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| Two things I've always been proud of: Honda and Canadian BanksOk, so the first one isn't doing all too well right now. They had to cut my salary by a certain percentage along with the rest of the North American staff. But at least they haven't had to lay anybody off yet and I can be grateful for that. Also, relative to the other automakers, Honda is doing quite well despite spending the least among all major automakers on incentive programs (we still spend less than half of what Toyota spends to entice people to buy its cars) meaning if you buy a Honda, its residual value will be higher than any other car. Stupid Toyota... (Ok, so that last part was a bit random...)
The other thing I have always been proud of is the Canadian banking system. I have always been proud of the risk-adverse culture that they have adopted (although sort of forced upon them) because they have always been able to make a good size profit. A recent article in the Financial Post was talking about how Canadian banks are now being recognized as the soundest and most resilient banking system in the world:- All five major Canadian chartered banks currently rank among the top 50 in the world
- All five are listed in North America's top 12
- And two Canadian banks -- Toronto-Dominion Bank and Royal Bank of Canada -- are among the seven major global financial institutions that currently enjoy a coveted triple-A credit rating from Moody's.
(http://www.financialpost.com/newsletter/story.html?id=1461341
In addition, Americans are starting to flock towards the more prudent Canadian banks.(http://www.financialpost.com/newsletter/story.html?id=1462001) Take that, you stupid Americans! | | |
| What is Your Integrity Worth?Lately, I've been extremely bothered by something, and something came up today that resurfaced my lamenting on this issue.
A background portion of this story is that I am currently in Alabama on a business trip with several other associates. A bunch of us went out to a nearby city, Oxford, to grab some dinner and watch a movie. Dinner was good and I was extremely pleased with the food and the service that I received there.
When we got to the theatre to watch the movie, I was surprised to see that all the associates (except me and one other person) presented their student IDs in order to obtain the student fare for the movie! What surprised me even more was that the HR associate that accompanied us (he was sort of like a chaperone) also decided on being dishonest about it too!
I know...this is a small matter, and everybody does it. I think what really surprised me was how aggressive this HR person was when I almost "blew his cover", which would have resulted in him having to pay an extra $0.75 for the movie. My question to society is this: How much is your integrity worth? Would you sell your soul to the devil for $0.75? How about your integrity? Is it worth more than a dollar? Is integrity one of those things where you either have it or not, or are there several "levels" or "degrees" of integrity?
I submit to you that a person can only either be honest or not. I think that people can only trust other people who have integrity when it comes to the bigger and more important things in life. The two biggest things lacking among America's young people today are integrity and dignity. I'm not exempt from this either. There are moments where I slip too. But here's the lesson that I try to remember: if God can't trust us with the little things in life, how can He trust us with the bigger things? | | |
| More Propoganda 
To be fair, May was a good month for Nissan too, but Honda did fairly well for a really poor month industry-wide.
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| Dodged a HUGE One...So I go to my night class today (which I was considering skipping), but I decided to go because it was my last day of class FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE! And I was thinking, "Oh, what the hey...might as well."
I go to class and he lectures for about 45 minutes. Then we go into the presentations. I thought we were still doing the presentations on the topics that we chose earlier this term, but then I find out that we're doing presentations on our projects! So I'm panicking because my project was on my computer back and home (so I can't just go on a computer in the computer lab and do it) and I totally forgot we had to present anything! So I run home (it was the fastest I ever ran home from all the way across campus before), pick up my laptop, run all the way back (of course, it's a bit slower this time...) and I come back, set up my laptop in the back, do up a presentation in 10 minutes, and I wait for my turn to present! lol...
It's quite possibly the slickest stunt that I ever pulled in my entire university career - on the last day of class...lol. What a way to end it off with a bang!
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| Welcome Back to the Honda Family, Tim!
Yay! I'm pretty excited about working at Honda Research. The guys at Honda of Canada really created a hype for it in me and it should be a really exciting time. I really feel blessed to have this opportunity and I really see this as God's will for me after a few days of thinking about it.
I'm pretty excited about moving to Ohio! Honda has definitely made it easier for me, paying for everything and giving me housing down there. It's a pretty exciting time, and I'm really looking forward going.
At the same time, I'm really going to miss everybody. I kind of regret that I couldn't really finish the job at MCCC, but I'm confident in the team that's replacing me. I also regret that I never was really able to go back home to NCAC permanently. I've always felt like a son of NCAC, and I will always remember you guys. | | |
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