Cambridge Who's Who Scam

Like most of you out there, you've probably received hundreds, if not thousands, of scam emails. These days, though, I don't get as many as I used to. Now I just get ad after ad promoting some kind of male enhancement. Right now, for example, checking my spam box, I see an email titled "The Great Sex Secrets of Giving Women Multiple Orgasms - Make Her Scream With Pleasure". This is typical of the spam I get today. I'm not sure why. I'm only 38, and haven't reached that stage yet where I need help in this area.

Before all the sex spam, I used to receive a lot of email from people (usually in Africa) who would tell me that someone with my last name has died recently, and I can inherit a lot of money if I'm willing to give out a bunch of personal information (and probably bank account numbers as well.) These are often referred to as the Nigerian scams. I've also been told I've won the Yahoo! Lottery countless times.

I feel sorry for anyone who has fallen for these scams. They're so obviously a scam that it's funny.

The other day, however, I received something in the mail. It was an actual letter from the Cambridge Who's Who listing, which read:

"Dear Ken,

You were recently appointed as a biographical candidate to represent Austin, TX in the 2009/2010 on line Cambridge Who's Who Registry Among Executive and Professionals.

We are pleased to inform you that on March 29, 2009 your candidacy was approved. Your prompt response is needed to ensure your correct professional information. For accuracy purposes, please be sure to visit your personal website to verify your biographical information. http://www.kenberglund.mycwwapp.com/

If you do not have Internet access, please fill out the form and return the enclosed reply card by June 27, 2009. We've provided the postage for your convenience.

The office of the Managing Director appoints individuals based upon a candidates current position and usually with information obtained from researched executive and professional listings. The Director thinks that you may make an interesting biographical subject, as individual achievement is what Cambridge Who's Who is all about.

Upon final confirmation, you will be listed among thousands of accomplished individuals in the Cambridge Who's Who Registry. Remember, there is no cost to be included. On behalf of the Managing Director, we look forward to your appearance in this year's edition.

Best wishes for continued success."

I have to admit, I was fooled for a few minutes. But only for a few minutes. It was a brief ego boost. I thought to myself "Wow. They want me to represent Austin. Be one of Austin's elite." But then, after thinking about it, it didn't make sense. I've only lived in Austin for about a year, and I've been working here for even less. I have few friends here, and my job is nothing to brag about. Why the hell would they want to include me in their registry? I'm nobody.

So I began to google "Cambridge Who's Who" and found link after link that declared them a scam. Once you send in your card, or fill out the online information, someone will contact you and try to sell you a membership to their website. Membership ranges anywhere from $100 to $1000. The letter claims there is no cost, but apparently that's not true. And what is the value of being listed on this website? Supposedly, it promotes social networking. Uh huh, okay, whatever.

My advice to anyone else who might see this letter: toss it.

Austin On Top Again

So, here it is again, Forbes Magazine ranked Austin #1 for the Best Bargain City.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/13/bargain-cities-america-lifestyle-real-estate-bargain-cities.html

Here's a quote from the article:

"They have the triple-whammy of being a university town, a state capital and a technology center," says Al Lee, director of quantitative analysis at PayScale.com, a salary data aggregator based in Seattle. "It makes for a very robust economy and a great place for people to work."

Four other Texas cities make the list of America's Best Bargain Cities, but none come close to Austin, whose 5.5% unemployment is the best in the country and about half the national average.

Is Austin really a bargain? Yeah, I guess it is. Over the past year, Christy and I have actually been able to save money here. With two kids, I would have thought this unimaginable. Rent, gas, food, and entertainment are all cheaper here, so it is much easier to get by with less.

Finding a job here doesn't seem to be that difficult either. I know two colleagues of mine who recently got fired at the hospital, and they were able to find another job within a couple of weeks. I think as long as you're not looking for some high paying tech or engineering job, you shouldn't have too much trouble finding a job here.

Of course, long-time Austin residents are worried about an influx of people moving here because of these types of articles. They want to "keep Austin weird" and they have this idea that all these people moving in will cause the "weirdness" to disappear from the city. They shouldn't worry so much. And as far as my family living here, I think their "weirdness" reputation is still intact.

Video - Queen Mary

Here's my last entry regarding my recent trip back to California. It's just a little video I shot on board the Queen Mary, inside our room.

California Trip (Part 6) - The Queen Mary

Our last two nights in California were spent on board the Queen Mary in Long Beach. I had been to the Queen Mary several times before, but never stayed overnight on the ship. It always used to be too expensive, but now, because of the recession, and the declining tourists, it was more affordable, around $90 per night.

For most of the time there, it seemed like we had the entire ship to ourselves. I think I counted maybe 10 other cars in the parking lot. It didn't surprise me when I heard, later on, that the Queen Mary was about to be under new management, and plans were underway to turn the ship into a floating casino. I guess that's the only way to make it profitable again.

I think it would help the Queen Mary considerably if they rethought some of their prices in other areas as well as the hotel. The parking, for example, costs $15 per day for hotel guests. They don't include it in their room package. There are no discounts for any of the guided tours, and the tour I was the most interested in "The Paranormal Shipwalk Tour" was $50 per person.

The family seemed to enjoy staying on the ship, but Christy told me that she got a very "creepy" vibe from it. They say that parts of the ship are supposed to be haunted, so feel free to check out the pictures I took and see if you spot any ghosts.

(Pictures: 1. Christy and the kids in front of the ship. 2. The Queen Mary. 3. Sara and Kyle bouncing on the bed in the room. 4. The interior of the ship. 5. Sara next to the bathtub, which allows you to choose between salt water and sea water. 6. The front of the boat.)

California Trip (Part 5) - Long Beach

Long Beach is a nice city, and I lived there for almost 10 years. It has a lot of picturesque streets, nice restaurants, museums, generally friendly people, and not nearly as much traffic as the more popular "beach cities." It has almost everything you could want from a beach city, except for the actual beach itself. Long Beach has a brick wall out in the ocean, which they call a "breaker", that keeps the ocean calm and motionless. There are no waves at all, and it's because of this the beaches of Long Beach have not become popular. That never bothered me in the past, because I rarely go swimming in the ocean anyway. What I always liked about Long Beach was the price. It was always cheaper to live there than any of the other beach cities. Whereas Santa Monica and Venice Beach were charging over a thousand a month for rent, you could get by with paying maybe seven or eight hundred in Long Beach.

Now...all that has changed.

The rents in Long Beach have skyrocketed. An apartment that I once paid $675 a month for is now $1400. And this seems to be the norm there throughout the entire city. This is a big mistake. This past weekend when I was out there visiting, I drove around many, many streets of Long Beach, and I literally saw hundreds of "FOR RENT" signs. People are leaving in droves. Why? Because it's too damn expensive. Long Beach is trying to become another Santa Monica, even building a new pier and a ferris wheel, and expanding the shops near the Aquarium and Queen Mary. The only problem is that people are not coming. The place is turning into a ghost town. Perhaps if they removed the "breaker", as many residents have suggested, and cleaned up the beach, then people would come. But right now Long Beach doesn't really offer a lot to entice tourists, with the exception being the Queen Mary and the Aquarium.

Once the economy improves, and if rent prices come down in Long Beach, I'd be happy to live there again. It's the lack of tourists and big crowds that attracted me to the city to begin with. But for now, I'm content with Austin, the #1 Best Bargain City to Live In (says Forbes Magazine.)

(Pictures: 1. The Long Beach skyline. 2. One of my old apartment buildings in LB. 3. Sara at El Dorado Park. 4 & 5. Two streets of Long Beach. 6. The "Potholder" Cafe.)

California Trip (Part 4) - Downey

For most tourists visiting Los Angeles, Downey isn't the sort of city you'd want to stop and visit, unless you were staying in L.A. for several months and you've run out of stuff to do. The only "tourist attraction" in Downey is "The World's Oldest Operating McDonalds." That's it. Ok, it's also the city where the Carpenters and James Hetfield (of Metallica) were born, but they've long since moved away (or died.)

Having grown up in Downey, though, I still visit the city regularly just to see what's new and what's changed. I took the family to see the old house I grew up in. The new owners have painted it and added a strange brick wall around the side yard. I have to admit, it's hard to look at your childhood home with new owners living there. It's kind of sad. I had always hoped my mom could live there until the day she died. But unfortunately that's not the way things turned out.

Downey has changed quite a bit since I was a kid. It's now become a primarily Hispanic, working class city. A lot of the old restaurants I used to go to are gone. "Salvatores," an Italian restaurant that was there since I was a kid, went out of business, as did the 70's style "Foxy's" restaurant. No great loss as far as Foxy's is concerned, but I did enjoy Salvatores. The grocery store "Beach's" (the place where I got my first job) is still there, but when I went inside, it was pretty empty. I don't expect it to last much longer either.

As for Downey's one big attraction, the old "McDonalds", the city doesn't seem to be taking good care of it. The museum next to the restaurant is filthy, and the bathrooms were totally disgusting. If this is your biggest tourist spot, at least try to keep it clean.

The one thing that Downey does have going for it, though, is its location. It's only a 13 mile drive to downtown Los Angeles. This is why my mom's old house sold for nearly half a million dollars. Location, location, location. But would I buy a house there? No way.

(Pictures: 1 & 2. The Oldest Operating McDonalds in the World. 3. The house I grew up in, now painted blue. 4. The street I grew up on, Puritan St. 5. Beach's Market, my first job. 6. One of the better restaurants in Downey, the South Pacific Thai Restaurant.)

California Trip (Part 3) - Santa Monica

Of all of the beaches in Southern California, the one in Santa Monica is probably the best. It's definitely the most famous. The pier there is historical, and it's been featured in a lot of movies. Santa Monica is the city that Long Beach is trying to be, but failing miserably (more on that later.)

In the past, our family has always traveled to California during Christmas, so it's always been cold. This time was sunny and warm, so it was the kids first real experience at the beach. They really enjoyed it, but they seemed to like the sand more than the water.

On the day we were there, there was some sort of art exhibit displayed on the beach. Over 4,000 crosses were put into the sand to represent the soldiers who have died in Iraq. (see picture above) They were also displaying photographs of dead and wounded Iraqi civilians, some of them extremely gory. I understand and appreciate what the artists are trying to do, but since this is a beach filled with small children, I'm not sure this is appropriate.

(Pictures: 1. The famous Santa Monica sign. 2. Sara in the sand. 3. The art exhibit on the beach. 4. The pier. 5. Christy and Kyle walking in the sand. 6. Santa Monica)