Archive for February, 2011

Calculator aimed at helping Canadians better manage their finances

Tuesday, February 22, 2011 By Investment Executive Staff

An easy-to-use interactive budget calculator has been launched by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) to help Canadians see how much money they take home and where they’re spending it.

“The budget calculator shows you where your money is going. It’s divided into categories that prompt the user to consider every possible source of income, savings and expenses,” explains FCAC Commissioner Ursula Menke.

“It’s so much easier to manage your finances and change your spending and saving habits when you can see how daily spending, even your daily cups of coffee, adds up over a year.”

FCAC already has a paper-based budget worksheet on its website. But this new interactive budget calculator eliminates the hard work for Canadians. It can be downloaded as a spreadsheet and saved onto your computer to help you keep a close eye on your finances.

“A budget is key to avoiding the debt trap,” Menke stresses. “So as we take a step into the next year, FCAC wants to raise awareness of the importance of budgeting and being financially prepared.”

Budgeting and Money Management

Good budgeting and money management are the foundation for putting your finances on solid ground. Financial goals can be anything from saving for a purchase to paying down debt to saving for retirement.

Budget Calculator

Do you have a realistic budget?

Enter information into our online Budget Calculator about your income, savings and expenses to see where your money goes. Find out if you can put more of your money toward financial goals, such as saving for retirement or paying down debt. You will be able to export your budget information to Microsoft Excel or as a PDF file once you have finished all the steps.

You can also download this tool as a Microsoft Excel file and save it on your computer. Saving the Budget Calculator to your computer allows you to review and update your budget later.

Go to www.SueRicketts.com and click on the Resources page to be able to access the Budget Calculator and many other useful financial tools, tips and quizzes.

     At the age of three, Louis Braille suffered a tragic accident in his father’s saddle making workshop. The young boy had taken hold of a stitching awl, which slipped from his grasp and pierced his eye. Within days he could not see out of the eye. Sadly, Louis was completely blinded shortly thereafter when an infection from his injury spread to his other eye and took away its sight.

     Having been blinded at such a young age, Louis easily could have become detached from the sighted world around him. However, thankfully for Louis, a local priest took interest in his development and spent hours conversing with him and teaching him. The priest, astonished by the boy’s sharp mind and ability to learn, convinced Louis’ parents to enrol him in the Royal Institution for Blind Youth. So, at the age of 10, Louis left his family and the familiarity of his rural home and journeyed to a boarding school in Paris.

     Initially, Louis felt homesickin his new surroundings, but he quickly settled in and befriended his classmates. He loved to learn, and he enjoyed being in a setting tailored to his needs. Unfortunately, his education progressed slowly due to the arduous system of reading and writing used at the school. The system, called sonography, employed cells of twelve raised dots to spell words phonetically. The French Army had developed sonography so that its soldiers could compose and read messages under the cover of darkness. However, army officers found the system too complex, and it was quickly abandoned. Louis and his classmates likewise struggled with the cumbersome system.

#1 Vision Is Birthed from the Passion to Solve a Problem

     After two years of study at the Royal Institution for Blind Youth, Louis had grown intensely dissatisfied with the time-consuming process of putting his thoughts on paper. He longed to be able to read and write fluently, but he was stuck using the unwieldy system of sonography. Determined to build a better system, Louis began experimenting with alternative methods.

#2 Vision Energizes a Person to Tackle the Problem

     For three years, from age 12 to 15, Louis Braille devoted his weekends, evenings, and summer vacations to improving upon the system of sonography. In his biography about Louis’ life, Jean Roblin describes the boy’s unceasing, energetic pursuit to create a better mode of communication.

     It was at night, especially, that the boy worked. When the breathing of his comrades had grown regular in the great dormitory of the Institution, he would take out his board and stylus and devote himself eagerly to calculations and experiments…Sometimes Louis Braille would doze off from exhaustion, his nose on his board, the stylus in his hand, as though he wanted to keep on working in his sleep. At other times, stimulated by the desire to hit upon a solution and working feverishly with no idea of time, he would suddenly grow conscious of daybreak from the jolting of the first wagons on the street pavement.

     Louis’ vision gave himan endless reserve of motivation and spurred him on until he made a breakthrough. By age 15, Louis had worked out what we today know as Braille. He abandoned sonography’s reliance on phonetics, instead returning to normal spelling. He also simplified the number of raised dots in each cell from twelve to six. As a result, his system was far more intuitive for students and could be navigated much more quickly by them.

#3 Vision Provides a Sense of Purpose

     Louis Braille’s creation of a superior system of reading and writing filled him with a renewed sense of purpose. From then on, he saw it as his duty to spread the news about his invention. He accepted a teaching post at the Royal Institution for Blind Youth, and shared his methods with his students. He also authored books to publicize his system of reading and writing. From the time of his invention until his death at age 46, Louis tirelessly worked to demonstrate and advertise the benefits of Braille.

Summary

     Over 150 years after the death of Louis Braille, blind persons across the globe employ his method to expand their minds, broaden their intellect, and share their ideas with the world. A young boy’s vision of a better way for the blind to communicate has influenced generations of those without sight. In the words of Helen Keller, “We the blind are as indebted to Louis Braille as mankind is to Gutenberg . . . Without a dot system what a chaotic, inadequate affair our education would be!”

From: http://www.giantimpact.com/articles/read/how_a_blind_boys_vision_changed_the_world/

By Sue Ricketts

     This happened in a little town in Newfoundland, and even though it sounds like an Alfred Hitchcock tale, it’s absolutely true!

     This guy was on the side of the road hitch-hiking on a very dark night in the middle of a terrible rain storm. The night was foggy and no cars were on the road. The storm was so strong the guy could hardly see a few feet ahead of him.

     Suddenly, he saw a car come toward him and stop. The guy, without thinking about it, got in the car and closed the door and only then did he realize that there was nobody behind the wheel! The car started to move very slowly. The guy looked at the road and saw a curve coming his way. Petrified, he started to pray, begging for his life.

     He had not come out of shock when, just before the car hit the curve, a hand suddenly appeared through the window and moved the wheel. The poor fellow, now paralyzed in terror, watched how the hand appeared every time the car was approaching a curve. Finally, although terrified, the guy managed to open the door and jump out of the spooky car.

     Without looking back, the fellow ran through the storm all the way to the nearest town. Soaking wet, exhausted and in a state of utter shock, the pale, visibly shaken guy, walked into a nearby bar and asked for two shots of the strongest they had.

     Then, still trembling with fright, he started telling everybody in the Bar about the horrible experience he just went through with the spooky car with no driver and the mysterious hand that kept appearing.

     Everyone in the bar listened in silence and their eyes got big as they became frightened listening to this eerie story; hairs stood on end when they realized the chap was telling the truth because he was crying and he definitely was not drunk.

     About half an hour later, two guys walked into the same bar and one said to the other, “Lard Tunderin’ Jaysus, me boy, there’s the jerk who got into the car while we was pushing it!”

Genre: Mystery

Character – Bernadine

Role/Pursuit: Judgement – tax assessor

Trait: Knowledge – photographic memory

Goal: Dependence – Find someone to lean on

Motivation: Balance – Unbalance the status quo

Internal Conflict: Zenith – Success brings nothing but pain

External Conflict: Sacrifice – Others don’t appreciate your sacrifice

Growth/Realization: Dreams – If you leap the net will appear

Plot

The Ordinary World: Improvement – Needing improvement but not knowing how to get it

Trigger Event: Deception – Defrauded by a trickster

Change of Plans: Inheritance – You inherit something wonderful

Black Moment: Travel – Your roots shrivel up and die

Resolution: Unknown – remaining unknown and obscure is the best solution

 By Sue Ricketts

     Being a tax assessor for the government with a photographic memory was both a curse and a blessing. A curse because the higher-ups knew about it and everyone turned to her whenever there was a question about what the facts were. A blessing because she never had to go back and look at files, they just appeared in her mind whenever she needed to fit the facts into any picture.

     Although Bernadine was respected and better known by her co-workers as Bernie the Brain, not many of them would spend time with her outside the office. She might catch them in the little white lies that people tell all the time. She would know if they really meant I wish I had done this or that, instead of just telling a story which made themselves the hero. It was annoying enough when she corrected them about computer files and papers at work. If they forgot details she would instantly recall them and show them up by reminding everyone. Or at least that’s what they thought she was doing. They sure didn’t want to hang out with someone who’d do that all the time.

     Bernie wanted very, very much to find someone who would like her and stay with her and understand that she just couldn’t forget things. Her mind seemed able to expand exponentially and never became too full to add more memories. She knew that most people thought that they had a limit. Most people forgot things and just didn’t stay consistent.

     Although her job paid well and she had all the comforts she would ever need, she wanted to have someone to lean on when she felt lonely, someone who would never leave her, someone who would understand her.

     She was good looking and there was no lack of offers for physical companionship – one night at a time. They just never seemed to stay. She thought seriously for a while about cheating on the birth control pills and having a baby. Not to trap anyone, but then she’d have that treasured companion who would stay with her. But for how long? A child would leave her to go out into the world eventually. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be a very good companion. They’d be damaged in some way.

     Life drifted along for a while and one day she was given some information about a tax cheat who had come up with a very creative way to jigger the books so that his embezzlement was almost impossible to discover. The info came on her computer and she spent weeks trying to piece together the clues which came from the periodic auditors reports which she was charged with reviewing. It was her job to make an airtight case for the government to indict the fraudster and put him in jail and fine him and his superiors at the bank who had not done their job. Every time she thought she had the case wrapped up, new information came through which needed to be added and reviewed and folded into the case in a logical order.

     As time went on this one case became an obsession and she spent more and more time trying to get all the facts in place. Two years later it still wasn’t finished. New names and details kept coming in. One night as her co-workers left the building she stayed late, piecing things together. In the distance she heard a cell phone ringing. It rang five times and then stopped. A couple minutes later it rang again. This went on for some time and finally she decided to go find it and either answer it or shut it off.

     The cell had been left in a cubical three doors down from hers in it’s charger. When she looked she saw that the same number had been making all the calls. After it started ringing another couple of times she was curious enough that she picked it up and grunted noncommittally. The voice on the other end was one of those who worked on the floor below. She knew it because he had a slight lisp. He didn’t wait to hear who had answered. He just said, “Dammit! Why didn’t you upload that file to Bernie Brain’s computer before you left? How can we keep this going if you don’t carry your part of the joke. Now she’ll be back looking over our shoulders and telling the boss what we’re doing wrong or what we’ve missed.”

     That sure hurt. She went back to her office and sat there feeling uncontrollable tears run down her cheeks. How could these people who spent so much time with her think so badly of her? Was she some kind of joke to them? A freak? Once again she was the weird outsider and not part of the group.

     Bernie couldn’t concentrate any more and she put on her coat and walked out to the parking garage and drove around aimlessly while she thought about the two year joke to keep her away from them. That night she didn’t have supper and when she did finally go home it was to a dark and empty place. No one to talk things over with. No one to help distract her from how very lonely she was. She fell into a restless sleep of exhaustion and woke with a start at 5:45 sharp.

     What had wakened her? Something was odd. Something was different. After a few minutes she realized that she had come to a decision. She knew what she would do. Bernie got up and made herself some coffee and walked around her beautifully decorated apartment and stood at the huge picture window with the french doors leading out to the wide balcony high above the city. The view was spectacular! She could see for miles. When she stood at the right spot, to the left was a view of the Rocky Mountains with a bit of snow capping their tops. On her right was a view between two buildings of the harbour dotted with sailboats. The sun was just beginning to rise so that the snow caps were turning red and the sails on the boats were turning a paler shade of pink as the sky lightened. A most splendid view. A new beginning.

     Now that she hadmade her decision, she fixed herself breakfast. Lots of food which she ate hungrily. When eight-thirty finally arrived she picked up her phone and called the University and waited impatiently until she got Dr. Schizari on the line. “Uncle Shiz. I know that you installed your memory connection in my head a long time ago. I want you to make that computer talk to me. I need a friend. A companion who will never leave me. I need to be understood. I don’t want to be alone any more. Can you make me a companion?”

     And so it happenedthat Bernie, the Brain, found her perfect companion. Another brain. But one that had no human emotions. No feelings to get hurt. No intentions to hurt her.  Unable to make mistakes when it “forgot”.  No exaggerations or lies. Uncle Shiz installed a computer connection and camera so that she could share everything with her best friend. Her best friend could now share everything with her. That best friend had connections all over the world.