After an extended weekend of camping, I came home to an ominous message on the answering machine: This is [credit card company] Fraud Department trying to reach [my legal name]. Please contact us at your earliest convenience regarding suspicious activity on your card. I called and punched in the credit card number, my zip code, […]
Ever have one of these weeks at work? (Illustration by Ken Wong)
How’s that project coming? Read More »
As I type this, I’ve spent 17:30 on the phone trying to book a hotel reservation for an industry trade show. The “conference rate,” which involves pre-allocating a block of rooms in exchange for tacit endorsement of the hotel as a preferred venue, is a substantial break over the hotel’s normal mid-week rack rate. Because
Hotel reservations Read More »
In 2005, I looked at the economies of bike commuting. It elicited a lot of good questions . Generally, I made a lot of simplifying assumptions, avoiding counting anything that would require a double-blind scientific study. For example, one of the biggest, immeasurable arguments is “improvement to health and exercise.” An additional cost, also immeasurable,
Costs of bike commuting Read More »
As a numberphile, I often find amusement in tracking numbers and analyzing the results in different ways. For example, when I flew, I maintained a logbook of every landing, aircraft type and flight conditions. In the unlikely event I would be quizzed, I could rattle off a variety of facts like “the last night landing
A few months ago, my FSA administrator company went bankrupt. My company covered my potential exposure — about $380 — so after reading some of the headlines, I forgot about it. Today, I received a copy of the blog posting used as a vehicle for communicating to the broad group of people affected by this.
As happened to Susan, my American Express/Costco card went AWOL. I’ve been through this enough that I have a theory how it happens: Unlike WalMart, the “greeter” at Costco’s entrance is primarily there to ensure I’m an actual Costco member. Sometimes they’ll hand me coupons valid for the following week. (“Six thousand tooth brushes for
Squeaky clean AmEx card Read More »
I’m coming down from yesterday’s math-dorphin high, having found the optimal point for the set of variables. How did I do? Be there to conduct my business. Uh-huh. Minimize the cost to the company – This was trickier than I had hoped. The airfares for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday departures were $880, $911, $1,400
The trip is booked… Read More »