Frauds, scams & other fun stuff
For whatever reason, I’m fascinated by scams, swindles, grifters, and all that jazz. Always have been. I’ve often thought a great movie could be made about this, with kids being the conmen and perpetrating a myriad of schemes as a way of life. Of course, this really does happen, but the film wouldn’t be ‘realistic’; it would be more as if there were no ‘honest’ jobs, and society (at least for kids) was a constant con game. Read whatever you will about me, from that.
How I got onto the topic most recently, is that I was reading Russell Beattie’s weblog as I ocassionally do, and he had a bit about the Rich Day, Poor Dad author. I knew when I read the book, the guy was less than fully truthful, but John T. Reed really exposes the book’s inaccuracies well. Good reading, wasted a lot of Friday night on his site. (Apparently I’ll do anything for entertainment when the wife is out of town!)
Returning to the generic sham motif, I was completely captivated by the stories of “magazine crews”, about kids that sell magazine subscriptions door-to-door, they are often basically indentured servants and controlled essentially as a pimp controls his stable. Great site to read about it here, specifically the ‘true stories’ pages. About 18 months ago when I was still in the Bay Area [Burlingame], I kicked one of these kids out of our “secure” apartment complex because he was harassing the (mostly elderly) neighbors. He definitely wasn’t on the up-and-up, although now I really feel sorry for the kid, considering what he was probably going through. Here’s some more good links to read up on scams, if you’re also into that kind of thing.
Another thing Beattie’s site makes me think of a lot, is moving back to the Bay Area. Like him, I moved to Spain (me Barcelona, him Madrid) for opportunities here, to learn the culture, live a bit different life, etc. I know I wanted to learn more about myself, too, and definitely have. But the job market here is fairly depressed, and we both have families to support. I miss my adopted home, the Bay Area, and all my friends there; but I love Barcelona. It’s tough. If my contract doesn’t get renewed soon, I may not have a lot of options, however. We have plane tickets back to Detroit (family there) for December, and now I’m really considering buying more tickets to go from there right to San Fran, and see what we can drum up. I’m starting to send feelers out to friends I trust there, too. Well, maybe I shouldn’t say too much in case my current co-workers find my blog! 
But it’s defintely weighing heavy on my mind now. My apartment lease is also up in December. The prospect of trying to scare up a job in the Valley or SF, from thousands of miles away, is also pretty daunting. I’ll see how things shake out in the next few weeks at work, in the meantime I think I’ll update my resume…