Why Edmonton Sucks for Travelers

First, let me be clear.  I am not one of the many people who live in Edmonton and either secretly or not-so-secretly hate it.  I even like the airport itself.  Especially with the new renovations, I think they've got a fantastic facility.  However, as most seasoned travelers will tell you, trying to actually travel out of that airport is far from awesome.

The major problem is Edmonton's location.  If you haven't noticed, we live in the middle of nowhere.  Natural resources will only get you so far.  At the end of the day, it is expensive to fly to/from Edmonton because you can't/don't fly THROUGH Edmonton.  Unless you are going to Grande Prairie, Fort MacMurray, or Yellowknife (total COMBINED population of ~120,000), the only reason you are flying to Edmonton's airport is because it is your final destination.

The fact that no one flies through Edmonton to get anywhere leads to the second problem.  Since we're not a major hub, most airlines and most other airports (especially non-Canadian ones) put a very low priority on us.  This means we get the worst possible time slots for departure and/or arrival.  This leads to my primary example and the genesis of this post.

Up until now, Continental (now United) has had a single direct return flight from Edmonton (YEG) to Houston Bush Intercontinental (IAH).  The YEG->IAH flight leaves at 0645 and arrives at 1212.  This is a decent arrival time but to be at the airport in Edmonton on time means waking up somewhere in the neighborhood of 4:00 AM.  The IAH->YEG flight leaves at 1805 and arrives at 2145.  This one isn't terrible actually.  However, with that departure time it does mean that you either have to drag your luggage to a shortened work day in Houston, get a VERY late checkout time at your hotel, or sit at the airport for a few extra hours.  Inconvenient: yes.  Horrible time: not really.

The downside to these flight has always been their popularity.  Not only do people use these flights to go to Houston on business, but they also open up a lot of options out of Houston to Florida, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America.  Consequently, if you did not purchase a ticket 2-3 months in advance, it was either very expensive or simply not available.

I was then excited to hear that United was adding a second direct flight starting in mid/late February.  In my mind, it only made sense that the times would be reversed: IAH->YEG in the early morning and YEG-> IAH in the late afternoon.  Naturally this isn't the case.  The second IAH->YEG flight departs at 1435 and arrives at 1811.  This is actually fantastic.  Absolutely no complaints here.  However, the second YEG->IAH flight departs at 2355 and arrives at 0509.  They made it a red-eye.  This is good for anyone who is trying to catch an early morning flight from Houston to a sunny destination and perhaps it will alleviate the other flight to be more for business travelers.  But that's just me trying to find an excuse.  Really, it sucks.  I would rather have to take an entire day of traveling and spend 3 hours in Denver or Calgary than take a red eye for a work trip.

Speaking of Calgary (YYC), here is a list of their flights to Houston (note all flights are YYC->IAH):

Airline	Flight #	Depart	Arrive
Continental	1655	0700	1213
Air Canada	8102	0920	1414
Continental	1464	0920	1433
Air Canada	8104	1150	1644
Continental	1207	1307	1820
Continental	1429	1720	2224
Air Canada	8106	1850	2337

That is 7 direct flights per day.  They all do have matching return flights (which I won't bore the reader with) which are also spread throughout the day.  If you'll notice, they even have two flights on separate airlines at the exact same time.

Considering that there are no less than 20 direct flights between YEG and YYC daily,  I guarantee you can find a flight to Calgary with a connection as long or short as you like allowing you to take a good flight out of Calgary to wherever you want.

This is in the midst of Edmonton Airports advertising campaign to try to stop people from going to Calgary.  They say you should just fly out of Edmonton.  This leaves you with 10 American destinations (including such hot spots as Minneapolis and Chicago), London UK (at a terrible arrival time that precludes most connections), and seasonal charter flights to Mexico and the Caribbean.

I would gladly fly direct out of Edmonton more often.  Having no connecting flights is amazing.  I love it.  But realistically, it's not an option for most destinations.

But this isn't news to most.  We'll all continue to (not really) enjoy our time in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal...

</rant>

November Road Trip

Over the last couple of months, I pondered taking the family on a late-fall trip to Montreal and Quebec City (trying to stay within the scope of my earlier rant regarding those who ignore travelling within Canada). After some conceptual planning, though, I realized there would be a monumental number of things to bring along on the plane to travel with our almost-a-year-old, and the cost of flying to anywhere in eastern Canada from Calgary (Seattle to Boston is less than half the price of Calgary to Toronto, for example) was not meeting my preferred joy-to-value ratio for travel-related, capital expenditures.

So, I have rejigged everything over the last couple of weeks and now intend to head west.  I`m thinking the east will be a better visit in the spring, when we`ll at least have nicer weather to enjoy after the airline rape.

Our rough itinerary is below:

November 11 - embark on a leisurely 4 hour drive to Coeur d`Alene, Idaho, where we will spend the night (and probably visit Costco).
November 12 - head over to Bellevue, Washington (adjacent to Seattle, and another 4.5 hours of driving) for a couple of days to hit up the Lego Store, Seattle Premium Outlets, and the Museum of Flight (I`m looking forward to this, having done the sort of similar Boeing Factory Tour back in 2009).  Hopefully, we can get most of our Christmas shopping done south of the border.
November 14 - make our way up to Victoria, BC for another couple of days.  Will visit my cousin and do some wandering around downtown.
November 16 - drive over to downtown Vancouver and spend a couple more days eating copious amounts of sushi and ramen.
November 18 - start the trip back here, stopping in Osoyoos for a night to split up the drive.

While I really dislike the fact that we`re heading through the US, it will bring a welcome change of scenery over the ol` 12 hour, single-lane, wind-fest that is Highway 3 (not to mention 40% cheaper Lego prices).

Should be a pretty good trip; with any luck, I will be able to report in as we make our way there and back.

Travel Month

Edited: More travel.  Added it...

From October 21 to December 2 I will be travelling a lot.

Even by my standards...

To give you an idea of just how much I'm flying, I've put together a table:

#	Date	Depart	Arrive	Distance
1	Fri, Oct 21	Edmonton, Canada	Toronto, Canada	2696 km / 1675 mi
2	Fri, Oct  21	Toronto, Canada	Baltimore, USA	557 km / 346 mi
3	Mon, Oct 24	Baltimore, USA	Toronto, Canada	557 km / 346 mi
4	Mon, Oct 24	Toronto, Canada	London, UK	5723 km / 3556 mi
5	Tue, Oct 25	London, UK	Stavanger, Norway	909 km / 565 mi
6	Sun, Oct 30	Stavanger, Norway	London, UK	909 km / 565 mi
7	Sun, Oct 30	London, UK	Calgary, Canada	7036 km / 4372 mi
8	Sun, Oct 30	Calgary, Canada	Edmonton, Canada	246 km / 153 mi
9	Fri, Nov 11	Edmonton, Canada	Denver, USA	1640 km / 1019 mi
9	Fri, Nov 11	Denver, USA	Houston, USA	1387 km / 862 mi
10	Tue, Nov 15	Houston, USA	Edmonton, Canada	2984 km / 1854 mi
11	Fri, Nov 18	Edmonton, Canada	Toronto, Canada	2696 km / 1675 mi
12	Fri, Nov 18	Toronto, Canada	Baltimore, USA	557 km / 346 mi
13	Mon, Nov 21	Baltimore, USA	Toronto, Canada	557 km / 346 mi
14	Mon, Nov 21	Toronto, Canada	Edmonton, Canada	2696 km / 1675 mi
15	Tue, Nov 22	Edmonton, Canada	Montreal, Canada	2977 km / 1850 mi
16	Tue, Nov 22	Montreal, Canada	Paris, France	5540 km / 3442 mi
17	Fri, Dec 2	Paris, France	London, UK	348 km / 216 mi
18	Fri, Dec 2	London, UK	Edmonton, UK	6831 km / 4244 mi
			Total	46846 km / 29108 mi

For a sense of scale, that is larger than the circumference of the earth at the equator.

Terry has threatened me with...something if I don't attempt to document this in some way.

So expect updates over the next month that will be filled with pictures (hopefully), travel observations (likely), and complaints (definitely).

LET TRAVEL MONTH BEGIN!

Netflix

As my friends and family will attest, I am a reserved and humble man who rarely makes boisterous claims about the quality of service provided by businesses I willingly (or otherwise) involve myself with.

Ha.

Let's start over.

NETFLIX IS THE SINGLE GREATEST CONSUMER SERVICE EVER OFFERED IN CANADA.

$7.99/month.

Genuinely caring customer service.

My Shaw bill (which I'm never quite sure why I pay) is close to $130/month for a bunch of channels I hate 95% of the time, and absolute shit internet service.  Yet, I have to pay the evil telecommunications oligopoly, as without them I cannot engage in their own destruction.

I've had Netflix for over a year now.  I signed up for my initial free month after the launch on September 22, 2010.  Since then, my credit card has been billed 11 times for a total of $87.89, or roughly 6% of what Shaw has made off of me over the same timeframe.

Yes, in the beginning content was somewhat limited, but it has been an exponential triumph of win since then, with new titles coming out weekly. And besides, most of the complaints were from the type of people who thought movies like Transformers were the pinnacle of cinema.

If you come to terms with the fact that Netflix isn't the place for watching the latest sequel to the third remake of a film that was, in fact, shitty when it came out 25 years ago in the first place, it's quite possible to discover some amazing pieces of cinema that would otherwise escape the average Bit Torren--I mean internet user.

I'm honestly speaking when I say that the greatest films I have seen in my lifetime have all been things I've watched in the last year on Netflix.

There's no way to run statistics (yet, come on guys) but Netflix does keep a record of everything you've ever watched.

A quick tally of this page says that I've watched (in full, ignoring things I've started and not finished, and yes, Netflix always remembers where you left off) 156 things since October 1, 2010.  $87.89/156 = $0.56/item.

That's pretty hard to beat.  Didn't it cost like $5 to rent back when Blockbuster hadn't failed, plus the time, cost of gas, and risk of death to get there and the horrible return trip?

Almost all of my favorite films now are various independent ones that Netflix has an abundance of.

Below is a shortlist of my favorites in no particular order, and I suggest them to anyone who walks upright:

Keith

Holly

Dakota Skye

Gardens of the Night

Primer

Ip Man

Paths of Glory

Music Within

Mao's Last Dancer

Frozen River

The Visitor

Saving Face

Shattered Glass

Trade

Little Children

Lust, Caution

I will warn the squeamish that quite a few of these films are disturbing, dark dramas, and none of them are suitable for children.  Netflix does have a kids category, though.  Also, some of these films may no longer be available (like Primer).

I won't be making any comments on finance and current events, as my forecast from a couple months back hasn't changed in the slightest.

Good evening!

The Better Late than Never Canada Trip Entry

Alrighty then, I figure I should tell the tale of my Cross-Canada exploits before I go on leave again. It’s been five weeks since I got back and I kept finding excuses not to write this blog entry. In part, it’s because I’m lazy but it’s also due to the fact that I lack the eloquence to describe what I experienced. I’ll keep it simple and just show you, which fits with my laziness as well.


I will add one more thought to this blog. Whether I’m working or exploring, I am going to be travelling around the world for the rest of my life, yet I will always find some reason to return to Canada. If you don't understand why then you're just not paying enough attention.

Short Update

It's been an interesting couple of months since my last post, culminating in a long-overdue 14% drop in the TSX in just over 2 weeks, from July 22 to August 8. The icing on the cake was the S&P rating downgrade of US debt (no real surprise there...).

Year-to-date, the TSX is down about 6.5%, and the established downward trend I commented on last time, which manifested in April, is still holding.

Nonetheless, as a self-proclaimed value investor who primarily follows the Graham-Dodd theory, the three major investments I have made so far this year -- including one quite recently on June 21 -- are up 14%.

Not a bad situation to be in, by comparison.

Because I don't provide investment advice (disclaimer), I don't like to name specific companies, but I will say that after QE2 was wrapping up, the June stake was in an undervalued, major gold producer, in anticipation of the scenario that has played out over the last couple of weeks, and the other two investments were in a mid-tier zinc producer (since bought out at a nice premium, though still low-balled in my eyes) and a large silver fund.

I still very much like the medium-term outlook for precious metals, as I believe that whatever plays out from now until the US election will be positive for them; more fear in the market? Great! More rounds of QE? Even better.

About the only thing that can spoil my outlook would be the election of Ron Paul, and the subsequent monetary policy reform that he would lead, but I put the odds of that happening right now at about 10,000 : 1.

In other news, we have been travelling non-stop. The last 4 weeks alone have seen over 8,000km added to the odometers of our vehicles.

Managed to go on a few hikes, made a trip out to the lake in Saskatchewan, hurtled back and forth from Edmonton a few times, and completed a Top Gear-esque road trip through the best driving roads in BC (the winner for me was Kaslo to New Denver).

Things are slowly settling down now, although we have a wedding to go to this weekend.

Anton's planned stop in Elkford was enjoyable, though unfortunately I had to work and his hiking plans were somewhat crushed. Next time, buddy.

Anton's Amazing Race

Anton’s Amazing Race

Terry wrote an entry a few months ago admonishing the rest of us Canadians for not travelling within Canada often enough (See the post in March named “Change is Good”). He made some good points and funny enough I had similar thought processes several months earlier when deciding (and just as importantly budgeting) where I would like to spend my rotational leave this year. Here I am, a globetrotter since the age of six, and I have never been to the East coast of Canada. I resolved that one of my trips this year would take me there. Terry didn’t mention that the reason a lot of us don’t travel within Canada is that it can be more expensive to do so and this trip is no exception. FYI, one way car rentals are stupid expensive. Expense aside, I’ve put together a trip that’s going to take me from one coast to the other. I’ll admit that I’m skipping a lot of the stuff in between but when you check out my itinerary below, you’ll see it’s ridiculous enough as it is.

Ahem:

- Thursday July 28th 1:25 AM – Flight from Santo Domingo to New York
- Thursday July 28th 9:15 AM – Flight from New York to Halifax
- Thursday July 28th 3:15 PM - Flight from Halifax to St Johns
- Thursday July 28th in St Johns: George Street Festival – Great Big Sea Concert
- Friday July 29th in St Johns: Recover/Explore/Collect Water from Atlantic Ocean & More George Street Festival
- Saturday July 30th – Drive 8.5 hrs from St Johns to Rocky Harbour in Gros Morne National Park
- Sunday July 31st – Ascend Gros Morne Mountain 8hr Hike/Climb
- Monday August 1st – Hike/Boat Cruise through West Brook Pond in Gros Morne National Park
- Monday August 1st 8:00 PM– Leave Rocky Harbour and Drive 4.5 Hrs to Port Aux Basques
- Tuesday August 2nd 5:00 AM – Catch Ferry from Port Aux Basques to North Sydney Nova Scotia
- Tuesday August 2nd 12:00 PM – Drive from North Sydney to Cape Breton and follow the Cabot Trail
- Tuesday August 2nd 3:00 PM – Hike on headland north of Cheticamp, Nova Scotia 3 Hrs
- Tuesday August 2nd 6:00 PM - Drive to Ingonish Beach approx 2 Hrs
- Wednesday August 3rd – Breakfast in Ingonish Beach and a quick morning exploration
- Wednesday August 3rd 12:00 PM – Leisurely drive to Halifax Approx 5 Hrs
- Wednesday August 3rd 6:00 PM – Dinner in Halifax near the harbour and explore the old fort
- Thursday August 4th 5:45 AM – Fly from Halifax to Toronto
- Thursday August 4th 8:15 AM – Fly from Toronto to Edmonton
- Thursday August 4th in Edmonton – Kill time until people are off work
- Friday August 5th in Edmonton – See movie/buy supplies eat at Julio’s Barrio and drink myself silly
- Saturday August 6th in Edmonton – Different movie, different restaurant but essentially the same thing
- Sunday August 7th 12:00 PM – Drive to Elkford approximately 5.5 hrs depending on how adventurous I get with the gas pedal and if I stop in Calgary
- Sunday August 7th Evening – Lamplighter pub dinner for old times’ sake
- Monday August 8th – All day trip to Elk Lakes & hike to Petain Falls
- Tuesday August 9th 7:00 AM – Drive to Penticton BC along Highway 3 8.5 Hrs
- Tuesday August 9th 4:00 PM – Visits in Penticton potential dinner at best greek restaurant ever
- Wednesday August 10th - More visits in Penticton
- Wednesday August 10th 11:00 AM – Drive to Vancouver Airport (5hrs depending on traffic)
- Wednesday August 10th Evening – Gathering of friends & family depending on who's available
- Thursday August 11th Morning – Catch a ferry to the island, stop briefly in Nanaimo and drive to Tofino (est time 9 hours due to grandparents in Nanaimo)
- Thursday August 11th Evening – Dinner in Tofino
- Friday August 12th in Tofino – Dump water from Atlantic into Pacific (yay) Possible hike near Tofino
- Saturday August 13th 10:00ish – Drive to Nanaimo Approx 4 Hrs
- Saturday August 13th 6:00 PM – Attend Wedding in Duncan
- Sunday August 14th – Return to Vancouver & Chill
- Monday August 15th 2:25 PM – Fly to Dallas & Pass out
- Tuesday August 16th 7:10 AM – Fly to Santo Domingo via Miami and drive back to Minesite

DISCLAIMER: In no way can the above be considered relaxing. Side effects include fatigue, overdose of Tim’s Coffee, irritability, and one of the best damn experiences of your existence.

Air Travel - Always a Good Story

The best part about flying a lot is that you end up with a lot of stories about the random crap you've been through.

Today was no exception.

So the plan today was flying on Air Canada from Edmonton (YEG) to Baltimore (BWI) via Toronto Pearson (YYZ). I was to depart Edmonton at 7:00 am.

I wake up at the ungodly hour of 4:30 am to make sure I had enough time. After a shower, I pull out my phone for a quick email check. There's an email from Air Canada saying my flight has been delayed from 7:00 am to 8:20 pm arriving in Toronto at 8:00 am tomorrow.

(Aside: At this point in time (I now realize) I should have been suspicious because there was no notice informing me of what YYZ - BWI flight I had been rebooked on.)

So my heart essentially stops working as I dig around for the toll free number for Air Canada reservations. After being on hold briefly, I get an agent (miraculously, an anglophone). I tell him what's going on. He looks at his system and says "Hmmm that's weird. Let me put you on hold and I'll have a look into it."

Meanwhile, I check both Kayak (http://www.kayak.com) and FlightStats (http://www.flightstats.com). Both show the flight on time at 7:00 am. Odd. So I head over to Air Canada's website and my brain promptly explodes. They show the flight as on time but list the departure time the same as the email I received. Also odd was that they showed the flight being over 14 hours long. Normally, it's 4.

Finally the Air Canada agent returns and says he's waiting to hear back from someone who's calling YEG to check with them as they'll have the latest information. On hold again.

An agonizing 16 hours (actually, 3 minutes) later the Air Canada agent comes back and tells me YEG says the flight is on time.

Naturally all of this has taken some time. So now I'm running late. I rush out to my car to get to the airport.

I finally arrive at the terminal and discover that my flight (AC106) is not shown on the departure displays. I check in. No problems.

So I'm just about to start boarding (on-time) and I can't help but wonder what the hell happened to Air Canada's computers this morning.

More to come if the drama returns..

Things Are Picking Up

I imagine this post will be only a few sentences; I haven't had a whole lot of time to say much in the last few weeks, as this time of the year generally involves a lot of activity and travel for us, and 2011 has been no different...

I recall speaking a few weeks back about 14,000 on the TSX feeling like kryptonite, and it now appears that we may finally be seeing the result of QE2 getting up and leaving the table. The TSX closed just shy of 13,100 on Friday, and while a short-duration reversal back to the mid-13s is probably in order, a downward trend seems established.

The only question that remains is when QE3 will be announced. The US is not, and won't be, in a position to avoid both a) increasing the debt ceiling, despite the political noise this is currently generating, and b) avoiding further rounds of "Quantitative Easing".

The governments of the G20 have made it clear that they are either unable or unwilling to act in the manner necessary to bring expenses back in line with tax receipts. What would you say if your neighbor came up to you and said that he would continue to knowingly spend a great deal more than he makes until 2014? Just kidding, the majority of Canadians would probably invite the neighbor in to view their new credit-line-financed home renos over a glass of Cristal on granite in front of a 52" television continually tuned to HGTV (except when the only show on that channel worth watching is on).

What an age we live in; I may have to refill my popcorn bowl a few more times here on the positive net worth end of the theater, but the feature presentation is growing nearer, and it's going to be a good one.

Evil Genius Smarties Plan

It occurs to me (as things of this nature so often do) that there is an excellent way to twist the "always eat the red ones last" marketing scheme for Smarties into an evil genius plan.

It's quite simple, really. Lace all the Smarties colours save the red ones with some sort of slow-acting poison. Then, distribute exactly enough of an antidote for the total poison into the red ones. Ensure the antidote breaks down quickly so you can't build up an excess.

Now anyone who fails to heed your commands and doesn't eat the otherwise-identical candy covered chocolate things in an arbitrary marketing-derived order... dies! Muahahaha!

Everyone is a CEO

Regardless of whether you are single or married, employed or retired, every single person in this country is a CEO.

For example, I am the CEO (together with my wife, of course -- and above or below on the org chart, depending on who you ask) of the Morris Family Household Corporation.

I say this because managing a household is absolutely no different than managing a multinational corporation or the federal government, the numbers just have fewer zeroes. Of course, absolute digits really don't matter a whole lot anyway, because in the end it's looking at the numbers in relative percentage terms that shows where the truth lies.

Furthermore, one can draw the conclusion that the majority of businesses and governments must be poorly managed, as so too are the financial affairs of most families -- the same average household with 150%+ of their disposable income in debt represents the same average household that contains the same average people in many top managerial and political roles...

How can you get ahead if you don't even track what's going on?

The Morris Family Household Corporation has been a highly successful business venture thus far; this has been primarily due to a lot of hard work (as it should be).

Over the last few years, the corporation has been through a merger (the marriage of my wife and I), a year of capital intensive research and development leading to the introduction of a new product line (our 5 month old son), and ongoing capital investment.

The majority of our success has stemmed from how we do business.

We have an annual capital and operating budget, we establish goals, and we are always aware of exactly where every cent of our income goes (the majority, of course, is to taxes).

We also produce income statements and maintain a balance sheet, which allow for the easy analysis of our state of affairs.

We track expenditures by cost center and can make comparisons over time.

Most importantly, we use this information to make strategic management decisions.

Our last decision of such resulted in the relocation of our corporate headquarters to capitalize on an opportunity that will significantly increase our total revenue in 2011 over 2010, while at the same time halving our actively employed staff (my wife doesn't need to work), eliminating the expense, time, and risk of a work commute, and significantly reducing our fixed expenses.

So, fellow CEO, are you aware of how your business is performing?

I will follow this up on a later date with a lesson on budgeting.

Lastly, on an entirely unrelated note, have a watch:

The Crime of Being A Victim

Unfortunately, this entry has nothing to do with my travels.

I read a story in the news today that startled me. It was about a woman who was apparently beheaded at random in a Spanish resort marketplace on the Canary Islands. The crime allegedly committed by some Bulgarian homeless man.

My first reaction wasn’t what you would expect. There was no horror; there was no anger; there was no emotion period. I, like many people these days, am desensitized to hearing about acts of violence through the media. Instead, the thought that ran through my head was, “How?”

I mean, how could that have happened? I don’t mean how that vagrant could do such a thing. I personally believe that there are no limits to human depravity and that anyone and everyone has the capability to do horrible things. What I mean is, how could he physically do it uninterrupted in the middle of crowded marketplace?

I apologize in advance to the squeamish people reading this but I have to be somewhat descriptive to make my point. You see, a human being, like any other animal, will not just sit there and let you slowly kill it. This man beheaded the woman with a knife that he stole from the same market and there is no way to quickly behead someone with a knife.

That leaves one possibility; the man must have killed the woman with the knife and then beheaded her. There are multiple ways to do this but none of them are exactly quick. The quicker ways, like a knife through the heart, require precision execution that I doubt the hobo in question could pull off. Based on this line of thought, the woman would have suffered a slow, violent, and excessively noticeable death in the midst of a crowd of people.

And nobody stepped in to help.

There is well documented research that classifies this as the Bystander Effect or Genovese Syndrome. It explains the phenomenon observed in the above story. It basically confirms that people are much closer to sheep than sentient beings.

One of the main tracks within the research is the concept of diffusion of responsibility. In layman’s terms, it explains that when a group is confronted with this sort of situation they think the following:

“Someone else is bound to help.”

In short, this pisses me off. This mentality allowed the woman in Spain to become a victim. This mentality ensures that there will be many more victims. By not taking responsibility on themselves these people are implicit and responsible for the death of this woman. They may not have been able to save that woman but they should have tried. This all too human phenomenon is flat out as criminal as the act of killing was.

Now, you are probably thinking, “Who are you to judge? Would you have done any different?”

The answer is yes I would have and more to point I have before on several occasions. I didn’t jump in a front of a knife but I did put myself at risk. There was a similar story about a year ago about a man who was stabbed and bled to death in a crowded street after saving a woman from the same fate. That man is what all of you should be like. Whether he knew it or not, that man was willing to die to help that woman, as it should be. Some things are worth dying for. Ironically, the preservation of life is one of them.

But most, if not all, of you are more like the crowd in that market on the Canary Islands.

That makes some of you victims waiting to happen and the others…potential criminals who are victims of circumstance.

Adventures In Scotland

Ahh Scotland

Though I had fun in London, Scotland was the reason I went on this trip and it was all that I hoped it would be.

Of course one of the first things you see on your way to Scotland is a gigantic rock where someone has spray painted the following:

“Welcome to Scotland, Sorry you had to pass through all that SHIITE to get here”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, sums up the attitudes of the Scots towards the English.

It takes talent to hold a grudge for so many centuries. Mind you, they aren’t alone in their intense dislike of the English. The Irish, Aussies, Kiwis (another pair that don’t get along), Welsh, French and even Americans (who the whole world hates) don’t generally regard the POM’s with anything approaching friendliness.

Still…I met an older couple at the hotel bar in Edinburgh and we struck up a conversation. The man introduced himself and then introduced his wife of 35 years as “This is my wife Leslie, she’s English… but I’ll forgive her because she’s good looking.”

…

One funny thing about this animosity is that it really flows only one way. The English are somewhat indifferent towards their northern neighbours. The other funny thing is that the Scots are always bringing it up in conversation. I’m generalizing but I met a good sample of Scots and it always came up.

Ever-present animosity aside, Scots are just plain awesome, and as much as I didn’t fit in while exploring London, I was just one of the crowd in Scotland. They have awesome food (haggis is tasty), fantastic beer and great whiskey (if you go, don’t call it scotch or it’s your head). Even better, they are always willing to strike up a conversation with the random Canadian tourists that pop in.

Another thing that is centuries old in Scotland is its capital city, Edinburgh (note the spelling does not reflect the number of syllables or pronunciation of the word). London had museums with lots of old things in them. The City of Edinburgh is a gigantic museum exhibition. The streets in downtown are paved with stone, each building in the area is ancient, and the landscape is dominated by Edinburgh Castle. It’s freakin cool man!

Ahem…

A warning though…Edinburgh and Scotland in general are not considered healthy by the Liver Association of Anton.

After my stay in the Capital I ventured further North and rented a car in Inverness. For your information, a Peugeot 308 is, in my opinion, garbage and I suggest not buying one. Driving on the other side of the road turned out to be easier than everyone claims. Driving with the steering wheel on the other side of the car was the weird part.

Despite the distraction of learning to drive again, it was immediately apparent that I came to right place to see another world. The highlands are amazing. They don’t possess the grandiose snow covered peaks of the Rockies but they are spectacular in their own right. I wandered the shore of Loch Ness, explored the coastline near Ullapool and climbed the mountain known as Ben Wyvis. The Scottish Highlands possess an eerie quality which is sadly beyond the limits of my eloquence to describe (So I attached photos). The one and only regret of this trip is that I didn’t set aside more time to explore further north.







I guess that means that I have to go back. How terrible is that?

The UK ... Episode 1

Alrighty Then…

I’ve suffered through the first and extremely chaotic week back at work so I’ll take the time reminisce about my trip. It’s mainly for my benefit but I’ll throw Terry a bone too.

First things first, British Airways was a different flying experience and in a good way. It’s still an airplane, you’re still stuck in it for an ungodly amount of time but you are considered a human being. They serve you free drinks and meals (all included in the ticket price) and will gladly try to accommodate any request you have. The entertainment system is updated to the individual touch screens that allow you watch whatever selection you wish, unlike some other airlines (cough… !$#@!&* AMERICAN…cough). To top it off, the seat is actually comfortable.
Even more shocking than a somewhat pleasant flying experience was the immigration and customs process. I was not, I repeat not, treated like a criminal. I showed them my passport, told them I was a tourist, said I had nothing to declare and then simply walked out into the arrival area.

Ok, so that’s it for the mundane travelling portion. I arrived in London at 10:00 AM local time. I grabbed a train, transferred to The Tube and checked into the Radisson Kenilworth Hotel. I spent the next four days exploring the city, museums and the nightlife. I spent over four hours in the British National Museum. The one where they house all of the Egyptian artifacts including the Rosetta Stone. I also made a point of visiting the RAF museum which was incredible, and incredibly haunting.

The nightlife was wild.

I’m not going to incriminate myself online but I had a great time. I met tons of people and found that in London there’s somebody willing to drink to excess no matter what night of the week it is (This worked greatly to my benefit). Oddly enough, there were more people from around the world than there were from the UK. I met American servicemen from Germany, Aussies, Chileans, French, Fellow Canadians and actual Germans.

I have to comment on the way they dress in London. I’ll give you a hint; they don’t dress like me (like a country bumpkin that is). Everyone, men and women, seem to make it a point to dress somewhat more…upscale. I walked down Oxford Street (sort of like Robson Street in Vancouver) and the sheer amount of people shopping for ridiculously priced clothing was overwhelming. Suffice to say I became hopelessly irritated by the crowd within two minutes, despite while to breathe deep and not snap the necks of the idiots standing still in the middle of the %@!%! sidewalk. Crowd and irritation aside, it was obvious they take their clothes seriously in London.

Well, that’s all for now folks. Tune in next time to hear about my Adventures in Scotland.

April Rant

EDIT: For anyone who is interested, this article is an excellent discussion of inflation.

It has been quite a while since my last post. In part, this is because I'm lazy, but it is also because I don't like writing for the sake of writing; I prefer to have an idea first.

I'm still light on ideas these days, but I'll give this a shot:

The market is still incredibly overbought (14,000 on the TSX has been like kryptonite). Earnings multiples are huge, and there is no sign of any continuance of QE in the USA beyond QE2's completion in June. We stand a good chance of the ol' "sell in May and go away" quite soon, though I don't see Mr. Bernanke being able to pull any more rabbits out of his hat in August to have the sellers come back (though, in honesty, I didn't anticipate QE2 either).

Aside from that, silver has performed spectacularly (those who bought even just 2 months ago are up 30+%), though caution is becoming necessary. There is no good reason to go way overweight on precious metals. Discipline is simultaneously the easiest thing to understand in investing and the hardest to apply. Emotional decisions tend to cost money. Try to form a set of baseline rules and stick to them. I've always been a fan of the rule of thumb that precious metals should form, at most, 10% of one's portfolio. The only way I can add to my position, in absolute terms, is to inject capital into my entire portfolio.

Oil has also done well, but not for the reasons our overlords state. The fact is, the US has tripled its monetary base since 2008, and as such, prices of commodities denominated in that currency will eventually have to triple. It's a shitty situation, really, because true inflation is running well above 7% (annually) right now, so anyone who has made typical gains in equities has essentially been pacing inflation, at best. Of course, this means that anyone who has been saving money in GICs or a savings account is quickly losing purchasing power (indexed government pensioners aside, I'd hate to be years into my retirement right now).

From March of 2010 to March of 2011, gasoline has risen in price 19%, and fresh produce is up 19% as well. Coffee is up 10%, sugar is up 8%. Electricity is up 4%. There are lots more.

The government conveniently strips out anything that jumps in value (so, you know, food and gas) to come up with something called "core inflation", which lets them convince Joe Public that everything is OK. The fact is, people need to buy gasoline and food more than anything else. It's safe to say that wages haven't increased 18% year over year. The continuing practice of manipulating the way inflation is measured to justify an unnecessary low-interest rate policy is only going to delay the inevitable and make things worse.

Going forward, I still think silver has some considerable upside, though we can very easily get into bubble territory if the public starts buying in a major way. At a 30:1 ratio with the gold price, we are still far below the, albeit long-term, historical average.

There are still some good plays out there in oil, as well, though as I said, these positions will essentially follow inflation in the near term.

Achieving returns that surpass true inflation is going to be a considerable task going forward.

For the future, I'm starting to consider a shift toward defensive stocks, in anticipation of a summer decline.

April has been a busy month for us. We've have travelled to Edmonton twice, Vancouver, and I'm off to Cranbrook this weekend. I'll be off to Vancouver again in May for work, and once summer is in full swing (if that ever happens) we'll be gallivanting all over Western Canada, as per usual.

One thing that won't be taking up any of my time in May, though, is voting.

Call me what you will, but my argument for abstaining is the following.

1) I want no shred of responsibility for any one of these idiots getting into power.
2) There is no candidate that represents my values (and I don't want to run...yet).

The first candidate to come out and say "I will lay off public sector employees until the budget is balanced" would have my vote. This won't happen.

The first candidate to say "Government spending will be less than tax receipts for the next 25 years so we can pay down the national debt" would have my vote. This won't happen either.

The first candidate to say "All MP's will be paid a salary equivalent to the average Canadian's annual earnings (less than $46,000 a year) so that their decisions are in line with the plight of the average Canadian." would have my vote. Again, this won't happen; how can we trust important economic decisions to politicians who pull in a salary that puts them in a completely different class of people?

It doesn't matter who wins next week, the result will be the same. Continuing necessity goods inflation and debt-financed asset deflation (on the way).

The one thing that would get me to the polls, other than a smart candidate, would be a box on the ballot that said "None of the above".

In addition, if the majority of the public voted this option, then all the candidates would be thrown out and new ones would be nominated, and another election held, until somebody won.

Seems pretty simple to me.

This ended up being a lot longer than I thought.

Peace out, bitches.

Wandering the Globe yet Not Quite by Myself

Well hello all fans/obliging family members who read the Sentient Deli. I’m Anton, yet another friend of Terry’s with his own slanted view of the world. Terry has asked me to blog (still surprised that’s considered a verb) all of my travels so that he can live vicariously through me. I work at a gold mine in the Dominican Republic and every six weeks I go gallivanting around the planet to wherever my impulses take me.

The most recent urge took me to the United Kingdom but I’m not going to get into it right now as I don’t have the time required to discuss all of which I’d like to. Instead, I’m going to comment on the best invention for us wandering types ever to be created.

Smartphones.

That’s correct; the best things ever created for travelers are smartphones. Let me illustrate this with a bit of my experience.

I woke up in my hotel on my first day in London and set out. I had just updated my friends and family as to my location and activities through both Facebook and a quick phone call. I then found the directions to the British National Museum using Google maps and while walking there, started researching areas to get lunch (as in good pubs). While eating lunch, I also found and booked hotels for the second half of my journey in Scotland in addition to scoping out the best area in London to party on a Monday night.

All of that information took mere minutes to find. I did not have to line up at a tourist information center, I did not have to harass random locals with annoying tourist questions and best of all I did it all on the fly. The prepaid SIM card cost a total of 15 Canadian dollars for which I received 500mb of access, 3000 or so text messages and 10 dollars in phone credits.

Throughout my trip: I was never lost, I was never bored and I was always connected.

Bloody Brilliant.

I recommend you never leave home without one.

Well, that`s all for now. I will of course follow up with details of the actual trip lest I provoke Terry.

On the Road... Again

Hey hey, there's an Android app for Blogger. I have submitted an image of yesterday's dinner for inspection.

Working in Calgary is really lame right now. Unseasonably cold weather and problems with the project make it seem like I will be here forever.

I am starting to think most people's interest in some sports is rooted in not having anything else to do. With hockey on at virtually every restaurant I've been to in the past eight weeks I am actually slightly interested in the playoffs... yikes.

On the other hand, I genuinely enjoy watching curling every now and then so I am probably just not wired right for hockey and the like.

Anyone have any tips for things to do after dinner in Calgary on weeknights? I've already exhausted walking through the nearby malls and the current movies that interest me at the theatre.

Choir

So this will be a bit of a departure from my normal posts about travel and random bits of the internet, but I think it will, at least, be interesting.

Most people may not know this, but I am a big fan of choral music.  I sing in a large chorus and direct a rather small (but fun) one.  Recently I have become somewhat obsessed with choral music on YouTube.  In specific, The King's Singers and Eric Whitacre.  So I've decided to devote this post to talking about some of my favourites that I've found.

The King's Singers
The King's Singers are a British group formed in the late 1960s by a group of choral scholars from King's College in Cambridge.  Since then, there have been a few changes in membership but they have always remained supremely British in styling.  Their tone is generally pure with only a hint of vibrato as a colour rather than a staple.  They also make fantastic use of a very uniquely British tongue-in-cheek sense of humour.

Their repertoire is impressively wide and varied.  The core of this repertoire has always been madrigals, mostly French and English.  The French madrigal Il Est Bel et Bon by Pierre Passereau best shows off the incredible skill and flexibility that this group possesses.  For those not familiar with choral works, singing that quickly and accurately is extremely difficult.  Contrasting the traditional madrigals, the King's Singers are also big fans of modern and pop music.  This ranges from their love of the Beatles (such as Blackbird) to more "untraditional" choir repertoire such as Duke Ellington's Creole Love Call which has no actual words but simply sounds mimicking a jazz ensemble.

However, my two favourite pieces (as far as I've discovered) are Masterpiece and Spem In Alium.  These two pieces could not be any more unique from each other but both manage to highlight the King's Singers' immense talent.

Masterpiece is a rather recent piece by Paul Drayton in which each section is devoted to a composer or period of music throughout the history of western classical music.  Each composer's distinctive style is cleverly, accurately, and humourously imitated producing a very interesting look at the last 400 years of music history.

Spem in Alium is a motet composed by the English composer Thomas Tallis in the 1570s.  The unique part of it is that it was written for a total of 40 voices in 8 choirs of 5.  To accomplish this, the King's Singers' "perform" the piece in a recording studio and use a technique called multitracking to layer their own voices on top of each other producing a uniquely thick and warm texture.

The King's Singers have also recently published two full concerts to YouTube.  This includes 2006's From Byrd to The Beatles and their 2008 Live at the BBC Proms celebrating their 40th anniversary.  The first is especially interesting to me as it includes some behind-the-scenes information on Spem In Alium.

Eric Whitacre
Eric Whitacre is an American choral composer who focuses on very dense pan-diatonic chords which produce a unique sound and style.  However, the more interesting thing about Whitacre is his new concept of the virtual choir.  He will publish a video of himself conducting one of his pieces and requests people from around the world to submit a video recording of them singing one or more parts.  Not only is this notable for the fact that he essentially gives away the music for this purpose, it produces choirs which are uniquely diverse and massive.

The first virtual choir was put together in 2010 and featured Whitacre's Lux Aurumque.  Over 200 videos were submitted by 185 people in 12 countries.  It was an immense success with over 2.5 million views to date.  In the light of that success, another virtual choir was put together this year using Sleep.  The response was impressive.  Over 2000 voices from 58 countries submitted themselves.  This included several full choirs who recorded the piece together.  The result is beyond impressive.  Having 2000 choristers sing together in a single physical location would be nearly impossible, but through the magic of the internet, we can hear what that might sound like.

Soon...

I just finished a barrage of road trips totalling over 4,000km in the last 10 days. Thus, I am going to be skipping out this week again on posting.

Perhaps one of the others can grace us with a slice of wit this week.

Home Pwnership

For those of you who aren't gamers, 'Pwnership' is intentional.

First, before reading any further, please read this brief article from the Financial Post.

Then, read this part again:

Of the 24.5 million returns filed, 18 million Canadians reported total income of $50,000 or less. That’s not a typo. In other words, ignoring individuals who don’t file returns such as children, nearly 75% of tax-filing Canadians earned under $50,000 in total income in 2009.


Add another 5 million Canadians who reported total income of between $50,000 and $100,000 and you conclude that about 95% of individuals have income below $100,000 annually.

Let that settle for a minute and you will start to see why current consumer behavior and real estate prices in Canada should be so concerning.

Let's take the $50,000 total annual income level as a benchmark and run some quick math.

Total Federal and Provincial income tax payable is in the region of $9,000 for an Albertan (though, this ranges from $6,725 in Nunavut to $10,654 in Nova Scotia -- if anyone wants to pay a low rate of income tax, live and work in a territory...).

That leaves us with about $41,000 of net income left to play with.

Now, before going any further with things like cost of living and such, let's recall a previous post I made, where I talked about the kind of money one needs to set aside to even consider retirement at age 55.

I'm going to make an assumption here that the same, above-average, $41,000 net annual income Canadian is going to want to retire and do at least a few of those things the big banks' television commercials show the withered and decrepit engaging in.

This person, therefore, contributes his or her maximum RRSP amount each year, which is 18%, or $9,000.

This generates a tax return of $2,900, which is more than half of that person's annual TFSA contribution room, and we will assume they will top that off with an additional $2,100, to equal the current $5,000 maximum.

We are now left with $41,000 - $9,000 - $2,100 = $29,900 in remaining coin, and we have generated a fairly sizable retirement lump sum of $817,000 after 30 years of employment (calculated in the same way as the previous post).  We will certainly be a little bit above my $2,000 per month comfort level, as discussed previously, and even more so if the person works a bit longer.

Now, let's go onto the fun of living costs.

Rent or buy, this person is going to be looking at negative cash flow of at least $1,000 a month, assuming they plan to live alone.  $29,900 - $12,000 = $17,900.  We will assume utilities and taxes to be included here, to save on some math, though this is highly forgiving.

He or she will need to eat, so let's call that $300/month (average is in the range of 10% of gross, so we are undershooting this): $17,900 - $3,600 = $14,300.

We also need a car, because this example takes place in Alberta, and for a pretty basic 2011 Corolla and fuel, insurance, etc., this will come out to about $310/month = $3,720 + $2,000 in annual fuel (24,000km @ 7.5L/100km @ $1.10/L) + $250 in maintenance + $1400 in insurance, totalling $7,370.  No consideration for depreciation right now.

Average transportation cost is in the range of 12-14% of gross, so we are in range here.

Even so, $14,300 - $7,370 = $6,930.

We haven't done anything at this point besides pay for somewhere to live, food, something to get us around, and ensure the possibility of a dignified retirement, and we have less than 7 grand left for the entire year.

A smartphone with a decent data plan is going to run around $1,200 a year, and high speed internet about half of that.

Now we are down to $6,930 - $1,200 - $600 = $5,130.

At this rate, it should seem clear why banks need to offer cash back mortgages in this country to keep business going.

Even at a level of income greater than 75% of all Canadians, it would take that person over three and a half years just to save up the 5% minimum down payment for the average $366,000 Canadian home, much less 20% (assuming they plan to both own a home and retire, and not one or the other as the case certainly is right now).

And that's with no budgeted provision for hookers and blow on the weekends, yearly winter pilgrimages to climates with sun and cheap booze, or the daily $5 latte at Starbucks.

Granted, you can make the argument that perhaps my retirement outlay is too high, or that dual incomes change the picture, but my response would be that I have been extremely conservative on the cost of living side of the equation as it is.

Children, furniture, clothing, healthcare, recreation, education, gifts, tobacco & alcohol.


Those all cost more than zero, and I'm certain that whatever amount you pull out of the retirement amount would quickly disappear into the above.

All I'm trying to illustrate is that since the majority of new $450,000 Calgary subdivisions are not filled with houses full of people singing Kumbaya with the lights turned off and their single Toyota Corolla tucked away in the garage, we certainly aren't going to gallop into the sunset together with our chariots full of gold (well, I will...).