Washii Ponderings

Just now I received a call from: (509) 630-0000, which I allowed to go to message. The following automated message was left on my voicemail:
>>
Hello, this message was left for you from Cashmere Valley Bank, regarding a technical failure on your debit card due to billing failures. We have introduced a temporary blockage on your account. Please call us at 1-800-245-9655 to remove this blockage.
>>

Huh. Well, I don’t have a debit card through CVB. In fact, I’ve had an account with them for less than a week, and that’s a loan!
I went ahead and called the 800 number given, since, well, they already have my phone number. The number resolves to a ‘CDC Federal Credit Union’..that was the second tip-off to this whole thing.

In any case, I went to go check Cashmere’s website, with the front page reporting a series of phishing attempts, of course. So, I called up the local branch, and they were really kind of confused that I might want to provide them with information of what my message entailed. Oh well, here’s a blog post instead! Also, a complaint to the FTC, though I doubt they will be able to do much.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009: Police Records

Moses Lake Police
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Sept. 19
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A male stole a CD from his friend. The friend arrived to retrieve the CD. They agreed the friend would punch him in the chest for stealing the CD. Instead the friend punched him in the face.

Sept. 21
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I was reading through my backlog of Raymond Chen’s The Old New Thing when I finally got to this article: Parents billed when kids miss school

The article reminded me of, I believe, Sophomore year high school, where I’d built up a small number of parental-excused absences. Near the end of the year, we received a notice from the school that if I had one or two more absences, excused or no, I would be sent to truancy court at the county seat (which is an annoying length away from the largest city in the county).

So, because I had some excused absences build up over the course of the school year (dentistry, orthodontia, a few other things) and was easily maintaining a grade average of B or more, I would be sent to truancy court.

Y’know, I wonder. Would they have made me ’skip’ school to go to truancy court for having too many excused absences? At least that one would be government excused, I suppose.

I was pondering the old question “Do you use sex-specific honorifics with peace officers?” (Sir vs. Sir and Ma’am) when I remembered a Dear Abby I read a while back (yes, I read Dear Abby. It’s amusing) (also, yes, I just decided to ponder about this out of the blue..matrix of thoughts, get the title?).

Some woman was absolutely adamant that “Ma’am” was short for “Mammy,” an old term used for the family ‘nanny’ slave during slavery. Judging by the letter, this woman was into her early middle age.

She would admonish anybody who called her “Ma’am,” saying it related to slavery (and even admonished if it was used on others around her, judging by the vitriol of the published letter). How this woman could have made it as far as to have ‘Dear Abby’ tell her she was absolutely mistaken boggles my mind.

“Ma’am” has nothing to do with “Mammy,” it’s shortened “Madam(e).” How do you get into your adult life without knowing this?

The woman wrote in asking ‘Abby’ to tell the world what “Ma’am” stood for. Apparently without this woman herself ever checking a dictionary. Webster’s even.

I truly wish common sense was a whole lot more common.

Recently on the Wenatchee CraigsList ‘Rants and Raves’ have been some rants about Make Your Day in the Wenatchee School District.

Interestingly, I’ve been thinking about MYD off and on recently (past 8-10 months). All negative. I experienced the Make Your Day system at the old Eastmont Junior High, 8th and 9th grades. It consisted of the 6 periods, each worth 45 points (possibly 50). The last 5-10 minutes of each period was relegated to the time where you assigned yourself points for the period (and the teacher asked each student about the number). That in itself was a complete waste of time.

Better yet, the teacher or other students may challenge the number of points you gave yourself according to your classroom conduct. In my experience, this rarely ever happened, as we were already scrambling for time to get to our next class in the five minute break between periods.
At the last class of the day, the teacher would also generally ask you if you ‘made your day,’ meaning that you weren’t off the ‘perfect’ goal by more than 12-15 or so points. If you didn’t make your day, the rule was supposed to be that you went to a Step Four (read on for what that entailed). I doubt that was ever really followed, since it didn’t take much to lie about whether or not you made the day.

I don’t believe I ever failed to make my day. And that is being absolutely truthful.

My favorite (and only? can’t remember) experience was being put on Steps because I refused to go up front to a projector and answer a problem.

So, what did this do? Well, first, that teacher and I were already antagonistic. We never liked each other. So, no real difference there. Second, I had to sit out of the class for ten minutes or so, until the teacher had ‘time’ and could interrupt the lesson to come take me off steps. So, that was ten minutes where, as part of my ‘punishment,’ my learning was being retarded, as well as the others in the class because of an interrupted curriculum. (This was the only instructor in my entire academic career that I felt ever posed as a real antagonist. Still don’t have any good thoughts about them to this day.)

In an instance of a rant on Craigslist, one mother recounted how she had to leave work to attend her child’s Step Four (mandatory meeting with parent(s), teacher and school administration) because of gum chewing. She had to explain to her boss why she had to leave work: because the school administration was a bunch of dipshits, requiring her to attend a meeting because of gum chewing. An awful crime, that.

Good job, Make Your Day folks! All you’ve done is retard already poor learning in the American school systems. Pat yourselves on the back and give yourselves 50 points for this period!