Add MIchigan Educational Credit Union to the list of those who check for credit.

They pull Equifax (which is usually the lowest credit score for most people because they are the most expensive for banks to use) for a checking account even without bounce protection.

I told the lady that it's not fair to pull a hard inquiry because I am not applying for any form of credit. A checking account is NOT a form of credit. It should be illegal for a bank to check your credit report for just a savings or checking account.

Now checking Chex Systems? Absolutely they should check that. If you screwed a bank then the new bank should be allowed to know that information.

Hard inquiries for BOUNCE PROTECTION ONLY.

There are a few devices sold that are adapters. Datel sells a SD/SDHC adapter that allows you to use an SD or SDHC card in place of a an overpriced official Xbox 512MB card. You can also use a BEVE series SATA 120GB Western Digital Scorpio Blue drive in order to upgrade you're 360's drive instead of paying the ludicrous $179 that M$osft wants. You can buy this drive online for $60.

It is believed that the newest Xbox dash update will ban both these style of devices from being used. The Datel thing really sucks, but the people who did the hard drive upgrade.... Wow, you are going to be screwed. The *stated* intent is to prevent people from artifically screwing with their gamer tag scores, achievements etc and to prevent piracy.

UPgeade your Xbox 360 hard drive yourself: [www.gamerwok.com]

Maybe if Microsoft would not charge INSANE prices for a crappy 512MB SD card (worth about $2 on the open market right now) packaged as a proprietary USB interface and charge $179 for a $50 hard drive then people wouldn't feel the need to hack the thing.

The best thing to do is to install a 7,200 RPM hard disk drive into your PS3.

You can either use a SATA to eSATA cable and go with a large high performance drive, like the Samsung Spinpoint F3 or you can go with a fast laptop drive.

I chose the Hitachi 7K320. It is significantly faster with loading games, installing games and booting up that the crappy 40GB 4,200 RPM Seagate that Sony installed in my PS3.

You can buy a 320 GB 7,200 RPM drive for $70 on newegg.com. Good drives to consider are the Hitachi 73K320, the WD Scorpio Black and the Seagate 7200.4.

The fastest drive currently is the 7200.4 from Seagate. It's around $120 for a 500 GB drive.

@KarlB: @lakorai:

This posting was from a very old myspace blog that I placed a long time ago.

True.com is a crappy site. Shady. Liers. deceitful. Match.com has pretty faces, friendfinder is a porno scam and mate1 is decent. Plentyoffish works though and it's free.

I saw many stories of WOMAN who found someone special online. I would like to find stores of MEN who found a special woman online who was what you wanted (body type, personality, was single and not married, etc). I would to hear how much of a pain in the ass or how easy it was. I would like to hear from normal people, not buff male models.

The ratio is terrible. I did a (very unscientific) search in my area for woman in my "datable" age bracket of 21-30 years of age, average/slim/athletic body type and non-smoker. I did a 25 mile radius of my zip code. I found 15 pages of matches on match.com, with 16 matches shown per page. This is 240 matches. That's pretty good I thought!

Then I reversed it. I did a search with female seeking a male. Found 125 pages of matches! 125 x 16 = 2000 matches. Same stats: Slim/athletic or average body type, 21-30 years of age and non smoker (no way! ratio button). 2000/240 = 8.3. So rounded down there is 8 men to 1 woman in my area, with my search criteria, on match.com. I'm sure if I chose smoking allowed and curvy/big and beautiful then the ratio would be better, but I am not attracted to that.

That's ridiculously bad for men. This is not a real world sample of the actual ratio of men to woman in the world. Currently there is 51% woman to 49% men; so your chances of meeting a woman in the real world is significantly statistically better than on match.com. Now why would I want to pay $30 a month for this service?

Woman generally DO NOT have to try as hard to meet or find a partner. This DOES NOT mean that it's any easier to find the RIGHT person, it's just easier for woman to get a man (meet, date, potentially get sex from). The reason for this is the society expectation for the man to make the first move. That and men are attracted to physical looks first (Neil Strauss calls this the Replication Value), while woman are looking for personality and protection (what Neil calls "Protection Value"). I have only been asked out by ONE woman my whole entire life. I have had MANY woman who were interested in me, but they are not "expected" to make the first move, so they didn't. I made the move after I picked up on their suddle hints.

From a man's perspective, myself, finding woman that I am attracted to (looks, personality etc) online is a pain in the ass. It's not intimate, it lacks the personal flair of being able to read body language, physical cues, tone of voice etc. It's impersonal. There is no touching. There is less fun. This is the reason why the "IRL (IN REAL LIFE)" meeting is such a big deal. Many woman (and men) will chicken out. There was no initial comfort built, no attraction game.

I know many woman who have gone home with a man that they met at a bar or a public space, but very few that have gone over to a dude's house right after they met them online. The guy at the bar "makes them feel good" (even though it's just some drunk dude from a bar who probably only wants sex), but the internet guy is a "creep", "Pervert", or "attacker".

For some people, especially woman, the online thing works well. It works exceptionally well for woman. They can pick and choose the cream of the crop because every dude with a brain is e-mailing her non stop. It's like she's a recruiter seeking employees and she can hire the top Ivy League for the CFO position.

This is why I prefer REGULAR interaction. I can read a woman's personality, see her visual/sexual flirting cues. I can make her more comfortable, more quickly and can achieve results easier and more effectively. I don't have to do double duty of the "online relationships" and then build a "IRL" relationship. I can flirt with her physically, I can (I don't know) TOUCH her and make her feel comfortable with my body as well as my words. She will see my total personality of my body language, how I carry myself etc vs. just something I type behind a keyboard.

As posted per my Myspace blog two years ago.... Online dating is bullshit, especially if you're a guy....

Online Dating is bullshit. Wow Lakorai, you are against using technology and IT to serve a purpose? Let me tell you why....

Online Dating Services are in the business of making money. They do not give two craps on whether or not you find that "special someone". Since they do not require a contract, they will make it as much of a pain in the ass to get a hold of someone in the first place.

Issue 1: Online dating services have deceptive marketing. This is especially true here on myspace. Myspace hosts ads for the very deceptive and lying sack of shit compnay true.com. The company hosts sexually charged ads that depict woman as sluts and hot. This drives a very large amount of men to true.com to sign up for free trials. When you sign up and make a profile you then see who is really available; the amount of "very hot" or even "pretty" woman on true.com is not nearly as much as the ads depict here on MySpace.

Issue 2: Woman have to pay for service like men do. The service is extremely expensive; basically all true.com is a e-mail service. You pay $50 a month for the "chance" of e-mailing people. Now most of the services don't tell you that a large majority, something like 85%, of the profiles are NOT PAYING PROFILES and THEY WILL NOT RECEIVE YOUR E-MAILS. The woman will not receive your messages until they pay. Most will not pay; come one guys, you know woman won't pay for this shit as most woman don't like paying for cover charges in clubs or for drinks.

Issue 3: Too much damn sausage. This is especially true on true.com. The ratio of men to woman is really horrible. A quick search on true.com for single woman in within my area on true.com within 10 miles reveals 5 pages of hits.

A search of single men will show FOURTY FIVE PAGES OF HITS.

This basically means, that if and when there is woman that actually have paying accounts, that there will be on average about 20-35 dudes e-mailing them at one time. You on the other hand can be really attractive and have a well designed profile and recent pictures, and if you are lucky you MAY receive 1 e-mail unsolicited from a woman within 6 months.

It's as my philosophy on dating goes. if you like an attractive girl, then you know there's going to be like 10 other dudes that like the same girl. Online dating makes this ratio much worse - more like 40-50 dudes will like the same girl. Now if your a dude, you MAY have like ONE OR TWO woman vowing for your attention. It's society's expectation of men; woman are not expected to be the agressor and make the first move. Men are always expected to make the first move.

Issue 4: The "e-mails" you get are probably just winks. Winks can be sent for free and appear as genuine e-mails from members. The truth is that they are really just winks; winks are just a way to get attention. Now you could sign up and pay for a month to reply to the winks, but if the girl does not have a paying account then you WILL NOT HEAR BACK FROM HER. This is AFTER you pay for a month and are NOT TOLD that they are actualy not paying members.

Issue 5: Too much damn work.

So if you find a girl who is actually paying for an account, which you can't tell anyway, then you have to make an e-mail that is flirty and fun. The e-mail has to be unique; most woman can tell when you are using a "template" to mass e-mail woman to get a response. You have to mention their interests and say a kind word or two to get attention.

Guess what? There's 25 other dudes doing the exact same thing. Welcome to heavy competition and hoping that they will actually e-mail you back. Chances are (according to the odds), they will not.

Issue 6: Online dating sites have been accused of using fake profiles and e-mails to prey on single lonely men. True.com or match.com will send a bullshit e-mail depicting a woman who is interested in you.

One guy on Yahoo personals is suing Yahoo for what he claims was an exchange of bullshit e-mails from a Yahoo personals employee. He claims that she played with his emotions and told him all sorts of crazy stuff, thus making him "fall in love" with her.

He went on a date or two with this woman (which is very suprising - the e-mail to date ratio is historically very low) and found out she was an employee.

Yeah - that's fucked up.

Issue 7: "Every guy on the Internet is a sexual preditor"

This is historically inaccurate. The assumption is that the anonomyinity of the Internet allows people to hide who they are. Since most sites don't check for verification that someone is telling the truth of who they are, then the sites can unfortunatly let a few wierdos in. Stastistically though this is very few of the members.

Issue 8: Online experience vs. real world experience

Let's face it - meeting someone online is quite different than dealing with people on the street. The Internet offers anonyminity and allows a user to lie or shield themselves from others. You don't get the same experience as meeting somone in a bar or through a friend. You cannot read their body language and you can make claims and say things because the Internet offers a "shield" for one's emotions. Being around somone physically, especially alone, exposes allot more of who you are.

I have been told all sorts of crazy shit from woman I met online. "You're different, oh your so wonderful, oh we'll be married someday" BLAH BLAH BLAH. Then when it comes down to meeting and going on dates and stuff they end up being very cold around you. Small things set them off and make them not want to call you again. It seems like the actual experience is causing them to bottle themselves up and not open up. It's like you have to start all over again in the "real world" vs. the virtual world. So then, what the hell was the point of doing all that work in the "virtual world" just so tyou would have to basically start all over again in the "real world"?

Issue 9: Expensive

It costs too damn much. That's why very few woman sign up for paying accounts.
Issue 10: Too many men use online dating sites for booty calls

So when you have honest guys, like myself, who just want a honest kind sweet loyal girl, you then get the assumption by woman that you are just another asshole trying to get booty.

LIke in the real world, the woman then continue to date assholes who disrespect them and then they assume your a dick like the rest of them. It takes a long time to gain their trust and loyalty. The nicer you are, the less it seems that they think you're interesting. You gain their trust and then they still don't trust you when a physical date occurs.

Remember: for some woman, asshole guys are "exciting" and "confident". Uh huh. When you get beat by your boyfriend or end up being cheated on, or even worse dead, then you come back and tell me that the "adventurous bad boy" was worth dating.

END OF RANT. Please comment below, I am interesting in hearing your comments.

@Falcon5768:

The IOn was far from American. The Ion was an OPEL Astra. It was avilable in Europe WAY before the Ion came to the states. It had imported parts from Opel of Europe and was assembled in the USA.

The newer Saturns? They are completely foreign. The Aura and Astra are Belgium made and the Vue is Mexican made with parts imported from GM Daewoo of South Korea

@MSUHitman:

You mean your OPEL GT. The SKY is NOT an American vehicle. They are produced in Delaware, but have parts all imported from Germany and Belgium.

Practically all the Saturns have been import Opel designs since they discontinued the SL2. This is a good thing though; the newer Astras are FAR more reliable than the old SL2's that had major tranny problems and burned tons of oil.

I'll keep my Honda. It's more American than any Saturn

Is it just me, or does anyone find that this store is a F***ing rip off?

@gtheule:

I think what the previous poster was referring to was body composition. I have a few Indian vegatarian friends. The major issue with their diet is PROTEIN and Amino Acids. Omega 3's are also an issue, as are certain vitamins.

The main thing they need to consume allot of is Soy protein powder and tofu. They don't really consume milk products, so aminos are hard to come by there. The men are skinny and the woman can have issues with skin problems and sagging skin. These are known cases of amino acid deficiency.

You CAN be vegan and be healthy and get what you need. But you have to 1: buy GOOD quality vitamins, 2: You need to take a protein powder or eat allot of hemp and/or soy protein based products, 3: You need to make sure to take flax seed oil (and allot of it. ALA omega 3's are useless to the body. The body converts it into EPA and DHA omega-3s, but the conversion rate is poor. You need to consume 3-4 times the amount of flax to reap the benefits of one or two fish oil softgels).

I know a few vegetarians that are overweight. This stems from over consumption of carbs, not nearly enough protein and lack of other nutrients.

I don't choose to be vegan cause I don't like creating Estrogen in my body by consuming Soy. I'm a man. Extra Estrogen = problems growing muscle mass.

BTW, Soy and Hemp protein are the ONLY complete plant based proteins. Other plants, such as beans or sweet peas, provide great amounts of protein BUT don't provide all the essential amino acids that the body needs.

@lflurie:

Aaah, mystery shops for Mystery Shopping International eh? They also do Kmart and Holistar. I found the shop was horrific in pay however. They actually do ask if someone is attractive.

You only find hot ass young woman and buff as fuck guys in there.

In Hollister you'll find skinny guys and some buff dudes.

but in the end, you feel like smile after walking through their stores. Their CEO is a major douchbag who still thinks he's 18 or something. He's 50ish now.