PHB On Owning Things

I have a handwritten "post" on hoarding that is apolitical. But this post was sparked because I was too lazy to change the channel when NPR started talking about a nuclear Iran, so there will be some politics, but hopefully not much. This is really more about money.

One of the great frustrations of me and many Americans is the size of our defense budget. It's G.I.G.A.N.T.I.C. The frustration is from the sense that this budget is out of line with our needs, and our ability to afford it. Whether our truly gigantic budget - literally multiples of the sum of the defense budgets of the rest of the world - is out of line is something that should be discussed. Why do we have all our bases abroad? What do we get out of it?

I happen to think that we as a society are better off if we, who are able, take some care of our least able members, allowing them to live a life of dignity and worth which they could not afford or get to on their own. I think this is reason enough for a welfare program and international aid. I do not think it is reason enough, necessarily, for OUR welfare program our our current international aid so we don't need to fight on those details here. That doesn't mean that I don't also seek out reasons why we give other countries money. Some of the money we give out just seems insane.

But some of the insanity may have come clear to me tonight. I've never been all that great with current events and politics. Some of it is from my inherent lack of respect for positions given by bureaucracies - I just plain don't see some connections. Some was because my first exposure to it in elementary school was so confusing and over my head that I just had to put it in a "don't know"/"not good at it" category and it has only been in recent years of reading blogs that I feel I've gotten a bit of a handle on things. Which is what makes me think I should blog about this.

As the commentators (really, some of the most knowlegeable and least divisive I've heard in a while) explained some back history of nuclear weaponry, they discussed the difficulties of what to do now. We'd bombed Japan with nukes and it was gruesome. The scale of nuclear weapons give us the potential to do damage on a previously unknown scale. We the people can wipe out countries in moments. This is a tough thing to face. Who gets this power?

Apparently there was "the Irish Resolution", which is pretty simple on its face, and which was considered unlikely. Essentially, my understanding of it from the show is that those countries with nuclear weapons can keep their technology but must not sell it or gift it to others. Those without must not seek to gain nuclear weapon technology, and all must be subject to inspections. Who would go for that? Well, in exchange for promises of protection the world went two decades without any non-nuclear countries becoming nuclear. Hunh. Who knew that would work so well?

But that key piece in there is that those with nuclear vowed to protect those without. Retaining ownership of the bomb means that our defense budget and personnel aren't just for us, they are for our neighbors too. Because the cost of NOT providing that protection is having more nuclear weapons in the world. Containing and negotiating with the governments who do have them is tricky enough. Every new player adds significant complexity to the fragile balance. And that might be worth spending some defense budget money that seems on the surface, rather gratuitous.

File this under "things that make me go hrmmmm."

Money Money Money

My brother cracks me up. In his current sales job, he has an assistant. He pretty much works all the time on weekdays. A couple weeks ago he wanted to take a day off and asked his assistant to handle everything that day. To avoid being *that boss* who starts taking off for golf and dumping the work on the assistant, he gave her a cash bonus. Then, he went insane.

He explained to me that the payoff had been delayed because the vault wasn't open at the bank. I wondered why he needed vault access - just how big was this one day bonus? Yeah, it is during one of his best quarters ever but c'mon.

Turns out he was looking for $500. In ones.


Then he labeled up a lunchbox.


Hrm... How to arrange?


First arrangement is the classic flat stacks.


But my favorite is vertically stacked bills all in one row.


He says his assistant both loved and hated it - rightfully so because it is a little evil to give out 500 dollars in ones. But it's also hilarious. And the FedEx guy keeps asking if she's got her moneybox with her because he perpetually needs the change. I'm willing to bet this isn't a bonus she's ever likely to forget.

I Shimmer on Horizons

Still working on the Thailand update, no longer willing to put it on the critical path to getting other blog entries out. It's been almost a month since my last drink post and I'm full of excuses. I'm feeling much better, but that means I'm doing other stuff. But not enough other stuff that shouldn't be tossing up blog posts especially since I've composed about 40 in my head.

This one is about gold. I just heard on the news that gold hit $1800/t.oz. They did mention that back in the early '80s, the then high $800 price would inflation adjust to $2400, so it's not an all time high as such, but it's damn close. It was around $300/t.oz when I started paying attention. It didn't do much for a while, but did trend steadily up. Shortly into Bush's second term, it angled up fairly sharply. Prices fell again after Obama's election, but then took off even more steeply than before. Last week, I think the slope up is higher than it has ever been.

People buy gold when they think their reserve currency isn't going to hold value. The US$ is the reserve currency of choice. Many countries also peg their currency to the dollar - their exchange rate changes as ours does. Only the fact that there doesn't seem to be a strong contender for runner up reserve currency (yet) makes me think we'll be able to stick it out and squeak through the rest of the recession without falling from the top of the heap. We've toppled lots already, it's just that we've taken everyone else out with us, for the most part, so the relative positions aren't that different. So what the high gold price says to me is that people are dumping dollars for bars. This is not good news. Anyone holding gold will be able to jump into a different currency.

Another point in our favor is that we're currently "too big to fail". The countries with money pegged to our currency would prefer we don't fail. At this time, China doesn't want the top currency slot as it makes their goods too expensive (and for a million reasons I don't know). But people buying up gold, and perhaps deciding not to track our currency is bad news for us.

I'm still not totally clear on the ramifications of countries "defaulting". Iceland's banking economy crashed, but people still live there, in houses, and go to work like they always did so how is that different from any other place with high unemployment in this economy? I can't quite wrap my mind around it. But what is clear to me is that when the US economy tanks, there's significant collateral damage. And we have bullies in congress willing to throw our economy in the toilet to avoid asking people with money to part with some of it. It's a line that I don't think has ever been crossed before - willing to risk default at all, regardless of the stakes or conditions. And it's a batshit crazy thing to do.

By proving that we've got batshit crazy folks holding our economy hostage, especially to avoid taxing wealthy folks, we may have hit the tipping point in whether or not people are willing to ride this bad economy out with us to the "not so much" side of the equation. But lacking better options, they buy gold and hope someone grows up and starts talking sense. We can argue all day about what wealthy is or isn't, but for me it's someone who has a steady income that is substantially more than they need, and enough to get through several minor and a few major disasters. If you're one car accident or bad cold away from financial ruin, you're not wealthy. And given the lack of health care coverage, even for many "covered" folks, more of us are in that situation than not so probably some people reading this are thinking "I would really rather not pay more taxes right now" and I'm thinking you're not who I'd be taxing.

As I understand it, most known civilizations fall when they've either consumed all their protective resources (trees on Easter Island and Haiti) or the rich get so rich that they no longer give a damn what the peasants think. The strongest civilizations have a middle class that is educated and economically well off (although everyone can't be "wealthy") and enough resources to care for the truly poor and unfortunate. What I didn't even really ponder much until recently is that with the size and relatively recent mining of resources, the US isn't "great" just because we're "free". It's because we have so many natural resources that we haven't destroyed all our options yet and had to pare back. Surely the democracy thing isn't nothing, but we can't keep treating mining the country and expecting more to be around the next corner. Mining isn't like harvesting. Some stuff won't grow back.

And this ramble has gone a bit off topic because I'm out of practice with blogging coherently. At any rate, I look at the gold price and I'm pretty afraid of what it says. The only thing that keeps that fear in check is that we're too big to fail right now. That and burying my head in romance novels. Which is where my head is going right now. Feel free to school me in the comments. To quote a favored blogger, Ta-Nahisi Coates, talk to me like I'm stupid.

[Quote from Shimmer by The Throwing Muses which includes a line about being dressed in shiny gold. I can listen to that song as often as 3 year olds can watch The Lion King video.]

Taxes and Deadlines

Got the Roth funded for 2010! Thanks again to my friend for letting me know about the income cap workaround. Because by the time I can spare enough funds for a Roth, over paycheck to paycheck, I've hit the income limits. Yeah, yeah, poor baby. But I find it pretty frustrating that after buying one of the ten cheapest condos in my county (which is now worth half of what I paid for it) I have to supplement my income with stock options to get unrestricted disposable income. (Restricted disposable income going to food and gas.)

When I check against national statistics, my income puts me in the top 20% of earners and possibly in the top 20% of households. Granted, this is national, not local, and I have always contributed to my pre-tax retirement savings, but I seriously can't imagine trying to live comfortably on half of what I make. I'd have to downgrade from my condo (rated as 'affordable housing' in the area) to the mobile homes next door or rent a room in someone's house. I'm sorry, but a single person in her late thirties, with an established carreer, with a technical degree from one of the country's top universities earning in the top 20% of earners shouldn't be feeling as lower middle class as I have. In the last year, I've started to feel more regular middle class given that I was able to hire maids and an organizer and a trainer at the gym, but that was because my company's stock skyrocketed and I sold some options and all of that money was unrestricted disposable income.

Maybe my perception is off, but shouldn't I at least feel like I *could* by a car worth more than $20K, like I *could* afford a home on my own that's bigger than my 720 sq foot 1 bedroom condo? Like I *could* hire gardeners if I bought a bigger place? I don't so much have a problem with living within my means as being upset that my objectively considerable means don't get me enough margin to save without pain, or shop in moderation without worry.

This year is different. It's the third year of my adult (whole?) life that I've had freely disposable income. I'm inclined to dispose of most of it given that my retirement savings, diversely invested in the recommended "smart" options would have done better had I shoved cash under a mattress or bought scratch lottery tickets. Playing by the rules doesn't seem to have gotten me where the rulemakers promised and I'm feeling a little bitter about that.

But at least for 2010 I was able to save money in a Roth by making a post-tax contribution to an IRA then rolling it over into the Roth, thereby utilizing the legal loophole on earnings limits. And I can afford someone else to do my taxes.

This is why I'll never be an Adult

For the last 9 months or so, any piece of paper I couldn't deal with right away, for whatever reason, got stuffed into a cabinet, or a bin under the cabinet. The intention was to go through it every 3-4 weeks, get everything settled and move on. It has recently spilled elsewhere. One reason I needed a weekend to deal with taxes is digging the relevant stuff out of this stash. I think I've got most of it, and the rest I can print off the computer at work tomorrow.

Of course, now my living room looks like this:

(TBI= to be installed, aka in a box on the porch because I have enough projects to last a month of sundays.)

Fortunately, I only had a couple of late payments and they didn't lead to significant charges. One reason I could deal with the pile fairly quickly is thanks to the wisdom in "Taming the Paper Tiger" about not bringing crap into the house in the first place. I drive to my mailboxes, and strip out all the filler paper (unwanted ads, extra pages, unwanted checks, useless envelopes) and just keep the truly necessary stuff. Since most of my important stuff is set up on autopay or goes to my UPS mailbox, I open it at lunch and pay it right away if I can. Probably 90% of the delivered bulk goes straight in the trash. And 70% of it is unsolicited so "going paperless" wouldn't help much and only let me miss more deadlines at this point.

So. I pretty much have what I need to get my taxes done, submit my last $400 from my health care account to be reimbursed, and make the recipe I made up for the Trader Joe's lemon pepper pasta that I've looked for twice so far. (Boil LP pasta, toss over medium heat with 1T TJ's olive tepanade, glug of favorite cooking oil, diced 1/3 avocado, 1 Dorot frozen garlic cube, & salt until heated through.)

But it's not pretty. And this is why I'm not living up to my potential. Hopefully once I get my cabinets in place and have file drawers that aren't hidden behind a sofa, things will improve. Stay tuned but don't be holding your breath.

Last Minute Tax Advice

It turns out that in 2010, one can get around income limits on ROTH donations by converting a regular IRA to a ROTH. If it's pre-tax money, you get 2 years to pay the taxes on it. A good friend clued me into this, I just have to remember to do it tomorrow... She also told me about the trick of creating an IRA with after tax money then converting it to the ROTH. So if you had a good year this year and didn't fund a ROTH yet, or think you're going to hit income limits, try this trick before March 31st.

What I don't know is if there's a $5000 limit on the Roth conversion. I assume there is, but my brother is hoping that he can convert a whole IRA account. Anyone know?

Wishes

I just took a long nap, now need to go to sleep for realzers as I have a guest coming tomorrow and should make some attempt to be civilized. But what did I do? Downloaded some books from Autobuy authors that recently came out. Will probably be reading for the next two hours. Although after all the anagrams and angry birds recently, it'll be nice to get back to my usual timesink.

One thing that is helping me be civilized is that I can afford to have someone clean my place every month or so. They came tuesday so all I *have* to do is wash the guest sheets and tidy up. But I have so many projects, and there's only so much tidy to go around. At least I don't have to worry about the shower being icky.

It's got me thinking of what else I'd like to hire done, though.
1) bookkeeper - I tell you what needs paying, you execute the payments. I *know* I should pay off the balance, I just plan to do it tomorrow but I'll forget about it tomorrow and then I'll have to pay a late fee. I had one for a while but she stopped doing that sort of thing and I haven't searched hard for another affordable one. They would make sure I turn in my reimbursements on time and remind me to donate before the end of the tax year and the like.

2) personal assistant - like the bookkeeper but not in charge of finances. Would set up and maintain my calendar, check through all the crap emails I get to find the ones I want to read, would set up my email folders so that less sorting is necessary. Would also copy all the files off my old computer onto a backup harddrive and get rid of ye olde eMac. Would compile all my pictures into one main storage space and one backup storage space and would re-back them up after I renamed them. Would also help me search dating websites for likely candidates, and "around town" periodicals for the concerts, museums, events, and restaurants I'd like to hit up and actually get me some tickets and whatnot.
(To be fair, my instigator friend in Orange County fulfills that last one nicely, but it's all stuff more local to her than me. Plus, I have a great organizer, but she's kind of expensive for doing the more rote things.)

3) handyman - or handywoman. Or a friend who just likes doing stuff. I have heapo plenty projects, lots of ideas. I like doing them. Sometimes I just like doing them better with others, sometimes I need more hands. I would like to have a regular buddy for this sort of thing, but would also be willing to hire some help.

4) Personal chef. This one is iffy because it would only be good if it helped me remove some decision making. "I guess I'll have stew because that's what's here". But my mental health requires me to not eat alone in my condo too often, so I eat out and if I'm just as happy with a Taco Bell chicken burrito, a chef seems like overkill when I can find them at restaurants. The bigger goal here would be to have a better food routine so I'm not always dreading deciding what to eat. maybe I should add that to my PA role - set me down once a week and figure out what the food plans are for the upcoming week. Have experimentation day on a day I can accommodate it.

The goal here would be to have someone help me impose order where it's hard for me to do it on my own (bookkeeper/PA) and make my fun projects less chore like. I'm making good on my goals from last year to finally get my place set up like I want it. I'd like to finish the already in-house projects within the next 3 months. This will allow me and my organizer to get me set up better to deal with incoming papers and scheduling, and I think at that point I'll be able to look into grad schools (and refinancing the mortgage or buying a cheaper place).

After attending the local Engineering Societies' Week dinner last night and being inspired all over again about the future of energy research, I need to make grad school a nearer term goal. (Or at least the regular watching of TED videos.) Particularly, our Keynote Speaker talked about how energy efficiency is progressing faster than engergy generation and storage technology. I've long thought I'd be psyched to do research and development batteries/fuel cells, but it might make more sense to work more on energy efficiency because I could get it to tie in better to my existing background and skillset. If one makes a more energy efficient cell phone, the same old battery doesn't have to improve as readily, for instance. And our CEO says we have something in the works, just like all other companies, so it makes me think it would be an easier career upgrade than trying something completely new. In the meantime, it might be cool to get involved with something like Unite to Light which donates solar rechargeable LEDs to schoolchildren in areas with poor local infrastructure so they can study after sunset when the day's chores are done.

Half n Half

So I'm in that weird state of recovery where it's hard to tell how useful or useless I'll be.  I don't feel good.  But I don't feel as bad as I had been.

Yesterday and the day before, I tried working.  Tuesday, I plowed through some email, got some projects that needed prodding after the holiday prodded, then came home at noon and slept for 7 hours.  I felt better yesterday, and made it through lunch and our weekly engineering meeting, when I started to feel nasty and went home to find I had a fever.  Once home, I developed a rash.

This morning, I'm still trying to figure out how I feel.  The fever is gone, but all the sinuses in my head are moving and either draining or refilling and I can feel my patience on a really, really short tether.  Not a good state in which to go to work if I don't absolutely have to.  And so far, I don't absolutely have to.  I thought about telling my boss I'd try to come in this afternoon, but I can't see that going too well.

Now I'm left with enough energy to do *something* but don't really know what I could do without getting frustrated with it.  Then, there's the guilt that if I'm functional in any way I should be at work, so do I not do things I could do to "prove" I'm sick? Or do I just do things (errands, mostly) because they really just don't take the same level of energy, commitment, and temperament that being at work does?  I'm thinking about the second option pretty hard, but only after a shower and a nap and time for the daily meds to work.

Looking at the brightside:

1. Unlike some friends, I don't have 17" of snow. I do love snow, but I don't like digging out of it on school days.  And when one works in manufacturing, they aren't keen on one working from home.
2.  My sick time just reset so I actually have sick days to use.
3. Thanks to my new wireless router and the price our company stock has been at, I can shop online in the comfort of my pajamas.  I'm so excited about the new dining room I can hardly see straight.  Or maybe that's the sick, but still.  This is really only the second year of my adult life that I've had any disposable income to speak of, and I'm finding a lot of satisfaction in using it to set my place up the way I want to live, rather than the way I have to live with what I can scrounge up for pennies.
4. A gratuitous 4th item.  Laundry in my unit is a continued miracle.  Also for most of my adult life, I didn't have laundry at home.  I would do it at friends' homes while we watched movies together or at the laundromat, or finally, take it to the wash-dry-fold.  I can't tell you how relieved and grown up I feel being able to do laundry overnight.  I have a mostly dry load in the drier waiting for the final zhush then it can be put away.  Now to decide if it's a good time to get a front-loading washer. I'm thinking maybe yes. I can shop online and all... (If you have recommendations for/against any stackable frontloaders, let me know!)

Discover is Dead to Me

I understand that the financial environment has changed and creditors can't be as lenient as they used to be. However. Discover has just been evil to me for the first time ever, and it's bad enough that I won't be using them again for the forseeable future, if ever.

I've been making a lot of purchases recently: airfare to a funeral, mattress, lighting, shipping costs. I use Discover for every in-person expense unless the business doesn't take their card or I pay cash. (I have a MasterCard which is my online card and backup daily card.) I paid off the full balance at the end of June. I set up an automatic payment through my bank to pay at least a minimum, starting in August. I thought I'd covered July and the last time I checked, I had no payment due. Turns out I was wrong, and I missed my payment date by a week. Yeah, I screwed up, but it was an honest mistake and one they're fully equipped to ride out until I take care of it, which based on my history will not take more than a month.

In the past this has no big deal. You pay your outrageous $39 fee, get 20% or higher interest mounting up until it's paid off, and everyone's fine. I've never been more than a month late with a payment in 20 years, and I've never, ever been in default. I have never failed to pay all that I owe, but I have occassionally been a week or three late because I'm not good at keeping track of time. Discover has been a good card for me because they'll take a payment by phone the day the payment is due, and credit the payment that day. They give cash back and don't make me mess around with credits, miles, or whathave you that need to be exchanged for something, it's just cash. On occasion (not often) they'll waive a late fee, even. Their operators are generally helpful. But all of that is not enough to outweigh the latest transgression.

This time, Discover - with a single late payment 7 days overdue - cut off my credit. I called them, put through an automatic payment for the full amount due at the last payment, and spoke to an operator. The operator was not allowed to extend me any credit at all. Not even the $25 I needed to send some packages at the after hours Post Office drop.

Excuse me? I've used your card every week for the last 4 years and have a dozen years credit history with your company. You know (based on my credit report where the last time I checked my score was 798) that I will pay you. And you can't extend me a hundred dollars of credit until I sort out my 7 day late payment that I've already authorized????? Fuck you, Discover Card.

I'm heading up north for a vacation this weekend. And while I always carry two cards, sometimes I pare down and just carry one for a meal or jaunt somewhere. What if I'd been in need of gas or a meal 400 miles from home? What if I'd really had an emergency and needed a small portion of the $8400 of credit I should still have had available? You would have been no help. In fact, you shutting down my credit with no notice could have been way more horrible than me having to spend a half hour in a deserted parking lot with a mobile phone.

I've been an expert credit user for 20 years and I've never run up against this situtation. Did you warn me? I'd argue that you didn't. I try to skim all the "here are upcoming changes to your credit agreement" for at least the highlights and no where did I see "We shut down your credit if your payment is 7 days late". It's possible it was there, but it was not prominent and was mixed in with so many other changes that don't affect me that I didn't/couldn't see it. This one, however, is not a good way to do business. I understand that you don't want to hemorrhage money to someone who won't pay you. But there is nothing in my history with you that would suggest this to be the case. I would understand if you wanted me to call in and ask for an extension or something, and offer only a limited amount. But for me to call in and you to not offer me even $25? Fuck you. You knew you could trust me, but I can't trust you. This is not how credit cards work. You're dead to me, Discover card.

If it turns out that all credit cards now do this, I may be more lenient and go back to using them after a year, because they do have their good points, like not sending bills after the due date. But as I said, I haven't seen this policy being announced. And it could put someone in a rather dangerous situation where they're expecting to be able to pay for something important and can't, with no wiggle room. That's unacceptable.

UPDATE: Just got the bill for this month. My overdue amount was $188.56 which wasn't enough to even charge the full late fee - the fee was "only" $19. This is the month after I paid a $3000+ charge in full. Um. Whatever, assholes. I know Citi probably isn't any better but they haven't cut off my credit for no good cause and I already have their address in my bank bill pay system, so that's what I'm using now.

FCOL

In my Health Care plan's list of eligible expenses for Medical Spending Reimbursement, it lists "Laser eye surgery". Yet I just got a rejection from the company saying "Lasik" isn't covered. Perhaps if I re-submit and call it "laser eye surgery"? Seriously? Do I need to fight this fight to get my own money back for something they say they cover?  It's that or figure out some really expensive medical need in the next couple months.

Here's the relevant section of the list:

• Hospital bills
• Hypnosis for treatment of an illness
• Laboratory fees
• Laetrile by prescription
• Laser surgery for the eyes
• Lead-base paint removal (for children with lead poisoning)
• Life fee to retirement home for medical care
• Lip-reading lessons

What part of Lasik=Laser Eye surgery are they not getting? I may have to poke my newly surgerized eye out with a stick.

UPDATE 21July2010 9:20
After 14 minutes and 22 seconds on the phone with Tiffany, who knew that (a) LASIK is "Laser Eye Surgery" and (b) that they cover it, she and her manager unearthed my fax, made sure the form was filled out correctly, and will reprocess the claim and cut me a check.  Whew!  Now I don't have to manufacture a new, expensive medical issue or fight with the bureaucrats to get my money back.

Who are the People

I stopped at the local bar on the way home from work, and apparently looked friendly as I got an offer of a free BBQ sandwich if I stop by a grill tomorrow, and a "you're my new friend, I like your energy" from the other side.  Uh Ok. I was just happy because I got a raise.  Yes, in this economy.  Of course now I can't use the "woe is me there have been no raises in 2 years" sob story to refinance my mortgage, but I'm not complaining!  I did get some of my MSRA refund and the NYC trip is paid for from money I (gasp! shock!) saved up beforehand.

Now I just need to get back in the swing of things and really rock out the next couple of months at work.  Right now I have a lot of freedom, but if I use that freedom to get ahead, things will be muuuuuuch better than if I don't.  In about a week, week and a half, I'll be in charge of the highest profile project in the fab (not the hardest, just the highest profile), so I need to be prepped for that and not farting around with stuff I just didn't finish when I had plenty of time.  So I *might* work a little this weekend while I'm 8 kinds of motivated. Or I might decide to drive down to SD and watch the Superfrog Tri.  Haven't quite decided.

Plus, I'm reading Patricia Briggs, Eileen Wilks, and picked up some Pamela Clare to check out.

And wow, I totally have goldfish brain (enabled by the 4 rum Tropical Storm) because MY NEW TOASTER CAME TODAY!!!  Dude!  I have a toaster!  It has the elusive long slot, it didn't cost the earth, it's white like my kitchen, it toasts, AND it's funky! Thank you eBay. The toast ejects out the bottom of the super thin design. Oddly, the thing came in a box that was 2'x2'by 6".  Most toasters wouldn't fit in the thing, but this does, with room for packing.  I dig it.

Tournament of...

 I originally wrote this on 12 May 2009 at 7:51PM.  I'm not sure why I didn't post it aside from my lack of a conclusion.  So I added a conclusion, and a jump because the post is long.
-------------
People, many of them quite smart and well informed, keep using the phrase "the gap between rich and poor" and saying that it is bad. This phrase bothers me a lot because I find it useless at best and misleading at worst. People are pack oriented mammals. There are always alphas, betas, all the the way to omegas. There will always be people who outrank, outpower, and outperform others. To suggest that all people are gammas is to dismiss the inherent hierarchical structure of community.

Within that community however, we can find that having more gammas than omegas is heathier for us overall. (For those unfamiliar with greek think A(1st place),B (2),G (7),Z (last) where Z is Omega. For those horrified by me using these the way I want to and not according to previous conventions other than order which I warn is the case, stop reading or get over it.)

I watched a documentary once about a wolf pack that was under observation by humans. (They kind of tolerated the researchers.) The researchers explained the ranking system and the pack definitely had its alpha, betas, gammas and omegas. The pack omega was a weaker female and whenever the pack ate they would deliberately keep her from the carcass until last, going so far as to shoo her out of the area completely. I kept thinking "what's the harm in letting her hang around the edges? She always did get some scraps at the end, it's not like she's going to bite you in the butt." And one time when they chased her out of the area while the big dogs were eating, she was killed by a stronger predator. The really striking thing was that the pack went into a severe depression with the omegas death. It turned out that she was an empathetic influence who calmed the pack when they were inappropriately riled and offered comedic relief when they were tense or sad. Without her, the pack really fell apart. Not just for days. They mourned her absence for months and months. Pack function failed in a major way.

Speaking Plainly We're Delighted

Yesterday was my first day back to work in the New Year. Aside from being not particularly productive, it wasn't bad. Today went better but there were happy things both days:

Yesterday:

• Allergy shots were not particularly aggravating
• I met up with a friend of a friend who is nice and fun (but moving to Boston in a couple of weeks).
• In the meantime, she took me out to a bar in West Hollywood where they do a sing-a-long showtunes night on mondays, and serve reasonably priced drinks.

I was woefully ignorant of nearly every song they played at the sing-a-long, which surprised me. I thought I'd been a reasonable theater attendee. But then I remembered - I don't usually care for overpriced blockbusters and rarely go. (I want to see Wicked and Avenue Q, but didn't want to pay full price and so missed them.) What I do go to see is Drag Queen Theater.

I happen to have a soundtrack from the GDO's "Cinderella Rocks" and yesterday inspired me to dig it out to play today. The song the peasants sing after being invited to the ball contains some lines which are quirky and fun:

Every one is so exited
Speaking plainly, we're delighted
that we all have been invited
to the ball!

Women: The gentlemen have combed their hair
they're even wearing underwear
you couldn't tell they haven't bathed at all.

Men: The ladies are so pretty,
That one's showing off her titties
in a bra that is decidedly too small.
Women: (It's true, it's true, it's true!)

Women: The ladies are delirious;
the prince is so mysterious, so stately!
standing staring at the wall...
Men: (He must be concentrating.)

...Ryan Landry

Burlesque genius.

Other good things for today are that I got approval to take the next two fridays off to blow glass. I have the option of doing half days and coming back to work, but I'm guessing I won't feel like it! I will have to work out how to finish my first draft of my conference paper by monday, so it's not like I won't be busy - chances are I'll be going in on sunday (which isn't happy unless I finish, but it's not unhappy as it's my personal choice).

I also got a head's up that something I needed work on last year I managed to improve this year to a point where I went from reasonable to excellent on my review. Phew! I've kind of let one or two less important malingering projects color my self-perception of the job I've done but the truth is that those projects are delayed because higher priorities intervened, not because I'm a lousy engineer. I might be a little lazier than I should be, but I'm getting good work done in a reasonable time frame, for the most part.

And our stock went up enough today that the options I sold will pay for 2/3 of my upcoming lasik which will make budgeting that in muuuuch easier.

Happy New Year!

Had a lot of firsts this year which were all positive experiences:
First trip to the Grand Canyon
First ride in a helicopter
First trip to Alaska
First time to eat frog legs
First trip to Las Vegas
First trip to see friends in Seattle
First president in my lifetime that I was thrilled to see take office

While the economy tanked around us, my job making parts for wireless connectivity recovered early and is taking off, which makes me exceptionally lucky. (In the meantime, my condo has lost roughly half its value which just makes me like everyone else.) Here's hoping for health, wealth and pursuing happiness. And keeping in touch with friends.

Good Day

I checked my mail at the UPS store today. It's been three and a half years, and getting that UPS box was one of the best things I've done. I like the location (around the corner from the post office, across the freeway from work, and next to the best pizza in town), I like the owners, and I love having my real mail go somewhere safe. The owner asked today about my glass as in past years I've shipped out rather a lot of it from her store and she hadn't seen any this year. I told her that it was rather a victim of the recession and I was hoping to get back to it next year. I think I'll take her some cookies.

In my box were two excellent things, one a surprise by the fact of it, and the other a surprise by the goodness of it.

First, I paid off my car! I own my Mazda 3 outright now. Whee! This is about 2 months before I'd expected to have to stop paying - I even got a refund for overpayment.

Second, the View From Your Window book which is on sale from Blurb but comes from Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish. I love this feature. Every time a new window view pops up, I take a deep breath and feel contentment for a brief moment in time. It was too overwhelming to look at all the pictures at once, so I'm going to savor it for a while. I ordered a couple extra copies for gifts. I sent one to my grandmother who is in assisted living and spends a lot of time looking out her window. I figured she could use more window views too.

Visibility: RainEx vs. Generic Wiper Blades

I've been running an experiment with my windshield wipers. The last time I replaced them, I bought a pricey "RainEx" brand wiper for the drivers side and the "cheap like dirt" brand for the passenger side. (I bought blades on a wiper arm, not just the rubber blade insert.) I chose thusly for a few reasons. (1) the blade would work best on the arm designed for it; (2) because I really like the RainEx product for windshields - driving on a misty or snowy day is no problem if one has recently applied the juice; (3) Living in SoCal, I didn't need to upgrade to a snow-plow worthy blade, but I figured a name brand blade would last longer or work better than the cheap blade and (4) I thought about upgrading the cheap blade slightly too, but then figured I'd just test the absolute cheapest to see how low I could go.

So far, the wipers have mostly been dealing with dust and windshield washer fluid, which could scratch the hell out of any blade. I do, however, routinely wipe the blades off when I get gas. So every 2 weeks or so, I run a soapy paper towel over them to clean off any built up diesel fumes, dust or bug carapces to prevent streaking and get better squeegee action when I turn them on. It has been a relatively cool summer (what summer? the first hot day of my year happened in Alaska, FCOL) with only a couple of very hot days.

The blades are maybe 8 months old, but I rarely use them and clean them regularly, and they don't appear cracked or damaged. In the interest of fairness, the passenger side blade is a couple of inches shorter and I am not listing the pressure points per linear inch of blade because I don't remember and it's cold and raining outside so I'm not about to head back out and count the number of places at which the wiper holder pushes the blade against the window.

Results:
Dealing with dust/dew: No difference

We are having our first big rain of the season today.
Dealing with rain: No difference

In my experience, there is no difference between the $16.99 blade and the $4.95 blade. They both streak equally, leave similar residues (with dust, particularly), clear rain equally, and provide the same visibility.

I guess I had been hoping the RainEx blade would help recondition the windshield surface similar to how the RainEx fluid does, but I don't remember the packaging saying anything of the sort. RainEx is the *best*thing*ever* for rainy/drizzly weather, but counterproductive in dusty situations, so I haven't used it in forever. Maybe I should get a tiny bottle to have on hand for days like today. Because their wipers are no better than basic. And more than a little streaky.

You Say Potato

With the troop levels in Afghanistan partly dependent on a stable Afghan government, there was lots (and lots) of jabber on the news today about how the Karzai regime and Afghans in general need to "be free of corruption" in order for the government to work. Am I the only one who finds this to be utterly ridiculous as a near term goal?

Wikipedia, for one source, goes into the many, many paths of political corruption and reminds us "In some nations, corruption is so common that it has gained normative status." meaning that pretty much all transactions occurring between two (or three) parties are contingent upon bribery, nepostism, cronyism, graft, kickbacks and the like. Forgive me, and correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Afghanistan one of those places that literally functions on the extra cash being funneled under the table?

When we ask for them to remove "corruption" from their government, who is defining the corruption? If the transaction involves a "normative" level of extra-legal grease that is so routine that it occurs when one buys coffee or fixes a bicycle, why would someone think it was odd to also require it for drawing government forms or getting a job? Now don't think that my incredulity here is in some way condoning corruption as a way of life or governing. I think removing corruption is a fine goal and especially necessary if the repressed and minorities have any hope of living a decent life. But I think corruption is defined much like pornography and speeding: anything more than what you do is illicit and crazy; anything less is amateur if not obstructionist. Corruption is a moving target. One could discuss its removal day in, day out for years but unless specific rules are laid down (fishing licenses cost $35, no more, no less, yes for you too), investigated, enforced, and treated seriously, it'll be business as usual.

Add to that, changing a normative behavior generally takes a generation. In the case of countries where the average age of the populace is less than 15, there's a hope this could cycle faster than ours where the average age is over 30 and a large number of voters are over 65. But it's not going to happen this year, next year, or during our next political cycle. And making demands for reform to happen now, Now, NOW! just strikes me as being infantile and pandering. But I guess jabber about setting up incentives to strive for measurably reduced corruption years from now doesn't lead the infotainment headlines. And may not even be something we ever have any say in, if the government actually resumes autonomy.

Goes Wriggling through the Grass

I'm not sure if I slept too much or if I needed to sleep too much but my weekend has been lousy with a lot of sleep. To counter the slugs, I went on my usual hike. (The hike which I skipped for most of the summer due to snakes - saw a teeny tiny rattler today who took his own sweet time getting off the trail.) I climbed for 15 minutes, including stopping to breathe and chat about snakes with fellow hikers, and reached my lowest elevation yet for that milestone but was still plenty ready to turn around and head back, being totally winded.

I was reading some stuff online and came across a really concise definition of buffers in the blood and cells, and how we alter the acid/base levels in either. The bit that interests me most is this: when the acid levels from lactic acid get too high, we breathe harder. It mentions breathing harder after climbing several flights of stairs, but even living in a 4th floor walkup, I was often feeling winded after one or two flights, even when in shape. My mom is that way too. We also tend to build muscle really easily. So I wonder if my heavy breathing is more from making more lactic acid than I ought to, or from being astoundingly out of shape. Or a combination of both. Anyway, it's something I'm ruminating on.

Also, it has occurred to me that it's been a while since posting my happy items. Here are some recent ones:

• The local mechanic found something to fix while my car is still under warranty, and the look-see only cost about $20.


• I have a job with sick days. My vacation might not be as advertised, but the job pays the bills and doesn't force me to work when sick.


• I seem to have avoided the worst of the plague going around. I'm sick, and it appears to be lingering, but I can still breathe (mostly), and talk, unlike many of my colleagues who have gotten clobbered by this thing and have gone hoarse from a sore throat and/or coughing. Me, I'm mostly feeling stuffy (helped by sinus rinse) and sleepy (helped by sleeping), and thus that I'm not living up to my potential ("I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and goshdarnit, people like me" or "being sick is not vacation"), but it's clear I'm getting off easy.


• It looks like I will be able to see friends AND family this november
  
• One more- I don't think it can be overstated how much better life is with in-unit laundry.

Karmic Ping-Pong

It was another frogurty kind of day.



Good: The gift I sent to my friend's office arrived today
Cursed: Today was the last day of people at the office, they're shutting up the shop.
Good: It cheered her up on a rather bad day, so she called to say hi.
Cursed: Her nice business is no longer.

Good: I got up on time for work today (unlike yesterday when I slept through the alarm)
Cursed: My body didn't like it and I was a little useless. I'm still zingy enough I can't remember what I really wanted to blog about.

Good:I remember now!
Cursed:It's not *that* interesting. Well, it's two things. You can judge.

Cursed: My arms are all swollen from my allergy shots.
Good: I got to see an Ignobel award up close.

Good: Bank of America, who are usually out to scam me, actually thought my account activity was weird and put a fraud alert on it then called me to verify the charges as good or cursed.
Cursed: One of the charges (Paypal) sounded like "Plink" and repeating it didn't help.
Good: The other two of three charges were real so I assumed all was well and pressed 1 for "yep, I authorized that". Then I went online to check my account statement.
Cursed: The suspected account was behind a fraud barrier - including the list of charges I needed to verify. They asked for 1 piece of ID to verify me on the phone and roughly 18,000 online questions. Um, I don't remember if my car loan was 2005 or 2006, I bought the car at the new year and don't know if the paperwork was dated the previous or following year. Even more, I don't care. (The payments are set up to go to the last payment and stop and that's in roughly 3-5 months.) But someone with my credit report could easily know this, so why it's a security question is beyond me. So I declined to answer the questions as I just wanted to verify that I hadn't validated something odd.
Good: BOA has online chat assistance so they don't have to listen to me yell at them.
Cursed: The chat didn't offer the CC# in question as an option for "what account?" so I got sent to someone who couldn't help me.
Good: But she did give me a phone number that worked.
Cursed: There's a reason chat is better. I get unreasonably pissed off by frustrating things that take a lot longer than I think they should, and if I wait until I cool down, I don't get my issues resolved, so it's a struggle to not be pissy on the phone. I try, I really do try, to be civil and pleasant, but I was not having my very best day today and it was marginal.
Good: The other guys in the office thought I was hilarious; the lady wrote down my suggestion of being able to view (but not act on) the potentially fraudulent items in question without the cavity search.
Cursed: It looks like it was signing up for chemistry.com that put it over the edge. Well, that's why I LOGGED IN and created a low limit, early expire ShopSafe number to use!!! *NEXT TIME* when they try to use the expired number, then flag it.
Good: Still, in matters financial, better safe than sorry. (Mostly) They probably get a ton of complaints from those "we'll help you by auto-renewing your subscription without sending a reminder" web sites.

Good:Plus, I'd made cinnamon rolls - one set with "cooking light" dough and one with my standard "Williams Sonoma" dough. I think I'll stick with the WS, the difference is mostly 1 egg and 1/6c sugar. But the CL did offer up a decent icing recipe (2T milk, 2-4T melted butter, dash vanilla, add conf.sugar until you like texture, ~1c) that worked out well. So I took one batch of cinnamon-raisin-pecan rolls and one of ginger-cherry-apple rolls.
Cursed:They didn't disappear, but
Good:That just means more for me.
For balance: I had steamed veggies and cucumbers for dinner. And bought a birthday gift for a blogger I enjoy, just for the hell of it. He had a wish list and it seemed auspicious to be generous as my gift giving mojo has been rocking recently, and it's a little capricious.

Second Run

Living nearish to Hollywood (when compared with, say, Boston), there are plenty of movie theaters around, many of which are quite nice. I hardly ever go. Usually I think "well, I don't want to spend the afternoon in the dark", or "well, I think I'd rather eat dinner", or "meh, maybe I'll go tomorrow". Turns out that movies just cost more to go see than they're worth to me.

I'd given up on finding one, but just tonight, by chance, I found the local second run theater. It's a little ghetto, obviously no stadium seating, but for $3 a flick, I didn't even stiff them on the double feature, which I totally could have. (And had I paid $11 for the show, would have.) I'm thinking my movie viewing rate will pick up dramatically. Plus, it's near the vietnamese place.

I'd been meaning to see "Up!" the animated balloon travel adventure, and then I noticed they also had Extract - by Mike Judge creator of Beavis and Butthead among other things. I'd assumed Up was long gone, but apparently parents take their kids to it at 9:30pm enough to keep it going. And no wonder, it's a ride and a half. Exquisite animations and several cycles of story, and talking dogs! Loved it.

Extract was a little slower, but had beautiful people in it and it was fun. Less dense than Up, if you can believe it, but turned the tables on Office Space and told the tale of the business from the owner's point of view. It's about a chemist who is "living the dream" having built a business from a childhood idea and a solid education, but is at risk of it going under, has a dull home life with his wife, and is thinking about selling when there's an injury accident at work. Good, solid characters, gigolos, thievery, and a didgeridoo sized bong. I think if they package it as a double feature with the blue-ray release of Office Space it could earn some solid cult following. It was only missing Parker Posey.

Got any movies I should put on my list now that I'm able to see them for $3?