Note of the Living Deb

I've learned (or almost learned) a few interesting things about taxes this week.

Vow of Poverty

If you take a vow of poverty and turn over all your earnings to your church, you may or may not have to declare that income. If you work for the church or an affiliated group and have to do this work as part of your religion, you don't declare it. If you work for a third party and it's not required (even if it's recommended), then you do have to declare it. I'm hoping the church would pay any taxes you owe.

Fraud

Violent street gangs are now getting into tax fraud. You don't have to do as much work as dealing with illegal drugs.

People with post office box addresses only and people in prison were caught claiming the house buyer credit last year.

And there's the ever-popular claiming dependants who aren't your own.

Income Sources

Nowadays, most income is earned, reported on W-2s. In the 1930s(?), only 20 - 25% was earned, about 36% was from investments, and the rest was from self-employment.

What's Marriage?

I already knew that the IRS now recognizes same-sex marriages and just recently learned that this will be true even if the state you live in does not recognize the marriage. This means these couples get to/have to file as married.

For common-law marriages, the IRS considers you to be married if your current state considers you to be married OR if the place you originally got married considered you to be married at that time.

I have not learned anything about group marriages.

Married Filing Separately

You pretty much always pay more taxes filing separately than jointly. In community-property states like mine, this is also called "married-filing-stupidly." So why do people do it?

My favorite: the IRS can't come after you for taxes your spouse owes. I know someone who had her checking and/or savings accounts emptied by the IRS to pay her spouse's taxes which he hadn't gotten around to paying. So if one of you has your own business and doesn't always have the cash flow/foresight to pay your taxes in a timely fashion, you could file separately.

Probably any time you don't feel comfortable signing a joint return, then you should consider doing your own.

Another good reason--you're married but have no idea even where your spouse is let alone what his or her income, deductions, etc. are. You think most people keep pretty good track of their spouses, but, you know, things happen sometimes. The example they gave us was of a common law marriage. There's no such thing as common-law divorce.

Things get more complicated in community property states because you still have to know your spouse's income (because half of it is yours and vice versa).

Required Fields

There are little black triangles in front of required fields. I can't believe I never noticed these before. Tunnel-vision! It's a good think to double-check when I think I'm done.


Favorite Talk-Like-a-Pirate-Day Post - The surprisingly related Avast, me tax hearties! Taxes, treasures, ransoms and more, arrrrr, on International Talk Like a Pirate Day on Don't Mess with Taxes

"Before we broke away from Great Britain, we had relied on that country's vaunted naval force to help protect colonial ships from Barbary Coast pirates. During the Revolution, Benjamin Franklin helped hammer out a 1778 treaty that called on France to help protect American vessels against Barbary pirates.

"The hijackings of American ships continued, however, ...

"So piracy on the high seas was one of the first uses of taxpayer supported military force."

Includes a movie trailer.

Quote of the Day - "I had to fight with a dimwitted undergraduate cashier to get a subpar panino with mass-produced pesto, in which I think the main ingredient is lies." - at I Hate Everything

Actually, I also liked this quote from that same post: "And before you say that there's no such thing as a lovely salad, there is too, if you put enough goat cheese and apples in it."

I don't feel like dealing with pictures. I do feel like sharing a quote (scroll to bottom). So I'll post something.

One thing that really bugs me about job hunting is that I feel I have to be able to imagine myself actually doing a job before I apply for it. And everything is unique. Could I really do event planning? How about deal with donations all day? How about be a receptionist? How about use state and university bookkeeping systems? How about working half-time for not enough money? How about commuting by car? How about working weird hours? It's tiring. I actually didn't get my application in to one place before the job closed because it took me too long to decide I could do the job.

And besides the specifics, I'm still figuring out the generalities of what to even try for.

Goals:

1) Try not to draw down my IRA contributions before I become eligible for my pension.
2) Do not do anything to put my retirement plans at risk.
3) Extra money for additional contributions would be nice, too.

Plan A - Get more degree audit jobs. That was (usually) fun while it lasted, paid well, and got me another year of credit. Awesome. However, those jobs have dried up, at least for now. Well, a new fiscal year starts next month, and I'm going to a retirement party next week (where I can let people know I'm still available).

Plan B - Get other UT jobs. (I could also try for other jobs with the same or transferrable pension, but some sources say that would mean I couldn't retire from UT and get their good health insurance, so I'm not going to risk that.) But what kind of UT jobs?

a. High-paying full-time jobs I'd be good at. Yeah, I don't see many of those. I did get an idea I haven't yet tried for if I find one but I don't have the required qualifications. I will send a letter (and resume and references and promise I have the required qualifications--because they make you). But the letter would say that in case they have trouble finding the candidates they're hoping for, I'm writing to let them know that if they change or alter their required qualifications [in some way that includes me], then they could have me as an applicant.

b. Mediocre-paying full-time jobs I'd be good at. When you add in the extra years of service, it's still good money. Plus I'm actually finding some of these to apply to.

c. Mediocre- or low-paying half-time jobs I'd be good at. These would at least minimize the IRA draw-down. And it's possible I could get additional work to fill in, such as any degree audit jobs that might materialize in the future. And if not, I'd only have to work half time. I'm also actually finding some of these.

Plan C - Meanwhile, apply for unemployment. This has actually worked.

Plan D - After still getting zero interviews, I am planning to get help on resume writing, but I'm also looking into other things to check into while remaining hopeful about plan B.

a. Temp jobs - I could take short-term temp jobs and make a little money but still be available for permanent jobs. I need to write to the teacher certification place again (even though I'm supposedly still on their list) and find a temp company that specializes in administrative stuff. Worst-case scenario: someone likes me and wants to hire me full-time, and I like them, and because it's the private sector the pay is actually good. So I would just take the job and work a little longer and blow off Plan B. Sounds good.

b. Seasonal job as a tax preparer - I've about decided to take a class in tax preparation. A lady at the job club said she's allowed to let us take the class for $50 instead of the usual $150. It's no guarantee you'll get a job in January, but they pretty much hire anyone who wasn't a jerk in the class. Also I might learn something. Also, one of the class locations appears to be walkable from my house. It pays only $10/hour the first year, but you get only easy forms--or just watch other people do easy forms. And it's only for three months and you can't even get full-time work the whole three months, but it's still some cash and might be interesting. She said they do have extra services they sell, but it's not a hard sell. And I asked and she said they judge how good you are by how many returns you finish, by customer satisfaction surveys, and by how much additional training you take. [Not sales.] I then couldn't help asking if they checked for accuracy. Yes. Worst-case scenario: I get hired for a full-time job before I finish the course. Sounds good to me!

c. Seasonal job with the IRS - That pays way more that tax prep (I think), but last time I took the test, I could barely get through it because it was so boring.

d. Some low-paying job I wouldn't mind quitting. What would that be?

Plan E - After I give up on plan B, I should broaden the job search somehow. Ugh, I don't have a plan E yet. I do know when I would implement it, though, and that's in mid-April of next year, when it becomes too late to get a year of service for the 13-14 year. Last time I looked for a job, it only took eight months, though, and I was trying to change careers again, so this time should be easier.

Quote of the Day - "Screw it. I'm just going to have a zombie wedding. Nothing says class and dignity like a theme wedding, right?

"Let me clarify...a theme wedding can be tasteful. A zombie-themed wedding is open for debate. Though the narrative writes itself. You could ask all married people to show up as zombies...the bride and groom show up as non-zombies but through the magic of some sort of quick make-up, as soon as the service is over, the happy two-some become zombies. But since you don't want to make it seem like you're putting down marriage, you maybe put a spin on it to say that it's okay to be a zombie...that it's a valid lifestyle and no one should feel bad that if you're a zombie or a non-zombie. So you're making everyone feel good and maybe also supporting gay marriage. As a matter of fact, you're kind of a jerk if you look down your nose at a zombie-themed wedding."

-Randy Tumlin

We saw the new Hal Hartley movie, "Meanwhile" (2012) this week. (It's available for purchase at his website.) I liked it.

According to the director, it's about everyday ordinary things. And he doesn't like setting up scenes, so you only get to see place if a character is in it. So, he made this movie basically about a journey through New York City.

Those things were not exciting to me. In fact, I didn't see everyday ordinary things. What I liked was that the main character talked to total strangers all the time (which I basically never do) in a way that never creeped them out. He also went a little bit out of his way to help others, and this mostly worked. This is especially surprising in New York City where there are just so many people that you really can't even begin to connect with or help everyone you see. So that was really fun.

The character himself was having an interesting day with, admittedly, some boring errands. And there's suspense: Is he some kind of loser? Or is there just an undeserved string of bad luck? Here's one of my favorite dialogs (I'm getting the quotes wrong, but hopefully communicating the gist):

Joseph (the main character): Why do you think I need money?

His brother: Well, last time I saw you was seven months ago, and you were wearing those exact same clothes.

Joseph: These? No, this is my look.

The movie also touches on basic questions of what people should do with their lives, both the smaller details and the big picture. So that can be thought-provoking.

Unfortunately, I don't buy the first scene (though Robin does). And the ending is crazy. But I do enjoy the journey.

If you don't like Hal Hartley movies, you won't like this one (although I was surprised by good acting by some of the actors--who knew Hartley would allow that?). If you have Robin's taste in Hal Hartley movies, this is one of the good ones (some of the recent ones have been not so good). If you love New York City, you'll have an extra enjoyable layer to your experience.

Quote of the Day - 'It has begun. [My four-year-old daughter] asked me this morning, "How do mommies and daddies actually make babies?" I explained it was sort of like baking, we used special mommy and daddy ingredients.' - my sister

I think this is the most awesome vague response ever.

Cayo Levantado

Day 3 of the cruise we got to visit Cayo Levantado, a small island that I think is part of the Dominican Republic.



No more pictures on the island; my camera wasn't working. Because the battery was still in the charger.

Usually on cruises you can set up "excursions" to do things on the days when you land somewhere, but we didn't see any excursions on this trip that looked worth the money. But I'd read that there were trails through the jungle with waterfalls, so I thought it would be fun to hike those.

Well, the ship pulled right up to the island and we stepped out onto a dock, which was awfully luxurious. Then we walked up to the land and there was an expensive-looking hotel at the top of a hill, but it was fenced off so that we couldn't look around.

So we took the trail down the coast and walked down the gauntlet of shops. We saw the place that sells a barbecue lunch (at lunch time). It looked like the native language was Spanish (some of the signs were in Spanish), but it sounded like they all spoke English, too.

After the gauntlet was a very nice beach. I seriously thought about going for a swim but then decided against it for some reason.

We just explored all the parts available to us, and jungle trails were not a part of that picture. So we enjoyed looking at the tropical plants and the nice beach and then headed back to the ship.

Buddy Miller and Friends

We caught the tail end of the concert called "Sailaway with Buddy Miller and Friends."



So, from left to right, that's Jim Lauderdale, Buddy Miller, Sara Watkins (behind the pole), and Richard Thompson. I got to hear one song from each of them. I have no notes but I do remember that Buddy Miller talked about liking these three pom-poms he found somewhere and put on his guitar (not really visible in this shot). Richard Thompson tried to imply that he knew what they were as if there were bad connotations. But then Buddy Miller said he didn't know, but he thought three balls might be something to be proud of.

I also remember that everyone was singing cheerful songs, and Richard Thompson wanted to end the performance in a depressing song, but he just couldn't make himself do it!

Oh, and speaking of friends of Buddy Miller, Jim Lauderale's tai chi class was such a hit that he did one every morning until he had to leave for the Grammy Awards.

John Prine

So John Prine had some priceless quotes on the wave motion, including today's wave motion quote of the day. Be he also explained, "You dance whether you want to or not."

Here he is jamming with one of his band members:



He told a story about how after working on an album, he had decided he was done, but he was told he needed to write one more song. So he tried to write a really bad song to show that another song really wasn't needed. But after singing it 300 times, he start liking "Whistling and Fishing in Heaven."

He described another song as being a good song to know for emergency singing requests at weddings. Yeah, some of the lyrics were appropriate, wishing the couple well, but then it turns out he's in love with the bride and just can't hold it in.

He also sang some songs that may have had these titles:

"Make Me an Angel"
"The Glory of True Love"
"Lake Marie" - a very long ballad
"Muelenberg City" - about a place that doesn't exist anymore because a coal train has hauled it away. I liked this one, except of course for the part about how it was horribly sad.

This shot shows him with his other band member:



Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt

The headliners had three concerts and everyone on the boat got reserved seats for one of them. But you could always go to the other ones and take your chances getting a seat, and so we saw these guys again. (We missed their second show, which was immediately following their first show.)

John played "Perfectly Good Guitar" (about how these rock stars shouldn't go around smashing perfectly good guitars).

Lyle asked John to join him in playing "Good Intentions"(?). "Of course it requires an extensive re-tuning of the instrument, but I'm game if you are."

John played "Drive South."



Lyle said "Now I have to do something with direction in it" and played "If You Love Me, Say 'I Love You'"(?).

John sang something or other.

Lyle sang "One-Eyed Fiona." The lyrics made John laugh and smile, as if he hadn't heard them before.



But then he joined in and totally belted out the last part of the song as if he'd heard it and practiced it a hundred times at least. Wow, that was so fun. Then John said, "That song is so damned visual." He sees her staring him down. "And I don't see a patch over one eye. I see one big eye."

Then he sang a visual one himself, "Don't You Talk About My Baby"(?).

Lyle - "Buddy Miller and Friends." I didn't know they were friends.

John - I don't know how you feel about "and Friends," but I feel hurt.

Lyle told us that "I get to jam with John Prine. Because he's right next door. I'm jamming with him, and he has no idea."

Next Lyle sang "Step Inside This House" by Guy Clark. He told us that Guy said he could record it, but then later told him that he wished he'd stop playing it all the time; there was a reason he'd never recorded it himself.

Interestingly, since getting back, I saw this interview with Guy Clark and Guy told a somewhat different story. He said it was the first song he wrote and he played it for a while but then decided it seemed like a first effort and stopped playing it. Recently, he and some other musicians were playing together somewhere, and they were each asked to play a song he wished he had written himself. Lyle played this song, which Guy didn't even recognize at first because it had been so long since he'd played it. And he says Lyle does it so much better than he ever did that there's still no reason for Guy ever to record it.

Lyle - Can you imagine that's the first song somebody ever wrote?

John - No.

Then Lyle played "Closing Time" which he says is about those sad places that are more worried about closing up than getting to hear the musician a little longer.

John tried an audience-requested song for a while, then switched to "Lipstick Sunset," saying "Let me switch to one I sort of know."

Shawn and Sara Watkins from WPA joined them and played "As We Lie In Your Sweet Mother's Arms"(?). Then all four played "I'm Going Out on the Highway, Listen To the Big Trucks Whine"(?).

The Civil Wars

The Civil Wars, Joy Williams and John Paul White, seems to be a recently married couple, still giddy that they get to be around each other so much, especially Joy.



The pictures do not capture that John Paul was so seasick that their first concert was canceled and at this concert, he is all loaded up with drugs. They sort of capture that Joy is always in motion.



They do not capture that this group sounds like no one else. The word "harmonizing" does not come close to explaining what you hear. They really weave the melody around and the harmonies make you feel like you are in a different place.

They played a song that may have been called "I Have This Friend."

They played "You are My Sunshine" so that we would know how sad it really is. If you know only the chorus, there's just a hint at the end that it might not be happy. But I have heard the whole song many, many times, and I was still unprepared for this rendition. They made it sound creepy and threatening.

They also covered "Billie Jean is Not My Lover"(?), which followed the original more closely, but was quite beautiful.

And of course they did a bunch of their own songs including "You Don't Seem Happy"(?).

I left the theater hoping that nothing bad happened to this marriage. People talk about the dangers of buying stock in your own company, but that's nothing in the eggs-in-one-basket category compared to this duo. It hard to imagine either of them doing the same kind of singing with anybody else.

They also had to leave the ship early to attend the Grammy Awards. (Note to event planners: Although it is probably okay to schedule a music cruise during the Superbowl, it is not so okay if that is also when the Grammys are.)

Googling just now, I see they "earned the Best Country Duo/Group Performance and Best Folk Album awards for 'Barton Hollow' and the album of the same name." ("Country." And "Folk." Okay, I wouldn't have had a clue what to label this music.) The internet also says they will be doing part of the soundtrack for the upcoming movie "The Hunger Games," which is probably going to turn out to be a good movie.

Wave motion quote of the day - "I almost fell over a couple of times on that [song]. They should give a trophy for best recovery." - John Prine

I met someone today who is having three weddings. First they signed the papers and officially got married here with a few best friends. Then they went to her parents' place in Mexico and got married with many, many people. Next month they're going to his parent's place in India and get married with hundreds of people. In India they will also be attending several other weddings.

Who needs Honeymoons? Or Christmas (during which they will be in mid-air on the way to India)?

They haven't decided which date to use as the anniversary they will celebrate. (Apparently they have decided not to use all three. On the other hand, she keeps quizzing him on the date of their first date and another thing--maybe the day he proposed, so there may be plenty of celebrations in the future after all.)

Quote of the Day - "The metro is by and far the most ingenious application of petroleum products, excepting perhaps those used in hospital settings to save especially sweet babies. I can't believe how many folks complain about the crazies on the bus, which do exist but have only ever made me fear for my safety once or twice in roughly five years of constant use. The crazies on the highway make me fear for my life once or twice every five minutes." - Maya at 20 Year Challenge

I'm not generally an early adopter. Often the prices on new things are high, and quality is only going to get better. However, I suspect the same is not true for new financial instruments.

I'm basing that suspicion partly on the fact that I-bonds started with fairly high interest rates (3% + inflation) and they slowly plummeted to 0%. I'd always thought that when interest rates fell enough, the added part would have to get big again to lure people into getting them. But people are so chicken of stocks that they are willing to earn only 0 or 0.1% + inflation, even when inflation is 0. So, now I suspect the early rates were to entice people to try a new product.

Similarly, the interest rates of online savings accounts have plummeted. They are still significantly higher than those of regular savings accounts, but that's not saying much and the difference is no longer phenomenal. Maybe those gaps will widen again if things ever go back to normal, but I suspect not.

And that is why I'm writing about the new Target debit card. I think they are offering an especially good deal now to lure people into trying out this new scary-sounding thing, and once people realize it's perfectly safe, the rewards will shrink.

What's scary: It's a debit card. You are letting Target stick their hands directly into your checking account. And it only works at Target, so it's yet another card to carry around.

The enticement: You get a 5% discount on just about everything you buy (not gift cards or prescriptions or a couple of other things). It applies to sale items and items you bought with coupons as well.

I'm going to go for it. The applications in the store say you have to mail them in, but plenty of other things say you can apply at the register (I wouldn't try this on Black Friday, though). There are rumors of a 10% discount--that may be old news now. And in the future, I suspect this discount will drop to 1% or 2%. But meanwhile, I'm going to check it out.

Quote of the Day - "In order to remove and refurbish the existing brass chandelier above the Main Building Information Kiosk, it will be necessary to first remove the Kiosk's existing roof structure." - I know it's hard to remember that once you build something, something might need to be changed, but it sounds like below-average design when you have to remove a roof to polish a lamp.

I've been spending the last couple of days doing boring urgent work that I don't know how to do. Boring work I can deal with because I can take breaks--boring urgent work, not so much. Especially since I have to learn by trial and error or whatever.

What's so urgent? For every day I don't finish each one of these tasks, error messages are flung upon the powerless.

If I ever finish,* I can get started on the boring urgent work that I do know how to do, then the interesting urgent work that I don't know how to do. Unless I get another pile of boring urgent work that I do know how to do.

Meanwhile, I keep getting interrupted the whole time by urgent interesting puzzle-solving work that I quite like to do. Thank goodness.

*Yesterday morning, I thought I would finish after lunch. Yesterday evening I thought I would finish today. Now I think I will finish tomorrow. (That's so cute!)

Lesson of the Day - When people need a tool to see how they're doing, they would rather have a crappy product that is a pain to deal with but can be made to work and at least makes sense than a product that works perfectly but is so convoluted you can't even understand it.

Those are the only choices with our current system when you have an extremely convoluted system of requirements to code into it. I have an idea on how to make the convoluted, perfectly working version have a display option that is easily comprehensible in our new system. I really hope it can work, but maybe I'm hoping for too much. The display project doesn't happen for over a year, so suspense will be loitering for some time.

Quote of the Day - "If they want me to come to a meeting, they should have it in my cube."

My bus buddy, The Baron, explained to me that because September 1 is the first day of the new (fiscal) year and today is the 25th, it's Christmas. And so his office had a white elephant party.

He picked the doggie dish to keep. He explained to me that doggie bowls are better than human bowls because they are built to be very stable, to minimize sloshing, and to hold a lot of food. Perfect for eating in bed.

Quote of the day - "I'm vegetarian, so I don't know. How do I eat crow?"

I went game shopping for myself last week and one of my new treasures was "Trailer Park Wars." It wasn't recommended and I saw no signs of any awards, but it had irresistible game pieces (which I decided Robin would like even more than I did), plus it was for ages 13+, implying it had some teeth to it.

The bad news is that the best pieces (little rubber pink flamingos and cards with photos of actual and interesting trailers) have very little to do with the game play. The good news is that the game play is just fine after all, unless you can't stand being mean to the other players or having anyone be mean to you.

Everyone starts off with their own trailer park full of trailers and they draw cards of possible tenants, amenities, and natural disasters. You want to put the good tenants in your own park and the bad tenants in someone else's park, get lots of good amenities like your own beer vending machine, pair up tenants who get along, and avoid natural disasters, unless perhaps you can aim them at your more destructive tenants. Score is kept with loads of little pink flamingos.

The game is more fun if you read your cards as you play them, preferably in some kind of strong accent. Board Game Geek gives it a rating of 6.34 out of 10. Not bad for a nearly random pick.

Quote of the Day - At work I was asking one of my colleagues about whether they had a policy about something and I got this response: "Everybody is a 'special case' all the time. That's our policy."

(Is it more rude for me to say who said it out here in public or is it more rude for me not to attribute this quote?)