BUZZZZZ! equals Run Away!

I was in the back yard this afternoon, with Toby. I was standing in the sun, enjoying the warmth, while Toby was eating random stalks of grass. When suddenly, BUZZZZZ...

I looked up and saw a swarm of bees heading my way. I sprinted for the door, called Toby, run inside, and slammed the screen behind me -- and watched as several hundred bees flew over my back yard.

I haven't been stung in seven or eight years, and am nervous about getting stung again. That last sting caused my arm to swell, so I don't look forward to being stung again. It's something I try to avoid.

It never ends (sigh) part two

The Washington property saga continues.

In theory, we close tomorrow (the 30th). I'd been expecting a healthy $34.5K check for the property, but am only getting $19K. Why? Well, it seems I owe not only $67K for the remaining principal on the property, but also $15.5K in accrued interest! In reviewing the contract with my seller, there's no way the monthly payments on the property could possibly have even kept up with the interest rate on the loan. In essence, the contract was written for maximum screwage of moi.

Over the term of this loan, assuming a constant 8%, $174K would have been owed on the property. Yet the monthly payments laid out in the contract only account for $160K. In reviewing the transaction history on the property, we've been keeping the account up to date, but the interest is only paid through mid-2004. So, there are three years of interest payments due on top of the principal.

I discussed it with my lawyer, but he said there's nothing we can do about it. So the $24K in debt my sister has cost me won't end up getting paid off, as I'd hoped (sigh). :(

The blessing and curse of Spring

The curse: Allergies.
The blessing: Blossoms.

My backyard smells amazing! Right now my cherry tree, apple tree, pear tree and orange trees are blooming.

It never ends (sigh)

I've been rather happy the past couple of weeks, with the impending sale of the property, and the possibility of getting into the games industry. So it just figures the Universe would take another dump on me.

Today I received a letter from the IRS, telling me I owe $18.5K in taxes and fines for 2005. Their claim is that I didn't report $51K in securities, but they're wrong. When I left Oracle, I exercised $51K in options -- all of which had taxes withheld, and all of which were reported as income on my W-2 for the year.

So now I have to prove to the IRS that their math is wrong, and that I did indeed pay taxes on these options.

I pulled out my W-2, showing the options income. I also printed a transaction history from E*Trade, showing the sale of the options, the money due Oracle for the purchase of the options, and the taxes withheld by Oracle. I also mailed Oracle payroll, requesting copies of my pay stubs (which should show the options income, as well as the withholdings).

Game Developer's Conference

Two weeks ago, I attended the last two days of the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco.

I'd love to get into the game industry, either as a developer or, if possible, as a designer. Of course I have no prior experience in either, as I've never worked in games before. But many of the companies present at the GDC said that doesn't necessarily matter. One company, Cryptic Studios, routinely hires from outside the industry. As long as the development skills are there, along with enthusiasm, gaming experience, and a willingness to learn new things, it's feasible I could switch industries and never again have to debug another line of code in AWT. :)

The drawback is I haven't used C in ten years, having been entirely in the Java world since the top of 1998. Of course I used to know C inside and out, and have been reviewing some of my C books to re-learn the language. I always liked C, and never really liked Java, and it would be nice to return to my roots. Right now I'm reviewing pointers -- specifically, pointer math as it relates to multi-dimensional arrays. Ugh, I'd forgotten how confusing it can be. :) But if I can find a position where I'd be using this stuff routinely again, I can't see it'd really be that difficult to get my C skills back up to where they used to be.

I'm going to give Cryptic a try. The first step is to take a five-hour C programming test -- hence my reviewing my C books to remember what I've forgotten. After that, assuming I pass, would come a potential interview. I'm hoping, hoping, hoping I can jump from development tools to games. It'd be nice to do something new.

The property's being sold!

Woot! After all this time fretting over abandoned cars, power, well, junk on the property, etc., we have a buyer! He's agreed to take it as is, which pleases me to no end. I probably could have gotten $15K-$20K more for the property, but frankly, not having to deal with my brother-in-law's crap, the mobile home, the snow mobiles, etc., is worth the difference. I just want to be done with it!

In theory, we have a closing date of March 30th (seven days). I'll be able to pay off the guy I bought it from in the first place, and clean up my credit cards (which have been carrying $24K of sister-related debt for a few months now). I'll be able to stop the monthly finance charges, and the monthly mortgage payments for the property, as well as not having to pay the upcoming property taxes due on the property at the end of April.

One problem down! Woot, I say! :)