Kung-Fu Kitty

My dad got this email, a Nigerian scam, I'm told. I thought it was slightly humorous in its transparency.

PLEASE HELP ME OUT

ENGR. ADEMOLA DAVID OLUWATOPE
NIGERIAN  NATIONAL  PETROLEUM  CORPORATION (NNPC)
ELEME  REFINERY - PORTHARCOURT,  NIGERIA.

ATTENTION,
First, I must solicit your confidant in this
transaction, this is by virtue of its nature as
utterly CONFIDENTIAL and TOP SECRET. Though I know
that the transaction of this magnitude will make any
one apprehensive and worried, but I am assuring you
that all will be well at the end of the day. We have
decided to contact you due to the urgency of this
transaction, as we have been reliably informed of your
discreteness and ability in transaction of this
nature.
Let me start by first introducing myself properly to
you, I am ENGR. ADEMOLA DAVID OLUWATOPE, a director with
the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)
Eleme Refinery. I came to know of you in my private
search for a reliable and reputable person to handle
the confidential transaction, which involves the
transfer of a huge sum of money to a foreign account
requiring maximum confidence.
THE PROPOSITION: a foreigner, Engineer James Akmed, an
Oil Merchant/Contractor with the Federal Government of
Nigeria, until his suspension three years ago,
executed with us at Eleme Refinery of NNPC, and had a
total contract executed worth US$25.6 (Twenty Five
Million,Six Hundred Thousand United States Dollar)
which flows in the Corporation's suspense account.
It is because of the allegation/petition leveled
against him that he (Engr. James Akmed) who is a close
friend to the late dictatorship General Sanni Abacha
(formal Military President of Nigeria) who died in
office in 1998 and during his tenure the country
experienced various mismanagement and series of
malpractices were carried out in collaboration with
his foreign friends. However, a Panel were set up to
investigate the issue, who found him (Engr. James
Akmed) guilty and the present Democratic President of
Nigeria Chief Olusegun Obasanjo suspended him from
transacting any business in Nigeria with immediate
effect and was asked to leave the country. However,
these made the contract fund "UNCLAIMABLE" which was
only known to my colleagues and I. Fortunately, all
the Contract document including the "CONTRACT
COMPLETION CERTIFICATE" are with me but the need for a
very trustworthy foreign business man/woman whom I
would present as the Foreign Contractor/beneficiary to
claim the fund.
In order to achieve this development, some of my
colleagues and I now seek your permission to have you
stand as the FOREIGN CONTRACTOR so that the funds
would be released and paid into your account as
beneficiary's who executed the contract in the year
1999. All documents and proves to enable you get this
fund will be carefully worked out.
More so, we are assuring you of a 100% risk free
involvement. Your
share stays while the rest would be for me and my
colleagues for investment purposes in your country.
We have agree that, the funds be shared thus, after it
has been transferred into your nominated account: 1.
25% of the money will go to you for acting as the
beneficiary of the fund. 2. 5% will be set aside for
reimbursement to both parties for any incidental
expenses that may be incurred in the cause of the
transfer. 3. 70% to us the originator of the
transaction.
If this proposal is acceptable by you, do not make
undue advantage of the trust we have bestowed on you
and your Company, kindly get to me immediately on my
E-mail Address as stated above. Please furnish me with
your most confidential Telephone and Fax Number(s),
Company Name to use(if any), Banking information
including the A/C Number, Swift Code (if any).
I assure you that if you will follow my instruction,
the fund shall be in your Account within 7-12 days of
this transaction. Thanking you for your kind
understanding in this regard.

My best regards,
ENGR. ADEMOLA DAVID OLUWATOPE (MNSE)

While randomly browsing, I found these Star of David shiruken and I thought it was pretty funny. I've always thought of making something like that myself, out of the lids of tin cans or something. I guess it isn't so surprising that someone thought of it already. Actually, you should probably check out all of this guy's site if you want a few good laughs.

Last night, at the Maysen in Lennoxville, Doppelganger Effekt played a pretty rad show for the BUMS Battle of the Bands. We placed second after the Water Solubles, which, of course, didn't get us any prizes or anything, but I still think it's pretty cool. Everyone seemed to like us a lot and I thought that we were tighter than during our other shows. All in all, it was a great night.

Now, I have to worry about finishing three assignments for this coming week.

Yesterday, I spent a good portion of the afternoon making bead necklaces with my mother. We each made one from the same pattern, which was provided by Theresa Olin from this site. I had many problems, personally, namely, the wire I used being too thick, and as I realized as I was almost finished, too short. I had to do some fancy wire attaching. Also, because the wire was too thick, there were places where I couldn't fit the third piece through a bead and so had to improvise, which didn't work so well in some places. Well, you'll see. I scanned the necklace, and coming back to it, it doesn't look so bad, I guess. This is my version:

This is my mother's version:

And this is the original version from the site:

I'll leave it up to you to determine how mine compares.

On a different note, I went to a party last night, hosted by Ryan, with the theme "Take Back the Lion". Tonight was the grand opening of BU's student bar, called the Gait (of all things), and so we figured that all of the hip-hop crowd (that is, froshies, Champlain kids and other such people who go dancing to bad music) would be there and we could have the Golden Lion, the main pub in town, all to ourselves. The party at the Gait was supposed to be a formal event, so Ryan had his party be a formal event as well. He has his own little bar, The Speak-Easy, and there was much fun to be had there. I should have pictures of that fairly soon.

Around midnight, we finally decided that it was time to go and reclaim our bar. We got there, and guess what. It was completely packed with kids in formal wear, dancing to the bad music blasting from the sound system... Exactly what we were trying to avoid. So we left, waited in the cold of a snowstorm outside the doors for the rest of our crowd to assemble and went to the upstairs, which wasn't nearly as full or scary. We had a couple of rounds there and finished the night at the Grec. We didn't get to take back our pub, but I still have fun and that's all that counts.

Yes, I do realize that I haven't written in quite some time, but one must understand that I've been away. I left, on Monday, January 2nd, for Toronto. Etienne and I took the bus the whole way, which ended up being shorter than it could have been, but still long. I think we spent 9 hours on the bus in total, but I could be wrong. Anywho, we met up with Jeremy, after a long and confusing subway ride, at Yorkdale and promptly went to his uncles and to sleep (after the required TV watching, of course). The next day, we visited the Kabbalah Centre, as well as various used book, comic and fetishwear shops, stopping for felafel at our favourite shop, Syriandipity. Then, on Wednesday, we went to the Pacific Mall and bought all sorts of Asian foodstuff. That evening, we went to dinner with my Savta, which was also much fun, and left that night for Windsor. Etienne and Jeremy shared the driving, and I slept in the back.

We visited downtown Windsor the next day, first parking at the Casino Windsor and exploring that fine establishment a little bit. We didn't gamble. It was too terrifying in there. Then, we saw some of the book shops and other stores, and had sushi for mid-afternoon meal where I got to try eel for the first time. We also visited a church. It had a pretty ceiling. Friday, we went to the mall which was like most other mall, except for perhaps a little bigger than that one around here. We had some yummy popcorn and some yummy smoothies. That evening, we had take-out chinese food. Saturday, unfortunately, was our last day in Windsor. We had a Dim Sum and that was an interesting cultural experience. Again, I tried some new foods, including tripe (the stomach lining of a cow), squid, and lots of shrimp things. I guess I like shrimp now, as I didn't really before. We then visited Jeremy's university and that was interesting too. For dinner, we went to an Ethiopian restaurant which was rather delicious. Then, at 1:40am that night, we took the bus back home, only arriving at 5:30pm on Sunday afternoon. Needless to say, we were exhausted.

I had a day to recover before school started again, which it did yesterday. I had my two math classes, in which both teachers took the whole class to get started on the course material. I also sat in on my dad's composition class, which I enjoyed, but it seems that all my friends taking the course now think that my dad's insane. I went to choir, but I have the feeling that I won't be joining this year as the repertoire is rather lame. That evening, we had our first band practice in a while, and I really enjoyed playing again. Anywho, I must shower because I have class soon!