Getting My Business In Order

Today’s title is both figurative and literal. I really need a few nights at home straightening my household and getting my things in order. The literal aspect of the title relates to Sharpened Stone, LLC. Yesterday I received yet another document from the State regarding Sharpened Stone and its (lack of) sales tax related filings. I think I should speak to a business consultant or accountant soon (have any recommendations?) in order to understand what the hell is going on with this matter and to decide whether or not I deem Sharpened Stone, LLC to be a viable business venture instead of the grief and headache causing venture it has been since August.

Making The Cut
Last night a small group of friends met up at The Marlay for a night of drinking and defriending. The assembled crew had a good time discussing their relationships with their Twitter followers and Facebook friends while making judgements as to whether to keep or dimiss them. I pared down about a dozen Twitter and Facebook connections, today I think I’ll go through my Flickr contacts and do the same.

ITP Flickr Pic
Nope.

Son Of A Fucking Bitch!
When I experienced all sorts of problems with Text Expander, the Mac application I was using to expand shortcut macros into longer strings of text, I moved to Google’s Chrome browser and an extension called Popchrom. Popchrom promised to do almost the same thing as Text Expander and up until this morning I was pleased with its performance.

While starting today’s blog I typed htmla and hit CTRL+SPACE as I have been in order to expand this into the HTML code used for defining a hyperlink… but nothing happened. I tried again, and nothing happened. I opened the Chrome Extensions tab and discovered that all of my Popchrom shortcut macros are missing and there is no explanation as to why. That’s it! I’m giving up on convenience apps / extensions because I’ve come to rely on them and they keep letting me down.

Update: It appears that I am not the only one experiencing this problem. A bug report has been filed today which sounds exactly the same as my issue.

It May Be A Mountain-Top Finish Today
Today is the calculated day that the sun will set behind downtown Atlanta as viewed from Stone Mountain. For the past few years I’ve been climbing the mountain on the calculated dates in order to take shots of the sun setting. I’m considering going tonight, but a few hurdles are in my way.

  • I’m tired.
  • I need to slow down.
  • I need to organize all of my paperwork, including getting all of the Sharpened Stone paperwork in order in case I can consult with an account or business consultant about my options.
  • I have many beautiful photos of the sun setting behind downtown Atlanta and tonight’s weather prediction is for clears skies, which frankly is not the greatest of weather conditions for this shoot.

We’ll see. I will most likely make my decision right as I leave the office tonight.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – meh
Current Music – silence as I decide to what I want to listen
Website Of The Day – While not perfect Tweepi was a valuable tool for helping me weed out my Twitter herd last night.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)
Vegetarian Days – 9, Carnivorous Days – 10
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

October Goals
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Not get fired from my job
– Ride my bicycle no fewer than 200 miles
– Determine the fate of Sharpened Stone, LLC
– Complete at least one iPhone application (seriously, this needs to happen)
– lose five pounds
– eat vegetarian at least one day a week

2010 Goals
– Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 pounds) [update: On July 1 I’ve sadly gained weight; I’m at 203 pounds]
– Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
– Earn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Sharpened Stone.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
– Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online
– Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides
– Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers

The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS Objective-C
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

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14 Responses to Getting My Business In Order

  1. Steve says:

    It would seem to make sense that the State cannot get blood out of a turnip, but we are dealing with a bureaucracy of the highest order, so maybe they have perfected it.

    I wonder if I made the Facebook cut??

    -FP

  2. All those who I know and with whom I interact made the cut. 😉

  3. Barb says:

    You know, I’d say at least 5 years ago, we started a LLC for Allan for bike stuff. All I’ve ever paid is the $30 to the state for the LLC name each year……… never gotten any ppwk at all besides that. Another reason that I’m happy I don’t live in the city of Atlanta.

    I’d say skip the Stone Mountain thing tonight, do you really need more sunset pictures? Stay home for a change & get some shit done so it isn’t bothering you so much…….. (and watch Survivor if you get really bored…….)

  4. No one I spoke to prior to creating my LLC mentioned anything about sales tax and all of the nonsense I’ve gotten. I’m beginning to wonder if I set up the LLC incorrectly and that is why I am going through all of this. If not for the fact that I want to keep my business bank account and need a business ID in order to continue in the Apple Developer program in which I am currently enrolled (though I’ve done nothing with it) I’d be trying to figure out how to dissolve the LLC asap.

  5. Vic says:

    When I was on FB, I always tried to keep my “friends” at about 75.

    I always thought(forgive me if I offend anyone) that a man that has more than 100 FB “friends” is either gay or trying too hard. Just my opinion…

  6. Or is a long-time hasher, Vic. 😉

    While going through my 275 “friends” I realized that about half were hashers I’ve met over the past eleven years and the other half where friends from “other lives” or relatives.

    And 250-275 seems to be my magic number range. I was following about 280 people on Twitter and have about 225 Flickr contacts. Weird.

  7. Martha says:

    I agree with Barb, go home, get stuff done, feel less stressed.

    So has Sharpened Stone, LLC had any income? If there is no income, there would be no sales tax to collect? Correct?

    I’m getting close to 300 FB friends but probably only pay attention to a few dozen. Most are hashers, then CF people, with some high school and family thrown in…I’m not sure how many people I’ve hidden, there are more than a few. I feel bad about de-friending someone and have only done that to someone I broke up with. But there are just some people, that are soooo negative, or whiney, or only post political/religious…

  8. Sharpened Stone has not had any income. However, yesterday’s letter clearly states that I was supposed to be filing sales tax documents regardless. I’m really starting to believe that I effed up the way I formed my LLC and that is the root cause of all my Sharpened Stone related stress.

    The more I think about it, the more I’m coming to the conclusion that my night will be dinner somewhere (perhaps using a Groupon / Scoutmob) and then home to take care of some things which are outstanding (not as in great, but rather as in undone).

  9. Barb says:

    hey Martha – Paulie is almost listening to us????

    I need to “hide” quite a few people on FB, but haven’t, I just scroll thru the news feed really fast & look for people I actually care what they have to say.

  10. Stacy Fox says:

    A “defriending” party has got to be the most amusing thing I’ve heard in a long time! And, yes, I ran straight to my Facebook to make sure I wasn’t one of them…. *phew!*

  11. Martha says:

    Barb, anything is possible. We sent a man to the moon, rescued 33 men from the center of the earth…now a man is (sort of) listening, lol.

    I’d like to treat myself to lunch today (or maybe dinner tomorrow) but I’m not sure what I want…this is why I never go out.

  12. @mindyg says:

    Yes, you do have to send in the forms to the state with all zeros. Usually after filing all zeros for about 9 months they will stop sending them to you. Paperwork, ah!

  13. Barb says:

    Laura – probably way too late – we jsut went to AJs, a New Orleans Po’boy shop over this way. It was quite tasty.

  14. debbie says:

    Haha Martha that’s hysterical …. and true.

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