joyfulchristian

I'm off again

I'm on my way to San Diego first thing tomorrow.  From there I'll stop by to see the fiancee.  I'll be back Sunday night. I have no idea how much I'll blog in the mean time.

Have a good week!

Here's a tip

If you win a million dollars on national television, report it to the IRS!

(My apologies if this sounded like an accounting post.)

Random weirdness

Several years ago two of our clients who had owned a corporation together parted ways on less than friendly terms.  When that happened, they decided to close the company out together.  While the company was winding down its operations, the client who functioned as president changed the legal name of the company to Done Dealing, Inc.   

My boss asked him where that name came from.  He said, "I'm done dealing with him."

We still do business with both clients.  We just do our best not to  mention one in front of the other.

Yay!

I'm getting Dish Network today.  Woo-hoo!  The installation guy is here. He's run tons of cable and stomped all over the attic.  Soon, though, I'll have Dish Network in the living room and every bedroom. 

And DVR. MMMMMMMMMMM.  DVR.

You know ...

It would be fun to have some member of Congress propose this.

(2005-01-13) -- Democrats in the Senate promised a filibuster today for a Republican-sponsored measure that would allow construction of a 500-foot-tall pyramid on the National Mall in Washington D.C. to commemorate President George Bush's second inauguration.

I can just imagine the howls.

Alas

Chief Justice Rehnquist has served our nation faithfully on the Supreme Court for decades.  You don't have to agree with all, or even most, of his judicial positions to respect his dedication to the American justice system.  I greatly fear that he won't be with us for long.

I just want to stop and say thank you.

Hey!

Somebody threatened to kick my butt yesterday!

Although, to be fair, it might have had something to do with my snarky comments on the subject of vomiting.

Pretty cool

Last night I installed Mozilla's new Firefox browser.  I worked with it a bit and really liked it.  I installed it at the office this morning and have used it all day.  So far, it looks really good.

Yeah, I know; I'm behind the curve. Oh well.

Because I'm here

*** Warning! Warning! Danger Will Robinson! Accounting lingo ahead! *** 

I realize that I'm pretty strange, but this one is pretty odd even for me.  I was just sitting at my desk working and I thought, "If I ever wrote a story (book/tv/movie/whatever) that had street thugs extorting "protection" money from store owners, I'd probably have one of the store owners issue the thug a 1099.

Bravo

Let's hear it for PWC: (registration required)

AP WorldStream English (all) via NewsEdge Corporation : UNITED NATIONS_In an unusual move, the United Nations said it will use an outside firm of accountants to help track the billions of dollars pledged to help the victims of the tsunami in the Indian Ocean.

Price-Waterhouse-Coopers has offered its services on a pro bono, or no fee, basis to the United Nations to help create a financial tracking system, Kevin Kennedy, a senior official in the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said Monday.

On a related note, there's an accompanying statement from the same UN spokesman that this has nothing to do with the lately revealed financial incompetence and thievery at the UN.  Nothing to see here; move along.

I've got to give it up for PWC though.  With them providing free services to monitor the money, there's at least a chance the funds may actually be used to help the victims.

Here's a tip

The second half of suggestive selling is actually giving the customer the suggested item when he pays for it.

So I was driving around running errands after work.  While I was out I stopped at Burger King and ordered an Angus Burger combo.  The girl taking my order asked, "Would you like bacon or cheese with that?" and I said, "Both."

It was dark by the time I got my food so I didn't see much when I started eating while running my errands.  After two or three bites I realized something was wrong; I had no bacon.  Actually, there were two somethings; I had no cheese either.

Not cool at all.

Yes sir, would you like opossum with that?

By the way

a) Thanks for all the good wishes.  If you checked the comments out, you'll see that the wedding has been moved to June 18th (some silliness about wanting a bridesmaid to actually be at the wedding), but every thing else is still a go.

b) Sorry for the lack of free ice cream.  Things have been real hectic AND my laptop is on the fritz. Grrrrr.

c) I'll be trying to post more regularly now. Until I hit the tax season wall that is. Who knows what will happen then?  (No, not even The Shadow knows.)

Grrrrrrrr

*** Warning! Warning! Danger Will Robinson! Accounting lingo ahead! *** 

For reasons that escape me, the IRS has made it as difficult as possible to pay business taxes. The only acceptable way to pay most federal payroll taxes and corporate income taxes is to take deposit a check at your bank. (I'm ignoring e-filing for now; that's another matter entirely.)

That check must be accompany a Form 8109 Federal Deposit Coupon. Strangely, the IRS has made it almost impossible to actually get these coupons. The IRS is supposed to automatically issue companies coupon books with all the business information already filled out. However, they are often slow in doing this; sometimes the books never come at all. If you don't have any pre-filled forms you're supposed to use a blank form. Teeny problem: this form is not available online and photocopies are not accepted. Your only recourse is to try to get some blank forms from an IRS employee. In my experience, most IRS employees guard these forms as if their life depended on it.

The end result? People who are genuinely trying to pay their taxes on time get totally freaked out by the hassle.

It's just a thought, but shouldn't the IRS be making it as easy as possible for you to actually give them the money on time? Especially since you'll get penalized if you don't?

ARGGGhHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!