warning ticket

i got a warning ticket for parking at an expired meter in downtown. this is the first time it happens, i was hoping it's a change in the way the city handles parking violations, but then i got 2 more parking tickets the days to follow, both issued by the same officer, the sequence number shows 23 tickets difference between the first and the second one in less than 24 hrs. so for an officer giving roughly 25 tickets/day each at an average of $40, the officer collects for the city a $1000/day.

you snooze you lose

i recently read that google was actually yahoo's baby, and that yahoo fails to recognize the advertising model potential combined with the search. also yahoo fails to act promptly on many other deals that were within reach like facebook and youtube. so i guess before the end of the year, yahoo could be just another department of microsoft.

3.5 hrs to change spark plugs!

i took my car to the canadian tires shop last week, it had started to vibrate suddenly earlier in the day. Although the checkup did not take more than few minutes, the shop charged a 1 hr labor to hock the car to the computer thing to know what is wrong. they said one of the plugs backfired and the car need new spark plugs, in addition they recommended changing the wires and some valve ..etc. the bill is close to $1000!!
they are changing 3.5 hrs of labour for the spark plugs change! they say the engine is mounted in a way that 3 of the plugs are hidden behind the engine and it will be impossible to change without removing things in the way. it's always suspecious to hear this kind of crap coming out of a mechanic shop. i had no other options, it was near the end of the day, so i asked them to change oil and rotate tires and i schedule the tune up for the coming saturday (last saturday). I returned back on saturday morning, cancelled the appointment, bought a set of tools and sockets, spark plugs and headed back home. waitted for the car to cool and then changed the plugs in my drive way in about 2 hrs.
if you search and browse online, you would know that changing spark plugs for toyota sienna is one kind of job that no one wants to deal with, it's a major pain and time consuming job. next time it's going to take me less than an hour to do the job, that is for sure. And finally to the shop who quoted me 3.5 hrs to do it, thank you, your high qoute forced me to buy the tool set i always wanted and need to do all my car repairs going forward. the tool set was on sale too which is another bonus :)

bank tellers

i called the bank to ask why i cann't do a transaction online between my accounts, after being routed through 3 tellers and agents and officers, the asnwer was "no you can't do this online, you should come to the branch to do it". WHAT!!! that is just stubid. and check this too, when i asked why i don't see my account information like rate on the portal, the "teller" said "well sir, you don't people seeing your information online, this is for your protection". what protection and what information. the bank is asking me for 3 passwords before logging me in, and then for my protection, they hide my interest rate on the account?!! isn't this retarded or what.

just heard this..

check it out: you put 110% hardwork and luck will give you 20% more, but you put 90% hardwork and luck will take off 20%

to fence or not to fence?!

so we are finding ourselves with no other choice but to build a fence around the house to make sure dogs don't use our place as their peeing corner. i watched the weekend all neighbours enjoying the sun walking their dogs and i could see that none of them really cares where their dog does it's business, the dogs are on a leach as long as the leach can go. I checked the local home depot for pet deterrent and found some chemical that is said to deter the pets for a month. i am waiting for the spring to use that and see if it works. I think what i am against is not the dogs but their owners ignorance and assumption that everybody should love their pets, and we all should put with their pet s!%&. come on!

no dogs or no neighbours

dogs are peeing on our lawn and front door, these are not stray dogs. dog owners do nothing and assume this is normal. with this year snow all over the place, it's becoming easy to see the size of the problem. yellow all around the house. yesterday i watched as the neighbour was walking his dog in front of our house and right in my front door, his dog made the call. the two were gone by the time i got my shoes on. i got out and waited for the couple, and then called in "good morning neighbour!", he noded his head, and i said "can you please don't let your dog pee on our front door again", he said "he didn't", i said "i was just watching you and him from my the window, he did it right here", he said: "it was just a pee", i said: "yes it is, DON'T LET HIM DO THAT HERE AGAIN", the neighbour paused for about 4 seconds, he appear to not like what he just heard, he said "ok" and just kept on going without apologizing or just saying sorry. as he walked away, i called in back at him "THANK YOU .. NEIGHBOUR!"

spring is coming

we had a couple hours of sun today which was great. the snow still piled high. I got to go to the library return some books and check out some magazines.

parking tickets tripled starting today :(

here you have it, Toronto city decided to triple the parking tickets starting today. that is ridiculous and unacceptable to say the least. on top of all what they already collect in property, income and other taxes, where does all this money go? i don't see any improvement in service to justify the increase, except perhaps for the brand new fleet of cars they bought for their ticketing officers. people need to stand up against this non-sense, otherwise it will just keep going up.

TGIF

TGIF indeed. i'm off today and love it. just had breakfast and drinking coffee as i'm writing these lines. i got so many things to do; the usual chores and followups. it's a beautiful day, the tempreture is going to be 5 today, so that's a break from last week freeze and snow. hopefully we get some sun too. i'll write more later, chao.