November 2007

I hardly ever get tagged for anything so when I do, it’s a momentous occasion. Pete at Great Circle has tagged me for a meme about books.

How many books do you own? 50 or so. I mostly go to the library for books - currently have three out on loan as we speak. (Pete owns 800!!)
What was the last book you read? In The Company Of Soldiers by Rick Atkinson (I’m starting Amsterdam by Ian McEwan today)
What was the last book you purchased? Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
What five books are most meaningful to you? The Bible, Lord of the Rings….. I’d have to look at my bookshelf to answer that one. But I don’t really read advice books. I read for entertainment, not personal growth. As some famous guy said: “Every Christian is educated far beyond their level of obedience.” This is very much true of me - I don’t need to read any more books telling me what to do, I just need to ACT on what I already know.

This is my effort to do so : Search316.

What is your most obscure favorite book? Once again, I wish I was near a bookshelf. I generally read books that come highly recommended so I can’t really remember the last time I read something obscure.

Tags to Mark my bro, Ben my bro, Neil, Tim Y, and…. Chunks and Rosie you don’t have blogs but I’d be interested in your answers if you feel like leaving a comment.

That goes out to anyone else, really.

Well after the little blogging hiatus, I have been called upon to provide some fresh content. Here goes.

 I’m currently reading a book called “In The Company Of Soldiers”, written by Washington Post journalist Rick Atkinson. It’s an interesting look at the days leading up to the war in Iraq, and the weeks following.

Atkinson was embedded with the command of the 101st Airborne Division (a very famous division in World War 2, along with the 82nd Airborne). He was able to witness first hand the actions of General David Petraeus, the man who has since been promoted and is currently commanding all US Forces in Iraq. In between these posts he spent time in America writing the counterinsurgency manual for the US Army.

The vagaries of battle are very interesting. The Iraqis expected the US to be of very little substance, knowing they would attract criticism for bombing civilian institutions. As such, when defending the city of Najaf, they used the local school system to store their weapons - in fact, every single school in the whole city had a weapons cache.

The Americans quickly dropped their rules about civilian institutions - so long as there was no civilians actually in them - and just restricted their fire from religious sites. (Which they do to this day - they will only ever attack a mosque if directly fired upon from that mosque.)

A company (the military kind) had set themselves up in a soda factory, and the soldiers apparently went silly drinking the soft drink available. But get this:

 They kept a note of what was taken, and then located the owner of the soda factory, compensating him in market value for the drinks to the tune of $12,600.

THAT is why we’re winning the war in Iraq. One side kept their scruples, the other one didn’t… and now they’re getting smashed for it.

But tax time is coming… I can’t wait !! Only 9 more months

I’m excited because your mate Mat over there is gearing up to smash a massive tax return. That’s right. Smash. Massive.

My estimated tax obligation for the end of next financial year is about $11,000. One third of that financial year has gone and I’ve paid about $6500 in tax.