It's been tax season for the last 2 months

Saturday, April 18, 2009

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Ahem, taking a break from calculating my taxes...I think I could say I started working on them in March, when I actually grabbed the tax package. But I didn't really sit down to do them until about April. And now I'm trying to figure out the public transit deductions, which led me to going back to my 2007 tax return. Why? B/c my former workplace had one of those programs where they took it off your cheque but you also got a discount on the bus pass price. Well in the process trying to figure that out, I found that I didn't account for a bus pass I bought before the program, and that I had some paycheque where I received $37 for 2 weeks work. Or at least that's what it says on the payslip. I vaguely remember some time where they had to recalculate something because of some extra work I did... but I can't really remember now. That totally sucks. Anyways, I checked to see if it'd be worth my while to send in a reassessment of my tax return... and it'd would've given me an extra $9 on the return....eh, I think I'll pass and just chalk it up to a life lesson.

So why the huge delay? Well a large part would've been the Easter Egg hunt on (fluff)Friends. Yes, a Facebook application. The evils! Except I've met some real nice online people, and it brought out an unfortunate competitive streak. With the other people who are my friends, but it wasn't a contest since the next highest person only had about 300 points, while I had almost 800. Anyways, I'd spend 5 hours each night after work, clicking 1000s of pages, hunting for eggs. Totally skipping my workouts and all else. Even missed Criminal Minds b/c I was so obsessed. But I did buy all 3 season of it on DVD last week, so I guess I'm helping the economy.

Speaking of which, I bought a digital camera on Monday, and I still haven't played with it. I just don't seem to have enough time. And then there's the massive workouts I have to make up, taxes, games, Facebook, sleep. I blame it on the daily 2 hr commute to work. Argh! Well back to taxes. Just needed a break to vent.

Oh, and work's super-busy now that L has gone onto her assignment. I miss her already. I could always count on her for help and knowledge. And of course, someone to commiserate and share our misery with. She is my closest friend at work. Now, it's down to people I'm friendly and talk with, and people I have to work with. I also inherited the lion's share of files from her, but at least it's relatively easy to figure out what's going on. And of course I can phone her and ask what's happening. So odd that the managers talk more to the assistants than the Advisors for updates and procedures. Is that indicative of the past level of service from Advisors? Hmmmm.

Review: Wrestlemania 25

Sunday, April 05, 2009

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So disappointing. For a silver anniversary, a rarity in any field, let alone in sports, it was only worthy of one of those monthly PPVs, like Backlash. Only really good match with the drama, storytelling, and technical skills was the Undertaker vs. HBK. The ladder match and Hardys matches were also pretty good. Saw it with my friends D, A, M and W, at W's house. So the rundown:

Opening with the Money in the Bank match, as I predicted. No broken ladders which was disappointing since Mark Henry and Kane were in it. C'mon, you're big, strong guys! Destroy each other with ladders! Actually from the feel of it, they were much more conservative on the moves for the match. Shelton, as usual, pulled off some wild maneuvers. Although when he messed up (b/c MVP hung on too long), that was embarrasing. But he did get MVP back good. And Kofi's leaping ability is awesome. Kofi is really quite amazing. I'm not sure why they aren't pushing him more. He's got a nice character, good charisma, and great athletic ability. Is it because he's black? I really expected Christian to do more stuff since he has a lot of experience, but we barely saw him. And it was soooo short too. And CM Punk winning, again!? WTF?!! A lot of people booed too. There was much back-n-forth at all. That seemed to be missing from most of the matches, except for the HBK v. Taker.

Next match...Divas? Lemme check. *goes to WWE homepage* Eh I dunno. But oh look, they did have the Tag champions vs each other. Where the f*ck was it on the PPV? It was a freaking dark match!! P!ss me off soo much. And I was so looking forward to it too. Miz and Morrison are hilarious characters, and they're all pretty good wrestlers too. It would've been an entertaining match. Such bullsh!t.

Anyways, we'll do Divas next. After the completely boring set by Kid Rock, gawd, why didn't they have it at the 2 hr mark when people could be going to the washroom? And they don't even introduce all the women, never announced everyone who got eliminated, or had cameras at ringside. Molly and Sunny were there?! Where? Only knew b/c the announcers said it. At least Victoria was there and they showed her a bit. And Gail Kim eliminating herself. WTF? There are waaaay too many flippin' blondes in the ring. They had Mae Young there as the bellringer, but didn't know why she was there until the end when she rang the bell. What a way to spit on the history of women in wrestling. They really could've done something with it, but no, it was just to showcase t!ts and @ss. The Santina thing was funny, but that's not what denigrates women in wrestling. Why the hell didn't all the women rush the ring and beat the cr@p out of him? Stupid.

So on to the Oldtimers vs. Jericho match. Which wasn't too bad. Jericho had to be really gentle w/ Snuka and Piper, but Steamboat really held his own. It was quite good once it was just Jericho and Steamboat. Rourke was not a good actor. And what's w/ adjusting your hat and not being chummy w/ Flair? Yeesh. Respect wrestlers, my arse.

Eh, next match....can't really remember now. Was it the Hardys? That was pretty wild but far too short. I know they don't want to hurt each other too badly, but surely there's a way they could've lasted a bit longer? But the moves that they did do were quite awesome. We were saying that Jeff won't be able to go to the bathroom for a while after that legdrop. Ouch! And the Twist of Fate w/ the chair? Holy smokes! Surprised that Matt won, but maybe it's b/c Jeff hurt himself too much to continue.

HBK v. Taker. Had the proper Wrestlemania entrance. Spectacular, theatrical and dazzling. Match was back & forth w/ multiple near-falls. Everyone doing their finishing moves and kicking out. It was exciting, and unpredictable. I'm glad that Taker won, and HBK did a great job.

JBL v. Mysterio. Totally forgot about this match. Actually, couldn't remember that JBL was the Intercontinental holder. Guess we shoulda known it'd suck when JBL doesn't come out w/ his limo. What's w/ the Joker mask? Like really. Last year's Aztec theme was cool. This is not Wrestlemania worthy. And 21 seconds?! Crap.

Edge v. Big Show v. Cena. As I predicted Cena won. It was kinda boring. Stuff that you'd see on TV. Cena's entrance was lame.

HHH v. Orton. Where's the interference from McMahons, and Dibiase and Rhodes? It was a very straightfoward match. I predicted that HHH would land on the Spanish table b/c they didn't take out all the monitors on the English announce table. It's nice that HHH won, but not enough back & forth.

Overall, lots of errors in the matches, not much storytelling or unpredictability. Far too short matches, and not worthy of Wrestlemania standards, let alone a 25th anniversary milestone. Not worth the $20 (my portion of PPV + food) that I spent on it.