I really do wish the following tutorial was not necessary, but recent events have showed me that our education system has clearly failed us. Now that there is an influx of people with absolutely zero life skills arriving in my neighbourhood, I have, as usual, found it thrust upon my shoulders to deliver a new guide on How to Survive Life. Long-time readers will recall this site's brief master class on business travel . The only thing it lacked to be considered the peer of workplace training was an introductory " You should be able to " Goals section, and a instructions at the conclusion regarding how to get your Continuing Professional Education credits. The new and improved courses delivered by A Counting School address those concerns. How to successfully wait in line at a Polish deli Upon completion of this course, you should able to: know how to stand in line to be served in a Polish deli, and not look like a cursed fool. Lesson one: arrival. Upon arrival, gauge the line...

There's actually a rule on how to treat "stolen property" on your US tax return: " Stolen property. If you steal property, you must report its fair market value in your income in the year you steal it unless in the same year, you return it to its rightful owner." Someone reported a robbery? As usual, I remind you that I'm not offering you any tax advice here - hire a professional if you need any of that. Of course, I don't think the target audience for this bit of tax law would even care about my disclaimer - they probably have other issues they should instead be dealing with. What makes this funnier is seeing this featured on Failblog, although I stumbled upon it courtesy CPASuccess - thank guys, that's just epic. Possibly be an epic win rather than a fail depending on how you look at it, though. I was going to say "I don't have the US tax code on hand to verify if this is in fact real," when I first saw it on their blog, but then I skipped...

If you started, say, an engineering program at one given university, could you switch partway through to a Chartered Accountant prep program instead in the same university's business school, and quickly get all the credits you need to graduate in a mere year and a half? One of the regular CA 'commentators' on the blogs and forums, sardaukar - who does an excellent public service in opening people's eyes to the "hell years" that await them as CA students, incidentally - did just that, and people wondered how this is even possible. Since I'm not really into Sudoku, and this is just the sort of "puzzle" I enjoy solving, I'll answer the question for the writer of comment #427. The funny thing about this exercise is that when you review the list of courses needed - I include links at the end of this article - many courses will count for "3 hours" even though they're full year, or half year. That means you can't divide 51 by 3 and...

If there's one question students in university may find hard to ask - even though it echoes in their mind all the time - it's "how much am I going to earn if I get hired by a CA firm?" If you're bold and outgoing and have friends who are already employed, this can be easier to find out. Otherwise, hopefully you'll stumble across either this post or the next forum as you turn to the all-knowing internet for answers. Stefano at mycasite took it upon himself to contribute to our collective knowledge by conducting a public survey - you can see the results here and comment on the outcome in this dedicated forum . He reports that the range of median salaries runs from $29,300 in Winnipeg to $45,000 in Toronto, with the size of the firm - big four or regional - playing less of a role than some might expect. A fair question you may ask, though, is why there's a 50% increase just for moving over one province. This is explained by the fact that regional pay depends...

One of the many fun things about travelling around the world is finding out the rather different way people do common tasks. Surprises abound, even with something as prosaic as saying "Back in 5 Minutes." At least, that's what I assume this meant in a Chinese mall. Similarly, the sales staff embrace different sales tactics, particularly depending on where you find yourself. There were three examples which stood out. Hard ball haggling At most markets and stores were haggling can happen, it's traditional for salespeople to lower their last price if you're walking away after a bit of haggling. How odd to have the staff who will play hardball. You try and get a better price, but they don't want to budge. So you leave - and they call after you twice, each time saying, "no, I'm not lowering the price any lower." Sure, well thanks. Your sales pitch adds nothing to the conversation, bye. You walk away a third time only to get called again. "Ok, fine...

In Matthew 7, Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’" I was stunned speechless as I pondered this verse anew recently. Think of the judgment day. Think of being in the very Presence of God. Think of talking with God. O, the depth of self-deception, to actually view God, to actually speak with Him, and to STILL BELIEVE that you are a Christian, but you are NOT. Isaiah fell on his face as dead. John the Baptist declared he could not even touch Jesus' sandal straps. The lost argue with God and point to their prophesies, exorcisms and mighty works, never pondering infinite Holiness and Glory before their face. Jesus points...

Completely random promotion: check out My Life is Polish - the site is hilarious, particularly if you are of Polish descent. If you're not, I recommend keeping a bookmark to Google Translate's Polish to English engine to get some of the jokes painfully true stories. Example: Today, my mom poured water into our shampoo bottle and said "no to wystarczy do konca tygodnia". MLIP " The "punchline", automatically translated by Google is " no it is sufficient to the end of the week ". Close, Google, but the correct translation would be "now it will last until the end of the week." You get the idea regardless, but I submitted a correction to Google anyway. It'll be interesting to see if they fix it down the road. Some work even if you don't speak the language though: " Today, I realized that all of my closest friends have been forced to memorize at least 3 words in polish. By me. I quiz them every couple of weeks and get angry when...

I once alluded to instances of ignorant rants being granted precious space in newspapers. The most recent guilty party was written by a Toronto Sun columnist who misunderstands what "smart meters" are supposed to accomplish. Before you ask why I bothered with the Sun, I must explain that I'm willing to read pretty much any newspaper if you give it to me for free. It's in some ways a bad habit, although I've learned to fight it by skimming over the worst whiners. I'm exposed to enough poorly thought out thought processes as it stands when I travel by air. Who was, after all, the genius who designed this sign at O'Hare? Closer to home, an angry letter writer lauded this column , blasting the provincial government of Ontario for having the audacity to try and get people to conserve energy for all the right reasons. The angry protests about forthcoming doom caused by power prices going up by a fraction of a penny was simply too much to take. Let's not talk...

And by "vitamins" I mean, "topics to write about." I had a very good university professor who shared opinion pieces and rants to the editor which were full of flaws - usually due the fact that the people submitting the articles did not have a clue about what they were talking about. After we saw one particularly egregious example, I asked if he considered writing a letter to the editor pointing out the mistakes. The answer was no, "life's too short." And once you're a professor with tenure, flying to your country's capital on a weekly basis to testify before Senate committees on This Important Topic and That Giant Failure Committee, it makes sense. As a student, I had time to complain, and writing poured forth. These days I'm starting to pick my battles more, but sometimes you'll see that completely insane rant that screams to you, "this is stupid, and the many levels of "wrong" must be exposed with the burning light of knowledge...

Below is Conan O'Brien's statement about moving the Tonight Show to 12:05 AM instead of 11:35 which has been it's timeslot since the show started way back when. I have a feeling this is just the beginning of a long battle! Hopefully FOX smarts up and picks up Conan for their network! People of Earth: In the last few days, I’ve been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I want to start by making it clear that no one should waste a second feeling sorry for me. For 17 years, I’ve been getting paid to do what I love most and, in a world with real problems, I’ve been absurdly lucky. That said, I’ve been suddenly put in a very public predicament and my bosses are demanding an immediate decision. Six years ago, I signed a contract with NBC to take over The Tonight Show in June of 2009. Like a lot of us, I grew up watching Johnny Carson every night and the chance to one day sit in that chair has meant everything to me. I worked long and hard to get that opportunity, passed up far more...

To say that the mPower Emergency Illuminator is a flashlight is like saying a Rolex is a watch. Granted, it is a true statement, but this mPower Emergency Illuminator is like the flashlight of the gods. Well, it was designed by the car gods, and, by that, I mean, Porsche. Porsche Design Studio equipped the mPower with two widely available CR 123 3 volt lithium batteries. But what makes this flashlight the tops is it also includes a “groundbreaking reserve lithium battery with a shelf life of at least 20 years”. That’s right, a shelf life of 20 years. I have no idea how long of an actual shine you would have with this, but dang, that’s 20 years! Gilligan and his friends could have used this. By the way, he could have charged some electronic devices like mobile phones, since the device has an accessory USB connection. Maybe that’s how the castaways of Gilligan’s Island listened to that radio all those years. Am I the only one who ever noticed that the batteries of this portable radio never...

So as this season of Idol comes to a close, I think we will be losing a great judge and the show all together... There's gonna be no show without Cowell. "American Idol" judge Simon Cowell said on Monday he was leaving the top-rated Fox TV show at the end of his contract in May 2010. Cowell told TV reporters in Los Angeles that he would be launching his own The X Factor" singing competition show on News Corp's Fox in 2011. "American Idol," whose 9th season opens on Tuesday, is the most-watched TV show the United States. "I am confident it will continue to be the No.1 show," Cowell said. Fox renews 'Glee' for a second season... Fox says it has picked up its music-themed drama series "Glee" for a second season. "We've loved 'Glee' ever since it was a pilot script, so it's been an incredible thrill to watch the show take root and see audiences embrace these characters in such a huge way this season," The...

Well, Welcome to 2010! Hope this year's gadgets are just as exciting as last years! Here is the first one of the year! Tiny screens to watch your DVDs on are nothing new. Many cars come with them packed into them to keep the kids in the backseat entertained. Well this one is a palm sized one for you to carry around. It’s definitely smaller than having to carry around your laptop in order to watch a DVD while you’re trying to kill some time somewhere. Whether or not you’d prefer a larger screen and sacrifice lightweight portability is of course a personal preference issue though. This DVD player has built-in speakers, as well as coming with a pair of earbuds to discreetly listen to the DVD. It also has an anti-skip feature to make it possible to watch your favorite DVDs when your ride isn’t exactly smooth. The TFT LCD screen measures 3 and ½ inches. It also has an integrated stand that adjusts for multiple viewing angles. There’s a USB port and memory card slot so you can view pictures...

This is the format of your new Dish! Every day, there will be an opener post that will give you a random story, then at 8 AM, your regular dish post will be up! The Dish will contain between 5-10 celebrity related stories, that's not much different. A few of the stories will also include a graphic. I will also post breaking news updates when I'm near a computer. Each story will be around 2-3 paragraphs long but will sometimes be extended pieces. Enjoy! Official says no charge yet against Jackson doctor... The Los Angeles prosecutor's office on Friday said it has not yet decided whether to charge Michael Jackson's doctor with a crime in the pop singer's sudden death by cardiac arrest last June. "We have nothing pending. No decision has been made and nothing has been filed," said a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office. She declined further comment. Earlier on Friday, celebrity website TMZ.com cited unnamed law enforcement sources...