Ant Hill

Scam from a Mr. Yu-tong Liao

Good day, I need your partnership for a business investment of $27.3M USD,in my bank. If you are interested, contact me via email: mryutongliao06@hotmail.com.hk for more details. Mr. Yu-tong Liao

On 5/27/2011 6:57 PM, Karen Polkabla wrote:

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE ? This e-mail and any attachments are confidential and intended only for the personal and confidential use of the recipient named above. If you are not the intended recipient, be aware that any review, disclosure, copying, distribution or use of this e-mail or any attachment is prohibited and such action will subject you to sanctions and/or discipline by the Ringgold School District. If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately notify the sender by e-mail and delete the original message and any attachments.

These scam e-mails are always changing and this makes for a bit of entertainment. Of course the one thing that cannot change about any confidence scheme electronic or otherwise is the hook. The intended mark is always presented with an offer that will bring them some undeserved gain for what seems to be a small investment of cash money. Millions of dollars for hundreds sent.

This message is from Karen Polkabla (kpolkabla@ringgold.org) http://www.ringgold.org . Was it sent intentionally from this school district or is it some kind of virus? Who knows? Is Mrs. Polkabla going to invest with Mr. Yu-tong Liao and decided to pick me at random to become a millionaire as well. Anyway part of the fun is the path that these scams take into your mail box. Very intriguing. one of the interesting things about this scam e-mail is the fact that all of the lies are found in the subject line.

If you received an email like this you have several choices.

• Ignore the scammer. Do not respond to emails. Just delete them.
• Respond, but only to lead the scammer on--to get a counterfeit check, to report stolen credit card numbers, and to waste the scammer's time. Time spent trying to scam you is time not spent scamming someone else.
• Report the scammer to us and we'll post their emails so others will know about that scammer.

Whichever option you choose make sure you do the following:

• DO NOT educate the scammer in any way. Educating a scammer makes them better at scamming the next person.
• DO NOT let the scammer know that YOU KNOW they are a scammer. The scammer will always be nice to you if they think there's a chance they may still be able to scam you. If they know they've been discovered they will often threaten you. Their threats are empty, but are scary to some people.
• DO NOT give the scammer any personal information that they cannot find in a phone book (name, address, and phone.) Feel free to give them lots of incorrect information.

Manduca quinquemaculata (Tomato Hornworm)

 

Manduca quinquemaculata

Tomato Hornworm       They make me so mad!!!

   

Missionary Ventures 5k run 2011

I was invited by Jeff and Miranda Lessie to snap photos at Gadsdon park here in Tampa for the Missionary Ventures 5k fun run. I have been on a couple short term mission trips through www.mvi.org and was a pleasure to serve here on the home front. Jeff and Miranda both attend South Tampa Fellowship as I do and know how to get things done!

Greetings, we are Jeff and  Miranda Lessie.  We invite you to join us at
our 5K Run/Walk to support  Global Missions to be held on May 21 at 8:30 AM at
Gadsden Park, 6901 S.  MacDill Ave., Tampa, FL.  
We normally lead an annual  mission trip to a 3rd world country to bring
medical and spiritual  help to those that are less fortunate.  This year we
are unable to go so  instead we are hosting a 5K Run/Walk to raise money for
Missionary Ventures  International (MVI).  MVI is a non-profit organization
that supports  missionaries in just about every country around the world.  We
go on  missions to support these missionaries who give their lives to show
Christ’s  love and share the Good News in remote areas.

There was a healthy turn out for this first time event and everyone seemed to have a great time!

Galen Garrison a.k.a. “The Beast”of www.marathonmedals.com was there.

Thanks to the sponsors:

Gries Investment Funds, Max Muscle, American Running Company

Great times doing good works!

Craig and Wibke Take Flight

I went to www.skydivecity.com in Zephyrhills, Florida to witness South Tampa Fellowship pastor Craig Rees jump from a plane

At the last minute our contact and professional plane jumper finagled a spot on the plane to make the leap. After what seemed like less than a minutes deliberation Wibke she was signing waivers and suiting up.

The went up and came gliding back down safe and sound.

Garden Update

The garden is growing everyday.

The best crop has been the Romaine and Bib Lettuce!]

Epcot Years Later

Things are always changing and that is what makes the familiar a landmark of sorts. Time, place and behavior together are what make combine to make history. History can only shape the future when it is revisited and revered. The genius of Disney is the connecting of generations across the canyons of time. It is why these parks thrive despite the exorbitant amount of capital the average family must pay for the experience.

The park was well attended on this visit and I amused myself by considering the religious fervor of attendees. I have always been a bit taken aback by the devotion of some of my fellow humans to these parks which for some I observe seems more like holy ground than glorified circus. It seems to me that many live to visit these parks as an escape from the painful realities of their lives. There is a timelessness to some of the ride that can take you from a painful present into a simpler past but to live in the past is to be dead in the present. If you never get past the tragedies there can be no true triumphs.

For a long time now America’s public schools have been instructing the youth of our country in the origin of the species. As I look around in my walk through the park I cannot help but marvel at how far the single celled organism has come in it’s never ending quest to entertain itself. I wander through the crowd of my fellow hairless apes and wonder at the futility of our existence. Having come from nothing on our way to oblivion with nothing more than an amusement park separating our beginning from our end. All the chemical induced emotions meant to perpetuate the great cosmic accident for no knowable reason one day decaying in the ground.

That is when I remember that I know a different story of Genesis. One that makes a claim not to be theory but the very words of God the creator. Elohim who gives of our family and a meaning future. The one who inspires us to do the greatest of things. The lovely scenes before me are hollow like a shadow of the creators glory they are a facade but are not pointless. In fact they point God in who’s image we are created and whose works we are designed to do. No matter how misguided in our efforts or how base our motives for laboring mankind will never be able to escape the fact that our reassembly of His creation will always bring glory in the end to Him.

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
(Rom 1:19-25)

As I walked I was aware that each of us has a faith in something but not everything our faith rests upon is true. It is our task to seek the truth throughout our lives and those who have abandoned themselves to relativism have given up the search. What an amazing gift it is to live in a country full of outlandish amusement parks that just so happens for the present to be a place in which it’s citizens are free to worship the truth or a lie as their own conscience dictates.

Life is a vapor.

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
(Jas 4:14-17)

Interbay Baptist Reunion Tampa

Today I attended the a church reunion. I attended this church when I was very young starting in 1974. The Pot Luck meal was strangely familiar. I think I enjoyed it so much because it was food I grew up on!

History repeats itself and then you die but for the follower of Jesus it is a passing from death into life. In the mean time if you can eat like this you are truly blessed!

Thank you to all those sentimental folks who worked hard to make this happen.