Below are the 7 most recent journal entries recorded in Sara's LiveJournal:

Thursday, May 14th, 2009
7:36 pm	Finished reading the Girl Genius online comic. It was good. Oh great LJ-verse, any recommendations for twisted / humorous / steam punk / magic stories a'la Girl Genius? (pictures optional) (Comment on this)
Sunday, February 1st, 2009
12:50 pm	Good source for tax information? Does anyone have a good source for tax return information? I've relied upon Turbo Tax for the past ~5 years, but this year they raised their rates and added a'la carte fees, bringing the cost to over $100. H&R Block's TaxCut does have a lower initial cost, but with the add-ons and slightly lower quality, comes out the same in the end. So, this year, I'm planning on doing my taxes on my own. Anyone know of a good place (website or book) to start learning? BTW: By my calculations Intuit brought in $450M from TurboTax last year, with 10% of US households using their product. Even if it cost them $100M to create, maintain and insure TurboTax (which would be obscene operating costs for a software application), they'd have a 78% gross margin. Google and Microsoft, two of the most profitable companies, have ~65% gross margins. The price increases would bring the gross margin up to 83%. This is exploitative. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 25th, 2009
3:43 pm	Book review just finished Chalice by Robin McKinley. I've been a fan of her work since middle school, with her dream-like and yet enveloping prose and story tale settings. The Hero and The Crown has been a favorite for years, and I was looking forward to her latest work. However, I was greatly disappointed with Chalice. Somewhere in the middle of it I realized that all of her books revolve around a lonely young adult woman with a strong work ethic who discovers that she has some magical ability and must save the land from a vague, but powerful threat. Also, there is always a powerful man that she supports and learns to respect. In the final chapter, it is confirmed that they will marry. All of this is done with the barest minimum of dialog and interaction between characters. In Chalice all of this held true and it was as if she thought only about the world and never about the people. The climatic "battle" scene happened in a blink of an eye and was resolved deus ex machina, so they end basically stunk. I love Robin McKinley's fairy tale worlds as a kid. Has she changed or have I? (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, December 19th, 2008
7:35 pm	wet A blizzard in NYC is a lot slushier and a lot less pretty than I would have imagined. (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 4th, 2008
7:24 pm	Worried Gizmo has flecks of dried blood in the fur around her neck. At least I think it's blood. I only saw it after pulling her out of the corner of the closet. Widget (the kitten) and Gizmo (the 6 year old cat) frequently become a tumbling ball of fighting fury. It's how cats play. Widget, at 5 months old and 4.5 lbs has definitely become the dominant, alpha cat, and now I'm worried that W. is being way too aggressive. Has anyone experienced serious fights between cats before? If so, how did you handle it? Separation and supervised play time seem like a good idea, but it will defeat the purpose of getting a second cat. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008
11:12 am	It helps when I make the goals public Financial goals for 2009: 1) Save 3 months of base living expenses (rent, utilities, food, etc. not student loans) 2) Eliminate all credit card debt 3) Max out retirement savings accounts (especially ones that can be leverage to buy a first home) Right now, savings seems just a bit more important than debt reduction. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 20th, 2008
12:49 pm	I'm working from home today to finish a project, but having a very hard concentrating, in part because I feel like I have the whole day to work on it and I'm procrastinating. Right now small things, like my EpiPen are fascinating. After ending up in the hospital in October for a severe allergic reaction to escargot, I have to have one handy at all times. I'm also severely allergic to blue agave. Avoiding snails and tequila isn't hard, but it is odd to think that those things, which others enjoy so easily, can kill me. "Here lies Sara. She was bested by a snail." (Comment on this)