Hook 'em Horns!

I have just returned from a wonderfully entertaining weekend in Austin, the capital of Texas. One of the (many) highlights included a trip to see the University of Texas Longhorns play (American) football. As much as I do try to understand the rules however, I was almost more entertained by the marching band. Or I should say two marching bands. They were very adept at arranging themselves into gigantic letters. Here they are in the shape of the University of Texas logo:

You'll also notice a central theme of the match is burnt orange. So here is me as the proud new owner of a very orange T-shirt:

Coldness

What the hell is wrong with this town? On Saturday, it was beautifully warm, and I was more than happy sailing on the lake in just a bikini. Then in the space of three days, the temperature has plummeted, today to a measly 12 Celsius.

Almost everything I'd been lead to believe about the weather here so far has been wrong. The winter was (unseasonably) mild, the summer wasn't half as hot or humid as I'd been told, and September, which I had been assured would be delightful, is bloody freezing.

At least the sunny blue skies and crisp air remind me of a Cambridge morning in December. Which is nice.

Model (professional)

I am currently looking for a new roommate, and last week posted an ad on craigslist. This was one of the responses I got:

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From : Mary Gibson
Sent : 13 September 2006 21:14:32
Subject : ROOM

Hello ,
I am Mary gibson and i am 25 years old.I am interested in your house
for rent.I am a very tolerant person .I dont interfare into other
peoples matters.I like to respect their rules of the house. i don't do
drugs.I am a model(professional). Please you could email me back or
if you have a yahoo messenger you could add me to your messenger list my
yahoo address is (reachmarygibson@yahoo.com) . i look forward to hearing
back from you.ASAP.
Mary
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Now, I wasn't all too sure about Mary Gibson. She didn't sound quite right to me. So I replied from my hotmail (junk) account asking for a few more details, and this was the response:

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From : Mary Gibson
Sent : 14 September 2006 22:24:43
Subject : Re: ROOM

Hello claire,
Thanks for the mail and i appreciate your efforts towards this .I am interested in renting your room.I will need more info from you regards to the house and also i need to know the deposit that i will be paying before i arrive,i am from ENGLAND,but currently based in west africa now with my mom because she works for a missionary school and she is posted down here,i want to move over to the US,Kindly get back to me ASAP with the deposit i need to pay because i will like to pay for the deposit before my arrival and i will like to know the total amount i will be paying for a whole year but i will like to pay the deposit first of all,I do part time modelling and also i have finished with my masters programme.I do model and i have job offers already in the US,I have my masters degree in accounting.My job will be based on contracts so i do not have to go to work all the time,I will only need to go to work 3 times in a week.

Well, i think we will get along well because am a easy going person,like i said i dont do drugs or smoke but i drink only occasionally.I will be glad if you have a Yahoo messenger (reachmarygibson@yahoo.com) so we can chat and talk more and get to know each other better, its free,Send me ur email addy

.Please kindly get back to me ASAP.Hope to hear from you soon.

Mary
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Why is Mary so interested in paying the deposit? And how does she expect to get into the US - doesn't sound like she has a visa to me. After a quick internet search, I found many other examples of similar experiences which all turn out to be a scam. Basically, Mary will try to pay the deposit in advance, but only be able to send me a cheque worth more than the deposit amount and expect me to send her back the difference. The cheque of course will be fake.

The question is now, what should I do next? A bit of scammer-baiting maybe?

Labels

Anyone who's been browsing the BBC website already today will probably have already found this, but if not, here's a great way to waste time:

Google Image Labeler

I was very disappointed when I got an image of a map of Lake Michigan, which I instantly recognised, but my partner wanted to "pass". Damn those anonymous people and their lack of geographical knowledge.

Poor Tony

Poor Tony. What trouble he seems to be in. And resorting to such backlash aswell... "Well I was going to sack him anyway. Ha. So there. Ner-ner-ne-ner-ner."

But surely his biggest upset must be that his best buddie George doesn't seem to be paying any attention. And the American media have barely noticed that anything's up. This link to the New York Times will be continually changing, but as I write, you will struggle to locate the article about our esteemed PM. They give more space to an article about some video game I've never heard of.

Poor Tony.

I demand a cycle lane

Twice in the last week I've been merrily cycling along and then whilst waiting at traffic lights, the woman (in both cases) in the car behind me has taken it upon herself to get out of her car to give me some 'advice'. The first kind lady said I should "pull over" so she could overtake me - and this apparently was for "my safety"... I told her I had no intention of cycling in the gutter, for her or anyone else's benefit. This morning, I was politely informed that if I was turning left, I should be "over there". As if poor road positioning is the worst traffic offence I'm going to be commiting in this not-too-bike-friendly town.

I don't want to become the sort of person who thinks that all motorists should be paying cyclists as we are selfishly not polluting and not causing congestion on the roads. But if it carries on like this I might not have a choice.