Aug 28, 2015

It's Your Money...

JG Wentworth has a completely adorable tv commercial, with a memorable phone number: 877-CASH-NOW,

However, what we now know about the buyers of structured settlements is disturbing, at best.

Many people who are mentally impaired from lead exposure, and receiving a settlement to pay for their ongoing medical needs, do not have the capacity to form a contract, but annuity buyers seem to be targeting them for as low as nine cents on the dollar!

Is no one advocating for these people? Where is their family?

Friends, we must take care of our families. We cannot let predators steal from those we love. If we do not defend the defenseless, we may find ourselves, one day, with no one to speak for us. Teach your children how to respect the elderly and infirm, by modeling the behavior yourself.

The kids are watching. You're teaching them how to treat you when you are elderly, whether you mean to or not.


Aug 14, 2015

Those Surveys

$$$$$   CONGRATULATIONS   $$$$$$$
You have been selected to enter an online survey!
You could win $1000 gift card!


Wow. Does anyone besides me find anything wrong with this?

They're clever; that's for sure. They get your attention with the $ and congratulatory note. Makes you think you've already won.

You've been "selected." You're special! (Put this in the same category as "You deserve a break today...")

You  could enter the survey and NOT win. What happens then? Corporate now has data on thousands (hundreds of thousands, likely) of customers, their email and snail mail addresses, probably their phone number, where and when they shop, what they bought (via barcode - connected records) AND

AND

AND

It saves them from doing their job. Bonus! In the fine Tom Sawyer tradition, they get YOU, the shopper, to evaluate whether their cashiers are fast and friendly, so they don't have to come down to the sales floor and see for themselves.

Wait, you thought it was about the cashiers?

It was about the data all along.

Aug 13, 2015

Caller ID

I love caller ID. What a time saver!

Do people not realize that my phone is for *my* convenience? I check caller ID before I answer the land line, because it's so spammified with robo callers and telemarketers.

My real friends/families/business associates have my cell phone.

Which also has caller ID.

My tech guru (a/k/a my son from Turkey) told me in the late 1990s (yes, the 90s!!!) that caller ID could be faked. I think his exact words were, "do you want your mom to get a call from the White House?" so... there's that. But again, who would fake their ID if they were my friend, family, or business associate?

If you want me, call my cell phone.

Or text me.

Or Facebook message.

Or Twitter DM.

Or email, if that works for you. Speaking of 1990s, I've had the same email address since 1995. Cool or pathetic - not sure which.

I'm perfectly available, to people with legitimate reason to contact me.

Unless I'm busy, in which case, I'll call you back.

Aug 7, 2015

Spiritual Laziness

What makes people racist? I believe that it is spiritual laziness. I'm too lazy to get to know you as a person, so I'll just mentally lump you in with all the other people I don't know, who look like you.

What makes them sexist? Same thing. I'm too lazy to get to know you as a person, so I'll just lump you in with all the other people I don't know who share your gender.

Get the picture?  What if we withheld judgment pending further consideration? What if we got to know someone as a precious child of the most high God, giving them the benefit of the doubt?

That would change everything.

Aug 6, 2015

Premature Decorating

I saw this picture on Facebook, and I had to laugh, because, well, I just did.

Stores like Michael's and Hobby Lobby might be ok having Christmas crafting stuff out. If you make wreathes and sell them at a Christmas Craft Fair in November, you don't wait until Halloween to start making your inventory.

Dollar General, though, what's your excuse? Too soon for that.

Same with the Presidential debates on TV tonight. No way. The election isn't until November of NEXT YEAR! Why is everyone worrying about it now?

Go away, people. Come back when it's time. It's not time yet.

Aug 5, 2015

The Hollywood Scandal So Shocking, You Almost Won't Believe It!

The Hollywood Scandal So Shocking, You Almost Won't Believe It!


That was the teaser on the cover of a McCall's magazine from 1959. As do today's tabloids, they shock you with a headline that makes you want to buy. Online, it's called clickbait.

The inside, unfortunately, is usually a disappointment. You are expecting something earth shattering, and you're left thinking, "Is that all?"

That is especially prone to happen when you read the magazine 50 years later.

The 1959 shocker? Which Hollywood celebrities were getting a divorce.

I hate that we, as a society, are so jaded now that divorce is no longer a scandal. Many things should be now, that aren't.

What's really frightening is trying to imagine what the McCall's magazine (substitute) 50 years in the future will think is shocking.

I don't think I want to know.

Aug 4, 2015

Discretion Is the Better Part of Valor

I'm not saying what I think.

I'm not saying what I think.

I'm not saying what I think.

I'm not saying what I think.

I'm not saying what I think.

It's ok to have a thought and keep it in your head.
I'm growing. How do you like me so far?