Don't Back Down

I've just released version 3.7.0 of MT-SomeDays. Only minor enhancements are included in this release, mostly as they relate to the creation of Movable Type-like calendars.

Read "MT-SomeDays 3.7.0" »

Thanks to this link from Rod, I was able to quickly put together my very own avatar, for your viewing pleasure. No longer do you need to ponder the question of what I might look like.

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Some days (not that SomeDays) I just wonder what people are thinking when they write. Of course, there are probably some days that I could say the same about myself. But consider this headline: Teens who make virginity pledge get sexually transmitted disease at the same rate as those who don't.

Read "Lack of Commitment" »

Charlotte-Mecklenburg animal control is going to catch up on their billing.

If you don't pay, they can fine you from $50 to $500. What? Where does the government come up with this stuff? What right do they have to reach even deeper into my pocket whenever they feel like doing so?

Read "So Many Licenses" »

So I'm doing the weekly shopping in Aldi. If you have an Aldi near you and haven't tried it out, you might just want to give it a go. Prices are good, products are good, why not? Because you can't write a check or use a credit card? Hmm. Seems a strange reason for not saving money, but if that's your choice, that's okay by me.

In any case, the cashier of my particular lane suddenly shows no small amount of distress. She's frantically waving, trying to get the attention of someone further back in the store. Turns out she was trying to get the manager-type, which she finally did, and he came up to find out what was going on.

Read "Why Do People Steal?" »

To some people, time is the most precious resource that you can give to your children. Computers, toys, trips and the like are nice, but the time you give them is the most important of all these things. This argument makes sense to me. Don't get me wrong - we provide our fair share of the other junk, too. But the time is important.

I find it interesting that this group talks about time in the way it does, however. For instance, they mention sitting down to dinner. This is a "lost art", they say, so make sure you do it. At least a couple times a week. Wait a minute. A couple times a week? Two times, out of seven? I understand that this gets more difficult as the family gets older, but just two times a week?

We sit down to dinner almost every day. Sometimes we have lots more time than others. Sometimes, we have something else going on. But in almost every week, we'd have to cut back severely to have dinner together just twice a week.

On the other hand, there are people who believe that life requires three hundred thousand dollars per month. Of course, with a mortgage of seventy-five thousand and a full time staff of nine plus others to fill in the odd jobs, three hundred thousand might not be enough. Frankly, I just don't see how they afford the plastic surgery ($20,000 per year), personal expenses ($50,000 per month) and clothing ($15,000 per month). How does it all go so quickly?

Denise and I recently decided that it would be useful to have our own company. I've been doing some consulting work and generating a little money here and there, and for tax purposes as well as potential liability issues, it just seemed to make sense.

So we took the plunge. On Tuesday the 24th of February, we signed our articles of organization. What are those, you may ask? Well, those articles together compose a simple little document that needs registering with the secretary of state in order to create a new business entity - in our case, a Limited Liability Company (LLC). Not unlike incoporating, but with fewer formalities.

On Wednesday the 25th of February, we mailed the articles.

On Monday the 1st of March, Everitz Consulting, LLC began its existence as a separate entity.

On Wednesday the 3rd of March, we received our copy of the certified articles. That was fast. And we didn't even send in the "expedited processing" fee. We wonder how long it would have taken if we had ponied up the extra cash for that service.

During our decision process, we found a huge variety of services that will perform this filing for you. We studied up on the process, read some sample articles, and decided that paying an additional $100 to $500 for someone else to do the work just wasn't worth it. Glad we made that choice. We may still hire someone to help us with some tax forms, but even that may prove to be a waste of money. We will likely hire someone to help us with taxes in general, at least the first time or two, to make sure we get it right. But other than that, we're on the way.

Update: Yes, there is a website. No, the list contained therein may not encompass all of our services. Yes, we can come to you if necessary. If you think we can help, but aren't sure or just need some more information, ask and we'll be happy to work with you to get you all the information you need.

Update: Spammers move fast. As I mentioned earlier, the company only began its existence on Monday of this week. The first piece of junk mail (real snail mail, no junk email yet) was in the mailbox on Wednesday - with our copies of the papers! Six more brochures for credit card services arrived today. Wow.

Update: Here's a link that contains the registration announcement.

After two weeks or so, I'm still using Mozilla Firefox as my primary browser. I haven't yet completely dumped MSIE, but I have only fired it up two or three times thus far. Primarily to check and see if the problems I was having in Firefox were browser-related or not (they were not).

One huge benefit to Firefox: EditCSS. This extension to the browser means you can open the CSS on any web page, tinker with it, and see your results live. Very helpful for debugging problems with funky web pages that just don't want to display correctly when you think they should. Theoretically, you could also steal CSS very easily. Don't do that.

Read "Revisiting the Browser" »

Maybe I should get into dream analysis. Of course, I'd probably have to either have some clue what I'm doing, or at least be able to convince people that I do. And when it comes to interpreting dreams, I don't know that I could qualify for either.

Last night, for instance, I had a strange dream about checks. I had a stack of 'em. Maybe that means I'm worried about money or something, and I was visualizing what I wanted to happen. In any case, this stack of checks was huge - there had to be dozens of them.

Most were old. Not years, but at least weeks, old. Probably approaching the limit for checks you'd be able to cash. Maybe that holds the clue. I had received a check from a client that I hadn't cashed yet, and I was thinking that I needed to before the "valid for 90 days from date of issue" came into play.

While that might make sense, it makes no sense at all why the tall albino guy wanted to steal my checks from me. He jumped in the car and everything. Finally I had to pop the spy-style door opener from my side while taking a sharp turn around the high school parking lot. Not wearing his seat belt, he was dumped down into the ravine.

The tall albino could be my interpretation of Uncle Sam, trying to take my money. I could buy that I was wanting to make sure I cashed my checks on time, and I wanted to keep the government's hands off the money as much as possible. Not sure about the large high school parking lot with a ravine in it, though. I'll have to think on that one for a while.

I must say that the Amazon wish list feature is simply divine. Okay, now I feel like I need to have some tea or something. Seriously, since I added the link a few months ago, I have received a number of surprises in the mail. Very nice.

Read "More Kudos for Amazon" »