Chris Moss Online

Anyone else get sick of those Nigerian scam emails? You know, the ones from the Minister of Petroleum in Nigeria who happens to have $24 million in a foreign account that he urgently needs your confident help in to get it back to Nigeria? Thank god he stumbled onto your trustworthy free E-mail account!

Anyway, there is a site called 419eater.com that takes the perpetrators of this fraud to task. 419 refers to the Nigerian law meant to combat this scam industry. Some guy got bored and decided to monkey with the person on the sending end of those emails. The site does a good job of explaining why and how they do what they do. The funniest part is called “The Trophy Room.” They have gotten these scammers to take photos of themselves and send by e-mail. The guys scamming (“baiting”) the scammers always ask for them to hold a sign or object to “prove” that the photo is of that person. The Trophy Room is a collection of alleged scammers holding signs that say pretty ridiculous things on them (since the scammers don’t really speak English or grasp our culture, it works brilliantly).

James gave me a GPS unit for my birthday. It’s just like the one I was borrowing (for 3 mos) from Brian. But it’s mine, and I can customize it how I like. So now it has flames on the side! (j/k)

It has all the hardware and cables to connect it to the PC, which I didn’t have before. James also gave me some really cool mapping software to put on it, because the basic GPS comes with only the major highways & geographic features. But I want Eaglebend Lane on there, so, y’know. I had difficulty installing the map software, so that will have to wait – prolly need to clear my registry, because it bombed on the install and now won’t reinstall properly. Yes, I’ve already tried uninstalling it. 😉

James and I stopped for dinner on the way home from a meeting tonight. The TVs in the establishment were tuned to Fox News Channel. Evidently, the only things that happened in the world today were:

1. Scott Peterson was sentenced to death for mudering his wife and unborn child.
2. Robert Blake was acquitted of charges that he murdered his wife.
3. The Michael Jackson trial continued.
4. Major League Baseball players have been subpoenaed to appear before Congress.

I guess if it didn’t happen to a famous entertainment celebrity, it didn’t happen.

I suppose President Bush didn’t nominate Paul Wolfowitz, a controversial figure who is blamed by many people for many factors relating to the war in Iraq (most of them bad) to head the World Bank, a job which a lot of people feel Mr. Wolfowitz has no qualifications for and, incidentally, Mr. Wolfowitz would need to gain the support of many of the leaders he has previously alienated in order to be effective in his job.

Ian’s parents came to visit them this weekend, and Bobby & Ian coordinated a trip with them and other friends to the Dallas Arboretum, which currently is presenting “Dallas in Bloom” as all the spring flowers start to turn out. It was really pleasant.

After, we all went to lunch at Mattito’s for Mexican food. It was 85 on Saturday, and we were all ready for cerveza y margaritas, so we had some. The service was surprisingly slow, but once we got our drinks and some chips, we didn’t care anymore. The company was excellent, and the weather was great, so we whiled away a long lunch, and it was really fun. Thanks to Ian’s parents for picking up the tab. *doffs hat*

I hate getting my hair cut. But, I also don’t like my hair too long. In a perfect world, I could get my hair cut quickly at a convenient time and place about every 3 weeks. But I don’t like investing the time required to get my hair cut – inevitably I end up waiting quite a bit.

Until recently, this wasn’t a problem. For about 3 years, there was a stylist at the local JC Penney who did a really great job cutting my hair, and she was usually running on time. I could call up, make an appointment, get in and out, and quite happy with the product. The only stressful bit was that I never know how to handle tipping a hair stylist. The price at JC Penney varies depending on the seniority/skill level of your stylist, and the one I liked cost $20 for shampoo/cut/dry.

Mash ups are multiple songs mixed together to make a new song. I first heard about this concept a few weeks back, went to a website, and didn’t like what I heard. Ian mentioned yesterday one he found that was good, and when I walked in the door today from a meeting, James was listening to it.

The mash up in question can be found at DJ Earworm’s site and the title is “No One Takes Your Freedom.” It is a bit like a symphony, the way clips from the various tracks are blended together. This is especially true towards the end, as you hear George Michael singing the word “freedom” repeatedly, from his song of the same name, and Aretha Franklin singing the refrain “freedom….freedom…whoa-oh FREEDOM” from her hit “Think.” It’s like they’re the same song, and it’s pretty amazing.