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| Monday, November 16th, 2009 |
traceroo
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4:24p |
Student Loans Might Just Be the Root of All Evil
There are days when I deeply regret that I didn't take student loans to get through college right out of high school. I wonder how my life might be different for that education, experience, and presumed leg-up in finding a career? And then there are days when I want to stab the student loan companies in effigy, and then burn that dummy in a great conflagration, then stomp on the ashes into even ittier-bitter particles, and mix those into my cats' litterbox. This is one of the latter type of days described. Ian's student loans were formerly held by two companies. One company sold 2 of the 4 loans it held to yet a third company. We received notice of this sale after we'd sent our October payment. Company #2 received the payment, and applied it 100% to the new company. Today I get our bill for November, and it reflects that we missed last month's payment, and oh by the way, don't go thinking that just because we sold off half your loans that we might think to recalculate your payment to reflect that or something! Silly goose! They claim we not only owe them usual full amount for the month, but times two since they recorded that we missed last month's payment. DEATH TO THE ARISTOS! Argh. So Ian has to call them tomorrow since they won't speak with me about it. Urgh. Hopefully this can easily be straightened out with a simple phone call, but when it comes to bureaucracies, I take no hopeful ease for granted. Otherwise, I don't have much news for you today. One of the companies that Ian really has his eye on has finally started advertising jobs for Environment Artists. Due to the debacle with his professional work not being released this month as anticipated, however, Ian's portfolio isn't ready to present right now. On the bright side, Ian is getting much better at giving pep talks, and I believe him when he tells me that everything will be okay! Meanwhile, I'm waiting on a grade on my book report in History. Did all the grocery shopping in the entire world today. I think we might have our first real autumn chill overnight tonight, and the container plants have got to come in. We're meeting Ian's family at his parents' condo on the Gulf Coast for Thanksgiving, and I'm super-duper looking forward to that! That's about it, really. T$ Current Mood:  okay |
caudelac
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2:06p |
Foamy.
Back from Georgia, Far more bruised, From damned evil camp beds, Than from the pummeling. Mmmm... pummeling. Lo! I miss the pummeling. I miss the...the... ...ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Current Mood:  wannasleep.Current Music: The Revolution Will Not be Televised // Gil Scott-Heron |
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chapel_of_words
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9:17a |
*Poof* goodbye vacation
I had four weeks of vacation banked. As of Saturday I was going to start using them beginning this Friday. As of Sunday night they are gone. Thank you IRS, thank you IBM, thank you incompetent project manager. There's an IRS rule that if you're on the road for a year on an assignment you have to spend five weeks away from that location OR all your expenses get taxed as income at 40%. They do this becuase progressives love taxing income, as opposed to consumption, or wealth and I guess, there's just too many ways to define income so apparently me providing a service to a client who happens not to live where I do, and my living expenses while being away from home being paid by that client could be construed by someone as income. I'm sure someone has gamed the system *exactly* that way in the past. And like all good governments a blanket rule gets applied rather than managing the exception. Based on project manager advice at the start of the contract last January I began banking my vacation to coincide with the five weeks of no travel so that the impact would be minimized to my client. ALL of my vacation including floating holidays and regular vacation. But wait...it turns out that per IRS rules holidays and vacation *can't* count to the five weeks no travel, and that five weeks must be contiguous and concurrent. So if I start my 25 business days of non-travel next week, and take a holiday for Thanksgiving, I must now be non-travel for 26 days. So my options: A. Pay an approximately $36,000 tax bill. (Est $8k/month travel expenses over 12 months at 40%). Although this would help pay for other people's goodies I don't exactly have that kind of cash lying around unless they start taking ISK from Eve. B. Screw the client - take five weeks non-travel working from home followed by four weeks vacation; made slightly more difficult by time-space physics of I have to do all that before Jan 1 due to IBM's use it or lose it vacation policy. Also although some companies that would work, the Army is a face-to-face kind of organization, being "out" for 2months is probably untenable for them. C. Defraud the government - just go on non-travel and claim I'm working. It wouldn't be hard to pull off, I'm sure half the "saved" stimulus jobs are versions of the same sleight of hand. The risks to me: both legal and to my integrity as a person, to me are not worth it however. D. Leave IBM. This is still an option I'm strongly considering and although it would make me feel far better in the short run, wouldn't fix the tax problem. E. Work through vacation. It will be like a vacation. I'll be in vacation-like places. Doing somewhat holiday things - except that during my vacation from 9am-5pm EST I'll be remotely working for the Army. I'll have deadlines and deliverables. It will be great! A lot of people I work with have a sayign about professionalism. They place high stock in professionally reacting to things. This vent is not professional. I'm being professional at work. I'll do the right thing by the client. I may even do the right thing by IBM and not fire my manager for a PM's mistake. Being professional doesn't really help with family though - and I've really been looking forward to destressing over vacation becuase I've been wound up tighter than...well...something that winds pretty tight. Tim C. |
twelveoaks
|
7:47a |
Getting Ready to Rumble…
Pain-o-clock. This morning’s bout
Bones are brittle, head is pounding
No victor but I do tap out
To stop the brutal bell from sounding
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mystech
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1:30a |
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| Sunday, November 15th, 2009 |
kingfrog
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11:07p |
In which I had a fantastic weekend...
My feet hurt. So do my calves, quadriceps, upper shoulders, inner shoulders, deltoids, upper arms, and neck. As an intrepid reader, I'm sure you're asking yourself...what could possibly have happened? Did his Froggly Majesty fall out of bed? (Well, nearly, but that's later in the story) Perhaps he survived an assassination attempt? (Well, actually, he did - but it was someone else who was the target!) Maybe he actually got some exercise? (Well, yes, in fact he did - the old fashioned way, with a mace and metal shield.) ( In which his Froggly Majesty engages in navel-gazing, examining his weekend LARPing, and thanking many people )To anyone reading this journal who knows someone who doesn't normally read it who helped me or spent time with me or otherwise contributed to my happiness and enjoyment of the weekend at King's Gate, please point them to this post so they can have my heartfelt thanks. That's players, plot, NPCs - anyone. I appreciate you all. I look forward to seeing you again in 2010. Current Mood:  happy |
twelveoaks
|
10:30p |
Weekend
Thursday I went to see suibhne’s dance performance COMPOSED. I enjoyed it very much and I am enormously impressed with the talent of everyone involved, but I left feeling like I needed to see it all a second time. I think I’d have to see it at least twice to feel like I took it all in. I don’t really know much about dance (other than the commonplace ballroom and Nutcracker cliches). If I go to a theater performance or an orchestra concert I know enough of the language, the history, etc of the form that I know what to listen for, how one thing leads to the next, where to focus my attention. This is because I have some education in those forms. Modern dance is fascinating, but still somewhat mysterious to me. If I’d been home for the weekend I certainly would have gone twice.
If you’re reading this, suibhne, it doesn’t mean at all that I didn’t “get” your work. I actually found it very moving (disturbing, even). I can’t tell you how impressed I am!
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traumedy
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9:02p |
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rosindust
|
8:38p |
Yoinked from Warren Ellis
 Photo: Tazlimur Costume, Hair/make-up: Jessica Rowell Model: Zoetica Ebb Couch courtesy of Allan Amato |
st_rev
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1:37p |
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akaihyo
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1:16p |
Winter Court
The massive roleplaying storyline event for Legends of the Five Rings begins today! Winter Court Kyuden Gotei, I am not playing this time but I am helping out be being an assistant GM. Go and take a look, should be much fun for all involved *touch wood*. |
rdansky
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12:10p |
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pleroma
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9:29a |
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mystech
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1:30a |
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jigsawdiva
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3:03a |
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kajivar
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1:59a |
ANTM Icons
Because ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) not_from_stars requested them, icons from the Petite Ninja Warrior photo shoot of ANTM Cycle 13: Examples   ( Here be the rest. )One day I'll remember to start posting here again regularly. ;) Current Music: Criminal Minds |
| Saturday, November 14th, 2009 |
traumedy
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9:02p |
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rdansky
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11:39a |
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rdansky
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11:16a |
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rdansky
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11:08a |
Samuel R. Delany at NCSU
I got introduced to the works of Samuel R. Delany far too young and in my parents' basement. They had a fairly magnificent collection of science fiction paperbacks (and a few hardcover oddities that I had no business reading at that age, Ron Goulart's The Chameleon Corps being one of particular distinction) that I dove into wholeheartedly once I figured out that Fiction Was Good. (Third grade, in case you were wondering. But that's an entirely different essay). Includeed in there, with The Wizard of Linn and TJ Bass' Godwhale and an honest-to-God copy of Armageddon 2419 A.D., were a trio of Delanys, first editions of Nova and Babel-17 and Dhalgren. I found them right after I finished plowing through the Heinleins, and my head melted. They were quite literally the first books I d read that didn't feel contained, that felt like they were offering...more. Science fiction had been rigid - enjoyable as heck, to be sure, but there were rules, and there were boundaries, and there were neat John W. Campbellian spaces that everything fit into. Logic, yes, tech, yes, messy human stuff, not so much. And then I read Delany, and there was jacking into computers and Tarot imagery and sex - actual sex that real people might have, instead of by-the-numbers discreet coupling between the hero and scientist's daughter. It was messy and ragged and gloriously big, and it made something go *pop* in my brain. I didn't realize it for a while, honestly. I think it's fair to say I didn't get most of what I was actually reading - I was too young, hadn't lived nearly enough to understand most of what was in there. But I knew there was more than what I was getting, and I could see the places where I might someday have to go to figure it out. When my folks moved, I stole those Delany first editions. They're currently sitting on a shelf in Melinda's office, safe and sound and accessible any time I feel up to reading them again. Unlike many of the books that wowed me when I was young, they do not disappoint upon further examination. Which brings us, sort of, to last night. We'd first seen Mr. Delany speak at the NC Festival of the Book, over at Duke a couple of years back. He was interviewed for a live audience by Dr. John Kessel, whom' Melinda had studied writing with, and it was a fascinating discussion to drink in. Later, Melinda had Delany as one of her instructors at Clarion West, and so when she spotted that he was reading on campus, it was a foregone conclusion that we were going. Melinda actually spotted him on the street before we got to the reading proper. He was standing outside of Porter's, waiting for his ride, and she re-introduced herself ot him with much glee. Me, I offered him my umbrella. He declined, said he'd see us at the reading, and that someone was en route to pick him up. As for the reading, it was more a case of storytelling. Delany sat at the lectern and read from three works, none of them science-fictional and all of them marvelous. At one point, he stopped for a question, which he answered gracefully, but it was clear he was having more fun reading, and the audience was having more fun listening. He closed with two sections from The Motion of Light in Water, simultaneously touching and funny and engrossing. After that, it was a line of bookbuyers and autograph seekers and photograph takers, all also fans and well-wishers and genuinely thrilled to meet him. Delany was graceful, charming, and patient. I was last in line. When he got up to go, I thanked him briefly for causing that rupture in my brain. He smiled, seemed amused, and wished me a good night. Really, what more could I ask? |
mystech
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1:30a |
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st_rev
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12:14a |
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| Friday, November 13th, 2009 |
traumedy
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9:02p |
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pleroma
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4:22p |
An Early Happy Birthday to...
...one of my best friends in the world, renee_of_anubis!I hope this year is one of amazing success and joy in every avenue of your life. That love is central and magical for those you care about, both friends and family, and that every day can be beautiful for you. |
pallasathene82
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1:36p |
In the words of Neil Gaiman, “Librarians are weird, but in a good way. |
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