Chicago MMXII

http://www.letterstosantachicago.com/

SCHEDULE
6:00PM guest improvisers OLIVIA WILDE & AIDY BRYANT
6:30PM Skyping from Dublin GLEN HANSARD
9:00PM JEFF TWEEDY
10:00PM JEFF TWEEDY LIVING ROOM CONCERT AUCTION
11:00PM guest improviser FRED SCHNEIDER
12:00AM KIM DEAL
12:00AM Cecily Strong joins the cast until 3:00AM
1:30AM guest comedian FRED ARMISEN
2:30AM JC BROOKS & THE UPTOWN SOUND with FRED ARMISEN
4:30AM MIKE KOSINSKI
5:00AM TBA
7:00AM BONNIE PRINCE BILLY
10:00AM STEVE ALBINI interviews NATE SILVER
12:00PM JENNY GILLESPIE
2:00PM ROBBIE FULKS
4:30PM THE BLISTERS

I'll try to get an 8:30 a.m. photo of Will Oldham and Nate Silver for the "famous people you wouldn't expect to see together" thread.

Pretty sure the escapees are just lingering around in the loop. I plan on being carefree.

@MrFlyNation: If two dudes escaped jail and got from downtown to tinley park they deserve to get away

Eh, they're just a couple of bank robbers. Good speed, escaped felons!

Hey, does anybody know a good accountant?

I live with one.

(she's not CPA tho)

I just spread some holiday cheer and it felt great.

carliffer, I know a couple through work, but I am afraid they'd be really expensive.

I neither want nor need someone really expensive. Basically, I want to know if I can deduct purchases of office equipment from my taxes since I work from home 2-3 days/week. I did some halfassed research and if you have an actual home office, you can take a home office deduction from some kind of homeowner's something taxes blah blah taxezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, but we don't own our home, so I just want to deduct stuff I buy for work purposes. Basically we want a new computer and need a new desk chair and I'm considering getting one of those things that you can use to convert your desk to a sit/stand desk (my poor back, y'all) and it will be a lot more palatable to spend that money if we can take some tax deductions.

So I want someone to 1) tell me if that's a thing and 2) if it is a thing, do our 2013 taxes for us when the time comes.

I was dining in the Marquette Diner at lunch and a news story came on about the escaped felons and all the old school Chicago Marquette Diner denizens cracked the hell up and cheered on the escaped felons.

You should be able to deduct rent that covers the % of your apartment that you use for work and should be able to deduct your home-office stuff, says I.

I'll attach your post to my 2013 tax returns.

i mean if it were me, i wouldn't spend a lot of time trying to figure it out on my own -- i'd go to an accountant. i'm sure R could recommend someone whose services would be reliable and affordable?

Eazy, do you do your own taxes? You deduct working-from-home stuff, right?

carl, I don't think you want the one person I know b/c he's a lawyer/accountant, and IIRC, his rate is $500/hr. (Which maybe you could deduct from your taxes.) I will find out about the other one. She's not a lawyer, so she is probably cheaper.

There is no shitting way I want a $500/hour accountant. I'm not running a multinational corporation here. I'm just trying to deduct a new iMac from my taxes.

That's why I say you probs don't want him.

You were right!

To answer your original question carl, R sez:

Yes. You can bundle it in with other work expenses. Like if you think of that Shawshank Redemption scene when Andy tells the cop he can deduct his gun & holster. If they use Turbo Tax it should pop-up. But really, it's not an issue. You can deduct that, and then expenses that you get when you're searching for a job, too. But make sure they have detailed receipts!

(btw I c&p'd that from IM conversation so sorry if it's a little disjointed)

Ooo really? So phone and internet, too? Is it hard to do one's own taxes if one itemizes them? We've never done that before. Well, I itemized back when I freelanced in the olden days but I was one of those horrible people who handed the accountant a bag of jumbled receipts and hoped he didn't murder me in a rage.

Matt, K8e's husband, is trying to figure out similar things as you are, carla, so maybe you gals should collaborate.

fuck someone pay me a regular wage and i will figure out accounting for you

seriously i'm fucking broke

*kills thread*

http://hrservices.uchicago.edu/jobs/

worked for me

clouds if you are hungry i will feed u

maybe this will feed your soul -- it was in the first page of results for "illustrated jesus"
http://www.studiothree16.com/resources/Jesus+Portrait+BW+450x450.jpg

:)

i'm okay food-wise but i would like to eat your food anyway! i applied for a librarian job at my school, i hope something comes of it. i'm just afraid that my work experience is basically useless apart from more awful telemarketing and retail jobs.

basically i just don't want to call ppl at home or wear tucked-in cotton polo shirts

hear u on that -- been there!! the feeling of wearing a super ugly uniform is singular and unforgettable.
denim shirt that came down to my knees but still needed to be tucked in for some reason: i am looking at you

Feeling you, clouds. I keep just barely squeaking by (thanks, Myopic, for allowing me to pay my rent this month with the thousands of dollars worth of books you totally lowballed me on!) and having noooo luck on the job front. I'm hoping it's just the EOY blues because (above-board) drastic measures may be just around the bend otherwise.

myopic is great but they are sooo stingy w/r/t book buying

Northwestern has its own temp pool, too, for the short term.

And I know someone who teaches piano who's overwhelmed with students, if you can do/fake that.

Hey, there was apparently a murder in the town I work in yesterday! And the escaped felons were in the town next door yesterday and there were police helicopters overhead all day. It is all too much for quiet suburbia.

Good thing you live in the city where it's safe.

http://www.chicagomag.com/Radar/Dish/December-2012/The-Long-Awaited-Second-Location-of-Kumas-Corner-Gets-a-Location-and-a-Scheduled-Opening-Date/

I never liked The Counter very much so I'm as happy to see it go as I am to see Kuma's be there. Since it's in a not particularly cool neighborhood, maybe the wait won't be as long.

I liked The Counter the couple times I ate there, though there's no shortage of good burgers around these days...

666 W. Diversey Pkwy.

pretty fuckin metal

http://chicagoist.com/2012/12/19/cta_train_passenger_struck_with_soc.php

happy commute, everyone!

Typical blue line. Poop socks.

Far too typical, I can't count the number of times I've been poopsmacked on the Blue line.

"Sock Full of Poop" marks the moment when Tom Waits shifted from drunk troubadour to proto-industrial outsider artist, and features some of Mark Ribot's best guitarwork.

why i bike reason #1213999399

Makes sense. Your chances of getting hit with poop on the train are astronomically higher than your chances of getting hit by a car.

Helmet laws came about partly from safety, partly from flying poop.

This is the kind of thing I get with my CCA google alert

Corrections Corporation of America - Daily Trading Report
AVAFIN
Corrections Corporation of America is trading above the 50 day moving
average and higher than the 200 day moving average. The stock's 52 week low
is $20.16 and 52 week high is $36.54. The stock has a P/E ratio of 23.33
and a dividend yield of 1.70%.

Gross

Just keeping an eye open so you don't have to! Also I contacted my state legislators to ask them not to allow CCA into IL. I strongly recommend doing that if you want to feel a teensy bit better about it.

That is a good idea. I don't know if I trust JC to keep out anything that might make him a buck/put somebody in a position to owe him a favor, but it's worth a shot.