Piro and I returned from San Diego Comic Con to an absolutely stuffed mailbox. It is partly our fault because we forgot to leave the key for the kitty sitter, but that aside, we are totally inundated with credit card applications, offers and mailings. With two individuals and two businesses we get 20 applications per week between us. That's not to mention the credit companies we do business with sending blank checks in the mail. I just love the apps and checks floating around in the mail system. We don't use credit and haven't for years and they just can't wait to get their greedy hooks into us at their mafia interest rates. I haven't used their card in years and they think I'm going to be enticed by their 0% interest for 3 days and then the rate being jacked to double digits greater than my age. Silly sillies.
I bought a commercial shredder to deal with all of it. I really want a shredder that will handles the entire envelope without even opening it and multiple at one time. I want something that will chew it up and spit it out. I need a wood chipper. Maybe I will put my credit to use. It seems like poetic justice.
We do use a piece of plastic that you have to pay off every month to pay for groceries and gas to earn reward points. We have been doing this for eight years and we still can't afford anything! I was looking around the point redemption site and saw under the 'other travel' rewards that for 1 million points you can take a Zero Gravity Parabolic Flight or for a mere 3 million points you can an MIG-25 Edge of Space Flight and for a whopping 20 million reward points you can take a suborbital space flight. That's really great - space travel just almost within the reach of the average consumer with a credit card. We'll isn't that how NASA is essentially funded?
I'm also not extremely fond of people who still write checks in stores. It is SO old technology. Have these folks heard of debit cards? I do still write checks to pay bills because I don't think the utility company that was involved in the great black out of the East should really have automatic billing access to my bank account. I write checks in the privacy of my own home. And if you are wedded to the idea of getting the float from the delay in depositing checks, be careful because some nasty companies are skipping the whole bank business and manually debiting your bank account electronically upon receipt. This just recently happened to us. I really enjoy how the transaction wasn't marked with anything to identify it - like corresponding check number or who initiated the transaction. It was just a big ole anonymous withdrawal.
I think Piro and I will just start bartering on the black market for goods. We'll use manga, comics, computer parts, and anime fansubs to conduct trades. We know a lot a people who would trade the necessities of life for these goods.
