Usury!!!

Date: 03/28/2007
Subject: Rate

I just did a quick calculation based upon the $50 in "purchase" interest rates. Looks like aprox. 2.5% per month.

Is that correct?

If so that too is unrealistic.

Steve

Original Message Excluded:
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Date: 03/29/2007
Subject: Rate

Dear Steven G Shimer,

Thank you for your recent e-mail regarding your account.

Standard APRs are daily periodic rates for purchases, balance
transfers and cash advances (and corresponding APRs) stated in your
Account Agreement (or a Terms Sheet to your Account Agreement.) The
various rates are located on your statement under the Balance Category
section.

The information contained in this email is current as of the date of
your 3/8/2007 statement, and is not intended as a substitute for the
terms contained in your Account Agreement.

Your standard APR for purchases is 31.49% (variable). [emphasis added]

Your standard APR for the cash advance is 31.49% (variable).

Keep in mind that variable APRs may change due to changes in the Prime
Rate or as otherwise provided in your Account Agreement. In addition,
your Account Agreement may include a provision that would increase your
rates, including any introductory or promotional rates, in the event of
certain circumstances (for example, if your payments are late). Please
refer to your monthly billing statement each month to check for any
changes to your rates due to these events.

If you have further questions or would like additional information,
please e-mail us through our secure Contact Center or you may also call
our Customer Service Department toll-free at 1-800-356-0011.
Representatives are available to assist you 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week.

Thank you. We look forward to more opportunities to meet your financial
needs.

Sincerely,

Customer Service Representative

P.S. We hope you enjoy the convenience of online account access. Keep
in mind, at our website you can check your balance, pay your bill, and
more - - 24 hours a day!

======================================================================

This is an actual, complete, email from myself to Washington Mutual credit card company, and their actual, complete reply!!

Of course I'll transfer all of my debt from there to SOMEwhere else, probably my local credit union but let this serve as a warning to all who read this. WAMU behaves immorally. This is wrong. It used to be illegal. Where are our legislators?

Now for one more point. I got this card, with a 1 year (or so) 0% interest rate. I'm not sure when it kicked over. Probably when I was late on my payment, but I would never have agreed to a 31 (and a half!) percent interest rate if I'd known.

So pay attention. Be smarter than me. And tell ALL of your friends that this business (for me its my PayPal credit card, but its run by some criminals called WAMU) is out there.

Shame on them. Shame!

I'm done now. But make me happy. Tell everyone you know not to do business with these people.

Yet more eagles (and turkeys!)

Here's just a dump of some more good pictures that I've taken. Ok. Pretty good. Not great.











Its especially worth checking out (click on) the turkeys. Got lucky there!

Meaning

Its pretty clear it seems to me. We're here to make copies of ourselves. To reproduce. At least if you're looking for an organic answer to the meaning of life. That's it. That's what all the chemicals are about. All the fun insanity. Its not cuz its fun. Its fun cuz that's what makes it happen.

So, if that's what its all about, and that seems to me the obvious answer, then what of the ones who've not got the job done. Failed at the meaning of life. Where's the relevance? Where's the meaning for the people who didn't make copies of themselves?

Relevance is possibly not the correct word. Maybe not even meaning. What do you leave behind, who have not left behind life itself? A future? What is the raison d'etre for the being who ain't made another being?

I've thought about this a bit. I like the option of leaving something behind that exists, even if its not living. Like a Pyramid. They've been around for a while. But even that 5000 years is almost meaningless in geologic time.

I like the idea of leaving an idea. Buildings come down, but thought persists. Jesus proved more powerful than all of Rome! Ideas persist. That's why they're so important.

If only people would think!

Next it occurred to me that these lives my friends have created. Merge in a few generations, into the whole. Your child is half you. If you've bred with an asshole, then your child is half asshole. Better hope that generation makes good, but in any event two steps down that child is 1/4th you. Nice if its 1/4 someone you love and respect too. And yay for you for matching your genes with someone special. But still your great grandchild is carrying 1/8th of your gene pool. What does that make the kid 5000 years down your pyramid?

Is my brother's 250th generation grandchild really much different genetically than mine would have been if I'd had one? Aren't my genes almost out there in equal proportions? No. Mine are infinitely less out there, but close just the same.

But, in the big picture IS reproduction more important than an idea? Would Harper Lee's children have been more important than To Kill A Mockingbird?

So now I'm not sure what is important. Maybe nothing.

There's this whole notion of the universe expanding only so far, then collapsing on itself, and then having another big bang and starting all over again.

Some say there are 10 dimensions, or 11. I heard that the weakness of the force of gravity is considered by leading theoretical physicists to be possibly the result of its leaking into another universe!

What does it all mean? I really don't know. But I know this ... right now I'd like to leave something. Something permanent (sic). A painting. A picture. A story. A thought... since its looking like there's none of my own genes, going to be in the pool!

Bullshit!

"Th[is]Windows Genuine Advantage Notification tool notifies you if your copy of Windows is not genuine."
(Emphasis added)

Stranger Than Fiction

I just watched a movie, a really good movie, decide for yourself whether it is a comedy or a tragedy, that was 3/4 of the best movie I've ever seen. Well, maybe not that good but could easily have become my favorite movie, except Will Ferrell was in it!

Maggie Gyllenhall played the woman I wanted. The woman he wanted. The female lead. She was spot on perfect. Utterly and absolutely the perfect actress for the role. Great casting. Emma Thompson wrote the story; in the story. Emma was the writer. Dustin Hoffman the literature professor. Great job Dustin. The Robin Williams role from Good Will Hunting, only as a writing coach.

The story was about writing. Writing as metaphor for life. Great writing about writing. A burning question. A dramatic ending. Marvelous marvelous metaphor.

And even Will Ferrell didn't do anything wrong, particularly. He just played Will Ferrell with his stupid Will Ferrell look on his face and I kept trying to figure out who, who should have been cast in this 3/4 of a perfect movie.

It could have been Johnny Depp, though I think not. It could have been Russell Crowe, or Brad Pitt, but they're too stoney, too good looking. It couldn't have been Tom Cruise. He can't act either. Mabye George Cluney. Maybe. Maybe Ben Affleck, maybe. But I think an actor like Robin Williams - a bit too old for Maggie though it worked for Bill Murray. Bill Murray could have played this. No I'm thinking like an Edward Burns or a Hugh Jackman, even though he too is too handsome. This movie demanded a leading man with an ironic touch. Not the ham handed comedy of Will Ferrell. Will has made a good living making his stupid face. He's made a good living pretending to be G.W. He slipped into the former a lot in this movie and even into the latter a couple times. It was wrong! He was wrong!

A crime has been committed. A crime has been perpetrated on one of the better scripts to come along in twenty years ... and it was committed by the casting director!

Stranger Than Fiction.

Must see.

Thaw

Its finally getting warmer around here. And may I say. Yay for daylight savings time.

I had more to say, but I thunk it while a work today, and forgot it at home.

I saw 6 hawks on my drive into Binghamton today, maybe that was it!