有税退, Yeah!

I just went online to check out my taxes for this year. It seems that I get about 10000 back on taxes for 2008. Such a big relief.

Looking forward to receive the check :)

我这辈子要做和想做的十样事情

1. 有起码两个小孩
2. 年薪过百万(等到我六十岁的时候都算, 挪威不行可以去日本)
3. 游遍欧,亚洲,美洲,澳洲,非洲, 和南极. (已去过欧, 亚, 和美洲)
4. 用马和弓箭去打擸
5. 看完中国四大奇书(已看过三国演义, 另水浒传和西游记看了一半)
6. 上电视(希望不是蒙头带手扣地上电视)
7. 食一餐满汉全席
8. 坐船环游世界
9. 捐血
10. 再多学两种语言　（应该是德语和西班牙语)

Taxation in Norway

The Norwegian tax office will start sending out the tax form for people. For small potatoes like us, it's more of a good news than bad news, because we pay our taxes in deduction from paychecks and usually we would get some tax back instead of paying money out of our pocket. Although I am not sure about my status this year.

For those of you who are interested in how much tax we pay, I got some info from a brochure and sharing it here with you all:

- The first 38850 you earn in a year is free of tax (double for married couple)
- Normal income tax for single person is 36%
- After the first 420000 (adjusts with inflation), the tax becomes 45%
- After the first 682500 (adjusts with inflation), the tax becomes 57%
- Investment gain/loss tax is 28%/28%, for every 100 bucks you lose, you get 28 bucks back for tax deduction
- For interests of mortgages, you get 28% back as well.
- There are other deductions as well, like children, daycare, savings etc.
- Wealth tax, 0.2% between 700000 and 1.08mill. anything above is 0.4%

I am expecting the letter from them this week, if I get tax back from the government, I will get them in the month of June with interest. If I have to pay more tax, I can pay before the end of April to avoid interest.

公司聚会

On tuesday night I went out to bowling and had dinner with my team members from Oslo and Bergen. Since we are quite international (3 Norwegians, me, 1 English, 1 West German and 1 East German), it is a good chance for me to learn about them and their background.

They asked me about Hong Kong and how it was affected after 1997, and about the counterfeit stuff. While the Germans talked about the fall of the wall in 1989. It was always good to learn about other people's experience.

However, I do feel that there is a big misconception of how people picture China and Hong Kong. Who is to blame?

I told them about the changes in HK was minimal since it was pretty much the same people who continues to rule the place. The counterfeit things are becoming an issue in China due to their lack of knowledge of the copyright concept.

My East German co-worker was 14 when the wall fell and all he remembered was that Coka Cola was for sale in stores for the first time and he drank so much of it till his mouth changes color. His parents both lost their jobs and the social benefits disappeared as the Soviet moved out.

So the question regarding the timing of change was discussed. Removing the wall too abruptly caused some issues for some people, but had they delay the move, it may never have happened. So we can just let history decide whether it was right or wrong. As for my co-worker, he did got more opportunities now and is living happily in Norway working as a Senior Developer (a title I hope to get in a couple of years).

In the restaurant the dishes I recommended was complimented. They were just surprised that I wasn't eating with chopsticks. The fact is that in the restaurant we have a plate to eat on and it would just be silly to pick up the rice from the plate with chopsticks. It would take forever.

Overall it was a good evening.

My f***ed up teenage life.

來源：小瓶

[X] 被罰留堂
[ ] 上堂被收電話 (No mobile)
[X] 被人踢出校 (Believe it or not)
[ ] 被發現食香口膠
[ ] 比人捉出貓 (Doesn't mean I never attempted, but the only time I did, I failed)
Total: 2

[X] 遲到超過5次 (In Norway, I was late 3 times a week)
[X] 冇做功課超過5次 (you can add 3 zeros behind it and I will still mark it with X)
[ ] 遲交project 3次 (projects are the only reason why I stay in school, they are fun)
[ ] 因為想唔返而唔返學
[ ] 笑得太大聲比人趕出課室
Total: 2

[X] 要媽/爸由學校接返屋企 (My mom used to pick me up from school everyday)
[ ] 上堂send message
[X] 上堂傳紙仔 （Did eventually got caught）
[X] 喺課室將野飛尼飛去 （I practice my basketball skills in class）
[ ] 笑老師 (Mostly full respect to my teachers)
Total: 3

[ ] 禁消防嗰個警報器
[ ] 上電腦堂上Myspace , Facebook , Xanga既網站 (How about watching anime in lectures?)
[ ] 喺返學時間影相
[X] 返學時間打電話比人 (in university, this happens almost daily)
[ ] 上堂聽歌
Total: 1

[ ] 用野掟老師
[X] 冇老師批准下離開課室
[X] 唔跟校規規定既衣著 （No requirements in Norway/USA）
[X] 小測唔合格 (I want to know who doesn't have an X here)
[ ] 上堂食野 (I need to be able to enjoy my meal, can't do that in class)
Total: 3

[X] 學校打電話比家長
[ ] 因為行為表現差而冇得去學校既旅行 (My mom won't let me go when I was little)
[X] 冇帶野返學 （at the end of high school, I go to school empty handed)
[ ] 比人罰留堂但冇去
[ ] 當老師冇留意時向佢舉中指
[ ] 上堂大聲爆粗比老師聽到
Total: 2

[ ] 冒簽 (too difficult to forge Chinese signatures)
[X] 上堂訓教 （I snore and everyone heard me except the professor)
[ ] 咀咒老師
[X] 抄功課 (I do that daily for math homework)
Total: 2

將x的數目乘4 : 15×4=60, whoa, pretty low compare to most people.

感激流涕

今天组长过来开会, 她终于发现原来我是没有工作的. 刚好组里面有人忙到趴街. 所以就有一个PROJECT过给我. 那一刻, 简直就像久旱逢甘露...立刻感动到泪水都要流出来了.

须然同事都说管理层不好, 但我觉得, 他们居然可以令我以有野做为荣. 我真的要佩服他们.

扬名国际

http://www.vg.no/reise/artikkel.php?artid=561001

这位机场阿婶居然连挪威报纸都报道, 真本事.

梦想成真?

记得黄子华有一句很经典的:

"我们打工仔的梦想是什么? 就是可以唔洗Do. 今时今日香港忡唔係梦想成真?"

那个时候是2003年.

现在2009年, 再听这句话, 依然很贴切.

至于本人, 有幸在挪威这个国家, "暂时"免受失业之苦. 只不过是我发现有东西是比失业更痛苦的.

这就是, 在职失业.

几个月下来, 已经逗了超过二十万人工, 但实际做过的东西少之有少. 最近是完全没有工作.

未来的确是有两个比较重要的PROJECT是由我来做, 但到现在都还是在讨论阶段. 距离开始还有一段时间.

本来挪威要炒人很困难的, 只是在下仍在试用期, 前途还不确定.

试用期间要炒你, 只需要两星期通知, 试用期后是三个月. 我有绝对信心可以在三个月内找到新工作(人工可能没有这里高), 但要在两星期内找新工作就有点困难.

距离试用期结束还有六个星期, 到时候就会知道命运. 如果公司不需要我, 为什么这几个月又一直白出薪水给我?

要找工作? 还是睇定D?

这一刻, 我真的不知道.

The good ol' memories of the past

I found these in facebook a short while back.

It was a science competition in my last year of high school. We had to build a machine that completes specified task. That year we had to build a machine that traps a rotating satellite and puts a battery into the hole.

I was suppose to team up with the people in the second picture because most of them were same grade as me (grade 12), but then these people wanted someone who had joined the competition before (I participated in 1999 as well). So I went on to "lead" that team instead. Actually I swapped with that cute young Chinese girl in the second picture, she likes one of the guys on that team.

These people eventually went on to prosper a lot. The leftmost girl on the first picture eventually went to Caltech. The right most girl on the first picture went to Harvey Mudd and then onto Med School. The Chinese guy (standing) in second picture went to Standford, the one kneeling went to Berkeley and then M.I.T.

The European looking guys were from Belarus and Russia, Evgeny, Max and Dmitri, I refer to them as the "Russian Mafia"

I don't need to point out which one was me, do I?

First picture:


Second picture:

Jukebox: 有個人

Languages, translations

During the year when Coco was studying Law in Oslo, there had been many occasions where her and classmates would be discussion politics and the difference of policies in different countries. Most of the time she remain silent because she can't join into the conversation. It is not that she knows nothing about the subject, but she has major trouble putting out her knowledge in English. Especially when it comes to names and places.

Based on my experience from talking to Coco and reading newspaper from HK, I find it very annoying to be forced to absorbed my knowledge in Chinese, even if it is a person or place in the foreign country. Is it so hard to write the name in local language so that someone who knows the letters can figure out the pronounciation themselves?

The following names really deserve some extra consideration, I pay special attention to English and Spanish translation because I am more familiar with them:

Charles: 查理斯 还是 查爾斯 好呢?
Shakespeare: Shakes = 沙士? 那SARS又是什么?
Virginia: 不知道什么时候变成 弗吉尼亚
Waterloo: 究竟是 滑铁卢 还是 窝打老 呢?
Gascoigne: 加斯居尼, I once tried to pronounce the name based on Chinese to a friend, and ended up being laughed at (Ga-see-coigne)
Juventus: 祖雲達斯, J in Italian prounce Y, I am surprise they can't find one single person who can suggest that at the beginning.
Mallorca: 馬略卡 This team didn't really came into the picture until late 90s, but....
double L in Spanish pronounce y. So this is actually Mayorca
Villareal: 维拉利爾 Same as above. Should be Viyareal, in fact, I don't see how real (pronounce re-AL)can be translated to 利爾.
Rául: 鲁爾 The name pronounced ra-OOL, I really don't understand where they got that name from.

I havn't even added the complication of multiple Chinese translation of names due to Mandarin and Cantonese. Here are a few:

Nigeria: 尼日尼亚, 奈及利亚
Bush: 布殊, 布希
Tiger Woods: 活士, 伍兹


Besides foreign language to Chinese, I also find it very difficult for people to master the pronounciation of Chinese names when written in letters. Try the following....

Cao Cao
Jiang Zemin
Zhao Zilong

I once knew someone from high school, his name is Timothy Cao. Since he is ABC I wasn't 100% sure if he knows how to pronounce his last name, but whenever he introduce himself he would pronounce his last name as KO (kay-oh). Honestly, with english pronounciation, the first thing I think about would be "Cow". So much for pinyin.

I think for the world to achieve globalization, besides the flow of money, the flow of information is also very important and a way to improve it is to really work on some of the translations.

Slumdog Millionare

Watched that movie with a few friends last weekend. For a few reasons this movie really touched me.

1. I really like the game "Who wants to be millionare"
2. I really don't believe higher education can help you succeed in this game
3. I always love movies that can educate me (in this case, the movie showed me Mumbai, giving me a little introduction before my trip this winter)

This movie almost put me to tears.

It puzzles me how the Chinese translation become "1 million and 1 night"

I will talk about my annoyance with Chinese translation of things in my next post.

Time for reflection

Several bloggers have posted about why they blog. I have done some thinking about that as well and I have promised to post it out. So here it is:

As I have mentioned before, I have not lived in the same house for 2 years since I was 9. Some of the moves are within the same city so I don't lose touch with friends, but most of the time I am moving to a whole new city or country and it makes keeping in touch very difficult.

Now that I am approaching 30, I can honestly say that I only have 3 friendships that lasted more than 5 years and that 2 of them I am slowly letting go (I am getting too tired to keep having to reach out to them only to know that they are busy with their lives, besides, they are girls and one of them is getting married this year). I just need some more friends.

I started blogging in 2001 when I used that as a way to communicate with my first ex. We would share the same blog and write posts to each other (she wrote 90% of the time). Once we broke up, the blog was closed.

When I moved back to Norway in 2007, it was a big change. Calling friends wasn't always an option and I had problems knowing new friends. So I started going to forums. I prefer smaller forums where people seem closer to each other. When I find people I enjoy talking to, then I get the MSN to chat (I stopped doing that now since I am too busy with work and my work computer doesn't have MSN).

I really have to thank Diamond Chan for getting into this blog world and having this blog family. I found him in a forum, really enjoy his writings and then followed his blog. Through him I knew Lili and their Sunday blogger (closed as of the end of Feb 2008), luckily I knew of Carson right before the close of the blog and the rest is history.

My horoscope is Leo and I am energetic and demands the center of attention most of the time. Not that I am looking for it here, but definitely I would want to share my life experience with other people since I know that is unique and special. For those who comes and read my posts, I hope you enjoy them as much as I writing them.

For me, blogging is a form of interaction, over the internet. So I do take into considerations of what other people want to read about. I mean, what is the point of writing something that nobody wants to read?

As for what I am looking for, I am definitely looking for friends. I am dedicating my life to this cyber world (I earn my living making websites, not the layout, but the functionalities). With the blog families getting bigger and bigger, it is easy to meet new bloggers, and for the ones I really like, I hope to be able to meet them one day and extend the friendship to the real world.

Have a nice day everyone