“Teach Both”
Month: April 2010
New scam: Surveyspro Customer Service Evaluator
New scam: Surveyspro Customer Service Evaluator
This one took me a few minutes to identify. There is little information about it on the net let, but the pieces didn’t quite jive right.
First odd thing was an envelope mailed to me. The return address said:
P.O. BOX 300 STATION M
TORONTO ON M6S 4X2
No company information or anything. Upon opening it is a check for $2,408.18 drawn upon the Greensboro Postal Credit Union in North Carolina.
Included is a letter “explaining” how it all works. Essentially they want a mystery shopper to shop various locations. This sounds fairly legit, although I do not recall signing up for any mystery shopper things. The key tip off to me was the part where it says to send a Western Union payment to a fake relative.
The second key tip off is the “pay” for doing this – $200! This is far more then most mystery shopping jobs usually pay.
The phone number for the “Assigned Training Coordinator” 650-993-1549 shows up as a San Francisco number. Who is for the website listed: esurveyspro.com shows a Romanian address.
Registrant:
Outside Software Inc.
Bd Iuliu Maniu, Nr 7
Corp U, Etaj 5, Birou H
Bucharest, 061072 Romania
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: ESURVEYSPRO.COM
Created on: 15-Apr-06
Expires on: 15-Apr-19
Last Updated on: 28-Jan-10
Administrative Contact: Badea, Florentin florentin@outsidesoftware.ro
Outside Software Inc.
Bd Iuliu Maniu, Nr 7
Corp U, Etaj 5, Birou H
Bucharest, 061072
Romania
+40.213192553 Fax —
Technical Contact:
Badea, Florentin florentin@outsidesoftware.ro
Outside Software Inc.
Bd Iuliu Maniu, Nr 7
Corp U, Etaj 5, Birou H
Bucharest, 061072
Romania +40.213192553 Fax —
Domain servers in listed order: NS1.ESURVEYSPRO.COM NS2.ESURVEYSPRO.COM
Registrant:
Outside Software Inc.
Bd Iuliu Maniu, Nr 7
Corp U, Etaj 5, Birou H
Bucharest, 061072
Romania
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: ESURVEYSPRO.COM
Created on: 15-Apr-06
Expires on: 15-Apr-19
Last Updated on: 28-Jan-10
Administrative Contact:
Badea, Florentin florentin@outsidesoftware.ro
Outside Software Inc.
Bd Iuliu Maniu, Nr 7
Corp U, Etaj 5, Birou H
Bucharest, 061072
Romania
+40.213192553 Fax —
Technical Contact:
Badea, Florentin florentin@outsidesoftware.ro
Outside Software Inc.
Bd Iuliu Maniu, Nr 7
Corp U, Etaj 5, Birou H
Bucharest, 061072
Romania
+40.213192553 Fax —
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.ESURVEYSPRO.COM
NS2.ESURVEYSPRO.COM
As a final piece of the puzzle Greensboro Postal Credit Union says (in big red letters):
SCAM ALERT!!
IF YOU RECEIVE A GREENSBORO POSTAL CREDIT UNION CASHIER’S CHECK- – DO NOT CASH THIS CHECK. It Is Counterfeit. If you received this check by US Mail, contact the USPS Postal Inspection Service immediately.
Steak Fingers
Steak Fingers
Take “finger” sized (or more accurately bite sized) pieces of steak. Tenderize the heck out of them. Dip them in a salt/pepper based batter and deep fry. Totally bad for you but tasty.
It seems that as a kid I ate them all the time, at least I remember seeing them often. But I’ve literally eaten these twice in the past twenty years. Once was about 1999 or so, visiting Union Oregon and a little diner called Gravy Dave’s. Passing through last weekend, they were so busy that I couldn’t afford the delay in my travels so I missed out on seeing if they even still had them.
But on the way back, I accidently found some in Wells, Nevada at the 4 Way Casino and Cafe. It was one of two (non-fast food/C-store junk food) places open. Being chosen as my place of dining was merely happenstance as it was based on it’s relative distance to the road I wished to travel, and the fact that it was not attached to one of the two brothels in town.
Fortunately (or perhaps more unfortunately for my poor non-beef eating wife) recipes, including the purported original version, are on line! The nice thing about this is that they can be prepared and frozen for quick dinners down the road.
So I see a future full of breaded, deep friend steaks!
Wooly Mammoth went extinct about 1700 BC
Wooly Mammoth went extinct about 1700 BC
Using Radio Carbon Dating (which is interesting in itself) scientists have determined that the last Wooly Mammoths died about 1700 B.C.
They were a dwarfed species that lived on Wrangel Island which is in the Artic Sea in North Eastern Russia. Dwarfism is fairly typical for animals that get trapped on islands, so their size is nothing unexpected and does not make them a separate species. The island is now home to the largest population of Polar Bears in the world, and Arctic Wolves have started living there.
It’s generally thought that the bulk of the species died off 10,000 years ago during the Pleistocene era. The exact cause is unknown, but ironically over hunting by humans tends to be the number one theory, although warming after the last Ice Age certainly played a huge part.
What is really interesting is the range of these animals. Remains have been found in Siberia (given), Alaska (on St. Paul Island where they lived up until 3,750 BC), Spain and as far south in North America as present day Kentucky, where William Clark, of Lewis and Clark,collected some fossils in 1806.
But despite the known extinction dates, rumors of live Woolly Mammoths have persisted up until fairly recent times. There are several stories of lone hunters in Siberia, or Native American tribes in the far North having seen such animals in recent memory. Based on the number of intact carcasses found over the years, 34 in 1929 and now doubled since then, plus rumors of soft tissue being used as an emergency food source by small villages in the winter time, it’s very possible that the 1700 BC date is still incorrect.
As the DNA sequence for a Mammoth is the most complete of any extinct animal, it’s generally thought that it’ll be a trivial task to use that information to clone one. Due to it’s large size and the (relatively) easier task of getting intact DNA samples from Mammoth corpses, it’s believed that if some intact sperm cells can be recovered, an Indian elephant can be impregnated, bringing the Mammoth back to life.
Taking a Trip to Texas
Taking a Trip to Texas
As of Friday, April 9th, 2010 I shall be on the road to Langtry Texas for a family reunion of sorts. I’m not 100% sure of the family connection of most people attending will be, but I’m very much looking forward to the trip itself.
I’ve been on two long trips like this before, once from Portland through BC to Edmonton Calgary then back down around through Yellowstone and then to Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and home up I-5. The other trip was a straight shot from Fort Wayne Indiana to Portland.
This trip will be from Portland, east along I-84 all the way to Twin Falls, Idaho. I’ll head south towards to Salt Lake City, Utah and then cut south east through the mountains and Colorado. I’ll hit Albuquerque, New Mexico (being 100% sure to take that left turn,) then stop in Roswell New Mexico for a bit of UFO Tourism. Afterwards I’m taking another detour to San Antonio, Texas to visit the Alamo and “world famous” River Walk and most likely some famous Texas Barbecue. And hopefully at the end of a week, end up in Del Rio, Texas which is the nearest city of size near Langtry.
The return trip will head west to Phoenix, Arizona. At that point we’ll see how the weather is. I’ll either head north to Las Vegas from there, or go further west and pick of Los Angeles and travel the I-5 corridor again if there is too much snow around the Lake Tahoe area.
To keep costs down, the vehicle of choice is a 1984 Class A Winnebago. I just took it on a 100 mile short trip to get a feel for driving it, it’s got a new CB radio with access to the NOAA weather channels, and road maps of everywhere I need to be.
I’ll be camping at Truck Stops and Walmarts, or if desperate, actual real campgrounds.
Other points of interest I’m hoping to see are the ghost town of Lime Oregon, historic Union Oregon (I stayed in the restored hotel about ten years ago and enjoyed it a lot,) and if I’m not running too far behind, Arches National Park in Utah. Plus whatever other sites I might happen to see along the way. Hopefully I’ll be able to get lots of pictures and be able to upload them.
I’ll have my computer, and my list of RSS job feeds so I can keep job searching when I stop. In the off chance I do get a job interview and have to be back soon, I’ll be able to park the motor home, fly home to go to the interview then go back and continue my travels. Since I haven’t had an actual face to face interview in over two months, despite sending out at least a dozen resumes a week, I don’t see that being a problem though.
Overall, I’m excited about this adventure. I’ll really looking forward to it and hope to have a great time despite the roughly 4500 miles in two weeks I’ll be driving all together.