D'oh!

I got home last night to find that my power had been shut off. I'd forgotten to pay the power bill! It was, of course, completely dark aside from the light reflecting off of a waning moon. Inside my house was no better. But the boy scout in me (I never really enjoyed boyscouts and shortly quit; here I'm just referring to the motto: "Always be prepared") had placed a rechargable flashlight in the kitchen by the door, hanging from a wall-socket.

So I turned it on and tried the phones. Dead. Except for the emergency old-school style phone I keep in the living room for such an occasion as this. I used the flashlight to find the disconnect notice I knew was hiding somewhere in the pile of unopened mail I've accumulated in the past few weeks, and sure enough I found it. I called the number and paid the bill, and will contact them today to ensure they turn the power on.

After I took care of that last night, I was pretty much at a loss. What was I supposed to do with myself with no power in the house?! No computer, no TV, no desklamps working. I couldn't cook (though I could grill), my refrigerator was slowly losing it's cool. Outside it was FREAKING COLD so I knew I wasn't going to have a problem with the freezer that's out there (*bonus!*), but inside it was still _relatively_ warm. I moved the ice cream out of the inside freezer and into the standing freezer on the porch.

So what was I to do with myself last night? I could have gone out to get something to eat, gone to a movie, etc. That was a no starter though, I didn't really feel like either of those. So I made myself a bowl of cereal by flashlight illuminescence, took one of my two new issues of "Whistleblower" upstairs, and lit some candles on the lampstand next to my bed.

This didn't really cut it. Who wants to read by the light of 3 weak candles nearly below bed level? Plus I knew I'd hardly be able to see my cereal! I did have other assets available to me, however. I went out on the porch and found a camping lamp that's battery operated (though I myself would have preferred a coleman with those crazy superbright white things inside that you light with fire) and hung it off of a hook right above my head in bed!

I ate my cereal and gave the remaining milk to the cats. Then I settled down to read some of one of the issues of "Whistleblower". I'm not a big fan of magazines, but this is my kind of super conservative anti-big-goverment stuff. I read for a while, and when I felt myself growing sleepy I turned off the light and drifted off.

I woke up feeling quite rested. I didn't have a clock that worked in my bedroom, so I went downstairs to shower (I had ensured I had hot water last night). Every morning when I wake up it's dark, so I was surprised to see that it was actually 2am! I'd probably slept for a good 6 hours, but what the hell was I supposed to do at 2am?! Shower and go to work?

I considered it. But I rejected the idea because I knew I was going to stay until 5 anyway, and I have a monster drive each night and I didn't want to be too sleepy. And that could easily upset my next night's sleep and start a chain of wierdness through the whole week. So I went back to bed, and spent the night in fairly lucid dreams I can hardly remember now.

When I did wake up in the morning, it was right on time: 5:15 or so. I was cold, even under my down comforter. Inside my computer room the temperature was reading about 54 degrees. I had slept in pajamas and a comforatable shirt last night, though without socks. No wonder I was so cold!

These things happen to me. I'm forgetful && a procrastinator, so . . .

D'oh!

Walking back the cat

It's been a while since I posted to my blog. Last week I worked a ton (53 hrs + about 15 hrs commute time) and on the weekend I BINGED on Guild Wars. By binge, I mean I played until 3AM on Friday, got up on Saturday morning and played from 8:30 to midnight with about an hour break, then on Sunday morning from 8:00 to 10:30, at which point I played for a couple hours more later in the day before burning out. It was strictly a weekend event, as the game isn't even released yet, but I enjoyed it immensely.

During this time I listened to "The Company: A Novel of the CIA", which I really enjoyed. Last night, I had finished the book, and found an email in my Yahoo mailbox. It was from a woman who had recently moved into my neck of the woods and was looking to hook up with me, based on seeing my "Big Church" profile. I emailed her back, and got an autoreply that said she was using this match site for her email correspondance. To email someone on the match site, you need to sign up for it.

I started to smell a scam. So I began walking back the cat. The email was coming from a domain that was owned by another email host, which provided both pop and webmail. They had numerous domains you could choose from, and while going to www..com brought me there, this particular wasn't one of the ones they offered. I did a whois search on both domains and found that they were operated out of different states, and by different companies. However, both domains were last updated on the exact same day (Aug 17, 2004).

I examined the email. It was written with many gramatical mistakes, and the telephone number given in the email consisted of 8 digits (presumably a typo). The woman said she didn't have much computer experience and that her friend had put her picture up on a matching website. She was very attractive, but the location was "New in town...". When I did a search on this site for people within 50 miles of me, she didn't come up.

She said she moved from "Evanston". There is no Evanston in my state, but I paired the first 3 digits of the cell phone number provided with "Evanston" and found that it was a valid exchange in Illinois. Now, I didn't try calling all of the permutations of the cell phone number that was apparently fat fingered and left out the area code, but I did try two. Both were servicable, but obviously neither was her.

The email sent to me was directed at my Yahoo email account, but this account is unregistered at Big Church (I think, I didn't verify that part to my satisfaction last night).

So what did I have? It seemed to me, going to bed last night, that I had a carefully, skillfully crafted email from the matching website. They would find profiles on other dating sites, send a convincing email from an attractive member of the opposing gender, and allow you contact them only through the site. I was clearly looking at a scam here.

Fast forward to a good nights sleep and an additional check I had neglected last night. I viewed the complete headers on the email and found an originating IP address (which referred to itself as localhost.localdomain, a default configuration on Linux boxes) that was from my state!! In fact, it was from my ISP. This flew in the face of the conclusion I had drawn last night. In addition, there was another email address listed, the email address of her alledged room-mate/friend.

So I emailed the friend with a smile on my face. Now I was utterly befuddled. I laid out in vague terms how I thought that this was a scam email, and how the originating IP address conflicted with that conclusion. I hope I get a reply! I enjoyed walking back the cat.