How much tax do we pay from the moment we get out paycheck? Of course that is after taxes too! On the average we pay half of what we make on taxes. I have written about taxes before -it was about a phone bill -there were at least nine different types of taxes on one bill; which is not unusual. You can check any of your bills and you can see that there are many types of government and private taxes collected from you.

The reason I came back to this topic is not because there is something I or you can do to avoid paying taxes or somehow reduce them -maybe to 20-30 percent. NO. But I am writing to say this: we pay taxes to buy stuff -from a bottle of water to a house. But do we really need to pay taxes on stuff we RENT. Let me elaborate.

I rented a piece of equipment from Home Depot last night. I had option of renting for four hours or for twenty-four hours. Regardless of how long and what kind of equipment I rented -I still had to pay the regular 8.1% tax on it. What is that all about? If I had purchased the tool to keep, then I would understand the reason behind it -we all pay tax when purchasing items from anywhere. But when it comes to renting; I am taking it back after I am done. Why do I have to pay tax on that!

It just seems very unreasonable to pay taxes on items we rent. If any, the store should cover the tax. They are renting the tools/items -we have to return them back to the store. And when they are done renting, they will sell it at price and making even more money -of course the tax will be imposed at the time of sale as well (which is normal process) -but renting! Unacceptable!

We all know her -Ms. Marilyn Monroe. From “happy birthtttday to you…” to yes we do “…like it hot”. She is the one of the prettiest woman of 20th century. We are at the beginning of the 21st century and got about 93 more years to find a woman for this one.

I mean every century should have one person for every field/description/word/magazine, you name it… such as in Time magazine -they have “person of the year”, “person of the decade -I think” and “person of the century” -right? Well I am not sure about the last one, but you get the idea. Who was it for the 20th century anyways? I probably Google it and find out who it is, but time is not on my side these day.

First I wanted to write ‘agendas’ each and every day -I did- but it only lasted so long. Now I do it maybe once a week or 3 every month. Then I started to podcast -Torkpodding- as I say; and that one took more time than writing an ‘agenda’ -so I dropped that doing every day and contemplating about Torkpodding once a week.

Any how to get back to what I originally started talking about -we need to find a woman for this century. I am thinking we can start by
year->decade and then move on to the century one -since I am not sure if I will be alive by the time 22nd century get around. Some one else can sit down and decide if there was a woman for 21st century then. But at least we can start the process -I think they already have though: some magazines already have most beautiful and sexiest woman of the year since this century started. But none like MMM -so far.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see who will be the one. So far my vote is on Charlize Theron. But hey you can have your choice -for now she is mine.

So just you understand the technology behind all your drop-calls, you must come into understanding the companies that provide you with the “incredible” service. This is an issue almost everyone I know has with their cell company. No matter who is providing you the “service” or whether you are getting “rollover” or “more”, the reception is always the same: crappy. For example, I cannot get a single bar inside some buildings, underground parking lots, elevators or even the 18th floor of a tall building.

This might not be an issue for most of us. We have become ‘used’ to this. It is normal now-a-days to have a few dropped calls. No one complains anymore -it is that rampant. I am one of those who have gotten ‘used’ to this normal cell reception issue (if that is the word I can use). But then I start reading some articles about how good the reception is in other countries, such as in South Korea and Japan; and Europe. Then I tell myself why we shouldn’t have the same privilege as the Europeans or S. Koreans? We pay in dollars and more of it with long term contracts with these so called ‘get more’ companies; at least we can expect is a better service -err - reception.

If you have been reading about what kind of issues I have had with my provider, you would understand my frustration -and it wasn’t even about the bars in my phone. My researches also yield some other interesting points. To start with, we have very few cell-stations around the cities -the cell phone signal can not always reach everyone or every place. These big cell service providers rather spend a lot of money on advertising on big celebrities than infrastructure. Most claim to have more bars in more places but the real story is that they all lease cell tower/stations from each other -in couple of years, every cell service providing companies will just synchronize and be as one -not as a company but as far as their service is concerned.

Another road-block in the cell industry is the public outcry and lack-there-of of having new cell towers installed in their neighborhoods. Many people, me included, complain about the reception and the service but yet we deny and resist having the companies build the cell towers in our neighborhoods (I am in favor of it). Perhaps there is a study or some sort of survey that supports all this -but our legislators are not pushing the public or vice versa to accept these plan/ideas and thus leading to better cell signals and bars all over the city/town. In my view the whole concept of having better service and reception is not being debated enough to catch the public eye or the politician/legislators. We only talk and hear about it in articles hidden in page 8 of the technology section of the papers or if one is concerned enough, as I am -to read more and learn that we are behind many countries when it come to cell technology and service.

Ah the stall. Men’s best friend -of course next to the ‘dog’. But this is the place where a man finds a momentary comfort. This is the spot to release. After all we all men are after release. Aren’t we?

Every couple of hours we find ourselves holding the our manhood -facing the stall to release. Though I must admit there are times that letting go feels much better than others. During the regular hours of the day, it is business as usual. There is no rush and there is no pressure.

Then comes the night. Especially the nights when you are out with your buddies gulping those 12 oz. bottles as if there was no tomorrow. The more the liquid the higher the pressure on the internal valves. As the pressure builds inside and your brain is still urging you to fill more liquid into your stomach –sometimes we forget about the pressure for few minutes. While talking about nothing in particular and alot of it -the pressure keeps building to the point of bursting out of our bladder through the stomach -what a site that would be?

Until we can’t take the pressure no more -we rush to the nearest bathroom looking for the same old stall. The good old friend of ours. Once again we are facing the stall holding the power and letting the valve open. The pressure from inside is to intense -the tank is emptied through the pipes leaving us with a euphoric feeling. As if this was the first time - every time.

It is not that the stall is the only place to leak at - but most of the time, it is the only place. If one counts the number of stalls he has faced in the last year alone -it could be hundreds, maybe thousands. Who knows? Or who would have thought that I would make you think about it as you read this.

We are all human-in some cases more than others. When it comes to seeing others’ miseries and sufferings, the bell inside out human brain rings and we spur in action trying to do something to help out the helpless. We have seen that time and again, the helping hand reaching to aid the needy, the poor and the suffering.

There is human in all of us. Even though the bell does not ring all the time or it is just as temporary as the images on TV. The matter of fact is that our memory is short in remembering. Regardless of how or what is happening around us or around the world. It is apparent the as long as the media is attached to the story, so are we. When the media/news decides to cover something else -the stories of the misery and the suffering ends as if it never existed or does not continue to exist tomorrow.

We are all so much busy in our own lives that we can only pay attention to life if it were on our TV screens. Otherwise it does not exist. It is not the we are lacking compassion -it is just the life we live. Last year’s Tsunami and this year’s hurricane are price examples of such occasions. Our feelings of sympathy and trying to help the less fortunate of us rise again and again -when we see them on our TV screen screaming for help. We all rush to our computers and phones to donate what we can to help them.

We all hope that the media is bringing the stories to life as a matter of good faith and not in favor of how they can raise their ratings - but we all know the facts. We all can look in our own cities and neighborhoods and find the same “unfortunate and poor” living in our own city. We don’t need a tragic event to remind us of that. But the reality is -it is only then (an event) that we wake up -though shortly -that people do live in those situations and they do need our help -not just in case of an event, but all through out the year.