"My name ish Butler, Gerard Butler."

Tuning around the dial tonight I stumbled across The 300.  Watching about five minutes of it I couldn't help but think it of it as a comedy given how cheesy the whole thing seems.  Specifically you had Gerard Butler's character confronting the Persian King Xerxes, and it seemed like something from a bad comedy sketch, this feeling being strengthened for me by Butler sounding like he was trying to do a Sean Connery imitation.  I suspect this is another film that will not age well.

Poor UPS Guys.

I saw a group of UPS drivers today, and the poor guys even have to wear brown socks with the UPS logo on them.  I'd prefer my own choice of socks, thank you very much.

What Timing.

Walking through the Centre at Circle and 8th Zellers this afternoon I passed through the kitchenware section just as Bill Haley and the Comets performing "Shake, Rattle, and Roll" began to play over the PA.  The song's opening line "Get out from that kitchen and rattle those pots and pans" fit perfectly with my location.  Quite the unintentional timing on my part, and the kind of thing that would likely get me saying all sorts of silly things if I put much significance into coincidences.

Who Missed It, Me Or Them?

Over the years I've read and heard about a lot of conspiracy theories.  The flaws in them are obvious, but they often do show a certain level of creativity.  But one idea came to mind that I'm surprised I've never heard of.  In the late '70s and '80s large numbers of people in Southeast Asia, primarily Vietnamese, fled their homelands by boat, resulting in a refugee crisis and the creation of the term boat people.  Large numbers of these refugees settled in the United States.  Given the effect the Vietnam War had on American society I'm surprised I've never run across any conspiracy theories related to these refugees.  You'd think someone would have claimed that the refugees were participants in some sort of plot against the US.  South East Asian refugees did face problems of racism and cultural clashes with local populations, but I've never heard anyone go beyond this to create a conspiracy theory about them.  Or have I just missed them? 

Gas In Saskatoon, July 23, 2010.

It's been a good while since I've done one of these, especially since I missed the last price change.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 99.9 cents a litre at most locations.

A Mystery Of The Universe.

How is Will Ferrell a movie star?  Seriously, why does he get paid the big bucks?  And does he have a screaming fit scene in every movie?

Hi There, DHS.

Interesting.  Looking at my blog traffic for the last couple of days I just found I had a visit from someone working for the US Department of Homeland Security located in Arlington, Virginia.  I hope you weren't checking me out as a subversive, whoever you are, because that would be a waste of time and money.

Some People Should Not Play Poker For Money.

Seriously, some people should not spend a cent of their own money playing poker.  Not because they don't have skill, but because they are too volatile.  Sitting here playing an online freeroll tonight I just saw someone go completely on tilt when things didn't go their way, calling another player who offended them various names.  If they get so worked up about a tournament where nothing is involved but a bit of their time I'd hate to see how they'd react to doing poorly in a tournament they actually paid to enter.

A Bit More Precise.

The World Cup is over.  Despite all the hype it will be interesting to see how well the broadcasts actually did in North America.  Soccer still has a long ways to go here to getting the regular attention other sports get.  Personally I didn't watch because I find soccer has the same flaw as hockey, too much chasing back and forth for not much result.

On the other hand if you watched other sports on TV during the series you probably saw the same Coke ad I saw multiple times.  It revolved around the story of Roger Milla kickstarting the tradition of celebratory dances after scoring a goal.  Oddly the ad refered to him as "an African named Roger Milla."  Why not give his country?  After all I can't imagine having a Formula One themed ad using phrasing like "an European named Michael Schumacher."  A quick check shows that Milla is from Cameroon.  It would be interesting to know why Coca Cola felt a need not to mention his nationality.  Did they figure North American viewers wouldn't have a clue where Cameroon was?

Annie Understands.

With today's forecast calling for yet more rain we don't need  I figured I'd post another approrpriate YouTube vid, in this case an '80s classic. 

Approrpiate.

If you're in Saskatoon today you might find yourself thinking of this song.  We could do with someone to.

Full Circle.

The earliest successful form of electronic communication was the telegraph.  It was a text only device, with Morse code eventually becoming the common method of encoding messages.  Hearing the clicking of someone's cell phone keyboard today as he wrote a text message reminded me of the sound of a telegraph receiver clicking away.  Although the method is different, in a way the rise of text messaging is a surprising throwback to that pioneering era.  When most people imagined the future of personal communications devices they likely thought that the video phone would become popular, not typing short messages.  Video phones do see quite a bit of use, but at nowhere near the level many would have thought.  Although the transmission method is different text messages often resemble Morse code telegraph messages, where brevety and the use of abbreviations of various sorts were common.  Then there's Twitter, which has gone from nowhere to ubiquitous in less than 4 years.  I'm sure that Samuel Morse and the other pioneers of telegraphy would find this quite interesting.

Missing A Selection.

A new TV channel has hit the cable scene in Canada.  It's Global Reality Television, a channel devoted to showing reality TV programming.  But looking at the programming offered I see one home grown example is missing.  It's the Total Drama Island franchise.  Teletoon probably holds the exclusive Canadian rights at the moment, but it would interesting to know if the channel would carry a cartoon spoof of reality shows.  Whether this channel will last long enough for them to consider adding TDI is another question.