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I know I start out referencing something I saw on TV in most of my stuff but, hey, I watch a lot of TV! Saw a commercial last night on Discovery about an upcoming show on dinosaurs and how they interacted. My mind wandered a bit to the scenario of us co-existing with dinosaurs in today's world. Could you imagine what it would be like? Damn, here comes that herd/pack/gaggle of T-Rexes again! Can't keep a straight fence in my yard. The damn things just stomp all over it and they just ate another cat! They would have a field day at the football stadium. It would be like a Golden Corral buffet. You know, we can generally tolerate hurricanes, earthquakes, and blizzards but a T-Rex or some raptors like on Jurassic Park would be like tornadoes. You kinda know they are out there but they show up unexpectedly and tear up a lot of stuff. I'm sure at some point we could kill and eat them all (tastes like chicken!)
I was surprised to read the news story about Dubai being in financial trouble. They want to postpone interest payments on $60 billion in debt. The first thing is that I thought Dubai was a country with lots of oil. Shows you how much I look at a map! It's about the size and population of the Tampa Bay area, only hotter and drier. I thought, that with all of the palm islands and indoor ski slopes, they were rolling in cash. Apparently, only 6% of their revenue comes from oil. The wars in the gulf have given them a business opportunity in real estate and shipping. They must have bought into the same bullshit that the US real estate market did! Larger and more elaborate projects are running them into bankruptcy. Obviously, some things are just plain stupid. Who builds a ski slope in a city/country with an average temperature of 104 degrees? At some point, I would expect the sea to eventually take back the palm islands. Here's something to think about. Remember the controversy when it looked like Dubai World was going to control 6 of the US's major seaports? The concern over national security was legitimate. What if the port takeover had happened? Certainly, one of Dubai's creditors might be able to influence them in a way that was not beneficial to us. Of course, Bush was all for it. Another one of his stupid ideas! Thank God someone in Congress said "Whoa!!"
The news is all about Sarah Palin's new book these days. It got me thinking about how someone can become famous so quickly. As you know, Palin rose from obscurity to a household name almost overnight. She just happened to be who the GOP picked to use up in the last presidential election. How she achieved cult status is beyond me. I don't know what her platform was when she ran for governor of Alaska but it looks like the people were fed up with the typical good ol' boys option and she was the alternative. Kinda sounds like the last prez election, doesn't it! I suppose she appeals to a slice of America that enjoys that idea that a woman can shoot a rifle and dress a moose and then dress for a party and do shots. Just because she ran as a vice presidential candidate doesn't mean that she has the depth of experience to be our next president. The talk of her being the GOP's choice in the next election is probably because they assume that running against Obama will be an uphill battle and they don't want to burn a good candidate (if there is one).
Speaking of Obama, where did he come from? He was a virtual unknown until the Dems started a buzz. Next thing you know, he's the next Martin Luther King and saviour of our world. The whole time he was running for president, I was reminded of the Chris Rock movie "Head of State". I believe his platform was "It jus ain't right!" Obama popped up out of the super-corrupt Chicago political machine as the (apparently) only clean one of the bunch. It's kinda hard to think that there are no ties to that machine although so far he seems to be genuinely concerned with changing the way the country is heading. I do think he is trying to do too much too fast for too much money. The decision makers of America are the same ones who put us in the economic predicament we are in now. I can't help but think of how long we will be paying for his reforms.
Let me tell you about my encounter with UPS today. On Thursday, I sent a next day air package to Colorado. I didn't want to just mail it because I wanted a tracking number and going to the post office is a pain in the arse. The recipient had failed to give me a suite number, so when I checked the tracking today, there was a delivery exception. It said there was no apartment or suite number on the package so they couldn't deliver it. The message said that they would send the recipient a postcard with instructions to pick up the package at the local customer service center. Now, if they couldn't deliver the package, how the hell is a postcard going to get there? I decided to call UPS, after calling the recipient to get the suite number, to let UPS know the suite number for re-delivery. Here's my call:
UPS: Welcome to United Parcel Service (or something like that). Please say one of the following options:
Tracking a package
Shipping a package
Order supplies
(Now, I hate voice menus. I would much rather press a number.)
Me: tracking a package.
UPS: Please say the tracking number.
Me: 1Z3Eblah,blah,blah
UPS: I'm sorry. There is no information on this tracking number. Please check back later for updated information.
(returns to the original menu)
I press 0.
UPS: Welcome to United Parcel Service (or something like that). Please say one of the following options:
Tracking a package
Shipping a package
Order supplies
Me: Order supplies.
UPS: Press 1 to have an order form faxed to your location. Or stay on the line for an agent.
I wait. I get a real human.
UPS: Hi, my name is whatever. How can I help you?
Me: I was tracking my package and saw the delivery exception because of a missing suite number. I called the recipient and got the suite number. Now I want to give it to you so the package can be delivered.
UPS: What is the tracking number?
Me: 1Z3Eblah,blah,blah
UPS: Oh, there's a delivery exception on that package because of missing address information.
Me: That's why I called.
UPS: Well, we can't add the suite number and redeliver it. You need to come down to the customer service center and pick it up.
Me: I'm in Georgia. I'm the sender. Not the recipient.
UPS: Can you call them and tell them to pick up the package.
Me: No, it's a big office with hundreds of people. They're not going to run down to the customer service center to pick it up.
UPS: Well, I'm sorry but there aren't any other options.
Me: Well just shred it then.
UPS: We can't do that. After 14 days, we can send it back to you.
Me: Is it going to cost me another $35?
UPS: No.
I hung up. Now, I don't know about other cities, but in my town the UPS guys know more gossip than any beauty shop and they know where everyone is. I had a UPS guy leave my package at a local market once because he knew I would eventually show up there. One time I got a package at my office in a different town because they knew where I worked and it was closer than going to my house. The office building in Colorado is one of those small 4 story buildings in a nicely manicured office park and I know the recipient's company probably took up a whole floor. I know damn well the UPS guy knew where this office was. I guess now I have to mail it.
I wasn't planning on writing this for a few days but Facebook pissed me off by not letting me write what's on my mind so here it is. In the last 10 months or so, I have managed to wind up on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn as well as writing a blog. I noticed on LinkedIn that a lot of people started last fall and winter. Although the recession started around January of '08, it took until fall for the shit to hit the unemployment fan. All sorts of advice columns popped up on how to keep or find a job. One suggestion was "networking" with friends and colleagues for potential employment. I'm not sure how everyone is doing with that because most of the people I found as colleagues apparently set up their accounts and never looked again. I run across a fair amount of Twitter accounts like that too. I think most were set up when Ashton Kutcher and CNN were competing to get to 1 million followers never to tweet again. A large part of the rapid increase in social networking activity is from folks like me sitting in an office with nothing else to do. Thank God we have internet! As frustrating as Facebook is, it is pretty cool being able to see friends and relatives and know what they are doing day to day. That being said, I can't seem to share what I write in the "on my mind" box so here is what I'm trying to write:
Yesterday I was standing in line at a government office and noticed a sign nearby explaining the upcoming days that the office would be closed. It listed Nov. 11 (Veterans Day) and went on to list Nov. 25 and Dec. 31 as Furlough Days. (Yes, they were capitalized) The woman in front of me turned and asked me what Furlough Day was. I explained that the state was initiated budget cuts and every state employee had to take 2 unpaid days off. She then asked who Furlough was! I told her that Furlough wasn't a who, that it was a what. She was completely serious!
I read a new article on The Red Tape Chronicles yesterday about credit cards. The woman in the article had her Citibank card rate going from 12% to 30%. According to the article, she had a perfect pay history and a credit score in the high 700's. Her two choices were to pay the higher rate or to close the account. In today's kooky financial reasoning, closing the account would negatively affect her credit score. What I can't figure out is why not having a credit card lowers your credit score. If you do enough reading you will notice that, no matter how you handle your credit card, it negatively affects your FICO score. There are so many opinions that they eventually contradict each other. I am amazed at how much power the credit bureaus have. It has gotten to the point that banks and mortgage companies don't look at anything other than your score when making a decision. It also doesn't make sense that, the lower your score, the higher your interest rate. People who need the break with lower payments get the opposite.
Here is an example: two people go the the Chevy dealership to buy a car. One is a doctor. The other is a stock clerk at Walmart. They both need a car. The stock clerk is obviously tight on money since he works at Walmart. Doctors are not generally tight on money. The doctor has a 790 FICO and the clerk has a 620 FICO. The doctor will get 0% financing because he can afford a higher payment with a shorter term. The clerk will pay 15% because he needs 72 month financing. Another thing that doesn't make sense is, the longer the term, the higher the rate. If the clerk had a lower rate, he could more easily make the payment, improving his FICO score.
Getting back to the credit cards, the current shenanigans of the credit card industry are in retaliation to the latest round of regulations imposed by Congress. They are always going to screw us over as long as we as a nation think we have to have the cards. I think it's cool that they can't mess with our debit cards yet but I'm sure it's coming. While there are some logical reasons for using a credit card, most of the time they are used for buying stuff that we could do without for a while. It's that whole "instant gratification syndrome" we are all going through.
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