"Reportable to Public Health in Maryland" (S Birkhead) EGOTORIAL Hope y‘all tke this new format. te gotten Printaster to play with a home as a substitute for bad ole MS Word, which of course buggers Ine up for emailing This Here out as a fle as before, unless the happy recipient also has that plece of software. Such is progress and the price of being a bit more fancyschmancy. ‘Anyhoo. important stuf up front: please note new emall addresses for personal stuff (nicandbodbie@aol.com) and a separate one for tos ithisherefanzinetaol com). Anyone Who emailed the old address on or after Februay 15th Is likely to have had their mnissive consigned to wander the ether fom mae INTO A LAGER rm finally getting of my ass to get thish ‘out in time for Corfu dn fact, Fm having to by mw he eens anes retype everything right now, the weekend before, since 1 managed to find a way to crash the program and make the original week's worth of work inaccesile,) Por thase who didn’t know, fm currendy unemployed (which fucking sucks) ater being “let go" by ry employer of the previous 3% years (although according to the Maryland Deparment of Labor, I was. apparently discharged - news to me, that), To be honest, it wasn't that much of a suprise. There's been hardly any work In our area for several ‘months, and Ive been siting around mest of the day going over personal correspondence, ‘making major decisions tke which mut to scratch right now, playing ‘Transport Tycoon, you know the aril. ‘There doesn't appear to be a lot of work around In my specialty (AS/400 PG programming) right now. We'd 4 expected 4 downtum and general cutbacks in client requirements after te big push to get everybody through Y2K. We figured most companies budgetled ahead, or frontioaded their expected expenditure at the tail end of 1999 and the first and second quarters of 2000, CAN basically making the later part of 2000 and probably the fst hall of 2001 dead time in terms of program development. So, I'm scuffing around a bit, but there is @ potential career change on the horizon. The Blessed One and mise were somewhat luck in having fled taxes early and, because Td kept my original deduction schedule for the last year, we gota thumping refund since | claimed as head of household, tmartied with two dependent kids. Given the Jack of decent jobs in my own field right now, "ve also been looking at the possibilty of going Into business for myself as sone sor of traveling PC advisor. I got this idea because a number of my good ole redneck buddies call ‘me up from time to time when theyre having computer problems, and 'm usually able to sort them out pretty much by vite ofthe fact that I've used PCs for much of my working Ie Well see how it goes, eh? OF course, the ‘other big fucking pain is that It now actually have to pay for printing This Hee, nichevo, ‘SingSing and the rest instead of sneaking into work at 6am and slapping out the copies on hat nice machine that sorted and stapled ‘em all for me. Pant (Hey, maybe that's why they “discharged me.)OF ARTHUR C CLARKE /A PLAN FOR THE Ccuse | So fa, 2001 frankly sucks dead Dears as. | thought we stated off well enough, to be sure. | actualy managed tose the New Year in for once (it eing my usual had to be prety insensible by the time midnight comes around), ané di so at home ami frends and family. t's always nice when the holdas fll around a weekend so you get that extra celebration/ecovery time. We hal the kids here thal weekend too, so Matt & Charlene and their brood came ever, and ny son stayed over Saturday and Sunday night » a frst there Aclually he waste only one ofthe kids to tay Up tong enough to watch the ball drop, and he thought that was all prety cool, whieh 1 suppose Its when you've Just tured six We awoke the next momin to fd tha the car woudn’t star, 50.1 had to call his yandparents to come get the wean. Tamed out we needed a new fue! pump, which mercifully wasnt as expensive a it could have been. We ended up paying $250 forte ob, which was a Dito a reli since you often expect eventing ‘© cost four figures on an old Cacltc, We hoped this wast some Kind of omen, and continued on in blind optimism (or ignorance) into the joys ofa New Year. | igured work shoud start to pic up a bt since the Tew Year usually brings ina bunch of alls fom clients who cant remember how to ‘un their W2s from one year othe nex. (Note “0 nom US readers: a W2 is a fom showing your statement of eamings and tax paid for the Devious year, which you need to file your taxes. Federal law requires that they are provided to employees by the end of January) Sut no, sil all ult on the Westem Front. The previous year the IRS had made some changes in the regulations, which inevitably means you have to modify the W2 payroll programs and ‘transmit the changes 10 all the clients who use them. I's not billable work, bu it Keeps you busy and on a deadline | spent a fair bie of January frantically trying to solicit atiles for nichevo 42, which |'m sure will appear at some point, but won't >e anywhere near the promised frequency of (quarterly, what a surprise. 1 was a bit bummed at not getting mach feedback on #1, but Il be the first to admit that the istribution was pretty lame. I'd baskally just hhanded out copies at Novacon to the usual ‘suspects (and seemingly thus proving to _myself the old saw that handing out copies of @ Fanzine gets much ess response than ‘mailing them), and mailed out maybe 20 ‘copies or so in the US, primarily to the contributors and principals, and a number of focal fen. | snuck in work early several days to make enough copies to send out with the February FAPA malig, so we'll see If that gamers any response, although of course the (ld email address is still giver in that ish and nothing’ getting to me from there, thank you very much. Anyhoo, things did seem to be looking Up when we got our taxes fled, and nice ‘n’ early too. Ive always had my withholding fhannish greatness or opprobrium, pethaps). There have been a few comments aout the earliness of the date, but this was the best weekend to get reasonable room rates from the hotel ($89 per room per night). If the watch for further detals and a bid Is wor Website, but an enquiry to the This Here address will undoubtedly get you the info. Now is the time for al Maryland fen to stand up, contribute and party! (And then fall down.) smal to coral S¢popfirenet $C From Tews of the Wein anwar, Quedec’s heath insurance board ‘approved about $3,000 (USD) in payments for breast implants for a 1Syearold gi after a ojchiattst. submitted a recommendation «alli the surgery ‘necessary’ for her mental following the board health, (The next Predictable outay, a ‘announced, to a chorus f skeptical cic, that the poychiatist's recommendation was ‘relevant and thatthe gi actualy suffered from a medical week, official condition (apasia ofthe breas.* or 2 lack of | mammary lands, which made her breasts unusually sma) that required surgery) (ational Post, 1-10-01) When, exacty, did candy bars become “snack food"? 9 BD rere you a, then foot and mouth disease from ChemobyiThis Here... is an occasional perzine by Nie Farey. You got this rag for one of the following (usual) reasons: | © You gave or sent me a zine (or will) You have locced (oF will) i You bought alcohol (or will) 00° I know where you live (oF will) ished in the UK by Chg PLE Soa Seiko Willenhall Sao fel) And in the USA by Nar iO MUL St. Leonard, MD 20685 De ee era iy ee eee Ca ean yeaa e eo) Rural Rola) Eee Oe ee a) eter ieet | trade, though if Martin isnt already on your Pee ad ee Ce eee eg re naa ce De Tie Rn ee ee ne Sen Co eta eee "I'm as honest as the day is long.| The longer the daylight, the less i do wrong..." 23 |