MYRONMAN HATES EVERYTHING

I don’t know why, but it always amuses me when a female doctor has my balls in her hand. With a straight face. And I have a straight face. And I’m not supposed to think that’s funny.

Okay, so the other day when I was looking at my credit card balance and about to pay the bill, I noticed a weird message that was displayed on the screen. It read something like “your card is owned. We closed your account. Please call this number so that we can send you a new credit card, and waste lots of your time with police reports and notary public signatures, etc. etc. etc.”

So, since I couldn’t even pay the bill on my account, I was forced to call the fucking number:

Fraud Support Agent: Good afternoon, may I have your account number (again. why in the fuck do they make you dial 15 numbers to select the appropriate place to be at, then ask you to enter the entire number of the goddamned card, which you never have at the time, and then, finally, when you get to a fucking person, ask you AGAIN FOR YOU FUCKING CARD NUMBER. ADDRESS. AND ALL KINDS OF OTHER INFORMATION THAT ENSURES THAT YOU WILL TOO BE FUCKING OWNED IN THE FUTURE)?

Me: Yeah *mumbles number several times before the agent actually gets it in*

Fraud Support Agent (FSA): Thank you for your information sir.

Me: Why am I calling this number now? Why was my account closed?

FSA: Well sir, it looks like there is some fraudulent activity on your account?

Me: Where? How do you know it’s fraudulent activity?

FAS: Sir, our system has tracked activity that it believes to be fraudulent. So we closed your account as a security measure.

Me: Okay, so what are the fraudulent charges?

FAS: *rattles off charges* Sir, is this charge familiar to you?

Me: No.

FAS: Sir, are you in California?

Me: No.

FAS: Well sir, these charges are from service stations in California. They originated there.

Me: Oh.

FAS: Sir, is your wife in California?

Me: No.

FAS: Okay, so these are fraudulent charges?

Me: Yes…

After this point, they sent me the information and confirmed my mailing address and stuff. The phone call ended.

Now, he was able to get away with the whole “we’re super concerned and did the right thing” crap in the moment, but it only took about a day for me to think “how in the FUCK did they get my credit card information? I haven’t personally HANDED my card to ANYONE for over a year. Knowing a little bit about how money flows through these companies, I decided to give them a call to see what lie they were going to tell me (since they hadn’t gone on record - preemptively - with the whole “consultant with a laptop” bullshit). I called them a few times. Here’s what they told me:

1. That I went to a store and when I swiped my card through a slot, there must have been an extra bit on it that took my information and allowed people to make a card copy with my information on it.
2. That I went to a store and when I handed my credit card to the sales person, they scanned it twice, once in the right place, and once in the Pwn place.
3. That a store that I shopped at had a security breach, and they sent the bank the information and my account was on that list.
4. That it was in no way the banks fault, there were no breaches on their side, and that my information is safe. Now. Somehow. Trust me?

The thing that’s sad about this is that people actually accept the responsibility for this shit. I can’t really blame them when the bank is literally telling them “you made a bad decision”, “you made a bad decision”, “the store that you shopped at made a bad decision” and “this is in no way our fault”. Fuck that.

People, understand that your information is being sent all over the planet. Your personal information, your credit information, your tax information, your medical claim information. All of it. You can be pwned, it’s just a matter of when/if your number is drawn at this point.

I did my first 5k this evening and it was cool. I’ve never  done anything like this before and I have to say that I’m pretty happy about being able to do it and not be ded right now.

Hey lady on the cell phone, the bus driver honked at you because:

• He didn’t want to kill you while trying to make the turn.
• You weren’t paying attention.
• You decided that you needed to walk across the street at a crosswalk in front of a bus full of people because you had the right of way.
• You were on a cell phone.
• Who the fuck were YOU talking to?
• You should probably forego your pedestrian rights in situations that can kill you.
• You don’t get a free second life because it was *someone else’s fault* you died.

People are stupid.

I remember when I was much younger and in high school. I didn’t get very good grades when I was there. I also didn’t care if I got bad grades, because I just knew I wasn’t going to college, and had no clue what I was going to do after I graduated. See, the thing is, I didn’t really think I belonged in school. I didn’t think I belonged in college. I thought that kind of thing was for white people.

Why would I think this? It certainly isn’t that logical to me, as I reflect back on those feelings/thoughts. Where could I have gotten that perspective from? Well, I think I got it from my family and my mom and other people in the neighborhood I grew up in. The thing is, when my mom was young, school LITERALLY WAS for white people.

I can imagine it being hard for parents to have gone through that kind of thing to have much faith in the educational system. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons that the black community as a whole puts so little stock in education. How does one usually deal with something that is clearly out of reach for them? Well, they tend to adapt to it, and leave it out of their sights after a while. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that many people I have met, including myself “back in the day” don’t put much stock in education.

I mean, if people thought education was important, they would surely do better. I think this answers the question “why don’t the people that go to these schools care about education?”.

I finally realized that it is perfectly acceptable for a person to not like me. Really. I have nothing to do with their decision, and it makes no difference to me. Really. It doesn’t.

I also realized that I feel physically ill when I have to say no to someone asking me for help. Like, I cannot say no, no matter how many things I have to switch around to squeeze time in for someone. I’m taking proactive steps to fix that flaw, but I figured it out today when a boy came up to me and asked me for a donation to help his basketball team. It stands out so clear in my mind because I was in a completely neutral mental state while practicing “passe compose verbs” for French Class. He asked me, and I couldn’t donate anything because I’m saving for a camera. Then it hit me. I couldn’t help him, and I felt bad for not helping him even when it was not feasible for me to do so.

I’d say that today was a pretty good day.

Wouldn’t you?

I am writing this post as a place holder for a longer article I’ll be writing at some point on myronman.com. The jist of the article will be this: people have needs, and even if they are poor,they still have the same needs.

The way I would like to lay out the piece is in the following sections:

Mazlo’s hierarchy of needs - I have heard of these. I’ll use this as my basis for human beings needing things. It has to do with their drive systems and what they want.

How people that have money fulfill those needs - I’d like to have a section that goes into what people with money do to fulfill theri needs. Like go to clubs, join golf clubs, buy expensive cars, have children who are successful at school and college, etc.

How people that are poor fulfill those needs - This section will talk about bawlas and what they feel they needs. It will hopefully shed some light into how people that are so poor still fork over all kinds of money on bling and other stuff that doesn’t matter. I’ also compare and contrast how much poor people bawl compared to people with money and then…

Conclusion Section - My conclusion if all works out will be that poor people really don’t bawl as much as people in the mainstream do. That they actually bawl much less, and that society focuses on them anyways. I’ll end up asking questions about why we feel these people that are poor shouldn’t be able to bawl a little bit to fulfill their needs.

I also want to put in the story about when a person I knew scolded me for giving a homeless guy money, and saying that “he would spend the money on booze and drugs anyways”, when the only difference between the homeless guy and his sister was that his sister (alcoholic) had money and wasn’t homeless, and that because this guy was homeless he was compelled to judge him was interesting…

Look for this article sometime in the future yallz.

Any thoughts?

Why is it that doctors and dentists can charge you as if you actually went to the appointment and they had to do work if you don’t cancel with 24 hours notice? I mean, when I go over to my dr.’s empty office and get a voicemail a few days later, I don’t expect a check in the mail for my time. I mean, what the fuck? How do they get to get paid for the time you missed the appointment, and *also* get paid for the make up sessioin?

Well,

For like the third time by three different people over several years I heard someone say something to the effect of “how can these poor children have the newest game systems and stuff when they can’t afford (fill in the blank)? Where are their priorities?”.

This line of thinking is interesting to me becuase I felt the same way for a long time. Now, I think I’ve realized that this line of thinking is a little flawed because it assumes that the children are somehow not children because they are poor and do not want/deserve to play. That somehow poor children are more responsible for their plight than more affluent children.

What do you think?

Does the act of being poor evoke suspicion?