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This little lesson will do you a whole bunch of good the next time you talk careers with your neighbor who is “in Accounting” or “in IT”. I happen to be just lucky enough to be both an accountant and an IT professional. What that means is that I provide strategic support services to businesses.

Here is what THE VAST MAJORITY of business accountants and IT professionals DO NOT do:

1. Prepare tax returns
2. Fix computers

Somehow though, I (and every IT professional and accountant I know) am constantly getting asked “So maybe you will fix my computer next time?” or “Will you help me with my taxes?” When I get asked either of these, I am honestly a bit insulted that you assume either of those is what I do for a living… but more importantly, it makes it clear you have no idea what goes on in a real business and that I have no interest in ever engaging in any kind of business endeavour with you.

As accountants we prepare financial performance reports, measure costs for management decision making, provide assurance on the accuracy of financial statements, design and implement internal control environments that prevent errors and fraud, account for merger and acquistion transactions, devise tax strategies, etc. As IT professionals we design, build, and maintain technology-based business solutions that drive the creation of new business or improve the effectiveness and efficiency of business processes.

I have never in my life done a single tax return, including my own. Probably not the person you want helping with your taxes. Additionally, never at any point in my professional career or in college was it responsibility to fix a computer problem for a less tech-saavy user. I have never had one single minute of training in how to troubleshoot personal computer problems. I can to some extent do it because of the vast experience I have spent using computers, but it is not something I have ever made a single dollar doing.

So from now on, for family and friends, of course I will fix your computer… but, you must first indicate to me that you can name one thing an IT professional does for a living that is not related to the use of a personal computer. And yes, I do know the answer to your question about that tax deduction you’re wondering about, but you must first me tell me what a corporate accountant may do outside of prepare taxes.

Please don’t take this as frustration on my part (well maybe a little frustration), just trying to do my bit of good for computer pros and accountants… and trying to prevent you from continuing to look like an idiot when you talk to that HP or PWC guy next door.

Til next time… your local accounting-capable computer geek, signing off.

Just when I thought I was staying home for awhile, everything changes. Sorry I’m behind on the blogging, work is out of control right now. August through December is busy season, and September through October is the worst of all.

So anyway, I am on the road again next week. I am off to Canada on my first ever oil and gas client.  Calgary, Canada to be exact. Wish I didn’t have to work so much so I could hit Banff, but such is life. Next time I guess.

OK, talk to you soon… I’ll have something more interesting next time.

This Sunday has been recognized as the International Day for Darfur. Protests are planned in approximately 32 countries but I come to you asking that you just spend 15 serious minutes reflecting on what has gone in the Sudan, while not thinking about anything else. I have, and most definitely will on Sunday.

In case you don’t really care what is going on in Darfur (and that is really OK if you don’t, just please recognize how makes you feel to know whether you honestly do or not), here are a couple of quick things to consider:

1. What is going on Darfur is in fact the first case of true genocide in the 21st century
2. On September 11 2001, 2985 died in the World Trade Centers, since the conflict began in late 2003, the best estimate is that a quarter million have died in Darfur. Just under one hundred times as many as 9/11.
3. Hurricane Katrina temporarily displaced an estimated 1,000,000 people from their homes and was dubbed the worst natural disaster in American history. At least 3,000,000 have been displaced permanently from their homes, the majority of which live in ultra-primitive refugee camps.

It is nearly impossible to go to Darfur, however those that have report that they have seen women raped immediately upon leaving refugee camps to find firewood, entire wells (remember water is scarce) poisoned, and the dead being dumped into those wells to hide the bodies.

The preamble of the UN charter states the United Nations (founded in 1945) are determined “to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small” (pasted directly from their website). Is living to tomorrow considered a fundamental human right? Did we lose sight of this goal in like 1946? Here are the events of genocide I can think of off the top of my head since then:

Angola, the Balkans, Burundi (twice), Cambodia, The Congo, El Slavador, Indonesia, Iraq, Rawanda, Somalia, The Sudan (twice), Uganda, and South Vietnam… all cases of killing members of a different race, religion, or political party SINCE the holocaust. I have seen Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland and I have seen the Killing Fields in Cambodia.

Well for me I think it stops this time. On September 30, the 7000 peacekeepers from the African Union have to leave Darfur unless the UN agrees to take over the operation. If the peacekeepers leave, there will be no security for humanitarian organizations. If the humanitarians leave (God bless every one of you), then 3 million Darfur refugees are left with no food or basic medical care.

This is the UN’s last chance with me, seriously. I have seen nothing of hardship compared to what exists in the world, but I have met Cambodians who are missing multiple limbs because they stepped on a land mine while farming. If it happens again (Rwanda and Yugoslavia happened within the last 12 years remember), I am considering the UN a totally ineffective body that does not have the ability to navigate the political complexities necessary to do something about situations like these and that they should be totally disregarded as an international authority.
Political complexities would become very very simple if your daughter, mother, or sister was one of the villagers raped and murdered because political rebels can’t play nice together I bet. As the world’s powerful, and as people who adhere to some level of basic goodness, we have a responsibility to do something for the innocent who are suffering.

Please do something, whatever it is, in your own way to respect this Sunday and remember the world’s victim’s of genocide and politicide.

I can’t exactly say that I am some expert on John McCain, because I’m not. But the link to the story below I read on the Financial Times website (after finding it on digg.com, best website I know of), talks about how McCain is taking a strong stance against the Bush administration’s view on what interrogation techniques are permitted for use at secret Central Intelligence Agency prisons. He in fact reportedly told his aids/staff that he is unwilling to back down on the issue even if it ruins his chance of becoming president.

Personally, at this point it really bothers me little whether he is for harsh interogation, against harsh interogation, or whatever else. To hear these words “unwilling to back down on the issue even if it ruins his chances of becoming president” is so refreshing I want to jump up and down. A leader who honestly believes in what they are doing, takes clear stances that are in alignment with that belief, and then provides an articulate and actionable plan to reach that state is exactly what I feel we need within organizations and as a nation.

The jury is still out for me for sure on who should be next in line to take one of the most powerful positions on earth but the senator from Arizona has made two big steps with me. One, he has shown some backbone and two he is from nearby ;-).

read more | digg story

Nothing like getting poured on at 12,000 feet.. haha. Doesn’t this look like a happy group? Some friends of mine and I made an attempt to climb Pike’s Peak the other day but realized after getting soaked and giving up that we had turned onto the wrong trail in the fog. Better luck next time I guess.