.:Gotta Drop a Blog in The Corner:.

yes, i'll read the entire thing for shits and giggles. i'll look for spelling and grammar mistakes, and i'll check out the full headers. this was a recent one that i got in my "spam" account. it's subject is, "FRAUD ALERT ON YOUR FUNDS (CODE 111)". the "person/account sending" the message is "F.B.I ". it starts off with this,

ROBERT MUELLER III EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FBI FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION FBI.WASHINGTON D.C FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION SEEKING TO WIRETAP INTERNET

pretty impressive right? robert mueller is keeping tabs on my accounts and financial dealings. what the hell is the federal bureau of investigation seeking to wiretap internet? why would they name a division that? if they did have a division to wiretap the internet, wouldn't they just name it the internet wiretapping division? the whole concept of a division seeking to wiretap the internet means it's not already in place right? like they're trying to build some public support for it so they can actually do wiretapping.

the message follows with some gibbah jabbah (as mr. t would say), but i'll just highlight the parts i found funny.

We hope this notification meets you in a good state of mind and health. The Federal bureau of investigation (FBI) Washington, D.C in conjunction with some other relevant Investigation Agencies here in the United states of America have recently been informed through our Global intelligence monitoring network that you presently have a transaction going on with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with regards to your over-due contract payment which according to their records has been fully endorsed in your favor.

i'm glad the fbi is concerned with my state of mind and health on top of busting up bad guys in their domestic duties.

It might interest you to know that we have taken out time in screening through this project as stipulated by the usual protocol of operation and have finally confirmed that your contract payment is 100% genuine and hitch free from all encumbrances and of which you have the lawful right to claim your fund without any further delay. Having notified you of this, we advise that you go ahead in dealing with the Central Bank office accordingly as we will be monitoring all their services with you as well as your correspondence with them at all levels of your claim.

wow, the fbi has taken over duties to do checks for individual citizens when it comes to their finances. can they also do my taxes and submit them to the internal revenue service for me too?

In addition, please also be informed that we recently had a meeting with the new Executive Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, in the person of Lamido Sanusi and Mr. Tunde Lemo along with some of the top officials of the ministry regarding your case and they made us understand that your file has been held in suspense depending on when you personally come for the claim. They also told us that the only problem they are facing right now is that some unscrupulous elements are using this project as an avenue to scam innocent people off their hard earned money by impersonating the Executive Governor and the Central Bank office.

i'm sure the busy board of the nigerian central bank loved meeting with you mr. mueller, about my specific case. i also appreciate the irony of the whole unscrupulous elements scamming innocent people by impersonating the executive governor of the central bank. i'm glad you had a chance to meet with them.

We were also made to understand that a lady with name Mrs.Joan C Bailey
from OHIO has already contacted them and also presented to them all the
necessary documents evidencing a claim purported to have been
signed personally by you prior to the release of your contract fund valued
at about US$8,000,000.00 (Eight million united states dollars),but the
Central Bank office did the wise thing by insisting on hearing from you
personally before they go ahead on wiring your fund to the Bank
information which was forwarded to them by the above named Lady. One of
the main reason why they contacted us was to assist them in making the
investigations.

oh, mrs. joan c bailey from ohio! wait, who the hell is that? when the hell did i sign off on some documents going to nigeria? why is the spacing all messed up in your email mr. mueller of the fbi? can't i at least expect a professionally written email from our country's premier domestic intelligence agency? speaking of which, the fbi is actually a within the justice department... you'd think that with all the lawyers running around, these types of things would be up to snuff.

We were further informed that we should warn our dear citizens who must have been informed of the contract payment which was awarded to them from the Central Bank of Nigeria, to be very careful as a result of all these irregularities so that they don't fall victim to such an ugly circumstance. And should in case you are already dealing with anybody or office claiming to be from the Central Bank of Nigeria, you are further advised to STOP further contact with them in your best interest and then contact the real office of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) only with the below information accordingly:

again, irony appreciated.

NAME: SANUSI LAMIDO SANUSI

OFFICE ADDRESS: Central Bank of Nigeria,
Central Business District,
Cadastral Zone, Abuja, Federal
Capital Territory, Nigeria.
SANUSI LAMIDO SANUSI
Email:sanusicbngv1@aol.com
OFFICE PHONE: 234-808-1559451

well i guess that's good for aol that the governor of the nigerian central bank has an aol.com email... seeing as how they've just been spun off from time warner since they were a money drain on the combined media entity. going after the nigerian market will surely boost their revenues and profits, despite losing marketshare in the US. i can imagine Mr. Sanusi starting up his computer and waiting for the words, "you've got mail" like in that meg ryan-tom hanks movie. how awesome is that?

In your best interest, any message that doesn't come from the above email
address and phone number should not be replied to and should be
disregarded accordingly for security reasons. Meanwhile, we will advise
that you contact the Governor of the Central Bank immediately with the
above email address and request that they attend to your payment file as
directed, so as to enable you receive your contract fund accordingly.
To this effect, you are required to reconfirm and authenticate your given
particulars below for certainty and onward processing and release of you
funds as we may not be held liable for any wrong payment. You will be
required
to pay a fee of $550 dollars for the complete processing of your transfer.

how convenient that i get to contact the governor of the central bank, i'm sure he's waiting to hear from me. i wonder though, why must i pay a $550 processing fee? wouldn't it make more sense for you, the fbi to pay the fee for me since you've initiated this whole process without me. if you really think about it mr. mueller, if i end up getting that stream of $8 million usd, you'll make back that $550 processing fee in taxes i'll owe, and then some. so call it a good faith move on your part... pay the fee for me first, and then you'll get more funding in the next budget from the taxes i'll pay. besides, you're organization has been doing such a good job up until this point, i'm really hesitant to step in, in case i mess something up. we wouldn't want the tax on my $8 million to disappear now do we?

and the best part of the whole thing can be found in the email headers

X-AOL-UID: 3281.1756801258
X-AOL-DATE: Sat, 6 Feb 2010 3:10:58 AM Eastern Standard Time
Return-Path: info@fbi.gov
Received: from mtain-mg09.r1000.mx.aol.com (mtain-mg09.r1000.mx.aol.com [172.29.96.209]) by air-db07.mail.aol.com (v126.13) with ESMTP id MAILINDB074-869b4b6d240970; Sat, 06 Feb 2010 03:10:49 -0500
Received: from mail1.unicorp.com.qa (www.bemcoqatar.com.qa [213.130.100.10])
by mtain-mg09.r1000.mx.aol.com (Internet Inbound) with ESMTP id 08F7A3800010D
for *****@mail.com; Sat, 6 Feb 2010 03:10:47 -0500 (EST)
Received: from User ([82.128.38.212] RDNS failed) by mail1.unicorp.com.qa with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.3959);
Sat, 6 Feb 2010 00:03:33 +0300
Reply-To: rbtmueller1@aol.com
From: "F.B.I"info@fbi.gov
Subject: FRAUD ALERT ON YOUR FUNDS (CODE 111)
Date: Fri, 5 Feb 2010 21:59:49 +0100
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="Windows-1251"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000
Message-ID: MAIL1iVx9H1e0CwzoF700009621@mail1.unicorp.com.qa
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 05 Feb 2010 21:03:33.0705 (UTC) FILETIME=[AD609390:01CAA6A6]
x-aol-global-disposition: S
x-aol-sid: 3039ac1d60d14b6d24071605
X-AOL-IP: 213.130.100.10

interestingly enough, the originating domain was in qatar. i guess the fbi's email servers are located out there? plus, they use an aol mail server route to transmit... no wonder our intelligence on iraq sucked so much! way to go using secure servers fbi! plus, who the hell uses the aol mail server platform anymore anyways? i also like the replyto email address of rbtmueller1@aol.com. good to know the head of the fbi is ALSO an aol user!

the recent episode of the office featured some wegmans soda in the break room! it isn't the first time that wegmans has been on the office. for those of you who have never heard of wegmans, it's just the best supermarket in all the land. better than whole foods, better than trader joes. stop in if you're ever in western or central new york, western pennsylvania, northern or southern new jersey, or northern maryland and virginia.

one of the songs that's been on heavy rotation in my queue is i'll fight by wilco. much like coax me by sloan, it's one of those songs where something very specific is able to capture my attention to really elevate it to another level for me. with coax me, it's always been the two guitar lines playing off each other. with i'll fight it's the organ that my ears really focus on. it adds a richness, albeit in very brief bursts.

i'm pretty excited for these olympic games. vancouver should be a great host city, i'm glad i get to watch some canadians do their thing. north america is so dominated by the US, and i find that many people have no idea what goes on up in the canadia. for this reason, i'm so glad i grew up in buffalo... living in a border city gives one an interesting perspective. my musical tastes were shaped by some good canadian radio back in the day, and i am very greatful for that. additionally, trips up to toronto are quick and easy, and it's always been fun heading up there and exploring. of course i can't forget going up for some weekend hockey tournaments. my team always lost to those burlington, on teams we played... but really... you can't expect us americans to one up those canadian kids on their turf (ice). while i've been through most of eastern canada... one day soon, i hope to make a trek out west and ski banff and check out vancouver.

it's been awhile since i've watched such an exciting hockey game, seeing as how buffalo has barely missed the playoffs the last couple seasons. it must have been amazing to be at the arena for the start, i was all charged up from seeing the crowd just on the tv. i chose to go with canadian ctv coverage over msnbc (one of the benefits of living close to the border). had some good shots of different groups of people watching from toronto to vancouver. i have to admit, i was undecided on who i should throw my support behind in the beginning. on the one hand i've always been partial to canada in most things especially when it comes to music, government, and social responsibility. i also have this love for a sport i feel is above all others in hockey. however well... i'm still an american, though one who's been influenced quite a bit by our neighbor to the north having spent much of my life in the buffalo-niagara metro area. the US roster has sabres goalie ryan miller as its starter, ex-sabre chris drury who still might be one of my all around favorite sabres, and two buffalo area natives in brooks orpik (currently with the pens), and patrick kane (currently with the blackhawks). it was quite a conundrum for me... who to root for. in the end, the buffalo ties won.

miller was fantastic tonight as the US took about half as many shots as the canadians making 42 out of 45 saves. he'll be the reason the sabres go deep into the cup playoffs this year. playing against the elite teams in the olympics could really boost his confidence going into the last couple months of the nhl season. for sure, canada has a very talented team. they totally dominated the americans for much of the game in all aspects of it. however, the US hung tough and found a way to win. for this reason, though canada now has a longer road to get to the gold medal game, i feel like they're still better equipped than the americans to do it. this could set up an interesting final if the US and canada both make it.

i also got around to thinking about the make up of the US team, and how many people were upset with some of the selections including that of chris drury. jeremy roenick spoke out in public against drury's selection. i've always despised roenick and his big fat useless mouth, especially when he was playing with philly. that guy should just shut his pie hole. tonight drury again had a clutch goal as he usually comes through in times when his teams really need him to. additionally, drury's fearless in blocking shots and is one of the most effective penalty killers out there, both of which were on display tonight. he might not be a power forward who score pretty goals, but he's a great role player, leader, and is responsible at both ends of the ice.

so those were pretty much the things going through my head as the game moved from the first to second period. the game itself was great though, constant back and forth, canada always coming back to tie until the americans took a two goal lead later in the game. canada's goal to pull within one made it a lot more tense, and it seemed like the americans would never get the puck out of their zone in the last couple minutes. kesler's empty net diving goal to put out the canadians allowed me to exhale. the effort he made to tap it in with his stick was brilliant.

so... with that, i'll congratulate the canadian team for playing a hard game... and give them some good vibes to get past germany and russia. hopefully both teams will be able to survive to the gold medal round, and we'll have a very intense and interesting rematch. i'm still uncertain about who i'd root for if that game does indeed happen. i think it would be amazing to see canadians win their first gold on home ice, and just to be happy for all the canadians out there. however seeing as how the canadian team denied the US team their own celebration on home ice in the gold medal game in the slc olympics... i might decide it's time for payback. at the end of the day though, this game was so good for the sport of hockey all around.

just wanted to type something up quick before the canada-russia game. i am crossing my fingers team canada brings their A-game, as russia's gonna be a really hard opponent to get by. hopefully the crowd can serve as a huge 7th man on the ice tonight. since canada absolutely destroyed deutschland yesterday, i hope the confidence is able to carry over to tonight, while the day off for russia doesn't help as much as it should.

i'd also like to add how much i enjoyed watching joannie rochette skate last night. that can't be an easy thing to do after the week she's had. to see the reaction and support of the crowd behind her... canada, you are an amazing country, and ms. rochette you do your country and mother proud!

with all the olympic happenings lately, a lot of the major news stories may have been brushed over recently. i'd like to highlight one that is an issue i feel very strongly about. for any non-american readers out there, you may have heard about the whole healthcare debate in the US and how the democrats are trying to overhaul our system, while conservatives and republicans pretty much want less regulation and more privatization (expansion of private health insurance). recently president obama had called a summit inviting republicans to join with democrats to try and figure out a way to save his healthcare package and get it passed. first off, i think it's a no brainer to get this passed. healthcare costs in the US account for around 16% of our gdp and is rising. with the increased costs, less people are able to afford private insurance, and the numbers of uninsured are increasing. with the economic downturn affecting the job status of families and individuals, even more are being added to the rolls of uninsured, since health insurance is still tied closely to an employer's benefits package. now i understand the arguments by the democrats to want to push through a public option. i completely agree that healthcare is a right, and government SHOULD be in the business of overseeing healthcare. there are many reasons why i think it would be more efficient if we moved in that direction, one of them being economies of scope and another being economies of scale. conceptually i understand the conservatives and republicans argument of smaller government, that is their mantra and agenda. although i don't always agree with them, it does has its place in certain instances, i don't think this is one of them. so i respect both views of the two sides. however, to stall legislation so that nothing gets done is ridiculous. the plan is NOT perfect, and will NEVER be as long as there are two sides to the issue. people need help NOW! healthcare has always been an incremental process in the US starting from jfk-lbj first coming on the coattails of the whole social security debate. medicare was added along with medicaid. drg's were introduced, schip was expanded, part d was added. this has been an evolution of around 50 some years. originally the plan by the liberals were to expand medicare so that it would cover all of the public, but there was pushback because we didn't want a SOCIALIZED system. that was 40 years ago! in 1992 when clinton was elected, one of the centerpieces of his platform was healthcare reform. the republicans took control of congress after his election and killed it. almost a two decades ago, we knew our healthcare system was unsustainable. what do we have to show for all those years that have passed? absolutely nothing policy wise, but healthcare costs have risen from 10% of gdp to the 16% now. people need solutions now! stop bickering about the details and pass something, get it moving forward at least. i know the democrats and republicans have to agree on some pieces of the legislation, it can't be an all or nothing kind of deal. if it were up to me, i'd just tell the democrats to go it alone. they have the majority in congress right now, as well as the executive branch. the longer they wait the unhappier the public will get, the bigger chance they'll lose their mid-term elections this fall. pass it now while they have the majority! don't back down from the conservatives! why be so afraid? grow a pair already! to all those who think socialized medicine will be the end of the US... what the hell do you think medicare and social security are? they are two socialized programs! if you are so pro privatization and anti big government, i would urge you to drum up support for a national referendum to end social security and medicare! and for those of you who are currently enjoying the benefits of both and don't support healthcare reform... i don't even know what to say to you. get your head out your ass, do you even know what the issues are? are you even capable of logical thinking? do you understand your hypocritical position that makes absolutely no sense?

enough ranting about healthcare, i'll just leave you with a clip from western new york's own louise slaughter from president obama's summit. sums up how i feel about this whole mess pretty well.

on to hockey. wow. i really didn't expect the US to have such a monster game against finland. so it's up to canada tonight. slovakia has an up and coming team, and they have satan on their team (as in miroslav satan, former sabre, penguin, islander, oiler, and current bruin)! it would be great if canada didn't let up after their own blowout win over the russians. with a win, we've got an awesome US-canada rematch on the way sunday!

congrats to joannie, yu-na, and mao. good showing by mirai too!

i saw this brilliant shirt on shirt woot the other day, and it made me laugh. i went and got a shirt.

does anyone know what a grimace is? i never really questioned it when i was little, but whoever came up with the thing had to have been pretty lazy, or crazy, or both. it's just a purple blob raindrop thingy, with eyes and eyebrows, and a mouth, and stubby arms and big feet. what the hell is it supposed to be? is it purple because it's sick from a diet consisting of 100% mcdonald's products? since it has a pear-shaped body, does it mean it is less prone to diabetes 2 and other weight related disorders than its apple-shaped relatives? and why doesn't it put some pants on already? what the f man? it doesn't even look like anything.

this reminded me of one of my favorite ricky gervais clips as some nursery rhymes also don't make any sense.

i am looking forward to the game tomorrow. one of my friends flew back to vancouver for the weekend. they'll be doing some celebrating come sunday if team canada wins. i on the other hand am hoping ryan miller stymies crosby, heatley, thornton, and co. speaking of crosby... i was thinking about team canada's roster, and how they have half the lineup of crosby, stills, nash, and young... or two-thirds of the lineup of crosby, stills, and nash.