Rock My Funky Tax Holiday

You know those stupid yet sometimes illuminating web memes that people contagiously follow, answering questions like "ten things you don't know about me" and putting them on their blog before tagging the next person? I've never participated in one of those but here's one thing you may not know about me:

I always file taxes on the last possible day.

I know this comes as a surprise to some of you, because you view me as this eccentric yet organized individual. Bzzt! Organization to me means putting everything made of paper into a giant pile in my office which will be periodically rummaged through when an important document is needed, but otherwise untouched until "Sorting Day," an unofficial holiday in my life which usually falls on April 14th, but sometimes gets stretched out to the 15th or even 16th.

This year, Sorting Day would fall on either today or tomorrow. The "bonus weekend days" before tax deadline. I file on the last day, but usually have enough wisdom to know that shit is going to hit the fan big time if I attempt to also do the sorting on the deadline date. So in a typical year I would be digging through that paper pile right now.

But normally I didn't live in Massachusetts! Welcome to freaky eff-the-rest-of-the-country pilgrimsville. Thanks to our state's fine Patriot's Day holiday (in honor of the Battle of Lexington and Concord), we're being given an extra day to file taxes this year. Shit like this never happened in California. It's the distinct scent of government palm greasing in the air. Massachusetts just gets its way more than California, even though we are a pinko liberal commie state just like ya'll.

To make things even sweeter, all the states around us who don't even celebrate Patriot's Day (Maine also does) get a free ride on our wacky holiday. Because Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and the District of Columbia are all send their tax returns to our Andover, MA IRS processing center, they're not obliged to file until Tuesday, either.

Thus setting a new record: Sorting Day 2006 falls on April 17th! Booyeah!

Technorati Tags: taxes, massachusetts, holidays, california

Eye/Hand

Have you seen the "Eye/Hand" Flickr feed? This is my favorite, and by that I mean my first and only favorite Flickr feed. I just haven't been that in to Flickr. Blah blah blah. Pictures of people you met at parties who didn't know your geeky ass was gonna spray them all over the internet. Hang up the phone!

But Eye/Hand is special. This feed has a simple barrier of entry. You take a picture of yourself, and you draw it. Judging by the entries so far, it doesn't matter if you draw it on paper and scan it, or draw it in a computer program, it just has to be a hand-done thing.

Most of these are really awesome. I am accumulating all kinds of social speculation about society based on these drawings. For instance, women tend to draw themselves fatter than they really are. Men tend to draw themselves more angular, and perhaps even as distorted caricatures, than they really are.

What I really don't dig are the ones that come up and it's so clear that somebody traced it, I'm like "fuck that! you traced it!" Sure, art is art. Blah blah blah. But if you traced it, it looks so much like the original that it's no fun. It's like when you see Belle and Sebastian perform, and it sounds just like the record. No fun! So I really grimace when I see the loser "perfection" drawings show up. But I really grin when I see the wacky disproportionate "true players" images show up. If this is what Flickr is all about, then Flickr is all right.

Web Diaries

It's lucky for us that the term "Weblog" caught on. Because, as much as we may be annoyed by the prevalence of the common abbreviation "blog," we'd be frickin' ridiculous if we talked about our "b'diaries" all day long.

Snowy Somerville

In keeping with the trend for crazy weather, it snowed here yesterday! And not just a little teeny weeny bit of snow. We were walking in a winter wonderland! (Actually, I didn't leave the house, except to step out on the deck and catch some flakes).

And flakey they were! It was as if somebody had slaughtered a million chickens in heaven and just let their feathers quietly float down to earth. Isn't that romantic?

I like how the presence of snowflakes turns even our rather dull back-porch view of the Foodmaster and neighbors' houses into a picturesque scene. Now it's 58 degrees and sunny. Go figure.