Home

Forbes.com recently took the time to probe the question that burns in all of our minds. What does the car you drive say about who you are? (“What Your Car Says About You.” Oct 9th). Using vastly complex processes and highly complicated mathematical models (aka surveys and statistics) they’ve determined, for example, that by owning a Chevy you’re telling the world that you don’t use the Internet.

I think Brian might have something to say about that.

Others vehicle makes in the list include Bentley, Lexus, Honda, Ford, ect… Each particular brand says whether you’re rich, married, old, young, college educated and Internet savvy.

Of course, Pontiac was not listed which, for myself, must just mean I’m obsolete.

Some may wonder why Forbes magazine would run such a list. After all, Forbes is more geared toward financial and business news, not automotive trends and car styling. The answer is obvious. They’re doing a service for their financial and business minded readers. If you read Forbes magazine in order to look financially smart and successful then you MUST drive the car that conveys this message!

Of course, how many of us, while driving day to day, actually stop and think “Oooo…that person is driving a Ford. I bet they don’t have a college degree or use the Internet!”

Unless you happen to not be a fan of Fords in which case, you probably think worse of the person driving it.

By the way, for you Chevy drivers out there… Internet? You don’t need no stinkin’ Internet.

Recently, I tried to open an online bank account at iGoBanking.com. I went through their application process, gave them every bit of information they could possibly want short of my bra size and was good to go once I could verify my address with them. To do so, I had to mail one of three supporting documents to them: A copy of an electric/gas bill, a copy of a bank statement showing my address or a copy of a land line telephone bill (not a cell phone bill).

Well I couldn’t provide the utility or the phone bill because neither is in my name. My bank statement is an electronic statement and I wondered if they would accept this but it was all I had.  I downloaded the estatement anyway, printed it and mailed it off.

I got an email that it wasn’t acceptable as it did not show my bank’s name or logo on it. (Did I mention it’s an estatement? My bank simply sends out the generic statement that would be printed on statement paper if it were mailed, the statement paper of which has the damn logo on it).

So I called iGoBanking and explained that my statement is an estatement and that I do not currently get statements in the mail. Could I send them an older statement? I was told I could if it was less than 90 days old. My last paper statement was over six months ago.

The woman on the phone, however, asked me to forward my estatment to her to look at, which I did. Half an hour later, I received an email saying my application was declined.

By the way, I was trying to open a CD. I was trying to give THEM money! I could maybe understand if this were a loan application, but where they obviously verified my credit report, I don’t understand what the big deal was. My credit report shows I’ve lived at my current address for a very, very long time.

Ah well, their loss. I have no qualms about taking my business elsewhere, but I can’t believe I’m the only person in this particular situation, where utilities are not in my name and I do a lot of banking online and get a generic estatement. I tried iGoBanking originally because at the time of this writing, they have the highest CD rate in the land. If iGoBanking doesn’t want deposits from customers, then they simply should just drop their rates, not make folks go through loops and then be turned down for something that is really rather insignificant to the deposit application.

I should also note that I’ve opened online accounts, CDs and what have you, through other online financial institutions and never had this issue before.  So it looks like iNoGoBanking with iGoBanking.com!

A sampling of my recent YouTube viewing…

First, some drama. The Los Angeles wildfires of ‘09.

I think these two vids speak for themselves. Both are time lapse photography of the LA fires, spanning several hours on August 29, 2009. The first one has music, the second does not nor does it need it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncSosDIKbb0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qqxjO5nr8k&NR=1

Although there’s no music on the second one, I couldn’t help but have The Door’s “LA Woman” running through my head.

I see your hair is burning
Hills are filled with fire…

Next, some comedy.  The cast of Hogan’s Heroes on Hollywood Palace with Bing Crosby in 1965. (It’s a Christmas themed show, thus the Christmas music at the beginning of it).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WexLDsdOGwY

Later in the program, the cast does come back to sing some carols. I know it’s only September but…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWxgo6WhABg&feature=related

Check out the commercial for the Sylvania Bluedot Flash Cube for your flash cube camera. How far we’ve come indeed since 1965. Isn’t it wild?

I was cleaning out some old papers and stuff today and came across an old magazine article pulled from an early ’90s issue of Seventeen Magazine. The article had to do with taking care of your car. (Surprised I kept it? LOL).

Anyway, on the backside of the article is part of an ad for General Motors. It’s only half the ad and I can’t tell what the photo is supposed to be (it’s a faded black and white photo of either a truck or maybe even an older car. But there’s not enough for me to tell which is which. LOL). Anyway, in light of the current situation with General Motors, it was the words that I found interesting.

“I want a car that helps me exercise my right to pursue happiness.”

Our engineers are concerned with safety, reliability, fuel economy, corrosion protection, ease of maintenance and hundreds of other important things you definitely need. But they’re not the only things you want. That’s why our designers are on hand to make sure GM cars and trucks are also a pleasure. A freedom. An independence. A reason why the driving age comes before the voting age. It’s an attitude expressed throughout our new engines, road-handling features, audio systems, interiors and designs.

All of which means that buying a new General Motors car or truck will never be a compromise between driving bliss and driving boredom.

General Motors.

I’ve always been partial to GM cars (with Chrysler/Mopar having a spot in my heart too…dang them Duke boys) and the words of that ad really struck me. Especially now, with the fact that the Pontiac brand is no more. I really believe that GM did build cars that were a pleasure, both to own and to drive. My hope, as GM works it way through this bankruptcy, that it will emerge a smarter business and realize that their history of building quality, fun cars, is their greatest asset.

It’s been awhile since I’ve lambasted my hometown newspaper, known by this blog as the Capital City Gazette (to protect the not so innocent). It’s not for lack of things that have annoyed me with this newspaper. There’s not a week that goes by where I’m not irritated by something, usually in the OpEd page and often in the Letters to the Editor.

I missed my opportunity awhile back to craft some scathing commentary about a letter to the editor where someone was complaining because of the frequency the National Guard helicopters were flying at night. The helicopters in question are part of a medical unit which has since been shipped to Afganistan. Again.  However, nothing I could craft for a response could’ve beaten the response from the National Guard unit itself, an open letter in the paper inviting the letter writer to the sending off ceremony that took place about a week ago. It’s unknown if the person infact went.

But this morning, I found this piece which really took the cake. I’m talking USDA choice stuff here.

And for DA I don’t mean Department of Agriculture. Instead I mean, Dumb Ass.

Here is the letter, as it appeared, with only the names changed to protect the idiots.

As a Hazzard High School student and on behalf of teenagers: Please, let us get some rest.
Adults don’t rise at 6 to start work before 8; they know that sleep is helpful. In the winter months, we wake before the light, all in the name of something that will improve if we get to sleep. Sports can go later (we have lights), homework will get done (if not more efficiently), and everybody will actually be ready for class. If we really are the hope for the future, then let us rest for the occasion.

Sleepy Dozeopedic
Hazzard

First of all, this letter reads slightly incoherent and perhaps the writer really does need some sleep. But the line that just sent me into the stratosphere was, “Adults don’t rise at 6 to start work before 8.”

What? They don’t? Holy crap, what the hell have I been doing wrong all this time?? I’m up at 5:30 to get ready for my job and be there by 8, and I don’t have a long commute. Boy does this kid not have a clue or what? Let’s have a show of hands of all y’all out there who get up early in the morning, say 5:30 or 6am to be to work by 8am because you have, perhaps, an hour commute? Yup…wow, lookit at all the hands…

I’ve heard often over the years about how teenagers need more sleep. This was true when I was a teen. But I went to bed early because, unfortunately, I had to haul my ass out of bed at 5:30 in the morning to get in line for the bathroom which three other people had to use as well and be out of the house by 7 to catch the bus (school started at 7:45am). I guess this kid either lives right next door to his school or he just rolls out of bed and jumps on the bus or he doesn’t have to worry about catching a bus. Perhaps his house has more than one bathroom as well. Maybe his parents don’t work at all.

If the young people are really the hope for the future, this kid should just go back to bed and stay there because he certainly doesn’t make me hopeful.