Sam's L33t Journal

Things that happened in the past week or so:

Nikki was in town and DJ and I were her guests at her aunt's Christmas party in NH, which was something to behold: There was a bonfire, caroling on a horse-cart ride (a neighbor had some gigantic draft-horses used to haul lumber), fireworks, and more cookies, pies, and extended family members than you could shake a stick at. On our way up, we beheld the wonders of the NH State Liquor store and bought some interesting meats at The Healthy Buffalo.

Monday, got back to climbing. Still unreliably working at about 5.7+/5.8.

Tuesday was Squares. Spent some time hanging with Ames and Dante on Wednesday. Thursday morning worked with my trainer and Thursday afternoon had my yearly physical (I was up for a tetanus immunization booster, and my shoulder is still sore).

Thursday evening was venison chili and Amélie (excellent movie, don't know how I missed that for so long given how much I love Jeunet's stuff) with DJ and Michelle. Friday, saw The King's Speech (excellent, character-driven film, great acting and direction) with Julia. Friday, had Dim Sum at Hei La Moon and saw True Grit (great, a must if you like westerns, now I need to see the original) with lbmango and Co. In the afternoon, I shamelessly flaunted my Christmas orphan status until Michelle took pity on me and invited me to her extended-family celebration (coincidentally, right in my neighborhood; delicious Cajun dinner, energetic little cousins, one creepy robot cat, Pillow Pets™, and a game of Bananagrams).

Still have some clothes-related stuff in progress: Got back my first shirt ordered from MakeYourOwnJeans (perfect in some dimensions but needs a bit of adjustment in others), put in a second order. Still waiting on TailorStore. Also still waiting on Daswani, but already regretting my choice of color on the additional button-downs (in addition to white dress shirt and blue Oxford, went with the tailor's advice of burgundy and brown button-downs, which I now feel was ill-advised).

Currently, getting in one of Xave's very infrequent games of D&D via Skype.

Life still crazy.

Last weekend was craft fairs and shoe shopping (new sneakers, boots and dress shoes that fit). (Still up: Custom-fit shirts, a pair of actually-high-quality dress shoes. Want some IC Berlin glasses, too, but those are incredibly expensive.)

Went to a Hanukkah party at Harvard Square and another with extended family.

Monday night, I saw Matisyahu in concert thanks to Michelle (not the Michelle I met at dancing, DJ's new girlfriend). Sadly, she got sick at the last moment and was unable to attend, but she still managed to smuggle a ticket out to me.

Meanwhile, politics has gotten incredibly depressing with Obama's capitulation on taxes. Guess 2012 is the time to find somebody else. This whole "surely we can find middle ground" strategy was worth a try, I thought the country might be ready for it in 2008, but clearly that's not how it's turned out.

The new proposed plan:
1. Bush's tax cuts extended for all income under $250k.
2. An extension to unemployment insurance for one year.
3. An extension to just the tax cuts for the over-$250k bracket for two years.
4. A 2% reduction in the the payroll tax for two years.
5. Estate tax at 35% with $5M exempt for two years. (Lowest rate in American history, save for the missed year of 2010.)

1 and 2 are necessary. But would the Republican's really have held back on 2? Unemployment insurance is a horribly socialist program until it's your constituents, and there are still something like four job-seekers for every job opening. I'd guess the Republicans would have tried to let all the tax cuts expire and blame it on the Democrats, but I think you could get enough votes on just 1, too.

Obama seems to be under the mistaken impression that 3 will be easier to deal with when the middle-class tax cuts are not "held hostage", but that's not going to be the case. Republicans will bring out the same "class warfare" rhetoric. A temporary extension just turns the Bush tax cuts from two political victories for the Republicans into three, at the expense of a rising deficit that will not be forgotten as soon as the compromise is passed and the spending-cut axes come out.

4 has the same problem. In two years, the Republicans will propose an extension and the Democrats will be left trying to defend a "tax raise". No amount of "we said it would be temporary" will help them. And where will the aforementioned axes be aimed again? Oh, right.

5 is a bad idea, too, but honestly, I hardly care at that point. The top marginal tax rate affects how much companies need to spend to increase the income of the highest-paid employees. Decreasing the highest marginal tax rate increases the marginal benefit to companies of increasing executive compensation relative to anything else. Yes, not letting hereditary dynasties accumulate vast amounts of wealth without check is part of the American tradition, and a low estate tax doesn't exactly help with the deficit situation, but at least that doesn't do so much damage to the rest of the economy.

Friday: Beer with DJ, Xave, and Kyle (trucker photographer geek acquaintance of mine).

Saturday: Buying some stuff for the house, haircut, Rocky Horror at midnight in Harvard Square.

Sunday: Clothes shopping. All is going according to plan, and I'm pretty much set except for refilling the "above jeans but below suit pants" slot (slow because I basically have to shop for pants online). Of course, I'll need to find more occasions to dress up...

Monday: Monday Brunch at Starlite (crazy-good breakfast food and insane cocktail offerings), hanging out at Prospect Hill Park with DJ and Kate, supper at Bloc 11, s'mores over a campfire in the restored firepit in our backyard.

Today: Scrubbed the bathroom,* played Metroid: Other M, up far too late considering that I moved my workout to early tomorrow.

* A story: Once upon a time, I noticed that our bathmat (carpet-like type) was very dirty, so I put it through the wash. Wasn't sure about the dryer, but I put it through on low. Smelled a bit rubbery when it came out, but the dryer wasn't ruined, so I thought all was well. Put the mat back right away. Cleaning the bathroom floor today required massive amounts of Goo Gone and a sheet of sandpaper.

Last week went to a Girlyman Concert with Sho and Xave on Wednesday and saw Muse live with DJ and Ginneh on Saturday, both concerts awesome in their own way. Muse puts on a spectacular show, they really know how to use a big-venue effects budget.

I've started to get really much more into Evoke than I expected to.

Going to Intercon this weekend.

Fashion work continues apace: I have a better jacket. I have some jeans that might fit, maybe, if I get them hemmed. (No one sells jeans for short people.) If that fits, I need to buy more jeans. I need a better hat, and a less-formal belt, and new sneakers. Etc.

Today was the employee party at ITA. Was all right. Eighties themed. The party planning committee (how I'm referring to HR from now on) did a decent job, though I think that sort of party is more their scene than the rest of the company's. Hit the Ballmer Peak and returned to work.

I don't like it when I'm too tired to want to make the transition from not-bed to bed.

Getting organized. Completed the process of acquiring some smaller, better fitting pants. Completed the process of donating less-well-fitting clothes (as well as some items from storage).

Work this week has started out very productive.

The weekend was good: Friday went to Natalia Zukerman and Paper Raincoat concert with Xave and Anne. Saturday evening, went to the Sunset with DJ and Ginneh and Olin!Mel (all of whom I hadn't seen for quite some time). Sunday went to games day at Eddy's house with Xave (fun; Galaxy Trucker is particularly zany).

Going to be in San Francisco next week, will be free between late Saturday night (Feb. 13) and midday the next Friday (Feb. 19), after which I'll be going to my cousin's bar mitzvah festivities. I'll be staying at a hostel in Union Square. Any suggestions for what to do while I'm in the city?