Swedish company Ikea has a new product on the market. BoKlok (pronounced boo-klook), the “flat-pack” house, is now being exported to the UK. These blocky looking residences have been around for for some time in Sweden; however Ikea, along with construction company Skanska, has decided to branch out into other markets.
The BoKlok, which translates roughly as”smart living” is expected to have a selling price of around US$200,000. It can be customized with an Ikea kitchen and one could even fill it with all Ikea furniture. For the time being, these houses will only be available in Sweden and The UK.
Now anyone can build their own home with just a hex key (Allen wrench). You’ll receive a large bag of bolts and screws and a two page “easy-to-follow” instruction book; then, in no time at all, your house will be ready to move into. However, if you end up with a few spare pieces, you may want to stay off the second floor.
It is absolutely obvious that young people have very little knowledge of personal finance. I know I probably didn’t when I was young (but that was so long ago I can barely recall what sort of wacky ideas I used to embrace).
I got to talking with my young nephew, Booker, the other day. I’m not sure exactly how the subject came up, but I mentioned that I was having a little trouble making ends meet. He just sort of looked at me like a cow looks at an oncoming train, so I just assumed he wanted me to go into more detail. So then I described what kinds of bills I had to pay, then I told him how much I was getting paid at work. Then of course I had to explain how much tax is being deducted off my cheques plus my C.P.P. payments. But he obviously didn’t get the concept of the Canada Pension Plan, so I had to try and explain that (which I just barely understand myself). Then there are all the necessities that I purchase every month, for example Blue Beaver Beer, internet connection, cable T.V. plus all the personal luxuries that I have become accustomed to; food, toilet paper, books about how to become successful; you know stuff like that. It was a lengthy conversation, although admittedly rather one sided, but somehow at the end I knew that I just hadn’t got through to him.
So I mentioned to my sister that I thought he didn’t understand personal finance. She gave me a look like I had a marlin growing out the top of my head and then asked me if I had forgotten that Booker is a year and a half old. I said that if he was learning about this sort of thing already it would really give him a leg up when he made it to grade one. She rolled her eyes and muttered that I should have another beer and explain my insane logic to the dog. I happily grabbed the beer out of the fridge but I told her that Tucker is ten years old and you can’t teach an old dog new personal finance tricks.
Dear Ernie,
What are you talking about?
Curious in Condor
Dear Condorious,
I’m taking about rainbows!
Dear Ernie,
I am a former courier mistress. I was wondering if you and I could have an investment and confidant relationship. All I need is for you to assist me in claiming some funds I concealed in a metallic trunk box in a trusted company. The amount to be deposited is is $13.5 M USD. This money was supposed to be used by the President to acquire some properties in Africa. All I want from you is honesty and sincerity. All major cost including shipment charge, demuurages charges have already settled. I wait earnestly your very kind and urgent response.Thanks and God bless you. Please do not reply this mail to the email you are reading from kindly reply to below email address for personal reasons: speak2laarni@life.com. Await your response
Ms. Laarni Enriquez in Cuba
Dear Cuban-Laarni,
Despite your poor punctuation and grammar, this sounds like it couldn’t possibly be bad for me. I will make sure to send you all my banking information in order to expedite the deal.
Early last Friday morning Delores Armstrong of Eckville, Alberta; reported seeing a, “great big fireball”. Armstrong said she is not certain what exactly it was however, “It was lighting up the whole town. It was unreal.” The fireball did not appear to be moving and there was no streak of light trailing behind it as is usually seen with meteors. Neither the R.C.M.P. in the area in the area nor the Eckville town office received reports of anyone else seeing a fireball.
Now I have witnessed a few odd things over the years (even one or two when I am sober). In fact one time as I was driving down the highway just a few miles from Eckville, out of the corner of my eye I saw a large shower of sparks erupt from the top of a power line for no apparent reason. As far as I know there were no power disruptions reported in that area at that time.
I believe that what Ms. Armstrong witnessed was very possibly ball lightning. A phenomenon which can behave in unpredictable ways, but is often seen as a large fireball.
Well, I usually leave the celebrity news gossip up to Gerri at Absolutely True; however a newspaper article caught my eye (and you know how painful that can be). Keifer Sutherland was released from jail today after serving 48 days for drunk-driving.
As I read the article I sort of mis-remembered a few things. I had thought that Paris had only served a day or two in jail. I did a little digging and soon discovered my mistake. Paris Hilton served 22 days in jail, Lindsay Lohan served 84 minutes and Nicole Ritchie served 82 minutes. Originally I had thought that maybe the female stars had done something in order to get-out-of-jail-almost-free. But the Paris statistic throws that conspiracy out the window. Unless Paris tried to do the same thing as the other two and yet was somehow not as successful. Now, I can’t imagine what sort of “service” young female stars could possibly have to offer to a judge in order to get lenient sentencing. It’s not as if any of them know how to cook or clean. Maybe they could ”polish a candlestick”; but you wouldn’t think that would be sufficient. Anyway, I just think they might have come to some sort of quid-pro-quo arrangement. Poor Keifer though had to serve nearly seven weeks. I’ll bet his girlfriend will be pretty happy when he comes home to her though; because he spent his time there working in the laundry.
I tired to find out what the average sentence for a drunk-driver, who is also a repeat offender, would be. Unfortunately, the answer didn’t come up on the first page of the Google results, so I lost interest.
The other thing I got to wondering about though; did he get his driver’s licence suspended? If so, how is he going to drive around when they’re filming 24? That’s always a pretty important part of the show. I guess due to writer’s strike this might not be a problem.
As I was out sufing today; I ran across this (allegedly) real advertisement:
You can see the 10 Creepiest Old Ads here.
Not that long ago, someone pointed out that we don’t have the Blue Beaver Beer logo up anywhere. It’s kinda like Superman’s chest symbol, we figured. Everyone’s seen it, it’s plastered on all those beer cans and in those Superbowl ads that its imprinted on the subconscious mind of anyone in North America. It’s what might have been in that beer gift basket for Father’s Day.
Nascar racers wear it on their backs. Astronauts wrote it on the moon.
I’m holding an empty from the bin at the Redneck right now, thinking of all the exposure this logo gets worldwide. Yep, if you ain’t seen the Blue Beaver Beer logo by now, you live in some alternate universe that Ernie and I aren’t part of.
So, instead of showing you the logo everyone’s seen before, I thought we’d take a look at Bucky, the Blue Beaver Beer mascot. In an upcoming post, I’ll delve into Bucky’s life story and how he ended up hooked on Blue Beaver Beer.
Ernie and I started a new site this week, called the Red Deer Digest. This will be a place to talk about local news in the Central Alberta area, where we both live. Yeah, I know, the Redneck Bar and Grill is in the Horseguard Valley. That just happens to be on the edge of Central Alberta, and Red Deer is the closest major center to us. All of our Blue Beaver Beer gets shipped directly from there, and Ernie lives in Red Deer. For all of us Central Albertans, Red Deer is a must visit, since all the Walmarts are there.
This new site will be a chance to post restaurant reviews, events at the Westerner Park and other things that are probably only interesting to locals. For instance, this weekend is the 2008 Red Deer Motorcycle Show.
As if I didn’t have enough on the go already! I’m going to have to cut something off the schedule. I know, reality T.V! Oh, yeah, I already don’t watch that. Ok, how about all that time I waste sleeping…..
Dear Ernie,
This is SO obviously some kind of paid post – sad really. Who’s paying you off beer guy? The Redneck? Is that it? Sad really.
Guy With Canuck All Over His Head in Canada
Dear Canuckle-Head,
I would like to state for the record that I have never accepted any sort of kick-backs for my posts. I will even submit to a full inquiry into these allegations as soon as Tim names an independent third-party advisor to set the parameters for such an inquiry. Twelve years ago I was falsely accused. I fought and won. Now it seems I have to fight again…so be it.
I have no relationship with Karlheinz Schreiber and I certainly don’t intend to become his penpal now. None of the statements in your affidavit have been proven in kangaroo court. Furthermore, I will not be providing my financial statements unless you do so first.
Dear Ernie,
Should I stay or should I go now?
The One Clashes in the U.K.
Dear Clash,
I happen to know, from past experience, that if you stay there will be trouble however, if you go there will be double. It would seem that you should pick the option that will cause you the least amount of trouble. On the other hand though, perhaps if you were to “go” far enough you just might be able to outrun the trouble. This option might cause the trouble to fall upon someone else who is not necessarily directly involved in the whole mess. Alas, I cannot really answer the question for you. All I can do is give you the following advice. You must search your heart and see if you are the kind of person who is willing to stand up to the trouble in your life; or are you the kind of person who runs away from trouble? Once you know the answer to that, then you will know if you should stay or go.
A man went into the Agro Center in a Eckville and bought 100 baby chicks. He smiled and said thanks, then he left in his Dodge truck.
Next week, the the same guy was back. “I need 100 more chicks. That last batch died, soon after I got them home,” he said with a sad look on his face.
“Did they get enough water and food?” the lady behind the counter asked.
“I’m sure they did,” the man replied . He took the next batch out of the store.
Next week he was back again. ” All them chicks died again,” he said as he shook his head. “But I know what I’m doin’ wrong now. I planted them upside down.”
