Monday, December 26, 2005

Jack Layton and Video Professor

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.


Quick note on the upcoming Jan 23 election.

You must have seen the commercial for Video Professor during late night or Sunday morning infomercial periods. I’m surprised to know that Jack Layton of NDP is also a successful businessman (check out this link - http://www.flickr.com/photos/18605028@N00/71402014/)

By the way, the URL for Video Professor is down. Maybe Layton decides to focus on the election only in the meantime.

Sunday, December 25, 2005

Real Estate in Downtown Toronto - To Buy or Not to Buy

To Buy or not to buy

You can always find a better investment tool other than real estate because it’s difficult to estimate your property value in a short-run.

However, you already know that in a long-run, property value will rise significantly and ROI hence will be higher than many investment tools out there. Since you always need a place to live for the rest of your life, why not see this as a lifetime investment decision, rather than focusing on return in short run only?

“Experts” have been predicting a bubble in pricing for the last few years, and yet, that’s not the case in downtown Toronto. Also, you should take into account that most these predictions are on a national/provincial level. A micro-level supply-demand analysis, such as downtown TO is difficult to estimate. Different neighborhoods, with different characteristics and development stage, would react to demand/supply/interest rate shocks differently in 5 years.

This is not to say that property tax, maintenance costs, inflation should not be part of the overall calculation. However, return value of the property and the cost of interest are two main factors to determine the quality of a particular real estate investment. The time you plan to hold onto your property and interest rate will have a significant impact on the outcome of these two factors.

Just for your reference only, these two websites contain historical housing price trend in Toronto and Canadian mortgage rate based on TREB’s number.

http://www.torontohomes-for-sale.com/4a_custpage_2578.html

http://www.mississauga4sale.com/rates.htm#1and5

It’s interesting to see that housing price in Toronto has not reached back to its all-time high in 1989 (after adjusted for inflation), assuming this graphic is correct!

Saturday, February 19, 2005

For your eyes only

Warning: This is a long story, it will take you a while to read it.

For those who are single and enjoying living in the wild, this is a story to share.

For those who are married or committed in a serious relationship, this is a story to remind you life living as a single guy.


Characters:

JP: myself
Jane: Jim’s ex, according to Casey, she is a whore and should be burn in hell.
Helen: Jane’s sister. According to Jane, she is extremely “shy”.
Jim: JP’s roommate. The setup man.
Parker: JP’s another roommate, likes Heather from London.
Thomson: JP’s friend from London, likes Blackberry.
Adam: Senior Consultant for TSC (The Singles Club). Aka, the legend.

Act One: The Setup.

Jane tried to setup JP with her sister for a long time. Jim, as JP’s good buddy, did his best to arrange the blind date, even he thinks Jane should be
burn in hell.

No one had met Helen prior to this. It was a true blind date.

First email from Jane:

> To:
> From: "Jane Smith"
> Subject: Hey JP
> Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 15:05:21 -0400
> -----
> How's it going?
> Here is Helen's phone number and e-mail:
> 212-526-9152
> simplicity2@hotmail.com
> I told her you were going to get in touch with her...
> Hope all is well :)
> Jane
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Jane Smith
> Donor Service Co-ordinator
> Tel: (212) 887-4567 ext. 7296
> Fax: (212) 887-8055
> esmith@hotmail.org

JP, on Tue, Aug 10, emailed Helen, saying he would love to get together.
This was Helen’s replied, two days later:


> To: jpj@hotmail.com
> From: "Helen smith"
> Subject: RE:
> Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2004 08:39:41 -0400
> -----
>Hey JP,
>Glad to hear from you! I have to admit that I have never done this
>before
either, although I am very eager to meet you and am sure that we will have a good time!
>Drinks on Friday sounds like a great idea. Because I'm not too familiar
>with
Toronto yet, I can't think of a place right off hand, so maybe I can ask Jane.
I'm sure she will know some good places!
>If you had one in mind, that would be great too!!!
>Alright, well if you wanted to e-mail or call me back that would be fantastic!

JP, replied on the same day Thursday, suggesting a date on Friday, around 8:45pm.


Act Two: The Date – “Friday the 13th”, Aug, 2004.

6:00pm – JP was taking a nap from work. No reply from Helen yet, whether the date was a go or not.
7:00pm – JP woke up from the nap, so did Jim and Parker.

“Any reply from Helen yet?”, asked Parker.
“No.” JP said.
“Don’t you have a date tonight?, maybe you should call her”, said Jim “Ok.” Said JP.

JP called Helen, she picked up the phone. First conversation with here, JP confirmed the date and time.

8:00pm – JP, Jim, and Parker just finished take-outs from Pizza Pizza.
“I think we should clean this place up, it’s pretty bad here,” said Jim “Sure, I’ll take a shower first,” said JP.

8:15pm – “I’m going to pick her up now, it’s getting late, sorry, I cant clean the house”, said JP.

Jim and Parker started to clean the house. They knew for this date to work, this had to be a collective effort.

“Text Message me, in case you want to come back to the house after the date, so me and Carney can leave the house,” said Jim.

JP picked Helen at her place, who lived with Jane. First impression was good. She is good looking. JP and Helen went to bars at College. The date went ok. Each of them had 4 drinks.

Thomson, Jim, and Parker drove by the bar few times, trying to wave at JP. JP did not see them.

11:50pm – JP sent a text message to Jim – “Leave”

JP asked Helen if she wanted to go back to his place, just to “chill out.”
She agreed.

12:30am, Sat.: JP and Helen were back to JP’s house. The house was extremely clean, Helen was impressed. So was JP.

JP found Jim’s cell phone on the table. Jim forgot about his phone.

JP was chatting with her, trying to make a move. JP convinced Helen to stay overnight. As both of them started to walk into JP’s room, Jim and Parker came back.

After short introduction, Jim and Parker quickly left the house.

“We just came back to get the Pizza money,” said Parker to Helen.

JP and Helen had a great time on JP’s new bed.

JP was going for a long time, finally, tired out Helen.

Helen was exhausted, JP was not done yet.

10:00am, Sat – JP woke up with blue balls. Helen was dressed already. JP thought Helen was too “shy” to show her body when she is sober.

JP remembered she has a nice ass, but little tits. JP regreted that he did not try doggy style.

JP and Helen went for breakfast. Helen was wearing her bar cloth, JP was wearing “Everyday shorts and shirt.”

JP sent a strong message to everyone in the restaurant: I slept with her last night.


Act Three: After thoughts.

JP emailed/called Helen on Sunday, to follow up. Helen never replied.

After consulted with the Senior consultant from TSC, Adam, both concluded that Helen is a “shy” whore. JP should be proud that his body was used as a tool.

Jim and Parker contributed greatly for such team work, made sure the house was clean and their roommate get laid.

Will JP contact Helen again - no. JP has already lay his eyes on this new girl – Thomson knows who she is.

The End.