More Cell Phone Contract Ammunition

This is from an American website, but as far as I remember from Canadian Business Law, any change in contract without the other party's consent/agreement is considered breach, so you might just be able to use it. Be sure to contact your provider within 30 days, as the general consensus is that after 30 days, you are considered to have accepted the new terms.

From ucan.org:

Can a change in contract terms be used as grounds for cancellation?

• Contracts vary, but most changes to your contract can provide grounds to get out. Almost any new fee or new charge is your opportunity to break the contract. Why? Because they can't change any part of the contract without your permission. But they do it all of the time because they know that you DON'T know that you can use that change as a basis for canceling your contract. Here are some recent examples:
• Text message price changes (Cingular T-mobile)
• Administrative charge increase (Verizon, from $0.40 to $0.70)
• Increase in unpublished number fee (Might entitle a bundled AT&T customer to quit Cingular/AT&T wireless,or AT&T DSL)
• Make sure the change/increase applies to you. Typically you need to get to a manager. Be sure to use the term "materially adverse" when referring to the change, and have notice of the change in hand as well as the relevant provisions of the contract. See our Sample Script.
• Each carrier takes a different stance on what is materially adverse and who can get out. You usually only have a short time to claim a change as materially adverse. See our guide to "Material Adverse" Clauses in Cell Phone Contracts for more info.

Removing Lamination from Useless Documents: Possible?

If you've ever found yourself in a jam because somebody foolishly laminated a document that you needed, perhaps a clerk working for the government, or maybe just an office coworker (but probably the government clerk thing), you've probably felt like a sap. In some cases, renewing these documents can cost a whopping $65. Some might call this a retarded money grab that has no place in our society since we pay and file taxes and they should have records to affirm our existence in this country, especially since we renew drivers' licenses every five years and plates every year, not to mention renewing our health cards regularly, all at their request-by-mail, but not me. I happen to think the government is quite justified, and I am planning on framing my new certificate, so long as that doesn't void it in some way.

Now, (since I've been given a new flimsy sheet of paper that will probably rip in a month so that I'll need to pay another $65 upon my return to Canada from vacationing in Hungary), I can test advice given to people wanting to remove lamination from thus-void (and valid alike) documents. Please partake in the removal of lamination from these documents for pleasure purposes only, as de-laminating something that has no value (e.g., an old document of some kind, deemed to be void by lamination) in Canada is likely punishable by some law drafted in the 1880s. They'll probably hang you by your teeth from a power line or something.

I used this method:

How to remove a laminated document

Conclusions:

This method did not work for me upon experimentation on a useless, old document just now. The paper itself began to split in half at the edges (which in itself is amazing, since paper doesn't generally seem to be splittable). Try it. If it does work for you, leave a comment letting me know how you did it. I tend to suck at ironing, so maybe that's my deal.

Edit:

Ah so. It turns out that cold lamination is much more of a (as Miklos's dad would say) "you fucked, buddy" situation, as they stick to the document itself and don't just seal in the paper. Well, that is a shame. I'm moving to Japan.

How to get out of your phone contract

I'm having a lot of problems with my phone lately, and to be honest, I don't like paying a system access fee for no reason (of course, there are SAF-free plans now with Telus, but they cost about the same as/more than it would to stay on my plan with the SAF). So, here, along with some evidence from another cell phone representative (and friend) to whom I've spoken personally about this, is proof that you can cancel your bill without that pesky minimum $20/each month left in contract fee people warn you about.

• How to get out of a cellular service contract
  (Note: I don't advise joining the army, as this article suggests, but I do find it funny.)
• Possible Telus 'out' coming up on April 11, 2010
  I'll have to speak to my representative about this one and see if it's viable.

As for me, I think I'll try anything I can (minus the army) to get out of mine. Worth a shot.

Having an Alan Cross/Lasik moment

Here's the inside scoop. I'm someone who likes to spend money, and still have more for later. Flyerscoupons.ca makes me feel like a mom should. As the bass booms from the housing next-door, I am cutting coupons sent to me by Save.ca and pro-planning my shopping trips using FC's tidy, organized website for people who enjoy savings.

Not only do I find out about super deals, but people post about where to use which coupons to save the most money! It's also a really friendly and helpful community. So if you like spending $5 extra on razors, maybe this site is not for you. If you like keeping that money in your pocket for maybe a coffee later, or to put bit-by-bit into a savings account with your kid's name on it, I suggest you try it out.

One person I think could benefit from this site is Dan's mom. Probably even your mom. But especially you. So why not go on and check it out, if you're the type to buy food, or cleaning products, or clothes, or anything really!

And now back to your regularly scheduled blog.

Grass is always greener and the sky is bluer too

Well, Jim Beam, it's a sunny, sunny day out and you're stuck inside doing the laundry. You think of all the silly things you could be going outside and getting into, and every one of them seems even more thrilling than the last. You're a real jack-in-the-box, Jimmy. So your mind is racing with the possibilities and the fun that you aren't having.

Ding, goes the timer.

You hobble down to the laundromat with that second load of burden, turn the handle to the door of the laundromat and, lo and behold, if the place isn't locked right up!

Opportunity knocks! You're alive again! You have time to kill, you can go outdoors and --

You can no longer think of all those things you wanted to do. Now you're just bored, plain and simple. What a weird, little world.

Sequel:

Moments later, still at the locked door with your barrel of dark clothes and forgotten dreams, the laundromat guy runs up to the door, offering you an apology can of Orange Crush. "Sorry guy, I was fixin' that machine o'er there, 'n I got hungry. Some gangster kids were standin' outside the door, and I wasn't willin' to have any parts stolen today. Had to shut'er down for a few while I ran to Mario's for a slice. Nice day out, eh?"

Apples : Oranges

When this whole Vancouver 2010 thing started, it was greeted by polar opposites: Olympic hysteria, and the Olympic hate-on. I'll be honest. I didn't care at first. I didn't understand why some people would buy three (3) toques with the Vancouver 2010 logo on them for $24.99 apiece. (Okay, I still don't.) I had no plans to join any 'BOYCOTT TEH OLYMPICS ZOMG!!1' Facebook groups, but I wasn't planning on watching any of it.

Somewhere down the line, it reeled me in. I think the fact that we were winning gold medals was part of it. The first Olympics I ever watched were held in Lillehammer in 1994. I'm not sure what Canada won then, but it didn't seem to be much. For years, I considered my country the bronze medal champions of the world. This year changed that.

Maybe it was that we were on our own soil, had people backing us in the hosting country for once; maybe it was that the Olympics were very truly Canadian this year. Jon Montgomery winning the skeleton did it for me. That guy has personality from here to next Sunday. Not much beats the rip-roaring sense of sheer joy and excellence that ensued when he won. See also: Class. There's something that fills this jaded brain of mine with a sense of full-on happy when the unexpected and seemingly impossible starts to happen from just about every sporting angle. Although, it's no wonder we won a lot. If there's one thing we excel at, it's enduring crappy weather. There's not much of an alternative in this great land of ours.

So Crosby, yes I hated was severely disappointed in your clumsy game for the past week or so, but with that sneaky flick of the puck, you redeemed yourself to me and about 30 million others earlier today. And hey, to the rest of Team Canada: Thanks for showing your country we don't always have to suck so bad at the Games. In fact, we're pretty okay.

That said... Nickelback?? Ugh.

The Times They Are A-Changin'

I think I've been getting bitten by a spider in my sleep for a week or so. Waking up with small swollen bumps in places too widely dispersed for it to be a rash or fleas (thank god), I had wondered what was plaguing me. For some reason, a spider never came to mind. We were watching Survivor last night when Miklos suddenly hopped over me, grabbed a tissue, and grabbed something from my cushion. Turns out my Little Miss Muffet-head was about to get bit.

This seems to be a recurring theme. The first time I was taken on a camping trip as an infant, my parents returned home with my eyelids swollen nearly shut from mosquito bites. In my last apartment, there was a large, black, furry spider who I'd frequently see scurrying behind my bed. (I'd have moved the bed to find him, but I figured the broken bed frame and all the crap underneath it was reason enough not to make the effort.) When I finally decided to refresh my bedroom and take on the gigantic task of relocating the bed, who did appear on the carpet in a corner of my bedroom but that dastardly arachnid! Normally, I'm a catch-and-release sort of woman (it's one of few veins of my personality that I'd consider classy), but when I saw the sonofabitch had nowhere to run, I did a quick consideration of all the bites I'd endured, and then I crushed the shit out of him. Sorry, guy. You drew your blood, I drew mine.

So now I'm on the spider warpath. Should I see any of them, yes, I will still catch and release them, or maybe vacuum them up if I'm feeling comical at the time, but you will not hear of me coddling spiders and silently inviting them into my bed with my sexy blood any longer. Those days are gone.