Amazon to Collect Sales Tax from Utah Residents

Sadly, Governor announces deal with Amazon to collect sales tax on Utah purchases (KSL.com). Starting January 1st, 2017, sales tax will apply to all purchases.

Technically, "Utah law requires residents who aren't charged sales taxes on their online purchases to pay them with their state income taxes. But few comply, and efforts over the years to pass a federal law forcing companies to collect the taxes have faltered."

The speculation is that, in the past, Amazon has agreed to voluntarily collect sales tax for states when they have planned to build a physical presence in those locations.

Amazon is also reported to keep 18% of the sales tax collected for Utah.

Amazon already collects sales tax from several other states.

Adventures are just tales

"Adventures are just tales of someone else being miserable far far away."

-- B. V. Larson (Star Force Series)

Reorganizing

"We tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing.  Reorganizing is a wonderful method for creating the illusion of progress while actually producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization."

Stephen Colbert's Super Coin Toss

Board Games are making a comeback, but in shorter versions, because kids just don't have enough time.  So Stephen Colbert designs a board game called Super Coin Toss.

Super Coin Toss

"It all takes place in the enchanted realm of Quarteria. Each player has farmers, soldiers, merchants, and bandits, and the object is to cultivate enough grain that the merchants can sell to pay the soldiers to protect you from your opponent's bandits. And of course, there are two giant robots who box.

To start we put our tokens one space from the finish line.  Whoever goes first wins the game.  To determine that we flip the Medallion of Fate, which is designed to look like a US Quarter, sold separately, for $5."

Alphabet of Games

A few of my favorite things, alphabetically:

Above and Below | Among the Stars
Betrayal at House on the Hill | Between Two Cities | Blood Rage
Carcassonne | The Castles of Burgundy | Castles of Mad King Ludwig | Caverna: The Cave Farmers | Citadels | Codenames
Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game
Eldritch Horror | Elysium
Flash Point: Fire Rescue
Gold Mine-ish
Hanabi-ish
Imperial Harvest-ish
Jenga-ish
Kingdom Builder
Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game | Lords of Waterdeep
Machi Koro | Mage Knight Board Game | Mice and Mystics | Mission: Red Planet (second edition)
Neuroshima Hex!
Orléans: Deluxe Edition
Pandemic | Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 | Patchwork | Puerto Rico
Quarto! | Quests of Valeria
Race for the Galaxy | The Resistance | The Resistance: Avalon | Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island | Robo Rally
Saboteur | Salem | San Juan (second edition) | Small World | Splendor | Sushi Go!
Takenoko | Tiny Epic Defenders | Tiny Epic Galaxies | Tiny Epic Kingdoms | Tsuro | Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar | Terra | Terra Mystica
Ultimate Werewolf: Deluxe Edition
Valeria: Card Kingdoms
Wizard-ish

Yardmaster Express-ish
Zombicide: Black Plague

You have no cookies and no friends

What do you get if you divide 0 by 0?

"Imagine that you have zero cookies and you split them evenly among zero friends. How many cookies does each person get? See? It doesn't make sense. And Cookie Monster is sad that there are no cookies. And you are sad that you have no friends."

A friend pointed out that if you ask Siri to divide 0 by 0 you learn how many friends you have. Snarky, eh?  :-)

My Terrible Spending Habits

I learned a few things about myself today. I was just checking my credit card, and noticed I have some spending habits that I am terribly ashamed of. So admitting it this is the first step in the 12 step program, right?

• $14 - 5/29 Miracle Mile, Las Vegas, NV
• $12 - 5/30 Jamba Juice, Salt Lake City, UT ***
• $92 - 5/30 Twin Peaks, Las Vegas, NV
• $578 - 5/30 Louis Vuitton, Las Vegas, NV
• $600 - 5/30 Hotel Operations, Las Vegas, NV
• $1,115 - 5/30 Hotel Operations, Las Vegas, NV
• $243 - 5/30 Hotel Operations, Las Vegas, NV
• $15 - 5/31 Jamba Juice, Salt Lake City, UT ***
• $1,362 - 5/31 Luis Vuitton, Las Vegas, NV
• $573 - 5/31 Hotel Operations, Las Vegas, NV

1. First, I have a thing for high end leather from Louis Vuitton. You should too.
2. Second, I learned that I like to fly back and forth between Las Vegas and Salt Lake, just because I can? Don't you wish you could too?
3. Third, I really really like Hotel Operations to service me. One can't say enough about the room service!
4. And most importantly I secretly (or not so secretly) have desires to do many unspeakable things to some unknown individual out there. :-(

But really, I do have a Jamba Juice addiction.