Gas In Saskatoon, January 30, 2009.

No, I didn't walk away, I just didn't have anything I wanted to write until now.

Gas is currently 87.9 cents a litre in Saskatoon. A lot of people think it should be lower given the current price of oil and the price of gas elsewhere in Canada. Interestingly US oil companies Exxon Mobil and Chevron both announced record profits for 2008 on Friday despite the late year slump in oil prices.

Respite.

If you're in Saskatoon I hope you've taken advantage of the weather we've had over the past few days. After an extended stint of Artic cold the weather since Friday has seemed more like the end of March than the last part of January. It was two degress above freezing when I checked the thermometer last night about 10 PM, very unusual for this time of year. Unfortunately it seems the cold weather will come back by Friday, so get out there while you can.

Gas In Saskatoon, January 16, 2009.

Ironically as the price of oil dropped on Thursday the price of gas went up in Saskatoon. Gas is now 89.9 cents a litre, a jump of 6 cents from last week. I'm sure most won't be convinced by whatever excuse the gas companies might give for the increase.

The I Word.

Some people do not like the use of the term Indian to refer to the pre-colonial inhabitants of Canada and their modern descendants. An example of this got some press attention this week. Officials of a First Nations run theatre company were upset at the use of the term Indian in a Toronto Star review of one of their productions. Native Earth Performing Arts artistic director Yvonne Nolan stated the use of the term was an example of aboriginal Canadians lacking self-determination, since they can't name themselves. But I wonder if Nolan and other members of Native Earth have ever been to Saskatchewan. The term Indian continues in use in this province, specifically by Native organisations. The umbrella group representing 72 Saskatchewan First Nations continues to call itself the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations. Then there's SIGA, the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority. I haven't heard any widespread outrage at these organisations using the term Indian, and SIGA is a recent enough creation that the founders could have used some other term besides Indian.(Using aboriginal would have resulted in SAGA, which would have worked quite well.) Inaccurate as the term may be it seems unlikely it will stop being used here anytime soon.

Spiting Her Face?

I was thumbing through Bluff magazine today in a local bookstore. I was surprised to see a news item about professional player Clonie Gowen launching a 40 million dollar lawsuit against online poker room Full Tilt Poker and various members of Team Full Tilt, of which she was a member until November 11th. Gowen's claim includes a charge of breach of contract regarding an alleged verbal agreement promising her a 1 percent stake in Full Tilt's operations in exchange for her signing on as a Full Tilt endorser. When I saw the list of who she's sueing beside the actual companies involved my first response was "Wow, she's suing everybody!" An exaggeration of course, but if you're familiar with pro poker you know some or all of these names: Howard Lederer, Andy Bloch, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, John Juanda, Phil Gordon, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Jennifer Harman-Traniello, Mike Matusow, Allen Cunningham, Gus Hansen and Patrik Antonius. These are some of the top pros on the circuit.

Seeing all this I can't help but wonder if Gowen hasn't done damage to her future poker career. Only the naive would assume that the pros all like each other and are one big, happy family. It's obvious to anyone who has ever seen the pros interact on TV they aren't. Some are friends, some are pleasant to each other at the table but otherwise probably have little to do with each other otherwise, and some obviously dislike each other. But this is different. It's one thing not to get along with someone. It's quite another to sue them for a large amount of money. Even if she only sued Full Tilt and its parent Tiltware it would have seemed less like an open personal attack on the character and integrity of these players, several of whom Gowen is said to be friends with. Certainly other poker companies may be leery of signing up Gowen as an endorser, and it's hard to say what pressure some of those involved in the suit might put on say the organisers of poker events regarding her participation. In fairness I should note that apparently rumours having been floating about that several of the pros named in the suit are less than happy with Full Tilt themselves, so it may be that they accept that this is a tactical move on her part, but even if that is the case I wouldn't assume everyone will take it as such.

500 And Counting.

I've finally made it. I had my 500th bill hit today at Where's Willy. This follows reaching the 600 hits mark on January 1st. Hopefully I'll see the 600 bills hit and 700 hits marks this year as well.

Gas In Saskatoon, January 9, 2009.

Gas prices have risen since the beginning of the year. Gas in Saskatoon is current 83.9 cents a litre.

A Winter Safety Tip.

If you are visiting Saskatoon in the next while, don't sing "Let It Snow." You may find yourself chased down the street by angry citizens with snow shovels, which they have used for snow shovelling too much of late.

The 600.

I was hoping it would happen before the end of the year, but having it happen on the first day of the year is quite cool. I just received my 600th Where's Willy hit. It would have even been cooler if it had coincided with my 500th bill hit, but I got a couple of rehit bills that put that goal to sleep.

Welcome To 2009.

Well, we made it into another year. Hopefully this year will be much better for us all than 2008 was.