Mr. Gueguen Answers Your Undergrads Questions.

Kinda. Sorta. Maybe.

Recently I've got a couple of hits from someone trying to find out whether Pete Williams is married to Jene Yeo. Well, dear searcher, as far as I can tell the answer to that question is no. Pete Williams is married to someone who worked on Undergrads. He hasn't said who. The unnamed Mrs. Williams is apparently Canadian, if I remember a comment I read someplace correctly. I've seen no indication Ms. Yeo is, so I think we can all do the math.

If you have any questions about the series feel free to ask me. But really, you should be asking Pete Williams instead. After all he reads and sometimes posts to the IMDB Undergrads board. He has a blog on Teletoon's Detour site, where he has already answered some of the questions you're likely to have. And he has a MySpace site as well, which is linked to that flashy banner I have at the top of the page. Yes folks, he's still interested in his baby.

While I'm at it I'll nag Canadian fans. If you haven't done so already go out and buy the DVD. Its now commonly available in Canada. Most places have it on sale for less than 20 bucks. That's for the whole series, people. If there's any chance of a revival of the project lots of fans buying the DVD will certainly increase that chance.

And hello to any of the Undergrads crew who might pass through. Thanks for entertaining me.

Splat!

If I ever needed confirmation of my practice of not walking under crows sitting on telephone and light poles I got it today. I was standing at an intersection, and a crow "dropped his cargo" about two feet from where I was standing. So I think I'll continue not walking under them.

Birds can also do cute things of course. An example of this is a duck that hatched its eggs in the courtyard of Walter Murray Collegiate here in Saskatoon. Too bad the accompaning picture doesn't look as cool as it did in the paper this morning.

Down the Hatch!

A pork chop for supper, a bag of white cheddar popcorn with a Coke for a snack during the Blue Jays game, and a couple of chocolate chip cookies was not the smartest combination for me to be eating tonight. Feeling a bit of heartburn coming on I just popped down a Pepcid Complete that came as a sample some time ago, and was probably going to sit there forever if I didn't use it. I'd rather not wake up in an hour or so with the horrible feeling of acid reflux in my throat. I suspect it would help if I lost ten or twenty pounds, but I can hardly do that in 15 minutes. Fortunately incidents like this only happen every few months for me, unlike folks who actually suffer from regular boughts of such problems.

Another Where's Willy Milestone.

Today I received my 300th Willy hit. I'm glad it was on a bill that travelled some distance, instead of one that travelled only a couple of kilometers. I'm also glad that 300th hit came before my 3rd anniversary of bill tracking, which is the 11th of June. You can see my user profile here.

Do Saskatoon Bloggers Take The Bus?

Thinking some more about the upcoming bus route changes today I decided to use Google's blog search engine to see what other Saskatoon area bloggers had to say about them. The answer is virtually nothing so far. I did find some posts discussing Saskatoon Transit, but nothing really about the upcoming changes. On the other hand a Buenos Aires based blogger has a post on our new buses. Very interesting. Technorati didn't produce much more. I suppose once the changes actually occur things we'll see more action.

The main page for Saskatoon Transit is here. A pdf file of the new routes is located here.

May Showers

April showers bring May flowers, so the saying goes. But what do May showers bring? In much of Saskatchewan I assume its irate farmers. The amount of rain we've received in the last few days can't be helpful in getting their crops seeded. Hopefully the forecast holds up and we get several sunny days starting Tuesday.

Graph Your Webpage

Here's a neat little page via Pharyngula. Its an applet that scans the HTML of your page and turns it into a multicolour graph. Here's mine. Its amazing how complicated it is. Of course that's because I have quite a few links on the page itself, as well as a varying number of links depending on what I've posted lately, along with the banners and so on.

Random Mix II

This morning I had a package of Munchies BBQ Peanuts. I don't know what was on them, whether it was chili powder, cayenne pepper, or what have you, but whatever it was it sure made my tongue hot. I actually left some in the bag because of the heat. They reminded me of a package of buffalo wing flavour Old Dutch potato chips I had a few years back. They made my tongue so hot I had to eat them in more than one sitting.

If I'd looked at the fat content on the peanut package I probably would have skipped them. Lots of fat in those little dears. I ate way too much today. Fortunately I'm going to eat a lot less, including less fat, tomorrow.

I got a look at one of the Saskatoon Transit Service's new diesel-electric hybrid buses today. There was a Saskatoon centennial event in front of City Hall today that included the bus. Inside it didn't look all that different from the current low floor buses, although the seats are cloth covered. 4 of these hybrid buses have been acquired, along with 13 new diesel buses. They'll be used as part of STS's new DART rapid transit service, to be introduced July 2nd. The 27 buses used on the DART routes will also have bike racks.

The hybrid buses aren't a huge surprise. STS has been experimenting with using biodiesel in several buses over the past few years.

July 2nd will see all bus routes change. From what I've seen so far I'm not entirely convinced. Where I live for example it will be easier to get downtown, but seems to be harder to get to the Centre at Circle and 8th, the nearest large mall and home to one of the city's primary bus transfer points. If I read the schedules correctly at times I may have to ride all the way downtown and transfer to another bus to get to a location the current bus route in my area goes directly to. Good luck to the bus drivers, as their stress levels are likely to be quite high the first month or two as they deal with confused and irate bus patrons asking how they get to various places, and complaining that they can't go to X the way they used to.

During the noon hour it was misting. It was interesting to walk through that instead of more substantial rain. I would imagine today's damp and cool conditions were a disappointment to organisers of today's centennial outdoor presentation.

From the Law and Order Files II

You're likely to be hearing a lot about this story in the next few days, if not weeks. A Nebraska judge has sentenced a child abuser to 10 years probation because she says he is too small to survive in prison. Richard W. Thompson is five foot one. Judge Kristine Cecava stated that although his crimes deserved a long sentence he would face too much risk being put into prison. Thompson will be electronically monitored for the first four months of his sentence, must not be with anyone under 18 alone, or get involved with a woman whose children are under 18, and must dispose of all his pornography.

The idea that simply because someone is short they are more at risk for being harmed in jail seems ridiculous. A five foot tall body builder is obviously more dangerous than a 7 foot tall person who sits around doing nothing all day but eating junk food. One can only wonder how short someone has to be for Judge Cecava to consider them at risk in prison. The world is full of tough little guys who are probably laughing their heads off at this nonsense, while hoping they someday end up being tried in Cheyenne County by Judge Cecava. Of course given the controversy this story will generate there's a good chance her judgeship is in jeopardy.

Bad Day?

Without getting into details I screwed up twice today, badly, before it was even 9 o'clock. Not a promising start to my day.

A Nigerian Scammer Speaks.

Via this post at Stupid Evil Bastard here's a CNN/Fortune article on Nigerian scammers. Akin is just one of dozens working for a Nigerian scam boss. What's scary is that he's 14 years old. His scam work, even with the 80% cut his boss and corrupt local cops get, is sufficient to provide for his family. His mother for example makes 30 bucks a month. Its conditions like this that ensure that Nigerian scams aren't going away anytime soon.

Feels Like Summer.

Boy, does it ever tonight. The temperature reached the low 30's Celcius today(that's the low 90's for you Farenheit folks), and the house hasn't cooled hugely. Its all hot and muggy in here. The digital thermometer on the thermostat reads 27.5 right now. I also saw my first lightning of the season tonight as some thundershowers passed the city. In fact I think I caught a lightning flash out of the corner of my eye as I write this.

Bah!

I actually decide to watch The Weekenders on the Family Channel, and instead they're playing a Recess marathon. Oh well, at least the Jays are back on TV after the Colorado-Toronto series wasn't broadcast. That might be just as well since the Jays lost 3 straight.

Bad TSN!

Playing NASCAR is unacceptable when it interferes with playing boxing.

Gor Gor Girls.

If you browsed the science fiction and fantasy section of your local bookstore in the '70s and '80s the name Gor might be vaguely familiar. The planet Gor was the setting for a series of fantasy novels written by John Norman starting in 1966. Gor was located in the exact opposite orbital position to the Sun as the Earth, so it was sometimes refered to as Counter Earth. On Gor men are men and women are slaves, or secretly want to be slaves. The books claimed that slavery is the true "natural state" of women, and that they instinctively realise this. Most of the books were told from the point of view of Tarl Cabot, a man from Earth transported to Gor, although several were told from the point of view of female slaves, also taken from Earth. The series has sometimes been compared to Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars books, but with a high level of bondage content.

The series was published by DAW in North America, who are a mainstream sci fi publisher. The last DAW Gor book, Magicians of Gor, was published in 1988. It has been suggested by the Gor crowd that DAW dropped the series because of growing political correctness, given both the content of the books and Norman's stance that the philosophy of the books applied in the real world. A much more likely suggestion is that people had gotten tired of a book series that was increasingly overrought and repetitive, and that this was reflected in dropping sales, so DAW decided to drop a weak product. In any case the books went out of print, although old copies can be found in many used book stores.

Many people have taken the books as an inspiration for their own lifestyles. A group of such people have found themselves attracting the attention of the police in the UK. Durham police raided a home after a friend of a Canadian woman contacted them, fearing she was being held against her will. This proved not to be the case, but Norman's creation is getting some unexpected, and I suspect unwanted, publicity.

I can understand the appeal of using such a scenario for the occasional bit of fun in the bedroom. But living in such a fashion full time is another thing. Its not just the Goreans who live like that, there are others who follow other sorts of BSDM relationships. But the Goreans seem just a little bit odder given that they think their lifestyle would be applicable to the majority of society given the chance.

Julia Gracen wrote an interesting piece on Goreans for Salon in 2000, which you can read here.

As for the title of this post you're probably a fan of '60s cult films if you know where it came from.

Yes, A Post About That Film.

Honestly, I'm not posting about The Da Vinci Code movie, coming to a theatre near you, to boost my hit count. Honest. But a few comments did come to mind.

I haven't read Dan Brown's book, and I won't be going to see the movie. I'm sure I did read Holy Blood, Holy Grail at some point. You may remember that its authors tried to sue Brown for plaigarism. I still wonder how you can sue a work of fiction for plaigarising a work of supposed non-fiction, barring it copying block paragraphs without attribution.

Ian McKellen, who appears as Sir Leigh Teabing in the movie, has said the Catholic Church should support the movie. After all it shows that Jesus wasn't gay, like some folks claim. McKellen is himself gay.

Roger Ebert gave the film a positive review. To me this phrase stuck out: "I know there are people who believe Brown's fantasies about the Holy Grail, the descendants of Jesus, the Knights Templar, Opus Dei, and the true story of Mary Magdalene. This has the advantage of distracting them from the theory that the Pentagon was not hit by an airplane." Ouch, Rog. That's a nasty one! Of course it probably is true with some folks.

Ebert seems to be in the minority however. Rotten Tomatoes currently has the film rated at a dismal 18 percent.

"Best Record In the Majors."

When was the last time this phrase was applied to the Detroit Tigers? They are currently 27-13, and have won 7 straight. This time last year they were a game under .500 at 19-20, and ended their season 71-91, 20 games under .500. They haven't had a winning season since 1993. Over the last two seasons we've seen both the Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox win the World Series after decades of bad luck. Could this season be Detroit's turn to take off? Of course its still early, and the White Sox are nipping at their heels only a game behind. Incidentally 1993 happened to be the year the Jays won their second World Series. Make of that what you will.

Will The Women In Combat Debate Be Revived?

Captain Nichola Goddard of the Canadian Armed Forces was not the first Canadian woman killed in the field. Female Canadian military personnel were killed in both World War One and World War Two. But she was the first Canadian woman killed in a combat role, which were opened up to women in 1990. I can't help but suspect her death will revive the debate on women in combat. I haven't heard anyone discussing the issue yet, but I can't imagine this continuing for very long. Some opponents of women in combat may see the current Conservative government as more sympathetic to their views, and think now is the time to try and bring the issue back into the spotlight. However it is probably too late to change things back to the way they were. Personally I have no problem with women in combat roles. If they can do the job, let them. A woman getting killed in battle is no more a tragedy than a man getting killed. Rather the tragedy is that people must go off to fight at all.

Guns and Cars.

With gun control once again in the news in Canada the thought came to mind of whether things would be different if a slight change was made to the concept. Treat guns like we do cars. After all you can own as many cars as you want without any sort of government involvement. It's only if you actually want to use them they get interested. So if you want a car sitting on your lawn to look at and maybe start the motor up on you're perfectly welcome to. But if you actually want to use it you need it both to be licenced and to have a valid operator's licence. Imagine guns were the same way. Want to have 2 dozen rifles in your basement? Go ahead. But if you want to actually shoot them you'll need them registered and you'll need a gun operator's permit. Hmmm, somehow I doubt it would prove any more popular than the current concept.

Many of the more hard core opponents of Canadian gun control are influenced by the situation south of the border and the 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution. In a way it surprises me that the idea of a "well regulated militia" included in that amendment was never interpreted in a way to justify certain forms of firearms controls. It could be argued that part of the operation of such a militia is the government knowing the location of firearms and who owns them, on the basis that adult males are members of the militia unless they indicate otherwise. So registration of private arms could possibly be justified even if bans on certain types of firearms and restrictions on things like concealed carry couldn't. At least to the best of my knowledge it has never been interpreted in such a fashion.

"Down by the river...."

No, I didn't shoot anyone. I did do a bit of bird watching however. There were a pair of ducks floating around on the river, presumably a mated pair. There were also about a dozen Canada Geese in the water or on the shore line. The geese seem to be fairly tame towards humans, as I got within a couple of feet of one without any negative reaction on its part. (Interestingly he was missing part of the webbing on one foot.) The same can't be said about their fellow geese. Several times I saw them behave aggressively towards each other, presumably expressing territorial behaviour.

Besides birds there was a canoe and a couple of City of Saskatoon operated boats. One pass by the boats going at some speed created a mini tsunami on the river, with the waves lapping rather strongly on the back. Soon after their swift pass the boats came back down the river very slowly, one towing a line of floating objects. I don't know what they intended to do with them.

Where I was, the boat dock near the Bessborough Hotel, there was some scum, for lack of a better term, floating on the water. I don't want to think what it might have been, but a reasonable guess comes to mind.

Tag, You're Not It.

A quick note for the young fellows who might be encouraged to buy Tag Body Shots because of those ads. Kids, despite what the dumber of you may think spraying that crap on you will not make girls jump all over you. That's just a silly ad campaign. In fact its entirely possible that stuff will actually repell women. I've never knowingly smelt the stuff, but I've seen claims that Tag and its competitor Axe are pretty dire smelling. I get the impression they're the 21st Century version of Hai Karate and other gimmicky male colognes of the past.

These days you're likely to find more and more places where you're not welcome smelling of cologne and perfume no matter how nice the scent might be. Many places are pushing for a "scent free" environment due to the allergy and chemical sensitivity problems many seem to suffer from. The University of Saskatchewan main library is an example locally.

Me and Chinese Google.

Having read an article in the New York Times Magazine on the internet in China I got curious about what happens if you search for me via Google's Chinese searchpage. You can find me, including using a possibly "naughty" keyword like vote. The results don't come through identically, but I won't hazard a guess as to why. I have had a couple of Chinese hits on here, but I'm not really expecting many. This is an English language blog, it covers a random range of subjects, and I've written little about China on it, so I wouldn't expect large numbers of Chinese to come looking for it. Of course the really interesting test would be to try the same search from an Internet terminal in the PRC, but that's not likely to happen anytime soon. It should be noted that its not just the Chinese that can interfere with search engine activity. Apparently the German government restricts access to pro Holocaust denial sites, which in the opinion of many, including me, just allows the people behind those sites to use such censorship to support their claims.

Bad Scheduling Amplified.

I already mentioned my annoyance with today's Blue Jays-Devil Rays matchup not being televised or broadcast on radio. Now I find it even more annoying after reading that the Jays won 8-1 behind an 89 pitch complete game by Roy Halladay. The Doc must have been damn hot today, and I didn't get to see it. The scedulers at Rogers Sportsnet, or whoever it is who left this game off the broadcast schedule, couldn't have known this would happen, but still it rankles.

As I was sitting down to write this I was thinking about Tampa Bay's current bad luck, being at the bottom of the American League East seven and a half games back from the lead. It made me wonder if a professional sports team could actually go through a season without winning a game. There have been some football teams that I know the season records for that have come close, but its a lot harder to imagine this happening in a sport like hockey or baseball where they play more than 100 games a year.

The Tampa Bay team may not be the Devil Rays next season. There have been recent reports that the current ownership may change the name, perhaps dropping the Devil part. It has been claimed in the past that some folks of a conservative religious bent have been unwilling to see the team because it has Devil in its name, and they have no desire to have anything to do with an "evil" name like that. However the current reasoning seems to be as much about giving the team a clean start given its lackluster history as anything else. One supposed suggestion has been the Tampa Bay Tarpons, but as a number of folks elsewhere have commented tarpon is probably too close to tampon for it to be chosen.

Preston Crossing Wal Mart On A Saturday Afternoon.

A bad idea. Trust me on that.

Don't Take Me Out To The Ball Game.

I sure would love to know what's behind the Rogers Sportsnet schedule for the Toronto Blue Jays this year. They have exclusive TV rights(not surprising since they own the team), and there are some games they aren't airing. This evening's matchup with Tampa Bay is an example. Instead we get a NASCAR race, and this applies across the network. Is NASCAR really a better ratings generator in Canada than the Blue Jays? I have no idea. Unfortunately the Saskatchewan radio broadcaster for the Jays, CJYM/CFYM, isn't broadcasting the game either. Bummer. On the other hand TSN is boxing crazy today. They'll be playing a several hour continuous block of boxing programming tonight, including the De La Hoya-Mayorga matchup from HBO. I guess I'll have to watch people beat on each other instead.

Go Read...

...Respectful Insolence immediately. After all Orac deserves the traffic from here after giving me some free promotion today. Then go read the other blogs linked here. That's an order!

Preset.

I'm currently listening to the album Miniature by Hank Roberts, Tim Berne, and Joey Baron. I got a chuckle listening to the cut "Abeetah" when a very familiar sound came out of the cans. Baron used a Casio CZ101 synth on the album, and it seems that one of its presets was the basis for the "Brass" preset on the Casio SK1 keyboard. The pitch bending and so forth make me assume its from a '101 and not from an SK1. I own a Realistic Concertmate 500, which was the rebadged SK1 sold by Radio Shack. SK1s are very popular with the circuitbending crowd, circuitbending being the altering of cheap keyboards and other electronics to make them produce sounds they weren't intended to. As I've said elsewhere I can't help but wonder if I might not end up with the only unbent one left at some point, as I intend to keep mine untouched.

Severed Heads on YouTube.

This time it isn't a case of someone posting vids on the site without permission, although that has been done as well. Instead we have Tom Ellard himself posting things. Too bad more folks aren't doing that.

Too Bad The Inside Didn't Match The Outside.

Today I received more spam from those wastes of oxygen calling themselves The New Order. The subject line was "We Fought on the Wrong Side!" Of course this wasn't an indication that they finally shed their ignorance and realised the vileness of Nazism. Of course the article enclosed was the usual nonsense about the wonders of Hitler and the horrors of the EVIIIIIIIL JOOOOOS, who started WW2 to defeat "the great man." Of course as with many issues these fools demonstrate their ignorance of history with such talk. After all it was Hitler who attacked Poland in 1939 despite warnings from the French and British not to, that doing so would cause them to declare war on Germany. It was Hitler who attacked Norway, France and the Low Countries in 1940, turning what had been a low level conflict that might very well have petered out, to Germany's benefit, into an all out conflict. It was Hitler who attacked the Soviet Union in 1941, ignoring the historical example of Napoleon's failed invasion of Imperial Russia more than a century before. And it was Hitler who declared war on the United States after Pearl Harbor. Only in the fantasies of the utterly ignorant or the crazed was Hitler some innocent bystander beset by evil forces. Rather it was the greed of Hitler and his cronies that brought Germany into conflict with other states, and the arrogance and racism of the Nazis that convinced them they could fight wars against several major powers at once.

Hello Fruitvale, BC.

You're the site for my latest Where's Willy hit. That's one of the fun things about the bill tracking hobby, finding out about places you've never heard of before.

Future Darwin Award Winner?

This morning I saw someone skateboarding on Saskatoon's Broadway Bridge. No, not on the sidewalk, but on the traffic surface. Biking on a busy roadway like that is bad enough, but skateboarding? If he got into trouble that fool had no place to go, since there's a 3 foot tall concrete barrier between the traffic and the pedestrian walkway.

An Important Reminder.

If you don't have antivirus software installed on your computer, do so immediately. If you do and don't have it configured to automatically update do so. I ran across a virus on a website I wasn't expecting tonight, and fortunately my antivirus software caught it before any harm resulted.

Gimpy Would Approve.

If you're an ultra Star Wars geek like our dear Mr. Taylor here you may be wearing a similar expression after you read this. The original versions of the Star Wars trilogy are coming to DVD. Why Lucas didn't do this when the "new and improved" versions came out is beyond me. Some of course will suggest simple greed, since many people will be buying yet another set of DVDs to get the old versions.

From the Law and Order Files.

I was glad to hear yesterday's verdict in the Zacarias Moussaoui case that he will serve life in prison instead of being executed. This is the right verdict, as the last thing we need is another Islamist "martyr." I suspect a lot of his behaviour in the last stages of the trial was intended to get himself executed. He will be serving his life sentence in the "supermax" ADX complex in Florence, Colorado. I suspect this has as much to do with his potential life expectancy in a "normal" prison as anything else.

Mexican president Vicente Fox has apparently done a 180 on legislation intended to legalise the possession of small amounts of various drugs. The Mexican government is denying its the result of American pressure, but that's going to be hard for many to believe given the near apocolyptic rhetoric coming out of certain quarters in the US. Ironically the bill would have toughened efforts against drug pushers, who are a major problem in Mexico. I personally lean towards considering the legalisation of some drugs such as marijuana and heroin, but am more leery about considering doing so with things like cocaine and PCP. The Mexican law would have allowed possession of small amounts of pretty much every major illegal drug.

A court case in Saskatoon saw some peculiar behaviour yesterday. Karen Ponto was dragged from provincial court after being charged with contempt. Ponto, in court on a charge of child abduction after she took her 11 and 13 year old children from Saskatoon in violation of a custody order, refused to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the court. Ponto claims to be a minister of Church of the Ecumenical Redemption International, a fringe Christian group that does not recognise the legitimacy of the current Canadian government and wants to use the King James Version of the Bible as the rule of law. Ponto claimed the proceedings violated her freedom of religion. I guess Ponto and her fellows have never heard of rendering unto Caesar. This group reminds me of similar groups that have operated in the United States in the past, who tried to use a religious justification to avoid paying taxes and obeying any law they didn't like. This "detaxing document" I came across via Google would seem to indicate that is the case here as well. Unfortunately clear information on this so-called church is rather lacking online at the moment.

Two and Counting.

Its past midnite here in Toontown, which means I've officially reached the second anniversary of this blog. What started on a whim has turned into an ongoing operation. I had no real ambitions when I started this thing, and I still don't, other than seeing who and where what is written here will reach. Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to visit, especially those who have been foolish enough to come back.

Moneymaker

As part of my ongoing effort to learn a bit more about poker this week I read Moneymaker by Chris Moneymaker and Daniel Paisner. Its a first hand account of how Moneymaker went from being an unknown amateur no one would have considered even a minor threat to winning the 2003 World Series of Poker. Its a pleasant and quick read. What's interesting is that Moneymaker had been gambling in one form or another since he was a little kid, and that his college and after college gambling had left him in debt. Whether one could call Moneymaker an addict is debateable, but his gambling debts were such that only the promise of money from a friend lead him to win a free seat to the World Series via an online poker tournament instead of in effect throwing the tournament so he would win the second prize of $8000. A free seat at the pinnacle of US poker events was far less valuable than actual money that could go a long way to paying off debts a young accountant with a wife and baby couldn't afford. Equally ironic was that winning the 2.5 millon dollar grand prize ended Moneymaker's financial problems, yet introduced a whole new set of tensions that proved equally as hard on his personal life as being in debt had been. Definitely an interesting case to consider when you see the jubilation of the winner of such an event.

Borbetomagus Interview.

I've mentioned the online "new music" magazine Paris Transatlantic before. The May edition has another piece of interest for noisy music fans, an interview with the infamous(?) New York extreme music trio Borbetomagus. Its hard to imagine these guys have been at it off and on for 27 years.

Appropriately enough I'm sitting here listening to the new Joseph Holbrooke Trio, The Moat Recordings double album. I'll probably be writing a review on here of this one sometime in the next week or two.

Broken.

There sure seem to be a lot of my favourite webpages having problems these days. One had a complete harddrive crash, and their tech support company actually managed to lose the harddisk, so they'll have to start over completely. Another one works intermittently because their current server can't handle the level of traffic. Livejournal is currently offline. And another one had problems on the weekend and didn't seem to realise it. Maybe I'm a jinx. Nah, I don't think so.

Of course given some of the companies involved in the background of such things maybe its not a surprise. I've been working on a printer installation job as an assistant, doing things like unpacking equipment and so on. So far we've had the wrong equipment sent to us twice. Our actual work instructions are too often vague. I spent a lot of today standing around when we could have been getting something done because other players in the project were being rather lackadaisical. And we're doing it during the daytime, so the IT people involved are also busy doing their normal work. I'd hate to think of how much worse things might have been if the job was more complicated than it is.

Foiled Again!

I made several attempts at posting here tonight. But they didn't come off. One would have involved critiquing someone for something a bit more research showed wasn't exactly their idea. Another was a commentary about a rally that took place last week, but I decided it wasn't current enough. Why waste time on old news? So here's Lush's video for "Hypocrite" via YouTube. Miki Berenyi's sexy pigtailed dyejob and legs are probably far more interesting than anything I'd blather about anyways.