Goodbye Mac SE

The family has decided to do some house cleaning. Finally we started last night. We attached the closet in the guest bedroom. Threw out most of the stuff in there we do not use. I did my share by pitching an old Macintosh computer. Little Kat protested, thinking the thing was worth some money. I doubt it. He said he could keep it in his closet. Unfortunately Little Kat has his own old Mac which he never uses.

The Mac I disposed of was the Macintosh SE. It was made int he 1980s. I used one of them at my first job. About 10 or 15 years ago, I found out a guy was selling one. So me and my buddy went down to check it out. He had all the accessories for it. He also packed it in a custom carrying case. I shelled out about $100 for it. The carrying case itself cost more than that.

The Mac SE was an all-in-one computer. The monitor was built in. But it was a small 9 inch black and white monitor. I don't think this computer could go on the Internet. I liked it because there were some computer games I played in college that would only run on old Macs like this. I have not booted the machine up in over 5 years. It was time for it to go.

Laundry Surprise

I did a load of laundry in the morning. One of the perks from working from home. In the afternoon I pushed to get another load done. I noticed the wash basin the washer empties into had some gunk on the bottom. So I poured some bleach into it. I figured the washer water would wash the bleach down the drain soon enough.

I went upstairs to do some more work. Then I smelled the bleach. I knew there would be some smell. But it was too strong. Something must have been wrong. I went downstairs and found the wash basin full of water. If the water got too high, I was going to shut off the washer. Eventually the thing drained very slowly.

When the water was finally gone, I looked down the drain. There was some stuff obstructing the water flow. I got the long screwdriver. Started scraping out some stuff from the drain. 25 to 50 percent of the drain was totally obstructed. Finally I pulled out a penny. The thing got stuck down there. Whew. Got to keep an eye on that drain. The thing runs fine, for now.

Dancing with the IRS

I flowed a small amount of cash from my business to my brother this past year. He buys me lunch almost every weekend. I feel like I should give back a little bit. However my bro wanted to know how to report the income on his tax return. I didn't know how to do it. But I took the action to figure it out.

In cases like this, you just got to defer to the Internal Revenue Service. I googled their web site and made a call. I was on hold for a while. Then the person told me I had called the phone line for businesses, not individual taxes. I got the the phone number for individual taxpayers.

I had a long wait. When I talked to the next IRS employee, she was only able to transfer me to another department. I waited for a super long time. Finally I got someone on the line. She told me I had to talk with the small business department. I perservered, and waited for another long time.

Finally I got someone to answer my question. The income is taxable. Must be reported on Line 21 of the Form 1040. This is the "other income" line. My bro must put the amount on that line, and describe the income type.

Voyage Home

Today was the day to travel home from our anime convention. I made sure we got up on time to check out. The parking garage was weird in that they required us to use our hotel room key to exit. Guess we keep the keys. We did not eat before leaving. So we stopped by the Olive Garden for brunch. Soup and salad was the meal for most of us.

I wanted Kit Kat to drive us home. Her excuse was that she did not have her contacts. Fail. As we pulled into our house, I thought it was strange that one of our newspapers was missing. Turns out our neighbor brought it up to our side door. I told him we were going out of town. Guess he didn't want anyone getting the idea that we were gone.

We also had a scare when we entered the house. One cage of gerbils got into a nasty fight. Little Kat thought one of the gerbils had died. However she was just hiding well because the other two were engaged in Mortal Combat. We have since separated the two broken gerbils. We can't keep living like this. We already had to separate our gang of 5 gerbils from school. Next year's anime convention trip might be cancelled due to gerbil watching duty.

Anime Convention

Today is our last day at the anime convention. Officially we are still here tomorrow. But it is a travel day. We all had different schedules. Most of the time I was by myself. Momoko and Kit Kat stayed together for most of the day. I met them at the voice actors' panel.

Kit Kat was the only one who was dressed up in costume. She was the wolf girl from Spice and Wolf. Speaking of Kit Kat, she was scheduled to attend a session at 2:00am this morning. She went but the thing got cancelled.

Everyone except me went to get autographs from their favorite voice actors. I went to a seminar on how to produce web comics on the cheap. Little Kat was left in the hotel room by himself during the afternoon. Turns out he finished up the soft drinks and meat for sandwiches we brought. Therefore Momoko had to order some Dominos (room service is too expensive). The delivery lackeys made Kit Kat come down to the lobby to get the pizza.

The highlight of the show for me was a panel on how to create an imaginary world to write about. Turns out the family saw these guys at a later session. Momoko bought one of their graphic novels and got it signed by them.

College News

This week Kit Kat got a letter in the mail from her top choice for college. I did not think much about it. The thing came in an orange envelope. It was the size and shape of a birthday card. Figured it was some propaganda or other nonsense. Nope. It was her acceptance letter. I was taken aback. Normally these things come in a standard #10 white envelope.

Kit Kat was very excited. The "card" she received played a song when you opened it up. The message was clear. It was welcoming her to the college. Now we still need to wait to see whether Kit Kat will get any scholarship or financial aid to help pay for college. She needs a bunch as she will need to live and eat on campus if she goes to her top choice.

These are still very exciting times. I myself am savoring what might be the last few months before Kit Kat goes far away to college.

Caught Speeding

Momoko got a speeding ticket in the mail today. It was a photo enforcement for Kit Kat's car. However Kit Kat was not driving the car on the street that the ticket says she was. I advised Momoko to contest the ticket. That means she probably has to go to court.

Momoko and Kit Kat started talking about their elaborate plans to prove they were not at the scene of the crime. I advised them that their proofs did not address the complaint on the ticket. The ticket just states that Kit Kat's car was speeding on a certain street on a certain date. There is nothing claiming that Kit Kat was the one driving the car.

Instead I recommend that Momoko gather up evidence that shows her plate goes with our little red car. That could be a picture, plus the registration from the state, as well as an insurance card. Then Momoko can show the judge this evidence, contrasted with the picture of some random Jeep Cherokee, whose picture is on the ticket. That discrepancy alone should get the ticket revoked.