2098 Bits

Monday, November 3, 2008

Tomorrow I have to yell at have a discussion with my bank (actually it's a credit union). I have multiple checking accounts there, which I use for different purposes. They require that you have a savings account for every checking account, so I opened the savings accounts and put a small amount in each. According to their documentation back when I opened them, they require a minimum of $5 in the savings. I have about $150 in each. I don't use savings accounts for savings - there are better places to put savings. I also have a money market account with them, which I use occasionally when I need to park large amounts of money that will be dribbling out over a few months. There's about $600 in that account right now.

Today I discovered that they have been assessing a "Low balance fee" of $1 a month on all those savings accounts, and $10 a month on the money market account! That's a load of bull poop, especially since they never mentioned any increase in the minimum!

Yeah, I get quarterly statements on the savings and money market, but I file them without looking at them, because there's no activity on them. I guess one has to look to make SURE there's no activity.

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I went shopping today in a large store, at about 3:30 pm. I wandered around a long time. When I came out of the store I almost panicked! There was a TV show I wanted to watch on at 8 pm, and it was cold and full dark in the parking lot. I was sure I was late and wouldn't get home in time for my show.

Then I looked at my watch. 5:30. I hate winter.

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I listened to NPR on the way home from shopping. They were talking about a gorgeous $260M glass cruise ship terminal built in Shanghai. The hope is that it will encourage tourism. Unfortunately, they built it inland above a bridge, and, um, it so happens that one third of the world's cruise ships won't fit under the bridge, and most of the others have to calculate tides and fiddle schedules to get under. Worse, of the newer ships currently being built, two thirds won't make it under. Story here.

I think it's a riot.

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Another topic on NPR was an initiative somewhere, California?, on the ballot to legalize prostitution. A prostitute said that she had once been raped, and could not report it to the police, and since rapists know this, protitutes are always in danger. If her profession were legalized, then prostitutes would be safer.

My mind wandered off. I have to wonder about the conditions. Granted that there's a difference between on duty and off duty, if she's on duty at the time, at what point does it move from theft of services to rape? That's an old question, but I haven't heard a good answer yet.
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