It’s a boy!
June 18th, 2009 by JimJust found out this morning our 2nd baby is going to be a boy! Now it’s time to figure out a name for the little guy! =)
Learning Guitar Scales
June 15th, 2009 by JimWow, it’s been a long time since I wrote in my blog! I guess I was busy out driving!
Anyways, I just thought I’d start making blog posts again! Hooray.
I re-started learning guitar again about a year and a half ago, after I dropped it for almost 10 years since first attempting to learn it way back in university days. But this time around, I’ve stuck to it, and have gotten much better at playing the classical guitar. While I can’t say I’m any good at it, but I’ve definitely improved to a level that I’m pretty happy about!
Lately, I’ve been taking some guitar lessons with a teacher every Tuesday for about 30 minutes each. Learning mostly theory, since I don’t know any! And we’ve been working on guitar scales as well. I also just picked up a new guitar program called the Guitar Scale Mastery, which I’m really hoping will help me improve my knowledge of scales and improvising!
I’ll post more about how it goes as I work through it.
Canada’s SUV Tax (Update)
November 22nd, 2007 by JimWell I just got off the phone with Matt over at Speedway, asking him about the whereabouts of my car cover. (it’s on its way now). And I was asking him about the SUV tax. Apparently, that tax program is on hold at the moment (I don’t know why), so if you went out and bought an SUV, you’d avoid this tax. But I have no idea what will happen with this tax in the future.
Canada’s SUV Tax.
October 30th, 2007 by JimThe SUV (or tax on inefficient vehicles) was introduced earlier this year while a tax incentive was introduced for fuel efficient cars. The incentive goes up to around $2000 for fuel efficient cars, while the SUV tax ranges up to $4000 depending on how “inefficient” the SUV is. Something like the hummer would cost you an extra $4000.
With the CAD near all time high vs. the USD, I think canadian car dealers will be hurting. Even with a less favorable exchange of a few months ago, plenty of canadians were buying from south of the border - I almost ended up buying a slightly used Porsche Cayman S (if it was not sold before I had the chance!) Despite Porsche’s price cut of about 10% across the board, Canadian porsche prices are still around $12 to $15k over US prices. Now with the loonie worth more than the USD, the price difference becomes even greater I imagine most people would probably consider purchasing south as a main option. The price difference is significant enough even for lower ranged cars that many will probably shop for something in the US.
When the time comes for me to replace my SUV, if current conditions persist, it’s very likely that I’ll find something down in the US.
Zaino!
September 19th, 2007 by JimYay for Zaino! For making cars shine like a mirror! I spent most of sat/sun this past weekend Zainoing the Cayman.
There was plenty of raildust on the driver side of the car, so I clayed the car and then prep’d it for a few coats of Z5 and Z2. After 3 coats of Z5 and 2 more coats of Z2 over the 2 days, the car was unbelievably shinny, and “wet” looking. And it was shinny enough to almost look like a mirror from an angle.
Reflection from the passenger side.
More Photos of M.Y.08 Cayman S
August 23rd, 2007 by JimThe wife came along for a drive this evening, and I took a few more pics of the CS.
Butt of the Croc.
Chrome Exhaust.
Seat belt in guards red.
Picked Up My 08 Porsche CS!
August 22nd, 2007 by JimAfter a long 4 day wait after my Cayman S arrived at the dealer, the PDI and additional protection options installed, it was ready! Originally, the dealer was going to deliver it, but I’d have to wait another few days, so I headed over to Victoria Tuesday Noon to pick it up. When I got to the dealer, there it was, sitting in the main show room!
Would you like financing with that?
No…
You sure you don’t need financing?
No… Would you like that in Cash?
As mentioned before, all MY08 Porsche models had a “Market Adjustment” due to the strong CAD, basically saving me about $10k. I purchased a 3 year extend warranty for an extra $4.5k, and the final invoice price was still about $6k lower than my original cost. The finaly amount came out to around $105k. Cheers. 
As for insurance, without discount, the full cost of insurance would be close to $5k per year. Good thing I’m at the max discount level and it ends up being around $2.7k/year. Yay for safe driving… Boo for speeding tickets…. yeah, 2nd time in Victoria, got my 2nd ticket on my way back to the ferry.
I was going just as fast as everybody else on the road, although everyone was speeding, sure enough, the cop signals out the Porsche. Meh… What did I expect? But I probably didn’t learn my lesson…
2008 Porsche Cayman S Pricing Confirmed
August 17th, 2007 by JimIt’s arrived! My guards red cayman arrived at the dealer today, and I got the long waited call! The PDI and some extra protection options are being done and delivery is set for next tuesday.
As far as price goes, it’s now confirmed that the base price is reduced by $8k, and that the 3 features (auto climate control, heated seats, rain sensor) are now standard features of Canadian Caymans worth $2420. So the total saving in this is $10420 plus 16% less tax paid of this discounted amount. Take that CCRA! Basically amounting to a little over $12k in total savings from my original invoice price.
