Scary thing is he predicts McCain stages a shocking comeback proving all the polls wrong, winning the election by 3 electoral votes and 51.2% of the popular vote. We’ll see tonight if this is just a conspiracy theory or demolition of our democracy.

This is one of the most scrutinized elections ever with extensive polling data from all over consistently showing Obama ahead well outside margins of errors. Check FiveThirtyEight, but if you look at what both Obama and McCain respectively need to do to get 270 electoral votes, it’s seemingly impossible for McCain to win. I’ve been very suspicious of why McCain kept campaigning so hard in Pennsylvania when he was behind by doubt digits, when on the other hand he just gave up in Michigan. Are we going to see a miraculous McCain win in PA tonight? It looks to be a record turnout and I just hope the Obama wave is so huge nothing can stop it.

McCain is behind or even in almost every single battleground state. Obama has several routes to 270 while McCain has a very narrow path. He has to basically win every single toss-up state across the board and some of the states leaning Obama. But it’s not over until it’s over. We’ll see tonight.

Check out these videos interviews with Stephen Spoonamore:

The day before, I had sent off payment in Euros to a developer in France that I had sub-contracted some work to (foreigners never give me quotes in US dollars these days). So my first thought upon seeing this email was that maybe since I never conducted any transactions with people in France in Euros, they flagged this as being suspicious. Which seems pretty reasonable.

So I clicked the link but before the page even finished loading, Firefox’s built in phishing filter popped up a warning about the site and I closed the site. Actually I didn’t need Firefox anyway because the site wasn’t even on a PayPal domain. I immediately noticed an extremely suspicious URL. But it was nice anyway that Firefox automatically warned me. I actually was not aware Firefox had a built in phishing filter.

I just wanted to share that. It goes to show anyone could potentially get fooled. This one happened to come at just the right time. Any other time I would’ve probably deleted the email because the email headers showed it wasn’t from PayPal. I’ve been exchanging a lot of emails for a project I’m working on right now so I was skimming through my emails fairly quickly and carelessly failed to notice the email was fake.

Just know that PayPal would never ask for your account details through email. And if you click on a link and it’s not a PayPal domain, it’s probably a scam. Actually I remember a while back reading about some more complex scams involving DNS spoofing/poisoning so that it appeared you were actually on PayPal.com but you really were on a fake site. I’m too lazy to dig up that info. Anyway, the point is just be careful. The best way is just to actually type in the PayPal URL and log in from there.

Like tonight, I went out for a little while and I left spot large enough to easily fit 2 cars. Well later I come back and her car is parked smack in the middle of that spot! She didn’t have the decency to just move forward or backward and leave space for another car. Something like that takes minimal effort and no time at all. This kind of behavior tells a lot about somebody’s personality. I’m not surprised she’s in her 40’s and living alone.

One time I had come home just before she did and she was parking in front of my car. She wasn’t being careful at all, like backing up bit by bit - she straight up backed her car into the spot and bumped my car. Meanwhile, I’m standing RIGHT THERE watching and she acts like nothing’s wrong. I’m not saying I’ve never bumped someone’s car while parallel parking but I try to be careful and if the owner of the car behind me is watching, I’d be extra careful. This woman just doesn’t give a crap and is completely unapologetic.

I’m starting to digress but this woman is rude as hell too. There were many instances in the past where I was just being a nice neighbor so I greeted her when I saw her outside. She ignored me on several occasions - at first I thought maybe she was preoccupied or didn’t notice, but I eventually caught on. Nowadays I pretty much just ignore her presence. There’s no point trying to be nice to someone like that.

It’s surprising how someone can exhibit such bitchy and selfish behavior without even speaking.

P.S. I don’t know if I even need to say this but my previous post was an April Fool’s joke.

Call Casio for a Replacement Battery

Well, all you need to do is call up Casio customer service at 1-800-435-7732, explain the situation to them, and they’ll send out a new battery free of charge. They’ll ask you for information like your name and address, the model of the camera, where you bought the camera, and the serial number (it’s on the box and on the bottom of the camera). I think the most important thing is the serial no. because that’s the only way they can verify you own this model camera. They can’t exactly just give anyone who calls a free battery.

Common Issue With Rechargeable Lithium Ion Batteries

They’re aware that this is a common issue. Apparently lithium ion batteries naturally lose their charge when not in use. So if you’re not using the camera for an extended period of time, you’ll need to take out the battery once in a while and recharge it. I didn’t think the battery would just die out like this and be completely unusable. My laptop battery is the same - it completely loses its charge when I don’t use it for a while but I’m always able to recharge it. The battery doesn’t just die out like the camera battery.

Great Customer Service from Casio

Casio’s customer service is US-based and very friendly. Hold time was extremely short too. A recording said that estimated hold time was 48 seconds and I was immediately connected. At first I was expecting it to say 48 minutes! I was pleasantly surprised when it said “seconds” instead. I also got the new battery very fast - I called on Monday and got the battery today. They said it would take 2-3 days to process and ship out so it’s nice to get it earlier than expected. Casio shipped it UPS 2nd Day Air which is also very considerate of them (it came from NJ though so that’s probably why it was so fast). All in all, a very painless and pleasant experience with Casio customer service. Although it would be even better if they used batteries that don’t have this issue.

They sent the exact same battery so I hope I don’t run into this issue again. I guess the lesson is if you’re not using the camera, at least take out the battery and recharge it every few weeks.

Okay, maybe they might not look like you expect when you hear “egg” but they’re pretty good. Unless they did purposedly make the century eggs smell or taste disgusting, I would’ve passed that round so easily. I think the hardest round on Fear Factor is when they have to eat things. I’ll do any stunt as long as the proper safety precautions are in place but putting nasty stuff in my mouth is something else. Naturally, I was surprised to see they were eating century eggs. They got off pretty damn easy compared to some of other things people eat on the show. To me, eating century eggs doesn’t even qualify as a challenge.

Actually I think I could make myself eat most of the stuff EXCEPT the large, live insects. That’s because I have a large-insect-phobia. Crawling all over me is borderline okay; you just need to suck it up and stick through it. But picking them up and eating them? NO WAY.

I like how I seamlessly digressed from century eggs to eating insects.

I really don’t have the patience to deal with ambiguities and games like that anymore - there’s just too much other crap to think and worry about. It’s likely I was reading too much into it. WOMEN, please just say what you want to say and ask what you want to ask. Seriously, they can never, ever give it to you straight. NEVER. They always have to dance around the issue. They try to get you to do what they want you to do, without having to directly tell you. Sometimes they think they’re being obvious when they’re really not.

But to all the happy couples, have a great Valentine’s day!

It’s really not like me to post something like this on my site but hey it’s Valentine’s and I felt like sharing.

In other news, I popped by Facebook for the first time in about 3 months, replied to a bunch of old messages (lol sorry!), and wrote on some walls. Damn, Facebook has really become a circus. Everything is just so cluttered and busy on people’s profiles. And I have all these weird requests like ’so-and-so wants to race you in his Ferrari’ and things like that. Uhm, what?

I also went back on AIM for the first time in about 4 months (maybe longer, don’t really remember). Reason is I never installed Trillian on my new PC and was always just too lazy. Well I finally did it.

Alright, I’m out. First ramble in a long time and probably the last for another long while.

I never really forgot that quote and I try to live my life that way. Don’t sit around waiting for things happen and don’t create reasons not to do something. Figure out what you want and work earnestly towards that goal. You can tell people what you want but when you slack or coast along, you’re only doing yourself a disfavor and deep down you’ll know it. People may often doubt you but success will silence your critics, or at least help you ignore them (haters will always hate).

Now’s the time everyone makes resolutions they forget about in 2-3 months. Remember, idleness is the holiday of fools.

Back in 2002, I was using a web host called ValuableHost. I’m not even going to link to them but they haven’t updated their website or pricing since I left! Back then, I was outgrowing my plan and decided to move to another host because the new host was cheaper and had a great reputation. So I contacted Valuable Host to cancel my plan. I had already paid until the end of the current monthly billing cycle and was just notifying them so that I wouldn’t get charged again at the end of the month for the next cycle. This is standard practice with most companies on monthly billing cycles.

Well, what did they do? Even though I had paid time left, they immediately cut off access to my account and deleted all of my data before I had a chance to back it up! When I asked for their backups, they refused and said the data was deleted. Maybe I was short-sighted in not backing up the data before cancelling, but they were completely wrong to just delete everything even though I had paid time left. They did not even give me a refund for the time I had left.

I lost over 2 year’s worth of blog posts, guestbook entries, other miscellaneous data, and older versions of my website (I started my personal website back in early 2000). That type of stuff has sentimental value to me. So for this reason, Valuable Host sucks! Getting ripped off for money is one thing but they basically erased an online journal of 2 years of my life. I had even written a good review for them on a review website while I was hosting with them. But the way they acted when I wanted to cancel was spiteful and despicable.

Chalk another one up to the shit list. Actually if you go by chronological order, Valuable Host should be a founding member of the list.

UPDATE: I did a little digging and it looks like the company was sold sometime between when I left and now. Apparently, it is now pretty much an abandoned company. I should note my incident happened under the original owner. So it looks like Valuable Host is the first company on my list to go down in flames.

Bad Drivers Behind Me

These women were obviously going way too fast and tailgating or just not paying attention. The exit ramp has a 30mph speed limit sign and a yield sign at the end, meaning you HAVE to slow down or stop for traffic on the service road before you merge. The third driver completely smashed her front and had to be towed (such damage would not be caused by a low speed collision). The police took almost 3 hours to find us. Not only were we in a well-trafficked area, we called it in multiple times with detailed directions. In the end we waved down a passing police car - I don’t even know if they were looking for us or just on routine patrol.

Insurance Company Response

So Driver #2’s insurance is Geico like me and Driver #3’s insurance is AIG. Within a week or so, Geico calls me up and says they want to look at the vehicle. They have a local office that’s close by so they asked me to bring it in. The guy was courteous and looked at the damage and gave me a report documenting about $1,700 in repairs. But they said Geico and AIG were still trying to determine liability for my damages so there would be no payout yet. The only thing that was clear was that I wasn’t at fault.

Turns out Driver #2 had actually stopped behind me and Driver #3 slammed into Driver #2, forcing Driver #2 into my car. So in the end they determined that Driver #3 (AIG) would be liable for my damages. But initially this was still being determined and I was told to also contact AIG to get the ball rolling.

AIG’s Extremely Poor Customer Service

AIG Unresponsive for Months

Well I call up the adjuster at AIG multiple times, leaving messages, with absolutely no callback. A month goes by, I call again with the same result so I call up Geico. The Geico guy also says that AIG just isn’t returning his calls. Two months go by. Geico tells me there are state government departments that I can complain to. I’m about to do that when 2 weeks ago I finally get a call from an AIG guy wanting to come by and look at the vehicle. Wow thanks, it’s only been 2 and a half months. AIG, you suck.

Questionable, Inaccurate Damage Report by AIG

I already had some very minor damage on the left rear that’s unrelated. The damage related to this accident is more extensive and is on the right rear (passenger side). So the guy comes and I make sure to tell him the relevant damage is on the right side. But his report still indicates the left side. I call him to clear this up and he insists that it was just a typo (that he made twice?) and that he documented the prior damage and that he really meant the right side. I didn’t give this guy any attitude at all, I was just trying to make sure the report was correct but he was very rude over the phone. His damage report was only $930; a huge difference considering both insurance companies looked at the same damage.

Finally Nearing Conclusion

So now a full 3 months later, I have the car in the shop and even after haggling it’s still some money out of pocket to get the repairs done. Not to mention lots of time and effort wasted for something that wasn’t my fault. Like my dad says, a big part of driving is actually being wary of all the bad drivers out there.

Thank you AIG for completely sucking. Welcome to the shit list, which now include the following companies that have screwed me over and exhibited extremely poor customer service:

• AIG
• America Online
• Royal Rent-a-Car
• Gunhill Residences

UPDATE: I just got a survey from AIG. I pretty much rated everything as “unacceptable” (the lowest rating). It also says “feel free” to attach additional feedback so I wrote a scathing letter. The sad part is everything I wrote was true. I doubt it’ll matter but at least I let AIG know what I think of them.

Feast your eyes on the beauty:

Yes, this post serves no other purpose other than to say: Megan Fox is really hot.