Happy Halloween, and Happy Birthday to Myself

October 31, 2008

Today is Halloween

Today is also my birthday

It's interesting that I have to give out candies on my birthdays to other kids, instead of receiving candies from others. And that all the attentions are on Halloween, instead of my birthday.

Nonetheless, I am thankful I have received many many "Happy Birthday Jerry" from my friends (and strangers :P) and knowing I am not alone is an awesome feeling. Except I am getting old

Birthday Wishes

1. 父母家人親戚身體健康
2. 能有機會更加進修 穩定的工作
3. 秘密 :) 

SNOW

Oh my god, it is snowing outside. I am excited and depressed at the same time

• Excited that first day snow is always pretty to see, and took pictures to remember this moment
• Apparently this [seeing measurable snow in October] happened only twice in the last 7 years, great
• Depressed that winter is actually here, and soon I will have to shovel, put things away and accept the truth

Is your username taken?

Just read this website in a news article - http://www.usernamecheck.com/ quite cool
It checks your username against 68 websites to see if it has been taken yet.

It is shocking I have never heard of the most of these Web 2.0 websites

Thankfully most jerryhung are myself.
How many YOU are out there that's not YOU? ;-)

Going Green

Today I received a surprise parcel at my doorsteps, it was the FREE Union Gas Energy Saving Kit. The ESK Kit Contains:

• 1 Energy-Efficient Chrome Massage Showerhead
• 1 Energy-Efficient Kitchen Swivel Aerator
• 1 Energy-Efficient Bathroom Aerator
• 1 Roll of Teflon Tape
• 2 Meters of Foam Pipe Insulation

 

 

Also, City of Waterloo dropped off the Green Bin last week, and I suddenly realized I didn't need to use it at all, because

• Single person doesn't cook much = not much kitchener leftover
• Most of my leftover vegetable goes to my Black Bin instead of Green Bin ;-p

Time to get dirty to DIY and save the earth!

Rise of the US Dollar

If you are a Canadian, it is unlikely you missed this shocking news of our depreciating Canadian Dollar against the mighty greenback US Dollar. It's funny 2 other PF blogs cover the same topic today as well

Today CAD has dropped to 4-year low of 78 cents against $1 USD. The days of $1 CAD = $1.10 USD are in the history. Let the chart speak for it self, USD has appreciated 23% in the last month against CAD

There are many reasons, as many articles point out

• Crude oil prices have fallen sharply and causes the depreciation of CAD
• Everyone is buying USD for the safe haven and the treasury bills despite the low interest rate and yield
• Hedge funds and traders are covering their USD positions
• It is a irrational market. It's the economy, stpuid!
• Because USD should be down with the supply-and-demand economy model, as US governments inject billions of dollars into the circulation which dilute the value of the USD

How does this affect me personally?

• No more US shopping trips as things cost more than here now
• Watch my USD-denominated Canadian equities fall like crazy (Manulife, Research In Motion, BCE)
• Another lesson learned: Purchase equities in their native currency. Otherwise the currency can either hedge for you (hurts less), or go against you (hurts more)

Are you affected by the currency as well?

Evening with Wellington West Financial CEO - Charlie Spiring

Ironically I post this on a Bloody Friday, where no stock markets is safe from the freefall.
However, it also make those sound advices more relevant and useful.

At the invite of the Clearsight Investment Program to University Alumnis (I am a University of Waterloo alumni), I attended the Charlie Unplugged - National Tour with Wellington West Founder and CEO seminar on Tuesday night.

There was food, open bar, and cookies; I came home with the food in my stomach and knowledge in my head. Thanks Clearsight and Charlie, for your candid answers and straightforward style of presentation (no sales pitch!). Note: Charlie is studying for MBA at Harvard Business School

Some investment advices from Charlie to keep in mind

• GIC vs Preferred Shares/T-Bills
• Instead of 100% invested in GIC, go with high yield Preferred Shares (80%) and 20% in Treasure Bills
• Dividend Stocks
• With the historical low prices, look for Dividend stocks and their 5-year dividend growth rate
• Royal Bank, TransCanada Pipe, Husky Energy, Manulife Financial
• Hedge in sectors (Financial, Energy)
• Again hedge in sectors that are beaten yet have future potentials
• Follow the leader (Warren Buffett)
• Follow the greatest investor in the world, for example Goldman Sachs (GS) and General Electric (GE)
• Write covered call options on your holdings to lower the actual cost
• In downturn markets, write long-term covered calls (despite the temptation for short-term calls that may seem brilliant if you annualize them)

Early Winter

This morning I had frost on my windshields, and they became snow when I scrapped them, so there it is - Oct 22, 2008 is the first day I see snow this winter, and it is not a great feeling to see it so early.

Time to pack away summer clothes, take out scarf and gloves, and get ready for cold mornings

ER
In season premiere Dr. Greg Pratt passed away, now Dr. Abby Lockhart has left (along with Luca) to Boston in the 3rd episode of season 15 (last season).

As I watch the story unfolds, I feel like I am losing pieces of my memory, of ER, of this great show, and the countless moments where life, whether bright or dark, unveils before you, in this tiny place called the Emergency Room.

Abby has been in ER since Season 6, still reckless as usual, but she has grown up from a nurse into a brilliant doctor who understands the patients and will go the extra distance to care for them.

Her personal life [in the show] was nothing to write home about, but to make someone who has been around for so long disappear in 1 episode with a lame story of moving to Boston, it hurts. It hurts less than the death of Dr. Pratt or Dr. Green, but Abby is my favorite character and she will be dearly missed

When something breaks, do you Fix it or Buy New?

I am certain all of us have encountered situations where you debate whether to fix something, or buy a new one.
Let it be a computer, a car, an appliance, or even a house. Here are my recent encounters

Dishwasher
It cost me $660 (after tax) to fix it, which involved 2 visits from repair tech, and 3 parts (~$500), where I would have been able to buy a brand new Dishwasher, with longer warranty, in short time. Some lessons learned:

• Try to get ALL estimates at once, so you see a clear picture of what you are dealing with. Instead, I got 2 work orders, 2 invoices for parts, and charged my credit card 3 times in total. I kept thinking "oh it'll be just a little more, it's okay to do it". With an accurate estimate, you can easily decide between Repair vs New
• Maybe you cannot buy the exact same model, but do you really need to?
• My dishwasher is about $699 brand new plus taxes, but I could easily get a $399 Stainless Dishwasher as well, not as fancy, but does the job.

My Car's AC
Dealer quoted me $3000 to fix the AC leak in my car - dealer claimed it'll involve 10+ hours of labour, taking the dashboard apart, find the leak, seal it, re-assemble the dashboard back
This decision was easily made with such crazy figure = No thanks, due to

• My car being 8 years old, may not drive it for much longer
• Worth less than $10K, adding $3000 to it will not make it worth $3000 more
• I only need AC for 2~3 months in a year (I barely used it in Summer 2008)

There are many more examples I can quote, especially electronics or computer parts which I constantly deal with. Nowadays, it is almost always cheaper to buy a new computer than fix a dinosaur.

So, do you have any stories to share?

Happy 97th Birthday, Taiwan 雙十國慶

October 10 (中華民國國慶日) is Taiwan's birthday. And for 2008, Taiwan is now 97 years old. Today celebrates the start of the Wuchang Uprising of October 10, 1911, which led to the collapse of China's Qing Dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China on January 1, 1912
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Tenth_Day

When we were in Toronto last weekend, we happened to walk into the Taiwan Birthday Celebration at Bay & Dundas, pictures to be posted soon
Let's just say, I was so proud and emotional to see Taiwan's flag

Stock Markets, the worst has yet to come ...

When people say Sell Friday, Buy Monday as one does not know what will happen over the weekend with too many unknows. For the last few weeks, this theory was proven every single Monday

2008/09/29 TSX dropped -800 points, when the $700 billion bailout was turned down
2008/10/06 we had the -1200 points drop at one time, then back to only -570, but the significance remains in that TSX broke the 10,000 level.

This is a Price History and Changes(%) for the last month, fun to observe

Date	Close	Changes	Changes	Day
Oct 08	10,056.31	226.76	2%	Wednesday
Oct 07	9,829.55	-400.88	-4%	Tuesday
Oct 06	10,230.43	-572.92	-5%	Monday
Oct 03	10,803.35	-97.19	-1%	Friday
Oct 02	10,900.54	-813.97	-7%	Thursday
Oct 01	11,714.51	-38.39	0%	Wednesday
Sep 30	11,752.90	467.83	4%	Tuesday
Sep 29	11,285.07	-840.93	-7%	Monday
Sep 26	12,126.00	-420.51	-3%	Friday
Sep 25	12,546.51	33.15	0%	Thursday
Sep 24	12,513.36	-19.27	0%	Wednesday
Sep 23	12,532.63	-105.44	-1%	Tuesday
Sep 22	12,638.07	-274.92	-2%	Monday
Sep 19	12,912.99	848.42	7%	Friday
Sep 18	12,064.57	186.88	2%	Thursday
Sep 17	11,877.69	-349.30	-3%	Wednesday
Sep 16	12,226.99	-27.04	0%	Tuesday
Sep 15	12,254.03	-515.55	-4%	Monday
Sep 12	12,769.58	156.82	1%	Friday
Sep 11	12,612.76	115.61	1%	Thursday
Sep 10	12,497.15	350.39	3%	Wednesday
Sep 09	12,146.76	-487.88	-4%	Tuesday
Sep 08	12,634.64	-181.78	-1%	Monday
Sep 05	12,816.42	2.28	0%	Friday
Sep 04	12,814.14	-323.58	-2%	Thursday
Sep 03	13,137.72	-161.82	-1%	Wednesday
Sep 02	13,299.54	-471.71	-3%	Tuesday
Sep 01	13,771.25	0.00	0%	Monday
Aug 29	13,771.25	20.77	0%
Aug 28	13,750.48

Here's Toronto TSX for the last few while



Dow Jones isn't faring much better either

Cold Fall

This year's Summer and Fall have felt colder than usual, the wet rain didn't help either

I had to turn on my furnace this week to keep the house temperature at 19C (20C when I'm home), otherwise it reached 16 degrees and I felt like a polar bear. Almost time to bring out the snow shovel even :)

Thankfully the long weekend will be sunny and warm

Green Bin to Waterloo

I received a mail from Region of Waterloo, notifying selected neighbourhoods are starting to participate in the Green Bin program (approprixmately 40,000 households). FYI: The smaller kitchen container is not green ;-)

All I can say it's about time, after GTA and Mississauga have implemented it for years. For the record, Waterloo region did start the Green Bin pilot in 2006.

More details can be found on the region's website
October 20-25: Delivery
October 27: Collection begins

This is what Customer Service should be - Excellent

Last week I have witnessed firsthand the best customer service I have seen in a while, after some excellent experiences with American Express (prompt response to fraud charges, eBay scam chargebacks), and TD Canada Trust (banking fees reversal, fees waived, quick to action on everything)

I purchased some items on Amazon.ca via their 1-click purchase where I did not need to enter Credit Card, Address, Shipping method at all - it was truly 1-click literally. However I missed the part that default shipping method is XpressPost, not the Free shipping over $39.

After noticing the charges on my credit card, I wrote an email letting them I wish there was a choice but to prevent recurring I disabled my 1-click because of the shipping options, and in 2 hours I received an email:

Thanks for writing to us at Amazon.ca. I am sorry to hear that you have been charged for shipping on this order. In order to compensate for this inconvenience, I have requested a refund of $11.15 to your credit card to reimburse you for the shipping fees you paid for this order.

I was impressed. I can afford the $11.15 but I cannot buy excellent customer service in the discount Internet ages nowadays and Amazon.ca wins me over for future purchases

Not to be outdone, I received a cheque of $38 from Canada Post for an eBay package that is lost (nothing in the system after I printed shipping label at home and dropped the package off).

I filed an claim online, received several calls to confirm the buyer contact info so they can verify with the buyer, and then Canada Post issued the refund cheque (eBay $30 value + $8 shipping)

This is the first time I have lost a package ever in 10 years, and Canada Post remains my only choice for the reliability, speed, cost, and excellent customer service


Lessons I have learned:
I will go for the better Customer Service rather than the better price
Sometimes a response, being an email or a call, makes all the difference as a consumer, and we should continue to reward the businesses that value the customers

Nuit Blanche

Nuit Blanche happened to be on the same night we visit Rachelle's new place, so the adventured began at 9 pm (2008/10/04 7:52pm - Sunrise).

Overall it was cool, but not too impressive. I did not go to previous year's Nuit Blanche, but we walked for 6 hours and I felt like I saw nothing. There was this blue poop, rubber ducks, book castle, people dancing, zombies, and etc..

I called it quits at 3 am and TTC failed us again (there was no Westbound TTC bus on Bloor after Christie station, despite promised and the big crowd). Ended up sharing a cab home and got back to Mississauga at 5am

Newegg.ca selling rice cooker

This is funny, NewEgg (an online computer electronics website) is selling a Taiwan-made TATUNG TAC-10G White Steamer Rice Cooker for $51

Charlie Rose' exclusive conversation with Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett talks fast for a senior, nonetheless intelligent in funny but true ways.

An exclusive conversation with Warren Buffett

Websites that failed us

In the last 2 days, I have witnessed the rise and the fall of the websites that had their potentials, yet did not come through. I suppose I wouldn't be so critical of the Future Shop/Best Buy boxing day sales this year.

Having worked with website companies for couple years, it is quite amazing to realize what's involved in all of this, and how a company can ever handle unprecendented unexpected traffic volumes. It illustrates how important load/stress tests are to simulte every possible worst case.

Example #1
The Leading Hotels of the World chain offered a $19.28/night sales to many hotels around the world, starting Oct 1 8AM EST


Guess what, the site was a classic example of not enough preparations as it never worked since 8AM.
I don't believe anybody got in (via SlickDeals, FatWallet, RFD, etc... everywhere)

The messages I got since 8AM were (in order)
Sorry! Due to the overwhelming number of consumers currently trying to access this promotion, your request is being delayed momentarily. Please be patient, don’t get discouraged, and retry in a few seconds by clicking here, or by going back to http://www.lhw.com/1928.

Thank you for your interest in the 1928 Promotion.
We regret to inform you that the more than 6000 room nights available at the start of this promotion have all been sold. Congratulations to the lucky participants who were able to get a reservation as part of this great offer!

Due to the overwhelming number of consumers participating in this promotion. We regret to inform you due to technical difficulties beyond our control the 1928 promotion has been suspended indefintely.

See the Press Announcement by the CEO
Ted Teng, President & CEO, The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd. stated: "Today we suffered a catastrophic technical failure, which is uncharacteristic for our highly respected brand. We should have been better prepared and we weren't. We disappointed many people and I apologize for that. We intend on making every effort to restore our customers' confidence."

Example #2
The Canadian National Do Not Call List was under severe load since Sep 30, the first day of operation.
Yesterday I constantly get the "No Service available, please try again later" and every newspaper media has covered this failure since yesterday. Another example of bad publicity