Hippos, birdies, two ewes...

... each to ohiblather, katyhh, and mr_kurt!!!!!!! That's a total of six ewes, in case you're keeping track. Here's hoping you all have fantastic ones!!!

Of Death and Taxes

Death comes into it because I heard from my insurance broker yesterday; he had noticed the activity on my account. He mentioned that, rather than cashing out the policy, I could have borrowed against the death benefit instead. Right. As if the whole point wasn't to reduce my level of debt, and eliminate yet another monthly payment. There's a reason why I don't like to do business over the phone: I don't like having to make decisions like that on the spur of the moment.

Yesterday I downloaded the year-end reports from Paypal and Amex. That's all I need, since Amex is the only card I use for online transactions, and I have paper receipts for everything else. Started data-entry this morning; I'll probably have the checkbooks done today. I do my tax-related data entry into a flat file using Emacs, then compute the subtotals with a Perl script.

The next step will be going through the paper receipts for credit card (and debit card, now that I have one for my business account) transactions. I also still need to sort through this year's charity mail looking for more receipts, and do triage on last year's investment and banking statements. On the whole the shoebox method of organizing still works for me, although these days it requires a file cart and two banker's boxes.

It was raining gently when I got up this morning. Very calming.

Is your social network up to date?

Top ten people to butter up before the recession hits - Linux World

Recession fears are everywhere. Here are the top ten people to make sure you're on good terms with before you need them.

"Social" sites are not enough.

Watch your "inbox" on LinkedIn or any of the other social sites, and you'll see floods of invitations from nervous IT professionals looking to build up some connections before the big job hunt.

But people who survived the last tech bubble are taking a few more important steps. It's more important to butter people up than just to collect social network links.

(from Don Marti)

Earth Hour

It seems that "Earth Hour" is 8-9pm local time. That's about two and a half hours away, here on the left coast of the US. Google has turned its front page a very striking white-on-black for the occasion; I rather wish they'd leave it that way. It would match the editor window I'm currently typing into.

I'll turn off a couple of lights and computers for the occasion; I don't mind typing in the dark, and our power bills are pretty astronomical these days. For that matter, I've been wanting to swap some UPSs around, and it would make a good excuse. I'll plan on using my XO during that hour; it has by far the best power management of any machine in the house.

It would be a good idea

There are some crimes that are universally condemned in the civilized world. Murder. Slavery. Torture. Terrorism. Genocide. Sometimes one has to condone one evil in order to prevent a greater one; most civilized countries have standing armies, and some conscript their citizens into them. All civilized countries draw the line at torture.

There are several reasons for this, besides the obvious fact that history has proven time after time that it does not work: the "information" one obtains from a person who is give it in order to stop intolerable pain is likely to be of little value. Likely, even, to be deliberately misleading. But the chief reason has to be that it's evil. Like Sauron's ring, it corrupts any person, any organization, any nation that uses it. Like other great crimes, torture cuts the perpetrator off from civilization. From humanity.

It's possible to construct a "ticking time bomb" scenario in which torture is the only possible way to get some necessary, vital bit of information needed to prevent a greater crime. Fine. Leave the law on the books. If somebody is willing to break that law, in public, with all the records on video, and put their career, their reputation, and their life on the line in front of a jury of their peers, I'll grant them the right to try it.

If they're not willing to pay that very personal price, if they want to warp the law to let them get away with unspecified acts in secret that, when found out, do untold damage to their country's reputation in the civilized world, well, that's a crime, too. It's called treason.

Just as an aside, you'll find some other blog entries more-or-less aligned with my point of view here, here, and here. Opposing view here.

Oh, and the title? It's what Gandhi said when asked what he thought of Western civilization. I'd really like to be living in a civilized country again.

Taxes, but apart from that...

This post seems to be written in blog order: most recent events first. Seems appropriate.

Just finished off the data-entry for the checkbooks. That leaves the paper receipts, which are a bit more work but also more interesting, and the Amex and Paypal reports.

Tasty dinner: scalloped potatoes, pork ribs with spicy peanut sauce, and carrot-and-raisin salad.

Went for a nice drive with the Cat this afternoon. Good to get out of the house and hang out together. We don't usually talk much; it's all about good company and comfortable silences. Spent some time working on a song -- still marinating.

Did a little shopping. Mostly Office Max for white business card stock for mini-fliers, little colored dots to mark ripped albums, 9V batteries for the travel guitar, and a package-opener. Fry's for a 2GB micro-SD card and a little USB reader that's no more than a 250%-longer plug. Came with a little plastic cover threaded onto a little lanyard of the sort usually used for cell phone charms, but it seemed unnecessary and I took it off.

Did the 4-mile walk by Los Gatos Creek this morning. Felt good. It always does. The weather was cool but a little too humid after last night's rain.

After Earth Hour

In the end, rather than haul out the XO, I pulled out a book and read, by the reading lamp in the living room. Most of the lights are still off, as is one of the two computers I turned off. I'll have to turn it back on in the morning, since it's the one that backups are done on.

A small gesture, and mostly an empty one. It may raise awareness a little.

Right now I feel cold, and my legs are stiff. Paying for this morning's walk, no doubt.