“Keep you friends close, and your enemies closer.”
One of the quotes that has always stuck in mind. Supposedly Sun Tzu said it first in his book The Art of War but that claim is subject to numerous debates.
My interpretation of it is … you should always keep an eye on your enemies so that you can anticipate their every move and not be sprung by surprise. *Enemies* could be someone you are competing with, a rival - within a personal, academic or business scenario.
Enemy is at times a harsh word for a rival. I picture an enemy on the battle ground getting ready to call on his troops against mine. However, in the literal sense, rivals or competitors are often than not on the other side looking towards you.
Does the saying make sense? I think it does. I believe everyone has so called *enemies* regardless of how polite or nice you are. There is always that one person that is going to be envious, jealous of you and more than happy to see you fail. Schadenfreude … a German word which means “Happiness at the misfortune of others” or “People taking pleasure in your pain”. It’s just human nature and a fact of life.
Someone once told me years ago that the more successful you are (whether it is in life or in business), the more *enemies* you are going to have. I guess that is a trade off of success. Success being a defined goal that changes from person to person.
The question is, can you be successful without enemies?
Not sure, I’m not there yet but I highly doubt it. The challenge in life would probably be to balance that success with the enemies (or obstacles) you are going to face. One of the keys to the betterment of life and being a more complete person.
Few months back I watched a news report on how some counties/ cities are recycling sewer water to make it suitable for drinking. The water is then fed back for human consumption and sold to some manufacturers. The water supposedly exceeds drinking standards and is purer than distilled water sold by wholesalers.
It is probably very good filtered drinking water, something Bobby Boucher would be proud of … at least I’d like to think so (you’ll soon find out why). I can also see the huge costs savings benefits on recycling vs. buying distilled water. However, the gross factor is probably the biggest factor to overcome. It is for me, and believe it would be for most people.
I can’t bear the thought of drinking water that was once the same water mixed with other *stuff* flushed down the toilet and water from the sinks. It gets worse when you top that up with the images of it coming from hospitals, schools, and other commercial establishments.
My biggest fears were realized couple of days ago when I read the label of a bottled water bottle we frequently buy from our grocery store. It wasn’t a Dasani, Evian or other more popular brands but a cheaper grocery store brand.
It said (in really small print), “Made from manufactured water from the City of XXXXX, XX.”
So it turns out that I’ve been drinking “toilet to tap” water for months and it makes me sick to my stomach. Funny thing is that I did mention when we first started buying this cheaper brand that it tasted much better than the more expensive ones.
Our dilemma now is whether to continue drinking it or throw the rest of the fifteen unopened bottles we have in the fridge. One thing we are sure of, we won’t be buying that brand of bottled water ever again.
Got this in my inbox today. Great, just what I need … a supersized Venti Starbucks cup. Like I don’t spend enough on Starbucks already.
J gave me a card with Kermit (the frog) on the front this morning.
It said, “It’s not easy being green, except on St. Paddy’s Day.”
Cute.
Happy St. Patrick’s day everyone!
With the ongoing planning of my new business (which I’ll be officially launching mid this year), I am trying to explore the best way to organize future receipts incurred for tax purposes.
In my personal finances, we’ve always taken standard tax deductions and not itemized anything (didn’t really need to). Receipts and tax related stuff go into one folder that is labeled for the relevant year. When taxes are filed, I put them into a big envelope, with the labeled year and store it in my filling cabinet. I can’t do that with my business as there is itemization involved and a lot more receipts.
While researching the web, I’ve found a multitude of ways people organize their receipts for the IRS:
1) Scan the receipts into pdf form with a Fujitsu’s Scansnap scanner, store them under appropriate folders on the computer. Then burn a CD at the end of the year, label it “200x Tax Receipts” and store it in a fire proof safe.
2) Buy an accordion file (one with a minimum of 12 slots/ pocket), label each slot for the month of the year. Record each receipt in Quickbooks or Quicken and then store them within the relevant month. Label it “200x Tax Receipts” and keep in secure place after the year is over.
3) Use Shoeboxed to scan organize email/ real receipts digitally
4) Use Neat Receipts to scan and store your receipts digitally
5) Put receipts in big envelopes categorized with the appropriate labels e.g. Food, Entertainment, Business Equipment, Office Expenses, Travel, Advertising, Donations etc. At the end of the year or after taxes are filed, bundle them, label and store.
6) Use Diners, American Express or dedicated credit cards for all business expenses. They’ll send an itemized invoice at the end of the year. An accountant can then sort out the relevant deductible expenses.
7) Store in paper folders, boxes or shoeboxes; then transfer every year to bank box or safe.
8) Store in a big box categorized by type (and not date). Receipts are stored after it is recorded in Quickbooks or other financial software.
Item #6 doesn’t tell me much on how the receipts are stored or organized. I’ll probably cross that one off my list of options to consider.
Regarding what are the acceptable practices in the taxman’s eyes, I’ve read conflicting advice:
- scanned receipts are accepted but if audited, they can question its authenticity
- scanned receipts aren’t allowed
- rule of thumb for keeping receipts is about 3 years
- you must keep receipts for at least 5 years
- receipt under $75 can be thrown away (according to the IRS) but you’ll have to justify the amount if audited.
- receipts aren’t needed for anything below $10
- receipts aren’t needed for anything below $500
(Definitely will have to seek the advice of an accountant to get the real answer)
I’ll have to decide which is the best way to organize my tax receipts. Right now, until I get an official answer on whether IRS accepts scanned receipts, I’ll store the originals and won’t bother scanning them (as it could be a waste of time). I’m inclined to buying an accordion file folder, storing the receipts by month and using Quickbooks to record/ itemize (which I already have).
How do YOU organize your receipts for tax purposes and deductions?
Steve passed away on Saturday, Jan 26 just after 7 am. Surrounded by his family at Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia, he is finally at rest after a very long two year fight for his life. Thank you everyone for the prayers and support. He never stopped thanking everyone for the love he felt. He will be missed.
Steve was diagnosed with a very rare and aggressive form of cancer known as neuronendocrine cancer in late 2006. He was just in his early 20s and had a promising career in law enforcement. I had written about him in November of last year.
The viewing will be held at Morrell Funeral Home in Boyertown, PA on Tuesday evening from 7-8:30 PM. The service will on Wednesday morning either at the Funeral Home or at a Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Pottstown. Viewing from 9-10 with the a Mass following. Burial will be at the Hill Church. Arrangements are currently being made and details will be finalized on Monday.
YouTube seems to be a good place to find many good singers (and bad ones too). The pool of talent there is enormous. From randomly stumbling across them, I’ve come some very good ones that film themselves, hoping to get their big break and get picked up by record labels.
You know they have talent when they sing cover songs better than the actual singer, with just a guitar or piano. One other sign of a good singer is when he or she makes an original song (that is really bad) and makes it sound good. America’s Got Talent may have to dip into YouTube to see the many good singers and musicians out there.
Two of my favorites are Marie Digby and Sarah Barailles. Thanks to YouTube, they did get their big breaks on Carson Daly and The Late Late Show respectively. Last year, Sarah Barailles was featured as the iTunes “free single of the week”. She then released her album (under the Sony BMG label) a month later, became the most downloaded album on iTunes and debut at #45 on the billboard charts. Thanks to Angela for telling me about her. I was going to post her cute “Love Song” video but the embed code has been disabled. Here’s the link to her official music video posted a couple of months ago.
I stumbled across Marie Digby on YouTube when I was searching for a James Morrison song (You give me something). Gotta say she does play a great cover of that song on her guitar but her trump card is Rihanna’s “Umbrella” song (see the video below). You may want to fast forward about a minute or so to hear her. She also sings a better version of Britney’s Gimme More on her guitar (actually makes that song sound good). I believe she is releasing an album pretty soon.
Judge for yourself below … what a great TV debut, isn’t she something!
Couple of weeks ago, J was laughing at my choice of iTunes song downloads. It seems that most of my songs of recent months are from TV commercials or previews. I’ve become quite good at searching for a song I’ve just heard on TV and finding it on iTunes (without even knowing the singer’s name). Can’t help it, just happen to like the songs…
1234 - Feist (Apple iPod Nano commercial)
All that I want - Weepies (JC Penney Xmas commercial)
The Way that I am - Ingrid Michaelson (Old Navy commercial)
You give me something - James Morrison (played during the FX channel previews)
This is the day - The The (M&M commercial)
What I Like About You - The Romantics (Esurance commercial)
Love Song - Sarah Barailles (Rhapsody commercial)
Sweet Pea - Amos Lee (AT&T Wireless commercial)
My Patch - Jim Noir (Target commercial)
Family Affair - Mary J. Blige (Propel Fitness Water commercial)
Never realized that YouTube and TV could be such a good source of music.
Nice way to usher in the New Year with a pesky cough and stuffy nose. This pesky cough has been lingering since the 27th. I’m so clogged up my head feels like it’s ready to explode, my ears ache, my skin’s dry and my nose is sore from constantly blowing it. It seems like when I lie down, my cough gets worse too.
So there goes my plan to go to the gym for at least another week until I’m better. I hate winter in Ohio and it’s not even the coldest part of the year yet — 33F today. J and family had Pork & Sauerkraut on New Years day as a tradition, supposedly it brings good luck and a prosperous year. Not really a Pork & Sauerkraut guy (can’t stand the smell!), so I cooked myself Garlic Spaghetti and a side of Stir-fried peppers instead — hope that brings me a good year.
My beloved Cleveland Cavaliers started off the year well with 2 wins out of 2, lets get the confidence and momentum going again. Ohio State Buckeyes plays their BCS Championship game in a couple of days. Wishing them good luck and hope they win! Love to see another championship again (since 2003) after losing it last year.
Registered for my penultimate Masters course this week. I am down to my last two courses for my MBA. Woohoo! It has been a long time coming but I’m finally near the end.
Had a bad case of browser problems this week too. It seemed that my Firefox 2 and IE7 browser had problems displaying javascript. After a few days of messing around, uninstalling, reinstalling the browsers without success — it magically worked when I reset IE7 and reinstalled the Java Runtime update 3 plugin. My suspicion is that it has something to do with Microsoft’s patch updates, every time it updates my WinXP operating system, something gets broken on my computer. I’ve since set it to manually update instead.
Now that I have got all my the rants and ramblings out of my system, I feel better now. However, the grumpiness still remains. Sorry J, bear with me till my cough and stuffy nose clears up.
As 2007 winds down with about 3 hours to go, I guess I’ll spend a little time reflecting on how the year went.
2007 really was not a pleasant one for me and the rest of the family with a lot of unforeseen circumstances, accidents and sicknesses. It just seemed like it was one bad thing after another. We kept ourselves strong as a family throughout.
This year, I’ve come to realize how powerful family love and unity is. The love and support of family can get one through the toughest of times — it certainly did with me. With the love and support everyone gave me… came hope, motivation and persistence to overcome adversity. I thank God for being so blessed with those who love me and accept me unconditionally for who I am. I’ll never forget how everyone helped me emotionally.
And J, I know that I won’t be here without you. You are my best friend and my soul mate. Thank you for your unconditional love through thick and thin — I love you! You make me the happiest man (and hubby) in the world.
My new year goals/ resolutions:
- finish my MBA
- eat healthy and lose about 5-10 pounds
- be happy and enjoy life!
- get organized!
- spend more time with family
Next year is going to be an exciting one. We’ll be planning to move back to J’s hometown in PA to be closer to family and I’ll be embarking on new pastures of starting a new business. Next year would also be the year I finally finish my MBA and be done with studying (unless I am a sucker and pursue a PhD). For once in a long time, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and can actually smile as I know our future is bright.
I am not sad to see 2007 go. In fact, good riddance as it’ll probably be the year I want to remember the least! I’m pumped… 2008 can’t come soon enough!
A touching animated vid by Hanna Abi-Hanna.
Beneath the Rubber Tree from Hanna on Vimeo.
