When he wrote me back, he offered me more than I was asking. Just to jack with him, I raised the price even further, and of course he went for it (when you don’t plan to send any money at all, what’s another $30 or $40?). So first I get a spoofed email from Paypal, saying that my account has been credited. I have to say that its a pretty bad spoof. But then it gets more interesting, I’ve gotten a total of three spoof emails so far.

The first email was sent by pp305@ultimateemail.com, with the name showing as service@paypal.com. If you use gmail (or Google apps) then you’ll see right off that the email was not sent by Paypal. The email asks you to send the shipment tracking number to “Paypal” at the same pp305 email address. Any astute user will note right off that Paypal does not send their emails through any free email service, ultimate email or otherwise.

Paypal spoof email from scammers

Within minutes of receiving that email I got a second, again from pp305@ultimateemail.com. This one is a reminder of the safety measures that Paypal takes to ensure the security of my account. Once again, its pretty easy to identify it as a fake.

Fake Paypal Safety Email

At that point, I sent Banderos an email saying nice try, and I figured we were done. I forwarded both of those emails to Paypal so that they’re aware of them, and went about trying to sell my iPod. This morning when I woke up I had an email supposedly from the FBI, threatening that if I didn’t provide a tracking number within hours that I’d be facing legal consequences. This one was sent from f_b_i_crimeteam@ultimateemail.com.

Spoof FBI email

Each of these emails was obviously a fake. I’ve pointed out a couple of obvious errors, there are several others that I won’t mention here because I don’t want to make it easier for them to fool someone else. Lets just say that there is quite a bit of evidence suggesting that this is a scam, for anyone that has the inclination to look.

Seller beware. The fact that they’ve put so much thought into this scam indicates that they’re taking advantage of enough people to make it worth their while, which is pretty sad. I still prefer Craigslist to eBay because its free. I’m sure I’ll be dealing with more cretons like these soon enough.

First, the blog The Baseline Scenario has a lot of great explanations and a healthy dialogue about what has happened and what will come of the stimulus package. I’ve become a daily reader.

I also just came across a video that does a great job of explaining how the banks came undone last fall. Crisis of Credit explains it visually and in easy terms.

I also have Frontline’s Inside the Meltdown on my Tivo, I plan to watch it sometime this week. I may post more thoughts here after I’ve had a chance to watch it.

To: Chris Leonard

Date: Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 6:03pm

Subject: Important Degree Candidate Information

AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO SPRING 2009 DEGREE CANDIDATES

Our records indicate that you are a degree candidate for graduation at the
conclusion of this semester. Please review the following information that
appears on your record and report corrections as indicated.

You are a candidate for the following degree/major:

Degree: BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN AEROSPACE ENGINEERING
Major : AEROSPACE ENGINEERING

Contact your dean’s office if you have questions regarding your degree, major, remaining requirements or commencement ceremonies.

Toward the end he said, “I don’t see a ring, are you married?” I answered “No sir, but I’m taken.” He then asked me “do you like women or men?” I told him women. “Well all right, we’ll get along just fine then.”

If I were gay I’d probably be offended, but I think this is kind of funny. I mean that he didn’t feel any need to be politically correct. I kind of wish I had answered differently just to see what he would have said.

He wrote me two prescriptions. They’re the first that I’ve had in nearly ten years. Here’s hoping that they do the trick! During the day the pain is a nuisance but I can deal with it. At night it either keeps me awake or wakes me up, which is unbearable. I’m ready for a full night’s sleep.

This is the really weird part though, the pain doesn’t stay in one spot. Sometimes the outside of my arm hurts, close to the tricep muscle. Sometimes the inside hurts, close to the bicep. Sometimes my shoulder hurts, above the collar bone.

You can see where this was going. Last night I was ready to go to sleep around 11pm. I tried laying down in bed, but that just wasn’t happening, way too painful. So I went to the recliner and tried laying there, that was pretty painful, too. I tried laying still and focusing on the pain subsiding, no luck. The only reprieve was to sit up and keep moving. I think I was finally exhausted enough to sleep in spite of the pain around 5am. Blech.

This morning I woke up, and it is even more strange. My arm doesn’t really hurt now, I feel a combination of two things. My arm feels like its asleep, numb and tingling, and it also feels like it is burning, as in hot. Plus, my muscle is twitching.

From the little reading that I’ve done on the web, my understanding is that this is a symptom of repetitive motion, and that it should pass on its own within a few days. Physical therapy, massages and acupuncture may help. Lately I have been thinking that it is time for me to get back into shape. I think this is my body’s way of agreeing with me. Maybe I’ll see an acupuncture specialist first.

My mind is still consumed by fuel efficiency and energy consumption. I’ve had a handful of great conversations with other engineers, there are definitely some very cool ideas out there to bring the consumption rate of your daily driver up into the triple digits. And then, Volkwagen busts out with a 235 MPG car.

How? By rethinking everything that robs energy from a car in motion. Weight is reduced by having a carbon fiber body. Aerodynamic drag is reduced through tandem seating. It has a tiny 1 Liter engine with hybrid drive.

Is it ugly? You bet! Is it expensive? And how! Fortunately for you, it will save more than enough money to compensate for these annoyances. Assume you drive 1,000 miles per month, and you get about 22 MPG (like me). Getting one of these babies will do the same job as your car, and you save about 40 gallons of gas per month. Your neighbor with a Prius will be green with envy.

While I’m here, Obama recently recommended that we reduce our dependency on foreign oil by keeping our cars tuned and our tires inflated. Time magazine even backed him up with some favorable numbers. McCain bandwaggoned himself into the conversation. In the interest of time I’ll be succinct, you’re all idiots, and this plan is asinine. Of course it will save fuel, but once again it ignores the larger need for more fuel efficient cars. I have a much better idea. Lets apply our knowledge of science and physics and design a car that is more efficient.

Props to Chevy for ponying up a car that people are lining up for, the all electric Chevy Volt. Its cool to see American companies contributing.

As usual, there is more to say, but I don’t have the time to say it. I have a final exam in the morning, and that test isn’t going to take itself.

The bride & groom hosted the wedding party. The bridal party stayed in a gorgeous bed & breakfast planted in the middle of a forest. I didn’t spend much time there, but it looked like something out of a children’s book. The groom’s party, and by extension me, stayed in a house right on Puget Sound. The bay was literally 5 feet away from our back door. When you’re this close to the water fireworks are practically implied, so we picked up some bottle rockets, M-100′s and roman candles. We had a blast (pun intended) exploding the bottle rockets and M-100′s under water. We’d tape an M-100 to a rock, light it and throw it into the bay. At night you can see the explosion under water and you hear the muffled “boom”. I don’t care if you’re 3 or 60, this never gets old. Ever.

The wedding ceremony was held in a small church in Port Gamble. The church was built in the 1870′s and holds a maximum of 160 people. That’s exactly how many people were there. The service was short, I think we were out within 20 minutes. The minister is one of Blythe’s cousins, and I thought she did a great job. She was short and to the point, and Christ was definitely part of the focus. It was a beautiful ceremony. Liz read a passage during the service, so we got to sit on the front row. I muted my camera and turned off the flash so that I could take pictures without disturbing anyone.

Then we walked a couple of blocks to a pavilion for the reception, and holy cow was this party a blast. I met some of Liz & Blythe’s classmates, which was pretty cool. The area and the weather were tailor made for perfect pictures. I heard someone quip that the bride & groom must both be virgins to earn such extraordinary weather. They had an open bar, you had to show an ID to partake. They didn’t discriminate, even the bride’s mother had to show her ID.

On Sunday we woke up early so that we could tour the Boeing plant. Boeing’s Future of Flight is a tour of the Everett production line, and its pretty cool. They actually take you on a tour of the manufacturing lines for their 747, 777 and the new composite 787 models. They give quite a bit of info on the new technology that makes these monster jets possible. I was already familiar with everything they said, so I’ll count this as evidence that I’m getting a high quality education. I have to say, its quite impressive to stand next to a full size model of the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000. It was painful to get up at 5:15 to make the ferry in time for this, but it was definitely worth it.

All in all, it really was a fantastic trip. In the past two months I’ve been to Tempe Arizona, Murfreesboro Tennessee and now Bainbridge Island Washington. I have thought that each place was both beautiful and fun. I can honestly say that the north Washington area is my favorite of these three places. While we were driving through the forests yesterday morning we mentioned a hiking trip in Olympic National Park. I already can’t wait.

The wedding is on Bainbridge Island, so that’s where we’re staying. We got to ride on the ferry to get out here, and man is that fun. I think the ferry probably holds over a hundred cars, and the upper decks have plenty of comfortable seating. The view is incredible, snow capped mountains and evergreens and tall clouds. But there are several other large ships in the bay, float planes flying over, my head was on a swivel trying to see everything. I’m sure its mundane for the locals that have to take the ferry every day, I loved it.

Then we got to the island and OH. MY. GOSH. This place is unbelievably gorgeous. Tall trees surrounded by lush undergrowth, wildflowers everywhere. The forest is so dense that you can’t see through it, ever. The roads twist and curve through the trees, which makes driving fun. It reminded me of riding in the car with my Dad on road trips when I was a kid. Once again my head was on a swivel.

The place that I’m staying is right on the bay. I mean there are five feet between the back door and the water. The Seattle skyline is in the background and there’s a continuous stream of ships going back and forth. This morning the sky is clear enough to see Mt. Rainier in the background.

I love Austin. If I ever leave, and I’m not suggesting that I will, Seattle will be on the short list. I could totally see living here.

I personally don’t like loading up Firefox with plugins because it becomes another list of things to manage. I like simplicity. Many of the things listed in the article can be handled by blummy, which is not a plugin. In fact, it can even be used with Internet Explorer because its just a bookmark. I’ve been using Blummy for a couple of years now, and it definitely saves time. You can save links to del.icio.us in 2 clicks, or send a URL to someone via Gmail, TinyURL a link, submit the link to any social media site you choose, and even more. And its just a link that you bookmark. So you configure it once then use it on any computer that you log into. Linux, Mac, Windows, home, work, anywhere you need it.

So lets recap. Blummy doesn’t need to be installed, can be used anywhere, with any browser, on any computer, and its customizable. Or, install a bunch of plugins that only work in Firefox on your computer. I recognize that it won’t do everything listed in the article, but you can still install the plugins, and the portability more than compensates. In my mind, its a no brainer.