Taxes Suck When You're Out on Your Own

Seriously.

I filed my taxes online yesterday, hoping to get at least half the returns I got last year (about $1,100 for federal, and about $200 for state). No dice. It seems that moving out of my parents' house is bad for my tax return.

I have to pay the IRS $8 this year, and the Comptroller of Maryland gets $88 of my hard-earned paycheck this coming weekend. Add to that the $7.77 I had to pay CitizenTax to e-File the Federal return, and that comes to $103.77 total tax costs for me this year.

I was so hoping I could split my returns two or three ways and take a substantial chunk out of my various debts (especially my car payment), but alas, 'tis not to be.

This totally sucks.

Written Works Posted!

Since I only got one vote (thanks, Heather!), and that one vote was a positive one, I decided to post all of my written works here on the blog. You can see the different categories listed in the menu on the right. If you click on a category, you will be taken to a single entry, listing all of my writing from that category, with links. Click on the links in the entry, and you'll be taken to the individual entries for that story, poem, or whatever.

All of the previously-written works are back-dated to January 1, 2007, since that was before I started this blog. I did that so that my regular posts would stay at the top of the blog. Any updates and new writings will keep their original posting dates, and I will simply add links to those entries in the appropriate categories.

If you want to review, please leave a comment on the individual story. I'll appreciate any and all constructive criticism as well, even on the stuff I never plan to look at again.

Another Strange Dream (or three)--Plus a Question

I had another strange dream last night (and the night before, but I couldn't remember it well enough to recount it). I don't know what's made me have such strange dreams so frequently lately. I mean, I've been getting more sleep in the last three nights than usual. Could that be it? I actually went to bed at eleven the last three nights! That never happens, since I consider my bed time between midnight and one in the morning.

Anyway, last night's dream:

I think I was a teacher or something (Yikes! I don't have any desire to be a teacher!) because I was chaperoning a bunch of kids on a field trip. And where, pray tell, was this field trip? Oh, only Jurassic Park. *rolls eyes at subconscious* I have no idea why my brain came up with that.

The first part I remember about the dream is that there were these little four-wheeler things that could hold four kids (or three kids plus me). We were being attacked by the T-Rex, but we got away and decided to get out of the little vehicles for a rest and some lunch.

Then, this Pterodactyl-thing (it didn't have feet, only wings and a body--and yes, I spelled that without looking it up!) came up, walking on its bottom wing-tips, and started to peck at everybody. So, we all scrambled back into the vehicles, and I told the kids to get to the main building as fast as they could.

We got there, then the next part of the "field trip" was this maze which was accessed through the main building. I think they were supposed to be hunting some of the dinosaurs or something, but (and this part is a bit disturbing) the kids ended up turning on each other! I managed to get all of my group out, but by the time the parents had come to pick everybody up, there were body parts strewn all through that maze. Why in the heck would my subconscious come up with something like that?!?

At this point, the dream changed. I dreamed that I was caught up in a storm. Or maybe, I was controlling the storm, because once the storm was over, I just walked around, then I walked back to the place that I'd started walking and I knew exactly which roads to take to get home from there--only I asked for a ride the rest of the way. During my travels though, I visited a lot of people, sometimes just in their yards, but sometimes I walked right into their houses unannounced. I even came upon a toddler's birthday party in a kitchen once.

The dream changed again, and this time, I knew exactly why I'd dreamed what I dreamed--because I was reading Lois & Clark fanfic and posting on the L&C Fanfic Message Boards before I went to sleep.

Clark Kent was missing Lois Lane for some reason. I was sitting there watching them as they talked. They were both very sad. Lois was committing herself, and Clark was begging her to stay and talk about the problem with him, because it was the same problem he had--their daughter had died in some sort of accident, and he hadn't been there in time to save her or something.

It was around then that I woke up.

Now, the question . . .

As some of you (or all, depending on how many/few people actually read this blog) know, I write fanfiction. I have it posted in various places, some here, some there, and some just sitting on my hard drive. For years, I've been meaning to make up a website where I can keep all of it and not worry about which fandom it's for. But I can never seem to keep up with the site updates well enough, so I just let those old sites die.

Anyway, my question is, would any of you actually be interested in reading my stories if I posted them here (with tags for the different fandoms/stories, and links on the side bar) so that I could keep them all together? Or would you prefer if I found some place else (not fanfiction.net) like maybe fanficauthors.net or some other high-quality multi-fandom fanfic site to post my stories, and then put a link in the side bar here?

Where did that come from? . . . It was kinda fun!

No, this is not a post about my Christmas. I haven't really figured out what to say about that--there really isn't that much to say anyway.

What this post is about, however, is a dream I had last night.

When it started, I was in this building. I think it was a combination of all the schools I'd ever gone to or something, 'cause it looked a lot like a school, only bigger. Then, when I went outside, I found myself at this really swanky outdoor party. There was a fountain and everything.

But the weird part is, there was also this huge parking lot with lots of expensive cars in it. Now that I think on it, that was weird too--I mean, why would anyone keep such expensive cars outside, instead of in a garage?

Anyway, this kid started bugging me, then ran away, so I was looking for him. Then all of a sudden this guy starts talking to me out of nowhere. I turn around, and the guy looks like Michael Keaton for some reason. And he's got this kid with him (different from the one I'd been looking for), around late teens, early twenties.

I gasp, and say something like, "Um, uh . . . Mr. Wayne!" because, apparently I was at Wayne Manor. The kid was probably one of the Robins, and I don't know why, but he called Bruce "Dad" in my presence, which was even weirder.

So Wayne says something about my car being towed (I had apparently left it sitting in the streets of Gotham), and asks if I want to drive to get it back, handing me this ring full of keys as he gets into one of the cars on the lot, a Porsche, or that's what he said. I don't know one expensive car from the other, so the cars in my dreams probably really weren't Porsches.

Then, he points to a car that goes with the key he'd stuck up for me in the ring . . . only I'd accidentally dropped the key ring and didn't see which car he'd pointed at. I did hear him and Robin saying something about "the 100" though, which didn't make any sense at all, but I guess it had something to do with the car he'd pointed out.

Anyway, "Robin" leads me to this car. It was supposed to be green, but looked more cream-colored to me, and I try the key which is the one I think Bruce handed to me. No dice.

I try another one, and the doors unlock. So me and the Robin guy get in the car, and follow Bruce Wayne in the red "Porsche" he'd gotten into around the parking lot a few times. I remember chuckling to myself and saying to the Robin guy (either in my head or out loud, I don't remember) that it would be funner if one of the cars was the Batmobile. We finally made our way to this really messed-up alley way with bricks laying around and the manhole open in the middle of the street and such.

There's this weird-lookin' bike there, and a couple of cars, but mine isn't there. So I get on the bike thing, and thank Mr. Wayne before . . . I wake up.

I don't know where that dream came from. The last time I had anything to do with anything even remotely Batman-related was a few days ago, when I read a couple of stories from LaraMoon's Lois & Clark fanfic series called, "Clark Kent is Batman . . . NOT!" And a week or two before that, I'd dubbed the original Batman movie from a home-recorded VHS to a DVD. But anything I'd been doing the past few days had been pretty much strictly Lois & Clark.

Strange.

Buy my books!

So, I went to Wonder Book and Video to sell the 206 books I wanted to get rid of. The buyer guy wanted to give me $10 for the lot! Grrr. Considering I had done my research to find out the lowest used book price for each title, this irked me.

I had gone to Amazon and looked at the used book listings for each title--for each one, I checked the lowest price (not including the ones selling for only $0.01) for the condition my book was in. I added all of those prices up, and got a little over $360, which was only about $51 more than my original estimate for all 206 books.

Since Wonder Book was only going to give me 1/36 of the money my books were worth, I decided to sell my books online at iOffer. So, if you want to see what books I'm selling (and maybe even buy some), just go to the top link at the right of my blog.

Amazon Kindle

One of my bosses bought an Amazon Kindle. I had never even heard of them until last week, and even then I didn't know what it was until Gabe (the guy I share my office with) was setting up the one my boss bought. Turns out, they're back-ordered until like, February right now.

I got to hold Willem's (my boss) Kindle for a little bit, check out the features and stuff. It's pretty nice, and the screen doesn't strain your eyes. But the cost! Oh, my goodness, the cost!

Just the reader itself is $400! Then, you have to pay about $10 for every book you put on the Kindle from the Kindle store. You'd think, if they were making you pay so much just for the technology, they'd at least let you pick out 20 (better 100) books from the Kindle store for free! Not to mention, regular e-books usually don't cost more than 1/5th of that!

Some people have figured out how to put other e-books and PDF files onto their Kindles, and you can e-mail text files to the Kindle too, but still.

I do like the fact that you can get magazine and newspaper subscriptions on the Kindle though--not that I actually subscribe to anything except the TVGuide. I don't subscribe, because that means I have to take time out of reading books and fanfic to read the magazine/newspaper/whatever. And some months/days/weeks, I just don't want to put the book down, or I just want to get through the fanfic, y'know? But if I had a Kindle, they'd all be on the same thing, and I could just switch between them if one couldn't hold my interest for long.

Overall, the Kindle is awesome, but I will have to wait until the price--both for the reader itself, and for the content--comes down to my price range.

First Snow of the Season

For the first time in years, it's actually snowing before Christmas. I can't remember the last time that happened. Yesterday, they said that the meteorologist called for 2-4 inches today.

When I left for work this morning, it was coming down, sort of flurry-like, but there was a lot of it in the air. It had just barely begun to stick. I checked on it again before lunch, and there was at least 3/4 of an inch on the ground outside the basement office.

Just checked again--there are about two inches.

I'm going to have to shovel the walks when I get home today, or else I won't be able to move the car when I have to go to work. I can't afford to take snow days off right now, since I was just out sick for two days last week, and I didn't even have enough paid time off saved for that.

Last weekend, Anna and Jason came over and helped us decorate for Christmas. We got the tree set up, plus a few things we put in the cubby over the fireplace. Anna also set up the stockings, I think.

Blech.

Tuesday was kind of a bad day. My nose was all stuffy and such.

Wednesday was worse; I had to blow my nose every ten minutes or so, and I was so knock-down-drag-out tired, I ended up staying home from work. Went to the doctor, and found out that, not only do I have a viral infection which is causing all this congestion, but I also have an ear infection. That last part is kind of odd, because my ear doesn't really hurt like the last time I remember having one--just itches a bit and feels kind of full-ish.

So the PA I saw gave me two prescriptions: Amoxicillin, for the ear infection, and Phenylhistine DH Liquid Qua . . . which is basically a really nice (purple) cough syrup with a decongestant mixed in, and--wonder of wonders--codiene! I can only take the cough syrup before bed though. Which is mostly when I need it, because Tuesday night, I had lots of trouble sleeping, since I kept having to blow my nose and get some water the whole night, and that was with the huge mound of pillows (plus my TV cushion and the large green blanket from downstairs) propping me up.

The PA said to stay home from work until I'd been on the Amox for at least 24 hours, so I stayed home yesterday too--got caught up on all but one episode of Numb3rs. Holy heck, that show boggles the mind in such a great way! (Not to mention, David Krumholz is really starting to grow on me, with his floppy, curlie-cue hair and such.)

Today, I went back to work, still pretty miserable, but unable to afford more time off. Truthfully, I can't really afford yesterday and Wednesday (don't have that much sick time saved), but oh well.

I still have to blow my nose a lot, but thankfully not as much as I had to two days ago. My nose was raw long before lunchtime Wednesday, and it doesn't look like it'll be back to normal anytime soon. The odd thing is, I'm coughing more now than I was two days ago.

Four Bikes in a Cabrio

Yes, you read that right. We stuffed four bicycles into Anna's Volkswagon Cabrio.

Why?

Because Dad's truck is in the shop, and Anna and Jen wanted to go biking. Not to mention, the bikes wouldn't have fit into the Bug.

When we got back, I took seven pictures. Here's one of them.

Boredness

Went to Mom & Dad's last night, but Dad wasn't home. He went to Grandma's house. So Mom made tuna fish so we could have sandwiches for dinner.

I ate my sandwich, then decided I wanted to do a cross stitch project, 'cause I was bored. I picked out a pattern with two quail on it, and started working on it last night. I haven't gotten very much finished, but that's all right. I don't have all the floss I need anyway, so I should probably stretch the floss I do have as long as I can so that I more time to get the other colors.

I also started watching season 1 of Psych last night. Kayla borrowed it, plus the first three seasons of Numb3rs from Kimba. We decided that I would watch Psych while Kayla watches the first season or two of Numb3rs, then I'll start on Numb3rs when I'm ready.

I only got to watch the first episode of Psych before it was one o'clock in the morning, and I had to go to sleep. But that's okay. It was funny.

I keep hitting Ctrl+P while I'm typing this, when I usually mean to hit Ctrl+I, and it's getting a little frustrating that it keeps posting my blog entry before I'm done typing it, so I'm going to stop now.