17-II-2007.
On sezam, someone bitching how isopropil alcohol can't be found. „Of course I looked in pharmacies, and they have none“. So it's still worth having a connection in wholesale. We barely found any for the firm. It seems these eight years haven't made it any less elusive. And here you can find it anywhere, but not the regular alcohol.
Nina decided to replace the suspension and absorbers in her car, to make it sportier and stiffer than before. Ender, of course, supplied what was needed, he already kept some of his tools here, and she also bought whatever was needed, even the stands. She found what and where to do and in which order, so we three got around the car, at a temperature just barely above zero. Luckily, even if there was any wind, it's from the shore and we're behind the house, west side, in the lee. Some benefit from being in the middle of the line. We picked the saturday because she didn't have to go to work, nor Lena to school. I'm untouched by that concern, for a few more days.
My main task was to compress the springs. There's a special tool, a pair of long screws with two hooks, one fixed on one end, the other moved by a nut which needs several dozen turns to get where needed. Glad to have had these gloves, and a warm jacket, otherwise I'd freeze like a butt.
Don't know how long it took, substantially we managed to get everything done as written, except the last nut and some washers and whatnots on the very top, where an additional sideways rod was connecting them, to strengthen the whole construction, we wound in wrong order, so had to redo that part, which was a mere fifteen minutes extra... which stretched into the next day as well. It gets dark early, may the winter day here be at least half an hour longer than at home. On top of it, one nut fell somewhere into the engine, and we couldn't find it no matter what, so Nina went on sunday after lunch to buy new. Then there was some trouble with the rear pair, there was a nut on top which we couldn't unscrew because it's in a pit. We bought a cutting disk to chop it off - we have another one, need only the washer.
Go was invited by her college to come and do a weekend lecture, so the current crop of students may see what's in store for them if they're good and graduate. We planned that somewhat, but eventually nothing happened.
The additional reason Nina is gearing up her car is that the firm moves from our neighborhood (less than four miles away, which I counted as 'nearby') to Norfolk, which was delayed already, so the ride will be twice as long at least. When we went to our 2000 vacation, we passed by, maybe a corner away from the spot. It seems we then lost our way much better than I remember it.
So she's carless today, and since I also had to take Lena (some pretend holiday today, school is out but she needs to do some project with a friend), I drove her to Norfolk, for the first time. It being a holiday, wasn't congested. The president's day is celebrated only by state and banks (banks take every opportunity to close shop, so to make more payments get delayed and more fines are charged), but even that suffices to thin out the traffic.
There's about eight miles to there, and it's the strict downtown of Norfolk - surrounded by skyscrapers and business buildings, while there's just one light to the highway. At the end of the street there is a ship anchored, with its front tip level with the third floor, remarkable. We'll have to take a walk around the area once. There's a garage right across the street, so parking shouldn't be a problem, specially if they have their reserved (and perhaps paid) spots.
Sean chimed in this week a bit, wanted to try to compile the app and churn the disks himself (he's still some kind of programmer, why not), kept emailing until I supplied the necessary instructions (of course not all of them, I didn't reply any questions he didn't ask) - that's allegedly the last bit before he sends me the final check.
UniJewel, as far as I'm concerned, can go take a walk until I see some money.
Paige was never too quick with money - because it's not from his pocket, he's billing the winter resort for my services, then they put that in a queue, then he gets the money from them, then he sends me a check... it would take weeks, even months sometimes. But never failed.
Eighteenth. I see I was writing c7, the descendant of the old catal6, and was trying it out on the equally old assets, the version for windowses. Didn't do anything much, perhaps just a view of amortization groups (whoa, I barely managed to remember the meaning of that expression). Also touched some small stuff for Paige.
On UA, about banks, with some help from a colleague from North Carolina. She found what's each party's obligation around the credit check, which is not the same as standing, this is more of a 'credit history'. While the first is 'how good are you', the latter is 'how much you love paying the interest'.
From working for a financial institution, I know that by law, if your credit is checked and you are refused credit, the company must notify you of the reason and the source of the information which denied you credit. As long as your address is correct, you should be receiving those notices (if in fact you were ever denied credit). You can also opt-out so you don't receive any unsolicited credit offers. I think you are correct that you have to pay a fee to a company which will notify you whenever your credit is checked (it is an additional service and not required by law). Or you can put a security freeze on your information which is better (and free), but you must remove it if you want to receive credit from a 3rd party
- anyone can collect data about your financial status and sell them. They may have to be registered somewhere and may be regulated, but you don't necessarily know who they are.
Just look at the default state of affairs:
- anyone can collect data about your financial status and sell them. They may have to be registered somewhere and may be regulated, but you don't necessarily know who they are.
- they don't have to tell you a thing, as long as they give you a clean bill of financial health.
- anyone can buy those data and include you into their target list
- AFAIK, the only time you are aware of this is when you want to apply for an apartment lease, then the leasing office charges you some $35 (as of 2004, don't know about now) for the credit check
- you can opt out but you first have to be aware of all this, including the availability of this out option, which I haven't seen advertised anywhere. Actually heard about it now from you.
I don't mind banks sending me their funny papers. The sample cards are excellent as handy spatulas. I've used them for many purposes - as bookmarks, for cleaning up the table before applying the duster, as letter openers, even as a spatula for grouting. And the papers these were glued to are a great educational resource: they remind me why I don't have a credit card and why I don't want to have one. The amount of text in 6pt font is sufficient incentive for me to find the shortest trajectory to the recycle bin.
By law, you are entitled to a free credit report once a year from each of the three major credit agencies. If you stagger them, you can check your credit for free every 4 months.
Again, the default is that you don't get anything until
1) you know you can get it
2) you know where to ask
3) you ask
This free credit report is also advertised pretty much nowhere, and of course there are those who will try to sell you something you can get for free.
I've read a lot about the way credit cards operate, mostly because I had a prospective customer who needed POS CC processing (but in the end he offered $800 for some six months' work :), which led to more reading, and I never found out that you have this entitlement. What about the Joe Q Sixpack, who didn't even read that much.
This is entirely different from what Bergen describes - by default (i.e. you don't have to opt into or out of anything), when someone requests your credit status, you are informed.
In the same vein, on sezam many chime in complaining on banks who all make their web sites to work only in IE and nothing else. What. The. Fuck. Who sold them the story that m$ was the reliable one... tsk, tsk.
I took the Corolla recently for an oil change, and told them to diagnose the front undercarriage and power steering. The left bearing is okay, the right chafes - which actually means it's the right disk that is bent and needs pressing. For the steering they said it should all be changed, to the tune of 800$. It works as it is, the oil is dripping a bit, and it's very sensitive to the slope of the pavement, when driving I have to use two fingers to hold it straight :). Since we mean to pay off the house soon - need to finally do them taxes - and since I'll be having some salary now, as soon as we accumulate enough, we're changing the car and that'll be it. It's seven years now that I'm riding this one, it did famously, we arrived without problem everywhere and back even when it had some faults, so can't say I had complaints.
Probably by end of spring, if everything goes as we intend it to, we'll marry her, even for parts, and get a similar one.
Mentions: assets app, catal6, Ender Aquila (Ender), Gorana Sredljević (Go), Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Majkrosoft (m$), Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Paige S Stevenson, Sean Chertoff, sezam, UbiquAgora (UA), UniJewel, in serbian