Crotchety

Well things certainly are getting frothy around here, aren’t they? Facebook is “valued” at $15 billion, Google is busy dismantling every industry they can find while the stock races to $2000, Apple is scaring the pants off the content “creators” all while shipping a stinkin’ cell phone and Microsoft just had their best quarter ever. (Fun fact: MSFT had more profit last quarter than GOOG had revenue. Feel free to read that twice.)

Goodness! We’re clearly in a Bubble right? I mean, we’ve been talking about this Bubble 2.0 stuff for the last 2 years. Well, I’m callin’ it out right now; the statute of limitations has just run out on the term Bubble 2.0. We’re not in a bubble folks, move along.

As of November 14th, 2007 I’m asking that people stop referring to the current state of affairs as a bubble. Failure to do so will result in me taking a sharpie to all of your Threadless tees.

KTHXBYE.

I just finished paying of the last of my student loans from college this month (yes, that’s right - 10 years baby). One of the loans was with Direct Loans which is part of the Department of Education. Now, if you’ve ever seen their website you’ll probably understand the following story.

I got this letter in the mail yesterday saying “Electronic Debit Account - Debit Suspended” with a bunch of wording on it that is confusing at best. I called the number on the back of the letter and went through 5 menus of confirmation of who I was (and it was actually pretty painless) only to be directed to a customer representative that then asked me the exact same questions. The dialog went something like this:

Me: “What does this letter mean?”
Direct Loans CS: “Well, we’ve stopped charging your account.”
Me: “I believe I’ve paid off the account. Is there anything else I need to do?”
Direct Loans CS: “Yes, your balance is showing as zero.”
Me: “So why not send me a letter saying, ‘hey, you’re done! way to go!’ After 10 years, I could use a little love.”
Direct Loans CS: “Is there anything else I can help you with today?”

Ha! Alright, I know the guy is just doing his job but it just seems like that letter could have been a little clearer on what it was trying to tell me. Instead of “you’re paid in full” I get a cryptic message about debit accounts being suspended which sets off an alarm in my head that “I did something wrong”.