Bitchy McBitcherson's Blog

Tag: bureaucracy

  • Another Thing I Hate

    It really irritates me when I go through the effort to look up the phone number for a specific location of a government office, rather than using the main number, but calling that supposedly targeted phone number just connects me back into the main switchboard.

    I just spent time wandering through a phone tree, waiting on hold, talking to somebody and they determined, lo and behold, that I needed to ask somebody at the… wait for it… SPECIFIC LOCATION. They then transferred my call to the front desk of the office I was trying to reach. There, they answered immediately, I had no phone tree and no hold time. The man who answered the phone was polite and informative and I got all the information I needed, in less time than it took me to get through the phone tree of the main switchboard.

    *heavy sigh*

  • See What’s Become of Me

    I don’t really understand the way so many people seem so hung up on time.

    I completely understand it as a tool to coordinate. It would be much more difficult to meet somebody for lunch if we had no common reference point for when.

    I also grasp it to measure the passing of it. It is good to know how long something took to accomplish.

    I just don’t understand the random value attached to certain times of the day.

    Daylight Savings Time, for instance, to me is a big dumb piece of crap. People tell me how happy they are because “It stays light later.” What does that mean? The sun isn’t staying up an extra hour all of a sudden. It isn’t like the whole world changes, heck it isn’t even as if the whole country changes. Change the times at which things open and close, don’t change the time designation.

    I also hate “banker’s hours”. We live as part of a global economy and it is dumb that we don’t have a 24 hour society. It would make more sense to me if we worked on shifted schedules and all service industries also worked on shifted schedules so that people could find a place that was open and take care of needed errands no matter what time they worked, without taking time off. For some reason the collective mind thinks we are supposed to wake up “early” and go to bed at a “decent hour” and that no good can come of being out and about at the wrong times. Our population would not be putting as much of a drain on space an resources if we were active around the clock. Traffic would be less of a problem. Companies wouldn’t need to build or acquire buildings as much or often in order to increase their total number of employees. Everybody would be safer because there would always be activity instead of those quiet times when they claim only criminals operate.

    I pay my local and state taxes, but I cannot use the public parks most of the time I would actually want to, because they are “Closed at dusk” and don’t open again until morning. They close them because they claim it discourages crime and use of the parks for illegal activities, but making it common for law abiding citizens to use the park at all times would also do that.

    The morally superior attitude of some so-called morning people, also baffles me. So what if the early bird gets the worm? I am not a bird. I don’t eat worms, and owls are not starving to death either. Back in college we were usually up until 4 AM, and it was not at all unusual to still be up working on something at 6 or 7 AM. If we didn’t have an early class, that might lead us to still be asleep at 10 AM. However if the husband’s mother happened to call at 10 AM and find us still home and in bed, she never apologized for waking us. To her, it was like she had caught us being naughty and lazy. She had been up since 6 AM and had four productive hours of the day behind her, so she found us lacking. Of course, she had gone to bed at 10 PM. If we had called her and woken her up at 2 AM , she would have been pissed off.

    I used to consider myself a night owl, but I am no longer convinced it is that simple. Yes, I do tend to prefer the night for reasons such as, less sun, less crowds, less heat, and less distractions. The thing that made me think I was night owl, was because I typically had an extra boost of energy at night, and felt motivated and alert. I attributed this to me being a night person.

    Then I went through a stretch of time when I lived alone and had no outside obligations, and I just did whatever I wanted sleep-wise most days. What tended to happen was I would wake up, but still feel rather fuzzy and unmotivated. I’d fumble about doing mundane tasks and laze about. Eventually I’d feel semi functional and I would start to assess the things I was planning to do for the day, look through things, maybe get in touch with people I needed to be in touch with to get things done. After 2-3 hours I would eat something and then get going. I would spend 8 or 9 hours doing whatever it was I needed to do. By then I had been up for 10-12 hours. Around then I would feel very energized and alert. This was when I was most likely to get involved in a new project, get a burst of energy to finish a project. I was at my most alert and productive and also as the most receptive to social interaction as long as it didn’t interfere with something I was driven to work on. This would last for 6 hours and then it would start to fade away. I still felt amped, but no longer alert. If I was driven to finish something I would keep working, if I had no time pressure I might start reading a book or something else to help me wind down. Assuming no pressure to stay up and finish something, I would go to sleep about 20-21 hours after I woke up, and then sleep for around 5 hours.

    20 or 21 plus 5 does not equal 24, so I would not get up at the same time everyday. Instead I would chase myself around the clock. So some days I would be getting up in the morning, other days I was getting up at night. However my most alert time was typically after I had been up for about 10 hours, whether that was at night or in the morning. While I still liked running errands at night because of the things I mentioned about liking nighttime before, it became apparent that it wasn’t really that I “wasn’t a morning person” it was that I didn’t wake up alert and ready to start the day. Sleeping more did not help. Waking with an alarm versus waking on my own didn’t help. What helped was simply being awake for a while and having a chance to get moving.

    I see other people who hop out of bed and are totally ready to go. Most of them don’t get that burst of energy later in the day though. They are alert early and then have a longer slower decline cycle.

    Of course for most of my life there are external forces asking me to get up in the morning, at about the same time each day. This typically leaves me never getting enough sleep. I want to be up for 21 hours, but I want to sleep for (now that I’ve gotten older) around 6 hours. I either have to force myself to wind down while I still feel like I could really accomplish things allowing me to get the amount of sleep I’d like, or I can stay up until I feel like sleeping and then only get a few hours of sleep. I usually alternate between these two. If I do the not enough sleep option for too many days in a row I can induce insomnia. That is never good. I once had insomnia for a little over a year, and boy was I in a horrible mood.

    So, I try not to be too annoyed by the people who wake up all energized and then are blobs by the time I am ready rock, as long as they don’t treat me like I have a character flaw because I am not constantly trying to eat worms.

    I am ALWAYS annoyed by anything to do with DST. Spring ahead. Fall back. Fuck off.

  • In response to a friend Re: Credit Card Companies

    about this rant

    I have had more than my share of financial problems. It is horrific to be faced with a cascading series of overdraft fees or late payment fines. Totally overwhelming. Yet, it was still my responsibility. Did it suck? Yes it totally did. The credit cards spelled out the penalties and the interest maximums though. Using them if I couldn’t afford those penalties was a choice I was making, gambling on things not going wrong. In my life, gambling on things not going wrong is usually a bad bet.

    I basically hate most laws. They cost us money and don’t do what they were supposed to do and are rarely the answer to anything. If people were properly taught personal economics and then made the effort to actually put into practice what they learned, the fucked up card companies would not get enough customers to stay in business.

    What I have learned from personal experience is most important for me is, DO NOT PLAY OSTRICH. If things are going poorly it is probably not even one wrong move away from a rapid downhill slide, it is probably going to be a lack of any action, a pause, a beat to be pissed off or feel sorry for myself, that is going to start the cascade of doom. If somebody raises a rate, a quick call can often lower it right back down, same with a late fee. That is assuming that a fuck up is rare. When you have a history of doing it right, that goes a long way.

    I do my best to remember that money is not mine unless it is in my hands. I don’t care what people owe me, if I count on that money as if it is actually mine and spend ahead, then I need to be prepared to accept the consequences. (Hell, money may not be mine even after it is supposedly mine. Remember last year, when ING ate all of my money and left me, well not penniless since we have that jar of change downstairs, but damn close. Man, I hate ING.) If I owe money, and cash comes into my hands, that cash is not my money either. If I buy a cup of coffee with money I have in my hand, while I am carrying debt, then I am borrowing for that cup of coffee.

    I immediately stop with all purchases that are not absolutely necessary (and I need to be disciplined about what constitutes necessary). Either admit to my friends, “Sorry, I can’t afford that.” or make up something about being too busy. I refuse to just go along for a dinner or an event and go further into debt even though it is more fun to go, and less embarrassing. I do my best to avoid rationalizing myself into going because “I already said I would”, and quite frankly because I would love to be distracted from my financial woes. Immediately tell people that I need more work and then take the work. Cleaning toilets for money is not beneath me, and pretending that I can’t do it because then I might miss out on my search for the right work would just be an excuse for me.

    If I am going to need to do the hideous, and ask somebody to help me out, admit it sooner rather than later. Warn them ahead of time so they feel less pressure to say yes because I still have time to look for other options. Do it before I have stacks of late fees. Most importantly if I am going to do it, be honest and ask for enough that it will actually stand a decent chance of halting the avalanche, all of course with an upfront schedule and plan for how it is getting paid back.

    Anyhow, it is absolutely not a matter of not being familiar with both financial hardship AND financial irresponsibility, but credit card companies were not the root cause of my fuck ups. I was.

  • Senators Don’t Think Americans Should Behave Responsibly

    Senate Panel Slams Abusive Credit Card Practices

    Credit cards can be used to the consumer’s benefit. Credit cards can be abused to the consumer’s downfall. They can be used in a great many ways in between. The fact that the majority of Americans use them poorly says a lot more about our education system and lack of parenting in this country than it does about the credit card companies. They are in business to make money. If people cannot be bothered to read before entering an agreement that can seriously impact the financial health of their family, they are the ones who need fixing.

    Here is an excerpt from the article about one of the people who testified at the hearing:

    Wesley Wannemacher, a Lima, Ohio resident who testified at the hearing, was one of those consumers.

    Wannemacher described how he had maxed out his $3,000 Chase Bank card to pay for his wedding, and found himself falling further and further behind in payments as he had more expenses to take care of. Despite pleas to Chase to work with him, the bank continued to pile on late fees and penalty fees.

    “Debt seems to invoke a feeling of hopelessness unlike any other problem I’ve encountered,” Wannemacher said. “When a debtor calls you on the phone and you make a minimum payment, you know that you’ve made no real progress and that in a month, they will be calling again.”

    Eventually Wannemacher ended up owing $7,500 in interest fees, late payment fees, and overlimit fees on an original debt of $3,200.

    Even after making payments totaling $6,300, he still owed $4,400 in fees. Wannamacher had contacted Levin’s office, who invited him to testify. Right before he did so, Chase agreed to forgive the balance on his account.

    WTF, seriously? This guy decided to put on a wedding more lavish than he could afford. He did it. He got the goods. He overcharged the amount of credit that he had. Guess what, that is against the terms, and they assess fees for that. It says it in every terms of service pamphlet I have gotten from a credit card company. Also, there is this thing called interest. The credit card companies charge interest when you borrow money from them. They charge interest on the interest you owe them if you don’t pay it off right away. They charge interest on the late fees if you don’t pay those off right away. Also, if you start screwing up your account, they raise your interest rate. Those pretty rates are ones that they offer to financially responsible people.

    Don’t get me wrong, I know the credit card companies prey upon the weakness and stupidity and fucked up sense of entitlement of the masses. They advertise and advertise and try to lure people in and it gives people the false sense that they should spend money they probably shouldn’t spend. I am not a fan of the credit card companies for a pile of reasons, from their marketing practices (quit offering pre-approved cards to my dog, thank you very much), to their constant mailings because of the changes in the terms of service that happen every 5 days, to their complete lack of decent customer service. Those are just more reasons to read the application carefully. Then if you choose to apply, read all the damn paperwork they send you. If you don’t agree cut up the card and close the damn account. If a chance is made to the terms of service after you already carry a balance with them, you can quit using the card and notify them in writing that you do not agree and you pay off the debt according to your old terms.

    The credit card companies are not getting people into this situation. The people are getting themselves into it. It isn’t really their fault though, at least that is what my government is telling me. I guess a government that can’t balance the fucking budget would have to believe that. I wonder how much this hearing cost our nation?