This year’s Collegiate Conference was in Memphis, TN… about 3 hours from my home.  There were chapters from all over the country competing in Business Intelligence, Application Development, Microsoft Solutions, and Database, just to name a few. I competed in both Application Development and Microsoft Solutions, and although I didn’t win either I will be ready to win next year!  The problem statements were exceptional and they showed me that I still have a lot to learn about the programming world, so this summer I plan on gaining a slight mastery in C#.Net, while learning some new things like SilverLight and the new Expression Studio suite. (If you are a college student you can get all of this for free at DreamSpark.)

Anyways, thanks to everyone I met and thank you Gus from Microsoft for the advice and the stuff!

Go to conferences and meet people!!! The contacts you make are often the most valuable thing you have.

Dear Mr. Cooper,

Thank you for taking the time to contact my office regarding     , the FISA Amendments Act of 2007. Your input is important to me, and I appreciate the time you took to share your thoughts.

Like you, I believe that protecting our civil liberties is a fundamental responsibility of the federal government. However, I believe that we must strike a balance between preserving civil liberties and having the resources necessary to protect our country.

On February 12, 2008 I voted to pass S. 2248 as approved by the Senate Intelligence committee. In this particular case, because the federal government asked the telecom companies to comply with allowing surveillance, it does seem reasonable that the federal government should provide them protection from lawsuits stemming from compliance. Furthermore, I strongly believe that Americans can be assured that their constitutional rights will be protected while our government retains the tools necessary to track terrorists throughout the world.

Thank you again for your letter. I hope you will continue to share your thoughts with me.

 Sincerely,

Bob Corker
United States Senator

Congrats. You just lost my vote.

Zach Klein is gone…

Now Jakob Lodwick is gone

Wonder who is next. I’ve followed the dealing of Connected Ventures (Busted Tees, College Humor, Vimeo, Bigshocker.com)  for a while and I find it very inspiring to see these young guys (i’m one of them!) succeed.

Good Luck Guys.

1. Get replies from the scammer.  [Done]
2. Postpone a reply and See if they actively pursued me. [Done]
3. Set up a free online voicemail and get them to leave me a voice mail. [Nope]
4. Have fun. [Kinda]
5. Embarrass them. [Who cares]

So I got kinda pissed when I found out the PrivatePhone was canceled and finding another free online voicemail that gave a local number was… boring. So here are the replies I got back from Stella.

Dear Rusty,

Thanks for your mail and i want you to understand that the transaction demands total cooperation and support to enable me present the relevant information regarding this transfer.And i need a honest and sincere person that will not fail along the process of this transaction,i needed to hand over this business at your disposal as my foreign beneficiary that will be recieving my money on my behalf  before coming to the state to invest with the fund.

And pls i will love to have the following details about you,like your Full name ,home address,age and phone number to enable my attorney get in tounch with you for further process inorder to meet up with the security company demands.

Thanks for accepting to help me and thank God also that i meet the right person that i can possiblely trust. And who will take good care of me and my younger sister as we have no other person to trust on,but you and our God who have not fail us.I have been convince in my mind to handle over this onus or responsibility to you because of your capability and trust i have on you,believing that you will not fail our trust on you.

Moreover,I live at Akwa Anambra state,No 8 ziks avenue akwa city.I have to change my father place to stay with my younger one because of the crisis in the family after the lost of our father and always remember the situation of the royal kingdom where there is many wives and children.My mother been the last wife has nothing much to contribute or any share of the property as it was a cat and dog affair.But the only thing will possess now is that deposit made on my behalf by my late father base on the smooth relationship and love which existed between them.And sometime i used to admit that my father may have forseen the future and condition of his royal home if it happen that he is no more and that is the major reason why he commited this deposit on my behalf so that me and my younger sister will not suffer much.There is nothing to fear since every relevant legalities is with my attorney who has promise to assist me to see that the transaction go successfully.This attorney was introduced to me by my mother before she left us and he is a very good man,he has been taking good care of us and sometime he normally sent us money to pay for my younger one school fees.I will hand over his contact to you after introducing you to him and i want you to know that i wish to change my milieu to your state to enable me engage on new business  and also to change school for my younger one.But i still want to further my Education and remember that i trust much on you from now and take me as your own daughter and do not fail me.Pls explain more about yourself to me ,are you married,any kids,occupation and wife.

May God Bless You.

Your  Sincerely,
Miss Stella.

And the second one…

Dear Rusty,

How is today? I have not heard from you as we both agreed on base on the urgent attention needed to enable me successful transfer my fund as soon as possible.And this can only went through or possible especially when you as my Foreign beneficiary cooperate and support me.

Pls am waiting to hear from you as soon as possible and remember our condition here.I need to change my milieu once this deposit is transfer to your personal account and i will also love invest part of the money in the family business on agreement and table discussion so that i can also learn more about the business.Pls am also ready to compensate you for every help that was render to me at this moment of hard experience.

Have a nice day.

Your Faithfully,
Miss Stella.

Needless to say these are scams… Please expand on my escapades…

“It’s only a matter of time before this disparity balances and we find a sensible way to include Tumbling and Twittering in our lives, in a way that promotes active relationships and distribution of creative thought. Here’s room for invention — we must make useful meaning of all these feeds! Otherwise, it’s possible that might we devolve to the point where we’re all just sitting in front of monitors watching each other, caught in a mindless feedback loop, staring and creating nothing at all.“

I wonder how many of us are caught in this feedback loop? I know I am. I’m an information addict, and often I overthink the info I digest forgetting to apply it to my life. Therefore I will now do at least one creative thing  every single day. Time to get away from the computer and go for a drive.

• Management Information Systems
• Object Oriented Programming with C#.NET
• Macroeconomics
• Accounting II
• Legal Environment of Business
• Business Application Development
• College Mathematics for Managerial, Social, and Life Sciences (Finite Math)