Unfortunately I received an email from J.C. Hutchins yesterday, telling all of the MINE contributors that the site will not be updating anymore. It’s a sad effect of the downward turning economy and being a new blog. While this news is most certainly disappointing, I was very happy to be a contributor and have benefited from both the exposure and more so from the encouraging and ego boosting words from J.C. himself. It has given me more confidence with my writing, and that maybe one day I really will finish something I want to share with everyone. I know when I do I will definitely be putting out for free, and maybe doing a podiobook/podcast.

The stories I submitted for MINE are still, well…mine, so I may be reposting some of them here for when I need a quick and dirty Full of Fun Fridays! post. It will be better than what happened last week, when there was no post anyway.

It was a great honor and blast working for J.C., and while a lowly little Z list blogger like myself probably won’t get a chance to…I’d sure love to work with him in some capacity again! At the very least, I’ll be there with all the other Beta Clones when it’s time to rush the Amazon charts for all of his projects. Like the soon to be released Personal Effects: Dark Arts and of course 7th Son Obsidian!

Everyone who has an email account has received spam. Most of the time I just delete them, if any actually gets through the spam filter. But recently two emails came to my inbox, sent to my email on Middle Raged Punk, and they are hilarious.

From email: mr_randyjame2008@hotmail.com
ARE YOU DEAD OR ALIVE.
¡Tengo nueva dirección de correo!
Ahora puedes escribirme a:web_atmmastercardpayment2008@yahoo.com.co

HELLO,

DID YOU ASSIGN JANET DURA TO CLAIM YOUR FUNDS OF ($15.5M) AND SHE IS CLAIMING YOU ARE DEAD.

- ATM MASTER CARD PAYMENT

First, I don’t even have a Master Card. Second, there isn’t a bank called ATM Master Card Payment that I would put that much money. Not to mention that “Master Card” wouldn’t use a Hotmail account to find out info like that. I can’t believe that anyone would fall for this kind of phishing scam.

The second email is just pure gold. Spot the irony!

From email: danegbuna@gmail.com
FROM DAN EGBUNA
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENCY FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA Aso Rock villa, Asokoro

District, Abuja

CONFIDENTIAL DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY PAYMENT

ATTENTION BENEFICIARY

Based on our investigation department, we wish to warn you against some Miscreants, Hoodlums and touts who go about scamming innocent people by claiming to be who they are not and thereby tarnishing the image of this wonderful country.

I am Lt General Dan Egbuna (Rtd), National Security Adviser to the new Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. I am delighted to inform you that the contract panel, which just concluded its sitting in Abuja just released your name amongst contractors to benefit from the Diplomatic Immunity Payment. This Panel was primarily delegated to investigate manipulated contract claims, contracts and over-invoiced payment as the effect has eaten deep into the economy of our dear country.

However, we wish to bring to your notice that your contract profile is still reflecting in our central computer as unpaid contractor while auditing was going on. Your contract file was forwarded to my office by the auditors as unclaimed fund, we wish to use this medium to inform you that for the time being Federal Government of Nigeria have stopped further payment through bank to bank transfer due to contractors numerous petitions to United Nations against Nigeria on wrong payment and diversion of contract funds to different accounts.

In this regards, we are going to send your contract part payment of 20Million USD. To you via our accredited shipping company through diplomatic cash delivery down to our door step and I have secured every needed document to cover the money while the diplomat will get it delivered to you Note: The money is coming on two security proof boxes. The boxes are sealed with synthetic nylon seal and padded with machine as metallic trunk boxes.

Please you don’t have to worry for anything, as the transaction is 100% risk free. The boxes are coming with a Diplomatic agent who will accompany the boxes to your house address. All you need to do now is to send to me, your full house address and your identity such as, international passport or drivers license and your mobile phone and telephone number, The Diplomatic Agent will travel with it. He will call you immediately he arrives to your country’s airport. I hope you understand me.

As soon as the above-mentioned details are received, your payment will be made to you via diplomatic courier delivery in accordance to World Bank, United Nation and IMF recommendations. A diplomat with international travel immunity will be contracted to deliver the fund to you Kindly get back to me today also with the requested information so that we can proceed on this matter as soon as possible.

1) Your full name.
2) Phone, fax and mobile #.
3) Company name, position and address.
4) Profession, age and marital status.
5) Copy of int’l passport, drivers license, or any valid ID card via e-mail attachment.

Bear in mind that the diplomat does not know the original contents of the boxes. What l declared to them as the contents is Sensitive Photographic Film Materials for security reasons/valuable material of your personal effect. I did not disclose it as money to them please. If they call you and ask you the contents please tell them the same thing Ok. Call me on my direct phone +234-1-6637394 or email and I will let you know how far I have gone with the arrangement. I will secure the Diplomatic Immunity Clearance Certificate (D.I.C.C), which will make him pass every custom checkpoint all over the world without any hitches.

Confirm the receipt of this message and send the requirements to me immediately because your boxes are scheduled to leave as soon as we hear from you.

Best Regards,
Lt General Dan Egbuna (Rtd).
National Security Adviser to the President
Federal Republic of Nigeria

A Nigerian scam artist opens the email by warning against Nigerian scam artists! That’s pretty damn funny to me.

Anyone have some good spam emails?

Technorati tags: full of fun fridays, spam, nigera

October is such a great month! It’s the start of fall and cooler weather, plus my favorite holiday of all time, Halloween! But I’ve noticed something this year. Something is different. I don’t see much about Halloween around, and I don’t like it.

For instance, usually I get a couple of jammies and Halloween shirts for Baby Grrl to wear. I’ve found a couple of each, but the selection is very small, and it seems like the stores aren’t stocking back what has been sold. Target usually has a large selection of cool stuff, and while they have the largest I’ve seen in a department store, again their stock isn’t as large as usual. I’ve had to go to a “Halloween Superstore” to look for costumes for Baby Grrl. The one exception I’ve seen so far.

But it doesn’t even stop with products. Normally this time of year is great for people like me when it comes to horror movies and programming. AMC is known for it’s Monsterfest, showing great classics and modern favorites, but even that has changed. Instead of a month of great horror movies, it’s now down to just 8 days, with the name changed to Fearfest. Other movie channels also have toned down their selections, from showing movies just one night a week, to just the week leading up to Halloween.

I’ve noticed it other places, too. I don’t see advertisements for haunted houses yet. Where is the add for the Bricktown Haunted Warehouse? It starts this weekend, and has been a OKC Halloween staple for over 20 years. The Frontier City Halloween events start this weekend also.

My tinfoil-hat starts tingling when I try to figure out why. Is it the religious right who are trying to get Halloween out of the public eye? It’s long time been a target, what with the misinformation about devils, witches, and other “evil” myths. And many of them have influence in the most unlikely of places, it’s not much of a stretch for my overactive imagination to have them influence what items are placed in a store and what adds show… Ok best take off the tin-foil hat.

I’m just really disappointed, and hope this isn’t a trend. We love Halloween so much, we got married on that day. Seriously.

Time for another cool and smart girl crush of mine. My generation knows Danica McKellar for Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years, but it wasn’t her acting that made her one of my heroes. It was her excelling in mathematics and writing two books about girls and math that got her there.

She graduated from UCLA, summa cum laude, with her Bachelors of Science in Mathematics, but the awesome part is that she co-authored a math proof (PDF), which is very rare for an undergrad. I won’t even pretend I know what they’re talking about in the paper. Way over my head. But thanks to that, she has an Erdős–Bacon number of 6:

A person’s Erdős–Bacon number is the sum of one’s Erdős number—which measures the “collaborative distance” in authoring mathematical papers between that individual and Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős—and one’s Bacon number—which represents the number of links, through roles in films, by which the individual is separated from American actor Kevin Bacon. The lower the number, the closer an individual is to Erdős and Bacon.

Wow, how geeky cool is that?

Her most recent mathematics involvement is her latest book, Kiss My Math. It was written for middle-school aged girls to help show them that math isn’t going to stop them from being anything they want to be. That math isn’t just for the stereotypical nerd, and that it’s important to learn, no matter what field they want to get into. She tackles pre-algebra, offering problems to work and help understanding how they can do it. It’s a follow up to her first book, Math Doesn’t Suck, which in an introduction to middle school math in general, and shows girls that they don’t have to hide their smarts; that they need to use them. An excerpt:

Let’s get a few things straight: Acne sucks. Mean people suck. Finding out that your boyfriend kissed another girl? That would totally suck. Too much homework, broken promises, detention, divorce, insecurities: suck, suck, suck, suck, suck.

But math is actually a good thing. Here are a few reasons why: Math builds confidence, keeps you from getting ripped off, makes you better at adjusting cookie recipes, understanding sports scores, budgeting and planning parties and vacations, interpreting how good a sale really is, and spending your allowance. It makes you feel smart when you walk in a room, prepares you for better-paying jobs, and helps you to think more logically.

Most of all, working on math sharpens your brain, actually making you smarter in all areas. Intelligence is real, it’s lasting, and no one can take it away from you. Ever.

And take it from me, nothing can take the place of the confidence that comes from developing your intelligence—not beauty, or fame, or anything else “superficial.”

That’s exactly what girls need to hear. When Baby Grrl gets old enough, I will definitely keep these books in mind. I want her to know that she doesn’t have to act dumb or dumb herself down for a boy or for anyone. I remember often doing that in class when I was young, because no one liked the smart kids. I wish I could go back in time and give myself a talking to, but I’ll have to live with trying to raise Baby Grrl, knowing what I would have liked to know back when I was a kid.

Anyway, for parents of girls to math geeks, there are plenty of people who are fans of Danica. I’ll be watching to see if she releases another math book!

Technorati tags: full of fun fridays, danica mckellar, math