Just The Facts

Leptospirosis anyone? NOT so much!

“The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd.”~Bertrand Russell

I have literally reached a point of exhaustion when coming across certain warning e-mails that provide certain information. And such information is just passed on as truth because it sounds so good that it has to be true.

I am exhausted with the fact that time and time and time again when I see these false and incorrect articles about health, politics, society, and historic events. And they are shared and forwarded countless times over again.

But they are untrue. And its been proven so.

Time and time again, I’ve had read something and it doesn’t quite sound right and so I go on a rush of research just to find out that I have been interrupted with garbage. And I grit my teeth at these people so much that I’m surprised that I have any teeth at all remaining.

Now I have fallen for it numerous times. There was a quotation that was talking about politics shortly after the school shooting Newtown, Connecticut supposedly said by actor Morgan Freeman. And I didn’t research it. So I posted it as well. But I would soon be shown that it was NOT something that Freeman had said, but rather someone not famous, not an actor, almost a nobody by comparison.

Its driving me insane that I am seeing the SAME hoaxes over and over again. Even though there are places like “Snopes” and “Fact checker” readily available for your knowledge and information pleasure.

Why aren’t people using this? To use the excuse that you don’t have the time to check into things like that is just a bunch of crap used by those who are totally lazy! If you have time to check your e-mails, sign into message board and social networking sites where these things are commonly showing up, you have the time to second guess what you are reading and look to see for yourself whether or not its actually true.

When I found out that the quote from Morgan Freeman was false, I immediately deleted the post and apologized to anyone who had stumbled across it.

I would be more forgiving for someone to admit that they made an error rather than giving the excuse that they don’t have the time to look things up.

YOU CANNOT BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ ON THE INTERNET 100% OF THE TIME!!!

It’s just not intelligent!

 

From Sims To Scam?

“The money’s the same, whether you earn it or scam it. “~ Bobby Heenan

Throughout much of 2007, I was introduced to a brand new addiction of playing Sims 2. It was in the most purest definition an addiction for me as I played night and day.

I remember splitting some of the costs to buy each and every expansion pack that was released. And somehow, I knew when each one was coming out. I think it was an e-mailing list. I don’t remember any more as I no longer receive them. Plus, they have Sims 3 out to play currently.

Between myself and my ex-girlfriend, we pretty much had each and every expansion pack known to exist.

But it didn’t stop there. There were websites in which you could download modifications to the game. Different styles of different items that was just simply modified. I remember there was even one website that had thousands of downloads for the game that were…. shall we say… x-rated? But those mods were a constant annoyance as it was virtually just a bug on the computer. And most of that had to be deleted in order for the modifications to all work and I could play the game.

We would get character modifications that looked like Hollywood celebrities. Or certain buildings and houses, such as the Amityville house to live in, and so on.

My ex loved to build homes from scratch. But on the other hand, I enjoyed both creating homes and characters and then playing them out until they were either dead or I got bored with what they were doing.

We had so many modifications and cheats on one computer that whenever I started the game, it literally took 18-22 minutes to load to the point where I could begin creating or playing.

As I said– addicted.

And then I remember creating a male character named Sleuth. I started him out as a single person, then got him married, gave him the best of the best of created houses that I could think of, and I think throughout the course of playing out his character… he had children that grew up and about to move on to higher education.

Then suddenly the Sleuth character was “sick” and it was suggested that he rest. And so as Sleuth laid in bed, he suddenly got up in the middle of the night. The lights turned on, and his wife and  children were surrounding him, wailing and crying, and I had no idea what was going  on. The Sleuth character had actually died.

Suddenly I would learn about how to “KILL” a Sims character, as there were over a dozen ways in which one could die.

I played for weeks and months. Learning the game, learning how to not get caught doing something naughty or wrong (such as cheating on another love interest) and everything else.

With the ending of Sleuth, I believe that I just moved out the remaining members of his family and never played them again, and started over.

I created another male Sims character that would end up being married to at least ten different other female characters, had children with them all, and moved in and out of households like it was nothing. Soon, I would have an entire cast of characters to deal with. Mothers with children and no love interest and everything else in between. The male character simply was horrible as he went from one female to the next. 

And then I got bored with it all, and used the knowledge that I had to get rid of characters by having them die in unusual ways.

About this time, my ex had been on my back about how she never was able to play any more and that I was hogging the computer. So then she had her turn to play. But as I stated, all she did was create homes and characters and virtually did nothing with them.

In the meantime, I remembered the story for each and every character that I had played through until I decided to knock them off. I began to write about it. Weeks later I had a rough draft of a story that was nearly 200,000 words in length. I gave detail to each and every person that was involved, talked about all of the children that were born, and how each character had met their fateful ending. But I fictionalized most of it by writing that the main male character had a sexually transmitted disease and was not aware of it. And so with all of the women that he hooked up with and the children born to him, they were infected as well and it caused everyone to go to their end.

The thing of it is that Sims 2 doesn’t have the option to “DIE OF AN STD”. So it was something made up.

Fast forward all that time until this weekend when I was talking about it with someone that I had played this addicting video game for months and it was enough of an idea for a story of fiction. A few hours later, I was told that they were in contact with a publishing company and that they had talked about my story to the company and now the company wants to re-write the story (as I have lost the original document) and they want to publish it.

As someone who has taken a lot of time to write both in this blog and as creative projects on my own, hearing something like that was definitely music to my ears.

However that was all that I was told. Until I started asking questions about which publishing company and what not. And that’s when things started to not add up.

After asking so many questions, I looked up the name of the publishing company. It existed, but no longer. Its not in conjunction with any other publishers either. The names of people and places, also were not to be found.

I immediately began to think that this was all just a lie, a scam. And because of the fact that I had fallen victim to nasty and vicious scam by rapunzelmodels.com over a year ago, I knew better this time to research what I had been told. It just sucks to know that I heard something I’ve thought that I would love to hear….. only to find out that its a lie. 

I went back and told the guy via e-mail that if this publishing company wanted to publish my story, that I wanted a contract. Which probably would have to happen in the first place. And until I actually SEE that contract, I will not go back and re-write anything.

Although I have always thought that the story that I was able to write that came from the experiences of playing Sims 2 would always make for a fantastic story as it had just about everything in it. Betrayal, love, harassment, revenge, and everything else. It was not the similar kinds of stories that I had been writing at the time which was just a short story of one or two scenes, riddled with a bunch of sex.

When I left my ex-girlfriend and came back, I ended up with a $100 gift card, and I wanted to see if I could play Sims 2 yet again. I bought the game and as many expansion packs that I could with the plan of collecting them all eventually. But the computer that I had bought from craigslist didn’t have the sufficient video card or whatever in order for me to be able to play it correctly.

I was hoping to go back and use all of the modifications that I had used so many years ago, but it was not to happen. And now there’s Sims 3 which I understand is far different than Sims 2. But until I find myself with a new machine, I’ll simply have to do without. And if I decide to re-write the story, it will be only for recreational purposes and practice in my writing abilities. Wish me luck!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Scams

“If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is”~ a catchphrase used by the Better Business Bureau.

So here is my story as I see it. After having mixed feelings back and forth for about a month, I have come to my own conclusion that an opportunity that was presented before me, was in fact nothing at all.

I had been in contact with a certain team of individuals via Facebook for a short amount of time. After “getting to know them better”, an opportunity was brought to my attention. An opportunity where I was told that I could make some money. And I didn’t have to do too much at all in order to earn it. Right off the bat, it sounded too good to be true. Yet, I was trusting enough to see whether or not these people were actually good on their word. So I went with the flow.

The project was to be worked on in one month’s time. After that, would come the biggest pay that I would ever receive in my lifetime in one lump sum. This offer was given to a small number of people, and not just me. Whether or not the others took up this offer was of no concern to me. I did though, take up the offer and was ready, willing, and able to do whatever was necessary to see this project become successful. Even though throughout the month, I would weigh back and forth on whether or not this was going to be a legit deal.

One of the things that caught my attention that it would be fake, was the fact that the whole project was to be a secret. Why? We weren’t involved in any security measures or dealing with private sectors of life. But it was supposed to be kept a secret.

And then our project leader vanished for a long period of time. The project was pretty much decided on and really all that was needed was the fine tuning. But the majority of all decisions that were needed on this project were done. And the one month time period was coming to a close.

I was smart enough to ask just HOW we were expected to get paid. The response I received back was “A certified check in the mail”. And that would have meant that I would have actually give my address out to some people that I did not know personally. Such a dangerous and stupid thing to do!

And that was before the disappearance. Once that happened, my mind changed from being excited about this opportunity to more thinking that this project wasn’t much of a project at all. I had been warned by my family that all these people were going to do was steal my ideas and run off and make a ton of money. And I would be left with nothing.

The project wasn’t rocket science, so I thought that if that was the case… then they weren’t going to be able to run off with ideas of complete brilliance and win the Nobel Prize.

So the time passed. No word from anyone. And nobody else knew anything either. Until one day, out of the blue, the leader of the project showed up. They said that they had been out of town and was in Dallas at the time. When I told them just how close they were to me geographically, I could just tell that wonder and excitement filled their mind.

By the end of the day, that person and I were discussing whether or not they were going to have me fly to Dallas to hang out for a day or two so that we could meet. I didn’t mind so much, at that point there was nothing in my own mind that was telling me that this was all crap.

A few days went by and nothing. No trip to Dallas was planned. And all I would receive back was, “I’m working on it”.. well that is all fine and great but working on it doesn’t necessarily mean that it was going to happen.

I had been told that they were only going to be in Dallas for a short amount of time before they moved on to a different site in the state of Kansas.

Needless to say, that I never did find myself making plans to go to Dallas for a couple of days. And nobody knows (to this day) whether or not this person actually made it to Kansas either.

And that was was another idea that they had come up with. They were going to try their hardest to find a way to get me into Kansas instead. So they pushed the whole idea forward to another time and another place. Such a red flag!

Then the whole realization for me set in. I had questions. Basic and common questions:

• When am I leaving?
• How long will I be there?
• Who is paying for it?
• Where am I staying?
• What will I be doing?
• Who is coming to pick me up?
• Will I meet you personally?
• How much of this trip do I have to pay for out of my own pocket?
• Is this going to lead to a job opportunity?

And many, many, many other pertinent questions. I would have to include that I would ask about the previous project that was worked on and whether or not, I was going to be paid for it. So I tossed that question in as well.

These were not difficult questions, these questions are pretty standard. So why the whole scene of dodging them was very confusing to me.

I had told that person that I was getting to the point where I was NEEDING that money for other things that were coming up that I had planned. That money that was promised to be paid for working on this project had been a factor in my future plans.

These questions went unanswered.

I had to ask again and again the same dumb questions until they were tired of hearing about it. And another red flag was added to the pile.

So then their response to me was that I was impatient and “good things come to those who wait”. Maybe. Maybe not. But still these were not specific questions. These were important and again….. so general. The information was needed so that I could plan properly while getting ready to travel on this trip. Information that would be necessary for ANYONE to make travel arrangements.

It dragged for a week. Finally, SOME of these questions had received a response. Not all of them though.

I was told that I could get a job. I was told that I would be meeting with someone to discuss the job as a recruiter for this particular company. I was told that I would be staying in a hotel. I was told that airfare and hotel costs were taken care of. I was also told that I would be flying into Kansas City, Missouri and then be picked up and driven into the state of Kansas. And I was told that this was going to happen on the 19th of July. And I was told that my flight was an open-ended ticket. Meaning I could fly back home on any day I wanted. (Today. Guess what?? I’m still at home.)

It was not enough information. WHEN on the 19th would I fly? Who was picking me up from my home? Who is paying for that pick-up service? And once I got this job, was it salary or just commission? And what was the percentage of the commission?

I pretty much had expected in the past two days to actually hear from someone, only to tell me that this idea was going to be postponed further into the future. I really did. When I realized that my questions were being dodged, that is when I felt that this was all just a bunch of crap. But I gave them a chance.

Today is the ninth straight day in which I have heard nothing back. What does that tell anyone? What should that tell anyone??

During those nine days in which I had waited, I did some searching online. Found nothing but pure negative comments about the company being a scam and what not. People who had become involved, were complaining that they never got paid what they were promised, if at all.

Some of my friends did the same thing and told me exactly the same over and over again. What they had found, was nothing but complaints of it being a scam.

But still, I gave these people a chance. Not like I was expecting anything by that time though. I had given up. A part of me wanted to hear their side of the story but I don’t think that I probably would have given then any benefit of any doubt.

When it comes down to people making plans or ideas, and they are always telling you to keep it a secret, then there’s something horribly wrong and that should be your first clue that whatever they are about to tell you is not true.

In this particular case, usually secrets are lies.

And when things constantly change like it was with me, that’s also another clue that whatever was being planned, is not true either.

But because of that short amount of time where I had truly believed that I would have been given a “certified check” for my help in this project, I now will not be able to get my ring out of the pawn shop. It was mentioned in an earlier blog.

I will not be able to go to Houston in August to see SIX MINUTE CENTURY play again. And I will not have any kind of savings from any money left over from the quick weekend trip to Houston, to be able to be set aside to go to Las Vegas to visit one of my best friends at a show in Caesar’s Palace some time in the future.

Those plans are gone. All because I believed in this.

On the other hand, I am happy and fortunate that I never given out my phone number, my street address, or any other personal information. Such as bank accounts or my social security. For that, I am happy.

I had prematurely told my family about this “wonderful opportunity” and they were skeptical long before I even began to be. They clearly were right to have been. I’m just so lucky that I made it out alive.

Yes… I allowed myself to be used and victimized. I am hoping and praying that the damage from this that will inevitably come will not be as severe as one could think. But in the end- LESSON LEARNED.