It has been quite awhile since I updated, work and family life has taken up all my time, but I am back to announced that I have finally completed my latest web project. The site is www.touchofbeauty.ca for a great friend of mine Nancy Ly.

This was my first attempt at creating a site completely out of Flash. Designing in Flash requires you to think of art in a totally different dimension… time. It was defintely challenging and different but it allowed me the ability to be as creative as I wanted to be.

My next project will be a website for my own design company Kreative Bytes, stay tuned!

This past weekend I accompanied my girlfriends brother in purchasing his 2008 Hyundai Tiburion. We ended up getting $1300 off the MSRP price and 5 yrs of free oil change. Purchasing a car requires a little haggling and knowledge to get the absolute best deal. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• cash purchases will get you a significant discount, for the Tiburion GS Sport package it would have been $3,000
• if you plan to finance, high credit scores of 680 of better will get you the best rate
• to equip youself with knowledge of the wholesale price that dealers get, visit carcostcanada.com if you are a CAA member you will get a discounted price.
• always test drive the car to ensure it is right for you, you will never know just looking
• dont be afraid to visit or call more then one dealer

Happy car hunting!

I took a big step this week with my girlfriend by opening up a joint savings account with PC Financial. I had previously attempted to open the account online but received a message to come in person to a pavilion. The pavilions are located in various Fortinos across the country. It took about 30 minutes for all the paperwork and you will be given 2 hours to activate your card.

I recommened PC Financial at 3.05% interest on an account with more then $1,000 and for a limited time 3.75% for any deposits made until the end of November.

Interest rates from the big banks:

RBC  High Interest eSavings Account - 2.75%, no minimum

TD Canada Trust Guaranteed Investment Account - 2.25%, $5,000 minimum

CIBC  Bonus Savings Account - 2.25%, $5,000 minimum

Scotia Bank Money Master High Interest Savings Account - 2.25%, $5,000 minimum

I apologize for not blogging lately, the summer has been a blast.

Since my last post I went on a Southern Carribean cruise with Princess Cruises,  a 9 day journey to Bermuda, San Juan - Puerto Rico, St. Thomas - U.S. Virgin Islands, Grand Turk - Turks and Caicos. I drove a moped for the first time in Bermuda and had a slight accident, it was such a thrill. The beaches actually have pink sand. I hiked the rain forest in San Juan and went shopping in St. Thomas. Grand Turk was the smallest of the islands, it has the famous Margeritaville and if you ever come to this island it has the cheapest liquor prices, 80 USD duty free for a 750ml bottle of Remy Martin XO.

Spent a weekend at my friends cottage up north, it was awesome just sitting on a calm lake and fishing, something I havnt done since I was much younger.

I took 2 trips to Atlantic City, once on my anniversary with my gf and the other with friends. Its a long 9 hour drive but well worth it. Poker players there range from very good to very bad, it depends on the room.

I activated cable TV just in time for the Olympics and watched 2 weeks of Olympic coverage non stop. Im proud of our atheletes and the effort. Also, to witness history in the making by Michael Phelps and Bolt was inspiring.

The purpose of this blog is a medium in which I can share with anyone who is interested my goals, objectives, interests and opinions. I will mostly write about personal finance and investing as that is most important to me at this stage. Im sure my financial situation is like many other Canadians my age, I am 27 and hope to buy a condo in 2 years and retire early.

Life started for me after completing my undergraduate in 2000. I was very fortunate to have graduated without debt and I was ready to take life by the horns. Since the Computer Science program at York did not offer co-op I entered the workforce with no experience. It was very intimidating applying for jobs on Monster or Workopolis which required 3-5 years programming experience and I was not very optimistic in landing a full time job after 3 months with 0 callbacks. So what happened next? I settled for a technical support position with Canada’s favourite company Research In Motion (the maker of the popular BlackBerry).

After almost 2 years and a promotion later I was tired of hearing customers complaints and the pressure of fixing their mission critical email servers and so I started to look around. I was so lucky to find an opening with a company which every boy growing up in Canada should know…the company is Capcom. This studio in Burlington develops mobile games and I have been with them ever since.

My future aspirations and goals is to have more cash flow and to retire early. Currently the magic number is 40, so I have 13 long years left to achieve this. I have an insane thirst for knowledge and have been spending all my free time reading books, blogs and websites. Everyone has these same goals but what differentiates the winners from the losers? The ones who are successful are not only intelligent but they work hard, very hard, theres no magic wand here, just hard work and determination. So here we go!

1998 - Created my own AsianAvenue page and started to customize the layout with simple HTML, CSS. Each day I would write a little exceprt about what occured and my daily ramblings for all my friends.

2001 - I followed a link from a AsianAvenue friend to LiveJournal and was talked into joining. At first the idea of sharing my personal thoughts with the world scared me abit, but once I started to write a few posts I didnt mind.

2004 - I discovered Xanga, a online community of bloggers. It was a great way for me to update my friends with everything that was going on in my life. This period was some of the best times of my life.

2006 - I tried out Blogger but felt that I was too disconnected, there was no sense of community.

2008 - Here we are, my very own domain name. I hope to make this my permanent blog where I can write about a wide variety of issues that interest or concern me.

As you can see, its been 10 years since I first started to blog. Blogging has certainly changed, there are bloggers who are making 6 figures just writing consistently about niche subjects or how to make money online. What I find really beneficial are the blogs from teams such as Microsoft, Sun, Adobe who try to keep us up to date with their projects and replying to comments. Blogging has certainly given a voice to those who would never have been heard, so I urge everyone to start writing and let yourself be heard.

Today is a very special day, Feb. 29th only comes around once every 4 years. In fact, this may be a very special year…

Theres an old saying “When the United States sneezes, Canada catches a cold”. Our two countries are so intertwined and rely on each other, in good and bad times. I want the best for all the countries of the world but right now in particular my brother country the US is hurting, its dollar is weak, the sub prime mortgage disaster, the courageous men and women dying overseas in war. There seems to be no happy ending in sight…I do hope everything will be ok.

However, a collosus change is about to come to the US, its picking up steam and its momuntum appears to be unstoppable. The presidential candidate Barack Obama has captivated me with his vision and his hope for a better tomorrow. If elected he would be the first Black American President. He is a prime example of hope, courage and freedom. He confirmed that you should always pursue your dreams, you can overcome any obstacle in your way, dont ever let anyone tell you, you cant make it, Barack Obama you have truly inspired me.

Im sure everyone has now seen the Yes We Can video by will.i.am which has over 9 million views in total on Youtube, today the sequel has been released… check it out.

We Are the Ones.

Yes We Can.

Hello and welcome to my blog!

I hope to share my opinions about a wide range of interests. I enjoy everything from the latest gadgets to road trips to Flex developement to even making money online.  Cheers!