public service announcement

Have you seen the new Web site Card Hub? I checked it out last week and it's really neat. You can input your top requirements for a new credit card (low balance-transfer APR, introductory rates, rewards, etc) and it will give you a list of cards that you can compare between each other. Then, when you're ready to apply, you just click “Apply Now” and it sends you to that card's secure server.

I found a Discover Card with a 0% purchase APR until December and 5% cash back on gas, restaurant, travel, and other spending. Very cool!

It also has a Education Center that is about the most brilliant-yet-understandable clearinghouse of credit information that I've found on the Web. Like, did you know that if you carry debts with different APRs on the same credit card, the credit-card company uses your payments to pay off the lowest APR debt-loads first? Tricky b@stards.

Anyway, Motormouth says, “Check it out and tell your friends.” The only thing you have to lose is your high interest rates!!! 🙂

“The Strangers”

Lately, I've been thinking about whether the recent spate of home-invasion movies (“Funny Games” remake, “The Strangers) is a commentary on:

1) the insecurity we feel in our homes due to post-9/11 lies and wiretapping from the most powerful sources in our nation, or

2) the insanity of going to a summer home/vacation spot when oil is at $130/barrel, or

3) nihilistic youth disgusted that the “greatest generation” led to a generation of greedy-greedy-mine-mine-mine baby-boomers.

Or maybe it's something else entirely. Suggestions in comments.

oh yeah

Forgot to mention: my buzz-like-a-hummingbird gestational diabetes test came back negative. Which is good, because Starburst jellybeans are pretty much my raison de etre at this point.

prayer karma

So, I spent all morning praying for my two friends who had job interviews today, and it seems to have paid off in an unexpected fashion: my standby group does not have to appear for jury duty tomorrow! Praise Jesus!

fourth dumbest drivers

According to a poll on AOL today, Massachusetts has the fourth dumbest drivers in the nation. Only New York, DC, and New Jersey scored lower. Find out if you're a smart driver by taking this quiz! I missed three out of 20 — probably would have done better but, you see, I've lived in Massachusetts for four years.

New babies!

This was a good week for new babies! The Comtesse welcomed her second child (and first daughter), and Steve was present for the birth of his sixth (!) grandchild, Solomon Saint John Sloan. Hearty congratulations and cyber-cigars all around!

Job-Interview Tips

Two of my blogosphere buddies have job interviews this week, and I'm kind of hoping to hear about something I applied for myself, so I've been thinking a lot about job-interview tips. I think it's important to give a potential employer a good glimpse into your true personality. You don't want to be stuck at a job where you don't like anyone (and nobody likes you) because you weren't true to yourself during the hiring process, right? I always put forth a genuine, albeit a bit muted, version of Motormouth whenever I'm talking to a first-time client or a job interviewer.

I think that's the most important tip, besides asking a question that has to do with the within-five-years history of wherever you're interviewing.

One of my buddies is interviewing at a largely Hispanic company. How largely? Well, he'd be the only gringo there. These are the tips I e-mailed to his girlfriend, to read to him at the appropriate time:

DO drop a carefully timed “de nada.”

DON'T, under any circumstance, make reference to the “Frito Bandito.”

Really, this stuff is golden. Maybe I've missed my true calling as an interview coach! Or maybe not.