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Well, I was actually in the middle of the hiring process for a miltech job. While I am not a civilian this shutdown is still going to delay this job. I was already offered the position just had to get the paperwork processed to get hired on. Who knows what will happen now.

ehh, I'm not butt hurt about the shutdown nor this thread. It does put a damper on a lot of things planned. I just hate the feeling of being held hostage by my current job because they know the economy is bad.

I can't visit any National Parks

Let me tell you about the Oceanside Library.

Oceanside (CA) has a farmer's market every Thursday right in front of the Civic Center and their main library. So a couple of years back, budget cuts forced the library to close for one day per week. The day they chose just floored me: Thursday! When the whole town is invited out, when it would the easiest to borrow and return, when everybody can see you. Then it hit me. "Like a crystal bullet to the middle of my forehead." The library sees me as the enemy.

Let me explain using the "Value Proposition." Every business needs to make a value proposition to its customers. A plumber will be the best plumber. Or the lowest price. Or the best value. Or none of the above, but will have the easiest phone number to remember because he advertises it so darn much. Some value proposition is made. The government does not have any such impetus at all. If you want a license plate, the DMV is the only place to go. You can't go where lines are shorter. You can't go where the plate is cheaper. You can only go to the DMV.

The people at the DMV get paid the same amount whether I get a plate or not. The only thing I represent is work they need to do. They would be better off if I never came in. Same with the library. Same with the building dept. The same with any municipal, state, or federal govt agency.

So when the library decided to close on the most visible day, I not only recognized that the value proposition was absent from the library, but they were wired the exact opposite! When they need to cut services, they will choose the MOST inconvenient, the MOST disruptive, the MOST visible possible place to cut.

Living here is California I have seen many, many budget cuts. To schools, cities, counties, and of course the state has been broke for years and years. And every time a govt agency makes a cut, count on it being the most visible and disruptive cut. The bureaucrats don't need to be told from on high what to do, they all do it instinctually.

So that's why they made sure to cu off the PandaCam first thing. Make It Hurt!

^ I'll have whatever you're having.
In a strange Ray Milland Lost Weekend sort of way you make a temporary hiatus from inebriated stupor amount of sense.

You KNOW they never take time off from tracking Z6joker.

The worlds busiest airport is clicking right along ...

Stock market closed on the up.

Actually if you get furloughed you get a reminder that you can not work or engage in outside activities without permission from the ethics office.

It goes on to remind you that they are likely furloughed as well and silence or lack of response is not approval.

Hang in there JB.

If furloughed they can file now. They have to pay it back if reimbursed later (rightly so)

If forced to work without pay they can not file. Trapped.

Freak

Working for an IOU you're required to work but there is no paycheck until sometime later when they resolve all this

do you have an unethical side job..??

We desperately need more debt

isn't taking away the tax cuts the same thing as raising taxes..??

But forgive me for taking the diminutive Reich's perceived socialist point of view, but wouldn't raising taxes on the corporate & rich allow for more resources for the middle class & poor which they would in turn spend vs. hiding in overseas accounts & ventures? Trickle down theory has been largely discredited by many including it's author David Stockman.

Another interesting aside is that Kalifornia which until recently had a huge deficit, decided to make spending cuts AND increase taxes under Brown's governorship. They now supposedly have a nice surplus.

...or stock up on nacho Tostitos and other treats as they watch PPV on their 42" tv's while the rich build another slave factory in China.

Spoke to my sister this afternoon. Her husband was furloughed or what ever you want to call it. He's been working on keeping up a govt website up all day, but no guarantee of pay and he can't seek employment elsewise with out ethics approval who is also on furlough.

...and the wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round......

we've noticed... especially around election times...

My son is active military and claims the PX is more expensive than anywhere else especially for electronics etc. That seems weird to me. Is that true? Sorry just reread you are a contractor. Nevermind.

Btw, the U.S. Postal Service on Monday defaulted yet again on a prepayment for the health care of its future retirees as its finances remain in the red and legislative reform remains elusive.

The agency has blamed the payments, more than $5 billion a year as mandated by Congress to pre-fund the Postal Service's future retirees' healthcare, for contributing to annual losses of billions of dollars.

The U.S. Postal Service ended the third quarter of its 2013 fiscal year, April 1 to June 30, with a net loss of $740 million, increasing the year-to-date net loss to $3.9 billion. The Postal Service said it will not return to profitability and long-term financial stability without passage of comprehensive legislation...

Looks like anyone planning on closing on a mortgage or refi in the next few weeks is going to be in for a rude surprise...

I'm right there with you. Forced into work with no promise of being paid for worked performed once this fiasco is resolved. All sick leave cancelled and all vacation time cancelled as well. A co-worker that just had surgery to remove large cancerous lumps from his head was called and told his sick leave was cancelled and he needs to return to work.