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Lonely In The Far North?

Oh my good Lord! I have no words to describe this. A film from Finland, featuring a farm boy, some sheep, some grease and hijinx. Not safe, perhaps, for work, although it is best watched in the privacy of your home, so that you may reflect and recompose after feeling violated. It is about a 5 minute download or so on dial up and virtually an instant moment of shockery for broadband viewers.
After further research, this is a Dutch commercial for Clearasil. Would someone teach our European friends how to market a product?

Friday Fives

Friday Fives

1. Do you enjoy the cold weather and snow for the holidays?
Generally, yes. I like winter and the severe harshness of the elements, the peaceful calm of a snow storm, the whistle of the wind and, as the song says: “Walking in my Winter Underwear.”

2. What is your ideal holiday celebration? How, where, with whom would you celebrate to make things perfect?
My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. My dad was 35 year Postal Service veteran and as a result, Christmas to him was all drudge, muck and mire, filled with weeks and weeks of mandatory overtime and stress. This translated into a much bigger deal being made around the house for Thanksgiving rather than Christmas. Although I still dig midnight Christmas Mass services.

3. Do you do have any holiday traditions?
Recently, I have added Champagne Mimosa’s to the holiday tradition. But seriously, since my father has passed away and my mother remarried, the family is both adding new traditions and holding on to traditions. Thanksgiving is still a big, big meal with family and Christmas is becoming a catch as catch can affair celebrated in smaller groups. The biggest holiday tradition for me is The Memorial Day weekend/Birthday Affair wherein I try to host a huge meal somewhere surrounded by as many friends as I can rustle up. Plans are percalating for this year’s affair.

4. Do you do anything to help the needy?
Each year I send a check of $30.00 or so to the Denver Rescue Mission. And I shop at the thrift stores a lot. That counts, right?

5. What one gift would you like for yourself?
A really, really nice pair of gloves. (Sorry, it was cold out this morning and I am a bit obsessed.)

via Friday Fives.

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Protect Yourself

After few months here in the Nextel Fraud department, coupled with a few months working on Fraud issues for Western Union I have a few tips to offer the world in order to prevent you from identity theft or on line credit card theft:
1. Buy a shredder and shred all of your credit card receipts. Also shred all those offers for a free credit cards that come in the mail.
2. Here is the number for the Federal Trade Commission’s ID theft hotline: 1 877-433-4338. A good resource if your Social Security number has been absconded by fraudsters.
3. Call the three major credit bureaus and have them add a Fraud Alert to your credit report. That way, any inquiries on your credit must be authorized by you. The bonus to this is that by doing this, there has been a change to your credit report and you can request a free credit report to review. There is always something pesky hanging around on it.
4. Here are the numbers for the three major credit bureaus: Experian>1-888-397-3742/ Equifax> 1-800-525-6285/ Trans Union> 1-800-680-7289.
5. If during the holiday season you are shopping online, be sure and only allow your credit card to be submitted once and never share your passcode on an online account with anyone. A reputable web retailer will never ask for your passcode. Any solicitations for an online passcode through a telephone or email request are generally Fraudsters farming for information.
6. Here is the FBI website for internet crime: Internet Fraud Complaint Center. This is a one stop link to report a crime related to internet id theft or credit card theft.
7. Contact your billers and request a passcode to be placed on your account that must be verified before any information can be changed or released.
8. If your Health insurer or any other biller uses your social security number as its billing account number, call them and ask to have that changed to a generic account number that can not be harvested by Fraud information farmers.

All of the above steps, except for the purchase of a $30.00 shredder, are free and easy to implement and will offer you significant protection from identity theft.

Friday Fives

Friday Fives

1. What’s your favorite piece of clothing that you currently own?
My “Desert Storm” suede combat tanker boots. Buckles, tan, suede, boots. They have it all. I must get them resoled someday and sport them with pride once again.

2. What piece of clothing do you most want to acquire?
A really nice, big, well fitting London Fog tan rain coat, like the kind Bogart always wears in the movies. Either that or paper hats and name tags for the office.

3. What piece of clothing can you not bring yourself to get rid of? Why?
My “United Airlines Ramp Service” Employee shirt that I bought as a joke at a thrift shop. It is really, really comfortable.

4. What piece of clothing do you look your best in?
Turtlenecks. Olive green, burgandy or black turtlenecks. They make me look dreamy.

5. What has been your biggest fashion accident?
Black socks? No, really. In high school, there was this outfit in the men’s fashion section of the Speigel catalog – A white cardigan sweater, a red shirt and baby blue pants. All from Izod. I just had to have it. I ordered it, wore it to school and honestly looked dorkier than Mr. Rogers at a high school rodeo dance. A bad choice – about ten years older than 1981 fashion should have been – and way to expensive. It may be part of the reason I tend to avoid real fashionable looks and expensive clothes to this day.

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A New Voice In The Wilderness

I was recently turned on to the writing of Matt Taibbi, a writer for NYPRESS.COM and The Nation after this post from my favorite economics primer. Stuffed on Thanksgiving is a well written, snarky piece calling the journalism establishment to task for its “aw shucks/gushing ” lauding of President Bush’s surpise Thanksgiving trip to Iraq. Teddy at It’s The Economy Stupid equates his writing to Hunter Thompson – and there is certainly an honesty in his voice that is reminiscent of HST, without the drug references. Give him a read. I am going to start looking for more of his work.

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Fighting Off The Cold

I have spent the last five days battling a contentious head cold. I haven’t had a cold in a long time, owed partly to the magical science of Zicam. And this fall, with the abundant pollen and dust in the air, my sinuses have been on allergy over drive. I guess they finally gave in and let me have it full force with a magnificent head cold.

A few thoughts:

  • Turner Classic Movies is a real treasure when you are fighting fever and a cold. Did you know that every movie star was in the film “A Bridge Too Far.”

  • Tenacious D’s new DVD is a great find to watch while fighting a cold as well. Mindless, juvenile dick jokes set to music. Beware, your roommate will probably not like it.

  • Sick time is a good time to groom fingernails and toenails. However, do not do it in your bed.

  • Last count: There are at least 5 different colors of phlegm that can be produced by the body.

  • The cat has no idea what “Stop, I am sick!” means. Toes under the covers are not off limits to a cat, who, i am sure, now refers to me as a pansy to his cat friends because of my recent convalescence.

  • Are there any real studies on the effects of power doses of Sudafed on a person’s mental state? I swear I am experiencing hallucinations, mostly concerning leftover Thanksgiving pie.

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    They Put The Map Back

    I have been following the Colorado Congressional Redistricting issue because of a few pesky issues. The GOP controlled state legislature took steps this spring to redraw the boundaries of Colorado’s seven Congressional districts and paid particular attention to the large western slope district 3, held by retiring Congressman Scott McInnis as well as the newly created district 7, held by freshman Congressman Bob Beauprez. Beauprez won the district seat by only 121 votes against Democrat Mike Feeley. Under the new map, the legislature had gerry mandered Feeley out of the district. That is right. He hadn’t moved from his home and was the former challenger but under the proposed plan, he wouldn’t even live in the district. In the district 3 map, the legislature has revisited the pesky problem of balancing GOP strongholds, like Grand Junction with Democratic strong holds like Pueblo. As a result, Pueblo has been chopped up into three different districts in the proposed plan, making the largely Hispanic, largely blue collar and largely Democratic urban block of the third district no longer important.
    So it was great news when the Colorado Supreme Court tossed out the shenanigans of the legislature and reminded the governing body of the rules that the state uses to play the once-a-decade redistricting game.
    Keep your eyes on this issue as mirror issues are now playing out in Texas and Pennsylvania.

    Friday Fives

    Friday Fives

    1. Do you like to shop? Why or why not?
    Not generally. I can get intimidated by the whole mall experience. I like to shop in small, small doses, but anything like the power shopping extravaganzas that are famous on the day after Thanksgiving is a bit beyond me.

    2. What was the last thing you purchased?
    A CD of Taj Mahal’s greatest hits and Springsteen’s new DVD “Live in Barcelona.”

    3. Do you prefer shopping online or at an actual store? Why?
    Depends. I use online shopping sites, like Amazon and even Ebay to do a lot of window shopping and price comparisons. But I tend to buy things at an actual store. I have made several online purchases though and it is generally a trouble free shopping experience. I spent the summer processing orders for an auction payment service. If you want to know how to get scammed online, just ask and I can teach you everything you need to do wrong in order to get bilked out of thousands.

    4. Did you get an allowance as a child? How much was it?
    A small allowance, yes. I recall it was $10.00 or $15.00 and involved lawn mowing and trimming and trash emptying.

    5. What was the last thing you regret purchasing?
    My Nikon digital camera. After I bought it , I had to send it to the shop, so I didn’t get as good of a deal as I had hoped. I still dig the camera, but I ended up paying full price for it and I regret that.

    via Friday Fives.

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    Dead Pool 2004 Deadline Looms

    I started working on my list of names for the 2004 dead pool this morning. A tougher task than in the past. There doesn’t seem to be a bounty of old, hangers-on as we had last year, with Strom Thurmond and Bob Hope. I think we can safely add the Pope and Ronald Reagan but the remaining names may be much harder. Kevin has proposed making Reagan and the Pope a gimme and everyone gets them on their list. The group hasn’t weighed in this yet.
    And I think we need a discussion for what the winner gets, although bragging rights alone is a fine prize.
    Here are a few tricks for finding some names. http://www.imdb.com/BornInYear?1919. This link from the Internet Movie Database lists celebrities by the year they were born. In the above example, it is 1919. By going down the list presented on this search you can pick and choose a few names. Then you can take the name, for example, JD Salinger, and run over to Google News and check the headlines and health of your dead pool candidate. If the health seems fine, then you can just manipulate the url at IMDB by changing 1919 to another year of your choice. And voila’ another list of old people to look up.
    There are also many celebrity dead pool sites on the web to assist in compiling your list of names. My favorite is Stiffs.com, home of the Lee Atwater Celebrity Dead Pool; and The Dead People Server, which will assist you in determining if someone on your list has already past.