Archive for the ‘personal’ Category

I need less zeal for my taxes

Posted: January 27, 2009 by datechguy in employment, personal
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Two months before I lost my job I got a new mortgage.

Forgot all about the fact that the property taxes are rolled into the mortgage so last week on the 20th I went to city hall and paid them. (I own 2 properties so I would have had to go anyway).

Didn’t realize until I got my mortgage bill what I had done.

No worries the bank can refund me if I present proof of payment of the tax or in May they’ll cut a check for the excess on Escrow.

That sounds like a no brainier but if I don’t have something by May that’s about the time when my unemployment will run out. It might be worthwhile to have that “banked” till then.

Something to think about.

Going over the press’ feeding frenzy over the Pope’s decision some things struck me:

If Williamson had been an Iman the press coverage of him would either be non-existent or be considered a hate crime in Canada, Sweden and Holland. It would be really nice if just once the antisemitism in Islam got a tiny bit of attention.

Have you noticed that on any given week you can find a story that starts with “Pope’s decision/action on” and ends with “criticized”. You can bank on this with the media. In fact You can see the same thing with “Israel decision/action on” “criticized” the same way with the same media. All the “beautiful” people seem to hate both. Then again the pope is unlikely to cut off anyone’s head, nor is Israel. (This comes under my “indirect proofs” theory concerning God and Catholicism).

Other than Charles Johnson I haven’t seen anyone mention the truther/Kennedy conspiracy stuff in reports. These are things that the media doesn’t want to touch for some reason.

And speaking of this stuff have you ever noticed that people never seem to believe in only one conspiracy? On occasion they might be short one but they never believe in only one. Sort of like a Lays commercial.

You know just once in one of those dramas where the lone cop is cautioned by their higher ups about being wrong or the doctor who defies all convention over an odd diagnosis or the investigator who is so convinced that that guy is innocent if they were actually wrong once on the screen itself and then have them deal with that over and over during the rest of the season.

Everyone knows that they are wrong sometimes, but they never know it at the actual time they are wrong.

There is no darker time then the time between the last game of the World Series and the begining of spring training.

Once you reach a particular age a rather large percentage of your social calendar is spent at funerals.

And you know you are getting old when your regular doctor is younger than you. Once that happens its very rare that it changes.

Speaking of Chips once Cape Cod Chips came out suddenly everybody had kettle cooked chips for sale, that’s how you know your product is good.

How do you know times are bad? The wonder bread thrift store. The guy who runs it tells me his business is up 40%.

How many of studies that we hear about on the news actually pan out? Someone should do a study on it.

100 years from now people will still be laughing at the three stooges.

There is nothing that brings inner peace more than sitting in a room with your spouse, even if you aren’t doing or watching the same thing. I don’t know how widows or widower’s handle it.

Do you remember what you did with your time 20 years ago when you didn’t have a PC or internet to play with? It’s almost like that time didn’t happen isn’t it?

I still have high hopes that I will be able to make it to 50 without a cell phone, if I can make it to 60 without one it would be even cooler.

And finally I noticed this on election day. If you spend 8 hours watchhing traffic you will be shocked at how many accidents don’t happen.

Pinball Pilgrimage

Posted: January 25, 2009 by datechguy in personal
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Had a fun little day hitting three locations with the youngest going from pinball machine to pinball machine to pinball machine. We started with The Adams Family , progressed to Theatre of Magic, and finished off with Terminator 2.

Well for $4 and a couple of small pizzas we got 3 hours of serious pinball. Its a great bit of fun and a great way to relieve stress. I recommend it as the best therapy in the world when you need to unwind.

Pure Grain has a bit of a kick

Posted: January 24, 2009 by datechguy in personal
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Back from the party, a lovely gathering at the home of a very liberal friend of mine.

It is always important to remember that politics are politics but friendship trumps it.

If you are a fan of offbeat radio and a little video might I suggest the WDOA blog here. It isn’t my scene but it might be yours.

Was offered spiked eggnog. It had a bit of a kick I didn’t care for the taste, never been an eggnog guy but the wife liked it.

The kick came from 190 proof grain alcohol. I tried it straight and found it much better than the eggnog. Tasted kinda like Anisette to me but It’s not something I’d have again. Sort of like when I tried Mead at Steve’s place except it tasted better.

Given the choice I’d much rather have Lambrusco any day.