dpk’s weblog

Every so often I get a spam from a company that handles some sort of CMMI High-end KPO services. Naturally, I do not respond to the spam. Emphasis mine:

I hope you are doing great. My name is Sandra and I am with Company, Inc. We got your reference from the Internet. I wanted to check your availability for a meeting with our AVP Sales, Mr. Sam Alva who is scheduled to be in Seattle, WA tentatively on 2nd and 3rd of October.

Mr. Sam Alva? THE Mr. Sam Alva is coming to town? I receive this email and multiple followups whenever The Mr. Sam Alva is thinking about planning to come to town. “I hope you are doing great” is a recurring theme. Every time I get these emails I think about that XKCD strip: I’m here from the Internet.

The email always includes this parenthetical at the end:

(This email has been created specifically for you by visiting your web site, and has been sent individually. We regret any inconvenience caused. If this email bothers you, kindly let us know and we will ensure that we do not contact you again using such emails.)

I don’t even know where to begin with this part.

There is an anarchy club here at school. One of the club rules is “everyone votes”. Heh.

This is a few weeks old, but just in case you haven’t seen it: Wisdom from Gary.

Is it just me* or does this guy sound like a less intense Gene Ray?

• Gary: “You have done nothing wrong. You were just taught a lie”
• Gene: “You were educated to live an evil lie – and your heirs will suffer hell for your stupidity.”
• Gary: “I will help, if you frame, because it’s the only solution; now and into the future.”
• Gene: “Killing you is not immoral – but justified to save life on Earth for future generations.”
• Gary: “The entire industry is wrong [...] and Gary is right.”
• Gene: “I am a Cubic Thinker and far wiser than any god, any scientist and any educator. “

* Damn, I did it again. I didn’t read through all of the comments on the site (I guess the site now only shows the “featured” ones by default). I see now that others made the same connection. Well, I didn’t *mean* to copy them. Oh well, at least I’m not alone on this. I guess this does raise an interesting question, that is beyond the scope of this footnote/parenthetical: it’ll end up in a separate post later.

Here is a link that was shared to me. I now share it to you.

Garfield minus Garfield. I see now it was already on digg. I’ve failed you all.

NPR spent some time asking their staff about their favorite childhood toys. My mind immediately went to LEGO, which could be the best toy ever. Then I remembered my favorite “toy” from when I was very young: a chalk board. It was probably 3′ by 5′, and it had the alphabet and (I think) numbers across the border. For some reason I remember it being in my crib, but that could just be made up — memory is fuzzy after all. I’d write and draw random things on it. I don’t know exactly how much time I spent with it, or exactly when I used it, but it really left a lasting impression.

Astronaut is trapped in space after his mother dies in car crash
I guess she must have been his ride home. Rough. Hopefully one of the other moms will let him carpool.

I’m sure many of y’all have seen this already. The Predatory Lending Association offers a PoorFinder™ “mashup”, racial profiling tools, helpful information on myths about the business, and much more! Someone asked me if this site was serious or a parody: I say it’s both.