Longest Vacation Ever
I have come to what I think is an accurate assessment of my activities on this website. Usually, I'm a pretty positive person. I think if you ask any of my friends, they'll tell you that I'm usually smiles and jokes. Well, as you might imagine, the last six months haven't exactly been an exciting time for me, as I've been missing a lot of personal success, at least regarding my employment situation. If not for the loving support of my wonderful friends and family, I doubt I could have gotten through this hard time with my sanity. I fancy myself a decent writer, but no words I could write could express my gratitude.
But it's because I've felt pretty down that I haven't had a lot of motivation to update this website. When things are more or less normal, I update pretty regularly, but as things have been since October, I haven't been very enthusiastic about relaying the events of my life to anyone. That negativity is all about to change, however.
I got a job offer this morning. I will be going back to my old job at Fort Leavenworth, keeping the computers working while personnel from the Distributed Battle Simulation Program train Army officers on battle command tactics and maneuvers. It's not exactly the salary I was hoping for, and frankly expecting, but it's certainly better than zero. Depending on the urgency of the operation of the HR folks, I may start as soon as April 27th, though I requested my start date be on May 4th, to allow myself time to take a trip that I've been planning since before I became unemployed.
I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of a real life as a real person, able to do the things that real people do. I'm looking forward to being able to tell someone that there isn't some arbitrary, unknown event that needs to occur before I pay them a visit, or take a trip somewhere with them. I'm looking forward to my money increasing in supply, and not decreasing. I'm looking forward to getting up early, obsessing about stupid crap around the office, dealing with other people's stupid crap, and having to find solutions that others won't provide for themselves. I honestly am. I'm looking forward to programming again. I'm looking forward to traveling, and refilling my tub o' soaps from hotels where I've stayed.
I'm looking forward to rejoining the human race, and not having to tell pretty girls that I'm unemployed.
I'm looking forward to working.
I have come to what I think is an accurate assessment of my activities on this website. Usually, I'm a pretty positive person. I think if you ask any of my friends, they'll tell you that I'm usually smiles and jokes. Well, as you might imagine, the last six months haven't exactly been an exciting time for me, as I've been missing a lot of personal success, at least regarding my employment situation. If not for the loving support of my wonderful friends and family, I doubt I could have gotten through this hard time with my sanity. I fancy myself a decent writer, but no words I could write could express my gratitude.
But it's because I've felt pretty down that I haven't had a lot of motivation to update this website. When things are more or less normal, I update pretty regularly, but as things have been since October, I haven't been very enthusiastic about relaying the events of my life to anyone. That negativity is all about to change, however.
I got a job offer this morning. I will be going back to my old job at Fort Leavenworth, keeping the computers working while personnel from the Distributed Battle Simulation Program train Army officers on battle command tactics and maneuvers. It's not exactly the salary I was hoping for, and frankly expecting, but it's certainly better than zero. Depending on the urgency of the operation of the HR folks, I may start as soon as April 27th, though I requested my start date be on May 4th, to allow myself time to take a trip that I've been planning since before I became unemployed.
I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of a real life as a real person, able to do the things that real people do. I'm looking forward to being able to tell someone that there isn't some arbitrary, unknown event that needs to occur before I pay them a visit, or take a trip somewhere with them. I'm looking forward to my money increasing in supply, and not decreasing. I'm looking forward to getting up early, obsessing about stupid crap around the office, dealing with other people's stupid crap, and having to find solutions that others won't provide for themselves. I honestly am. I'm looking forward to programming again. I'm looking forward to traveling, and refilling my tub o' soaps from hotels where I've stayed.
I'm looking forward to rejoining the human race, and not having to tell pretty girls that I'm unemployed.
I'm looking forward to working.
Like a Good Neighbor
Insurance is such a ridiculous racket, it would make me laugh if I could only unclench my fists.
Some years ago, I purchased a vehicle that was built more for performance than for utility. With few exceptions, automobile manufacturers make performance vehicles look as conspicuous as possible, so as to render the laborious process of identifying and snaring the legally-casual operators of these vehicles at least one step closer to ease. As such, I went from driving 50 on midtown streets in a '98 Galant to driving 50 on midtown streets in an '03 WRX, and the glaring inconsistency earned me three speeding tickets is as many weeks. I am not upset by this, or at least I'm not upset at anyone but myself about this. But, this set the stage for when i was driving to work one night.
I was driving to Lees Summit for work, and a state trooper followed me off the highway at my exit. She didn't wind up giving me a ticket for driving 9 miles over, but she noted my Illinois tags and license(all unexpired), and asked if I was lost. I told her I was not, and that I had lived in Kansas City for over two years at that point. This was a grievous mistake, because she promptly wrote me two moving violation tickets for not having a proper license or vehicle registration. In order to reduce the fine for these last two tickets, I promised to get a Missouri driver's license and vehicle registration. Within a few weeks of getting my Missouri license, I received a piece of mail informing me that my license was suspended due to the accumulation of violation points against it.
Angry at the state, I waited for perhaps a year before going to get my status and vehicle legitimized. I got rid of the WRX shortly after that, and transitioned into a more conservative model. As a result, my insurance provider filed my SR-22 in April of 2004. If you didn't know, an SR-22 is a document that the state requires, filed by an offender's insurer, to assure the state that punitive adjustments have been made to the offender's periodic insurance premiums. In other words, it's another piece of the symbiotic alliance between government and the insurance industry.
Anyway, an SR-22 remains on a Missouri resident's record for five years, and as such, adversely affects the amount due for insurance premiums. As has been intimated but not explicitly stated yet, my SR-22 came off my record this month. So, looking to save a little money, I called up my insurance provider, the insurance behemoth State Farm. After a bit of jockeying around with people on the phone, I talked with an agent named Grant(I think), and explained my intention to cancel my current expensive policy, receive a prorated refund, and start a new policy with my now-clean driving record.
He informed me that what I asked wasn't, "allowed by the underwriter." This is State Farm we're talking about. Not ABIA. Not Dick Tracy. State Farm, as far as I know, is not an insurance broker. They underwrite their own insurance. I smell the BS of my building's management company(company X), when they tell us about how some piece of bad news is the fault of company Y, when both companies X and Y are owned and managed by company Z.
So as a result of this, I now have to pay for the five remaining months of my six month policy as if I have a suspension on my record. Good times.
Insurance is such a ridiculous racket, it would make me laugh if I could only unclench my fists.
Insurance is such a ridiculous racket, it would make me laugh if I could only unclench my fists.
Some years ago, I purchased a vehicle that was built more for performance than for utility. With few exceptions, automobile manufacturers make performance vehicles look as conspicuous as possible, so as to render the laborious process of identifying and snaring the legally-casual operators of these vehicles at least one step closer to ease. As such, I went from driving 50 on midtown streets in a '98 Galant to driving 50 on midtown streets in an '03 WRX, and the glaring inconsistency earned me three speeding tickets is as many weeks. I am not upset by this, or at least I'm not upset at anyone but myself about this. But, this set the stage for when i was driving to work one night.
I was driving to Lees Summit for work, and a state trooper followed me off the highway at my exit. She didn't wind up giving me a ticket for driving 9 miles over, but she noted my Illinois tags and license(all unexpired), and asked if I was lost. I told her I was not, and that I had lived in Kansas City for over two years at that point. This was a grievous mistake, because she promptly wrote me two moving violation tickets for not having a proper license or vehicle registration. In order to reduce the fine for these last two tickets, I promised to get a Missouri driver's license and vehicle registration. Within a few weeks of getting my Missouri license, I received a piece of mail informing me that my license was suspended due to the accumulation of violation points against it.
Angry at the state, I waited for perhaps a year before going to get my status and vehicle legitimized. I got rid of the WRX shortly after that, and transitioned into a more conservative model. As a result, my insurance provider filed my SR-22 in April of 2004. If you didn't know, an SR-22 is a document that the state requires, filed by an offender's insurer, to assure the state that punitive adjustments have been made to the offender's periodic insurance premiums. In other words, it's another piece of the symbiotic alliance between government and the insurance industry.
Anyway, an SR-22 remains on a Missouri resident's record for five years, and as such, adversely affects the amount due for insurance premiums. As has been intimated but not explicitly stated yet, my SR-22 came off my record this month. So, looking to save a little money, I called up my insurance provider, the insurance behemoth State Farm. After a bit of jockeying around with people on the phone, I talked with an agent named Grant(I think), and explained my intention to cancel my current expensive policy, receive a prorated refund, and start a new policy with my now-clean driving record.
He informed me that what I asked wasn't, "allowed by the underwriter." This is State Farm we're talking about. Not ABIA. Not Dick Tracy. State Farm, as far as I know, is not an insurance broker. They underwrite their own insurance. I smell the BS of my building's management company(company X), when they tell us about how some piece of bad news is the fault of company Y, when both companies X and Y are owned and managed by company Z.
So as a result of this, I now have to pay for the five remaining months of my six month policy as if I have a suspension on my record. Good times.
Insurance is such a ridiculous racket, it would make me laugh if I could only unclench my fists.
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