Oh yes, I went there.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
This Banking Stuff Is Out Of Hand.
So I'm finished paying off my car this weekend. Which I thought was a good thing. Apparently my bank thinks that's a bad thing. I've had an account with them for 7 years and have never paid a fee for my checking account. Which is why I was surprised to find an 8 dollar monthly fee when I checked my account today. Apparently some time in the past two years they changed up all their rules and now have a bunch of different checking account levels. I don't care, I mostly just want somewhere for my paychecks to land before they get cut up and fed to various other entities. And the reason I could not care for so long was that if your accounts and loans totaled more than $10,000, they waived this $8 fee for swankified checking, or whatever its called. Now that I've paid back the loan, I no longer get a free ride. I'm pretty sure I don't use any of the features of this value added-status (aside from the .05% higher APY, woohoo!) so I called them up to see if I needed to downgrade or what, cause there's no damn way I'm paying you to hold my money.
Turns out there's another route into the gratis high-roller's checking club. You need to have direct depost, E-statements, and online bill pay enabled and they'll waive the monthly fee. Okay, I already do the first two cause I want less paper and I haven't done bill pay because it seems like adding a paper transaction for things I already do electronically. But they're sending the paper to someone else, so what do I care? (I actually hope that they can take care of most of these things electronically too) Whatever, at first glance this does seem marginally easier with all the payees on one page (after I set them all up) but I never really had any trouble remembering to pay three bills on three different websites. So I'm signed up for online bill pay which costs $5.75 a month but is free if you've got this super-platunim player's checking account that online bill pay makes free... seems nonsenically cyclical and backwards, are you sure I'm reading this right?
So essentially you'd charge me more money if I took advantage of fewer of your services, and less money if I make you do more work? Yeah, I know its really about locking me in to the institution to make changing banks more of a hassle. (which is why they weren't worried about me leaving when I had a loan) But honestly the only thing that made me think about leaving in 7 years was your 'incentive' to stay. Seems a little effed up if you ask me.
Turns out there's another route into the gratis high-roller's checking club. You need to have direct depost, E-statements, and online bill pay enabled and they'll waive the monthly fee. Okay, I already do the first two cause I want less paper and I haven't done bill pay because it seems like adding a paper transaction for things I already do electronically. But they're sending the paper to someone else, so what do I care? (I actually hope that they can take care of most of these things electronically too) Whatever, at first glance this does seem marginally easier with all the payees on one page (after I set them all up) but I never really had any trouble remembering to pay three bills on three different websites. So I'm signed up for online bill pay which costs $5.75 a month but is free if you've got this super-platunim player's checking account that online bill pay makes free... seems nonsenically cyclical and backwards, are you sure I'm reading this right?
So essentially you'd charge me more money if I took advantage of fewer of your services, and less money if I make you do more work? Yeah, I know its really about locking me in to the institution to make changing banks more of a hassle. (which is why they weren't worried about me leaving when I had a loan) But honestly the only thing that made me think about leaving in 7 years was your 'incentive' to stay. Seems a little effed up if you ask me.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Foil Ball Status
Monday, April 20, 2009
Just So's You Know.
Am constructing foil ball from Reese's Mini Cups wrappers. Updates to follow.
I am now 10,002 days old. Feels very similar to 9,999.
Also, I may have had too many Reese's Cups today.
I am now 10,002 days old. Feels very similar to 9,999.
Also, I may have had too many Reese's Cups today.
Friday, April 17, 2009
You're So Old.
Yo dog, apparently I'm not cool enough chastising the intertubes by calling them intertubes anymore. There's a meme a week; nay a meme a day to catch up on. This must be exactly what happened to your grandparents. They got excruciatingly tired of keeping up with the meaningless minutea on the twitter and lapsed into old age. so while this Jalopnik explainer might be extremely useful, it should also be depressing. Because nomatter how with the times you though you were, you're not. You can't help but lag behind. And if you're not, you need to get a life, or at least something to do between 1 and 4. 7-11 might be hiring?
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Spot Of Tea, You Jackass?
You are goddamn idiots. Pardon my french. First off, you've been talking about tea-bagging for the last two months with virtually no idea what you're saying. (aside from the testicle thing) The Boston Tea Party was a protest about taxation by a foreign government that afforded no representation to the populace. You are represented, we had elections, you just lost. So if you're unhappy with the way our government is spending tax money, you can write to your representative or wait till his term is up. But know that while there may be 10,000 of you that object, there's millions more that trust our elected public officials. So the entire symbol for your "movement" is wrong. Like Jon Stewart said "You're the minority now, its supposed to taste like a sh*t taco."
Furthermore, if you wanted to have the Boston Tea Party's effect, you would find some way to lower your taxable income. I'm guessing buying teabags to dump on the ground as part of a grass-roots protest doesn't qualify as a deduction. So you might just end up working less, giving away more or just not paying your taxes and accepting whatever consequences that entails. Oh, you're not that upset? Well eff off.
And the slate article points out that your political label is becoming quite outdated, especially as Democratic priorities are made forefront. "Protests by definition oppose the status quo, which conservatism is supposed to defend. Protesting for conservatism is, to borrow a phrase, like fucking for virginity." You're gonna have to think of something else to call yourselves soon, I'm thinking something along the lines of "goddamn idiots". I'll see you out there next month with your "I object to protesting" picket signs.
Next up, you object to "this administration's" wasteful government spending. Yeah, it sucks that all the damn banks collapsed and that they made so many bad loans for so long. But have you really forgotten about the last 8 years already? The hands off 'regulation' that allowed this to happen in the first place and the $700 billion Bush urged Congress to approve before he left office? And how much money that we didn't have was spent on a discretionary war? And the "pork filled budget" was your effing representatives trying to spend federal money in your districts. Creating jobs and paying Americans in tough times. Plus we get new roads, smart electrical grids and renewable energy out of the deal. How is rallying behind an expensive, unwinnable, unjust war 'patriotic' and re-investing in America with socially beneficial programs not? I guess I didn't get that memo.
After all of 4 months in office, you're so tired of the cleanup effort that you just can't keep silent any more? You're blaming the chemo instead of the cigarettes. In all honestly too many Americans have been playing with pretend money, up to our eyeballs in debt. It never really made sense to me, but I've always thought that you should be able to pay for what you buy. We (through the government) are finally paying for the reckless lending and spending that we've been taking part in for the past decade. That's the price of the new American Dream of "something for nothing". Maybe a new depression will jolt us back into the strangely coherent motto of "work hard and live happy" that made us a world power to begin with.
Furthermore, if you wanted to have the Boston Tea Party's effect, you would find some way to lower your taxable income. I'm guessing buying teabags to dump on the ground as part of a grass-roots protest doesn't qualify as a deduction. So you might just end up working less, giving away more or just not paying your taxes and accepting whatever consequences that entails. Oh, you're not that upset? Well eff off.
And the slate article points out that your political label is becoming quite outdated, especially as Democratic priorities are made forefront. "Protests by definition oppose the status quo, which conservatism is supposed to defend. Protesting for conservatism is, to borrow a phrase, like fucking for virginity." You're gonna have to think of something else to call yourselves soon, I'm thinking something along the lines of "goddamn idiots". I'll see you out there next month with your "I object to protesting" picket signs.
Next up, you object to "this administration's" wasteful government spending. Yeah, it sucks that all the damn banks collapsed and that they made so many bad loans for so long. But have you really forgotten about the last 8 years already? The hands off 'regulation' that allowed this to happen in the first place and the $700 billion Bush urged Congress to approve before he left office? And how much money that we didn't have was spent on a discretionary war? And the "pork filled budget" was your effing representatives trying to spend federal money in your districts. Creating jobs and paying Americans in tough times. Plus we get new roads, smart electrical grids and renewable energy out of the deal. How is rallying behind an expensive, unwinnable, unjust war 'patriotic' and re-investing in America with socially beneficial programs not? I guess I didn't get that memo.
After all of 4 months in office, you're so tired of the cleanup effort that you just can't keep silent any more? You're blaming the chemo instead of the cigarettes. In all honestly too many Americans have been playing with pretend money, up to our eyeballs in debt. It never really made sense to me, but I've always thought that you should be able to pay for what you buy. We (through the government) are finally paying for the reckless lending and spending that we've been taking part in for the past decade. That's the price of the new American Dream of "something for nothing". Maybe a new depression will jolt us back into the strangely coherent motto of "work hard and live happy" that made us a world power to begin with.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Breaking News for 2007!
VeeDub, you are about 4 years late on this noise. Don't get me wrong, you make great little cars and it tickles my fancy that you've got consumer diesels popped in some of them. But I considered buying a diesel 2 years ago when I got my car and there was no where to put your hands on one. If you'd been pushing a little harder you could have as many tdi rolling around out there as there are priusesss.
I'm for diversification of our energy consumption, which means that some folk will still be using fossil fuels when it makes more sense for most drivers to rock the electric. So efficient engines are great news, but I get the feeling that you're distracted. You'd better be working on an electric powerplant to plunk into one of these buggers too.
I'm for diversification of our energy consumption, which means that some folk will still be using fossil fuels when it makes more sense for most drivers to rock the electric. So efficient engines are great news, but I get the feeling that you're distracted. You'd better be working on an electric powerplant to plunk into one of these buggers too.
Pirate Disambiguation.
Yar. There's been a lot of pirate talk lately. Maybe its cause there are more high profile incidents or maybe there's finally been enough media coverage, but I think it may be because we're finally getting pissed off about it. In fact there's been some (online) debate about changing the term for digital "piracy" because comparing copying "American Pie 6, The Pie's Revenge" to shooting rpgs at food aid freighters and ransoming hostages isn't exactly fair. Of course there's a split in commercial digital pirates who're making money from their excercises and the regular digital pirates who object to some machination of the industry they're standing against.
The Internet has had a virtual love-affair with two kinds of piracy, starting out with copying software that was prohibitively expensive. It was the lone web navigator sticking it to the crown and playing by his own rules. Then came the old school pirate meme whereby we romanticized historical piracy. These swarthily dressed rapscallions of our imagination were free spirits who refused to conform. They were symbols of independence and defiance that made for kick-ass theme parties. They magically diverged from the most fundamental doctrines like rape, pillage, murder, plunder and rape. So when we think of an old school pirate our minds conjure this Renaissance fair character, Jack Sparrow or Westley. I guess that's the difference between an old school pirate and a historical pirate; throat slashing.
And then of course there are these modern pirates who are more like amphibian South American guerrillas. They swoop in, take some hostages, get the pay off and swoop away for the next score. Private energy companies have been dealing with this for years, just not on the ocean. They're no pirates in that they don't want the things they capture. Bank robbers want the money in the vault. Pirates want the cargo on the ship. Modern pirates are kidnappers who hold a ship hostage and flee in dinghies. There are all kinds of justifications for what they do, but its getting harder and harder to believe there is some kind of honor in their trade. And I gotta say, I'm surprisingly okay with shooting them in the head. I mean, this is exactly the opposite of my view on 'insurgents'. We create more hostility and more combatants for every military action. Maybe the insurgents and the kidnappers are more similar than I think but it doesn't seem like there's much ideology behind "first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women".
So there you go, my take on piracy.
The Internet has had a virtual love-affair with two kinds of piracy, starting out with copying software that was prohibitively expensive. It was the lone web navigator sticking it to the crown and playing by his own rules. Then came the old school pirate meme whereby we romanticized historical piracy. These swarthily dressed rapscallions of our imagination were free spirits who refused to conform. They were symbols of independence and defiance that made for kick-ass theme parties. They magically diverged from the most fundamental doctrines like rape, pillage, murder, plunder and rape. So when we think of an old school pirate our minds conjure this Renaissance fair character, Jack Sparrow or Westley. I guess that's the difference between an old school pirate and a historical pirate; throat slashing.
And then of course there are these modern pirates who are more like amphibian South American guerrillas. They swoop in, take some hostages, get the pay off and swoop away for the next score. Private energy companies have been dealing with this for years, just not on the ocean. They're no pirates in that they don't want the things they capture. Bank robbers want the money in the vault. Pirates want the cargo on the ship. Modern pirates are kidnappers who hold a ship hostage and flee in dinghies. There are all kinds of justifications for what they do, but its getting harder and harder to believe there is some kind of honor in their trade. And I gotta say, I'm surprisingly okay with shooting them in the head. I mean, this is exactly the opposite of my view on 'insurgents'. We create more hostility and more combatants for every military action. Maybe the insurgents and the kidnappers are more similar than I think but it doesn't seem like there's much ideology behind "first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women".
So there you go, my take on piracy.
- Digital (chinese and regular)
- Old School (fantasy and historical)
- Modern (kidnappers)
- What Kind Of Pirate Are You?: Pics, Videos, Links, News
- First Barbary War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Variable Whatnow?
Oh Amazon, say it ain't so. You've bucked the system for so long now, offering mp3 format and 89 cent tracks. Its honestly easier for me to buy music from you than from iTunes. (that program is so slow...) But now it seems you've caught the "scarce goods" bug that's been going around the music industry. Its no surprise that apple got it, I mean, if you go as hot and heavy as those dudes have been going...
Anyway, let me try to explain this. Songs are not scarce. CD might become scarce, but when you're just sending bits, copies of a file, there's no way you're gonna run out. Unless you use all the electricity in the world, but at that point I think you've done pretty well for yourself and we've got other problems on the table. Okay, so jacking up the prices on sought after tracks will only serve to make them less desirable.
You've managed to get yourselves into a position where people are willing to pay for something that used to be free. Maybe you scared them into playing by the rules with gratuitous lawsuits, maybe *shock* you made it easier to find what people are looking for, maybe you stoped treating your customers like criminals, or maybe the stars have aligned and you are infallible. Whatever the reason, you've got a client base, and a magical store that demands virtually no overhead on a per-unit basis. Don't hike the price (based on artificial demand) and drive down sales. If anything you should be lowering prices to drive up gross sales.
Just so you know, I will not be buying any $1.29 tracks. Ever. Haven't you heard? Its a depression and people are cutting back on non-essential items. First on the list, baseless 30 cent surcharges on non-tangible goods.
Anyway, let me try to explain this. Songs are not scarce. CD might become scarce, but when you're just sending bits, copies of a file, there's no way you're gonna run out. Unless you use all the electricity in the world, but at that point I think you've done pretty well for yourself and we've got other problems on the table. Okay, so jacking up the prices on sought after tracks will only serve to make them less desirable.
You've managed to get yourselves into a position where people are willing to pay for something that used to be free. Maybe you scared them into playing by the rules with gratuitous lawsuits, maybe *shock* you made it easier to find what people are looking for, maybe you stoped treating your customers like criminals, or maybe the stars have aligned and you are infallible. Whatever the reason, you've got a client base, and a magical store that demands virtually no overhead on a per-unit basis. Don't hike the price (based on artificial demand) and drive down sales. If anything you should be lowering prices to drive up gross sales.
Just so you know, I will not be buying any $1.29 tracks. Ever. Haven't you heard? Its a depression and people are cutting back on non-essential items. First on the list, baseless 30 cent surcharges on non-tangible goods.
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