Friday, December 04, 2009

Continuing stuff continued

So now I have a Wii which rhymes with squee which I'm sure is no coincidence.

Last night I did my required online bankruptcy education which is boring and generally useless except that the credit company confirmed what the bunny lawyer said, which is that using a credit company to try to manage debt is usually a bad idea and will further reduce your credit rating. I say useless because, instead of dealing with modern reality, it reinforces all the old assumptions such as creditors are eager to work with you and will not send a bill to a collections agency if you agree to make payments and uphold your end of the bargain. The 2005 law requires that you spend two hours reading this drivel, which is hard to do in over 30 minutes if English is one of your first three languages and you have an IQ rated higher than "artichoke". In order to do the mandatory 115 minutes (you need a legal degree to understand how that equates to two hours), I read a chapter, took a test, played some Wii Sports, then repeated until they took my $50 and said I've now learned how to stop spending my money on worthless crap.

If you ever have to endure this form of education, the quizzes are easy to answer if you ignore common sense and just think fluffy clouds and rainbows and puppy kisses and all that shit. For example, budgets are not based on an accurate assessment of your income and expenses, they are based on your goals. Unfortunately, I'm not making that up. They also claim that everyone's take-home pay is about 80% of their gross pay after deductions (mine is actually about 65%). I think if anyone seriously tried to use their "education" as the basis for their finances, they would quickly and cheerfully become homeless.

But it's Friday and I have a weekend of Wii exercising ahead of me, so I'll close with a J-bunny.

Bunny!

Miina Yoshihara, age 22 - for all you dumb rednecks who are going to claim she looks twelve.

Quick cultural note - I don't know why they named it the Wii since the wi (pronounced "we") sound doesn't naturally occur in Japanese.

7 comments:

Avitable said...

Seems like, for a little while, everything's coming up Grant.

Robin said...

Glad things are working themselves out for you.

Jay said...

Glad you are now an expert on matters of credit. I think I like their idea of net pay being 80% of the gross better than reality. I shall now accept that as my new reality.

Another 22 year old? Damn, you prefer the old ones. ;-)

Unknown said...

I guess it's called gross salary because the average worker is grossly underpaid.

Grant said...

Avitable - other than the bunny shortage, things are going well.

Robin - me too.

Jay - I wonder if my debt education certificate now allows me to report my take-home pay as being 80% of my gross.

SJ - I think the other thing is called net pay because American prudishness wouldn't go for "Fuck Me In The Ass" as a payment category on their pay stubs.

Unknown said...

The name Wii was a marketing thing because they didn't want it to sound like the other systems. I think it's a stupid name but it's fun to play. but I like most of may gaming done in the sitting or lying down position. I work out and like to veg out with my video games. But I can understand those who want the physical experience.

she doesn't look 12 to me. Very nice.

Grant said...

Ricardo - I just wonder what they call it in Japan. They might call it Wii just because it would sound catchy due to not being a normal Japanese sound.