It amazes me how pretty well in the 21st century, the American financial system is still littered with such antiquated systems as hand-written checks.

1. when I get checks, I have to physically “endorse” them, go to an ATM and cash them in, or mail them in. What a waste of time (and paper). All this when my banking account doesn’t physically exist; all that it is, is a bunch of bits in a bank’s electronic storage
2. some people, especially old folks, prefer to use checks, because debit/credit cards are more difficult to use! I mean, think about the numerous steps to use a credit card at Safeway:
• Find card
• swipe card wrong way
• realize it was wrong, turn it around,
• keep turning till you finally get it right
• enter pin
• realize you’ve just entered the wrong pin
• try re-entering
• watch as the cashier sighs/rolls their eyes because you’re paying for a newspaper, pack of cigarettes and some gum on a debit card
• select no cash back
• validate purchase
• realize you forgot something and cancel the whole transaction, further pissing off the cashier
• add your new item
• re swipe card
• ......

Finally, when I write checks, there’s place to put in all sorts of silly and redundant information.

For the last reason, I will take my revenge on checks. Here’s my first entry, a check to pay the garbage. Click the picture :)