A couple of years ago I rented a neat movie from Netflix called Koyaanisqatsi. It is a collection of video footage set to music by Philip Glass (who also wrote Akhnaten which I wrote about in January). There are no words, just a series of video footage of various things, often time lapsed or slow-motion, (rockets, traffic, clouds, factories) set to different instrumental pieces. When I was at the library once last year, I saw the soundtrack was available to be checked out, so I took it home. It’s classic Glass, very repetitive, great music to set a mood. Since doing that movie in the early 80’s, Glass has done a number of other soundtracks for movies including The Truman Show, The Hours, The Illusionist, and Kundun.
Bok Tower and Gardens
Today, Carol, Mom, and I went to see Bok Tower. It was built in the 1920’s by Edward Bok. The gardens were designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr. It is a very nice place with pretty gardens and a really pretty belltower. The weather was absolutely perfect. After we took a guided walking tour and listened to the carillon, we headed down the hill (the highest point in Florida), and had a picnic lunch.
Spook Hill
Today on the way to Bok Tower and Gardens, Mom, Carol, and I went on a search for Spook Hill, a mysterious road where gravity does not work correctly and cars can coast up a hill. We saw a lot of signs to Spook Hill, but as we got closer, the signs disappeared and Spook Hill seemed to vanish even though we knew we were within 0.3 miles according to the last sign.
Once we went to Bok Tower we got better directions and found out that it was right next to Spook Hill Elementary School. There is a sign on the street that explains the legend of Spook Hill and then instructs you to drive forward to a white line on the pavement at the bottom of the hill, put the car in neutral, and let the power of Spook Hill push your car back up the hill to the sign again. There was a van in front of us doing it and the effect must have been so surprising that they coasted backwards right into the curb.
Once it was our turn, Carol did a much better job of driving, but even without touching the gas and in neutral, we coasted right up the hill!
Tax Spreadsheet
Figuring taxes is one of those things that seems like it should be pretty simple, but gets kind of complicated. I have tried coming up with a spreadsheet in the past and always get bogged down in tax brackets, long term gains rates, deductions, and personal exemptions. Since I was changing my withholding allowances this year and the official IRS calculator is so unfathomable, I thought it might be easier to try a spreadsheet again.
The biggest problem is dealing with the different tax brackets. For instance in 2008, the first $8,025 is taxed at 10%, then a 15% bracket kicks in until $32,550 when the rate goes to 25%. If you make $40,000 you pay 10% of $8,025, 15% of $32,550 minus $8,025 and 25% of $40,000 minus $32,550. So I came up with a spreadsheet with five nested IF statements to handle the six different tax brackets (rather than trying some sort of lookup function). Then I had to look up tax brackets and rates for the last few years since each year is different.
Then it was a matter of dealing with qualified dividends and long terms gains which are taxed at 15% (20% before 2003). Unless you have losses in which case it counts against your income (but only up to $3,000 which the spreadsheet doesn’t deal with; you just have to enter a maximum of $3,000). Those amounts, if positive, are subtracted from your income and taxed at a lower rate. Your reduced income is taxed from the tax tables. There are actually a couple of different capital gains rates for lower incomes, but I skipped that part.
So far so good, but I was still getting the wrong answer. That’s because the tax is based on your income in the tax tables, rather than the actual percentage of your income. For instance, if your income was $40,005, you would go into the table for the amount for $40,000 to $40,050. And that tax amount is actually based on $40,025. So I rounded down to the nearest $50 and added $25.
Using the same formulas for every year, I was able to accurately generate my taxes going back to 2001. Then I was able to project forward to 2009 and figure out about how much I would owe or get back next year. I am probably not withholding enough taxes if I want to hit my target of a $200 refund. So I think later in the year I will reduce my withholding.
Jesus Christ Superstar GOSPEL
A couple of weeks ago I read a review of a new take on Jesus Christ Superstar being put on by the Alliance Theater. They took the same music but gave it a black gospel treatment. The paper raved about it saying it was the greatest thing ever. I’ve always loved the music since I was a kid playing the the album we had in the blue cover on my record player. At some point as a grown-up I rented the movie version of it and was horrified at how dated it had become and really a lot of the music was just loud rock and screaming. So it could really use an update to something more modern. I sent Susan an e-mail with the review and within an hour or so she had bought tickets for Valentine’s Day.