Recently in Life Stories Category
Conversation at the airport this morning:
TSA Guy: Stop! You need a boarding pass to go through.Me: I don't think we do. We fly all the time.
TSA Guy: Ok, go ahead.
So I've finally jumped on the console bandwagon and ordered an Xbox 360 from Amazon, mostly for the downloadable content and streaming video. I recently bought an HDTV, so I need some way to take advantage of it. Here's the plan.
I've got Netflix already, so I'll be able to watch lots of streaming content on the Xbox via Netflix.
I'm getting PlayOn so I can watch internet video through my computer and the Xbox with that.
I've got an HD tuner USB dongle for my computer and some DVR software, so if I hook that up to my antenna I should be able to record over-the-air HD content to my computer and then view that through the Xbox.
If all this goes as planned, I'll be able to cancel my satellite service and all this will pay for itself in a year or so. Only possible hitch: I may need to upgrade my DSL service for more bandwidth.
Any suggestions?
My wife loves dogs so we've watched a lot of Cesar Millan, and one of our favorite episodes of South Park is the episode "Tsst", in which:
When Cartman's mom realizes she can't control her son anymore, she gets help from an expert. The "Dog Whisperer" may have what it takes but Eric Cartman's not going down without a fight.
And now, three years later, life imitates South Park.
It’s little wonder, then, that some parents, and even a few child therapists, have found themselves taking mental notes from a television personality known for inspiring discipline, order and devotion: Cesar Millan, otherwise known as the Dog Whisperer.The suggestion that the Dog Whisperer is also a Child Whisperer of sorts has popped up — sometimes couched as a joke, but, well, not really — in parents’ forums like blogs, online discussion boards, magazines, Twitter feeds and podcasts. Some parents are starting to take notice.
“When we started watching his shows, we had intended to apply his advice toward our dogs,” said Amy Twomey, a blogger on parenthood for The Dallas Morning News who is raising three children under 10 with her husband, Matt. “But we realized a lot of ideas can be used on our kids.”
Yep! Our thoughts were on that same track way before we had an almost-one-year-old. Thanks to Cesar's techniques, Violet quickly learned not to touch the television or video equipment that's right at her head level in the living room.
(HT: James Taranto.)
My family goes to the Saint Louis Zoo about once a month and really enjoy it, so we were excited to go to Boo at the Zoo last night with some friends. The park was well-decorated, but we were all very disappointed with the distinct lack of animals. Most of the zoo was closed off with barriers, and the few animals in the open areas were all put away for the night. We spent almost two hours at the zoo and saw exactly two animals: a peacock wandering around, and a bear who was climbing a tree and then put away shortly after. The rest of the exhibits were either closed or vacant.
My laptop keyboard has no "I" key, which makes it rather difficult (but not impossible, obviously) to input the letter. Also, a parable of humility.
Some great tips for maintaining a strong marriage despite your kids. As the father of a six-month-old I really appreciate these tips.
One of my favorite times of day is when my wife and I (and the baby) go for a walk together. Our daughter is along for the ride, but she's quiet enough in her stroller that we adults can talk and spend time together without distraction.
Also, I always make it a point to tell my daughter that I love her very much, second only to her mom.
Jessica and I were extremely excited to visit the recently re-opened National Museum of American History -- it had always been one of my favorites, but it had been closed the last two times we visited Washington, DC. Unfortunately, I have to say that I'm not a fan of the way the museum has been reorganized. It's clear that a lot of the construction was needed to accommodate the vast crowds we saw on the Friday we went, but the shrunken exhibits themselves were sadly lacking. From the floorplans, however, it appears that there will someday be additional exhibit space opened to the public. I can't wait!
The most obvious example of shrinkage was the World War I exhibit which measured about 50 square feet. Frankly, the online version of the exhibit is more engaging and impressive than the room itself! I couldn't even get a picture of the room because it was too small to maneuver my camera with all the people crammed in.
In contrast, here are some pictures I too of the recently christened Obama Wing.
I can't say I was displeased that the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd didn't seem too interested in the 5,000 square feet dedicated to our current President. I visited the museum in 2001 and 2005 and don't remember President Bush being so prominently featured.
I need the help of an artist who can do fun cartoony drawings and lettering. There may eventually be a bit of money involved if any of my ideas are successful. If you're interested, email me with some samples of your work or a URL where I can see what you can do.
When I read this essay two weeks ago that begins with a discussion of Obama's mis-steps I intended to write a post myself about how much I enjoy reading Camille Paglia. But I didn't, because I didn't have much more to say than that. But now I see that hers is the first name mentioned by Rush Limbaugh when he is asked who he admires.
VAN SUSTEREN: Who do you admire and why?[... a bunch of stuff where he doesn't name any names ]
LIMBAUGH: Well, now, you're getting into politics. If you want to talk about things that -- I admire a lot of people that nobody even knows, and they're, you know, hard-working people who are trying to struggle against all of this, just trying to be the best they can be, fighting against the odds, working harder than they ever have to overcome the obstacles in their way. And those are people that, you know, you really to take inspiration from. And I admire people who are not afraid to speak out -- you know (INAUDIBLE) and people in the arts.
I mean, I'm sure there are some -- I admire Camille Paglia. I admire her brilliance. I admire Krauthammer and Victor Davis Hanson and Justice Scalia. I mean, if I wished -- if I didn't have my own brain, I wish I had theirs. Satisfied with mine. But there's a tremendous -- Clarence Thomas.
I don't think Paglia would be the first name on my list, but still.
I just got home from the Saint Louis Tax Day Tea Party... what a blast! It was the first protest I've been to where I wasn't counter-protesting!
I heard that the park rangers estimated attendance at 8,000 to 10,000 people, and based on my own naive counting I believe it. The atmosphere was incredible, the people were nice and enthusiastic, and everything went off without a hitch. Bill Hennessy, Dana Loesch, the other organizers, and Gateway Pundit (did he help organize?) all deserve a lot of credit.
My impression of the rally:
- It's a learning process. Many of the people there didn't seem to know exactly what to do, probably because this was the first rally they'd been to. The organizers didn't seem to lack for anything: they had free signs and took names and email addresses.
- Getting people out the first time is always the hardest. Now that these 10,000 people have been to one protest, it'll be much easier to get them to come to the next one, and to bring their friends.
- Elected Republicans should be worried. This crowd was their natural constituency, but no one hesitated to boo the officials who didn't show up because they weren't allowed to speak. The speakers went out of their way to highlight the failures of the Republican party over the past nine years, and the crowd was pleased to hear it.
- Representative Todd Aiken was a class act. He stood on stage and watched everything, even though he wasn't allowed/asked to speak. He stood there and took it, even while the crowd chanted "vote them out!".
- People were fired up and wanted to know "now what?". The main advice I'd give to the organizers is that they should have told us what to do next. Every attendee should have been given a flier with contact information for local officials, a URL to a website, and some hint of the next rally or activity that's going to happen. Hopefully the email addresses that were collected will be used for this kind of follow-up, but it would have been nice to have something in-hand when I left.
Here's a few seconds of video from the west side of Keiner Plaza. Keep in mind that there are at least as many people on the east side of the plaza on the opposite side of the speakers' platform.
Click the extended entry for pictures.
Last night I received a letter from the Franchise Tax Board of California -- basically the state's IRS. They've decided to investigate my 2007 taxes too! I guess it could be yet another coincidence, but at some point you've got to wonder....
Of course, the fact that I haven't lived in California since 2006 should make it pretty easy to respond. I didn't pay California taxes in 2007 because I lived in Missouri for the entire year. But still, it's yet more forms to fill out under penalty of imprisonment and impoverishment.
I wonder if I'll be hearing from Missouri next?
I just went for a very short, very slow run, and I miss it so much. I hurt my knee several years ago and I quit running to save my joints... now I just use an elliptical machine. It's ok, but boy, nothing beats a good run.
I'm extremely grateful for the outpouring of support I've received over the past few days from other Americans who are as fed up as I am with the incestuous orgy of corruption in Washington DC. The point of TaxCheatStamps.com (buy a stamp) is to make a public spectacle of that corruption, and the IRS audit has sure helped the cause! My wife and I have drawn a measure of comfort from the ferocious response of the American people, and we're confident now that the federal bureaucratic machine won't be able roll over us with complete impunity.
I especially want to thank Neil Cavuto, who was gracious enough to have me on his program yesterday to bring attention to this situation. Like I told Neil, there's no proof that I'm being persecuted for political reasons but the timing of the audit is very "curious". I will be extremely happy if the whole issue goes away when I send in my paperwork this week, but if it doesn't I promise that you'll hear more about it.
Here's the video of my segment last night on "Your World":
Thanks also to Glenn Reynolds, Dana Loesch, and Gateway Pundit for drawing early attention to my plight.
Today I received a letter from the IRS that my 2007 tax returns are being audited. Less than one month after launching TaxCheatStamps.com.
There's a list of "proposed changes" they want to make to my 2007 return that would require me to pay almost $14,000 in taxes, penalties, and interest. All the "discrepancies" they list are bogus and I have documentation to prove it. I keep meticulous records and always pay every cent I owe to Uncle Sam. We're going to talk to a lawyer ASAP.
There is no doubt in my mind that my family is being politically persecuted for making a mockery of our new Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and the Obama administration.
Honestly, we're scared. We haven't done anything wrong (and I've got the documents to prove it in storage) but now the IRS is coming after us and they can destroy our lives with a flick of their pen. I don't want to sound like a coward, but I'm so scared I'm literally shaking. We've got a seven-week-old daughter.
I suppose it's a sort of honor to be persecuted like this. I'd really appreciate it if people would blog about this and link to this post. (And a prayer wouldn't hurt.)
The IRS has been used for political attacks before under the Clinton and Nixon administrations.
Thanks for the support:
Unfortunately Violet is an alien-human hybrid and will need to live in this alien incubator for a while.
Master of None isn't turning into a baby blog, but you have to indulge me right now.
1. Violet gets fussiest around 10pm... right when we're used to going to bed.
2. But she slept for almost four hours between 6am and 10am!
3. As a result of (1) and (2), we're going to shift our sleeping schedules and stay up later instead of fighting this battle head-on.
4. It seems like she's still on the schedule she was on in the womb: wake up and go nuts as soon as we lay down for bed, and then fall back asleep when we wake up.
5. It's a lot of fun to work so closely with Jessica on the same "project", even if V is a little challenging at this point.
Violet Ada Elizabeth Williams has arrived!
Mark Roth discovers that hydrogen sulfide derivatives may be useful for putting wounded soldiers in suspended animation until they can be taken to a hospital.
See, it wasn't like Roth ever let go of the dream of immortality. He was still obsessed with the lumps. He just began thinking about them in a different way. Okay, the lumps are immortal -- so what do they do; how do they achieve that end? And here's the answer: They do nothing. They're quiescent. They're couch potatoes! They're immortal, because for all intents and purposes -- in terms of movement -- they're already dead! And maybe that's what immortality is. People always think of it in terms of living forever. But maybe it just means not dying -- not dying when you're supposed to die, surviving the mortal moments. We don't know what life is, anyway. Not really. We just know what life does -- it burns oxygen. It's a process of combustion. We're all just slow-burning candles, making our way through our allotment of precious O2 until it becomes our toxin, until we burn out, until we get old and die. But we live on 21 percent oxygen, just as we live at 37 degrees. They're related. Decrease the oxygen to 5 percent, we die. But, look, the concentration of oxygen in the blood that runs through our capillaries is only 2 or 3 percent. We're almost dead already! So what if we turn down the candle's need for oxygen? What if we dim the candle so much that we don't even have the energy to die?And so began Mark Roth's career as a deanimator. As a gorker. Gorking is...well, gorking. You take away some creature's supply of oxygen, you're gorking it, man. The trick, of course, is bringing it back. In the beginning, that wasn't so easy, because in the beginning Roth was just free-associating. He was using heavy water, rat poison, and he was a deanimator without being a reanimator. Other scientists were laughing at him: Hey, Roth, did you suspend anything today? But then he did. He gorked some nematodes -- roundworms -- with nitrogen. An inert gas, sure, but it crowded out the oxygen available to them; it diminished the atmosphere. Roth took them to the Death Hole, which was an atmosphere of less than 1 percent oxygen. They died. But then he took them beyond the Death Hole, and they came back when oxygen was reintroduced. There was life beyond the Death Hole! So he tried carbon monoxide. Talk about gorking: Colorless, odorless, the agent of choice for many of the world's yearly cull of suicides, CO is Thanatos in a bottle -- but it didn't kill the worms. It just dimmed the candle, not by taking away the supply of oxygen but rather by preventing the worms from using it. And that was the leap that Roth made -- employing toxins for benefit. Using one of the most toxic substances known to man to interfere with the toxic effects of oxygen. See, when creatures die of hypoxia, they don't die because they don't have enough oxygen; they die because they're still burning the oxygen they don't have enough of. What Roth did was find a way to turn off -- or turn down -- the fire. What he did was find a way to separate the living cell not from oxygen itself but from the capacity to use it.
I'm not sure if Esquire's writing style is to my liking, but the content is interesting.
I hate being on hold, but even more than that I hate hold music. I like to leave the speakerphone on while I'm waiting, and hold music is distracting and irritating. It always puts me in a worse mood when I finally get through to an operator. I'd prefer it to be silent, with periodic beeps of some sort to let me know I'm still connected.
As you know, Jessica and I are having a baby in a few months, so we've been thinking about how we're going to invest in our kids' futures. Everyone at work is horrified when I tell them that we're not going to pay for our kids' collage. I know such a stance is evil and unAmerican, but hear me out.
1. People line up to loan money to college students; no one will loan Jessica and I money for our retirement. College loans are cheap, easy money with low interest rates and undemanding repayment schedules.
2. Our kids will probably be sick of my meddling by the time they leave the house.
3. There may be more efficient ways to invest in your kids... ways that most people don't think about but that can make an even bigger difference in their lives. For example, Jessica is planning to be a stay-at-home mom; there's an opportunity cost to that decision, and in the long run it will certainly be more expensive than paying college tuition.
When it comes to launching missiles in the Mommy Wars, Sarah Palin has nothing on Christopher Ruhm. On Thursday, the University of North Carolina, Greenboro, economist published a study showing that kids from high-socioeconomic-status families take a long-term hit when their moms work outside the home—at ages 10 and 11, they perform more poorly on cognitive tests and are also more likely to be overweight than those whose high-status mothers leave the workforce. ... "This comes down to a fundamental principle of economics: something has to give. We can't have it all," he says.
That's right. We think having a stay-at-home mom will be a bigger advantage for our kids than a stack of money would be when they turn 18.
