D-King

Random thoughts from Daniel King

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Tax Deduction - Donating A Car To A Charity!

Now I've heard everything! Today I came across a recent article talking about donating a car to a charity to get a great tax deduction. That's a new one on me! I was like "What the ....!".

At first I thought it was just plain crazy, but the more I read about the more it seemed to make sense.

According to the article, if you have an older car under say $5000, then it makes more sense to donate it than to sell it or trade it in - the theory being you won't get the full market value for a trade in, but a charity will be happy to give you a receipt for the full market value. That's then classed as a donation to charity and you can then claim that back in your tax calculations.

I'm still not sure I'm convinced, but well, I'll let you read about it and make up your own minds. I'll admit I'm still a little fuzzy on how it works, but I think it's definitely worth looking into further.

It's worth pointing out that if your car is worth over $5000 then you're probably better off selling it on the private market.

What do you think about this? Would you donate your car to a charity to get a tax break?

I guess in theory this could apply to other things too. Perhaps we should all donate our old computers. We sure can't sell them, but perhaps they'd be useful to a charity and we could use it as a tax deduction as well.

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Getting Back Into The NBA

For years, I followed the NBA almost religiously. I knew all the players. I knew which players were in trouble off the court, which ones weren't happy with their contracts, which ones where wanting to be traded, etc. In short I kept up with everything.

Life moves on. I had children and time for sport dried up. I cut my sports back to the UK Premier League and Formula1 and lost touch with the NBA. Last time I gave it any attention was probably in 2003.

Recently I've felt a hankering to get back into the following the NBA? I had lots of questions. Was Shaquille O'Neal still playing? If so with which team (Cleveland!)? What happened to his old partner in crime, 'Penny' Hardaway (finished playing in 2007)? Grant Hill (how on earth did he end up in Phoenix)? Yes that's right, I'm an Orlando Magic fan.

I found all these answers and more on Wikipedia. The Seattle Supersonics moved to Oklahoma City? What?! I've wasted half a day catching up with what I've missed and I'm only just scracthing the surface!

So am I really getting back into the NBA? Probably not, but it feels good just catching up with what some of my 'old friends' having been doing.

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Crazy People Trying To Buy Zhu Zhu Pets

We don't seem to get them over here in Australia and I have no need to buy any, but I've taken note of the amount of people on Twitter who are trying to find where to buy Zhu Zhu Pets Hamsters.

Apparantly these little electronic pet hamsters are the hottest toy for Christmas this year and all the big toy chains are out of them. People are getting desparate and are going from store to store looking for them. The story I linked to above mentions:

people sleeping outside ToysRUs, or camping out at Target, just to buy Zhu Zhu Pets!

Amazing! Camping out to buy a little toy hamster? What? Are these people mad? Especially given that, as the article mentions, they can buy Zhu Zhu pets online.

You won't find me camping out for a toy - maybe a book (when is George RR Martin's next novel ever coming out?), but not for a toy!

Can't they just manage their children's expectations? Sigh, probably easier said than done, I know. But the whole situation just seems a bit crazy, especially as it seems to be articficially generated to a degree (apparantly Walmart has Zhu Zhu pets, but is holding off selling them until they can whip up a frenzy).

What a strange world we live in!

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Bye Bye Mark Viduka

About 5 months ago I suggested it would be a good move for Newcastle United to keep Mark Viduka. How wrong I was!

Of course Newcastle had to release him as part of their drive to bring down their salary levels to be inline with Championship level revenues.

I still think that they should have tried to have kept Viduka, because he would surely have torn the Championship apart. Surely they could have offered him reduced wages? But then again, Mark's probably not the sort to accept reduced wages (I'm talking about from a pride point of view rather than strictly financial).

Anyway, it seems that Mark may have played his last game. The Age is reporting that Viduka still hasn't found a club, won't be playing for the Socceroos and has lost the desire to play:

Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek has all but ended hopes of Mark Viduka making an international comeback, saying the striker has "made up his mind" on his playing career.

and:

Viduka, who was released by Newcastle at the end of the 2008/09 English domestic season, released a statement through his agent last month confirming he had lost his desire to continue playing football.

So it looks like it's all over for Viduka.

I've really enjoyed following his career and I'm happy that he got to play for my club (Newcastle) and I'll miss him. There are times you may want to hate him, but he's got a lot of skill and he was an icon for Australian football.

Bye Bye Mark

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Chessington World Of Adventures

I just stumbled across a post on Chessington World of Adventures that really took me back to when I last visited it. The post covered a trip to the theme park during Halloween and has nice write up and some good pictures. Made me want to visit Chessington again!

I also came across an 'experimental site' which promises to highlight online coverage of Chessington World of Adventures, such as what's said about Chessington on Twitter. Not sure what I think of that idea, but an interesting use of Twitter.

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Newcastle United In Trouble

It saddens me that it's taking so long for Newcastle United to be sold. Until a sale is made, they can't appoint a manager and they can't make decisions about the future of their players. The club should have been cracking on with sorting out the mess they've got there and preparing for life in the Championship - instead they are just treading water (or actually they are slowly sinking). If they don't sell the club soon, they'll be in real danger of slipping down to the next level. The situation is so bad that the ex Prime Minister Tony Blar has lamented the situation at Newcastle and players such as Steven Harper and Nicky Butt are coming out with comments that reflect this. The only bright note is that Joe Kinnear will not be returning as manager. Finally Newcastle did something right!

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Bad Customer Service At Bed Bath N' Table

I know I haven't posted much on Tumblr - I've been meaning to get back into it, but I've been just too damn busy. Anyway, this is just a quick one to help out a friend who had a bad customer service experience at Bed Bath N' Table.

Man, that sucks. I can see his point - to be told one thing and then another is just not on. Shame on you Bed Bath N' Table. I'd say I'd stop shopping there, but I don't shop there anyway! You're more likely to find me in Myers when I've got to buy that sort of stuff. Anyway, I definitely won't use them now.

Well, I hope to be back soon with some new posts. I keep thinking I'm going to post some song lyrics, but I'm never at the computer when their in my head.

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Newcastle United Relegated From The Premier League

What a terrible weekend! Newcastle United were relegated from the Premier League - I still can't believe it. The writing was on the wall for several months, apart from the brief moment of hope when we beat Middlesborough, but it's hard to accept the reality of it. It seems that the club is keen for Alan Shearer to remain in charge of the club. While I love Alan Shearer, I'm not sure he's got the experience to manage in the Premier League. If we'd stayed up, I'd have been thinking another option may be better. However, I think the step down to the Championship means Shearer can be afforded the chance to learn his trade at Newcastle. Not that it will be easy, but I think he's the right choice for now. Of course, most of the players will have to go. Deciding which ones will be a major task. Obviously Michael Owen will go. I'd actually like to see Mark Viduka stay, big salary and all. He'd terrorise the Championship and score for fun, just like he did when he was at Celtic. At his age, he may be happy to stay. Of course, he'd have to want to stay or he'd be rubbish. That's all for now, I'm off to cry some more...

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Nick Earls - The Thompson Gunner

Just finished reading The Thompson Gunner by Nick Earls.

I love Nick's novels and for the most part I was satisfied by this. It had funny moments (a Nick Earls trademark). The shifting time zones which increasingly overlapped was brilliantly written. You could really see Meg (the lead character) losing the plot as more of her story came out.

However, I found some of the Northern Ireland happenings a bit of a stretch. Would an 8 year old really be included by people storing / moving weapons? I know Nick came from Northern Ireland himself at the same age that Meg does in the novel and I've never lived there, so it could be that it was like that, but it didn't quite ring true to me.

That aside, the rest of the novel was great, especially the shifting timezones and the feel of what it's like to go on a long tour (obviously based on his own experiences as an author).

I was also intrigued by the reference to a writer partnering Mal Meninga in the celebrity canoe race - that was Nick Earls himself. At least Nick Earls has indeed partnered Mal Meninga in a celebrity canoe race.

Anyway, it was a good read, but could have been better.

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Trying Tumblr Out

Right, so I'm going to try this Tumblr thing out. Seems like it'll be fun.

I have various websites in other places, but they are all tightly on a theme - Tumblr will give me an opportunity to ramble about any of the topics that won't fit elsewhere (which is pretty much everything).

I looked at WordPress.com but Tumblr seems more relaxed (ie simpler, more suited to firing off quick posts).

Anyway, I'm looking forward to using Tumblr...