Tax Season and Technical Work: Close Enough to Hell

Tax season ohhhh tax season, where art thou sleeping? Ohh, in the bowels of hell, nestled with Satan? How lovely.

We are already getting off to a great start. The major software update Jackson Hewitt dropped on us last week is totally eating shit at the moment, less than 24 hours from going live for Money Now Prefile. YAY! So that means, its all coming back on me. I have had computer issues coming out of my ass for the past couple of days. I didnt even get off work last night until 12:15am! The company I work for owns the 4th busiest store in the United States and the customers are calling in masses and showing up, already looking for their money. My boss is dropping the bomb on me, not in a bad sense, maybe more of a desperate looking in all fucking directions for a answer. Im trying my damnedest to help them out, after all they pay for my salary and if we lose a ton of cash on this, well, so much for the raise right?

I have been now sitting on hold with tech support for 20 minutes. Hell Im on hold right now while Im typing this and I dont think its going to get any better soon considering when I tried to call 40 minutes ago, the line was busy with callers maxing it out. ***HOLD ON, BOSS CALLING*** Ahh and the general consensus is...JHnet is taking a gigantic shit! Im all for newer technologies and updates, hell thats what I work in, but these guys are taking the WRONG approach for the way our software works. They have all tax return and customer retrieval happening through an SQL backend over an HTTPS connection to a website. Throw in some sql, php, and soap, and you have an environment teeming with unreliable variables. There HAS to be a better way. Right now, its looking like that HTTPS SQL server has given up the ghost, so now return retrieval is next to impossible. Not only retrieval, but filing as well, which is the core of the business right? Right!

I had a few beers last night with Rami to try and calm my nerves and celebrate the upcoming season and devotion to hell..err I mean tax season. Rami was mentioning something totally on his own, about how when he was "kidnapped" and taken back to Syria by his parents, he was super super stressed for a while. In fact he was soo stressed, he started getting itchy, bad. Almost like opiates itchy. His doctor there told him it was due to high stress and he needed to relax. Needless to say the itchyness went away, but started to return just yesterday. he has been really stressed out with his work as he has been recently promoted to store manager of a Starbucks. Now you may be wondering what the hell this has to do with anything I have been talking about, but hold on, Im getting there! Actually, Im there....yea so I have been getting extreamly itchy for a while now and I couldnt figure out why. In fact last night, as I had just gotten off, at 12:15am, I was VERY itchy. In fact, Im itchy right now as Im typing this crap.

Ok, so I just got off the phone with JH tech support, it is in fact THEIR server! damn I knew it! They are saying its being really slow, and I can just try again later. Wanna know what I think? How about you upgrade? Get some nice servers together, no fucking around on this one. Bleh....

So in other news, I signed up for classes for this semester. Looks like I will be taking Trig and Spanish 1. Yes I can already speak spanish, but Im looking for more vocab and some more hardcore studying. Thats my plan for college this semester. I have been thinking for a while about grabbing all my certifications for computers I can get. NET+, MCSA, MCSE, and maybe even a CCNA. With those, Ill quit college for good, and just run on my certs and see where I end up. Im also taking a class in the fall for my Insurance All-Lines Adjusting licence. I want to start working disasters and hopefully I can do this for a while so I can just work 4 months out of the year and travel the rest. I have some close family friends doing this and they are making quite a bit of cash. This is all boiling down to the "Great Escape" plans that are in motion. In the next upcoming 2-6 years, this blog will be littered with "surfing in Indo","Surfed 6 west african countries", "surfed brazil, paraguay, argentina, all of central america", "explored all of SE asia, india, and asia minor.", Rode/Drove a vehicle from texas to south america in 7 months, with surfboards, surfing ever piece of land", and the best yet "bought a sailboat after learning to sail, and sailed all over mexico/central america". I also have some big plans for winter gulf suring in the gulf side of Mexico. There are hundreds of secret spots, tons of places no one surfs. Damn...Im obsessed!

Here We Go Again!

Well tax season is starting up, and my body is feeling it. Im seriously lacking sleep, and Im starting to have some difficulty remembering the date and other wonderful things. I dont actually feel days passing, I merely count them until my "completion" deadline for my boss and 2 other franchise owners I'm doing contract work for. In the end, it will all pay off!

So as Im working all these crazy hours, charging like crazy for the side contracts (a small 30.00/hour, wait till I get my certs!), I stumbled upon 6 very valuable items I will be letting go on Ebay very soon. I have in my posession, 4 unopened EZ payclock PC100s, retailing on ebay and the net for around 425 - 500 each. I also have 2 Cisco IAD2400s, retailing around 800 - 1700 each on the net and ebay. Im hoping to sell low and sell fast as its all profit to me. Im hoping to walk away with at least 1500 dollars which will be thrown into my transmission in the car and various other 'upcomping surf trip' related items. No, before you ask, there will be no new board purchases unless I stumble upon something remarkable.

I have decided that I need to start posting again more. I miss posting but sometimes I feel like no one will want to or will bother to read my boring shit. I dont always have surf to talk about, especially my non rubber having, cold water fearing, blue lipped after 10 minute, self here in this Texas winter. The water has warmed to around 60 - 62, but she wont be there for long. O well, spring is just around the corner. After all, they dont call em a spring suit for nothing right?

The Life of the Rich

I cannot take it anymore! Something needs to be said about this, and dammit, I will take the heat and step up to the plate.

Im referring to the recent "headline" story about the 3 climbers lost on Mt. Hood. Its amazing to me that they just keep on searching through endless amounts of snow and rain and horrible conditions when clearly, its doubtful that anyone could have survived. How many precious tax dollars have been wasted? How many times do we have to see their wives on TV, telling us "You would love them if you met them...."etc? This has got to end. If I was stuck on that mountain, I seriously doubt they would give me anymore than a couple of days max before they called it off. Im sorry, my prayers to your family, but stop wasting our time.

On another note, this same thing applies 10 fold for that Natali Halloway. Man ohh man. That is a never ending drama story about her rich Alabama parents, buddy buddy with some Washington high ups including the Gov. of Alabama. THE GIRL IS DEAD! Man I hate to take such a stance against this issues, but the average Americans need to stop caring about these issues. Its amazing me to how we empower the rich so much in this country. We elect them, praise them, follow them, mourn with them, put them above the law. Time for a change.

Board Porn

Ok, well, Gracefully was requesting some board porn. If you refrence my "Pissed Off!" post, circa August 8th, 2006, You will find that my digital camera was "liberated" from me, and not at my say so.
However, I was able to dig up the pic that made me consider buying it in the first place, so I will post that one.

On a side note, WHY IS IT SOOOOOO COLD IN TEXAS RIGHT NOW????????? No, I dont care that much about the air, but this 56F water has gotta SCRAM! I wont even paddle out in a low 60 so there is no surf in the near future for me if this crap keeps it up.

The New Board!

So I drove to Corpus and bought it! Its a beautiful Spider, and is very small. I took it out in very less than ideal conditions last week and I had a blast. I cannot wait to get this board into bigger waves with more push. The surfing was ok, just a little hard for a board of this size with the waves coming in around thigh to waist.

In case you dont watch the weather, it has been cold as shit here. No more surfing for me for a while. I have been wanting to tough it up, but... I might just sit it out for a while. It wouldnt be all that bad, but the air is horrible and surfing in 62-58 degree water with 40 degree air SUCKS! Plus I absolutely hate wearing wetsuits. When I went out last week I had to wear one, but the water was still pretty warm, so I was totally comfortable. I got tired of feeling so restricted, so I paddled in and put on a spring suit.

Not much else is going on, just working a lot. I talked to Joe a lot the other night, and Im pretty damn convinced he's going to make it. That guy is a trooper, and Im glad to know that I have someone close to me that feels what I feel about the world/our situations. When I cut and run, dont be too suprised if you see him by my side. All else is clear on the front sir!