Stormbringer's Thunder

Wowie! No more sneaking at night, no more shaking down late payments for cheese deliveries, no more government work...Yeah, sure. One of the first rules in Not Being Scammed is that you don't fall for "winning" a lottery that you never entered. In a foreign country. Where they don't know your name. Don't be a cafone . I have fun showing these scammers up, so here's today's lesson. From the keyboard of the lovely and talented Stephanie Wilson: UK GAMING BOARD ALERT. Compliments of the day to You and Your Family. We wish to inform you of the result of the National Lottery Sweepstakes program The entire staff of the Uk National Lottery wishes to inform you that your Email address has won the total Cash Prize of £850,000.00 The draw was done electronically with several email addresses provided to this office by microsoft to enhance the utilization of the internet. Your email address attached to Serial no: 5368/02, was Picked as One Of the Five Winning email Ad...

Ernie the Gambler, Neil and I were having an interesting talk about control freaks the other day. We were trying to figure out what their problem is in the first place, and how to disarm them. Remember when I did that piece about manipulation and being manipulated ? Well, the control freak is worse. Everyone wants to have some control of their lives, their destiny, their workplace, their front porch, whatever. And mentally healthy people don't want to be controlled, they want at least some say in their relationships. These people are so weak minded that they are in so much fear and anxiety in their own lives, they want to control your life as well. You don't have much say when you're in a relationship with a control freak: Do what you're told. The problem is, when a control freak is a raving psychotic, there is no pleasing them; the rules constantly change. When you do what you're told or forced to do, this worst of controllers is still not pleased. Control freaks ...

Uncle Bob is angry today. The Internet should be a fun and safe place. What a crock! (Although what it says is true, this link has strong profanity.) Hal the Hacker was busy, so I had to help Teenie on my own. She got her fingers on the "XP Antivirus" software. It's vicious. And why was Teenie surprised by this, after all I've taught her? Well... "The new XP antivirus 2008 , that hit the World Wide Web computers in March, is a major update to its predecessor. By calling it "major update" I mean that XP anti virus became more violent, more resilient, more immune to removal attempts, more "intelligent"; now it's recovering itself after being removed via Add and Remove Programs option in Windows Control Panel...This year's XP antivirus is more colourful, too, and features same interface as many legitimate antispyware software tools. It's totally understandable why even senior computer users install this rogue antivirus blindly believ...

Still waiting for news on the Tibetan protests for yesterday and today. The Chinese changed the route of the Olympic torch, and the timing, and kept it secret. If it's so much hassle, why bother? It's only a part of the Olympics since Hitler's 1936 games in Berlin. Hey, you ChiComs have a lot in common with Der Fűhrer, huh? Stronzos. OK, so this guy sends me a comment that is longer than the original "Monkey Business" post. Right. Like I'm going to get into an essay war with someone and bore all of you to tears. Hal the Hacker wanted to send him a "personal message" that would show up on his computer, but I don't want him to stop trying to put that virus in the CCP computers in Beijing. Nicky says, "Fuggedaboudit" — after all, he must have ignored the warning that I am right. Instead, I'll just go on a bit more. But I won't get into all the deep science that I used to study. You and I have better things to do. So get ready, Cow...

Buona sera. While I'm waiting for the reports to come in for the Global Day of Action for Tibet (June 18, 2008), I'll tell you about a discussion the boys and I were having. We have a spectrum here. One guy believes in Creation Science or Intelligent Design on faith, without science. Another is pretty much hardcore in the pseudoscience of evolutionism (yeah, I know, big words again) and believes that materialism explains everything. Another thinks that God used evolution to create life on this planet, and that Genesis is only an allegory. (Of course, where it stops being allegory and starts being history is a question he can't answer.) As you see, the use of the term "evolution" in this case is the "general theory" of the origin of life. As for me, I believed in evolution because of the way it's presented: It happened, and that's all there is to it. Everywhere you go, everything you read or hear, whenever origins of life are discussed, evoluti...

Buon giorno. I should have Neil write this because it's his story, but he's too busy trying to make money to pay the bills. As for me, I'm in a better mood because some money has come to me that I've been waiting a long time to receive. Neil works for a major American corporation. It's very big, and has international holdings. They complained that in their last quarter, they did not make as many tens of millions of dollars as they expected. Poor darlings! Neil says that this company is too big and too impersonal. I agree. The problem is, that's the way most of them get. His company does not care about its employees. They make a pretense at benefits because they could not get anyone to work there if they did not offer them (and their health benefits are laughable; many employees rely on their spouses for coverage). They cut out the overtime that many employees relied on to survive. Instead, they will have to learn the hard way that there is too much work, too li...

Buon giorno. You're traveling through a realm of annoyance. It is a realm that lies at the summit of man's irritation or the pit of his tolerance. It is a journey through a land of both ego and pride, of stupidity and ignorance. Arrogance is paramount. Introspection is rare. There's a signpost up ahead. Your next stop: The Obnoxious Zone. OK, enough of the bad Twilight Zone introduction re-write. But I had to blow off some steam. Very rough weekend, especially with the brutal heatwave. Tommy the Knocker has put dry ice in front of his fan, it's so bad. Maybe if it didn't hit six weeks before the usual time, it would be easier to tolerate. Yours truly has had to do some self-examination. Do I trash something that I like because of the people associated with it? That's what it comes down to. You see, I'm more than fed up with the "Spread Firefox" community. Basically, it's full of virgin geeks doing their "Yeah! Firefox rocks, dude!...