Dr CO Marthins wants to know my religion

It's comforting in a weird sort of way that...like the changing of the seasons, like the coming of the holiday season, like the inexorability of Scranton's city government to function...there are still laughably bad Internet scams still out there.

From my Hotmail account, I give you Dr CO Marthins...

FROM THE DESK OF DR.CO MARTHINS

The Head of File and Auditing Department,

BANK OF AFRICA (B.O.A)

Ouagadougou Burkina-Faso (West Africa)

REMITTANCE OF US$25,300 million

CONFIDENTIAL IS THE CASE. VERY URGENT ATTENTION

This message might meet you in utmost surprise, however, it's just my Urgent need for foreign partner that made me to contact you for this transaction I am a banker by profession from Burkina Faso in West Africa and currently holding the post of director Auditing and accounting unit of the bank.

I have the opportunity of transferring the left over Funds ($25.300 million) of one of my bank clients who died Along with his entire family in a plane crash.

Hence, I am inviting you for a business deal where this money can be shared between us in the ratio of 50/40 while 10% will be mapped out for expenses. I will like to inform you that this transaction is 100% risk free, WHILE further details of the transfer will be forwarded to you as soon as I receive your return mail. And also promise me that you will not disappoint me when this fund hits your account.

Meanwhile the World Bank Group has mandated the BANK OF AFRICA Burkina Faso to release this unclaimed fund immediately when the next of kin is discovered with due application.

This payment will be effected through Swift Telegraphic Transfer in conjunction with the support of the World Bank.

Your Urgent response is needed for immediate transfer of this fund IN TO YOURRECEIVING BANK ACCOUNT.

(FILL THIS FORM BELLOW PLEASE AND RESEND IT TO ME).

1) Your Full Name.............................

2) Your Age....................................

3) Marital Statuses............................

4) A copy of your photo identity

5) Your Cell Phone Number......................

6) Your Country................................

7) Your Occupation.............................

8)  Sex....................................

9) Your Religion...............................

Please keep this proposal as a top secret and delete if you are not interested.

Regards,

Dr.co Marthins

Bank Of Africa, Burkina Faso-West Africa.

Runaway Train

One of my favorite songs...

10 Clues that "The Office" Really Doesn't Take Place In Scranton

In no particular order, for no particular reason:

1. It's clearly way too flat to actually be Scranton.
2. No office chatter about the loons that spoke at the last city council meeting.
3. No reference to a location being "up da line" or "down da line".
4. The men always tuck their shirts in (this is a dead give-away).
5. It would actually be nearly impossible to drive your car into the real Lake Scranton (and if you did, I think the EPA would end up getting involved).
6. No office political loud-mouth parroting what he just heard Rush Limbaugh say.
7. Angela clearly isn't Catholic.
8. People in this area drink their booze in the woods, a beer garden or at home, not on Lake Wallenpaupack. 
9. Mose would be in a group home instead on working on the beet farm.
10. If it really was filmed in Scranton, malcontents in Wilkes-Boro would be complaining about it (and would not doubt try and get their Congressman to have the location changed to somewhere in Wilkes-Boro, you know, like Nannicoke or Plimmit).

A simple solution to Bank of America's new $5 debit card fee

Bank of America will start charging debit card holders a $5 monthly fee, as reported in many sources (including HERE).  This has gotten a lot of press, and I heard a story about a BofA customer bringing a petition with 100,000+ customer signatures in opposition to the fee.  I also hear that Wall Street protesters citing this as an other example of corporate greed and general badness on the part of the banking industry.

Now I know that it is easy to get caught up in all of the rhetoric.  Point taken.  However, I do think that many who complain about the fee forget one very simple reality of this situation:  you don't have to do business with Bank of America.

That's right:  if you don't like the fee then you can simply bank with another institution.

Some will claim "Steve, all the bank will start doing it eventually", but like most generalizations, this one isn't entirely true.  Yes, I suspect that many banks will impose similar fees, especially large, multi-state banks.  I am reasonably confident though that the fee will not become an industry standard, at least not across all segments of the banking business.  So what are your choices?

• Small, Community Banks - I've read where some industry analysts predict that many small community banks will not impose the fee.  
• Credit Union - Almost everyone these days can join a credit union.  Read HERE.

So enough already with the whining and victimology.

As a side note, I suspect that BofA is imposing this fee precisely because they want to thin their customer ranks of those clients with relatively small account balances.  That is certainly the bank's right, but it is certainly our right to not do business with BofA.

The Legacy of Steve Jobs

I do not own a single Apple product.  I have purchased them over the years as presents for my daughters (iPods & helped with the purchase of an iPhone or two), but I have never found them appealing for two main reasons:

1. I think the designs (hardware & software) tend to be over-simplified.  I like having lots of options and choices to make with the technology I use.  For example I hate the whole "automatic sync with iTunes" thing that iPods make you do; I want to make the choices of what is on my music player; I don't want anything to happen automatically. 
2. I think most of their products are over-priced.  The one exception I can think of is the 16gb iPad, which at $499 seems to be moderately priced relative to the competition.

The above noted, you can't help but admire the fact that Apple puts so much emphasis on design and product experience.  Compare this Microsoft's products, which tend to have clunky, sometimes non-intuitive designs.  Yes, it makes all the sense in the world to click on the "start" button to stop the computer.  Oh, and let's not forget the ever-feared "blue screen of death"...

...which we all tend to face from time to time.  Yes, I think there is something of a stark contrast between Apple and Microsoft...well more appropriately Apple and the rest of the technology world.  I suspect that this is the legacy of Steve Jobs.

Speaking of legacy, what better way to end this post than with the words of Steve Jobs.

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."
– Stanford commencement speech 2005

Well spoken.

Rest In Peace Steve Jobs

You can't have to be an Apple fan to appreciate just what Steve Jobs did for technology in general over the past twenty years.

Rest in Peace Steve Jobs

Somehow I don't think there will ever be anyone quite like him.

Your parents lied to you: monsters are real.

I read about this in both the local (Scranton Times) and national (CBS, Reuters, and others) news.

7 Year Old Child Tortured in Scranton

As a parent I utterly disgusted.  I am a loss for words.  I want to just find this child and protect him...protect him from the monsters that were disguised as his "parents".

For the child, I hope that his life has begun anew.

For the "parents", well, I hope that one day they realize just what they have done...and that this realization tortures and consumes them for the rest of their lives.

Who Is Harry Nilsson? (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him)

As I may have mentioned a week or so ago, I purchased a DVD on the life of Harry Nilsson, which I finally got around to watching Sunday night.

My overall impression?  If you are a fan of Harry, or of the music of the late 60's/early 70's, then I'd suggest you check this out.  The DVD is long for someone who actually had a relatively short career in the spotlight, but it held my attention for all of two hours it played.  I do confess to pausing at about the one hour mark for some popcorn though.

The basic story of Harry Nilsson is really rather compelling.  Here is a guy who was enormously talented.  He played multiple instruments, wrote terrific songs, and had one of the most incredible singing voices of all time, bar none.  Want some evidence?

Interestingly enough, Without You is a song that Harry didn't write (it was actually written by a member of the band Badfinger).  Regardless, I think this is something of a signature piece for him, along with Everybody's Talking.  I don't know of another current musical "artist" that can sing like Harry; hell 90% of what you hear in modern popular music is acoustically altered using auto-tune or some of other computer magic.

As for the man, this is something incredibly tragic about someone born with so much talent...that works so hard to get noticed and becomes successful at their craft...and then becomes intent on destroying that which made him so successful.  Yet later in life Harry seemed to become grounded and by all appearances died while personally very happy, surrounded by his family.

This is a great, all be it very sad at times, story.

Road Apples, #113

Hotel Sterling...If I wasn't completely devoid of motivation I'd make my way down to Wilkes-Boro to take some pictures of the decaying-before-our-very-eyes Hotel Sterling.  There is something incredibly fascinating but yet sad about a grand old building that has fallen down into such disrepair.  Think about it:  a building is a "thing" on one level, but on another it represents so very much on another.  How many loves were found, marriages celebrated, campaigns began, campaigns ended and just lives changed at a place like the Hotel Sterling?  It is something of an old cliche (sorry, I don't have the accent mark), but if only the walls could talk in places such as this.

Holy Family Church...Speaking of places with history, the church where I received most of the Catholic Sacraments is being slowly dismantled.  Andy Palumbo is doing a great service for me (and others I suspect) by taking pictures of this sad event.  When I was a little person receiving first Communion the place looked so very large; now that it is being dismantled it seems to be so very much smaller.

TrashAThon...For a few minutes this afternoon I was alternating between Mod Wives and Jersey Shore as my background TV noise.  The very best that New Jersey/New York has to offer I suppose.  I'd be critical of both shows, but what's the point?  They both apparently do well in the ratings, so someone is making money off it all.  

Rick Perry...There is a story in the National Enquirer that connects Rick Perry in some manner with the KKK.  Now hardcore Republicans will whine that "it's just the National Enquirer", but how many of those folks were reveling when John Edwards was getting skewed in those same pages?  The National Enquirer may publish its share of trash, but they also get it right every once in a while.  Anyway, the story is well beyond the U.S. tabloids, as it has gotten coverage also by the U.K.'s Daily Mail.  You can link to the story HERE.

REM...The band REM recently announced their retirement, and while I will not going to claim that I am the biggest fan of their music, I will note that they have had a hell of a run. Some of my favorite REM songs include The One I Love, Stand, Pop Song 89, Fall On Me, It's The End of the World As We Know It, Losing My Religion and others.  The music was great, but even more impressive was the fact that, in an industry full of assorted wankers, stoners and degenerates, they carried themselves well over the years.  They are also incredibly talented musicians. Here's to Athens greatest contribution to popular music...

You just don't see talent like this in popular music very often these days.

NBA Season...It looks like the battle of "millionaires vs multi-millionaires", also known as the NBA owners vs NBA players union, will result in some kind of season cancellation.  How many people care?  Personally I find the concept of a labor union representing individuals who on average make over $5 million (reference HERE) to be ever so slightly surreal, especially when you consider that most top talent in the league have individual agents representing them as well. The folks entertain others for a living for Pete's sake!  In the "contribution to society" department they may rank slightly above circus clowns.

Don't get me started on the public financing of athletic facilities.

"Divorce is too easy these days..."

"Divorce is too easy these days..."  is what someone posted on the Facebook group page "Your know ur from Scranton, Pa".  I wanted to post a reply in that thread, but then I remembered that I have the whole entire blog thing going.

Anyway, had I been so motivated to post in that discussion, I would have told the individual making that statement that:

They obviously have never been through a divorce.

or

If they have been through a divorce, it must have been far different than what most folks experience.

Divorce is NOT easy, not now and I suspect not "back then" either.  In fact, I would go so far as to describe it as being an almost perfect storm of suck...

...it is chock full of the worst possible emotions (anger, sadness, jealousy, regret, and I could go on)
...if you have children, no matter what the age(s) are, it is disruptive to their lives
...lawyers are almost almost always involved (things that involve lawyers are almost always bad news)
...it costs money no matter how you do it (sometimes a lot of money)
...it puts your life in limbo for an extended period of time
...it consumes enormous amounts of your time
...it exposes you personally and financially

The above is just for run of the mill divorces.  Lest we forget that also sometimes divorces result from...

...substance abuse
...physical abuse
...emotional abuse

...and other assorted really horrible things.

Now if you are reading this and you are in a happy marriage then you certainly have my congratulations.  You truly are living the dream.

If you are reading this and you went through an easy, painless divorce, then I'd say you have been one of the fortunate few.

If you are reading this and are going through (or have gone though) a difficult divorce, then you truly have my sympathy.

The past wasn't always better.  The good old days weren't always so good.  And what appears to be "easy" to some can be in fact very difficult for others.

Carpe diem folks.