Lindsay Binegar was 14 the first time she spent any winnings from years of showing hogs. She bought a purse. The second time, at 18, she splurged. She bought a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house with a two-car garage. And she paid in cash.
Boys and girls, THIS is how you do things. You save, you live below your means, and you DON’T OWE PEOPLE MONEY.
So, about 2 weeks ago, some idiot who runs a website called “NCF - National Credit Fixers” decided it would be a good idea to swing by this blog, and drop a giant steaming spam turd.
“I like the way things get done at this website” he says, and then links his spiffy URL : National Spamming Jerkwad Rippoff Artists Yes yes, I know…i’m giving him what he wants, by providing links to his site. Of course I doubt he wanted me to link his dishonest, thieving, immoral activites to said URL.
But see…that’s what you get when you decide that you’ll not only take advantage of people, mislead them, and lure them back into debt but you’ll do it as a jerkwad spammer.
The best part? We’re even going to use some of his own words against him. It is, for example, quite clear that he wants to smooth-talk you into spending $1,079 to do what you can do yourself for free. He further goes on to lie, and erroneously suggest he has powers NOBODY has.
Bottom line here, folks. This jerk is no different from any of the other credit scammers out there. Anything HE can remove, YOU can have removed for free. He talks about having old accounts, foreclosures, charge-offs, repossessions, etc removed from your credit report. But he’s very careful to slide the phrase “inaccurate, unverifiable and obsolete” in before this long list of bad things.
Guess what…ANYONE can have inaccurate, unverifiable, and obsolete items removed from their credit report! Everything you need to know about removing inaccurate items from your credit report can be found at the website of the Federal Trade Commission, ftc.gov
Just like this spamming clown you too can write letters of dispute, and provide supporting documentation for your claim…and it won’t cost you $1079 either!
Of course, if you actually owe the debt, then I’m afraid there’s not much you can do to have it removed…just like our lying spammer
======================
Folks, there ain’t no magic fix for your credit score…and honestly, your credit score probably shouldn’t be bothering you a whole bunch. It’s nothing more than an indication of your willingness to become and remain a slave to others.
I HAVE A GREAT FICO SCORE! I’M WILLING TO PAY FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF SPENDING MONEY I DON’T HAVE TO BUY THINGS I DON’T NEED TO IMPRESS PEOPLE I DON’T LIKE!
You want a “simple” fix for your credit report? Here you go…2 simple steps:
1) Stop borrowing money.
2) Pay the debts you owe.
3) Act your wage.
Long, probably boring, philisophical post follows. You have been warned.
============
So, yesterday at the flying field, it was time to charge one of my flight batteries, using my new whizbangy Thunder AC6 charger. So, plugged the battery in as I had several other times, started everything up, and went to sit down for a bit.
About 30 seconds in, the charger beeped indicating an error. I went over to read the display, in order to determine the cause of the error, and was told…and I quote:
NIGGER OR ERR
*blink*
Being the rather “mission oriented” sort I am, my immediate response was “Um….wtf does that mean, and how do i fix it so I can charge my battery?”
Of course, the etymology geek in me pretty quickly jumped to “And whatever it means, how did THAT phrase get plugged in as the English translation???”
So, upon arriving home, I immediately googled the specific phrase. Very few results, even fewer in English. After checking a few forum threads, I became relatively frustrated.
You see, every thread had three things in common:
1) The original poster was doubted. The usual reaction was that he must be trying to spread some sick joke, or pull some sort of internet prank.
2) An argument ensued about whether or not the original post with the phrase should be edited to remove the “offensive” word.
3) Nobody ever actually resolved the issue, identified the meaning of the error, or how to resolve it. in other words, the problem remained unsolved.
Unwilling to give up so easily…and, frankly, at this point feeling as though I had something to prove, I started asking around, looking for some more etymological help. Eventually, I stumbled across this gem. It is, of course, a portugese forum. A little playing with google translate however, will reveal that the 6th post in the thread includes the following definition for “nigger”:
um motivo oculto ou fator desconhecido que afeta uma situação de maneira adversa
The English translation? “an ulterior motive or unknown factor affecting a situation adversely”
Later an RC thread in Thai found a very similar definition and resulting translation.
Ok…so mystery solved. There are at least a FEW languages where the word “nigger” is defined, roughly, as some sort of unknown error. In other words, something went wrong, we’re not quite sure what.
Even more significantly, in English itself, it’s not at all unusual to see the word used to indicate precisely such a situation. Agatha Christie, W Somerset Maugham, and even the fictional Frank Hardy of The Hardy Boys all use the phrase “the nigger in the woodpile” to mean strange, suspicious, or unknown circumstances. See : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger_in_the_woodpile#Literature
You’ll even note that EJ Dijkstra used the term quite specifically to mean that something (the term software engineering in this case) was a suspicious or dubious term.
So…with just a bit of due diligence, we find that it’s perfectly reasonable that one ignorant (by which I mean truly unaware) of the connotations of the word might, in translation, quite legitamately select the word “nigger” as a short (remember, this is a small LCD display…space is at a premium) way of expressing the concept that some error of unknown origin has occured.
==============
So what’s the lesson in all this? Simple. Here are a few comments culled from such sources as http://www.rcshortcourse.com/forum/showthread.php?p=48944 and http://www.flyinggiants.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43991
“Maybe someone from whereever did it on purpose as a sick joke.”
“I think you are some kind of joker.”
“I believe this is either some kind of joke, or someone who believes we should only buy American trying to sway people away from China made products”
“no way will that show up on the charger.”
“you may want to consider editing your post.”
Note, throughout, that the MEANING of the error…or what steps to take to resolve it…are the last thing discussed, if at all…and no solution is ever forthcoming in ANY of those threads.
We…as a culture…LOOK for chances to become offended! We prefer to cry “offense, offense”, and point out how grand we are for not using such words, rather than consider the possibility that a simple mistake of ignorance has been made, and seek to address the problem.
We prefer, in short, to point out how self righteous we are, AT THE EXPENSE OF ADDRESSING THE ISSUE AT HAND.
The most OBVIOUS of answers…that a simple error has been made…is not only the last solution we’ll consider, we REJECT IT OUT OF HAND! Impossible! That CAN’T be a typo! it MUST be an evil, nefarious plot by some inconsiderate boob hell bent on causing offense.
Indeed…we even label the WORD ITSELF as offensive! A word CAN NOT BE SO. A word is a harmless collection of letters, with no power of its own to be offensive. It is the fault neither of the word, NOR THE PERSON QUOTING ITS APPEARANCE in an unexpected location that a group of people decided in the 1800’s to turn it into a sickening pejoritive.
Quiote bluntly…we’re more interested in finding fault with others than we are with fixing the problem…and we will falsely accuse without evidence, critique with bias, and indeed lend traits to inanimate objects they can not possibly posess in our effort to do precisely that.
I have 3 words for all of you.
GET
OVER
IT
You who find offense at the mere presence of a word, and are UNWILLING to even CONSIDER THE POSSIBILITY that its presence might be legitamate, if unfortunate, simply are NOT as important as you think you are. You are not only not as superior as you believe yourself to be, you are, in fact, destroying the very idea of what it means to be productive.
========================
Our lesson then for the day, boys and girls, is as follows:
When you allow your perceived rank or status amongst others to determine your approach to a situation, YOU are a second hander. YOU are not contributing to the solution, you are EXTENDING the problem.
So go figure…the concept of “preparedness” has been wandering through my little brain quite a bit the last few days. I find it…well, I guess “amusing” is the right word..that the typical phrase for such planning is “saving for a rainy day”.
This probably won’t so much be a financial post (other than in sort of a generic fashion), but more of a “philisophical” one I suppose.
Not too long ago, I was accused of never having “lost a job an in economy like this”, or something of that sort. The gist of the comment was that it was “easy to talk when you’ve never been there”. Where this individual got such an idea is beyond me (well, ok, it’s not, but I’m being nice) but that was her take on my advice…I found it easy to tell people they should save, spend wisely, and get out of debt because I’d never faced difficult times.
I probably shouldn’t turn this into a big list of “tough times” I’ve had in my life. We’ve all had tough times, we’ll all likely be faced with dangerous and challenging situations again that invite such times. It’s called life. Life happens.
And that, precisely, is the point. Life does, indeed, happen. It has happened to every one of us before, and it will continue to happen in the future.
So why act so surprised when it does? For that matter, why does the world owe you anything when it does? Further more, why turn up your nose at those who suggest you prepare for such things?
Sometimes we wreck our only automobile the day before we’re due to report 150 miles away for military duty. Sometimes we lose our job when we’re already 2 months behind on rent. Sometimes the thieves break in and steal all of our posessions. Sometimes our dishonest roommate steals the $1000 we had saved for rent and utilities.
Ask me how I know these things happen.
This weekend, we had over 100 gallons of fresh water on hand. We had a 10 day supply of food available. We had multiple means to cook food if power was lost. Had our house been damaged or destroyed, we would have been able to replace it and its contents. If, for some reason, we had lost all communication and been trapped, within 2 hours family and friends would have known we were in danger, and alerted authorites.
Sure…it’s “easy” to say all those things. You know why? Because our family has busted their asses to prepare ourselves. We actually discuss such topics as where we’ll go in certain types of emergencies. How will we survive if this or that happens? Who will know, and how will they know, if we are trapped or injured?
Why COULDN’T we go on that vacation that summer? Because we need the money to pay that debt. Why’d we have to eat peanut butter sandwiches without the jelly? Because the $1000 emergency fund was more important than jelly. Why can’t I spend the night with my friend? Because our emergency plan depends upon having you with us.
None of that’s easy…or fun…or even very popular.
But here’s the thing…and I suppose this is really the whole point of this post.
Watch that video embedded below. That’s a double wide trailer just rafting down an interstate…and being destroyed in seconds.
We sat here…in our living room…watching that live…happening less than 7 miles from us. AND WE HAD A RESPONSE.
We knew, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that we had the BEST possible chance for everything to “be ok”…no matter what.
Folks…THAT kind of peace and serenity makes peanut butter taste pretty damn good.
This planning and preparing stuff is hard. It’s not always very fun. But it’s what people who are responsible for themselves do. It’s WHY, years later, they “have it easy”. This is PRECISELY what Dave means when he talks about living like no one else.
This really hasn’t been a whole lot of fun. 6-8″ MORE expected today. 
Powered by WordPress