Spammers are morons

I get a lot of spam, I’m sure I’m not alone. People how are sending this spam are getting dumber by the minute. The idea is to make people OPEN their mail, right? Let me discuss for the moment, my inbox right now.

From: “fleishj”
Subject: “Re: My darling …..”

I don’t even need to OPEN that to determine it’s spam, it just gets chucked straight away. I give that a D.

From: “Upgrades”
Subject: “products Ours best”

Again, wtf? English? That’s a C at best.

And these are the examples that AREN’T picked up by Gmail’s SPAM filter. How nutsy is that? And at Price Point, we get “Re: xusdhjghf” (or any other random combination of letters) as the subject line in spam all the time. They also get a D.

I grudgingly give a B- rating to the:
BEST JOB OFFER - PLEASE REPLY ASAP email, from the good folk at Global Austrian Syndicate, may they rot in hell. This is the only spam that someone not a moron could POSSIBLY open, thinking it was actually for them.

I thought I knew where the term “spam” came from, and decided to check it out on wikipedia. Turns out, I was wrong:
There are three popular fake etymologies of the word “spam”. The first, promulgated by Canter & Siegel themselves, is that “spamming” is what happens when one dumps a can of SPAM luncheon meat into a fan blade. The second is the backronym “shit posing as mail.” The third is similar, using “stupid pointless annoying messages.”

Turns out the correct etymology is:
The term spam is derived from the Monty Python SPAM sketch, set in a cafe where nearly every item on the menu includes SPAM luncheon meat. As the server recites the SPAM-filled menu, a chorus of Viking patrons drowns out all conversations with a song repeating “SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM… lovely SPAM, wonderful SPAM,” hence “SPAMming” the dialogue.

So, that’s all for that micro rant. It was Danielle’s birthday yesterday, and I was too sick and too busy to get the 30 seconds it would’ve taken to phone her. Yup, I’m just that bad of a friend. I’ve got Blue Care coming today to change my dressing on my vacuum pump, and possibly lunch with John Laird. Oh, and my latest tablets that I’m on turn tears and urine orange. I think that’s everything. Ciao!

Emmys and Tyler Durden

Hey everyone, sorry I haven’t posted in a while, but internet access in hospital is carp.

So I’m out. And it’s good and bad. Good in the sense that I don’t have to sit around doing nothing and having your brain rot, bad in the sense that I don’t have a call button to press everytime I want something. Just last night I felt like a glass of water and had to get it myself. Can you believe it?

Had a much longer stay than usual this time around - I initially went in on the Thursday before last, and got out yesterday evening (just in time for peak hour traffic actually) so that makes 12 days. The food didn’t get any better the whole time I was there, but I kept hoping.

Mum and Dad were really good to me while I was locked away, and Leyton too. Major thanks to those guys, esp Leyton who’s not even family, he did it just for the money. :p

Yesterday was a good day, and I watched the Emmys live on TV. Oh, for those who I keep extolling the virtues of the “What Would Tyler Durden Do” blog to, the url is: www.wwtdd.com. Bookmark it. The only thing worth watching about the Emmys is what shows look good that you aren’t watching. Huff is one show I would like to get into, and I’m glad I just got into Weeds. Jeremy Piven won Best Supporting Actor in a comedy for his portrayal as Ari in Entourage, which is also something I’m hell glad that I’m watching nowadays.

Linda visited yesterday, presumably she was racked with guilt about not visiting me in hospital. Apparently both she and I missed comparitively exciting drama (and that is, exciting compared to watching tv in hospital) at SLC Sunday just gone. Can’t wait to hear about THAT.

Thirty or so

So I really don’t have a lot to report. I’ve been doing a fair few hours at work lately, and largely coming home and sleeping for a while. The other day I came home and slept from 4-8 oclock, woke up and had something to eat and then went back to bed and slept through the night. Eventful! I did have a headache at the time, so that is at least some minor justification.

We’ve had Rachel staying with us again these last few days. Rachel is a friend of M&D’s from NYSF, and she has a clerkship or internship at a law firm in the city through Bond uni, so instead of commuting to and from the coast every day, she’s staying with us, except for weekends, at which time she goes back to her family.

I dropped in on Deano in the hospital yesterday on the way home from Candice’s. It was good to see him again cos I hadn’t seen him in a few days and I couldn’t stay too long because of parking. I stopped in at the shops on the way home to buy mince (as requested by mum) to cook for tea. Rachel cooked the pasta while I cooked the sauce and stuff and it tasted very good if I do say so myself.

My light is broken in my room too, so I’m operating in dim crappy lights. I went out and bought a new bulb, only to find that the problem lay more deeply seated. I need to replace a part for it to work again, which I may or may not be able to do, so until then, I’ve got crappy light and some torches.

I’ve had yesterday and today off work which has been nice, and it’s back to it again tomorrow. I helped one bloke install his car stereo in the parking lot during lunch break the other day, which he was most appreciative of. He still had a few things left to do to it, which I’m sure he was capable of doing himself, so I’ll see if there’s any loose ends I need to finish up for him tomorrow.

more hospital

hey everyone, real quick - still in hospital, more surgery on Friday. They’re taking the band out for real this time.

- Dean

stupid horoscope

hey so most peeps probably know this by now, but I’m back in hospital. I felt sick on Wednesday, and by Thursday morning, my wound was hot to touch, sore, and swolen.

When I eventually got to see a doctor, they remanded me here. Exploratory surgery today and some extended time here on IV abs.

my only regret … is that i have … bonitis.

So it’s been back to the grind a bit lately, working again, but not a lot - seems like a lot of hours. I’m doing my best to maintain my night-owl lifestyle while having to get up early to work. It’s not doin too badly at this stage, but possibly won’t last too long hhehhe.

Last week Liam had been in Brisbane waiting for his car to be fixed, so we hung out a bit. I went over to his place late one night and we hit the servo to stock up on junk food for a night of Xboxing - Forza and Tony Hawk Underground were the order of the evening, followed by falling asleep watching The Butterfly Effect. I actually watched it all though, because it was relatively interesting.

Been trying to spend lots of time with Candice, and doing a reasonable job considering she starts work roughly when I finish, most days of the week. We went and had dinner at Sushi Station and then saw Hoodwinked, both at Balmoral, last night. It was the first time I’d been to a sushi station, and it was really a lot of fun - I’m sure the company had a lot to do with it. Hoodwinked is pretty funny too. Quite enjoyable, and an interesting juxtaposition. It’s quite grown up, but it has musical numbers in it which don’t seem to fit, but you get that.

I went and saw Bob Evans with Morgan and Tiffany on Saturday night. It was at a newly established place in the Valley - “The Columbian Bar” on Constance St in the Valley. It had a recently painted smell to it, and was quite big and spacious inside, with a good stage and crowd area, but I wasn’t really that into the music for some reason. It was as good as expected, just wasn’t feelin the groove for some reason. The bar felt like it wasn’t sure if it was a live music place, or a club, or a lounge - needs to develop a bit of atmosphere. But other than that, I had a great night.

I stayed at Candice’s on Sunday night after she’d been at the Gold Coast for the weekend for the eisteddfod that her dance studio is competing in, and left for work on Monday from her place. It works pretty well, cos I just jump on the gateway and I’m there in a few minutes.

Thanks to the Ekka for a day off tomorrow. Not sure what I’ll be up to, but might find myself delivering phone books with Cebs. We’ll see.

no TV for you!

It gets to the point where it’s almost embarassing doing another blog entry. How long since the last one? Like a week or something? sorry about that.

This weekend was GREAT. I had a really good time, several times.

Although not strictly “the weekend”, I had dinner with Rob and Nadia on Wednesday which was great - actually hadn’t seen R&N for aaages, but it was really good to catch up. Thursday I saw Miami Vice, which I found a bit confusing, because I didn’t know that they covered drugs under their purvue:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vice_squad
I thought prostitution and gambling, but drugs were handled elsewhere. Since the movie is mostly about drug cartels, that might explain why I was so confused.

Thursday I slept over at M&D’s, and then slept in until a shameful hour. I was still exhausted, and spent most of Friday in bed - including the world’s biggest sleep. That just helped prepare for Saturday.

I had an awesome evening with Glenn and Lara, chinese food and red wine. What a theme! In true parents-of-the-year style, all kids were in bed by 8:30pm, and we chit chatted about nonsense until 11pm or so, where I bid them adieu. Glara couldn’t make SLC on Sunday, so it was lucky they could fit me in on Saturday.

Sunday was the most expensive SLC we’ve had thus far, I think … it was in a nice restaurant in Bulimba, right on the water, called Tonic. Food was beautiful - I had an entree sized scallop risotto, which had nuts and bacon in the risotto, mmmm - Brett had the boullibaise which looked great, Bek had a main-sized version of what I had, and Blacky had the lamb, which looked good, but he didn’t realize that it didn’t come with vegetables unless you order them as a side dish. Luckily, I DID order them as a side dish and he had some of those. I liked it, but it certainly wouldn’t have been appropriate for Glara and kids - another large group had their kids sitting at another table watching a portable dvd player. That’s pretty funny.

Brek came back afterwards for a cuppa and a game of SanJuan, which I raped in. Bek also convinced us to join them at the ultimate film from the BIFF, which I can’t remember the name of now, but it wasn’t bad … story of a musician who moves to NY and the interactions he has with his friends. Black and white. The short was called Tube Poker and was pretty funny - supposedly thugs are playing “poker” on the trains … where a man is a King, a woman is a Queen, old people are Aces, teenagers are Jacks etc. By the time we get to 5 stops, I’ll have the better “hand”. Interesting, especially the results when the Yakuza wanted a piece of it. Late night, and an early morning this morning, but it beats watching TV.Especially since Yasmin got cancelled. (har har har)

Grand Atlantic

So it’s been a fun few days. I haven’t worked this week cos there hasn’t been any for me to do, so I’ve been a bit bored actually. I started paintint the rails, and it’s quite a long job. I’ve been doing it on and off for the last few days, and it still needs a second coat and touching up the other little bits and pieces.

I went into the valley after visiting Candice at work last night. Morgan was playing keyboards for The Grand Atlantic (a band) at the launch of their single at the Troubadour, and it was lots of fun. It’s been a while since I’ve seen them play, and they’ve improved quite a bit since I saw them. They had a brass section for the occasion, which was cool. Trombone, picolo trumpet and regular trumpet made appearances, and it really turned it into a fun show. Also got to meet Morgan’s ladykind Tiffany, and gave them a lift home before crashing into my own bed at 4 o’clock.

We’re going bowling at Strike in the city tonight, which should be lots of fun.

And it’s time to get myself into a trade, or SOMETHING, so I’m going to call the guy on Monday and make inroads to getting myself placed. Here’s hoping.

sneaking in a blog entry before the weekend starts proper

Ahoy me hearties, long time no blog. I don’t have much to say, except “hoorah”! I’m back at home again, with only occasional visits back to M&D’s for redressings.

So what’s happening with everyone else? Godfrey has been spamming me with Europe info non-stop, Brek went camping last weekend? how was that? Glara I saw last weekend, Leyton is busy but not so busy as to watch heaps of TV at my place and Blacky went out last night for his dad’s birthday. Going out with Linda tomorrow for her birthday, not sure who else is invited but should be fun. I’m not sure if SLC will get off the ground as a result, maybe it will if Brek/Leyton can make it.

Had a successful month with business etc in July, so that’s all groovy. I hope everyone else is doing well.

Go go gadget phone

Hi all,

The time really seems to get away on ya with this posting on this thing, and apologies in advance for typos - my keyboard’s playing up a bit.

So I worked Wednesday, Thursday and Friday last week, and the decent thing about starting early is that you finish fairly early. I actually had short days on Thursday and Friday, so I could go and do things. I met Candice and Julie for lunch, where I had a fairly poorly constructed excuse for a fisherman’s basket, and I had a meeting with the group training mob to talk about a cabinetmaker’s apprenticeship. There’s a modicum of decision making to be made in regards to whether I seek placement or pursue other things, but isn’t that the case with everything?

Sunday marked one month with Candice. It’s been lots of fun and hardly feels like a month has passed. We went to Movie World on Monday because work called up and said they didn’t have any for me, and Monday is one of Candice’s days off. The rides at movie world are pretty cool. Starting with the Batman Ride, which malfunctioned on us - it’s a moving ride, like you’re inside an aircraft, but it neither moved nor played any sound for us, so that was a bit of a surprising start to the day. We must’ve arrived at the right time too, because we walked straight to the front on just about every ride, and as soon as we got off, there was a line out the door.

The Superman ride is pretty exciting. It starts inside one of the old studios, and then ROCKETS out being “pushed” by superman. Though possibly the most fun is the Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster - while tame in comparison to the superman ride, it’s still lots of fun. But the highlight probably would’ve been the police academy stunt show with some great precision and stunt driving of some pretty cool cars and motorbikes. Those guys must have the coolest jobs in the world - doing donuts and stuff for a living. We had a Monday Roast at Candice’s place, which was amazing. A splendid way to top of an exciting day.

And today I got a new phone! I went to the optus shop and bought myself a Nokia 6233 on a cap. Ironically, the phone looks very much like the one I upgraded from, but has bluetooth, a camera, mp3 player, and probably some other cool things that I’m yet to discover Though there is a mild problem with the charger - the power cord doesn’t go into the socket, so I’m taking it back in the morning for a free swapover. I’m looking forward to using my phone whenever I feel like it now and not really having to worry about having enough credit.

Dad asked me to paint the front rails so I’ll probably have a go at preparing and starting that tomorrow. I do hate painting though, and these railings are the wrought iron scrolly kinda things, so it’s gonna be bags of fun. I’ll be washing paint off me for the next few days probably. I’ll let you know how it goes.