A Lifelong Skill

For the past month or so, my older son has been showing increasing interest in the alphabet and letters. He was always big on the alphabet song itself, had yet to appreciate the true utility of the letters. Over the holidays, after some extended reading sessions with his grandparents, he seems to have made that connection between printed and spoken word. To a parent this is of course most exciting!

The most apparent manifestation of his discovery is a newfound obsession with pointing out recognized letters as we read, and actively seeking his favourites. I have been introducing new ones regularly which seems to be going well. He also seems more obsessed with the alphabet song than before, which is really saying something.

Sam and Ham

I’ve been reading the classic Dr. Seuss tale “Green Eggs and Ham” lately with my two-year-old. Previously drawn primarily to the car and train illustrations, he has begun demanding that I actually read out to him “Sam and Ham”. I’ve thus far very much enjoyed rediscovering some of the Seuss books, most of which I hadn’t looked at since I was a young child myself. “Green Eggs and Ham” made an appearance during my junior high school years in another form, however, and is strangely tied to current events here in Canada.

Sometime around 1992, a friend of mine acquired a copy of a demo tape by Toronto novelty voice act Moxy Früvous. This 6-song self-titled mini-album included a brilliant take on the aformentioned Dr. Seuss book, which is well worth a listen if you have a few minutes. I was hooked on the whole set, but was always very impressed by the genius of this particular song. It unfortunately never made its way to their subsequent full-sized album Bargainville, which disappointed me greatly. (I have heard that it had to do with copyright issues surrounding Green Eggs and Ham, but don’t know anything specific.) I lost interest in them as a group and didn’t think much about them from then on, beyond occasionally coming across some of their songs in various contexts.

Triumph of The AeroPress

There’s something particularly satisfying about a simple, cheap, easy to acquire device that does the job better than the complex, expensive, fancy one. Such is the case of the AeroPress coffee maker. A surprisingly elegant way to make an outstanding cup of coffee with minimal fuss. The taste rivals the fanciest of grind-and-brew espresso machines, even in blind taste tests with discerning connoiseurs.

While I am not myself much of a coffee snob, I have found that I do prefer the taste of an AeroPress cup made by me, to my own liking. It remains superior to any of the other methods I have explored. It is hard to pinpoint the particular special flavour, but it seems to be a pleasant combination of fullness and richness of flavour with minimal bitterness. A properly made espresso is wonderful too, but I still find the AeroPress preferable overall.

The High Cost of Free Money

Sometimes free isn’t really free - and sometimes it’s worse than free. This was made very apparent to me recently when I delved into the employee RRSP top-up program at a local company. In this case the company matches 10% of contributions made by employees to the plan, up to a limit of $1,500 per year. The catch is that the money may only be invested in the limited selection of funds provided by the plan’s management company. A guaranteed return of 10% up front sounds like easy money - but is it worth it?

The slick, glossy literature provided by the management company assumes a guiding estimate of 6% annual growth for a reasonable, balanced combination of funds. This is in line with the long-term historical average which I use for my own planning. For the purpose of this investigation, I assumed that a balanced portfolio composed of a standard mix of Canadian, US and international equities and Canadian bonds would return an average of 6% per year over the long run.