FreeCreditReport.com is Shady

Like so many people nowadays, I know my credit is in the dirt.  I was curious, though, to see just how deep it might be... Are we talking troposphere-level credit? Or inner core (where some people believe hell exists)?  All this time, I just knew it was "not awesome," but how not awesome?  So I decided to check it out at FreeCreditReport.com.  With that catchy jingle, how could I go anywhere else?  And, for the record, I'm referring to the original jingle(s).  I want original guy back!  I don't like their commercials since they lost them... And don't give me that crap about them not even being a real band, or singers, etc... so what?  It was a massively successful marketing campaign, and every kid across the country knew every lyric to every commercial.  That is genius marketing.

Anyway, I'm rabbit trailing.  Back to the point.  So, when you're signing up for FreeCreditReport.com, they ask you if you'd like to become a member.  There's a free trial, but if you fail to cancel it, you'll be charged a whopping $17/month, probably for eternity, or until you cancel.  So, I passed, and opted for the temporary, "basic" credit report.

Semi-Shadiness #1
What makes it laughable is that if you sign up for the free trial membership, you can see your credit report right away, as opposed to having to wait three days if you don't.  This indicates to me that they have the ability to provide it to you right away, but choose not to if you don't sign up for their free trial.  Shady!  But only semi-shady, because I understand using this as a selling point.  People, especially Americans, are highly impulsive creatures.  I can't imagine how many people can't survive 3 whole days to see how bad their credit is, so whatev... I consider this bad form, but nothing too offensive.  More like intentionally inconveniencing customers when you don't have to.

FreeCreditReport.com's Notification Email

So, I wait a few days, and finally get an email from FreeCreditReport.com letting me know I can view my credit score now.  Woo!  I click the giant, unmissable blue button, and am taken to a login page.

Uhhh.... but I opted not to sign up.... ergo, I have no login.  So, now what?

I scour the page for a (likely) tiny, nearly unreadable link that indicates non-members can view the reports by clicking it.. which, by the way, I would also consider shady... IF they had even had one!  There was no such thing on this page.  Only a login, or an option to sign up as a member.

I thought about it for a while, and figured, "I guess I have to call customer service."  Their number is conveniently located on the upper right hand side of the page.

Extreme Shadiness #2
I get on the phone with a Free Credit Report agent, and explained my situation.  I had a feeling going into this that they receive this question more than any other.  Sure enough, she pulled up my account, and proceeded to advise me that they can provide me with a temporary login to view my credit report.

Nowhere, and I mean nowhere was there any indication or instruction that calling customer service for a temporary login was a necessary step in all this.  So, what they are hoping is that people who are utterly lost (which is going to be about 99% of their users) are tricked into signing up for membership, because they think that's the only way they can view their report.

On any other website, when you're presented with a login page, you know that you have to register if you haven't already.  This website capitalizes on that.... how incredibly shady!

Shame on you, FreeCreditReport.com.  I have zero respect for this type of practice.  How do you sleep at night?  Tricking poor, unsuspecting customers into getting a more detailed credit report.... hoping they'll forget to cancel their free trial so you can get at least one $17 charge in there... shady, shady, shady.

I'm glad I figured it out, and just as I suspected, although I have 100% credit and 0% debt, no credit cards, or loans in my name, and am considered extremely low risk in every other area, unfortunately, my credit score is still in the dirt (as it should be... I'm not saying I deserve a great score).  Luckily, it's about toposphere level, which I can recover from as soon as I get things straightened out, but I'd much rather have Ionosphere-level credit.  Soon enough.... Definitely soon enough :)

8 Reasons NOT to Order Cheap, Boxed & Shipped Roses for Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is the single busiest day of the year for florists.  There are a lot of competitive ads out there, some who are advertising ridiculously low rose prices... and the majority of those companies are boxing and shipping their roses, saying ridiculous things like, "fresh from the fields" as if that's any different from what local florists get.  Although there are many reasons never to order from companies like ProFlowers, here are a few to consider... 

1. Who wants to be handed a brown box on Valentine’s Day? Let’s face it… Valentine’s Day is the biggest “show off” holiday of the year. It’s a competition… You have to look like the best, and she has to look like she’s with the best. So what do you think looks better? A guy in brown shorts handing her a box? Or someone balancing roses, a teddy bear, a balloon, and a box of chocolates while your girl signs for your giant declaration of love? Trust me on this one, guys… it’s all about the presentation.
2. Who wants to assemble their own gift? Yep, that’s right… those cheap roses you see that come in a box aren’t assembled. It’s a nightmare to take everything apart because it’s all strapped in with those thick, plastic zip ties. Then, she gets the pleasure of putting water in the vase, and plopping a bunch of flowers in it. Professionally designed roses are far more attractive.
3. You're getting what you’re paying for. Order those cheap, boxed, shipped roses, and your Valentine will be staring at a poorly designed bunch of short stem, cheap looking roses. Florists offer medium, and long stemmed roses, and they are of a much higher quality. They last longer, they haven’t been suffocating in a box on a hot delivery truck for 24 hours, and they bloom much more nicely.
4. Compared to florist-delivered roses, well… they just can’t compare. Picture your significant other at her workplace, surrounded by everyone else’s Valentine’s Day gifts. Those who had roses delivered from a florist are enjoying nice, big vases just brimming with long stem, magnificent roses, while those who received boxed & shipped roses are staring at short, stout vases with very short-stemmed roses poking out from the top. When you compare them side-by-side, there is a huge difference.
5. Roses from a florist tend to last longer. Valentine’s Day is on a Monday this year. This means most roses are being delivered to the work place. This also means the office will be full of roses all week long. Do you really want your girl’s to be the first to wilt? That’s exactly what could happen if you order cheap roses.
6. Valentine's Day is NOT the time to be testing out a new method of sending roses. If you want to check out the “cheap flowers” companies, go for it… just NOT on Valentine’s Day. You have one day to get this right, gentlemen. Go for quality.
7. Their insanely high rate of complaints says it all. Seriously… these companies have a reputation of making two deliveries for every one order. They receive so many complaints that they ship a replacement bouquet with pretty much no questions asked. You could call them up and say “My girlfriend didn’t li…” and your replacement order will already be processed. This is a major red flag.
8. They're BOXED AND SHIPPED! ‘nuff said.

Support your local florist this Valentine’s Day, and for every occasion. You can use your local florist to have flowers, gifts, gourmet baskets, fruit baskets, and so much more delivered all over the country… all over the world, for that matter. When you call a national florist, you are literally paying at least $15 more just to have them hit a button, and … guess what? Send the order right to your local florist. They charge a fee for pressing that button, and you end up getting far less value. Spend that extra $15 with a local flower shop, and it will make a world of difference in the bouquet or gift. Check out www.LocalFlowerShop.com this Valentine’s Day if you don’t know what florist to use.

And most importantly, ORDER EARLY! You can never order early enough for Valentine’s Day. Those that call on February 13th are either going to be told there is no more availability, or their flowers will end up being delivered at 6:00 in the afternoon on Valentine’s Day. Who wants that? Order now to beat the rush, ensure priority treatment, and most importantly, to make sure you don’t forget!

REAL Fix for the Obnoxious Beep When Plugging In & Unplugging Gateway Computer

Let me just start off by saying that whoever decided it would be a good idea to create a shrieking, piercing, god awful beep every time you plug in & unplug your Gateway computer should be taken out back and... fired.  In any case, everywhere you look online, the only advice you'll likely see is to turn off your sound in one way or another (speakers, windows sounds, etc.).  This was in no way acceptable to me, and neither is the fact that Gateway doesn't offer an option somewhere for you to turn the godforsaken thing off.

So, I decided to try rolling back my audio driver, and it worked!  Here's how...

1. Go to your Device Manager (I do it by clicking Start, and typing "Device Manager" in the search box and hitting enter... it should bring it right up for you).  
2. Look for Sound, Video and Game Controllers, and click on the little arrow to the left of it.  
3. There, you should see something along the lines of Realtek Audio Device.  Right click on that, and go to Properties.  
4. At the top, you'll see 3 tabs: General, Driver and Details.  Click the Driver tab, and look for the button that says, "Roll Back Driver."  Click it. 
5. You'll get a little warning message about doing this (basically just saying that certain features may not work properly if you do this, but this is a "canned" error message and it really does not apply here, so click Yes or OK).  
6. Close the screen you're in, and close the Device Manager
7. Now, unplug your computer, and you shouldn't hear a thing!  
8. CELEBRATE!  

If this does not work for you, it is possible that you need to update your driver instead of rolling it back.  You can obtain the drivers from Gateway's site, but you'll need to locate the right one for your pc model.  If you have an NV73A like I do (NV73A17u), then click here.  If you have an NV59 model, click here.  If you have a different model, you can click on either one of those links, and on the right hand side of the page, you'll see "Find Downloads" with a search box underneath it.  I simply typed in my model number (NV73A or NV59 - it'll usually be the 1st 4 digits of your full model number) and followed that up with "Realtek Audio" (so the full search term was NV73A Realtek Audio).  Click the "Go" button, and you should be taken right to a results page for your audio driver.  Click on it, then click the link to download it, and follow their provided instructions on what to do from there.

I really hope people find this helpful, because it was extremely frustrating to me, and even Gateway was too retarded to fix it or even really have a clue what I was talking about.  By the way, their Live Chat is by far the worst internet customer service I have ever seen.  I'll save that for a different post :)

If you have any trouble or questions, don't hesitate to leave a comment below and I'll help you if I can!

Don't Hate! Congratulate!

I find it so interesting that the majority of things we can't stand about other people really turn out to be things we can't stand about ourselves.  Most of the time, that's the case, but sometimes, it's also just a simple insecurity.  For example, someone who becomes extremely annoyed with know-it-alls is either a know-it-all themselves, or they feel intellectually inferior.  9.9 times out of 10, it is one or the other.

Another great example is homophobia.  How many times do we find out that public figures (like politicians) or pastors, priests, etc. who adamantly advocate against homosexuality end up coming out of the closet, or being caught rainbow (or red) handed in some big gay fun?  To further back that up, there was this great study performed back in 1996 to further support the theory that a high majority of die hard homophobes actually turn out to be gay themselves.  They showed three different videos to a control group of heterosexual men, as well as a group of self declared homophobic men (there was also a scientific scale by which their homophobia was measured).  Each participant was shown three different sexually explicit videos... heterosexual, male homosexual, and lesbian... and without getting into too much detail, let's just say the right "reactions" were measured.  Without question, the results suggested that homophobia is directly linked with homosexual arousal that the homophobic individual is either completely unaware of, or (in so many cases) completely denies.  So, I suggest you homophobes think next time you feel like doing some gay bashing... some of us are "in the know!" lol...

Anyway, I can't tell you how many times I have witnessed someone become SO frustrated with someone else's habit or personality trait that they possess themselves!  I've seen people totally fed up with others who are "dense" when that is exactly how I would describe them myself.  Or a person that is ready to strangle a perfectionist when they are a perfectionist themselves.  When you begin paying attention to things like this, it becomes really fascinating!  You can almost always tell what it is someone hates about themselves when they go off on a tangent about someone else's personality.

Cafe Gratitude Questions of the Day

What are you afraid of losing?

Just last night I had a conversation with a friend about fear and loss.  I was explaining to him that, although I have few fears, what I fear the most is losing someone very close to me... especially a family member.  The thought terrifies me, and I know it's something that I'm going to have to face some day.  Imagine that for a moment... let's say one of your biggest fears is flying in an airplane, and you know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you'll not only be forced to experience it, but you'll never know when, you'll never be prepared for it, and you'll be forced to suffer the scenario many times throughout your life.  I know I have to face it head on, I just don't know how to.  I guess I just have to deal with it as it comes, and know that whatever I do, I have to embrace and accept the process as well as I can.  

I'm sure many people can relate to this, although I don't think I know anyone (other than a couple of my own family members) who hasn't experienced losing someone very close to them.  I have only ever been to two funerals - one was an acquaintance's, and the other's was my great grandmother's.  I absolutely adored my great grandmother, and I'll never know anyone as amazing as her again, but she lived far away, and I rarely ever got to see her. When she died, I of course experienced loss and grief, but it was nothing compared to what I would feel if a grandparent, parent, aunt, uncle or cousin died.  I would be absolutely devastated.  

I guess I have a "young" family, which is why few of us have ever experienced an immediate family member's death before.  My grandparents are in their early to mid 70's, my dad, aunt & uncles aren't even 50, and my cousins & I aren't even 30 yet. Each generation is only about 20 years apart.  In fact, my aunt & grandmother are 20 years apart, my cousin & aunt are 20 years apart, and my dad & I are exactly 20 years apart!  How auspicious ;) 

I adore & cherish my family so much, I just can't imagine what I would do without them.  My family has its issues, trust me... but what makes us so special is that, no matter what, we know without a doubt that we have each other when & where it really counts.  Regardless of our differences, or how major they might be, when it comes down to it, I know that every single person in my family would be there to support me if I needed them to, and I would hope that they all know the same is true for me.  There's nothing I wouldn't do for every single one of them.  I wouldn't give it a second thought.  

So how do you let go of something so special?  I guess the answer is, you don't.  Just because you don't see them doesn't mean they're not there.  That might be easy to say & think now, but when the time comes, I'm not sure it'll be so easy to accept.  Thoughts like this always remind me of the importance to make our time together as loving and wonderful as possible, and to live each day as if it were our last.  

Who makes you laugh?

Ahh, good... a more positive question to answer :)  My first thought is my dad - he is SO funny!  He has always been able not to just make me laugh, but to make me laugh until it hurts.  That's probably one of my absolute favorite things about him... his sense of humor.  He's always entertaining...

My friend Jeff also has an awesome sense of humor & can always make me laugh.  The best part is that his sense of humor isn't like anyone else's... it's all his own :)  Although his normal antics never cease to crack me up (like breaking out with classic dances like the Running Man, or Roger Rabbit... lol), but one recent memory will always stick out in my mind.  We were at a party where Rock Band was the game of choice, and when he decided to get on the mic, he chose a Jack Black song (of all the songs... haha)... it gets to the classic Jack Black, "riggadig dig shoogarip dip diddle!" (or whatever... LOL) and Jeff freaking belts it out, word for word, and has everyone in the house cracking up.  It was definitely the song of the night, and one I SO regret not getting video of :)  

Lots of people have a sense of humor I can totally appreciate, but some of the best times are when my family is all together.  When my dad, aunt & uncle get to ripping on my grandfather, or when my grandfather gets a couple drinks in him, they all have me rolling in no time.  Their banter is one for the record books :)  I've always sworn my family would make an awesome, very entertaining reality show.  

Lesson Learned: Talent Often Has Little To Do With Success

Yep, that's what I learned... success quite often is not achieved by way of talent.  Perhaps the first few stepping stones relied on talent, but when it all comes down to it, success is more often reached via excellent business and people skills.

I know of successful people who couldn't even begin to survive in the day to day operations of their own business.  They are generally clueless, really, as to what actually takes place in their companies.  Apparently, they can be oblivious.  Although I have to believe that if they were capable of programming a website or creating their own marketing budget reports that they would be a far better manager, which would lead to greater profits in the end.

On the flip side, I've seen countless employees with outstanding talent who will never be anything more than an employee.  I'm sure for some, it's fear, and for others, it's complacency or lack of ambition.  The managers that take advantage of those rare gems should be ashamed of themselves.  The gems should demand more respect (especially in the form of cash).

When it all comes down to it, though, if you are blessed with excellent people skills, you are destined to be a successful person.  The business end can be learned quite easily.  No other talent required!  Oh, and of course I can't go without mentioning that it's also about who you know ;)

My Technique for Diffusing Anger

It just hit me that I should probably share this with the interwebz :)  I have this great (somewhat hilarious) trick I use when the anger is building and I'm about to blow... My general modus operandi is that I take things out on inanimate objects: the TV, computer, phone... a lot of electronics, I guess!  hah... It's typically just general bitching, but it seems to get the job done most of the time.  The only time I hate this about myself is when someone else is around to witness it.  It always ends up making them feel bad or uncomfortable, and I certainly don't want that.  People who know me pretty well, though, know to just leave me alone and never, ever take my inanimate object-oriented rage personally.

In any case, although I express my anger pretty freely, I definitely don't like the feelings or vibes that anger creates.  All that negativity is totally unhealthy and I happen to believe that those who live stressful, unhappy lives, filled with constant negative energy are the types that end up with cancer, MS, IBS, or other general sicknesses.  Stress highly compromises your immune system anyway, so it only makes sense to me that the more negativity you have in your life, the sicker and sicker you will become.

I had this thought a few years ago, and tried it out.  It's common knowledge that smiling, laughter, joy and positive energy have incredible health benefits.  Plus, it's just generally preferable to feel good as opposed to any other alternative!  So, I thought "Why not try to smile when you're getting angry?"  It's a funny thought, and smiling or laughing is sometimes difficult to do when you're irate.

So I tried it... and I can't even begin to describe the short circuit that took place in my body & brain.  It was amazing!  I was absolutely fuming over something I can't even recall now, and I remembered my resolve to try smiling.  I immediately thought, "That's just freaking stupid.  I don't want to smile right now...I'm mad!" But I did it anyway, and the results just blew me away.  I was physically unable to remain angry!  It's like that physical act of turning the ends of your lips upward completely short circuits the brain, floods you with feel-good sensations, and immediately overpowers the negative.

What's even better is that you feel so silly smiling (1) at nothing, and (2) when you're angry, that it's like a literal, emotional oxymoron, which in turn causes you to laugh at yourself, therefore completely flooding out the negative with utterly positive vibes.  The anger diffuses instantly!

I'd say the majority of people do not know how to properly manage their anger in a healthy, beneficial way.  People typically bottle it up until they explode, or express it more freely and more often (like I do).  Bottling it up is generally catastrophic.  People end up getting hurt, things are said that aren't meant, and it starts killing you from the inside, out.  Either that, or the anger turns inward and manifests itself into depression, which is also catastrophic.  On the other hand, people who express it more freely and more often, tend to splash it all over the place and fail to channel it properly.  People end up getting hurt, things are said that aren't meant, and it begins affecting relationships with others.  It can also build a tolerance... what used to satisfy your anger now doesn't, and it takes more to fully express and dissolve it.  Eventually, you hit a brick wall, and lose control.  Few people express their negative emotions in a healthy, effective, beneficial manner, so we seek out techniques to help us learn...

I urge everyone to try this awesome technique.  No need for anger management... all you have to do is force a smile!  It's never really failed me.  And once you've tried it, come back here & leave me a comment :)