Marc’s Mind

I guess that now that everyone knows what a Nigerian 419 scam is, its time for the scammers to take a new approach.  I had an uncontrollable burst of laughter when I read this one, I’m sure its old news to spam-fighters, but I’d never seen it before:

From:  EFCC <faridawaziri83@rocketmail.com>
Reply-To: mrsfaridawaziri1@centrum.cz
Subject: EFCC
Date: 09-07-22 06:24 PM

Hello,

I am the boss of economic & financial crimes commission, we fight
cyber crime fraud scam money laundering in Africa. Our commission has been
in existences since 2004.

Our duties are to stop internet fraud scam. As for today we have put a lot
of fraudsters behind bars.

we have recovered over $322 million from them, reason for writing you this
letter is because your name was given to us by one of the fraudsters in the
jail.
Get back to us.

Thats just awesome in the  “What, are you kidding?” department.   Despite how absurdly funny I think it is, there are people out there that will get hooked by it, and they probably live in Florida.

marc Uncategorized

Jessica was surfing today and came across some rather amusing personality tests. Had to share my results.

Everyone should know the answer to this question. What Muppet are you?

You Are Rowlf the Dog

Mellow and serious, you enjoy time alone cultivating your talents. You’re a cool dog, and you always present a relaxed vibe. A talented pianist, you can play almost anything - especially songs by Beethoven. “My bark is worse than my bite, and my piano playing beats ‘em both.”

And of course, what kind of soul are are you?

You Are a Hunter Soul

You are driven and ambitious - totally self motiviated to succeed Actively working to acheive what you want, you are skillful in many areas. You are a natural predator with strong instincts … and more than a little demanding. You are creative, energetic, and an extremely powerful force. An outdoors person, you like animals and relate to them better than people. You tend to have an explosive personality, but also a good sense of humor. People sometimes see you as arrogant or a know it all. You tend to be a bit of a loner, though you hate to be alone. Souls you are most compatible with: Seeker Soul and Peacemaker Soul

Jessica, was, of course a Warrior Soul:

You Are a Warrior Soul

You’re a strong person and sometimes seen as intimidating.
You don’t give up. You’re committed and brave.
Truly adventuresome, you are not afraid of going to battle.
Extremely protective of loved ones, you root for the underdog.

You are picky about details and rigorous in your methods.
You also value honesty and fairness a great deal.
You can be outspoken, intimidating, headstrong, and demanding.
You’re a hardliner who demands the best from themselves and others.

All things considered, they were pretty good assessments for such simplistic tests. Good thing I don’t have anyone working with me in the office right now or they surely would have been a bit freaked out by my laughter when Jessica came back with “Hunter, meet Warrior. Don’t we make the violent pair.”

I’m sure she’ll be pissed if I shared what Muppet she was, though. I’ll leave that up to her to divulge.

marc Ego, Uncategorized

Talk about out of character for me. A few weeks ago at E3, Al Lowe, one of the greatest video game makers of all time announced that he has created a new company called iBase Entertainment and was creating a new game called Sam Suede in Undercover Exposure. I’ve been a big fan of Al’s since the Leisure Suit Larry 1 days that I played with stunning 16-Color EGA graphics back in the late 80’s. I met Al about a year ago and had him autograph my copy of the Larry I, II, & II collection.

Of course the good picture of Al and I shaking hands was lost, so this one will have to do. Hopefully Al won’t mind me putting this picture up. We met because I knew he was an avid model railroad hobbyist. I’d been carting around the model trains I got for Christmas from Uncle David when I was 5 or 6, and I thought Al would like them or be able to use them. I believe Al gave them to a children’s hospital, which is great.

At any rate, shortly after Jessica and I met, we started playing games like Kings Quest (which Al also had a hand in creating) and Liesure Suite Larry together. Many many hours were spent on those games and we really had a good time playing them.

So after hearing the announcement, I had to play a game. Wasn’t an option, I had to do it. I wanted to play another adventure game that we could play together. Nothing like Doom 3 or Half-Life 2, both of which I’ve played, but not extensively. I played Castle Wolfenstein and both of the original Doom games, but haven’t really played much in the last 10 years or so. After Sierra started changing their company around they just didn’t produce many games that appealed to me.

Then we stumbled on Gothic II. Its a couple years old, but was re-released in December of last year. We’ve pretty much played it every night for more than a month. It is a very good game and reminds me a lot of the King’s Quest games, but more adult oriented. There is a lot of exploring, quests that you pick up from other characters in the game that you complete for experience points or gold, skills to learn and puzzles to solve. We’ve really been enjoying it. Oh, the adult parts consist of some drug use (swampweed) and our character has sex in a brothell. Of course, this being a German game, the original was uncensored. Since Atari distributed it in the US, they censored it for some reason. I guess we American’s can’t handle seeing nude computer generated women after we finish slaughtering Orc’s, wolve’s, giant rats and other human characters in the game. I mean the line has to be drawn somewhere.

Of course, I started this entry about two months ago. Since then Gothic III has been announced and I’m sure there will be another time warp at the end of November when its released in the US.

marc Uncategorized

Study Shows Coffee OK For Heart

From the article:  “Coffee lovers can drink up without fear of increasing their risk of heart disease, according to a major new study that found people could consume as many as six cups a day without upping their risk.”

This is excellent!  So now I just need to get it down to six cups a day…

Mmmmmm…….. Coffee.

marc Uncategorized