Hello, everyone.

I have once again neglected this blog for far too long. When you see what I've been up to, I think you'll understand. First up, business:

Accounting Stuff

Life keeps happening, and I have not yet managed to get into the accounting industry. However, I have renewed my learning efforts. This week I completed the accounts payable aging project for my accounting portfolio, and there will be many more projects to come.

I am also using ChatGPT to develop a strategy for making connections in the accounting industry in my local area. This week I plan to start reaching out to CPA and tax firms to ask them what sorts of projects they would most like to see in an entry-level candidate's portfolio/skill set.

I have some ideas for videos as well, so stay tuned for those.

Here are a few podcasts I've been listening to lately to track the pulse of the industry:

• Accounting Best Practices with Steve Bragg
  
• My first accounting capstone class (2021) at Chemeketa Community College Featured Steve's book Accounting Best Practices 7th Edition. I remembered how useful that book was, especially in discussions of internal controls, and that got me excited about the podcast.
• I have been listening to the oldest episodes first since it seems to increase in complexity until it begins to focus on more contemporary issues, and I want a review of some basics.
• In the early episodes, Steve has some guests or co-hosts who have truly terrible accounting puns, and I love it.

• Journal of Accountancy Podcast produced by the AICPA and CIMA
• For this one, I have been listening to the newest episodes first and working backwards since it has good coverage of contemporary issues that I don't want to miss.
• My favorite recent episode is The Power of Active Listening in Addressing the CPA Skills Gap, which touches on The Profession Ready Initiative.
• A quick look into The Profession Ready Initiative led me to an article on JoA titled "How will accountants learn new skills when AI does the work?" That article was thought-provoking, and I will write a blog post or make a video about that in the near future.
• AI: Accounting Intelligence with Isaac Heller
• As the title suggests, this one focuses on artificial intelligence in accounting, which I think is a natural use for AI.
• Some of the early episodes seem a bit cheerleadery, like "get with the program. Accounting is changing," which isn't terribly useful to me as someone who already accepts that this is part of the profession. I may try listening to it in reverse order to see if I like that better. 

Books and More Books

Just before Lent (February) this year, I realized that I had twenty-six books on my "Currently Reading" list. Twenty-six! So I decided I was not allowed to add any new books to that list until Easter. That was my fast. In that time I finished a bunch of books that I had started, and since Easter I have finished many more. So far this year I have finished 40 books including:

• Most of Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher series (I started it last year). With the show's steady downward trend after season one and Henry Cavill leaving after season three, I decided that if I wanted to enjoy the story, I needed to just go to the source material.
• The Margaret of Ashbury trilogy by Judith Merkle Riley. Highly recommend this one for anyone who likes early medieval historical and fantasy books. These have been my favorite fiction read so far this year.
• Six books of poems or on the art of writing poetry.
• Two books on keeping chickens that convinced me not to do that right now.
• A cheesy mystery novel written for French learners.
• Ten books on religion and mythology.
• Five books on gardening.

My Garden

Since moving to my current place in April of 2025, building a kitchen garden has been one of my big projects.

My philosophy is that food gardening should save me more money than it costs me, so I have been working with salvaged materials like pallets, scrap lumber, old gates, pre-owned chicken wire, old tires, upcycled kitty litter buckets, stones I dug out of the ground (very laborious, but abundant), and soil I sifted myself. I have started as many plants as I can from seed since that is much less expensive. In total, I think I have bought all of six or seven plants, and they were all perennial herbs that I could not get starts for from friends or family. I have also been given quite a few plants, from berry bushes to herb starts. My mother, who was a home economics major and is pretty inventive herself, had better be proud of me.

In addition to fruits, vegetables, and herbs, I have also planted quite a few flowers, all from seed. Most of the flowers are edible or medicinal, but some just deter pests and attract beneficial insects. The garden is a whole system, and I have learned it functions better if I work with nature rather than against it.

While this project needs a few more beds filled to be truly complete, it has moved from being primarily a construction project to an established system that produces a significant amount of food. I anticipate canning many batches of pasta sauce and salsa in the coming months as the tomatoes begin to ripen.

That's all I have for today. Thanks for stopping by. Never stop learning, friends.