mkt

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Posts posted by mkt

  1. Posted · Report post

    here's a link to the test:

    http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/ski...ssess/index.asp

    my scores are:

    Education 20/25 (I only have a bachelors deg)

    Language Ability 22/24 (wow)

    Work Experience 19/21 (not bad)

    Age 10/10 (woohoo! I'm desirable:D )

    Arranged Employment 0/10 (d'oh!)

    Adaptability 0/10 (wtf?!?!!)

    Total Score 71/100

    my other options are to immigrate for a PH.D or other masters deg... or marry a nice wholesome (or completely dirty) canadian girl

  2. Posted · Report post

    ^^:)Those of you that have known me know that I've been pondering for a few years the idea of immigrating to Canada. A chance to continue my restart in a country more aligned with my sentiments while remaining close enough to the US should I need to return to visit friends/family/etc. And not having to learn much of a new language ;)... what a dream come.Well, I just retook the immigration point test, and right now I stand at 71/100 points, with 67 being the minimum threshold for consideration. My previous attempts came in at anywhere from 57-68 pts, so this is a step in the right direction.I've decided to reapply in one-two years after completing my masters degree (+5 points), work experience (+1 point), improving my français (+2 points), and possibly a job offer (+10 points)To those americans that have pondered this (especially those that have succeeded), any suggestions, ideas, etc? At this point it isn't about getting out of George W. Bush-land. It's about trying for a better life in what I feel to be a more suitable country for me.

  5. Posted · Report post

    Regina,I checked the DTOP counts here in PR, and there are 3 smarts registered on the island. I'm trying to find one of the owners, since I want to know the rigamarole involved, since taxes on imports in PR are based on US Blue Book values, and they're grey market smarts that don't have indexed blue book values.I'm so happy to see one so close in St. John :D I might have to take the 2 ferries (san juan - st. thomas, st. thomas - st. john) over to check it out.

  7. Posted · Report post

    I am an avid beer-ficionado, live in a tropical island, collect license plates, love Disney (I have been to every Disney movie, have a 320gb external HDD chockful of Disney media, have visited every Disney park worldwide, stayed in every Disney hotel in the USA, collect random Disneyana from each major decade of the company, and been on every cruise they offer), hold 5 nationalities (USA, PR, Spain, France, Guatemala).

  9. Posted · Report post

    Some background, Port of San Juan is one of the main shipping/receiving ports in Caribbean/Latin America, and as a result, almost every car imported to the region goes through here. Yesterday afternoon, I was down by the Port, and there were various non North American Suzukis, Hyudais, and Kias in storage lots waiting their final voyage to their new home port. The Hyundais/Kias didn't interest me much (although the Getz and Terracans were pretty neat)... rather, a lot full of Suzuki Swifts and APV's got my attention. There were a few Ignis's... (Igni?) and the usual SX4/SUV suspects. But what got me was the lot full of Swifts. Those are nice cars :)

  12. Posted · Report post

    I guess I'm the sole dissenter here. I'm going to opt out of the Touch until the second generation at least. I don't like the Iphone, and I'm not too keen on its neutered brother...

    especially when I have at my disposal, a 3G Ipod, 4G Ipod U2, 5G 30GB, Ipod Classic 160GB, 2G Mini, 1G Nano, 2G Shuffle, and an Apple TV.

    However, I did do something today that shocked my friends that know my views. I bought this: http://www.woot.com/special.aspx?k=vipzune For $99 I'll get it to toy around with :D

  17. Posted · Report post

    I would complain as well. However, is PR bilingual? In Canada where we are bilingual we can get either an English or French keyboard, but if PR is unilingual then there may not be an option.

    The official language of the Commonwealth is Spanish, but English is widely used among the younger members of the middle class and is also the de-facto language for business transactions and commerce. We're also a US territory, and the US is predominantly English speaking.Personally, I was taught to use a computer in English. When I need to type in Spanish, I do '+a=á or ~+n=ñ... I don't like looking down and seeing Ñ where {[ was. It's disorientating.

  18. Posted · Report post

    Complain..............and demand it yesterday....

    Actually, I just did that. They told me to pack the box up and ship it to an address in Panama (I guess it's their Latin America repair facility). I pushed him for a North American address, but no dice. I escalated to a supervisor, who gave me an address to send it to in the mainland US. They told me that they were going to send a second day air box my way, I said no dice. I want their UPS or Fedex account number so I can go and have it shipped myself. They gave me their UPS account number. I told them I also want either:A- a partial refund on the original purchase amountB- credit towards the purchase of accessoriesC- larger HDD when it's brought back to meThe rep gave me a $200 Dell.com credit Now, I'm off to the UPS store to buy laptop packing supplies and overnight this sucker.... on Dells tab of course :DThe only threat I had to make was that I would contact Amex to dispute the charge since it hasn't been 90 days... and if you've ever dealt with Amex as a consumer or a merchant, they tend to side with their customer.And Purdeep's....err, Alan's english was spectacular! Sanjay's... err, William's wasn't so good.

  19. Posted · Report post

    So the UPS man just knocked on the door.My new laptop arrived!!! Pics later. Funny thing though, I just booted it up for the first time and left it charging. I ordered a Dell and specified I wanted everything in English on it (in PR we get the choice of English or Spanish). Well, they installed Vista in English (and included an XP Pro English disc which WILL be installed soon), but gave it a Spanish keyboard, programmed as a Spanish keyboard.Should I just deal with it, since it took them over 2 months to get it to me, or should I complain and make them change it to an English keyboard? I'm quite upset about this since I specified ENGLISH and they took forever to get it to me.

  20. Posted · Report post

    Not sure how much of that is true.

    That's probably part of it, but there may be import duties, etc to factor in on top of the price.Most things made in the US that are sold here cost about 20%+ more after you factor in import duties and shipping costs. Oddly though, a few US chain and big-box retailers (Radio Shack, Costco, Hot Topic, PacSun, etc) on the island sell at the same price they do in the US, which makes for the ocassional good price. Sometimes we get phenomenal sales to drive in business... better sales than the US.When we need to buy anything expensive, we usually buy it in Miami or online if we can't get it at a decent price on the island. EG, I recently bought an iTalk for my iPod (voice recorder). The only retailer that carries it on the island is CompUSA and they charge USD$52. I bought it on Amazon, shipping included, for USD$28. At least the iPod was the same price here (actually, I got it for $10 less at Costco than I would have at the Apple Store)

  25. Posted · Report post

    Nice deal, and that fellow is interesting, considering he was a Peugeot dealer and also interested in smarts. A masochist, maybe ;)

    Probably :lol: He also has the Ford-Lincoln-Mercury dealer, the Hino Truck dealer, and is partner in the local Ferrari-Maserati-Land Rover-Aston Martin-Audi-Lamborghini automall (ie- 1 huge showroom with a roped off "by appointment" section and an offroad course off to the left.)