Thursday, June 23, 2011

savings account(s)

Since I paid off my car I've been taking the amount that used to go to car payments off each cheque and putting it into a new savings account. After a couple months I noticed something. I was getting as much interest in the President's Choice savings account each month as I was getting in the TD savings account each month.

I use the TD account to save for bigger stuff I want to do or get in the future to avoid borrowing. Last year when I moved I used the TD savings to pay for it. Bigger stuff like that.

So I checked the rates and I was quite surprised. The TD pays 0.5% interest. President's Choice pays 1.5%. So three times the interest! I was annoyed at TD for being so stingy with their loyal customers. 1.5 is hardly anything special.

So this morning I arrived at the TD branch before work. There were like 5 of us there at the 8 AM open. I did the transfer using a bank draft. There was a $7.50 fee on the draft but it was better than taking the TD money as cash. Although unlikely stuff could happen on the trip between the TD and CIBC (President's Choice) branches such as car accident, heart attack, robbery. So it was worth $7.50 just to avoid carrying cash and having to worry about any of that. The amount isn't huge but enough to be really sad if it disappeared. But the bank to bank trip was uneventful between the strip malls and it's now in the PC account.

I left a token amount in the TD account and didn't close it. That account is still useful because it gives me branch access in walking distance from home with convenient hours. I still use the branch for rolled coins, and getting rolled loonies out for laundry. Plus I've been with TD and its predecessor Central Trust for like decades so it's good to still have a connection there.

Halifax architecture

A couple weekends back I was downtown on a sunny Sunday. I took this picture of the Central Trust II building. Still the jewel of Halifax architecture.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

hey cops! Vancouver riot links

pic and possible id of an arsonist torching a police car

suspicious sale offer of possibly looted Chanel merchandise from a riot attendee

police car trampler. love the spelling and grammar on the linked video. like Darren a proud product of the BC public education system

Friday, June 17, 2011

Congrats Bruins

Very well done Boston Bruins. They just took it away in games 6-7. A talented and character team that overcame a lot to win it.


Well I guess everyone has heard of the riots after the game. Here are my comments.

first of all there is no difference between the Vancouver and Toronto G20 riots. None at all. It's the same perps, criminal opportunists, ne'er do wells, trash and lowlife, drunks, people who enjoy the thrill and excitement of being in a riot. I'm sure there were people who even participated in both G20 and Vancouver. As expected they targeted the shops with jewelry and high end cosmetics for their "anger" and "protest".

at least the Vancouver regular folks learned a bit from Toronto and actually tried to intervene (a little bit at least) and disrupt the criminal rioters. good move, it's your city take it back, it's worth fighting for. what the spineless Toronto citizens did to passively stand by and do nothing (except take pictures, encourage the rioters, and impede the police) was the real national disgrace and embarrassment. there's still work to do but when the good guys outnumber the bad 50:1 then with any will or courage at all then the evildoers can be stopped

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

3-3

Remarkable that Vancouver got to here. They score 8 times in 6 games, have their own goalie yanked 3 times (well he should have been yanked in game 3), and still they managed to somehow win 3 of the games. Are they the team of destiny or is their luck about to run out?

Like Boston going into game 6 I don't think the Canucks are in terrible shape going into #7. Back home they have been invincible. They wisely got Luongo out early in #6 so he will probably be fresh and focused for #7. When he's on he can be superb, as good as Thomas. Game 6 was closer than the score when you consider soft goals at their end, Thomas making some big saves to keep them from getting back in the game, plus clanging the post a couple of times, that could have easily been a very tight 4-3 type game.

I'm not going to make a prediction. Just hoping for an exciting game.

Monday, June 06, 2011

comments on the cheating post

Well I did have a bit more to say about the linked cheating post below.

It's pretty clear what he should do given

  • only 28 years old
  • only married two years
  • no kids
oh yeah, and that other thing

  • she cheated on him

So yeah, ditch her and her new boyfriend and good riddance to her.

But whatever. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. Husband has decided to take her back for whatever reason. That's his [bad] life choice and he gets to live with the result of that decision. And will he ever regret that in the years ahead. Poor guy.

So did they actually cheat or was it just the three quick kisses (not even making out!) and some inappropriate texts and emails?

Fedorfan nails it
This thread reminds me of a joke I heard once:

So a guy suspects his wife is cheating on him for odd behavior that clearly suggest cheating, so he hires a private investigator to look into it and gather more conclusive evidence. After a week the detective reports back to the husband - And informs him that on multiple occasions he followed his wife to a local hotel where she would meet up with the same guy, they would have a few drinks at the hotel bar and head up together to a room in the hotel, and from the outside of the hotel the PI took pictures of them entering the hotel room and presented them to the husband, and then shortly after the wife would close the curtains in the hotel room...
At this point the husband interrupts the PI and says "Damn curtains, see that's what I'm talking about! the evidence always ends up being so inconclusive..."

This text exchange too
golf pro: want to meet for a quickie?
cheating wife: can't today. off to the gym

Sure maybe I'm not an expert on sexting and all the nuances of communication. But I'm sure there is no way two people who are not already in an established ongoing physical relationship would have that text exchange. That's not some dreamy, chanel  #5, harlequin romance fantasy. That's a day to day real life fact exchange.

His entire thesis hinges on his repeated assertion that it was logistically impossible for his wife and golf pro to have been alone together long enough to have an encounter during the 4 month affair. Let's suspend disbelief for a moment and set aside that he was out of town on several multi-day business trips during her affair, that they could have gone to a motel room during their respective lunch hours at work, that they could have snuck off during the 4 hours it takes to play a round of golf, that instead of going to the "gym" she could have just as easily went to meet him somewhere.

Let's forget all that and look at it logically. Husband, do you really believe that: during a 4 month period, two highly motivated adults, in close geographic proximity, with vehicles, with private secure mobile smartphone communication, who were in contact every single day throughout the day. That in this situation that over four months they were unable to arrange to meet up somewhere for 30-120 minutes at least once?


I just feel so bad for the guy. The contemporary beta male.

Nagged into getting engaged.
His two year marriage is a disaster from the start and already sexless (at least for him).
And now this. She decides her needs weren't being sufficiently met so she is having an affair.

And instead of cutting his losses and leaving this cancer of a woman (after all no debt, no kids) instead this guy is so discouraged, so whipped, so weak, that his response to the nightmare his life has turned into is to just shrug and accept this as his fate. When the door lies open for him to walk right out!

What a life. Gets her the ring and the wedding (that she nagged and pushed for). Buys her the oversized suburban house that she picked out (close to her family and friends of course). At every turn for the last three years at least she has been coddled and accommodated and allowed to have her own way. And then she shows her appreciation for everything he did, all the sacrifice he made, by announcing that she is unhappy and has an affair with a sleazy golf pro. And still he stays, sigh.

Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Bruins power play

The announcer just said the Boston power play is 5 for the last 105. hmmm that's about 4.8% success rate.

Now at regular strength the Bruins are getting around 3 goals a game. Now 3 / 60 is 5%. But it's actually higher as they aren't even strength the full 60 minutes.

My point is the Bruins score more frequently at regular strength than they do on the power play! So mathematically their strategy becomes obvious. Just do the exact same thing on the PP as you do at regular strength. Don't put on a PP unit. Use your regular lines, even the 3rd and 4th lines. Don't run set plays or attempt anything you wouldn't do at regular strength.

So even if you do nothing at all different Boston would still score more often on PP then regular strength because with only 4 defenders over time they will inevitably score more often.

couldn't stop reading

I stayed up late the last two nights getting through this epic thread about a guy who discovered his wife is having an affair. cliffs here.

this is a compelling, riveting, wrenching roller coaster of a read. so if you click through be prepared to want to read it through!

I've got more to say but I'll post it in a few days in case some readers do click through I don't want spoilers or to influence anyone's impressions.