Anyway, I end up @ the check-out w/ a cart full of shit, shit I would prefer to bag myself, but they're always so pushy that I let them do it. Of course, I told the kid, "get as much into each bag as you can... I don't want to have to carry useless bags." I know I should have brought my own bags, but I wasn't prepared for shopping after class, & @ Hiller's & Plum I prefer the paper bags because we use them for recycling. Kroger's, however, has no paper bags, just the tiny plastic ones.A 2nd bagger shows up, & the kids told her about my wishes. She seemed to understand, but as I was leaving, I realized there were a couple empty bags mixed in w/ the somewhat full ones. Empty fucking bags! Talk about being asleep @ the fucking wheel. Of course, I then noticed that some things... dish soap, bread, a can of fucking tomato paste... were all given their own bags... tomato paste. I could have slipped it in my breast pocket for Christ's sake. The bottle of Scotch wass placed in a paper wine bag & then placed in a tiny plastic bag all to itself. I'm not kidding. Before I left, I rebagged the stuff & ended up w/ 7... count them... 7 extra bags. I know they're using the tiny plastic ones in an attempt to save money, but then they're wasting so many, it can't be cost effective. The ones I got will get used for garbage bags over time (we haven't bought garbage bags in ages... I hate the idea of buying something w/ the sole intention of throwing it out. I feel the same way about toilet paper, but I have yet to find a good replacement. I've been thinking that after a nice deuce, I may just start jumping in the shower. I'll have to quantify the water usage as opposed to the paper usage & determine the +/- on the overall footprint 1st though. I'll you keep all posted on that one, but in the mean time, I'll be wading knee deep through tiny plastic bags.
Showing posts with label Money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Money. Show all posts
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Tiny Plastic Bags
After class today, I ran into Kroger's to get eggs for the kids practice tonight. (We're going to play catch w/ them in an attempt to understand the art & science of trapping the ball because it's still bonking off their shins & going 10 feet away.) I didn't plan on getting much but then it occurred to me that I wasn't going to get another chance to grocery shop for a while so I ended up getting a bunch of stuff... like a week & a half's worth of groceries. For my regular shopping I usually go to Hiller's & I grab extra stuff when I'm @ Plum, but I absolutely hate Kroger's. They're huge w/o a great selection (other than the act that they're the only grocery store around that sells Scotch).
Anyway, I end up @ the check-out w/ a cart full of shit, shit I would prefer to bag myself, but they're always so pushy that I let them do it. Of course, I told the kid, "get as much into each bag as you can... I don't want to have to carry useless bags." I know I should have brought my own bags, but I wasn't prepared for shopping after class, & @ Hiller's & Plum I prefer the paper bags because we use them for recycling. Kroger's, however, has no paper bags, just the tiny plastic ones.A 2nd bagger shows up, & the kids told her about my wishes. She seemed to understand, but as I was leaving, I realized there were a couple empty bags mixed in w/ the somewhat full ones. Empty fucking bags! Talk about being asleep @ the fucking wheel. Of course, I then noticed that some things... dish soap, bread, a can of fucking tomato paste... were all given their own bags... tomato paste. I could have slipped it in my breast pocket for Christ's sake. The bottle of Scotch wass placed in a paper wine bag & then placed in a tiny plastic bag all to itself. I'm not kidding. Before I left, I rebagged the stuff & ended up w/ 7... count them... 7 extra bags. I know they're using the tiny plastic ones in an attempt to save money, but then they're wasting so many, it can't be cost effective. The ones I got will get used for garbage bags over time (we haven't bought garbage bags in ages... I hate the idea of buying something w/ the sole intention of throwing it out. I feel the same way about toilet paper, but I have yet to find a good replacement. I've been thinking that after a nice deuce, I may just start jumping in the shower. I'll have to quantify the water usage as opposed to the paper usage & determine the +/- on the overall footprint 1st though. I'll you keep all posted on that one, but in the mean time, I'll be wading knee deep through tiny plastic bags.
Anyway, I end up @ the check-out w/ a cart full of shit, shit I would prefer to bag myself, but they're always so pushy that I let them do it. Of course, I told the kid, "get as much into each bag as you can... I don't want to have to carry useless bags." I know I should have brought my own bags, but I wasn't prepared for shopping after class, & @ Hiller's & Plum I prefer the paper bags because we use them for recycling. Kroger's, however, has no paper bags, just the tiny plastic ones.A 2nd bagger shows up, & the kids told her about my wishes. She seemed to understand, but as I was leaving, I realized there were a couple empty bags mixed in w/ the somewhat full ones. Empty fucking bags! Talk about being asleep @ the fucking wheel. Of course, I then noticed that some things... dish soap, bread, a can of fucking tomato paste... were all given their own bags... tomato paste. I could have slipped it in my breast pocket for Christ's sake. The bottle of Scotch wass placed in a paper wine bag & then placed in a tiny plastic bag all to itself. I'm not kidding. Before I left, I rebagged the stuff & ended up w/ 7... count them... 7 extra bags. I know they're using the tiny plastic ones in an attempt to save money, but then they're wasting so many, it can't be cost effective. The ones I got will get used for garbage bags over time (we haven't bought garbage bags in ages... I hate the idea of buying something w/ the sole intention of throwing it out. I feel the same way about toilet paper, but I have yet to find a good replacement. I've been thinking that after a nice deuce, I may just start jumping in the shower. I'll have to quantify the water usage as opposed to the paper usage & determine the +/- on the overall footprint 1st though. I'll you keep all posted on that one, but in the mean time, I'll be wading knee deep through tiny plastic bags.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Gov't Docs
I did our taxes yesterday & before that, I stood & was counted by filling out the census form. Here are some quick thoughts.
Census...
* The racial option included "Black/African American/Negro"
Are there still be self-identifying as "Negro"? And if so, how come I didn't get "Cracker" or Honky" as an option? It reminded me of some sort of Paul Mooney word association sketch.
* There's been a lot of talk from the Right Wing Crazies about not wanting to give this info to Big Brother. (As if they don't already have it in one way or another for most of us anyway.) However, it seems like this kind of info is precisely the info they'd want to the Gov't to have. They're always crying about White people's dwindling numbers, so one would think those racist fucks would be happy to place another tally in the column for their proud heritage.
Taxes...
* The Feds wanted to know if any of my income came from the railroad industry. I don't know if that meant they wanted to know if I was some sort of robber baron like Crocker or Vanderbuilt, if I was an engineer like Casey Jones, or if w/in this economy, I'd taken to riding the rails like Woody Guthrie & my grandfather. Since none of these were options that relate to me, I clicked no & moved on w/o giving it another thought until I came to the state form.
* The state wanted to know if any of my income came from seafaring. Granted, "Seafaring" is a cool word, but seeing as I neither pilot a ferry to Wisconsin, work as a deck-hand on a freighter, nor make a living as a Great Lakes fisherperson, again I clicked no & moved on.
* My real concern here, though, is that I'm curious about why the Feds want to know about my railroading & the state wants to know about my seafaring, but not the other way around. It's like someone in the IRS woke up one day & said "I demand to know about everyone's connection to the railroads! What? Their connections to boating? Fuck boating!" Of course, the state's person, who may very well sound like Ricky Gervais, woke up & said, "I demand to know about everyone's seafaring! Railroads? Are you 'avin' a laugh? Bullocks!"
Why would one want one set of info and the other a totally unrelated set of info? It seems like if it's important to one, it should be important to the other.
* The feds suggested the money I spent on Isaiah's adoption would be deduct able, but then they claimed to have no record of him. As it turns out, he's on record w/ his old last name... still.
* In the section where they needed to know if I'd received my "Stimulus Check," it claims the info about Stephanie's would be filled in automatically, but of course, that didn't happen & I had to go back in today & override the IRS system in order to correctly enter her data.
* All in all, the refund is a little bigger than last year, which is pretty cool.
Census...
* The racial option included "Black/African American/Negro"
Are there still be self-identifying as "Negro"? And if so, how come I didn't get "Cracker" or Honky" as an option? It reminded me of some sort of Paul Mooney word association sketch.
* There's been a lot of talk from the Right Wing Crazies about not wanting to give this info to Big Brother. (As if they don't already have it in one way or another for most of us anyway.) However, it seems like this kind of info is precisely the info they'd want to the Gov't to have. They're always crying about White people's dwindling numbers, so one would think those racist fucks would be happy to place another tally in the column for their proud heritage.
Taxes...
* The Feds wanted to know if any of my income came from the railroad industry. I don't know if that meant they wanted to know if I was some sort of robber baron like Crocker or Vanderbuilt, if I was an engineer like Casey Jones, or if w/in this economy, I'd taken to riding the rails like Woody Guthrie & my grandfather. Since none of these were options that relate to me, I clicked no & moved on w/o giving it another thought until I came to the state form.
* The state wanted to know if any of my income came from seafaring. Granted, "Seafaring" is a cool word, but seeing as I neither pilot a ferry to Wisconsin, work as a deck-hand on a freighter, nor make a living as a Great Lakes fisherperson, again I clicked no & moved on.
* My real concern here, though, is that I'm curious about why the Feds want to know about my railroading & the state wants to know about my seafaring, but not the other way around. It's like someone in the IRS woke up one day & said "I demand to know about everyone's connection to the railroads! What? Their connections to boating? Fuck boating!" Of course, the state's person, who may very well sound like Ricky Gervais, woke up & said, "I demand to know about everyone's seafaring! Railroads? Are you 'avin' a laugh? Bullocks!"
Why would one want one set of info and the other a totally unrelated set of info? It seems like if it's important to one, it should be important to the other.
* The feds suggested the money I spent on Isaiah's adoption would be deduct able, but then they claimed to have no record of him. As it turns out, he's on record w/ his old last name... still.
* In the section where they needed to know if I'd received my "Stimulus Check," it claims the info about Stephanie's would be filled in automatically, but of course, that didn't happen & I had to go back in today & override the IRS system in order to correctly enter her data.
* All in all, the refund is a little bigger than last year, which is pretty cool.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
2 Things Distract Me: Soccer & Teaching
It's rare that things really go wrong, but when they do, they really do. On Sunday, I had about 20 minutes between work & soccer to deuce & chill, & during that time I found out I'd been served papers regarding my car crash last summer. The guy I hit, who didn't have insurance or an injury, is suing me for $3,000. His 1994 Ford pick-up was probably worth about $800. With these factors in mind, I'm not too worried about the case, but I'd be lying if I said the time consumption & the fact that 3 grand is hanging on this didn't affect me @ all.
I found this out, freaked out for about 5 minutes, & then went to play. Even though this ridiculousness was in the back of mind my before the game started, once we started playing I forgot about it for 90 minutes. It's 1 of the 2 activities that can always help me forget my problems for a little while. Of course, afterwards, I grabbed a couple beers w/ Dan before going home to continue the earlier freak out. Soccer worked this way a few years ago too when Stephanie & I were going through our dark times. Clearly, this court case isn't as bad, but @ the moment, it's yet another distraction I don't need, & it's nice to have something to take my mind off of it once in a while.
Teaching has always worked the same way. Once I get my game face on, Skynet could be taking over & I'd still be alright. As I was just on my way back from class I realized how much I really like my job. When I get into the classroom, the problems, the distractions, the general bullshit falls aside, & I'm completely focused on what I'm doing. I was wondering how the Hell I was going to do this today w/ a 3 grand law suit in the back of my mind, but it never crossed my mind once I started talking shop. It worked the same way a few years ago too. Even when I'm sick, the classroom has some sort of recuperative thing going on. I've walked into class w/ a 102 fever, but after a few minutes, I've been focused & relatively clear. @ 103 the hallucinations start which makes for an interesting lecture, but even then it goes pretty well... then again, I wonder if the students really notice a difference. Teaching is pretty awesome.
I found this out, freaked out for about 5 minutes, & then went to play. Even though this ridiculousness was in the back of mind my before the game started, once we started playing I forgot about it for 90 minutes. It's 1 of the 2 activities that can always help me forget my problems for a little while. Of course, afterwards, I grabbed a couple beers w/ Dan before going home to continue the earlier freak out. Soccer worked this way a few years ago too when Stephanie & I were going through our dark times. Clearly, this court case isn't as bad, but @ the moment, it's yet another distraction I don't need, & it's nice to have something to take my mind off of it once in a while.
Teaching has always worked the same way. Once I get my game face on, Skynet could be taking over & I'd still be alright. As I was just on my way back from class I realized how much I really like my job. When I get into the classroom, the problems, the distractions, the general bullshit falls aside, & I'm completely focused on what I'm doing. I was wondering how the Hell I was going to do this today w/ a 3 grand law suit in the back of my mind, but it never crossed my mind once I started talking shop. It worked the same way a few years ago too. Even when I'm sick, the classroom has some sort of recuperative thing going on. I've walked into class w/ a 102 fever, but after a few minutes, I've been focused & relatively clear. @ 103 the hallucinations start which makes for an interesting lecture, but even then it goes pretty well... then again, I wonder if the students really notice a difference. Teaching is pretty awesome.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
The Time Has Come my Little Friends...
To talk of money things.
I've spent the last few years of my life scared and frustrated and I've come to the conclusion that I may need to move. I've borrowed and begged and scammed money to stay in my house a lot longer than was at all responsible. It's been a good run, but I can't fool myself any longer. I'm embarrassed and I feel kind of like a financial failure, but it is what it is. I tried to come up w/ a list of second jobs I've had over the last few years in my many failed attempts to make ends meet, but I'm certain it isn't complete:
Borders Book Seller
Clean Water Action Campuser
Loan Officer
Adjunct Faculty JCC, WCC
Photo Editor
Writing Tutor
I know there are others too, but this list also makes me think about all of the jobs that I've applied for and been turned down to my "over-qualifications." I suppose getting a smaller monthly payment will allow me to pay off some other debts, and maybe do some other things too... we'll see. I've found a relatively inexpensive 3 bedroom apartment just a few blocks East though, right by where Jean used to live, so I think I'll be able to stay in the area. I haven't said anything to my parents yet mainly because I'm pretty certain my dad is going to freak out, so keep a lid on this for a while. On a positive note, this seems like the responsible thing to do and I suppose I'll have to have one last party on Sheridan before I move on up. This decision isn't set in stone yet, and blogging about it so early in the process may not be as responsible as the decision itself, but we'll just have to see how it all goes. I had a pretty fitting picture of an overturned U-Haul to post w/ this little confessional, but the photo attacher isn't working right now which also seems kind of fitting, I suppose. Maybe in my next life I'll just get a 40$ an hour job in a factory and end up w/ a gold plated watch and my balls full of tumors, but as it stands, I'm still kind of proud of myself and my desire to keep on keeping on as a teacher. Maybe in my next life teachers will make a lot of money and this won't even be an issue... not likely though.
I've spent the last few years of my life scared and frustrated and I've come to the conclusion that I may need to move. I've borrowed and begged and scammed money to stay in my house a lot longer than was at all responsible. It's been a good run, but I can't fool myself any longer. I'm embarrassed and I feel kind of like a financial failure, but it is what it is. I tried to come up w/ a list of second jobs I've had over the last few years in my many failed attempts to make ends meet, but I'm certain it isn't complete:
Borders Book Seller
Clean Water Action Campuser
Loan Officer
Adjunct Faculty JCC, WCC
Photo Editor
Writing Tutor
I know there are others too, but this list also makes me think about all of the jobs that I've applied for and been turned down to my "over-qualifications." I suppose getting a smaller monthly payment will allow me to pay off some other debts, and maybe do some other things too... we'll see. I've found a relatively inexpensive 3 bedroom apartment just a few blocks East though, right by where Jean used to live, so I think I'll be able to stay in the area. I haven't said anything to my parents yet mainly because I'm pretty certain my dad is going to freak out, so keep a lid on this for a while. On a positive note, this seems like the responsible thing to do and I suppose I'll have to have one last party on Sheridan before I move on up. This decision isn't set in stone yet, and blogging about it so early in the process may not be as responsible as the decision itself, but we'll just have to see how it all goes. I had a pretty fitting picture of an overturned U-Haul to post w/ this little confessional, but the photo attacher isn't working right now which also seems kind of fitting, I suppose. Maybe in my next life I'll just get a 40$ an hour job in a factory and end up w/ a gold plated watch and my balls full of tumors, but as it stands, I'm still kind of proud of myself and my desire to keep on keeping on as a teacher. Maybe in my next life teachers will make a lot of money and this won't even be an issue... not likely though.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Bumper Stickers (part duex)
After complaining about the stickers I've been seeing around town, I realized this is a great opportunity for me to make a little extra cash in order to maintain this blog. While watching The Rockford Files last night (a great episode featuring 2 of my favorite bald African American entertainers: Louis Gossett Jr. & Isacc Hayes), I designed a few stickers of my own. Feel free to e-mail me w/ your orders. To start, we'll have to charge 8 bucks a sticker, but if demand is as high as the Internet buzz leads one to believe, we might be able to lower the price once I can start shipping in bulk. Furthermore, the option to get these slogans on a t-shirt is always a possibility. Let me know when you decide which shirt you want. They will be on white (w/ red ribbing around the cuffs and collar) & are available in L, XL, & XXL for $20 ($24 for the XXL).
The original www.visionsofypsi.blogspot.com sticker
Help spread the word about the important January election (the URL is in small print at the bottom)
A little something for the Dead Heads
A little something for the Arsenal fans
All proceeds from this one will be donated to the 2008 Dennis Kucinich campaign
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