| Institue of Theoretical Science |
[Sat, 19th-Jul-2008 10:57 am] |
The University of Oregon seems to be significantly better at locking doors than LCC. But, I did find a place with a nice table and an outlet at the Institute of Theoretical Science. I wish I had my camera because it's really nice. Next time I'll bring my camera. Well, maybe I can take pictures with the computer...
 
Yes, well, the pictures aren't very good, but it's a really nice place to study on the fourth floor or so. I like it.
Some of the buildings you can get into if you have a student ID card. I went to try and get one yesterday but they said I couldn't get one until after Labor Day.
As a side note, I've been using Google Docs (Beta) to publish the last couple entries and somehow the title of the entry doesn't get transmitted. I will look into this at some point.
|
|
|
| Prescription glasses. |
[Thu, 17th-Jul-2008 03:12 pm] |
I got a new prescription for my glasses so now I can see better. In fact, I think they put something in these lenses to give me depth perception. I don't think I've ever had it before except when wearing those red and green glasses at the movies. Also, there was a special on glasses that get darker when in contact with direct sunlight so I got those. They are so cool. |
|
|
| I am just borrowing your facilities. |
[Fri, 27th-Jun-2008 11:16 am] |
The administrators closed the college on me today, almost disrupting my study plans. Fortunately, someone left a door unlocked and I found that door. |
|
|
| Whoever broke into my car. |
[Wed, 25th-Jun-2008 03:55 pm] |
I have been advised not to curse you, as any evil I inflict on the world will come back to me three-fold. Still, we can't have you breaking into people's cars all the time. So, I hope that you find meaning in your life and don't have to break into people's cars anymore. Also, I am binding you to one year of community service, either in this life or the next. |
|
|
| Pay taxes? |
[Sun, 1st-Jun-2008 11:17 am] |
|
According to the IRS Collection Financial Standards, I should be able to afford monthly $277 for food, $28 for housekeeping supplies, $85 for apparel and services, $30 for personal care products and services, $87 for miscellaneous expenses, $57 for health care out-of-pocket plus whatever my health insurance premium is, $1,175 for housing and utilities (varies by state and county), and $163 for public transportation or $489 to own a car plus $192 to maintain and drive it.
( Somewhat tedious calculations... )
So, for our example, a single person in Oregon would need to earn about $42,000 a year or work fifty, forty-hour weeks at $21 per hour every year in order to afford to pay his or her federal income tax in entirety. It starts getting hairy because tax brackets begin changing around this income level. According to this data and some census data from 2005, over 40% of the population cannot afford to pay federal income tax.
Well, I guess that's assuming all wage earner's are single. In reality I guess the percentage is going to be a little less, as their are quite a few households with two wage-earners.
DISCLAIMER: Although this is not listed under Frivolous Tax Arguments, I would not recommend protesting this injustice by not paying your taxes. Perhaps it's something you can bring up with your local representative. |
|
|
| The economist gets it right again... |
[Sat, 3rd-May-2008 08:16 am] |
Speedy decline:
...
This does not mean the campaign against meth has been pointless. Far from it. The shift from a cottage industry to a well-run international business was good, because it meant amateur meth cooks were no longer setting fire to their children... |
|
|
| Put too much water in your rice? |
[Mon, 28th-Apr-2008 09:53 pm] |
|
It's okay, just take the lid off and cook off some of the water. The rice will be okay. You can still eat it. |
|
|
| Mountains of available free time. |
[Thu, 24th-Apr-2008 12:00 am] |
My schedule is looking pretty open at the moment, but it really doesn't seem to me like I have that much more time. Clearly it must seem to you that I have more free time, due to the presence of my writing on this journal. I just read an interview from an old issue of the Sun Magazine with David Korten. It was good. I had this weird moment where several thoughts from the past couple of days sort of came together. At the book-signing of a famous knitting humorist, surrounded by older women, I began to realize that there are some really good-hearted people in the world. All the women there were really jazzed about knitting, and they were really happy and nice. Also, the lady was pretty funny. I was reading a book about difficult transitions from fascism the whole time, which provided perhaps the necessary contrast for this positive outlook to appear for me. Also, the other day in class my acquaintance with a good sense of humor recommended a movie called Idiocracy, which he explained was about an average guy transported into a future where intelligence has accidentally been bred out of existence due to stupid people having more kids than smart people. Which I immediately identified as an exponential problem, although a shaky and unprovable premise. Then I began wondering if that really is the problem with the world. If, since industrialization, intelligence has not been a requirement to survive, and has been selectively bred out of us. It would certainly explain a lot. And due to procreation being an exponential function, it seems like it really wouldn't take that many generations. And then I thought, wow, nature is really smart. And I figured, gosh, it's really not nature we need to be worried about. It's us. Anyway, that seems to be the direction David Korten takes as well, based solely on that interview I read.
Also, last week I listened to our democratic presidential candidates for the first time. They had some sort of debate over the radio. It was the most painful thing I've ever heard. No one mentioned any issues, they just made fun of each other. It made me think of the beginning of 2001 when the apes are standing around grunting and beating sticks. Anyway, I wish society was a little bit more patient and able to take on long-term views. |
|
|
| 2008. |
[Sun, 13th-Jan-2008 03:54 pm] |
It's strange, but I don't really have nothing to say. It just seems that way, because I haven't been saying much. I am living in a nice house. When I am here I am usually either using the internet or preparing a burrito. I've been using the Greek method from Laurel's Kitchen to cook black beans and they are really tasty (cooking them with coarseley chopped carrot, onion, and celery and stirring in a bit of salt and oil at the end). And white jasmine rice with some butter, salt, and oil. Then I melt some grated medium-sharp cheddar and monterey jack cheese on a sprouted-grain tortilla and roll it all up and eat it and really enjoy how warm and flavorful it is. I tried to make some Latin American sauerkraut, but I shredded the vegetables with the julienne attachment to the food processor instead of grating them and then I added too much oregano and I didn't use fresh oregano or fresh hot peppers (I used those red flakes). Next time it will turn out better.
I am taking the second in a series of three Chemistry courses at LCC. I study by reading the textbook one paragraph at a time and then writing a bold or humorous line about the paragraph on unlined paper. It's sort of fun and engaging. I wanted to take an art survey class that introduces the student to the various visual arts, but it's an art history class and we weren't going to be doing any hands on art. I was very disappointed. And I'm taking a introductory class to "Business." |
|
|
| In between jobs. |
[Sun, 25th-Nov-2007 12:41 pm] |
|
So, I put in my notice at the bank on the first of November, my last day was the seventeenth. It was a Saturday. Anyhow, now I'm getting calls from the FBI, and my ex-manager called to let me know they caught the guy I gave all the money in my drawer to. |
|
|
| Fun. |
[Thu, 25th-Oct-2007 07:01 pm] |
|
Life can be pretty complicated. But, interesting. I am still working at Washington Mutual, which is not very exciting, I'm still working for H&R Block, which is not very exciting, I'm taking two classes at Lane Community College, not too exciting, but more exciting than taxes or banking, I'm waking up early and exercising and cooking for myself, not exciting, I'm learning Spanish on my way to work, pretty boring, I'm reading a history of some revolution in Spain, not too exciting, I'm still not smoking, boring. But, it's a full moon, I'm moving this weekend, my ex-girlfriend is not pregnant, I just read the entire Harry Potter series, I've got a new Bad Religion album, walking down the street in my collared shirt, tucked-in, I walk like a dinosaur and have really shifty eyes, or like a strobe light, I got a down comforter, and that's all exciting. Actually, I think the whole bit is exciting and I'm having a really good time. |
|
|
| Capital punishment. |
[Fri, 31st-Aug-2007 09:59 pm] |
Capital punishment in America:
Mr Morton discovered that over 30% of murders in America are unsolved, like his son's. He found out, too, that the states spend millions of dollars putting a handful of murderers to death while detection is under-financed and thousands of murderers walk free. He became an ardent abolitionist. Anyone close to a murder victim “wants the son of a bitch who did it to die,” he says. “But you've got to catch the son of a bitch. That's more important.” |
|
|
| My second major attempt to quit smoking. |
[Wed, 8th-Aug-2007 10:36 pm] |
|
I now realize that I have about five bosses at my new job and that's really annoying. I can't recall working anywhere with more than one boss. Really, one boss is enough. Also, in pursuit of higher tax certification, I'm taking a class and it sucks. My partner has a new best friend and she wanted me to go and see a film with the two of them (for some reason movie is getting underlined like it's spelled wrong and that's weird to me). At the film (movie) she refused to let me sit next to her, strange, didn't speak to me the whole time, giggled with her friend and I had a really bad time. She's proceeded to do some very annoying things since then and I'm not talking to her. All in all, my second major attempt to quit smoking is going very irritably. |
|
|
| Where are the stars in space pictures? |
[Mon, 6th-Aug-2007 10:47 pm] |
|
Where are the stars in this picture? |
|
|
| Safety first. |
[Tue, 24th-Jul-2007 09:46 pm] |
The other day I suddenly inherited the task of locking myself in a secure room for about five minutes every shift. Today I went around and told my co-workers I was going to lock myself in the room and made sure they didn't need anything from inside of the room because once I lock myself in the room there is no more going into the room until tomorrow. Except today I locked myself in the room but forgot something so I went back out, got it, and went back into the room. Inside the room I did some organization, locked and unlocked several cabinets, shuffled things around, used the calculator, marked some things off on the ledger, and came out carrying about $12,000 in cash. And when I came out, there were no customers in the store but my co-workers were in hysterics trying to put signs on the doors telling people where else they could go because we were temporarily closed. Someone was passing out forms on FBI letterhead asking for perpetrator descriptions.
I filled one out saying I hadn't seen anything, and then I started answering the phone and telling people we were temporarily closed, and that whoever it was they wanted to talk to was already on the phone with someone else. After about twenty minutes a large group of rednecks came by with police badges. About a half-hour after they left this one guy wearing a tie came in claiming to be from the FBI. Everyone but me had hastily given their FBI description sheets to the Springfield detectives. I ended up just leaving mine on a check-writing table. When I left everyone was crowded in front of one of the computers trying to see the pictures from the security camera. |
|
|
| Several weeks after I turn twenty-five. |
[Mon, 23rd-Jul-2007 08:39 pm] |
I would like to put up some pictures of my house because I am often proud to be living in it. Sometimes I think, this is a really great house surrounded by beautiful landscape. But when I weed the garden, I just throw them all in a pile and leave them there. I tell myself it's good for the soil. The weeds rob the soil of its surface nutrients, and by pulling the weeds and placing them on the soil's surface, I am giving nutrients back to the soil. But it looks really bad. Sort of like a pile of rotting vegetables. It looks so gross, I would rather study its vulgarity for eternity than cover it or get close enough to it to move it somewhere else. Of course it won't be an eternity. I am sometimes proud of the house because of its potential. It really has potential.
I cannot put up pictures because I loaned my camera to someone a half-year ago and stormed in to his house in the middle of the night drunk demanding it back after he'd had it for a few days. After almost killing each other, he gave me the camera with the condition that I never step foot in his house again ever. He unfortunately forgot to give me the cable I need to hook it up to the computer. Don't get the wrong idea though, we're still friends and I go over to his house all the time. I just forget to ask for the cable back.
In other news, I started reading books again and we found a piano. |
|
|
| Meet big cat. |
[Tue, 1st-May-2007 09:31 pm] |
I am now living in a house on a friendly alley. In the alley lives a big black cat who is very quiet, for the most part. Today the big cat ran into my shin until I fell to the ground. The big cat proceeded to sit on my lap and hit my arm repeatedly. Then we both fell asleep. When we woke up we started yawning and looking around. I ripped a dandelion out of the ground and dropped it. After the big cat got off me to investigate, I got up and started walking away slowly. But the cat caught on and began ramming his head into my shins again. I grabbed a tall blade of grass I didn't have to bend down for and made him try to eat it while I waved it slowly in circles over his head. Once he took it from me, I walked to the street and freedom.
I have been trying to get used to the idea of paying rent. I save up money all month, and then I decorate a piece of fancy paper and watch my month vanish into the mailbox. It just doesn't seem worth it.
I just got a job as a teller at Washington Mutual. I interviewed and everything. During the interviews, I felt like I knew what I was talking about and I was even able to watch the interviewers and pay attention to my surroundings and talk at the same time. I credit this to a new technique I've developed which involves distorting faces and objects while I am talking to them. Stretching them, making them jiggly, having them make weird faces at me, making them blend into the wall, that kind of thing. I haven't started working yet. |
|
|
| The middle of the night, again. |
[Wed, 4th-Oct-2006 10:59 pm] |
|
It has been a long time since I sat at this computer, not having slept in twenty-nine hours. Everything here is new and clean, and in another thirty-one hours or so I will be leaving here, returning to utter and complete chaos. I quietly slipped out of the house to smoke, and thought about how I would love to just stay here and continue the life I left over two years ago. The Bethesda Co-op had a hiring sign in the window and I wanted to just ask for a job and leave all the mess behind. I guess it's just that time of year where something is supposed to drastically change for me. Maybe if I just keep that in mind. |
|
|
| Life around Willamette. |
[Fri, 29th-Sep-2006 02:53 pm] |
|
Life seems to have been a blur for some time now. Several processes unfolding. The Hostel I live at, the competitor, work at H&R Block where I'll soon be managing an office, dishwashing at the Sweet Life, a girlfriend, and various levels of friends since moved on. Everything is holding together well enough despite my lack of attention. The end. |
|
|
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
rrm3's journal