Moderation, not Reasoned Discourse™

The Eclectic Dragonfly has just switched to Moderated Comments because the Word Verification widget “hoovers” so badly. It used to work. Then they fixed it…

What does this change mean?

You will no longer have your visual acuity challenged by having to retype some ridiculously screwed up jumble of text to prove you are a human. It also means I will have to wade through a pile intellectually challenged of spambot crap to sort out the real comments from the dross. More pain for me – hopefully less of same for you. Also, it may take a while for me to get around to approving your comments. Please be patient! I will get to it – eventually…

My comment policies are very libertarian – like my politics. I’ll approve pretty much anything you want to say provided there is no personally identifiable information about thee, me or any third party. I will not allow threats of violence, slander or liable. The occasional cuss word doesn’t bother me. Just keep in mind that anybody can read what you write and it may come back to you at the most embarrassing of moments. In general, as long as you keep it legal within the intent of the Framers of our Constitution and suitable for polite conversation among friends, we should get along fine.

Really?

It amazes me the things I find in my sitemeter listings: "Search Words: bathroom powered by blogspot" I wonder what they were actually looking for! On second thought maybe I don’t want to know… OK, so why is this not formatting the way it should?

This is really starting to get old.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

‘Huwah?  Wtfisthat?’  I slowly blink my eyes open.  ‘What time is it?’  I look at the ceiling where the projection clock is supposed to be showing me the time.  It’s dark.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

* deep sigh *  ‘Again?’

I have no idea how long the power had been out before the beeping finally woke me.  The battery powered clock in the bathroom said it was ten minutes of three.  Very AM.  Next priority was to call the electric company to report the outage.  Then I restrung the extension cord from the inverter to the fridge.  I’d used solar power to run my string trimmer over the weekend so the cord wasn’t in place as it usually is.

Note to self: Buy a dedicated correct length cord that can stay in place and free up the 100-footer for other use.

With the power company notified and the fridge all happy on the solar system I went back to bed. 

After a little while the beeping stopped.  That meant that our Vonage phone system was dead.  We might still have cell coverage – provided the outage didn’t go to the cell towers…  I was already back in bed so I didn’t bother to check.  Calling 911 if things really go pear-shaped presupposes that you have working telephones.  Personally, I think it’s a much better plan to be able to take care of yourself and only call in the cavalry once the immediate threat is neutralized.  I’m digressing again.

Mum called a few minutes ago, while I was writing this very post as a matter of fact.  She mentioned that the light in the fridge dimmed when the compressor came on while she had the door opened.  The peak output of our inverter is just up to the task of handling the startup draw of the fridge.  Adding the little light bulb’s draw from the door being opened is almost more than the inverter can handle. 

Oh, the power came back on about two hours and fifteen minutes after I discovered it was out.  I just haven’t switched the fridge back to the grid.  I thought it prudent to make sure the grid would keep working for a while first.  I’ll switch it back when I get home from work tonight.  Meanwhile, I know the groceries won’t be going bad on us.

I have a bunch more of those solar panels on hand now and I can install them whenever I have the time.  I’ve also got a new charge controller that can handle way more input power than my full set of panels will produce once installed.   But even before I get all that done I may need to look into upgrading my inverter.  Then I’ll want more/bigger batteries.

All in good time.

The funny thing is that when I mentioned our early morning outage to my boss, he said one of his kids called him at work yesterday to report that the power was out at their house.  It won’t take much more of this for me to start questioning the stability of the power grid…

For free? Really?

I just this second hung up on a robo-call that promised a free cruse for two to the Bahamas if I just complete this short 30-second survey.  Sorry, Charlie, I didn't just fall off the turnip truck!

[shakes head and goes back to reading...]

Crisis – Challenge – Opportunity

So I mentioned going to a real estate seminar over the weekend.  I don’t think I mentioned how much of a stretch it was financially getting there.  I managed to find a way to afford the 3-day – but I used up most of the buffer in my checking account to do it.

Then I decided to go for the advanced training.  Now there’s simply no way I could come up with the scratch to pay for even the least expensive package deal.  They are all four figures.  CORRECTION: Looking at the paperwork again, the package deals are all five figures!  After reviewing our finances and even deciding which bills we could put off paying for a little while, Mum and I agreed on a way that we could do the least expensive single module.  With some cash from Mum and splitting the rest across my checking account and two credit cards we came up with the three grand we needed right away. 

Now the night before, while I was putting together a spreadsheet to work out if we could even come up with the initial payment I called the 800 number on one of my credit cards just to find out my available balance.  The answer was ‘some but not much.’  After getting the information I needed I said “While I have you on the line, is there any way you could help me out by increasing my limit?  I have a purchase coming up and I’d like to put it on this card…”  This is an exercise everyone is supposed to do during the lunch break on Friday.  I was in no shape to do that then because I was having a hypoglycemic crisis at the time.  The Friday session started at 0900 sharp and lunch didn’t come along until ten past two.  That’s just too damn long for this diabetic to go without eating!  The trouble is that I could also out stubborn a mule and I’d paid dearly to be at this seminar.  I wasn’t about to split early for lunch and miss anything.  I spent the Friday lunch break trying not to go into diabetic shock.  But I digress...  So anyway, my credit card company offered to up my limit by about 30%.  That was enough for me to feel comfortable with the initial payment.  I almost fell off my chair when Rick said we’d need to find the balance within three weeks! 

I almost said no.

Reluctantly I agreed with the terms and went through with the deal. 

Then Tuesday morning Mum called me at work with a crisis: One of the cards was rejected.  OMG!  I’m back to dear in headlights for a minute.

Okay let’s try to turn this into a challenge.

I dove into my computer and checked the banks web sight.  No sign of a problem.  Nothing’s posted and nothing is showing as rejected.  I called the 800 number on that card and drilled down through their phone tree until I managed to actually find a human.

Pro tip: Often saying “Operator” or pressing “0” will shortcut the phone tree and get you to an actual person.

After explaining what I was looking for the CSR found that there was an item that had been rejected that morning.  The name sounded right but the amount was for four thousand dollars instead of four hundred.

Now before anyone goes jumping to contusions’ that they were trying to rip me off – let me state for the record that I have been known to double-clutch on my keyboard from time to time.  An accidental extra zero when keying in a number is an easy thing to do.  In this case it self corrected by there not being enough available to cover it anyway.

I told the bank what I surmised had happened and the CSR agreed with me that that was the most likely cause.  I made sure that when the correct amount was entered that it would clear this time.  It would.  Good.

“Is there anything else I can help you with today?”

“As a matter of fact, there is.”  (I bet you can see where this is going…)  “Is there any way you could increase my limit?  I have a purchase coming up and I’d like to put it on this card.”

“As a matter of fact, we may be able to lower your interest rate too while we are at it!  Let me connect you with someone from our loan department…”

:-)

After going through essentially a new full application the very pleasant person from the loan department said that I should have my new limit in place in seven to ten days as soon as I fax in my latest pay stub.

Cool!

I called Mum to pass on the good news and to get Rick’s number so I could let him know what had actually happened.  Once I got Rick on the phone and explained the whole thing to him he was all apologetic and said it would be fixed immediately.  Problem solved.

I called Mum back to tell her and her call waiting beeped.  It was the bank.  She gave them my number at work and the phone rang here almost as soon as she came back on my line.  It was an actual loan officer this time.  She said that after reviewing my credit score and based on my payment history I was all good to go.  Instead of seven to ten business days it would be “seven to ten minutes.  I am checking off the things on my computer to increase your limit” even as we speak.

WOW!

This card did lower my interest rate as the first CSR thought they might and my limit was increased by a full 60%!  I now have enough wiggle room on this card to cover the balance for the course I’d signed up for right now today!  As Rick said on the phone when we talked “The technique really does work.”

Oh, one more thing…  The loan officer invited me to call back in six to twelve months to repeat the process!

Next up is to learn some investing techniques that I can make work to make the payments on my newly expanded cards…

Stay tuned.  This should be a fun ride!

Busy(er than usual…) weekend!

Mum and I went to another 3-day Real Estate seminar over the weekend. 

I’ve heard them described as “trying to drink from a fire hose.”  So far at every one I’ve been to that has been the case.  There is simply far too much information to retain it all.  If you go bring a fresh legal pad and take copious notes!

I’ve been to others in the past.  Robert Kiyosaki’s had a lot of mindset and motivation along with a little technique.  Not enough to actually go out in the field and do anything.  You have to buy the ‘advanced course’ for that… ($$$$-)  They all sell advanced courses. 

Cherif Medawar’s commercial real estate investing seminar, while exciting, was also incredibly intimidating to me.  Not the teaching method which was much like Kiyosaki’s.  But the whole concept that I could invest in commercial real estate and not be taken to the cleaners!  I see so many commercial and industrial buildings sitting vacant - often for years.  I couldn’t swing even a months holding costs!  Maybe once I’m established.  But certainly not as I’m just stating out.  They had a lot of great techniques and ideas at the 3-day, but I wasn’t in a position to sign up for any of the advanced classes.  Add to that, I’m just not ready to play in that market.

I did get a couple of vital things from attending Cherif’s seminar: I learned how to calculate a mortgage on a pocket calculator.  Many seminar companies give out a “free gift” for attending their workshops.  The one we went to this weekend for instance gave everyone who attended the evening ‘sell ‘em the 3-day’ event a digital camera.  Not much of a camera, mind you…  Cherif gave everyone who attended his 3-day workshop a student grade HP 10bII financial calculator.  That’s the calculator we learned how to use during the workshop.  I have mine in my shirt pocket even as I’m typing this, now several years later.

This weekend’s 3-day, put on by Dean Graziosi’s organization, was a little different.  We stuck to smaller residential real estate.  That’s a market I can wrap my head around.  And there was a ton of great information.  Some motivation but far more technique and resources. 

Time on my lunch break is running out, so I’ll have to cut this off here.  But I want to add one last point before I go:

I finally feel like I’m ready to move forward.  Let’s see how far this path will take us!

Updated to add some links.

Test Post 2

From The New Eclectic Dragonfly.