So I get a fair amount of spam – 30 or so a day. Given that I’ve got the ol’ filter set to high, I have to dip into my junk mail folder on Entourage each day, just to make sure there isn’t something in there that shouldn’t be. Here’s one that, in fairness to them, caught my eye:

Gladstein, turning to the reporter, smiled apologetically and significance.
A few months later, in January 1993, Landa met Soros in the investors they do not.
There is a pretty soundly based body of lore on Wall Street

Did you always wanted to enjoy an ordinary penis and average women? We doubt that.
And so we are here with our offer.
Mega means "great". And this new development MegaDik makes your penis simply great!
Take it and be delighted with your new sexual experiences!
You.ll be so pleasantly surprised...

MegaDik is your fortune!

the Holocaust. He must have understood that he would have trouble A final reason
behind Mr. Soross apparent desire for publicity as he for the collapse of the ERM
should curb their wrath: The fault is that however persuasive they might be, Soros
himself would have to piece entitled Talkative. half of his assets are in stocks.
The encounter with Benny Landa was symptomatic of a deeper change George has never
thought of himself as anything but Jewish. He

Spam confuses me. I’m sure at one point, when d’internet was new and shiny, and folks knew no better, these emails worked. But now? I mean, come on. Are there REALLY still folks out there who open their email and think: “A Nigerian businessman left me $100 million?!?! And all I have to do to collect is to email this random Hotmail address all my personal info?? AWESOME!” Do folks out there REALLY believe that the pills and potions on offer actually work? (Being Irish, I could probably use something called MegaDik more than most, but come on!) Has anyone ordered anything that they discovered via spam? Anyone bought any of those penny stocks and struck it rich? Point being, why do spammers keep spamming?

And invariably, the answer to that question is that yes, people are still that dumb. Yes, some arse-backwards individuals who get this tripe buy diet pills. Or sign up for porn sites.

Or, perhaps even MegaDik.

Canadian ISP Vircom, (click here for the PDF -6.9mb) managed to sit down with three spammers, and interview them on the condition of anonymity. Some interesting reading, but a “successful” week for your average spammer does indeed see them make more than minimum wage, but in doing so they’re breaking the law, and basically becoming… well, scumbags. (I mean, imagine meeting the woman of your dreams, and in conversation you tell her what you do. That’s not gonna go over too well.) One of the three, “Virginia” is obviously young, naive, and needs to be hit by a bus, saying things like “We’re not horrible people; we are earning a livelihood like everyone else. I wish people could appreciate just how hard it is to properly create an effective marketing message.”

So the bottom line? Until the general public stops being dumb by responding to spam, it’s always going to exist. But as the general public proved in 2004 by voting for Dubya again, we’re going to be waiting a long, long time for them to stop being dumb.

—————-
Now playing: The Helio Sequence – The Echo-Blomp
via FoxyTunes

Another week, another dollar. The weekend was spent watching the Red Sox win the World Series (hooray!) and Liverpool playing like absolute arse against… well, the Arse. And of course, house hunting.

Stopped by a couple of open houses, one near Jeff and Liz that wasn’t bad, one about 50 yards from the Interstate that was a complete dump (a dump they were asking for $729,000 for!), and a really nice Eichler that was out of our price range in the boonies of Terra Linda. We’re slowly coming to the conclusion that our hopes of living in a semi-urban environment while still having some space and a decent yard are a bit far fetched. We’re still hopeful, but starting to consider places like Terra Linda. Blech. We should just change our name to the Cleavers…

If we are going to live out yonder, then my plans to get a garden studio will indeed come to fruition. The plans of this thing are rooted firmly in my head, now just need to get them down on paper. It’s going to be a modernist structure, using as much in the way of sustainable construction and design as I can, borrowing elements from the likes of Michelle Kaufmann. Here’s a child-like quick scribble of what I’m plotting. (Quit yer laughing, I don’t have any 3D software, so had to ad lib with Illustrator…)

Basically, it’s yer standard 12′x10′ shed, as featured in many a UK prefab studio shop, with a lean-to roof (1′ overhang all round). I’m toying with the idea of a planted roof, which would help with insulation, while also working towards reducing the building’s carbon footprint, but that might be beyond me. All the wood’s got to be FSC certified or recycled, doors and windows have to be low-e, whole thing to be insulated, natural smooth bamboo or cedar siding on the outside, bamboo floor, greenrock inside. I’d love to have it self-powered via solar, but I that’s going WAY beyond the budget, so power’s going to have to come from the house (that I don’t have yet, haha). I’d like recessed lighting (LED, maybe) inside, for the occasions I’ll be working late. For during the day, the monstrous weird lattice thingy is a 6′ wooden shade that can be slid across the door opening during the day to provide shade while keeping the doors open to allow air to come in. (I’m thinking I can rig some sort of lock to keep this over the doors at night, for added security.) I’d love to have a custom 6′ door to maximize that opening, but will probably have to go with inswinging french or a bog-standard sliding jobbie. All of this is going to have to be done with a relatively minimal budget, so I’m likely going to have to do at least some of the work on this myself. (Lord help us all.) I’m planning on documenting this build on here, since I think there’s a lot of people out there who could benefit from knowing that a muppet like me can do this – and create the same harmonious environment for themselves.

As I was sitting fiddling with a pad and paper during my lunch hour, I decided to email a blast from the past for some help – Miss Gina Baker, a fabulously talented LEED architect, guru of sustainable design, and an old… erm, acquaintance from DC. She popped into my head when I started plotting this, and in typical ubermick fashion, likely put my foot in my mouth… Regardless of the shed, I’m interested to hear back from her just to hear how things are going – she’s a wonderful girl, and always knew she was destined for bigger and better things. And hey, my project might give her a good giggle.

Last report is that I’ve been informed that the work Christmas party/big bossman’s retirement is on December 19th, and that “all staff will be attending (telecommuters too!)” So looks like I get to fly back to DC for a week just before Christmas – greaaaat. Although it’ll be nice to catch up with folks back east, and I can use the opportunity to scoop up some Christmas pressies for Trace.

—————-
Now playing: G. Love and Special Sauce – Free At Last
via FoxyTunes

Ahh, the end of another week. Thank Christ. Well, almost – it’s still morning, but a 2 hour Skype session with Mindy has already left me feeling knackered, and looking forward to clocking off and knocking back some beverages this evening. Think we’re meeting up with Braswell in the City for some early libations. Which means I get to see this again:

Had to watch Grey’s Anatomy last night. Which, if you have a penis, is akin to having your head beaten in with a hammer. But Jenny was supposed to be in it, so we headed over to Jeff and Liz’s to watch. Two bottles of wine and a very tasty dinner later, the end credits rolled and her scenes had been cut – so I endured 60 minutes of overwrought shite for nothing! We consoled ourselves with another bottle of wine, a bottle of Jeff’s own Peloton Cellars. If wine’s something you’re into, you’d do well to check out their site and get on their list – http://www.pelotoncellars.com/

But hey, the Red Sox are 2-0 in the World Series!

Back to work. Need coffee. Have a good weekend.

—————-
Now playing: Beastie Boys – Namaste
via FoxyTunes

Okay, so the last post was pretty vague. Not that anyone is paying attention, haha.

So here I am in San Rafael, California, working out of one of the two bedrooms in our rented apartment. Which ain’t fun, I have to admit – whoever lives upstairs from us alternates between performing Riverdance and vacuuming. Seriously. They vacuum twice a day, I shit you not. (This might be normal behavior for people – since Tracee and I vacuum twice a month.) This is coupled with a dog that’s left alone during the day in the apartment across from us, which causes the poor thing to constantly bark and howl.

Tracee and I have been working with a realtor since we got here. We’ve pondered a lot about the house purchase, and came up with a list of “what’s important to us”. One of the main ones was walking distance (less than a mile?) to “urban amenities” like restaurants, bars, coffee shops, etc. because frankly, I’m going fucking stir crazy cooped up in this apartment, so we’ve chosen a little neighborhood of San Rafael called Gerstle Park, just south of the main strip. Only problem with THAT is gonna be finding a house we like and can afford there. The search is ongoing, but we haven’t found anything yet…

Once the new house is purchased, the first project I want to attack is to build a studio in the back. Garden offices, aka shedworking, is all the rage back home in Ireland and in the UK, where similarly ridiculous house prices have forced folks to modify existing space as opposed to moving somewhere bigger. It’s a cool concept, since it’ll basically free up a bedroom, and also get me into an environment where I’ll (hopefully) be more productive and focused. I found Alex Johnson’s excellent shedworking site on the subject, and peruse it daily for ideas and inspiration. (The building of this will be cheerfully documented on here as soon as I get started. Which will, um, happen as soon as we buy a house.)

And that’s about it. Off to play soccer now.

—————-
Now playing: Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros – Johnny Appleseed
via FoxyTunes

(I’m actually writing this after the fact. Sort of pseudoblogging.)

Spot of wine tasting this weekend. I’m, like, SO Californian. Headed up to Sonoma County with Braswell, Lindsey, and Tee-Billz, and basically proceeded to get bollixed. Best of the lot was a teeny little out of the way place called Mounts Family Vineyards. Their Syrah and Petite Syrah was the best I’ve ever had, but they were nothing compared to the zinfandel we got to try straight out of the barrel. Check ‘em out at their website here. We headed home, rather buzzed, but that didn’t stop us from cracking open another bottle (sorry, two) and spending the evening talking shite. Good day. Good day!

—————-
Now playing: Donavon Frankenreiter – It Don’t Matter
via FoxyTunes

Okay, given the fact that it’s almost the end of October, and that this will be the second post of the calendar year, it’s safe to assume that this blog is dead. Kaput. No more. It has ceased to be. Moved on. It is an.. ah feck, you get the idea.

Anyways. If there are one or two folks still paying attention, I’m likely going to revive this blog, not as a bike oriented blog, but as an Ubermick oriented blog. Since mountain biking is, to be fair, just a wee part of the whole, that’s why this blog has slid into oblivion. I’ve got far too much shit going on to ride (although I did ride a couple weeks ago, and had my ass handed to me by China Fucking Camp.). So from here on in, I’ll post more. But it’s likely going to be more a moan about the Bay Area real estate market, the joys of telecommuting, trying to make friends in a brand new city, etc. etc.

Y’see, we no longer live in DC. On September 1st, Jed Clampett style, we loaded up the car, and we moved to.. San Rafael, California. Tracee scored a job at the Marin Office of Education (I don’t get the impression she’s thrilled with it, but she does realize that it’s not only a means to an end, but also a foot in the door) and NASFAA approved my working from home. (Which means I’m no longer riding to work, since it’d be wierd hopping on the hardtail, and pedalling it to the spare bedroom, haha)

And that’s about it. Now we’re in a 2 bedroom apartment in Northern San Rafael (ie, the Uber-burbs), and looking for a house we can afford somewhere in downtown San Rafael (ie, fucking impossible.)

Cool news is that Michael and Lori are visiting at the moment! They drove down from Alaska, stopped at Michael’s parents in Oregon for a bit, and spent the weekend with us in the Bay. Got to take them around a wee bit and show them the sights, did a wee hike in Muir Woods, and tooled around the City yesterday. We shared anti-DC sentimentalities, and celebrated Lori’s birthday by eating tasty sushi and watching the Red Sox win the ALCS. They’re leaving today (I can hear them starting to stir in the spare bedroom as I type. At least I hope it’s just stirring…!) alas, which is a pity – I miss having them around, and furiously hope things work out as they start the search for jobs and a new place to live.

That’s about it. Back to work.

—————-
Now playing: John Butler Trio – Funky Tonight
via FoxyTunes