Monday, December 25, 2006

Heres an Idea for solving the Iraq situation

Some nutjobs in Iraq are giving the USA a 30 day truce on the condition they abandon their bases and leave Iraq.

Heres an idea, straight out of Star Trek, have some sort of self destruct sequence so when the Klingo--I mean Iraqis take over the base, kaboom! Then we steal their bird of prey and travel back in time.

Sunday, December 24, 2006

I never thought I'd rant against Don Cherry, but for once he's actually gone too far. In this case, he's insulted the people who if they didn't exist, he wouldn't have his salary. The fans.

Now, I didn't watch Coaches Corner, as, unfortunately, I was busy christmas shopping and christmas shopping is more important than watching yet another crappy crappy pointless leafs game (I'd rather watch Anaheim play Pittsburgh than watch the Leafs play anybody) And, as a side complaint, Don Cherry's finally available in something other than RealVideo. It's about time, CBC. freakin Realvideo. honestly. Anything was better than that crap. Still its amusing that they can't get the rights to show NHL clips online. Wow. You can't even see online the clips that Don is discussing. Hey, NHL, it's a freakin CLIP. ITS FREE ADVERTISING FOR THE NHL. Man the NHL is really run by idiots. The CBC too, but we all know that. It's an interesting case study, an organization run by hippies, and an organization run by lawyers, and they amount to the same thing.

But that's irrelevant. We're talking about Rory Fitzpatrick. Now, I know Don didn't call him a Joke, but he's saying people are looking at this as a joke, and he's saying the NHL is NOT a joke. This is where I disagree. The *NHL* IS a joke. What with teams in cities that shouldn't have them, what with the league not wanting teams to move into Canada wheras doing less than nothing to prevent the opposite. What with everything Bettman has done over the years and is still planning to do in the next few. That people don't respect the institution enough anymore to vote overpayed millionaires to an all star game in Dallas. Why even have a vote then? Why not just pick whoever has the best stats and just automatically send them? The vote exists because the NHL wanted people to feel involved. Which is a surprisingly valid thought coming from those in charge of the NHL. I voted for Rory a few days ago. I ended up voting for a bunch of other players I wouldn't have even bothered voting for if I didn't feel like voting for Rory. Because of Rory, Teemu Selanne got another vote. Because of Rory, people are actually paying attention to a hockey game being played in the southern united states.

Rory IS an all star. He's an all star enough to play in todays NHL. If you say otherwise, it implies the quality of the game has gone downhill. He's no Wayne Gretzky, he's never going to try to sell me McDonald's Big Mac's, or a new car, or season tickets to a hockey team playing in a desert.. But to us fans he's an all star because he makes a living playing hockey. He's an all star because we say he is. He's a step away from being one of us, working our hum drum day to day jobs living our lives. The fans jumped on this bandwagon for a reason. Perhaps they're implying the league has become a joke, perhaps they're just having fun and poking fun at the apparent seriousness of the All Star game (Which should really just be a party celebrating the sport people enjoy watching and playing)...

In fact, Personally, I've never cared about All-Star games. I don't even think fans particularly care much about the All-star game either. If we want to watch the best players in the world play each other, thats what the Olympics are for.

Plus, for the record, we're not laughing at Rory. We like Rory. He knows how to have fun. We're laughing at all of you who are taking this so seriously. It's just a game, you know.

As for Cherry's line "They never saw him play, how could they say he's an all-star?", well, don't get me started on overrated Leafs players getting more recognition and fame than they deserve on account of the CBC.

Friday, December 22, 2006

Rocky Balboa (Rocky VI)

I went to see Rocky Balboa, it wasn't bad. It was better than Rocky V, and on par with Rocky's II through IV. It had a sympathetic plot, and was reasonably entertaining.

The actual fight scene was rather a letdown. Just didn't get me into it like any of the previous Rocky movies. I was also dissapointed at the lack of Mr. T. I mean, c'mon how hard would it have been to throw a Mr. T cameo in there. And no Eye of the Tiger either.

So Rocky is old, Adrian is dead, and his kid is still a putz. Rocky want's to fight a little bit more, nothing big, but then opportunity knocks and he gets to fight the world champion who nobody likes in a glorified sparring match that turns serious as Rocky shows he still has heart.

If they make Rocky VII (Adrians Revenge) they should make sure Stallone is replaced by a CGI Rocky. It'd look slightly more realistic than what they came up with. I'm sorry but Sly's gotten a few too many facelifts and botox injections and his face is starting to fall apart like Michael Jacksons.

So, not a bad movie like Rocky V, but it could have stepped it up a notch if they really wanted to. All in all, a better end to the franchise than Rocky V. Still they should have called it Rocky VI - Rocky Balboa.

and for those who are never sure which Rocky movie is which, here you go:

Rocky - the first one. he loses.
Rocky II - the second one - he wins
Rocky III - Mr T and Hulk Hogan!
Rocky IV - Rocky defeats communism
Rocky V - Rocky fights some punk
Rocky VI - Rocky is old.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Christmas Shopping Fa La La La La La LA La sucks

Well today I finally went out christmas shopping. I hate christmas shopping, my immediate family has everything they really need that I want to buy them (I refuse to buy clothes as I have no sense of style or taste, or Jewelery or Cosmetics for the same reason)

I went to a couple "big box" stores like Futureshop, where I learned about Satellite radio. XM doesn't carry CBC but sirius does, all of them feature "commercial free" radio, but when it comes to making it a worthwhile present (like having radio stations playing music or news from european countries where my parents come from) then they both fail. Plus, you can't really carry it around with you. Theres no real value in satellite radio aside from if you drive into the country a lot. Or if you really really really like commercial free world music, or perhaps you like to listen to hockey or baseball games.

I went to CD Plus, where I saw the new Simpsons season 9 DVD. I haven't bought them since they came out with the season 6 homer head style DVD case which I REFUSE TO BUY. I don't care if I can mail in for the old style DVD case which is what I heard in a rumour somewhere, I wan't to buy it like that. I bought Back to the Future when it came out and I still haven't replaced the disc (though I want to) that was recalled for being full frame or something. I want it right the first time. Fox DVD (I presume its FOX as its a fox show) seems to have fixed it for the following seasons, but I cannot buy them until I buy season 6. You can see my dilema. So, I browsed around a bit and saw Kenny vs Spenny season 2 on dvd for $25. I was set to buy it at first, but for some reason the case made it appear that there was only two episodes on the dvd. Well, I like Kenny and to a lesser degree Spenny.. Just kidding Spenny stop googling yourself you putz. But I hate buying crappy DVD's. I'm a cheap Winnipeger and I demand value. Anyways I ended up going to Zellers and noticing that they have both season 1 AND 2 for $25 each. Plus I had a gift card for $20 off. Yet I couldn't bring myself to buy it just then. I don't know why. I'll have to eventually though as it's a great show and everyone should watch it. Plus I assume it won't run for 20 seasons like the Simpsons and that it'l be less of a hassle to get the complete set.

Anyways after that the mall started to close. At 9:30. Seriously, TOMORROW they're open til 11, but tonight, 9:30. Well I'm fucking busy tomorrow, Polo Park mall! Now I have to go to walmart or something thats open 24 hours rather than shop at the mall. Sigh. I really hate shopping at walmart too. It's just so welfare.

Speaking of welfare, I saw a grown man pick his nose for 10 minutes on the #11 bus today. Maybe longer, but I had to get off. Seriously, what did he think was up there, an alien nose implant? Yeesh.

And so I ended up finding two gifts. I'll end up buying, I dunno,those fake turtles "pecan clusters" or whatever. I hate real turtles cause they're all individually wrapped nowadays you can't buy the big box where you just grab them no, you have to waste time and unwrap each and every one. Fake turtles taste just as good anyways, so screw you turtle manufacturing company whoever you are. Nestle maybe. I dunno. Maybe throw in some cash. I'd feel bad if I didn't spend at least $30 per person, which I have yet to do. I'll probably get my dad $20 in Tim Hortons gift certificates, since he goes there anyways.

Anyways Merry Christmas!

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Pittsburgh Penguins for sale, unless you're Canadian and want to move them north

I just came across news that Blackberry Billionaire Jim Balsillie has withdrawn his offer to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Apparently, the NHL wants the Penguins to stay where they are. They certainly don't want them moving to Canada. Of course, those Lawyers like Gary Bettman NHL Commisioner who have ruined the game had no problem with Canadian teams moving south to places like Phoenix, Arizona. They didn't even try to stop Hartford or Winnipeg or Quebec City's teams from moving.

Of course, this is probably fine for Gary and pals, if a team with talent like Pittsburgh moves, they want it to be to a nice US city, like Kansas City (where a current owner has an arena apparently) or of course, Houston.

Disgusting.

And the thing is, Balsillie has even stated that if a new arena is built he'd keep the team in Pittsburgh. Thats more than any American did for Canadian teams like Winnipeg, or Quebec City.

The day Gary Bettman was made Commisioner of the NHL is the day hockey stopped being entertaining. Just like the NBA where he came from is not entertaining.

Gary Bettman runs the NHL the same way George W Bush runs Iraq. And he's been getting the same results for years.

Looks like it's more of the same ol' same old stuff from this gang of fools.

Whats amusing is the asking price for the Penguins only got that high because Canadians were interested. As nice as it'd be to have an NHL team back in Winnipeg, these jokers don't deserve any success such a move might bring them.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

I'm going to bitch about blogger. I switched to Blogger version 2 and it's what it is, but if I search my comicbook related blog at http://zone-of-surly-geekery.blogspot.com on googles blog search or bloggers blog search (which are the same thing) nothing happens since I upgraded to version 2. Yet this blog works fine. What is the deal? How will people find out how I feel about the latest comicbook starring Guy Gardner? Or The Legion of superheroes? I even sent an email to google and they have yet to email me back and thank me for notifying them of this. Plus some blogger version 2 pages seem to somehow crash Konqueror, my web browser of choice on Linux (I think its rendering engine is what safari for macOSX uses). Granted it's an older version and I could upgrade, but its still peculiar. I can always use firefox, which I do, but I just like konqueror better. Also I've found the google adwords interesting. If I'm ranting how much I hate the toronto maple leafs, theres a click on the adwords for the maple leafs! Google Adsense should be smart enough to know that people who hate the leafs don't want to buy leafs merchandise and look like the biggest tool on the planet. Honestly. Put some Habs merchandise there. Heck you can still buy Winnipeg Jets Jerseys and stuff on the internet (new too) even though it's been a decade since they moved closer to their favourite golf courses (Phoenix sucks) And thats it for my rant today.

PS: GOOGLE/BLOGGER EMPLOYEES. you're smart enough to solve stupid riddles, fix it so that my other blog propogates on the blog search engines like this one does damnit. Also heres a riddle for you. If X+2=4000, and a train is heading towards baltimore at 66 parsecs per hour, why aren't you fixing my damn blog yet?!?!? You have no time for riddles! Get off your damn ball chairs and fix it!

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Canadian Television

Today I came across a blog written by Denis McGrath, Who eloquently stated what the problems in Canadian Television are. I will sumarize them in point form.

- Canadian television companies re-air American network television shows and profit from them, and don't want to waste time producing anything themselves.

- The Canadian Cultural Elite doesn't want to create Canadian television shows that Canadians want to watch. Anything that has caught on has been accidental. The elite want to create shows that they themselves want to watch.

- The CRTC does not care about Canadian culture, neither do Canadians.

- Canadians wan't to watch Canadian television, but theres nothing to watch.

Canadians like watching Corner Gas. It's amusing, we relate to it even if we're not from Saskatchewan. It makes people laugh, The characters resonate with people, and thats great. Canadian's also like to watch Trailer Park Boys for similar reasons. I like both shows.

I also like Dragons Den. I'm not able to watch it all the time, but its a fun show and pairing it with Venture as it seems they did, was a splendidly clever move. I also like Doctor Who on CBC but that's technically a BBC co-production but who cares, its Doctor Who. Doctor Who is above such petty mundane things as cultural identity and Canadian Content. I also like Kenny vs Spenny, a very clever show concept, and amusing to watch as well -- but I never know when it's on so I don't watch it.

What would get me to watch TV more often? Well, if there was OTA digital broadcasting in Winnipeg, I'd be watching the CBC more than I am currently (Channel 6 has far too much ghosting.. I hate Analog transmission.. Just switch everything over to digital already!!!!)

These companies in Canada, Cable companies and satellite companies and terrestrial broadcasting channels, are in the business of reselling what American's get for free and sometimes throwing us a bone or two of Canadian content. Paying lip service to the people of this country whose corrupt politicians granted them their monopoly or broadcast rights in the first place. The rise of the internet is hopefully scaring them (OTA broadcasters anyways) enough that they hopefully invest in content people want to see.

Frankly I think every major City in Canada should have digital standard definition broadcasting as of tomorrow. High Definition, while interesting, not a deal breaker for me watching Canadian content. Heck Canadians watch Trailer Park Boys and its filmed with handheld cameras apparently.

the CRTC has gone far too long scratching the backs of monopolists and not helping to ensure Canadian Culture survives in the globally connected digital realm.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Equal Marriage is still allowed in Canada. Sugar Twin marriage still illegal.

Well, Stephen Harper did what he said he'd do, have a free vote on the Gay marriage in Canada deal. Which is all most Canadians really wanted. Of course, those idiot NDP and Bloc Quebecois didn't allow their members to vote against the party line, and that gives the conservatives an excuse to revisit the issue one day in the future. Thanks, idiots. Did you really expect it to pass if you let people vote with their conscience? Honestly. I Personally don't care about the issue, though I live in a Conservative riding and my MP voted against Gay marriage (As is her right, she said she would, and she's entitled to her opinion just as gay people are entitled to theirs). Congratulations Gay people. Hopefully the conservatives don't turn things around just for fun and try to make divorce illegal for you guys.

Spirited Energy

In todays Winnipeg free press, which I only read out of desperation for something to pass the time, there was an article about Spirited Energy, Manitoba's crappy new slogan and waste of money.

Someone in the NDP, cabinet minister Eric Robinson, is, as per the article, "fed up with racist photos of aboriginals being forwarded by e-mail in Winnipeg and is asking Manitobans to put a stop to them."

"It saddens me,"
Robinson says. "It shows to me racism is alive and thriving in this province." Robinson believes if the community is aware the photos exist, Manitobans will be offended and will not pass them on if they receive them.

Racism eh. Let's look into this more closely.

Eric Robinson is the Minister of Culture, Heritage and Tourism. He is behind the spending of 4 million dollars (reportedly) on this blatant NDP advertising campaign. Of course, it seems to have gone horribly wrong, the only businesses who put any money into it are crown corporations who of course, have their profits taken by the NDP anyways so its a fair trade. An American company was of course, paid for the slogan itself.

Now, the picture in question (which I present to you here) shows 3 people, seemingly native, passed out at a bus stop.


Of course, I fail to see how it is racist. Because they are native? No, that makes it all the more IRONIC, someone is showing how hypocritical the NDP government is to spend 4 million on an innefective branding scheme when the reality of the situation in this city is we have people with far bigger problems than getting re-elected. It's ironic because every time I go downtown I see this sad state of affairs in this city. No, racist is trying to sweep such things under the rug by using labels and issuing false fatwas against people for calling you out, minister of culture, heritage, and tourism, Mr Eric Robinson. Want to talk about culture? How about that recent Pow Wow at the MTS centre. I saw people leaving the event accosted by street people, who after refusing to give them spare change were accused of being white. The ultimate insult, I'm sure. However, a daily inconvenience to Winnipegers and visitors to this city. Bravo on your waste of time, Mr Robinson. Good luck finding the real killers for OJ Simpson while you're at it. So is the spirited energy mock ad racist? I don't think so. Tactless? Maybe. Mean spirited? Sure. But hardly racist when it shows the reality of the situation certain people want to cover up.

The other picture, I hadn't heard of, So I went on a google search to find out. I could not find it. And I'm usually pretty good at finding things. Ah well. I would have posted the image simply to piss Eric Robinson off, if I had found it.

All That said, since when is being racist a crime? I doubt either photo was advocating hatred, so what is Eric Robinson supposed to be threatening in that article?

More from the article:

He has also asked his fellow cabinet ministers to ask staff members in their departments to report to their superiors if they are sent copies of these or any racist photos or e-mails.

He said maybe if that happens "we can track the offenders."

He has also engaged provincial technology support workers for help.
"I passed these on to the proper people here to see what they can do about tracing them," he said.

What is this, communist russia? I'm sure Comrade Eric Robinson wishes it were, but I fail to see what if anything he can do about such things. Although he'd be better off cancelling the whole spirited energy thing, making the drivers licenses actually pretty to look at instead of crappier looking than before, going back to the old buffalo logo that didn't look demonic, and maybe actually promoting culture and heritage in this province instead of trying to shut down peoples right to free speech.

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Telus Mobility stole $50 of my money and insinuated I'm a criminal


I use Telus Mobility pay and talk, I have a rather old samsung uproar phone (because most of the current phones don't offer the right mix of what I wan't in a modern phone.. notably wifi and a clam shell that protects the screen from damage and mp3 all in one but that's neither here nor there)

This morning on my way to work I wen't to the local 7-11 to purchase a pay and talk "card" or printout in this case. They offer them in $10, $20, and $50 denominations, and I, having no time left on my phone, decided to splurge and get the $50 and not have to worry about my minutes over the holiday season.

Well I take my receipt and immediately punch in the numbers, and what happens? Why, it comes up as an invalid PIN. How in the world is that possible. The receipt itself states I had just purchased it a few minutes ago, and I had never gotten any air time from it. Telus now has $50, but all I have is a useless piece of paper. Whose fault is this? Mine? No. So I get through to Telus's so called "Customer Service" and have to go through a number of questions about where I live and what my home phone number is and whatever, you know what, that doesn't matter, FIX MY FUCKING PHONE SO THAT IT WORKS! I PAID for $50 of air time, give me $50 of air time. I didn't say what I was feeling right then, because you know, I'm not THAT much of an asshole. I'll give Telus time to look things through, besides I oddly enough had to work today, and was running late. Suffice it to say I ended up faxing a copy of my receipts to Telus and the guy who handled it in the morning said they'd be calling me back and fixing things. Ok fine, I've got work anyways.

So, it's been 8 hours of work, and no updates or anything from Telus. So I call them back. I get some guy with an attitude who tells me that NOBODY there is authorized to do anything and that the problem probably won't be solved (if it will) until the weekend. I paid $50 for a fucking PIN number that doesn't work, I can't return it to 7-11 cause they do not do that, and Telus won't give me my fucking minutes and is unable to figure things out over the weekend because they have to look into why their computer shit fucked up and gave me a faulty pin. Well

#1 : Why should I care why it gave me a faulty pin. I faxed the receipt, I paid $50, give me $50 damnit! or at least give me enough air time to last a couple days, it's not like you guys LOSE ANY MONEY by helping out a customer who just paid $50 to your company.

#2: Why should I have to wait all weekend for it to be fixed? ITS NOT MY FAULT! ITS YOURS! I BOUGHT THE CARD ON THE WEEKEND! FIX IT ON THE WEEKEND! I DONT CARE TO FIND OUT WHY IT DIDN'T WORK! I WANT IT FIXED AND YOU CAN FIGURE IT OUT ON MONDAY ON YOUR OWN TIME NOT MINE!

#3: Why is it so hard to get anybody to PROVIDE ME WITH ACTUAL CUSTOMER SERVICE! I asked not to get the runaround, I made it clear I would have none of the runaround, yet they insulted me by giving me the runaround.

#4: Telus is essentially implying that I am a criminal by calling me a liar. I paid for this air time and fulfilled my end of the bargain, they have their computers on their end and they're telling me they can't figure out that I purchased air time for $50 and that the pin was never accepted and they can't credit me with some air time? Why should I go buy another card when I already bought one?

So I'm fed up with this douchebag french guy who I've been reasonably nice to, he has no power to do anything, so I ask to talk to the highest ranking person there, who one would reasonably think would be able to make me, the customer, happy. Alas, no. First, he tells me they will call back. Ok, fine, I hang up and wait ANOTHER HOUR for them to call back. Then I get bored and call them back and get the french guy again, who says something like "oh you expected to get called back today? oh no they'll call you on monday" what the hell! So this time I'm adamant that I want to talk to the highest ranking person RIGHT NOW. THIS HAS GONE ON LONG ENOUGH. So eventually after 5 minutes of being on hold, I finally make contact with the fabled "Supervisor".. This sarcastic woman constantly read from the same script as the french guy, accused ME of going in circles (THIS seems to be a common TELUS line, don't give the customer what they wan't, then accuse THEM of being in the wrong for wanting what they paid for by saying that you're only going in circles) .. This woman, who claimed to be the supervisor named Christine (Employee ID # 7339) was completely unhelpful, telling me such lines to calm me down such as "ITS UNFORTUNATE YOU FEEL THIS WAY" "UNFORTUNATELY ITS THE WEEKEND!" (as if people who work on the weekend are inferior and incompetant.. oh no the weekend!) and of course "WE'RE GOING IN CIRCLES IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE I CAN HELP YOU WITH?" Well, you didn't solve the first problem. Let's solve that first, ok? Tell me why you haven't said anything helpful at all, instead you have been condescending, reading like a trained monkey from a script, been rude, and implied I'm a criminal for wanting a resolution to my problem that suits ME, the CUSTOMER. "UNFORTUNATELY THIS CONVERSATION IS GOING IN CIRCLES" well, whose fault is that, huh? You people stole $50 from me and won't give me what I paid for, and you're telling me the service is going in circles? gee, telus, thanks for fucking insulting me and then this woman has the nerve to hang up on me. Total amount of minutes spent on the phone with Telus: 40 minutes. Gee, you could have just given me 40 minutes of air time or something so I could use my phone over the weekend like I originally intended to. You know what else, when I asked for who to talk to at a higher level then her, she said look at the website. I've been to company websites, they're obfuscated. I wanted something a little more informative than that. I've wasted enough time talking to you I don't need to waste half my life looking over the website for a non existant company presidents email address that he doesn't likely read. Why would he? Obviously Telus has been around long enough that he's happy with the way customer service is set up. He's the one in charge. The only thing these people care about is bad publicity. Fortunately I have a blog that is read by tens of people. Hey Canadian media, feel free to quote my blog if you wan't to. I hereby grant you access to republish in whole or in part my entire rant against Telus and their obviously poor customer service and incompetant problem solving.

I plan to submit a complaint to the BBB and the CRTC (whatever good it'l do, bunch of useless liberal beurocrats) no matter how this turns out, but the worst part of this was how Telus treated me. They LIED to me, saying things would be fixed and then later telling me I have to wait til fucking monday. THEY WERE RUDE TO ME. THEY TREATED ME LIKE I WAS A NUISANCE. This is how Telus customer service works. They already have my money. That's why they don't care to talk to me. Digusting.

So to sum up:

Don't buy Telus pay and talk. If their service doesn't work, it's your fault. You're a criminal in their eyes, not a customer, and they couldn't care less about how happy you are with their service, as its your fault the conversation about your money is going around in circles. GOING AROUND IN CIRCLES.

Telus, this should have been solved as soon as I faxed my receipts and it was painfully obvious I was ripped off by you. It's one thing to blame the computers, but at this point it has nothing to do with computers and everything to do with your belief that customers are criminals, and your greed in not giving your customer service people anything more than an annoying insulting script to parrot to your customers. FOR SHAME.

Is it somehow unreasonable to expect to get what you pay for? According to telus customer service - Yes it is.