archive.tylerdave.com All the stuff from when Dave was actually called Tylerdave.

I was feeling really productive. I packed a lot of stuff away into boxes and threw even more junk away. I organized all of my clothes into eight loads, three of which I brought down to the laundry room to begin washing, only to realize that the change machine was out of quarters. Now I just have piles of dirty clothes.

It will be nice not having to worry about laundry money again.

Why is it that an otherwise good person who would not dare throw a gum wrapper out their car window has absolutely no trouble throwing a cigarette butt out the window without giving it a second thought?

When the fuck did tylerdave.com become customer service for pasta pots?

While comparing the pricing of different mobile phone plans, I came upon a checkbox at Sprint’s website with the following text:

At least the box is ‘deselected’ by default…

Megan and I are going to Portland this weekend. We’re flying on Delta Airlines from Indianapolis. We’re leaving from Indy because it was a lot cheaper than flying from Cleveland and we have to be able to make it to her Monday interview in Dayton.

Just out of curiosity, I checked Delta’s website today to see what airfare from Cleveland to Portland would cost now. I picked an arbitrary set of dates (Apr 21 – Apr 28) and came up with a flight from Cleveland (CLE) to Portland (PDX) with a layover in Cincinnati (CVG) both ways for $343.

Using the same dates, this time going from Cincinnati (CVG) to Portland (PDX) would cost $485, all with at least one layover. A direct flight isn’t even an option with an economy class ticket even though the direct flights are already a part of the Cleveland to Portland trip that I searched for first.

I can understand the pricing differences. I’m sure they’re set by the current market in each city. What I don’t understand is why you can’t get the direct flight to/from Cincinnati.

I’m sure everyone who went on the “Rescue Tom’s Car From Columbus” trip remembers getting stuck in traffic due to a Phish concert. Well last night, on our way to Cincinnati we got stuck in some traffic around the same place. Jokingly, I said “I’ll bet Phish is in town.”

When we arrived at our hotel and turned on the TV, the top story on the local news was that Phish was in town (and subsequently there were many drug arrests).

Around 1:30 am we heard the following really freaking loud conversation taking place what seemed like right outside our door:

Male 1 (yelling): “I’m sooo bored!”
Male 2: “Yeah I know”
Male 1: “I need beer…”
Male 1 (yelling louder): “Somebody feed me beer…”
Male 3: “Hey man, did you go to the show…”
Male 1: “Yeah man.”
Male 3: “Was is good?”
Male 1: “Yeah.”
Male 3: “Could you smoke there?”
Male 1: “Naw man…”
Male 3: “Was there beer?”
Male 1: “Yeah man.”
Male 3: “How much did it cost?”
Male 1: “Five and a quarter…”
Male 3: “Twenty-four ounces?”
Male 1: “Yeah.”
Male 3: “Sweet.”

Then Male 1 proceded to walk away yelling about being bored and wanting beer.

This morning the parking lot was packed with cars with Phish, Grateful Dead, and various other jam-band culture stickers.

After paying for the frustrating experience of doing my taxes online, I find out that the IRS has a new program called Free File. They have partnerships with multiple online tax preparation services. Most of them offer free filing for people with incomes of less than $25k-$30k, but a couple don’t have that limit. I wish I would have seen this before today.

Since 2000, I’ve done my taxes online. The last two years I’ve used TurboTax Online and besides a few website quirks I was pretty happy with it. This year, Intuit started using an activation scheme that I feel hampers legitimate use of the software. While it does not apply to the online version, I’d prefer to not give my money to a company that does this.

After looking around, I found TaxAct to be a vaible alternative. With their site you can actually prepare your tax filing form for free and you only have to pay if you want to e-file.

When I signed up for an account, I had to first choose a username and password. After I typed and confirmed my password and clicked ’submit,’ I noticed that the directions said that the password could only contain alphanumerics. I used a ‘~’ in my password but it accepted it anyway. I made sure I could log out and log back in. I could, so I figured everything was fine.

I entered all of my tax information using their convenient questionnaire format (which doesn’t treat you like the idiot that TurboTax’s does). When I was at the last step I had to enter my credit card information to pay the e-filing fee. I entered my info, clicked ‘finish’ and was done.

A couple hours later I recieved an e-mail stating that my credit card was rejected. I remembered that my MasterCard was still listed at my parent’s address so it was rejected because the addresses didn’t match. I decided to deal with it later.

I logged back in, and went to change my payment information. When I got to the credit card entry form, the credit card type select box was broken so I couldn’t select VISA as my card type. I thought that it was probably some sub-standard JavaScript on the page so I tried to log in with IE. When I enter my username and password and click ’submit’ with IE, I get a JavaScript pop-up telling me that only letters and numbers are allowed (even though whatever backend their using supports them). Once again I got frustrated enough to put it off until later.

While surfing around I noticed that Opera released 7.0 final (I had been using the beta). Without thinking about it, I downloaded and installed the new version. A little bit after that I tried logging in again with Opera but this time I got the same message as I did with IE. So, at that point I couldn’t log into the site even though I knew my password. Their password recovery link only e-mails your password hint back to you and the only other option you are given is a support phone number. I really didn’t feel like explaining this situation to a service rep who would probably have no clue what I was talking about.

I wound up reinstalling the beta version of Opera so that I could log in. And then I searched around to see if I could change the billing address of the card I had already entered. I finally found the page, made the change and was done with it.

I still can’t find any way to change my password.

What’s worse than stepping in a puddle getting out of your car first thing in the morning and then having to work for ten hours with a water-logged shoe?

Forgetting to dry the shoe and then realizing that the shoe is still wet on your way to another long work day.

Yuck.

All I wanted to do was sit on my balcony and read but I’ve been driven back inside by the county trucks spraying insecticide into the air. I realize that it is supposed to help control the spread of West Nile Virus but killing off tons of insects seems a little short-sighted. Maybe Cuyahoga County should look into the more species-specific larvicide that Chicago is now using.

The timing turned out okay because I get to catch another episode of Good Eats.