Heads up, Savers/Value Village has 50% off all clothing this Wednesday for Veteran's Day.

Hello there. My first time posting to this community and I'm hoping all you knowledgeable people could help me.

My friend had her car repossessed at work today. She had fallen behind on payments after breaking up with her fiancée almost two years ago. She was left to pay everything and, not having enough to pay for all the bills, she chose to cut back on the car. So over the last two years, it's been late payments, half payments, and no payments at all. She's been talking with the people after her car for a while. She hasn't been ignoring them or anything. She's been really trying to work it out with them, but I guess they had enough.

She called them after the car was taken and was told she needed to pay $3100 to get it back, title included. She was also told that the car was worth $3700 so it would go to auction it if she can't pay. I believe that she owed a little over $4000 before they took it, so I'm not sure if she would be responsible for the difference. I keep reading that she could be, but I'm not sure if that might vary from state to state. She lives in Washington state but got this car in Nevada (not sure if that helps).

She's currently pregnant with her first child. She's a high risk pregnancy because she's so small, so she's not allowed to work a certain number of hours per day/week.

I don't know anything about dealing with repo, so I don't know what other information would help. I'm hoping there might be some secret state or federal law to help her out, because it seems like a lot of bad things are happening all at once to her.

I'm not entirely sure this is the best community, but i've seen similar things posted here, and I really have no idea where to turn.

So I had a crazy situation about a year ago that caused me to fall behind on my credit cards. Most of them were gracious enough to let me make up payment plans and such. I had a $2000 Capitol One card that was not. I sent them what I could each month and constantly called for payment plans but we never reached an agreement. It charged off a few months ago. I'm on very very thin ice with my finances still, completely paycheck to paycheck, but I can afford to pay something. I got a letter from a law office stating they were taking me to court for $2200 plus a few more potential fees. I googled the company and half of the entries said this company was a scam. Half said it was a legal debt collector who had garnished their checking account. I really need to prevent the latter from happening as it will send my finances spiraling down a hole and I'll be thrown off all the other credit card payment plans when all my money gets sucked away.

Any ideas where to start or go from here? Do I contact the company and offer a payment plan? I don't want to "throw away" money if they are a scam. How do I tell the difference between a valid law office and a lying collection agency?

Xposted...sorry

First, we're renting. Since we don't own this place so I can't do major renovations or anything.

There are these...vents around the trailer. There are 4 of them total. Each of are dug out and has a metal boarder around it and they each have a board standing up in them. (see pics)

1) What are they for?

2) It's COLD!! Can I put a piece of insulation down there to keep cold air from coming up under the house or is that going to cause a problem with ventilation?

So I need to live on a max of AU$30-50 a week on food for the next few months (this includes snacks and all!).
Unfortunately I'm quite picky when it comes to food. Mostly the fact that I HATE leftovers or reheating food (I have this weird phobia about it). I don't mind freezing/defrosting meat though.

So far I've been living on cereal, pasta, 2-minute noodles, salads and sandwiches.

But does anyone have any more recipes for 1 that's a bit more exciting?

so
earlier tonight
I was in a kinda bad mood
just blah
y'know?
then
I pooed a bit
and felt a lot better
about life
the universe
and everything

similar experiences?

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ICanHasCheezburger/~3/I2eGcMJ5gBs/

http://icanhascheezburger.com/?p=209073

---

Search for the Amazon Headshrinkers Sunday 9P e/p They say that shrinking heads is no longer practiced. We’re going to ask the experts. Premieres Sunday at 9P e/p on Nat Geo. Learn more at www.natgeotv.com/expeditionweek

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ICanHasCheezburger/~3/fcpO-imVUKk/

http://icanhascheezburger.com/?p=197264

Requests aren't done, they will be popping up as we go, but honestly I do not need annnyymooreee! I was looking at the Wonder Women that I drew last year and started drawing her again, because she's pretty fun to draw, and surly Wonder Woman here came out. Don't settle for being a tits and tits heroine ladies, be yourself! Poor Nibbles.


Hey Montreal! I'm going to be at Expozine this weekend! You should come.

Store!

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ICanHasCheezburger/~3/h8uaDlJN-AU/

http://icanhascheezburger.com/?p=207510

This, on the other hand, is amazing.

The remains of a mighty Persian army said to have drowned in the sands of the western Egyptian desert 2,500 years ago might have been finally located, solving one of archaeology’s biggest outstanding mysteries, according to Italian researchers.

Bronze weapons, a silver bracelet, an earring and hundreds of human bones found in the vast desolate wilderness of the Sahara desert have raised hopes of finally finding the lost army of Persian King Cambyses II. The 50,000 warriors were said to be buried by a cataclysmic sandstorm in 525 B.C.

"We have found the first archaeological evidence of a story reported by the Greek historian Herodotus," Dario Del Bufalo, a member of the expedition from the University of Lecce, told Discovery News…

(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.)

Matt Jones on his generation of the GET EXCITED AND MAKE THINGS graphic: the point of it, its brief history, and its new Creative Commons license. All of which just gives me an excuse to post it again:

(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.)

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/11/for-those-who-read-this-blog-for.html

(Serena Altschul and some author in July, sitting on the trampoline after two days of interviews. None of which, oddly enough, were done on the trampoline.)

Mr. Neil,

I DVR'd yesterday's installment of Sunday Morning and after zipping through it back and forth multiple times cannot seem to find you, though the description indicated the correct episode. Was it bumped to next week? Have you been sucked into an alternate Neil-less universe?

A concerned reader,
Mary

I'm afraid it was bumped by the Fort Hood Massacre.

I checked: The profile CBS did of me is apparently still going out, probably some time in December, although no-one seems certain when. I was told that we could help ensure that it is broadcast (and possibly make it come out sooner than December) if CBS think people would actually like to see it. Which means that if you do want to see it, you can help the process along if you write or email CBS and (politely) tell them so:

ADDRESS:
CBS News Sunday Morning
Box O (for Osgood)
524 West 57th St.
New York, NY 10019

E-MAIL: sundays@cbsnews.com

...
Dear Neil Gaiman, I ask for half-a-moment of your time (I would not presume to ask for more). This Spring 2010 I am teaching a Topics in Literature class on YOU at Winona State University (Eng 225: Neil Gaiman). Easy enough to select representative novel (American Gods), short stories (Fragile Things), children and YA (Graveyard Book), but here's the rub: I will likely only assign one Sandman graphic novel to students. I have been debating which is most representative, most worthy of inclusion, most amenable to class discussion and student scholarship. Then I thought I'd ask you. I know you suggest above that, for questions of this sort, we consider you a dead author, but I know you're not. When I came to a similar impasse about which of Ursula Le Guin's works to include in another class, she actually replied and offered her input. I extend the same offer to you: which of the Sandman volumes would you like to see on the syllabus?
Thank you for your time,
Nicholas Ozment, English Instructor
WSU

It's a hard one. I think if I were teaching I'd either go for Season of Mists or Fables and Reflections, because both of them have stuff to teach -- those nice chewy bits that people can like or dislike, argue with or discuss. I know a lot of teachers like to teach Dream Country because a) Midsummer Night's Dream won awards, and b) it's short and c) it has a script in the back. Your call. And good luck.

...

I mentioned recently that there were some beautiful new Polish and Russian book covers for my books that I'd seen at signings, which got me thinking. The International Cover gallery on this website is incredibly out of date.

It's at http://www.neilgaiman.com/p/Works/Books/International_Covers.

And though I get a lot of foreign editions in, and will at some point head down to the basement and rummage around and scan some (this week's mail brought the two-volume Japanese edition of Anansi Boys, on the cover of which Fat Charlie is not only Very White, but also Very Thin, and the complex Chinese - ie. Taiwan and Hong Kong - edition of The Graveyard Book) I thought that blog readers, being, as you are, all over the world, might be a better resource for knowing where to look for foreign covers.

Was your basement finished when you purchased your home or did you have it finished for your basement library? If you finished it yourself, how difficult was it? Also, I thought I saw a dehumidifier in one of the Photosynth pictures. Do you need one because of the books?

I'm asking because we have a full unfinished basement that we would like to have finished. We are running out of room for our books also. I don't think we don't have as many as you do though. :)

Any other suggestions for such a project would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
C.

No, when we got here the basement had a clay floor that puddled when it rained. We hired some nice builders and spent a lot of money finishing it, putting in drainage tiles, underfloor heating and all. There's a dehumidifier there in the summer and a humidifier in the winter, because after the first few years I noticed that binding glue and leather book covers were both cracking and flaking. There's now the equivalent of a large house in basement rooms beneath this house, filled with books and CDs and suchlike stuff.

And finally, a few photos from the China trip, taken by Ian Ford (or in one case, on his camera). Ian's a travel guide who now lives in China who helped organise my travels, and came along with me for part of the journey.

Amanda and I in the silk clothes that my publisher had given us as a thank you for coming, and because they are terrific.

I'm holding the Galaxy Award for this year, given to the foreign author most popular with Chinese reader-voters. This was my second year of winning it, so I have retired from the competition and said that they have to find a new favourite foreign author now.