08:46 – I’ll mail the tax returns today. At least I didn’t have to write a big check to the state. I did have to write a big check to the feds, to go along with the big checks I’ve been writing to them every quarter for estimated taxes. Grrrr.
I just got a UPS Ship Notification email to let me know that the 2,000 beakers I ordered the other day will arrive Tuesday. That’s a big relief, because I’ve been watching our stock of finished biology and chemistry kits dwindle, with no way to build more kits until the beakers arrive. The moment the beakers show up, I’ll get started on building two dozen more biology kits, followed by two or three dozen more chemistry kits. With what’s on hand, that should be enough to carry us for the next 30 days or so, by which time we’ll have bigger batches of kits ready to assemble.
Just wondering why if your regular supplier can’t get the beakers your backup can.
They’re both regular suppliers. Nearly all plastic labware is imported from China or India, shipped via freighter, so it can take 3 months or longer from the time one of my wholesalers orders something until it’s actually in stock at their warehouses.
Even though I’m not a huge volume customer, I frequently wipe out supplies of this or that at one or more of our wholesalers. One might, for example, have 489 of a particular lab thermometer in stock. Based on order history, they may figure that’s a five-month supply (for example), and have their reorder software set to trigger when stock drops to 300 units. Then I place an order for 500. They ship me the 489 they have, and then they’re backordered until they can get more in, probably three months later.
Okay, I thought Supplier A might buy from Supplier B just to keep their own customers happy and prevent them from switching. They might make a loss but they wouldn’t lose customers.
I suspect that nearly all wholesale customers like us buy from multiple wholesalers. In fact, we try very hard to make sure there’s at least a second and if possible a third source for all the items we buy.
Back when we were at a much lower volume, with the exception of single-source items I could usually get what I needed from any one of the four major wholesalers we buy from. When I was ordering fifty or a hundred of something at a time, I could use any of the vendors. But now that I’m ordering several hundred to several thousand at a time, that’s not always possible. I might want to have to split the order among two or more of our wholesalers to get what I need.
OK, I am finishing my tax return right now with some serious number checking. After all, I’ve gotta send these guys a check. So, how does the pres with over 3X more AGI than the wife and me, only pay 1% more tax rate?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324240804578418842282798284.html
Me thinks that he talks out of one side of his mouth and calculates his taxes out of the other side.
Working for your money gets taxed a lot more than having other people work for it. Dividends and long-term capital gains from investments are the most obvious kinds of income you want for lower taxes – at least for the moment. And so Warren Buffet pays a lower overall tax rate on his income than his secretary, a situation he has derided.
Let’s just come right out and say it; the richer and more powerful one is, the less one pays in taxes or has to contribute of anything to the country one lives in and one’s fellow human beings, period. This has been true for at least several thousand years; the fact that we allegedly live in a modern democratic republic changes none of that. Barry Soetero and the Mooch pay jackshit as does Buffet and that’s just the way it is; while Lynn and Robert and Roy and me and everyone else here are subject to whatever our rulers feel like doing to us, either in a life or death situation or bleeding us fucking white in taxes and fees.
The other thing I’ve enjoyed seeing for many, many years now is the niggling amounts that the wealthiest among us give to charities or at the church, while the poorest somehow manage to scrounge up their widows’ mites all the time. I remember seeing senior law partner suits at church services desperately screwing a couple of quarters or a crumpled dollar bill from their deep pockets for the collection plate while some poor-ass trailer-park family threw in a ten or a twenty because they believed in the tithe for real. Or the Hispanic families who came with their kids on the shitty downtown bus routes to get to the services while the partners served on the vestry and managed the parish finances.
Shit, I may be turning communist here; somebody help me!
Oh, come on. The wealthy pay an overwhelmingly disproportionate share of income taxes. The bottom 50% pay essentially nothing. The top 1% pay almost 40% of the total, the top 5% almost 60% of the total, the top 10% more than 70% of the total, and the top 25% nearly 90% of the total.
Our income taxes are the most “progressive” in the world, in the sense that the wealthier you are, the higher share you pay. If we must have taxes, I’m still in favor of a flat tax. Not a flat rate. A flat amount. A per capita tax. Period.
Agreed on the head tax. Wanna live here? Pay your tax and make sure your fingerprint is on the receipt; you may be asked to show it if there’s any question about you paying your share.
Want more kids? More power to you! But you don’t get a tax deduction for each squalling maggot you crap out, you have to pay more. All except the most retarded residents are rational enough to exercise some self-control when they’re hit straight in the pocket like that. Will a head tax lead to more abortions? Assuredly, and I’m not happy about that. Will it lead to more children being abandoned? Maybe, and I’m really not happy about that. Nevertheless, on balance I think the head tax has fewer bad consequences than the alternatives.
Actually, I’d be much happier with no direct tax at all. Excise taxes and a few fees funded the US federal government for a century and a quarter (minus a few “crisis” years). I’d really like to see leviathan hacked back to that level.
“… the richer and more powerful one is…”
People like Soetero and Buffet and others, not the whole of the 1 percent or ten percent or whatever, who have somehow neglected the advice of their teams of tax lawyers and accountants to move their wealth offshore. Sure, most of the wealthy pay that heavier share of our progressive tax system, but too many are able to skate and laugh at the rest of us. I’m not asking to screw rich people by any means, but I’m also not asking to be screwed by THEM, either.
” Excise taxes and a few fees funded the US federal government for a century and a quarter (minus a few “crisis” years). I’d really like to see leviathan hacked back to that level.”
Yeah, before we became a world empire and a national security state.
“Nearly all plastic labware is imported from China or India, shipped via freighter,…”
I’m but a mile and a half crow miles off the coast. Walking my dogs each morning up on the mesa, I can see the freighters coming into the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports. I’ll post back when I see your beakers come in.
“Oh, come on. The wealthy pay an overwhelmingly disproportionate share of income taxes. The bottom 50% pay essentially nothing. The top 1% pay almost 40% of the total, the top 5% almost 60% of the total, the top 10% more than 70% of the total, and the tuy op 25% nearly 90% of the total.”
Roger that, and the 12 million illegal aliens pay no income taxes, state or federal. Living in rundown rental units, garages and worse, their rents devolve to minimal property taxes. 90% of the items for which you and I pay sales taxes, they buy used from each other in their daily lawn sales. Do you think that an illegal alien every drives a new car off the lot subject to sales tax? Buys a new LCD TV at Best Buy? A 10 speed bicycle off the floor at Dick’s Sporting Goods? New clothes at Bloomingdale’s? No way Jose!
Looks like the IRS efile servers are smoking today. I efiled my return at 4:44 pm and it was accepted by the IRS at 6:02 pm. Nice!
Now I am working on my daughters tax return. She earned $643 doing occasional work and is paying $79 in employment taxes.
Roger that, and the 12 million illegal aliens pay no income taxes, state or federal. Living in rundown rental units, garages and worse, their rents devolve to minimal property taxes.
They do not pay employment taxes either. But, they will some day get social security and medicare payments. That is the problem that I have with illegals, they do not have proper registration, they do not pay taxes but they will someday live off the system. And, if they have a job then they are using a stolen SS number and bollixing up someone else’s taxes. And, they consider it due them which hurts the most.
Anybody have much familiarity with various Kindle iterations? I was given a Kindle Fire this afternoon. While reading the Wikipedia article on it, I ran across the following:
In a review published by Project Gutenberg, the Kindle Fire was called a “huge step back in freedom from the Kindle 3”; the reviewer noted that Amazon introduced a “deliberate limitation” into the Fire that didn’t exist in the previous version: it is no longer possible to download free e-books from websites such as Project Gutenberg, Internet Archive and Google Books and have them stored permanently in the same places where books from Amazon are kept.
I despise all things Google and am unexcited that this devices uses a forked Android OS version. Considering that there are apparently other limitations, too, I’m wondering if I’d be better off replacing this with a new (or older) “Kindle-only” device. I’d appreciate any thoughts.
“She earned $643 doing occasional work and is paying $79 in employment taxes.”
Clearly something is wrong here. She needs to pay MUCH more. What kind of scam are you guys running down there? I am going to have to report this.
Re Kindles: I have both a Kindle 3 and a Kindle Fire. Both work just fine with books you manually copy over to them. Yes, on the KF, you put manually-transferred books in a different directory than the downloaded books go into, but I don’t see how that’s any kind of a problem.
Regarding Gutenberg and other sources of books, I either pull files down to my PC, convert them with Calibre, or create the .mobi myself. (I bought both devices, as well as an iPad, to make sure my own books look good on various readers.) Then I transfer over the wire to the device, usually just by treating it as any other file system. Do Kindle users have a more direct method for getting Gutenberg books onto their devices, and that’s what doesn’t work with the Fire?
My Kindle Fire bricked itself the other day. I replaced it with a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2.0 WiFi only tablet, and am much happier.
However, I had no issues transferring free books onto it, but they always ended up in Documents, not Books.
Looks like the IRS efile servers are smoking today. I efiled my return at 4:44 pm and it was accepted by the IRS at 6:02 pm. Nice!
Did mine several weeks ago. The approval took 30 minutes. Had a direct deposit in my account the Friday after I filed on Saturday.
Well, the phone transition has not gone well.
Bought the iPhone and a Straighttalk (ST) sim. The porting of the number went just fine. But I was only getting Edge network rather than 3G for data. The speeds sucked. I ordered an AT&T sim from ST but what I got was a T-Mobile sim. T-Mobile has 3G in the area but no amount of jostling has been able to get 3G to work. ST is clueless as is Apple. So ST sent me a new sim. Same problem.
Off to the Apple store to swap the phone. I wanted a newer model that supports CDMA and GSM. I explained to Apple my problem and that the phone they sold me did not function on 3G. Apple agreed to swap the phone at no charge. I did not have the charger or cable but Apple let me keep the new charge and cable.
The new phone came with a Verizon sim even though CDMA does not use a sim for the most part, the sim on the iPhone contains the IMEI which is the network identifier for the phone. I activated the phone by powering it on and going through the steps.
I then went to ST to activate the phone. ST said the IMEI was invalid. Not quite true as the IMEI is locked to Verizon. The phone was not supposed to be locked. Verizon will not unlock the phone unless I have service with them. That would require getting service for a month, then cancelling.
So I called Apple support and got a person that was trying to help, said they had Verizon on the phone, but then hung up on me. So I called back and was much more stern this time. Got a reasonable person that was intelligent and understood the problem. She had me reset the phone to a factory condition and leave it that way. She was contacting Apple engineering who have the capability to unlock the phone.
This unlocking process apparently involves updating some shared database. Each manufacturer when they build the phone (or sim) enter the serial number in a database along with a provider. That provider and that provider only can activate a particular IMEI (or sim serial). Unless that provider releases that sim to the rest of the providers the others cannot use that serial.
Apple, being a manufacturer has the capability to update the database. I have the support persons contact information so I should be able to work with her to resolve the issue. She said it would take about 24 hours for the process to occur.
After this is done I should be on ST but using the Verizon network and their towers. This will get me 4G LTE which is the fastest data speed.
Of course, if that does not work I will abandon ST entirely and just go prepaid on Verizon. It will cost $25 more a month but may be worth it to avoid the hassle.
It should not be this difficult. We can thank the congress and the lobbyists that have corrupted congress so that providers can keep their piece of the pie and hold the consumers hostage.
I am about ready to can the whole notion of getting a damn phone now; too much hassle and expense and bullshit. We all got along just dandy when I was a kid and all we had was landlines; hell, some of us used party lines well into the 80s. My current cell is basically dead now and I just keep it like a wrist watch used to be. Or I know if someone called it and leaves a vm, I can check that with any landline. Or use it to call 911 if need be. I do not intend ever to surf the web, play games on them, or watch movies with them so what do I need one for, really?
All it looks like now is yet another techno gimmick to screw us.
“If we must have taxes, I’m still in favor of a flat tax. Not a flat rate. A flat amount. A per capita tax. Period.”
Maggie Thatcher tried that. She eventually had to back down.
Do Kindle users have a more direct method for getting Gutenberg books onto their devices, and that’s what doesn’t work with the Fire?
Well, lots of Gutenberg books have been “Kindleized” and are available free from the Kindle store. The quality of the conversion is all over the map. The conversion of “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu is almost unreadable due to bad footnote conversion. The free Sherlock Holmes versions have crummy formatting in some cases, and it’s hard to get all of the stories. Fortunately, one of the traditional publishers has done a proper porting with all the stories and novels together and well indexed. It was free a few months ago, as a promotion as one of their authors wrote a novel about Watson (with the AC-D estate’s blessing) and he did the introduction. There are a few people that have done “upgraded” conversions of the Gutenberg books and usually charge 99 cents. I bought a really good Lovecraft collections after being dissatisfied with the free ones.
Did mine several weeks ago. The approval took 30 minutes. Had a direct deposit in my account the Friday after I filed on Saturday.
You are so lucky! I had to write a check for the wife and me. I also had to write a check for the daughter as she does not have a checking account. All of us efiled but we are sending in vouchers in Monday’s mail. USPS actually came early today.
BTW, the wife and I had to pay in since we got some of the down payment money for the new home out of her IRA. We withheld enough to pay the income tax but not enough to pay the 10% extra fee since neither of us are 59.5 yet. But, we are really enjoying the new house and the old house will be closing in 9 days. At which point we will be getting a very nice check. A very, very nice check.
Am I the only one who thinks that Mr. Obama and his ilk will be dipping into our IRAs and 401Ks soon? Are we all Cyprus now? Are we all Greece now?
I remember seeing senior law partner suits at church services desperately screwing a couple of quarters or a crumpled dollar bill from their deep pockets for the collection plate while some poor-ass trailer-park family threw in a ten or a twenty because they believed in the tithe for real.
They might be broke. Some of my mid to high 6 figure neighbors where we used to live were living paycheck to paycheck. Or they might do what my wife and I did at our last church, pledge a certain amount and send a check in each month.
I am about ready to can the whole notion of getting a damn phone now; too much hassle and expense and bullshit. We all got along just dandy when I was a kid and all we had was landlines; hell, some of us used party lines well into the 80s. My current cell is basically dead now and I just keep it like a wrist watch used to be. Or I know if someone called it and leaves a vm, I can check that with any landline. Or use it to call 911 if need be. I do not intend ever to surf the web, play games on them, or watch movies with them so what do I need one for, really?
My number one cell usage is at the grocery store because the wife has not given me the brand / size / quantity that she wants for something. And for her to call me while I am checking out to say that she needs three more items.
Or they might do what my wife and I did at our last church, pledge a certain amount and send a check in each month.
I do not pledge anymore at church. They put a pledge card in the bulletin once per year and send me one in the mail. I see nowhere in the bible where Jesus / Paul / John / Peter / etc said that we need to pledge our offering to God. Just that we need to give back to God as we have been given to.
On that note, I actually had a preacher state once that people earning above minimum wage should give 30% of their salary to the church. That was my last time in that church. He had no biblical basis for that whatsoever.
Sure, most of the wealthy pay that heavier share of our progressive tax system, but too many are able to skate and laugh at the rest of us.
The way they do it is like this:
– make a big pile of money that is tied up in stock. (i.e. Berkshire Hathaway, Microsoft, etc.)
– if you run the company, don’t pay out dividends, plow it back in and build the value of the stock.
Well, you would think that they then would sell stock to finance their lifestyle. Nope. Go to your bank, borrow a bunch of money and use your stock as collateral. Repeat each year. When you die, your estate uses your stock to pay back the loans, and then gets a step-up in basis for the stock they inherit. Saw a recent article about how Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, will be paying a huge tax bill this year (about $1 billion) due to exercising stock options, but will be left with billions more in Facebook stock, which he can borrow against and never pay income tax again.
I actually had a preacher state once that people earning above minimum wage should give 30% of their salary to the church… He had no biblical basis for that whatsoever.
He might have been clueless or, perhaps, just confused about the 3 OT tithes. As I understand it, there were 2 yearly tithes and an additional one every 3rd year, so the effective ‘rate’ was 23%, and there were 3 ‘tithes.’ Full disclosure – I’ve never researched that myself, but have heard it from several sources.
It’s tax time up here as well, we have ’till April 30 to file. I’ll get it done this weekend.
“She earned $643 doing occasional work and is paying $79 in employment taxes.”
And you say that Canadian taxes are too high (and they are.) The basic exemption for federal tax is $10,822 and for Ontario it is $9,405. I don’t know what the US rates are but the Canadian federal tax rates are 15% on the first $42,707, 22% on the next $42,707, 26% on the next $85,414 and 29% on anything over $132,406.
Then there are the provincial income taxes. These vary but for Ontario it is 5.05% on the first 39,020, 9.15% on the next 39,023, 11.16% on the next $421,957 and 12.16% on anything over $500,000. There are also other taxes and surcharges such as the Ontario Health premium that kicks in at incomes over $20,000 that reaches $900 for incomes over $200,600.
There are assorted deductions and tax credits that are applied but these are the basic tax rates. Is it actually possible that some Canadian taxes are lower than in the US?
The issue of assisted suicide has again become a hot (or at least lukewarm) topic again in Canada. Earlier this week the CBC had a story on Susan Griffith who is going to Switzerland to die. You can find the story at “http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/includes/current.xml” on the April 8 show. I have a particular interest in this given my family history of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Sometimes the best way to say “I love you” is to say “Goodbye”.
And on a completely different topic. Ray, do you still have extra Windows 7 licenses? I have just put together a new i5 system and would like to try and save the $120 an oem copy would cost. I’m at rgrunsky at sympatico dot ca
Rolf wrote:
“And on a completely different topic. Ray, do you still have extra Windows 7 licenses? I have just put together a new i5 system and would like to try and save the $120 an oem copy would cost. I’m at rgrunsky at sympatico dot ca”
Just so long as he doesn’t give you any that he’s already given me. Bangalore might not like it.
Lynn wrote:
“I do not pledge anymore at church. They put a pledge card in the bulletin once per year and send me one in the mail. I see nowhere in the bible where Jesus / Paul / John / Peter / etc said that we need to pledge our offering to God. Just that we need to give back to God as we have been given to.
On that note, I actually had a preacher state once that people earning above minimum wage should give 30% of their salary to the church. That was my last time in that church. He had no biblical basis for that whatsoever.”
In the Bible I read about “Tithes and Offerings”.
The Tithe was 10% which some churches hold to be mandatory and the Offering was some amount above that, as determined by the individual. In many churches the Tithe can be given as determined by the individual. Some churches, mainly in the US I think, push “Storehouse Tithing” which is when the Tithe has to go to the local church and the above and beyond Offering can go as determined by the individual. I’ve never agreed with the idea of Storehouse Tithing and have seen some fairly unpleasant fights over the issue.
Ah, taxes, y’all have my sympathies. Living abroad, mine aren’t due until June 15th, when y’all can sympathize back…
What’s the take there about the leak of the financial info on all the tax havens? Has it made the news much? Anyone important affected, and in the news? What what I’m seeing here and in general on the news, the information is being pretty much ignored – either there’s less exciting stuff than one might think, or else the media is under pressure not to embarrass the wrong people…
ech write:
“The way they do it is like this:”
I’m glad you understand this stuff, my eyes glaze over after about a minute when I read explanations like that.
Am I the only one who thinks that Mr. Obama and his ilk will be dipping into our IRAs and 401Ks soon?
No, you are not the only one. I fully expect the government to fold all IRA’s into social security in return for a promise to pay you an increased amount based on what they steal. Of course over time that will be adjusted so that we all get the same amount.
Ray, do you still have extra Windows 7 licenses?
Yes, I do. Windows Home Premium. Send me a private email at rayt (four three five) at Comcast dot net. Replace the (four three five) with the actual numbers.
Just so long as he doesn’t give you any that he’s already given me. Bangalore might not like it.
Not to worry sir, I keep track of all the numbers I have issued.
but not enough to pay the 10% extra fee since neither of us are 59.5 yet
I thought there was an exemption for home purchase or is that only for 1st time home purchases?
too much hassle and expense and bullshit
I am learning that the hard way. My plan to save money was fraught with perils and effort to little use. I really use a phone and the data is very important to my needs. The iPad is used for reference and storing information, the phone is used to access the information when WIFI is not available. I also tend to avoid public WIFI spots for security reasons.
I am no an Apple fanboy, but I now understand why their prices are high. Their support excellent, much better than Microsoft. The people are kinder and speak English. You can walk into a store and get support. If the store cannot solve the issue phone support can. Swapping out a 2.5 month old phone with no hassles was not something I expected. A far cry from some software distributions where support consists of RTFM or “if you are too stupid to figure it out, you are too stupid to be running the software anyway”.
Since the top capital gains tax rate went up on January 1, thanks to two different tax law changes, I’m pretty sure every rich person with a paper capital gain either decided to sell on December 31, or decided to hold it until Obama is no longer President, if not longer.
I personally prefer that the obnoxiously rich sell a little bit every year and pay a little tax every year, rather than borrow money every year to avoid paying taxes.
The people are kinder and speak English. You can walk into a store and get support.
Even though I know absolutely nothing about Apple devices, this is exactly the reason I bought one for my mother. Being on a different continent, I found I couldn’t provide the kind of support she needed – besides, frankly, I have trouble being patient with people who need the level of support that she did. She could go down to the local Apple store with the silliest questions, and they were always patient and helpful. That is worth a lot!
the obnoxiously rich
There comes a point where wealth is simply self-sustaining, even across several generations. We saw this in perhaps its ugliest form with the Kennedy clan. The entire family beginning with Teddy is frankly a waste of protoplasm, but they manage to remain wealthy; worse, they use their wealth to get into political office and inflict themselves on the rest of us.
As libertarian as I am, I like the idea of both a wealth tax *and* and inheritance tax. A wealth tax makes up for the plain fact that the “obnoxiously wealthy” (nice term!) are able to largely avoid taxation. A fraction of a percent suffices. An inheritance tax helps to break up fortunes between generations, which really does contribute to a healthy society.
The dodge of putting your wealth into a foundation (Gates, Buffett) should not protect it – private foundations should also pay a wealth tax. Right now, the Gates Foundation mostly does more good than harm, but once Bill Gates is no longer around it will become a cancer, run mainly by parasites mainly interested in their own wealth and power.
I thought there was an exemption for home purchase or is that only for 1st time home purchases?
First time home-buyers only and I am a six time loser XXXX winner.
The dodge of putting your wealth into a foundation (Gates, Buffett) should not protect it – private foundations should also pay a wealth tax. Right now, the Gates Foundation mostly does more good than harm, but once Bill Gates is no longer around it will become a cancer, run mainly by parasites mainly interested in their own wealth and power.
RIGHT ON! My thoughts exactly. Just because a foundation exists does not mean that it should avoid income taxes and such. Too many of these not-for-profit entities seem to be, well, profitable. Or their directors and board members seem to have huge salaries and untaxed benefits. Such as the board meeting begin held in Hawaii and the directors hang around for an extra week, all expenses paid.
Brad wrote:
“As libertarian as I am, I like the idea of both a wealth tax *and* and inheritance tax. A wealth tax makes up for the plain fact that the “obnoxiously wealthy” (nice term!) are able to largely avoid taxation. A fraction of a percent suffices. An inheritance tax helps to break up fortunes between generations, which really does contribute to a healthy society.”
A few years ago our host had the idea that people should be given votes in proportion to the taxes they pay. That could work.
It would work for me; I don’t vote anymore anyway. So thus, no taxes to pay anymore for ol’ OFD. O Happy Day!
The Tithe was 10% which some churches hold to be mandatory and the Offering was some amount above that, as determined by the individual. In many churches the Tithe can be given as determined by the individual. Some churches, mainly in the US I think, push “Storehouse Tithing” which is when the Tithe has to go to the local church and the above and beyond Offering can go as determined by the individual. I’ve never agreed with the idea of Storehouse Tithing and have seen some fairly unpleasant fights over the issue.
This is why I can not belong to a large denomination. I am Church of Christ in which each church is a free standing entity (usually). If I needed to go to something else then I would move to a Community or Bible church. I see no need for a huge organization with many locations in today’s world. And I have seen some serious fights and church splits over money.
BTW, I think that the Mormons audit their full members yearly for their tithe.
The free Sherlock Holmes versions have crummy formatting in some cases, and it’s hard to get all of the stories. Fortunately, one of the traditional publishers has done a proper porting with all the stories and novels together and well indexed. It was free a few months ago, as a promotion as one of their authors wrote a novel about Watson (with the AC-D estate’s blessing) and he did the introduction.
I have one problem with that otherwise great edition of the complete Sherlock Holmes: Rather than put everything in the order they were published, they put all the novels together and then all the short stories. I simply do not think that is the proper way to read them. All the print versions I have seen use order of publication, alternating between the short stories and novels as appropriate.
I thought I was the only one with that lack of patience.
I found I couldn’t provide the kind of support she needed – besides, frankly, I have trouble being patient with people who need the level of support that she did.
I thought I was the only one with that lack of patience.
Nope, definitely not. The odd thing is: I’m a teacher, but I have this one weakness: I cannot teach students who only learn mechanically, with no interest or ability to understand *why*. That’s exactly how my mother was. Her lack of understanding meant that she’d ask minor variations of the same question over and over again, without even realizing that it was the same question. “See the mail icon? Click on it to open your mail program.” “Gee, ok, and there’s the word processor – how do I open it?” I had to quit before I strangled one of us…
I had to quit before I strangled one of us…
Welcome to my life when my tech support guy is not in the office. It is incredibly difficult to work with a new user who just does not get our software’s user interface. I do not even want to get into the 60 thermodynamic method choices in our software. I admire my tech support guy immensely, he has been working for me for 17+ years now.