Vox Lucens

Many of you undoubtedly saw the LivingSocial phenomenon that was the offer of $20 on amazon.com for a mere $10. I am delighted to report that I have such nice Facebook friends that, after posting a personalized link on that venue, I managed to get my $20 gift card for free.

Such bliss, my friends, comes with a very distinct price. The price of decision.

A long time ago, I heard Ravi Zacharias state that, whenever he went into a bookstore, the first thing he had to do was find a restroom, because he would get so excited at the prospect of so many books that he would need to go rather urgently. At moments like these, I sympathize.

…And, I’m back.

In logic, my friends, a “dilemma” traditionally has only two horns. I believe that what I find myself in is a dilemmammammammamma.

So, what will it be? I ask your advice.

Classics?

Law?

The stuff on my “must-get-to-eventually” list?

Policy and work-related stuff?

History?

Pure unadulterated fun?

This could go on for a long time, but I’m now open to votes.

I just discovered that it has been a very long time since I reviewed my blogroll.  Quite a number of the folks that I used to link to either a) stopped posting, b) made their info private, or c) canned their blogs entirely.  Plus, I know some people I didn’t know before, and these  new folks are posting great stuff.

Thus, an overhaul.  The basic format is the same: those categorized under “Friends” are people that I know who maintain blogs which post some sort of delightful, informative, thought-provoking, or inspirational content.  Check ‘em out.

Plus, in the midst of the hundreds of sources and thousands of stories I skim every week, some truly stellar information sources have made their way to my list of “Favorite Blogs.”

And finally, since I was definitely getting the impression my previous Twitter widget was buggy, I’ve updated that one, too.

If there is anything else that needs to be updated, I’d be grateful if you would point it out in the comments.

Every year, long before I get used to writing the new year number when I scribble out the date, I begin to get that sinking, horrible feeling that I have to do my taxes.  At first, that feeling is a minor annoyance, but as time progresses it gets worse and worse and worse.

I’ve taken a variety of approaches to dealing with this pain.  I’ve hired accountants.  I’ve slogged through paperwork on my own.  I’ve contemplated moving to Andorra.  Long-time friends might remember the year that I actually threw an income tax party in an attempt to reduce the pain - misery, after all, loves company.

This year, I thought that I was going to end up doing them myself.  I’m not next door to my cheap Charleston accountant, and H&R Block is more expensive than I want to pay.  Online programs are expensive, too, and there’s always the fear of the unknown because I’ve never used one of them.  But then, then I found the answer - a tax program that is cheap, and just as important, does not make you pay until you are actually ready to file.  You can be sure that it is going to work for you first.  I don’t know why I didn’t find this sooner.

So I bit the bullet and tried it - and now, my friends, I am on the other side of the pain.  I am on the side of relief, the immense relief that comes from knowing that when April 15 rolls around I will have no worries, for I will not be standing in line or burning the midnight oil.

And finally, I would also note that this year, the relief is even deeper.  Normally, my relief is twinged with cynicism - that though I have done my duty, my duty to fund government extravagance is hardly a duty worth praising myself for.  This year, though, I can rest assured that my tax money has nothing to do with government extravagance, for government extravagance now revolves around spending money nobody has.

But my part is done for another nine months.

I just learned about the Pythagorean Comma.

And I re-learned just why it is I hate Wikipedia - so many links to explore and be fascinated by, so hard to stop learning cool stuff (and incredibly hard to shake the feeling that I just don’t know enough about, well, everything).  Basically, there is so much to love I just can’t help but hate it.

One of the things I am doing, in preparing to start a new job - a new career, to be sure - is cutting back on the news feeds I follow.  At Remember, a large part of my job has been following the news; now, not so much.

So I have been mercilessly hacking my subscriptions in Google Reader.

Four days of hacking, and I’m down to 164 subscriptions.

*sigh*

It’s time.  Time for a few changes.

The first is hosting.  I feel like I’m moving up in the world - but it’s really more that I’m taking advantage of the generous offers of people far more tech-savvy than myself.  You should certainly see an improvement in speed of page loading!

The second is a redirect.  There was little or nothing worth reading on the main portions of this page, so everything now redirects to this blog.  That’s temporary, though, and I’ll be updating you when we have some new and improved main page content!  For now, though, the blog is the place to be.

The third is a background color.  I didn’t like the tan.  So far I’m not convinced I like the grey, either.   Maybe the rest of it just needs fiddling.  Thoughts are welcome.  One way or another, I’ll make the blog conform to the main page - when I have a main page to conform to, but thoughts are still welcome.