Classical Gasbag

I randomly turned on the radio this morning to discover Winnipeg has a classical music radio station.  Bonus points in that it replaces what used to be FREQ/Ignite 107.1 christian rock music. 

It was amusing to me that the first song that came on was Ruslan and Ludmilla.  I remember first hearing this song on the soundtrack to the spectrum holobyte produced DOS game Tetris Classic.  I also coincidentally first heard pachelbels canon on the same Tandy computer.  Oddly enough its still my favourite rendition.

This got me thinking on the nature of pure classical music vs movie and video game orchestral music vs even modern 8bit chiptune compositions and Amiga mods and such.  I enjoy them all, personally.  Now I don't expect to ever hear chiptunes or the soundtracks of sonic the hedgehog, mega man 3 or the Legend of Zelda on FM radio (alas!) But its curious to me that we don't even hear modern orchestral compositions that often .  from movies and modern video games there are some great sounds out there that hold their own against Beethoven and Bach.  Perhaps not Mozart but we're all Salieri when it comes to Mozart.

When the symphony orchestra plays movie and video game music they seem to sell out or do decent business at least.  I'm surprised there aren't more people taking advantage of the popularity.  Video games and movies are both billion dollar businesses.  For me orchestral and chiptune music is all lumped together.  I bet if Mozart had access to an amiga mod tracker he'd have gone nuts.

Anyways back to 107.1… the program director is former CBC host Eric Friesen.  I hope the station succeeds.  CBC radio two certainly hasn't been particularly listenable the last few years.  I enjoy some world music on occasion but ugh.  CBC has been horrible.  Glad there's something to fill the gap.  The only downside to 107.1 is they advertise jazz too.  I can't stand most jazz.  But if its only the best and least pretentious jazz I can put up with it.. And the fact that Winnipeg doesn't have a jazz station helps bring in listeners.  I was going to say I wasn't sure if they played operas but I hear one right now so apparently they do on occasion. 

I Wonder when they did the format switch.  Haven't heard any advertising yet.  Curious to see how they do that.

Ps: There is a pretty damn good orchestral rendition of the legend of Zelda soundtrack on YouTube I recommend. Now to listen to tsn 1290 for some Winnipeg jets hockey talk on the illegal curve show.  I'll be back though, 107.1!

Penny Pinching at McDonalds?

I've been pretty happy with the elimination of the penny, but one place that seems to still be an issue is McDonalds.  I know I'm not the only one (hence the blog post) but either a large segment of McDonalds employees don't know how to round, or their POS systems are programmed to round incorrectly. 

I know its only a few cents but if it is McDonalds doing it on purpose then that is pretty pathetic.  I wonder if theres a complaints department for places that repeatedly do the rounding wrong?  McDonalds automates things to such a degree I can't believe that it wouldn't have a point of sale system that doesn't do the rounding automatically..

Am I (and the people I speak to) the only ones who have noticed this or is this actually a common occurrence?  

Traherne Manitoba

Anybody else think of Jackie Trehorne from The Big Lebowski when passing by signs on the perimeter mentioning Traherne, Manitoba?  Maybe its just me. 

Drive by astuting

It amuses me that the Japanese Cultural centre building on McPhillips Street used to be a Suzuki dealership or office of some sort and that you can still see the Suzuki name on there.

Odometer

My odometer stopped at 127001 km today as I reached home.  As a Linux user this surely means something.

Cold Comfort Indeed

The word slurpee is interesting.  It's the words Slur and Pee merged into one word that describes the two component parts of said frosty beverage.

Today I was driving around and I noticed that 7-11 sponsors something called the Slurpee Cup.  It appears to be a competition for youth playing soccer.  That's clever.

In 5 days it will be July 11, AKA 7/11 aka Free Slurpee Day.   It's going to be +30 Celsius that day so nice timing.

Gotta be KD

Was KD Lang named after Kraft Dinner?

Must be what the song Constant Craving is about.

Guess what I had for dinner!

Traitors among us

Is there ANY scenario where having the Winnipeg BLUE Bombers field awash in Green light would be acceptable?  Who did this.  Fire the Riders mole.

Blue or Yellow or White are the only acceptable colours.  Yes, Even if Green Day plays the stadium.  Even if it's Earth Day or something.  Break all the green lights now.  NO EXCUSES.

Although it could be an elaborate twitter hoax.

Skateboard parks and other ideas

Remember when the skateboard park at the forks was a big deal?  Now it seems there's skateboard parks everywhere ... though the forks is the only one with a bowl as far as I can tell... its cool and all, but now it almost feels like a copout to providing kids with something else.  Maybe its just me.  

You know what'd be cool.. a building made out of nerf foam.  We should build that.  You know, for kids.

CP

 CBC Reports that theres been yet another CP derailment, this time in Sudbury.

Someone (aside from me) should keep track of these derailments.  As I said in a blog post a couple weeks ago, CP has been cutting and apparently overworking their labour force.  Looks like this time the people of Sudbury are suffering as a result.

If these companies can't operate at a proper level to ensure staffing is sufficient to keep these accidents from happening, the government should step in as they seem do whenever there is a danger of strike that could cause undue trouble to Canadian business.  Are not trail derailments undue trouble to Canadians in general?

I mean, the Conservatives were so quick to legislate an end to potential labour strife at CP.  Yet when CP lays off or fires a large segment of their staff, leading to what could be subsequent operating issues, the government doesn't feel the need to step in there?  Somewhat arbitrary politics, Mister Prime Minister.

Ipad your wallets

So a Winnipeg school division is planning to make ipads necessary in the classroom.  I Certainly hope they're getting a good deal on them, because you can get android tablets for much cheaper..but hey when you go pay your property tax next month don't let the possible waste of dollars bother you.

Its interesting.  CBC also gives away iPad minis for contests occasionally.  Why do they have those instead of Samsung galaxy or Asus nexus devices?  Out of touch.  Who the hell is stupid enough to want an iPad mini or regular iPod in the first place?  Illogical.

Byobbb

Todays metro Winnipeg newspaper had an article titled "union backs more LGBTTQ inclusion" . You know what they could do?  Have an LGBTTQ BBQ. Abbreviations are getting a bit excessive.  I blame the internet.

My first and only post to Google Buzz.  Google is apparently going to be saving this to my Google Drive.  Thanks, Google.

Looks like Google Buzz is shutting down.


I'm still pissed off about Google Reader, but Google Buzz.. did anyone use it?

Hangouts looks to be promising.  But if they really want to get skype users, they need to create an actual downloadable program and not just let it exist as a web app.  Fork Ekiga or Jitsi, I don't care.  But make something that looks and operates like Skype.  It will drive Microsoft crazy.  Isn't that reason enough to do it?

Plus it would help popularize that Google Plus nonsense.

On the subject of Google, more people would buy Google ChromeOS laptops if you had at least a FEW apps that didn't require internet connectivity.  C'mon.  Throw some linux programs on there already.

Fusion ... HA!

I hope cold fusion supposedly being done in Europe turns out to be real.

Hopefully before Manitoba Hydro puts too much money into their current plans for  bipole III.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/156393-cold-fusion-reactor-independently-verified-has-10000-times-the-energy-density-of-gas

cause man, that'd change the world.

but then again we've been burned before.

CP Rail spill in Saskatchewan

I was reading an article about the CP Rail oil spill in Saskatchewan and I started to wonder if all the recent cost cutting and layoffs at CP Rail might be to blame.  Shares go up, safety of the Canadian environment now goes down?  I don't know.  But it doesn't SEEM that any of the major media outlets are even considering mentioning the fact. 

A telling quote on one of those links attributed to CEO Hunter Harrison:

“One thing that has marked this past nine months, or year, is change, and if you don’t like change at Canadian Pacific it’s not the place be,” CEO Hunter Harrison said. “We’ve had a lot of change and there’s going to be a lot more.”

Change.  A lot more.  How is this change going to affect you?  I don't work for CP and never have, fortunately.  But perhaps we're going to pay for their under staffing and pushing employees around all the same.  All in the name of shareholder value. 

From the comments page of the same Financial Post article:

"As a CP Employee...Running Trades. WE ARE NOT EMBRACING THE CHANGES. We are worked to exhaustion, we are told safety is paramount, however, the company does NOTHING to ensure the equipment or track is maintained. I work out of Toronto Yard, also known as Agincourt Yard. Its a complete mess, managers are using intimidation and bullying to try to get us to either work faster, or to push us and using our job security as "motivation" to get the job done. Well, when you're too tired to move, you don't get the job done, and you don't get it done safely. I've seen crew after crew get blamed for derailments, that were preventable if the crew wasn't stretched thin, or told to do it if they don't want to get fired.
Hunter, congratulations on making a Canadian Icon, an employer of hellish proportions. I truly, desperately hope you burn in hell. Because not even your millions can help you there.
Sincerely,
961***"

Posted 2 Months ago.  Prophetic perhaps, this anonymous employee 961***.

Will CP be held accountable for this?  Will this accident be seen as something more than just a freak occurrence that has nothing to do with the culture being installed by this current CEO and shareholders?  Or will the stock going down because of this spill push even more layoffs and perhaps end up in more environmental damage, or God forbid, deaths to Canadian citizens.

Makes you wonder.  Kill the Unions, kill the Jobs, for what?  for who?

This is an aside and not really reflecting the above article about CP, but sometimes I wonder if people heading multinational corporations should be tried for treason for selling out the country or bribing politicians.  And politicians taking bribes should have the same done to them.  Because these executives don't seem to actually care about the environment, or people.  No loyalty to the country means we shouldn't allow them to operate here, shouldn't it? 

The way our rule of law and society is centered around who has the most money is going to bite our society in the ass eventually.  Hopefully we get people in charge of our government who can do something about it one day.

Reed Solomon reviews and spoilers: KHAN TREK INTO DARKHAN I mean STAR KHAN INTO KHANESS I mean KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN

 I'm warning you

There are

spoilers

Anyways It's not as if people didn't already know who Sherlock Holmes was playing.  I mean Benedict Cumberbatch. I did say spoilers in very tiny letters. 

Khan is the villain of this movie!! OH NOES!!   KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNN!

Here is a movie that Star Trek fans have been waiting for a long time.  I enjoyed it for the most part, but here is my review and an overly informative outline of the plot because that's how I roll.

Anyways, The story begins as the parallel earth cast of the NCC-1701, including Captain Kirk and Spock, have not yet begun their 5 year mission to seek out new life as shown in the original series.  BUT.  Someone else has.  And they have found Khan and his people floating in space.  An Admiral of Starfleet decided it would be useful to hold Khan's compatriots hostage and make Khan work for him under a false name.  I assume everything else about the origin of Khan remains true.  They don't go into it aside from him being a 300 year old genetically enhanced warlord frozen in stasis.

And so Khan decides to get revenge on this Admiral, and kills a number of people and Kirk manages to stop him as usual.  But Khan transports away somehow over great distance to the Klingon homeworld, which for some reason is desolate  This all seems far fetched, but whatever.  This is Star Trek not Star Wars.

After this, Kirk takes the Enterprise to the Klingon world and takes a special shuttle, anyways a bunch of stuff happens, they take Khan into custody, and Kirk and the Enterprise are set to be destroyed by the Admiral who is on a battleship class starship ready to cover up everything.  But some luck gets Kirk out of it and he hesitantly teams up with Khan to disable the battleship.  Kirk doesn't trust him, Khan knows it and who can blame him cause Khan will use any means at his disposal to stay on top.


Anyways, the daughter of this admiral is a young Carol Marcus, who Star Trek fans know later goes on to create the Genesis device (along with her and Kirk's son David), has falsified her way onto the Enterprise.  Yet another call out to the Wrath Of Khan storyline.  There are a lot of them.  It's actually overkill now, JJ Abrams.

A while later, Khan takes control of the battleship.  It and the Enterprise for some unknown reason are now in orbit and descending upon Earth.  YOU WOULD THINK Starfleet would have some sort of EARTH DEFENSES to stop this, but hey, its a major motion picture, you gotta have a spaceship crashing into the Earth!  Of course you do!  NO YOU DON'T!!!  Captain Kirk saves the ship by doing what Spock did in Wrath of Khan.  Call backs again?  10 fucking minutes of call backs.  I saw this scene, I don't need 10 minutes of it reversed when we fucking well know you aren't killing off Captain Kirk.  But yeah, Kirk is dead OMG.  Spock yells KHAAAAAAAAAAAN and goes after Khan on Earth.

Anyways, after some more jumping around and around on flying cars, Spock recaptures Khan and Bones says oh hey we can use his superman genetic blood to save Kirk with a blood transfusion.  How convenient and surprising.  Also they use tribbles as lab animals.  Space PETA is gonna be pissed.

And go figure, Khan's blood works, Kirk lives.  Now he has superhuman blood.  Khan goes back into cold storage but is he really?  WHO KNOWS.  Now begins Kirk's 5 year mission to seek out new life and so forth.

Any way you slice it this movie could have been done without the heavy handed callbacks to Wrath of Khan.  Some of it was cute, but c'mon someone needs to reign it in.

All things considered, Khan was well done.  Can't get Ricardo Montalban cause he's sadly dead, but Benedict Cumberbatch is almost as good and convincing, and even channels the accent subtly at some points.

Anyways, all in all it was a decent movie.  It could have been a bit less actiony and call backy.  Hopefully the next movie stands on its own a bit.  Perhaps something with the Klingons I'm guessing. It's amusing to think that the Klingons probably didn't think starfleet was much of a threat until they kept losing to Kirk.  Hope that continues.

No idea if Abrams directing Star Wars will affect another Star Trek film.  I wonder if a different director could take the helm.

Now go back and read the first letter in every paragraph.

I KEA'd

I just realized I never wrote of my visit to IKEA that happened at one point.

So, went to IKEA.  They had actually invited me as a blogger to attend their pre-opening media event, but I was sick at the time and I couldn't go.  I mean to say, my journalistic integrity.. hahah.. would'nt.. heh.. wouldn't let me go.  Seriously though, it was nice of them to invite me.  I don't know how I got on that list.

 ABBA was playing on the radio just as I pulled into the parking lot.  Seriously.  Take a chance on me.  How IKEA pulled that off, I have no freakin idea.   Now that I think about it, both IKEA and ABBA might work as words to be found in a Sator square. Perhaps not.  Regardless, The lot was fairly full when I went, but it was still wintery.  Maybe it was February.  I don't even know now with this ridiculous weather.  Is it summer yet?

I had never gone to IKEA before in any city ever, so I had no idea what the big deal was.  I don't have ovaries so I guess I still don't, but it was a pretty decent store that doesn't sell electronics or power tools.

The End.

Just kidding, anyways, yeah.  Stepped in, interesting layout.  Theres a convenient child distraction zone to keep children from distracting you from shopping, which is wise.  They have free lockers at the front so you can put your shit in them at your own risk.  Still, it'd be nice if more stores offered such a thing.

I was able to get cell phone service throughout the store whenever I checked, so yay MTS on managing that. 

The store is designed in a way that you go through the land of living rooms, or the land of kitchens, and while in those variously themed areas, you can go through the drawers and write down the product number of something you want, so that later on you can grab it.  So if theres a spoon you like, while you're looking through the drawers of the ikea kitchens, you write it down and roll the dice on what it costs.   Or if you see a washer/dryer set you like, write that down, and then there you go.  Kind of like Consumers Distributing if they had let you wander through their warehouse instead of just looking through a catalogue.  Remember Consumers Distributing?  Yeah nobody does.

Prices are pretty good too.  Especially if you buy a whole kitchen you get some sort of discount.  I didn't look that closely into it as I don't currently need a new kitchen, but if you do, IKEA has a lot of them.

Anyways, once you go through the land of bedrooms to the land of toys and trinkets for kids, you come to the IKEA food zone.  I tried their meatballs, didn't care for them.  But I'm a fussy eater.  They have other stuff though.  I also had some garlic toast.. tasted like garlic toast.  That's always a plus.

After that it was to the main floor where they had actual stuff you could get, like pots and pans and all the various things on display in the upper level theme park. I bought a few little things I figured I'd need but probably didn't really.  They also have Swedish candies and other foods.  They're worth a taste.

Other stuff they have are things like LED light bulbs, lamps, candles, candle holders, more candles, different shaped candles, other candle holders, and candle holder shaped candles.

What else.  Oh yeah, tried their hot dogs and ice cream.  I think it was actually frozen yogurt, or frogurt.  Wasn't very hungry since I had the meatballs, but it was cheap so I figured I'd try it.  Not quite the same experience as a street vendor smokie, but not horrible either. 

In conclusion, IKEA exists in Winnipeg, I went there, and I found it to be a useful place to go to if you need to buy the things that IKEA sells.  They have a website, probably www.ikea.com.  Lets assume that's right.  Or maybe www.ikea.ca

8/10 will go there again.  It is a bit of a commute for me, being directly on the opposite side of the city.  But I wish them good luck.

If you forgot that IKEA exists in Winnipeg, well I can assure you, unless it was one of those buildings that only appears at high noon on the winter solstice, and I just happened to visit it.. or I'm confusing it with Santas Workshop... if none of those things are true, then yes it exists. I'm pretty sure. 

Crappy theme music night in Canada

I think its been around long enough for me to state without a doubt the current hnic theme song is shit. 

Who are the 1% ?

The current NDP are smug and arrogant.

They must be.  To raise the PST in Manitoba by 1% and attempting to avoid a referendum on it.  Not getting rid of school taxes on property tax bills at the same time or giving people some reason to think their tax dollars are being used correctly.  Doing this after Saskatchewan of all places lowered their PST by 1%.  Are they insane?  I know the conservative party in this province is ridiculous but to grant the next election to them on a silver platter?  What hubris, NDP!  What balls.

Are they so sure of their winning the next election that they feel it would be unsportsmanlike to not give the PCs a handicap?  Is Greg Selinger insane? 

They didn't even try to hide it likely they did in BC by bringing in the harmonized sales tax.
 

Madness!

ismism

I was listening to cbc radio and the show spark about online or technological subjects was talking about "racism" on OK Cupid.  One example was a black woman saying people were apologetic but not attracted to black women.  Those individuals were described as racist by the program host.  Is it really considered racist to not be attracted to the particular features of another ethnicity?  It apparently is in the minds of CBC personalities.  is it bigotry to not be attracted to someone who is overly muscular?  Big nosed?  Small breasted?  Listening to that discussion just annoyed the hell out of me.  Get over it.  People are generally attracted to those who are similar to themselves.  Its great for those who are less particular but its hardly racist.

It amused me because this is the same organization that said "anyone but Caucasian males" in a casting call for a children's show.  The cbc is having a difficult time, but as much as I try to defend them, they do and give voice to ridiculous things that give their opposition fuel to throw on the bonfire.  Brilliant.

Ndp downplays Justin Biebers popularity

He will never be more than a YouTube fad, unlike Mulcair who is a huge hit with tween girls.

Oh they were downplaying Justin Trudeau's popularity?  Also Insane.  They only got to where they are today because of Jack Layton.  Mulcair is a vortex of bland.  Against stephen harper he may have had a chance, but against someone with a personality?  And the NDP is insane enough to act like they aren't in grave danger?  Madness!  It is a shame Layton died.  The NDP won't be winning with Mulcair.  Attempt to please everyone and you please no one.  Most NDP voters will just be happy to get Harper out as soon as possible.. and if a Justin Trudeau lead liberals is seen as the best option, they will be the only option.  Might even be for the best.

Power struggles

Maybe its just me, but has Manitoba hydro been taking a long time to fix issues in the city lately?  Took them more than 12 hours to get West Kildonan power back up last night.  Spoiling a number of easter Sundays.  They used to be much quicker.  I have nothing to back up this feeling bit it'd be interesting to look at a graph of outages over the last decade to see if there are any trends or if I'm just being paranoid.  Hopefully the stuff in my fridge and freezer is OK.  Wonder how long it can normally stay cool.

Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep. X 9000

Does anyone sell a backup battery that doesn't beep constantly while the power is out?  What an annoying feature that is, APC etc..

Today I attempt to write a press release

Large letter W

Put Tuesday, April 23 on your calendar, complainers and haters!  That’s the day the Winnipeg Blue Bombers will host their annual Propaganda Session and Curmudgeon Complaint Forum.
 
The football club will "release" what it calls its "2012 financial details" and preview the upcoming "2013 CFL season", of which the Bombers are already mathematically eliminated. Fans will also be able to ask softball questions of the players and coaches (but probably not the GM), who will answer with the usual go nowhere platitudes. 

The forum will be held at Canad Inns Polo Park which is conveniently really far from the new stadium but close to the old one.  It will begin at 7 p.m, maybe. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and seating is limited and likely to be uncomfortable.

There may or may not be Powerpoint slides and coffee.

please note this press release is a complete fabrication and has no connection with the actual events that are actually happening

All shook up

It impresses me that not only does Avalon pay ken ploen to do their commercials, they have money left to pay Elvis to sing their jingle as well.

Dan murray

Ever notice that everyone on the Winnipeg Jets seems to recommend Dan Murray Chevrolet.. with the interesting exception of Kevin chevyldayoff. The man with Chevy in his very name?  I bet Toronto's rob ford doesn't drive a ford either ..  makes ya think... or not. 

Meat & Meat meat shop?

Why does M&M meat shops use a penguin as their logo or mascot when they don't sell penguin meat? 

No incompetence shall escape my sight.

If you've been reading this blog, you'll know I've been a fan of Green Lantern since the late 80's/Early 90's.  The fanbase seems to have expanded greatly, even though the movie was a flop, and deservedly so as there was no love in its making.  The potential was there, a good movie could have been made with the pieces they had, but too much was spent trying to make it a blockbuster and not enough was spent making it a good movie. 

I'm in the camp that Hal Jordan, while the first Green Lantern, the one shown in the movies, is not the best Green Lantern.   That is to say, every other Green Lantern than him (even the aliens) have more personality and are more entertaining.  Hal Jordan is only truly interesting in conflict with other lanterns.  This is my opinion.

That said, Green Lantern the Animated Series managed to make Hal Jordan an engaging character.  They managed to introduce some great characters from the comicbook series, and produce two pretty good half seasons.  One focused on the rage fueled Red Lanterns, and the other focused on the Anti Monitor and the Manhunters.  We also got to see the Star Sapphires and Blue Lanterns introduced.  The creators and writers did a great job introducing these concepts and creating a good storyline.  If you're in the USA, the series will be on Netflix soon, if it isn't already, and it's worth watching for an introduction to the Green Lantern characters.

Cartoon Network has cancelled the series after one season.

The tragic thing about this is the series (along with the preceding Young Justice, also cancelled) has the potential to introduce a lot of people to the Green Lantern franchise.  To build a following of Green Lantern fans and potentially, if Warner Brothers plays their cards right, spawn an actual money spinning movie franchise.  Even just a second season would have been sufficient to introduce the Sinestro Corps and perhaps some other Green Lantern villains and heroes.  But Warner Brothers will tragically never see this, because of short sighted people at Cartoon Network who only care about immediate returns.

The second tragic thing about it is there was no toy line for Green Lantern, save for some McDonald's happy meal toys, which my nephew loved.  I would have loved to have bought some real quality toys, but because of the shit quality of toys made for the shit quality movie Green Lantern, the cartoon did not get its own toy line.  Nothing.  Zero, Zilch, Nada. 

The fact that Warner Brothers bungled their Green Lantern franchise on SO MANY LEVELS is plain to see.  You can watch how Marvel/Disney does things in complete contrast.  They pump out as much product as possible, get peoples eyes on it.  Theres an Avengers cartoon, an Iron Man cartoon, there are toys, you bet there are toys.  Even if they don't sell.  They pimp their shit out.  And they produce a quality movie too.  And they do it all in the right order.

Did the success of Batman happen in a vacuum?  No, it was built up over time.  People became introduced to the character thanks to the 60's series, and there were Batman movies and shows before then.

Did Spider-Man happen in a vacuum?  Hell no.  Spider-Man had years of exposure in cartoons and comics.  the 60's cartoon was cheaply made but aired for years.  He was shown on the Electric Company, he had a Japanese live action show.  He had a series with his amazing friends.  He had another series in the 90's.  It was all organic.  Each built on what came previous. 

Warner Brothers lucked into Batmans success.  Tim Burton probably fought tooth and nail to do his Batman movie right, against the wishes of the idiots running Warner Brothers.  Marvel sold off the rights to Spider-Man's movie franchise while they were going bankrupt but even still it managed to save them, and they retained enough properties that they meticulously planned a method to reproduce the Spider-Man success.  And they did with Iron Man, and it was a great success.  And then Thor, and Captain America.  They weren't all perfect, but the people who made these movies seemed interested in telling a good story and retaining the core of these characters.  And they eventually got bought by Disney, who seem capable of carrying the torch and continuing to make these properties profitable, while producing good quality entertainment.

Green Lantern, nor any other property owned by Warner Brothers that isn't Batman or Superman, will ever achieve what Disney/Marvel are achieving.  They don't get it. 

I could give them a bullet point form way to make Green Lantern profitable.  I could give them a way to make some lesser known properties into huge franchises like Marvel has.  But I doubt they want to hear it.  They just want to throw spaghetti at the wall and hope something sticks.  Get a big name, big budget, throw a story in a blender, voila.  Catwoman starring Halle Berry.  Voila Jonah Hex.  Voila Green Lantern.

You are incompetent, Warner Brothers executives.  You own Cartoon Network, you own DC Comics.   I have no words to describe how pathetic your internal politics are.

Disney owned channels excel at promoting and creating Disney properties. 

Warner Brothers owned channels excel at the Amazing Orange.

Why anyone would buy stock in Warner Brothers I can't imagine. 


Warner Brothers had a get out of jail free card for the Green Lantern franchise, and Cartoon Network bungled it horribly.

Why they don't see what's happening and fire whoever is in charge there, I'd like to know.

Rollin Rollin Rollin

I have become the God of Rolling up rims and winning.

My secret?

I assume I have some sort of reality distortion ability that only affects Tim Hortons cups.  I win so that others may lose. 

I can't think of any other explanation that makes sense.

Still, I only win free coffee's and donuts, but it's only a matter of time before I win some sort of vehicle or cash prize.

I don't even like Tim Hortons.

I do appreciate that the downtown locations offer Lemon donuts though.  Go to hell, other locations that don't.  You don't get my money.

I also miss plain tea biscuits.  

The Ballad of Stompin' Tom

A lot of obituaries are going to be written about Stompin' Tom Connors tomorrow.

 In this song he tells his story in his own words.

RIP Stompin' Tom.

Hockey related terminology that I can't stand

A List of a some hockey related terminology I hate.  And if you use it, you're a horrible person and should feel bad.  Off the top of my head:

Special Teams - What's so special about them?  Not like they're scoring.  Not like they're all that different from the normal lines.

Product - So and so is a product of the something somewheres.  Referring to people as products sounds horrible to me. 

Blue Paint - Is it even paint?

Hockey IQ - Just shut up.  Shut up.
Hockey Gods - Like who?  Hockey playing Jesus? As a Hockey Atheist I'm insulted every time I hear this phrase.

Any others?

PENGUINS!

PENGUINS !!!!

HEY!

DID YOU HEAR?

PENGUINS ARE COMING TO THE ASSINIBOINE PARK ZOO!!!

Finally a reason to visit the zoo!

Oh wait, they're only here for a limited time like the McRib.

For the SUMMER only?

We're bringing penguins for a visit to Winnipeg, and they're not winter penguins but summer ones? 

Why can't we have a permanent winter penguin exhibit with hills for jumping off of and slides and places for them to swim so we can watch them from underground? 

penguins would love our Winters.

Sigh.

I'm still going to go.  I've waited all of my life for Penguins.

All I need to cross off my Zoo bucket list is a House Hippo, White striped Zebra, and a Griffin. 

Duffy Dack

I'm so mad about the Mike Duffy scandal I'm going to stop using Duffy's taxi and switch to Unicity or Spring Taxi. That'll show em.

Jetstream effect

Has environment Canada ever done a study of Winnipeg jets home games vs above normal temperatures?  Cause I see a trend.

Radio stationary

I wonder how much it costs to operate an am radio station.  I was thinking of competing with cjob and calling the station cjop "just old people commercials".  Only need to figure out how to get old people to change the dial.

Museum Piece

I read an article recently about the City of Winnipeg cutting the grants that city museums receive by 10% in the new operating budget. According to the article, the cuts impact each museum differently, as they don't receieve the same amount of grant funding. The St. Boniface Museum faces $45,000 drop in grant funding. That's a drop in funding of $45,000 That's 10% of what they receive from the city. I can't believe they even get $45,000 let alone $450,000. The Manitoba Museum would lose slightly more than $5,000. I'm surprised the main museum in Manitoba receives such little funding. The Children’s Museum would lose $12,000 in operation funds and $9,200 that was promised to help pay for recent renovations. Which is kind of odd. The city should at least commit to funds that were agreed upon for renovations. Now what annoyed me was receiving notification via RSS from CBC news about an article titled "Winnipeg Jets could help museum funding shortfall, says official". "Says official". Official from where? Now I read this headline, and I thought, huh, the Winnipeg Jets are considering helping fund the Children's Museum? How odd. Then I read the article. The head of Winnipeg's museums board (the "official") is basically saying "Hey, the Jets are rich, gib moneys pls huehuehue" This annoyed me. It's one thing to see if they could come to a mutual agreement with True North contribute to the Children's Museum, they might even go for that. Heck I'm surprised they don't already. But on what planet is it True North's responsibility to help pick up budget shortfalls of the city? Why are they the first thought? I question the efficiency of these operations if the first thing they do is look grumpily at the Jets success and think "we should be getting some of that". I wonder if this budget decrease has some connection to the "Museum for Human Rights" currently nearing completion. I wonder if the city is planning to take away with one hand and give with another. Or maybe already has. I don't know. Anyways, its not like this budget decrease is going to hurt anybody. Inner city youth maybe won't get free visits? But so what? How many inner city youths have gone to the children's museum and then thought "I'm not going to join a gang, I'm going to be a railway conductor! All thanks to my free trip to the children's museum paid for by city taxpayers!" Maybe that's too cynical, but honestly, seeing that CBC article which was basically panhandling the Jets ticked me off. Do I support public funding of museums? You bet. Aviation Museum, Childrens Museum, St Boniface Museum, all great museums that I have enjoyed visiting and add a lot to our city. Am I against funding cuts? Not necessarily. 10% seems a bit arbitrary. why not 5%? Though if property taxes are going up anyways, are museums really the biggest drain on tax dollars? Somehow I'm skeptical. Still, $450,000 a year for the St Boniface Museum? Wow. Somehow in the end I'm wondering where all the money is going.

Brian Burke's last laff

Idiot journalists and others are confused with the timing of the firing of Brian Burke.  Its not confusing at all.  Instead of being angry at the leafs organization, for the lockout AND for not firing Burke, now they're excited for the season and happy the wishes of a majority of leafs fans have been listened to.  Its actually brilliant misdirection.  They kept Burke on the payroll until now just for this.  Maybe.  But if they did, that's brilliant manipulation of their fanbase.  Bravo.

Winnipeg Jets alternative to booing players/True North chant in response to lockout

I feel instead of booing anybody involved with the NHLPA/NHL lockout negotiations, Winnipeg Jets fans at the first game back should simply yell Rabble Rabble Rabble to express our discontent. 





I call this 'Project Rabble without a Boo'

or maybe 'Operation Rabble Rabble.'

IMAX maxed out.

The downtown Imax theatre is going to close in a couple months.. which is sad and tragic.  I'm glad I guess I didn't buy a yearly pass or anything.  If you have a show and save book better use it soon.  They have the best popcorn.  Hope they get to screen the hobbit or something good as one last hurrah.  Maybe they'll get bought out by a larger chain and offer first run movies.  Unless there's a problem with their equipment being out of date or something which makes it pointless.  I saw django unchained at portage place but it wasn't that busy there either.  Maybe regular movie theatres aren't doing great either.  I do hate the arrangement of the escalators at portage place.  Very annoying. 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story/2013/01/07/mb-imax-theatre-winnipeg-closing.html

It dont impress me much

The shrine to Shania twain in Timmins Ontario is not as popular as the creators thought it would be.  If Shania twain isn't enough of a reason to go to a museum what does that mean for Winnipeg's human rights museum?

Think Different? Never! ThinkPAD.

Congratulations Dr. Peter Hortensius.

Dr. Peter Hortensius is the new head of Think Business Group.  The new company spun off from Lenovo that will continue to run and improve the Thinkpad computer brand started at IBM.  The best computer brand of all time.

Who is Dr. Peter Hortensius?   He is a former Winnipegger and IBM employee currently part of Lenovo.  He has some patents to his name and has a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Manitoba.  The best kind of Engineering.  (You heard me, structural engineers.. who needs you!) He was born in Regina but hey, nobody's perfect.  He was raised in Winnipeg and look at that he's now running the major business computer spinoff of the world's second largest PC vendor (as of 2011, might be largest as of now)

So what does this mean? I have no idea.  Hopefully it means a focus on quality hardware and more competition for Apple.  

As a person who exclusively buys Thinkpads, I'm optimistic.  The trend for most budget computers is garbage screen resolution and garbage keyboards and trackpads.  Whereas the trend for Apple computers is quality, excellent design, great support, and crazy high resolution screens and innovation.  This was once the domain of Thinkpads, and while Thinkpads are still quality devices, the line could use a bit of a refresh.

Will we see new thin Thinkpads with brushed metal (or other) designs and Solid State drives with Trackpoint and high quality multi-touch trackpads?  Perhaps with reversible high quality screens that can be flipped into tablet mode?  There is no evidence that we will, but there's no evidence that the NHL lockout might end or that the Bombers will compete in any way next year but you never know.

So many opportunities here.  If any laptop brand can compete with Apple on quality and name recognition, its the Thinkpad line.  When I saw NASA scientists at the launch for the Mars rover using Macbooks it was like a punch in the gut.  How could they switch to the dark side?

Though I refuse to pay for Windows 8.  Windows 7, I'm grudgingly fine with as it works in a reasonable way, but I'd rather have a no OS or Ubuntu option than to be forced to pay for Windows 8.  What a travesty that OS is.  If you're reading this, Peter Hortensius, keep that in mind.  I mean, not having Windows hasn't hurt Apple in any way.  IBM didn't need no stinkin Windows computers they had OS/2 and PC Dos. 

I wish Dr. Peter Hortensius the best of luck with his upcoming crisitunity.  I'm always willing to give horribly insensible suggestions if anyone is willing to ask me.   Hint Hint.