spending spree

So my insurance pay out came. I immediately paid off my Chase card with the horrid interest rate, as well my Ikea card that I opened to save 10 percent when I moved here (and because I had no money for furniture in the first place). Woot! Two less bills! But that's what my debt blog is for. Onto the goods.

I also received a VERY surprise 500 dollar check in the mail yesterday that was not for my birthday nor for "services rendered." So basically I went from being in the red to having 5,000 to going back down again since I'm paying of bills and getting new crap I need.

What new crap?

New phone!



My current cell phone only works when it's plugged in. Not very handy huh? I've had it for two years and it was time to renew my contract anyway. I got a good deal on this puppy above, which officially makes me a "2 way freak" as it flips TWO WAYS. Wonders never cease.

I also bought the 30 gig ipod. For those of you that know me, I've been an iRiver fanatic since the beginning. Sadly, they don't make any HD mp3 players anymore so I had to move on. I didn't want to get an ipod for the longest time, but Graham convinced me that it is OKAY to convert to the masses. You will never catch me rocking white ear buds and a monochrome outfit in front of a neon background though. Have no fear.

Up next: new eyeglasses. I haven't had my eyes checked in five years.

Then: nothing, all into the credit cards.

It feels weird to spend money after a year of nothing. It seems like I'm always swimming in money or drowning in debt. Technically I am still drowning in debt, just a little less now.

oh happy day

MY INSURANCE PAY OUT CAME!!!!! 4,316 DOLLARS!!!!! Hello dent in debt, hello savings, hello new glasses, hello new ipod!

was it the fact that I wore khaki pants for the first time in six months that made today so lucky? If so, then I am a khaki convert.

Mid-Week Boredom Update

I finally updated my debt blog. I had avoided it because, let's be honest, I couldn't concentrate on my debt tracking when I was stuck dealing with my id theft disaster. I'm back on track now, or at least somewhat back on track. Debt, the bane of my otherwise pretty awesome existence.

I watched Grizzly Man with Nate last night. I had seen it before, and own it, but he hadn't seen it. He didn't like Treadwell. We had a good conversation about why Treadwell is selfish. I also got my ass kicked in scrabble last night, when Nate got a total gimme bingo (assumed, but he had TWO blanks in there) and I got the Q as the last tile in the bag so I had to eat those 10 points. This was after I had a great game against Ed during the day.

Tonight is Lost. I'd love to go out to eat too but I have no money and I'm working on not eating like an asshole. So far so good on the non-asshole bit.

When the ironic isn't so funny, or, you do it to yourself

I've had Causing Accidents for a year now, born from the demise of my Special-ness domain name. This poor puppy has been busted for a week now, and my lifeline feels cut. As pathetic as it may sound to many, this blog is one of my favorite hobbies (and I have few hobbies). Without it, I sit around wondering what to do. I haven't been able to write film reviews or weekend updates. It's a dark world I live in.

What makes it worse is that this blog is also the cause of an identity theft crime against me last week. That week was going bad enough due to some irritating work drama that I had been trying to ignore for a month blow up in my face. I got a phone call during a meeting about the drama, and it was my bank. They said I was going to overdraw my checking account. Impossible! I had just paid my bills, filed them on Causing DEBTcidents and knew I had more than enough to last me until my next check. So I asked them what was going on, and they listed some charges that I definitely did not make.

"One thousand dollars to Google AdWords...9 dollars to Yahoo Wallet...1 dollar to Yahoo Wallet...One thousand again to Google AdWords..."

"Yeah, I definitely have no idea what those are. Now what?"

"Well we have to let these all bounce, then file a fraud claim. It will take a week to fix, and you are going to need to close your checking account to be safe."

Great...so all those bills I paid two days before that were about to go through bounced because some weasel stole my debit card number. ID Theft happens all the time, and I've gone through the process before back when Jake and I got robbed. I was understandably upset, as this totally messes with my attempts to get my budget back on track and will lead to hours of unnecessary work on my part. But what made me the most upset was...

...when I realized that it was sort of my fault. For a few days I was wondering how on earth I got my debit card number stolen. I don't shop online, I don't buy from sites I don't trust, I didn't use my card in Alabama on vacation. How the hell did someone get my number? My card was only 6 weeks old!

Then I got an unsettling suspicion in the back of my head, that was confirmed by a fellow internet-addict. Register Fly, my domain name provider, fucked me. Causing Accidents, quite literally, caused me accidents. If you read the article, you will learn that Register Fly lost their ICANN-accredited status, and has basically gone under leaving about a million customers out cold. No access to their domain names, no simple way to get them back, and worse absolutely NO notice to customers that this was coming. You go to their page, and there is NO SIGN that this was going to occur. Infuriating.

The week before my vacation I went to renew my domain, as it was set to expire March 17th. Only now do I remember that it was a goofy renewal. It took me several tries to get the transaction to be successful. I got lots of "terminal time outs" and I had no idea what was going on. Finally it went through, but I never got sent to a confirmation page. No worries though, or at least I thought, I got an email that says I renewed and it cleared my bank account. So I forgot about it, and rested happy in the knowledge that I'd be with my domain for another year.

I go on vacation with my best friends and have the most relaxing week of my life. I return home, go to my blog, all is well. That was March 17th, the day it was set to expire. I awake March 18th, and my blog is dead. Hmmmm, I thought, wonder if Register Fly messed up. I log in to Register Fly and the expiration date is still 2007, so I email their help support. I get no response. For days. I call, and get a busy signal every time. Then the phishing hit, and now the rest is history.

I realize now I did several things a librarian should Never do. I assumed that my transaction went through appropriately, I did not follow up on the expiration date update, and I didn't do any research into the company.

However, why would I have researched the company? I bought with them last year just fine, and had a year of fine and normal service. Why would I think anything would be different? There were no notices on the site to make me think otherwise.

So in a way I take the blame on the phishing - but at the same time I'm fully aware it is Register Fly's fault. I'm not sure what, if anything, to do. I'm one of just one million who are having troubles with them, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who got their card info phished. And to be honest, I can't 100 percent prove it is a result of the domain name despite how logical and obvious the answer seems.

Now I'm with Go Daddy for my domain name, and feel good about that. I even have it renewed for two years - they gave me one year free at sign-up. This page will load within the next day or two, and my life will begin to resume as normal. There's really no point in sitting around feeling sorry for yourself, right? Get upset, get pissed, get over it and fix it. If anything, I learned that I have definitely grown in the past year. If this had happened to me in San Francisco I'm sure I would have gone into some insanely deep funk. Instead, I shed some tears mostly at how irritating it will be to fix this, and went on with life.

I'm hoping that this is the end of the shit storm for me for awhile. I'll never understand why goods and bads come in waves.

I can't think straight, help me know before it's too late

Blog I need some serious help! In so many ways, I know, but today its urgent advice needed:

Backstory: My landlords suck. I've had a dishwasher with standing water in it since September despite numerous fights, calls, promises, visits to my place, etc to get it fixed. Then a few weeks ago they sent me a lease renewal notice and want to raise my rent 55 bucks a month if I sign on for another year. So I say hellllz no.

Cut to yesterday: Landlord calls to confirm I'm not resigning and asks why. I say "the rent increase is ridiculous, especially for a place that has ignored a maintenance request for 3/4ths of the time I have lived here." Dude says, "ok thanks"

Now the present: Landlord calls to say that the big head landlord man says that I've been a great tenant, paid my rent, etc etc and says: "What if we DON'T raise your rent AND we fix your dishwasher by March 15th, will you sign another year?" I say: "let me think about it." He says: "You have until tomorrow."


So what do I do? I've wanted to find a new place for the following reasons:

- closer to either UKV or Roscoe Village to be closer to either group of friends
- less rent per month places are certainly available, but how nice are they...
- doggy doesn't like being able to see all the people walking by - it makes her crazy and in turn makes me crazy

BUT:

- as Causing DEBTcidents will show you: I have ZERO money. This means I have to beg a parent for a loan for a security deposit + first month's rent somewhere. Oh and moving costs too...

- will that up front huge cost be worth it in the long run, if it means I can find a drastically cheaper place? And if I can't find a cheaper place I'm still forced to move b/c I didn't re-sign my lease...

So do I stay another year in my current place?

debt

I just spent two hours making this post: Causing DEBTcidents premiers

Yup, my debt blog. Airing my dirty laundry to shame myself into paying my debt off like a good person. Feel free to look at it, point and laugh at me, empathize, share stories of how you got into or out of debt, make your on debt blog, etc etc.