I am registered on a website that helps pair up volunteers with charitable organizations needing help (http://www.idealist.org/). I’d like to be able to do some good in the world and this morning I was excited to get the following email which I assumed was from my contact information on the volunteer website.

Dear Warren,

My name is Harvey XXXXXX and I am the HR manager for Glen Hamilton Foundation. I have just found your information at one of the employment portal and I think that you would be interested in two job opportunities at Glen Hamilton Foundation: CSR (20 hours weekly) and Corporate CSR (30 hours weekly). Both positions involve a lot of responsibility, attentiveness and independence, but they are well rewarded. Annual incomes of CSR and Corporate CSR are US $32,400 and US $65,600, respectively.

Warren, if you are self-reliant enough to work at the convenience of your own home or office, and if you are a quick learner and ready to develop your customer service and management skills, please contact me and I will give you a very detailed account of these vacancies.

It sounded interesting to me, the type of thing I’d love to do so I Googled them and came up with nothing, which was a huge red flag. I went to the website in the email (www.ghamiltonhome.org). It looked and sounded great. The type of thing I’d absolutely love to be a part of…but I still wasn’t sold.

I did a whois on the domain name and my enthusiasm melted. The address was registered two weeks ago in China (http://whois.domaintools.com/ghamiltonhome.org). I went back and looked at the website closely. It says their main office is in the Netherlands and they have job openings in New York (but no New York contact information). Then I read some of the job descriptions and it infuriated me.

They are looking for people who will be paid out of commissions from the donations they process (7%). They also talk about how urgent it is to process each donation immediately so that that charity can be performed on time. First it appears they are preying on people’s desire to do good by soliciting donations. And second, they are getting other people to do their dirty work all under the guise of working for a charitable organization.

I have filed a complaint with the BBB, the Attorney General, sent the information to the Seattle Times, and notified idealist.com.

I would love to be wrong here because I would have been eager to help promote a cause like this. But from everything I have found, it’s a total fraud. But more than that, it’s a step up from the typical email frauds we have all grown to know and hate. They’ve built up a website and gone even further to trick people into doing their bidding. And they try and leverage our desire to help and do good in the world to do it. It really pisses me off.

Based on the evidence I’ve gathered…it looks like a total scam and I hate to think of the people they are tricking into giving money and lobbying for them. If I’m wrong about this…somebody let me know and I’ll be one of their biggest advocates.

I liked Milli Vanilli too, back in the day. Now before you rag on me for admitting it, I’d like to point out that their albums sold millions and they won a Grammy, so I wasn’t alone. I didn’t like them because of the dancing puppets we thought were making the music…I liked the music. I was sad there weren’t more albums. But were the dancing puppets necessary to get the music out? The sad truth is that I probably wouldn’t have ever heard Milli Vanilli otherwise…because it’s not just about the music.

This rubs home the fact that as a society we value all the wrong things. We want superficial appearance over content. We want a level of perfection that doesn’t exist in reality. We need air brushes, video editing, and surgery to create people worthy enough of our attention. We piece together the best parts of individuals to make someone beautiful enough for us. And we pay millions of dollars to people who are, essentially, hollow shells of humanity. No matter how creepy they may be in person, we only see the superhuman appearance and swath them in gold and lace. We want a reality that doesn’t exist and deny the truth. Even though so many of us feel outraged at this little seven year old girl’s talents being hidden from the world, we are the ones who drive it.

The media presents something attractive and gets our attention…and our money. The next time, they have to up it a notch. In the process our minds change and our thinking is altered. We start expecting a fantasy level of perfection in ourselves, our friends, our spouses. Before long, we become prejudice and judgmental against those don’t measure up to these ridicules standards. We push the media to do it to us and become brainwashed even more in the process.

Maybe someday we will value people because of their strong character. Maybe someday we won’t reward a narcissistic personality because of a pretty smile, shrewd tongue, or athletic prowess. Maybe, but it’s a long ways off. In the meantime we each need to notice when we have been duped. We need to try and give our admiration and attention to the people who deserve it. Like little seven year old Yang Peiyi. We need to let the media know that we care about genuine beauty and talent and we aren’t going to be superficial drones anymore.

And no matter how beautiful and athletic a person might be…if they are assholes, stop rewarding them. Stop reading about them, buying their products, watching their performances, and giving them our attention. And I readily admit I am part of the problem, Yes, I’m a hypocrite. It’s just too easy, sometimes, to get sucked into the nonsense.

Am I missing something? Maybe that sport fisherman call them one of the more challenging catches because they jump and splash and fight. We wouldn’t want to take that fun away now would we? I guess that makes it okay. And of course their impressive fang laced mouth looks better hanging over a fireplace than swimming through our oceans. They kill swimmers too. The wiki article referenced above reports 8 attacks, 2 fatal. I guess we better remove them and every other animal that has killed at least 2 human beings.

This just upsets me. They didn’t have to kill this shark. I’m not opposed to fishing or hunting. I haven’t hunted in years but I do go fishing a couple times a year. But this is a creature that we are in danger of losing. And they had a good look at it before they chose to cut it down. And then they win a contest and are plastered on CNN and newspapers reveling in their glory. Obviously I’m in the minority here. What am I missing?

I’m not against helping my neighbor and supporting our nation’s economy, but when you consider that, generally, we live in luxury compared to the majority of the world it seems quite selfish to want to make sure our wealth stays within our own borders. So I ask you, where are the boundaries of our social community…the edge of town, the state line, or the fences we are building around our nation?

People asking me to draw the borders tight and buy locally seem to feel that helping my own neighbors survive and prosper is the highest priority. Doesn’t that imply one group of people (those in my vicinity) are more important, more deserving, or, ultimately, more human than somebody five states away? I’m all for eliminating poverty at home, but generally it less about that and more about the marketing campaign for those wanting my business.

Buying locally can reduce the impact on the environment by reducing packaging and transportation resources, which is a solid argument. But normally the message is crafted to appeal to my need to support and belong to the people around me. Again, where are the boundaries of my social community? Is it more important to “buy American” and help my neighbor who lives in a nice middle class house than buy a product from China (for considerably less money) and help somebody who lives in complete poverty?

Recently, Bush commented that food costs are rising because the standard of living in India is rising. Workers in India are willing to do a given job at a fraction of what US workers demand. This is sending money to India and creating jobs which has created a significant increase in India’s middle class. With more money, their demand for food and household items has skyrocketed. Higher demand means higher prices, and this has rippled through the world and directly affected our costs here in the USA. China is on the cusp of breaking into a new age of prosperity and I can promise you that will cause more than just a ripple through the world economy.

The ease of worldwide communication and travel has transformed us into a global society. No nation is an island, metaphorically of course. American business has branched out, reaching out across the world to subcontract and create factories where costs are low. We forced them to do it by shopping at Wal-Mart. We push jobs and business out of the US, but I don’t think it is such a bad thing. Why? Again, because we are a global community.

The world does not have the resources to support a population living the American dream…our high standard of living. That means one thing. If ever there is to be a more equalized standard of living, we are going to have to make some sacrifices. But you don’t have to consciously cut back; it will come naturally from our desire for lots of stuff at the lowest price possible. Our quest for a good deal slowly spreads the wealth across the world as jobs are sent to China and India where poverty guarantees lower production costs. Eventually, this business will help lift them out of poverty and then as worldwide resources diminish, costs in the US will increase. As we lose jobs, wages in the US will decrease to compete globally and the world will begin to become more balanced. This is good news for poor countries but not so good for the more developed ones. Unless of course, you feel that a more equalized standard of living for every human being, not just your neighbor, is a good thing.

You don’t even have to try, our own selfish desires drive this forward. Every time we try and save money by buying a less expensive product made in Japan, we have cast our vote for fairness in the world. When we complain about the cost of Microsoft Office, we cast another vote and drive outsourcing to India. It will take time. Initially there are sweat shops and near slave labor as industry takes advantage of the situation. I’m not against trying to put a stop to this sort of exploitation, but at the same time it is nice to know that it is the beginning of change as it drives jobs and money where there are neither.

But there is more good news, I believe. The scarcity of resources will also push research and development. I believe we will develop new ways to generate power more efficiently. Solar power, cold fusion, or some undiscovered process may eventually offer us an almost free source of energy. New methods to recycle will transform our reliance on metals and minerals. We will have to make sacrifices in the near future as we break out of our gluttonous ways (example: rising gas prices), but I also believe our standard of living as a whole will continue to increase. I believe the human spirit to be innovative, caring, industrious, and succor for a good deal…all characteristics required to move us forward into a better and more fair tomorrow. Just remember, we are no longer just the USA. We are a global society.

The lottery is one of the greatest hoaxes the wealthy have ever pulled across on the lower classes. It’s like the authoritarian father telling his children they are not only going to clean out the toilet; they are going to enjoy it. The lower classes have been duped into paying all the taxes funded by the lottery and they defend their right to do it. We are so disillusioned that we don’t care that it’s a scam.

People often vote for what they feel is best for them individually regardless of its effect on society. It’s why we see litter on the ground, why crime exists, why Exxon is making record profits while the rest of the country is suffering a recession. Desperation drives people to extremes. Somebody watching their children starve is going to have a lot easier time stealing food than most of us. But the lottery transcends this logic. The lottery is the pathetic epitome of this warped mentality.

How many wealthy people buy lottery tickets? If a minimum wage worker ($8.07 in Washington State) buys a single $1 ticket each week, a million dollar a year CEO would have to purchase 60 to meet the poor mans contribution on an equal percentage bases. And given that most taxes increase in percent with higher income, the fair number of purchases would be closer to a thousand. That would help balance the fairness, but it would also increases the chances the winnings would be returned to the wealthy.

But why would a multimillionaire buy a lottery ticket, let alone several hundred a week? The truth is most tickets are purchased by less-educated and lower class people. The poor are paying the taxes. We get caught up in the dream of winning it big by media that blasts us with the fairytale stories of the winners and disregard the actual dismal chance of ever winning. It makes me sick. The sensationalized radio spots I hear make me want to vomit because it taunts the fact that the wealthy have their way with us. We buy their overpriced garbage and pay their taxes because of the media blitz. They manipulate and dangle us like puppets.

I don’t buy lottery tickets so I guess you could say I am also not paying my fair share of state taxes here in Washington. But I would be happy to pay if they would allocate the payments fairly. The stupid thing is that the lottery is so engrained in our culture I don’t see it changing any time soon. We look back and can see how unfair slavery was…I hope one day we look back at this rubbish and say, “What in the hell were we thinking?”

Molly was a good dog and as you can see, well loved. We didn’t expect her to make it through the night and the kids were saying goodbye. Although this was several years ago, I’ve been thinking about pain today. I made the mistake of watching the video on the news of the eight teenagers that beat up a girl and video taped it. I couldn’t finish it. How can people be so cruel? This type of things weighs me down. In addition, two people I care about are in a lot of emotional pain right now and I hurt for both of them. At least that type doesn’t weigh me down like the other example. Pain caused by love hurts but pain caused by cruelty is toxic.

I grew up with the teaching that we live in the “lone and dreary world.” Religion often teaches that this life is the test and the good stuff comes later if you pass. A core Buddhist philosophy is that “life is suffering.” Birth is suffering, death leaves a wake of pain, and in between is more sorrow than sometimes seams bearable. But what would I be without pain? My pain has carved and forged me into the person I am today and for the most part, I like who I am. I wouldn’t trade my pain. But the thought of future pain scares me and sometimes I hold myself back because I’m afraid of what is around the next corner.

I can’t bring myself to welcome pain, but I try not to be so afraid of it. Whether I’m rock climbing or dealing with emotional issues, it’s a fear of pain that limits me. And after it hits, I dwell on it too much…thinking and mourning to the extent that I often struggle to learn and move forward (because I want to figure out what I can do to avoid it). Pain will always be there…my teacher and tormentor.

Where I really get in trouble is when somebody I care about is suffering. It’s been said that most mental disorders are caused by either taking too much responsibility or not enough. When my kids are suffering it’s hard not to jump in and do everything I can to sooth them. It’s pretty selfish to take their life lessons away only because I don’t want to have to watch them suffer. It seems like I often get it wrong…I either don’t take enough responsibility or jump in too much. But I have great kids, so I suppose I must be doing something right.

I have been lucky and very little of my pain comes from cruelty. I can’t imagine the damage inflicted by a horrible act like I saw on that video. Any pain can destroy a person, but that type creates monsters. Malicious physical and verbal abuse are seeds of destruction. They can make people callous and apathetic. I try and imagine what horrible things a truly mean person must have experienced to drive out all compassion and decency. If we trace back acts of cruelty we might see a history that goes back for generations. Maybe every act of cruelty, neglect, and unkindness carries forward. Maybe people who do these things are only “bad” because they were once on the receiving end.I suppose the way to change it is twofold. We feel our pain, learn from it, and move on. We forgive and kill the negative energy and pass on positive energy instead. Of course, isn’t that what nearly every religion teaches? Yet religion is the base of pretty much every war we’ve seen throughout history. What in the hell is wrong with us?

Maybe at some core level the human race longs for drama, pain, and destruction. That sounds like a blockbuster movie. Maybe we all want it more than we can consciously admit. We watch it on the news, we read about it in books, we gossip about it to our friends. Maybe our world would just be too boring without bullies. Maybe the media has helped warp us. I used a picture of three kids and a dying puppy to tell you that. I hope you feel as cheated as I do.

The email was that simple but put an instant lump in my throat and gloss on my eyes. This type of request has a bigger effect on me than the old Sally Struthers type commercials. Maybe because I don’t feel like horrific images are being used to try and leverage my emotions. Maybe because it’s local and feels more real. Or maybe because I tend to avoid reality when it comes to hunger, disease, death, and pain in the world because I feel helpless to change it. I know it’s a pathetic excuse, but it’s incredibly discouraging to hear about terrible things and feel like nothing I could do would matter.

I know my attitude is toxic. It’s what keeps our world stuck. Without a mass change in attitude there will never be mass change in reality. It’s like voting. People who don’t feel like their vote matters don’t vote. There are excellent politicians who will never win because we don’t want to waste a vote on someone we don’t think has a chance, if we vote at all. So we pick from the forerunners: somebody who has a chance so our vote will matter. It would be interesting if we could strip out the social and psychological factors and vote for who we felt would best lead our country. But in this too, a feeling of helpless prevents real change…and I digress.

Because I feel helpless I numb myself from world issues. I get emails from celebrities wanting my money to fight hunger and a part of me mocks them. I read about a billionaire who donates a few million to a charity and something about it makes me a little sick. I know they are doing good in the world but it rubs me wrong. Superstars who travel the world and ask for my support from their mansions…I can’t completely cheer for them. But I know part of that is just me making excuses and I need to change my attitude.

When I get an email from coworkers who have organized themselves to collect food for a local food bank, I’m deeply touched and inspired. Honestly, donating a couple cans of food is no sacrifice and hardly worth even calling charitable, but it’s a step towards change. I know people who live meager and donate large sums of time and money and I want to get to that point. Greed, self absorption, and, most of all, feeling helpless stop me.

The older I get the better I am with being charitable. Contributing where I can see I’m making a difference helps. The irony is that the real payoff isn’t what little good I may do, it’s the change in attitude I feel by doing it. I see myself becoming a little less introverted and more socially aware. If I keep this up, maybe someday I’ll become like the kind of people I admire. But I have a long ways to go and readily admit that I’m part of the problem. Because I’m a bit narcissistic and need to feel important, I have to constantly remind myself that my actions, for good or bad, do make a difference. And to those of you out there who do so much, I thank you. You inspire me and are helping me to change.

I have 5 Canon lenses (EF 50mm 1.8, 24-70 2.8L, 28-135 IS, 75-300 IS, 100-400L IS, 70-200 2.8L IS) and 2 bodies (1D MII, and 10D). I’ve also had other Canon equipment, an Elan, D60, and other lenses. I’ve spent a lot of cash on Canon gear. In the past few years I’ve gone with their pro gear. For those of you who aren’t camera buffs, the “L” lenses are the professional line; ultra sharp, extremely durable, and more expensive.

I had minor problems with the 100-400L shortly after I purchased it. Occasionally an “error 99” would force me to turn off the camera, remove the lens, remount it, and turn the camera back on. Initially this happened rarely (once in a full day of shooting). But by the end of the year, it happened enough that I researched the problem.

A quick Google search (try it: search 100-400 error 99) showed that I was not alone in my frustration. I posted this on the DPReview.com forum (it’s not the first time it’s been on it, see these other discussion lines: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 ) and had quick responses from others with the same problem. Other camera forums had long threads related to the dreaded “Error 99.” I called Canon and was told to try cleaning the mounts with an eraser. This helped, but in retrospect was harmful advice. By giving me advice that helped me get by, the problem was delayed long enough to put the lens out of its one year warranty.

The problem became progressively worse. A year ago while shooting my sons football games, I gave up entirely on Imagine Stabilization, the feature I paid a premium to get. I missed too many shots when it was enabled. My lens was crashing once in every twenty exposures.

Imagine my frustration when my other IS L lens, the 70-200 2.8fL IS (other than the Sigma 300-800, my most expensive lens) began showing the same symptoms, an occasional “error 99.” Now both of my Pro lenses, the ones that were supposed to be superior in ever way had issues with Image stabilization. I found it ironic my older lens, a plain old non-pro 75-300 continued to plug along without problems. I just stopped using IS on the L lenses although it really upset me that a feature I paid big bucks for wouldn’t work properly.

Two weeks ago while demonstrating some photography tips (and my Canon gear) to my brother-in-law (who is just breaking into photography himself), my 100-400 stopped auto-focusing completely. Tests at home on different bodies confirmed that my lens was dead. I was willing to forgo IS, but auto focus too? I called customer service again.

I sent in the lens and was told repairs would cost me $340. I realize the lens was out of warrantee but figured Canon would make an exception given the history of the problems and the widely spread problem of “Error 99” on this lens. I had no doubt Canon would stand behind their product. I may have been wrong.

I was offered a 20% discount which did little to appease my frustration. I have told my story to three different Canon reps today as this issue has been escalated. Wanda in customer service has been very helpful and is taking this issue to management. I am waiting to find out how they will address this problem.

Wanda mentioned to me that Canon would appreciate knowing the extent of the “Error 99” problem. They need customer feedback. For those of you having this issue, you can call Canon or post a comment to this article and I will forward it on to them.

Meanwhile, I’ll wait and see what happens…including a follow-up posting to what happens with my current open ticket and the future resolution of my 70-200 problem (although this lens doesn’t seem to have the high failure rate as the 100-400). To those of you having this problem, I feel your pain. Make sure you complain. My opinion is that the 100-400L IS has a higher failure rate than should be expected for a top end Professional quality product. Especially one from Canon.

UPDATE:
Canon has reviewed this entry and wants to make sure anyone who is having this problem is taken care of. If you are having this problem don’t wait (as I did). Get your service request submitted ASAP.

Recently an astronaut drove 14 hours wearing a diaper to get revenge on another women interested in the guy she liked. Not the guy she already had (her a husband and father of her children), she wanted this other guy now. So she resorted to pepper spray, wearing a disguise, and a personal assault which got her arrested where she faces charges on kidnapping and attempted murder. Like my wife said, “an astronaut is supposed to be intelligent!” We don’t expect to see Jerry Springer characters among the educated. We expect it in the trailer parks. But the truth is we are all human and all do stupid things.

We usually think of educated people as being “trailer park proof.” It’s a harsh stereotype, but we generally seem to expect more domestic problems, violence, and crime in places of poverty. To me, it’s strange how we have defined crime. There are certain types of illegal acts that we, as a society, tend to view as committed by a ‘real criminals.’ A 17 year old boy who robs a convenient store of $318 with a fake gun might be considered more of a criminal than the a bookkeeper who reroutes a few thousand dollars into a personal account. Or compare a dock worker who loads his truck with several crates of goods to a CFO who cooks the books to inflate his stock options by 2.5 million. The dock worker is more of a ‘criminal’ in our society (and according to the stereotype, more likely to have grown up in a trailer park).

How is it that white collar crime carries a lighter criminal stigma than the blue collar thug? Why is shafting thousands of people of their retirement by a well dressed, respected, and educated business professional not as blatantly ‘evil’ as a desperate man holding up a bank? The robber carries a threat of violence which matches our perception of a ‘bad guy.’ The charming good-looking white collared thief looks like people we are taught to respect and trust. We see them as a different type of criminal. They lack the violence and somehow that elevates them.

We are more afraid of the ‘bad guy” yet only a small percentage of us have actually been accosted by a common thug. On the other hand, all of us have been wronged by the white collar criminal. The government bailout of the Savings and Loan scandal of the 1980’s cost billions of dollars. In fact, if you average it out, every tax paying citizen in 1985 had a personal responsibility of over 30K to cover the money stolen by corrupt bankers. There were so many infractions that unless you had stolen millions you weren’t even prosecuted. There were too many crooks for our system to investigate. Charles Keating’s greedy misappropriations of billions sent him to jail for four whole years. Michael Milken’s served two years for his illegal securities trading in a white collar “Club-Fed” style prison and after the lavish prison life walked away with over a half a million in illegally obtained funds. Would we ever let a traditional bank robber walk away with some of the stolen money? Of course not! Because a bank robber is a “real” criminal. They go to real jails and serve real time.

We fear the improbable thief in the night while heartless suits siphon our bank accounts every day. Then we are afraid to send them to jail for doing it because they don’t look like real criminals. If those of us who live in suburbia want to be realistic about our fears, we should stop trembling at the thought of a hooded hoodlum from the trailer park. He might get a few of us. But the collared hoodlum from Harvard gets all of us.

I keep under the sink a big can to pour in all the excess grease, slime, fat, and sludge left over from cooking meat. I know this stuff can be recycled somehow, but I don’t generate much and I usually just throw the whole can away when it’s full…it takes a while. Some poor little creature ate a whole can of lard. Not a small can either (not the 16oz cans). This was the larger size. Not only that, it had been licked clean. I felt sorry for the little guy. Man, I thought, geez, I ought to walk around and see if I can find a sick little raccoon somewhere nearby. That much sludge in your gut can’t feel good…even to a scavenger, but who knows, maybe I’m wrong.

As I finished picking up the garbage I thought about my response and I was happy with myself. A few years ago somebody broke into my car and stole my CD Player. It was a piece of junk though. Not only didn’t it play CD’s, it scratched the hell out of them. I was like…oh man, I hope those idiots put in their favorite CD very first! But my auto reaction today was very different, not “that little varmint got what he deserved for digging through my garbage,” but “oh, the poor little guy.” And I’m glad that was my reaction. I like the little critters around my place…even if I have to pick up some trash once in a while. But not the case for the theives. I still hope my old CD player scratched their favorite CD.