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Horsie mentioned to Martin that recently our credit score took a -7 points hit, to which he replied “Well, 7 points down isn’t a disgrace. You can still look the neighbours in the face 😐”. 🤣

If you have too much credit, your score goes down. If your credit is too small, your score goes down. If you pay off your debts, if you take on new ones, your score goes up, or down. Depending on the whims of the secretive bloody system of credit scores, no matter what you do, you have little control on the bloody score.

I am a cosigner on a less than $10,000 USD loan, and thanks to it I just lost 7 points.

The rapid buildup of U.S. forces in the Middle East has progressed to the point that President Trump has the option to take military action against Iran as soon as this weekend, administration and Pentagon officials said, leaving the White House with high-stakes choices about pursuing diplomacy or war.

Looks like we are heading to, yet another, war … again. You know, because our previous incursion did nothing, but endangering lifes, and wasting money.

“You were specially selected to receive a GO2bank offer because you’ve used one of our banking products in the past OR you opted in to receive marketing from one of our trusted third-party partners. No credit check was performed, no one filled out an application on your behalf and no account was opened in your name. The card sent to you is not active and has no value until you choose to activate it and deposit money into your account.”

Kid received not one, but two of these offers on the mail today. Both have a full blown plastic, RFID chip, debit card in it. When someone wonder how, or why, the bank went belly up, remember this.

Receiving an SMS alledgedly from Bank of America in the middle of the night, asking whether or not we authorise a check for a specific amount, on a certain account, and directing us to follow a link to confirm the depositor’s name, and view the check image seemed like the perfect phishing, just like some Redditors thought it could be. Can we be blamed, after all?

I called BofA and, yes, it was valid. But so many wrongs on this one. The short code number they used is not listed anywhere, so that we can verify it really came from BofA. The link on it, instead of simply telling us to use their mobile app, or to login at the bank portal, and the Bank of America image they added to the SMS. It is as if they are training us to fall for phishing.

Schwab almost gave us a heart attack, when we saw half of our account gone at the end of the trade day today. Then this “urgent” message popped:

Account balance information may be inaccurate.
“Certain online account information may be inaccurate. Please accept our apologies as our teams work to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. For assistance, please call us at 800-435-4000.”

Yo, mates, come on! 🩺

The US attack on Iran was not only reckless, but it accomplished next to nothing, and it cost quite a bit. “Mission Accomplished”. 🙄

It just occurred to me—because “Mission Accomplished” came to mind—that similarly we accomplished on Iraq: nothing. Iraqis, on the other hand, are arguably worse.

Update: 19 Feb 2026 @ 09:34:44

Fixed broken link. News sources URLs should never change, ever. Yet, here we are.

It is true humans can bet on just about anything. With Jesus, the rules are simple:

“This market will resolve to “Yes” if The Second Coming of Jesus Christ occurs by December 31, 2025, 11:59 PM ET. Otherwise, this market will resolve to “No”.”

Also, TIL about Polymarket, which I am finding quite interesting. It is pretty much gambling, isn’t it? Hmm.

Talking about price tags, $77,000 for one fibre channel switch, with zero return policy, and a minimum of six weeks lead time is a first timer to me. Tariffs anyone?

I can’t help but fearing these kind of acquisitions. My concern is that it will translate to price increases, with the price tag they are paying for it.

“AT&T has clinched a deal to acquire Lumen Technologies’ consumer fiber operations for $5.75 billion in cash, the companies said on Wednesday, as the wireless provider adds further scale to its national fiber footprint.”

This is also ridiculous. On the Change Healthcare breach they, like all others, are offering free credit monitoring:

“A dedicated call center is available to offer free credit monitoring and identity theft protections for two years to anyone who believes they may have been impacted.”

Two years, are they kidding us? At the very minimum it should be 10 years, if not lifetime. And with IDX, better known by no one. An utter rubbish company.

Every single person in the United States—with the exception of those that were born, say, a month ago (and it’s only a matter of time)—has had their PII data leaked. Between the many breaches, everyone, and I mean everyone is exposed, and should have their credit frozen. Those Change Healthcare letters we are getting are part of this. But before those, there was AT&T, T-Mobile, the many banks, the many others. An almost endless list. Did I say you are exposed? Because you are!

It happened again. Yes, again. Companies which we must trust to receive their services let us down, mishandling, and keeping our private information insecurely. They get breached, and criminals sell the information to anyone willing to pay.

A credit freeze has been placed for Kim and I on the three credit bureaus. Ugh!

Last month’s utility (water) bill was over $200. It was $222.13, to be exact. It went up because rains had stopped, and we had to turn on the schedule for the sprinklers.

If it continues this way the decision will be whether the lawn survives, or we do. We will have to make a choice then. Poor lawn, we barely knew you!

This is quasi-horror story of a spouse the got a medical bill for her deceased husband, a year after she had paid the final bill—or so she thought. The takeaway:

“In the United States, medical bills and insurance statements create a burdensome puzzle for patients to sort through to determine what is actually owed. The first rule of thumb is: “Don’t pay the bill before you’ve gotten the EOB,” which is the insurer’s accounting of what you owe and what the insurer will pay.”

The United States Postal Service (USPS) has no problems selling you a Postal Money Order. It will take your cash—or debit card—gladly. Now, try cashing one in, and you will be stumped: they carry no money to exchange for the Money Order. To cash it in you will need to deposit it on your bank. In other words, avoid them. This isn’t fully accurate.