One Day

On Tuesday, August 30, 2011 I went to see the movie One Day featuring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess.

The movie is about two friends, Emma and Dexter, who met each other after the university graduation. We start off by seeing that Emma and Dexter were about to have sex and then things got in the way and they became friends. The story then follows them every year on July 15th.

I found that this movie was quite good, even though on rotten tomatoes, it doesn't have a very good rating. I guess I was shocked at the ending as well.

A good film to see! Although, if you want, you can choose to rent it as there are not many action scenes.

Jim Sturgess had one of his better performances in this movie. I really enjoyed his performance.

Jack Layton

A couple of days ago, Canada learned that Jack Layton, the former leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP), has passed away from his battle with cancer.

Jack, you will sorely be missed. At least by me. You were definitely a fighter for the middle class. I just hope that your successor will be as effective as you...

I believe that you would have made an excellent Prime Minister. Unfortunately, short-sighted Ontarians did not believe in you and voted in a party who was found in contempt of parliament. Only in Canada can idiotic Ontarians vote in a party who was found in contempt and then live to tell the tale... (I think I already talked about that in a previous post, so I won't continue it here)

May you rest in peace, Mr. Layton. I also hope that your family will have their peace, quiet and positive energy in this difficult time.

Smurfs 3D

On Tuesday, August 23, 2011, I went to see the movie Smurfs 3D. This movie features Neil Patrick Harris, Hank Azaria as well as the voice talents of Katy Perry, George Lopez and Anton Yelchin. There are many others too, but too many to list.

The story starts off with an introduction to what the Smurfs are, how they live in a village that's protected and that cannot be seen by the naked eye. There's a wizard who are trying to harvest them to have great wizarding powers, by the name of Gargamel.

The story starts off with Gargamel finding the Smurf village and chasing them to try and capture them. The smurfs escape with six of them turning the wrong way, which then gets led to the waterfall and it transports them to New York. Gargamel follows along with his cat.

What follows is a hilarious tale of smurfs in New York, with Gargamel reacting crazily to the technologies of 2011. I really enjoyed this movie. Also, for fans of Project Runway, Tim Gunn makes an appearance in the movie. He plays the assistant to Odile, a cosmetics CEO.

People will sue for just about anything these days...

I stumbled across this article today.

The whole story seems to go like this. A student was caught texting in class and asked to stop. He refused. So, the teacher confiscated his phone. Then, the phone was given to the VP who stumbled across a text about a car theft.

Now, the grandparents are suing the school board for breach of privacy.

First of all, what type of parent(s) or guardian(s) would give a kid a cell phone? There are these things called pay phones. It costs 50 cents to make a call. In case of emergency, find one and make a call. In case of a real emergency, you can call 9-1-1 without any fee.

High school students do not need a cell phone. No one needs their own cell phone until maybe first year university. Call me old fashioned, but no teenager needs a cell phone. They are too busy paying attention to their gadget that goes beep beep rather than actually paying attention to the material that they need to succeed in an education.

Secondly, if he is texting about a car theft, then this is a criminal act and there is every right for the police to get involved. This entitlement issue and suing for whatever has to stop.

I personally believe that this is just a case to get money. The VP is getting sued for no reason, only because of money.

I think we need to start suing people for being stupid. But then that might just overload the courts.

Very simple: Don't send your kid with a cell phone to school. Also, stop the helicopter parenting. It's annoying and parents are not the experts on EVERYTHING.

Starbuck

On Tuesday, August 9, 2011, I went to see the movie Starbuck featuring Patrick Huard.

This is a Quebecois movie about David Wozniak, who was a sperm donor at a clinic during the late 80s. He donated much sperm, under a pseudonym - Starbuck, to get money.

Now, it is 2011 and he finds out that he is the father of 533 children.

A hilarious comedy about his character learning to juggle his responsibility of work at his family's business, trying to stay out of business, his girlfriend whom he just found out is pregnant and a whole bunch of his children who want to know whom their biological father is.

Highly enjoyable and cleverly written.

TD Canada Trust adds more fuel to the fire

So, as it already stands, I am already quite pissed with TD Canada Trust with their shenanigans of raising the fees of their accounts. Now, they have launched this new campaign to try and get new customers by offering them up to $250 to sign up and bank with them. See here.

What the heck?!!

How does this make sense? An existing customer for twelve years gets told that "Oh, the fees must go up because we are expecting a growth in the economy by x%" when in reality our global markets are not in tip top shape.

Now, I have my loyalty spat on, once again, because while I am the good customer and I "accept" my fee increases and the whole nine yards, I see that TD is trying to lure customers away by offering them $250. Where's my money?

Who hired these people to come up with marketing strategies? These people should be shot.

Also, upon closer examination: Existing customers and customers who closed their accounts after May 1, 2011 are not eligible for this offer. Boy, I feel like a valued TD customer right now... My increase in fees and my raised minimum balance goes towards $250 or $150 payouts to new customers? Why doesn't the bank spend less resources on trying to get more clients and give their existing clients a break, so that they don't go elsewhere?!!

The Canadian banks are wrong, yet again

I stumbled across this gem while I was surfing the web. It's an article about the whole situation involving the United States.

A couple of months ago, maybe about two, I got a notice from my bank, one of the major Canadian banks, that they were raising the service charges on their accounts. They were doing this because, they needed to. But also because they were projecting growth for the Canadian economy. That's how they "justified" their increases.

Now, the United States nearly defaulted on their loan, their rating has been downgraded and the global markets are in turmoil. I would not call this exactly growth. I also think that the idiots who try to squeeze more money out of the customers were really short-sighted. Of course, they are not going to come up and say that they were wrong, nor are they going to actually roll back the fees, of course not. But I love how there is so no accountability whatsoever for people in the white collar industry.

Whoever decided that it was time to up the fees in three (or possibly more) Canadian major banks should be shot. They clearly do not know their stuff.

Le Sens de L'humour

On Tuesday, August 2, 2011 I went to see the movie Le Sens de l'Humour. This is a Quebecois movie featuring Michel Côté, Louis-José Houde.

The story is about two travelling comics, stand-up comics, who go to a village in Quebec and do a show. However, part of their sketch is to pick on one person in the audience, who is usually single.

They go to this town, they do the show, but they end up picking on the wrong guy... The result is a hilarious turn of events that is filled with lots of laughter. It is very very funny and a good movie.

You just have to have a bit of an iron stomach at the beginning of the movie though.