Tone Parsons

For the past 8 years, I’ve been buying computer parts online nearly exclusively from one company, Newegg.com.

Tonight, I took a look at my past orders (yes… they show them all to you) and noticed something interesting; the order I made last Thursday night was my 50’th order from them. So, out of curiosity, I added up what I have spent with them over the years.

$15,099.81 (plus shipping)

Holy Crap!! That’s a lot of money! Of course… it’s also a lot of computer parts (yes… I’m geek to the bone!).

Of course, they have good prices and reasonable shipping (for the most part). Whenever I’ve had problems, their customer service has been extremely good to me, and RMA’s are a breeze!

Seriously… If you’re looking to buy parts online, Newegg is hard to beat! I love ’em!

I haven’t written for a bit, and feel that I should put something new up (for the two or three people who actually read this).  So here we go.

I actually escaped my house last week!  I hopped on a bus last thursday and made the hour and a half trip to visit my co-workers for lunch.  I had a fantastic time!  We went to Cruisers (our favorite lunchtime haunt) and had some burgers.  The bartender there introduced me to the wonder that is Vincent Van Gogh Double Espresso Vodka (oh my God, is that good!!!).  Afterward, I got a chance to wander the halls of work and say hi to everyone.

It was nice!

Today’s plan of action: Build a computer for my son!

Yes, in my previous post, I said “Hell No!” to dealing with computers (and I’ve actually been very busy doing exactly that since then), but this is for my eldest son… and family is a different thing.  His birthday was on Monday (19 years old), and he paid for the bulk of the parts.  Here’s what he’s getting:

• NZKT LEXA Case (sexy!!)
• EVGA Geforce 9600GT video card with 512MB of memory
• AMD Phenom 9600 Quad Core Processor (Agena 2.3GHz core)
• 750GB Seagate Barracuda 7400 hard drive, 2 GB of memory, etc.

All the parts should come today, so I’ll be a busy boy tonight putting it all together.  This thing will be so fast, you’ll go back in time when you turn it on! 🙂

Just a quick note that I will never again build a PC for anyone except for myself or my immediate family.

Also… I am not your 24/7/365 tech support.

Buy a Dell, or figure it out yourself.  I’m done.

Thank you.

It’s sad how lending companies often target those who can least afford it with easy loans and crazy interest rates.

A torrid example: Cash Call (a company that’s been advertising heavily in my area). In the state of Washington, they offer the following rates for loans:

HOLY CRAP!! On the $2,600 loan (of which, you actually get $2,525 because they subtract the $75 origination fee before paying you a dime), you end up paying back $9095.10 over 3 and a half years.

Even the 29.26% rate over 2 times as high as my worst credit card’s interest rate (and that’s for Exceptionally qualified applicants only) .

Of course, anyone with good credit would never use a service like this. This is just an attempt to extort money from people who have credit problems, offering them a loan with insane terms.

Of course, if you think that’s bad…. you should look at what the payday loan company’s charge. For example, this was pulled from MoneyTree’s website (again, rates for Washington State based on a 14 day loan)

This should be illegal.

Sadly… there are about 15 payday loan franchises within a 5 minute drive from my house, so business must be booming for them (as they suck the life out of those who can’t afford it).