Went to my Mom’s place,
It was snowing like a Mother Trucker,
And my car got hit while it was parked on the street.

Here’s my damage. —->

Here’s his. —->

I guess I got lucky huh?

Hahahaaaaa!! 29 today!!
My first birthday as a father.

You know, its funny how,
Now that I am older.
And now that my family is what matters the most,
I do not really want anything for me on my birthday.
All I wish for is the best for my family.
And any other that might concern them.

A wonderful life for Tyler.
Great Health for Tracy.
Happiness for the rest of my family.
Good fortune to my friends,
Hunger would end in Africa,
Peace in the Middle East,
and an alternative to the rumor of war between the States and Iraq.

I wish for all of these.
As I blow the candles on my cake that Tracy baked.

….and maybe more RAM for my Laptop,
and also a Video Card, with 128 MB of memory,
probably a GeForce 4, with T&L support.
A nice whooping ATHLON XP 2700+ would be nice,
and an ASUS Motherboard A7M266 to go along with it.
I would love to have the bandwith of a 512MB DDR RAM.
Or that great Server Case Mod my friend Grant has.
While I am at it, It would also be nice to get that new
Playstation game, Devil May Cry 2.
I heard that ones Kicks ass!!

Oh man.. those gifts would be nice.

So anyway…
what was I saying?

I kinda lost my train of thought.

Oh yeah..
Happy Birthday to me!!

and a Happy V.D to all!!

What is it with me that the Canadian government hates?
Are they purposely making my life harder or they just don’t like me.

I was just thinking what they have accomplished this past fiscal year,
as they have taken $7,000 Federal Tax, on top of the 15% tax I pay for every goods and services.

They have successfully managed to tell all family Doctors
not to take me as a patient.
The stress of not having to find a doctor for Tyler,
until a month before he was born.

How many times have they given Tracy false information on how to go abouts working here.
You would think, since Canada is in shortage of medical people,
they would help everyone who is willing to work here.

But then again, I don’t see many American nurses who wants to work here,
so I guess, they do not know how to answer her.

And you know, for every wrong information they give us,
The process has to start again.
And a fee has to be paid for each process.
So, time and money wasted, and it’s not even our fault.

And let me get this straight,
I have to pay $25 to register that my son was born.
And after weeks, if not months, of that registration to be processed,
I have to pay another $35 dollars for them to give us his Birth Certificate.

I mean come on.
Do I really need to pay $60 dollars
just to let them know my son was born and give us the documents?
You would think, they would know what happens in and out of a hospital since
they control everything in there.

$60 dollars?
My son was born Oct. 14, 2002, We sent them the registry papers a week after.
It’s now almost mid February, and we still do not have the said papers in hand.

Amazing isn’t it?

Another thing,
As it was written, regarding this “Child Tax Benefit” that they promise to you.
The Parent(s) must be a Canadian Citizen, or a Landed immigrant,
to be eligible for the said benefit.

So, since Tracy is American, I win by default.
Again, after weeks of waiting, here’s what they say,

Dear Sir,
Your application for the Child Tax Benefit has been declined
due to the following reason(s);
We recognize and only consider the Mother, to be the primary care giver of the child….

But then,

Tracy got a letter from them, telling her that she may be eligible for the Tax benefit,
if she was only able to prove that she had no income for the previous year.

Hmmm, so let me get this straight.
We have to prove to you that she did not work last year?
How do you prove that?
How can you prove that you did not work?
You submit to them your income tax return and
wouldn’t that tell them what you earned when you worked?

But how do you prove otherwise?
And Tracy was not eligible to begin with.

Please, anybody,
can someone explain that to me.

And what is up with the Gas prices?
As of this writing, we enjoy a good deal of 83 cents per liter.
And this is how it breaks down,

As of the year 2000,
38.1% you pay for the crude oil,
46.3% for taxes,
and 15.6% to the refinery.
Unless my eyes prove me wrong,
The tax is worth more than the gas itself.

That’s why I take the bus,
as I wait at the bus stop in -35 Celsius weather,
hoping that they would not go on strike.
Crap, they threaten everyone every 6 months that they would go on strike.
I don’t care, as long as they announce it before I buy my bus pass.

And to finish my day today,
We received a letter from the “Office of the Registrar” with regards to
Tyler’s Birth Certificate.

It seems that it will be delayed again because it says that,
The names we put on our form does not match the names they have on their records.

Now with all the forms we have filled out our whole lives,
You would think, we know how to write our names by now.

Maybe that’s why the government is giving us a hard time.
Maybe that’s why they hate us.

It’s either we are stupid for not knowing how to write our names,
or we are stupid that we are still here.

Ayyyy Dios mio!!!

Kung Hee Fat Choy!
Best Wishes and Good Fortune!

Yesterday was the start of the Chinese New Year.
This year is the Year of the Black Sheep.
I do not know if that’s bad or good, but here’s to hoping it’s for the latter.

I was born in the year of the Tiger.
Tracy was born in the Year of the Boar,
and Tyler, the Year of the Horse.

What about you?
Click here to find out.

Thanks to Emily for the cute picture.

Our condolences to the friends and family of the Space Shuttle Columbia.
These brave men and women, knowing the dangers of their dreams,
Still held on to them, to the very end.

“Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord,
And let your perpetual light shine upon them.”

….and then, I read this other Canadian Government minister of Lies and Deceit.

It was found out that she claimed $80,000 worth of claims
that the Canadian people paid for,
but would not show any receipts nor proof that it was all spent for governmental purpose.

Funny, we always have receipts for every tax claim that we submit.
I do not even know anyone who earns that much in a year.

She is also the one who promised the people about 8-9 years ago when she got elected,
that if the GST tax was not demolished within her 6 year term, she will resign.

Well, “GST” is still here, and she did resign.
But ran again for office, and the people elected her … again.

She is only one of these people who got busted about their claims and expenses,
and hides under the “Privacy Act” law.

What a bunch of bull.

I think if it is the taxpayer’s money.
It’s everybody’s business.

You know, as long as the people let them do this, it will continue on
… and on and on and on…

Lie to us once, SHAME on you!

Lie to us twice, SHAME on us.

So I was reading the paper earlier this week.
And I was reading about this government employee who claims that
She got so stressed working for the government,
That she had to take some yoga classes to cope with
the frustration of having a job with the establishment.

So She claims it as a personal growth, and asked the government
to reimburse her for it..

To me that does not make sense.
And since it does not make sense, the government did grant her wish.

Of course.

It’s amazing how this got approved, and it just makes you think how much paperwork
gets through the process that shouldn’t have been approved.
How many more of these have already happened.

Well, at least it makes me glad that
I am providing for the enjoyment of one of our hard working Canadian government employees.

God bless them.

I can just see it, 10 years from now.
Tyler would be asking me to buy him a basket ball, and I would be telling him

“Sorry son, I have to save our money to be able to pay taxes.
You never know when one of them needs a day at the spa.”

Oh yes 2003 is here.

It has been quite a year for me.
2002 was indeed a year to remember.

Tracy’s pregnancy
Moving to a house,
Tyler being born.

A lot of happiness,
A lot of frustrations.

What can I say,
Never a dull moment in this household.

This also makes me reflect on what happened in 2002.
And what New Years resolution am I not going to follow again.

Hmmm. Let me see.

Let’s look at the world of economy in 2002,
I still don’t care about the stock market,
I have no business of my own,
It’s none of my business.
That settles that.

The world of entertainment in 2002.
I totally got addicted to the Lord of The rings.
I went back to reading books for pleasure.

Eminem made a movie that I still haven’t seen.
Nor any plans of seeing.

But what really shocked me in the world of entertainment
Is when Michael Jackson dangled his kid on a window
To show to his screaming fans.

Now as a parent, this really shocked me.
It hit me like a ton of bricks.
“Does Michael Jackson still has fans?”

The world of medicine in 2002,
I still hate Doctors.
No wait, Hate is a harsh word.
I LOATHE Doctors.
Just the pompous ones!
That settles that.

The world of Technology in 2002.
I still drool when I see new computers,
I am still mesmerized by DVD’s, Surround sound,
HDTV, Bits and bytes, Mega , Giga, DSL, ADSL,
TCP/IP, ASAP, BYOB”¦ ABCD?

All the best for the new year to everyone.

WARNING! WARNING!

May this be a warning to all game enthusiasts out there.
This WARCRAFT 3 – Reign of Chaos game is very, very addicting.
I spent the whole day yesterday and today playing this manipulative game.

Though my good friends, John Bertazzo and Matthieu Roy. (with two t’s),
will be so proud of me for squeezing in some game time during my holidays.

Check out the Warcraft 3 – Reign of Chaos web site here.

Now if you would excuse me,
I need to make haste and travel to the forgotten land of Northrend,
and seek out the evil Leader of the Cult of the Damned – Kel’Thuzad.

He is piiiiisssiiinngg me off!!

As you can see from this picture,
We went to see Santa.

He happens to be at the mall when we were there.
Thank God, we caught up with him, especially with his schedule and all.

Tyler did very good with him,
I mean, when we were done, Santa’s suit was still velvet red.
Not like my shirt, with permanent white spots on the shoulder.

Anyway,
I am so happy, knowing that Tyler will get to grow up knowing that
Santa will come and visit our house, and give him his gifts.

When I was a kid, I had a hard time trying to figure out
how in the world is he going to get into our house in the Philippines.
Houses don’t have chimneys there.

My mother said he comes in through the windows.
I said, “No way!”
The windows were locked.
And we have window bars all over them.

Then she said,
“Sometimes, He just magically appears in your bedroom,
and puts the gifts under your bed.”

Now I am officially freaked out.

Either Santa is a ghost, appearing out of nowhere.
One Christmas night he would just appear in my room
and scare the bejeezuz out of me.

Or he’s got some training from Burglary academy.
Being able to break in and enter without you knowing.

You don’t want to see a fat guy in a suit, trying to pry open your window.

Well now we live in North America,
For sure he has to make a stop and give us something.
Not only because we have a chimney,
but also when we were at the mall,
I gave him “The Look”.

The look that says,
“I still haven’t forgotten.”
“Christmas 1981”
“I am still waiting for my train set.”