Mike's "I hate blogs" blog

#1 is self explanatory

#2 occured when I tried to change my contribution levels on Fidelity's automated 401k system. After being told that a 0% contribution is allowed by my company and instruted by Fidelity itself to press zero to opt out, the resultant message was "Sorry, but (pause) zero (pause) percent (pause) is not allowed. Please try again." That in itself was annoying enough, but not nearly as much as having the dozen funds my contribution is divested among read to me over and over again. Argh. Damn you!

That last one was the most biting, as after an exhaustive search of the local malls, strip malls and the seedy underbelly of mom & pop shops in Cary, I finally located an establishment which sells more than just beer. The proximity to the Bible Belt seems to extend some form of influence on these establishments, as the only place to buy liquor in this area is the “ABC” stores (their real name, really). Now, this is confusing to me as such a primordial combination of letters seems to imply that the basic building block of life is alcohol. Far for it be for me to disagree and instead strongly support this statement, but one would think that if you’re going to hide your fire water from the gullible flock, you’d want to name the stores something like “Devil’s Revenge” or “Forfeit all hope ye who enter here, except the non-believers who are already dead inside.” Yet I digress. So there I stand, product and credit card at the ready, when the kindly gentleman at the counter informs me that my method of payment is not working for some reason. Now mind you, I left Chicago two weeks ago today. I’ve bought fuel, food, shirts, alpacas and the occasional anti-biotic across 7 states and not a peep from Citibank. Yet one trip to the ‘ABC’ and bam, my card is frozen.