GTA TTC Auction – For The Bargain Hunter In You!

TTC
Originally uploaded by Mr.Lobo.

If you are ever on the lookout for some affordable deals and do not mind waiting for the item within an auction setting - I would suggest that you check out the GTA TTC Auctions

They have some great stuff for real affordable prices. I would suggest staying way from the shoes and clothes!!!

Honda Canada + Honda Finance + Honda Dealerships = Useless Privacy Policies

Is customer information sharing & privacy important to Honda Canada?

I do not believe it is. Honda Canada hides behind legal business entities and hard to focus blame on Honda Dealers so as to steer clear of being implicated.

The Honda Canada web site lists a Privacy Office who can be reach at Honda Canada Finance.

Folks at HCF have already said that they have no control over Honda Dealerships and/or Honda Canada for privacy compliance.

Honda Canada CSR’s say that Honda Canada has no legal obligation to make Honda Dealerships comply with their Privacy rules.

Dealerships are individually owned and operated as separate entities. They say they follow strict Honada Canada privacy polocies. So nobody is to blame. I call this BULLSHIT!


Honda Canada Privacy Officer Info:

Lucille Laframboise, Privacy Officer
Honda Canada Finance Inc.,
300 Middlefield Rd.,
Scarborough, Ontario
M1S 5B1

Information & Privacy Commissioner of Ontario:

Telephopne:1-800-387-0073
Fax: 416-325-9195
Email: info@ipc.on.ca
Mailing Address: 1700-80 Bloor St. W., Toronto, ON, M5S 2V1
Website: www.ipc.on.ca

The Ghost of Acura Past – Privacy Leakage

acura
Originally uploaded by Mr.Lobo.

The Story:

While happily filling in my timesheets at work today (@ 8:15 a.m.) I get a call from a number I have never seen before. I pick-up the phone and the person on the other end (Mr. Jordan) proceeds to greet me and then ask questions regarding my 2001 Acura 1.6EL that I sold a few months back (He has just started to have engine problems this week!). He is a nice gentleman and I try to be as helpful as possible knowing fully well that the car has been used by other people (of whom I will never know) who may have done a lot of damage to it. Since Mr. Jordan has questions for me I proceed to ask him (politely) how he got my information – he tell me that he has my home and work (with extension) numbers as well as my home address and the company I leased my car from. I immediately have this sinking feeling in my stomach that many a stalked victim has felt. I proceed to light fires under assess of all the people I know may have had access to my information and could have shared it.


The Players & Investigation:

Honda Canada – They do not give out any information about your car or ownership. They do not regulate Honda Dealerships and have no legal obligation to ensure that Honda Dealerships follow Honda Corporate privacy policies.

Note the legal birdseed: If you are an owner of a Honda or Acura brand product and you wish to obtain access to your personal information or prefer not to receive marketing information from Honda Canada, please contact Honda at 1-888-946-6329 and your Dealer.

Honda Canada Finance – Collects everything on you as they deal in financing and loans. They only share your information with Honda Dealerships & yourself.

MTO (Ministry Of Transportation) – Only provide vehicle VIN number, description, color, & history on the car - They do not keep any other personal information (I hope!)

The Owner – I have access to my information at all times (a very good thing)

The Honda Dealership (The entity that you lease a vehicle from an/or who buys back the car) – Is not governed by any privacy laws and operates true cowboy style. Notice how Honda Canada expects you to connect with your Dealership regarding privacy issues – Classic “I wash my hands of your information” technique.

Other ways to get your contact details:

- 411 online search
- The dealer is the buyers friend
- The dealer sells your lease information to the buyer
- The buyer lies and gets your information from Honda Finance and/or The Honda Dealer

Though everything does point to your Honda Dealership as the main culprit (for now).

I will be taking up this issue of information privacy with Honda Canada and will try (Call me “David”) to get them to put some much needed pressure on the Honda Dealership in question to plug the flow of personal information to other 3rd parties.

The Solution:

- Provide Honda Finance with the least amount of information (only that what is required nothing more)

- Check with Honda Finance on the total amount of times your car ownership has been requested

- Share the basic (I mean minimum) information with Dealerships

The Art Of Folding T-Shirts

t-shirt
Originally uploaded by Mr.Lobo.

Every time I wash a load of dirty laundry I dread (more like laundry nightmares) the part that comes after the clothes are clean and dry – Folding & Putting them away!!!

So to solve my t-shirt folding problem I have turned to the Internet (mind you the putting away problem still exists!). What I found was a video to assist my lack of “Folding” skills. I hope this helps you in your folding nightmares.

The Art Of T-Shirt Folding

Mr. Lobo

P.S. I am now investigating other folding and putting away solutions.

Rainforest, Butterflies & Moresby – Papua New Guinea Calling!

Wabaustrip
Originally uploaded by Mr.Lobo.

Below is an email excerpt from Mr. Lobo’s pilot friend who is flying the skies of Papua New Guinea. If you want to see additional pictures please click through from my flickr.com album on the right column of this Blog.

G'day mates!

This time around I’m in the land of Papua New Guinea. Where is this place you ask?? Well, it’s just below the equator in the Pacific Ocean north of Australia. Arrived in Port Moresby (capital) earlier this month after a 34hour journey from Toronto!

PNG is made up of over 150 different islands. The mainland and islands of Papua New Guinea lie entirely within the tropics. The mainland is split down its length by a massive mountain range, including some of the highest peaks in the Pacific, many over 4000 meters (12,500ft) high. Much of the country is covered by tropical rainforests alive with orchids, brilliant butterflies, and wide savannah grasslands, teaming with cassowaries, wild duck, wallabies and deer. The mainland, like many islands large and small, enjoys the protection of coral reefs, and sandy beaches. Personal security seems to be of the biggest concern in this country especially in big cities like Port Moresby. Lack of education and idle minds seem to be a big contributing factor to petty crimes especially robberies. As a result the beaches are unsafe not only to tourists but also the locals. Having said that, the people we have met so far are very friendly and you get a sense that the majority of them want to see change and improvement. The seas offer bountiful harvests-skipjack, tuna, marlin and other game fish, barramundi, crayfish, crabs and prawns and a variety of tropical fish. Although a total of about 700 languages are spoken, English is widely used.

The flying is different from any other I have done so far. In the survey block we are over densely populated rainforest as far as the eye can see with many mountains in the highlands. The forest is thick enough that we cannot see the ground below the trees from the air in spite of being at about 400 ft above ground level. At the same time there are a few grass strips (picture – Wabau strip) that are frequented by aircraft like the twin otter and islander. The combination of high terrain, rainforest and unpredictable weather make for a challenging environment for any type of aircraft.

Summer Earring Mania - Are You Making Your Own?

designerear
Originally uploaded by Mr.Lobo.

How cool is this? The girl to the right (in the picture fool) makes her own earrings!!!

Once I came to know this little factoid I immediately grabbed my digital and started snapping away...

It's a good thing that she knows me or I'd get my ass kicked for taking paparazzi pictures!

La femme in the picture is presently at OCAD studying a form of design art I forget (could be industrial). Fort fun she designs her own earrings and the next time we meet she has agreed to show us the rest.

Summer Drinks

Urban Nature

Summer Feasting

summer
Originally uploaded by Mr.Lobo.

I got a chance to enjoy the summer weather we had the during the long week-end. That would explain the lack of my presence in blog town - well summer and work!

This week-end we spent in a backyard under tents enjoying some great food and drink (wine, women & weather). The picture was taken while sitting around the table.

A fun day was had by all - Whooo Hooo for summer!!!

Kuwaiti women granted right to vote -

Congrats go out to the women and men who fought hard to make this momentous event occur – finally

To think that we are in the 2000's and women are just being given the right to vote in Kuwait!

It must have been a real hard lesson in humility for all the religious right clerics and the old sheiks political club to see this made law.

Kuwaiti women granted right to vote -

The Smith Manoeuvre

smithm
Originally uploaded by Mr.Lobo.

When you feel a deep pain in your side or in your right ass cheek (Where one would carry a purse or wallet) try the Smith Manoeuvre. Lately with condo shopping top of mind I have been actively seeking out ways (i.e. strategies) to make my Canadian mortgage interest payments tax deductible.

So off I went to Google to find myself some wisdom and found myself reading about the Smith Manoeuvre. The strategy sounds intriguing enough that I have started to collect information (That's free information) on the book and methodology. Since I do not know much about the "Manoeuvre" yet I have provided a few links below for you to read.

Link 1: Betting the house

Link 2: Can you slash your income tax?

Link 3: PR Financial Forums

If anyone has used the "Manoeuvre" and had some success or otherwise please do leave me a comment/contact and we can chat.

Mr. Lobo

The Hunter Becomes the Hunted

grandfatherhunter2
Originally uploaded by Mr.Lobo.

Funny story - When I was a wee little lad my grandmother told me stories of my grandfather who hunted for sport. This particular story was my favorite:

I always wondered why my grand father had a gash on the right side of his leg that looked like a bad ass scar. When I asked my grand mother she told me that one day while hunting in the night for a leopard my grand father lost his direction and got separated from the hunting party. Given that it was dark and he was deep in the jungle his adrenalin was pumping from being both lost and nervous.

When out of the corner of his eye he noticed something move in the shadows. Being that he was a lone with no back-up he decided to stay put and make a stand if it turned out to be the leopard stalking him. So he found a spot near a large banyan tree and started to wait the night out.

When suddenly the leopard appeared in front of him charging in full stride towards him - giving him very little time to load his double barrel gun and take aim. Having to think on his feet he lunged for the banyan tree and began to climb to get away from the wild beast.

Unfortunately for him leopards are very good climbers and have great eye sight in the night - so the wild beast started following him up the tree swatting my grand fathers feet with his paws. In all this commotion my grand father's gun gets caught on a tree branch and before you know it there is a loud bang and down falls my grand father.

My grand father had managed to shoot himself in the leg, while scaring the leopard away. The sound attracted his hunting party who found him and rushed him to hospital. Luck for my grand father the bullet grazed his leg and did not cause a lot of damage!

Grew-up On a Ship

Gavin On Ship
Originally uploaded by Mr.Lobo.

Some of you may know this while others may not - So for the benefit of those who do this is a picture of me on one of the many ship trips with my parents when I was younger. The funnel (ships exhaust) is to the right of the picture. I'm sitting on steps that are outside the Captains observation deck near the name of the ship.

For those who do not know the story: I spent a lot of time (in my yearly childhood years) on the ship traveling with my parents. My father was a Captain on oil tankers, container vessels and live stock carriers. We saw places like Japan, America (East & West Coat), Sri Lanka, Korea etc...

I had promised those that knew the story that I would post pictures of my ship journeys (but could only find this one!)

Here's to the shipping days of yore!

Mr. Lobo

What Color Eyes Would Your Children Have?

Have you ever wondered what about the color of your kid’s eyes would be?

If yes use the tool below to find out the color probability


What Color Eyes Would Your Children Have?

How to Search for MP3s using Google - Automated!

How to Search for MP3s using Google - Automated!

A very cool piece of Internet software/programming that you should check out.

You can search MP3, Video, Photo files... whooo hooo!

Mr. Lobo

Naked Softball - Too Damn Distracting

Softball
Originally uploaded by Mr.Lobo.

Our company recreational softball team lost 25 to 1 yesterday. I hear through the grapevine that the other team came naked and just blew us away! We were too distracted to play. I'm just kidding! They played a good game and had fun (that is what matters in the end!)

Prop's go out to the folks who organized the team and to those who played our first game. Towards the next game team...

Mr. Lobo

P.S. I hear the other team were LOSERS!!

P.S.S This Blog post is becoming one of the most hit/read Blog post ever! It's rather scary that we have so many folks out there looking for "naked softball" images/details... :)

Communist Haberdasher: Shakira makes me want to have sex with women

Wow. Wowawewa.

If you’ve not already done so, please take some time and treat yourself to a viewing of the Shakira video for her new song, La Tortura. You might want to do so when you have access to some boo-tay as this video will full on make you want to bang someone.

Communist Haberdasher: Shakira makes me want to have sex with women

"This Is A Guest Blog"

Make-up Done Just In Time To Die

Car Makeup
Originally uploaded by Mr.Lobo.

The amount of women putting make-up on while at the wheel on the highway is becoming rather alarming. They have no consideration for other motorist on the highway and seem to have a tab running with the Grim Reaper.

If you want to die so badly why not take a sharp knife and finish it all at home in the comfort of your living room - there is no need to share your final moments with the front of my car in rush hour traffic.

The woman in front of me yesterday was in the fast lane, slowing down traffic, braking erratically and painting her face pretty while driving in rush hour traffic.

What makes this kind of car behavior even more dangerous is that during the 7:00 a.m. morning rush traffic is moving at 60 to 80 clicks and has varying degrees of stoppage - unlike bumper-to-bumper traffic that is going at 10 clicks. So the risk of a serious accident is higher.

I guess the positive spin to this death dance is that the women in question will look "presentable" at the least when they have their heads sticking out the front windshield!

The Flag Campaign - What It Means To You

Canadian Flag
Originally uploaded by Mr.Lobo.

Icaro Doria is Brazilian, 25 and has been working for the magazine Grande Reportagem, in Lisbon, Portugal, for the last 3 years. He was the author of the flags campaign "Meet the World" that has been circulating the earth in chain letters via e-mail. Read More

Put a meaning to the color of the Canadian flag in the comments section.

Red - The total amount of bribes paid out through the Sponsorship Scandal

White - The growing gun violence in Canada

Costco.ca Customer Service a Kayaktus

kayak2
Originally uploaded by Mr.Lobo.

Dealing with Customer Service @ Costco.ca over the last two weeks has been like hugging a cactus! Just when you think they have got it you get a prick on the phone... :)

We bought a kayak to enjoy on Lake Wicox but the item was delivered torn, tattered and scraped - a defected product. We have been on the phone twice with Customer Service from Costco.ca with little progress so far.

They have promised to exchange the product at no cost but we are still waiting on a call from the company to come pick-up the kayak (it's been two weeks).

This experience has been bad enough that we will be sending in a formal Customer Service complaint in the "written word" - In this day and age when it comes to taking pen (printer) to paper you know things are getting UGLY!

The Top Viral Images - The UK Sun Online

Check out the top viral images being sent around the world or the Bizarre exposed celeb pics.

There is something for everyone!

The Top Viral Images - The UK Sun Online

Bizarre Exposed

Enjoy!
Mr. Lobo

Don Valley Parking-lot Is True Commuting Hell

I normally would not write about my mundane commute in to and from work every day if it were not for the numerable cases of road rage cropping-up in T.O

Firstly if you have never taken the DVP/404 during rush hour you know nothing about commuting hell in T.O.

People who have no knowledge about the painfulness of the trip normally are the first to "comment" about my leaving early from work or my "work from home" instances. Shut up and sit down, please!

The total amount of stop and go traffic on the DVP/404 during rush hour can drive even the most patience person insane. Now add into the mix a crazy speedster in bumper-to-bumper traffic and you got a recipe for disaster.

It is not surprising that road rage cases in T.O are on the rise and expect there to be many more in the months, years to come. You can also expect the road rage to turn fatal with the gun culture being so rampant in the city.

I've got those Don Valley Parkway Blues,
From my head down to my shoes
I got stuck behind an eighteen-hour line of nuts and screws.
I was sarcasted, flabbergasted, claustrophobic too,
Well there aint too much that you can do
When you've got Don Valley Blues.

Don Valley Parkway Blues. Words and Music by Brian Gladstone

Taking The Crap Out Of High Speed Charges

Jubilant
Originally uploaded by Mr.Lobo.

Rogers Communications Inc. a Canadian Cable-Co has decided to take the crap out of high speed charges by giving away anti-virus and firewall software for free.

When you sign-up for a new account (customers being charged presently will see the cost savings by June) you get Rogers security for no extra cost - Wow a whole $4.95 of savings (or $8.95 savings if you bundle)

You can expect to see more Canadians on patios this summer enjoying their Rogers security savings... Whooo Hooo!

You can also expect other service providers to follow suit shortly. It will be interesting to read their "excuse" I mean PR explanation for "free security".

Question to ask yourself: Could it be that Rogers factored the cost of security into their High Speed buckets and are still charging you for it?

ihateROGERS.ca

Rogers absorbs cost of Net security

When Google Becomes King

We won't care about storage anymore - online or offline

Gmail is your only email client and everyone has a Google Toolbar installed

File structures will become a thing of the past because everything can be found in mere seconds with Google Search (Desktop, Internet, Video, Maps, Journals, etc…)

Google either buys of Firefox or gets enough of it’s engineers to submit code to the project at Mozilla that Firefox takes over IE market share

Google will release an operating system based on Linux – which will be simple to use and user friendly

Google will buy of Sun Microsystems – StarOffice Suite and integrate it into their Operating System

Google software will be free as long as you agree to targeted ads (Ad free for a small monthly fee)

Google enters the Server/Mainframe market – because they have the Mind Power sufficient to kill any competition

Google decides not to buy Microsoft but Sun Microsystems (The final blow that pushes Microsoft of the edge!)

Double J (JJ) - Traffic Reporter

Jeremy
Originally uploaded by Mr.Lobo.

Since I spend a lot of time in my car to and from work daily I listen to a lot of radio.

One of the highlights of my commuting hell and the part that stood out the most was the traffic reports by "Double J" a.k.a Jeremy John on KISS FM.

Why were the traffic reports so engaging?

They were done in a discussion format (Double J normally joked with Mad Dog & Billie)

They did not focus entirely on traffic but took the time to explain why areas were congested and/or closed

They admitted to the fact that traffic "sucked" during rush hour and tried to add a flare of humor to the pain

Double J always added a personality to his half of the show with comments, jokes, recommendations - He added value

Since the inception of this style of radio reporting on the Toronto airways I have noticed a few radio stations emulating the same format. Even 680 News is flirting with this format of radio presentation during their news casts! (Good for them)

Presently Jay & Billie have the same rapport between themselves and the crew on 92.5 FM ("The General" Ian MacArthur & the news caster). I believe this style of reporting works in engaging consumers and keeping them locked in to complete radio shows.

Jeremy John also co-hosts Daytime weekday mornings and has an afternoon gig as a traffic reporter with the Rogers group of radio stations in Toronto (680 News).