So yeah, I guess ive slowly come to realize that im officially an adult. I still dont feel like it, act like it, or really like it, but then again I guess it depends on your personal perspective on what constitutes an adult. Anyways, I guess as an adult one takes care of their finances. So yeah, ive been looking at money and investing and find that its not quite as difficult as I thought it would be. For those of you who havent done your taxes, click here for a free copy of Taxcut Premium and Deduction Pro (make sure you uncheck the “extended download protection” to make it free).

As well, if you have ING Direct, you may also open a traditional IRA to maximize the deductions on your taxes…currently you can add up to $4,000 if youre young enough…However, if you have a retirement plan sponsored by your employer, your tax deductions may actually be minimized. In that case, if you fall within the right income bracket, you should probably just open up a Roth IRA instead. Also, if you use ING to open an IRA, they have no-load or commission-free mutual funds to put your IRA to good use. I think I have to open mine tonight…

I cut my hand today.

Our light bulb burnt out the other day, and it got me curious…why do light bulbs burn out anyway!?

“There are a number of sites that describe in detail how a bulb works. HowStuffWorks and How Things Work both do a thorough job of explaining the physics of this watershed invention.

To summarize: electrical current flows through the bulb’s filament, a long, super thin, double coil wire made of the metal tungsten. This interaction creates extreme heat around 4,000 degrees and starts a process that causes the atoms to release extra energy in the form of light photons.

At such a high temperature, though, some tungsten atoms will fly off and collect on the inside of the bulb’s glass. This loss of tungsten is slowed but not prevented by adding inert gases, typically argon. The argon atoms rebuff the tungsten atoms when they collide, so that some tungsten atoms rebound and rejoin the solid filament. But eventually, as more and more atoms are lost, the filament starts to disintegrate.

The filament is further compromised by the rapid heating and cooling of the wire when the bulb is turned on and off. This creates areas of stress almost like in a paper clip that’s repeatedly bent. Eventually, this stress, coupled with the loss of tungsten atoms, weakens the filament enough to break. And that’s when it’s time to fork over another couple of bucks to GE.”

taken from: http://ask.yahoo.com/20041228.html