Alexander

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  • Ghosting…

    Ghosting…

    First, let’s start with the definition, according to Dictionary.com:

    ghost·ing

    /ˈɡōstiNG/

    Learn to pronounce

    noun

    1. the appearance of a ghost or secondary image on a television or other display screen.”the display is sharper and less prone to ghosting”
    2. the practice of ending a personal relationship with someone by suddenly and without explanation withdrawing from all communication.”I thought ghosting was a horrible dating habit reserved for casual flings”

    Note: We’re dealing with definition #2 here for all intents and purposes.

    Ghost…

    I guess in life, we have people that come and go. For some of those people it stings. I am sure I’ve “ghosted” some people myself. But typically, I’ve always and I mean always had a reason. Not to say, those that “ghosted” me didn’t have their reasons as well.

    My experiences:

    Experience 1: Terra
    I had a good friend and previous girlfriend named Terra. The last time I ever got an email or talked to her was March 12, 2014. Even after we stopped dating (years after) I stayed in contact with her and we’d talk about everything and anything (even her new boyfriends, my new girlfriends, you name it). I had tried reaching out for years and years afterward, even going as far as to contact her old girlfriend – I literally just wanted to make sure she was OK. I think her ex-GF (Ciara) was in on “me” not reaching out to, her because she told me she’d lost contact with her as well. Was that true? I guess it doesn’t matter.

    Terra did an AMAZING job at first completely eliminating any trace of herself from the internet, but I eventually found out she remarried, had a kid, and potentially became Jewish? Stalking? No, simple internet search. She was one of my best friends after all…then wham nothing. I went back and re-read the last email communication she ever sent me and it made sense after a while.

    Last email I ever received.

    It made sense. I must have been a blocker for her and the life she wanted to pursue. I am sure that her therapist probably identified me as a pillar of toxicity in her life, which is fair. Especially if I was causing harm to her then relationship (which I may have). I guess for me, I just wanted to know she was happy. Because she deserved it. I know she sat backseat often while I was happy. Last I saw she had a family and achieved some career goals and she looked happy. That makes me happy too. I am glad she was able to move on without me, even at the cost of our relationship. Terra, if you ever come across my blog, I hope you’re doing good in life and have a beautiful little family. *hugs*

    Experience 2: Lisa
    The next person to pseudo-ghost me was a girl named Lisa. I had been her confidant through a lot of turmoil and rough times (for example a lover of hers committed suicide, Chris, and I’d been there for her through that). She leaned on me in those rough times. I never dated Lisa because I didn’t want to be that guy that took advantage of someone in a tough spot. Especially after Lisa told me time and time again the scenarios where guys had done just that. I had to be that pillar for her. I saw her start her “reclaimed wreckage” business from the ground up. I was there listening to her failed relationships and when she had her first kid. I was there. I was that guy on the other end of the phone or text.

    I even once got a free hotel one-night courtesy of a company I was working at and invited her downtown SLC. She stayed with me at the hotel (and even though she drank that night – I Didn’t drink – because I don’t) I did not make any moves. Additionally, after we got up to the hotel room, it had two queen beds. I took a separate bed and did not attempt to share. She felt lonely and wanted to cuddle, to which I obliged, but nothing more.

    Fast forward a few months and she tells me about a scenario where a guy was being overbearing. I said “do you want me to rough him up, or put him in his place”, something along those lines. And she took it completely out of context like I was some madman looking to go around and beat people up. Sure I come from a bit of a rough background and have a history of fighting and getting into scuffs, but the comment was made in jest…simply that I was offering to protect her (as most guy friends I am sure would do). That ended up being the catapult and end of our relationship. I got to talk to her one other time and asked her, why? That was the reason given. Justified? I don’t know…was it the real reason? I am not sure.

    In Summary: I guess for me, it’s coming to terms. Getting these thoughts, and feelings..gnawing gut feeling of missing these people out of my head. I am sure I don’t have anyone that reads my blog anyways…just spam bots, but at least I can put some of these ideas to rest.

    No Fields Found.
  • In a world of instability, finding mine for my family and onwards…

    In a world of instability, finding mine for my family and onwards…

    It’s been a minute. After my brother’s passing, it’s really taken the wind from my sails, I guess you could say. I’ve definitely had depression, there is no doubt there. It’s been hard for me to get the drive to post anything about my life. The day we closed on our home was the day my brother passed away. It took all the joy and enjoyment I should have had of purchasing our first home away. Shortly thereafter we got our Kia Telluride as well and it just didn’t…hold anything.


    My brothers and I after a Dodgers game, Billy, the taller one that passed under my arm.

    Our new home:


    He’s definitely left this massive hole/gap. I know there is nothing I could possibly say about death that hasn’t been said by someone, by somewhere. It’s just “weird” not having “that” person there anymore. He really was one of my best friends. I loved him dearly.


    I turned to online MMO computer gaming. It consumed me…bad. My poor kids and wife. What I didn’t do at work, I spent time gaming. The gaming drug of choice became “New World”. I’d spent anywhere from 6-12 hours a day, spending as little as 30 minutes with my wife and kids. This went on for about 4-5 months after his passing. It became my coping mechanism. To be someone else, somewhere else…in fantasy land. Where I controlled who lives and dies. Naturally, at the back of my head, I had this nagging feeling that I knew this was consuming me. Taking a toll not just on me but my wife and kids too. I had to quit. So I did, early Feb. ’22. Crazy thing? Amazon is one of my clients at work I do Analytics for. I am literally helping them with their Analytics for this game and games like Lost Ark.

    Onwards…I reconnected with a long-lost cousin (my first cousin, once removed), by the name of Steve. I have soo thoroughly enjoyed our conversations. What a truly refreshing breath of air. The crazy part is I believe he came across me and reconnected with me from the speech I gave at my brother’s funeral (he found it on a shared relatives page). Out of sorrow, some beauty does arise. I think of those movies where there has been a severe tragedy or heartache and then the camera pans to the rising of a new dawn…with the sun breaking the horizon to the freshly dewed grass, newly blooming flowers. Life goes on. He understands heartache and he understood my sorrow as well. I understood it when Steve said he didn’t ever want to attend another funeral ever again. I understand, completely. Whether he realizes it or not, he’s been an unknowing therapist (even if we’re talking about random stuff and the world at large) that and his band. I needed that. It couldn’t have come at a better more needed time in my life as well. I fully plan to visit Steve and some of our other extended family in Arizona in the next little while and just talk about our Grandparents. Maybe even the old times.


    My cousin Steve & I after my mom brought me to visit my grandpa and first uncle.

    In other news, I got a nose job. It’s been a healing process, I will tell you that. The main goal has been to breathe better. I’ve had challenges with it (my nose) since a crash I was in around a decade ago in my Scion xB. I fell asleep while driving home one day and woke up in the back of an ambulance in a neck brace. The first thing I asked was… “what happened”. Paramedic “you’ve been in a car accident”. Next thing I asked “did I hurt anyone else?”, Paramedic “no”. I passed out. Luckily all that happened was my broken nose from the airbag and a lacerated neck from the seat belt.

    Well, this nose surgery has fixed it all. The surgery I got is called a “Functional Butterfly Rhinoplasty”.

    Before picture:

    Before Rhinoplasty.

    After Picture:

    After Rhinoplasty (still healing).


    Ukrainian War. Man. I really, really hope this doesn’t into WW3. I support everything we’re doing and trying to do over there to help. I have an uncle that was in Kyiv. I am glad he was able to get out. Even though I’ve had a difference of opinion with him on some stuff, I don’t want to see him in harm’s way. With war ever-looming, it definitely has brought out the prepper in me.

    Last subject. Still kickin’ away at HalCo. We’re doing our BEST to get a new driver hired. I’ve made it a personal goal of mine to get us one hired on by May ’22. We’re up to 3 trucks now. Still looking to get more and more loads moving. Updated our site as well:
    https://halcotrucks.com/

  • Rest in Peace little bro

    Rest in Peace little bro

    William “Billy” Mark Halstead 09/20/93 – 6/30/21

    Man, I was just playing softball with my brother a few weeks ago. Seems too unreal. I still don’t feel like his soul is gone.

    He got to meet my little girl. This was the first time. The only time. At least he got to do that. She got to meet her uncle one time at least.

    I don’t even know where to go/what to think about this all. My life has been on hold since it happened. I like keep expecting to hear his voice. Looking at his messages. Seeing recent videos of him smiling and laughing.

    I spoke at his funeral and it destroyed me.

    Eulogy/Talk

    Thank you all for coming today to remember my brother William (Billy).
    My name is Alexander, but I go by Alex, I am William’s oldest brother and I knew and loved my brother from a tough-love perspective, always and forever.


    To be forward, this is the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life, so bear with me through this. I didn’t follow a conventional form in writing this and this is both a Tribute and a bit of Eulogy combined.
    Going back, I was 11 when my brother first came into this world on September 20th, 1993, in Beaver UT, with his twin Brooke. The very first thing I remember thinking/asking while sitting in that delivery waiting room for my mom/dad was, “when I could play with him?” I was soo excited to have a little brother.
    Now don’t get me wrong, I was excited to have another sister too (William is a twin if you didn’t know and Brooke was/is his twin), however, William was my first brother. As many of you know, I have two brothers, William and Tommy, however for the sake of this talk, I will refer to “him”, my little brother, William as Billy, specifically.

    When Billy was born, it was something different for me. I’d grown up at this point with two Sisters, Kristina, and Vanessa. Not that you can’t play sports with your sisters or rough house with them too (and I did, or correction, we did), but I felt a little more excited to have some testosterone that I could order and bully around or throw a football with and baseball with and wrestle with or share dating secrets with (again, you can do that with sisters too, don’t get me wrong).
    My little brother was always, always all in my business. As soon as he could crawl, scoot, walk, mumble and talk he found his way to me and my room. One of my favorite memories of him, when he was young, was him not leaving me alone after repeatedly asking him to stop opening my door at around the age of 5-6 years old, I hung him by his underwear from my door handle and called everyone to see (and of course he was laughing/giggling).
    He was a very, very smart kid from a very early age as well. I remember in first/second grade I taught him literally all the math that I had known at the time (all the way up to basic algebra concepts and he was starting to grasp that too). He was bored with school easily, however, which made it a challenge for him, not because it was hard, but because it didn’t keep his attention in the way he needed it to.


    Even before getting to middle school, I was sneaking him into Hardcore shows (think really loud heavy metal, but more brutal, and I didn’t really have to sneak him because I knew the venue promoters) and getting him into the pit (not for the faint of heart, for those in the know). Everyone knew him as he didn’t sit on the sideline as a wallflower. He wanted a piece of it and he got in there and took his chances of getting kicked and punched along with everyone else (and if don’t believe me, I got videos). He was loved by people quickly and not just because he was my little brother.


    Fast forward a little.

    Even though he didn’t graduate high school (although he basically had the credits to) he still got his diploma with relative ease, just to prove that it really was well within his realm of knowledge, understanding (or below him for that matter). He didn’t even have a reason for getting it either, just to have it. He didn’t have a job waiting on it, or anything like that, or to impress a girlfriend.
    Billy loved to travel and loved the West coast. Over the years I had him live with me on and off. He worked sales jobs and, in particular, liked selling alarms and solar panels. He was VERY good at it. He got to travel to many different states & cities all over the United States selling both. Although, he didn’t stick with one job for long, it is the one type of job he did come back to often.
    Billy’s life was like the song from Sublime, “What I Got”. The lyrics and vibe of the song resonate when I listen to them, if you get a chance, give it a listen. It was how he lived, it puts a smile on my face. Honestly, I couldn’t even tell you if he even liked the song (I can’t remember at least), but boy did he embody that vibe.
    I don’t ever recall him ever holding onto any single possession, for long that is. And I think that was because he was soo giving and on the move. My brother, literally, would give you the shirt off his back if you asked for it. He didn’t stay in one place for long because he had a smile to share and a story to tell and boy did he have stories.
    He knew people, lots of people. He networked. He had no reserves when he came to learn about you. And once he got to know you, he’d sell you to others. He’d sing your praise. He’d embarrass me as I am sure he has done to some of you, talking me up to complete strangers, but that was out of pure love.
    In remembrance of my brother, over the past few weeks, I’ve come to the realization of a few things. As I’ve chatted with some of you, some of you may be carrying some form of guilt on how they left their relationship with my brother. Don’t. I am standing here, as you are sitting there, in remembrance of the good times we had, together (with him). My brother didn’t always tell me everything, but he told me the stuff that mattered. He came to me for the big decisions in life. He confided in me when he was at forks or had big decisions and choices to make. I knew him on a brotherly, hard-nosed level. I loved him and he loved me as he did all of you. He forgave and forgot quickly.

    Don’t carry that burden of regret. It will age you before your years. Remember William for that smile of his and that contagious laugh. As his big bro, that’s what I know he’d want.
    Thank you,
    One last little poem.
    By, MELISSA FOX-AUSTIN, titled “Remember Me“

    There was a slide show my cousin put together as well, Paul, that he did amazing on. In particular, there was a song, this song:

    I am not going to be able to ever hear this song again, the same.

    Rest in peace brother. We will never forget your love.

  • The Occult, Masonry & Life in General

    The Occult, Masonry & Life in General

    From a young age…I was always interested in “the Occult”. I think it’s pretty natural to say that most people are, some more than others, naturally. I guess my fascination with it came from reading books. History books but then fantasy books, like “The Wheel of Time” and “The Lord of the Rings”. I wanted to be part of something more than myself. To feel a sense of belonging. For people to have that sense of intrigue when they met me, knowing that “I” belonged to that “something else”.

    I had read about Freemason’s but I’d always thought of them as “Old Guys” club, similar to the Elks Club. I met my first Freemason at the age of 17-18 while working at McDonald’s in Cedar City UT. I didn’t think anything special of him at the time and he wasn’t old. I didn’t ask any questions at the time because I was pretty busy with life in general (high school still and obviously I couldn’t actually become one myself).

    Time went on and I moved to SLC, UT to attend I.T.T. Technical Institute. There I met another Freemason by the name of Mario. I noticed he had a Freemason ring on.

    Well, one conversation led to another and I was initiated as a Freemason on March 27, 2006 and raised to a Master Mason April 14th, 2007 in Mount Moriah, Lodge #2, F.&A.M.

    Masonic Coin

    I share this, because part of me felt a pang of guilt, that my original intent may have been heavily influenced by selfish “perceived” gains, that I would be a better candidate for the CIA, or FBI being a Freemason. This is definitely not the full reason I joined, however. Throughout all of history, I’d always noticed the somewhat natural similarity of the quality of men that had passed through Freemasonry and thought that they were, despite all the discussions of conspiracies theories, etc. were good, humble people. Of course, there were the bad apples (Blackbeard, etc), but the overwhelming majority throughout history were good men.

    I was actually in the process of applying for the CIA at the time, which I’d thought again, would “help” my interview process. Little did I know, it did absolutely nothing for me. Or did it?

    I learned soo much in the years to follow. I did remain active several years after getting my denial letter from the CIA. I felt a sense of brotherhood for the first time since leaving my friends in Cedar City. It was the closest thing I had to the “Hardcore” scene. Where people of different faiths, religions, colors, ethnicities could come under one roof for a single purpose and that was to learn. To learn how to be a better person, friend, neighbor and how to serve our fellow man.

    While I am inactive now and Covid rages on, I have great pangs to go back and be amongst my previous brothers. I never really got to thank my brother Adam. He was the one that got me through my degrees and hour and hours of studying together to learn my catechisms. To him, I am ever grateful. I miss Masonry and what it taught me and how my brothers helped me day in and day to release my childhood/teenage years. One day…one day I hope to return.

    Pondering Life

    Other updates:

    Freya Piper
    Our baby girl Piper is due on March 16th. Carisa doesn’t think she will last that long however. I am excited to have a baby girl that I can call my pipsqueak. 🙂

    Our first truck…

    HalCo
    Oh yea, started a business in Oct. 2020 w/ my cousin. HalCo. Halcotrucks.com. We already have contracts with Amazon, jbhunt and a few others. Our first two months we netted nearly 45k. We’re approved for 390k loan and purchasing 3 more trucks soon. We have one other employee, which is our uncle and CPA. We made the business decision to make him our CFO and it has been an awesome one soo far (helped us secure the above loan). We’ve already had several meetings as well. We spoke to our first owner Operator this week in fact, which hopefully we will be bringing on. These next few months will be super interesting. I am getting my CDL as well just to be able to drive as well.

    Nightfall Edition Kia Telluride 2021

    Nightfall Edition Kia Telluride 2021/2022
    I know I made an article about getting the Volvo, but Carisa really wanted the Telluride because of ALL the reviews. We’ve been shopping for one FOREVER. We finally had to go in and just reserve one. The good thing is, is I’ll basically have it 2/3’s paid off by the time it gets here in August and we may be getting the 2022 edition.

    Adobe/New House
    Adobe has been amazing to me since coming back. I’ve referred 2 more people now and working on a 3rd. I think once I sell my stock next year, we will have our required 20% down to avoid Mortgage Insurance. Woohoo! It’s finally happening. We will have a new home all to ourselves. Oh yes, Adobe has been amazing with raises/bonuses too, so that’s helping as well.

    I think that’s it for now (at least that I feel like sharing, whew).

    Until next unload.
    -Alex

  • June 2020, Covid-19, Bootcamp, Australia Soon…

    June 2020, Covid-19, Bootcamp, Australia Soon…

    It’s been a minute. My last post took the wind out of my sails, literally, figuratively, you name it. This year has been TOUGH.

    First things first.

    Bootcamp. It started off great, started to learn HTML, CSS, getting into Javascript, then WHAM, Covid-19 happens…

    While I was giving the Bootcamp my best, the entire reason I took it, was to be in a classroom setting. I had an A in the class until we were forced to try and do it online. When that happened, the entire thing became a joke.

    To say I was unhappy with how it was being done, was an understatement. First things first, the University of Utah *did not* actually host the Boot-camp themselves, instead they “lease” the learning through another company called Trilogy.

    When I say it was a joke, boy. We’d get put into these “break out” rooms to do “task” as a team of 3-4 students and half the time, which soon became most of the time, we all would sit there quiet not doing ANYTHING for 15-20 minutes until being drag back into the main session. See below:

    Break out room with “no one talking”. Time to AFK.

    Trying to work 8-9 hours a day, then go right into a 3-hour class, then *try* and spend 1-2 more hours on homework afterward? Yea…all INSIDE of my house with Teddy Bear constantly asking for a little bit of attention. Mind you my one hobby where I disconnect is computer gaming too. Man oh man.

    In other news. We paid off Carisa’s car this month and are paying off my car either this check (next week) or the following check. The plan is to buy a new SUV so we can stop renting SUV’s and actually have something we enjoy driving Teddy Bear around in. I think we’ve FINALLY picked one out. See below:

    2020 Volvo XC40 T4 Momentum FWD

    After a TON of research, looking at the consumer reviews, feedback, you name it, this is the car. It’s something that will last a long time and get’s excellent gas mileage (28 mpg). Has a moon-roof, seat profiling, near-collision detection, you name it. Everything under the sun and I wouldn’t feel bad taking it off the road. I think this is the first time, we may have almost 1/3 of the car to put down on it when we go in for financing.

    Our trip to Australia in November is almost fully paid for AND we surprised our buddy Patrick and we’re bringing him with (of course along with our travel companions James and Sandee, we don’t go anywhere without ’em) 🙂 We’re saving for our house now too. It’s going to be 4-5 bedrooms and 3,000-3,200 square feet. That’s the goal.

    That’s all for now.

  • Rest in Peace Kristina

    Rest in Peace Kristina

    12/19/19. My sister took her life. She fought a long, long battle with depression, manic paranoid schizophrenia and self-medicated with drugs and in the end, it got the best of her. I compiled a memorial Powerpoint. I can say soo much more, but I say a lot in this.

    Love you sis.
  • India & China – Hindu Wedding

    India & China – Hindu Wedding

    We got to see our friends Abhishek and Ketaki married (definitely the highlight). What an awesome and surreal experience. Traveling overseas to India was an experience of a lifetime. We started the journey of India getting sick eating food from SLC airport (food poisoning). That was NOT fun. A 20+ hour flight crapping and puking our guts out. Avoid the Greek restaurant in the SLC, Utah airport at ALL costs.

    After that was done, however, we got to enjoy the Golden Temple in Amritsar:

    Golden Temple in Amritsar, India

    After the Golden Temple, we went on to Agra and the famed Taj Mahal.

    Carisa Posing. Me with my older shades, Taj Mahal in Agra, India.
    Less posing. Shades off. Taj Mahal, Agra, India.
    James & Sandee, our travel buddies! Taj Mahal – Agra, India.
    Taj Mahal (next day, up close), Agra, India.

    After visiting the Taj Mahal and walking around Agra a bit, we coughed our lungs up. India likes to burn their fields in the winter/fall before the next Spring. The courts halted it, but it wasn’t soon enough. *cough, cough*

    Our friends’ wedding, Abhishek and Ketaki, us wearing traditional Indian garb.
    Carisa getting her Henna tattoos. She was SOO excited to finally get this done. She’s wanted to get Henna for years.
    “Prince Abhishek” riding in as a conquering hero on his white horse. Hahaha, inside joke. If you ask, I’ll share. <3

    After the wedding we went and saw many, many other sites and things. I can only share soo much on this blog, so I’ll capture a few.

    The Lotus Temple of the Bahá’í House of Worship was one of the most fascinating things for me to learn about. Basically an all-accepting type of religion that was created in the 1800s. Different than any other type of faith I’ve studied up to this point. Super cool.
    India Gate, New Delhi, India. War Memorial dating back to World War I and the British Soldiers that died (interesting bit of information), but it is now a symbol of India’s independence.

    The haunted staircase…

    Agrasen ki baoli “Haunted Staircase” in New Delhi, India – Supposably haunted? I don’t even know the story behind it. Carisa was all kinds of excited about coming here though. Read about it and tell me. 🙂

    What kind of visit/blog to India is a blog without a picture of at least some food?

    In Amritsar, near the Golden Temple, we ate at the famous 100+ year old Kesar da Dhaba. OMG. Delicious. Probably some of the absolute best Indian we had. We spent most of our time comparing our food against this dish right here. Ridiculously good.

    Lastly, on our 9 hour layover in Shanghai, we hopped in a 1 h 30 min Uber and hit up the Great Wall. Our Uber driver was amazing. He gave us a true insight into the daily lives of Chinese folks our age. They’re very much aware of how much the Chinese government shelters/blocks them. He even told me the average Chienese citizen is savvy enough to use VPN’s to get media they want from the USA. I found this fascinating.

    Great Wall of China. A part that our Uber driver took us to, where a tourist don’t normally get to go. SUPER cool. AND freezing balls. Man.

    Two Man-Made Wonders of the World to round out this trip. Pretty cool. We’ve also now been to 4/7 continents. We’re getting there! We’re thinking Australia next, but Teddy Bear is coming next time.

  • Beware of the Instagram Bitcoin Scam of 2019

    Beware of the Instagram Bitcoin Scam of 2019

    I felt compelled to write a blog about this one, because, well there is next to literally nothing about it on the web and there is a TON of people getting taken to the bank (quite literally) for non-traceable funds and scams.

    Recently I had a run-in with one and luckily I have a bit of a background with Bitcoin and Blockchain and understand the inner workings/background with it.

    How it occurred. I have my Instagram on private so there’s nothing special to add me by. The person that added me and was impersonating a model (not a well known one, I didn’t know their name and had never seen them before). This particular scammer appears to be targeting middle-aged men (as an FYI). The model was not verified, so the challenge in reporting them is, is the “model” has to report them directly this model’s name happens to be Zara Zentio and the faker’s name, behold aka “Stacey Connor”:

    “Stacey Connor, highjacked photos”

    How did I find it was Stacey? I reverse image searched the above photo and wallah: zarazentio/182018756/

    Now, onto the scam. What I was particularly interested in, is that the person “Stacey”, prior to me uncovering the scam, was into Bitcoin mining. I thought this particularly interesting for a “model” to be into. Now I am not saying a “model” type can’t be into mining bitcoins. It just seemed…interesting. about 5 years late and well…off. I typically auto-ignore these profiles, but I decided to give “her” the benefit of the doubt to see if she knew what she was talking about.

    Well, within one conversation, I knew “she”, Stacy, was a fraud. I asked for pictures of “her” Antminers, to which she sent me pictures that she claimed she took herself, she sent me these:

    Antminer Bitcoin Servers (freshly unboxed)

    A quick reverse image search turned these up (some of them dating back to March 2018):

    Then, this person went on to create fake certificates that were very easy to look-up, such as the below one:

    The only thing you’re bagging and creating is fake certificates.

    Onwards, this led me to try to report this individual “Stacy” to Zara directly. As you guessed, Zara I am sure gets millions of unsolicited messages and probably has a zillion fake accounts of herself out there, so adding another one to the bunch is nothing to her (no response). I learned quite quickly that Instagram won’t do anything unless you are the person being impersonated or unless the person is “verified”.

    Taking matters into my own hands further, I tried to see where I could report them to (legally) and there’s not a whole lot out there (other than private investigators) and filling out forms on .gov sites. Additionally, I did find where I can look and see how much they’ve defrauded people via their BitWallet, shown below. It shows an outgoing dump, but to whom? Also, the amounts were far, far below the payouts mentioned (in small $100 amounts), which begs the question, is this some kind of chain fraud going on?

    Check the Bitwallet on Blockchain.

    Other interesting things I’ve noticed. The account was created well over a year ago. This may have been done to elude potential filters/bot ban waves set forth by Instagram. They started adding pictures slowly and adding people, allowing people the chance to report this account. Only over the past few months did they really start driving home the “Bitwallet” fraud.

    “Stacey” gave me a landline-based out of New York. This threw my original thoughts out the door. A “landline” out of New York?

    So, “Stacey” had over 400 people on her friends’ list. I did my best to start messaging as many people on the list I could, linking the model’s real profile and also eluding to the type of fraud, but, alas, Instagram limits the number of messages you can send, so I was only able to send out about 50ish alerts.

    Now I did record myself and stream some of this. I’ll link here later.

    The outcome?

    I live-streamed myself getting them to “delete” their Instagram. However, I am not sure it lasted long but it did result in the scammer blocking me. I do wish the Zara would report the individual. View how it went down here:

    Watch Avalloch – Taking down Instagram Scammer from Avalloch on www.twitch.tv

  • Full-Stack Developer

    Full-Stack Developer

    Soon…

    I got my extension for my contract at work through the end of February, yay! I’ve also been approved to take the Bootcamp and I start in January 2020 through the University of Utah. I’ll be going through the following:

    • Computer Science applied to JavaScript »
    • Design Patterns »
    • Algorithms Browser Based Technologies »
    • HTML »
    • CSS »
    • JavaScript »
    • jQuery »
    • Responsive Design »
    • Bootstrap »
    • Handlebars »
    • Firebase »
    • Cookies, Local Storage »
    • React.js Deployment »
    • Heroku »
    • Git PHP »
    • Laravel Databases »
    • MySQL »
    • MongoDB Node.js (Server Side Development) »
    • Express »
    • Security and Session Storage »
    • User Authentication »
    • MERN Stack (MongoDB, Express.js, React.js, Node.js) Quality Assurance »
    • Writing Tests Internet Marketing » SEO » Semantic HTML

    I’m considering creating an entirely separate page just for my learnings to host my projects, etc. I’d like to keep my blog/opinions separate from my projects. I’ve learned to keep work and politics far, far away from one another. I think I may just do that. Make it a pseudo-Analytics blog too.

  • Society Today

    Society Today

    It’s hard to go anywhere today and avoid the political atmosphere. It’s divided our country, our families, our loved ones and our friends. I’ve lost contact with friends, so-called loved ones and it’s created a divide within my own family over the current man in the White House.

    I don’t have the energy to try anymore. Knowing there is any underlying schmear of support for such an atrocious, disgusting, morally inept, downright pernicious individual. Cheating on your wife, WHILE she’s pregnant with your kid? No worries, all the religious right have this guy’s back, it doesn’t matter to them. Religion is only important on Sunday I guess.

    To say that I feel he represents the epitome of moral objectification and division, would be an understatement. He alone is the leading cause to the leading reason I deleted Facebook in October of 2017.

    He’s sparked race wars and has given conspiracy theorists their time in the spotlight. People like Alex Jones were given a chance to come up before they had to come crashing down, but it took A LOT to get him back there. Sparking waves of online trolls taking to trolling survivors of the Sandy Hook mass shooting, saying the children of the mass murder were actors? Seriously? Gay frogs on behalf of the government (I mean just think about that logically for a minute)? Mind you, this president SUPPORTED THIS GUY.

    He’s allowed closet racist to come out of hiding and cheer his name from the rooftops, and I quote “you had some very fine people on both sides” after a racist crashed through a crowded street in a sports car killing people.

    A president, to create labels, instead of squash them, to objectify his own citizens, his own American kin, unlike any American president before him. To demonify an entire half of the citizens of the United States (Democrats). He is not worthy of the title bestowed upon him. He incites rage and division. He does not unify or bring together, we the American people. The last thing he’s doing is “Making America Great Again”.

    By the way. Have you ever asked what era he was referring to, when it was great? I bet not even he could answer that.

    Now? Now he’s targetting his political opponents (Joe Biden) using coercion of foreign dignitaries (Ukrainian president), to withhold financial support. Seriously? I mean seriously. This is absolutely ridiculous. America, wake up.

    Impeachment.

    I’ll end with a quote, an old Greek proverb, which is lost on “him” and his mindless zerg.

    “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”