Tuesday, January 03, 2006
“Little orange houses, for you and me … ”
For Spring, the Orange Houses of Detroit (link via dETROITfUNK).
Yeah … I'm walking kind of funny now …
Due to Hurricane Wilma, then the holiday season, we ended up being just a wee bit behind in our electrical bill. In discussing this last night, it was decided that I would pay the outstanding amount on the way to work today. There's a gas station about a mile or so that one can pay their utility bills. I was expecting this to take only a few minutes or so.
I arrive at said gas station and I'm the only customer. I hand over the bill to the cashier who starts running it through some device (to read the account and amount off the numbers written in magnetic ink along the bottom), then punching lots of buttons, then running it through again, then punching numbers, then marking up the bill with incompresensible hieroglyphics, running it through again, then violently jabbing a pin-infested cloth doll; pins are falling out and bouncing off the counter top. Minutes go by, and the cashier finally turns to me.
“I'm sorry,” the cashier said. “But the bill is being rejected.”
“Rejected?” Oh XXXX, I thought.
They've already cut our account and are releasing the hounds
thugs collection agents as I stand here.
“Yes, we always have problems with Lake Worth Utilities,” said the cashier, glancing towards the cloth doll. “No problems with any other company. But Lake Worth Utilties.”
“Lake Worthless Utilties?” I said.
“Pretty much.”
“Ah.”
“You can pay at the City Hall. Just down Lake Worth Avenue. Down by Dixie Highway.”
“Which side of the street?”
“North side. You can't miss it.”
“Thanks.”
Couldn't miss it because the traffic lined up down the block in front of the Lake Worth City Hall Annex, waiting paitently to pay their bills in the drive-through.
Not wanting to bother with that, I park across the street, and head into the Lake Worth Cith Hall Annex building.
I don't know that it is about government buildings, but every single one is painted in Institutional Paint. It's not a single particular shade of color—sometimes a pale green, other times a jaundiced yellow, or a pale flesh tone—but the shades themselves are never bright, always dull, like it's been there forever, and will remain there forever, eternally dingy. The Lake Worth Cith Hall Annex is a pale flesh color (maybe even a sickly peach color) headed towards a dull beige.
Soul sucking, is what it is.
There's a main hallway that shoots through the Lake Worth City Hall Annex building, and lined up down this hall is a line of people, waiting to get into the Utilties office in the center of the building. A real life Kurgan walks down the hall, deciding he'll come back on Thursday. A cute girl ahead of me in line is wearing a shirt, “I may not be perfect, but parts of me are AWSOME” and yes, parts of her are awsome. At least it keeps my mind of the numbing wait in line.
Half an hour later, I'm actually in the Utilties office, still waiting in line. The cashier window is on the other side of the room where a single person is working. I assume there is at least one other person working the drive though, since I don't see the cashier leave the desk.
Half an hour later, I'm the next in line. At this point, I see they take credit cards, but just past, far enough that it's hard to read is a sheet of paper with the word “VeriCheck” written across the top. The sign nearby that shows that Lake Worth Utilties accepts credit cards also has the word “VeriCheck” across it. I step over to the sheet of paper, keeping my leg stretched out with my toe marking my spot in line, and scan the sheet of paper.
It's a list of fees.
It's a list of fees one will pay for the “convenience” of paying your grossly inflated Lake Worth Utility bill with your credit card (or in my case, a debit card).
What a XXXXXXX racket, I think. The “fee” to “conveniently” pay with your “credit card” is a “measly” 5%.
XXXXXXX XXXXXXXX!
“Do you understand that there is a fee if you pay with your credit card,” said the cashier when it was my turn to pay.
“Not like I have any other choice,” I said. Notice how the signs giving the fee structure was posted next to the cashier, and not, say, out in the hall or near the door, when I might have been able to do something about it. Now, after an hour?
The cashier then mentions the fee. “Are you sure you want to continue paying?”
Not really, but then you're less inclined to continue our electrical supply, so here, let me bend over, I thought. What I said was, “Yes. No other choice really.”
“Splendid,” said the cashier, taking my bill and debit card.
Splendid indeed.
Now, I don't see this as a fault of capitalism. No, this is a fault of a government mandated monopoly that is nothing less than coercion. FPL, for all their faults, is at least working with economies of scale and are able to charge about half that of Lake Worth Utilties.
Although on my way out, I did warn a few people about the fees awaiting them, if they so choose to use plastic to pay. At least one guy started on about taxation without representation, so maybe there's hope yet …
Peekaboo! Oh … you're gone!
I have what may be some bad news for Mark. The club he likes (heck, I liked it too!), the one on Lake Worth Avenue near Congress, is no more. The building has been torn down, and there's new construction on the site (as I found out while driving around today). Given what I saw of the new building, unless the club is going to be two stories (which I doubt), the club is no more.
Sorry Mark.
Rant about my cell phone, Part I
As I was standing around in line, I was kicking myself for not having a pen, so I could make a few notes for the inevitable blog entry. Then I suddenly remembered: I have a cell phone! With a note pad on it!
Sure, it sucks having to type words using a numeric keypad, but it has enough programming to realize that when I hit 4475 it's most likely because I want to type out “girl” than “ggpj” (otherwise, I'd have to type 4 pause 444777555), but the “memo” feature only accepts about 40 cha
Rant about my cell phone, Part II
racters before I have to start a n
Rant about my cell phone, Part III
Stupid software limitations.
Kinda says it all, doesn't it?
Guys, you keep posting that same story about a serious security flaw in Windows.
Windows XP Flaw ‘Extremely Serious’
An anonymous quote at Slashdot about the bazillionth security hole in Windows wherein an image—about as inert as binary data can be—is now a vector for executable code to take over your system.
At this point, can't Microsoft be taken down (as in “corporate death penalty”) as either being completely malicious or completely incompetent? I mean, seriously—infected images?
Sheesh!
