"The best way to predict your future is to create it."
- JD Rockefeller
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
HR Block: the bad and the good...
This was my dealings with HR Block:
(***See Note***): I left in this answer because of the complete randomness that he inserts it into the conversation.
I have obviously changed my security question.
I found this funny and posted a tweet about how ridiculous online "chat assistance" is on websites (had problems with multiple other sites). Here is my tweet:
Surprisingly, H&R Block had immediate response time (and on today of all days!!!). I am HIGHLY impressed with their care for customer service. Here is their tweet not 12 mins later:
I am extremely impressed. I was only slightly pissed at you for the chat session. You guys still rock!
Your transcript is shown below.
You have been connected to James W..
James W.: Hello and Welcome to the H&R Block support Chat site. I Am James and would like to extend a heart felt thank you for choosing H&R Block we are proud to have you as a client. Please allow me a moment to review the information you have given me here?
James W.: First I am going to need to verify some information? Is this the e-mail address as listed on the return? I am also going to need you to verify your
Full name:
Address:
Date of Birth:
Last four of the social security number on the return :
Phone number:
please?
Marc : Marc************
Marc : **************
Marc : **************
Marc : **************
James W.: Thank you.
James W.: Do you know your username please?
Marc : **************
Marc : I literally went through everything and it said i successfully reset my password
Marc : but then it wouldnt let me log in
Marc : and now Im locked out for the next 20 mins
Marc : maybe 10 now
James W.: The username is correct.
James W.: **************
James W.: Is this your security question please?
James W.: What was the name of your elementary school?
Marc : yes
Marc : desoto trail
James W.: Do you remember anything, that is correct.
James W.: desoto trail
Marc : ???
James W.: Is there anything else we are able to assist you with today?
Marc : um
Marc : you havent assisted me yet.
Marc : Marc : I literally went through everything and it said i successfully reset my password
Marc : but then it wouldnt let me log in
Marc : and now Im locked out for the next 20 mins
James W.: desoto trail (***See Note***)
Marc : let me sum it up
Marc : I would like to log in
Marc : please help
James W.: You will have to wait the 20 minutes I am not able to reset the password.
Marc : ok
Marc : i know
James W.: I do apologize for the inconvenienc
Marc : my problem was that i DID reset the password and it didnt let me log in
Marc : why didnt it work?
Marc : why will it work if i do ALL of that again, just the same way?
James W.: I do not know just remember that everything is case sensitive.
(***See Note***): I left in this answer because of the complete randomness that he inserts it into the conversation.
I have obviously changed my security question.
I found this funny and posted a tweet about how ridiculous online "chat assistance" is on websites (had problems with multiple other sites). Here is my tweet:
Why is it that every online chat "assistant" is a freaking moron @HRBLOCK you suck. Asked me if I needed anything ELSE when hadnt helped yet
Surprisingly, H&R Block had immediate response time (and on today of all days!!!). I am HIGHLY impressed with their care for customer service. Here is their tweet not 12 mins later:
@ithinkchaos Marc, I'm here to help! DM your contact info and let's get this taken care of! ^KG
I am extremely impressed. I was only slightly pissed at you for the chat session. You guys still rock!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts...
I am proud of my Greek heritage, but this is no proud day for Greece:
Hmmm...sound familiar? Maybe we should accept this gift of foreshadowing that Greece has provided and DO SOMETHING about it!
Here are some intersting statistics:
In less than 3 years the US's Deficit spending (as a percent GDP) as gone from 1.14% (in 2007) to a whopping 10.54% (projected 2010 total)!!! Even if you don't want a projection and use the actual record from 2009, it had risen to 9.91%...in 2 years!
Say what you will about W Bush (even I thought he did some questionable things), but at least he was some what fiscally responsible...for awhile I used to believe that a lot of what was happening to Obama's administration was inherited problems from Bush.
Obama and the very Liberal Democrats are in serious need of a paradigm shift. Their heads are in the clouds and they are just daydreaming if they think the economy can go on like this for much longer. We simply can not pay for everything that our socialist President wants for our country.
Wake up and smell the roses! Just because, "Yes We Can" doesn't mean we should.
We are by no means out of the woods either. Obama brags about the sharp increase of jobs in the first quarter 2010...how many were Federal Census jobs that are only temporary? The census is a large undertaking and has provided a lot of jobs at a critical time. But these jobs are not permanent and they are absolutely not indicative of an improving economy.
What is even worse is the fact that every recession for the past 30 plus years has been preceded by an increase in the price of energy. What happened right before the "great" recession we find ourselves in today? Oil reached a record high of nearly $150 per barrel in the middle of 2008! And it had never broken the $100 mark before that rise. Hmmm, highest energy costs ever followed by the worst recession in 70 years? I only bring this up to strengthen my point that the dark times are far from over: Energy costs are on the rise again (back up to $85/barrel).
The economy barely survived this last recession (if it can even be called over) and even then it was by massive amounts of spending by the Federal government; money borrowed from tomorrow without plans of getting it back...
It's a pity we didn't invest in making the economy more efficient rather than pouring money into becoming socialistic.
How will we survive where we are currently headed? The answer is, quite simply, we won't. Something needs to be done now to change our direction and curb the actions of our out-of-control government.
And the answer is simple: austerity.
I wonder if Obama or the Liberals on the Hill even know what that word means...
"Greece has a budget deficit of almost 13 percent of gross domestic product. It has borrowed too much money for too long. Worse, rather than using that money to invest in improving the efficiency of its economy, it has blown it on lavish public spending and generous welfare benefits." - Matthew Lynn with Bloomberg News
Hmmm...sound familiar? Maybe we should accept this gift of foreshadowing that Greece has provided and DO SOMETHING about it!
Here are some intersting statistics:
In less than 3 years the US's Deficit spending (as a percent GDP) as gone from 1.14% (in 2007) to a whopping 10.54% (projected 2010 total)!!! Even if you don't want a projection and use the actual record from 2009, it had risen to 9.91%...in 2 years!
Say what you will about W Bush (even I thought he did some questionable things), but at least he was some what fiscally responsible...for awhile I used to believe that a lot of what was happening to Obama's administration was inherited problems from Bush.
Obama and the very Liberal Democrats are in serious need of a paradigm shift. Their heads are in the clouds and they are just daydreaming if they think the economy can go on like this for much longer. We simply can not pay for everything that our socialist President wants for our country.
"...rather than using that money to invest in improving the efficiency of its economy, it has blown it on lavish public spending and generous welfare benefits."
Wake up and smell the roses! Just because, "Yes We Can" doesn't mean we should.
We are by no means out of the woods either. Obama brags about the sharp increase of jobs in the first quarter 2010...how many were Federal Census jobs that are only temporary? The census is a large undertaking and has provided a lot of jobs at a critical time. But these jobs are not permanent and they are absolutely not indicative of an improving economy.
What is even worse is the fact that every recession for the past 30 plus years has been preceded by an increase in the price of energy. What happened right before the "great" recession we find ourselves in today? Oil reached a record high of nearly $150 per barrel in the middle of 2008! And it had never broken the $100 mark before that rise. Hmmm, highest energy costs ever followed by the worst recession in 70 years? I only bring this up to strengthen my point that the dark times are far from over: Energy costs are on the rise again (back up to $85/barrel).
The economy barely survived this last recession (if it can even be called over) and even then it was by massive amounts of spending by the Federal government; money borrowed from tomorrow without plans of getting it back...
"...rather than using that money to invest in improving the efficiency of its economy, it has blown it on lavish public spending and generous welfare benefits."
It's a pity we didn't invest in making the economy more efficient rather than pouring money into becoming socialistic.
How will we survive where we are currently headed? The answer is, quite simply, we won't. Something needs to be done now to change our direction and curb the actions of our out-of-control government.
And the answer is simple: austerity.
I wonder if Obama or the Liberals on the Hill even know what that word means...
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
An EPIC WIN if ever there was one....hahaha
I went to download Server 2008 from MS's site...using IE8:
DENIED!
Ok then....what about Firefox:
The definition of EPIC WIN!
Classic Microsoft...
That's all. It cracked me up pretty good, so I had to share.
DENIED!
Ok then....what about Firefox:
The definition of EPIC WIN!
Classic Microsoft...
That's all. It cracked me up pretty good, so I had to share.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Riders of the Storm...
I bought a motorcycle this weekend.
More out of necessity for transportation than anything else.
Shit is scary as hell. Hopefully I will not be riding for longer than is needed.
But still, it does have an appeal to it :-)
More out of necessity for transportation than anything else.
Shit is scary as hell. Hopefully I will not be riding for longer than is needed.
But still, it does have an appeal to it :-)
Sunday, April 11, 2010
deep...
"One looks everywhere
for something to lean on.
One is charmed by the hope
of having found it.
Turns out to be a dream
in which the harsh facts...
are scattered with the rude awakening."
From the movie "If Lucy Fell" and supposedly credited to an author named Marie Ann Du Daffand (but I can't find anything about her).
for something to lean on.
One is charmed by the hope
of having found it.
Turns out to be a dream
in which the harsh facts...
are scattered with the rude awakening."
From the movie "If Lucy Fell" and supposedly credited to an author named Marie Ann Du Daffand (but I can't find anything about her).
Friday, April 9, 2010
Truth:
"The fundamental problem with America's immigration system is that it forces Americans to justify to their government why they want to bring someone into the country, instead of requiring the government to justify to them why they can't. Uncle Sam is less gatekeeper, more social engineer. Instead of focusing on keeping out those who pose a genuine security or public health risk-- the only immigration policy consistent with ideals of limited government -- it is driven, among other things, by a need to manage labor market flows and the national demographic makeup."
-Shikha Dalmia
Yep.
-Shikha Dalmia
Yep.
Friday, April 2, 2010
hmmm....
I did not mean for this blog to be so political. I started it to write again and to get out my thoughts/feelings. It seems in such times as these, I am completely taken with the way our society is headed and how people can be so completely blind.
Ayn Rand has got to be spinning in her grave.
Actually, she would probably smugly say, "told you so" and then shed a tear for that which WAS the American ideology.
Ayn Rand has got to be spinning in her grave.
Actually, she would probably smugly say, "told you so" and then shed a tear for that which WAS the American ideology.
Education Reform: Florida Attacks Teacher Tenure (About time...)
My thoughts on the much needed and half passed Education reform in Florida: abolishing teacher tenure and substituting a merit pay system.
I read this comment on an article about said subject and it really got to me:
Quote:
"Teacher's cannot and do not create wealth and cannot be measured in such ways. This is why merit pay is a fallacy."
You could not be further from the truth my friend.
Teachers can and DO create "wealth" - in fact that's their job. When you create wealth you are essentially creating capital, and that capital is in turn invested to create more wealth. In this case, we are talking about HUMAN capital. Why do people go to college? To increase their wealth of knowledge or their human capital. That same question can be applied more broadly: why do people want/need education? To increase their human capital.
Monetary Profit does not (yet) enter this equation. As you said, and hopefully is the case, most teachers enter the profession to pass along knowledge more than to make a killing of a salary. Sadly, with tenure the career choice also attracts those who just want job security and don't care about teaching. Merit pay a fallacy? Hardly. With a merit pay system those teachers who were truly attracted to teaching will be rewarded for good teaching and those who didnt now have a great incentive to better their teaching. Personal profit now enters the equation. You could choose the career for the most benevolent of reasons but the fact remains that you would always prefer making more money to less.
Creating incentives for teachers to do a better job is the only way to save our great nation. 50 years ago, the USA was unparalleled in academic achievement. Now? We are mediocre. How does it make any sense that in Washington DC school district over 50% of middle/high school students were deemed as being behind grade levels, while less than 0.1% of teachers in DC were fired due to poor performance (from a Newsweek article).
Something needs to be done to save our children's education (and therefore our nation's future), and tenure is not helping it is hurting. Merit Pay systems fix this, plain and simple.
It was also mentioned that a merit system would be unfair for a teacher of a higher subject because the students they get are ill-prepared (Example given was Algebra 2 teacher getting students who barely know Algebra 1 and having to waste time catching them up)... Benchmarks solve this conundrum: test at the beginning of the year and at the end, if significant improvement then the teacher DID something, if NO improvement (which is currently the norm) then the teacher just held onto their job.
In short: this is MUCH NEEDED Education reform - it is NOT the end of teachers and schools, it is the end of bad teachers and bad schools.
The Nobel Laureate Economist Milton Friedman said, "In our current educational system, close to 30 percent of the youngsters who start high school never finish. They are condemned to low-income jobs. They are condemned to a situation in which they are going to be at the bottom. That leads in turn to a divisive society; it leads to a stratified society rather than one of general cooperation and general understanding. It is a disgrace that in a country like the United States, 30 percent of youngsters never graduate from high school. And I haven't even mentioned those who drop out in elementary school. It's a disgrace that there are so many people who can't read and write. It's hard for me to see how we can continue to maintain a decent and free society if a large subsection of that society is condemned to poverty and to handouts."
It is more than time we did something.
I read this comment on an article about said subject and it really got to me:
Quote:
"Teacher's cannot and do not create wealth and cannot be measured in such ways. This is why merit pay is a fallacy."
You could not be further from the truth my friend.
Teachers can and DO create "wealth" - in fact that's their job. When you create wealth you are essentially creating capital, and that capital is in turn invested to create more wealth. In this case, we are talking about HUMAN capital. Why do people go to college? To increase their wealth of knowledge or their human capital. That same question can be applied more broadly: why do people want/need education? To increase their human capital.
Monetary Profit does not (yet) enter this equation. As you said, and hopefully is the case, most teachers enter the profession to pass along knowledge more than to make a killing of a salary. Sadly, with tenure the career choice also attracts those who just want job security and don't care about teaching. Merit pay a fallacy? Hardly. With a merit pay system those teachers who were truly attracted to teaching will be rewarded for good teaching and those who didnt now have a great incentive to better their teaching. Personal profit now enters the equation. You could choose the career for the most benevolent of reasons but the fact remains that you would always prefer making more money to less.
Creating incentives for teachers to do a better job is the only way to save our great nation. 50 years ago, the USA was unparalleled in academic achievement. Now? We are mediocre. How does it make any sense that in Washington DC school district over 50% of middle/high school students were deemed as being behind grade levels, while less than 0.1% of teachers in DC were fired due to poor performance (from a Newsweek article).
Something needs to be done to save our children's education (and therefore our nation's future), and tenure is not helping it is hurting. Merit Pay systems fix this, plain and simple.
It was also mentioned that a merit system would be unfair for a teacher of a higher subject because the students they get are ill-prepared (Example given was Algebra 2 teacher getting students who barely know Algebra 1 and having to waste time catching them up)... Benchmarks solve this conundrum: test at the beginning of the year and at the end, if significant improvement then the teacher DID something, if NO improvement (which is currently the norm) then the teacher just held onto their job.
In short: this is MUCH NEEDED Education reform - it is NOT the end of teachers and schools, it is the end of bad teachers and bad schools.
The Nobel Laureate Economist Milton Friedman said, "In our current educational system, close to 30 percent of the youngsters who start high school never finish. They are condemned to low-income jobs. They are condemned to a situation in which they are going to be at the bottom. That leads in turn to a divisive society; it leads to a stratified society rather than one of general cooperation and general understanding. It is a disgrace that in a country like the United States, 30 percent of youngsters never graduate from high school. And I haven't even mentioned those who drop out in elementary school. It's a disgrace that there are so many people who can't read and write. It's hard for me to see how we can continue to maintain a decent and free society if a large subsection of that society is condemned to poverty and to handouts."
It is more than time we did something.
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