Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

So many big plans! My overarching goal for my business is to gross $35,000-$40,000 this year (for perspective, we grossed around $18,600 in 2012 and about $13,000 in 2011). All of my other goals are smaller steps to that goal, like publishing two how-to ebooks, opening another line of income, attending more in-person shows, becoming an established vendor at dog shows with a very expensive line of merchandise, taking the business more seriously by working 40 hours a week and having frequent business meetings, getting more press, etc.

My big personal goal is to memorize the melody and first verse of every song in the hymnbook. I'm also considering going back to school in the fall, depending on how much the business needs me to focus.

Is it a huge pain to figure out what taxes you actually have to pay and all the forms, schedules, etc.? I once looked into making a sole proprietorship for something else and from what I read, it seemed like it was required to forecast quarterly, that is, estimate how much you expected to make in the next three months and pay now for that. It seemed like it would be a pain three months later getting credit back if I overpaid or getting caught up with Uncle Sam if I underestimated. Paperwork, even the thought of it, give me a headache.

I'm still working on a definitive list of goals, since most of them won't really take effect until I get back to Provo at the end of the week. Among them are going to bed earlier, exercising more, going to the temple on a regular basis again, and taking my dating/social life up a notch. (And yes, they're all clear, measurable goals; I just figured I wouldn't bore you with the details.)

bobtheenchantedone wrote:My big personal goal is to memorize the melody and first verse of every song in the hymnbook.

I just might have to steal that goal someday.

Digit wrote:Is it a huge pain to figure out what taxes you actually have to pay and all the forms, schedules, etc.? I once looked into making a sole proprietorship for something else and from what I read, it seemed like it was required to forecast quarterly, that is, estimate how much you expected to make in the next three months and pay now for that. It seemed like it would be a pain three months later getting credit back if I overpaid or getting caught up with Uncle Sam if I underestimated. Paperwork, even the thought of it, give me a headache.

Actually it's much easier than that. You only have to pay quarterly if you owe more than $2000 per quarter, and even then I understand that you do the forms and turn them in once you know what you owe. There is an option for projecting and then paying more or getting refunds as well.

I just do my taxes in April like everyone else (earlier if I can manage!) and all I have to do is pay TurboTax or H&R Block $60 instead of getting to do my returns for free. I don't have any penalties for paying all of the previous year's taxes then.

What is a little more complicated is that I owe state withholding and sales taxes quarterly. Or, that was more complicated, until everything moved online and now it takes me like 30 minutes to do them.

So overall taxes are not that bad. The worst part is that I usually wait until April to not only do my taxes but also put in all of my receipts. Hours of receipts are never fun.

Graduating, getting a career, maybe finagling someone to marry me. Don't have many smaller, concrete goals.

bobtheenchantedone wrote:

Digit wrote:Is it a huge pain to figure out what taxes you actually have to pay and all the forms, schedules, etc.? I once looked into making a sole proprietorship for something else and from what I read, it seemed like it was required to forecast quarterly, that is, estimate how much you expected to make in the next three months and pay now for that. It seemed like it would be a pain three months later getting credit back if I overpaid or getting caught up with Uncle Sam if I underestimated. Paperwork, even the thought of it, give me a headache.

Actually it's much easier than that. You only have to pay quarterly if you owe more than $2000 per quarter, and even then I understand that you do the forms and turn them in once you know what you owe. There is an option for projecting and then paying more or getting refunds as well.

I just do my taxes in April like everyone else (earlier if I can manage!) and all I have to do is pay TurboTax or H&R Block $60 instead of getting to do my returns for free. I don't have any penalties for paying all of the previous year's taxes then.

What is a little more complicated is that I owe state withholding and sales taxes quarterly. Or, that was more complicated, until everything moved online and now it takes me like 30 minutes to do them.

So overall taxes are not that bad. The worst part is that I usually wait until April to not only do my taxes but also put in all of my receipts. Hours of receipts are never fun.

Oh, I see. Thanks for educating me!

Goals: prepare for mission. Go on mission. Do mission things.

I intend to get married in June.

Other than that, Marx and I have set a goal to exercise 3-4 times a week. We've been doing that pretty consistently for the past 6 weeks anyway, but we just need to keep it up.

Emiliana wrote:I intend to get married in June.

Congrats!

This year I plan to grow out my hair, which will mostly involve not getting any more crappy hair cuts. Also, trying to find the parents of Charles Guptill (1825-1897). Seriously, who are they? That's a question that would definitely go over hours.

So in listening to a lot of the news about the woman who was raped in India (not the one who was gang raped, a different one) and part of the issue seems to be a transition from a traditional culture to a modern culture, and the ramifications thereof. For instance, there's a significant push for her simply to marry the man, thereby legitamizing the sexual act. It seems that in many traditional cultures, rape is often unrecognized for what it is, or is partly blamed on the woman, as though she has some sort of moral obligation not to be raped.

And then I realized that the woman in the New Testament, who is "taken in adultery" and brought before Jesus, is likely the victim of rape. There's no way to know for sure, of course, but it is likely that if she WERE raped, that's exactly how the pharisees would have responded and portrayed it.

I'm not sure what to do with that, or how that changes any moral lessons from the story, but it certainly gave me pause.

Marduk wrote:So in listening to a lot of the news about the woman who was raped in India (not the one who was gang raped, a different one) and part of the issue seems to be a transition from a traditional culture to a modern culture, and the ramifications thereof. For instance, there's a significant push for her simply to marry the man, thereby legitamizing the sexual act. It seems that in many traditional cultures, rape is often unrecognized for what it is, or is partly blamed on the woman, as though she has some sort of moral obligation not to be raped.

And then I realized that the woman in the New Testament, who is "taken in adultery" and brought before Jesus, is likely the victim of rape. There's no way to know for sure, of course, but it is likely that if she WERE raped, that's exactly how the pharisees would have responded and portrayed it.

I'm not sure what to do with that, or how that changes any moral lessons from the story, but it certainly gave me pause.

I was thinking about this the other day, and it occurred to me that the social pressure to marry one's rapist seems to be based in a "you broke it, you bought it" mentality, where it's the woman's virginity (and therefore her value as a marriage prospect) that is "broken." In some cultures, too, a woman didn't even have the right to consent to sexual relations, because that right was deemed to belong to her husband, whose selection was determined by her father. If you can't consent, then you also can't withhold consent, which puts a new wrinkle in the definition of rape.

My friend told me about her first husband, who thought he had the right to sleep with her whenever he wanted. One night she said something to the effect of "I don't want to, you're hurting me, please stop raping me," and his response was "it wouldn't be rape if you'd consent." Ick. It is not the woman's duty to make it not rape by being okay with it.

Portia wrote:What is this?

Probably a pool or pond of some sort. The black is almost definitely water.

It's the hole made for a guitar the size of the whole earth. If you zoom out, you'll see that the surrounding greenery has a rough guitar shape to the edges, and there's a line coming out of what would be the top of the guitar. Granted, said guitar neck is not straight (in the picture), but that's easily attributed to smoke and mirrors, changes in topography, or aliens.

I did a tour of the world at our latitude, starting at 0° and advancing 15°. The most interesting areas were in Spain, Italy, and Turkey.

It being -10°C reminds me of an Anne Shirley book where she is debating between really bundling up with a muff or merely throwing on a coat, depending on if it's -10° or 0°. At the time I was thinking in Fahrenheit, where both of those are bone-chilling. Centigrade really doesn't have much granularity - I would love to see 0°C/32°F again! (Insert Zedability's praise of Celsius here.) It was interesting that they didn't "localize" the temperature scale in a kids' book, to me.

Why would they change the book to localize the temperature scale just for one specific country?

They did do that for Harry Potter, but I suppose that being the international sensation it was and translated into tons of languages made it a small matter to change some words so Americans would understand it better.

bobtheenchantedone wrote:They did do that for Harry Potter, but I suppose that being the international sensation it was and translated into tons of languages made it a small matter to change some words so Americans would understand it better.

The best part about that is that they eased back on it in the later books, when it became clear that American readers didn't want or need the changes, so in the first book, Ron's Mom knits him a sweater, but by the later books, his Mum knit him a jumper.

(Also, publishing rights are acquired by country, so changing the units in a book for one country's readers wouldn't necessarily be that much more work to add to the process.)

I testify that by book 3, Ron's Mom is still knitting them sweaters.