Okay, I thought these things were out of style. I've received two of these in the last week. The second one is shown below, along with all attached names and contact info. I'm thinking of emailing back just to yank his chain.

Any ideas?

Mr. Jonathan Daniels Johannesburg - South Africa.
jondaniels@presetmail.com
Tel: 27 84 4499437
Fax: 27 84 3391045

Dear Sir,

Courtesy of Business opportunity, I take liberty anchored on strong
desire to solicit for your assistance on this mutual beneficial and risk
free transaction with you, which I hope you give urgent attention. To be
precise, I am Jonathan Daniels the Manager of Bills/Exchange at the
Foreign Exchange/Remittance Department of NEDBANK South Africa. In my
department, we discovered an abandoned sum of US$12,524,000.00 (Twelve
Million, Five Hundred and Twenty Four Thousand United States Dollars) in an
account that belongs to one of our customers who died along with his
entire family in 1988 Lockerbie Pan American Airline plane crash.

Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his
next of Kin to come over and claim his money, because we can not release
it unless somebody applied for its next of Kin or Relation to the
deceased as indicated in our banking procedure, but unfortunately to no
avail, and nobody has come forward to claim the money (because the
mentioned next of kin which is Son died as well).

Therefore, upon this discovery I and other two officials in my
department now decide to establish a cordial business relationship with you,
hence my contacting you. We want you to purportedly present your good
self as the next of Kin or relation of the deceased so that we can prepare
documentations and release the funds (US$12.524 Million) into your
account for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for
it and again we do not want the funds to go into the Governments account
as "Unclaimed Bill".

The banking law and procedures herein stipulates that any account
abandoned or dormant for a period of some years is subjected to be closed
and all money contained therein will be forfeited to the Government
Treasury Account. Now it is being speculated that the above sum will be
transferred into Government Treasury Account as unclaimed funds on or
before April 2004. The reason for you to present your good self as the next
of kin in occasioned by the fact that the deceased customer was a
foreigner.

Mode of sharing after the successful completion of the transfer is as
follows, for the role you will be expected to play in the whole
exercise, we have agreed to give you twenty five (25%) of the total sum, and 5%
has been set aside for expenses we are going to encounter by both
parties in the process of this transaction and the remaining 70% shall be
for my colleagues and I. In support of the aforementioned, you are urged
to reply this letter indicating your readiness and interest to
participate in the business. After you reply, you will be advised on the next
step forward.

I quite believe that you will protect our interest by keeping this
business Top Secret and Confidential, as your interest will be equally
protected in order to achieve and maintain maximum confidentiality. Trust
to hear from you on the above numbers as I count on your earliest
response.

Yours truly,

Jonathan Daniels

They finally found a WMD! Unfortunately for the CIA, the military, and the President, it was found in Bill Frist's office. You'd think by now though, that if there really was an evil conspiracy by Bush/Rove/Cheney/whoever, that they'd have just planted some WMDs in Iraq.

It looks as though Kerry is going to tie up the Democratic Party nomination in the next few weeks. I'm expecting Lieberman to drop out after today's primaries, and Howard Dean to suffer a major nervous breakdown by the end of the month. This will leave us with the extremely difficult choice of electing the Yale alum. from the Skull and Bones Society, or re-electing the other Yale alum. from the Skull and Bones Society. If nothing else, it'll be a great year for the conspiracy nuts.

I think I've just proven once and for all that I'm out of my mind. I got an offer for a job in the Phoenix area which pays about forty percent more than I make now, and I'm turning it down.

I've decided in this case that it's really not about the money. I'd rather be back in Texas, and I think it's best for me to keep looking for a position there. Even if it's not for as much as the guys in Phoenix offered.

Am I crazy? Am I doing something I shouldn't by turning this down? I know it will be good for my career, but there are other things that I feel I have to consider.

I guess its about time for me to use this journal facility. I've been keeping one on and off on k5, but that place is getting too hostile, and let's face it, too stupid for my tastes.

A little bit about myself: I am an electrical engineer with around five years of total experience. I'm on my third job since college. The first, with Motorola, I quit after 16 months because I hated it. The second, I enjoyed working at for three years, and four days, until my work group was eliminated, and I was ushered out the door. I guess three good years is about all we can ask in today's business climate. I've been at this job right at six months, and I'm actively looking for job number four. I don't dislike my current job, but I know it's not what I want to do for the long term.

It's been an interesting career so far. I've worked with satellite systems, ASIC design and verification, and RADAR systems. I've learned several programming languages, worked with both analog and digital hardware, designed websites, written software, built circuit boards, and written documentation. All but the last is great fun.

I am currently single. I broke up with my last girlfriend about two weeks ago. I think it's for the best. We just had views and outlooks that are too different.

I am currently living between two different towns. I have a house in Austin, Texas, and an apartment in Oklahoma City. I'm hoping to get a job back in Austin so I can stop driving back and forth so much. I might also consider permanently relocating back to Arizona, or to some other state. (Florida sounds nice.)

I grew up all over the world. My dad spent twenty-one years in the military, so we got to move about every three years. I've lived on both coasts of the U.S., Texas, in Germany (six years), Saudi Arabia (one year), and a few other places. My parents currently live in El Paso, and are still happily married after 30 years. I have no brothers and sisters, but I have several cousins scattered throughout the United States.

When I'm not working, I enjoy photography, writing, and travel. I also do a lot of reading, and I've done some work for various political and volunteer organizations. I have very eclectic interests, but try to avoid the television. (There's nothing good on!)

That's me in a few too many words. I'll try to write back here sometime in the next week.