I recently finished reading the latest book from Christopher Paolini, Brisingr. I’ve been anxiously awaiting this book since I finished the first two books of the Inheritance Cycle, Eragon and Eldest. It was an absolutely amazing read! I was so drawn in, that I just couldn’t put the book down.

The characters are multidimensional and seem to jump off the pages. I wanted to know what they were going to do next, and I cared about what would happen to each character in the story. I can’t wait for the fourth book!

For those of you who don’t know, this story is about an ordinary farm boy named Eragon who happens upon a dragon’s egg – which hatches for him. The boy and dragon share a telepathic link, and become very close friends. But they soon find themselves fighting for their lives and fleeing from the agents of the evil king Galbatorix.

I’m not going to post any spoilers, so go grab yourself a copy of Brisingr, and enjoy a mighty adventure!

I also heartily recommend the first two books, Eragon and Eldest.

Take care, and happy reading!

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Spring is my favorite season. Although spring officially started on March 21st, it didn’t actually start feeling like spring here until a week or so ago. Where is “here” you ask? Why, none other than the tri-state area on the east coast! When the spring weather finally hit, it felt so good! Finally the end to a long, cold winter.

After work this past Friday, I remembered that there are Cherry Blossom trees around the reservoir path in Central Park, and that the Cherry Blossom trees bloom in the spring. So I decided to take a nice walk halfway around the reservoir and enjoy the Cherry Blossoms. I took a few shots of the trees. The pictures came out much better than I thought they would, considering I used my mobile phone’s built-in camera to take them! Take a look below:

Cherry Blossom trees are quite beautiful in the spring, as you can see. I hope you all are enjoying the pleasant change of weather and the beauty of nature as much as I am.

Another thing I just remembered – with the nice spring weather comes tax time. Even though the deadline for filing taxes has passed, this bit of information will be invaluable for anyone who will be filing a non-resident state return. (If you work in a state that collects tax on income, and reside in another state, you will be filing in this manner) You will be filing two state returns, and you should prepare your resident state return LAST. That way, you will get the most money back. (Or in my case, owed less taxes! )

I learned this when preparing my taxes online this year – I prepared my resident state return first, and I was quite disgusted when the system showed how much I would owe. I then tried preparing my taxes with an alternate online tax service, and prepared my resident state last, (the service actually instructed me to do so!) and when I finished, the system showed me that I owed significantly less.

On a side note, (Yes, another one!) I can’t believe how easy it is to prepare my own taxes online! I used to use a popular but overpriced tax preparer (cough-har-cough-block-cough-cough…), but me and my wife got real tired of paying so much in preparation fees…

Well, that’s pretty much that. Take care all!

Oh, wait! Just to remind you all, I am NOT a tax expert! So make sure to do your own research into your state’s local tax laws and such! Okay.

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