Mayhem-Online

Archive for July, 2009

Banks have always been bloodsuckers – always draining you dry of every last bit of money that you have. Credit Unions were supposed to be the ‘saviour’ in that you became a member by paying a membership fee to begin with and the fees were rare and very low. Nowadays that seems to also be disappearing.

After being with a bank for a while, I switched to a credit union and was pleased with how I managed to keep most of my funds intact without large amounts of fees or interest being charged to me. Eventually this credit union decided that they needed a bit more money from its members, and thus introduced more fees. To me, it turned them into a bank, not a credit union (they should have removed the name). So I switched to another credit union whom I have been happy with for a long time.

Until now that is.

Fees have been introduced on almost everything that you do. You want to pay using your credit card? You get charged a fee. You want to make a payment using BPay (BillPay)? You get charged for every transaction made. You want to use EFTPOS (Electronic Funds Transfer something-or-other)? You get charged. You want to withdraw cash or make a transaction of some sort over the counter at one of their branches? You get charged. If they make a payment for you and you don’t have enough funds in the account, you get charged through the roof until your pay ends up being used to pay the fees on top of the fees. And don’t get me started on the monthly fees!

What I was most pissed off with lately is that a company has been trying to take a payment for me, of which I had the money in the bank. Perhaps I was a dollar short, in fact I may well have been, but usually the credit union will make the payment if the bulk of the funds are available. Not this time. They denied the payment. The company rang me and I said the funds were in there and they could try again. To be sure, I added some more money to the account they were taking it from. Yesterday I received another phone call from the company – they still were being denied. I said that the money was definitely in there and I didn’t know why the credit union were denying the transaction. They said they’d have to charge me an extra $25 on top of the current amount owed >:( After checking the account after 3pm, I discovered no money had been removed yet and now I’m fearing they’ll be adding another $25 to the amount owed which  means I’m once again paying fees on top of fees!!

No wonder my blood pressure is so high. I could not sleep last night because of the fact I have less funds than I originally determined and I’ve still got two bills to pay before my next payday which is still a fortnight away. I hate money though we need it to run our lives. I hate banks but now I really hate credit unions.

Oh and one other thing – ALWAYS CHECK THE CHANGE GIVEN TO YOU AT THE CHECKOUT!! Stupidly I believe that all change given to me is correct. When I got home to my horror I’d discovered I’d been shortchanged by $20. That may not seem like a lot of money but these days $20 can be stretched a long way and I was extremely PISSED OFF about being ripped off like that. No point in returning as they’d say I’d have to prove it (looking at the docket won’t make it better as they could presume that after several hours you’d already spent the so-called missing $20).

I really had a bad fucking day yesterday >:(

Today I headed back to Gribbles to have my second blood test. As mentioned in the earlier posts my first one didn’t go so well so you can imagine how excited I was to return for more. Anyway I was prepared for the worst but hoped that they wouldn’t use my hand again. Its still actually bruised and its still sore, a week after they originally did it.

However, today was a nice surprise. I headed into Gribbles to await my turn, this time I’d booked ahead though so no need to grab a number. They still had my details from before so they knew what needed to be done and also the nurse had written down how difficult it was getting blood out of me. I had a man today, he was an older man, kind of short, but he was friendly. He also happened to be on heck of an expert on drawing blood out easily, even from the most difficult patients like myself. He took one look at the obvious vein that stood out on my right arm and said “I can use this one.” Now this vein wasn’t hiding before, but the nurse and previously my doctor didn’t want to touch it as they thought it was too small. But this guy, he knew how to ‘work veins’ so he wasn’t afraid to have a go. Sure enough, one dig in with the needle, and the blood is simply pouring out into the tube! No pain this time either so that was a bonus.

The weird part about it was watching the vein itself disappear before my eyes! The blood also stopped coming out and into the tube. He said “Oh, its collapsed. I’ll give it a minute and it’ll come back on its own.” Sure enough, a couple of minutes later, the blood continued coming out and he had one full tube this time around. I was really surprised. He then said to me “Most people are afraid to use surface veins because they’re flat. And when you start drawing blood from them, they tend to collapse and flop down over the needle, stopping the blood flow through. But I know that if you just work the needle a bit the blood flow will return on its own.” He also looked at my right hand where there is another surface vein and said “I could use that one too but its on a bit of an angle so it would make it a lot more difficult to get the needle in. Its better when they’re straight.”

The one in my arm where he took the blood from has ‘returned’ and all he’s left me with is a small red spot where he stuck the needle in, no bruises this time around which I’m greatful for. And I’m also pleased he got a lot more out this time around as it means they should definitely have enough to do all my tests. He mentioned that if I had regular blood tests then I could come and see him at that particular clinic on Fridays as that’s the day he works at that clinic. I am thinking that if he’s still working there the next time I do have to have another blood test, then I’ll definitely be going on a Friday!

Finally, I’m nearing the end of the uploading for the transfer of Animay to the new host. Right now I’m on the last folder uploading the last of the files so tomorrow I’ll be turning off the screencaps gallery on the old host (putting it in maintenance mode) and transferring the database across to the new host and making sure it works. After that, I’ll continue with the job I intended and that was to test if they allowed a large number of files to be uploaded/inserted into the gallery script. If its successful by the end of the day, then I’ll change the dns and hopefully by the end of the weekend the site will have completely moved across to the new host/servers.

I’ll be looking forward to the end of this transfer that’s for sure.

Okay, first for the WOOO!

With moving to this new server, I had the ability to upgrade WordPress and plugins automatically. On the old server I wasn’t able to do that. Do you know how much time this saves me? LOTS! I don’t have to download, then upload and check all files are there, then run the upgrade program, it just does it automatically. That’s the whole idea behind WordPress, to be able to have an easy solution to upgrading whenever a new release or security release comes out.  It mightn’t seem like a big deal but it is to me. So being able to do that now, thanks to my new hosts, is a definite WOOOOOO!!! ^_^b

Now the BOOOOO!

I’ve received a recall back to Gribbles for more blood. Apparently they really didn’t have enough and so I must return for them to have another ‘stab’ at me. I’d prefer not to go back at all but if I need to know what’s wrong with my health, then the blood test is necessary. Its also a big BOOOOOO!! ;____;