triviageek

This link to band-aids reminds me of that TV commercial:

"It's BACON!"

"No, it's BEGGIN STRIPS."

I actually heard of this news with some regret. LEAVE INDIANA TIME ALONE!!! Argh.

I lived in Indiana and one of the favorite things that I remember about that state is that Indiana (as a whole) did NOT go on Daylight Savings Time each Spring and then fall back to Standard Time in the Autumn. It didn't need to because -- Indiana was ALREADY on Daylight Savings Time year round as, in my opinion, all the other states should be also.

It took a college Astronomy 101 class to explain it all to me, but esentially a long time ago, Indiana got itself put into the wrong time zone for it's location. And doing that had the effect of putting Indiana on Daylight Savings Time year round without needing to go thru the twice annual shift that other states go thru.

By it's location, Indiana should have been in the Central Time Zone, which is centered about St. Louis. Instead it got itself added to the Eastern Time zone which is centered more along NYC.

Now it should be obvious, if you've looked at a map recently, that Indiana is a lot closer to St. Louis than NYC. But by adding itself to the EST zone that is in effect, the same as putting oneself on DST for anyone who should be in the Central Time Zone.

And making Indiana go on EDT in the Summer, will make Indiana roughly 2 hours away from it's natural "Solar Time". IE. Noon in solar time is when the Sun lines up on those North/South Meridian Streets -- which is how the pioneers measured noon before the advent of radio, TV, or even the railroads who are the ones that lobbied for established Time Zones in the first place -- right after the Civil War.

Once, years ago when I still lived there, the federal government ordered Indiana to follow the Universal Time Act -- a federal law which regulates when and which states go on which DST in which time Zone. And I remember the then govenor of Indiana announcing on TV that he would find some exemption for Indiana from the federal law (which was in fact later changed for Indiana), or that if need be, he would hang a clock on the statehouse walls and label it "OFFICIAL TIME"; set it to what the federal law mandated; and then the rest of the state would ignore it.

Now with this recent bit of legislation, I think the current politicians are going to have to go thru the process of relearning the reasons why that long ago govenor had made such a pronouncement. --- When the sun is just setting at 11 pm. in the summer time, a number of the citizens find it more than odd; parents can't coax their small kids into bed, etc.

There's an old saying to the effect that those that don't study history are condemned to repeat it.

Today via a surplus auction, I acquired an O2 computer!!! I am so happy.


  

No, it's not a PC. It's better, or at least it will be if it functions. A surplus auction is not the best place to acquire a working computer. Although I know someone who's an expert on this species, so I may be fine, even if it's currently in need of a tune up. 

I'd almost forgotten about this Cat website. The Infinite Cat Project is a series of cats photographed looking at other cat photos. Uhhh ... just go see it for yourself.

And they currently also have a warning notice about the proposed cat hunting in Wisconsin.

Well, no more phone calls from the credit card company.

I forgot to mention that also on Sunday an "account representation" meaning collection agent of theirs phoned to "remind me" that I needed to send in a payment.

More of their getting all bent out of shape over the fact that I didn't pay the balance of $3.20 during the previous month???? Apparently. Although I've seen some (normal) companies just write off such a small sum and say "forget about it". But NOOOO not this credit card company!

To them, that $3.20 is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD! Or so they'd have you believe. I mean it's worth lowering someone's credit limit down to practically nothing. AND phoning someone on a SUNDAY to collect it.

Which actually seems odd to me. When I was growing up in another state, my parents most emphatically told me that if anyone tried to collect a debt on a Sunday, that the law immediately cancelled the debt. (Someone owed us money and I had suggested asking for it, when we happened to see that individual down the street from us, one Sunday afternoon.)

I guess that rule doesn't apply any longer, or maybe not in this state. Or maybe I should have shouted that at the man on the phone.

Instead he called at the BEST time (for my purposes) and probably the worst time for his. Once he identified the company he works for and why he was calling, he endured a lot of shouting from me, and he managed 5 whole words more, 'I understand you're upset but-' when I cut him off with a lot more shouting before finally hanging up on him.

In fact I could almost feel sorry for him. Almost. *giggle*

Well yesterday I dropped off a payment at the post office (for collection today) that SHOULD pay off the account in full this month PLUS be enough to cover what they'll charge me NEXT MONTH. This two month billing cycle thingie is how I miscalculated in the first place.

Any time you have interest one month, even when you pay the account in full, the credit card company has this new revenue generation gimmick whereby they still charge you interest (and possibly late fees and/or over-the-credit-limit fees) even though you've already paid the account in full.

I miscalculated two months ago and wound up $3.20 short. Which led to the $39.95 charges THIS MONTH.

I know it was stupid of me not to have noticed. Normally I'd just berate myself for the mistake, but what really set me off was their lowering my credit limit for the $3.20 that had gone unpaid for ONE WHOLE MONTH.

That $3.20 mistake in their little minds DESERVES to be punished with a permanent lowering of my credit limit! As they so informed me.

I phoned them twice about it on Saturday only to be told again, that I DESERVE to have my credit limit lowered.

So in my opinion, they DESERVE to lose me as a customer.

I've already cut their card in half, lest I ever at any time in the future, feel temped to use it again.

But I don't want to close the account. With a credit limit so low, identity thieves are not gonna be able to do much with it.

And that credit card company from time to time will be forced to waste postage money on me; whenever they have to send me some announcement or other about my account. I think of that as part of my revenge on them.

And when I left open my account with the other company (what I referred to as the WORST, most dishonest credit card company that I ever had the misfortune to cross paths with), when that other company had noticed that I didn't owe them any money, and wasn't currently using their card; they got real funny. That other company practically stood on their head trying to get me to use their card again. They kept sending me letters (wasting postage) offering me this or that, sending me those companion checks (wasting even more postage) every other week... I never fell for it, btw.

I wanna see if this company (who only earns the title of 2nd worst) falls into the same behavior.

Yeah, I'm a chicken. I decided to edit yesterday's entry about a credit card company to eliminate mentioning their name. Not that I said anything wrong. If sued for slander or libel (I get them mixed up) I could prove that what I've written is true.

But why put myself thru a potential lawsuit? If you really want to know the name of the credit card company, email me, and I'll tell you privately.

Several people have read my comments already (according to the "Site Meter" tracking), so that I can take comfort that a few people have been warned off them.

And actually THAT particular company is NOT even the worst credit company I've crossed paths with. The one I wrote about yesterday is at least honest in their usury and disreputable practices. They're not outright crooks.

When I mail in a payment, they don't "lose it" and fail to credit my account for the sum. Another credit card company did just that --- two or three times in a row. I had a devil of a time even trying to pay them off when I couldn't trust them to actually credit me for making payments. ARGH.

It's a sorry state of affairs when even the post office has records that a payment was made and received, but a credit card company refuses to acknowledge it. That's what one company did and, yeah, that rates them the WORST credit card company in my judgement. So yesterday's villains are just second worst compared to them.

I think that I'll write up a more detailed explanation of what the WORST credit card company did in some other blog entry, at a later time.

I hate credit card companies. I really, REALLY do! Today I got a statement from one card which says that because I owed $3.20 last month and didn't pay it. That they have charged me $39.95 in fees and interest this month.

And aparently to them $39.95 is not even enough punishment for my oversight (or really my prior miscalculation). I had tried to calculate what the charges, fees and interest would be on the following statement when I made out my payment check two months ago and actually THAT miscalculation wouldn't have happened if they hadn't issued me a refund check of $47.30 in January. ARGH!

Get it? Their $47.30 refund of an my overpayment (ie. I had paid MORE money than owed) caused me to have this $3.20 balance owed in the first place. Without the unwanted refund, I'd still have paid $44.10 more than owed. But then with $47.30 owed to me, they couldn't charge me any interest or fees, so they had crafilty refunded that amount in January, so they could later charge me $39.95 in interest and fees on my $3.20 debt.

Anyway, as if punishing me by tacking on another $39.95 to that $3.20 that I still owed wasn't ENOUGH; they have lowered my credit limit to just above the current total. They're clearly hoping to double their fees by saying that the balance is over the limit if I use the card again and then charging me for an over-the-credit limit fee too (another $35.00 each month).

I KNEW it was a bad thing when Sears sold their Mastercards to this organization. Sears wouldn't have treated a customer this badly. The new owners would in a heartbeat.

And this isn't the first time that I've experienced problems with the new owners either. Years ago I had had a credit card issued directly by them and closed it, when one of their associates lied to me. I've phoned them twice about today's mailing and during the second call one of their associates AGAIN lied to me (the liar insisted that lowering my credit limit wouldn't impact my credit report -- it will.)

What the yokels at credit card companies forget is that I am a customer. I am THEIR customer! All I have to do for revenge, is pay off the bill and put their little card away. And never, NEVER use it again!

That little $39.95 is going to cost them a LOT more than $39.95 in future lost revenue from me -- each time I use some other method to pay for new purchases they lose a hefty percentage of the sale.

There is an old phrase about 'cooking in someone else's kitchen'. I've heard my mother use it, when referring to the fact that it was something much harder to do than cooking in one's own kitchen. She used that phrase when she was occasionally pressed by circumstances into cooking elsewhere as if to apologize for any poor results she might produce.

As a child and later as a teenager, I always thought she was referring as much to trespassing into someone else's territory as to the actual difficulties posed by not knowing where pans and utensils were stored.

I come, at least on my mother's side, from a background of very good cooks. My father, on more than one occasion, remarked that the worst argument he ever witnessed between his mother-in-law and father-in-law was over who made the better biscuits. My maternal grandparents had once had their own restaurant and my mother had been brought up in that environment.

Sadly my mother was unable to teach me to cook. She did teach my older brother, but when it came my turn, she would inevitably chase me out of the kitchen saying that 'I made her nervous'.

So my cooking education has always been sadly lacking. I learned from watching a couple of odd cooking shows on PBS and from learning to read and follow recipes. By odd I mean the Vegetarian cook in Hawaii who used a lot of native Hawaiian foods in the meals she prepared and served her (also vegetarian) family. Then there was the enthusiastic guy who scoffed at all who had the 'coffee warmer mentality' and insisted that "MICROVAVES ARE FOR COOKING". In fact I think that was the name of his TV-show.

Anyway, as a result I do a lot of vegetarian cooking in the microwave. *rofl* REALLY! I'm not kidding.

In fact once when my brother and sister-in-law were visiting me, my sister-in-law feeling some sort of obligation to try and help, followed me into my kitchen. Observing the presence of a bamboo steamer (advocated by the vegetarian), watching while I cooked green beans in the microwave, and gazing at the assorted items in the cupboard racks like -instant miso soup; my sister-in-law pointed to the packets of cocoa mix and told me "they were out of place".

Puzzled I said, "No, they were in the spot where I normally kept them".

Whereupon, she said "No, you don't understand. They're out of place because I KNOW WHAT THEY ARE!"

To this day, unless it's something instant to which I just add water or a frozen TV-dinner that I just heat up, I need to follow a receipt EXACTLY or it's a culinary disaster. Unless it's frozen vegetables cooked in the microwave, that is. I've learned how to prepare them in MY KITCHEN'S MICROWAVE USING MY NORMAL 12 OZ DISPOSABLE FOAM CONTAINERS. Elsewhere using a different microwave (wattages vary) or using a different sized container (and thus a different amount of food) I would be lost.

Hence there's another meaning of the phrase 'cooking in someone else's kitchen' that had totally escaped me previously. A REAL COOK doesn't measure stuff constantly, they know what a cup of flour looks like in their bowl, how long to cook a roast in their baking pan, etc.

And me, surely the lowest form of real cook around, someone who's mastered cooking frozen cauliflower, is as dependent on MY KITCHEN ENVIRONMENT as much as others are on theirs.

So what do you think happens when the store where I buy my 12 oz disposable foam containers ceases to exist (in fact it's demolished)? When those containers (whose frozen vegetable contents when cooked turn into just the right size serving for a quasi-vegetarian like me to eat at home or with a suitable lid to put in my brown bag lunch for work) what happens when they're not available any more? What do you think I do?

Of course I freak ... and spend the next week finding an alternative source and stocking up with about a two year supply of the goods.

Yeah, THAT is what I now have sitting around in large boxes cluttering my home and car....

Now I'm stuck with all these boxes in my car. I guess it's a good thing that I have a large rented storage bin for miscellaneous stuff. Next time I go there to pay the monthly fee, I'll have several new boxes to add to the assortment.

Actually I have already begun using some of the new merchandise. It's just that I now have a supply to last me months and months, if not years and years. *sigh*

Well the good news is that I recovered enough from last night's efforts to make it into work today. And I'd finally cleaned out enough stuff from my car so that I could stuff the boxes of merchandise that I'd ordered into it when I retrieved them from the supplier's warehouse. The boxes are BIG but very light in weight.

So ... the even better news is that my gas mileage should improve now!

Trying to clean out my car is worse that I'd thought. I've managed to make myself ill from sheer exhaustion, I guess. Or maybe it's just the really bad pollen.

Well I phoned the HQ of the store that had been demolished. Turns out they've shifted their focus and no longer deal in the items I want. I googled and after perusing several web sites, I eventually found another company. This one is located much closer to me.

A phone call later, I learned that they deal primarily with businesses not the general public. However, they're willing to sell me several cardboard boxes of the items as a minimum order. -- That's an order large enough to last me a couple of years but the items aren't perishable and this is probably the best deal everything considered.

The bad news is that I'll have to clean out my car to bring the boxes home from their warehouse.

31. Before Buffy and Angel, there was another TV series featuring a vampire cop as the central character. Name the TV series and the actor who portrayed the vampire cop. Answer.
32. Which presidential brother has the dubious honor of creating "Billy Beer"? Answer.
33. Which former US president's wife founded her own substance abuse treatment facility? Answer.
34. What is the common name of acetic acid? Answer.
35. Who portrayed the character Milton Armitage in the "Dobie Gillis" TV series? Answer.
36. Who founded the Hallmark Greeting Card company (ie. someone named Hallmark)? Answer.
37. The Edsel, a car that flopped, was named after someone. Who was it? Answer.
38. In honor of the newlyweds we have the following question. Like many modern couples, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall are now the parents of a blended family. How many children do they have and what are their names? Answer.
39. What short-lived but much beloved TV-series debuted in 2002 that featured characters fluent in both English and Chinese much to the chagrin of the actors? Answer.
40. What is Quercetin? Answer.
41. By what name is Archibald Leach better known? Answer.
42. The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth is the rather cryptic name of what? Answer.
43. Donna Andrews is the author of a series of mysteries whose amateur detective, Meg Langslow, has an unusual profession. What is it? Answer.
44. Name the actress who played the romantic lead opposite James Stewart in the 1951 movie 'No Highway in the Sky' and the mother-in-law so awful that her husband "wasn't dead but in hiding" according to the title character of 'The Ref' in that 1994 movie. Answer.
45. King Henry VIII of England was married six times. His fourth marriage ended amicablly via an annulment so that his fourth wife outlived both the King and all of his other wives. What was her name? Answer.

Previous Trivia Summary.

After staying up late last night reading one of the books I'd purchased in my shopping spree, I slept in VERY late today. When I did finally wake up, I had a headache (probably from so much sleep), so I've just generally spent today resting instead of doing all the cleaning and straightening-up that I should have been doing.

I swear shopping is more exhausting that actual work. I spent at least 5 hours today taking care of errands and shopping for items that I'd been putting off for weeks.

And I got a rude surprise. One of the stores I'd planned to visit wasn't there anymore. I mean it REALLY wasn't there. The building had been torn down. ARGH! I know I don't go there everyday, but still ... you'd think I'd have heard about it's demise or something.

Anyway a web search later, shows that the company still exists. I'll have to see if the address and phone numbers for their HQ leads me to another store that still exists!

I'm so smug, I finally mailed in my tax forms YESTERDAY. I even celebrated by visiting one of the post offices open late tonight and NOT standing in line. (I picked up one of those freebie boxes for mailing priority packages, instead.)

I just feel blech today. Yucky. Probably it's due to a lack of sleep, anxiety, etc due to this being tax week. Anyway what's unusual is that a co-worker is also unwell today -- who's normally one of those people who NEVER gets sick.

Yeah, I guess I've decided to continue this blog for a while. No, I don't really have a good explanation for WHY do it now, after NOT doing it for over a year. *shrug*

Call me a perennial cat lover, but I don't plan to visit Wisconsin
at ANY time in the foreseeable future.

Today I began Stage 3 of my ritual, trying to find duplicates or replacements for all the info and items discovered missing during stage 1 of my income tax filing effort.

After sleeping-in late, I spent the afternoon and early evening with various errands like returning library books, grocery shopping, spending an exorbitant amount at the gas pump, etc. Finally I couldn't put it off any longer. I had promised myself that I would do it THIS WEEKEND. And I couldn't put it off any longer.

It was well past the time to start my annual frantic search for tax records, forms, and various notices. ARGH.

Double ARGH, I can't find everything I need. Which leads me to stage 2 of my annual tax filing ritual. Abject panic!

I watched coverage of the Royal Wedding today on CNN. Or rather part of it. I crashed (the coverage began VERY EARLY for me) and fell asleep before it was over. However I did get to see the bride and groom enter the guild hall and leave as a married couple.

Actually I have to agree with some of the other comments, Prince Charles seemed to have a genuine smile on his face as they exited. He seemed really happy for the first time that I can recall.

I'd like to wish Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall a long and happy married life together.

In my opinion it's been too long in coming. I can't say I approve of all that's happened in the past, but I am very glad that they have finally legalized their relationship and hope that the public fully accepts the new royal couple.

Oh and one more thing, I thought Anderson Cooper and Becky Anderson the CNN reporters covering the wedding festivities looked a cute couple themselves. Wonder if they're both single?