"KFC debuted an ad during the Battlestar premiere for the "Frak Pak," some sort of bewildering, unholy combination of fried chicken and Battlestar DVDs, and everyone had a laugh at KFC's expenseÂdespite eagerly jumping on the geek-marketing bandwagon, KFC never bothered to look up what "frak" actually means, and instead named a bucket of their chicken a "fuck pack." Oh, how message boards across the land rang with nasally laughter! "KFC is so frakkin' stupid!" went the refrain. "Who would want to eat a fuck pack of chicken?"
Well, KFC has finally figured out what's what, and they've hastily renamed their promotion from the "Frak Pak Sweepstakes" to the "Can't-Say-That-Word-On-Television Sweepstakes." I guess they get brownie points for trying to be clever about this whole thing, but the new name is actually even worse, because, well, you can say "frak" on television, because that's the whole point, and... well, you just don't want to put the word "frak" next to, say, a bucket of processed chicken, because that's not appetizing, and... and... sigh."
Part of the new stimulus package expected to pass in mid-Feb will include tax credits to business that hire vets and young adults age 16 to 25.
I walked to the copier and scanned a document to myself via email. I walked back to my desk and upon sitting down said to myself "Oh an email! I wonder wha... oh right..."
Wednesday: The Internets has spawned a new meme in less than 24 hours. You guessed it, Aretha's hat!.
It has taken my poor out of shape legs a week to recover from one night of laser tag. I can finally sit and stand w/out strain AND walk at my usual pace.
The whole Sam Adam's scandal is really starting to frustrate me. It's amazing how fast media was condem him, and then to turn it into some sort of game. My regular morning show on the radio had people calling in with "new adutions to be mayor." I'm of this opinion personally. Here's another well thought out opinion.
But apparently Portland is a city of absolute standards adhered to in politics like the worst religious dogma with no room for second chances and no time for careful consideration before condemnation. People react too fast and without forthought. I saw one argument that he stole the election, cause if he hadn't of lied during the campaign he would not have gotten elected in a million years. So are they saying he got elected then on his merits, skills, and history as a public servent since that is what people had to judge him on? Are those now completely devalued? A person's character is a result of their total life experience, we are not defined by one moment in time or one action we take.
Sorry that last one was not really a "quickie" but I didn't want to glorify the Sam Adams thing with an entire post, because I believe it should not be inflated to the scale that it is.
Schedule!
21 01 09 - 12:45. Category:
Is it too dated to use the phrase "stoked?" As in "I am totally stoked cause I got my client work schedule for 2009!" Or, as Caroline put it, "Yay! Work!"
In total, I've been assigned 58 client projects across 50 different clients for 2009. I'm quite glad to report that 54 of these are tax. There's a nice medly of corporate, partnership, gift, property, and trust tax return projects. There's a few benefit plan and estate/sales returns tossed in as well.
My other four projects aren't too bad either. Thank the gods I am only assigned to two audits. I also have one review, which is an audit with slightly less work. Those three should keep me doing financial statements enough in a year for me to be happy. The last project is creating 1099 forms for a company cause they're too lazy to do them themselves, super easy.
My biggest project is one of the audits, which is budgeted at 80 hours, my biggest tax project is budged at 48 hours. The smallets projects are simple estate/sales tax returns which are budged at one whole hour! I'm liking the spread of partners and managers that the projects are assigned to as well.
I'M EXCITED!
'Cause I'm a big dork! I can actually see that there is assigned work expected of me. And it should be fun!
January 20, 2009
20 01 09 - 15:17. Category:
Anything and everything I read on a regular basis is posting something today. Rather than go off on what would be a long winded post, I'm just going to share with you some of the highlights I enjoyed as brought to you by other associations.
Riley's Ride does a good job describing the sense of change that people are sharing with each other. I haven't experienced this, but it's thrilling to imagine.
Joe. My. God. has the highlight clip of the flubbed oath of office. Both Chief Justice John Roberts and Obama messed this one up. I don't knock him for it... hugely nervous moment in Obama's life for sure.
Joe and friends provide some nice commentary on Aretha's completely awesome hat. She pulled it off quite well I think.
Gawker has already put together a Top 10 Moments. Again, the hat!
The Fire Wire has a nice story on moving the presidents in and out.
The new Whitehouse.gov (check it out!) has an updated list of goals for LGBTQ rights. Towleroad has a nice list.
As for myself, I watched the live feed on MSNBC until Chris Mathews became too annoying. Then I tried to switch to CNN but their feed had a wait list so I was stuck. It cut in and out, I missed probably 1-2 minutes of the speech. Posting this and streaming that violates two office policies in one! Double point score!
A simple way of explaining the disgust at Rick Warren's participation finally occured to me: If it were 60 years ago, he is the type of man who would have fought against equal rights for African Americans. Thankfully he only slightly soured the event.
Time to turn over a new leaf, change the toilet paper roll, joggle the etch-a-sketch, wipe the slate clean, take some Windex to the windows, and whatnot. I'm looking forward to it. I've never been excited about my government before.
Tax Season: Day 1
20 01 09 - 00:08. Category:
Day 1 of tax season is officially over. Nine and a half hours of work actually isn't too bad (got off early!) when there is actual work to be done. A return I was told would take me two hours took me just over three and a half. But it's not my fault!
It'd be nice if clients would actually adjust their books how we tell them too. The client hadn't bothered to update their account balances for the past two years. This left me out of balance and scratching my head. Thankfully it was only about four accounts.
Like in any good science, an accountant should be able to take all of a previous accountants work and duplicate their results. They should be able to see where the information flowed from and to. Unfortunately a former accountant at my firm was terrible at this and consequently does not work here any longer. She would use Excel, but she didn't bother to put her math in the cells. I had hard-entered numbers and no idea how she came up with them combined with terrible referencing and labeling.
And I'm a nub.
See, it's not my fault it took so damn long to get the return done.
Hans?
18 01 09 - 12:50. Category:
Craig over at Puntabulous posted this video and I absolutely had to share. It's completely terrific and you should take the time to watch it.
Also, laser tag kicked my ass.I've got scrapes on my forearm and my chin which stung when I found them with my sudsy bar of soap. Both of my thighs are also giant knotted balls of muscle cause I am not used to both squatting that much and duck walking (walking while squatting I'm told has this for a formal name). Stairs are a challenge still, and it's been two days.
Quickies
16 01 09 - 10:33. Category:
Haven't done one of these in a while. Here's some quickies for you:
The IRS is feeling some compassion. They're all about helping with with hard tax situations during this economic downturn.
Tuesday I was given the job "go find these federal and states forms and fill them out." I loved it cause I love filling out forms.
Obama plans on raising taxes on himself. To generate some income they are going to raise the tax on cigarettes up to $1.
Here's a silly sentence: The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 is intended to help most businesses most significantly in an indirect way.
I spent several hours today looking up bars in the area. The fun part it was it was actually legitimate work! I'm in charge of the weekly outings for the office during tax season and of course I have to do my research!
I also ordered this little gem today for my cubicle. I think it's fitting. I was tempted to get quite a few other things like this and this. But everything in moderation and I don't know if putting stickers on my office supplies would go over well.
We found one! Turns out that Best Buy does carry media towers in their stores, they just don't bother to have them on display on the floor. Thanks Best Buy!
This was our storage closet before I finally decided to tackle it. The mamasan chair was tossed in their when we put up our tree. There was also stuff piled in our living room waiting to get in there.
Look at it now! Isn't it great? Not only that, but it emptied out our living room too! Our apartment feels roomy rather than cramped and I love it. And there is still two pieces of furniture to move out that we are no longer using! Am I dorking out and psyched? Hells yeah.
12 of 12, January
13 01 09 - 00:41. Category:
I forgot. :(
Way to kick off the new year. I completely spaced that it was the 12th today. And why did I space? Because it was just another generic Monday on which I sat at my desk for eight hours and did all of twenty minutes of work. I'm sorry I missed it, I always looked forward to it. It would have been a really lame one this month. I woke up, went to work, came home, raided, and then went grocery shopping. The end.
As a weak consolation prize, here's a couple shots that I took while I was down in California at some friends hitting up Disneyland and Six Flags:
They sell whole barbecued turkey legs in California Adventure.
I couldn't resist.
Arguably the best shot of both Caroline and me.
Step 1, spend money
12 01 09 - 19:29. Category:
I ordered my CPA exam review software today. It's ridiculous what companies are charging for this stuff. One leading company offers a set of books along with either CD, in-class, or web-based reviews. They only ask $2,700 for the package. Nearly three grand for some books and CD tutorials? No way in hell am I spending eight hours on Saturday in a classroom (btw, all they do in those classes is play the CD).
The cheapest you can find are companies offering a set of books for self study and review along with nothing else. Cheapest I found in this category was $990. Jesus God.
Thankfully, I found better.
Introducing Exam Matrix. Not only are they probably the best out there in terms of integrating computer usage and advanced learning techniques into their CPA review material, but they're cheap. In fact, their $1,300 tag was one of the cheapest I found. And that was before my several hundred dollar discount through a national accounting firm network my office belongs to.
These are the guys with the great customer service I mentioned earlier. Their software actually has me excited to start studying, because it's responsive and interesting. Granted I won't get much studying done in the near future. It's tax season. I'm looking to take my four tests in May (audit), July (regulation), August (business and economic conditions), and October (financial).
Media tower
11 01 09 - 15:17. Category:
All I want is a media tower. You know, a bookshelf for DVDs. They're narrower and have more shelves, they go great in living rooms. In fact, one would go great in my our living room. You'd think they are common place items in today's DVD age. Guess again.
After today's adventure, we know know who doesn't have them:
Target, first location
Target, second location note: Target has plenty of them listed on their website, but not one in stock.
Fred Meyer
Lowe's
Best Buy
Office Depot
Costco
Ace Hardware
Office Max, phoned location
Office Depot, phoned location
Fishel's Furniture
Urban Home Furniture
We did not go to Ikea because it's on the completely opposite side of the GPMA (Greater Portland Metro Area). That'll be Tuesday.
This shouldn't be that hard!
2008 tax heads up
09 01 09 - 16:29. Category:
For those of you who started or continued to pay college loans this year, the interest is completely deductable. It's a reduction to calculate adjusted gross income (AGI), reducing income reduces your tax liability directly. You should receive a notification from your loan holders how much interest you paid (Form 1098-E). I also found it very easy to look up online.
Remember that economic stimulus payment you received over the summer? It's technically a "refundable credit against tax" for 2007. What's this mean? Well if you didn't receive the entire $600 single/$1,200 joint you may be eligible to receive the remainder as a credit against your 2008 tax liability. Read about it here.
Basically, if your eligibility status from '07 to '08 changed you can claim the remainder of the credit you didn't receive. The qualifications are listed on the site, and include changes in income level which is why recent college graduates likely qualify (poor college student to working class stiff does have it's benefits!). The IRS provides both a calculator to determine the stimulus payment you received and how much of a credit you can take against your tax liability this year. This is a one time only credit, take it or leave it.
Disclaimer: This is not perfect tax advice, and I am not a CPA. You should always consult the tax guidelines and instructions provided by the IRS for clarification at minimum.
More than expected
07 01 09 - 23:11. Category:
Most companies you send an email requesting information and youÂll hear back a few days later with some cookie cutter answer. When I requested a demo of their CPA exam software from Exam Matrix, I figured my name just had to be run through the system and I would be emailed a link by a computer. The sign up told me it would be sometime in the next 48 hours.
Instead, I got a phone call. From a person. A nice person, who knew what he was talking about w/out a script. Not only did the sales manager call me to let me know heÂd be sending me an email with a link shortly, but he also found that my firm is attached to a national accounting firm network which allows me to get a substantial discount on the software. He emailed me the link to that too. I would have had no idea, and it amounts to about an $800 savings.
Good customer service is so easy. All this guy did was call me and take a few minutes to look into my inquiry (not even a sale) and he effectively sold me on his company. Couple that with a good-looking piece of software with a money-back guarantee and you've got something I'm interested in. ItÂs that easy to make a good impression and consequently a sale.
Welcome back
06 01 09 - 10:26. Category:
I'm back from my short vacation down to California. It was a nice belated college graduation gift with friends from high school. Pictures and details forthcoming.
I came back to a revised technology section of the company handbook. They're cracking down on the use of computers outside of company necessities. It is a pretty hard core revision of the old policy. Can't stream radio, and any communictions are property of the company subject to review w/out warning. There's even a whole specific section just about blogging. In which case, if work is reading this, hi!
Anyway, just on to drop this quick note and look through previous entries for anything company policy says I shouldn't have written. Don't be surprised if going through the archives you come across a few "deleted to company policy."
