Patrick sent me this story. What a cool bear! Does anyone have his address? I’d like to invite him to my apartment-warming party. Betcha he does an awesome keg-stand. He’s probably been arrested though – he’s well under the legal drinking age. (Yuk yuk).

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/West/08/18/bear.beer.reut/index.html

A black bear was found passed out at a campground in Washington state recently after guzzling down three dozen cans of a local beer, a campground worker said on Wednesday.

“We noticed a bear sleeping on the common lawn and wondered what was going on until we discovered that there were a lot of beer cans lying around,” said Lisa Broxson, a worker at the Baker Lake Resort, 80 miles (129 km) northeast of Seattle.

The hard-drinking bear, estimated to be about two years old, broke into campers’ coolers and, using his claws and teeth to open the cans, swilled down the suds.

It turns out the bear was a bit of a beer sophisticate. He tried a mass-market Busch beer, but switched to Rainier Beer, a local ale, and stuck with it for his drinking binge.

Wildlife agents chased the bear away, but it returned the next day, said Broxson.

They set a trap using as bait some doughnuts, honey and two cans of Rainier Beer. It worked, and the bear was captured for relocation.

I have been looking for a new apartment for what seems like forever. I started out with 5 other roommates, but when they decided to go into a house that just wasn’t up to my standards, I struck out on my own and started looking for one- bedroom places. Unfortunately, the search was tough. Many places I looked at were either in fairly bad shape or just too expensive for the size. I was getting pretty discouraged, especially since my financial situation isn’t exactly great and time was running out.

On Saturday of last week (August 7) I looked at a 2 1/2 room studio apartment on Hamilton Avenue, close to the corner of 35th and Archer. I liked what I saw

• and I liked the price, too. It was a little further from campus than I had hoped (about a 15-minute drive, depending on the lights), but it had beautiful hardwood floors, a large walk-in closet, and was in pretty good shape. It also smelled great, which, considering some of the other places I looked at, was a definite plus. The landlord was understanding of my financial situation, and I explained to him that I wouldn’t be able to pay until later the following week because my bank is stupid. That was fine with him, so I crossed my fingers and waited until Friday so my bank would finally ackowledge that I had the necessary funds in my account (have I mentioned yet that I despise banks?).

Thankfully (and miraculously), my bank cleared the funds just before I needed to make the withdrawal for the security deposit and first month’s rent. I headed over to the landlord’s office, got everything in order, and had the keys in my hand in less than an hour. It felt really good to have the keys in my hand. I grabbed Alex’s camera and headed over to get some pictures before I destroyed the place with my stuff. Some of the best ones are here. Others are available in the download section. Click on the photos below to get an even bigger photo.

I hate banks. I despise them. I wish a plague of death and disease upon them. The concept of a bank seems simple, and indeed, useful, at least at first. People have money that they want to secure somehow so their money doesn’t get stolen from under their mattress or out of their wallets. So they give their money to an insured “corporation” of sorts that holds their money and keeps a record of how much they have. For large transactions, the account holder can write a check for the amount of money they want to transfer to another party and sign it. The “corporation,” (aka the bank) honors the request to transfer and handles the details so that the account holder doesn’t have to. This is simple, right? This is “protecting ourselves,” right?

Maybe, maybe not. In my experience, banks are nothing but hassle, especially for people like me that have very limited funds available and need to bleed our accounts dry about every week or so. Illinois Tech pays me every two weeks with a check that I deposit to my checking account at Lakeside Bank. These checks are not out of state (obviously); In fact, they’re drawn from Lakeside Bank! So why does it take a week for my deposit to show up in my account?

This was the question I set out to answer a couple of weeks ago. The problem arose when I made an electronic bill payment after making a deposit that my online account information reported had been deposited and was available. The bank charged me an overdraft fee, claiming that the deposited funds were on hold, even though the account screen online clearly said that the funds were available. I called the bank and was given the basic run-around:

“This person is who you need to talk to.”

Phone transfer. Wait for a while.

“No, it’s so and so.”

Another transfer. Doesn’t go through. Back to operator.

“I’m sorry, she’s out of town for… ummm… looks like forever.”

“Is there anyone else I can speak with?”

“Ummmm, no. You’re screwed.”

Can you help me at all?

“No. That’s not my job. I just transfer phone calls. I am here to make your life miserable.”

“Well, tell your supervisor I said you’re doing an excellent job.”

“Ummm, OK.”

After that entirely useless exchange, I headed over to see if I could have better luck in person. I did, sort of. I got thrown around a bit from person to person, but finally one of the bankers helped me. She explained that these checks were not being deposited in my account immediately because I was a “new customer.” New customer?! I’ve been banking there for four years! And seriously, Illinois Tech, who’s writing me the checks, hasn’t bounced a check in who-knows-how-long, so what are they worried about? I don’t know. I hate to say it, but I gave up. My thirty dollars is gone forever. It just wasn’t worth it. I guess I’ll try to set up direct deposit. But with my luck, they’ll mess it up and I’ll lose the money permanently, or have to wait even longer to have access to it. I hate banks.

1Up.com is running a story called The Essential 50, which lists what they consider to be the 50 most essential video games. It’s an interesting history lesson, since every entry has a short history of the game, the innovations it had, and the impact it had on the industry and video game development. Interestingly, several games’ major impact was not technology or innovation, as I would have imagined, but rather political and/or social. Interesting stuff.

When I received an email with the subject “American Airlines Apologizes For Your Flight Delay,” I got a little excited. “Yes! They’ll probably offer me a free flight or some frequent flyer miles or something! Then my hours of meaningless waiting at the Seattle-Tacoma terminal won’t be for nought!” Alas, it was not to be. Here’s the email:

Dear Tyler Butler,

On two separate occasions during the past week, we experienced technical difficulties with our computer systems, causing some flights to be delayed. We understand that you traveled during both periods and likely were doubly inconvenienced.

Please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience you may have experienced, and rest assured that we are working diligently to take corrective actions. We greatly value your business, appreciate your understanding and look forward to delivering the service you deserve in the near future.

Sincerely,

Dan Garton
Executive Vice President Marketing
American Airlines

I suppose I was dumb to assume that there would be some sort of incentive for me to continue my association with their airline included in the email, but there wasn’t. As I thought about it more, I realized that flight delays are just something you have to deal with when you fly, and the fact that I was expecting to get something out of my suffering was a by-product of a suffocating atmosphere of “customer-is-always-right” consumerism. So, though I initially wanted to call them and give them a chance to offer me something, I decided to keep my mouth shut.

Maybe I did get something after all?