I've been meaning to do a posting about the Garth Turner event the other day, but haven't gotten around to it. While Garth is a good public speaker, I didn't really learn anything at the event that I didn't already know or believe. Yes, Garth believes real estate in Canada is in for a rocky ride, as do I. Yes, we are about to head into a period of asset deflation following by price inflation. I've spent the last six months reading tons of books on investing and retirement, partially because I'm interesting in the subject, and partially because I've been a bit bored and felt like learning something ...

In about ten days, I'll be giving my notice on my apartment out here in Chilliwack. Without a doubt, it's probably the the nicest place I've ever lived in. High ceilings. Crown mouldings. Gas fireplace. Air conditioning. Patio. Hardwood floors. Definitely pretty posh, despite being in the middle of farmland here. I've been asked a few times if it's hard to give this apartment up. Truthfully, not really. Having gone to university for eight years and stayed in university dorms for five of them, you get pretty used to living light and moving in and out of random places. In fact, I remember literally ...

In case you don't know who Garth Turner is, he's a former MP and now financial guru who has been predicting the troubled real estate market for years. Obviously not many people took him seriously a few years ago, but the majority of his predictions have panned out. Tomorrow night Garth is speaking to a sold out audience at the Four Seasons hotel in Vancouver. Since Vancouver is thought to be ground zero for the impending real estate market implosion in Canada, many people are obviously eager to hear him speak. The event was originally planned for around 300 people, but due to popular demand, is ...

I booked my ticket across the pond tonight. In April of 2011 I'll be leaving New York City and heading to Shannon, Ireland aboard Continental airlines. My friend Andy is living near Shannon with his girlfriend right now (she's in med school over there), and I told him recently here in Chilliwack that I'd like to come for a visit. So, now it's official! While I'm not much of a golfer, I'm eager to play a game of golf with Andy in Ireland, for the geography alone. I really haven't seen much of Europe. I spent a week in northern Finland at Nokia a few years ago, and had a brief stop over in Helsinki. ...

I just got back from the dentist. Truthfully, it's been nearly two years since my last visit. Previously I've always had really great health and dental, but since leaving my last job I haven't had anything other than basic MSP. I debated getting a plan at one point, but they were all around $100/mo for anything useful, and most of them had a graduated three-year scale before you received full (i.e. 80%) coverage. So it really didn't make sense financially. But as a result, I've been putting off going, since dropping a few hundred dollars on a cleaning hasn't really excited me. That said, I finally ...

With all the talk of plane tickets on here, I couldn't resist booking a ticket today. I studied spanish for 90 minutes tonight, and then started hunting around for ticket deals. This morning when I looked they were all around $1,400 or so, but I eventually stumbled onto a cheap Continental leg and it became the basis for my trip. I actually had it down to about $1,000 at one point, but the cheap leg sold out before I got a chance to book it. Anyways, I did manage to get a pretty cheap leg, so we're go for launch. My official plan is to leave on January 4th from Vancouver and end up in Buenos Aires. ...

I spent a few minutes checking out flight options this morning, and came up with a bit of an idea. Here's part of the problem. Option 1: Book Second Leg Later Get a return ticket from Vancouver to Buenos Aires, possibly throwing the return ticket away in Buenos Aries and going somewhere else. The cost of that is about $1,500 right now, and then I still have to buy an expensive ticket to somewhere else when the time comes, which will probably be another $1,500. But at least I have a Vancouver ticket already booked in the event I want to come back. Option 2: Use Houston as a Hub Continental flies ...

I got on the scale this morning, and I'm down about 11 pounds since the beginning of summer. I've actually been in a steady decline since the start of the year, mainly because I've been pretty careful about what I'm eating. I've also forced myself to go to the gym a few times a week as well, tossing in the odd yoga class whenever I have some evening time available. My goal is to be down 30 pounds before I leave in January, which would basically put me at the weight I was back when I used to play sports and what not. Still got a ways to go, but with the rain and lack of patio beer-drinking engagements, ...

I'm getting close to the point where I'm thinking about buying my plane ticket. Unfortunately, I'm stuck trying to figure out what type of ticket to buy. It looks like most round trip tickets are only marginally more expensive than a one-way ticket, so it seems stupid to get a one-way ticket, even if I end up tossing the return ticket away. That said, it also seems strange booking a flight for a leg than I really have no idea if I'm going to use or even if I'll want to come back at that point. I also haven't completely decided if I want to come back to BC briefly after the first trip, or simply ...

I was just reading an article about a restaurant in Carolina Beach that no longer tolerates screaming kids inside the restaurant. Obviously it's a bit controversial, at least because they are making their policy public. But I wanted to see what everyone else though. As far as I'm concerned, I have no problem with it at all. I understand that kids will be kids, but if your kid is having a really bad day, then I don't see why everyone else in the restaurant has to have a crappy meal because of it. It's one thing to when a newborn is fussy, because they don't know any better. But I think it's completely ...

I was thinking a few things through yesterday, and came up with a slightly different plan. My last plan was to give my apartment up at the end of December, and then take off in the first few days of January. I'm happy with the January departure date, but not so happy that Christmas would probably involve lots of box packing and moving. So I came up with a plan B. I think I'm going to give my apartment up for the end of November, and be totally homeless at that point. I already asked my dad if it's ok if I use their upstairs bedroom off and on in December, which they said it was. Plus, I'm sure ...

My goal on my trip is to get myself down to a single backpack when I leave. It's obviously going to be a pretty technologically heavy backpack, but it's still going to be pretty light. Most people I know who have traveled say that the amount you enjoy yourself on trips is inversely proportional to the amount of stuff you bring along, and I can totally believe that. That's not to say you can't purchase items when you arrive, because that's what I plan to do. But in terms of what I take along, here's a short list of what I'm planning on taking: 13" Macbook Pro (just got it -- nice and light) Apple ...

I was out with some friends the other day in Stanley Park in Vancouver, and I was briefly considering changing my Twitter profile photo to a shot my friend John took. Rebecca then pointed out that it probably would be good to finally get rid of the PlentyOfFish photo I have had on Twitter for a while. Since I had no idea what she was talking about, I started prying for some more information. Apparently the photo I had put up on Twitter was a watermarked version that I had put on PlentyOfFish a few years ago. I'm not sure how the watermarked copy ended up on my computer, but somehow I managed ...

I just wrote four post-dated rent cheques, one for each month until the new year. After that, I should be officially homeless, at least for a while. I have to give notice on my apartment on October 30th, which would put me out of my place on December 31st. Right now the plan is to take off on the 2nd of January or so, which means I can hang out around here for Christmas and New Years, and then hit the open skies. I haven't had much time to study spanish yet, but I'm going to start blocking the time out in my calendar each week so I'm done all my lessons before I take off. I did one lesson a few ...

I've said it before, but I'm going to say it again: I think the iPhone would be a lot cooler if it had a temperature sensor on it. In terms of technology, all it is a single temperature controlled resistor (called a thermistor), probably worth about 5 cents. But it would be cool to be on a patio and be able to see how hot it is. I also think that if everyone opted in to given this data to a central repository, that it would be possible to increase the accuracy of our existing weather models a great deal. Currently weather models are primed using sparse initial conditions. For example, in Vancouver, ...

You know, I remember being in a pub in Yaletown with my friend Dave the night Obama was elected. The place was absolutely packed, and other than the people who were seated there early, it was standing room only for everyone else. There were TVs all over the place showing what was going on in the states, and everyone was glued to the TV, waiting to see the results. I'm not at all joking when I say this next part -- people cried in the Yaletown Brew Pub when Obama was elected. In Vancouver, Canada, in the heart of one of the most pretentious areas in North America, people cried when the new president ...

The following graph formed the basis for Glenn Beck's video talking about hyperinflation, but I thought I would repost it here. Inflation, by definition, is the expansion of the monetary base in a country. While conventionally most people associate rising prices (as measured by the consumer price index - CPI) as inflation, that's just the symptom of inflation -- the root cause in the expansion of the monetary supply. Most people concede that price increases tend to lag inflation by a year or two. So any inflation of the money supply today probably won't be felt in terms of prices for another year ...

It should be obvious by reading my blog entries over the last few months that I've become interesting in aspects of economics. In an effort to understand the current financial crisis, I've been trying to read as many different viewpoints on the meltdown as well as general economic theories. To that end, I wanted to point out some of the books I've read recently. I'll also give a rating based on what I thought of it. Too Big To Fail - 4/5 This book discusses the meltdown from the viewpoint of the big financial institutions such as AIG and Lehman Brothers. Aftershock - Protect Yourself and Profit ...

Within the United States, there is a strange entity, neither completely public or completely private, that manages the monetary policies of the United States. This entity, The Federal Reserve, has the task of adjusting interest rates, and also attempting to stimulate the economy using various mechanisms such as Quantitative Easing. Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the United States, had this to say about a government influenced monetary system: I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a money aristocracy ...

It's no secret that over the last few decades the economies of North America have changed from ones that favour saving to ones that favour spending. When interest rates were 10%, you could simply leave your money in the bank and watch it grow. Now with inflation rates of around 3% per year (which is typically caused by the government printing more fiat money), your purchasing power will decrease if you leave your money in the bank. That means that most of us are forced to put our savings into the Stock Market Casino and hope that black comes up more often than red. With interest rates hovering ...