Ignore This.

Nothing to see here other than the word saskblogger.  I'm just putting this up to see if generates any hits.

The Box Disappoints.

Lately I've been trying to get a look at Teletoon's September schedule so I can see which shows are going and which are returning. It still hadn't been posted yesterday, so I went to the program guide on my digital cable box and advanced it ahead to next week. Some surprising programs came up, such as the sci fi series Delta State that aired on Teletoon before. Alas, today Teletoon's September schedule finally appeared on their website, and this and several other supposedly scheduled programs weren't to be found. This makes me wonder where the schedule presented by the program guide came from given its inaccuracy. I have no idea how far in advance these things are prepared, but presumably Teletoon had a pretty good idea of their Fall lineup a good while ago. At the very least you'd think it would simply state "To be announced" for various time slots. It also makes me wonder how inaccurate data for other channels might be.

Blackout.

It's not a good day to be a Blue Jays fan in Saskatoon.  Tonight's game is on Sportsnet One, which as was previously mentioned here is not available yet in Saskatchewan.  But you can't hear it on radio, since this is one of the games CJYM Rosetown isn't carrying.  Rogers is blaming Shaw and other cable companies for not carrying the channel, while they claim Rogers wants everyone to pay 3 bucks for the new channel whether you want it or not.  Whoever is really at fault this is a PR mess for Rogers, and if the puny crowds that have been appearing for a lot of the games at Rogers Centre are any indication I would guess the TV audience was already down before the hit they're no doubt going to take over this.

You're Wrong, Pintsize.

This panel is NSFW because of the little guy's language.  But in any case Marten is right, "Rosanna" is a superior song to "Hold the Line."  Just listen to the two tunes and you'll see I'm right.  And speaking of Toto has anyone seen Toto singer Bobby Kimball and Burton Cummings in the same place at the same time?

Baby Steps.

The Chinese government has announced its plans to reduce the number of crimes it applies the death penalty to.  This is a good thing, as Chinese law applies death sentences to crimes that would never be considered for it in countries like the US, such as economic crimes.  China reportedly executes more people per year than the rest of the world combined, so any reduction is good.  But of course from my perspective the Chinese didn't go far enough, and should abolish the practice completely.  Capital punishment cannot be overturned once applied, making it an unacceptable punishment given that people will be wrongly convicted.

My Answer.

A mailing my mother received this week from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association asked on the envelope "What went wrong during the G20 Summit?"  To me the answer is obvious:  The G20 showed up.

Your Letter For Today.

Not much to say about this one other than that I always liked this bit from Sesame Street.  Funny that they'd include vigilantes though.

Sportsnet None.

I hope you weren't counting on seeing tonight's Blue Jays versus the Angels game on TV if you live in Saskatoon, because you won't.  Today was the launch of Rogers Sportsnet One, which is supposed to be their "national" channel versus the existing Rogers Sportsnet, which is offered by region.  But said national channel isn't available via Shaw Cable in the Saskatoon market, or apparently on any other cable or satellite providers elsewhere in Canada other than Rogers.  Negotiations are supposedly going on for other providers to carry it, but if that doesn't happen we won't have a chance to see as many as 25 upcoming Blue Jays games.  This is even more annoying than the trouble we had here in previous years, where Sportsnet West, which is the "default" Sportsnet channel on Shaw, didn't always have Blue Jays games on.  If you were willing to shell out the money you could subscribe to feeds of the other Sportsnet feeds and not miss the games.  This time we don't even have that option, and we have no idea when or even if Sportsnet One will be carried here.  What a pain.

You apparently will be able to hear the game on radio via CJYM Rosetown on 1330 kilohertz.  Hope you're like me and have an AM radio to use.

A Bit Retro Perhaps.

Tonight YTV is playing Spice World, the 1997 movie made at the height of the Spice Girls' career.  Much of YTV's target audience wasn't even born when this film was made.  It's as much a "historical piece" to them as a Beatles film would be, so it's kind of an odd choice.  It's also another example of how time flies for us geezerly types ie those of us who were adults during Spice Mania.

It Escaped My Notice.

Huh, today is a Friday the 13th.  But I totally missed this.  It took reading a comment over at Pharyngula to remind me.  Just goes to show that the importance we put into such tihngs is strictly our own doing.  I don't put any stock into the supposed unluckyness of the day, so I don't spend time consideirng when it will occur.

Interesting Neighbour.

I took a trip up to the Blairmore Suburban Centre today to check on the progress of the construction going on there.  One of the stores was having its sign put on, and this revealed that it will be a location of a chain new to Saskatoon, Bulk Barn. Bulk Barn is a bulk food store.  I find it interesting that it will be on the same property as the west side Walmart Supercenter, which includes a full service grocery.  They're apparently confident in their ability to compete with the famed retaling giant, and it will be interesting to see what impact they have on each other.  I don't imagine Walmart's operating style is flexible enough to say heavily increase their bulk food offerings to counter Bulk Barn.

Two Sins.

I've commented in the past at my annoyance at how messy many people are, casually throwing trash on the ground, often from vehicles.  But things like this are even more annoyng.  Walking down McKercher Drive this afternoon I came across this bottle of Pepsi lying on the ground.  As you can see it's half full.  Why would someone toss away a half full bottle of pop?  If you can't drink the whole thing take it home.  At the very least throw it in a trash can.  Better yet consider buying a smaller serving next time, even if you have 2 bucks or more to throw away, which is what one of these usually costs around Saskatoon these days.  As you can imagine I dumped out what remained in the bottle before taking it home for my container recycling pile.

Result Two.

I didn't do as well in the Full Tilt tournament I was playing.  There I cam in 305th out of 17 thousand some, but still quite a ways from the money, which started at 90th position in that tournament.  Hopefully one of these days I'll win some money from Full Tilt.

Today's Blogging Tip.

Looking to increase your traffic?  Just post something about Gerard Butler.  Last night's post about The 300 has led to rather a traffic uptick here.  And as usual this was entirely unintentional on my part, versus attempts I've made in the past to increase traffic by deliberately mentioning Tom Cruise and Harry Potter.

Incidentally there's talk that Butler will appear in a sequel to The 300, despite his character ending up dead.  If you ask me doing sequels to films about historic events that end in death isn't a smart idea.

Results One.

I finisehed the PokerStars tournament I was playing in 276th place out of 7280 and won 82 cents.  I was hoping to go a bit further, but I'm happy with how far I went.

A Specific Challenge.

Playing two poker tournaments at once is a challenge.  Playing two poker tournaments on different poker sites at once is even harder.  Right now I'm playing tournaments on both Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars.  At least I've made the money in the PokerStars one, which is Pot Limit Omaha.  The Full Tilt tournament is No Limit Hold 'em.