While I'm in the mood...

for science fiction and conspiracy theory, I've started watching Season One of Fringe.  It came highly recommended by my friend, Richard, and I've watched three episodes so far.  The Dr. Walter Bishop character, freshly sprung from seventeen years in a mental hospital, is wildly amusing.  He is the quintessential mad scientist.  His son, Peter Bishop, is a charmingly sarcastic naysayer - like a Fox Mulder who isn't quite sure whether or not he believes the truth is out there just yet.  I haven't made my mind up about the rest of the characters yet  - or who can or cannot be trusted.  I guess that's the whole point of the show.  I'm going to keep watching just because I think Walter is a hoot.  I mean, the man can whip up LSD in his Harvard University lab!  I can't wait to see where his little pharmaceutical experiments go...

Or not...

I had to laugh at this cartoon.  I imagine there are a lot of disappointed people all over the world today.  I've never understood the obsession with Judgment Day.  If you are confident of where you stand with your Creator, when Judgment Day arrives - whether it's like a bolt from the blue or meeting your Maker on the other side of death's doorway - it shouldn't be any big deal.  I like to think that life goes on, one way or another.  It would appear that Mr. Camping, the world's most recent vocal harbinger of impending doom, failed to read the Scriptures when he was determining his latest erroneous doomsday prediction.  I guess it would be easy to miss: "For you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night." (I Thessalonians 5:2 NIV)  My personal favorite is "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." (Matthew 24:36 NIV).  I used to work with this lunatic gentleman who was obsessed with the end of the world.  He was a seemingly devout, practicing Catholic who attended Mass daily but apparently took no comfort from his faith.  Admittedly, between believing that his roommate brother was a demon-possessed pedophile who had put a hit out on him and that every woman he met desired him "in a biblical way" (his words, not mine) the guy had more issues than a magazine rack, but based on his religious fervor, the end of the world shouldn't have been at the top of the list.  Vermin magnet that I am, I finally resorted to attempting to insult him about anything so that he'd stop coming by my office.  Even now I shudder as I ignore his name on my caller ID and shove the phone in the desk drawer until it stops ringing.  I don't even speak his name aloud for fear of conjuring him up.  Still, I wonder if He Who Must Not Be Named was disappointed at all today.

One way or the other.

Still calculating...

And yes, I am still calculating…  Automobile expenses, tortilla receipts, cell phone bills, cleaning supplies, toll receipts – you name it, I’m adding it up.  Some of my business clients are scrambling to get their corporate tax returns filed before the March 15 deadline.  Invariably, someone will bring me their bag of crap on the 14^th, thinking that I can work a miracle and get their return done in time to e-file on the 15^th.  As much as I hate to file them, that’s what extensions are for.  An extension is just license to procrastinate for another six months – I don’t recommend it.  Consequently, I very rarely suggest it.  And if a client brings the idea up, I give them twelve reasons why it’s never a good idea.  Most look scared by the time I’m on reason number seven and agree to get their butts in gear and get their tax paperwork together.  The IRS is nothing to be afraid of, but they are a force to be reckoned with.  All they want is for taxpayers to file their returns and pay their fair share; if you over pay, they will send your money back to you, plus interest.  If you owe them, you’d better pay up or set up a payment plan because they are not going away and ignoring them is not a viable option.  Neither is changing your name – which is the ill-advised route someone suggested to one of my clients, who actually did it.  Guess what – he still owes the IRS a pile of money.  Better to just suck it up and pay your taxes in a little at a time throughout the year than owe a bigger sum, plus penalties and interest, at tax time.  It’s amazing the number of relatively intelligent people who ignore that simple advice.  But then again, if everyone knew how to do their own taxes, I’d be out of a job.

At least it’s entertaining – even the endless calculations…