First, an aspirin costs $500 when they dispense to 500 people and only one person pays for it.

Second, I remember a time when, if someone needed stitches or a cast, they went to their doctor's office. The ER was where the ambulance took you if your brains were hanging out of your skull.

Don't worry, I was married for 27 years. You'll get our nerd card back when she dumps you for an auto mechanic.

Why don't you just give them (local area code) 867-5309 instead?

If you hate those grocery store "discount" cards, you can give them a phone number instead. (YourAreaCode)-867-5309 is always an active account.

And if there's a name display, it usually shows up as something funny. "Thank you for shopping with us, Mr. Jablowme."

I can't afford the new interest which has my house payment TRIPLE what it was when I bought it

Why did you use an adjustable rate loan? Fixed rate loans have floated between 5% and 6% for years. Those are historic lows.

But if the banks were forced to accept a strait 5% interest rate on all mortgage loans

What about the people who bought a much smaller house and/or paid a lot of extra money so that they could have a 5% fixed mortgage rate?

Lowering interest rates == Giving free money to irresponsible people.

There's a huge class of responsible people who are working hard and making ends meet. I see them walking away from their mortgages in mass if others are rewarded for their foolishness.

I got hired as a programmer five years into my career by a senior programmer friend/mentor who joined a start-up company. All I had done before that was help desk and sales support. He knew me pretty well (we were longtime drinking buddies) and knew I had the aptitude for it. The company sucked, but working for/with my friend was a great learning experience and set me on a great path. Thanks to him, I'm making twice as much as I would be if I had stayed on that career path, after I put up with working for a shakey start-up.
Therefore, I suggest "playing golf with the right people" is the way to go. Obviously, if golf is not the thing, figure something else out. Try joining programmer user groups and giving presentations. If you look like you know your stuff, they will trust you even if you don't have the resume to back it up.

Instead of a 3/3 = 6 account, we now have two 3 disk accounts.

I indicated by email that MY second account would be with Blockbuster.

I bought one of those "keyboard condoms" that keep the gunk out from between the keys. I does not greatly change the feel of the keyboard and can be removed if serious washing is needed.