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Rich Girl

You’re a rich girl, and you’ve gone too far
‘Cause you know it don’t matter anyway
You can rely on the old man’s money
You can rely on the old man’s money
It’s a bitch, girl, but it’s gone too far
‘Cause you know it don’t matter anyway
Say money but it won’t get you too far
Get you too far
Rich Girl by Hall and Oates



I had an exchange with a wildly out of touch rich girl the other day on FB. A friend posted this meme:

I’ll post all the screen shots at the end, but for discussion, I’ll be copying her comments [MB] and posting my retorts [AP], not necessarily exactly as I did in the original post, but mostly copied and edited w/ this: [snipped]. Anything new in my retorts will be italic. The egregious part of her nonsense I’m responding to will be BOLD. Ok, got it? Here we go!

MB:
Are you okay with taking on the liability personally. Most LLCs can be pierced. Getting a loan for an individual in the 5-16 unit range is nearly impossible -> not to mention landlords don’t understand how to manage 50 units and below > causing distress properties. A corporation provides benefits to the employees and makes profit, but for the most part they do upkeep the property > which is something an individual won’t do because they just hire contractors.
Just food for thought. You would also have a bigger housing crisis in cities without corporates because there would not be any housing. An individual can’t have more than 4 mortgages…

AP:
The corporations now own most of the rental properties available ANYWHERE and they make it nearly impossible to rent. It took my friends 18 months and thousands in application and viewing fees (non refundable, of course) to find a place. They were routinely rejected [snipped].

It is fallacy that corporations take better care of properties! They’ve had to replace a toilet [snipped] themselves, because the corporate landlord refused to fix anything.

What you are missing is that THERE IS NO HOUSING AVAILABLE because the corporations won’t rent to anyone. There are so many empty houses that squatting has become quite common. My friends had TWO different houses lined up, only to find that squatters had set up housekeeping in them and the corporation could not evict them w/out due process. [snipped] The corps don’t care if they rent the houses or not. They are just a write off if they are empty or full of squatters.

If you think having corporations control 90% of rental homes and having no available affordable starter homes is of benefit, I invite you to cruise around S Dekalb and have a look at how successful that notion really is. If we lose this home, we are SCREWED. We’ll never find another house to rent because of our credit. Nevermind that we have never been late a single time in 10+ yrs, that won’t matter at all. We can’t afford to buy when everything is $400k+++. How that is better for us and everyone else in our position is beyond me. ??

Now is where the lecturing and amazingly tone deaf bullshit begins:
Continue reading “Rich Girl”

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Never Trust a Realtor™

I just had an altercation with a Realtor™ on FB. I’d posted about our experience being fucked over by the mortgage industry and ESPECIALLY fucking Realtors™ in both residential and commercial. (We all remember the asshole Realtor™ who went leaf peeping rather than help us with the pub lease. When called out for abandoning us, he got pissy and I told him to go fuck himself. RIGHTLY SO.)

This FB person then proceeds to post a list of all the nice things they have done as proof that THEY are not to blame for the real estate mess and neither are their Realtor™ friends. Because my hatred of the real estate and mortgage industry is CLEARLY a personal attack. ??

So your Realtor™ and mortgage industry friends aren’t to blame? ORLY?

Who made the crash happen in 08/09? Mortgage companies and the stock market.
Who happily sold every starter home (and other abandoned homes) for pennies on the dollar to corporate rental/investment groups? Realtors™.
Who happily BOUGHT a significant number of these defaulted properties to start their own little landlord fiefdom? Realtors™.
Who locked down the home lending so that only the very rich or the very desperate (read: poor) will go for the shit loans offered? The mortgage industry.
Who benefitted the most from the mass mortgage defaults and buying up properties for rental? THE SAME MOTHERFUCKERS LISTED ABOVE.

SO, tell me again why you and your ilk are NOT to blame for this bullshit? This is called monetization of basic housing and the US is being decimated by it. Here is a NYT article about trailer parks and manufactured housing!! Yes, trailer parks are ALSO being bought up and “monetized” by the rich! THIS IS REAL!!

They also insist that THEY can get loans for anyone! They got a loan for someone with a 560 credit score!! (Credit scores are another bit of bullshit that I’ll rant about another time.) Oh? How about someone with TWO bankruptcies? Hmm? Can you magically coerce a mortgage company to finance US? Answer: NO. NO, they cannot. Because they don’t have any idea about LOSING everything and being dumped into a low paying entry level job. They can’t do a fucking thing for us, but got totally in a knot when I challenged that belief.

I just love how well off people will get defensive when called on their bullshit. This person shills real estate and who knows what their spouse does, but I’ll betcha THEY have a fat retirement fund and NO WORRIES. (This is a guess, but by the overall demeanor of this person, I sense that they are doing just fine and don’t understand what all the fuss is about. I have no proof of their status, but they are reacting like typical well off folks – with defensiveness.) It’s awesome to be written off as “just an angry person” by someone with life set to EASY MODE. WE ARE SICK OF IT. If you think that it’s just US – you are DELUSIONAL. There are FAR MORE people just barely hanging on than there are with two homes and a fat IRA. I PROMISE.

If you really believe that the housing industry and the overall economy is fine, you need to educate yourself in a bad way.

We have gambled and lost. We gambled on the Maplehurst house: lost. We gambled BIG on the pub: lost. Now we are struggling to pay the bills with Nick’s shitty $19/hr job (with 25+ years experience!!).

Unless YOU have experienced this kind of LOSS at the age of 50+, then please do NOT lecture me about how great and fair the system is. IT IS NOT.

Especially now!! It is run by rich real estate companies and richer mortgage companies. And let’s not forget the private mortgage insurance companies, who are now making bank thanks to every single loan requiring PMI.

With our current bankruptcy due to the pub, we won’t “qualify” for a mortgage loan for another 8 years or so. I WILL BE IN MY 60s!!! Nevermind that we manage to pay $1600/mo RENT and have decent credit scores. Oh, that doesn’t matter, we are clearly assholes who can’t afford a mortgage that is significantly less than rent. OH NO. We are not good enough because we got FUCKED and continue to get fucked by the very people who hold all the cards. It wouldn’t matter if our credit scores were PERFECT! We would NOT “qualify” for a loan with a bankruptcy, period. How do I know? I HAVE TRIED IT ALREADY.

So, YEAH Realtor™ person. Yes, I guess we ARE angry. And TIRED. And sick of having no foreseeable future other than working shitty jobs and barely paying the bills. We are stuck in this untenable situation and just have to make it work.

I am NOT SORRY for feeling the way I feel. This is our reality. We have to deal with it every goddam day. I am also NOT SORRY for calling out delusional people who think all’s well. IT IS NOT.

Sorry for another bummer post. I’ll try to find something positive to write about, I promise! If people would just stop being so fucking idiotic and pissing me off… Well, if I wait for that, hell will be frozen, so I promise next post will be something good. Maybe some lovely food. How about that?

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The Tale of the Krobar

[NOTE: Kroger gave up on their “bars”, probably due to the exact things I bitch about here. The one in Decatur closed in late 2019. Which is why I leave this post up. Guess I had the last laugh, eh?]

Today’s Daily Zen seems oddly appropriate:

Years of digging in the earth
searching for the blue sky,
piling up layer upon layer
of mediocrity.
Then one dark night
the ceiling blew off,
and the whole structure
disappeared into emptiness.
– Muso

The experiment at Kroger is going to end either this week or next. My standards are WAY WAY too high for this corporate culture of passing the buck, indecision, disorganization and sloppiness. The department head can’t handle my high expectations. None of them can. This is not a shock, mind you, but disappointing nonetheless. The suits LOVE me, but suits don’t work in the store that is jam packed with slackers.

I think fast, I walk fast, I get shit done. This is incongruous with the slovenly approach that Kroger has in general. I’ve never met such a bunch of unmotivated, lazy people in my life. They do the absolute minimum required. The culture of Kroger is to understaff chronically and have no oversight of anything. I could go in there and do nothing all day and no one would notice – or if they did notice, they’d not do anything about it. The schedule is just a suggestion. People come and go as they please. The department head is the worst of the bunch. It’s not unusual for me to be there an hour after my shift is supposed to end, between waiting for the next shift (chronically late) and then waiting (up to 20 minutes) for someone to take the fucking till. This is typical. I’ll bet Kroger’s payroll would reduce a good 10% if people were where they are supposed to be and things GOT DONE rather than employees riding the clock waiting for other employees. It’s stupid.

The level of disorganization is stunning. These people have no idea how to run a bar, nor do they UNDERSTAND that they have no idea. Nor do they care. They have no training in place for the bar and no manuals or anything to keep things consistent. The first thing I did when I came on was to ask the department head if he’d like to have me write up some basic documents (employee manual light) for new hires so that things will be consistent. He grudgingly said yes, but then when I did, he got butthurt about it and whined to HR that I was “too much”.

Um. HAVE YOU MET ME? Yes, yes he DID meet me, several times, in the THREE MONTHS it took for Kroger to get off its ass and hire me. THREE MONTHS.

I’m literally working 6.5 days a week between TEV and Krobar. FUCK THAT. The department head knows that I can’t work this much, yet, he does nothing to fix it. When I complain, as I have for the last 6 weeks, he says he can’t do anything about it. Yet, YET, when I speak to HR, they’ve got “people lined up” to work at Kroger. ORLY? Well, that is called passing the buck and that is bullshit.

What is happening is that the department head is not telling HR that he needs to get someone in ASAP. Therefore, HR does nothing. Even when I tell HR directly that we need another person. Why? Oh, because HR won’t listen to anything an employee has to say, it has to come from the department head. Again, ORLY? So you fuckheads sit around blaming each other while your fucking bar is run like shit and you’re about to have only TWO employees rather than the FOUR it takes to staff it? Good luck with that.

Whatever, Kroger. I’m OUT. We’ve signed the paperwork to get our project going and I do NOT have time to deal with this stupidity. I like the money, and I even like the job itself, but I will not sacrifice my dreams for a bunch of assholes who will not do their jobs.

I am on time, get ALL the work done and I’m great bartender – so the customers and my tips tell me. Oh and that pooling of tips is bullshit, too. The two other bar employees are sloppy and inconsistent. One of them – the BFF of the department head, whose only training is fucking Burger King – flat out said that it’s not her problem if the glassware is not cleaned and table cleaning protocols are not used. They use handy wipes rather than real bar towels (because that’s what BK does!), they do not dispose of them, either, they are reused until they fall apart. NASTY. They use the sanitizer that is supposed to be for glasses for the table wiping water. YUM! They haven’t been properly washing the glassware since the damn place opened. Glasses have been rinsed in hot water ONLY, no detergent or sanitizer. And every one of them from department head down, has argued with me that this is fine. NOPE. I bitched about that enough to get them to use the Hobart as it’s intended, as a dishwasher – WITH CHEMICALS – not just a rinser, since the girls that work there are afraid to put their hands in water and properly wash the glasses. But it’ll probably take them a month or two to figure out how to drill a hole in the cabinet to attach the chemicals. Because that’s how Kroger works. They are slow, inefficient, ineffective and no one there EVER feels an sense of urgency. They are all secure in their belief that Kroger is right and the rest of the world is wrong about the standards of running a service bar. Alrighty, then. Everyone who drinks there should know that Burger King protocols (aka, NONE) are in place. Good thing alcohol will kill some of the germs…

I have no idea how they passed the health department. I think it’s because the inspector didn’t see them actually in action. They have the correct washing sinks and all that, but the procedure is not followed, which tells me that the health inspector was probably there before they opened. The only ding they got dinged for was fruit flies, which are everywhere. That would certainly not be the case if an inspector watched a typical shift. No way they’d pass. But Kroger is always right and they don’t want to hear anything different.

My standards are way too high and my sense of urgency to do things right is incompatible with a place like Kroger. I can’t wait to be rid of this job. This week or next and I’m done. Nick and I will need to start spending a LOT of time on our project and I need my weekdays back. Buhbye Krobar assholes!! Good luck with your shitty bar. You’ll need it. :D

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Ah, Gotta Love Trolls!

Alton Brown has a multitude of trolls following him – the asshole snarky types always do. So for all of you who are checking out my site because of the flap with AB, well, here ya go. Use the dropdown menu on the left to look at my recipes while you’re here. There are no pickling or canning recipes there, you’ll notice.

I said that you can put up tomatoes with a water bath. I did NOT say you MUST or everyone should. I said you CAN. And that statement is correct. Tomatoes are less acidic now than they used to be, but you can simply acidify them and use a water bath.

Here is the official guide to canning foods from the fucking National Center for Home Food Preservation! You’ll notice the instructions for tomatoes in a WATER BATH. It’s BETTER to use a pressure canner for them, but not impossible to use a water bath as long as the acidity is adjusted. So stop telling me about it, OK? Personally, I’d just not bother with tomatoes at all. I make jam and pickles. That’s it.

The trolls are working on two false assumptions:
1. Alton Brown is ALWAYS right ALL the time.
2. ALL tomatoes canned by water bath are full of botulism and will kill you.

BOTH of those statements are wrong. Flat out, 100% bullshit. AB is NOT the only voice of cooking. AB is not always right. Tomatoes are not inherently full of botulism you dolts. Botulism happens IF the tomatoes are not properly processed, the seal doesn’t set or they are not acidic enough. Acidity can be controlled by adding an acidifier such as lemon juice or ascorbic acid. Acidity will prevent botulism. As will a pressure canner. BOTH WILL WORK. To all the trolls who know absolutely nothing about canning, but felt the need to tell me how stupid I am: fuck off.

AB is a great chef. He’s an asshole on twitter – and probably in person as well, I’ll bet. As I said:

Alton Brown is to food what Scott Kurtz is to comics. Which is a snarky, mean spirited asshole to anyone who dares express a differing opinion.

Which is FINE! It’s their shtick! All I have to do is block them and the trolls and tra-la-la my mellow is again restored. :D

So, if you are here to check out my shit, go right ahead. Check out the awesome recipes while you’re here, too. But please don’t tweet me about this. I really don’t care what you think about the scrap with AB. The bottom line is that we are both right and the whole thing was nothing more than a troll’s delight. If you still feel the need to say something about your butthurt, please use the form in the right column. —>>>

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Another DO NOT BUY FROM: wegotbetterdeals.com

The latest in the litany of shitty online companies that I have had to deal with is wegotbetterdeals.com. Back in early January I bought a Hoover Floormate from them. Granted, I should’ve been more diligent in checking out an unknown web seller, but I was rabid to get my hands on a Floormate! Rabid, I say! When I saw their PayPal cart melt down with code errors, I was worried, but it was too late to undo the transaction. :/

The Floormate arrived in a busted box, with missing parts and the wrong brush assembly. No confirmation emails from WGBD, nothing. It just showed up, in pieces. I wrote them an email asking to return the item and get a refund.

They were rude and nasty from the get-go and the emails were NEVER signed. A sure sign of SKEEVY. Example:

So from your emails is this our fault or UPS’s fault? From what we can tell this looks to be UPS’s fault and a damage claim will have to be issued in order to have this item sent back.

They keep calling it “your claim” when it’s THEIR claim with UPS. SENDERS file damage claims, not receivers. They give an oh-so-generous 3 day claim window, so I was under pressure to get a response from them by their own rules! They got snippy about that, too:

For future reference for future orders please be patience with the seller as you have not been here. We are trying to work with you but you are not working with us.

Sounds like Engrish is their second language. Big surprise. And by “not working with them”, I assume that means that I’m demanding a response to get in by their three day window? Well, don’t have such a shitty service rule and I won’t be pressuring you, assholes.

Since they showed such shitty service skills, I thought it might behoove me to get the BBB Online and PayPal disputes going, since these people were obviously not interested in anything but taking my money. So I did. That really pissed them off! Here’s their response to the BBB complaint:

Yes you are right. 100,000 + positive feedback and approx 30 bad reviews. All from buyers like you. Please remember we have all of your emails with the lies and accusations. As stated in our last email. Once the item is received back and the serial #’s verified with the unit sent a refund will be issued.

Their response has been to not process the refund w/ PayPal. These people are rude, nasty and determined to get your money. They use the classic scam technique of being offended that you’d DARE accuse them of scamming and then NOT refunding you in the hopes that you’ll go away. CLASSIC.

The Floormate was returned to them and signed for by the asshole “TIM” who was the one bitching on the BBB site. I assume he is the head asshole. It was returned on 1/25/11. Hmm, and that’s been what? Two weeks? They have no intention of refunding me, they are going to let PayPal take the heat. Typical.

I will get the refund from PayPal, I’m sure, but take my advice and don’t bother with wegotbetterdeals.com. They may have “better deals” but good luck getting what you pay for. They SUCK.