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In terms of absurd things, I had a friend in college who used to snort packets of sweetener and black pepper. I suppose those will be the next to go…

I never thought of this forum as particularly far left. I’ve been lurking since 2005. In the early days, I’d say that the demographic was reasonably mixed, perhaps with the vocal right being slightly more prolific than the vocal left (if not out-numbering them in users).

In any case, I abhor the nanny state. I heard a serious discussion proposing the shutdown of all pseudoephedrine plants in the world and a complete ban on the substance. I’ve given the PE (Placebo Edition) a try, and I’m fairly sure it doesn’t work as well, at least not for me (haven’t done a blind study yet though).

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In terms of absurd things, I had a friend in college who used to snort packets of sweetener and black pepper. I suppose those will be the next to go…

I never thought of this forum as particularly far left. I’ve been lurking since 2005. In the early days, I’d say that the demographic was reasonably mixed, perhaps with the vocal right being slightly more prolific than the vocal left (if not out-numbering them in users).

In any case, I abhor the nanny state. I heard a serious discussion proposing the shutdown of all pseudoephedrine plants in the world and a complete ban on the substance. I’ve given the PE (Placebo Edition) a try, and I’m fairly sure it doesn’t work as well, at least not for me (haven’t done a blind study yet though).

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I think “please” could be construed as shorthand for “if you please”, as in “Sign this form and mail it back to me if you please.” It gives the person receiving the request the illusion of some sort of option to decline, which perhaps makes it more polite.

At work, I regularly issue requests to people who do not report to me and whose relationship to me in the management hierarchy is unclear (contractors who work for a firm for whom I also do contract work). I regularly issue “please” commands hoping that they will comply, and hoping that I don’t sound to presumptive in issuing the command.

When issued between distinctly unequal parties (i.e., my bank to me, or me to my daughter), it may have become a form of wrote courtesy which has lost all sincere meaning.

P.S. “To complete this form, please complete the word verification below.” [emphasis added] Rich, if you have a minute, can you “please” put me on the capcha-free list? Come to think of it, I think I’m going to make scare quotes a regular part of my “pleases”.

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I think “please” could be construed as shorthand for “if you please”, as in “Sign this form and mail it back to me if you please.” It gives the person receiving the request the illusion of some sort of option to decline, which perhaps makes it more polite.

At work, I regularly issue requests to people who do not report to me and whose relationship to me in the management hierarchy is unclear (contractors who work for a firm for whom I also do contract work). I regularly issue “please” commands hoping that they will comply, and hoping that I don’t sound to presumptive in issuing the command.

When issued between distinctly unequal parties (i.e., my bank to me, or me to my daughter), it may have become a form of wrote courtesy which has lost all sincere meaning.

P.S. “To complete this form, please complete the word verification below.” [emphasis added] Rich, if you have a minute, can you “please” put me on the capcha-free list? Come to think of it, I think I’m going to make scare quotes a regular part of my “pleases”.

[Cube]

I think “please” could be construed as shorthand for “if you please”, as in “Sign this form and mail it back to me if you please.” It gives the person receiving the request the illusion of some sort of option to decline, which perhaps makes it more polite.

At work, I regularly issue requests to people who do not report to me and whose relationship to me in the management hierarchy is unclear (contractors who work for a firm for whom I also do contract work). I regularly issue “please” commands hoping that they will comply, and hoping that I don’t sound to presumptive in issuing the command.

When issued between distinctly unequal parties (i.e., my bank to me, or me to my daughter), it may have become a form of wrote courtesy which has lost all sincere meaning.

P.S. “To complete this form, please complete the word verification below.” [emphasis added] Rich, if you have a minute, can you “please” put me on the capcha-free list? Come to think of it, I think I’m going to make scare quotes a regular part of my “pleases”.

[Cube]

I think “please” could be construed as shorthand for “if you please”, as in “Sign this form and mail it back to me if you please.” It gives the person receiving the request the illusion of some sort of option to decline, which perhaps makes it more polite.

At work, I regularly issue requests to people who do not report to me and whose relationship to me in the management hierarchy is unclear (contractors who work for a firm for whom I also do contract work). I regularly issue “please” commands hoping that they will comply, and hoping that I don’t sound to presumptive in issuing the command.

When issued between distinctly unequal parties (i.e., my bank to me, or me to my daughter), it may have become a form of wrote courtesy which has lost all sincere meaning.

P.S. “To complete this form, please complete the word verification below.” [emphasis added] Rich, if you have a minute, can you “please” put me on the capcha-free list? Come to think of it, I think I’m going to make scare quotes a regular part of my “pleases”.

[Cube]

I think “please” could be construed as shorthand for “if you please”, as in “Sign this form and mail it back to me if you please.” It gives the person receiving the request the illusion of some sort of option to decline, which perhaps makes it more polite.

At work, I regularly issue requests to people who do not report to me and whose relationship to me in the management hierarchy is unclear (contractors who work for a firm for whom I also do contract work). I regularly issue “please” commands hoping that they will comply, and hoping that I don’t sound to presumptive in issuing the command.

When issued between distinctly unequal parties (i.e., my bank to me, or me to my daughter), it may have become a form of wrote courtesy which has lost all sincere meaning.

P.S. “To complete this form, please complete the word verification below.” [emphasis added] Rich, if you have a minute, can you “please” put me on the capcha-free list? Come to think of it, I think I’m going to make scare quotes a regular part of my “pleases”.

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I got stuck with Chase because WaMu bought my bank long ago. WaMu wasn’t so awful that I switched, but there were trying times. Once, I made a deposit into my savings account. Then I moved some money online the next day into my checking account (and online, it looked like the money was there). Then I made an ATM withdrawal. Turns out, there was a hold on the deposit (invisible on the web) and they charged me $30 in fees (quite a bit, at the time) to use overdraft protection, both for the ATM withdrawal and to move money back into my savings account from my checking account. By the time they were done, they had charged me $30 to effectively reverse the online transfer I had made. I was on the phone with them for a solid hour. In the end, they admitted that the website didn’t show the hold, but they said that showing the holds confused their customers. The supervisor refunded the charges, but said admonishingly “You can’t do this again.”

FLU, I nearly got burned by the fees you speak of on the savings account. After the takeover, Chase sent out reams of fine print in various stages to old WaMu customers. I poured over them and found a couple of gotchas, including the end of the “direct deposit waives minimum balance” program, which I think was scheduled for March or April of this year (long after the rest of the transition was supposed to be complete).

I’ve been considering switching to SDCCU for my primary banking, but the headache of changing all the little places that do direct deposit and ACH just doesn’t seem worth it in the short term. I know if I try to switch I’ll end up screwing something up and not paying some bill. At least I know I can manage the status quo OK.

However, if they do manage to charge me some unreasonable BS fee that they won’t reverse, I’m outta there.

And ditto to their damn credit card offers. Back in the day we got three a week. My wife had opened three cards with different banks over the years, and in the end, we ended up with 4 Chase credit cards (after they bought everyone). Chase ended up closing them all last year due to lack of activity. But for some reason, they keep sending us offers…

[Cube]

I got stuck with Chase because WaMu bought my bank long ago. WaMu wasn’t so awful that I switched, but there were trying times. Once, I made a deposit into my savings account. Then I moved some money online the next day into my checking account (and online, it looked like the money was there). Then I made an ATM withdrawal. Turns out, there was a hold on the deposit (invisible on the web) and they charged me $30 in fees (quite a bit, at the time) to use overdraft protection, both for the ATM withdrawal and to move money back into my savings account from my checking account. By the time they were done, they had charged me $30 to effectively reverse the online transfer I had made. I was on the phone with them for a solid hour. In the end, they admitted that the website didn’t show the hold, but they said that showing the holds confused their customers. The supervisor refunded the charges, but said admonishingly “You can’t do this again.”

FLU, I nearly got burned by the fees you speak of on the savings account. After the takeover, Chase sent out reams of fine print in various stages to old WaMu customers. I poured over them and found a couple of gotchas, including the end of the “direct deposit waives minimum balance” program, which I think was scheduled for March or April of this year (long after the rest of the transition was supposed to be complete).

I’ve been considering switching to SDCCU for my primary banking, but the headache of changing all the little places that do direct deposit and ACH just doesn’t seem worth it in the short term. I know if I try to switch I’ll end up screwing something up and not paying some bill. At least I know I can manage the status quo OK.

However, if they do manage to charge me some unreasonable BS fee that they won’t reverse, I’m outta there.

And ditto to their damn credit card offers. Back in the day we got three a week. My wife had opened three cards with different banks over the years, and in the end, we ended up with 4 Chase credit cards (after they bought everyone). Chase ended up closing them all last year due to lack of activity. But for some reason, they keep sending us offers…

[Cube]

I got stuck with Chase because WaMu bought my bank long ago. WaMu wasn’t so awful that I switched, but there were trying times. Once, I made a deposit into my savings account. Then I moved some money online the next day into my checking account (and online, it looked like the money was there). Then I made an ATM withdrawal. Turns out, there was a hold on the deposit (invisible on the web) and they charged me $30 in fees (quite a bit, at the time) to use overdraft protection, both for the ATM withdrawal and to move money back into my savings account from my checking account. By the time they were done, they had charged me $30 to effectively reverse the online transfer I had made. I was on the phone with them for a solid hour. In the end, they admitted that the website didn’t show the hold, but they said that showing the holds confused their customers. The supervisor refunded the charges, but said admonishingly “You can’t do this again.”

FLU, I nearly got burned by the fees you speak of on the savings account. After the takeover, Chase sent out reams of fine print in various stages to old WaMu customers. I poured over them and found a couple of gotchas, including the end of the “direct deposit waives minimum balance” program, which I think was scheduled for March or April of this year (long after the rest of the transition was supposed to be complete).

I’ve been considering switching to SDCCU for my primary banking, but the headache of changing all the little places that do direct deposit and ACH just doesn’t seem worth it in the short term. I know if I try to switch I’ll end up screwing something up and not paying some bill. At least I know I can manage the status quo OK.

However, if they do manage to charge me some unreasonable BS fee that they won’t reverse, I’m outta there.

And ditto to their damn credit card offers. Back in the day we got three a week. My wife had opened three cards with different banks over the years, and in the end, we ended up with 4 Chase credit cards (after they bought everyone). Chase ended up closing them all last year due to lack of activity. But for some reason, they keep sending us offers…

[Cube]

I got stuck with Chase because WaMu bought my bank long ago. WaMu wasn’t so awful that I switched, but there were trying times. Once, I made a deposit into my savings account. Then I moved some money online the next day into my checking account (and online, it looked like the money was there). Then I made an ATM withdrawal. Turns out, there was a hold on the deposit (invisible on the web) and they charged me $30 in fees (quite a bit, at the time) to use overdraft protection, both for the ATM withdrawal and to move money back into my savings account from my checking account. By the time they were done, they had charged me $30 to effectively reverse the online transfer I had made. I was on the phone with them for a solid hour. In the end, they admitted that the website didn’t show the hold, but they said that showing the holds confused their customers. The supervisor refunded the charges, but said admonishingly “You can’t do this again.”

FLU, I nearly got burned by the fees you speak of on the savings account. After the takeover, Chase sent out reams of fine print in various stages to old WaMu customers. I poured over them and found a couple of gotchas, including the end of the “direct deposit waives minimum balance” program, which I think was scheduled for March or April of this year (long after the rest of the transition was supposed to be complete).

I’ve been considering switching to SDCCU for my primary banking, but the headache of changing all the little places that do direct deposit and ACH just doesn’t seem worth it in the short term. I know if I try to switch I’ll end up screwing something up and not paying some bill. At least I know I can manage the status quo OK.

However, if they do manage to charge me some unreasonable BS fee that they won’t reverse, I’m outta there.

And ditto to their damn credit card offers. Back in the day we got three a week. My wife had opened three cards with different banks over the years, and in the end, we ended up with 4 Chase credit cards (after they bought everyone). Chase ended up closing them all last year due to lack of activity. But for some reason, they keep sending us offers…

[Cube]

I got stuck with Chase because WaMu bought my bank long ago. WaMu wasn’t so awful that I switched, but there were trying times. Once, I made a deposit into my savings account. Then I moved some money online the next day into my checking account (and online, it looked like the money was there). Then I made an ATM withdrawal. Turns out, there was a hold on the deposit (invisible on the web) and they charged me $30 in fees (quite a bit, at the time) to use overdraft protection, both for the ATM withdrawal and to move money back into my savings account from my checking account. By the time they were done, they had charged me $30 to effectively reverse the online transfer I had made. I was on the phone with them for a solid hour. In the end, they admitted that the website didn’t show the hold, but they said that showing the holds confused their customers. The supervisor refunded the charges, but said admonishingly “You can’t do this again.”

FLU, I nearly got burned by the fees you speak of on the savings account. After the takeover, Chase sent out reams of fine print in various stages to old WaMu customers. I poured over them and found a couple of gotchas, including the end of the “direct deposit waives minimum balance” program, which I think was scheduled for March or April of this year (long after the rest of the transition was supposed to be complete).

I’ve been considering switching to SDCCU for my primary banking, but the headache of changing all the little places that do direct deposit and ACH just doesn’t seem worth it in the short term. I know if I try to switch I’ll end up screwing something up and not paying some bill. At least I know I can manage the status quo OK.

However, if they do manage to charge me some unreasonable BS fee that they won’t reverse, I’m outta there.

And ditto to their damn credit card offers. Back in the day we got three a week. My wife had opened three cards with different banks over the years, and in the end, we ended up with 4 Chase credit cards (after they bought everyone). Chase ended up closing them all last year due to lack of activity. But for some reason, they keep sending us offers…

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My wife is a teacher for an on-line high school. As a teacher, she generally likes it. She does caution, though, “I do not believe on-line school is for everyone.”

From my perspective, I see it benefiting / suffering from the typical distance learning characteristics. The socialization situation would be very different from that of a brick and mortar school (for better or worse; the cynic in me considers conventional K-12 education to be a form of day-prison for the young…).

I’m happy to answer any questions you might have. My daughter isn’t even in school yet, but I could see us considering it. It may also pair well with folks who want to home school, but don’t have the breadth/depth necessary to provide a complete K-12 education.

[Cube]

My wife is a teacher for an on-line high school. As a teacher, she generally likes it. She does caution, though, “I do not believe on-line school is for everyone.”

From my perspective, I see it benefiting / suffering from the typical distance learning characteristics. The socialization situation would be very different from that of a brick and mortar school (for better or worse; the cynic in me considers conventional K-12 education to be a form of day-prison for the young…).

I’m happy to answer any questions you might have. My daughter isn’t even in school yet, but I could see us considering it. It may also pair well with folks who want to home school, but don’t have the breadth/depth necessary to provide a complete K-12 education.

[Cube]

My wife is a teacher for an on-line high school. As a teacher, she generally likes it. She does caution, though, “I do not believe on-line school is for everyone.”

From my perspective, I see it benefiting / suffering from the typical distance learning characteristics. The socialization situation would be very different from that of a brick and mortar school (for better or worse; the cynic in me considers conventional K-12 education to be a form of day-prison for the young…).

I’m happy to answer any questions you might have. My daughter isn’t even in school yet, but I could see us considering it. It may also pair well with folks who want to home school, but don’t have the breadth/depth necessary to provide a complete K-12 education.

[Author]

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