Back in civilization, and like I predicted, not much has really changed. It was good to get away for a while, but it's also good to be back. And now that I am back, what have I learned over the last week ( Read more... )

Two days ago, I left home to come up north for 4th of July week, like pretty much every other year since I can remember. However, that is not to say that things have not changed since then; it's been almost 20 years, obviously, they have. We golf more now (probably will do so every day this week, save for maybe the one that we take the boat to Lake ( Read more... )

Alright, so, the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). The AMT has a rate (marginal) of either 26% or 28%, depending on the income of the filer. It was put in place in the 1950s as a reaction to about 150 extremely rich people who had enough deductions and loopholes in the actual tax code to make it so that they paid little or no tax at all. As such, the ( Read more... )

A few notes on music. Today, I listened to two albums, fully, for the first time. One was "Nine Tonight", by Bob Seger, and it's really a much better album than I ever gave it credit for. I got it from Max...months ago, and I'm really not sure what spurned me to listen to it now (I think I probably heard a song from it on the radio or something), ( Read more... )

Yesterday, I went to Ann Arbor to meet with concentration advisers in the Political Science and Econ departments. They both told me what I already knew, that I'm really close to being done with both concentrations. The Econ department just wants me to keep taking Econ classes (406 (Econometrics) this semester, 482 (Government Revenues and Tax ( Read more... )

My sinuses, or whatever is in them, for some reason, feel as if they want to escape from my head. This, one could say, is unpleasant. I'm thinking the loud music probably isn't helping this. Here's to hoping that it's not a tumor or something ( Read more... )

Woke up this morning at 7:45 (late, compared to the last 3 days) to the sound of my cell phone ringing. It was Kevin, characteristically bilious, but, hey, it was early. I guess. After some confusion over what was actually going on, the two of us went to breakfast with Katie. Considering that when I heard that she was going to be in town over the ( Read more... )

I am now at the airport, working on a more complete wrap-up of everything, but I have 15 minutes of battery, and there's no plug around here, so this will have to do for now. Again, all time CDT ( Read more... )

4:55 PM -- Round 4 ended probably 15 minutes ago, with round 5 scheduled to start...50 minutes from now? That's quite a delay. Somebody just made some kind of announcement in the cafeteria, but I had my headphones on, so I couldn't hear what it was. Apparently they're looking for a judge from Kansas. Whatever. Round 7 and 8 were kind of rough. Both ( Read more... )

2:30 PM -- Did I say that it was nice outside? Because...now it's pouring. [Ed.'s note: Why would you say something like that? What are you, stupid? That is so stupid.] Went to Subway for lunch, I have to say, it was kind of a strange experience. My normal order: Italian BMT on italian herbs and cheese bread, swiss chess, lettuce, tomato, onion, ( Read more... )