Resuscitating this blog

I don't quite know why, but I've decided that I do like to blog. Maybe it's because I have grown to be a terrible email writer, maybe it's just because I don't like the synchronous nature of other types of communication (sure I can write emails any time I want, but if someone hasn't had time to answer yet, I feel bad about writing another one), or maybe it's just that I feel that all blogs I read are dying and I don't like the feeling of it.

Anyway, here I am back to the world of blogging. I have been thinking of what I would change that might make my blog more readable, but I still have no good idea (besides working on the layout, but this will still be postponed to a time I have more inspiration - and maybe better software for image editing).

Where to start? Too many things happened since my last post... I went back to Stillwater, defended my Ph.D., came back a Doctor of Philosophy (no, I can't write "official" presciptions - not even to book on philosophy) and now work has been keeping me busy. Maybe I can rant about the Oklahoma Tax system!

Well, in the US you have to pay (in some states, including Oklahoma, but not including Washington) state tax. When it comes to the tax period you have to file all the tax return forms hoping to get part of this tax back. Anyway, I lived in Oklahoma for 9 1/2 months, right? And the amount I've made in OK was about 1/3 of what I've made in the whole year (as expected). The problem is how the OK tax is calculated: it is a part of what you make regardless of where you make it! So, as I've gone up a couple of tax buckets since I moved, I suddenly had to pay $250 in taxes to OK out of the money I've made in Washington!!! What actually happened is that because I went up in the tax bucket, the amount they were deducting from my salary in OK was too little. Oh, and for you to have a feel of how much I went up in buckets, the amount deducted from my salary was about $500.

That's life! Next year I hope I don't have to go through it any more! Hopefully my money this year will help the economy in Oklahoma (although when I was there I talked to a plumber that claimed that OK has enough oil to supply all the US demand for oil for 50 years! One of two things: either he has no idea of how much oil the US uses, or he likes conspiracy theories about hidden treasures).