June 26, 2003

A recently divorced buddy of mine was all excited; he had been corresponding with a Russian girl who just happened to pick his name from one of the dating services.

The replies to his letters were quick, and she enclosed her picture. Beautiful girl with an interesting background; she was from a small Russian village and grew up in an orphanage, where she now volunteers her time. She would get onto the Internet after-hours at work since computer time was so expensive and her boss charged for personal time; one of her friends had shown her how to get onto the matchmaking sites.

The pictures she sent showed a very attractive woman; 5' 6" tall, green eyes, very nice pictures....professionally done.....

Naturally I see red flags, signal flares, warning klaxons, you name it. Then he tells me that she's getting a visa so she can come visit, but it will take between 1 - 5 years for it to come through. She doesn't have the money to bypass the official visa channels....you get the idea.

I convince him to send me her picture and one of her letters so I can do a search. I tell him that I have heard of scams and hoaxes like this & that I'll check it out to see if it's legit, because I would hate for him to get taken for a ride.

He tells me that he's had his daughter look at the letters "because women can tell a fake a mile away". I let that one go and tell him I'll see what I can find.

This is the first paragraph of her letter:

"I have got your letter. Thank you, that you have found time for the reply. First of all I want to apologize for non-answering sooner. Past time I have been really busy, also I do not have computer at home. But now I have some free time and we can talk. OK, let's go. My full name is Elena Volohina. I have Blue eyes and blond hair. My height is 168 cm (probably it's about 5 feet and 6 inches). I was born on March, 21, 1976 Astrological sign is Aries in village called Sukhova, Kemerovo, Russia."

Doing a quick Internet search I find this site:

http://www.womenrussia.com/blackpage182.htm

That first black and white picture is the same as one of the pictures he was sent. Except in this one her name is Darya Miheeva. And the letters he's received are word for word the scam letters that have been used elsewhere. The name and picture seem to be fairly new, but it's the same scam.

I call him and let him know what I've found & send him the web site URL. He calls me back a bit, obviously (to me) disappointed, but tells me "Well, even if it is a scam it might be interesting to get her over here and talk with her".

On the phone I tell him, "The picture you have isn't of the girl that's trying to scam you. The picture you have is a stock photo that's been taken from the web somewhere and set up with a letter. The person trying to scam you is probably some 43 year old loser who has served jail time for check fraud, and has found a way to make money from people that are hurting. "

This was a scam, and he was being set up. He kept waiting for the other show to drop & as soon as the letters started asking for money I think it would have been "game over" as far as he's concerned. So I think I did a good thing; I was able to prove to him that something he suspected was a scam, was indeed a hoax. Yet I think it kind of hurt him to have the proof.

It always a bit disconcerting when you know you've done the right thing, but still feel a bit weird about it because it may have hurt someone you care about

June 25, 2003

The subject of 9/11 came up the other day, with my oldest daughter in the room. She piped up and said "my Uncle Bill would have been in the World Trade Centers if his client hadn't cancelled".

I looked at her; she is young and doesn't understand a lot of how the world works. And she shouldn't; children don't need to know all of the bad things that are out there. They need to be children and have fun.

But that statement struck me, for some reason. And this is what I told her:

"Sweetheart, I know a lot of people online. I chatted with people daily before 9/11 that worked near the World Trade Center; it wasn't a big deal, it's just where they worked. On the day it happened I tried frantically to get in touch with them. It took two days before I heard from them because they couldn't get near a computer terminal.

One of them spoke about brushing the dust off his coat after the WTC collapsed, he was that close. The other told me that his office had a piece of paper attached to the door with the number 15, the number of people that were missing that worked for that company. People cheered when it went from 15 down to 14, only to be told it was because they had found a body. These are people that I've never met face to face, but I still care for them very much. And they told me that they don't have a story; they weren't involved in the tragedy. They get tired of hearing everyone on the planet having a story to tell, they're almost upset that people try and put themselves into the middle of a tragedy for the sole purpose of gaining attention.

They told me what I'll tell you now: If you weren't in the towers, if you weren't in the area where it collapsed, if you weren't in the Pentagon, if you weren't on that Pennsylvania field where the plane went down....you don't have a story."

I don't know if it had an effect on her. But I've always been completely honest with her about my feelings on anything she asks about, and I certainly wasn't going to lie to her.

June 21, 2003

I usually like Bill O'Reilly. Sure, he can be obnoxious & full of himself, but that's why the talking heads get paid money. He often comes up with some decent points that are worthy of discussion.

On occasion he gets stupid. I mean really, REALLY stupid. Such as in this column where he gets upset because...horrors!....people are able to write things on the Internet without supervision.

My oh my, how horrible is it that I don't have a government agency watching over my shoulder, telling me what I can or cannot say? He seems to be upset because people can say things that aren't true, and there is no recourse for the people they say the things about.

Well Bill, there is a recourse. If someone slanders you on a  web page you can sue them, even if they're not a real reporter. But almost all personal web pages are OPINIONS, Bill. Just like this one; these are my opinions, and I don't need anyone telling me what I can (or cannot) think.

You have an opinion web page, Bill. Perhaps we should put an agency on it, just to be certain you have no problems with some of the things you say. I'm certain you wouldn't mind your every word being approved by some agency before you're allowed to post it, would you? That might seem to be a tad.....hypocritical.

In an incredible display of intellectual absurdity he writes:

"For example, the guy who raped and murdered a 10-year old in Massachusetts says he got the idea from the NAMBLA Web site that he accessed from the Boston public library.  The ACLU's defending NAMBLA in that civil lawsuit."

Gosh Bill, perhaps we should ban libraries? Guess what, Bill....I've seen a lot of ugly, nasty web sites and have never raped and murdered a 10 year old boy. Maybe (and I know this might be a stretch for you)....just MAYBE the guy was a sicko who would have thought of the idea all on his own.

Here's a clue for you, Mr. O'Reilly: Free speech can really suck. It can be very hard to listen to some idiot spewing vitriol against something that you would lay down your life to defend. It's not neat, it's not orderly and it can anger you beyond imagining.

But just think....without that freedom of speech you would be out of a job.

June 19th, 2003

Happy Birthday my friend! Sorry I didn't get a chance to call you, but we'll hook up this weekend.

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Been driving several miles to customer site the past few days. Man, do drivers suck. All of them except me, of course.

June 18, 2003

My kids are up for the summer, which makes me oh so very happy. After I oohed and ahhed over how much they've grown we headed home. On the way back we decided to get something to eat, so we stopped at a Perkins.

I knew that teenagers (and those close to the teen years) could really pack away the food, but nothing really prepared me for what I've seen.

Good heavens, these kids can eat. 

June 17, 2003

Nine years married and counting. Man, it's gone FAST!

June 12, 2003

I got one of those phone calls Tuesday night that really sucks. My best friend (outside of my wife) called me and said "My wife just got put into the hospital. I'm 1500 miles away, can you pick me up at the airport tomorrow afternoon at 4?"

No problem. But I wondered why so late? I could tell he was worried; I've known the guy for 20 years and this is the first time I can remember hearing his voice cracking when he talked.

"Because that's the earliest flight back" he explained.

Ah...what about alternate airports? There are 3 major airports within a two hour drive of us. Find out if you can get a flight into one of them, I told him, and I will be wherever you need me to be, whenever I need to be there.

So he got an earlier flight, and I found myself beginning my two hour drive at 4 o'clock in the morning.

But the point of this particular thought isn't anything above. Last I heard everything was turning out fine for everyone involved. No, the thing I discovered is that there is some really, really weird stuff on the radio that early in the morning.

I was listening to a show about survival nuts, those folks that go into the woods and live there because they feel the apocalypse is coming. They think that 60-70% of the worlds population is going to be wiped out by.....something. This show was treating them as if they could be taken seriously.

But that still isn't the point. No, the meandering path I'm taking to get to this point is winding towards its end.

On this show that advertised a radio. It actually sounded kind of neat; it had a hand cranked generator that you could crank, and you got 30 minutes of radio time. It had a solar panel that would charge it batteries; you could even get an AC adapter for it. Sounded like a really neat item if you do a lot of camping. The thing is, they were pushing this thing towards the folks who believe this apocalypse is imminent. After the meteor strikes, or the bombs go off, or God comes down in a golden chariot....whatever happens these folks KNOW there won't be any electricity, but they'll be able to listen to their radio!

Just one question guys.....who's do you think is  going to be transmitting?

June 9, 2003

I'm told that what I'm doing is called a BLOG, short for web log. It seems to be all the rage in cyberspace these days.

Well folks, I've been doing this since 1998 and a lot of other folks have been doing it longer. Believe it or not there are some people that just like to write, and when the advent of the Internet came around we all rejoiced. Now we can post our stuff and know that people will read it.

God knows why, but people really do read this page.

I occasionally wonder why. My friends may read it to get some insight on me, but why would a perfect stranger come by my web page and want to read my thoughts? I think it's rather neat that they do...but I wonder why they do it.

June 4, 2003

During the war in Iraq American special forces rescued Jessica Lynch, who was being held by the Iraqi's. This operation was filmed using night site photography and excerpts were shown nationwide when the rescue succeeded.

For those of you who have never been in the military let me explain something: an operation like this isn't something that only 2 or 3 people know about. There are too many things that need to be done, too many support aspects that need to be ready. This is something that, literally, dozens of people would be know about.

If there were a conspiracy you can bet you bottom dollar that someone, somewhere would have talked to a reporter. They were all over Iraq, many of them itching for a story like this.

So where do we suddenly hear bullshit that the rescue was staged? Why, from the Iraqi's themselves. Doctors who claimed they helped Ms. Lynch as best they could. Somehow I'm doubting that an Iraqi doctor is the best witness; if they were torturing her I don't think they would pop up and say "Yes, I was committing war crimes. Why?"

This morning I heard that Dennis Kucinich, Congressman (D-Ohio) is demanding that the unedited tape be released. Perhaps Mr. Kucinich feels it's OK to impugn our men in uniform by suggesting that they've all lied up to this point; maybe he thinks that releasing a tape of a top secret mission (which no doubt has highly classified items shown in various areas) to the public is a good idea. Maybe he thinks this will make enough noise that some folks will actually realize he's running for President.

Maybe.

Me, I just think he's an idiot.

June 2, 2003

When I first started working I earned minimum wage, $5.25 an hour. On the rare occasions I was able to take my wife out to eat I would look at the bill, which was usually around $30, and think "Was the service I received worth 6 hours of my life?"

I earn more these days but that thinking still sticks with me. Give me decent service and you're going to get a great tip (I do earn more these days, after all). But give me the runaround and you won't earn anything.

It's pretty simple, actually. Don't disappear and never come back after I received my food; don't ask me "will there be anything else" when you see I'm chewing my food. And make certain whatever drink I'm drinking stays filled (if it's free refills), or you ask me if I want more (if it's not).

For bonus points, when you see I have kids then bring me extra napkins.

It's not difficult to earn a great tip from me. My wife used to do the waitress thing, many years ago. She knows how tough it is; she'll let me know if I'm being to difficult.

One thing I will not tolerate is being ignored for a larger table; if you can't handle the wedding party in the other room without blowing me off, then you should either find someone else to wait on me or realize that you will get nothing for a tip.

I think that's all pretty fair.