Don’t reply to this mail

I received this through the mail. this is spam/attempted fraud.  How do I know? There’s tons of edit, punctuation, spelling errors. Besides why would anyone want to give out 2 million dollars randomly?

These are just horrid people trying to take advantage of desperate people.

Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Foundation’s Officer,
Fondazion Di Vittorio, ITALY.
http://www.fondazionedivittorio.it/

Dear Beneficiary,

NOTIFICATION FOR CASH AID

This is to notify you that you have been chosen By the Board of
trustees of the above International charity organization based
in the Italy as one of the final recipients of a Cash
Grant/Donation for your own personal, education and business
development

Fondazione Di Vittorio as established 1977 by the Multi-Million groups
was conceived with the objective of Human Growth, Educational
and Community development. In line with the 30th year anniversary
program this year

The Vittorio Foundation in conjunction with the Economic community for
West African States (ECOWAS) , United Nations Organization (UNO) and
the European union, is giving out a yearly donation of Two Hundred
Million United States Dollars as specific Donations/Grants to 100 lucky
international recipients worldwide in different categories for their
personal Business development and uplift of their environment. These
funds are freely given to you to use for your business educational and
personal development, and at least 30% to be used by you to develop a
part of your environment, as this is a yearly program,
which is a measure of universal development strategy, and eradication
of poverty.

Please kindly note that you are not the only beneficiary in your
country this year, and your country is not the only country that is
benefiting from this donation, as beneficiaries have been chosen
from countries from all continents.

The idea of this donation is that within ten years from now, there will
be notable richness among many unusual people around the world.

This will give many people the opportunity to get their lives to a
stage where they had always wanted. Kindly note that you will
only be chosen to receive the donation once, which means that
subsequent yearly donation will not get to you again, so its your
choice to spend the donation wisely on something that will last
you a long time. And please do not bother following up this email,
if you have benefited from this donation in previous years.

Based on the random selection exercise of internet websites and
millions of Super market cash invoices worldwide you were
selected among the lucky recipients to receive the award sum of
US$2,000000.00 (Two Million United States Dollars) as charity
donations/aid from the Vittorio Foundation, ECOWAS and the
UNO in accordance with the enabling act of
Parliament. (note that your email was selected from either the
internet, after absolute viewing of your profile or a Shop’s cash
invoice around your area in which you might have purchased
something from).

You are required to expeditiously Contact the Executive Secretary
below for qualification documentation and processing of your claims,
between the hours of 8.00am – 7.30pm on Monday through Sunday.
On contact with this officer, you’ll be given your donation pin
number which you will use in collecting the funds. You are to
contact back this email when you have collected your $2,000,000.00

Please endeavor to quote your Qualification numbers (N-222-6747,
E-900-56) in all discussions.

Executive Secretary,
Mr. Greco Colombo
Email: secretary_colombo@live.com

Furthermore, copied to this email is a vittorio foundation
documentation form, requesting your required particulars.
You are to immediately fill the form and return as soon
as possible, to the Executive Secretary
Mr. Greco Colombo via email to

E-mail: secretary_colombo@live.com

PAYMENT VERIFICATION FORM

1.FULL NAMES:………………
2.ADDRESS:…………………
3.SEX:…………………….
4.AGE:…………………….
5.MARITAL STATUS:…………..
6.OCCUPATION:………………
7.E-MAIL ADDRESS:…………..
8.TELEPHONE NUMBER:…………
9.CITY:……………………
14. STATE:…………………
15. COUNTRY:……………….

Please note that this donations/Grants are strictly administered by
“ECOWAS” under delegated powers from the UNO. you are by
all means hereby advised to keep this whole information
confidential until you have been able to collect
your donation, as there have been many cases of double and
unqualified claim, due to beneficiaries informing third parties
about his/her donation.

Finally, all funds should be claimed by their respective beneficiaries,
not later that 15 days after notification, as failure to do so will be
to that particular beneficiary cancelled and its donation reserved
for next years receipients.

On behalf of the Board kindly accept our warmest congratulations

Yours faithfully,
Mr. De Luca Lombardi
(Foundation officer)

17th Century Nun’s Prayer

I came across this, and thought I’d share it:

LORD, Thou knowest better than I know myself that I am growing older and will some day be old. Keep me from the fatal habit of thinking I must say something on every subject and on every occasion. Release me from craving to straighten out everybody’s affairs. Make me thoughtful but not moody, helpful but not bossy. With my vast store of wisdom, it seems a pity not to use it all, but Thou knowest Lord that I want a few friends at the end.

Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details; give me wings to get to the point. Seal my lips on my aches and pains. They are increasing and love of rehersing them is becoming sweeter as the years go by. I dare not ask for grace enough to enjoy the tales of other’s pains, but help me to endure them with patience.

I dare not ask for improved memory, but for a growing humility and a lessing cocksureness when my memory seems to clash with the memories of others. Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be mistaken.

Keep me reasonably sweet; I do not want to be a Saint – some of them are so hard to live with – but a sour old person is one of the crowning works of the devil. Give me the ability to see good things in unexpected places, and talents in unexpected people. And, give me, O Lord, the grace to tell them so.

AMEN

~ unknown author ~

Angelo, you are too kind

Countrywide’s CEO Angelo Mozilo forfeited a severance pay of $37.5 million and an annual $400,000 he was to be paid as a consultant post-retirement, according to Yahoo News today. He will also forfeit post-retirement perks such as the use of a private airplane. He will, however, retain retirement benefits and deferred compensation he has already earned. sounds fair enough?

Not quite. What about a clawback?

For those who don’t know what I am talking about, clawback is when a company takes back the commission paid to a sales agent, should the customer cancel the transaction within x number of months. This is deducted from current earned income.

What is good enough for the bottom of the heap should be good enough for those at the top, right? Shouldn’t rules apply to those who make them or at least, signed them off? After all, these clawbacks reduced sales costs and added back to the bottom line. I am not sure if Countrywide practises clawback, but perhaps it’s time this was introduced for CEO’s of large corporations.

CEO’s should be held accountable for bad decisions and not just generously rewarded for good ones.

“But he lost his job.” you may say.

True, though I wouldn’t mind losing my job if I carried away millions in my pension and retirement plan, deferred compensation and stock options.

Which will not be the case for the majority of employees who risk losing their jobs should there be a future company re-organisation. What about loses sustained by shareholders of Countrywide and any fund that invested in Countrywide, including pension funds. Hey, you could be getting a smaller return on your pension fund because Mr Mozilo made a blunder. So why should you lose and he doesn’t?

Think about it.

Clawbacks should extend back a few years for CEO’s because there’s time lag between a bad corporate strategic decision and the end result, for example, much of the current batch of bad debts are on subprime mortgages initiated three years ago.  Since performance bonus is a factor of company revenue, clawback should  be a negative factor of company revenue dating back x number of years. A clawback for Mr. Mozillo should add quite a few dollars back to Countrywide’s bottom line, benefiting those who trusted in his decisions – his employees and shareholders.

Normal is an Anomaly

Thin Skin

Normal skin is supposed to be soft, smooth, wrinkle-free and resembles a baby’s bottom. My face has, to the best of my knowledge, never resembled anyone’s bum. Through the teens and well into the thirties, my skin looked like an unbaked raisin bun. Opaque, pasty and spotty.  I had a few years of almost spot-free skin though a cosmetic counter girl once told me I had Thin skin. I knew skin was categorised into Oily, Combination, Normal, Dry and Sensitive. But Thin?  

“What’s Thin skin?” I asked her.  She steered me to a mirror and poked at my right cheek.  

“See those blue veins? That shows you have Thin skin. Normal people don’t have their veins showing.”

Oh. I think I somewhat understand.  

“Do you have something for Thin skin?” I asked, fully expecting her to dump a pile of miracle cures and a bill in front of me.  

“No. It’s genetic. There’s nothing anyone can do about it.” She said, then grabbing and waving a white bottle, quickly added, “But this Whitening Cream will fade your acne scars, which would make your skin look radiant and detract from your veins.”  

She was obviously not someone to let a sales opportunity walk away, and she was good.  I went to buy a powder compact re-fill and came away with Whitening Cleanser, Whitening Soap (to be used after the cleanser), Whitening Rinse (to be used after the soap), Whitening Toner, Whitening Day Cream, Whitening Night Cream, Whitening Serum (to be used before the Day and Night creams), Whitening Eye Cream (to prevent fine lines and eradicate dark circles) and Whitening mask (to be used once a week).

I managed to resist the Whitening Neck Cream and totally forgot the compact re-fill.   

“Don’t forget to eat plenty of salads and fresh fruit. It’s good for Thin skin. And take Vitamin C!” She called, as I rushed from the counter, credit card still buzzing hot in my purse.    

Cracked Surfaces 

Anti-wrinkle serums have edged  the pimple blasters off the bathroom shelves. No matter how much H2O i drink, my face is beginning to resemble the sun-baked surface of a dried-up mud-bottomed pond in the Kalahari desert.

Particularly at the outer corners of the eyes. The politically-correct term is laughter lines.  But let’s not wrap bad news in cotton wool. I’ve got wrinkles. Yes, at age 50-something, my face is cracking up.  

“You’re actually quite well-preserved for someone of your age.” Said F.  

“Well, thanks. I think.” I said, “But I’m not a jar of pickles.”  

“No. But you’re like a bottle of fine wine. Gets better as it gets older.” 

That’s the trouble with asking for objective opinions from friends. They have this tendency to not want to hurt your feelings, so you can never get the full undiluted truth from them. So off to the cosmetic counter again. You can always depend on the girls there to give you all the gory details, and a solution to your problems. 

This one brought out a magnifying glass and peered at my forehead, cheeks , chin and nose. These days, the girls from the cosmetic companies dress like doctors with their white front-buttoned shifts. The only thing that’s missing is the stethoscope draped around the neck. And doctors don’t usually wear heavy makeup nor lash extensions. I waited for the diagnosis.  Her intense expression and pursed lips told me this was something serious.

She consulted some charts then made her pronouncement.

“You have dry, sensitive skin.”