spugbrap’s blog

Ever since I removed the registration requirement for commenting on this blog, I’ve been getting a good bit of comment spam. Thankfully, Akismet does a great job of keeping it from polluting my blog. I do periodically go through the comments that Akismet has marked as spam, though, to ensure that no good comments end up getting filtered out.

When looking through the spam comments, there are some clear patterns. Lots of praise (usually in very broken English), with random porn/advertising links mixed in. Today, I decided it was time to separate all that praise from the slime and post these kind words for all to see. :)

Here are some of the things the stupid evil spammers have been saying about this blog. I removed all links, names, URLs, porn words, and marketing words with a series of regex search/replaces in Textpad. I also broke paragraphs into individual sentences, and sorted them alphabetically, removing exact duplicates. They’re numbered, to make it easier to reference them in comments:

1. [spugbrap’s blog] seems quite interesting
2. All I can say is congratulations on creating this site and what took you so long?
3. All the best!
4. Camping out in the woods can be one of the most gratifying experiences available for those who stress over the hustle and bustle of daily life in or near a city.
5. Congratulations!
6. Easy to find helpful information.
7. Excellent forum with fantastic references and reading.
8. Excellent forum, added to favorites!
9. Excellent site with fantastic references and reading.
10. Excellent webforum!
11. Forgive that beside You was little ed!
12. Good aftenoon !
13. Good info!
14. Good luck!
15. Good resources here, Enjoyed the visit!
16. Good stuff, very nicely done!
17. Good stuff, very nicely done.
18. great post.
19. Greetings!
20. Hello !
21. Hello webmaster - fine blog with Animals Files
22. Hi !
23. Hi all!
24. Hi, good site!
25. How do you do.
26. I am glad to find this forum !
27. I am glad to find this forum!
28. I couldn’t understand some parts of this article : Danzig, Playing classic Misfits and Danzig Songs [spugbrap’s blog], but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
29. I couldn’t understand some parts of this article eb Clips are context-sensitive (kinda funny) [spugbrap’s blog], but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
30. I couldn’t understand some parts of this article productive ads [spugbrap’s blog], but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
31. I couldn’t understand some parts of this article r anyone who just got braces [spugbrap’s blog], but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
32. I delighted!
33. I found your blog via Google while searching for pictures of mouth sores and your post regarding r anyone who just got braces [spugbrap’s blog] looks very interesting to me.
34. I is pleasantly amazed!
35. I just wanted to pass on a note to let you know what a great job you have done with this forum.
36. I look forward to reading more!
37. I look forward to returning.
38. I much like site!
39. I simply mad about this forum!
40. I was impressed by your site and offerings.
41. I was looking at some of the articles and it really impressed me.
42. I Will be back!
43. I wish you health!
44. I\’m a real sucker for anything to do with accelerated learning ideas.
45. I\’m going to get back into this next month.
46. is very interesting.
47. Like!
48. maggots!
49. now throw yo hands up in the sjky!
50. Pretty nice forum, wants to see much more on it!
51. So interesting there was that I fell asleep.
52. Thank you!
53. Thank!
54. thanks alot!
55. Thanks for the blog!
56. Thanks for your post.
57. Thanks much!
58. Thanks!
59. The Author, you - genius.
60. The Author, you - super hero!
61. The dangers of contemporary lifestyles and environments can themselves drive people to the.
62. The Excellent forum!
63. The Good lad an author!
64. The Pleasing text and design!
65. The Regard!
66. There was merrily!
67. This simply prodigy!
68. Very good contents.
69. Very good forum!
70. Very good web forum, great work and thank you for your service.
71. Very nicely done forum.
72. well done indeed.
73. What beautiful text and visitors!
74. Wow!
75. Your awesome post about s blog].

The public has spoken! I’m a genius and a superhero; my blog is an excellent forum with fantastic references and reading, and pleasing text and design; and you, the readers, are beautiful!

“Now throw yo hands up in the sjky!” and be sure to check out my “awesome post about s blog].” “I delighted!”

I’m not going to go into detail about last night’s episode. Just going to post a few observations and make fun of a couple people. :)

What was up with Simon having his hand up by his head like 1 moose antler all night? Lacey and I kept seeing it and cracking up, and both kept thinking “Nanu, nanu”. We realize that the hand sign was different, seeing Simon Cowell doing that over and over reminded us of Robin Williams’ quirky behavior on Mork and Mindy.

Next we come to the boy that Jena and Lacey have been referring to as “Vampire Boy” all season: Jason Yeager. I didn’t understand why, so Lacey tried to show me last night. She said he had very pointy canine teeth, but I kept watching and could not see what she was talking about–until she paused it at just the right time:

Don’t see the sharp, pointy fang? How about a closeup?

I was sold at this point. That tooth is a bit pointier and sharper than normal, and the one next to it (towards the back) looks a bit fang-like as well. But Lacey is good with the remote. Real good. She managed to pause it at just the right time again, a minute or so later, so we could check out the other side of his mouth:

…and another closeup, if you’re not convinced:

Okay, enough about Vampire Boy. If I remember correctly, his performance was “just aiight for me, dawg.” Most of them have been that way, so far this season, and last night was no different.

Our next victim is the boy who Lacey and Jena have nicknamed “Man Cuddy” (or something like that), after Lisa Cuddy on House, M.D. (one of our favorite TV shows). I have to agree, there is some resemblance.

I was going to link to a picture of Cuddy to prove this point, but when I looked at their pictures side-by-side I didn’t really see it. But from memory, if you’re a fan of House, you may see a younger, more masculine version of Cuddy in the following 4 pics of Jason Castro:

Lacey thinks Cuddy’s much cuter as a guy. She liked his performance last night, too. I was fine with it, but not blown away.

The kid at the end, though (David Archuleta)–the one who sang John Lennon’s Imagine–he was definitely the best of the night and maybe even the season so far. If I wasn’t confident that he’ll get a TON of votes, I would have voted for him (haven’t voted yet this season, probably won’t for a while still).

In the past, when my checking accounts have been overdrawn, it has been no laughing matter. I’ve been sad, angry, annoyed at myself, annoyed at my bank, etc. Earlier this week, though, I actually had an overdraft occur which made me laugh out loud!

First, a little context (impatient? skip to the funny scenario):

Lacey and I have been using USAA for our home, auto, and life insurance needs since we’ve been married (9 years now!). A few years ago, their banking division, USAA Federal Savings Bank (FSB), offered us a good deal to refinance our van loan, and we did that. We’ve been very happy with all of the USAA services that we’ve used, and have had countless frustrations with Bank of America (BoA), so in June of 2007, I opened checking and savings accounts with USAA FSB. Over the course of a month or two, I switched all my spending and bill payment over to that account. In September of 2007, I closed my BoA checking and savings accounts (the last straw was when BoA started charging me fees for not using my accounts!).

USAA FSB has been wonderful! I do all my deposits via USAA Deposit@Home, using my scanner and their web application. The deposits post to my account immediately. The savings account has a pretty high interest rate (way better than BoA’s), and even the checking account earns interest (way more than BoA’s *savings* account). I earn rewards points using my check card, and there are no minimum balance requirements for any of this.

Another great thing about USAA FSB is that they let you specify two overdraft accounts. I have my checking account set up to draw from my savings account, then from a credit card (issued by another bank, even), in case of non-sufficient funds (NSF). The best part is, there are no fees for the overdraft protection!

We had a charge which would have put the checking account in the negative by twelve cents, a couple months ago, and USAA just quietly grabbed that $0.12 from the savings account, and that was that! I say quietly, but I’m sure I received an email about it. BoA would have charged me $35 for the NSF, then $30 for using the overdraft protection (to transfer the $0.12 from savings).

Now, for the funny scenario that happened this week:

A couple weeks ago, an automatic recurring charge for $101.95 went on my credit card (a BoA/FIA Card Services card, formerly MBNA, Merrill Lynch branded). I scheduled a credit card payment of $101.95 through USAA Web BillPay, to be paid from my USAA checking account. However, my checking account balance was a bit too low, this week. There was not enough to cover that payment, and not quite enough to cover my Verizon phone bill payment.

Here’s a screenshot showing a few transactions (charges and credits) and my account balance:

So, check #354 brought my account balance down to $71.60. My Verizon bill payment was $71.90, so USAA transferred (without charging fees) $0.30 from my savings account, to cover that charge. Remember, BoA would have already charged me $65 at this point.

Now, there was a $0.00 balance and my credit card bill payment for $101.95 needed to go through. My savings account only had a couple dollars in it, so USAA didn’t bother with that. BoA would have transferred the remaining balance from savings, even though it didn’t cover the overdraft, and would have charged me for it. Instead, they transferred (without charging fees) $200 from my secondary overdraft protection account, which happened to be the same credit card! This covered the $101.95, and left the account with a non-zero balance. I assume this was just in case any additional charges come through before I got a chance to add funds to the account.

Summary:

So, the end result is that my checking account transferred funds from my credit card for overdraft protection, to cover the bill payment I was making to that credit card. Later that night, my paycheck direct deposited to the account, so all was well. (Well, actually, the credit card charged me a $6 fee for some reason (they called it “BANK TRANSACTION FEE”). No surprises there, though. BoA finds ways to charge fees for anything they can think of! But $6 was a lot easier to handle than BoA checking account overdraft and NSF fees). I went ahead and made a $206 payment to my credit card, and had a good laugh!

I’m happy with USAA Federal Savings Bank, and highly recommend it for anyone that is eligible. (That’s the only downside of USAA FSB. You have to be eligible for USAA membership to open accounts there. Check membership eligibility requirements here.).

I recorded video, with my phone, of a squirrel going nuts (no pun intended!) on my deck, last week. At first, he was just continuously waving his tail really fast. Then, I noticed he was quacking, so I opened the door and captured the audio as well. I enjoyed showing the video to my friends and family, over the past week, and everyone seemed to think it was cool.

So, I decided it was time to post my first video on youtube. Check it out!

We recently had a new Harris Teeter grocery store open near us, and they sent us an invitation to a special promotional event. The promo was nothing to get excited about. It was something along the lines of, “Take 10-15% off of 6 bottles of wine, on June 26 between 12-6pm!”

This was a really lame promo for several reasons:

1. Most grocery stores around here already give you a 10% discount when you buy 6 bottles of wine in one visit.
2. The prices of wine are generally marked up so much at grocery stores, that a 10-15% discount only brings the price down to a normal sale price.
3. The time window to get the discount was extraordinarily small (6 hours!).
4. The quantity required to get the discount was too large (6 bottles).

The promo excludes what I assume to be the majority of households. Not everybody drinks. But, among those that do, not everybody drinks wine. But, among those who do, not everybody would want to hurry in to buy 6 bottles! I would think that a very small percentage of households would actually care about this type of promo.

The only good thing about this promo was the name: “Taste of Teeter”. You just can’t beat that!