Internet Hazards: Impersonation

With a personal blog about family trips, all things baby, stuff the cat does, lists of NPR financial shows and general musings from a geeky domestic project manager (SAHM), I don't expect the world to be knocking down my door.  But imagine my surprise when I checked my Google Analytics the other night and saw a surge of traffic on March 31st & April 1st that was 100x my normal daily traffic volume.  At first I thought it was a mistake, then I looked for the content people were hitting.  It all seemed to concentrate on this picture.  (It is one of my favorite and few with a celebrity.)  


As I traced the hits back to their source, a site called "Reddit"--a social news website owned by Conde Nast Digital on which users can post links to content on the Internet. Other users may then vote the posted links up or down, causing them to become more or less prominent on the reddit home page. (Wikipedia), I started to worry.


Reading through various cascades of comments and links, I was able to piece together that someone had gone onto Reddit into a section called "Ask Me Anything" where famous people or people who have particular jobs/interests dialogue with others.  Someone claimed they had been an intern at the Daily Show and used my picture with Jon Stewart as proof of who they were.  But I guess the impersonator had cracks in his story and had earlier revealed himself to be a man as well as provided other weird information so the community began to suspect foul play.  People pretend to be people they aren't on the Internet all the time (so that's no surprise) but this guy was actually giving hopeful, interested folks completely misleading advice on how to get in at the Daily Show.  That is where the community drew the line and launched into deconstructing this person. 


What was most odd to me personally was seeing strangers try and prove that this person was a fake by delving into my background through LinkedIn and my blog to see if anything tied me to the Daily Show professionally and if they could substantiate what they knew of him with what they found about me.  Some of the folks came up with interesting possibilities like the Daily Show perhaps allowing a stay-at-home-mom intern or me as an intern speaking through the account of a husband/boyfriend/male coworker because I would not be taken seriously as a woman on the internet.  I found it fascinating, creepy and exhilarating all at once.


When I stumbled upon the discussion, it was already 5 days old so there were many users calling the "intern" a sham.  But I could see that there were still some lingering questions especially those who thought I might be speaking through a male counterpart.  So I posted my own statement which can be seen in the link below, along with the rest of the main string of conversation.  It devolves a little bit (so be warned) but as a study of Internet culture and behavior it is both inspiring to see a community seek the truth for itself and worrisome to see that it's so easy to lie with no recourse on the Internet.


http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ggjji/the_ama_claiming_to_be_former_intern_for_daily/

Financial Literacy: Teaching Kids About $

Here is the just published Red Tricycle article I wrote on Teaching Kids about Money: http://www.redtri.com/time-to-tackle-teaching-kids-about-money

Happy Financial Literacy Month!

In celebration of April as National Financial Literacy Month, I'll be posting some economic-themed over the coming weeks.  

I wanted to start off with where I find much of my information and inspiration to learn about money and the economy. On the surface, those may be some of the most dreaded topics to talk/learn/write about but especially with all of the economic upheaval over the past few years, I’ve taken a keen interest. I compare having a general understanding of economics, investing and money management to knowing how to use a computer, having an annual health checkup or getting your car's oil changed regularly--it just needs to happen.  

It's sometimes daunting with all that things one *should* know.  With all the chatter, advice, hysteria and Jim Cramer on CNBC--no wonder people feel overwhelmed.  But here are some resources I use to stay educated. They break it down, keep it applicable and make it interesting.

Favorite Financial NPR Radio Shows:
Marketplace (weekdays)
Marketplace Money (weekend)
Planet Money (podcasts a few times a week)
Freakonomics Radio (bi-weekly podcast)

Books:
The Elements of Investing
Freakonomics
Super Freakonomics

Websites:
Mint.com Helps you budget & track expenses by tying into your bank, credit card & loan accounts.
Google Finance Provides research on stocks, mutual funds, bonds with news from the companies

Deal-based websites and programs:
Groupon Do you love deals? Do you buy stuff or go out to restaurants or need a massage? Check out this marketing sensation if you have not already.

Living Social Groupon has spawned LOTS of imitators but who can complain? The more deals the better. This is another good offering of the group shopping phenom.

Offermatic The same promise of Groupon but without the redemption aspect. Plug in your bank info and it tracks your spending and if you spend a certain amount of money with a vendor they work with, they just issue you a rebate. Automatically. Very slick but still very new. I think we've received ~$40 back for not changing our spending habits at all. Can you tell I'm a fan?

New take on investing/lending/borrowing:
Lending Club Do you like the idea of 3rd world micro-lending but wondered if it could be done here in the US? We'll here's the answer to that. You get to play "bank" and put your own hard-earned money into the pot and choose people to loan it to. There are descriptions and analysis done on the folks applying for money. Sometimes it's for debt consolidation, sometimes it's for a wedding, sometimes it's for moving cross-country. You get a story, a credit rating and an interest rate determined on how risky the loan. The riskier it is, the higher the % rate. So you could score big with a return or you could have a default. With investment minimums of $25, you can spread the wealth around and see if you can loan better than the banks. It's like a game except it's real life.

Other Financial Resources:
Dave Ramsey Our friend Sean really likes this guy. He's all about eliminating debt.

If anyone has any other financial information resources that they'd like to share, please post a comment.

House Warmed (last weekend)

Yes, I am a week late posting this. But it's taken that long to decompress. Not from the party so much as the weeks gearing up for the event. Ken and I did this last time where we set a date for a Housewarming party very soon after moving in so it would FORCE us to get projects done, boxes unpacked, things organized, art up on walls and decorating done. It's a deadline that gives us an undeniable mandate to get sh** accomplished and then consume a whole bunch of wine with our friends.  But the pressure gets intense because we leave things (especially art hanging) until the very end.

Ken's mom was here for a week spanning the party (thank god) and she was able to referee help make suggestions.  Though I don't feel "decorating" is on my top ten best things I'm good at list, I do have good taste.  (This was in dispute a few nights before the party when we recreated the 'When Harry Met Sally' Wagon Wheel Coffee Table argument regarding good taste.  Substitute my WSU Cougar clock for the Wagon Wheel Table.)  The clock remains but it's in the far corner.  Winning!  I like sentimental art and possessions around even if they don't necessarily match or go with the house.  Ken appreciates "visual aesthetic" above all which does not consider sentimental value among an object's merit.  

While my Depeche Mode tour posters, shark photographs and inspirational sayings written in calligraphy will never see the light of day again, we are in a spirit of compromise so the much maligned WSU Cougar clock and a sequined WSU logo that my friend Amy sewed for me are displayed.  And my Mulan movie poster is up--that was non-negotiable.

So to the party, simply put, we have great family and great friends.  My Mom, Cindy, Dad and Ken's Mom were all here.  They helped with food, the baby, logistics, photography and drinking wine (well 3 of the 4 did that).  Our friends (some of whom we have not seen for awhile) filled this house with laughter and well wishes.  A surprise outcome of the event was discovering that we have a Toddler Thunderdome in our basement.  We moved all the toys down there and the 20+ kids who showed up had a blast.  We were thrilled to maintain an adult upstairs and a very kid-friendly area downstairs.  Bodes well for the future.

We chose this Ranma together at an Asian Antiques shop 2 days before the party.  We were amazed at how perfect it fit the mantle area and the tenor of the house.  I think this is the first art we've "picked" because usually art just "happens" to us.

Sidney was the belle of the ball and loved hanging out will all the kids who came to her house.  

Despite my best efforts to minimize a "shoe farm" from springing up, I guess it can't be helped when you have no actual foyer and people need to take off their shoes.  We need a "shoe valet" or something.

Note to self: more savory items next party and meat, definitely some meat.

The Moms--all smiles

Cheers to a great party!

Thanks to Karen for lending her serving tower and trays.

After party jubilation