WEST SALEM, Ill. (AP) — A 5.4 earthquake in Illinois has rocked people awake as far away as Indiana, surprising residents unaccustomed to such a large temblor in the Midwest.

The quake just before 4:37 a.m. was centered 6 miles from West Salem, Ill., and 66 miles from Evansville, Ind.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

“Why am I getting a copy of Entertainment Weekly?”

And then I noticed that the address label indicated that the subscription end date was one year in the future.

“How did I get a year-long subscription to Entertainment Weekly?”

Not that I’m complaining—Entertainment Weekly has some decent stuff in it. I’m just curious if I have an anonymous benefactor out there.

Apart from some damage to the one wheel, my car looked fine. However, as soon as I started driving it, I knew something was wrong. At the very least it needed a new alignment. I took it in for service the following Wednesday and hoped an alignment and maybe a wheel was all that would be required to get me back on the road. Instead, my suspension was mucked up to the tune of a couple thousand dollars (parts & labor). That afternoon I made my first collision claim with my insurance company.

So now I’m waiting (and waiting) while the insurance company processes the claim and figures out if it’s worth it to fix my 10 year old Neon. It seems so stupid that such a little thing could total my car. On top of that, the really annoying aspect is that I just sunk a good chunk of change earlier this year into fixing the A/C system and into preventative maintenance so the car would last me a few more years.

Well, that just pissed me off, so I dug through the income tax booklet and discovered a great fact. All income from a job in a state other than Pennsylvania is no longer taxable in PA after you change your state of residence. I had originally counted my income from both my pre-graduation church internship and my post-graduation, full-time job at the Library as taxable in PA. However, getting a full-time job in Missouri, living in Missouri, and getting a Missouri driver’s license pretty well establishes my Missouri residency, so I shouldn’t have reported that huge chunk of income from my Library job as taxable in PA. Not only did I not owe PA the $8.62, but they owed me $256!

I filed an amended return to correct my over-reporting of taxable income, but it was rejected for some odd reason. (“No, I’m not trying to claim tax forgiveness.”) This led to repeated phone calls with the Department of Revenue’s customer service department. Each time it took some explaining to get the customer service rep to understand what was going on, and each time I was eventually assured that I was correct and that I ought to be getting a refund shortly. However, each time my file was sent back to the tax examiner I got another rejection. (“No, I’m not trying to claim a credit for taxes paid to another state.”) Well, at long last, after my last call—during which the customer service rep talked to her supervisor who assured me that they would submit an extensive written explanation to the tax examiner—I got my refund! Rock on!

Now, time to amend my county tax return.

The rear passenger side window had been broken in—apparently with the brick that I found inside the car. It looks like they tried breaking the rear driver’s side window first, since I noticed three or four impact points with a radial distribution of brick dust. Once inside they did indeed punch out the ignition, which was nowhere to be found. The flat tire was in the back seat, and had about an inch wide gash in the side wall. Apart from that, I didn’t notice any other damage.

The contents of the car had been thoroughly riffled through—with stuff strewn about the floor, the back seat, and the trunk—however, the only things I’ve noticed missing so far are the two portable air compressors (tire inflators) that I had in the trunk. One of them was the old one that had been blowing fuses every five minutes, and the other was the new one (still in the box) that my Mom had just bought me as an early Christmas present. Even my iPod auto accessories (which I had hidden in the arm rest compartment) were still there. (My iPod was with me, of course.) After taking this quick inventory, I loaded up all my stuff into my rental car and brought it home.

Anyway, it’s been a restless night. I went to bed around 11, woke up briefly a couple times during the night, and hit quasi-insomnia sometime after 4:00. I think I finally managed to drift off to some state of light sleep around 6:00—just in time to be woken up by the phone. ::sigh:: Well, I’m certainly awake now. Maybe I can get a power nap this afternoon.

Please pray that this gets resolved quickly and with minimal cost.

While these pics are kind of fun in an abstract way, it’s not really what I want to get out of my camera all the time. When I got home I popped over to the Canon support website, which suggested that I talk to a tech support rep on the phone before trying to send it in for service. I dialed the number and told the tech support guy about my problem. He informed me that a service advisory has been issued about image sensor problems with the PowerShot A70 (my camera) and that they’ll fix it for free if that’s indeed the problem. So, in a couple days I’ll be getting a prepaid shipping label to send my camera in for service.

A quick Google search turned up this page, which appears to confirm that I am having the faulty image sensor (CCD) problem.

And from Canon’s advisory:

While reports of this malfunction have been rare in the United States, we have determined that it may occur if the product is exposed to hot and humid environments.

Hmmm… hot and humid… St. Louis broke my camera!

On a completely unrelated note, my class for the semester is completely done, and I think my final paper turned out really well.