Cosmetic Surgery Blog

I wanted to let you all know that Damavava contacted me a few weeks ago, apologizing for claiming my stories and photos as her own.  I feel that she is being very genuine in her apology and she takes full responsibility for her actions  I do not feel that she was being malicious at all, in fact, her behavior (contacting me) was quite noble.  Her screen name could have disappeared off the face of the Internet and returned as someone else with none of us the wiser.  But she chose not to.  She chose to face the music and I greatly respect her for that.

She is deeply upset with herself and feel that she deserves the punishment of being ostracized for her actions.  I, however, do not.   She doesn’t deserve to be smeared and bashed.  People make mistakes both large and small and we all deserve second chances. To err is human, remember? 

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Okay, okay. I will admit it. I have never watched an episode of Sex and the City nor did I know the difference between Samantha and Carrie until last night. Oh. My. God. Are these ladies fabulous or what?? What an incredible group of characters; no wonder this was made into a movie! The characters are completely and totally believable; the character empathy is above and beyond, this movie is a success in my eyes. Not that my opinion matters, but it grasped emotions that were buried so deep down, fears I didn’t know existed, nor had I even considered. Then it rescued me with the romantic idea of endless possibilities and the assurance that aging means nothing more than gaining wisdom and building a collection of experiences. This all coming from someone who had only heard of Mr. Big in the fleeting conversations of passersby.

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Internet Fakers: The Other Of of Identity Theft

My next favorite subject is exposing the Internet Faker or Identity Thieves. This phenomenon was first made known to me when I had Googled a girl named Staci Cole after her pics had been posted on the rhinoplasty forum (they admired her beauty). In my opinion, Staci Cole, is stunning. She has all of the key features often associated with beauty. Large, blue eyes, a small nose, full lips, inner childlike features—the girl has it all and she knows it. But I digress… I started coming across photos taken by Staci with various signs directed at specific people (called Salutes), claiming that she is indeed, Staci Cole. Apparently, people were posting her photos as their own on LiveJournal, MySpace and elsewhere, claiming to be her to garner attention and cause general havoc in the process. I thought surely this was not something that happened every day. Years went by and many an Internet Faker Bust site was launched. Unbelievable. Can this truly be such an issue that there are sites dedicated to exposing this practice? I thought surely this must be a teen, or very young adult, problem because no lady in her late twenties and up would do such a thing, right? WRONG. All ages are guilty of this unbelievable smoke-and-mirrors act. From Internet Mailorder Bride catalogs to Dating Sites, people aren’t always who they claim to be.  And then it happened to me…

I was Googling my boyfriend’s name and came across a Philosophy Forum and discovered a snippet in a post that read, “P.S. Go and check the new photo I just add [sic] on my profile, this is a photo of myself taken last November in Interlaken, Switzerland…i t [sic] is a very “Evish” photo, Eve enticing Adam with an apple…Photo Credit: Barry Holubeck; “Feeding Pig-Pig in Switzerland was a daily ritual before watching the BASE jumpers step off La Mousse.” I was in shock. Lo and Behold there was a pic of me feeing Pig Pig that I posted a while back on my blog. I know I didn’t write that post and I know for a fact that the person in that photo was ME. Pandora’s Box was opened…

I started Googling around for more info on this person (Damavava) and found a blog account on GAIA with photos of, guess who! ME!!! With captions that made no sense to me. This person was clearly claiming to be me and only using photos I had taken with huge sunglasses on, but it was me clear and simple. These were photos I had posted on this very blog in my Mongolia trip article, and my New Year’s post, or other various articles. There was even a photo that I know I took of one of the staff on my Mongolia trip drinking Airag (fermented/alcoholic mare’s milk) out of a motor oil container. Even more shocking was Damavava’s personal account of my exact experience in Mongolia I had blogged about. Everything from our Furgone breaking down under the powerlines to the Furgone catching on fire, to having all of my belongings stolen (she didn’t mention that I had gotten it back 2 days later with the help of a monk because I hadn’t published that update as of yet). She even named the same horseman (Dorja) and guide (Uyanga, pic attached of us putting on make-up in the tent in the morning)? Impossible, considering Dorja was a once in a lifetime hook-up, we found him last minute because he had enough horses for us to rent. Damavava’s blog entry was nearly an identical account of my trip, many times verbatim. Even crazier and unrelated was that I found a photo of myself taken by Barry in our friend, John’s plane, in her online album. However, this time the caption said “Albert’s Plane”. Albert? Who’s Albert?? (See the screen capture of her photo album with my photo at the left bottom of the last photo entry).

So what did I do? Well, I started gathering screen captures of the posts, photos and blogs in the event that they conveniently disappeared, which they did right before publishing this article (weird). I can only assume it was because I joined ePhilosophy and viewed Damavava profile so many times. Perhaps it shows who visited your profile; I am not sure. In hindsight, I should have chosen a less obvious name than YTF if this is the case. Every account with this person’s username has since been deleted.

Obviously it was Salute time. When I went back to Switzerland two weeks ago, I made a point to take my first set of salute photos (in front of BASE Pig, aka Pig-Pig, and then before getting ready to BASE jump) to verify my identity. Verifying your identity shouldn’t even have to be an issue! I even wore the usual huge, signature glasses she has me wearing in the photos she has “borrowed”. Although these (Gucci) are different than last year’s (Chanel) because I broke them. For shame!

Upon further research (and if that research is true and correct), I believe Damavava may be about 45, lives in Canada, and I think her initials (I will not divulge her full name) are M.V. Okay, I am 36, I am not 45. Plus, I don’t think if I were 45 I could pass as 36 either. But I sure hope so! She also claims to have a 37 year old boyfriend who “jumps off [sic] of airplanes to feel alive”. A. Barry is 36. and B. she very well may have a skydiver boyfriend, but if you lie about 5 things, what’s to say you won’t lie about the 6^th! This is becoming more and more disturbing to me.

Now I know I could have just let it go, not post about it publicly, and been simply flattered by the act. Afterall, isn’t imitation the best form of flattery? But then I thought to myself, I don’t know what this person has said or done using my photos claiming them to be her own. And then I thought further and realized this epidemic needs to stop. This is in its own way stealing someone’s life. I know she reads this blog because this is where the photos were taken from. Thank you Damavava for your pseudo-adulation, but in all reality it isn’t right to pretend you are someone else, no matter how flattering it may be. This is my life. I am the one who did the things you posted about. I am the one in the photos. Please rethink your actions next time you choose someone’s life to blog about as your own.

To Internet Identity Thieves: No matter your intentions, be proud of who you are and what you do. Don’t hijack someone else’s life. Besides you will usually get caught eventually thanks to caching, archiving and the like. If anyone has any similar stories about your Identity being stolen or anything to add, please feel free to post. I’d love to read your feedback.

Updated on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 12:02AM by Marianne

Is it just me or is everyone fed up with online trolls that can ruin your mood with one swift post? You’d think after being on the Internet as long as I have few things would shock me. I know that I shouldn’t allow myself to become upset over troll-droppings, and honestly I don’t get too incredibly hurt these days by the stupid comments. But, still some trolls slip through the cracks and affect me enough that I ask a few close friends, “Do you think [insert whatever inane comment the meanie said here]”.  For instance the last troll on my blog said I had tragically huge lips.  Now, I know I do not in fact have tragically huge lips.  But the comment did trigger me to ask two friends of mine if they felt I did.  They, of course, said no. So I took pics of my lips during speech, smiling, frowning, etc .to see if  I did have a trout pout.  It was just a mean comment by a troll of a woman who after seeing obvious photos of hugel, post-injection, swollen lips decided to spew her venom on me. Thankfully I realized it and didn’t care anymore. 

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Although I never thought I’d say this, I have found something better than typical airplane skydiving! Granted, it is the same principle, but it is an entirely different feeling. It is essentially a simulated BASE jump, but you are still in an aircraft. So it is the closest I can get to this feeling until next month when I jump the Perrine bridge in Idaho.

My friend, Mitch, organized a balloon jump with Balloon Addicts of Perris, CA. We had to be there at 6:15 AM, even though the balloon never takes off before 7 AM. The cost was $75 for about 5,000 to 6,000 ft of glorious altitude. There were 10 of us, but I was the only girl. I’ll admit it, I was scared to death. I was peaking so hard from the thought of it. I was quiet, I was nervous but I wasn’t going to allow fear to stop me. After all, fear was irrational. I had enough altitude, and I had a reserve. What could possibly go wrong?

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