Test du Jour

So I took the What High School Stereotype Are You? and, as expected, it didn't really fit at all. Except for one question:

4. The school requires everyone to take a computer course. I...

• choose something more advanced, because I took them all already.
  
• don't give a damn. I'll sit there like I always do. They dictate my life anyway.
  
• panic and make peace with the nearest computer nerd.
  
• can type! Woo! Thys'll bee a peace of caek.
  
• find a virus to run in the main computer system, causing inconvenience to many, many poor teachers.
  
• can't believe I have to take a class with a bunch of geeks.
  
• take it of course. It's expected of me.
  

Of course I was doing this in pre-web, pre-GUI, non-networked computers (we even had to do an assignment with punch-cards), so rather than than a "virus" per se what I did was recompile the compiler with a new set of error messages. Mine were much more colourful than the standard ones. For example, "syntax error" became "you fucked up". I also, in a classic computer-geek manoever, got an "A" in a class I never took.

Nonetheless, for the record, I didn't get geek. Nor did I get goth. I got "outsider", which doesn't apply at all. I wandered through high-school somehow immune to the cliques... I was on the rowing crew, played rugby and even football for a while; I went to huge drinking parties with the shrubs and the indians; I hung around in the art-room; I helped the physics geeks with their homework; I played D&D; I took jazz-dance... I was an absolute freak, but I was *in* with too many groups to ever be considered an outsider.

1980 Ford Fairmont Station Wagon (14)

Peace © 2002 Michael René Barrick

1980 Ford Fairmont Station Wagon (15)

All of It © 2002 Michael René Barrick

An Annual Report of Sorts

I'm not sure how many hours of data entry, a few hours of cross-referencing data to tax lines, one BSoD from the tax software, and I am finally done. All the numbers are crunched and the news is good!

Unadjusted Gross Income:	+23.3%
Taxable Gross Income:	+26.7%
Taxable Net Income:	+31.1%
Gross Tax Payable:	-4.1%
Balance Due:	-40.1%

Yes, this kicks ass. Because of some great deductions (like my old apartment being a commercial rather than a residential lease) my taxes this year are almost absudly low. In terms of percentages I'm 10% below the national mean. I may not like accounting, but fuck me if I'm not good at it.

So, in the end, despite nearly losing my shirt in the Great Dot.com Bomb, nearly losing my apartment, getting canned over 9-11, and all the other shit that happened, I came out better than expected. I am pleased.

Tonight I am exhausted, but tomorrow night, for Trish's birthday, I intend to do a little celebrating of my own.