The past three months or so, we’ve …

1) Bought a new house
2) Packed and moved (we live in Pennsylvania now)
3) Redid our old house to sell
4) Started my own engineering business
5) J was offered (and accepted) a teaching job in a new school
6) Mom and sister came to visit for couple of weeks

I feel worn our and beat up mentally (and physically). Everything just was happening so fast but glad to say it’s slowly becoming normal again. Don’t think I can keep blogging regularly anymore but will be sure to at least keep it alive. Hope everyone is having a good summer.

Share This

Put it in your car, speed up to 88 mph and it’ll help you travel back (or forward) in time. It does work better with a Delorean.

For those of you who don’t have a clue what it is or what I am talking about, it is the flux capacitor from The Back to the Future movies. Very cool!

Share This

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.

Share This

- they shouldn’t have mixed Science Fiction with Indy
Indiana Jones is traditionally known for mythical or biblical adventures, not SciFi. That is what makes him different. You’ll know what I mean when you go see it, there won’t be any spoilers here. Steven Spielberg has to learn to leave SciFi out of his movies especially one of this nature.

- good special effects, exciting scenes but the story seemed pretty light

- the villain looked more like a Nazi type German than Russian

- they should tried to bring back Jonathan Ke Quan (the little Asian boy from Temple of Doom)

- the villain died too easily

Is it worth watching? Definitely. But you might be a little disappointed if you went in with high expectations of it being like the previous three installments … it didn’t stick to a traditional Indy type adventure.

Interesting trivia: Tom Selleck was originally supposed to play Indiana Jones but backed out because he had commitments with the Magnum PI television show. I can’t imagine Indiana Jones with that moustache, can you?

Share This

Here are my picks (in order)…

Best 10

1) The Godfather (they don’t make movies like that anymore)
2) Star Wars (the original three)
3) Lord of the Rings
4) Indiana Jones
5) Back to the Future (I love the concept of time travel; so I may be biased here)
6) Die Hard (pointless over the top action but you can’t help but be pumped when you see it)
7) Alien Bourne 1,2 and 3
8) Spiderman
9) Blade (very underrated but all three were nicely made; one of the better vampire movies)
10) Lethal Weapon (you can’t help but love the Danny Glover and Mel Gibson combo)
10) Mission Impossible (over the top action, lots of over acting but still pretty amusing to watch)

Worst 10

1) Matrix (classic way to spoil something good; the second one was just ok; the third one was just terrible)
2) Pirates of the Carribean (they should have left it at just one movie; the 2nd and 3rd ones were just sub standard)
3) Star Wars prequels (lots of hype, special effects were nothing we have not seen before and storyline was mediocre)
4) Rush Hour
5) Scream
6) The Fast and the Furious
7) Look Who’s Talking
8) Evil Dead
9) Species
10) Robocop

Honorable mentions

- Terminator (strong first two movies; would have been in the best ten if not for a subpar third installment)
- XMen (the first two movies were strong but killing off key characters just spoiled it for me)

Forgetables

- Beverly Hills Cop
- Austin Powers (it was just too much after the first one)
- Shrek (lost the plot after the first movie)
- Jurassic Park
- Highlander
- Aladdin
- Silence of the Lambs

Share This

Be sure to click the mouse on the game if Mario won’t move. When you die, you have to reload the page to start over. And yes, you can move left. Sorry.

Regular version: no music or with music

Double size: no music or with music

Source with writeup, instructions and full script.

Share This

Share This

“Heroes aren’t born, they’re built”

Interesting trivia from IMDB:

# In October 1999, Quentin Tarantino was approached to write and direct the film. Later, Joss Whedon, a big fan of the comic book, was in negotiations to direct the film in June 2001. In December 2004, Nick Cassavetes was hired as a director, with the film to release in 2006, but everything fell through. Finally, Jon Favreau was hired as director.

# Nicolas Cage and Tom Cruise were interested in playing Iron Man. Cruise in particular was going to act in and produce the film.

Share This

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.

Share This

Share This

It said, “It’s not easy being green, except on St. Paddy’s Day.”

Cute.

Happy St. Patrick’s day everyone!

Share This

At first I thought that it was my Anti virus software scanning my computer but it wasn’t the case as the unexpected activity went on for days. Shutting down any open applications, Outlook and my Firefox browser didn’t do the trick. Rebooting didn’t do it either.

Evidently (according to a number of articles in the MSDN forum), the problem points to a bug within Microsoft Vista. The hard drive activity and high utilization is related to the Windows Search and Indexing service.

Here is the temporary unofficial fix:

1) Disable Windows Search services (within the Services area i.e. by going to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services).
or/and
2) Disable the .XML file extension from being indexed in the Indexing Options control panel (this was a reply from a Microsoft Support person within the forum)

I did disable the search but didn’t try fix #2. My computer is currently back to normal CPU utilization and everything seems fine.

I do have some questions though:

- does this bug occur on specific Vista versions only?
- what triggers the search service to overload the computer?
- when does the Windows Search service start? Randomly or periodically?
- what extra Vista functionality am I losing by disabling Windows Search and Indexing service?

My computer is brand new (less than a month old), running an unpatched Vista Ultimate operating system and is a Dell XPS (if it makes any difference). I am also wondering why this problem suddenly occurred within the past two weeks.

Hope this problem is fixed within Vista’s Service Pack 1. For now, this article may help those suddenly encountering a (Vista) CPU overload.

Share This

Left handed presidents:

James A. Garfield (1881) 20th
Herbert Hoover (1929-1933) 31st
Harry S. Truman (1945-1953) 33rd
Gerald Ford (1974-1977) 38th
Ronald Reagan (1981 -1989) 40th
George H.W. Bush (1989-1993) 41st
Bill Clinton (1993-2001) 42nd

5 out of the last 7 presidents are left handed (71%). Considering the statistic that only 10% of the population are left-handed, that is pretty good!

Both Barak Obama and John McCain are left handers. Would you bet against, the next president being left handed?

Share This

Can’t believe I haven’t heard of this song until J told me about it. Now I am regretting ever hearing it.

Share This

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?

Share This