The ivory may very well be ticklish

I like this band. I like this song. And I really like this music video.

Boo. but i don't like how they disabled embedding of their YouTube video. Some people just don't know what's good for them. You can see it HERE.

My very own Nigerian scam attempt

You get five gold points for every red flag you find.

It starts with a simple posting on Craigslist. I won a Zune at work and would like to sell it.


Wednesday morning, I got a biter:

Jennygray80@gmail.com: Hello, Is this item still up for sale???.

Me: It is indeed. Would you like to pick it up in gunbarell today?
Eric
-------------

One minute later I received a blank reply. Kind of odd.

Then, 32 minutes later, a real reply. I'll precede the rest of this correspondence with [sic], so I only have to write it once:

Jennygray80@gmail.com: Then a real reply: Thanks allot for the reply........actually i supposed to come and check the item out but im out of states right now so i wont be able to come over but i will pay $250 for the item and please note that am shipping the item to an overseas partner so i will include $150 shipping fee,i will arrange for the payment of the item via paypal,it is very secure and fast mode of making an online payment or transfer,to proceed with
the transaction asap send me your paypal email address so that i can proceed with the payment of the item.
Thank you very much hope to hear from you soon

Me: Where do you need me to ship the item exactly? I will ship the zune only when I see that you have posted sufficient funds in my PayPal account to cover the Zune and shippng.

My PayPal email address is ericsforsyth@gmail.com.
thanks,
eric

Jennygray80@gmail.com: Thanks for the mail,by the time i send $400 to your account i am sure it will be enough for you to ship the item via USPS EXPRESS MAIL INTL,here is the shipping info

Name:Adedipo Sola
Address;block 11,academy road
City:Ibadan
State:Oyo state
Country:Nigeria
23402

i will email you once i have sent payment.
---------

Within 45 minutes I received the following email from "PayPal." Click on the screen shot to read it.





Sure enough, "Jenny" was right on the ball, back in my inbox within minutes:

Jennygray80@gmail.com: Hello
I just wish to notify you that i have sent payment from my PayPal account
(mounlade@hotmail.com) into your PayPal account (ericsforsyth@gmail.com) i also included shipping cost so that you will be able to ship to the address given below ...check your email under paypal.Hope you have gotten notification from PayPal regarding the payment and i want to believe that i have done everything right for you to ship out the item ASAP because as am talking to
you now the payment has been deducted from my account ,so i will be waiting
for the USPS EXPRESS MAIL INTL shipments tracking number, Here is the
shipping information you need.

Name:Adedipo Sola
Address;block 11,academy road
City:Ibadan
State:Oyo state
Country:Nigeria
23402

PLS SEND IT VIA USPS EXPRESS MAIL ONLY

THANKS.

Me: Hi "Jenny."

I will not consider sending "the item" (as you continually refer to it) until I see the funds posted to my PayPal account. You don't need to send $400 (as you originally offered), let alone $500 (as your supposedly real PayPal email claims.) I just need $150 + shipping, in confirmed funds.

Oh, and I need it to be real. I logged into my PayPal account to see if the $500 had been posted - or if it was even there as PENDING confirmed shipment of "the item". It was not. I am very familar with how PayPal works. And it does not work that way.

This is an obvious fraud. I will still sell you the zune in exchange for ACTUAL PAYMENT. If I receive actual payment in my US PayPal account, I will not report all the details of your scheme to the FTC and the PayPal International Fraud Prevention team - as no fraud will have taken place. Only attempted fraud.

Not even a very good attempt, although I'm sure you dupe countless victims every day, which is why PayPal would be very interested in seeing the details of your scheme.

If actual payment is not posted in my PayPal account by 2pm mountain time, I will take this entire chain and the fake paypal.co.uk email to the proper authorities.

You have a choice. Good luck.
-------------

Needless to say, I didn't hear back.

Hey Mission Prez, CIO! Sweet Ringtones!

I just logged into Facebook to find that my former Mission President (from my service days in Germany) left me a comment. I was excited to see what he wrote to me, as I don't hear from him very often.

I found this comment from LeRoy S. Wirthlin, whom i usually associate with the phrase "great-grandfather":



OMG! Thanks for the tip Prez!

I'm usually annoyed at my not-so-internet-savvy friends that get duped into these links and subsequently unintentionally send them everyone else to whom they are connected. This one just made me laugh out loud, and I almost didn't want to delete it of my page, because it looked so priceless. Alas, I knew that if I left it up some sucker would click on it. Thank goodness for screen grabs and blogs. Deine Schlauheit geniest ein ewiges Leben auf meinem Blog.

Where to Start....

Well, it's been a while for me (Jaime here). I have spent this summer nannying for a family in Boulder. Very sweet girls, but it does take a lot of time and energy. So I apologize for the procrastination. I guess I will start from today and work my way back. Today we had our friends Matt and Christy over for a little Birthday celebration. I made Eric some "no such thing cake".

Go for the gold (or silver-ware)

Eric is deciding between the cake and me...guess which one he chose?

TEVA MOUNTAIN GAMES IN VAIL

One weekend in June was spent up in Vail, Colorado at the TMG. This was Eric's fourth year attending, but his first year not working there. We had a blast, we found a cute little Deutsch restaurant, (very yummy), and we got to go camping and eat some Keebler s'mores.

Camping in June, right? Yeah. We woke up in the morning to a nice layer of snow everywhere. You'll have to take my word for it. It melted quickly.

Chillin' at the Dog Competitions

Happy Doggy

RANDOM

Annie loooves camping, getting dirty, and swimming.

"Star Wars: A Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy" Yes, the light sabers light up. (Editor's note: Photos and the written word cannot justify the shameful geekiness that this photo portrays. You'll have to see this pop-up madness first hand to understand. Suffice it to say, I wouldn't let small children play with this book unsupervised. Click on the photo to see larger - but that still won't do it justice. - Eric)

Also, Eric has been lining up and playing gigs around Denver and Boulder this summer. He is doing so well with his music and I am so proud of him (but that's a whole other post)!

Well, that about sums it up. Eric will probably make some changes to this, but all in all, I must say we are having a fantastic summer and look forward to every weekend's new adventure.

It's been too long...

I've been blog-delinquent. I'm a deadbeat blogger. I have SO many relevant and blog-worthy events to catch you up on! But alas, This is why I got bad grades in high school. I don't want to. I'd rather post this awesome 8-bit animation video my friend Eric Fowles showed me. If you are an Atari child of the 80s and you have 10 minutes...

KBCO NEW! Discover Music

KBCO 97.3 FM is one of the constantly best radio stations I've ever heard. I was added to their NEW! section of their website today. Check it out here.

The more that listen, the higher my ranking climbs and i could get my own feature on the KBCO NEW! homepage and be played on the radio.

Lots of great artist have been given a fair shot by KBCO, and that fair shot has often turned into a career. Tristan Prettyman, G. Love, Shawn Colvin and many more.

So click on the link and listen! To share the link with others, copy and paste this:

http://www.kbco.com/cc-common/artist_submission/player.html?art=167067#

CDs are for (and ON) sale!

Hi kids, I'm ecstatic to announce that trees and other shady things is available for sale on my website! It's a fun little CD in a fun little jacket made from fun little post-consumer recycled content.

Any orders made THIS WEEK GET FREE SHIPPING! The early bird gets the free shipping worm, indeed.

Also, if you're in the Denver area, I've got a show at the Soiled Dove Underground on Saturday night. It's bound to soft rock you like a hurricane, and CDs will be discounted at the show. The Soiled Dove is such a cool venue. You have to check it out. I'm opening up for the amazing Ryan Shupe & the Rubberband, so it's bound to be unforgettable.

Thank you so much for all your support. You guys are the lifeblood.

'til we meet again,
eric

Eric and Co: 1, Indoors: 0

Annie (my dog) and I have an amazing amount in common.

- There's no guarantee that we'll come when we're called. But we love you. We do.
- We both have the gift of discernment / sense when danger is near.
- It's obvious in our countenance that we like Boulder more than Miami.
- We both think Jaime's the coolest.
- We both like to be rubbed.
- We both like to steal cookies and brownies off the counter when we're not supposed to.
- Soft green grass makes us happy, but not as much as fresh snow. And the more, the better.
- We are both happiest outside.

On that note, below are some pictures of our Memorial Day weekend trip to Moab and it's surrounding wonders. Jaime and I (and Annie) met Dave and Jessica Nieman and Dave's sister Kaity in Moab for a weekend of camping, off-roading, national parks, slick rock mountain biking, hiking and plenty of open space. The six of us made our way to spots both populated and desolate on foot, bikes and crammed into the Subi. Good times.

Moab, Arches and Canyonlands NP's are where I imagine Bill Watterson waxed fantastical about his Martian Spaceman Spiff comics. It is like another world. Only it has the Colorado River on loan. I'm back home now but I'm still soaking it in.








For all the pictures go to my facebook albums here and here.

trees and other shady things - ta da!

It's almost ready for the world and will be for sale on my website by June 14th.

Never Knew and forthcoming EP

I'm sitting here, pretty excited and I had to share it. As I type, a song I wrote over 2 years ago is getting a make-over. Never Knew is my only tune I didn't record myself with my shabby set up out of my closet. The talented Ken Dudley helped me track and mix that song from start to finish in a couple hours. We used at least one mic that had previously recorded Aerosmith tunes and now they were filtering my musical musings.

As I sit in Boulder, CO the very talented Amber Lynn is in Dudley's Idaho Falls studio recording her pipes over mine. It's a little scary, not being there, not being able to provide feedback and ideas, but something insde of me is comforted. Both Amber and Dudley are super talented in their own rights and I'm stoked to hear the result. Never Knew should be a better tune tomorrow than it was last night. It's an expiriment, and I'm the mad scientist, only i'm not even in the lab. The lab's in another state.

If you haven't heard Amber's music, click here. She's got some great stuff of her own, but I'm especially partial to her cover of Ernie Halter's Whisper. If you like what you hear, buy a CD.

Tonight's little project on Never Knew is just one step along the hurried process of getting my EP done in time for my show on June 14th. All the songs are being mastered later this week and the talented Eric Fowles of Voltage Design in Louisville, CO is working on my album art. I'll be sending all the music and album art into the ether by the end of the week and I'll get a bunch of beautiful CDs back a couple weeks later, just in time (I hope) for my show with Ryan Shupe & the Rubberband in Denver.

Here's to the process. If you're reading this Monday night, May 19th, mumble a prayer to the dubbing gods for Amber and Ken. If you're reading this after June 14th, say a prayer for me in the form of buying a CD.

Oh, and keep checking back to my music website for more updates on the forthcoming EP. (Title TBA. I know! I can't wait either.)