Hardly ever on here anymore. Teaching didn’t afford me with a lot of free time before the end of school, and holiday-related traveling has not afforded me a lot of time during the break. Currently, I’m back in Burlington with Katie, spending New Years here, and then going back to Kingston on New Years Day for classes on January 4th (fun… :( ).

Anyway, while in Stratford for my family Christmas (which we call Dinner Day, because it does not coincide with Christmas), a speedy Stu bolted into my field of vision at Zehrs while I was picking up supplies. What followed was a lengthy conversation about awesome things that were so astounding that people in neighbouring areas of produce had to tear off and consume their own ears because their brains couldn’t handle it.

He asked me about being his second in Resident Evil 5. This was an unfortunate impossibility, because I was going to be heading back to Katie’s house the next day, and everything up until then was booked. I was heartbroken, because I really want to play Resident Evil 5 with a competent RE-player such as Stu.

Anyway, during our conversation, he talked to me about stuff like Andrew fleeing the country to California due to some sort of dangerous extortion problem, and the question of what happened to New Years.

A fair one since I didn’t really say anything to anyone. But, after last New Years, I didn’t know that there would be anyone to say anything to. As we’ve grown more and more spread out, each New Years has been consisting of less and less people, to the point where last year had 5 people (Binks-Andrew-Stew-me-newcomerKatie) plus random drop ins from my two roommates (who were intoxicated, and maybe looking to get a Little Caesar in them). ;)

Anyway, I decided not to coordinate and plan a New Years celebration this year (after seven [?] years of consistently having it) because I didn’t know if people were still interested, or if they would be making their own arrangements with new groups of friends. Previous attendees have stopped attending to spend New Years in more “festive” locales. I don’t fault them for that. I just figured more people would head that way.

I’ve noticed that Brendon is hosting some sort of LAN party, so I’m relieved to see that some of you are still finding time to do something. More and more stuff makes attending something like this on New Years a difficult predicament (and I now fully appreciate all of Binks’ scheduling difficulties from the days when he was with Erin and they were celebrating a family Christmas on New Years Eve).

Anyway, my apologies to those who were disappointed by the absence of many many long e-mails in their inboxes this year. Maybe we can add an additional “get together gaming day” to the calendar during some other holiday window, because I do enjoy gaming with you all (and people in the teaching option - Katie included - aren’t the biggest “gamers”). I’m going through withdrawal some times.

Anyway, hope you had a Merry Christmas and I hope you have a Happy New Year.

Got an exam to write in something like eight hours. Thought I’d make a quick update for those unaware.

I’m currently at Queens for Teacher’s College. It’s in the middle of my program, so I’m not even close to being done yet.

I’m alternating (too frequently) between classes in Kingston and teaching in Kitchener, so I’m moving all over the place.

Oh, and teaching is a huge time commitment. I’ve got absurd amounts of marking and prep all the time. It’s brutal. But also great. Teaching Gr. 9 and 11 math, and Gr. 12 Calculus. Boo yah. My students have test coming up too (which I have to prepare over the weekend :S).

Yeah. So, that’s what I’m up to these days. Figured I should bump that Revenue Agency story from the top of my blog.

Cheers.

Here I am on the first weekend of my second practicum block with a whole pile of work to do, and what do I discover? The government is being very dickish about money, and I owe them $523.45 in back taxes.

Why? Because apparently I didn’t qualify for some sort of tax credit that I didn’t even apply for. I’m not 100% sure how this happened. We do our tax returns in one of those automated programs, and it must have selected something related to this tax credit for me. Somehow, I cannot help but feel that a tax program that prepares returns incorrectly and ends up costing me $500 + dollars plus the cost of the program itself should be discontinued, and its creators shot in the head.

What’s worse than that? My father was given a little bit of a refund because they re-assessed his and determined he was eligible for more money in his refund. But then they tell him in a letter that this money is taxable on his next tax return.

What?

This is money that he should have received because they taxed too much from him during the last tax season. Just because they withheld it until this tax year doesn’t mean it should be taxed again. It narrowly escaped being axed in one year, and now it is being taxed again. Isn’t that double dipping, and - arguably - extremely fucking immoral?

I don’t mind paying taxes. I understand that they support important goods and services. However, I am disappointed by a program that automatically prepares my tax return incorrectly. I don’t approve of that, and if I knew it was that shotty, I’d prepare the return by hand. Sure, it is tedious, but my time in preparing the return myself is worth less than $500. Also, I’m not a fan of the government taxing me - a student - who is currently in the middle of five consecutive academic terms with no potential for earning money.

At least this years tax return will be empty. I’ve had no income. If those bastards try to tax me, I’ll have to visit Ottawa a second time (against my better judgment), and kick the Finance Minister in the face.

My gift to you:

The PS3 is quite clearly the leading system on the market in all ways.

:P

Article from The Toronto Star.

The biggest thing that struck me was this: “We’ve certainly seen a change since the end of the five-year program,” said Kumar Murtry, head of the U of T math department. “We know high school students are not as prepared as they used to be. Math takes time to sink in.”

Obviously they don’t know as much since the high school program went to 4 years. The fifth year was 1st year university material. Some university math professors are surprised that students don’t yet know integral calculus. Now that students aren’t doing their first year university courses in high school, why would you expect them to know this?

Don’t get me wrong. I dislike the backwards slide that the curriculum is in. But this seems like a problem with an easy solution that university experts are losing it over.

High school teachers – work harder to make the material more appealing. University professors – remember that first year courses need to change if they haven’t already. Principals – start busting heads of students using mp3 players, laptops, etc, in class. Students – do your f’ing work, by hand, and focus better.

Currently in Kingston.

Been attending Queen’s stuff for a week now. Kind of tame so far. Looks like it will continue.

Anyway, my Physics curriculum class has asked me to maintain a blog on my “Journey as a Teacher”. I’m going to let you guys know about the link, or see if I can get the posts to turn up here, since I don’t know if I can juggle both.

It is odd. I’ve had no real work, but I seem to have no time. I’ve reached a state of complete mental and physical stagnation that nothing is happening to me, and I still have no time for all the nothing I wish to do.

Ahhhhh teacher’s college. :)