The old saying “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts” dates back to the story of the Trojan Horse, when the Greeks besieged the city of Troy during the Trojan War. According to legend, after a long siege, the Greeks built a huge wooden horse, and concealed a small force of their best soldiers inside. Then they boarded their ships and sailed away.

The besieged Trojans thought that they had outlasted their enemies, and opened the gates to the city and pulled the horse inside as a victory trophy. That night, after the Trojans all went to sleep, the Greeks hidden inside the horse force crept out and opened the city gates to the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back, under cover of night. The Greek army entered and seized the city of Troy, ending the war.

The purpose of this history lesson is to tell you that while you might want to avoid Greeks bearing gifts, Geeks bearing gifts are something else altogether!

Yesterday evening Jim and Chris Guld, from Geeks on Tour, showed up at our door with grilled lobsters that Jim had caught while scuba diving just off the beach, here in Fort Lauderdale. Those things were huge!

Jim and Chris supplied the main entree, and Miss Terry filled out the menu with wild rice pilaf, stir fried mixed vegetables, and fresh sliced Heirloom tomatoes. Everything was delicious, and I guarantee you nobody went hungry!

After dinner we sat around visiting for a couple of hours, and Chris showed me a trick or two with G-mail, Windows Live Writer, and Microsoft Streets & Trips. And, of course, we swapped a lie or two, and solved a good number of the world’s problems in the process.

It’s been wonderful having this one on one (or actually two on two) time with Jim and Chris, away from all of the hustle and bustle of an RV rally. Thanks for all your time, help, and especially your friendship, Jim and Chris! It’s been a lot of fun!

Since the weather is supposed to cool back down next week, we have scrubbed our original plans to go to the Keys, and instead, today we’re leaving Fort Lauderdale and are traveling to the Peace River NACO preserve in Wauchula, Florida.

We’ll hang out there until we get the new issue of the Gypsy Journal back from the printer and mailed off, and hopefully we’ll get in some kayaking on the Peace River, if the weather cooperates during our stay.

We’ve only got a few weeks left in Florida before we have to start west to get ready for our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally in Yuma March 7-11. During that time, we want to get back to Pinellas Park for a family gathering, and we’d love to spend a few days around Crystal River, and maybe at Cedar Key, if we can.

Bad Nick has been busy posting a new Bad Nick Blog titled Blame Your Parents, Not Us. check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you have changed.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

Wow, I announced in yesterday’s blog that registration was open for our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally, and e-mails starting pouring in! We must be doing something right, because we already have both returning vendors and attendees registering already.

If you are a member of the Escapees internet forum and find an e-mail in your in box saying you have a new private message, delete it. Just about anybody who is registered with the forum got the same e-mail, and it’s spam that will take you to a Russian teen sex website.

Don’t blame the Escapees. They are victims too. The sleazebag who launched the e-mails registered with the Escapees forum, jumped through all of the hoops necessary to get an account, and then sent out his garbage.

Someone asked me why a person would go to all of that trouble, and the answer is, obviously, money. You say that you’d never subscribe to a pornographic website? The creeps doing this don’t care if you do or don’t. They make money either way.

Just as we have Google ads on our websites and the blog, and we make a small commission every time a reader clicks on one of those ad links, these guys have set up a code that shows the clicks they set up are coming from them, not a legitimate website. So when you click on their “private message” link, you are really clicking on a link to a website that pays them a commission for every visitor. They can make a lot of money very fast doing this, and as soon as one victimized website discovers their intrusion and blocks them, they move on to the next one.  

This was a real problem a few years ago, and several good websites eventually shut down because they grew tired of constantly fighting this kind of trash.

How can you protect yourself from scams like this? It’s simple, but you have to be alert all of the time. Don’t click on links sent to you in any unsolicited e-mail. In the case of one like this, go to the actual website (Escapees, in this case) and check your messages there.

Also, read the URL address where an e-mail comes from. Is it something you recognize? Read carefully, is it similar, but not exact? When in doubt, don’t click.

A good virus program and a spam filter, such as AVG and Ad Aware can catch a lot of what comes to your inbox. Run them religiously. But remember, there are all kinds of jerks out there creating malicious crap to send out, and as soon as the good guys find a way to stop one, fifty more come up with something new to make internet users’ lives miserable. It’s just one of the woes of life in our high tech world.

Thought For The Day - The person who goes the farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare; the “sure thing” boat never gets far from shore.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally