My taxes are so laughably simple that I could probably do them myself...
But I'm lazy.
I know I've said it before here, but I did my own taxes for many, many years (1978-1998 or so), got hit for a hefty fine for failing to pay self-employment tax (I didn't know the difference between being a contractor and being an employee), then met an old friend at GothBard's 10-year high school reunion who'd become a CPA.
For the first 5 years I hired him, I kept right on buying MacInTax and competing with him to do my returns. For 5 years in a row, he did so much better than the software that he paid for himself and then some.
At that point I gave up and I tell everyone who'll listen, "Hire an independent CPA. You will save money every single year."
Corporate CPAs like H&R Block? Wouldn't touch 'em with a 10' pole. They're too much like the software. "We do the most basic job possible and we're done."
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Today feels like a very anticipatory day. It's not just that it's the day before a 3-day weekend. There's also a massive storm moving in and hitting tomorrow. And then there's the fact that the things we've been waiting for have started to trickle in: Our tax returns are done and the news was fantastic. Impus Major's laptop return was successful and the refund should get processed today. Impus Minor soldered the first of the new Celica speakers and I should be able to test it today. HR hates leaving things over long weekends so if they're going to make GothBard an offer it'll far more likely be today than any time next week until Friday. (I don't know why offers always seem to come in on Fridays, but I strongly suspect it's HR thinking, "Hey, if we send this out now, they can't possibly respond until Monday, so we can relax for the weekend!")
So there's an ominous excitement in the air that things are going to happen today. Let's hope they're good things.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So there's an ominous excitement in the air that things are going to happen today. Let's hope they're good things.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I swear...
Email #1: Congratulations! Your group has been re-added to this organization's mailing list!
Email #2: An announcement that Monday is a holiday in the U.S.
Emails #3-10: A bunch of Reply Alls talking about various coffee brands.
Y'know what they call it when you are involuntarily added to an email distribution list and then inundated with messages in which you have no interest? They call that spam!
Just had to spend 60 seconds of my work day filtering out the new list. Then 2 minutes tirading about it.
Here's hoping it's nothing but good things today.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Here's hoping it's nothing but good things today.
Well, my root canal went fine.
Here's hoping it's nothing but good things today.Well, my root canal went fine.
AWRIGHT!
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
i certainly hope that GothBard gets the good word today, NH!
---------------------
i'll not belabor the plot or the poignant moments, nor will i harp on the inflammatory components -- i'm going to proceed with the notion that those of you who read this know its content at least as well as i do, if not moreso.
liberty is the antithesis of tyranny, whether that oppression originates from the left or the right. it's "somewhere out there" in that paradoxical middle, as my old college professor might say.
i may be an irascible sort with relatively unpopular convictions in this part of the interwebz, but . . . .
. . . i love y'all, FaWtLies.
have a good day, people. make the best of it.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
i certainly hope that GothBard gets the good word today, NH!
---------------------
** spoiler omitted **
I've actually neither read the graphic novel nor seen the movie; it's on my "eventual To-Do" list.
I've actually neither read the graphic novel nor seen the movie; it's on my "eventual To-Do" list.i certainly hope that GothBard gets the good word today, NH!
---------------------
** spoiler omitted **
don't be afraid to bump it closer to the top of that list. even if you find it's not worth revisiting, NH, i do believe you'll appreciate it very much.
(1) The credit for Impus Major's returned laptop has been posted to our credit card account, and it's a bit more than I thought it would be. Much to my surprise the company was exceedingly honest about their restocking and shipping fees. From the start they said the restocking fee would be 19%, and then they only charged me 19% of the pre-tax price like they're legally required to, when most places I've done business with have tried to charge 19% of the after-tax price and you have to "remind" them that that's illegal. Then they only charged me the actual cost of shipping ($7.91) instead of the stated shipping fee ($20). So all in all I'm satisfied with the company, even if many would argue that a 19% restocking fee is B.S. (Being in tech, I know they need a tech to physically examine the laptop and do a full image and BIOS refresh, so while 19% is excessive they actually had to spend some money restocking.)
(2) Tested the new Celica speaker and it sounds great; now comes the question of whether I'll have enough time after work to mount it and close up the door before the rain moves in. But one more item off the checklist...
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Wait, what?
Impus Major returned a laptop before I had the chance to get my claws on it?!
Dammit! Lazy kobolds!
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Wait, what?
Impus Major returned a laptop before I had the chance to get my claws on it?!
Dammit! Lazy kobolds!
Wow... I'm amazed I didn't tirade about that little "gem" of a laptop. When Impus Minor started at DVC, we got him a little mini-laptop for note-taking and working at school. He wanted something sturdy, ultra-light, and with a long battery life. It wasn't cheap, but we got him a really nice Dell.
So this semester Impus Major said he needed a laptop. I asked, "Do you want the same one Impus Minor has?", and he said, "Yes."
And hoo, boy. I am really getting sick to death of minimalist designers who think that people don't like things like menus, touchpads, or even keys.
The 2024 version of the laptop doesn't have a visible touchpad; you just have to guess where it is and there's no tactile feedback for when you try to press the mouse button. I suggested to Impus Major that he should use a Sharpee to outline the mouse pad, then put clickable googley eyes on each corner to simulate mouse buttons. But then they also removed the top two rows of keys -- there were no function keys at all, and the top row was a touch-sensitive panel instead of a keyboard. Try typing with that if you've grown up touch-typing.
Impus Major declared it unusable and said that he wanted an old-style goblin laptop with a full keyboard that actually felt chonky like a laptop should. So GothBard took him to a brick-and-mortar store and he got a really crappy old-school laptop for 1/4 the price of the newfangled one, and he luuuuuurves it.
Thus, my return.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I've actually neither read the graphic novel nor seen the movie; it's on my "eventual To-Do" list.i certainly hope that GothBard gets the good word today, NH!
---------------------
** spoiler omitted **
The graphic novel is one of my all-time favorites. The movie... not so much. Solid performances from the actors, but the film seemed really dumbed-down compared to the book.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
And hoo, boy. I am really getting sick to death of minimalist designers who think that people don't like things like menus, touchpads, or even keys.
The 2024 version of the laptop doesn't have a visible touchpad; you just have to guess where it is and there's no tactile feedback for when you try to press the mouse button. I suggested to Impus Major that he should use a Sharpee to outline the mouse pad, then put clickable googley eyes on each corner to simulate mouse buttons. But then they also removed the top two rows of keys -- there were no function keys at all, and the top row was a touch-sensitive panel instead of a keyboard. Try typing with that if you've grown up touch-typing.
Ah, well. Can't win 'em all. Mail came and nothing from the DMV, and I don't have time to sit on chat this afternoon waiting to find out whether I can get a competent rep who can tell me anything.
| 11 people marked this as a favorite. |
I got married today.
I got married today.
Win!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
i certainly hope that GothBard gets the good word today, NH!
---------------------
** spoiler omitted **
I am a big Alan Moore fan, despite not being into comics in general; I read the graphic novel, which made sense to me in a 1980s-1990s British political context, but have not seen the film.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I got married today.
Woohoo! Congrats to you and Lady Longears!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Congrats Limey!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I got married today.
CONGRATULATIONS
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Apparently there are "math wars" in California
California ranks in the bottom quartile among all states and U.S. territories for 8th grade math scores.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Apparently there are "math wars" in California
California ranks in the bottom quartile among all states and U.S. territories for 8th grade math scores.
Don't. Get. Me. Started.
It's been an eternal cycle of stupid since the late 1970s, and none of this is new:
(1) "Aaah! Our kids don't have a 100% pass rate in math! We need to do something to improve their scores, get more of them to pass, and reduce math phobia."
(2) "Hey, I'm someone with a degree in Education (almost NEVER math) and I think this new way to teach math would solve the problem!"
(3) "That's awesome! Let's implement it at once without doing ANY field research or surveying a significant number of people with degrees in mathematics. What can possibly go wrong?"
(4) Return to Step 1.
It's not that California keeps trying new ways to teach. It's that we're so d**ned reactive that we mandate new ways to teach without doing any significant research on whether the new ways are better or worse than the old. Heck, my infamous story of the student who couldn't figure out six times seven without a calculator comes from someone who went to California schools in the 1980s.
Bad California math is nothing new.
I've been watching older seasons of Hell's Kitchen, The Boys (on DVD) and season 5 of Fargo.
First off, Hell's Kitchen.
Season 11 is absolutely batshit crazy!
The women's team won every challenge except for one.
The 1st place finisher failed her drug test for the job so she never actually worked for Ramsey.
2nd place finisher went back to her job as a butcher in small town Minnesota.
The 3rd place finisher is the only one that ended up working for Ramsey.
So the lesson learned is when Ramsey says "I'm not looking for a line cook, I'm looking for a head chef!" He is absolutely lying.
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
Drug testing chefs is just a step above drug testing the drummer.
Drug testing chefs is just a step above drug testing the drummer.
Yes,it was for a position at a casino, they always drug test and do a background check on new hires. And she failed the test for cocaine, which is almost impossible to fail if you already know about it (so I've heard I've never actually touched it myself).
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Spending my three-day-weekend at the annual Montessori conference, because it just happened to be in Dallas this year. I haven't been to one since Hermione was born. The speakers are good, but there is nothing more lonely than being an outrageously shy person alone in a building full of hundreds of people you are theoretically supposed to have so much in common with.
And, yes, I ended the sentence with a preposition and I don't really care.
I did bring along a good book that my father-in-law gave me for Christmas.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Speaking of "How to teach math", I find it depressing that:
(1) I still believe that the Socratic method is the best method of teaching ever invented.
(2) I also believe that 99.9% of all teachers believe that they're using it, but they aren't.
Hint: If you've been talking for two minutes straight without a single student saying a word, you aren't using the Socratic method. Teaching is a conversation, not a lecture.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
OK, one benefit of the COVID-inspired service-oriented economy is the simple question, "How much would I be willing to pay to NOT have to deal with that?"
We needed to do a Costco run, and GothBard wanted to come with, so we didn't get there until 2 in the afternoon. And without realizing it, during a President's Day Sale weekend. (I honestly didn't know that Costco did sales.)
It was a madhouse.
So I said, "I'm not going in there, but I'll pay someone else to do it," calculated how long it would take that poor person to deal with the insanity, placed the online order with a tip commensurate with how much *I* didn't want to go and how much time I think they're going to lose in that crush of humanity.
The Costco shopper will be very happy. I will be very happy. Win-win!
Speaking of modern age wonders, Google Translate has gotten scary-good.
I texted back and forth with our deliveryperson as she shopped for us and I was rather surprised at how eloquent she was; her writing was crisp and clean and made you wonder, "What's her day job?"
Then she arrived to deliver the groceries and it turned out she didn't speak a lick of English -- all of the texting had been through Google Translate.
She needs to find work at a place that lets her work in her native language. Her writing impressed me.
I wonder what her native language actually was.
Google Translate is very... Uneven. So it ChatGPT (which I started using in January, after some reshuffle) though both tend to do slightly different kinds of errors, aside of both having problem with wider context.
I wonder what her native language actually was.
Google Translate is very... Uneven. So it ChatGPT (which I started using in January, after some reshuffle) though both tend to do slightly different kinds of errors, aside of both having problem with wider context.
It was impossible to tell. She was either dark-skinned Hispanic or light-skinned Indian, and the name given was Americanized (as always) to as to not give a clue. From the way she pronounced "I.D." (the only words she tried to speak to me), I'm thinking Indian or Pakistani.
ChatGPT is now disrupting Pathfinder games
Oh yeah had a player try that a few months ago.
I'm pretty sure it's been disrupting Pathfinder for years.
How else do you explain the 1st edition Pathfinder rules forums.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
It's a glorious, pre-thunderstorm morning where the hot air moved in first, so we have clear, sunny skies and 60˚F temperatures at 9:00 am and I've opened up the house.
At first I felt guilty about opening the bathroom window: What if our resident rat comes in?
Then I thought, "Y'know what? This house reeks so strongly of cat that any rat entering the domain might as well be passing under an, 'Abandon hope, all ye who enter here' sign."
We'll see whether the rat's survival instincts are sufficient.
EDIT: The Cranky Calico just wandered in, looked at the bathroom, and muttered, "Now I am Death, the Destroyer of Worlds". Hide, rat. Hide.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
EDIT: The Cranky Calico just wandered in, looked at the bathroom, and muttered, "Now I am Death, the Destroyer of Worlds". Hide, rat. Hide.
You can't pronounce Calico without saying Kali.
Ciasteczka for both of you.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
It's interesting how your brain works.
Yesterday, I learned "Kaczka je chleb", "The duck is eating bread," and I got so upset that now I won't be right in my mind until I learn how to say "What f@#$ing moron gave the duck bread?!"
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
Fantasy Monster: Tooth Gremlin.
I am spawning too many gremlins...
Fantasy Monster: Tooth Gremlin.
I am spawning too many gremlins...
Nope.
"What f@#$ing moron gave the duck bread?!"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
It's interesting how your brain works.
Yesterday, I learned "Kaczka je chleb", "The duck is eating bread," and I got so upset that now I won't be right in my mind until I learn how to say "What f@#$ing moron gave the duck bread?!"
Probably half the population of Poland. The other half probably is not interacting with ducks in the first place.
Only in recent years (10-15?) various ponds and lakes where ducks and other water fowl gather started getting warning tables against feeding bread to ducks, geese, and swans.
Also, "Kaczka je chleb" may also mean "A/the duck eats bread" in more general (if erroneous) sense.
Nope.
Nope? -.- You are team tooth fairy, aren't you?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Today's Oglaf strip must be very difficult for Freehold...