PO Box is an apparently insufficient address

One of the big problems I'm facing now is that I don't have a physical address. I've been staying with friends, and moving myself from week to week to minimize the burden I place on any one person. For a few weeks I was overseas traveling, and for the last few weeks I've been in a temporary sublet with a nice couple in the Castro. But there's no constant physical address through all of that... certainly nothing that would make sense to update every other week with the literally 50+ businesses that want to send me mail.

So I got a PO Box. Seems like a good solution, right? The PO Box will be constant regardless of where I'm actually sleeping at night. And most businesses are fine with the PO Box; they just want to reach me through mail, and they don't care how they do it.

But it turns out that there are some folks that are too good for a PO Box. For example, Customs and Immigration (more on that in another post). And banks. My main bank (E*Trade) refused to let me update my address to the PO Box without adding a physical address, as well. I was like, dude, I don't have one! So I called their customer service to talk to them about it. The woman I talked to was very helpful, but basically ended up gaming the system. She forced in my PO Box and marked the system to send all mail there, but then left my old address in as my physical address.

So she got it to work... but it's a total lie. I don't live at 255 King St anymore. Which makes me wonder what the point of requiring a physical address is to start with. Initially I suspected it was a way to fight against money laundering or other illicit financial activities. Or to establish residency in a state so that they know whose banking laws I'm governed by?

But clearly the system is super easy to beat... To get the PO Box, I needed a valid credit card and a physical address. So I used a friend's address for my CC, and gave that same address to the Post Office. Once I had the PO Box, I updated my CC's address with the PO Box. I then updated my address to a PO Box everywhere else, including through my convo with E*trade. The end result being that everyone now has my PO Box, except the post office, which effectively has a fake address.

So if they were trying to force me to establish residency in a state, or track me for purposes of fighting crime, they've totally failed. And I say, fuck 'em. I don't have a home, so I don't have a physical address. I'm not going to make one up or ask my friends or family to pretend I'm living with them. A PO Box should be sufficient.

Though this has made me realize what a bitch true homelessness must be... how do you get bank accounts and cellphones and driver's licenses and everything else if you don't have an actual address?!?!

The Saga of a Homeless Man

I haven't been blogging much lately, which is just plain silly since I'm now both jobless and homeless, and thus clearly have plenty of time to do so. And I have so much to blog about!!!

In the last month since being let go from Accenture, I've been getting a taste of what it's like to be homeless. Not in the sense that I'm out on the street, but rather in that transition period that I expect people go through when they're staying with friends and family and trying everything in their power to keep themselves OFF the street. And battling incessantly with banks, health insurance, credit card companies, and everyone else who wants a piece of you and isn't interested in giving you any leeway.

I get the sense that this experience will be pretty compelling to read, and that it will certainly resonate with people who have found themselves in similar circumstances. Though I will add that I am by no means directly threatened with bankruptcy or true on-the-street homelessness. I'm pretty lucky that I have a strong social network as well as robust finances... and of course I'm quite employable, even if I'm choosing not to work right now. Still, this has been eye-opening for me, and I'm sure y'all will enjoy it, too. ;)

How-to video for checking your balls

>.>

Play With Your Balls!

This commercial is a little weird, but the footballer is hot, and the tagline at the very end is hilarious, esp with a British woman saying it. =P

awesome new Eminem video

OK, aside from the pornstar from "Nailin' Palin", the Star Trek references in this video are just too awesome for me. I mean, my god, Eminem duels with Bat'leth!!!!!!!

Eminem - New Music - More Music Videos

Iowa Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage

Wow.  Iowa is now officially more progressive than Illinois and California. QQ.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/04/03/ST2009040303761.html?sid=ST2009040303761

Still, this is really awesome news.  I'm so happy for my people in Iowa, and really all of us nationwide and globally, as this act by Iowa only helps strengthen the national (and global) movement for equality in marriage rights.  =)

Yay!!!

Obama's view of Afghanistan is Wrong

This is a really interesting opinion piece on why Obama's "domino theory" of Afghanistan is wrong.  It basically draws parallel to the theories on communism in southeast asia, which always seemed overly simplistic (and even naive).  So now I'm all skeptical of the money we're spending in Afghanistan on fighting the "Taliban" and "al-Qaida".

Blahs.

New company OnLive to stream next-gen games over the web

This is pretty interesting... A company called OnLive is looking to stream PS3/Xbox360 games online, so that users pay a subscription rather than buy a console.  The upfront console costs are a big barrier for game sales (that's the main reason I won my $100 of cheese from Stefan), so if you can remove the need for the hardware, then I suspect you allow millions more people to participate.

Of course, you need a minimum level of bandwidth and latency to make this work, but at 1.5 Mbps the requirements aren't so bad.  I'll have to see this to believe it, but if it turns out that it works as advertised, I'll be dropping my Gamefly subscription and scratching the PS3 off my I'll-probably-buy-it-someday list.

Suze Orman's Valentine Wish

You know you play too much WoW if...

This is from an older post from the WoW site WoW Insider, but it amuses me.  The longer list is pretty hilarious, but there were the ones that I either identified with or at least made me guffaw (PUGing iit when you can't find friends... bwah hahahahahah)...

"So here goes, you might play too much WoW if:

...words like gank, pwn, and aggro have made it into your regular vocabulary.
... you find yourself hitting your push-to-talk key to the person next to you, on the phone, or any other place that's not Vent.
... you think of gifts for your friends and family as rep turn-ins, and you're hoping for epic lootz under the Christmas tree.
... you secretly wish that playing the stock market was as easy as the auction house.
... when none of your friends want to do something IRL, you seriously consider PUGging it."

WoW Intervention!

Hahahhahaha this is awesome.

Scott Bateman does Hardball

I dunno if you've seen Scott Bateman's work, but it's pretty funny. You can see more on his site, but this should whet your appetite. I do love me some snarky commentary. ;)

Jordan's Queen Noor - so awesome

Here's a video of Jordan's Queen Noor... born and raised in the US, she's quite beloved in her country and abroad. I can really see why in listening to her speak. She's beautiful and articulate, and clearly very intelligent and principled. Awesome.

omg go have s3x now

http://www.babycenter.com/ovulation-mobile-alerts

Tee hee... that's pretty clever.

Obama's EPA sues Kansas power company

This is awesome.  Apparently a company in Kansas has made major upgrades to its coal plant without also installing the latest pollution control technologies.  That's against the law.  So the Obama EPA is suing them to correct this.

What the EPA is asking for the following:

• Westar Energy has "to install and operate appropriate air pollution control technology in
  order to substantially reduce sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and
  particulate matter emissions from the Jeffrey Energy Center."
• "... civil penalties up to the maximum amount authorized by law..."
• "... actions by the energy provider to mitigate the adverse effects alleged to have been caused by the violations..."  Which would basically mean paying for carbon offsets of the pollution they shouldn't have been generating over the last decade.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh sweet justice.

Read more on salon.com's HTWW here.