I finally got around to updating to the latest Wordpress version. Most of this update will result in nothing being change to the appearance of the blog. It was lot easier than I thought it was would. All that was involved was deleteing the wp-admin and wp-includes directories, uploading the new wordpress and then check what plug-ins work and which ones don’t.

Apparently the contact form with the challenge question didn’t work right so I had to replace it with another contact form. Firestats was also malfunctioning so I’m going without a tracker for a couple days.

Subway has a advertised deal of $5 footlong sandwiches so I decided to try one out the other day. It’s a mistake I won’t be making anytime soon. I remember back in the day when you could get a real sandwich at subway. Well, the times are a-changin’.

I ordered a ham, salami, and cheese on a footlong. The lady behind the counter put 6 small slices of ham even spaced accross the footlong piece of bread. She then asked me what kind of cheese and I reminded her I wanted salami too. Here’s where the cheap cost cutting nature of Subway shows its hand. She takes BACK two of the slices of ham and adds salami slices. This sandwich was so lacking that Subway should’ve just sold it for what it really is, a lettuce sandwich.

The worst part is that I was hungry when I should’ve just turn around and left so I actually bought the thing and ate it… and then I was still hungry after I ate it.

I thought about it for awhile and then I’ve come to realize the genius of Subway marketing and what a big con it is. The $5 footlong will basically get you the same amount of meat as a 6 inch, except you get to spread it out over a foot long piece of bread so don’t think it’s any kind of deal. Also this whole “healthy” thing is pure genius. Basically Subway gets to cut back on more expensive food ingredients (meats) and substitute with cheaper ingredients (vegetables) and charge customers the same for a “healthier” product.

I’ve sworn off ever going back to Subway ever again. Then again I’ve seen the lines there and maybe some people like lettuce sandwiches.

I just watch a hilarious slideshow (a google doc) about the housing mess depicted in stick figures. You can find it here.

I never thought about it from the viewpoint of people that actually bought their securities thinking they were safe investments. Man they really did get conned.

I’ve always thought the homeowners deserved what was coming to them for getting in over their heads. However I do feel sorry for them in the end and this is partly because of the way the media reports on these things. You’ll see article after article of sob stories of people who can’t make ends meet.

Take for example this story about Patricia Guerrero from Altadena, California. She was making $70k a year and then got laid off and now she can’t make ends meet even after burning through her savings. She’s seperated from her husband so she was the sole provider for her two kids.

Here’s the thing, her savings lasted her less than a month? It was only weeks later than the “bills started to pile up”… and then I read it. “She has had to take extreme measures to pay for her interest-only mortgage of $2,500 a month“. $2,500 a month? DAMN! That’s $30,000/year.

I’m real sorry she got laid off and everything but if you decide to take out a mortgage that’s half your salary and interest-only (which means you’ll probably pay forever until you sell) you’re asking for trouble. The fact is she was a single mother with $70k income, what possessed her to finance this house? Too many people simply got way in over their heads and bought too much house. It doesn’t take much common sense to see that paying $2,500 in just interest payments alone is not better than renting. Which is why most people opt for these interst only mortages in the first place, they want to feel like homeowners.

I came accross this nifty anti-telemarketing script from junkbusters. Apparently you can sue telemarketing companies in small claims court for unsolicited calls. There are exemptions though such as tax exempt non-profits and if you’ve had a previously established business relationship.

Personally I always get pre-recorded messages and I can’t remember the last time I got a telemarketing call from a real person. Then again I hardly ever pick up the house phone anymore.

So I read an article about Last.fm awhile ago in some random magazine and thought about it today. I was sitting at my desktop and wanted to listen to some music instead of the TV that’s usually in the background.

Last.fm dubs itself as the “social music revolution”. Apparently it’s suppose to be able to recommend new songs based on ones you like. I downloaded the program and it “scrobbled” my listening history to try to determine what to recommend to me. I liked every other song that it played which isn’t too bad. The ability to immediately skip to the next track is useful.

Last.fm is currently free but is limited. You can only listen to tracks up to three times for free. There’s an unlimited listening subscription that’s coming out and a basic subscription for $3/month that basically removes the ads from the main page and other personalization features.

I honestly hope they don’t screw up the free access to their site as a subscription model will not work. I don’t plan on ever paying for any subscription to Last.fm because radio isn’t premium content to me. Maybe if the unlimited listening subscription was at most $5/month and they had as many songs available as iTunes did then I’d consider it. Last.fm has limited use in that you can’t take it everywhere with you (unlike a song purchased on iTunes).

Try it out, while the free access is still decent.

Turns out Mariya Stetsiv made the last payment on her loan and is now 100% paid back. That means another loan can be funded on Kiva.org. For you that don’t know Kiva.org is about loaning micro loans to third world individuals interest free to enable them to lift themselves out of poverty. It’s a lending cause that I’m a big fan of.

I’ve made a total of 6 loans with 2 paid back. 4 are in the 63% to 75% paid back range so more loans should be funded as I’m basically re-loaning the money as I get it back.

I was reading an article about how somebody was forced to show ID at Walmart and they refused the sale when he didn’t. That story is fairly common, however there’s tons of comments that call the original poster a nitwick for refusing to show ID. Here’s the bottom line and I think I have to put it in bold: Retailers can NEVER ask you for ID when using a credit card.

To further add:

If someone steals your card, you’re NOT liable for it. So you can’t use that as an excuse for “showing ID”. You’re not protecting yourself in any way. Since the merchant who asks for ID isn’t following the rules the thief can go to a merchant that is following the rules and use your credit card. As long as the signature on your card matches the one on the slip then the purchase is good to go! Which brings me to my next point.

You can’t sign your credit cards “SEE ID”. Well you can sign them that but it wouldn’t technically be a valid credit card. Signing the back of those credit cards with your signature is saying that you basically agree to all the terms and agreements of the CC issuer.

I came accross an article entitled “Keyherb.com Too Busy Trolling Own Forums to Ship Your Order” and apparently Keyherb.com lacks basic customer service in even responding to e-mails. They do kick it up notch by not only threatening the guy with legal action but barring him from doing business with them again in the future.

Keyherb.com has their own customer feedback page which Consumerist readers have bene raising hell on. There’s some pretty funny comments on there too.

My guess is Keyherb.com isn’t a professional operation. Everytime you click “I want to buy this now!” you get redirected to google checkout even though PayPal logos are all over the page. More than likely it’s somebody’s side gig or business which they probably don’t care too much about. However, there’s no excuse for the way they treat customers who try to get refunds on merchandise they never receive.

edit: Read the comments. Apparently this company operates like the mob the more I think about it. They’ve taken their feedback page down too I presume.

Portfolio.com has a whole nifty finteractive flash of the new $5 bill and misc tidbits about it. The idea of money is crazy isn’t it? The government prints bills that are backed by nothing and everyone accepts it as legal tender.

According to Forbes, Bill Gates lost the top spot awhile ago to Calos Slim Helu but Warren Buffett has taken the #1 spot with Berkshire Hathaway shares surging.

Graph of BRK-B shares 1997-present.

This is why people need to grasp the importance of buying for the long term. Buffet sits on a lot of the investments he buys. I’m not advocating investing in Berkshire and neither does Buffet advise you invest in Berkshire if your net worth is limited.