Examples:

1. Some thing wild is just about to happen at this get-together.
2. But not as wild as what’s already going on at this shindig.
3. But then, there’s wild and then there’s these fellows…

You’re welcome.

Pls reply me back

Happy New Year…

I’m sorry for this odd request because it might get to you too urgent but it’s  just because of the situation of things right now, i’m stuck in London, I came down here on vacation, i was robbed, worse  of it is that bags, cash and cards and my cell phone was stolen at GUN  POINT, it’s such a crazy experience for me, i need help flying back home, the authorities are not being 100% supportive but the good thing is i still have my passport but don’t have enough money to get my flight ticket back home, please i need you to loan me some money, will refund you as  soon as i’m back home, i promise.

Thank you
Rand Winton

Hmmm. No. That’s not real at all.

I replied to it and the hijackers further prompted me to provide help. So they are actively using her account. Great.

After texting her (she’s been bombarded by all her contacts checking whether she’s OK or letting her know she’s been hacked) I tried to login. Of course her password didn’t work. I tried the password retrieval mechanism and it said it was sending the change request email to an address that looks like ******@y****.**.uk — also not my mother.

So, I have reported the problem to Google and am waiting for their response.

It looks like these people also deleted an announcement I posted to Mom’s Facebook wall, too, so I assume they are in there also.

Sometimes the internet is such a jerk!

Update: She has managed to wrangle her Gmail out of the clutches of the baddies. Her Facebook account is currently locked down, but she’s barely concerned about that.

Posted via email from Jake Sutton’s posterous

Forget everything I said about Merlin Mann’s signal/noise ratio.

After reading this, I hereby issue a full retraction and would like to tell you all that kung fu grippe is my favoritest blog in the world right now.

When I emerged, my hands still gripping the wheel, I was perplexed but thrilled — happy to be alive, but also to be surrounded by the parties of this case, as well as the train’s lucky passengers. We were all in miraculously hale condition, considering the ordeal we’d just endured. We laughed openly.

But, even in the channel’s cool waters — and newly stricken with the permanent nerve damage that has frozen my face in a ghastly and stupefied stare — I could feel my blood begin to boil. My boat. My beautiful yellow boat. What had he done to her?

Merlin Mann is my goddamned hero.

Happy now?

At first blush, it looks totally and insanely awesome. We’ll see if I hold with that opinion over time… Or more importantly, whether it’s worthwhile considering how automated I already have things.

Have you seen my crazy chest tattoo? It’s finally finished!

Posted via email from Jake Sutton’s posterous

Case in point:

Now that I’ve had it both ways, I can highly recommend choosing to make things you like with people you think are awesome. By comparison, the private consolations of doing otherwise turn out to be surprisingly modest.

Yes. Yes, indeed.

(I’m still not going to follow the guy on Twitter, though. The last time I tried it was like drinking from a fire hose.)

I love geeking out over my last.fm stats. I play my ipod all the damned time, and I have been “scrobbling” my tracks to last.fm since 06/06/2006 (awesome date, eh?). Anyway, I felt like doing some musical naval gazing. Perhaps the folks out there (all four of you?) will chime in with some music they are loving right now…

I pay way too much attention to my artists rankings, I’m sure, but it’s something fun for me and it keeps me listening to music, which is a good thing, if you ask me. As an example, and to get the topic of conversation started, take a look at my top artist list for the last week:

My top artists list for the last week

Some highlights and reasons behind the list:

• I fell hard for Frightened Rabbit (Amazon) after hearing a song of theirs on the NPR All Songs Considered podcast. The show in question was a review of the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, which sounds like it was pretty damned good.
• Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears (Amz), Eli “Paperboy” Reed & The True Loves (Amz), and JD Thompson (Amz) are all suggestions from my brother-in-law. All three are awesome and recommended.
• Al Green (Amz) and Leonard Cohen (Amz) are good cuddly bed time music. Badly Drawn Boy (Amz) is good sleepy bed time music.
• Loch Lomond (Amz) opened for Blitzen Trapper (Amz) when we saw them recently.
• Tom Waits (Amz) is friggin’ Tom Waits. He’s my all-time #1 artist. Period.
• Fanfarlo (skip Amz – buy from them) is a recent discovery that I haven’t put down yet.
• Modest Mouse (Amz) has some new-ish stuff on the wires.
• Portastatic (Amz) and Neutral Milk Hotel (Amz) are things I decided to revisit after hearing the All Songs Considered show commemorating the 20th anniversary of Merge Records — one of my favorite labels.
• The Dodos (Amz) was something else I thought I should give an extra listen.

That’s the stuff I’ve been playing a lot recently, then. There’s also a very long tail to this chart because a lot of the time I just play a playlist I have set up called “Been a Long Time” which is automatically filled with music I haven’t played in the last 3 months. That playlist — or my “The Best Stuff” playlist featuring 5-star tracks — is probably responsible for some of the Tom Waits tracks, actually.

So what’s the longer picture? Let’s look at the past six months:

My top artists list for the last 6 months

I’ll be honest, things start getting a little watered down at this point. I have several stand-by artists and playlists for bed time listening and a lot of them top the charts in the long run.

• The Decemberists (Amz), Andrew Bird (Amz), Leonard Cohen, Bon Iver (Amz), and Loney, Dear (Amz) are sleepy time artists, but also got boosted because we saw them live in this time span.
• Others in the bed time rotation: José González (Amz), Elliott Smith (Amz), The Avett Brothers (Amz) (though some of their songs are a bit too energetic), Van Morrison (Amz) (Holy crap! Van the Man’s official site gets blocked for malicious software! Wikipedia linked instead…), Townes Van Zandt (Amz), Iron and Wine (Amz), and Bob Dylan (Amz) (mostly “Blood on the Tracks” and “Desire“).
• Van Morrison, Tom Waits, Townes Van Zandt, Bob Dylan, and Leonard Cohen are also just regulars in my rotation. I’m surprised Joni Mitchell (Amz) isn’t on the list.
• José González, Alice Russell (Amz), The Avett Brothers, and Loney, Dear also show up because they are all recent discoveries that I really latched onto for extended periods of time.
• Public Enemy (Amz) just should be there. I’m glad they are.

And finally, let’s check the overall picture since the middle of 2006:

My top artists list for "all time" (since 06/06/2006)

Some of these (The Innocence Mission (Amz) in particular) are definitely over-inflated due to the bed time effect, but I actually tend to and fiddle with this chart occasionally by playing an artist I feel deserves to be higher on the list, etc.

Tom Waits, Elliott Smith, Bob Dylan, Luna (Amz), Van Morrison, Pixies (Amz), Buffalo Tom (Amz), Townes Van Zandt and Leonard Cohen are legitimate favorites of mine. I really know their music. The others are maybe not the intimate favorites the others are, but they are definitely favorites.

What are your favorites? Right now or all-time, let me know. I’m curious.

Oi! Skin’ead!

Whoa, that guy has crazy opposite eyes!

Oh, that’s inadvertently dirty… And the old guy looks like he thinks so, too!

What is up with the eye patches? Bet there’s a story there.

That guy is intense! Why is his shirt open?

Good job, toughnuts.

Boy, the German girls love their Bettie hair do, eh?

Oh, hey! Jamiroquai!

(via Kottke)

The fact that such a thing exists — and is designated “professional”, no less! — makes me smile. And then I think about it and I cry a little.