The Wisdom of Babies

As I've mentioned, I live w/ Gye Greene, The Lady, Ralphie the dog, and the baby (no good nickname as yet).

The wisdom of babies:

"Sometimes, all you need in life is a big yellow plastic key to slurp on."

Fun with Income Tax

Gye Greene and The Lady spent last night finishing up their (U.S.) income tax. Fun, fun, fun!

U.S. income tax is due April 15th, and the tax year is the calendar year. In contrast, the Aussie tax year runs from (IIRC) the first of July to the end of June, and taxes are due on October 31st.

Of course, in the U.S., Oct. 31st is Halloween. The Aussies don't celebrate Halloween, but knew **something** scary had to fill the void: thus, tax day.

Since they closed their U.S. joint bank account in August 2004, this is The Lady's last year of filing U.S. taxes -- no more U.S. income. However, because GG still has an interest-bearing checking account and a few minor investments in the U.S. (in his name only, for ease of filing taxes), he will be PAYING TAXES TWICE A YEAR FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE!!! (Shudder!)

More correctly, he'll be filling out the forms twice a year for the rest of his life. He ends up paying only once.

In other words, for his U.S. taxes, GG has to fill out paperwork to report about eight bucks of interest, a few hundred in dividends and capital gains, then discover that this is **far** below his individual deduction -- and thus, he owes $0.00. All for the joy of paperwork...

Ode to a cookie

Online comic re: ode to a cookie. (Ph.D. comics, at http://www.phdcomics.com.)

One of GG's favorite online comics. Highly insightful if you've ever been in grad school.

misc. replies to Blog comments

Yeahhhh!!! Actually broadcasting into -- not emptiness -- but a handful of listeners. Or readers, rather.

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re: Apr. 4 comment

One a more existential note: we're still debating whether TG is a real person, or some sort of cardboard cutout / imaginary friend / alter-ego to GG. The photo points towards the latter.

Which raises the question, does TG exist if we don't believe he exists?

-K.

That's actually a peculiar question. I took another look at the photo, and I look fine to me... But, figured I'd dignify the Q with a response. :)

I'll (annoyingly! Socratically?) respond to your question, with a question:
Do **you** exist if **I** don't believe you exist? ;)

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re: Apr. 11 comment fr. Tara

I don't know, TG, I'm kinda all over the map. I like Tom Petty. Never much into XTC. But I also like the Beastie Boys, Prince, John Lee Hooker, Echo and the Bunnymen, Stan Getz, Hank Williams Sr....but Elvis Costello is my favorite singer I reckon. Just saw him in concert a couple weeks ago. Genius.

Beastie Boys are pretty good. Interesting bit of Seattle trivia: When "The End" (KNDD), the local radio station opened (their first song: R.E.M. "The End of the World as We Know It"), they swore they wouldn't play rap. Then a few years later they play the Beastie Boys (also The Red Hot Chilli Peppers' "Give it Away", which is arguably rap). Some people wrote into the local music mag (maybe The Rocket, but probably The Stranger) and pointed that out. Subtle racism? Or just tricked by marketing and packaging?

Prince: Don't like all his stuff, but both Gye Greene and myself highly respect him, as he often plays all his own instruments as well as the recording/mixing/producing. As do many of the folks on GG's "MixTasters" [actually, Mixmasters] e-mail discussion list.

John Lee Hooker: Only know him from the Blues Brothers soundtrack.

Echo and the Bunnymen: Don't have any of their stuff. Citing this group really telegraphs your age group! Rather like the Psychadelic Furs; and The Mighty Lemon Drops are pretty good.

Highly recommend Dan Bern as a great singer/songwriter/quasi-folksinger. Catchy tunes, catchy lyrics.

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re: Apr. 11 comment fr. "K"

Where does one go to listen to the music of GG and TG?

GG **had** a university-based webpage, but had to pull the mp3s 'cause he ran out of space. I'll have to contact a mutual friend to host some mp3s. Eventually, GG and myself will post a band website.

CSI theme songs: criticism

A weak e-mail morning: three spams, two announcements from a mailing list I’m on, and one from GG’s dad saying he has some extras from Costco. But at least two of the blogs I read each morning have a new entry!!!

And I also received three notices of people commenting my blog entries. So, THAT’S nice! :)


Regarding CSI: The Lady watches CSI most of the time. GG has given up watching it; I watch it occassionally; the bub and Ralphie the dog basically ignore it.

The original CSI (Las Vegas) has The Who's "Who Are You" song as their theme. This was good for three reasons: (1) It has a really good rock & roll scream in it; (2) the guys from The Who deserve royalties [btw -- Devo is getting royalties for "Whip It", used in a commerical for some household cleaning product!]; and (3) the lyrics match the concept of CSI ("Who are you? I really wanna know...").

Then came CSI: Miami (right? some Florida location), and they're using The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again." This choice **doesn't** make sense -- unless the team routinely nails the wrong guy, then frees him due to new forensic evidence. Not as strong of a match between song and concept.

And now we have CSI: New York -- with The Who's "Teenage Wasteland." Which makes even **less** sense -- although maybe New York City is a scary, urban jungle. And I notice they don't actually use the lyrics.

I'm waiting for CSI: Melbourne, using "Can't Explain." Which would've, BTW, been a stronger choice for CSI: NY.

That's what I'm saying. :)

Take a listen: PP-HP-HB

Just found this band; worth a listen. It's the Palo Pinto House Pants House Band. Tunes at
http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=4369&alid=1230 Only listened to a few so far, but good stuff. "Voodoo BBQ" is reminds me of the great 1960's guitar instrumentals -- esp. "Rebel Rouser" by Duane Eddy. And "Too Hot for House Pants" is catchy (has vocals!), but disorienting if you have a head cold (yeah, it finally caught up with me!).

Re: Apr. 4 entry//Elvis Costello

Reply to Tara's comment: Sure! Yeah, I'm not saying Elvis Costello is stink-o or anysuch. ;) It all comes down to personal taste. Like (I'll take a guess) someone who prefers Sheryl Crow to Elvis Costello is also likely to dig Buddy Holly or Tom Petty. Whereas an Elvis Costello-liker would also think XTC (for example) are pretty good.

Does that profile fit with yours? (Tara? Broader blog-reading audience?)

I must say, I'm chuffed to find that people are actually reading my blog! ["Chuffed" = an Aussie term; pleased, in a puffed-out-chest way... I think!]

Movie review: Almighty Bruce

Gye Greene hasn't seen a movie in two or three months -- basically, since knuckling down to the Dissertation -- so he and I rented "Almighty Bruce" (Morgan Freeman, Jim Carrey, Jennifer Aniston) yesterday. (The Lady didn't watch it, as she wasn't interested; she ended up watching the Charles and Camilla wedding instead.) Not a bad movie, although it had a few weak spots -- particularly, (without giving too much away) Jim Carrey's character gets hit by a truck while still posessing the "God-powers", and gets injured. Shouldn't he be invulnerable?

Entertaining enough to rent, but I'm not gonna run out and buy it. And the blooper reel and out-takes were better than for most movies on DVD: for most movies, they were removed 'cause they're boring; for this movie, they just slowed the pacing a touch.

Ralphie the Dog hung out under the bed, rather than watch the movie. Not sure what that means.

Yeah: that was my Saturday. ;)