“We ask for your credit card information to make sure you are a new, trial eligible customer.” – What a load of bullshit; they want your credit card details because more than likely you’ll download more than your ‘free’ quota allows without realising or you will more than likely forget to cancel your subscription before the trial period ends and be charged for the next month after the free period. Or maybe even a number of months if that person doesn’t keep a check on their finances regularly. Anyway we had to buy a new power supply for Erin’s laptop as the HP supplied one was poorly built and the cable got damaged somehow so wasn’t supplying power to the laptop. This offer of 40 free songs came inside the power supply box so I checked it out and started to sign up until I was halted at the credit card details page. I wasn’t going to input credit card details for a ‘free’ trial so cancelled. Even more annoying is that you can’t even view their catalog of music before signing up. The site is called eMusic (you’ll have to Google it as I refuse to link to it) and from what I have read their catalog is limited, mainly songs off compilations and soundtracks rather than actual full albums like iTunes or other music download services. I refuse to input card details into any trial offer, If they were so confident in their service then I wouldn’t need to input card details as I would want to sign up after my trial experience.
I was reading about the British Chambers of Commerce’s wish for the minimum wage in the UK to remain the same for 2009. Which in itself is complete bullshit as prices for goods and services don’t remain the same. That move would only put more people into poverty as their wages haven’t risen with inflation. But that is besides the point of this entry. Although we all agree that the minimum wage was Labour’s biggest achievement since coming to power in 1997. I find the system unfair to under 21s, the minimum wage has three tiers, one for 16/17 year olds, another for 18 -20 year olds and a third for 21 and overs. I see this as a bad move as employers will always look to employ 16/17 year olds or 18 to 20 year olds if employees are required to be 18 and over to save money. Besides why should an older person get paid more for doing the same job as someone younger? The government will tell you that workers over the age of 21 are more likely to have a family and more responsibilies. I think that this is a flawed philosophy as it is generalising and categorising people which is bad in my book. Each circumstance is unique and people should get paid the same rate for each job instead of creating a 3 tier payroll society!
In sport, Plymouth Argyle had mixed luck over the festive period beating Southampton 2 – 0 at Home Park on Boxing day to move upto 12th. Then dropped to 15th after today’s 1 – 0 defeat to Cardiff at Ninian Park with yet another sending off in a week. David McNamee got sent off five minutes after replacing Mathias Doumbe in the 85th minute. But the game was already lost by that point so it really didn’t matter too much. But the Argyle lads will be disappointed that they managed to keep a clean sheet until the 81st minute to deny Argyle a point for all their hard work! Liverpool had an excellent few days firsly beating Bolton 3 – 0 at Anfield on Boxing day to remain one point clear of Chelsea at the top of the table. The Reds comfortably beat Newcastle 1 – 5 at St James Park today to move a further two points ahead of Chelsea as the London team could only manage a 2 – 2 draw against fellow Londoners Fulham at Craven Cottage. Traditionally whoever is top of the league at the start of the new year goes on to be champions! Fingers X’ed!