Google

Monday, November 30, 2009

Home Made.



It's fun finding old commercials, rock videos, and TV shows on YouTube. But you can also find a lot of cool stuff people have done themselves. Above is an example by a fellow who calls himself organfairy, an original piece called "Torden over Herning." One of the things I find cool about it is that most of the sounds come from instruments most would consider toys, including '90s bottomenders from Casio's range of the era, the SA-1 and SA-3. I'm sure I annoyed a few people fooling around with one of these in a now gone Canadian Tire outlet when they were new. Don't forget to check out his other videos as well.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Gas In Saskatoon, November 27, 2009.

Gas in Saskatoon is currently 91.9 cents a litre, or 92.9 cents a litre, depending on which chain gas station you go to. At midday at least stations could be found offering gas at one or the other price.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Green And White Go Grey (Cup).

That odd noise you just heard? It was a bunch of Saskatchewan Roughriders fans cheering, as the Riders just defeated the Calgary Stampeders in the CFL West final. Next week it's off to the Grey Cup, and their first Grey Cup matchup ever with the Montreal Alouettes. That fact kind of surprised me. I would have thought the two teams had battled for the Cup before.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Enough!

Could we please have a break from those obnoxious teeth whitening ads in banner ads? I'm tired of looking at discoloured teeth every second webpage I visit.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Gas In Saskatoon, November 20, 2009.

Gas in Saskatoon is currently 96.9 cents a litre. Except where it isn't.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Too Early.

They're already playing Christmas music in the malls. Couldn't they have waited another couple of weeks?

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Spring In November.

It sure seems like it. Today it got to 14 degrees or more Celcius, which is the kind of temperature you expect in April or May, not November. If only it could stay that way, as it's supposed to get to more normal temperatures as the weekend approaches.

Pork, Raspberries, Coke.

Three foods that apparently I shouldn't consume within a few hours of each other, as the combo gave me strong heartburn.

Monday, November 16, 2009

They Didn't Get The Notice.

Calgary was struck by racist vandals last night, who painted antisemitic grafitti in various places. I saw a shot of one example that shows the idiots involved apparently didn't get the message from scumbag central. It read "Six million more," refering of course to the Holocaust. I guess these guys didn't hear you're not supposed to believe in the Holocaust if you're that sort of bigot.

Friday, November 13, 2009

What A Surprise.

Looking at the main page of the blog after making the last post I spotted a surprising ad in my Google Adsense banner. It was for a DVD of Destination Moonbase Alpha. This was a compilation film created out of the two part second season Space: 1999 episode "Bringers of Wonder." ATV/ITC apparently hoped to have this released theatrically, but there is no evidence this ever happened. It did appear on TV in various places over the years. Since it was made out of two parts of the same story it holds together much better than the other attempts at 1999 compilation movies, Alien Attack, Journey Through the Black Sun, and Cosmic Princess. Annoying the episodes used for these were pulled from syndication, so for many years no one was able to watch the original versions when the series aired on TV. The movies aired in Canada at least as late as August of 1999, when Space: The Imagination Station aired them. Apparently whoever was scheduling things at Space then was kind of clueless about the show, as they really should have aired in September of 1999 to coincide with Moon being blown out of orbit in the series on September 13, 1999. Not that Space seemed much interested in the series anyways, as they never aired it in its original form.

Seeing a DVD release for it advertised via Google isn't something I ever would have expected.

Gas In Saskatoon, November 13, 2009.

Gas in Saskatoon is currently 99.9 cents a litre. Probably. There was some confusion during the day, with some places showing a 96.9 cent price while most showed 99.9 cents.

Another Case Of Remakeitis.

Hollywood's lack of imagination strikes again. Variety is reporting ABC is about to order a pilot for a remake of Charlie's Angels, the '70s hit about 3 female detectives working for a boss the viewer never saw, only heard via an intercom. The fact that Drew Barrymore is involved doesn't seem promising, since the two big screen Charlie's Angels films she starred in never seemed to able to make up their mind whether they were playing it straight or were parodies. Will the new version be a hit? It's hardly a given, since revivals of Knight Rider and The Bionic Woman in recent years were cancelled due to poor ratings.

I wonder what's next in the remake market. Will we see a new version of say 21 Jump Street eventually? How about a Facts of Life revival? Have some continuity with the original by bringing back Mindy Cohn's Natalie character in the "housemother" role served by Charlotte Rae's Mrs. Garrett character in the original. Hmm, anyone wanna team up with me and try and sell this idea?

Perhaps what Hollywood needs these days is another Aaron Spelling. Whether you liked his output or not Spelling was in one way or another responsible for a large chunk of the TV landscape for decades.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

That Damn Baby.

Seriously, what's wrong with you people? It seems like half the hits I get these days are for the Stewie Griffin post I did a while back. At this rate maybe Fox should start paying me as part of their advertising effort for the show.

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Tuning Around.

I picked up a new toy last week, a Grundig G8 Traveller II shortwave radio. However I bought it for AM DXing, as it's considered one of the ultralight class of radios like my Sony SRF-59. Here's what I heard a bit ago. Saskatoon is -6 hours behind UTC, hence the October 9th date.


October 9:

970 khz at 0022. Very good with ads including Chunky Soup, followed by finish of New York Giants football broadcast. 970 WDAY ID at 0025. Fargo, North Dakota.

970 khz at 0027. Very good with WDAY nulled. Discussion of Sunday NFL games. 970 KBUL ID at 0032. Billings, Montana. I'm surprised two stations so close to each other share the same frequency.

1000 khz at 0039. Very good with weather and KOMO News Radio ID at 0039. Some slop from CBW Winnipeg on 990 khz noticeable at times. Seattle, Washington.

1010 khz at 0047. Very good to good signal with Writers and Company program. No ID but obviously CBR with CBC Radio One feed. Calgary, Alberta.

1030 khz at 0050. Fair with discussion of Medicare and health care reform. KTWO ID at 0059. Caspar, Wyoming.

Saturday, November 07, 2009

1500th.

This is my 1500th post to this blog. Not bad for something I started pretty much on a whim after hearing about how this blogging stuff was the new hip thing. Too bad I posted my 1000th post without noticing, but this is sort of a makeup for that omission. Hopefully the next 1500 will come along a bit quicker.

Thursday, November 05, 2009

Congratulations, Eric.

There's bound to be quite a bit of press over the next few days about Alex Rodriguez finally getting a World Series ring with the Yankees. But you don't have to be a superstar to have one, or even multiple rings. Former Toronto Blue Jay Eric Hinske was part of the Yankees's World Series lineup, marking his third appearance in the series in 3 consecutive years and his second with a winning team, having been a part of the Boston Red Sox's winning 2007 lineup. He also appeared in the Tampa Bay Ray's unsuccessful 2008 World Series appearance. Not bad for a guy whose role has for several years been that of a utility bench player. A lot of much more hyped players won't get to play in one World Series, let alone three, or end up with two World Series rings. And who knows, his career still has some gas left in it.

Monday, November 02, 2009

Twang!

I love guitars, and I love seeing guitar collections that go beyond the usual suspects. A good example of such a collection is that of Dutch guitarist Wietse. His webpage showcases the guitars he's accumulated, many of which he bought for amazingly low prices, and many of which are good examples of some of the strange and bizarre directions electric guitars went in the '60s and '70s.