42nd Blog

Better

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 01:52:55 GMT

Today was much better than the rest of the week. It's good because now I feel like I can work the overtime hours I signed up for tomorrow.

Today was mostly approving people for food stamps and medicaid with is always much better than denying them or having people investigated.

The most awesome approval came when I was rushing to approve a food stamp case before I had to take a call. I hit approval on the case just as the next call came in. It just happened to be the woman who I had just approved food stamps for. So instead of telling her the usual line that she shouldn't have called in to ask about the status of her case because all it does is delay the processing of her case, I got to tell her that her food stamps were approved and she could stop panicking.

Short phone calls are always the best. Though, I think some people ramble when they call just so they can feel like the forty-five minute wait they had to go through to talk to a worker was worth it.

Good work day

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 02:30:44 GMT

I have to make this post to remind me that there are good work days.

Despite having a cold and beginning to lose my voice, i had a good day at work. The phone calls were not out-of-control like they normally are. I got everything on my to-do list done. I had time to breathe between tasks. I even got to take a five-minute break today!

On top of that, the governor announced that we will be keeping the 4-10 work week. I've changed too much of my life around the four-day work week and don't feel like having to adjust to a new schedule anytime soon.

What made me the most happy is that I ingeniously solved a problem that has vexed the department for months. (Okay, I probably didn't solve it, but let me have my moment.) To explain, the State purchased years ago a phone system. It's a nifty thing that lets clients calling in be put into on hold for indefinitely amounts of time until a worker is available to talk to them. This is because before we got so many calls that each individual workers had desk phones that rang all day usually with three to four people trying to call the same worker at any given (I'm not exaggerating this, I tracked 70-80 calls per day on average). Now since an average worker on has time scheduled in the day to take about 8-10 calls. You can see there was a problem.

So we have this expensive new phone system that is generally considered to be Beelzebub the Lord of Pain by most people, but is a necessary evil. It also likes to malfunction a lot. (I case you didn't catch on, I work for the government.) One of the problems is that when someone calls in, we get a ringing on out computer letting us know there is a call coming in. Our desk phone also rings to let us know the phone is ready to answer the call. But sometime the desk phone doesn't ring. This is followed by the worker answering the phone and not being able to talk to the person on the other end because the computer will not connect the call to the phone.

Today, I had that happen. This has happened a lot. I usually try answering several times then the person gets it that the call isn't going to go through and they hang up. (And since average wait times can easily be 45 minutes or longer, I'm don't imagine they are smiling and singing praises about the department when this happens.)But today, the person didn't hang up. Fortunately, my brain was working despite a head cold. So I realized that I could still transfer a call, so I transferred it to another worker. I didn't know this at the time, but since the system doesn't work, it actually put me on a conference call with the client calling in and I could actually talk the person. All the person wanted to know was if his case had been processed yet which was a total waste of my time, but I was ecstatic I found a work around to a problem that has plagued us for over a year.

I reported the problem to our tech people, who were amazed with my discovery, and even more amazed that I filed my report correctly.

It's so sad that I'm excited about that, but it felt a lot better than having some elderly lady investigated for fraud.

NaNo Wrap-up

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 03:45:00 GMT

I went to the NaNoWriMo TGIO part in Provo tonight. Didn't stay long since they were going to start eating pizza, which would make me want some, which would make me not sleep, which would make me call in sick to work tomorrow. (I'm currently suffering from eating a sugar cookie at lunch.)

That aside, I ended November with 81,220 words done on my novel. Some of those words are okay. A few words are great. And many words need to be re-written. However, that will wait until January at the earliest. I think I still have about 10,000 words to go before the novel is actually done.

Keeping with the optimism of NaNoWriMo, here are some things I like about this years NaNo:
1- I like my cast of characters. Its was hard to kill so many of them off.
2- I'm glad I killed characters off and left them for dead.
3- I like the pacing or at least I liked the pacing as I was writing it.
4- I think that there is a definite beginning, middle, and end.
5- My main character actually changes.
6- I liked that I learned some things about how I write.
7- I found that some parts of my outline I thought wouldn't work, actually can work.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:56:48 GMT

I really like Thanksgiving. It's one of the holidays that when I lived outside of the U.S. was the most missed.

It's just common sense that thinking about what we have will make us happier than thinking about what we wants.

So here is my list of stuff I'm grateful for at this moment:

Literacy - a lot of the world can't read and doesn't get the chance to learn.
Being able to write - despite my dyslexia, I'm glad that I can write and I'm I grateful for all the people that encourage me to despite my poor writing abilities.
Typing - it makes communicating by writing so much easier.
Being employed - A lot of people aren't. Also, I'm grateful that I have a challenging job that makes me think.
Poor health - because at least I'm alive, but mostly because it has taught me a lot about myself
Having insurance - health insurance is what I blame for revealing my poor health, but at least it gives me some opportunities that I might not of had otherwise.
Doctors - I have mixed feelings about doctors, but I'm grateful for those that can help me. I've been rejected by doctors before, so I'm glad that there are some out there that have the skills and ability to help me.
Being able to eat - I know there are a lot of people in the world who will not be eating today. After my experience over the summer of being unable to eat, I'm grateful I can eat today. Even if I can't gorge myself at thanksgiving dinner.
Internet - Because it makes learning things so much easier.
RPGs - because it's a hobby that has let me meet so many different people.
Having a college degree - most adult in the U.S. don't have one and many don't even have the opportunity to go to college. I've gotten to go multiple times to college.
Having the chance to live abroad - A lot people don't get to do this. It is quite the exprience.
Having the chance to learn another language - Having the capacity to learn a second language is not something everyone has. Even though my Portuguese is really rusty (as my Brazilian co-workers will tell you) at least I've gotten to experience another culture and language.
Indoor plumbing - has there really been anything that has improved the lives of mankind more? I particularly find washing machines to be a great invention after having spent years washing cloths by hand.
A home - a lot people don't have one. And have to admit, I live in a nice place now.
Having a good roommate - I've had bad roommates before. I can't really afford to live on my own, and it would be kind of depressing if I did. I've really grateful that I have good roommate that I get along with.
~~Stairs~~ - okay, I'm not grateful for everything.

I should be writing

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 03:52:29 GMT

I ought to be working on my NaNo. I've already passed the 50k mark. I'm over 70k right now. I'm in chapter 14 of 19, so I'm starting to near the end. Unfortunately, the ending is the least thought out part of my book. Not so much because I didn't plan it but because there is so much that has gone before that needs to resolve somehow (hopefully in an exciting and entertaining way). It's really been awesome that I've been able to get this far.

So I should be writing tonight, but I can't seem to motivate myself.

Part of the problem is that I had a string of angry people call in today. They always seem to come in waves. The "Jerry Springer Families" are at least interesting. But the child-who-lives-with-his-uncle-who-is-also-his-daddy case and the twins-that-have-different-fathers case called in earlier this week. (Okay, the brain implant case was today and that was interesting--and resolved amiably) Today, it was angry people calling who really are just normal people who somehow have forgotten that they're normal and think the government should treat them like they're special cases. (Now I can understand that a lot of people may not see just how common things like being an independent contractor for a business, child support payments changing every month, and mail getting lost can be. But still when the government has a specific policy about that situation, it is not a special case.) It's not in the constitution that U.S. citizens can't go without cell phones, cable TV, or over-priced cars. And of course, I'm the bad guy because I have the job of enforcing the rules. (It's because, I don't see why I should risk getting fired or sent to jail by bending the rules for everyone that asks. How horrible of me.)

I guess, I would ask that people consider the billions of people world-wide that are starving right now, have no access to medical care, no homes, and work jobs that actually are enslavement. Now explain to me why any person in the U.S. is more special, or more important, or more loved by God than any of those people.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I want to spend more time thinking about all the things I do have and less about the things I don't.

Ending quote:
"One of the evils of our time is taking for granted so many of the things we enjoy."

NaNo

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 01:29:08 GMT

I made the 50,000 word NaNo goal yesterday. Actually at 55,000 words right now.

But I'm still writing today. The novel not complete. I'm just starting chapter eleven and there are at least eight more chapters to go.

I'm doubting I'll hit the hundred thousand mark before November 30th, but it would be awesome if I did.

I am in the frustrating middle part of the book. My character is confused and thus I feel confused, but I know the main character needs to be confused otherwise the ended won't make sense. But I'm still second guessing all of the MC's motivations.

But, I think this novel will give some good experience in re-writing once it's done. I am planning on spending more than a month on the re-write. Assuming I can find the motivation.

Self-Employment

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:07:07 GMT

I should be working on my Nano at the moment. I'm just short of 44,000 words. I'd like to be at 45,000 words before I go to gaming tonight.

But I'm exhausted from work. I need my brain to shut-off so I'm going to rant about self-employed people for a moment.

I had to deal with several very ugly self-employment cases today that are still unresolved (Real estate, data brokering, nail salon, a farm, and a carnival to name a few of the business types). So here are some of my complaints to all you wonderful self-employed people out there:

Learn the difference between net income and gross income.
HInt: your profits are not your gross income.
Keep every receipt. Every receipt! Yes someone will, unfortunately, have to look at them someday. I don't like having to look at a year's worth of receipts, but I will and the IRS just might as well. And try to store them in some sort of order.
Pay attention to how much money you are taking in. Before and after your bottom line.
Pay attention to how much money you are paying out.
Just because you think something should be a deduction, doesn't mean anyone has to believe you.
Self-employed people file quarterly taxes, just FYI.
Know what sort of company type you are file as. An LLC is different than an S-Corp or a C-Corp or a sole proprietorship.
Know who is actively and who is passively engaged in your business. Just because they are passively involved doesn't mean they aren't an owner.
Keep your personal life and business life separate. Writing off your house or grocery bill as a business expense is not always legal and I hate having to decided how much of your car is used for business and how much is used for personal use (If it's your only car, don't count on being able to claim any of your car expenses as business expenses).
Recognize that when you say you are self-employed, that translates as unemployed in the minds of potential employers and government workers. Just saying.
If you don't make a profit in three of five years, then it just a hobby.
Ideally, you should bring in more money than you pay out.
If you are being self-employed because you can't handle working for anyone else, you are going to be very poor.
Having no idea what you expect to make from your business over the next couple of months is a really bad sign.
Never quit a paying job to start your own business if that business hasn't started to turn a profit.
Saying that you are just in one type of business, such as real estate or construction, is always a lie. If you want to succeed you'll take on business ventures in fields outside your specialty.
Don't think dividends are just free money the government doesn't look at.
Don't think paying yourself a wage when your business isn't turning a profit is an acceptable business practice.
The government is not going to bail you out if your business fails, no matter how dire of a financial situation you've managed to get yourself stuck in.

There, I feel a little better.

NaNoWriMo

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:37:53 GMT

NaNoWriMo has consumed me again for the month of November. It's only day six, but I can tell that I'm going to write a lot this month.

As of right now, I'm at 22,021 words. I'm thinking I need to set a personal goal that is a little higher than the 50,000 word standard.

This years seems to be going a lot easier for me. Part of it I think has to do with having a good outline. My novel for this year has nineteen planned chapters. I planned around nine scenes for each chapter, thinking that each scene would be around 500 words.

I'm only in chapter four right now, so scenes ending up at 500 words isn't always happening. I find that I'm changing scenes as I write. So far these are only minor course correction that I feel help flesh out the characters and in general more are more exciting to write. I'm also surprised about how little internal dialog is occurring. Previously, I've planned whole scenes of internal monologuing. Not this year, I just don't see at as being necessary.

I also find myself adding more humor than in my past NaNo's. It's mostly mild snarkiness every few hundred words. I hope it's nothing too out of form. There's a few lines I just really enjoy.

Also decided that even though it's an epic fantasy that was originally supposed to be the traditional European based setting, that's not happening. It's still a Western world culture, but I've decided the landscape and geography is going to the America's a lot more. There's elk and plains bison stretched over a vast landscape rather than unicorns and dragons. I'm not really seeing a need for fantasy animals or trying to make an authentic Gaelic/European fantasy feel. It's not a huge departure, but I'm pleased with it. Plus, I'm finding it a lot easier to write and it takes less research cause I don't have to research if placing box elders trees into a scene is out of setting. And I don't have to worry about the potato and tomato issue that plagued Tolkien.

Course, it's also starting to feel a little Mormon to me, but I'm trying to keep that toned down. It isn't supposed to be one of those books. At least I think it isn't.

It's week one and I'm still really excited about where the novel is going. I find myself excited to sit down and write each day so far. It pains me to go to work for ten-hours and leave my little novel behind.

Well, I'm having fun. Hope you are too. Hope I still feel this way in a two weeks.

Retirement

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:05:57 GMT

At work today, we had the retirement party for one of my co-workers. She's retiring a little early, but she feels it is her time to leave.

This is my co-worker that sits near me and I've made a habit of stopping by to see her on most every work day. A lot of those days have been to listen to sob and then tell her that everything will be okay. She's a good person, but doesn't acknowledge that fact as often as she should.

Anyways, she's officially retired now. It's kind of sad. I'll just have to find another co-worker to listen to their sobbing and tell them that it will be okay (i have several candidates in mind).

Her retirement party was awesome. It started with food and a mingling. There were cards to sign and mementos on display. Then there was a short presentation of plaques and retirement gifts. The my coworker gave her parting words, which were something along the line of "fight the good fight." Then there was the hour long marshmallow fight.

I'm sure the janitorial staff will have a perplexing time trying to get out all of the marshmallows mashed into the carpet.

Still, that was one of the most entertaining retirement parties I think I've ever participated in. Unfortunately, my retirement party is an eternity away, if I ever make it that long.

Wanting to get away

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:25:14 GMT

There is a reason that the State gives it's workers a lot of time off--we burn out quickly.

I would take some time off, but sadly, I have to save it all for my next surgery. Since I took almost two months off for the last surgery, I need as much timed saved as I can possibly get.

But today, I wished had about $60k saved up so I could take the next two years off. I'd really feel like escaping into books and writing and painting for months at a time. Someone asked me about my paintings and drawings today when he saw me doodling at my desk. Sadly, I mostly just draw RPG characters while at gaming group or during some free time on the weekends. Nothing particularly great.

I'm also getting excited to start writing my NaNo come November. I just find the story to be fun, even if it isn't terribly original.

And I have a huge book list I want to get through. I've decided I'm going to re-read the Wheel of Time series at some point. Probably about when Brandon is about to release the last book. And there are so many other books I want to read.

It also doesn't help that my younger siblings are back East in the D.C. area visiting our older siblings out there. I'd like to do some traveling and sight-seeing.

Course, I like my job. I like that I can help people, most of the time. There are a lot of people that I can't help and I'm sure will curse me until they die, but I choose not to focus on them. I'd rather think about the successful stories than the unsuccessful ones. Plus, I like having the income, and health insurance, and retirement package.

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:54:19 GMT

I gave a co-worker a copy of Shannon Hale's "Princess Academy" this week. She wasn't expecting it which was great. She is about to retire and has had a rough time working for the state. She struggles with depression and anxiety, so I thought a gift might help her feel a little better.

Anyways, today she mentioned that she was feeling bad last night and decided to try reading the book. She read over half of it before she forced herself to go to bed.

I'm very glad she liked it.

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:17:21 GMT

I found this to be interesting:

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33395012/ns/us_news-life

Most people I would talk to would agree with these findings. Not all, but most. I have talked to a lot of single mothers that would complain the government isn't doing enough to help them, but compared to how much everyone else isn't getting helped....

The elderly part really struck me. As a whole, the American culture does not seem to value the elderly. We value youth a lot more, Hence the new statistic showing the elderly in poverty nearly doubles with the previous poverty rate where as it's actually lowered for children.

Course, in the end, there is never enough resources to go around.

On a brighter note, I've talked to people who actually want to live in poverty and say they are happier for it. It's not often, and I think they might be a little out-of-touch with reality, but I'm not judging. (I suppose happiness and income-level don't have to be related, but often are.)

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:59:31 GMT

Swine flu has broken at the office. There were multiple emails sent out advising workers to avoid human contact. Apparently three employment counselors have already been diagnosed. They are starting to moving meeting that were to be scheduled in our office to other offices (which makes me wonder if they are just going to spread it around).

I'm very tired, and hoping that all those antibiotic treatments I went through in the past couple months have helped me build up an immunity. Course, the opposite could be just as true that I'm more likely to get infected since I'm trying to recover from multiple invasive surgeries.

Probably did help that I stayed up late last night playing games at the Keep.

Columbus Day

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:19:12 GMT

Utah doesn't celebrate it anymore. Not because of any of the controversy surrounding the holiday, but because it's not cost effective (to the legislature) to give State employees the day off with the change to a four-day work week.

I think people get a little too wound up about the holiday. To me, Columbus Day is reminding that when one culture is introduced to another culture everything changes. Some of those changes are good and some are bad, and no one can go back to how it was before.

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:08:33 GMT

I'm completely exhausted today. After working a fourteen-hour shift yesterday and then staying up all night does not leave me with a lot of energy.

Work itself, was not all that pleasant. Had quite a few mean people calling in yesterday. My only explanation is that vengeance against a living being is much more satisfying than against a situation.

Then I had to run a booth at a conference. I think my department was a little misinformed about the event. I managed to show up with a few brochures, expecting a conference for a hundred or so doctors and other health professionals. It was actually a conference for about half of all the bishops, stake presidents, relief society presidents, and other religious leaders in the area, comprising a few hundred more people than I was told to expect.

Now my supervisor had wondered why I was even bringing brochures, expecting that someone else in the department was organizing our Departments involvement in the event. That wasn't the case. It was just me and one other person who volunteered to help at the last minute. We ran out of brochures in about five minutes. We had to make due with a bare table and answering questions for the rest of the conference. I also ended up having to be interviewed, filmed, and pose for photos. I think I handled it well, but I'm definitely talking with some people about this whenI get into work on Monday. It's really not all that big of a disaster, since my department actually has the current goal of getting rid of clients, not getting more of them since we're over-extending our budget as is and we don't generate economic well-being by getting more clients.

So straight from the conference, I went home to my friend's bachelor party. It was a lot of fun and I'm surprised that I had as much energy as I did.

Still, now I'm paying for staying up from five in the morning to three in the morning the next day.

Walking

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:56:05 GMT

My phone has this nifty pedometer application. I've been watching how much I walk on a daily basis. It's not very much, but I'm very pleased that my daily average has gone up to 2500 steps. This is a lot better than the 200 or fewer steps I was taking back in July. Considering I don't ever exercise, and I insides hurt me most of the time, I think I'm doing okay.

The Lifestyle

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:23:12 GMT

At work we talk about lot about something called "the lifestyle."

This is an ill defined term, but we all seem to know what it means. So this is my attempt to explain it.

When a welfare worker refers to "the lifestyle" we are referring to a person having lived outside of their means. But there is more to it that just that. It also involves the attitude that the person living the lifestyle was entitled to live that way.

For example: if we get someone who the previous year was making over a million dollars, has several cars, a large home. When the person calls us, their home is in foreclosure and their cars repossessed and are just hoping to make any money in the next couple of weeks. The person clearly bought a lot of expensive items without the income security needed to maintain them.

That is one example: Another example would be a young married couple with a child or two. One of the parents might have a job and they might also have college degrees. Yet the family is in desperate need of assistance and actually qualifies for some assistance. However, the assistance the government gives is not enough and as we learn more we discover massive credit card debt and overdrawn bank accounts. When we look at the credit card statements and bank accounts, we typically find trips to restaurants a couple times or more per weeks, purchases made at department stores, vacations, and all sorts of extraneous expenses along with high rents (or mortgages) and a lot spent in utilities. And of course all of this has somme sort of justification behind because the person has obtained a certain education level or some fabricated need to appear prestigious. Now since we look at budgets and know how tight our own budgets are, we look at these expenses and would state that these people are living the lifestyle.

Now most of us can understand that it is hard to live in poverty. However, pretending that your not in poverty and by running up credit card bills and living in places that you can't afford, buy cars you can't maintain and eating out regularly does not really help the situation. In fact, like most problems, the sooner the realities of the situation are accepted. the sooner a solution can be found.

To contrast living the lifestyle, I have several co-workers who haven't been able to eat at a restaurant in a year or longer because they know their family budget doesn't allow for it. And for a single mom after working a ten-hour shift, I'm sure that it is hard to get home and have to make dinner. But they do it and they often don't complain.

I'm sure it must be hard to not be able to buy birthday presents for your children because there is no money. I know it's hard to not be able to fix a car when it breaks down or buy new shoes when the old ones have holes. It hard sometimes to get home and realize there is nothing I want to eat in my pantry, but I'm going to have to eat what I have.

I have a lot of sympathy for people that are poor. Yet the other thing I've learned is that feeling sorry for myself or for other people faced with difficult financial problems doesn't help. When the bank first goes dry, it might be appropriate to feel a little despair for a moment or two. Then after that it's time to stop feeling sorry and start trying to find solutions. Some of the solutions are not pleasant, but again feeling sorry about the solution does not help.

In fact, I don't really feel that happiness in life is about things. I don't even think it about having good health or being educated or being popular. To me a lot of being happy is about being happy with who I am right now.

I think that may be why a lot of people start living "the lifestyle." It can be easy to fill misery temporary by buying things and having a big house or a nice car. It does feel good, but getting what we think we want or need, doesn't equate to happiness. There are to many people who have written and expressed happiness in times when they had absolutely nothing and had every reason be miserable.

I think about a person I met through work. She used to own her own business and she holds a PhD. She is now disabled and living on a small social security check. I remember her telling me how happy she was that she got to go to Chuck O' Rama. Now the idea of going to Chuck O' Rama makes my sensitive internal organs a little agitated. However, this woman kept telling me how happy she was because her son was going to be there and she was going to get to eat all sorts of food she doesn't normally get to eat and that she only gets to go out to eat maybe once a year.

Now part of me wants to feel sorry for her because I have hard time thinking of that as being one of my yearly highlights. Yet, the more I think about, the less I can feel sorry for her. I wish she could have more, but if she is happy for what little she has, then I will be happy for her too. I'll feel a little sadness, but I'm not going to diminish how great of person she is by thinking that she needs to be pitied. And most importantly, it would just hurt me to think that I was better than her just because I am able to work and have a little more money.

Pity in so many ways can weaken people. It tends to oppose good things like motivation, gratitude, hope, determination, optimism, and faith.

So now I have the big thought process I go through when I start feeling sorry for myself. Part one is acknowledging that I'm feeling sorry for myself (which can be hard, because just because I'm complaining about something doesn't mean I feel sorry for myself). Part two is analyzing why I feel sorry for myself because of x. Part three is deciding if it is in my control to do anything about what is making me feel sorry for myself. Part four is deciding what I can do to change or accept the situation. Part five is doing what nees to be done. Part six is to repeat as necessary.

Kindle

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 16:30:49 GMT

I have my new Amazon Kindle. I really like it. I am no longer enslaved to having to go to the local bookstore. No more deciding that a book is worth going to the store to get only to find that it is no in stock. No more having to deal with rude sales people trying to convince me to special order the book so I have to make a second trip back to their store. No more people staring at me and making judgments about my book purchases (stupid literature PhD.s who can't get a job anywhere else). No more people giving me strange looks when I go into the children's section or the rude store clerk asking me to leave that section of the store.

Now, I can get a book that I want the instant I want it. It seriously takes whole 30 seconds, if that, to have the entire book available and ready to read. No driving to the store, no special orders, and no waiting on the mail. The books are a little cheaper than a paperback in most cases (I got a bundle of 16 church books for $10 that would have cost me about $125 in paperback). I can also get some books that have gone out of print. And I can have as many as I want all stored in one tiny place that I can take with me.

I can also get magazine and newspaper subscriptions, which now actually makes me consider getting such a thing. I'm not a big fan of having stacks of newspapers or magazines lying around always putting me in the conundrum of deciding whether to put them in the dumpster or drive somewhere to put them in a recycling bin. Now I'm actually considering getting a subscription to Analog or Asimov's, which I wouldn't have done before.

Then there are all the nifty extra features. The text-to-speech feature is cool and sounds better than I expected it to. Not all books allow for it (depends on licensing), but I found that I could transfer one of my own stories to it and have the Kindle read it out loud to me. I made so many edits after that.

I also like being able to change the font sizes. It feel freeing to not be enslaved to the whims of the typesetter.

The free internet access is also cool, even if the browser is limited. It's good enough for me to browse for information and do some research. I can't purchase books from places other than Amazon, though it depends on the file format the publisher has placed them in if not, I can pay a small fee to have it converted to a format the Kindle can work with. I checked this with a word file of one of my friends books as well as some .pdf books I have on my computer and it would cost me around $0.50 to have each converted. The word documents I could convert myself without any charges.

I would say that I'm never buying a book printed on paper ever again, but I'll still buy graphic novels and get a few hardbacks from some of my favorite authors. Also, I don't like that I can't loan books to other people with my Kindle, but I feel the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

Start Plotting

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:56:54 GMT

It's October, which means I need to get my outline and plotting ready for NaNoWriMo. Going for a third year win.

I've found that I have to have an outline. I don't have time or energy to ponder about what to write when I get home from work. I only get an hour or two to write after work. On the weekends I can write quite a bit more and having three day weekends help a lot. Having an outline smooths out the whole process and helps me with motivation issues.

The past couple months I've been thinking about what to write. I started outlining a fantasy novel that kind of had a Hamlet plot. I made some characters, and unfortunately, quickly found a lot of side characters to be more interesting. As it evolved, I decided that the whole thing wasn't really coming together. It also didn't have the entertainment value I need to keep working on it during NaNoWriMo.

After a ten hour work shift, I have to make sure I'm going to be excited about what I'm going to write when I get home.

So, I've scrapped that idea and I've decided to create a plot blending together things I like. Thus, I'm creating a plot that uses high fantasy elements incorporating a X-Men ideas and a little Supernatural. It's probably not going to be all that great, but I'm not going to complete NaNoWriMo this year if I don't have a fun time doing it. I've got five chapters outlines so far and I need at least twenty (I know I can make the 50k in 10 chapters, but I like to have a buffer).

I've got a month to plot, make notes and build up motivation.

Looking to start your own business?

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:52:34 GMT

Weird day at work, here’s a sample:

Client: I need to report I have a new job.

Me: Okay, looking at you case, does the job offer insurance?

Client: Sort of, it will only cover me.

Me: Okay, we’ll have to stop you benefits, but I’ll need some information from your employer.

Client: Well, I don’t really have an employer, I’m self-employed.

Me: You’re self-employed but you get insurance?

Client: Yes, I’m starting a business being a surrogate mother.

Oh, so many questions and oh so much confusion.

And if...

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 18:00:31 GMT

I think I found the home I'd build if I had a (much) higher paying job.

www.archivaldesigns.com/houseplan_details.php

It's a little snug, but I think I'd get used to it. Though, I'm not sure which room would be best for keeping ferrets.

I'm accepting donations.

IRS is spelled h-e-...

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 01:53:29 GMT

After today, I'm fairly certain that the IRS is run by Satan. I could be wrong, but after a three hour training today on reading tax forms discussing filing laws for self-employed individuals, I feel fairly confident in this conclusion.

The different filing options seemed created so that people can elude paying the government anything. I have a little sympathy small business orders trying to scrape by to make a living. Course, in my experience, a lot of small business owners are just as evil as any giant corporation. It depends on the individuals involved. For example, today I caught a family that has been living on government programs for the past year, while all along hiding that they were making $7500/month from their small s-corp business. They're not on assistance anymore and might be looking at some fines/jail time. I blame some bad accounting and the complexities of tax law that almost encourage people to break laws.

Anyways, being honest about money is a good thing.

Also, gross income is income before business expenses and costs, not after. Profit is net income. (I can't say how often I practically yell this at people on a daily basis. And not without good reason.)

Furthermore, I have more evidence that my tax-lawyer twin, is the evil twin.

Arabs!

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:59:23 GMT

I'm am so relieved today that I spoke with two Arabic men today, and they were very nice. It think they made up for the two Arabic men I had interviewed before who were complete jerks.

It's very relieving to think that the two I had interviewed before were the anomalies. The first who yelled at me, I hoped was just him. The second one was even meaner, which then made me wonder if there was some cultural thing I didn't understand. Now I have evidence to assume the first two are not representative.

Back to the Keep

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 06:14:40 GMT

Tonight I was invited to join a Star Wars Saga campaign down at the Keep. It's been a long time since I've done anything down at the Keep because of various health problems and other activities.

It was really good to go back. I got to see some people I haven't seen in a while. I also got to meet some new people. In general, it was great to be out and doing something different than what I have been doing.

When I first got there I saw some familiar people playing D&D. One of them got me started on building a character for the Star Wars game. I ended up building an awesome Mon Calamari Scoundrel who is involved in a secret conspiracy and has a cybernetic arm. It goes against my usual practice of playing short people, but there were too many complications when I tried to build a dual-blaster wielding Jawa.

While I was building my character a guy came by just to talk. He was waiting for people to show up for a world of darkness game he's starting. I guess he'd like to have more players. He actually helped me build my character and talked about some of his favorite character ideas.

Then some people I hadn't seen in a while came by and I got to catch up some.

Then I got to meet the people running the Star Wars game. It a married couple. They're very nice, not creepy, and fun to be around. They're moving into their first house next weekend, which is down the street from where I live. They are also working on becoming foster parents (the wife has a career of working with troubled children).

When the game started, not a lot happened. The game got interrupted frequently with socializing--which is often the case. But my I got to try out some of my Scoundrel's skills of deception.

When the game was called for the night, it took the usual half-hour of talking before I actually made it to my car. It was just really pleasant and it felt good to be out.

It is odd how some places start to feel like have have a little extended family there for whoever comes and I think the Keep does that for a lot of people.

To go forward?

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:04:06 GMT

I keep thinking I should get a Kindle. It just makes sense to have something where I can buy any book and read it right away. It makes sense for me to not keep buy more book shelves. It makes sense to have many of the books I read to be stored electronically. It also makes sense to buy the cheaper electronic version of books from amazon (though not all books are cheaper). And it makes sense to not wait for a book to be shipped.

I also like being in control of font sizes and having the option of having the book read to me. It would help me keep going through books when I'm down for illness or surgery (It's so sad that I plan on having a week or two sometime in the future where I'll be incapacitated, it just seems to happen).

Electronic paper doesn't scare me. I've seen it, there is no glare. I think I can get over my addiction to page turning. I probably buy enough books per year to justify the cost. I also wont miss the smell of a freshly printed book (I have done enough printing to know that smell isn't good for anyone).

I just haven't committed yet.

Maybe I just have some classic technophobia...