John’s Musings

I’m having trouble with Washington Mutual. Again.

About a month ago I called WaMu and told them I’d like for them to close my account and cut me a check for my current balance. They informed me that I would have to bring my account balance to $0.00 before they could close it. No problem. I whipped out my debit card and debited the remaining balance from my account. I then called Washington Mutual and asked them to close my account. They informed me that they would do so.

I then assumed that they would be true to their word. However, I would find out that that would not be the case. Washington Mutual owed me $0.03 interest, and since I was closing my account, they deposited the interest into my checking account. Since my account was then at $0.03, WaMu decided that they couldn’t close it. They did not inform me of this, so I was unaware that they decided to keep my account open.

About a week ago a charity that I support deducted $32.00 from my savings account. WaMu allowed this transfer to go through and then charged me a $32.00 overdraft fee. I was livid when I got the text message alert that informed me that my account had reached a negative balance. I logged into my account and discovered that I now owed WaMu $63.97 ($32.00 + $32.00 - $0.03).

I called WaMu and calmly explained to them that if they had closed my account like I requested, then this wouldn’t have happened. I had met their requirements, as I had brought my account balance to $0.00. They informed me that since they owed me $0.03, they could not close my account. I asked why they didn’t either inform me of this or cut me a check for $0.03. The representative just told me that I owed them the full amount. Then she asked me in a sickly-sweet voice if there was anything else she could do for me.

My question is, do I owe WaMu the full amount, $32.00 for the donation, or nothing at all?

One of the commonly-seen aspects of basic cable is the presence of one or even several public-access channels. Due to the 1984 Cable Franchise Policy and Communications Act, US cable companies are required to fund local organizations to provide training and access to media technology and cable distribution on the local cable systems. Many times these channels provide an important service to citizens. These channels provide local governments with a medium that allows them to broadcast local meetings and other similar functions. These meetings are about as popular with the under-90 crowd as CSPAN-2 is, but they do serve their purpose. However, some of the content that appears on public-access could be considered some of the worst possible content that the human mind can conjure.

Point in case. I was watching television until the wee hours of the morning. Due to my rather drowsy state, I would land on a channel and watch it despite its content. One of these channels happened to be Fort Wayne Access. The “show” consisted of a darkly-lit set with a brick wall background. The “hosts” were a 15-year-old male and an 18-year-old female. Both were dressed in punk/goth clothes. The male “host” sounded quite gay, as he mostlikely had multiple oral piercings that gave him a quite effeminate lisp. Both of the “hosts” were not well-spoken nor intelligent. Some of their conversations caused me to enter a state of great distress and agony.

“Um, yeah, so, what kind of clothes do you wear”, asked the obviously unintelligent female.
“I, uh, wear punk clothes, because I want to be different”, returned the microscopically marginally smarter co-host.
“What is punk clothes?”
“Black clothes, baggy, you know”
“Faded with holes in them”
“No, that would be grunge”
“Nirvana is a grunge band, right?”
“Uh, yeah”
“So, what’s the difference between a rock band show and a punk band show?”
“Well, rock bands have lots of, uh, strobe lights and colored lights. Punk bands have a lot of red lights”
“What kind of lights do punk bands have?”
“Mainly strobe lights”
“So no flashing lights?”

It was like I was staring at a horrible car accident. You are shocked by it, yet can’t look away. I felt I was getting more stupid as the horrible excuse of as show progressed. I think the thing that bothered me most was how stupid these “hosts” were. Do the powers that be at Fort Wayne Access screen their hosts before they film them? Do they have to meet a retard quota when they find their hosts?

Maybe I shouldn’t get so worked up over such matters.

I believe I’ve previously established the following unfortunate fact: Modern society has generally lowered its standards when it comes to art. I personally see film making as a form of art; therefore I hold the films I watch up to high standards. However, most of the movies that I end up seeing are barely to be even considered as art, at least in my opinion.

Point in case: The movie entitled “Disturbia”. Most of my peers believe this movie to be a very fine movie. I have acquaintances who have described this movie as an awesome movie that they would see again. It even received a thumbs up from Roeper.

However, I failed to see the reason behind the rave reviews. Essentially, this movie is mainly Disney fluff full of product placements.

The idea behind the story is good. However, that’s where the movie falls flat. The movie starts out with a boy’s father dying in an accident that looks quite suspicious. He punches his teacher a few months later and is sentenced to 3 months of house arrest. Due to his boredom, our “hero” resorts to voyeurism, a choice that is obviously shown to the movie-watchers in a favorable light. Our “hero” even watches a girl undress in her bedroom. Our “hero” sees that as acceptable, yet rats out the neighbor boys for watching porn in their bedroom.

The movie continued on in a typical fashion. More Disney fluff and out of place brand endorsements. The end of the movie was approaching.

10 minutes of suspenseful and gory action then followed.

And that was pretty much it. I’d advise you no to watch it.

It’s been a month since I’ve posted. Quite a bit has happened during this past month.

I started looking for work about three weeks ago. One day I grabbed an application from Cheddar’s, a local restaurant. On my way home, a random idea struck me. The idea was to apply again at a local homebuilding company. I had applied there last May, yet failed to get a job. I drove out of the way so I could swing by this business and pick up an application. I knew it was a long shot, but thought it would be worth a try. I walked in, introduced myself, and asked for an application. I was then told to wait for a moment. The Service Department manager then walked out and interviewed me on the spot. Apparently they had just lost a worker, and needed a replacement.

Ultimately, I got the job. It’s a great job that pays more and has less stress than Kroger does.

I put in my two weeks at Kroger and worked about 6 accounting shifts, many of them on the same day as my construction shift. On the last day at Kroger, I ran into an issue with my direct supervisor, an issue that forced me to quit on the spot. It was not the way I wished for my last day to pass, but I really don’t mind. I’m just glad that Kroger is behind me forever.