Yes, I Love My Bank

Actually my bank is a credit union, based in Georgia. It was once for employees of an airline, then became a community credit union.

I had a problem which involved having no money in the account, but there was another one with them which I was under a misconception about. I thought you could go online and just pull money as you chose. It requires filling out a form; some sort of federal tyranny thing.

So, in the mean time they covered a charge on the accounts and charged me a deadbeat fee. Fair enough. I know I should be on top f this stuff. I'm defective and I sometimes have to pay for that. No hard feelings.

Well, as I am on the phone after signing, scanning in and emailing the form, I call to see if they got it and how quick it can be processed. In the course of the conversation I explain my ignorant misconception and concern about the accounts. "Oh I see you've kept a nice account with us and never had any issues so I'll remove that charge from your account."

Holy smoke. My last bank would have found a way to up the fee to hundreds of dollars and then refused to even consider reducing it, even when the upcoming deposit amount which came in automatically was already showing and would be there in a day. I once had it showing the deposit was coming and I thought it was in and over a ten dollar debit charge, I ended up with about a hundred dollars in deadbeat penalties before it was over.

That's another thing, if the account has no money, why do they let a debit get approved? And if so, why do they not cover it when there is a pending deposit showing?

The credit union does that--covers it when they see money on the way. Or they won't approve the debit card if the system sees no source of funds. That is how I knew I'd screwed up. They covered one thing, charged a fee, then said no soap. Then they take the fee off when I get it all fixed, even though it was all my fault and they could have nailed me and I would not complain.

So that is why I do not bother to get a local bank. They are no good to deal with compared to the credit union. I make deposits at local C/Us which are full service and network with others. It is not that big a hassle. It is worth finding them. I hope the feds don't ruin that form of banking, although I would expect them to since it is not torture to deal with them. Anything that operates other than under the old USSR model appears to be on big brother's hit list.

I find it amazing that "Becky" so cheerfully and voluntarily refunded the deadbeat charge, even though I never denied being a deadbeat. I am thinking about paying attention and seeing if I can find a way to make some money and keep track. At least keep track.

The Trouble With Rallies and News

As it turned out, I wouldn't have made the powerlink protest anyway. But I was torn over it. Something about sign carrying and marching and all that is just not me. Can't put my finger on it, but even if I agree with a group I don't find myself moved to be a demonstrator. For one thing I usually agree for different reasons.

As I suspected, the message that came out of the downtown powerlink rally was incohesive and muddled. The one thing I saw that made the best point was a video of a commissioner speaking. She was on topic and kept it as simple and focussed as possible.

There were signs that made no sense, and ones that made sense. (I saw all this on someone's facebook) The news reports did the effort no good, as I figured would be the case. They presented it as "protesting the SDGE Powerlink, which will bring clean, renewable energy to over a half million people in San Diego". That makes it sound like you have to be nuts to argue with wonerful clean power. Would you take power away from half a million people? You Luddite!!!

Of course, the powerlink is not supplying San Diego, and it is not bringing in clean, happy face energy. And it will cost the rate payers more money than they are now paying, which is plenty.

I saw the clips from the various news stations and I can only believe it would not sway the undecided or uninformed citizen. If I did not already know the story I would have thought, "Oh great, now the global warming crowd is protesting clean energy. I guess baby boomers will protest anything. This is sad."

There was the obligatory sign that mentioned global warming and pollution in relation to the powerlink. That is sure to make enemies. I imagine it said the powerlink would kill seals and polar bears on the flip side.

That is a point I'm sure I cannot get across to my friends, and won't try. It is too bad they could all have got together on a single message--Higher Rates--fire hazard. Everything else may be even more important, but it is too hard to get the point across, and to get those, whose property and business won't be screwed up, to feel like it makes some difference to them.

That is the only way to get to people; how it will it affect them in some obvious way. Right and wrong do not motivate most people. Money in or out of the wallet is the big motivation. Doesn't matter how that part works as long as it is legal enough that they won't go to jail.

So, the judge hearing this particular lawsuit decided not to have a trial but to rule on written arguments. I guess on the stuff already submitted. I have no idea how that works. It could be a positive thing--who knows.

I still wonder how you combat a thing that is dishonest, involves a lot of unearned money and has other faults, without marching, picketing and all that. It doesn't seem like the best approach to me. Maybe I am wrong. I just can't define why it bothers me, and that bothers me a lot. I'd like to know why I feel this way, and what I think is a better way.

I guess the event kept those who have formed organizations and raised money to fight this boondoggle motivated and together.

This is one of those issues where the lockstep dems would normally be all for anything labelled green, and the lockstep repubs would be for anything that looks like industrial progress, and both are wrong. It is scheme which will serve some at the expense of others. The power will go north and SD will pay, and back country people will suffer higher fire risk, confiscated property, and other unpleasantries.

And there is no shortage of power here. Maybe it is the result of when people were duped into thinking they were short on power due to enron manipulation and such. Can't let a crisis, even a long gone crisis, go to waste.

Why I Heart Channel 10 News

Caught a few minutes of TV. This was great to hear:

"Why a flight attendant put a toddler in an overhead bin!!!, the full story at 11".


This is as good as the first time I noticed the National Enquirer way back when. It had a front page headline that read, "Ghost Eats Baby".

Oh, I see that both of these stories involve unusual baby experiences. What does this mean?

Sometimes the best place for a well deserved time-out is the overhead bin. More often than not, the parents are the ones who need to be put there.

Airline stories are the best.

Nonsense

You know, if those cartoon characters-Bugs Bunny, and the Coyote are examples-did not look down when they ran off a cliff, they could have kept on going. I wonder how come none of them thought not to look?

Songs of the South--part 36

Hayseed Dixie - Bohemian Rhapsody video


It is highly possible you just don't get this sort of thing if you haven't somehow been culturally southernized. Not sure.

By any standards these guys a pretty damned good. They remind me a lot of places and people I encountered in NC way back when. There were times, through means now forgotten, I spent a day or a week in some remote area playing music and partying with such as these.

Changed it All

blablabla

That was what the first post in this space was. Even changed the title.

So, I came back and changed it. I guess there is a delete somewhere on these things. I used to delete mass quantities at JS when I got really depressed. I wiped out entire months of stuff there in fits of despair. But when I figured out that deleting my drivel wouldn't delete myself, I gave it up. Those were difficult days. Most days are.

Why it works like that for me, I do not know. I guess life is a battle by nature, and with some people the battle takes on a different character. Probably some people fight well defined battles with a goal and definition, while others fight ongoing skirmishes, sort of like police actions which never end and have no clear objective. Not being other people, I can't say for sure what they do inside their minds.

I am reasonably confident that some people don't eye the delete button on a regular basis.

Much of the time I do this only for therapeutic reasons and in case I fall off the earth, someone might go by through and go , Oh geez, now I feel bad and we should really be sorry. Boy, did we miss the boat on that one!!
And that will show them. They'll be sorry, guilty, and full of shame.

Or they will never bother to look. Or they will look and say, tough break kid. I'm not sorry.
I like the first choice better.

fly away with you

It is what it is, which is sometimes much longer

Cliff Niman plays DarcyFarrow--Copper Creek Group-Alpine CA

Little jumpy because I had to use smaller format to allow upload w/my connection, and so I could send to Cliff's wife. They have a slower connection than I. Mine varies. Cell card in the Ballistic Valley. Mexican towers not far away, and who knows where our towers are.



These friends are a trip. I have been challenged since this is not anything like what I know. I enjoy their company and respect their talent.
Nicest people ever.

Cliff embodies long time multi generational California as much as anyone I can imagine.

Welcome to the people up on Ballistic Mountain. This is pretty close to a typical conversation when we are just sitting on the deck or practicing. It goes a lot like that.

This was a very sympathetic, enthusiastic crowd.

I wish my tropics song didn't get deleted. It went over really well.

as it should have !!!

lakesidehotel3-2-11

Here's one that GV1 wrote.
I particularly like the words.
I've been to the Lakeside Hotel and heard the stories. It is now a halfway house and recovery meeting place for drugs and alcohol, which makes the song and history that much more entertaining.



These are really nice people. The guy on the right ran a coffee shop kind of place in the sixties, and maybe later, where Steve Martin played when he had the arrow in his head. All kinds of history, Big Mama Thornton, and names I forgot but you'd recognize. One famous song writer/singer used to hang out there starting out as a 17 year old.

Unintuitive iMind

My isense seems to be lacking. I forgot how to burn dvd that will play on normal dvd player for a tv. I've done it before. I have a dvd of the trip from Amarillo to Taos. And others too. How did I do that?

Mac has an iDVD application but it wants to do all this other stuff to it. I tried to use that to make some avi files and mp4 files work. It is supposed to convert those files in its iway to something that plays on almost anything. After it processed for close to an hour it hit a point toward the end where it said it was sorry but an error of some kind occurred so it didn't work. I tried three different times in different ways.

I also did the straight burn thing but thAt only plays on my computer as near as I can tell. It didn't work on a friend's mac.

How am I going to be a film maker if I don't learn?

The movie program only seems to want to do stuff that you would put on the web or play on computer. I know there are ways to do this, but I am not catching it.

I thought the mac site would be helpful. It is merely a more smiley version of microsoft's less than helpful sites. Unless I want to buy the latest version of what I have, it is a bust. Even then it doesn't tell me what I want to know. I have no trouble editing video etc. But once it is done, getting it in the form and place I want is where I am stuck.

Being a moron is not the walk in the park you might think.