I totally fail at reading and writing of the blogs lately. Good thing I can still do basic ‘rithmetic. Sigh.

R.I.P. Dr. Tiller, murdered by domestic terrorists.

Tiller was one of only a handful of physicians in America who perform late-term abortions. He survived an assassination attempt in 1993 and returned to his practice.

Majikthise : Abortion crusader Dr. George Tiller murdered in church

Ha ha ha, life is a bit crazed right now. Blogging is getting squeezed out, only temporarily I hope. I do plan to write up Sasquatch so I don’t forget how amazing it was. All anyone really needs to know is it was a big bowl of f*cking fantastic, covered in awesomesauce.

I recently encountered a hilarious scam email. It’s an update to an older scam I remember from years ago; supposedly some kind of notification that you won a prize drawing in the U.K., sponsored by “the prestigious Microsoft and AOL”. The sender’s return address? Is a gmail account. They aren’t even trying, are they?

Lengthy scam mail behind the cut. Strap in for a real LOL-ercoaster ride.

> From: rosewebb221@gmail.com
> Subject: PROMOTION AWARD WINNER
> Date: Sun, 17 May 2009 10:55:02 -0500
>
> MICROSOFT PROMOTION AWARD TEAM
> 20 Craven Park, Harlesden
> London NW10,United Kingdom
> Ref: BTD/968/08
> Batch: 409978E
>
> Dear Lucky Winner,
>
> WINNING NOTIFICATION
>
> The prestigious Microsoft and AOL has set
> and successfully organised a Sweepstakes
> marking the Annualanniversary we rolled out
> over £500.000(Five Hundred Thousand Great
> Britain Poundsfor our annual year Anniversary
> Draws.
>
> Participants for the draws were randomly
> selected and drawn from a wide range of
> web hosts which we enjoy their patronage.
> The selection was made through a computer
> draw system attaching personalised email
> addresses to ticket numbers.Microsoft and
> AOL are now the largest Internet companies
> and in an effort to make sure that Internet
> Explorer remains the most widely used program,
>
> Microsoft and AOL are running an e-mail beta
> test.Your email address as indicated was drawn
> and attached to ticket number 080775787555
> with serial numbers BTD/0257903122/07 and
> drew the lucky numbers 04-06-09-90-09-22
> (07) which subsequently won you £500.000
> (Five Hundred Thousand Great Britain
> Pounds) as one of the jackpot winners in
> this draw.You have therefore won the
> entire winning sum of £500.000.00 (Five
> Hundred Thousand Great Britain Pounds).
>
> The draws registered as Draw number one
> was conducted in Brockley,London United
> Kingdom on the month of MAY 2009.
> These Draws are commemorative and as such
> special.Please be informed by this
> winning notification to Contact your
> fiduciary agent Mr.Lester Gold, with
> the information listed below.Mr. Lester Gold
> Microsoft Promotion Award Team
> Head Winning Claims Dept.
>
> Email:lesgold02@gmail.com OR micro_team01@upmail.us
> Tel: +44 7045785875
>
> Ref Num:
> Batch Number:
> Ticket Number :
> Serial Numbers:
> Lucky Numbers:
> Amount Won:
>
> 1. Full Names:
> 2. Home Address:
> 3. Age:
> 4. Sex:
> 5. Marital Status:
> 6. Occupation:
> 7. Phone numbers:
> 8. Country:
>
> Our special thanks and gratitude to Bill
> Gates and his associates. We wish you the
> best of luck.Thank you for being part of
> our promotional award program and
> commemorative Anniversary Draws.Sincerely,
> Mrs. Rose Webb
> Head Customer Care Service
> Microsoft Promotion Award Team
> rosewebb221@gmail.com
>

Remember that time when you put your prom photos up on MySpace and got "discovered" and became a modeling sensation? Yeah me neither. Guess our name’s not Sean O’Pry.

Courtesy of thatmathchick, a round-up of academic papers regarding the existence of vampires. Physicists, mathematicians, and economists all have had their say on the topic.

http://io9.com/5241252/physicists-prove-that-vampires-could-not-exist

Papers mentioned include:

• "Cinema Fiction vs. Physics Reality"
• "Mathematics of the Human Vampire Conflict"
• "The Transylvanian Problem of Renewable Resources"
• "Cycles of Fear: Periodic Bloodsucking Rates for Vampires"
• "Macroeconomic Policy and the Optimal Destruction of Vampires"

I recently made dinner with a friend, who bought black cod fillets from Uwajimaya. They had been marinated in some kind of delicious mirin-and-something. We broiled them side-by-side with a tray of Yakima asparagus (yay for asparagus season!) and served them with roasted potatoes and salad. YUM. Black cod might be my new crack.

And in lollipop adventures, I added citric acid to a recent batch. I didn’t add any other flavoring, so I could better judge how much sourness the citric acid added. At approximately 1/8 tsp to 1 cup of sugar, it definitely cut the sweetness down, without being overly sour. Next I’m going to try adding it to citrus batches, like Lemon or Grapefruit, to see if it improves those.

When the pre-mail came on April 28th, alerting us that a KEXP club Triple Door show invite would be sent on the 30th, I just instantly knew it would be for a Cloud Cult performance and I was right. Which pretty much made my week.

As always, it’s an amazing venue for intimate performances and such a treat to sneak off in the middle of the day for a private show. I think I have probably cried at every Cloud Cult show I’ve ever attended –  this time they opened with “Love You All” and yep, my face was drenched in seconds. Then it was 45 solid minutes of overwhelming awesome that got me hyped for the evening show. Except the evening show @ Neumos got sold out during the afternoon, leaving me sans ticket and exceedingly grateful that I got to see the Triple Door show. WTF is wrong with me, not ordering a ticket in advance? Cloud Cult always sells out in this town.

Somehow I missed the memo that Iron & Wine would be in town for 2 shows this week, and both were sold out. But I hauled my ass over to the Capitol Hill Sonic Boom Records plenty early and stood in line for the free in-store performance.

The store was absolutely packed and I’m not sure if everyone even got in. The show was solo acoustic; easygoing, friendly, causal. He hadn’t prepared a set list and after opening with the 8-minute gorgeousness that is “The Trapeze Singer”, every song was by request. Some songs he hadn’t played in a long time, he said, and every now and then a note went adorably awry. The whole thing lasted about 30 minutes, and made me wish I was able to attend the longer show later that night. Pix after the cut, as usual.

About to begin… tiny little stage in the corner!

Dang, the store is jammed behind me (taken after the show, that’s why most everyone is facing the door :-)

Nothing really dominated my music listening in April. New stuff I was paying attention to included:

• Matt and Kim – Grand
• Throw Me the Statue – Purpleface EP
• Neko Case – Middle Cyclone
• Lily Allen – It’s Not Me, It’s You

Towards the end of the month I started to enter Sasquatch prep-mode, so I am currently embarking on a binge of familiar and previously unfamiliar stuff including:

• Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head
• Owl City
• The Gaslight Anthem
• Crystal Castles
• St. Vincent
• M. Ward
• Animal Collective
• Shearwater
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• Calexico
• The Airborne Toxic Event
• Point Juncture, WA
• The Wrens
• The Walkmen
• TV on the Radio