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Canajun Finances Home » Pope Picked, Pi Day, St. Patty’s Day and Phriday #ShoutOuts

Pope Picked, Pi Day, St. Patty’s Day and Phriday #ShoutOuts

Seems our Catholic brethren have chosen a new Pope (Francis) this week, thus ending one of the greatest talent hunts of the year. After weeks of discussions, and countless hours spent agonizing about candidates, the guy who ended up in second place last time wins it. Couldn’t they have just chosen him on that basis and saved poor Peter Mansbridge the visit to the Vatican? It was fun watching the “Big Hat” convention (for those not sure about that reference, listen to Denis Leary’s No Cure For Cancer for more details). No the new Pope is not the lead singer of Los Lobos. Also, if you were planning on doing something terrible that you wanted to only appear on the middle pages of the news, now would be a good time to do it (but don’t go crazy).

Pope Francis or is it Pope Frank Now?

It was Pi Day yesterday, hope you all didn’t celebrate a little too much, it usually is a wild time when Mathematicians throw down. Pi Day, what the hell is that? Well given a short version of Pi is 3.14  March (the 3rd month) 14th is a good choice to celebrate this important numeric concept (yes it’s pretty lame). Remember also July 22nd is Pi Day as well, since an estimate of Pi is 22/7  (since we don’t have a 22nd month, July (7th month) 22nd is chosen for that one). Note there are no such days for Euler’s Number e^x (which would have been February 7th if you cared)  or The Golden Ratio φ (which might have been January 6th). Don’t ever say I don’t have useful information here!

It’s St. Patty’s Day on Sunday, which means all those good Christians with “not drinking alcohol” as their Lenten Task, can go hog wild and drink as much Green Beer as they wish (because Sunday is a miniature Easter during Lent, so you can do what you want). My guess is that Monday may be a sick day for a great many folk out there, so watch your Alcoholic intake, or remember this Important Advice that I got from my Dad.

My Weekly Recap

March weather in Ottawa is best explained as, “If you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes, it will change”:

My Writings for Week Ending March 15th
St. Patrick is not the Patron Saint of Alcoholics that is Saint-Martin

Best of: Don’t Pass it to the Other Team

In Honour of the CIS Hoop championships last weekend, I found this old chestnut equating Hoops Coaching to Financial Planning.

More Jobs in February in Canada

Better news from our friends at Stats Canada about Jobs. Unemployment remained the same unfortunately.

It Occurs To Me That You Could Solve All Your Problems By Obtaining More Money

A very long title just to steal a concept from the Big Bang Theory

Twitter Financial Tips

All “tips” can be viewed with a great deal of suspicion, however, not many caught on to the irony of me complaining about Twitter Tips on Twitter!

Passive is not Lazy Investing

Don’t be a lazy fat cat if you are a passive investor (yes it was an excuse to include another picture of a cat in my post)

The Korean peninsula is starting to warm up, and if the North Korean leadership has their way, it may have a permanent glow. Here is hoping less bat sh*t crazy heads prevail :

Top Stories of the Week of March 15th
The Week Higgs Boson Particle was Confirmed thus Ensuring the Apocalypse

Investors Group Advises Leverage for 75-Year-Old Widow of Modest Means

Michael James continues his case study helping out a senior with her retirement money, and this one is not pretty. I am afraid of Leverage and I am 25 years younger!! How can someone who does this sleep at night?

New Will Provisions for the 21st Century – RESPs

The BBC has a guest post which points out that there might be a few more things you want to mention in your Will, including what happens to RESPs (if your Will is older, you might not have them mentioned, better go check).

 Are Women Sabotaging Their Own Careers?

Sandy @ Yes I am Cheap asks that provocative question. Sometimes it does seem to be the case, but is that really what is happening?

How Do You Conquer Your Financial Fears?

Mark  points out that we have nothing to fear but fear itself (to paraphrase FDR in the world of finance at least). Is fear a driving force for your financial plans, or financial decisions? For some of us, it is the only force really.

Meet Berkshire Hathaway’s next investment gurus

Larry MacDonald continues to mine the Berkshire Hathaway annual report for more gems of info and finds that for the first time the Wizard of Omaha allowed other folks to choose investments for BRK.A .

 How to Save on Banking Fees

Financial Highway tackles a subject near and dear to my heart, how to save money on Bank Fees!

New Results Confirm: The Particle Believed To Be The Higgs Boson Really Is The Higgs Boson

Popular Science confirms that was thought to be the elusive Higgs boson, is actually one of those little dickens, which is good news (and bad). One you see the face of God, can the end not be that far off? (just messing with you, or am I?)

The 14 Weirdest Tax Write Offs, They Were Asking for an IRS Audit

Gen X Finance has an interesting post, and the first entry is an attention grabber and it just gets better with each on

 Thank You, Jerk: On Digital Etiquette

The Pessimist brings us an interesting post pointing out that most Americans are far too polite on line. If you don’t read this story just on the basis of that statement, you have not a curious bone in your body.

Save on Hotel Stays

Gail Vaz-Oxlade who is a prolific traveler these days, with her TV shows and promoting her book, so she gives us some tips for how to save money when you stay at a hotel.

On Job Security And Preparing For The Worst

Robb  points out that everyone thinks they have job security, until they don’t (which wasn’t completely true for me, but for a while I thought I was indispensable, however I was proven dispensable quite quickly).

Security Stuff

ING Direct has a very useful set of security precautions you should be taking on line.

Will you fund your retirement through home equity?

Preet writes about your home and whether you think that equity you have built up will be available to you when you retire. Did someone say reverse mortgage? I hope not!!!

Google shreds Reader in new round of ‘spring cleaning’

The Register points out that if you are reading this on Google Reader, you will have to stop as of July 1st when they shut the service down.

Best of 2013

Some of the best of posts from 2013

Feel Free to Comment

  1. As a geek I would like to say that Pi Day is pretty lame. No one rings my doorbell dropping off pie. Now, if that happened, I’d be all over Pi Day.

  2. Things were pretty grim around the University halls this week. I’ve noticed everyone has become an expert in finding savings in other departments besides their own (‘what does that guy do all day? He should go. And that department is useless, we should just axe it all.’).

    I’m sure clearer heads will prevail 🙂

    Thanks for the mention!

  3. Your talk of days for special numbers in math made me wonder about a day for imaginary numbers. Then it occurred to me that maybe Apple has been making products as an homage to the square root of -1 all this time! Long live i. Thanks for the mention.

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