Beyond this, rent is $850/month, which is dead average for where I live, city and state, though they tend to raise it a lot more than I'd like. Utilities add about another $100, including internet. My take-home pay (before I quit) has not gone up from six years ago - still $300 per week, because the health insurance costs have gone up, and eaten up the $1 raise I had, but cost of living has gone up more than 50% (and this doesn't include the intervening times of being laid off or working for less than $10/hour. I can't afford to move, because that would require accumulating three month's worth of rent in advance plus moving costs. And besides, there are no significantly cheaper places around here, nor have I any relocation offers. (Moving somewhere hours away isn't practical, even if rent is cheaper in the boonies, because of a) the gas, b) the stress of driving in winter, c) the strain and destruction on my ten-year-old car that I can't afford to replace.)

I've long since paid off my student loans, cut up my credit cards five years ago and have been trying to pay off my <$4000 debt ever since. On a dimnishing-real-dollar of $300/week, that hasn't been easy. I live on fifty dollars a week personal expenses, and that includes gas - and as long as I wasn't afraid of losing my roof, I would hardly care, except that I can only buy books once a month or so, and I can't afford to go to museums. I have ideas for an art replica business, but those take resources, grubstakes and the time to work on it without worrying about having the power cut off (again) or the phone. I can't get loans (I don't have a responsible male to sign for me), I haven't anyone else living with me working fulltime to pay the bills so I can work on it, the only thing I can afford to do (in my copious free time) is to write, because I can fit that in the interstices of my regular job/s (sometimes in the past two years I have been working two, depending) and it doesn't cost me anything beyond my computer and the electric and apartment which is part of the general overhead. Unless I'm too tired/stressed/sick, I can always write and post, so long as I can pay the bills.

And now I'm working without a wire, and on one level this is the most crazy, audacious thing I've ever done, bar none: here I stand, you know what I stand for, you know the quality of my work; if you think I give good value for your time - will you pay me for it? I promise that I will invest it in more of the same (only different) for so long as I can afford it, for so long as I am able to wield a pencil, pen, or keyboard. I'm no Andrew Sullivan, to demand more than I need, and then take vacations on it, (though a vacation would be nice, since I've not had one in four (?) years), or to lie about how much I need. If I could make the equivalent of $22k per year, after taxes, that would be ease and comfort for me. Anything beyond that - clover.

But regardless, even if I get not a penny, I will still go on writing for as long as I can afford to. The site is paid up for months, so if I lose my flat and end up having to cadge off someone, I can still update it if I can get to a Kinko's.

"I beg to report," he said, "that I have carried out your command; the pernicious Immortal is here."

"Which is he?" asked the Emperor, peeping over the top of his screen-of-state.

At this point Monkey bowed, saying, "It's me."

The assembled ministers turned pale with horror. "This barbarous monkey!" they cried. "When brought into the Presence he did not prostrate himself, and now, without being addressed, he has ventured to say, 'It's me.' Such conduct is worthy of death."

"He comes from earth below," said the Jade Emperor, "and only recently learned human ways. For the present we must not be too hard on him if he does not know how to behave at Court.

The celestial ministers all congratulated the Emperor on his clemency, and Monkey shouted "Bravo!" at the top of his voice. Officials were then ordered to look through the lists and see what appointments were vacant.

"There is no vacancy at present in any section of the department," one of them reported. "The only chance is in the Imperial Stables, where a supervisor is wanted."

"Very well then," said the Jade Emperor, "make him Pi-ma-wên in the stables."

Accordingly he was taken to the stables and the duties of the department were explained to him. He was shown the list of the horses, of which there were a thousand, under the care of a steward, whose duty it was to provide fodder. Grooms who combed and washed the horses, chopped hay, brought them their water and cooked their mash. The superintendent and vice superintendent helped the supervisor in the general management. All of them were on the alert night and day. In the daytime they managed to get a certain amount of fun; but at night they were on the go all the time. The horses all seemed either to go to sleep just when they ought to be fed, or to start galloping when they ought to be in their stalls. When they saw Monkey, the heavenly horses pressed round him in a surging mob, and ate the food he brought them with such appetite as they had never shown before. After a week or two the other officers of the stables gave a banquet to celebrate Monkey's appointment. When the feast was at its height, he suddenly paused, and cup in hand he asked, "What does it really mean, this word Pi-ma-wên?"

"It's the name of the rank you hold," they said.

"What class of appointment is it?" Monkey asked.

"It doesn't come in any class," they said.

"I suppose it's too high to count as being in any class?" said Monkey.

"On the contrary," they said, "it's too low."

"Too low!" exclaimed Monkey. "What do you mean?"

"When an officer doesn't manage to get classed, they put him to mind the horses. There's no salary attached. The most you'll get for fattening up the horses as you've done since you were here, is a casual "Not bad!" But if any of them had gone a bit lame or out of condition, you'd have caught it hot. And if any of them had come to real harm, you'd have been prosecuted and fined."