8 Ways to Sunday

To quote the t-shirt that director Michael Bay wore during production: GIANT FUCKING ROBOTS ARE COMING.

The Transformers were among my favorite toys as a kid. I was actually surprised to learn that they still make new Transformers toys. I guess there may be a market for this movie beyond those strange adult men who collect retro toys in unopened original boxes.

Even though I haven’t touched a Transformer in about twenty years, I was still pretty excited (in an utterly nerdy way) when I heard about this movie. I imagine anyone who ever pitted plastic Autobots and Decepticons against each other on a living room carpet will probably feel the same.

They even got the original Optimus Prime from the U.S. cartoon to voice Prime in the movie! Woo hoo!

I am such a dork.

Today’s word has a split personality: it’s capable of being both horny and pious.

concupiscent

– adjective

1. lustful or sensual.
2. eagerly desirous.

Yow. I think it’s the “eagerly desirous” part that puts this one over the top.

Interestingly, the Catholic Church has its own definition of concupiscence that is both more general and more nuanced. More about that on Wikipedia, too.

Updates

• 1/7/2007 @ 5:50 PM — Seems I’m not the only one who thinks this word is awesome. Somebody is selling t-shirts on CafePress that read, “DANGER: CONCUPISCENT IDEATION.”

Sick of the useless gibberish you get from Babelfish and Google Translator? I’ve found an online translation tool that (usually) manages to actually make sense: Im Translator. Compare the translations of this Spanish-language Wikipedia article to see the difference:

• Google translation
• Babelfish translation
• Im Translator translation

I am so glad that Amazon enabled commenting on product reviews. Now I can enjoy vitriolic Internet flame wars without even having to visit Slashdot or a discussion forum!

Case in point: Read the back-and-forth between E. Keech and Jim Harrigan in the comments on this review of An Inconvenient Truth (the book, not movie). It’s like watching some kind of bizarre postmodern comedy skit, wherein two allegedly educated professional men discuss the issues of the day by sticking their fingers in their ears and screaming at one another full-volume. They’re only reading enough of each other’s comments to figure out which canned talking points to copy-and-paste next.

The United States’ telephone excise tax was established in 1898 as a luxury tax to help fund the Spanish–American War. It’s been a very long time since we were fighting with Spain or phone service was a luxury item, and the IRS has finally caught up with the present.

The phone tax is being abolished in the new year, and American tax payers are eligible for a refund of their last three years of tax payments. If you’ve used traditional, cellular, or VOIP phone service in the last three years, you’ve got some money coming to you from Uncle Sam.

Here’s the catch: you only have one chance to claim this refund, by filing some special information with your 2006 tax return. Phone tax payments are rolled into your phone bill — much like how sales tax is paid at the same time you buy a candy bar or bag of grapes — so you’ll need copies of your last three years of phone bills to get the best refund. If you don’t have or can’t get those records, then you’ll have to make do with the IRS’s standard refund based on your number of exemptions.

The IRS has a FAQ on its website that gives basic instructions on how to claim your refund. More specific guides are also available for businesses and individuals.

(Props: Dallas Morning News)