(via Gruber)

Don’t make me wait, because I won’t.

Anyhow, I’ll get to the point. Don’t be a chump. Don’t wait for a bailout. Pay back your debt, and do it in this order:

1. Friends: because you don’t want to be “that” guy.
2. Family: because you may need them to loan it back in the future.
3. Credit Cards: because they are brutal.
4. Automobile: because car payments suck.
5. Other (mortgage, student loans, etc.): because they are, typically, fair and manageable investments.

“How do I do this?” You might ask. Easy:

• Buy a used car. (And join a credit union so you’ll get a better rate).
• Go out to eat (or, especially, drink) one or two fewer times per week.
• Quit with the Starbucks (or variation). Brew at home, and buy a nice to-go cup. Like the specialty drinks? Have you seen the flavors the creamer companies have come out with recently. Buy some.
• Drop the gym membership. Be honest, you don’t really use it, anyway (if you’re in the 5% who actually do, kudos to you). Do some pushups and crunches, jump rope, ride a bike. Do yoga at home.
• Get a cell plan that fits your usage. One should never EVER pay overage fees or excessive texting fees.

Keep it simple. There are plenty of ways to save a few bucks here and there so you can take care of that pesky debt. Get creative. Most importantly, do it. However you have to. Do it.

Sadly, Monday is the day I leave Wells Fargo completely as my main banking institution. I have been with Wells Fargo (or some variation) since 1994. First I was with Cattleman’s State Bank (in Austin), which was bought by Norwest, which was bought by Wells Fargo.

I’ve never had any major issues with WF, and almost all of the time I have very nice experiences in their branch locations, which are in very convenient locations for me. They hire very good branch employees.

However, they charge for everything. Almost every bank I know of had free online bill pay for years before Wells Fargo finally gave in more recently. ATM fees? Of course.

I kept my accounts with them because we had our mortgage through them, and it was very nice to see a big picture of our overall financial status. Now, with services like Mint, this is not a differentiator. In addition, I’ve been very happy with USAA banking, despite no physical locations. They refund every ATM fee, they give a decent % interest on personal checking, and they have superb customer service. So, all my personal accounts are now going to USAA.

Now, for business. I recently had the grand idea that, gee, wouldn’t it be great if I had all my accounts under one roof, including business? I was sure that by adding business checking, savings and credit to my already existing personal, student loan, and mortgage accounts, I’d be given a pretty good deal. WRONG.

I opened up accounts for Duce Enterprises. Had to have a $500 minimum average daily balance to avoid a $6 service fee. Annoying, but not a huge deal. So I opened the account with $100. Two days later I deposited $400 to bring it to $500. Because I didn’t have $500 in there from the beginning, and didn’t compensate by depositing more later in the month, I was dinged for $6. Ridiculous.

Then, I was looking at my transactions, and there’s a very inviting link to “View Details.”

I clicked on it, thinking “what a great feature,” only to get this message:

Sorry, but I’ve grown very tired of Wells Fargo, and all their nickel and diming for every little thing. I’m done. They have enough customers that I’m sure these fees net them a considerable revenue, so I guess from a pure business/profit standpoint, I can’t blame them. But, as a customer, and a loyal long-term customer, I expect more, and I will get more, from someone else.

</rant >

The Senate voted on Monday to delay next month’s transition to digital television until June 12 because some viewers would not be ready for the switch.

Senate Approves Digital TV Delay – NYTimes.com

Oh, and thanks for taking more of my money to advertise this transition (again) to the idiots who haven’t been paying attention for the last 18 months. I’m happy to see my tax money being put to good use, once again.

I’m tiring quickly of all this crap. Washington needs to be paying attention to the important issues, not worrying about bailing out its constituents all the time. Pucking folitics.

I don’t always agree with Arrington, but this is pretty good.

This time, Wall Street and our government screwed everything up all on their own while we minded our own business and acquired our own instead of going public at crazy valuations.

The picture is great. The article is good.

My take on 2.0: I’m tired of the “Web X.X” nomenclature. Get over it, it’s just technology. The web is not a dot release. It’s a living, evolving, ridiculously huge and powerful entity.

We’ll look back in later years and think of this most recent boom as the Web 2.0 period, when we were wowed by the magic of user generated content, copyright violations on a massive scale, and neat little widgety things that used Javascript and Flash to turn web pages into pretty close equivalents to the old desktop apps. Of course there were other evolutions as well. Advertising technology has advanced steadily, particularly in tailoring ads to an individuals needs, and tracking them properly. This is the period that social networking as we think of it today was born, and we’ll never be rid of it in our lifetimes.

Also silly is the video in this post – be sure to head to the site to watch it (it’s at the bottom of Arrington’s post). Hilarious frivolity.

(Via Brent)

(Via DF via Rands)

…or so I thought:

FAIL!

iPhone apps for toddlers

I went to Plaxo help, and of the Top 25 articles, how to delete my account was #1!

So, unless you really, really love Plaxo and don’t mind them sharing your email address with the entire world, then I would go delete your account.

Update: Plaxo has a history of screwups.

Update 2: Officially deleted.

I’m just sick of the whole mess that is the U.S. Government. How about we take all the ridiculous campaign financing and end poverty or something else that’s a helluva lot more useful.