Few And Far Between

While I haven't been prolific lately, I do feel like things are better than they have been in a long time. Winter was difficult and seemingly never-ending. Now that I can go outside without a jacket, well I'm a lot happier. Here's hoping the allergy gods go easy on me this year.

Teaching my first yoga class at Lighthouse Yoga went well on Monday. Many thanks to everyone who came for their support, to Jed and Sarah for giving me the opportunity. I think it went well overall, with plenty of room for better teaching methods. If all goes well, I could be teaching a drop-in class next month. Yoga's been especially good to me these past few months, keeping me fit mentally, physically & spiritually.

My brother is finally moved in. We haven't really had that much time for complete hilarity to ensue, but we're hoping to be up to hijinx in no time. Going to miss Chris and Zara, but he assures me they're doing well.

In other news, I got my Free Annual Credit Report  from the three major credit reporting agencies. It's a pretty painless process, but you'll want to have access to account numbers for your credit cards, mortgages, auto loans, etc. for verification purposes. I didn't and had to call a couple of helpful customer service people to get it straightened out. No real blemishes on my record.

There's two schools of thought on getting your reports, since you get one from each of the three majors per calendar year. One is to get them all at once and compare. The other is to space them out every four months to keep tabs on your file & to prevent identity theft. I opted for all three since I haven't checked them since getting my mortgage a year and a half ago. I'll probably space the next batch out, assuming I'm organized enough to check back.

It's probably a bit too late for some of you, but anyone looking to file their federal tax return for free can go through Tax Freedom which is the free version of Turbo Tax. I've done my taxes online for the last few years, and have been happy with how simple, quick, and easy-to-use the whole process is.

Keeping with the free theme, here is a Free Online Wine Course from the Culinary Institute of America. I haven't taken it yet, so this is a sight-unseen recommendation.

More links:

Great Johnny Depp Interview in the Guardian - I love his take on smoking. He's cut down to three a day, "For a nicotine junkie, the essential cigs are three: the first-of-the-day cigarette smoked after lunch, then the after-dinner cigarette and then the one taken whenever you want - the luxury wild-card smoke."

A Scanner Darkly is more Richard Linklater rotoscope fun. [You all know I love Waking Life , right?] This time he takes on a Phillip K. Dick novel. So, by fun, I mean paranoia in a futuristic world where they are after you, or at least watching you. See the trailer here.

The Amazing Adventures of Lethem & Chabon - A fun comic exploration/critique of a couple of great modern authors.

Spidey Bible Stories

Harold Pinter is done writing plays

The Wurst Gallery  - Nice collaborative art projects

Dan sent me Gizoogle a while ago. Kind of like Snoop Dogg's Shizzolator. Wait, maybe exactly like.

And for Bronson, Ninja Jeopardy. Here's a link at ebaumsworld if you can't get the first to work.

Comments

[Bronson]

Excellent compendium of links, Ben. I wasted a good half hour. Thank you.

[jenn]

I totally gizzogled "Red Elephant" and here is what Ben would sound like if he was more ghetto-fied.

"The store itself is pretty small, so we were out of there witin fifteen minutes. Subscribe nigga, get yo issue. On our way out, we shizzay tha shizzay wit our baller n our conversizzles carried over ta some baller playa. In short, it was a community experience ratha tizzy just a crazy ass nigga experience. As I left, I thought ta myself, "I need ta shizzop hizzle mizzy often." Even though it's a bit more expensive T-H-to-tha-izzan say a warehizouse food store."

I especially love how the clerk is "our baller" and the other customer is "some baller playa".

On another note, thanks for finding all the cool stuff on the internet so I don't have to ...