Happy Valentine

February month is a lovely month. Don't worry if you didn't have a chance to send any special gift to your love one. You always can send a love message. Internet is open 24 hours a day.

My friend sends me this rare flower. A lovely bird couples. I never see this flower before. When I receive this picture through my email, I'm feeling so relax from a stressful day. I love to share this to VietCali readers.

Have a Happy Romantic Valentine day to all VietCali readers.

Love from VietCali

What is yours filing system?

Do you have a filing system where you keep yours bills, receipts, records, and misc documents? What do you keep? How long do you keep them? And how do you file them? Now I am one of those guy that don't want to spend anytime on these boring stuffs. The less filing I have to do the better. I don't want to spend more than 30 minutes paying and filing my monthly bills. [more...]

I know people that keep all theirs bills and receipts, more than five years worth of papers, in storage boxes. Theirs argument is you never know when you need a copy to prove something. So the best way is to keep everything. If you are one of these people, I'm admiring your effort. For me, I have a much simpler system. My thinking is you only need to keep about 13 months copies of bills and receipts. Look if you don't discover a mistake on your bills in a month then why should you keep it more than a year. The reason I want to keep 13 moths worth of document is purely for tax purpose and in case you need those statements for loan application and stuff. Let call it a "13 plus" filing system. So here is how my filing system work. I have 12 folders, label January through December. And one extra folder labeled "January*". Why do I choose January? That is the month I usally do my tax. If you want you can change this to Feburary, March or April and label your extra to such. So if you are the April type, then the first and the last folder are labled "April". Now every month after I pay my bills, I just dump all the copies into that month folder. I don't care about sorting the phone bill from the gas bill, or whatever. In my experience so far, I never have to go back and look for anything anyway. And it doesn't take taht much time to look it up either. So just dump all the papers for that month into one folder. Keep doing in this for every month util you reach your 13th folder. This is 13 months so far. On the 14 months, or let's say on its aniversary, I just shred the old content and replace with new ones for that month. You can see the reason I want to keep the 13th month is want to keep a whole year worth of stuff when I am doing my tax. Now, to make it easier for tax paperworks I aslo have a separate tax folder, where I will throw in there all tax-related stuffs regardless of what month it is. As long as they are on that same year. Things like car registration, property tax payment stub, medical payment stub. And when the W2, 1099s are coming back, I also throw them in this folder too. So when it time to do the tax, I just pull out this one folder. Finished tax forms then also go back in this folder. Now these tax folders, I will have to keep them at least five year. So over all this filing system needs only about 18-20 folders and you should only spend 1 minute to file them.

Happy new year, now do your tax.

I don't know about you but I just hate when it come time to do the tax. It's just a nightmare. Look, there are people that make theirs living just by helping us do our taxes. Why do we have to put up with this! Why won't there be simpler system to pay tax instead of all these mysterious tax questions, credits, deductions, dependents, records, receipts, 1099s, w2, etc Worst this year, I think I will get hit with the AMT tax. If you don't know what AMT tax is you better learn about it now before it too late. In a nutshell, everyone is suppose to figure out two taxes. One regular tax and one AMT tax and pay whichever higher. I think we should get rid of AMT tax. The only reason I think why the government want to keep it so they can basically rob more of our hard earned money. I know there are software that make filing tax a lot easier, but our tax system to me is too complicated. You shouldn't need to spend more than a day to do your taxes. And you shouldn't need a computer and software to do it either. What worst you get to buy different version every year. Why can there be a simpler system so we can do away with the tax forms. We're living in the computer age, and yet we still need to figure out at the end of the year if we pay too much or too little taxes!! Do away with tax credits and deductions and just pay a fix tax percentage for everyone. That is what I think we should do. So I assume there must be good reason not to change our current tax system, and I guess it has to do with money. Somehow, somewhere, someone just can't afford to give up robing us our time and money. What do you think. Am I overreacting?

Are you googling?

Seem like I can't do anything without the Internet and Google these day. Not only me but all my friends at work seem to agree. Everytime I need to find something or even have a health question I head to the my computer. I don't bother to pick up the phone to call someone to chat about it or look up a book for some reference anymore. And 90% of the time I start out with Google. I can pretty much what I call 'googling' everything in the web. People seem to open about sharing theirs ideas and knowledge. It seem like the web is a big virtual front porch where you sit and getting to know yours huge virtual neighbors. Of course there are bad neighbor anywhere and you always have to keep a look out for. I think we are spending more and more time on the Internet as the year goes by. Like just last night I used the Internet to do my shopping, book the hotel for a little vacation, order some wine for the Chrimas party, down load some Chrismas music, chat to some friends in Vietnam, and then gooling for how to mod my kids's Xbox. I always interest in find out how things work and 'googling' is the best tool. I'm not working for Google by the way. Just want to post this to tell you how I feel about my dependency on the internet these day. How about you? Are you googling? Merry Chismas. P.S. I did sucessfully mod my kid Xbox and now can make back ups and watch DVD with it. I must admitted if I didn't googling around, I wouldn't know that I can do such a thing with my Xbox. Happy googling.

Happy Thanksgiving

Không có gì đễ nói, Chỉ xin chúc các bạn một ngày lễ Tạ Ơn vui vẽ và tràn đầy hạnh phúc trong mái ấm của gia đình mình. I also would like to take this opportunity to say a very special thank you to all our troops who have to spend the holidays away from theirs families to fight for our safety and freedom back home. Thank you.

Happy birthday to me

I can't believe I am 42 years old already. I still remmember the days when I first came to U.S. I was only about 13 years old but now I'm already 42! Oh boy, how time flies. Looking back I still see myself as the same old me. Nothing change except looking a lot more older. Nhớ lúc còn nhỏ đi học cô giáo có dạy cho bài thơ gì đó mà bây giờ quên mất tiêu. "Thời giờ như thể chim bay, ..." Tuổi trẻ con ở Việt Nam bây giờ nhớ lại sao thấy thèm qúa trời. Mổi buổi trưa trốn ngũ đi tắm sông với đám bạn. Đôi lúc bị bà gìa bất được, đánh cho một trận đã đời. So với đám con cũa mình bên Mỹ, tụi nó dầu sao cũng không quậy hơn mình hồi nhỏ. Chúng nó bây giờ chỉ biết "quậy" với TV và video game. Thôi dỉ vãng đã xa, cho nó qua một bên. Let's concentrate on tasks at hand. I still have quite a few years ahead of me. I better finish the Updated Quick English Vietnamese phrases for you before I became too old and too lazy. Please reply to me on the articles with your opinion and will try to my best. I know some of you want me to put more word in "Quick English Vietnamese Phrases" and that is what I'm going to do. Happy birthday to me, la la la la lá la.

A druken though

Một ngày rồi cũng hết. Một chai bia cũng tu hết, rồi hai, rồi ba, đến lúc ngã say rồi cũng hết. Một tháng rồi cũng hết, rồi một năm, hai năm, cho đến khi chết. Tất cã rồi cũng hết. Tôi và anh có khác gì chăng? Tôi nghĩ là có. Khi uống sỉn đi bên bạn bè nó vẩn vui hơn là một mình nhìn chai bia cô lạnh. Sống trên đời cũng vậy. Có bạn bè, người hiểu đuợc mình và để cho ta tâm sự, ta vẫn thấy vui hơn giẩu đời có lắm lúc làm cho ta thật chán nãn. Vậy các bạn chúng ta phải qúy tình bạn và những người thân của mình. Don't drink alone.

Information is a powerful thing.

A 10 year girl save hundred people live from the Indian Ocean's tsunami. How can a little girl has such strength you might ask? This time it's the knowledge she learn from her Geography class that save her and others from the devastating tsunami. I myself don't know about this natural tsunami warning sign before I read this article. I guess I have to keep my eye open whenever I sun bathing on the beach. Hmm, let's see if any fish is flopping on the sand out there. Well what the heck life is full of unexpected events. You can't watch out for dangers all the time anyway. Just take it easy and move on I guess. But when you happen to see a strange thing is happening, like the ocean is suddenly disappear, then run for your life. So "When the ocean suddenly disappears, the tsunami is fast coming. Run" Happy New Year.

Merry Chrismas.

A few words on Chrismas eve. I'm a Buddhist but I do take joy in celebrating this special day. Well there are many scholars still debate that Christ wasn't born on the 25th of December, but to me that is irrelevant. I don't want to question any faith and existence of deity. I rather not dwell on these tough questions and not try to prove one religion over another. Religions, any religion, are meant to be good. It's just that when we take it to one extreme direction then it has negative effect. At my age, I just want to live my life with a very simple rule and that is help other whenever I can. I guess when I am older I will have time to contemplate more about God and the existence of the universe. For now I want to enjoy my Chrismas day, off work. For me Chrismas is about giving, sharing, and helping those less fortunate. Those values are universal no matter what religion you're belongs to. Yet there are those who take on this opportunity of giving and make profit for themselves. Those who take advantage of well-intended people and shamelessly looking for a handout. Anyway, why wait till Chrismas to do these good deeds and not every day? In a way I think the busy daily life force us to forget life itself and turn us into routine tasks followers. So on this Chrismas day let's pause, reflect on the year went by, on humanity, where are we heading, reevaluate our values in life., and lastly let's enjoy life. Merry Chrismas to you and wish you all a Happy New Year. Chúc các bạn một mùa Giáng Sinh vui vẽ và hạnh phúc cùng gia đình.

Another 4 years

On Nov 2 we will get either an new or old President. Boy how fast is time flies. The Florida's recount fiasco seem like yesterday event. A lot of things have changed since then. Most of them are for worse. Or better? I really don't know. Maybe I tend to be more pessimistic at my older age. Or maybe the doom and gloom news I've seen everyday really stress me out. I remember on my college day all I care about is fun, fun, and more fun. Now it's about taking care of my kids, steady income, food on the table, soccer practices, PTA, my cholesterol level, daily dose of exercise, world news, Bush and Kerry, Libs vs Cons, meaning of life, and more of the endless worrying and pondering. Sometime when I drop my kids of at school, I sit in the car and recall my own childhood. Boy, I wish to be like them again. Sure they too have their own stress at school. But they all about kids things. So innocent and so joyful. I always told my kid to try to do good and have fun. Another 4 years will soon pass. My older boy will become a teenager. I won't be able to hug him anymore in front of his friends. A lot of things will soon be changed. I for some reason still see myself still trap in this same shell after those 40 plus year! So what have I learned in those 40 years. A lot of things to survie, to work, to make friend, to get ahead in life. But anything for me, for myself? This is the easiest question to answer but to be able to do is not a trivial task and that is: be happy in this present no matter how unfortunate you found yourself in.

VietCali goes Blogger

Once again I change my VietCali layout again. I tired of using Frontpage and tedious FTP process for my website. So I decided to use Blogger because of it simple update process. I can post new article easily and anywhere wihout access to my system at home. On this new layout you will find most the favorite links are gone. Please bear with me I will add them back once I find out how to modify the template. What is this Blogger that I keep mentioning. Check it out at www.blogger.com