Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Approaches

The final Harry Potter book is just around the corner, and we can't help but speculate what'll happen--mainly, who'll die, and how is everything going to end. The speculations run from cliche (Voldermont kills Snape, Harry kills Voldermont) to wild (Harry & Ron as a couple, and Draco Malfoy & Snape as a couple: the Pride edition).

All that guesswork was fun until someone told me the book is already leaked on the internet! Now I'm totally obsessed to hunt down the multiple versions I'm sure are flying around, and determined to detect the real from the fakes!

To my amusement and bewilderment, one of the most "authentic" leaks was not done in the usual text/Word/PDF formats, but as a series of pictures of the physical book, obviously taken with one hand pinning the book down on ground (carpet to be exact) and the other hand snapping the photos. The internet, as always, are torn between the "it's real"/"it's fake" camps (when do people ever agree on anything on the net anyways?), while I'm saving my judgement until the real book comes out. Or I should say, attempting to refrain myself from reading too much of this possibly real/fake book--gosh don't I hate it when I really want to know the ending of any novel/story and can't get my hands on the anwser!

When NOT to Show Your Competitors' Prices

There are times when your product is, for all intents and purposes, identical to your competitors' offerings. More often than not, customers will choose the cheapest one. If your price is lower than your competitors', you'll want to advertise that as your selling point.

Term life insurance is one such simple product--either you die within the term (and money is paid out), or you don't.

While straightening my finance yesterday, I was mildly contemplating getting a term life insurance. Since I was doing internet banking on TD's site at that time, I requested a quote for 10-year $250k term life, which works out to $16.85/month.

To my surprise, TD also offers quotes from 10+ major competitors--and TD is the most expensive among all:

Well, thanks for telling, TD. Now I know whom to call for my term life!

1999 Toyota Corolla, Like New

After talking about it for more than six months, Daniel and I finally took our car to the mechanic on Saturday. For the past few months, we both thought the car's performance had deteriorated, due to heavy usage, to a point where we actually started to contemplate whether we should buy a new car.

When the shop owner pulled out his file and found we haven't had a tune-up in two years! Mind you, these two years aren't any "regular" years neither. With the Kitchener-GTA commute, we were piling up mileage like crazy, adding almost 1000km each week.

The owner took the car to a test drive along with Daniel, and noticed a few things wrong immediately. When he finally gave us an estimate, it was at an eye-popping price -- $1240! That included 4 new tires, 2 pairs of brake pads, sanding the brake drums, new spark plugs, new tensioner, new air filter, alignment, plus regular maintenance including oil change. Given all the work done, it was actually priced very reasonably. We gave the shop green light (and shelled out the dough rather relucantly), and the car was ready in a couple of hours.

After we picked up the car, we noticed a lot of differences: it became quieter, turning was smoother, easier to stop, gas pedal was responsive once again. In fact, we were so happy with the results we've decided to push back the next car purchase another year or two--or five, until it rusts or dies in the middle of winter or just become unresponsive again.

This semi-unexpected expense has eaten into our plan to max out the prepayment amount of our mortgage for the first year. We'll also need to pay the remaining $1k on our sofa when it's delievered in a few weeks. On top of that, we have to set aside money for the portage trip coming up in August, and should get the air tickets to HK real soon now. To ease the pain (of spending too much), I like to think of the $1240 as an ongoing expense deferred two years (it is), and as a small investment for pushing back the new car purchase a few years (thus saving us thousands of dollars). Besides, Siu Wai said he just spent $600 fixing nothing other than the seat belt of his MB, which already costs more than our 4 new tires. Now I don't feel as bad.

I am $10k Richer!

Out of boredom, I went to MLS and checked for listings in my condo building today. To my excitement/amusement, the unit three floors below ours is currently listed at $245k!

Assuming the potential buyer can knock 2% off the listed price (about the norm), the unit will still be $10k more than what we paid for ours. In other words, the value of our home has risen over 4% in 6 months.

A pretty good birthday gift the market gave me, I'd say, even if only on paper. =)

Update: The unit is sold already, only 1/2 hour after I first saw its listing!

Long Weekend = Work Work?

The Canada Day Long weekend is (almost) behind me. A super-short recap:

• Friday night: left office late, went to 茶餐廳 for dinner, dropped by at my parents' place, then got home and surf/work until 5am.
• Saturday: Woke up around 3:30, had Korean for breakfast/lunch/dinner (because we were starving), then got home and surf/work some more. Slept around 6am.
• Sunday: Woke up around 4 and checked my scripts all finished running = no more work! Went to Canadian Tire to buy car wax and touch-up paint, also picked up the 6-person tent that's on sale this week. Then went to 鴻福堂 for dinner -- started feeling sick during dinner. Got home and had a 2-hour nap, while Daniel waxed the car. Headache got much worse over the evening. Finally puked, and went to bed shortly after, around 1am.
• Monday: First Anniversary! Woke up 1-ish. A a major part of celebration, Daniel decided to fix me a nice dinner. He wanted to go grocery shopping, but soon found out all grocery stores around town are closed for the holiday. Went to Lobster Trap instead. Opened up the new tent and found it a little bigger than expected... whatever, it's 1/2 price. Started planning portage trip.