Author: admin

Advice of the Day: Make sure you know when Daylight Savings Time is because some mornings you will wake up with a fright thinking “Did I forget about Daylight Savings Time?!”

I’m not one for the new fangled TV game shows but when I stumbled upon this gem, I figured I should tune in. I told myself “Self, no matter how bad it is, keep watching so you can give a good review to your faithful readers.”

After trying to change the channel 32 times, I managed to watch the entire episode and have to say that I cringed. I CRINGED. It is an awful, awful show for the sheer dumbness which was Latisha.

My favourite question that she got wrong is the following:

Question: What country has the longest border ajoining to the USA?

Latisha: OH Man, this is a tough one. Hmm, well, argh…hmmm…well there are two countries, Mexico and Canada. I’m thinking Canada, no wait…Mexico because I keep hearing about the border all the time. Yeah, that’s a good call…Mexico must have the longest border. Final Answer.

FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY IN THIS LAND, HOW CAN THERE BE PEOPLE THIS DUMB?

Anyhow, I think I’m a little dumber after watching the show. Don’t waste your time. REALLY. This is a Public Service Announcement for your Health.

I had what some may refer to as a perfect day yesterday. It started off right with a bagel run with Krista in the morning. She then passed me her 90s mix compilation CD which was an excellent mix as it pulled #1 hits from Billboard. Niiice.

Then I get back upstairs to find out that the document I’ve been working on for the past 2 years has been approved! Bonus! I am pretty stoked. With this document being approved, it paves the way for future endeavors which I got a surprising lead on yesterday after lunch. Stay tuned to hear where Palmer may end up soon!

Then, what does Vero have cooking for supper? Steak! Awwww yeah! You can’t go wrong.

Then I get 76% on my mid-term from Media Ethics. While there are a few points that I would care to argue about, I can’t deny that 76% is an alright mark by my standards.

Really, nothing went wrong yesterday. Which leads me to believe that today will be hell. 😉

If anyone is interested in attending the following shows, please let me know, not via comments please.

Arcade Fire – Montreal –
05/12 Montreal, Quebec – Arena Maurice Richard (On-Sale 3/2)
05/13 Montreal, Quebec – Arena Maurice Richard (On-Sale 3/2)
Unknown Ticket Price.

I would be going on the May 12 concert as I have a BB King concert to go to the next day.

Roger Waters – Ottawa
June 4 – Tickets are expected to go on sale March 5. Could be earlier.

Like I said, let me know if you want in.

After speaking to my mother, and consulting my handy dandy copy of Wealthy Barber (Uhmm….Maren? I still have your copy if you’re looking for it…) I’ve realized that there are WAY too many options to what I should be doing with my money.

Do you all feel this way, particularly around the crunch time which is RSP season? Or as I like to call it…the ARRRRR(matey)SP season?

Here’s a simple dilemma – Do I take my refund of…let’s say $1,000 and pay off some debt that is accumulating interest, or do I maximize my RRSP contributions by borrowing $1,500 and slapping it all into an RRSP so then I get no cash in hand, but a whole lot in the RRSP.

The Wealthy Barber looks at how it’s smarter to put money into an RRSP NOW rather than later as cumulative interest is your friend. If I wait a year, I’ve probably wasted tons of money. So there’s the pro on that scale. The message: Put into an RRSP now!

However, you have to admit that the more immediate urgency of paying off immediate debt looks pretty tempting also. The message: Get rid of that crawling interest! Live a debt free (well, almost debt free for those who are paying friendship tax to my parents for allowing me to be your friend) life!

Let’s also swing over to another thought process which I never really took much interest in until yesterday while talking to Mom – paying down the principle (principal?) on your mortgage.

If you have mortgage, you have to admit that it’s probably the largest pot of money you ever will borrow and the interest is sky-high when you think about it. The rates are not, but the interest you are paying is. Uh, when I say the interest rate is not high, I am talking to the people outside of the early 80s.

So, common sense would dictate that if you have a chance to put money down on your principle, you should! Everyone’s mortgage is different – mine indicates that I am allowed to put money down on the principle as long as it doesn’t break 20% annually. I don’t think there is any fear in reaching 20% of my mortgage anytime soon!

It would be interesting to try and figure out which is better:
A) Putting ‘x’ amount of dollars into an RRSP with…let’s say 10% interest.
Or
B) Putting the same ‘x amount of dollars onto the principle of your mortgage which is at 4%.

Man, I need a financial guru to crunch those numbers. Off the top of my head, I would assume it’s better to put the cash into the RRSP because it has the higher interest. But it doesn’t take into account the sheer vastness of interest being generated by the interest.

So, the question I pose to all of you is this – what’s your favourite money saving tip that you adhere to? I am going to bank my bet on RSPs as they are shoved down our throat every year. That’s not a bad thing, but has anyone favoured alternative methods to saving, like paying down your mortgage? Is it the better route?

Let’s talk about the almighty dollar here.

By the way, the new Nine Inch Nails DVD – Beside You In Time is out today. Pick it up. Matt and I went to see the With Teeth tour a few years back in Montreal and it blew my mind. Literally. I have a bump now in behind my head.

Here’s to my main man, Jack Nicholson, who last night was sporting a shaved head at the Oscars. Man, I hope that is for an upcoming role because it didn’t suit him too much. I just like seeing Jack at the Oscars as he is basically synonymous with them.

The reason I’m bringing up the Oscars right now is because I’m waiting for the results of Louise’s Oscar pool. Last year, I surprisingly won the pool so I’m hoping my 10/24 wins will fetch me the prize again this year. However, I didn’t put much thought into it so I wonder if I could have done better. For example, I picked Borat as the best adapted screenplay. Well, that was dumb. Was it because I had some hope that Sascha Baron Cohen would randomly appear accepting an Oscar? Definitely. 😉

All in all, I banked on Pan’s Labyrinth even before seeing it. Then Vero and I saw it last week and I had some doubts as to it winning a slew of Oscar’s. In the end, it did nab quite a few.

So who knows if I will win the pool this year…10/24 seems like a bad score, but when you’re playing against others, it may very well be the highest one.

*update* Wow, I forgot to mention Martin Scorsece’s win! How could I forget? In fact, how could it have taken this many years for Scorsece to win an Oscar? For those of you not in the know, let’s take a look at some of his finer films (in my opinion):

• Taxi Driver
• The Last Waltz!!!
• Raging Bull
• Goodfellas
• Cape Fear
• Casino
• Gangs of New York

Bravo Mr. Scorsece.

On Sunday amongst our adventures, we ended up at a Fitness Equipment clearance sale where I wanted to see if I could find a sit-up bench…you know, the ones that inclines?

I saw one on sale from 89.99 to 69.99. I thought that this is a little steep considering it is just a board on an incline. Heck, I could probably fashion one myself!

However, when we hit up Wal-Mart for frames, Mike found the EXACT SAME MODEL for $40! I couldn’t believe my luck!

I also couldn’t believe the incredible markup in the Fitness Equipment store of the same exact item. Is this what businesses do? Just go down to Wal-Mart and buy some wares and sell it to us for a higher price?

If anything, I would have thought the Fitness Equipment store would have had better merchandise compared to Wal-Mart.

Anyhow, I am the proud new owner of a sit-up bench. Vero and I assembled it last night and if what we went through is any indication of how life will be when we are old and gray assembling items, I think I’ll have to let her assemble them herself. 😉