On December 24, 2009 a charge for $4.97 was posted to my Bank of America checking account from “Hopes and Dreams”.

I did not make this charge. The transaction noted a telephone number, 478-394-4395, and a Google search revealed many other people were also struck with an unauthorized charge for $4.97 from “Hopes and Dreams”.

hmm, charge a small amount of money from many cards under the guise of a charity… genius!

I guess my Bank of America check card has been compromised. And apparently I am not alone.

This was troublesome as I am traveling. I do have a backup card from a different bank. The backup card occasionally wouldn’t work where the BofA card would. I found that the combination of a Visa and a Mastercard from separate banks is very useful while traveling in the world. I decided to live with the risk and keep the BofA card active until the issue is resolved. I thought it would be resolved quickly.

I emailed BofA, the response was that I need to call the customer service number to dispute the charge. Making an international phone call during California business hours while traveling (I was in Japan at the time) is not an easy thing to do. This fact didn’t seem to register in the emails. Also, opening an investigation is impossible, the only recourse is to dispute the charge and cancel the card. Canceling the card while I’m traveling and having them mail a new card is less easy than making the international phone call during California business hours.

In the past couple of months I’ve made numerous attempts to call Bank of America and get this resolved. Usually I was put on hold and then disconnected. Separately, they did freeze my card as soon as I arrived in the Philippines. Using your card in the Philippines counts as “suspicious” to Bank of America (Japan, Korea, and Taiwan are ok, sorry Philippines). Apparently the multiple emails I have sent explaining that I am traveling were never read (or at least, never read by the right department). I was able to get through to the Bank of America Checkcard Security department from the phone number on the alert they sent me (about suspending my card). I reported the unauthorized account activity from “Hopes and Dreams” and they told me they couldn’t do anything about that, and that I need to call the customer service number during regular business hours (i.e., California business hours).

Interesting, Bank of America Checkcard Security department does not handle the security of your checkcard. They do monitor your account and freeze your card if you travel to the Philippines. They do not have an email. If your card is compromised they cannot do anything; you must call customer service during regular banking hours.

It has been two months and three countries after “Hopes and Dreams” posted an unauthorized debit on my card. Today, I was able to call Bank of America customer service and file a claim. The trick was to keep calling back after being disconnected by the first round of customer service agents. You’ll need to survive four separate transfers, none of which know your account number and will continually ask for your social security number, drivers license number, and other highly sensitive (and personally identifiable) information that they were never supposed to ask me over the telephone (I signed up for some security measure where a password and ID number would be used instead of personally identifiable information).

One time I had made the mistake of not telling them my social security number (because I was in a public cafe). The response was to freeze my entire account and require me to show up in-person at a Bank of America branch with two forms of ID. This is not very nice when you are traveling.

I realized this is an institutional problem. Occasionally a representative on the phone would try to help me, and never were they empowered to resolve the issue. One department does not share information with any other department. And yet all departments can touch your account, and put restrictions on it that they may not be able to lift. Each department has a specialized role and anything outside of that specialized role will not be resolved. I was unable to find a department for “someone is stealing money from your customers!”

Eventually a customer service representative transfered me to some fraud resolution department, the solution was to credit my account $4.97. The fact that this is not an isolated incident did not seem to register to anyone. Also, they have not credited my account, after I spoke to the agent who created the claim I was transfered to an automated message. The automated message explained to me that I must mail (yes, mail) the claim information to receive the credit, and if I do not mail this information then my claim will be dropped. They’re using the mail-in rebate scam… I guess I still haven’t alerted Bank of America that someone is actively stealing from their customers. The $4.97 is less the issue, someone stealing money via a fake charity is the issue.

They did tell me that they were putting a hold on my card (which was already suspended because I used it in the Philippines) and were going to mail me a new card. I requested they not send me a new card, as I will not be needing one.

Fortunately, in less time than I have been dealing with Bank of America over $4.97, I have opened an international checking account (with a different bank) that waives all international fees. I now have two separate checking accounts that I rely on and neither one is from Bank of America.

For anyone who plans on doing serious travel, here are some recommendations:

1. Keep the bulk of your travel money in a secure online savings account. HSBC and ING both offer such accounts. The only way to touch this money should be to transfer it to a checking account.
2. Maintain at least two separate checking accounts from separate banks. It varies by country, but one Visa and one Mastercard is recommended. This combination covers most ATMs in the world.
3. Keep only enough money to survive in each of your checking accounts. If a card is stolen or compromised you don’t want to end your trip early.
4. Don’t bank with Bank of America. Hell, even if you’re not traveling, don’t bank with Bank of America. There are plenty of competent banking institutions and credit unions to cover your financial needs.

I’m now in Singapore, I’m up late (California banking hours), and I’m looking at my Bank of America check card. It says “customer since 1994″. I feel a little sentimental since this account has been with me since I was a kid. Oh well, thanks for the good times BofA!

Simplify, simplify, simplify…

Less is more, and this is everything I own. I went from a 55L duffel to a sturdy wheeled backpack and a simple laptop backpack that carries my laptop, wacom, camera, kindle, water purifier, sandals, and various other necessities.

I’d be interested in an even simpler approach, if possible to ditch the clothes and toiletries and always acquire new ones as I travel. At a certain pace I think this could be sustainable.

Spicy ramen, you melt in my mouth, I love you. I have traveled far and wide and never have I found one such as you.

Looking at you, no one can tell where you are from. It matters not, as you are exactly who you are. You have been shaped by both east and west, the best of the world is in you and I share the joy of your company every moment we are together. It is a love like no other, undefinable and life affirming. Through you I know bliss and in that bliss I understand the nature of love: loving you is loving me is loving everything.

I will miss you ramen, until we meet again, I love you.

I’m taking one year off to travel. Or at least that’s what I’m telling everyone. One year is arbitrary, I could be gone for months or years. I want it to be a lifetime, leaving behind the old life and embarking on something new.

I did some research on backpacks and found some really great travel backpacks. In particular the Deuter Quantum and the Eberlestock Halftrack were fantastic. In my over-analytic style I decided against a backpack and will stick to my simple 50L duffel bag. This is ideal for airport travel, train hopping, but not for extended periods of hiking with heavy gear. I also have a small backpack just big enough to carry my laptop, wacom tablet, and art supplies.

Truthfully, I haven’t taken much time to think about what I’m doing, I’m just sort of doing it. I quit my job. Now I’m selling or giving away everything I own. This, along with some savings, raises sufficient money to travel. What I’ll have left is exactly what I want to take with me.

I cannot possibly prepare for all of the places I will go. And I’m not even trying, I’ll do my best as I travel and see where life takes me. Since I am in no hurry, I’ll take the time to acclimate (as much as possible) with not only the local culture, but to the contemporary artistic culture of every destination.

I have no itinerary, it’d be much too complex. Instead I have a vague sense of direction, a general westbound movement around the globe. Listing all of the countries, languages, and cultures I want to visit would be too tiresome, so I’ll let the itinerary unfold as I travel.

Why I’m doing this I do not know. Perhaps it is a simple pull of fate. Something I have always wanted to do…

If I thought about it deeper, I realize that as I look to the churches, to the state houses, to the corporate towers, and the academic halls; in all there is an emptiness. Where we used to find meaning and purpose, we find only limits. Creative and intellectual limits. I imprint to the norms and social mores in each environment, and in all there is an artificial world best described as empty. To the executive it is life, to the politician it is life, to the academic it is life — each of them with their own perceptions that amount to nothing more than constraints to help guide our animal instinct.

And if I think about my life, I realize that no matter where I have been, from the most dense urban sprawls to the far remote wilderness, in every place I travel I can find that rapture of existence. If we take the time to see, we see that we are one with the world around us, sharing and cooperating in the joyous sorrow of life. In those moments I find something real, this is where our perceptions are cleansed, and it is these moments that we affirm our existence– where life is imbued with meaning.

More than ever, I am convinced that this world is not one of boundaries, in-groups, and aliens; but a tiny spec in an endless abyss of space. An oasis in a sea of nothing. We share our world in our mutual struggle for existence. And everyday, everyone of us attempts to make sense of the beautiful sorrow of our daily life.

Ironic that the thing we are looking for is all around us, all the time. I guess I’m traveling to go beyond the boundaries and the in-groups; and live the life that I want to live. I’m just not sure what that means yet.

No one inquired to purchase my alarm clock from craigslist. The ad read as follows:

I’m taking a year off to travel and am selling everything that I’m not taking with me.

This hideous machine maintains time in a crude light-emitting display. During the day it appears harmless enough, but in the early morning hours it will abruptly cry with a horrific series of beeps. I do not recommend being near it when this happens.

An otherwise delightful and peaceful sleep will be killed as this device bellows its vile sounds. This will continue until you ritualistically accept its demonic power and prematurely rise from your slumber. This “alarm” will persist until the demon has been appeased by feeding on your dreams, letting you sleep in a tortured sequence of 9 minute intervals… the demon euphemistically refers to the feeding as “snooze”.

With every beep your soul will slowly die. This process will continue until the demon has completely devoured your hopes and dreams, leaving you a lifeless husk– blindly waking without purpose. Once this process is complete you will feel no pain, only a vague sense of yearning for a life beyond the bounds of suffering.

Not a single reply. I ended up selling it to a nice young lady who was purchasing kitchenware and thought she could use this in her bathroom as nothing more than a clock, huh.

Try to look ahead and see where you’re heading. Often times the landscape stretches out for miles with no exits, other times there’s choices at every turn. It’s exhilarating as every moment you’ve made distance. You have an idea but you’re unsure where you’re going or what it will look like.

The only anxiety is that moment in between, where there is no distance, no direction– it’s ironic how the answer isn’t important, it doesn’t matter what direction, just go somewhere, anywhere.

Wake up early and make yourself known to the world

There is a simplicity to existence that conscious ego will not tolerate. Your existence just is. It is not planned nor intended. You are, simply as you are. The most basic truth is so clearly in front of your face– base and predictable: human, primate, mammal, life– the truth bores as it insults ego. Delusions are so much more interesting– God, soul, love– they are real in effect of our every action, but they are as malleable as any childish whim. We shape these delusions with every want and expectation. Try it. Expect love and find it. Want God and see! The filters of perception are yours to control– we are masters to this shared delusion we often confuse with reality.

These are simply ideals, and we breathe them as necessary as air. What a curious primate.

Unfiltered reality– what does that mean? Is it even possible? We sometimes speak of it as beautiful, seeing things as they truly are– but is not that beauty another delusion, another filter? Unfiltered reality, I imagine, would be too boring and too simple to comprehend. It would be data with no metaphor, no symbol system, and none of the artful abstractions that we thrive on.

So then, curious primate, what is it that you want? Anything that you consider worth comprehending is possible; but still you persist in wondering about this most basic thing. Do what you like, and let none be the judge, you cannot help to do otherwise.

We are masters to our own delusion. Do what you want and shape every filter. Let life happen. Make art, love, and offer people a reason for their existence to matter.

It is all poetry and art, and all blissfully useless.

and now on to Madame S Leather!

Do you ever wonder if that reflection looks back?
Fragments of who you are, multiple selves throughout
every facet of your life– your past, present, and
all possible futures

At some point, as perceptions collapse and reality
is seen as illusion– you are whole
The sum of your knowledge– all of you

In that moment, everything is as you have made it
And you, the whole of who you are, are responsible
Where you go from here…
That is the better question