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Lottery and Sweepstakes – Possible Scams

Games,

Every day thousands, if not millions of people receive emails to tell them that they have won a bunch of money in an online lottery or sweepstakes competition. In most cases these lotteries or sweepstakes are competitions that the recipient of the email has ever entered. The lesson in this is beware of anyone that tells you by email that you have won money in a lottery. Particularly if you never knew that you took part.

Many of these scams ask you for your personal details and also maybe to send a cash amount to be able to release the funds to you. Whatever you do, don’t reply to these people. If you have not entered a lottery or sweepstakes then you are not going to win it and it probably does not exist.

The first thing I would advise you to do if you have received an email from someone saying that you have won money in a lottery and you are wondering if it could be true or not, is to google a key phase from the email – maybe they give you an email address to respond to – then google something like ‘lottery win’ and the email address. You should be able to bring up some results that show if this is a scam or not.

Nothing for life generally comes for free so remember this whenever you get any of these emails. If you really have won some money then no doubt they will try and contact you by other means, they will not just randomly email you and then give up. So, much as you might want it to be true, your best bet is just to ignore and delete these emails and never to give out any of your personal information to these people.

 

Deus Ex – Available on PS3 and XBox

Games, , ,

Deus Ex is a role-playing action game that is now in it’s third incarnation. The original Deus Ex game was launched in 2000 and was a futuristic strategic game set in 2052. The third version of the game – Human Revolution was actually a prequel to the original game and is set in 2027. This 3rd version of the game was launched in August 2011 to a fair bit of critical acclaim.

The official Playstation magazine gave Deus Ex 8/10 whereas the official Xbox magazine in the UK gave the game 10/10. Most reviews gave very high scores all round for the 3rd version of Deus Ex.

The Deus Ex game involves the character Adam Jenson and is available on the PS3 and the XBox 360 amongst other formats. It can be bought at all good games outlets including being available to buy at Amazon where you can not only buy the brand new version but also a used version. Check out these Amazon options for buying the Deus Ex game on PS3 or Xbox or also in the Windows version:

Games – Scrabble

Games,

The popularity of scrabble has not waned in the 70 plus years since it was invented.  Scrabble is one of those games that becomes a little bit addictive once you start playing and you just have to keep playing to see if you can better your scores and score more bingos (7 letter words).

In the last few years it has become possible for players to play scrabble online and there are various online scrabble clubs where you can play against friends and complete strangers around the world.

One of the keys to playing a good game of scrabble is to know the short words that can be used – so you really need to memorise the 2 and 3 letter words that are allowable. There are obviously a lot of 3 letter words so that is going to be a harder task than remembering the 2 letter scrabble words which are (and these differ depending on if you use US or UK English):

Aa, ab, ad, ae, ag, ah, ai, al, am, an, ar, as, at, aw, ax, ay

Ba, be, bi, bo, by, de, do, ed, ef, eh, el, em, en, er, es, et, ex

Fa, fe, go, ha, he, hi, hm, ho, id, if, in, is, it, jo, ka, ki

La, li, lo, ma, me, mi, mm, mo, mu, my

Na, ne, no, nu, od, oe, of, oh, oi, om, on, op, or, os, ow, ox, oy

Pa, pe, pi, qi, re, sh, si, so, ta, ti, to, uh, um, un, up, us, ut

We, wo, xi, xu, ya, ye, yo, za

The most important ones I find to remember are qi, xi, xu, za, hm, sh as these can be really useful when you have high scoring letters and you want to place a word both vertically and horizontally.

Another tip to remember in playing scrabble is to always use your S advisedly as it can really get a you a good cross score – don’t waste it on a single word but instead use it to pluralize another word while  also setting up your own word.

 

Rachel Ray – Food and Chat Show

Food & Drink, ,

Rachel Ray has for quite a number of years had a daytime chat show which also includes a large element of cooking. Rachel Ray takes a lot of her food influences from her Italian background and not only does her food look great on her program, it is usually very easy to make and everyday type of food that people would definitely try to make themselves. The show combines both the recipes and chat with celebrities and others and works well.

So after years of enjoying the daytime slot both at home and abroad, WTAE, who broadcast the show, have moved her slot so that the Rachael Ray show will no be on at 1.05am. This is surely a kick in the teeth for Ray, who will be replaced by Nate Berkus (who was a frequent contributor to the Oprah show)  with a home based show in the 10am slot in the Autumn schedules.

Rachael Ray has had a lot of celebrity guests on her show and is not only popular with the viewing public but also with the celebrities themselves. It will be interesting to see how the ratings go once the show has been moved to the much later slot.

 

Pizza, Sangria and Wine!

Food & Drink, ,

Is there anything better to eat and drink than a great pizza and some wine? Obviously your choice of pizza is key here and you need to go quality and possibly even home made to get the very best pizza. However, although wine is a great drink to go with pizza, have you thought of maybe changing it up a bit? By mixing your own Sangria you have a great alternative to go with pizza and also have a taste of Spain to go with the taste of Italy!

Sangria is made by mixing red wine with some brandy and adding fruit and some other kind of sweetener, often orange juice.  The good thing about Sangria is that you can make it from your everyday cheap wine  and so you don’t need to splash out on something expensive. Make a pitcher of sangria with a dash of brandy and a dose of orange juice and then add plenty of chopped fruit.

Sangria and pizza is a great mix if you have a bunch of friends round and you want to have a casual, perhaps buffet style meal – you can create your own pizza flavours and serve them in slices and people can help themselves to a glass of sangria too.