serai | Entries tagged with money

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Recently I made some remarks about Elijah's choice of residence, and how disappointed I am in him for it. I would not have expected him to be so insular and uninformed that he wouldn't know why downtown L.A. is such an ugly choice.

For those of you who don't know what's going on down there, here's a link that lays a lot of it out:

Skid Row, the homeless in L.A., and how the influx of Pretty And Rich is making life so much worse

This is not a new thing, but it's been accelerating over the last few years. I avoid the glitzy playground because, to be frank, I couldn't trust myself not to lay into those entitled richies and their assumption that no one else's life matters when it comes to their little whims.

How many cities have seen this happen? The rich decide to "clean up" a neighborhood by taking over the living accommodations that - however humble - give the poor a place to be. And with those dwellings go all the services that helped those poor people, because who needs 'em now, right? Then after a few years, the richies get bored and decide to move somewhere else, because they FUCKING CAN. And the area falls back again, but now the community that was there is gone, the services are gone, and the equilibrium that was established over decades is kaput. And of course, the people who used to live and work there are now doubly poor, the homeless are persecuted by the cops and by draconian laws enacted to make life NICE AND CLEAN for the fucking richies, who don't want to admit that their asshattery ruins lives. Rinse, repeat, endlessly.

Why the FUCK can't rich people just stay in their own fucking neighborhoods and stop with this egocentric OMG WE GON MAKE IT BETTER bullshit, I don't know. They really do think the world belongs to them, is exclusively their playground, and that no one else matters.

And yeah, I'm kind of pissed at Elijah for jumping into that. I mean seriously - DUDE. *glares*

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Have any of you seen The Big Short?

It's a great film, and really deserves to win the Oscar this year. An entertaining and engaging look at the roots of the 2008 economic meltdown, it manages to present the whole awful morass in a way that is comprehensive and in-depth, and at the same time light on its feet and actually funny. The cast is magnificent (the film is worth watching for Steve Carell alone), and the script is charming and adroit.

One of the best things about it is the way it explains the whole confusing, insane, tangled mess. Whenever the plot starts getting into areas where an average person would get completely lost in econo-tech jargon (and who wouldn't, given that even the damn people who precipitated this horror didn't understand half of what they were doing), the film jumps through the fourth wall and brings in someone completely unrelated to the story to explain things. But it's never an economist or pundit. It's someone like Gordon Ramsay in his kitchen, who looks at you and says, "Okay, I'm going to explain derivatives now. Imagine the economy is like a pizza..." He then goes on in detail, comparing the problem to something like slicing up a pizza**, and then "Now back to the story!" There are others in the film like that, well-known people taking the problems apart and explaining them in completely non-economic terms so that you can continue the story now knowing what the fuck they're talking about in this thing.

It's a stroke of genius. Not only does it make sure your feet are squarely on the ground through the whole movie - or at least as much as possible, since economists still have a hard time explaining just what went down - but it also sustains the intended comedic tone, since the actual events are just so fucking maddening and ultimately depressing if you think about it too much. But this device, along with the magnificently off-kilter performances, keep the film dancing nimbly along, charming you while it's informing you. (Christian Bale as the definitely on-the-spectrum economic analyst who dreams up the idea that tanked our WHOLE FUCKING WORLD starts thing off beautifully, and it only gets better from there.)

Seriously, see this film. I know the 2008 meltdown is not something one would expect to be made into an entertaining romp, but you'll be glad you did. Not only will you get to see great actors in a mind-bending puzzle of a film, but you'll finally get close to understanding just

WHAT. THE FUCK. HAPPENED.

You'll be glad you did. Trust me.

** I can't remember if it was actually a pizza he talked about, as I saw the film about a month ago, but that's the general idea.

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It's DONE!

Tara the DW fangirl came by in her enormous blue truck and whisked my darling harp away to a life in ( sunny, warm Santa Fe, NM... )

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*sigh*

Back in the 80's, when I was working the Renaissance Faire here in SoCal, I had money. Not HUGE amounts, but enough to run around and buy lovely things at the Faire. One of the things I bought was my beautiful Celtic harp, made by Tripplet Harps of San Luis Obispo. I had such dreams of learning to play it! But alas, it turned out that I have no talent at all for melody instruments. (Percussion's another matter - I was playing a djimbe - African chalice drum - five minutes after picking it up, albeit at a very elementary level.)

So my lovely harp has moved with me from place to place, basically fulfilling the role of a gorgeous piece of furniture. It's made me sad to look at it all these years and almost hear it weeping for not being played. Thus, when things got so financially awful for me over the last year, I decided to sell it. I've had it on Craigslist for about six months now, and guess what?

I got TWO CALLS IN ONE DAY. I'm sticking around at home all day today because one or the other of these ladies is going to be coming to my house and whisking my beautiful girl away to a life of happy fulfillment of its stringed destiny!

Here's a picture of my darling:

Isn't she beautiful? My heart hurts to have to give her away, but it's just not right for me to keep her anymore, especially when there are people who really, really want her. The lady who's most likely to show up is over near LAX at a Doctor Who convention, and when I heard she was a fancritter (even though I've never watched an episode of DW in my life), I knew she's the one I want to take the harp away. (Though it'd be fine if the other lady took her, too.)

In exchange for her freedom, I will get FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS.

Yeah.

I'm so jazzed about this. I'd kinda given up on the harp selling, but was determined to just keep posting the ad until that special person saw it. YAY!

So please cross your fingers or say a prayer or light a candle or place an order with your cat (they are avatars of the Goddess, you know) that this will work out for me. I SO MUCH need this right now - it could be the seed of my getting up and out of my asshole situation. (My BiL will be backing me up during the sale as a precaution, and I've promised him an eighth of weed as payment, heehee.) First planned purchase: a nice cheap digital camera so I can place MORE stuff online for sale. I have so much crap, and a lot of it really is nice and of good quality.

ETA: Tara (the DW lady) has called and is one her way from LAX now. *does Kermit flail*

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So I got the confirmation from the county that my cash allowance has been approved. It's not as much as I'd hoped, but it's enough to make sure my utilities are paid each month, with a little bit extra so I can buy a few household things I've been sorely needing. This doesn't solve my problems, but it will give me a breather for a few months, so my mind isn't filled up with GODDAMMIT HOW WILL I KEEP THE LIGHTS ON? A hundred dollars a month sounds like chump change, doesn't it? But it's so much money to me that I started crying when I opened the envelope and read the notice.

*sigh* How did I end up here? I think I'll take some more cough medicine and curl up with a nice, yummy movie. I'm thinking O, which existence

gabi_fics reminded me of today.

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Fucking hell. Things have gotten so bad, I couldn't make the $4.00 payment to keep my userpics up. My electricity will be cut off within a week or so. I'll probably lose my internet connection. I might be able to keep my phone line up.

Things have never been this bad. I have no fucking idea where I'm going to get any money to pay my bills. What with my knees getting completely fucked up and surgery in my immediate future, I can't even do the few odd jobs I was depending on to scrape the utility payments together. I've applied for government money, but it'll be at least four weeks before I get any answer, too late to pay any of my bills. Nothing I put up on eBay sells. I'm completely fucking desperate.

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Hey, folks!

When I first posted about selling my stuff, a couple of you asked about my situation. ( So here's a capsule rundown... )

So that's my situation. You can see why I'm not inclined to talk much about my life here, as I would be bumming people out constantly, and I don't want to do that. Which leads me to this post.

When I posted about selling my stuff, a couple of you asked for my Paypal address, which I assume you wanted because you kindly intended to send some bucks to help me out. At first I didn't want to post it, not out of pride (I don't have any, believe me), but because I really, REALLY don't want to be "that" person, who starts whining for money every time there's a problem and eventually ends up making everyone eyeroll. But things are really hard this year, so I've done some thinking on this, and here's what I've decided:

If any of you want to send money to help me out but aren't interested in the items I've put up, I will take it with great gratitude, but you're going to get something back. I don't know what it is, but you'll get something for your money. I will look at my LOTR collection and send you an item based on what I know of your fannish tastes and what I've got to send. I've got lots of interesting stuff, and I'm fairly sure that most of it is things you probably don't have lying around (although the gods know I could be wrong about that). So if you don't want to buy what I'm putting up outright, you'll still get a neat thing, and if it's something you already have, you can use it as a holiday gift for someone else. That way, everybody wins, and I don't feel like a putz (a feeling I've had quite enough of).

So my Paypal address is under the next cut, and if you want to be Santa, go for it. (Once again, please pimp if you can.) Many hugs to all of you, and I'll be posting with more items today.

Blessings!

( info )

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The most famous folktale about the wise Japanese judge Ooka Tadasuke is about a restaurant owner suing a poor man for payment. The poor man would eat his daily meal of plain rice near the restaurant so he could smell the food cooking, which made his rice taste better; when the owner discovered this, he sued for payment, and judge Ooka found in favor of the restaurant owner. The poor man protested, saying he only had enough money for rent, showing the judge the few coins he had. Judge Ooka had the poor man pour the coins from one hand to the other a few times, and then told him he was free to go. When the restaurant owner said he hadn't been paid yet, judge Ooka informed him that he HAD just been paid — the price of the smell of food is the sound of money.

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For those of you curious:

I got the letters from the IRS today. It's just as I thought - the recovery rebate program kicked in, and the adjustments to my gross income brought the figures WAY down, so I got most of my paid taxes back. When I filed the returns, I was completely unclear on whether I even qualified for any of that money, so I didn't bother to find out anything. I figured since I'd worked so little in the last couple of years, I wouldn't qualify. So I got a nice, nearly-heart-attack-inducing surprise.

Hooray for abysmal financial ignorance!

The money is mine to keep. I'll be going to my new bank tomorrow to open my accounts. It's a small California chain, which I trust far more than the goddamn behemoths these days. Goodbye Chase! You won't have my bucks to fuck around with anymore. You know, if we all did that, those enormous vampires would collapse from sheer blood starvation. Wouldn't come a day too soon, I'm thinking.

I'ma go buy a pair of speakers for my computer now. The ones I've got are nearly ten years old and sound like shit. Happy trails!

*dances out the door*

Current Mood: giddy

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Okay, I'm flabbergasted.

For the last three years, I have not made enough money to pay my income taxes. I kept putting off filing, one of those dumbass procrastination things where you hope it'll go away, especially when your income is so low that it's a tossup whether you'll end up with a bill you can't pay or you'll owe nothing at all. I haven't gotten any money BACK from the IRS for at least fifteen years now, so it was one or the other, and on top of the rest of my woes, I really wanted to hide my head in the sand and pretend the inevitable bills wouldn't exist.

Then about six weeks ago, I got a polite letter from the Feds saying basically, "Where the hell's the paper?" I made a few phone calls, got the info on forms, found out where the local IRS office is so I could keep being an asshat and file on THE VERY LAST DAY.

Yeah, I know. But I did it! And crossed my fingers that at least last year, when I hardly worked at all, might count to give me back a couple of hundred bucks to help buy groceries. (For those of you who don't know, which I know is practically everybody on my list, I've been on disability, unable to work for the last year because of a workplace injury. But that's a story for another time.) So I've been dreading the inevitable letter saying You owe us $X, please send your firstborn, kthxbi.

Just now, my dad knocked on my door, handed me my Netflix discs and three envelopes. From the U.S. Treasurey. Three window envelopes. With checks in them.

( DRUM ROLL, PLEASE )

I'm gonna go try and think now. Wish me luck.

( ETA: )

Current Mood: weirded out

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Jesus Fucking Christ!

Jobless hit with bank fees on benefits

( Text here )

Is there nothing off which these vampires are not allowed to make money?

And then the simian dittoheads cry Socialism! Yeah, I'm crying Socialism! too, right about now. As far as I'm concerned, IT CAN'T COME FUCKING SOON ENOUGH.