Author: letters_make_words

Categories
politics

Return to sender

Donald Trump has been attacking the post office, but missing the mark as delivery has continued without interruption despite a pandemic. Also, UPS and Fedex continue to use the post office to deliver the last mile for their packages indicating a level of confidence in the ability of USPS to get packages to customers.

I recently received a survey from USPS about my “recent delivery service”. There is no recent delivery service since the specific business the letter was sent to wrapped up the LLC years ago.

I’ve had a lot of mailings this year from business to business services attempting to reach that closed business. No forwarding order or other paperwork filled out that would give the post office data to sell. Not sure if the post office purchased stale data or is so behind that the survey is only now being sent out.

Categories
News

I’ll be the roundabout

So it seems a bit presumptuous to send postcards on how to drive through a roundabout, but all the roundabout fail videos indicate that it’s a real problem.

Song cue for today is Roundabout by Yes. The opening crescendo is kind of a tease since it could also be that you’re about to hear Heavy Metal by Don Felder.

Categories
small screen

Beats all you ever saw

No laughing matter with the driver having a small child in the car, but I can’t get the Dukes of Hazzard theme song out of my head now.

Categories
places

In my mind I’m going to Carolina

Travel blogger finds a way to keep busy while locked down during the Covid pandemic.

Categories
News

You better shop around.

I remember when rates were 5% and a quote of 3.75% was a sketchy rate. With rates at historically low rates 3.75% is still a sketchy rate.

Got a mailer from quicken loans for a VA loan at 3.75% with 2.25 points. You read that right, points. The APR on that loan is 4.352 indicating additional fees on top of the 2.25 points.

Turns out NPR did a story about excessive rates for VA home loans. Quicken wasn’t even the worst offender. A company called New Day financial took that prize, sponsoring the Army Navy football game to really rub it in.

Rates right now for the best loan choice, Navy Federal Credit union.

Standard VA with 0 down2.25%
Conventional fixed rate1.75%

So if you’re a homeowner the best choice is Navy Federal. If you’re a salesperson looking for that gravy train with biscuit wheels head on over to Quicken or New Day.

Categories
News

Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing

Research shows that using Facebook is not as good as actual interaction with other people. Whether it’s comparing your life to the perfect images. The scary data point is that Body Mass Index (BMI) is correlated with Facebook usage.

https://hbr.org/2017/04/a-new-more-rigorous-study-confirms-the-more-you-use-facebook-the-worse-you-feel

Categories
News

Congratulations! Your prize is more work.

So Gamestop created a contest for their employees with the grand prize being the chance to work more hours.

https://www.ign.com/articles/gamestop-cancels-employee-contest-to-earn-extra-black-friday-work-hours

Categories
News

Ready, Set, Baby

Marriage often ends in divorce, why not start the kids off with separated parents. There are now dating sites that cut to the chase and get right to the baby part. Perfect for those people who want children without all that loving the other partner baggage.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/oct/31/i-wanted-to-meet-a-mate-and-have-a-baby-without-wasting-time-the-rise-of-platonic-co-parenting?utm_source=pocket-newtab#comment-144914024

Song cue – What’s Love Got to Do With It

Categories
fake_ads

We’ve reached peak pumpkin.

Categories
ads politics

What would you say it is that you do here?

Not sure who is funding this organization, but the Center For Voter Information has been sending me mailers on a regular basis to let me know that I’m registered to vote along with a rating of my voting record. There is also a reminder to vote if I want to maintain my “rating”. Excuse me!!! With apologies to Lesley Gore, “It’s my ballot and I’ll vote if I want to, vote if I want to.”

The disclaimers let me know that my rating was determined by scraping state voter records and the information “… is provided as a service to voters like you.” Not sure what kind of service this is and neither does this book

Update: One of the mailers had a list of ratings for candidates with a skew to Democrats, indicating the service is to push Democratic candidates. Sort of like the mailers pushing Republican candidates, but with AFL-CIO and human rights instead of NRA and abortion.

Turns out it could be worse, I could have received the version of the mailer that tells me I’m not registered to vote.

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/13/805694260/a-big-vote-registration-push-reaches-millions-but-divides-elections-officials

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