Fooseball's Blog

The CPA Odyssey

2011-09-21T09:22:00.000-07:00

First Attempt
In November of 2002, right out of college I signed up to take the CPA exam. Times were changing, and they were adopting new rules including the switch to a computerized test and could be expanding the education requirements. The test as it stood was a 2 day affair taking place in a convention center in Anaheim. It could only be taken 2 times throughout the year. It involved taking a 4.5 hour audit (AUD) exam, a 4.5 hour financial accounting and reporting (FARE) exam, a 3.5 hour accounting and reporting (ARE) exam, and a 3 hour business law and professional responsibilities (LPR) exam. There were two basic things to keep in mind when taking the exam.

1) Passing score was a 75 and you needed to pass at least 2 to keep any credit
2) Scoring below 50 on any exam meant you got no credit regardless of your other scores

I started working for WTAS earlier than I had originally planned on starting at Arthur Andersen, and this meant that I didn't study nearly enough. I went in to the exam mainly hoping that by the skin of my teeth I could get 2 75's and build on that.

My scores:
AUD - 56
LPR - 70
FARE - 69
ARE - 64

There you have it. No credit means the odyssey has officially begun.

Second Attempt (I'm using the term liberally)
In June of 2005, I'm guessing through some prodding at work I was encouraged to get my CPA exam taken care of and under my belt. It wasn't a requirement at my job, but it was a good thing to have since I didn't have a masters or other higher degree. I remember buying some study books, reading through the text presented in the chapters, signing up for all 4 parts (once you've signed up and paid for them in advance a clock starts ticking until 9 months later when they expire), and ultimately only taking one.

The new test was now computerized and had I taken all 4 parts they would have translated to Audit & Attestation (AUD), Financial Accounting & Reporting (FAR), Regulation (REG), and Business Environment & Concepts (BEC).

I took Regulation because it is heavily tax focused and having been doing tax for a few years I thought that this was probably going to be my strongest test. I remember getting a 1031 question in the simulation section that I single handedly attributed to my downfall because I felt like I fumbled it so badly. I took the test on 7/7/06 and got a 72. The graph below didn't make it look so bad but... I didn't pass.

The 3 other tests I signed up for expired.

Third Attempt
Leap forward to May of 2009. HCVT, where I now work is a CPA firm and they didn't think to ask me if I was a CPA or not. They hired me as a manager which apparently they wouldn't have done had they known. In either case, they now tell me I need to pass the exam. I sign up for 4 parts. Where will this go?

This time I have a better plan. I signed up for the Roger Philipp CPA review course because I know I'm a more auditory learner than I am a book learner. I watch courses during my spare time at work and I actually attend the tests.

I took FAR on 8/6/2009, 2 months after signing up and regularly studying. I got a 90. PASS!
I took BEC on 1/19/2009, taking a break from studying during the 10/15 work rush and finally getting back to studying in December. I scored an 83. PASS!
I took AUD on 4/5/2010. Why did I take Audit right before 4/15? Because the test was going to expire and I didn't have much of a choice. I found out later (scores take a few months) that I scored a 74. No Pass. One point away from being done...
I took REG on 4/12/2010 (might as well I thought). I scored an 89. PASS!

So I hadn't studied sufficiently for Audit and I paid the price. That seemed ok because I still had 3 exams under my belt. But that ignored the other big event coming up. 6/12/2010 and we have Tira!

Fourth Attempt
I signed up to retake Audit 5/27/2010 (almost a year from attempt #3). Exams expire 18 months after they are passed so my FAR score from 8/6/2009 would exist until 2/6/2011. I studied audit, learned the mnemonics, thought I was in pretty good shape and took the test on 1/14/2011. I scored a 60. No Pass, and I just lost FAR. =(

Fifth Attempt
I signed up on 3/29/2011 to retake AUD and FAR. It's getting scary because with the time that has elapsed now I have BEC ready to expire 7/19/2011! I could be starting a vicious circle. I signed up for AUD on 7/7/2011 and FAR on 7/12/2011.

AUD felt good. I had gone over hundreds maybe even a thousand test questions. I understood the organization of the 2011 version of the exam and how I could research some information during the Simulation section which now made up 40% of the exam. I felt like there was a lot of truth to the idea that there are a lot of CPA candidates going into the Audit field that raise the curve on this exam. On Monday, 9/19/2011 I went online. 81. I now had AUD in my pocket and they weren't going to take that away from me. But that still meant if I didn't pass FAR then my BEC would expire and I'd still have 2 tests to go.

FAR was scary. For a test that I got a 90 on the previous attempt I felt like I not only forgot everything but that they also added a ridiculous amount of foreign reporting requirements for the 2011 version that were completely... foreign... to me. On 9/20 there was a tweet that CA would be getting the scores around midnight and posting them early 9/21. I get in to work, boot up my computer and I'm going right for the news, good or bad. I log on and see my score. 89. No more testing. I'm in the clear. What a relief!

Pictures of my score reports over the years coming in my next post.

Miracle Fruit Annual Update

2010-07-20T15:43:00.000-07:00

I recently replanted my miracle fruit because I felt that it might have reached it's capacity within the original pot. I must have been on to something because after the re-pot it took off! For comparison first I'm posting my old photo from June 09 that shows March 09 when I got it and 3 months later.

The shadows might make it hard to make out details but the base is no longer a silly twig, it's several inches taller (currently 12'') and from a different angle it's spread is actually around 22'' so it's spreading more like a tree. Also, there's new growth everywhere, from the inch segment on the top that sprung up over the weekend to new leaves at pretty much every intersection (new leaves are red so they stand out). I'm still crossing my fingers for a little white flower to pop out somewhere, though I know that's very optimistic.

Lazy name change

2010-03-03T17:59:00.000-08:00

Erik has brought to my attention that I was lazy with my choice of Loddie and I changing our last names. The following are the rules:

Each party to the marriage may adopt any of the following last names:

The current last name of the other spouse.
The last name of either spouse given at birth.
A name combining into a single last name all or a segment of the current last name or the last name of either spouse given at birth.
A hyphenated combination of last names.

There are many possibilities given these rules, and obviously I'm only talking about the third rule. Only a few minutes of brainstorming came up with Arse (ironic to go from foot to ass, right?), Ooaga, Oo, Goose, aGoose, aFoose, and then stretching it maybe Ooaa, Aooga, Shag, Hog...

Submissions in the comments are welcome!

Every choice is a winner...

2010-03-03T17:15:00.000-08:00

Once I saw all my options I just started to consider the possibilities!

For my Mom

2010-03-02T17:31:00.000-08:00

My mom says I don't blog enough (that sounds pretty strange all by itself) so here's one just for her:

The American Dream

2010-01-18T13:24:00.000-08:00

"Seven out of 10 say it is harder to get rich in America today than it used to be, according to the most recent Bankrate.com survey conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International."

The article goes on with a gem like "Back in the Clinton era, everyone seemed to be getting rich" and lists the respondents self-perceived obstacles to achieving prosperity:

27% - too many bills, not enough income
27% - job loss or income reduction
11% - credit card debt
11% - Health problems or medical bills
8% - A setback in investments due to the market
4% - A family disruption
3% - Negative home equity
9% - Other or don't know

Like any survey there's ambiguity in the question which ultimately causes it's own problems. For instance, what is rich and how are these people conceive of being rich? If credit cards, bills, and job losses are on their list then they're not worried about being rich, they're just trying to break even and make ends meat as far as I'm concerned. True wealth, the kind where you don't actually have to worry about money (though many rich people still do worry plenty) is just as hard to make as it ever has been, which is very. That's why a very very small minority of people are actually rich by any standard I would hold out. So if asked again, I wonder if 7 out of 10 people would actually say it's harder today than it was a decade ago just to scrape by, because that I'd believe.

The IRS doesn't play fair

2009-12-14T14:12:00.000-08:00

I rarely get into work on this blog, but in case the average person was to ask me how often the IRS was fair in their audits or the adjustments that they propose, I'd like to point this out as an example:

"The Tax Court held that the IRS's determinations are arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable. The court further held that T's comparable uncontrolled transaction method, with appropriate adjustments, is the best method to determine the requisite buy-in payment."

So in a nutshell, the IRS made a determination in this case, which goes beyond "we think" and actually means "pay up" and the taxpayer had to go to tax court, where tax court determined the IRS was "arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable" and the taxpayer's method was "the best method."

This is the mentality that I bring in every time I see an audit or proposed adjustment on a tax return because the IRS really does have a history of getting it completely wrong.

Winged Migration

2009-12-05T11:17:00.000-08:00

I don't usually blog about movies I've seen but the movie Winged Migration had a unique back-story that puts the entire movie in a different perspective.

Winged Migration very much bills itself as an artful documentary, following the migratory paths of many species of birds. It has amazing shots that were taken of the birds in flight that make it seem like the camera wasn't more than inches away from the birds, even as they were flying right along the water or high in the sky. As the credits rolled I noticed a section that I thought was interesting: Animal Trainers. So we were very curious to see how they got these shots and started watching the special feature on the making of the movie. That's where it all got very interesting.

We were fast-forwarding past people talking when we saw someone hand-rearing baby birds. We hit play and they were talking about how baby birds "imprint" their parental figure at a young age. As it continued, we learned that many of the bird groups in the film had been hand-raised from a young age and imprinted with the idea that their human trainers were their parents and taught to be comfortable with the various cameras and equipment being used. As the making of continued we saw the loading and unloading of animals in beautiful settings, saw how so many of the shots we marveled at were arranged for that purpose, and realized that this was not at all the documentary we had thought before seeing this feature.

It doesn't take away from the beauty of the film but it does mar the natural wonder that I initially had from watching it. The movie also tries to make a few ecological points, which I of course agree with but within the context of them being willing to stage shots you also have to question the authenticity of the scenes meant to make you upset at how humans interact with nature.

Can we review the reviewer?

2009-11-19T12:14:00.000-08:00

This is a one-star review for a laser cat toy on Amazon. I'm thinking maybe it's the reviewer that deserves one star (emphasis added by me).

"Any LASER beam TOY may initiate a seizure in your pet. Even though most pets love this type of toy, one of our cats has a history of mild seizures. I'd forgotten this fact when I purchased the laser mouse. The cat loved it, but it brought on a seizure."

Hopefully this person doesn't have any kids, but if they do hopefully the kids don't have any allergies.

Broken Record

2009-10-29T10:50:00.000-07:00

"The U.S. economy grew at a 3.5 percent pace in the third quarter, the best showing in two years, fueled by government-supported spending on cars and homes."

I know I sound like a broken record to most when I post misleading quotes and headlines and then complain about them, and maybe nobody who reads my blog cares, but I have to vent sometimes. The headline: "Economy grows at best pace in 2 years" but nobody should be patting themselves on the back that the recession has ended just because the government is paying people to buy things and that resulted in a modest growth! Why not hand everybody $10k and announce that we as a country all got magically richer? The new home credit is over and the CARS program ended a month ago so will the recession still be over once all these programs stop paying? Is everyone getting hired over Christmas to their new permanent lifetime job that will also provide a fully funded magical pension? Yes, all that, and world peace coming right up!

Technology FAIL... turns into government FAIL!

2009-10-06T12:51:00.000-07:00

I knew everyone was anxiously awaiting an update on the advancement of trashcans, so I was going to offer the picture below as an update of my earlier post. It tells a lot.

I didn't feel the need to state that I walked by the solar trash can every day for months and had one recurring observation, that it was always full, with a blinking red light, and wouldn't take any more garbage. I thought the trash can dropped off next to it last week was a sign that someone had come to their senses. That was it, until I read this:

PASADENA - (10/6/09) The city will soon be installing 40 solar-powered trash compactors on city streets.The compactors use power smash down garbage making city staff able to come empty them less frequently.
Staff estimates that garbage men will now only have to empty those trash cans once a week instead of five times a week.
That will save the city an estimated $61,400 in fuel and maintenance costs, and should reduce the city's greenhouse gas emissions since garbage trucks will go out less frequently.
The city has already installed the solar trash cans in six spots as part of a pilot project.

Now how exactly did the city not see in this pilot program that was so painfully obvious to me? Oh yeah, it's the government. Sorry, forget I said anything.

The Copyright proves it's Legit!

2009-09-21T10:18:00.000-07:00

This is an e-mail I received. I have not modified the formatting at all. I'll never have to work again!

"Good Day, This letter is from GoodFunds Inc. invented by the World Financial Service Authority United States Of America/United Kingdom. This body was set up to discover an outstanding unpaid fund being owned to Governments or Individuals all over the world through Contract Payment, Accumulated pension funds, Inheritance and Lottery Winning Prize Awards. It will interest you to know that we have discovered an outstanding unpaid/unclaimed sum worth the sum of Five hundred thousand Euros in favor of your name and a mandate has been given to this body to ensure that this fund gets to you through diplomatic check delivery without any delay. NB.. you shall be liable for the delivery fees of the courier company. Send your name,delivery address and phone immediately for your cheque delivery. Send your reply only to goodfunds.inc@live.com Regards, Dr. Malone fray Head of Operations GOODFUNDS ECB/02354 Email: goodfunds.inc@live.com ----- © 2009 Goodfunds Inc. All rights reserved."

Crows are Smart

2009-09-18T14:38:00.000-07:00

There's a lot of evidence that crows are smart, and I'm not shedding light on anything nearly as cool as some of the things they do, but I still thought I'd share.

I have managed to open my 6th story office window. Right next door is a fire escape, and crows like to hang out on it. So I tossed some bread that was going to get thrown out on the fire escape. A little later I poked my head through the window and scared off a crow that just had the courage to go for the food, and I watched as it flew off to a nearby parking structure.

It waited about 15 minutes, sitting with another crow at the parking structure. Then it took off, but I couldn't follow exactly where to. Then I heard crow sounds, so I slowly looked out my window. There was a crow on the 5th floor fire escape landing, and another one hopping up the stairs to exactly where the bread was located. It grabbed the bread and flew off. Freaking genius bird!

A Picture says... Wha?

2009-09-17T11:55:00.000-07:00

This online "calculator" from CNN Money wasn't very helpful... Are you kidding me? Median net worth for 25-34 is $8,525? Tell me how that's possible.

Consumer Reports on Fuel Economy

2009-09-10T14:25:00.000-07:00

A Consumer Reports Article took a look at fuel efficiency of several cars at 55, 65, and 75 miles per hour. The first thing I was impressed with was the reality that going 55 was clearly a more efficient speed to drive at. It makes you wonder if they should roll back all the speed limit signs in California back from 65.

Beyond that, the results were all relatively predictable, but even so it's nice to see Consumer Reports back them up. Driving a hybrid at freeway speeds does effectively eliminate the advantage of having a hybrid. Cars are more efficient than SUV's (even if the engine is the same size, unless you're driving in a vacuum I suppose).

After busy season I'll have to put together a spreadsheet to really analyze the time vs. money question they bring up, because I wonder if I'd be willing to make the trade-off of driving somewhere slower knowing that it was saving me cold hard cash (and CO2 emissions).

Sweating Like a Pig

2009-09-04T08:38:00.000-07:00

The phrase "Sweating Like a Pig" popped into my head this morning as I was walking to work (no, I hadn't broken a sweat since it was still cool in the morning). So like all people in this information age, I went to the internet once my computer booted up. It turns out there was no clear answer on the origin of this phrase. Most people are well aware of the fact that pigs don't really sweat, but many of the possible answers didn't satisfy me either. Until this one:

"Maybe it came from the fact that pigs 'sweat' when they are roasted over a fire. It's not really sweat of course; I think it's just the fat dripping off."

Now, I couldn't take them for their word and haven't seen a pig roast so I had to verify that, but there does appear to be a fair amount of dripping according to a Wikipedia article on pig roasting, so I'm satisfied.

So next time you see someone sweating, and the phrase "Sweating like a pig" pops into your head, just remember that's fat dripping from their slowly cooking meat. Yummy!

Angeles National Forest Fire

2009-08-28T10:21:00.000-07:00

Here's the impressive scene from outside my window:

I guess in reality you can't see too much but I guess that's the point. There's a lot of smoke. Yesterday I could actually see the mountains and the flames coming over the ridge. Now that the mountains are obscured it's hard to tell just how far the fire got.

Gamers are fat and have more poor mental health days (in Seattle)

2009-08-26T11:30:00.000-07:00

"Investigators from the CDC, Emory University and Andrews University analyzed survey data from 552 adults in the Seattle-Tacoma area, according to the study, published in the October issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The hypothesis was that male video-game players have a higher body mass index — the measure of a person’s weight in relation to their height — and women have “a greater number of poor mental health days” versus nonplayers, said Dr. James B. Weaver III of the CDC’s National Center for Health Marketing. The hypothesis was correct, he said."

Whew, I'm glad Dr. Weaver III settled that. Everyone loves a good conclusive study.

Why do you think they hypothesized about the men's BMI and the women's mental health? Only Dr. Weaver knows for sure (actually, it just turned out that the data didn't support a BMI difference for women or a mental health difference for men). Another interesting thing Dr. Weaver stated was that women use video games as a "digital self-medication" but if that's the case, then the egg must come before the chicken and the only conclusion is that women are finding video games as a way to cope with depression. Would he prefer actual medication to self-medication?

Reading beyond the mainstream articles for more details turned out additional caveats. The survey to gather data was performed only online, where 18% of the population requested voluntarily responded, of which an impressive 44.3% classified themselves as video game players. I don't believe that's representative of the population in general, especially considering the number of consoles sold by the major manufacturers.

Pushup Challenge Conclusion: 612

2009-08-24T09:52:00.000-07:00

I certainly had a pushup filled Sunday. I've included some graphs that document my suffering but the grand total for the experiment was 612. The second graph shows my quick degradation around 9:30 after many easy sets of 25. I knew then that the rest of the day would be a challenge. I took some rest periods in between and the recovery helped, but not by much or for very long before I was back to coasting at 9-12 pushup sets. And yes, today I am sore.

Pushup Endurance Challenge

2009-08-21T11:07:00.000-07:00

Over the course of a day, how many pushups can I do? The day will be Sunday, 8/23. The guesses:

Kristin: 700
Gabby: 500
Brandon: 457
Loddie: 365
Erik: 150 (he's betting I hurt myself and Loddie has to put me down)

A quick BING search turned up that people in the military have easily worked up to 1,000-2,000/day because they make you do X pushups every time you enter/leave a room and it can add up. We shall see!

Squirrel Fight!

2009-08-21T10:10:00.000-07:00

MSNBC teased me with this picture. When I clicked it to see a larger version I had to go through 68 pictures in their "10 years of Pictures" slideshow, many of which were graphic and depressing, so I'm just going to post this one by itself for everyone to enjoy... Squirrel Fight!

Nature is about Life and Death

2009-08-15T09:37:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately my rat passed away last night. Since she lived for three days I know she was trying her best and I'm sad that she passed but these things happen. Death is a part of life. Here are some pictures of the rat and the hawk.

Conflicted Feelings

2009-08-13T15:56:00.000-07:00

A life is at stake. I didn't mean to get involved but in accidentally saving a life I put myself in a terrible personal dilemma.

I was walking home Wednesday and saw a hawk in someone's front yard. I stopped to look at it and after a few minutes it got nervous and flew up into a tree. What I then noticed was a rat, which was the source of the hawk's attention before I came along.

If you started from the top you've probably already guessed that the rat was alive, but it wasn't doing well. All it was really doing was gasping for air. I left immediately because the hawk was still in the tree and I was crossing my fingers that it would go finish what it started. I visited half an hour later... none of the players had moved, until the hawk flew away. Three hours later... the rat had moved but it was clearly still badly hurt. I brought it some bread and moved her to a more sheltered location for the night.

The next morning the rat was still hanging on. It was a little more active but hadn't moved very much. The bread didn't show any signs of being eaten. I'm horribly conflicted about what's in the best interest for the rat. Does it have the will to live, to survive? Is it in pain? If it starved, would that be a preferable way to go or should I go against my feelings and do something about it? In my life there have been a lot of rescues, but all were much more clear cut in 12 hours.

If it's still alive I'd like to take it in and do as much as possible to help feed it even if it doesn't have much longer to live. I'm not sure that's really a reasonable option but I can't think of many other choices.

UPS Delivery Problem

2009-08-13T08:37:00.000-07:00

Train Derailment? I'd say that's a pretty valid reason for my package being late but really?

Additional Questions:
Will my 360 be ok?
Shouldn't there be !!!'s after TRAIN DERAILMENT?
When are they going to deliver my box of broken plastic and metal if not today... tomorrow?

Dead 360

2009-08-07T11:17:00.000-07:00

What is technically the fourth Xbox 360 to be in my possession was sent to Texas to be "repaired" last Monday, and was received on Thursday. I'm very curious how long the "Repair in Progress" period will take because my experience will all prior consoles is that I got someone's refurbished console and not my repaired original. If this were the general policy then I would assume that they'd simply plug it in, see that it was dead, and grab a box from their mountain of previously repaired units. I remember a long time ago hoping that I could somehow get an upgrade and receive one of the newer units with HDMI, and while I don't find that likely, I'll still cross my fingers. Microsoft, you do kinda owe me because the 1 free month of live I get with every xbox repair has hardly compensated the near 4 months of total downtime you've forced due to the horribly overheating hardware.