Coin Bank Machine deposits

I have a problem. It's not a big problem. More of an issue.

I have a lot of coins (about $64 dollars of rolled coin) and a PC Financial Bank account. The problem is that while PC Financial offers free bank accounts, they do not offer teller service.

I wish a local bank or store had a Coinstar, or similar machine, that would allow me to convert coin into paper money for a small fee.

Better yet, I wish there was a bank machines in town that was equipped with coin counters, for ease of deposit.

Being that it is Christmas time, I was thinking I could donate some of the cash, but I will feel a little foolish bringing a first full of rolled coins to a charity's administration desk.

When I was in university I enjoyed using our Canon Rebel DSLR when volunteering for the student paper. That was in the early 2000's. I want to have a DSLR to play with again. I'm considering the following:

• Canon EOS 1000D / Digital Rebel XS
• Canon EOS 450D / Digital Rebel XSi
• Nikon D60
• Sony Alpha DSLR-A350

Price is a factor as are reviews. I'm partial to the reviews at dpreview.com but am willing to take anonymous advice from commenters.

I was impressed with what could be done with the 2003 generation Canon Rebel, and surely would be pleased with any of the above.

As much as I hate to admit, my desire to get a new camera was reignited in part by the recent Avril Lavigne ads for the Rebel XSi.

Thanksgiving gets Rickrolled

A float at the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade was Rickrolled this year (though it is pretty apparent that the Rickrolled float was in on the joke). All the same it is a little funny. Read about it on NME. Video below:

For good measure here's the best Rickrolling themed video I've seen. The Barack Roll:

Mr. T endorsed cooking product

I caught the end of an informercial for the Flavorwave Turbo. A cooking product has to be good when it's endorsed by Mr. T.

Gas Prices going down, already less than much of the world

Portfolio.com has a really cool interactive map where you can compare the average gas prices in different countries of the world. One can easily see that we in Canada have a lower prices than much of Europe and Africa and parts of Asia and South America.

According to the CBC gas guru gasoline in New Brunswick should be going down another $0.03 per litre tonight.

Sea Shepherds TV

Paul Watson is a maverick environmental activist. I watched in the film Sharkwater his Sea Shepherds organization attempt to stop high-seas criminals killing sharks for fins. His techniques involve ramming offending boats and violent and non-violent action to stop those who are decimating our seas through irresponsible practices. Fredericton blogger Spinks ranked Watson as number 28 on his list of 101 People Screwing Up Canada, calling him an eco-terrorist.

I've recently seen previews for Animal Planet show Whale Wars on which the Sea Shepherds hoist their Jolly Roger and try to stop the whaling that is depleting the numbers of these large sea animals.

I expect the show to be exciting drama, but full of heart breaking imagery of dieing animals. I hope to watch this show if ever its replaying on channels in my cable package.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians. I went to a family dinner yesterday that was full of Thanksgiving goodies - including my homemade cranberry sauce.

A highlight of my Thanksgiving weekend has to be getting to see Iron Chef America: Battle Cranberry, featuring Giada de Laurentiis and Rachael Ray. There are a number of clips from the episode on YouTube. All sorts of sweet and savoury cranberry dishes.

Mispec River

A friend and I went on a pretty cool hike today that involved crossing the Mispec River with our shoes off and pant cuffs rolled up to our knees. Below a few photos along the river and of my damp, post-crossing feet.

I'm a PC just like BG

I love the new Microsoft ads. The commercials play off of the Mac ads that paint PCs a dull, by introducing PC users as hip, including Pharrell Williams, astronauts, architects, designers and others. The ad campaign website is at http://imapc.lifewithoutwalls.com/ with the commercials posted at http://imapc.lifewithoutwalls.com/watch/

(I posted this from my Toshiba notebook)

Save.ca

I'm trying to be frugal of late - bad economic times and all. In my adventures in saving I have started visiting Save.ca. The technology allows you to browse for product coupons that are sent to you by mail. I like the coupons and am likely to continue using the service, but it seems like a half-step to me, to have an online resource that sends hard copy coupons when downloadable and printable versions would be cheaper for the companies involved.

Who should I vote for

I'm considering who I should vote for in the upcoming federal election. My options are:

• Liberal Paul Zed
• Conservative Rodney Weston
• New Democrat Tony Mowery
• Green Michael Richardson

Federal politics interest me, but I'm no expert. Here are my thoughts. Offer your thoughts in the comments section.

Zed seems to push for local issues and seems able to work with a party that isn't his when his isn't in government.

Rodney Weston has experience with the provincial government and could likely move into the position of MP without too much of a learning curve. Also, if the Conservatives win (which appears likely), Saint John would have a government member (which is supposed to be a good thing).

Tony Mowery seems to get local issues and was popular in the west side in the recently municipal election. I agree with the NDP on many social issues, though I'm concerned about how they would be at governing (spending money on social programs is good, but running a Federal Budget with no previous experience could be tough).

Mike Richardson seems to be a pretty reasonable guy. I respect that he ran for mayor (with little chance of winning) in spite of critics saying he should work on name recognition first. I think the Green's ideology that the economy and the environment must both be considered in policy decisions. Still, I bet Mike Richardson's run will likely just get "his name out there." This will be positive for his future in local politics.

I have until October to decide, and am open to suggestions.

House, without ads

I just watched an episode of House on the Global TV website. I find it odd that there is no advertising on these full episode. The show was split into 6 clips, I'm surprised that none of them started with an advertisement. The only revenue generation seems to be from a small still ad at the bottom of the screen.

I wonder what the revenue model is for showing TV programs in their entirety without forcing me to watch tradition TV style ads. I doubt dose.ca's ad at the bottom of the page generates as much cash for the TV station as the advertising during the show's original broadcast.

Edit: There is also a 3 ad, Google Adsense text ad.

Natural Gas follow up

I visited the Enbridge NB website. The comparison of fuel on a litre to litre basis that I wrote about yesterday is clarified on the Enbridge site by this:

• "Note: These charges are strictly commodity vs. commodity and do not account for equipment efficiencies."

The site also offers a comparison between the price of electricity and the price of natural gas. The comparison of these heat sources is done on the basis of price per kilowatt hour. This sort of comparison is likely to be more helpful to consumers than the per litre comparison offered when comparing oil to gas.

Natural Gas

I recently saw a bill board promoting natural gas as a home heating fuel.

The sign indicates that natural gas costs $0.15 less per litre than heating oil.

The problem I see with this as a measure of cost effectiveness is simple: we don't measure fuel effeciency in litres. If natural gas and oil don't produce the same amount of heat per litre, then cost per litre doesn't help us decide which is a better deal.

If we are to decide which fuel is a better deal, we need to compare cost per heating unit; perhaps a sign that tells us cost per BTU would better assist customers in making an informed decision about heating costs.

Another issue one must consider before making a decision is the upfront costs associated with each fuel type.

Keeping our cool

I just heard on CBC's Quirks and Quarks Andrew Weaver, environmental scientist and author of Keeping Our Cool: Canada in a Warming World.

My understanding of science is limited to high school courses, and documentary watching. Still, Weaver said something that made me question what he had to say about global warming. Weaver said that the global warming symptoms are worse than projected by the most "pessimistic" models.

What I am curious about is this: if the results of global warming are worse than models project, meaning the models do not yield results replicated in the real world, are the models valid?

While the concepts around global warming and the human causes seem realistic to me (again, I'm not that scientific), if we are depending on models to make decisions about how we react to global warming, shouldn't we rely on models that march reality?

New Home

I've moved into my new apartment. The move was a little stressful, but everything I own fit, so that's good news. I like my new apartment, it's pretty modern inside. The building, in the Heritage Preservation area, should give me instant cred, with the uptownsy folks ;)

Getting out of my old place taught me a lesson though. Make sure your landlord follows the rentalsman regulations. My former roommate and I realized too late that the landlord did not forward our damage deposit to the rentalsman and is now claiming we have to pay (from our deposit) to fix various damages that existed before we moved in.

YouTube Find: David Sides

I found a piano cover of my favourite (non-Shatner) karaoke song (Party Like a Rock star). The pianist is David Sides, and he has a lot of cool piano covers of popular songs.

Improv Everywhere

I like making people uncomfortable, causing scenes and pretending I am able to create performance art. Thus I love Improv Everywhere and their mass of YouTube videos in which they pull off quirky acts of mass participation in public places. One event had a group of 200 or so holding in the same position for 5 minutes in Grand Central Station. Another event was an impromptu seeming musical in a food court.

A local comedy/improv group worked on a similar project involving folks listening to directions and going through a series of actions through mp3 player headphones. I missed the event, but aim to participate in a future improv experience.

Ivan Court uses public private partnership

According to 94 FM News,

• "The paperwork is flowing at the Planning Department in city hall -- so much so -- Mayor Ivan Court says an outside firm has been hired to help process the growing number of development applications."

Hopefully no one lets the mayor or his brother know that this is a public private partnership.

Irving Media Monopoly

The hip people in town love telling up that Irving has a monopoly on local media and thus they are evil.

They could be evil, but who are "they."

It has been reported in the national media that succession planning and internal conflict are leading to a break up of Irving assets.

Te fact that one guy who is an Irving owning a newspaper does NOT indicate that the newspaper is creating biased coverage of all projects being done by guys named Irving.