Mount St. Traci

Well, it has finally happened... My brother (herein known as "the boy") has finally caused the wife (Traci) to explode -- she even dropped the Fun word (note the capital F in Fun... you should be able to figure out which word this is)!

She didn't explode at him, as in yelling or berating him, but at his logic and/or arguments in a discussion.

First, let me say that both the wife and I enjoy challenging each other and arguing our viewpoints to each other when they differ -- which isn't too often, after all we have many of the same beliefs; this is what helps make us compatible for each other. At the end of these discussions, we may walk away frustrated that the other person is an idiot for not seeing the obviously correct side of the discussion (our own side), but there are never linger feelings of anger or resentment; like I said we enjoy these challenges.

As such, we also enjoy engaging in discussions with others, if they can make intelligent or interesting arguments for their point of view. This is sometimes how you learn things you might otherwise not know; there is nothing wrong with this.

Enter the boy... I don't get it. He's a paradox on so many levels. I know he's intelligent, yet he's an idiot. He knows tons about finance (he works in this industry), but he sucks at applying his knowledge on a personal level. Many, many, many times, my conversations with him end with me walking away rubbing my head, mumbling things like "it hurts so much..." I just don't get his logic, more correctly -- lack of logic at times.

Well, the wife has now had the experience. Typically she doesn't get involved in our discussions because often they are about things she is either not interested in, or doesn't want to get involved for other reasons.

As it turns out for 2 straight nights (Tuesday and Wednesday) the 3 of found ourselves discussing seemingly trivial things that have led to bigger issues. The first night was centered on the English language (Dan, if you think I'm picky about the rules of the English language, you've NEVER dealt with Traci.) I'll leave the details out, but note that we have started to call Jeff (the boy), jEEff (pronounce a long E sound) as a joke.

Last night, however, the discussion started innocently on a subject -- the Punk Rock Straight-Edge movement -- a little closer to Traci's personal experiences, and just spiraled down from there. Remember, Traci was a goth chick in high school. I often envision her father (HUGE neo-conservative guy), dropping her off at the "uppity/preppy" school she attended, dressed as she was... and chuckle. Not to mention the girl was wicked smart and I'm sure drew some confounding stares from the probably conservative faculty. She even started a campaign to oust the headmaster from the school, which I believe she won... I'll check on that fact.

For those who want to know the details of last night's discussion, read between the set of asterisks --

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According to jEEff, this movement was started by a couple that endured a horrific experience and blamed it on the hard and heavy drugs they were using at the time, and just woke-up one day and swore off all of this, pulling a complete 180-degree in their lifestyle -- I can find no reference to this incident anywhere as a starting point for the movement.

OK... doesn't matter if that story is true or an urban legend meant to inspire people. I say anything along these lines that can help inspire or encourage someone to turn their life around, more power to it.

The boy's arguments center around -
1) he does not believe it possible for anyone to wake-up one day and do a 180. No matter what has happened, or what traumatic event occurred - it's just not possible. I'll even grant him that most who try this fail (I don't know the statistics for this), and there aren't many that fall into this category to begin with. But according to him, there is absolutely zero percent chance this can or has ever occurred. He will concede (I think) that over time people can make changes, but that these changes are drawn-out, and invariably will not be completely opposite to where they started.

2) Most who claim something along this line, relate or tie this in with finding religion. Jeff is an explicit atheist. As such (and I would suppose most people would agree with him on this), he has problems when people claim to have found religion to help clear their name with society, or when they do things against individuals or society in the name of religion.

Despite some off the cuff examples of people we know who have made changes in their lives after experiencing a traumatic event -- someone has a heart attack and resolves themselves to get healthy and improve their lifestyle. According to him, if they would then go even one day without exercising or working-out, they have not pulled a 180.

I should have suggested he attend a couple of AA meetings or things along these lines. I'm not suggesting that everyone or even the majority of people have had an epiphany and have immediately pulled their life around, but I'm willing to bet you wouldn't have to look all that long and hard to find someone, and again...

So what if ALL these stories are urban legends... If they help just one person to improve their life, isn't it worth it? Yes, it's a white lie, but doesn't the end justify the means in this case?

His response was no. Since nobody can possibly pull a 180, there should not be any stories even suggesting this.
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The exact discussion didn't go word for word like the above, and believe it or not I have left out large chunks. But the general gist is there. At any rate, the 10+ minute discussion ended with Traci dropping the Fun word, and saying "I can't take it any more. It hurts so much..."

My response to her... "Welcome to my world!"

Sign Poker

Mr. OldMan...

I'll see your spelling mistake sign, and raise you this sign. Like your's, this one came from my work place.

Beware the Marauding Mucouser!!



Ah... The joy of public restrooms!

Movie Review: The Wickerman

The wife and I rented a movie this weekend called The Wicker Man. This is not the original (didn't know there was one until just a couple of minutes ago, but the 2006 version starring Nicolas Cage.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do yourself a favor and do NOT rent or even watch this movie. The best part of the movie was the credits. The wife kept watching because she thought it was going to get better. I kinda stopped watching the movie, and complaining about the movie about 30~40 minutes into it... Had the feeling I was ruining it for the wife with my semi-constant complaints, so I quit.

Now she wished she had quit to.

Her last words were: "That's it? It doesn't get any better?"

I didn't like Vick before...

But IF what he is accused of is actually true -- he's innocent until proven guilty -- I hope they F'ing fry him; I realize they won't actually, but they should.

Admittedly, I would consider myself an animal person, I love them. Some people don't. I can live with that... I can even almost understand it. These people simply chose to not have pets or be around animals in general. Fine.

But to breed an animal for the sole pleasure of fighting to the death (in some if not most cases), I find truly deplorable. Then to strangle, electrocute, hang, or beat an animal to death because it can no longer compete...

IF he did what he is accused of, I would have no qualms if they did any of those above to him and his co-defendants.

Technical Challenged Family

OK, so let me explain why I refer to the wife's family as America's Most Technically Challenged family, and remember, it's my job to solve any tech related problem for them, usually via the phone.

So, couple of weeks ago, they upgrade their cable service to get cable modem, and upgraded cable TV line-up. They used to just get the really basic cable package -- cable plugs into back of TV, and you get 50 channels... now they have a package that requires a settop converter box.

Before, the only device they had to turn on/off was the TV; now they have a settop box as well. Not really a problem, since the cable company gave them a universal remote with each settop that can be programmed to control the TV as well. The day of the installation, I was down there to get things working for them, and programmed the remotes for their TVs and demonstrated how to use the remote.

"Just press the red "All-On" button, and it will turn everything on. Press it again, and it will turn everything off. The volume controls the TV volume, and the channel buttons control the settop channels."

Everything has worked smoothly, until a couple of days ago, but knowing they were coming up for the 4th of July, they just waited until they were here to ask me about their latest problem.

"Richhh..." -- seems like mom drags my name out a little when she's about to ask me about a problem.

"Richhh, the cable has been great, and we love it. Except, now the problem is that we accidentally turned the TV off manually, and now we can't watch TV. When we press the "All-On" button, the TV turns on, but the light on the little box goes off. When we press it again, the TV turns off, but the light on the little box comes on. We haven't been able to watch TV for a couple days now."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah."

Can anybody think of the solution?

Turns out that the wife's sister did. She figured out to turn the TV on or off (not sure which) manually, and it has been working for a couple of days now... Mom just wasn't aware of it.

Oh, and just to give you some background on Mom and Dad... Mom used to work for the NSA and Dad was an engineer for a defense contractor. I would tell you what either of them did, but both had classified jobs. Dad's last project before he retired was related to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter

Scooter has Skated...

I can't take credit for the Tag Line "Scooter has Skated..." the wife came up with that.

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was convicted on March 6, 2007 of four counts of perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements to FBI investigators.

George W. Bush, has determined that his 30 month jail sentence was just too harsh for these actions, so he commuted the jail time of the sentence, but left the $250,000 fine, and probation.

So, let me get this straight... For the record, our legal system is NOT supposed to be one of retribution, but one of deterence and rehabiliation. So... The idea is to make the possible sentences be such that nobody would want to commit the crime in the first place, and should they commit said crime, to change their thinking/behavior such that they won't do it again.

So... that being said, what The Great and Powerful George W. Bush is really saying, is that spending 30 months in jail, paying a $250,000 fine and having 2 years of probation is just to much for what he did.

Let's revisit what he did (supposedly). He commited perjury, obstructed the justice system, lied to the FBI (, and covered the VP's ass.)

Yep, I suppose having to spend 30 months in prison for covering the VP's ass, is just a little too harsh.

I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Libby just got a job with Halliburton along with a $250,000 signing bonus.

I am, however, surprised that Scooter didn't just get an outright pardon.

Just Shoot Me!

And I'm not talking about the David Spade TV Show.

I'm talking about my luck.

Two weeks to go before the wife and I leave for vacation, and she is now facing the prospect of knee surgery. She's done something to her knee, but we don't exactly know yet. She goes for an MRI Tuesday night, but the current thought is that she has a tear in one of her ligaments. Surgery is only IF the tear is big enough, but hopefully a series of cortizone shots will be the answer -- but we'll not know until after the MRI.

How is this my bad luck, and not hers? Well to be honest, this is having a greater impact on her, but it's my blog, so it's written from my point of view.

There are other reasons this is so irritating for me, but this being a public forum, I really can't get into them, suffice to say that the current situation is extremely distressing to both of us.

If you feel that you must absolutely know why this is so distressing, you can ask, but depending on who you are, I may not answer.

Capital One -- No Hassle My Ass!

Long story short, at one point had a credit card that I shared with my brother -- he used it, but he needed me on the account to have it. This account has since been closed, but I am now playing the "move the balance game" with zero interest credit cards. The idea is that he pays the balance off, but I'm trying to save him interest charges.

I, however, got tired of playing this game and just paid the balance off. I had called Capital One, and asked for the pay-off amount. They gave me the 10-day pay-off, and I sent the money, via an electronic transfer from my bank (I pay all my bills online, and apparently my bank sends all funds to Capital One electronically.)

When I called in mid-April, I asked for the pay-off amount and closed the account, I was informed that the balance would need to stay at $0 for 1 full billing cycle. No problem; never used the card to begin with.

Well, it turns out that the money got there too quickly, and I wound up with a $0.32 credit. Just realized this yesterday when I got my statement. The fact that I got a statement made me skepitcal -- why would I get a statement for a closed account? Yep, there's a credit, but wouldn't they just keep it since it's less than a dollar (just like the IRS does), or shouldn't then send me a check?

So I called this morning.

They are now sending me the $0.32, but my account needs to be at $0 for one full billing cycle before the account closes. Spoke with a supervisor... same song and dance.

"So, let me get this straight. My money got there too quickly, and I wound up with a credit. Your organization had access to my extra money for a month now, and because of this, I am now penalized? I can't close my account?"

Yep.

So when will my account be closed? August 4th (my next billing cycle starts on July 4th). The billing cycle from July 4th to August 3rd will be the first full billing cycle with $0 balance.

No Hassle my ASS!

Several Quick Updates -- Wife's raise

While not in affect yet, have learned some additional information.

- Healthcare contributions will increase
- Union dues will increase

Can't hardly wait for this raise to go into affect. I do not have precise details as to how much these costs will increase, but I can't hardly wait to see.

Yippie!!!

My Todd Story

I'm TRULY hoping this doesn't turn into a Todd W transmission story.

This is the VERY beginning of the story, so it's not a lost cause yet.

About 2 weeks ago, the wife's brand new 2006 Subaru Outback started making a "sqeaking" noise at highway speeds. Nothing major, but definately annoying... especially for a car with less than 10,000 miles.

The Subaru dealership I purchased the car from has had it for 2 days. They can replicate the noise without a problem, but they can't identify where it is coming from.

It's now Friday, and we need the car for the weekend, so we are picking it up, and after a 5 minute conversation, they decided not to charge me (good luck trying) for time spent.

Tuesday we drop it off at the Subaru dealership in our town, and we'll see what they can find. I've already warned them that this has been at another Subaru dealership, and they were unable to find the cause -- just wanted to give them a heads up about this potentially perplexing problem.

Update on the Wife's raise

Just got the info this morning... The raise (originally due January 1, 2006) should be finalized and in affect by July 1, 2007.

We are looking at a whopping $40 per pay period (she gets paid twice a month... 15th and the last day of the month)!

We waited 18 months, for $40 a pay period. Somehow, I don't think that's a good ROI.

P.S. On a percentage basis, the raises (they broke the total raise down into yearly increments for purposes of back pay) are decent percentages, but a large percentage of a very small number to begin with, equals another very small number.

Cingular CSRs

I don't mean to sound superior or arrogant, but the last couple of interactions I've had with CSRs have all left me with an understanding of why they have a job as a CSR, and not as a rocket scientist.

For example:

About 3 weeks ago, I switched the personal cell phone from a regular cell phone account -- we were paying $35/mo. and got X many minutes, etc... To a pre-paid account. You see, the wife carries the cell phone, and MIGHT, on a heavy month, use 30~40 minute of talk time. That's it. Neither of us see the point in talking umpteen million minutes on a cell phone while driving or walking around a store, and forcing the rest of society listen to half of our conversation (don't get me started on the whole NEXTEL walkie/talkie feature where I'm forced to listen to both sides... I REALLY don't get that walkie/talkie feature...)

At any rate, watching $35 a month fly out the window was painful. I looked into it, and Cingular has several pre-paid plans that would save us boat loads of money each year, so I switched to one of them.

Then, the other day, the wife told me that she no longer has signal on the phone... We don't live in an area where signal is sparse. We never have issues getting signal from Cingular (NEXTEL is another issue. Work makes me carry a NEXCRAP phone). So, I play with it for a day, and still no signal anywhere.

Last night I call Cingular. 3 transfers later, I am talking with a rep that can actually access my account. Not surprisingly pre-paid accounts are treated as 2nd class citizens, but OK.

Rep asks what she can do to help me. I inform her that:

"I recently swithed from a regular monthly account to a pre-paid account. The phone worked for a couple weeks after that, but now the phone gets no signal anywhere. I'm standing in my kitchen now, and used to get full signal, now I have nothing."

Her response:

"Are you on your phone now? I won't be able to help you if you are."

Did she really ask me that? Does anybody see the problem here? How can I be on my phone, when my phone has no signal?

I hope she's not in line for a promotion to any job that requires her to think without the aid of scripts that CSRs read from.

P.S. after several go rounds of short bursts of typing on her end, and me turning the phone off and on, I now have full signal.

Trash Day - No Rain

Well, it would seem that complaining here has a positive affect on somethings... lets try some more.

Complaint 1 - Salaries

We have received Traci's W2 from work, and are just waiting on mine, so that I can complete our taxes for the 2006 calendar year -- I've got access to everything else.

I use TurboTax, so it's relatively easy to do multiple tax return scenarios, simply by changing what you want... total time invested last night was 15 minutes.

The other good thing about TurboTax, is if you've used it in the previous year, you can import your tax file. When working through the process, at different stages, it will show you your current tax situation as compared to the previous year's (I'm sure all tax software does this.)

This is where my compliant comes in. In 2005 Traci worked in private practice. She hated it. Hated the firm, hated the type of law, hated tracking her time in 15 minute increments, hated (how should I say this) the pressure to spend more time completeing a task for a weathly client than was necessary -- spending 30 minutes filling out a form that should only take 5~10 minutes, etc...

In 2006, she went back working for local government, where the pressures are reversed... Get as much done in as little time as possible. She likes this environment. She feels she's working more for the client's true interest (getting the correct outcome with respect to justice), than her employer's pocketbook. Nothing is a perfect system, but she likes where she's at.

Problem is she took a 20% pay-cut to go from private practice to public service. We knew this going in. However, the county lawyers (they are members of a Teamster's Union) were supposed to get a new contract at the beginning of 2006 and a pay increase to go with that new contract. While we didn't know what that increase would be, we figured, anything would help offset the initial pay reduction.

It is now January of 2007, and no contract or pay increase yet. Staring in July of 2006, we heard "anytime now..."

Comcast asked me to take a similar pay decrease, along with other de-incentives for the new job.

My compliant. We both do good work... somebody pony up the money. We BOTH can't take a 20% pay decrease. Not going to happen.

We've committed/promised the County, Traci would work there for 2 years. We are both people of our word. She will work there for 1 more year, and then she's going to find something in the private sector. She gets asked once or twice a month by different attorneys/firms if she is interested in leaving the public sector. She'll just have to find something that she likes or at least can tolerate in the private sectore. I'm pretty sure she has a standing offer from a local firm (fairly large for our area)... She's just never investigated it.

Compliant 2 - Student Loan Interest

Another reason I was interested in playing with Traci's taxes, was that I was trying to figure out exactly how much of the money we pay in student loan interest we get back.

I was, however, dismayed to learn that there is still a cap of $2,500 that you can claim in interest paid on student loans.

I pay more than $2,500, why can't I claim more? I'll give my arguments.

The government employs/contracts social scientists and economists to study certain problems and help devise ways to incentivize people to do what the government wants -- Yes, for right or wrong, we are manipulated by the government.

For example, mortgage interest. It's a proven fact (many, many times over), that home ownership promotes a productive society -- increased productivity, lower crime rates, better educated populace, etc... Therefore, we are allowed to deduct our interest mortgage to help offset the cost of our home.

In the same vein, they also allow us to deduct interest paid on student loans, because a better educated populace helps decrease the crime rate (even more so in the area of violent crime than other areas), promotes productivity, raises GDP, increases the tax base, etc...

Here's my argument. The better educated the populace, the more positive an affect there is in the areas mentioned above. Higher educations cost more money -- a law degree is considered a doctoral degree (Juris Doctorate means doctor of law). Everywhere you read about post-high school education, costs are constantly increasing. Help offset these costs by letting us deduct all of our student loan interest.

For the past 4 years (I've only been paying these loans for 4 years), I've only been allowed to deduct the maximum of $2,500. At that level, it will be several more years before I'm under that cap.

Mr. Bush (I know you read my mail and my blog, thankfully you now need permission from the FISA court to tap my phone), either eliminate the cap, or raise the cap.

P.S. You will get 15% of what you pay in student loan interest back in taxes