Change I Can Believe In

Congrats to Michael Steele on becoming the RNC chairman. I hoped he'd win because I've liked a lot of what he's said. Now, go kick some bottom in the war you are going to face against the press. Also, get out there and be what you are, not "Democrat Light." Ugh. I hated that about President Bush and many Republicans -- they seemed to think that being Democrat Light was a way to stay in power. I guess they now know better. If people want Democrat ideas and policies, they'll elect the real thing, not faux crap.

A New Job Hunting Phenomenon

Today, I learned something that is rather depressing -- the job I was a sure hire for has been pulled from the market. That makes five jobs by my count where this has happened -- a job placed on the market, interviews are conducted, things feel great, then all of the sudden, "the company has decided not to fill this job at this time" (or something like that).

I've checked with a couple of other guys who are also unemployed and they've encountered some of the same things. It seems that some companies have a job opening, but the they hear President Obama and his administration imply that the economy will stink for his whole term and he'll need to be re-elected in 2012 to have enough time to get things right. OK, the president hasn't said those words, but that's what's being heard from what I can see. Thus companies are saying, "if this guy is now saying that all his campaign promises were typical politician lies to say whatever to get elected, then we better prepare for the worst." So some companies reduce work force and others decide not to fill job openings they have.

I know that everything is in God's hands and as such, I have to trust the Lord. That means I may be forced to do things I don't want to do such as move or take on what I would consider crummy jobs and work all the time to make ends meet.

The New Nigerian Scam -- Contact Us If You've Been Scammed!

I had to laugh out lout when I received this e-mail from one of my many accounts. So now the scam is to hopefully hit someone who has been scammed, get them to call up with questions about claim, then scam then again. Nice.

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Subject: The fraudsters that scammed you has been caught and some of your money recovered. From: "Honorable Justice Umaru Abdullahi" Date: Thu, January 22, 2009 4:25 am Cc: recipient list not shown:; Priority: Normal

Dear fraud victim,

This is to inform you that four of the fraud syndicate that defrauded you has been caught although two escaped . These men used fake identities and documents to scam innocent victims. They confessed that they use tricks of Contract, Inheritance, Lottery and all other manner of payment tricks to lure and defraud their victims. They were caught in attempt to defraud one British. They pleaded for a lower jail term and the court agreed to grant them lower jail terms if only they would confess their victims so that the court could pay their victims reparations from the loot recovered from them because the court recovered expensive cars, houses and huge amounts in their accounts. The court has sold the properties confiscated from these syndicate to realize more money for reparation payment to their victims. The four are currently serving eight years jail term each. I am contacting you based on the confessional statement of the fraudsters that you were among their victims so if you have lost money to fraudsters in the past, do let me know how much you lost so that we can work out how much reparation you will receive.

Please do not be deceived by the bogus claims of money in Nigeria or any other place in Africa because Africa is a very poor continent with greater percentage of its population very poor. Most spam emails you receive from around the world has been established to emanate from Africans living in foreign countries. Please spread this news to your friends and relative that there is no such bogus money in Africa as claimed be scammers so that they won‘t fall victim especially in this time of economic recession.

Finally, it is a criminal offence to claim more than what you lost. If you have forgotten exactly how much you lost, to these fraudsters, you have to approximate your lost such that it won’t be in excess of USD 2,000. If you are not the person they defrauded please disregard this mail as it was sent to you based on confessional statement and information provided by these fraudsters. I am aware that the two escaped fraudsters will still be communicating you. Please if you receive any mail from them, don’t reply from henceforth. If you need further clarifications, call me directly on +2348074037620 or email (user080375@gmail.com) for clarifications.

Yours faithfully,
Honorable Justice Umaru Abdullahi
(President, Court of Appeal Nigeria & Chairman, Crusader for a better Africa)

A Doctor's Visit

My recent medical adventure had several friends get in touch with me on their own experiences with the old stomach or nearby regions. It is a sign of getting older I suppose -- things don't quite work as well as they did in one's 20's. ^_^;

For me, the loss of 15-pounds is good, but losing that much in a week is not what one would want to see. So, after a complete physical and the doctor looking over the ER charts (ah, the joys of modern computer technology when medical records can be sent digitally to those who need them), it is the generic version of Prilosec OTC® (got to save some money someway) for now and a follow-up visit with the doctor in two months. The blood lab work will be sent to me and should there be something negative there, the doctor and I will hook up sooner.

So that's out of the way for the moment with the doctor giving the usual good advice before I left.

Fun Times w/ Gastritis

Last night, I ended up going to the ER as a precaution. My stomach has been acting up for months and sometimes it causes chest discomfort and pain that goes down the left arm, almost as if one were having a heart attack. However, last night, the pains were shooting up the left side of my neck and into my jaw and that caused some concern. Afterward, I puked and thought, "you know, I better have this checked out even though it is going to cost me a fortune."

So, a trip to the ER and five hours later, no heart problems or major organ problems that could be detected (and they did a lot of tests). The doctor determined that I have Gastritis and combined with the strained muscle in my left shoulder blade, this gave me all the symptoms of the problem I had. With as primitive as our medical technology still is, her diagnosis is still a best guess, but baring some other things happening, we'll just take it that this is in fact what I have -- Gastritis.

A couple of things were revealed to me while in the ER. First, I miss my TV. I haven't had satellite for some time now and getting to watch some documentaries on Discovery Channel made me really long to get my service restored. But I can't do that, more so since this ER bill is likely to be outrageously expensive.

Second, I guess I'm really missing human contact. When I had my job, I talked a lot with my co-workers. We were a tight team and though we didn't agree on things like politics or religion, it didn't matter. Savage Piper, Taco's Rule, Red Baron, Lepidus, and the others were people I enjoyed talking to. I miss the laughs we shared as well as the shared frustrations when annoying people like "Busy" would cause us more problems than the initial problem being reported.

So, I've decided that even though it is an extra cost, I will start going to church on Sunday's. Traveling to Greeley may seem a bit much, but the church I'd attend there is one that I believe preaches the Gospel so it is worth the travel in that regard. Either way, I don't think that wanting to be with other children of God is a bad thing at all.

Hopefully, I can hook up with my former comrades this month, assuming everyone's schedule can be cleared.