Ode to the Olympics…

O’Canada hip hop style

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SmSqaKsW98

O’Canada traditional CBC version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0jhJA1Hjxk

and now with some swagger…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRI-A3vakVg

I AM CANADIAN!!!

My weekend thus far

This has been an interesting weekend for me so far, half-way through Sunday.

On Friday night we had Shabbat dinner here at the house with my mother and sister.  When they arrived there happened to be a stranger in the living room taking pictures of my kids – mainly the baby.  This place takes a bunch of pictures for free then tries to sell them to you.  I like the concept since it’s such a pain in the ass to book photo shoots for the kids and usually are very far away.  I hope they turn out.

After dinner my sister helped me prepare the T4 and T4 summary for our previous nanny.  Actually she did it while I slept on the couch.  We watched the 1st period of the Men’s Olympic semi-final game between the Slovaks and Canada.  I nodded off at 3-0 Canada.  They won 3-2.  Whew.

Saturday saw skating first thing in the am, well, skating for the oldest boy, the youngest spent most of the time laying on the ice having a meltdown.  I think he needs new skates with more ankle support. 

Both boys got their skating progress report cards.  Neither had been on the ice prior to the start of this program about 2 months ago so I not surprised to see Linus did well but Stewie… Not so well at all.  Oh well. 

After skating I dropped Stewie off at my mothers and Linus off at my in-laws and my wife and I took the baby and headed downtown to walk around.  It was a lot of fun!  She went into the bead stores and the baby and I walked around the streets looking at stores and a lot of weirdos.  LOL. 

I did, however, make a HUGE mistake and walked into the Second Cup… UGH.  I was hungry so I bought a morning glory muffin (ugh) and a really gross double Americano.  Had I walked another block west I would have found the Tim Horton’s.  At least the second cup had a change table in the woman’s bathroom where I could change the baby explosion (poo).  It was everywhere!

We strolled over to Chinatown for some dim sum (in the rain of course) and headed home to gather the other kids in time for bed.

Needless to say all of us passed out early, but I woke up to hang the laundry and could not get back to sleep.  Too much on my mind.  I finally dozed off at 3:30am.  I was up at 5:30am to help burp the baby and 7am with the boys, but managed to get them to hang out in the bed with my until 7:30am. 

We skipped karate and instead went to a Purim Party at the Temple where my son goes to nursery school.  Knew a ton of people there and had a blast.   The highlight for me was tossing a football through a hole 3 times while others tried dozens of times without success.  Each person who failed grumbled that the hole was too small.  Giggle.

So now the kids are bathing and soon we’re off to watch the Olympic Gold medal hockey game between Canada and the USA.  For some strange reason Linus is voting for Team USA.  Hope he’s doing that just to bug me.  Sure, team USA was put together by Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke and coached my TML head coach Ron Wilson, but come on, Linus!  Go Canada Go! 

 Did you know that the most ever gold medal won by a country in one winter olympics is 13.  Guess how many Canada has right now?  Yup.  13.  So if we win the hockey game we set a record.  No pressure, eh?  I may not be able to watch the game.  I don’t want to be disappointed.

Conan O’Brien Tweets

I have to admit, I never liked Conan O’Brien.  Didn’t find him funny.  Don’t like his hair.  Nothing about him.  Heck, I don’t even know how to spell his last name.  I kept adding an “a” instead of an “e” in his last name.   He was not even on my radar… Unit he got screwed by NBC.  Now I feel for the guy.  

So as a twit myself – as in someone who is on twitter in order to post stupid meaningless comments to a bunch of strangers – I was intrigued by the fact that Conan is now on twitter too. 

I actually do not understand the point of Twitter, maybe because I don’t have many friends on it, or really have conversations, but I think with the number of celebs who have publically dumped their twitter accounts – read: stupid professional athletes too – Conan could save Twitter from the same fate as ICQ. 

Here is the story. 

On Wednesday, Conan broke his silence through what is currently one of the most popular mediums for celebrities: Twitter. ”Today I interviewed a squirrel in my backyard and then threw to commercial,” he tweeted. “Somebody help me.” With just one tweet and less than 24 hours since signing up for the social-networking site, O’Brien has already gained over 235,000 followers. 

At the beginning of the year, O’Brien and his longtime employer NBC were involved in a much publicized dispute over the future of The Tonight Show, after receiving low ratings due to a failed experiment that involved moving previous “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno to a 10 pm time slot and letting O’Brien host the show, NBC proposed to push Leno’s new show to 11:30 and bump O’Brien’s “Tonight Show” back to 12:05 am.  Believing that a time slot shift would “seriously damage” what Conan called “the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting,” O’Brien chose to walk away from the network with a $33 million settlement deal. 

The comedian sardonically joked about the ordeal in the “Bio” section of his Twitter profile: “I had a show. Then I had a different show. Now I have a Twitter account.” 

Conan chose to create a Twitter account just days before Jay Leno will resume hosting “The Tonight Show” on Monday, March 1. And judging from the traffic on his Twitter, it’s clear that his army of dedicated fans still care what the comedian has to say. 

This is the biggest screw job since Vince McMahon screwed then WWF champion Bret “Hitman” Hart in Montreal by giving the world title to Shawn Michaels. 

I’m just saying…  I’m going to add him…

A Tale of Transit Woes in Two Large Metropolitan Cities

I found the following very interesting.  Today there are two stories around the same topic – public transportation and reducing costs of it, and the actions taken to correct it are at opposite ends of the spectrum.  The pathetic Canadian response refuses to touch the fact that the TTC holds the city hostage with their extremely high salaries, poor customer service, questionable work ethic and the ability to strike at a moments notice.  The MTA in New York also in debt offers up a solution right up front… Read on.  

Toronto – A Toronto Member of Provincial Parliament’s bid to have the TTC designated an essential service is being derailed by the Liberal government because Toronto’s City Hall refuses to ask the province to outlaw transit strikes.

Liberal member David Caplan (Don Valley West – Toronto) introduced private member’s legislation Monday that would strip Toronto Transit Commission workers of the right to strike.

While the MPP’s bill passed first reading by a vote of 39 to 7 – with the unanimous support of Progressive Conservative (right wing) and Liberal (centre) members, including six cabinet ministers, and the New Democrats (left-wing, union / welfare loving party) dissenting – the government intends to quash it.

The bill “does not reflect the government’s position,” Liberal Transportation Minister Kathleen Wynne told reporters.

“The municipality (Toronto) would have to ask for that action and that has not happened,” said Wynne, adding “costs can increase” because arbitrated deals are often more costly.

Caplan, a former cabinet minister, said arbitration is already the norm because strikers are routinely legislated back to work as soon as they hit the bricks.

“There is significant dissatisfaction with the service on the TTC … the unreliability and the work disruptions that I have seen. People will not ride a system which is not reliable,” he said.

Deriding the bill as “a pathetic political ploy,” TTC union president Bob Kinnear, who engineered a wildcat strike in 2006 and a legal stoppage in 2008, blamed those disruptions on Queen’s Park failing to adequately fund transit.

TTC chair Adam Giambrone (Toronto council member with a reputation from promiscuity) warned “this piece of legislation could end up costing tens of millions to the city and the province wouldn’t pay anything.”

While (Toronto’s left-wing commi-pinko) Mayor David Miller supports the status quo, the two leading contenders to succeed him in October welcomed Caplan’s bill.

“Concern about the cost of arbitrated wage settlements aside, (it) reflects an appropriate source of concern about the cost of TTC service disruptions to the city and commuters,” Mayoral candidate and former Liberal cabinet minister, George Smitherman said in a statement.

Former Liberal strategist and mayoral candidate Rocco Rossi said the bill “shows there is clearly a larger role the province can play fixing the TTC.”

Among Toronto city councillors (the majority of whom are left-wing) in 2008 rejected by one vote a motion to ask the province to make TTC workers an essential service, opinions remained split on Monday.

While in New York…

New York -  The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) will try to clean up some red ink by handing out pink slips to more than 1,000 employees.

MTA Chairman Jay Walder says the layoffs are extremely painful but the agency must live within its means.

“The State’s economic crisis demands that the MTA move quickly and decisively to cut costs, and that is exactly what we are doing,” Walder said.

The MTA plans to eliminate more than 600 administrative positions and it will begin laying off up to 500 transit station agents.

The MTA said in December it was facing a $383 million budget gap. It’s due largely to a cut in state aid and lower-than-expected revenues from a payroll tax.  On Tuesday, they announced another $378 million gap which had developed this year based on revised state revenue projections.

The MTA said management employees whose jobs are cut will be offered a severance package.

“This is just the beginning of a comprehensive overhaul of how the MTA does business,” Walder said. “We will be reducing overtime, consolidating redundant functions and working with suppliers to lower costs. We will not stop until I can say that every dollar the MTA receives is spent wisely.”

What a novel concept.

I want the MTA running the TTC… Right away.  Screw the mandatory unionized wage increases and the fare increases.

Now I Get It… BONER!!!

My ears perked up upon hearing that a former “star” from the TV sitcom Growing Pains had gone missing. I thought (hoped) it was the yucky kid brother before Brian Bonsell came on to the show – to Kirk Cameron and Tracy Gold, but it turns out I was wrong.

In fact it was Boner!  Remember that guy?!?

Vancouver police continue to work the case of missing “actor” Andrew Koenig – aka Boner - and are holding out hope he will be found safe but said there’s been no activity on Koenig’s cell phone or bank account since he was last seen in south Vancouver on February 16th.

Koenig, 41, who played Boner on the late-’80s sitcom Growing Pains, was reported missing after failing to return home to Venice, Calif., on schedule from his trip to Canada.

Koenig’s father said he began to worry about his son after receiving a note from him Feb. 16 in which he sounded “despondent.”

Despondent?!?  Imagine going through life being known as Boner.  Geez.  I think his character’s real name was Richard Stabone.  sound familiar?  Can anyone verify?

PS.  Vancouver police…

You need dogs. 

If you want to find a “bone” you need a dog.

OR…

If you’re looking for a “boner”, check out a porn site.  LOL.

But I do hope they find him.

Justin Bieber

Who or what the fuck is a Justin Bieber?

I heard a song on the radio and thought it was a pre-pubescent girl.  Good thing the announcer said it was this Justin-thing.  It irks me to hear children singing about love and relationships.

All along I thought Justin Bieber was just a link to a gay teen porn site…

I learned something new today.

Shuffled off to Buffalo

Ahh, Buffalo.  I’ve heard so much about you… Fires, snow, dirt, dilapidated, boring. 

Sure I have driven through Buffalo on my way to New York city, even stayed in Grand Island as a kid, but as an adult I have never had the opportunity to spend time there… Until this past long weekend, and I can tell you none of the above are true.

I found Buffalo to be relatively clean, the people friendly (not the drivers!  They are angry, and aggressive and I think flipping the middle finger out is a requirement for learning to drive there), sure there was snow but the streets were salted / sanded and clean (pay attention City of Toronto!) and yes there were parts of the city which should be bulldozed because boarded up buildings are an eyesore and grass should be put down so people can play.

But all in all, we had a wonderful time there – my wife, myself and our 3 kids, ages 5, 3 and 3 months.

Here are some of the highlights;

• This was out first family driving trip with the 5 of us.  We have a 2009 Toyota Highlander Hybrid and squeezing 3 kids across in the middle row was challenging since we have a car seat installed, and a bucket seat installed, with my oldest squeezing his booster seat into the middle.  That part was the most frustrating!
• Stupidly we left our house at 3:30pm on a friday – so rush hour in TO, and ended up stopping in Winona at 5:30pm because the boys had to pee (RIGHT NOW!).  We went into this tiny boutique after peeing in the stone parking lot beside the car, and bought a packet of pumpkin seeds while my wife fed the baby.
• At 6pm we stopped again for “dinner”.  That meant Tim Horton’s Wendy’s and KFC.
• Crossed the border at had the border guard snicker at me when he asked me where we were going.  “Buffalo”, I said.  “Why?” he asked.  “Sightseeing”, I replied.  Then he snickered.
• 8pm we entered the Homewood Suites in Buffalo.  Really, really nice!  Staff were awesome friendly, there was coffee always on, and it was really clean and quiet.  The breakfasts were a little on the say, greasy and unhealthy side, but there was variety for everyone.
• We dropped our goods and headed over to Wegman’s Grocery… Odd place… Lots of organic foods, way too much prepared food (means lots of sodium), very little produce!, 3 aisles of soda, 3 aisles of alcohol and you can buy a “ton of chocolate for $7.77″.  Why?!?
• By 9pm the kids were on the bed in their sleeping bags (it’s what they wanted) – and remember their bedtime is 7-7:15pm at home.  So by 9:05 they were fighting.  Back to sleep at 9:45, fighting at 9:50.  By 10pm, my wife was sleeping between them… Within seconds my 3 year old was out cold.  We got the baby to sleep at 10:15. 
• We watched the Olympic opening ceremonies and were asleep by 11pm.
• We woke up and headed to the Buffalo aquarium.  It was fantastic!  Spent a lot of time there and could have stayed longer. 
• Had a hard time getting lunch for the boys…  The Denny’s didn’t have enough staff and the manager was not there.  Idiot… On a long weekend!
• Target, hotel, outlet mall, bath for all three and bed
• Woke up Sunday – Valentine’s Day.  Went to the Galleria mall.  Kids bought mummy chocolates.  She loves dark chocolate with orange.  She got way more than she could ever want.  Realized you can but 10 Lindt chocolate bars for $12… Why?!?
• Found some high-end stores clearing out trendy baby clothes, like cool sweaters which were $65, selling for $12.   Also in every store we entered, my 5-year-old would find money.  He left with $26 cents after the afternoon, most found near the cash.  LOL.  Bought a Paderna bracelet for my honey for V-day at the Paderna store.
• Found that a Tim Horton’s Large double, double in the US is WAY bigger than the large double double here.  The XL there is massive.  Why?!?
• Monday – drove to this tiny little town, East Aurora, I believe to this kids museum and should have come there earlier.  There was a lot for the kids to do there. 
• On the way home we stupidly let the GPS take us to the bridge and it took us to the last bridge and the 2 hour wait.  After 2 plus hours, we were 6 cars from the border when some asshole hit us from behind.  He got out and said, “I didn’t do it”.  He woke up all 3 kids and gave us quiet a scare.  The car beside us rolled down their window to tell us that he did hit us (seriously folks, it was bumper to bumper for 2 miles.  There was only one car that could have hit us and it was the guy beside us.  I told the border guard hoping he would detain them.
• Crossed, pee’d, drove home.
• Arrived back home at 1am.
• Went to work the next day.

Can’t wait for a summer driving trip!

Thursday Thirteen

It came to me last night during a conversation with a friend that a lot of people may not know much about me other than the tidbits I choose to share.

Case in point… This friend thought I was “left wing” (shudder). 

I tried explaining my views.  Then I thought about the image I have been portraying through my posts.

So I thought this Thursday Thirteen could discuss a little about me.

1) I’m right-wing conservative.  Always have been, always will be.  Not radical / extremist as I hate extremists.  They ruin everything.  I’m for big business and capitalism.  I believe that people have choices to make in their lives and they should live by those choices.  If you decide to skip school as a kid and not graduate then you stand a much greater chance of being a drain on the system.  Your choice.  Don’t make me pay more for your welfare because you thought smoking up and drinking were more important than school.  I chose to trudge through school and fight and claw to 2 other degrees, graduate and post-graduate.  I don’t need, nor do I want the government to prop me up.

2) I am environmental to the core.  Don’t like pollution, waste or what is happening to the planet.  I’ll hold “garbage” which can be recycled with me until I can.  I feel bad for birds covered in oil from toxic spills and I have boycotted companies for polluting.  Geez. I drive a hybrid.

3) I love sports.  Prefer playing them, but like watching them too.  Hockey, Baseball, basketball and lacrosse.  Love them all.  Also fiercely patriotic, so that ties in sports-wise. 

4) A good time to me involves my family.  If I’m doing something I want them with me. 

5) I have never taken or been offered drugs and in a sheltered sort of way I judge people who do.  Sorry.  I just do.

6) I’m ok with my lack of hair but my expanding physique really bugs me to the point that the stress causes me to eat.  Stupid, eh?  Nothing relaxes me more than a great sweaty workout.  I recently hired a personal trainer to help me get through this difficult issue I have with my body.

7) I hate conflict.  But if I have to  will fight to win in the most ruthless manner.  My morals go out the window if I’ve been wronged.

8) I love loud aggressive music.  Saliva, STP, Marilyn Manson, Nirvana, Disturbed, Theory of a Deadman… The louder the better.  But I cannot listen to anything that sounds like my kids banging on pots and pans, nor rap.  That shit makes me sick.  And no, rap and that horrible lip syncing stuff is not music.  Real music dies when sampling begins.

9) I am educated and continue to expand my knowledge on a daily basis.  Looking at courses right now.

10) I love gardening.  Love it!  Also like painting (houses, but not the taping part), enjoyed running (until injured).

11) Hate stupidity.  My patience over the years has declined and while I can still hold back I try. 

12) I have a wicked temper.  I seem to have less and less control of it when it comes to the stupidity of others.  I believe it is called speaking up.

13) I am a blogger.  As I approach 500 posts on this blog and as I try to re-brand my professional tax blog I have come to the conclusion that I enjoy blogging – way more than “tweeting” – and I can see this expanding for me as more and more people become familiar with my writings (on the tax side, not this one).

There.  A little more about me.

Repost: Thoughts from April 2007

Here is what was going through my head April 2007.

• Former Conservative politician, until she crossed the floor to become a cabinet minister for the Liberal party, Belinda Stronach is not seeking re-election in the next election.  HA HA HA.  I knew (and probably blogged) that once she became a traitor and left the conservative party, crossing the floor to join the corrupt liberals for a cabinet post, that she would be going nowhere in politics.  Clearly I was incorrect.  She is going somewhere… out! Bye bye Belinda, you turncoat, and take Tie Domi with you.  That former Toronto Maple Leaf pugilist, who was married when you an him hooked up and you deserve each other.  Opportunists.  Besides, Tie’s segment “Win, Lose and Tie” on TSN is brutal.  I turn the channel when it comes on.  It’s painful.
• In other thoughts… It looks like rain outside… I don’t have an umbrella.
• I’m really jacked that the Raptors are in the playoffs – but I hate that they are playing Vince Carter and the NJ Nets because I’ll be REALLY upset if we lose to “them”.  Ever since “Wince” left the Raptors, I have always wished him to lose or get hurt, flop on the floor like he did in Toronto and please continue to tip off the opposition on plays in NJ like to did in TO. 
• I received my grades for my two most recent business graduate school classes… both A’s. Only 4 more classes to go then I’ll have my MBA and can use it to get out of the government.  YAY.
• Happy to report that my wife and I have something new in common, besides our kids, marriage, house, etc. I love to garden and she does too.  And she is quite good at it too.  We have seedlings now sitting in the living room soon to be headed in the garden, of all these funky heirloom fruits and veggies.  She picked them, she planted the seeds, we watch them grow. Fun, fun, fun!
• Need sleep… I am painting the basement – kids playroom… It had to happen sooner or later.  We bought some red, blue and green paint – bright kids colours and I am painting the entire space they use to play in.  Part of the wall is going to be a magnetic chalk board.  Wondering how to get the red paint out of the carpet and I dropped the tin and of course it opened on the carpet.. A lot!.  It is fire truck red.  OY. 
• So let’s recap… Baby up at 5am, I leave for work at 7am, get home before 6pm, bathe and book the kids to bed, then after chatting with my wife and taking care of classes, I set out around midnight to paint until 1 or 2am and then do it all again the next night.
• Sleep???  Over-rated. 

What is greater than infinity? Ask my 5 year old.

My 5-year-old son Linus has been really keen on working with numbers for as long as I can remember.  He gets that trait from his mummy, for sure.  I, on the other hand, got 54% in grade 9 math and fought and clawed my way through university math with a B/B+ average.  Man, nothing came easy for me.  I made it through school not being able to figure out word problems and never had a teacher / professor who would take the time to explain them to me, so I just never did them.  Right through university if I saw a word problem, I just skipped it.  It wasn’t until my wife sat down with me to explain them to me that I actually started to understand and now, I don’t get frustrated when I see one, although I’m sure I could get it half done.

I even created a new way of solving equations in high-school.  I was asked to solve a problem on the chalk board, and 3 panels later I had the answer.  Sure I took a completely odd way around the equation to get it solved, but it threw my math teacher into convulsions because the answer was correct. 

He gave me 3 other problems and I solved them all the same way.  He was still beside himself.  By the time the next morning had come, him and the 3 other math teachers had filled up all the chalk boards in 4 classrooms trying to dissect and determine if I found something new or it was a fluke.  By the end of the following week, it was determined to be a new way and my teacher was researching it…  I should google his name and see if he followed through and took credit for it, or if he found it to be crap and let it die.

So back to my original thought…

My 5-year-old loves numbers. 

He’s been quizzing us on our adding skills, asking us what’s 100 plus 100, or 100 plus 1000, or lately, what’s infinity plus infinity.  So after going through the adding of anything associated with infinity he let that drop, until yesterday when he asked me the following question;

“Daddy, what number is bigger than infinity?”

“Nothing”, I replied.

“Yes there is”, he said.  “Googolplex”.

“Nooooo”, I said to him.  “A Google-plex is the name of the Google headquarters”.

“Noooo”, he said, “It’s a number larger than infinity”.

So I looked towards my wife and she confirmed it is in fact a number.

So I googled it.

It IS the name of the Google headquarters.  LOL.

AND….

I found an article about the number googolplex.  (For the headquarters of Google Inc., see Googleplex.)

A googolplex is the number 10^googol, which can also be written as the number 1 followed by a googol zeros (i.e., 10¹⁰⁰ zeros).

1 googolplex

= 10^googol

= 10^(10100)

= 10^{10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000}

Turns out, in 1938, a guy by the name of Edward Kasner’s nine-year-old nephew Milton Sirotta coined the term “googol”.  Milton then proposed the further term googolplex to be “one, followed by writing zeroes until you get tired”. Kasner decided to adopt a more formal definition “because different people get tired at different times…”

Thus it became standardized to 10^googol.

I want to saw, “Who knew?”  But my 5-year-old son did…