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| Just trying out a tiny format, but I think bigger is probably better.
Got an error with the comic upload thing for the first time ever. Can't upload through the convenient comic-adding form now, so I have to ftp it. -_-;; Gettin' pissed with the stupidness that's happened to the server lately.
--regolith
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So I was just looking through the page stats for the last week, and I realized that we only had two visitors whose names I don't know from their IP address (excluding robots / spiders). We've never been an especially high traffic site (absolutely no promotion can do that to you), but this is a bit of a dry spell, even for us.
So, anyway, about the comic. I ordered a bunch of used DVDs for cheap from a usually reliable online merchant while they were having a sale. Some of them, the only thing that wasn't new about them was that the shrink wrap had been removed. Others, well... I think someone might have taken a circular sander to Traffic. Or at least put it in a defective Apex player. Now I have to find some time to check the whole batch of used discs and then see if I can get my money back for the unplayable ones. How fun.
Apparently Piro is going to be giving a drawing class at Katsucon this weekend. I wish we had known sooner; Justin could have taken the class and finally learned how to draw using that tablet! ;-) Maybe I'll attend the con myself, it's just on the other side of DC from here afterall. But, uh, probably not. ...I wonder if I can con any of my friends into visiting and attending Otakon with me this year?
-apon
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I think Justin is, anyway. In any case, he certainly hasn't been entertaining me with his lack of ranting, which is unforgivable! He's probably doing something silly like working at work or something. The fool.
-apon
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| Was in one meeting after another all day. On the plus side, they bought me lunch. On the minus side, I ordered a Turkey Wrap, thinking it would be turkey, lettuce, tomato and some kind of sauce in a wrap, but it was actually full of alfalfa sprouts and guacamole. yuck. Anyway, there was a magical half-eaten pizza hut supreme pizza on the table leftover from the night before, so I had a couple pieces of that :)
Gotta figure out how long this system that will streamline the hiring process for a big short-term project in June will take to implement. (my guess, it'll take 'till June) The database will be quite insane and specific to that one project and unusable for general hiring, probably. :(
I've been drawing every day like Gabe says to do... but that's only been the last 3 days, so my masterpieces are not masterworks quite yet. Dunno if I have the stamina to draw tonight after today's office work and in the face of two hours of quality television programming (gilmore girls and smallville), so my awesome dedication to my art may suffer.
Oh, yeah. My new motherboard and processor and floppy drive and thermaltake 9 cpu fan and arctic silver 3 thermal compound arrived today. Just need the case and the memory. Unfortunately, the place I ordered the case from charged my card the day I ordered and haven't told me they've sent my order. Gonna have to call them and the company I had previously ordered my memory from but now cancelled after the invoice went to the warehouse they said when I get the time. Add punctuation to that sentence as you wish.
--regolith
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| Watch a crab get sucked through a 3mm slit in a pipe with a pressure difference of 1.3 tons per square inch. (crab vs pipe)
--regolith
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Reading today's Nealz Nuze reminded me that I hadn't yet linked this site from a rant, even though I had meant to. Everyone should go have a look at http://www.fairtax.org. It's certainly not perfect, but it's one of the best tax reform ideas I've seen put forth. If nothing else, you should find it an intriguing read.
-apon
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This is a very well written article on libertarianism. Perhaps worth reading.
-apon
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| It seems like businesses have to pay far less in taxes and consumers also pay less under the fairtax. How, then, do we get the same amount of money coming in? Do they expect people to buy twice as much stuff because they get their whole income? Does filing paperwork for a business's employee income tax really take up 20+% of their gross sales? (they say that reduced income tax overhead will lead to prices falling 20+%) Will it be illegal to be frugal and spend less than your expected spending bracket? ;)
--regolith
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| Emailed the company I ordered the case from yesterday. I'll try calling if I don't get an answer by tomorrow. I think the memory must have gotten cancelled okay since I didn't receive it yet. To be safe, I'll hold off on buying it until I get the shipping confirmation from the evil case company, since Matt says Crucial ships quick-like...
--regolith
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The theory is that when individuals are allowed to keep more of the money that they earn they will then have more money to save, invest, and spend. This, in turn, will lead to a higher growth rate in the economy and ultimately an increase in the tax base. As for the price reduction figure, that refers to the overhead for administering the deduction of taxes from employees' paychecks, the overhead for tracking and paying corporate taxes, and the cost of taxes themselves. I agree that the figures presented on the site seem to be rather optimistic, it's one of the issues I have with the proposal. On the other hand, even if the changes aren't as beneficial as they project, it's not unreasonable to expect changes such as these will have a positive impact on the economy overall.
As for being frugal being illegal, no. ;-p Another issue I have with the plan does center around that idea, however. It seems to me that instead of estimating how much a person or family would be likely to spend on necessities and cutting them a check each month, it would make more sense to just not tax those necessities in the first place. There's no reason for that to be hard to implement -- we don't currently pay state or local sales taxes on food or rent, so exempting certain items from a national sales tax should certainly be possible. Furthermore, it would reduce the overhead of the entire endeavor, since there would be no need for a government agency to estimate the cost of necessities and print and mail checks to everyone in the country every month. The government would also benefit in tax revenue, since frugal people would not be making money from their monthly check.
As for Crucial being quick, they certainly are. Don't forget the extra 5% off coupon currently available at TechBargains.
-apon
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| Forgot to mention that when I got in to work, some landscaper-type people had lost control of a fire hydrant and it was spraying all the way across the street that I would have to drive on to get to work. I elected for discretion and parked in someone else's parking lot and walked a little farther to work :) Just now, I went and moved my car into our lot. What's really sad is that we're out of easy lunch food at home, so I just have carrot sticks and ranch dressing to eat, but I didn't drive to burger king now or anything, just into our parking lot. So I'm too apathetic for drive-thru.
--regolith
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Carrot sticks: good. Ranch dressing: bad. Fast food: very bad.
I am enjoying some delicious carrots as we speak!
As for being out of food, what are you paying your parents for anyway? You should definitely bitch at them when you get home.
-apon
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| Can't seem to connect to icq right, so Matt, who is making the script I'm supposed to be drawing tonight, should email it to me...
--regolith
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I hadn't checked for rants since I left work this evening, and Justin didn't email me at all. So, the script didn't go out to him until 11:30pm or so. So, don't be too surprised if the comic is a bit delayed; he might already be sleeping or something. Maybe I'll put up a horrific filler comic if nothing has appeared by morning...
-apon
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