March, 7, 2003 archives
an enthusiast
i certainly didn't need the man who wasn't there to convince me that joel and ethan coen were geniuses. roger deakins' profession of admiration for them in his interview on the dvd is great: he's confident enough in their ability to make it good that he'd be willing to shoot the phone book for them. i'd watch that. billy bob thornton's performance was great. heck, every performance was great. it's a quiet, bittersweet film, and i'd highly recommend it. (but don't go in expecting the wackiness of raising arizona or the big lebowski, or you'll be disappointed.)
it also reminded me of going to the barber with my dad. do those places even exist any more? it seems like it's all supercuts and hair salons these days.
the tax man oweth
i can't finish doing my taxes because i seem to have misplaced a couple of forms, but it looks like i'm going to be due a pretty hefty tax refund. woohoo! of course, the refund is largely due to working only part of the year, and having more than the standard deduction once i itemize. i'd put my chances of being audited as moderate. not filing one year and then getting a big refund the next must set off alarm bells somewhere.
i'm using h&r block's online tax preparation program. simple enough, although it doesn't work with safari.
oh, it does have one annoying flaw in this post-popup-blocker world: it tries to pop up a new window without providing a link to pop it up manually. schwab has the same problem when it tries to import new transaction information on the performance screen.
my favorite bit of tax instruction from Publication 17, Your Federal Income Tax:
Illegal income. Illegal income, such as stolen or embezzled funds, must be included in your income on line 21 of Form 1040, or on Schedule C or Schedule C-EZ (Form 1040) if from your self-employment activity.