Anything we want to talk about. Multiple topic discussion blog.

Barcelona Spain Culture and Lifestyle

2009-07-08T12:53:00.000-07:00

The first thing any English speaking native should know and accept when they travel to Spain is:

1. "Right now" generally means about one hour.
2. "A few minutes" usally means two hours.

If you are from America, Canada, Austraila, the United Kingdom this understanding will save you a lot of frustrations and you will enjoy your trip to Barcelona and the rest of Spain more than if you try to force a English speaking mentality on the relations you have with Spanish speaking people.

Please understand are in their country and you can learn a lot by studying the culture and lifestyle.

If you are fortunate enough to have the financial resources to stay in a luxury 5 star hotel like the Hotel Rey Juan Carlos there will of course be English speaking staff. people come from all over the world to visit Barcelona which is know world wide for all night dancing and partying. It is true and it is also very different from say Las Vegas, where you can also party all night long. The Rey Juan Carlos has some very good things and some really stupid things their manage does. The good include a great breakfest buffet that any American hotel excetive could learn from, the gym and spa are very nice and the staff does try to please you. The bad includes a very small shower area even by European standards, the Garden restrurant is always booked and very expensive. Then if you order room service you can have some $15 french fries and other vastly over priced food. Spain is very expensive in general and it is not just the exchange rate. Like most of Europe everything is more expensive since the conversion to the Euro. I do not understand why this is yet it it true for Holland, France, Spain etc. A rental car in the USA that might cost $60 per day is $310 per day in Barcelona, you do not really want to drive yourself in the city anywy, the traffic and drivers are kind of crazy. Even dry cleaning your luandry is about 400% more expensive than in the USA. Plus the level of service is crap. I had to good twice to pick up my clothes becuase when they were supposed to be ready I was told tomorrow, which is typicial of Spanish culture. Then they did not give me all my clothes and the next day I had to have the hotel call them 3 times and after a few hours my clothes did finally appear. This is why you need to alter your American ideas of service and quality when you are in Spain.

Some of the funny things I noticed:

Just a short walk down the street heading north towards the beach you will see one of the most beutiful buildings that looks like a castle. It is a military building and then across the street is a University with a run down dumpy building that is their College of Architecture. This makes Americans smile, because it is the complete oppisite in America.

World Issues and Economic Power

2009-06-16T09:17:00.000-07:00

I think a big part of the economic and military power of the USA comes from the people knowing there is a rule of law, freedom of speech and a low level of Government corruption compared to the rest of the world.

However many people believe that China will be the next # 1 super economic power in the future.

I also think this will happen over the next 50 -100 years. I heard that China just pasted Japan and has become the #2 economic power of the world.

The problem I see in many countries as I travel around the world is what I call a fake or directed democracy.

This is true in Russia, Malaysia, Mexico, Iran, India, and many other countries. These countries governments try to make it appear to the westerners that they have democracy. However the large amount of Government corruption in these countries undermine the peoples believe in the system, which prevents these countries from advancing economically as fast as possible.

Also it prevents more investments by USA companies in the countries because the US business leaders do not trust in these countries systems and governments. I also feel this way.

When I was in Malaysia I really felt this way. I could see the people were afraid, harassed and repressed by the government, and afraid to have true free speech in fear the government would beat them up and arrest them and put them in jail.

In Malaysia the people are only allowed to protest on Sundays, and the government sets up police stops every few miles to catch and arrest the Sunday protesters. This is a case where we Americans just can not accept this. We want to help all people of the world enjoy the human rights, the rule of law, and the true freedom of speech we have here in the USA.

Why Online Dating is Not Perfect

2008-02-17T11:10:00.000-08:00

I have been studying online dating for years and it would appear at first like it is a great idea. For guys you know or believe that the women are available. Most guys who see an attractive woman in public quickly finds out that she is married or already has a long term boy friend. It is difficult enough for most guys to talk to attractive women and then when they try and find out almost all of them are already taken they may think online dating is the answer.

There are different problems for men and women with online dating. The main problem for women is that most (80+) of good looking guys online are married or already have one or more girl friends and are just womanizers. By the way I have never heard the term manizer used before. I guess I just created a new word as manizer does not even show up as a word in any spell checking software. I always say to women if you think a guy is very attractive and successful, almost all other women do also and he is most likely married or dating other women already. If you are looking for a dating service in Los Angeles we can recommend EliteConnections.com

The problem for men with online dating is that there are reasons why attractive women are online looking for men. Think about it, if an attractive women is online that means that she has most likely already rejected all the men that have approached her in general public. So you see many women online that are 34 to 44 that have never been married. These are all bad news and stay away from them. They write stuff like this:
"I have been told, one too many times, that I apparently have the "intimidating factor". What can I say? *smiles* Even though I tower over everyone, it still doesn't stop me from wearing my high heels! And, at times, I must admit that I feel like I am living among the "little people," (no offense, people under 6') but when I was growing up, was I the only one drinking milk?

I'm content with my life, I'm happy, and I have fabulous friends who keep me busy - there's never a dull moment! I am really blessed to have all the things that I do. All I want now is to feel that spark of chemistry with that someone special that I've been waiting for 31 years, unfortunately no man so far is good enough for me."

I say, if no guy is good enough for you after searching for 31 years perhaps you should become a lesbian. lol

Guys have to filter out all the women online that are difficult, too picky, and that claim no guy they have dated is good enough for them. At first guys may think it is just them, however when they find out the women in question has rejected the last 47 guys she has dated as not good enough the truth becomes very clear. The best methods of filtering out 80+% of the women that are like this is to talk with them extensively on the phone before you even bother to meet them. I will give more details about how to do this later.

So if you are a man or a women when you think about the issues I mentioned above you will realize online dating is NO panacea.

Also men are subjected to different types of scams with online dating, e.g. on Yahoo personals there are many Russian and Nigeria Africa scams, where people put up pictures of beautiful women and then email guys, when the guy responds he gets shit like this:

The picture above is from a person who claims to be Jessica Jones and sent this scam email below. Yahoo is so incompetent they make it easy for these scammer criminals to abuse their online dating system.

How are you doing I am very much interested in getting to know more about you. I am really new to this online dating and I haven't met anyone yet through online dating personals but I am willing to get to know someone and get to understand his motives and intention's towards me. I believe once i am been sincere and honest about my kind of person and i am able to help you understand who i really am i think you will be more comfortable getting to know more about me.I am 27 years of age, born on March 17, 1980. I am an only child and have never been married. I have never had children but am willing to be a parent with someone who is ready for permanent commitment relationship. My dad is from Liberia (Half American/Half Liberian) and my mother was from Spain. My dad was a contractor and my mother was a teacher. My mom and dad met in London and that is where I was born. I grew up with both parents until I was seven. They had a misunderstanding so dad had to leave me and mom in London. I lived with mom in London but she was under a lot of stress so she chose to take me to the states to meet her Aunt Elizabeth. I was 8 years old. Mom had to explain everything that went wrong between her and my dad, she didn't even know where he had gone. My mom and I stayed with my great-aunt for two months but then my mother told me that she had to return to London. I missed my mom but she wrote me letters and she phoned me until I was eleven, then I did not hear from her again. I was worried and then shocked when my aunt had to tell me that my mother had committed suicide. The pain of losing my mom has been in me ever since, my aunt took me in as if I were her own daughter and it made me happy to know she loved me with all her heart. She was the only family I had but died of a heart attack when I was seventeen. Since then I have had to make a life of my own doing the things I know how to do best. I kept faith in myself and my belief in Christ. I am a devoted Christan and believe so much in Christ. God has really been my father and my mother and provided me with all the inner strength that I needed. I have a degree in Fashion designing but right now I am on a contract in West Africa, Nigeria precisely, working on a project in fashion design. I am pursuing other interests as well. I was sent here by a company in the states. Once I am through in Nigeria I will be heading up back to the states to sign off my contract then back to Agoura Hills, CA . I lived there but don't have many friends around that area because I am always out of the country for work. I have been to Spain and France but the traveling isn't any fun for me. I had no choices left other than to do what I needed to do. This is my seventh week in Nigeria and I have only a few more weeks left before I leave Nigeria then back to the states. Then I will be settling down and hope to meet my Mr. Right. I don't know who he is yet but I know I will meet him someday soon.I am even willing to relocate to wherever he might be in this world.My closest friends describe me as a person that is real and sincere. Someone that is not looking for anyones baggage or a person to fill a void till you find something better. A person that can appreciate the little things in life and very goal orientated and self dependent. Someone that is a very good friend at all times. My friends would tell you I have a favorite qoute and that is the grass may appear greener on the other side, but that does not mean it is easier to cut. More people in life should think about that. The thing that I appreciate most in a partner is there honesty and personality. It is not one or the other that can make a relationship it is the both of you together. Laughter is the best medicine and realizing that life is too short to be serious all the time. my main goals in life are to be the best that I can be at my job and take my career and run with it. I am looking for a friend that can help me financially, I need some help to make my dreams come true. The keys to a lasting relationship are communication, if you can not communicate with each other and be honest and open then what do you have?
To be supporting of each others goals and dreams. Time alone to enjoy the things each of you like. Friend ship is an important part of making it or breaking it I hope i haven't bored you too much with my long emails. I just want to be more detailed and letting you know everything about me.
Age is not a problem at all to me, I attached several pictures for you, and if you need more I will send as many as you like... lol.

I will be waiting to hear from you.

Jessica Elizabeth Jones

How to Reply to Cheap People

2007-10-11T21:17:00.000-07:00

Hello,

We are not a free service, we charge all our clients and we have many fortune 500 clients. We charge the other clients the same as we would charge you. In fact many of our clients would not even consider a consultant that works for free, because you pay for what you get. So if someone is working for free, the end product is worth nothing.

Does your Lawyer also do free work for you?

I do not agree with you at all.

We charge to work on a client’s requirements.

I think you will only get crappy people that are no good to work for you for free.

Good luck,

Kind regards,

Tom Forrest

Phone: 805-493-4450
http://www.htpcompany.com/

Also please visit:

http://www.clasione.com/

http://www.seekon.info/

http://www.emortgageloanstore.com/

http://www.healthfitnessnutrition.org/

From: William De' Cheap [mailto:William@cheapbuyer.net] Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 9:07 PMTo: 'Tom Forrest'Subject: RE: Enquiry

Dear Tom,
By the way, I think it is reasonable for a potential client to be asking for information, before shelling out any money. But the first thing that you asked was about money, and I dont think our company would be comfortable assigning a job to a person, who doesnt not want to know what our requirements are, but asking for money.

Regards,
William

What is MOCKS?

2007-09-29T17:30:00.000-07:00

Hi,

Great write up.

Thank you.

Yes, I want you to do as you state below. I will pay you. Please keep the backup files for me. John my partner may also write to you about this, please copy John on this also. I will cc him on this email.

Best regards,

Tom Forrest

-----Original Message-----
From: BestHoster
Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2007 3:43 PM
To: tomforrest@htpcompany.com
Subject: [#CUC-184411]: FW: httpd on seo.seomx.com failed

Dear Customer,

MOCKS is a socks server. This mean it is forwards packets and commands from a remote machine out to your server to be executed as coming from your server.

So for example, in harmless uses it can act as a proxy to get around a firewall or screening process or in more evil uses it can serve as a command and control program for launching a Denial of Service attack from your server against a 3rd machine. The presence of a tool like this, installed by root is by itself shady, unless you remember installing it for a positive purpose.

The service was not installed by any specific site, but instead as the root or administrative user. The person who installed it, installed it as a script command that removed the server logs, in an attempt to cover their tracks. This command right here:

13 cd /var/log/; rm -rf secure; rm -rf lastlog; rm -rf messages; cd /usr/bin/; rm -rf last; rm -rf lastlog; cd /root/; rm -rf .bash_history

is highly suspicious.

Considering all of the facts I am confident this server has been compromised. Reviewing it, I was not able to find any evidence that the person who compromised is actively using this exploit to abuse the server at this time. The question in my mind is when will they use the compromise, not if. When they do, they could use serious amounts of bandwidth, could delete your sites, or could cause our datacenter to unplug the machine and not plug it back in.

I suggest we run a script to backup every site to your backup drive, then submit an OS Reload and get a fresh, un-compromised, OS install so we can restore the sites and prevent the exploitation of this server.

OS Reloads, cost $25.00. Please update this ticket with authorization to begin this process so that we can finish the backups before the exploit is activated.

If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to contact us.

Steve Jones
Level 2 Admin
Hostgator.com

Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: CUC-184411
Department: Level 3 Support
Status: On Hold

Intel Quad Core Q6600 Overclocking

2007-09-29T15:46:00.000-07:00

I bought an Intel Quad Core Q6600 computer with 4GB of Ram.

The QX6850 processor costs $1,000+ more. It runs at 3 Ghz, my system is supposed to run at 2.4 Ghz, I run mine at 3.1 Ghz and it works great, no problems.

The key is you need the Asus P5K-Premium MG565 motherboard, it is great and it has the software built in to tweak all the nerd bios settings from windows. I would not do it in the Bios, too much time and effort. Plus you can really screw up your system unless you know what you are doing in the Bios set up. The Asus motherboard solves all these issues for you.

You also need to get the best CPU fan, Zalman.co.kr , then get the Cooler Master case and chassis fan. You set the fan in the slick Asus windows software to performance mode and since the Cooler Master case has an inch of high quality sound proofing material in it, you do not hear the CPU fan at all no matter how fast it spins. The Asus P5K-Premium motherboard monitors your CPU temperature and automatically increases and decreases the speed of your Zalman CPU fan as needed. Also you need to buy the best and fastest Ram. If you are going to try this overclocking stuff, the most important factor is to monitor your CPU temperature. At idle it should be between 32C to 37C, and most important is the temperature at full CPU load of all four cores (100%), this should be less than 60C, however 57C would be even better.

So you save at least a $1,000 and have similar performance of the QX6850 for the price of a Q6600.

Yes there is some luck involved here because not all Q6600 chips will overclock as well as mine. I think I could go up to 3.3 Ghz or faster, however the more you push it the greater the chance it will not work, e.g. crash, not boot / post, or fry the chip etc. So be safe and happy and do not go over 3.1 Ghz on the Q6600 processor.

Good Luck.

P.S. we are not responsible if this causes you problems, this is a risky thing to do, and I am certain some people fry there CPU's. However many people have done it very successfully.

I am one such case study. Your milage may vary.

I love the Asus P5K-Premium motherboard and the cool windows based overclocking software and CPU fan speed auto adjusting software.

Bag of Money

2007-09-11T13:45:00.000-07:00

hello, my name is Ben and i work for my dads plumbing co. i don't know why but i do. i hate plumbing but yet i do it every single day. i wish i could be out riding my bikes or hanging out at the beach. I'm 21 and haven't even gone out to a bar. i guess u could say I'm just like everyone else cause I'm lost in this world made of money and some how i never come across that big bag of money that i was supposed to find when i got older. Anyways i keep on waking up every morning in surge of that bag full of green hoping

Why Click Bank Sucks, they are not as bad as American Express

2007-08-29T12:49:00.000-07:00

Hello,

What you say below is Totally WRONG.

You do not know what you are talking about.

I want to talk to your manager.

What is the name and phone number of your manager?

Do NOT give any more refunds unless I approve them.

You are just enabling FRAUD.

I work with the credit card companies to fight FRAUD like this.

You just let someone SCAM me and rip me off.

Again do not give any more refunds and just let me handle it since you do
not know how to.

Also you did NOT even give me a chance to contact the person and
investigate. They are probably ripping off some other Click Bank Publisher
right now because of your ERROR.

Kind regards,

Tom Forrest

-----Original Message-----
From: bal@clickbank.com [mailto:bal@clickbank.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2007 9:16 AM
To: Tom Forrest
Subject: RE: ClickBank Refund Confirmation [HTPCOMPANY-1/2K8031WB]

Hello,

We understand how frustrating it can be to have a customer receive a
refund for a product that has already been fulfilled. If a customer
states that they want help, then we always refer them to you first.
However, when one of your customers emails us and requests or demands a
refund, we will refund the order. Refunding the transaction immediately
protects your account from chargebacks

A refund occurs when a customer contacts ClickBank or the publisher
directly to refund money.

A chargeback occurs when the customer goes through his credit card
company to obtain a refund. In this case, the charge is reversed from
the publisher's account plus a bank fee is debited from the account.
This fee may range from $5 to $50, and is dictated by factors beyond our
control.

Please keep in mind that with credit cards the customer can always
receive a refund -- if not through the publisher or ClickBank, then
through their own issuing bank. And most banks will always provide a
chargeback, no questions asked.

Fortunately, most people are honest and it does not happen very often.

Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

________________________________________________________________________

I think Click Bank is bad, however not as bad as American Express. I advise anyone going into business and accepting credit cards to Never accept American Express. Criminals and Scammers love American Express. They can buy something and have up to 5 months to recieve a full refund from American Express. AMEX makes it very easy for the crimminals and scammers to rip people off. Several crimminals have written articles explaining why American Express makes it easy for them.

Different TV Technologies

2007-07-04T11:19:00.000-07:00

Today there are 3 different TV technologies you can consider buying.

1. Plasma

2. LCD

3. Projection

All of these have advanced greatly over the last few years and the prices have dropped over 50% in the last 2 years.

For projection based TV, I recommend Samsung or Toshiba as the best.

For LCD nothing can beat the Sharp Aquos technology, I think this is the best TV on the market, because you do not have any reflection or glare problems like you do with the Plasma or Projection TVs. If you are in a darker room away from windows, you can save some money and go with the Samsung Projection TV.

Also shop around on the Internet and find the best price and then try to get Circuit City or Best Buy to match the Internet price or come close to matching it. About 3-5% of these TVs can have problems and returning them to a mail order Internet store can be a problem. I bought a Samsung from mail order and purchased the extended warranty. Generally you should never purchase an extended warranty except on projection TVs.

Yesterday I purchased a 52" Sharp LCD TV, model LC-52D62U. This TVs picture is amazing. The best I have ever seen, it even automatically senses the light level in the room and adjusts it as needed.

I found the lowest price on the Internet and Circuit City came close to matching the price. Circuit City wants $3100 for this TV and with price matching they dropped the price $600 to $2500. This is a good value and I love the TV.

Why Wikipedia Stinks

2007-05-18T17:04:00.001-07:00

Please read this article and the links about Wikipedia.

http://htpcompany.blogspot.com/

My Divorce - Part 1

2007-02-21T13:16:00.001-08:00

Part 1-My Divorce - By: William Ross Cross

After being married for 5 ½ years, my wife said she wanted a divorce. At least it was the first time I heard her say she wanted a divorce. Because according to her she had mentioned on numerous occasions before. I am writing this about 4 weeks after she made it official.
I won’t deny that there are plenty of times she has said things to me that didn’t register.

One excuse I make is that she is from Russia and a lot of times I don’t know what she is saying so I just let it go. We have a son who is 2 years and 5 months. This makes it tough for me to think I won’t be living under the same roof as him. I got used to seeing him standing up in his crib wanting to be picked up and hugging him and freeing him from his little cage. The thing that makes it hard right now for me is that my options on what I am to do next are limited. I have worked as a camera operator in the t.v. biz for over 22 years. Even when times were slow I worked enough hours to earn my medical benefits.

The past 10 months have been the slowest ever for me. As hard as I have tried to get work I have only worked about 7 days in all those months. Normally there is little or no work during our hiatus times, which goes from late April to late July. Then the shows start up production and I would be working again. Well after working on shows like Friends, The Drew Carey Show, and Joey, it dried up for me. I heard there were 20 fewer comedies on t.v. than the year before.

All my connections and past experience lead to nothing. It wasn’t just me, I heard from a lot of other guys that is was their worst year. It didn’t make me feel better that they were suffering too. The worst thing to me was that some of the people that were working weren’t the best in the business. Normally when I am working I don’t really care who else is, but when there is nothing going on, I am really concerned about who does have a job. While we were married, my wife went to school and studied to become a C.P.A. I bragged to everyone about how smart she was in her ability to take the different test and pass on the first time. Even though she had started to work at a good job about 6 months ago, I still felt empty and scared for my future. Little did I know that I had so much more to be scared about?

We have lived in this house for a little over 3 years. Prior to that I owned a house for about 16 years, and my wife lived there the last 2 before moving to my present place. I hated the location of the old house. It was in the San Fernando Valley, and I just started to really resent the neighbors and didn’t like the environment there. We moved to Thousand Oaks and found a house with a killer view on hiking trails that I wanted to stay here forever at. I thought it would be the best place for a kid to grow up at. My wife didn’t ever like this house, and she said that she had told me that we would never last 2 years there. I guess another thing that I didn’t pick
up on. But I figure why let me get this place and go through all the hassles and expense of moving. I didn’t mention there is a 24 year difference in our age. I always figured she was the more mature one, but really I think she just kept everything inside and I let everything out. After I say something it is done with. Not with her. When she told me she wanted a divorce, she rattled off a list of things I had done and said since day one like she had a list and
photographic memory. So now I haven’t worked much at all, and she is doing great at her new job with a bright and secure future, and I am left holding the empty bag.
She had her mom move into our house when our son was born to help out for a
little while. At the time I was working a lot and thought that would be ok.
But 2 ½ years later she is still in the house. I have wanted her mom to
leave for at least the last 18 months. That created a lot of tension and no
matter what I asked or said they did things their own way. I started to feel
more and more invisible at the house as time went by. From the time she filed for divorce she said it would take months and I would have time to get things together. Without work or income I didn’t really have a clue what my options were.
I really want to stay in this house. I have lived pretty much below my means, until this year, so I have saved money in stocks and funds for my retirement money. That is what I need now
to try to pay her off. I have no idea yet what the damage will be. I am
guessing anywhere between 50-100 thousand. I have enough if I sell every
stock about halfway in the middle. But that doesn’t leave me any thing as a
cushion.
She is moving into an apartment with her mom and my son in a few weeks now.
So instead of the 5-6 months I was told I had to get it together, now is
less than two months.
I am going to try to get a roommate to rent a room in the house to buy me
some time. But really I am close to the end of my rope. Right now housing
prices are down and since it’s the middle of winter, sales are slow. Even if
I put up the house right away I will need at least enough money to pay the
mortgage for 3 to 4 months. I have never felt this low, or scared about the
very close future.
Everything that I have tried or thought was going to happen has fallen
through.
I got a call today for work for tomorrow and it would have been the kind of
camera work I haven’t done, so I would get experience and exposure, but then
about 5 hours later, waiting for my call time, it was called off. It turned
out to feel like a cruel joke. I was so excited to have an opportunity that
I had been praying for, and then to get another let down seems like so much.

Anything we want to Discuss

2007-02-17T11:51:00.000-08:00

Hello,

I am working on some new articles for this blog. I also want to change the name to just a general blog, where I discuss any topics I want to.

Please email articles or comments to me and if I like them I will publish then in this new blog I am creating.

Email: tomforrest@htpcompany.com

Old Problems with Blogger Fixed

2007-02-17T11:43:00.000-08:00

Follow up to problems with the old blogger.

I had created a blog named gototom blog. It never worked in blogger and we could never figure out why?

Now the new and improved blogger is out and it some how found the orginial gototom blog. It made it duplicate content to another blog I have for htpcompany blog. So Google fixed one problem and created another problem for me. Now in a month or two I will show this post to Matt Cutts of Google if I still have a duplicate content penality from the problem Blogger / Google has caused me.