Recently I won this amazing radio station contest that claimed it would "change the life" of the winner. Prizes included a new car, dinner one a month for a year, lunch once a month for a year, weekend getaway once a month for a year, two watches a month for a year (? weird, I know), new wardrobe, cell phone bill paid, golden ticket to see all the live in-studio performances over the next year (arguably the coolest prize in the package), and an apartment ("loft") to live in for a year. There's video of me going crazy winning this package, but in the days following the win, I've been going crazy trying to figure out a way to keep it all
On top of the fact that I have to report the prize value as earned income on my taxes and have it leined at an increased rate, the Stadium Loft Anaheim people are claiming the value of the apartment at $4400 a month. $4400 dollars! Not pesos, not units, not cents, DOLLARS! Ridic! I looked up comprable units in the surrounding area and the median rate for a comprable space is $1900. At a modest 30% taxation, I would pay over $1300 a month for my "free" apartment....that I am not allowed to sublet, transfer or add additional persons to the lease of
It would be easy enough to just decline the prize, but I'm so pissed that the company offering the apartment clearly entered it as a prize with an inflated valued knowing no one would ever live there. When I called the marketing company representing the property managers and expressed my views on the situation- citing the fact that the very unit they had told me would be mine was listed on their website for sale at $289,000 (making a year's rent worth about 1/6 of the total cost to OWN), showcasing some lack of seriousness at renting the unit- she took a pregnant pause, exhaled and admitted the units were never really intended to be rented
At this point, I've contacted the radio station, the Loft people, the marketing firm and several tax attorneys about the situation and am still without a resolution. The radio station has bounced it back to their legal department for review, but I'm not holding my breath
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Deleting pictures is not nearly as cathartic as tearing them up...
Anybody else have the screensaver application that cycles through all the pictures on your computer? Except maybe that certain subfolder that has the pictures you don't accidentally want filling your 17" screen while your nieces and nephews are watching? Yea! That one!
Well, I often let my computer go to screensaver just to get the G (ish) rated photo show and I've been finding myself turning away lately when pictures of my most recent ex-idiot (the one who- among other things- spent $200 on a dog after I bought him a plane ticket to come visit and then declined to spend money on anything the whole time he was here) flash across the screen. Watching the show today I decided that I should delete the pictures but found that I couldn't do it
Problem 1) too sentimental. Bad as some of the times were (he didn't shower for three days and actually put on deoderant before getting into bed), there are good memories, and more importantly, good lessons, in there somewhere
Problem 2) what's the point? I don't get to drag and drop him from my life; can't clear the cache of locations visited with him. There's not enough memory that would be freed up in my attempt to rid myself of his memories so I've left the pictures...for now.
I'm sure one night I'll have one too many tumblers of Diet Pepsi & Gelson's brand Canadian whisky and scour my computer for all related files, send them to the garbage and permanently delete them. But c'mon...I know myself too well. Should that stage of drunkenness ever be reached, I'll run to the geek squad the next morning, claim to have no knowledge of their disappearance and get them recover my shitty pictures...only to delete them again two months later!
However, I don't see it happening any time soon, because there's just no passion exerted, no finality, no point achieved from point, click, delete.
PS- I never EVER tore up a picture of David Duchovny. Even when he married Tore-up Leoni. Bet y'all have torn up a picture or two...
Well, I often let my computer go to screensaver just to get the G (ish) rated photo show and I've been finding myself turning away lately when pictures of my most recent ex-idiot (the one who- among other things- spent $200 on a dog after I bought him a plane ticket to come visit and then declined to spend money on anything the whole time he was here) flash across the screen. Watching the show today I decided that I should delete the pictures but found that I couldn't do it
Problem 1) too sentimental. Bad as some of the times were (he didn't shower for three days and actually put on deoderant before getting into bed), there are good memories, and more importantly, good lessons, in there somewhere
Problem 2) what's the point? I don't get to drag and drop him from my life; can't clear the cache of locations visited with him. There's not enough memory that would be freed up in my attempt to rid myself of his memories so I've left the pictures...for now.
I'm sure one night I'll have one too many tumblers of Diet Pepsi & Gelson's brand Canadian whisky and scour my computer for all related files, send them to the garbage and permanently delete them. But c'mon...I know myself too well. Should that stage of drunkenness ever be reached, I'll run to the geek squad the next morning, claim to have no knowledge of their disappearance and get them recover my shitty pictures...only to delete them again two months later!
However, I don't see it happening any time soon, because there's just no passion exerted, no finality, no point achieved from point, click, delete.
PS- I never EVER tore up a picture of David Duchovny. Even when he married Tore-up Leoni. Bet y'all have torn up a picture or two...
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