Ten Years and 1 WACOM Later

After waiting nearly ten years, I finally upgraded my small 4x5 WACOM ArtPad II this week to a 6x8 Intuos3! Yay! I never had any complaints about my 4x5, which is part of the reason I didn't rush to get the ArtZ, or Intuos1 thru 2. But I was having trouble with accuracy in some apps; I could barely draw at all in Plastic Animation Paper, for example. With the Intuos I immediately noticed the difference in it's much higher resolution and pressure sensitivity. These suckers are kinda pricey and I wouldn't normally plock down nearly $300 for a "mere" input device. This was an item on my list for a very long time though, and I did just "get" a small "raise". Since starting AM I've learned many animators use a WACOM in their 3D apps, not just Photoshop, Painter and Flash. I experimented with my 4x5 in Maya and found I like using the tab and pen in 3D, so I'll continue to practice. I don't know if I'll completely stop using the mouse in Maya and max but the tablet might turn out to be more efficient.

So far so good with the new assignment. While I'm hoping I'm not speaking too soon, many previous semesters by the 5th or 6th week I start falling way behind. So far, I'm doing ok this time, despite the recent difficulties managing my mom's health. Of course, in last week's eCritique Ike asked for a change that's gonna be quite a bit of extra work. Luckily, doing a re-block for the coming deadline is not an issue. There's still a good deal of time before this mulit-week assignment has to be turned in polished, too. I'd prefer getting out of blocking this week, just in case I run short of time later, but for now it's okay.

For those not following my IHSS and income tax fiasco, feel free to skip the next section.

I am still--very slowly--sifting through information on the Net that might help my tax problem. Some of what I'm finding is "almost" good news. For example, there was a bill introduced in 2002 (Chan, AB 969) that would have probably eliminated my mom's Medi-Cal (and thus IHSS) share of cost. According to the text of the bill Medi-Cal recipients who's familily income is just $1 over 133% of the Federal Poverty Level face a "massive" share of cost, while those at or below it have no share of cost. Unfortunately, that bill died in Senate appropriations. (http://www.pai-ca.org/Newsltrs/Issue82/PublicAffairs.htm)

I found some senior advocacy groups I might get help from. This problem is rather complex. Though it affects my income and tax situation as an IHSS "provider", the problem stems from my mom's IHSS share of cost, which makes it an IHSS "recipient" issue. Being as I'm not having unusual difficulties with my AM assignments, I think it's this tax problem that's giving me insomnia.

There is some good news, though. My mom seems to be responding well to the latest change in her meds. If this trend continues I cannot begin to say what an enormous relief it would be, as dealing with her illness often eats up at least an hour or three every day when the meds aren't effective. Keeping fingers crossed.