Ron Paul, one of the most vocal opponents of the monopoly the Federal reserve has in the United States, has just been appointed to the head of the Federal Reserve oversight committee. He's been denied the position twice before, most likely because he's been itching to audit the Federal Reserve and finally make the Fed accountable. Well, today Ron Paul finally got the job, which is a good thing as far as I'm concerned. Ron's been a long time advocate for abolishing the Federal Reserve completely (he wrote the popular book, "End The Fed"). The Federal Reserve has contributed to the US ...

I received an automated call last week from TD Visa letting me know that my card had been deactivated due to fraud. Of course, there were no unauthorized transactions that I could tell on my VISA, nor has there been any previously when this has happened. In the past few years, I'd say this has probably happened three of four times. Each time it does, I have to head down to the bank and pick up my new card about a week later. It's nice that they are trying to reduce fraud, but not so nice that it causes an inconvenience, first because it takes my main VISA card out of commission, and second because ...

That's a wrap. I just left my old place where I did the final inspection with my landlord. As I blogged about previously, he was a bit flustered when he came by a few weeks ago, probably because he was towing the original owners of the suite along behind him. I had a bit more time to chat with him today, and as I suspected, the owners are a bit hard to deal with. For the most part, he thought the apartment looked really great. The only complaint he had is that the carpets in the second bedroom hadn't been shampooed. I purposefully didn't shampoo those ones because it was just a guest room and ...

I'm really surprised I didn't read more about this today, but I imagine in the coming days more people will have something to say about it. China and Russia announced today that they would only be trading in their respective local currencies for trade between their own countries and abandoning trade settlement with the US dollar. This is big news. Ever since the abandonment of the gold standard, all international trades have historically been settled using the US dollar. This coveted position is known as the US Dollar's Reserve Currency status, and it effectively gives protections for the United ...

So, looks like Ireland is now in a bit of financial trouble. First, we had Greece. Next, we had some trouble in Spain. And now it looks like Ireland might be in for a world of hurt. If we go back a few years we can also find a few more countries in distress. Argentina had its currency nearly collapse in the early 2000s, and Zimbabwe went through a massive period of hyperinflation this last decade. Last night, right before bed, it looked like North Korea just launched a small attack on South Korea - so things aren't looking very good on a global scale. I haven't blogged about finances or the markets ...

I recently caught wind of this video showing a professor scolding nearly 200 students for "cheating" on a university midterm. The problem is, after watching the video, is that I fail to see how this is cheating at all. What appears to have happened is that the university professor, most likely out of laziness in my opinion, generated a midterm exam using a test bank, which is a database of test questions. Since it is likely that these questions were also on many of the previous year's midterm exams, students that studied from old material had a distinct advantage over students who hadn't ...

My landlord just stopped by for a visit. He had emailed me while I was down in Mexico and asked if he could bring some people by today, so I said sure. This morning I did a quick clean to make sure the place was presentable, and then set off to a coffee shop to do some work. Obviously the place wasn't spotless, since I have a bunch of half packed boxes around and have been in the process of packing for the last few weeks. But most of the bedrooms are empty and the living room basically has a huge pile of boxes in the corner. So I was a bit surprised when, upon arriving back home, my landlord ...

The first I heard about the explosion today was on Twitter. A friend of mine made mention that she was glad I wasn't in Mexico anymore as a blast just killed five Canadians staying at a resort down there, as well as two of the hotel staff. I got back home at about 2:30am in the morning on Saturday, so Mexico is still fresh on my mind. At the resort we were at, Dale and I spent quite a bit of time in the lobby sipping coffee and relaxing. At those resorts, the lobby is typically where people check in and out, and often sit around having a smoke or asking questions of the staff. It sounds like ...

I first met Shira Lazar a few years ago at Launch Party Vancouver 2 I believe. Shira was up from Los Angeles to cover the event at the request of a mutual friend, Maura Rodgers. I unfortunately didn't get to talk to Shira too much that night, but have kept in touch with her periodically over email. Shira is a well known Los Angeles media personality, and blogs frequently on CBS News' On The Scene). Shira was nice enough to do a guest entry on my blog during the 2008 Blogathon. That event helped raise raise over $10,000 for the Union Gospel Mission in Vancouver and some of Vancouver's homeless. The ...

It doesn't really come as a big surprise, but Gordon Campbell just stepped down as the premier of British Columbia. Between his handling of the Olympics and the controversy surrounding the harmonized sales tax (HST), a tax he promised not to introduce prior to getting elected, it's no wonder most people are completely dissatisfied with his performance. I suspect the liberal party were hoping that Campbell's announcement of a 15% income tax reduction starting in 2011 would offset the disappointment with the HST, but after his lacklustre televised address the other day, it was probably clear his ...

As yes, it's the subject most guys choose not to talk about. But it's real, and yes, I unfortunately have a bit of one due to shitty genetics. If you're like me and of somewhat European descent you most likely have two eyebrows that like to be together more than they do apart. And that's fine. Don't be sad. First, you're a prime candidate to back Bert and Ernie up on TV. Second, whenever everyone else out there has a cold forehead, you'll be nice and warm. The first part of recovery is admitting there's a problem. From there, here are your options. The Shave This is the course of action most ...

I have a portable hard drive that I'm taking with me on my travels, partially to back up my main laptop from time to time, and partially because it contains a large percentage of my personal movie collection on it. That said, I'm going to try and get a pile of movies on there that I haven't seen yet so I have something when I'm on train rides or in hostels and what-not. So, I'd appreciate it if people can leave a list in the comments of some of their favourite movies, or anything they've seen in the last few years they thought was really awesome. Thanks! ...

It's strange living in my apartment right now. I have half of the place boxed up, and am slowly selling the rest of it off. Even though my bed is still set up, it doesn't really feel like home anymore, so I've been sleeping on my couch in the living room. That couch was one I bought back in 2001 in Ottawa, and we've been through a lot together. When I leave this place it's going to its final resting place at my sister's house, but it's been a comfy companion for the last ten years. My bar stools sold tonight, as did my entertainment unit. In terms of large furniture, that leaves my bedroom suite, ...

I went looking tonight to find out what the new 7 Wonders of the World were. I remember as a kid hearing that phrase a few times, and I thought there would be some straightforward list somewhere that simply listed them off in order. Unfortunately I've now come to the realization that there are many different variants of the list, all of which were undoubtedly influenced by different countries trying to be on the list such that their tourism industries would benefit. In fact, if you browse through the Wikipedia entries for Wonders Of The World, you'll find around six or seven different variants, ...

I haven't purchased anything new for myself to wear in probably a full year at this point. Unfortunately for me, that means most things in my wardrobe are starting to look pretty ratty. In fact, I was wearing a shirt the other day and noticed at the end of the day that there was a big hole in it that didn't used to be there. Yes it's true, I'm that awesome. I was telling Dale the other day that I'm probably about two shirts away from seriously having to consider wearing a garbage bag for the day. So, definitely time to go out and buy a few new things. Unfortunately, I don't really want to buy ...

I didn't see it live, but I read the highlights, and it's pretty much exactly what I thought it would sound like. Whenever I see Gordon Campbell talk, I can't help me feel that he's talking down to everyone, and that's the perception I was left with after reading his speech. First, he apologized for not giving the province a heads up about the HST, but Ottawa didn't give him enough time. If that doesn't sound like the biggest copout ever, I don't know what would. Even if that's true, you gotta wonder about any deal that's shoved down your throat with a ticking stopwatch attached to it. Second, ...

I haven't stepped on a scale in about a month, but without a doubt I have been continuing to slowly shrink. I know this because the current belt I use to hold my pants up has five holes, and I've gone from the hole at the far side down to the hole at the other side. In about a week I don't think this belt is going to do the job anymore, at which point I'll probably buy a new one. I've been meaning to go to the gym quite frequently this last month, but just haven't really had the motivation for a few weeks now. Hopefully this weekend I'll get back into my normal routine and start going back. I ...

I haven't blogged about my upcoming trip in a while, so I thought I'd do a quick update. I have one room officially boxed up, and the living room is mostly packed as well. The next big chore is to go through all my old clothes and get rid of anything I no longer wear. After that, I can box up what's left of the bedroom, and then start working on the kitchen. Truthfully, it probably wouldn't take me too much longer to get the rest all boxed up, but at this point if I go too much further it's not going to be very exciting living in my apartment anymore. I sold my TV a while ago to someone who was ...

Almost ten years ago, I started playing around with some microprocessor hobby kits at home. At the time they main ones were called STAMPS and you programmed them with BASIC. You could make them run motors, measure temperature, pretty much whatever you wanted them to do. A few weeks ago I ran into my friend John, and he was telling me about a similar thing called the Arduino. It's basically a small little microprocessor kit that has basic inputs and outputs that you can use to do arbitrary things. Given that I'm an electrical engineer by education and that I haven't really done anything electrical ...

About a year ago I reverted this site to a simple theme, mainly because I haven't been entirely sure what to do with it. I set out about six weeks ago to do a refresh of this site that would cater to some of my upcoming travel adventures. As I got about half way on it, I realized it probably would make more sense to do a dedicated travel site catering to people who want to explore world travel and also for traveling techies like my self to get more information about some of the places I've visited. So, that's what I ended up doing. My new site is called The Migratory Nerd, and is at themigratorynerd.com. ...