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So, we’ve got this really strong Canadian Dollar (or weak US Dollar, however you want to see it). And since retailers haven’t caught on to this, the best deals are still in the US. So what does a penny-pinching Canadian do? Buy in the US, of course! And the easiest way to do that? Credit Cards!

Bzzt… wrong. I bought something two days ago, and just got my credit card statement. 1 CAD >= 1USD for a while now, but guess what they charged me? 1 CAD = .95 USD …. what gives?

So if you’re trying to cash in on the high dollar - give it a second thought before using your credit card. Or do more research than I did. Or … something.

I’d like to pose a question to the readership of SE because I, honestly, don’t know the answer.

Is an un-informed vote better or worse than not voting at all?

This is an interesting question to me, and I’ve been thinking about it, as today is Election Day in Calgary. My personal opinion is - get whatever information you can, and even if you don’t know all the details make some sort of choice. It’s better than nothing.

But I might be wrong?

Discuss…

I was looking for an audiobook to download for my trip to Israel and since I didn’t have anything in mind, I decided to take a shot in the dark. I downloaded “The Areas of My Expertise” by John Hodgeman. There were a few user comments that made me think it would be funny, afterall, he is PC Guy. So this has to be funny, right?

Wrong. So wrong. This book was excellent for the plane because it put me right to sleep.  It was litterally John Hodgeman rambling absolute non-sense. Just made up stuff about everything. I really can’t even begin to explain how unfunny this book was. It made me think Hodgeman was perfectly cast as the PC Guy, because this book was about as exciting as that character from the commercials. I had no idea what he was talking about in this book. It is written as an almanac, containing the vastness of “complete world knowledge”. Here are some of the unfunny topics that are discussed to the utter destruction of anything resembling comedy:

• Famous Novels that were not originally published as Books
• What You Did Not Know About Hobos
• Mythical secrets of Yale University

If you read this book, and you think its funny, please do not associate yourself with me in any manor.

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I don’t know why I enjoy this so much. This site has been around for years, and it does what it does very well. It’s philosophical, entertaining, and highly amusing. If you don’t know what Zombo is, then check it out: www.zombo.com

Oh, and since Halloween is quickly approaching: Check this out - they’re scary cats!

The start of the Discworld Saga by Terry Pratchett.

These books are some of the best writing I’ve read in a long, long time. You may recall my glowing review of his Going Postal novel. The Colour of Magic is an introduction to the Discworld, which is basically a flat world that sits on top of 4 gigantic elephants, which are supported by a massive sea turtle, which is swimming through space. Yup.

So, this world is very normal, if magicians, heroes, trolls, and monsters are all normal. The writing is sarcastic and hilarious. In the middle of telling an absolutely random story, he’ll start a very one-sided discussion with the reader about what he’s writing, which is really fun to read.

We get to meet some main characters - Rincewind, a failed wizard, and Twoflower, a tourist. Oh, and Twoflower’s luggage. Which is an enchanted box that follows Twoflower everywhere on some hundreds of legs that it has. And is indestructible. And eats people. Perfectly normal stuff.

Those interested in photography will enjoy hearing about Twoflowers camera. Unlike conventional cameras, it actually has a demon inside it. The demon has an easel and a stool - the demon paints things very quickly when Twoflower asks him to.

The second book, The Light Fantastic, continues the story in much the same manner. In a wonderful twist, the Pratchett comes up with a wicked example of Deus Ex Machina to explain the start of the book - as opposed to trying to explain some messed up ending. These books are just fun to read.

I brought The Colour of Magic with me on a 120 Km canoe trip, and was done it about half way through the trip. It wasn’t like I had a tonne of time on the trip, it was just really fun and easy reading. The Light Fantastic is the same way - I picked it up and finished it within about a week. Both books are in the 300 page range, are very imaginative and really well written. I highly recommend checking them out.

Sort of as a follow up to my post about podcasts, I have been turned on to Audible. It’s awesome if you like books of any sort and can’t read, but you can listen. But I can’t go into detail in this post, just go check it out for yourself.

The first book I downloaded was Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. The subtitle of the book, “A Rogue Economist Explorers the Hidden Side of Everything”, pretty much tells it all. At first, I had no idea where the book was going to go. It was asking questions like “What’s more dangerous: a gun or a swimming pool?” or “Why do drug dealers still live with their moms?”. But after the first example is revealed, you start to understand the mind of Levitt, the rogue economist in question.

I enjoyed this book for the simple principle that everything hinged on: The numbers tell the story. Instead of assuming a corelation between violent crime rates and the number of officers in a police force, this book looks at the numbers. Does more cops mean less crime? What other factors could be at play. The results are both surprising and refreshing. They make perfect sense once you understand the data.

One of my favorite sections of the book discussed the relationship between childerns names and economic status and answers the age-old question “What’s in a name?”.

If this sounds at all interesting to you, you really need to check this book out. It’s not as geeky as it sounds….OK, it’s TOTALLY as geeky as it sounds.

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Yeah, I know this is pretty lame, but man, this soup pissed me off.

Sometimes for lunch, I’ll just get those soup bowls that you add water to. Sometimes they’re good, and sometimes they’re as crappy as you’d expect for 1$.

Today I tried Lipton’s “Soup Works” - the garden vegetable flavour. Normally these things are in the 1$ range (as I mentioned) and there are some Safeway ones that are really good that cost about 1.69$. This stuff cost 2.69$, but I figured I’d splurge for it.

Anyway, it’s horrible. I mean, it’s vaguely like soup, and the stuff floating around in there might have been vegetables. But it’s not just the shitty flavour for a higher price that bugged me - it’s that they tell you to make this thing by putting boiling water in it, and when you have to carry it anywhere, you seriously burn yourself. The plastic of the bowl is just really really thin, and after about 15 seconds you’re definitely feeling the burn. You get a better bowl from just about anyone else. Even the thin cardboard cups do better.

Anyway - if any of you are out there going for a quick lunch and feel like trying one of those, I say don’t bother. Grab the Spicey Thai Safeway ones - there’s no MSG and they taste great.