Smoking - My Sentiments Exactly
I was reading the newspaper yesterday and came upon the Comics section. People who know me know I love the comics section since it doesn't tend to be about death and depravity and tends to make me laugh. I stumble across this Non-Sequitur cartoon which tends to sum up my thoughts on smoking.
Don't get me wrong I have a lot of friends who have smoked for a long time and I love them to death. I just wish that they would stop because this is how I view it.
South African Scams
In the past two days I've recieved two emails from a "Mr. E. Tambo" who claims that he is "a native of Cape Town in South Africa and I am an Executive Accountant with the South Africa Department of Mining & Natural Resources". He then goes on to say that "we have in our possession as overdue payment bills totaling Twenty - Six Million, Five Hundred Thousand U. S. Dollars ($26,500,000.) which we want to transfer abroad with the assistance and cooperation of a foreign company/individual to receive the said fund on our behalf or a reliable foreign non-company account to receive such funds" and that they are willing to give you 25% of the 26.5 Million dollars if you help them out.
Too good to be true? For sure. Need more proof? The email sent out isn't the same but the intent is. They are trying to get you to send them money with the promise of you getting more money back.
I've heard of this scam before and heard that thousands of people have fallen prey to it. You know what makes me sick? The fact that these scammers are feeding on the ignorance of others.
If you want to read the whole email I've included it in the Additional Text section so hit more if you want to see it and if you live in Cape Town you might want to give the phone number a call and tell these jerks to screw off!
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL & URGENT.
TEL: 871 - 762535915
FAX: 871 - 762535916
TEL: 27 - 836702567
Dear Sir,
I am Mr.Tambo, a native of Cape Town in South Africa and I am an Executive Accountant with the South Africa Department of Mining & Natural Resources. First and foremost, I apologized using this medium to reach you for a transaction/business of this magnitude, but this is due to Confidentiality
and prompt access reposed on this medium. Be informed that a member of the
South Africa Export Promotion Council (SEPC) who was at the Government
delegation to your country during a trade exhibition gave your enviable
credentials/particulars to me. I have decided to seek a confidential
co-operation with you in the execution of the deal described Hereunder for
the benefit of all parties and hope you will keep it as a top secret
because of the nature of this transaction.
Within the Department of Mining & Natural Resources where I work as an
Executive Accountant and with the cooperation of four other top officials,
we have in our possession as overdue payment bills totaling Twenty - Six
Million, Five Hundred Thousand U. S. Dollars ($26,500,000.) which we
want to transfer abroad with the assistance and cooperation of a foreign
company/individual to receive the said fund on our behalf or a reliable
foreign non-company account to receive such funds. More so, we are
handicapped in the circumstances, as the South Africa Civil Service Code
of Conduct does not allow us to operate offshore account hence your
importance in the whole transaction.
This amount $26.5m represents the balance of the total contract value
executed on behalf of my Department by a foreign contracting firm, which
we the officials over-invoiced deliberately. Though the actual contract
cost have been paid to the original contractor, leaving the balance in the
tune of the said amount which we have in principles gotten approval to
remit by Telegraphic Transfer (T.T) to any foreign bank account you will
provide by filing in an application through the Justice Ministry here in
South Africa for the transfer of rights and privileges of the former
contractor to you.
I have the authority of my partners involved to propose that should you be
willing to assist us in the transaction, your share of the sum will be 25%
of the $26,.5 million, 70% for us and 5% for taxation and miscellaneous
expenses. The business itself is 100% safe, on your part provided you
treat it with utmost secrecy and confidentiality. Also your area of
specialization is not a hindrance to the successful execution of this
transaction. I have reposed my confidence in you and hope that you will
not disappoint me. Endeavor to contact me immediately through my above
Tel/Fax number or
my e-mail address, whether or not you are interested in this deal. If you
are not, it will enable me scout for another foreign partner to carry out
this deal I want to assure you that my partners and myself are in a
position to make the payment of this claim possible provided you can give
us a very strong
Assurance and guarantee that our share will be secured and please remember
to treat this matter as very confidential matter, because we will not
comprehend with any form of exposure as we are still in active Government
Service and remember once again that time is of the essence in this
business.
I wait in anticipation of your fullest co-operation.
Yours faithfully,
Mr. Tambo
Zombo.Com
I thought I had posted this a while ago but it appears I had not.
The infinite is possible at Zombo com,
The unattainable is unknown at Zombo com.
Care to comment on what this site is, let me know :)
The 200th Post I Posted Since I Started Posting On Happy Posters Day
So I've been around long enough to post 200 semi-coherent, grammer and spelling error ladened entries on this little blog of mine. I guess this post is kind of like an anniversary for my wee tiny blog. I still am amazed that I have readers and that people keep coming back :) I'm also amazed that people have linked to me from they're site and I thank them for that. If you have linked me and your not in the side bar I apologize. I will get you up there sooner or later. I do read all of the sites that I'm linked on. Not out of some kind of weird sense of duty but because I genuinely enjoy them. I'd also like to thank Wari and Nita for hosting me and listening to me ramble and Firda for the rambling thing also plus designing the layout for my blog. (HIRE HER TO DESIGN YOUR WEBSITE OR WEBLOG, SHE WILL WORK FOR PEANUTS) :)
This is beginning to sound more and more like a "I'm leaving the blogging world for good" speech which it isn't. I'll be around for a while longer. Hell I might even get my own domain someday though I kind of like being part of the subtlehints.net family.
My Secret Love For Music
I just noticed recently that I post very little about music on my blog. It kind of surprised me since music is a major part of my life. No I don't play any instruments and I'm not in a choir (I wouldn't want to force that kind of hell on anyone). I just listen to a lot of music. The only time I'm not listening to music is when I am watching TV though sometimes I listen to music and watch TV at the same time. I'm multi-talented that way.
Thinking about it I think I'm actually addicted to music, much like I'm addicted to information. I have around 600 CDs (which is way more than any human being should own), a ton of mixed casettes (which I listen I still listen to when I walk to school every morning) and over 100 records. I rarely ever listen to the radio and when I do I listen to the campus radio station or if I'm outside of their 10 kilometer broadcast range I listen to CFNY.
The CDs I own tend to be lesser known, non-airplayable bands, though I have found out that there are a lot of other bloggers who share my taste in music. The records I have tend to be more nostalgic than anything else. I do have some excellent records (ie. Peter Gabriel, Led Zepplin, Beatles, Stevie Wonder, the Beatles etc.) but I also have a lot of really bad funny albums (ie. Quiet Riot, Whitesnake, Cyndi Lauper etc.). Most of them were under a buck so I don't feel to bad about the crappy records since they were super cheap.
I've lost my line of thought. I will end this entry with something to think about:
If your happy and you want to be depressed listen to more Godspeed You Black Emperor. A beautiful nine-peice orchestral band from Montreal whose music is both eerily sad but beautiful at the same time.
