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At the risk of being unreasonable: both Chase and Citigroup can kiss my big ass.

Last week I received a notice that Chase was increasing the APR on my credit card. It is changing from a 7.99% fixed rate to a 14.59% variable rate. Total bullshit and really irritating, as I have been nothing but the perfect fucking customer. Also not that big of a deal as my balance on that card is only about thirty bucks right now. Easy enough – pay it off and stop using it.

Today I got basically the same change in terms from citicards. My 8.99% (which is currently 3.99% on a promotion) is going to become a minimum of 14.99%.

That’s not going to fly. I have a pretty big balance of wedding bills on that card, and I know that with my credit history they can do better than that.

Incidentally, Laura and I both have pre approved applications from Commerce bank that came last week. 0% for a year, which then becomes prime plus 3.99%, minimum of 9.99%.

I called citi to try and leverage the commerce application. I politely and calmly explained to the gal on the phone that the interest rate they were giving me was not reasonable, and told her about the commerce cards. I also told her thar I would really rather keep doing business with citi, but that I would need them to at least try and match the 9.99% or they were going to lose my business when I transfer my balances to commerce.

She pretty much told me that they would get over it.

Is this what it boils down to? Billions of taxpayer dollars to keep these shady too-big-to-fail banks running, and they tuen around and give it to their good customers in the shorts? I know there was a provision in the credit users bill of rights that prevented jacking up the interest on existing balances, but my understanding is that it was stripped from the final bill so that congress could actually get it to pass. That’s change you can believe in – thanks congress!

Criminals.

Well fuck that. I’m a customer and not a criminal, and I’ve made a lot of money in credit card interest for both of these banks over the last eleven years.

Not anymore. Chase and Citi are both done making any money off of me. Balance transfers to commerce are already underway.

Fuck you, I’m out.

…14 days of school left after tonight. that’s monday and wednesday from now till may 3rd, not counting a week of spring break. and then i’m fucking DONE. for good. no more registrar’s office, no more loan paperwork, no more stupid bullshit bookstore purchases or parking permits. DONE.

i. cant. wait. albeit, that means i have to become a productive member of society, but that’s a chance i’m willing to take. it’s time to move on with life.

speaking of school. i think it should be a requirement that anyone in a business administration program should be required to take some kind of class on communicating. how to make decent looking presentations, how to give a good presentation, how to speak in front of a room full of people without reading off of notecards… as common and important as this kind of thing is, it just blows my mind that there’s college seniors about to graduate that can’t give a speech/presentation/talk to save their lives. reading notecards verbatim and not making any kind of contact with your audience won’t just cause people to ignore what you’re saying, it will get you laughed at behind your back, and maybe even fired.

random tangent – is anyone REALLY still interested in any of this princess di shit? the secret audio tapes and secret video tapes that nbc has been showing off like a fucking war medal?

who cares? really? jesus christ, people, she’s dead – can’t we just let her rest without trying to create some controversy where there is none? can’t we just leave it alone already? talk about martha stewart or something already.

finally, before i go, this is something i just have to get off my chest. sorry, but i’m going to get a little political on y’all again.

all these people who ‘vote pro life’ and vote for an official (like dubya) solely based on whether or not they are pro-life? IDIOTS.

newsflash: george bush? he’s not pro-life. he’s anti abortion. same thing, right? wrong.

pro-life and pro-choice are not opposites. just like life and death, they are related, but not opposites. pro-choice is a position that supports a woman’s right to have an abortion. pro-life, however, is not a position against abortion – it is a position against the taking of ANY life.

language experts will argue that pro-life no longer means that – popular usage has changed it’s meaning, and now it IS a position against abortion. well, popular usage is fucking wrong.

so george bush? NOT pro-life. you CANNOT be pro-life AND pro capital punishment. you CANNOT be pro-life AND pro-capital punishment.

so, people – if you’re going to be pro-life, that’s great. it’s a good position to have. but MEAN it. there’s no grey area here – it’s black and white. either you’re against the taking of any life – or you’re not. there’s no room for wishy-washy on the fence shit here.

claiming to be pro-life and supporting the death penalty doesn’t make any sense. it’s a logical fallacy. and it reeks of hypocracy.

read this: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4312689/.

what the fuck are we now, retarted?!? let me highlight some specifics:

“Ralph Nader acknowledged Monday that it will be difficult to get his name on the ballot in all 50 states in his independent bid for the presidency.”

that’s because you CANT FUCKING WIN. you couldn’t beat gore. you couldn’t beat bush the first time. you can’t beat ANY of the dems this time around (except maybe al sharpton and the chick whos name i can’t remember,) and you SURE AS HELL can’t beat bush THIS time.

don’t get me wrong. i consider myself one of the working middle-class ‘joe sixpacks’ that ralph nader fights for and advocates. and he’s has a respectable career and done some good things.

but, ralphie? buddy? you dont even have green party support. you didn’t get enough popular vote in 2000 to get general election taxpayer funding. you need more signatures just to get on the ballot in all 50 states than you got in the entire 2000 election. so who are you trying to fool here?

long story short: a vote for ralph nader is a vote for bush.

why? well, think about it.

there’s two teams here this year, and only two teams. we’re divided pretty much in half. there’s the ‘pro-bush’ team, and the ‘anti-bush’ team.

supporters of george bush are going to vote for him regardless of nader’s presence in the race. they’re sure as hell not going to suddenly decide to vote for nader now that he’s running AGAINST bush.

haters of george bush are going to vote for whoever the dem candidate is. kerry, edwards, whoever. but the presence of ralph nader fucks that up, because now there will be people supporting ralph nader (who can’t beat bush) instead of supporting the democrat (who can beat bush.)

let’s connect the dots: ralph nader nabs his 2 or 3 percent of the popular vote. just enough to fuck the democratic candidate in an already marginal 50/50 election. next? nader doesn’t get elected president (which everyone knew from the start, but whatever.) kerry doesn’t get elected. edwards doesn’t get elected. george dubya gets re-elected.

so what happens? in an attempt to dethrone king george II and protect the working middle class, ralph nader indirectly keeps george bush in office and protects the upper 2% yet again. joe sixpacks everywhere are faced with another term of shady special interest bullshit and upper class ballwashing.

does someone need to act it out in fucking sock puppets for this guy? all he’s going to do is fuck all the people that he claims to protect.

so, to summarize (and then i’ll shut the hell up):

a vote for ralph nader is a vote for bush.

DO NOT VOTE FOR RALPH NADER.
Continue reading ‘the idiot’s guide to fucking up a presidential election’ »

how long has it been now? a month and a half? lordy. i’ve been meaning to come back around and start posting again for a few weeks, but i’ve been busy as SHIT.

first, the computer. seems my thoughts were right. after testing and trying to diagnose all kinds of different stuff, turns out it was my motherboard. so, i went out and bought a new board and chip, and i’m running a monster now. it’s an athalon 2000+, with 256 DDR ram and 160 gb of hard drive space (well over half of which is now consumed with shns and videos.) i’ll post the pictures of me trashing the old gateway piece of crap.

oh yeah. did i mention my ‘rents finally hooked up the DSL? its niiiiice… and like everyone said, you folks on dialup don’t know what you’re missing. so i’ve been on a massive download spree. doesn’t really matter what it is anymore, just so long as i’m downloading. shns, videos, stuff for bands i dont even like. doesn’t matter. i just finished downloading all of the dave and tim tour to-date.

spike’s doing well. he’s getting really friendly and he’s even been coming out during the day lately. i’ll try to get some pictures up, and once i get some more free time, i’ll even finish the photo galleries that i’ve been promising for so long. lauren even has a program that might make my life easier, so ill have to harass her for it again.

i finally set up my fish tank… i’ll see if i can get some good pictures, but it’s hard to do through glass and water. i’ve got three fish in it that i got from my grandma. they were my uncles, and he died about 2 years ago… she’s been feeding them since, but doesn’t really know how to care for them, so i took over the tank and put it in my room.

[start soapbox rant]

…and don’t get me started on this “war.” don’t get me wrong, i don’t consider myself pro-war. i’m never pro-violence. however, i can see why this guy and his government need to go. i’m kind of on the fence about the whole thing.

HOWEVER. if you are anti-war? that’s fine. if you want to protest? go for it. do it all you want. but don’t do stupid shit like preach anti-violence , and then riot and fuck stuff up. that’s stupid.

protest and boycott whatever you want, but don’t fuck your fellow citizens in the process.

you know what else is stupid? duct taping yourself to other protesters and blocking busy intersections and off-ramps. is that supposed to prove something? how does that really have anything to do with protesting the war? it DOESN’T. it’s STUPID. it just makes you look like a giant ASSHOLE. don’t block MY freeway, buddy, you’ll be a god damned hood ornament.

[end soapbox rant]

anyhow, i think that’s all i’ve got for now. i’ll make sure to post more often for those of you that actually still come by and check.
Continue reading ‘a new record even for me”’ »