Terminalcoffee discussion
Rants / Debates (Serious)
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WTF is going on (and other general WTFs)?

Stupid politician quote of the year: Hot Springs Mayor Ruth Carney: “ If my sons had been on those two planes there would not have been 9/11.”
Reflections on 9/11: Hot Springs mayor-style
My electricity bill just went up 757% over last month's. Uh, wtf??? I'm glad I didn't wait until the last minute to open this bill, like I normally do...
I don't even use AC! I use fans!
I don't even use AC! I use fans!
Yes - I went and read the meter myself and called them with the correct reading. The reading turned out to be 25% higher than last month, which I still don't get (I can't figure out what I used 25% more of), but it's easier to pay than 757%.
Incompetent meter reader? New employee? Bad eyesight? Intoxicated? Who knows.
The nice thing is that we have government agencies to help, if the utilities are denying anything's wrong, or refusing to do anything about it. The Citizens Utility Board or the Illinois Commerce Commission will help you. I called the latter and the woman used her special clout to get ComEd on the phone with me, bypassing the wait times, so I was able to talk to someone competent from corporate, rather than the first person at ComEd call center I talked to, who wouldn't admit that a 757% increase was at all bizarre. Then the corporate person called me back to apologize.
So: yay government.
Incompetent meter reader? New employee? Bad eyesight? Intoxicated? Who knows.
The nice thing is that we have government agencies to help, if the utilities are denying anything's wrong, or refusing to do anything about it. The Citizens Utility Board or the Illinois Commerce Commission will help you. I called the latter and the woman used her special clout to get ComEd on the phone with me, bypassing the wait times, so I was able to talk to someone competent from corporate, rather than the first person at ComEd call center I talked to, who wouldn't admit that a 757% increase was at all bizarre. Then the corporate person called me back to apologize.
So: yay government.




It's because there are different types of loans. A mortgage on a house is (almost always) a nonrecourse loan, meaning the house is collateral for the loan. If you default on your payments, a lender can't go beyond taking the house from you. The lender can't also try to seize your bank accounts. A car loan is not a nonrecourse loan. If you default, and the lender repossesses the car, typically they would quickly sell it and sue you for whatever the outstanding balance on your loan is, minus what they were able to sell it for.
Any difference between what you owe on your contract (plus certain expenses) and what your creditor gets for reselling the vehicle is called a “deficiency.” For example, if you owe $10,000 on the car and your creditor sells it for $7,500, the deficiency is $2,500 plus any other fees you owe under the contract. Those might include fees related to the repossession and early termination of your lease or early payoff of your financing. In most states, your creditor is allowed to sue you for a deficiency judgment to collect the remaining amount owed as long as it followed the proper procedures for repossession and sale. Similarly, your creditor must pay you if there are surplus funds after the sale proceeds are applied to the outstanding contract obligation and related expenses, but this situation is less common. (Federal Trade Commission)
Also this is the type of thing that is governed by state laws. Buyers should always read sales contracts. Caveat emptor. Don't buy something if you can't understand the sales contract.



"Matrimonial Mayhem is an anthology of wedding stories, to benefit the Governor of Alabama's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, for the hardest hit areas of the state."
So....to benefit victims of tornadoes - via a "faith-based" agency - the state of Alabama is selling a book of stories about weddings? Weddings where mayhem occurs? WTF? Sometimes I just don't know what's going on anymore, or why.
http://www.amazon.com/Matrimonial-May...

In my dream, anything and everything did happen. Somehow the groom changed into David Arquette who was wearing only the jacket to his tux. I was watching to see if he got an erection any time during the ceremony. The JP was drunk. One of the bridesmaids ended up in a fight and had dirt and blood all over her face. That's mayhem for you!


WTF: this photo from an ad campaign has been banned for the too-skinny model. I'm not WTFing the ban, just the fact that anyone would use someone that looks like this to sell something. Maybe this is her "natural" body type, but I doubt it. Even if it is, I don't get the appeal. Hello fashion advertising world: there's nothing attractive about being a walking anatomy class skeleton. She has a pretty face, but her body is freaking me out. The reason for the ban is "social irresponsibility," which I both agree and disagree with (but mostly agree). It's time to really look at what we are teaching young girls about their bodies and stop encouraging this obsession with body size determining worth.

Yeah. The company that put out the ad is called "Drop Dead." It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.
Teens using vodka tampons to get drunk
"What we're hearing about is teenagers utilizing tampons, soak them in vodka first before using them," Thomas said.
"It gets absorbed directly into the bloodstream. There's no barrier, there's no stomach acid to prevent it," Thomas said.
"I would expect it to absorb pretty quickly as well, because it's a very vascular structure," Quan told CBS 5.
"This is definitely not just girls," Thomas said. "Guys will also use it and they'll insert it into their rectums."
And that's not all.
"Using a beer bong rectally is the same concept as a vodka soaked tampon," Thomas said.
Rather than the traditional beer bong you'd find at a college party, kids are sticking the tube elsewhere to get wasted.
They're calling it "butt chugging."
http://www.kpho.com/story/15981315/te...
"What we're hearing about is teenagers utilizing tampons, soak them in vodka first before using them," Thomas said.
"It gets absorbed directly into the bloodstream. There's no barrier, there's no stomach acid to prevent it," Thomas said.
"I would expect it to absorb pretty quickly as well, because it's a very vascular structure," Quan told CBS 5.
"This is definitely not just girls," Thomas said. "Guys will also use it and they'll insert it into their rectums."
And that's not all.
"Using a beer bong rectally is the same concept as a vodka soaked tampon," Thomas said.
Rather than the traditional beer bong you'd find at a college party, kids are sticking the tube elsewhere to get wasted.
They're calling it "butt chugging."
http://www.kpho.com/story/15981315/te...
I don't know, are we buying this? I'm not sure I'm buying it. Consider the difficulties of inserting something soaked in liquid. Especially into one's....hindquarters. Then, there's going to be leakage. It's gonna be messy. That's a lot of work just for another kind of high.

Scout wrote: "I was talking to my dad a few days ago and learned a crap fact. I know that people who can't make their car payments have to return the car to the dealership. I DIDN'T KNOW that they still have t..."
Actually that is just for a lease situation, right? How much do they have to be financing at the current moment? I bought our car last August, but paid in cash with a fund from my personal bank.
Actually that is just for a lease situation, right? How much do they have to be financing at the current moment? I bought our car last August, but paid in cash with a fund from my personal bank.


"What we're hearing about is teenagers utilizing tampons, soak them in vodka first before using them," Thomas said.
"It gets absorbed directly into the bloo..."
I prefer injecting oranges with vodka.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11...

Now we have Jerry Sandusky, accused by boys, with only one eye-witness who's changing his testimony, and everyone believes the boys.
The difference between these cases is that no one is looking into Sandusky's accusers' pasts and trying to discredit them.
In both cases, the presentiment should be the same: Innocent until proven guilty.

Wtf is going on when a customer mistakenly writes a check for $865 for an $8.65 coffee cake, and the bakery cashes it? Outrage!
....on April 5, the 84-year-old drove five miles to Central Continental Bakery in Mount Prospect.
He selected a coffee cake, then opened his wallet and pulled out his "emergency" check, the solitary check he carried with him at all times in case a need arose.
In the numeric area, he clearly wrote "$8.65," but on the line where you write out the number, things got a tad fuzzy.
In loopy cursive, Cullen wrote "Eight sixty five and 00/00" dollars.
It wasn't until early February that his family discovered a problem. Cullen's daughter-in-law was reviewing his 2011 finances to see if he and his wife could afford to move into an assisted-living facility. While looking at his April expenditures, she discovered Cullen's check had been cashed not for $8.65, but for $865.
The bakery gave him the runaround for a long time.
He said the bakery would work on a refund after it finished its Paczki Fest 2012, which ended Tuesday.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/busines...
....on April 5, the 84-year-old drove five miles to Central Continental Bakery in Mount Prospect.
He selected a coffee cake, then opened his wallet and pulled out his "emergency" check, the solitary check he carried with him at all times in case a need arose.
In the numeric area, he clearly wrote "$8.65," but on the line where you write out the number, things got a tad fuzzy.
In loopy cursive, Cullen wrote "Eight sixty five and 00/00" dollars.
It wasn't until early February that his family discovered a problem. Cullen's daughter-in-law was reviewing his 2011 finances to see if he and his wife could afford to move into an assisted-living facility. While looking at his April expenditures, she discovered Cullen's check had been cashed not for $8.65, but for $865.
The bakery gave him the runaround for a long time.
He said the bakery would work on a refund after it finished its Paczki Fest 2012, which ended Tuesday.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/busines...

Well, the good news is that everyone who reads that column now knows not to shop at Central Continental Bakery in Mount Prospect, if they care about honesty and customer service.
Books mentioned in this topic
Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals (other topics)Room (other topics)
Mockingjay (other topics)
Catching Fire (other topics)
El cuaderno de Maya (other topics)
More...
One of our kids - or the dog herself - accidently shut one of the dogs in my library yesterday morning!
When I got home, she had clawed all the books on the bottom shelve next to the door, including 4 books that I can't re-aquire - they were mint condition first edition graphic novels, and I can't find them anywhere online (they're Danish and was printed in very few copies...). I threw one of the bookrags at the dog and left her out in the rain for 2 hours, while I cleaned. That helped, a little.
I usually don't care if they destroy a towel or whatever, but my BOOKS?!?!