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One of the presently annoying aspects of being an Enrolled Agent is that there is no shortage of offers by companies for CPE products, degrees, advertising, newsletters, and all other kinds of ways which are meant to supplement a running business. At times, it almost feels like it would be easier to make profit in making a product which people like me could use rather than being an actual EA. I'm rather sure that there are few fields of business for which this kind of situation doesn't apply, but ...

For lack of anything better to mention, and because I forgot to do so -

A few days ago while at my parent's house, I came across an old Follet's Student Atlas which was strewn about random paperwork that my Mother has laying by the fireplace. I recall having this in the house since I attended Kindergarten at St. Gerard Majella's in Markham. The print date is 1980, so it still has locations like West Germany featured in the pages for Europe. For the listings of the US, they featured ...

If I recall correctly, I said it last time and I'll do so again here - Happy Arimistice Day. I tend to say things like that just to be deliberately anachronistic and contrary; but there's an article written by Kurt Vonnegut which I think sheds light on why it's a phrase that should not be discarded and forgotten. Here's one source of it: http://blog.loa.org/2010/11/kurt-von...e-day-and.html. In essence, I think it should be more important to observe the acclimation of peace, even beyond ...

Another power outage hit today, after dinner, but this time it was considerably more substantial than the one which affected us last time, in terms of area. Thankfully the duration of the outage was shorter than the initial projected restoration time, but the number of affected customers, according to the information given by the service number, was some 800 locations this time compared to 16 prior. Usually, the houses across the street are unaffected by outages which hit us, but such wasn't the ...

While it's all well and fun to wring hands and moan about how Christmas decorations and products are put in stores seemingly earlier every year, All Saints Day really marks the start of Eggnog season as far as I'm concerned.

My Mom has an egg nog recipe which is unbelievable and unsurpassed. There were a few years that I had a batch of it made for my birthday in lieu of cake, and yes it's thick enough to hold up some candles for enough time. The main issue with making it this way ...

One again, the power of Regular Expressions comes to the rescue.

Included with the IRS 1120 Schema set is an instance document, which I've mentioned here a while ago. The file is a text document which is 26 Megabytes in an unaltered state. I think it takes nearly five minutes to scroll from the top to the bottom with the Page Down key. The instance is an extreme case and features several returns of a consolidated corporation, each with some 635 forms or attachments of some kind for ...

Woke up to a power outage, due to the small desk fan I have on a stand nearby dying out with the loss. I had only three hours of sleep at that point, so I was still tired enough to resume my rest, but only for a few hours more. On the second rising, I compelled myself to stay up to ensure that I could come down here to shut this machine off and preserve the battery. A call to the utility company at 830AM said it would be fixed by 9AM. Then 10AM when I called at 9AM. Then 11AM when I called at 10AM. ...

For whatever reason, my voter registration was not on the paper records which the polling place has access to in order to match identification, so I was only allowed to vote on a provisional ballot. As the worker leafed through the pages, I saw that my wife's information was in the books but mine wasn't. I guess merely having a Driver's License and the registration card isn't enough. Regardless, it made the voting process less than a minute rather than a few more.

While waiting to ...

One of the errands which I originally was planning on doing tomorrow was to stop by a place where one of my wife's coworkers lives to help her get started with her new PC purchase, in respect of moving data from her old machine to the new. Apparently, she hasn't removed the new PC from the box yet despite having purchased it two weeks ago. Yes, she's a typical technophobe. However, my wife informed me that she called off from work today, so I'll just supply a reason to not go tomorrow and let it ...

Today in retail news. Four cart men scheduled today. Me first at 7AM, next at 8AM. Third is scheduled in at 1230PM, and as he forewarned when I worked with him yesterday, he did in fact call off. He made mention of a pressing school project which is due at Midnight tonight and that he hasn't started yet. I didn't ask for details. The fourth was scheduled at 4PM, which is my scheduled end time. As fate would have it, however, he managed to get himself fired last night - the way he explained it to ...

Enjoy the hour.

I don't understand why it's so difficult for people to listen to the entirety of the answer which I want to give them when they ask me a question. I make a point to not ramble on, I choose my words carefully and form statements with a basis and direction in mind. One of the overnight workers asks me if I knew where a cart machine remote was, because he thought it was lost. I explain that I had it held in a drawer at the main register, and why (because it only periodically ...

Form 1120 Schedule UTP allows you to report Uncertain Tax Positions. Essentially, it's a way to CYA on reporting something for which there's no clear cut rules in the code or Regulations which dictate how you should enter something on a form, and you give yourself a space to explain the basis in your chosen action. One thing which I'll need to revise is the second part of the form where you manually write the explanation out - I think there's a character limit per line that I forgot to remove, and ...

Huh, I guess I thought I pasted this in but never did? Weird. Oh well.

Not as good of a run with songs today as yesterday. Can't all be winners. I guess I was pretty lazy with the grace note chords in Lights, considering how bad the score was from the lack of Greats. Beyond that and the bad opening, it wasn't too awful, just didn't have as good success in increases as yesterday. Much better run with fffff this time than the last time that I recall playing it.

Extra ...

Tradition upheld. Temperature outside was nice enough today that sitting outside for beggar's duty wasn't so bad, as long as I had a fair amount of layers on as well as some gloves. Despite that, my fingers did get pretty chilled towards the end of daylight and was more than happy to come inside once the curfew hit and the night had fallen.

I did manage to correctly anticipate the volume this year and had enough candy on hand to meet demand, with only a few pieces left to spare before ...

There's a segment of external house siding which has always been weaker in staying in place against the wall of the house and has taken off with the wind on a few extraordinary occasions. I wake up this morning and find the piece on the basement floor. There's already a hole in it which I patched with duct tape on both sides, and today I put more of that adhesive to use. I replaced the piece and lined the top of it with the tape to hold it against the top of the wall segment. Just tugging at the ...