Author Archives: Torontonian

Did you dump snow onto the road?

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It seems like we have lots of snow this winter, that also mean we have to shovel snow from time to time. Normally, when people clear the snow from their driveways or sidewalks, most of them would dump their snow onto their lawn, but there are always some people who would choose to dump their snow onto the roadway. That’s illegal. If you do that, it will cost you a fine.

This practice of shoveling snow out onto the roadway, be it from a sidewalk or a private driveway, makes road snow removal more difficult, and can create serious safety hazard for vehicles using that secion of the roadway.

Under Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 719, Snow and Ice Removal, § 719-5. Moving snow onto streets. No property owner, occupant or other person shall move or permit to be moved snow or ice from private property onto a highway, sidewalk or lane way. Every person who contravenes any provision of this chapter is guilty of an offence and on conviction is liable to a fine as provided for in the Provincial Offences Act. Under section 61 of the Provincial Offences Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. P.33, a person convicted of an offence is liable to a fine of not more than $5,000.

Exactly how much is the fine? Toronto Star has an article about this, “Don’t push it into the road — that’s illegal and can land you a $360 fine, which goes up to $1,000 for repeat offenders.” https://www.thestar.com/news/starweather/2015/01/snow-rules.html

Asparagus can spread cancer?

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The latest news on asparagus is pretty shocking. I bet asparagus farmers would hate this kind of news. According to certain studies from Cambridge, asparagus can help breast cancer to spread. To be more specific, it is the amino acid asparagine that can promote the spread of breast cancer.

However, researchers also mention that, not just asparagus, asparagine can also be found in many food sources including beef, poultry, eggs, seafood, dairy products, beans, seeds, potatoes, nuts and soy. Wow, they are everywhere, so there is nothing safe to eat? Researchers suggest that since these foods are so common, it would be more practical to lower asparagine levels with drug treatments. Fine, so asparagus fans can keep on eating.

Traditionally, there are many known benefits of eating asparagus, for example, it can slow aging, fight cognitive decline, reduce swelling, and relieves stress. Asparagus is low in calories, and it also contains a good amount of vitamin C and K, and folate. However, people with gout should keep asparagus consumption to a minimum, because asparagus contains purines which can promote overproduction of uric acid that can cause gout attacks.

Did you try OneLink?

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Amazon Associates is probably one of the best newbie friendly programs available nowadays. It’s easy to get started with them. Well, getting started doesn’t mean you get approved easily, but at least you get some ads to display on your website or blog at the beginning.

In order to be fully accepted into the program, basically there are 3 steps: 1. Sign up – Of course, you need to sign up first. 2. Start advertising – You need to get at least 3 qualified sales within the first 180 days to avoid termination. 180 days is neither too long nor short. For some people, this is easy, I suppose it all depends on what your website is about. 3. Manual approval – Their specialists will review your website to determine its fate. 🙂

Among all the ads and banners provided, I think Native Shopping Ads is the most popular one. It provides relevant and dynamic product recommendations in a responsive ad unit that can be placed conveniently at the end of your content or sidebar. Since it’s responsive, it would fit nicely in anywhere you want it to be.

In the past, if you want to work with international visitors, you would most likely install some script, plugin or customized geo-targeting service to achieve the purpose. Now Amazon offers its own “redirect” solution – OneLink. Link your US account with your international associate account, and you can allow your international visitors shop from their own local or nearest Amazon storefronts, nice eh?

Newbie Friendly Ad Network

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Recently I received a mail telling me that PropellerAds is a also newbie friendly money making program which you can get instant approval. What? Instant approval? Is that for real? Ok, is that easy to approve, but hard to pay, LOL. It’s unfair to make judgement till I try it myself.

Instant access to their interface is very true. Once you add a website, they give you a number of ad options:

Push Notifications – Once a user subscribes to Push Notifications on your site, you will start earning money for each notification shown, even if a user never visits your website again.

Onclick (Popunder) – Most popular and effective ad format to monetize your every visitor on desktop & mobile

Smart link (Direct ads) – Direct link that can be used to send traffic from your own banners, texts or other methods

Push up (Dialog ads) – Clean and non-aggressive ad format for efficient monetization of mobile visitors

Interstitial – Full-screen Interstitials generating much higher revenue from mobile visitors than classic banners ads

They also have an affiliate program – for anyone who join using your referral link, you will receive 5% of their revenue. There are total 8 payment methods: ePayments, Payoneer Prepaid MasterCard, Payoneer Bank Transfer, PayPal USD, Skrill EUR, Wire EUR, Wire USD, Webmoney Z. I’ll give it a try and see how things go.

Not All Mobile Stores Are The Same

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Few weeks ago, we needed an exchange of equipment. So we called the provider’s hotline and made sure this so-and-so store had the stuff in stock. The moment we walked in the store, the salesperson still showed a happy face. However, when we pulled something out of our backpack. The smiley face disappeared within a second, what replaced was a disgusted and stern look in her eyes, it’s like saying “what? you are not buying anything? and you are bothering me with that old piece of junk?” Totally unfriendly and unhelpful. We wanted to file a complaint later, but that lady wasn’t wearing any ID badge, maybe she is the store owner or something.

Feeling disappointed, we rushed to another store nearby, i.e. the one in Bridlewood Mall. Oh boy, same brand but a different store, and this store provided the best customer service we ever had. The salesperson listened to us patiently, and immediately brought us a new unit from the backroom. Completely friendly and helpful. They gave us the impression that they are here to help, no matter big or small problem. At that moment, I was thinking, this world is indeed well-balanced, there are always good and bad people. If you don’t give up, something nice would finally come up.

5 Reasons You Should Try Media.net

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For some reasons, I need to move my WordPress back to Blogspot. I guess, in the middle of an application, it’s unwise to move things around, my bad! 🙂

Ok, today’s topic is the pros and cons  of joining Media.net. Here are my 5 reasons you should try Media.net.

1. Great Reputation – Media.net is the world 2nd largest cont

extual advertising company, many consider them as the best alternative of Google Adsense.

2. Fast Approval – Not sure exactly what their program requirements are. But I got a a website approved within hours.

3. Great Support – After you get approved, their system will assign an account manager to help you through. That means in case if you have questions and problems, a human can help you, you won’t be talking to a wall.

4. Affiliate Program – They have an affiliate program which benefits all parties. If someone use your affiliate code to sign up and get accepted, they will earn a bonus income, and so are you.

5. Ease of Payment – Some programs can only write you a cheque in USD. Media.net has 2 payment methods, either PayPal or wire transfer. That for sure will work for everybody.

Next, there are also 2 reasons you might want to reconsider joining Media.net.

1. Where is Display Ad? – Not every new sign-ups can have the option of using display ads. For those who prefer some pretty ads to be displayed within your text-heavy post, you might want other solutions.

2. English only? – They mostly accommodate English-written websites, so if you have non-English websites, you might want to look for something else.

 

Simple Beef Tongue Recipe

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Beef tongue is a wonderful delicacy in many cultures. If you get lucky, you might spot one or two in your local supermarkets. For me, I haven’t seen any in Scarborough for a long time. I think some restaurants reserve them directly from the butchers, so you can rarely find one in your supermarket. But, lately I found quite a few ones in a Walmart Supercentre near Steeles. About 8-10 of them, $11/kg, roughly $15-20 each, very fresh, not frozen.

Usually we just add salt and pepper and boil it like 2-3 hours, then the meat will become so tender that you don’t even need a knife to cut it. The biggest problem is to remove the white tough skin off the tongue. Here is how we do it. First, put the tongue in a pot, cover it with water, and bring it to a boil for 15 minutes. Replace the water with new one. Boil it again for another hour. Take it out, leave it for 5-10 minutes till you can hold it and peel the skin. Don’t rinse it with cold water or it will become harder to do the peeling. When you are done, add few tablespoons of salt, and boil it for another 1-2 hours. Depends on the size, last time we bought a $20 tongue, boil it for 2 hours, and it still isn’t tender enough.

Is beef tongue nutritious? It contains iron, zinc, choline, vitamin B-12, and protein which are essential to our health. On the other hand, the disadvantage is that it’s high in cholesterol and saturated fat.

Commissions & Royalty Withholding Tax

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Yesterday, I received a tax return document from an Australian based Internet commpany selling WordPress theme and stuff. I haven’t signed in there for quite a long time, and didn’t even realize I got a little comission in there. I thought only Americans or people earning income in the US need to pay attention to IRS. I remember that I clearly put my Canadian address in my profile, are they assuming that I’m an American living in Canada? Do they assume any members without a US address must be Americans living abroad?

To find out more, I signed in and noticed that there is now something called Royalty Withholding Tax. Generally speaking, transactions in digital creative content gives rise to royalty earnings. So even if you are a non-US user, your earnings (commissions) may still be subject to withholding based on your country’s income tax treaty with the USA. Any tax withheld will be remitted to the IRS on a monthly basis, and not held by the website themselves. This practice has been started since Jan 1 2016. Ok, so I haven’t signed in more than 2 years, LOL. And according to information provided by the website, the Royalty WHT Rate of Canada is 0, that’s good news eh. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/Tax_Treaty_Table_1.pdf

Gift Idea for Caregiver

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As a part-time caregiver myself, I understand that caregivers are only human, we all need a break from time to time to reduce stress and restore energy. But at the same time, we also want to keep an eye on the little ones (or old ones), then this piece of equipment will come in useful. Just place the monitor on your desk or countertop, and you can take advantage of some “me” time, be it reading a book, surfing the net, or writing a blog post. 🙂

I got one as a gift quite some time ago, and it’s still working perfectly fine. Here are some of the features of this colour video monitor: high definition 4.3 inch colour LCD screen, full motion video, automatic infrared night vision, talk-back intercom, temperature sensor… Vtech also has a range of other products like cordless phones, baby care system, wireless monitoring equipment. So, if you know of any friends who need to take care of babies or seniors, this could be a great gift for them. https://www.vtechphones.com/store/pd/3391/VM341-Baby-Monitor-Full-Color-Video-Monitor

Really Tasty Orange

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Lately, I discovered some really tasty oranges in a local supermarket. A bag of 4 oranges cost around $7. The label says Vintage Sweets 4012, that’s what attract my attention. I went online and searched for more info, these vintage oranges are produced by a company called Sun Pacific which is based in California. According to their web page, these sweet, juicy oranges are only available from January to June. So you might want to check this out in your local market. https://sunpacific.com/vintage-sweets/

Health Benefits of Orange

Limits growth of cancer – Oranges are powerful cancer fighters. It contains rutin, hesperidin, and bioflavonoids that can help reduce growth of tumor cells.

Descrease blood pressure – Oranges have postassium which can help control blood pressure by lessening the effects of sodium.

Lowers cholesterol – Oranges have pectin. Pectin can help control blood cholesterol levels.

Helps with weight loss – Oranges are low in calories, high in fiber. It can help relieve digestive distress.

Setting Up a WordPress Blog

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Previously, I mentioned that I finished moving all my old posts to this new hosting place. There are quite a few setup things I still need to complete. The more I read about this blogging thing, the more I realize that my blog is lacking something. Say, in the long run, I might want to place advertisements on the pages, I would need to follow certain guidelines.

So I heard that in order to apply for any appropriate advertising or affiliate programs, I would need to put up a few statements such as Blog Disclaimer, Digital Millennium Copyright Act Notice, Privacy Policy, and certainly, a contact form for people to contact me in case of problems.

It seems like search engines prefer this WordPress platform. Without any manual website submission, or maybe the software already submitted something but I have no idea when, I can see that some of the pages are already listed in search results. That’s some good news. I remember that when this blog was one month old on the previous platform, nothing really showed up in search results. That’s pretty weird.

From Blogspot To WordPress

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It seems fun to run my own self-hosted blog, so I registered a domain name and got some web hosting from Namecheap. The Ultimate package is pretty cool, starting price is C$36.82/year, and renewal price is C$160.06/year. It comes with unmetered SSD-Accelerated disk space and bandwidth, and it can host up to 50 domains. I read somewhere that they also give you free SSL for new domain and hosting setup, but I have to try those later. First things first, need to import old posts first.

So I tried to import my posts from Blogspot to WordPress, it didn’t work as expected. The import tool does not import everything. It mainly only imports the content, but not the image attachments. All the images are still stored in the Google album. To screw things up further, it convert all former Blogspot labels to categories here in WordPress. It’s a mess. I ended up doing it the traditional way. Since I don’t have many posts, it didn’t take long to get things running. The theme I choose is Twenty Twelve, I kinda like its minimalist design, maybe later I’ll purchase a theme somewhere. Next I’m going to try a few more plugins and see how things go.

Hey, if you plan to start your own blog and need web hosting, here is my Namecheap affiliate link https://affiliate.namecheap.com/?affId=103012