COP DOG Trailer

COP DOG now has it's own webpage and trailer -- and poster.

Unfortunately, the player they're using can't be embedded and I also can't download the video to put it on YouTube -- but you can go to its webpage to view it.

I also had a few problems with the high-bandwidth version -- the pop-up window only showed part of the viewer for some reason.

At any rate -- it's a nice, peppy trailer -- and includes my favorite scene to write, the gum CSI scene...

Heroes Premiere Down 25% -- Heroes fan says "Heroes was on last night?"

According to Hollywood Reporter:

The two-hour premiere of NBC's top drama "Heroes" was down 25% compared with last year's one-hour opener, taking an expected hit following a creatively middling second season and an extended nine-month hiatus prompted by the writers strike.

I found out about the Heroes premiere last night at about 10:05, which, oddly, isn't one of the factors they mention in its ratings decline -- fortunately, there's a repeat showing on the weekend that I can DVR.

This is that mystery period of the year where shows you like may or may not start running at any time. I suspect the big networks have their schedules run by people who still act like it's the 80s when there were only 3 or 4 channels and everyone knew everything that was happening on them.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is mainly just a way of me keeping track of the few recipes I have so that the next time I switch computers they don't all vanish.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

Ingredients:
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar

1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup flour, scooped
1/2 cup oats (Quaker oats work fine)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (or more) chocolate chips

This is just a variant on Nestle's Toll House cookies, but with oatmeal and half the batch size. We don't eat cookies fast enough around here to make full batches.

Melt the butter in the microwave then mix the sugar and brown sugar in so it dissolves. Dissolving the sugar like this makes for a more "cake-y" cookie. For thinner, crispier cookies let the butter get to room temperature by leaving it out.

Then mix in the egg and vanilla.

Then add flour, oats, baking soda and salt. You can simply scoop the flour for this (which packs it down tighter, thus giving you a little more) instead of having to do the annoying scoop then measure into a separate cup thing.

Add in the chocolate chips after you've gotten the dough nicely mixed.

Bake 10-12 minutes

I highly recommend parchment paper when cooking -- just tear off a sheet and lay it on the pan. The cookies cook more evenly, don't stick, and the pan doesn't need to be cleaned.

Since I'm pretty much the only cookie-eater in the house I'll only use about one third the first night (enough for 6-8 cookies) then split the remaining dough into two batches and put them in little plastic containers to use at a later day.

First Sorta Review

Cop Dog received it's first sort-of review:

What a suprise!
Watched Cop Dog with my family and when it was over (after lots of 'happy tears' as my daughter said) the kids raved that they wanted to watch it again - right now! They've since watched it twice more. The cast is great, the dog is fantastic! Funny, touching movie for both adults and the kiddies.
Liam S. 12:08am Sun 7 Sep

I'm hoping that Liam doesn't happen to be related to anyone involved in the movie. Given our budget there's a decent chance we couldn't afford anyone international.

Anyway, you are warned -- monitor your glucose levels before watching.

Friend in Trouble Scam

My wife recently got the following email:

PLEASE HELP ME URGENTLY
I am in hurry writing you this short message and I am sorry I didn't inform you about my traveling. I traveled to Malaysia and i got my self stranded. I am really stranded in Malaysia because I forgot my little bag in the Taxi where my money, passport, documents, cell phone which i have all my contacts and other valuable things were kept on my way to the Hotel am staying, I am facing a hard time here because i have no money on me. I am now owning a hotel bill of $1,200 and they wanted me to pay the bill soon else they will have to hand me over to the Hotel Management, I need this help from you urgently to help me back home, I need you to help me with the hotel bill and i will also need $2,000 to feed and help myself back home. So please can you help me with a sum of $3,200 USD to sort out my problems here. I am sending you this email from the city Library, I will appreciate what so ever you can afford to send me for now and I promise to pay back your money as soon as i return home. So please use the details of one of the hotel managers below to transfer the money to me through Western Union money transfer because that is the only way i could be able to get it fast and leave since he has a valid ID to pick up the money for me from the western union. This is the detail below....

Name: Adam Sanchez
Address: 24B Jalan Loke Yew, Bandar Melaka, Malaysia
Text Question: To whom
Answer: Gabrielle

After you have send the money, email to me the western union money transfer control number or you can attach and forward to me the western union money transfer receipt so that i can pick up the money fast and leave. Right now, i dont have any acess to phone communications because the phone in my hotel room had been disconnected due to too much bills imposed on me, i only have acess to the computer at the library where am sending you this email right now.

Hope to hear from you soon. The embassy here has already promised to give me a covering traveling papers that i will need to have my way back home, all i need right now is the money to settle up the bills and leave.

Thanks and get back to me soon.

Sincerely
Gabrielle

Jaru does know Gabrielle (not well enough that she'd be coming to Jaru for help though) and the message appeared to come from her email address (a Hotmail address) -- so perhaps someone broke into Gabrielle's account. You can imagine how distressed Jaru was.

Anyway, the message is a SCAM. You can find a similar message at this link, but set in Nigeria.

You can also find almost the exact same scam if you scroll down into the comments section on this page (quoting here):

Posted by hmorgan on August 13, 2008 at 1:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Here is an E-mail I received only yesterday

THIS IS A FRAUD but I thought some of you may like to read one of these theving Emails.

(I have have a good friend named Pete Crasher BTW and I did forward this on to him.)

BELOW IS A FRAUD E-mail:

I am in hurry writing you this message and am really sorry I didn't inform you about my traveling to Malaysia for a program called "Empowering Youth to Fight Racism, HIV/AIDS, Poverty and Lack of Education. The program is taking place in three major countries in Asia, which are Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia. It has been a very sad and bad moment for me, the present condition that i found myself is very hard for me to explain.

I am really stranded in Malaysia because I forgot my little bag in the Taxi where my money, passport, documents, cell phone which i have all my contacts and other valuable things were kept on my way to the Hotel am staying, I am facing a hard time here because i have no money on me. I now owe a hotel bill of $1,400 and they wanted me to pay the bill soon or else they will have to seize my bag and hand me over to the Hotel Management. I need this help from you urgently to help me back home, I need you to help me with the hotel bill and i will also need $1,500 to feed and help myself back home. So please can you help me with a sum of $2,900 USD to sort out my problems here? I need this help so much and on time because i am in a terrible and tight situation here, I don't even have money to feed myself for a day which means i had been starving, so please understand how urgent i need your help.

I am sending you this e-mail from the city Library, I will appreciate what so ever you can afford to send me for now and I promise to pay back your money as soon as i return home. So please use the details of one of the hotel managers below to transfer the money to me through Western Union money transfer or money gram because that is the only way i could be able to get it fast and leave since he has a valid ID to pick up the money for me from the western union. This is the detail below....

Name: HENRY MARKTE
Address: 26B Jalan Loke Yew, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
Text Question: To whom
Answer: Peter

After you have send the money, email to me the western union money transfer control number or you can attach and forward to me the western union money transfer receipt so that i can pick up the money fast and leave. Right now, i dont have any acess to phone communications because the phone in my hotel room had been disconnected due to too much bills imposed on me, i only have acess to the computer at the library where am sending you this email right now.

Hope to hear from you soon. The embassy here has already promised to give me a covering traveling papers that i will need to have my way back home, all i need right now is the money to settle up the bills and leave.

Thanks and get back to me soon.

Yours,
Pete

THE ABOVE E-MAIL IS FRAUD- DO NOT BITE!

I'm putting all this stuff up here along with the links because one of the best ways to uncover a scam email is to simply copy and paste the text into Google and do a search (that's how I found the above links) -- and I figure a blog post is a good way to get a permanent warning posted to the internet.

Cop Dog premiere --

-- if you're in the U.K.

Apparently Cop Dog, alias Marlowe, will be showing on Sky Movies Premiere over the next few days -- here's a link to listings of its current showing times (as of August 29).

On Saturday it's playing at 4 (GMT I suppose), then at various afternoonish times after that.

Brooklyn Shenanigans!

It's been two weeks since we finally found a place in Brooklyn and signed a lease -- and, since one doesn't need a car in NY, someone helped us solve the annoying parking problem by stealing ours.

The problem with having your car stolen in Brooklyn is that you park a 5-10 minute walk away on one of a dozen identical blocks and constantly have to move the car around to deal with street cleaning issues so all these blocks start looking familiar since you've parked in them at least once.

And, while I had high confidence that I remembered where I did park the car originally, the fact that the car wasn't there is potent evidence that I'm mistaken. It's either that or, like some incredibly lame light comedy about bumpkins moving into New York, our car was stolen within the first two weeks of being here.

(My actual first thought was towing -- but all the various services have no record of towing the car. Apparently, they don't tow cars in NY until they can make a bundle off the unpaid parking tickets.)

After scouring a three block radius, going to the police precinct, and trying to file a report, I must conclude that I am, in fact, living in some incredibly lame light comedy.

Google Street View

An invaluable tool when moving to Brooklyn.



Brooklyn College looking east from Bedford Avenue

NJ vs NY -- apartment hunting

In the process of apartment hunting for our move. Unlike previous moves we're not going to rent a place based on photos -- so we're dragging all our stuff there then going to scurry around looking at places.

Because Jaru has many very good friends in New Jersey, we're looking at Highland Park. There have been 15 apartments advertised for Highland Park over the last month and we've set up three appointments for next Tuesday to look at them.

Because Jaru's school is in Brooklyn we're also going to look in Brooklyn. There are 100+ apartments advertised per day in Brooklyn and the only guy who replied to my email for an appointment wants God to steal my money.

Brooklyn apartments also frequently want your tax returns, copies of W2s, three months of bank statements (shouldn't have bought all that porn on the ATM card!), and a colonoscopy.

Rental Scams

I saw a Craigslist ad for a $1,000/month apartment in Brooklyn -- photos too good to be true. I'm willing to risk a little spam since gmail has great filters -- here was the response:

Hello Dear,

Thanks for the email. My name is Green Gin,I own the 1 bedroom apartment address 8 Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11215. The apartment is available for you to move if you are serious about moving in and also want you to know that it was due to my transfer that makes me my wife and Son to leave the house and also want to give it out for rent ,so we are looking for a responsible person that can take very good care of it as we are not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean at the time and the person that will rent it to take it as if it were its own. So for now, We are here in west Africa, our new house.

I personally wanted to Sale the apt before but I and my wife decided to put it out for rent.If you could promise us to take very good care of the Apt,the you can send an email with the information required. One Mr. smith called me about the apartment,I told him that I cant give him the apartment because he is married with 4 kids ,I do not want his children to get my property damaged.

If you are still interested, Note that the rent is going to be $1000 Inclusive Utilities.I will like you to give me a call on this effect to know how serious you are.
below is my phone number
0112347032367105 or +2347032367105
YOU CAN CALL AT ANY TIME, if serious.

Your information

1) Your Full Name
2) Your Full Address & Phone Number
3) Age
4) Marital status
5) How many people will be living in the house?
6) Do you have a pet?
7) Do you have a car?
8) Occupation?
9) Duration of lease/Rent
10) Gender
11) Your Picture if available

I personally will actually come visiting you at September as our new tenant.
Looking forward to hear from you with all this details so that i can have it in my file in case of issuing the receipt for you and contacting you. Await your urgent reply so that we can discuss on how to get the document and the keys of the house to you.
If you are still interested, kindly let me know so that I can delete the ad from from crigslist...


NOTE THAT THE KEYS WILL BE SENT TO YOU via FED EX to your personal address
As a man of God please I am giving you all this base on trust and again i will want you to stick to your words, I am putting everything into God's hand, so please do not let us down.

Regards
Green Gin

If you whore out your supposed religiosity enough perhaps you'll be able to steal a little extra money!

Cleverly, the crook merely mentions "God" without going into specifics regarding religion. Being New York, you don't want to accidentally offend marks who follow a different faith.

Worst part of moving to Brooklyn

I'll be voting for Obama in New York instead of Virginia in November.

Must remain strong, will weakening...

I'm moving in 24 days. There is no need to cart around an additional 3 heavy hardcovers. I can't even play a game in lord knows how long.

But, still...


UPDATE: Willpower lasted until 6 o'clock. Anyway, I can use the exercise when moving.