| Fun with UI forms |
[Sep. 8th, 2003|12:42 am] |
The California EDD's unemployment insurance (UI) forms can be confusing at first. There are quite a few "gotchas"! I have found that it is safest to always put these answers down.
Answer these questions as follows, by checking the boxes:
1 = No
2 = No
3 = YES!
4 = No
5 = No
6 = No
7 = Optional (prefer No)
8 = Optional (prefer No)
Then, SIGN the form!
Do NOT check any other boxes or make any other markings (unless you're being audited)!
Mail it AFTER the LAST week has ended (e.g. Monday of next week after that), NEVER before! You're supposed to be able to accept jobs and record work you've done on all 7 days of both weeks. Mailing the form early is a sure sign you haven't done this, and will probably trigger an audit.
Now, about those gotchas:
It is now MANDATORY to put in a resume at CalJobs, usually within the first 2 or 3 weeks of receiving UI. Failure to do so WILL trigger an audit! It happened to me, when I forgot to do this....
http://www.caljobs.ca.gov/
After the 16th week of UI, ask about vocational retraining benefits. This can help stretch the length of UI payouts, and also help you to get around their requirement of needing to look for work full-time.
If box 3X is checked, lucky you, you are being audited! You must now fill out the additional form, logging your job search results for the past 2 weeks (hope you kept track). NEVER check this box yourself!
UI is taxable! Keep some money in reserve, come tax time. Don't check the box that enables automatic withholding. Money to you now, when unemployed, is more precious to you than money for paying taxes later (when you might have a job)!
When you make a contact, such as casually asking a person if they have jobs available at their company, keep a diary of this! UI will require 6 pieces of information: date applied, company name, company address, person contacted, type of work applied for, and results. I'm not sure how they expect people to put results down, since if the results were good, you wouldn't still be needing UI in the first place!
Good luck, and remember, it's YOUR money you're getting back (it was taxed away from your paycheck when you were employed), so work the system for all you can get out of it! |
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| Some more quick tips for being out of work |
[Sep. 8th, 2003|12:48 am] |
Three more quick tips for being out of work:
COBRA is expensive. If your company is giving you some free COBRA months as part of your severance, accept it. Immediately start looking for private insurance, which is much cheaper. Continue COBRA only as necessary to ensure you have no gaps in your coverage. The very first COBRA payment you make is very large compared to future months, but it has magic powers: this payment is the only one that will apply RETROACTIVELY and fill in all gaps, all the way back to your layoff date (important if you have ongoing health issues), even if several months have lapsed in the meantime!
If you're lucky enough to have ESPP shares or stock options, liquidate them immediately. They might expire just a short time after your layoff date! As you are laid off, you are no longer an insider, so don't worry about blackout periods (better play it safe and verify this with the company first). I find that it feels good to wash my hands completely of the old company.
If you move, tell the old company. Most 401(k) funds will not accept change-of-address orders from you, as they will require that you go through your old company! This really frustrated me one time, when my 401(k) wouldn't let me do anything without going through an old company, and that old company had forgotten about me and didnt put the change through! This is also important for your W-2 tax forms that will come in January.
Anyone know any more? Feel free to reply to this and add on.... |
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| My Blood Omen 2 review got posted! |
[Sep. 8th, 2003|05:34 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  satisfied | ] |
My Blood Omen 2 review got posted by MobyGames!
http://www.mobygames.com/game/view_review/reviewerId,29837/gameId,6083/platformId,7/
I originally wrote this on 3/16/2003, after playing the game. I had intended to submit it to ign.com, but every time I kept getting CGI errors on their site after submitting the review! After several attempts, I gave up, and pretty much forgot about it until now.
By chance, I was browsing some Blood Omen 2 sites, and came across the link to MobyGames, another site that accepts user-written reviews. The programmers at MobyGames know what they are doing, though, and their site did not give errors when I submitted the review! It's now on their site. Their reviewer even wrote back and said "Great review"! I'm proud of it, too. I wanted to make sure it got posted somewhere.
And, as another good stroke of luck, I finally found the elusive Blood Omen 2 techno/trance music mix that was spun by DJ Dragn'fly at the release party for the game in San Francisco, back in the days of the dot-com boom! This mix is featured on the official Blood Omen 2 site, but the link for the music has been broken for some time. Here it is.
http://www.cs.sonoma.edu/%7Enwerner/music/Dragnfly-LOK.mp3
http://www.djdragnfly.com/LOK.htm
http://www.djdragnfly.com/mixes.htm (scroll to the middle)
Nice.... |
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