There are many things I do not want to know in this world.

AdultFanfiction.net has a category for the cartoon Yakkity Yak. Its currently empty, so I don't have the temptation to find out what kind of R or NC17 rated story some loon would come up with for Yakkity Yak.

We actually had a sunny day here in Saskatoon today, after several days of clouds and foggy periods.

I guess the weather gods decided to give London their weather back.

Byebye curse.

Hopefully the folks in Boston won't destroy too much in their celebrating tonight. Why people decide their fav team winning the big one is a perfect excuse to riot is beyond me.

I've been getting more hits on this blog for Delta State searches, and this time its people looking for Delta State fanfics. This makes me wonder how early is too early to write a fanfic about something. I suppose it depends on what series you intend to write for and what your story is going to be about. With any ongoing series you always run the risk of writing something that will be in complete contradiction to what ends up being canon(ie a lot of early Babylon 5 fics must have ended up buggered when Michael O'Hare quit and Bruce Boxleitner was brought in). But this is magnified if you try and write when you've only seen/read/what have you the first few episodes of something. Delta State seems to have a specific plot arc going, so it could be risky to write for it without seeing the whole thing. Its also probably a bit early to know how much fanfic the series will inspire. Some series just don't catch the attention of large numbers of fic writers, while others arguably are overwritten for.

More sad music news to report. Veteran British radio announcer John Peel has died. Peel's radio programs proved incredibly influential, promoting all sorts of acts that are considered classics. In recent years many of the performances from Peel's show have been released as The Peel Session CDs. Altho' he was from the first generation of rock and roll fans he never got stuck in his tastes, continuing to search for new groups to interest him.

Here's a seed for a fanfiction piece. Unfortunately I don't have enough knowledge of one of the shows in question to pull it off, but maybe someone out there will come across this post and does. To whit, its a crossover between the original Mission Impossible and Stargate: SG1, with Sam Carter from SG1 in some way being related to Cinnamon Carter of the Impossible Mission organisation, although I'd suggest not mother and daughter. Aunt and niece would probably work better.

There sure are some odd products on the market today. The home appliance/electronics compajy LG is currently marketing a refridgerator with a built in television. Frankly I can't see who this is supposed to appeal to other than gimmick junkies, and I wonder how well a tv will hold up in such an application. It certainly has the risk of leaving you with an obsolete technology smack dab in the middle of your kitchen should current analog format tv be phased out in the next 10 years or so for high definition tv, which should be well within the lifetime of your typical fridge.

Alas, no World Series for the Astros this year. Oh well, there's always next year. Of course I'm hoping that this time next year we'll be waiting for game one of the World Series to begin in Toronto.

A couple of things to bring a grin to my face today. One being the Sox winning last night and heading on to the World Series. I do have to wonder at Francona bringing in Pedro as a reliever. Thats not something he normally does and he was pitching on only a day's rest. Not to mention that he's the likely starter for Game One. One good thing about the way things went is that neither team in the World Series will have much of a rest advantage. If the Yankees had won game 4 of the ALCS they would have had almost a week of rest, giving them rather an advantage.

Another nice thing for me is that my Willy index is now past 700. Want a Willy index of your own? Just go here to learn how. Or perhaps you'd prefer a George index. If so, check out Where's George.

Here's a more extensive article on Cecil's problems.

As I type this I'm listening to disc one of the King Crimson live album Absent Lovers. This makes me think once again its time to consider posting some album reviews on here.

Does baseball great Cecil Fielder owe you money? If so you're not the only one. Apparently he has a rather strong gambling addiction, and as a result is reportedly hiding out trying to avoid creditors. Damn, sad to hear this after Ken Caminiti's recent death.

And here's the obligatory "Go Soxs Go!/Go Astros Go!"

Yet another musician death to report unfortunately. Doug Bennett of Doug and the Slugs passed away on Saturday at age 53 of an undisclosed illness.

The hit counter on this blog is just about to hit 1000. Thanks to everyone who has passed through here so far.

Its a complete mess here in Saskatoon today. The large amount of snow we've received has made the roads a mess. And as is always the case things are compounded by people suddenly driving like total idiots, doing things any sensible person should know not to. For example I saw someone driving this morning with a dog in their lap. This is dumb at any time, but even more dumb when the roads are slick and you need both hands on the wheel. (Pets should never be loose in a vehicle anyways. Belt them in or have them ride in a pet carrier.) I had to do some driving a bit ago, and it was pretty bad. I made it back in one piece with no accidents, but it was a rather nail biting trip.

Another annoyance today was using a public bathroom, and having someone else do so, then leave without washing their hands just before I did. Folks, WASH YOUR HANDS WHEN YOU USE THE TOILET! I don't care how careful you were I don't want unwashed, fresh from the bathroom hands touching anything I might want to touch. I wash my hands with soap and water out of respect for others, and I'd really appreciate others doing so as well.

Its the invasion of the geriatric rockers! I heard on tv tonight that Paul Stanley of KISS has had a hip replacement recently. So apparently has Mick Mars of Motley Crue. And Eddie Van Halen had one a few years back. Too much stage jumping? Or could it be a health problem they all share? My cousin has had to have work done on his hips, and I assume in his case its a genetic thing given his relatively young age, aggrevated by years working construction. Interestingly Mars is supposedly 52, so he was no spring chicken when the Crue first came to fame in the early '80s.

If you're watching any of the Yankees-Sox game tonight you're hearing probably the most distinctive umpire voice in the biz, Jim Joyce. How the hell does he do that "STRIEEEEEEEKEEE!" thing several dozen times a game, 162 games a year? You'd think he would have shreaded his vocal cords a long time ago. And what does he sound like at home? "Pass the PEEEEEEEEAAAAASSSSS!"

I sure am glad I don't have anyplace I want to be at this late hour. The streets of Saskatoon are covered with a bunch of snow, and I'm sure the roads are completely crappy right now. Should be a couple of fender benders tonight.

I was just watching 24 Hour Party People, a film about Tony Wilson and Manchester's Factory Records. If the movie is anything to go by Wilson could be kind of a pretentious wanker, doing stuff like comparing Shaun Ryder of the group Happy Mondays to Yeats. A rather funny scene is when Wilson comes in on his girlfriend in a club bathroom having an encounter with Howard Devoto, then of the Buzzcocks, after she caught Wilson in a van with a hooker. The scene then pans to someone cleaning the bathroom, who comments he doesn't remember anything like that happening. Its Howard Devoto himself! There are other cameos in the film, like Vini Reilly of Durutti Column as himself, and Mark E. Smith of the Fall trying to get into a club. The script has the guy playing Wilson often breaking the "fourth wall" and talking to the viewers about his or that point of the history of what happened. A most interesting film.

Oh dear. There are some flakes of snow floating out of the sky. Just what we don't need at the start of the day, another reminder winter will soon be here. If you're interested, here's the five day forecast for Saskatoon.

And here's another quick post, this time dealing with the bizarre. A former LA Raiders football player is being sought in an alleged drive by shooting of the home of Las Vegas magicians Siegfried and Roy. Very weird. I wonder what he had against them? Their supposed sexual orientation? Their now infamous white tigers? Its like something out of a tv comedy sketch.

Another unfortunate baseball death to report. Former National League MVP Ken Caminiti has died of a heart attack at 41. Unfortunately the fact that he admitted after he retired to using steroids during his playing career, and his problems with cocaine abuse leads one to suspect his drug use may have caught up with him even if he was currently clean. Hopefully we won't be hearing about any other major leaguers dying so young anytime soon.

And I have just found out that Christopher Reeve has also died of a heart attack. This is less of a surprise, as severe quadrapelegics like Reeve are beset by all sorts of health problems. Interestingly the former Superman star had appeared on the TV series Smallville, which chronicles the adventures of a teenaged Clark Kent before he becomes Superman, a couple of times.

A request for the Atlanta Braves and their fans. Drop that "Tomahawk Chop" bullshit. Its stupid, moronic, and makes you seem really lame.

FYI you might want to be careful if you check out Teletoon's Delta State webpage, as the episode descriptions contain spoilers.

An interesting little oddity about recent hits to this blog is that a lot of them seem to be a result of the Delta State comments I made recently. It seems a lot of folks want more info on this program. Not that I know much more that the rest of you. Most of what I've figured out came from the TV Tome and Internet Movie Database pages for the series.

A while ago I mentioned that a spider is living on the thermometer outside my kitchen window. Well, he's still there, despite the fact we've already had several evenings of below freezing weather this fall. Tough little guy isn't he?

Recently I've been reading Black Belt magazine in the library, Black Belt being America's longest running(as far as I know) martial arts magazine. A couple things in the articles have amused me. One is that a certain writer seems to think the Christianity of certain interviewees is important. Fair enough, but its kind of funny when you consider that the Asian martial arts often have a connection with spiritual/religious practices like Buddhism. I suppose this is something anyone with a strong faith must resolve for themselves. Studying something like Shorinji Kempo might not be your first choice if you're an Evangelical Christian. Another was a very American whining at the end of one article in the latest issue about the possibility of those horrible "gun grabbers" taking everyone's guns, so your martial arts will come even more in handy.

The ads are interesting as well. You can buy stuff ranging from very straight ahead books on things like karate katas(forms) to videos offering to teach you some supersecret "unbeatable" martial arts style, no doubt so you can beat the jokers who buy someone else's "unbeatable" martial arts style tapes. Not to mention all sorts of training equipment, including gizmos to help you learn to do all those cool Jean Claude Van Damme splits. You know, the one he does in every bloody movie he's in. I can only wonder what the old masters of certain arts would think of doohickies like that. I can just imagine some Okinawan karate master muttering under his breath in bemusement about very idea of wanting to do such moves, let alone buying some Rube Goldberg device to help you do them.

First, a link to comments at Battersbox.ca on John Cerutti's untimely death. Its nice to see comments from some of the people who actually knew him.

Today is the start of the baseball playoffs. Personally I'm throwing my support for now behind the Boston Redsoxs. I think it would be cool if they made it to the World Series this year, and ended the infamous "Curse of the Bambino." Of course if they do win the World Series we can expect a few people to declare this a sign that the end of the world is nigh. Hopefully they won't do anything too stupid.

Just found out a few minutes ago that former Toronto Blue Jays pitcher and Rogers Sportsnet colour commentator John Cerutti was found dead in his hotel room this morning. He apparently died of natural causes, one assumes a heart attack. The Jays have issued a press release on his death. A real shame, and a very sad ending to a poor season for the Jays. Condolences to his wife and 3 children.

Today is the last Montreal Expos game. Unfortunately its not on tv, at least in this neck of the woods. Too bad, as it would have been nice to see how things went, especially if they win.