Northwest Meets Southwest-ish

28 09 09 - 07:26. Category:

Last Friday David and I had the priviledge of meeting Dan from Inside the Head of a TV Junkie and his friend Sylvia. their vacation through the Pacific Northwest included a stop in Portland. Because Portland is awesome. They liked walking everywhere which makes them awesome people in my book.

It was a ton of fun. I like to think it went well since we managed to not only stay up until 2:30, but out and about in Portland that late too! For David and I this is quite the accomplishment.

Sadly I didn't even think to bring my camera, so I don't have any pictures. I really enjoyed the night, and I believe there are some Mario Kart challenges in our near future...

"Significant Influence"

25 09 09 - 13:35. Category:

When a company owns stock in another company there are two methods to account for dividends received. It's based on the concept of "significant influence."

The idea is that if Company A can influence the policies and operations due to a substantial investment in Company B, then A's investment is accounted for as equity (ownership) in the company. Dividends are a return on capital rather than investment income. Common knowledge and my review materials state that "significant influence" is achieved by a 50% or greater ownership interest. Go go basic democratic principles.

So when I get a problem that says " A owns 30% of B, 70% of C, and 2% of D, which company investments would be reported as dividend income?" the answer should be obvious. But it's not, thank you CPA exam. In the actual problems, 30% interest is being treated as a substantial investment that can result in significant influence. What you would expect would be dividend income from Company B is in fact a return of capital in the problems, just not in the review material.

Thanks for the consistancy and trickery CPA exam. I'm so over dealing with you.

Lethargy

23 09 09 - 09:07. Category:

I think I finally figured out why I'm tired of studying for the CPA exam and have sub-zero motivation leading up to my (hopefully) final test. I am sick and tired of word problems.

I like the application of my work. Outside of some annoying elements to auditing, doing the work is enjoyable. Public accounting is pretty much tieing things together from source documents through to tax returns or financial statements. It's prooving that the numbers are fair representations. I like doing that. It's like computerized strings connecting things on a bulletin board.

What I don't like, and after five and a half months of dealing with it I really don't like, is sitting and doing word problems. I'm tired of learning how to figure out what the phrasing is asking, rather than what the content is. I stop and write a blog post when I hit a beefy paragraph problem because I'd just rather avoid it.

It's an odd differentiation that probably doesn't make sense. I guess it's kind of like how I don't mind work, but I don't like getting to work. After 26 sessions, 18 hours and 49 minutes of studying, and 412 multiple choice questions, I finally got my study software to the point were it starts reviewing questions instead of feeding me new ones.

One more test to go... just one more...

That'd make a Monday terribad...

21 09 09 - 07:34. Category:

I was just saying to David last week how despite commuting on a freeway every morning with hundreds of cars, I've never seen a crash. So guess what happened this morning two cars in front of me?

The guy was an idiot. He tried to switch lanes when he was already taking an exit with backed up traffic (we were on 405N where 26 splits after the tunnel and he was gonna jump to the downtown lane). Traffic in front of him slowed, so he nailed some honda's right rear corner with his front left. That in turn pushed the Honda into the van in front of it. No doubt the freeway was a backed-up mess after that.

Thankfully it was pretty backed up, so it looked like there was just some busted headlights and bent bumpers. Still, that'd be the worst way to start a Monday for sure.

12 of 12, September.... or Not

13 09 09 - 10:13. Category:

So I was all excited to actually do 12 of 12 this month. It fell on  saturday, and I had plans. So of course that means I completely forgot about it yesterday until about 2:30 in the afternoon (where was my reminder email Mike? =P).

I took my mother to the new location David and I are hoping to get married at. The paviolion is nice, and it's surrounded by trees and grassy areas where we could have our ceremony.It's not a City of Portland park, which saves a lot of headache.

I spent much of the day battling my new phone. My old one had developed a habit of dropping my signal and powering off whenever it felt like it.

Last night we went out to dinner at Rock Bottom and then we went to Cirque de la Symphonie for my mother's birthday. It was fantastic. I can't imagine Cirque du Soleil being better w/out a symphony backdrop. I left my camera in the car (of course) and the pictures with my phone I can't get copied to the micro SD card.

It was a great day, sorry I don't have the pictures to prove it.

My Life is Average

08 09 09 - 07:37. Category:

In high school I started operating on a philosophy of simple pleasures. I thought that the simple things that happen in the day or what makes or breaks it.

For example, have you ever noticed the difference having a great checker at a grocery store or a great waiter/waitress makes? Or just interacting with anyone pleasent in general? Or when you check something off your to-do list? Or you see a sign that makes you smile? There's so many things that are so simple and easy. Just being aware of their value and impact can make a day fantastic.

This is where a site I just personally discovered comes in, My Life is Average. It doesn't glorify the completely average, rather it emphasises those events in the average day that make the difference. There's a lot of ninjas, Harry Potter, and Where's Waldo. Regardless it's a great read. Here are a few examples:

• Today instead of hitting the crosswalk button like usual, I fist bumped it. The crosswalk light went on right away. Crosswalks need friends too. MLIA
• Today, I ran at least half a kilometer to catch the ice cream truck even though I am 17. After buying my ice cream I turned around to see 6 or 7 little kids who had been able to catch the ice cream truck because I stopped it. I felt like a hero. MLIA
• Today I was sitting on one of those little rides for young kids that you put a quarter into to make them start, waiting for my mom to come out of the store so she could drive me home. An old man walked up behind me, saw me sitting there, and immediately inserted a quarter so I could ride. I love that old man. MLIA
• Today, I was eating lunch in my school's courtyard and my friend tagged me 'it.' I reached out and tagged a random freshman who at first looked confused, and then tagged a senior. This then turned into an epic game of tag with about 80 people. Best day ever? Yes. MLIA.

I'll stop it at that.

One Year

03 09 09 - 08:19. Category:

I've worked at my firm for one year as of today. It really doesn't seem that long.

Our new phone system is going live today. I like to think it's not a coincidence.

UPDATE: I also am pretty sure I'm getting on the company party planning committee. And I got to walk around a steel plating plant.

It's been a good week. :)

Found It

01 09 09 - 18:00. Category:

David took me to the place he'd originally wanted to propose, the place he thought would be good for the wedding. Turns out I really like it. If you know me, you can guess why...

When you get to the park, this is the front. this would be the entrance. Sorry it's a bit washed out, we got there at a poor time of day. Note to self.. consider that fact in planning...

Another view of the front.

The park within the wall. Yes there is a media tower, but everything can be positioned to not look at it.

The other half of the top.

Viewing the direction that you would to watch the ceremony. Thinking we'd stand kind of by that alcove. If it weren't hazy downtown Portland is in the background

A better view of the lawn.

View from behind. There's a wide gravel path leading up to that opening.

So this is the place I'm totally captivated by. Sadly we couldn't host the reception here. We could do the ceremony here and have the reception elsewhere, which would not be bad at all. Now I am just concerned about the lighting for an afternoon wedding, I will have to play around with it.

More pictures in the gallery.