So there's a few interesting events that haven't made it to the blog yet. Since yesterday was such a gray, rainy, uneventful day (that's about the sum of it), I'll spice things up with the accumulated amusements that have occurred.

Yesterday I got a lot of work done. With all the rain and wind, I opted not to bike. This morning's much the same. I did have a 1 a.m. conference call to hook up with the 11 a.m. EDT regular meeting at The MathWorks to float a training proposal by them, so I'm dragging a little bit today.

At the Hash Saturday, Dave brought an Aussie, Travis, who's fairly new on island. He's a triathlete whose self-proclaimed weakest event is biking. We decided to split the race as a relay. Since I've decided I'm only doing 50k anyway, it doesn't change my plans except when I start. I gave him our number, but haven't heard from him yet. I'm hoping the great beer didn't cloud his memory too much. On Sunday, I was talking to Cath's husband, Ray. Cath is one of the managers at Java Joe's. Ray works for PIC. They were forming a 4-man relay team for the race, and now two of his co-workers might back out. If they do that and if Travis calls, we may band together to form a 4-main team. We'll see how it plays out.

I had a conversation with the tax accountant last week. I've decided NOT to declare residency here next year. Apparently, I have one of the few situations where Saipan's tax laws are not advantageous. Saipan has a gross receipts tax, which means that taxes are applied before any deductions. In my case, that means I would be taxed on all of my reimbursed travel expenses, which adds up to quite a bit each year. On top of that, I would lose my home mortgage tax deduction. Between those two, I would end up getting taxed on a LOT more money than I do in the US, which would make it close to a wash. Add the hassle factor, and I've decided it's just not worth it.

Alexis, the accountant, is quite the high-powered intellect, and we had a very interesting, if somewhat rambling, conversation. Most accountants don't have to deal with immigration issues. Most immigration folks don't have to deal with taxation issues. On top of that the IRS and the INS/DHS/whatever they go by this week don't share a lot of information and are frequently at odds with each other. Alexis has to deal with both in an expert capacity because of some of the unique requirements of handling taxation in Saipan and has some fascinating and insightful views on the whole immigration enforcement issue.

Apparently, we don't really need any more laws to make employment of illegal immigrants illegal. The ones who have managed to get bank accounts and who pay taxes have done so by obtaining a special variation on a SSN called a TIN that was originally created to allow foreign investors to pay US taxes. These numbers aren't legal to use for employment purposes, so every time an employer uses one of these to file a W-2, they commit an act of federal felony fraud for filing a fraudulent tax document. The mechanism for legal reprisal is already in place if they want to use it.

There's a lot more to it. There are repurcussions through the banking system. Also, the economics of it are curious, as well. It makes you think that the issue is more one of lip service than earnest effort. Just imagine what happens when you take 12 million people who are contributing to Social Security and remove them from the economy. That's the tip of the iceberg, but it gives you an idea of the things they don't talk about much in the public hype.

Anyway, I think I forgot something I was originally going to talk about, but I've written enough for now. I hope you all are doing well. I still have some lingering amount of homesickness and miss you all.