it. So I figured I would start taking pics of what kind of shapes I could get by just shaking the coffee mug.

This is first cup of coffee, a little shaken. Its kind of interesting, it looks like

• A dolphin
  
• A dude standing inside a structure and operating something
• A mark on the head of a bird.
  

• A mermaid
• A swan
• Still thinking
  

Started with a mushroom shaped and ended up with a spiral below! A lil shake here and there!

Know not I

Know not I,
Soul stirring than thy touch,
Know not I,
Mirth, exciting than thy joy,
Know not I,
Bewitching than thy smile,
Know not I,
Heavenly than thy kiss,
O fair maiden, it is
You, I seek.

When forty winters shall

Time for sonnet 2.

HEN forty winters shall besiege thy brow

And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,

Thy youth's proud livery, so gazed on now,

Will be a tottered weed of small worth held:

Then being asked where all thy beauty lies,

Where all the treasure of thy lusty days,

To say within thine own deep-sunken eyes

Were an all-eating shame and thriftless praise.

How much more prasie deserved thy beauty's use

If thou couldst answer, 'This fair child of mine

Shall sum my count and make my old excuse,'

Proving his beauty by succession thine.

This were to be new made when thou art old

And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st cold.

Source:

Once I understood that sonnet 1 was about a guy, his vanity and the offerspring that he supposed to have, the context and the meaning of Sonnet 2 becomes more obvious. This sonnet is all about the encouragement and the question of what the youth did with his lustful ways and did he have a son to feel warm in his old age that he is being seen in the form of his son.

Hmm, it is a nice sonnet, didn't feel the rush though.

Belay On!

Belay On
On Belay

Climbing
Climb on!

The four communication phrases that have been a regular exchange during rock climbing. Earlier in the week, I had gone for my second visit. I had to take the belay test. I took the test with a random lady as a climbing partner who turned out to be not so random after all. It was the usual commands, check, harness, carabiner and the fall test.

Aced it! Turns out that the lady was my colleague's friend who was supposed to meet us. Cool. There are 4 of us now and I start climbing. An easy course marked green 5.6 grade, made it up pretty quick. Next one was 5.7 grade, it was alright, kind of cheated in a place or two. The third one was a bitch! It was 5.8 grade, and one had a stretch a lot.

It was one of those routes were the wall starts leaning towards you creating a ledge impression and you need your upper body strength to push your self up. In the first attempt I did some quick moves to get to the ledge and then my arms started to scream, my palms were sweaty, it wasn't gonna be easy trying to reach into the chalk bag to get rid of the sweat, but held on. The arms started to scream loudly and I loose a footing and I fall...

I am dangling in the air, as my climbing partner has me covered, damn I almost had it, I had almost reached over the next hold , damn , I yell "take" and I get lowered. Alright time for another try.

This time I forget to pull the quick moves and I am hanging off, with my arms screaming like a the howl of the strong wind, I fall.. Bah! Another time

Time for a break then climb another route. Attack of the pink happens! It is a 5.7 grade climb and the route is marked in pink! If you are scratching your head wondering what's with the attack of the pink check this.

All in all a couple of climbs it was good. The knots are perfect, I should get some rope from the guy next time to practice on my own different knots.

Fractal Art

Source: This is pretty interesting digital art. Its done by user ricdiggle on flickr.com

Green Pit Viper!

F*** I almost pissed in my pants when I saw that. That's one mean looking f*****. As usual, I was trolling the web, when I landed on national geographic's website. The article which can be found here was talking about new species found in Asia. This is a Gumprecht's green pit viper which can grow upto 4 ft long.

PC vs Mac Vs Linux

I was thumbing through my bookmarks and I came across this link that I had. Ha ha ha! It is a funny flash animation of southpark style. Check out the video.

Fairest Creatures

I have read shakespeare stuff as a kid and have always been interested in reading the sonnets just not gotten around to it to dedicate time to it.

Fun fact: I played the role of Antonio in Merchant of Venice as a kid!

ROM fairest creatures we desire increase,

That thereby beauty's rose might never die,

But as the riper should by time decease,

His tender heir might bear his memory;

But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,

Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel,

Making a famine where abundance lies,

Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.

Thout that are now the world's fresh ornament

And only herald to the gaudy spring,

Within thine own bud buriest thy content

And, tender churl, mak'st waste in niggarding.

Pity the world, or else this glutton be,

To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee

source:

So reading through the sonnet, I got lost half way through, when I landed on

But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,

What on the earth is the WS talking about? I kind of got the idea he was talking about a guy and he being his own enemy and his child. Yeah, tried a couple of times but the above three lines threw me off. So time for www.google.com or wikkiiipppedddiiiaaaaaaaa.COM to understand the context under which the sonnet was written.

It turns out that the sonnet is about a guy and his vanity, that instead of procreating he is lost in his own self and robbing the world of his lineage. Check out this link for more detailed explanation.

The sonnet is pretty interesting!

We ain't here to do e-c-e

F***ing Hilarious

Source: bash.org

Insult:
:arkan: You know, you really ought to have a bra with 403: forbidden on it.
:Labyrinth: And you really ought to have a pair of boxers with 404: not found.

Rap:
:djahandarie: we ain't here to do e-c-e
:djahandarie: we're here to do c-s-e on the w-e-b
:djahandarie: listen to me spit these rhymes
:djahandarie: while i program lines
:djahandarie: and commit web accessibility crimes
:djahandarie: word, son
:http402: You talk like your big on these I-Net kicks,
:http402: But your shit flows slower than a two-eighty-six.
:http402: I'm tracking down hosts and nmap scans,
:http402: While Code Igniter's got you wringing your hands.
:http402: Cut the crap rap,
:http402: Or I'll run ettercap,
:http402: Grab your AIM chat,
:http402: N' send a PC bitch-slap!
:http402: peace
:djahandarie: you're talkin bout down hosts and nmap scans
:djahandarie: while i got other plans
:djahandarie: you're at your new job, but you can't even do it right
:djahandarie: you just create a plight with your http rewrites
:djahandarie: i've been on the web since the age of three
:djahandarie: you just got on directly off the bus from mississippi
:djahandarie: respect yo' elders, bitch
:http402: You've been webbin' since three, but still ain't grown up,
:http402: Gotta update your config and send the brain a SIGHUP.
:http402: You say you're that old? No wonder you're slow!
:http402: You're knocking at the door while I run this show!
:http402: Elders my ass, you're shit's still in school,
:http402: Hunt and pecking at the keyboard like a spaghetti-damned fool,
:http402: Rim-riffing your hard drive like a tool,
:http402: Face it. I rule.
:djahandarie: i erase my harddrives with magnets (bitch)
:djahandarie: all you can do is troll on the fagnets
:djahandarie: and son, my brain's wrapped in a nohup
:djahandarie: it wont be hurt by the words you throwup
:djahandarie: dont mind me while i emerge my ownage
:djahandarie: while you're still over there apt-getting your porridge
:djahandarie: you say i'm still in school
:djahandarie: but the fact is that i know the rule
:djahandarie: cuz you need to go back to grade three
:djahandarie: and you better plea, that they take sucky graduates from c-s-e
:http402: Time to bend over and apply a patch,
:http402: Your brain's throwing static like a CD with a scratch.
:http402: Your connection got nuked and you've met your match.
:http402: You run a single process like a VAX with a batch.
:http402: I'd pass the torch to a real winner
:http402: But it'd just scorch a while-loop spinner
:http402: Caught in a loop that you cant escape,
:http402: I run clock cycles around your words and flows,
:http402: Cuz your rhyme is like a PS fan: it' blows,
:http402: Your water-cooled lyrics leak and it shows,
:http402: Take your ass back to alt.paid.for.windows.
:djahandarie: Good god, I can't even respond to that. :P
:djahandarie: You win haha
* http402 takes a bow

Curiosity killed

Curiosity killed the cat,
Curiosity killed my heart,
Curiosity killed my ignorance
Curiosity killed my hope
Curiosity killed my stupidity
Curiosity killed my boredom
Curiosity killed my love
Curiosity killed everything...
------------------------

Dunno if it qualifies to be a poem, whatever

I believe in Love!

Yup, that was Elton John. I was listening to Elton John when I started on a 3hr drive. Started the car and Nine Inch Nails started to blare, nnooooo NIN at 10.00am. Slapped in the connector to the mp3 player a then Elton John was on, then came the soundtrack of Notting Hill.
I was driving, with the sun rays hitting me alternating between the trees, filling me with the warmth, on a cold day, the music, just did it,

The rendition of She "Elvis Costello" is just great! The lyrics (source: http://www.lyricskeeper.com/notting_hill

_soundtrack-lyrics/64576-she-lyrics.htm) ,

She may be the face I can't forget
The trace of pleasure or regret
May be my treasure or the price I have to pay

She may be the song the summer sings
May be the chill the autumn brings
May be a hundred different things
Within the measure of the day.

She may be the beauty or the beast
May be the famine or the feast
May turn each day into a heaven or a hell

She may be the mirror of my dream
The smile reflected in a stream
She may not be what she may seem
Inside her shell

She, who always seems so happy in a crowd
Whose eyes can be so private and so proud
No one's allowed to see them when they cry

She may be the love that cannot hope to last
May come to me from shadows of the past
That I'll remember till the day I die

She may be the reason I survive
The why and wherefore I'm alive
The one I'll care for through the rough and ready years
Me, I'll take her laughter and her tears
And make them all my souvenirs
For where she goes, I've got to be
The meaning of my life is...she

Whoa, ohhhh...She
-------------------------

Elton John's other songs like the ones below are some of my fav's.

• "Candle in the Wind"
• Sacrifice
• Can You Feel the Love Tonight

Then came some other assorted stuff and out of the blue I was reflected on the moment. At that moment there I was, a part of me

• Enjoying the scenery of the drive
• Enjoying the music
• Maintaining a calculative look at the traffic far ahead
• Maintaining a 3 mirror rule.
• Of course reflecting on the moment

Fun! Yay! for multi-tasking.

Poem or gibberish?

Know know know
know who you are
know know know
know what you are
know know know
know where you are

But

do you ever know who you are?
do you ever know what you are?
do you ever know where you are?

But...

----

it is just one of really random ramblings... Philosophy or superficial bullshit?

Nooo! don't feed your daughter to the croc

LMAO!!!



Image source : tm-tm's photostream (Signage-Set)

Down by the Sally Garden

I had a sudden urge to read poetry. As a kid, I remember memorizing long poetry to recite in competitions in school. William Wadsworth Daffodils, gave me nightmares memorizing that. I remember WB Yeats, so looked him poetry on google and the first one that I come across is this.

DOWN by the salley gardens my love and I did meet;

She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet.

She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;

But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.

In a field by the river my love and I did stand,

And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand.

She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs;

But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.

Awww f***, it is poem on love and it is a tragedy, Way to set the mood, buddy! thx.

source: http://www.poetry-archive.com/y/down_by_the_salley_gardens.html

Secrets of a Coffee Machine

I was sitting in the kitchen area at work, during lunch, typing away my previous blog entry, sipping coffee and watching the people pass by and lo and behold I see 2 guys open up the coffee machine and mess with it. They were replacing the labels on the different types of the coffee that it could serve. Now there are lot more options.

I need more coffee, tea bags and water doesn't do it. So I walk up to the coffee machine to see what it looks like inside of a 5.5 ft tall coffee machine. Alright nothing fancy really, no blinking lights and stuff, just regular plastic holders of different powders. So I ask the guy if he could give me how the machine worked.

The guy is all animated now and launches into an explanation. So this machine has several holders. IT has a holders for

• Coffee beans
• Chocolate powder
• Cream made from veges imported from Netherlands (eh? fancy that)
• Vanilla

So the there is a boiler and a piston. When some one gets coffee, the piston pushes the hot water through the freshly grounded coffee causing it have a right mixture of 4oz and it can't do more than that. Apparently in European that is the standard for amount of grounded coffee. He goes on to with disdain that here in the US, people are just used to drippy drippy coffee and lots of it. That made me laugh, seeing his expression, the expression of disdain and pain as if something precious was desecrated!

LMAO! He goes I have trouble with customers, they want 24 oz of coffee, which means regular 4oz of coffee with lots of water. Our machine serves only 8oz. He goes on to rant that the difference between macchiato and regular coffee is the amount of water and of course the preparation style! Ha ha ha ha, yeah buddy laugh away at the difference of amount of water but the preparation style matters :p.

Talk to my Italian friend C about pizza and he will rant the same way :p, you cannot get him to eat dominos pizza! I digress,

So the machine has seperate preparation chambers for hot choc with the creamer, that doesnt mix with vanilla, to give it a better taste and not some lingering taste of vanilla. He then goes on to talk about Starbucks was instrumental in introducing the whole measured way of preparing expresso than the large coffee pot style. That's interesting.

I ask him so what kind of controllers does this vending system use and if there was a SDK available for us with mess with. He laughed, yeah I can connect the coffee machine to the internet or to the phone jack. Now imagine that, before you leave your desk you tell the machine what coffee you want and lo and behold it is ready when you get there! And he goes, I won't be too happy if you guys messed with it. Aww come on what can us innocent engineers do :D We are totally harmless ;)

The coffee machine apparently uses MDB protocol to communicate to a software that runs on windows system (Yuck)! You can hunt for MDB/ICP protocol for details and see this video for open source coffee machine. Well he was done with changing of coffee machine and was on the way out. I couldn't help but laugh at his rants, funny as hell

Thank you Jesus!

My tummy goes growling, demanding attention, demanding that I have some itty bitty to satiate it. Me goes, alright alright, slowly drag my rear off the comfortable chair, groaning looking at the weather outside, f****, it is an eternity to walk 5 mins across to the cafe to get lunch. Yeah I am, being a cry baby and a lazy bum and need a good whack on my head to straighten me out. But hey I was working all night, so cut me some slack!

Each step, oozzzing with laziness, I make it to the cafe, arrrggh, no I am not getting salad today, tired of it and today is not the day for it. No wrap, sandwich either, leaves me with teryaki salmon, rice and mixed veges. hmmn ok, so I get that and a nutrient drink and walk up the checkout lady, she is talking to another customer, "Oh yeah it is friday, finally it is a friday, have a nice day" and I walk up to her, she goes "How are you", I am fine thank you, how about yourself", "Good good, its Friday, its Friday", and then she sings out loudly "Thank you sweet Jesus it is Friday", I am like wtf, whoa lady, easy there, it is nice to be happy and all , but wth is with that shouting?

Maybe I am being a jackass, maybe I need a chill pill, maybe the lady is just too demonstrative and everything is alright with me ;)

I came back to my desk I was laughing my ass off when I thought about it, oh well it is was funny

Rock Climbing

So made it to the local rock climbing place, took the basic course as refresher again. I was able to tie the knots fairly easily. I struggled last year with the knots when I tried them. Itz kind of weird that I was able to get it right on the first time after a year's time. I wonder if somethings that you learn just get etched in your mind that you struggle with it the first time but you do it well a time later. I guess its like how you learn to ride a bike and you never forget.

The instructor seemed like a cool guy and laid back and us (3 of us) let try stuff out, rather than go through a whole drill of lecture. The usual communication of what to do before climbing, checking the harnesses, the knots, the slack etc. Did a couple of climbs, falls and belaying. It was fun. The muscles of my arms were burning after a couple of climbs. I will probably come here more often than just a week since there are guys from the office who come here regularly.

Time to go digging for information on ropes,knots for starters. Wikipediaaaaaa.com!

Dude the expedia ad , with the whole expeeeeedddddiiiiii ddot COOOM! ruined it for me! I was humming wikipedia in my head like that, arrrgggh!

Restless Part Deux

If you are wondering what's with the whole restless saga, read about my first severe bout of it here. Lately I have been a little too restless. I realize of one reason, which is no longer relevant. I haven't run to seek safe haven in the comforting arms of music this time. Gave it a little thought. A large part of it I have concluded is that I have too much of time on my hands now. For the past couple of years I was doing volunteer work which I stopped earlier this year. The volunteer work took up most of my free time during the week and the weekends. After I stopped that, few things at work happened and suddenly the hours doubled and that was for a couple of months.

Now that work pressures have come down, I have a lot more time. This is what is causing me to be more restless. A friend of mine is teaching me salsa, I will be starting rock climbing again from today, I am planning a couple of ski trips as well, but all this is not enough. Wonder what is that I will find that is more full filling....

Expensive Cars!

Fairly recently my interest in expensive cars started. Earlier it was like what car is giving the best mileage and cost yada yada yada. I put a lot of miles on the road in recent years. As usual cruising in cyberspace and I land on this list of most expensive cars. Bugatti Veyron at a cool 1.7million. The videos of the car on Bugatti's website are pretty cool. The handling in the snow at high speeds was pretty impressive. I am not a huge statictisc rattler who has all details of how many seconds does it to take to get to 100MPH. I could care less. It is more of the design, elegance and the sheer power of the car that is interesting.

Speaking of which the second most expensive car Enzo Ferrari eh, not so much in appearance. Same reason the Pagani Zonda C12F not so much, the whole 2 mirror in the front on the hood, doesn't seem to appeal. The Koenigsegg CCX however had me drooling. If I were offered a choice amongst all the ones on that page I would pick this one. The others are kind of cool, but Koenigsegg, oooolllllaaa lllaa!

Archive.org

I had known for a long long time that http://www.archive.org existed. I never took the time to visit the site and look at it. I have been to LibriVox, Gutenberg Audio Books to get audio books of classics. I wanted to listen to some during driving. Somehow the experience is not the same as reading. I don't remember how I landed on archive.org anyway, so I was checking it out. I was ecstatic when I found they have an archive of live recordings! This has opened up a whole new world of music that I haven't explored before. Nice! Since its the end of the year might donate money to the organization.

Don't mess with the ZOHAN!

Ha ha ha ha, turn off your brain and watch the movie. If you are an Adam Sandler fan you will enjoy it. I like some of his movies, they are funny. It had its laughs and moments.

Plot, Adam Sandler a counter-terrorism in expert in Israel, gets tired of stuff he is doing and decides to fake his death and escape to USA to become a hair stylist. After a couple of attempts he then joins a hair salon run by Dalia, a Palestinian woman. The hair salon in in the midst of a street that is split with a Palestinian side and an Israeli side. The movie is about how his identity is discovered and how there are failed attempts to kill him, his antics in the salon and how he joins hands with his arch nemesis to save the street from becoming a mall.

One can watch it if you are in a mood for brain dead comedy.

Double Cross

Yeah, B&N had this book by James Patterson on sale so figured I would buy this. Been reading a lot of heavy stuff lately so figured this would be fun. It was eh! Nothing too exciting. It was okay.

The plot, a serial killer Kyle Craig is in a max security prison and he vows that he will be out soon. He is Alex Cross's former colleague in FBI. As Alex is relaxing taking a break from the force, a new killer is on the loose who acts out different personalities and kills people in front of public audience as if it was a theater performance. The new killer is dubbed as the Audience Killer. The race is on to find this killer and meanwhile Kyle manages to escape from prison adding to Alex's troubles.

Spoiler Alert! The Audience killer is a fan of Kyle. He and his sister are also actors and they enact roles of a marine and a teacher seeking therapy from Alex Cross to add a twist. Rest of the story is how all this comes to an end with both Kyle and Audience Killer having a race to who is gonna kill Alex first.

Yeah, there are a lot of holes in the plot and chapters end really quick just when you expect some tight knit logic on how the killers got access to the FBI agent who is killed. Buy it if you are bored out of skull and just want to read something.

Drill Baby Drill

Drill baby Drill! Lets wipe out beautiful towns and letz get OIL baby! Lets get the black gold so that we can drive few more miles. Lets wipe out beautiful town that make tasty wines. Lets convert a beautiful country side into a dead zone baby! Letz do it! Letz do it by misleading the locals, lets do it by misrepresenting the project in the papers, let pull a viel over the locals and hope they won't find out.

Well that is what ENI tried to do in small towns of Italy. The struggle of the locals against ENI's proposed oil drilling that would wipe out a lot of rich natural flora, national parks and local wineries is a classic David vs Goliath story. The story has not ended. You can read about it here http://apocalisseitalia.blogspot.com (Italian) and here http://savethemontepulciano.blogspot.com (English).

In this day and age when the focus is on alterative fuels and reducing global warming, it doesn't make any sense to convert lush green areas with people living there making wines for long time, into a dead zone of pollution and destruction. Please take the time to read it and support it. Any information that you can gather about and share would be helpful.

Incredible Hulk

I like to watch a lot of movies. Many from the international arena too. Time to watch another one and I picked the Incredible Hulk, for some reason I thought it was a sequel to the previous one. It wasn't. A surprise. Hmmn.

I am a fan of Edward Norton. He is a great actor, been following his movies from his second movie Primal Fear. He is a brilliant actor. So I was all excited to watch the Incredible Hulk. The movie starts out with laying down the background on how he became the Hulk. an experiment gone wrong. The ultra secret division of US armed forces that does experimental stuff of building a super skeleton is still hunting for him because they wanna make a weapon out what's in him.

The early parts of the movie is all about him learning to control himself. Due to an accidental cut, his blood drops into a soft drink bottle (he works at a bottling factory). The soft drink makes across to US and a guy gets sick and the secret gov group knows. The hunt starts. Meanwhile Banner (Hulk) is communicating secretly with somebody to find a cure, not very successfully though. Well they find him and then he runs and rest of the movie is about how he gets to univ to meet his old love, how the secret gov decides inject the serum into of their own creating the new monster that Hulk as to fight in the end.

The movie was enjoyable. It was a good action movie. Liv Tyler as usual was gorgeous and lit up the screen. :D

Bettle the Bard

Last night I was in Barnes and Noble, I was there to buy the book, Lord of Light. I was getting it based on a ex-colleague's recommendation after he read this blog entry. I stroll around, make my way to the Starbucks there, to get whatever is their this season's offering. I have tasted most of Starbucks stuff, I am not a huge fan. I seem to be a fan of local mom and pop coffee shops which kind of have more life in them. Arrgggh the queue is long, like really long, screw it, I go looking for the book that I am here for and my eye falls on "Tales of Beetle the Bard".

Holy shit. I completely forgot that this book was being released in Dec. Yeah, in case you missed, I am a HP fan. The cover illustration was great. Picked it up and it was pretty thin! I scratch my head and I am like I am going to buy this or just read it here :D . My urge to read the book won out and found a place to sit and started to read it.

Yeah it was laid out as a children's book. Lots of spaces between lines, just a couple of lines per page with the author's introduction to the tales. The tales of

• The Wizard and the Hopping Pot"
• The Fountain of Fair Fortune"
• The Warlock's Hairy Heart"
• Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump"
• The Tale of the Three Brothers"

are there in the book. While the stories themselves are fairly simple ones, with The Warlock's Hairy Heart being a lil graphic. What is most interesting in the book is the notes of Albus Dumbledore. The notes are of what the tales really mean. The notes are brutally honest in conveying their message of what's important in life, what is the smart thing to do. I didnt expect the author to talk about censorship that parents trying bring about in order to protect their lil darlings. On the other hand it is not so hard to imagine why since there have been orgs trying to get HP out of libraries and denounce it. Reads notes of Albus in the story of "The Warlock's Hairy Heart".

I finished the book, returned it to the stack, probably buy it later. I do that sometimes, when I like part of a book or whole of the book, I tend to buy it later if needed. I got the book Lord of Light. It will be a while before I finish this book.

Aah, the coffee shop just announced free pastries! Yummy croissant's with choc filling is what I grabbed. They are closing up in an hour, time for me to bail as well.

After Athens

Itz a Sunday morning, itz a morning for feeling extremely lazy, a desire to just stay under covers and drift away back into sleep. Yeah, itz a day for hot chocolate in bed..... if only wishes had wings. A shout across the room, dude lets go for breakfast, that's my ex-aptmate Q ex(?)-Italian bf C . Grrrrr. Alright, in a couple of mins I am ready, not before I check emails and stuff and we head out. We drive to the middle of the town to see what's open. At 11.00am, the only place that even looks decent is this restaurant "After Athens". I am not really enthusiastic, since the last vist, a long time ago wasn't that great.

So we stroll in and we opt for the brunch. The dude there, directs us to through a door to another big room, which I don't recollect seeing before. My eyes lit up, the room beautifully laid out and the brunch buffet spread was mouth waterring. It was a good surprise. A great way to start the morning. Nice, it is going to be a good day inspite of the rain outside.

We sit down, order our drinks, water no ice for me as usual and we dive in. A start with lil salad, slices of fresh cheese, small muffin shaped french toasts laced with sugar, some bacon to get me rolling. While we dive in, we talk about normal stuff, idle gossip, till I go, "so C, what about that blog you were gonna start a while ago", then the conversation took a serious turn which I shall write about later. Time for in between to get another helping of the delicious food. There was the sausage patty, the chicken cooked in some delicious sauce which I can't name, tomatoes, cucumber, small wraps, boiled and fried veges as a side, to wrap the brunch.

Yeah, I am definitely going back there for when I visit Q again. We head back and I am off on my way to meet my friend from CA who is in town staying with his brother. The last I saw him was almost 2 yrs ago. Yeah this thanksgiving holiday will go down as a good one, save for one weird/embarrassing/insulting incident. The details of course have been long forgotten, conveniently ;)