Bring Back the Guillotine

BookBub Ad Update

$5.26 spent, 2,188 impressions, and 1 link click. As cheap entertainment, it's fine. As advertisement, it's a loss. I'm going to let it run through Christmas and then switch ad images and use a cost-per-click ad to see if that changes anything. (I mean... It's not like it could really get any worse.)

Bring Back the Guillotine

In general, I am against the death penalty. It's barbaric, expensive, and it doesn't even work as a deterrent. But I'm willing to make an exception for billionaires and the executives —  past & present — of Wells Fargo.

A few days ago, I got a letter in the mail saying I had been enrolled in some sort of identity protection program for a few months back in 2012. Though it never actually came out and said it, I assume this was one of those things Wells Fargo got fined for, in which they signed people up for things without their knowledge or agreement. I haven't had a checking account with them for decades (because they are horrible), but at one point my mortgage was sold to Wells Fargo so I'm assuming that's when this happened.

(My mortgage has been through... seven companies? ten companies? I have no idea. It was originally with Countrywide, and I knew they were up to shenanigans because they gave me a mortgage after I told them I was going to quit my job in two months and I wouldn't have another for at least four years. Countrywide, of course, was famously part of the housing crash because they gave mortgages to people who had no hope of repaying them. On the other hand, I've never been late on a payment, so it turns out I was a good bet after all.)

Anyhow, the letter said that if I thought I had been signed up in error, I should call some number. So I did what any sane person would do and I looked it up online. I learned two things:

1. The letter probably wasn't a scam and they were going to send me some amount of money, and
   
   
2. The script the people at the call center were following allowed them to immediately add $250 to the amount if the caller pushed back at all.

Honestly, if it hadn't been Wells Fargo, I might have just ignored the whole thing because calling people on the phone is the worst. But getting money from Wells Fargo is worth having to call. Yes, my life is 80% powered by spite.

So I called and the woman said they would send me $80. Then I asked if they were going to compensate me for having to use the telephone, which was about the most gentle of all push-backs, and suddenly, they were sending me $330.

The check isn't supposed to arrive for another few weeks — if it does arrive, I'll have to fritter that money away on something fun.

Pet Picture of the Day

I have a screen door in front of the kitten room. When the kittens get big enough to jump past the cardboard, I see this sort of thing from the hallway. (Look at that kitten bod!)

Accomplishments of the Day

• Spent a chilly morning outside the local coffee shop and I wasn't even the only one there!
• Wrote an episode of the dragon serial (~1200 words). I'll do a quick edit and upload it tomorrow.
• Remembered Holidailies for 23 days in a row!
• Yesterday's total step count: who the heck knows? Probably somewhere around 10k. Today's will be more accurate and a little higher.