How to use your wallet
While in conversation this morning a coworker of mine expressed his hatred of credit cards. He claimed that they were traps that were ruining America. Personally I think that atleast 50% of Americans should not have one but then again I think the same percentage should be castrated and put out to pasture. Needless to say for the savy spender credit cards are a tool that can be an investment.
You pay your bills every month, buy your groceries, and purchase your goodies with the same means every month. Those methods are with money. Where that money comes from is a channel that can build you further rewards. Another conversation earlier this week was on the rewards programs associated with credit cards. Some people like miles, some like points, and some like me take spending to an all new level of OCD. My wallet has come to resemble a mall map but I’m ok with all of this.
Some people instantly pull out their debit card to pay for all of these every day items for fear of fees, interest, and poor planning on their parts and I want to tell you guys to stop all of that nonsense. These companies make hundreds of millions of dollars a year off of stupidity but you can be the person taking that money back. Now while I do use a debit card 12 times a month it serves a purpose. Through my credit union I get 2.5% apr on my current balance if I use my card this number of times. To me I’ll buy 12 sticks of gum a month to get these rewards but overall spending is left to the other cards. By the way if anyone wants a high quality checking account I suggest Coastal Federal Credit Unions “go green checking”. Use that card 12x a month and your entire account gets 2.5%. That adds up fast people!
Now back to subject. You head into the grocery store. Well this month Discover is running 5% cash back on your first 400 in purchases at grocery stores and home improvement stores. While this changes monthly you can aim your spending based on their specials. To add that up if you spent $400 at the grocery store this month. Multiply this by the year and you have stacked up around 250 bucks in rewards just at the grocery store/etc. Obviously this isn’t going to cover your other purchases but just on that item you saved $250. Now lets take your rent, utilities, etc.
Common household (estimates obviously)
rent:$900
utilities:$100
cable:$100
insurance:$100
You’ve now pulled that precious checkbook or debit card for $1200 dollars this month with no payback! No one has given a portion of that back to you…….no one has said thank you for your dedication to our bank. Basically you threw that money away.
Now lets take an average 1%-2% rewards scenario!
rent:$900 @ 2% rewards= $18
utilities:$100 @2%=$2
cable:$100@2%=$2
insurance:$100@2%= $2
So so far you’ve accumulated 20 at the grocery store and 24 just paying your normal bills. Thats 44 dollars a month back into your pocket not including the 5% you could have saved at best buy, etc by just using their cards. Take a modest 50 dollars a month and multiply that out by 12. Now you are looking at $600 dollars saved this year by spending intelligently on top of the 2.5% you gained at the bank through green checking. Now you are taking that 600 dollars a year, putting it back into your checking account that you are making 2.5% on!
All of this may sound a little OCD. I mean now you have cards coming out the wazoo, thoughts about which to use, etc but believe me it is fairly easy to get used to.
So lets say at the beginning of the year you had $10k in the bank, you use these methods, and put the money in a “go green” account versus just having a checking account and using debit.
Using logic:
Starting balance:$10,000
Savings, $600
End balance: $10,600
Interest: $265
Total=$10,865.00!
Now I don’t know about everyone but I like having that extra money. Thats a vacation, a new sofa, or almost a free months rent. The key is to pay your credit cards before interest kicks in and to pay in full! Don’t leave a balance of your cards people! They are free to use……..but costly to abuse. While that might sound scary its no more frightening that writing a check. If you overspend on a checking account its $32 bucks a pop for every boo boo. At a 9.9%apr card you would have to rack a good little balance to add up to that.
Just think about it people and use strategy in your spending. It’s your money and you worked hard for it so why not work hard to keep it?
No commentsCurrent credit climate and “Free Reports”
So cruising CNN this morning I catch the blurb on the attack on “Free Credit Report” websites getting cracked down on by the government. Everyone has seen the guy singing on the roller coaster, singing at the parties, and my personal favorite was the guy singing about his girlfriends bad credit in the basement of his mothers house.
I’m so torn on these commercials for numerous reasons. For one I think it is fantastic that someone in this weird way has brought credit education out. People now hear the word credit and think of their reports and not just a card to swipe. There is a huge complexity within this economic climate when it comes to credit. Joe Scmoe 5 years ago could walk into a store and get a store credit card with a 540 score, numerous inquiries, and 85% utilization. This past climate has brought the credit world to its knees. Defaults, write0-offs, and collection companies are the norm these days. Now you can walk into your hardware or clothing store with a 700 score, 4 inq’s and 20% utilization and be denied. Last week I went on a little app spree since I had an itchy trigger finger after going kona (no apps) for 6 months because of the mortgage process. I have B*’d all my inqs off tu/eq, frozen ex, and my utilization was a 1%. With my scores an app spree should be approval, approval, approval. Now in this climate I reached my 5th app and popped some denials. After getting the notifications I had exceeded allowable inq’s (4 on tu LOL).
Anyways……back to the subject. These companies are an obvious rip off and finally someone has done something about it. If you are intelligent you realize when someone asks you for a credit card number its just not free, but some people just aren’t that smart. You have these poor folks caught in poor economic times being told they can’t get a job, credit, or rent an apartment without great credit. While most of these statements could be considered true they are very well aimed and are probably catching the defenseless left and right.
Basically the scam is you sign up, get your free reports which don’t even present you with an accurate Fico score (fako as its called) which could be 100 pts off either direction, show lil to no accurate information about your credit, and then charge them monthly afterwards for “credit monitoring” for more inaccurate information.
Well the gov’t has stepped in and for once I’m actually in shock of a well aimed gov’t intervention. I mean its always blown my mind that you can’t advertise cigarettes on TV but getting some poor sucker to hand over 100′s of dollars to these scams is ok.
Heres the kicker though. Just like the credit act that went into effect recently these companies are getting a huge buffer to “adjust”. These requirements won’t kick in until 9/10 so you can still check this lies out for another 6 months. Great job on that one. You can scam for another 6 months but after that you’ll have to put a disclaimer up that its not really free lol. I would have thought after the backlash of the credit act the people in DC would be slightly more aware of how people get screwed harder and harder. You think people were expecting rate jacking/closures because of an act that was meant to protect the consumer? Nope, but when you give months to devise ways around laws you should.
Right now my prediction is that the companies boost monthly rates from 19.99+ to 39.99+ to “monitor” your credit. AWESOME for those poor people who need protection now.
On a side note people if you want to check your reports hit me up. I’ve got codes for 30% off of www.myfico.com. This is one of the few sites that will give you more accurate info on your credit+real tu/eq fico scores. You can no longer buy a EX fico score so if someone says you can they are full of crap and you need to run. Also fyi the actual free reporting site is www.annualcreditreport.com . You receive a free report every year thanks to uncle sam or you can send a request to ex/tu/eq based on categories like credit denial and receive a free paper copy.
And on that note everyone have a happy safe Easter holiday weekend.
No commentsWho’s watching you?
Had to copy this. Pretty informative
Your personal information—everything from your shopping habits to your health history—can be available to creditors, employers, landlords, insurers, law enforcement agencies, and, of course, criminals. All they need to do is tap into the public and private databases that gather, buy, and sell your vital statistics.
Demand for your personal information has exploded in recent years. Its availability has also raised privacy concerns. When users buy and compile various pieces of information about you, “they can paint a very complete picture of your activities,” says Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group.
Whether the data are accurate or not, misinterpretations can lead to higher costs for credit and insurance, or the denial of a job. They can also prevent you from renting an apartment or opening a checking account, and even from returning unwanted merchandise to stores. Here’s what Big Brother has on you.
1. Your credit history
Credit reports are compiled by the big three credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Each has some 200 million files, which help form the credit scores used to measure your creditworthiness.
What’s here?
Almost everything about your use of credit, including amounts borrowed, credit lines, opened and closed accounts, application inquiries, and how well you’ve honored your obligations on mortgages, credit cards, car loans, and other types of credit. Bankruptcies, foreclosures, liens, and collections are also here. Public record information like court judgments might also appear. Other basics include your Social Security number, date of birth, and past addresses.
How is the information used?
The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) allows companies to buy your credit information if they are considering transactions with you related to credit, employment, insurance, investing, government licensing, or other “legitimate business need.” The purpose, in general, is to assess your past financial responsibility, but insurance companies have stretched that to include predicting the likelihood that you will file an insurance claim, based on confidential credit-based scoring models.
Your rights
Under the FCRA, you’re entitled to a free credit report from the big three credit bureaus annually and to dispute errors. To maintain oversight of your credit reports, get one from each credit bureau every four months, rotating from one bureau to the next. Go to www.annualcreditreport.com, the authorized site for obtaining your free reports, or call 877-322-8228.
Federal regulations limit the time that negative information can stay on your report (seven to 10 years) and let you opt out of receiving preapproved credit offers. Forty-seven states and the District of Columbia have laws requiring credit bureaus to allow consumers to put a security freeze on their credit files, which blocks access to prospective creditors and others with whom you don’t already do business.
2. Your insurance claims
Reports offered by ChoicePoint, a data broker in Georgia, are based on claims information reported by insurers to the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange. A-PLUS reports, sold by the Insurance Services Office in Jersey City, N.J., are based on information reported by over 1,400 insurers to the Automobile- Property Loss Underwriting Service.
What’s here?
Both companies’ reports reveal information about you and your automobile and homeowners insurance loss claims filed with reporting carriers over the past three to seven years.
How is the information used?
Insurance companies use your claims history to assess how much of a risk you are, which can affect premiums or coverage eligibility. They can also use the claims history of a given property to determine how much of a risk that home presents. ChoicePoint promotes its CLUE reports to home buyers and sellers, warning that a home’s past can “come back to haunt you in the form of higher premiums for your homeowners insurance.”
Your rights
Since ChoicePoint and ISO are “consumer reporting agencies,” as defined by FCRA, you’re entitled to one free report a year. In some reports, negative information will remain for up to seven years. Go to www.choicetrust.com for information on how to obtain a CLUE report. If you’re considering buying a home, ask the seller to obtain the property’s loss-history report for you. To order your A-PLUS report, call 800-627-3487.
3. Your health history
The MIB consumer file database is maintained by the MIB Group, a consortium of 470 U.S. and Canadian companies that sell life, health, disability income, critical illness, and long-term-care insurance. Two other companies, Milliman and Ingenix, compile your prescription drug history from databases maintained by pharmacy chains and prescription benefit managers, and sell IntelliScript and MedPoint reports to insurers.
What’s here?
Information significant to your health or longevity is reported to the MIB database in coded form. It includes medical conditions that you reported on insurance applications for individual (not group) coverage, and test results from medical underwriting exams. Potentially hazardous hobbies and driving records may also be there. Your actual medical records are not reported. The IntelliScript and Med Point reports contain information about the prescription drugs you’ve used over the last five years, including dosages, refills, and doctors.
How is the information used?
When you apply for individual life, health, and similar coverage, you may sign a waiver that lets a prospective insurer check your MIB report and IntelliScript or MedPoint reports to see if you’ve omitted significant information. Insurers use the information to determine your risk class, set premiums, and decide whether or not to insure you.
Your rights
The reports fall under the FCRA protections. To get a free copy of your reports, call MIB at 866-692-6901; IntelliScript at 877-211-4816; and MedPoint at 888-206-0335.
4. Your checking accounts
Chex Systems provides information on mishandled checking and saving accounts, a service used by about 80 percent of U.S. banks. TeleCheck assesses the risk of accepting paper checks at 350,000 retailers, financial institutions, grocery stores, and other outlets.
What’s here?
Chex Systems and TeleCheck collect information on mishandled checking accounts, such as overdrawn accounts closed by you or your bank. The reports can include your driver’s license number, unpaid amounts, and who was stiffed. The reporting company is not required to remove information unless it’s incorrect, but it does have to report any payback. Negative information can stay on your report for five years at Chex Systems and seven years at TeleCheck.
How is the information used?
Banks can check mishandling data to decide whether to open a new account for you. Retailers can use TeleCheck to assess the risk of accepting your checks.
Your rights
Both are subject to FCRA requirements. To get a free copy of your Chex Systems report, go to www.consumerdebit.com and click on “Order Consumer Report.” To obtain your free TeleCheck report, go to www.firstdata.com/support/telecheck_home.htm and click on “TeleCheck Consumer Assistance.”
5. Your background
ChoicePoint is one of the more prominent background-check companies. LexisNexis, which owns ChoicePoint, also provides Person Reports.
What’s here?
ChoicePoint’s reports include a smorgasbord of dirt: auto and homeowner CLUE reports; pre-employment background checks; an “Esteem” report if you ever admitted to or were convicted of shoplifting; results of a national criminal records search; evictions; and public-records search results. Person Reports include nonpublic and publicly available information.
How is the information used?
Employers, landlords, insurers, governments, and volunteer organizations use background checks to measure the reputation and character of applicants.
Your rights
Also subject to FCRA requirements. To get a free copy of your file, go to www.choicepoint.com and, under Reports About You, click on “Access to Your Personal Information.” For information on LexisNexis Person reports, go to www.lexisnexis.com/privacy/for-consumers/request-personal-information.aspx.
6. Your purchase returns
The Retail Equation maintains information on merchandise returns made to an undisclosed number of national retailers. Before customers are allowed to return goods, participating stores ask to run their driver’s licenses through a reader to check their return history.
What’s here?
It can include a record of your past returns at participating stores, the purchase prices, and whether or not you had receipts.
How is the information used?
Retailers are on the lookout for certain fraudulent and abusive practices, which include returning shoplifted merchandise, “renting” (buying, say, a video camera to use temporarily for a wedding before returning it), and “wardrobing” (buying a dress, then returning it after wearing it). If your pattern of returns at a particular store raises red flags, you might not be able to get your money back the next time you try.
Your rights
The FCRA does not cover this. But Retail Equation will send you a copy of your return activity report on request. Go to www.theretailequation.com/consumers/ for more information.
7. Your rental history
First Advantage SafeRent maintains a landlord-tenant database of 34 million records and a subprime payment history database of 40 million records to screen prospective renters. A smaller company, RentBureau, includes nearly 6 million records nationwide.
What’s here?
Rent-payment history, references, credit ratings, criminal records, and scores designed to predict an applicant’s risk of defaulting on a lease.
How is the information used?
Landlords who operate multifamily apartment complexes use the information to screen tenants and reduce losses that result when tenants skip out without paying, write bad checks, require an eviction, or cause significant property damage.
Your rights
They are the same as with the other consumer reporting agencies covered by FCRA. For information on First Advantage SafeRent, go to www.fadvsaferent.com/consumer_relations/index.php or call 800-815-8664. For more on RentBureau, go to www.rentbureau.com and click on “For Consumers.”
8. Mailing lists
This is the Wild West of databases. Two major players are USADATA, which has delivered more than a billion names to over 100,000 companies, and InfoUSA, whose databases contain 210 million consumers.
What’s here?
The primary information sold is your name and address. But the real value for buyers comes from prescreening the names by certain characteristics—for example, people known to be affluent, homeowners, mail-order buyers, investors, people who have specific diseases or are disabled, new parents, older people, donors/contributors, and so on. Some companies develop lists of people who have fallen for get-rich-quick scams or investment frauds.
How is the information used?
The lists allow salespeople to focus on consumers who are more likely to buy their products.
Your rights
You can opt out of receiving junk mail. See the box below for advice on how to do that.
No commentsThe Basics of Credit
So normally I’d go on an explosion about how some woman cut me off in line at the Piggly Wiggly but I thought I’d write a few posts about something useful for once. Credit is a basic that everyone should know about but seems to be lost amongst the youth of America. I constantly run into those who can’t manage their money, run the credit cards, and fall into a trap of high interest cards, rate jackings, limit choppage, and terrible scores effecting their overall lives.
I plan on breaking into the basics and then posting on some issues such as current laws such as the new consumer protection acts, fha changes, and how to protect yourself in a tightening economic climate such as ours.
If anyone feels a particular subject is important to them please feel free to send me a message/email and I will address these problems especially if you have a specific problem. Don’t feel shy and I will never leak who/why/when/ or specifics of who the problem is for/about.
YOUR SCORE:
Your credit is worthiness is generally based off of your FICO scoring. This is not to be confused with those silly numbers you get from the 100 free sites you see on the tv. These are FAKO scores. They can be off 100 points in either direction and are a poor judgment of your credit worth.
Here is the basic calculations of a fico score. These differ between the 3 bureaus Experian, Equifax, and Transunion
Payment history – 35% (of Score)
Amounts owed – 30%
Length of credit history – 15%
New credit – 10%
Types of credit used – 10%
This may all seem like jiberesh but is a method to improve your score.
Your payment history is the most important. Think paying that credit cards 30 days late won’t hurt you? WRONG! A single 30 day late can drop your score 20+ points easy. The later the payment the worse off you look. After a certain time frame the account just goes to collections which I will discuss later.
Utilization is next at around 30%. What is utilization? It basically shows the percentage of credit being used. If you have $1500 of usable credit and have 1000 charged you are using 66% of your credit which is bad! Optimal scores are achieved by 10% or less utilization. The higher your limits the lower a base amount will hurt you. I always PIF (pay in full) to keep my scores high. Its not about how much you use but how much is reported. If you use 100% of your limits but pay them off in full before your cc company reports it you still have a 0% utilization. If they report before you pay it off you see 100% and your score drops like a rock!
Length of credit history is important more now more than ever! AA A or average age of accounts determines alot. Lets say you have 4 cards. One has been open for 4 years, 1 for 3 years, and 2 are 6 months old. That leaves you with an average account age of 2 years! New accounts will drop your score until they age. I’ve seen losses of 10+ points for opening a new account. This will depend based on how much your utilization changes also. Again it is a complex formula.
New credit – 10%- See above as they closely relate in explanation.
Types of credit used – 10%- What is your credit comprised of? Do you have a car loan (installment), credit cards (revolving), or a mortgage (installment)? These account types mix and that will help improve your score! Having installment loans actually can help your score with solid payments/completions and also help you get higher limits/more loans.
4 Lefts will get you there!
My life in the past few years has been anything less than conventional bringing up this post. I have always been the person to make the mistakes, mess something up, but in the end I usually end up smelling like roses out of it.
With my kids getting older I’ve put alot of stress on my own shoulders to finish up school. Yes it would great to do so but with my career it would do about zip for me money or position wise and in all honesty it takes away alot of time from my kids. Just for those of you who don’t know I didn’t get kicked out of school nor was it a failure to do well. My future ex wife was pregnant at the time so money/time was an issue. I never really had a conventional college time anyways minus my freshman year. For most of the time I worked days as an industrial electrician and went to school at night. It worked out great to be honest. Found a love for a job, a great paying career that I’m good at, and am years ahead of most the people I knew from college. The bad part was in my honest opinion I took the bumpier less traveled path. The hours sucked, the work was hard, and at the beginning I made poop for money.
Anyways so back to the point. The thought has always been what do I tell my kids. My parents didn’t goto college, their parents didn’t, and now my kids have been blessed with 2 parents who didn’t finish. Growing up I never saw much value in studying away the hours of my life. Now years down the road I’ve learned how important that hard work is and try to stick with it every day. But what about them…….what can I preach to them? It haunted me for a long time and not having a father after age 12 I’m not exactly the expert on fatherly figures….or so I thought.
I finally figured it out though and it wasn’t what I expected. Some people in life make all the right decisions and have someone guide them. Great for those parents and great for those kids but alot of times it seems like these people don’t appreciate what they have. I by no means ever want my child to fail but there is a great amount of pride in figuring things out in life yourself. Parents should be less concerned with guiding their children step by step in life but instead giving them the capabilities to deal with life decisions on their own. The pride in saying “I did it” can come from a milestone of any size or flavor. Life isn’t about a piece of paper or the size of your paycheck………………it should be about learning and living.
In all of this pondering I remembered my dad saying “4 Lefts will get you there…you just have to have enough gas”. It never really made sense to me and to be honest my dad said alot things that could be construed as redneck ramblings. Maybe I’m lost in my own demented logic but why in the world would I want to take the common road through life when taking 4 lefts will get you the scenic route? Maybe after all these years of thinking I didn’t get as much out of my dad I’ve finally figured out he was trying to teach me all along.
Anyways I apologize to anyone who read this b/c its pretty much 650 words of complete ramblings but it was just something I’ve been pondering lately.
No commentsThe Grass is Always Greener
We are the bovines of the world. Constantly we search for happiness and when we find it we look across the fence and want that grass instead. I’ve had the worst habit ever of always wanting something different once I get what I want whether it be in relationships or life in general.
I buy a car……..and a week later I want something else…….etc. Well it seems to have struck again and think I might just have to stop it. Its time to realize that I’m happy and stop focusing on the things I don’t have. I received a lovely letter from my ex basically chewing me up over things that could not be fixed. Not usually an issue and considering our marriage was silent at the best but this one bothered me a bit. I’ve sat through the greater part of 6 months pondering day and night whether there was anything left of our relationship when for awhile I wanted nothing but out of it. We never talked, never had any affection, and the mood was reminiscent of Gettysburg the day after. I loved her to death but it was not healthy at all. I’m an outgoing and very communicative person while she is quiet and what not. So I got to thinking……..I’ve been treated like crap, cheated on, and strung along like a lil puppy dog. Now don’t get me wrong this is all just coming back to me according to Seinfield’s theory of Kharma. I did alot of people/women wrong in my younger life and this is most likely God trying to set me straight which I understand. Basically I’ve been given a dose of my own medicine and need to just fix myself.
But anyways back to the point…… I’ve spent so much time focusing on what I don’t have and not on what I do. I have great friends who have been here for me even in my depressive crap state that was like a black cloud floating over me, a job that I love and actually pays haha, and honestly I’ve never had a problem with women. I’m by far not the ugliest person I know (maybe a top ten contendor though) and judging by my everyday conversations with people I’m by no means the dumbest. So basically I limit myself by craving things I really don’t want/need in the first place. I don’t need a cheating wife w/ 150k of debt, and a lack of many other things…..I don’t need all the petty pocessions in the world, and last and most importantly I don’t need to drive myself batshit crazy craving all of these things that only complicate my life to a further extent.
So lets all do ourselves a favor and stop looking over, under, and through the fence and start looking at whats standing behind us because thats where your family & friends are. Thats where true happiness is and what we all need to focus on.
And in the words of styx Domo arigato Mr. Roboto
2 commentsNew Years Resolutions
Well NYE has rolled by and I’ve been sitting here contemplating what my resolutions would be. Lately it seems like Ive really wanted to change some things in my life and some I’ve already started. My weight is about where I want it to be and if nothing else I really just want to continue toning and working out and just generally improve my health. Other things have been harder and I just need to put my foot down.
Save more money- This is something thats been hard lately with being on one income, the large house expense, and the full costs of the boys falling solely on me but I still think I can do better. I finally set up a number of what I can save and started having it transferred weekly into a savings. Hopefully this will help set up a new house in the next year or 2 when I finally bite the bullet and buy.
Quit Smoking- This is the big one and I’ve tried numerous times before but recently I haven’t even seen a point to smoking at all. It grosses me out and I get nothing out of it but smelly clothes, poor health, and losing 4 bucks a day on something useless.
Get into a hobby- Over the last few months I’ve felt really strung out with working so much, the seperation stuff, and just the general stress of trying to keep the wheels of life spinning every day. It seems like if I could get back into something for me maybe I wouldn’t feel so stressed. My old hobby was pulled out of the driveway last week so no more turning of a wrench on the weekend. Thinking about buying another mountain bike which would help my health also.Trying to home brew some beer might also have to make its way on the list.
1 commentECU Bowl Bound and Bowl Garbage
So this year has been a crazy one for the pirates. Starting out the season with dramatic wins over VT and just blowing WVU out of the water. Then we head on a 3 game losing streak to finally end up down the road as conference champions and heading to the Liberty bowl.
This is the first year since 76′ that the pirates have captured a conference title and to be honest it really excites me. I’m almost alittle rigid just thinking of ECU’s status in the eyes of others jumping but wait…………we got hosed. Personally I love the improvement and a cusa title is great but that alone isn’t where it ends. The season ends on January second in Memphis. No one ever remembers the first win or the second but always the last game. This year we should have a decent opponent. I know alot of you like myself were looking forward to playing a team along the lines of the Gamecocks but sorry folks thats just not how the cards fell.
Instead of playing a decent SEC team we are facing Kentucky. Now that might not sound terrible but heres what Kentucky has done this year
See that big blank area? THATS NOTHING! Kentucky is 6-6 losing its last 3 games which consisted of Georgia, Vandy, and Tenn. Granted the Georgia game was close but to get smacked by the Vols of all people when you are claiming to be a decent SEC team is terrible. Kentucky was dead last in the East with a conference total of 2-6 only defeating Arkansas and Miss State. So lets take a look at their OOC wins. Yep that consists of Louisville, the mighty Norfolk State, Middle Tennessee, and Western Kentucky. By the way all 4 of these wins were from game 1 to game 4.
Just to take a look at the pirates wins this year we have West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Tulane, Memphis, UCF, Marshall, UAB, UTEP, and Tulsa. Not too shabby there. Tulsa has possibly one of the most impressive offenses in the country but were stopped by the Pirates to get us into the Liberty Bowl. So where is Tulsa going? Thats right they are headed to the Motor Bowl to play Ball State. Wait so you lose the conference championship and get to play #22 in the country but we win and play Kentucky? I’m confused here people. I know theres 8000 bowl games these days but for the love of God can we get some order out of this? It makes about as much sense as the BCS in general.
I understand that all the bowls are just for corporate blowjobs but can we get some football honor thrown in their somewhere. How about Kentucky shouldn’t even be playing in a bowl? 2-6 in conference play is not acceptable no matter if its the SEC or the freaking MAC. Half the damn country is playing in a bowl and half of those shouldn’t. In CUSA theres 6 teams going to bowls! 6 TEAMS! 68 teams playing in bowls. PRETTY IMPRESSIVE. Now just for giggles lets see what happens if you make 7 wins the cutoff. 59 Teams. God thats still just too much. No heres the really funny part. The ACC which should be the poster boy for mediocrity is sending the entire Atlantic Division to bowls. Only 2 of the teams are over .500 in conference play.
I say no matter what if you can’t win half of your conference games you aren’t go anywhere for the holidays but Grandmas. If you cut out teams that are .500 and less in conference play you take away 20 teams. That leaves 48 teams bowl elig. Much better. Overall I guess it just baffles me that such a fubar’d system can still be in place. Someone must be padding the stats too. Claims are that bowl attendance averages around 60k per game with an 88% capacity. I blame the scalpers and basically everyone else for these misconstrued #’s. I want to see the capacity of how many people are actually going to be sitting in the stands or actually enjoying these games at home. Outside of their respective schools no one gives a shit about half these games.
Basically I just can’t figure out how conference champions regardless of conference are getting crap games while runner ups are getting great matchups. I know Hawaii managed to make complete asses of “smaller” football schools on the public stage but there has to be a system put into to place to make it more interesting. I’m tired of seeing the same schools play for BCS games every year. ECU was called a BCS buster possibility early in the year and while we threw that away they were calling us out after one loss also.
Overall the entire system just seems like crap to me and honestly I doubt I turn on more than 5 bowl games just out of the pure fact that 90% of them are going to be crap games.
No commentsSo much hate in the world!
So I received some hate mail this week. YES I KNOW…….HARD TO BELIEVE! Evidently I have crossed the line by writing about my personal life in a personal blog. These people are just so angry that I didn’t post the comments too. I mean it they wanted their threats posted on the almighty internets. Let me say something here people. I’m 25 years old, have 2 kids, and do pretty well in life. Quite frankly I’m not into the “lets throw threats around” thing. Its petty and reaks of insecurity. I really hope the people who sent me these threats will take into light that they should be well past this point in their life. May I also add that one of these fine folks is serving overseas. Not only should you be representing yourself as one of Americas best everyday but you should have the control to not overreact to everything in the world. Enough of the preaching lets see what was said.
Nick Duffy
duffman8108@hotmail.com | 208.79.15.100You motherfucker you say one more thing about my mother or my sister again i will come at you with everything i have you goddamn piece of shit just remember i maybe in Iraq right now but i got friends who arent and will do anything for me if i ask them to remember i know where you live and just wait till i get back you son of a bitch.
That sounds like a threat Nick and a very immature one at that. Tisk tisk. I’m not the ones rummaging through someone elses blog and passing judgement. Like I said in the email you should really worry less about me and more about protecting yourself over there. Also I highly doubt remarks like this would be appreciated but your gov’t.
NEXTTTTTTTTTT
Nick Duffy
duffman8108@hotmail.com | 208.79.15.100o ya you seemed to leave out the little fact that you cheated on my sister before she even meet that guy. you might want to let all of your “viewers” in on that little tid bit of information. fucken cock sucker. “I love your daughter more than you will ever realize.” ya if that statment was in the least bit true you wouldnt have flown to where ever you did and slept with that tramp. if i didnt make it blatantly obviously i hated your guts ever since the first time i heard you knocked up my sister. you made it o’so much better when she was about to give birth and you wanted to move her back down to N.C. which was a 9 hour drive and then i was the one to pack that entire motherfucken uhaul truck by my self while you just stood around talking on your cell phone the entire fucking time. i didnt even want to be around you and your fucked up family last thanksgiving i would of much rather have been by myself. you need to get the fuck off your mothers tits cause your a goddamn grown man and you should act like it and not keep running back to her everytime you get a “boo-boo” you fucken mammasboy fagot. and if you think this the last of it you just wait till were face to face then you’ll know my true feelings. fucken piece of shit
I especially like the fact you brought these points up nick. First off I never cheated on your sister. The person I went to see I’ve known for 15 years. That would kind of be like me accusing your sister of cheating every time she saw an old friend. Regardless you are wrong and know nothing of me.
Second part. As far as me coming up there to “move” ash she asked me to. She never told you all and I actually should have been the one pissed about that. We drove 9 hours up there since ash told me she was coming back down with us and she never told you/your mom. Don’t believe me……..ask her.
As for coming out for thanksgiving no prob nick. We were glad to have you. If you didn’t feel the same way you shouldn’t have come. My bad for asking you to come eat thanksgiving dinner with my family and your sister. God forbid someone try to do something nice for you. WE ARE SO EVIL!
Also I find it highly ironic you are telling me to get off my “moms tit”. Family is important to me Nick and obviously it is to you too since you are blindly stepping in on a situation you really have no business being in.
NEXTTTTTTTTTT!
CBIAFL
cbiafl@hotmail.com | 71.230.253.206Everyone knows that you’re a fucking liar and a fake. Time to admit it to yourself bud.
From Everybody Welcome, 2008/11/11 at 8:40 AM
And ash wonders why I never wanted to go see her family. But alas you are right…….I’m such a liar and a fake. Wait………..I’m not fake nor have I ever lied to your family. so close yet no cigar.
duffman
duffman8108@hotmail.com | 208.79.15.100why havent you posted my comment if you need me to clean up my language i will and still get the same point across if you want to talk to me directly you can reach me at duffman8108@hotmail.com so we could talk man to man and none of your “viewers” need to see any of it ill be waiting to here from you
From Everybody Welcome, 2008/11/12 at 2:19 PM
See I was taking care of my kids. I’m sorry I didn’t have time to check my email over a 24 hour period. My apologies go out to you. Seriously! Honestly though I really like it when you curse over and over again and make blatant threats. It brings out the maturity in your writing and not even in a comical way. Again Nick its “hear” not here. I’m sure spell check works everywhere in the world and even hate mail should be spell checked. See it kind of loses its edge when you misspell half of what you’ve written.
I’m sure this won’t be the last of your contributions to my email but I’m more than welcome to talk about it Nick. The bad part is you have no idea what damage your family has really done out of this situation. Your sister left about 30 seconds after reading your comments crying her eyes out. So really good job on hurting your sisters feelings. The great part is we were talking shortly before that about how I knew your family didn’t like me and she said I was wrong. Tisk Tisk looks like I was dead on the head with that one.
Again Nick I’m sorry you feel this way and I really do feel you are very misinformed on the situation and also I’m struggling with the whole concept of why you felt the need to be so hateful but I hope somewhere down the line you can find a good way to focus your anger and better yourself. Anger only drags you down in life. May I suggest pictures of puppies or even the lolcats. LOLCATS ALWAYS MAKE ME LOL
Old Dogs and New Tricks
So alot of you know about my current change in marital status. While the decisions to end the marriage in the fashion that is was done was not my choice I’ve spent the better part of the last month thinking about the past. Yea yea I know…….don’t think about, get out, keep your mind off of it. I’ve heard it all but its just not that easy. Over the last 4 years I guess you could say I’ve gone through a massive transformation. While it wasn’t intentional I guess I great up and advanced my life alil bit. Four years ago I was a drunk and a slacker to say the least. Many nights were spent passed out and not knowing where I would wake up. A cloud of of ignorance blinded me from life.
Anyways, so I kept thinking about what I could have done different. Yes I know this is also a no no. Blaming myself wasn’t helping but it did open my eyes up to alot of things. My marriage was always in trouble due to the fact of pettiness. I wanted to rub in the petty things while she wanted to turn her head away from them. Both of these answers were incorrect and sent us down a path of shittiness. I seemed to care less about the basic happiness in life and more about work/putting food on the table. Being a good husband wasn’t working 12-16 hours a day nor was it sleeping the work off for 6 hours during the day on the weekends. In that way I lost my way not only in my marriage but also love and the principles of life. Pride was no longer in my vocabulary and I could fully understand why I was not appealing to anyone. Atleast in my previous life I had nothing but confidence.
America is such a great country in the fact that we have so many oppourtunities and so petty in the fact that probably 5% of the people actually take advantage of it. We celebrate new years not with love of all our yearly accomplishments and successes but instead a list for next years. Focusing on a singular improvement for a month, tossing it in the trash, and just remaking the exact promise to ourselves the next year. I’m not sure if I’ve ever held myself to a new years resolution and even worse I don’t know many people who hold themselves to resolutions at all. Is it laziness? Most likely thats the basic cause of everyones problems.
Instead of some precise bullshit item that I want to change I’m switching from a “New Year’s Resolution” to a “Year Long Daily Revolution”. The first step was to try and analyze some of my most basic faults and lay out the cause, consequences, and steps to fix the problem.
1. Problem:My weight was out of control. I just entered the single world not only with 40 lbs of baggage but also 30lbs of fat. I couldn’t gain a lb in college but managed to gain 65 after the fact. No thats not an exageration……….I really got that fat.
Solution: Work out! Eat healthy! When I wake up in the morning I eat a healthy breakfast, do a short workout, and get ready for work. Continue my day with a fairly healthy low fat diet and a more exhausting workout every other day.
Cause: I never had to look at myself and the one I loved never questioned it either. The lines of communication were down and I forgot that even thought it didn’t matter to me what I looked like……it probably did to her. Now all of you know I’m an ugly mother fucker but the least I could do is not kill her if I rolled over in my sleep.
I could keep going on but the list of things to fix is about 25 deep and some of it is probably just derived from a pool of self pity and guilt (yea I know odd combo but shit happens when you think too much in an empty house). Basically what I’m getting at is I think a great system to actually self improve is to look into what other people see and not what we are blinded from. Three months ago I would have to think for 10 minutes to come up with a faults list 5 items long and even then I wouldn’t have taken it seriously. Confidence is a key in life…….arrogance is a blocker of self improvement. Daily reinvention is the only way to actually become the person you want to be. Putting a goal out there for 365 days is garbage. The end result may take that long but everyday you need to wake up and want that goal more and more.
So far I am on week 3 of trying something that sounds so simple as to lose weight. Incredibly I have lost about 15 lbs and almost look half decent. Results are pushing me harder and harder everyday and I’m proud of the fact that I am actually pushing myself torwards a goal. Inspiration has put more goals on my list and made me feel 100x better.
The bottom hurt when I hit it and I hope it was actually the bottom and not just a plateau in the descent on my mind but I guess that fact is to be self determined by no one but myself. Outside of these ramblings I actually had a point to make. When you hit the bottom self pity, rage, and wallowing are usually soon to follow. Wallowing in your own shitty life could be viewed as a terrible thing. It drags a cubic ton of depression into your life and just overall seems to take you further into that abyss. But, instead why don’t we start trying to provide an opposite reaction. Instead of crying of that spilled milk why don’t we clean up the mess and try to make things better than they were before.
I lost someone that I loved more than anyone and yea I still cry at night alone in bed but it has given me the gift that I needed. The silver lining has come to light and its a beautiful bitch with a hourglass figure and Angelina Jolie’s lips. For 3 years I lived for someone else and while that will never change with my children I can live for myself also and be someone that maybe they can look up to someday. So lets everyone stop being who we are and start being who we want to be. Life could end tomorrow……….so be all you can be everyday and take your visions from just that into reality.
Someone told me that old dogs can’t learn new tricks and I would always be who I am. Well I’m sticking 2 fingers in the fucking air. Yes tomorrow I will be who I am but thats because I’m going to make myself a new person every mother fucking day. Take oppourtunity by the fucking back of the head and thrust that slut down because if you don’t its going to grab the back of yours and face fuck you til you have nothing left but a lost sense of dignity and direction.
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