Not Nigeria Anymore. 419 Scams Live.

Something tells me that people only do this because some people reply. Who replies?

"God Bless You,

My name is Mrs. Blessing Akuzuomahu from Cote d'Ivoire , I am 59 years old, I am suffering from a long time Cancer of the breast. From all indication my condition is really deteriorating, and my Doctors have courageously advised me that I may not live beyond next month, this is Because the cancer stage has reached a critical stage. I was brought up in a Motherless baby home, and was married to my late husband for twenty years we have only one child his name is Samuel. My husband and I are true Christians, but quite unfortunately, he Died on the 2011 presidential election in our country.

Before his death we were both born again Christians. I decided not to re-marry, My husband Deposited the sum of $9.5 million dollars here in Cote d'Ivoire Presently, this money is still with the bank i want you to use this money to take care of my only son and also invested the money into charity organisation, the poor and the motherless baby as, orphanage Homes and widows around. I must let you know that this was a very hard decision, But I had to take a bold step towards this issue because I have no further option.

I hope you will help see my last wishes come true.

Best regards,
Mrs. Blessing Akuzuomahu"

Goodbye, Terry.

It looks like we lost a great writer as Terry Pratchett met his creation today.

It feels like losing a friend. I never met the man, but the grief was real and genuine. The last time a stranger died and I felt this was was about a decade ago when we lost Vonnegut. There's no way to really classify the loss of the potential joy that you would have had. There's also the weird enjoyment of new discoveries of the posthumous works. But those are never the same, and cannot be enjoyed in the same light.

On the other hand, the authors that we spend so much time with are strangers and they are not, a weird dual both / and and neither / nor position at the same time that takes quantum phyiscs to explain, and even then we all know we're bullshitting ourselves.

So mourn the loss, yet rejoice that we are here to mourn.

On "Blacksad: Amarillo"

I like graphic novels. They’re quick to read and they’re very visual, so it is a qualitatively different reading experience compared to a plain text book. But they also can use the form and structure of the page and the order of the panels and the text to shape the story, so they’re not like any other purely visual medium. I just don’t like paying for graphic novels, since they usually cost more than a text-based book and they are so quick and easy to read the ROI is pretty low.

                That’s why I like to hit up my local library to dig what’s new in the graphic novel scene. I also am not a fan of series with an endless number of books so that there is not a good way to get acquainted with the world if you weren’t there at the beginning. Maybe I’m picky. But anyways, not liking the series and eschewing the super-hero genre sort of limits what I can read.

                So I was excited when I picked up this book. I flipped around it and I didn’t see any indication that it was part of a series. All I saw was some names that popped out at me. Printed by Darkhorse Books, “Winner of the Eisner and Harvey awards for best international material”! So I started reading it, and to my chagrin there’s back-story I’m missing. There’s the titular character, an anthropomorphic black cat who is like a private eye, and he gets a random offer to drive a car somewhere. Some bad stuff happens and he’s perused by these couple of FBI agents who seem to have some previous animus towards our hero. If you pick this book up first you have no idea why.

                Again, I’m being picky. The book largely holds up by itself. It is after all a hard-boiled detective novel with Disney-like anthropomorphic characters standing in for the people. It is well told and visually appealing, so there is a lot going for it. You just need to read them in order.