Holy headlines!

Yesterday was a restless day. It ended up being a bit of a stupid day which went by v-e-e-e-e-r-r-r-r-y-y-y-y-y sloooowly. And a hungry day, as I made an effort to stop wandering to the vending machine during work and to cut back on the incredible amount of candy and chocolate I consume. This went well until I *forgot* about this goal and bought delicious delicious DELICIOUS caramel cakes for an impending hopefully camping adventure that did not take place. But that's beside the point.

Brown won't apologize for blowing up beaver dam - I laaaaughed when I read the original article yesterday. Apparently PEI's current Environment Minister used to have a job in his 20s blowing up beaver dams. This makes the opposition angry.

Why? From what I read in today's article, it seems that this was common practice. I realise this is an opportunity for the opposition to make more people dislike MLA Richard Brown, but they are making an issue out of a non-issue, really. Some people who commented on the article and the previous day's point out that the beaver is a symbol of Canada. Yes, yes it is. But he didn't actually blow up the beavers.. and besides, what if he blew up a ferret? Would that be okay as the ferret is not a symbol of Canada?

Naked guy running around in Charlottetown - (not actual headline, but close enough) This made me smile. Streaking just isn't as prevalent as it used to be. Nice to see someone celebrating the warmer weather :) One comment said, "It was very emBARE-ASSING for the gentleman as he ran along the street trying to get the winter stink off himself.." Who doesn't enjoy a good pun, eh?

Cruise ship passengers spend $3 million in PEI in 2008 - our report made headlines! Weee! And we got a radio spot and TV spot. I didn't write the bulk of this report, but I did editting and some additional work on it, and wrote the press release. Jen Mac makes stuff happen.

(not true, but she sometimes certainly tries!)

That being said, cruise ships make me have moral dilemas regarding gluttony and waste... but so fun...

There were also many articles on Chrysler, and its bankruptcy. Quote from linked article: "The Canadian and Ontario governments will end up with a two per cent stake in a restructured Chrysler, while the U.S. government will hold eight per cent. Canada will get to appoint one independent director to a new nine-person Chrysler board. The U.S. will appoint four independent directors."

I don't want to own Chrysler :(

Also, who will be the independent director? Can *I* apply for the position?! Will the Gov't of Canada receive dividends? Will I get a portion of these dividends in the form of a tax rebate?

If I got bankrupt will the entirety of Canada band together to own a two percent stake in *ME*?! I suppose I'm just not convinced we are doing the right thing; I see this a putting a band-aid on a bear attack wound.

Taxes!
Tax season is OVER. I ended up owing just over $8K in taxes, CPP, and Gst. Not too bad. But sometimes I think about how much we give the government on a daily basis, directly and indirectly.

Indirectly I give them many hugs and love.

hee... ^_^

For simplicity sake, let's say I made $20/hr, doing something lovely like hugging small cuddly animals. Suddenly the fed gov't took $3.00, and PEI took $1.96 in taxes (minimum tax bracket). I pay some CPP and EI (not sure how much? let's pretend $1.50). I now have $13.54 left. I can now buy, using algebra (which I miss, ooh, high school math) (1.05x)(1.10)=13.54, items with a listed, pre-tax total price $11.73.

Umm, that seems a little ridiculous, so I'm thinking I must have did something wrong? Granted, I didn't take any deductions off total income to decrease my net income, thus decreasing my taxes. So really, maybe I actually had about $15 left to play with.

It's such a cycle too. Whatever I bought with my leftover $15, part went to taxes (as pointed out above), and THEN, the organization from which I bought the product/service has to pay tax on its profit. Pretend I gave them $12 pre-tax. Cost of goods sold is $6, and with cost of electricy, rent, blah blah blah, they make a profit of $2.50 per item once boiled down to net income levels. Some of that profit goes to shareholders in the form of dividends, which are taxed (though I can't remember at what level, perhaps only half of income earned this way is taxable?), and some goes to the gov't in the form of corporate taxes.

Tax tax tax. What a taxing thing to write about!

So nice to know my taxes are buying a car company. Hope I get a discount if I ever decide to buy a Chrysler.

Unrelated, but the rear derailleur on my bike has taken on a mind of its own and magically shifts gears when I don't want it to, and often doesn know when I initiate the process of switching gears. I try to switch gears, nothing happens, aim for a crack or blip in the road (so easily done as the roads are full of them) in effort to 'bounce' the derailleur into place. This practice is generally effective, albeit annoying.