Blocking recommdnations on LinkedIn: Needed Feature Number 1

Your connection <insert person who doesn't know you very well here>  has endorsed you for new skills and expertise!

I've had 13 people endorse me for "Sales Operations."  I know nothing about Sales Operations.  But apparently these people do.  I've managed people in the service department at my company, I've worked in multiple roles in product marketing, and I recently move to our sales organization as a Solution Architect.  But I've never, ever, worked in Sales Operations. In fact I didn't even know that this was a thing until I moved to sales.

LinkedIn needs desperately to fine tune the endorsements.  I want to approve the endorsements - I simply don't want some people endorsing me. 

Of the 13 people who endorsed me for this skill I don't have are:

• A guy who got fired from our company about 4 years ago, who worked in a different department.
• A guy who left our company about a year ago, who I primarily knew because he always smoked outside the door that I used to enter the building in the morning and at lunch.
• Someone that used to work for our company a few years ago - but I don't actually remember which department she worked in.
• Someone I worked with in a completely industry about 10 years ago in another country.
• Someone who recently left our company that I only worked with 2 or 3 times, and that was all on conference calls.
• Someone with whom I worked very closely on several engineering projects a few years ago.
• Someone who works in another of our company's offices, but with whom I have never worked on any projects. We did, however, end up in Paris on concurrent trips, so he and I rode the subway to a wine shop.
• Someone I worked with about 15 years ago at another company, when I was a technical support rep.
• A very good friend and coworker who is extremely intelligent and with whom I have worked on multiple projects over the past 7 years.
• etc.

So some of those endorsements I might want - if I actually had this skill - but when you look at how tangential some of my relationships with these people are it's silly.  I'm happy to stay linked with them - I mean I did work with them - they are former coworkers - but most of them have not worked with me in any capacity that would qualify them to rate my skills.

So - attention LinkedIn - (yeah - I know they're probably not reading this) - please fix this.

Seriously? The Stanford Cardinals?

Hey WSU Athletics - you look kinda dumb here:

WSU Alumni Association
	Cougar Road Trip to Seattle WSU vs. Stanford Join fellow Cougar alumni and friends on a charter bus to CenturyLink Field in Seattle for a battle against the Stanford Cardinals! We have a great opportunity for those of you interested in attending the game. There are a limited number of seats available on the bus - so be sure to register today! Bus pick-up will take place in Vancouver and Portland (the pick-up times will be set once game time is made official). Please note that this is bus fare only and a ticket is not included! If you have not yet purchased a ticket to the game, we do have a block available for purchase. These tickets will be $38.00 each (regularly $48.00) and located in Section 105. To register for the road trip and purchase game tickets, please click here! WHEN Saturday, September 28 Time TBA WHERE CenturyLink Field 800 Occidental Ave. S. Seattle, WA 98134 Questions? Call 1-800-ALUM-WSU or email
	Membership Matters. Join Today. Donate to the WSU Alumni Association
For more information: alumnievents@wsu.edu • 1-800-ALUM-WS

Scams Galore! New e-mails about MONARCHY RESOURCES

I got this e-mail a week or so ago about MONARCHY RESOURCES. I always give special attention to e-mails with things in all caps. I always think "ooh - hey - they took the extra pixels to put that in ALL CAPS it must be important!

Anyway - here is e-mail 1, from david@cpchc.com to an e-mail address that I didn't even know I had.  My work e-mail is in the format 419.er@thecompanyiworkfor.com.  This came to 419.er@gapps.thecompanyiworkfor.com.  I assume gapps is something to so with Google, who is our e-mail provider, but who knows. 

Pocket your $23'000 immediately!!! Hi, need to get $23'000 by this
Thursday? You would receive lots more if you purchase this undervalued
stock on Monday. The stock symbol is: MON K. Its MONARCHY RESOURCES,
INC. It trades below 47 cents, but it should see $1'95 quickly.
Trade shares of MON K on Monday, Aug 19th below 47 cents and
triple your cash! It will be amazing to profit $23'000 by Thursday. And
its very easy to receive. On August 19 trade 29000 shares of MON K and
get over $23'000 by Thursday!!!

And - here is e-mail 2, from elieson@westa-inter.com to my normal work e-mail address

Pocket your $23'000 immediately!!! Hi, need to get $23'000 by this
Thursday? You would receive lots more if you purchase this undervalued
stock on Monday. The stock symbol is: MON K. Its MONARCHY RESOURCES,
INC. It trades below 47 cents, but it should see $1'95 quickly.
Trade shares of MON K on Monday, Aug 19th below 47 cents and
triple your cash! It will be amazing to profit $23'000 by Thursday. And
its very easy to receive. On August 19 trade 29000 shares of MON K and
get over $23'000 by Thursday!!!

 Do I need to bother telling you that these are scams?  Or that I didn't invest?  What's particularly funny is that this is an actual stock.  These e-mails came in on Saturday the 17th.  The stock closed at 40 cents on the 15th and 20 cents on the 16th - and this e-mail came on the 17th telling me to buy on Monday the 19th and pocket $23k by Thursday.  Well Monday the 19th, the stock opened at 23 cents, and volume was hundreds of times what it normally is - so a lot of people fell for this scam - and probably lost a ton of money.  Check this out

Date	Open	Close	Volume
August 9th	.95	.95	0
August 12th	.75	.40	27,000
August 13th	.40	.40	12,200
August 15th	.40	.40	0
August  16th (Friday, the day before I got the a-mail)	.166	.20	209,400
August  19th (The day the e-mail said to buy)	.23	.23	1,759,800
August 20th (Tuesday of “buy week”)	.24	.24	1,485,600
August 21st (Wednesday of “buy week”)	.22	.19	524,000
August 22nd (The day the rewards are reaped!)	.195	.20	353,700
August 23rd (The day after all the magic happened)	.2030	.2030	106,000

Crazy stuff.  Did that many people really fall for this scam?  No one made money, except on the commissions and brokerage fees!

The response I got on the leaky Kirkland Signature Diet Green Tea

Well I really didn't expect much more than a form letter, and that's pretty much what I got.  Here it is:

Dear 419er,

We appreciate you taking the time to email Costco Wholesale.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused. Thank you for taking the time to inform us of your experience with the Kirkland Signature Diet Green Tea.

We appreciate your feedback and have forwarded your email to the buyers for further review and consideration. 

Please let us know how we can be of any further assistance to you. Have a wonderful week and thank you so much for being a loyal member of Costco!

Thank you,

Rosalinda M
Member Service Center
Costco Wholesale Corporation

So I wrote back:

Hi Rosalinda,

Thank you so much for your response.  I'm not sure if what I got was a form letter or not, but I'm glad I got a response anyway. 
I'm wondering if you - or anyone else - has actually attempted what I suggested in my e-mail yet.  Has anyone accepted my challenge to open a KS Diet Green Tea bottle without spilling a drop?  Monday night I did an experiment again with a Costco brand water bottle and Diet Tea bottle.  Water bottle - no problem - there is a little bit of air by the cap, and the cap is easier to get off.  With the diet tea bottle I was super careful - I didn't squeeze the bottle, I slowly opened the cap, kept the bottle directly upright - I almost thought I had it and then dripdripdrip - about 10 drips all over my hand and the counter. 

I can't be the only one - or maybe I got a bad batch. Could you - or someone - head down to the break room and get one of these and tell me if I'm the only one - or if this happens to you too?

Thanks!

Costco Diet Green Tea With Citrus - Horrible packaging

Yeah - I'm going to tell Costco too - but I felt like typing - I mean ranting - here also.

I've now stained a couple of shirts and spilled in my new car because of the horrible combination of thin plastic and super-full bottles.  Now both of those things are actually awesome - I'm all in favor of saving plastic and I'm all in favor of providing as much product as possible - but this combination in this particular product has made it very difficult.  They're so full that when you hold the bottle tighly enough to get the top off, you have to squeeze it, which means that when you finally break the seal it comes dripping out over everything. 

Now I suppose Costco could provide some sort of jig that could be used to hold the bottle while unscrewing the top so that it provided even pressure all around it and didn't leak - but it seems easier to just do one of the following:

1. Costco could make the bottle stronger
2. Costco could not fill it so full
3. I could start buying another brand of Iced Tea.

I know - it's all minor - but it was a new car - and I really hate doing laundry.

Third Scam of the week!

Loving this one:  I always invest massive amounts of money with people who have yahoo.com e-mail addresses.

URGENT

FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION ON INVESTMENT

A) INTRODUCTION:This is Engineer Richard Morgan a petrochemical/oil exploration engineer with the Syrian Petroleum Company located in Damascus. Myself and two other engineers Engr. B.S Babu an Indian and engr. David Quijada Fischer from venezuela needs your partnership to investing some funds in your country in viable projects on your instructions.

B) SOURCE OF THE FUNDS: The funds were raised from the sale of crude oil from the Syrian oil field.We have secured the funds and needs an investor who is capable and ready to invest the funds in good projects and properties.

C) WHY YOU ARE CHOSEN: We chose you to assist us invest the funds following the facts that we are career engineers and we have no knowledge of commercial investments and for that reason, we need an expert to guide us and to handle investment directly. Also we chose you in order to invest the funds in a good economy.

D) SHARING RATIO AND PERIOD OF INVESTMENT: Myself and two other colleagues have agreed to give 25% of the funds to you while you will assist us invest 75% in your country only on projects you will personally draft for us. You will be responsible to draw investment plan as we will not be involved following our poor knowledge on investments.

E) GENERAL REMARKS: This project is 100% risk free but needs confidentiality. We need an investor who is transparent,direct, serious and dedicated. we need an investor who will represent us any where in this project. We will change all documents of deposit in your name as soon as you are confirmed our potential investor. If you are ready and willing to assist us invest the funds, do contact me for more details. Both parties must be ready to exchange identities in order to know each other.

Your Response is expected. send your response to my private email (morgan20000_richard@yahoo.com)

ENGR. RICHARD MORGAN
SYRIAN PETROLEUM COMPANY
DAMASCUS

E-mail received from Don Benton - and my response

I received the following e-mail from the Clark County Republican Party:

419er --

Heads up from Senator Don Benton - Columbian poised to attack!Columbian Headline: Benton pays self $78,000 - In multiple law suits

Dear Friends,

The headline above will be in the Columbian Enquirer in the next few days. The conclusions one would likely draw from this headline would be fully erroneous. And this is the intent of this partisan rag. A few elements are based in fact—but they are benign. Let me comment on two key areas the Columbian is apparently exploiting.

National Advertising Consultants (NAC): NAC is a nationally recognized advertising agency—that I own. I used this company to buy all of the television, radio, and cable advertising for my recent campaign because of the buying leverage and I knew and trusted the buyer. The campaign wrote checks for some 78 thousand dollars to NAC. That company then scheduled the ads and managed the schedule with the radio, cable and television stations. Using my advertising company to schedule and buy my campaign ads does not violate any Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) rules or Washington State campaign laws. Given the expertise, it was the logical choice. Therefore the story line is completely misleading.

Multiple lawsuits: In my businesses I think I have been named in at least one lawsuit, perhaps two—and these were years ago (one about 30 years ago). I have never made it into a court room for any lawsuit in which I was named. I would certainly remember that! Bear in mind that companies get sued from time to time. It does not mean the suit is valid or that the owner has done anything wrong—which, of course, is what the Columbian and their yellow journalists are trying to imply.

The liberal and partisan Columbian has never been my friend. However the partisan leaders of this paper have become especially agitated with (1) my recent contributions to forming the Majority Coalition Caucus and establish Republican control in the Senate, (2) resultant success in stopping CRC funding. However, the Columbian really went berserk when the Republican County Commissioners appointed me to improve one of their departments at the County.

Since my appointment, the Columbian has been in full character assassination mode, and currently they are conducting a massive background search on me involving at least three reporters. I know this because during the last three weeks, I have received calls from old friends, customers, and business partners I haven’t heard from in years—asking me why these people are calling

Stevie Mathieu, Stephanie Rice and Erin Middlewood, amateur reporters from the Columbian with well known liberal bias, have:

· Repeatedly called my old business partners from up to 30 years ago, some private business customers of one of my companies, schoolmates, employees and even one of my old community college professors—where I was an active member of student government.

· Filed Freedom of Information requests with the Washington State Senate for years of my senate expense and per diem reports, and with Clark County for my county time cards and every email sent or received.

· Poured over all of my old public disclosure documents on file at the State PDC office from 20 years of previous campaigns.

· Apparently developed a story about me getting my son a lifeguard job at Klineline pond. This is completely untrue. He was one of few certified lifeguards to apply and is a lifeguard at an athletic club. He was hired based on his own merits and accomplishments.

· Demanded that I provide them a list of customers from every company for which I have ever had an ownership or financial interest.

On August 6th, Erin Middlewood of the Columbian arrogantly said to me: “I’m giving you the vetting that you didn’t get for the county job,”!

Can you imagine this happening to you, your business and your family? And for what? For being a public servant for over 20 years that doesn’t kowtow to the Columbian? For being a successful conservative representative that works to stop the waste of taxpayer dollars? For stopping the CRC? For bringing business leadership experience to a government department? You won’t read about any positive behavior. You see, these activities do not support the negative narrative they have been on a mission to create for years. Did you know they even manipulate their website to suppress reader access to any story that may have a positive element?

To put it simply, this is an old-fashioned witch hunt attempting to destroy my character and my reputation. It is an old Democrat party tactic which has been used for years. When you can’t refute the message, kill the messenger! The Columbian is nothing more than a newsletter for the Democratic party. I wanted you to know what is coming and to know the truth. As I usually do, I will ignore them, put my trust in the voters and continue my work for the citizens of Clark County.

Please call me with any questions.

Don Benton

And here was my response:

Good afternoon Mr/Ms "Action" (This was who the e-mail was addressed from - Action@clarkrepublicans.org)

Do any of you have any idea how dumb this makes you all look?
I have considered myself a conservative for most of my life - and I typically vote for the Republican candidates - but you can guarantee that Senator Benton will never get another vote from me. Or Madore. Or Mielke. Or anyone they support. Let's be clear. I wholeheartedly support the death of the CRC and probably some other things that Don Benton has worked on over the years - but this letter is over the top.

I spoke with Senator Benton briefly during the last campaign when he was threatening to sue Tim Probst. We traded voicemails - and I thought he was out of line then. It's even worse now.

This actually reads more like a story from "The Onion" than it does an actual letter from an elected or appointed official or whatever Mr. Benton is these days. Let's start with a list of the petty name-calling: "Columbian Enquirer," "Partisan Rag," "yellow journalists," "amateur reporters." Really? Is that how a self-proclaimed 20 year (supposedly) beloved elected official acts? This is more like a peeved child than a senior statesman.

Kudos to the Columbian for doing this - they should do it for everyone. Would you like to know why the Columbian has never looked into my private life? It's because I didn't run for public office. I considered it - but I decided I didn't want the scrutiny. So - if you want the Columbian to stop looking into Senator Benton and his businesses - he should simply resign now.

You want to talk about wasting taxpayer dollars? Every day that Don Benton spends time defending his reputation - or dealing with the thousands of people who wish he would just resign and go away - he is NOT doing the job that he was appointed (yet wholly unqualified) to do.
Senator Benton, in this letter, claims that he was appointed to "improve" his new department. I have to ask again Really? Do you really believe that? Don't we all know - no matter which party we are from - that this was a favor done by cronies - putting someone sure to lose his seat as a senator next election into a cushy job that required no vetting?
Don Benton truly is now getting the vetting that he should have gotten before the job was given to him. We need to know about the conflicts of interest. We need to know the history - the qualifications - mostly because it's clear to every observer that this is a shady back-room deal.

Senator Benton needs to act his age. He needs to understand that the wringer through which he is being placed is one he volunteered for when he chose public office. He needs to stop protesting and simply say "come - look - at everything - I have nothing to hide" - unless - of course - he has something to hide - which (based on the vehemence of his objections) seems likely. And - lastly - Senator Benton needs to resign his "environmental" post at the County - for which he should have realized he wasn't qualified when he listed his superior environmental prowess as knowing how to turn off the water when he washes his hands.

Finally - the word is "pore" not "pour" as in "pored over all of my old public disclosure documents".

Thanks for listening. Now do something.