My first complaint about my bank

Normally I am 100% in love with Bank of America. Well...at least as much as one can be in love with their bank anyways. With that said they have finally done something I find to be rather dumb.

I never had a credit card until last year. I always avoided them. I knew a great many people who racked up tons of credit card debt, and created large size holes they had to climb out of. In the interest of not being down said hole I never got one.

Well a bit over a year ago I decided to cave in and finally get one for emergency and what not. I decided to go with Bank of America because they already had my savings and checking accounts. Also I love their online banking. Well since I had never established decent credit they forced me to get a secure card. Fine no worries, I can accept that. So I spent a year on a secure card doing whatever I wanted with it and pay it off every month.

The year is up and I am informed that I am no longer required to have a secured card, and that I will be getting my money back. Sweet action is my thought. So I check my checking account balance to see if the money is there (it's not). I then glance at my credit card balance to see if they have applied it there (they have not). I decided that maybe it's just going to take a few days. Well two weeks have now gone by. I ponder if a banking error has occurred.

I decided to call up the ole Bank of America and find out what's going on. What happens next was a bit amazing. It seems that Bank of America mailed me a check, and that's why it was taking so long. Here's my question, if I am already a checking account holder (and savings account holder) with you, why in the hell would you mail me a check? They have the technology to just move money in b/w accounts. I know this b/c I use it. The kind person on the phone tells me that if I had called them up and said I would have prefered a direct transfer, they could have just done that. However, since I didn't call they didn't know. To which I said, why would I ever assume you wouldn't just do that? To which he responded, "That's a good question and I don't know."

Bank of America, you are normally for the win. This time though, you are for the fail.

I Love My State...

Look, I am the guy who has given HEAVY consideration to getting three stars tattooed on his body in the shape of a pyramid, b/c I love this state oh so very much. However, I don't think this survey holds a lick of water.

A Telling Stat

"The AL MVP Award has been won by a first baseman 15 times. No other position has had as many MVP winners. Right fielders are next with 22, 11 in each league."

I want to be very clear about this, Albert Pujols was CLEARLY the MVP. Hanley Rameriz was the only other player I even considered. Now please read on.

I lifted that from the offical BBWRA....err BBWAA* website. I think this may show a pattern that after all these years that voters are still awarding hitting stats over defense, or maybe I just have an axe to grind. Your call.

*Baseball Writers Association of America

A Truce

I have been thinking a good bit about marketing lately and I have come to realization, while the iDon't and the "There's a map for that campaigns" coming out of Verizon have been fun, they don' do a good job of selling to the right market. Look 16 year old kids are going to buy the iPhone. It makes to much sense for them. Who need to flag down are the tech nerds and the business users. That is how you truly compete. Once you have all of those people in your hip pocket, you go after the other companies market. First build your own then steal theirs. Rinse repeat.

It all comes back around

Note: I would like to see some of my more graphic design oriented friends tackle this topic in a more in depth manner*, but I have been pondering how aesthetics move in cycles.

When the iPhone first came out, I was blown away by how pretty it is. All those beautiful rounded edges. How it's so damn minimal. Just the one button on the front. It was so sleek and clean. It was truly something to behold. So what happened? Everyone ripped off that look**.

Now the Droid is coming out friday***, and the design of this phone (while similar to the iPhone) is kind of a throw back. I have seen all kinds of people talk about how the Droid isn't "sexy". I have no idea when we decided inanimate objects that are suppose to be utilitarian became "sexy", but it seems that it happened. Well maybe it's my clear (and rampant fanboydom) but I can't help but enjoy how the Droid looks. I love it's through back to more rigid and boxy shape. It doesn't look like every other phone, with their smooth and clean lines. It's rigid and terse. It looks like technology use to look like.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing? My bet is that people will start ripping off this look and my pendulum will swing back the other way.


*I'm looking at you David and Patrick

**No blame here. If I was running a company, I would have done the same.

***I promise to stop talking about this damn phone soon.

A Thought For The Weekend.

Over the course of the last year or so I have really started to take my bike riding a bit more serious. I don't have any plans to race or anything of that ilk, but I am spending a good amount of time on top of a bicycle lately. It has gotten to the point that I don't like riding my road bike when I am out with friends, because I think it's over kill. I mean lets not kid ourselves, Memphis is a very flat town. You don't really have to have a ton of gears to get around.

These thoughts and various other motivations* are leading me down a path to get a second bike. Now I am certain the new bike will be a single speed. there is no doubt about that at all. However the only question left is whether or not it will be a fixed gear. I have friends on both sides of this, but everyday I lean more and more towards a single speed. I don't really see the point in fix gears. I mean there cool, but I don't really see them as all that practical. If I was to get into doing tricks and such mayhaps, but I don't really see that happening either.

Is there something I am missing as to why fix gear bikes are so cool? Is it because you can run them without traditional brakes thus creating a much cleaner looking headset? If so I get that, but I just don't think it's worth it. I dunno maybe I am over thinking this whole thing.


*Frankly I just love pretty bikes. What Can I say.

Random Thought

Is Aaron Eckhart the new Matthew Modine?