Gas In Saskatoon, June 30, 2017.

For those who believe that gas prices go up before a holiday this week will be more proof to them.  Gas in Saskatoon has risen to 94.4 cents a litre at most locations.  Just in time for Canada Day and the end of the school year.

My First.

In honour of Canada's 150th anniversary the Bank of Canada has released a new 10 dollar bill.  I received my first one today.  Not a bad design.  As with other current Canadian bills these are made of polymer, and contain several anti-counterfeit measures.  Hopefully I can get my hands a few more soon.

Gas In Saskatoon, June 23, 2017.

A bit more relief for Saskatoon drivers this week.  Gas in Saskatoon has dropped to 87.9 cents a litre at most locations.

Sunrise Has Risen.

Back in March Ontario based music retailer Sunrise Records announced its plan to take over various stores run by the HMV chain after HMV announced it was shuttering them.   There were two HMV stores in Saskatoon, one in the Mall at Lawson Heights, and one in Midtown Plaza.  Both have now reopened as Sunrise stores. 

I went into the Lawson store yesterday and the Midtown store today.  They were about what you'd expect from a chain music store, although they're a bit brighter than the old HMVs were.  They both have a good selection, but no real surprises.  And unlike HMV their vinyl LPs are right at the front of the store, an indication of their interest in attracting vinyl buyers.  Whether they'll be able to do what HMV couldn't, maintain a national chain in the digital download and streaming era, remains to be seen.  There's probably no point in guessing until at least after the Christmas buying season, unless of course they really screw things up.

Do They Want Someone To Die?

I watch both boxing and MMA, but at times it's hard to do so without wondering about the ethics of doing so.  Fighting can be dangerous, and sometimes it can be lethal.  Former UFC competitor Tim Hague died after a Friday boxing match.  Hague, 33, fought Adam Braidwood in Edmonton, and was knocked down several times during the fight before being knocked out.  Although he left the ring under his own power he subsequently collapsed, and passed away.  His last boxing match was in April, where he lost by TKO, bringing up the obvious question of whether he should have been allowed to fight by the Edmonton Combative Sports Commission.

This tragedy came only a short time after another Canadian boxer, David Whittom, was severely injured during a May 27th match in Fredericton with Saskatoon boxer Gary Kopas.  He was placed in a medically induced coma after being taken to hospital.  Whittom is another fighter who it could be argued should not have been allowed to fight.  Despite some early success he had racked up a career record of 12-24-1, including losing 18 of his last 20 bouts.  In other words he'd become a human punching bag, hired to be an opponent even though he obviously had no chance of winning.

And what did I find out this morning?  That UFC Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell is talking about fighting again, this time for Bellator.  Liddell last fought in 2010 at UFC 115, when he was KOed by Rich Franklin.  His last three fights were all losses by KO.  He's 47.

Unfortunately I would be entirely unsurprised if he does fight for Bellator.  I've criticised them in the past for signing over the hill fighters, the most notorious example being MMA pioneer Ken Shamrock.  Shamrock was 51 when he fought the late Kimbo Slice in 2015.  He would later fight Royce Gracie, who hadn't fought in years and was really too old to be fighting as well.  Then there's Kimbo Slice.  Slice died in June of 2016 of heart failure, shortly after a mass was found on his liver.  Yet somehow Bellator managed to get him cleared to fight in February of that year.  Keep signing these kind of fighters and you're just increasing the chance of someone sustaining a severe injury, or even dying in the cage.

Gas In Saskatoon, June 16, 2017.

Prices have gone down again.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 90.4 cents a litre at most locations.  I don't expect it to drop much further, but I've been wrong before.

Gas In Saskatoon, June 9, 2017.

Fortunately I won't be missing this week's edition.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 93.9 cents a litre at most locations.

Read These.

Looking for new webcomics to read?  Here's a couple to check out.

If you're a fan of the "magical girls" genre try Shattered Starlight  Farah is the former leader of the Star Guardians, who were one of Montreal's magical girl teams.(Yes, there's been more than one.)  "Former" because the Star Guardians broke up more than a decade ago.  But when Farah is forced into a new job she finds her past may be back to haunt her.

Radio Silence are a young British band.  They're really making a name for themselves, but that doesn't mean everything is fun and games.  Join them as they tour the UK and Europe, trying to figure out how to keep it all together.

Hail.

A hail storm just passed through.  It only lasted for maybe 5 minutes, but a lot of the hailstones were large.  The biggest were perhaps the size of grapes.  Definitely not the kind of precipitation you want to water the garden.

But the nasty weather does my nasty attitude today.

Not A Good Day.

My day began horribly, and it will probably get worse.  I feel like a pogo stick, my emotions going up and down.  Too bad I don't have something kickable to kick.  Not that it would help much.

Covfefe Didn't Help.

Using the term covfefe in my last post did nothing to boost traffic here.  Big surprise.

I wish I knew what did.  Mentions of specific junk food?