Monday, February 1st, 2010
It’s been an interesting few months. Let’s see. Where to begin? I had a job, but it was seasonal. It was a really brilliant job, too! I had fun tramping around in the wilderness of the North Kaibab National Forest just a few miles from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I looked for artifacts, recorded archaeological sites and generally made myself a useful little archaeologist. Come October, however, I was laid off. There was no more funding and winter was starting to cover the ground with snow. I took a piece of paper promising me unemployment benefits and went home, certain I would find a job, or, at the least, build my internet business up so I would have some sort of a steady income.
Everything went downhill from there. The unemployment benefits never came. I began fighting mid October to get the benefits I was owed so I could have a little help in paying the few bills I have. It’s February and I have been calling the unemployment office weekly for almost four months now. I continue to call, begging for help, but I’m being ignored. Still, I call. Still, I am patient. Still I hope that I’ll see some help to at least stem the outflow from my bank account.
Now, as for my internet business, that was becoming a rather successful story. I chose to become an internet marketer, something that would garner me a semi-steady income, and something I could keep up easily, even when I’m off traipsing around in the wilderness during the summer months. I was getting very excited about my internet marketing business. Until last week. The Colorado legislature has begun to vote on a tax known as House Bill 1193: Concerning the collection of Sales and Use Taxes on Sales Made By Out-of-State Retailers. Short hand, it’s known as The Amazon Tax. When similar taxes have been passed in other states, Amazon and other affiliate marketers have been forced to withdraw their affiliate programs from those states. Colorado’s Amazon Tax has passed the House and is on to the Senate. I’m still fighting it, hoping to keep my internet marketing business. There’s still hope, but it’s going to be a hard fight.
On a positive note, I have a tentative summer job lined up and I have been accepted to the University of Memphis for graduate school. Once in graduate school (if I get the financial assistance I’ve applied for) I’ll work on becoming an Egyptologist. That may garner me full-time employment!
Until that time, I will remain a proud, if penniless, Shovelbum.
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Tags: affiliate tax, amazon tax, archaeologist, Archaeology, archaeology in winter, archaeology job, Colorado, colorado affiliate tax, colorado amazon tax, Colorado HB-1193, HB-1193