The Syndicate

Long Con wrote:

Epignosis wrote:

Long Con wrote:On the Syndicate, Walter White

Yeah yeah, BR just reminded me - that was on Revolution Mafia.

By the way, I don't know if you are aware, but Little Tiger posted over there recently.

Long Con wrote:On the Syndicate, Walter White

Why Sloonei?

I'm a human who eats cows.

This little guy.

Keys are stupid.

In games where you have the firepower of the Romanian army, you can't blow the door down. Or unscrew it. Or pry it open.

You need the key.

And in some cases, any key you find will work. What cut rate security system is this?

nijuukyugou wrote:

Epignosis wrote:Ninja, who has been your favorite coworker?

Anyone but that asshole in M11.

Epignosis wrote:Ninja, who has been your sexiest coworker?

Anyone but that asshole in M11.

That poor old man who comes from Sandhoke?

Good thing I'm in M10.

Ninja, who has been your favorite coworker?


























Ninja, who has been your sexiest coworker?

Have you ever been on a plane?

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:

Epignosis wrote:Favorite Kansas song?
Favorite Yes song?
Favorite Echolyn song?
Favorite Tears for Fears song?

I can't name any other than the two enormous radio hits. Between those, Dust in the wind.

Remedy this please.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:Close to the Edge (might be my favorite prog track period)

Can't complain with that one.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:Never heard of Echolyn. Any recommendations?

Mei

Or their latest.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:Everybody Wants to Rule the World. I love Tears for Fears.

Favorite Kansas song?
Favorite Yes song?
Favorite Echolyn song?
Favorite Tears for Fears song?

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:I am sure Billy Budd is a perfectly good book. When I think about it though, all I see is color-coded highlighting and Scantron sheets.

Billy Budd sucks. That's because Melville wrote it.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote: i just bought a flute though, i look forward to annoying my neighbors.

What do you plan to do? Beat them with it? Parade around in their front lawn in nothing but your underwear doing "Thick as a Brick?"

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:

nijuukyugou wrote:6) Least favorite school subject and why?

english (hi Epi ). learning the mechanics of the language is cool, i can dig that. but the reading comprehension portions which forced me to analyze novels instead of merely read them (especially when unique interpretations were discouraged) were always infuriating.

Sounds like you had shitty English teachers. Analysis happens on its own if actually read the fucking novel.

Golden wrote:I loved loved loved Octavarium, the first Dream Theater album I bought...

The second I got was a Dramatic Turn of Events. It was a disappointment. I just found it boring.

You need Scenes from a Memory and Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:RYM Game #39 (Watchmen themed)

You don't say?

I recently listened to my favorite Radiohead, (OK Computer). What is your favorite track from that album, and to what character in the "Paranoid Android" music video do you most relate?

XthAtGAm3RGuYX wrote:-Not any time soon. Kids are fucking expensive.

What? No they're not.

Just give them some bread and water.

Publix: Where Shopping is a Pleasure

One of the few instances that a company's slogan is absolutely true (although it was false for a year or so- when Simon was a little guy, he would always throw up when I took him to Publix).

Amazing grocery store.

ika wrote:19) Maybe. Do we have side by sides to compare :P

vs.

Do you like me?

G-Man wrote:

Epignosis wrote:

G-Man wrote:

fingersplints wrote:I had a feeling that was going to be the news Congratulations!

Thanks. We're happy. I actually gave my wife a deadline for conceiving by my birthday. As that deadline approached, I was going to tell my wife that I would give us to the end of the year. Turns out, the original deadline was all we needed.

Epignosis wrote:

G-Man wrote:Since my time is just about up in the Interrogation Room, I will come clean with the big announcement. We spent most of last weekend and this weekend running around to tell family members that...

My wife and I are having another baby!

Name him Gomez.

And if it is a girl?

There's a very famous girl named Gomez.

And she's a ho-bag who dated Biebs. Yeah, I'm really going to name a kid after that!

No no no! Mrs. Gomez Addams!

Come on man! I would never advise you to name your child after a Justin Bieber kisser!

G-Man wrote:

fingersplints wrote:I had a feeling that was going to be the news Congratulations!

Thanks. We're happy. I actually gave my wife a deadline for conceiving by my birthday. As that deadline approached, I was going to tell my wife that I would give us to the end of the year. Turns out, the original deadline was all we needed.

Epignosis wrote:

G-Man wrote:Since my time is just about up in the Interrogation Room, I will come clean with the big announcement. We spent most of last weekend and this weekend running around to tell family members that...

My wife and I are having another baby!

Name him Gomez.

And if it is a girl?

There's a very famous girl named Gomez.

G-Man wrote:Since my time is just about up in the Interrogation Room, I will come clean with the big announcement. We spent most of last weekend and this weekend running around to tell family members that...

My wife and I are having another baby!

Name him Gomez.

Elohcin wrote: I like it. Nice to meet you Galen, I am Tasha.

What? You are Morticia. Silly woman. Trying to trick me into coming into bed with someone who is not Morticia.

G-Man wrote:

Elohcin wrote:Oh my

You know...all my kids are asleep (age 7, 5, and less than a month away from 3) and I am sitting up in my bed waiting to hear what your name is. I must be insane.

Oh mighty G-man, what is your first name, please?

Sorry to be such a tease. My first name is Galen.

Now I'm going to look up all the naughty things you've said on the Internet.

IT'S THAT GUY FROM THE THING WITH THE DINOSAURS MY NEPHEW WAS SCREAMING ABOUT TO ME TONIGHT!

G-Man wrote:Would you like to know what it is?

It's Gomes. Sorry I misspelled your named.

G-Man wrote:No, my name is not Gomez. :P

That's too bad.

Elohcin wrote:Epi - Funny, he reminds me of Fred Anthony a bit and I think that is why I was thinking George. It wasn't til just now as I was about to type this that I remembered it was Anthony's LAST name that was George. Haha. Ah well. Its late and I need sleep. I'm a little out of it.

Nope. It's Gomez.

Elohcin wrote:Oh, and all this talk about your first name starting with a G. You look like a George. Is your name George?

His name is Gomez.

thellama73 wrote:

Elohcin wrote: 1.How old is your daughter?

Why, do you want to ask her out? Creepy.

She was asking for me.

G-Man wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:G-Man!

As a fellow accountant, do you mind detailing where your professional career has taken you thus far? Accounting is actually my second attempt at a career, so I haven't made it very far just yet. I graduated with a degree in Digital Communications in 2006 and used my minor in English Comm to land a PR/corporate communications job. In early 2009, I became a victim of the Great Recession. I was laid off because the company I worked for had to make cuts. They actually tried to find a few positions for me so I wouldn't have to get laid off but nothing worked. So, with 2 and 1/2 years of experience, I had too much experience for entry-level jobs and not enough experience for everything else. I worked a few not-for-me jobs before deciding I wasn't going to find another job in my field. (please, somebody ask me what those not-for-me jobs were- please!)

In January of 2011, I went back to my alma mater on a part-time basis (alumni discount + part-time discount = 1/5 the regular tuition ) while working part-time. At that point I was approaching the age of 27, I was married, and my wife and I were about to discover that we were going to have a baby. I did a 2012 tax season internship with a mid-state CPA firm and really enjoyed it but they did not keep me on after the internship ended. I still had another year of school to go, so I figured I would keep in touch with them and intern again the following tax season.

While looking for part-time work to keep the home finances in order, my uncle found out that the small business he used to be co-owner of was in need of a fill-in receptionist while the current one was out on short-term disability. The business was five minutes from my house and it was easy work. I wasn't crazy about answering phones again (please, please ask about why I didn't want to answer phones!) but I sucked up my pride and took the work. Less than a week into the job, the owners called me in for a meeting and said, "You're going to school for an accounting degree, right?"

They're a small, small business- we're talking less than 20 employees- but the woman who was doing their accounting was also doing everything else internal (payroll, HR, billing, bidding, job quotes, etc.). She developed a knack for the bidding a spec work and was well beyond her capacity as an accountant (only an Associate's degree- not bashing, just saying she was past her skills). They were looking to hire someone to take over the accounting so she could expand her bidding work to bring in more and larger projects. I asked for some time and they kept me on to do half of the accounting work after the original receptionist came back.

Come Fall, my college has an Accounting Night where CPA firms, state agencies, and the Hershey Company come to look for accounting recruits. I asked my employers to give me until then to make my decision. I was torn between the CPA world, which I was well-suited for, or the small business world, where I would be the entire accounting department with a lot of freedom and control but also a lot of responsibility. When Accounting Night came, the CPA firm I did the internship with said they were only looking for an intern and they were not planning on hiring anyone after the upcoming tax season. That made my decision easy. Several of my professors tried to talk me out of taking the small business gig. One even told me that, because I was his best student at both my college and his other adjunct teaching gig at Villanova, he could make a call to his old friend at PWC and secure me their summer internship at the regional office if I so desired. I declined.

So now I'm coming up on two years into my role at the small business. For me, it has been great. I was burnt out after going back to school and, while I loved the tax and audit work I did for the internship, part of my decision was also for my family. I missed a fair amount of my daughter's first year and a half of life because I was taking classes, working odd hours, and ignoring the rest of the world to do homework and projects. I didn't want to become Ghost Dad come tax season and I didn't feel I had the energy to take prep courses for the CPA exam.

At work, my title is Controller but I am the entire accounting department. The company had done zero financial analysis for about five years and their books, while free from any fraud-like ickiness, were in rough shape. Expenses to the wrong expense accounts, liabilities being credited into expense accounts, and few if any adjusting journal entries to properly reallocate revenue between the appropriate revenue accounts. It took about a year to set that straight. I also helped them solve some cash flow issues and developed a cash flow report that projects our cash needs a month into the future based on A/P invoices on the books, order we've received, and orders with shipping dates yet to come in. The owners also have two other ventures that I run the books for. One of those two could potentially take off if they can finalize a few final sticking points and ink a three-way contract with a major telecom company and an electronic part manufacturer.

Since I'm the highest ranking accounting person at the company, I'll never be able to get my CPA license if I stay with them. But overall, it's a good use of my skills because I get to work on a lot of different little projects while also doing some monotonous data entry. As soon as we get a little bigger though, we'll need another office minion and I'll have more time to spend in my geeky spreadsheets doing financial analysis. I've mastered the art of cash flow analysis and this year my goal is to tackle the profitability of the different 'divisions' of the work that we do (calibration, trouble call service, quoted work).

Maybe once I have five years experience I'll take a look at what else might be out there. My work is broad enough that I have seen every accounting function a small company could have, so I should be able to move up into any number of departments elsewhere. There's an outside chance that I could become co-owner of the company at some point, which could convince me to stay. Otherwise, I know that (as someone who is completely overhead for the company) I have a firm ceiling on what I'll be able to earn if I try to stick around forever. I want to provide for my family, so if that ever becomes an issue, I wouldn't hesitate to play the field.



In terms of the accountant career selection dilemma, what's your opinion: public, industry, or academia? Why? For me, industry was the way to go but my situation was different. If you're young and fresh out of college (for the first time) and you were a B+ or better student in your accounting classes, I see no reason not to go or the CPA. Once you get it, you can rise in the ranks at a CPA firm or take any number of positions at companies larger than mine. Either way, it's worth it to burn yourself out a little pursuing the CPA. Once you have it, you can quit the public accounting world whenever you stop liking it.

I was a little turned off by some of my accounting professors' opinions. I constantly heard "we're training you to become CPA's, not bookkeepers" and one even tried to make me feel guilty about not pursuing the CPA. Maybe I'd consider becoming an adjunct later in life but I don't see any point in entering academia for accounting if you don't have any real experience. Auditing courses were especially frustrating because it was all about theory and why we look for certain things and why we run certain tests but we never actually learned how to audit. All of my professors had at least 15 years in various accounting professions before entering academia.

Students who are not at least averaging a B+ in the accounting courses probably aren't cut out for the CPA world. That's just the surly opinion of a crusty old fart who was appalled by the lack of a work ethic some accounting students possessed when I was in class with them. Who wants a C-level accountant doing their taxes?



Most ridiculous and/or frustrating moment with a client or co-worker? Most rewarding? I get frustrated every time I have to explain nitty-gritty accounting things one of my bosses who thinks there's no difference between being a business owner and a businessman. For instance, he spent two weeks convinced that net income should equal cash and would not let up on me until I agreed with him (I never did). Concepts like deferred revenue and other technical terms that you and I would understand in a heartbeat trip him up. It presents a unique communications barrier for me to overcome. Good thing I was in communications before! We make it work though.

Most rewarding happens every time I finish a project that makes a difference. Our weekly report has really helped the owners understand the business side of the company a lot more. I've also revolutionized how we do pricing for calibration customers, how we track employee productivity (soon going to take that into account when handing out bonuses), and we're doing some simple financial analysis (I called our monthly revenue reports Time Period Summary Reports, or TPS reports for short ).

I know, my questions are lame. :P
Not lame at all. Keep them coming!

Your responses so far have been standard and poor.

Well, in light of these shocking and unfortunate revelations, I am unable to extend an offer to you at this time. However, we'll keep your application on file and contact you if anything changes.

S~V~S wrote:Almost every game used to have a civ ninja~ they have fallen out of fashion, I guess? Maybe if we bring them back, we might see more civ wins.

Like in WWE?

Oh wait.

Distance is the greatest birth control.

For some of us, anyway.

You are two creative forces. What is the conflict like between the two of you when you disagree on a creative decision?

How did you meet and know you wanted to be together?

Does Long Con scream "rabbit8, rabbit8" in bed?

Ricochet wrote:

Epignosis wrote:What is your favorite Echolyn song?

I haven't listened to them in a long while. I liked mei a lot, but obviously as a whole.

My favorite.

How old are you?

What is your favorite Echolyn song?

Ricochet wrote:Because I'm not used to entertain people with my playing, on the spot at least. The classical programme I usually prepare is more sophisticated and it wouldn't make a great light music session when guests are in the house and would like me to play something for them. I can't improvise. I don't know easy tunes by heart. I can't play Firth of Fifth. I don't even play romantic classical (like Waltzes by Chopin) that much to find it easy to pick something to please somebody with that. I prepare each one of my recitals and concerts as best as I can, but otherwise I pretty much sound like shit in my study until I achieve that.

This fascinates me, because I can play "Firth of Fifth" (piano and guitar). I can play "Blue in Green" (piano and guitar). I can improvise, alone or with a group. I am very comfortable just sitting down and playing for people.

But I can't read music. Sure, I can tell you what key a piece is in, and I can tell you what note is what, but beyond that, it's a mystery to me. I'd have to name all the notes first just to identify even a simple chord. Reading the treble clef and the bass clef at the same time? Forget it. I have tried so many times to learn how to read, but each time I just wind up memorizing all the exercises.

Why do you not like playing for people?

Boomslang wrote:5) I want BTS with Vomps. Because I have no idea what's going on in that head.

I've been bad with Vompatti before. Having BTSC with him won't enlighten you any more than you already are.

Canucklehead wrote:

Epignosis wrote:You're at Duke?

Elohcin and I live 90 minutes from Durham.

North Carolina represeeeent!
Are you guys from here originally, or are you transplants?

I am from Fayetteville, born and raised. Eloh is from Orlando. I met her online in 1999.

Would you be interested in meeting up at some point?

You're at Duke?

Elohcin and I live 90 minutes from Durham.

THANK YOU.

Your post has made veganism a realistic lifestyle choice for me. From this moment forward, I will only wear vegan socks and use vegan nail clippers.

What is your favorite section of "The Waste Land?"

Canucklehead wrote:

Epignosis wrote:

Canucklehead wrote:The 17th century is fascinating to me for many reasons, but I'm particularly interested in the way that the literature of the period (lyric poetry in particular, but also drama and other forms) wrestles with and thinks through notions of community, sacramentalism, and the hermeneutic limits of the (literal and metaphorical) body in the wake of a religious reformation which attempted to fundamentally disrupt people's understanding of and relationship to these things.

You don't have any idea what you're talking about, do you?

No, not really, which is why I'll be spending 6 years of my life reading and thinking and writing about these questions and trying to figure it out. What's the point of studying things you already understand?

I like this person.

Canucklehead wrote:The 17th century is fascinating to me for many reasons, but I'm particularly interested in the way that the literature of the period (lyric poetry in particular, but also drama and other forms) wrestles with and thinks through notions of community, sacramentalism, and the hermeneutic limits of the (literal and metaphorical) body in the wake of a religious reformation which attempted to fundamentally disrupt people's understanding of and relationship to these things.

You don't have any idea what you're talking about, do you?

Hope that the venue doesn't cancel on you two weeks before the wedding?

Seriously, I didn't really plan anything. Eloh did.

zeek wrote:

Epignosis wrote:Would you like my advice on marriage?

Don't do it?

That's not a proper answer to my question.

And the best advice I can give is this: Be a good forgiver. And never treat your spouse worse than you would a stranger. That's easy to do, but if you can just keep in mind, "I would never treat a guest like this," it helps to keep your attitude in check. Life isn't perfect though, so be a good forgiver.

Best wishes.