DHL delivered a letter today that I am very happy with its contents. The letter puts a leash on one of the monkeys on my back. AND the nice people at the IRS office (and I mean that sincerely!) confirmed my tax problem is about unfiled paperwork. Plus I closed a gaping security hole in my current project.
Month: August 2008
This is not responsible reporting
Fox News playing mind games:
I promise that I know people who would use this one thing as their reason to not consider Obama. I can already hear the conviction in their voice, "he’s a terrorist!"
From the mouths of babes
Evan: "Where going Da?"
Dad:"Home."
Evan:"I not go home Dad."
Dad:"Where do you want to go?"
Evan:"Granny’s!"
Dad:"Granny is not home. She’s working."
Evan:"I go see Noah."
Dad:"Noah is at school."
Evan:"I see Sarah."
Dad:"Sarah is at school."
Evan:"I see Amy!"
Dad:"We just dropped Amy off at school."
Evan:"I see Mom!"
Dad:"Okay. Mom is at home. Do you want to go home?"
Evan:"Yeah. Go home Da!"
Evan:"I see trees."
From the mouths of babes
I decided to teach Amy the Daimoku today and it is wonderful to chant together with her. At bedtime, I asked her if we could do it again and she wanted to chant then read a book. We repeat the Daimoku 3 times. What does Nam-myoho-renge-kyo mean?
Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is the Buddhist prayer that means I dedicate my life to bringing out the very best in myself and in all people. [Source, Jason Jarrett of A Buddhist Podcast, A Buddhist Podcast – Bodhisattvas of the Earth, 24:17-26:12]
Dad and Amy (6 years old), repeating 3 times: "Nam Myoho Renge Kyo"
Sarah (15 years old) with shocked look on her face: "You’re brainwashing her!"
Dear Sarah:
Buddhism is about revitalizing humanity, and transforming the world we live in from one dominated by greed, anger, and stupidity into one of peace and happiness. [Source, Jason Jarrett of A Buddhist Podcast, A Buddhist Podcast – Bodhisattvas of the Earth, 2:46-2:58]
US Government Mob Style
Today the IRS chose to empty one of my bank accounts. Any funds I put in that account go straight to Uncle Sam. I apologize to anyone whose checks bounce (Knox County Schools) because of this but I have no control over my government that is so desperate to fund an illegal war that it is willing to starve a 7 person household and threaten to put them on the streets. And all of this over not filing taxes for one year that I didn’t make any money and another year that I barely made enough money to sustain myself. [Update: This may have less to do with unfiled taxes and more to do with a (once small) lingering tax debt that haunts me from an old business.Nope. This totally has to do with an unfiled tax return. Irony: Had I filed, I would have been due a refund! Yes, the IRS sent me letters and yes I was taking action to avert this. It still hit me out of the blue.]
For the record, they overdrew my account by $102 dollars. Not only does your government have the legal authority to financially ruin you, make you homeless, and starve you to death, they can withdrawal more money than you have resulting a huge number of bank fees.
People, always file your taxes!
More to come after I buy a lottery ticket and a bottle of scotch. I mean, after I make some phone calls.
The irony in this type of situation is that I should be working my tail off right now to be able to pay the debt but instead of working I have to spend the entire day on the phone with the IRS negotiating with a manager to suspend collections for one year (of course, the house will have a lien on it during that year) by sending them a good awful amount of paperwork via fax which is billed monthly to the account that no longer has money in it to pay for the fax service (of course I could go to Kinko’s and use my bank card to…oh right, no money in the bank..no faxing from Kinko’s). When not talking to the IRS I have to be trying to get a lawyer to talk to me "um, retainer? well, see, the IRS took all my money.."
Update: A barrage of emails sent re IRS. Now we wait on those while sending some faxes on an unrelated issue that has to be played out like a chess game. I get a bonus move on that one then its up to them again.
Update: The tension in my wife’s voice is killing me.
Update: Newscoma has some commenters on the topic. And Michael Silence noted it.
Update 8/28/2008: What a great day!
Mobile post sent by djuggler using Utterz. Replies. mp3
Attempting another haircut.
YUI Support on IRC is on Freenode
For those looking, YUI (the Yahoo Developer Network User Interface Library) support on IRC is on the Freenode servers at #yui.
Netiquette
Psst! Hey, if you are going to borrow bandwidth, a link or credit would be appreciated. The source of the web design pie chart is from Photobucket.
Is your news complete?
Does reading news online, or even in a paper (or television), really give a clear picture of the story? Of course not. It gives a reporters impression of the story, sometimes reflects the political views of the paper or broadcast company, and can be intentionally misleading. I don’t think anything was intentionally misleading in these article but look at how information from 3 different sources changes your views of a story about a LaFollette man dying:
My introduction to the story by WBIR
In summary, the WBIR story reported a LaFollette man crash his car and died. He was not found for two days and was presumed to be drinking. 82 words in 5 paragraphs. The commenters were quick to bad mouth the obvious drunkard. I was left with the impression the car was in a ditch beside the road and people drove past ignoring the wreckage.
The 2nd story I read was by Knoxnews
The Knoxnews story had much more detail at 181 words in 7 paragraphs. Knoxnews revealed that the car was found over a football field’s length from the road. They gave much better detail about the way the accident happened, the age of the driver, the fact he was wearing his seatbelt, and even the type of vehicle. None-the-less, I finished the article with not much sympathy for someone drinking at driving on a Monday afternoon.
The final story by WATE was heart wrenching
The last story I read filled in some gaps and created great empathy for the family. WATE’s story at 81 words in 5 paragraphs was reported yesterday and did not mention the man’s death. It was titled "Search for missing Campbell Co. man with dementia" and was a plea for the community’s help in finding the missing man. WATE included the man’s age and description of his truck both of which matched the Knoxnews article. The WATE article had one comment from yesterday by the man’s daughter, Amber Sutton:
hey im johnny sutton’s daughter please keep me and my family in prays….i miss my dad…please come home safe and whoever is lookin 4 him i send all my thanks out
Her comment and the word "dementia" put Johnny Sutton’s story in a completely different light.
When you read news, do you take it for what the one source claims or do you seek the whole story?
Has my Google Calendar been compromised?
This morning as I looked at "My calendars" of my Google calendar I noticed one I did not remember creating. Not in "Other calendars" but in "My calendars" sat Paddy Daly. Since I quit using Google Calendar regularly a while back, I decided to see what notes I’d made about this Paddy Daly calendar I created. But I didn’t create it! And the creator made no notes. The calendar creator is punapaddy at a yahoo.com email address and a Hawii timezone. This makes no sense. There appear to be no events on the calendar either. I do seem to have the ability to delete the calendar.
Who is Paddy Daly?
Paddy Daly, {1888-1960} sometimes referred to as Paddy O’Daly, served in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence[1] and subsequently held the rank of Major-General in the National Army in the period 1922 to 1924. [Source, Wikipedia]
So is this some form of vandalism? Political protest or activism? How did it get on my calendar and what security hole in Google Calendar do I need to close?
From the mouths of babes
Evan, dropping pacifier to floor (no, he shouldn’t be using one): "Daddy, get my bop."
Dad: "No. I can’t even stand up right now."
Evan:"awright. I get mineself."
From the mouths of babes
How do you fit 7 people into a 2000 square foot house? Some people double up on bedrooms. Amy and Sarah share a room. And Evan shares a room with Mom and Dad. For convenience, he is still in crib because it confines him forcing sleep but I anticipate that ending soon.
Evan, 3 years old, bolts upright in his crib: "Thank you Daddy! Thank you! Thank you Daddy!"
I was afraid to roll over and make eye contact because I didn’t want him coming to complete wakefulness. Playtime at 1am is not a good thing. Cathy was watching and said he was sitting up with eyes open but was fully asleep. He couldn’t have touched my heart more! I love that boy! After his thank yous, he laid down and fell into a deep sleep.
This morning-
Dad: "Let’s get ready for school."
Evan:"Hurray! School!" but school probably sounds more like schual.
Evan, out of the blue: "Daddy, Got milk?"
Evan is now pushing my buttons as he refuses to get dressed and has declared he is not going to school. Monday, monday.
180! Evan is wearing a backpack, dressed, and declaring, "Dad, I am ready to go. Ready to go."
Happy Anniversary Cathy!
She should have run like Hell! (our story) On February 12, 2000 we had our first date. Seven years ago today, Cathy and I were married at Gatlinburg’s Ye Ol’ Tyme Photo Boothe and its been one grand adventure since then!
How will we celebrate our anniversary? It is 4am and I am frantically programming to make some goals I set for this weekend and missed. Today, in between programming, I will try to find a divorce lawyer in Knoxville who actually returns phone calls so that I can have some old history reviewed. I have to do further negotiations with the karate studio who increased my monthly bill from $175 to $190 because I asked that the billing date be moved from the 20th of the month to the 5th of the month. Cathy will spend the day texting Tommy to try to convince him that if he is not in class he still has work to do. This evening we will rush through a chicken pasta dinner of Sarah’s request which due to the finickiness of our eaters has been reduced to basically sea shell shaped noodles, bite-sized broiled chicken, and mayonnaise with my special mix of seasoning (dill, oregano, garlic powder, sometimes onion powder but rarely, parsley, salt, and celery flakes). The boys…er…boy and I will rush off to a Scout meeting while Cathy fights the other children to clean up, bathe and get to bed. She will prepare their clothing and school bags laying them out neatly by the front door. Noah and I will return home. I will kiss Cathy and tell her I love her then return to programming. She will guide Noah through his evening ritual to usher him off to bed then she will spend a bunch of time hand washing dishes since the dishwasher long ago quit doing its job. Around midnight we will both crawl into bed, make a joke about being intimate, then fall asleep. Gifts? The karate studio gets those this year. Maybe we can send the girls to Blogher.
I cannot put into words how much I love Cathy! She moves me in so many ways. She has brought so much happiness into my life!
Cathy I love you! Happy Anniversary! I look forward to many more!
- This post.
- 2007 anniversary
- 2006 anniversary
- 2005 anniversary
- 2004 anniversary
- 2003 (started blogging in ‘04)
- 2002 (started blogging in ‘04)
My Sunday – a week at the University
I woke up this morning before everyone else and promptly began programming. As the morning wore on, Tommy’s departure time to return to school neared. His grandparents and Noah were to take him back to the University. Granny has not seen the campus and Noah was under the impression that it looked a lot like Hogwarts. I found a round tuit and decided to look at Tommy’s laptop which I’d been ignoring for work. LMU has 3 websites the students are required to use; a web-based email client (no pop3 or imap enabled on the exchange server which bites so I have been unable to setup GMail to check the Outlook Webmail), a blackboard (basically a portal by which professors can communicate with the students by posting assignments, slides, links, documents, etc), and a webadvisor (effectively a forum for the students to communicate as well as listings of groups, activities, etc on campus). The fourth website is a public calendar announcing events, activity schedule, and so forth. Tommy had looked at none of these. He had administrative e-mail a week old. He an assignment from a professor being ignored. And to top if off, I counted 30 hours of Internet gaming! Basically, if he wasn’t in class, he was playing games on the Internet. Two nights the gaming did not stop until 12:30am. I was beyond angry!
Now, in Tommy’s defense, this was first week of school, first week of not being under mommy and daddy’s thumb, first week of true independence. I am sure that many freshman behave this way. Also, Tommy has to figure out how to take in this new world which is overwhelming to him and a safe haven is his gaming. I simply fear Tommy falling behind and not being able to catch up.
So after a couple of hours of yelling, tears, and lectures, to which I am certain Tommy turned a deaf early early on, I installed some software to track his usage of ALL software, not just the Internet. (Thanks Tim!) I started to do some tricks to redirect certain gaming sites to education sites but really could not afford the time away from work so Tommy and I came to an agreement. At first the agreement was that the laptop would not go back to the University until he showed some seriousness about his studies; however, the laptop is a requirement of the university. We laid out some pretty clear expectations for Tommy and he is being given another chance. If he messes up, I will be severally crippling that laptop. Cathy will be spending this week on the phone with Tommy. I believe we also need to consider some serious NASA level check lists for Tommy. 1) Open eyes 2) Yawn (note: if yawn does not come from mouth, you could still be asleep, return to step 1) 3) Scratch 4) Sit up…
