I AM AWESOME

Way back in October, I made the prediction that oil would drop below $40 by March.

Well... I was totally right, bitches! $37 for February. That's insane.

You don't know me at all

WHAT THE EFF!!!

The grass really is greener

Today I read yet another article about how Detroit is out of touch with today's auto market. But instead of dwelling on that, it pointed to exactly the type of business model that will serve as its replacement. Drawing parallels with Apple and its iPod/iTunes business model, this new one also uses today's technology to reinvent a tired, old business model. It's called Better Place and is already on its way to being tested in Hawaii.

Wake up, Detroit. I can totally see this working.

Sad

On saturday morning, Deb and I had to go to a client meeting at 9am in Surrey (btw, NEVER AGAIN will we do this so early.) We got onto the #1 and noticed it was a rather slow drive for a saturday morning. Then we saw in the HOV lane 4 cars pulled off to the side. Clearly there was an accident. The first car had a smash up front end, and it had spun 90 degrees. There was a second car that I didn't get much of a look at. Then there was a minivan. The rear end was destroyed beyond recognition. We could see people reaching into the van and obviously there was someone stuck inside. When we passed it the first responders hadn't even gotten there yet, and we heard no sirens. Obviously it had happened only minutes earlier.

As I got into work today, I opened up the usual websites I visit in the morning. One of those sites is The Province. I saw this article and didn't really make the connection. It finally clicked when I remembered seeing the accident. Deb and I both said to each other "Oh man, I hope there were no kids in there." When I saw the first car I told deb to take some photos with her iphone, but when we saw that van we both were like "umm... no photos." I'm glad we didn't.

The fact that we saw the aftermath of the accident doesn't make it any more tragic than it is, but still.

Wow... I'm just... wow.

Ok, so my story starts off with a phone call on Monday night from a collections agency. It was a recording that just said 'Call us, it's urgent.' So I looked up the number on google and found out who the company was. I was thinking to myself "I have nothing that would go to collections.. wtf?" So I call them. They tell me that I have an unpaid parking ticket from January 23, 2004 that is unpaid and has been sent to collections. WTF? I was super surprised to find that the guy from the collection agency was being helpful and gave me the details of the ticket. It said I had stopped in a no stopping zone somewhere in Richmond. Weird... I never go to richmond, and I worked in Burnaby at the time. Ok, so I got the ticket number from him and called Richmond. It took 3 days to get in touch with someone there. Today, I was given all the details of the ticket and such... and I'm just beside myself that this kind of crap even happens.

So the ticket stated that I stopped in front of Burnet Secondary School at 3pm on January 23rd to pick someone up, and that the driver was in the driver's seat. Uh... what? I asked why I had never received this ticket, and was told it was mailed but then got returned to Richmond cus I had moved. Odd, I always make sure ICBC has my correct address as soon as I move. Besides, in 5 years don't you think they could look it up again before sending it to collections?? Ok, so then he says that since I never found out about the ticket that he could get the collection on it reversed and that he'd reduce the ticket to $30 (the original amount) but that since it was so long ago and the dispute system had changed, I was unable to dispute the ticket. Well... ok, whatever... 30 bucks is fine, I have no problem paying it. I was just worried about the hit to my credit. So then I ask him "Now, I know I can't dispute this, but does the ticket say what kind of car it was?" His response: "Yes, it says it was a Toyota." WTF! My car is a Ford and my license plate has always been on my car. So he says to me "I'll call ICBC and check to see what that license plate is registered to."

He just called me back and told me that he's canceled the ticket outright, as the car that belongs to this license plate is a ford.

First off, YAY! I got it resolved! But really, WTF!!!!! Had I just said "oh, 5 years ago.. hmm.. I don't remember that, so I'll just pay it" I would be out $60 for a ticket that wasn't even for me! Obviously some cop needs to get his eyes checked. I'm glad I was persistent enough to get to the bottom of this.

At work on a holiday

So today I am at work because the stock markets are open. I have to work 6am to 1pm today, which is 3 hours earlier than my usual working hours. It sucks. I had to drive in because the skytrain doesn't start up until 8am on holidays. I woke up at 4:45am, quickly showered and got dressed, then headed out the door at 5:15am. Once the elevator reached the B-level I got a little startled. There was a guy waiting for the elevator, which I was not expecting. He had been doing laundry. WHO THE FUCK DOES LAUNDRY AT 5:15AM ON A HOLIDAY??!?? Crazy bastard.

The drive was pretty quick. There were barely any cars on the road, so it didn't take me long to get to work. At 5:30am, when it's raining and you're tired and there are no cars on the road, a green light is bright as hell. As I pull onto dunsmuir and headed into the downtown core, I looked up and noticed the buildings were all pretty dark. Since it's a holiday and all the buildings you can see are condos no one had their lights on... they were asleep. Assholes.