New Zealand, WHAT??

[reymonkey]

First on my mind: New Zealand, WTF??

I worked all weekend, RPed in the evenings. I think it was Saturday night I tried to pay for Dirk's LJ so I could get my icons back, only to have my card rejected. By this time there was no one at the bank, and Bridgie paid for it as a kind of birthday gift, so that was nice. I should have harrassed the bank first chance I got, which would have been Monday, when the car went in for State inspection. Yeah, that made the day a little hectic, but I could have walked to the bank instead of RPing half the day. Sooo... Today I went to buy my lunch, only to have my card rejected at the supermarket. The bank has a branch right there, which the lovely floor manager walked me over to with a ticket for the suspended sale, being all friendly but I'm sure trying to be sure I wouldn't run out with my unpaid-for lunch.
The bank people need PR training. When you have to call up some higher office because someone's debit card has stopped working, despite their having funds available, do not sit there with your eyes going wide and gasping while said someone stands there mentally going 'what? What?!?!?'
She lowers the mouthpiece, and asks me if I've been to New Zealand recently. Like... Saturday. Yeeeah. While I was at work, my debit card apparently showed up in New Zealand and tried to withdraw cash. Funtimes. I think I'm closing my paypal account. I now have no debit card for 7-10 business days and need to reset my pin.
Yuhrgle.

Been swallowed by RP the past couple days, when I'm not working, which is nice. Tour de Quilt is this week, which means work is insane with getting ready for it. Tour de Quilt is this thing where quilters swarm to the area and from Thursday-Sunday attempt to visit ten different quilt shops (with a lot of driving between them), collect lots of door prizes and goody bags and exclusive fabric offered only those days. RP is a nice break to come home to. My posts for both Dirk and Whitey got what is, for me, a lot of response. I'm thrilled. I've had Dirk around for a damn long time and seemed to have trouble finding anyone who'd play with him. I am an RP slut, getting characters on LJ and finding no one will RP with them except my own household is... hard. I adore RP with family, but I don't need LJ for that. I'd still like my characters to get actual friends. Dirk has two, Hips and Mel, who are great, but he has yet to get involved in any kind of plot after over a year. Maybe Whitey will do better? Note to self, Whitey has a name now, thanks to a kind Nexusite.

Been a little more productive on the drawing front, Nothing finished to show but I've been sketching. Finally did some pretty decent sketchwork of the Labyrinthesque raven king dude that's been in my head for years. Also got the sketch for the fanart pic of Magneto out... It needs some tightening compositionally and I need to make sure both hims look like him, but... I searched Magneto on DA not too long after I uploaded, because he was on my brain... and the sketch had soared in popularity to the first page.
...
Wow.
It's just a sketch, and... yeah. I don't know. People must've been viewing off the recent uploads page. I can't believe it. Bridgie says it's a disturbing picture, which I guess is good in a way. Funny thing is it still has no comments.

Comments

[placeboweek.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry I missed your D_M posts, because I would have liked to tag them. Especially Dirk! I'm a big Dirk fan. :)

Someone took your debit card info from paypal?! That's horrible.

[reymonkey.livejournal.com]

There will be more! Dirk's kinda stuck in the Nexus for the time being, so... and the other character I mentioned here is greyedwhite.

I can't say for sure that's where they got ot from, but it's pretty much the only place I can think of my info is hanging around online.

[sarah-branigan.livejournal.com]

Woo! Is he stuck because he's a ghost?

That makes sense. It'd be one thing if someone tried to use your debit information in the same town as you, but if they're trying in New Zealand, they had to have gotten the info online.

[reymonkey.livejournal.com]

Have you ever read the books? It's a little more complicated than that. In one of the books he solved a mystery that involved thwarting the efforts of a millions of years old alien ghost. Weird, yeah. There was a time machine involved, and there ended up being two of this ghost left wandering around, thwarted, by the end of the book. Dirk realized that now he's a ghost himself, knowing there's two ghosts wandering around his homeworld who have a really good reason to hate him, he might not want to go home until he's in a less vulnerable state again.

Had to be. Actually if it had been from the same town, no red flags would have been raised and I'd be screwed. Apparently it was the new Zealand thing that really tipped them off.

[placeboweek.livejournal.com]

I read the books, but it was ages ago. I only remember bits and pieces, and not the plots.

Yikes. That's why I'm loathe to use my debit card. Credit cards seem to be protected better against fraud -- not being responsible for fradulent payments, anyway.

[reymonkey.livejournal.com]

Fantastic books, but both the Dirk ones are the kind that take a couple readings to work out all the details of the plots. I'm not surprised you don't remember them.

Credit cards would probably require some kind of credit record, although I probably should research and find one I can actually get approved for, just to use for basic stuff or emergencies. I have no credit record at all, you see. I never took out a student loan, just worked my way through and had some pell grants, and when I moved out here I wasn't a resident yet so none of the utilities or lease are in my name...

And yet, every day we get phone calls with people offering to consolidate our non-existent credit card debt.

[placeboweek.livejournal.com]

Damn, girl, you need to get some good credit! Having no credit is better than bad credit, but not by much.

I never had student loans, either, and when I was in college, I used my parents' credit card for stuff. When I started graduate school, I decided to get my own credit card, and it was really hard. My teaching stipend was below the minimum salary that most credit card applications had. Fortunately, my alma mater had some sort of deal with MBNA and as an alumna, I could get a credit card. After about a year of being totally awesome with paying it, other credit card companies wanted a piece of me (I never got another card, though).

I'm sure you can find one to be approved for. It's good for emergencies, and you'll be better protected from fraud. When I bought my laptop (the most expensive thing I put on my card), MBNA called me to make sure it was me doing the purchasing. Likewise when I used my card to buy my boyfriend a place at a physics conference in Singapore. I like that they look out for me (even if MBNA is evil in other ways, but that's a rant for another time).

[reymonkey.livejournal.com]

I do, and it is, but seeing as I struggle to pay my Sprint bill on time some months...

I had a buddy who got one of those credit card offers they throw at you when you turn eighteen, and used it for his tuition each quarter. He already had the money, and therefore turned around and paid it immediately, all the while building up good credit. He didn't use it for anything else. Smart kid. I wish I'd followed his example.
The college I went to was a community college, without those things like housing or sororities or stuff.

I know I should track one down, but I'd need to know what to look for, like one that doesn't penalize you for trying to pay things off right away. I've heard there's some that do? Basically I need to educate myself and start looking, and I've been too lazy or busy or both.

Damn I want a laptop.