Paging the Canadian Mint…


Perhaps the US Mint should be calling the Royal Canadian Mint for advice.

The last Canadian penny was minted on Friday. It’s being discontinued mainly because of cost. It actually cost 1.6 cents to make each penny, and given that pennies are rarely used by consumers it wasn’t deemed worthwhile to keep losing money making something that has become virtually obsolete.

Meanwhile, according to Wikipedia it costs 2.4 cents to produce each American penny. There has been talk of retiring it as well, but it doesn’t really seem to be on the horizon. If the US government doesn’t ditch the penny they should at least talk to the Canadian mint to find out how to reduce costs by .8 cents (or 33%) per coin.

If this site is correct and a minimum of roughly 7 billion pennies are minted in the US each year (that’s a conservative estimate) reducing the cost of producing each coin by .8 cents would save about $56 million per year. That’s not the savings for getting rid of the one cent coin- that’s the savings from producing it as efficiently as Canada did.

Who I’m Pulling for in the NHL Playoffs


After losing a job in hockey and losing an actual team, I don’t think I watched more than two full NHL games during the regular season. I’m man enough to admit I was still bitter about losing the Thrashers and I don’t mind being petty.

Now that the regular season is over I’m back on the wagon and following the playoffs, because realistically speaking, what do the NHL playoffs have to do with the Thrashers? Nothing since 2007. It’s sad but true.

Here are the teams I’m pulling for in each series in the first round.

Eastern Conference

NY Rangers vs Ottawa Senators- The Sens. I lived in Ottawa for three years and loved the city, if not their team. I know a lot of Senators fans and they’re good people. Ottawa vs Toronto (2002) was also the first NHL playoff game I ever went to. If I recall correctly Ottawa up by two in the game and up 3-1 in the series and then let Alexander Mogilny cherry-pick his way to a hat trick. Toronto wound up winning the series too. Also, I like absolutely nothing about the Rangers except Brad Richards. The one time the Thrashers made the playoffs the Rangers swept them and their fans were utterly obnoxious about it. I was surrounded by them in the stands in game three when the Thrashers lost 7-0.

Boston Bruins vs. Washington Capitals- Bruins hands down. I grew up a Bruins fans and I loathe the Caps on account of their rivalry with the Thrashers. The two teams always hated each other. For the record, Patrice Bergeron is one of my all-time favorite players.

Florida Panthers vs. New Jersey Devils- I’m incredibly happy for the long-suffering Panthers fanbase and I’d love to see them win a round or two just to make people’s heads explode. I’d also like to see former Thrashers Eric Boulton, Johan Hedberg, and Ilya Kovalchuk go on a run- especially Boulton, who has never experienced an NHL playoff win, let alone a series win. I’m leaning towards the Panthers because I love a good underdog story, but I’ll be happy no matter how this one goes.

Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Philadelphia Flyers- Penguins, just because I dislike them less than I dislike Philly. No matter how the other three series go I’ll be rooting for whoever ends up playing the winner of this one. By the way, I have very good reasons to believe Ilya Kovalchuk was close to becoming a Flyer before the Thrashers traded him to the Devils. that’s all I’m saying about that right now.

Western Conference

Vancouver Canucks vs. LA Kings- I don’t have a dog in this fight. I’ll default to the Kings for the sake of the upset but I really don’t like anyone on the team and I actively dislike Carter, Richards, and Doughty. I’m not a Dean Lombardi fan either.

St. Louis Blues vs San Jose Sharks- This is an easy one- the Blues. I’m on record with a variety of people as saying Joe Thornton will never win the Stanley Cup as a player. I’m sticking to it. On top of that, the Blues are a great story and I’d love to see them win their first Cup. I want to see either the Blues or the Predators in the Final.

Phoenix Coyotes vs. Chicago Blackhawks- Coyotes please. Even though they’re the team that should be in Winnipeg right now instead f the our team I feel for their fans. They’ve been through sports fan hell the last three (or more) years and I don’t hold the off-ice stuff against the players or fans. I’d still be okay with a Blackhawks win though just because I love watching Marian Hossa. He’s the best all-round player to ever play in Atlanta.

Nashville Predators vs. Detroit Red Wings- I’ll take the Predators. I’ve always had a soft spot for them and I have a boatload of respect for the way they run their organization, even if they were always super uptight about giving us preseason rosters on game days. I like their odds of going deep and it would be great to have the Stanley Cup back in the South. The Predators are the only current Southern team not to have played in the Stanley Cup Finals.

So that’s who I’m rooting for, and not necessarily who I think will win. Who do you like?

What I’ve Learned From Pinterest So Far


Pinterest is currently the fastest-growing website in history (or about 18 years, since that’s more or less how long the internet as we know it has been around) and in my role as a digital media specialist I’ve been asked if we (with we being the Georgia Tech College of Engineering, which is where I work) should have a Pinterest page.

In an effort to find out if it’s worth spending time on or not I created a personal account on Friday. For those not familiar with Pinterest, it’s basically an online bulletin board where you can pin stuff you like or stuff you want to share. Here’s what I’ve learned about Pinterest so far from using it:

  • Pinterest is utterly dominated by women. According to reports anywhere from 70-85% of users are women but it looks like even more than that in my limited experience. When you create an account and link it to Facebook you automatically follow all of you Facebook friends who have Pinterest accounts. In my case 12 of the 68 people I follow are male and six of them haven’t posted anything.
  • As this article from MacLean’s describes it, Pinterest looks like the inside of a high school girl’s locker. Pictures of food, fashion, crafts, boys, models, quotes and pinned workout routines.
  • Food snapshots and recipes are far and away the most popular items pinned among people I follow. Ironically, most of the people posting them also post workout routines. I have no problem with that. I don’t exercise to lose weight- I exercise to be able to keep eating the junk I enjoy eating. Life is to short to deprive yourself of enjoyable food.
  • If Pinterest has privacy settings I haven’t found them. The result is that if you find someone on Pinterest you can learn a whole lot about what makes them tick- their favorite food, clothes, music, quotes, what they want to put in their dream home, hobbies, and what they think of their body (based on exercises they post for flattening abs, toning legs, etc).
  • If Facebook is used to tell people what you’re doing, Pinterest tells people what you spend your time thinking about. A lot of the time that actually ends up being more personal than what you’re actually doing.

All of that being said, I’ll likely stick with Pinterest for a while and might find a professional use for it. I’ll also likely find a bunch of recipes that I won’t get around to trying out, mainly because almost none of them contain meat. For what it’s worth, you can find my account here.

If you want to read an interesting study on Pinterest which was just released by the Atlanta ad agency, Enguage, read this.

What Does The Citizenship Exam Consist Of?


When applying for American citizenship test you have to pass a civics test as well as a reading and writing test designed to demonstrate that you have a working knowledge of the English language. All three components are part f the same interview which also includes an immigration officer asking you a series of about 50 questions that things like “Have you ever lived off of the proceeds of prostitution?” and “Are you a member of the Communist Party?” and “Are you a habitual drunkard?”

The reading and writing components for me went exactly like this:

Immigration officer, sliding me a piece of paper: Please read line #3 out loud.”
Me: “What must we pay the government?”
Immigration officer, passing me pen: “Now write the following- ‘We pay taxes.’”

That was enough to satisfy the language comprehension requirements.

The civics exam is slightly more challenging, or at least it would be if they didn’t give you a book and a cd containing all 100 of the possible questions and correct answers. The immigration officer is given a list of 10 questions prior to the interview and an applicant has to get six of the 10 correct to pass.

These are the questions I was asked:

  1. What is freedom of religion?
  2. Which ocean is located off of the east coast of the United States?
  3. How many senators are there in the US Senate?
  4. Name one state that borders Canada.
  5. What year was the United States constitution written?
  6. When must all men register for selective service?

I got all six right, so that’s all I was asked. If I hadn’t been given the questions in advance and hadn’t studied I probably would have gotten four of the six correct (the first four). The answers, for those who don’t know them, are:

  1. The freedom to practice any religion or no religion at all.
  2. The Atlantic Ocean
  3. 100
  4. I went with Maine. Also acceptable are Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Alaska.
  5. 1787
  6. Between the age of 18 and 26.

Of the 100 questions applicants can be asked about half should be common knowledge to anyone that has grown up in North America, a quarter are basic history and civics questions you probably learned in school and may have forgotten, and a quarter take some effort to learn if you don’t pay a whole lot of attention to history or politics. A lot of them would be difficult for someone who grew up on the other side of the world without much exposure to American media, but given that you have to live in the country for at least five years to even apply for citizenship most applicants probably should have picked up many of the answers just by watching TV and reading a newspaper once in a while.

If you’re curious about the timeline, I applied for citizenship in late September, got fingerprinted and photographed by USCIS (for the third time) in late November, had my interview on January 12 and took the oath on February 24. Prior to applying I had to have a full green card for three years, and you have to have a provisional green card for two years to get a full green card.

Why I Became an American Citizen Today


After six and a half years of living in Georgia (plus another two spent in North Carolina for grad school) I finally became a United States citizen today, along with 160 other immigrants from 63 countries who were part of the same ceremony in Atlanta.

I grew up in a part of Canada where people are generally suspicious of Americans and I don’t expect everyone to understand why I decided to apply for citizenship. I also have some Canadian friends who have lived in the US for longer than I have who haven’t applied and may not ever. I can understand that choice, but I thought I’d explain my decision here. I wanted to become an american citizen because:

  1. In all likelihood I’ll live in this country the rest of my life. It’s been good to me, giving me a wife, a son and another baby on the way, a career that I love, and a place to call home. I have been blessed while living in this country and it seems plain rude not want to be a citizen of it.
  2.  I’ll always be from PEI, but I lived in roughly 20 different houses, dorms, and apartments in 10 different cities and towns before moving to Atlanta. We’ve owned our house for just shy of five years, making it the second-longest I’ve lived in any one residence. This is where I’ve put down roots. Atlanta is just as much home to me as PEI is.
  3. My son has dual citizenship by virtue of being born in the US and having a Canadian father and his sibling will also be a dual citizen. At some point they’ll be old enough to understand citizenship and I don’t know what I’d tell them if they asked why I never wanted to be an American like them.  I simply wouldn’t have an answer.
  4. The right to vote is extremely important to me. Knowing I’m here for the long haul I want to play a role in determining who governs this country, this state, and this county.

For the record, the United States government does not recognize dual citizenship but the Canadian government does. In the eyes of the American government I’m only a US citizen but in the eyes of the Canadian government I’m both Canadian and American.

The ceremony itself was well done and included some remarks from a government official, a few short videos, a message from the president, the oath, the pledge of allegiance, recognition of the 63 countries represented by the new citizens, and it all capped off with this a video set to Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA.

There was also an applicant wearing bright red pants, a bright blue blazer, white shirt, and white hat with a stars and stripes ribbon on it. Today was clearly a big deal for her, as it should have been.

Happy Thanksgiving


Despite the Thrashers picking up and moving to Winnipeg it’s been a good year in the Wright household. I have a smart, beautiful, loving wife, an incredible son, a new baby on the way in the spring and there’s some very good news on the job front (more on that next week).

Whether you’re celebrating today or celebrated it last month in Canada, Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. If you have the leisure time and technical ability to be reading blogs you live in a place where there is much to be thankful for.

Canadian Coke is Worse for You


 

Coke has slight variations in its taste from region to region partly due to the water used to make it, but there’s a big difference between how it tastes in the US and how it tastes in Canada. I’m not a food scientist, but I assume that’s because American Coke is made with high fructose corn syrup and Canadian Coke is made with sugar/glucose-fructose as a sweetener. Otherwise the ingredient lists are identical.

 

Interestingly that difference in sweeteners makes the nutritional information for Coke different in the two countries. See:

The end result is that Canadian Coke has 20 more calories per serving (a 14.3% increase) and also has an extra three grams of carbs and sugars. It does have slightly less sodium though, so it has that going for it.