Assignment for AEG is due in a week. I've been buckling down more on it, but there's a bit of a hump I can't seem to get over. It's not so much writing block as a writer's... slog. I know what needs to be written and how to write it, it just somehow feels excruciating to do so. I guess this is what technical work is like.
Plans for GenCon are pretty much finalized. Scott, Monica, and Nikki will be driving up to Indy with Kim and me on the Tuesday before. It's not going to be the most comfortable trip ever, but as the man in Lock, Stock says, "don't knock it, it's cheap." I'm interested to see how Scott and Mon manage the con, since they're definitely interested in the stuff overall, but they don't have a particular hook like Kim and I do. I don't imagine I'll be spending as much time in the card hall this year, but I didn't plan on doing so last year either. Since this trip comes at the cost of delaying our new windows even further, I'm goddamned certain I will have a good time. If I am not enjoying myself, I will start feeding anime cat-girls to the bloated Klingon cosplayers until something amuses me.
Last night was Abby and Rachel's X-Men themed murder mystery party, and it went off surprisingly well. I say "surprising" not because I had a lack of faith in those two, but because from my personal experience, wedging that many people in to a small space and giving them conflicts to resolve (fictional or not) ends ... dramatically. Things were pretty calm, though, despite the 80-degree-and-hey-did-we-all-wear-multi-layered-costumes heat in the house. There were a few people who were sore that they couldn't finish their objectives, but overall everyone seemed pretty happy about it.
I got to play Gambit, which was neat and a little intimidating to me. One, since he's such a Goddamned flirt, I always worry about people taking it a little too seriously and getting creeped out. Two, my Cajun accent is horrible. So hopefully no one would mind I was just going to talk like me. And Wade Wilson. See, I had originally decided to play Gambit as a slow-talking, sly man of few words like in the comics, but we were given backstories and told, effectively, "Look we had to sort've fuck with some histories here to make the game work, please use this information and don't argue with us about comic book canon." Which I totally understood. You had to pull some logical strings to get some of those folks into the field together, and you also had to have connections and goals that worked as a unit.
So, after reading Gambit's history, I decided that he didn't really sound like Remy from the comics. No, he came off, to me, as more of a quick talking dude like the blonde guy from Community. So I went with it. Gambit was pretty much half Gambit, half Deadpool, and a lot. Of. Words. I spent the whole night running around poking and prodding people about what they were up to and trying to get them to move in directions that I cared about. Considering the main thrust of the plot was that someone murdered Erik, and Remy wouldn't have really cared about that, I really focused on about 1/3rd of the group. But hooo boy, watching shit happen after I knocked one person one way and another person some other way was hilarious. Things didn't always go to plan (and it blew up on me a couple times), but that was pretty fun, too.
Also, Dawn and I were a pretty interesting duo. With her as Rogue and the both of us pretty much trading off on helping each other out, it was hilarious. All it takes for us to really bond and hold hands and work together is a fictional superpowered tyrant dying. Who would have thought it'd be so easy?
The costume was my only real regret. On one hand, I'm sad I couldn't find a nice brown trench, but, again - 80 degrees indoors. I also bought a pair of black jeans to wear which turned out to be some weird hipster skinny shit with a faux tribal art stitch on the back. Wayyyyy too douchebag for me, and even too douchebaggy for the newly-smarmy Gambit. Hopefully I can return them today.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011
Subsidizing Self-Defeating Behavior
A recent exchange led to a bit of a rant regarding the identity and attitude of the poor. Figured I'd keep this one around, since it's something I like to talk about. The first paragraph is something someone had said, the rest is all me. I had to quote myself because we broke the topic into a new thread, not because I am in sloppy makeout love with my own writing.
Or, as I was callously told once by someone who didn't like our company's policy of helping anyone, "Families who make over $40,000 a year don't have real problems."
It's really important that when we talk about the poor and poverty and all of this that we have some sort of baseline to view statistics from, because the word poverty is extremely subjective. Let's make sure we go back and get the correct context for this person's article, though, after all of the numbers fly by - a working poor, statistically average family here is four people (two adults, two nonworking children) that makes $43,512 each year maximum. That word maximum is important because I've personally noticed when you talk about income limits or poverty consideration limits, people tend to confuse the ceiling with the baseline.
So, with some of that in mind, let's take a look at the article.
So he goes on to say, effectively, "If you don't balance your checkbook, the bank rapes you in check fees." Yes. Duh. I don't know what else to say about that. I think he had a point here that he failed to make so I will make it for him - proportionally speaking, bank fees hurt the poor way more than anyone else. A $35 overdraft fee is more likely to send the poor spiraling out of financial control, but it's not actually more likely to happen to them than anyone else. People, in general, are completely horrible about managing their spending money. And I don't mean "spending money" like "free money that you have after bills and baby maintenance". No, I mean money they spend, which for most people is 100% of their money. They are bad at all of their money, is my point, and this is not a "poor person problem".
After that, we get a marginal treatment of the actual damn problem - check cashing shops. Fees to use the money you earned is ridiculous, but thanks to the wildly inflated story this guy spins about the banks hating you and wanting you to die*, the poor are less likely to bank at all because they feel the instant they put their money into a financial institution, there is a man somewhere dreaming up ways to make it vanish. So they go to check cashing places, which will also helpfully give you title and payday advance loans (mentioned later). So already, this article is well on its way to reinforcing part of the problem! Hooray.
(*of course, he takes a line to mention that you can talk to them like they have real blood in their veins, almost like a person)
The amazingly stupid part here is that he mentioned the cost of a payday loan is a flat 15.5% interest charge (which is wildly inaccurate and too low, but it's enough to make him look stupid here) and then later states that it's better than going back to the bank and their fee cycle. Really? Simple math tells us that it only takes us to get just over $200 in need to break even with the fees, and he uses a $500 example. And honestly, if you need $500, you can get a relatively inexpensive personal loan from the bank you don't have because you listen to people like this. The interest fee will be smaller.
Either that or you can, don't get the pitchforks and torches yet, get a credit card and use it wisely, for things like this. Getting a credit card is ridiculously easy, even today, even if your credit stinks. Of course, using the payday loans every few weeks is wrecking your credit, which makes his next point both wrong and hilariously misinformed.
Onward -
Yes, crap happens, and the savings goes away, and that sucks, hard. But that's much better than everything he describes hereafter. And it is avoidable. The most damaging attitude among the poor right now is that there is no real way out and anyone who says otherwise is just out of touch.
PS Once again this guy is marveling at how this is a poor person problem specifically. And my attitude is the one seen as out of touch. (LARGE EYEROLL EMOTE HERE)
The last point is both huge and small at the same time. I say this because the point he makes is, effectively - You can't get a better job because you're too busy reacting to your crappy poor life to do anything proactive. Which, to be honest, is a large consideration.
In the end, this is just a guy letting off steam about his situation. And I don't mean to belittle that situation - being poor is horrible. It's a pretty easy thing to get frustrated about and feel like there's nothing to be done for it, but this guy should have kept this crap on his blog and not been able to put it out there so other, similarly uninformed people, could nod their head and feel validated.
Bloo Driver wrote:
First of all, let's get some framework done here. The article in question cites a report (Workingpoor Project's periodic report) which cites a report (US Census Bureau (Factception!)) that focuses on the "working poor family", which is a relatively nebulous term. In this case, the definition here boils down to a "family" being at least three people - a couple and one child that lives full time with the family and is under 18. "Working" defines two or one incomes where the household puts together at least 39 hours of work time combined, or less if someone was recently out of a job and is actively seeking employment. So right out we can toss out childless couples or single folks. But we do want to consider them, in general, right? Now we get to the "poor" definition. So we look to the US Health and Human Services Guidelines for poverty last year - 10,830 for a single resident household. You'll notice the matrix counts up to 200% of the poverty line as statistics to be considered, and you may ask why? Are you poor at 100% of the poverty line or what, here? The reality is that, even above the poverty line, most government and charitable programs identify financial neediness in people all the way up to the 200% mark.LobsterMobster wrote:
I don't want to derail here, and I know this is a link to Cracked, usually not the most serious or profound website, but I've read a lot of this guy's stuff. It's kind of amazing he's still alive. I encourage everyone to at least give it a skim before calling poor people lazy, because he is poor despite working harder than is reasonable to ask of anyone: Link. Sure there are people who are poor because they're lazy. There are also people who are poor because life just does not give any quantity of any fraction of a sh*t over whether you live or die.
I need to qualify some things before I make a statement regarding this article.At the very least, pay attention to the part where he needs to pay $500 for a water leak because he couldn't afford $150 for a plumber till his next paycheck. That's not laziness.
That being said, that is easily one of the most ignorant and incorrect articles to ever appear at any time on Cracked's front page. It barely falls into the "correct in general but bad at details" category. I don't want to derail the thread too hard about why it's so bad, but I will if you guys like.
- I read Cracked daily. I'm often surprised at the insight put into the articles of a satire/comedy site, and regularly refer said articles to friends much as you have above.
- I work about 50-60 hours a week at a job where I specifically help the financially disadvantaged do things such as build credit, attain homeownership (if that's what they wanted in the first place), find ethical banks, and handle personal finance management.
- I personally make near-nothing because my job is a not-for-profit, and we are regularly worried about our doors closing on a quarterly basis.
Or, as I was callously told once by someone who didn't like our company's policy of helping anyone, "Families who make over $40,000 a year don't have real problems."
It's really important that when we talk about the poor and poverty and all of this that we have some sort of baseline to view statistics from, because the word poverty is extremely subjective. Let's make sure we go back and get the correct context for this person's article, though, after all of the numbers fly by - a working poor, statistically average family here is four people (two adults, two nonworking children) that makes $43,512 each year maximum. That word maximum is important because I've personally noticed when you talk about income limits or poverty consideration limits, people tend to confuse the ceiling with the baseline.
So, with some of that in mind, let's take a look at the article.
Quote:
This is a correct point. I want to emphasize this because I've noticed if I don't go on and on and on about how unfair the poor have it rather than try to look at it analytically, people think I'm a baby eater. Which I am, but for purely personal reasons.What I am saying is that people are quick to tell you to pick yourself up by your bootstraps and just stop being poor. What they don't understand is the series of intricate financial traps that makes that incredibly difficult.
Quote:
This is true for everyone. The situation he's about to describe is a liability for a lot of people because nearly no one keeps excess funds in their checking account (assuming they have one). People move these funds to savings (which doesn't do them a lot of good, but that's something else entirely), and even overdraft protection doesn't work as well as people tend to think.This is the future, where many businesses no longer accept cash as payment. That means you are required to have a checking account to function in the economy. And if you're poor, that means at some point you're going to get bank-****ed. Because having a checking account while poor doesn't just mean you have to be responsible and good at math -- you have to be perfect. Meticulous, flawless record keeping is the difference between surviving and having the bank seize your next paycheck.
So he goes on to say, effectively, "If you don't balance your checkbook, the bank rapes you in check fees." Yes. Duh. I don't know what else to say about that. I think he had a point here that he failed to make so I will make it for him - proportionally speaking, bank fees hurt the poor way more than anyone else. A $35 overdraft fee is more likely to send the poor spiraling out of financial control, but it's not actually more likely to happen to them than anyone else. People, in general, are completely horrible about managing their spending money. And I don't mean "spending money" like "free money that you have after bills and baby maintenance". No, I mean money they spend, which for most people is 100% of their money. They are bad at all of their money, is my point, and this is not a "poor person problem".
After that, we get a marginal treatment of the actual damn problem - check cashing shops. Fees to use the money you earned is ridiculous, but thanks to the wildly inflated story this guy spins about the banks hating you and wanting you to die*, the poor are less likely to bank at all because they feel the instant they put their money into a financial institution, there is a man somewhere dreaming up ways to make it vanish. So they go to check cashing places, which will also helpfully give you title and payday advance loans (mentioned later). So already, this article is well on its way to reinforcing part of the problem! Hooray.
(*of course, he takes a line to mention that you can talk to them like they have real blood in their veins, almost like a person)
Quote:
No, actually, people take out payday advance loans because 1) The aforementioned loathing of banks, and 2) They really don't understand how much trouble they're asking for the first time. The above situation is a distant third. Now, to be fair, there are a great deal of folks who finally get it (or, rarely, understand right off) but can't stop their "need it now" attitude.Think you're too smart to ever use one of those shady "payday loan" places? Well, you should know that nobody thinks they're a good deal. People go there because they're choosing between which ****ing provides the most lube. Say the gas bill is a month past due, and they're threatening to turn it off (if so, it's $150 to get it reconnected). Or you're about to be late on a credit card payment (which would be a fee and a doubling of your interest rate). Or your favorite S&M whip broke, and Whipfest is coming up (entry fee is nonrefundable). That is when you find yourself swallowing your pride and heading to the payday loan place.
The amazingly stupid part here is that he mentioned the cost of a payday loan is a flat 15.5% interest charge (which is wildly inaccurate and too low, but it's enough to make him look stupid here) and then later states that it's better than going back to the bank and their fee cycle. Really? Simple math tells us that it only takes us to get just over $200 in need to break even with the fees, and he uses a $500 example. And honestly, if you need $500, you can get a relatively inexpensive personal loan from the bank you don't have because you listen to people like this. The interest fee will be smaller.
Either that or you can, don't get the pitchforks and torches yet, get a credit card and use it wisely, for things like this. Getting a credit card is ridiculously easy, even today, even if your credit stinks. Of course, using the payday loans every few weeks is wrecking your credit, which makes his next point both wrong and hilariously misinformed.
Quote:
The old "no credit is worse than bad credit" addage makes me cringe every time I hear it. Now, in this case, he's saying no credit is just as bad as bad credit, which is also incorrect. Sure, if you want a car or a house, then yes you will need a credit history. However, most of the examples he cites - rentals, utilities, cell phones, small loans - all deal with folks who have no credit: students and/or people who just moved out of their parent's house. They have programs, they make exceptions, because they know a large chunk of their business would go away if they didn't. It's not as ideal as having excellent credit, sure, but it's certainly not as bad as actual bad credit history/scores.You'll find out the problem the next time somebody does a credit check -- having no credit will stop you from getting a loan or an apartment just as fast as having bad credit. And more importantly, if you have old bad credit due to a bunch of previous ****ups, simply vanishing off the credit map doesn't do anything to fix it.
Quote:
Someone fire the factchecker. Bills where you are not borrowing and repaying do not appear on your credit history unless they are collections accounts. A recent exception to this is property management companies more commonly (but not universally) reporting your lease as a loan where the total borrowed is X*Y, with Y being your rent (and thus your monthly payment) and X being your term.So repairing credit means opening accounts (having a cell phone plan is a good one, having your utilities in your own name -- as opposed to the landlord's -- is another) and, you know, making sure to pay your ****ing bills on time.
Quote:
Hey he got one right. It's the Beck Theorem - keep flinging stuff out there till something sounds good.And don't bother trying to shortcut the system by saving the shoebox full of cash, getting a loan, then paying it all off the next month. Length of credit is part of your credit score. They want to know your ability to make steady, long term payments without missing a month or being late.
Onward -
Quote:
Yes, it is. I get a lot of hate here but the simple fact is that if you have an income, you can save. You can save maybe $3 a month, but you can save. The hurdle to savings is not lack of income, it's a lack of validation. Saving $3/month feels useless, but out of literally hundreds of clients I've counseled, every single one of them that I convinced to carve out a ridiculously small amount of money did so, and within a year usually worked their way up to saving $25-$50 a month. That puts them ahead of the majority of the country. And they were making just around 120% of the poverty level in the majority of the cases. Saving money feels useless when you feel like you can't save anything useful. But when you start saving, it really is like working out. You see results, you get confident, and you get more dedicated.***t happens, always at the exact worst time. A tire blows on my car and, without a spare, it instantly becomes a paperweight. There's $80 for a new tire, $50 for a tow. Now, it's a good idea to have a separate bank account set up specifically for these situations because they are unavoidable. It's also a good idea to have a sex slave or two just sitting around in case your balls need shaved. It's not that ****ing simple.
Yes, crap happens, and the savings goes away, and that sucks, hard. But that's much better than everything he describes hereafter. And it is avoidable. The most damaging attitude among the poor right now is that there is no real way out and anyone who says otherwise is just out of touch.
PS Once again this guy is marveling at how this is a poor person problem specifically. And my attitude is the one seen as out of touch. (LARGE EYEROLL EMOTE HERE)
The last point is both huge and small at the same time. I say this because the point he makes is, effectively - You can't get a better job because you're too busy reacting to your crappy poor life to do anything proactive. Which, to be honest, is a large consideration.
Quote:
This is... true for everyone. This is not a poor person's problem. This is any adult's problem. I will be honest, when people say "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" or some similar empty air crap, I want to knifehand their throat. But in this case, the guy has taken the extreme opposite - "What you expect me to invest time and hard effort to exceed my current situation? Bull!" Sleep six hour nights. Study your face off. Put in overtime to get on the boss' good side. And he even writes about how difficult it is to get a second job - what year is this man living in? Companies prefer part timers now - they don't have to pay as much for insurance (or any at all, depending on the state and hours), and those part timers will beg for "overtime" which doesn't have to be time and a half.Sure, you can take classes at night at a community college or something. Maybe you'll even get financial aid or loans to pay for your books or tuition. What they will not pay for is the time you missed at work while you were in classes or for a babysitter or for transportation. And you sure as **** better be certain that you have some kind of aptitude for whatever you're studying (which, by the way, you won't know until you've spent a year or two studying it) because that's the only chance you're going to get.
In the end, this is just a guy letting off steam about his situation. And I don't mean to belittle that situation - being poor is horrible. It's a pretty easy thing to get frustrated about and feel like there's nothing to be done for it, but this guy should have kept this crap on his blog and not been able to put it out there so other, similarly uninformed people, could nod their head and feel validated.
Monday, May 9, 2011
This ship is troubled only because this ship we're on is sinking.
What a month. I've been meaning to jot some stuff down here so I don't forget, but my resolve to write in this more has gone to crap apparently.
About a month ago was the Austin Kotei, and it was good to see some folks I hadn't seen in awhile, as well as meet some new ones I had only vaguely bumped into now and again. Jim, Gio, and Reese and some other folks came out Friday night to the Highball to see Karaoke Apocalypse, but only the aforementioned three made it downtown with us to 6th street. Was a long night, and we shut it down at Maggie Mae's before heading back to our respective beds to wake up for the Kotei.
I realized, far too late, that I had forgotten the existence of an entire expansion in my rush to get a deck built for a game I hadn't played since GenCon. Bryan was good enough to lend me some Crane Control mess that he would later remark about, "If I had known that'd get played in a tournament, I'd have built it different." Went 2-5, which was pretty horrific. It was kind of neat to poke around virtually unknown to most folks, as I was used to heading to events like this as part of a huge entourage and having a sort of meta-event where we just talked to each other. Briscoe ended up winning, then much later crashing at my house at something like 1am.
I had left after the first seven rounds to go to the combined birthday of several folks (Kim, Justin, Abby). Things were weird a bit, as folks don't like to lose trivia games, and Jim/Gio showed up for a hot minute then booked because they knew no one and apparently Jim was out of "meet strangers and impress them with descriptions of my dick" energy.
The next weekend was a lull, sort've a break for a breath, because that weekend was rough, and then the two weeks after the break were gonna be rough. Alycia's wedding was up the next week, which meant a 11 hour drive to KC. In the cold - or rather, in the "cold", as Texas has trained my body to believe that 50 degree winds is cold now. The wedding was a good opportunity to drive around the city, see old friends I don't get to see enough of, and see what's changed in the city for the past five years. I got to get sick on Grinders food with Adam, visit Sheridan's and Blue Koi with Jake, Tyler, Rob, Z, Dennis, Jon, and Dan. It was like a highlight of "old times shit" right there.
I stayed with Matt, and apparently he nor Marlena were used to having houseguests. We (Kim, Nikki, and myself) tried to be good, but we are a loud, boisterous folk. Alycia was unnaturally calm for a bride, and even Ian managed not to do anything ridiculously stupid for the most part the whole time. I didn't get to see Daniel, but I did get to see Ian's new kid, which I think was perfectly awkward, so there's that. The drive back was no bueno, as it was pretty much raining hard until we got to about Dallas. But, Sunday night, we got in, dropped off Nikki, and zoomed home so I could unpack, do laundry... and fucking pack again for Florida.
Since we hired a new counselor in Florida, it was my duty to head down there for a week, help him acclimate, and see what he'd need to get things going. The week was sadly uneventful, since between handling Luis' induction into the company and my own work, I left the hotel room only to eat, workout, and a single hour long session of sitting out, reading, and enjoying the weather. I was told, repeatedly, since I was flying on the Monday and Friday after Bin Laden was killed that I was taking a huge risk. Right.
Anyway, Friday I got back, got home to find bugs had overrun the downstairs, the upstairs main pipe was clogged, and the house was in general disarray. Some sushi later, I managed some laundry and kitchen work before getting to bed for a few hours. Saturday morning, we headed out to Lake Pflugerville to hang out with Claire, Erin, and Stephen... and the Sun. The burning, burning Sun. I promise with deep conviction that we sprayed sunblock on multiple times, but everyone who went (and we were only out for two, maybe three hours) all have sunburns. My particular fate was the most damned, as I am still recovering (two days later) from a burn that makes me gasp in pain just to put my pants and shirt on. It's been difficult to sleep like this, since rolling over in bed or shifting (both of which I'm told I do a lot) causes me to wake up in pain. Fun, fun.
Sunday was the raid, but I'm not possessed of enough energy to go on about WoW right now. Not yet. Today I rolled in to work, took care of all the stuff that built up and I couldn't get to remotely, and now I'm going to leave a little damn early because ... of... I say so. yes, that.
About a month ago was the Austin Kotei, and it was good to see some folks I hadn't seen in awhile, as well as meet some new ones I had only vaguely bumped into now and again. Jim, Gio, and Reese and some other folks came out Friday night to the Highball to see Karaoke Apocalypse, but only the aforementioned three made it downtown with us to 6th street. Was a long night, and we shut it down at Maggie Mae's before heading back to our respective beds to wake up for the Kotei.
I realized, far too late, that I had forgotten the existence of an entire expansion in my rush to get a deck built for a game I hadn't played since GenCon. Bryan was good enough to lend me some Crane Control mess that he would later remark about, "If I had known that'd get played in a tournament, I'd have built it different." Went 2-5, which was pretty horrific. It was kind of neat to poke around virtually unknown to most folks, as I was used to heading to events like this as part of a huge entourage and having a sort of meta-event where we just talked to each other. Briscoe ended up winning, then much later crashing at my house at something like 1am.
I had left after the first seven rounds to go to the combined birthday of several folks (Kim, Justin, Abby). Things were weird a bit, as folks don't like to lose trivia games, and Jim/Gio showed up for a hot minute then booked because they knew no one and apparently Jim was out of "meet strangers and impress them with descriptions of my dick" energy.
The next weekend was a lull, sort've a break for a breath, because that weekend was rough, and then the two weeks after the break were gonna be rough. Alycia's wedding was up the next week, which meant a 11 hour drive to KC. In the cold - or rather, in the "cold", as Texas has trained my body to believe that 50 degree winds is cold now. The wedding was a good opportunity to drive around the city, see old friends I don't get to see enough of, and see what's changed in the city for the past five years. I got to get sick on Grinders food with Adam, visit Sheridan's and Blue Koi with Jake, Tyler, Rob, Z, Dennis, Jon, and Dan. It was like a highlight of "old times shit" right there.
I stayed with Matt, and apparently he nor Marlena were used to having houseguests. We (Kim, Nikki, and myself) tried to be good, but we are a loud, boisterous folk. Alycia was unnaturally calm for a bride, and even Ian managed not to do anything ridiculously stupid for the most part the whole time. I didn't get to see Daniel, but I did get to see Ian's new kid, which I think was perfectly awkward, so there's that. The drive back was no bueno, as it was pretty much raining hard until we got to about Dallas. But, Sunday night, we got in, dropped off Nikki, and zoomed home so I could unpack, do laundry... and fucking pack again for Florida.
Since we hired a new counselor in Florida, it was my duty to head down there for a week, help him acclimate, and see what he'd need to get things going. The week was sadly uneventful, since between handling Luis' induction into the company and my own work, I left the hotel room only to eat, workout, and a single hour long session of sitting out, reading, and enjoying the weather. I was told, repeatedly, since I was flying on the Monday and Friday after Bin Laden was killed that I was taking a huge risk. Right.
Anyway, Friday I got back, got home to find bugs had overrun the downstairs, the upstairs main pipe was clogged, and the house was in general disarray. Some sushi later, I managed some laundry and kitchen work before getting to bed for a few hours. Saturday morning, we headed out to Lake Pflugerville to hang out with Claire, Erin, and Stephen... and the Sun. The burning, burning Sun. I promise with deep conviction that we sprayed sunblock on multiple times, but everyone who went (and we were only out for two, maybe three hours) all have sunburns. My particular fate was the most damned, as I am still recovering (two days later) from a burn that makes me gasp in pain just to put my pants and shirt on. It's been difficult to sleep like this, since rolling over in bed or shifting (both of which I'm told I do a lot) causes me to wake up in pain. Fun, fun.
Sunday was the raid, but I'm not possessed of enough energy to go on about WoW right now. Not yet. Today I rolled in to work, took care of all the stuff that built up and I couldn't get to remotely, and now I'm going to leave a little damn early because ... of... I say so. yes, that.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
I smolder with generic rage.
So let's stop and take a look at the budget for a second, since I'm hardly ever right about things but I really want to take a moment to be sadly correct in my assumptions about Obama and his administration. First, some statistics. From the following two links, we can get good figures on the things that were cut in this budget "deal".
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/12/budget-deal-cuts/
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-12/epa-budget-cut-will-restrict-enforcement-of-clean-air-rules-activists-say.html
With those statistics, someone on a forum I frequent took the time to look back at the previous budget and show how much was cut as a percentage from these programs. It's important to take a look at both the dollar amount and that percentage, because it really tells where priorities are and what these fine folks in Congress believe aren't worth much. The first line in each category is the overreaching subject, with the breakdown of cuts underneath there to illustrate what portion of the program they're coming from.
Total Cut: ~40 billion (3.67%)
First, a note from the guy who put this together: "All numbers and percentages are from 2010 fiscal year, which was always provided, not from Obama's budget request. When Obama's request was included it was generally higher than 2010 fiscal year spending, but not always. And yes, you read that right. The $40 billion budget cuts include $140 billion dollars of increased military spending." So thankfully, we've actually cut 180 billion and put 140 of it towards military spending for wars that the majority of Americans aren't really too happy with. Let's go ahead and keep that in mind the next time someone levels a "how dare you fund Planned Parenthood with tax money taken from people who don't agree with it" type charge at some program.
I want to comment on the second to last line (Dept. of HUD) because I think that others might share my viewpoints on several of these budget items - "well what does that mean?" In this particular case, HUD's cuts are going to be felt primarily twofold: Obviously, employees will likely get laid off or have their salaries reduced. Also funding for housing and development programs is going to get hit extremely hard. HUD gives a large deal of funding to NeighborWorks, which institutes training and development programs nationwide for housing preservation (the softer term for foreclosure prevention), community development, and homebuyer education. The funding that doesn't go to NeighborWorks goes to similar, local agencies that help consumers understand the potential pitfalls and benefits of ownership, dealing with their mortgage lender on a fair basis, cope with the financial challenges brought on by ownership, and help owners understand their options when faced with a possible foreclosure.
Without this funding, a lot of these agencies are going to shut their doors, because they're not-for-profit organizations, and funding/granting from other sources has dried up hardcore in the past couple of years. Many of them have already gone through the cutback/salary reduction/layoff cycle to stay afloat. This is just a nail in the coffin for most of those. Without these agencies, there is literally no resource for consumers who need what amounts to a lawyer to help them understand the above topics. No one does it.
As was mentioned above, with budget cuts comes cuts everywhere and everyone believes that their interest is the one that should be exempt. But given the relative proportion of funding lost compared to other categories (21% vs most other areas suffering in the single digits), I am at that now familiar crossroad of enraged and exhausted. It has a particular dark humor to it as well, considering these agencies exist specifically to try and help counter the large abuses that led to many of our current financial woes - and Congress has seen fit to let the abusers stay merrily afloat but cut the lifeline to these not-for-profits "for the greater good".
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/12/budget-deal-cuts/
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-12/epa-budget-cut-will-restrict-enforcement-of-clean-air-rules-activists-say.html
With those statistics, someone on a forum I frequent took the time to look back at the previous budget and show how much was cut as a percentage from these programs. It's important to take a look at both the dollar amount and that percentage, because it really tells where priorities are and what these fine folks in Congress believe aren't worth much. The first line in each category is the overreaching subject, with the breakdown of cuts underneath there to illustrate what portion of the program they're coming from.
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| But first, some kittens. You will thank me in a few minutes. |
Total Cut: ~40 billion (3.67%)
- -Agriculture Cut: 3 billion (12.9%)
- ____-Food Safety and Inspection: 10 million (1%)
- ____-Agricultural Credit Program: 433 million (?%)
- ____-Agricultural Research Service: 64 million (?%)
- ____-National Institute for Food and Agriculture: 126 million (?%)
- -Commerce, Justice, Science Cut: 10.9 billion (17%)
- ____-Increased funding for National Institute of Standards and Technology $? (?%)
- ____-Increased funding for FBI and prisons $? (?%)
- ____-Justice Department Appropriations: 946 million (?%)
- ____-Commerce Department Appropriations: 6.5 billion (?%)
- ____-Prohibits funding for Establishment of a Climate Service at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, approval of new fisheries catch-share programs, and for NASA or the Office of Science and Technology Policy to engage in bilateral activities with China.
- -Defense Funding: Increased by 5 billion (1%). Also includes an additional 157.8 billion as emergency overseas contingency operations. No money is to be used on transferring Guantanamo Bay detainees to the US for any purpose, or to construct or modify US detention facilities for them. The Secretary of Defense must provide a certification to Congress that a transfer to a foreign entity will not jeopardize the safety of the US or it's citizens.
- ____-Defense Earmark Cut: 4.2 billion (100%)
- -Energy and Water Cuts: 1.7 billion (5.1%)
- ____-Increases National Nuclear Security Administration: 697 million (7%)
- -Financial Services Cut: 2.4 billion (10%)
- ____-Reduces funding for construction of new federal buildings: 800 million (?%)
- ____-Eliminates the use of Federal and local funds for abortions in DC: $? (?%)
- ____-Reauthorizes the DC Opportunity Scholarships, including increase of 2.3 million (?%)
- ____-Eliminates the "Health Care Czar", "Climate Change Czar", "Car Czar", and the "Urban Affairs Czar"
- -Homeland Security Cuts:
- ____-HS Discretionary spending: 784 million (2%)
- ____-FEMA first responder grants: 786 million (?%)
- ____-Eliminate earmarks: 264 million (?%)
- ____-Rescind previous years' unused funds: 557 million ?%)
- ____-Increases fund for expected and existing 2011 disasters: 1.05 billion (65.6%) This is more than what was removed from first responders, so there are more disaster funds total
- -Department of the Interior Cuts: 2.62 billion (8.1%)
- ___-EPA: 1.6 billion (16%)
- ___-Land and Water Acquisition Fund: 149 million: (33%)
- ___-National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for Humanity: 25 million (?%)
- -Labor, HHS, Education: 5.5 billion (3.36%)
- ___-Title X (Family Planning): 17 million (5.4%)
- ___-Additionally Students can no longer draw two Pell Grants at the same time, which will provide an expected savings of 35 billion over the next ten years.
- -LegislativeBranch: 103 million (?%)
- -Military Construction/Veterans Affairs Cuts: 3.3 billion (4.3%)
- ___-Includes Increase of 13.8 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs. (?%)
- -State and Foreign Operations: 504 million (1%)
- ___-Prohibits pay raises for foreign service officers.
- ___-Contributions to UN and other International Organization: 337 million (?%)
- ___-Contribution to international banks and financial institutions: 130 million (?%)
- ___-International family planning activities: 73 million (?%)
- ___-___-US Contribution to the UN Population Fund Cut: 55 million (100%) This was a fun one, the document stated that is was “reduced to the 2008 levels. I looked up the 2008 levels to find that they were 0. Way to be open and honest.
- ___-The bill also maintains pro-Life policy provisions carried in fiscal year 2010.
- -Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development: 12.3 billion (18%)
___-High Speed Rail: 2.9 billion (116%) No that is not a typo. This completely cuts new High Speed Rail spending, as well as rescinding 400 million from last year, which I’m guessing was available because Republican States repeatedly turned down the money.
___-Transit funding total cuts: 991 million (?%)
___-TIGER grant cuts: 72 million (12%)
___-“Contract authority rescissions” (?): 3.2 billion (?%)
___-___-Old earmarks cut: 630 million (?%)
___-Department of Housing and Urban Development Cuts: 942 million (21.2%)
___-Increases Housing voucher program: 200 million (1.1%)
First, a note from the guy who put this together: "All numbers and percentages are from 2010 fiscal year, which was always provided, not from Obama's budget request. When Obama's request was included it was generally higher than 2010 fiscal year spending, but not always. And yes, you read that right. The $40 billion budget cuts include $140 billion dollars of increased military spending." So thankfully, we've actually cut 180 billion and put 140 of it towards military spending for wars that the majority of Americans aren't really too happy with. Let's go ahead and keep that in mind the next time someone levels a "how dare you fund Planned Parenthood with tax money taken from people who don't agree with it" type charge at some program.
I want to comment on the second to last line (Dept. of HUD) because I think that others might share my viewpoints on several of these budget items - "well what does that mean?" In this particular case, HUD's cuts are going to be felt primarily twofold: Obviously, employees will likely get laid off or have their salaries reduced. Also funding for housing and development programs is going to get hit extremely hard. HUD gives a large deal of funding to NeighborWorks, which institutes training and development programs nationwide for housing preservation (the softer term for foreclosure prevention), community development, and homebuyer education. The funding that doesn't go to NeighborWorks goes to similar, local agencies that help consumers understand the potential pitfalls and benefits of ownership, dealing with their mortgage lender on a fair basis, cope with the financial challenges brought on by ownership, and help owners understand their options when faced with a possible foreclosure.
Without this funding, a lot of these agencies are going to shut their doors, because they're not-for-profit organizations, and funding/granting from other sources has dried up hardcore in the past couple of years. Many of them have already gone through the cutback/salary reduction/layoff cycle to stay afloat. This is just a nail in the coffin for most of those. Without these agencies, there is literally no resource for consumers who need what amounts to a lawyer to help them understand the above topics. No one does it.
As was mentioned above, with budget cuts comes cuts everywhere and everyone believes that their interest is the one that should be exempt. But given the relative proportion of funding lost compared to other categories (21% vs most other areas suffering in the single digits), I am at that now familiar crossroad of enraged and exhausted. It has a particular dark humor to it as well, considering these agencies exist specifically to try and help counter the large abuses that led to many of our current financial woes - and Congress has seen fit to let the abusers stay merrily afloat but cut the lifeline to these not-for-profits "for the greater good".
Monday, April 11, 2011
Got my own thing now.
Just a quick update to write ~ post from my new tablet. I picked up the Asus slate yesterday. As you can see from the random tilde, the handwriting recognition and I are not best friends yet. I hope this will change eventually. Either my penmanship will get better or this thing will eventually learn.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
That is a Very Long Hallway
Monday night, myself, Stephen, and Nikki went to the Alamo on South Lamar to catch the advance screening of Your Highness. It was a triple feature, showing The Sword and the Sorcerer first, then Krull after Your Highness. Alamo had David Green (the director), Danny McBride (the dude), and Justin Theroux (played the evil wizard, and apparently the angry Scot in Charlie's Angels 2) there for questions and whatnot. It was a pretty good event overall, though I made the distinctly stupid decision of sitting through the whole thing on a worknight and getting to bed around 3am. Considering that my sleep time is a precious, rare thing, this is something I'm still paying for today.
Yesterday was a fucking marathon of classes, and I'm gonna bugger off work early today to go home and collapse. Just all around, work has been stressful in good ways these past couple months. We're still not entirely sure how long the company is going to be able to operate due to lacking income from grants and whatnot, but I've been burying myself in classes and writing material for the programs so I've had little energy to spare for the other shit.
That's mostly it for now. I'm just trying to make a goddamned habit of writing in this thing more often. I've put myself back to work writing on my projects and for other people, so I think it's important I get in the practice of this again.
Oh, about the blog title - yesterday I went to the new Travis County Jail building to give a class for the women's group there. I went through some of their airlock-type gates and eventually found myself staring down this hallway that was literally half a mile long. It was featureless beige with little green doors on the sides at regular intervals and I was struck by how completely isolated and buried I felt. I did the class in about an hour and left. After I got back outside, I turned and looked back at the building just to confirm it wasn't miles and miles below the surface; I was in fact simply in a building that whole time.
That night (last night) I had a dream that the world was in such a state that for some reason, the population had to take turns living in these big, multi-level domes underground for a year just so they didn't get too much exposure to radiation that had covered the surface. Everything was well-lit and the accomodations were good (similar to those space station shows like Babylon5 or Star Trek), but everything just felt slightly off. It was obviously unnatural, but it was also just sickeningly wrong in some way, like the rictus grin on a clown.
Yesterday was a fucking marathon of classes, and I'm gonna bugger off work early today to go home and collapse. Just all around, work has been stressful in good ways these past couple months. We're still not entirely sure how long the company is going to be able to operate due to lacking income from grants and whatnot, but I've been burying myself in classes and writing material for the programs so I've had little energy to spare for the other shit.
That's mostly it for now. I'm just trying to make a goddamned habit of writing in this thing more often. I've put myself back to work writing on my projects and for other people, so I think it's important I get in the practice of this again.
Oh, about the blog title - yesterday I went to the new Travis County Jail building to give a class for the women's group there. I went through some of their airlock-type gates and eventually found myself staring down this hallway that was literally half a mile long. It was featureless beige with little green doors on the sides at regular intervals and I was struck by how completely isolated and buried I felt. I did the class in about an hour and left. After I got back outside, I turned and looked back at the building just to confirm it wasn't miles and miles below the surface; I was in fact simply in a building that whole time.
That night (last night) I had a dream that the world was in such a state that for some reason, the population had to take turns living in these big, multi-level domes underground for a year just so they didn't get too much exposure to radiation that had covered the surface. Everything was well-lit and the accomodations were good (similar to those space station shows like Babylon5 or Star Trek), but everything just felt slightly off. It was obviously unnatural, but it was also just sickeningly wrong in some way, like the rictus grin on a clown.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Happy Birthday, I Got You a Poke in the Eye
Today I am 31. Being 30 wasn't so bad, but it felt like a lot of time spent getting my footing right. I don't know if I'll ever really feel like an adult, but I know that certain things are different now, and people are at least looking at me like one. With the priveliges of being treated as an adult, there is also the responsibility to making sure you don't fuck it up too bad, I guess. I didn't get my novel finished. I didn't re-learn Spanish. But I did keep my home, I haven't managed to kill myself, and I'm slowly steering my day-to-day job back in a direction that I like. I need to get myself back in the habit of writing regularly.
I contacted Shawn a few weeks back to pick up some work from AEG. Medical bills are a monstrous bitch and paying off last year's trips is not going as quickly as I had thought. It really came down to "pick up a few checks from AEG" or "work part time as a waiter or something". The waiter thing may yet come to pass, I'm not too certain how going back to work for AEG will sit with me. It'll either be great and much better given the years I've had to understand what I want and what I am right to expect, or I'll just get disgusted and say nevermind after one assignment. Let's see what happens!
Raiding with the guild is on again. Cass asked me to pick up the raid lead spot because her semester this year is crushing her sanity. Fortunately, I haven't embarassed myself too bad, and Stephen xferred over to Blackhand to fill a DPS spot. Things are going pretty smoothly - two nights a week, ~3 hours each night, BWD one night and BoT the other. We're up to the end on both, though it's going to be a flustercluck till the end, I think. The threat of having to do Heroic raiding is looming large, as I'm currently playing a re-branded Shaper (Beerbraids!) as Resto, which is easily the weakest healing spec in the game right now. We wiped last night a few times and I kept thinking "Well, if this was a Paladin or Priest, we'd be alright." I'm not making many mistakes, but the simple throughput shortfall is making this harder than it should be. On the flip, I really like Shaman, and it's not pissing me off too much yet.
4.0.6 drops today, the first major rebalancing/tweaking patch since the expansion went live, and Resto Shaman is barely touched. It's not encouraging.
Took tomorrow off since I'm working this weekend. Probably gonna see if I can drag some folks to Mr. Tramps to check it out before we go there for Trivia for the first time tomorrow.
I contacted Shawn a few weeks back to pick up some work from AEG. Medical bills are a monstrous bitch and paying off last year's trips is not going as quickly as I had thought. It really came down to "pick up a few checks from AEG" or "work part time as a waiter or something". The waiter thing may yet come to pass, I'm not too certain how going back to work for AEG will sit with me. It'll either be great and much better given the years I've had to understand what I want and what I am right to expect, or I'll just get disgusted and say nevermind after one assignment. Let's see what happens!
Raiding with the guild is on again. Cass asked me to pick up the raid lead spot because her semester this year is crushing her sanity. Fortunately, I haven't embarassed myself too bad, and Stephen xferred over to Blackhand to fill a DPS spot. Things are going pretty smoothly - two nights a week, ~3 hours each night, BWD one night and BoT the other. We're up to the end on both, though it's going to be a flustercluck till the end, I think. The threat of having to do Heroic raiding is looming large, as I'm currently playing a re-branded Shaper (Beerbraids!) as Resto, which is easily the weakest healing spec in the game right now. We wiped last night a few times and I kept thinking "Well, if this was a Paladin or Priest, we'd be alright." I'm not making many mistakes, but the simple throughput shortfall is making this harder than it should be. On the flip, I really like Shaman, and it's not pissing me off too much yet.
4.0.6 drops today, the first major rebalancing/tweaking patch since the expansion went live, and Resto Shaman is barely touched. It's not encouraging.
Took tomorrow off since I'm working this weekend. Probably gonna see if I can drag some folks to Mr. Tramps to check it out before we go there for Trivia for the first time tomorrow.
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