Effective December 1, the sales tax on general items (not food) in North Carolina is decreasing a quarter-cent (which means 0.25%) to 6.75%, 7.25% in Mecklenburg County. That means you will pay 25 cents less taxes for every $100 you spend!

No school today. I am still a little dismayed by the fact that I can't find my teacher's edition of the textbook. I am sure somebody took it, probably on Monday. My classroom is quite unsecure, for reasons I can't discuss publicly.

I am also wondering how am I going to take all of my stuff home when it comes time to return home. Mostly everything that is made of paper will go to the recycle bin or left at the school. Maybe a few of my older clothes will go to the donation pile. Books? I don't know, depends on how much I liked them. The paper making kit I got from a science workshop last summer will probably be left at the school, minus the blender (since I like it, but will leave it with my hosts) and the photo printer I got with my computer will stay here. But it's too early to worry about this right now.

About Black Friday...

Living in America means that everything a person can possibly want is offered exponentially. That means there might be ten times the choices when it comes to choosing a basic loaf of bread (white, whole wheat, whole grain, whitewheat, potato, butter - and several brands for each variety), a package of gum, or a pair of leather shoes. On top of that, there are many retailers in the business (see gas stations, drugstores and supermarkets) offering the same products.

Last year, I was having Thanksgiving dinner with the family of a dear colleague, and they musingly offered to drop me off and let me shop the following morning if I wished. (They don't shop, they buy.) I told them I was fine. This year, however, I will ... stay away from the crowds. I don't understand why people would line up for hours so that they can save $3 on a DVD, or purchase a computer that will land on the clearance rack in a month's time anyway. Well, maybe I might go shopping for groceries, or visit a park, because everyone will be at Wal-Mart or Best Buy.

In Canada, where Boxing Day is the equivalent of Black Friday, I spent the last couple of them at home. And I didn't lose any sleep.

This post is about U.S. and Canadian currencies. Well, apart from the fact that in Canada we don't have $1 and $2 notes anymore, and receiving a $2 note as change in the U.S. is (relatively) rare, but we love $2 coins in Canada.

Why is it that our denominations for amounts less than one dollar are 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50 cents, but the bank notes are 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100? There is something strange here.

If you're going to have a 25-cent piece, you may as well split up the dollars into sixteenths so that we have 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 dollar coins, just like the way Americans do measurements when using inches or cups. (I am kidding.)

In the U.S., the coins are labeled as follows: "one cent", "five cents", "one dime", "quarter dollar", "half dollar". What the heck is going on? Be consistent. At least in Canada they got that right (see system two below).

system one: "hundreth dollar", "twentieth dollar", "tenth dollar", "quarter dollar", "half dollar"
system two: "1 cent", "5 cents", "10 cents", "25 cents", "50 cents"

Americans use a mix of both systems in their coinage, but written entirely in English. This might pose a problem if you aren't familiar with English. Thinking metric and counting coinage would be a lot easier if we had a 20-cent piece instead. Just like they do in Europe, Australia, and southeast Asia.

OK, so I haven't been to NYC lately, but has everyone there become like "miss NYC"? This was gleaned from a forum moderated by the Charlotte Observer's high school sports writer:

Well coming from the 1st largest city in the USA aka The Big Apple ( NYC for all you Charlotte trailor bumpkins) we dont like any of the sports coverage at this newspaper and we demand either better coverage or hire real reporters and writers who know how to cover sports. Pick up a copy of the NYTimes and read it very carefully if you can read. Try to imitate it the best you can. Your NFL and NBA coverage is terrible to say the least. We dont really care much about high school but we are certain it stinks as well.

To which Langston Wertz replied:

You can always do a reverse field and go back to NYC. It's OK. Us trailer trash bumpkins, we'll be OK down here.

Great reply, sir.

Today is a holiday (in lieu of Veterans' Day), so there is no school today. In Canada, you only get a day off if the 11th (Remembrance Day) happens to land on a weekday. Not this year...

They don't wear poppies in the U.S. like they do in Canada.

Anyway, what am I going to do with all this newfound free time? Grade tests and projects, plan for next week (a five-day workweek!) and make a test. I also need to get some groceries. I'm getting really good at shopping. I only need to go once a week now, and don't need to spend any money in between.

I just came back from Mi Casita. Let me tell you, I have never spent $9 on dinner (a burrito, a taco and an enchilada) and still felt hungry afterwards. But now I have!

I woke up at 5:30 this morning (after going to bed at 22:00), which proves that no matter how late I go to bed (and whether I set the alarm or not), I can never get more than 7.5 hours' sleep.

No plans for this weekend - I think I will have the students grade each others' test papers next week, since they all got more or less the same test. The teaching couple (with two kids) who moved to South Carolina this year after getting better jobs are coming back to Raeford for a visit (and find another realtor to sell their house), so I might have dinner with them tonight.

Oh, and I need to do laundry and clean my room. That will take the whole day!