kr_402_07.mov (QT, H.264, 2.3MB)
The changes for this week are subtle. I changed an "S" shape here, adjusted some eyelids there, tweaked an eye position. It might seem the changes were simple and quick, but it did take a good amount of time. I spent a lot of time thinking about what needed to be done, to get it from there to here, and that way I knew what should happen, where to spend most of the time. This will be the final week on it. I don't know why the new H.264 codec made my playblast so "faded" looking. Kinda annoying. Probably a Mac thing, different gamma and all. Generally I don't like compressors to do anything to my image unless I tell them to. DivX did something similar a few versions ago and it was also a nuisance (inexcusably made everything darker). Maybe there's a new checkbox I don't know about yet ("Make Video Brighter For No Reason").
So, not speaking of daily life outside of AnimationMentor assignments, my mom is adjusting to new medicines again. She needed a change because, though she was doing very well during the beginning of our last break between classes, right when the new semester started my mom's condition began to worsen. I came very close, closer than before, to deciding to drop AM. I just couldn't believe the timing...she'd been ok all that time then BAM! Right when I needed to start focusing on school.
So with my mom's many needs my dad often has to just wait patiently before I can help him with anything. He needs a new hearing aid. I was finally able to get him to an audiologist a coupla weeks ago, which is the first step. Next I have to go through a (thankfully-) short list of Medi-Cal providers to find out how this all works. He got his current hearing aid before I was taking care of him and my mom and, even though he qualified for Medi-Cal, he paid for it out of his own pocket. Ouch. The one he has now is like ten years old, too and hopefully one with newer technology will help him. But anyone who's ever dealt with Medi-Cal can tell you it's sometimes a long, overly-complicated process to use your benefits.
Alas, my dad has to wait some more. I have an even more pressing, long-running issue of my own. I am an IHSS care-provider with a "consumer" (the person I provide care for, my mom) who is unable to meet her monthly "share of cost", the amount mandated by insanely unrealistic laws that she is required to pay to me before the County/State program pays anything. There's no possible way she could pay the amount they require, not even close, and still have enough to pay her rent and utilities and food. So part of my income through the IHSS program is left unpaid...the largest part, in fact. This results in an alarming situation. The other details are not important but what it means is that, unless I can find some way around it, I am expected to pay taxes based on an income figure (on paper only!!) of more than ten times the pay I actually receive!! How do you like them apples? (And by apples I mean "pooh".)
So now I am on a quest to find the person or group that is going to help me out of this tax nightmare. My union representative was sympathetic but little help, steering me elsewhere. There is an IHSS tax seminar I will attend near the end of the month. Hopefully I can get some answers. I'm sure there are other IHSS caregivers in a similar situation all over the State. Oh, my union rep also confirmed that, though I work more than 9 hrs a day and 64 hrs a week with no days off I don't get overtime because of the way home workers are classified by state law. What a crock! Ok, sorry. Enough rant. My point is, I've got a lot to do just to fix things that I shouldn't need to fix! That said, I better get back to it!
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