Danger Danger!! High Voltage!

In case any of you were thinking about selling your books or .. anything I suppose on Amazon here is a little nugget of information that could save your sanity.

Some banks do not check to see whether YOUR name matches the name attached to the checking account number you have listed as your place of deposit.

So if your bank does this and you accidentally enter a checking account number that perhaps isn't yours but happens to be someone else's, guess who's getting your hard earned $$? Not you that's who.

I found this out today when after not receiving two separate deposits from Amazon I begun to get worried and called their customer service number (that I wasn't able to find on their site--but that's another story). They read me off the last few digits of the checking account number they had listed and guess what... it didn't match mine on my banks website! And it wasn't just one number off, it was completely off which I thought was strange since last time when I was at home I had doubled checked the last few digits with my checkbook and it had matched.

At this point I realized one of two things had happened.

Best case scenario: I had somehow managed to use Kyle's check book instead of my own

Worst case scenario: Somehow either myself or amazon switched the checking account number in some either stupidity or clerical error.

I honestly believed that the best case wasn't going to happen because these deposits had been missing for about a month and Kyle knew about it. I figured if he had noticed some random $100+ deposits in his account he would have said something to me knowing that I was worried about it and all.

So I frantically contacted Kyle and asked him if he had noticed any deposits. He went online and checked his account and guess what... there they were! Hal-A-Lu-Yer! So luckily it all worked out for me and all I have to do if I ever sell stuff on amazon again is change the checking account number to the REAL number.

The only way this could have happened I surmise is that the check book I looked at initially to get the information was a started check book aka doesn't have your name printed on it and I assumed since it was on MY desk it was mine.

So lessons to be learned: don't forget to double check the name on if there is one .. or just don't ever use started check books! They are evil!
I frantically contacted Kyle and had him

Orkin Cat

As I was laying in bed relaxing with my laptop 5 minutes ago I heard the jingle of a cats' collar and a distinct buzzing near my ear. This could only mean one thing. BEETLE ATTACK!

I hopped up and saw that the beetle had landed about 2 inches from my head on my pillow. [Excuse me while I go puke for 3 hours] I then grabbed the pillow and ran out into the living room so that a) I could better see this bug and confirm the beetle sighting and b) so Buck could attack it.

I called Buck into the living room for way too long and since he wasn't getting the hint I ran back into the bedroom scooped him up and brought him into the living room with me. At first he took some interest in the beetle, of course it was difficult for him to see it being that Kyle and I have diagnosed him as a far-sighted cat. But in any event, he took a little bit of interest and then ran towards the front door. That was when I knew I was in trouble.

Why?

Because the only thing more interesting than a relatively stationary beetle is a crazy, flailing, flying beetle.

I need to stop the anecdotal aspect of the story and recap my thoughts at that time (all of 10 minutes ago). One beetle I have already confessed is something I'm perfectly fine with. This is because it keeps Buck entertained aka makes him stop whining for: food/going outside/play time etc. But two beetles... that's a whole new animal. Because a) Buck can only attack one beetle at a time leaving one beetle to just fly around and perhaps touch me and b) this thing has a chance to possibly mate before Buck has time to kill one of them and I would not like to have a beetle infestation anytime soon!

So currently-- and I can say this without even being in the same room, Buck is sitting at the front door keeping an eye on both beetles, clearly in cat heaven.

This reminds me of a video I took of Kyle helping Buck attack a beetle that wouldn't come down from the ceiling. Enjoy!

MDU

For those of you who aren't blessed [cursed] enough.. to have ever experienced living in a MDU or multi dwelling unit you have missed out on some great games.

What games?

1. Who is cooking? (and what exactly are they cooking and did they kill it in their apartment?)
2. Who is the mystery smoker who lives in my kitchen when I am gone?
3. Sing the commercial that the person next door is listening to.
4. Why is the person above me bouncing what sounds like golf balls at 12am? And if not golf balls, what are they?
5. Can my neighbor hear me when I'm in the bathroom?
6. Who started a fire alarm-grade smoke in their toaster oven?
7. Guess the reason why every person who works in my building hates their job/life
8. Name that smell (closely associated to game #1 and #2)
9. What is causing that noise/Guess the reasons other people cannot hear it
10. And finally... Guess which elevator (is out, going to arrive, has people in it, is defaced)

What are your favorite MDU games? Let me know in comments!

The Facts of Life!

Web 2.0, AOL, A. I. M, Surfing the Web, User-Generated Content. What do these words or phrases have to do with each other? Each is a phrase that makes me and many of my peers cringe and ultimately lose control of our bowels (well not quite).

We will now refer to UGC as duh. Oh fine, I'll keep calling it User-Generated Content or at least UGC. ugh. As I eluded to, I find the concept of UGC to have a large amount of duh-factor attached. As it seems to me the only parts of information online that isn't UGC is that created by a robot. Even if a corporation posts information, they are still users, thus it's still UGC.

Is it too common sense to discuss UGC? Seems so to me. There doesn't seem to be many if any alternatives to UGC and given my definition, that is certainly true. But fine, take away my definition and consider only people like you and me who write blog posts, add reviews to yelp or any other similar site, and perhaps make videos to post online and we'll work from there. There are very few sites I can think of that I use on a somewhat regular basis that aren't UGC, maybe Google Maps, but if you look at the mini reviews there ya go, Google Maps has UGC too! It's everywhere!.. Infiltrating..!

From what I gathered from Bruceclay.com some websites or companies are struggling with whether they should add aspects of UGC to their sites for fear of "bad things" being said. Get over it is what I say. Don't you all remember the Facts of Life.. you take the good you take the bad, you take them both! Today's users don't want much to do with sites that can't be moderated to some degree by unbiased yet knowledgeable users. And it would've been so much longer before now if it weren't for people still using AOL! ... heh... no offense or anything.

KISS Gene Simmons... Business Model

I apologize for any KISS fans I may offend when I say that Gene Simmons is a business man trapped in a musicians body.

It is now apparent to me that he would have never been a musician if it weren't for the $$$ that comes along with it.

Recently Gene was interviewed saying that College kids are what have killed the music industry. How have we done this? By downloading music.. stealing as they call it. Gene Simmons honestly believes that the record companies should "sue them out of existence"... or some similar extermination technique.

We all can't be so lucky as to have a bazillion and a half dollars and be able to purchase any CD or mp3 that strikes our fancy.

I have watched Gene Simmons show "Gene Simmons Family Jewels" and enjoyed it. While it is incredibly contrived the few true family exchanges that occur are fun to view. I'll probably watch it again but I won't look up to Gene as a person anymore, only as a money grubbing business man.

A few posts ago I wrote about Radiohead and their promotion letting their fans pay as much or as little as they want for the album that was just released. Gene's response to this was "Are you on fucking crack?"

Maybe I am since I still believe that people should be able to download music as they please. I wonder if Gene also believes in charging people full price for AIDS drugs? He's probably a libertarian.

Everytime I hear "web 2.0" I cringe.

Thank the lord that the next Presidential election is coming up... relatively soon. I think most Americans would admit that this years potential candidates is the most interesting combination of individuals so far. A woman, a black guy, a mock news reporter (he kind of still counts), a Mormon, and an assortment of other interesting characters.

With all the social progression in candidates this year they have really been trying to tap every media resource possible; Myspace and Facebook seem to be the most popular.

But does it really matter? Last Presidential election only 41.9% of people aged 18-25 voted. I find it difficult to believe that just because Clinton or Obama will be advertising on Myspace or Facebook people that age will find the energy to make it to the polls. Perhaps if we could all vote from home ... from the Facebook platform? If we could, I bet that % would be closer to 100%.

If you were an activist or just someone who regularly voted before politics invaded social networking sites then you will vote after them. If you weren't... well chances are you won't vote this time either.

I can't deny that using these platforms to talk about your political position is a great idea. If anything lazy teens will glaze over some FAQ and learn a little bit. But to get them to vote I think either implement my facebook idea or try a combination of Australian and Argentinian voting strategies. Fine us if we don't vote and/or let us sell our votes on e-bay. If we sold our votes, it would even out to the electoral vote anyway wouldn't it? Probably.

Paper Dolls

We've all gone through the job-finding process. What do we do to prepare?

Jack up our resume. Include every semi-relevant class that you got a B+ or better on, every extra-curricular activity, and of course, every volunteering event we stood next to.

If you looked at your resume now would you be able to say that it represented you well?
Before I updated mine a few weeks ago I would have to answer "no".

I had in there that I knew a little bit about POM for windows, MS Project, and other similar applications. If by little I meant that I had heard of them and used them for a few class periods a few semesters ago then my resume would be accurate.

For many jobs in the business or tech field-- actually any field where in the course of your day you don't have peoples lives in your hands, using your blog as your resume can be a better way of representing yourself to a potential employer.

How many times do companies use their blogs to entice potential employees? That's becoming more and more frequent.

In his blog, Adam Darowski discusses how blogs can replace the resume because instead of vague, generalized bullet points you have detailed paragraphs with real information.

For example... If you're a chef and on your resume you write that you are an excellent baker. I have to believe you based on what you said. However if in your blog you post about how you perfected a recipe for apple pie in detail, there's my proof that you know what you're talking about.

In a way it's similar to how Doctors submit articles in Medical Journals. Sometimes it's not enough to say that you pioneered a new technique. You need detailed proof that you did it and can do it in the future.

I won't pretend to be naive and leave out the main reason why resumes are used. Employers need a brief, concise, (one - two page) description of your qualifications for time saving purposes. My argument would be: which would save more time and money? -Reading someones blog to figure them out OR -having them come in to the office for a two hour interview to only have to turn them down?

One last point and then I will shush bub on the topic... no one is all that honest in an interview, we're told not to be. But a blog, well unless you've been playing to interview with a certain company for months or years it would be very difficult to fudge your blog.

How Tom Kyte Killed My Blog... and other conspiracy theories

As some of you may know, a few weeks ago after visiting my class Tom Kyte, VP of Oracle linked to my blog from his heavily visited blog.

The two days following that post upped the traffic to my blog tremendously. From an average of 10-17 visitors a day to over 70 unique visitors. I was understandably ecstatic with this new traffic and began dreaming of blog stardom.

When my traffic dwindled back down to it's usual average I realized that Tom Kyte had killed my blog.

How did he do this? And was it on purpose?

What happened is that Tom linked to a crappy post of mine that merely stated that Tom had spoken to our class and that I enjoyed it. He didn't link to my blog in its entirety so when all those people clicked the link and read my crappy, juvenile post they didn't read any further. I am assuming that if they had read one of my better posts they would either have read more or come back other times.

Of course I don't believe that Tom did this on purpose (he doesn't even know my plan for world domination!). I suppose Tom never realized that I was trying to get a small following on my blog when he linked to my crappy post.

Lesson learned:

Never ever do a little shout out blog post--you never know who will link to it (and ruin your blogging career haha)



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My other conspiracy theory of the day is:

That the somewhat new rule of no bottles over 3 ounces on airplanes is purely to fuel the travel-size toiletries industry.