*printing taxes*

/\ a day early too

I'm going out of town for two days for work and no internet, so the discussion will have to wait. I just have one thing off the top of my head, and it's about eastern Asia. I read an article that said China would likely overtake the US's GDP in I think 12 or 15 years with the current growth rates. So they definitely are doing something right at least in that sense. However, they also have almost four times the population of the US. Shouldn't they have four times the GDP? Granted they were pretty bad for a long time under the Commies, but I think if they ever do get 4x US GDP, they'll run into the same problem the US has been having with trying to be the world power. One country can't do it alone. The world market has changed, it needs many more even countries.

Asia is one thing. I far too often find my self in line with what was said earlier by Sean. The EU now has a new head. The last idiot was horrible. The new EU head has the chance to take over.

I'm not concerned with China or russia, nothing even close. I have not been to China, but what I have heard from people I know who have been and have family there, they are just now barely breaking into being industrial, much less information aged. They sure can reverse enginear things, but they are a reactive culture, and government. Local power is huge but it's not as global as most think.

Fawk I could be wrong.... who knows. I love the discussion though.

Matt when your looking for your 3rd world country to live, I suggest Thailand. Close to so much natural beauty. Many other wonders are local too. I would kill to see Angkor, some of the temples in china and the Taj.

In Thailand the women outnumber men by a huge margin and to top it off many of the men are gay. The ratio for the single guy is rather stellar and Thai women seem to think they are put on this earth to please man. Definitely worth a visit.

This now explains why one of my LT's took mid deployment leave there............

Naw.... he's just there for the history and culture....

My navy co worker said pretty much the same thing Sean. That and 5 bucks will get you food for a day, a house keeper and chef, and you might have some change left over for a pair of lady friends for the weekend.

5 bucks feeds me for a day, and gets me a house keeper/chef and a pair of ladies for a weekend??

Something says they come with herpes

/\ a day early too

I have to send into state

boo.

I at least get 9400 back from federal.

Fun story of the morning.... Yesterday, the wife gives me a call while driving (528i) saying the battery light just came on, I asked her the normal questions that could have lead to a low battery, none of them happened. While she was replying to me the steering got very heavy. As she was explaining the sensation, the temperature gauge shot straight into the red. Luckily she was pulling into the parking space at her meeting. I get her to turn off the car asap and pop the hood. Well coolant is everywhere and a little steam is coming out. She had to go into her meeting an she had the car seat, so I was stuck at home with Junior and no car seat, which means the car had to stay over night where it was. Anyway, a co-worker of her's has a BMW mechanic neighbor that has his own shop now. Apparently he works on all the Ravens and Orioles BMW's, and does some work for a few of the BMW race teams. Fast forward to this morning. The mechanic was nice enough to ride out to the car at butt crack this morning. He gives us a call telling us the wonderful news.

In order as to what occured:

• The Alternator died with no warning, heating up quickly on the bearings slowly seizing its pulley due to the impeller not spinning enough to cool it, which could have occurred due to a blocked cooling duct
  
• The tension on the belt started to burn up the belt and over stress the belt tensioner
  
• This in turn was not spinning the power steering pump taking away power steering
  
• Then the belt failed and damaged the water pump and belt tensioner
  
• Which finally caused a few hoses to fail and pour the coolant all over the place
  

Coming in right after all 4 new tires, new rear rotors ordered, rear pads on the way, new upgraded air filter, and a routine maintenance about to be due, this is horrible timing to have to get a new Alternator/WaterPump/Belts/Belt Tensioner/Hoses etc.

Holy Sh#$@#$$@!

*pukes*

You have teh shit for luck

No kidding. But this is total par for the course. If you knew me when I was driving the Explorer daily, you would not flinch at the above post. Just so beyond sick of fighting to break even (read, striving to work my ass off to barely hold on to mediocrity). Stupid me to be excited to make a minuscule performance upgrade with the air filter.

aaron, sounds like you need a drink

aaron, sounds like you need a drink

Got plenty of vodka and gin, but no tonic. Plus I pretty much never drink while my son is awake. Either way, just another reason I have to study my ass off even more and pass this cert and hope they award me the position.

/\ a day early too

I have to send into state

boo.

I at least get 9400 back from federal.

Holy overpaying in batman.

/\ a day early too

I have to send into state

boo.

I at least get 9400 back from federal.

Holy overpaying in batman.

me over pay NEVAR! I claim exempt sometimes. I hate to give the fed my loot sooner than I have to.

Married bonus, and then the FTHB credit. 7500 of that will have to be paid back. The wife over paid a good deal though.

when I say paid back I mean over 15 years.

WTF

This year it's 8k and you don't have to pay it back.

I also dumped a large chunk of cash into tools, and costs for redoing my moms house to rent last year, so I can claim a loss on that.

TAX TOP!

I REAAEEAAALELELELLLYLLYLLLLY don't get the point of this forum but.......POOP!

I have also heard that there is a real good way to figure out how NOT to pay back the fed on the tax credit, aparently it's 100% monitered by the place that prepairs your taxes. So if you jump to another location when you file, you win!

Even more so, if you file inapropriately and buy another house this year, you can get the tax credit again.

I would think that this is a horrible idea because having the IRS mess with you is just about the worst thing ever, but the huge gapeing holes in this recent credit sound bad from what a couple tax guys have said.

without quoting that whole thing, what do you actually think the job of the govt is?

and do you think the rest of the world is a 3rd world country? that's extremely american of you

I think the govt's job is to protect and serve its people, not control them and see how much $$ they can squeeze out of them. I think that laws should be to protect people instead.

also on a side note, what happens when everyone starts doing the speed limit? then they move on and find some other way to make something that the whole population does illegal. remember that if the majority of people do it, then by nature it shouldn't be illegal.

i would recommend staying away from california, the "protect & serve" idea was lost on southern calif a long time ago. now the sheriffs and highway patrol just lurk around trying to harass and intimidate the citizens here. because there's no real crime where i live, they'd rather sit on campus and write students tickets for not walking their bicycles through crosswalks or talking on the cell and driving than fight real crime. at least college students pay their fines, that's how the police here see it. and if you go to northern california it's pretty lawless, the cops are just trying to survive because they are understaffed and outgunned. if you drive a registered vehicle and you're not carrying an ak47 with you they pretty much leave you alone. if we just legalized, taxed and regulated victimless crime in this country instead of locking everyone up and footing the bill to the taxpayers i think we'd be okay. and, even though it sounds socialist we could go out on a limb and provide that small percentage of people who need help as a result of victimless crimes with services too...

After sitting in a car which metered 150dB+, I fail to understand how some people can drive in those conditions. Massive ear pain in 10 seconds after entering the car and "listening" to a few bass lines

I guess all those years as a young child at Drum Corps show and rock concerts with my dad has screwed up my hearing. I was enjoying my buddy Canaan's van with 10 DD 2515"s and 10,000 rms..... I sat in there like it was nothing. And my Team mate Bret does a 157+ on music and I ride in there with no problem.

"no problem"....time will tell.

I mean like........ I can sit there and take it....

I know it's causing problems. O well

Is it really worth it though?

yeah, tinnitus is no joke. you want your ears permanently ringing?

Hearing is the only sense that is the best the day you were born. All of your other senses get better over time and then degrade of course, but hearing gets worse from day one. Once it is destroyed there is no coming back.

I've noticed my hearing is degraded and I have trouble understanding people when there is background noise. I believe it is from machinery and equipment. I don't have excessively loud stereos and wear plugs while shooting, but I haven't always wore ear plugs/muffs while working. Now though if I'm doing anything loud in the shop I have a pair of ear muffs on my head. It is just a pain in the ass to have to have people repeat themselves when there is to much background noise, but it might be the fact of selective hearing, although even when I try and focus on them it doesn't always work.

Last night something hit me out of the blue and now I'm stuffed up and have a headache. Kinda interesting that another guy I know has the exact same problem, and it hit him yesterday afternoon/evening too.

I REAAEEAAALELELELLLYLLYLLLLY don't get the point of this forum but.......POOP!

The thread or the forum? The forum is for audio, the thread is for random bs'ing between members.

I REAAEEAAALELELELLLYLLYLLLLY don't get the point of this forum but.......POOP!

The thread or the forum? The forum is for audio, the thread is for random bs'ing between members.

SHIT, I didn't realize it was for random

The topics are random... The discussions seem to get rather technical though.

The topics are random... The discussions seem to get rather technical though.

Didn't mean to do the double post...

Ok, this summer I'm going to be building a bar for the house, just a standard ~6' long dry bar w/ a mini fridge in it. Does anyone have any tips as to neat features to incorporate into it? It will probably also have shelving up to for liquor, cabinets and fridge in the bottom, granite top, and the wood will be walnut.