DMV - Getting rolled with late fee

Bought my wife a mini cooper last year, registration renewal form comes, sits in a pile on my desk and I just notice it... go online to pay the fee ($365) and they want to fuck me up the ass for another $200 for a late fee. Turns out I missed 2 deadlines, last one was 2 days ago and would have been a $90 penalty.

So, what are the odds that if I get up early, head to the dmv, and try and jew them down on the late fee that they give me a break? I'm thinking its less than a 5% chance. Those miserable fucks that work at the DMV are soulless.

I'll report back the result.

I mini-rolled my auto insurance company

I have AAA, currently 3 cars, 2 motorcycles and my house... I pay them about $5k/yr and have been a premium member with them for 10 yrs (and have never made a claim). So, I recently had a get-off on one of my bikes (2000 Yamaha R1), jacked myself up in the process, and damaged the bike. I decided to claim the damaged bike on my insurance after doing a little number crunching of my own. The bike prior to the accident is realistically worth about $3000 on the open market, its in great condition but it has a shit ton of miles on it for a sportbike (60,000 miles), and the combination of market being flooded w/ used bikes plus the economy, its just not worth all that much (It was $12,500 brand new off the showroom floor in 2000)

So, AAA decides its a "total loss"... i.e. the price to repair the bike is more than the bike is worth. This is very common with motorcycles, especially sportbikes, because just replacing the fairings is usually enough to total it (i.e. fix the plastic). AAA offers me $4200 to walk away, or $3600 plus I can keep the bike. On first blush not bad, but I figured I could get them to come up if I worked it. To make a long part of the story short, we went back and forth a ton, and I wrote up a big report justifying it was worth more using everything I could think of, and I stuck to my guns and told AAA I just wanted to proceed to arbitration (my right to do so spelled out in my policy) and that I would get the state dept of insurance involved (total bluff).

So, AAA asks me to chill and sends out an independent appraiser. Guy was cool, and pretty bike savvy, we hit it off and I felt like BPD for a minute as it turns out we have some mutual friends, so I could tell he was gonna help me out. Sure enough, AAA comes back with new offer: $6400 for the bike, plus $800 more for damage to gear, with the option to buy the bike back for $650. Woot. A nice +$2k rollage. Bottom line, I'll have my bike back in original condition, all gear replaced and $3000 in my pocket.

AstroTurfing

I never start political threads but this photo-blog is pretty interesting - looks like the Craigslist hiring of "supporters" is coming up short so they just grabbed some day laborers to hold up signs. Huge el oh el.

http://www.lookingattheleft.com/2009/08/pe...urf-healthcare/

+EV Craps Game in San Diego and Vegas

My degen friend Steve runs the http://discountgambling.net blog and he did a full analysis of a new sit down craps game being spread in San Diego (at Viejas casino) and apparently its also being spread in Vegas (not sure where). It's called "PlayCraps". 2% edge to player if you know how to play correctly, which is about the same as a good counting strategy in blackjack. Steve does all the analysis and shows the basic strategy on his blog. It's simpler than it appears to you niggers who don't like to read "math".

Steve, myself and another friend decided to "take a shot" at this game a couple nights ago, and go for the high variance high reward 10x odds strategy, to which we chunked off $5000 in short order, but still, its worth a look if you are seeking a casino game with a player edge...

ChipMeUp SCAM ALERT

ChipMeUp.com has some interesting auctions now... such as

$25 Shooter on Full Tilt
$20 ChipMeUp credit
Pokerstars Daily $80k Seat

These auctions look all the more interesting because the winning bids are pennies or just a few dollars... sounds good right? Free money? BZZZT

:scamalert

For these auctions, it costs a HUGE premium everytime you place a bid, and the bidding increment is fixed at one penny. That's right, it costs you $.025 or more everytime you place a + $0.01 bid. You can easily drain $50 for a $4 auction to win a $25 shooter.... and all that money goes to ChipMeUp and the bidders are left wondering what happened to their ChipMeUP bankroll.

Caveat emptor motherfuckers.