I'm Still Here.

I wonder sometimes why I am, but I am.

A Surprising First.

Tonight marks a baseball first.  The Toronto Blue Jays called up Yan Gomes from the minors to replace a struggling Adam Lind.  With his start tonight Gomes is the first Brazillian to play in Major League Baseball.  I was honestly surprised to find this out.  I would have thought a country with the population of Brazil would have produced multiple players, but that's not the case.  Perhaps Brazil isn't a great place for young players, as Gomes moved to the US at 12, and wasn't recruited in Brazil. 

Wither The Sunglasses?

If you haven't heard, CSI MIami has been cancelled. 

If you've watched CSI Miami you know about The Sunglasses.  The black sunglasses worn by series star David Caruso's Horatio Caine character were almost a character by themselves.  They were used like an exclaimation point in a written story, or a horn stab in piece of music, as accents to a scene, telling the viewer to pay attention.  If Caine was putting on his sunglasses, or taking them off, you knew something was going down. 

Or that was the intent, anyways.  For a lot of viewers the whole thing quickly became a joke, a sign of the cheesiness of the show.  This of course included the inevitable drinking games based around Caine's glasses hijinks. 

So, should we feel happy for The Sunglasses, as they are now free from their burden?  Or should we feel sorry for them, as now they will fade to obscurity, just like most of the rest of the cast probably will?  (Of course it presumably wasn't the same set of sunglasses through the whole series.  I wonder how many pairs they went through?)

It's not hard to see why the show lasted as long as it did.  Although there was the use of story arc elements, which had become increasingly popular with viewers when the series appeared, they weren't as central as some other shows.  The plot of each episode was generally self contained.  So casual viewers could watch a random episode without being lost. 

Caruso is one of those guys who seems, to use an old line, to have a lucky horseshoe up his butt.  He first came to widesrpead attention as the star, along with Dennis Franz, of NYPD Blue.  The immediate success of the series went to his head and he soon left, thinking he was about to be a big screen star.  It wasn't to be, his shot at being a movie star fizzling out in short order.  He looked set to be one of those actors who end up being a footnote, the kind of guy who ends up playing the creepy next door neighbour in a Z grade straight to video horror movie or a perrenial member of the Lifetime Movie of the Week cast pool.  But then he was chosen, for whatever reaason, for the Caine role, and quickly became the star of another hit.

In one way I'm surprised it's been cancelled.  I had gotten the impression its sister show CSI New York was closer to being chopped, but it will be back for at least one more season.  Okay by me, because Gary Sinise is a better actor than Caruso.

Don't Buy Me Cashews.

If you do I will eat too many in one day.

Hey, CJYM.

Please fix your automation equipment, or whatever is currently not working right.  Hearing a commercial, your promo announcement, and the Blue Jays game coming back up all at the same time is really annoying.

Gas In Saskatoon, May 11, 2012.

It's been a good while since we've had a change here, but the pattern was broken today.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 125.9 cents a litre, down a cent.  Just think of all that extra money you'll save compared to your last fill.  You might be able to buy a piece of gum or something.

Don't Be These Folks.

How's this for a blog with a specific topic?  Ohh Shoot presents news reports of accidental firearms discharages across the United States.  It makes for pretty sad reading given how many of them result in injury or death.   So if you've got guns around, don't be like these people.  Always assume they're loaded, and handle them appropriately.  Especially don't leave them where someone who might not handle them what way, like a child, can get their hands on them.  This would all seem to be Gun Safety 101, yet far too many people forget even these basics.

Long Days.

At the beginning of today's Blue Jays game Jerry Howarth sent out birthday greetings to a woman celebrating  her 107th birthday.  We should all be so lucky to live that long.  At that age it's hard not to think any day you make it through is a good day.

The Big 600.

It's been a long time coming, but it's finally here.  I finally have had my 600th bill hit at Where's Willy?  My current hit count is 600 bills hit and 734 hits total, since a bill can get hits from as many unique individuals as enter it.  I'm guessing the next milestone,, the 800th hit, will be a good long time in coming.  My 500th bill hit was way back in January of 2009.

Misdirected.

I really should look in my Gmail spam folder more often.  In there at the moment is somethng from  "MarryMeSugarDaddy" with the subject line "Beautiful Women Seeking Wealthy Men."

Boy, did that get sent to the wrong place.

Tax Tick Tock.

A reminder to Canadians.  For a large number of you tomorrow at midnight is the deadline to file your 2011 tax return.  So, if you haven't done your return you'd best do it today.  Too bad if you have a complicated one.

Hog City.

If you like motorcycles you might want to be in Saskatoon in July, as you might see a whole bunch of them.  However you may not like who's riding them.  On CFQC's supperhour newscast the lead story was that the Hells Angels intend to hold a convention in Saskatoon in July.  This was confirmed by an unidentified member of the local chapter.  As you can imagine the police will be keeping a close watch on them.

The Saskatoon chapter of the Angels isn't something I've had much reason to think about. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times over the years I've seen an Angel wearing colours.  On the other hand the location of their clubhouse is no secret, and as is the case with the other chapters of the organisation they're known to be involved with drug trafficking and other organised crime. So it's not as if we move in the same circles.

Cartoon Crazy.

I've made quite a few cartoon related posts over the years.  And sometimes it seems like that's all anyone is interested in looking at on here.  This is another week where a good percentage of my hits are for those posts.  But even with that trend I don't think I'll be starting a cartoon only blog.

Not Actual Size.

This picture may be old news to some of you, but it's still rather amusing.  Was whoever wrapped this bus trying to be silly,  or were they just clueless?

Vote, Albertans.

If you live in Alberta please vote in your provincial election if you can.  Especially if it might keep the Wildrose lot out.  They sound like real charmers.

Contradicting Conspiracies.

As I've mentioned before the US Globe tabloid likes to publish anti-Barack Obama stories.  The latest one I've seen claims that Bill Clinton has evidence that Obama isn't a real American citizen. However, he supposedly hasn't revealed it because he's afraid Obama will have him killed.  I found this amusing given that during the Clinton Administration the right wing crankosphere was obsessed with Clinton death lists, lists of all the people Clinton supposedly had killed.  Merely dying in Arkansas at some point could probably get you on a list, no matter how little connection you had with Clinton.  But apparently Clinton must have lost his death squad at some point, since he's apparently worried about Obama's death squad.  Of course if you take the story at face value the best way to avoid being killed would be simply to reveal the information.  There wouldn't be much point in Obama killing Clinton once the cat was out of the bag.  But hey, that's me using rational person logic, which is just what the conspiracy wants me to do.

I wonder if The Globe did any Clinton death list stories back in the '90s.

Me Too! Me Too!

It's a little known fact that I have a video up on Youtube.



Unfortunately as you can see it's boring as hell.  "A train backing up?  Big whoop!" you might be thinking.  I was fiddling around with my camera's video function while waiting on the bus and decided to post the results.  But since it's not something cool, like kitties doing cute things or people getting mashed in the crotch by fast moving objects, it's never gotten many views, preventing me from becoming a viral video sensation.

How Do They Do It?

That thought comes to mind when I compare my blogging output with that of some of the bloggers I regularly read.  But then I consider how many posts a week I was writing in the early days of this blog.  Then I wonder where my ambition went.  It must be nice two write several posts a day regularly, especially when you can arrange them to autopost at multiple times.

Checks And Balances.

"Jesus is Lord," and its variations, is a phrase anyone in a society with a large Christian presensce has enountered many times.  I'm afraid however it's a concept I can't support.  I prefer my rulers to have their powers limited by the rule of law.  Jesus supposedly isn't, making him too likely to abuse his power.

For Want Of A Number.

I didn't notice at the time, but I entered one number wrong on my Western 6/49 ticket slip.  It was one number off from my usual selection of numbers.  The results were devastating.  If I had entered that number properly I would have won.  Instead last night I won nothing.

Just imagine how much different the course of human history would be if I had won that ten bucks.

Just imagine.