Un Chien Bleu

Not a ball-buster like Katrina, Irene or Floyd–but it had the snappiest theme song of ANY hurricane, ever!

Hurricane Gloria was a powerful Cape Verde-type hurricane that formed during the 1985 Atlantic hurricane season and prowled the Atlantic Ocean from September 16 to September 28.

All photos copyright 1985-2011, Annie Alpert”

From Hurricane GLORIA, 1985 G – L – O – R – I – A!, posted by Annie Alpert on 8/27/2011 (10 items)

Generated by Facebook Photo Fetcher

Yahoo! Cudahy Mayor wants to help the homeless, even though they are “Stinky” “Drunks”!

Cudahy mayor Tony Day said today that he will reach out to faith leaders to discuss “the best way and best location to provide a warm place for the homeless” in his city.”

Aw. How Christmasy. How life-changing! Almost like when “Frank Cross” (Bill Murray) found “Herman” (Michael J Pollard) dead in the sewer on Christmas Eve in the movie Scrooged.

This was after a Commissioner said in October that homeless people were ‘stinky’ and ‘drunk’ at a Plan Commission meeting in October, where Mr. Day was present. Who said it? Your guess is as good as mine. :

3. Discussion and appropriate action regarding a request for temporary homeless
shelter at 3675 E. Cudahy Ave. Beverly Tryba representive for the Homeless Shelter explained that 1 week per month, Dec, Jan, Feb, March and possibly April, they would be in by 6:00 pm and out by 7-8 am.
Alderman Bartoschevich expressed his concerns from the finical [sic] aspect as well as the concerns for homeless individuals in his aldermanic district. Motion to deny the temporary homeless shelter made by Commissioner Coulthurst seconded by Alderman Bartoshevich. Vote was 6 to approve denying and 1 against.

Local churches stepped up to keep Cudahy’s homeless from freezing to deaththis week. I have to say that MIGHT POSSIBLY had something to do with Mr. Day’s declaration today. Am I a cynical, old, atheist? You can decide that for yourself.

My Mombo and I had words on this subject. “Mom, I’m going to help these people out. Do you have any coats or blanke — ” “No! We don’t have anything to give to anyone.” “Mom, you disappoint me. What happened to ‘Do Unto Others As You Would Have Others Do Unto You’? If you needed help, wouldn’t you want someone to help you out?”

“They should suck it up and get a job. I worked hard for what I have. Why should I give it away for free to a bunch of lazy, drunken losers? Let the government take care of them” (especially ironic considering her recent Tea Party infatuation).

Oh, Mombo. Oh, Milwaukee. Get out and see the world. People have mental problems. People can be without a home. People can need a hand. It’s not rocket science. If you have extra, share it. If someone needs something, give it. Count yourself among the lucky that you have more than you need.

And by the way, Merry Christmas.

“Hiiiiiiiii! This is Ashley . . .we did not see you in our wedding . . . Well, here I’m sending you a few pics taken in our wedding . . . http://www.FAKEURL.com/photos/ashley/wedding.zip

It’s so easy to click the mouse button on an email like this. Who doesn’t know an “Ashley”?

“Was I invited to a wedding? I wonder what her dress looked like?” The rest of the internal dialogue is less benign, “Oops, that was a .ZIP file, wasn’t it? Hey, that was weird. YOW! My computer — Oh sweet mother of GOD!”

Note that the link in this email was to a .ZIP file format. Spammers like .Zip spam because many email spam detectors and anti-virus programs don’t scan compressed files. It’s a popular way (in certain double-plus-not-good crowds) to slip in BotNet software to turn your computer into a zombie remote processor or open a door to your banking passwords. Possibilities are only limited by a Russian teenager’s imagination.

eWeek reports an uptick in the number of infected .ZIP file spam recently:

Anyone who makes the mistake of opening the attachment is greeted with a Trojan.

[The Trojan] downloads further malicious code from the Internet,” explained Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. “Obviously the nature of the code it downloads can be changed at any time, but the usual suspects would be spyware code to steal your log-in details, turn your computer into a bot, etc.”

Microsoft’s “Security Intelligence Report” blog explains more about BotNets and “Drive-by Download” sites” — websites where vulnerable computers can be infected with malware simply by visiting it, even without attempting to download anything.

The moral of today’s Tale of Terror is “Don’t doze off at the reins while the horses are moving.”

• Never EVER click on a link from an email.
• Always keep your browser, operating system and hardware drivers up to date.
• Don’t rely on a single anti-virus or anti-malware product. No one product will detect everything.
• Avoid Windows Internet Explorer if you can.
• Don’t assume that just because someone has your email address, they are your new best friend.

All the pros say never use hand-made business cards. Mostly that’s true.

It marks you as a professional weakling, not successful enough to have them “printed” printed–and nyah nyah probably not savvy enough to know what CMYK color separation is.

I’m not arguing. Perception is everything in the business world. When I worked at Citibank and Goldman Sachs, the secretary would just order 1000 for me with the company logo. I recently threw out a box of 990 from the last order, which, I’m sure, cost Goldman a bundle, but haven’t been very useful to me since Gorden Gekko last wore suspenders.

Sometimes a homemade business card is good enough, as long as you make it “good enough”. Precise typography, careful spacing and the best paper you can get. The new double-sided coated papers (Avery 8869 for instance) are very nice.

The basic rules of business cards apply:

• Include your name, title, address, cell or office phone, email and web site.
• No more than two typefaces, preferably a serif “display” and a clean, readable sans-serif for your info.
• No more than 12 point type for your title, job or name, which ever is most important. The rest should be 8 to 9-point.
• Keep your type away from the edge, Line it up to the left or right, but not all over the card.

I played around a bit with these rules on my card:

• The display text, “Adler” is a serif monotype, and I used 14-point for my name because Adler comes out very small.
• I used serif “Vidal” instead of a sans-serif for the text because I like it.
• The back of my card is a photograph of a parasol I took in the 70′s. It’s been manipulated and adjusted with Photoshop. I chose it because I’m talking to people about promotional tasks lately, and I want to show my artistic side.

Since I only made a couple dozen, I can change the design again later if I need to.