This Is Your Brain...

Have you ever been convinced by marketing ploys to pay a monthly fee for something you didn't need or buy more of something than you needed because it was on sale? Mine was with the free stamps.com trial. The deal offered by the USPS seemed so sweet. A free 1 month subscription, a free digital scale, $15 in free postage. Plus I'd receive $10 in free postage for two months after my trial subscription. All for a mere $16 a month (now up to $18). I ended up keeping the service for 3 months after my free trial and more than wiping out any savings I'd earned. It was convenient though. I was shipping a lot of CDs at that time and it was nice to have a tracking number in case any buyers tried to rip me off saying they never got it.

What I really hate, though, is when you're offered a free trial for something and you have to call to cancel the subscription. They let you sign up online, send all correspondence through email, but when you want to cancel you have to wait on hold for 15 minutes to talk with their overly confident "customer service" people. The last time I experienced this was when I signed up for a free look at my credit reports and scores. The first time I called on my lunch break and waited on hold so long I had to leave for work. The second time I called, the woman told me in her thick Indian accent (not that the American telemarketers aren't just as hard to understand with their mumbled script reading) that I hadn't yet used up all of my free trial and that she would just let me use my full free trial and I could call back again to cancel. I asked when my free trial was up and she stated the next day at midnight.

Here's an article I found that lists several ploys involved in event marketing. So I wanna hear your tale of how you were duped by marketing tactics. If you want to write your own blog post about it just post a linky.

Labels: life happens

Posted by Teriana at 4:29 PM | Permalink | Comments

Another tie. Six of you voted that if bad singing could kill, William Hung, Rosanne and Celine Dion would provide the quickest death. Apparently I'm the only one who can't stand Vince Gill. As a lovely bonus, I've included Youtube clips of all the winners.







Be sure to check out my latest poll.

Labels: polls

Posted by Teriana at 6:27 PM | Permalink | Comments

More and more employers are Googling candidates names to find out a little information about them. We did this at my last job and ruled out several potential employees that looked perfectly professional on the outside...until we viewed their Myspace pages. Your name is important, so what do you do if you find someone posted something slanderous about you on the Internet? This company offers a service called reputation management if a former friend or significant other decides to write something nasty about you on the net. It could save you more than a little embarrassment.

Labels: life happens

Posted by Teriana at 5:53 PM | Permalink | Comments

I encountered an unusually high number of people today that were completely oblivious to their surroundings. The first was a man on the freeway who drove in the fast lane for 15 miles as I caught up to him and seemed all astonished when I appeared behind him and honked my horn for him to move the hell over. He checked his blind spot before moving over. He should have already been aware that the one person he passed in that 15 miles was already far behind him. Of course if he was aware of something simple like that he would have been aware of another person on the road (me).

The topper was this woman who came in behind me at the Otsego County Soil Conservation. A woman who worked there came out of her office and asked if she could help us. I barely got out "Hi" when the other woman marched over with her order for the tree sale. I her defense, I had been looking at brochures before that so she may not have realized I was also there to place my tree order.

After waiting about five minutes, another worker there got off the phone and I asked if she could help me with my tree order. She asked if worker number 1 was busy and I said she was with someone else. So worker 2 gladly took my papers and said she'd get me a receipt. I handed her my tree order and she went over to the office where worker 1 and Mrs. Oblivious were at. Worker 1 stated she was in the middle of ringing up Mrs. Oblivious so we'd have to wait a second. Mrs. Oblivious said, "Oh I'll hurry up and write my check." At that point she had already had the pen and checkbook in hand for two minutes. Her fingers were poised over the checkbook ready to write, if only she'd shut her yap for two seconds to finish filling out the check. Apparently she wasn't one of those people who can think and write at the same time.

Rather than finishing her check, she began chatting up worker 1 about the apple trees she was ordering, the federal funding she got, how useless her husband is, et cetera. Fingers all the while poised over the checkbook in mock check writing fashion. I stood there in the doorway for another 3 minutes before I said I didn't need a receipt and walked off. I heard Mrs. Oblivious apologize behind me and worker 2 came after me and apologized and said she'd mail my receipt. The drawn out ordeal made me miss Judge Judy. I hate people!

Labels: rants

Posted by Teriana at 6:19 PM | Permalink | Comments

Labels: wordless wednesday

Posted by Teriana at 12:07 AM | Permalink | Comments

I had my first weird dream since starting this blog. Last night I dreamt I was walking along the edge of one of the fields on our farm with some fictitious person. We heard a noise down in the valley next to us. It was a beautiful painted horse galloping along. It started to head up the hill to meet us and I got out my cell phone to take a picture because I knew my niece would love it. Before I could snap the photo, horsey picked up a rock and threw it at me. She looked enraged. I tried to take a quick photo, but she threw another rock. My mystery companion and I were running back to the house and the horse kept pelting us with large rocks. Halfway to the house we made a stand and started throwing rocks back. For some reason in my dream, it didn't seem odd that a horse was able to pick up a rock, but that a horse wanted to murder me. The evil horse ended up trampling my companion to death as I escaped to the house.

I went through the sliding door on the back deck and frantically tried to lock it. I could see the evil horsey coming around to the front of the house so I ran and tried to lock that. The deadbolt wouldn't work so I only locked the door knob. My dad was at work, but I knew my mom was upstairs. I ran and got her and had to convince her to leave. She was certain we might as well give ourself up now and be eaten by the evil horse. I eventually coaxed her out on to the 2nd floor balcony and helped her down. We ran over to my grandparents house and called the airline so we could fly away. Just my mom and I, not my grandparents. I instructed them that if they see the horse coming to sneak out the back and run to the neighbor's house. Like an 83 and 79 year old couple can run. I should have known it was a dream by that point. Leaving my grandparents alone while a murderous horse is on the loose. Actually I should have known long before that. In real life I would have locked the front door and then loaded the shotgun in the closet. There would have been no sneaking down the balcony and running to grandma's house. When I woke up my mouth was completely dry. I must have been breathing heavy. It was scarier than it sounds.

Labels: dreams

Posted by Teriana at 9:07 AM | Permalink | Comments

I just had my first experience with split pea soup. It's the most vile looking thing ever. If you ever see orphans on a movie and they want you to feel bad for them, they ladle split pea soup into a bowl. Sunday I tried my aunt Elaine's apparently famous Jezebel sauce on cream cheese. I thought it was a desert that looked oddly like fish bait. Apparently you spread it on crackers. Who knew?

Labels: food

Posted by Teriana at 8:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

1. I would call myself king even tho I'm a girl. Who's gonna stop me? I'm king of the world.
   
2. Easter Peeps would come pre-staled from the factory so I wouldn't have to wait 3 months after Easter to eat them.
   
3. They would bring back light brown M&Ms. I don't care what anybody says, they don't all taste the same.
   
4. That stupid banner on the top of all About.com pages would be deleted.
   
5. I would set forth a law declaring whomever drinks the last of the milk will have to put water in the jug so there's milk for tomorrow.
   
6. Richard Simmons would be forced out of the closet.
   
7. The IRS would pay interest on your tax refund.
   
8. Anyone who collects welfare money would have to take a pee test to get it since I have to take a pee test to earn the money in the first place.
   
9. Just like there are means in place to prevent frivolous lawsuits, so would there be means to prevent frivolous scientific research (ie study confirms smokers have less discretionary income than non-smokers...well, duh).
   
10. The English language would be rewritten so all words are spelled like they sound. English would be changed to Inglish, finger changed to fingger and so on.
    
11. This new Inglish would be the universal language. Children of all countries would speak it so there would no longer be exotic foreign accents. Consequently, Antonio Banderas would have no career.
    
12. There would be no 3 strikes or more for criminals. Two strikes and you’re out.
    
13. People arrested for drunk driving would be charged with attempted murder. Same goes for those who lead police on a high speed chase.
    
14. Childhood criminal records wouldn’t be expunged.
    
15. We would spend more tax money on each student than each criminal instead of the other way around.
    
16. The government would pay for anyone to go to college who wanted. If they stopped attending classes for a period of 5 years without graduating they would have to pay back the grant money.
    
17. If schools budgeted poorly and need to cut classes, geometry and trigonometry would be cut before gym and music.
    
18. All turn style door locks would be universal. Horizontal would be locked and vertical would be unlocked.
    
19. Round bales of hay would be outlawed because the animals don’t get a square meal.
    
20. Minimum wage would be tied to inflation.
    
21. Hollywood would no longer be allowed to make pretty actresses ugly for a part.
    
22. 19 would be the legal drinking age in the US.
    
23. Hot dog buns would be sold in packages of 10 since that what packages of hot dogs are sold in.
    
24. All meat would be kosher. No more hotdogs made of lips and @$$holes.
    
25. Recycling would be available in nearly every city.
    
26. Car makers would be heavily fined for selling lemons.
    
27. More money would be spent on police officers and less on politicians. Actually, since I’m king of the world and supreme ruler, there would be no more need for politicians.
    
28. Age discrimination laws would included discrimination against being too young.
    
29. Two wrongs would make a wrong and two negatives would make a negative.
    
30. Football season would be eliminated. It would be played all year.
    
31. Pace Salsa would be forced to come up with a new ad campaign instead of the, “He’s the one who gets his salsa from New York City…” ads they’ve been using for the last 15 years.
    
32. Bread makers would have to come up with a different way to seal bread packages instead of the twist ties or little clips that just collect at the bottom of the bread drawer. How 'bout a Ziploc baggy? Is that so revolutionary?
    
33. Martin Luther King would have to share his holiday with Rosa Parks, Cesar Chavez and anyone else who advanced civil rights. If George Washington can be lumped together with all the other presidents there’s no reason MLK should get a holiday all to himself.
    
34. Vince Gill would be banned from singing.
    
35. KFC would bring back the Chicken Little
    
36. Honda would be forced to admit the Element is UGLY and they created it because they know ugly is the only way some people can stand out.
    
37. Microsoft and Mozilla would combine forces to create one kick ass Internet browser.
    
38. Idiot fines would be imposed. An example that would draw a fine would be trying to go ice fishing one last time in April and then having to be rescued at great expense to the state when the ice you’re standing on breaks off.
    
39. Every singer would be limited to one Christmas album per career and at least one song would have to be original. Do we really need 5 million versions of Silent Night and White Christmas?
    
40. No more Tom Green movies.
    

Anything you would add if you were king of the world?

Labels: et cetera

Posted by Teriana at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments

Here's the results. Apparently there aren't a lot of Obama supporters who read my blog. 56% of you voted that an "Obama '08" bumper sticker would cause you to run someone off the road, shoot them with a crossbow or commit some other illegal act. "Who Would Jesus Bomb" and "A Woman With a Fat Ass Should Dump Him" tied for second.

Labels: polls

Posted by Teriana at 4:45 PM | Permalink | Comments

Breakthevault.com is a new site I just found with online contests. They hold a sort of a quiz contest for a cash prize. Each Monday at noon (EST of course 'cause we rock) they release a clue for you to solve the puzzle. You throw in your guesses until someone finally gets the correct one. Once the puzzle has been solved a new game is started. It's a brand new site so few people know about it yet (less than 200 people are in on the current game). I imagine one day there will be thousands of people competing for the prizes. So only people I like are allowed to read this blog post and visit the site. I don't want competition from anyone else.

Labels: et cetera

Posted by Teriana at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments

From now on I'm going to the Secretary of State (that's the DMV to all you out of state fudgies) in the morning. This morning I applied for my Michigan title, registered my car and got a personal plate all in one fell swoop. I was in and out in just under 15 minutes. Which vanity plate you ask? I could have gotten my name, in fact, it's been available for years, but I wanted something to do with cars. Coolwhp was taken. That would have been my first choice. I eventually came up with this:
BTW, I picked it 'cause of the Tractors' song Fast Girl not 'cause of the B movie Fast Girl with Justin Guarini. When I was telling the woman at the SOS how I wanted my plate, either she misheard me or I misspoke. She repeated it back to me F-A-T-S-G-R-L. I said yes. Then after a couple seconds my brain clicked in and I said, "No, wait. Like fast." I would have been so upset if my plate arrived and it said FATSGRL.

I had checked out a couple sites with personalized plates for inspiration. The funniest one had to be AGINA. It took me a second to get it. It was a Virginia plate and they have a big V on the left side of the plate. I tried to do something funny with the University of Michigan plates with the big M on the side, but I couldn't think of anything good.

Labels: trans am

Posted by Teriana at 5:05 PM | Permalink | Comments

Why does the word fridge have a 'D' in it but refrigerator doesn't? That makes NO sense.

Labels: ponderables

Posted by Teriana at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments

Firstly: Since eBay won't be implementing its unfair, one-sided, sham feedback system until May, I decided to sell a few more things before my pledged selling boycott. In fact, I bought a whole palette of automotive store returns to sell. Never before have I spent so much on items I've never sold before. Even though I got a great deal, it was a big leap for me.

Second point of business: I've emailed eBay a suggestion to implement a new review option for sellers who think they've received an unfair rating for something that has nothing to do with the seller. Basically, if a buyer left a negative for something out of the seller's control (ie the item didn't live up to expectations but the buyer never tried to return it), eBay could review it and remove it if necessary. If you think this is a good idea please suggest it to eBay.

Third of all: I know it's early, but if I don't mention it now I know I'll forget. Black Friday is a great day to stock up on deals not just as Christmas gifts, but to sell online. The day after Thanksgiving 2007 I bought two Garmin c330 Navigating GPS's on sale for $130 at Wal-Mart. I sold them a week later for $170 plus shipping. They had a whole cart full of them. I should have bought them all up. I looked around for the other deals I heard my uncle talking about the day before as he flipped through the sale circular, but I couldn't find them. Next year I'm gonna use this site: blackfriday.info. I'm still not getting up at the butt crack of dawn like some crazy person, though.

Labels: et cetera

Posted by Teriana at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments

I'm writing this in hopes Progressive will respond to my complaint the same way Petco did. So last night I was getting some online quotes for auto insurance. Progressive Insurance offered me the best rate, giving me a $50 discount for signing up online and a 5% discount for agreeing to use their tripsense thing to track my mileage. So I continue on to purchase the insurance and low and behold, the quote rises exactly $50 after I agree to complete all the forms online. I can't wait to hear their response. I'm sure they'll blame my less than 750 credit rating (which doesn't cause me to be any worse of a driver), but $50 to the penny? Come on.

Edit: Progessive's response was less than satisfying. They only said they try to offer the most accurate quote possible. The response looked like a form letter and didn't really answer my concern. My email was less than 40 words. Even a gnat could have read it without losing interest.

Labels: rants

Posted by Teriana at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments

An after thought to my, "I Should Have Bought Park Place" post. My teeth - good lord - you'd think they're made of gold with the amount of money I've spent on them. I met my dental insurance limit and before I knew it I had a bill of nearly 3 grand. And my teeth weren't even all fixed. Dr. Moleski's office had a brochure saying, "Ask about our payment plan," so I did. The guy basically just said pay whatever you can each month without having to give up food or rent. It sounded great...until 2 months later I got a bill with finance charges on it. They never said anything about finance charges. They didn't even tell me my APR. From what I could gather, though, they were charging me about 12% interest. I don't see how that could be legal.

But just in time, my BofA card had offered me 4.99% APR until 09/08. There was a time not even 8 months ago when the thought of paying any interest on anything was ghastly. This is just a temporary fix. I plan to have it paid off by September, but I don't know what I'm gonna do if I can't. I suppose transfer it to another card if anyone will give me one. I see now how easy it is for people to get into credit card debt. I should stop looking down at all my neighbors who use Rent-a-Center.

Labels: life happens

Posted by Teriana at 11:13 PM | Permalink | Comments

That makes me a professional writer right? Or do the things I write have to be published by someone? Would a professional writer ever use the words writer and right one after the other in a sentence? Either way, I've updated the occupation in my profile from po' college student to freelance writer. Sounds fancier than it is. I'm getting paid to blog now and then. Not exactly the writing career I had in mind when I agreed to pay $20,000+ for my BA in Communications. But nevertheless, it's going to keep me well stocked in Dr Pepper and Cadbury Cream Eggs until I can finish college and finally get a job at McDonald's.

Labels: work

Posted by Teriana at 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments

When installing the HTML code for my latest poll I accidentally erased everything above it and immediately saved my work without realizing it. Which means all the blog posts and formatting were gone. Luckily I just went back to the site I got the free blog template from and pasted the code I needed. Then it was just a matter of adding the marquee and making minor adjustments to a couple other things. Had I accidentally deleted everything below the poll, that would have taken hours to recreate. If I could even remember everything. So I now have saved to My Documents a file of the HTML for my blog should any misfortunes happen again.

Labels: blog stuff

Posted by Teriana at 1:20 AM | Permalink | Comments

On IZEA Blogs. Paragraph 8. I'm famous. Yet my RealRank (IZEA's website ranking system) is still zero. Ah, who cares? Dane Carlson says

My blog is worth $1,693.62.
How much is your blog worth?

Any takers? I accept PayPal. Just kidding...cash only.

Labels: et cetera

Posted by Teriana at 1:15 AM | Permalink | Comments

I know it's not wordless wednesday, but I just had to show this pic. If you already know what goatse is, then you probably get the humor in this photo. If you're like me and have to look it up, here's how wikipedia explains it. And for the love of all that is holy, don't let your curiosity get the best of you and visit goatse.cz! Don't ask me how I know.

Labels: funny stuff

Posted by Teriana at 1:10 AM | Permalink | Comments

I don't know how it happened, it wasn't intentional, but my brother somehow came under the impression that I can do no wrong when it comes to money. That even when I'm not making much, I've got it all figured out. He's right on some points. I have my income budgeted to the dollar and I stick to it. And it is hard to make money mistakes when you make so little. But my big mistake involved my savings.

When I decided to finally invest in the stock market, the S&P 500 was at about 1450. In the time it took me to open a trading account and fund it, it was closing in on 1500. I saw it rise all the way to nearly 1550 after I bought several mutual funds. And I knew before I invested that it wasn't going to last, I just didn't think the bubble would burst so soon after I sunk my money in. And I really wanted to start investing, so I went against the better judgement of my cold feet. I was so excited when I bought that first utilities mutual fund. I likened it to the wise investment a utility was in Monopoly. In less than 6 months I went from a profit of 16% APY to a loss of 11%. I would have gotten out sooner and broke even, but Scottrade penalizes you for selling mutual funds within 6 months of purchasing them.

Had anyone on MSN money who was teaching me how beginners invest, or how to invest with small amounts of money, had warned me of trend of irresponsible lending going on, I would have listened to my cold feet and waited. But alas, my loss will be a lesson well learned and a tax write off for next year.

Why am I writing all this besides to get it off my chest? Even though the feds multiple rate cuts didn't help the stock market and it lowered the APY on my money market account from over 5% to under 3.5%, the cuts may be able to help someone out there. I feel so bad when I hear about the people whose variable rate mortgage has skyrocketed and now they can't afford the payments. I hope that doesn't happen to anyone here. home mortgage refinance

Labels: life happens

Posted by Teriana at 12:41 AM | Permalink | Comments

Another exam in biology today. This one was much more difficult than the last one I got a 95 on. Seems unfair really. Make the first test easy so the students think they don't have to study as hard for the second one. And what really irks me is she included 4 questions from the laboratory class. We have separate exams for lab. Why is she including things from lab on the lecture exam without telling us? And to top it off, the questions were from labs prior to the midterm. She explicitly informed us that the exams would not be cumulative. I oughtta write a letter. Oh, well. I should be thankful that I'm able to go to college and that I have the freedom of speech to complain about it.

Labels: school

Posted by Teriana at 6:46 PM | Permalink | Comments

Labels: wordless wednesday

Posted by Teriana at 8:12 PM | Permalink | Comments

Got some pics of my new car up. Since I don't have any kids to take tons of pictures of, you're going to be inundated with photos and stories of my car ("Firebird did the cutest thing today..."). One day when the snow melts (which could be a long, long ways away), I'll wash and wax it up all nice and take some cool photos. Maybe I'll hire a local hot chick to molest the car while I click away with my camera.

Labels: trans am

Posted by Teriana at 4:44 PM | Permalink | Comments

Has anyone else noticed the flaming inaccuracy of the new Dunkin' Donuts commercial? "You order a latte in English..." Except for the latte part. That's still Italian.



I realize that word is now commonplace in our language, but couldn't they have just said coffee instead? Don't they see the irony?

Labels: food

Posted by Teriana at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments

Apparently a few people in the world neglected to read my Rules of the Road post. I've encountered two inordinately bad drivers since I've moved to Bay City. Today, at around 7:45 PM I exited the freeway and was waiting at the end of the exit ramp for a car to go past so I could enter the regular road. The car entered the exit ramp I was on, heading the WRONG WAY on I-75. I honked my horn when I realized they were turning next to me, but to no avail. If they just made a mistake, they would soon know it and hopefully be able to turn around without causing an accident. But just in case they were drunk I called 911.

A couple weeks ago I was nearly broadsided by a guy in an old Ford F150 who was apparently too important to wait at a stoplight. I was making a left turn at an intersection and I waited for the people in the opposing lane who were also turning to make their turns before I proceeded into the intersection. Out of of the corner of my right eye I saw a vehicle enter his turning lane. I assumed he was turning into the gas station next to me so I paid little attention. As I proceeded into the intersection I realized that vehicle had only gotten into the turn lane to go around the people stopped at the light in front of him. I looked over and saw him barreling at me. Had I pulled out a second sooner he would have hit me for sure. I caught up to him when the road opened up into two lanes. He was going along his merry way at 60 MPH in a 55 zone. He obviously wasn't racing his elderly mother to the hospital. He just didn't want to wait at the light. And it probably wasn't the first time he'd done that. I wish I'd gotten his license plate and reported him too, but at the time I only thought enough to honk my horn as I passed him.

Labels: rants

Posted by Teriana at 8:13 PM | Permalink | Comments

Ever write something down and not understand it later? Here's the list I wrote last night for things I have to do today:

• Wipers - Okay, easy one. Need new wipers from Advanced Auto.
• Poster board - No, not so I can fleece the art world like Robert Ryman. Need it for a presentation.
• Bark - Bark? What on earth could I have meant? Am I just misreading my sloppy handwriting? Even so, shouldn't I remember what I wrote? I only jotted it down last night.

And before you say it Jessica, no, it's not 'cause I'm getting old. It's easy for me to remember things I can see. I can remember faces, but not names. Situations I've been in, but not things I have to do. I guess I'm a visual learner. I used to memorize spelling words by picturing them in my head one letter at a time. But back to the task at hand. What was it I was supposed to do today involving bark?

Mystery solved (see comments).

Labels: et cetera

Posted by Teriana at 4:38 PM | Permalink | Comments

So I was on the Petco website seeing how much their hamster wheels cost. Pumpkin has gotten rather fat and often drags his legs around behind him. I try to take him with me around the house so he'll get some exercise, but he keeps getting in to mischief. Yesterday he was running around on the roll top desk next to me and I opened the drawers along the top so he couldn't fall off. He plopped into one of the drawers and somehow crawled out the back of it. I found him in the file cabinet two drawers down.

Anyways, Petco had their exercise wheels on sale and I also found a coupon online for 10% off if I used my visa card. It equated to only a 65 cent discount, but it was still a discount (yes, I'm that cheap). It wasn't until after I completed the order that I noticed they charged me tax. Can you guess how much? Yup, 65 cents. Ten percent sales tax when the rest of Michigan only pays six percent. Fortunately they had a button right there for me to cancel the order, which I did. And I'm gonna send them an email telling them why.

Edit: Looks my blog is farther reaching than I thought. Someone presumably from Petco already commented, and being the fair and decent person I am (I hope you brought your hip waders and a good shovel), I had to publish it. This person claims Petco is required to charge sales tax on shipping for Internet orders.

Labels: hamster

Posted by Teriana at 12:10 AM | Permalink | Comments

We have a winner. Half of you think certain things never go bad when found on the floor. And just as I suspected, none of my readers are snooty enough to never eat something off the floor. Check out my new poll. You're allowed to vote for all of them if you want, but you can only vote one time.

Labels: polls

Posted by Teriana at 12:03 AM | Permalink | Comments

Jay's response: I thought the second amendment gives the right to bear arms in this country!

Notice also that the first massive bear only weighed 80 pounds. The second "big" bear weighed 150 pounds. He was treated for puncture wounds and scratches? Sounds like he got in a cat fight with Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan.

Labels: wordless wednesday

Posted by Teriana at 2:25 PM | Permalink | Comments

...in my broccoli and cheese soup. I was enjoying a delicious piping hot bowl of Subway soup of the day. I put a spoonful in my mouth and began dissecting what I at first thought was just a stringy piece of broccoli. After chewing on it for a while I realized I wasn't biting through it. I pulled out of my mouth a yellowish conglomeration of some substance that resembled Mrs. Grass Soup noodles, only slightly smaller and with the above mentioned freakish tensile strength. What could it be? Himalayan goat hair follicles? Yeah that's what I thought too, but I checked a couple websites and apparently that's unlikely.

(see comments to find out what it was)

Labels: food

Posted by Teriana at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments

These credit card companies baffle me. I tried to use my Cabela's Visa card on Feb. 29th and it was denied. I logged on to my account to see what the problem might be. I saw that I was $28 over my limit. I then launched in to complete freak out mode since I have a $7,000 credit limit. I clicked to look at my recent charges expecting to see large purchases at Chippendale's or something. Yet there was nothing out of the ordinary. Just gas, groceries and the deposit I put on my car came through. It was then when I noticed my credit limit had been reduced to a mere $1,900. WTF? Reduce my credit limit by almost 4 times the amount without telling me first? Apparently they did tell me in a letter mailed only two days prior to my discovery. Yeah, that's helpful.

The woman with the credit department told me Equifax informed them of a recent drop in my credit score. So what? I've never missed a payment with Cabela's. I rarely carried a balance. I used the card nearly every day and paid several times a month. I know why my score dropped. Nothing tragic like a late payment or charge off with another company, or even a collections report. My AMEX card is maxed out right now because of the tuition I put on it. She was unmoved. Even with my declaration of using a different credit card from now on, she only asked if there was anything else she could help me with. Anything else? What did she help me with in the first place? After this I just had to see how low my credit score could have gotten to prompt this. Yes, it's lower than it was 6 months ago, but higher than it was when they gave me the card. And I had a higher credit limit then. What kind of sense does that make?

Labels: rants

Posted by Teriana at 11:41 PM | Permalink | Comments

Yup, 23 years old at 9:26 AM EST. My mom called this morning to sing me the Happy Birthday song. And also to tell me that she remembers the exact minute I was born 'cause she was so happy it was finally over. I was born on a Saturday. 8 pounds and some odd ounces. 19 inches long. My sister was 22 inches long, I believe, and I got to be taller than her. Ha, ha. Email me and I'll give you the address to send gifts.

Labels: teriana

Posted by Teriana at 3:27 PM | Permalink | Comments