1st Political Post - Taxed to death!

I've tried to avoid posting on political issues, since they seem to be a huge hotbed of disagreement and fighting. However, one big issue for me that I simply must post on is tax rates.

Americans for Tax Reform is an independent, non-partisan group that monitors the tax situation in the US, and tries to push for lower taxes. The group has posted a chart of tax rates as proposed by the two Presidential candidates on their web site:

http://www.atr.org/content/html/2008/june/0616-obama_mccaintaxes.html

Most of Obama's numbers are pretty scary, but the number that is most alarming to me is the Self-Employment Rate... 54.9%. Can you believe this? MORE than half of my income would go to taxes if Sen. Obama had his way. It's already way too high as it is, but jumping to over 50% is just outrageous. This is the United States, not the USSR! It isn't even Europe!

Obama also has the worst possible record when it comes to taxes. He has voted FOR virtually every tax increase proposed since he was elected Senator:

http://www.atr.org/national/ratings/109th-1/109-1-senate-final.htm
http://www.atr.org/national/ratings/109th-2/2006Senatevotes-prelim.pdf

I'm not a huge fan of either current presidential candidate, but I've got speak out against Obama with his track record, and if he is proposing a 55% tax rate on self employed individuals. I simply couldn't afford to run my own business with the government taking more than half of it. And I don't think anyone else could either.

Skittles

Top 5 Colors

5. Yellow
4. Orange
3. Green
2. Purple
1. Red

Although 1 & 2 switch places relatively frequently, and 3 moves into the #2 spot sometimes too.  But it hasn't made it into the #1 spot quite yet.

The Rules of Skittles

1. Skittles should be eaten in matched pairs for maximum flavor impact. 
2. If there are an odd number of Skittles, 3 must be eaten at a time to get to an even number.
3. If there is only one of a color, you must open another bag to even out the oddness.
4. Yellow and orange must be eaten first to get them out of the way.
5. The remaining colors can be eaten in 3, 2, 1 order, 1, 2, 3 order, 1,2,3,2,1, or 3,2,1,2,3 order.
6. When placed on a solid surface, like a table, the S must be facing upward.
7. Colors should not be mixed.
8. Skittles are best eaten from 'fun size' bags.
9. A single fun size bag cannot be shared between multiple people.
10. If you have only red, yellow, and green left, they must be arranged like a traffic light.
11. Skittles should not be eaten in the dark to avoid unwelcome flavor surprises.
12. Any open bag of Skittles must be consumed immediately.
13. Tropical, Wild Berry, Ice Cream, and other variants, while excellent, are only imitation Skittles.
14. This unit not labeled for retail sale.

Blessing in Disguise

Our power went out about 45 minutes ago.  Normally that would be a major inconvenience, but tonight, not so much. 

I've got my generator running in the back yard powering my server, refrigerator, network, and TV.  But I don't want to risk running much more than that, so I'm not going to plug in any other computers and take the night off from programming and video editing. 

I just put in Citizen Kane (which I have never seen), so I'll spend the evening watching that, and browsing the Internet. 

Being without power is giving me a fully justified evening off.   Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Two days in a row!

CNET's Buzz Out Loud podcast read one of my emails on the air today. That makes two days in a row they have used contributions of mine. Listen in starting at 35:36.

http://www.cnet.com/8301-11455_1-9973945-10.html

They call me DJ, cause that's how I sign my emails ("-DJ"). But it's me. I promise.

Feeling A Little Overwhelmed Today

I'm kind of feeling a little bit overwhelmed with everything I have to get done in the next little while. Here's just a sampling:

• Edit the video I shot at a college graduation a few weeks ago, make several copies of the DVD, and send them off.
• Edit the video I shot for my friend Amber's wedding and make a DVD, and send it off.
• Edit the video I shot of my sister Christine performing at Velour, and post it for my family.
• Copy and send out the recording of Christine playing at Ozz, and send it to my family.
• Edit pictures I shot for Michael & Kiley's wedding, and order prints.
• Edit and mix down recordings I made of Richard and Gabe forever ago.
• Edit family pictures taken at Christmas, make DVDs of the video I shot at Christmas the last three years, and get those sent out.
• Make several significant changes to a tuxedo rental system I just created, and install and train the store owner and employees on how to use it.
• Extract the audio for a golf seminar from a hard drive recorder, burn DVDs, and send them off.
• Order more equipment and install another two antennas in my stake center for an upcoming stake conference.
• Make changes in FileBack PC (my backup software) to make it work better on Windows Vista, and fix a bug preventing encrypted backups from being restored. (Most of those parts are done.) After making changes, build a new release package, a new update package, upload both, notify the sites hosting the program that a new version is available, then send out announcements to my customers of the changes and that a new version is available.
• Move my company web site to a new server.
• Start cleaning the house in preparation for my parents visiting next week, and sister Cheryl and her family the following week.
• Arrange and build a float for the Freedom Festival 4th of July parade.
• Write a synthesizer engine for my GuitarToy software, finish debugging, create a web site and press releases, and post it.
• Do final cleanup on my ActiveClip utility, build a web site for it, and release it.
• Update my stake web site's calendar. I think I'm only 3 months behind right now.
• Build an inventory manager for the point-of-sale software I'm working on. And build the employee scheduling module. Plus a ton of other changes.
• One of these days, shoot and edit a training video for the point-of-sale system.

That's just what comes to mind immediately. Mostly this is my own checklist of things to work on. But it's depressing because I think I'm getting farther and farther behind rather than getting caught up. Anybody know where I can have a clone made?

Buzzing Out Loud

After a couple attempts, one of my voice messages was played in the Buzz Out Loud CNET podcast this morning. At 27:43 into the broadcast available here:

http://www.cnet.com/8301-11455_1-9972839-10.html

Although after listening to what I had to say, I think it didn't come across the way I intended. I really meant to say that I doubt that what I was told by the T-Mobile rep was correct. Guess I should clarify my thoughts a little more before opening my mouth. Oh well.

Software Recommendations

People ask me for software recommendations a lot, so here ya go...

For Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware: Webroot Antivirus with Antispyware and Firewall - All three in one product, it finds more of the garbage on your system than any other product I've tried, and the computer performance slowdown caused by it is less than other products since one program is performing all three functions.  $39.95 for one computer, $49.95 for three.

For blogging: Windows Live Writer - Compose and edit blog posts on the computer instead of the web.   Free.

For fun: Worldwide Telescope - Navigate the heavens in a Google Earth-esque manner.  Free.

For web browsing: Opera browser - This is so much better than Firefox it isn't even funny.  Many times faster, more secure, more stable, no memory leaks, and still free.  For PC, Mac, Linux, others.