blog.erwintang.com

I am very eager to file my income tax return this year. I am brimming with anticipation. Why? Well, let’s discuss my income tax history. I’ve never made enough money in my entire life to have required me to pay taxes to the government at tax time. I’ve always received a refund. I’d like to see how the other half lives but there’s little I can do about that for now.

I am now making more money than I’ve ever made in my entire life. That’s not saying a lot for a guy that used to make $12.50 an hour but I digress. The government takes about 30% off every paycheque of mine. Because of the huge tuition and education credits I accumulated through grad school, I expect to get most of my money back come tax time. It should be the largest refund I’ve ever received. Most, if not all of it, will go towards my loan payments.

I can’t file my return just yet since I don’t have all the proper forms. None of my T-slips are in. Also, the CRA tends to make last minute changes to the tax forms. I usually wait until mid-March when the tax folks finalize the forms.

Since 1996, I’ve used Quicktax to help me prepare my return. It’s getting pricey at $40 now but I like how it carries forward all my financial info from year to year. Maybe I’ll get my family to pitch in some bucks since I’ve done all their returns since 1999. Seems fair enough doesn’t it?

On a related note, billionaire Mark Cuban gives his three investment tips for 2006. Now before you dimiss the link as some financial hooey that will make no sense, two of his tips are actually common sense type tips. It’s worth a read no matter if you’re a broker or a guy that stuffs his money into his mattress.

I really didn’t get enough sleep on Sunday night, so when I arrived at work on Monday morning, I was kinda tired. The commute, however, was awesome. There was barely any traffic so we zoomed right into downtown Vancouver in just under 25 minutes. I even got a whole row of seats to myself. I got to work nice and early.

When I arrived home that evening, I was exhausted. I felt like going to bed around 9pm and if you know me, that’s amazing. I managed to stay up until midnight and that’s when I crawled into bed. I was thinking that I’d get a whole eight of hours of sleep and wake up fully rested.

I awoke at 4:30am to find myself lying on top of one of my arms which had fallen asleep. After restoring bloodflow to the appendage, I tried to go back to sleep. I heard sirens though and it sounded like a few of them were going off. I was thinking it might be a police chase of some sort. I tossed and turned for a bit. Then I had to go pee. Upon returning, I did more tossing and turning. Then I started thinking about random stuff. I began to wonder if I was thirsty or not. I finally fell back asleep sometime around 5:30am (I think).

I woke up at 8:30am and I was tired. I hate that feeling when you wake up and you’re already thinking about the next time you get to sleep.

I was tired all day at work but I managed to get a decent amount of work done. We even went to Denny’s for lunch.

Thanks for sticking with me on this post. Click here for a fun Flash-based tennis game.

I received more Christmas cards this season than any other year that I’ve had a mailing address. This is completely impersonal but I’d like to use this forum to thank each and every one of you for spending postage on me and sending me your special greeting. As soon as I grow up, I will reciprocate. The card that came the farthest to me was from Hobart, Australia. Nenagh (Nen-nog) wrote me a wonderful little note. She is truly a 100% top chick in everyone’s books.

In completely different news, Grandma’s Boy, the movie loosely based on my life as a video game tester, opens this Friday. Click here for some clips from the movie. Be sure to check out the Dance Dance Revolution clip.

I go back to work on Monday. I got this month’s bus pass today. I also did some repairs to a sweater that had a rip in it. I’m all ready to go.

As you may know, I go back to work on Monday. If I don’t make some adjustments to my sleeping schedule immediately, I will be a complete mess on the first day back.

I went to bed at 5am last night and didn’t fall asleep until probably 6am. I woke up at 3pm today. I felt amazingly refreshed for the first time in a very long while. It’s 4am as I write this now and I don’t feel tired at all. I need to start going to bed earlier or else Monday is gonna suck.

So common sense says that if I just go to bed one hour earlier per day starting tonight, I should be fine by Sunday. Here’s the thing though… I just rented disc one of the fourth season of 24. This disc contains four episodes. I’m not sure how but it seems like I just started watching it five minutes ago and I’ve finished the first three “hours”.

I could just go to bed and watch the last episode tomorrow morning but I’m not going to do that. I’ll end this post here so that I can finish the disc and get to bed sooner.

It’s Thursday, which means my time off from work is coming to an end. After the weekend, I’m back at work on Monday.

I having neither a bad nor an exceptionally wonderful holiday. I live with my family anyways, so it’s not like I’m seeing them after a lengthy time apart. They say the holidays are a time to see friends as well. Most of my friends have gone away so I’ve actually seen my friends less during this festive time. I did see my buddy Nate though, who returned home from his work in Japan. He’s the second friend to have seen where I work, the first being Ray.

Because I haven’t being go out that much, I’ve saving a bit of cash, which is a good thing. The savings have probably been offset by the cost of Christmas gifts unfortunately. I’m getting more sleep than when I’m working though it seems I’m still tired at times. I’ve been through two video games since the holidays started. I’ve blazed through the first two Splinter Cell games in mere days.

I still have on the schedule my 24 Season Four DVD marathon. There are seven discs in the set. The seventh disc contains an exclusive season five prequel so I guess I actually only need to rent the first six discs. Each disc contains four or five episodes though strangely, disc three has only three episodes. The thought of renting all six discs and starting my viewing at 7am (season four starts at that hour) and watching it all has crossed my mind. I wonder though how awake I’d be around hour 20 or so.

I do value this time off but to be honest, the prospect of returning to work on Monday doesn’t seem so scary as it might to other people. Oh sure, I’ll miss sleeping in until noon but after a few more days of this, I’ll be ready to get back into my old routine.

The summer before grad school I used to go on hikes quite frequently. One trail led from my parents’ house in Coquitlam all the way up Burnaby Mountain to SFU. Another favourite of mine was the trail that encircled Buntzen Lake in Port Moody. It says it takes 4-5 hours to finish the hike but I can usually do it in two and I don’t think I’m going that fast. The elevation change is about 100m which doesn’t seem much but believe me, it’s a workout.

I used to do this hike about twice a week for about three months during the summer of 2002. I stopped visiting the Buntzen Lake area once I started school again. Today, for the first time since then, I did the hike around the lake.

Three years is a longtime to be away from something but the trail is exactly as I remembered it. Even the same logs which served as landmarks along the trail were precisely where I thought they would be. As I walked through the familiar forest, it was interesting to think I had returned three years later with a lot more living underneath my belt. I had met a lot of people, learned a thing or two, and acheived a few life goals. The trees were still green though and the climbs just as tough.

I took a few pictures with my camera if you’re interested. The piece of metal on the ground is from one of my hiking shoes. Half way through the hike, it just fell out from the sole. Also be sure to look for the floating and suspension bridges which are located at the opposite ends of the lake.

From everyone here at erwintang.com, we’d like to wish you all a happy holidays. Eat well, stay safe, and be merry!

Here’s an article for all my readers who are/were in grad school. Many of you understand the joy/pain of writing a thesis for your degree.

This tale comes from the University of Maryland where a 43 year old woman was enrolled as a grad student in exercise physiology. After seven long years of grinding away, she was nearing the completion of her Master’s thesis. Amazingly, she kept the only copy of her thesis, the product of those seven years of work, on a small USB drive. Of course, her belongings got stolen one day and that included the all-important USB drive.

The article details her desperate search for the drive and her thesis. I’m not sure how any competent grad student keeps only one copy of their thesis. For every grad student that piece of work represents years of hard work, dedication, and effort. To have only one copy of that is flat out stupid. I know people who keep multiple copies everywhere and backup at least once a day.

The author of the article labels her somewhat as a modern day Sherlock Holmes but it shouldn’t have come to that. My thinking is that since she was older, she was less likely to backup her thesis on different formats. Technology scares older folks. Or maybe she was just an idiot. Wait a minute… who the hell doesn’t save a thesis to a hard drive? Man, that’s just dumb.

If you want to read the whole thing, click here.

After work I headed downtown to buy my sister her Christmas gift. I had an interesting time doing so. I went to a place where I’ve never been before and saw some things that I’ll file away as a life experience.

I’d tell ya all about it but then my sister would find out what I got her. In the meantime, let your imagination run wild!