Author Archives: dontai

Imperial Sewing Machine User Manual: Index

Imperial sewing machine, model 535: I have the owner’s manual for free non-commercial use download. Do you have an Imperial user manual you could share?

Readers have been kind and have donated Imperial Sewing Machine user manuals to me, so I can share them for free non-commercial use. The list is growing, though I would like more. If you have one, please consider donating an electronic copy to me. I will clean it up and host it for free non-commercial download.

Trade Wars and Strategies: China vs the World

It had to happen. It was predictable, and everyone saw it coming. Therefore it should not be a surprise that there is an impending trade war with China. Let’s discuss and document some of the issues.

China has grown stronger, and this is good. What is not good is their increasingly aggressive trade and military stances in the world. Their military buildup in the disputed South China Sea islands has antagonized all their neighbours and has destabilized the region. Using Chinese Coast Guard vessels to hassle indigenous Philippine fishermen, in their own waters, is not friendly. There are kidnappings of Chinese businessmen from Thailand, which is completely out of China’s jurisdiction. There are also Chinese influence and incursions into foreign politics that many countries such as Australia, find distasteful.

Hypocrisy of Electric Cars and Carbon Taxing: Canada, China, Norway

Our electricity must come from somewhere. Not too many places are blessed with a gynormous waterfall that we harness for clean hydro-electric power, such as Niagara Falls, Ontario. Still, electric cars are heavily subsidized by governments, as without these they simply would be too expensive. This is true in Canada, China and Norway.

The inconvenient truth is that there is hypocracy in this movement, one that we should note. Motor Mouth: The inconvenient truth about China, Norway’s EV subsidies. This is not the only article that highlights the hypocracy.

Malaysian Garam Masala Restaurant, Toronto, Canada: menu

Malaysian Garam Masala Restaurant, Toronto, Canada, menu

Malaysian Garam Masala Restaurant, Toronto, Canada, menu

Malaysian Garam Masala is located in Scarborough, Toronto, Canada at 1001 Sandhurst Circle 416-332-1922. It is in a small mall just East of McCowan and Finch.

They open from 16:00-01:00, so pretty late eating and only for dinner. There is an active KTV right beside them. We ordered the mee goreng and nasi goreng, both were very tasty. They take cash or debit, no credit cards. The feel of the restaurant is very laid back. Customers would help themselves to plastic glasses and water. Many would go to the back and talk to the cook while he was cooking. Most of the customers I saw were Indian, or at least browns.

Xi Jinping as Emperor: Implications within China

As Xi Jinping has now removed his term limits within the Chinese constitution, this solidifies his hold on power until he dies or choses to leave. Even before this historic change in China’s constitution it was clear that Xi has a stronghold on China. This directly affects how government officials implement directives and the effect on the Chinese people themselves. An interesting observation, to say the least.

Interesting is how the Chinese government has changed in its implementation of general directives. It seems like government officials react faster and harder, and even overreact to policy implementations. These implementations are understandable, in a way, because government officials do not question or tweak directives, but carry out their orders, possibly overdoing it.

Online Enbridge/Enercare Satisfaction Survey leads to…An Error

I recently had a maintenance call for my furnace from Enbridge/Enercare in Toronto, Canada. In the end they sent me an online survey of a couple of questions, which I dutifully answered. This resulted in this error message. It looks like a database insertion error.

An unexpected error has occurred!
Error Message: Invalid index (parameter 2) passed to Row function. Index must be less than or equal to the row count. Index Value: 1 Row Count: 0 Function: row(@rows,1)

Description: An unexpected error occurred during the execution of the page.

China Limits Restaurants to 10 Foreigners in Wudao Kou, Beijing

Pyro Pizza, Beijing, Wudao Kou, 火鬼比萨, must limit foreigners to a maximum of 10, by government order. Here is the entrance from the main street. It is not very large.

Pyro Pizza, Beijing, Wudao Kou, 火鬼比萨, must limit foreigners to a maximum of 10, by government order. Here is the entrance from the main street. It is not very large.

Try, as I might, I cannot understand why the Beijing government would limit the number of foreigners that eat at local restaurants. This is in a university area. Yes, China’s National People’s Congress or NPC has started, but do government officials expect trouble from foreign university students?

Wudao Kou is an area very close by at least three large universities in Beijing: Beijing University, Qinghua University and the Beijing Foreign Language Institute.

Little Giant Furnace Water Pump: Overhaul

Little Giant 554405 VCMA-15 non-submersible condensate pump

Little Giant 554405 VCMA-15 non-submersible condensate pump

Awoke, we did, to a puddle at the foot of our basement stairs. Water. Perchance Little Weed had spilled a very large glass of water? Surely not. It turned out that our furnace water pump was no longer pumping. A repair was in order, and fast. Here is how I cleaned out the pump. It now works.