trolly

Rode a trolley in Memphis for the first time this morning. We had a seminar to attend at the Forum this morning, so instead of fighting downtown traffic a paying for overpriced parking, a colleague and myself parked on campus, hopped on a trolley for a buck and got to the seminar easily. The FedEx Forum is just off Beale St and at lunch about 10,000 seminar goers hit Beale. Lines for restaurants were well out into the street. Me? I got on the trolley, went back to my office and had McD's. Normally, I would have settled in somewhere for a couple tall brews, but I have a class tonite so that's a no go. The seminar was more business oriented and about success. The first guy helped build HP up and he was kind of boring, but then Zig Ziggler, which is apparently well known, talked and he was really good. He is a motivator and had some really good jokes. Turns out he is 79 years old and still gets fired up for a crowd. After a short break, one of Zigs disciples, a guy from India, talked and he too was funny and good. Then a self made millionaire investor told us his story, but the bottom line was, to invest and get rich like he did you need to pay 6K for the software and website privileges. His system seemed like it would work, even when the market is down, but I didn't happen to have 6K handy. Finally, and really the main reason I went, Jerry Lewis was up. They started with a video display of some of his younger comedic moments, then he came on and made us all laugh. He is 80 now and looks a lot different than when I used to watch him when I was young, but he is still funny. Overall, it was worth the $225 for a ticket (which my division paid for), but I cut out at the lunch break. The ex-governor or mayor of NY or NYC or something like that was supposed to be there this afternoon along with some other folks I hadn't heard of, so I decided I had seen all I needed when Jerry left the stage.

Got the taxes filed. I have used TaxAct the past few years and do a paperless submission, so the days of making copies and running to the USPO are over! Always a relief to get that done. We are due some money back again this year, but I owe Uncle Sam some from years ago, but we might be about even now (Yeah!). This might be the last year I get money back, since my income as gotten back to where it was before I stopped being a full prof a few years ago. Went through some tough times, teaching part time, delivering USAToday, being a convenient store clerk, teaching Pre-Meds in the Caribbean (man, what a bunch of cry-babies), but I have landed on my feet in Memphis and hope to stay this way a good while!

Nap time, so until later,

Good Day