Personal Pushup Challenge

I hate upper body strength conditioning. Probably the one thing that I feel I have no idea what I'm doing and feel absolutely silly doing it. I hate doing free weights at the gym.

Even something as simple as the push up frustrates me. How could something so simple give me so much trouble?

Hearkening back to my college and fraternity days, one of the hazing methods was forced push ups for doing things wrong. I know, I know...hazing is an evil, evil thing...but I will tell you that I was never in such good shape as I was at that point in my life. My arm muscles looked pretty damn good!

So my personal challenge involves something of a forced push up. I will challenge myself to do 150 push ups this week (Monday through Sunday). That is 30 push ups for 5 days this week with 2 days of rest... I do not have to do 30 in one sitting or even 30 in one day (but I should a minimum of 10 in one sitting). The goal is to knock out 150 whatever it takes...

This may sound weak to some of you, but it's a start towards rehabbing my weak upper body...

FYI...not feeling too confident about tonight's weigh in...we'll see...

Trackbacks and Backlinks...

Anyone care to give the history and usefulness of track backs and back links?

Do people really use these functions on their blogs?

It seems like an interesting comment and an easy way to both comment on someone's site and add content to my blog at the same time...

It's funny...I used to be the "Go To Guy" for all things tech related, but this blog thing has made me realize how far my tech knowledge has receded over the years...

This will interest nobody but me...

But I'll post it anyways...trying to get Google Video to work on the blog...

Like cheap t-shirts?

I'm a big t-shirt guy. You know...the hip ones the kids are wearing these days that is heavy on graphic design, cultural satire, etc...

Here's a sampling of sites to give you an idea of what I mean:

http://www.threadless.com/

http://www.palmercash.com/

http://www.unetee.com/

Well...the fine folks over at woot.com have decided to get into the biz as well. The picture above is today's shirt that is already sold out. The site follows the same woot model of one shirt per day until it sells out and a majority of them do sell out rather quickly.

I especially like the fact that each shirt to this point has been only $10 w/ free s&h! With the other places, I find a shirt that I like, but can bear myself to spend $17 + 5 s&h for a t-shirt. At $10 total cost, I see myself becoming a woot t-shirt guy very soon.

Fun with my new scale...

I forgot...the point of this blog is journal about weight loss, right?

First off...I am 95% happy with my purchase at this point. It does everything as advertised, looks stylish, and now I can know my weight down to the tenth.

The only downside is the flimsy piece of plastic they use to cover the battery area. I can't just jump on the scale and need to move it whenever I weigh myself. In the short time I've had it, the battery cover on the bottom has already come off twice. A piece of scotch tape may be in order.

I like it so much, that I've become somewhat obsessive with checking my weight these days. I probably will jump on 2 -3 times daily. And here is the interesting thing. My weight fluctuates 2 - 4 pounds within any given day! The biggest difference is between weighing my self when I go to bed (Been as high as 195) and when I wake up in the morning (been as low as 191).

I have two questions for the group:

• Any thoughts on what causes such a shift in weight? Water weight?
• Is there a recognized "best time" that you should be weighing yourself?

Obviously, I will continue my Monday after working out ritual weigh in to keep consistent. Just curious what the common wisdom is...

Poking the bear...

Did I say I was done talking about the tax issue? Well our good friend Bob Meighan, a VP over at TurboTax, keeps leaving me comments that supposedly prove I am in the wrong on this issue.

So, instead of letting this lie, I feel compelled to respond yet again to Bob and the folks at TurboTax. On the advice of Customer Service Rep Anita and VP Bob, I actually went into my current 2006 return and attempted to add a bogus W2 to see what would happen...

First off, Bob is correct on one point. TurboTax doesn't ask you to fill in the SS# by W2. Instead it asks who to associate with each W2 at the beginning of entry. I probably incorrectly chose myself for both W2's. Therefore, it was not incorrectly viewing 2 different SS#s as one person. Score one for Bob...

But after I enter in another bogus W2 on my 2006 return and associate it with me, here is the screen that pops up:

I don't claim to be a tax guy. That's why I pay TurboTax $50 to do it for me. If I knew the intricacies of social security witholding and that you only have to pay up to a certain point and that this applies to each individual filing on a joint return, I WOULD HAVE DONE THE DAMN RETURN MYSELF! But I don't know these things and that is why I relied on TurboTax to ask the right questions in order to fill out the return properly.

So when TurboTax tells me that my company may have withheld too much SS tax, I would believe them. TurboTax only asks that I check to make sure the numbers on the W2 I am entering match what they have on the screen. I DID THAT AND THEY MATCHED! At no point did they question whether I chose the correct person for the W2. So I went forward believing that I indeed paid too much in SS tax and was entitled to a refund. What reason would I have to think otherwise?

BTW, Bob (if you're still listening)...no need to send me software...I'm pretty confident it will only confirm what I am stating above.

Bottom Line (for me...again): TurboTax should flagged this error and instructed me how to fix. The point of the software is to make accurate tax preparation an easy process. I'll admit TurboTax is an easy process but I'd question the accuracy piece.

Bonus: I'm going to label all of these posts as "My TurboTax / IRS Rant" so that these posts do not get lost in time.

Bonus #2: Bob states the following in the comments section:

"Just to reiterate what Anita already stated, if you entered one or more W-2s for the same spouse that exceeded the limits above, TurboTax flags you with a warning and error flag. The warning allows you to change the "ownership" of the W-2 to either spouse."

My response...see the actual screen print above...you are incorrect.

Staying off topic just a bit longer...

One thing you didn't care to know about me is that I am somewhat of a political junkie and follow certain political blogs closely. In full disclosure, I lean to the left of center. This is probably due to growing up in a union household in the Northeast.

One of my regular reads is Andrew Sullivan. Even though he is conservative, I admire him for being able to keep a clear head and doesn't attempt to link every thing the current administration does to the conservative cause in general. If Bush screws up, he calls it that way. I did find this one post peculiar though.

Although he doesn't explicitly say it, I assume the theme of his post is to highlight that Iran is a barbaric regime. It's a theme he returns to frequently.

My point is not to argue whether Iran is a barbaric regime. I agree that it is. But I'm willing to bet $100 that if someone polled self identified conservatives with the following question, "Are you in favor of the death penalty extending to those convicted of kidnapping or rape?", that over 80% of conservatives polled would be in favor.

How can you be in favor of the death penalty in the US, but then criticize the death penalty in Iran? Is it the fact that the execution was by hanging? in public?

I haven't read Andrew Sullivan enough to know his stance on the death penalty (perhaps he is against it), but I do know that conservatives strongly believe that it is OK for the government to take another person's life if they commit a crime. Once you decide that is OK, the question of how it is done, where it takes place, and what crimes are appropriate is all just a slippery slope in my opinion.

http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/2224950/20511168

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

I'm sure my ranting on the IRS and TurboTax wasn't particularly engaging to anyone.

Still it felt good to get it off my chest...

We'll get back to more weight loss centered posts now...

Thanks for your time...

It's Official...I HATE TURBOTAX

I won't bore you with the long drawn out letters back and forthat this point , but "Anita" essentially restated the error was mine. It didn't matter if I felt TurboTax's software should automatically flag an error as obvious as the one I made or that Turbotax would even allow me to claim two different social security numbers as my own.

You would think that in this case...just to be consumer friendly...they would throw me some sort of bone...

But thier response (in the most professional way possible) was to say, "We're sorry your so ignorant as to fill out such an easy question incorrectly. We hope you use our product again!"

My response (in the most professional way possible) was to let them know I will never use thier product again and will let everyone know that I think thier product and thier accuracy guarantee stinks! I also let them know that my wife and I are planning to purchase personal finance software in the very near future (that's what happens when you have to pay thousands of unforseen dollars to the IRS) and that we will not be choosing Quicken (brought to you be the same company that produces TurboTax).

Can you feel my anger coming through on this post right now?

Where are you Bob Meighan? Looking for your response in the comments section.

Tax saga continued...

For those interested, here TurboTax's response to my request that they pick:

I received your letter regarding our Accurate Calculations Guarantee, and have reviewed your request for reimbursement for interest and/or penalties paid to the IRS for 2005.I have determined that TurboTax Software did perform the calculation correctly and am unable to approve your claim. The basis for coming to this decision is as follows:When you choose to enter a W-2 in the program,you come first to a screen titled “Tell Us About Your Wage Income.” If you are filing jointly with a spouse, that screen contains three buttons from which you must choose. One has the taxpayer’s name on it, another has the spouse’s name, and the third says to skip the W-2 entry. You cannot progress beyond this pointto enter a W-2 without making a selection here. If you make the correct selection, that is, if you correctly identify the person to whom that W-2 belongs, then the social security tax from that W-2 will accrue to that person. If you accidentally make the wrong selection, and choose the same owner for W-2s that belong to different spouses, then all the social security tax withheld accrues to only one spouse and that person appears to have too much social security withheld. The apparently excess amount appears on your 1040 as “Excess social security withheld” and increases your refund or decreases the tax due.If this error occurs, you are given the opportunity to make corrections. After entering the W-2s, a screen appears saying that one individual may have paid too much social security, with the relevant information appearing below for you to review and correct.If you use the CD version of the product, whether an actual CD or downloaded CD, you can verify this error by opening your return and choosing Continue as though you were going to work on your data again. Then, along the top of the TurboTax screen, there is a narrow grey menu bar that starts with the words “File…Edit…View…Forms…. Select the word Forms, then Show My Return from the dropdown menu. You will see a list of all the forms used to create your return. Double click on the Form W-2 and W-2G Summary to open it. If you see if too much income showing in the column for one spouse, that is the cause of your excess social security.If you used the online version, you can duplicate the error by starting a fake return in the current online version. When you enter W-2s, make the erroneous spouse selection as described above and see that all social security is then attributed to only one spouse.Keeping our customers loyal is important to us. If you have further questions, or feel that I have reached this conclusion in error, please feel free to contact me by sending an e-mail to TaxAnalysts@intuit.com and typing “Attn: xxx” in the subject line. Please also include your Reference # xxxx in your message.

And here is my response to them:

Anita,

Here are my comments to your conclusion:

-> Since I used the online version, I can not go back and
verify what was entered back in 2005. Your online version only allows
users to go back and check specific entries for the latest year. You note
that I should use the current version to prove that TurboTax asks the
appropriate question, but how do I know that this latest version is exactly the
same as the version used back in February 2006?

-> Even if I take TurboTax’s word on this, can you please explain any situation where I would claim a W-2 return with a different social security number as my own income? This is poor programming at best that only can lead to the error you claim I made. While I can’t go back and prove it, I do not remember TurboTax ever raising a flag indicating a potential error on my part. It is my contention, that while I may have ultimately checked the incorrect box, that poor programming led me down this path. Isn’t the purpose of your software to make it easy for the consumer to fill out a correct tax return? Giving the consumer the choice of selecting a W-2 with another person’s SS# as his / her own income serves no other purpose than to cause confusion and errors in my estimation.

For a few years prior to using your software, I was using HR Tax-cut Online. I actually switched to your software due to its better interface and my impression that it captured more information in order to get a better refund. I was actually excited when TurboTax actually reported a much higher refund than what I received using Tax-Cut. Now, your higher refund resulted in me not only having to pay back taxes (which is a hardship that I didn’t budget for this year), I have to pay an additional $300+ in interest and penalties.

I have already voiced my displeasure publicly on this issue through word of mouth to friends and family and through a personal weblog that generates x page views monthly. I was hoping to follow up this story by telling friends and family (and web traffic) how TurboTax did the right thing in the end. As things stand right now, I can only say that TurboTax did not do the right thing by the consumer and I would
advise anyone against using your services in the future with my story as the cautionary tale.

Bottom Line: I disagree with your review of my request. TurboTax software should not even ask whether W-2 forms with two different Social Security #s should be counted under 1 person. To hold me responsible for accidentally checking the incorrect box for a question that shouldn’t be asked in the first place is unfair. I hope you will reconsider reimbursing me for the interest and penalty charges I have already paid to the IRS.

And now you can vote on who is right and who is wrong! Be the judge, jury, but not the executioner (that's the IRS's job):