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{sigh} You know, I think craigslist is a great service and it's wonderfully free and all that, but every time I try to sell something on there, I get more scam responses than legit ones. I know... what should I expect? Trying to sell a Powerbook for $400 yesterday, and even though I wrote in the posting "Local only" I am getting those scammy responses that offer to pay more than you are asking to cover "shipping to another country."

They really try to pose as locals, or at least American, but their English always breaks down. Also, their references to your item are generic and could apply to anything that's for sale (because they don't really look at the ad).

From: "wills james" willsjames20@gmail.com

Thanks for the fast response actually i was guessing a gift to buy for my cousin,who is based in West Coast Africa with his company, and while browsing craigslist, i saw what you have for sale and found it quite nice as a gift. I am willing to offer $500 for it including shipping cost via USPS{ems}express mail. I will be paying through PayPal, because its the safest means of online payment.

Hope to read from you soon

Nice to read from you, "wills james," but I've already heard this one. They pay you with a fraudulent Paypal or a fake money order (I don't know how people rig up a fake Paypal, I only know that the transaction is going to bounce and fall back on me to make good. They offer to pay in advance (item unseen) and pay a lot extra to cover shipping overseas. Then someone will come to your house to pick it up (a third party agent), you will pay that person the shipping money and hand over the item. So you are out the shipping money *and* your merch, plus you have to make good with your bank for the fake stuff.

From: "Linda Carey" careylinda02@gmail.com

Hello,

Thanks for the email. I read your posting of the item and I want to buy it for my niece in Lithuania, but I am currently busy at work but I can pay by PayPal account because it's safe and secure online transaction, I can pay a bit more then you are asking and to cover the extra cost to ship it.

i will be offering you $550 including the postage cost via post office or DHL,

Please get back to me on this, if my offer is acceptable and send your PayPal address and I can send the payment.

Thanks a lot!

Oh Linda... I didn't send you an email, and if I had, it would have said "Do you know what I am selling?" I wish I had time or tenacity to mess with you people. I'd find someone in law enforcement who's interested in busting you small-time criminals and that person would be meeting with you instead of me.

Previously on Scamalot...

[updated June 2 with yet another scam email!]

Hello,

I appreciate your response ,I'm willing to buy it for my co-worker in oversea.I want to know the condition of the item and i am asking Apparently if it can be shipped internationally via post office hope $150 will ship it because i make an Inquiries about the shipment via Post Office(Register Mail).I would be paying you through PayPal
because they are reliable for online transaction,Kindly email me with the email that associate with your paypal account / send me an invoice for me to remit payment as soon as possible. if you don't have paypal account,go to www.paypal.com and set up one and get back to me, its free and secured for online payment..

Please get back to me with your paypal id so that i can send the payment today into your account.

God Bless You
Regards.

Yours Sincerely ,

The good old days

MrB sent me a link for a collection of 25 Horribly Sexist Vintage Ads, and they *are* truly horribly sexist. Two examples snagged below:

Cookie robbery

This morning I opened a fresh box of my darling little 100-calorie bags of chocolate chip cookies from HEB, the ones that help me get through an afternoon of munchies, desk boredom, and sweet cravings – and inside the sealed box, instead of the little fun bags (and now I’m reminded of something Dr. House says, except he’s not talking about bags of cookies), there is an *opened* package of a completely different product. It was an opened package of sugar wafers, a different brand, and there were a few loose wafers at the bottom of the box.

Whine.

Some assembly-line worker’s practical joke means an extra trip to the store for a $2 refund, and no sweetness or chocolate chips for me.

Rhode Island has idiots too.

This is right up there with the rest of the stupidest things said by politicians, from Rhode Island State Rep. Douglas Gablinske, and he wasn't even the guy who came up with RI's Arizona copycat bill, it was another Rep. named Peter Palumbo.

[source] As the House speaker banged a gavel calling for Capitol Police to clear the room, Gablinske said, the young protesters chanted and draped themselves in a banner that read "Do I look like an immigrant?"

"I guess I found that somewhat strange because none of them looked like immigrants," said Gablinske. "I don't remember any Latinos there; I don't remember any African-Americans. What I remember was a group of mostly younger people -- white, Caucasian who were milling about."

Gablinske... Palumbo... Caucasian...

6 years of LOST re-enacted in 1 minute by cats

Found on Ain't It Cool News

Weird Spam

Subj: Hi.........
Mrs.Tina.K.Nayak [saketsharp@gmail.com]

I DONT KNOW WHO ARE YOU ?
If you Know me then Please give me a Call

Thanks & Regards

Tina.K.Nayak
Public Communications Dept
WHO

No Viagra or offerings of a larger penis? Sheeesh.

Saturday night in the hills

Saturday night's benefit show was in great contrast to Friday's sweaty downtown crowd. This was a benefit to buy musical instruments for kids who can't afford them, so a great cause. It started early in the afternoon, but we didn't venture out until it was almost time for James Hyland and the Joint Chiefs (a bunch of musicians we see whenever possible) who started around dusk. This place was not that far from home, but definitely part of another world. Here is the google sat view:
Big. You can tell that much.

I was imagining a house concert where the patio would probably be the stage (more room that way, and a keg of beer (as was promised) would not make a big mess. It turned out to be just a *liiitle* bit... more... more everything.

You had to drive down a steep piece of street, and park/walk the rest of the way (party parking). The street leading to the gate, the driveway beyond that, and the rest of the access surfaces were as steep as a roller coaster. When we got down to the lawn, this is the view of the house:
Three stories (maybe even four, as this house was built into the side of a hill). That wall there that looks wet, is actually a waterfall (wished I'd gotten a better picture of that aspect of it) - when someone splashes in the pool it spills over into a large trough below. Here is the pool viewed from the edge of the patio, and you can see the people draped over the edge of that. Click to embiggen.

Here is the stage set up on one end of that very long green that the pool overlooks.

By the time James went on stage, it was beautiful twilight where the sky was still a deep dark blue. There was a great breeze and the t-shirt temperatures were great.

Here's some James Hyland music, and if you listen to this you can tell what kind of groove we had going. The place was definitely not crowded by then, and a couple of friends joined us. Kind of unusual for Austin as the only people we knew there were the band and those associated with the band... but that's OK. Nice evening and admission was only $10.
Oh Darlin' (Blaze Foley cover). A different venue and band makeup, not my video this time.

When it was time to leave, I was more than a little anxious because I do not climb hills. Never could, still can't. Fortunately, the homeowner had someone shuttling people to their cars, waaaaaaay up the hill, using this golf cart. If you lived in that house, I don't see how you could get by without it.

Friday night in town

Can't neglect mentioning the weekend music-related activities. There was a fantastic free show in a downtown park on Friday night, staged by a new venture in town called Car2Go. They have a fleet of SmartCars (the cutest little buggers you ever saw) and you can rent one just by using your registration card for access, driving it where you need to go, and parking it at an approved location (like at a parking meter) where the next person can use it. Your clocked time will go on your credit card.

Anyway, they had 5 really good bands playing: The Lemurs, Black & White Years (we missed those 2 as they played too early), Del Castillo, the Gourds and Joe Ely. It felt like summer out there and the high humidity made for a very sweaty night but it’s hard to beat these bands for live performance. Also this stage is solar-powered for extra greeniness.

Here’s a video MrB shot, “Wishin’ for a Rainbow”

The Last Lost

Tonight is the big series finale for LOST, and I am really going to miss it after it's gone, but I think it ended at the right point in the show. Some shows just keep dragging on and on after the real beauty and creative spark is gone, and it become obvious that they are just bleeding a corpse for money {cough*xfiles*cough}.

Frank Conniff (TV's Frank on MST3K) If you've never watched "Lost," the finale will make so little sense that it'll seem like you've seen every episode.

TV's Frank is right. It doesn't make sense. I don't want it to make sense, either. Where's the fun in that? The fun part is the speculation - and like the real location of The Simpsons' Springfield {notquitePortlandOR} I don't think the answers will be handed to us on a platter - or maybe they will. Speculation...

There's a pre-show special that is on here from 6pm to 8pm, then the episode is from 8pm to 10:30, then Jimmy Kimmel has a LOST-themed show later in the night. Lots of frenzy over a TV show, but still a few hundred times less frenzy than there is over the Super Bowl.

The Cafe Society area of the Straight Dope Message Board is always rich with smart threads, and there is already a spot readied for discussion of this episode.

Rand dumb statements

Rachel Maddow has really been shining a hard light of reality on Rand Paul. It's absolutely frightening to realize just how much power the Tea Party movement is gaining - a bunch of mean, racist, hateful, selfish bastards who have managed to take things a few notches down from the other Republicans. The Tea Party and Christian Right (pretty much the same people) could take this country's progressiveness back to the 19th Century.

Oh yes, and if everyone was a Christian or at least religious, we wouldn't need so many laws because people would just naturally behave themselves and do the right thing. How very wrong that is. Wrong, wrong, wrong, and incorrect.

Ugh. Dieting.

Time to reign in the inner child and lose some weight. The diet started on Sunday. It's basically Weight Watchers (using an old Weight Watchers point counter, I can't afford to attend meetings, not that and still be able to afford cat medicines).

They say not to call it a "diet," it's a lifestyle change. After you get into the swing of it, it might be a lifestyle change, but when you are counting out 9 snack chips and putting the bag away - that's a diet. The swing of it is just having all the point values and food journal in your head instead of obsessively tracking every bite.

I started a private blog (just for me) to keep food diaries, point values, and most importantly, daily rants. It's cheaper than the counselors that diet programs provide (and I long ago got sick of those twenty-somethings shaming me for my sins every week like they were clergy. No thank you, I will just beat myself up privately instead).

I figure it will take a year to get where I want to be. That's OK, I have a healthy attitude toward the passage of time. May 2011 will arrive, that's for certain, and I will either be fatter or thinner when it does. Simple as that. Hello reality.

Playing the jukebox

One of things I've been puttering around with is my beloved online jukebox (using playlist.com). The way playlist.com works is it finds and indexes mp3s on the web (and makes some effort to source either music blogs or official sites, although it's impossible for them to effectively make that system perfect) and you can add them to a playlist and post it somewhere. You can also link to an mp3 of your own finding, and of course that breaks down the previously mentioned system completely. Anyhoo, it works with user and found content (so typos and labeling errors are rampant, but what's new --?).

I maxed out my original playlist at 200 songs, so I stripped it down and put together a separate one for the hard-core country stuff [ Real Country ]. It's music I grew up on... my mother's folkie, western and bluegrassy stuff, my dad's honky-tonk, the some-of-both crossover (lots of Johnny Cash), and personal favorites. It's what I liked to play on the tavern jukebox as a kid while the adults were getting drunk, and stuff I had on 45 r.p.m., 7-inch vinyl or full L.P. It also includes some cosmic cowboy, redneck hippie, and outlaw country (music played while *I* was getting drunk), so it spans the '20s through '70s.

The original playlist has no genre restrictions, it's just stuff I like for one reason or another. I prefer the deep cuts to the hits, but there's some of both.

This all resides on my Jukebox page.

Don't drunk-dial FreedomWorks

This is the former Geico voice-actor who got fired for doing that very thing and identifying himself (that was one of the drunk mistakes).

This brightened my day. It certainly did. Hope you got through Monday OK.


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