As a single, 24-year-old guy with two jobs and no investments, doing my taxes is pretty easy. In past years, I’ve had Mom help me because she’s an accountant, she enjoys doing it, and I know that it would get done right. But, this year, for convenience and speed sake, I decided to give it a shot and it was terribly easy. I was able to free e-file, so I chose H&R Block’s Tax Cut website and it worked pretty wonderfully. Granted, it basically walks you through every step, and as long as you don’t mess up anything too complex, it’s pretty easy. Commercials will tell you that the tax preparers will help you find every little bit of money you’re entitled to and you can see all of the options that could help you get that, but I wasn’t trying to milk the system for anything. One item that is kind of appealing is tax credits for donating things. Rewarding citizens for helping their fellow men might be a better situation than just taxing us and giving that money to others does seem more satisfying. And I remember, when I was working at Sprint, how much I appreciated the fact that you could donate cell phones that would end up in battered womens’ shelters. Car Angel (www.carangel.com) is a non-profit company that uses car and other donations to make videos for kids and teens. They have given away over 2.4 million videos. Money raised is used to make the videos like this one. So, if you’ve got an old beater, make a car donation and get some tax money back next year.
You got this movie and I’m gettin’ hitched. Looks like we both had a good month.
Most of the way through American Splendor and I’m really enjoying it. My favorite part is the interviews with the real creator of the original comic, Harvey Pekar. He’s this off-the-wall, gloomy guy who laughs and basks in his gloom. It reminds me of my dad…a lot. I’m pretty sure that this is almost exactly how he was over the last couple decades. I’d like to travel in time and be with him in his favorite times to see how he was and what he was like. I’ll leave it at that, as I don’t want this to get too personal about other members of the family. But, watch the movie. It’s good. It’s happily pessimistic and wonderful.
I love piggyback rides.
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Sometimes, when you turn a frown upside-down, it looks like a handle-bar mustache.
So, I already wrote one post about people that suck: blind spot drivers. But, I thought I would address another issue that I ran across the other day. Strolling down to the bathroom after a heavy lunch at work, Centro with solitaire in my pocket, expecting to get some quality alone time… I opened the door to the stall to see little droplets of liquid sprayed on either side of the seat.
My guess is that the urinal was already in use, so a careless visitor to the Quest center decided that he would use the stall, opened the door and figured, “Oh, my aim is probably OK.” No sooner than he had unzipped, the first bits of the stream were already splashing on the edge of the seat. “Too late now,” he thought as he contemplated lifting the seat. He might not have even thought that, as he was too full of himself to clean up the seat after doing the damage.
What a deutschbag seat peer.
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I’ve decided to see if I can go the entire month of February without eating at restaurants or going to the bar. I picked the shortest month of the year, but as it was already pointed out to me, this is a leap year. Dammit. Oh well, it’s for the betterment of my financial life and should help me achieve a goal of mine for this year–paying off all my credit cards and getting a healthy jump on the car and student loans, hopefully investing some money at some point. I don’t think I’ll be taking any caribbean cruises, but that’s good with me. If nothing else, it’ll be surprising to see if I can do it. To answer those questions: I will drink drinks at the bar if they’re bought for me, I will probably buy some beer at the grocery store and drink it at home, and I might eat food from a restaurant if it’s gifted to me.
The first type of person to get listed in this series are blind spot drivers. You know, that person who decides that they should match your speed just after catching up to your rear tires. They decide for some reason not to pass you, nor let you get any farther ahead of them. Is it because they are too scared to drive next to you because you might see that he/she is actually a celebrity!? Do they not want to let you get any farther ahead of them because they are madly in love with you, but aren’t sure how to properly let you know and are trying to figure it out? I think it’s a lot less romantic or interesting than either of those… Regardless, if you do this, please stop. It’s irritating and it makes the roads less safe.
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For those of you who didn’t know, before Thanksgiving, I was in an accident with the Jetta. Because of this, I got to deal with insurance companies again. Progressive Direct, as expected was friendly, quick, courteous and attentive. I dealt with different people than I had last time (when I rolled the Explorer), but they were just as good. On the other hand, dealing with insurance reps from Avis was a pretty miserable experience. They took forever to do anything, including fixing my car.
After I finally got it into a shop to be worked on, it took almost 2 weeks to get my car back. Sad. But, I have it back again, and it looks fine. Now, hopefully I can go more than a couple months without another accident (I think I’ve got my lifetime fill).
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I’m hoping to take some pictures of the weight set I have tonight so that I can get it listed on craigslist. I don’t use it anymore, not for lack of wanting to, but because we don’t really have the space for it in the house now. We could relocate it to the living room, or move the gaming/entertainment stuff to the living room, but I don’t think that seems like the ideal situation. We’ll see, i guess. I’m not really sure how much I’ll get for it, but if I don’t get any takers for a reasonable price, we’ll get it taken care of.
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The last two weekends, I have stayed up at least one night until an ungodly hour playing Call of Duty 4 — typically on XBOX Live. It reminds me of the days when I was playing SOCOM II and III online all the time when I was living at home. It’s just such a good time. The only downside is that this isn’t free (yearly subscription is only like $40) and that I worry that I’m wasting my time. But, really, what are the alternatives? Television? Movies? Reading? Work? Sure, I could be productive, but I can only stay focused on stuff like that for so long. I need a reprieve or there’s nothing worth working so hard for. Besides, what else am I going to spend my money on?
gemstone jewelry?