Do you care enough?

You know, given the events of this week—just the most recent abominations in the run-up to the mid-terms—I feel we could all use something different. So, have the latest recruiting video for New Zealand cops:

I say “latest”, because those clever clogs are known for creativity in online recruiting; here’s the one from last year:

You’ll want to watch all the way through the credits, especially for the exchange on this year’s video.

Now—get out there and vote.

Fashion statement

Someone in the neighborhood has a somewhat original fashion sense. I’ve seen him around occasionally, and the question has crossed my mind as to whether he’s a narcissistic jerk or someone who just doesn’t like trousers. (This one is a tartan, but I've seen him in a gunmetal grey version, too.)

The answer could lie somewhere on that spectrum, but in the meantime, I’ll just give you this photo I took of him walking a dog.

Woof.

States' rights? Seriously?

You know, this state; this Confederate state…

I described my whole tax preparation michegoss a couple of weeks ago. But that wasn’t the last word.

Because I received a letter from Virginia informing me that—in an effort to cut back on “fraud”, they required further information from me before they’d consider issuing my refund. (If I’d owed them money, there wouldn’t have been any issue.)

Well, I went to their poxy site to “enter [my] information” that would enable them to reluctantly and begrudgingly issue my three-figure refund, but it wouldn’t accept the entries. After switching from Firefox to Chrome, here’s the response I got:

Okay, 60 bloody days was unacceptable, so I called the number on their letter. And—fair dues—I’d forgotten all about the issue of inputting the property taxes I’d paid changing my tax liability. Because, although I’d focused on the federal return, of course it also affected my state liability. Which meant the refund I saw on my pre-property tax liability wasn’t what was in Virginia’ system.

Well, Jamal cleared it up for me. I’m getting $200 more back from the state—yay!

But I still don’t grasp where Virginia gets off requiring extra “proof” when I’m due a refund. And they’re still pissing me off.

Hard times indeed

Over the weekend I got a notification from my pals at Facebook, announcing that I’d transgressed their “Community Standards”.

Well, I had no idea what they were on about, so I clicked on the link and it only got worse:

Nudity? Sexual activity? Facebook has standards?

Well, first of all, I had no idea what I could possibly have posted that amounted to high crimes and misdemeanors against standards of nudity and sexual activity. Bad language, sure, but...

But then I discovered that my transgression occurred on 24 August LAST YEAR, and Facebook was only just now—14 months later—getting around to telling me I’d been nicked.

And then when I realized what the post was that had triggered this wrist slapping, my gobsmackedness just increased by an order of magnitude.

So I clicked on “take another shot at this, you cretins”, which resulted in them allowing as to how there was neither nudity nor sexual activity in my post. (Here's the whole histoire.)

And they let it back up. A year and two months after they hid it from the delicate eyes of my friends.

So, if you’re interested: here’s what got Facebook’s knickers in a twist:

You may want to avert your eyes.

Gratitude Monday: seasonal change

Autumn has finally arrived in the District They Call Columbia. We don’t have the spectacular foliage colors, although my back yard is a six-inch-deep carpet of fallen leaves. Pumpkin spice has been washing over everything since at least the last week in August and CostCo is only now starting to shift out some of the Halloween stuff to make room for Christmas yard displays.

Even Neiman bleeding Marcus has had their little Christmas shop up since the first week in September.

Because some people just need to ease their credit cards into the season, I guess.

No—I know we’re well and truly into Fall because the temperature and humidity have finally dropped, and you need long sleeves or a jacket outside. This is the season I love, and it seems like it took forever to get here—last week was the first time we could actually feel like the heat and humidity finally gave up their grip on us.

So—despite some folks jumping the gun on the various holidays—today I’m grateful for the snap in the air and the excuse to make soup and light candles.