cleaning house
Nov. 2nd, 2005 12:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynIn more ways than one. I'm getting through a lot of my tapes and should be able to start sending out some of the ones requested. I don't really trust the dvd recorder, though (it seems to have massive problems with anything except 2 hour speed), so I'm nervous about getting rid of some of these rare tapes. On a recent Gilmore Girls, Lorelai lamented, when Luke told her to get rid of her 21 Jump Street tapes because they were out on disc, the fact that the dvd sets don't have the commercials, so there is this time capsule you can no longer have access to. And as I hear the eps I'm recording in the background, I realize that's true and Lorelai's diatribe was more valid than usual. I went to great effort when I was taping a lot of my shows to cut the commercials out. Many of my friends are absurdly over the top phobic about ads, and -- no exaggeration -- will scream as if they've just had boiling oil thrown on them if they hear even a second of an ad. But a lot of ads are actually interesting. I've discovered some amazing music through some, and others I just find funny or cool-looking or entertaining. I FF through what I don't like, but if I just let it play, there is often good stuff.
Once I got the TiVo, I tended not to cut ads out because it was harder to dump down to tape. And some of the second-gen tapes I got from other fans, such as Now and Again, didn't have them cut out. So, I've had the chance to rediscover the sockpuppet from the Pets.com ads. I don't think the first one is there, which was my favorite (where the sock puppet gets dogpiled by... um, dogs, and says gleefully, "This is the happiest day of my life!"), but others that I adored are, including the one where it whines If You Leave Me Now to scenes of pets lamenting their departing owners. I've also discovered the ads for AccuVue contacts that featured Sean Bean. Always a strange combo to me, but one I couldn't complain about because he was looking all Dolce & Gabbana in black and quite chic for a change. I can't wait to see what else I find as I go through these tapes.
On another clearing house note, I read an article in Real Simple magazine (Oct. issue if you can still get your hands on it) about all the places you can go to get out of offers and information selling. Some of them I wasn't even aware of, and the list was really handy. I went to my credit reports (there is now -- and I didn't know this before -- one single place online that you can request the reports from all three major credit reporting bureaus) and it was unbelievably annoying, with the secret questions to verify your identity such as addresses that I haven't lived at for ages (how the fuck would I know the zip code? I haven't lived there for over 20 years!) or credit numbers for cards I closed out ten years ago, BUT I did at least get through all of it to verify that things are still okay. (Go to www.annualcreditreport.com -- but beware you make that address exactly right, as there are tons of impostor companies.)
I was also able to opt out in one web site for the financial come-ons that are plaguing me lately. I take them down to my dad's to shred, but it gets tiresome to receive all these credit and bank offers that I have to collect and shred. If you go to junkbusters.com, you can click through to their "opt-out" page, where you will find form letters you can print and send to your insitutions to request getting off lists used for "firm" offers. There is also a link to a consolidated opt-out prescreening site; you will have to put your SSN in there for faster service, but you can refuse if you choose (just look for the www.optoutprescreen.com link, but read about it first before you go there). They had a lot of info at junkbusters. I also was able to request a form from a place called Acxiom that provides info to marketers for those things where the government gets info about your records and uses it to market to you. It's too late for me to block out the horrible, depressing, and sickening come-ons we get for advances on my sister's estate or the deed of my house being registered, but before you do anything life-changing that could be registered by the guvmint, you might want to get their form and opt out. (www.acxiom.com)
Anyways, there's a lot more in the Real Simple article, so go to the library or see if your mag stand still has the issue. It was nice to have it all in one big checklist and they make it really easy to understand. I wish I'd known some of those things beforehand. Though I will say my credit reports were high-larious. They were all so out of date it's a wonder anything ever gets through to me.
Once I got the TiVo, I tended not to cut ads out because it was harder to dump down to tape. And some of the second-gen tapes I got from other fans, such as Now and Again, didn't have them cut out. So, I've had the chance to rediscover the sockpuppet from the Pets.com ads. I don't think the first one is there, which was my favorite (where the sock puppet gets dogpiled by... um, dogs, and says gleefully, "This is the happiest day of my life!"), but others that I adored are, including the one where it whines If You Leave Me Now to scenes of pets lamenting their departing owners. I've also discovered the ads for AccuVue contacts that featured Sean Bean. Always a strange combo to me, but one I couldn't complain about because he was looking all Dolce & Gabbana in black and quite chic for a change. I can't wait to see what else I find as I go through these tapes.
On another clearing house note, I read an article in Real Simple magazine (Oct. issue if you can still get your hands on it) about all the places you can go to get out of offers and information selling. Some of them I wasn't even aware of, and the list was really handy. I went to my credit reports (there is now -- and I didn't know this before -- one single place online that you can request the reports from all three major credit reporting bureaus) and it was unbelievably annoying, with the secret questions to verify your identity such as addresses that I haven't lived at for ages (how the fuck would I know the zip code? I haven't lived there for over 20 years!) or credit numbers for cards I closed out ten years ago, BUT I did at least get through all of it to verify that things are still okay. (Go to www.annualcreditreport.com -- but beware you make that address exactly right, as there are tons of impostor companies.)
I was also able to opt out in one web site for the financial come-ons that are plaguing me lately. I take them down to my dad's to shred, but it gets tiresome to receive all these credit and bank offers that I have to collect and shred. If you go to junkbusters.com, you can click through to their "opt-out" page, where you will find form letters you can print and send to your insitutions to request getting off lists used for "firm" offers. There is also a link to a consolidated opt-out prescreening site; you will have to put your SSN in there for faster service, but you can refuse if you choose (just look for the www.optoutprescreen.com link, but read about it first before you go there). They had a lot of info at junkbusters. I also was able to request a form from a place called Acxiom that provides info to marketers for those things where the government gets info about your records and uses it to market to you. It's too late for me to block out the horrible, depressing, and sickening come-ons we get for advances on my sister's estate or the deed of my house being registered, but before you do anything life-changing that could be registered by the guvmint, you might want to get their form and opt out. (www.acxiom.com)
Anyways, there's a lot more in the Real Simple article, so go to the library or see if your mag stand still has the issue. It was nice to have it all in one big checklist and they make it really easy to understand. I wish I'd known some of those things beforehand. Though I will say my credit reports were high-larious. They were all so out of date it's a wonder anything ever gets through to me.
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Date: 2005-11-02 09:51 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2005-11-08 05:34 pm (UTC)