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August, 2013:

Proper Drug Disposal

Aug 26th, 2013
by Margaret.
23 comments

drug disposal, prescription drug disposal

Or, Guess How Many Pills Are in This Bag

drug disposal, dispose unused medicines

You’re probably wondering what the hell was the matter with me to have what, at a distance, appears to be a bag of Skittles.

And the fact that it does look like a bag of sugary candy is why this is a horribly dangerous thing to have sitting out on the counter while hosting a children’s birthday party. Not that I did anything like that just to see what would happen, especially if that snot-nosed Milo bastard, the one who always farts on everyone and pinches the cats, got a hold of them.

Instead, I brought it to my NA meeting to see what would happen.

Well, I had to get rid of them somewhere, and who else but a bunch of burned-out, but imaginative, druggies could figure out the proper way to dispose of unused prescription drugs, am I right? It was that, or drop it off at some random rave at 2 in the morning. Do they still have those, raves?

OK, all kidding aside, and these aren’t my drugs, a “friend” texted this photo to me (no really!), I had no idea how to properly dispose of unused prescription drugs, do you? Turns out there are websites and entire governments dedicated to such topics.

Proper Drug Disposal

  • Don’t flush down the toilet. You numbskull. “Studies have found that up to 80% of streams in the U.S. have measurable concentrations of prescription drugs“.
  • Most drugs should be mixed with coffee grounds or kitty litter and sealed in baggies to throw in your trash. Or, you can drop them off at participating locations (the latter being the better choice).
  • Here in Sacramento you can check the Don’t Rush to Flush website to find a drop-off bin near you. But they won’t accept “controlled substances”. Those you have to give to law enforcement officers at DEA Take Back programs.
  • October 26, 2013 is National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, according to the Department of Justice. This is where DEA law enforcement officials will be rolling large oxcarts through your neighborhood screaming “Bring out your drugs!”. Or maybe they’ll just provide drop-off locations where officials will take your drugs. And your fingerprints. And your picture. And your DNA. And if you’re really paranoid, your 4th amendments rights. So yeah, if you want to properly dispose of your 4th amendments rights, don’t forget to bring those too. In a Zip-Lock baggie mixed with kitty litter or coffee grounds.

 

So, that’s it. If you have any extra Vicodin laying around, and really, who would have any of THAT leftover, you have this one day to risk your criminal history being discovered and personally hand it over to a law enforcement official. Better to have your kid do it. While you wait in the car.

In a disguise.

With the engine running.

 

P.S. If you’re totally confused about the facts (and after reading this, I would be), check these sites for the real info:

Don’t Rush to Flush website (see the FAQ section)

How to Dispose of Unused Medicines (by the FDA)

How to Dispose of Medicines Properly (by the EPA)

Why I Hate Shopping

Aug 19th, 2013
by Margaret.
26 comments

I will go clothes shopping maybe once a year because I hate it. It’s a pain in the ass, shopping is. Trying on clothes is a waste of time to me. It is not fun. 99% of what I try on doesn’t fit because, apparently, I am shaped funny.

Or, more accurately, I am shaped.

I hate driving to the store in traffic, looking for parking. I don’t like spending money. There is nothing “FUN” about it. I do not enjoy the “process” or the “journey” of shopping. I do not “live in the moment” of it. I see it as an irritating errand that gets in the way of the rest of my life.

And I sure as hell don’t like accompanying someone else while “they go shopping”. Yuck. Totally unproductive and I hate standing around waiting. God, I’d make a sucky boyfriend.

Anyway, since I’m in Sacramento, I meet my Bay Area friend at our usual midway location: beautiful downtown Vacaville, at an extremely local diner with mismatched garage sale coffee mugs, customers yelling across the restaurant at one another and the staff, and truck-stop flavored coffee. My kinda place.

It’s near Ulatis Creek which, am I crazy, or does Ulatis Creek sound like someone peeing in the river to you, too? What a horrible name and I’m sorry if it’s actually named after a real person whose last name is Ulatis, in which case, I LOVE that name, we should name everything after Ulatis, it really flows off the tongue - hey! flows! We should name the creek after you!

Wait, where was I? Oh yeah. Hating shopping.

Since Vacaville has a big ass outlet mall, we head over to a couple of shoe stores because I want to get some sandals. And since I refuse to wear painfully uncomfortable shoes for the sake of fashion, I instead go to the “comfortable shoes for old ladies” store and resent how ugly everything is.

I have never understood how just because you make a comfortable shoe, which is essentially all about the inside sole of the shoe, the part that people DON’T see, why must you then make the outside so hideous as if the shoe’s occupier has given up in life and desires to be ugly? This makes zero sense to me. The same thing goes for hybrid or electric cars. Why did they have to be so ugly for so long? (And except for the Tesla, they still kind of are.)

My point is, and this is how it compares to shoes, the SHELL of the car and the ENGINE of the car are completely independent of each other. Why can’t you be boring on the inside, but exciting on the outside?

I’m convinced hybrid and electric cars are taking forever to become popular because they fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. Don’t tell me it’s because they’re more expensive because that is crap, and Mercedes has already proven that people will overpay for a car if they simply have to have it. Maybe it’s a conspiracy perpetrated by Big Oil to keep us churning through far more sexy gas hogs. Mmmmmm, sexy gas hogs.

Seems to me, there are some assumptions being made about the potential customer of said sensible products. If you want to save money, be comfortable, save the environment, whatever, you must be boring as hell, go to bed early, love burlap, and listen to Gregorian chants 24/7.

Nevertheless, while these weren’t exactly Jimmy Choos, they would do in a pinch for a closet void of sandals…

blue sandals

Blue leather straps with multicolor flowers, kind of cute.

And then I took them for a test drive one day and came back with this…

blue feet 1

Did I mention that Vacaville is 45 traffic-filled miles away and that I tend to throw away boxes and receipts immediately?

Timeshare Realty Specialists. And Other Scam Artists.

Aug 7th, 2013
by Margaret.
18 comments

I’ve got a great idea for an app. It’s free for nice people, but scam artists would have to pay for the premium subscription:

Let’s say you’re a timeshare scam artist. You make a call on your cell phone, but before the call goes through, the app does a little internet research and then you get an alert message that says: “The person you are calling has a world famous blog, 12 million Twitter followers, and a Klout score of 956. There is an increased chance of them writing about you and your dishonest ways. Are you sure you want to place this call?”

timeshare scams, timeshare realty specialists

Timeshare Realty Specialists = Snake Oil Salesmen (and Women)

I’ve told my Dad if anyone ever cold calls him about selling his timeshare, he should direct them to me. Because the con artists that litter that industry will prey on his great desire and desperation to unload it.

Enter Timeshare Realty Specialists. Who left a voice mail for me about how they could sell my Dad’s timeshare for $12,800 to $14,000. Guaranteed.

Baa-haa-haa-haaaa!!!!!

Here’s a buzz word for all of you trying to dump your timeshares: Guaranteed Corporate Buyout.

Guaranteed Corporate Buyout, An OxyMORON.

If anyone ever says “guaranteed corporate buyout” when they claim they can sell your timeshare, run! This article on Yahoo states that a corporate buyout is nothing more than a bait and switch.

Timeshare Realty Specialists claims that they will list your timeshare for 10 months and if it doesn’t sell by then, they will buy it. If they couldn’t sell it, why on earth would they buy it from you?

I’ll tell you why they would buy it from you. Turns out, they will buy it for one dollar after you’ve paid them to list it for 10 months. So there’s that. That’s counts as a guarantee, right?

And for the love of God, at LEAST check a company’s BBB rating. Before I could even get to the BBB website to see that Timeshare Realty Specialists has a big fat F, I came across many websites complaining about them, like Ripoff-Report and Red Week and TrustLink Reviews.

How to Avoid Timeshare Reseller Scams:

Look people, see the forest through the trees. There are so many red flags in these offers, if you just ignore the sound of money for a second:

Do 5 seconds of research

  1. Check their name with the Better Business Bureau. Do they have anything less than an A?
  2. Google the company’s name plus “scam” or “complaints”.

That’s it. Do 5 seconds of research. If you find yourself on message boards where lots of people are complaining and you get ONE GUY who comes to their defense, don’t fall for it. It’s one guy against many. Remember when I told you to ignore the sound of money?

If you fell for that silly NoNo! hair removal commercial but decided to “do some research” first and you see that Amazon gives it 438 1-star reviews and only two 5-star reviews, who are you going to believe? See, the problem is that you are really just going through the motions of “doing research” because you want to believe this miracle product will work so bad, no amount of negative reviews will change your mind. You are already going to buy this product anyway and really what you are looking for is that one positive review to hang your hat on.

This is what’s known as: confirmation bias.

If you are the type of person who will believe those two people on Amazon who gave it 5 stars (and we call these people “shills”, by the way), then I will just give you the phone number of this con artist right now so you can “sell” your timeshare through them because they have a guarantee. It says so right on their website.

A false statement, no matter how much you want to believe it, is still false.

Red Flags that a Timeshare Reseller is a Con Artist

  1. Nobody can “guarantee” anything when it comes to selling your garbage.
  2. Timeshares are worth zero today, so if anyone says they can sell it for more than that, they are lying. Unless they buy it from you for one dollar, of course.
  3. If they ask for an upfront fee of ANY KIND. Timeshare Realty Specialists (and other scam artists) will ask for an “upfront fee”, as much as $2,000 or more, to “list” or “advertise”, and then they never actually sell your timeshare. They never intended to sell it. Why should they? Not when they can buy it from you for one dollar after ten months. Because that’s what it’s worth. One dollar.
  4. If they’ve changed their name several times. (For example, according to the interwebs, Timeshare Realty Specialists used to be called Vacation Tree, who also has a big ol’ honkin’ F with the BBB and 69 complaints and was issued a Cease and Desist order by the Dept of Real Estate for operating without a license.)
  5. If they use the words “guaranteed” or “corporate buyout”, hang up, walk out, or click away. At this point you are obviously wasting your time with these snake oil salesmen.

I’m not hiding that fact that I have a bias against timeshares. I’ve blogged about it before. But with good reason. Two good reasons: experience and research. Please, for the love of all that is holy, learn from the mistake of others.

I’m also aware that some of you who own timeshares are perfectly happy with yours because it’s in a nice location at a nice time of year and you never have to deal with “exchanges” (bringing the timeshare industry to a whole new level of scam I won’t go into today) and your maintenance fees are still doable so you are actually getting some value out of it, in which case, GOOD FOR YOU, MAN. ENJOY. May you and your children, and your grandchildren, and every one of your heirs until the end of time, enjoy paying the constantly increasing maintenance fees until somebody in your lineage is sick of it and has to PAY someone thousands of dollars to get out.

For more info on timeshares and why they are the third leading cause of cancer and pestilence in this country, check these articles out:

An FTC Law Enforcement report describing action taken against these con artists.

Complaint posted on Ripoff Report where an alleged ex-employee takes us inside the offices of of Timeshare Realty Specialists and explains how they bamboozled and bilked their customers.

A scam alert video news report by a CBS news station warning people about timeshare resales scam artists.

How to Avoid Timeshare Scams (Yahoo)

Caught Out by Cold-Calling Scam On Timeshare Owners - an article in The Guardian about Action Services International, another timeshare resale scam company.

Another nice rundown/checklist/red flags of timeshare scam artists is here.

Beware Promises to Sell Your Timeshare (from the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance)

How Much is My Timeshare Worth?

To learn what your timeshare is really worth, check the “Completed Listings” section on eBay for your particular resort. And bring a box of tissues with you. Because it is a very sad story that will break your heart.

And if you think for one second that your timeshare is worth more than the other timeshares, let me tell you, this one that my Dad has is a red week, VIP unit in Lake Tahoe during the peak of ski season that is walking distance to the Gondola at Heavenly Valley. A gorgeous two bedroom, two bathroom, full kitchen, granite countertops,… just fabulous. I rather enjoy it, actually.

But on paper? It is worth one dollar.

So What About That Voicemail You Got From Timeshare Realty Experts?

Yeah. I’m probably not gonna call them back. The FTC has brought 191 actions against Timeshare resale bozos who bilked over $18 million out of unsuspecting people, so it’s just a matter of time for these particular how-do-they-sleep-at-night vultures.

timeshare sales scam artists

(click twice to enlarge)

 

“scam” keyboard image source: Stuart Miles - Free Digital Photos

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