SparkPeople, Facebook, and an Irritating Bill

I’m doing a little back-to-basics-ing this week, which for me means trying to figure out my SparkPeople login information so I can do soul-crushing things such as measure a tablespoon of milk for my coffee and then record it. But, you know how after you’ve been on a diet Heathy! Eating! Plan! for awhile you’re an expert at estimating quantities and mentally tallying points and so forth? And also you get all Aware of what you’re eating, and you start making little lightning-fast calculations of Worth It Or Not, as opposed to only making calculations about Yummy Or Not? And it gets all automatic so then you don’t have to spend a huge chunk of time every day thinking about what you eat and how many calories it has, SPEAKING OF SOUL-CRUSHING? Or maybe I should be saying “I” instead of “you”? So for me it’s worth the practice to get back in that habit in order to ultimately reduce time spent on such a hobby.

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Now. Listen. Privacy settings on Facebook are RAD and IMPORTANT. But some people are taking it TOO FAR. If I search for a cute guy from high school, and the COMPLETE TOTAL of what he’s allowing to sneak through the privacy settings is his name, the fact that he is male, and a picture of a baby, how can I tell if that’s the right person to try to snoop? MINIMUM, I need a photo to squint at and try to figure out if that could be him or not.

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I am so annoyed EVERY MONTH by one of our bills, which says “Non-receipt of bill is not an excuse for failure to pay.” O RLY? It seems like a pretty good excuse actually. I feel like writing on the payment slip “Non-receipt of payment is not an excuse for failure to credit account.”

18 thoughts on “SparkPeople, Facebook, and an Irritating Bill

  1. Jen

    That is hilarious about the bill. Similarly, I received a bill that had a nice “your account is past due, please pay immediately” when I had never received a bill prior to that one. Fortunately, when I spoke with the office, they were all “oh just ignore us, you don’t need to pay that.” Well maybe don’t put that on the bill then? is what I wanted to say but I just said ok, thank you.

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  2. M.Amanda

    I was not all that comfortable with the bits of information I put on Facebook to begin with, so when I started hearing stories about privacy problems I got way nervous. Even though I hadn’t updated in forever, I still went in and de-activated my account. Any old high school friends/stalkers will have to find out what I’m up to in a more old-fashioned way – maybe like looking up my number in the phone book or stopping by my parents’ house to get my new address.

    I’d be annoyed by that bill, too. Why do they always assume their bill is the most important? As if you don’t have 10 others to pay every month and not getting their invoice will be immediately noticed, prompting you to drop the 50 million non-bill-paying chores to call and ask how much you owe them.

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  3. lifeofadoctorswife

    Hee hee – I love your comment to the bill people.

    And I totally agree about the privacy settings! At least let me know your hometown and possibly your age.

    Although I think I have the privacy settings on my account cranked up as high as they go… So I am a Facebook hypocrite.

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  4. -R-

    I agree with all of these! And I don’t like when people just have a picture of their kid(s) as their profile picture. I don’t care what your kid looks like! I want to see if you’re fat and bald!

    Reply
  5. Elsha

    I totally need to get back to the place where I’m making the worth-it or not calculations rather than the yummy or not calculations. Because yummy or not sure isn’t helping me lose any weight.

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  6. Alice

    haha, that prompted me to look up / stalk one of my exes on fb. luckily he has his profile pics accessible, and YUP, he’s just as creepy and douchey as always. SHUDDER.

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  7. Kelsey

    That whole first paragraph gave me a headache. Soul-crushing indeed. I cannot imagine, personally, getting to the easier on the brain part because I’d probably go insane during the first part. You are a better woman than I. Seriously.

    The Facebook thing is tricky. I find that inter-generational conversations about Facebook can be very interesting. Lots of the older people I know think Facebook is VERY dangerous and I should never let my kids anywhere near it. Well not now, because they are five and two, but eventually I’ll probably allow it. We’ll make their privacy settings the most annoying kind!

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  8. Rah

    First paragraph: right on, although annoying.

    I once got a bill for 0 dollars and 0 cents for a department store credit card, and for 3 months afterwards got bills for my delinquency in not paying the $0.00. After calling the store each month on receipt of the bill, the 4th month I carefully wrote a check payable to them for $0.00.

    Although the check never cleared my bank, the following month my bill thanked me for my payment of $0.00, and I figured someone in the business office thought that was hilarious. But no more bills after that. Cheeesh!

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  9. CARRIE

    YES! How can I possibly spy on you if you don’t give even an inkling as to who you are 20 years later?

    I want to write things like, “Why didn’t you realize that you made the 6-year-old the Responsible Party for this medical bill?” and “How can your office possibly run efficiently when you have YET to send my claim correctly into insurance???? Must I do everything???”

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  10. DomestiKook

    I only use cheques to pay bills. That is why I bought cheques with skulls on them. Also, why I seal my envelopes with skull and cross-bone stickers.
    I got super pissed at At&T once and wrote ont he memo line, “Dear soul suckers, stop raising your rates without notice.”

    I called and asked them why my bill kept getting higher every month when I had the EXACT SAME SERVICE. “Oh we raised our rates.” Why wasn’t I notified that my phone bill was going to double? “Oh, can you imagine if we had to send everyone a notice? That’s just not possible!” Then she laughed. The insipid girl actually LAUGHED. I asked for her supervisor and she said, “He’s real busy now, I don’t think he can talk.” WHAT? WTF is he doing?!?

    I HATE those people.

    end rant.

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  11. Katy

    I am SO WITH YOU on the Facebook Stalking–all this publicity and now I can’t see a darn thing! I really liked it when everybody had their photo albums set to “friends of friends.” Those were the good old days!

    Reply

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