racketboy.com

I went to some friends' house today and had a great time! I drove with him to pick up another friend of ours, and then went back to his place and hung out with his fiance for a good few hours. Showed off some Dad of War (which I was playing for the first time) and they thought it was really cool! They just got a PS4, so I like showing off stuff to them that I think will be cool ^w^. Rounded off the night with some Super Mario Party, and it was a dang close game! Lots of fun. I'm really hoping I can hang out with them another couple times before I leave for Japan in mid-March. I love those guys~

My copy of Resident Evil 2 Remake has shipped! I'm taking next week off from work to play it and Kingdom Hearts III. RE2 is getting pretty good reviews. KH3's review embargo gets lifted tomorrow so we'll see if it was worth the wait. I'm sure it will be fine. The KH games don't deviate much from the established formula. From the few trailers I've seen (that I told myself I wouldn't watch), it looks like it will play a lot like Dream Drop Distance.

Pissed some. I got this opportunity to work at home in a part time basis as an internet evaluator of stuff like instagram, web searches, stuff like that. Up until a couple last December these companies used the classic W2 style tax system. But during the year a few bought out a few others, consolidated, and it appears they all colluded to save more money. Basically these international companies work on a small office group with smaller yet in various major countries and the rest is who they bring on to do the work load for their clients.

The pay for what it was is ok at $9hr at first glance, spend an hour on instagram review a burst of ads and give feedback and be done. Well I guess they decided it would be more cost effective to change how taxing works, they didn't want to pay the state, federal, and entitlement (for US, SS and medicare) taxes and switched over to the 1099-MISC or that equal in other nations. Basically they do nothing, run an inventory, then send you that form which basically is a year long unpaid tax bill you have to handle. Worse on a 1099 you end up paying (US again) the 15% self employment tax, but also the usual state, federal and entitlement taxes for yourself AND THEM which is double taxation. Working on a 1099 for $9/hr means you get basically $5 if that in your pocket in the end.

I'm furious they did this, $5/hr is like min wage from 20 years ago, and with us already in a hole every month I can't afford to lose the refund that helps us get by some months or do repairs/improvements to the old house having to owe the gov't thousands of dollars instead. I was enjoying pulling in a couple hundred a month and was looking to add many more hours to be closer to 500-1K a month, that would kill me. Bastards, going to have to quit tomorrow.

That means they have decided you are a contractor, not an employee. Great for them. Not great for you.

Oh I know that, it was that way for years past, but they still took out taxes from each check. They switched over to now taking the burden off them entirely and onto the worker who now loses substantially more of their pay so they can save a buck. Therefore I have to quit. I wasn't much enjoying it anyway as it was tiring dealing with the ads and the rest, but hey $9 is nice to get. They changed the terms of how they handled pay without any warning in advance for their workers. Ultimately I think they're going to lose a lot of competent talent once they get hit with a nasty tax bill instead of a refund a year out.

Was that your primary employment? What do you plan to do now?

No, my primary job I've had a dozen years and rakes in pretty good money, but it was necessary as a side job for added revenue. Long story short, wife has POTS, so she's partially disabled and can't work more than 15-20 hours on her feet, and has had no luck getting a desk job so she's pulling in a 1/3 of what she used to, so we get 4 figures worth of family help monthly to get by. This was going to work where we split a 30hour a week job doing reviews to bring in the lost income. So it's a fury inducing kick in the teeth as their own sites invoice/pay faq still shows they do W2s, so I assumed they did, then I got no taxes out and learned about the 1099-MISC style sheet and that I'd lose 45-50% of the pay to taxation and in turn get hit with a stupid tax bill yearly instead of a refund. That's why I was angry about it writing that.

That's the reality of it, and why I thrift shop, buy used, quit buying most games and invest into kits, etc. It is what it is and it has gone on for a few years now. This year looking to try and remedy that. I've put a few things in motion, even the director (tier under VP) at my company for my space is going to help re-write her resume professionally and also see if she can get her employed where I am which would cure the bleed.

I’m so sorry, Tanooki. That really is rough. We’ll be rooting for you, and please keep us posted when things start going your way (which they will).

Weird. Double post.

Not much going on with me. No smiles or frowns for now, I guess.

Has your wife considered one of those at-home jobs where you work in front of a computer doing stuff like transcribing physician notes or something like that? Some involve helping banks with deposits and whatnot. I know those jobs don't pay super well and aren't great, but they're something, and they can often accommodate part-time hours, and you can often pick when you want to work during the day, as long as you get stuff done within a time frame. Just throwing that out there, in case you hadn't considered it.