On May 2, over 61% of Canadians went to the polls and 40% of those delivered the Conservative Party of Canada a majority. I have to hand it to the Conservatives – they stayed on message, made fiscally-responsible promises, and managed to avoid any major gaffes (or regrettable wardrobe choices). The Liberals, on the other hand, imploded like a balloon in the freezer after failing to find a message – let alone a party leader – that connected with Canadians. The two biggest surprises of the night though were the magnitude of the NDP’s surge to become the Official Opposition and the near-obliteration of the Bloc Quebecois. Despite my dislike of the Conservatives, this is probably the first time in five years that I’m hopeful to see the maneuvering and mud-slinging of Canadian politics take a backseat to actual governing.
A Plea for Credit and Financial Education
A friend of mine recently did the math on a consumer financing “deal” offered by Future Shop:
The flyer advertises “No Payments, No Interest” for a period up to 18 months. The fine print at the back explains that there is a graduated “administration fee” that increases depending on the length of the “no interest” term. For a $299 purchase utilising the 18 month “No Payments, No Interest” option, the Administration Fee is $99.99. Funny enough, annualized, that is equivalent to more than 22% interest/year. This gets better.
Oh No, An Election! and Lock Up The Left
Two things that I can’t fit into tweets: 1. Oh No, An…
Thoughts on Cost and Delivery of Media Content
Here’s what I want to see happen: I want to see North American governments stop trying to craft new copyright laws that cater to every special-interest group and end going to court over usage-based billing. I want to see the problem turned on its head and a root-cause analysis conducted. I want to see a subscription service where I can pay (for example) $50/month for the unlimited and unrestricted download of high-definition TV shows, movies, and music. I want to see internet access fees and usage-based thresholds adjusted to fairly reflect the true total cost of service delivery. Instead, I see time and money pissed away going after enabling sites like isoHunt.com, across-the-board increases in the cost of internet service delivery loosely justified as a response to “skyrocketing” bandwidth usage, and government energy wasted on fighting decisions that internet service providers can charge for usage over a certain threshold (last I checked that’s how capitalism worked, comrade).
Meat + Radiant Heat = Delicious
The other night I wanted to make my fiancée and I a nice dinner of steak, garlic mashed potatoes and steamed asparagus. With my battle-hardened barbecue buried under a mountain of snow at a top secret location, I attempted to cook the steak using the oven. I’ve watched enough Hell’s Kitchen to know that you can cook a steak in an oven and, if some cafeteria janitor can do it, then surely I can too.
Sorry ladies, I’m taken
It’s very exciting to say, “My fiancée and I…” or “This is Dana, my fiancée.” I wanted to capture the story of our engagement because, I think, it’s a great story:
To start, I knew that I loved Dana after only three months of us being together. I knew that I wanted to marry her after being together for less than a year. What I didn’t know was when or how to propose. When we went to see Dave Matthews Band over the September 2010 long weekend, a few of our friends were sure we’d come back engaged. Not so.
Giving Thanks
Coming back into the office after the Thanksgiving long weekend, conversations tend to center around how your weekend was, how much turkey you ate, and whose family event was the biggest circus. I found myself repeatedly saying that I had a very busy weekend, I ate no turkey (sacrilege!), and, even though it was busy, the time spent with my family and friends was great. If I reflect on this weekend, and the past year in general, I can’t point to a single instance where my family and friends haven’t been there to share good times or help me through difficult ones.