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Post by kds on Apr 5, 2024 15:20:05 GMT
Whoa, I felt that earthquake. Here at work, I’m only about 25 miles from the epicenter. 5.5 magnitude. I know some people in NY and PA who felt it, too. Sheriff John Stone and kds , I’m guessing you were out of range? I'm told it's been felt in my neck of the woods, but I didn't notice it.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Apr 5, 2024 20:49:40 GMT
Whoa, I felt that earthquake. Here at work, I’m only about 25 miles from the epicenter. 5.5 magnitude. I know some people in NY and PA who felt it, too. Sheriff John Stone and kds , I’m guessing you were out of range? I'm told it's been felt in my neck of the woods, but I didn't notice it. I didn't feel anything either, but there are some reports from towns about 30 minutes away who said they did. I'm reading 4.7 or 4.8 around here.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Apr 12, 2024 12:33:08 GMT
So, I see O.J. Simpson passed away at age 76. I'll try to avoid any controversy here. I just wanted to mention or reminisce how I used to tune in to Larry King Live and Geraldo every night - every night! - and follow the trial. From 9:00 - 11:00 PM that was all I watched. It was both fascinating and educational, and of course, it was sensational. On the day of the verdict a bunch of us (including my boss ) huddled around a small TV in the break room at work. Hard to believe that was almost 30 years ago.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 12, 2024 13:02:41 GMT
I recall the day it all began--OK, the day his post-football, scandal-ridden part of his life began. I was working a summer job in a corn- and pea-packing factory on the edges of my hometown, saving up money for my freshman year of college. I went into the break room and the small TV was broadcasting that infamous slow-speed chase of the Ford Bronco.
This was before the internet was broadly available, and clearly well before smart phones. It was "going viral" before we had the same sort of technology that makes things go viral. We just watched it on TV, we just watched ... nothing. A Ford Bronco driving very slowly. Nothing happening. What was happening!?
Then the trial, of course, divided the country almost exclusively on racial lines. It was bizarre for me. I didn't get it.
Of course, the trial also brought about some amazing comedy ... and the firing of Norm Macdonald by NBC's West Coast president, Don Ohlmeyer, who was a close friend of OJ Simpson and had reportedly told Macdonald to quit making jokes about him. But...
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Post by kds on Apr 12, 2024 14:34:50 GMT
It's a pity that Norm's no longer around to announce that the "real killer" has finally been done in.
The OJ Story definitely helped ease the transition in SNL from 1994-95 to 1995-96, when they pretty much cleaned house in the cast. Only Tim Meadows, Norm McDonald, and David Spade remained, and I think Spade left during that season. But, the OJ Trail gave McDonald, Meadows, and the new cast a lot of material.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 12, 2024 14:47:09 GMT
The OJ Story definitely helped ease the transition in SNL from 1994-95 to 1995-96, when they pretty much cleaned house in the cast. Only Tim Meadows, Norm McDonald, and David Spade remained, and I think Spade left during that season. But, the OJ Trail gave McDonald, Meadows, and the new cast a lot of material. Yes, that was a massive overhaul. And it was weird. Spade stayed, but he had a new deal where he wasn't a normal cast member. Instead he basically did his own little bit every week, whatever he wanted, sometimes a sketch but often an on-location thing somewhere. He has admitted he didn't really like it, saying he "felt like the guy who graduated last year but still hung around the high school parking lot." Macdonald was doing Weekend Update and very little in the way of sketches (by his own preference) until he was fired from Weekend Update in 1998, replaced by his close friend Colin Quinn. (Awkward!) But because of contractual issues SNL basically could prevent him from working anywhere else...so they kept him to be in skits, which he said he always hated. "And I suck at those," he told Letterman. Meadows was the guy who was able to fit in regardless of the casts. Rarely a featured cast member, he was a glue guy. So it didn't matter much whether he was there with Adam Sandler and Chris Farley, or Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 12, 2024 14:54:06 GMT
By the way, I am probably like every SNL fan ever in that when they did the major overhaul to a new cast, I immediately disliked the new cast and thought the show was more or less over. I'd begun watching around 1987 or 1988, and I did stick with the show as it transitioned from that cast (Dana Carvey, Jon Lovitz, Kevin Nealon, Dennis Miller, Nora Roberts, Victoria Jackson etc.) to the much-hated group that I loved (Mike Myers, Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, David Spade, Norm Macdonald, Julia Sweeney, Tim Meadows, Rob Schneider, Chris Rock etc.).
So my tween and teen years were all good, but I hit 20 or so, they did another housecleaning, and I was not a fan. It's only in hindsight that I started realizing how great that next cast was, too. But as Carvey and Spade have said often on their podcast (and many guests of that pod, former cast members, also say), there's something about people who were on the show when you were a teenager. That's almost always "your" cast.
I mean, in hindsight, how I could I not adore Will Ferrell, Molly Shannon, Cheri Oteri, Darrell Hammond, etc.? They were just different.
Rolling it forward another ~25 years, I'm more or less all out. I occasionally watch clips and don't know anyone or find them especially funny. But SNL isn't targeting 47-year-old guys...
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Post by kds on Apr 12, 2024 15:06:47 GMT
By the way, I am probably like every SNL fan ever in that when they did the major overhaul to a new cast, I immediately disliked the new cast and thought the show was more or less over. I'd begun watching around 1987 or 1988, and I did stick with the show as it transitioned from that cast (Dana Carvey, Jon Lovitz, Kevin Nealon, Dennis Miller, Nora Roberts, Victoria Jackson etc.) to the much-hated group that I loved (Mike Myers, Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, David Spade, Norm Macdonald, Julia Sweeney, Tim Meadows, Rob Schneider, Chris Rock etc.). So my tween and teen years were all good, but I hit 20 or so, they did another housecleaning, and I was not a fan. It's only in hindsight that I started realizing how great that next cast was, too. But as Carvey and Spade have said often on their podcast (and many guests of that pod, former cast members, also say), there's something about people who were on the show when you were a teenager. That's almost always "your" cast. I mean, in hindsight, how I could I not adore Will Ferrell, Molly Shannon, Cheri Oteri, Darrell Hammond, etc.? They were just different. Rolling it forward another ~25 years, I'm more or less all out. I occasionally watch clips and don't know anyone or find them especially funny. But SNL isn't targeting 47-year-old guys... I agree on all points really. I'd have probably tuned out completely after the 1995 overhaul, but I was just a sophomore in high school. What else was I going to do at 11:30p on a Saturday? I did start watching significantly less around 1999 or 2000 when I started doing more on Saturday nights. I'd still tune in now and again. But, not regularly. I'll still see some funny new clips pop up online. There's a really good one with Kenan Thompson and Keegan-Michael Key as bouncers at The Muppet Theater. But, the modern version just isn't funny to me. I actually think I've finally hit that age where modern comedy in general doesn't land with me. It's funny that Will Ferrell became pretty much my favorite comedic actor of the 21st Century because I really used to dislike him in his early SNL years. Even though I loved Celebrity Jeopardy, his deadpan Trebek wasn't the main draw for me. And, to be honest, I never came around on Cheri Oteri. I always found her somewhat irritating.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 13, 2024 15:58:07 GMT
Tax deadline day is quickly approaching, and I just finally completed and submitted mine. This is the latest I've ever done them. Usually I'd say I do them by early March. But for some reason, this year I just didn't want to do them. I had a feeling of dread about them--not that I'd owe some massive amount or anything, either. I figured it would be more or less the same as recent years, which tends to be that I get a few hundred back from federal taxes and owe a little for state taxes. (And sure enough, that's what it ended up.) No, it wasn't that, but just the whole process of it.
How crazy am I? Well, it took me maybe 40, 45 minutes to get through the whole proces, from grabbing the paperwork to logging in (I've used H&R Block's online service for years now) to completing everything to filling out the bank info to deduct from and/or pay into. That's it, 40 or 45 minutes. It could hardly be easier. But I was just dreading it! (And by the way, I am sure it took a similar amount of time last year, so this was nothing new, not surprising.)
I don't know what it is. I just don't wanna!
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Post by B.E. on Apr 14, 2024 23:46:51 GMT
Tax deadline day is quickly approaching, and I just finally completed and submitted mine. This is the latest I've ever done them. Usually I'd say I do them by early March. But for some reason, this year I just didn't want to do them. I had a feeling of dread about them--not that I'd owe some massive amount or anything, either. I figured it would be more or less the same as recent years, which tends to be that I get a few hundred back from federal taxes and owe a little for state taxes. (And sure enough, that's what it ended up.) No, it wasn't that, but just the whole process of it. How crazy am I? Well, it took me maybe 40, 45 minutes to get through the whole proces, from grabbing the paperwork to logging in (I've used H&R Block's online service for years now) to completing everything to filling out the bank info to deduct from and/or pay into. That's it, 40 or 45 minutes. It could hardly be easier. But I was just dreading it! (And by the way, I am sure it took a similar amount of time last year, so this was nothing new, not surprising.) I don't know what it is. I just don't wanna! I usually file my taxes right away, followed by a few family returns that I spread out over a month or two, then I wrap up with a friend's return that I've been doing for many years. I used to be a tax preparer (and I actually worked for H&R Block), but I'm glad to have moved on from that and cut back to the 5 returns I'm still doing. Thing is - I got a very late start this year and ended up spending my entire day today finishing up. I only got the information I needed for two of the returns over the passed few days! Not cool. But aside from blowing my day off in the middle of a very stressful stretch at work, I don't mind doing them. It's just enough to stay sharp/current, but I'm happy to not go back to doing it day in and day out. (Although, I could see going back to it when semi-retired. I worked with some people who only worked tax season.)
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Post by kds on Apr 15, 2024 1:45:04 GMT
It's funny. This is the first time I've ever filed my own taxes. For all of my adult life, my father did them. This year, he asked me if I was doing them. I replied "I can."
I put it off until last week. Despite the fact that I work in finance, I've always been intimidated by taxes. But, it was easier than I expected. And, added bonus, I came out ahead this year.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 15, 2024 11:34:39 GMT
It's funny. This is the first time I've ever filed my own taxes. For all of my adult life, my father did them. This year, he asked me if I was doing them. I replied "I can." I put it off until last week. Despite the fact that I work in finance, I've always been intimidated by taxes. But, it was easier than I expected. And, added bonus, I came out ahead this year. As somebody who straddled the eras of old-fashioned, on-paper taxes and online filing tools, I can say it has gotten way, way easier. I mean, the basics weren't really any different (except you had to physically write a few key numbers in a few key boxes as opposed to typing them or, more recently common, the software just importing them). But anything related to deductions or complications was much harder, because you'd have to read through instructions and/or just be familiar with those aspects of tax prep, possibly acquire additional forms to attach, photocopy all kinds of documentation, etc. Now the software asks you questions or tells you what to do, and it puts everything where it goes and does the math. At least for someone like me who doesn't have a lot of complications, it's a huge improvement.
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Post by kds on Apr 15, 2024 14:11:01 GMT
I had to chuckle when I filed my Federal and State. I wound up owing on the Federal side. The file was accepted almost instantly. I'm due a refund on the State side. That file took about four hours to be accepted.
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Post by kds on Apr 19, 2024 13:30:47 GMT
Some unholy monster scheduled a meeting for 1:30pm today. And, to top it off, it's one of those rare meetings in the Post COVID Era where we're actually meeting in person.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 19, 2024 13:36:07 GMT
Some unholy monster scheduled a meeting for 1:30pm today. And, to top it off, it's one of those rare meetings in the Post COVID Era where we're actually meeting in person. Yesterday I had a late afternoon meeting (3:00-4:30) and I was raging at that ... despite it being only Thursday. If it had been for today, I think I might've resigned my position! Thankfully today I'm mostly just following up on tasks that grew out of yesterday's late meeting--not a single meeting on the calendar. So hopefully I can ease into the weekend with a day of solitary work.
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