Moo! The Musings of a Plaid Cow

A couple weeks after [the previous debacle][0], I again had to make a phone call to [SHPS][1] to get my FSA straightened out. They had sent me another statement and everything that was listed as “Potentially Ineligible” before was now listed as “Ineligible”. Not much of an improvement, which led me back to where I had started:

**Me:** How will I know when my return Fax for receipt validation has been processed?

**SHPS:** You can find out by looking at your next statement. If the questionable expense is not on the statement, then you can assume your documentation has been approved.

**Me:** So how often are statements sent out?

**SHPS:** Once a quarter.

**Me:** So it takes three months for me to find out if my documentation that was due in 60 days was accepted? And then there is no confirmation, just that the information is no longer on the statement?

**SHPS:** Yes. You won’t know for sure unless you call and ask us. We have no positive feedback loop to let you know your documentation was received.

**Me:** Thanks?

[0]: http://moo.plaidcow.net/2009/01/questions_and_answers
[1]: http://spendingaccount.shps.com/

There was a new edict dropped in my work e-mail mailbox this morning:

> As part of our strategy to reduce costs and protect the environment, all color
Xerox multi-function devices at the site are now set by default to print
in black and white. If we limit our printing to only those documents we have to truly have on paper–and make those prints two-sided and black-and-white whenever possible–we will save the site approximately $15K per year in the cost of buying and disposing of
paper and printer cartridges.

That may seem decent, but it works out to somewhere less than $1 per month per employee. And what about the extra costs? To actually print in color, you have to go into the printer properties (each time) and change the printer back to color. Assuming I need to print one document a week in color, and it takes me 30 extra seconds each time, across the year, it will cost the company 26 minutes of my time, working out somewhere in the neighborhood of $30 per year. The base savings of this policy is now around -$1.50 per employee per year.

And I if I do keep normally printing in black and white, I won’t always remember to change it to color. (I use a B/W printer when I print that way. When I switch to color, I expect it to print in color.) Assuming I mis-print once a month, that’s another five minutes wasted in printing again and walking back to the printer. Plus the document I mis-printed is then chucked right away.

So tell me again, what is the benefit of this policy (except to sound like a good idea)?

If you’re thinking of getting on the love train this Valentines Day, you might want to try this [Edible G-String and Bra][0] combination. Just like the candy necklaces that you had when you were a kid. Of course, you have to be careful as the only reviewer (for the [Edible G-String][1] sold by itself) said “the candy was completely stale, very hard to chew and very awkward to get at, to say the least.” Then “one of the candies exploded into dust as I bit down and I got some of it’s debris in my cornea.”

[0]: http://www.amazon.com/Twin-Pack-Edible-G-String-Novelty/dp/B000NEV2L4

Here’s a nice little tale about people who know better and still do stupid stuff:

1. Guy is a business owner.
2. Guy signs contract to get a loan, using vehicle as collateral.
2. Guy gets money and re-payment schedule.
2. Guy watches as first payment due date goes wizzing by.
3. Guy shows up next day with part of money owed.
4. Company is nice enough to refinance.
2. Guy watches as second payment due date goes wizzing by.
3. Guy gets a knock on the door–a visit from the repo-man.
2. Guy hands over keys.
3. Guy gets money and goes to get car back.
4. Guy is shocked to find it is already going to auction.
5. Guy writes complaint letter to [Consumerist][0].

I’m still not at the point where I see what made him think that there was a different outcome.

_Response to the [Consumerist][0] post on [Auto Title Loans, Illegal In Most States, Even Riskier In Georgia][1]._
[0]: http://consumerist.com/
[1]: http://consumerist.com/5139287/auto-title-loans-illegal-in-most-states-even-riskier-in-georgia

If you ever have the need to do a mass download of pictures from [Flickr][0], [this guy][1] has a setup that works pretty well using [Firefox][2] with the [greasemonkey][3] and [DownThemAll!][4] extensions installed, then the [Link Original Image][5] script for greasemonkey.

[0]: http://flickr.com/
[1]: http://vikingospub.blogspot.com/2006/05/mass-download-original-photos-from.html
[2]: http://www.getfirefox.com/
[3]: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/748/
[4]: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/201/
[5]: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/2012

Most impressive.

When I hear about all of the problems that people usually have with the dryer eating socks, and trying to match them after they are washed, and having a drawerful of singles, I usually have to laugh. I came up with a system that takes care of all of the issues. I have two kinds of socks: black and white.

I have about two dozen pairs of white, Gold Toe crew socks. All of these socks match one another, and when they come out of the wash I stack them up and throw them in a drawer. If one sock gets a hole in it, it just gets tossed. When I get low, I buy more of the same brand, color and type. No matching. No singles. It just works.

Since I wear black socks most of the time, I also have about two dozen pairs of black, Gold Toe crew socks. Same procedure. Then when I get up in the morning, I pull two socks out of the drawer and am ready to go. Simple.

[This guy][2] is mad because his car (he bought used) is out of warranty and GM wants to charge him to fix it. I would try to point out the logical flaws in his argument, but he doesn’t provide any logic. The customer is not always right and you sir, are an idiot.

_Response to the [Consumerist][0] post on [Your Car Is Used. Should GM Still Be Responsible For A Mistake It Made In The Factory?][1]._
[0]: http://consumerist.com/
[1]: http://consumerist.com/5137305/your-car-is-used-should-gm-still-be-responsible-for-a-mistake-it-made-in-the-factory
[2]: http://www.facebook.com/pages/General-Motors-Dislikes-Quality-Customers-Accountability/44987929157

I was reading in the AARP Bulletin this month a story about how bankruptcy judges should be able to cram down loans. The most interesting part of the article was an explanation from a non-profit:

> Jed Davis, chief executive officer of Neighborhood Partnership Housing Services in Ontario, Calif.,a nonprofit operating in a region hit hard by the national foreclosure crisis, said he sees many people living in $300,000 homes who used to pay less than $1,000 a month on their mortgage.

People seem to be missing the point that banks were taking a huge risk in making these loans. This risk was offset by the resetting of the interest rate at a later date. Do you really expect to buy a $300,000 home at $1,000 a month? If the rate was fixed, that equates to 1.25%, which is just unsustainable. Many people forgot about common sense and got way in over their heads.

So you get a note from your mortgage company that they are freezing your HELOC (so you can’t draw any money against it) that you originally got as a part of your 80/10/10 loan.

1. Given the current status of the banking system, and all of the questionable loans they made in the past, why are you surprised that banks are tightening down their lending requirements and stopping you from borrowing more?
2. Since you weren’t planning on taking any additional money out of it, why do you even care?

_Response to the [Consumerist][0] post on [Countrywide Freezes HELOCs, Says “It’s Not You, It’s Your Home”][1]._
[0]: http://consumerist.com/
[1]: http://consumerist.com/5137139/countrywide-freezes-helocs-says-its-not-you-its-your-home

Microsoft Word has a way of making disk space magically disappear:

1. Start with an `89 KB` Word Document.
2. Insert an object, a `3675 KB` Visio Document.
3. End with a `22,380 KB` Word Document.

Amazing!