Thursday 15 July 2004

Pic of the day: Electronic bill paying, screen shot from The Sims, featuring the Internet Banking Terminal (from fingermouse, I believe).

Bill paying day

The 15th is bill paying day here at the Chaos Node. It happens occasionally that I pay bills at other times: Over the last years, it has become common to send bills that fall due in only two weeks, and that could easily be only one week after they arrive, as the national postal monopoly is every bit as slow as in my childhood, if not worse. Luckily fate is in the process of smacking said postal monstrosity down in the mud and stomp on its head with an iron boot. With the growth of e-mail and online bank services, snail mail is shrinking into niches. When the nostalgic old people peacefully sleep in to their final rest, the whole institution of snail mail will probably be just a slimy dark spot on the asphalt. Yeah, baby!

OK, got a bit carried away there. I have a thing about monopolies, I guess, and it's not a happy cheerful thing. But anyway, I still get bills in the mail, but I pay them over the Net.

There may be other reasons as well, but after I switched to Net Banking I tend to have a much more smooth economy. Bills are paid on time, whereas in the past it was quite common that they were delayed a month and sometimes two. (I still don't pay my socks on time. I subscribe to socks in the mail, pathetic as it may sound, but I usually don't open them until months after they arrive, and the bill is inside the same package ... so I sometimes get reminders for those. They are very polite though so that's OK.)

It seems illogical to believe that one gets more money from paying one way rather than another. So there must surely be other reasons as well. Although I still buy computers from time to time, I have cut down on other hobbies. But I guess always being able to check my account doesn't hurt. Although recently I rarely check it at all. There seems to always be enough. This is a blessing and I am thankful.

I am not really richer than before. In fact, I earn less than I used to. I work only 90% now, and before that I cut out the extra job I had on the side. Despite this, it seems easier to find money for my bills now. I am not sure it will be like that forever, or even for a long time. Sooner or later I should fix up the damage I have done to the apartment floor ... it is worn pretty thin in parts. This is a feature of me, I see at work too that the area around my office door is the most worn in the entire two floors of dozens of offices. ^^*

But for now, paying my bills is not a problem. Except I almost forgot it, having so many other interests. Luckily Tsaiko pays her bills at the same time as I, only in the more primitive manner of Americans, so her report on the process of paying bills reminded me in time. It is hard to believe that people in a civilized country are actually writing cheques. Tee hee.

(Insert mandatory boasting about how Norway is the best country in the world, which it just happens to actually be, but in truth that's not my doing. Well, not to any noticeable degree at least... ^^