The Incorporation documents for the Daily Prophet will be mailed to the State Corporation Commission tomorrow. Actually, the Daily Prophet itself will just be one section of a much larger organization: Prophet, Incorporated. I decided to form one large organization, so that I am free to combine several services into one larger corporation. Namely, Calculo will eventually become integrated with the Daily Prophet, but I want it to keep its Latin name. Therefore, it will be another department of Prophet, Incorporated.
Plus, I just really like the name Prophet, Inc. I can see it now – another high-rise lining the Dulles Toll Road. First along the way will be Oracle, followed by Prophet. Now someone just needs to form Seer, Inc and business will be so much more clairvoyant. 🙂
The Incorporation forms were quite simple. I simply typed them up, named my board, signed it, and then had my brother Kevin sign it. I also had to include a check for $75.00. Ouch. But at least it’s done and is now sitting here on my desk, waiting to go into the mail tomorrow. $75.00 was a bit of a shock to me, I didn’t think it would be quite so much. But that doesn’t even begin to compare with the flamboyance of the Internal Revenue Service. Did you know you have to pay either $500 or $150 to register as a tax-exempt charity under 501(c)3? Thankfully I qualify under the $150 fee rate since I don’t expect to make any more than the specified amount for gross annual receipts. Otherwise I’d be in serious trouble. I’d have to start a fundraiser just to get registered!
Speaking of the IRS, their forms are far too complicated. But thankfully my friend Stephen was kind enough to lend a hand advising me where to go and what to do. I was so afraid of that 1023 form that I had to fill out, along with its various attachments. But, after several days hard work, sweat, tears, and anxiety, I’m as done as I can be with that at this point. Now I just have to wait for word from the State Corporation Commission that I’m officially incorporated, then I can get my Employer Identification Number, then I can plot out my proposed budgets for two years, and then I can sign that blasted form and mail it to the IRS. Once all of that is done, I can start on the press releases. That’s right, I’m going to do my best to spread the word of the Daily Prophet’s needs, alerting all of my old news media partners in arms, letting them know that in this raucous world there is, indeed, good news. And what could be better than good news featuring Harry Potter, education for ickle kiddies, free tools for teachers, excitement among youngsters about literacy, and a “sweet-faced Virginian” leading the pack? It’s the perfect human interest story, now I just hope they eat it up and print it, air it, and televise it.
I’m this close to feeling official. There’s still that streak of the surreal, however, as I find it hard to tell myself that hey, I’m going to be the President of a legitimate corporation – most likely the first incorporated Harry Potter fan site in the world – and that I’m the Chairman of the Board of Directors. I’m a mover, I’m a shaker, I get things done. (Ha ha.) It still hasn’t sunk in. How do I know that? Because I still want to be called “El Presidente”. 🙂 The only time I’ve felt the least bit business-y or serious about this is when I was in the midst of trying to decipher IRS form 1023. And that was only because I had to, for fear of evil IRS agents tracking me down and making me listen muzak for the rest of my life, all because I accidentally checked “No” on the 157th line of Part III, when I so obviously should have checked “Yes”.
I wish I had the expendible funds to pay someone else to fill out those forms. I’m still slightly nervous I messed something up. Is there a clause in Tax Persecution Bylaws (or whatever) that says if some ignorant 18-year-old (who’s bad at math, I should add… or was it subtract?) fills out the forms, she’ll have a second chance to say, “Hey, sorry, I didn’t mean it! I won’t ask for donations! I won’t be tax-exempt! 501(c)3 means nothing to me, I’ve never met him in my life! I swear, Officer, it was Colonel Mustard in the Kitchen cupboard with the tea strainer! Save me!”
Somehow, with that argument for a defense, I don’t think I should ever be an attorney.
I really hope no one else has incorporated Prophet, Inc. in the state of Virginia under whatever section it was I decided to file it. If so, I’ll be really miffed. I don’t want to start Seer, Inc, that’s someone else’s job. I haven’t the slightest idea what other name I would go with. Please, oh please, let this be the one easy thing in this whole process…
So I’ll be shelling out $225 to get this whole operation on the square. *gulp* Bye bye, college savings account… Okay, that’s obviously not all of it, but $225 is a lot of money from where I’m sitting.
On a happier note, I’m going to see ‘Bend It Like Beckham’ with Stephen tomorrow night. I’m quite happy about that, because I’ve been wanting to see it for ages, but since my Mom already saw it and no one else wants to see it, I didn’t think I’d get the chance while it was still in theatres. Hooray for Movie Buddies! Aren’t they just fabulous? How could anyone live without one?
Now for something completely different. I found out quite a while ago that the classic Muppets song ‘Rainbow Connection’ tends to make one of my brothers cry. That started me thinking about what songs from my childhood had such a profound impact upon me as a kid, that they still have the same effect. So far, I’ve only come up with a few. ‘Rainbow Connection’ doesn’t make me cry, it makes me want to *do* something. It makes me want to accomplish something great, something good for the benefit of somebody else. To me, it’s about finding my place in that grand secret club of great, inspirational people, whose sole purpose in this life is to make us happy, to make us better people, without one thought of personal gain. “What’s all amazing that keeps us star-gazing? And what do we think we might see? Some day we’ll find it, the rainbow connection – the lovers, the dreamers, and me. All of us under its spell, we know that it’s probably magic. Have you been half-asleep? And have you heard voices? I’ve heard them calling my name. Is this the sweet sound that calls the young sailors? The voice might be one and the same. I’ve heard it too many times to ignore it, it’s something that I’m supposed to be. Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection – the lovers, the dreamers and me.”
That’s how I’ve always heard it. The “Me”s have always been in an audible bold. So it’s inspiring to me. When I feel like I haven’t done anything worthwhile, or that I’ve stumbled somewhere and made a mistake in pride, I listen to that and remember that it’s all okay. Occasionally when I’ve really messed up it can make me cry, but I know that’s not why it makes my brother cry. I think it has more to do with his love for Jim Henson. I asked Mom about it once, and she said he was horribly upset when Jim died, and that they sang that song at his funeral. I think it was the perfect testament to Jim’s life, everything he ever did.
I know there have been other moments that made me cry when I was little, and still do. I was only three when ‘The Land Before Time’ was released, and I distinctly remember crying so hard when the Littlefoot’s Mom died. I haven’t seen that movie in years for that reason. I wonder what it was at that age that made it have such an impact on me.
“Inchworm” from ‘Hans Christian Andersen’ almost always makes me cry when it’s sung by Danny Kaye. I have a version by John Lithgow that brings me close to tears, but it’s not quite the same. And I have no idea why. There’s just something about the tune. Maybe if I see the movie again I’ll remember why. Or maybe it’s because it’s about math… 🙂
“My Name is James” from ‘James and the Giant Peach’ had the same effect when I first heard it, but now I love that song. It doesn’t make me cry anymore, unless I happen to be extremely sad at the time and I make the mistake of singing along. Then I can’t get past the first few verses. Because of that song and the book I really want to name one of my sons James, so I can sing him that song as a lullabye, with just a few of the lyrics changed.
“Pure Imagination” from ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’ is another important one for me. “If you want to view paradise, simply look around and view it. Anything you want to, do it. Want to change the world, there’s nothing… to it. There is no life I know to compares with pure imagination. Living there you’ll be free, if you truly wish to be.” That’s the bit that gets me. It makes me cry if I’m feeling down and need some help.
But the one that always gets me the most is the ending of the 1974 film version of ‘The Little Prince’. Directed by the same man that directed the classic Audrey Hepburn movie ‘Charade’, and the music created by the same team that crafted ‘My Fair Lady’, the song ‘Little Prince’ always makes me cry. The end of that movie always has me in tears, in both good and bad ways. Basically, it effects me nearly the same way as the book, which is what films should aim for when translating from a book. Richard Kiley did a great job playing the pilot, wandering in the desert, searching for the Prince.
Because of that movie, I so want to dress one of my little boys as the Little Prince for Halloween one year (preferably when they’re two-years-old, that way they won’t have an opinion yet and suddenly decide that no, they don’t want to be the Little Prince, they want to be Batman [But of course, my child won’t want to Batman – oh no – they’ll *want* to be the Little Prince because they love literature. And the next year, the same little boy will team up with his younger brother to portray Rosencrantz and Guildenstern for the following Halloween… Ha ha ha]).
I think it would be best for me to head to bed now. El Presidente needs her sleep. 🙂 Good night.