Grandpa,
I don’t know how to put it, but if you put this letter in the paper please do not use my name. If it gets out, I might not graduate. And my friend could be in a lot of trouble, too. See, I stole my friend’s laptop computer. I only kept it a little while so I could off-load some school work. I returned it before he ever knew it was gone. While I had the laptop, I found a bunch of pictures on it. Not the kind of pictures he would want his parents to see. Now I am feeling guilty about stealing the school work. Worse, I am afraid he will get caught with those pictures. I don’t know what to do.
Grandpa says: First, be honest with yourself. Erase from your computer the work that you stole from the other student. Do your own work. Then, take your friend into your confidence. Let him know you took some of his school work and that you found the pictures. Tell him it is not a good idea to keep them on his computer. Then allow him to make his own choices.
As a graduating senior, neither you nor he is a child anymore. You are both old enough to know right from wrong. You are both old enough to live with the consequences of your choices. Be a man. Own up to your actions and be truly repentant when you apologize, or you are just blowing smoke rings in the wind.
Grandpa,
I am a good-looking guy, I am calm and peaceful, and I cannot find a girlfriend! I have gone to advertising on (an internet ad site). I get responses and I always get happy when someone asks me to E-mail them directly instead of through (the site’s) exchange. Once I do, I never hear back from them? I don’t talk trash or filth. I have on some occasions sent a photo of myself. I am open and honest about who I am, and yet, I still cannot find a girl who will go out with me. What am I doing wrong?
Grandpa says: Without sounding just like a Country Western singer, you are looking for love in all the wrong places. I know which web site you mean. It is what is called a favorite phishing hole. I won’t list all the types of problems you could run into on that site. In your case, you are advertising in either the missed connections or the activity partners section.
So, what is happening in your case? Unscrupulous phishers see an ad from someone who is desperate, either for money or love or what ever, and they answer the ad. You get promises. You send them an E-mail to the address they give you. Coupled with the personal info you have already sent, they have a gold mine of salable information about you. Just your E-mail alone is worth a fortune. I bet you get a lot of spam, don’t you? Your address gets sold to marketers. Stop sending it out!
Got something stuck in your craw? Ask Grandpa. Address your letters to Ask Grandpa c/o The Voice, PO Box 123, Aurora, IL 60507 or send an E-mail to askgrandpa@thevoice.us.