[t]he new rules likely conflict with the state's...
Great, because it's already settled law who wins that battle.
While I hate the company, at least the have the self awareness to notice that fact.
Fountain pens and inks. Nothing like enjoying the mere act of writing meeting notes with my preferred pen, ink, and paper.
A5 Clairefontaine 90gsm, and usually Pilot Iroshizuku Tsutsiji.
It is the perfect color to be appropriate for signatures and the like, while also being interesting and having the tiniest bit of sheen.
Haven’t used a Bic in ages, I just fill pens as needed.
Got a safari in F that’s perfect for tsutsiji and I just keep filling it.
Yeah, FP are my “thing”, helped along by the insane vari lets of available inks. If I sign something [wet], it’s with a fifteen dollar safari and that ink, or on (diamine) Sherwood green.
Anything else, and it’s not my sig.
Think the DSM term for that is “harmless self-delusion” bc ain’t nobody throwing that sock away. Goes in the laundry hamper, and we repeat the ciiircle of…. Oh wait. You know what i mean.
You are a good person.
I appreciate the separation between those two concepts, and find that too few people look at it that way.
Every last one of them needs to be booted off Ukrainian soil, of course - that also goes without saying - but the Russian Army has a long history of lying to their citizens, promising money that never appears, and pulling small numbers of people from e.g., remote villages so that surviving families believe they're one of the few and don't see the larger losses at scale.
I can't locate my well-thumbed copy of Grau at the moment, but I'm reasonably sure he substantiates the above at least as far back as Afghanistan.
Doesn't exactly seem newsworthy to me - without knowing the dynamics of his marriage, I find it hard to condemn - or even care - that a) he spent some money, b) on a company run by his alleged girlfriend, c) while married. None of those things are by definition incompatible with each other.
TX recently passed a law that invalidates/prohibits local ordinances mandating water breaks.
It's not just that the laws aren't there, it's also because people like Abbot are doing everything they can to remove those protections.
Was wondering what the actual hell was up with his string of vetoes lately.
Maybe he sees himself as the 2028 Dem nominee and wants to demonstrate he's not an evil socialist to the non-crazy Republicans...
I certainly hope not - any D is better than none, but he's one of those who least align with the collective interests of most.
The “good” news - and your landlord might benefit from hearing this in advance - is that as I understand it, you’ll be paid salary for any shutdown period, after it’s resolved. Could be a meaningful amount of money depending on how long. Making sure the ll understands that could buy you some time, but depends on them.
I’ll assume you don’t qualify for any assistance programs given a gov salary and a second job plus your wife’s income. But…. Check anyway. Some states are rather more generous.
I THINK you might be eligible for unemployment during any shutdown, but generally there’s a waiting period of a week, it’s max 2/3 of income with a hard cap, and I cannot cite a source that says you do qualify. Worth diggging into, very state specific.
I’ve taken to gig work, so that the misc money I spend on myself doesn’t come off “rea” income. With a second job that might not be practical, but might be for your wife if you live in or near a relatively safe city. I ignore gigs in my hometown entirely, I make more in the nearest major city and they have “hourly” pay there so I make something worthwhile even without a tip (25% of orders don’t tip, roughly, from my experience).
As far as your mental health, which is the real focus here…. A couple things come to mind.
It’s short term hardship, you need to get through days or weeks - not a way of life. Understanding and actually internalizing that has helped me through some significant rough patches.
If at all possible, don’t short groceries or the miscellaneous money your wife spends on little stuff, including her. You don’t function well without decent food. Aldi is one possibility, can be cheaper for some things.
I’d expect family to be sympathetic to the potential shutdown, but I understand feeling like you shouldn’t ask for more. Guess what, though - they know the position you’re in already, and the potential shutdown is public knowledge as well. OTOH, that’s assuming they are decent humans and that they have the money in the first place. I don’t and can’t know if either are true.
Gotta be honest, selling stuff is a) getting ripped off, b) depressing af, and c) you’ll have to spend money to replace it down the road. It’s to be avoided if at all possible, for all of those reasons.
You’ve already rented a room, that’s more than I’d be able to do - I WFH so the spare room is my office, and the only place I can maintain some confidentiality of data, which is a base expectation of the field.
Don’t know how far behind you are on utilities, but most states make it fairly easy to find just how far you can push “past due”, and what arrangements can be made.
Some states require reasonable payment arrangements to split the bill across future months, some don’t. Worth exploring. You want to keep the lights on, at nearly any cost, because usually they’ll expect entire past due amount plus deposit to reconnect. Same for gas/water, as applicable.
Comcast has offered 10 day extensions to me,for internet only. Have to chat and ask for it, though that may vary by state as well
Also…. Remember there’s no guarantee a shutdown will occur, or last a long time. As we saw, last minute action is very possible. Also, if I remember the timeline correctly, we passed a 45 day CR and there are still 30 ish days left before that happens.
Food pantries if needed - no one there is judging, they wouldn’t volunteer if they did. You almost certainly will walk out with way more stuff than you expected. You’ll need to fill in holes, but that’s a short term way to reduce your grocery bill by a meaningful amount, since most staples are there.
Take care of yourself, it matters. The mental health side of this creates a slippery slope that’s easy to descend into and hard to get out of. Even if that just means sometimes buying a thing you particularly like as a reward for getting through the week. Compare the cost of me making a crab cake once a month, with the cost of additional therapy because I tried to live with zero extras. Silly example, but total self-denial is positively brutal to your brain, and tends to turn desire into cravings.
Wish I had more advice, but I hope something in there helps. You probably took a gov job at least partially because it (generally) offers stability, I’m sorry that our leg branch can’t seem to maintain that.
One more thing - unless you’re likely to get a giant pay bump, now is probably not the time to look for a new job. That takes time to spin up and find the right one, and the long term hit to eg any pension is significant. It also doesn’t solve immediate issues, since generally checks are delayed a pay cycle or so for processing.
Again, I’m sorry this is happening to you, and I wish I could do more for you and your colleagues. You have no dog in this fight, and neither your nor the military’s paychecks should be impacted.
Me: “don’t be from Indiana, don’t be from Indiana, don’t be…. Aw, fuck. “
Reasons I left. Just about the time I started to feel like a native, the right jumped from Reagan-esque (annoying, wrong, but tolerable and able to cooperate on mutually agreeed social good) to this.
That’s what I get for having adopted Kettlecorn, KS as my hometown, I suppose. Not surprising at all.
It will be hot. Not just warm, but brutal. People dying in the streets of Detroit kind of brutal.
Oh, and those fucking lead pipes will still be buried in Flint and a hundred other American cities because no one gives a damn about the poor or their children.