barely fatal

GamePolitics.com » Blog Archive » Pope Slams Sex and Violence in Games, Other Media, Calls Upon Parents to Monitor

The pope doesn’t like violent computer games, also. But he asks the parents to watch over their kids and doesn’t want to crucify me right away. Well, I’m not a Catholic anyway. Phew.

Good site there, by the way.

I hate doing my taxes. Last year I was so frustrated, I just didn’t. I don’t have to, and I have all year to do so if I want – but why endow the government, even when it’s only a few bucks?

The standard stuff is easy enough to do; I have a special annuity insurance that is causing all the trouble. Not even the guy who sold it to me can tell me how to declare it properly. And to hire a tax consultant isn’t worth it, I don’t get out enough to cover the costs.

On top of that they set the maximum exemption order for capital gains to half of what it was last year. That means I have to re-evaluate my deposits and savings and fill out a bunch of forms. Of course you can’t send them by email, everything needs to be snail-mailed. Did I mention that I don’t have a functional printer at home?

After all that, I still have to copy a small mountain of paperwork and finally, some lovely day, send it to the taxing authority, of course also by snail mail. Then wait months only to find out I got a 20€ tax return. Gotta love bureaucracy and the all-new, simplified tax processes.

In one of my usual Saturday shopping outings i had to make my way into a local shopping mall to get some presents for my sisters’ birthday.

I’ve yet to go into a shopping mall were there isn’t at least one of those little stands in the middle of the mall (or some times at the entrance and exit points) with at least 2 people going around trying to sell something. And this time was no different.

As i walk into the mall the little stand catches my eye, its from Barclays Bank, so what there selling is pretty obvious.

I walk at a leisurely pace into the mall as i browse the shop windows and wouldn’t you know it one of the fellows comes up to me and asks ” Excuse me sir. Are you working at the moment?” to which i replied “nope… I’m shopping at the moment!” and carried on with my window browsing leaving the fellow with a fairly confused look on his face for about 10 seconds.

True Story!

The title of this post might be misleading, but lets see what it brings. The movie Jarhead, I saw it the day before yesterday and I find it worth mentioning. It depicts the first Gulf war in 1991, more precisely the agony of a 20-year-old Marine and his squad. They are snipers, and when they get into Iraq they assume they could finally take a shot at somebody, something - only to find frustation in the desert besides a lot of sand.

The film aims to show the stupidness of it all, the boredom, the psychic stress, the cracking up of troops which were trained to do a job but never get a chance to do it. It does not disappoint in that . Acting’s all fine, cinematography nice and all, it’s realistic. But in the movie they go nowhere (except the desert for that much), do nothing and don’t have any real action. So when it’s over you’re little frustated, too. I mean, it’s not boring per se – but it feels empty. Huh, although that might just be the intention of the filmmakers.

Now about The Suck, errr the stick. I bought a protection film for my XDA, to protect the touchscreen. It sticks, but it was very, very difficult to get it fit right without getting dust beneath it. Then I had to rub the little bubbles of air ‘away’, that wasn’t easy either. It still doesn’t fit perfectly, but it’ll be okay for a while and I have some spare. My advice though: if you’re not a very patient being, don’t, especially when you’re a perfectionist.