I didn't notice the world ending

Yesterday Chrysler filed for Chapter 11.

I could have sworn the politicians and financial experts said the world was going to end if the car makers went under. Todays seems pretty normal to me.

The US and Canadian governments are complete buffoons. It's bad enough they shoveled billions of dollars of tax payer money into a company they knew was going to go t*ts up. They now want to bring 10 billion more dollars to the table and take only a 2 percent stake.  I'm not a bright guy when it comes to finance but, if I came to a party with all the money I think I get to call more than 2% of the shots.

Just give me a free Fiat and I'll consider my portion of the debt repaid.

High Fructose Corn Syrup is bad for you

I was listening to the latest Podcast of Stuff you Should Know, Josh and Chuck were discussing the origins and dangers of consuming food made with High Fructose Corn Syrup.  It's a  fascinating topic and I'm actually surprise how little knowledge I had of it. It spurred me to do some other further reading on this pervasive sugar substitute.

It turns out that it's in almost every store bought packaged food. Food manufacturers use it instead of cane sugar because it's insanely cheap. As I began looking more closely at the ingredients in everything from cookies  to vegetable juices I was blown away at how prevalent it really is.

The problem with HFCS is that our bodies can't metabolize, and our liver turns it in triglycerides which is essentially fat. Studies have also shown that it can increase the feeling of hunger and it's taste can be addictive. I guess that explains why I can sit and eat a row Oreos and still want more. Studies have also shown that since the introduction of corn syrup sweeteners the incidents of diabetes has skyrocketed.

Beware of anything that contains Fructose.

No such thing as coincidences

Last night I went to the local Shopper's drugstore to get a couple N-95 masks, just in case. I figure if the Mexican government has passed out 40 million of them, it makes sense for me to have at least a few given the past SARs crisis.

Wouldn't you know that those masks were all gone. I went to 5 other Shoppers as well as a number of other drug stores downtown and they were all gone. I managed to order online and pickup today 2 N-95 respirators from Lee Valley. I have another one one back order and all the replacement filters are out of stock as well. 

I guess I'm not alone in my thinking.

GM dealers are part of the problem

Much has been said about the failure of GM and Chrysler to fulfill the consumer's desire for more fuel efficient cars. However I've always felt that the domestic auto dealers are 40% of the problem. And 10% is attributed to the stereotypical image of domestic autoworker. Why is it every time we see domestic auto workers leaving a plant they're wearing plaid, running, carrying lunch pails. But import auto workers are always clad in white overalls, booties and masks as if they were brain surgeons. Who would you buy a car from? But I digress.

If you ever went to a dealer shopped for a  GM, Chrysler or Ford you get the feeling that somehow they are doing you a favor. When you actually do talk to someone about buying a car you get the same B.S. about the salesman "working for you" by negotiating the best price with the sales manager. This happens at import dealers as well but in my experience it's not as bad. This practice has got to change.

The other thing that turns consumer's off is the service experience. If things were fixed properly to begin with the $80-$110/hr labour wouldn't be so bad. Just recently a friend of mine took their Firebird in for an electrical issue. When the the car was returned the problem was fixed but one of the body panels was bent out of alignment due to an improperly placed jack. The dealer made no effort to apologize and in fact said not to worry about it because the car was 10 years old anyways. Not a good way to attract or keep customers.

Like it or not, dealers are the face of the brand and for years they've been the main reason why there has been a perception that American cars are inferior. Ultimately if dealers kept the consumer happy, it wouldn't have mattered if the cars were slightly less reliable or less fuel efficient than the competition. 

Too late.

What to do with TD GM Visa points?

For years I've been a loyal TD GM Visa card holder. I saved about $800 using GM points back in 1996 when I purchased my Camaro Z28. My dream was to one day buy a Corvette and save a few hundred dollars using points. Today I have about $1300.

Things have changed since then:

1. A Corvette no longer costs $35K, the top end Corvette is between $55-110K depending on the model. So if even had that much money to drop entirely on a car I don't think 1K is gonna really matter.

2. GM is teetering on bankruptcy so I doubt any of those points will survive chapter 11. I wonder if GM did go belly up would anyone really be interested in buying a GM car over an import.

3. Each month the "Program" expires $16. That kind of thing really pisses me off.

4. I can't think of any immediate family members that are looking for a GM car, so I can't endow any points to them.

Recently I signed up for a Scotiabank Momentum Visa. It gives back 2% cash on all grocery, gas and drug store purchases, 1% on all other purchases. Sure seems like a better bet.

Feeling taxed to death yet?

Today I bought an external hard drive from Costco and noticed on my receipt an eco-tax for .35 cents. I vaguely recall in 2007 something about this, but I find pretty odd how the TV and print media paid little attention to it's introduction this spring considering all the daily attention paid to how joe plumber is losing his job and home.

35 cents is no big deal, but consider a TV or computer where the fee is $15. Add on the ridiculous GST harmonization, city garbage fees, licence fees, property tax increases and it makes you wonder when it's going to end. Also take into consideration how much your investments have dwindled and you'd think that there was a conspiracy brewing.

Personally I don't buy the government's position that they need an eco-tax to support their recycling program. They already make a crap load of money selling our recycled garbage to the private sector. If they wanted out of the recycling business they could always leave it to private companies but they know it's way too lucrative. They even get peeved if an old chinese lady picks through my recycling bin for plastic bottles.

If the government is trying to stimulate the economy through consumer spending, thier revenue policies and economic polices are certainly at odds.

Raccoon Wars

Last month I declared the War on Raccoons. With the milder weather, these varmint are coming out for food.

Somehow they managed to chew away all the hard rubber weather stripping below the garage door, got their hands under and pushed up a 30 lbs door. They made a huge mess everywhere, I'll spare you the details.

Despite this, my main concern has always been them taking shits on my garage roof.  Simply because shit is affected by gravity and falls into my yard. They love crapping on the valleys of my garage dormer which I spent so much pride framing.

So I found the Cat-stop 9000 Ultrasonic deterrent. The idea is to emit an ultra-high frequency sound (silent to humans) that makes it so unpleasant to animals that they'll think twice about returning. I tried on my cat and he took off upstairs. As I was screwing it a 2x4 for mounting it went off a few times in my face, and although I could not hear it like most everyday sounds you hear, I could faintly hear a high pitch that after a while gave me a headache. 

Catstop is weather proof and has a motion sensor that only triggers the speaker when tripped. So far no poo on the roof. Maybe this device does work.

China Brilliance BS6 Crash Test

As a followup to my previous post about the Tata Nano sub-$2000 car I'm posting a disastrous crash test of the Chinese made 2006 Brilliance BS6 Sedan. It reinforces my point about how cheaply made cars in China and India would never make it in the European or North American market for the price they are going for in their home countries. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFzfPagVhY8

J.CREW, my name is Melissa

I was pleasantly surprised when I called J.Crew customer service to correct a billing error on some clothing I bought via the Internet.  I was so used to being routed to a call center in Bangalore for everything else in my life, it was actually pleasant to talk to someone in my hemisphere who also knew the products being sold. She was both very helpful and apologetic for the error.

I've been a customer of theirs for about a year, J.Crew is a company that is doing things right. Great quality and style, and excellent customer service. I recommend them. Give 'em a try.

Debt is a four letter word

I had a casual conversation with a colleague the other day and happened to mention that I had to remember to make an extra payment on my mortgage. I got a really weird look. 

I said, yeah I do that when I have a few extra bucks so I can pay it down faster. Each extra dollar goes to paying off principal not interest. I got the look of "Why?" Then I said, did you know if you had a $200K mortgage and you could double your payments each period and drop 20K on it at the end of each year you could have it paid off in 5 years, vs. 30.

The rebuttal was, why not use your money now to buy the nice things while you're young and can enjoy them, like BMWs , Prada shoes, nice dinners.  I realized at that time I needed to switch topics because obviously we were never going to have an appreciation of each other's point of view.

Unfortunately we are a culture that believes that debt is acceptable and normal. If debt is used to as sensible leverage to make money then yeah , okay (e.g. and RSP loan or buy a house for rental income etc). But to use it to buy things we can't afford to begin with is a big part of how we got to were we are today. 

North America a victim of it's own Eco success?

I heard US President Obama said at one time that he US needs to sell $15 million vehicles per year to sustain the auto industry.  Wow, that's a lot of cars. 

I got to wondering that perhaps the government and environmentalists convinced us that we really don't need to buy that car. I sure didn't get a replacement car after my lease ended in 2008. Take the bus, car pool, walk or bike. That must have made some dent towards reducing car sales.

So can North America have it's cake and eat it too? i.e. Don't buy a car, instead take alternative means of transportation to reduce your carbon footprint and reliance on oil, BUT go out an buy a car to help the ailing auto industry.  I think that only works if you plan on parking that new car in a driveway and never driving it.

I just had a idea. Rather than doling out billions in of dollars in bailout cash to the automakers, what doesn't the government order a crap load of replacement fleet vehicles. Workers get new cars, auto orders go up, auto workers and all downstream industries making money. That seems to make everyone happy. Toss in a $5000 tax incentive for domestic car purchases and I might join in too.

First real bike

Aidan just got a new bike earlier this week courtesy of grandpa. 

Every once and a while Aidan and my dad would walk past the Cyclepath bike shop on the Danforth. And each time Aidan would make a point of telling my dad that he wanted a particular green bike in the window.   Last week I checked out the bike with Aidan and found that although it was cool looking, it was too small. 

So we found this 16" Trek buried at the back of the store. Fortunately he loved it just as much as the first one. So the next day my dad, Aidan and myself went to Cyclepath after dinner and bought it. It was my dad's birthday gift to Aidan even though his birthday is in August. We just couldn't let this bike get sold to someone else.

Needless to say he rides it while I'm at work and back to our house when I pick him up after work. Simple joys of being a boy.

CNN - Joke #2

The other night I'm watching Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN and the topic is whether the outrage over the AIG bonuses are called for.

Of course the panel of guests has to have conflicting views to make it informative (ahem entertaining). But the real news is one of the guests is none other than disgraced financial analyst Henry Blodget. Some of you may recall his oracle-like stock prediction of Amazon.com, but it was overshadowed by his not so graceful exit and lifetime ban from the securities industry. Some people even named move after him, "The Blodget".

Come on CNN. I didn't think you'd sink that low.

Investing in the stock market - perspective

I still remember to this day hearing my father say that investing in the stock market was like gambling.  I was only 7 or 8 at the time, but I knew enough that the stock market was a "grown up" thing. I was born in the 70's so that was a pretty bad time for investing and that was about the same time the US dollar moved off the gold standard, and since then money was printed out of thin air. I'm sure back then he was thinking alot like I'm thinking these days.

So 30 years later, most of the population including myself are in some way invested in the Market. The government and financial institutions did a really good job of convincing the public to invest for the future. It's a shame we all fell for it.

I've been stung by the dot com crash, Nortel scandal, and now this total financial melt down. The only positive aspect I see is the fact that we will recover eventually. And most importantly will have gained the knowledge of when to get the hell out next time.

U.S. President Obama and Tresury Secretary Geithner have a new plan buy up the toxic assest and repackage them as high-risk offerings to investors, public and institutional. Even offer low interest loans for buyers. Are they serious? That's how we got here to begin with. Sure, piss off the public even more by convincing the public to purchase government sponsored investments and come a year later have them go to zero.

Actually that craziness sounds alot like what happened to me and thousands of others. About 7 years ago the Canadian government gave tax incentives to people who bought labour sponsored or venture capital mutual funds. Well this year when I tried to redeem them the company said they couldn't payout due to the market conditions blah blah blah. Instead they'll issue controlled annual distributions. In other words, bankrupt. 

Sleep Country Canada should sell a new mattress line called the  Investor Beauty Rest. Independant coils with memory foam euro-topper and most importantly with a zipper in the side for stuffing cash into it.

Tata Nano - Never in North America

This week Indian conglomerate Tata unveiled it's sub $2000 car called the Nano. This endeavor was announced last year but various hurdles delayed the official launch until now.

But seriously, could someone actually make a claim that this is the cheapest car in the world? I say that it's not even fair to price it in USD because there is no way in hell this car could be certified to drive on North American roads.

This car has no air bags and no anti-lock brakes. From the picture, clearly it does not meet  5mph bumper requirements. It most likely does not have the in body cross-members to protect from side or roll over impacts. In reality this is a scooter with a car-like body over it.  My snowblower has larger wheels than this thing! Could you imagine driving this golf cart in a Toronto winter on the 401? I'd be scared shitless.

What about emissions? The catalytic converter alone would cost more than the car.

If this car were ever put through the NTHSA tests AND if it were ever certified to be sold in North America, it would end up costing at least $9,000. So, please CNN and all the other media outlets ... stop calling this the cheapest car. Because, back in 1978 I made the cheapest car in my parents backyard with scrap wood and stolen shopping cart wheels.

Electronic chains

Some of you who read my blog have probably noticed that I go weeks without writing. I have a lot of daily experiences and thoughts to write about and share, buy unfortunately very little time to put fingers to keyboard. Sure, I could make time but that would mean trading off x time for y time. My personal choice is that my blog is lower priority. Please note that I'm not passing judgement on anyone's choices, it's just how I choose to manage my time. Also I spend about 10 hours a day in front of a computer so the last thing I do when I get home is boot up. Everyone's situation is different. 

Time management isn't as simple as we think especially when were inundated and pressured into signing onto high-tech services we really don't need. For example, Facebook, text messaging, Blackberries, Twitter, cell phones, Ipods, etc. Sure I have a Facebook page but I don't use it. I know people that spend hours on Facebook and neglect all the important things around them. The sad fact is that they don't even know it. This week, in Italy a man is divorcing his wife because she spends hours on end chatting on Facebook and neglected him and their kids.  Who really cares what your score on online Soduku is?

I rarely watch prime time TV anymore. People at work ask me if I saw the last episode of House or the Simpsons. I generally watch the news and some favorite shows on Discovery after everyone has gone to bed.

If you ask me, and you didn't ... all these electronic distractions are really numbing our brains and making society, and unfortunately the adults of tomorrow, less aware of what's going on around us. Maybe that's the whole idea.

Toronto Transit Commission no longer the model

Having been a TTC commuter now for 3 months now I can truly say that it's the armpit of Toronto. In the last month there have been a number of shootings on trains and buses, and one instance of two youths being pushed in the path of an oncoming train.

Delays are are as common as trains are on time.  Escalators work about 50% of the time. For one week an escalator at one of Toronto's busiest stations King, was not working. So people leaving from and going to the platform were share a single narrow stairwell. This resulted in people not being able to get to onto a waiting train because they were all stuck upstairs trying to get down as people came up. Of course none of the TTC employees standing around could care less.

I could go on and on. But I think you get the message. By the way, did I mention those fat overpaid TTC workers are all rude and obviously don't like their job; despite getting a paid $80K for sitting on their duff dispensing tokens and talking on the phone all day. 

When I was a youth, the TTC was a model around the world for mass transportation. Now it's a complete joke. Look to Spain, France, Japan and London for example and you'll see mass transit as it should be.

TTC Chair Adam Giambrone is failing at his job. His youth and hence inexperience truly shows that he is out of his element. It doesn't matter how many languages this wiz kid can speak, the truth of the matter is that he cannot lead and does not have a vision for Toronto's transportation future. I really don't care about new services like, emailing or texting train delays. How about cell phone and Blackberry service underground. Who cares? Just get the trains to run on time. Those countries I mentioned all have well run and massively connected routes, Toronto has essentially only 3 subway lines and a bunch buses and can't get it right.

Publish Post

But not all the blame can go to Adam. There's no money, or maybe those at City Hall doesn't know how to ask.  And clearly transportation should not be at the municipal level, but instead provincially run.

I'm saving $400 per month by not having a car, but I wonder if it's really worth the hassle. And based on the number of drivers downtown I think they decided it's not worth it.

Calories - Double Double etc.

Today's warm weather inspired me to restart regular running. Having recently recovered from a horrible cold and a brutal winter, I really wasn't being as physically active as in previous years.  The added responsibilitues at home and work doesn't help either, but I have to stop making excuses.  

I had written in a previous blog post that I was determined to drop 10lbs. That did happen but only because I got sick. It's not easy to loose 10lbs and keep it off, which brings me to the subject of this post- Calories. 

Being less active means that something has to give in order to maintain a healthy weight. It's pretty obvious that food is my main culprit. I eat out almost everyday.  But I never had I really taken an interest in counting calories until recently. Based on my age, weight and activity most calorie calculators says I need approximately 2400 calories to maintain my current weight. So theoretically if I consume less calories and increase my activity I should loose weight.

Each day I used to consume 2 large double-double coffees. According to the Tim Horton's nutritional calculator (http://www.timhortons.com/ca/en/menu/nutrition-calculator.html) that works out to 230x2=460 calories in just coffee alone!!! I got smart about this a couple of month's ago and started getting 1 sugar and 2 cream 185x2=370.   If I go for mediums it works out to 115x2=230.   I've tried to convince my better half but all I get is a smug shrug of the shoulders. Muffins are BAD too, each blueberry muffin is 330 calories, delicious but pure evil. 

So what's the point? Only that, now that I'm 39 and not 29 I have to put in that extra effort to be kind to my body. Unfortunately I only have one body so I'd like to keep it for as long as I can. Looking forward to the days I go running with Aidan.

End of GM Saturn?

Today US automakers are shamelessly asking for another $22 billion in bailouts in order to stay afloat. GM CEO and lifer, Rick Wagoner, says that the Saturn line will be phased out by 2012. I guess that means about zero chance of anyone walking into a Saturn dealer anytime soon to buy a spiffy new Aura or Vue.

Sadly, this year Saturn actually has a good line up of cars and with hybrid options too. I never really liked Saturns until recently. I hated the plastic body parts and the quirky doors but recently they're pretty decent. Too bad, because I actually considered buying an Astra for a commuter car. Did you know it's one of the top selling compact cars in Europe.

Perhaps GM should just stick to selling cars in Europe and stop asking US taxpayers to fulfill their bondholder and retiree Viagra prescription obligations. And Chrysler, should quit pandering for money too, we all know you've got "money bags" Cerebus Capital to prop you up.

I hate to sound pessimistic but I have to. I wouldn't bet the farm on GM's new electric vehicle the 'Volt'. If the batteries are anything like any rechargeable device out there it's going to be plagued with problems especially in the first year. Generally, what happens when your battery dies in your cell phone,PDA or cordless tool? You buy a new one, because it's cost prohibitive to repair. Does GM actually think they can sell a $40K car to the public with a unknown lifetime on the core part, the battery?

Mutual Fund MERs are plain robbery

As of late we've all experienced incredible losses in our investment portfolios. Because of this I've paid a lot more attention to the details of the monthly transactions as executed within my portfolio. What I became aware of, and maybe I should have known anyways, is that the Management Expense Ratio (or MER) is approximately 2.5% of the total portfolio.

In this pathetic financial market, that essentially means:

1. Any contributions to my RSP are being eaten away by fees.
2. I'm actually paying people to loose money for me (I can do it myself for free).

This weekend I did some comparisons to gauge weather I'm being shafted by my investment advisor (figuratively and literally). Turns out that as Canadians we pay a hell of a lot in Mutual Fund management fees. US investors pay around .5% where Canadians pay anywhere between 1%-3% depending on the complexity or company managing the the fund. The government needs to regulate this.

I compared the ING Streetwise portfolio with mine, and although not exactly the same asset classes it's close:
a. It outperformed mine, i.e. lost less
b. management fees are under 1%

My group RSP is also outperforming my so called "managed porfolio".

I also fail to see what value I'm getting from my broker compared to my other RSP accounts. Not much difference except for a few personalized calls per year and an electronic retirement plan. I think I'd be better off going self directed if I can get $9 per trade.

Anyways, this weekend I'll be sending her a pretty terse email to start the ball rolling on changes for 2009.

Podcasts

Something that I have started to really enjoy are the free Podcasts offered on iTunes.

Now I know there are alot of options for MP3 players but what sets iPods apart from music players is additional media value aside from listening to music. Now that I'm a subway commuter I have to find ways of isolating myself from the miseries of crowded public transportation. Listening and viewing Podcasts accomplishes that, and is also educational at the same time. I also get to catch up on some TV I've missed.

Currently on my list are (no specific order):

CBC National and Local news
Discovery Channel
How Stuff Works (Really cool!)
TV's Best Ads
Grammar Girl

If you have an iPod , check it out. Really cool stuff online.

Virgin Atlantic - coolest ad

Congratulations to Virgin Atlantic for doing it right for 25 years!

Check out their ad that commemorates their achievement. C'mon Air Canada, stop being a corpse.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=v7AR2FsPF8w

Coming home to roost

In yet another example of corporate and personal greed, India's fourth largest outsourcer of computer services has fallen. It's CEO, B Ramalinga Raju admitted to cooking the books for years. To the tune of over $1 billion USD. As a result Saytam has lost over 97% of it's share price on NYSE and on the Bombay Exchange.  Many including myself are left wondering how such a blatant fraud could have gone undetected for so many years, especially as Price Waterhouse as it's auditor.

India's security exchange board (SEBI) immediately launched an investigation, but one has to wonder if this is all posturing to stop the bleeding as investors pull back on Asia Pacific. There is lots of criticism about the effectiveness our own SEC. 

Some of my colleagues are employees are Satyam and are some of the most honest, upstanding, intelligent and hard working people I have known. I know they have made family and personal sacrifices to build the reputation of Satyam. The actions of at least one bad apple does not reflect the rest of the 50K employees that are partnered at 30% of the Fortune 500 corporations of which Satyam supports. I wish the best of luck to anyone affected.

Unfortunately, the timing of world events will undoubtedly make it's corporate clients think twice about the risks of association. The reputational risk and the risks to business continuity is too high with a partner whose future is uncertain at best. I cannot see a take over by any of it's competitors like Infosys or IBM, the liability is too high.

As the financial crisis continues, the misdeeds of the likes of Madoff and Raju are coming to light. There will be more to come.  To quote Warren Buffet, "When tide goes out you'll discover whose been swimming naked".

CNN and Velshi, what a joke

Tonight I was watching Ali Velshi on CNN interviewing "experts" and also giving advice on investing. I usually cringe when watching this doofus because it brings back annoying memories of him in grade 12 math class, but his self absorbed and bullshit advice tonight was really bad even for CNN standards.

So tonight they're all talking about how to get back into the stock market and making sure we "diversify". One piece of advice is to buy indexed funds, i.e. to the S&P or Nasdaq. Hello? If anyone happened to notice lately, the entire planet of investors got creamed regardless of what index or diversification strategy was used.   The only guy I know that made out okay was my younger  brother who for years was too lazy to get a financial advisor and ended up putting it all in GICs and cash.

Velshi ends the segment by plugging his new book, twice. What kind of journalistic conflict of interest crap is that about? Don't even get me started on Larry King or Anderson Cooper.

On a side note,  I heard from some folks living in the US that they received a couple of stimulus cheques in the mail from Uncle Sam.  Around $1,200 bucks tax free, more expected.  What a great country the US of A is, free money. I'm sure iPods and t-shirts that will be purchased with these cheques is really going to pull them out.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone.

Whew, wasn't 2008 the pits? Admit it.

Some things I am looking forward for in 2009 (not in any particular order):

- Peace on Earth, or at least some signs of peace

- Summer

- Less time working, (but still employed hopefully)

- World financial recovery, or at least some signs of it

- Opportunities

- Barack Obama

- Vacations

- Aidan going to school

My resolutions:

- Loose 10 lbs and keep it off. For the record I am 179 right now so hold me to it.

- Exercise regularly (at least 4 times a week)

- Organize garage and closets, and keep organized

- Learn something significantly new

- Volunteer for 1 thing

- Don't put up with stupid and/or lazy people (usually the same anyways)

- Stop wasting my money (includes me and anyone else)

That's probably  good enough for now.

Window insulation kit works

This year I've noticed the draftiness of the windows in my home. It's so bad that my bedroom is actually 8c colder than the rest of the house. One day I will get nice new windows but it's not in our budget this year. My brother had suggested using the window film that goes over the window casing and your shrink it nice and tight with the heat of a hairdryer.

First of all I didn't think this stuff would work too well. I mean, how much could a sheet of plastic hold back the arctic air. And second, I like to open the window to get some air once and a while even if it is Winter, this stuff seals the window until it's removed.

To make a long story short, the first thing I said after walking into my bedroom was "This shit works!". If you have drafty windows, give it a try. I can live without opening the window until Spring. The only concern I have now is if my cat will tear it up bounce off it if he tries to lump onto once of the window ledges.

My 2 cents on the economy

I'm not denying there is an unprecedented economic problem in the world. But I don't believe that a one size fits all economic stimulus package works, especially for Canada. The political opposition parties want to dole out money like the US has in the hopes of spurring some overnight economic revival. Even with the 700 billion cash infusion into the US economy the markets have tanked day after day. I know, I've been watching it hourly each day ( I guess I should be working). Unfortunately when the US coughs everyone catches cold.

Unemployment in Canada is no where close to that of the United States. Neither are the number of bankruptcies, home foreclosures, or credit card defaults. I don't believe that consumers or businesses in Canada with good credit ratings cannot get loans. In the two weeks alone I've had more than 5 financial institutions/credit card issuers try to give me > 10L of credit. That could be partly from from the modest cash injections by the Bank of Canada, but I mostly because historically Canadian banks have better liquidity compared to the US.

As long as Canadians , business and individuals, continue to act responsibly with their finances we won't fall into pay cheque to pay cheque model that Americans are brainwashed into thinking is perfectly normal.

There is no bank in Canada would have given out the NINJA mortgages (No Income No Job) that those greedy US lenders handed out. I can't wait to see how much more compliance work guys like me are gonna have dumped on after the smoke clears on this one.

Scotiabank Children's Holiday Party

 Some fun moments from the annual Scotiabank event (Santa Claus, hamming it up, surprise gift). Just like the year before, Aidan didn't like the rides at first but he opened up after we met up with cousin Charlie whose mom also works for the same company.

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Preparing for winter

Sure sign to me that Winter is imminent is that I took the time to change the oil in the snowblower.   Tonight's forecast is 5-8 cm of slush and snow. 

Next week we'll shop for a Christmas tree and if it's not too cold, put up the lights. Why do I always wait until it's finger numbing  cold to do this?

Basement Reno Update

This project is taking alot longer than I expected especially because the space isn't that large and I have to shuffle things around in order to work.  I also spend a lot of time making decisions (maybe too much time), for example how far apart lights should be and what kind of lighting to use. In 2004 I built a single car garage over the summer but I guess that's what happens when priorities change. But it's all good. I have a vision of the end result so that's what I keeps me moving forward.

* Demolition is over. The new drywall is done. Electrical moved,  and new recessed lights are in.

(before)

Walls need to be painted. Flooring needs to be laid and baseboards and trim to follow. Shelves and bookcases are needed but they will be custom built and I can take my time with that.

Tonight Aidan is helping me saw a hole through the last piece of drywall. He says to me "Dad, maybe I should get my own house".  That made my evening :-)

Arggggh - IPOD is down!

My Third Gen. IPOD Nano 8Gb isn't working. 

I plugged it in to sync it to my iMac but I got an error message "You do not have enough access privileges for this operation".  Last week I updated to iTunes 8 as a recommended patch but I didn't sync it right away so I can't be sure that was it. I've had trouble in the past with iTunes upgrades though.

I also dropped it but I this is a solid state device so I don't think the impact would have caused it. It was working fine up until the sync.

Crappy thing is that I started taking the subway today and I was looking forward to drowning out the masses. Right now I'm low level erasing it, "zeroing it out" and hopefully I can reformat and restore it. Arrrgh, what a waste of time.

Car Returned

This afternoon, me and my little Mazda 3 parted ways at Gyro Mazda.  It was a good two years.  She was a very fun car that reliably  shuttled me and Aidan to back and forth from my parents house and work. I will miss the convenience of it but I won't miss the monthly lease and insurance payments. 

When I called my insurance company this afternoon to cancel the coverage, the lady on the other end said I'm gonna save $160 a month. Nice. I can live with the TTC and cold weather.

Yes, I still do have a 1996 Camaro that is quickly becoming a relic. But it still runs and it's a still fun to drive.  Maybe when GM goes bankrupt it'll be a collectors like the Bricklin. Bad example.

A few weeks ago Aidan chose two Red Platys at Pet Smart to repopulate the aquarium.  We had no idea that one of them was about to give birth. I'm sitting on the Kitchen eating dinner and I glance over to the tank and I see what I think are sea monkeys but are really babies.

From what I read, Red Platys like to breed. Maybe they should be called Red Players. Anyways, we have 4 surviving fish fry and they are doing well.

Remembrance Day 2008

Some clips of this day. Queens Park, Toronto.

Easy times

I was flipping past the Deja Vue channel and watched some old episodes of Silver Spoons, Facts of Life and Family Ties. They were great shows back then but I enjoyed them even more now. I suspect that it's because it takes me back to a simpler time in life.

Back then I didn't have to worry about :

• Work
  
• Rushing home to pick up kids an make dinner
  
• Rushing to get kids out and making in to work on time 
  
• Realizing that your RSP's are a lot less what they used to be
  
• Someone else's future
• Keeping a clean house
  
• Endless loads of laundry
  
• World events
  
• Getting fat
  
• Unfinished renovations
  
• Getting enough sleep
  
• Kids getting enough sleep
• Mortgage payments
  
• Insurance
  
• Wills
  
• Diseases
• Personal time...

... The list goes on.   It's a wonder why kids are in so much hurry to grow up. And it's no wonder why we age.

I guess the irony is the that I have no idea about what's on TV these days. The last time I watched a full episode of prime time TV was probably about 3 years ago.

Windows XP update

We'll it works. Here is a shot of Windows XP Professional operating within Mac OS X as an application.  

It sees the network, USB ports and all other devices. Cool.

Next thing to do now is install anti-virus. 

Windows XP

I bought a Mac to get away from Microsoft Windows but sometimes I have no choice but to have to run Widows applications. In particular, software like QuickTax and and Quicken don't have Mac versions (or no longer have them). Also there aren't any great alternatives out there. This I find strange considering the increasing number of iMacs purchased year over year. 

So keeping with the idea of a single home computer, I will be installing Windows XP to run along side the Mac OS. There are several options, Boot Camp, Parallels or VMWare Fusion. I opted for VMWare because I prefer not to run Windows natively to prevent catastrophic Windows viruses from wiping out my Mac. It's safer to run it from a virtual machine within the Mac OS, keeping filesystems from taking to each other. It also has a number of technical advantages over it's competitor Parallels.

So far, the install of VMWare and Windows XP Professional is running smoothly, check out the screen shot of the install running within Mac OSX. Crossing my finger that it all works.

Hey I'm an uncle again

This morning I became an uncle again, Jason Wong. Good stuff!

Childhood Nostalgia

When I was a kid my father got me a subscription to a wildlife picture card collection. Every month a packet of animal picture cards would arrive. On the front of each card would be a photo with pictographs/maps showing the specimen's habitat. On the back a detailed description of the animal. I thought they were beautiful then and still do.

The cards were stored in provided trays and indexed. As the cards came in each month I tried to keep up the sorting.

Today I found a company on the internet who is selling these original mint collections. There were other types of collections as well, e.g. cards, places and people.

I think my parents threw my collection out, I'll ask them tomorrow if they still have it but I doubt it. I was thinking this would be a nice gift for Aidan one day and me might appreciate it like I did. I'm tempted to order a set :-) Here is a link to the company just in case anyone is interested. It's amazing what can be found in the internet these days.

http://www.atlaspicturecards.com/

New World Fear

So I'm talking to someone in the office today and happen to mention the Taliban.  I can't even remember what the conversation was about. This person says to me, "Do you know what the Taliban really means?"

I say that my definition is the former ruling party in Afghanistan. But they say it really means "Student". I can't confirm or deny that, then I say that "Nazi" is short for National Socialism but that's not what people know it as. He then says that it's the media that has brainwashed us into using these terms. I couldn't agree more.

Then I tell him he should watch a movie off the net called "Zietgeist", which is about conspiracies (Christianity, 911, and the US Federal Reserve). But then he tells me "No way", I don't my IP address tracked.  He's serious about this.

I don't believe all the conspiracy theories but I do like them because they are in a way entertaining.  I have alot of fun talking about this stuff because people get so worked up about it. But what he said about tracking IPs etc, and all that's going on in this world today just goes to show how much our view of the world has changed since that fateful date.  As a society we are starting to believe that there is a big brother watching us. Sad.

Market makes one do desperate things

Usually I don't pay much attention when the price of gas at the pump goes up or down .10 because i figure "I need gas" so why worry about it.  Dollar cost averaging should work in my favor to net out the highs.

However after today seeing a 35% drop in unrealized losses in my RSP account I'm in a totally different mindset.  Tonight gas dropped below $1 per litre for the first time in a while. I threw my jacket on at 1am this morning and filled up the tank. Sure I lost some sleep but saved 11 bucks on a 57 litre tank.

Lease inspection passed

It's almost time to give back the Mazda 3 to the leasing company.

The last time I leased a car (also from Mazda) I was unfairly dinged for $600 in incidentals, e.g. tire wear, door dings and bumber scuffs. I though it was pretty BS too because the dealer knew I was not going to lease another car from them.

This time I was prepared for the worst. That is because Mazda along with many other leasing companies began outsourcing inspections to an independant outfit called AutoVIN. I read alot about the terrible experiences that other customers had, $150 for every little nick and scratch regardless of what was deemed acceptable by the manufacturer.

Anyways I escaped unscathed, $0. But I did spend most of my weekend vaccuming the interior and buffing out the minor scratches around the doors. I admit the left side door had a couple of larger dents and the front grille was cracked but I guess the fact the dents did not break the paint was a positive consideration. I also found the inspector very courteous, fair, thorough and efficient. There wasn't anything I would consider unfair.

I doubt though that I will lease another car. Most likely because I don't like the scrutiny of the return inspection. Also if anyone has noticed most companies are doing away with the cheap leases. That's because at the end the period, the company's is stuck with a used car with ridiculously high residual value which in these days makes more sense for the consumer buy a brand new car for a couple thousand dollars more. For example, the buyout for my 2 year old car this car is $13,999 but you can buy a brand new one for $14,999.

The cheap leases have been replaced by ownership with 60 month payments, but who wants to commit to paying for a car for 5 years even it it only costs $300 a month?

I'm actually looking forward to the Subway.

Eco-Accidents

In a previous post I wrote about the questionable safety of a rider and passenger on an eBike.

Today I saw a cyclist rear-end an automobile while riding up a gentile hill on Yonge Street (just by the Sony Center). I don't know how that happened but she fell off her bike and landed in the gutter. It was clearly not the automobile driver's fault at all but the driver did get out to help the cyclist. I don't think the cyclist was a regular bike rider given the way she walked her bike and the way she was dressed.

Later in in the afternoon I saw another eBiker ride up on curb and almost hit a couple of pedestrians.

I guess my point is, as more and more people find more creative ways to get to and from work there are going to be alot of new emergency room visits. I can't wait for the study on this one.

In November I plan to return my auto and take the TTC, I think that's pretty safe. We'll see.

Aquarium update

Some good news! Ammonia is down to 0 ppm. Fish seem to be pretty happy and hungry so that's good. 

We lost a Red Platy though, but I can't be sure if it was the other one or the Zebra Danio that pecked it to death.  Unfortunately we only have 1 Danio left which caused the lone one to become very aggressive to the point where I had to isolate it to another tank.

I bought a bunch of Neon Tetras. They are a good passive schooling fish and look nice against the real plants. I tossed all the plastic plants  and am trying to build a lush aquascape.  We'll see what happens.

Lastly, I have two new algae eaters. They are helping keep the tank clean but they don't like the limelight so we don't see them very much.

Stop the e-bike madness

This summer Toronto was introduced to the e-bike. These are essentially electric mopeds, no gas.  Top speed is about 25 clicks on flat pavement (up hill is about .5 or less). No license is required, and apparently neither are brains or common sense.

I generally find e-bike owners are pretty stupid people. They don't know first off that these contraptions are useless or dangerous. More importantly they also don't know the rules of the road. Chances are if they were originally cyclists (or even motorists) they would know the rules, but I doubt any cyclist would actually convert to an e-bike so I can only deduce that these riders know absolutely nothing other than

This summer I've seen a couple of pedestrians almost run over by these bikes while crossing the road. I've also seen a fair share of e-bikers almost bite the dust trying to thread the needle along the Lakeshore or overtake a dump truck during rush hour traffic.  Some even take the pedals off trying to make it look like a Scooter, only to find it transforms into a two wheel shopping cart after the batteries die.

Anyways, today I saw the mother of all e-bike morons.  One obese guy motoring down Coxwell Ave. with a similarly fat woman passenger. Suspension totally bottomed out. Handle bars are saddled with "enviro" shopping bags. Cruising down the avenue thinking they are the coolest "green" cats on the block. "Hey stupid", it's illegal to carry passengers on an e-bike. Just because two fat asses can fit on doesn't mean it's right or safe.

Check your bill

Although Roger Cable seems to be more customer focused than Bell, they certainly need some improvement with their billing system.  I checked my first months bill since signing on to Rogers High-speed Internet. I was disappointed to see that I did not get the promotional 1 year price of $39.95, nor did I get a one time $30 credit, and I was also charged $9.95 for a modem in-store pickup.

At least Rogers admitted the error and reversed all the charges, but unfortunately this was not the first time this has happened. I have a sneaking suspicion that they know of these errors and count on people not to catch it.

The moral of this story is to always check your bill.

See Ya Bell

Today I cancelled our Sympatico High Speed service. It felt good, actually. We've subscribed to this spotty DSL service for a over 7 years and although it has served it's purpose, it was neither spectacular nor all that reliable.

Bell tried to convince me to suspend our account for 6 months,  so I could find someone to take over the service. What's in it for me? Their argument is that our service is uncapped (unlimited traffic) and that plan is no longer offered. Nice try, would have worked if I believe them or even cared.

Bell continues to piss off (or maybe 'on' ) their customers like they still have the monopoly on telecommunications. My prediction is Bell will be sold off in pieces to it's competitors until the Teachers Pension led consortium makes a profit and re-floats it onto the unsuspecting public as a new company,  same old crap but less to offer. Bell ExpressView will be sold to Rogers, and it's Bell Wireless unit sold to Telus. Back in the mid-90's Bell had a campaign called the "New Bell', they are trying it again but it's too little and too late. 

No one really likes the cable or phone company but I choose the lesser of two evils and right now that happens to be Rogers.

Shopping for a mattress

In all my life I've never purchased a mattress before. That's pretty strange if I think about it because I've purchased a home, a number of cars, sofa, appliances etc.  but never needed to buy a mattress because there's always been one around, somewhere. 

The whole mattress buying  experience is really confusing and I believe it's meant to be that way.  First there is Pocket Coil or Inner Coil or Foam? Even Air! (Sleep Number beds).  I like the feel of foam but I'm not convinced it's a great long term choice, besides how does one justify $3000 for a large piece of Sweedish foam. Next there is Tight Top, Pillow Top or Euro Top? # if coils per mattress. How about silk, wool or Elastvisco?

There are also different luxury levels within each make and the names are intentionally confusing. For example, the Vivaldi vs. the Gershwin. The Belmont vs. Conrad vs... you get the idea. What I also uncovered is that no reseller sells the same model by name, even though the mattresses are 100% identical. This is by design to prevent consumers from taking advantage of price matches since the models will never be named identically between competitors. I'm also convinced they model their marketing after the automobile industry. Did you know the high-end Sterns and Foster is really a Serta, kind of like what Lexus is to Toyota.  

 

Here is some trivia, did you know ost mattress manufacturers have been around since the US civil war? This is one industry that does not assemble in China. It's all made domestically, even in Canadian plants.

The pricing model is a bit of a joke. The Bay or Sears will list a mattress for $5800 and offer 55% discount while Sleep Country will list the mattress for $3300. When was the last time you opened a flyer and didn't see a mattress sale.

After 3 weeks of Googling, reading and shopping we ended up buying a Simmons mattress from Sleep Country but a upgraded to a King size. The mix and match sale almost saved us $1000, and no we don't care that the fabric on the boxes don't match the mattress. The salesman was extremely knowledgeable and pleasant to deal with. He even refunded us $30 for a parking ticket we incurred outside the store while shopping there. Nice.

Well now I've bought a mattress what's left?

Internet Speed Update

So in my ongoing quest to better my highspeed internet I've bought a new wireless router, Linksys RangePlus  WRT110.  My old router I bought 3 years ago was acting really funny and was having big problems maintaining a connecting to the cable modem.

With the new WRT110 I have 100% radio reception and check out the download speed!  Only trick is that I had to change the Radio Band on the router from the default 20Mhz to 20/40Mhz.

Stopping on a dime and giving 9 cents change

On of my tasks during my vacation was to service the rear brakes on our Honda CR-V. The discs were rusted and there was nothing left of the pads.

I knew Honda would charge about $600+ tax on the job, and since I know how to service brakes,  I'm financially better off doing it myself. It's a messy job though.

A couple of things to note. Canadian Tire didn't stock the rear disks at any of their locations, but to order them would be about $109 each (I need 2). They also do not stock the brake pads. Firstly, $109 is outrageous of standard discs especially given they are made in China (A few years ago I bought a pair of high performance cross-drilled cadmium plated rotors for my Camaro for about $200).  Secondly, I can only assume that Crappy Tire does not service too may imports because I had the same problem getting parts for another import I had a few years back.  The CR-V is a pretty popular model. Don't even get me started on the pimply faced teenagers behind the parts counter who know dick about automotive parts. CT should continue to focus on selling Chistmas lights and Swiffer mops and leave automotive parts to those who are serious about it.

NAPA Autoparts pulled through for me, they had them for $35 each and the premium metallic pads for $53 for the set, and they were in stock. Everything fit perfectly, sometimes non OEM parts don't fit well but these were a 100% fit. NAPA is staffed by pot belly old farts but they know what they are talking about.

While inspecting the calipers I noticed one of the caliper pin boots was torn. This needed to be replaced otherwise the caliper will eventually seize up, but I had a very very hard time finding the kits at Honda. All the kit is is a bunch of rubber seals, but no one had it in stock.  Again I'm wondering how the Honda dealers can properly service brakes in a timely manner of a regular service item like seals are not readily available. They said they can order then but at a cost of $39 each (enough for 1 caliper). On the internet, US Honda dealers are selling them for $11.00. I'll be placing an order tonight (in the meantime the car should be okay with the torn boot).

I have not worked on cars for a while but this adventure jarred my memory, I used to think how much the average person gets fleeced by having the dealer service their car. My estimate puts a $600 brake job at 200% profit.

So in the end I got really dirty and accidentally bashed a finger. I saved about $400 but more importantly the car has it's full braking potential restored.

BTW I saved the labour costs because I had a little help, see photo above.

Cable Modem Update

I did a test to determine if my wireless router was causing a bottleneck on both the DSL and Cable Modem connections.  This is what I found.

When connected to via WiFi (i.e. wireless) the cable modem connection topped out at 3200 Kbps, or ~ 3 Mbps.  The DSL connection was half that.

When connected directly using an ethernet cable to the router, I was able to achieve 6856 Kbps ( ~6.6Mbps) which is dead on the advertised max by Rogers.  Sympatico, I was only able to achieve 3500 Kpbs.

So that proves that my wireless router is the bottleneck, and Sympatico DSL is still slower and not even close the to advertised rate of 7Mbps.  My wireless router is pretty old and only supports the 'b' standard so I'm sure if I upgrade to at least a 'g' spec. I will be getting max throughput.

Marissa's complaint is that if I cancel the Sympatico service she'll loose her email and address which she has been using for a long time. I'm sure we'll figure something out. I gave up on using and ISP address long time ago for that reason. 

CNE 2008

We marked the end of the summer season by visiting the 2008 Canadian National Exhibition. It's a annual tradition for us.  Some people say it's boring and not much as changed but it's still a great place to visit, and there's always something new when experienced through the eyes of children.

One thing that was genuinely unique to me was the Mardi Gras type parade. It wasn't the famous Disney parades but I liked the bead throwing. One Canadian Armed Forces reserve gave Tyler and Aidan each a football.  Aidan says "A soldier gave it to me".

The Air Show was a bit of a disappointment. Only two jets appeared, CF-18 Hornet and the F-16  Falcon (Viper). There was also one bomber and fire rescue chopper. The rest were generally  bi-planes and classic props.  I'm more of a modern jet type so I was expecting more bravado.  I remember when I used to see the Concorde, Voodoo, B1 Stealth.  An F22 Raptor would have been nice to see but I'm sure that cost is a big factor these days.

Here are some more photos:

Rogers High Speed Internet service

I picked up my cable modem installation package this afternoon. It only took about 10 minutes to install.  Most of the time was spent under a desk trying to find a free power outlet.  Anyways, it was pretty simple and my speed appears to be about 2x faster than the Sympatico DSL highspeed service. Upload speed is about the same.  It's still not 7MB/s but I'm happy for now.

Page refreshes are noticeably faster, and downloads of binaries are what I would expect for $50 per month. I updated several Mac OS patches I was holding off on due to the crappy DSL speed.

I plan to wait a week before canceling with Bell.

Poor Sympatico DSL service

I've been a long time Bell Sympatico DSL (Highspeed Internet) customer. As of late I'm pretty muchup to my wits end with this bad service.  

First of all, it always cuts out during a rain, and especially lightning storm. This summer in Toronto it's been especially bad because of the wet weather we've been having. Recently, it's been spotty even without wet weather. The Bell "helpless" desk hasn't been any help, other than trying to get to to move my modem around the house, but I wasn't going to play that game.

Secondly, it gets progressive slower. Ultimately I have to reboot the modem because it becomes totally unusable.

Lastly, I don't believe I'm getting the service I am paying my hard earned dollars with. The "Express" service I have is supposed to give me up to 7Mbs (megabits per second) download. On all DSL tests I can only get up to 2Mbs. Bell had told me before that it's because of the neighbourhood I live in but that's not my problem, is it?

Anyways, my monthly DSL service is $50.51 (includes modem rental and taxes). Rogers is offering the same 7Mbs service for $39.95 / month (for 12 months). After 12 months it's the same as Bell but at least I get a 10% discount on my entire Rogers bill. I have cell and cable TV so it's a pretty significant savings.  In addition , they are offering $30 one time online discount. Seems pretty worth it to me.

Don't get me wrong, I don't like Rogers either. Both companies are gougers but I have to choose one.

So long Bell, nice knowing you. Maybe you can pick up some new customers in Bangalore :-)

I'll let you know how the new service compares.

Aquarium Update

It's day 3 for the new fish and everything is looking good. The two Zebra Danios are hungry and swimming fast, so it looks like the water conditions are less toxic compared to last week.

We also bought a bottle of "bacteria", see photo.  It's not as gross as it sounds, but essentially its a bottle of good bacteria to jump start the biological filtration process.   The green color you see in the photo means the tank water is 2ppm of ammonia. Ideally ammonia should be zero. 

Today I did a test and its looking more yellow thank green, so that's a good sign.

Aidan's Fish Aquarium

Uncle Warner bought Aidan a 5 gallon aquarium for his 3rd birthday. He was also kind enough to include $30 as a fish fund. $30 was more than enough for the fish but didn't cover all the other things required for a nice aquarium, e.g. gravel, fake plants, heater and of course a sunken pirate ship.

So we set it up and added 7 small fish. The were doing quite well until the next day, then they all died. Having owned and tended to a much larger aquarium as a child I knew that the water needed to be conditioned before fish could live confortably. However I didn't expect all the fish to die so soon.

Warren tells me that sacrificial fish are needed to cycle the aquarium to establish the proper water conditions and "good" bacteria. I've confirmed that on many internet sites as well. The science behind it is very fascinating: ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and PH. I also bought a tester kit to test and monitor those levels. I guess we just have to be patient and make several more trips to the pet store before we have a thriving aquarium to be proud of.

Perception of American cars

While on vacation in Florida I rented a car.  I was expecting somewhat sporty Pontiac G6 but was dismayed when Budget told me  they ran out but could either give me a PT Cruiser or the Chevy HHR. What I ended up with is the HHR.

This has got to be the ugliest, most embarrassing, shitty handling car I've ever driven. It's a cross between a gangster-mobile and a hearse.

Towards the end of our vacation I got used to the embarrassment partly because I saw other people driving one (most likely renters as well). Despite it's seemingly large appearance from the exterior it barely bit our two suitcases and a stroller. The dash feels like it's made by Fisher Price and the window controls are strangely placed on the dash. Wiper controls are located on both the stock and the dash. Everything seems like and afterthought.

There's no need to wonder why Japanese cars outsell Domestics.

Grilling Season

It's time to buy a new grill for the deck. 

I believe it's time for a old fashioned charcoal grill. Based on cost, taste, fun, and portability I believe charcoal grills are superior to the made plethora of propane BBQs that have flooded the market over the past few years. I also can't stand driving to the gas station to fill up the propane tank.

Gas grills are so cheaply made (made in China) that they are probably meant to be disposable.  Despite covering the BBQ, each year either the cooking grate, vaporizer or venturi rusts out. The cost to replace is upwards of $40 each so the math is simple.  

Here's the math ... A classic 10 year warranty Weber classic charcoal kettle grill costs about $130, a propane grill of acceptable quality will cost between $300-$500.  Charcoal is cheaper per meal than propane. There are no parts to replace on a kettle grill. Easy Peasy.

The cons of charcoal, are: More fuss to start and clean up and the perception that charred food causes cancer. The fussiness can be overcome with experience and I have yet to hear of anyone e dying of BBQ cancer. 

And it comes in blue!

Ooops

I'm installing recessed (can) lighting in the basement.  I thought the hardest part was to figure out how far apart  to place them to create even light coverage. 

Using a electronic stud finder I located the floor joists so that I wouldn'tt be cutting a hole smack dab under a joist. As you can see from the photo that's exactly what happened. Apparently the stud finder is fooled when two woods of different densities are beside each other; the previous home owner doubled-up the original joists using 2x6 pine, the original joist was some other species.

I chose another location and made another hole. I guess I'll have to patch up the other one :-(

Uncanny

WiFi Problem Resolved

I never realized how convenient wireless was until my laptop's wireless connection broke last week.  Unfortunately my work schedule requires a lot of after hours work which I try to do in between cooking, laundry, time with my son etc. I may even need to connect on the road. Anyways , my trusty IBM Thinkpad T60 suddenly dropped it's connection in the middle of working and never returned. 

Weird thing is that it could see all the SSID's out there and establish a link but after the password, nothing worked. It just said "Not Connected", but sometimes it would flip over to "Connected" but no IP address was ever assigned so it was no use to me.

I tried the following without luck :

1. Change BIOS setting
   
2. Fn-F5 key (hot key toggle for WiFi)
   
3. Flipping WiFi hardware switch (located practically under the laptop, in fact I didn't even know it existed until my buddy Sarwar told me about it)
   
4. Reloading all versions of drivers from 2005-2008
5. Uninstalled device and drivers at least 20 times
6. Selected Network Repair option*
7. Buying a PCMCIA WiFi card (Any one need one?)
8. Installing third party Wireless management software (including one made by Atheros Communications. IBM does not make it's own WiFi btw)

I must have read at least 100 postings about similar issues and nothing recommended worked for me. So giving up,  I put an order in for a new T61 laptop since I can't waste any more time playing with this Windows garbage.

Tonight something worked for me though. What I noticed is that if I did 'ipconfig.exe' to display the network adapter settings , nothing appeared for the WiFi device. I knew something was wrong with Windows' ability to see the device. I removed all protocols except TCP/IP and selected Repair network. After doing that, ipconfig showed the wifi network interface and I was back in business.

Hopefully some poor soul with the same problem finds this blog helpful.

What a total waste of time. Thanks Microsoft.

Little Man makes me proud

Last weekend we visited Vaughn Mills. The highlight of the day was the Nascar Speed Park. Although Aidan is still too small to ride go-karts there were lots of games and things to do. 

I remember last Christmas he was too timid to climb on the raised playground at W

oodbine Center. This weekend he just went for it. He climbed 20ft to the top (safety nets everywhere) and ran around with 

other kids. The one thing he stayed away from was the spiral tube slide. That was my fault because when he was a about a year and a half I placed him down pretty steep spiral slide at the Bronx Zoo. I suspect he tumbled head first in the the slide and he wasn't a happy camper when he got to the bottom. Since then he's been pretty cold towards any type of slide.  I know he's not scared of too many things, in fact this weekend he diving head first in the the pool.

After about an hour and with Mommy at the top encouraging him to go (an probably seeing other kids go down as well) he did us proud and slid down. Not once, but many more times :-) Makes me really proud of my little guy.

 

Won big at Timmy's

I finally cashed in on Roll Up the Rim.  No I did win the car or the boat but I did win $50 credit on a Tim card. That's about a months worth of coffee :-)

Unfortunately to claim my prize I have to fill out and mail-in a long legal-ese form :-(

My Wii

It's not what you think.

Ever since Christmas I've been trying to buy a Nintendo Wii. The worldwide shortage whether geniune or engineered by Nintendo has made it virtually impossible to find one. I was almost tempted to go for a Playstation 3.

Today I happened to be crusing the Costco.ca website when what do you know? A Wii bundle was offered (extra controller and games). I quickly placed and order and I should be getting it delivered ($0 shipping) by next week :)

Now I'm wondering if I should sell it on ebay for $500. Nah, I'm going to open it and set it up and blow off some steam after work. I think Marissa will like it because it comes with boxing so she can vent her frustrations on me, the virtual me.

This one good thing offset all the pounds of bad crap thrown at me at work today :-)

No time for snow

When I was a few years younger I liked to go out and shovel snow for a couple of hours. It was good exercise and an opportunity to get out of the house. Now things are different, especially this year.

I'm getting a little tired of snow now. Tomorrow and Wednesday we're expecting another 10-15 cm of the it, just after it started to melt away in today's 10c spring-like weather.

I used to feel a little shy hauling out my snow blower in front of my neighbours. Now I don't give a sh*t because I'm not spending 2 hours clearing a driveway. I believe that because our house faces north and has a long narrow driveway we accumulate more snow as the drifts can get up to 2 ft.

Marissa thinks it's my toy, but I said it's first and foremost a tool (then a toy).

Toboganing 101

Here's a funny clip of the little guy going down a run at Edwards Gardens today.