The Kennedy Center responds

Finally a response from the Kennedy Center to my complaints.

[Dear Cherished Patron,]

We have manually removed you from our e-mail list. You shouldn’t be receiving any e-mail from us regarding anything aside from shows for which you have purchased tickets. If you do receive anymore unwanted e-mail, please feel free to get in touch with me and I’ll do my best to fix the problem. I apologize for your inconvenience.

Sincerely,

[Some dude]

Electronic Media Intern

So, all I had to do was complain to the FTC.  I would have appreciated an explanation of why they thought it was okay to violate the CAN-SPAM act, but maybe that’s too much to ask.  Maybe they could have told me why I had to complain three times before I got a response. 

Well, at least they responded.

A suggesting for writing

Why I Won’t Read Your Unpublished Work (Whatever)

For God’s sake, if you’re going to hand your work over for critique, finish the damn thing first. Even if it’s broke, you can fix it. But you can’t fix a fragment. All you can do is fiddle with it, and in fiddling avoid finishing it. I don’t encourage this; even with friends, I don’t read things that aren’t finished.

The whole post linked above is pretty amusing, as Scalzi generally is.  But this part caught my eye.  I’d never thought of that.  And it makes a lot of sense.  Not that I’ve ever finished any story I’ve started, but often asking for feedback has actually been the last thing I ever did.  I joined a Sci-Fi writers feedback web site, got some pretty positive feedback on the first chapter of something that I had started, and promptly never picked the thing up again.  It was a strange feeling.  The person who offered the feedback did what I thought was a good job.  He mentioned some good things, gave some constructive criticism, and did it in a polite, supportive manner.  Not much more you can ask for.

And still, I got that “OMG my writing is terrible” feeling.  And it’s not that my self-worth is tied up in how someone I’ve never met feels about the first draft of the first chapter of a novel I was working on.  Honestly, if he’d ripped it apart, I would have just assumed that he was incapable of understanding what I wrote, and pretty soon I would actually believe that.

Anyway, not that I want to use “I let people read it” as an excuse for why I didn’t finish any of the writing projects that I started.  But maybe I should keep stuff to myself until I’m finished.  My wife will kill me, probably.  But if I explain to her I’m doing it so I can finally finish a novel, become a bestseller, and support us both into our old age, I think she’ll understand.

And Im out

A to-do list for the next ten days:

  1. Fly to London this afternoon.
  2. Take a train to York.
  3. Hang out in York for a few days.
  4. Rent a car, drive a manual transmission on the wrong side of the road for the first time.
  5. Be 1/2 of that cool couple that came all the way from the States to the wedding.
  6. Fly to Dublin.
  7. Enjoy a delicious Guinness at a pub.
  8. Repeat #7 as necessary.
    So, I’ll be out until Friday the 13th.  I don’t expect internet access while I’m gone.  But, I’ll bring back pictures.  And memories.

A partial explanation

I got an explanation on health insurance from my mother-in-law. She tells me that “anything taxable to the employee is generally taxable to the employer”, which I guess I knew but didn’t really think about, since I’ve never been the employer.  So, if health insurance is not taxable, then it becomes a relatively cheap benefit for the employer to offer.

I still think saying that it “encourages employers to offer insurance” is a little strong.  It encourages them to offer it instead of other benefits that might be taxable, but the real “encouragement” is that (another thing I learned from my mother-in-law) most states require it by law.

Certainly it seems likely that fewer businesses would offer health insurance if they had to pay taxes on the money.  So I’m still not exactly clear on who this proposal is supposed to help.  I’ve sent another email to my mother-in-law seeking further guidance, but I believe she’s out of town for the weekend.  And I’m out of town starting Monday, so we may all have to wait.

$10 minimum?

I need a new dry cleaner.  I just picked up five shirts.  The total was $7.13.   They wouldn’t let me use a credit card, and I only had $5 in my wallet.  She said there’s a $10 minimum on credit cards.  Is it just me, or is that pretty high?  I’ve heard of $5 minimums, but $10 seems steep.

Anyone know a good dry cleaner in Columbia Heights?  I’ve heard nothing but bad stories about Georgetown Valet and Oxxo or whatever they’re called.

Im trying to understand this

Bush Tries to Resuscitate Health Insurance Tax Plan

Under current law, workers who get health insurance through their jobs do not pay taxes on the value of the insurance, which encourages employers to offer insurance as part of their benefit packages.

So, why does this encourage employers to offer insurance?  Clearly this encourages employees to want insurance through their employer in order to get the tax break.  And, obviously, this is a benefit to the employee, which makes the employer more attractive.  But the employee still benefits from the health insurance whether or not they are taxed on it.  I’m just not seeing the extra benefit for the employer beyond being able to offer a slightly better deal to employees.

Anyway, more importantly, what effect would Bush’s proposal have on this?

The Bush plan, unveiled in January, would substitute that tax break with a standard deduction that would go to any taxpayer with insurance.

Bush has recently said that “he might be satisfied with replacing the existing tax break with a tax credit, rather than a tax deduction.”

So, let’s say we stop offering a tax break (And by that I include credit and deduction and whatever else) on only employer-provided insurance.  Assuming that current practice actually does encourage employers to offer insurance, will changing the law discourage it?  It seems like an important point that the article suggests but doesn’t address.  And I can’t address it myself without seeing how it encourages employers to offer insurance in the first place.

Can anyone explain this to me?

The Kennedy Center is spamming me

My wife and I are going to see Phantom of the Opera at the Kennedy Center with my father-in-law next month, and I bought the tickets at their website.  Now they’re spamming me, and refuse to stop.  I tried their email preferences page, but every time I click anything, it selects all of the “send me junk mail and spam” options, and refuses to do anything else.  I emailed their web support on June 20th:

I am unable to unsubscribe from your email list.  I would like you to email me with updates related to shows for which I have tickets.  I do not want any other emails from you.  I do not want any regular mail from you.

Thank you.

Then again today after receiving more junk from them:

Customer # 3747291 requesting action on issue # 58603.  I contacted you on June 20th, 2007, because you are sending me email spam, and your opt-out page on your website does not work.  I received an automated response, and then nothing.  Today, I received another spam message from you.  I would appreciate your immediate action on this matter.  I would like you to send me emails only in response to this issue, and for changes or updates to shows for which I have purchased tickets.  Never contact me by postal mail, or by email for any other reason than stated above.

We’ll see what they do.  Unfortunately, I don’t think the toothless CAN-SPAM act is applicable here because I have a business relationship with them.  And, also unfortunately, they have something of a monopoly on large-scale theater in the area.  Since both my father-in-law and one of my sisters-in-law are theater fans, it seems likely that I will return to the Kennedy Center.

In any event, I am annoyed by their junk mail, and I want it to stop.

Contesting a parking ticket

June 27, 2007 Adjudication Services P.O. Box 37135 Washington, DC 20013 To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to contest a parking ticket, citation #[redacted], that I received yesterday, June 26th, 2007. I recently moved to the north side of the 1400 block of [redacted] St. NW, and registered my car. I was told that, since my street is not zoned residential, I would not receive a Residential Parking Permit. I usually park on the north side of my street. However, on Tuesdays, the north side is closed for street cleaning, and so I moved my car to the south side of the street. Yesterday, I received a ticket for failure to display an RPP. According to the DDOT website, the 1400 block of [redacted] St. NW is not zoned residential. I have enclosed a printout of the DDOT web page listing the blocks of [redacted] St. NW which are zoned residential, and the 1400 block is not listed. I understand that the residential parking zones are designed to prevent commuters from leaving cars parked in residential areas all day, and I applaud these efforts. But in this case, my car was parked perhaps fifteen feet from the front door of my home. Clearly this is not the behavior that the parking zones were designed to prevent. Therefore, I would greatly appreciate it if you would forgive this parking ticket. Additionally, steps should be taken so that I and my fellow residents are not subject to similar tickets in the future.

You may reach me during the day at my work phone number, [redacted], or at home in the evening at [redacted]. Thank you very much for your attention.

Sincerely, Senor Complain-o