Wii U Failure

We had Little Kat over the house one night for dinner. Afterwards we wanted him to spend time with us. So we thought we could play a game. Kit Kat and Little Kat were against board games. So we proposed a video game instead. Momoko thought we could play Smash Brothers on the Wii.

The Wii U console booted up. However the tablet that connected to it was dead. Apparently it had been dead since Momoko's niece visited us last summer. I decided that we needed to replace either the tablet or the whole Wii U system.

I was shocked that there was little supply for sale. New Wii U consoles were going for $900 to $1100 on Amazon. Even a used tablet was $140 in average condition. This must be some sort of price gouging. Before making a purchase, I checked the existing table and found it unplugged. After charging up, it worked fine.

Big Lottery Jackpots

The Mega Millions and PowerBall lottery jackpots are getting huge. So I bought one ticket for each. Unfortunately I only got a matching mega ball. It was worth $2. I tried to go back to the gas station where I bought the ticket to redeem it. The gas station was closed for rennovations.

I went down the street to another gas station. Normally I don't go there because the gas costs too much. I traded in my winning $2 ticket. Used it and some more cash to buy one more ticket for each of these big lottories.

The Mega Millions jackpot is a whopping $640M. And PowerBall is even bigger at $750M. Of course the odds are astronomical for a win. Really what I am buying is a short term dream of what I would do if I won either of them.

Loan Denied

Little Kat applied for a student loan for next semester's college classes. I acted as a co-signer for the loan. We used the same bank we did for last semester. I got a letter in the mail from the bank. They denied the application.

I called them up. It took forever to speak to a representative. They gave me 4 reasons why I did not qualify as a co-signer. This is odd. I make really good money at my job. I have some loans. But they should be "good" loans, such as a home mortgage, car loan, school loan for Little Kat, etc.

Little Kat had to call the bank to find out the reasons related to him as to why they rejected the application. He also had to wait on hold for a long time. The end result was that he reapplied for a loan with a lesser amount. Let's see what happens.

This is tricky as Little Kat only qualifies for 2 programs of loans at his school. The alternative does not let you defer repayment until you graduate. We hope not to have to take that style loan. If so, Little Kat needs to immediately start repaying the loan.

Pivoting to a Four Year College

Little Kat is getting close to the end of his Associates Degree program at his community college. Momoko, Little Kat, and I have been researching what he should do next. He could do an apprenticeship through his college. He could jump to another community college that has better programs. He could get some credentials like a certificate and then get a job immediately. Or he could transfer to a four year college.

Today we made some progress figuring out the four year college path. Last night, Little spent the night at our house. He had scheduled a call today with one of the local state schools. We were specifically talking to the person who deals with community college transfers at this four year college.

Little Kat and I went out and picked up some Chinese food for lunch. Then we rehearsed how we though the call would go. We had to have him practice many times until he could communicate his situation and the questions we had for the four year college.

Pretty much we want to know if Little Kat actually needs to get an associates degree, or whether he can jump to the four year college now. The program he wants to enter says that transfer students need an associates degree in computer technology (or related) in order to get into the program. We wanted to know if Little Kat could bypass that.

The call went well. We had some positive surprises. The person from the four year college sold their school to us. Now we need to finalize what courses Little Kat will take next semester at his community college. This might be his last semester there.