Sunday, March 25, 2007, 11:04 AM - Dumb Happenings
In the Old West, desperados used to rob banks. In the modern era, it’s the banks that do the robbing.
Provident Bank (and others) engineered a way to maximise the legal robbery of its customers through clever software manipulation. How does this work? Let me illustrate.
Say you have $50 in checking, and you make six $9 purchases. Logically, you would think you would be facing a single charge for the last $9 item. But it no longer works that way. The bank would see $54 in debits on a $50 balance for that day and then charge an overdraft fee on ALL SIX items!
It gets better. Last week, Provident held 12 transactions in “pending” status for over a week (for some unknown reason). I could see the transaction values, but it did not deduct from my available balance. I made an arithmetic error for $10, so my last two minuscule purchases should have incurred a fee. Well... apparently Provident’s software was waiting for an overdraw, since the nanosecond my account was negative, the system posted all 12 transactions to my account at the same time and declared all 12 transactions to be overdrafts, despite the fact that the real value of the overdraft was about $10 and consisted of 2 transactions. The net effect was that the bank basically stole my whole paycheck since their fees totalled $440.
The banks weren’t this greedy under Clinton.
And the “financial analysts” on the talking-head shows wonder why the average American has trouble building up a savings account.
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( 3 / 1282 )Saturday, March 24, 2007, 05:05 PM - Dumb Happenings
I just don't seem to have the same luck with computers that Doug does. He can buy a laptop computer and use it every day for 3-4 years and never have one iota of problem. For me, I end up having to do a reformat/reinstall about every six months. Why? Because every computer I own gradually gets slower and slower until it gets to the point that it takes 15 minutes tio restart and when it does start, the applications load so slowly that I get [NOT RESPONDING] errors in Task Manager.
This is the 4th time I've had to do a root canal on my TabletPC. Fortunately for me, I do frequent backups. My game and my novel are located on my website and I back up all my music to an external hard drive. Still, this is a royal pain in the neck.
It's not just computers either. My T-Mobile Sidekick has slowed down to the point that it's nearly useless. My PDA seems to run out of memory all the time, despite having only two non-standard applications installed. My cell phone has to be power-cycled because the Bluetooth function keeps becoming non-responsive. My wrist watches keep stopping (and the one Doug loaned me actually started counting backwards.)
What the hell is the matter with me that the electronic devices around me just "give up" after a few months?
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( 3 / 1217 )Friday, March 23, 2007, 01:35 PM - Odd Dreams
I had a dream that took place in a different time and a different setting. In this dream, most of the world had been destroyed by vast machines and there was only one valley left that was protected by an impenetrable ring of mountains. The valley was green and pretty. Maybe 30,000 people lived here.
A certain man lived in the village who was responsible for sealing the valley against the onslaught of the machines. But his son had died in that final conflict. He thought about his son every day.
There was a day each year when the barrier between the living and the dead was the thinnest. So he climbed the highest mountain that protected the valley. There, at the top, he could talk to his son for two or three minutes. It was sad that he only had that brief time just once per year.
The man’s son was only 11 years old when he was killed during the final war against the machines. But each year that his spirit briefly manifested on the mountain top, he appeared as the same age. The father aged normally however, and appeared leathery and lean from a lifetime of hard, honest work.
The child was thin (but not gaunt), fair skinned and had short blonde hair. He looked happy, but also looked a bit wistful (probably because he missed his father too).
I could not hear what they talked about. But after a few minutes, the child faded from view as if he had been only a piece of a dream. The father turned away to start climbing down back into the green valley.
I caught a glimpse of the father’s thoughts. He was thinking of that terrible day on that last battle against the machines. There had been no ring of mountains then. The hulking war machines had come from the south to exterminate all life. They stood 30’ tall and crushed houses and people as they ruined the town.
One house had the child inside. The father was some kind of ranch hand who was walking home after doing repairs to a wooden fence that kept a herd of cattle contained. He saw the destruction of his home and his family.
In rage and despair, he raised his fist to the sky and yelled, “This shall not be!”
A wave of energy pushed the machines back. The ground rumbled and a ring of high mountains rose up from the ground. That was the only supernatural act he had ever done. He saved the town, but he could not save his son.
That was 10 years ago. Now he was a ranch supervisor and he had a new home. But he never remarried and never had any more children.
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( 3 / 1732 )Wednesday, March 21, 2007, 08:51 PM
I had a sad dream last night. Well... The dream itself wasn't sad, but I felt sad when I woke up.
The dream was a pretty simple one. It was an alternate timeline, and it was 1976. I was six years old again, except this time around I actually had GOOD parents that really cared about me and loved me. The dream was a day in *that* life. It was my first day in first grade. The amazing thing is that it didn't bother me that I didn't really *know* anything, since 1st grade students don't have to know anything.
It was a nice feeling being small, having energy, and experiencing things for the first time. Unlike my actual childhood, I also didn't have a terrible speech impediment, so none of the other kids bullied me or made fun of me.
Towards the end of the day, I felt myself drifting into the normal timeline and my awareness was pulled away from 1976. I didn't want to leave. I wanted to stay there, where I was loved by my parents and where I had friends.
I was sad to wake up. For in reality, I never had many good days growing up. My mom was a useless drunk. My dad was an abuser (mentally, physically, and occassionally sexually). Mom was apathetic and my father hated me. I also had trouble speaking when I was young. I had speech therapy until 8th grade. During that time, I was ruthlessly ridiculed and tormented, by my father at home and the students at school.
My speech impediment actually went away when I was in my early 20s.
But I wish that life had a "reset" command, where I could do my life over again. I miss the childhood that I should have had.
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( 3 / 1198 )Sunday, March 18, 2007, 09:01 PM - Cool Stuff
I finished writing Chapter 42 of my novel!
I, Construct: Chapter 42
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( 3 / 1211 )Sunday, March 18, 2007, 10:30 AM - Odd Dreams
I had an odd dream last night. It started in a small town that reminded me of Hollidaysburg, where my grandmother lived when she was still alive. It was a pleasant looking town full of little houses and narrow streets. The weather was nice: warm, breezy, and sunny. And yet, everyone in town was being drawn away to some strange spectacle at the edge of the village. Out of curiosity, I walked down the main road to see what was supposed to be so interesting.
The sight in question was interesting alright. The dream that created this town was unfinished. The road hung, unsupported, in a bright, empty sky and ended about 500 feet into a white, cloudy sky. Interesting indeed. I wanted to see what an unfinished dream looked like, so I walked to the end of the road that hung in the empty sky. The close I got to the edge, the more dizzy I became. I got vertigo and my vision swam.
I lost my balance and fell into the misty expanse. I fell into a different dream. But I had the feeling that this other dream wasn’t one that humans were supposed to see.
I saw a vast, swirling cyclone of wind, mist, and energy in an otherwise gray, shapeless expanse. Inside the vortex, two powerful spirits fought one another. One was a wolf spirit and one was a werewolf spirit. I somehow knew that I had to decide which one I would help. They were so evenly matched that even my comparatively limited psychic Profile would tip the balance if applied to one combatant or the other. I decided that the wolf spirit should win because wolves were natural animals that hunted for the sake of having food, whereas the werewolf was an unnatural animal that killed for sport.
I said a wish, and suddenly the werewolf spirit was bound inside a translucent box. It was not dead, but slumbering. The wolf spirit, in some wordless way that I somehow understood, explained that spirits may be defeated, but never destroyed. Someday the werewolf spirit would awaken and the fight would start afresh.
I also understood that I was not supposed to be where I was. I felt like I was drowning.
My awareness began to float upwards, and I began to be aware of a sudden and intense pain in the center of my back. I got my voice back and screamed, “Stop it! Stop it!”
I opened my eyes and found myself on the floor of my room. For some reason my friend Mike was there and he had been striking me on the back, hard.
I asked him what the hell he was doing. I did not realize at that point that I was, in fact, still dreaming. He said that he had to hit me because I had stopped breathing and he didn’t know what else to do.
Then I woke up for real, gasping for air. I think I actually HAD stopped breathing.
Very odd.
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( 3 / 1831 )Saturday, March 17, 2007, 10:15 AM
Now that Doug's library has been shrunk to 15% of its original size (temporarily, due to remodeling), I was thinking of some good condensed books for the condensed library:
-- The Two Musketeers
-- Tale of a City
-- The 3rd Voyage of Sinbad
-- Snow White and the Two Dwarves
-- Around the World in 25 Days
-- A Farewell to Arm
-- 49 Dalmations
Any other suggestions? Ha ha ha!
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( 3 / 1161 )Monday, March 12, 2007, 09:26 PM
The thing that sucks is that my car is wearing out, but there are 14 payments left. My old job at CCI basically trampled my hybrid into the ground. For first three years I owned my Civic Hybrid, I drove it 32,000 miles per year on business. Once I got my job at Pretrial, my driving went down to about 10,000 miles per year.
Now, at 115,000 miles, the car has a lot of vibration in the A-pillars. The car alarm and remote door opener only intermittently functions. The rear window defogger is mostly not working. Some of the LEDs on instrument cluster have burned out. An aerodynamic shield underneath the car has fallen apart.
On the bright side, the engine and IMA battery are still in good shape. The IMA battery is the huge 144v array of cells that powers the hybrid components. That part is supposed to last for 150k-200k miles. So, in the worst-case scenario, I have 35,000 miles left.
Still, I can’t complain too much. Even in its somewhat depleted condition, it still ekes out 40 MPG. It actually got over 45 MPG until the odometer hit 100k. The non-critical items may be gradually failing, but the car still gets me around without any grief.
I wouldn’t mind a Honda Fit for my next car. It’s a cute little hatchback that gets 39 MPG and costs only $16k. Doug wants a Honda Element next.
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( 3.1 / 1223 )Tuesday, February 27, 2007, 07:48 PM
I had this ghastly dream in which Doug and I went to a restaraunt in which everything gradually decayed and became undead. When we first entered, everything seemed normal enough. But then after we placed our orders, I noticed everything seemed dirty all of the sudden. Then I saw these transparent barrels of rotting body parts appear. When I looked up at the hanging lamp, there was a rotting human head suspended from it. The head opened its wormy eyes and started making incoherent noises from its gap-toothed mouth. Spatters of wet corruption dripped from the head onto the table cloth.
I grabbed Doug by the arm and started running for the door. The servers had all turned into shambling corpses. The doors began to close, and I knew if they shut completely that we would be trapped inside. We would then be eaten alive by the zombies.
I did not want Doug to be trapped, so I kept pushing him in front of me. Just as the door was going to close, I pushed Doug into the door and our combined weight forced the door back open. We did escape, but it was a harrowing experience.
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( 3 / 1352 )Monday, February 19, 2007, 09:33 AM
Man! Who the heck has been giving McCain his campaign advice lately? His message is turning into a real freak show.
In 2004, he was anti-war, pro-gay, pro-Constitution. But ever since the November 2006 elections, he’s done a 180° turn on almost everything. Now he’s all for “troop surge” and an anti-gay Constitutional amendment. But to put the icing on this rancid cake, he announced yesterday that he wants Roe v Wade overturned.
Call me crazy, but didn’t the voters reject the Religious Reich last November? And McCain doesn’t really believe the Christofascist crap he’s been spewing lately. So why is he doing it at all?
My guess is that his campaign advisers have told him that he has to make “nice-nice” with the hardline, Far Right, ultra-Christian conservatives in order to be taken seriously by the GOP.
What he fails to realise is that the Kompassionate Konservative Kristians can’t possibly make up more than 10% of the voting population. And bending to their will can only alienate mainstream Christians, independents/undecideds, and traditional “small government” Republicans.
Not that I want another Republican president. I don’t. But it is a shame to see a free-thinking senator I once respected so obviously and blatantly sell out.
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