Jerry Springer is Satan’s first friend on PC World’s fake Facebook page

Technology publication “PC World” created a “Facebook page they would like to see” for Satan (the devil, Beelzebub, Lucifer). It’s pretty funny – espeically for local Cincinnatians – who see that former Cincinnati mayor and current talk show host Jerry Springer is Satan’s first friend (or last friend, I suppose – but at the top of the page).

Still one of my favorite articles from the Driehaus campaign

Just going through my documents folder on my PC (why doesn’t Google Desktop search work on OpenOffice.org documents?), and came across the media clips file I kept while the communications director during Congressman Steve Driehaus’s 2008 campaign.

I have to say that some days working for the campaign felt like we were trying to slay a dragon with kitchen fork, but when articles like this came out, I remember thinking, “Gee, we really are going to win this campaign.” We did. And I am happy for being a part of it.

Chabot told PolitickerOH.com that Driehaus isn’t as well known as Cincinnati councilman John Carney, whom he ran against two years ago.

via Chabot: Driehaus softer than Carney | Politicker.com.

Not to knock the reporter who wrote this. We all make mistakes. But this one seemed rather poignant in the face of what we were doing. Sort of made Steve Chabot’s point, well, pointless, if even the reporter he was talking to did not even know that “Carney” was actually John “Cranley,” a well-established, well-known and term-limited Cincinnati City Council member.

I printed this article out and taped it to my door. I then called the reporter and had a little chat with him about balance. Next time he called me before he wrote a story.

My meat market

My meat market

Originally uploaded by hjoew

Found Wessel’s Meat Market in Illinois. Had to stop and get a photo.

They specialize in "Wessels Meats," of which I take great offense.

Where are Joe and his Dad now?

Today, along with my Dad, Hermann, I am traveling west to just south of St. Louis (in Illinois) to pick up a car. Right now Pops is in the driver’s seat and I am in the front passenger seat, all teched out, with my mobile broadband card keeping me fully tethered to the online world, power inverter keeping my laptop charged, GPS unit suctioned to the window and my iPhone sitting on the dashboard. Listening to the iPod over the car radio.  I love gadgets.

If you want to see where we are and the progress we are making, the map below will make that easy. No guarantee it will be constantly updated. But it is right now.

GPS tracking powered by InstaMapper.com

You can also track me through my Facebook page, www.facebook.com/joewessels

Watch out: Facebook chat scam

I was a camp counselor for eight summers (five at a YMCA of Greater Cincinnati day camp and three summers at Kennolyn Camps in Soquel, California – near Santa Cruz).

Don’t hear too much from former campers these days. My last summer as a counselor was 1999. But, as any former counselor can tell you, those relationships you make often become lifetime friendships. Even the folks you don’t hear from that often, if they called and were in trouble, dropping everything to help them would not be unusual. It’s just that kind of experience.

So, this morning when supposedly one of my former campers, Kathleen, had an emergency in London – she had been mugged with a gun and nearly raped in the Old Kent part of London – I was a very concerned.  Here’s the chat:

Kathleen

hey Joe

how are you doing?

are you there?

are you there?
9:01amJoe

hey
9:04amKathleen

how are you doing?

are you there Joe?
9:04amJoe

I’m good. You?
9:04amKathleen

not too good right now
9:05amJoe

what is wrong?
9:05amKathleen

i am stranded in London
9:05amJoe

geez. how did that happen?
9:05amKathleen

i was mugged

cash,credit card and phone were stolen
9:06amJoe

oh crap. that’s horrible. I’m sorry.

contacted the embassy, I assume?
9:06amKathleen

i have reported to the police

the embassy is far away from where i am so getting there will be a bit difficult for me

and i thank god that i still have my life
9:06amJoe

oh,wow

yeah, that is true.
9:07amKathleen

a gun was pointed at me

it was scary
9:07amJoe

but don’t you have to contact the embassy to get a temporary passprt or whatever?
9:07amKathleen

i almost fainted
9:07amJoe

I had that happen to me last year in downtown Cincinnati
9:07amKathleen

they slapped me and even tried raping me
9:07amJoe

oh my god, kathleen

that’s is awful. I’m so sorry.

when did this happen
9:08amKathleen

i still have my passport because i left it in the hotel i stay

yesterday
9:08amJoe

that is good
9:08amKathleen

i am leaving here today

my staying here is already due
9:08amJoe

wow. well, i’m glad you got out with your life and still have your passport

what part of london were you in when you were mugged?
9:09amKathleen

Old Kent

i thanks go for everything

This is where I started to realize things might not be what I thought they were:

but i have a little problem right now
9:11amKathleen

i need your assistant right now
9:11amJoe

what do you need?
9:12amKathleen

are you there?
9:12amJoe

yes
9:13amKathleen

i need some money from you and i promise to pay you back as soon as i return back to the state
9:13amJoe

how much?
9:13amKathleen

$720
9:14amJoe

tell me how we know each other
9:15amKathleen

hun hun

could`nt remember exactly
9:15amJoe

gotcha!

very creative of you
9:16amKathleen

how do you mean?
9:17amJoe

where did you go to summer camp as a child?
9:18amJoe

Incorrect!
9:19amKathleen

What?
9:19amJoe

Where did you go to summer camp as a child?
9:20amKathleen

OK
9:20amJoe

yes?
9:22amJoe

Just tell me one thing about that camp where you went as a kid and the money is yours…
9:23amKathleen

four wind Westward
9:23amJoe

and what was that?
9:26amKathleen

can`t remember

Can you help me out please
9:27amJoe

Sure. What in thee hell is “Four Wind Westward?” I have never heard of that.
9:27amKathleen

i was the once

for summer camp with friends
9:28amJoe

What city was it in?
9:29amKathleen

why all this question?
9:30amJoe

Why not answer them? Seems fair for a mere $720
9:30amKathleen

question before you can help a daughter out?
9:31amJoe

a daughter?

Incorrect!
9:31amKathleen

what do youmean?
9:32amKathleen

how do you mean incorrect?
9:33amJoe

Answer any of the questions I have asked, sweets
9:33amKathleen

what is this you are putting in your heading?
9:33amJoe

Fascinating, eh?
9:33amKathleen

you`ve gone too far
9:34amJoe

You aren’t English, are you?
9:34amKathleen

bye
9:34amJoe

ha ha!

gotcha gotcha gotcha!
9:34amKathleen

Fuck you
9:34amJoe

gotcha gotcha gotcha!

Good luck in your scam! Re-tweet! RE-tweet!

So, I stayed on and had a little fun with the sucker… I post this in hopes that it won’t go too far with someone else and someone actually sends money to a crook – on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, through e-mail. Anything. It doesn’t matter.

Be careful online – especially if anyone starts chatting you and then immediately asks for money. Be careful if anyone asks for passwords, usernames or personal information. Likely a scam.

Then, do that person whose account was hacked a favor (and everyone else who may fall victim to the scam) – and use a different means to contact that person and let them know what happened. And do it immediately. Then, file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3.

Don McPherson, 1957-2009

I awoke especially early this morning and began checking friends’ blogs and was shocked awake. Why? I found this very sad news. Don McPherson, whom I had not seen in about four years, passed away a few days ago. Tears stream down my face as I write this.

Despite the distance and our friend-of-a-friend friendship, he was always one of the ones I enjoyed seeing and talking and laughing with the most. He was introduced to me by my old pal, Brian Mueller. Hadn’t had much contact with Brian in nearly four years when I attended his wedding celebration two weekends ago in Frankfort, Kentucky. We had a nice conversation during which he told me Don had been ill, but my understanding was Don would be OK. Sadly, I was very wrong.

Brian has a great audio interview he recorded with Don last August. I highly suggest checking it out. You get a glimpse into the kind of simple and wonderfully kind guy Don was.

The photo here (taken 9/11/2000) is in the tower at the House ‘o Dreams, located atop Lavendar Mountain on the campus of Berry College in Rome, Georgia. Rome is where I met Don, one of the few positives in the nearly eight years I worked in the retail income tax preparation industry. He was a salesman for TaxWise, the company where the tax company I worked got their software. If you click on the photo, you will be taken to a see a few other photos from that evening.

I wrote about Rome, Georgia for The Cincinnati Enquirer’s travel section probably right after our trip there.  I wish I could link to that article, capturing how I truly felt about that town. But the Enquirer doesn’t have that article online. Suffice it to say, that night, like so many with Don, and his son, Sam, were fantastic. The sun setting, beers, laughs and secluded a top a mountain. It shaped how I felt about Rome, a rather small town (pop. 35,000) about 78 miles northwest of Atlanta.

You will be missed, Don.

Joe Bundy

Joe Bundy

Originally uploaded by hjoew

Zoo family portait

Zoo family portait

Originally uploaded by hjoew

Back at the Cincinnati Zoo, I got a photo taken with some of the family.

Missing the evolutionary point

Missing the evolutionary point

Originally uploaded by hjoew

Don’t know why this sort of stupidity still intrigues me enough to
stop and photograph it. But it does.

Typically this church has a different message in either side o their
sign. Not this week this one was too good.

Right down Main Street

Right down Main Street

Originally uploaded by hjoew

Quite a site as a large tractor navigates through downtown Brookville,
Indiana, around parked cars and through busy intersections…