After five long and luxurious days off from my job, I am back at work once again. Five days a week, eight hours a day, forty hours a week. Monday to Friday. Doesn't everything seem wrong with this picture? I sure think so. You know, even though I did some work for a family member on almost all of my days off, being out of the office has provided me with some great time of reflection.

I have come up with a system to do away with the regular Monday through Friday, Eight to Five day. It won't cost the employee or employer very much at all... Well, that, I guess, entirely depends on the wealth of the company, but that has nothing to do with me, now does it?

Anyway... here is my system. Let's use a pretend company here, we'll call them "Awesome Employer, Inc.". Awesome Employer, Inc. has a small staff, only five full time employees. They work in the computer service industry, and their employees are uneducated, so they only make $12.00/hr. All of these employees work 40 hours a week, Monday to Friday, Eight to Five with an hour lunch break.

So, Awesome Employer, Inc.'s employees are putting in a total of 200 hours a week, for a total of $2400.00 gross pay. Not bad, not bad. (For the record, this is about $125,000 a year.) So, Awesome Employer, Inc. has decided that they love their employees and that they overwork them, so they want to cut their hours, but keep the gross pay the same. Awesome, I want to work for Awesome Employer, Inc.

So what needs to be done, to keep these 5 employees at $480 a week, is this:

Hire seven new people, cut the weekly shift to sixteen hours, and increase the wage to $30.00/hr. Sounds reasonable doesn't it? I sure think so.

I mean, really. Here is what it comes down to: You now have twelve employees (this also has the benefit of making your firm appear to be larger.), at sixteen hours a week. So Awesome Employer, Inc. still has 200 hours of work coming in every week (it's actually 192, but the extra eight hours provided way too much extra work for me). Problem #1 solved. Now, you increase everyone's wage by $18 to $30.00/hr. Now, here is where most employer's would become wary. Your total weekly payroll jumps to $5760 per week (or just about $300,000 per year). Since Awesome Employer, Inc. is a very rich company, they don't care and decide to pay up. Imagine the employee moral! It would be unprecedented! If I ever become a rich company owner, this is exactly what I'll do.

So, let's say your employer isn't as great as Awesome Employer, Inc.. What do you do now? Easy, accept a pay cut. I figured if I was working for $480 a week at forty hours a week, I wouldn't be too upset with $400 a week over sixteen hours. So, we drop our new wage from $30.00/hr to $25.00/hr. This cuts an amazing $960 a week (almost $50,000 a year! That should get their hopes up.) from the employer's payroll, and drops the final weekly amount to $4800 (or just over $250,000 a year). Wow! How could a good employer not take this opportunity. And as an employee only working 16 hours a week, making up that $80 a week is as easy as getting a part time job for another couple of hours at McDonald's or something. Who cares?

So, now that I've solved that problem... next week, how to get the boss to institute a new "Free Hourly Massage" policy, or maybe even how to get a masseuse to be on-call at your desk all day, and have it written off as an expense.

So... I've done it. I've officially sold out I suppose. I went shopping today... to, the GAP. It wasn't my decision... was Lana's. Besides the point, I actaully like the clothes I got.

A nice green/dark green sweater, and some tighter jeans. Woot. Only $100 CDN total too. Not too bad.

First time shopping at a prep store, wasn't too bad.

Happy Halloween! Well, not so much really. I work until 8:00pm tonight, which really sucks. I'm going to miss a good majority of the goings-on tonight. On top of that, I have not really come to a conclusion of what I'm going to do tonight.

I wouldn't mind hanging out at home for a bit, handing out candy and seeing all the kid's costumes. But after that, no idea. Might head out to the bar, and catch some kind of a Halloween party. Maybe there will be a house party? Not sure.

Halloween sure has changed from when I was a kid. I remember going trick or treating for hours, then heading out to a City sponsored party, or haunted house, or something. Halloween was fun. Now I get dressed up, hand out candy, and go to a party.

I wish I was ten years old again.

How unbelievable is this?

Veterans have won a battle far removed from the front lines of Europe, Asia and Africa. They've gained the right to sell poppies inside Canada Post offices across the country.

The Royal Canadian Legion's annual poppy campaign got off to a rocky start in the northern Manitoba town of The Pas last week when veterans were told they could not sell the familiar red lapel pins inside the post office.

Bravo to Duke Dutkiewicz who actually fought Canada Post on this. I can't believe that anyone at the post office in The Pas would actually refuse to allow a veteran the ability to sell a poppy. Personally, if a veteran asked me to sell poppies in my living room, I would oblige. I am a firm believer that any Canadian veteran should have the ability to sell poppies anywhere he damn well pleases.

On a side note - veterans are pretty much the only group of people who are void from my road rage. Quite honestly, if I see one of the new veteran license plates (below), they can do anything they want without any interference from me. Those guys own the road in my view.

Not only that, but if I see a veteran anywhere, they get my utmost respect. I believe veteran's are the cream of society's crop, and anyone who doesn't agree should be exiled from whatever country they live. Seriously, these men (and women, ahem) are the sole reason we live in a free and (sometimes) just society. There is absolutely zero reason for anyone to serve them with disrespect at any time on any day.

How a government employee that only receives a paycheck because of the acts of the veterans, was able to pull that kind of an act of disrespect out of their meager mind is unconceivable to me. If it were up to me, every veteran in the town should be able to poke them with the poppy pin at least once. Maybe twice.

Go veterans!

...sucks. And everybody knows it.

Very handy; cooks well; easy to use; reduces fat. Hardest thing in the world to cook if you don't clean it before you eat.

To tell you the truth, I barely use either of mine (I have two) any more, because of how hard it is to clean.

My buddy Marc's MSN name led me to post this, so blame him.

I watched a small portion of FOX's show, Trading Spouses last night. Wow, what a fiendishly crazy woman. I would be mortified if I were to witness one of her rampants face to face.

From Chris Pirillo:

Marguerite, a mom from Trading Spouses S2E1, needs her own show; I'd tune into her regularly. Holy mother of God, this lady is Psycho Christian...

That about sums it up.

I absolutely love it when vacation time comes around. I booked Monday and Tuesday off more than a month ago, just to burn a couple of vacation days. It is so nice when you pretty much forget you have a couple of extra days off come up, then all of a sudden you think to yourself "I have a four day weekend".

Wow, it really is a nice thought nearing the end of your Friday workday. Just thought I'd let you know how I feel :)

Is anybody else not surprised by this? In the year 2005, is it so hard to believe that the Intelligence Agency for the most powerful country in the world is operating secret prison facilities?

I've always, always thought that there had to be some kind of secret detention facility in use by the CIA. Why this is news at all is beyond me.

Blog Links:
Jordon Cooper: CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons November 4, 2005

News Links:
BBC: CIA 'running secret terror jails' November 2, 2005
CNN: Report: CIA operates secret prisons November 2, 2005
CNN: EU looks into 'secret CIA jails' November 3, 2005
BBC: Watchdog urges 'CIA' jails' probe November 4, 2005
CNN: CIA asks for review of newspaper's report November 8, 2005

And I mean, they really, really, really suck. Budget Rent-A-Car can go to hell, and I hope they make their way there in a hand basket.

Due to a severely unfortunate move on my part: lending one of my cars to my younger (20 year old) brother; I was forced into using the services of Budget Rent-A-Car.

What Brent (my brother) did to my 04 Chevrolet Aveo: Somehow, during normal operating procedure the following happened (according to a Wheaton GM service advisor):

- The serpentine belt that drives the alternator shredded, causing a large chunk of it to get caught under the cam cover.
- While lodged under the cam cover, the piece of the belt got stuck between two of the teeth on one of the cam gears, causing the timing belt to skip thirteen teeth.
- This caused every valve in the engine to be destroyed.
- This also cracked the head.
- He also managed to shear a lobe off of the camshaft.

So... it was at Wheaton getting some work done under warranty for about two weeks. Now, I did not need a car - as I could drive my RX-7 or my 240SX. However, my younger (once again... 20 years old!) brother is useless and doesn't own a vehicle. So, I decide I would get a loaner vehicle from Wheaton, since under my warranty, if my vehicle is in for over a day, GM must provide me with a vehicle.

Turns out, Wheaton doesn't carry loaner cars, and all of their loaners go through Budget Rent-A-Car. Well, there is a Budget about a block away from my work on 45th Street W (please, do not EVER go to this Budget location for anything, they are criminals). So I make arrangements to pick up the vehicle after work.

I get to Budget, and they hand me over my new car for the next two weeks. A blue, automatic Sunfire. I would say approximately 2004. This car was missing parts of it's bumpers! Also, the LED display on the radio/CD player didn't work... this really sucked when I was trying to find 650 CKOM to listen to until I was able to reconnect with my CD book.

So, I drive the car home, go out for supper and go back home. In the morning I go to work. At lunch time, myself and a co-worker go for lunch. When we return, I notice a flat tire on the Sunfire. Sweet. And I mean, it was pretty much completely flat.

So I go into work, and call Budget to ask what I should do about this tire. I speak with some over-trained, job-happy piece of shit woman on the phone. Here is a pretty accurate depiction of our conversation:

Me: I rented one of your cars last night, and it has a flat tire, what should I do with this car?
Her: Take it to the nearest tire shop and have it fixed.
Me Ok, should I send the bill to you, or how will you pay for it?
Her: We won't. It's your responsibility.

Now, I really could have just got down to Wheaton and had them fix the tire and demand that they pay. However, this lady was a bitch in every sense of the word, so I lost it on her. I flat out refused to pay for this tire. So, she put her manager on... pretty nice guy actually. He told me I could bring the car in, and they would give me a new one.

So, I left work, took the Sunfire in (one block remember) and tried to exchange it for a new car. The bitch-lady from the phone decided that since I hadn't filled the gas tank up, she would be charging me for it. Keep in mind how much I drove the car, and you will see how absurd this is later. She said I will have to pay $1.599/L for them to fill it up. NO! This was not happening either. I told her flat out, I will take the car right now - while driving on a rim to a gas station and fill it up then. She agreed to charge me pump price ($0.929/L).

So, I got a Red Sunfire... this car had the worst brakes of any vehicle I've ever driven. Anyone who drives a Cavalier or Sunfire at some point must have experienced the pulsating brakes. This Sunfire had pulsating brakes to the most extreme degree.

Anyway, I put up with this pile of crap for about two weeks (actually the day after I got the red car, I gave it to Brent to put up with, and maybe destroy like he did my Aveo) until yesterday, go to take it back. And then the fun begins.

They tried to chage me $20.67 for the gas in the blue car. What?!!?! I flat out asked how many kilometres I drove the car... her answer: 53. How many litres did she need to put in the car: 13! I then proceeded to tell her, and the trainee she was training that that was complete bullshit. Not only does 53 kilometres in a Sunfire not equal 13 litres... but 13 litres at $0.929 is not $20.67. WTF?! Apparently, the previous bitch had neglected to put the note on about pump price. So I managed to talk her into $0.929 after approximately 15 minutes.

However, bitch-face and the trainee (note to trainee, get out now!) proceed to try and convince me that 13 litres for 53 kilometres is not too uncommon. That is approximately 25L/100km or 9.4 mpg. In a SUNFIRE! I get MUCH better mileage in my RX-7, and that gets worse mileage than a Hummer!. 9mpg in a SUNFIRE!? Are you kidding me? Nope! Apparently, both of these idiots drive Cavaliers and it is not uncommon for them to go through a 1/4 tank of gas in 50km's. Even after I told them I got about 500km in the tank of gas I went through (read: Brent went through) in the red car.

What a bunch of idiots. Please, what ever you do not ever use Budget Rent-A-Car. Especially Budget on 45th St W in Saskatoon. F' them.

I am a big fan of Jones Soda, and have been since I first came across their neatly-packaged bottles a few years ago. I don't always buy Jones when I'm in the market for a soda/pop/whatever you decide to call it, and usually end up with something a bit more traditional, like Coke or Sprite or something. The odd time, however, I will spring for a Jones - usually an Orange and Cream or a Green Apple or something. One Jones flavor I will most likely be skipping however, is Salmon Soda.

What are they thinking? Salmon soda? Who wants to drink a fish flavored pop? Nasty!

From CNN Money: (ed original link broken.)

"When you smell it, it's got that smoked salmon aroma," said Peter van Stolk, chief executive of Jones Soda.

The artificially flavored salmon soda will be offered as part of a $13 "regional holiday pack" that also includes other unusual sodas such as turkey & gravy, corn on the cob, broccoli casserole and pecan pie.

Not only do I find the idea of a Salmon flavored soda to be terrible, I find all of the others listed above to be horrible ideas as well, even though it appears as though they sell quite well. Must be the novelty factor, as I have a hard time believing people actually like the taste.

Later in the CNN Money article (ed: original link broken.), company founder Peter van Stolk goes on to say:

"I cannot finish a bottle, I just can't."

I don't think it is such a good idea to be releasing a product the company founder can't even get through.

This news report from CBC saddens me. Literally. I have a frown on my face.

From CBC:

... Weber says this is the third consecutive year that farmers will not be making any money on their operations.

I, as I'm sure just about every person living in Saskatchewan, have family who farms. Some of my friend's parents still farm. Reading about the depression these poor people are going through is greatly upsetting.

Farmers are the bloodline of our society. They provide us with food! How is it that the very people who allow us to live, are actually losing money on a year to year basis? I think it is completely absurd.

I don't claim to be an economist, or know anything about agriculture, but I think it is about time for the government to step in and do something. We need to help these people out before we lose all of our farmers.

I read an awesome article on Wired about Google. It is a really thought-provoking article about Google and it's ambitions. Just thought I'd point you guys toward it, tis a good read.

I was watching Back in.... 91 on Much More Music tonight, and the #1 worst video of the year was Gerardo's Rico Suave. This part of the song stuck with me...

So again don't let my lyrics mislead you I don't love you but I need you Would you rather have me lie Take a piece of your pie and say bye Or be honest and rub your thighs

RICO!

At about 1:30 we had a power outage at work. Suhweeet. For a little over an hour we could do nothing but stand around. Which is a good thing, because a bunch of us decided to have a regular poker game starting this Saturday night. So far there are four people from the office that are going to play. I'm sure my roommate will play and we will find a few more to make a nice game of ten or so. Anyway, big ups to the power company for taking out that power pole, and allowing me to do nothing for about an hour.

In the middle of November, 2004 I stumbled upon the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) during research for one of my screenplay's. I was a little upset about how late it took me to find this fascinating web page.

From NaNoWriMo:

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

What an awesome idea, and a good way to waste a bunch of time for one month of the year. So, since I found it late last year, I vowed to myself that I would participate in 2005.

Whoops. I had forgotten all about it until I stumbled across this post from Beyond Robson in my RSS Reader. Oh, how upset I am with myself. Another year gone by, another opportunity shot.

From Beyond Robson:

... in 2006 when I again plan publically announce my intentions to NaNoWriMo.

Me too. It looks like some 9765 completed it this year. Congratulations to all that wrote, I am envious.

24's Season Four was released on DVD today. Hoo yeah!

I own the other three seasons of the greatest show on TV, and can't wait to watch this one. It is impossible for me to watch the show while it is actually on television, as the cliffhangers at the end of every episode would drive me to a mental hospital.

Unfortunately, I've got to wait for Marc to get back to Saskatoon to watch it. 12 days.

Beyond Robson is quickly becoming one of my favorite websites on the internet, due to entries like this one. Amazing that a site dedicated to Vancouver is able to touch on topics that affect everyone, not just Vancouverites.

From Beyond Robson, orginally posted at Daily Kos:

"If a company makes a product that is inappropriately used to illegally copy a movie, that company is liable. If a company makes a product that is inappropriately used to illegally kill a human, that company is not liable. What's the common logic holding these disparate concepts together? Massive corporate special interest money. Welcome to your government of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations, where a pirated copy of "Hollywood Homicide" is bigger threat than an actual Hollywood homicide."

The last comment about Hollywood Homicide is especially effective, and quite true in the context it is being used. Now, obviously, killing someone will earn you more jail time than pirating a movie. However, it does force you to really think about how influention corporations are in politics.

I also find it quite offensive, that the same government that decides it is a company like Napster, Morpheus, Kazaa, or whomever must restrict their software because other people are using their product to commit illegal acts, while a gun manufacturer is innocent of the exact same crime. A gun manufacturer is not held accountable in any way when someone using their products commits an illegal act.

I mean, I am 150% sure that this is not just a gun manufacturer-piracy issue, and it is quite a bit deeper than that. I just really wanted to touch on the subject.

Guns suck.

An interesting post popped up in my RSS Reader from Jordon Cooper this morning.

It appears as though Business Week will be focusing more on their online magazine, and less on their print works. It seems like an interesting idea, to say the least. If anyone can afford to move closer to an online-base from print, it is someone like Business Week. I have a feeling that the majority of Business Week's readers are online quite a bit, and don't really have the time to pick up a magazine, sit down and read it. Having access to all of the same information, and being able to pick and choose what content you want could be a big perk for their readers.

I'm interested in seeing if anyone follows suit.

Original News Article from McGraw-Hill

I ordered a Christmas gift from amazon.ca on November 24. Original shipping estimate was December 1 to December 6. Cool! Oops, December 5th rolls around, and they change the dates to December 9 to December 20. Well, I guess I can live with that. And now, they change the shipping date to December 23 to January 3, 2006. What kind of shit is that? It's a Christmas gift that might not get here until next year? Ugh, that pisses me off.

Nothing I can do about it I guess. Still, kind of sucks that one of the largest online retails can't get me on little item in less than a month. An item they say ships within 24 hours, nonetheless.

Ooh Timmy, how would I get by at 6:30 in the morning without your wonderful presence? Any Canadian needing to be up before anything that can be considered normal, or even uncruel knows that Tim is an essential part of the morning.

If this post made any sense at all, I would be surprised because I'm still not awake. F early mornings.

I don't really know how I ended up there, but I found myself on Roger Ebert's website for the first time. The reasons this is blog-worthy is numerous:

• I am a movie-junkie.
• I have been a fan of Roger Ebert's since Siskel.
• I have been using the internet since 1994, or earlier.

Being a huge movie fan, one would think I would at least peruse the odd review from the world's most famous film critic. That would be especially true, since I used to watch his TV show every now and again. And that is even more especially true, considering I have been using the internet for more than ten years. One would generally have to assume I would find his website at some point over the past 120+ months.

I've been reading a couple of reviews, trying to kill time and am really starting to like his website. Not just for the reviews, but for the general content.

Every film fan needs to visit rogerebert.com. In before the flames.

It's ten days until ballot-box time and I have no idea what I'm going to do with my ballot. I'm not going to vote Liberal. I don't want to vote Conservative. The NDP vote is a waste. I don't even know what other parties are running in my riding. And, I don't care.

I could really care less. I don't care about any of the candidates or the party leaders. None of them are qualified to run this country, let alone do something worthwhile with their opportunity for leadership.

Let's take a quick look at the Liberals. The candidate in my riding (Saskatoon-Humboldt) is Peter Stroh. I know nothing about Peter Stroh, his politics or his career. However, there is zero possibility of me voting for him. The rest of the Federal Liberal party made that decision for him, as I refuse to support another four years of Liberal corruption.

The Conservatives are running incumbent Brad Trost. There is a chance he will receive my vote, but not on his merit or politics. Simply as a "get the Liberals the fuck out of office" vote. Now, I don't necessarily like Stephen Harper, nor agree with the parties policies, but he's got to be better than Paul Martin. I just really can't picture myself looking at Stephen Harper as the Prime Minister of my country. His hair is plastic. He looks like a wax musem exhibit, and has no personality. Ugh.

Andrew Mason is running as an NDP. The NDP seems like the least threatening to our country, but this is pretty much like spoiling a ballot. If we don't have a majority government, everything that happens is a waste of time. The NDP have got zero chance of forming a majority, and I would rather have the Conservatives running Canada than the Liberals. Not voting NDP.

The Green Party is running Mike Jones. Fuck the Green Party.

Running as an independant, 19 year old Tim Nyborg has a chance of getting my vote. When I was 18 I thought about running, just for the hell of it, so why not help this guy out? It's better than spoiling my ballot completely, and every vote will boost the kid's self esteem. Actually, I just decided I'm going to vote for him. He's the only person here with nothing to lose. Go Tim!

I can't even imagine how many of my readers I'm going to piss off with this post, but I don't care. I'm off to send an email to Tim Nyborg to offer my support.

Everyone in Russia is singing the Canadian anthem tonight, whether they know it or not. "Russia 2, OH Canada!!!" (for the record, I know the previous comment was lame on every level, and guess what, so was the men's Canadian hockey team) Damnit. How could this have happened? I've checked out about 10 blogs this morning, and as of yet, only one has mentioned anything about the Canadian's loss in the Olympics yesterday afternoon.

We lost to the damned ruskies! 2 - 0! Unbelievable. Not only did we lose, but we were outplayed in every aspect of the game. We had a lot of powerplays and failed to capitalize. The worst part is, is that we managed to lose two games in the f*cking round robin. How unbelievable is that? Everyone in Canada believed we were going to win Gold, and I'm sure most of the people around the hockey world believed it too. And now, we are going home empty-handed.

I wonder if Gretzky will be back for Vancouver in 2010?

I found this cartoon over at grrrl meets world:

A link that Saskboy pointed me to today over at Werner Patels on Media is ousting the Toronto Star.

Apparently, they are going to be billing everyone $200 simply for linking directly to one of their news articles. As Werner pointed out, there is no way that the Toronto Star can claim ownership of a link on someone's personal space. Not only that, but newspapers these days rely on bloggers to send traffic their way, and the Toronto Star has got this one seriously wrong.

I would like to see them try to enforce this law and watch the blogosphere erupt on the mainstream media. Werner made another great point. It does make quite a bit of sense for them to try and limit people from simply reproducing the article on a blog, and I understand why that would bother their legal team... however, trying to stop an unlimited amount of people from driving traffic to their site. Crazy.

I know I'm definitely not the first to write about it, as a matter of fact, I'm pretty late at jumping on this amazing news story. But I just had to make my views known.

Jeremy Steinke (23) and his 12 year old girlfriend that can't be named murdered the girl's entire family in Medicine Hat, Alberta. Her parents, and her 10 year old brother.

Apparently this sick Steinke asshole met the 12 year old in a goth chat room.

A couple of things about this case strike me as crazy. First is the obvious: this sick 23 year old decides that it's ok for him to carry on any kind of a relationship with a 12 year old, let alone dating her. How he managed to convince his friends (if he actually had any) and family that this was normal behavior and is quite acceptable is beyond me.

Apparently, on Steinke's blog (which was pulled by Nexopia a day or so after he was arrested) he wrote a poem about how the young girl's parents just did not understand their relationship, and how he wanted to slit their throats because of it.

What kind of a sick, twisted, disturbed fuck would ever believe that a 12 year old girl's parents would actually think it was ok for a 23 year old to date her. I'm scared for the girl just thinking about whether or not they were sexually active. Jeez! Can you imagine if your 12 year old brought home a 23 year old girl/boyfriend? Even if my 12 year old's partner was 18 I'd lose my mind.

Second they met online. I've always just how often it happened -- an old predator picks up a young, unsuspecting prey on the internet and abuses her. And I'm sure it happens all the time, but this sick fuck went too far. He picked up his prey, probably with relative ease, and then decided to pursue an actual relationship with her. Disgusting!

Apparently the maximum sentence the girl can receive is six years. Which is ok, because I highly doubt that she had much of a hand in the planning, or execution for that matter, of the murder. On this sick Steinke bastard -- I almost wish we had the death penalty, because this kid deserves to die. However, I hope he gets the book and ends up with life with no chance for 25. The sad thing is, he'll probably serve 7 years then get out on parole.

My RSS Reader lit up this morning and the first article I read came courtesy of Saskboy. Apparently Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report had President Bush's undivided attention for thirty-plus minutes and called him out on just about everything the anti-Bush crowd has wanted to say for the past five years.

I've only seen his show a couple of times, but I'm sure I'll be tuning into the show after The Daily Show more often after this. I can just picture George Bush being asked about his low approval ratings. Golden!

Further reading:

• About Mr. Colbert -- The News Blog
• Colbert Lampoons Bush ... -- Editor & Publisher

After seeing so many blog entries about our PM eating our young, I had to check out the news report for myself.

Every three seconds over three days a hacker let Torontonians in on what only he knew. That PM Stephen Harper enjoys the flesh of infants. Too funny.

Nineteen year old Kacy Lancaster was charged as an accessory after the fact, becoming the third to be charged in the Medicine Hat triple murder.

She follows 23 year old Jeremy Steinke and his 12 year old girlfriend -- apparently the youngest person ever charged in a multiple-murder case in Canada. The CBC news report isn't saying what her role in the murders are, but we'll wait and see.

A church youth group from Saskatoon was on a trip to Edmonton when the bus driver had an epileptic seisure and the bus crashed into the Borden Bridge, just outside of Borden, Saskatchewan.

I haven't read about this on any news articles yet, but I've been searching. One of my ex-boss' daughters was on the bus and she told me about it on MSN Messenger. I called a lady I know who works in the CBC News Room and she confirmed it. Crazy!

Apparently the bus driver, who works for P.A. Northern attempted to call in sick this morning, but the company wouldn't let him so he swallowed his sickness and came into work. Big mistake on the end of P.A. Northern, and one that hopefully costs them a bunch of money. About thirty minutes out of Saskatoon the driver began having his seisure, immediately before the bridge. In an incredible stroke of luck, the bus smashed into the start of the guardrail, narrowly avoiding running into the river.

All of the kids on the bus had to exit by the windows, and many of them were injured - mostly cuts and bruises, I'm unsure about broken bones. I'm not sure how many had to go to the hospital in Saskatoon, but quite a few for sure. The fuel tank sprung a leak, and somehow a lot of the kids got battery acid on them, destroying a lot of the clothes.

Absolutely crazy! I'll post more when I find out.

Update:

Blog Entries:
Breakfast Meat :: Prince Albert Northern bus crashes near Borden

News Articles
canada.com :: Three injured when charter bus slams into bridge in central Saskatchewan
Calgary Sun :: Three hurt in bus crash
CTV :: Three hurt after bus crashes into Sask. bridge

I've got a bad habit of becoming fiercely addicted to tv show. The newest episode of The Sopranos is on right now, and I can't watch it because my buddy missed the first five minutes, and I made the stupid mistake of telling him I'd wait until 11:00 to catch the second showing.

I always seem to do this to myself. Take 24 for instance: I bought Season 4 and made the mistake of telling Marc I'd wait three weeks to watch it with him. These intense addictions to great tv have got to stop. It's unhealthy. I guess I'm glad it's only The Sopranos and 24 currently. 24 is by far worse, I can't even watch it on television, I have to wait for it to show up on DVD.

One of my roommates had a couple of buddies over when Rick Mercer's Talking to America one hour special came on CBC. A few minutes into the show, Mercer started talking about the polar bear hunt in Toronto, to which one of the kids over at my place says "You know there's polar bears in Winnipeg?"

Ugh. He wasn't joking. Ugh.

I tried to explain to him why having polar bears in or near Winnipeg doesn't even make sense, but he decided to defend his point anyway. I eventually had to get up and leave the room due to the sheer idiocy of this kid. Ugh.

Weyerhaeuser officially closed the doors to it's Prince Albert pulp and paper mill on April 13, 2006. The plant was Prince Albert's largest private sector employer and the closure left more than 700 people unemployed.

However, according to Small Dead Animals, the Calvert NDP government decided that they should still feature high-ranking Weyerhaeuser VP, Steve Smith in it's Think Sask campaign. The campaign is designed to drive business to Saskatchewan, and features "entrepreneurs" giving testimonials to how great it is to do business in Saskatchewan.

I almost wish I was back in Saskatchewan simply so I could vote for the Sask Party. Everything the NDP clowns are doing these days seems to be missing the target, and they really, really dropped the ball on this. The citizens of Prince Albert should be outraged! I sure would be.

Now, I haven't watched the video yet as my sound card is about to land in the garbage can, but that's probably a good thing as now I can't subject myself to this BS, but I'll take SDA's word for it.

My friend's aging dog, about 12 or so, refuses to eat dog food. They put dog food in his bowl and he just won't eat. They seriously feed him Chicken Cordon Bleu, which he loves. Today they fed him some chicken breast, and yesterday kraft dinner.

I know it's seriously unhealthy for the dog, but he is nearing the end of his life so they may as well let him enjoy what's left of it. I just find it a little weird that the dog has that sophisticated of taste.

I know it's a little late to be making my predictions about the Stanley Cup playoffs public, and some of you will most likely raise a BS flag, but whatever.

Since the teams were finalized I've been saying that if Calgary doesn't make it to the cup, the Buffalo Sabres are going to go all the way, and they are making me happy so far in the second round against Ottawa.

So, I predict a Buffalo vs. Anaheim final series, with Buffalo taking it in six. Late or not, there's my prediction.

A family member is in rehab, I'm not going to name names but those of you that know me probably have a pretty good idea who it is. This person had an overdose and landed themself in the ER before being taken to Moose Jaw for two week detox.

I used to have a fairly bad problem myself, and ended up in ICU for a few days after an overdose of pharmaceuticals. Absolutely not cool. I've been clean for a couple of years now, and feel absolutely great about it. I'm hoping said family member can turn themselves around and get clean as well.

I've seen so many people consumed by drugs and it saddens me every time. Not only does it severely deplete any remaining cash in your wallet, it completely takes over your life and destroys those of the people around you. I know a lot of people who are still doing drugs regularly, and although it doesn't bother me on a personal level, I feel bad for them and the people that love them.

I'm not sure what it is about drugs that turn people into naive slaves to consumption, but something needs to be done about it. I have no idea what, but something...

In my teen years I was surrounded by - and partially submerged in - a culture of drugs. Regular use of marijuana and other recreational drugs such as mushrooms was just what we did. We smoked weed when we hung out at each other's houses. We smoked weed on our 15 minute and lunch breaks at school. It was simply what we did. And honestly, it really wasn't all that detrimental to any of our lives. We never went nuts and started robbing people because we were high. We never got so messed up that we ran over little kids riding their bikes. None of that.

I haven't smoked weed in a couple of years and have zero intentions of ever putting a joint, pipe or bong to my lips again. That being said, I still have no problem with people I surround myself with these days smoking weed. A good number of friends still do and I really don't see that much of a problem with it. Besides it being a "gateway" drug, which I don't want to get into right now, so I won't.

What I do have a problem with is the hard stuff: cocaine, crack, crystal meth, heroin, ecstasy, acid, etc. The stuff that really destroys lives - and not just those of the user. I have seen a few people completely destroy themselves in a matter of a few short years and are left with very little chance of fully recovering. I'm not completely innocent either, as a previous entry elluded to, I've had my own battles with drugs harder than marijuana. But the same battle that I was waging eventually caused me to cease all drug use (beside the consumption of alcohol, that is).

Saskboy pointed out an entry on Jacobs Super Patented Brain Thoughts about a politician's effort to introduce a controversial drug program.

Continue reading "Curbing Serious Drug Usage" »

Due to the success of The Da Vinci Code, producers are moving forward with an Angels & Demons movie. I haven't read the book yet, but I've heard it is superior to TDC, so this is hopefully a good thing.

Akiva Goldsman (scribe of TDC script) has signed on to write the AD script -- a move I am acutally a little upset with. Although he did a good job of keeping true to the story in TDC, I am unsure he will be able to do it twice in a row. Tom Hanks and Opie Ron Howard have not yet signed on for the prequel, but I can't see them not doing it.

TDC took $80million in US box office and $224million in Worldwide box office on it's opening weekend. Wow.

The Edmonton-Anaheim Game 4 is still in the second period but I just can't wait. I can't believe how tight the referees are calling this game. I mean, there was 3-on-3 hockey for almost a minute! Unbelievable. It's the third round of the playoffs, let them play some hockey. I'm waiting for them to call 2 minutes for playing hockey.

Idiots.

Lins over at The Ford Focus Wagon and Saskboy of Abandoned Stuff have been chatting about Left Lane Bandits -- the idiots that believe driving ten kilometres below the posted speed limit in the left lane of a four-lane highway is acceptable practice.

Saskboy says that the urge to drive faster on the highway can kill. While this is true, so can the urge to drive below the speed limit. As a matter of fact I believe that people driving below the limit in the left-lane can be even more dangerous than those driving over the limit.

He goes on to say that driving on average 20 km/h over the speed limit is excessive. I find this as well to be completely untrue. Most US highways have a 70mph or about 112km/h, and it is generally accepted that people drive 75 (120) -- so if 120km/h is safe for them, why isn't it for us. As well, highways in the US routinely hit the 75mph, and don't forget about the European highways with their ridiculous speed limits, and in some cases (the German Autobahn network) no speed limits.

If a posted limit is 100km/h on a highway with enough traffic to warrant double (or more) lanes, people should be forced to drive it (unless of course conditions are unsafe). Nothing is worse than being caught behind someone going 90km/h when you are trying to go 110km/h.

Saskboy also goes on to say that by driving slower, our gas bill will be lower. That is a problem that is all my own, and if I decide to get an extra 15 km out of a tank of gas, I'll slow down. The whole speeding ticket argument is also garbage... if I get a ticket, it's my problem. Another argument is that vehicles don't have the agility needed to avoid animals or other hazards. I really don't believe that there is much of a difference in reflectivity between 100 and 120km/h.

It was widely speculated that Ricky Williams would sign with the Toronto Argonauts, and it was made official yesterday.

Williams was suspended by the NFL for a year for repeatedly testing positive for marijuana, but this is obviously not an issue for Canadians. Although he will be tested ten times a month by the NFL, even if he fails I highly doubt that the Argos or the CFL will do anything about it, as having such a brilliantly talented back in the CFL has got to be good for ratings. Williams is essentially on loan to the Argos from the Miami Dolphins for the season, and I guess it's good for all parties concerned, with the exception of the other eight teams in the CFL.

Before signing Williams, the Argos were getting ready to field a potent team, but with the signing of Williams their offense (and especially their running game) has got to be the one to look out for in the East. As a die-hard Rider fan I harbor mixed emotions about signing a Pro-Bowl caliber back to a team other than my green and white. It will be very good for the league, but could pose a real threat to our defensive line. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

The World Cup starts on June 9th, and I can't wait. I generally don't follow soccer, but get pretty geared up about it around World Cup time. I was originally planning on heading to Germany for the festivities this year, but the plane tickets proved to be just too outrageous.

I'm cheering for Brazil, but I also hope England and the Suiss do well. Am I the only Canadian going to be watching?

I was completely, utterly dead wrong in my third round predictions. So it's Edmonton vs. Carolina starting on Monday. I think the Hurricanes will take the first game because the Oilers have been off for so long, other than that game I've got not much for predictions....

I'm going to say Oilers in 6.

I came home from playing Tennis with Ross and walk onto the deck to join my roommate and a couple of buddies only to notice that a huge tree fell over in my backyard... well, a big piece of it anyway. Here are some pictures:

You can see my roommate in this picture:

And a stupid picture of me in the jungle:

Crazy!

Marc-Andre Bergeron was the star of the game on Monday --- for the Carolina Hurricanes. He made two massively bad decisions that could cost the Oilers their first Stanley Cup in more than fifteen years. His first bright moment was a complete failure to back up his defense partner, which allowed Justin Williams to streak out on a breakaway and take the lead in the game.

His second absolutely brilliant decision was to forced Carolina's Andrew Ladd into Dwayne Roloson, knocking him out of the playoffs. With Roloson out, MacTavish had no option but to put in one of his back-ups (neither of which should be in the NHL). He went with Ty Conklin, which appears to be the biggest mistake of the night.

For all but eliminating the Oilers chances at the Cup, Conklin and Bergeron must be the two most hated guys in Edmonton.

Hopefully it's a good sign for the upcoming CFL season, but the Riders beat the Eskie's twice in a row in the preseason. 14 - 3 in the opener on the 3rd, and 22 - 7 on the 9th.

Here are my predictions:

West Division

1. Saskatchewan Roughriders


2. Calgary Stampeders


3. BC Lions


4. Edmonton Eskimos

East Division

1. Hamilton Tiger Cats


2. Toronto Argonauts


3. Montreal Alouettes


4. Winnipeg Blue Bombers

While I'm sure this isn't news to anyone who reads this blog, the Oilers lost to the Hurricanes in Game 7. From the beginning I had been saying that they wouldn't win, although I really found myself cheering hard for them last night. They tried so hard I really think they deserved the win. Unlike the Flames two years ago, they actually played like a team that wanted to win tonight, and they were close a few times.

Oh well, there's always next year.

Stephen Harper and the Conservative government have tabled new legislation that would inflict tougher penalties on those caught street racing. In street racing incidents that result in what is deemed "dangerous driving causing death," a lifetime imprisonment is the new maximum, a step up from the previous fourteen years.

As someone who has been in, or around the sport compact car scene since the day I turned sixteen, I view this as a huge step forward in this area. I'm not totally innocent... I mean, I've lined up at a red light and raced for a few blocks before, I'm sure most of us have. I've since taken my speed-thrills to the race track. However, it is just way too dangerous for people to be allowed to do this.

Saskboy and Mark both posed the question:

Why can we buy cars which can hit 160 km/hr and more anyway?

I find this to be a totally outrageous question. First of all, most new cars can do well over 160km/h unless governed (which less and less seem to be these days). Secondly, what about those of us who enjoy our more powerful cars at the track? Why should we be punished with massively underpowered cars when we are spending our own money? There would obviously be safety benefits to limit all cars to 110km/h....

I pose a couple of points: Do people who manufacture cars that are sold both in Canada and Germany need to govern their cars differently? What about those drivers on the autobahn?

What happens if we were to drive to a place in the USA that happens to have a 75mph speed limit? Should we be forced to putt along at 68mph (110). I sure hope not!

Also, what about when we are clipping along the highway at 110 and the person in front of us is going 108. Should we be forced to sit there going 108, because passing someone at two kilometres per hour faster than they are travelling isn't exactly safe.

See Also: Left Lane Bandits

I know parking in Calgary is terrible, especially downtown, but I really didn't think it would be bad. $4.00 per half hour in short-term is absolutely outrageous. When I dropped Ryan off at the airport on Thursday I got stuck paying $8 to park for about 40 minutes. I got lucky picking him today and the parking attendant let me go free, which was very very cool. However, $4 for a half hour is absolutely outrageous. This isn't downtown and I really don't think short term parking is hurting for space at Calgary International. Crooks.

On the July 31, 2006 episode of The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert mentioned Wikipedia a number of times, which caused some editing chaos on a number of entries. On last night's show as well, Colbert's guest Linda Hirshman mentioned Wikipedia during her visit, which undoubtedly led to more guerilla editing.

See also:
Abandoned Stuff
Newsvine

I've been neglecting my blog, so due to the thrashing I took courtesy of the hands of Brea, here is an update.

Entourage is far and away my favorite TV show currently putting out new episodes. Check it out on HBO or Movie Central. Sweetness.

After tossing the idea around for quite some time, I've decided that my next new computer will be a Mac. I do, however, plan on upgrading my desktop PC first by buying a newer used model first. Then, it will be MacBook for me. I'm going to wait until after Christmas, as I've learned that Apple is planning on updating both MacBook and MacBook Pro in time for the holidays. A Mac Pro is in the pipeline as well, but that will be quite a bit into the future, when my film making aspirations actually start coming to fruition.

Check out this ad for an original Apple 1 from '76. Gangster.

The boys at Cab finally got their shit together and put up their tight new site. Check it out, or better yet, if you're in Yorkton or Brandon, stop by the store and spend some money.

I did some small tweaking for the guys today and will probably do more in the future, in exchange for knockin' a few digits off my tab. Works for me.

Sam sent me this picture of Tiger and Chanel last night, and I feel obliged to post it.

Tiger has been in our family for approx. 11 years (he's obviously the old, fat one), but has not lived with me for 3 or so. I mis him lots. Chanel looks remarkably like Tiger -- who was a lot darker when he was younger -- aside from Tiger's white tufts of hair all over (like his "boots", all four white paws). Apparently Tiger has taken the role of Chanel's guardian. Cool beans.

Aside from the regular crew of television shows that everyone enjoys, I've been watching more and more HBO (read: Movie Central) and Showcase original shows that nothing short of outstanding:

• Billable Hours (Showcase)
• Entourage (Movie Central)
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Showcase)
• Weeds (Showcase)
• The Wire (Movie Central)

On top of the above shows, NBC has got a great new show out called Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, starring Matthew Perry. I caught the second episode last night and am pretty sure I'm going to be a weekly viewer. The show is masterfully acted, well written and funny. The show is a behind-the-scenes look at a fictional SNL-type variety show. I wish I saw the pilot, guess I'm going to have to wait for the DVD to come out.

From its content to its visual components, a photograph is filled with information. Choose a point on an image and delve deeper into it, linking one idea to another in a never-ending chain.

Marturia pointed me towards this site about photos made up of hundreds of little photos. Check it out.

With the new design of my site I feel even more obliged to ask my readers to use Firefox over Internet Explorer. Saskboy gave me a reason to write this little plea.

While the arrival of IE7 is imminent, it still doesn't make sense as anyone's browser of choice. I've converted a few people from IE6 to Firefox 1.0 or 1.5 and not a single one of them has yet to look back. I do not allow people to use IE on my computers, and as a result some have been "forced" to switch. They use it on my computer, like it so much, and begin using it on their computer.

This website simply does not look correct in IE6. At all. It doesn't even have native support for transparent PNG images, which breaks almost every image on my website! Upgrading to Internet Explorer 7 fixes some of the issues, and the site actually appears almost as it should, but it still looks better in Firefox.

I've spent a little bit of time toying around with IE7 and just don't enjoy it. The interface is awkward, and very hard to get used to. I'll keep it installed on my machine, but only because there are some websites out there still that force you to use it (remember the Census fiasco?).

Firefox 2, which is at most a few weeks away from general release (Firefox 2.0 RC2 is available for download now) and beats IE7 in every category I can find. The interface is cleaner, simpler and easier to use; the tab functionality is more intuitive and much more user-friendly. It is faster and safer.

It just doesn't make sense for anyone to be using Internet Explorer any longer... unless you are a Microsoft employee. In which case, I still argue you should switch to Firefox.

Get Firefox and make the internet a better place.

We've finally been able to make it past the first round of the playoffs. And this time Paul McCallum is working to screw up the other team, so that's one less thing for us to worry about.

Danny B. was visibly worried in the first half, whether this had to do with his job or the game at hand I'm not too sure. He was definitely jubilant when the game was decided at 30 - 21 for the good guys. I'm pretty sure he's done regardless of the outcome of the season. He will probably step down before Tillman is given the chance to let him go.

When the score was 21 - 5 late in the second quarter I was relatively certain that the Riders were about to drop the ball in a large way. The excitement that followed the fourth quarter touchdown by Kenton Keith was nothing less than to be expected. I just wish I could be in Vancouver on Sunday to watch the Lions go down in flames like the Stamps did.

It's kind of funny to be in Calgary right now. I can't tell whether the majority are upset or ecstatic. Even the local news, whether it be CBC, CTV or Global, still fancy-footed around the issue. Oh well, it's good to see that half the city is cheering for the good guys.

Go Riders!

A few friends and myself sat around the living room having a discussion about changing names and naming babies and stuff. It has left us with a few unanswered questions that I will pose to you:

1. Can you add titles to your first name, legally?
   For example: what if I wanted to change my first name to "The Right Honorable Stephen", thus making me "The Right Honorable Stephen Glauser"? This could possibly pose a few issues. Or what if my friend Chris wanted to change his first name to "Sir Chris", thus making him "Sir Chris Windsor". Would they legally allow you to do this? Imagine the driver's licenses.
2. Can you give your baby any last name you want?
   General consensus throughout our conversation was that you had to give your baby a last name, or any combination of last names derived from those of the child's parents. However, I see no real reason why there would be an issue with giving your newborn any last name you wanted, except for genealogical research or family pride and stuff like that.
3. Can you really give your child any first name you want?
   What if someone wanted to name my child something obscene like "Fuck" or "Asshole"? There are obvious reasons that this should not be allowed, but what kind of recourse does the government or whomever have against names like this. It just doesn't make sense for there to be someone have to approve of a name that parents want for their kids.

That's pretty much where we left the discussion. Feel free to weigh in.

Paul McCallum went 6 for 6, tying a CFL record for most made field goals in a Grey Cup, on route to a Lions a 25 - 12 win in the 94th Grey Cup. It's too bad he couldn't even hit a 18 yard chip shot for the green & white. He was actually voted the CBC Warrior of the Game. Bah!

All in all, I'm a little relieved that the Lions were able to outplay the Alouettes and take home the Cup. I don't know how well I would've have taken it if the team that blew us out in the Western Final was upset by a lowly team from the East.

I still can't believe that the Lions broke the top off the Grey Cup. They better fix it in time to give it to us next year. Because... there's always next year.

Ryan (my roommate) and I were discuss