ICE 3 Vending Machine: Cheaply made in China, stay away and save your money
Deceptive advertising can be, but when you can take a machine apart there is nothing but the truth to see. This is surely the case for the ICE 3 MIS2200 personal vending machine or chill can dispenser. Sold under the names Heartland America or Curtis, this is truly a piece of junk and cheap from bow to stern. At $79 I council you to run away from this unit.
It is pretty rare to have a blackout in Toronto, Canada, rare enough to catch people off guard. Without warning at 6:30pm we lost power for 5 hours. As we have lived in China before, we had automatically shifted our state of readiness so that in such unlikely events we are always ready. This time we really did need it.
Blackouts here in Toronto are indeed pretty rare. We have the occasional brownout, where the lights flicker and maybe the computers need a reboot, but the last full on blackout happened around 10 years ago in 2003, when some software glitch in a power plant in Ohio took down the US eastern seaboard and much of Ontario and Quebec.
As a nation Canadians talk large about the need to conserve energy and treat Mother Nature with more respect, i.e. let’s not continually hurt her. In many examples, recycling of food and consumer packaged goods comes to mind, here in Toronto I feel we are doing a very good job. Yet when you look around out streets I continually see a large proportion of very big personal vehicles such as SUVs. These new vehicles, while professing energy efficiency, do the exact opposite when used only by a single driver.
Wet snowfall in Toronto, Canada on Wednesday Feb 27 2013. Note the thickness of the snow on the trees. The temperature was about 0C. Photo by Don Tai
We are Canadian and therefore we have winter. In winter we often get snow and did we ever get a dumping this Wednesday here in Toronto, Canada. We got about 20 cm of snow at 0C to -2C, making for very wet and heavy snow. Wet snow is difficult to remove because it is heavy with water. Still it really looked pretty outside.
We save money by automating, or so the City of Toronto politicians say. For the last couple of years there has been changes to our weekly garbage pickup, specifically trucks that have large claws that pick up our garbage cans and dump our garbage into the truck, all without the operator leaving his seat. There is also only one guy on the truck, saving labour costs. Of course there are other details to note.
Seachem’s Prime water conditioner will make City of Toronto water safe for your fish. It will remove chlorine, cloramine and ammonia.
Live and learn, unfortunately. Little Weed has taken up the hobby of raising goldfish. I, as the dutiful and enabling parent, need to work out all the little details of how to do this. He has agreed to dutifully do water changes, feed the fish and arrange the tank, so he does have enthusiasm. I have not raised fish since I was a kid about his age. So down we go to buy feeder goldfish. We already had a 10G tank, we bought him a filter, so what else could go wrong? It turns out, a lot, especially the water from the City of Toronto, Canada. Here is what I found out, the hard way.
You need to fit in, somewhat, to live in harmony with society. This is true. Even those that are anti-social will form groups, of which there will be rules that govern who is part of the group and what constitutes acceptable bahaviour. I believe all societal systems run this way. It is part of who we are.
This is not to say that conformity is a bad thing. Without conformity there would be no way to drive down the street and not get hit by a car. Drivers, pedestrians and other users of the road need to conform to the road usage system, namely the Highway Traffic Act. We have laws that govern these things. Those that scofflaw the rules can hurt other people and get punished for their behaviour. In the name of safety this is good.
Always very beautiful, the season’s first snowfall is a joyous ocassion here in Toronto, Canada. This year the first snowfall came very late, today, December 27 2012. It started last night, but when we woke up we had over 10cm of snow.
Winter First Snowfall, Toronto, Canada, Dec 27 2012. Photo by Don Tai
Note a couple of things in the photo. Today was garbage day, so we have green bins for compostable (not yet picked up) and grey bins for non-recyclable garbage. These have already been picked up. The black blob in the treetop of the middle tree is a squirrel nest. This is where they hibernate over the winter. There is a streetlight on the left of the photo, which goes on in the night.
My neighbour’s large maple tree at the front of their house was growing threateningly close to the front second story window. Pruning of the limb was in order. As this limb was quite large there was a discussion about calling in a Canadian or Chinese arborist. The Canadian arborist would come in with a large cherry-picker style truck and crew, and complete the job safely. Of course they would be much more expensive. The Chinese crew they chose came in with a ladder, rope and a small electric chainsaw. At least they had some climbing equipment and safety harness.
Our nearby street light was flickering on and off oddly for a couple of days, so I called the City of Toronto to investigate. My neighbour also called. Toronto Hydro came and changed light bulbs. Street maintenance here in Toronto is really good. Call the City and trucks get dispatched. Though it might take a couple of days, it does get completed. This is what our high property tax buys us.
Street light bulb change in Toronto, Canada. Photo by Don Tai
Street light bulb change in Toronto, Canada. Photo by Don Tai
