Since 2003 I was doing all my design work on a 17″ PowerBook G4 with a 17″ Studio Display. Five years later, I upgraded my design studio for a desktop and larger display. I decided to transfer my files from the PowerBook and sell my older studio on craigslist. The ad short and sweet and the sticker price was under $1000. I received a few responses from people who disappeared after an initial round of communication.
Then I received an e-mail from a guy in New York City. To be honest, his response didn’t raise any red flags since he seemed interested in the studio and, frankly, it’s a great deal. He inquired if I would accept payment via PayPal, I replied yes. I took the studio to a shipping store for an estimate and e-mailed the total costs of the studio and shipping. I didn’t hear a response until late last night:
**Timothy Oludare has sent you an auction payment with paypal (Routing Code: C827-L003-Q989-T5265) Confirmed**
I had never seen an e-mail like this from PayPal. Looking at the message on my iPhone, the formatting was causing tables to overlap one another. And the URLs for PayPal had .co.uk domains. I looked at the buyer information a second time, the name didn’t match the person in NY who wanted the design studio. Then I looked at the e-mail through my web browser which displayed the message in Times New Roman.
Some motherfucker was trying to scam me. Me. Oh hell no.
So I did what any potential victim of a scam would’ve done: I forwarded the e-mail to spoof@paypal.com. I received an auto-reply from PayPal which confirmed that I was the victim of fraud. I can only imagine – hope, even – that PayPal finds the culprits behind this scam and prosecutes them to the fullest extent of the law.
Learn how to spot a fake PayPal e-mail.
Incidentally, the design studio is still for sale.
Watching the Inauguration on television this morning, I went from one emotional extreme to another during the event. For the first time in eight years, I felt like I no longer had to live in fear of my government. That I can speak my mind without worrying that I would lose additional civil liberties or be labeled a terrorist for my staunch opposition of Bush and Cheney’s politics.
I listened to the broadcasters on NBC elaborate on Americans in all their myriad dwellings. Latinos were lumped into barrios and black were ushered into ghettos. The broadcasters were stumped for a description of Asian communities. One word would have been far better and more powerful: home. Despite the historical precedent of today, white privilege remains omnipotent in our mainstream media. And despite the historical precedent of today, America and the world were deemed not ready to hear the name Barack Hussein Obama. Just an H. But hey, small victories, right?
I share the ecstatic disbelief of my friends that a black man was elected President of the United States. And, yes, if Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr were alive today, he would be proud of what American has finally achieved for its citizens. As a gay man, I’m still waiting for my 1,049+ federal rights. I don’t know how many of them I will receive in the next 4 years, but I remain hopeful that President Obama will make good on his word.
I already stated that I voted for Nader in 2008, and if anyone wants to discuss my choices for doing so they are certainly welcome to send me an e-mail, but I am eternally thankful that Obama is in the 44th President of the United States and not John McCain.
I also hope Reverend Dr Jeremiah A. Wright Jr stays true to his word.
I have to say, working with WordPress is a lot easier than MovableType. My physical involvement with the theme components has focused mostly on the style sheet. I looked at the themes offered by WordPress, viewed the source code of the sample page, then revised the default CSS file to match my theme. I uploaded the files, activated the theme, and made minor changes to the stylesheet thereafter. Working in MovableType was never this easy.
Also, if you are using an iPhone or iPod Touch, you will now experience a very light version of my blog courtesy of iWPhone WordPress Plugin and Theme. Many thanks to Grapefeed for the tip.
Get burned enough times and you find yourself coming up with trademark phrases like Learn From My Mistakes™. A lot of little mistakes with past projects added up to one giant mistake: overlooking the importance of risk management. During the course of a project lifecycle, it’s important to mitigate any and all risks so neither you nor the client waste time or money.
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The critics – my friends – have spoken about this year’s Winter Mix collection:
I have been carefully and purposefully going through the music in your Winter Mix 2009 and I am blown away by how many great artists there are in this great mix.
You do broaden my musical horizon so.
I know like four of the bands. But I am excited to hear new ones.
I have more friends than this—I do, I tell you, I DO! This year’s mix was a collection of 80 songs from all walks and genres of music. The mix is available to friends only, I’m a tease like that, but I’ve been known to lose touch with people. If you are such a person, let me know and I will send you the mix.
For all the haters out there that complain about a lack of good music, they only need turn off the radio and hit the world wide web. A lot of good websites are out there promoting artists you would never hear of if not for their efforts. And I am not talking about Pitchfork, either.
Check out The Hype Machine and spend a little time checking out new music. And, as scary as this may sound, peruse the artists on MySpace. Yes, MySpace. If you filter out the myriad second-life personae on the site, you can find music on the site. Maybe even support a few independent artists, to boot.
Happy 2009, Everyone.