juice & snacks

For all those who sent me greetings on Facebook, Twitter, emails, texts, hugs & handshakes: thank you from the bottom of my heart! The t-shirt birthday gifts & the super late night Carl’s Jr. dinner with a prayer makes this birthday a memorable one. Truly, I do have the greatest friends. To address some points:

• Yes, the wife does spoil me silly! I’m a lucky dude.
• It’s hard to compete with the holidays & family schedules, so I would love to party it up with y’all sometime in January! I can even set up my photo booth. You can buy me my favorite drink: a Coke on the rocks.
• Even my beloved A’s wanted to do something big for me: they brought back my boy Rich Harden for a year! Heck-to-the-yes. Oh yeah, Matsui is big news, too.
• Starcraft. Airlift, bro.

To continue our San Mateo tradition, the lovely wife brought me to our annual tasty & fancy dinner at Astaria on 3rd Avenue. Not quite the bacon bread pudding I was hoping, but still a good ending to my meal, as well as a good ending to my day.

Lifestyle

I thought this photo would be appropriate to upload in light of the big day coming up in a week. It also gives me a reason to share some of my old photos from my stint in Japan.

On December 14, 2003 (nearly seven years ago), we just got back from Kobe—a three-hour trip from my old hometown of Okayama—to check out the gorgeous light show, the Luminarie. Back at home, we hit up a karaoke spot after dinner to unwind. It was just a bit past midnight when all my friends pulled out a makeshift cake: a chocolate log ice cream cake with pieces of Pocky as the ‘candles.’ The Pocky wouldn’t stay lit, so T-Bone held a lighter flame next to it so I could make my 20th birthday wish.

Late night karaoke? Pocky? When in Rome…do as the Japanese do!

Lifestyle, Photo of the day, travel

This happens every time I try to sell something expensive on Craigslist. You post a laptop on Craigslist for $1000. You get an email from a buyer with horrible English to buy it from you for $1100. You get excited because you’re making $100 more than what you requested. You receive a US Post Office Money Order for $1100, so you ship off your laptop to a Nigerian address. Days after, you find out the money order is counterfeit, & you’re out of a laptop.

Scammers running the 419 scam, or the Nigerian scam, have a pretty safe system. They run many operations in cyber cafes in Nigeria with disposable email addresses & cell phone numbers. Trying to report them to the US Federal Trade Commission is futile. The best we can do as the innocent seller? Try to slow down their operation. Or you can do what I did: have them take a picture to advertise our blog.

It all starts with my Craigslist posting of my Macbook Pro (good condition, too—it’s that beautiful thing in the photo above!). The emails come in within one hour of posting. The scammers are efficient. Most of the emails I receive look like this (I’m leaving her name in here since I’m almost sure it’s made up):

kate brott: Hi
I’m interested in buying this item and i hope it”s in good condition?.
Thanks.

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my Blackberry®

I ask if they’re local (a requirement for purchase on my Craigslist page). Again, the reply usually goes something like this:

kate brott: I hope this is not a scam?cos I’ve once been duped,if its genuine then am willing to offer you $1100 for the item,a new battery and for FedEx air delivery, if you can assure me
it’s in a good working condition.Send me a payment request of $1100
into my email, once i get the invoice I’ll transfer
the funds ASAP.Thanks.

Yay. Signs of the scam:

• more than asking price
• request for overseas shipping
• horrible grammar with a suspiciously American-looking name.

Usually, I end communications here, but I’m curious to see how far I can take this. I investigate to see where they want it shipped:

kate brott: I’m sorry i’m presently out of town and i’m getting this for a friend
who just got transferred to west africa and needs it so urgently,i
just wish i could pay you in cash so that i can see the present
condition of the item but i’m now in Dubai with my boss, am willing to
offer you $1100 for both the item and air delivery fee cos he really
need it.please Send me a money request so that once i get the invoice
i’ll transfer
the funds ASAP.Thanks.

kate brott: I wish i could come back so soon but i’m not the one using it,i’m
getting your item for my friend who just got transferred to west
africa and he calls me everyday asking me if i’ve seen any seller and
i keep telling him no.please i don’t think i’m gonna come back soon
and etimfri my friend really need it,so could you please be of help to
me by sending me a money request so that once i pay the fund and you
receive a notification then you can send it to him via USPS…Thanks

This goes back & forth. They give me a phone number with an international code & reasons why it needs to be shipped to West Africa. In this case, she’s buying it for a friend for work in Nigeria. They send me a money request form through “PayPal”, which in reality is a really bad phishing page. A two-pronged attack: first, they want my laptop for free, & now they also want to get my PayPal information, too.

After ten emails or so, they get impatient with my excuses for my delay to mail the laptop. I guess we’re trusting friends now, because they send me this:

kate brott: Just send the item to him and i’ll pay u i promise

At this point, they’ve dedicated way too much time into me (this has been going on for nearly four days). I push the envelope to see what they can do for me. With a tone of urgency, here’s my email to them:

Me: I’m actually on the way to the post office now, but if you can do me a good faith favor just to confirm who you are: can you take a picture of yourself holding a piece of paper that says ‘juiceandsnacks’ just so I know you’re a real person. Then I can trust you & mail the package. I just need that & we can settle the billing details after I mail it. Thanks!

Me: Just to show you I’m real, here’s a photo of me before I leave the office, holding the laptop:

Just send me a picture with the ‘juiceandsnacks’ sign & I will be comfortable to deliver the package. Thanks!

That’s not actually me in that picture. Just some random guy holding a Macbook Pro box I found on Google.

A day later, I get this:

kate brott: Ok,i’ll send you the photo today but i hope u’re not trying to play
pranks on me,well i now trust you.please send it to him today,he keeps
asking me what the problem is that you haven’t sent it and i told him
nothing,please when you send it to him make sure you send him a scan
receipt which he can use in getting the item when it reaches his
destination and send me one too for me to know you’ve sent it…THANKS

A few hours later, I ended communication with them. I finally got what I wanted:

For those of y’all who feel bad for this lady, don’t forget: they’re scamming people as a day job, & by the hundreds, too!

Lifestyle

What makes the Jabbawockeez so great are their unified choreographed movement & their iconic white masks. Well, French dancing duo Laurent & Larry Bourgeois, famously known as Les Twins, are kicking it up a notch—dual ‘fros are the new white masks.

The story started on Twitter with a tweet about dancers in Oakland, which linked to a YouTube video with Oakland’s Turf Feinz, shot by this local group called YAK Films. Their production value was pretty top-notch, so I browsed around their collection & found this gem:

Before you know it, the fanaticism begins. I start scouring YouTube for more videos. My excitement goes through the roof when I hear they’re performing at Mezzanine up in the City! I was totally bummed when the weather prevented us from seeing the show, though.

These days, I’ve been finding myself busy working with my friends at the 3rd Floor Collective & Honorable Mention in maintaining a photo booth at different events in the Bay. When our buddy Jayvee booked us to be vendors at the World of Dance in Vallejo, not only was I excited because not only did I know YAK Films was going to cover the event, Les Twins were slated to perform!

Jayvee even did me one better. He promised that he would bring Les Twins to my photobooth so I can meet them (& to add them to my portfolio, of course). The first photo I took with them was, well…

…yeah, it’s really Les Twins, not just two random tall guys with ‘fros.

Rondo, Mr. Man-of-many-languages, got to talk to them in their native French. From what he understood, they’re from a family of nine siblings, & they all are dancers. Incredible, they’re the Jackson family of dancing.

As expected, their Vallejo performance was surreal:

I worked a total of ten straight hours that day & walked away with a smile. I hope we get a chance to see them again next year (if they’re not gonna be mega superstars by then).

Bay Area, Lifestyle, photography

Last Sunday was the A’s final home game this season, so despite the super-duper hot California weather, we braved the weather to go out to support our boys. They didn’t end in style, but at least my day wasn’t a total loss: I was able to score Gio Gonzalez’s autograph to add to my collection!

Gio is known to be a crowd-pleaser. He’ll go through great lengths to meet the fans in the stands. In fact, before the game, he went to the first row & gave hundreds of autographs for anyone who wanted them. Super nice guy, too.

As usual, I prepare my Sketches app on my iPhone, then put the phone in front of him when my turn came up. As usual, he looks at it with confusion.

Me: You don’t need a pen; just use your finger to sign.

Gio: Ohh, sign the phone.

[He proceeds to sign the phone.]

Gio: Sorry, it could have been neater, but I think this was the best I could do.

At least I didn’t have to lose an iPhone case this time.

Lifestyle