see more pwn and owned pictures

There you have it. The “biggest bank failure in history,” to hear CNN tell it. An ailing Washington Mutual Bank (WaMu for short) was bought out by JPMorgan Chase via an arrangement by the federal government.

An odd thing, though. A couple of weeks ago, I logged onto Mint to get a look at most of my finances at a glance ¹. One of Mint’s features is a “Ways to Save” page that tells you how you can further grow your finances — I see it as nothing more than a glorified advertisement page. Mint “recommended” a move to WaMu to earn an extra $50 a year based on my account balance.

When I initially heard about the WaMu buyout last night, I immediately thought, “Good thing I didn’t take up that offer,” but later learned that regular deposit accounts wouldn’t be affected. “Business as usual,” as they say.

Logging onto Mint today revealed I could earn an extra $75/year now. Hmmm….

UPDATE, 3:27 p.m.: Apparently, we’re now on a Wachovia watch. They have several branches here in the D.C. area. (via JMG)

Hump Day had a whole new meaning for little Billy after this. (possibly NSFW)

My housemates and I were at a car dealership just outside of Gaithersburg yesterday when I noticed this sign. I immediately thought it might be a good candidate for FAIL Blog.

Can anyone tell me why?

Recently, one of my housemates and I drove past the Checkers at 14th Street and Maryland Avenue NE, and I noticed that it was boarded up. Considering there were a couple of crime-related incidents there in the past, I figured that either the shop was closing up for good or they decided to board up the walk-up area to prevent further incidents.

I was wrong either way, as evidenced by the photo above. That is the Checkers in question, and yes that is a blue SUV in the walk-up area. I guess they took the meaning of “drive thru” literally. Color me amused when I found the picture on Failblog, a site in the same vein as I Can Has Cheezburger. It’s one of my new favorite sites to peek in on occasionally.