Sean Leong - Public blog » COBRA http://seanleong.com Interactive Multimedia, Macs, Art, Politics, Caricatures Fri, 30 Mar 2012 19:11:06 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 It’s officially 3 months of unemployment now http://seanleong.com/2009/03/its-officially-3-months-of-unemployment-now/ http://seanleong.com/2009/03/its-officially-3-months-of-unemployment-now/#comments Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:20:10 +0000 admin http://seanleong.com/?p=36 Regardless of what happens with a handfull of prospective jobs this week, that I either interviewed with, or recruiters recommended me for, today is officially 3 months and counting of being unemployed.

We’ve had to pay for COBRA, Sirius covered us for the first two months as part of their severance package. But [...]]]> Regardless of what happens with a handfull of prospective jobs this week, that I either interviewed with, or recruiters recommended me for, today is officially 3 months and counting of being unemployed. :(

We’ve had to pay for COBRA, Sirius covered us for the first two months as part of their severance package. But the COBRA administrator was supposed to have sent us an application packet for the Federal subsidy of COBRA and STILL hasn’t done it, almost a MONTH after it was announced – surely that’s enough time to work out all the details? Without that help, we won’t last that much longer, it takes a huge chunk of change out of our pocketbook, and with only one part time income, we have not got long at all before we start digging into the home equity loan we took out last year.

We got the utility subsidy from PSE&G a little while ago, it would have helped if it came in the middle of winter; but I’m thankful for it never the less. By the way, those ladies I drew a while ago for drawing practice, were waiting in line with me for that subsidy. That was 3 days of misery – the lines were so long, the building (a converted multi-family house in Newark) could not fit everyone in at the same time. So for about 4 hours each time, I had to wait in the bitter cold with 30 or so other people before we got to go inside.

Our bank (let’s just say it’s one of those being bailed out right now) is reviewing our application to prevent defaulting, we should know in a couple of days/maybe 2 weeks, if they can do anything short term, so we don’t have to worry about liquidity. One of the questions on the form says “why do you need assistance?” followed shortly by “How do you plan to continue payments if we help you?” I dunno, it seems like if you really need help the bank won’t help you (you’re going to default anyway), and if you CAN pay by digging in to savings, then that’s what they expect you to do (thereby crushing your life savings). We’ve asked if they can defer our payments until our income comes back up closer to previous levels. In other words, we’ll end up paying exactly the same amount, (perhaps with a little penalty), and it’ll take us a couple of extra months at the end of the 15 year mortgage to pay it off – it’s just REALLY difficult to pay off the mortgage now on top of living expenses, if they don’t help us.

I *just* finished doing our taxes, we had to get an EIN for the first time this year, because we’re filing electronically, and the Federal form requires it I guess. Pretty simple process to apply for and get an EIN for a sole proprietorship online at the IRS site.

I have to get more traffic to this site, I’ve got to let people know I’m available for drawing and illustration gigs. If anybody out there knows somebody who’s having a Bar Mitzvah and looking for a caricaturist or other entertainment, send them over to my party caricature site: http://partycaricatures.vox.com/ or for banners and illustrations to my “company” site: http://cyclopsnewmedia.vox.com/.

BTW I’m going to try and contact a few Mac-centric bloggers, and see if I can offer free caricatures in exchange for a mention or some real estate on their site. I spoke with one fellow, David Carrol today who gave me some interesting ideas on how to market my business, I really appreciated that he wanted to help me, and not just sell me something, we all need more people like David out there. (thanks again)

]]> http://seanleong.com/2009/03/its-officially-3-months-of-unemployment-now/feed/ 0 Hello World! State of the State http://seanleong.com/2009/03/hello-world/ http://seanleong.com/2009/03/hello-world/#comments Thu, 05 Mar 2009 21:13:33 +0000 admin http:/?p=1 As I sit here writing, I’ve spent another whole week in my job search. Obama has his hands full fighting politics as usual, I feel he’s a good man, who’s trying his best to do what’s best for the country, but the Republicans seem to be Hell-bent on trying to demonize him into some [...]]]> As I sit here writing, I’ve spent another whole week in my job search. Obama has his hands full fighting politics as usual, I feel he’s a good man, who’s trying his best to do what’s best for the country, but the Republicans seem to be Hell-bent on trying to demonize him into some Socialist monster. That’s not to say I totally agree with all his decisions, but really, what the Republicans want is their Dogmatic ideology in place and damned be those of us that are suffering. I think the worst thing he’s done so far is select Geitner as Treasury Secretary – he seems like a bit of a fox in the hen house at times, having worked the system before and during the start of the crisis. His solution was also so opaque and lacking in any great detail that it just seemed like another George Bush dodge.

Timothy Geitner

And why is Obama so afraid of the Socialist label? I don’t think he is Socialist, sometimes he’s barely Liberal, and he’s hardly Progressive, but he does mean well. I wish him well in his overhaul of the Health care issue – he really does need to clamp down on the issue early with some hard political decisions now, everyone is suffering. Even with the Federal Government picking up 65% of COBRA, it’s *still* a lot of money, and certainly a large enough chunk of change for those of us that have been downsized in this economy. Can’t he and Congress repeal that obnoxious clause in the last Republican PHARMA LOVE FEST they called the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, that said the government couldn’t negotiate bulk pricing for the drugs in the plan? What kind of help is that?

No wonder Conservatives HATE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT – THEY are the ones who made it so bureaucratic and unwieldy these last 8 years. I still stand with my theory that the Conservatives’ secret agenda was to deliberately GROW the government, but make it so unresponsive, bureaucratic, wasteful, inefficient and inhuman, that the populists in all of us would be reviled by it, feeding right into their hands with the need for “government to get out of the way of (big) business”. And then we’re back into the hands of the big bankers and pharmaceuticals and big oil making decisions for us. Does anyone realize that the term “military industrial complex” came from that great conservative President, Eisenhower? He was forward thinking enough to see the dangers of where the Cold War was leading this country, as far as civil liberties and responsive government, too bad none of his fellow Republicans had his foresight on this matter.

Despite what Rush Limp-BORG says, nationalization of the banking system is not the awful thing he claims it is. The Savings and Loan scandal of the 1980s (more Republican shenanigans) was painful, but saved by nationalizing the S&Ls and then quickly liquidating them and setting up the Resolution Trust Corporation to deal with the toxic assets of that time by getting the private sector to buy them up again. Of course the current crisis is much worse and it’s effects are rippling across the world, but the World Bank has used this type of strategy the world over to save banking systems (the leading proponent of which has been the largest shareholder, the U.S.) – why oh why can’t we forego the politics this time and use this on our own problems? Why do we preach it to EVERY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD except our own? (Answer: politics)

Enough ranting, I had hoped to put up a few pictures, but maybe on my next post…

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