Still Not A Blog

Despite being happy to not have to deal with a car in NY, I once again went to the autoshow to drool over the cars.  Now I’m looking forward to moving and getting a car :) I just cant decide, STI or Evo? (vote on the sidebar.  and remember and that they are both redesigned for 08/09)

Check out the gallery. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and had to take all the pictures with my blackberry. Considering that, they turned out pretty decent.

I recently ordered a lot of CYOA books off ebay.  Naseem and I were reminiscing about how fun it was to read them, so I thought it would be fun to get some.  I also got some new ones from amazon.  I was thrilled when one of the new ones was called “Race Forever,” and had a pair of Subaru WRXs on the cover.  After the Toyota Supra, (which isnt made anymore) the WRX is my favorite car.  I started reading through and found this page:

How awesome is that? :)

Because Halloween is coming up, and because I encourage the massive proliferation of ninjas (and because I couldn’t succesfully explain to my friend Parisa how to do this over IM), I created this DIY video about making a ninja mask. 

After many long hours at numerous government agencies, court hearings and a few hundred dollars, I now have real ID that has my new name on it.  Greg Kourosh.  I never imagined that it would take this much effort and time to change my name.  And all I have so far is a social security card and a drivers license.  Luckily these two things, along with my court documents are the key to securing the rest.  Now I have to get a new passport, change my name with my banks, credit cards, utilities, email, and so many other places that I haven’t even thought of yet.  One thing I dont have to work on is my signature.  My handwriting is so eligible, that i can just keep making the same scribble :)

I have often mused about the scams I would be running if I wasn’t a Baha’i.  I’m cursed with a criminal mind.  Everywhere I look there are fantastic opportunities to illicitly profit.  I am forced to merely shake my head and “lament” the fact that I “can’t” take advantage of these opportunities.  I like to think that if I was criminally inclined, that I would be a damn good criminal.  Luckily for me, and perhaps you, I’m not :)  Here are the top 5 scams I would be running if I was a bad person.

#5.) Bank Robbery - Comparatively, this is high risk.  Which is why it’s number 5.  But, it’s not nearly as risky as it first appears, which is why it makes the list.  Banks focus on creating an environment that discourages robbery. Once someone decides to do it, there isn’t much that can be done.  I’ve seen dozens of stories about people that walk into banks, demand money and walk out.  Often, they are not caught.  Those that are, could have been more successful with a little planning.  Or common sense.  Like realizing that taping tree branches to your head does not make a good disguise.

#4.) Multilevel Marketing (MLM) - There is almost no risk involved in this scam.  It easy to stay on the legal side of the pyramid scheme.  The downside is that it’s a tough sell.  But I’m a good sales person. And there are a lot of fools out there looking to make a buck.  Greedy people make the easiest marks :)  They key is to start your own organization, so that you can be at the top of the pyramid.

#3.) ATM Hacks - There are two main methods I would focus on.  The easier, is to gain administrator access to an ATM machine, and redefine  what denominations are in which tray.  For example, you tell the machine that the tray that holds $100 bills is the $20 tray.  Then when you withdraw $20 with your ATM card, you get $100 instead.  A tidy profit.  Amazingly, many of those 3rd party ATMs in little shops (you know the ones, the ones that charge you a $5 fee) have default passwords to their admin accounts!  And this doesn’t take any special skills, just selecting some options in the configuration menus.

The more difficult method is to buy your own ATM machine, reprogram it, and set it up somewhere.  People come up to the ATM, insert their card, enter their PIN and try to withdraw money.  The machine gives a transaction error and spits back the card.  Your victim shrugs and goes off looking for another ATM.  Little do they know that you just recorded all of their account information and now have their PIN code. Sneaky.

#2.) eBay - eBay is a great place to cheat people.  There are tons of ways to do it.  Just the other day, I chanced upon a great example.  This guy was selling his luxury SUV.  For $150 you would receive 1 envelope out of a stack of 150.  1 of these envelopes has the keys to the car.  The rest have $10 bills.  Maybe this guy was honest, but more likely than not, he just sent everyone 10 bucks.  And kept the car. If he even had a car in the first place.  Who would know?

#1.)  Identity Theft - This has the most potential for lucrative returns.  With the proper precautions, you can evade the law indefinitely.  Since I am in the IT industry, most of my methods would involve computers.  I would install key loggers on any computer that I came into proximity of to collect passwords.  I would read the obituaries to find people that have just died.  And open credit accounts in their names.  I would buy used hard drives on eBay and use my disaster recovery tools to recover peoples personal files.  You think you deleted it? You think you formatted and now its gone?  Good.  That’s what i want you to think :)

Hopefully this view into the darker recesses of my mind makes you more aware of some of the ways people are trying to cheat you.  And hopefully it doesnt give you any ideas.  I’m certainly not going to post your bail :)

In honor of Naseem deciding to keep me, even after living with me for a year, I present this blog post by my friend Eric.  He “accidentally” decided to make fun of me on said anniversary.  I hope his juvenile humor doesn’t reflect too badly on me… :)

Here are the pictures, as promised. I didnt get a lot of good shots, and the low lighting prevented most of the pictrues from turning out. Delara will probably have some better ones on her flickr. All in all, we had fun. Though, the actual convention was less then I expected. It was a lot smaller, there were less people dressed up, less vending and less stuff going on then I imagined. Still, it was entertaining, and nothing beats a weekend with friends.

On one hand, I’m embarassed to say that I’m going to a star trek convention. On the other hand, I think it’s cool enough to mention on my NOT (pause) blog. Regardless, I expect it to be a good time. I’ll follow this up with pictures and possibly amusing stories. The convention is in NJ, about 90 miles from NYC. If i was properly motivated and had the time, money and parts, I would make myself a borg costume. Then I would truly have an amusing story because I would drive to NJ wearing it. And I would get pulled over. Then I would go to jail after threatening to “assimilate” the cop that will pull me over for speeding. In jail someone would tell me that “resistance is futile.” And I wouldnt like the borg anymore after that…

70 out of 78 stars.

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie. My high expectations offset my transformers fandom, so think that is a fairly accurate assessment. I do have a few complaints, but I would definitely recommend the film. I liked it enough that I intend to see it in the theater at least one more time. Repeat theater viewings is something I usually reserve for Star Wars. Great action, not too much cheese, plenty of humor.

*********** Possible Spoilers Below ************

Best Part of the Movie: Mikaela and Sam are riding in the Bumblebee as a 1976 Camaro when Mikaela asks why, if Bumblebee can transform into whatever he wants, he chooses to be such a “piece of junk.” Bumblebee gets offended and ejects her (and Sam) from the car. He then transforms into a 2008 Camaro.

Worst Part of the Movie: Megatron beats the crap out of Optimus Prime. Come on Prime….

Most Astute Social Commentary Moment: Barricade, an evil Decepticon, transforms into a police car that says “to punish and enslave” on its side.

Most Confusing Part of Movie: Everything the AllSpark touches becomes an evil transformer. My theory is that this is because all of our modern technology was reverse engineered from Megatron. So when it is animated, it is as evil as he is.

Most Stereotypical Moment: Glenn, the black hacker, yelling at the FBI that his grandma will beat them up.

Best Action Moment: Optimus Prime stabs Bonecrusher in the neck and decapitates him with his retractable sword/axe.

Best Product Placement: The AllSpark animates a Mt Dew vending machine which transforms and starts fighting.

*********** End Spoilers ************

Go see it!!

Having watched transformers as a wee lad, I’ve been looking forward to the new transformers movie ever since I first got wind of it. Yesterday I bought my advance tickets for next Monday’s sneak preview. I’m trying hard not to get my hopes up, nor to set my expectations to high, but it isn’t working. If the movie is bad, I’ll probably be devastated. It’s funny how we can have so much nostalgia for something from childhood, even when it isn’t that great from an adult perspective. I acquired every episode of the transformers cartoon a couple years ago, but I’ve only watched a handful of them since then. I tried, but it just wasn’t that great. I preferred to stop watching and preserve the memory of it being awesome. But now, with a new live action movie coming out, I have a chance to be entertained by transformers as an adult. Here’s hoping that it will be great :)

This is a screenshot from Forza 2, a racing game on the 360. I will not reveal how many hours it took me to create the Decepticon logo on that Supra using the in-game editor (you would laugh at me). Suffice it to say, that I had to combine 30 plus polygons to construct it.