these are not my walls

So, it's end of semester time in law school land, which means I'm drowning under papers and exams and wondering why, exactly, it is that I signed up for a conference in the next week. Uh, yeah, that was a good plan...

On the other hand, we had our volleyball playoffs this past Wednesday, and my team came in second! Out of, like, 8 or 9 teams. So, I must say we came a long way from losing all 3 games our first night...and we actually had 7 people come play. Our heads almost exploded from trying to comprehend it...

I need to just vent for a minute about my frustration with the B.C. medicare program, or, as they call it, the Medical Services Plan (MSP).

Now, in B.C. they have a user fee for the MSP. In general, I don't hold with user fees. Flat fees regardless of income result in those who earn less paying a larger proportion of their income for the fees. In other words, the poor are taxed proportionally more. That's just not cool.

But let me speak specifically to the MSP user fee. The monthly premium for a one-person family is $54, and for a 2-person family it's $96, or $1152 a year. If you make less than $16,000 a year for your 'adjusted net income', you can get 100% premium assistance - i.e. the government will pay the premium for you. The percentage of assistance decreases as the income increases, until if you make $24,000 per year or more, you can't get premium assistance.

Granted, this is net income, so they at least allow you to deduct taxes, EI and CPP before they start assessing whether you can get assistance.

There are some additional deductions you get to make. You get to deduct $3000 for every kid. You get to deduct $3000 for every person 65 years and older. You get to deduct up to $3000 for every person with a disability.

However, what you don't get to deduct is tuition payments. Between us, Alex and I have to pay over $10,000 a year in tuition - the vast majority being mine, I admit. But we are not allowed to claim this in assessing our net income, despite the fact that we would be allowed to claim it on our tax return.

In other words, we have to pay premiums based on non-taxable income.

Which is a serious problem, because right now we have to pay full premiums, but if we were allowed to claim our tuition, we would qualify for 100% premium assistance. We're not exactly talking chump change here, folks.

I didn't think this made any sense, so I called a woman at MSP, and she said this was correct. However, she cheerfully told me, because Alex and I are a 2-person family, we qualified for a $3000 deduction on our net income for the purposes of applying for premium assistance.

Somehow this pales in comparison to the $10,000+ we're shelling out for tuition.

It appears I may have been a bit premature with my praise of the discerning abilities of the Impromaniacs yesterday.

Not that they don't all seem quite nice, and at least some of them quite good improvisers (I don't mean to imply that the rest aren't, just that I haven't really seen them...)

But "discernment" would suggest that they discerned some difference between Alex & I and the other auditioners, which I learned today was not the case - aside from the two auditioners I've already mentioned, all of the other auditioners were invited to join the troupe.

Yes, there's a very immature part of me that feels disgruntled at this information, that had felt rewarded by somehow being recognised as better than other auditioners. I am clearly not a very nice person.

But I also have what I think are some very legitimate concerns. Being used to improvising with a small group of good friends in Without Annette, I don't know how easy it will be to adjust to a much larger group - apparently, with the new members, there will be 35 impromaniacs, at least on paper.

While the workshops for the troupe will apparently be less structured, there will still necessarily be a limit on the amount of improvising we can do, just because of the sheer number of people who want to be in each scene.

And if the troupe gets a venue for performances, we won't be able to perform until the People in Charge of Making That Decision (tm) decide we're ready, and even then I can't imagine that everyone who wants to will be allowed to perform at each show.

And, finally, there remains the fact that I have reservations about improvising with people who are still at a fairly early stage in their improv development. I know this sounds both condescending and elitist, and maybe it is - but if I wanted to just improvise with people who are trying it out for fun, I would have started a club at UVic. Part of applying for a professional troupe was that I was hoping to work with people who were already strong and confident improvisers, who challenged me and helped me grow and develop my own skills.

There is fun to be had working with people who are trying improv for the first time, helping them to feel confident and find their voice on stage. I've done this, and enjoyed it. But it wasn't what I was hoping for here.

Alex and I are still going to go to the workshop, though, and see how it goes. Obviously if we try it and it doesn't work, we can always drop out. I have to say, though, that I would be severely disappointed.

So, Bryan, I guess the answer to your question is - we'll have to see.

Well, clearly the Impromaniacs are to be congratulated on their impeccable taste and astute judgment of abilities and talent.

That's right, boys and girls, Alex and I both got invited to join the troupe.

On Wednesday, there was a rather long phone message for Alex with an invitation and information, followed shortly by one for me...much less lengthy, and consisting mainly of "huh, I just now realised I dialed the same number twice" and "everything I just said before, only for Clare". Yeah, it was heartwarming and shit.

In other news, we won 2 of 3 volleyball games this week, only one by default, and that with only 4 players. I'd say we're coming along nicely.

Next week is the playoffs, so I predict elimination after one round. Hey, we might not be that bad, but we sure crack under pressure!

Last night, Alex and I saw The Incredibles, which was a very enjoyable movie.

So enjoyable, I didn't mind the guffawing jackass behind me to the left.

So enjoyable, I didn't mind having only 5 hours of sleep last night.

Well, not too much.

have you ever played Super Monkey Ball? There's an awesome scene in The Incredibles highly reminiscent of the game...so good. So very good.

On a separate note, last night Alex and I had our last audition workshop with The Impromaniacs, and are now desperately awaiting word of our fate.

Or, more accurately, are now sitting in International Law and sleeping. Guess which is which.

As per Amy's comment, you can find more info on sending packages or mail or whatnot to other troops here.

You can also read some last letters written by soldiers who were killed here. Don't do what I did and read it in class, where it was hard to explain why my eyes were welling up...

I realise that these links have all been centred on American troops, which is undoubtedly due in major part to my being a media whore. However, here is information on writing to Canadian troops.

Happy Remembrance Day.

I was thinking, if you're of a mind to 'celebrate' Remembrance Day, an appropriate way to do that might be to put together a package for some soldiers who are in battle zones overseas.

I only know of this guy's information, but I'm thinking it can't be that hard to find more.

Just a thought.

I thought some of you might be interested to know how the auditions are going.

Last week was our first of the three weeks of trial run, but I got a little sidetracked in my posting.

We arrived to discover that almost every single other auditioner had been invited back, INCLUDING guy-who-was-on-crack-and-talk/screamed-the-entire-time. In fact, the only auditioner who wasn't there was woman-who-stood-there-with-stunned-expression-on-her-face-and-occasionally-asked-questions-about-what-she-should-do.

So the only person who got cut was incompetent woman. Let me tell you, there were others that could have been cut.

And THEN, last night, guess who showed up?

That's right, incompetent woman.

So, why did they hold that initial audition if they weren't going to cut any people???

It means that there are 12 auditioners, so in 2 hour sessions we only ever get to do 2 or 3 scenes each. And last night, Alex only got to do, like, half a scene! It's crazy!

Alex thought that maybe it was to weed out the obviously offensive people, but still give everyone more of a chance.

If so, then I don't know how they managed to miss guy-on-crack, who last night started his freeze scene as a photographer, and said to the other (male) improver, "Got wood?" And proceeded to go on in this vein while poor other improver stood there kind of stunned and yet trying to change the scene. The impromaniacs finally ended it when guy-on-crack told other improver to go stick his finger in the ass of the woman over there.

Charming.

So, we'll see how it goes. I, at least, got to show my amazing skills at rhyming scene and ABC dubbing. In fact, I was better at the mechanics of ABC dubbing than the regular players in the scene with me, which I'm sure endeared me to them greatly.

Sigh.

Oh, yeah, and in case anyone is keeping track:

We won all three volleyball games on Wednesday.

I got a job.

I think we can all breathe a little more easily now.

Okay, I admit it. I am a tool. A maudlin, overly dramatic, generalising tool.

And I knew it when I was typing my last post. I just couldn't seem to help myself.

After much perusing of my good friend, the internet - like this site, and this, I deserve a good thrashing.

So I take it back. I don't hate them all. I mostly feel sorry for them. And the rest of us. And feel very, very afraid.

I know that I have problems with latent anti-Americanism. It's a Canadian thing, right? But I try to fight it, really I do. I try to remember that there really isn't that big a difference between individual Americans and individual Canadians, and it's really not fair to lump them all together in some sort of condescending elitist way...

But last night, 11 states voted to deny marriage rights to their own citizens; in 8 of those states the ban includes any form of civil union or partner registration. Exit polls apparently show that "cultural values" were primary in people's minds when choosing which presidential candidate to vote for. Cultural values that I can only infer include self-deception and delusion, arrogant imperialism, abandonment of the protection of civil rights, and rejection of a community's responsibility for each other unless they're all members of the same church.

I can't help myself. I'm sorry, but right now I hate them all.

Well, it appears that all of you B.C. residents out there breaching liquor regulations can continue to do so without fear of retaliation from me...

Two interviews, two rejections. This is starting to feel personal!