Lazy name change

Erik has brought to my attention that I was lazy with my choice of Loddie and I changing our last names.  The following are the rules:


Each party to the marriage may adopt any of the following last names:

• The current last name of the other spouse.
• The last name of either spouse given at birth.
• A name combining into a single last name all or a segment of the current last name or the last name of either spouse given at birth.
• A hyphenated combination of last names.

There are many possibilities given these rules, and obviously I'm only talking about the third rule.  Only a few minutes of brainstorming came up with Arse (ironic to go from foot to ass, right?), Ooaga, Oo, Goose, aGoose, aFoose, and then stretching it maybe Ooaa, Aooga, Shag, Hog...

Submissions in the comments are welcome!

Every choice is a winner...

Once I saw all my options I just started to consider the possibilities!

For my Mom

My mom says I don't blog enough (that sounds pretty strange all by itself) so here's one just for her:

The American Dream

"Seven out of 10 say it is harder to get rich in America today than it used to be, according to the most recent Bankrate.com survey conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International."


The article goes on with a gem like "Back in the Clinton era, everyone seemed to be getting rich" and lists the respondents self-perceived obstacles to achieving prosperity:


27% - too many bills, not enough income
27% - job loss or income reduction
11% - credit card debt
11% - Health problems or medical bills
8% - A setback in investments due to the market
4% - A family disruption
3% - Negative home equity
9% - Other or don't know


Like any survey there's ambiguity in the question which ultimately causes it's own problems.  For instance, what is rich and how are these people conceive of being rich?  If credit cards, bills, and job losses are on their list then they're not worried about being rich, they're just trying to break even and make ends meat as far as I'm concerned.  True wealth, the kind where you don't actually have to worry about money (though many rich people still do worry plenty) is just as hard to make as it ever has been, which is very.  That's why a very very small minority of people are actually rich by any standard I would hold out.  So if asked again, I wonder if 7 out of 10 people would actually say it's harder today than it was a decade ago just to scrape by, because that I'd believe.

The IRS doesn't play fair

I rarely get into work on this blog, but in case the average person was to ask me how often the IRS was fair in their audits or the adjustments that they propose, I'd like to point this out as an example:


"The Tax Court held that the IRS's determinations are arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable. The court further held that T's comparable uncontrolled transaction method, with appropriate adjustments, is the best method to determine the requisite buy-in payment."

So in a nutshell, the IRS made a determination in this case, which goes beyond "we think" and actually means "pay up" and the taxpayer had to go to tax court, where tax court determined the IRS was "arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable" and the taxpayer's method was "the best method."

This is the mentality that I bring in every time I see an audit or proposed adjustment on a tax return because the IRS really does have a history of getting it completely wrong.

Winged Migration

I don't usually blog about movies I've seen but the movie Winged Migration had a unique back-story that puts the entire movie in a different perspective.

Winged Migration very much bills itself as an artful documentary, following the migratory paths of many species of birds.  It has amazing shots that were taken of the birds in flight that make it seem like the camera wasn't more than inches away from the birds, even as they were flying right along the water or high in the sky.  As the credits rolled I noticed a section that I thought was interesting: Animal Trainers.  So we were very curious to see how they got these shots and started watching the special feature on the making of the movie.  That's where it all got very interesting.

We were fast-forwarding past people talking when we saw someone hand-rearing baby birds.  We hit play and they were talking about how baby birds "imprint" their parental figure at a young age.  As it continued, we learned that many of the bird groups in the film had been hand-raised from a young age and imprinted with the idea that their human trainers were their parents and taught to be comfortable with the various cameras and equipment being used.  As the making of continued we saw the loading and unloading of animals in beautiful settings, saw how so many of the shots we marveled at were arranged for that purpose, and realized that this was not at all the documentary we had thought before seeing this feature.

It doesn't take away from the beauty of the film but it does mar the natural wonder that I initially had from watching it.  The movie also tries to make a few ecological points, which I of course agree with but within the context of them being willing to stage shots you also have to question the authenticity of the scenes meant to make you upset at how humans interact with nature.

Can we review the reviewer?

This is a one-star review for a laser cat toy on Amazon.  I'm thinking maybe it's the reviewer that deserves one star (emphasis added by me).

"Any LASER beam TOY may initiate a seizure in your pet. Even though most pets love this type of toy, one of our cats has a history of mild seizures. I'd forgotten this fact when I purchased the laser mouse. The cat loved it, but it brought on a seizure."


Hopefully this person doesn't have any kids, but if they do hopefully the kids don't have any allergies.