Counting Time

It's about one week till I have to move out of my apartment and it is finally starting to hit me. We've got a lot to do and a lot to plan for before we can actually move out, so this is actually a pretty stressful time for me.

It doesn't help that I'm working forty hours a week at my main job, a few hours a week on a volunteer position for the political campaign of Jeff Smith, and a new freelance job that I'll be doing on Thursday. Unfortunately, the amount of work I'm putting in is necessary if I am to be able to pay for the next few weeks. Moving out and back in is actually fairly expensive, especially with a family reunion and three-week vacation where I can't work in the middle.

Of course, I guess I could give up the position I have on Jeff Smith's campaign, but I really don't want to let him down. Things are already difficult enough for him as they are without me bailing on him. I feel like he's in a good position right now that if anyone wanted to make changes to his website, they could do that without a problem and make it look pretty professional. Hell, if they just got a new logo and a better banner, I think their work would be cut out for them.

I'm excited for the freelance job though. I've been trying to break into freelance work for quite a while, so this is a pretty big break. I've been hired through Craigslist to tutor someone on html and css. Normally, I'd rather just make the website myself as it pays more for less effort, but work is work and I need the cash. Besides, as always, if I do a good job word of mouth will pay off. I figure that since I have a stable job, now is the time to network.

Chain Letters

What in the world is so appealing about chain letters? At the best, they are slightly cute or touching, but most people who receive chain emails end up just deleting them without reading them. However, the downside of those chain emails is huge.

Even without any of the hidden dangers of email, chain emails take up enormous amounts of space and bandwidth on the internet that could be used for other things. Ever have an email that takes a day or two to get from point A to point B? Spam emails and chain letters are the reason. Servers can only handle so much data at a time, so when there's a flood of email coming in or going out, that server has to process all of that information in sequence. Of course, if we didn't have so much spam, this wouldn't be a problem, right? So why can't we do anything about the amount of spam we are receiving? That's right - chain letters.

While chain letters can't be blamed for all spam, they can be blamed for a significant chunk of it. Spammers get email addresses to send spam to by harvesting email addresses from websites and distribution lists. However, why should they worry about doing the work when so many people are willing to do the work for them? Every time that you forward an email, all of the emails that it was sent to before are included in the email that you send. While that usually doesn't mean much, forward an email a dozen times and you have a list of hundreds of emails if not thousands. More than likely, that email will be forwarded to a spammer or someone who will take that list and sell those emails to a spammer.

That's not the only danger though. While many chain letters are started with innocent intentions, some are not. Every time that a cute picture or sound file is attached to an email, it is an opportunity to hide malicious code that can destroy your files, fill your computer with junk, turn your computer into a zombie slave distributing spam, steal your personal information, or a number of other creative ways to mess up your day.

So next time that you get a cute forward, don't send it on. If you want to share it, that's fine; print it out or show someone on your own computer. Don't spread the infection.

Coming Home Again

Renny is coming home tonight and I'm pretty excited. Things have been rough lately with all the stress from work, my volunteer position, and the problems between Shad and Sara, so it'll be good to have Renny back in my arms. Things really are so simple with her sometimes and I could use a rest.

I'm planning to curl up with her and have a fairly inexpensive "date" within my flat tomorrow since I'm off. I'm planning to go out to Walgreens and pick up some relaxing bubble bath and maybe some other surprise accessories for relaxation so she can soak away the stressed of this past week and a half. Then I plan to pick up some steak from the University Meat Sales Room after lunch with Missy tomorrow so that we can cook steak and garlic mashed potatoes together for dinner. I figured I have enough media on my computer that we could just take some time to curl up together fairly easily.

I know it's not terribly romantic, but I'm a bit strapped for cash right now. This past month, I got hit with a surprise withdrawl from my checking account by my insurance company and I just got a bill from Sprint for my new phone. I really have to do a better job of keeping track of my expenses, especially with rent going up for September. I figure that I won't be too bad off, but I need to make sure that I plan things out. Unfortunately, this probably means that I won't be able to afford my new monitor for a while as things are. Fortunately, I should be seeing my raise show up sometime either on the next paycheck or in late August, so that should make tings a tad bit easier, even if I'm only bumped up a little bit.

Sold Out?

So, I'm currently in the process of doing something that I truly wished to avoid - working in politics. I don't feel like a sell out though. Currently, I'm working on the campaign website for Jeff Smith, "an independent Democratic candidate for state representative from the 18th Representative District (Rogers Park-Evanston-North Shore) of the Illinois General Assembly" (source).

Why don't I feel like a sell out? Simple - I'm not getting paid. That's right, I'm volunteering to help Jeff Smith out. It's more than that though. James Garfield needed a hand on this project and knew that I had quite a bit of experience with website design and that I've been trying to break back into the scene for a while as it is what I really enjoy and it doesn't pay too shabby either, so he got in contact with me through Renny to see if I'd be interested. Jimmy has helped us out so many times in the past that I couldn't say no in good conscience.

So that's pretty much the sum of things. I'm really excited to be working on this project, but I'm also scared as hell. I want to make sure I do the best job possible not only so that I can look good, but so I can help Jeff win, thereby helping Jimmy out as well. honestly, I like to stay out of politics because I always thought of politicians as slimy arrogant bastards with a lot of money who thought that they knew about stuff from the simple fact of their social position. I still maintain that view about most politicians, but Jeff really surprised and impressed me. I knew that he had been maintaining his own site for a while, but I never suspected that he knew quite as much about it as he does. Jeff is no pretender - he actually does know what he says that he does. I almost wish I could vote in that election just so that I could vote for him.

I haven't done much on the site yet, but if you'd like to see what I'm working on, check it out at electjeffsmith.org.

Going Mobile

I've been bothered lately by my lack of writing in my blog, so I decided that since I have a new Blackberry Curve with email capabilities, I would test out the blogging by email functionality of Blogger. After all, one of the biggest problems I've had with blogging is the need to go find an internet connection. Doing things this way takes care of that problem.

Well, here goes nothing, I guess...

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Tha sgian agam.