Barnson.org

Today is April 15th. Time flies when you procrastinate. Have you finished your taxes? I have not.

This morning at the early hour of 6:30 I was signing the log at Curves and noticed that today is the 15th. It is the day we must file an extention.

I hate tax time. Though we tend to get a good check back from Uncle Sam, it is not a part of my daily routine to sit and do paperwork, total up numbers, do my business inventory and call our tax lady. It must be done sooner than later as we will be living off that money shortly, but I will procrastinate one more week.

A great excuse is that our tax lady is so busy that she’s hard to get an appointment with any time after February. Maybe next year I’ll call her in Feb. This year, we probably won’t be able to see her ’til May when her life slows down a bit and when I quit procrastinating.

The nice thing about our tax lady is she is excellent. She asks all sorts of questions to help us get more back. She knows her stuff. I’m looking forward to deducting Matt’s new computer next year!

So what are you going to do with your tax money this year? Or what have you already spent it on?

There’s a new movement afoot. The Unitarian Jihad. People of the United States! We are Unitarian Jihad! We can strike without warning. Pockets of reasonableness and harmony will appear as if from nowhere! Nice people will run the government again!

OK, I told you that so I could tell you this: I found the Unitarian Jihad Name Generator. I clicked the little linky a few times, and found that…

My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Rail Gun of the Short Path.

Get yours.

Regards, Brother Rail Gun of the Short Path

I have 2 puppies names Morgan and Bailey. They are both female Golden Retrievers. They are AKC dogs who need an AKC name. Our last dog was named Amber. Her AKC name was “Amber Waves of Grain”. I am looking for ideas on an interesting name for Morgan and Bailey. Any Ideas?

Today, I’ve invented a new acronym: WJE. Worst. Job. Ever. Inspired by this posting by our own TimClarkeJr, I have a question: what’s the worst job you, or someone you know, has ever had? What was your (or their) singularly worst experience on that job?

Turns out there’s a whole web site devoted to voting on the worst jobs ever. I may have to go submit a few one day…

Can someone explain to me the “pie” inside joke? I don’t understand.

Important tip for parents or prospective parents: Styrofoam is indigestible. As are pencil erasers. Both of which we discovered first-hand within the last few days. Ahh, the joys of a one-year-old who puts everything he finds in his mouth and swallows it. I guess there’s truth to the old saying, “this, too, shall pass.”

We all know the drill. We need a new bookcase. A new TV stand. A new wall widget. And our budget is practically nonexistent.

So we go to Wal-Mart. Or Costco. Or any of a number of other places which might have the furniture we’re looking for. All of these, which aren’t dedicated furniture stores, have one thing in common with most of their furniture:

It’s made out of tiny chunks of wood, glued together.

Some call it plywood. Others call it chipboard. Regardless, it’s the detritus of wood, left over after other operations, glued together. It’s very inexpensive to produce, and very heavy for its size.

And we are rabid consumers of the stuff. As I look around my front room, I can see several pieces of chipboard furniture. And as I look in my side yard, I see the pieces I recently removed which I’ll be dragging to the dumpster later.

Chipboard stuff doesn’t last. It doesn’t look good. It’s not even really “wood”, it’s a substance of glue and sawdust covered with a PVC laminate to look like wood. Yet, because it’s cheap, we’ll buy three $50 bookcases to last us 10 years rather than one $800 bookcase to last a lifetime.

I’m beginning to hate the stuff. Yet who can argue that the price is right?

http://www.realultimatepower.net THE OFFICIAL NINJA WEBSITE This is the funniest site I have ever seen. Not for everyone.. definitely rated PG13 at least.. but I cried when i saw this site a year or two ago. Click on PumpUp and PumpUp2 and Seppuku. funny funny stuff

http://www.supermanisadick.com also http://www.superdickery.com SUPERMAN IS A D**K Click on image galleries and just check them all out. These are real pictures of actual superman comics that prove that Superman is a.. well, lets say that the short form of Richard is in there a lot..

http://www.angryalien.com/ 30 SECOND BUNNY THEATRE Famous movies re-enacted in 30 sec by animated Bunnies. Titanic and Freddy Vs. Jason are my faves.. Also, Scream

Okay.. I’ll add more as I see them.

your turn

EDIT by matthew: Linked.

So I ran across some interesting statistics on pharmaceutical usage.

Yeah, I’m a nerd.

No, seriously, in 2001 Express-Scripts, a major pharmaceutical vendor, did a study to determine patterns of pharmaceutical usage across the US. Here’s part of the executive summary:

We found substantial variation in the number of prescriptions per member per year across the states for adults even after adjusting for differences in age and gender. The greatest use was among those living in Kentucky and West Virginia, with an average of 11.9 and 11.3 prescriptions per person per year in 2000, respectively. In contrast, New York state, had the lowest utilization at 7.65, followed closely by Colorado, Massachusetts, and California. Geographic patterns fluctuated across the therapy classes studied. Notable findings included:

If you’re like me, you had to look up “antihyperlipidemics”. It’s drugs which reduce the fatty content of blood — in other words, blood-thinners. I guess they stave off heart attacks.

Many of us have lived in the states mentioned. The main reason I was interested was because this is the study which documents that Utah uses an order of magnitude more antidepressants per capita, particularly among women, than any other state.

So if you were to randomly speculate as to why usage varies so widely in different areas, why would that be?

You know, I think the Wasatch Mountains are beautiful. I enjoy Utah, though a part of me dislikes the dryness of the weather and the cloistered nature of much of the population. Today, I found another reason to enjoy the local scenery.

I learned what Wasatch really means in the language of the Ute Indians.

I like the place more now; every time hear the phrase “In the shadows of the Wasatch mountains” or “along the Wasatch range”, I have reason to grin!