K-Squared Ramblings

Taking your own advice

Time for the weird spam report:

Some facts you may find usefull:

1. Employers prefers people with college degree.
2. People with college degree generally earn more then people with only high school education.

You may improve your income and your life, with increasing your earning power from a diploma within days from a prestigious non-accredited university based on life experience.

Since I can’t find a single sentence without at least one spelling or grammar mistake, it doesn’t speak well of this supposedly prestigious institution.

I have to wonder, though: does anyone actually take these places seriously? I can’t imagine an employer seeing an unfamiliar college on a resumé without at least checking to make sure it exists.

Finally, the pitch ended with the following:

P.S. Please accept our apology if you found this information useless

On the contrary; I found it quite amusing!

Victoria’s Secret Service

I always knew salespeople were audacious. I didn’t know until yesterday that some of it stems from the audacity of their higher-ups. We went to South Coast yesterday in search of, well, lingerie. So we found the Victoria’s Secret. I went to look for my size in a rack of something and a cute, sparkly-faced saleschick interposed herself asking what size I was looking for. A dialogue ensued regarding weight loss and undergarment entropy and how many different sizes I had been found to need in the last few months. I was about to do as she was implying was The Way here and go try on their samples rather than sully the merchandise when she brought up the “Angels Card.”

“You get over $75 in potential savings over the course of a year, and two years of our catalog!” she chirped.

I pulled out my standard response. “I wouldn’t use it enough.”

“Oh, you don’t have to. It’s completely free.”

Fine. “Eh, why not.”

“Fantastic! It’s just five easy questions.” Uh-oh. The catch. “Do you have a credit card for reference?” I did. Swipe. “And can I have your social?”

Riiiiight. Like I’m going to give that out to someone I don’t know, who doesn’t work for the SSA or my employer, in the middle of a store full of strangers. “I’m sorry, I don’t give out my social.”

I don’t think I’ve seen anyone look so confused in weeks. “But–but we don’t give your information out to anyone.”

“That’s fine, but I don’t give out my social.”

So, no Angels Card. Not that I want it, at that price (or the price they charge for underwear, either). But I’m left wondering, what the fuck does Victoria’s Secret need with my social? The credit card should be enough, and handing that over was borderline. If it’s free, it’s free. You’re not promising them any money or business, and in fact you start out by costing them in paper and printing expenses. You don’t need to be a citizen to buy underwear. What gives?

One Degree

Anyone whose email address is posted on a web site probably doesn’t bother to identify who sent them viruses anymore. With faked return addresses and the high probability that your only connection to the sender is the fact that they visited your web page sometime in the last month, there really isn’t much point.

Every once in a while, you’ll see something weird.

Today I received what looked like a classic credit-card theft scam: a notice supposedly from PayPal claiming that my account would be canceled unless I re-entered all my credit card information into the linked web page. Right. Normally I just report it to PayPal and delete it, but this one had an attachment instead of a link, and that attachment had been defanged. With a name like www.paypal.com.scr, it was pretty obviously a virus. Read the rest of this entry »

What’s my line

In The Matrix: Revolutions, when Smith asked Neo why he kept fighting, I thought he answered, “Because I’m too stupid.” It wasn’t until I went to the IMDb discussion forums that I figured out he said, “Because I choose to.” I can’t decide if this is better than thinking that, in The Two Towers, Sam said to Gollum, “You’re a wuss.” (Actual line: “You’re hopeless.”) Anybody got others?

Neo Genesis Revangelions

Saw The Matrix: Revolutions yesterday after hearing almost nothing but bad press. We went in expecting nothing, so except for the crappy dialogue, it wasn’t bad at all while we were watching it. Afterward, though, once there was time to digest everything in the context of a single movie as well as a trilogy, it was a different story. I’m not bashing it Kenneth-Turan style, but as a person who appreciates both style and substance, I found myself retrospectively disappointed.

Those of you who’ve seen Evangelion will know exactly what the title is referring to. I’m not big on religious symbolism for its own sake, but if it serves a purpose, as it does in Evangelion, I’ll go with it. There wasn’t really a purpose in this beyond being messianic. I guess what ticks me off the most is Read the rest of this entry »

Vertical Horizon winning the filk wars

It’s official: Vertical Horizon now has ten songs to their name that we’ve determined to be at least 75% appropriate for sci-fi, fantasy, or anime music videos. The only other band that comes close to this is the Wallflowers, with four. Don’t ask me how they do this. We just watch (and occasionally read) stuff, then listen to songs, and the songs fit.

Tuesdays, we go over for dinner and Farscape with Kelson’s family. Scapers, get ready to wail: last night’s program was “Self Inflicted Wounds.” Both episodes. For non-Scapers, yes, it was as big an emotional wringer as you may have guessed. When we got home after a round of coffee and sympathy, I checked a hunch on the lyric sheet for the latest VH album, Go. Bingo–”Won’t Go Away” has now officially joined the ranks of the video-able.

At the risk of sounding like an IMDb summary, get the full list here…… Read the rest of this entry »