Grades are in. I managed to pull a 3.43 which means I made Dean's list (3.40) which is awesome. Unfortunately, that means my parents will kinda expect that for the next three years and be disappointed if I don't make it. Which as classes get harder... yeah. Moving is a bitch. Lot of stuff to pack and throw away, and a lot of work to be done to the new house. It'll be a fun few weeks.
If you have some things that are still in really good shape but don't think you'll use again, charities and giving them to your friends as gifts is a great way to help with keeping your collections under control. Also, congrats on the Dean's List. That's something to be proud of. :)Moving is a bitch. Lot of stuff to pack and throw away, and a lot of work to be done to the new house. It'll be a fun few weeks.
We've brought a lot to Goodwill, and I have no doubt more will go. It's just a long, slow process. We have to vacate the current house by June 10th though. Less than a month left in the house I grew up in. Damn.
The wife and I got rid of cable. The only non-streaming style television I have now is a little 19 inch TV with an antenna hookup. I haven't used it in forever, but now I'm pleasantly surprised at the number of rerun channels there are out there. I've been watching classic sitcoms like I Dream of Genie, Bewitched, Gilligan's Island, One Day at a Time, Nightcourt, and so many more. I was super pleased to discover that The Rifleman is still played as well. There's also classic movies, b movies, dramas, etc. It's all good fun. If you ask me, it's a pretty decent trade off for losing TCM.
It's amazing how many streaming services there are available now. We only use Netflix and Hulu, but every now and again I've been tempted to try out Motortrend on Demand and UFC Fightpass. I bet as time goes on and people wise up, there will be more and more niche options available. You're right though. All it takes is four or five services plus you're internet cost, and you're back to what your original cable bill was. On the other hand, you're not stuck with shopping channels when you don't want shopping channels or sports channels when you don't want sports channels, etc. So it could be worth it.
Do you have Amazon Prime? I just noticed that they have a monthly plan for their videos on demand and another monthly plan for their complete Prime membership along with the yearly plan. The monthly plan is $8.99 just for videos. I can't justify the cost for myself, but I like the TV shows that Prime offers for free. I've been wanting to get rid of cable, but right now, my internet cost would be the same without the TV part attached.
What I like about Amazon is that they offer recommended videos. I go to something that I know that I liked in the past, then scroll through the recommended list. Not all of the recommended list is free with Prime, but they generally tell you when it is included with Prime on the face of the video. It's free with Prime when it has the Prime logo in the top left corner of the video. Since I'm not yet subscribed, I also like that there's a free video as the first of the series to several of the series to check out whether I'd like it or not. The first show of Avatar The Last Airbender is free to check out the player. Looking at the recommended list of that, there's Legend of Korra, Astro Boy, Thunder Cats. Legion Superheroes, etc. Then if I click on one of those, there are more recommended videos. I sometimes just scroll through that recommended list for fun, not even intending to watch the shows. Sometimes I go looking to see if they're on Hulu. Edit: Also, there's also a Free with Prime link and a Free to watch link on the Amazon video front page.
Yes! And Godzilla and classic samurai films! A lot of stuff in the Criterion collection isn't really my thing, but I've sold Hulu to two of my friends just by mentioning those two words. Hulu has really stepped up their game. I don't watch much of either, but this past year I think I've watched more Hulu than Netflix.
It really, really is. Hell, I think it's worth it for the library of past fights alone. The only thing is, I'm a bit more of a boxing fan than an MMA fan. Don't get me wrong, because a good fight is a good fight, but I've always found boxing just a bit more compelling. ESPN Classics shows old boxing matches from time to time. If they had something similar to Fightpass, I might jump aboard.
The alphabet soup of boxing organizations is pretty frustrating sometimes. That a lot of the really "must see" fights are on PPV is a bit annoying as well. To be honest, I've pretty much stopped trying to keep up with both boxing and mma, though I'll still watch fights when I can. Sports in general take a lot of effort to keep up with.
these boxes are the shizzle. I hung an aerial (I recommend the Channelmaster Stealthtenna) and ran that into the IT closet, where it feeds the Silicondust, which feeds the router. For $100 in parts I've got dual h.264 streams of 24 channels on every phone, tablet and computer in the house, as well as the PS3 and Plex. Sucker shows up as a media server. Super-slick. Granted, I have an IT closet in my house. If you haven't found TitanTV yet, hook it up. It allows you to build an OTA channel lineup based on what you tell it, which means you can hide all those random Korean stations as well as that PBS sideband that you want to watch but just doesn't come in. Antennaweb will give you a pretty good idea of what you can pull in. The super-cool thing about OTA broadcast is that the bandwidth on the primary channels is gobsmackingly high compared to what you get via cable or streaming. Bit depth is insane. Football looks like football.
I know your setup is hella complicated and does far more than I even want, but what's your Plex-centered setup look like?
Plex is pretty straightforward. I've got it running on a Mac Mini with a 4TB external hard drive. I have PlexPass which makes it pretty easy to control, and it'll hit iPhone, Android, iPad, PS3 and Chrome. It claims it'll hit AppleTV but I'm not sure I believe it yet. If I had it to do over again I would not have built it on a Mac Mini. In order to properly transcode media it needs a decent video card and there are no decent video cards in a Mac Mini. Frankly, considering I've spent two days playing bare-metal restore games with that fucking Mac Mini, I don't think I would do the Mac Mini at all. And seeing as a software update basically borked the shit out of the Mini, and seeing as the hard drives within not only use a proprietary connector they use proprietary firmware, I think I can safely say that the Mac Mini will be my last Apple product for the foreseeable future.
Word, I've been using it on my desktop, and I'm in anticipation of setting up an "entertainment area" in a new space so I'm beginning to field my options. PLEX is my go to as it works well but I'm def gonna check out how nice it plays with other options. Not been a Mac fan for a minute now, so that's not even in my purview, but good to know as I might have considered it at some point.
If I had it to do all over again I'd probably build an Xpenology box because the Synology interface is dope but they just don't prioritize the GPU necessary for streaming. The living room can source from an AppleTV, a Chromecast and a PS3. They all have their drawbacks - the Chromecast can't handle DDigital streams because they don't encode it correctly for Denon/Marantz receivers, the AppleTV has a really shitty interface and crashes a lot, the PS3 has an 8-year-old Cell processor and it whines sometimes - but when I rebuild it'll probably be with a PS4 at the heart of it. It's got the best interface and it's the one device that will handle Netflix and Amazon streaming. And Plex shows up on it really clean.
Holy crap. Outdoor antennas got cheap! That Flattenna actually seems like a pretty good deal too. I might actually jump on that. As for the HD Homerun, I don't think we need anything as fancy as that. Though I'll actually keep that in mind to recommend to some of my friends who are a bit more glued to their tech than we are. They would probably absolutely love something like that. TitanTV looks useful too. Thanks for the hookup on that. Yeah, I'm actually surprised at both the variety of channels that I get as well as the quality of the signal. About 60% of the channels come through nice and clean 95% of the time. The other 40% are either hit or miss or not at all. Every now and again the signal will suck for a minute or two and digital being either all or nothing, nothing comes through. It's annoying and makes me somewhat miss the days of analog signals and snow, but when you're watching The Rifleman or M.A.S.H. with pretty much the same quality as a DVD, digital is totally worth that little hangup.The super-cool thing about OTA broadcast is that the bandwidth on the primary channels is gobsmackingly high compared to what you get via cable or streaming. Bit depth is insane. Football looks like football.
The flat antennas aren't great. They're better than nothing, but not by much. And you can get truly heinous 9' long TV antennas and they're expensive... but every tower I need to hit is within 10 miles so I got to cheap out. You're on the flat if I recall correctly which means if you get that thing up away from the backscatter the world will be your oyster.
I basically have an RCA like this only a decade old at this point. Do you think it gets better reception than the Flattenna? I think I remember one time, someone telling me that you can actually get a really nice antenna (like those $200+ gizmos) and hook them up to the cable boxes in the attic so every TV can benefit from it and you'd never need a rotator. For a little under three months of a cable bill, that seems like a hell of a deal. If and when we get our own place, that might be our setup.
At a decade old, it probably isn't tuned to the right frequencies. That's the thing about RF design: the dipoles are tuned to the frequencies they receive and when you've got Ye Olde Rabbit Ears you're basically catching what you're getting by mistake. Use the AntennaWeb page to figure out where the antennas are around you. Odds are most of 'em are grouped. Pointing a directional antenna at that will trump the shit out of anything else you try. And yes, a splitter amp will improve that. But again, I prefer taking a hot-shit signal, encoding it on the network and then spitting it around like data. Analog is dirty.
That is really, really good info actually. Thank you. Since I have your attention, and you know a bit about the entertainment and film industry, let me ask you something. I'm on mobile at the moment, so I can't bring up any visual examples at the moment, but you know how when something is shot for TV, it feels like it's for TV? Compositionally speaking, it feels very different than film. Groups of people are shot closely together, there's tighter close up shots of individuals, framing seems to often feel a bit claustrophobic. Is that because of the limitations of the aspect ratio or because of a different style philosophy compared to cinematic films?
Expect that to change. Historically, "shot for TV" basically meant "we need the faces to fill the screen because the picture our audience is watching is about the size of their hand held at arm's length." "Shot for cinema" meant "our audience is watching a screen about as wide as their arms outstretched so we can put the faces any old where." And historically, TV gave you 240 lines of resolution with subtractive color. The gamut sucked. Picture a sad little thing inside the red triangle. Historically, cinema gave you that whole lovely thing at resolutions that were potentially mind-blowing. There's dickering to be had here, but "Academy 35" which is garden-variety "movie", shot on Kodachrome, was effectively about 25 "equivalent megapixels" in resolution. 1080p is 2.1 megapixels, but broadcast HD is 1080i which is actually 1 megapixel but not really, while 240 lines is like half a megapixel but only kind of because technical bullshit. But now the screens at the multiplex are not only smaller, they don't matter. And now the TVs at home are not only bigger, they're 4k (8 megapixels). And film isn't getting beat up and hashed every time you play it. And the cameras you use to shoot movies and the cameras you use to shoot television are the same, as are the lenses, as are the crews, as is the post-production pipeline. The only difference at this point is long- or short- form and an hour on HBO can run 65 minutes and I'm mixing an arthouse feature right now that comes in at 71 with seriously lazy credits. Actual film length can't be more than 68 minutes. And your eye can't resolve more than an arcsecond anyway, which means a 42" TV at 8 feet away looks the same to you whether it's 4k or 2k... but both of 'em look hella better than 240-line NTSC. Once upon a time a big TV was 15" and a small movie screen was 20'. I project 92" diagonal and back when The Neptune closed in the U-district it projected 80". So you'll be able to tell the difference if you keep watching Hogan's Heroes. Heroes?
No kidding about the screen size. The 19" is so tiny compared to my other TV, I'm amazed how the 13" I had growing up was any decent. Now a days being forced to watch TV on a 13" would probably be considered cruel and unusual punishment. It's really interesting how the limitations of the medium have an impact on the art. It's something you see in comics too, as printing techniques have evolved over the decades. Looking at comics from the '40s and '50s, then the '80s, and now today, you can see huge leaps in changes. Color pallets, detail, the differences are really drastic.
You should become an organ donor No, really, you should. Uncle is waiting for a heart, for six weeks now. So, yea, the cynical ass part of my personality wants you to sign up, tell your family your wishes, then go drive motorcycles without helmets, take long dives into shallow pools and juggle chainsaws. But that is not cool, and not me. The thing I am very clearly wrapping my head around in a real, concise manner is that for my uncle to live, someone out there, someone I hopefully will never know, has to die, preferable young, healthy and quickly. College kids can have this debate on paper in a classroom all they want, but walking my uncle (who is less than ten years older than I am by the way) through the transplant ward is something that I never thought I would have first-hand knowledge of. Not a fan, people.. not a fan. He's stable, he's on meds, he's in great hands, but now the wait is dragging on and on and on and you can tell its starting to impact his mind and health. Fortunately the uncle is a cynical ass (wonder where that came from, right?) and is at least hanging in there to make the docs uncomfortable with his dry humor. In other news, I have a post idea that is noodling in the head. The parents and I are still talking to each other after the car ride, we have not threatened to beat the crap out of each other (yet) and in general are getting along just fine. And finally, I am surrounded by people who watch television. As convinced as I am that social media is cancer holy hell on roller skates is day-time television just appalling. BAD. I've tuned most of it out with Celtic music; this has the secondary effect of annoying the non-Irish Catholic nurses. I also helped the uncle set it up so that he can play music as well. I'm sure good times will be had by most.
Everyone says you should be an organ donor but I disagree. I think our current donor system really sucks and so I refuse to enable it. If you are the donor and your organs have value than your family should be compensated for them. Its totally bullshit that you have to give away something of such great value for free when everyone along the chain handling your organs makes/charges boatloads of money. The system as implemented in the states does not allow one to be compensated for the organs so that's one of the main reasons that there are not enough organs available for those that need them. I think if I were to pass my wife should get to choose both who gets the organs and how much to charge for them. If Steve jobs needs my liver he should have to pay boatloads of money while a good kid that might need my heart... I'd be OK giving it to her for free. Either way it should be my and my wife's choice who gets them. Since its not, my organs will just have to go to waste.
So the idea that some person might benefit from your passing isn't reward in and of itself? I'm genuinely asking. I'm not allowed to be an organ donor, except for a few non-vital tissues, ligaments, things like that. I wish that I were able to be of a more direct benefit when I die, so I'm going the second best route and donating my body to science (Probably a teaching hospital). I can accept that somebody might do something scummy to profit off my remains, but even then that might be a teeny bit better than just being worm food. Or not-quite edible worm food if you go the traditional route of our strange tribe.
I'm sure it makes me a bad person gut generally no. A person that I have no connection to benefiting... I guess I care not if they do or dont and maybe even prefer dont. Grand scheme of things (Timeline -> 100+ years) I cant say one outcome is better than the other. People have to ability to do both great and horrible things and they two seem to balance each-other out pretty evenly. Something about the way I was raised and the challenges Ive faced growing up has developed in me a very strong affinity for my "in-group" but little care for the "out-group". So the idea that my organs could benefit a bunch of people I've never met (and I dont just mean the people actually needing the transplant, I also mean the intermediaries that have positioned themselves to profit off my parts) appeals little to me. I feel the same way about the organ donor process as I have felt about cabbies and commercial fishing license owners. There are bunch of people that colluded with government to unfairly force out and limit competition so that could carve out a very profitable niche for them and their kin while providing no or minimal value and by enabling them it ensures that they get a larger piece of the limited resource pie and my "in-group" who doesn't enjoy these carve outs gets a smaller piece.
If you want to contribute to science and be worm food, you could donate your remains to a body farm.
The only part of the process that does not suck are the professionals that touch the patient. I have nothing but praise for the MD's and RN's we have been dealing with this week. There is a way you can tell if someone is there to help or just get paid; all of the folks here seem really genuine and I've been around there near solid for a week. I go to the room to eat and sleep, that is about all the free time I get. Should you be able to sell organs? Man, that is a post all on its own. There are a few real positives and a million little negatives. The current pooling system is not perfect, and there are a ton of ways for people with means to game the system. One of the big issues is that young healthy people are not dying as often as in the past, and those that are have issues that are not conductive to transplants (Drugs, cancer, gunshots to the chest mainly). The system is set up, from my insider look anyway, to financially benefit people way up the command chain. The Insurance companies are sure as hell not benefiting, the hospitals might be, a little, but not nearly as much as people assume; the default rate on these procedures is high which is why the big hospitals that do this sort of work are non-profit tax sinks. Your annoyance with the system here in the states? Right there with you, man. This is going to seem petty, but I fully support you. The people who say "because religion(tm)" piss me off, however, and those people get me angry. Taking a principled stand is something people need to do more often, even when it disagrees with me.Since its not, my organs will just have to go to waste.
I'm back from hospital! Update on me includes: - Taking it easy with sports. Until I will get explicit permission I am forbidden from joining any teams at the university. Bit of a bummer, but that's hardly a price to pay. - Having to return to hospital for more tests in about a month. - Surprising most doctors who got to see my results. I took the general impression that they had no good idea how someone with my problem (Major: too small heart, it didn't grew as quickly as rest of my body and still lags some 25 cm behind what it should be for my height) could get so insanely good results in stamina/endurance tests, even for a healthy person. The defect is there, I can even pin-point the moment when I can't seem to steady my own pulse any longer by lowering the pace of the activity tested without just dropping to the floor. But even with defect I'm above the norm! Apparently if you want to have strong heart you just have to run at least four times a week for three years until you are (almost) about to throw up from exhaustion :P. Take that, Gattaca! - My growth hormone levels are too high, significantly above what is expected even for my age and gender, and I am to visit endocrinologist in a few days. On the plus side, according to RTG, ends of my bones are starting to calcify so I am very unlikely to grow more than 2-5 centimetres. - I was given an actual recepture for my medications! I need doses specific enough that I have to go to a pharmacy where someone still remembers how to make pills from basic chemicals. Update on the pain-ridden person who was in my room: He was here after a major problem that resulted from stopping some medication during his myocarditis (I think that's the translation) treatment in some other hospital. Two days ago he got lucid and 'painless' enough to talk with me. A very pleasant if not outright hilarious guy, a retired mechanical engineer who can consistently win (or to not to beat around the bush, whoop my ass sore without effort) at Go and Chess against me :D. Although it got me thinking that I have never seen anyone visiting him. I am planning on dropping by this Friday when I will be here for my endocrinologist appointment. Considering his state I have a shitty conviction that I will see him in a month when I'll get there again. Cool stuff that I have learned from medical students: - If you have leg cramps while lying in bed, don't try to massage it or force it to straighten or yield and bend it along the cramp! What you want to do is to gently put ball of your foot on something. It gets away like god damned magic! This also works on cramps in upper limb, you have to gently put that part of your palm that is closest to the thumb to get same effect. Don't press, you just need to touch something. - Don't ever use your thumb when measuring pulse, especially on someone else or during CPR. What you should do is to use index and middle finger and locate an artery behind left collarbone. Use limb joints only if you suspect that there could be some spinal damage. - Put your finger on your jawbone at its lower, interior, right side and manoeuvrer the fingertip through its length. Did you felt some lumpy nodule about at the same place where your fang should be growing from (at the upper side of the jaw :P)? Good. That's a salivatory gland and gentle press can actually be used to induce saliva release. I might add something more, but I have a class to attend in half an hour. Just as a FYI, in Poland most finals are in late May and up until the end of June. Depends on many factors. Although some of the classes can be attempted at something called 'zeroth-term exam' that usually happens about two weeks before the end of the semester or actual exam.
Thanks! It's pretty amazing news actually. I was terrified that I will be in a position that my brother was around my age. He didn't stop growing until he was 22, all while having similar problems relating to heart and growth in general. There was a time where he could not stand up because his heart was getting strained from the amount of work it took to pump blood that high (203cm or about 6'8" in Wizard Units). He's much better now, but still needs to be subjected to regular cardiological checks. I am a bit annoyed that I can't train as hard as I am used to, but it's probably for the best. I'm already approaching grey alien look in terms of height, weight, posture and pallid skin colour :P. As I have said, that's hardly a price to pay considering all other outcomes.
Grats! That's extremely considerate of you to visit. I'm sure that man has an interesting life story. :O I'd be lying if I said I found this salivatory gland as of ye-- nope, still not it. resumes jabbing jaw Best of luck on exams, just finished mine back here in the States!I am planning on dropping by this Friday....
Thanks? Even if he is not lonely, I would be bored out of my mind. After thinking back, I do recall that he got some fruit when I was out on tests. Since I doubt he can actually move on his own in this condition, I guess that it could be from friends or family. Either way I do hope that at the very least it will not be awkward. I have a talent for causing that. It feels like a bag with something like caviar, at least that's how I would describe it. Here it is, I was talking about submandibular gland.That's extremely considerate of you to visit.
I'd be lying if I said I found this salivatory gland as of ye-- nope, still not it. resumes jabbing jaw
"Hey, why is my credit score suddenly 140 points lower?" Spent the last two days trying to answer that question. No missed payments, turns out there is a delinquint account out there that I have no knowledge of involving an ambulance ride from over a year ago. A ride which my health insurance has no billing statements on, and neither do I and nor does my college have a record of it at their health office. Yet, there's an account number, and it's since been sold to a collections agency who opened their file in...January? Again, I never received any communication and the two reports which have this noted have different dates with regards to the collection agency. Something tells me you're not supposed to find out about these things by looking at your credit report. So now I get to spend a lot of time trying to correct this and potentially getting a lawyer involved. Already received a consultation and some paperwork which is currently in the mail to the collections agency for debt validation. But I'm kind of angry that things are allowed to work this way in the first place. I'm being punished for something that was never even communicated to me! The fact that you can do everything right for a couple of years and have marginal increases to your credit score, and then one thing like this happens and you take a massive hit is absurdly punitive and I see now how dangerous of a thing credit can be for people who are actually at risk of messing it up. Plus, now I'm spending a lot of time which could be spent on other things trying to correct this entire mess. My feelings about the medical industry and collection companies certainly hasn't improved after this week. Other, less annoying news. I really want to go to the National Federation of Community Broadcasters conference next month but it's an expensive endeavor. Could be a great opportunity though.
I have a calendar item to check that sucka every six months. You're right - they will fuck with you for no goddamn good reason because generally the people doing entries like that are minimum-wage call center drones that were looking for a better job the minute they sat down. They have no agency, they have no loyalty, and while they may have given a fuck about their impact on others early on, the tedium onslaught beat it out of them pretty quickly. Good luck. The way to unfuck a credit report is to be super-duper nice to everyone you talk to on the phone because things can be fixed just as capriciously as they can be fucked. Backintheday I had US West (now AT&T) cancel my phone service because someone two counties away punched in the wrong number when she used their automated system to move. It took us 3 weeks and certified mail to get it turned back on. Then four months later AT&T reported us to collections for a $1900 phone bill that she ran up before skipping town because she was my "wife" (different last name, no connection whatsoever, hour's drive away). And one nice lady at a call center heard my tale and that shit evaporated like fog in the long morning sun.
I'm kind of past the point of being super-duper nice, this has already hit my credit reports. If the collection agency received the account in January, or whenever, and there was no initial communication, and no written statement received by me then that is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. And let's not even talk about the fact that the insurance I was on at the time never received anything from the emergency medical transit company and that their statute of limitations is well past the 180 period for submitting a bill to, uhm, anybody?
How are they going to be able to help me? They're not going to say "oh, yeah, we'll clear that for you all nice and nice". That's not the point of a collections agency. I can give them the account number and all that, but, again, they have never contacted me insofar as I am aware so why would I indemnify myself by calling them on the phone? I already have two forms in certified mail going to them essentially saying "give me everything you have and do not contact me unless it's through writing". I'm not in a super great mood over this (and life in general for things that aren't related to radio or running) and want to pull down the side that makes their life as inconvenient as it's currently making mine. The loss of agency over your own life, even something as ultimately insignificant as this, is something I'm not willing to tolerate. I'm at the point in The Joke (the end of the Kostka section) where he has his soliloquy on Ludvik. He mentions how irreconcilable he can be, the things he is driven by. I've mentioned a couple of times now feeling a relation to Ludvik...
Take a breath. Push out the jive. Bring in the love. Collections agencies buy debt at between ten and twenty cents on the dollar and then mark it up about 200%. They do this because their recovery rate is abysmal - there's about a great chance they'll see fuckall, there's a less great chance they'll settle with the debtor, and there's zero chance they'll get all they signed up for. They are, by design, organizations designed to squeeze blood from a stone, whose practices are tuned for the financially illiterate and fiscally destitute. But that doesn't even matter. There's zero reason for you to interact with them at all, nor did I suggest you do so. Your interaction is with the credit reporting agencies who had everything to do with your mishap. And the people who will help you - that's their job. That's all they do. They're like the Santa's Elves of the finance industry. Don't get sucked down into ZOMG I've been reported to collections because nobody cares but you. Keep your eye on "there has been a clerical error" and work with Experian et. al. to resolve it amicably in your favor. They want to report a success rate on this shit. The dark secret at the heart of The Joke is that Kundera wrote it based on his experience with the KGB pressuring him to rat out his friends. The ordeal caused him to flee to Paris, never to return. For 40 years he was a principled dissident.
Sigh. You're right, but the problem is that this all has to start with the collection agency. Once I have the proof I need (remember, I went into this with literally nothing) then I can go to those agencies to open up a dispute. Or, maybe I could just do it now while everything else is going on? Have to remember, too, I'm currently a brazenly embittered (lot of jive, very little love...very little...) person who is rapidly approaching the point of being willing and able to something about the things I'm opposed to and this whole fiasco is a really great example of issues I have with society and it's institutions. And is really only serving to fuel my fervor. That's kind of disheartening about Kundera. I knew he left for Paris but not much past that.
I used to be a debt collector. kleinbl00 is pretty much on the mark, but there is a clearer way to understand who is motivated to help you. The debt collector bought a bunch of stuff for some money. Going to them and telling them they made a bad purchase just bunches their undies, and they have no reason to help you out. Their entire game is strongarm techniques to get people who may or may not have a legitimate claim against them to pay the debt collection agency money. Whether you owe money or not, their job is to get money out of you. Period. The people who reported your delinquent payment (your original creditor) are legally barred from dealing with you. They sold their interest in your debt to another company, and now cannot speak to you. They are completely powerless, and they cannot call off the dogs. They don't own the dogs, and the dogs do not respond to their commands. The ONLY people with any motivation to make this thing right (and that motivation is smaller than a gnat's ass), is the credit reporting agencies. They are the only people with any agency, and they really don't care about you or your credit. What they sell is simply access to a database. People pay them for credit reports. Not for correct credit reports. So, to get to the point: Stop talking to the debt collector. No words at all. Every single thing you say is another datapoint they can use in plotting your eventual path towards paying them dollars. If they call, hang up. They understand and use human psychology in the most nefarious ways. You are simply a lock to be picked. You are not human. Talk to the credit agencies. And yes, you have to talk to all three. File a formal complaint. Talk to them in person. ALWAYS be nice. Because you never know who is going to be the one person who is going to backspace over that one little thing, and edit your record. The bad news: They will want to downgrade the rating from an "Unpaid Debt" to some "smaller" offense, like a black mark or whatever. Don't let them do that. Do not stop until it is completely expunged. Because while the credit rating agencies see levels of grey, NOBODY ELSE DOES. Every single person that pulls your credit report for any reason - including job interviewers! - sees ANY mark in black and white. You are Snow White, or the Wicked Queen. Period. This whole process will most likely take 12-18 months. Settle in for a long battle. And don't plan to buy anything on credit for the next year to seven years. Sorry.
Question regarding how to deal with these agencies...i have no proof of anything to show to them so how should I even plan this out? I'm a data person who has no data right now. Also is it worth recording my calls with these people? Oh it's totally fine, not like I was planning on buying a car or anything.
And then when you start feeling sassy, or pissed, memorize the FDCPA and take the fuckers to small claims court when, not if, they break the letter of the law. I did this twice. I won twice. Call Recording? Verify you are in a one party consent state Always let them know you are recording, even if you are in a one party state. That is what I did, and the judge said something along the lines of "your people knew they were being recorded and they still acted like this? To a guy who said he was pursuing legal recourse?" As said elsewhere in the thread, this takes time and will make you tear your hair out. Settle in for a long slog and fight the bastards.
Proof is the hard part because you can't prove a negative... that they never contacted you. Did you incur the debt? Did you fail to pay it? Done. (Technically. But everybody knows Shit Happens. So you need a good story for the agencies... you have lived at the same address for 10 years. Nobody else shows any record of this service being rendered. Nobody else in the chain of healthcare knew about this ambulance ride. You were never billed for the service. There is no evidence of unpaid bills, undelivered mail, Return To Sender, etc. Line up the entire chain of events and demonstrate that you acted honorably and truthfully and punctually at every step along the chain. That's basically the path to righteousness.)
So what you're saying is that it's not helping my case that I've had 4 addresses in the past 12 months?
Ouch. Yeah. That's gonna be a hard one to cover. Although you can gloss over it artfully... how many addresses have you had on your DRIVERS LICENSE? How many address changes have you made with your primary bank and credit card company? I moved 5 times in one year, once, but NOBODY "knew" that, because my data - license, bills, etc - was stable, and either going to my PO Box, or getting held for me by a friend at an old address until I "found a permanent place to settle down." So take a close look at your history and see how many of those locations you can conveniently "forget." "Yes, I did move. When I was injured I was living at X address, and then due to the expense, had to move in with my family 9 months later at Y address. But mail was forwarded successfully, and my roommates at the old house kept my mail for me and I picked it up once a week."
Oh, definitely. Out of pocket expenses are trending towards $600 though...which is...a lot.
I've been on 6 planes in the last 2 days and in June that will be the norm. Tons of travel right now. All business. Business travel is nowhere near as fun and I miss my kids a lot on the overnights. My daughter has a big violin recital this weekend. We have been working hard on a new song. This morning I saw her after a day away and she was so excited to play me her progress. -good stuff. I will be having dinner tonight with mk and b_b and I'm pretty stoked to see them. All in all, life is very good right now but extremely busy. By far the busiest I've ever been. I know that successful people never complain about how busy they are, I'm not complaining, if anything I'm celebrating. Good things are afoot
If I have to go on more than two trips in a month that require airline travel I start to get annoyed. I feel your pain, buddy. To cheer you up, I got a beautiful magnesium stamp made up today that will last a million years and can be stamped onto anything you can dream up that will adhere stamping foil :)
oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit I'm in London all alone ahhHhhHhhhHhhhHh (But in a good way) I walked around for about 4 hours today trying to find my hostel. My phone died and I had only a very tiny map of a different part of London to work with, but I got here! Very excited, less nervous than I anticipated. Flying alone was weird. Unrelated, but I read "The Will to Change" by bell hooks last week, and it struck about a million chords. I feel a lot more self-love now, and am a lot more comfortable with myself. EDIT: rjw where u at
Flying to SFO tomorrow to spend the weekend in Napa. Kinda bourgeoisie fro my taste, but I'll get over it. It's my father-in-law's 70th birthday, and this is his wish, so no big deal. Actually, it is a big deal, because a few months ago he found out that he has a daughter who is 48 years old that he never knew about. (Apparently, she got the DNA thing from her husband as a birthday present, then it says, "You have a 50% DNA match with Bob S. Please let us know if he's your father or son so that we can improve our records! So she calls up her mom, and asks, "Who the hell is Bob S?" "An ex boyfriend. Why do you ask?" And the rest is history, as they say.) We'll be meeting her for the first time tomorrow or Friday. He's an emotional dude, so I can envision some tears in the offing, especially since unbeknownst to him his two grandchildren will also be there. Ancestry.com's DNA database is a hell of a drug. Anyway, my wife, her mom, and her brother and sister are also all emotional sorts, so I guess it'll be up to me to, like drive and read maps, or whatever. Should be interesting.
What a coinkydink. I'm also flying to San Fran this Saturday. Visiting my sister for a week. I toured through Napa four years ago. I didn't realize what a mensch our driver was for doing all the driving for us. Good on you for map reading and chauffeuring.
Give it a couple years and they just might. The free-love 60s probably birthed a lot of babies of ambiguous parentage. Now that one can sequence their DNA for pennies, some of those parentages will get a lot less ambiguous, probably to the consternation of many.
Napa is beautiful, I was there last summer for my cousin's wedding. Dry though, everything except the vineyards was dead and brown.
an early-morning Kahlua, barkeep. No ice. Thanks. I'll just add it to my coffee. Phone call this morning with my 89-year-old mom who told me what she's doing today. Me: Wow, you're organized. Mom: And disciplined. Me: It strikes me that those two have to go together. Mom: No. There are organized people who are not disciplined, and disciplined people who are not organized. Me: If you are organized but not self-disciplined to follow through, your organization is comforting but pointless. If you are disciplined to do things, but not organized about what to do, your discipline is pointless. Mom: You can be organized about things. Being disciplined is being organized about time. So I read a little on the topic. What about you, hubski? Organized? Disciplined? Neither?
Oh man, I love this. Going to remember that for a while. I can say organized for sure. Disciplined.... eh. Definitely a work in progress. Similar to my own mother, if I don't get started on something right away, then I'm liable to forget about doing it completely. I can confidently say it's really in the works seeing as I can check this off my list of things I did before going to campus, though! Woot!Being disciplined is being organized about time.
If you struggle with discipline, start small. It’s how we all got started. Start by taking out the overflowing garbage, answering an email, changing the light bulb, or cleaning your bathroom. Start today doing all the little things you know you should do, but don’t feel like doing.
Neither. There are a few things that I want to do regularly that I haven't been doing lately. Namely: cycling to and from work, having breakfast at home instead of buying something from a shop and eating on the way to work, finding time to read in the evenings. They're the main three things.
Back from London! So nice to travel again. Even nicer because I went with my sister. We've both been busybusy the last year or two and haven't spent enough together, so this was well worth it. This weekend I get to go see Radiohead, twice. I have been wanting to go to a concert of theirs for literally years, and I love everything about the new album, so dis gun' be gud.
I had two tabs open to get tickets for either night. Both tabs got through the waiting system, there was some miscommunication with a friend who's also going and uBlock threw a payment error so I bought both tickets. I still would've gone if the ticket was twice as expensive as it is now, so I just count my lucky stars that I get to see them twice!
Five months ago the dishwasher burst into flame. It took bi-weekly calls, rooting through archived files and emailed threats for seven weeks to get it replaced. Aside from its flammability it also leaked through the subfloor, the repair of which provided ingress for a dedicated rat that eventually opted to chew through our drywall to get at her favorite treat of gluten-free flour. So despite having a subfloor made of dimensional 4x6 old growth timber, thanks to Bosch I have random pieces of hardwood hiltied over rodent-gnawed voids in the plywood... and permanent teethmarks on half the containers in the pantry. I recognized this week that the dishwasher is a metaphor for the past two years: shit that should be handled bursts into flame and attracts rats. Yeah, I may have a 40TB NAS just for backup but it fills up because you don't know to uncheck the 99 levels of undo on the recycle bin until it's full. Yeah, I may beta-test for a dozen different companies and just because two of them point fingers at each other doesn't mean it isn't just the hard drive failing (35 steps!). And there may be an understanding that if you hold up your end of the bargain and pay your money you'll get what you pay for but when you have five different subcontractors to manage on any given day at least one of them will find an exciting new way to fuck up. "Why can't we put the fixtures over here? It'd be easier." "Because then it'll hit the birthing moms in the back of the head." "So they can use the other end of the tub." "She's right-handed and we want the fixtures over there so that they use this end." "But that end is harder." "But you're literally looking at a wooden frame with nothing in it and I'm only telling you to put it in the way it shows on the drawings you based your bid on." "but it'd be easier the other way." Lather. Rinse. Repeat. The housecleaner was supposed to come over today. "You have a housecleaner? How bourgeois!" No, I don't. In LA we had a couple ladies that came by when I called them every six months to make the place spic'n'span for my mother-in-law when she visited. As I'm about to be away from my family for the next four months (and as my wife deals with plumbing-my-way contractors) I figured I'd try and help her out with keeping the place clean, 'cuz I'm the guy. But unlike LA, where you give two nice ladies with bad teeth a handful of bills, up here you're expected to sign and date eight pages of forms as well as providing a credit card authorization 48 hours in advance. Which the cleaning company informed me of 50 hours in advance. "sign our forms right away or we won't be able to charge you $200 to clean your mostly-clean house!" So fuck them. On the plus side, I found out why my agent hasn't responded to my last couple emails - she decided to stop being an agent about nine months ago and informed none of her clients. On the minus side, I had to write a hey-old-buddy-old-pal email to Stephen King's agent to remind him of our (excruciatingly tenuous) relationship. So at least I'm not one of the unwashed self-publishers. Had lunch with a buddy last week. he's turned six of his screenplays into novels and launched them on Amazon over the past few years. Told me he made $15 last year. Got into an argument on Facebook yesterday with a "if you make art you're an artist" dude (I quoted Zappa). He hit me back with the dictionary. There was a time when I didn't give a fuck about Facebook arguments but I have so little agency over the major events in my life right now. My highest artistic achievement this year is likely going to be ghost-writing a children's book for my wife. How you like them apples?
Glenmorangie Pride, barkeep. And leave the $4800 bottle. Because I am fixing everything in my life by throwing wads and wads of cash at it. So why not drink something insanely expensive as well? The bathroom remodel project that signifies the end of Project Re-Plumb The Entire Fucking House was stalled when I realized I was not up to the task of finish carpentry and tile work that needed to happen in this odd little 7x6 space. And all contractors in the area were booked solid for the next few months. So I found a tile guy, and by basically doubling his bid I was able to convince him to start right away. So he started yesterday. Will probably be done Thursday. Three days of work for $2500. Damn. I am in the wrong business... I then went and spent $800 at the hardware store on the supplies he needed, and another $600 on getting my friend the electrician to make the electrical right. He did AMAZING stuff. VERY thoughtful about what he was doing, where, and why, and made it easy for someone in the future to understand what is wired where and why. Electrical artistry, man. Then my wife pointed out the growing oil slick under my new motorcycle. Fork seals are leaking. The shop can fix it tomorrow (as well as the weirdo problem with the shift linkage). I didn't even ask how much. Just do it. Here's my artery. Take what you need. My Joseph Abboud tuxedo for the wedding is gonna be a cool grand. Why am I - the dude who wears workboots and Carhartt pants and shirts every day - buying a tuxedo for my wedding instead of renting one? Because I love and respect my wife. And I'm not getting married in another man's suit. Fuck that. In two months I will be married, working 7:00 - 4:00 M-F, riding my motorcycle to work, taking my dog for walks in the morning and afternoon, and cooking in my lovely kitchen. And I refuse to do anything else. For like, at least a month. Well, ok. Maybe 4 weeks. Fifteen days? Can I get a break and just have a normal life and schedule for maybe 15 days? ..... pleeeeeeeeeeease? ......
Howdy pubski, pour me something tall and strong. I was technically still supposed to be on vacation today. Last friday, in the middle of a study, the MRI machine that's configured to run my research protocol decided to stop working. When I called at 4:30 to re-schedule the exam, I was informed it could either be done Wednesday (Today) or August. So here I am, back a day early. Fishing was vastly unsuccessful, for the brief period of time we could actually be out on the water. High winds, water still a few degrees too cold and just plain bad luck all chipped in on that regard I suppose. All of my favorite breweries, cider mills and vineyards are all still standing however, and I brought back a few trophies for the rare beer collection. (2016 KBS and 2015 Backwoods Bastard for the curious) I'm coming up on 1 year moved out of my parents house and living on my own. I think I get to be a bit proud that I seem to be half-decent at this adulting business. My bills are taken care of, I have food in the cupboard. My bedroom might be a bit of a wreck, but nothing is like on fire. I got home last night from a (brief) trip that I planned, that I took time off work for, and when I came into work today things had managed to keep running in the two days of my absence. I gotta keep working on this gratitude thing.
I'm struggling with a bit of dichotomy when it comes to my electronic compositions lately. On one hand, I am fascinated and hypnotised by music that plays with fixed time in interesting ways (e.g. polyrhythms, odd time signatures, counterpoint). Music that can groove and feel natural whilst secretly being technically wacky, and the beauty that the juxtaposition of those things creates, blows my mind. On the other hand, I am increasingly drawn to music that throws traditional pop music forms, harmony, and conventions to the wall. Music that bends time, timbre, noise, and the limits of what some may consider as 'music' to its will and as result sits on a different level. The problem lies in discovering a way to combine those two contrasting ideals. I just can't yet imagine what it would sound like. Even more so when I throw in other major influencess such as my innate love of underground club music styles. I have successfully created groovy ass tracks with odd time signatures. I have also explored noise/electro-acoustic music compositions combined ambient textures and beats way off the grid. But a way to play those two off each other still eludes me. The only way I'm managing to preserve any semblance of confidence in my ability is by remembering John Cleese's words on creativity: So I guess I'm just going to have to play around and be unsatisfied with everything. It's funny actually. You know that Ira Glass? Yes, that one I feel like that's happened in reverse to me. I used to love the electronic music I made and never had problem being satisfied or finding enjoy when listening to my finish tracks. But the longer I've composed and more expansive my taste and knowledge has become, the less satisfied I have been with what I've made. This the latest thing I've finished. It's not too bad but fa from great. At least I'm somewhat pleased with the attempt, a small step in the right direction.Listening to it now, the drums would probably benefit from some more detailing. By the way, the reason I keep making the distinction of 'electronic music', is because my instrumental music is coming along well. I'm going to start recording the acoustic album soon that I've been writing with a friend soon."[There's a] slight discomfort and anxiety that we all experience when we haven't solved a problem. You know I mean, if we have a problem and we need to solve it, until we do, we feel (inside us) a kind of internal agitation, a tension, or an uncertainty that makes us just plain uncomfortable. And we want to get rid of that discomfort. So, in order to do we take a decision. Not because we're sure it's the best decision, but because taking it will make us fell better... Well, the most creative people have learned to tolerate that discomfort for much longer."
This might be a shot in the dark, but have you ever listened to Venetian Snares? That linked album ranges from 5/4 to 19/4 time signatures and, according to old roommates, toes the 'music' / 'not music' line.On the other hand, I am increasingly drawn to music that throws traditional pop music forms, harmony, and conventions to the wall. Music that bends time, timbre, noise, and the limits of what some may consider as 'music' to its will and as result sits on a different level.
Medeski, Martin, and Wood's album "Shack Man" might be a good thing to listen to on headphones just about now. Close your eyes, lean back, and let the weirdo groove and poly-rhythms flow into your soul. I've never been good at the math around the groove. But strap a bass guitar on me and stand me next to a drummer, and I can play it. It's all feel...
I bricked my computer like a god damned idiot - got water in it. Don't ask. Had to buy a new computer, used the opportunity to try a new browser - Vivaldi is dope as fuck so far, highly recommend if you like chrome but also hate the shit out of chrome.
I believe I have sequestered all the fleas in my room in a garbage bag full of bedding. I can hear them pining around in there now. The Orkin website was really informative even if it's thesis is "You need us," but I didn't so nuts to them. Taking another crack at giving up booze. Relapsed for a couple months to remind myself that withdrawal sucks. Cold turkey didn't work since 300 mg of trazodone wasn't enough to get me to sleep but hopefully tonight will be the last night that I need a nightcap.
Schoolwork has been absorbing my life. I don't have a good objective reference for busyness, but it's the busiest I've ever been personally. Could always be worse.
Spending a lot of time going through various hoops I'm making for myself to make sure I'm set for next school year. Had to move back in with the 'rents last week as the complex brought out a vendor in order to both find and fix the leak that's been causing mushrooms and molds growing at my place for the better part of a year. As I'm typing this, I need to remember to work out a rent concession and receive a reimbursement with the electric bill while they had dehumidifiers running 24/7. Man, growing into responsibilities are a pain. To make up for it, they installed updated wood flooring and tiles - so long as I cleared the rooms of furniture. I'm finally settled back in; now, onto finding new and better roommates for next year, on top of summer employment. The regular. EDIT: Thank you for the explanation over the weekend, y'all. Three cheers for Humpski(?).
I feel mildly insecure and needy. What makes this statement unusual is that, for the past week or so, it's a new state for me to be in. Jogging early in the morning makes me feel more alive than I've ever been. I derive a lot of self-worth from running because it makes me feel physically capable of things that used to be a challenge. Even the dreaded cooking has become much less of a drag and more of an interesting, even mildly exciting activity. Talking to people's still difficult, though. Talking to strangers, I mean; people I don't know. I understand that the anxiety will disappear as I keep doing it, but the initial barrier is pretty high already, so it'll require a bit of preparation. I guess it will become easier still as I figure out exactly what I want from people and from myself. There are some teachers I enjoy talking to during classes - Language Practice and Culturology in particular - and doing so helps me relieve quite a bit of the associated anxiety. I once even inspired a fellow student to another question by asking my own during Culturology, which has been noticable because in the big lecture hall everyone usually sits quietly and asking of nothing. Perk of sitting in the first row is that I have no pressure to speak up. I put a lot of weight onto talking to certain people - those I'd like to impress, to have them like me. I read that some people can make such desire to impress others disappear willfully; for me, it takes time and distraction, and even then, the rekindling goes quickly if I get a sudden idea that the person in question might still come to like me somehow. I guess it's my representation of worry that the person I like won't like me back - a defense mechanism against emotional abandonment that I've experienced with my parents. This and the commitment anxiety both come from one place and both cause my relationships to be... rocky. I'm eager to cut people off at the slightest mistake once they're past a certain threshold of trust, I notice. Long story short, I jog; it feels good; talking to people feels difficult, but I'm working on it. P.S. Positive attitude rocks.