What made me happy today?

[RMBrown]

When I lived in NH, the ice would literally explode along the Saco River. It sounded like an artillery strike. Every few years an ice jam would form up stream toward the mountains, pressurizing the ice as it backed up, and when that sumbitch blew a six foot wall of ice would roll downstream and carve the banks out like an ice cream scoop. Trees, rocks, houses, cars... see ya. Water always wins. Those were rare in general and one that was big enough to hit a nearby parking lot or something was even rarer, but you never forget that sound.

The Falls next to my. house are 65 feet tall, the ones in front are 168 feet tall. When the ice goes out it shakes the house. It happens all in a matter of minutes, a lot of years it happened at night. I am hoping to be able to see it today, we are going to get an inch of rain

 

[RMBrown]

In my late teens and early twenties, I worked on a ranch growing cotton, small grains, and silage corn. That was fifty years ago, and to this day, I feel like I ought to be out doing something in a field somewhere during February and March. Late winter landwork involved some of my favorite activities; if you gave me a nice tractor, a good plow, and a big field, I was a happy woman. We never had to deal with frozen ground, though.

I grew up thinking I was going to be a dairy farmer from the time I was 12. I worked as a herdsman when I was first married. I don't think it ever gets out of your blood. There is a lot to be said about being in tune with the weather and cycles of the earth.

 

[Rath Darkblade]

Report the incident to the Australian police - forward them all the emails - ASAP.

In theory, yeah you should report it, particularly if it's a repeated targeted phishing attack. (Although is impersonating a foreign government department even a thing? I mean they aren't impersonating Australian federal authorities... idk.)

In reality they are probably in Russia, China, India or someplace else where this stuff isn't even really illegal, and the AFP won't be able to track them down. You aren't likely to see any action unless actual money gets moved. And even then it's unlikely to produce results.

What I *would* do, if you have an IT or Security department, report it to them. They can filter for similar occurrences that may be sent to other users who may be less aware of how to respond to such things. A lot of targeted attacks probe for weak points until something slips through.

Hmm. Since this happened at work, I reported it to the IT department. They probably had a word with their Security department, but I haven't heard anything else (nor do I expect to).

I also asked them to ban those gmail addresses throughout the company, which they were happy to do.

I wonder how long it would be before there's another phishing attempt. Yesterday, another person from gmail pretended to be the CFO and emailed me to ask for a detailed report on our customers. I reported this to IT to ban, then banned his address myself.

I hope someone soon will try another phishing attack that's a bit more sophisticated, and give me a chance to use my brain. Attacks from gmail are getting a bit tiresome.