Yes, I know stupid is spelled with a U and not two Os, but email scammers don’t and the post title was addressed to them. With that out of the way, I’m somewhat embarrassed to say that I have an AOL account. It’s my tether back to the 1990’s when I (along with everyone else) actually used AOL. Don’t worry though, i just keep the (now free) email address alive, but don’t actually use it or AOL for anything.

For years AOL sent out emails ad nauseam saying that any official correspondence from them will have a blue envelope icon in your inbox. The purpose was so that anyone who doesn’t have their head in the game when it comes to email scams would be able to easily spot fraudulent emails.  This never made any sense to me because in my experience, they’ve always been easy to spot, even for me a dumb kid of two Latin American immigrants. Nonetheless, there must be people who either don’t watch enough TV or spend too much time smoking something illegal that still can’t spot the scams.

Here’s an edited copy of the email I received with my comments in orange, hopefully it will provide people with a droplet of common sense.

I was originally worried about scammers using my tips to improve their email scams, but lets be honest, they won’t understand anyways. Let it be a guide of common sense things to look for (in an email that should seem like a scam to anyone with half a brain) before sending them your credit card or banking info.

Ciao,
Juan Luis

There has been a lot of press in the last 36 hours about Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who allegedly attempted to sell an Illinois seat in the United States Senate. The seat was left vacant as a result of the presidential election, leaving the loser governor with the responsibility of filling it.

This really isn’t much of a surprise. The people of Illinois all knew he would be going to jail, but we assumed it wouldn’t be until after his term in office, and nobody really knew what it would be for.

The real issue here that I want an answer to isn’t whether he is guilty, nor is it who will be appointed; the real issue is about those damn Open Road Tolling signs. You see while serving as governor, Blagojevich commissioned parallel road construction on all major Illinois highways. That means if there are two main roads leading south, he made sure both would be under construction at the same time, which is also true for travel to the north and west (there is a lake to the east). This increased both stress and aggravation in addition to travel times.

At the termination of the aforementioned construction, his first Pièce de résistance (before being arrested) was to christen each of those construction sites with this:

Better get out the blue paint...

I had always thought it must have been a huge waste of money to begin with, but now am left wondering how much it will cost the state of Illinois to change all of them, or if I’ll have to buy the paint and do it myself.

Tenemos un sin verguenza,

Juan Luis

Even after reading Jason’s so-so Quantum of Solace Review I had to go and see it. I agree with pretty much everything posted in both the review and the comments, and like everyone else thought it was worth seeing, but certainly not the greatest Bond film.

I’m not here to talk about the movie, I’m here to talk about the horrendous act that occurred following it. At the conclusion of this film, like many films before it, the audience began to applaud. This is absolutely unacceptable and should not be tolerated by society.

I have nothing against applause, when people are showing their approval or appreciation for a performance. Be it a speech, presentation, play, musical, or even simply to recognize someone’s outstanding behavior. What I have a problem with is the fact that when you go see a movie the performers aren’t present, they’re more than likely 1,000’s of miles away, completely unaware of your applause or even your existence.

Are these people applauding for the screen? Which did such an amazing job remaining on the wall for the entire movie? Perhaps they’re applauding for the projectionist who did such an exemplary job, even though  chances are she was doing her homework the whole time, was up there making out with the popcorn guy (or girl), or just plain fell asleep two hours ago? There is nobody there, don’t applaud! Just walk out of the theatre and start looking for the people who didn’t understand the movie, or sit in your seat and awkwardly watch the credits.

In summary: only applaud when the performer is actually present to experience the appreciation you’re expressing.

Un Saludo,

Juan Luis

Chances are good that if you’re receiving calls from bill collectors then you likely don’t have the money to pay them in the first place. The economy is bad and many people are falling on hard times.

I would venture to guess that anyone having money issues doesn’t want to be reminded of them by frequent calls (or emails) by obnoxious bill collectors. It’s like adding insult to injury, rubbing salt in the wound, or any other appropriate saying…the point is that it’s unnecessary and if you don’t have the money in the first place, it’s a lost cause.

My theory with respect to telemarketers has always been that anyone can hang up on them so why not try to get them to hang up on me. I figured if they were going to try to waste my time and generally speaking interrupt my dinner, I might as well return the favor by wasting their time while simultaneously amusing myself.

On that note, David Thorne of 27bslash6.com has a brilliant method for dealing with these potentially uncomfortable, and certainly annoying situations:

Credit to David Thorne of 27bslash6.com

I thought LTMB could use a little bit of ethnicity in the mix, entonces aqui estoy! (so here I am)

I was at the hardware store yesterday picking up a couple of items. It’s a moderately sized, privately owned local hardware store so there was only one register open with approximately 5 or so people in line. At first I reacted in the standard American manor we all know and love - I was annoyed. How dare I have to wait an extra 2 minutes to check out. Then I realized it wasn’t so bad: it smelled like popcorn, I wasn’t stuck in traffic, and of course there was all sorts of amusing useless shit in the checkout line aimed at impulse buyers (like anti-monkey butt powder, pictured above)

20 seconds after I got in line this “professional” looking guy walks over. I don’t mean a guy in a suit, I mean a tradesman, a guy who clearly makes his living doing hardware store type stuff, a carpenter, gc, painter, plumber, something like that. He proceeded past the line in formed at checkstand #1 to the service counter where he demanded they open another register. He then walked to register #4 (because why would they open up two checkstands right next to each other, that would make too much sense and I’m sure there’s a union rule against it somewhere).

2 Minutes later, he was still over there all by himself and decided to go bitch at the service desk again (not realizing that the people there were taking their sweet time because he was being a jagbag).

So here this guy thinks that he’s more important than everyone else in line, as well as everyone working at the store. Consequently not only did he whine until they opened a new register cut everyone else who had already been waiting in line patiently, but he also only saved himself at most 10 seconds (since he still finished after me, where he would have been anyways) and got flicked off by an 80 year old woman in the parking lot as she got into her Olds 88.

I wish I thought I was better than everyone else in the world, that guy must really have some great self esteem. Hopefully he’ll get his one day when he’s on the other side of the coin. As the golden rule says treat others as you wish to be treated”

Un Saludo, (best wishes)

Juan Luis