Tax Reduction/Increase: Your next paycheck, if you're not one of the 10% of Californians that are unemployed, should see a slight decrease in payroll taxes, meaning you're taking home more money. It's an incredibly small amount that's more a nod to the working man, but it's somethin'. You can thank the federal government and your children for that little bonus. On the other hand, state sales tax goes up 1% today. For that you can thank the screwed up state government, which needs a good slash and burning. Thanks for pushing people closer to the Internet Sacramento. In any case, if you own anything other than a junker car, you're payroll tax decrease will be offset by the doubling of your vehicle license fee.
New Laptop. A little Friday Night Magic fallout had me buying a refurbished Dell laptop yesterday. If you're in the market for a netbook, something just good enough to surf the web, do some word processing and maybe watch the occasional movie, check out the Dell Inspiron Mini 10. They're about $325 refurbished. Ours will be emerald green and will serve the sole function of running the DCI software. I seriously considered "pink" to potentially avoid theft issues.
