Sometimes the Winnipeg Free Press really does know what actually matters to Manitobans

Headlines on this article from Canadian media sources.

CTV headline: Dominion City hotel burns down on Christmas Day

too bad so sad :( on Christmas even!

CBC headline: Fire destroys landmark Dominion City hotel

It was a landmark! it marked the land!! How will we mark our land now?!?

Global: Fire destroys historic hotel

historic! A part of history is lost forever! we're doomed to repeat it now!

Winnipeg Free Press headline: Town's beer vendor burns up

OH GOD NO!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! WHY! WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY!!!!!

TAKE ME INSTEAD!! NOOOOO!!!

Winnipeg Free Press. Clearly has the pulse of Manitobans understood completely.

either that, or this is their last remaining subscriber:

burrrrp.

Inferring things from statistics

I just learned that 70% of professional NBA Basketball players have tattoos, as compared to 4% of the population of the USA. Using "science", this means that tattoos clearly provide improved basketball playing abilities.

RoJustiner BEbert

From Roger Eberts twitter: "Scott Pilgrim" renting at $1.99 on demand. Several dozen readers angry I didn't see it before making my Best 10 list.

I'd put the number much higher than several dozen. What does Roger Ebert have against this movie? We know he ranted about video games not being art, then ignored a movie (his area of expertise) based on a comicbook heavy on videogame imagery, references, and inspiration. I'm sure he's been getting tons of emails asking him to see this movie. He made an ass of himself IMHO, and this movie is one that speaks to that, and he's ignoring it to his own detriment. I've lost a lot of respect for Mister Ebert this year. I'm not saying it was a brilliant movie or it deserves to be in his top ten, but if he is making top ten lists, he should be damn sure he's at least being inclusive of movies that are otherwise well received but might not speak to his sensibilities.

He was taking time off to write his book. Well, I say no-one should buy his book until he does face the music and review Scott Pilgrim.

Also, why was Justin Bieber shopping in Canada on Boxing Day? The kid has like 40 million dollars. This was clearly a publicity stunt. "Tee Hee, oops, its me, Justin Bieber shopping on the busiest shopping day in Canada look at me.. hee hee hee.. I'm running away from my idiot teenage girl fans OMG why didn't I attempt to disguise myself in any way?"

Boxing Day

Man, Boxing Day sure seems to suck this year.

Hopefully MMA Day has some better deals.

Congratulations to Global TV Digital Channel 9.1 ,and 40.1

If you have an ATSC capable HDTV (most of them) or digital cable converter (I saw some on sale at superstore in the discount bin the other day on Regent) you will now be able to pick up one digital channel over the air, as the other day Global Winnipeg officially became the first channel to broadcast OVER THE AIR in HDTV. I've got my HDTV (and a digital converter for a small tv) working perfectly connected to an antenna. You probably only need regular bunny ears to get a decent signal.

There is a note in the channel data that states "CKND-DT in Winnipeg, Manitoba is transmitting a new DTV channel on UHF 40, Frequency 626-632 Mhz. Call 204-233-3304 to report any interference problems. So, there you have it. I have no problems, but there we go.

Of course, none of the other Winnipeg stations seems to show the same level of commitment to getting a digital signal up in Winnipeg. CBC appears to be the worst of the lot, with no official plans for a digital signal until 2012. Which again, is shameful. Hopefully Bell's purchase of CTV means they will put up a signal sooner than later. Though Rogers hasn't really been particularly gung-ho either. I'd give credit to Shaw for the work done, but Global had an aggressive goal to switch even before Shaw purchased them. So again, kudos to the engineers and everyone involved at Global Winnipeg aka CKND TV for a job well done.

Really, its quite awesome to have a pair of rabbit ears connected to your widescreen TV and getting a clear HDTV picture after scanning for new channels. I look forward to the day when every channel in Winnipeg has a digital signal. I don't watch much TV, but it'll be nice to see the resurgence in roof antennas over the next few years.

Maybe global could take pity on CBC and feed their digital signal on a standard definition digital subchannel.

Also, if you get cable TV, you can get the Global Winnipeg HD channel that way too. Don't know if its unencrypted QAM, but surely if you have a box you'll get it. Granted at this exact moment, they're airing a Ben Affleck movie called Surviving Christmas in Standard Pan and Scan 4:3, but that movie most likely doesn't deserve any better, so good call Global.

** minor update.. I'm seeing minor sound dropoffs, but I'm guessing they're still working on that. **

Time Magazine

Time magazine awarded its person of the year award to the creator of Facebook. Time magazine has an online poll that asks people who they would vote for, then completely ignores it. Chilean miners, Julian Asange, Lady Gaga & countless others all got more votes than Mark Zuckerberg. Why do they even do an online poll if they decided well in advance which non-entity to put on their cover? Pathetic. It's odd, I might have picked up an issue if they had gone with Assange, but I hate Facebook and all it stands for, so screw that. I actually can't believe I once had a subscription to that magazine. Mark Zuckerberg. Shameful.

Notion Ink Adam

I've been waiting for a google android tablet with the perfect specs for a while now, and it seems the Notion Ink Adam is going to be the first one at the plate. It's not perfect, nothing ever is, but its clearly better than an apple ipad in terms of features. But what most attracts me to the Adam is the overall exuberance of the Notion Ink team. They've been building this thing for a long time now and they're so close to not being vaporware, you just want to support them with their unbounding optimism. Plus its the first tablet which comes with Pixel Qi technology. The power saving features of E-Ink in an LCD screen. Plus its no cheap 7 inch tablet. It's 10 inches. And the camera swivels to the back or front so if you're not using skype, you can flip it out of the way.. The top of the line version is around $650.. which is actually really good all things considering it comes with. I'll probably get that version with the 3G built in. I hope they get good distribution in North America and don't run into too many supply problems. It's nice to see a company build something genuinely out of the desire to make something useful, not a locked down technology made to sucker the gullible.

Bodies, the yechhhsebition

So Bodies the Exhibition will be over pretty soon, according to ads plastinated .. err.. plastered around Winnipeg. Frankly, I find looking at the innards of the human body makes me queasy, and I wish True North Entertainment had not brought it here and I'll be happy to see it gone. I can't be the only one. I hate gore. I don't mind if its an animal but seeing people really brings it home to me. It's unfortunately why I could never work in Medicine. I will turn the channel if I see ER or some medical documentary. I wonder if theres a term for what I have. Anyways, on top of that theres the fact that the bodies are more than likely Chinese dissidents put in the pose of playing football or something. Imagine if you were put to death for being a member of the conservative party for example, and then your body was plastinated and given to the Chinese and put in, I dunno, a ping pong playing pose for the rest of eternity. I find it pretty disrespectful to be honest. Nevermind that afterwards I'd be spooked to see any future exhibitions there. Not that I believe the place would be haunted or anything, but just the idea that there were dead bodies on exhibit for like what, three quarters of a year? yechh.

Hey remember those F-35's the Conservatives want to spend 9 Billion on?

Apparently, someone looking into wikileaks recent leak has discovered American diplomats have been working to push other countries into buying these planes. In this instance, Norway. By using the excuse of conformity between NATO members to standardize on the American built plane. The article doesn't mention Canada at all, but its not difficult to put two and two together.

Of course, the Liberals wanted to open bidding to competing planes. I'm not a fan of the Liberals but they did manage at least to keep us out of Iraq and pay down the debt which the Conservatives are showing so far incapable of, so I'll give them that. But I do believe if we're buying planes, we should be buying the best plane out there for the best price possible, not merely (and probably quickly) caving in to salesmanship of American interests. That's just pathetic.

And people out there are complaining that theres nothing useful in these latest wikileaks. Not useful to the government, perhaps.

Feelin nostalgic this Sunday

I always liked Wonderstruck, but Bob McDonald definitely has a face made more for radio.





It wasn't the same once Casey and Finnegan died.



I would totally buy a best of the friendly giant DVD collection. I'd probably even pay exorbitant CBC store online prices.



Once they got rid of Ken, the show went downhill quickly.

The downtown Zellers is now open

If you didn't know, the downtown Zellers has opened in the Bay downtown basement. Looks shiny brand new. Also the Bay downtown and Zellers are open until 9pm, so that's nice if you're stuck downtown late and want to do some shopping. Not that they had any good deals or anything. Zellers always seems to be missing anything I might want for some reason, but they do appear to have an expanded selection compared to what the supermarket had before.. though the layout and exits are a bit confusing, hopefully they'll fix that with signage. Hopefully they renovate the Bay as well so that it only takes 2 floors cause really, they didn't need all that space and who really wanted to walk around that much? I'm a fan of efficiency. They must have just opened the Zellers though, as it looked really dead inside. Hopefully business picks up once people know it's there. I'm not the biggest fan of Zellers but I appreciate them putting a location downtown. I at least find it convenient. I guess in a way it will replace the one that closed down on Henderson Highway for me.

Congrats to Kevin Lamoureux

Persistence pays off I suppose. Or not having Jack Layton hovering behind you in all of your posters and campaign literature like a creepy Lenin. Seriously though, Stupidest thing I read was in the Winnipeg Sun where they actually thought the Conservatives had a chance. Stupidest thing I read all day. I like to think Filipinos aren't so myopic that they only vote along ethnic lines. The Winnipeg Sun thought otherwise. The woman was a complete non entity. Did she even do any campaigning? The only sad thing is she still managed to come ahead of all of the others like the greens and the pirate party.

Results Yoinked from Wikipedia (Cause there sure as hell wasn't anything to yoink from any media articles):

	Liberal	Kevin Lamoureux	7,306	46.3
	New Democrat	Kevin Chief	6,508	41.2
	Conservative	Julie Javier	1,645	10.4
	Green	John Harvie	115	0.7
	Pirate	Jeff Coleman	93	0.6
	Communist	Frank Komarniski	71	0.4
	Christian Heritage	Eric Truijen	45	0.3
Total valid votes			15,783

Anyways, there you go. Ignatieff can pretend this means something, Conservatives never had a chance there and they obviously knew it. What the hell, Winnipeg Sun? What the hell. Idiots.

CBC Radio: Wiretap

I used to hate wiretap when it was on after Vinyl Cafe. It was just a stupid place to put it. But now its not as bad as it used to be. It used to be wirecrap. Now its wire.. umm.. wire fap? no that's giving it too much credit. Wire.. snap. wire.. blap. Whatever. I don't hate it as much now. So there you go, proper placement of shows can be the difference between crap and not so crap.

I hate that stupid medical show though. ugh. And of course, cross country checkup continues its immortal quest to discuss the least interesting issues of the week.

Restaurant menus now and then

I went to McDonalds today for the first time in a long time (not for myself of course), and while waiting half an hour to place my order, I got to thinking about how much I hate their current menu boards. When I was a kid up until maybe 8 years ago perhaps, McDonalds and other restaurants had their menus looking like this:


more or less, anyways. Anything you might want to order, its right there. If its no longer available, its gone. Simple, effective, and you know how much you're paying for it.

Nowadays of course, all menus look like this at most fast food restaurants:

or like this:

I dunno, I hate it. Does McDonald's still sell those packs of cookies? WHO KNOWS! If you want to know how much a big mac is, you're fine, but how much is a hamburger? YOU DON'T KNOW! I think they do this on purpose so you don't think about the price. I wonder how much the prices have been jacked up in the last couple years under this new menu system. I'm actually surprised they don't use e-ink or LCD screens or something. They must spend a lot on production of these menus. I bet the first company that can produce at a decent price that pays for itself in a few years a photo quality e-ink glossy display, they'll sell tons of that crap to these restaurants.

Anyways, I hate these modern menuboards. Am I the only one?

CBC Radio news drives me to expletives

So I was listening to CBC radio all day yesterday, and their big story was that some farm outside of Winnipeg HAD THE FLU. It had the goddamn flu. WHOOPTY DOO IT HAD THE FLU! BIRDS GET THE FLU SOMETIMES! Jesus Christ they were acting as if a zombie virus or dengue fever had been discovered. It's fucking bird flu you fucking dumbasses. Just because you don't report sensationally on things that should actually be sensational news stories doesn't mean you should try to make this bullshit story interesting. Then TODAY, it turns out it was H5N2 which nobody gives a fuck about anyways. I swear it grated on me all day yesterday and today. Who the fuck is in charge of their news department? Mental deficients? This was never news. Bird gets the flu. honestly. Next they'll be reporting a cow with a blocked urinary tracked has mad cow disease. How pathetic.

Sony plans Android phone news in February

Coincidentally, my 3 years long rogers contract is over in February. I'm fine with either the X12 or the PSP phone as long as they both have front facing cameras and FM radio along with everything else the X10 had. I know they'll have mini HDMI, and I already have a mini-HDMI adapter so I'm set for that.

Heck, I might even buy both if they use the same battery type.


http://www.techtree.com/India/News/PlayStation_Phone_to_be_Launched_in_Feb_2011/551-113523-893.html

Thoughts

Why do websites that block Canada from watching their shows have no problem making you sit through a minute of commercials before telling you "no, its not available in your country because of a backwards media industry"

Mexisplosion

I wish I could say I was surprised at the 6 (so far) Canadian deaths from a gas explosion in Mexico at a resort, but I'm not. That one of the deaths was a 9 year old kid is sad, but again, I'm not surprised in the least. A 2 Year old child was also injured (his grandmother died).. The way I've seen it for a few years now.. If you're Canadian and going to Mexico, you will die. That's how I look at it, odds be damned. If I won tickets to Mexico, I wouldn't go. I wouldn't give it to family. I'd feel horrible giving them away to anyone out there. Sorry, but I can't think of a reason to go there. Even Winnipeg is safer.

Ebert Twitter

Says Ebert: Rachel McAdams could become America's Sweetheart if she weren't Canadian. She blooms in "Morning Glory." http://j.mp/dfTcTz

To which I reply: America's first sweetheart, Mary Pickford was born in Toronto. Canada is part of North America, which itself is part of the Americas. You still haven't reviewed Scott Pilgrim vs the World, which was also made and based in Toronto. Good day to you, sir.

Conan last night

Conan O'Brien made a joke with Andy about there not being any urination scenes in the Goonies. This is completely untrue. Midway through the movie, they stop off at a wishing well and go urinate. I've been watching Conan's show since the first episode and I'm never watching Conan again. This lack of attention to detail is exactly the type of poor quality I would expect from TBS. I was hoping O'Brien would up the quality of the network slightly but it seems 3 episodes in that my faith in him was misguided. I have seen the error of my ways, and will only watch Jay Leno from now on. He was right all along. How could anyone who loves cars more than his wife be on the wrong side of anything? Answer, he can't be. I owe an apology to Jay Leno who would never make such a flagrant error on his show and is a respectable gentleman. Good day.

Conan

A lot of people are complaining about Conan spending too much time on the whole NBC/TBS/Jay Leno situation now that he's finally back and able to. These people are idiots. How long did Jay Leno milk O.J? How long did David Letterman and even Johnny Carson himself go on about GE owning NBC? I think these people who are bitching about Conan were never fans of his in the first place. I enjoyed the first show quite a bit, and the other ones were also entertaining.. In fact, they seem to go by far too fast somehow. Conan should just add a half hour to his show. Johnny Carson managed to do it. I guess that would be unfair to George Lopez, who was already accommodating enough. But I think Conan could easily fill another half hour with another skit and maybe more comedians.

Leisure Centers

I was looking into whats open and closed on Remembrance day, and the thought hit me.. why are "leisure centers" closed on holidays? Wouldn't those be the days when people have the most leisure time?

Then again I've never gone to a leisure centre so I have no idea.

Same with Museums and such. I Wonder if the Museum for Human Rights will be closed on Remembrance day, now that I think about it.

Twitbook

You know what I hate, whenever some cause occurs, the thing to do is to go on Facebook or Twitter and speak your mind and add a friend or whatever the heck you do I friggin hate Facebook. The other day there was some sort of entry for some sort of contest and they want you to log in through Facebook. You know what they really want is your personal information and your connections and such. I refuse to play that game, anyways, for profit or for ones cause du jour. Everyone wants your Facebook info. Everybody. It's disgusting.

Not that people who are starting these petitions who want to show support for something with facebook friends are trying to get your personal information, I'm not saying that, but I refuse to log in to facebook because its just so invasive. Dominos Pizza, I dunno, whoever, they love pushing Facebook. So while I am disappointed in the sudden removal of the Great Canadian Talk show from Kick FM, I won't be joining any Facebook crusades to save it. I'm assuming they'll come out with some interesting excuses over the next few days for the sudden yank. While I never agreed with everything Marty Gold said, occasionally he did seem pedantic and I don't personally give a damn about Israeli political issues or old wrestling industry stories, he was entertaining, seemed to genuinely desire to bring issues other media would ignore altogether, and seemed to be a major proponent of students learning and making a difference rather than merely spouting a party line. I do think it was a good strategy by the station to have the talk show, as it got people listening to the station and other programs. I don't listen to the university stations as much as I could.

The thing that I hate more than anything else though is political manipulation. If you hate Marty Gold and his talk show, great! Nobody is ever going to be universally loved, but you should never be happy to see someone kicked off of something suddenly with the appearance of interference by people in positions of power. They either should have told the guy in writing why the decision was made, and given fair warning for them to end their show. I'm surprised they didn't do this on a friday. I guess it amounted to the same thing as there was no show on Monday his last show was on a Friday.. It really does have that whole Office Space cliche "Fired on a friday" feel to it.

Anyways, back to Facebook crusades. I hate Facebook so much. Why does everyone want to be my friend? I DON'T WANT TO BE YOUR FRIEND! GO AWAY! WHO ARE YOU!!

Not that I want to keep bitching about the CBC

Today I was listening to CBC radio and on the news they kept referring to Afghanistan as Ofghahnihstahhn. Who in Canada knows where Ofghahnihstahhn is? It's so irritating I just have to tune out. Who enjoys that? It's just so forced.

Inexplicably, Seats Still Available for Ron James’ Manitoba Tour

with one week to go, the host of “The Ron James Show” on CBC, Ron James, has tons of seats still available. How can a comedian who "has five television comedy specials to his name" and "brings laughter with his Canadian-style humour wherever he travels." not sell out immediately? What kind of world do we live in where this isn't funny:



?

If you couldn't tell, I was being sarcastic. Who the hell says "Is your problem digital or analogue" ? Maybe if talking about a television signal, but.. what the hell is he even talking about? Is it simply reveling in ones own ignorance on a subject that is the source of his humour? This style of "comedy" is everything I hate in the world. But, some people like it. Clearly not enough to fill up the Pantages theatre in Winnipeg, of course, clearly not good enough for anything but quota filling by the CBC.. "We need some more shows on CBC with people from the maritimes or else they'll start to get uppity, whatcha got for me" "This comedian, Ron James.. people seem to laugh at the words coming out of his mouth for some reason".. Still, It takes an amazing amount of talent for someone to make someone else laugh without saying anything particularly funny. Bravo, Ron James. Though if the above comedy clip on youtube is any indication, theres no worry of him finding his way to my blog post.

CBC Radio: As it Happens

I really hate the way radio hosts on CBC,or at least the ones on CBC Radio One's "As It Happens" - say goodbye to their guests. It sounds so smarmy and smug. "Buh-bye".. Reminds me of that SNL skit with David Spade as an airline flight attendant with someone else going "BUH BYE".

I can't think of a better more genuine way to let the caller go, but it just irritates me every time I hear it. What can you do I guess.

What to do, eh CRTC?

It's enough to make you into a conspiracy theorist.

The CRTC, a bloated and redundant government department created to make jobs in Quebec and to rubber stamp anything media and telecom companies want, has just green lit usage based internet pricing.

Staffed by former Bell, Rogers, Telus and other media employees, the CRTC has for years worked tirelessly to do everything in their power to keep prices high and consumer pockets empty. They continue in this vein today, despite the fact that telecommunications complaints with cell phone companies, who already charge usage based fees, are amongst the most hated, and receive the most complaints of ANY OTHER BUSINESS ORGANIZATION IN CANADA, have actually seen complaints RISE. How? How can they be rising? They're already the worst and most hated companies in Canada! But nevermind that.

So the CRTC allows media companies to join together, buy up the competition, drive up prices, divy things up between themselves, and return us to the glory days of the 60's and 70's when we could be charged up the ass for the privilege of communicating with each other while they frolic and bathe in goats blood or whatever the hell they do with all that money pouring in. They're certainly not pouring it back into infrastructure.

Now Shaw Cable admits they plan to introduce overage fees if you go over your download limit. Now sure, Shaws limits are decent and I never hit them, but I am opposed to the CONCEPT of being charged for going over a limit. It is WHY I don't currently have a telephone data plan. Will I use over 500mb with a cell phone? Probably not, but I am never going to risk that scenario occuring.

The conspiracy theories come in when you start to wonder if this is all act one in response to ACTA, the secret anti counterfeiting strategy cooked up by the very same busybodies. The one that proposes a three strikes you're off the internet forever law. One that requires no actual proof, one that is being pushed by the current Obama government in the United States. Is this all an attempt to undermine the internet? To destroy the ability of small ISP's to exist? to price the internet out of the hands of those who would use it? I mean, it doesn't REALLY cost anything more to download more. It's all just bits. And if it does cost more, its nowhere close to what they're proposing to charge and they know it.

So if you can't wait for a tiered walled garden internet, where you're free to do whatever you want so long as you stay under your "cap" and so long as you only enjoy Canadian ISP's using officially licensed american entertainment you can stream with a $20 convenience surcharge, continue to vote Liberal or Conservative federally. By all means. I'm voting for the Pirate Party. All other issues remaining equal, I'm getting fed up with this garbage being pushed by government departments that should be working in OUR interests.

cknd / global winnipeg OTA DTV update

It looks like they've been approved to operate on channel 40 for digital ATSC by Industry Canada. If you have a digital TV and an antenna, I would expect them to be up and operational any day in the next month or so. I can't see them waiting for the snow to fall before they put it up now that they've finally got approval, so finally Winnipeg will have at least one HDTV channel available over the air. Ironically, Shaw, who just purchased Canwest Global, will be abandoning the Canwest Global (TD) building anyways for their head offices. It's slightly ironic because that's where the new channel 40 tower is going. It's odd to me that so many companies choose to keep their head offices in cities where the cost of doing business must certainly be higher, but Shaw started out in Alberta I guess so whatever. If MTS ever sells out or gets bought out, watch their head offices move too.

Congratulations Mayor Katz

Well, Sam Katz won, which everybody except the Winnipeg Free Press pollsters predicted. I myself voted for him, as I am a strong proponent of his get tough on youth crime strategy by kicking kids in the face before they even think of joining gangs. That said, I am disappointed in the NDP for bringing party politics into the election. I have voted NDP in the past, and even though Ross Eadie won in Mynarski, I feel there is enough of a taint on the whole situation that hopefully there are repercussions for his rumoured actions. I was surprised that all of the school trustees won by acclimation in Mynarski. Maybe I should have put my name in just for fun. Everyone knows they always win by Eenie Meenie Miney Moe anyways.

Interesting to see Thomas Steen win. And it was fairly close, too. I hope he's able to make a difference in the way he desires.

I hope Katz realizes that he does not have to appease all of those bike lobby type people. They clearly didn't vote for him, their ideas are mostly nonsensical (have you seen those stupid "roundabouts"?) and could have cost him the election. He needs to get either Bus rapid transit or LRT moving, he needs to make public what the whole situation is with this Violia company, and he needs to get more police out there putting real criminals in jail for a long time. Not sitting at photo radar traps irritating the public or wasting time "policing" the zombie walk.. if they were real zombies, they would get infected, so its a hazard, and since they're not real, there is no danger to the general public despite the potential 4 or 5 frightened religious born again senior citizens scared out of their wits that the end times have come and they've been left behind.

Anyways, its more of the same at city hall, but lets hope its not.

More Mynarski Madness - Maybe Motkaluk?

This time I will review Jenny Motkaluk's most recent flyer. First of all, it is pink. Pink like the medicine my 3 year old nephew has to take cause he's sick. Bah, I won't let this stop me. I must carry forward.

First line says "Jenny Motkaluk is the only candidate in Mynarski who believes that we need cops to get out of their cars and walk the beat."

eh, I dunno, Greg Littlejohn at least claims he believes that too. I just read his flier! But maybe he doesn't truly believe it and Jenny knows. Jenny is psychic. She can read his true feelings using the Jenny force. Okay, point in her favour then. That's impressive.

Personally, I think we should replace our cop cars with Autobots. They can drive themselves, and transform in any emergencies. Especially attacks by Megatron.

"Jenny truly understands the necessity and importance of enhancing police foot patrols. Not only will there be an impact on crime, but there will also be greater opportunity for communities to build relationships with the cops walking the beat in the neighbourhoods." says Mike Sutherland, president of the Winnipeg Police Association.

You know what'd really create a rapport with cops? If you didn't have to worry they'd nitpick and arrest you for every little thing. "YOU'RE WEARING BLUE SHOES ON A SUNDAY? $500 FINE AS PER BYLAW 55-6 FROM 1962 YOU BEATNIK!" .. or maybe that's just my runaway imagination. Still, enhancing police foot patrols sounds cool. Maybe they can get some of those mobile harness things like in the movie Avatar.

"Jenny understands the importance of revitalizing the North End business comunity to ensure a bright future for our neighbourhood. Jenny will lead passionately to restore the vibrancy for which the North End was once renowned across Canada." - Trevor Sprague, former Chair of the winnipeg Chamber of Commerce.

Well, Trevor Sprague is her husband, so.. ummm.. I mean, that's like an endorsement from your mom. Oh he's a good boy, he always eats his carrots. (I didn't. I wrapped them in a napkin when she wasn't looking.. shhh, I don't want to lose my most loyal supporter)

"Jenny Motkaluk is the perfect choice to represent Mynarski, send her to City Hall." says Alex Forrest, a Firefighter.

How to read this. Will Jenny increase fires in Mynarski, thus providing more jobs for the Firefighters union? That's probably not necessary in Mynarski though. I suppose if I were a firefighter I'd be happiest if fires were rare so I could play "Wii Firefighter" on the Nintendo Wii at the firehall.. That exists, right? You point the controller like a firehose and put out the fire? If not, I own the rights to that ORIGINAL IDEA DO NOT STEAL... then again, why would they have to play a game version of their job? Would accountants be forced to play wii accounting? Still, there have been some odd games out there in the past. Who knows.

Jenny should have spun this differently. She should have said "Jenny is supported by the Forrest creature" and left it up to our imaginations. Ooooh the Forrest creature. What is that? It's a magical creature that lives in the forest! It grants wishes!. But I guess that'd be misleading and confusing, cause Forrest is spelled differently from Forest.

Jenny is endorsed by: lots of people I won't type cause whatever. Except Harry Lazarenko, that's a good one to have. And Mike Wiens, a Hardworking ordinary guy. If you got Mike Wiens in your corner, you can't lose!

I'm not gonna type out the last page cause its just more "rah rah Jenny's da best".

About Jenny:
Jenny lives 2 blocks away from where she grew up in Winnipeg's North End.

I wonder who lives in her old house, then. Maybe its a crack house. heh. Sorry, that'd be harsh. But it would give her a deep seated motivation to clean up Mynarski. They took her childhood home and turned it into a crack house. But Jenny Motkaluk ran for City Councilor and turned it into the Mynarski center for curious puppies and overly cute babies. This fall on A&E.

Jenny attended McGill university and graduated from UBC.

she's been everywhere, man.

Jenny has 15 years of experience in business with Fortune 500 companies, universities, and research organizations.

Me too. I've used IBM products and Apple products and Sony products and Microsoft products. That's 4 Fortune 500 companies I've had experience in business with. I've also researched how to obtain immortality and/or turn lead into gold using smurfs. That's right, I'm Gargamel. Why would you turn lead into gold when a smurf is a far more valuable thing to have considering he kept catching them when everyone thought they were imaginary, wouldn't he have made more money by just showing it off? But I guess that's alchemists for you. Always after the pursuit of knowledge. It was never about the money. What was my point again?

Oh right, Jenny Motkaluk. You know, I wish she had the phone number 867-5309 as her campaign number. That right there would be enough reason to vote for her.

Her picture shows her owning an english springer spaniel dog. I hate those dogs. I'm generally a dog person, but those dogs.. those dogs, man. I only hate poodles more. Don't get me started on the westminster dog show.

she's at www.jennyforcouncil.com, not to be confused with jenny gerbasi's website www.jennyagainstcouncil.com. (It's a joke, people)

I dunno. I kinda wish there was a Jenny running in every ward and for mayor. That'd be great. All the Jenny's would go to city hall and start wailin at each other. They'd have to nuke the city, probably. Well, as critical of I am of this particular flier, I am leaning towards voting for her. Unless the other two remaining candidates for Mynarski that I haven't gone over have better fliers. I mean, she has Lazarenko's blessing. Why even bother to vote for anyone else? Honestly, based on other things and other fliers, I'll probably vote for her, but this flier was pretty crap.

More Mynarski Flyers - Greg Littlejohn

Well, Greg Littlejohn has one thing instantly going in his favour, he shares a name with a Robin Hood character. I haven't so far been pushed to vote for him. Still, I'm going to speed-review a flyer I got from him. www.greglittlejohn.ca is his website address.

Action on crime
"implementing foot and bike patrols"

Well, yeah ok. Put more cops on the street. Sure.

"Supporting the new police cadet program"

As opposed to opposing it? okay..

"Freeing up police officers to deal with crime"

yes, this is a good point. Less paperwork, more policework.

"Supporting programs that keep young people away from crime and out of trouble"

like boot camps? locking them up in jail? What else would work?

"Shifting 20-25 officers to the street gang unit"

Is the street gang unit really understaffed? Do the gangs really need more babysitters? Wouldn't it be better to just put them in jail for any little infraction of the law until they're gone?

"Supporting community policing"

yeah.. ok I guess.

Ensuring transparency
"Reviewing our sewer and water treatment system contract with Veolia to ensure there is adequate disclosure of the costs to taxpayers"

While I agree with the notion that we should NOT be signing anything that is not released to the public first, and not be dealing with companies that refuse to make their tenders public, and in fact refusing to deal with such companies in the first place, Sam Katz dropped the ball on this one, acting as if the city is a business and he's the boss, rather than letting the real boss know what the deal is. As apparently it has nothing to do with the water utility per se, and it would be illegal to, but purely the sewage system. I don't know if Littlejohn was caught up in this disinformation or if he's an active participant, but all the same, if Sam Katz had a more open city hall, he wouldn't be burned by things like this. So, fair enough.

Enforcing by-laws
"Managing concerns about household waste"
"Dealing with derelict housing"

My problem isn't so much with derelict housing as much as it is with slumlords. Granted, enforcing bylaws with regards to derelict housing is important, I can see the city acting too aggressively to deprive an owner of their property just because they're not in a financial position where reparations would make sense. Granted "dealing with derelict housing" is such a vague statement, I don't even know where to start with that. As for managing concerns about household waste... what? Is this a big concern?

Action on infrastructure
"Repairing broken roads and lanes"
"Improving transit services"
"Expanding Handi-Transit to meet demand"

While I'm always in favour of improving transit services, what we need are more buses running more frequently. Don't tell me theres no demand cause there is. Transit is just understaffed and prioritizes other areas of the city over Mynarski/North Winnipeg.. Plus most bus drivers probably loathe driving the 16 or 38 buses thanks to gangs and drug addicts and vagrants. I dunno. Saying he will improve it doesn't really.. convince me that he can.

"Developing an affordable housing plan"
"Implementing a bed bug policy"

there are affordable housing plans. It's called Manitoba Housing. It's where all the bed bugs are probably coming from. We need less affordable housing and more unaffordable housing.

"Supporting community centres"
"Completing the North Winnipeg Parkway"

Meh.

"Maintaining our urban forest"

This is important to me. I don't want to lose our beautiful urban treescape thanks to ignorant politicians cutting back the tree people.

"Implementing a food security policy"
"Supporting businesses"

I have no idea what this means. Food security policy? Really? Is this a worry? As for supporting businesses, meh.

Now for the visionary stuff. Sharing a vision

"Restoring Winnipeg's pride in the North End"

most of winnipeg has never really had pride in the North End. If it wasn't natives today, it was immigrants of yesteryear and jews and polish and the irish or scottish or whatever the ethnicity of derision of the time was. Lets not kid ourselves that "Winnipeg" had pride in the North End. However, restoring North End pride, I think is a worthy goal.

"Relocating the CPR Yards"

This is stupid. There is no need. There is no point. There is no Money to do it. The CPR yards are a huge industrial area. Theres no way its going to move easily. Lets say you did. What then? Now CPR employees have to go out of town to work. Where is it going to be moved to? Now that area is going to be polluted. And how do you afford the clean up? Have you ever seen a gas station shut down? Imagine that for an area the size of the CPR. Nevermind the fact that I actually kindof like looking at the trains off the Arlington or Salter bridge. Gives the city a bit of character. No. This one has never really made sense to me. It's like someone who has played Sim City too often with the Shift+FUNDS cheat.

"building on the positive momentum for sustainable development"

wat? This is pure gobbledygook.

How come for the next why for the minus time experience shoe?

that's how it reads to me.

He's not a bad candidate I guess, but I don't really feel inspired by his flyer. Seems like pretty words with little substance. Oh well.

Ross Eadie City Council candidate for Mynarski Ward

I got a pamphlet from Ross Eadie today. His five commitments to the people of Mynarski:

1) Crime reduction and Safer Neighbourhoods

How? More Cops? Give all the criminals jobs working for the NDP?

2) Fair Taxes

Fair to who? Probably not homeowners, that's for sure.

3) Infrastructure Renewal and Maintenance

Okay. No snarky remark to this one from me.

4) Traffic Safety Innovations

Like what? Cars made of soft foam? Bike Paths? Busses that constantly emit a horribly loud beeping noise to tell people "HERE COMES THE BUS"?

5) More Progressive Ideas for Winnipeg

???!???


Then it goes on to say "As a school trustee Ross promoted the subdivision of surplus land resulting in more income from the sales which financed better facilities at the new West Kildonan Collegiate".. except of course this was all done in a very sketchy manner and from what I hear was illegal.

he is also a "Veteran participant in ongoing active transportation and street access consultations".. well, I haven't personally been impressed by how active transportation has been going about doing things, so that one is a big miss for me.

"Appointed to the City of Winnipeg Library, Forward Thinking Steering Committee".. which I think means he showed up and they said "oh, hello, wanna be on a committee?".. but, I support libraries so theres that, though I miss the quiet reading room at the West Kildonan Library and haven't been there really since they removed it for useless open space. I'll assume it was all Ross Eadie's idea and I shall give him a negative mark on this one. I'm not basing this on any actual evidence, I just really miss the reading room and someone has to take the fall.

"Appointed to the Residential Tenancies Commission" .. from the provincial website: "Landlords and tenants may appeal orders and decisions issued by the Residential Tenancies Branch. The commission hears these appeals. Appeals are heard by a panel of three consisting of one landlord and one tenant representative and either the chief commissioner or a deputy commissioner as the neutral chairperson." A Simple google search shows he was a tenant representative, and eventually resigned. Now, certainly, tenants have a right to be represented in such disputes, and someone has to do it, but to be honest personally I feel landlords concerns don't get enough consideration in this city and it is sometimes the reason they're unable to evict certain individuals, and why things can't be done to make the first step to move forward commitment number one. I think that representing the tenant is the easy route. Not knocking this, but not particularly impressed by it.

anyways, he's clearly been on a lot of committees. I myself am on zero committees. Man I wish I had that sort of time. In any case, he seems like an okay guy who means well, but I just can't bring myself to vote for him. The minute the NDP started supporting candidates at the civic level is the minute I decided not to vote for said candidates. I'd do the same if the Conservatives or Liberals blatantly supported someone's campaign. Party Politics might be a necessary evil provincially and federally, but I despise them and anyone who tries to pollute the civic elections with them should be shunned.

Warehouse One

Warehouse One recently changed their logo. I haven't shopped there for years, because.. well, why? But in any case, they've updated their 80's/90's style logo with something they surely feel is more modern. It almost looks like a generic logo designed to appeal to women, but then if you look closelier..




I hope they don't get sued by Namco, owners of the Pac-Man trademark and copyright. They have been known to protect their intellectual property very mercilessly in the past.

Now you can't unsee it.

Fish jump into new pond

The Winnipeg Goldeyes are going to join the American Association, along with three other Northern League teams that didn't make the split years back. This is pretty good news if you're a Goldeyes fan, because now you can see some more variety in terms of competition, and it rekindles the old rivalry with St Paul.

Winnipeg seems to be the only Canadian team in the American Association, wonder how that will work out. Probably fine as the league has revenue sharing and Winnipeg should bring in a decent revenue. Also the salary cap will be somewhat lower, so they'll save a bit of money there too.

Its a shame that they couldn't simply absorb/merge with the whole Northern League more fluidly (though in essence a merger is whats happening), but there you go. I've always liked the name Northern League and I'll miss it, but lets be honest, the last few years the competition has been rather uninspired.

I doubt the Northern League is in much of a position to do anything through legal channels to the remaining teams. They weren't able to do anything to the previous teams that left 4 or 5 years ago if I recall correctly.

Trackpoint scrolling in Ubuntu (or Linux in general)

You'd think with the amount of people who use laptops/keyboards with IBM's trackpoint interface, that whoever designs the GUI for both the gnome and kde mouse preference dialog would put a checkbox for [X] ENABLE TRACKPOINT SCROLLING. Jesus Christ its almost 2011. Leave it off by default if you must, but how hard is it to put it in there?

Winnipeg Blue Bombers

Somehow the Winnipeg Blue Bombers won despite trailing by 10 points in the last 5 minutes of the game. I don't know how they did it, and I was at the game and had pretty spectacular seats for once. I was ready to write a post saying I had now seen the bombers lose in every section of the stadium, but alas, I have not seen them lose in every section of the stadium now.

And why is security seemingly rooting for B.C? Security should not wear orange during B.C games. It's not right.

So will the Bombers make the playoffs? I still doubt it, but it would be ridiculous if they did. It was such a ridiculous game you don't even know.

A lot of people left with 3 minutes to go. I wonder if any of them came back. It totally seemed like there was no way for the Bombers to win. As such, it was an entertaining game at the very least.

Canon Cameras

Sadly, if you're buying a digital camera, why buy anything else? I've owned 2 Canons, I've used Kodaks and Panasonics and Sony's, and my most recent camera was a fuji. But Canon is somehow the best. And they know it.

I have a Canon SD780IS, and its pretty sweet, runs the open source (Im pretty sure, anyways) CHDK firmware add on, which allows you to do crazy things like zoom in while filming a movie, shooting in raw mode, time lapse photography, and other scripted things like motion sensing for lightning shots (gonna have to try that out next summer)..

Anyways, my mom recently bought the Canon SD3500IS, which is also pretty sweet. It does NOT run the CHDK firmware at this time, but theoretically it should be possible for a programmer to do it. It is a pretty sweet camera, I just played with it for 10 minutes showing my mom how to use it, and once you get used to the large touch screen and swiping motions, using buttons is kinda lamentable. I hope for once she has found a camera where she can use it without pestering me for help.

In any case, I bet Canon is going to go heavy into the touch screen interface in the coming years. It seems like the right direction to move into.

Winnipeg Blue Bombers fined for criticizing refs

And it looks like one of the local newspapers is behind a drive to pay the fine.

First, there should be no fine. The CFL has very bad officiating. Players are clearly getting frustrated. Unless the funds from this fine are going towards hiring better officials, there should be no fine.

Second, The CFL risks alienating fans. The Bombers are already bleeding fans from the fact that they suck pretty bad this year, but even still, it'd be nice to not be screwed even more by bad refereeing. Then to be FINED for telling the truth? That the officiating sucks so bad it seems like they're actually rooting for a particular team?

Is there going to be an investigation into these refs? What sort of work is done to ensure they aren't being paid off or coerced by outside forces? There is certainly a lot of corruption in Quebec, and Montreal is from Quebec. A lot of mafia types have made their homes there as well. Is there a connection? I don't know. I'm not saying one way or another, I'm just pointing out that fact.. But it seems like a fine how do you do to kick the Bombers while they're down, then fine them on top of it. Very unsportsmanlike, CFL.

Not that I've personally watched a game since they went exclusive with TSN. Screw that shit. Needing cable to watch the grey cup.. nah.

Bluetooth headset

I recently bought a bluetooth A2DP stereo adapter. It's pretty neat. wish it used a standard mini-usb charging plug but I understand why it doesnt. Also it'd be nice if it had a caller ID display screen in a similar way as beepers used to along the edge, but I paid $15 bucks for it so who am I to complain. It works with my phone and ubuntu, so that's cool.

The point of this post though is to point out the distance you can take a bluetooth headset from the source. about 3 meters. Just out of reach of my bathroom. Sadness.

Air Canada Scam

So I have two cell phones, one is on Rogers pay as you go, and the other is a number that was ported from Telus to another carrier, either way, I have two cell phones, and a voip landline at home. Both Cell phones received a call purportedly from "Air Canada" telling me I have won something from them and thanking me for using Air Canada in the past. First, I have never flown Air Canada, so theres that, secondly, I'm not an idiot who falls for scams. The phone number that showed up on both phones was 1-403-864-8989, and if you try to "claim your prize" you get transferred to some idiot from India in a call centre somewhere, who requests your name and credit number.

Hopefully there aren't too many naive idiots out there falling for this. I have to assume the phone number that shows up on call display is not the actual phone number they're dialing from, as it crosses in the 411.ca listings to some lake in Alberta.

Anyways, I like to keep people on the phone as long as possible when they try to scam me, just for fun, but sadly I was too busy to do anything to waste their time this time.

EXCLUSIVE JUSTIN BIEBER!!!

JUSTIN BIEBER!!

BABY BABY!!!

HERE IS A CLIP OF A FEW MINUTES OF LAST NIGHTS BIEBER SHOW AT THE MTS CENTRE OMG IT'S SO AWESOME MY FRIEND SMUGGLED IN HER CELL PHONE IN HER BUMHOLE THEY DON'T LOOK THERE!!! SHE SAID SHE HAD AN IRON PLATE THERE LOLOLOL!!!

BAYB ABBAYYBABYYY ABBYBBAYBAYYEE



BIEBER BEIBER BIERIBEBER BABBYY BABY BIEBER

Book Review: The Sunless City by J. E. Preston Muddock

So I can't quantify what EXACTLY made me search out this book, but seek it out I did. I thought it would be more difficult, but there are at least two digital copies of this book online. I assume its been out of copyright since 2004, since copyright should presumably last the life of the author + 70 years and the author died in 1934. Anyways, I downloaded it and read it, and it was quite enjoyable, and a surprising window into the beliefs of the time period it was written in (1905).

Indeed I was first interested in the book from one of the Canada Vignettes commercials that used to air on Canadian TV (I honestly actually sort of miss them...) So it took me what, 20 years to actually seek the book out and read it? Yes it would appear so.



As the vignette states, Flin Flon is the only Canadian city named after a science fiction hero. Vulcan, Alberta is named after a race of science fiction aliens.. kindof. But Flin Flon was an adventurer who explored an "inner world" deep inside of our own and discovered amongst other things living dinosaur type creatures, and a vast city of Gold ruled by a matriarchy. Another interesting thing about Flin Flon the town is it has a statue of Flin Flon designed by cartoonist Al Capp. That's kind of neat.

Anyways, its worth a download. So the book centers around the main character of Josiah Flintabbatey Flonatin or Flin Flin for short, an intelligent man who builds a submarine type craft shaped like a fish that allows him to explore a mysterious believed to be bottomless lake situated somewhere around the rocky mountains. He comes out of the ordeal a very changed man, and eventually dies with the world believing his stories the works of a madman, until the posthumous publication of his adventures in the very same novel the reader is presumed to be reading.

While the characters pronouncements are clearly dated (He makes reference to people living on the moon as something of a certainty), and there are cracks about evolution that make you wonder whether Muddock or even the main character as a scientist is for or against. There is a backwards city of "pre-humans" who live with women in charge, which seems to be an outright attack on the ultimate goal of feminist thought of the time, but I still can't be certain if the author was being beligerent or clever.

Needless to say the book has about as much relevant science in it as any movie by Michael Bay. Muddock is no Isaac Asimov, but the book is entertaining enough, and the character of Flin Flon and the adventures he has remind me of actual adventurists of those earlier time periods who would go on expeditions to South America or Africa, or China or Antarctica or who knows where. It makes one think its quite a shame that there are so few places presumably left to discover on our planet Earth. Which likely explains why most Science Fiction takes place in the future or in outer space (or both) nowadays.

Anyways, sexism and political incorrectness and scientific nonsense aside, its not a very difficult read. I wouldn't be adverse to coming across some other J.E Preston Muddock work and giving it a go either. So in the end, I mildly recommend it to anyone with an interest in such books.

Faceborks

Observation of the day.

The only thing that would make Facebook less evil is if Apple or Microsoft bought it.

Thats messed up.

Update on Winnipeg's Digital TV Future status

Here is pretty much the final likelyhood of how Winnipeg will look after the digital TV switchover in Canada in 2011.

Channel 40 - CKND/Global TV. It will be up by the end of the year. Probably late october or early December, as I doubt they like working on antennas as much when its icy and snowing. This is the only channel Winnipeg will have before 2011 in HDTV, so advertisers, make note, its probably a good idea to spend your money there rather than on another network.

Channel 7 - CTV. According to documents filed with the CRTC, they plan to switch over in August 2011 right on the cutover date. Thats commitment to the community. They have to be forced, and can't be bothered to do it until the last minute. But hey, you know who is worse?

Channel 27 - CBC - August 2012. CBC is LEGALLY REQUIRED to switch over to digital before August 2011, they are legally required to do this, and they have known for years, and I have e-mailed them asking them at least two years ago, and I know I'm not the only one, but lo and behold, they don't have the money to do it and can't do it until August 2012. Sure they found money for Toronto like 3 years ago, and Vancouver maybe 2 by now, but Winnipeg.. nope. Can't properly budget for anything, apparently.

Same with Channel 51, CBWFT. They won't be up and running because CBC doesn't think over the air television in HD is a necessity for anyone outside of Toronto or Vancouver. Despite the fact studies are showing, at least after the U.S transition, for the first time Cable TV subscribers are actually going down after almost a 30 year increase. People don't want to pay for a million channels they aren't watching. They want their local networks in HD and that's more than enough (anything else can be supplemented by DVD's and Internet TV. Now, theoretically CBC could save money and get BOTH CBWFT and the regular CBC up on one shared antenna until they can find money for both. they could fit two 720p quality signals up and I'd be happy enough and they'd meet the minimum requirements of the CRTC, but the CBC likes to play political games and wants to make itself irrelevant. They actually seem to want to stop broadcasting. Isn't that insane? In the USA, PBS was at the forefront. They saw the opportunity. In Britain, the BBC helped spur the technology. In Canada, the CBC is an anachronism that I suppose doesn't feel it needs to exist if the Liberal party isn't in power. Pathetic. But I've blogged about this before. The CBC clearly doesn't think of itself as Canada's public broadcaster.

I mean, look at it like this. Imagine if someone told you that the CBC was going to abandon FM radio. "You can still get it on Sirius satellite radio! and the Internet!" You'd think they were mad! But for TV, that's exactly what they're saying. That's exactly their perspective. Insane. But I digress.

If you have a really good antenna in Winnipeg and you're lucky, and its a nice day, you might be able to pick up Fox KNRR on channel 12. With regular bunny ears or non amplified cheap antenna, probably not. They still aren't broadcasting in HD, presumably if they ever do get their HD up and running they might boost their power a bit.

City TV owned by Rogers also plans to switch over to HD digital on August 2011 (staying on Channel 13). I currently can't pick up City TV with any quality, so I'm a bit saddened that they're not going to switch earlier as I can't be the only one unable to pick it up except as a snowy ghost channel. Oh well, guess I won't watch it then.

Channel 35, Joy TV, I have no idea, as they seem incapable of responding to emails. Perhaps it is their spam filter. Who knows. Technically they are required to switch over to digital by August 2011. I can actually pick up Joy TV the best of any signal in Winnipeg, and I don't really find myself the target of most of their programming, but still, I assume August 2011 like the rest.

Firefly/Serenity and Rocket Robin Hood

I honestly believe that Firefly was based on the Canadian animated TV series Rocket Robin Hood (Which in turn was obviously based on the public domain story of Robin Hood)

Sure, they changed a lot of things for copyright reasons, but I think its really obvious.


Rocket Robin Hood- Cosmo Khan Full seasons and entire episodes online.

Look at these crazy shenanigans. A cliche mongolian villain who talks like Mojo Jojo.. Lots of villains talked like that back then. Heist a whole planet? That's madness.

Look, the Firefly crew had a priest, Rocket Robin Hood has Friar Tuck. Jayne is clearly Little John with a twist. He likes weapons.. In the cartoon I have embedded, Little John makes a comment about busting heads, and rocket Robin Hood tells him to STFU. Totally how it would go on Firefly. Heck, Jayne has a whole planet of people who think of him as a Robin Hood type folk hero who robs from the rich and gives to the poor. Now imagine how that story would grow to other planets after the events of the movie Serenity? Jayne and Captain Mal Reynolds are probably untouchable in the verse as heroes now. They have their reputation, however unjustly deserved. They have a corrupt government wanting to destroy them.

Its totally Rocket Robin Hood updated without horrible 60's animation. I'll bet if I dug even deeper I'd find even more parallels. Joss Whedon, I'm on to you.

Tablets and junk

I want to buy a tablet computer. I wont buy an Apple iPad because.. well, fuck apple. However, I am interested in buying a Google tablet device. Heres why I currently cannot.

1) It has to take an SD Card. This isn't a fucking Mobile Phone I want to buy, its a 7-10" TABLET. Give it a goddamn SD slot. If I want to put a mini-SD card, I'll use a damn adapter. It's bigger than a cell phone, you can find the space for an SD slot. Heck my old HP Ipaq has an SD slot AND a friggin Compact Flash slot so don't tell me its that hard.

2) It has to be at least 1Ghz. Anything less 800... no. Seriously, I won't even look at it if its less than 1000Mhz. And no I don't want an intel atom chip.

3) HDMI Output. I want to have HDMI output. Will I ever use it? Unlikely. Very rarely, anyways.. but it needs HDMI output. Non crippled either. I'm okay with mini-hdmi.

4) Obviously it has to have bluetooth so I can use a bluetooth keyboard with it.

and finally 5) It needs a camera. They put cameras on every other device under the sun, but for some reason they're eschewing cameras on most tablets, the one device that I think needs them to be built in. What the hell.

Also I like being able to swap out the batteries, thank you very much Steve Fucking Jobs.

Pixel Qi technology is also a bonus, if thats ready for prime time.

Winnipeg Movie Theatres and memorable movies I have seen at them

There have been a lot of movie theatres that have closed down in Winnipeg, most recently Garden City Shopping Centre, so I thought I'd make a list for my own future possibly alzheimers ridden self to accidentally google upon and have no idea what I'm talking about.

I was inspired for this by cinematreasures.org.. http://cinematreasures.org/, a website I chanced upon a couple years back that lists a number of defunct movie theatres. So here goes. My list.

Capitol Theatre - Ernest goes to Camp?
Cineplex Odeon Kings - Forrest Gump
Convention Centre Cinema - I forget, but I know I went there.
Cineplex Odeon Drive-in (RIP) - Triple feature, had DaVinci code and something else.
Eaton Place 7 - Only one I remember is John Candy in the Great Outdoors
Garden City Cinema - Arachnophobia, original two Tim Burton Batman movies.
Garrick Cinemas - I know I saw Multiplicity there
Globe Cinema - don't remember
Grant Park Cinemas - I just saw Machete and Scott Pilgrim vs the world there. I love Grant Park. I'm gonna see Green Lantern 15 times there when it comes out next year.
Hyland Theatre - I know I went there once but I can't remember what I saw. It wasn't memorable I guess.
Metropolitan Theatre - Sadly, never went there.
Northstar Cinema - Always meant to go there and never did.
Park Theatre - Never went there during its original existence, but its still open and I've been there on occasion.
Polo Park Shopping Centre Theatre - Transformers the movie (The 80's cartoon! Fuck yeah!)
SilverCity St. Vital - too many to count. But I did walk out of Batman and Robin there.
Starland Theatre - never went there, but shame it got torn down. Always liked how it looked.
Kildonan Place theatre - I think I saw wall-e there.
Towne Cinema 8 - saw the trailer park boys movie there.

Mushroom Mushroom

There sure are a lot of mushrooms around the city of Winnipeg this year. Is it an invasion by the mushroom kingdom? I dunno. Am I the only one who noticed? Was it thanks to the particular temperatures of Winnipeg this year? Was it thanks to global warming? Or is it just random and I just never noticed city mushrooms before.

I wonder if they're poisonous. They almost certainly are. Some wild animal would have eaten them if they weren't, wouldn't they? Not that I particularly care for mushrooms myself. Just making an observation.

Avatar Special Edition in 3D in Winnipeg

So if you read the Winnipeg Sun or the Winnipeg Free Press, you got a blurb telling you that Avatar is coming back to theatres. Now, obviously its not coming back to the Imax, because our Imax theatre is weird and not affiliated with anything or anybody and has to beg for table scraps, whatever, but its not coming to Silver City cinemas either. Polo Park and St Vital.. nope. Cineplex isn't brining it back. However, it IS coming to Grant Park cinemas, which I deduced after going to the website of empire cinemas. They're all owned by the same company, but trying to figure out whats playing where is kindof ridiculously cumbersome.

In any case, Grant Park is probably my favourite cinema in the city anyways, so I'll check it out. A friend of mine didn't get to see Avatar upon its first run and is looking forward to it so I'm glad its showing again in Winnipeg. I've seen it on DVD, Imax 3D, and RealD 3d, and its best seen in 3D.

I'm a little dissapointed in Roger Ebert

Now, I don't expect Roger Ebert to go and review every movie that is out there. Three movies came out last week, Expendables, Eat Pray Love, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. He chose to see Eat Pray Love, and seemed to dislike it, which I take a bit of pleasure in but all the same, I am honestly disappointed that he didn't go see Scott Pilgrim vs The World, and I'll tell you why, because I have a blog and a surprising amount of free time.

I certainly wouldn't expect Ebert to go see the Expendables. We've all seen the expendables hundreds of times.. in a manner of speaking. It's just another mindless action movie. If you want that, you hardly need Roger Ebert or any other critic to tell you that. And clearly nobody did, as it won the box office handily. Certainly, based on box office, a lot of people held no inclination to see Scott Pilgrim vs the World. Roger Ebert is no different from a majority of people in North America in that regard.

Why didn't he go see it? I wonder. Could it be he's bored of Michael Cera? Perhaps, but I don't feel that is the case. Maybe he doesn't think much of Edgar Wright. Certainly Ebert never reviewed Hot Fuzz either. Who knows. I don't. However, the man found the time to review both Twilight and Twilight:New Moon, so.. I am thoroughly confused.

I personally believe it is because of the fact that Scott Pilgrim vs The World has a heavy video game influence, and Mr. Ebert is terrified of the mere thought of enjoying anything that would make it seem his thumbs could get anywhere close to a NES gamepad or even a movie heavily inspired by one. He wants to sweep his anti-video game ranting under the rug and does not want to bring it up again, even at the expense of missing out on something unique.

I think, however, the man has a duty to see this movie no matter how much he might think he will hate it beforehand. I think this BECAUSE of what he said all summer about video games. Who cares if he's not part of the generation that this movie is for. Lots of people enjoyed it even though they're not part of that demographic, because it is a fairly original movie with very creative direction. But thats my opinion. If Ebert thinks he will hate it, then he has to see this movie as penance for his brouhaha against videogames.

"Gary's Incredible Journey"

So I saw the cover of the Winnipeg Free Press on Friday. There was a huge article titled Gary Doer's Incredible Journey. Or something to that effect. Not that I would pay for any copy of the Winnipeg Free Press. Do paying members of the NDP get a free subscription? You'd think they would, considering it has become the NDP's party newsletter.

Anyways, no, what I do instead is imagine my own better storyline, possibly based on old Disney movies. Gary Doer was left behind by his family at, oh, lets say, Wapusk National Park (where they were doing photo ops). Gary, the two family dogs, and cat, had to travel kilometers of wilderness to reach the family home in Winnipeg. Now, obviously the cat was the sensible one, and the older dog was the leader, wheras Gary and the younger dog were rambunctious troublemakers and Gary got his snout full of porcupine quills during one unfortunate incident. Oh what an amusing event. In any case, they made it back home to Winnipeg only to realize, oh right, Washington D.C. Gary Doer is voiced by Gilbert Gottfried. Why not.

Know! To look into my face, is to look into the face.. OF EVIL

Perhaps Google's mantra "Do No Evil" actually has a different meaning from what everyone assumes. Perhaps it actually means "Do the type of Evil Dr. No from James Bond would feel comfortable doing", therefore, Do "No" Evil.

CBC is even more incompetent than I thought

The CBC, who have been whining about not having enough money for years, and who have not sufficiently answered my (and I know others) email questions about their switchover to digital here in Winnipeg, have finally revealed their latest gambit. Despite knowing for YEARS (at least 5 but surely more) that the digital switchover was coming, they apparently won't be ready on time in MAJOR CANADIAN MARKETS. Like Winnipeg. Until 2012. Two years away.

This is simply PATHETIC. In the USA, PBS were at the forefront of the digital conversion. Using it as a chance to reinvigorate public television. In England the BBC are continuously at the forefront of freeview and internet technology. But here in Canada, our public broadcaster can't be bothered to budget accordingly and fulfill their mandate.

Sure they found the money AWFUL QUICK for major markets like Toronto (having competition with American stations doesn't hurt) but here in Winnipeg, they're showing just how committed they are to Canadians who don't live in the golden horseshoe.

The CRTC must say NO, you are REQUIRED to have a digital signal in this area by the deadline or SHUT DOWN. There is no other option. Launch at 720P and share signal with SRC, I don't personally care, but fucking make it happen. There is no excuse for this level of incompetence. They have all the money in the world to throw at new digital channels like country canada or whatever the fuck that bullshit is called now.

Get your act together.

Disgusting.

For your consideration

The Golden Rule doesn't really work on Sado-Masochists.

Double Rainbow Foundation

Or Make a Wish foundation, whatever. I saw an ad with a kid next to a guy dressed up as Spider-Man saying something like "making dreams come true". And I thought, wow, I also had a dream to meet some random guy dressed up like Spider-Man.

I bet the kid really said "I wanna meet Spider-Man!" and was severely disapointed when spider-Man couldn't do any webslinging or wallcrawling. Probably because his powers were on the fritz because of.. oh.. some sort of mutagenic nightmare or something. Then Morbius comes in and asks for Plasma, and its funny cause they're in a hospital and its all ironic.

Oh.. I see what you did there

The Orange Rod answers the question nobody was asking while ignoring the ones people are. The way a good blog should.

Dead Kitty on Main street

Tonight I saw a kitten attempt to cross main street near redwood. It almost made it, but it got hit by a minivan. If my bus was on time I would not have seen it, so thanks a lot Winnipeg Transit. There was nothing I could do, in any case. It's rather sad that the blue/gray minivan decided to go full speed ahead and kill the thing when the car closest to the curb on the left hand lane slowed to a stop. I bet he was on a cell phone or something.

So if anyone out there is missing a kitten, sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Though there is a Darwinistic sense to the whole thing. I've seen other cats and (more often) dogs wait for cars to stop coming before making a mad dash for the other side. If this teaches us anything, its this. You have your whole life ahead of you, don't rush into things, or the life ahead of you will instead be short. Sadly a tiny kitten could never be wise enough to grasp that.

Roger Ebert's Jowels

I'm not doing this to pick on roger ebert, but ever since he had that operation I've noticed that there are a lot of old women in Winnipeg with a similar face structure. I'm always tempted to go up to them and say "Hey Roger Ebert, read your review on.. (pick a movie), well done" but then I remember that that sort of thing is why people think I'm an asshole, which I am, so I stop myself.

Never dudes though, its always old women.

Sometimes a pipe is just a pipe

Good News, everyone!

I finally updated my blog graphics. Comes across as quite a bit more sophisticated doesn't it.

I changed the name of the blog to Reed Solomon's Matrix because.. well.. its shorter than the old title.

Enjoy.

Chiptunes

I like to listen to "Chiptunes", music that uses the sounds from old 8-bit video game systems and the like. I like to imagine that every action I take in life earns me points, and that I have infinite lives. And its nice to have an 8-bit soundtrack to that.

Helpful hint. You can tell the difference between NPC characters and non NPC characters (I know it's redundant) by whether they're repetitious. If someone repeats the same thing over and over again, its okay to hit them with your whip or knife or baseball bat, because they're computer generated.

here's a few chiptunes I think you'll enjoy.

John Tesh WTF

So occasionally I scan through the FM radio stations on my cell phone when I'm bored. Occasionally I land on one of those light pop rock 80's/90's stations I don't know which one, but occasionally John Tesh has a syndicated show. Whenever he comes on to say something, without fail, it is the most fucked up piece of trivia you could regurgitate. "John Tesh here, did you know that there is a tiny mosquito that lays eggs in the penis or vagina and causes extreme pain? It's true! And you can get it from the common public toilet seat!" or "John Tesh here, news out of holyfuck university has it that if you wash your hands with anti-microbial hand wash, you now have AIDS!!!" How does his show stay on the air? Who wants to hear this stuff? What the hell, John Tesh. EVERY FREAKIN TIME. "did you know the common household sponge contains 50% EBOLA virus and 26% the bacteria that causes beubonic plague?" .. no? Well John Tesh does. Stop it, John Tesh.

Telus to release shitty phone on July 30th. More of the same.

Canadian wireless operator, chronic rapist and abusive significant other, Telus Mobility, has announced plans to introduce a phone as shitty as its very network on July 30, the same day as rival sister street whore, Bell Mobility.

Telus announced its intentions to sucker idiots of their ill gotten drug money today, whereas Bell made its plans clear on Monday.

The iPhone 4, which has been available in the U.S. since like forever, has all the same features as previous iPhone devices such as a non removable battery, proprietary itunes using Windows interface, and a soul sucking demon spell that causes its owners to pledge their lives in servitude to the dark lord Steve Jobs on the occasion of his rebirth as a dragon lord. Plus, the iphone 4 introduces a worse antenna design.

Telus Spokesperson Ivanna Getreamed proclaimed "Not only are we releasing this locked, DRM encrusted piece of crap phone, but we're going to continue to give our customers the level of service they've come to expect from a National Canadian mobile provider". Said Ms. Getreamed "What are they gonna do about it? Switch? hahahahah"

Customers are already inexplicably lining up for a chance simply to touch the iphone. "I can't afford it, as I'm already on an 8 year contract for my iphone 3g, but I feel that if I can just touch the fake display phone in the telus kiosk at the mall things might take a turn for the better"

In other news, Google has discontinued the Nexus One. It would appear people have no interest in an unlocked upgradable and open phone sold online. Said one hipster imbecile "Umm, Is it an iphone? That's the best phone. It's 3G, and I can download Apps to it!?"

Original article at http://www.teleclick.ca/2010/07/telus-mobility-to-launch-iphone-4-on-july-30/

Once you go black

The Black Rod, Winnipegs most Black Roddy Roddyist blog, piped up on the issue of rapid transit recently. Saying that Sam Katz's support for LRT Rapid Transit is handing the election over to Judy Whatserface-leis. First of all, I disagree that people in Winnipeg care that much about one vs the other or how much it costs, because we all know the money is coming from Ottawa, its our money, and if WE don't spend it, Quebec surely will. So why should we be frugal at all on this? So it costs a bit more for LRT. So what. You pay more for quality. That's how things work. In the chance it increases transit ridership, then it is a sound investment. And as a transit rider personally, I am in favour of it more than BRT. We need more options than buses, because with just a bus system, we've become stuck in a rut.

Second of all, I don't care if New Flyer loses some money on this. New Flyer buses have the stupidest design policies when it comes to how to get off a bus it makes me crazy. Yellow stripe? Yellow wire? I don't even know what the hell. You don't buy a bus just because they create jobs locally. If that was the case why should other towns and cities that sell buses purchase from New Flyer? And would the rapid transit buses have been purchased from New Flyer? I don't know, but theres no guarantee on that either.

Finally, the nonsensical belief that this issue will push people over to Judy does not compute. What would push that faction of people over to Judy is the belief that Bus Rapid transit will never happen. But that segment is already anti-Katz on principle. And are already most likely campaigning for her anyways.

It is my belief that this city, founded on railroads, with lots of abandoned rail lines that could be converted, should embrace them. They helped build this city.

Also the black rod bitched about mosquitos. Frankly, the citizens of Winnipeg will never be happy one way or another. If they get a single bite from a mosquito, It's Sam Katz's fault. I love the dragonflies. My nephew loves the dragonflies. I never saw a single dragonfly in this city until Sam Katz was elected. You'd think they'd be all over the place. I think they've got a good system going, especially this year considering the amount of rain we've had. Kudos to Taz Stuart for a job well done in my opinion. Sure there were some kinks early on, but they seem to have a handle on things now.