chaotic_nipple

So that's what a layoff feels like.

Went to an alcohol free party with naughtyaelf which was surprisingly fun. Taught some strangers how to play Munchkin, shot people with Nerf weapons, then went home and watched Robot Chicken together. Now, got to go to work. Boo, work!

Because for the second time EVER, a cashier at a store who didn't already know me, and therefore knew my age, declined to card me when I bought alcohol. Know when the first time was? About 2 weeks ago. :-P

Couldn't sleep worth a damn this afternoon. Have to go to work tonight. Have a final right after I get off. Maybe they'll let me off early so I can take a nap? Here's hoping...

Also, since only bipagan was the only one who could make my actual birthday party, I've decided to have another one this thursday. Pizza and Legos at my apartment at 6, be there or be... not square, I guess, since legos do tend to have many right angles.

Went over to naughtyaelf's house for the gorging. She made me share the skin, though. Meanie. But other than that, it was great. Nom nom nom!

Found out that the scheduling people at work denied two of the days I asked off for Christmas, and haven't gotten back to me for the other 2. Grr. I'll just have to see if I can bribe/cajole/whine someone else into taking those shifts.

I'm going to be 32, for "Bob"s sake. Ancient, I am. Talk like Yoda, I do. I want to throw a party, but my apartment is rather underfurnished. Maybe a restaurant? Decisions, decisions.

Finding a half-naked drunk girl at a party more annoying that amusing. I also find most of the freshling girls on campus woefully immature seeming, though I think that has more to do with their general lack of life experience than age, per se.

I have an idea that could, dare I say it, CHANGE THE WORLD! Someone with better coding skills than I will be needed to actually implement it, and reap the profit thereof, but I don't care, as long as I get credit for the idea itself. Being known as the Savior of Western Civilization will be enough for me, I don't need the money.*

... Oh, you want to read about what the idea actually _is_, and not just take my genius on faith. How demanding of you. Fine, then, here it is: A simple program, preferably for a PDA, but could work for any computer, that keeps track of how much money you owe on your credit cards (and other debts), what the various interest rates and other fees are, and most importantly of all, _your_own_payment_history_, and from this data, will tell you how much that $1.29 donut you're about to charge to your visa card is likely to actually cost you by the time it's paid off. If (Insert Appropriate Gender Neutral Name Here) sees that that donut really _is_ going to cost them $1.29, that's all well and good. But if said consumer notices that said donut is ACTUALLY going to cost them, 3, 10 or 20 dollars before it's paid off (which is not at all unlikely, given how much the average American consumer has hanging over their head), maybe they will rethink their spending habits. For more expensive items, even more so (though personally, I find myself more impressed by the higher price of the little things). If such a program gets written, and comes into common use by "high-risk" consumers, I really think the level of human misery in our society would plummet. Or at least that particular misery caused by chronic indebtedness.

Now, the data used in the program (balances, interest rates, late fees, etc.) could simply be entered manually, but for the impulse buyers who most desperately need this sort of reminder, that might be a deal breaker. Luckily, almost all credit cards and banks these days have web sites, so it would be more convenient to simply have an option to enter in your account numbers and passwords, and let the program monitor this sort of thing for you. Now, this _is_ a potential security flaw, but provided rudimentary precautions are taken, not any riskier than banking online in general. A more likely problem would be that it's not really in the credit card companies' interests for their "best customers" (a.k.a., the poor dupes who get suckered into living beyond their means) to be able to easily see how much they're actually paying, so they're probably going to want to block access. Let them! If enough customers get annoyed at them for putting stumbling blocks in their way, maybe they'll start to realize that the legal loan sharks are not their friends.

I can also see some idiots making a "Moral Hazard" argument, that having an electronic nanny doing the financial thinking for people will make them lazy. To which I say, Bite me! It doesn't matter whether people develop good financial habits through arduous mental effort, or by pushing a few keys when they shop, what matters is that they do it.

*Not that I'll turn money down, if a grateful world decides to shower me with it. But come to think of it, it would be even better if this project was undertaken by unpaid hobbyists, on a open-source, ad hoc basis. If only for the irony value.

The rules:
1. Take a picture of yourself right now.
2. Don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair...just take a picture.
3. Post that picture with NO editing.
4. Post these instructions with your picture.



I'll admit to _technically_ cheating, since the pic is 3 days old. But at the time, I fully intended to post it right then, so NYAH!

Anyone reading this who lives in or near Madison, and want to go to the Cave of the Mound tomorrow? I had my heart set on going and making sacrifice to the Dark Cthonian Gods that there dwell admiring its natural subterranean splendour, but I don't want to drive all that way by myself.