He’s been a part of our house-hold for almost a month, so an introduction is a little overdue. Smudge came home on June 16, a rescue from Michelle’s work, and he was around 3 months old. A few flea baths later, and he was running around the house like he owned it. Well, after he and Widget straightened a few things out, anyway. Now they seem to be getting along fairly well. Except for the playfighting, but hey, they’re kittens!
You can see more pictures of Smudge (and Widget) here.
I won’t hit another perfect square for another 13 years, and I see no reason to rush things, so I’ll just enjoy this one. Someone may point out the geekiness of looking for interesting things about numbers, especially for ages, but I don’t see that changing anytime soon. 🙂
Well, not really an update, because unless Congress does something about the backlog, I’m still in a five year-long line, waiting my turn to continue the process. I’m a little more than a year into the line-up, so I should be getting to the front of the line in four more (and I thought Jersey lines were bad!), and then, in another year or two, I (we) should have our green cards! For those of you keeping score, that will mean we will have been living and working in the U.S. for 14 years.
What I really wanted to talk about here was the recent fun I/we have gone through as part of life in U.S. as a non-permanent resident.
The first was after waiting over 2 months for my new visa to arrive (I’m back on the NAFTA-based TN visa, which is the yearly one my wife has been on for the last 8 years, and will be until we clear the line and begin the process again), I had to update the paper-work at the payroll office where I work. After doing that, they told me I also need to update the information in the GLACIER system. GLACIER is the system the government uses to track tax information for non-resident aliens. In essence, it’s a memory test of unrelated information designed to tell you something at the end so blindingly obvious, you’d rather fill out a tax return. As I started filling it out, it was basic info; no-brainer things, some of which was already filled in. Then you get to the section that asks you to detail your presence in and out of the U.S. since 1986. The “out of the country” is required for as long as you’ve been legally in the U.S., so for me, that’s 8 years. We don’t spend a lot of time in Canada or traveling each year, so that’s not too bad. The other part – “in the country before that period”, took a little more thought. After all, in 1986 I was 15 and still in high school. Having relatives in the U.S. that we visited on a semi-regular basis made this a little challenging. Two things came out of this: one was being told to “do your best, they don’t really check it”, and second was getting to the end of the form to be triumphantly (as much as a web form can, anyway) told “Hey! You’re eligible to pay taxes!”. I could have told them that, and without the memory test.
The second event just happened, and while this is to be attributed to life post-911, it’s still annoying. As mentioned, we have lived and worked in the U.S. for 8 years. During that time, we’ve held New Jersey state driver’s licenses, and have had to renew them twice, as they expire every four years. At least that used to be the case for us. Recently, NJ switched to a “digital driver’s license”. In moving to that system, they did something deviously clever. To get your new license, which is all about security: are you who you say you are, you need to provide various forms of ID in a point system: you get different amounts of points for different pieces of ID, from 1 to 4 points. With the caveat being you can only use, at most, 2 1-point IDs, this ensures you have ID from the higher point values. As non-permanent residents, none of the 2-point IDs applied to us (well, I guess if I had an FAA-issued pilot’s license), so that meant the big 4-point ID was our passports, with our work visas in them, and in that is the cleverness. By forcing you into that position, you’re forced to let them know you’re a non-permanent resident without them having to ask. The result? Your driver’s license now expires 90 days after your visa, and for us, that means we’ll be renewing our licenses every year. Michelle even caught a bonus: her current visa expires in May, so she’ll be back in the MVC even sooner. The only saving graces are the fact that they pro-rate the fee (I paid ~$12, and Michelle had to pay ~$8), and it only took us 15 minutes, plus driving, which only added maybe 10-15 minutes.
Maybe it’s just that there’s been a few of these recently, but I used to be fairly complacent about the 5 year thing, and now I just want things to move along. Oh, well, back to waiting. At least I’m not really been hassled the way I’ve read stories about other non-Canadians. I have a way that lets me stay and work in the U.S. legally for as long as someone wants to employ me, and that means I’ll be putting up with the little hassles that crop up from time to time. It is fun, however, to talk about them, and get people’s (ie American citizens’) reactions to things their governments put me through! Is that wrong?
OK, so I noticed that it’s been the end of September since I’ve written anything in my blog. Oops. And that’s not for lack of trying – there’s 5 half-written posts in my drafts section, which I never completed for some-reason-or-other. And that’s not because nothing has been happening – quite the contrary. Part of the problem is that I tend to get caught up in a (mostly, I suspect) irrational need to ensure that posts are chronological (“I can write about the thing that just happened, because I haven’t posted anything about the other thing that happened just before it!”). And the snowball just gets bigger, until, like now, I decide I’m going to do something about it, there’s a flurry of 3 or 4 posts, maybe 1 or 2 after that, and the vicious cycle repeats.
This would be the part where I mumble something about it being the beginning of the year, and resolutions, and making an attempt to do better, but I’m not going to do that. Actions speak louder than words, and all that (which means you’ll probably soon be deafened by the silence resulting from the aforementioned cycle beginning another turn).
Anyway, the story so far, in particular order (that chronology thing):
* reverential bought a new sound system: a Bose Cylindrical Radiator Loudspeaker, and a JBL subwoofer, which sound amazing.
* I got a piano: a Yamaha Clavinova CLP-230. An excellent practice instrument for the lessons I started back in September.
* I attended the USENIX LISA conference in December in Washington, DC. At the conference, I was able to meet Cory Doctorow and have him sign one of his books for us.
* We lost our cat, Oscar, as due to a series of problems that came on pretty suddenly, we had to put him to sleep.
* We saw Thomas Dolby (with BT) in concert at the World Live Cafe in Philadelphia, and got to meet them afterwards.
* We went down to Little Rock, Arkansas for Christmas to visit Michelle’s parents. As they’re looking to retire in the next year or two (back to Canada), this could have been the last Christmas at their AR house.
Well, I think that hits the major highlights for last year. reverential has 4 or 5 gigs already lined up for this year, so there’ll be lots more news there, along with live photos of venues we play and gear! And there’s a few other things that I’m saving for separate posts. Enjoy!
I’m taking piano lessons again! I haven’t taken lessons for 20 years, but this is something I’ve been thinking about for some time now. I have definitely reached the point where I *know* I can be doing more with my playing, especially my weekly playing for our church’s contemporary morning service. Through a collegue at work, I’ve found a great teacher, from whom I’ll be learning technique and style in both classical and jazz, some theory, and eventually composition (he writes jazz). I’ve had two lessons so far, and it’s been great. I think a large part of what I needed was the accountability to practice every day. Taking (and paying for) lessons is really great for that!
So now all I need is a piano. I’ve been using my CME controller and my Alesis NanoPiano module, which is OK (the CME has 76 notes and semi-weighted keys), but not great. I would really love to buy an accoustic (a baby grand if we’re really dreaming, but even a good upright would be nice), and I’ve started to look around, but I think realistically, I’ll probably be buying a digital for now. Not that it’s all bad, either. There’s a new Yamaha I’ve been playing in a music store I frequent, and it’s really nice. Hammer action, ok speakers, good sounds (samples) MIDI, USB – all the bells and whistles – for a decent price. I’ll let you know what I end up with.