Then the unimaginable happened. At the age of 44, my husband had a stroke. Oh, he was lucky! Compared to the vast majority of those who have a stroke, he got off easy. Instead of complete paralysis, loss of speech, memory loss, speech problem, inability to swallow or any of the other dire symptoms that regularly accompany a stroke, his was mild by comparison. His stroke (a hemorrhagic stroke -- meaning a brain bleed rather than a blockage of the blood vessel) happened in the right frontal lobe of his brain. His primary symptoms included very mild aphasia (forgetting or mixing up words), balance problems and loss of up to 60% use on his left side (remember, right brain controls left side of the body and vice versa).

Thankfully, by incorporating our business last year, we actually have health insurance. It was a convoluted process -- completely unnecessary if not for our screwed up health care system, but that’s an entirely different rant. But thankfully, we WERE insured, so his hospitalization and followup therapy was covered. of course, the greedy bastards at Anthem Blue Cross of California decided on October 1st to start charging PPO copay/coinsurance rates on an HMO plan -- but again, that’s a different rate -- so now where Physical Therapy was free, we know have to pay $25 per visit twice a week and even more for “specialist” visits to doctors who are part of the very HMO group that we belong to, who don’t even bill the insurance company. Greed fucks.

The point of all this griping and background -- even with the stroke, while Chris is able to get around on his own now, his prognosis is such that he will never be able to walk without an supportive device (e.g., cane) probably for the rest of his life. On a good day, the most he can walk without the can is 1/2 a block. On a bad day -- he’s lucky to make it across the apartment without falling down. So, obviously, we petitioned the state for a Handicap Placard for our car.

NOW I pay attention to what’s going on in the real world with regard to handicap parking places.

Let me point out, so there is no confusion: The placard is Chris’. At no point and no time do *I* use the placard to park in ANY handicap parking space if Chris is not in the car with me!!! Certainly it has been tempting on more than one occasion! However, I do not roll that way. #1, it’s not my placard and I don’t need it. I can walk the extra 20-3o yards. #2, I’m scared. Have you SEEN the penalties for misusing a Handicap Placard lately? I don’t have that kind of money laying around. Do you?

First off, California needs some serious review of their procedures for issuing these placards. I mean, really, does someone need a handicap placard because of a MENTAL diagnosis? Really? These spaces are supposed to make it easier for people with PHYSICAL handicaps to get where they are going. When I can’t park where I need to for Chris to get where he’s going, and the person in the spot gets out with no clear or obvious physical handicap, it’s like a slap in the face. Are they cheating and using the space with a placard that belongs to someone else? Did they lie on their application? Did their doctor lie? According to the LA Times:

California, which has 24 million licensed drivers, will issue 2.1 million permanent placards this year, up from 1.2 million a decade ago. In Los Angeles County, about 621,000 of nearly 6 million licensed drivers have placards.^[1]

To what do we owe such a drastic increase in disabled placards in California, in particular in LA County? Do we really have do many disabled people? I am highly suspicious of that. Instead, I attribute it to high health care costs and the proliferation of low-cost health clinics run as businesses, where anyone with any complaint can stop by for little to no money, see a doctor for 2-3 minutes and shove some paperwork in front of them with any sob story. The doctor signs it without reading it, and voila -- instant handicap placard. Since the state doesn’t actually VERIFY any of this paperwork, every Tom, Dick and Mary now has a placard to use with impunity.

We got a temporary placard at first, because his original prognosis was “full recovery in 6 months” according to the doctors. After  4 months, they changed their minds and said he’d probably be using a cane for the rest of his life. So we amended our application and requested a permanent placard. Neither time did the State investigate our claims or follow up with the doctor -- they simply took the claims at face value and processed the application.

Now we all know that doctors can be bought. If they couldn’t, there wouldn’t be a zillion drug addicts on the street zoning out on legal pharmaceuticals. Yeah, times are tough and budgets cuts affect everyone. For something THIS important, though, could they not at least afford a phone call?

Next comes the ones who don’t even HAVE a placard. You know the ones. Perhaps you even are one. “I’m just stopping for a moment.” “I only had to run into the store for a second.” “Nobody was using it and it was right here.” “Why should they get all the best spots?” The excuses are endless. End the end, that’s all they are though -- excuses. The plain and simple fact is IF YOU DON’T HAVE A HANDICAP PLACARD, DON’T PARK IN THE HANDICAP PARKING SPACE!!!!

So the next time you see that conveniently place handicap spot -- just keep driving. Unless you have a proper, valid placard/license plate from the state, avoid the urge. Not only are you risking monetary fines from the state, but you are SERIOUSLY inconveniencing peoples’ lives. I’m not talking about just making them walk a little bit further -- I’m talking about causing them pain, making them choose between shopping or not shopping, having an independent life or being stuck at home. Your choices seriously have an impact on others.

Next time, just think about it.

^[1] http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/22/local/la-me-disabled-parking-20110522

I love that people since 9/11 are finally giving Veterans their due. Unfortunately, thanks to misplaced and overzealous patriotism pushed by the neo-con Republicans, there seems to be a selective process on some peoples’ parts when it comes to deciding WHO is a veteran.

Oldsters that served prior to 1980? Absolutely, especially if they show a physical infirmity!

Vietnam vets. Prior to 9/11 they used to be the national pariahs. If anything good came out of that day, it’s that people are FINALLY recognizing the contributions of that group.

Middle East war vets -- of course they are universally loved and recognized, regardless of what side of the aisle you are from. Not that this has any affect on providing any of them with adequate medical care when they return to this country, housing or shelter, jobs, mental health care or anything else. But we love them! Why, twice a year we break out the American Flags and wave them in their honor, on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, showing them just how much we care! Meanwhile, Republican Presidential hopefuls stand by and do nothing while a serving, active duty soldier gets booed by a debate audience for asking a question that is current and relevant. Oh, yeah, most of them apologized AFTER the debate -- but I think it’s a better measure of their character on how they responded at the time than how they responded after when their handlers prompted them with prepared statements.

Then there is the forgotten veterans that make up the vast majority of the group. The ones that nobody remembers, never get recognized, receive no benefits of any kind except maybe some educational benefits (if they are lucky) and are largely ignored by their country’s citizens -- even on Veteran’s Day. Who are these mysterious invisible people? They are…. the average veterans! For example, me and my brother.

We didn’t happen to serve during a major war. We weren’t injured or suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. We weren’t part of a big group that earned the sympathy of the nation for whatever reason.

Instead, we were patriots. We joined as volunteers (although, in truth, our group is largely made up of draftees from the Vietnam War era and earlier, though that group is declining through attrition) when we didn’t have to. We kept the government’s dream of an All Volunteer Force alive. In my brother’s case, he served most of his 4 year tour on the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz. I served just over 8 years, 5 of them on nuclear missile subs out of Bangor, WA and 3 years in the barracks at Naval Station San Diego. During that 8 years I received my Good Conduct medal, more letters of commendation that I can count, an Expert Pistol Shot medal (I volunteered for the security for and was trained by marines), multiple unit commendations, and ultimately received the Navy Achievement Medal while in San Diego for writing a computer networking program that saved the Navy millions of dollars a year.

I am not that unusual, though. I am like so many others in that I served my country, did my time and got out to pursue a life as a civilian. I am not on disability of any type (nor is my brother), I don’t belong to the local Foreign Legion, I did not serve overseas on any major campaigns (although I did serve during the Cold War).

So next time you see all the fuss on television about Veterans Day or Memorial Day, remember that there are a hell of a lot more “forgotten” veterans out there like me than the ones they trot out for the big fancy ceremonies. We are all patriots and love our country -- some of us are just more visible than others.

Last month we decided that it was time to change mobile carriers. Doing some simple math, we figured out that we were paying T-Mobile for 2 cell phones plus a really old @Home line that hasn’t even worked for 6-9 months, Verizon for 3G data service on my Galaxy Tab and Jitterbug/Great Call for a “senior friendly” phone for my mother-in-law.

In mid-September, I got an offer from Credo Mobile that not only offered much better rates than T-Mobile, but offered to pay my contract termination fee, too. Since Mom’s phone and the Tab data service were both month-to-month, plus we would be signing up with Credo (service by Sprint but company run by Working Assets, look them up), this was too good to pass up. So I took the plunge, ordered 2 Android phones for myself and Chris, a decent Sanyo flip phone for Mom and ported our numbers over to Credo. The @Home number, which was for work anyway, I ported to my Asterisk phone switch service provider so it rings into our work phone system.

Here’s the rub. Two days after the numbers ported over, we started receiving weird phone calls around 7:55pm every night. Upon answering, a machine says “Please hold,” then hangs up before anyone picks up the phone. A few days later, I received a letter in the mail from a company named “ER Solutions” saying that they represented T-Mobile for my debt due. It seems that in their infinite wisdom, T-Mobile had decided to send my account to collections, without contact me to confirm that my account was closing (hey, I could’ve been porting my number but wanting to get a new one from them!) or even sending me a final bill! Not only that, but their collection agency was calling via robocall and hanging up before a human even picked up.

I immediately called the number on the letter -- the exact same number that had been calling us every night. Finally I reached a human who refused to give me his name. I explained to him that their information was false, I had not even received a final bill from T-Mobile yet, that per the FDCA they were forbidden to call me at any telephone number on record again in the future.

Two days later, they called me yet again. This time, after waiting for 2 minutes on hold, I actually got through to a human. This one, a woman, also refused to identify herself. I repeated the same information to her and the same demand to stop calling me per federal law.

Fast forward to mid October. I was running some errands and happened to walk by a T-Mobile store (Burbank store #106, 818-843-2341). I figured, what the heck, so I stopped at the counter where 4 reps were standing around doing absolutely nothing as I was the only customer in the store. One clerk, Simon, asked if he could help me and I asked him if they where a franchise store or corporate owned. He said they were corporate owned. I explained the situation and that I was looking to get a copy of my last bill, at least, or more if possible. He looked up my account, told me that it was closed then said “Sorry, it’s our policy not to print bills for customers.” I immediately asked him if that was company policy, or local store policy. He didn’t answer, he just said “It’s OUR policy.” Of course, me being me, I asked him if his manager was on duty, which he wasn’t, so I asked him if he had a card with the manager’s name on it. He grabbed a card and slapped it on the counter, telling me that the manager’s name was Ed.

Here is the really unbelievable part. I asked him what his name was. He immediately ripped his name tag off his shirt, got hostile and nearly shouted at me “That’s none of your business, you don’t need to know that. It’s time for you to get out of the store before I call the cops.”

The next day I called into T-Mobile customer service (at the Albuquerque call center) and after multiple attempts to reach a human was finally connected to Mike. After getting my account information, Mike didn’t want to hear anything from me about anything except when I was going to make a payment on the account -- for which I have still not yet received a final bill yet. I asked for his supervisor and got transferred to Jamal. Jamal was, if anything, worse than Mike. He was rude, confrontational, abrasive, and even lied on my account records by noting that I refused to make a commitment on payment when I specifically told him that I intended to pay it in full when I received my last bill -- which had not been generated yet. When I finally challenged him on his attitude and refusal to answer my questions, I told him that because of his abuse I was going to have to record the call, since they were recording on their end. He immediately told me that it was THEIR company policy to not allow any customers to record calls and hung up on me.

I immediately called back into their toll free number and navigated my way to a human. Before they could say anything else, I informed them that because this was now a legal issue and I resided in California -- a two party consent state -- either they ceased recording the call on their end or I would be recording the call on my end. Once again I was informed that company policy prohibited customer recording of calls and there were NOT ALLOWED to stop recordings on their end. She then hung up on me, again.

Finally, I called back and refused to give my account number, name or other information. When I got through to a human who insisted that I had to give her information, I told her that this was a legal matter and I had her name. She could pass me up to a supervisor immediately, informing that supervisor this was a matter of utmost legal importance regarding an FCC and state law violations, or she herself would be named specifically on the lawsuit against T-Mobile. She transferred me.

I finally got through to a supervisor named Debra (Deborah) who actually listened to what was going on, including what happened to me in the local Burbank store. When she heard that story, she immediately put me on hold after getting their phone number, and called them! She came back after a few minutes to inform me that if I wanted to return to the store (although she would understand if I didn’t want to) that they would be more than happy to print out my last 3 bills as required by T-Mobile company policy, although the system may limit the printouts to the first 3 or 4 pages. An official investigation into the actions of the employee Simon had been initiated as his actions towards me and the company’s policy of not printing (apparently to save money) were completely unjustifiable.

She also was trying to find out why their collection agency was harassing me before my account had even been finalized. Apparently, my bill wasn’t even due to be closed out for another 2 days. Their collections practices were not up to T-Mobile standards, but according to my research on Google, I’m not the only one to see such activity from them. Last, but not least, she told the system to send me a paper copy of my last bill, since they automatically shut down my web access when my numbers ported over and I was on e-billing. She also supposedly made note on my account that ER Solutions was never to contact me again about the account. Period.

None of her actions, as welcome as they were, actually do anything to fix the serious and flagrant violations of the law made by T-Mobile. It was, however, nice to see at least one Customer Service Supervisor at the company who knew what the hell she was doing. It is extremely sad that it took 3+ phone calls and 2 escalations to find her, though.

Incidentally, 5 minutes after I hung up from talking to Debra, guess who called me? ER Solutions! According to their records, I had NEVER spoken to one of their reps and NEVER REQUESTED that they stop calling me. Hmmm.

To recap:

• T-Mobile sends customers to collections before their accounts even close or they send them a final bill
• T-Mobile records all phone calls (Announcement by IVR system is “consent”) and if you don’t like it, then “you can communicate by postal mail” -- yes, i was literally told that
• T-Mobile refuses to allow customers to record any phone calls, period. If you mention it, as required in states that require 2 part consent like California, they will hang up on you. If you are in a state that doesn’t require 2 party consent, I strongly recommend that you do so to cover your ass with them, as they will lie about your account. One has to wonder, what a large telecommunications company like T-Mobile has to hide when they flat out refuse by corporate policy to allow customers to record telephone calls with their employees? Could it be that they know their CSRs are giving false, misleading and damaging information to the customers and such recording could be used against them in court and/or mediation and/or FCC investigations?
• Their Customer Service Reps and Supervisors can and will be rude and lie to you, even about you, on their system if they think they can get away with it. Even though they record all calls “for quality control purposes” those calls are rarely actually reviewed unless there is a reason to do so.
• If you get ANY communications from ER Solutions, immediately follow the steps in the letter to challenge it and request written proof of the debt and written proof of their legal write to collect on that debt, including ownership of the debt. In writing, inform them that they are only allowed to communicate with you in writing. If you have the ability to record phone calls, also inform them in writing that any telephone calls they make to you will be recorded and by making such calls they give consent to such recordings.
• Don’t use T-Mobile!

Why is Charter Burbank the Bastard Stepchild Division? Well, some may like the service nationwide, but we are basically the asshole of the nation when it comes to their service. We pay the same rates, or higher, as everyone else in the country. Unfortunately, we get only 1/2 of the HD channels as listed on the Charter Communications nationwide website as supposedly being available on their system. Why? Our “head end” hasn’t been upgraded in years. Our cable boxes? Leftovers from everyone else -- nobody here has EVER received a brand new cable box or DVR. Charter is supposedly introducing Tivo service, but we are literally LAST on the list to receive them nationwide. Our service and performance history is the worst in the nation. Two miles away, in LA city proper, Time Warner provides the cable service -- for less price per month they get 40% more HD channels and the non-HD channels are 20% more English language. Their internet service is faster and has considerably higher reliability.

Of course, since it’s cable and we live in an apartment, we are SOL. Our apartment faces north. We have zero options for switching to satellite. Our local city council/Franchise Authority refuses to allow AT&T to install U-Verse or Verizon to install FIOS. So lucky us, we are stuck with a government mandated monopoly, for which the city council members are probably getting a kickback from Charter.

Continuing on….

Our living room 2 year old Moxi DVR died, 2nd one I’ve had with them. I prefer it to the Scientific Atlanta/Cisco version for MANY reasons, including 10x better guide, skip forward button, bigger HD, ease of use, better video, better setup, USB HD expansion, no forced “sleep” at 1am every day (whether watching or not), etc.

I called for replacement, which was an adventure itself. We pay suck f-ing much we are a “Premium” subscriber with Charter, supposedly going to the head of the line for all support calls, not that I’ve ever noticed any difference in wait times.

Despite the fact that I called in on a toll free number so they knew my phone number, addressed me by name and clearly knew who I was, I STILL had to press one on their stupid IVR system to continue in English. In the USA.

OK, I can totally understand and accept having an option on an IVR menu saying “press X to continue in Spanish” or whatever. I am a firm believer, though, that when I call an American company in America, they damned will ought to proceed as if I was AMERICAN and speaking ENGLISH.

Even then, there is no direct and immediate way to get to an operator/agent. You have to sit through their stupid “troubleshooting agent” to identify where the problem is, then it tries to walk you through automated steps to resolve your problem. The problem is, these steps are insanely stupid. Do you think maybe the dumbest user will have tried unplugging and re-plugging in their cable box to see if that resolves their problem before calling in to their customer service/tech support line? And don’t even get me started on their internet tech support. They may be in the USA, but they make the average East Indian tech support rep look like a fucking genius!

Anyway, the contractor (not employee) finally showed up three days later during the last 10 minutes of his 2 hour visit window. (Of course, Charter never offered to credit me for 3 days of lost service on the DVR that I was paying for service on.) No call in advance, despite Charter policy that they call before arriving for a service call. When asked why not, he said “Nobody told me to.” Duh -- read your policy manual?

He unwrapped a “new” Moxi from plastic, plugged it in then spent nearly 1.5 hours trying to figure out why it wouldn’t work. In his, and supervisor’s word, “it must have broken between the warehouse and installation. They are fragile, which is why Charter is discontinuing them. We can order a new one for you, but it’ll take another week.” Umm, yeah, I’ll wait another week after being w/o my DVR for 3 days. The dipshits. I deal with this stuff. Technology does not break that easily between being shipped and being installed unless a) stupid techs toss them around like toys in their trucks, or b) nobody bothered to actually test them before wrapping them up and sending them out for re-use. Your guess is as good as mine for which one applies here, since either one is likely.

Finally, after nearly 2 hours of my time wasted (I’m tempted to bill Charter my consulting rate for time wasted!) both the tech (#8311 Mays or Reyes -- I couldn’t understand his accent -- and his boss #8333 Mike of HG Communications, a contractor of Charter Communication in Burbank) determined that I was being a “difficult customer” and had two choices to avoid wasting any more of their time. I could simply wait at least a week or more for them to order another Moxi -- with no guarantee that it would work, or accept whatever HD DVR the tech had on his truck and live with it. Obviously, not willing to wait a week or more without HD or DVR service, probably without any credits, I chose the latter.

Of interesting note about the tech Mays/Reyes, while he was installing the Moxi box (supposedly) he knew absolutely nothing about it beyond the sequence of keys to push on it to set it up and check the stats. Additionally, I specifically asked him to check the line signals on the cables or at the jack because of repeated problems with signal strength on both our cable modem and our DVRs (we have two -- living room and bedroom). The idiot flat out refused to. He clicked a couple of buttons on the DVR, read some numbers on the screen and said “numbers look good to me, no need to check the cables or anything,” even though all the cables in use were made and provided by Charter technicians.

Previously, just over a year ago, I had a problem with Charter and ended up calling their CEO’s Complain Line. Sadly, I no longer have that number and can’t seem to find it anywhere online. Surprise, surprise. The end result of that complaint, however, was that I ended up getting 6 months of discount on my services of approximately 40%.

This time, they aren’t going to get off so easily. All of this is fully documented. I have router RRD graphs showing the failure of their network to provide adequate and consistent service over the last 6 months, with packet loss up to 100% but averaging 60% on a daily basis. With the latest fiasco with the television service, plus the DVR issues, I am going on the warpath. Not only am I filing complaints with the California PUC, as a business owner in Burbank I intend to go to the City Council in Burbank and petition to have the franchise authority for Charter Communications revoked and opened for a full & fair bid among ALL cable providers.

It’s time for Burbank to oust Charter and its monopoly and join the 21st Century. If the city council members don’t want to listen… well, there’s an awful lot of apartment renters here in the city, forced to use Charter Cable and there is major city council election coming up very, very soon. We’ll see how they feel then.

First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Pastor Martin Niemöller

In 2008, there were many groups that resisted supporting the LGBT community in our fight against Proposition 8 with the argument that it had nothing to do with them. They did not support gay rights and the passage of such a proposition would have no effect at all on their communities, so why should they care? Two of these groups in particular I remember very well: the Muslims and the Jews.

Now, in San Francisco, a group of extreme left-wing do-gooders are trying to pass a law that would ban all circumcisions for males under the age of 18 without regard for religious observances. Never mind thousands of years of religious tradition. Forget about the 1st Amendment. These people believe that they know better than everyone else, and just like the ones who think they should intrude upon our lives & bedrooms to restrict who we should marry, they think that they should have the right to restrict whether or not parents can have their boys circumcised. Just like in 2008, this will be put to a vote of the citizens, because these do-gooders believe that basic rights of minorities should be put up for a vote of the majority.

Many supporters of this new measure in San Francisco would argue that it is necessary because boys are being needlessly mutilated, often (falsely) comparing the procedure to the so-called female circumcision barbarically performed on girls around the world, usually so they will not be able to gain any pleasure from the sex act. The problem is, you can’t compare the two. Female circumcision -- more accurately named female genital mutilation -- is the act of physically removing the external genitalia, specifically the clitoris. Experts world wide have testified again and again that there is no analogy between male and female circumcision

There are other arguments -- pain, psychological trauma, brain damage, etc. If you really want to know, you can Google it or go check out the subject on Wikipedia, which is quite thorough and sourced. What I can tell you, however, is that both my brother and I were circumcised as infants because we were born on Air Force Base hospitals in the 60′s, when it was common practice to do it to all boys. We don’t remember anything, we did not suffer any lasting trauma, we do not have PTSD, nor have we suffered any of the other dire ailments predicted by the so-called experts quoted by the proponents of this measure.

Oddly enough, I find that the strongest and loudest supporters of this measure appear to be women. Go figure.

So, since the ones who now could be affected the most by this “voice of the majority” vote didn’t want to stand up for the LGBT community to fight against Prop H8, I give you a slightly updated version of First They Came… based on our recent history of Civil Rights fights and known hate group targets here in America.

First they came for the African Americans,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a African American.

Then they came for the gays and lesbians,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t gay or lesbian.

Then they came for the Muslims,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Muslim.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Bob Parker

We have seen how many of these groups end up being used & abused by unscrupulous so-called “experts” in the industry. You know the type -- they got some certifications or went to an expensive school to call themselves “experts,” but really they are just highly trained con-artists. They charge way too much money to put up a crap website, promise all sorts of results for SEO (search engine optimization), slap up some bogus contact forms, maybe setup a PayPal account for donations and say they’ve done their job. At worst, they setup a scam of a system whereby they take a percentage of all donations that come in for themselves, while charging outrageous monthly fees for a really, really crappy website.

Sorry, but we don’t do business that way. We actually believe in running a business with a vanishing quality these days: ethics. Now because of this, we will probably never be rich. We realize this and we’ve faced the reality of it. Sure, it would be nice if we could be rich! We have lots of dreams, just like anyone else. We just simply cannot do business knowing that we are profiting unfairly at the expense of someone else. We can’t! Yes, the purpose of business is to make a profit -- that’s a given. But excess profit? No way. I would rather make a little bit of profit and live comfortably with a clear conscience than screw over my customers, make a big profit and live with a guilty conscience. In fact, when working as a wage slave for others, I’ve had to make that decision on more than one occasion and each time ethics won out over the “almighty” dollar.

Whenever I give money to a charity, of any type, I always investigate them to find out how much of my donation goes to the intended recipient and how much goes to “overhead” (e.g., administrative costs, staff salaries, etc.) to really see how effective that organization is. I highly recommend this to anyone giving any charitable donation of any kind. After all, unless you are someone like Richard Branson or Bill Gates, you want your money to count, right? It’s not just a tax write-off, this is valuable money that you are giving to make a difference in someone’s life -- be they 2- or 4-legged “people” .

So, imagine my surprise when I started investigating options for raising some Japan Earthquake & Tsunami Relief money by auctioning some items at eBay®. I found their “Giving Works” program, administered by MissionFish, itself a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. This, however, is proof that the 501(c)(3) label is not a guarantee of “good” in the charity world! You see, it appears from what I can find out, that MissionFish was created for no other purpose than to administer this “Giving Works” program for eBay® -- and nothing else. In other words, they serve no charitable purpose other than to distribute money collected from eBay® auctions and was setup as a 501(c)(3) organization simply to distribute that money tax free.

Oh, but the worst is yet to come! While all charities have some administrative overhead, MissionFish has made a business out of profiting from your charitable giving! That’s right, They charge a minimum 20% of every gift given to every non-profit recipient organization through sales at eBay®. 20%!!! That is utterly ridiculous! It doesn’t stop there, though. That’s only the minimum, for items that sell up to $49.99. For over $49.99 sale prices, they charge even more depending on the price. For example, for an item between $200 -- $999, they deduct 20% of the first $49.99 ($10) + 15% of the $50 -- $199.99 ($32.50) + 10% of the remaining amount. So, for a $500 sale, they collect from you $72.50, passing just $427.50 to the designated charity. That’s an “administrative overhead” of 14.5% for simply collecting the money and forwarding it to a charity electronically? Can we say “scam“? Don’t forget -- this is on top of the eBay® listing, insertion, “Buy Now” and other misc. fees! Oh, sure, eBay® will credit you some or all of those fees, based on the percentage of your sale that you gave to the charity. Woo hoo! Aren’t they generous? Remember -- this money is coming off the top before your chosen charity gets a dime -- you still have to figure in their overhead, too.

Granted -- “Donate Now” and “Cash Donation with Sale” fees are less, 3.75% and 5% respectively. Why? If you can answer that one, please comment and let me know! I can’t find a logical reason for it myself, since it is still money from an individual designated for a charitable organization in exactly the same way.

On the flip side, in comparison, a really good charity that provides direct disaster relief like AmeriCares®, has a total administrative overhead of just 2% -- with 98% of all donations going directly to recipients. If it were me (and it will be) then I would simply sell my items directly with using eBay®’s “Giving Works” program at all. Once the items sell (which I know they will) then I will take the money and make a direct donation to AmeriCares®, so I know that they get the money now.

Wait -- it gets better!

• Based on the concept that they must give time for a purchaser to return an item and the seller to give a refund, MissionFish holds on to all cash donated to a charity for 45 days. Think you are benefiting Japan Relief now by purchasing something today? Think again! They don’t tell you that on the website unless you dig!
• Of course, while MissionFish holds on to that money for 45 days, they are naturally earning interest on all that money. You don’t think they are holding it in an interest free lockbox account do you?
• When you purchase an item on eBay® through the “Giving Works” program, regardless of what charity you choose to support, you are not making a donation. The seller is making a donation. This is an important distinction, one to keep in mind!
• For sellers, no matter what charity they designate, their donation is not to their chosen charity. It is to the MissionFish-Points of Light Foundation, the 501(c)(3) organization they setup. That is who you will get your tax receipt from. If they cannot deliver the donation to your intended recipient or any reason (hmm… wonder how often THAT happens?) then they choose who gets your donation, at their total discretion.

One has to wonder, even with the processes of distributing funds, vetting non-profits, etc., why would a group like MissionFish need to take so much off the top in order to simply collect and distribute charitable contributions? This isn’t rocket science! This is, when it all boils down, software programming and automation, with some tax accounting thrown in for good measure.

There is one answer I can come up with. Greed.

Here we are, a little over a year since my last post on this blog. A whole lot of things have happened since then and, of course, not one of them has been a post on this blog. Bad Bob! So let’s try this again! A a little “Catch Up Redux” here to summarize the past year, then an opportunity to see if a new year will bring about a renewed commitment to regular blog postings.

Professionally, things have been a bit exciting over the past year. Chris and I took the big step and incorporated our business last summer, moving from Sole Proprietorship to full on California Corporation. In a fair world, of course, this would not have been necessary because we would have been protected from the ravages of the Infernal Revenue Service simply because we are gay. However, thanks to the lovely efforts of Republicans in Congress, even though we are legally married in our home state of California we are not able to claim the same financial protections in business on our taxes that any opposite sex couple married in a quickie ceremony in Las Vegas gets. As a result, we do not qualify for any of the “husband/wife” tax breaks given to married small business owners. We do not qualify for any of the tax breaks at all, period. And people wonder why we are fighting so hard for marriage equality, or the repeal of DOMA?

So, the alternative for us was to incorporate. As a corporation, we can start taking advantage of some of those nice corporate tax loopholes that the rich you-know-whats have been using for so long to their own advantage for years. Instead of the Feds classifying us as two unmarried individuals with no relationship to each other, all of our income is now earned by the corporation itself and we are employees of the corporation. This also gives us the added advantage of being able to qualify for health insurance under a “group” insurance plan, something else we have been doing without thanks to the wonderful “pre-existing condition” policies of those insurance companies that deny insurance to individuals -- but cannot be denied to a “group” business with employees.

All in all, thanks to a savvy accountant and financial adviser, things seem to be looking up on the professional and financial front in those matters. Of course, we are not completely out of the woods and still have much planning and work to do! We went through some problems with an accountant that seemed to think we were “small fry” and had to switch accounting firms before we got it right, finding one that was interested in us as real clients with real needs and not just another source of income. On the insurance side of things, we are stuck with an HMO -- not the greatest of situations, but beggars can’t be choosers and we are happy to at least have insurance at this point after several years of paying out of pocket for all our health care and hoping that nothing serious happened to either of us medically speaking.

With incorporation, of course, comes many headaches and much paperwork. I struggle to keep that under control and use what automation I can -- of course! There is so much I never realized, with payroll taxes, monthly filings, quarterly filings, annual filings, minutes and meetings, corporate reports, etc. Sigh. To think, all of this would be completely unnecessary if it weren’t for that stupid little bit of unconstitutional law that refuses to recognize our perfectly legal marriage. Some day….

On the home front, things are going quite well. Chris and I just celebrated the 14th anniversary of the day we met! It’s hard to believe sometimes that it’s been so long now, yet other days it feels a whole lot longer. (joking!) Coming up in July, we will celebrate the 3rd anniversary of our “legal” wedding, and August will be the 13th anniversary of our real wedding.

Our children still pretty  much rule our lives. That is the natural order of the universe, right? Delenn will be 10 this year and is aging well. She is still very much the little kitten at times, running around the house like a little devil! Yes, she is still clingy, barely leaving my side when we are at home. Coco, turning 5 this year, is even bigger (almost 13 pounds at last weigh in!) but still a little lover boy. He still loves his fresh tuna (kitty crack) and likes chasing his sister around the house whenever possible. Both of them sleep on our bed at night still, or more accurately on US at night, but that’s OK. I’m not sure either of us would change a thing. They are our little lover kitties and we would not trade them for the world. There is nothing quite like the unconditional love of an animal that gives itself to you completely.

While work has been the overriding theme in our lives, it has not been all work and no play!

Of course, Southland has played a big part in our lives, especially since TNT picked up the show for a 3rd season (which concludes its run next Tuesday). In November we were invited to visit the set of Southland, where we got to tour the set, take lots of pictures, interviewed Regina King, Michael Cudlitz and Ben McKenzie, and even got a demonstration of the weapons & tactics used by the LAPD on the show from technical adviser Chic Daniel. Chris even got to fire a taser at a dummy! Once a week, on the SouthlandTvFans.com website that I run, we have had live chats for the fans which have turned out to be a great success. Since the beginning of the season we have been joined in those chats by both cast & crew from the show, including 2 writers, 1 director, plus Kevin Alejandro, Shawn Hatosy, C. Thomas Howell, Michael McGrady and Michael Cudlitz.

Just recently we went on a whale & dolphin watching trip with the guys from our biggest client, down off Dana Point. We never did see any dolphins (oddly enough) but we did get to see a couple of gray whales and spent a nice day out on the water, NOT on the computer. I picked up a decent Canon EOS Rebel dSLR camera before Christmas to use for taking pictures for the business, and was able to get some good photos of the whales breaching and spouting.

Many other things have happened or come up in the last year. Some important, some not so important. I will most likely make some of those important ones subjects of individual blogs posts as I strive to keep this blog updated regularly from now on. That, however, is basically the last year in a nutshell. If you made it this far, then you are either a really good friend, a family member or really, really bored. Whichever it is -- I think you and hope you will come back and read more in the future!

Until then -- cheers!

Here’s one of our favorites that literally only takes about 5 minutes to prepare: Easy Chicken Parmesan

What you’ll need

• Frozen Chicken Patties/Chicken Breasts (we like Tyson, but any brand will do)
• 1 jar of prepared pasta/spaghetti sauce (e.g., Prego, Ragu, whatever you like. If you have left over sauce of your own, use that instead!)
• Parmesan cheese, shredded or grated
• Mozzarella Cheese, sliced 1/8″ -- 1/4″ (we like fresh, whole milk mozzarella ourselves, but you can use any kind you want. Buffalo, skim-milk, low moisture, prepared slices, whatever works for you)
• Optional: Pasta for side dish (Spaghetti, Fettuccine, Angel Hair -- try the fresh pasta’s in the cooler section of the grocery store. They cook super fast and taste amazing!)
• Optional: Olive oil (or regular vegetable oil if you don’t have olive oil) for the pasta

Before you are ready to start:

First, if you are making pasta to serve with the chicken, get your water boiling and don’t forget to salt it. Don’t forget, your only chance to season pasta is when it is cooking! Make sure you use a big enough pot to give the pasta room to move while it is boiling, or it will stick together.

At the same time, take your pasta sauce and put it in a small sauce pan on medium heat to get it warmed up.

Preparation Time:

If you are making pasta:

Your water should be boiling now, so go ahead and put some olive oil in the water, then put your pasta in. Cooking time will vary depending on the type of pasta, dry packaged vs fresh, so check your pasta package for details. Don’t forget to set a timer!

Making the chicken:

Take your frozen chicken patties and place them on a microwave safe plate. You probably won’t want to cook more than 4 at a time (or can’t if your microwave is like ours!), but that’s OK. Check the instructions on the chicken package and cook them for 1/2 the recommended cooking time for the number of patties. Do this for all the patties you are cooking if you need to do this in batches.

Now take your chicken patties and flip them over. Spoon enough pasta sauce over the patty to cover it, then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Lay a slice of the Mozzarella cheese over the top. If you want some color contrast and make it look fancy, you can sprinkle some dried parsley or even a little dried Italian Seasoning Mix over the top of the cheese.

Take the whole plate and put back into the microwave, then cook for the remainder of the recommended cooking time (For the Tyson patties for 4 of them, total cooking time is 4 minutes, so we cook 2 minutes before and 2 after).

After the 2nd cooking with the sauce and cheeses, let the plate rest for at least 1 minute before trying to move the chicken and plate it up! This is very important! Otherwise the mozzarella will not have time to set after melting, and when you pick it up it will all just slide off to the side in a big mess. Trust me on this one.

When your timer goes off, carefully dump your pasta noodles into a colander or strainer and very quickly rinse them with warm water, then put back into the pan. (Yes, I know -- lots of folks say don’t do the rinse thing, but after 25 years of cooking I’ve found that doing so helps keep the noodles from sticking together.) Then add about 1 tablespoon (eyeball it) of olive oil to the noodles and mix well -- this, too, will help keep the noodles from sticking together as well as adding some great flavor.

Quick Tip: If you want Garlic Toast but don’t have a toaster oven, no problem! You can prepare the frozen slices of garlic toast or cheese bread in a nonstick frying pan. Just heat up the pan and fry them like you would French Toast, checking carefully until toasted to a light brown then flip over.

Serve your Easy Chicken Parmesan with the noodles and sauce, and you have a very quick and simple Italian Dinner that your family will love. They don’t have to know that you didn’t slave over the stove for hours to make it!

So, before I move on to more current matters, here is a quick catch-up on what has been happening since my last post.

Southland

Unless you’ve been living in a cave or totally ignore television altogether, then you should already know that TNT saved Southland and it began airing on January 12th with the original episodes from NBC. They will start airing the unseen episodes on March 2nd.

This has, in fact, been a large part of what has taken my time over the last couple of months. Since the announcement that TNT saved the show I created a new Fan website at SouthlandTvFans.com and it has taken off like a rocket! We just recently passed 5,000 visits and over 10,000 page views for the site in just over 2 months. I was also able to (surprise!) wrangle an interview with one of the biggest stars of the show, Michael Cudlitz, who plays gay cop John Cooper.

On a personal level, the site has led to Chris and I meeting several members of the Southland cast, including Michael Cudlitz, Shawn Hatosy, Michael McGrady, Tom Everett Scott and Regina King, as well as series director/co-creator Chris Chulack. We were able to attend a special screening even in Hollywood recently where we met up with some Southland Twitter friends from San Francisco and Las Vegas, then see a sneak preview of the Season 2 premiere episode. Following the screening I have been able to setup a second interview, this time with Michael McGrady, which I am preparing to do tomorrow on the phone.

All in all, I would say that the whole Southland project has been a major success, both personally and as a webmaster.

Work

What can I say -- work is work, in the world of the independent contractor. Certain people continue to frustrate the hell out of me on a daily basis with their lack of communication and organization. Their clients are even more frustrating, but what can I do? It also makes it a lot tougher that someone who I valued immensely as a co-worker, mentor and friend was let go suddenly. I sometimes wish there was a better option, but unfortunately this IS the better option, at least right now. It certainly is not what I was promised when I started with the company almost a year and a half ago, and most of the promises that were made back then have never come to fruition, but you just have to hang in there and keep plugging away. In this economy, what choice do you have?

Cats

What can I say about the cats. They are spoiled rotten, lazy, overfed, over-loved -- pretty much the same as always. One is sleeping between my legs as I type right now, so nothing new on this subject!

Life

I mentioned going to the Southland premiere event in Hollywood earlier in the month, which was a lot of fun. It was great to get out of the house and actually go do something! With all the weight both of us have lost, we had to go clothes shopping before the event, spending way more than we probably should have, but hey -- after losing that much weight you just have to buy new clothes, right?

One of the friends we met at the event lives in Las Vegas, so Chris and I decided that for the 13th Anniversary of our initial meeting, we are going to do an all out fun trip there. We met on February 9th for our first date, then I cooked him a special dinner on Valentine’s Day, in 1997. So we are going to drive to Vegas on Friday, February 12th and come back on Monday, February 15th. We booked ourselves a deluxe suite at the Mandalay Bay(!) for the trip, so we have some place to finally relax and enjoy a real vacation, rather than just a Motel 6 room on a budget.

Of course, after spending that much money for the room, there won’t be too much left over for gambling, but that’s OK with me! I’m more of a slot machine guy myself. Chris can get a little bit to play some poker (on a very strict budget, with no access to debit card for withdrawals!) and our friend is already planning out fun activities to paint the town on Fri & Sat nights with us. That should be great fun -- partying in Vegas with a native!

That’s pretty much it -- my life for the last few months in a nutshell. Clearly, I need more of a life if it can be summarized that easily! Oh well -- maybe this year.

Just two weeks before the show Southland was due to return for its second season, the executives at NBC Primetime Scheduling have -- in their infinite wisdom -- decided that the show is “too expensive” and canceled it. Of course, Warner Brothers has already shot 6 new episodes, they are 4th in ratings (of 5 broadcast networks) and they are so far gone that GE is trying to sell them off.

If you haven’t seen it, Southland was a cop show that takes place in Los Angeles with the LAPD, but unlike any cop show you’ve seen before. This show was REAL! The characters, the stories, the emotions -- this was finally a show on NBC that was worth watching that wasn’t Seinfeld wannabes or Sci-Fi. It was also one of the few prime time shows that had a realistic depiction of a gay character who was NOT a drag queen, a femme, a fashion designer or any other sterotype. At the same time, that same character’s “straight” partner was played by a known (and much loved) out gay actor. Added bonuses for an excellent prime time drama!

The fan reaction has been strong -- reminiscent of the reactions in 2007 when Jericho was canceled by CBS. While there has been rumor circulating today that TNT might make a bid to take over the show, that hasn’t stopped fans from berating NBC Universal and Warner Brothers about what may be the dumbest move in network history.

In doing my part to further the cause for Southland, I setup a website quickly using Google Sites at http://www.SaveSouthlandShow.com with some basic info and links, and put together a petition at PetitionSite.com. There is a “Twitition” going that has some momentum, but unfortunately you have to have an account on Twitter to sign it, which is leaving a lot of fans out (bad thinking folks -- Twitter is great, but it’s not the be all, end all of the Internet!). I did, however, link it from the site’s Petition page. Every little bit helps!

So that kept my Sunday night busy. It may be a few wasted hours and the $10 domain registration fee in the long run, but at least I fought for something I believed in. There is so much garbage on television these days, when we finally get something of quality on that’s worth watching, then they cancel it AFTER renewing it before it even airs -- something fishy is going on at the network. That’s worth fighting for in my mind.

If you haven’t already, please visit http://www.savesouthlandshow.com and go to the Petitions page. Definitely sign the Public Petition, and if you have a Twitter account, sign the Twitition, too. Every voice counts and we need to let NBC know just how much they screwed up!

Save Southland!