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Archive for April, 2003

No entertainment today… come back, one year.

April 23, 2003 By: bio Category: General

Today marks yet another chapter of my continual spiral downward into self pity.

The pain pills aren’t as effective as they used to be, meaning one of two things:

  1. the pain is getting worse
  2. my body is accustom to the drugs and it takes more of them to get the same effect as before.

Regardless of the reason, it’s safe to say that life sucks the big burrito… sideways.

My appointment is the neurosurgeon’s assistant is next Monday, followed by a visit to my doctor on Tuesday (to remove the stitches from my right leg where a dark mass was cut out of my good leg for biopsy).

Am I a whiny bitch or what?

Todays link: Bryan

Land of wonder

April 21, 2003 By: bio Category: General

Around 10 years ago I learned a valuable lesson: borrowing money at 28.975% compound interest (plus points) on an interest first loan makes it impossible to pay off.

I had borrowed around $2,000 from a lovely company called ITT Industrial Indemnity. After paying just over $4,000 to them and still having most of what I borrowed still left to pay, something interesting happened:

They sold the loan.

Another company, Household Finance Corporation purchased all of ITT’s loans. Unfortunately, during the purchase of the loan, HFC neglected to send out letters to the debtors stating that they had purchased the loans, a violation of FTC rules (specifically Title 15, Chapter 41, Subchapter V, Section 1962g of United States Code).

I’m sure most people who were affected by this buyout weren’t savvy on the law. I know I wasn’t. But I did know that if your loan was sold to another company, the purchasing company was required to send you a letter within 30 days of the purchase to inform you that you now owed your soul to them.

This started a big fight between HFC and me. I kept requesting the letter stating they had purchased my loan, and they kept telling me they didn’t have to provide anything. They stated that if I didn’t pay them immediately, they would sue me. I told them to go for it. I never heard from them again and thought it was done..

About 4 years ago another company called the Sagres Corporation contacted me and made an attempt to collect on the same debt. I explained that since the previous company had broken the law and refused to correct their actions (honestly, I would have paid them if they had), the debt was null and void. They suggested that they might sue me. Of course, by this point I was older and much wiser and asked that they tell me flat out if they intended to sue me or not so I could prepare my legal defence (if they say they will, and they don’t within 30 days, you can sue them to recoup your legal costs). I sent them a letter of stating that I disputed the debt within the 30 days required by the Fair Debt Collection Act and told them they could no longer call my place of work or my relatives, a request they are required by law to honor. They didn’t. After receiving some encouragement from my attorney, they dropped it (and once again, I thought it was done).

Three weeks ago I got a letter from a new company, PRM Financial Services, stating that they had purchased the debt and were making an attempt to collect on it. They were creative, making it look like a credit card offer (honestly, I didn’t realize what it was until I read the fine print). So, I fired off yet another letter explaining exactly what had transpired previously and requested, once again, that they cease all attempts to collect on this “unlawful debt”, remove any trace of it from my credit report, and under no circumstances sell it to another agency in the future.

I got the following reply yesterday:

Dear Mr. Parsons:

We apologize for the inconvenience that this may have caused you. We are writing to inform you that all collection efforts on this account will be terminated. Also in no way should this account resurrect in the future. We do no report our customers to the credit bureau, so there should be nothing with delinquent, as it relates to this debt.

If you have any further Questions, do not hesitate to give us a call. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Jake Richardson
PRM Financial Services, Inc.
Litigation Specialist

WOW!!

Of course, I’m pulling my credit report in 2 weeks to verify. I’m not exactly trusting when it comes to collection agencies.

Brain on vacation

April 21, 2003 By: bio Category: General

It’s monday and I’m currently drugged out of my mind.

The unfortunate part of taking pain meds is: they lose their ability to work after you take them for long enough. So… you keep increasing the dosage. What used to take half a tablet now takes two.

The realy cool part is they’re addictive, so when they start wearing off, you get sick. Stomach cramps, shakes, etc. I feel like a heroin addict.

I have an appointment with the neurosurgon’s nurse next Monday for my pre-surgery evaluation. Hopefully they can schedule the surgery soon (as my job requires higher brain function and the drugs are effectively nullifying that).

Link of the day: Hottie Eve

Filling space

April 20, 2003 By: bio Category: General

I checked the website for the first time in a few days this morning and noticed that everything had been archived off.

This is the downside to using Movable Type… if you don’t post often, your site looks like shit. Guess I’m gonna have to get off my lazy ass and write a little more often.

We have friends down from Canada this weekend. Jeff and Dina showed up on Friday and we’ve been having a pretty good time (in our boring kind of way). Mainly drinking beer, watching movies, and talking.

Updates on my fuckered up body… the drugs I’m currently on seem to work a little less well each day. My doctor tried to put me on morphine the last time I was in. I politely declined, because once that shit starts, I’m basically done with everything until after my surgery (which is at least a month off still).

I have the distinct impression that I’m going to be on disability long before I get to the surgeon. I might as well declare bankruptcy now.

On a brighter note, the weather has been beautiful. I was staring longingly at my motorcycle today. I can’t wait till all this is over and I can get back on it.

Oh yeah… Happy Easter!

One last thing… my friend jc over at piab is having a logo design contest (though it think it’s over now). The winner gets a shirt or some such thing with the winning logo on it. Here is one of the 7 or so I submitted:

Pain is your friend

April 14, 2003 By: bio Category: General

Just a quick update on the self pity thread that I’ve become so fond of.

I went to a chiropractor after work to see if they couldn’t do something to ease the pain in my leg (caused by the herniated disk in my spine and the reason for my eminent surgery). They refused to do any manipulation of the bones in the spine for fear of causing additional damage (a sensible approach which I appreciated… I would have walked out if they had suggested doing that) but instead did a few stretches of the leg and lower back.

Tonight… the pain killers are no longer working (and yes… I took a full dose) and my leg is absolutely on fire.

They had scheduled me for 5 more sessions, which at this point, I will cheerfully decline.

Sleep ought to be interesting tonight.