Well I finished my taxes, short of maybe 2-3 deductions I am going to check on in the morning, if I can do those I think I get the tax down a bit, but as it stands I get no refunds, paying under $200 total, of course thats not including the $138 for TurboTax online to get it all said and done, but a small price to pay really, plus if I do taxes online again next year, I’ll have my return from this year in their system, thus saving me the hassle of keeping a printed copy.
So been toying with the idea of the road trip again, three fold reason really:
- To get out of dodge for a while.
- Visit Family
- Take Pictures.
I only have 1 major commitment left at the moment, which is a wedding of two friends on the 28th, which is not really that far off (hitting Target this week for their gift), but after that I honestly don’t have a set amount of commitments - hosting biz is going smooth, this week some new configuration tweaks will be in place, and I’m hoping to get the Fantastico bunk fixed up one way or another - for some reason they can’t figure out why its not working, I may just eat it, and buy the lic. myself so I can deal directly - eliminate the middle man, fight for a bit of cash back later.
Which leads to the question, where to go? I need to go visit my brother, he has a new place @ the beach, and of course I need to go and stay for a day or two and take in the sights, but I think I want to maybe just cruise up California coast first, head north, and if I hit the border of Cali/Oregon and I feel energetic and I have clean clothes still, then keep going towards my grand parents place - but then again if my family is considering going that way later this year, I may just save up for a plane ticket, and go with them - but none the less, a drive north would be fun, specially along the coast line.
Anywhoo, my random bits of brain for the evening, tomorrow should prove to be an fun day, getting taxes finalized, doing the final “audit” checks and such that TurboTax online offers, and hit print, and get it out in the mail before the last pickup - of course certified (using Stamps.com) so it’s all good, but for now its Dresden Files time, Sunday’s episode just downloaded to iTunes (had a season pass) so going to go watch that, and maybe finish up the night with some Wii bowling, my average has been lacking as of late. 
night folks, have a happy Monday!
A while back I had someone suggest a Wiki as a method of organizing, but the solutions they presented all seemed overly complex, busy, and hard to really manage anything with, but as of late I am utilizing DokuWiki [linkage] to manage my own projects Wiki called Chuck’s Brain - and I must say its a lovely resource, I have mapped out several projects, and the formating is slowly growing on me and making things easier - a great tool/resource for managing some projects as of late.
Spent the night hanging out with a good friend, got to chit-chat, catch up, and have a meal, see a guy we both knew, and then I cruised home in a nice rain - a nice change in weather, must say I enjoyed it, plus the dust on my car is gone from the wind from earlier in the week - so a nice end to a day.
All in all things are going okay, taxes are just a pain as usual, each year I say I am going to stay on top of them, and I rarely do lol - but this year if all goes as planned and I get INC’d then things should be a tad easier, and instead of filing company taxes my hard ones would be corp. tax, and then pay myself in a W2 so I’ll get a nice 1040EZ form to fill out come year’s end. Which is lovely.
Should be done with Taxes by Sunday night Monday afternoon max, but then its a few projects to finish and knock down and then I can look at maybe visiting my brother @ the coast (which I’ll most likely do either way) but then maybe a trip up the coast towards my grandparent’s place - be nice to take a little more lengthy photo road trip and on top of it visit family - be neat to see my cousins and such in Washington - but time, finances, and such will all tell how that goes down
Anywhoo - 1:30am, some things to do, one of which is sleep, but one thing at a time 
Night folks, have a good Sunday.
Some would say to keep my mouth shut on this, and not “stir things up” and that the risk of a lawsuit is a bad thing for “slander” or “defiling someone’s character” but in this instance, I can safely say:
“Suck it.” (going to love hearing that one in court!)
Over the last few days some things have transpired at a place I used to work, let’s call the place something out there so no one can figure it out, let’s call it CMCentral or CMC for short (see how clever I am) - but before one can go into that arena and say “Why do you care?” lets rewind a bit to when I worked for CMC - like several other “Christian” businesses your job was more “ministry” than “work”, when you were asked to do something more, it was for “the ministry” not the “job”, the site owner, and again being clever here - we’ll call him Sean or “Sean.v.T” for short (seems longer, but it just looks that way.) is a nice enough guy you’d want to help him, and you feel part of something, you want to see it do well, so you go above and beyond.
In my own history for CMC I helped out sometimes getting wrapped up in things and missed a wedding setting up a chat for Mercy Me, wrote software that a YEAR after the fact was nit-picked to death, and in the end due to extreme difference in opinions on the “best” way to do something, we parted ways and my time suddenly freed up greatly, allowing me to swing back into full tilt on my own business and workings - so not a bad end for me, and after a few months Sean.v.T and I worked on some projects as by the great advice of at the time senior editor let’s call him BdG (Simple, clean, its short enough), I picked up some side jobs here and there doing software updates, and server moves etc. so a good end to the story for the most part, right?
Well fastfwd back to the the happenings of late, BdG is outed as editor of CMC, to me a position that was really more of a burden to him vs. a blessing, granted CMC can open some doors to media contacts, but at what price? Some of you can say “Sean is a ________” you can say he’s wrong, and in a lot of ways you’d be right, and in some you’d be wrong - don’t get me wrong, I think here Sean has a lot of splainin to do - goes without saying, it was handled poorly, and a post not to JUST the forum, but on the main site, needs to be done - I don’t care how “un-professional” that might look, were human, companies are run by humans and humans make mistakes, and in good faith I think the new editor should make an apology as well, I don’t know her, but I highly doubt she meant this on purpose, but a simple apology is not too much to ask.
I would say to those of you who are truly though wasting your breath on the forums @ CMC spend your energies elsewhere, while I wish I could say “keep up the posts, Sean will break soon!” bottom line is Sean see’s CMC as a fore front in Christian music, and I don’t deny the site has a big following, and does a lot of things, and with a presence in TN it has a closer hook up to many Christian artists compared to other websites of a similar nature - but prove that the site is powered by the people, support BdG’s site and help promote it, heck if it needs its own server due to growth, I’m happy to stand behind it and make it happen, I’m that Crazy.
Brenton is not only a client of mine, but I do consider him a friend - we have done business, worked side by side @ CMC during my final time there - but while my leaving was one of a quiet breeze (I was the man behind the curtain), BdG’s will be felt for a while, but I applaud those of you who have really put out a real sense of caring here for BdG, threads like:
- Here’s My Feedback
- Sean, Step Up Or Step Aside
- The Changes At Cmcentral
While some of those are actually deleted, I read through them before I de-admin’d myself (people started to think I worked there again), you guys are awesome - but I encourage each of you, link to TRuDatMusic on MySpace, your blogs, your websites, add it to your signature, put the word out, and help it truly become a “web power” that commands the same if not more level of respect like that of CMC.
Life goes on in the end, and I’d encourage any of you who have media contacts or know someone in a Christian group, set them setup with BdG @ GMA Week, I know some of you who read this know folks, heck I know a few, and I’ll be sending out an email or two, maybe even a phone call or two if I can be awake at a normal hour but there it is, support TRuDat - and with that, I am going to call it a night - but above and beyond anything else, keep both sides in prayer. Night!
So taxes just got insanely more easy - one W9 said they weren’t sending one, the other has sent nothing nor returned calls - so moving forward, but the remainder is just tally work, but not too hard, getting my LaserJet 1000 up and running on the Parallels XP install tomorrow to print some base #’s and get the process rolling, should be done by Friday, enter the info into the tax app on my parent’s computer, and I should be good to print, write a check or two, and move forward.
I have a wedding to goto this month, 2 friends from my old Gym are getting married, I think I am supposed to take a date to weddings, but I think I’m going to take my camera (it almost takes up a seat on it’s own) but I need to buy a pair of pants if I am going to go to take pictures so I don’t blind folks with my legs - plus compared to a compact point-n-shoot camera, my camera isn’t exactly SMALL
A big hello to Fluxar Studios who recently discovered by blog - well as I know Windows Users and Mac users are viewing, I’ll say hello to the Windows guy I know who uses Firefox (Hi Sam) and to the Mac Guy who uses Safari (Hi Ryan) - for those of you unfamiliar with Fluxar it’s owned by my buddy kMan, I do some work on their servers, help out on Misc. projects on occasion, they are all great folks minus that Ryan kid (j/k - I love you Ryan, but in a manly viking sort of way) - Ryan has vowed to read all my posts since 2002, hopefully it’ll give him some insight to my insanity.
Had a good phone call with a friend tonight, and hope my babbling made some sense, just really wish there was more I could do to help, but in the end, some choices in life must be made by one’s self - and while I know my friend will see through all his current problems, just wish there was more comfort in my words, or something I could say to make it all okay, and the blinders be lifted from the mess now to see into the future and see what life can hold not just the negative / depressing element of life right now - but healing takes time, keep my friend in your prayers, he can definitely use em.
Well I think I am going to fire up the MBP (which needs a name), turn on the media rig with a movie, but there is only 1 thing left to mention - tonight I reached Pro Status on Wii Sports in Boxing! BooYah! Good workout, did 6 rounds in a row, and took out 4 of the guys in the first round (muwhahaha) - have a Good Thursday Folks. Off to a night of my usual insanity!
Been up since around 2:30am, played some, worked some, ate some - and now the day is really starting, heck even made an apple pie! But this morning I got a bit done, sync’d up the iCal’s on each mac with Google Calendar using Spanning Sync which works lovely, I figured $25 for a year was nothing because I’d imagine if Google was smart, they’d buy up the company and offer the functionality to Mac customers as they are always trying to balance the equation of services Mac vs. Win.
Also started piecing together my Uncle’s computer with the new parts, just waiting on WindowsXP Home to get here, purchased him a copy vs. my old copy of 2k I don’t use anymore, so $89 later and 3 days shipping, he’ll be running XP on a nice little AMD 2200+ - its a nice little machine, should serve him well.
No major plans today, really just working around the house a bit, doing my laundry now that the washer/dryer should be 100% work in the next 45 minutes, so my hamper is already down in size as I got my first load into wash, and the dryer part should be up and running soon once the venting system is working - so I should have a plethora of clothes very soon - top that off with a empty hamper - life is good
Anywhoo, off to my day - have a Good Fake-Friday folks!
Since I got on MySpace I never seemed to get into the “social network” feel of it, in part the site is clunky, ad-ridden, full of spam, porn ads, 12 yr olds half naked, etc. etc. thus why my own MySpace profile totes the banner “MySpace = Evil” just never could get used to it.
So the other day talking to JS he mentioned Facebook, and thus I decided - “oh heck - why not, couldn’t be worse” and so far I must say, I enjoy the sheer simplicity of it - clean layout, simple features, and has been snappy response wise - granted I don’t have my “massive” friends list (lol) but, I’m doing okay with my current 2 contacts, who knows, maybe more soon
In other news, signed up for an account with the printer to do some test prints, so far the interface is pretty easy, and they offer a drop-ship method, which I’ll test out to see how it looks/appears/operates - but 30×40 being my largest print size, very excited indeed, I want to find a great photo to take up that amount of space, and be a little bit of an investment, but pretty excited, just need to figure out pricing (come on folks!)
Anywhoo, just running exhausted lately, so going to walk away from the PC for a bit, maybe loaf on the couch - or pass out and goto sleep (whichever comes first) - so have a good Tuesday Evening folks, take care.
I have had a few offers, and some payout on recent shots, and it got me thinking - I am always looking at the budget for ways to get new camera gear - heck on my eBay watchlist alone I have about $350 of generic (but good for starters) lighting equipment - so why not take and make some money with what I have to work with now, to pay for what I want to do more with later?
So I am throwing around this idea, have for a few weeks now as something to give my brain to think on when I get coders block or am waiting on a compile, and I have found a place that can do large scale prints - up to 20×30 easily with my resolution of photos - so looking to order one or two, see the quality, and to fully test the printer, but I am just curious, if you were going to buy a print of a picture (no pressure to buy from me mind you) I have 2 questions:
- What would your price range be?
- What sizes would you want? (Mainly Outdoor Shots -aka Landscapes, nature).
So those are the questions I pose, and I’d appreciate any and all feedback, heck if you want to be REALLY complete you can just shoot me an email to me @ [this domain].com and let me know a more detailed bit - but I have most of the workings figured out, I have a cart that works with Google Checkout, and Google Checkout is offering better rates than PayPal - plus its all major credit cards, and going to go talk to my cousin-in-law (I think that is what he is… maybe? he’s my cousin’s husband) who owns a frame shop, see if maybe I can get a few “stock” options at a set price.
Anywhoo - I am going to go rest my eyes again for a bit here, just a project I am excited about and trying to get some ground work laid out. Could be fun!
