Staying at a hotel on Upper South Wanksbury East, Portland. How do we know that's the name of the street? Well, we had to guess because, apparently, Portland thinks four point text, written on the back of a sign, a block and a half away from the street it's supposed to be referencing is plenty. Anything more would just be encouraging car use.

Hey, what do you know? Oregon. Was sitting at the top of California all along.

Why, yes, I do know the way to San Jose. It's on the left, back a bit.

9:30am and pretty much parallel to San Francisco. Still no particular destination in mind.

I did just drive San Diego to Santa Clarita, through downtown LA, on thanksgiving no less, without adjusting my speed.

A Canadian female folk singer by the name of Ms Mitchell has been killed by coyotes.

Death by irony?

Having been adding to my ~92-97 era BritPop recently, I made iTunes put together an automatic playlist of all of the related bands (so I can then subgroup them, tell it to pick most played, highest rated, etc. from that list).

It came out at 39 days of solid music. This delights me.

San Diego is a desert. Yet, still, I managed to find a waterfall to fall off, into a river. Such is the cost of noble acts.

Then I finished my day with a mormon fridge lowering. Not that dissimilar to an Amish barn raising only with more electricity.

Stick with it for a glorious finale.

Sixteen CDs (correction, just upped to 17) in a single amazon order isn't excessive, right?

It's hardly my fault. Mojo has a britpop special out and I found a few holes in my classic era britpop collection.

And, seeing as I know such a list is so much porn for Bongirl5 she'll be forced to grow boy bits just to accomodate the hard-on she'll get from it... ;)

Formanka by 18 Wheeler
Wake Up! by The Boo Radleys
The Charlatans by The Charlatans
The Good Will Out by Embrace
Gorgeous George by Edwyn Collins
Olympian by Gene
Hurricane #1 by Hurricane #1
From Monday To Sunday by Nick Heyward
The La's by The La's
Lovelife by Lush
Nuisance by Menswear
His'n'Hers by Pulp
Carnival Of Light by Ride
Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space by Spiritualized
Fox Base Alpha by St Ettienne
Grand Prix by Teenage Fanclub
Too Sussed by These Animal Men

I am of the firm opinion that Uprising is Muse's unsolicited demo for a new Dr Who theme.

Hmm, laziness or Arctic Monkeys tomorrow night?

Disney just bought... The Punisher?



(OK, fair enough, they actually bought Spiderman, X-Men, Captain America, etc. and The Punisher just came along with it.)

Bad billboard combinations

Bad internet ad combinations

John Cleese is apparently getting screwed in his divorce with his second wife who will come out of it richer than he is. (link)

In the kind of put downs that, well, only the British can manage, he said,

'I got off lightly. Think what I'd have had to pay Alyce if she'd contributed anything to the relationship.'

'It's going to be very, very expensive, but it will be worth every penny.'

Ouch.

So, I'm trying to buy right now. I need a mortgage. Give Lending Tree a shot, I figure, see what comes up.

One of the best rates comes from a company called Americash. Hmm, I wonder how they achieve such low rates, I thought. Now I know: They employ muppets.

First call, yesterday lunchtime-ish.
"Hi I'd like to talk to you about your refi."
"I'm sorry, I don't have an existing mortgage. I'm a first time buyer."
"Oh, right, right. Well we can get you a great FHA loan."
"I really don't want to go FHA. I think I can just make a bank loan."
"Oh, don't worry about making it. We offer many great FHA loans. We're sure to be able to get you one."
"No. I. Don't. Want. An. FHA."
"You don't want a mortgage?"
"No, I want a mortgage, I'd just rather avoid an FHA loan if I can."
"We offer many great FHA options."
"Do you offer anything other than FHAs? Or are you guys just FHAs?"
"Oh, no, we offer traditional loans too."
"Great. Thank you. That's what I want."
"But FHAs are available from just 3.5% down."
"Yes and they carry a 1.75% fee."
"No, they're just 3.5%."
"Yes. 3.5% down. And then they tack on a 1.75% fee on top. I want to avoid that if I can."
"We don't charge any additional fees for FHA."
"No. But the government does. They charge 1.75%"
"Oh, you mean the 1.75% fee the government charges?"
Yes, smacktard. Thank you. Are you a) completely clueless or b) completely clueless?

About this point, I'm resigned to just getting off the call with them. They're clueless. They're trying to get me a refi when the screen infront of them should be showing I don't have an existing. They're trying to offer me an FHA when I spell out that I want to go traditional. They're trying to tell me there are no points on FHAs when I know damn well there are. I currently have next to no confidence in their ability to process this loan in my best interest. God knows what else they'll overlook that suddenly comes back and costs me thousands.

Then, today:

"Hi, my name's Kemo. I'm from Americash. I'd like to talk to you about the request for a mortgage you put in to Lending Tree."
Do you guys even keep records? Does it not show you that another guy called me yesterday?
"Ooooh-kay?"
"So, I'll just need a few things to get this refi started."
Oh, joy, you're working off the same faulty information as yesterday. Funny how every single other broker manages to successfully pull up the Lending Tree info.
"I don't need a refi. I'm a first time buyer."
"Oh? OK then. So I guess we need..."
Blah, blah. I've little to no faith after yesterday so I just try getting him off the phone.
"So, you need to send me all of the paperwork over the weekend. I won't be in the office this weekend but send it so I have it first thing on Monday."
"Sure, whatever."
"Make sure you do send it. If you don't, I'll be calling you on Monday to find out why not."
Sweet Jesus. What is this? If I don't do what you want, I get lectured?

So, by this point, they're firmly in the "I don't trust you" pile.

Then I get an email,

"Thank you for talking with us earlier. ... I'm going to need the following information to process your mortgage: Your recent home owner's insurance. Your most recent mortgage statement. ... Kemo"

Holy crap. The same guy I clarified, for the second time, that I don't have an existing mortgage and don't need a refi... is asking me for my existing mortgage information yet again.

The email he got in response was polite but blunt, explaining why I won't ever be doing business with them, asking to be removed from their lists and asking to never be contacted by them again.

I imagine I'll get a phonecall either over the weekend or first thing on Monday. They've not paid the first bit of attention to anything else, I've no idea why I should expect them to pay attention to the request to politely **** off, either.

I believe this says everything.

In World War I, 116,708 US troops died, 124 Medal Of Honors were awarded. One for every 940 on average.

In World War II, 416,800 US troops died, 464 Medal Of Honors were awarded. One for every 900 deaths on average.

In Iraq, 4,247 US troops have died, 6 Medal Of Honors have been awarded (so far). One for every 700 deaths on average*.

Naturally, in a world where Bill O'Reilly is this stupid, people are offended that not enough Medal Of Honors have been awarded. Because, like six is totally less than 464 and 1:700 vs 1:900 should be completely ignored. Why, yes, it is FauxNews yet again.

*Note: It's entirely possible this rate will go up further as the awards tend to come after deaths. There may well be further awards already going through the system so it may well come out at closer to 8 for the 4,247 or about 1:500.

Fox News, henceforth to be known for the accuracy of their geography being the only thing as inaccurate as their news, reminds you to support the troops in... uh... Egypt?

At least during Vietnam only the people were too pig ignorant to find where they were fighting a war on the map. Now the newstainment channels can't find it either.