I Need A New Chair.

My computer chair squeeks like crazy.  It sounds like I'm on a schooner out at sea every time I move more than a little.

Gas In Saskatoon, November 25, 2011.

We had a double dip this week.  Gas dropped 3 cents a litre at the start of this week, followed by another 1 cent drop.  The resutl is that gas in Saskatoon is now 112.9 cents a litre at most locations.  With winter driving season starting mid December it will be interesting to see if prices go up then.

They Persist.

Some movies have a long production cycle, but this one seems a bit ridiculous.  Warner Brothers has indicated their continued interest in a The Man From U.N.C.L.E. film, despite director Stephen Sondheim jumping ship last week.  The article claims that Warners has been interested in a movie based on the '60s spy series for tweny years.  You have to wonder why.  Even the studio supposedly realises there lkely isn't a  large and devoted fanbase for the series, yet they've been trying for two decades to get the film off the ground.

For younger visitors not familiar with it The Man From U.N.C.L.E was a product of the early '60s spy boom that resulted from the success of James Bond.  It starred Robert Vaughan as Napoleon Solo and David McCallum as Ilya Kuryakin, agents for the fictional United Network Command for Law and Enforcement.  Together they fought against the schemes of THRUSH, an organisation bent on world conquest.  It was noteable that U.N.C.L.E. was an international organisation, and that the threat from THRUSH so great that an American agent could be successfully partnered with a Soviet agent, years before the real world detente period.

And it's the unfamiliarity of younger viewers with the series that strikes me as the problem.  It's these folks that fill the movie theatres for big budget action-adventure movies, not the people most likely to have actual nostalgia for the series.  Even more recent properties that have been turned into feature films, like The A Team, haven't been huge hits, and one assumes they have a larger fan base to draw on.  And given that much of the premise of the series is tied to the era it was made in it's not hard to suspect that a version set in the modern era will be little more than an original concept with a few signifiers tacked on to connect it with the original.  Doing it as a period piece?  Not likely, as that might not appeal to the young crowd you need to make it a hit.

Cable Craziness

I've written before about the guilibility of some audiophiles.  They'll spend ridiculous amounts of money on stuff that supposedly improves their audio systems.  Today I came across another example. 

Chances are you're the owner of at least a couple of USB cables.  After all if you're reading this you probably own a computer, and chances are you own at least one device that needs a USB cable to connect it to your computer, like a camera or MP3 player.  Bujt if you believe the folks at the Locus Design Group your current USB cable likely isn't good enough.  Instead you need something like their Cynosure USB cable.  The price?  A mere 3549 dollars for a 3 foot cable.

Reading the blurb methinks the designer of this thing doesn't have a clue how USB devices work.  Of course the potential customers likely don't either.  After all they're the same kind of people who think that replacing a metal knob with a wooden one will make an audible difference.  And no doubt Locus will have happy customers who will rave about how the "stage" of their audio has improved, and how this was the best 3549 bucks they've ever spent.

Nice money if you can get it.

Be Honest, We Can Take It.

That short little fan of purple, Prince, was scheduled to play in Saskatoon December 11th.   Unfortunately for his local fans it was announced this week that the show has beeen cancelled due to "scheduling conflicts."

It's amazing this hoary old euphamism is still in use.  Promoters and performers should be honest and admit the truth.  They didn't sell enough tickets.  We all know that's the case, so why pretend otherwise?  After all , these shows cancelled due to supposed scheduling conflicts are never rescheduled.

A Grand Title.

Today was the once in a century number combo of 11-11-11, the 11th day of the 11th month of the 11th year of the century.  Of course many people decided this was more significant than just being a cool number.  Global TV's supperhour news program devoted a segment to the subject, showing people getting married, buying lottery tickets, and so on because they thought this was a lucky, mystically significant, or what have you, day.  This included a numerologist from the Numerology Institute of Canada, Gordon Spowart.  It will come as no surprise to regular visitors to this blog that I was not amused with seeing him, as numerology is a pseudoscience.  But checking out the Institute my annoyance has turned to amusement.  As you can see from the website it appears Spowart is the Numerology Institute of Canada all by his lonesome.  Arrogance amongst promoters of this kind of stuff is all too common.  Cranks love to give themselves grand titles, or create organisations with important sounding names  that make it sound like they have large number of supporters and minons.

If only some of my odder interests had a wider audience, I too could make myself sound more important than I am.  I could for example start the Rosenberger Research Institute of Canada, since I've got a bunch of Joseph Rosenberger's Death Merchant books in my possession. and probably know more about him than virtually any other Canadian.  Unfortunately there's not much you can do to exploit knowledge of crankish '70s pulp writers, versus silliness like numerology, which has all sorts of followers just ripe for the picking. 

Gas In Saskatoon, November 11, 2011.

Gas prices dropped again this week.  Gas in Saskaton is now 116.9 cents a litre at most locations.  Somehow I doubt the drop was because Remembrance Day was this week.

A Webcomic Tip.

Unlike priint comics, the back "issues" of webcomics are generally available instantly online.  Most have their past strips archived on site.  But before diving into the archives you might want to check how big they are.  Yesterday I started going through the archives of a webcomic called Blip.  I hit the first strip button on the main page and started reading.  And reading.  And reading.  If I'd bothered to go the archive first I wouldn't have read so many strips in a shot, as there have been over a thousand strips to the series.  So it was kind of ridiculous reading as long as I did, as there was no way I was going to reach the most recent comics in one sitting.  I'm not that obsessive.  So,, check the archives first, so you can pace yourself.

There's Still Time, People of Saskatchewan!

In case you've forgotten for some reason I'll remind you that we're having a provincial election today.  Polls remain open until 8 PM, so if you haven't voted already get out there and do it.  If you don't you'll have effectively voted for whoever wins, whether you like them or not.

Gas In Saskatoon, November 4, 2011.

The price of gas held longer than I expected, but it's finally changed.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 118.9 cents a litre at most locations.