LATENIGHT

Christmas Eve

2009-12-24T22:45:00.004-05:00

Allow me to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. It feels a bit like the holiday has crept up this year and is suddenly upon us. Being focused on work, with only a few strategic shopping trips for presents and with other positive things on our minds, the lead up found us preoccupied until finally we opened our presents tonight and are able to sit back and reflect on the holiday.

I know it's the usual topic at this time, but more than ever, "family" is on the top of our minds this year. We'll be visiting my parents this holiday season, which is something we weren't able to do last year. Also, we already looking forward to next year as our family will be enjoying an addition. Our first child is due this spring, so when we sit down to Christmas Dinner (on Boxing Day, actually) my wife will be eating turkey for two.

Food and family is also coming together with a nice treat that was dropped off by our cousins this morning -- sausages. However, they're not just any sausages. Our cousins inherited the recipe from my great grandfather and a butcher (in Milton, I believe) has made up a batch based on the three kinds that were once a mainstay with my paternal grandmother's parents when they ran a butcher shop in North York, back in the the Depression. They'd immigrated from Scotland in the early part of the last century and landed in Winnipeg. Not liking it there, my great grandmother had pushed to return to Scotland but a cousin of hers in Toronto suggested that they come there and give Canada a second chance. They did, and they liked it enough to stay and set up a butcher shop.

They ran it through the '20s and lasted through the Depression in the '30s, but then both passed away in the spring of 1940. My grandmother was recently married then, and took over the butcher shop. Her sister, who'd been born in Canada, also married within a month of their passing and moved to Brampton, which was a long way away in those days.

Our child's due date will therefore be almost exactly 70 years on and I think it's amazing that we can both look to the future and share in that connection with the past. No word yet on whether we are expecting a son or a daughter, but we'll be finding out by the time we both start back at work in the new year.

All Hallows 2009

2009-10-31T23:23:00.002-04:00

It's been another Hallowe'en night spent at home watching the classics on the television and basking in the glow of the jack o'lantern. I hope that each of you out there have had a safe and spooky night.

Labour Day BBQ by the Lake

2009-09-07T13:44:00.002-04:00

Sherkston Shores, Fort Erie, Part II of II

After taking our swim, we had noodles for lunch and then made our way to Main Street where we listened to some live music and played a round of mini golf. Appetites returning, we strolled back to the cottage for a massive barbecue of meat. We'd brought galbi and our hosts treated us to pork chops, chicken and shrimp scewers as well as vegetables that they'd picked from their garden in Mississauga.

While the first of two mammoth grills cooked (there were only five of us until later after supper), I took a second trip to the water and snatched a few more shots of the sunset over Lake Erie. Returning, we ate until full and then more on top, as our hosts treated us to halo-halo, a Filipino dessert of crushed ice with fruit, red beans and sweeteners - very similar to Korean patbingsu.

We were exhausted by the time we drove home, but with it only being about an hour and a half outside the GTA, it was a great day trip destination and a fantastic close out to summer.

Labour Day on Lake Erie

2009-09-07T13:34:00.003-04:00

Sherkston Shores, Fort Erie, Part I of II

For a couple of homebodies, we actually managed to score a second day trip for the summer this Labour Day weekend. Without much delay at all, I've got the photos from Saturday's trip to Sherkston Shores.

A coworker of my wife gave the invitation and treated us to a day on the shores of Fort Erie. Sherkston Shores is a beach resort along the lake. People can park their RVs or longer term residents can purchase one of the mobile homes set up as small cottages, paying their lot fees annually. The homes are beautiful, with large decks built onto the side to enjoy the summer. We were managed to come on one of the most perfect days of the summer. The one we visited was actually inside a second secured zone, closest to the beach. The site also has an area called Main Street with a restaurant, disco, mini golf and a small water park amongst other attractions.

Since it was warm, we didn't waste much time going down to the beach and plunging into Lake Erie for a swim. The water was clear and warm and many were out to enjoy it.

Last Roses of Summer

2009-09-01T09:14:00.002-04:00

Royal Botanical Gardens, Part III of III

Now that September has arrived, the weather is getting colder. I suppose I was lucky to have gotten out to see the flowers at the Gardens when I did. It seems like we had about one week of hot weather and the rest was rain. Now, I've already spotted leaves changing colour from off my balcony, here in Mississauga.

Nonetheless, autumn is an industrious time and I've been making a few changes around here. I hope that I may be able to update the blog more often than once per season from here on in. For now, however, I hope you like the pictures.

Garden Outing

2009-09-01T09:09:00.003-04:00

Royal Botanical Gardens, Part II of III

It was a treat to finally have something fresh to take photos of. The day alternated rapidly between cloud and sun, then back to cloud again. Nonetheless, it's only an hour outside of town and a great break from the city.

How I spent my summer vacation

2009-09-01T08:59:00.002-04:00

Royal Botanical Gardens, Part I of III

I have a bit of time on my hands for the next little while so what better use than an end of summer photo dump? These shots were all taken around the Canada Day weekend, although I know it's taken me until September to post them.

We had taken a trip to Burlington and visited the Royal Botanical Gardens. I've selected a number of the better photos and, since I've been terribly amiss at blogging this past year, I'll offer these up to change the ol' blog landscape a bit.

Sparse Posting

2009-05-04T21:58:00.002-04:00

I swear this post is being put up only because I actually feel a bit guilty about missing a whole month of the calendar. It's completely unrelated to the disappointing trend building with bloggers of the ol' picture province who are shutting down. I'm going to miss my regular reading of Spink About It and the Gypsy-blog -- the latter of whom has posted their plans to completely erase their longstanding writings, so read the archives while you can.

What can I say? I'm not quitting the blogosphere, but I'm just otherwise time-deficient. Toronto has lived up to its reputation as a busy place. I put in ten hours a day at the office and some time at home to prepare for work. The result is that I always feel like short on spare time. I haven't really gotten out to enjoy much of the city around me, even after almost a year. I see my office and I see my apartment. On Saturdays, I see the grocery store across the street. Right now, it's ten o'clock and I've already been reminded that it's bedtime. The alarm goes off at six for another day.

Being stuck in a short rut in Mississauga is also a poor situation for fresh photos. The one of the Ontario Art Gallery that I've posted above is from last year. I figured it hasn't changed that much, though I wouldn't honestly know.

I'm also thinking about scaling back the news-ish posts and returning to a personal style. Most of my readers are family and friends who actually appreciate posts such as: "I eat a cherry turnover for breakfast every single day"; "It's Monday and I can't think of anything to write about"; and "I really shouldn't be blogging this, but..."

Going for the gold?

2009-03-08T23:06:00.003-04:00

Short of updates, I figured I might post something to see if anyone reading might have some ideas on a curious situation I've heard of. Now, I don't normally blog much about work, and this isn't technically in my portfolio anyway, but I have heard that some gold mines have a dilemma right now. As I type, the price of gold is at 936.63 US. This should be good news for gold mining companies, but instead I hear that while they are digging it out of the ground, no one is buying at the price it's being sold at. As a commodity, this shouldn't be the case. The price should adjust to what people will pay.

Is the price being kept artificially high? Washington seems unable to print money fast enough to worm its way out of this catastrophe, and so, with the US dollar inevitably set to implode, is there a chance we could see a return to the gold standard? Most of this current Depression is happening because credit is drying up around the world but so much of our economy is already based on existing debt and credit. It's not a matter of being penniless. In a sense, we're even running out of pretend money. Could a move back to something "real" be in the works? Could chosen people have the ability keep the price high in anticipation?

Playing the numbers

2009-01-10T11:21:00.004-05:00

Unemployed men arriving at RCAF Station Trenton.

One of the ways that the government reduces bad economic news, as we know, is to sweep a few of the problems under the statistical rug. Yesterday's job loss stats release showed a drop of 34,400 jobs in December. Most of those losses were in the construction sector and manufacturing jobs actually registered a slight increase. Headlines announcing the report have stated the loss was worse than economists predicted.

In fact, it's even more accurate to say that it's worse than economists report. With these reports, massive job loss of permanent, salaried positions, is tempered by balancing them against the increase in part time work. It's really apples and oranges but it makes the stats look better. What's really going to sink the ship will be next month when even part time jobs disappear from the figures, with many of the newly created ones included in December being Christmas seasonal.

Nonetheless, if economists are shocked at a loss of 34,400 jobs, perhaps we had better get new economists. The real figures would be presumably much worse if you actually counted everyone who was out of a job as unemployed. The suggestion that someone who has run out of their Employment Insurance stamps is no longer jobless is ridiculous and only serves to justify the government sending them to the bin that says they're no longer looking for work, so the beancounters and politicians can take them off the numbers.

The end result is that we have 6.6% unemployement in Canada which is a far cry from reporting the 20-25% levels that set in during the Great Depression.

Reading today, I came cross a story on Reuters that looks at this from the American perspective [HT:Piglipstick]. Perhaps we can assume the discrepancy in Canada would be similar. Their reported unemployment rate is very close to ours at 6.7% right now. According to the writer Pedro Nicolaci da Costa, on Reuters, the real unemployment rate if every worker out of a job was counted would be around 16.5% already in the States.

In other words, we're just about on the cusp of Depression now. What makes matters worse, however, is that in the '30s, four out of five people lived in rural areas where there was a better chance of at least producing some of their own food. Now we're all citified and at the mercy of complex logistics systems to bring us food from all around the world. Shut down things for a couple of days in a major city like Toronto and the shelves go bare in stores and we're rationing.

The other danger is crime rate. After a few years of the Dirty Thirties, the government went to great lengths to get young men out of the city and into relief camps to work. They were scared of crime, just as they were scared of a resurgence of Communist sympathies that could destabilize the nation politically. Well, this time we're not wasting a minute. The upcoming Federal budget should be sinking a tonne of money into infrastructure spending in exactly the same way.

So there you have it. Great Depression 2.0 on our doorstep and knocking to come in. I think now is a good time for everyone to have a look at Barry Broadfoot's book. "Ten Lost Years" which is a collection of Depression-era stories recorded from conversations with ordinary Canadians who lived through the times. It was published in 1973 and became common reading during the recession of the late seventies, and it's probably not a bad thing to pick up now again. I've been reading it since the holidays and it provides a lot to ponder in terms of how today's Canadians might fare.

Highpoint of 2008

2009-01-04T23:00:00.002-05:00

I wanted to make a quick post and wish you all a happy 2009. I also wanted to make a quick note that the highpoint of our 2008, our trip to Korea for my brother-in-law's wedding, has been chronicled now in full. You can catch all the photos over at Latenight Korea - Korea Trip '08. Keep in mind that it's in blog archive format so you'll have to read the posts in reverse order to follow our trip chronologically. It was only a week for me (though my wife managed to get a bit longer), but it was clearly the most memorable part of our year.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T22:29:00.002-05:00

I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season and getting the opportunity to share the season with loved ones and friends. Most of all, I hope Santa gets you everything on your list this year. Merry Christmas, everyone.

First Day of Winter

2008-12-21T14:33:00.002-05:00

It's the first day of winter and they haven't called out the army in Toronto yet. We were hammered on Friday (but was at work most the day and at our company Christmas party nonetheless.) Today we got walloped again. The media has taken to calling it Snowmageddon.

I'm just happy all our Christmas shopping is done and there's only a couple of work days before we break for the holidays. It'll be a good time to catch up on things which, I hope, will also include some fresh projects for the web for me.

Come Together

2008-11-30T15:37:00.004-05:00

Ottawa got exciting again this week, as old names came back into the spotlight to see if they could unite the left and put some weight behind a non-confidence motion in a way that wouldn't trigger an election that would doubtlessly be universally damning.

Jean Chretien and Ed Broadbent were said to be working out a possible arrangement to offer a coalition government, between the NDP and the Liberals, to the Governor General should a non-confidence motion pass. This was a result of the Tories both minimalizing the need for government aid during this financial crisis (in the eyes of the left) and also their proposal to cut funding to political parties who otherwise get about $1.95 per vote achieved in the election. With the latter, Harper no doubt figured he could play it as a moral high road, when in fact it would have a debilitating effect on the opposition parties and help ensure Tory primacy.

Harper's dropped the cut to the funding and is now scrambling to release an early budget. He's also managed to delay the non-confidence vote by a week and is in steady spin mode to pretend that what is happening is somehow out of our democratic system - which it isn't.

So who would the new Prime Minister be? CTV is trying to be sceptical that a coalition would even work. The Star reports from a senior Liberal source that the leader of the coalition would not be a current grit leadership contender so speculation falls on names like Ralph Goodale or John MacCallum -- but doesn't count out Stephane Dion entirely, either.

We might even see a Prime Minister Layton, considering how badly the Liberals have mangled the job of their own leadership selection. The grits even have an NDP top contender now in Bob Rae, so why not advance Smilin' Jack while they're at it.

The Conservatives, ironically, are now using this as an opportunity to plea for more donations, according to CP.

That leads me to explaining this post's accompanying image. Going through old papers, I had saved this cartoon I found from the Saint John Telegraph Journal of Saturday, May 4, 1964. It's by famed World War II and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Bill Mauldin. Don't ask me why, but something in the back of my head a couple of months ago had thought about a united left coalition to circumvent threats of an election call by Harper, and now it's almost happening and I just happened to have it ready to post. So, here's the cartoon. My apologies for the watermark. I cleaned it up as best I could.

OMG, they woodn't!

2008-11-18T20:56:00.005-05:00

Prospectors clearing trees in Val D'Or, Quebec, 1938.

Of all the news you wouldn't expect to ever read in Canada, the Town of Hampstead, in Quebec, has passed a law to ban wood stoves. Residents will have a seven-year grace period to get rid of their cast iron comforts.

Now the economics of buying cord wood for delivery in Montreal might be a bit different than rural New Brunswick. Growing up, we cut, split and piled our own wood for winter use. For us it was a natural and accessible means to save money on heat. Our house had electric heat (no oil or gas) but we only turned up the thermostat come spring, usually, when it wasn't so cold and most of the wood had by then run out.

With oil prices climbing and the popularity of renewable energy being revisited, you'd think this law would be out of place. The argument is that wood smoke is somehow more hazardous to health than any of the other big city pollutants that Montrealers face daily. The cynical have already accused the town of ignoring these other sources, only to go after a perceivably easier target in wood-burning home owners.

Frankly, the smell of wood smoke is still of great comfort to me whenever I encounter it -- and that's even more so in big cities. For all the other aromas that waft around the air, wood smoke is natural and normal and I can't help but conjure the image of a welcoming, hospitable hearth awaiting visitors, or shake the hunch that somewhere, somebody is also cooking a big old pot of old-fashioned stew to fight the winter chill.

Getting nervous...

2008-11-18T19:53:00.009-05:00

What good is a blog if you can't stop in and post some doom and gloom speculation once in a while. Watching the Big Three automakers demanding handouts so they can keep making SUVs that people can no longer afford is one thing, but other things are going on around the world keeps some of my alarm bells jingling.

One thing I mentioned in September was China's factory slow downs and my worry that should their economic growth falter, the result could be social turmoil. A story recently pubished via the New Republic elaborates on that concern quite effectively. [HT: 1913 Intel]

Something else that showed up in today's news, however, was that a high-level defence official in Estonia has been operating as a Russian spy and leaking sensitive NATO information to Russia. To what extent, it's unknown, but since he was also responsible for issuing security clearances in that country, any number of Russian sleeper agents could now be lurking there and passing on even more secrets.

This is on top of the story during the war in Georgia, that Georgian special forces agents were captured by Russia with information including NATO's GPS codes on them. Russia, it would seem, is in possession of a lot of once-in-a-lifetime intelligence that would give them a tremendous edge were they to perhaps take advantage of the current economic situation to kick off a major attack on the West, the likes of which they've been hinting at a lot lately.

The situation is illuminating some strategic disadvantages in current NATO policy. Essentially you now have an organization that has been expanded to act as an alternative to United Nations forces (e.g. Afghanistan) but now includes, or is set to include, countries that have never dipped a foot in the Atlantic. Furthermore, these countries of which many are former soviet republics, may have been a great way to rub in the insult of Russia's diminished influence, by luring them to our side, but it's obvious from news like today's that Russia still has many loyal eyes and ears riddled throughout their former stomping grounds -- enough to be a significant security breach in light of their inclusion in NATO's inner circle. The West may have swallowed a slow-acting poison in bring them into our security arrangements so soon.

At the very least, with Russia reasserting itself, they're a new source for tension and the Bear is pushing back. That happened with Georgia and there's a lingering fear it could come to Ukraine, which is of even greater strategic importance to a reinvigourated Soviet spectrum. Poland is not escaping their sights either, over the issue of the US missile defence shield, and now will be facing Russian missiles newly deployed across their border. Russia is threatening to pull out of the Conventional Forces in Europe agreement over it and that's likely just a start.

Bush's preemptive strike doctrine is something else that they want to seize and claim as their own, to defend both themselves and their friends. The problem is that they are cozying up to new allies by signing arms deals with countries like Venezuela and Syria (as well as partaking in such congenial activities as naval visits to their ports), and investing heavily in Iran. It's only a matter of time before Russia seeks to station their own missiles in those countries. After the US made a strike inside Syria last month, I was surprised they didn't play that card then.

Perhaps there will be a grace period for the new US president but I wouldn't count on it. The fear is that a Depression is coming and conventional wisdom is that it takes a war to end a Depression. Maybe the automakers aren't getting an easy ride toward a handout in Congress but the Pentagon might be more cooperative. Instead of making SUVs, the Big Three could be in line for armoured tank and HUMVEE contracts soon.

2008-11-08T13:40:00.003-05:00

With the degree of importance on the relationship between our two countries, it's only right to post that Barack Obama will be the new president of the United States, following his election victory on Tuesday.

In the weeks prior to the final date, McCain's campaign just turned into a mess with an unbridled and unconfidence-inspiring veep candidate, an over reliance on attack ads that may have turned the electorate against him, and the unshakable sense that McCain was part of the establishment that led to the current world financial calamity.

Obama ran a solid campaign and as a public speaker, he is nearly unmatched by any in recent memory. He's inspiring and represents a monumental shift in social order in the U.S. which may mark the return of that nation's credibility in the world as a global citizen. However, he lacks experience and many question(ed) his foreign policy statements -- such as bringing the war in Afghanistan to bear more on Pakistan which would almost certainly escalate things to a dire level. There's a wonder how he even was selected to break onto the world stage to begin with.

Ron Paul has asked a few of these questions and suggested that Obama was selected as a bringer of a New World Government which would be ushered in to deal with the financial mess around the world by beginning the work toward unification of the world banking system and/or currencies which will effectively put control of just about everything under that authority once the money is under its yoke.

Now, Obama always seemed to present himself as an isolationist with his desire to renegotiate NAFTA and revise other trade agreements with foreign powers to which the US has built up such a trade deficit.

Paul says we'll know more once international talks on the economy begin November 15th. He also says we'll know more within a few weeks of Obama taking power should some situation be enacted that would plunge the world into a crisis and make the thought of global unification more palatable.

Happy Hallowe'en '08

2008-10-31T20:09:00.002-04:00

Just a quick little note to wish you all a Happy Hallowe'en this evening as you take in the spookiest and creepiest of nights. Usually my jack o'lanterns end up looking much the same each year as I tend to favour the same old design, but this year I tried to change it up a bit. I didn't use any markers to plan out the cuts beforehand though, and I think it ended up looking a bit sad or frightened itself. Perhaps it is more reflective of this year's economic scares than the usual, run-of-the mill terror.

United we fall

2008-10-27T22:41:00.003-04:00

It hardly seems like there's a need to label the push for a North American Union as a conspiracy theory anymore. On Saturday and again today on The Galloping Beaver, one of the blogs I have on my RSS reader, they've linked to stories in the Globe & Mail lauding that idea, or at least suggesting that Canadians are in some form of infatuation with it. They point to John Ibbitson's piece last Wednesday and a questionable poll cited in today's paper that suggests Canadians want to embrace an Obama presidency and then express our affection through closer political union.

While the Globe & Mail lists the source as the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute which it describes as a "Calgary-based institute", Galloping Beaver goes one step further to point out that said institute is funded by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and American arms manufacturer General Dynamics. Following the links on Nationmaster, the CCCE, in turn, was formerly known as the Business Council on National Issues and was a leading advocate for Free Trade during the Mulroney regime. Nationmaster also adds the following interesting note: "Statistics Canada shows that in 2001 just 4% of all Canadian businesses accounted for 82% of exports. The majority of those 4% are members of the CCCE."

[And of course, the Globe & Mail is owned by Bell just like CTV -- the station that gives "bluescreen technology" a whole different meaning in their coverage of the Tory party -- so you can imagine what I think of their impartiality on a good day. But to suggest that 62% of Canadians actually want us to hitch our cart completely to that apocalyptic economic wormhole south of us is beyond believable and they should be ashamed.]

Watch your money

2008-10-20T19:45:00.008-04:00

I don't know when we became such a nation of thieves but I finally realized how prevalent cheating on pricing and services is these days after this past weekend and again today. This past Saturday we were doing our shopping and three instances of misleading pricing hammered it home.

We started by returning a tea pot to Zellers. The pot was marked as $19.97 but they charged my wife $29.97. Now the hire price did appear as a sales sticker on the bottom of each box, but the advertised price on the shelf was clearly lower. She wanted her money back so off we went. She showed me the rack with two full tiers of tea pots and the price marked twice as $19.97.

The problem, we later found out, was that they had 1.4 litre pots mixed in with 1.2 litre pots, all in near identical packaging. The marginally larger pots were $29.97 and we were told that the mix up occurred because of that. After all, the clerk explained, the pots had to be stocked together since they were the same brand. After exchanging our pot for a smaller one (since the one she bought was missing the filter anyway) we went back to the kitchenware section for something else. Sure enough, the department storeperson had quietly removed the second price. What they neglected was that the tags were still on the bottom of the tea pots and turning over one that was smaller, 1.2 litres, it also read $29.97.

So, off we went to Walmart. One of our purchases was to be a wheeled shopping basket, marked as $15.95 or thereabouts. At the cash, my wife's eagle eyes spotted it getting rung in as $21.95. I demanded a price check. Our clerk left her post and went off to do it herself. We waited. We waited more. She came back to explain that price applied to the ironing boards. "What ironing boards?" I asked. I hadn't seen any ironing boards there. "Nevermind. Keep it," I said. I refused to pay the higher price when I could get a better quality one at Canadian Tire for twenty bucks.

What we didn't notice until we got home and checked the bill again was that the BRITA water filter we bought saw us overpaying by about $8 above the posted price on the display.

So the moral of the story is to watch your purchases.

The Bell of the Bawl

With that in mind, I figured today would also be a good day to rectify my problem with Bell Mobility. My wife had problem after problem with the billing on her phone not going through until finally, she cancelled her account last month. We both were on the same prepaid plan with automatic top ups.

I never had a problem with my phone in Nova Scotia but since switching to Ontario, I've been double billed each month. The problem is compounded by the fact you can only call them during daytime business hours and no one has time to sit around at work on hold, if they have jobs.

It turns out I wasn't simply being double-billed but rather I had been signed on to airtime packages without my permission. The first problem had been when we went in to block text messages since we'd heard about the 15-cent fee that was about to be charged to incoming messages, including potential spam. Instead of blocking text messages, the Bell representative signed us up to a text message package at a dollar a day. My wife was very surprised when not only did they run out of time on her prepaid phone but they told her she had a negative balance!

Well, they did that to me too. I tried to have it sorted out in August and a credit was to be attributed to my account (however I assume that like other phone "cards" it expired after 30 days since my phone has since run out of time.) You see, my Visa card number was changed as part of routine security and I hadn't been able to reach anyone at Bell (during my regular work day as is necessary) to give them the new number for the automatic billing. After all, I had a credit anyway, right? Wrong. When they fixed up my account and cancelled the text message plan, they turned around and signed me up for a dollar-a-day talk package.

This is where the double billing was coming in again. The talk package would use up my account in about three weeks, I'd be automatically topped up, then one week later or so, my regular monthly top up would be billed.

So I called to demand an explanation and another credit for the charges incurred on yet another service I did not want or ask for. The first representative wouldn't help me so I asked for a supervisor. Instead, I got the same woman whom I had apparently dealt with in August who now said she was a supervisor and had only been working the phones that other day since they were short staffed. She remembered clearly telling me about the plan but didn't recall me saying I didn't want any plans on my phone other than the monthly $15 top up.

I asked for a transcript of that call. No luck, they don't have them she said. I pointed out that they don't issue bills/receipts for prepaid cell phones either so there's no other record, despite my three years as a customer of Bell Mobility in Nova Scotia and Ontario in which I had never purchased more than the top up to act as a plan on my phone.

She then hung up on me.

There you have it. I know these reps get commission on plans that they sign customers up for, so I suspect that's what's been going on with the fraudulent plans. This is just compounded by Bell's terrible accessibility to billing, support or means of communication regarding one's account. Is there even an ombudsman I can call or are these call centre sheisters my only path to the company?

I didn't immediately call back to have my account closed... well... actually I started to but then discovered that the automatic redirect to customer service I was getting had been switched off and the phone just went dead. Tonight I also noticed that *611 won't work either because there's no money on my phone, which makes me wonder if I actually could call them back if I wanted to, if I decided to make a payment on my phone for example.

However, I figure now I had best keep my account open so that I don't lose my phone number and so that I can use it as leverage to get a better deal from Rogers if I switch over in the coming days.

Honestly, I don't know how likely that will be. While Rogers never messed up my bill to my recollection, I always found their coverage area poor and I don't feel like shelling out more money on a new phone. I don't like the Motorola phones that Rogers sells for their prepaid plans and I can't convert my Bell phone over to Rogers, only the number if lucky.

While I like having a cell phone for emergencies, and while in my opinion it's not out of the question to have a cell phone if you live in a first-world country in 2008... I am utterly dismayed with how difficult and dishonest the business is. Just as I refused to sign up for Bell internet because they are throttling bandwidth, now I find I can't do business with them for cell phones. They are endeavouring to make modest technology impossible for the consumer to enjoy. That's their business model and that's why they're losing customers, myself being the latest.

Autumn in Enniskillin

2008-10-19T16:15:00.005-04:00

We recently visited my cousins across town and ended up taking a trip through the countryside from Whitby to Brooklin and on through to Enniskillin and back to see the changing leaves (and enjoy some ice cream.) I thought I'd post some of them here as a tribute to autumn in Ontario before it got much colder. This past Friday was the first day of the season that I had to scrape frost off my car and so it's obvious that fall will be passing by quickly and cold weather is coming.

The are has a few rolling hills and the fall colours made everything look rustic and vibrant. On of my complaints upon moving up to Mississauga in June has been the complete and utter lack of topography here. It's just a flat expanse with your view periodically blocked by condo towers. There aren't even any real land marks in Mississauga unless you count the Square One mall.

You probably noticed Whitby appearing in a photo that accompanied my election post last weekend. It was taken on this same trip. For those interested, the ridings we drove through were Jim Flaherty's and Bev Oda's, both of whom were re-elected as Conservative members of Parliament.

Brooklin offers some new development in the form of modern town houses and detached bungalows and the prices are a bit lower than those around here, by maybe $50 or 60 thousand. Of course, everything is changing with today's news that GTA prices have already dropped 15% over last year. We're in the market, but don't expect to purchase until the new year when hopefully they'll have dropped more.

Enniskillin, on the otherhand, is in farm country although you'll see some lovely little executive estates mixed in. Driving through, you'll still catch the smell of manure though, which reminded me a bit of my childhood home.

Perhaps some of Howard Dill's legacy (may he rest in peace) has found its way up here also. We noticed a couple of huge pumpkins at one home.

We parked the car and got ice cream, which we then took with us as we walked around the block, so to speak. The road around the General Store in Enniskillin loops around and makes for a nice 15- to 20-minute stroll.

I didn't get too much of a chance to shoot pictures of wildlife as we really only saw this squirrel. It doesn't matter where you are in the city, I guess. The place is overrun with them.

A few more photos before we left, then it was back in the car to arrive home in time for supper.

Over the next few months, I hope we can take more trips to explore the areas on the outskirts of town. We're not planning to settle down in Mississauga but will be on the hunt for a little community that's close enough to commute from, but that I hope offers a bit of peace and quiet like these lovely little hamlets we passed through this day.

Blue tide...

2008-10-15T21:50:00.003-04:00

Well, we're essentially looking at a status quo result for a $300-million dollar election that garnered the lowest voter turnout in history. My numbers were way off, especially since the Bloc won two-thirds of the seats in Quebec when I thought they'd take a deeper hit. For a while I was worried the Bloc might form the official opposition.

I also thought the Liberals would have fared much better, but they didn't. It's going to be a tense year for them now, as they face broke coffers and the need to once again deal with the issue of leadership. Dion is not liable to leave the post easily until his own debt from the leadership convention is paid off. His former challengers have also all been re-elected so they're still in the running, though I still secretly hope for a couple of new names to advance themselves for the job.

Harper missed winning his majority but it's not going to make much of a difference. Just as the last year seemed to go, no one is going to collapse his government for the foreseeable future - unless the Grits get a new leader by spring, and if the economy continues to tank, giving them an opportunity to shake Harper's growing support.

Which way goes the vote?

2008-10-14T20:36:00.003-04:00

It's election night and not long before polls close here in Ontario. I hope you all got out to vote. Even if one doesn't like the choices, I think it's always important to at least show up, and then spoil your ballot with profanity directed toward the worst of them.

This time around I did mark an appropriately crafted "X" on the ticket though. I had my choice made a week ago and now it's a matter of waiting to see how it goes both locally and nationally. While I've never been one for watching sports on the television, a good election night will keep me glued to the set without fail.

I can't predict the outcome with any certainty, but I suspect Harper's going to gain another minority. Despite the losses to manufacturing, there's a big buzz about the tories here in Ontario and that'll likely balance losses expected in Quebec. At the final tally, I'll estimate the break down in seats to be something like:

Conservatives ..... 122
Liberals ................ 101
New Democrats ..... 53
Bloc Quebecois ...... 31
Green ....................... 1

How confident am I in those numbers? Not very. It's anyone's game this time.

UPDATE: It's going to be a Conservative minority, but I'm way off on those numbers.

Recipes? Post 'em here.

2008-10-12T23:01:00.007-04:00

E.A. MacDonald with turkey on the block, 17 October, 1908.

I felt like finding a thematic shot from the National Archives in honour of the holiday. This poor old bird no doubt became the Thanksgiving feast on an Ontario table almost one hundred years ago this week.

Once the above deed's been done, you might be interested in what to do for the next step. Turns out that there's a good collection of stuffing recipes at Stuffing.ca, for anyone looking for ways to round out their meal.

My favourite memories of Thanksgiving were the dinners at my grandparents' place, not with turkey but rather a freshly shot goose -- and the ringing sound from the bowl that served as a spittoon to receive any buckshot that turned up while you were feasting on the bird.

What are your favourite Thanksgiving recipes or memories?

Happy Thanksgiving 2008

2008-10-12T22:04:00.006-04:00

Colonial table setting at MacDonald Farm, New Brunswick.
As times have gotten tough lately, and the news is full of upsets in the markets and the decline of world economies, somehow we've found ourselves stopping almost daily over the last few months, to be grateful for what we have and how things have gone for us.

In 2008, we've so far passed through our first year of marriage, added a new sister-in-law to the family, and we moved across the country in order to break into a larger job market. Overall, we're faring better quantifiably than we were down east. We might be cynical, and generally grumpy most of the time, but we're definitely thankful for the modest living we have, with no shortage of daily reminders that not everyone is so lucky these days.

But I hope that everyone out there also gets a moment's respite from slumping stock markets, sub prime shocks, food safety anxieties, electioneering shenanigans and...

Have a happy Thanksgiving weekend. You deserve it, Canada.