So You Want to Buy a House?

I found a great cache of archives from CBC Radio entitled "Get Smart with Real Estate." Check them out here. I haven't had time to go through all the broadcasts yet, but the one I listened in on was well worth it. "Is Vancouver in a housing bubble and what is a housing bubble?" Check that one here. BTW, you'll need a Real Player to listen in on the goods.

On another note, when we signed our initial purchase contract and placed a downpayment on our apartment, the sales person had an interesting comment for us. "So you are 'real home buyers'?" She must have said this three times - as though she were staring right into the elusive eyes of Sasquatch for the very first time in her life! We were the first actual home buyers she'd ever met - not some yahoo investor rep/standin guy. That very same week, a bunch of real estate agents we contacted to assist in finding a home in our price range, called us back and gave us grief for not signing on with an agent. After some confusion, I discovered that there was a spot on our sales contract that had a space for a real estate agent - opps, we just buy things back in Calgary. I didn't know we needed someone to represent us on getting new digs, in Cow-town when purchasing new you just hit the builder for the bill - yeah, pay some kook to buy slurpees for me . . . right. Perhaps, I was just turned off by the all-too-common-turn-down attitude of most Lower Mainland realtors. I don't even think they want business - seriously. Back in Calgary, we had roughly 1,900 listings in a city with 4,000+ realtors. Heck yeah, they'll work for your business. Vancouver, you need to wake up! Props to y'allz in Cow-town - you deserve the gold!

Tory Budget

Okay, I never really took notice in the past, but now it's personal. Since we came to Surrey, we've been noticing this PST on some of our receipts. Ouch! Thanks to the new Tory PM, we might just see some 1% cut off from our current GST (currently sitting comfortably at 7%). That's a whopping 6% GST (Goods & Services Tax for those of you still wondering)! I guess for those of you with kids are also quite happy - come July 2006 we will see a universal child care benefit that will put $1,200/kid under the age of six in the pockets of parents . . . apparently, this is still taxable, but to whichever spouse earns the lower income. Dude, it's nice living in Canada. If you are still going "huh"? Check out a summary of the 2006 Federal Budget here.

Kicking it in Surrey

Great experience the other day. Wife went in to the local bank for some change for the laundry room. A few of the other customers with her included: an Islamic woman wearing a head covering dressed quite modern and stylish, 2 Vietnamese men attempting to wire a load of cash, and a few East Indians. She felt quite comfortable being a visible minority for once in her life (especially one from suburban Calgary). I thought that was neat, I like that.

FYI, "Population by Ethnic Origin in the GVRD from 2001 Census" data - click here. Interesting data.

Weapons of Mass Productions

Do you have:

Shills in the shrine?
Commerce in the cathedral?
ATMs in the apse?

Forget the tedium of fashioning a whip of cords, which may require multiple applications before being effective! Stop shouting yourself hoarse about the Lord's house becoming "a den of robbers!" Quit crying about not being strong enough nor angry enough to turn over tables!

Let the TEMPLE KLENZERTM do the work!

The TEMPLE KLENZERTM emits a powerful pulse of electromagnetic energy, instantly disabling the computer circuitry of any cash register, cash machine - or any other cash cow - that may have invaded your sacred space.

As an added bonus, the TEMPLE KLENZERTM also disables most cell phones - no longer will your prayers be interrupted by ring tones of the theme from Beverly Hills Cop!

ORDER NOW AND RECEIVE A HANDSOMELY ENGRAVED PLAQUE OF THE BEATITUDES ABSOLUTELY FREE! Perfect for posting in your local courthouse, public school classroom, or military recruiting office! (Gospel of Luke version - includes both "blessings" and "woes"!)

*Results may vary. Do not use TEMPLE KLENZERTM if you wear a pacemaker, are pregnant, may become pregnant, or know anyone who has ever been pregnant. Side effects may include ringing ears, nausea, dry mouth, drooling, weight loss, height loss, loss of appetite, blurred vision, weight gain, dizziness, fatigue, hyperactivity, shortness of breath, prickly heat, boils, frogs, locusts, and darkness.

Courtesy of Sojourners Magazine. April Fool's! =)

Frank Shamrock / Cesar Gracie Knockout Clip

The two fights that pumped me up the most were the Shamrock/Gracie and Hughes/Gracie matchups. I found the video highlights to the Frank Shamrock/Cesar Gracie fight here. Frank sure looks good in the standup - guess his time with Cung Le has paid off. Well that fight's over. After Royce's classic line to Matt Hughes "this is my house [referring to the Octogon], I built it", I hope his fight lasts longer than his cousin's (upcoming on UFC 60 May 27). BTW, it is interesting to note that Matt Hughes placed Psalm 60.12 on his official website:

"With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies" (NIV).

Favorite TV Shows

I don't know why, but someday I will reflect back on this post and soak up the wisdom and growth that occured between then and now. Here's my list of favorite TV shows:

The Unit (CBS) - a special ops army unit that answers only to the president
NCIS (CBS) - Jethro Gibbs, former Marine sniper, cool as ice
E-Ring (NBC) - everything Special Forces, the Pentagon, and politics
Battlestar Galactica (on SciFi or Space) - raw, fracken raw
Restaurant Makeover (Food TV Canada) - kooky jingle polka music
Holmes on Homes (HGTV) - "If you're gonna do something, do it right the first time!"

Now you know what I'm about, peace.

Watch March Madness for FREE!

Okay, everyone calm down. CBS has finally done it, they have FREAKED out! Yeah, that's right they will offer FREE streaming video of the NCAA Men's Basketball Finals FREE! Did I say Free, yes I did say FREE! "All 56 games from the first three rounds of the tourney will be available for FREE!" Get the message? For you bad boyees at work in some cubicle someplace, somewhere - bosses beware! HA, click here for the dealz. Man, that's just crazy!

Calgary Housing Market Getting Hotter

Taken from the CTV News site

"It's almost hard to believe, but Calgary's housing market is now even hotter. It's great if you already own a home, because prices are still going up. The average sale price of a single family home in Calgary hit $342,000 last month, up 29 per cent over last year. The price of condos is also way up. In February, the average price was $217,000, up 22 per cent from the same time last year. The skyrocketing prices are making it hard for first time buyers to afford a place. Ironically, the hot market is also making it tough for realtors. There are approximately 5,000 agents in the city, clamoring for between 1,500 and 2,000 listings."

All I can say is . . . wow and darn. I'm moving into the highest real estate market in all of Canada (Greater Vancouver Area), click here for their real estate market stats. I also found a great blog - the Vancouver Housing Blog - that offers good, thorough market insight into the Vancouver real estate bubble.

A side note on this real estate boom - healthy province (thank you Uncle Ralph), healthy city (thank you 25,000 people moving into Cow-town a year), healthy economy (naturally a money maker . . . I also know that gas and oil won't last forever). Calgary has all the right ingredients for a healthy real estate market at this time - it makes good sense for it to boom. But what's up with Vancouver? Is it truly a developer's paradise? What gives in Van-city?

Dr. Wafa Sultan: Freestyle Battle #?

Anyone ever heard of Dr. Wafa Sultan? Well you should, the Arab-American, Syrian expatriate took on a certain Algerian Imam Jihadist named Dr. Ibrahim Al-Khouli on Al-Jazeera TV (February 21, 2006) in a freestyle battle of the intellectual type. Did I mention that Dr. Sultan is a woman? All I can say is . . . she got MAD skillz YO?

Click here for the video clip.
Click here for the transcript.

You know the world is different when . . .

I recalled a quote I heard a few months back with Chris Rock,



"You know the world is different when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the US of arrogance, Germany doesn't want to go to war, and the 3 most powerful men in America are named 'Bush', 'Dick', and 'Colin'!"

Yo Chris, how much fo' jus' one rib?

What's Your Vocation Worth?

I finally found something that substantiated a theory of mine regarding the low investment and high expectations of pastors. Unfortunately, this theory is now a fact. Keep in mind that Canadian Chinese churches consistently come well under the average in terms of pastoral salaries and packages - this is yet another fact that my denomination has made yearly reports on (from time to time, our denomination's districts will collect info regarding pastoral salaries and benefits for reporting purposes).

Anyhow, aside from the fact that most respectable Chinese parents will not allow their children to pursue liberal arts degrees (and just because 1 parent out of a thousand releases their child into Bible school doesn't justify the disillusionment of the 999) - let alone chase dreams of full-time Christian ministry - what kind of a message are we sending to our next generation (a message that has been repeated a few generations already)? Low pay, a hostile and discriminatory view of ministry, the added parental guilt and manipulation of financial success . . . end result, a non-sustainable and underdeveloped vision for local-born Chinese ministry . . . in other words, no future.

2006 NBA Slam Dunk Champion

Nate Robinson, 5'9" 180 lbs. of raw NY Knicks GUARD skillz won the 2006 NBA Slam Dunk contest. Despite some controversy and suspicion, Robinson's mad skill singed spectators at the Houston Toyota Center by jumping over 1986 NBA Slam Dunk Champ 5'7" Spud Webb.

Check out some of Robinson's earlier "dunks" from the highlight reel. Can you say "Boom-shock-alaka"?

“Dont Steal Mac OS X.kext” Poem

Here's the poem everyone's been buzzing about:

Your karma check for today:
There once was a user that whined
his existing OS was so blind,
he'd do better to pirate
an OS that ran great
but found his hardware declined.
Please don't steal Mac OS!
Really, that's way uncool.
(C) Apple Computer, Inc.

Apparently written for all the would-be Mac OS hackers out there - quite poetic.

Cartoonist BEWARE!

Okay, has this gone far enough yet? Mohammed Yousaf Qureshi, a Pakistani Imam, announced that the historic Mohabat Khan Mosque and the Jamia Ashrafia religious school he leads would offer 1.5 million rupee (roughly $25,000 USD) and a CAR (Fuggedaboudit!) to anyone who will kill the Danish cartoonist of the original prophet Muhammad cartoons that appeared in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. The outrageous Imam further stated that an additional $1 million would be contributed to this pot by the Peshawar Jeweler's Association to fatten the "hit purse" for potential takers.

What kind of car are we talking about here? Are we talking about the infamous Pakistani made Sitara City Cart?

Stress Reduction Exercise

Cartoonists Reaction to Cartoon Rage

Cartoonist Daryl Cagle has compiled a portfolio of artistic reactions from the global cartoonist community to the recent Islamic cartoon rage. Click here for "Cartoonist Reactions" cartoons.

Thoughts on Recent Global Islamic Uprising

Here is an up-to-date report on this round of Islamic destruction so far. I don't know what else to call it - perhaps Islamics globally are suffering from a severe case of "headlights-on-deer" delayed response, didn't the cartoons originally get published back in September? If I didn't know better I'd think that Islamics just sit around for a reason to go out and burn things. First it was the Danish embassies, then the embassies of other European Countries who also printed the cartoons, then the EU offices, and now they are firebombing anything Western. I watched a documentary a few nights ago that discussed the reason why young educated Arab men would join the ranks of Al Qaeda - in short, most Arab men are quite secular until they leave home for school abroad (mostly in Europe). While they are home sick they naturally find havens of rest within the local Muslim community . . . where they are exposed to and brainwashed with extreme, fundamentalist teachings . . . actually this was according to an interview with the sister of a "suspected" terrorist operative. Anyhow, as the Western world is quite prejudice towards Islamics (especially post 9-11), apparently Islamics are quite prejudice towards Westerners (gee, who would have known?). In the view of the Islamics interviewed, Western powers exist to destroy and terrorize Islamics . . . and with that thought, this will never end. Then again, why don't we ever read in the headlines about some great Imam or even Bin Laden himself strapped to a bomb committing an act of Jihad - Islamic hypocrisy? Perhaps the Islamic power mongers aren't as stupid as we think.

On another note, conservative evangelical heavyweight John Piper weighs in on the controversy with an un-politically correct apologetics article entitled, "Being Mocked: The Essence of Christ's Work, Not Muhammad's."

Postscript

Nothing new here, more firebombs, more violent protests, more reasons to burn. On the media front though, the Iranians have come up with a creative idea to vent their frustrations - a "Holocaust Cartoon" contest! Apparently in yet another move to improve their political standing in the global community, Iran will officially integrate their "Anti-Holocaust" (or the "Holocaust, what Holocaust?" position) into their media. Why is it that when an extremist Islamic group takes power stupid things just happen? No, I mean REALLY stupid things happen? Just wait and see with Hamas, I told you so. Don't get me wrong, this is not another pro "Islamaphobia" position I'm ranting. It's more of an "Extremist Islamophobia." If you notice the "about us" section of the previous link there is interesting language used in describing Islamophobia:

"Islamophobia, as a racist tool of Western Imperialism, is strongly advocated by the political right but has also found an echo in the left, particularly sections of the left in France and the countries that make up the United Kingdom."

Yes, the racist ideology of Western Imperialism . . . hmmm, I wonder how racially multicultural and ideologically tolerant the Taliban or the Iranian regime is nowadays? And if France and the UK are so Islamophobic, why do we keep finding terror suspects in their countries?

Yellow Fever

This is a hilarious video made by a group of UCSD students (of the Chinese Christian variety I suspect), reflecting on the finer points of "why do our Asian women dig the white guys?" Check out this profound piece by Wong Fu Productions. Props to Sarah for the email.

Super Bowl XL Bust

How I waited in great anticipation for the greatest show of athleticism and strategy . . . only to have watched a disaster in the making. Click here for SI's Andrew Perloff's rundown of the Super Bowl Bust. Some have suggested that the XL stand for "eXtra Lousy." The highlight of Super Bowl XL was not even the game itself, but the pre-game interview/analysis with the head coach of the New England Patriots, Bill Belichick. Incredible look and listen into the mind of a master tactician and leader . . . the guy truly represents the deep thought and complexities of the game.

"I think coaching is getting the player to do the right thing in the right situation, and, make the right judgment . . . It's about decision-making. That's read, recognition, and decision-making."

- Coach Bill Belichick addressing the media during his press conference at Gillette Stadium on November 17, 2005

Carlson Gracie Sr. R.I.P.

Mestre Carlson, your legacy lives on through your students. Obrigado . . . rest in peace. Jiu-jitsu!