The Vines -- Ride

I posted about The Vines' lead singer and his struggle with AS. For those of you who have never seen or heard anything by The Vines, here's a link to their video, Ride. I think it's a really great video.

Tax Time x-posted to my other journals

A post I wrote this morning:

Right now, I'm doing my father-in-law's tax return while listening to my mp3s on shuffle. I'm beginning to need reading glasses, and right now I'm having to peer over them to type in data while I'm looking at the paperwork. I really need some new glasses. And as I do the return, I realize that I actually miss doing taxes. I miss having to analyze the data and ask questions in order to make sure I have all the data I need to get the best result. I even miss the completely clueless clients. I especially miss my friends Nancy and Maureen, who were the only two people in the district that I would ever trust enough to do my taxes.

Be careful if you have your taxes done by some of the tax preparation companies, the chains or the independent ones (especially the independent ones, who don't guarantee their returns), because many of their preparers have only been trained a few weeks on computer, and have never studied income tax law. I did, and I feel like my knowledge is being wasted here at home.

I miss interacting with adults. And, okay, I miss being in charge (I was an office manager my last two years), although I don't miss the in-fighting and the whiny questions because people are too lazy to do a little research. I was the one of the people that the other offices called when they were needing obscure tax information, or for computer problems (I worked in tech support for two years). One of the worst tax preparers I had was a former IRS employee, who allowed clients to intimidate her into filing tax returns with self-employment income as wages, and of course, the IRS audited the return. The clients were pissed, even after I warned them not to file the return that way because it would be audited. People can be so greedy.

Okay, enough stalling, getting back to that return.

Update: Finished the return about 10 AM CST this morning. Now, to get my own filed. That's gonna take some time.

The Vines

The Vines on MySpace

I have Google do a daily search of the web and news for anything with Asperger. Last week, I came across this article, The Vines Get Vision. The lead singer of The Vines, Craig Nichols, was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome in 2004, and the group delayed working on a new album until he learned to cope with it. For a while it seems, there was some doubt about the group's future. I wasn't familiar with them, but I had heard one of their songs, Ride, in a car commercial. I instantly liked that song, because I love power chord rock. I showed the video to my baby mouse, and told him about Craig Nichols, because baby mouse is interested in art and music, and I want to encourage him to explore them.

ETA: Photo