Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Google Told Me to Use Their Competitor!

Yup, you read that right. I was pretty amused. I wonder if Google founders know about this?

You may have noticed that I now have Google's ad on this blog. Figured it doesn't hurt to make a little money. I recently deleted my mailshell.com account (long story and worthy of another blog post), and that affected kzillion sites where I had mailshell email as login. Including Google's AdSense.

So I emailed them and requested that they change to my gmail.com account. After all, it's all Google, right? WRONG. This is what they emailed me (I'm not making it up).

"Hi Haeji,

"Thanks for your email requesting a change to your AdSense login.

"Unfortunately, I'm not able to update your AdSense login to a Google
Account or a Gmail address because our system doesn't support this type of
change at the moment. I sincerely apologize for the trouble this causes
you, and I thank you for bearing with us as we work hard to extend this
option to AdSense publishers in the future.

"I can, however, update your AdSense login to a non-Gmail address or any
other address not associated with another Google product. You can simply

reply to this email, providing the desired email address in the body of
your response, and I'll take care of your request as soon as I'm able."

It smacked me of being silly (doesn't it to you??). They pretty much told me to use any of Google's competitor's email to access part of Google product. Talk about left hand not talking to right hand. Anyway, I don't get enough money from ads anyway, so I'm gonna wait to see if they fix this in a month or so. If not, I intend to write to Google's CEO and founders, cc'ing Yahoo's CEO and founders, that they are telling me to go to their competitor. (I figure Yahoo! would get a kick out of it.)



La Jolla Cove and Goldfish Point Cafe

Finally, I got a chance to see La Jolla. I walked around to see La Jolla Cove. La Jolla coastlines have jagged rocks and cliffs, which adds beauty. See for yourself below.




And, there were seals just lounging around! I thought that was pretty cool.


It was a bit chilly (it is after all December) so I decided to park myself at a cafe. I found Goldfish Point Cafe (1255 Coast Blvd., La Jolla 92037). I didn't eat their pastries but their Jasmine tea was acceptable. What made this cafe top notch in my book? No matter where you sat in this little cafe, you had a clear view of the Pacific Ocean! I took a shot from where I was sitting so you can see.

I got some holiday cards done but really, I just wanted to sit and stare (which I noticed some people actually did. ;) )

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Sunshine Tax in San Diego

So, now that I've moved to San Diego and settled in somewhat, I find out about this mysterious "sunshine tax." Never heard of it? Neither have I until I moved here. Apparently, that's the higher price you pay (lower wages, higher living cost) for living in a place with great weather. I got curious about my living expenses at various places so I started to compare. I did, after all, move around quite a bit so I have first-hand experience in what things cost. So I looked at Oakland (2002-2004), Montgomery, Alabama (2004-2005), and San Diego (now).

I do have to say, I have a higher overhead, fixed cost than when I lived in Oakland. Course, nothing beats $600 rent in Alabama (which got you an ENORMOUS walk-in closet, two community pools, tennis court, free breakfast, etc. ) but I did hope to find a slightly lower rent in San Diego than SF bay area. Not so. In Oakland, I was paying $1350 by the time I left in mid 2004. That was in one of the most expensive part of Oakland (Rockridge), with a huge apartment that could accommodate my upright piano. I was hoping to find maybe $1300 max in downtown San Diego. Well, I'm paying almost $100 more. At $1430, I do get certain benefits -- 10 minute my-apt-door-to-office-chair walk to my work (a HUGE benefit), fitness center, pool, nice area.

My utility bills from Oakland was the lowest compared to Alabama and San Diego (average $20 per month). I paid quite a bit more while I was in Alabama (average $50 per month). So far in San Diego, I've had about $35 per month gas/electricity bill. I didn't pay for water in Oakland but did in Alabama ($25 per month average) and am doing so in San Diego ($30 per month so far).

As for phone/cable/internet deals, once again, nothing beats what I had in Oakland. Altogether, I averaged about $60-70 per month but I had a lot less (no long distance, the most basic analog cable). In Alabama, about $85 per month and that was still without long distance for my phone or digital cable. Here in San Diego, $103 per month but I'm getting a lot more amenities, long distance, high internet speed, and digital cable with DVR (although I had to call 3 times to get Cox to get rid of ridiculous charges).

The bottom line? Don't think the South is cheap. Alabama isn't cheap when it came to your everyday expenses. The biggest factor, rent, was the cheapest and gas was definitely cheaper than California but everything else that went with it was higher than anywhere I've lived in California. AND, Montgomery, Alabama had the highest sales tax rate (10%) on everything, including grocery and water! Talk about taxing the poor (and it did make me feel poor ;).

Oakland tax rate, from what I understand, has gone up so now it's one of the highest in California -- 8.75% -- but it used to be 8.25%. Los Angeles has 8.25%. San Diego does have the lowest sales tax rate so far at 7.75%. Does that make a difference? Sure, why not? Especially if I'm paying higher rent and utilities, I might as well be happy that I can buy contact lens solutions, clothes and shoes for less.

In case you were wondering how I could possibly make all this analysis, I keep fastidious notes about my expenses, with categories and totals I made up (I hate Quicken). I made my own special excel spreadsheet that I think kicks Quicken's butt (but that's my biased opinion) and have been keeping track of my expenses, cash flow, and monthly savings since 2002. I used to keep track before 2002 as well, but they were handwritten notes... and then in 2002, I realized the beauty of Excel. :P Thus, I am probably one of very few in America who can analyze the cost of living at various places. My excel spreadsheet, I think, scares some people when they see it but it is interesting to see just exactly what the difference in cost of living is instead of getting some vague perception of what it might be to live in some place.

Anyway, so I concluded that there might be a bit of "sunshine tax" in San Diego but all things considered, I'm probably at the same level as I was in SF bay area (no commute = no gas/transportation cost = monthly savings!).

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Malibu Sunset

In the midst of packing and figuring out how to move all my stuff to San Diego for my next job, I took a little break to go to my favorite beach in Malibu. I love hiking at Point Dume State Beach -- for one, it's easy. ;) And the view of the Pacific Ocean is just breath taking. I generally hike early in the morning so when I went by a couple of days ago around 5, this was my first view of the sunset. Nothing beats nature's own show. See for yourselves below.

I know San Diego is also beautiful, so we'll see if any sunsets around there will match this. :)




Fog rolling into Malibu late afternoon.

Sunset at Point Dume State Beach.

Another shot of the sun setting.

Sunset as the fog and clouds start settling in.

And the last parting shot. It looks almost sci-fi'ish. Posted by Picasa

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Best Pizza In the Whole World


Without meaning to, I have become a free, walking advertiser for Zachary's Pizza. I recently visited the S.F. bay area to see some of my friends. Every time I visit that area, I have to have my stuffed chicken pizza from Zachary's. Even though I don't normally like Itlian food or pizza in general, Zachary's is different. They have Chicago styled stuffed pizza, that is thick, flavorful, and in a word, DELICIOUS!

Look at this juicy piece. Chicken, garlic, and cheese are just dripping from inside... and on top, you have fresh tomatoes, basil, garlic chunks, and Zachary's special sauce.



And yes, I have told my friends if they don't like Zachary's pizza, they can no longer be my friends. That's how much I love this pizza. =)

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Yahoo! Email Problem with Evite and My Inquiries

So if you are a Yahoo! email user, you probably ran into the same problem I have. Your friends put you in their Evites, and you never get it. Then your friend calls you up and asks you why you are ignoring his/her birthday/party/other special occasion. And you would have to explain, you never got the evite and it's not in your spam.

Sound familiar? My friend told me that he noticed this was a common problem among Yahoo! users. (He evites a lot.) So after getting evites into my Gmail accounts, I decided that really, Yahoo! should do a better job. It doesn't even show up in my Spam folder (and yes, I literally checked over a thousand Spams just to verify that it's not in there and some were gross), so apparently, Yahoo! server is somehow filtering out Evites.

I contacted Yahoo! via their help section. This is the response I received (along with my first inquiry below).
-------------
Hello Haeji,

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Mail.

I appreciate that you contacted us for assistance. I have read your email and would like to help. If you believe a message that has been delivered to your Bulk Mail Folder is more appropriately delivered to your Inbox, please open the message, and click the "Not spam" button.

By sending examples of "spam" and messages you feel are "not spam" to Yahoo! for review, it will increase the effectiveness of SpamGuard, Yahoo! Mail's filtering system. Yahoo! will use the messages you send to constantly improve the SpamGuard technology.

If you demand even greater Spam prevention, check out the Yahoo! Mail Plus service. Yahoo! Mail Plus includes SpamGuard Plus, an enhanced version of Yahoo!'s SpamGuard.

SpamGuard Plus is tailored to each user's individual preference, as you train it on what you consider spam and not spam. You train the filter each time you mark a message as spam or not spam from within your Yahoo! Mail Account.

SpamGuard Plus learns specifically what you consider Spam and Not Spam and filters those messages to the appropriate folder. The more you train the filters by marking messages Spam or Not Spam, the better they will work for you.

While we make our best effort to deliver solicited email directly to your Inbox, we may occasionally send a message which you have requested to your Bulk Mail folder. It is important, therefore, that you check the Bulk Mail Folder from time to time to make sure you do not miss these messages.

If you want to ensure that emails from certain senders will always appear in your Inbox, you may create filters specifically for these senders. Filters automatically sort your incoming messages into the folders of your choice, according to rules that you set up. The benefit
of filters is that you don't need to read through each message to decide where it goes.

For more information on how to set up filters, please visit the "Filters" section at:
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/mail/manage/manage-06.html

Regarding your second issue, Thank you for your suggestions regarding Yahoo! Mail. It is through user comments and feedback that we are able to continue to develop and improve our service. We will be forwarding a copy of your message to the Yahoo! Mail team as a product suggestion.

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.

Regards,

Clarence

Yahoo! Customer Care

Visit our online help pages at:

http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/mail/


Original Message Follows:
-------------------------

[my initial inquiry]

hi,
i have been told several times that my friends have sent me evite via my yahoo account but i never receive them!! i get thousands of spam in bulk folder...but when my friends tell me, i check my bulk folder to see if evites land there. often, i don't even see evites in my bulk folder.

i am troubled that (1) legitimate & popular emails such as evites don't even appear to make it through yahoo! server and (2) this is indicative of other emails i may have never gotten! (i have been told by a few folks they sent me email but i never saw them).

because of this, i have told my friends to send all my evite to my gmail account. in my gmail, i get it in my inbox, not my spam folder.

please fix the evite problem & ascertain that all my legitimate emails are coming into my inbox.

i would like to STRONGLY suggest that searching in yahoo email allow searching through bulk folder and trash as well (which gmail now does). organizing bulk mail by date or sender & then trying to find emails that may have been sent on such date is EXTREMELY time consuming. at least, then, even if something lands in my bulk folder (but as i note, i never even got evites in my bulk folder), i can retrive it easily.

best regards,
haeji
-------------

So notice how Yahoo! doesn't address the problem that Evites don't make it through Yahoo! server? I did. So of course, I followed up, rather vehemently. (Yes, I'm persistent). Guess what? Then, I get this response.

--------------

Hello,

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Mail.

Yahoo! Customer Care is committed to answering your questions as quickly and as accurately as possible. We apologize for the delay in responding to this message.

Before proceeding, we'd like to verify your account information so we can confirm your account ownership. We take this precaution to ensure the security of your account.

Please provide all of the following information:

1. Your Yahoo! ID

2. Your zip or postal code AND the verified alternate email address you specified when registering your Yahoo! ID

3. Either the secret question and answer or date of birth you entered when registering your Yahoo! ID

We'll be happy to assist you after matching this info with our records.

Again, we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this delay may have caused you, and we thank you for your patience. Your satisfaction is always our goal.

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.

Regards,

Yahoo! Customer Care

Original Message Follows:
-------------------------
[my follow-up inquiry]

i don't think you understand my problem and have NOT addressed it effectively per your email below.

(1) there are apparently emails that ARE NOT even going to my spam (specifically evite). thus your solution of making it "not spam" CANNOT be applied when i can't even get to the email!
(2) i have hundreds (at least) of contacts. if the only way to make sure that (a) you don't put emails from my friends in spam or (b) that you don't block it in any way because i don't see them in spam folder, is to create separate filters, then you are not doing a good job.

let me reiterate clearly. YOU ARE BLOCKING EMAILS FROM EVEN COMING INTO MY SPAM FOLDER!!!

i don't know what you are doing. i was impressed by yahoo! beta but if THAT'S the reason why some emails are blocked, then i'm not impressed. either fix the problem, or get rid of yahoo! beta until you have done so. i'd rather get emails in any which way then not get them.

please address my concern. AGAIN, MY CONCERN IS THAT CERTAIN EMAILS ARE NOT EVEN GOING INTO MY SPAM! i know that to be true w/evites.
haeji

----------------

I was a tad annoyed by Yahoo!'s response. They never asked for all those information before responding, or not responding correctly, to my initial inquiry. Plus, did you notice how Yahoo! asked for both my Security Question AND Security Answer??? What sense does that make? Yes, being persistent (or cranky/pesky), I followed up, yet again.

----------------
i'm a little concerned by your response. (i assume you have a copy of the response b/c i changed my setting so my reply will not paste what you wrote to me).

first, you didn't need to get all my information before responding to my initial inquiry explaining the problem. it's a little suspicious that you require all kinds of information for a follow-up query, pointing out what my inquiry was. (i have my doubts if you are seriously yahoo! responding to me... or some other phishing site).

second, one of the information you request from me is both secret question AND answer. do you see the flaw in that logic? YOU should have the secret question, and I should have the secret answer. that is the whole point of having that system.

based on (1) the incredible delay in getting back to me, (2) the suspicious nature that you haven't addressed my inquiry but instead ask for a lot of personal information, part of which you should not be asking me but should already have, and (3) that regardless, any identifying nformation is irrelevant to your system-wide problem (i have friends who use yahoo email and have reported similar problems with evites not getting through as spam or regular email), i will not respond back with information that could potentially be falling into identity thieves' hands.

if this really is yahoo!, i'm disappointed by lack of safety measures and illogical responses to my inquiries. i suggest your course of action should be (1) take a random poll of yahoo! email users (b/c most of my friends also report similar problems as i have), (2) figure out why evites aren't getting through, even as spam, and (3) fix the problem. i don't need a personal email from you if you fix it.

i will ask one of my friends to put me in an evite list within the next couple of weeks. if i don't get the evite (like i normally don't), then you haven't fixed the problem.
haeji

------------

Yes, this is a long post. And you wonder, is there a happy ending? Sadly, there's more and this is the last response I got from Yahoo! .

----------
Hello Haeji,

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Mail.

We can certainly understand your concern when providing this information via email. Please rest assured that we do not request account verification information through unsolicited means. We only initiate such requests after we have received a help inquiry regarding your Yahoo! account. We require this account verification process as a security measure to help us confirm your account ownership.

If you did not initiate a help inquiry to us via the Yahoo! Help page or via email, please reply and let us know so that we may close out your help ticket. Otherwise, please provide the information requested in our previous correspondence to you and we will be happy to assist you.

As a standard policy, we will not be able to discuss account related issues or perform technical troubleshooting within your account without proper account verification, nor can we discuss your account with a third party.

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.

Regards,

Jasmine

Yahoo! Customer Care

-----------------

I replied back. It was rather short. Here it is.

----------------

ask me the secret question. then i'll give you my secret answer. i refuse to provide both secret question and answer. that's completely asinine.

haeji

---------------

So what do I hope to achieve after all this? At this point, I don't know. Sometimes, I wonder why I bother giving feedbacks to an obvious problem if such feedbacks will be ignored. And it only makes me crankier to have to follow-up to my feedback. What do I hope to gain by posting this on my blog? Maybe somebody else will bother Yahoo! about this problem too so they will fix it. I'm tired of feeling like I'm the only vocal one about a stupid and obvious problem. Ok. That's enough ranting for me.






Monday, August 28, 2006

Free Online Wordprocessors

So, if you are tuned into the tech news these days, you must have heard that Google bought Writely. It's one of the online, free wordprocessors out there right now. I say one of many, because I know of at least two others (I'm sure there are more). AjaxWrite and Zoho Writer.

I got curious. Do they really compete with Microsoft's Word? Sure the cost is great (can't beat free) but what about the features?

After briefly checking out the interface and creating test documents, I have to say that they are sadly unmatched. And for now, I am going to shell out money to buy Microsoft Word. They have the most limited, basic functions. Meaning you can type, change fonts to bold, italics, various styles of fonts, change justifications, insert graphs, tables, etc. But guess what? Not single one of them has the ability to insert a footnote!!??

In my book, without the footnote function, you can forget about using it (well, as a lawyer, I am pretty biased that the footnote function is an essential, if not basic, wordprocessing feature).

I have to acknowledge, though, that several features that seem better are (1) that these online wordprocessors (except Ajax Write) allows multiple users to change the same document and (2) they can save to different type of documents -- pdf, doc, rtf, etc. I don't think Word allows you to save as pdf in most cases.

Until the features improve, though (footnotes!), I'm probably going to sit by and watch which one ends up winning in the free, online wordprocessing arena.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Hiking at Anacapa Island (One of Channel Islands)

Today, my parents and I finally got a chance to hike at one of the Channel Islands. We took a boat from the Island Packers, and went to visit the smallest island. Channel Islands are a bit north of Los Angeles and are accessible by boat (or plane, I suppose). Five of the islands are national parks. Anacapa Island, the one we went to hike, is also part of the national park and marine sanctuary.

It takes about an hour boat ride from Oxnard (Ventura county), 12 miles off the shore. It doesn't have much, and the hike is fairly easy. We took a guided tour part of the way, and hiked by ourselves rest of the way.

The views were quite amazing... ocean vistas no matter where you go. The boat ride itself was rather choppy most of the time, and I think I actually got a bit sea-sick!

Anyway, I liked the hike but I'll probably stick to more local hikes, what with the sea sickness and the cost of getting there. ;)
Mom and dad while we wait to take the boat to Anacapa Island.

The functioning lighthouse at Anacapa Island. We could hear the fog horn.

A view from the entrance of Anacapa Island.

There were kzillion (literally) Western Gulls (you know, the white sea gulls??). This is a baby sea gull -- they are brown for about 4-5 years.

Cathedral Cove at Anacapa Island. You can't see it here, but because this is part of the marine sanctuary, there is a big kelp forest.

One of the native vegetations. I think this is called buckwheat (I can't remember).

A view from the Inspiration Point. It was pretty gorgeous.

Mom, me, and dad at the Inspiration Point.

A better shot of the Inspiration Point.

That's me! We are on our way back from hiking.

Kelp forest. Helps keep the ecosystem in balance and all.

On our way out from Anacapa Island.

I made the arch. Believe me?

Ok, it's part of the Anacapa Island.

Final shot of the Anacapa Island. The views were pretty awesome. Posted by Picasa

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Library Thing

I am a regular subscriber of Wall Street Journal. And last week, I noticed an article that was just too good to not pass around to my book-loving friends.

There was an article about www.librarything.com. It's a site where you can compile all the books you have or books you read. You can rate them, tag them, etc. The great thing is you can see other folks you read the book you read and also get ideas for your next book! That's helpful for me, at least, because I'm always looking for what to read next.

Anyway, I started my own account under "haeji." I can't remember all the books I read in my life time but I decided to start cataloguing books I read or have read (because my physical library doesn't really reflect all the books I read). It's a bit addicting but a great tool for bibliophiles!

Friday, June 23, 2006

DVD Trades

I've been working from home and haven't had time to really devote to my blog. Which is a shame, because I have some pic's of cute little rabbits from my hikes up to Malibu areas. Besides gorgeous Pacific Ocean, of course.

Anyway, I just signed up for Peerflix. I read an article about how Lake House is supposed to be based off of a Korean movie called "Il Mare." Well, being Korean, I figured I might as well see the Korean movie before seeing the Lake House. And being parsimonious (clever way of saying frugal), I looked at all the ways I can try to get Il Mare for free. (1) Blockbuster -- I can get free online Blockbuster or regular Blockbuster rental passes by using my Discover Card Cash Back bonus. Unfortunately, when I checked my local Blockbuster and online catalogue, the version of Il Mare they had was CHINESE!! Totally defeats the purpose of watching a KOREAN movie. (2) Netflix -- free 2 week trial... but once again, it's in CHINESE!

So, I didn't know what other free ways I could try to get my hands on Il Mare, so I turned to cheap solution -- Peerflix. Peerflix is a website that basically helps you swap your dvd's for some other dvd you want. You sign up, list dvd's you have to mail. And you list the dvd's you want. Peerflix's computer figures out who has what, and who wants what, and you print out mailing envelope, and send your dvd off to whoever wants it. You do pay for postage ($0.39) and $0.99 per trade (I think it kicks in when I get the DVD I want). You garner points based on dvd's you put up for trade. Right now, I have 3 because I sent off "Fugitive" (2 points) and "To catch a Thief" (1 point). I listed Korean version of Il Mare..., and of course, I have to wait a long time.

I guess free/cheap things don't come easy. Anyway, I am going to wait until the DVD comes to me. In the meantime, I plan to see the Lake House.

I'm curious how well this Peerflix site will work. I signed up to be invited for Swaptree, which is the same concept except you can trade dvd, cd, books, etc. And it's free trade!! They are in beta version and you can't just sign up, so I am crossing my fingers that I will get an email from them soon.

Monday, May 08, 2006

Emigrant Direct and Highest Interest Rate for Savings Account

So, the follow-up to my Emigrant Direct saga. I got $62 (and some odd cents) deposited directly into my Washington Mutual checking account from Emigrant Direct. I suspected this amount was the interest amount that Emigrant didn't pay me when I closed the account. But to be on the safe side, I wrote a letter to FDIC and NY Banking Department. FDIC emailed me to let me know that, yes indeed, Emigrant paid me the interest I lost and it is ok for me to keep the amount.

Now that that's squared off, I have been checking www.bankrate.com daily to figure out who is offering the highest interest rate on savings account. As of May 1, 2006, HSBC decided to lower their interest rate from 4.8% to 4.5%. So like a rational consumer, I decided to switch my savings account to GMAC, which is offering savings account at the interest rate of 4.75%. I also opened up a 6 month CD with ETrade because the interest rate is 5.21%.

I like to make sure my money is working at its hardest! ;)

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Getting $150 from NetBank

I'll take free money wherever I can. ;) It's even better if it's because of doing nothing more than rejiggering money funds.

Anyway, I recently opened a NetBank checking account through this link.
http://www.netbank.com/pro342.htm

And I am due to get $75 soon. I have to have at least $1,500 for 30 days before they credit my account for $75.

But then, I noticed I can also get $75 for opening NetBank's Money Market Account through this link.
http://www.netbank.com/pro348.htm

I was curious whether I could get that $75 bonus as well, and it turns out I can. As long as I never opened a NetBank Money Market Account before, they will give me a $75 bonus. I also need to keep a balance of $1,500 for at least 30 days before I get that bonus. It's not the highest interest rate out there for a money market account, but I get $75 for just opening the account! Can't complain about that.

If you want to get your free $75 or $150 (depending on if you want to open both), you need to do it before June 30, 2006. That's when the promotion ends.

The only downside to NetBank is that it's an internet bank so I can't just walk into a branch office. Other than that, I haven't had major problems yet... but then again, I just opened them!

Friday, April 07, 2006

43 Things and All Consuming

There's a new link on the left for showing things that I "consumed." I've been looking for a way to keep track of all the books I read. I tried to keep up a separate blog, but frankly, I get lazy about posting an entry. I have too many thoughts or I move on to the next book so I forget my thoughts on books I already read. So that hasn't worked well in keeping a list.

I also tried to keep a list on my friendster entry, but I don't check that site often enough and there's no separate place for me to simple enter list of books.

I have been keeping brief entries in 43 things. This is a site where you set your goals... can be anywhere from reading a book, to becoming a millionaire, to exercising more, to falling in love, etc. Then you post (or not) and share your goals with others. I recently noticed that it has an affilate site, All Consuming. And this is the EXACT site I was looking for!! It allows me to enter books I read, am reading, or intend to read. The choices are phrased in terms of "consumption" -- "I have consumed this;" "I intend to consume this"; or "I am consuming this." The categories include books, music, movie, food & drink, and other. I think it's a fantastic site (only because I have been looking for one) allowing you to just keep a simple list of what you did. And you can share the list with others and give your quick & dirty opinion -- "wishy washy," "worth consuming," or "not worth consuming."

I have entered all the books I read since beginning of this year. I intend to use this site to update my reading list so you can check out what I'm reading!

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Cheapest Online Traffic School

So all the driving up and down I-5 for job interviews, etc. was bound to make me go on auto pilot. I am not the slowest driver (ok, I used to make it to SF from LA in 4 1/2 hours) so I have pretty much honed in the art of being extremely aware of my surroundings when driving. Unfortunately, the one time I zoned out, I got caught!! I don't know if I could have flirted my way out of a ticket, but I generally just don't try... because I know I was speeding and if I get caught, I feel I should just pay for breaking the law. I have a very warped sense of morality.

Anyway. So I decided to just go to an online traffic school to pay off the ticket and to get the point taken off. After hours of comparing all the online traffic school listed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court system, I found that Easy Going Online Traffic School was the cheapest. They charge $12.99. There were a few that charged $14.95 that seemed fine.

So I signed up for it, I got an email with PDF file of the CA traffic law and final exam. I just took the exam, which took me 2 hours because I was anal enough to check appropriate law for all the questions. I faxed my answer, and I passed. And that was that. It beats sitting in class for 8 hours and paying more than $13!

Saturday, April 01, 2006

Free legally downloadable mp3's

I bet you are wondering how it could be possible to download mp3's for free. Well, it's not completely free. You can exchange 10,000 United Airline frequent flyer miles for 100 mp3's from SonyConnect. SonyConnect is probably a lot less known than Apple's iTune.

The site is a bit cumbersome to search, and it doesn't have all the songs. But I have found pretty much all the songs I wanted (I am inclined toward mainstream pop/alternative/classical). Mp3's that you download are all protected, so it's not completely transferrable. You can burn to any CD you want. I don't have an mp3 player, so I don't know if I can transfer them to mp3's in the downloaded format. I basically make them unprotected mp3's by first burning to CD then ripping it again so I can do whatever I want with them.

So is it a good deal? I never redeem my frequent flyer miles to actually purchase airline tickets. I just don't fly enough to accummulate enough miles. To me, it's a great deal because I would have to wait FOREVER to redeem my miles for a decent ticket instead of simply trading 10,000 miles. 100 songs is a lot, I think. I also think the ability to trade for mp3's is a better deal than getting free magazines.

I mentioned to another friend about United's partnership with SonyConnect, and she was surprised. So I figure this is probably not well known. I think I might actually take up some time to write to Delta/Continental/Northwest to see if they could also partner up with somebody (be it SonyConnect or someone else) for mp3's. I'm sure airlines would love to see their patrons not use the miles to take up seats, and consumers would love the idea of getting seemingly free mp3's legally!

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Follow Up to Emigrant Direct Account Closure

So, after thinking about what Emigrant Direct did with my money, I came to the conclusion that someone should make sure that the bank doesn't do this with anybody else's money. After all, how many people obsessively check their checking/savings/credit card/mutual fund accounts online? I'm pretty sure I am in the rare company of compulsively checking my finances online every week. It's quite possible that other people with Emigrant Direct savings account didn't notice unauthorized transfers.

Because Emigrant Direct was unwilling to listen to me, I contacted two agencies via letters -- New York Attorney General and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Emigrant Direct is a New York bank, and I figured Eliot Spitzer might be interested in taking a looksy. As it turns out, there is a Banking Department in New York. Spitzer's office kindly forwarded my inquiry to the Banking Department, which opened an investigation as of March 13, 2006.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency also contacted me and told me that this federal agency regulates national banks. Apparently, a national bank has either the word "National" or "N.A." in its official name. Because Emigrant Direct does not, it is not a national bank, and the OCC forwarded my complaint to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. As of March 21, 2006, the FDIC also opened an investigation.

Out of common courtesy, I copied the letter I sent to the OCC and sent the letter and supplemental materials (my correspondence with Emigrant, statement showing unauthorized transfer, and Vanguard's letter confirming it did not instruct any transfer) to the CEO of Emigrant Savings Bank (the parent company of Emigrant Direct). I have not heard from Howard Milstein, the CEO, or anyone else from Emigrant. I suppose they would rather chuck this all up to nothing if they could.

As much as I hate to admit it, money is important part of our lives. So when the institution we trust to keep our money safe runs afoul, even once, it raises too much concern to be ignored. I just hope that the investigations opened by the FDIC and New York Banking Department are thorough and rectify whatever problems Emigrant Direct has. I see lots of Emigrant Direct ads -- re: their newly raised interest rate and savings credit card. All of these are bound to attract new customers, and hopefully, they will not encounter same problems I have.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Closing Emigrant Direct Savings Account

They say money doesn't grow on trees... and I do my part to make sure my cash reserve is parked in a savings acccount/money market account/money market funds with a pretty high interest rate. Over the years, that has meant moving my money from ING, to Virtual Bank, to CharterOne, to Emigrant Direct. Basically, all of these accounts are linked to my checking account and/or to each other so that I can move my money electronically and quickly. Usually, I will leave the accounts with lower interest rates active with a low balance because you never know if they raise the interest rate again.

Recently, though, I had to make the drastic decision of closing out Emigrant Direct Savings Account altogether. It has fallen behind in the interest rate (4.25% currently); but more importantly, the bank transferred funds out of my savings account without my authorization! I was flabbergasted. And my transaction was not alone... my sister also noticed an unauthorized transaction in her account. Besides the fact that the transfers were unauthorized, both my sister and my accounts were supposedly in the negative territory. I contacted Emigrant Direct immediately, and they reversed the transfer. However, they blamed the unauthorized transfer to a third party (Vanguard mutual funds in my case, and the Vanguard customer representative assured me that Vanguard never gave such instructions without my knowledge).

I'm willing to chalk up the whole mistake to some computer glitch at Emigrant Direct. However, I never noticed such anomaly with any other online savings account I've had over the years. And since money really doesn't grow on trees, I decided safeguarding my money by transferring cash to elsewhere was the best way to go. Besides which, I noticed that HSBC has the highest interest rate right now at 4.8%. Sure beats 4.25% and unauthorized debits out of my account!

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Educating the Young to be Nice!

I had to take a picture of this sign outside of an Oakland school. Notice the week of January 23-27... can't call names. Posted by Picasa

Cloud Nine -- or Just Malibu

Instead of the blue Pacific Ocean, I was greeted with fog and clouds on one of the hikes I took. It looked quite mysterious, so I took a picture of the Malibu Canyon, covered with fogs and clouds. Posted by Picasa