fuh-reaking PETA text messages

Dunno how I got onto the PETA text message spam machine, but they seemed to remove me after I texted back "STOP". We'll see if it sticks.

Yeah, there's a rescue dog sleeping in the other room and I like sprouts and tofu, but I'm still an omnivore. I'm pretty sure I'd eat a vegetarian if we crashed in the Andes.

Now, if I could just keep Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty to quit calling me 3x/week. I actually wrote them a Real, Live, snailmail letter about two weeks ago asking that they quit. The calls have slowed but not stopped.

scary: targeted Nigerian scam

Everyone knows the Nigerian scam. Easy to spot.

This one is a little scary; it mentioned my first and last name and an old address I used to actually live at. I suspect the info leaked out of Yahoo somehow, as that is the account info I had on file there and was delivered to the Yahoo email address. Nice.

Other than that it's the normal "we'll put money in your account" scam.

[myLastName redacted] [myFirstName redacted]
[myLastName redacted], [myFirstName redacted]

[myStreetAddress and myApartmentNumber redacted]

[myZip, nearbyCity (incorrect), myState redacted] USA


Dear sir/madame

My name is Wang Huang , i am the vice president sales and business development of Huang Steels Group. We are looking for Account officers in Europe and North America who can help us collect our funds from our customers . Your function is to accept our payments from our customers who because of language bareers or japanese laws could not remitt or trranferring our monneey .

We loose millions fof dollars every year from customers and coporate clients who site such reasons as why they can not pay . Japanese laws is very rigid and sometimes we neeed you to help pay other partners to avoid japanese tax man , if you know what i mean.

For your services , we will pay 10% of any payment you receiving on our behalf .

Upon your interest, we will like you to contact our recruitment lawyer in the UK , who will verify your details further . You will have to sign an MOU with him before we can proceed and he will verify your ID and your addresses.

His contact details is as follows:

Perry Nott(esq)
Principal partner
Fulbright & Shepherd UK
Tel: +(44)203-239-[redacted]
Mobile: +(44)-703940[redacted].
Email: perry.nott@fulbright-shepherd.com
Hotmail: perry.nott@hotmail.com

The job refrence number is 349877. Contact him if you are interested. Because of our anti-spam policy, if you are not interested in this job offer, reply to this email in capital letter STOP .

Sincerely,



Wang Huang

VP sales and business development

Company address:
1-8, 2-chome, Bingo-machi, Chuo-ku
Osaka 541-0-051 , Japan
Tel: +81-6-6537-[redacted]
Fax:+81-6-6537-[redacted]
Mail: wang.huang@huangsteelsgroup.[redacted]

deconstructing the piles

Spent the morning tearing down the compost piles I started in late January and restacking them. The advantages of wire bins are clear over my older techniques; there were no terminally wet areas, so they stacks smelled like clean dirt.

By the time I got to the third one, I realized it was faster to "pick" off the outsides with a hoe and let it fall into a bucket placed against the pile. That way I could remix/layer that drier material in as desired later while working less and not have to rescoop it. For the first two piles I broke it all down flat and shoveled/scooped it back into the wire bins. Breaking down into buckets took about 1/2 the time and effort.

The leaf-only piles were making slow progress, but the leaf+scraps pile (the four-footer) had significant areas that looked nicely broken down. Since my piles are new, I saved the stuff that looked almost finished in another bucket and layered it near the top of my restacked piles. Hopefully that will disperse the microcritters to the other piles.

Exposed worms and doodlebugs were rationed among the piles. I wonder when those wonderful little Black Soldier Flies (with pics, see 2nd reply) will return? Apparently people pay to get them into their compost but I got some for free last year. They are not a nuisance, do not bite, don't like houses, and have the most ravenous wormy babies. Yay!

realtor pics

I've always wondered why realtors are so in love with pics of themselves.

This Onion article nails the vibe.

Dear SUV-driving douchebag

Dear Douchebag:

I think we had a moment there; did you feel the same?

Me: rolling up to the red light on a motorcycle.

You: swerving over into my lane at the last possible moment without looking or blinking, talking on the cellphone, your Escalade with Texas Tech plates ending up at a 45deg angle across two lanes.

Good thing I changed the brake pads on the bike this weekend; I chirped the front tire getting stopped before you drove over me. Good thing that 20 yrs on two wheels has trained me to automatically assume all drivers are idiots; I cover my controls, practice emergency stops and wear ATGATT. I understand my bike may be hard to see: it's neon yellow, tall as a horse, had the high beam on, was in a lane position where I could see your face in your own side mirror, etc.

Oh, and...

You: making a U-turn as soon as the light turned green again. You didn't have right-of-way, causing cars in the oncoming lane to brake so they didn't t-bone your inconsiderate, non-driving, self-absorbed, clueless ass. I hope the sounds of their howling, braking tires didn't disturb your phone call too much. You didn't seem to notice.

Someday you'll pull that crap with a train or semi and you will lose. I hope the semi driver doesn't spill his coffee as he drives over you.

Sincerely,

bloggermouse

seedling progress

Tomatoes and lettuce sprouting.

No signs of life from the scrounged yellow, red, and green bell pepper seeds so far.

microraptor

Not as exciting as a bobcat (or coyote, or chupacabra) but this little raptor was sitting on my fence yesterday.

For a second I thought someone had put one of those plastic owl things up there to be funny.