I keep a Google Calendar for my business appointments and was looking for a way to use the location field to automatically figure out my mileage for end of the year tax deductions. There are products out there that will let you do this but I was able to do this for free by bringing together two methods I found on the web - an IFTTT recipe and a Google Sheets formula.
The IFTTT recipe fires off when an event starts. It sends the event info (including address) to a Google sheet, appending the event to the last row of the spreadsheet. Pretty much all of the appointments in my calendar are tax deductible but I go in and delete the occasional ones that are not deductible from the spreadsheet. You can also set up this IFTTT recipe to only fire off when you have a certain keyword in your event, which is useful if your calendar mixes deductible and non deductible. Simply append a word to your event title for the items that are deductible.
You will need to add this script (stolen from here and slightly adapted to deal with the #errors that appear) to the spreadsheet:
function distance(pointa,pointb) { var randnumber = Math.random()*5000; Utilities.sleep(randnumber); Utilities.sleep(randnumber); var directions = Maps.newDirectionFinder() .setOrigin(pointa) .setDestination(pointb) .setMode(Maps.DirectionFinder.Mode.DRIVING) .getDirections(); var route = directions.routes[0]; var txtA = route.legs[0].distance.value; return txtA; }
You will have to add a column that has the starting address for your drive. This is easiest to populate if you always start from the same address but you can always change each item individually. Unfortunately this system only works for round trips, though with a little effort you can adapt this for a separate starting and ending address.
You then add a column to the end that has this formula.
=distance($B2,$C2)/1609*2
$B2 and $C2 are the two cells containing the starting address that you add and the address of the event from Google Calendar. This formula computes the distance in yards, converts that to miles and then multiples by 2 to figure out the round trip.
Add a cell at the end that add up the distance column and then another cell that multiplies by the IRS' current mileage rate (57.5 cents in 2015) and you get a useful little spreadsheet for your end of the year tax needs!
I'm excited to finally be able to reveal some big changes that I've been planning for the last few months. A week ago I gave notice to my library and as of January 1st will no longer be Virtual Services Librarian. My director and my boss have generously offered me a part-time position and I've agreed to take it on. I'll still be helping with technology, assisting patrons and working the ref desk, only I'll be doing it a lot less.
Next year was to have been my 10th anniversary and the Glencoe Public Library has done nothing but let me develop this position in the way that I saw fit. That freedom has been important to me and the continued desire for freedom is a large part of the reason that I'm looking to do something on my own.
Was thinking about Sabbath, Bowie or Yes but had to go obscure
Lisa refuses to let me just sit around the house so I decided to launch a business called Very Smart People. Very Smart People offers one-on-one and group training in Apple products, social media, consumer technology and more. I will also potentially be looking for other contract gigs to keep me off the streets and in the money.
I've had this germ of idea for a number of years and have lately been reading mid-career shift books that have me thinking very carefully about how to focus on the things that I most enjoy about my job, while giving up the rest. I love teaching and interacting with my older patrons and I am often asked at the reference desk if I can come into their home for personalized training and troubleshooting. Many of these people are being handed iPhones and iPads and they want to be able to use them better. Meanwhile, the technology that they are expected to use in everyday life is constantly changing.
I also have experience in developing classes on technology for my library and would like to find other venues to host similar classes, particularly for an older crowd. I know that there are other libraries that don't necessarily have the time or staffing to come up with these on their own so I am offering my services. I will also be bringing the classes to senior centers, service organizations, retirement homes and anywhere else where people want to learn what I've got to teach!
I've got approximately 23,746 reasons for making this career shift beyond the fact that I see a great opportunity for making money off of doing something that I love. Some of these reasons are as follows:
Mid-career burnout
Technology burnout
A desire to work for myself
A desire to create my own schedule that's not based on a 9-5 work week
A disconnect with public library trends
Midlife crisis
Overfishing
I want to touch an Indian
Why isn't there an Albert Brooks Blu-ray box yet?
There are more reasons beyond these and if anyone wants to chat about these, entrepreneurship, or life in general then you know how to find me! I've been doing a lot of talking with people both within and outside of the library field and have been accumulating tons of ideas and encouragement. If you've got an entrepreneurial urge I'd love to give and get advice. Most of my social networking for the last few months has been in person and I'm sure to have more free time available soon, so if you want to grab lunch or a beer let's set something up!
In the meantime, you can help me by hiring my business's services or referring me to clients. I'd also appreciate it if you like my business Facebook page, follow my business on LinkedIn and/or connect with me on LinkedIn. I'll also accept good vibes and will surely send you some in return.
Obviously I'm both nervous and psyched but this is really an ideal time in my life for me to give this a shot. I'm also hoping to be able to volunteer in my community, take some classes and come up with some other ways to explore my interests when not lying on the beach. Between starting this business and building a new master bathroom, 2015 should be an exciting time! Worst case scenario I'll just be enjoying spending a lot of time getting to know the couch a little better...
My life might end up resembling the first couple of McCartney albums as well
Here's my list of best DVDs for 2012. All of these are films from the library, since that's where I tend to get my newer DVDs. I do watch plenty of Netflix as well but they tend to be older, more obscure crap that I am not including here. Due to an accident of birth - my child - I very seldom get to the theaters for anything other than kid and superhero movies. There's one big exception to that this year (Killer Joe) that I included below. I had to drive through Cubs traffic to the one theater in the city that was playing it so dammit, I'm including it!
Margaret
I had been under the impression that 2012 had been a crappy year for DVDs and was surprised to see how many films I ended up giving 4 to 5 stars. I've also included a couple of the worst films of the year, including one overhyped Oscar nominee. Finally, there are some notable older ones that I discovered this year for the first time and fell in love with. Enjoy!
The Skin I Live In
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
The breakdown: 13 documentary and 11 subtitled out of the 53 that are listed below
Comedies: I'm surprised by how many comedies made the list below considering that it's probably the hardest type of film to do well. In particular there were many stupid comedies (21 Jump Street, Wanderlust, God Bless America, Goon, The Dictator) that were really entertaining.
Remakes: I usually dread seeing remakes but Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Fright Night and Straw Dogs were all surprisingly done well.
Quiet and Contemplative: A type of film that I love when it's well directed and I'm in the right mood, I hate it when someone complains that a films is "slow, but...". Slow but NOTHING. Good is good. Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Le Quattro Volte, The Mill and Cross, Bombay Beach and Nostalgia for the Light are all nice quiet films with real moments of beauty.
A Welcome Return: Only 13 years after The Last Days of Disco, Whit Stillman's Damsels in Distress was a lot of fun and definitely Stillmanesque.
Small Films You Might Have Missed: The Hunter, with Willem Dafoe, set in Australia. A Lonely Place to Die, a Scottish action flick with great scenery. The Last Rites of Joe May, set in Chicago and starring Dennis Farina. Carnage, a wicked, funny little gem from Polanski.
The Big Mess That Everyone Should See: Margaret was fantastic in so many ways. Hoping that Kenneth Lonergan gets his act together since he is clearly a director with big ideas and talent.
Letdown of the Year: Hugo was everything that The Artist wasn't. It was heavy handed while The Artist was light on its feet. It felt like a lecture while The Artist was a lighthearted tribute. Really just atrocious in every aspect.
S is subtitled. D is Documentary.
Killer Joe
5 Stars:
The Artist
Drive
The Hunter
Jiro Dreams of Sushi (S)
Killer Joe
Margaret
My Perestroika (D)
Senna (D)
The Skin I Live In (S)
Take Shelter
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Le Quattro Volte
4.5 Stars:
Bernie
The Cabin in the Woods
The Dictator
50/50
Garbo the Spy (D)
George Harrison: Living in the Material World (D)
Headhunters (S)
The Ides of March
Let the Bullets Fly
The Interrupters (D)
Klown (S)
Let the Bullets Fly (S)
Marley (D)
Moneyball
Moonrise Kingdom
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (S)
Post Mortem (S)
Project Nim (D)
Le Quattro Volte (S)
21 Jump Street
Bombay Beach
4 Stars:
Better This World (D)
Bombay Beach (D)
Bullhead (S)
Carnage
City of Life and Death (S)
Contagion
Cowboys and Aliens
Damsels in Distress
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (S)
Fright Night
God Bless America
Goon
Into the Abyss (D)
The Mill and the Cross
The Last Rites of Joe May
A Lonely Place to Die
The Mill and the Cross
Nostalgia for the Light (D)
Sleepless Night (S)
Straw Dogs (remake)
Urbanized (D)
Wanderlust
Warrior
Woody Allen: A Documentary (D)
1 Star Stinkers:
Battleship
Hugo
The Innkeepers
Putty Hill
The Ruling Class
Criterion Gems from this year:
Black Narcissus
Design for Living
Downhill Racer
The Ruling Class
Vanya on 42nd Street
I was meeting with some younger colleagues today and I attempted to make an Alan Parsons Project joke based around Sirius and Games People Play. None of them had any idea what I was talking about. After rolling this around in my brain for some time today I came to two conclusions. First, the things that I take for granted as cultural knowledge between my friends and I do not necessarily translate to the rest of the world. Second, it is essential that library schools bring Alan Parsons Project into whatever curriculum they're currently offering. I will outline the reasons in a minute.
Alan Parsons got his start engineering a number of classic rock bands, notably The Beatles (on Abbey Road) and Pink Floyd (Dark Side of the Moon). He launched his own band with Eric Woolfson, who apparently was not important enough to name the band after, since they went with Alan Parsons Project. Clearly, as you can tell, this was much more than a band.
I wonder what this knob does...
The Alan Parsons Project had a pretty good run on the US charts, hitting #3 with Eye in the Sky, #15 with both Time and Don't Answer Me and #16 with Games People Play. The Eye in the Sky album made it to #7 and I Robot hit #9 on the US album charts. From 1976 to 1986 they had 9 albums in the top 50, despite having a rotating lineup of singers and never touring.
They can't walk down the street without being mobbed
The APP's sound comes off a slightly antiseptic now but for a while they were the type of band that you could show off your sound system with. Of course, they achieved later success after the Chicago Bulls adopted their song Sirius as the song that plays when the announcer says "And now the lineup for YOUR Chicago Bulls..."
Still waiting to hear the lyrics of that damn song!
So why is it essential that librarians have at least some basic knowledge of Alan Parsons Project?
Reason #1:They are literary.
Their first album (Tales of Mystery and Imagination) is based on the writings of Edgar Allan Poe (and the album Stereotomy is named after an element of The Murders in the Rue Morgue). The second album I Robot was originally intended to be about Isaac Asimov's book, and the band even consulted with him, though they eventually moved it away from being specifically about Asimov.
Reason #2: They wrote an album based on female empowerment.
As a female heavy field, we should acknowledge the album Eve which was "...originally intended to be an album inspired by great women in history. It evolved into an appreciation of the strengths and characteristics of women in general and the problems they faced in the world of men" according to their website.
Reason #3: They wrote an album based around risk. The Turn of a Friendly Card uses the concept of gambling, which we need to tackle as a profession.
Reason #4: They are concerned with technology.
Not only does the Alan Parsons Project have at least two albums concerned with technology and its relationship to humans (I Robot and Ammonia Avenue) their studio based sound was also using the most cutting edge technology available at the time.
Reason #5:They are cultured.
They wrote an album about Antonio Gaudi called Gaudi while Eye in the Sky deals with ancient belief systems.
Reason #6: They have a bunch of great songs
I've assembled a playlist of songs that I particularly enjoy by Alan Parsons Project. They were an important band to me in high school and while I don't listen to them a whole lot anymore they certainly can reel me back in with the right tunes. Eye in the Sky is probably their best album overall and their Ammonia Avenue album had some really enjoyable early videos. Here's the Spotify playlist.
So, library schools get your butts in gear and add Alan Parsons to your curriculum. The future of the profession depends upon it.
You know how you pick up some phrase as a kid and you use it for the rest of your life? Well here's one of my go to lines (23 seconds in) from a Welcome Back Kotter episode that aired when I was 9. If you ever tell me an unfunny joke I just may use it on you!
Lots of people (no one) have been asking me about my Lollapalooza experience and I'm happy to oblige with my thoughts! The only other Lollapalooza that I attended took place in 2003 and it's incredible to see how the festival has expanded from a single field to the entirety of Grant Park. I attended for all 3 days and had a great time despite the heat, my aging back and the weird nerve in my left knee that starts tingling after I've been standing for half an hour. I see columnists getting snarky about the capitalism on display but it was awfully handy having a "general store" on the grounds where I could purchase some benadryl when I started feeling an oncoming cold.
Look at those massive crowds!
I also appreciate attending a concert with not only a wide variety of foods on display but also lots for vegetarians and pescetarians. As long as you weren't getting pizza the lines were short, as were those for portapotties if you were willing to walk a little bit farther to the less "popular" ones.
We didn't bring our kid for mostly selfish reasons, but it was kind of sweet seeing families running around with their little ones. I question the wisdom of bringing a kid to a concert like this on a hot day but the kids probably came out feeling better physically at the end of the day than I did.
Frozen water is KEY
And speaking of kids, while I didn't feel totally out of place (hell, half the bands were "oldie" acts) it was cute to see the masses of half-dressed teens having a great time. It reminds me of attending Dead shows with my friends, though these kids were dosed on apps instead of acid (don't ask me what that means). I saw very few instances of rudeness and bad behavior, security was low-key, police presence was hands-off and I feel like I would be confident sending my son to this type of festival when he becomes old enough to be interested. The birds were getting a little rough, though.
And speaking of drugs, pot smoking was ubiquitous and I was offered acid twice. I have hope for the younger generation. Unfortunately once the sun started going down and the crowds filled out it became impossible to escape the cigarette smoke. Apparently events in the open air are the only places where people are allowed to smoke anymore so they take full advantage.
Kids, this is what a rocker looks like
Now on to the good stuff. Here are my ratings of the bands that I saw. I put an asterisk next to the acts that I was unfamiliar with before Lollapalooza.
5 stars: The Black Angels*, Tame Impala*, Moon Taxi*, Franz Ferdinand, At the Drive-In 4 stars: Animal Kingdom*, The Shins, Los Jaivas*, Bombay Bicycle Club*, Sigur Ros, Justice 3 stars: The Afghan Whigs, Black Sabbath, The Tallest Man on Earth*, The Devil Makes Three*, Toro Y Moi* 2 stars: The Growlers*, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Walkmen 1 star: The Head & The Heart* Incomplete: Neon Indian
Coolest moment: When Tame Impala launched into a great Todd Rundgren song from one of my favorite albums - International Feel from A Wizard a True Star
Biggest disappointments: The Walkmen and The Afghan Whigs. I love The Walkmen. Their rerecording of the Lennon/Nilsson album Pussy Cats is brilliant. I hope to someday enjoy their most recent cd as much as I enjoy their earliest albums. I'm pretty sure they know what they're doing with their career but I kept waiting for them to kick out the jams live and it never happened. OTOH, The Afghan Whigs started off intense but lost that intensity halfway through and started sounding like Audioslave or something.
I give them shit but they were good: The Shins and Sigur Ros
Wish I Could Have Seen: M83 and thenewno2
Best sponsor: I'm not sure how long Camelbak has been involved in music festivals but everybody was wearing them. The marketing dude who came up with this idea for the company has hopefully gotten a big raise. There were long lines for the Camelbak filling stations but having a few hours' worth of cool water on their backs probably made it well worth it. Unfortunately it also meant that lots of people looked like they were sucking from an oxygen tank.
Best app: The Lollapalooza app. Man, that thing was actually really helpful!
Worst trends: Kids, learn from your elders' mistakes. There is never a reason to wear neon.
Moment of panic: Massive numbers of people stuck on a narrow staircase trying to enter the field where the Red Hot Chili Peppers were playing. This could have been bad if people had started pushing and was really the only time that I felt negative about the massive size of the event.
Unless there are some amazing announcements next year I can't see attending again until my son is ready and anxious to go. It's simply too exhausting. Last time we went it hit 100 degrees and we toughed it out but this year 85 degrees felt awfully hot. It's a really well run concert, though, so kudos to Perry and his partners!
As anyone who still bothers to follow my Twitter feed knows I've been entertaining myself by watching volume one of the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis Collection. That means that I've watched 8 of the earliest Martin and Lewis films over a week (their third film At War With the Army is not included in this set but is easily found - I'll be watching it soon).
Defending Jerry Lewis is like defending the band Kansas - he's already been written off by the critics and everyone has an idea of how irritating he is set in their heads though they may not have even seen one of his movies. His critical reputation matters little to me other than how it might keep people from seeing his films. Critics (especially American) have always looked down upon film comedy, with Chaplin's exile being the most extreme example. Personally I've always enjoyed Jerry's movies (as well as those of many other classic comedians, with Buster Keaton at the top of the list) and these days I like to watch his films with my 9 year old son. I started watching Jerry's movies as afterschool and weekend movies on local networks when I was his age.
I had read Jerry's book about Dean Martin (Dean and Me) when it came out a few years ago and after watching the entertaining Who's Minding the Store I decided to tackle the biography that was written on him a number of years back (surprisingly the only biography that I could find on the guy). While reading this I realized that I hadn't seen many of his earliest films with Dean, which started me on this obsession.
Martin and Lewis initially teamed up when they realized that their schtick of teasing each other's individual acts was a big hit. What most people who weren't around during Martin and Lewis' peak don't realize is exactly how popular they were as a team. They starred in 16 films from 1949 to 1956 (ruling the box office in the latter years) and were all over clubs, radio and tv, enjoying Beatlemania-like crowds at the heights of their popularity. Unfortunately one of the drawbacks of the films was their inability to capture the manic spontaneity of their stage work. Eventually due to Dean's displeasure over his roles as well as Jerry's attempts to hog the spotlight they were barely speaking to each other while they were filming their final films. Like any other comedy duo making movies they made both wonderfully entertaining films and real stinkers, and sometimes a little bit of both in one film.
Lewis is a fascinating person and innovator but I won't discuss that here - I'll save it for when I tackle his solo films, where he started directing and otherwise controlling the production of the films. He can certainly move between grating and hilarious in these early films while there are many parts where he and Dean click and you can get a sense of what so captivated their audiences. Dean had an excellent comic sensibility that comes out once you move past their initial few films in which he was a bit of a stiff.
Here is a ranking of the eight films from this set from best to worst. If you start with the first two and you have any appreciation for classic comedy I can't imagine that you'll be too disappointed.
Sailor Beware - Probably their funniest early comedy, this was their fifth film but the first one where they really clicked onscreen. Everyone in the 1940s and 1950s seems to have been making military comedies and there were some bad ones but this one ranks high. The boxing scene (with James Dean in his first role) is a classic.
Scared Stiff - With good songs (Song of the Enchilada Man!) and Carmen Miranda in her final role, this film is also interesting in a number of other ways. First, Dean gets to expand his repertoire from just being a straight man to actually trying out some wacky comedy. At times he seems to steal some of the Jerry bits. Personally, I think he seems largely disinterested but to his credit it certainly was a different type of role for him. Also interesting is this film's pacing and structure. Rather than spend an hour in a haunted castle as many haunted house comedies might do the film is in three parts - city, ship and haunted island. This keeps the film from getting stale. And it ends with a great Bob Hope/Bing Crosby cameo.
The Stooge - Not a great comedy but certainly one of the more interesting of their early films, The Stooge plays like a melodrama with comedic bits. It probably has the best onscreen representation of their stage work as Jerry plays a "stooge" who is hired to help improve Dean's one-man comedy/singing act. Dean is a prick until the very end when he realizes that Jerry deserves a little credit, while Jerry is a schmuck who worships Dean through thick and thin.The studio sat on this film for two years thinking that audiences preferred their wacky comedies.
The Caddy - A mixed (golf?) bag, with some hilarious bits, cameos from real-life golfers and That's Amore. OTOH, it has a dreary stretch in which Dean is forced to play a real cad and some of the abuse that Jerry is forced to endure is kind of unamusing. And frankly the plot is pretty awful. Also, as much as I like Donna Reed she did not fit the part of the sexy little rich girl very well. It has a great meta ending as the characters from the film meet the real Jerry and Dean. Not their best but plenty to entertain.
Jumping Jacks - A decent army comedy (their third) though Jerry comes off as particularly shrill in this one.
My Friend Irma and My Friend Irma Goes West - My Friend Irma was the film version of a radio serial with parts written for Dean and Jerry. It was their first film and they stole the show, though the film itself is not horrible. My Friend Irma Goes West expands their parts and is also fairly entertaining. Irma was the ditzy blonde who still hangs around in popular culture.
That's My Boy - Their fourth film is wretched, with the only laughs provided by the idea of 35-year old Dean playing a high school senior. Clearly the writers were unsure of what to do with the pair at this point, though that would soon be resolved.
So there you have it. 8 films, most of which are entertaining. I'll write up the second set of their films when I recover from watching these! In the meantime here's the Song of the Enchilada Man to keep you entertained:
