Feeling stuck? Unstuck is an app I’ve used and find quite useful. More information here:
Unstuck is an in-the-moment digital coach that’s ready every time we’re feeling stuck. The app helps us see and solve situations with fresh perspective through provocative questions, targeted tips, and action-oriented tools. It’s an approach that works for all kinds of issues, large and small, so we can live better every day.Watch this video on the purpose behind Unstuck
Posted in Customer Service, For Fun, Information, Timesaver
If it feels like Daylight Savings Time (DST) was creeping up on you again this year, you’re right. Daylight Saving Time has been making an appearance earlier in the year over the past decade – but it’s a trend that we’ve been seeing for the last fifty years.
Prior to 1966, laws setting dates for Daylight Saving Time were somewhat fluid. The United States adopted an official DST during World War I but the unpopular law was removed soon afterwards. It continued to be observed sporadically in some states until World War II, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt again signed temporary DST into law. As before, the unpopular law didn’t continue after the war.
That all changed in 1966, when President Lyndon Johnson signed a bill into law calling for Daylight Saving Time to begin on the last Sunday of April and end on the last Sunday of October each year. The dates were tweaked again, twenty years later, under Ronald Reagan who amended DST to begin at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of April and end at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday of October. Just about twenty years later (notice a trend?), President Bush signed into law a new energy policy…
read more via Daylight Saving Time Extension Was Part Of Energy, Tax Package: Was It Worth It? – Forbes.
Posted in For Fun, Information
Recently an Ohio judge turned down Donald E. Miller Jr.’s request to be declared alive. Miller, according to the state of Ohio, is legally dead.
Miller was declared dead nearly 20 years ago after he disappeared. His ex-wife, Robin Miller, asked a judge for the declaration after Miller went missing so that her daughters could receive Social Security benefits. Miller, who owed tens of thousands of dollars in child support, and an admitted alcoholic, told the judge this week that he wasn’t dead – he had merely drifted for a number of years.
What brought Miller, er, back from the dead? He wants a driver’s license and needs a valid Social Security number.
If the whole situation feels macabre, it is. It’s also not as unusual as you’d think to be declared dead: nearly 40 people per day are “accidentally” deemed dead by the feds each year. A federal database, nicknamed the “Death Master File” is filled with tens of thousands of Americans reported as dead – much to their surprise. The Death Master File was created in 1980 by the United States Social Security Administration and is better known as the Social Security Death Index (SSDI). The file has a disturbing amount of personally identifying information – including name, dates of birth and death and Social Security Number. And it’s all public information.
Judge Orders Man To Stay Dead Despite His Insistence He’s Alive: Could You Be Next? – Forbes.
One more thing…if you’re wondering if the IRS thinks you are no longer among the living, check out this website: http://ssdmf.info/ I found both of my grandparents, so yeah, it works. I, fortunately, am not ready for the Walking Dead quite yet. –Debra
For years, I have seen people use brainstorming as a way to generate ideas and solve challenges.
For years, I have found traditional brainstorming sessions to be of very little value.
It seems I am not alone…
In this RSA video (below), journalist and author, Jonah Lehrer, argues that traditional brainstorming just doesn’t work. It produces fewer original ideas than people achieve when working by themselves.
He recommends an alternative approach, which I hope you find useful.
(Click the link below to see the video…very fascinating and useful! –Deb)
read more via Video: Does brainstorming really work? | Marketing Blog.
Posted in For Fun
Generally speaking, I recommend individuals and businesses correctly calculate their income tax liability and pay it on time.
That said, there are those who think otherwise. Fascinating article on property for sale where a couple once lived–a couple who decided not to pay.
–Debra
For Sale: 110 acre hilltop compound in bucolic Plainfield, New Hampshire, approximately 1-1/2 hours from Concord, to be auctioned off by the federal government. Eight inch walls. Generator and capacity to function without outside utilities. Minimum bid: $250,000. Potential bomb risk.
Yes, bomb risk.
While federal officials hope to unload the property, former home of Ed and Elaine Brown, in order to settle a number of debts, they’ve had to be clear that they can’t guarantee that explosives and other booby traps aren’t hidden on the property.
Even more interesting? Your bid doesn’t guarantee you access to the property: you won’t be able to check it out until you’ve been deemed the winning bidder and agreed that you absolve the government from any bad stuff that could happen after you enter the property.
You know, like losing a limb or dying.
Despite having bomb detection devices and dogs on the property, authorities can’t guarantee that the property is clear from bombs and other booby-traps.
Read the rest via Here Comes The Boom: Potential For Bombs, Booby Traps On Tax Protestor Land Up For Sale – Forbes.
Posted in For Fun
Every time you encounter another person, think: help this person. It’s not altruistic. Nothing else can so quickly supercharge your career and improve the quality of your life.
When you walk into Starbucks for a coffee, think help this person about the barista who serves you. Instead of being frustrated that he isn’t moving fast enough, see if you can make him smile. Better yet, tell him to keep the change.
When the phone rings on a busy day, don’t get frustrated by the interruption. Think help this person while you answer the phone. Doing so will change your demeanor, your thought process, and the entire interaction.
If you have a subordinate who isn’t pulling her weight, instead of criticizing her, every time you see her think help this person. This doesn’t mean let her slide, or ignore her shortcomings. It means help her either improve her skills or find a position better suited to her strengths. But don’t just brush her aside; really help her.
But wait a minute – I know what some of you are thinking. What about the people who take credit for other people’s work? What about the rich and powerful who have gotten that way by crushing others? Doesn’t their success prove me wrong?
Not at all. Sure, there are some people who take the exact opposite strategy. But it takes real skill and focus to succeed by being evil, and most of us just don’t have the fortitude to pull it off. For those of us with a soul and a heart, the only real choice is to succeed by helping others.
By first thinking help this person, you will change the ways that others perceive you. There is no faster or more effective way to change your interactions and relationships. You will be viewed as a positive, constructive, helpful and dependable person. People will think you are more perceptive, attentive and understanding.
That’s why this way of thinking is not altruistic; it is selfish, in the best sense of the word. The single best way to help yourself is to always be looking for ways to help other people. Sure, you’ll be making the world a better place, and in the course of your life you will help many thousands of people. But don’t do it because you ought to, or because it’s the “right” thing to do.
Think help this person because you’re selfish, and proud of it.
Thanks for reading this.
Dan was a single guy living at home with his father and working in the family business. When he found out he was going to inherit a fortune when his sickly father died, he decided he needed a wife with which to share his fortune.
One evening at an investment meeting he spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
Her natural beauty took his breath away.
‘I may look like just an ordinary man,’ he said to her, but in just a few years, my father will die, and I’ll inherit $65 million.’
Impressed, the woman obtained his business card and three days later, she became his stepmother.
Women are so much better at financial planning than men.
Posted in For Fun
No matter where you are in life, every so often you need to stop and ask yourself the philosophical question this article poses: What if the Hokey Pokey is what it’s all about?
Think about it. Seriously.
What if, when we get up to those pearly gates, they don’t ask us how many awards we received or stuff we accumulated or software programs we finally mastered? What if we are asked how much singing and dancing we did with our friends and loved ones?
The Hokey Pokey is a great metaphor for focusing on the goals that matter.
Not the stress and structure goals of youth, but the self-delighting goals that come when the hard stuff is done and a new world stretches before you. Here are a couple tips on how to use the wisdom of the Hokey Pokey.
Posted in For Fun
Moore Bookkeeping 