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Saturday, December 31, 2011

Taunted.

Does Pokerstars taunt people?  I'm currently playing in the Saturday morning Weekly Round 2 Freeroll on Pokerstars.  I had 6-10 of clubs in the small blind, but folded to a raiser, since it's not a great hand and it's early in the tournament.  The flop came 7-8-9, all clubs.  I would have had a straight flush if I had called!  Arg!.  It would have been my second straight flush in the last 12 hours, as last night I was playing an Omaha Hi/Lo freeroll and hit a Ace to 5 straight flush, and with clubs no less.   So, it makes you wonder, but only briefly of course.  Given the number of players and the number of hands in any 24 hour period it would be ridiculous for them to waste valuable computer coding to set things up to tease players.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Way Too Fast.

When I went into Safeway this morning I noticed they already have a Valentine's Day section set up.  How ridiculous.  Boxing Day sales are still going on, and they're shilling a holiday that's more than two months away.  I seriously doubt anyone is thinking about Valentine's Day yet.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

When I Rule The World 12.

All the incessant screaming on TV, at public events, and so on will be prohibited.  Seriously, it's damn annoying!  Enough already.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Another Unwanted Present.

I received something I didn't want for Christmas.  My computer's CPU fan quit.  How annoying.  At least I have access to other computers until I can replace the fan, but it's no fun not having access to certain files.

Friday, December 23, 2011

Gas In Saskatoon, December 23, 2011.

This week we got an early surprise for Christmas, and not one that anyone wanted, an increase in gas prices.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 115.9 cents a litre at most locations. 

Hot Christmas.

Depending on what the weather is like where you live you may wish you were celebrating Christmas in Saskatoon.  Looking at the latest forecast Environment Canada is predicting a high of 4 degrees Celcius for tomorrow and 5 degrees for Christmas Day.  Yep, April type temperatures in late December.  Definitely not what you expect in this part of the world at this time of year. 

Thursday, December 22, 2011

It Won't Happen Anyway.

I was recently thinking about another one of my When I Rule The World ideas, namely that no one will be allowed to sit beside me on the bus.  But of course such a post would be silly.  After all when it happens I won't be riding public transit, so making such a proclaimation is unnecessary.

Klan Kanned.

I recently posted about finding a Ku Klux Klan page on Deviantart.  I speculated that the account would soon be banned.  Sure enough I checked it today and the user has been permanently banned.  I presume Deviantart has some way of keeping banned people from simply creating a new account, but I'm sure they'll try.  And of course they'll whine about censorship.  Too bad, fools.  Deviantart is a private website and can kick off anyone they want.  Their behaviour regarding bans has often been arbitrary, but I doubt too many people will disagree with this one.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Visual.

What's your visual prescence online?  To the best of my knowledge there are only two photos of me online, one I took myself,  and my accidental capture when GoogleStreet View scanned Saskatoon a few years ago.  You can't see my face in either, which has been okay by me in the past.  All you can tell is that my hair is brown, and I could do to lose some weight.  Other people have extensive photo collections of themselves on places like Facebook and Flickr.  They're obviously more physically comfortable with being seen than I am.  In a way it's funny given how many people are paranoid about their online security.   There are people I've never met who I might recognise if I ever ran into them, merely because I saw their Flickr feed.  Of course it's a big world, and that's not likely to happen, but it is something to think about.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Open The Door, Mr. Kim.

Greetings, Kim Jong-un.

I have no idea how you feel about your father, Kim Jong Il, passing away.  You might be happy, sad, or indifferent.  But I suppose one thing you definitely are now is scared.  If things go as your father desired you are about to become the leader of North Korea.  And therefore you've inherited one hell of a mess.  At the very least you probably have to worry that you'll be promptly overthrown by whatever factions are competing with yours.  Should you hang on to power you've got a country full of starving people, a backwards economy that pretty much exists at the whim of the Chinese, and various foreign powers that are just waiting for you to screw things up.

It's time to open the door.  Let the world in.  Sure, you'll probably want to do it slowly,  But you have no choice.  Your regime isn't going to last even as long as your dad's unless you save North Korea.  And the only way to do that is to find a way to end its isolation.  North Korea is far enough behind as it is, and it's only going to get worse.  You've seen the outside world, you know what it's like.  You can see what your people could have if they're allowed to.  So give them the chance.  Find some way to make a peaceful change, before everything comes crashing down.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

A Very Rare Bird.

Today I received something that must be very rare for the typical blog.  A hit from Andorra.  I would suspect there might be some visitors who have never even heard of this tiny European country, which doesn't even have half the population of Saskatoon.  Very cool.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Will It Please The Cosmic Lord Of Death?

I'm sure I've come across this page before.  Assuming I did it certainly didn't state we might see a new book featuring Joseph Rosenberger's infamous creation, the Death Merchant. I'd remember that.  I must say I'm surprised, as there can only be a tiny handful of people clamoring for new adventures featuring Richard Camellion.  I can't help but wonder about the legal status of this new book.  Dell was the last publisher to release Death Merchant books, and Rosenberger died in 1993.  So who owns the rights to the character?  Dell?  The Rosenberger estate, assuming there is one?  If the book isn't officially licensed, would the current rights holder think it worth the time to sue?  It's apparently being published by Kerodina Press, which sounds like it's a vanity press, so don't expect to see this in your local bookstore.  As for the title it doesn't really sound Death Merchantish.  It should be something like The Ressurection Strike.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Klansmen On Deviantart.

You can imagine my surprise when I came across this on the popular art site Deviantart.  According to the account info this one has been up for a month, which surprises me even more.  You'd think DA would have pulled their account already.  An obvious question is which version of the Ku Klux Klan this one is, given that there are at least 5 rival versions running around the US right now.  Of course the person who created this page may be a member of none of them.  In any case don't be surprised if you click on that link and there's nothing there but the announcement of a banned acount.

Thursday, December 08, 2011

Cross Promotion.

Time to promote my other blog, Saskatoon at Seven Megapixels.  Today's entry is about the Rusholme Pedestrian Tunnel on the west side, which was in the news in November over crime concerns.  Take a look.

Wednesday, December 07, 2011

When I Rule The World 11.

The term keytar shall be banned, for the term is an abomination.  The proper terms will be strap on controller or remote keyboard. 

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Another Sighting.

Following up my last post this morning I rode 0601, again a DART bus, and it too was equipped with an electronic sign.  Besides the time and "Stop Requested" message this one also displayed the upcoming stop.  There was no voice announcement, so perhaps this can be turned off by the driver if they find it annoying.  Interesting that the two buses I've encountered so far with these signs were both 2006 purchase date vehicles.

Friday, December 02, 2011

New Transit Tech.

I got on Saskatoon Transit bus 0604 today, which is one of the DART buses.  As I sat down I noticed a digital readout in place where the usual stop requested sign was.  At the time it was simply showing the current time.  It was only after we got over the University Bridge that a stop was requested, and as I suspected this gizmo flashed "Stop Requested" when the bell cord was pulled.  This was accompanied by a male voice stating "Stop Requested."  So, was this a test fit, or is it already planned to install these things on all buses?  We'll soon find out.  The unit does have a problem in my view, the "Stop Requested" message appears only briefly after the cord is pulled, so inattentive riders might pull the cord even though the bus will soon be stopping.  It will also be interesting to see if this unit has more sophisticated functions, like announcing upcoming stops as the bus approaches them.  Of course units that can do that are probably more expensive than ones that have only one message.

Gas In Saskatoon, December 2, 2011.

A tiny drop to report this week.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 111.9 cents a litre at most locations.  A dollar less per 100 litres may not seem like much, but if you drive a lot it quickly adds up.

Angering The Neighbours?

Next year is the bicentennial of the War of 1812.  The government intends to spend a bunch of money commemorating the event.  In a way I'm surprised.  Stephen Harper and much of the current strain of Canadian conservattism tends to treat anything American as wonderful, and will frequently denounce even the mildest of criticisms of the US by Canadians as anti-Americanism. Yet the current Conservative government intends to celebrate an event where the Americans, from a Canadian perspective, were the bad guys.  Apparently they aren't worried about bringing up bad memories in the US, as the War of 1812 included the occupation of Washington, DC and the burning of the White House and Capitol Building in 1814.  This was retaliation for the US attack on York, the future Toronto, so apparently the government isn't worried about stoking Canadian resentment towards the US either.  Most interesting.

Thursday, December 01, 2011

Child Of Twilight?

Walking into a store this morning I passed a little girl, 3 years old at the most, and her mom.  The girl was named Bella.  I found myself wondering if the tyke was named after the "heroine" of Stephane Meyer's Twilight books.  Sure, it's possible the kid is named after someone like the late American feminist Bella Abzug, but given her age it's rather more likely she's named after Bella Swan.  I would imagine there will be a lot of kids shaking their heads in a couple of decades when they get around to reading about the doormat character they're named after.

But hey, it could be worse.  At least is supposed to be the heroine of Twilight.  Imagine the kids who might be named Draco, after Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter books.  The actor who played him in the movies, Tom Felton, appealed to a lot of the female fans, and the result was what is actually a rather nasty character being quite popular.  You can be sure that someone will name their kid after him.