In Bowling Green for a conference.  I always enjoy seeing and spending time in new towns, so this is kind of nice.  Some highs and lows …

Odd.  The area I’m staying in is a business / convention center yet the wireless absolutely sucks!  There is no 3G, and any WiFi’s are spotty at best.  And the hotel itself has the bare minimum of infrastructure needed to claim to have wireless service.  C’mon guys, people are going to expect these things when coming to this area now.

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How is it that people who show up late for conference sessions all have these magic cell phones whose ringers can’t be turned off without first setting off said ringer 5 times at full volume?

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Bowling Green, at least parts of it, must have some serious restrictions on business signage.  There aren’t a lot of free-standing custom signs out on the main thoroughfares in this area.  Instead you have the single list of businesses at the entrance to a complex.  Nice for the residents I guess.  Less cluttered, more tasteful.  It’s not very traveler-friendly though.  When I’m driving congested, unfamiliar streets in the rain, I’m not just looking for the name, I’m watching for the familiar logo and colors.

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This town seems to have more drivers with their heads up their a__ per capita than the average Kentucky town.  Not necessarily violations in progress.  Just slow on the decision-making, rolling along at 20 while trying to remember where they were going again.

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Visited our Bowling Green foster care office this afternoon.  Again I always like doing this when I have the chance.  It’s a good opportunity to put faces with names, and as a support staff member, it’s great to see first hand the front-line folks working hard at our organization’s mission.

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Before I left the weatherman was talking of harsh cold, so I grabbed my winter jacket.  Turns out what I really needed was a tarp of some sort.

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Man, I love Holiday Inn’s Priority Club.  The ease of reservations and check-in alone is a total bonus.

So, the Get Motivated conference is in the books.  Great day.  Great people.  I really enjoyed it.  Took pics with my phone, but unfortunately while we got great seats, we were so close that the spotlights overwhelmed my poor little Motorola.  Anyway, some reflections …

Leon Patillo:  I did not know that he used to be the lead singer for Santana.  He’s just always been a Christian artist to me.  Of course outside of Smooth, I’m not a big Santana guy.  Anyway, he did a good job with a song here and there to break things up.  I appreciate that he didn’t feel the need to embellish the National Anthem, although the conference added in some unnecessary pyrotechnics.

Dr. Robert Schuller:  Let me reiterate one of my tweets:  It was just so refreshing to be at a public, secular venue, where the speakers, and artist, felt at liberty to discuss matters of faith.  It was not wall to wall religion, but God came up more than once.  And I’m happy to report that the mention of both God and Ronald Reagan elicited vigorous applause in this crowd.

I was impressed at the Dr’s wit and effectiveness.  Let’s face it, he’s an old-school preacher, and he’s getting on in years.  But he inspired and held the audience.

“When you lose something, never look at what you have lost.  Look at what you have left.”

“Nothing is impossible unless you say it is.”

Rick Pitino:  I think, just for myself, and from talking to some other folks sitting in our area, one of the most intriguing things coming into the day was Pitino’s fresh scandal.  But that’s a long discussion in itself so I’m saving that issue for a separate post.

Pitino is a great speaker and obviously a great motivator.  One neat thing … well first, I realized today that for me, whether or not a speaker is genuine is the key to whether or not I’ll accept their message.  That’s a pretty general truth for most people, but for me it’s a big go / no go test.

The great thing about Pitino is that as he’s talking, and peppering his content with stories about his players from different teams, you can tell that he truly cares about them to this day, and has a passion for what he does and it’s from the heart when he says …

“Being great means impacting the lives of others in a positive way.”

Rudy Giuliani:  I have to admit, I’m a big Giuliani fan.  His highs and his lows have been played out in the public eye, and he’s weathered it all with grace and class.  Today he was his warm and charming self.  And, from a leadership perspective who better to learn from?  In running New York city he was in charge of one of largest enterprises in our nation.  And he led a city, and at times a nation, through the biggest crisis of our age.

My favorite part of his talk:  Like Pitino, Giuliani talked about “relentless preparation” as one of the principles of leadership.  And then he seemed (key word there) to contradict himself when he said that no matter how much you prepare and anticipate, things will change.  But, relentless preparation will help you overcome the unanticipated.  So, now I’m puzzled.  How can you prepare for what you can’t even anticipate?

Well, obviously 9/11 stands as the ultimate unanticipated event of our time.  But RG talked about how he was able to take bits and pieces from other, anticipated situations and put them in play.  They had to evacuate masses of people from Manhattan.  For this RG drew on evacuation plans they had drawn up in the event of flooding in that area.  They were also able to use measures that had been planned for the event of a low-level nuclear detonation in that area.  They had arrangements to procure generators from GE in the even of blackout.  And on it went.  It was really cool to get that behind the scenes look at the mind of a great leader.

No quote, this is a paraphrase – I wasn’t able to get it down verbatim:  Courage is not fearlessness.  The world is dangerous – fear is real.  Courage is overcoming fear to do what you have to do.

Terry Bradshaw:  OK, this guy was a blast.  Not a lot of meat though.  I think his role was just to get everyone reenergized after lunch.  Hilarious from start to finish.  He went through and goofed on pretty much every member of the offense on those great Steeler teams of the 70’s.  He did impressions of them, although outside of Franco Harris and Lynn Swann it’s not like we would have known whether or not the impersonations were spot on.  He dinged Franco for his aversion to being hit, which was a pretty common theme in those days.

He also got a dig in on Joe Montana.  He talked about how Tight End, Bennie Cunningham wanted TB to hit him on short pass routes, but TB liked to throw long to John Stallworth.  He said if Cunningham wanted short passes he should have gone to San Francisco and let Montana throw to him.  Nice one.  I wonder what Joe Montana says about him.

It was all in fun, and he brought it around to say that he didn’t do what he did alone, and none of us does what we do alone.

He also kept coming back to being thankful for what you have.

Zig Ziglar:  This was almost sad.  ZZ has had a fall recently which still affects his memory and leaves him with a bit of vertigo.  So they had to seat him and have his daughter up there with him.  They did a little bit of live talk with her interviewing him, but a lot of Zig’s content we got via a video.  However, since this incident he has been working on a book, Living Life on Life’s Terms.  I’m not in sales so ZZ isn’t quite the guru to me that he is to some.  But, knowing the circumstances, that will probably be one to check out.

I really liked his talk about the things money will and won’t buy.

“I like the things I have that money will buy, but I love the things I have that money won’t buy.”

“You’re what you are and where you are because of what’s gone into your mind.”

Laura Bush:  Here again, I am just a huge fan of the former President and First Lady.  And over time it has become less and less about politics and more and more about the grace they both showed despite being constantly under fire.

As with the others, I really enjoyed her behind the scenes perspective on things that happened during their tenure in the White House.

It was also interesting to hear the combination Mother Hen / First Lady in her.  She mentioned that she had learned from her mother-in-law how to make even the White House a home, and how she felt at peace at night when her whole family was there, safe, and under the same roof.

She talked about being in the White House and sensing not just the ghosts of past Presidents who struggled with their own wrenching decisions, but also the echoes of current citizens exercising their voice.

Finally the former First Lady got to the question I would ask, if I had a few minutes to pick her brain.  How could you stand the things that were being said about your husband on a daily basis?

“It bothered me, but it didn’t get to me.  … I know who I am and I know who George is.”

And that’s really how she comes across; someone with a great sense of herself, exuding grace and class.

Colin Powell:  Yet another inspirational, classy figure who has been a prominent part of recent history.

Funny line.  The General talked about how he is always pressed to say what he misses most about being out of military and political leadership.  Not much, but if there is one thing … “I miss my plane.”  And then he told the story of his first civilian flight after leaving office, and how, by arriving late with no luggage and paying cash he fell under the scrutiny of the TSA Systems he had helped design in the wake of 9/11.

He discussed his approach to transitioning to non-military leadership roles.  This was of interest to me as I have, at times, struggled to come to grips with these same differences.  I was surprised to hear him say that he really approaches it all the same way, because that’s all he knows.  And, “Leadership is leadership is leadership.”

He did go on to talk about his basic principles, and I’m sure that, while the principles may be the same, the manner in which he executes those principles changes with the context.

Gen Powell did talk briefly on current events, but didn’t get too controversial.  Although on Afghanistan he advised that if more resources and troops are invested there, they must be sent with a clear understanding of their mission.  I believe he is right, and I also believe that that won’t happen with an administration that hides behind ambiguity.

“A terrorist can not change the nature of our society. … Only we can do that to ourselves.”

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So, as I look back over the list … what a group!  Not just excellent speakers, or motivators, or leaders, or successes in their fields.  These were all people who excelled at all of the above.  And they are all people who were selected and elevated by history.  They were the right leaders, in the right places, with the right tools at the right time.  That’s the “always be ready because you never know” lesson for us all.

Also, these weren’t leaders who’ve simply experienced unmitigated success.  For most of them, we’ve watched their struggles with adversity on the evening news, and we know of their blemishes.  And it’s the grace that they carry through it all that has truly endeared them to us.

To me that was the common thread.  Grace.  And class.  With each of them, before they’d even said the first word you could just feel it.  These qualities helped make them the successes that they are, but I’m sure that their pursuit and perseverance through the things that they are noted for has also made those qualities stronger.

Overall a wonderful day.  Some of the extras, the hype, and a few sales presentations, I could have done without.  But honestly, to hear just one of these great leaders I would have sat through that stuff.  To get them all in one day was awesome.

… and tiring.  Night all.

So, tomorrow I’m going to a conference that I’m actually looking forward to.  I’d be psyched to hear anyone of these people, but all in one venue … awesome!

And yes, even Rick Pitino.  The guy still knows his stuff.  If I’m going to write off anyone who has done something stupid I might as well not even get out of bed in the morning.  But wait, that’s my idea and I’ve done stupid things, so I guess I can’t do that.

So anyway, tomorrow should be awesome.  Will probably be tweeting some – seems like a good occasion for it.

KY is an off-year state.  We last voted for Governor in November, 2007 and Steve Beshear took office in Jan, 2008.  So, not even a year and a half into the new Governor’s term I was surprised to see that he’s getting ready to announce that he’ll seek re-election in ‘11 and he’s tabbed long-time Louisville mayor Jerry Abramson as his running mate.

It’s interesting.  I think this will be my first KY election where there hasn’t been scandal or serious unfavorables attached to one of the candidates.  Of course, again, the election is still 2 1/2 years away so who can say where we’ll be by that time.  Abramson definitely helps out in Louisville, although being the state’s largest urban center it’s not normally a Democratic candidate’s biggest concern.  And, we already have a Lt Governor so I wonder about the rush to make him a lame duck.

Interesting, but sooooo interesting that I look forward to a 2 1/2 year discussion of it all?  Not hardly.  Hopefully this is just a publicity grab and everyone will quietly get back to work for another year before we start dredging this up in earnest.

What an afternoon I had.  It was a simple plan.  This month both of my plates needed to be renewed, and early next month my DL was up.  Fortunately, in my area the two buildings where these things are handled are only a few blocks apart.  Perfect.  It’s the 10th, I’ll do it early and beat the “last minute” crowed.  And because of my planning ahead  should have time to head out to the range and do some shooting.  Little did I know I’d be all too in the mood for that when the time came.  (Note:  I WAS JUST KIDDING).

I get to the DMV.  Here, DMV = County Clerk’s Office.  Hmmm, sure was hard to find a parking spot.  Walk in.  Hmmm, sure is crowded in here.  Take a number … 60.  View the number ticker on the wall … 24.  Are you kidding me?  By the time my number is called we won’t even have cars.

OK, I don’t normally care for this expression, but it paints the picture succinctly.  It was a white trash bazaar in there.  You’d have swore you were at the flea market and they were having a 5 for a dollar pint flask sale!

I sit amidst the seething mass of humanity.  Lady comes in, her brood in tow and lands next to me.  Turns out she knows the lady on the other side of me.  “Knows.”  Listen to me.  I’m pretty sure everyone in that place but me was kin.

Anyway, they proceed talk across me.  Unwisely I had thought I could simply relocate, but in trying to spot a seat I allowed the acceptable amount of time during which I could just offer to switch to expire.  I’m stuck.  Turns out lady with the brood’s newest baby has every complication known to man, plus a couple that have even the doctors baffled.  But I suspect that last part may simply be a proud parent inflating her child’s accomplishments.

Here’s the thing about lady with the brood.  She’s one of those folks you take one look at and know that they haven’t been two minutes without a cigarette since they were 13.  So I’m pretty sure that this lady smoked during her pregnancy.  Heck, I’m pretty sure she smoked during the conception … think about it … think about it …

Actually, the huddled masses weren’t the worst part.  Well, other than the whole having to be in close enough proximity for long enough that I may yet wind up having to get a Hepatitis shot.  But no, the real culprits were the civil servants.  You know, the ones dipping into the public coffers twice each month.  That’s the rub!  That’s all I can think:  My tax dollars are paying you to do this to me!  I want my money back!

Once extricated from that mess, the DL process was, well, instantaneous by comparison.  That would be the County Circuit Clerk.  Much more efficient, but even better, much more aware that they are in the customer service business!  Well done ladies!

So at last, I’m at the range holding a loaded revolver in my hands and all is right with the world.  My Glock 9 is my main carry weapon because, with its small size and light weight it is super easy to conceal.  However, my Ruger .357 Magnum is a dream to shoot.  So smooth.  Unfortunately I made the mistake of firing that one first.  When I switched to the 9, yikes!  All over the place.

I can’t help but think that if somehow I could have combined some of the days activities, it might have been much more satisfying.  (Note:  I WAS JUST KIDDING.)

I’ve been doing a lot of training for my Fraud Examiner cert. Plus, one day last week I was home sick and watched a bunch of American Greed episodes (my old Finance and Quant prof is in the second half of the embedded episode). It’s fascinating stuff. Almost all of these folks have some lethal combination of intelligence and persuasiveness.

But the interesting thing is that there is some upper limit to their brilliance. They can hatch these elaborate schemes, but they can’t make that one final leap of genius whereby they figure out that their scam will ultimately fail. There are just too many things working against them.

The biggest problem is this: a scam involves receiving money from others for what they believe to be a legitimate purpose; usually a supposed investment or a purchase. But, people are not prone to simply surrender money in any significant amount. At some point they will want to withdraw some of their “investment” or they’ll expect the good or service that they think they paid for. And even after they’ve figured out that it’s a scam, it’s not as if they’ll let go. There is always some kind of paper trail and if it’s enough money for you to risk being sent to prison for, it’s enough for them to spend good resources following the bread crumbs.

One of my favorite stories: A school district employee fabricated invoices for fake vendors and ran them through the district’s payables. She had business accounts set up for the fake vendors so she could cash the checks issued by the school district. She was finally caught when someone ran a program that compared addresses in the system and discovered a number of vendors that had the same address as this lady’s home address. It wouldn’t be super-difficult to do what she did, but it’s not easy either. Some amounts of guile and intelligence would be required. For all her genius in hatching and carrying out this scam, she couldn’t figure out to spend an extra $10 on a PO Box!

And then there’s my old prof. The guy is absolutely brilliant. He taught the toughest classes in the MBA program and yet we sought him out. He was that good. So it’s not difficult to imagine him concocting these schemes and persuading lots of folks to trust him with their money. Yet even his incredible smarts couldn’t seem to remember that Ponzi schemes never last. They may take off like a rocket at first, but eventually the expecations of early investors overcome the supply of new money and it all comes crashing down.

So, they are smart but now quite smart enough.

OK, the weeping and gnashing of teeth continues. Many taxpayers, especially those who use Turbo Tax and other tax prep software feel they are being taxed on the stimulus check that they received last summer. The confusion is understandable, but here’s the scoop on the stimulus, Turbo Tax, who you should be mad at, and why I care:

What was that stimulus check for anyway? It was NOT a pure handout. The check that you received last summer, was an ADVANCE against your refund for your 2008 taxes – i.e. the return that you have filed or will file in the next couple of months. So, let’s say that you ordinarily would have received $1,400 back this spring and you did receive a $1,200 stimulus check last summer. You will now receive only a $200 refund this spring because you have already gotten $1,200 of your refund. Note: This is all built right into the tax tables, so unless you use tax preparation software and pay close attention to your refund / payment amount as you progress through the return, you won’t even notice this calculation taking place.

How did they know what my refund would be? They didn’t, and that is what is creating some confusion right now. You may remember that you needed to have filed your 2007 Tax Return in order to receive a stimulus check. Who received a check and how much they received was based on information from the 2007 Tax Returns in anticipation that 2008 would be similar. So, now that 2008 is complete and we are dealing with actual data, taxpayers fall into one of three groups.

1. Those who received a stimulus check, but shouldn’t have because their 2008 income was too high. No problem for this group. While it’s true they shouldn’t have received a check, the IRS is not going to try to get that money back. This is not out of a suddenly-found goodness of their hearts. Again, it was only an advance to begin with, so it all comes out in the wash.

2. Those who didn’t receive a check and should have or received less than they should have received. The IRS still wants these folks to have their stimulus, and they will be eligible for a credit on their 2008 Return. It is for this reason that the stimulus is even mentioned on the 2008 Tax Return. They kind of have to do this as, once again, the assumption that each taxpayer received an appropriate stimulus payment is built into the tax tables.

3. Those who rightly received a stimulus check. This group will have nothing extra to do on their taxes, however their refund will probably be lower (or payment higher) than they would have ordinarily expected. In particular, those whose refund wasn’t going to be as much as their stimulus check might be in for a surprise when they have to make a payment.

When Turbo Tax asks me if I received a stimulus check and I click “Yes” my refund goes down, my payment goes up, or my refund turns into a payment. Why? This is the thing that is really confusing folks, and it all has to do with the mechanics of how most tax preparation software processes your return.

In the upper right hand corner there is a pervasive number that represents the amount of your return or payment based on the information that you have entered so far, and some default assumptions about the information that you have yet to enter. For a lot of people, once the W-2′s have been keyed in, this number is a pretty reasonable approximation of what their final result will be. The software assumes a standard deduction at the outset until the taxpayer has a chance to enter itemized deductions.

And this year, the software also assumes that the taxpayer did NOT receive a stimulus check and will therefore probably be entitled to some or all of the credit which could be up to $1,200 for a couple filing jointly. As soon as you click the button indicating that you did receive a stimulus check, that assumption goes away and the amount in the upper right hand corner is adjusted for the fact that you won’t be receiving the credit. To make things worse, this is one of the very last items on the return.

So, you’re going along in Turbo Tax, watching a relatively normal refund amount being tweaked as you progress through the forms and schedules. You are almost done when suddenly you click one button and experience up to a $1,200 unfavorable swing in your refund / payment. I can see where that would give one a start.

Who should I be mad at? Well, for my money, there are three main parties who did not handle this whole thing very well.

1. The IRS could have been much more clear about the nature of the stimulus checks that went out last summer. If taxpayers had understood all along that those payments were only an advance against this spring’s refunds there might be fewer surprises right now. Of course at the time the government wanted it all to seem like one huge act of benevolence on their part instead of them simply giving you your own money. Granted, even if it had been a handout it would have only been your own money, but that’s a discussion for another day.

2. Those who coded the software for this item. It is really kind of brutal the way it plays out. It would have been much better to either assume that the taxpayer DID receive a stimulus check (and therefore won’t be getting a large credit) until they can answer the question, or make that one of the first questions asked in the process of completing the return.

3. People who use their Income Tax like a savings account, except a savings account where someone else gets to keep the interest. Again, what happened last summer was the government doing for taxpayers what the taxpayers should be doing for themselves – returning the excess amounts that were withheld from their paychecks sooner rather than later. Fill out a new W-4 so that each time you get paid, the government gets only their share and little more.

Why do you care? Good question. I don’t use TT, and after doing my taxes had thought that this whole thing was pretty straightforward. The ruckus this matter has created on some fronts was a surprise.

Here’s the thing. I’ll rarely be the one having the government’s back, especially in these stimulus shenanigans. I believe our government is deserving of a huge helping of criticism and citizen uprising with the way they are going about things right now. However, before we criticize we must make sure to have our story straight.

Last Friday a caller into the Rush Limbaugh show relayed her tale of the big Turbo Tax stimulus surprise and she concluded that she was being taxed on the stimulus check. This sent both caller and Rush into a huge government-bashing session. There are plenty of reasons to find fault with our government right now. This isn’t one of them.

Well, we’re getting ready to get blasted by something.

Getting ready for a couple days on the road for work. Dixie and Shelby stay at Bluegrass Kennels whenever I’m traveling, and I must say they love it there. They go bananas when I drop them off, and I’d get a complex about it except that they are equally crazy when I come and pick them up. And then they collapse for two days. So, I think it’s just a matter of them always being up for someone else loving on them for a while.

Anyway, they are pretty sharp at picking up the “vacation” clues. When I get out my travel bag and pack up the laptop they start getting antsy. But, when bag up their food and gather their toys, they know it’s for sure and the madness starts. Whimpering, running about aimlessly within 8 ft of the door, trying to squeeze out every time I run something to the car, etc. Ordinarily I’ve left this part for right before we’re ready to leave.

But tonight I thought I’d switch up and just lock them in the bedroom and covertly gather up their stuff and haul it to the car. No luck. They cracked the code on sound alone, so now it appears they are going to be maniacs all night long.