The Once and Former Blogger

I've been asked more than once recently if I was still blogging. I guess the reasonable answer, despite this post, would be no.

See, when I was working on blog 1.0 (13 days from monday), I was working from home and spending countless hours in front of the computer screen, mindlessly surfing the infinite expanse of the 'net about as much as I was actually working.

I quit that blog once I realized that the life of a pregnant graduate student wasn't really conducive to published pointlessness.

Then came The Troubles, and so came blogger brigita 2.0, aka Sugarmouth, publishing My Cancer Deployment. It was all personal updates all the time, thus more journal than weblog, but it served a multitude of purposes until I finished treatment, so I stopped blogging there.*

I got a few new blog followers with MCD and thought I should try to parlay that into a new post-C blog. So I ported my old blog over to its current URL and repurposed brigita.blogspot.com for my third and current blog, Sugarmouth. The idea was to keep up with the personal anecdotes while throwing in some actual weblog content.

And I guess we know how well that worked out.

The thing of it is, my life is pretty mundane these days (as I have mentioned more than once before). There really isn't all that much of note to relay (at least nothing I haven't already mentioned in Facebook status updates) in the way of the personal life, and I'm not surfing interesting sites any more, so I guess I'm in a bit of a rut. One I'm not super fired-up to break out of, anyhow.

I guess the point of this non-post is to kind of apologize to those readers that check in on me on a regular basis, only to find the same old post languishing at the top of the blog and to let you guys know what's the what. I haven't forgotten about the blog so much as I've forgotten how to blog.

Of course now that I've said that, watch me pull the total blogger cliché of saying "Yah, I don't really have that much to say, I'm going to take a break from blogging..." and proceed to blog more in the following week than I had in the four previous.

So...more as it happens?

*...sort of...

I'm Published!

Ok, so it's just another place on the 'net, but I got paid for it*!

Dealing With Cancer: A Kick in the Ass.

It's a 3-part series, so you might have to poke around to find the other two parts. Me, verbose? Never.

Ok, so the $$ is only enough to pay for 1.5 parking tickets, but still...

CRAIGSLIST SCAM

I've been meaning to post this for the past few days and am now just getting around to it.

While most of us 'net savvy folks are smart enough to spot a phishing attempt from a mile off, there are some scams that are a little less obvious. Apparently the "excess funds scam" is a classic hustle being perpetrated on craigslist users.

I'm trying to unload some Pottery Barn furniture online and within a few hours of posting the ad to craigslist, I got the following email:

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From: Richard Beks (richbek03@googlemail.com)

Hello,

Would like to know if the item is still available for sale, its condition and price you would offer me??

Await Your Response.

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Seeing as that most of the information that the guy requested was available in the posting (not to mention the sketchy grammar), I thought this seemed a little fishy, or more to the point, a little phishy. Thus, I responded with the following:

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From: brigita

Hi Richard--The item is still available. All of the other info is in the listing. Thanks!

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Again, within a few minutes I got this:

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From: Richbek01@aol.com

Well, i'm okay with the condition and price also ready for purchase. I could make payment via my business or personal check which could be cashed instantly or deposited for clearance so you can be rest assured all is okay before the pick up.

I'll be responsible for the pick-up and the movers fee will be included in your payment to avoid delay, cost of postage and to enable them schedule an appropriate time for the pick-up at your location as i have other properties to be moved.

Would love to view it but i'm afraid that might not be possible due to my work frame. Do send me more pictures of it. If you're okay with the plans do write back to me with your full name and address including your cell and land number so i can make out payment.

Hoping to read from you!
Thanks.

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Payment by check? "Rest assured," you say? Sold! Except not.

There are no pictures in my ad (too lazy to take them without any expressed interest) and I said that they were somewhat damaged, so the fact that this guy was ok with buying a couple of relatively inexpensive items sight unseen and then have them shipped by movers when my ad expressly requests local pick-up only were some of the bigger red flags for me.

After this email exchange, I did a little googling to discover that "Richard Beks" has used that very name to try to scam other people in the past.

Apparently what these people do is send you a check that is far in excess of the amount of the item, with the requirement that you pay the movers, who you pay out of pocket, but then your bank contacts you to say that the buyer's check bounced or that the checks were stolen or some other nonsense.

I stopped emailing the guy but would love to get him in trouble without sticking my neck out too far. I'm wondering if I can report him to AOL (since one of the two addresses he used was theirs--who uses AOL any more anyways?) or if my local police can set up a sting (which would be so SWEET).

Anyone else have experience in this department?

RIP Mixwit

I got an email today saying that Mixwit, a really fun and easy use virtual mix tape website, is shutting down as of 12/27. From the sounds of it, they're getting squeezed out by the music business. I can't say I'm terribly surprised, but it sucks all the same.

That said, here's the mix I made when I was in the thick of treatment. Give it a listen if you need a little angst to counterbalance all this holiday niceness.