Sunday March 17, 12:15 p.m.
St. Patrick's Day again....or Don't-You-Dare-Drive-In-Downtown-Toronto Day. Because of the annual parade and the fact that one major long segment of the TTC is out of commission, driving downtown must be a huge migraine....even more than usual. A couple of my old friends who used to love putzing about in their cars have basically had their love leached out from them due to the horrors of navigating badly-maintained streets, chronic construction, few and pricey parking lots and incompetent drivers. Ah, and we do have those Pan Am Games in a couple of years, right?
Having the windows open in a number of the rooms here just to clear all the stale stuff out. My brother's family is popping over for dinner tonight, so I don't want my niece making any remarks since kids are very straightforward about their opinions.
Met up with The Egg and his wife for lunch out in North York yesterday. We went to the local branch of Asian Legend, one of the popular Chinese food franchises. The Anime King and I often head out to the branch near his place where we usually just nosh on some soy milk soup and perhaps some potstickers. But I was kinda surprised that we all went a bit wild on the quantity of our choices. The Egg and I were champion eaters in our day, and I can still surprise even myself at times but, I think our best days are well behind us now.
I've sorted out my tax stuff so that I can hand over the numbers to my brother since he's got some whiz-bang software. If I were still in Japan, I would've done this a month ago since the due date is actually right now there for returns. Aside from the kanji, it was never all that bad filling out the forms.
The Leafs lost another heartbreaker to the Winnipeg Jets in a shootout. But the news media isn't exactly getting too upset since losing teams in a shootout still earn a point. But that's 5 in a row for the Buds, and so I'm just wondering if recent history is gonna repeat itself, and the players will have to don disguises when they go shopping locally. In any case, I have a feeling that they're probably gonna make the playoffs by the skin of their noses.
I guess the other big news here is this looming pachyderm known as the Big Casino Debate. The casino conglomerates have been courting Toronto like really desperate bachelors, and Mayor Rob Ford has been more than happy to show them inside the house. Meanwhile, a lot of us are not feeling too good about having a bit of Las Vegas (or as my old high school History teacher used to say it, Lost Wages) or Detroit/Windsor/Vancouver/Niagara Falls plunked down in downtown. Sure, jobs may increase but at best, I think it would be a Faustian victory. There was a job fair for jobs that don't yet exist for this casino that doesn't yet exist yesterday somewhere which struck me as somewhat odd. And as it turned out, the turnout was indeed sparse and the so-called job fair was really a badly-disguised group of lobbyists trying to show the merits of having a casino. Supposedly, some of the officials who did come on out were caught off-guard themselves when confronted with the question about this "job fair". The pro-casino side is having a tough enough time of trying to convince a very skeptical city, so false advertising on this level isn't exactly going to help their cause.
Showing posts with label Economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Economy. Show all posts
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Monday, February 4, 2013
Goodbye, Penny
I've noticed that someone has been looking at my March 30 article (under the same Labels) for the retirement of the Canadian Penny. Wow! I didn't realize it's been almost a year since the government made the momentous announcement about the enforced disappearance of the copper coin. Well, the day has arrived. From today, the 1-cent coin is officially done (1908-2013).
Since I've been pretty good about paying exact change for just about everything for the past several years, I haven't had too much in the way of loose change, so this morning, when I checked, I only had four pennies left in my coin cup. So, they have now been put into the desk drawer for posterity. Basically, when we Canucks head off to the stores, the new rule is that the price will be rounded up or down, and that the lowest coin to be accepted is the nickel. But that all depends on the customer/cashier. If the customer puts up a fight about it, I think the cashier will most likely take pennies still.
Strangely enough, though, the 1-yen coin is still very much in circulation, despite the fact that it feels lighter than a TTC token and seems to be made by very malleable aluminium. And 1 yen certainly doesn't buy anything at all. Maybe it might be time for PM Abe to start thinking about that for his Abenomics plan.
Friday, October 5, 2012
Feeling Flush
Friday October 5, 1:33 p.m.
It's been a pretty good few days....no work but free time to decompress a bit after a busy translating September and 3 days of teaching. Met up with the translation boss last night at the usual place for an hour of powwow about Trados, my progress (such as it is), and the translation industry as is. I'm grateful that the boss has been as patient and encouraging as he has been; it's been a humbling road thus far. But he has reassured me that I'm at the level that everyone on staff has expected me to be at as a novice translator. He then gave some further advice and my Trados disc....plus the biggest paycheque I've seen in many, many years from the culmination of the projects I've done over the past couple of months. It was quite the pleasure to deposit that sucker into the account this morning.
Haven't heard anything from the boss so far today although he had told me last night that there could be some work coming in. I will be getting a morning assignment on Tuesday at the school; I'll be getting a bigger paycheque than usual from the school because of my 3 days there last week. Might be time to check out some CDs on Amazon.
It's been a pretty good few days....no work but free time to decompress a bit after a busy translating September and 3 days of teaching. Met up with the translation boss last night at the usual place for an hour of powwow about Trados, my progress (such as it is), and the translation industry as is. I'm grateful that the boss has been as patient and encouraging as he has been; it's been a humbling road thus far. But he has reassured me that I'm at the level that everyone on staff has expected me to be at as a novice translator. He then gave some further advice and my Trados disc....plus the biggest paycheque I've seen in many, many years from the culmination of the projects I've done over the past couple of months. It was quite the pleasure to deposit that sucker into the account this morning.
Haven't heard anything from the boss so far today although he had told me last night that there could be some work coming in. I will be getting a morning assignment on Tuesday at the school; I'll be getting a bigger paycheque than usual from the school because of my 3 days there last week. Might be time to check out some CDs on Amazon.
Friday, August 10, 2012
They're Back!
Friday August 10, 9:52 a.m.
My parents are back from their little Las Vegas fun with their buddies. So I get to hear the sounds of bickering once more. It was rather nice to have the apartment for my own for a few days at least....although I didn't quite need all of the food that Mom made sure I had access to. Y'know, I actually did a fair job of cooking during my 17 years living in Japan.
As for how my parents described Sin City, there is no reason for me ever to head over to that tourist trap. I have zilch interest in gambling, I was never a guy who went for shows or musicals, I can get my buffets here, and I have a certain aversion to paying $18 for a bowl of udon. They told me that there was still a ton of Japanese tourists scouring the place, though. For me, I'll be happy to see Lost Wages (my old high school history teacher liked to describe the city that way) through "Ocean's Eleven" or the occasional rerun of "CSI".
Unlike the 40-degree weather over there, it's been a very un-summer-like week here in Toronto. Or I should say that it's been a ferociously normal summer....the high temperature has only been hovering around 25. Believe me, there are probably millions of Japanese who would apply for permanent residency here if they could, considering the Hell-like conditions in their country. And considering all of the political turmoil in The Diet and the rising consumption tax from 5 to 10 percent, some of them may just do so....mind you, our HST is 13%, so we Canadians can be forgiven if we giggle a bit and say, "Quit your whining!" But all joking aside, it is scary to witness a tax rate skyrocketing to two times the original within 2 years.
My weekend will be a full one. I head out to see The Dancer's performance tomorrow at the Toronto Buddhist Temple and then there is CG's BBQ out in the wilds of Mississauga. He asked if I could bring an appetizer but when I offered to bring munchies instead (my culinary talents supply palatable stuff just for me), he said that his family had plenty of those and that I should just bring myself. Ain't happening....I never go to a person's house empty-handed. Just wouldn't be kosher. I'll have to find something around Union Station to bring over before I jump onto the Go Train. Problem is that The St. Lawrence Market is closed on Sundays.
My parents are back from their little Las Vegas fun with their buddies. So I get to hear the sounds of bickering once more. It was rather nice to have the apartment for my own for a few days at least....although I didn't quite need all of the food that Mom made sure I had access to. Y'know, I actually did a fair job of cooking during my 17 years living in Japan.
As for how my parents described Sin City, there is no reason for me ever to head over to that tourist trap. I have zilch interest in gambling, I was never a guy who went for shows or musicals, I can get my buffets here, and I have a certain aversion to paying $18 for a bowl of udon. They told me that there was still a ton of Japanese tourists scouring the place, though. For me, I'll be happy to see Lost Wages (my old high school history teacher liked to describe the city that way) through "Ocean's Eleven" or the occasional rerun of "CSI".
Unlike the 40-degree weather over there, it's been a very un-summer-like week here in Toronto. Or I should say that it's been a ferociously normal summer....the high temperature has only been hovering around 25. Believe me, there are probably millions of Japanese who would apply for permanent residency here if they could, considering the Hell-like conditions in their country. And considering all of the political turmoil in The Diet and the rising consumption tax from 5 to 10 percent, some of them may just do so....mind you, our HST is 13%, so we Canadians can be forgiven if we giggle a bit and say, "Quit your whining!" But all joking aside, it is scary to witness a tax rate skyrocketing to two times the original within 2 years.
My weekend will be a full one. I head out to see The Dancer's performance tomorrow at the Toronto Buddhist Temple and then there is CG's BBQ out in the wilds of Mississauga. He asked if I could bring an appetizer but when I offered to bring munchies instead (my culinary talents supply palatable stuff just for me), he said that his family had plenty of those and that I should just bring myself. Ain't happening....I never go to a person's house empty-handed. Just wouldn't be kosher. I'll have to find something around Union Station to bring over before I jump onto the Go Train. Problem is that The St. Lawrence Market is closed on Sundays.
Friday, March 30, 2012
A Penny...no, A Nickel for Your Thoughts?
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| courtesy of Roger Cullman of Flickr |
Yes, usually that would be cited as one of Sheldon Cooper's catchphrases along with "Bazinga"on "The Big Bang Theory". It will also most likely be something that every Canadian may be saying from Fall 2012 onwards. The news came out that the copper-coloured coin will no longer be made by the Canadian Mint because it costs over 50% more than it's worth. Stopping its production will save Canada $11 million a year supposedly. Not that it will be greatly missed since most people hate to scrounge for pennies that won't buy anything at all these days. By that token (no pun intended), the nickel ought to be shivering in its silver-coloured boots as well.
But it will be interesting what life will be like between vendor and vendee once a penny-less (again, no pun intended) Canada begins. What is left, and there will be a lot of used pennies moving around for a while yet, will get dirtier and dirtier or they will get thrown into a lot of wishing wells and fountains. But what's more, when that time comes when either vendor or vendee doesn't have any of the coppers, then it will be time for the Great Canadian Round-Up. Or Round-Down. It'll be like the commercial version of Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock!
In my localized world, I'll have to start warning any former students from Japan who ever plan to visit Toronto that there will be no pennies to make change with. They should start saving them so that they can tell their grandkids someday that there used to be orange-coloured coins in Canada.
I guess I ought to be looking for the oldest-minted penny I have and wrap it up...in my 500-yen bill that I have somewhere in my room. The 500-yen bill was long abandoned for the coin version.
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