House
So, I just finished my Blog reading for the day. KG made a good point, which I thought I should point out. Yes, home ownership saves money in the long run. Even in the short run, depending on how short your time horizon is. Payments are higher each month. Maintenance bills SUCK. (In apartments when the electricity stops working, you call maintenance, and within at least a few days, it will be fixed...) At the end of each year, I get a HEFTY deduction on my taxes. Renting gives some SLIGHT deductions, but interest and tax deductions are phenomenol. Those large savings in taxes at yearend are what pay for all of the home repairs and improvements (the recent new deck being one of those). So, yes, it is financially better to own. I have no doubt of that, however, my bottom cash line hasn't improved since I bought the house. I still have months when I wonder what happened to my checking balance. But, the house has appreciated almost 25K since I bought it 3 years ago. So, in assets, I am gaining, but in cash....no change. Of course, if I chose to not improve the house, and repair the electricity, I would have a lot more cash. But, not repairing is not an option with an older home. So, I guess what I am saying, is yes KG, you are right. Owning is vastly better than renting, but you end up with no more cash in the pocket. Just a better Balance Sheet!

Work
So, I went to the job posting board today. There are no jobs for me this week. I shall continue to look.

Home Ownership

So, if you have never heard me say it before, let me say it now. Home Ownership is just an excuse to actually own something called a "Money Pit".

Yesterday while Patrick was making dinner, the stove quit working. So, we assumed it had tripped a circuit-breaker. It had, no biggie, right? Wrong! The breaker won't reset! So, we have scheduled an electrician to come out on Saturday morning to get it fixed.

Summary of "Specialty repairs" over the last 3 years of owning the place:

Plumber - 3 times (averaged about $150 per call)
Electrician - 2 times (first one was about $150)
Tree Work - 2 times (averaged about $400 per call)

Home Ownership is EXPENSIVE!!!!!!!

*sigh*

On other topics....Please remember to vote for the primary next week. Remember that we only allow bitching about elected officials if you actually tried to vote. *smile*

Sick...
So, I seem to have come down with the same cold Patrick and KG have. I am stuffed up, ears plugged, runny nose, and somewhat sore throat. Fun Fun Fun.
*sigh*

Jumping on the soapbox...

Rights
So, apparently the world is laboring under a misconception.... I am going to clarify as well as I can here.

Marriage Rights
So recently, it was brought to my attention that many people think that Gays/Lesbians can marry in Vermont, and if we "really wanted to get married, all (we) had to do was go there." This is not true. I repeat, NOT true. What Vermont has created is a seperate, but (almost) equal class for same-sex couples. It is called a "Civil Union". Civil Union give Gay and Lesbian couples all of the State given rights that married couples have, but Vermont was devious... You see, they added a little thing to their law, where your "Civil Union" is only valid in Vermont. In other words, having a ceremony is Vermont only counts if you plan to live there. All laws such as marriage are AUTOMATICALLY recognized in other states, unless the law specifically forbids that. "Civil Union" law does. Further, the Federal Government doesn't recognize it. As far as they are concerned, "Civil Unions" count as much as the historical "jumping over the broom together" meant for Black couples in the days of slavery. Thats nice but it includes no rights. So, that is a pisser. I am getting tired of explaining to mine and Patrick's family that no, we can't get married in VT or HI or anywhere except the Netherlands that I know of, but of course, one can only marry there if at least one partner is a citizen.

Discrimination
Yes, it is legal to discriminate against gays and lesbians in most states. It is legal to discriminate in Michigan, for housing employment, and public accomodation, etc. Some CITIES in Michigan have non-discrimination policies. Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti are 2 local examples

.

take the which one of the trading spaces cast are you? quiz!

What Was Your PastLife?

So, this year's salary program was just announced to the Managers of my division. They want us to break it to the staff. *sigh*

Last year, we got a whopping .8% PLUS $500 added to our base. This worked out to be less than 2% for me. They told us this year would be better. Especially since we "did what the Provost's office asked last year, while campus raises were over 1.5% higher on average than our raises." So, supposedly this year, we were going to ignore the Provost's recommendation, and go with a real salary program... The provost recommended 3.0% for this year. Our Salary program averages 3.1%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! .1% of salary. Hmmm... that works out to be less than $1 per week. Less than $4 per month. What the hell can I do with that very generous .1%???

I know I've said it before, but I MUST start looking at the job posting boards...

*sigh*

I USED to love my job... I still love the people... This sucks!

What Egyptian Deity are you? go to:the quiz!

You're Anubis. You are commonly depicted as a dog, or as having a dog's head. In the olden days, you were grandly potent; indeed, you were once the sole lord of the dead. However, those days passed long ago, Osiris usurped your throne, and you've been relegated to a less exciting role in the universe. You spend most of your time lounging about the acropolis in Memphis and howling at the Dogstar.

Congratulations, Jarrod!
Your IQ score is 136

This number is the result of a formula based on how many questions you answered correctly on Emode's Ultimate IQ test.

The even better news is that at Emode, we've taken your IQ test one step further. During the test, you answered four different types of questions — mathematical, visual-spatial, linguistic and logical. We were able to analyze how you did on each set of those questions, which allows us to shed light on the way your brain uniquely functions.

At the same time, we compared your answers with others who have taken the test, and according to the sorts of questions you got correct, we can tell your Intellectual Type is a Visionary Philosopher.

The first thing we can tell you about that is you're equally good at mathematical and verbal tasks, and learn best through experience. But that's just scratching the surface.

Les Miserables ... Les Miserables ... Les Miserables ... Les Miserables ... Les Miserables ...

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!

My all-time favorite musical! I have already put it on my calendar to remind me to buy tickets when they come available!

www.whartoncenter.com

So, I read LM's Blog this morning. I must say I understand her completely. I had the same thing happen to me when I was 17. I dreamt that I was in the bathroom, woke up no longer needing to go. Sometimes deep sleep can be very scary! So, LM, no worries. It can happen to anyone, not just you.

Hmmm. James has an idea for a one-shot rpg, based on the Robot Novels by Asimov. I think this sounds SO cool. Maybe I can convince Matthew to run a one-shot based on the Foundation series.....

Let's here it for common sense! They changed the rules last night, got out stuff out of error, and admitted they were wrong!

Hallelujah!

My Favorite Books and Series of Books in no particular order:

1. The Foundation Series - Asimov
2. The Robot Series - Asimov
3. Heralds of Valdemar Series - Lackey
4. Gunslinger Series - King (other King stuff too!)
5. Vampire Chronicles - Rice
6. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West - Maguire

what's your inner flower?

[c] s u g a r d
e w

Okay...talk about your bad days....

We're currently in the middle of yearend. Normally, I would have Mondays off from work if not for yearend. So, first I am at work. Then, I get here, and we need to do a distribution from the endowment. Normally, we would just run it, but today it had to be manually calculated due to some problems I won't elaborate on here. We got that done, and ran the distribution. Again, we had a few problems. Someone in the computer systems area changed the "rules" in our PeopleSoft system. They thought that since only a certain area was "supposed" to use a value, they would change the rules so that ONLY that area could use the value. Unfortunately, they didn't check with us. We can use that value as well. And we do, every quarter. So, we ran our distribution, and the rules gave us an error, and wouldn't let us use the value we needed, right ahead of a major cut-off period. We are still trying to convince them that the rules need changing, not the processes we have been using for years, since our endowment is supporting the area that needs the rule. *UGH* I was just interrupted by my boss. Our controller wants to book something, which she doesn;t understand, into our accounts. It will throw off all of our reconciliations, and not be accurate. Now, he and I get to explain to her why it is wrong to move this item. I love the fact that I get apid 20% or less of what she makes.....

Where is that posting board again....

The following are the results from my belief-o-matic quiz http://www.beliefnet.com/story/76/story_7665_1.html

I found it interesting, as I am currently a member of an extremely liberal protestant church in Ann Arbor, but my beliefs most match those of a friend of mine who recently converted to ... Reformed Judaism...

My Results:
The top score on the list below represents the faith that Belief-O-Matic, in its less than infinite wisdom, thinks most closely matches my beliefs. However, even a score of 100% does not mean that my views are all shared by this faith, or vice versa.

Belief-O-Matic then lists another 26 faiths in order of how much they have in common with my professed beliefs. The higher a faith appears on this list, the more closely it aligns with my thinking.

How did the Belief-O-Matic do? Discuss your results on our message boards.


1. Reform Judaism (100%)
2. Liberal Quakers (98%)
3. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (92%)
4. Unitarian Universalism (88%)
5. Bahá'í Faith (87%)
6. Neo-Pagan (77%)
7. Orthodox Judaism (77%)
8. New Age (77%)
9. Orthodox Quaker (76%)
10. Sikhism (71%)
11. Islam (70%)
12. Secular Humanism (66%)
13. Mahayana Buddhism (63%)
14. Taoism (62%)
15. New Thought (60%)
16. Jainism (60%)
17. Theravada Buddhism (54%)
18. Nontheist (52%)
19. Scientology (50%)
20. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (48%)
21. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (45%)
22. Seventh Day Adventist (41%)
23. Hinduism (35%)
24. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (34%)
25. Eastern Orthodox (32%)
26. Roman Catholic (32%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (17%)

So, I just took a Purity test on "thespark.com"

Eek!

I am 39% Pure!
(Very interesting.)

Here's how the REST of the world breaks down, compared to me:

people less pure than me (10%)
people like me (0%)
people more pure than me (90%)

My 'Onion' Horoscope:

Aquarius: (Jan. 20—Feb. 18)
A bizarre series of events will lead to your selling real estate in a small town in New Jersey.

http://www.theonion.com/

I Wanna Be Rich

Patrick and I bought 1,000 shares of WorldCom (wcome) stock today. It didn't cost much money...about $250.00. But, let's say it goes back to the $52.00/share from 1999, well it would be worth about $52,000.00. Not a bad little return. Granted it is unlikely to do that, and we may lose all of it, but we kinda figure it is a better deal than 250 Mega-Millions tickets. *grin*

So, at work we are now in the middle of "Yearend". Our fiscal year ends on June 30th each year. So, for the month of July, we are busy, closing down the books, and creating statements which reflect our balances, cash flow, revenue and expense, etc. Basically, it means we do 3 times our normal work for 3 weeks. Fun Fun Fun.

We had a guest for the weekend, which Patrick already mentioned. It was nice to see her. We met her and her husband in Vegas last year, and had a great time. She and I have decided to get Patrick to go again. He has been dubious about another trip.

*kiss* for the pookie!