- Whine. Whine. Whine.

Basic rant for a few paragraphs - skip if you don't want to hear some complaining.

Why is there such a stigma about all of this? I applied to get an increase on my credit card so I could take care of my taxes in one fell swoop. (note: when first finishing college, sometimes you're not given the option of "paying quarterly for your taxes" since you have no idea what the hell you're going to earn, thus you're jacked once you owe it all at once) Talked to the lady today and she said since I was self-employed (see: musician) that they would need to check over my tax documents. Normally that would be fine except as soon as they see that all of my earnings this year were from "gambling" I'm not going to get it. (note: I filed as a hobbyist instead of professional since I did do some gigs) Thus, I had to cash out half of my online roll to cover my taxes. Result? Panic. Massive panic.

I didn't want to bust down that roll since I've been working so hard to get to the upper limits (where you'll just pull in rakeback like money falling from trees - money doesn't fall from trees, but you get it). Unfortunately, the govt doesn't give a damn. Thus, the last few days when I didn't have a single chance to work and the next several when I'll be in Eau Claire for the jazz festival are absolutely going to kill me. I'm literally contemplating readjusting my sleep schedule again to try to run it back up as fast as possible. God, it's like you take 3 steps forward and something punches you in the face and you're back doing it all over again.

In a nut shell: Govt doesn't want to tax the industry where I make my money which is trying to give them BILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO REGULATE IT; govt wants to tax the f out of me so that I either A) stop making money online or B) find a more respectable career (read: I'm gonna go on f'ing unemployment/welfare or whatever, you dumbasses); I'm trying to pay my taxes and not kill my bankroll so that I can afford to pay quarterly for next year, but am finding this incredibly difficult since people just assume I'm a massive degenerate; I'm being forced to write horribly constructed, grammatically improper sentences to try to express outrage. I'm screwed.

Rant's over. Start reading here if you skipped down.

Poker's been fine lately. I'm getting closer to the $/gm I was expecting (up until the fiasco that is tax season...see above) and the games are still very selectably soft. I'm leaving tomorrow for Minneapolis and heading to Duluth for a couple days then going to the EC Jazz Fest for the weekend. It'll be cool to adjudicate and actually do some music stuff again. The only truly sucky thing is that I'm not going to get practically any work in - which, considering my current situation, is making me increasingly nervous.

Oh, I've started getting some work with a salsa band in town, too. We played a gig last Sunday that had more security than I'd ever seen before. I think I got patted down by 2 security guards and the Army searched my gig bag (ok, not really, but it was crazy in there).

I'm rambling and can't think straight anymore.