Happy Tax Day!

WoW after getting home from work, but just couldn’t get into it. I played my racing game (rFactor) for a bit and decided that was enough for me for the night. Now I’m sitting here on this mac laptop with the soon-to-be-released Ubuntu Linux 9.04. I’ve been playing with it on this machine and on my desktop box here at home for about two weeks now. I only have a few small issues with this distribution on this machine, but they’re not enough to make me wipe it off… yet. (Although I did come close a while back.) The thing that’s annoying the crap out of me right now is the touchpad’s sensitivity means a lot of accidental clicks when I start typing long-winded blog posts and emails. But that’s easily resolved by disabling touchpad clicking. I have to say, I’m very happy with how it’s turned out so far. The fonts are pretty damned beautiful – better than under OSX, if you can believe that. (I’ve always thought that OSX’s fonts could be better than they are.) Everything except WPA2 works out of the box. I haven’t had to really muck with anything major yet. Even sound and the apple function keys work out of the box! I haven’t tried the built-in iSight camera yet, but I’m under the impression that it either works with some fiddling or doesn’t work at all… So today is April 15th. The day that most working-class citizens in the USA fear more than anything else. Today is the deadline that the US Government has set for us US citizens to file our income tax returns. I’m not worried – I filed my taxes electronically back on February first – the day after I got my last W2 form. I eFiled and got my Federal return in 5 days, and my state return after the California Legislature pulled their collective heads out of their collective asses and finalized our state budget (thereby releasing the funds for everybody expecting a refund!). This year, however, I’ve been working for the Intuit corporation as a contractor in group that handles the purchasing backend for eFiling TurboTax customers. It’s been interesting to see how much traffic and business has been going on as we get closer and closer to the midnight deadline. I guess I shouldn’t really be surprised, but the amount of traffic these guys handle is absolutely mind-blowing. I can’t disclose any numbers, but let’s just say it’s very, very impressive, and I’m glad to have been a part of it. Sadly, since eFiled returns are not accepted after midnight tonight and this is a seasonal job, the job ends with my shift this coming evening. I’m both happy and sad that this job is coming to an end. I’m happy because I’m going on vacation, and I’ve not had a day off for personal reasons (other than being sick – and that doesn’t count!) in the last five months. I’m sad because I’ve really enjoyed this gig, and I don’t have anything else lined up for the foreseeable future. I will definitely miss the pay check, to be sure. I have to say that I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to work for this company. The things they have going on are absolutely mind-blowing. To have been a part of it is pretty awesome. And the fact that this weekend-only gig that I wasn’t sure I wanted in the first place turned into a full-time job that I looked forward to going to every day was an added bonus. I just hope my next gig can be as awesome as this one has been. Anyway… That’s it from me for now. I’m going to watch a little bit of TiVo and head to bed. Thanks for visiting and Keep Coming Back!!!]]>