Shelley won another radio contest. Two contests, actually... but we can only use one of them.
So here's the story: Shelley had been telling me for weeks that she was registered for this contest to go to a resort in Laughlin, NV. She even wanted to discuss how to plan the weekend; who would watch Ryan, did we want to use it for our anniversary trip.. etc. I thought she was nuts to want to expend energy planning something that she had to WIN first.
You wouldd think I would know better by now.
She calls me last Friday... "We're going!!!". I don't know HOW she does these things. Actually, I do now... Someone that works in her building told me she carries around a little radio... Now THAT's something I need to get a picture of...
Anyway, there were two radio stations running a contest for the same package (it's flight and hotel, and on the same day), so of course she managed to get registered for both of them. And Sunday she got a call telling her she had won the other one too, because the original person they picked couldn't go. She had to tell them that we couldn't go either... hehe
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Gibberish...
She was on the third stair. well but... Or is it only wishful thinking?
Defense was able to show dozens of other occasions when Annie had entered the ward and nothing untoward had happened.
Please God, no more, wasn't it enough she killed the phone? "Uh-uh,?he told her. "Annie,?he said patiently, "this is no big deal. For a moment he could breathe again.
It was quarter past six according to the clock over the range, and while there was no reason to believe she was any less sloppy about her clocks than her calendars (the one out here had actually made it to May), that seemed about right. But she didn't come and there was no way he could bear the rotted ache in his left leg.
Any of that make sense? Of course not, it's not meant to have any real meaning... It's how the spammers get their junk past all the filters and into your mailbox. This was part of an email where the ad was an image, so the filters never saw them trying to sell their crap to me; it only saw the above junk... which is why spam filters will ultimately always fail.
Just a random rant for you all...
Friday, March 17, 2006
F-14 Tomcat retiring!
The F-14 Tomcat is being retired this year, and someone made a great tribute video. Check it out here:
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Wrong on both counts!
I'm fairly sure that I gave you all a warning about "phishing". Phishing is a form of spam that is sent out in hopes of fooling someone into thinking the email is from someone legitimate, in the hopes of luring them to their website to collect information. The one I've seen most often claims to be from PayPal. And that's the one I fell for yesterday.
In my defense, I had just woken up, and was still a bit fuzzy. As per my usual routine, I headed downstairs towards the bathroom, and detoured to check my email (also, fairly usual). One of the messages was:
There are several things in this email that should have set off my alarms (both in my email system, and my own head); PayPal should be one word, the address from "service@000paypal.com", and there are a couple of minor grammatical errors. But, as I said, I was fuzzy and these things didn't register.
The BIGGEST thing that should have stopped me from doing the stupid thing I did next, was that the link it told me to click on was NOT the same as it was showing. I changed it here so that I don't bring these low-lifes any more potential victims, but I DID link it to an address that doesn't currently exist, and should adequately illustrate my point. If you hover your mouse over that link, and look at the status bar at the bottom of your browser, you'll see that the address is not the same as is shown. This doesn't always mean it's bogus, but it's usually a really good indicator.
So I click on the link, without checking where it takes me, and I'm given the "Pay Pal" login screen. So I fuzzily type in my email address (which PayPal uses), and the password that I THINK it is for that account. It lets me in, and immediately prompts me for a credit card. Now I have our checking account, and several credit cards linked to my PayPal account, as well as a PayPal debit card. I'm becoming less fuzzy, and noticing that this page is not formatted correctly (margins are not lining up). Also, PayPal is very good about explaining exactly what they're asking for, and this was a fairly vague request. My PayPal debit card was nearby, so I started to enter the numbers. I then notice that this card is expired. As I get up to get my wallet, the warning bells in my head finally start going off. I notice the address is NOT for PayPal, and the bogus email address in the original message.
Realizing that I had just given someone my username and password to access my PayPal account, I immediately closed all my browser windows, cleared my cookies and cache (in case something was still lurking in memory), and went to the real PayPal.com website. I logged in and changed my password, and removed all but one of the credit cards.
So that's one of the ways I was wrong this weekend. Here's the other:
If you'll remember my comment from the other day, when I saw they were predicting snow for three days in a row here, I'm happy to say I was wrong. It's been pretty much snowing off an on for the past 3 days, with a little accumulation. It tends to melt off fairly fast, but it's been snowing now since early this morning, and still coming down pretty good right now. I think I can safely say that we've had more snow on the ground in the past few days then we had all winter. So much for Spring Break!
Love to all!
In my defense, I had just woken up, and was still a bit fuzzy. As per my usual routine, I headed downstairs towards the bathroom, and detoured to check my email (also, fairly usual). One of the messages was:
From: Pay Pal Inc. (service@000paypal.com)
Reply-To: do-not-reply@paypal.com
Date: Mar 11, 2006 4:50 AM
Subject: Check the status of your account
As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the Pay Pal system. We recently noticed that your account was accessed by unauthorized third party. Because protecting the security of your account is our primary concern, we are forced to limit the access to sensitive Pay Pal account features. We realise that this may be an inconvenience but please understand that this temporary limitation is for your protection.
Case ID Number: PP-042-818-072
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=complaint-view
Your Personal Data includes information that can identify you as a specific individual, such as your name, address, phone number, credit card number or e-mail address are stored in your account. Is strongly recommend that you log into your account and verify your Personal Data. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
To review your account and some or all of the information that Pay Pal used to make its decision to limit your account access, please visit the Resolution Center https://www.paypal.com/ . If, after reviewing your account information, you seekfurther clarification regarding your account access, please contact Pay Pal by visiting the Help Center and clicking "Contact Us". We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that this is a security measure intended to help and protect you and your account. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Sincerely,
Pay Pal Account Review Department
Pay Pal Email ID PP520952
There are several things in this email that should have set off my alarms (both in my email system, and my own head); PayPal should be one word, the address from "service@000paypal.com", and there are a couple of minor grammatical errors. But, as I said, I was fuzzy and these things didn't register.
The BIGGEST thing that should have stopped me from doing the stupid thing I did next, was that the link it told me to click on was NOT the same as it was showing. I changed it here so that I don't bring these low-lifes any more potential victims, but I DID link it to an address that doesn't currently exist, and should adequately illustrate my point. If you hover your mouse over that link, and look at the status bar at the bottom of your browser, you'll see that the address is not the same as is shown. This doesn't always mean it's bogus, but it's usually a really good indicator.
So I click on the link, without checking where it takes me, and I'm given the "Pay Pal" login screen. So I fuzzily type in my email address (which PayPal uses), and the password that I THINK it is for that account. It lets me in, and immediately prompts me for a credit card. Now I have our checking account, and several credit cards linked to my PayPal account, as well as a PayPal debit card. I'm becoming less fuzzy, and noticing that this page is not formatted correctly (margins are not lining up). Also, PayPal is very good about explaining exactly what they're asking for, and this was a fairly vague request. My PayPal debit card was nearby, so I started to enter the numbers. I then notice that this card is expired. As I get up to get my wallet, the warning bells in my head finally start going off. I notice the address is NOT for PayPal, and the bogus email address in the original message.
Realizing that I had just given someone my username and password to access my PayPal account, I immediately closed all my browser windows, cleared my cookies and cache (in case something was still lurking in memory), and went to the real PayPal.com website. I logged in and changed my password, and removed all but one of the credit cards.
So that's one of the ways I was wrong this weekend. Here's the other:
If you'll remember my comment from the other day, when I saw they were predicting snow for three days in a row here, I'm happy to say I was wrong. It's been pretty much snowing off an on for the past 3 days, with a little accumulation. It tends to melt off fairly fast, but it's been snowing now since early this morning, and still coming down pretty good right now. I think I can safely say that we've had more snow on the ground in the past few days then we had all winter. So much for Spring Break!
Love to all!
Thursday, March 09, 2006
More video fun...
There's a couple shots that are the same from the last one, but still some great video!
Monday, March 06, 2006
A lousy way to start the day...
We took Ryan to the emergency room Sunday morning, which is something I was hoping I wouldn't have to put on my blog for at least a couple more years...
One of the ways I try to calm him down when he's upset is by telling him to breathe. I ask him to calm down, take a deep breath, and try to explain why he's upset. This may sound a bit advanced for a two year old, but I'd bet you'd be surprised how often it works with him. I'm sure I've said it before, but he's THAT amazing...
For the past few days he's been showing signs of allergies. This is the time of year when the farmers are burning their fields, and it puts tons of airborne crap out there for the allergic and asthmatic to suffer. It's never had much of an effect on me, except for the occasional eye irritation, but it beats Shelley up pretty bad. And now, we're guessing, it does the same to Ryan. Saturday afternoon and night we used the nebulizer on him to help with his breathing, and it did seem to alleviate the problem a little bit. Sunday morning, however, he was definitely struggling. I woke up to the sound of him crying, and gasping for air. I tried to get him to calm down and breathe, but between gasps he said, "can't ... breathe ... dada". Needless to say it broke my heart. We gave him another treatment, but it didn't seem to help much. You could still hear him wheezing, and taking very shallow breaths.
So we called his pediatrician's office, and asked for either his doctor or the doctor on call. She called us back and after we told her everything that had been going on, she suggested a trip to the emergency room. A couple hours (and charmed nurses) later, he was breathing much better, we had new medicine for the nebulizer, and some decongestant. By the time he was done with his nap, he was breathing nearly normal, and ready to play again...
No Shelley, I have NO idea how he got his shirt wet...
Also, Shelley's grandmother just celebrated her 92nd birthday!
In other news...
YEAH... RIGHT!!!
One of the ways I try to calm him down when he's upset is by telling him to breathe. I ask him to calm down, take a deep breath, and try to explain why he's upset. This may sound a bit advanced for a two year old, but I'd bet you'd be surprised how often it works with him. I'm sure I've said it before, but he's THAT amazing...
For the past few days he's been showing signs of allergies. This is the time of year when the farmers are burning their fields, and it puts tons of airborne crap out there for the allergic and asthmatic to suffer. It's never had much of an effect on me, except for the occasional eye irritation, but it beats Shelley up pretty bad. And now, we're guessing, it does the same to Ryan. Saturday afternoon and night we used the nebulizer on him to help with his breathing, and it did seem to alleviate the problem a little bit. Sunday morning, however, he was definitely struggling. I woke up to the sound of him crying, and gasping for air. I tried to get him to calm down and breathe, but between gasps he said, "can't ... breathe ... dada". Needless to say it broke my heart. We gave him another treatment, but it didn't seem to help much. You could still hear him wheezing, and taking very shallow breaths.
So we called his pediatrician's office, and asked for either his doctor or the doctor on call. She called us back and after we told her everything that had been going on, she suggested a trip to the emergency room. A couple hours (and charmed nurses) later, he was breathing much better, we had new medicine for the nebulizer, and some decongestant. By the time he was done with his nap, he was breathing nearly normal, and ready to play again...
No Shelley, I have NO idea how he got his shirt wet...
Also, Shelley's grandmother just celebrated her 92nd birthday!
In other news...
YEAH... RIGHT!!!
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Too funny...
This is the funniest video I've seen online in a long time... it's set to "The Roof is on Fire"
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