I'm posting this entry with my new 1.2Ghz G4 iBook. I have this new computer because my old one crapped out on me (likely a hard disk failure). My old iBook had three significant problems: bad battery, bad logic board and bad hard disk. Thankfully, Scott from Apple Canada sent me a replacement computer.

During the diagnosis/replacement time period, I was without a functioning laptop. Regrettably, this period lasted from 19 October till 16 November (btw, if you sent an e-mail to me during that time, I probably just received it today). Not having a laptop was a big change (for the worse!). I'm glad to have this one. It's faster and cooler than my old computer.

Amazingly, when I launched Mail.app and downloaded my mail, I had 7949 new messages. Holy shit! 6,500 of these were MT comment spam notification e-mails (thank goodness for MT-Blacklist!). A few hundred were uncaught spam e-mail. Another few hundred or so were list e-mails. Two hundred or so were legitimate e-mails.

Anyway, I'm back in action now. No more using Windows computers! And thanks, Apple, for doing the right thing. Seriously.

This is lame. The only thing that these guys are demonstrating is that the movie might accurately represent their intelligence. It's a movie, relax!

I attended an information session on the Accelerated Economist Training Program today. It's exactly what I'm looking for. I think that I'll make it through the first screening, but they only take 14 applicants from a pool of 900 or so.

Long time, no post.

Adina and I are settling into our new apartment in Kingston. It's pretty good so far: large rooms and high ceilings, but dirty and noisy. We're slowly but surely unpacking our belongings (only ten boxes of books left to go!). We're using frequently the entertainment centre we bought from Canadian Tire for $150, mostly because of the World Cup of Hockey and the CSI marathon on Spike TV.

The orientation to the MPA programme has been good. The faculty and staff of the school are trying very hard to make us socialize with each other, which I think is good, especially for anti-social nerds like me.

I think that I might blog a bit about the programme. But I'm not sure.

More later.

My lovely wife Adina is looking for full-time work in Kingston, Ontario. She has a bachelor of arts degree and 5 years of retail experience, including six months as a supervisor. Here's hoping that you know someone who is hiring! E-mail adina@NOSPAMPLEASEhelmer.ca.

Quick update for those of you who still refresh this site:

• Wedding is on-track and nearing inexorably.
• Honeymoon from July 2-July 15, mostly in Prince Edward Island.
• Golf game has improved quite a bit. Posted my lifetime best score: 78, or six over par.

Will take lots of pictures on our honeymoon.

I decided to go to grad school because I want to live in a new place, keep learning in an academic environment, and have an additional credential to increase my earning potential. I decided to take a Master of Public Administration degree because I want to work in the public or non-profit sectors and I think such a programme provides a credential that would increase my earning potential—and my skills and performance—in these sectors.

» Read more: Brief history of my grad school decision

I've decided to take the MPA programme at Queen's University, starting in September 2004. The 2004 MPA Policy Forum, Embracing the Urban Frontier: Capitalizing on Canada's Cities, made me feel as though the Queen's MPA programme is the right programme for me.

I attended the first three panel discussions: fiscal capacity of cities, cities as engines of integration and constitutional capacity of cities. The first panel was very interesting. Former mayor of Kingston, Helen Cooper, chaired a panel comprised of David Pecaut, Enid Slack and Tom Courchene. The panel focused on the means by which municipalities can raise revenues. Enid Slack, in particular, talked about the various different kinds of taxes available to different levels of government. Tom Courchene compared Canadian cities to German cities to show how expenditure per capita was much higher in German cities.

Throughout the whole conference, a few ideas were proposed:

• Flowing through some or all of a tax collected by the federal government to municipalities (the gas tax, for example).
• Revising provincial legislation to allow muinicipalities to levy non-property taxes, especially elastic taxes, such as income tax (hotel taxes were also mentioned)

See this paper by Enid Slack for more about property taxes.

The conference, and especially Mayor David Miller's lecture, was great. I might write more about his talk later.