Old blog back

My old blog is back up and I'll be posting there from now on.

Whaaaat?

The other day I told my aunt* that I could tutor her 15 year old daughter (my cousin) in math this coming school year. She informed me that my cousin might not be taking math again until March. It amazes me that a high school student would go from June to March without taking any math. Are the people who choose this kind of schedule really that out of touch with teenagers? I remember how much I would forget after two month of summer holidays. I can't imagine how much I would forget if I took 9 months off of math. From grade 1 to grade 11 (grade 11 is the final year of high school in Quebec), I had math class every day. The only year that it was optional at my high school was grade 11.

Sometimes I think schools set kids up to fail.


*Why is it that some people pronouce the word aunt like 'ant' and others say 'on-t'? I say the former. It wasn't until I went to university that I heard anyone other than Will Smith on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air say 'on-t' (well I probably heard it on other TV shows or movies but I only specifically recall Will Smith saying 'on-t'). Is it just within Quebec's english communities (I have lived in two of them; the west island of Montreal and the Pontiac, north of Hull) or is it more widespread that people say 'ant'?

Le 9 ah-oooo

My roommate is away for 3 weeks in Borden, Ontario doing some military training (she's a medic in the reserves) and so I've been paying her bills, checking her phone messages and checking her email. The other day I checked her messages and there was one in french about an interview on August 17th. But the woman said aout in such an awful way that it was like nails on a chalkboard. She said "ah-ooo" instead of "oo" (as in moo). I admit I'm not a francophone but there are certain things I know about the french language (at least Quebec french) having lived in Quebec all my life and having taken french from age 5 to age 20, and ah-ooo just sounded so so wrong to me. So does anyone know is this some Franco-Ontarian thing or something else entirely?

Who killed the electric car?

Along with An Inconvenient Truth, I want to see Who killed the electric car? I'm putting my money on big oil as being the culprit.

Stephen Harper is bizarro Robin Hood

Stacey commented here that she had noticed that more income taxes were being taken off people's paycheque since July 1st. I guess Steve had to find a way of paying for the GST cut. He must of thought long and hard, looked down the list of the conservative priorities and found that number 2 on that list, screw over the poor, (number 1 being help the rich) was the perfect solution.

Here is their brilliant solution:

·The lowest income tax rate was raised from 15 percent to 15.5 percent;

·The basic personal amount that all Canadians earn tax-free decreased from $9,039 to $8,639;

·The amount taxpayers can claim for their spouse or common-law partner decreased from $7,675 to $7,335; and

·The amount taxpayers can claim for eligible dependants decreased from $7,675 to $7,335.

For the record I am currently on track to save 26.97$ in one year from the GST cut. Imagine all the things I can buy with that; a week worth of groceries, a case of beer, a trip to Lone Star for Tom and I minus drinks, 11 STO bus tickets, or 14 OC transpo bus tickets .... oh the choices are endless.

Priceless

Kiefer vs Christmas tree

Adam Corrolla's interview with Ann Coulter

It's the tax cut that keeps screwing us over

Let me count the ways that the GST cut is screwing us over:

-"The Canada Revenue Agency has also said it's up to consumers to police the GST cut, as there are no fines for businesses that do not decrease the tax."

How can there be no fines? It's an extra cost to the business to reprogram cash registers so of course there are going to be some who try and get away with not changing it. There needs to be fines. So unless we consumers are diligent we might not see any savings from the tax cut from some businesses.

-"Well, hate to rain on your parade, but we're still getting ripped off..."

Big surprise.

-"Without the fanfare of the GST reduction, the government has also lowered the amount Canadians can earn tax free by $400 while raising the tax rate for the lowest income bracket from 15 to 15.5 per cent."

Harper sure loves to help the little guy.

-"[A penny] is what I saved today on my cup of Timmies with Harper’s vote buying GST cut. Meanwhile, Canadians will shell out approximately $300 million on debt servicing charges this year that could have been saved if the Conservatives had put that money toward paying down our debt instead of using it as a bribe."

Great!


And to update those wondering how much I have saved since the tax cut took effect, I haven't spent any money. So the answer is nothing. Woo hoo 1% GST cut!

Best tax cut ever!!!

Of course I'm referring to the reduction of the GST from 7% to 6% that will happen on July 1st. I am planning on keeping track of the loads of money I will be saving as a result. And I'll keep a tally of it here on my blog so that you can all see that this a real tax cut for everyone, even the little guy. Like Stephen Harper keeps telling us.

I think I might buy a unicorn with all the money that I will save.

Bishop's Convocation (and omg unicorns!!!!)

Tomorrow afternoon Bishop's convocation is taking place and they have decided to hold it outdoors. Rain or shine. And the weather is calling for, you guessed it, rain and lots of it. I know that it gets really crowded in the gym and this causes the gym to be really hot (believe I know my graduation was so hot I almost passed out) but to have it outdoors not matter what is just silly. I'll take hot over soaked any day.

And for those demanding more unicorn content you can read about unicorns here, colour some here and check out a picture of unicorn origami here.

Big Ugly Cars

More and more people these days are thinking of buying smaller cars because of gas prices. But my question is, didn't they realize that even before the hike in gas prices they were wasting money on their big ugly cars?