Finance

The winter term has been going pretty good so far. I've actually picked up a bit of an appreciation for Finance. Our professor, Ken Hartviksen, gives an entertaining lecture. I think I like his lectures because he goes off topic and talks more about personal finance than corporate finance (which happens to be the title of the text book). But I find finance very facinating. Crunching numbers trying to find ratios and tax rates is boring, but investing, stocks, portfolios, that's just plain sexy!

Recently I've gotten into a stock exchange game on Simustock.com. It's pretty fun and it's a good way to learn how to invest. I'm doing all right in it, I guess. I haven't covered my overhead on purchasing the different stocks, but I haven't been playing very long and I started with a pretty low amount. I would like to get everyone in on a competition on one of these sites, but I realize it isn't for everyone.

So, as facinated I am with the stock game these days, I still have a healthy fear of BUSI 2039 (Corporate Finance II) and I hope to just pass it... With a little help from a CMA I know. ;)

*sigh* another minor set-back

On January 10th, I ordered, from Apple, two software packages called iLife and iWork. For some reason they were sent from different parts of the continent using two different couriers.

iWork was sent from the U.S. through Purolator. It arrived on January 18th, which I considered to be reasonable since I picked the slower delivery service and the amount of time included a weekend and a national holiday (MLK Jr. Day)

iLife was sent from within Canada using a company called "Same Day Right-O-Way". The website claimed that the "Expected Date of Arrival" was Jan. 24/06 (Tuesday).

On Tuesday, no package. I call, they inform me that the website is misleading and it will for sure be in on Wednesday.

Wednesday, no package. I don't bother calling.

Thursday, still no package. This time I call to complain. The people at Same Day' tell me that they're going to talk to their agent and give me a call back, I give them my home number.

I get a phone call later on from Same Day' and they inform me that they can deliver the package before 8:00. The problem is that the package is addressed for my work. I figure I need to study tonight anyway so I tell them to deliver it on Friday.

I guess I'm not really that upset anymore.

Thus ends another boring, inconsequential event in the life of TU.

Blogging is tough

It's hard to blog sometimes. Although I think of plenty of things that I could blog about throughout the day, I rarely transmit those things to my blog.

Now, if you've read some of my past comments, I've been encouraged to update more often. So here it is.

So it's election night. It looks like the Conservatives are like the Ottawa Senators and everyone else are those crappy, sorry, scrappy Maple Leafs. Incidentally, there is a Sens-Leafs game on tonight (Sens are 5-0 this season against the Buds).

If you really want to know, I voted NDP, even though it seems imminent the Liberals will win in this region and, as previously mentioned, the Conservatives will get the most seats in the house. I don't really know how any of this will affect me as an individual. I guess there's a bit of a naive curiosity about what it would be like to live under a Conservative government, since I'm too young to have really experienced what that is like.

It will take a while to get use to Stephen Harper as Canadian Prime Minister, with those soul-less, hollow eyes; That insincere, tacked-on, robotic smile. But on the sliminess factor, he's far better than our old PM, PM, IMHO, TTYL.

I'm sorry, but...

I LOVE Apples... That is Macintosh's... That is Apple Computers. (Hmmm, I wonder if anyone actually thought I was talking about fruit).

Note: Apple and Mac (or Macintosh) are interchangeable.

I'm not really big into playing computer games*, instead my hobby is, I guess you could call it, creating. I love to create things. For a while I've been able to make art and distort pictures using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator (available for both Mac and PC). This past Christmas though, I was in Minneapolis, and I had the opportunity to visit the Apple Store in the Mall of America. This was heaven. Along the walls where all kinds of Mac computers and laptops; There were iPods, accessories, and software; And at the back of the store there was a classroom-type setting where workshops where held and you could learn about Macs and Mac software. I had the pleasure of sitting in on a class for Final Cut Express HD, a video editing program. I had taught myself iMovie, part of the iLife collection, which is slightly less complex video editing software, the previous day. In about 30-60 minutes, with the help on an online video tutorial , I've learned how to cut and edit videos, add musical accompaniment, enter type such as titles, effects like black & white, rain, old grainy film, etc. I really wish I would have had this knowledge when making Richard's "Girl Eye for the Pepper guy" makeover movie.

From the Apple Store I bought a book that contained tutorials about all the programs in the iLife collection: iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, and an application I'm currently infatuated with, GarageBand. GarageBand is a music making application. Like iMovie, Apple also produces a much more complex music producing app' called Pro Logic 7, but I don't need anything that fancy. With GarageBand, I've learned how to make some pretty cool music (well, I think it's cool anyway, I'm sure BlackMamba could make something way better with her musical ability) in less than an hour with the musical knowledge background of a high school class in music theory. It's not as easy to use as the other applications, but still, it's pretty damn easy.

Apple is such an incredible company. They're continually putting out awesome hardware and software that is cutting edge, fun, and easy to use. Apple is a company that anticipates demands and meets them.

In conclusion, everyone should buy an Apple and we can all create and share cool music, videos (music videos???), art, photos, and much more.


*-Console games (Nintendo, etc.) don't count as "computer games".