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An American tourist was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked.

Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The tourist complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Mexican replied, “Only a little while.”

The tourist then asked, “Why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more fish?”

The Mexican said, “With this I have more than enough to support my family’s needs.”

The tourist then asked, “But what do you do with the rest of your time?”The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life.”

The tourist scoffed, ” I can help you. You should spend more time fishing; and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat: With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor; eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You could leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles and eventually New York where you could run your ever-expanding enterprise.”

The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this all take?”

The tourist replied, “15 to 20 years.”

“But what then?” asked the Mexican.

The tourist laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions.”

“Millions?…Then what?”

The American said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”

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Pepsi Corporation of Canada, the great providers of Cola products, Gatorade, Doritos and Lays Potatoe Chips is teaming up with the NHL and its biggest star, Sidney Crosby, to allows buyers of their products to win XBox 360 consoles, NHL 08 games, Sidney Crosby autographed stick plus jerseys, An NHL All Star game 2008 VIP experience, and a 32″ Samsung LCD HDTV every hour. The contest starts from September 9th and ends on November 3rd.

Instead of buying specific Pepsi products in order to enter, the great folks at RedFlagdeals.com have created a list for PIN numbers that can be used and the only stipulation is that only 1 PIN can be used per hour.

The contest website can be found here with the PINs list can be accessed by clicking here. The upcoming hourly prize list can be found here. Good luck!

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The Chrysler Group recently stated they would now offer a “lifetime” powertrain warranty on almost all of its new vehicles to increase sales and address a longtime concern of dealers. The warranty covers the engine, transmission and drive systems on Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge models for as long as a first-time owner drives the vehicle. It replaces the automaker’s current three-year, 36,000-mile or 60,000 km warranty.

Chrysler and other U.S. automakers have said that improved quality has not been fully recognized by American consumers. It joins larger competitors in offering more generous warranties to raise consumer confidence. Chrysler’s U.S. sales were down about 1 percent in the first half of this year as it relied on industry-leading incentives, including interest-free financing, to move an aging line-up of pickup trucks and minivans.

Conditions

The extended warranty, not transferable if a vehicle is sold, was being offered as of Thursday and supported by a TV and newspaper advertising campaign starting on Friday, the automaker said. Furthermore, the new “lifetime” warranty would also exclude Chrysler’s diesel-driven vehicles and its performance-oriented SRT line of vehicles.

Impact

This is a big statement brought forth by the Chrysler Group and is historical in nature. The author is hesitant whether this “lifetime” warranty program will help the company profit as the majority of their gross margins come from servicing and providing repairs for out of warranty vehicles. The true test is whether the company can put their money where their mouths are and provide sustainable long-term plan of selling improved quality and in turn reliable vehicles to the general public. In the short-term, Chrysler will boost vehicles sales instantly swaying customers from foreign manufacturers and the other big 2 domestic companies. Furthermore, it may also seem that the company is turning itself around as this marketing strategy comes as Cerberus Capital Management prepares to take Chrysler private in a $7.4 billion deal with DaimlerChrysler AG. Whether the company can shed away from its two decades of producing lackluster and scoring below-par in reliability test, remains to be seen.

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Had a little time off so I went and changed the layout of the theme more to my liking. The format remains the same however the colour scheme and wider areas allow for more content as well as advertising. Best part of the layout is definitely the calendar date post and the huge RSS feed button to the top right. Furthermore, the Ferrari Enzo is now replaced with my dream vehicle, a Porsche 911 Turbo.

Is the new design scheme a hit? Can’t tell yet but from preliminary suggestions, it sure will be!

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As the fall season continues in full rage, the majority of our favourite shows are back on air this week with a large list also slated to air next week. Here is a comprehensive list of this week’s return dates for the majority of popular shows with the new shows indicated in bold.

60 minutes (CBS) Sept 23

Cold case (CBS) Sept 23

Shark (CBS) Sept 23

Simpsons (FOX) Sept 23

King of the hill (FOX) Sept 23

Family guy (FOX) Sept 23

The bachelor (ABC) Sept 24

Dancing with the stars (ABC) Sept 24

How I met your mother (CBS) Sept 24

Big bang theory (CBS) Sept 24

Two and a half men (CBS) Sept 24

Rules of engagement (CBS) Sept 24

CSI Miami (CBS) Sept 24

Chuck (NBC) Sept 24

Heroes (NBC) Sept 24

Journeyman (NBC) Sept 24

Dancing with the stars (ABC) Sept 25

Boston legal l (ABC) Sept 25

NCIS (CBS) Sept 25

Unit (CBS) Sept 25

Cane (CBS) Sept 25

Singing bee (NBC) Sept 25

Law and order SVU (NBC) Sept 25

Bones (FOX) Sept 25

House (FOX) Sept 25

Reaper (CW) Sept 25

Private practice (ABC) Sept 26

Dirty sexy money (ABC) Sept 26

Criminal minds (CBS) Sept 26

CSI NY (CBS) Sept 26

Bionic Woman (NBC) Sept 26

Life (NBC) Sept 26

Ghost hunters (Scifi) Sept 26

Ugly betty (ABC) Sept 27

Grey’s anatomy (ABC) Sept 27

Big shots (ABC) Sept 27

Without a trace (CBS) Sept 27

My name is earl (NBC) Sept 27

The office (NBC) Sept 27

ER (NBC) Sept 27

Smallville (CW) Sept 27

Ghost whisperer (CBS) Sept 28

Moonlight (CBS) Sept 28

Numb3rs (CBS) Sept 28

Las Vegas (NBC) Sept 28

Stargate Atlantis (Scifi) Sept 28

48 hours mystery (CBS) Sept 29

Dateline nbc (NBC) Sept 29

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Here is an inspiration video and textbook example showing the true potential of entrepreneurship on the Internet. While most teens her age are going to school studying hard with the hopes of entering a good university and eventually becoming corporate slaves, 17 year-old Ashley Qualls started making MySpace templates for her friends and in turn successfully developed her site, Whateverlife.com, into a multi-million dollar business.

From her basement office, she has made Whateverlife.com a destination for millions of teenage girls who spend countless hours interacting on the site. In less than two years since Whateverlife.com took off, she has dropped out of high school, bought a house, helped launch artists such as Lily Allen, and rejected offers to buy her young company for $1.5 million and a car of her choice. Developing and growing the business is hard but try being 17 while learning how to be the boss of her mother, her friends, and developers-for-hire in India.

Ashley is evidence of the meritocracy on the Internet that allows even companies run by neophyte entrepreneurs to compete, regardless of funding, location, size, or experience–and she’s a reminder that ingenuity is ageless. She has taken in more than $1 million, thanks to a now-familiar Web-friendly business model. Her MySpace page layouts are available for free and her main stream of revenue comes from advertisements.

According to Google Analytics, Whateverlife.com attracts more than 7 million individuals, 60 million page views a month and over 250 thousand hits a day. Although Web-site rankings vary with the methodology, a popular source among advertisers, Quantcast, ranked Whateverlife.com at a staggering No. 349 in mid-July out of more than 20 million sites. Among the sites in its rearview mirror were Britannica.com, AmericanIdol.com, FDA .gov, and CBS.com.

Here is a recent CNN Video Feature interviewing the teen on her successful business which also indicates that she will be appearing next week on the hugely popular daytime talk show, The View.

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The Federal Reserve’s interest rate 50 basis point decision drop has come and gone and even though the impact on the financial markets has been substantial, many are pondering how will this affect fellow Canadians and Americans traveling north of the boarder? The past week has marked various milestones in the global markets:

• The U.S. Dollar has plummeted to an all-time low against the Euro by breaking through the key 1.40 barrier.
• The Canadian Loonie approached parity with the U.S. currency for the first time in 31 years.
• Gold has hit a 28-year high as dollar sinks reaching $735.85 today, with the likelihood of $800 by years-end a favourable outcome.
• Crude Oil is hovering below record highs after U.S. inventories fell more than expected and as the threat of a storm gathering near Florida reignited supply concerns.

The Canadian Case:

The loonie, which has been gaining on its American counterpart since bottoming out below 62 cents in early 2002, has recently been on a spectacular run, up from 95 cents at the start of September and from under 90 cents last spring and its recent ascent is mainly caused by the surprised large cut in interest rates. Soaring demand for Canadian commodities, ranging from oil and wheat to coal, gold, nickel and zinc – have helped propel the currency, while a weakening American economy has dragged down the greenback, the world’s most widely held and traded currency.

Advantages:

The high dollar may make U.S.-made goods cheaper to buy in Canada due to the rise in purchasing power and is a boon to Canadians traveling in the United States, especially cross-border shoppers and those looking to book winter vacations to Florida or Arizona. Those trips are suddenly much cheaper than they were a month ago. On the other side of that, importers will also win big as the costs of bringing goods into Canada gets cheaper, as will whole sellers – the “middle men” in the economy.

Negatives:

But the high loonie will continue to put pressure on domestic manufacturers, who have to try to sell goods south of the border at a discount or have been priced out of U.S. markets. Manufacturers such as lumber exporters, which have not had some insulation from commodity prices, and automakers will be particularly hard-hit, as the rising Canadian dollar makes exports less competitive at the same time that the shrinking U.S. housing market is making demand for housing weak. Tourism in Canada could also be affected, as travel to Canada becomes more expensive to Americans – a drop that will likely ripple through the hospitality industry. While the manufacturing sector has lost 289,000 jobs since late 2002, the economy has created more than one million jobs in resources, construction, services, health care, education and financial industries, leaving the national jobless rate at 30-year lows.

Forecast:

With only two more Federal Reserve rate decisions on the calendar, we expect 25bp rate cuts in October and December with another half point cut may not be entirely out of the question if economic data remains weak. This spells trouble for the U.S. currency however we are heading into unchartered waters with records being posted galore so we must proceed with caution even though the U.S. economy and currency look to be in the brink of disaster. The Canadian currency will definitely trade at a premium by years-end and, possibly sooner than expected; consumers will be in joy for the upcoming x-mas season.

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