Visionofthesea's Blog

Nuts are in trouble again

visionofthesea — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 23:18:33 +0000

First peanuts, now pistachios, any other nuts? You think these foods are healthy, nonprocessed foods, not anymore. Even unprocessed foods need to be packaged, shipped and sold, which are sources of contamination. I guess the only absolutely “safe” food is the vegetables you grow in your backyard. Luckily, humans are not as fragile as it sounds.

toshiba

eyeball documentary

visionofthesea — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:45:38 +0000

I heard the other on the radio that a documentary maker who has a false eye is having a new prosthetic eye made that contains a video camera which he will use to film a documentary. Although he claimed he won’t be using it in lockerrooms or bathrooms, the idea of him looking at people not with an innocent eye send a shiver down my spine. When he does that, he can’t really ask people to sign a release form before he “looks” at you, right?

Crazy! Insane! But one thing he said was true: Nowadays people are so eager to push their privacy to the internet. They feel compelled to be part of this internet community without realizing that MySpace, facebook are watching over them.

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Tax Time

visionofthesea — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 23:45:42 +0000

This MSN Money article says that 62% of Americans pay a professional to do their taxes. Wow, I’m surprised as I think most people can get by just fine by using current tax software. I’ve certainly been happy to do so for the last decade and for half of that time we own rental properties and some miscellaneous income.

Below are several free ways or almost free compared to hiring a CPA to get your taxes done, besides of course the old paper and pencil method. IRS Free File with income restriction. You can use TurboTax Free Edition if you have a simple tax return, State is $25.95. TurboTax Business If you have a corporation, partnership, or multi-member LLC and think you can handle it yourself, you can get TurboTax Business for Federal filing free with Federal E-file included. The free version of H&R Block TaxCut is also restricted to those with simple returns. TaxAct Free offers a free federal return for everyone with no restrictions.

I have been using Turbo Tax and happy with it.

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Orange County Great Park

visionofthesea — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 06:38:12 +0000

I heard the Orange County Great Park is the biggest money sucking hole and it would never be completed. The big orange balloon, does it really enhance the orange county image? Or does it really enhance orange county residents’ life quality? Recently, a million dollar ad campaign to promote the great park lead to questions that are all these ad campaign the result of bureaucratic conspiracy? Is the ice skating rink just a lame effort to show your tax money at work?

Too bad I think that’s a poor way to put the tax money at work.

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dollar theater

visionofthesea — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 06:43:08 +0000

I never understand why movie tickets went up so much so fast in so short a time. Everthing else went up, that right. But not like movie tickets which went up like three-fold in the past 7 years or so. So I tried to use the dollar theater or rent dvds from the library as much as I can. Last week when I went to the dollar theater (note: the dollar theater price has also gone up. $1 only on Tuesday and other night $2) it was crowded. The ticket collector said they had more than 11,000 guests just the past weekend. For $2 a ticket, that’s $22,000 revenue for the weekend. Apparently it is able to stay in business even though it’s charging 1/5 of the regular theater’s price. And I will say it will probably endure better than other theaters in the economic storm.

bravia

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Jokes at Oscar

visionofthesea — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 04:04:42 +0000

Some of the jokes at the Oscar ceremony I totally didn’t get. Like the one Ben Stiller pulled off with Natalie Portman making joke of Joaquin Phoenix. I only found it out after the show. Hollywood could be pretty harsh, huh? Oh, of course, what am I talking about, especially Hollywood! See how often the camera was cutting to Brad Pitt and Angelina when Jennifer was on the podium? As if they were expecting a catfight between Jen and Angelina.

Bernie Madoff

joker

Bernie Madoff

visionofthesea — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:39:53 +0000

The action figure “Bernie Madoff” appeared in the International Toy Convention and suddenly it is seen everywhere: TV, news, radio, conventions, toy shows, you name it.

The Australian creator of this Madoff doll said it was an “accidental triumph”. It was Australian humour striking a chord in the United States. Apparently, Americans make a big deal out of what Aussies thought as “just normal”. Very funny.

bernie madoff

Holiday Inn

visionofthesea — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:05:42 +0000

Irving Berlin’s musical – “Holiday Inn” – is truly a classic, something won’t fade for ages. It will always has the glister that shone some half a century ago and still does today. Bing Crosby is brilliant, no need to elaborate but Majorie Reynolds, wow. She was relatively unknown and didn’t become a big star, which I wondered why. But man, she is beautiful and adorably in this movie. She made it glow.

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bright crystal

being cynical

visionofthesea — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:15:19 +0000

I wasn’t having a lot of faith in the new government’s miracle rescue of the sinking economy. The recent tax troubles of Obama’s cabinet nominees just made me more cynical. It’s bad enough for a health secretary to be exposed to have tax problem. What about treasure secretary? What, treasure secretary’s job is to make sure everyone else pay their taxes? And I don’t believe it is just the Obama’s administration. It’s wherever the spotlight is shed on. And these probably only surface because Obama vowed for a clean administration. In that sense, this government is probably more trust worthy. Keep believing.

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Octoplet mother

visionofthesea — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 09:00:00 +0000

The mother of the octoplet babies is a 34-year-old single mom with SIX (spelled out) young kids previously living with her mom. She just filed a one million dolloar bankruptcy last year. The octoplets’ hospital bill would have been over a million, I imagine. And many many more in the years to come. That would explain why she wanted to be anonymous…She’s only another pregnancy away from having a family the size of the Duggars… “I just want to be a mother” – her words. ”Having 8 babies is stressful enough, let the mother be in peace.” Yeah, so long as she supports them and not taxpayers, I will keep my mouth shut. If she is one the million/billion/zillion that get lucky, I would have cheered for her. But it’s her choice to have more on top of the six that she can’t support as it is. I really wish people have to apply for license to become parents!

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