April 20, 2005

  • 9:45pm Wednesday evening, which means my weekend is in its last
    drowsing moments. The coming week, however, is pleasantly broken up by
    an unexpected Saturday layoff (meaning no work, not some sort of sexual
    competition). So, to my mind, I have a two-day week, a day off, another
    two-day week, and then a full weekend. Sounds good to me, especially
    since it's rare that my days off coincide with my wife's. Sure, losing
    a day's pay is a bit of a stress, but since there's nothing I can do
    about it, I'd much rather look forward to the break rather than defeat
    it through worrying.

    The big news of the day is that I finally filed my income taxes! Mailed
    them out this afternoon, a full week-and-a-half before the deadline.
    Plus, if my calculations are correct, we're due for a pleasant little
    refund. Unlike so many folks I see talking about plasma screen TVs and
    trips to the Bahamas, our refund will serve the much less glamourous
    purpose of paying down a chunk of our Mastercard debt. But such is
    life, and every dollar we put toward that debt saves us scads of money
    in interest, so it's a good thing. Plus, it's just really nice to have
    the stress of having-to-do-taxes out of the way.

    Musically, things continue to progress slowly but surely. That song I
    mentioned last time is now 95% done I'm expecting a breakthrough
    very soon, and then it'll be finished in a couple of minutes. I did
    manage to finish something I've been wanting to try for a while -- a
    one-man choir recording. I kept it short and simple, but it turned out
    quite well I think, and already gives me tons of insight into the
    things I need to study and think about in order to make my next attempt
    more sophisticated and successful. Also on my plate at the moment is a
    collaboration I'm doing with a jazz musician in France. Our two styles
    and approaches are so different that I'm finding it really difficult to
    make any headway given my very limited amount of available recording
    time. The project is supposed to wrap up at the end of the month, so
    I'd better find some time somewhere...

    And finally.... That photoblog entry I've been promising has been
    delayed yet again (as evidenced by the stubborn lack of pictures in
    this entry). The WCDC has a habit of crapping out, and when the battery
    bumps lose even for a millisecond, the memory empties and the pictures
    go bye bye. The other day, it crapped out because the battery leaked
    acid inside. So basically, some day this week, I'm going to have to
    bring it to work with a fresh battery and baby it all day -- no bumping
    or jostling, no sudden impacts... And the funny thing is, even when you
    treat it like gold and it actually does its job, you're left with the
    inescapable fact that the pictures are still crap But that's half
    the fun.

    And so I leave you, once again, to your day. I'm going to get myself a
    nice cup of jasmine green tea, give the guinea pig her eye drops, and
    then get myself to bed.

    Take care
    -J-

Comments (14)

  • I'll take you up on that offer of prayers for prayers...

    My refund is going to the exact same purpose as yours. Marv, on the other hand, has to pay a sizeable chunk.

  • Income tax refunds are good for whatever you decide to do with them.
    Enjoy your extra time off.

  • Time off rocks!
    Still patiently awaiting the photoblog!

  • i hear if you pick up a guinea pig by the tail, its eyes fall straight out of its head.

  • Income taxes were almost the death of me. I didn't have to file any (thank God) because I am too young, but my mother and father and brother and sister had to. And man, did they talk and talk and talk about it. They talked about the forms and the deductions and all that fun stuff. Yes, yes, they were almost the death of me.

    Fix all that photo problem stuff! You promised a photo entry, and we demand a photo entry.

  • hey dude, where in canada are you?!?

  • That's like having a pet camera. Jeez, what do you feed the thing? Oh yah, batteries. and the acid is like camera vomit which you have to clean up. Looking forward to much crhappiness. I got some work on May the 4th at my request, specifically so that I can deliver 'the line' live on air.

    happy weekend! Don't forget me on saturday morning.

    -B

  • lol@Byron's comment.  Good luck with the camera.

  • Congrats on that income tax!  This year for (I think) the first time ever I got ours done before the Fast.  The rebate already went (like yours) in the Master card. Happy to hear about the creative work.

    To those of you who are waiting for the photo blog; we have been married 33 years and just this winter we got some of the wedding photos scanned from slides to CD so we can think about printing some... 

    Love, Hugs, M.

  • Best wishes!

  • Thanks for coming by my site.. you write your thoughts so well!

  • Good luck with the music man!  I don't why, but green tea makes me so sleepy.  I often drink it before bed.  Air conditioning is a necessity here in Oklahoma.  It gets so hot in the summer that fans and open windows aren't going to cut it.  Conversely, in winter, a good heater is required because it gets so cold.  Oklahoma has the worst weather anywhere in my opinion.  Between intense heat in the summer, flooding in the fall, intense cold in the winter, and tornadoes in the spring, we probably have two weeks out of the year when it's nice.  Early April and early October to be exact.

  • I like that idea of your musical collaboration. If nothing else having two distinque different styles should enable teh creation of something truly different which is never bad.

    My tax return went the same way yours did--Paying off bills. Oh well.. Every little bit helps right?

  • heeyy thanks 4 wishin me a good bday...put do i kno u? prop me back...

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