Oh, how times have changed...

This weekend I saw Die Hard, which I haven't seen in awhile. I love me some John McClane, but only in the early series...I wasn't impressed with Die Hard 4.

What cracked me up is how different today's work environment is from the 80s.
Here's how I figure work life went:
Neanderthals to pre-WW1: it was all dudes, and they ran the show
WW1 and WW2: women were stuck working out of necessity, not 'cause they had to prove anything
1950s: men took their pants back and women (in their infinite wisdom, which I wish stayed this way) were like "eff the workforce, if I gotta cook for you mofos then I'm going to do it on my terms...wearing a polka-dot dress and using my new Maytag oven"

1960s and 1970s: birth control pills REALLY take off, women are so high on drugs they think entering the work force is a GOOD idea (and so is the birth of the 2-income society. Just effing fabulous).

1980s: with the exception of coke, women are pretty much sober but realizing that if they're gonna be in the workforce, they want to be at the TOP of the workforce...if that means dressing like a dude, so be it.

1990s: dropped the coke, less shoulder pads, bright colors a la In Living Color Fly Girls, while the birth of the Sensitive New Age Guy emerges

2000: we all just blend into the same working drones

So back to Die Hard, which obviously took place in the 80s. The scene is some 1980-something holiday party. The Hot Chicks of the office were blond. The Smart Chicks of the office were brunettes with big massive glasses and bad perms. Both Hot Chicks and Smart Chicks wore scrunchies even if they wore suits. Men snorted coke on the job. This was pre-sexual harassment era, so people were free to express themselves through groping and desktop "activities". Everyone looked 'roided out thanks to massive shoulder pads. You could actually SMOKE in the office.

Did no one back then think ANY of this was just a LITTLE BIT EFFED UP?!


Even though I've seen the movie a trillion times, I completely missed this wonderful gem of a scene:
Hans: The following people are to be released from their captors : In Northern Ireland, the seven members of the New Provo Front. In Canada, the five imprisoned leaders of Liberte de Quebec... In Sri Lanka, the nine members of the Asian Dawn movement...
Karl: [mouthing silently] Asian Dawn?
Hans: [covers the radio] I read about them in Time magazine.

Alright, enough man...err, woman-love for John McClane...

Damn you spam, damn you

I swear, whoever created spam should be shot. No wait, they should be forced to go through and personally be responsible for DELETING the spam that exists in my inbox....mutha effa.

So I have a bunch of random email accounts: yahoo, gmail, canada.com, hotmail, whatever...i have two yahoo accounts, one of them I used to use on occasion 10 years ago but now the only reason I even have it is 'cause it's my login for Amazon (that's where I was registered when I got married, and i've been too lazy to sync up that accuont with my regular yahoo email).

ANYWAY it's pretty much all spam, which on occasion I try to wipe out. Well I decided it's time to bring back that email account, and I'm going through all 3000 spam messages...problem is, I needed to filter out the ones from Amazon (that leaves Amazon.com, "auto-confirm@amazon.com", and the sneak peek emails i get from Cirque du Soleil)...

you'd think I'd be able to just select ALL and click SPAM, right? Sadly, no...yahoo email has some bug where it'll ask "are you sure you want to set all the mail to spam", if you select YES then nothing happens. So i'm trying to go through and highlight them all (using the new Yahoo Email format, where it looks like Outlook), but i'm on a crazy slow computer and the past HOUR has been spent trying to highlight a bunch, then click SPAM...

The slow computer is part of the massive computer problems we had way back when (see entry here)...it's actually gotten worse. Since I last posted, the "good" desktop PC's hard drive completely stopped spinning. So now i'm back on the crappy slow desktop PC, until I can either get an external hard drive or external CD burner to back up the personal info...after all the hard drive issues, i really want to get an external burner but those suckers aren't cheap (and i really don't feel like installing an internal burner onto this crappy PC only to later have to remove it and install it on the good PC).

Computer DRAAA-MAAAA...

Speaking of drama, some people make fun of me 'cause i'm in a book club. Y'all can suck my balls, at least I'm reading for God's sakes. Thank the lord for Meetup. Anyway, a whole bunch of stuff went DOWN...oh yes, people in the book club were ready to rumble. In the grand scheme it was all just chick drama, but it proves a few things:
1. Women are naturally drawn to drama. There's no effing WAY a guy's book club would ever have had this much drama. (Then again, no dude would join a male-only book club).
2. Women will bitch about ANYTHING.
3. Large gatherings of women creates nothing more than a clusterf*ck (i hate that word, but i can't think of a better way to describe it).

I wouldn't change items 1 through 3 for anything...

It's been awhile

I vowed to write more often and I haven't written in awhile. Funny how your brain goes into crazy overdrive after you give your 2 weeks notice. Friday was my last day, it was pretty emotional and the happy hour after was fantastic (okay, i'm biased since i was drunk as hell).

I sorta feel like I just got out of a relationship. One of those "oh, it's me not you" types. I love the people, but...it just wasn't for me. Not anymore. I'm not the same person as I was at the start of that relationship, and I've felt for awhile like we've grown apart. Still, I feel a little cranky like one feels after a breakup, like "oh, what could have been"...sigh.

In other news, I'm watching the red carpet...PLEASE Jon Stewart, be better than the red carpet crap...although dumbass actors didn't find Jon funny last time...I swear, Hollywood is the LEAST hip place on the planet. It's like you have to be a certified tool in order to make it as an A-lister. That excludes Steve Carrell and George Clooney, who seem pretty straight up.

Wow, Miley Cyrus needs someone to razor down her effing teeth, she looks like she's going to eat Ryan Seacrest.

Jennifer Garner irritates me to no end, but DAYAM she looks great.

It makes me feel good that Jessica Alba looks forgettable. Granted she looks better than anyone ever will pregnant, but still.

Heidi Klum looks so hot, I'd bone her.

I want Xenu to come down and stomp on John Travolta. Him and Kelly Preston irritate the crap out of me, she was digging for compliments when Ryan Seacrest said her dress was "road signal yellow" (or something like that) and she asked "Does that mean I can stop traffic?"...yeah honey that would work if you're 20, not when you're...well at least as old as Xenu.

Ohhhhh Faye Dunaway, she looks like a knockout for an older broad. See Kelly Preston, you need to see how Faye does it...Faye looks like she's ready for a romp in the back of a limo.

Letter to the Editor

How much damage could $22 do to your credit rating?
I had a score of like 760, and it brought me down to like 500-something.

It makes a HUGE difference, my score is more sensitive than others because i'm already being dinged for only having a few years of credit history. Fortunately my score went back up with teh other credit bureaus after a few years, except for Experian.

It made enough of a difference that I couldn't get on the home loan when we refinanced...hence why i had to get it back in shape for the Big Refinance 2009.

Bryan: i owe you an email still, i know!

I don't live in an igloo or eat blubber, or own a dogsled....

I was surfing the web and was reminded of an old Molson's commercial:


Their marketing is sheer genius, I don't think they ever made a bad commercial. They made me want to drink beer and I don't even LIKE beer. You can't get a better tagline (for canadians) than "I AM CANADIAN"...and they've single-handedly managed to corner the beer market for Canada Day (the number on thing Americans do on July 4th is BBQ and watch fireworks. Canadians...drink and watch fireworks. No time to eat. No one said we were a civilized society.)

I really should have bought that lottery ticket yesterday. Around 1am I couldn't stand Kraig's snoring so I went down to the couch to sleep there, only to realize I was pretty awake because I had crashed at 6pm for a super long nap. Lo and behold, after watching some random stuff (and the rest of Cashmere Mafia which I should be shot in the head for enjoying), I discover that Ryan Reynolds is on Conan.

Sadly, he wasn't THAT funny like he usually is in stuff...but funny enough. And i was so tired i didn't care what he had to say.

Dammit really should have bought a lottery ticket.

Deux Semaines et autres histoires fabuleux

I don't like posting job stuff up on my blog but since this is pretty major I might as well alert the masses...I gave my 2 weeks notice on Monday. I won't list the new job details here, but it's in Irvine and i'm gonna be a project manager...for a totally different industry. I'm pretty freaked, tech writing I could go anywhere and figure the stuff out pretty quickly, but this is a brand new world for me. Eep.

Anyway, that was one of my "goals" for January/February, which thus also means that I've sort of put my other monthly goals on the side 'cause seriously, interviewing wipes you out. All that smiling and being peppy and acting like you're the most fabulous person on earth...it's like your own Miss America pageant. You dont' think of the TRUE answer to give, you think of the RIGHT answer to give, what they want to hear, all while looking flawless and flashing yer teeth.

Interviewing results in a very cranky Sabina. I feel like I need to get extra bitchyness out of my system to even things out.

In other news, check out the very bottom of the page...yes, the year's goal of 15K paid down on the home equity loan is almost down by half...and it's only February. The only reason I was able to pull that off was 'cause a CRAPPY CD i got a few years ago (seriously, the rate was only like 3%) expired, and i hauled ass yesterday to the bank to make sure they didn't roll it over into another crappy CD. Feelin' good.

To top it all off, I've been griping for years now about one dumbass sorta-error on my credit report...a stupid $22 water bill...recap: I paid my utilities with my rent...and they claim they didn't get the payment, i tried to get a hold of my old apartment complex to get them to have my back. Turns out, it got bought out and underwent a condo conversion, no one anywhere had any record I existed or lived there. So, even though i eventually paid it as soon as I found out about it (although i'm sure i already DID pay it, damn apartment people), it's been a huge ding on my credit score ever since. Other than that, my score is flawless...the only thing stopping it from being 850 is that I don't have a huge credit history in the US.

ANYWAY...i've tried disputing it and it's gotten me nowhere...well 2 months ago I did my usual "hmmm wonder what's up in my credit score report these days" and bought my reports again...and only one of the three bureaus still shows that damn alleged delinquent bill. I decided to attempt to put the smackdown again and filed a dispute. Those mother effers don't make it easy, they only give you like EIGHTY characters to state your claim. That gave me one whole sentence to pretty much say "The original bill was paid through my rent cant get a hold of them for proof" or something retarded like that.

Well, long story short: I won! Finally! Experian saw in my favor. Oh happy day! That's been a pain in my ass for years.

Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket.

Another letter to the editor

Refinance Your Loan with the damn bank or lender...or whoever the f it is.

I think you have the (excuse me) balls to do this. And it works.
But WTH you can't lose.
Banks right now, and lenders, DO NOT want any more property. They can't handle it.
You walk in, get past the desk people and say you need to talk to someone with authority. Cry and tell them you are about to let the bank have your f-n house if they don't sit down and do some dickerin with you.
Take a picture of your home, tell them your ready to leave it with them and start all over.
Tell them you want some relief from this f-n mistake, that your upside down 70k or whatever and have to have some interest relief. Tell them your husband is against it, but you will leave him too. (This is a lie)
Walk in with a foreclosure sign, leave the picture with your phone number on the desk of the person you are talking to, and tell them you did not come to debate, you came to share your desperation and get some relief one way or another.
I gurantee you he will call you on your cell phone before you get home and say..let's talk. We don''t want your house.
(The further under water you are, the better it is for your bargaining power.)

Ummm yeah the flaw in your logic is that to do something crazy drastic i'd have to miss at least a single home payment...which I will never do.

And it's not like Countrywide doesn't have my income statements...we CAN afford our payments.

I also dont' want to get stuck in another crappy loan situation, which is exactly what people with bad credit (i.e. missed home payments) and foreclosures are getting in order to keep their homes and loans.

I have good credit.
I can afford my home...now...
My adjustable rate expires beginning 2010.
If i didn't have an interest-only loan i'd still be stuck paying principal, so that's what i'm doing now.
I'm not going to see if they'll call my bluff if I start missing payments (which would be necessary in your scenario for them to believe i'm in dire straits), scream i'm going to foreclose, then force them to give me another bizarro loan created only because of this crazy market.
People just need to hurry up and foreclose, so that other people can buy crazy cheap, and then things will even out. It's this slow awful death that's ruining things.
I'm not upside down in anything yet...i'm not selling, i'm just hoping to make it easier to refinance.

I would sooner beg my aging parents for money AND my mother in law before I ever miss a home payment.

I posted this here instead of in the comments section 'cause I started to write so much I figured it deserved a blog entry :)

Letter to the Editor

So with all the rate cuts there is no way you & Kraig could refinance into a better loan situation?

Nope, that's why I have to pay down my HELOC loan asap...our loan-to-home value is crappy (at least before it had gone up a little bit, the last home that sold with roughly the same floor layout was $70K less than what we paid). So...no refinancing and locking in a rate until I pay down the home loan. I wish I could refinance! I wouldn't have that damn ticker at the bottom of the page.

So the goal isn't to get into a "better" loan situation...i just want ANY loan situation that would be a fixed rate, which isn't going to happen at all with the current snapshot of our mortgage.

They're alot more strict about giving out refinanced loans...Carrie i'm sure can attest to that (she still had to jump through hoops and her home didn't go down at all and she's got perfect credit).

I just need to win the effing lottery.

HELOC paydown status

Yee haw! Check out the very bottom of this blog...over 1/3rd of teh paydown goal completed! Plus I realized that I also need to start saving up well in advance for our property taxes (trying to scramble and pay off a $6000 property tax bill last minute is no easy task!) so there's 1/6th of that is put aside now as well.

Damn you crappy housing market...I will not go down without a fight.

Movie Review: Cloverfield

Today I saw Cloverfield. You know, the movie that had a big buzz because no one knew anything about it.



This should be easy. I couldn't stand it.

NOT because it wasn't entertaining...it was very entertaining, very different, great script.

I couldn't stand it because it was filmed in handy-cam format, a la Blair Witch. I avoided Blair Witch for this very reason...I get motion sickness pretty easily, and this movie was pretty brutal for it. The ENTIRE movie is filmed this way. The videographer is either drunk at a party or running for his life, both of which make for seriously shaky visuals.

If you have a strong stomach, then it was very good...there's not really an ending (Kraig and I differ on that. He thinks there is because there's a resolution between the love interest storyline...uh to me I need to know wtf happens with the bizarro monster plotline.)

Fortunately the theater was empty so I was able to push some of the armrests up and lay on my side while we watched it, otherwise there would have been a nasty mess on AMC's floor.

I love you YouTube

I hate 99.999999999999999999999999999999999% of what's out there on YouTube, but praise the person who posted this of Sarah Silverman singing...well you decide. Every time I see it I start busting up.

Damn damn damn DAYAM

This guy could make a movie about putting forks in one's eye and I'd still watch it.



Hmmm actually then again that sounds like a funny movie concept.

Heath...

So Marlene asked me why id idn't blog about Heath Ledger...two reasons:
1. I already got all my emailing and freaking out done that day, i didn't really have anything to comment on.
2. I don't like the crap about "oh there were pills by his bed" (well no kidding, Kraig takes medication for his cholesterol before bed isn't that front page news?!) and "he was probably heartbroken over his separation from Michelle Williams" (really? He was dating Gemma Ward...i think a 28 year old hollywood actor can get over an ex girlfriend pretty easily)...

So Anderson Cooper summarized pretty much what I was thinking:
“For the last two nights we have reported on actor Heath Ledger. His shocking death is clearly a story a lot of people are interested in, but tonight we will not be reporting more on it. The truth is there is not really anything new to report.

The full results of the various tests done on Mr. Ledger will not be ready for perhaps a few weeks and there is very little new information. I have no doubt other networks will spend a lot of time tonight discussing his death and the various rumors about what might have caused it, but I am not a fan of speculation, so unless there is something really new to discuss we probably won’t be covering it anymore anytime soon.”

Letter to the editor

Happy New Year, Sabina
I check your post now and then to catch up on life on the West Coast.

I had a pretty sorry post the last time I wrote WTF I felt bad and took it out on you. Sorry.

I hope you vote for Obama and not Hillary, or Romney and not McCain.

I wonder if you have ever heard of a pretty famous church near you...called Saddleback. I think they did something recently for all the folks during the fire...and I think Hillary spoke there, too. Do you know anything about Saddleback?

First off, this makes me an a-hole for ranting back. Please folks, don't apologize for the stuff you write to me...it's a free country. Hmmm, but it IS my blog. Ahhh well, don't apologize. If I don't like you, I'll just create a website dedicated to what a douche you are. So far that hasn't happened yet, so it's all good.

Yes, Saddleback is nearby...don't know much about it though...

Dirty Nasty

Well since everyone is all depressed over Heath, i figure this should cheer people up.






I remember scoping out Simon Rex back when he was a model...i dig superhot people who can make fun of themselves.

And Nick Swardson may very well be one of the funniest people alive.

A+ service: View Cleaners

So everyone on the planet knows my fiasco with the AWFUL dry cleaners that ruined my White House Black Market dress...in case you don't, just know that you should boycott with every bone on your body:

Dry Clean Express
23842 El Toro Road, Unit C, Lake Forest CA 92630
949-457-1800

I mean, come ON...one employee flat out said to me "what do I know about fabrics? I'm a guy!"...to which my reply was: "You're a DRY CLEANER...you're supposed to know fabrics!" and he had no reply.

Anyway, I should have taken it to my USUAL spot...View Cleaners in Ladera...I meant to take my other dress there but it's not like i drive to ladera all the time and on Saturdays I always forget, then Sundays they're closed...

I dropped off my NEW White House Black Market dress (courtesy of my wonderful girlfriends who were sick of listening to me bitch about the old dress that got ruined lol) and the lady was SO nice, and was like "of course we inspect the dress when it comes in...if it were damaged we wouldn't even bother"...EXACTLY! And then I just called to confirm it was ready and with a pleasant voice she was like "yep, it's ready one item for pickup!"...

At the other place, their idiot employee Fidel would have been like "i don't know...maybe...i dont' know...i'll call you back"...incompetence is not acceptable.

Anyway, I just wanted to give props where props is due!

(knowing my luck i'll pick it up and it'll get damaged...dammit.)

Letter to the Editor

I'm not sure I agree with that, the term customers isn't mutually exclusive to either Sellers or Buyers, they are both customers of eBay.

I disagree. A customer is someone who's dishing out the dough...you, as a buyer, don't spend a dime to ebay. Now I do think Ebay has a responsibility to ensure that their sellers are legit, and that the items are legit, but the "true" customer is not the bidder but the seller.

When you purchase something on ebay, ebay is not responsible for the item itself, for shipping it, for making sure you're happy. That's the seller. The bidder can be considered Paypal's customer, sure, but basically Ebay's interest in keeping bidders happy is because they need to keep things legal and kosher in order to make their marketplace not look like some underground crack den.

I used to adore ebay, but because of all the bad seeds out there the whole thing is just jacked. I used to use Yahoo Auctions back in the day, but that caved when Ebay became uber powerful. I will probalby always use Ebay until there's another alternative...but I don't have the same "fun" as I used to.

Ebay enjoys taking money from the sellers and then stepping back and only involving itself when necessary (that excludes Paypal, which I actually have had very good experiences when it comes to getting effed over with my money...but i attribute it to their legal team and that paypal wasn't owned by Ebay initially). One prime example is how it's being sued by Tiffanys...

Ebay takes a stance that its not responsible for fake items on ebay...well Tiffanys disagreed and discovered that 75% of the items on ebay listed as Tiffanys jewelry is fake. Ebay claims it's just a forum...but it's NOT just a forum. They make money off the fake stuff too...the more fake stuff, the more ebay makes.

I think I lost alot of respect for them when they purchased Skype...NOT because they needed it, but because Google wanted it and if Google wants it, then Ebay HAS to have it (so an insider told me at the time). I just really question the people running the show.

/soapbox rant.

Movie Review: Strangers with Candy

Before I begin the review, I must note that I've never seen the original tv show nor did I even know there WAS a tv show.

Strangers With Candy...how can I describe this bizarro movie? Well let me start by saying it's got Amy Sedaris and Stephen Colbert, the two people everyone should have in your life.


The gist is a super odd nutty ex-convict returns home only to find her mom died, her dad remarried, he's in a coma, her stepmother has the family butcher over for dinner all the time. Her dad's doctor suggests that if Jerry (Amy Sedaris) can un-do her years of crime/suffering then her dad will awake from his coma.

She goes back to high school and decides that if she can win the science fair, she can get her dad out of his coma.

I can't begin to explain how hard I laughed during this movie. I mean, I actually FRIGHTENED myself with how much I laughed. Then again, that was the first half...the second half, Kraig and Chris came home and that sorta ruined my comedy mojo.

There's alot of little hidden jokes in this movie...during one scene with kids in a science class, I realize in the way back corner of the wall the teacher (religious nut Chuck Noblet played by Stephen Colbert) is the periodic table of the elements re-arranged to form a cross. LOVE IT!

Plus this line alone had tears pouring down my face:
Geoffrey Jellineck: You pushed me away!
Chuck Noblet: I wasn't pushing you away, I was pulling me toward myself.

If you have an effed up sense of humor, you will absolutely adore this movie. Then again, since I didn't know anything about it my standards were pretty low, but for a clearly low-budget movie, it was brilliant.

The cast is pretty tightly linked...Amy Sedaris was on Sex and the City, as was obviously Sarah Jessica Parker, who's married to Matthew Broderick...Kristin Johnston also played a small role on Sex and the City...

The true gem of the movie is Principal Blackman. I have no idea who the actor is, but he does a phenomenal job.
Principal Blackman: Why would I doctor the books to improve the overall test scores of the student body just so I could collect bonus funds from the state which I willfully misappropriated in order to pay off large gambling debts? It just doesn't add up!

Two very enthusiastic thumbs up!

Ebay Discussion

Just perusing the ebay seller board (I figure, I've sold enough stuff and i sell more than I buy, i deserve to provide my input...i've been on ebay since 1999), someone posted this:

Well, Ebay has forgotten who its customers are. We, the sellers, are Ebay's customers. But they protect buyers (who are our customers, not theirs) over sellers (their customers) almost every time. Their business model depends on extracting fees from sellers -- even from a buyer's scam -- and they really seem to have no interest in protecting this community or the sellers who make it up.

Which is absolutely true.

Countrywide gets boned by BoA!

Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
This news totally shocked me.

Most of my banking is done through Bank of America...and my home loan is through Countrywide. So you'd think I'd be cool with this, but I'm not...I like BoA because they're everywhere (to canadian folks: if you remember in our OAC economics class they taught us that anyone can open a bank in the US, it's not like in Canada where there's just like 5 banks and thats it other than credit unions...so you could have a bank with only like 2 locations) and because their online bill paying is absolutely fantastic.

That being said, i also can't stand BoA for the same reason I can't stand 24 Hour Fitness: they're the McDonald's of Banks. I would never want my home loan through them.

Well, I guess COuntrywide had to bend over and take one for the team. The article says:
Bank of America said it initially plans to operate Countrywide separately under the Countrywide brand, with integration occurring no sooner than 2009.

I just need them to not f*ck around with Countrywide too much till the end of 2009 when I have to refinance. That's all I ask. I love my loan dude (Gina's ex husband), I really like the communication, etc...please please PLEASE don't eff me over....

In other news: TGIF!