May 26, 2008 by Hawk.

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May 22, 2008 by Hawk.

Sitting in my room yesterday I saw an ad for CashCall, one of those “You need money, we’ll screw you over but good!” places and their disclosure flicked by in the typical 4 pt font and 2 seconds to read small print. I wasn’t paying too much attention to the tube but I swore I saw 99% interest listed. I didn’t think any company could possibly advertize a rate that insanely high so I checked out their web page….

Sadly, I wasn’t wrong:

Let’s do that math; If you live in California and you borrow $2,600 from CashCall you’ll end up paying them BACK $9,095.10. If you’re stupid enough to borrow $5,075 you’ll end up paying $24,738 back to these bloodsuckers.

Just for shits and giggles I’m including the rates for my state, Florida:

141.42%! Is that even legal?!

Hawk (NOT borrowing money from them!)

Posted in Rant and Rave | 5 Comments »

May 16, 2008 by Hawk.

The town I live in has passed a new ordinance allowing the police to fine you $100 and impound your car if you’re picking up a hooker, buying drugs or… playing your car stereo too loud. I’m of two minds over this I do think it’s a bit extreme to impound a car for a loud stereo but then I’m also sick of not being able to hear the TV in my house, with the windows closed, 30 feet from the road while the central A/C is running.

Read More.

Hawk (doesn’t even have a working car radio)

Posted in Rant and Rave | 2 Comments »

May 15, 2008 by Hawk.

Sitting around the other day watching TV and an ad came on for ‘E.T.’ showing on some cable channel this month and I mentioned that I’d never seen the movie. Never seen part of the movie. Never tuned in and watched any part of the movie before having to run off and do something else. The only things I’ve ever seen were short segments (boy and loaf thing fly past the moon. Drew screaming, etc.) whatever’s been used for clip shows over the years. Strangely I have NO urge to change this situation the movie holds no attraction for me.

Hawk (would phone home but he’s already there)

Posted in Rant and Rave | 2 Comments »

May 13, 2008 by Hawk.

Everything Poops…

Hawk (snickering)

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May 12, 2008 by Hawk.

I just know it. Yesterday I stopped by a friend’s house to wish her a happy Mother’s Day and on the drive over the ‘data center’ in my car reported the outside temperature to be NINETY SEVEN (97) degrees. It’s only MAY and we’re hitting the average July or August temps! The only small ‘blessing’ was the humidity wasn’t as high as it will be in High Summer but that means the threat of wild fires dramatically increases. They shut down miles of I-95 last night due to smoke from a multitude of fires that erupted.

One of my neighbors caught this image last night:
http://flickr.com/photos/kjunlulu/2484319223/in/pool-brevardcounty

Hawk (praying for rain…)

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May 11, 2008 by Hawk.

Love,

me

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May 9, 2008 by Hawk.

Just because you CAN get a chick to take her clothes off doesn’t mean you SHOULD post her pictures online. I think that last one cracked my monitor from the inside {shudder}.

Hawk (naked but not photographed, be glad)

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May 7, 2008 by Hawk.

In one of the MP3 newsgroups I read from time to time someone just posted a request for the song “Where Eagles Fly” by Sammy Hagar (?) to play at his son’s Eagle Scout Ceremony.

Hawk (once upon a time a scout (leader))

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May 6, 2008 by Hawk.

So, ages ago, soon after I got this PC from Dell, I got a $75 gift card from them when I complained about the basic mouse that came with the package. I picked the Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer 4.0 to replace the Dell mouse. I’ve had good luck with MS mice over the years, normally getting 3 - 5 years service out of them. Since I wasn’t technically paying for it I didn’t bother to research the product… I should have. A couple months after getting the mouse it started double clicking instead of single clicking and sometimes not clicking at all (left button). Looking online I found that this is a common occurrence with this model mouse.
I called Microsoft’s hardware replacement like and the lady I spoke to was quite happy to replace the item (I also got Dell to replace it once too!) but she told me the replacement I would be getting would have a ’special’ serial number that would identify it as a replacement and if I had further problems with the new mouse I should use the OLD serial number if (when!) I needed to contact them again.
That mouse went bad after only a couple months, I then installed the replacement from Dell and if you guessed it only lasted a couple months before it started acting up, you’re right. So I called Microsoft again and gave them the old serial number like I was told to and to my surprise I was told I had a choice; I could return the mouse and then when the got the broken one they’d ship me a new one OR they’d need my credit card number, they would then ship me a new mouse and I’d have 30 days to return the defective part before they charged my account. I didn’t like either option so I said I’d deal with it and buy something with better reviews. About a week ago I decided I wasn’t about to spend money I didn’t need to spend and I was going to employ the full “Power of the Bitch” on them and see what I could achieve. Called and got the same run around choices. Got that person’s supervisor on the phone, same garbage “I’m sorry sir, there’s NOTHING I can do about this.” so I got HIS floor manager on the phone and he let slip after about 15 minutes of arguing that the reason I was getting the run around was the serial number I was giving them was raising flags in their system as it had been marked as already returned. I said “you know, like I mentioned earlier these numbers are insanely hard to read. Let’s double check them, ok?” and I gave him the number off the latest mouse sitting here and *poof* “No problem sir, we can replace this at no charge. The only problem is it and the equivalent replacement we sometimes use are both on backorder until the 19th they’ll ship sometime after that.” I can wait for free.

Hawk (buying Logitech once I can’t scam any more free mice from MS)

Posted in Rant and Rave | 1 Comment »