The Black Horse of the Blog World

The alternator on my car died on the way home last night. I stopped to pick up milk and the car wouldn’t start again. It was so sudden that I has the sneaky suspicion that it wasn’t the battery, but gave a go at getting a jump. Got the car started, but only got a few blocks before it gave out again under the electrical load.

Called aaa and they sent out a van that confirmed the battery was healthy, and with the use of a meter, watched the voltage drop under load, pronouncing the alternator to be the issue, so they called in the flatbed tower (I have all wheel drive). They dropped me off at home and towed the truck to the garage.

Today I am hanging out at the Library because it is a short walk from the garage and has wifi, so I can get some work done while I wait. Hopefully, by the end of the day, and 470 dollars later, I’ll have an operational vehicle again.

Sort of glad no one showed last night for game night (do you want to be added to the list for that?). Also, very glad for public libraries. Even when I’m not busy checking out books, they still provide a valuable third space. But of course, I ended up with a book too…

Does anyone have a gold or yellow cloak I could borrow for the weekend? Mine is charcoal grey and far too heavy. I’ll even take a goldish length of cloth that I can simply pin.

Do you buy board games? Don’t buy from Boards and Bits, or if you do, be warned about it. Read the full post I at http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/7456243 for more, including community and Boards and Bits responses.

Even the spammers are capitalizing on the recent political wave. Spammers are by far some of the most creative and ingenious people around. Anything for a quick buck. Here’s the opening salvo in a spam email I received today. It was good enough to get past Google’s spam filters.

“Greetings,

The time has come for Americans to STAND UP to the crap
that’s going on with our government.

Your first step is to position yourself to become financially
free. That is the ONLY way to protect yourself from economic
mess our leaders have put us in.

The vehicle I have chosen is called Skinny Body Care.”

Links to spam product scheme followed. The layers in this are amazing. First, in the subject line they call Government a Ponzi scheme (I’ve heard that before from other crazy places), but I feel like this scam might be an actual Ponzi scheme. Plus, the product they want you to market and recruit others to market is a weight loss product. So they’re using weight loss and quick cash triggers in the same scam. Brilliant. Wrap it up with the anti-government sentimentality and it’s near Genius.