The Vince Files

Anna, Claire, and I made a last-minute decision to go see the Abbotsford International AirShow today.  Read the rest of this entry »

Anna was right beside me when this happened.  I don’t think she realizes the odds of getting a royal flush are an astronomical 649,739:1.

I limped in to the pot in late position.  The small blind folds and the big blind checks; we’re heads up.  The flop gives me the nut flush draw.  Buddy checks and I check behind.  The turn gives me the straight and Buddy checks so I check behind again.  The river gives me my dream card.  The pot now only has $0.60.

So I’m at the river with the nuts and buddy bets $0.50 into a $0.60 pot.  I need to raise to extract as much money as I can from the guy.  I decide, for whatever reason, that Buddy is willing to call a raise to $2.50.  I was right.

So NCIX was having another one of their sales again.  This time the deals were pretty good. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve mentioned before that this site is running in a VirtualPC environment.

VPC_W2K3

I’ve decided to switch to VMWare Server.  I’ll be bringing the server down so I can import my Virtual PC image into VMWare.

UPDATE: VMWare Server’s import tool failed to import my Virtual PC .vmc file.  Luckily they have a separate converter tool available available at http://www.vmware.com/download/converter/.

UPDATE: OK.  We’re back and the server is up and running.  It took me a while to get the networking figured out but everything seems to have worked out in the end.  Networking in Virtual PC seems much easier since the Virtual PC handles it all like it were a separate computer.  In VMWare, additional network adapters are added to the host.  Then you specify which adapter the guest OS connects to.

UPDATE: The hardware in my virtual machine has changed so much that Windows is asking to re-activate with Windows product activation.  After I established network connectivity, I just activated over the Internet and we’re officially, legitimately, back.

VMWARE_W2K3

If you are a Rogers Internet subscriber and you try to reach a non-existent URL (e.g. http://asdfzxcv.google.com), you will be redirected to a Rogers search page displaying ads. Read the rest of this entry »

The federal government has made changes to mortgages effective October 15.

Some key highlights:

• Maximum amortization of 35 years
• Minimum down payment 5%
• Maximum 45% debt service ratio (percentage of gross income for housing costs)

Good luck trying to buy the average home in Vancouver!

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080709.wmortgages0709/BNStory/Business/

This is the closest I’ve come to winning the $4.40 180-player Sit-n-Go on PokerStars.  The final table lasted for quite a while.  Then the eventual winner started knocking players out.  I only knocked out one player at the final table.  By the time we got heads-up, he had a commanding chip lead over me.  I did manage to win an all-in moment and doubled up.  That brought us to about even in chips.  Then I made a mistake with a wrong read and the rest went downhill from there.  But 2nd place ain’t so bad from a field of 180.

2ndplace

On the weekend before Canada Day, we (me, Anna, Claire, and my cousin Liezl) went camping up at Tall Timbers Resort up at Watch Lake in BC’s South Cariboo region. Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve lowered our listing price by $10,000 to try to entice an offer from a potential buyer.  We’ve been listed about a month with a couple of open houses, some private viewings and no offers yet.  This is how the market is these days; many listings are staying on the market longer and longer.

Our updated listing is now on MLXchange and our real estate agent will be following up with people who left their names in our previous open houses to let them know.  Hopefully something will come up soon.  We’re aiming to sell, and buy another place before our mortgage pre-approval expires.

Part of the BC government’s budget for 2008 is a $100 Climate Action Dividend to every person living in British Columbia.  Anna received $200 which includes Claire’s dividend.  This comes just in time for July 1 when the BC government will raise gas prices by around 2.5 cents per litre as part of their Carbon Tax.

So let’s see…what should I spend my $100 on?  Compact fluorescent lightbulbs?  Naaahhh..  Reusable shopping bags?  Naahhh.

Oh I know.  I think I’ll treat my car to a tank of gas!