Taxes all done

I finished our taxes, using TaxACT Online. Cheap price, similar interface to TurboTax and H&R Block at Home. Now I just have to fill all of the paper work and drop it into the mail.

For those of you claiming the $8000 tax credit, you can't do e-filing. They want to see proof of home purchase.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad... a Fraud

Although I was one of the people initially caught up in the excitement that Robert Kiyosaki created in this book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad", over the years I have been extremely disappointed in Kiyosaki's subsequent books and terrible investment advice.

He took one good idea, one good story about contrasting investment philosophy, and is trying to turn it into a billion dollar business. He is making money, but is essentially a fraud and a late night television salesman now.

This is a link to story written in Wallet Pop, that tells us about an undercover investigative reporting by CBC's Marketwatch. The initial workshops (costing $500) are nothing than high pressure tactics to buy advanced workshops ($12,000 to $45,000).

Keep your money at home, folks. Investing that $12,000 to $45,000 in a slow, steady, unexciting blend of index funds will get you so much better returns for your money.

I am sorry that I have ever endorsed Robert Kiyosaki.

The return of the (sullen) suicidal medic

I really liked Battlefield 2142, in which you are a futuristic soldier fighting control of missile stations that can shoot down a hovering battle ship. You can drive tanks, helicopters, or troop transports. Since I am a terrible assault soldier (I keep on dying) I specialized in being a medic. I got quite good at it too. I was able to secure a location, revive my team mates, and generally plan an effective attack plan against the enemy.

The beta of next installment of the franchise is Battlefield: Bad Company 2. My Friday night gaming team has been playing it for several weeks now. Sadly, I'm going to have to give this game a thumbs down from what I have seen. The framerate is simple too jagged to make this a pleasant experience.

Many of the good things are still there. I can be that suicidal medic again, running into a hail of bullets to revive my teammate who lies critically wounded on the open road. You can pilot helicopters again, drive heavy tanks, or take up position on the heavy machine gun. Trees can get blown up, the buildings can get destroyed.

However, the game is simply not smooth. The slight delay between the command of my fingers to what I see on screen is disorienting. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 doesn't have the same problem.

I feel that DICE took on too much, and was too ambitious with this game. Even my powerful quad core computer with Comcast cable internet is having a hard time digesting so much information that this multiplayer demo is spewing out. There are also lots of little annoying things, like selecting a server to play games in the first place.

So I give it a thumbs down for the multiplayer experience. It remains to be seen if the single player mode is any good.

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Some of the feedback I regarding my post about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 said that you felt the second game wasn't as good as the first one. The storyline this time is completely over the top, and unbelievable. I still like the single player game though. How often will a game feature Washington D.C. being taken over, or house-by-house street fight in Virginia?

That said, I started playing special ops in cooperative mode. Wow! If you have not played that mode of the game with another good friend, try it. The special operations game play mode is thoroughly enjoyable and worth the money.

Local, Sustainable... Roses?

This weekend, virtually all roses given (and received) in the United States will have been grown in South America. The weather here is simply not conducive to roses in the middle of winter.

That led me to think some more about the local and sustainable movement. Stretched to the limit, no one on continental US will have access to guava, pineapples, papaya, or coffee (gasp!). (However, people in Hawaii and Guam will readily have a platter of their local fruits.) People in the California will not have blueberries (Northwest) and salmon (mostly Northwest). As for the people in Boston and New York, they will have puny choices when it comes to having anything of the green color.

As for Alaskans in February... I shudder to think.

If a neutron bomb detonated, and you were able to survive with the technology intact, California with its Mediterranean weather is probably the best place to be. Just saying.

Cherries are blooming!

The cherries trees around Seattle are blooming, signaling a very early arrival of spring this year. Photographers: come take some pictures!

In 2009, cherry blossoms came out in mid- to late-APRIL here in Seattle.
In 2007, cherry blossoms came out in March in *Portland*, which probably meant that they came out in late March or early April in Seattle.


This is a very unusual year.

Spring may be here

It's unusually warm this winter in the Northwest. No snow (see images for the Olympics to verify). I submit two more pieces of evidence that spring is starting: the cherry blossoms are beginning, and dandelions in my yard are growing.

It is but a Slice

At our small group last night, we talked about how community has changed with the advent of the Internet. This is a reminder to all of you readers that what you see on this blog is but a slice of who I am. If you want a fuller picture, give me a call. Better yet, come visit and have a meal!