Fw: WARNING FROM POLICE

So it seems like it's that time again. I recently got another email that I've seen circulating around. I had done my research on it earlier, but the third time I got it, I figured it was time, yet again, to show how awesome some emails are.

WARNING FROM POLICE THIS APPLIES TO BOTH WOMEN AND MEN BEWARE OF PAPER ON THE BACK WINDOW OF YOUR VEHICLE--NEW WAY TO DO CARJACKINGS (NOT A JOKE!!!) Heads up everyone! Please, keep this circulating.... You walk across the parking lot, unlock your car and get inside. You start the engine and shift into reverse. When you look into the rearview mirror to back out of your parking space, you notice a piece of paper stuck to the middle of the rear window. So, you shift into Park, unlock your doors, and jump out of your car to remove that paper (or whatever it is) that is obstructing your view. When you reach the back of your car, that is when the carjackers appear out of nowhere, jump into your car and take off. They practically mow you down as they speed off in your car. And guess what, ladies? I bet your purse is still in the car. So now the carjacker has your car, your home address, your money, and your keys. Your home and your whole identity are now compromised! BEWARE OF THIS NEW SCHEME THAT IS NOW BEING USED. If you see a piece of paper stuck to your back window, just drive away. Remove the paper later. And be thankful that you read this e-mail. I hope you will forward this to friends and family, especially to women. A purse contains all kinds of personal information and identification documents, and you certainly do NOT want this to fall into the wrong hands. Please keep this going and tell all your friends

Well, as you may have guessed this isn't totally real. Sure you could always add the line, "Proved by SNOPES" to add some street cred next time you pass this message along, but this has no real conclusive evidence of being an issue. Certainly something to keep an eye out for IF you do happen to see a note on your back windshield. For the most part, this is a plausible scenario, but is simply fabricated (maybe it happened once and no one really knows).

Got the info from here.

Bike Lights are Awesome

This morning I decided to go for a little morning bike ride before work. It was a cool 40 degrees (F) outside which has left me chilled all day. Since I must get up at the butt-crack of dawn La Paz, Bolivia time (read: "early"), I adorn my bike with front and rear lights so as not to get hit by cars.

Now read that last part again: "...not to get hit by cars." Well Houston is not the most bike friendly city, and that is fine, it just makes me more aware to be on the lookout. This morning I was also dealing with drivers not paying attention, in order to validate the statement of "not to get hit by cars."

On multiple occasions, a car would pull up to a stop sign on a cross street. Instead of stopping, they would do a little rolling stop (not a full stop), and look both ways as they're moving across the street into the bike lane, at which point they would see me as I'm slamming on my brakes trying to move out of the path of the car. I've had this happen to me before, and usually it's no big deal, I am always watching them, but when it happens 5 times in one morning... it made me a bit weary. 5 times... really? Come on people... wake UP!

ps. apparently i just found out you can embed a video into the blog!

Taking a Stand

Tomorrow will be an interesting day for the internet and its average users who may be unaware of what SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act), as Wikipedia and Reddit, and many other sites will be blacking out their websites to inform and enlighten everyone on the affects of a world where SOPA passes.

I find it interesting that there isn't a lot of chatter on the media about it, considering how widespread and ubiquitous the internet has become with our lives. A recent article I read talks about some major companies that have remained silent to the matter. The article points out that most of the companies have some kind of connection to government funding and thus don't want to upset the wrong people and are thus silently in support of SOPA.

But that continues to make me wonder that maybe the companies should be advocating for it and trying to bring everyone to support it, right? However, I wonder if what happened to GoDaddy and the amount of normal people that are against SOPA have anything to do with the stigma of proponents to the bill. Because there has been such a strong showing from the masses, maybe they have companies scared that they will lose major business and support which would also hurt them... making the best option, to just quietly wait to see what happens.

My guess, they don't want it passing any more most other people too... but can't speak out about that either. Most likely won't pass, but still interested to see the blackout tomorrow.

Getting a good deal

UFO Sighting! (fog)

For those of you unfamiliar with REI and how they work, they have an incredible return policy. If you buy an item of theirs and decide, at ANY time during your ownership, you don't like, you can return it. It's awesome. The way they get rid of those returned items is through what's called their "garage sale." REI's garage sale's are notorious for finding amazing gear for an extremely discounted rate and sometimes in great condition.

On New Year's Eve, REI had their last garage sale of the year, with (potentially) lots of Christmas returns. The last time my brother and I went, we stood in line around 3:00 am and were maybe 15th in line. This time, we decided to sleep in a bit more and showed up at 5:30... only to be 25th in line or so. Not too bad.

25th in line - notice the tents

The crowd is always an interesting bit to communicate with. One man was wearing a canadian tuxedo and was interested in everything. One person started going up and down on the street on his scooter. Some of the crowd was a bit more hardcore than the rest. For example #1 in line apparently showed up at 4pm the previous day. They got a sweet spot with a hammock in front of the store. There were also two more hammocks (which I failed to take a picture of) in a set of trees in the parking lot where one hammock was slightly above the other one.




Once 9am rolled around, I had successfully played a game of finger jousting, talked about jeeps and cars, learned the game of ninja, learned about Germany a bit (one guy lived in Germany for part of his life), and was ready to find some deals.

Hammock in #1 spot

When picking a sale item, it's best to read the label description to determine why it was returned. Some are rather humorous or just interesting. Here are some samples:

"Smelled like campfire smoke" -on a jacket
"Did not fit" -shoes
"Multiple Holes - not cat-claw-proof" -on an air mattress
"Self Inflater does not self inflate" -on air mattress
There was a cast iron pan that had an entire side cracked and broken off (probably an interesting story)
"Used once - nothing wrong"