Madness In My Method

spiffikins brought up credit card surcharges, and I wanted to address it publicly, rather than in just a comment.

I once read that the merchant agreement signed with the credit card company prevents the business from passing on the fees/surcharges and also prevents the business from setting minimums for a credit card purchase. Then again, that was probably 10+ years ago when I read that. The idea is/was that the holder of the credit card should reap the rewards and have an excuse to continue to use the card rather than be deterred by the business offering the credit card option. Ultimately, the credit card company wants you to continue using your card and hopefully not pay off your bill each month so they can earn their pound of flesh from the interest they charge you, since the merchant fees just cover the cost of processing and/or equipment rental. If I have a 1% cash back card, but the business charges 1.5%-4% in fees, it will deter me, the credit card holder, from using it as I have not gained any benefit from that usage and would be better off paying in cash.

Nowadays, it depends on the state law rather than the merchant agreement. In Texas, where I'm at, it's illegal (except for municipal transactions and, also quite notably, private schools, which just reminds me that I live in the Texas-sized Belt Buckle of the Bible Belt), but that doesn't stop businesses from trying or from labeling it something else to get away with it ("convenience fees" are still allowable so long as there's a non-convenience-fee payment option, such as cash). Also, if you dig into the code that makes it illegal in Texas [Tex. Finance Code Ann. §339.001.(e) (1999)], there is no written penalty, and the only recourse a credit card user has according to Section (c) is to file a complaint with the Texas consumer credit commissioner. Since Texas is very pro-business, it's probably a moot point trying to fight it, but I wish you luck if you do.

I am not against abiding by a small business stating a minimum limit for credit card purchases (especially Mom & Pop donut shops!), but I find it ridiculously tacky for any business to add any sort of "credit card surcharge" onto the bill. However, I also know that if the company offsets those overhead fees by instead increasing their prices overall, those who pay by cash are the ones that are getting shafted, as they are now also paying a portion of that surcharge that they were not responsible for creating. Credit cards benefit those that have them and punish those that don't unless the business charges the credit card customers, and ONLY the credit card customers, those surcharge fees.

I also researched when Six Flags decided to go cashless during the pandemic (thereby causing me to lose my second job that I actually really loved), as I wanted to know the laws and pros and cons for going cashless. So, while I know going cashless hurts those that can't afford to have credit cards, I still really want to be a credit card person getting my 1% back and cringe every time I see a tacked on fee.

Unfortunately, what I am starting to see are surcharges on the purchase ticket, the thing that gets printed out and handed to you BEFORE you actually hand over your form of payment, like at a restaurant. If you see that and wish to pay by cash, confirm that the fee will be removed when handing over your payment, and verify it afterwards on your final receipt. I worry that businesses that pre-print the surcharge are not removing it if someone pays by cash unless someone calls them out on it, thereby still passing on unwarranted charges to cash-paying customers.

Taxes done. It took 30 minutes. By comparison, this post is taking me 15 minutes.

Overall, I'm paying close to twice the amount in taxes from last year.

[GIBBERISH DETAILS BELOW]

The reason for the discrepancy was that I earned more than expected for the year by working the second job during the first half of the year. This put me into a higher tax bracket. If I hadn't worked 2nd job, then I probably would have gotten close to the same amount back or more than last year. I accounted somewhat for the increased taxes by increasing how much extra was withheld from each check. As a personal preference, I will always choose to use the IRS as a personal zero-interest savings account in order to guarantee I receive a refund instead of still owing come tax season.

Also, the increase from what I predicted my income for the year would be versus what it actually was decreased my tax premium credit on my Marketplace health insurance from the first quarter of the year. So, while they calculated and applied one credit amount, that amount ended up being less, and so I had to pay back the difference. That was more or less offset by having significantly decreased premiums during the second and third quarters by having health insurance through Employer2. So, technically, that money was thrown into my savings account and helped me earn a piddly couple of dollars interest before handing it back over to the government.

Overall, I knew the change in premium tax credit was coming, but I was hoping that the difference would have been a bit smaller than it turned out to be. I saw the amount I would have received before that difference was calculated, and that was closer to the amount I got last year (although still less than last year), but I knew it would not last once we got into calculating the healthcare stuff.

"Update: The launch was originally scheduled for Sunday evening. It was been postponed for Monday evening."

Adding two sentences to an article, and yet still there is no one bothering to read it over AT LEAST ONCE before posting it and then forgetting about it.

I am so frustratingly annoyed at constantly seeing typos and grammatical errors in online articles. I give a pass to online blogs, because those are just blogs, but professionally written articles and blogs that are presenting themselves as professional journals intended for a marketable audience should go through some form of an editing process during which blatant errors can be eliminated. Having no more telltale misspelling squiggly lines flourishing your submission doesn't mean the entry has been properly edited.

Argh

I'll give this particular article one bit of credit: There is a "Report a Typo" link at the bottom of the article. Now to see if they actually do something with that info.

There is a dog next door.

It's a new dog. It could just be a visiting friend or family member that brought their dog along with them and will soon be leaving again. Or it could be the gentleman living next door got lonely and got himself a dog, or someone else got him a dog. Who knows.

This dog likes to bark, a deep, heavy, sometimes howling, bark, unlike the high-pitched yaps of the previous dogs that lived there with him and his significant other before she moved out.

This dog likes to bark at things that move.

This dog likes to bark at things that move in the early morning hours of the day.

This dog woke me up 2 hours before it was time for my alarm clock to go off.

This dog is getting on my freaking nerves, and it's only been present for about 24 hours.

Two hours short on sleep, and two hours short on nerves. I'm gonna be such a happy camper at work today.

We watched The 5th Wave last weekend.

The first wave is global knockout of all electronics a la The Day The Earth Stood Still, causing airplanes to fall out of the sky (among other things, like massive car crashes, bye-bye general infrastructure, and adios clean drinking water).

My gripe: airplanes wouldn't fall out of the sky like that.

Helicopters, sure, but not airplanes.

They might still have a hard time landing, or not have anywhere to land and crash into mountains and oceans, but they wouldn't FALL.

It doesn't work like that.

Here's some articles I found during my searching. Just putting these here for reference.

This guy actually tracked and screenshot his Windows Rape Experiences

He then gives advice for First aid for Forced Windows 10 Upgrades - includes roll-back instructions if you catch it within 30days (or maybe 31 days) of updating

He goes on to promote GWX Control Panel - a means of removing the detritus in case you did get an unwanted update

And finally, Removing the nagging Windows 10 Update notifications - easy to read version of Microsoft's own published Security option and Regedit changes that users can make
(Slightly alternate, but still the same, instructions for Win7Pro machine, like my home computer.)

My work computer was force-upgraded to Windows 10 during the night, which Microsoft insists it isn't doing, and that it's still the users who are in control.

Now I'm at work staring at a machine that's unusable until it finishes whatever fuckery it has on it's to-do list, while watching a little circle go round and round and round and round.

I'm listening to this book by Dean Koontz.

I would like to strangle the female protagonist.

She opens her mouth CONSTANTLY without thinking, without care. She has got to be one of the most infuriating characters I've ever had to endure. She gets into these stupid hysterics, and I really wish the main character would slap her, but he apparently has the patience of a saint.

I know that by making her have such emotions, that gives her more life and reality, but ugh she drives me up the wall when she gets into one of her tizzies.

I have a Timex branded plug-in night light, model # TX22401, which takes a 7W bulb and otherwise looks almost exactly like this one.

( It needs to be fixed )

Then again, maybe I should sit and think about my options.

PS - I never did find what I originally set out to find.

PPS - Holy Crap, I finally found a replacement that's not out of stock!

Google search: "motion sensor red night light" gave me this as a "shop for" option, even though it's not red. Now to decide if I'm going to go all hoarder on this item and buy 5 of them at once.

"The object doesn't contain the Automation object 'CustLocNum'"

Would it KILL you to tell me to WHICH object are you referring?

At least then I'd know which of the three lines of code that mention 'CustLocNum' I should be addressing.