The internet is a wonderful invention. The fact that I can look at my bank account every day is worth the price of admission. The ability to go into my bank account and peruse my transactions on a daily basis, the majority of which I can even see via real-time, has made ‘balancing’ my checkbook all but obsolete. Life is good. I go into my account every morning and glance over the transactions, looking for anything I don’t remember or anything out of the ordinary.
This morning I sit down in front of my computer, Starbucks hot cocoa in hand, and pull up my bank account. Immediately I notice something out of the ordinary. WAY out of the ordinary. And that would be my balance. $37.40 (can’t leave off the 40 cents now, can we?). I feel the blood drain from my face as I think to myself, did I just buy a car and not remember it or something? Go on a Tiffany’s shopping spree perhaps? Maybe Starbucks charged me $3000.15 for my coco instead of $3.15. The answer was none of the above. As I scanned through the transactions it sticks out at me like a blinking neon sign. PayPal transaction for $xxxx..xx. Long story short, I am on my bank’s website, PayPal’s website, on my office phone with my bank and my cell phone with PayPal working feverishly to get this resolved.
In defense of PayPal, as soon as I logged on to their website (which I hadn’t done in months), a notice came up saying that they suspect my account had been accessed fraudulently and to call them immediately. No kidding. So I did. Of course they approved my fraud claim within hours of the call and will process the funds for transfer back into my bank account in about 10 days, but what about my heart failure? My checking account was WIPED OUT. What if I was someone less fortunate who lived paycheck to paycheck? I would have checks bouncing left and right.
The bottom line is that with the indisputable convenience we get from the internet, comes an almost equally indisputable risk. I am thankful for the security measures they had in place and wouldn’t want to be the person responsible for trying to stay one step ahead of the bleepin’ criminals who drained my checking account to within 4 Starbucks Hot Coco’s of its life. But I will tell you this, the violation I felt at having my money stolen brought out some primal anger in me and if there was any chance that the culprits were in the United States and I could have gotten my hands on them, I would have totally gone enraged ferret on their asses.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
Bite your tongue!
This is exactly what I did this past Friday night. I bit my damn tongue so hard I bled for 20 minutes. Then my tongue swelled up to the point where I was speaking a-la Mike Tyson. Or more like Bill Cosby doing his routine of what you sound like when you’re on Novocain at the dentist (“I-be-O-bee Kay-Bee”). It was a good thing it was after dinner, or I wouldn’t have been able to eat.
Over the next couple of days (that still continues on even today thank you very much) this little unintentional, yet self inflicted, tongue injury has brought up the idea of tongue rings. Don’t misunderstand, I am all for body piercings. At one time or another I have had three holes in one ear, two in the other and one belly ring. I only use one set of my earring holes now at any given time and I wouldn’t give up my belly ring for anything. I even griped about having to take it out when I had my appendix out last April. I would even consider a tiny nose piercing if I wasn’t in the military. But it’s things like biting one’s tongue that makes me wonder, even more than normal, how anyone in their right mind would pierce a metal rod through the center of their tongue. On purpose.
The pain I felt after biting my tongue was enough for me to be unwilling to speak at all for a good 5-7 minutes. Mostly because I was trying not to encourage even MORE bleeding. Granted, I took a good sized chunk of tongue from the side, rather than straight through the middle, but I am not seeing the difference in pain level based solely on location of said hole. I have talked to people who have had tongue rings and I get a bunch of different answers when I ask the question “Didn’t that HURT??” But the majority of people answered that no, it didn’t hurt. I heard the same thing about the belly rings too. I don’t know where those people got their navel’s pierced, but I got mine done in South Florida and it hurt like hell. Way more than I thought it would. I remember as he was doing it thinking to myself, ‘So this is what it feels like to be a worm being threaded onto a bait hook’.
Was I just being a wimp? Are the people I talked to all lying or trying to make people think that THEY have a high pain tolerance? I suppose, it’s possible, but I think I have a pretty good pain threshold myself. Had me a kidney stone and survived (although I pretty much swore to Gods I don’t even believe in that I would never pee again as long as I lived). I went three full days with appendix pain before finally being ordered to see a doctor. Thought I could probably have gone longer too, but an order was an order and the Colonel was bigger than me. But biting my tongue on Friday was pretty high ranking in the Great Pain’s department. It’s still swollen and painful enough 3 days later for me to have reduced my eating by about 50- 60% and what I do eat is very slow in the chewing department.
So really…why would ANYONE injure their tongue on purpose??? Suffice it to say that my opinion about tongue rings has not improved.
The Sister
Over the next couple of days (that still continues on even today thank you very much) this little unintentional, yet self inflicted, tongue injury has brought up the idea of tongue rings. Don’t misunderstand, I am all for body piercings. At one time or another I have had three holes in one ear, two in the other and one belly ring. I only use one set of my earring holes now at any given time and I wouldn’t give up my belly ring for anything. I even griped about having to take it out when I had my appendix out last April. I would even consider a tiny nose piercing if I wasn’t in the military. But it’s things like biting one’s tongue that makes me wonder, even more than normal, how anyone in their right mind would pierce a metal rod through the center of their tongue. On purpose.
The pain I felt after biting my tongue was enough for me to be unwilling to speak at all for a good 5-7 minutes. Mostly because I was trying not to encourage even MORE bleeding. Granted, I took a good sized chunk of tongue from the side, rather than straight through the middle, but I am not seeing the difference in pain level based solely on location of said hole. I have talked to people who have had tongue rings and I get a bunch of different answers when I ask the question “Didn’t that HURT??” But the majority of people answered that no, it didn’t hurt. I heard the same thing about the belly rings too. I don’t know where those people got their navel’s pierced, but I got mine done in South Florida and it hurt like hell. Way more than I thought it would. I remember as he was doing it thinking to myself, ‘So this is what it feels like to be a worm being threaded onto a bait hook’.
Was I just being a wimp? Are the people I talked to all lying or trying to make people think that THEY have a high pain tolerance? I suppose, it’s possible, but I think I have a pretty good pain threshold myself. Had me a kidney stone and survived (although I pretty much swore to Gods I don’t even believe in that I would never pee again as long as I lived). I went three full days with appendix pain before finally being ordered to see a doctor. Thought I could probably have gone longer too, but an order was an order and the Colonel was bigger than me. But biting my tongue on Friday was pretty high ranking in the Great Pain’s department. It’s still swollen and painful enough 3 days later for me to have reduced my eating by about 50- 60% and what I do eat is very slow in the chewing department.
So really…why would ANYONE injure their tongue on purpose??? Suffice it to say that my opinion about tongue rings has not improved.
The Sister
Friday, April 3, 2009
The downside of Audi...
I love my Audi. It is an A4 convertible, its got a cute little turbo engine, and it suits me just fine. The great thing about Audi was their warranty. They took care of everything, and I mean everything to 50K miles. I didn't pay for so much as an oil change.
Since I knew I would own this car for a long time, I even purchased the 100K extended warranty. I now have 56K miles on it and like a light switch was flipped, my Audi is falling apart. Two engine coils broke (had one hell of a fight with the warranty company on that one, but they finally paid). Then the glove box handle broke. This is a $530 problem. For a tiny little flippy thing!! I am not goig to fix it. No, it is not covered by the $2600 warranty I bought. Then the hydrolic thing on the convertible top broke. This is a $300 problem.
What is an Audi owner to do??
Since I knew I would own this car for a long time, I even purchased the 100K extended warranty. I now have 56K miles on it and like a light switch was flipped, my Audi is falling apart. Two engine coils broke (had one hell of a fight with the warranty company on that one, but they finally paid). Then the glove box handle broke. This is a $530 problem. For a tiny little flippy thing!! I am not goig to fix it. No, it is not covered by the $2600 warranty I bought. Then the hydrolic thing on the convertible top broke. This is a $300 problem.
What is an Audi owner to do??
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