epiphanatic » 2003» August

Posted on 08.19.03 by jstoner @ 11:27 pm

My first experiment with TrackBack! Sent this as a ping to Howard Dean’s Blog for America:

I’ve just ended 19 months of marginal employment. I’m a software developer who works primarily with Web technology. I’ve begun a contract through the end of the year with a company in downtown Chicago.

I have moved back with my parents in the suburbs, at age 36. I am thankful for my supportive family, but my parents are getting on in years, and I’d rather be helping them than the other way around.

I am sleepless over what happens after my current contract ends. I lucked into this. Will I find something quickly? Or will I be out of work for another year and a half?

I am sleepless over my lack of health insurance.

Honestly, I don’t entirely blame George W. for my situation. The seeds of my current misfortune were sown during the dot-com boom. I knew those good times had to end, and that there would be a rebound. I didn’t know it would be this painful. And I know for a fact that September 11 has exacerbated things.

But the tax cut Bush has handed his favorite patrons is blatantly biased towards the rich. It might help me a little in the short term, but it will be a disaster for this country in the long term. We desperately need to repeal it. I will endure short term pain for long term gain.

I remember watching the national debt balloon during the 1980’s. I was in high school then, too young to vote. I knew I’d be paying it someday, and I was right. I considered it taxation without representation. For a time, the 90’s looked like they would provide a respite, but now we’re back to digging the same hole.

Trickle-down economic theory is discredited and delusional. Leaving enormous debt to our children is irresponsible. Taking the lone-ranger approach to the world’s problems is impractical. Why did it take this long for them to figure out they need the UN in Iraq?

We need leadership to make the necessary sacrifices. We need the courage to ask for help with problems we can’t and shouldn’t try to fix by ourselves. We need responsible liberalism to have an effective government.

I like Dean a lot. I haven’t committed to him yet. I’m not even a registered Democrat. I like being independent. But I’m sorely, sorely tempted to register and vote for Dean in the Democratic primary.

Filed under: politics--us
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Andy and Shila have a baby

Posted on 08.09.03 by jstoner @ 12:44 pm

My oldest friend from grade school Andy, and his wife Shila, are adopting a child from Colombia. They head down to Medellin to pick him up next week. We have photos. Isn’t he adorable?

Big congratulations to Andy and Shila. I know you’ll make terrific parents.

He will grow up and return to his native South America to be a great revolutionary. But he will have one terrible weakness: a pathological fear of ducks!

Imagine one night, Santiago sitting at a campfire in the Amazon, confiding in his compadres: “My American parents loved me and cared for me well, but they decorated my bedroom in ducks. I thought ducks were my friends, until the horrible day I met one. I ran to embrace my feathered brother, and he attacked me! The pecking, and, and… the quacking! It terrifies me to this day.

“Stop making that noise, Pedro. That’s not funny!”

Filed under: life
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the thing not said

Posted on 08.08.03 by jstoner @ 12:56 am

ABC News had a report today on rising mortgage rates for homes. Rates have jumped half a percent in the last month. For some reason they didn’t talk about why.

When Greenspan has been cutting the prime rate for, what, years now, why the hell would this happen? Because your mortgage now has to compete in the same market with the ballooning federal deficit for debt money. No doubt, the federal govenment goes to the head of that line.

Yeah, a tax cut was a good idea. Cut the one strong leg out from under this already shaky recovery, and disarm Greenspan. Now what?

The case for repealing the tax cut is even stronger than the pro-repeal Democrats are making. The American people have to get clear: you pay it in taxes or you pay it in interest rates. Low interest rates are super key for a solid economy. People are already hurting, and the pain is gonna spread.

Howard Dean is the only candidate who has balanced a budget. He’s looking better and better to me.

Filed under: politics--us
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I feel like I can breathe

Posted on 08.07.03 by jstoner @ 3:24 pm

Monday, I end a 19-month period of very spotty employment. I get on a train, head downtown, and start getting my shit back together.

It’s a contract through the end of the year at Classified Ventures; they serve classified ads on the net, on their own sites and for major newspapers online. I’ll be working on cars.com. I’ll be working on the website, using Java, ATG Dynamo, and Oracle. Enterprise Java website stuff, my usual thing. Which is cool.

Because I’m contracting, I’m going through accounts payable instead of payroll, so I won’t start getting paid until mid-September. But I can hold out. It will be a big check when it comes in. I have to deal with my own taxes and stuff, so it won’t be as big as it looks.

It’s funny, I don’t even own a car. As a regular participant of Critical Mass, I’m sure I’ll get plenty of needling. Some of them are politically anti-car, vociferously so, but people have been quite gracious about it.

Personally, I think driving in moderation is OK. My version of moderation is a few times a year. It’s cheaper for me to rent. The need to drive much more is an artifact of bad urban planning and inadequate public transportation, as far as I’m concerned. For most people, that’s not their fault.

Anyway, I suppose that makes me a little bit of a whore. I’ll find ways to repent.

Filed under: life
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the elder quoteable stoner

Posted on 08.05.03 by jstoner @ 10:49 pm

Dad had a great remark today:

“Just because someone stands on their head doesn’t mean you have to kiss their ass.”

Context: we were leaving Barnes & Noble in Crystal Lake. Dad couldn’t find a journal that was both cheap enough and not made in China. He observed, “Some of the ones made in China were more expensive.”

“These things don’t always make sense,” I said.

His responded, well, quoteably.

Not sure when I’d use that one again, but you can be soure I’ll be looking for opportunities.

Filed under: ha
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