One thing I don’t really get.. I’m not really clued up on these add on applications that I keep getting “invited” to use. Each time I sign up for one, I just seem to get more email I don’t want. For example, this is from the Facebook application, Social Profile.

“Curtis, you are more desired than 69% of all people
In total, you were reviewed for dating 327 times and 12 people expressed interest in you.
You are more desirable than 69% of 30,297,707 people.

Last week you were viewed 15 times and no people expressed interested in you”

Out of 327, only 12 were interested. That’s something like 3%, but strangely enough I’m doing better than 69% of over 30 million other people. I think that’s massaging the statistics a little, and someone needs to revise their numbers as I don’t think I should be doing that well.

Bank of America abruptly notified cardholders in good standing their rates would skyrocket if they didn’t opt out fast. Is BofA greedy or needy? ..
The major credit-card lender in mid-January sent letters notifying some responsible cardholders that it would more than double their rates to as high as 28%, without giving an explanation for the increase. ..
Bank of America appears to be taking an even more aggressive stance because, beyond credit scores, it is using internal criteria that aren’t available to consumers. That makes the reason for the rate increase even more opaque. “Congress has faulted credit-card companies for lack of transparency in raising rates,” says William Ryan, a financial industry analyst at Portales Partners, a New York-based research firm. “Bank of America is bringing it to a new level.” ..
Bank of America hasn’t made it easy for consumers to reject the new rates. The letters require that consumers write Bank of America to agree to no longer use the card and pay off the existing balance at the old rate—they can’t telephone to do so, nor does Bank of America provide a form or a return envelope. Moreover, consumers don’t have much time to respond. ..
“Either Bank of America has more financial troubles than it is willing to admit or it has a level of institutional arrogance that is unacceptable.”

You can sign a petition here to help:
~ http://proudtoliveinamerica.com/Forms/Main/Default.aspx?L=en-us&P=Petitions

Please sign, and forward the message onward.

I’ve read about this story for some time now, and they finally sent him
home, and only gave him $10k back, keeping the rest.

~ http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/27/immigrant.money/index.html

Some of the circumstances around this are confusing. Some are saying he
hadn’t paid taxes on this, some are saying he *did* pay taxes but didn’t
file his taxes correctly. Regardless, many conservatives calling for him
to be crucified as an example of the harm illegal aliens are doing to
America and the American economy. Thing is, I wonder just how many of
these screaming conservatives would take his place and wash dishes for
$5.50 an hour for 11 years. Here’s one such rant:

~ http://www.theconservativevoice.com/article/28308.html

And comments on this article are even more shocking, suggesting things like the place he worked should be burned down:

~ http://www.theconservativevoice.com/forum/read.html?id=11424#comments

That amount of money doesn’t even buy a small piece of a smart bomb they
like to let loose daily in the middle east, but would make the world of
difference to that man and his family back home.

Bastards.

I’ve unleashed a monster..

Shawna: i feel so extraordinary
Shawna: something’s got a hold on me
Shawna: i get this feeling im in motion
Scott: sorry was on call.
Scott: asudden sense of liberty
Scott: i don’t care cause i’m not there (literally)
Scott: and i don’t care if i’m here tomorrow
Shawna: again and again ive taken too much
Shawna: of the things that cost you too much
Shawna: i used to think that the day would never come, i’d see delight in the shade of the morning sun
Scott: my morning sun is the drug that brings me near
Scott: to the child hood i lost, replaced by fear
Shawna: i used to think that the day would never come
Scott: that my life would depend on the morning sun

Scary info #2

Scary info #3

Journal Inquirer - Top Stories - 12/01/2005 - Federal Reserve money supply report is about to fall into the abyss
12/01/2005
Federal Reserve money supply report is about to fall into the abyss
By Harlan Levy

In a little-noticed decision a few weeks ago, the Federal Reserve Board said it would stop publishing its weekly M3 money supply number as of next March, although it will continue to publish M0, M1, and M2.
M0 is all coins and paper bills. M1 is M0 plus all checking accounts. M2 is M1 plus savings accounts, money market accounts, and certificates of deposit of less than $100,000. M3 is M2 plus all deposits, euro dollars, and repurchase agreements that are $100,000 and larger.

(A repurchase agreement is a short-term sale and subsequent repurchase of securities by a bank or other financial institution.)

M3 is the broadest measure of how much money is circulating in the U.S. at any one time. Unlike M2, M3 is the big stuff, the super-size deposits.

“M3 shows intervention and big money movements,” Bill King says in The King Report says.

But why should you care?

(snip)

“They know what’s coming — massive amounts of dollar creation to fund the worsening trade and federal government budget deficits,” says James Turk in the Free Market Gold & Money Report.

“There is only one reason for the Fed to conceal important monetary component information,” The King Report says. It’s “to cover up the truth about what the Fed, central banks, and the really big money are doing.”

(snip)

A possible market crash is only one reason for secrecy, McHugh postulates. “Is the economy closer to the brink than anyone realizes? Or is it politically expedient to goose markets? Do the corporate elitists want the big payback for backing the powers that be and insist upon a rising market into year-end?” he asks. “Do they see a catastrophe coming that will require hyperinflation to bail the U.S. out? Maybe.”

I’m going to add to this post as I find related stories. Thing is, there are so many of them out there!

I was originally signed up for a MBNA Linux Fund card. I deliberately chose them over banks like B of A as I didn’t like what I’d read about banks like B of A in various online reviews. B of A bought out MBNA not so long ago, so despite trying to avoid them I became their customer in the end anyways.

Less than a couple months ago I was checking my online statements and noticed my bill said I was being charged something like a 20 or 25% interest rate. I found this shocking as I (like many others) get many offers for credit cards for interest rates much less than this, even after the special 0% intro rates.

I called B of A to discuss this, and was passed round a number of people before settling on one person that I had a very heated discussion with about my interest rate. I demanded to know why I was being charged such a rate, made it clear I was extremely unhappy about it as I’m a very active customer and regularly pay my bill in full. They responded that it had jumped to that rate as a penalty as I’d made a late payment. I asked when the penalty interest period would stop and the rate would drop back down, and they said it doesn’t automatically drop down again without intervention.

To clarify .. I’d continue to be charged this very high interest rate unless *I* took some action.

I responded that I’ll be taking advantage of the many other credit cards offers I get in the mail almost daily and for rates less than half of what they were charging me, and demanded my account be closed immediately. At this point the guy I was speaking to put me on hold for a few minutes. When he came back, he said he’d drop my interest rate to a more reasonable 15.x%.

Fast forward today. I was checking my credit card balance online today after receiving an email reminder that payment was due on my account. As I was out of the country over the xmas holidays I took a quick peek at my statement for that period. I scrolled down a bit and this jumped out at me..

Note the rate in the bottom right hand corner of 35.89%. Now I don’t know about you, but this is WAY above anything I’ve ever seen advertised and I’m sure you’ll agree is an absolutely ridiculous rate to be charged. I very occasionally pay a little late but usually drop thousands in to pay the complete balance at once as I often do US wide travel with occasional international travel.

A little googling around turned up interest rates for B of A credit card holders substantially less than what I was being charged, even after then intro 0% period had ended. For example ..

(click to go directly to B of A site directly with this ad on it)

Note my card actually has “Platinum Plus” underneath the “Bank of America” logo, which to me implies I should be getting 9.9% as advertised here.

So I called B of A AGAIN today. I got a very nice pleasant lady on the phone who asked what she could do to help. I told her I’d looked at my online statement today and noticed the interest rate of 35.89% being charged for that recent billing period, and I’d like to know why I was being charged that. She said “One moment sir”, and I was put on hold.

After another minute or two a guy answered. I asked who I was speaking to, did he know who I was, why was I speaking to him, and why was I transferred. He said he was in some department like “account retentions”. Read into that what you will.

I explained to him what I was looking at on my bill, and said I’d like an explanation of the 35.89% number. He said I wasn’t being charged that, that my rate was actually 15.99%. This figure is on the image above. I continued to ask what that 35.89% number meant, and why it was on my personal bill, referring to a specific billing period. He responded they had to put that on there for legal reasons and that I wasn’t really being charged that rate.. every customer is different. So, I asked, if we all get different rates, what does that number mean for me? I could NOT get a clear answer out of him. I don’t think he knew.

I kept drilling him on this, asking why it’s there at all, why it’s specific to me, and he got very obviously irate. I took the time to explain my other recent previous experience, when I saw a number like this on a recent statement, I had to call and found out it was my interest rate, etc.

He had no response.

Even after speaking to their expert, I still have no idea what this number means, and why they’re legally obligated to put it on my statement.

I’m going to be looking for a new credit card next week.

I had backups of all the data, but hadn’t realized I’d not backed up essential config like /etc and /var.

I thought I had an ad hoc backup of the whole OS, but that turned out not to be. A quick fsck and it became completely hosed.

Once I could work out how to do it, it was pretty straightforward to restore the wordpress sites, kudos to the wordpress folks!

My photo album using Gallery2 on the other hand was a complete PITA. I like using it for my photo album but it’s waaaaaaaaaaaaay too complicated. I know I had my album of photos preserved, the installation directory for my config, and the mysql database backed up. They simply won’t restore. I strongly suspect a problem with a URL rewriting plugin that’s totally misbehaving, but I can’t see how to fix it right now as I’ve been doing this so long my eyes are going crooked.

I need to sleep.

When I get back, I need to get 3 750GB drives, RAID 2 of them, and have the 3 for an independent backup. That combined with the offsite backup at Steve’s should mean I’m covered. Hopefully!

Headed to Ireland on Weds, need to pack, get presents, tidy up loose ends, last thing I needed was this kind of failure!

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: RE: House of Blues suggested menu
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 14:27:29 -0600
From: Curtis@CurtCunningham
To: ‘Curtis Cunningham’

Curtis,
That s too funny. Chalk it up to fledging technology that our paths would cross.

Take Care,

The Curtis Cunningham

From: Curtis Cunningham [mailto:curtis@drumgit.com]
Sent: Monday, November 26, 2007 1:17 PM
To: Curtis@CurtCunningham
Subject: Re: House of Blues suggested menu

I thought they’d broke the mold when they made me

Curtis@CurtCunningham wrote:

> Briscoe,
>
> Too wild!!! Looks like his address is curt@curtiscunningham and mine is curtis@curtcunningham

•  Japanese journalized shot at point blank range, unprovoked. [video]
• School guards break teenagers arm for leaving crumbs. [story, video]

I’ll add to this as I find more examples.

From now on I stick to finding a band that’s already running that I only need to depend on me learning the tunes so I can start playing.

——– Original Message ——–

Subject:	The Band
Date:	Wed, 29 Aug 2007 20:05:48 +0000
From:	*****
To:	curtis, *****, ****, ****

Hey everybody,

I have decided to call it quits on the R&B band. I have too many other musical responsibilities right now to fuss with it.

I’m sorry that this group never really got off the the ground, and thank you all so much for the time spent on the tunes and at rehearsals.

Curtis: Thanks for everything…..the rehearsal spot, and all your dedication

[snip]