m0serious you are my hero!
Please, I beg you. If you ask people to make a website for you or if you are an artist/designer that gives templates to a scripter or coder, watch this video all the way!
Month: April 2008
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IR pain in the S
You know, I used to be the model citizen. I kept immaculate records. Had a petty cash box in the house and an account in Quicken for balancing the petty cash. I tracked every expenditure and literally knew how much money I had down to the penny. Ok, that was a little Monk but I never missed or was late on a bill, I kept balances on my credit cards and always paid at least double the minimum, and I planned my taxes such that my return would be close to zero. I always filed early or on time. When my first business along with my first marriage collapsed, I slipped. I lost the will to do much of anything. When tax season came around my affairs were in such a confused state that I needed an accountant to straighten things out. Instead I simply didn’t file. The following year I had my act back together but assumed that since I didn’t file the previous year, I couldn’t file the consecutive year (a wrong assumption!). That was an expensive choice! And one I took a lesson from "always file even if the numbers are wrong or you can’t pay" As it turns out, had I filed those years I would have received some much needed relief both times. Now, the penalties on that first year alone will have me in a bind for the next couple of decades.
I’m back on the bandwagon. I don’t have a petty cash fund setup in my accounting software but order has been restored to the accounting side of my life. I finished my taxes on March 28 but waited to e-file until this Monday which was a mistake. So far my e-file has been rejected 3 times. The latest was that my adjusted gross income did not match last year’s return. After a lengthy stay on hold and some investigation, a nice IRS agent informed me that they never received my 2006 return! As it turns out, I tried to e-file last year and apparently was rejected (probably for some similar reasons this year had problems). I suppose in 3-5 years the IRS would have contacted me to explain that they did my 2006 taxes for me and that I owed $xx,xxx dollars. There has to be a better system than this!
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My son needs your comments. Please help him!
My oldest son is doing a class project in ecology. He is writing two posts a week and soliciting comments which he will compile or aggregate into his report. He cannot complete his project without comments. Please take a moment and read his posts. If you are so compelled, please comment on as many as you can. Thank you!
His posts to date:
Please make the comments on Tommy’s blog.
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Juggling Club Meeting Tonight
As a reminder, the Knoxville Juggler’s Club meets the first Sunday and third Tuesday of every month. All skill levels welcome. Come and learn! Everyone can juggle. Juggling is good for the body, mind, and spirit. It also is a great social tool.
Naturally, my attendance is dependent upon my work progress. I do hope to get a short break as I could use the exercise!
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Dear Government
I feel like for the past month I have given you more time on paperwork than I have given my family and clients. I have dotted Ts and crossed Is, typo’d and corrected, photocopied and triplicated, unearthed ancient hidden documents and proven and proven and proven. Taxes are done and filed. Eldest child’s grants and financial aid applications submitted. Other more personal documents having to do with a long gone past that refuses to fade into obscurity and history have been notarized, witnessed, and mailed. Please. My ink well is dry, my wrists hurt, and my finger tips are numb. I know there is more to come. But please. Allow me to rest. Let Lowry handle it for a bit!
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Monday like Wednesday Worse than Monday
Wow! I feel beat up. This Monday felt worse than a Wednesday and we all know that Wednesdays are the new Mondays!
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Filed!
Forgive me Uncle, for I have filled out your forms. Lead me not into audit but deliver a fat check directly into my bank account. Let us pray.
Yeah!
Based on the information you provided, your expected stimulus payment is $xxxx. [Source, Internal Revenue Service (IRS),Economic Stimulus Payment Calculator]
Boo!
The estimated payment amount could be reduced, however, if you have an unpaid tax liability. [Source, Internal Revenue Service (IRS),Economic Stimulus Payment Calculator]
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Strange Animals
My nearing 4 year old German Shepherd is laying on the porch. The outdoor cat is rubbing on her and laying in her lap. The nearing 6 month old German Shepherd is in the yard with her head quirked and a perplexed look on her face as if to say, "Now’s your chance! Why aren’t eating it?!"
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Of Grasshoppers
Student: I should have stayed up all night.
Master: You should stay focused. -
Blogfest was a blast!
Rich pulled together another great gathering of great minds. Hopefully Lissa will have the official round up. You know..my beer damaged brain keeps wanting to introduce her as Leesuh but her name is Lihsuh. I’m so sorry!
In attendance were Cathy (minus business cards…sorry), Rich, Lissa, Tommy, Victor Agrenda (Knoxvillians probably want to read him here), Joseph Agreda, Frank Murphy (and son), Jon Katsiros, and a friend of Jon’s (sorry..I missed their sites). Michael Silence had planned to attend but something must have come up. Apologies if I left anyone out.
We secured a large space of the absolutely packed (and valet parked) Wild Wing’s Cafe. Now we probably overstayed our welcome. Little note to management, simply asking if we could free the table would be better than slowly turning up the radio. When the radio didn’t run us off, they turned the televisions to a ball game at LOUD volume. As we left, the TVs suddenly quieted. That was funny! The venue was nice but I think we are still looking for the ideal spot which combines fun, food, adult beverages but child friendly (I suppose that’s optional), wifi, and the ability to socialize.
What happens at a Blogfest? We get to see the faces behind the words we read in feed. Of course as video and audio become more prominent by citizen journalist publishings that statement loses some of its oompfth. Still, nothing compares to the energy and dynamics of real life conversation which is what I believe Loic Le Meur (Whoa! He’s my younger brother’s age!) is attempting to duplicate with Seesmic. New ideas are generated, laughs, laughs and more laughs, food is consumed and beverages, economic and social boundaries are breached bringing people in different walks of life and opposing political views together on common ground, introductions are made and new readers created in this pioneering land of blog. Overall, good times are had. Of course, I miss seeing Randy Neal, Dr. Helen, and the blogfather himself, Glenn Reynolds at the table. Lookout Glenn! You’ve just been RealityMeAlanched! And yes, to all those I didn’t name, I missed you too!
Oh, one, is that Sylar?! (Sylar’s IMDB) And, two, my wife thought one of the guys in attendance had "really sexy eyes."
Other Blogfests:
- January 18, 2008: Another wonderful Blogfest!
- July 28, 2007: Blogfest and Blogathon
- June 9 2007: And then there was Blogfest!
- April 21, 2007: Blogfest Happened!
- February 10, 2007: The Best Blogfest Write-up!
Update: Lissa posts about A Wild Blogfest and Rich has his wrap up. Frank has posted blogic: the gathering and Tommy put down a few sentences. Cathy talks about the restrooms at Wild Wings Cafe.
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Rough Week Behind Redux to Follow
Last week was a frustrating week. I really got a lot of work done but have little to show for it. Two of the secrets to being a successful consultant are to show results frequently and to communicate, communicate, communicate. I feel that I failed in both regards heavily this past week. I plan to use today to get a couple of boat anchors off my desk and start fresh tomorrow. Next week I am going to knock some socks off!
Whenever I have a rough week, I like to turn back to Stephen R Covey’s timemangement tools and get a little reflective. From a card I keep in my wallet:
The Pitfalls of Poor Planning
- Allowing "to-dos" to rule your day instead of prioritizing.
- Setting an unrealistic number of things to do each day.
- Failing to have your planning system within reach at all times.
- Forgetting to allow time between scheduled appointments.
- Failing to allow at least 1 ½ hours per day for the unexpected.
- Not having an effective system for capturing and retrieving information.
- Failing to have a single personal management system.
- Retaining unnecessary information.
- Failing to plan for the "big rocks" weekly and for the small bits daily.
- Failing to allow time for advanced planning.
©2000 Franklin Covey Co.
Some wondeful tools have evolved on the Internet for productivity. David Allen has revolutionized some people’s lives with Getting Things Done (GTD)
. Timothy Ferriss has done similarly with The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
My favorite productivity site is Jott! Click the image below to see a sample of how I use Jott to organize myself. To make a Jott, I simply call their phone number (from speed dial), state who I want to receive the Jott. For example, I could say myself or Twitter or Cathy. Jott records my words. When I am done it asks if I want to set a reminder. If I say yes I can then give it a date (today, tomorrow, July 4, Wednesday, …) and a time. The reminder will come to my phone as a text message (sms) and go to my email. The words I spoke will be translated from speech to text with amazing accuracy! Incase something gets mangled, an mp3 recording of my voice will be attached to the email. Naturally I can also view and listen to my reminders through the Jott.com interface.
I can also preface the message with a keyword. For instance, if I start with "grocery," Jott will automatically file my reminder under my grocery list which I can then access while at the market. If I preface my Jott with "work," it automatically gets filed under my work list and so forth.Jott has changed dramatically since I first began using it in September of last year. At one point, the interface was so painful to use that I stayed away from the website. I am thrilled with the changes Jott has made. The most recent feature is the addition of tying into services like Twitter. You could always send a Jott to another Jotter but now you have the ability to use Jott’s power speech to text engine to post messages from your voice directly to Twitter, Yahoo Groups, Jaiku, Zillow, Thirty Boxes, Blogger, Live Journal, TypePad, WordPress (and Tumblr, Remember the Milk, Sandy, Xpenser, Gumiyo, Trapster, Mosio, Vitalist, Google Calendar, Recommendr, Toodledo, Nozbe, Mentat, Keep Up, Smartsheet, Heap, Fortythree Actions, kwiry, and even make custom connections.
You need Jott!
Update: Jott works by a combination of human and machine translation.
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Thank You Uncle!
Say Uncle gave me a taste of what his traffic must be like! Wow. He made me acutely aware that I need to do some fine tuning to prepare my sites for Instalanches, Diggs, and Uncles. Thanks Uncle!
