Jamie Chambers's Blog

It all happened while I was asleep.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdyms0G8KJQ

No … I didn’t block you on Facebook. Turns out I don’t have an account anymore.

Here’s what happened.

While I was cozy and asleep in my bed on Sunday morning, a hacker in Vietnam managed to get access to my Facebook account even though I have two-factor authentication turned on. (My email and phone are both still secure—I checked.

Funny enough Facebook had me sign up for “Facebook Protect” over a year ago because they said my account has higher reach than most and needed enhanced security features. Apparently those suck.

So I woke up to an email telling me that someone from Ho Chi Minh city changed my password, and when I pressed the big It Wasn’t Me button I learned that my account was disabled — as in, DELETED. The landing screen told me that decision was permanent, final, with no recourse to appeal.

Oh — and whatever the hacker did with my account was so bad that they wouldn’t even tell me what rule I actually broke: “For security purposes.”

I’m on record as NOT being a big fan of Facebook or its founder, but all the same the platform did a great job getting me to rely on it more than more over the past fifteen years. It’s a big hub of my personal and professional life.

 I have important personal and business contacts I connect with exclusively on Facebook. I’ve used Facebook as my login for several websites I use on the regular. I’ve built audiences for my personal writing projects, my podcast, my local independent journalism all using Facebook pages and groups. I sell a bunch of stuff there directly right off my page or in specialty groups, sometimes hundreds of a dollars per week. I’ve raised a ton of money for great charities over Facebook, and while my daughter was in cancer treatment the community we built gave our family support and kept us going during one of the darkest times we’ve ever been through. The D&D group I’ve been playing in for years uses Facebook Messenger as our voice chat solution.

I’m going to see if there’s anything I can do to get my account restored but it’s an uphill battle. Facebook does NOT have a customer service department and decisions like this are made by the all-knowing Algorithm.

I’ll let everyone know how things go. In the meantime, if you’re on other social media follow me there!

Thanks everyone.

Oh — and hey Mark? You can Zuck a .

The post No I Didn’t Block You On Facebook appeared first on Jamie Chambers.

Dive back into 1980s children’s biographies as podcasting siblings Bambi and Jamie Chambers explore The Value of Respect: The Story of Abraham Lincoln. In this book we follow the story of young Abe, who is born in a log cabin to a life of ridiculous poverty. But thanks to a talking squirrel our little dirt farmer learns the power of RESPECT—which somehow leads to him battling river pirates, learning slavery is bad, and forging a path that would make him perhaps the greatest president in the history of the United States.

Stay tuned with us on social media and discover more on our website: http://www.chainsawhistory.com

The post The Value of Abraham Lincoln appeared first on Jamie Chambers.

CCA is running a “Save Our School!” campaign ahead of the Wednesday vote.

After several challenging years including budget shortfalls and shakeups on its governing board, the State Charter Schools Commission of Georgia staff recommends that Cherokee Charter Academy shut its doors at the end of the school year. The SCSC Board of Commissioners will vote on the recommendation on Wednesday, February 28th.

>> Click here to read the full article on the Kudzu Rants newsletter <<

The post State Commission Recommends Closing Cherokee Charter Academy appeared first on Jamie Chambers.

{ Discover more at ChainsawHistory.com — access our full episode list, delve into bonus content, and support our show with a paid subscription! }

Siblings Jamie and Bambi Chambers conclude the story of all-black Buffalo Soldiers sent guard a training camp for new recruits for the war effort in Houston, Texas where Jim Crow laws and white supremacy were in full effect. After enduring constant racism and disrespect, a young soldier tried to intervene in an unfair arrest of a local mother—the resulting police abuse set off a chain reaction that led to over a hundred professional soldiers marching into the city with the intention of killing as many white cops as possible. It’s a challenging story of racism, fear, rage, retribution, and injustice that took over a century to be addressed by the United States and its armed forces.

In this episode we hope you’ll consider donating to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in their fight for racial justice through litigation, advocacy and public education. We also express support and solidarity with the Atlanta Forest Defenders and encourage you to learn more and help stop Cop City.

The post Part Two: The Houston Riot of 1917 appeared first on Jamie Chambers.

{ Discover more at ChainsawHistory.com — access our full episode list, delve into bonus content, and support our show with a paid subscription! }

Join podcasting siblings Jamie and Bambi as they return to the Jim Crow South to examine the underlying causes of the Camp Logan Mutiny. First we get a picture of where America is at in 1917 and take an uncomfortable look at the laws and social standards of former slave states. Next we learn about the all-black Buffalo Soldiers and their history of brave and honorable service despite the lies told by racist politicians such as Teddy Roosevelt. But when the United States joins World War I the Buffalo Soldiers are called to guard the construction of a training camp for new draftees—Camp Logan in Houston, a bayou town fully embracing white supremacy enforced by a brutal police force. What could possibly go wrong?

In this episode we hope you’ll consider donating to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in their fight for racial justice through litigation, advocacy and public education. We also express support and solidarity with the Atlanta Forest Defenders and encourage you to learn more and help stop Cop City.

The post Part One: The Camp Logan Mutiny of 1917 appeared first on Jamie Chambers.

{ Discover more at ChainsawHistory.com — access our full episode list, delve into bonus content, and support our show with a paid subscription! }

Welcome back to Chainsaw History’s limited series, “No Time For Love Doctor Jones,” where Jamie Chambers guides his reluctant sister Bambi through the life of fictional life of Indiana Jones. In this episode, we travel to Paris, France, exploring The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles Episode 19: “Paris, September 1908.”

Today’s episode introduces 9-year-old Henry (our future Indiana Jones) to the Parisian art scene, where he meets a young Norman Rockwell and a Spanish maniac named Pablo Picasso—who loves to party with sex workers and fire his gun into the air. Thrill as Henry and Norman brawl with French pimps and engage in Scooby-Doo hijinks in a graveyard. All this is framed by old Indiana Jones reminiscing about the fraud he committed on the art community.

It’s a wacky romp in Paris as we see how little Henry gets one step closer to cinema’s favorite two-fisted archeologist!

The post No Time For Love Doctor Jones #4: Paris 1908 appeared first on Jamie Chambers.

{ Discover more at ChainsawHistory.com — access our full episode list, delve into bonus content, and support our show with a paid subscription! }

As a holiday treat Jamie gets to take a break, so the rest of us can sit back and get cozy as Bambi tells the story of Alice Roosevelt—daughter of the ridiculously-mustached Teddy. Inheriting her father’s need for attention, she went from pranking White House dinner parties with her pet snake (Emily Spinach) to becoming a political institution in Washington D.C., whose favor and advice was sought by insiders. Alice was beloved by the press and foreign leaders including the Dowager Empress of Japan and Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany. But her ambitions to return to the White House were thwarted by rivalries and difficult choices, and she lived a life touched by tragedy. Let’s sip some cocoa and hear the story of a feminist icon who defied convention, set trends, and held onto petty grudges.

The post Alice Roosevelt, First Daughter of American Politics appeared first on Jamie Chambers.

It’s a new episode of the Chainsaw History podcast — just in time for Thanksgiving!

{ Discover more at ChainsawHistory.com — access our full episode list, delve into bonus content, and support our show with a paid subscription! }

Grab a crucifix and burn some sage! Jamie and Bambi (finally) wrap up the enigmatic tale of Ed and Lorraine Warren. Learn how a historically accurate version of The Conjuring would have ended with Ed getting punched in the face and thrown out of the Perron family home. Visit the most famous haunted house in the world—the Amityville Horror—which taught the Warrens the value of book and movie deals. Meet the author who dedicated his life to discrediting the Warrens. And learn the dark secret that Lorraine Warren tried to hide when she signed the deal for The Conjuring.

In this episode recommend people donate to Feeding America to address growing food insecurity in our country. We also express support and solidarity with the Atlanta Forest Defenders and encourage you to learn more and help stop Cop City.

The post Part Two: The Haunting Truth About Ed and Lorraine Warren appeared first on Jamie Chambers.

It’s a new episode of the Chainsaw History podcast — just in time for Halloween!

{ Visit ChainsawHistory.com see full show notes and research links, get access to our full back catalog, check out our bonus content, and support the show with a paid subscription! }

We’re back! Podcasting siblings Jamie and Bambi return just in time for Halloween with an episode all about Ed and Lorraine Warren, the demonologist and clairvoyant couple made famous by The Conjuring movies starring Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. Learn what Ed smelled like as a sixteen year old boy and how the nuns punished Lorraine for seeing into the future. Find out how their careers began as hobo artists collecting ghost stories before they learned how to monetize their hobby for fun and profit! We’ll take a look at the world’s most famous creepy doll: Annabelle. Were the Warrens truly battling the forces of Satan or were they just shady grifters? Research, skepticism, and swearing are all required to untangle this mess.

In this episode recommend people donate to Feeding America to address growing food insecurity in our country. We also express support and solidarity with the Atlanta Forest Defenders and encourage you to learn more and help stop Cop City. Thanks to Kevin and Ravensound Studios for hosting us and making us sound better than we deserve!

The post Part One: Conjuring The Real Ed and Lorraine Warren Plus Annabelle appeared first on Jamie Chambers.

As a native of north Atlanta I can personally attest to the importance of The Big Chicken. Situated on the side of US-41 near I-75, it’s a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant with a unique animated statue perched above.

It’s not just a local oddity; it serves as a key navigation point north of the perimeter. For a decade, I had an office in Marietta, and my directions to anyone visiting were simply: “We’re on Roswell Road, three miles east of The Big Chicken.” Back in the 90s, the owners planned to tear down the landmark when they discovered that years of exposure to pigeon poop made the statue structurally unsound. However, there was such a public outcry that local residents convinced KFC to save the beloved Big Chicken.

In honor of our sublimely surreal statue, I present to you The Big Chicken as reimagined for Dungeons & Dragons.

>> Click here to read the full article with game stats over on Backstab.fun <<

The post The Big Chicken for D&D 5e appeared first on Jamie Chambers.