Love-Hate Relationship with My Blackberry

Let me tell you about my love-hate relationship with my Blackberry. There are so many reasons why I love it, and days when I forget to take it, I feel naked, but there are days I wish RIM put more consideration in their handsets as technology and business moves forward.

Smartphones have been doing great lately, and I can see why. Look at their last quarter, smartphones like Blackberry and iPhones sold over 400,000 units. WOWZA. If you sign on as a new customer for a three-year contract, you can buy these phones relatively cheap. That meant for three months, over 400 units were sold each day. I know my class really helped that number. I studied Business Administration Marketing and 95% of my class owned a Blackberry and two owned iPhone and the rest owned some random phones with a full QWERTY keyboard (made texting so much easier!). By the end of that semester, the two iPhone users bought a Blackberry.

I love Blackberries. I think they are the best invention in the past 10 years. It is like having your computer on the run. I have a full keyboard so I don’t have to press a million buttons using the predictive text which gets annoying.  I can download documents onto my phone, read it, edit it and then email it out to print it out later.  I can check several email accounts in real time and respond instantly and go on the internet if I needed to. Sure the internet capacity isn’t the best, but then again mobile internet hasn’t really developed yet…and I think that is the next step in technology for phone users. Taiwan for example, there are more cell phones registered than landlines! In Canada, we have a high percentage of individuals who own a cell phone and some even own two!

All in all, what I love most about the Blackberry is the Blackberry Messenger, or known as BBM. Great feature because it is instant; you can tell if it is delivered and if it has been read. You can also engage in group chats, send files and share pictures.

Now here is what I don’t like about Blackberries. If you call a big company, and they offer you a selection to go through company directory, you can type in the individual’s name using the traditional keypad you see in your home phone. Blackberries have numeric numbers but they do not coordinate with the numbers that these messaging systems use.

I wonder why companies do not adjust their automated messaging system, or why Blackberry doesn’t offer something in their phones that would coordinate with these automated answering systems. Students own Blackberries but many business people own one too. I see insurance adjusters, brokers, financial advisors with a Blackberry and it is a headache to go through the automated answering machine systems when it doesn’t work well with a Blackberry.

So I solved the problem for the time being until either RIM or the ICT (information communication technology) finds a way to sync smartphones like Blackberry to the answering systems. Download an image of a phone pad with the alphabets and place it as your wallpaper on your phone. That way if you make a call you can still switch the display to your homepage of your home.

Even with its faults, I don’t think I can get a cellphone that doesn’t have a QWERT keyboard or buy another phone that isn’t like the Blackberry. Sure the plans are slightly more expensive, but I think the benefits outweigh the negative.

Do you own a Blackberry and get frustrated when there is an automated answering system and just press 0? If you have a Blackberry what do you like about it?

Green with Envy

Everyone wants to go green and be part of the solution rather than the problem. Who wants to be labeled as a problem? Thing is, going green isn’t the cheapest solution out there. Our Earth is important to us and to the future – we live in it. But with financial constraints, sometimes investing in our future doesn’t have the immediate payoff or gratitude that people look for.

Buying eco-friendly products cost more. Look at recycled notebooks – they are often two to four times more expensive than the mass produced Hilroy products that aren’t made from recycled products. The sad thing is, in our minds, we think, “since it’s been ‘previous loved’ and re-made, it should be cheaper, and it isn’t.”

Proctor and Gamble wanted to jump on the bandwagon on going green with their products and created a concentrated Cheer detergent. Want to know what happened? The product didn’t do so well, because although it did the same job as the regular Cheer, because it was smaller (you just needed to use a lot less product) and slightly more expensive, consumers did not buy the product. They did a study and it showed that people were not willing to go ‘green’ if it meant it cost them more money.

We as individuals can still be part of the solution by taking small steps to keeping our planet healthy. Here are some tips on what you can do around the house to be more eco-friendly and save you some money.

Car:

Do you drive to work or to school? Maybe you know someone around the neighbourhood or close by that you can carpool with. Why drive two cars when you can have one on the road? You can reduce traffic, have company, and spilt the cost of gas.

Instead of driving everywhere…walk or bike it there. Thirty minutes of walking won’t kill you, it’ll probably help you maintain or lose some weight, and you can save the environment of carbon gas. Enjoy the fresh air and walk to the grocery store if you are only planning to get few items. Get those wheel carts you stereotypically see with eldery people and you can cart more items around. Decorate it if you really want to personalize it.

Speaking of grocery…use those reusable bags when you go grocery shopping. In the GTA, it is now mandatory that all stores who give out plastic bags charge customers minimum 5 cents per bag to help promote use of recycled plastic bags. Some have great designs and while some of us may have gotten free ones from different companies, they do their job and help save the planet from plastic bags that are thrown in the garbage and into our landsites.

Going out? Is it relatively close? Why not take the public transportation? It’s cheap, goes almost everywhere and you would save money on gas. Public parking is horrendous, so why not take the public transit?

Work:

Does you work place have a recycling system? Why not get a plastic bin for paper and bottle? Many offices print pages of document after document and accumulate thousands of paper a year that goes to garbage.

Printed something? Use the back as scrap notes. You can cut them into smaller size pads and you can take notes from it. Some companies can take your scrap paper, cut them and bind them to make notepads. You could use them as ‘While You Were Out’ for the receptionist to take messages for you.

Turn off the lights and computers when you leave the room for a long period of time. You’d save electricity bill and energy – which is great for you and the planet!

This also applies to your home, but ask your office manager or facilities manager to change the florescent lights to halogen lights. They use less energy and last longer. Honestly, IKEA has great bulbs. They last forever (been using them outdoors for past 7 years and yet to change one) and are fairly cheap too.

Home:

Turn off your lights and your computer when you leave your home. Turn off heating and air conditioning units too. Why keep your home cool/warm when you’re not even there?! Even if utilities are part of your rent, why waste money and energy on something that’s not appreciated. Your furniture doesn’t care if they are comfortable or not.

That saying, turn off your lights in daylight! Why do you need indoor lights when you have windows that can filter in natural day light? At night, if you aren’t reading, light some candles. It creates a nice atmosphere too.

Did you know by opening and keeping your refrigerator doors open is a HUGE waste to the environment? If you want to get something out, know what you want and are looking for. Probably save you calories too (the more you look in your fridge, more likely you are to binge eat)! Keeping those suckers open for a long period is actually a huge waste of energy and is one of those little hidden money drainers.

Do you have windows and doors with screens around your home? Use them. If the weather is not scorching hot, you could use some fresh air and rely less on your air conditioning unit. Keep your blinds down during the day and it will retain some coolness in your home.

Change your main light to a ceiling fan with lights…if that is an option. Those fans use very little energy and keep your room nice and cool. In the summer, I turn on the ceiling fan and we turn off the air conditioner.

In the winter, instead of blasting your heater, you can layer your blankets and wear a little warmer sleepwear. The winter isn’t bad as the ice age, and we have the luxury of having a home and blankets.

When you are doing laundry, make sure your load is full, rather than doing laundry for few pieces of clothing. You’d save a lot of money and time doing so. If it is nice outside, take your clothes out and hang dry. People back in the day did it and they survived.

You can also create a compost, make jewelry with chocolate bar wrappers, cut jeans into shorts, cut cotton shirts into rags…there are so many great ideas you can do and make with products already in your home (if that’s your thing). You can do research on the Internet for those ideas posted by creative individuals. Internet allows us to have so much information at the tip of our fingers.

Back to being green…

Recycle in the proper place. Waxy filaments aren’t recyclable, so that sadly goes in the garbage. But if you have bottles, paper, boxes, or plastic, recycle them. If you are given the grey bins by the government, put food scrapes and tissues there. Every bit helps.

Lastly, I am sure most of you drink coffee. If you are sitting in, see if they offer ceramic cups. Second Cup and Tim Hortons offer them. Don’t worry, they are clean. All utensils and cups are sanitized with their dishwasher.

If you go to places like Tim Hortons, request the manager for recyclable paper cups. Certain Tim Hortons have the new recycling systems built in already; it means those cups are recyclable. Ones without the special recycling system, those cups are not recyclable. They go int he garbage due to the wax filaments. If you and your friends or coworkers continually ask for it, it creates a demand, and they will order it eventually. If you want to take a step further, get a thermal mug. Many coffee stores offer a discount to customers who bring in a thermal mug.

Be part of the solutions. Leave me a message on what you do to be more green that I haven’t mentioned. Every little bit counts and what you do is just as important as those who make revolutionary changes in our world.

Economic Development – Insurance Cluster

When we use the term clusters, we think of a grouping of a number of similar things. Clusters can also exist in businesses. In the business sense, clusters help other competing businesses (an industry as a whole) to be more productive and provide better, longer lasting jobs.

This concept is not new, but it is not that well known either to the mass public. Economic development, according to Harvard Professor Michael E. Porter is the “long-term process of building a number of interdependent microeconomic capabilities and incentives to support more advanced forms of competition.”

Industry clusters are geographic concentrations of competing, complementary, or interdependent firms and industries that do business with each other. The firms included in the cluster may be both competitive and cooperative, meaning while they are competitive, they offer services or creative intelligence with each other (no it is not free either!). They may compete directly with some members of the cluster, purchase inputs from other cluster members (intelligence, services or products), and rely on the services of other cluster firms in the operation of their business.

See an example of the California Wine Cluster and how it works visually (click on the image to see the actual image):

More specifically, cluster initiatives are organizations or projects that are organized as collaborations between a diverse number of public and private sector actors, such as firms, government agencies, and academic institutions. Whereas lobbying policymakers may be one of the cluster initiative’s activities; cluster initiatives generally are involved in a broad range of activities, from market intelligence, incubator services, attraction of foreign direct investment, joint R&D projects, marketing of the region, and setting technical standards.

Some insurance and financial institutions in other parts of the world have formed clusters, but in Canada, we are devoid of that. I wonder if the insurance and restoration companies could potentially form a cluster of their own in specific regions like Newmarket, which is now booming exponentially.
According to Cluster Strategies, a cluster can be formed in number of ways. One way is when a company has access to a labor force with specialized skills, a desirable location, plentiful natural resources, a supportive business infrastructure or academic research in a concentrated geographical location.

If you look at successful industries, most of them are part of a cluster. Let’s look at some examples: wine (Okanagan, Walla Walla, Chile, France…), Life Science and e-Health, Information Communication Technology (ICT), fashion, finance, agriculture and so much more. All these industries are highly competitive, but they can still be competitors and work in co-opetiton (co-operation and competition).

Why do firms want to be in cluster? To be a cluster, they must have firms in a concentrated geographical location, and these regional clusters have the ability to offer knowledge, relationship, supplies and competition that drives success off of each other which cannot be matched by distant rivals.

When firms are successful, more jobs are available, higher paying ones and ones that last. When you have people collaborating, you get new ideas, innovation and knowledge. A strong cluster can lobby for improvement for that industry from the government. You can get highly educated employees to strengthen your firm, if government funds programs related to your industry.

If you think about it, we all work with a supply chain from varies industries to manage business. But more people involved means more creative ideas to create innovation to make the industry stronger, easier and effective.

Home Renovation Tax Credit

Have you heard? Government is helping us!

Okay…so it isn’t completely altruistic, but they have initiated a new program earlier this year called the Home Renovation Tax Credit as part of their economy stimulus plan. If you are a Canadian and read newspaper or watch TV, you may have seen their advertisement encouraging home owners to use their tax credit.

How it works, is that homeowners’ dwelling must be their primary residence. You can use this tax credit until February 1st, 2010 (that means all invoice statements must be prior to this date).  It must be family based, meaning it must consist of an individual or an individual and his or her spouse or common-law partner, including children who will be under 18 years of age, at the end of 2009.

The credit will only be available for the 2009 tax year and applies to eligible expenditures of more than $1,000, but not more than $10,000, resulting in a maximum credit of $1,350 (up to 15%). To be eligible, expenditures incurred  must be of an enduring nature and integral to the home, and includes the cost of labour and professional services, building materials, fixtures, rentals, and permits.

To see a list of eligible expenditures, click here.

You can watch this video about the Home Renovation Tax  Credit:

The expenses are eligible when they are incurred  are permanent in nature, so if this renovation is not permanent part of your home or property, it is not eligible.

I know it says “Home Renovation Tax Credit” but there is no stipulation that it couldn’t be because you had a disaster hit your home and you put through a claim to your insurance company. Could you not use this tax credit along with your deductible?

As my last blog mentioned staycation, this is the perfect time to fix your home to create your very own oasis.

For those in the insurance industry, what are your thoughts and professional insight on this new tax credit? Could homeowners use this tax credit along with their deductible if their homes were to experience disaster?

Twilight Thoughts

Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga has been popular amongst young children for years. The saga consists of four novels surrounding the love story of two main characters, Bella and Edward.

The film based on the first novel was released late 2008 and brought the characters to life. Upon the big screen, the saga captured millions of viewers who were not familiar to Stephenie Meyer’s novels. She sold 22 million books in 2008, the time when the film was released. Twilight novel was originally released in 2005. So obviously, the film really helped Meyer’s popularity.

I’ve read the four novels, and it is entertaining. No, it will not become the next great American novel. It isn’t even the best writing in the world. There are some symbolism and metaphors, but it is obvious and very simplistic. It really is meant for easy, enjoyable reading.

But what concerns me is the content of these books. Not sure if you read it, but there is some graphic storyline in there. Chapters/Indigo, classify the saga as ‘Young Readers’ which is aimed at children ages 10-12.

Some spoiler…so if you haven’t read it, and don’t want to be spoiled, please don’t read below.

I don’t know about you, but I prefer kids to be kids, and they do not need to know that Bella and Edward have sex, and that she enjoys it, and it was so rough that the couple broke their bed. Some of these children don’t even know about sex and now these books are educating them about it? Let me be clear, these books do not address safe sex either.

What about the fact that the book describes the feeding habits of vampires and glorifies it? The movie may choose not to show the exact feedings vampires go through, since it could potentially become graphic. I will post some trailers of the movie and you decide.

Many people love the series and dress up as characters. When Stephenie Meyer does book signings, many fans dress up as their favourite characters from the novel, and most often, it is based on Bella and Edward. Halloween costumes mimicked Edward and Bella (more so Bella).

Dolls…or as I like to call them Barbies, replicate Edward and Bella. I highly doubt adults buy them for themselves as they are not collectibles. Please don’t justify them as collectibles. The books, costumes, toys…they are all aimed at young children, and yet the content of these books should not be aimed at them. Yes they are at the discretion of the parent, but parents should know what happens in these novels. Either that or the publisher should have aimed it at the older demographic. It still would have been successful, as many adults love the series too.

In hindsight the author probably didn’t think her novels would be translated to the big screen. Her four novels have been signed on to become movies. Twilight has already been released, New Moon is set to be released end of this year, and the two other novels are set to release every year for the next two years. If the producers plan to translate the novels as accurately as possible, then the young fans will not be able to go into theatres to watch the third and fourth installments. That’s how graphic it could potentially get.

It’s not appropriate for young readers to read these series, and should not have been promoted to this demographic. Has no one questioned her novels if they are appropriate for young children ages 10-12?

Do you think it is alright for young children to read the saga and watch the movies? Because inevitably, fans of the saga will want to watch the movies. If the movies are to accurately follow the series, then the young fans cannot enter the theatres. What do you think?

Trailer from Twilight:

Trailer from New Moon:

Summertime = time on your patio deck

The economy is not the strongest right now. More people are having staycation than traveling outside of their hometown. What is staycation? Staycation is when people take their vacation at home. Many automatically put their e-mail to vacation status, and turn off their cell phone. Their home becomes their sanctuary.

Summer is the best time to enjoy the outdoors whether it is during the weekend or if you are taking your vacation at home. Do you have a patio or thinking about putting one in the front of your house or the backyard? If you are looking to installing a patio or want to maintain your patio deck, here are some tips on keeping it nice.

You can choose your patio deck’s finish in any stain or you can leave it unfinished. If you decide that you do want a finish, here are some tips on how to maintain your deck in optimal condition.

If you have a finish, power wash it and gently wash with some palm olive dish washing liquid or any gentle detergent. Scuff with sand paper to remove any old finish, let it dry completely. Once dry, reapply finish of your choice. You should clean your patio deck as required, as your deck will show signs of wear …sometimes once a year, sometimes once every few years.

For those of us that are a little lazy or don’t have time to maintain our deck, the best way is to choose an unfinished deck. Leaving it alone is the best as it means less maintenance. The woods used to create your patio deck are pressured-treated or cedar-treated, and by not putting any finish (stain) to your deck means you do not need to clean, scuff and repaint.

Do you already have a deck? Is yours finished or unfinished?

Now that you have a patio deck ready to go, or will get one soon, you can’t leave it bare. To compliment your patio deck, you can get some nice outdoor furniture. I recently went to the Bay and some saw nice wicker patio set with light blue cushions. They were a set, with 6 chairs, one bench, and a table for $1400 CDN, and they were on sale for 60% off. Since I had the HBC credit card, got another 10% off, and I also had a coupon from them for another 10% off. Also because the set I bought was a demo (last one), I asked for a discount, and got another 10% off! I had a total savings of 71% and bought the set for $408 dollars plus tax.

Recession sucks, but if you have some money and want to decorate the inside and outside of your home, it is the buyer’s market right now and everything is negotiable. Little touches can make a big difference, and make your staycation more enjoyable.

Have you had your staycation yet, and if so, what did you do?

How to Protect Your Basement

Honestly, I think most of us use our basement as another place to store junk. Lets admit it, we’re all rat packs to a certain extent, and I am pretty sure most of us have things in our basement that we haven’t touch in years. Yes, there are some stuff there that is valuable, but often the basement is ignored.

The basement is the foundation of the house. It’s often overlooked, but foundation must be kept solid in order for your house to stand tall. Look on the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Beautiful yes, but yet as the years go by, the Pisa leans further down to the ground. Trust me, you don’t want your house to lean off to the side. If you try and let it, your house will not be famous and be worth billions of dollars. People will just laugh and point at your house and call you stupid behind your back.

So to avoid that…here are some tips to keeping your basement healthy and happy.

How many of you use cardboard box to store your stuff and shove it in your basement? Yes cardboard boxes are cheap, or sometimes free…if you go to stores and ask for it. Lets do a pro/con list for cardboard boxes:

PROS:

• Cheap (or free)
• Readily available
• Light
• Disposable

CONS:

• If you have a minor flood, gets wet
• Smells over time
• Breaks easily
• Potential to get moldy
• It’s ugly
• Mice loves them (unless you want them in your house as pets)
• Not as environmentally friendly

Often basements are moist due to several factors, and cardboard boxes are like sponges…it sucks it in and keeps it in. Overtime, that moisture builds up, you get that unpleasant smell, and grows mold…and mold isn’t healthy. People get sick from being around mold too much.

It looks disorganized, you can’t really see what storage you have in each box, other than a quick label you probably wrote with a thick marker on the box. They don’t stack up nicely and it can be dangerous, especially if you have young kids. Those boxes can fall on them and can hurt you or your loved ones.

How can you rectify this? With a little investment called plastic bins. For those who have OCD in them, plastic bins are your saving grace and peace of mind. If you buy bins from the same company, they would all be the same size and colour. The OCD in me is in heaven.

The great thing about plastic bins are that they don’t absorb the moisture in the air, which can cause molds. Just for the health factor, regardless of cost, I use plastic bins. You can stack the plastic bins neatly against the wall, making more room for other things. They don’t break or rip, you can barely make a damage on a plastic bin, and because they last forever, you save the environment instead of consistently having to get cardboard boxes again when they rip. They aren’t too expensive. You can go to Home Depot, Rona, IKEA, Canadian Tire, etc and get plastic bins for great prices.

You can label your bins nicely so that everything is organized. Sigh. I’m in heaven.

Do you use cardboard boxes or plastic bins?

Update

I know I haven’t added any new post on this blog for about a week. I have been busy updating our contacts’ information the past week and it has been a little tedious and time consuming.

I do have an article planned and as a little teaser, look out for an article how you can keep your basement smelling clean and keeping it clean. Basements are usually overlooked because they end up being storage but there are ways to protect your belongings and keeping even mice away.

I should have the article up and running hopefully by end of this week or at the latest, next week. Sorry about the lack of updates. But you can go to our twitter site too, http://twitter.com/smrestoreyr or our website at http://smrestoreyr.com. The website is under construction, but some information is already up and running.

Also, if you are associated with a principle or independent insurance company and in the GTA/York Region, heck even far as Waterloo and Kingston region, and your contact information has changed in the last 3 years, send me a message and I will update your information. There may be some companies that fall through the cracks, but send me a message and I will update it.

Thanks again for your patience. But leave me a feedback on what kind of article you wish to read about.

- SMRestoreYR