Archive for May, 2010

Hunting Julian

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

by Jacquelyn Frank

This is one of those popular paranormal romantic fantasy novels in a long list of books from the New York Times bestseller list by Jacquelyn Frank. Her Nightwalkers and Shadowdwellers series have been hugely popular and this book is another in the tales from the dangerous but beautiful world which she has created.

Julian Sawyer’s ability to seek out and find the Chosen – women who possess energy potent enough to help revitalize his people is a guardian of his community. That community is on a world where they live in the clouds to let them survive the beasts which claim the land below them.

On his latest trip to Earth he sees a stunning, silver clad beauty striding into a night club and knows that she, Asia Callahan, is not only a Chosen but she is his Chosen, his kindra, his one true mate. He immediately decides that he must take her back to his colony so that she can become a part of his life and his world.

This book describes a marvellously crafted world which is quite believable. It has many textures and emotions, creatures and people. For instance, the people of Julian’s colony wither and drain away because far more than food, they need to feed off the emotions of their guardian and his kindra.

Asia is shocked and frightened to have been kidnapped by someone whom she believes murdered her sister and who now swears he’s in love with only her.

When she finally confronts him, he assures her that her sister is quite safe and happy and living in another colony. The story of the search for her sister and Julian’s great need for Asia to return his love is intriguing and captivating.

Sometimes we secretly long to escape into a mysterious place where we can find all the things we dream about. Jacquelyn Franks is a writer who can help us dream about imagined worlds and new challenges with good companion to help us in finding dreams are really possible.

Things That Keep Me Awake at Night

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

There has been a lot in the news about the nearly $1 billion that has, or will, be spent on security for the G8 meetings in Huntsville and the G20 meetings to be held in Toronto. All that money to ensure that we don’t see the important mucky-tucks (except on TV and the Internet) while they are travelling around Ontario and certainly won’t get anywhere near them in person.

Does this bother you? It bothers me for three reasons; are we becoming a police state with surveillance on every corner (we are probably paying enough), is it really necessary for them to meet face-to-face and what will it really accomplish?

Where’s the money going?

The quote for security services for GO transitstations during the G20 range from $9,700 – $15,800 so I guess it’s not them. The total Toronto Police Services Overall Police Budget gross for 2010 is $964.4 million dollars, so I guess they aren’t the ones. The last posted budget for the Ontario Provincial Police for 2008/09 for the whole province was $894.7 million. To my mind these would be the logical ones to enforce security as they live here and know the area and the residents. But I don’t make those decisions. So, is it the RCMP? The Canadian Armed Forces? Are foreign security service costs included? We won’t know for sure until the Auditor General’s department does their thing, but I suspect it may have something to do with the fact that they have set up another independant Security group whose job it is to co-ordinate and oversee all the rest of them.

Long Distance Arm Twisting is Cheaper

These very important peopleare needed to run their countries and to ensure that the world operates in a safe, secure, healthy way for all of their citizens. Is that accomplished by flying around the world in this day of instant communication. With a wide screen monitor, a good computer and a free Skype account they could meet in the virtual world and say all the “right” things. Don’t we think that most of them live in a virtual world anyway? (That’s a joke. Please don’t investigate me, sirs!) They could have dinner served to them during the conversations and with today’s technology they could even block out anyone from knowing what they are saying. Think about that! No reason for the anarchists to show up anywhere! No reason for any more security than they already have! No need to bomb banks anywhere – not even in Ottawa.

The Decisions are Already Made

From what I have observed, it is my impression that most of the important decisions have all been made by staff prior to the actual meeting and each person attending must read the pages created for them by the people who run their governments behind the scenes. I do understand that they all need to have a party once in a while and being social is fun, but in times of easy travel for terrorists as well as leaders shouldn’t they just cut it out for a few years until the crazies calm down?

And one more comment; a billion dollars is one thousand million. Because I understand that one of the themes for this conference is fiscal responsibilityas a means of recovering from the recent recession caused by the mortgage, stock markets and banking melt downs around the world. Well, here’s what a Billion Dollars is and a tip of the hat to the protestors against the Indiana Department of Transportation for their creation:

What is a Billion Dollars?Here is a million: $1,000,000.00

Here is how many million it takes to equal $1 Billion:

$1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00

Sub total= 100,000,000 (we are now at one-hundred million. The City of Guelph with just over 100,000 people has a budget of this size)

Sub total= 200,000,000 (we are now at two-hundred million)
$1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00

Sub total= 300,000,000 (Whew! We’re getting there)
$1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00

Sub total= 400,000,000 (Four-hundred million… don’t miss the analysis to come.)
$1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00

Sub total= 500,000,000 (Five-hundred million. Half way there.)
$1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00

Sub total= 600,000,000 (Six hundred million… come on stick with me here.)
$1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00

Sub total= 700,000,000 (Seven-hundred million…deep breath)

Sub total= 800,000,000 (Eight-hundred million…This number is interesting. $800 Million
is the current mid-level bid for cleaning some catch basins for GO Transit for the whole year)

Sub total= 900,000,000 (900-hundred million done.)
$1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00 +1,000,000.00

Total= 1,000,000,00
Ah! $1 Billion… one-thousand million is a billion and that’s a whole lot of zeroes.

Undying – (Book 2 in the Claire Point Series)

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010

by V K Forrest

An interesting tidbit about the authour of the series is that her real name is Colleen Faulkner. It is one of her quirks that she writes books in trilogies. Check out her many accomplishments at www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/f/v-k-forrest/.

In the second book of the story of the Irish Kahill Sept, a group of immortal vampires who live in Claire Point, Delaware, we meet more of the people who have been alive since the late 13th century. Originally they were condemned by God because of their practice of drinking human blood. They now spend all of their time trying to rid the human races of murderers and deviates in the hope that
God will see that they are making amends and will allow them to die. Immortality is not all fun and games and apparently can be quite boring some times.

The Kahill’s put up a common front by operating Claire Point as a very ordinary beach community on the Atlantic coast complete with many tourists who come to enjoy the sand, sunshine and the cafes with seafood and ice cream. There are a number of quaint Inns and pubs where the locals take in money to support their lives. The museum runs as a place showing how the early settlers from the 1700′s lived and many artifacts are displayed during the day. Very late at night it doubles as a meeting place for the High Council where they make decisions about who should live and die. That’s what they do. Travel the world to seek out and rid the world of the worst deviates that exist. Certain members are assigned to take on these chores when chosen by the Council and they count it as a heavy burden that must be carried out by them.

The heroes of this book are Arlan, one of the Kahill cousins who is one of the chosen, but still struggles mightily to maintain his compassion and understanding for the victims of crimes. His first cousin Fia who is an FBI agent who has been approached by a mysterious lady who calls herself Macy and is somehow connected to a mass murderer who has killed 11 families by burying them standing up with their arms above their heads and then slowly strangling teach of them one at a time so that they must watch as their family dies.

Arlan is drawn to Macy and finds himself following her as he is asked to keep her safe in case the murderer finds her too. They begin to form a relationship but it is built on quicksand because Macy doesn’t seem to be telling them the truth about everything.

In the meantime, Regan, Fia’s youngest brother, has disappeared and her parents are worried sick. They received one phone call from him saying that he was in serious trouble and couldn’t get out of it by himself. Unfortunately, he didn’t stay connected long enough to tell them where he was. Fia and Arlan try to find the murderer and Regan at the same time but their is something odd about Macy. She keeps showing up wherever they are.

All in all, a very good adventure yarn which keeps you wondering what comes next all the way through the book.

Lilacs of Spring

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010

(more…)

Nature’s Revenge

Sunday, May 16th, 2010

By Sue Ricketts

No birds sing. Not a leaf moves on the trees. The sun shines down to look on the lake which only shows a few remaining ripples out in the middle. Early morning mist had just disappeared. From underneath the lily-pads a frog peeps out. He is the sole witness to the day’s happenings.

Franco had come with his beer and his fishing rod and his big monster truck. He parked the truck up the slope from the lake and turned on the radio full blast. On the way to the lake he’d had a couple beers just to get him in a relaxed mood to sit and contemplate.

When he finally got himself comfortableon the old wooden dock, he realized that he had left his bait at home. That was easily solved by digging out his fish net and wading into the lake a little way and scooping up a bunch of minnows. Franco laughed and pushed the barb into them while they were alive because he knew that bigger fish ate smaller fish and so he would be able to attract more bites if his bait was live. The rest he left tangled in the net on the bank too far from the edge for any of the fingerlings to make it back to their habitat.

It wasn’t a great timefor catching fish because the sun was out and they would be sculling along the bottom looking for cool places – like under the lily-pads. Franco hoped the fingerlings would change his luck. He cast his line out to the edge of the foliage even though it was likely to get caught there.

His first nibble caught a good looking lake trout about ten pounds. He reeled it in and pulled it off the hook and threw it up the bank to get later. The next bite was even bigger but it got away.

He had a heavy line on his rod which was not going to break even with a fish of more than 20 pounds. The third bite brought in a nice fat brown trout which landed up on the bank and he left it there to die.

The line was cast one more time as he popped the cap on his fourth beer. The other three empty cans were underneath the water below the dock as Franco never cared about what he did. There were other people who would pick up after him. It was their job – not his.

Suddenly the calm of the lake was disturbed by the appearance of a very large fish mouth. It took only seconds for the mouth and the enormous body attached to it to speed across the water from his cast float to the dock. The fish reached up out of the dark, green waters and grabbed his legs which were trailing near the waters edge and sucked Franco under the surface of the lake. The beer can in his hand was the last to disappear below the cool surface. It was over in a flash. There wasn’t even time for him to scream.

At that exact instant the radio in the truck stopped playing. The frog blinked once, twice and waited until the ripples in the lake stopped before he made any sound. The empty beer cans flew out of the lake and landed far up the bank near the big monster truck. The environment had gone back to it’s natural state. Mother Nature knows best!

A Complete Retirement Plan

Sunday, May 16th, 2010

By Sue Ricketts

Before you start the financial plan

Retirement today is a plan for 25 to 30 years of your life. Did you plan the first 25? Did you plan the next 25? We typically spend most of our lives “winging it”. Surprisingly, your retirement lifestyle needs to begin a long, long time before you turn 65.

A lot of people think that they will play golf all the time in retirement. But what if you have bad knees because you are overweight? What if you spent most of your working life sitting at a desk? What if you can only find once or twice a month to go to a gym for exercise? Well… thank goodness for golf carts! So retirement planning begins with what your lifestyle has been up to now. Do you want or need to change it in order to live the life you want when you can choose what you will do?

Another question is, what are you going to do when it rains or snows for three or four months of the year? Do you really enjoy TV re-runs and playing Solitaire that much? How are you going to feel challenged? And how will you give back to the society you live in? Will you become the greens keeper at your local course for free?

Have you talked to everyone who will be involved when you do reach that point? What is your spouse’s choice of living when (s)he retires? Don’t neglect the details. If you enjoy going to the city for entertainment and long drives in the country to see the seasons change, how would you fare living on an island which is 30 miles long?

Retirement Choices

Once you’ve settled on one of the three choices 1) No more working at all 2) starting /working one of your hobbies for cash 3)working only two or three days a week, you have to consider what others who will be affected by your retirement will want and need. If you are part of a couple, will you need one vehicle or two? If you live 30 years you will definitely need to replace your vehicle at least once every 7 – 10 years. Have you counted in car payments or the cash to make that purchase. If you need to take out $20,000 for a vehicle purchase from your RRSP, don’t forget that you will really need to take out $24,400 to pay federal and provincial tax if you are in the lowest tax bracket. Oh, yes, and remember that the replacement vehicles towards the end of your retirement will cost a lot more. Here’s an example: in 1966 you could buy a brand new 4 door sedan for $2,800 including tax. In the next 40 years that cost has increased approximately 5 times, Using that guideline be prepared for price increases in everything you need to live your style.

Living in the country will require vehicles (plural) and heavy equipment to clear snow in the winter and to cut grass in the winter. A big yard sounds great but it means lawn care which you either pay for or do yourself. Again, what can you really physically do and what can’t you? What do you like to do and what don’t you like? Also, what is the budget going to be in retirement? Can you afford the help?

Next Big Secret

When most peoplethink about retirement planning, they think of building a retirement nest-egg through RRSPs and pension plans. While these are key pieces of the puzzle, it’s important not to forget about another important element of retirement planning – debt elimination. After all, the less you spend on interest payments, the more you can allocate to your retirement savings.

A debt-elimination plan doesn’t have to be complicated. But you should have one or you’ll likely be in debt longer than you have to. There are a few simple strategies for getting out of debt sooner, such as:

Building extra debt payments into your budget

Consolidating all of your debts at the lowest rate possible

Using your income and savings to automatically reduce your debt (without giving up access to that money)

When you’re planning for retirement, don’t forget about the impact that your debt has on those plans. With a strategy for becoming debt-free sooner, you may even be able to retire earlier than expected. That’s what a financial advisor like me does. We help you develop a debt-elimination strategy that complements your overall retirement savings strategy. At the same time, we help you keep the income tax which you pay now and which you will pay in the future to the minimum legal amount due.

Give me a call if you’d like to discuss how you can be debt-free sooner.

The Dark Tide

Sunday, May 9th, 2010

by Alex Gross

Suspense, mystery, romance, exotic locations, sex, action and clues to follow. Did I miss anything? I don’t know what more you might want other than easy reading and that’s here to.

Are you a fan of James Patterson’s murder mystery books? Then you probably recognize that Alex Gross was the co-authour of 5 of his books. This is Gross’ second try out on his own and it’s a winner.

Beginning with a bomb blast in Central Station in New York City and the death of a Wall Street wheeler-dealer, the story tells how his widow and children cope with his sudden and unexpected death.

A couple of unexplained things are the only remarkable happening for one year. Then the bad guys begin to threaten and strange messages and threats happen.

The police detective who originally came to report Charles Friedman’s death is drawn back in when a connection is found between Charles and a hit and run accident which killed a young mechanic in Connecticut about 4 hours after the bombing. The strange co-incidence is that a credit card of another person who died was used by someone who looked amazingly like Charles.

There are demands for millions of dollars which no one can find. No clues are found to trace things until the beautiful and accomplished widow remembers a picture frame which arrived after the bombing from an anonymous person who found it in the Grand Central aftermath. It had some writing on it which was done by her husband and a series of random and phone numbers.

The trail leads from Greenwich Connecticut to the Bahamas and other spots around the Caribbean. A surprise right to the last few pages.

Easily Understood Explanation of Derivative Markets

Sunday, May 9th, 2010

Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Detroit. She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar. To solve this problem, she comes up with a new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later.

Heidi keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans). Word gets around about Heidi’s “drink now, pay later” marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi’s bar. Soon she has the largest sales volume for any bar in Detroit .

By providing her customers freedom from immediate payment demands, Heidi gets no resistance when, at regular intervals, she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages. Consequently, Heidi’s gross sales volume increases massively.

A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognizes that these customer debts constitute valuable future assets and increases Heidi’s borrowing limit. He sees no reason for any undue concern, since he has the debts of the unemployed alcoholics as collateral.

At the bank’s corporate headquarters, expert traders figure a way to make huge commissions, and transform these customer loans into DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These securities are then bundled and traded on international security markets.

Naive investors don’t really understand that the securities being sold to them as AAA secured bonds are really the debts of unemployed alcoholics. Nevertheless, the bond prices continuously climb, and the securities soon become the hottest-selling items for some of the nation’s leading brokerage houses.

One day, even though the bond prices are still climbing, a risk manager at the original local bank decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi’s bar. He so informs Heidi.

Heidi then demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed alcoholics they cannot pay back their drinking debts. Since Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations she is forced into bankruptcy. The bar closes and the eleven employees lose their jobs.

Overnight, DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS drop in price by 90%. The collapsed bond asset value destroys the banks liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans, thus freezing credit and economic activity in the community.

The suppliers of Heidi’s bar had granted her generous payment extensions and had invested their firms’ pension funds in the various BOND securities. They find they are now faced with having to write off her bad debt and with losing over 90% of the presumed value of the bonds. Her wine supplier also claims bankruptcy, closing the doors on a family business that had endured for three generations, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 150 workers.

Fortunately though, the bank, the brokerage houses and their respective executives are saved and bailed out by a multi-billion dollar no-strings attached cash infusion from their cronies in Government.

The funds required for this bailout are obtained by new taxes levied on employed, middle-class, non-drinkers who have never been in Heidi’s bar.

Any questions?

Life, Money and Illusion – Part Two

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010

By Mike Nickerson

This is a review of another idea from the book which was discussed last week. I reviewed the general content of the book earlier and now I’d like to comment further on his discussion of the economy.

Once upon a time, money was minted by governments who owned valuable things like gold which they stored away in secure vaults. For most of the history of the United States it was clearly stated that if you wanted to, you could walk into the National Reserve and demand an equivalent amount of gold. Since gold is worth about $1130 per ounce today, it wouldn’t be a whole lot but it would be gold.

Because the US dollar was so solid, the rest of the world currencies began to use the dollar as a standard on it’s own. All that changed in 1971 when Richard Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard. He proclaimed that since the US economy was the biggest in the world, and still is by far, that the dollar all by itself could be the standard. Even though we hear that China is such a growing market and is expanding at phenomenal rates, it is still only 7% of the world economy.

That’s a bit of background but something has changed. Who do you think makes most of the money today? Well, lenders do to a very large extent. Think about this. When you walk into a bank to get a mortgage or a loan what happens?

You may or may not have a percentage of the sale price for whatever you want to buy. The lender checks out your trustworthiness and your ability to re-pay the loan with real money. Then the lender “creates” money by writing a cheque to you and/or the seller. (S)He doesn’t print money but there is a creation of funds made.

We have all believed for many years that governments are in control of money and are able to increase or decrease it’s production in order to control markets and encourage and direct our behaviour. Now there are other hands stirring the pot. We have not instituted laws and regulations which will limit the ability of banks and other lenders to create money. This is diluting our currency and will change it’s value.

Money is now being used as a speculative commodity. Just as housing mortgages were in the States recently. Just as tulips were in the 1600′s in Holland. We know that these bubbles all eventually burst. Is this going to help us create a sustainable future if we are betting on the value of our money increasing constantly? Even though we know that inflation is eating away at the value of the dollar for forty of the last fifty years.

Life, Money and Illusion has some suggestions on what we might do to change our future prospects with regards to our economic organization. We need to think seriously about how and who creates our money.

The Push – Pull Self-employed

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010

In my business I am running into a very different kind of entrepreneur lately. Generally, an entrepreneur is someone who has a better way of making something, providing a service or organizing a process to meet the demands of the public. Those people are Pulled into forming their own business and using their skills for themselves.

They spend time learning the skills necessary to operate a business. They seek out information on sources of financing and look carefully at when and how they will go off on their own and achieve their goals. Often they look for partners who will complement the skills and ideas they have.

To illustrate the new type of entrepreneur I will tell you the story of Bob and Janet. Bob had worked for a production company for nearly 20 years as an engineer. He had no pension plan but had been contributing to an RRSP for many years. Janet had been a nurse but quit working 9 years ago when their second child arrived and has been a housewife since then. One day the company was sold and Bob was told that his job had become redundant and he would receive a salary for six months. He was 41 years old and Janet was 39. Neither of them were prepared or capable of retiring.

Bob sent out resume after resume and only got 2 interviews in 6 months,. He was now applying for EI benefits but they would be considerably less than his salary. Bob had an engineering degree which had become dated. He wondered about going back to school but realized that f he did, it would be hard to support his family of three children and a wife.

Before Janet could go back to nursing she would need to take courses too and there just weren’t any resources for that. Bob had a workshop behind their garage where he had experimented for years making wooden furniture as a hobby. Over time he had accumulated tools and knowledge about furniture making.

As a couple they decided to work together. Bob would begin producing his own handcrafted furniture while Janet learned to do his accounting and taught herself how to market his products to as many people as possible. Although, both are smart people, neither of them had experience running a business, doing accounting or marketing and had a very tiny budget so they could not afford to hire anyone else or pay for formal schooling.

They are the typical Pushed entrepreneurs who are popping up more and more frequently. For them, it was important to find mentors who would accept payment in the products they produced or a share of potential future profits. That was their first step to get started. They turned to someone who had knowledge about bookkeeping and was able to share financial advice to help them decide which things were important and in what order they should start tackling everything. They also needed advice on how to keep both personal and business affairs functioning well and not allowing the two to clash with one another.

Bob and Janet joined a group of entrepreneurs and mentors who meet twice a month at a local restaurant to share ideas and help one another through shared experience. At first there was a lot of doubt and uncertainty, but they have persevered and are now bringing in enough money to support themselves in a sustainable fashion. No fancy cars or expensive vacations yet but they are mastering the skills needed to make a living.

These are the new entrepreneurs who need guidance and help but aren’t sure how to achieve their goals. If you have experience that you are willing to share or are a new entrepreneur seeking to find a mentor or two to help you grow your business, please get in touch and we can put you together with those who can and will help you succeed. I am thinking of starting a local group of entrepreneurs and mentors. Would you like to join?