Not to be a hater…

  • by Drew

I guess I could correct that to Haiti-er, but I feel I should mention something. I’ve been hearing a lot of hoopla about the ridiculous amounts of money that credit card companies make from charitable donations. By now I know most of them have promised to waive those fees on donations to Haiti charities and and relief, but there’s a bigger issue here. I mean, I don’t want to totally side step the tragedy in Haiti, but there are a few things to consider.

First, this is neither the first or last tragedy of its kind. The credit card companies made a mint on Katrina and the tsunami and countless other tragedies. They make a mint from any charitable donations made using a card – year round. You give to your alma mater? You’re also padding the bonus of a credit card company CEO.

But that’s not the worst of it. These guys take a healthy chunk from retailers as well. Now, you may not care if Walmart has to pay a percentage of its net to allow for the convenience of accepting credit cards and not having to deal with cash. But do you know they pay lower fees than little mom and pop shops? Yup, it is a fact. Merchant fees care completely negotiable, and the better rates the big boys get, the crappier rates available to the little guys.

It’s a tough time. Lots of people need jobs, health care, debt relief, basic necessities. So if you’re going to get all pissed about credit card companies making money off a tragedy, remember that their standard business practices are often unfair to small, local businesses. Every day.

I “Like” It

  • by Drew

I, like many of you I’m sure, am on Facebook. I was actually an early Facebooker from back when you had to log on with an actual college email address proving your alumni-cred. Any of you remember that? It used to be much harder to join Facebook. Yes, it was actually hard to join if you didn’t use an alumni email address as your primary email address. I mostly joined because my employer provides a wide range of services to nonprofits, many being schools. We did some early application integration with Facebook, and it was helpful for many of us to register.

I did have my famous ex-sort-of-girlfriend slash stalker slash confessional meth user slash wildly inappropriate hussy incident, and was turned off good ol’ FB for some time. Then I connected with some old friends, some genuinely good people, and things started looking up.

Now I am a somewhat casual user. I probably average a couple checks a day as long as my iPhone is handy. I rarely open the site in an actual browser. But I get the status updates, the real meat of the experience for me. One of my favorites is what I see as a fan of NPR. With a very small number of exceptions, I actually do not usually “fan” anything or anyone, but since I was doing some design work for an NPR project, and Facebook integration was of peripheral interest, I went ahead. Now I am treated to a variety of teaser headlines and article stubs, usually several times a day.

Then there are the inevitable comments – NPR has a lot of fans. Very vocal fans. And not always as intellectually impressive as they seem to think. I actually would have hoped that fans of NPR would be a little better with the grammar and spelling than fans of, say, Bubba Ho Tep. Not so.

Today I saw an amusing article. It was about court case over the gay marriage ban in California. At the time I saw the post, it was only about fifteen minutes old and there were already several dozen comments. There were also about 50 people who’d ticked that “Like” button giving the article a thumbs up. The funny thing to me is that the article did not take a stance on the issue. It was about problems with the case on both sides. Props and criticisms from both sides of the argument. So, I wasn’t sure if they “liked” the fact that the ban is being challenged in court or if they “liked” the fact that the ban was being defended in court. Very interesting, indeed.

Maybe this is how we can all come together and deal with our differences. I mean, I’m a total northerner and even though I loved visiting my brother’s vacation house in Raleigh with the family, and can’t wait to go again and again, I’m not exactly ready to start pricing NC Health Insurance. It’s a different culture and I’m not sure I’m  ready or willing to change the rules…my rules.

Still, if all the people with different ideas about a particular topic can come together and “like” the fact that the topic is under discussion, in a more or less neutral journalistic process…maybe there’s hope. Maybe we can see that the vinegar and vitriol of the shear op-ed outlets like Fox News and the like are not helping anybody, whether or not you agree with their politics. Let’s learn the lesson here. We “like” the fact that issues are being discussed and we don’t need to “hate” everybody who disagrees with our individual, personal views and belief systems.

Right?

And another thing…

  • by Drew

Something else has me annoyed. It’s not just the self-declared experts. It’s the bullshit fake experts. I’m thinking about guys like the Rich Dad Poor Dad dude. That guy has made an absolute mint with his made up story about two guys who take different investment paths. It’s the Goofus and Gallant of finance. Do what Goofus does and you will end up in the poor house. But follow Gallant’s investment strategy and you’ll end up wearing the royal rich dude robes.

And tons of people bought the book. And they bought the audiobook. And they bought follow up book. And they bought tickets to the seminar. And they bought copies of the investing video. And they bought the third book in the series. And they bought every magazine with and excerpt or article by the author of the three books. And they bought the revised ninth edition of the first book with the all new bonus chapter.

And maybe they followed the advice, and maybe it worked for them. Then again, maybe they should have spent the money on nice wedding invitations or just dumped it in a Money Market Account and left the book on the shelf.

My problem with this, and the reason I am annoyed: this dude never actually followed the Gallant investment advice. He was not a Rich Dad. He just came up with a cutesy concept for presenting the academic case for different styles of investing. Now, he is not particularly dishonest about the fictional dudes. But he made his money through book sales, and not investments, and for that reason, one has to REALLY question the validity of the advice.

Frosty

  • by Drew

Snow everywhere. For the fourth or fifth time in the last week, the weather man was wrong. Wrong wrong wrong. We had snow all day. All day. I got to bust out the snow blower again. Again.

I’m not usually a seasonal complainer since I am one of those people who always says I couldn’t live in, like, Florida or Cali because I like variety throughout the year. And I really do mean that. But when the weather man keeps saying “enjoy the next couple of sunny, snow-free days” and I plan accordingly, the unexpected snow really blows.

I’m not exactly in the Outer Banks vacation homes market or anything,  but I really wish the weather guys would stop sucking it long enough to not blow the weekend…or at least let us know when it’s actually going to be a snowy day.

Thinning

  • by Drew

Since my most recent post may make me sound like a real bald-hater I should point out that I, too, am somewhat follicle-challenged. I mean, I’ve always had a high hairline, even when I had hair down to my butt. And now I’ve discovered something else. After an ill-fated attempt to grow my hair out a year or so ago, I found that I have a thin patch in the Friar Tuck region. Damn. Goodbye rock star locks and hello Deadhead pony knob. Well, I think not. Back to corporate short, I guess.

So, I have hair issues too, so I’m not really picking on bald men. I’m picking on vain nimrods who blow all sorts of cash on hairpieces and Hummers to try to impress 18 year old girls. And who wants to impress 18 year olds anyway? I mean, I remember a time when 18 year olds were slim and sassy, and even the dimmest bulbs were fun to talk to. But now, it seems that wherever you look, two out of three teens are chunked up. Seriously, when I look better in a halter top than half the high school girls out there…this is why pay per view porn is such a big business.

The thing about baldness that gets to me, though, is the handful of areas that are not afflicted. For example – ears. I am pretty safe in this region. I have an occasional sprouting of fuzz on an earlobe that needs plucking, but it’s not too bad. My nose gets a routine plucking too, but mostly for what seems to be a handful of persistent hairs that corkscrew out.

I won’t even go into my back…but if they start doing effective back-to-Tuck hair transplants, my pate will be well-sheathed in coarse black wiry fuzz. and I used to pluck between my brows every once in a while, but it’s been years since I needed to. Weird. I never approached a mono-brow or anything. I just used to have a few stray hairs that would show up once in a while. But no more. Do you go bald on your brow line too?

But this brings me to my last area of hair-tastrophe. I have this one hair that appears in the middle of my left eyebrow every few months. While the bulk of my brow remains chill and trim, this one hair grows to the beat of its own drum. For real. It twists and turns for weeks before I notice it (contrary to what this post might suggest, I don’t actually spend too much time looking in the mirror…I mean, I do love rooms with tile flooring and all, but I’m not that bad). when I notice the mega-hair, I grab the tweezers and usually pluck something that approaches an inch in length. What is that all about? What is this one rogue hair doing? Why can’t we clone that little bugger and sell him to the vain, bald, Hummer driving, chunky-loving male masses? We could make a mint!

Dimoxi-who?

  • by Drew

Riddle me this – millions of men spend absurd amounts of money on medical treatments, surgical procedures, ridiculous prosthetics and voodoo witch doctors to increase their personal follicle count. Seriously. Ours is a culture obsessed with baldness, or rather, hiding baldness. Or maybe it’s really hiding from baldness, because let’s face it, no matter how good your process, procedure or piece, everybody knows.

Think you’re getting away with it, Baldy? Think again. Everybody knows.

And if you’re delusional, like this one cue-ball-topped friend of mine who says people only notice the bad jobs and the bad rugs, think again. They see them all, they’re just too polite to mention it to your face. No, friend, trust me. You most certainly do not sport super-rug. Not by any stretch of the imagination. Not after consuming all the gin in the tub.

So embrace your baldness. Enjoy the extra pleasure you can glean from the Minka Aire ceiling fan with no excess hair to block its gentle summer caress. Go with nature, friend. Natural is nicest. It is. It is.

So tired…

  • by Drew

Man, this coughing and no sleep thing has been a drag. I mean, really bad. I just looked in the mirror and I am reminded of a phrase I used to hear when I was growing up…death warmed over. And seriously, not much warmed at all. I look so tired, the circles under my eyes have circles. Maybe some under eye cream is in order.

What is that thing, though. You know, when you lay down and start getting a tickle in your throat? Man, that sucks. That really sucks. Of course, after I got past that I discovered that I would get the cough tickle when I didn’t lay down. Like, I’d prop myself up to keep myself from coughing and it would make me cough. D’oh!

Cough…Hack…Cough…

  • by Drew

Yeah, that’s been the sound of me for the last week or so. The stomach flu hit the household and I did a lot of laundry right around Christmas. A LOT of laundry. And while the nastiness of the 24 to 48 hour virus passed me by, I ended up with a series of cough and cold symptoms you wouldn’t believe. I’ve had sinus issues, headaches, body aches, nasal drips, congestion, sore throats, and an unbelievable hacking cough that wouldn’t let me lay down for more than about 5 minutes.

I’ve used every pill, syrup and powder under the sun. I even considered trying weight loss pills that work on colds…or so they say on some of the scarier pseudo-medical-advice blogs. Dude…this coughing thing really sucks.

Finally, though, I’m thinking it is leaving me be. finally I’ve made it through a night without hacking half the night away. Sleep, glorious sleep.

‘Tis the Season…

  • by Drew

As we plunge headlong into the holidays, I know thoughts of plasma screens and wall mounts and Wii games are jousting with the remembrance of acts of mercy and redemption…and there’s that 24 hour Christmas Story marathon to think about… But there’s something nipping at my nose and it ain’t Jack Frost. I keep hearing all this nonsense about anti-Christmas sentiment, and it is getting on my nerves. I’m not going to get into the religious, mythological, sociological or simple cultural “reasons for the seasons” because let’s face it, there is single satisfactory response. I mean, you may think there is, but there’s not. This holiday seasons has roots that extend back many thousands of years, and no single race, creed, religion, belief system, or soft drink can claim full credit.

All that aside, I want to focus on something way more substantial than whether people say “Merry Christmas” versus “Happy Holidays” or something along those lines. First of all, if someone chooses to say something other than Merry Christmas, it does not mean that they hate Christmas or hate your religious beliefs or are persecuting you in any way. It may simply mean that they don’t know if YOU celebrate Christmas and are being sensitive to your potential cultural differences. Maybe you should take that as an object lesson.

Here’s something else to consider. I know a lot of people who celebrate Christmas. They are religious and kind and wonderful, but they do not say Merry Christmas for one simple reason. They do not feel joy at this time of year. They are not haters. They just have dealt with losses like a death in the family, and the holidays bring up sad memories. So, they are not feeling particularly joyous. Maybe all those good Christmas lovers should realize that their insensitivity is just making it more difficult for others.

Here’s another thought – many of the people who do not say Merry Christmas at this time of year also do not regularly say “Please” or “Thank you” or “Excuse me,” and most of them probably don’t use their turn signals. I am WAY less concerned about the seasonal greeting and way more interested in experiencing some common courtesy. How ’bout you?

Everybody must get loaned…right?

  • by Drew

I feel like I’m becoming the online university review clearing house here, but what can I say? The schools are out there, and distance learning is tied pretty closely to the higher ed affinity work I do, so I almost feel obligated.

I just learned about Western Governors University. It is online-only, nonprofit and fully accredited. Three big checks on the plus side as far as I’m concerned. Online only means the expenses of non-academics programs, campus buildings, etc. are kept to a minimum, so your tuition pays for your education and not the other stuff. Non profit means there are no shareholders to benefit from inflated tuition rates, and fully accredited means it is a real degree, not one of those faux-lambskins from Greedy-Televangelist-of-the-Moment U.

And WGU delivers in terms of tuition value. Their tuition per semester is flat fee, not by credit hour, so you can be paying as little as half what some other online institutions are charging. And the degrees available? You can get an online mba through their Master’s programs in business administration, healthcare management, or IT management. There are also several other available degree programs. Not too shabby.

Why Western Governors, I mean, as a name? Apparently the school was founded to serve students of the modern age. It is the vision of the governors from 19 different states and is supported by at least 20 major corporations. To date they have serviced more than 14,000 students across the country. Not too bad, in my humble opinion.

© 2026 Drew Bancroft. All rights reserved. Totally.