Man, my love affair with the Internet continues...

Yesterday morning, I was listening to NPR as I was getting ready for work and I heard the announcers interviewing someone from either the IRS or a representative of the company that makes TurboTax telling us NPR listeners that Turbotax allows filers to prepare their taxes for free and then only charged when a return is filed electronically.

Well, being the person who embraces technology with open arms, I went online last night and checked out the site. I'm going along and there are SO MANY COOL features. For instance, I was able to tell Turbotax my Fidelity Investments account numbers and it electronically retreived the information and took it into my tax calculations. An hour and a half later, I was sitting there all done and with a larger refund than I expected, I think due to the fact that I actually deducted all the charitable giving this year as well as educational credits for being a teacher as well as taking classes. In addition, my California returns were prepared as well. So, for $35 I filed my taxes.

Today, I got email confirmation that both my federal and state tax forms were accepted and I should be getting my refunds deposited directly into my checking account within a couple weeks! Man, I love the Internet.

Lame Ernie Move: So, as the Turbotax program is checking for errors, one of the things that I need to fix is a State ID code for a dividend I received. I punch in all the numbers I can find on my statements, none of them work. I call Fidelity and the representative tries to have me punch in another number. No go. I then try CA for the State ID code. It worked. Why didn't I just think of that in the first place?

The Cultural and Age Gap

Italics indicates conversation in Chinese

I was pulling up to my friend Carrie's house for bookclub and my phone rings. It shows up as a restricted number, which I usually ignore but I've recently learned that my grandfather has some number restrictor on his phone so I've had to take these calls of late. I answer an sure enough, it's him.

Ernie, what is I-P-O-D? I was reading the newspaper..............

At this point, I am trying to figure out how to explain it to him, let alone it being in Chinese, but also laughing to myself about how far out of the main loop people, such as my grandfather, can be.

For the hip and not-so-hip

Seriously People...this is why Google ROCKS

Google Maps

One part rant, one part observation

One of my greatest pet peeves with students is their EXCESSIVE use of streamers. Why is it that every single celebratory event must include streamers? I could go on with examples, but I ask the reader to simply think about activities that have had the combination of both young persons and streamers. Thank god they have yet to invent the sparkly streamers.

Today is Chinese New Years. One of my colleagues noted that there was an increase in the number of students having to duck understreamers celebrating Chinese New Years.

Lemonade

We came home from the dim sum bash to Izzy and Mimi selling Lemonade in front of their house. Ahh to be six again!

The S. Girls with Chen

Birthdays Under the Sign of Aquarius

Jennifer K. -- January 25th
Paul B. -- January 29th
Carlos P. -- January 29th
Ernie C. -- January 29th

The four of us have made it a tradition to celebrate our birthdays together as one big bash. In the past there have been some legendary moments. But as we move on with our lives, Saturday night parties that last into the wee hours simply are not feasible for those people with children. Therefore, we had the 2005 version of the bash at the Imperial Seafood Garden. In two words, DIM SUM. This place, which is off the beaten track in San Francisco is on San Bruno Avenue in the Portola District of San Francisco. I classify dim sum as JV, Varsity and Pro levels of eating. There have been times where what is brought out I haven't recognized and subsequently brought my parents in to eat and thereby identify things. Here are some pictures from the brunch.

Carlos P. and CHB3

Colin B. and Carlos P.

Teresa M. and Hans W. (yes, his brother is named Franz)

Justin D. and Lynn K.

Jennifer K. and Michael M.

Michael M. and Mary H.

Renee T.

Pedraza and Brewer modelling the new shoes they purchased the night before.

Present but not pictured: Kristin and David D., Paul and Amzie B.

Ahh 35! On the downhill slide to 40.

Bookends

The past two Saturday's (1/29/05) and (2/5/05), I have spent the day at school interviewing current 8th grade students, from all over the East Bay, who are applying to become 9th graders at Head-Royce. Starting at 9AM, you have exactly one-half hour to conduct the interview and then write a short evalution/description of the meeting and make a quick judgement, based solely on the interview, to accept, deny or put the student on the waiting list.

Between these two Saturdays, I met up with three 2001 graduates of HRS. Jamie G. and Nick J. were both advisees and Simon R. was a (pain in the ass) student. I found it to be such an interesting way to look at the admissions process to see what the product of our foundational education looks like.

Jamie G. is now taking his senior year off from Dartmouth where he is studying Electrical Engineering and Political Science. This past fall, he travelled to Kuwait to aide in launching of a private liberal arts college in the country. In a couple of weeks, Jamie will be travelling to Iran to spend the spring and summer doing (I forget exactly).

Nick J. took his freshman year off to travel to Central America. He now is an Economics and Environmental Science major at Kenyon College in Ohio. One bit of interesting information. Nick stood in line for 10.5 hours to cast his vote in the 2004 election. This spring, Nick will be doing a study abroad in Chile, in which there is a large Economics component.

Simon R. is one of the most far-sighted minds I know. He is able to discern what is truly important versus those things that are extraneous. When I had him in my Algebra II class, he NEVER paid attention and turned in the shoddiest of work. What I attributed to laziness, is Simon's realization that he could do minimal work, enjoy life, and still get to the places he wanted to. He is following a passion in the gaming world and has told me about a dream product he would like to make. I could tell you, but then I would have to kill you.

High school plays a very crucial part of our development. It's been interesting to see the before and after.