My Blog - loads of words by Lesmundo2003 | English, baby! Blogs

Spanish Fiestas & photography

Lesmundo2003 — Fri, 09 May 2008 19:50:38 GMT

Spanish Fiestas & photography

I started to write about my last experience in the Spanish fiestas here & then thought to expand on that by explaining the fiestas. To break up the words a bit, I thought to add pics & finally thought all that was just too much for here.

I turned it into an intro for my site, but it's still in English.

So, if you want a good read in my style,

ohhh, I'm so modest :-))

& see some nice looking pics & some good descriptions of the fiestas in the small towns, then go from pages 1 - 5.

Page 6 is me in full advertising mode!

Hope you enjoy & ask here for anything you don't understand.

But please, no advertising yourself here.

Just questions of English understanding etc ...

http://web.mac.com/lesliepattison/

The birth of Scammers II - The Virtual

Lesmundo2003 — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:10:19 GMT

The birth of Scammers II - The Virtual

Ok, you have read part 1, I assume.

So, you already know about scammers. Yes?

I said before, I'll only deal with romance scammers & just do a few light cautionary notes & examples to help the romantic souls amongst us, not to be taken in so easily.

The difference between men & women.

Venus & Mars or from an old nursery rhyme for children:

What are little boys made of?

Snips & snails & puppy dogs tails

That's what little boys are made of

What are little girls made of?

Sugar & spice & all things nice

That's what little girls are made of

Are we so different?

In my younger years, I would have said yes. I'm a very visual person & a great photographer too. Did I mention - modest? :-)

I want to meet someone online & build up a friendship first. Get to know that person in the old fashioned way of my parents' generation, rather than with the idea of sex on the third date. Build the good foundations before sexual intimacy complicates the whole situation. Internet is an ideal tool to keep that distance & force the personal bonds before crossing & even jumping off that bridge.

How do we do this? We go to google & search with a few key words & are presented with 5,321 different sites for us to explore. That's a lot of writing in of personal details for each site we choose. How do we know which site to choose in the first place? Some of us only want local contacts. Others want a particular nationality or creed or even sexual orientation. We narrow the field a little & maybe just try 1 site or maybe 20 sites. We go in as guests without paying or are lucky enough to find the free dating sites that match our preferences.

We then decide how much of ourselves we want to expose. Details of our life, not physical nakedness. We put up a pic or 2 & take our chances. We are wary of not giving our full names & if like me, even create a separate identity online as our first line of defence. Do you really believe my name is Lesmundo? I also set up an additional email address with the free yahoo service. Contacts for only online people. Friends & family are on a more private address. If I have any white lies to correct with a person I wish to be a friend with, then I do this in the first stages of the new relationship. Better to start off with honesty. Unfortunately this method does leave us open to unscrupulous people that play a role, that we would like them to play. Our own desires trick us into believing their falsehoods.

The build up:

A lady contacts me & doesn't automatically tell me about her father who has just died & left her a lot of money that the business partner now wants. She doesn't tell me that she suspects that he killed her father & to keep the money safe, she needs me to deposit that money into my bank account. She doesn't ask for my bank details - because that scam has been around too long now & it's so obvious. As if you were going to give your personal info to some stranger like that.

No, she will first say hello & ask if she can she meet you on a messenger service like yahoo or msn. Cool - better to talk directly, than a series of emails that could have been written for countless contacts before meeting me.

If she contacts me through a site, I will only say hello if there is a pic to look at & see if she fits into my personal taste. I check her profile & once I get her yahoo/msn contact, find that profile too. If that profile doesn't have any information, but shows a recent modification date, I have to question the validity of the person. Now, I've recently changed my profiles to include my new teaching position, but those profiles are with info included. Be wary of new profiles with no info, is what I'm saying.

Now a pic says a lot about a person. Some of us can read more than others from the visual. From the facial structure, you can guess at the age, but also their birth nationality to a certain degree, if of course that is important to you. The way they dress. It is casual to tune in with you or do you want sophisticated & sharp? Are the photos taken in a neutral environment or forced like a professional photographer with good camera, lights & make-up artist would insist on.

Insist that she (or he - for the ladies in the audience) send you another few pics, preferably different from that original profile pics. Maybe even ones with the family or friends. Then when you have those originals, open them with a pic viewer, that allows you to read the Exif Properties. You get so much info from this. The actual date the pic was taken, when it was made into a normal pic for viewing. Also the make & model of the camera. If a pic is displayed online, this info is stripped away. Only an original non-internet pic will show this, if of course it's taken with a digital camera. For scanned prints, you won't have that info, but not most of us have access to a digital camera. Therefore if she gives you a pic without the Exif, it could have been snatched from someone's else profile or photo album.

Having said that, some pics retain the Exif info. In profiles in the dating sites & online fashion catalogues - no, but from online model agencies - yes.

Most photographers who put their prized work on show, will do the extra work to protect their work. I myself, create a watermark text label with a © to show copyright, as a warning that I'll prosecute anyone who steals & uses my pics. Of course I can't stop the casual thief, but my work does not get used elsewhere without my permission. Other extreme measures I use, are to display my images on a rapid FLASH program display. No drag & drop can be use & even screen grabbers have a hard time.

Other companies invite problems rather than think in prevention. Also they don't care that so many fakers are using their model's photos to beguile romantic hopefuls such as myself.

I do a few quick checks on any new contact:

• Dating/friendship site profile

• Yahoo/msn profile

• To check a name or email address that is used by a known scammer:

http://www.romancescam.com/album/thumbnails.php?album=search&type=full&search=annie

Use this address & then change the name "annie" at the end for your new contact's name.

Alternatively, use the search input box on the actual page.

• Next - the photo. One site that has had so many pics taken from it:

http://www.focusagencyhawaii.com/

I'm sure you will recognise many women from here. Although the site may be genuine & the models themselves may be genuine, I will not state my reputation of this little fact. All I know is that there are so many women here that do nothing to stop their pics being used. If I was a model & knew my pic was being used because of this site, I would soon get it removed & cancel my account with them.

--------

This is just a short lesson about prevention & a few last minute tips.

• Be wary not to give personal bank details to anyone.

• Don't phone them with the numbers they give you, until you find out the exact address of the number. There are numbers that would have you paying the bill, even if they called you & the bill would have special charges added to it, to their advantage.

• Be wary of a person who gives you a sad story & then says, you could help them.

• If they mention a business partner who's after their dead father's money - RUN

Also set up a first contact email address, because if a false person gets your address, the least they will do, is sell it to spammers. Your inbox will be flooded with spam.

We meet all sorts of people everywhere. At work, college, neighbourhood etc & online. We meet real scumbags that are only interested in their satisfactions, driven by greed or sex. We meet decent people too, that maybe aren't really our type & then we finally meet someone for us. A friend or possibly more. Then we are glad we didn't give up.

Live with the hope, but be careful :-)

A Nation of Tea Drinkers

Lesmundo2003 — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 22:11:48 GMT

A Nation of Tea Drinkers

Hello all,

As an English guy, I grew up on tea.

We have many sayings about tea - like "the best English tea is Indian". Yes, we are full of contradictions, as many of you learning the language would agree :-)

When I first came to Spain (nation of coffee drinkers), I was not only surprised by their preparation, but in one case, disgusted. The worst Spanish 'cup of tea' I ever attempted to drink, was served in a long glass full of hot steaming milk with a tea bag. I have even been put in the situation of disposing the contents into a potted plant - shhh, don't tell anyone :-)

When compared together, coffee & tea could be classified as 'a morning brew' & therefore, can easily be thought of, as similar drinks. Coffee is prepared with the liquid from coffee beans with boiling water & previously heated milk. So, a conclusion can be drawn for the inexperienced tea-maker. Understandable.

When I was first learning the Spanish language, I met a Colombian family who told me that the way I drank tea, was an unusual way. In fact, they said that the only time they drank the tea with milk, was when they were children.

So, a quick lesson in how the English prefer their tea.

The traditional way consists of teacups or mugs, a metal or pottery teapot & a kettle.

The kettle for boiling the water until steam is seen. Water is then put into the teapot while the internal strainer is present (if the teapot has the strainer) & swilled around a bit. This is known as heating up the pot. The water is then emptied out.

The tea leaves are then spooned (teaspoon) in. The amount depends on how many people are going to be drinking at that session. Calculation = 1 tea spoon per person plus 1 for the pot. Then, with the kettle still being heated & still with the steam, the hot water is poured into the teapot. The lid of the teapot put on & the teapot left alone for a few minutes.

As the water moves & slowly comes to a standstill, the flavour starts to come out of the leaves & turns the water brown. This is known as brewing. In fact 'I just made a brew up', means I just made a pot of tea.

Caution - Do not leave the tea to brew for too long, or once poured think to have a second cup long after the first. Reason for this is that the last flavour that is released from the leaf is tannin. This is a toxin & has limited bad effects, but has a rather bitter taste. Best to be avoided. Of course, if you have a teapot with a removable strainer inside & can be removed without burning yourself, then the second serving is possible. Again, depends on how many people were initially served & how big your teapot is.

If no internal strainer is present in the teapot, then a hand held strainer has to be used. To stop the leaves flowing into the cup when poured from the pot. No second serving after 10 minutes.

Another alternative is to use tea-bags & no strainer. The teapot then is optional. This is sometimes frowned upon as the perforated bags that are used are prepared with bleach to give the clean white appearance. Myself, I have not noticed the difference in taste (bleach related), but I prefer to have more control on how weak or strong the brew should be. Depends on my mood, time of day or other food eaten beforehand.

A 'stronger cup of tea' is with more tea leaves used ( ie not a level teaspoon amount, but a mounted teaspoon) & slightly longer time brewing.

Times of brewing - anytime from 2 - 5 minutes, depending on volume & personal taste.

Another tradition with tea drinkers, is dunking. Biscuits &/or the occasional buttered bread will be dipped into the tea & then eaten. Best to practice this before doing in public :-) I did explain dunking to some of my Spanish friends & it made for some laughable moments for all of us :-) A TV commercial for a particular brand of biscuit in the 1980s said - "Rich Tea Biscuits - a drink's too wet without one".

There are different teas. Some are used just as a refreshing drink. Some are good for the digestion. Some to wake you up, while others make you more relaxed.

Actually, I feel like a cup of char now.