(no subject)

*headdesk*

Can someone please explain to me, in very small, very commonly-used words:

1. Whether there actually was a new law passed in the US about student loan repayments that says you can't be compelled to pay more than 15% of your disposable income (or if my mum was just delusional)
2. Whether it applies to people who have consolidated their loans with a private company
3. ONLY IF THE ANSWER TO #2 IS YES: how the hell do I set it up?

I spent this morning groaning about being broke, only to realise that I get paid this Friday, not next, so I'm not actually going to have to empty my savings to pay my rent. Great Relief was had.

It is not being a great Monday. I've lost my flashdrive, the one that holds all my writing work and to-do list and various other things vital to MY LIFE. Including the Semagic program that allows me to post to all four mirrors from work, which is why only LJ and DW readers are getting this post right now.

I know the drive is in my flat somewhere because I had it on Saturday and didn't leave the flat all weekend, but it's, you know. The size of my pinky. It could be anywhere.

Well, I needed to clean the flat anyway...

(no subject)

I am home! Finally!

The El hates me.

I did find my flashdrive, and I didn't have to clean to do it. Downside: flat is not clean.

It was on my desk, right where one would expect it to be when I spent most of Saturday at my desk, but it was under a package of (admittedly, very cool) cork placemats Mum sent me that I haven't found a place for yet. Mainly because I lack a dinner table. Since, you know. I lack a dining room.

Thank you all for the student loan info earlier -- you have helped me and the rest of the cafe as well, if comments are anything to go by. I took a look at it and I am not actually certain I qualify or that it would do any good, since according to their little chart a person making what I make would pay, under the new law...about what I pay. I suppose I could sign up for the advantage of having my loans forgiven if I work for my current Not For Profit for the next nine years. Which, I could. I like it there.

Anyway, I am exhausted, and going to go eat some cold cereal. Mm.

(no subject)

And I have come upon this place
By lost ways, by a nod, by words

It's a roundabout route I take seeking wisdom, that's for goddamn sure. I found this video by random curious clicky, and I love Dirty Jobs but I had no idea Mike Rowe did public speaking as well.

It's an awesome speech but not for the squeamish; he opens with a story about castrating a lamb with his teeth. What comes after the testicles is pretty great, though -- classical concepts of knowledge and tragedy, the potential myth of passion, and the idea of seeing what's happening and going the opposite way and finding joy in it. It's long, but I hope you like it.

I mean, I love the idea of following passion, and Alex Haley's The Shadowland Of Dreams is enshrined in my soul, but I like what Rowe says too. It seems to be the epitome of what I'm trying to do with Nameless and eventually with Dead Isle and Valet of Anize, which is to eschew the idea of story as commodity and instead work with story as community. I have every respect and more than a little awe for someone who can write a story and get it published, because I can't, but for me because I can't, I've found a new and different niche for myself as a writer.

It reminds me of what someone said -- I don't recall who, if it was you step up and take credit -- that when I write science fiction it won't be about the gears and guns, but about human and alien and technology and the dark places inbetween. I hope that's true. I'm trying, anyway.

It also reminds me that I'm vastly behind on Valet of Anize, so I'm off to put in my eight hundred words.

It's been a weird fucking day, guys.

By words, by voices, a lost way - ,
And here above the chimney stack
The unknown constellations sway -
And by what way shall I go back?