Limited Vacation Time

Here in the US, we don't get enough vacation time, especially when compared to our counterparts in Europe.

Right now, I have two weeks of paid time off, plus one "personal" day. This is my vacation time and sick leave all rolled into one. Once I've been in my current job for ten years, I'll get a third week of paid time off.

Now, this is a bit less than most full-time jobs in the US that actually give you vacation time - and I have a longer wait for an increase than most. But that's not to say we're anywhere close to the rest of the world.

The best benefits plan I ever had gave me 1 week sick time, 2 weeks vacation, and 3 personal days. After five years, it was bumped to 3 weeks of vacation. This meant that - at first - I had 18 paid days off. This is still less than the average in Japan.

Yes, really.

It actually limits the conventions and other events I go to. By a lot.

I go to GenCon every year. It's the highlight of my year, and it costs me about a week of vacation time. This leaves me with just over a week (total) to play with. This week has to cover illness as well as vacation/fun activities.

I'm allowed to take unpaid time off if I want to - and I'm doing so this year, in fact - but I can't (financially) afford to take much time unpaid.

It's frustrating.

And I dislike it.

Airplane Rides

I love going on trips, but I have not yet found a way to get from point A to point B that I actually like. A decade ago, airplanes were my travel method of choice - buses are filled with Bus People (and are amazingly slow), Trains are a relic from the 19th century that hasn't been adequately updated, cars are expensive and comparatively slow.

Airplanes are expensive to get onto, but they're fast. Too bad it's a huge hassle getting onto them.

By the way, as you're reading this (all three or four of you who are reading this regularly), I'll be in Minnesota. That's right: Sometimes, we have to do things we don't like.

In my case, it means fighting through security, crowds, and the nerve-wracking takeoff and landing portions of the trip. And that goes without mentioning the extra fun of turbulence and occasional lightning storms. Twice.

Late Posts

Don't you hate it when you get used to a blog's posting schedule, and then a post is late?

At first, it's disbelief, and then a bit of concern - did he forget this week? Did he run out of things to say? Is the blog dead? Is the blogger dead?

And then, just as your worry starts to escalate into a small panic, the post appears with a note - "Sorry I'm late, I typoed the scheduled time," or something similar.

As someone who reads several dozen blogs daily, I hate that. I have a daily routine which involves going from blog to blog in a given order. A late post throws my routine off, which can put me off my game for the rest of the day.

Writer's Block

What? You were expecting a long post with a title like that?