Decided to upgrade to AAA Premier just for the extra protection. Fortunately, I haven’t had a need for their roadside assistance over the past few years cuz I barely drive my car since I work a few blocks away from where I live. I mainly use them for discount tickets and shit. But rollin’ in a hooptie several years ago taught me just how valuable a AAA membership is. I won’t even begin to tell those horror stories cuz they are NOT good memories! I got the medical rider too. It don’t cost much more and the peace of mind is what it’s really all about. The card ain’t that flashy and the car stickers ain’t either. They stick on the outside rather than the inside like the Plus stickers and they’re pretty big (about as big as the palm of your hand and I have big hands) so a vandal will know to move on to the next car.

That’s what AAA wants them to do. Steal my fucking car and AAA pays good bread for info leading to an arrest and these are hard times. The fucked up part is that Premier memberships are just that: premier, and costs a little more. Meaning a person with that membership level most likely has some expendable income. So what’s a criminal to do? Bypass your ride for the unprotected car or jack your shit with the hopes that it’ll lead to a bigger stash? Hmmm…maybe I should rethink this Premier shit…not! Another thing is that maybe there’s a AAA theft ring that specializes in only stealing AAA protected cars. You got the thieves and the people that report them. The reporters get the reward money and distribute it and it’s on to the next car to repeat the process. Hey, could happen.

The card has a simple black and grey color scheme and the stickers are black and white and neither is all that visually appealing but that’s just my opinion. Times are so hard that AAA doesn’t wanna foot the bill for some color ink and dye? The base and Plus membership cards look much better. But I do like that they refer to me as ‘Mr.’ on the card now as opposed to before. I guess that’s as prestigious as it’s gonna get. Still left out my middle initial as always though. Bastards. But I ain’t sweatin’ that. Since us Premier members get our own service number, I wonder what would happen if I broke down right next to a base and/or Plus member and we all called at the same time. Who gets through quicker? Who gets service dispatched faster? Anyone with some time on their hands and is willing to put AAA to the test, I’d love to hear the results. And while you’re at it, you could test their response time versus Allstate Motor Club too.

Believe it or not, for the christmas that just passed, I was gonna give a one day freeview of all my secure content (minus the porn) but remembered that I didn’t purchase enough bandwidth to cover such a thing. I’m fine for the rest of the month but if I’d have done that, it would’ve been for nothing since I know I would’ve exceeded my allotment and visitors would see the ‘bandwidth exceeded’ message again making the effort pointless. I don’t know, maybe I’ll try to do something similar for the site’s 4 year anniversary (next May). We’ll see.

I bought an Aunt Jemima sausage, eggs, and hash brown breakfast and on the box there’s 2 sausages but inside there was only one. I eat their meals all the time and they’ve made some mistakes in the past and they corrected them by giving me free meal coupons. I still buy their shit though cuz given the amount of their food I’ve eaten and still eat, a packaging error here and there is fine. It ain’t like they forget to include something often, just a few times over the past several years. Nothing significant enough for them to lose my business. Shit happens. I peeped the package for a phone number and there was none. I peeped their site. No number. I peeped Pinnacle Foods site and did a Google search. Still no number. I guess the changeover from Swanson eliminated that. Used to be I’d ring ‘em up, tell ‘em the prob, give ‘em the info they needed off the box, and my coupons were on the way. Now you gotta fill out a form online and explain your prob. That’s a little impersonal to me cuz my experience is that businesses don’t pay as much attention to their emails as they do their phone calls and even then they don’t keep up with them shits like they should.

I know I ain’t alone on this. I’m pretty damn sure, at the very least, one of you reading this has emailed a business and got no response of any kind ever. Pretty damn sure one of you has called a biz and left a message and the exact same damn thing happened. What the fuck is these people’s prob? Our biz ain’t important to them? They short staffed? They don’t want our biz or our money? They don’t care? I may be one of the few who thinks this way but if a motherfucker is calling my biz, that call gets more or equal priority as the motherfucker standing in front of me. If they send an email, im, text, or fax or whatever, they all get the same treatment as the phone call. I can see and hear the customer right in front of me. I know where they’re coming from and what they want. The people you don’t see who want something from you is who you should be concerned about. You don’t know who they are, what they look like, what they want, how much of it they want, how much they wanna spend, etc…Could be one person calling for a larger party. Could be a huge sale if their needs are met in an expedient manner. You see what I’m saying? Too many businesses are unprofessional these days.

Call a biz and the phone just rings and rings. Not even a voice prompt letting you know they’re closed or what their hours are. No voice mail. A contact form on their site requiring minimal info or the site is all jacked up and don’t work right and isn’t updated and no confirmation email sent back to you to let you know they got the email when you press ‘submit’ or ‘send.’ You know what I’m talkin’ about. I’ll give Aunt Jemima some props, I did get a confirmation email and I do appreciate that. I can keep that for my records and go back to it if the amount of time they specify that they’ll get back to me passes. Let me say this as plainly and simply as possible, and this is something I learned only a few months ago: if a business wants your money then they’ll make it as easy as possible for you to give it to them. And it’s just that fucking simple. You shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to get the level of goods and services you know you deserve. Always remember, you’re the one with the money. You’re the one in control. They need you more than you need them. And with shit the way it is now, with businesses struggling for customers, you have more power than you can imagine. If one company ain’t givin’ you what you want the way you want it, there’s plenty more out there that’d be more than happy to.

Not much of shit on the tv front. I’m mainly watching documentaries now, like Banned from the Bible and next week’s Seven Deadly Sins (I’ll just catch the marathon next Sunday rather than watch them day to day). I don’t believe in god at all but I’ll be the first one to admit that as a work of fiction, the bible and all of its canon is pretty interesting stuff. I’ve learned that the antichrist will unite the world under one government and the false prophet beast will do the same for religion. These are signs of the end of the world. And what’s wrong with that? When I saw that on tv, I was like, “So that’s it, huh?” Meant to me that all these competing religions don’t wanna fall into obscurity so when theirs doesn’t exist anymore, it really would be the end of their world. Where I stand isn’t a secret to anyone. I want one world government. A true united nations. Like a coalition. One law that applies everywhere. One world currency. One world culture. One world language. True unification, true paradise, true utopia. And the only way to achieve it is to unite as one.

Politics and religion are what keeps everything divided. Why does the world have to end when anyone with a brain can see that true prosperity can only happen when we all share the same belief? Not saying that people won’t have their individuality and that there won’t be subcultures cuz there certainly will be. And that’s what makes the world great. But wouldn’t it be nice to be able to just pack up your shit and just go to, let’s say, Italy whenever you want? Wouldn’t it be nice if the currency you use now would be just as accepted in Chile as anyplace else on Earth? Wouldn’t it be nice to travel anywhere on the planet and be able to communicate without language barriers? To be able to have the same access to media and entertainment produced in one place and enjoy it just as much as the people of that homeland? Wouldn’t these examples be a wonderful thing to enjoy in the generations to come? I think so and I believe that it could happen in my lifetime and that’s what keeps me going. I’ve got many, many decades of life left if I stay on track (excluding the obvious that I could die at any millisecond). I’d love to see these things become a reality. And they could. Nothing is impossible.

Punisher War Zone was a complete flop. Who didn’t see that coming? Until these idiots start making realistic comic book movies, they’ll just keep on flopping. The Dark Knight set the bar high and hopefully that’s the bar that studios aspire to reach or exceed. Other than Slumdog, the only movie I’m looking forward to is The Wrestler. I really and truly hope I’m not disappointed. Last thing I wanna see is a stereotype movie. I’ve heard this movie shows the industry authentically for what it really is and doesn’t treat it or the fans like morons. That’s good. It’s gonna be playing here on 1/16/2009. The next day there’s an indy show in town. A few days later is the Estelle concert. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Kinda doubt anyone would switch shifts with me for those days since I work graveyard now. And I only got so many personal days to use in a year. Goddammit!!! Why they gotta put so much good shit so close to each other? Fuck!

The theme park plan this year is to do all the Disney parks and that means buying a non-expiring hopper ticket that includes the 4 parks, the water parks, and the smaller venues like DisneyQuest and Wide World of Sports. That ticket, via Florida resident discount from AAA, is gonna cost a little over 2 c-notes which is pretty damn cheap. Then there’s Adventure Island and Cirque du Soleil. Pretty ambitious but at least the hopper ticket doesn’t expire so it can be done. I called Universal about the Blue Man Group since AAA has $44 tix (a damn good deal) and they told me the show is pretty much the same every time. It doesn’t change. That’s why I’m opting in for Cirque this year. Just waiting on a good deal to come through.

Tomorrow morn is a big day: 4-point home inspection. I’m gonna be there with my realtor for the whole duration to see what the inspector sees, taking notes, and gaining knowledge. My (hopefully future) home was built in 1959 but is very well taken care of. There are 3 fruit trees, a regular tree in the front yard and a big bush too. If everything checks out, I want ‘em all removed. I don’t wanna rake no leaves and I don’t want places for criminals to hide. Oh, you better believe that’s how smart criminals get in your house. Just hide out in the bushes, you open your door or window or garage, they slip in non-forcefully since no one can see ‘em and it’s a done deal. Rape or kill your ass or beat the shit out of you or sodomize you or rob your house with ease. It ain’t rocket science. That’s just one reason I don’t want landscaping in my yard. The other is that I plan on expanding the home and don’t want no trees and shit in my way. But all that vision won’t mean jack if the home don’t pass inspection.

The seller accepted the contract offer so now it’s pending meaning no one else can try to buy it. I put down half of my down payment ($500) to take it off the market and to qualify for the down payment assistance. I’m using the Orange County SHIP program and my house qualifies for 30 gs but the house has to be outside of city limits and has to have had at least 5 gs worth of what they call ‘substantial rehab’ meaning the seller has to have verifiably spent that amount making repairs, upgrades, or whatever to the home itself. There’s other shit necessary to qualify for that but that’s just the basics. In my case, visually, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the house since it was being regularly maintained while it was on the market.

It had some really old fashioned space heaters embedded in the living area walls and bathrooms. And the kitchen was cramped but nothing that wasn’t livable or couldn’t be fixed later when I apply my vision to the home. The electrical outlets weren’t grounded either so I’m thinking that’s gonna be one of the things the inspector may see and recommend having wire work done in addition to replacing the outlets. The a/c is new as well as the bathrooms and some of the plumbing. So really, if it turns out the wire work is the only thing that really needs immediate attention, that’d leave funds for other things like new windows, flooring, etc. As long as it totals up to 5 gs. The roof looked good but you never know. The only thing eating me up is that he’ll find something so bad that the house isn’t worth moving into or buying or that whatever it may be will swallow up the whole 5 gs. I’m just hoping everything checks out beneath the surface cuz everything on the surface is all good already and can become even better.

If all goes well, I’ll be paying a mortgage of 35 gs, probably around a 5% interest rate (maybe just a little tiny bit more), and taxes of about $220 a year. I have no idea what the insurance will be yet. The seller agreed to give me a 1 year home warranty which was awesome. Plus all the appliances were included (oven, fridge, w/d) and those were all practically new. The bathrooms were redone and are pretty new too. There’s windows on every corner of the house which has more than adequate square footage and a big yard. Clean and quiet area, quick and easy access to everything, nice front view, and plenty of room for all my shit. I’m still debating on whether to rent the extra room out. As cheap as the house is, it wouldn’t be necessary but hey, the quicker it’s paid off, the better. It’ll turn out to be a pretty sweet deal if things go the way I hope they go. I’ll chime in here with the results.