Getting a word in edgewise
So, I informed the CA tax board that I was not resident in CA in 2001 so they dropped off that particular $550 charge. Now they want me to file for my income from october – dec of 2002. or pay $350. How much work and annoyance would it be to get the documentation for my income in that time (from adecco and Ro), and turn it around to pay potentially substantially less in taxes v just biting the bullet and paying the $350?
Bleh, I say. Bleh!
In response to a comment by
My superbowl sunday involved getting mesharr to blm17. Warp-tastic, baby. Now I need to get it high enough that I have 100mp to cast it as a sub to thf. Then get thief high enough to take advantage. I’m not done with her just yet.
Of course, by the time I get around to buying/playing WoW (probably a post-finals reward), it’ll be such old news, and/or all my friends will be partially infused with infinity. *shrug* We shall see. =)
Oh, right, the GAO app. About that….
So, the warts are unlikely to kill me. My lab results reminded me of what may well get me first:
Lipid Profile:
| substance | measurement (units unknown) | normal range | my interpretation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Glucose | 78 | 65-110 | This is good news. I’m showing no sign of or tendency towards diabetes |
| Cholesterol | 174 | 110-199 | I am screwed. Of the items in this category none are on the good side of the normal range, only one is in the middle of the range (triglycerides) and everything else is on the bad end of the “normal” range, except for HDL (“good” cholesterol) which is out of the normal range in the bad direction. My uncle the doc gave me a blood test at one point, said that he usually used the HDL:LDL ratio as a diagnostic tool, and that to most people with results like mine, he’d say “Quit smoking and start exercising.” Bleh! |
| Triglycerides | 102 | 40-149 | |
| HDL | 38 | 41-95 | |
| LDL | 116 | 60-130 |
I don’t smoke, I barely drink, I exercise fairly regularly, and I’m vegan. Not that vegan has any inherent health advantage over vegetarian on this one. And a glass of red wine with dinner is supposed to help with the blood factors. Pity I think wine tastes like ass, and it’s hella expensive.
I think upping the aerobics in frequency (I’ve definitely led that slide this winter) and being more careful about the nutritive content of my meals (more whole foods, fewer processed fats and sugars) should definitely become a priority. One can hardly rail against one’s genetics, though the temptation is certainly there, it does no good, even if it made any sense. I don’t need to watch the caloric content, but I ought to be more careful about the composition of my diet. I’ve gone nuts on processed fatty/sweet things (soygurt smoothies, tofurkey bratwurst, nayonaisse, clif bars, vegan brownies and cookies, etc.) Le sigh.
I originally had something in mind to say here, but the longer I go on, the less clear it is what I want to say. Partially I want to recap the whole of “Sexual Ecology” into a compressed memetic virus which will go forth, infect us all, and prevent future numbskull behavior. The basic prescriptive thesis of the book is that gay men need to try for more serial monogamy, and a lower rate of partner change, as the “condom code” isn’t terribly effective, particularly in an environment of frequent partner change. Another interesting point he makes is that, even if HIV is “cured”, the interactive patterns that men who have sex with men have makes way for more, similar nasty infectious diseases. I can’t remember if he explicitly makes the point, but I certainly got the point that effective HIV treatment meds will increase the incidence, both by keeping the HIV+ folks alive longer (good) and by allowing the irresponsible among them (a minority of a minority, but a damn dangerous one) to keep spreading it after they would otherwise have been incapacitated and died. (bad?) The gay guys who were going through their coming out in the 70’s and to a lesser extent in the 80’s, suffered a form of natural selection. Many of the reckless ones didn’t make it. Enter HIV meds, and you have where we are now. That’s excessively brief and entirely inadequate as a description, but it’ll do for now.
Another thing I wanted to do was talk a little bit more about the inside of my skull, both how I’m dealing with the current state of affairs and what led to the current state of affairs. Clearly I did some numbskull stuff myself. In the past I’ve been, not so much an advocate of, as a reliable practitioner of open relationships. I’ve broken the condom code (I have never had unprotected anal sex while in a relationship, either in or outside the context of that relationship. In fact, while in a relationship, I’ve never had anal sex outside it. Can I say that I was rationally calculating the risks, and weighing the risk of stds against the short term benefits of immediate buttsex? Not honestly.
Generally, in my case, it was an implicit undervaluation of the self. Desperate longing for affection. High stress. Resignation and passivity. An urge to make others happy. I never did it unconscious of the risk. I never initiated unsafe sex. But, by the same token I rarely stopped it. Damn stupid.
I’m trying not to judge myself too harshly on this one. But every time someone makes sympathy noises towards me, I reflexively do the verbal equivalent of batting their hands away, “Well, these things happen.”. I want to be strong, and I know I can get through life on my own, functionally with little problem. I fear how others will react (though no one I’ve told so far has reacted negatively). And at the same time I want somone to comfort me, tell me that I’m still a good and worthy person. That everything will be okay. They are tough urges to reconcile, even leaving aside.
I vascilate between believing “unpleasant surgery with a probable quick recovery, and some dude looking up my butt once every couple weeks for awhile. Sure, less than optimal, but not really a big deal,” and feeling like damaged goods that will contaminate everything it (I) come into contact with. Bleh!
Too tired to think clearly, bleh. Night, night.
Over the past 2 days, I’ve seen 3 movies. Two of them are arthousy homo flicks, another is not.
One was bad education by pedro almodovar or something like that. Elaborate, sensual, story. Ambition, blackmail, intrigue, sex, murder, blah, blah, blah. I actually rather enjoyed it, but have no urge to see it again.
Next, I saw the hudsucker proxy. It wasn’t a bad movie. The cynicism towards corporate america was kinda refreshing, though it was very over the top. And the mixing of angelic figures and supernatural events into the story, kinda enh. Mixed review. Still, it gives me hope that people are willing to look critically at the role such structures have taken on in our lives.
The third one was “two brothers [and two others (american title)]” which was apparently produced for $545 canadian, and it kinda shows (I say kinda because I viewed it as a download and the graphical quality blew. Who knows how the original was.) While the acting is sub-par in places, and the visuals left something to be desired, I really liked it. The characters were belivable, and engaging (all 4 of them). It had a very open ending. For an el cheapo film, it really worked for me. I recommend it.
I’m having treacherous thoughts of leaving FFXI and picking up WoW. WoW seems much more plot oriented, and much less tedious. Plus it’s the hot new thing, and it’ll run on my Mac.
The downside would be that the mechanics of the game seem less intriguing, but I think I’m okay with that.
They sent alot of mail to me at my former residence, which I only just got, declaring that I owe them nearly $900 in back taxes, about $550 of which they’re claiming I owed from 2001, a year in which I worked not a day in CA, and lived in chicago, il and pittsburgh, pa.
They’ve also declared their tax estimates “final” and have threatened major fiscal unfriendliness. All with deadlines in the past.
I just got it in the mail today. And now I have all weekend for the potential disastrousness, and their likely bureaucratic stonewalling, to prey on my mind. Just lovely.
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Can you guess what these words have in common: mosquitos, protozoan, tropical (by cheerfulchaotic) |
a tribond-like game |
Two of the 3 big courses I’m taking this semester are on Economic Development. One is just titled “economic development”. That one has been tremendously educational on a topic I’ve been thinking about for quite some time. Both times that I applied to Berkeley, I wrote on the essay topic relating to removing capital gains taxes, as an “economic stimulus”. I even presented it once to my political economy class, with
I was baffled, grinned, shrugged, and professed ignorance. Professor Fong fielded the question and sorta took over in what turned into a group discussion on a topic unrelated that course, but which seems to be a major topic in this this course. What is the role of the interest rate in inflation. How do we control the value (and exchange rate) of currency? What is inflation? What are the consequences of overvaluing currency? How does it happen? Who benefits and who takes it on the chin? Ditto for undervaluing currency. What is the interaction between the stock of money, the rate of financial transfer, the production of things of value, and prices of those produced goods? What does changing one of those do to the others? What does this tell us about inflation?
It’s crazy stuff. I feel like an ignorant child watching him bat concepts back and forth with some of the other students in the class. Then there’s the occasional one I catch and toss to him. Very educational. I have to admit his sink or swim flatout lecture style is less than enchanting, but he’s teaching such fascinating stuff that he clearly knows like the back of his hand that I’m still enjoying the class … somewhat.
I’m feeling like I should write letters to my former profs (particularly Prof Fong from cmu and Prof Quigley from Berkeley), telling them about my current educational exploits, and thanking them for what they taught me as well as their letters of recommendation. Then I might have to write “thank you”s to Tom and Ro as well 😉