Frogs (Trick or Treat 1)

(Thanks, Burbanked!)

I rather liked science class as lot as a kid despite running into a few bumps in the road, literal warts and all. I recall almost no one wanting to dissect those pickled frogs that the teacher placed on each lab table one fine day, save for two guys in the back (why are the shady ones always in the back and equipped with sharp knives now?) who I guess either turned out later to be really good doctors or even better serial killers later on in life. That and there were a couple of too gleeful girls who obviously didn’t believe that kissing a very dead frog would generate a very dead prince or a live one, for that matter. They just wanted to gross out those that spied them doing it, Ewww.

The more amusing thing here was those girls otherwise hated the class except for this one time and a few other incidents where mayhem was a potential outcome. There was the one time they (about a year later), along with one of the two boys from the back ‘accidentally’ created ammonia gas in the lab that cleared the whole floor, eventually leading to school being dismissed for the day, whee. Uh, don’t try that trick at home, by the way. It’ll the be the perfect cure for everything that ails you with the very obnoxious little side effect of a bit of invisible but acrid smelling poisonous death (and neither a fine nor noble death at that).

(Thanks. Henridellik!)

Eventually, during the two days, I caved into the learning process and with a fellow equally skittish student (we were all paired up in the class – less dead frogs means a sharing moment for all), we took the plunge. Yes, I thought of all those company-farmed frogs taking a plunge one fine day for a final swim they didn’t know would have them a few hundred miles away dead, well-preserved and soon to be splayed out like ghastly centerfolds courtesy of class-provided scissors and scalpels. My partner in (non) crime was a girl who mentioned before we cut into the preserved formerly ribbiting animal that she had frog once for dinner and yes, it tasted like chicken.

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#TBT: Old Scams Can Drive A Man To Drink

(thanks, Video Quotes From Seinfeld!) 

Ha. Someone actually tried to pull the ollllllllllllld as the freakin’ hills “I’ll send you a money order… oops, I overpaid, so can you refund the balance by Western Union?” scam for an item I was selling for a friend and that kind of pissed me off big time. Why? Because “Albert Mackenzie” wasted my damn time until I realized what was going on. If there’s anything I absolutely hate it’s scammers of any type because they’re useless in any normal moral situation and only exist to make people miserable when they part us fools from our money. I’d post his email address for all to see, but that would probably encourage the bastard and not scare him off one bit. Drop dead, Albert.

The koo-koo-koo-raaazy thing here is Western Union has a bad rap on this front, KNOWS it has a bad rap on that front and seems powerless (or just plain lazy) to do anything about it despite the scam existing for years with no sign of letting up. Hell, sites like ebay, craigslist and others plus a while bunch of police departments warn people to NOT use Western Union for anything involving sending money to strangers or even honest people who want money sent electronically, so I’m wondering why they even exist as a “reliable” company for any sort of wire transfer. Nostalgia only goes so far, folks.

Okay, at least they DO have a Fraud Quiz you can take while you’re reading that scammer’s email. And ooh, lookit! They have VIDEOS too:

Hmmm. Watching this and the other clips actually made me doubly NOT want to use Western Union ever again for anything financial, so I guess they did their job. Sort of.

It’s a damn good thing I’m not as stupid as someone thought I was. Still, what a friggin’ waste of a few days of back and forth BS from this cat. Sir, the jerk store was supposed to be out of YOU, but it seems you’re in stock and ready to ship. Boo. Anyway, if anyone wants me, I’ll be somewhere without jerks having an adult beverage. Probably home, as the bars around here are pretty damn lame. And probably coffee, as I have a lot of work to do and I’m out of booze. Eh, maybe I’ll just gently slam down some Uptime instead and get that review completed.