Blessed by the Potato

I did not set out to set out to scam Air Miles, let me tell you that up front, though that is essentially what ended up happening.

What happened was that I was looking to buy xmas presents, and not having much luck in the stores, so I turned online. I was worried that, being 11 days before the big day at the time, there wouldn’t be enough time for my items to ship. Not to fear, many sites had big banners on their front pages, “order now for shipping in time for xmas!” On Dell’s site they had a Nintendo DS game my sister wanted and I couldn’t find in stores. It was listed as “in stock” and “ships 5-7 days”. Great, I thought, even if it’s a bit longer than they estimate, it’ll still be there on time.

I went in via Airmilesshops.ca’s portal, which lets me get a whole 1 Air Mile from the purchase. I placed the order and got the confirmation email: estimated ship date: December 26th. D’oh! Well, I thought to myself, at least that’ll be close enough that I’ll still be at my parents’ house to give it to her, and I can just put a card under the tree or something. The next day another email came in: the item was out of stock and the estimated ship date was now mid-January. At that point, xmas was saved by Wayfare, who found the last copy in a Future Shop for me. I cancelled the order and slept soundly, having finished my shopping early for one of the first years ever.

I just got the email from Air Miles that my account has been credited the 1 Air Mile from that cancelled order. I successfully scammed 1 Air Mile. Of course, I didn’t set out to do that, and part of my conscience wants me to call them up and give it back. Of course, the rest of me thinks that the Air Mile, with an approximate value of 14 cents, is not worth the hassle and would end up costing them more to take back… and that I deserve it after they lied about the game’s shipping time and in-stock status.

Back at my parents’ house they have a lot more channels on cable than I get, so I’ve been watching a lot of crap. One show that I used to like was Mythbusters. It’s such a good concept, and the two main hosts are even fairly entertaining. However, the more recent episodes I’ve seen have really stunk. The three new kids are really, really super lame. Their dialogue is obviously scripted, but it’s really terribly done. It’s like they’re trying to make it sound like they’re having a normal conversation, but it’s very painfully not. A conversation may go “What are you doing, I’m completely clueless about the objects in front of you.” “I’m trying to answer this myth.” “Oh, this is one of my favourite myths, let me explain what those objects in front of you represent.”

The useless kids are also a big contributor to how vapid the show has become. I think they could condense the hour-long episode into 15-20 minutes or so. They first set up the myth, then say how they’re going to test it, then go to commercial. When they come back from commercial, they go over how they have it set up to test it, then go to Jamie & Adam and their myth being tested, then get back to the useless kids where, for the 3rd time, they describe their set up and how cool and unbelievable it is, and then they actually test it. Then after another commercial break and a cut to Jamie & Adam, the useless kids get to describe their setup yet again as they test it again with another variable.

Some of the myths and experiments are either really just dumb, or not well-controlled. For example, tonight they tested the “myth” that “tongues can stick to frozen steel poles”. Seriously? Ok, maybe they’re from California or some place that’s never seen winter, but haven’t they gotten their tongue stuck to a fudgescicle? Or called one of their friends from Canada or the northern states who did get their tongues stuck to something when they were kids?

I know they’re not scientists, but they don’t seem to have much of a concept of positive controls, either. They were testing the myth that yodeling could set off an avalanche. They “busted” it… but then couldn’t set off an avalanche with a couple of automatic rifles, either. Avalanches do happen, and rangers/mountain overseers try to set them off in controlled manners by firing off artillery shells — if they couldn’t set one off with their rifles, then it might just indicate that that particular mountain wasn’t primed for an avalanche, and not necessarily that yodeling couldn’t prompt an avalanche. (At the end of the show, one of them did say that there are documented cases of skiers setting off avalanches).

My latest car repair/upgrade was my headlights. I do a ton of night driving, often driving between London and Toronto in the middle of the night with few others on the road. Lately I’ve found though that it’s been far too easy to over-drive my headlights, and I haven’t been quite as confident driving out there on my own, at least not above 90 km/h or so. While both of my headlights were still working, I know that the passenger side one was last replaced about 4 years ago, and the driver’s side one could be original to the car for all I know (5+ years). When the passenger’s side one burned out and was replaced, it was noticeably brighter than the driver’s side one for a while, but now both have dimmed to the point where, well, they’re both dim. I know that halogen lights dim over time, and should generally be replaced before they actually burn out completely, so that’s what I did.

I chose GE Nighthawk bulbs, which (should be) are compatible with my headlights. They’re supposed to be brighter than typical car headlights, and I had read a lot more good reviews about them than some of the other options (the Sylvania Silverstars, for instance, get mixed reviews about light output, and mostly just seem to be obnoxious blue). With a $10 mail in rebate, I decided to take the plunge and get a pair this week. I was expecting an improvement, a substantial improvement (I figured generic halogens would be an improvement), but not necessarily something as bright as my parents’ HIDs.

After doing a little bit of driving, I’m not hugely impressed. They’re only a touch “whiter” than regular halogens, which I’m fine with. I was hoping for brighter, with a longer viewing distance, and while they are an improvement over the old, worn out bulbs, it’s a surprisingly marginal difference. I think the point at which I risk overdriving them is about 100-110 km/h, which is a bit of an improvement. Interestingly, the bias to the right for the illumination seems a lot more pronounced than before, so I’ll have to figure out how to check my headlight alignment (if it can be adjusted easily at all). I actually found it a little distracting, since the shoulder was lit up better than my lane was, it almost made me want to pull off towards the right.

Despite the slight improvement, I still found that whenever another car would pull up beside me, their light output would almost always put mine to shame :(

Despite numerous articles touting the benefits of winter tires, I’ve never really bothered. That’s largely been because I’ve never had to drive, so I could wait for the roads to be plowed/salted before heading out on my all-seasons. No one in my immediate family usually bothered either (except my dad, who for a while had performance summer tires on his car, rather than all seasons, which really necessitated a winter set as well). Getting the Nokian WRs this year though, I’ve noticed a difference (they are severe-service rated all-seasons), and there are even better winter tires than those out there. However, now winter tires will be mandatory in Quebec. I doubt this measure will follow through in Ontario though: there are too many people in Toronto who just don’t have the space to store a second set of tires who would complain.

With their high interest rates, credit cards can become a maw of doom for people with credit issues. For everyone else though, they can be a great way to defer your payments by a week or two and earn rewards at the same time. I’ve been looking into my credit cards and figured that it’s time to upgrade my Mastercard. A few years ago I got my BMO no-fee Mozaik card, which gives me 1 air mile for every $40 I spend (an approximate return of about 0.35%), which was a pretty good offer at the time. Now, however, that rate of return is a little lacklustre. Part of the problem is that Air Miles have been devalued in the last year or two (they used to be worth about 16 cents each, and now are just above 14 cents each — based on the number of Air Miles required to get a gift certificate), and part is that other no-fee rewards cards have come out and become competitive. Right now I’m trying to decide between the PC Financial Mastercard, which essentially returns 1% good for groceries at any Loblaws/Supercenter/Valu-Mart/No Frills, and a Canadian Tire Mastercard, which won’t tell me its rate of return but which I believe is also 1%, good for stuff at Canadian Tire. I’m leaning towards the PC card for a number of reasons, mostly because I also have my chequing account there so things will just be easier.

While I’m not looking for a Visa card, TD has a cash back Visa that can return up to 1%. My RBC Gold Visa also gives a return of about 1% (though it is a fee-based card; of course, I have that card for other perks like free insurance on certain purchases).

So 1% looks to be the rewards level to shoot for these days. Does anyone know of any cards with even higher rewards? I’d really prefer a no-fee card, but might run the numbers for a card with an annual fee and higher rewards to see if it makes sense. Does anyone have any other recommendations? (I’m not really interested in getting an AmEx card — I haven’t found a single place that would take AmEx but not Visa/MC, and I’m not interested in a card from MBNA since their telemarketers drove me crazy).