Friday, February 24, 2006

all you base are belong to us



We finally got the script together.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Camera Shy



...Nancy is sure to love this posting.

Chris and the Monkey



...my first Google video submission. I have a few now.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

hot speed skaters

article

These two hot-shot speedskaters need to get looser racing suites or something.

I like speedskaters, generally. Bonnie Blair is one of my heroes. I always remember that she said that her secret racing food was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I'm all about pb&j samiches.

The problem is that the first guy betrayed his team. The second problem was that the team captain gave him the cold shoulder. Now these two are having world-publicized verbal conflict--the one time you should be able to practice tongue-control.

According to the reports, these are examples of athletes that shouldn't be anyone's idols.

Friday, February 10, 2006

The IRS wants to know if I my sorceror is a level 9 ??


http://www.slate.com/id/2078053

This is an old article about Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) and the economic theory information that can be extracted from them. There is also a link in that article that leads to a more scholarly article on the subject. I have yet to read it, but I think I'll browse it this weekend.

$$

When I was in the MTC, a peer of mine had made $10K+ selling items he acquired whilst playing Everquest. That was enough to support his mission from SLC, UT to Houston, TX-Vietnamese. I thought it was anomalous.

IRS

Just listening to NPR, I heard that people are now realizing the tax situation. Mapledell told me of a man that made $800K by hiring others employees to play Everquest for him. So now the IRS wants their chunk?

Buying/Selling
What tax obligations does an MMORPG player incur? When you sell a virtual sword you should be paying tax on that profit. That's a little weird.

Trading
Apparently there is also a tax on bartering in our country. I don't know the specifics on it, but apparently when you trade good/service for a good/service, you are still obligated to pay the IRS for the value of the transaction. So now, in the virtual world, you must pay a tax when trading a King Cremeon Sword for a Brightstar Buckler Shield? This is getting weird. Sorta makes the IRS look goofy, doesn't it? Why do we have to pay taxes on transactions? Is that what we want to discourage? That's really wacky.


(At least the buckler has +110 endurance. That's just what I've been needing.)

Wacky.

Not only that, but if you go slay a dragon, and from beating him you get a sword that everybody wants, you are liable for taxes on the Dragon wealth. I guess whatever the going market rate is for such an item. You don't even have to sell it, trade it or anything. Just acquiring it creates a liability.

Anyone else think this is really, really weird? Next we'll have virtual property tax or virtual real estate tax. If you have to pay taxes on virtual property, can you insure your virtual property?

Last December a Beijing court ordered the restitution of one player's stolen virtual weapons. Given that the U.S. takes a much stronger stance on the idea of property than the People's Republic, it's not hard to imagine such claims reaching American shores -- and soon.
link


Then we can start taxing basketball players for making game-winning plays and American Idol contestants for making it to "Hollywood."

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

a spanking needed

Mother nature needs to pull down the pants of these insane people that are declaring war over a cartoon of a man that probably doesn't care that he is the subject of a cartoon. Mother Nature needs to pull down their trousers and spank their bottoms red.




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab-Israeli_conflict

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Soccer: Why You Never Stop Concentrating.

http://www.youtube.com/w/agony-of-football?v=ZzbqjSH5JJU&search=missed%20soccer%20goals

Very sad music

Soccer

IF YOU KNOW THE NAME OF THE SONG OR WHERE YOU'VE HEARD THE MUSIC BEFORE, THEN LET ME KNOW, PLEASE.