Zack's Blog

Come visit my new domain!

2009-03-20T21:43:00.001-06:00

So I've decided to play around with making my own site. Well I'm going to use Wordpress so it won't really be from scratch. Anyways come check out zackmac.ca

Welcome back old friend

2008-04-22T19:57:00.002-06:00

Back 10 or 12 years ago when MP3's were new and exciting, wow I feel old, I used Winamp. It was a fun, small, efficient MP3 player for windows and I liked it. As time passed it became everything it wasn't supposed to be. It became slow and bloated. If you use Winamp try to remember version 3 without shuddering. As I recall this happened about the time AOL bought it, coincidence? When that happened I stopped using it and I used either iTunes or Windows media player. They both suck. Media player is bloatware and I didn't ever get a good feeling for itunes. It wasn't customizable enough for me. Besides I think the only reason to use itunes is if you are a consumer whore and need something to plug your ipod into.

Anyways, the other day I reinstalled XP so I needed something to play MP3's and I thought, "Why not give Winamp a shot again?". I am quite happy that I did. The interface is a little busy but gives you lots of information about your music, it does the album art thing and has quite possibly the greatest feature ever. Auto tagging. Now your MP3's that don't have tags don't need to languish in the no man's land of your music list. Simply click Auto Tag and wait for the information to be filled it. You can do it for multiple songs at once and I'd say it has about a 95% success rate so far. Even for very poorly named and obscure songs. I really like how customizable the views are. Everything from showing the full media library to a little slit of a program at the top called window shade mode. I'm sure I haven't even started to scratch the surface of this program.

I'm not going to get into all the features but give Winamp a try again and you won't be disappointed.

More Solar Cooker Fun

2008-04-17T13:18:00.004-06:00

I mentioned before that I was going to show a video of burning something, in this case cardboard, with the solar cooker. Well here it is.

It is amazing how fast the cardboard starts to smoke and with in seconds is showing visible flame.

If you look close you can see that one of the handles on that pot has been turned to white ash. The heat is amazing. I am going to measure the area of it but I bet it is producing more than 1000w of heat.

Asperger Syndrome

2008-04-08T12:47:00.004-06:00

I was reading this article about a connection between people who work in the IT industry and Asperger Syndrome and it sounded familiar. I started to look around a bit and I'm starting to wonder if I have it.
I found a test online and took it. I scored a 39 which was at the high and of
the scale. I was reading an article on about.com related to aspergers and
they had some self diagnosis questions.

If you answered “yes” to some or most of these questions, you may decide to find out more.

I find social situations confusing. - Yes, I usually try to avoid them.

I find it hard to make small talk. - Yes. It will be a quiet drive if I don't know you well.

I did not enjoy imaginative story-writing at school. - It was like torture.

I am good at picking up details and facts. - Yes.

I find it hard to work out what other people are thinking and feeling. - Yes, empathy is hard for me

I can focus on certain things for very long periods. - Yes

People often say I was rude even when this was not intended. - Not so much, but maybe people don't tell me

I have unusually strong, narrow interests. - Yes

I do certain things in an inflexible, repetitive way. - Yes, my morning schedule is usually down to the minute.

I have always had difficulty making friends. - I wasn't exactly the bell of the ball.

Hmm... I wonder if I'm on to something here. Perhaps or perhaps I'm just different. I wonder who I could talk to.

Solar cooker

2008-04-08T12:42:00.004-06:00

Here is a solar cooker video for you

I threw some snow on there so you can tell how hot it is.
You can hear the stainless plate warp shortly after I put the snow on.

The power of the sun

2008-04-04T18:30:00.002-06:00

I forgot to post this before but this video is what happens when the pump stops on a solar evacuated tube collector.

Sorry about the quality, it was taken with a camera phone. I uploaded this on January 31st so this would have been around that time. I think it was about -15C that day. This is a 10 panel, 200 tube solar water heater that is capable of 20,000 BTU/hr or more when the sun is shining.

I was reminded about this video because I was playing with a solar concentrator food cooker today. When the sun was out I could start cardboard on fire in about 5 to 10 seconds. I'll be posting a video of that early next week.

How is this news?

2008-04-04T18:09:00.002-06:00

Wow, I was watching the "news" tonight and people need to get over themselves. I am talking about the 16 year old video tape of some of our politicians making comments about gays and Ukrainians.

Ok people, it happened, they apologized, now get on with life. You can't tell me that no one in politics today hasn't ever made hateful comments about race, sexuality or any other difference between people before. Maybe they should take a look in the mirror before calling for resignations. How is it going to help our current government for these people to resign? For crying out loud this happened 16 years ago and they were all drunk. Just let it go.

Some people might say, "But you're not gay, how would you know how it feels?". True I'm not gay and perhaps my skin in a little thicker but I've had people call me names and I haven't gone crying to the news about it. Every time I hear a Scottish or Ukrainian joke I don't start crying in my beer. I've even had some racial slurs come my way, whitey or moby dick or being told to get back to work so I can pay for welfare. It's a two way street and we're all guilty of it.

How much money is going to be wasted while the government runs their little witch hunt?

Common sense is not that common.

A Driving Rant

2008-02-25T20:16:00.007-06:00

I know my posts are few and far between but this is to get something off my chest.

Drivers in Saskatoon are terrible.

Lets start with a small sign quiz. You should know all of these.

1.

2.3.

7.
8.
1. Obviously you should know this one. It is a stop sign. It means you should stop. I'll touch on stop signs more later. For some reason these still seem to be a mystery to people.

2. This is a yield sign. This means you have to slow down and check that it is safe to proceed. This is not a free pass.

3. This is a center turn lane sign. Most people seem unable to figure this one out. No it is not a passing lane nor is it another driving lane. This lane is for turning left. Don't be stupid and drive in this lane, you've got the possibility that someone is driving towards you from the opposite direction.

4. This one says what it is but no one manages to obey it. The left lane is for passing. If you are going the speed limit you could still be "slower" traffic. Stay in the right lane. It is not your job to make sure people go the speed limit. Just drive to keep your self safe.

5. Here is a hard one. This is an added lane sign or a free flow lane sign. If you are making a right turn under one of these signs it means you have your own lane to turn into. DO NOT STOP. I can't emphasize this one enough. You do not have to stop and think, this is like a merge without other traffic.

6. If you see this at a 4 way intersection it means everyone has a stop sign. Just stop and go. You do not have to stop and wait for the other guy to stop before going. This does not mean you shouldn't pay attention to the other people. You need to know the rules of the road.

7. I just threw this in to see who's still paying attention. It means the pavement is going to turn to gravel. You'll see lots of these in Saskatchewan.

8. This one works with #4. You need to drive in the right lane. If you suddenly have a new right lane, that isn't a turning lane, you should be in it. These signs are usually found going up hill so faster cars can get around slower large vehicles.

Ok now for a few specific rants.

Four way intersections. No matter how these are controlled they seem to mystify the general public. Lets ignore traffic lights because most of you have a handle on those. Lets start with the most basic type, an uncontrolled intersection. The rule here is "right of way". This means you yield to the guy on the right. This does not mean you blast through it and hope, this does not mean you stop completely and then go. There is no need to stare blankly at the guy on your left and wave him through, you have the right of way. Simple, no? Right of way means the person on your right has the "right of way". A four way stop is similar but different. The guy that stops first has the right of way. If you stop at the same time the person on the right has the right of way. If you stop at the same time but you are turning left and the other guy is going straight through, he has the right of way because you are crossing oncoming lanes. It is a little more complicated but is still simple logic for humans. Stop being afraid of stop signs.

The added lane sign. Perhaps this is a new sign to Saskatoon but sweet zombie jesus it is not difficult to understand. It means shut up and drive. Do not stop and think about it just go. Be kind to the people behind you and just drive. I don't know how I can make this any simpler. You do not have to merge but for the love of god don't stop. Stop being an asshole and stop trying to merge into one of the other lanes when you have one of these signs facing you. The whole idea is to speed up traffic. I can't count the number of times I've seen someone stop, look, wait, merge into the center lane and continue straight down the road. You could have eliminated everything and just continued down the right lane and lane changed later. This would have saved everyone time and prevented a whole line of traffic from having to stop.

This brings us to merging. For fucks sake don't stop at the end of a merge lane. You are asking to be removed from this world by a fast moving truck. Also do not merge way below the speed of traffic. This seems to be difficult for anyone over 25. You NEED to be going the same speed as the faster traffic in order to safely and smoothly merge into it. Again this is not a complex concept. Learn to love your gas pedal and just put the hammer down. Do people not realize how dangerous it is to stop on a merge lane?

Now here is a sign that seems to have everyone completely dumb founded.

This is a traffic circle sign. We have one traffic circle in Saskatoon and it is a source of constant entertainment and frustration for those of us that can figure it out. Please stop being ignorant and just ask what it is and how you do it. I've seen too many people go the wrong way around or even try to drive through the middle. Follow the arrows. The issue most people have is they have to yield to the left instead of the right. Ok its a little odd but it is not rocket science. The person in the circle has the right of way and the person entering has to yield. Think of it like merging into the circle. Then you simply go around the circle and exit where you want. Yes I realize that sometimes this means you have to go the long way around but stop going the wrong way.

Do you know why this rant exists? It exists because our driver education is a joke. My driving education was 4 in car drives and the exam consisted of 5 right turns, 5 left turns, a couple lane changes and a parallel park. I'm pretty sure that driving dog on tv could get a license in Saskatchewan. More time as a learner and more probation will not fix this. As a learner you learn the bad habits of your family and friends. You will not be able to elevate yourself to the level of a good driver if everyone teaching you cannot figure out a traffic circle. It should cost you more than $25 to get your license.

Ok that's enough for now. Please put some more effort into your driving and put down the cellphone, burger, newspaper, coffee, and smoke. Won't somebody please think of the children!

RIP Canon A70

2007-12-09T18:14:00.000-06:00

My workhorse Canon A70 finally died. It was on life support and I pulled the plug or more accurately I shorted it out.

It all started about a week ago when I noticed something rattling around inside the camera. I thought this was odd but didn't think much of it. Then the zoom jammed with an E18 error. I noticed it wasn't rattling anymore so I figured what ever was loose was jamming the zoom. So I smacked it around a bit and it started working again. I decided it was time to dissect it. After finding some disassembly instructions online, in Estonian mind you, I had it apart and found that my mysterious loose part was a screw. Well that can't be good but what the hell it still works right? So I put it back together, put some batteries in and... nothing. Hmmm... well I'll take the batteries out and wow they're warm. Uh oh. Oh no, whats that smell?! Yep, I had let the magic smoke out of the camera. It was dead.

I was sad for a while but then I realized I got to go shopping for a new camera! So I bought myself a Canon A720IS. It's an 8 mega pixel, which is a lot overkill but it is the same basic design so I'm still familiar with it.

I went from the A70:

To the A720IS:

The things I like most are how it feels in my hand, the huge 2.5" LCD, optical image stabilization, facial recognition and my basic familiarity with it. It is also much quicker than the old camear. I looked at some smaller cameras but they were lost in my hands. Also I felt that they would get lost in general. I'm also amazed with the video quality. I've uploaded one to google video and the compression really doesn't show the video the way it should but you can definately tell the difference between the two cameras.

A70

A720

A downside to the camera is it uses SD and not CF so I can't reuse my old cards but that's minor.

Well I got the table

2007-08-30T19:43:00.000-06:00

Well I finally got my table last night. I found out why I couldn't get it the night before, they were being saved for a "sale". I put sale in quotes there because it is a scam. If you look in your current Canadian Tire flyer it will list the 8 foot folding table as a special buy at $64.99. Guess what I paid... $64.99. It's been that price on the website for two weeks. Special buy my ass.

Just another reason not to shop there anymore. Oh and I haven't had a response to my email yet. I don't expect one.

My Kingdom for a Table

2007-08-28T21:11:00.000-06:00

Has anyone else noticed that Canadian Tire is about as useful as a screen door on a submarine?

I've been trying to buy a 8 foot folding table for two weeks now and I still don't have one. Here is the email I sent to customerservice@canadiantire.ca

"I have to say my experience at the SASKATOON WEST, SK 301 CONFEDERATION DRIVE in the last couple weeks has been poor. I could sum up the customer service as atrocious. I have been trying to buy an 8 foot folding table Product #99-3599-4 for two weeks. I check the website before I go to the store and it always says it is in stock. Last week after having to convince an employee that you actually sell that table I was told they were out but more were coming in yesterday. I went to the store tonight to be told that they were “on hold” until tomorrow when they would be placed in the center aisle. I thought that a store was in the business of selling stuff but I guess only on certain days now. I was too tired to complain because I had to wait at least 20 minutes. I had to wait for the first aisle person to find someone else because he didn’t know how to look it up in the computer and then they had to go look in the basement to see if they could find the table. Interestingly enough while I was waiting another person was waiting at the electrical desk and had to push the button 11 times before someone would come help him. I know it was 11 because I counted while I was waiting. Perhaps I should have tried to find a manager but I thought they would be just as apathetic as the staff and wouldn’t be much more help anyways.

I can’t understand why it is so difficult to purchase a simple table. I am going to go back tomorrow to try to purchase this table again. If I am unable to I will no longer shop at Canadian Tire. The customer service has been going down hill for quite some time now and I might as well shop at Wal-Mart."

Perhaps I am expecting too much from a bunch of 16 year olds that couldn't find their ass with a map and a flashlight. At least when I worked at London Drugs I knew what the hell I was doing.

Keep any eye on the papers for a story about a severe beating at the Confed Craptire. If you could pitch a bit in for bail that would be great too.

Electronics deals

2007-08-09T12:34:00.000-06:00

Wow I've been working the deals lately. I mentioned that Lindsay got me a XM satellite radio for my b'day but I didn't mention the deal we got on it. The radio was at London Drugs regular $99 on for $69 so she bought it for me. I looked online and XM had a $20 mail in rebate for it. Last night I'm in LD and they've dropped the price of the Xpress to $29.99 so we brought the bill back in and got it price matched. Effectively Lindsay will have paid $9.99 for the radio. That's pretty good.

The second deal is at Office Depot. I've been looking at Belkin's boom box for the XM Xpress radio but its $100. I didn't want to spend this much so I noticed that Office depot has a sale on the Teac R1 radio. Normally $99 on sale for $39. It has a built in rechargeable battery, can run on 12v DC and has an AUX port that I could plug a satellite radio into. All I need to do is get a home or car kit for the radio and I should be set. :)

The Scottish is strong in this one.

Where did the summer go?

2007-08-07T21:27:00.000-06:00

Holy sh*t its been busy! I last posted on June 18th and it's been non-stop since then. Lets see, where to start....

Well things are going much better with the new land lord. He's been doing a lot of work around here to improve the place. We've got patio doors now and a deck to put the BBQ on. The tenants below have left and he's put a new side door on that is all full of fuck for now. We've got a new floor in the bathroom as well as a new tub surround and a new toilet. I think that's about all he has planned for us until he's done fixing everything in the basement. Now begins the count-down to the rent increase. Man I'm negative eh?

Our little camping trip to Radium Hotsprings went off quite well. The only hitch was the hotel had no record of the reservations when the family got there. I thought my mom was going to actually kill the guy. Seriously. Anyways after a whole lot of bitching at him he found us some rooms next door at the next hotel. I was feeling quite invincible as we had reserved a camping site at Red Streak and I wasn't worried about having a place to stay. I was just worried about having to share the campsite with the whole family. ;)

Here is a picture to wet your appetite and the rest are on my putfile account.

The rest of the photo album

As you can see from the picture I had a lantern with me, a big one, I took a Coleman 236 from 1942 that puts out 500 candle power. I was lighting up the 3 adjacent campsites aswell! I also had a Coleman stove with me. You can see it in the photo album. It is a model 500 Speedmaster from 1938 that George gave me for free.

We took it easy and spent every day in the pool as well as going on a couple little road trips to other areas. One of my favorite parts of the trip was the rental car. We rented a 2007 Dodge Charger with the 3.5HO V6 and the 5 speed auto. Mmmm... 230 hp. I was absolutely surprised with the amount of power the V6 had in this large car. I had no problem passing and abusing the posted speed limit on many occasions. Even with me bag driving it we still averaged 31 mpg for the trip. I would imagine our mileage would have been a lot better if we didn't drive up and down the mountain from the campsite to the town a few times everyday.

After that trip we got to stay at home for a little while and then it was off to Delaronde lake to visit Lindsay's Mom and step dad Tim. We had a great time and I got to get some fishing in with Tim. He knows quite a bit about fishing so I'm hoping to learn some stuff from him as I love to eat fish. We had a great fish fry over the open fire on the first night. Mmmm.... is all I can say.

The next weekend we were in Emma lake with Lindsay's Dad and step mom Gloria. Well we were there with a shit load more of her family than that. It was basically a family reunion to mark the family being in Canada for 40 years. There was about 30 Edgars and various offspring running around causing shit. It was a great time. The only downside to the weekend was it rained everynight so the inside of the tent was a bit damp. Everyone was impressed with my sand dyke that I built infront of the tent to keep the water away. I do believe we were the only tent to have no water issues. We had a blast and spent some time relaxing as well as some time on the beach and on the boat. Melissa's got a great picture of me in the water drinking a beer and eating a sandwich that I'll post when I get it.

In between the two trips Lindsay got me an early birthday present. She got me a XM radio. An Audiovox Xpress to be exact. It rocks. I can't believe how great it was to have on the road. The next thing I want is a boombox that it fits into so I can listen to satellite radio everywhere. I've got a bid on a cheap one on Ebay as well as a cheap home kit. If I don't get the one on Ebay I'll put it on my b'day list as I can't affort too much right now.

On the Friday before the long weekend when I got home form work the city of Saskatoon had a present waiting for me in the mail box. They sent me a red light camera ticket! I should scan it and put it on here as I must have been on crack that day. It is verrrry obvious that I ran the light, it wasn't even close. Damn left turn impatience. Well I figure that 5 years of going through there atleast 2 times per day it was bound to happen eventually. So I'm $220 lighter now. Ouch.

Well its been a long post and I think I've covered everything. I've been addicted to crackbook(facebook for the noobs) lately so come check me out on there.

Been busy

2007-06-18T12:20:00.001-06:00

Wow for some reason I've been really busy lately. It all started on Thursday. We usually go for drinks on Thursday after work but this Thursday was much drunker. A friend of Lindsay's is moving to Alberta so we all went for drinks after I had finished drinking with the guys from work. We didn't get home until about 3 am and I was up at 7 for work. A quick puke and a nap on the couch and I was ready to go. Friday we went to Georges for a BBQ and then Saturday at 7:30am I was at Tristan's to help him put the concrete pad down for his garage. Saturday afternoon was spent golfing for Dallas' bachelor party and we were up til 3:30am for that. Sunday was fathers day and I was at the acreage with my mom's family from about noon until 7:30pm.

This is about 800% busier than my normal weekend. I've just realized that I didn't send my Dad his fathers day card even though it is already purchased and I also just realized that I forgot about James' birthday. Jeez I'm slipping.

I learned a couple things during this weekend. First, if you're going to golf 18 holes after concrete work rent a damn power cart. Second, write important dates down on the calendar so you don't forget people's b'days. Lastly, I feel much older than I am right now.

Wanted: New place to live

2007-06-11T22:47:00.000-06:00

Wow after the whole thing with Lindsay's aunt and uncle my ass was just starting to contract back to normal when the new landlord jumped right on in there and rode me like a rented mule.

There have been a few changes and lots of promises.

Changes:

We had to give up half the driveway, so this means the people in the basement now have 75% of the available parking and they have ZERO(0) cars. They have parking in the back which is home to a "car" and half the driveway in the front. At least at the apartment I didn't have to move my car so Lindsay could get hers out. Just one of the many perks of living in a house. We can no longer use the side door as he wants the people in the basement to have their own entrance. Ok this isn't a big problem except that the side door is the most convenient way to get to the driveway, backyard, garage, BBQ, mailbox, etc. I'm not 100% sure if it is an all out ban on us using the door or if he just wants us to mostly use the front door. They get to have a pet because they got a dog mere minutes before the landlord showed up but we can't have a pet. Life is not fair I guess.

Promises

The new landlord has promised to clean the ducts, roto root the drains, change the window in the bathroom, change the tub surround, change the rest of the windows and put in a proper shower. You can shit in one hand, and wish in the other, and see which fills up faster.

Well your thinking their must be a plus in all this, well there is, the landlord is doing the yardwork now. Well at least thats what he said was happening and he's mowed the lawn once in two weeks. Thats about as good as it was getting done when we were doing it for free.

At least things are going good with the other tenants.... well not really. The "shared" laundry room is being treated as their laundry room and I'm pretty sure they are either washing their clothes one piece at a time or there is 50 people living down there since they are always doing laundry. The washer was set on hot for quite a while so it will be interesting to see the natural gas bill. It will also be interesting to see if said bill causes some sort of full on freakout. We are going to have to get set laundry days because we've been trying for three days to wash our towels. Sunday saw them leave stuff in the washer for 5 hours. I'm also very concerned that the side door is running out of fuck. This is because they keep slamming the fuck out of it. Its like an episode of the Simpsons when homer forgot Marge's gift and he runs out fo the house to get one. You can hear the basement door get slammed, someone run up the stairs and slam the door and the screen door. It is bad enough that they wake us up when we are sleeping in the other end of the house. Maybe I should stop complaining and talk to them about it but I don't like confrontations. I am a little worried that I'm just going to lose it one day and burn the fucking house down. Wait... does that make it pre-meditated? Hmm... I guess I can't do that now. I also don't think that I should need to talk to them about these things since they are common sense but a smart person I know once told me that common sense is not that common.

We'll have to see if I can talk to the landlord about some of these things without going off the deep end. It also makes me wonder what kinds of annoying things we do as tennants. Some days I'd love to be able to walk a mile in someone elses shoes. My god I'm full of sayings and cliches tonight.

Well anyways I'm glad blogger was here to absorb my ranting and I hope that no one actually wasted time reading this.

More online quizzes

2007-05-29T16:31:00.000-06:00

Your results:
You are Iron Man

Iron Man		75%
Spider-Man		70%
Green Lantern		65%
Superman		65%
Hulk		55%
Catwoman		55%
Robin		50%
The Flash		50%
Supergirl		48%
Batman		40%
Wonder Woman		18%

Inventor. Businessman. Genius.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero am I?" quiz...

What would you die for?

the Truth.

We are all one, and you seem to know it. Shine on, brother.

Click Here to Take This Quiz

Quizzes and Personality Tests

I am sick of this shit.

2007-05-27T00:30:00.000-06:00

It has been said that nothing in life is certain except for death and taxes but I was hoping to add shelter to that list. Once upon a time we had a nice little apartment in the north end, I had my own parking spot and I felt secure. Then one day Lindsay got the crazy idea that we should move to a house and going against my better judgment we decided to move. So we moved and it was a good move, everything went smoothly and quickly. We had a small army helping us and it was good. I gained a garage, a back yard and a noisy neighbour; I lost my parking spot, three flights of stairs and 17 neighbours. It seemed like a good trade off at the time but the Sword of Damocles soon fell. Not two weeks into this we found out the landlords, Lindsay's Aunt and Uncle, wanted to sell the house. Unpacking stopped. I wondered how long we would have a place to live and life went on with even less security. After a week of having strangers waltz through our home, not our house but our home, willy nilly whenever they felt like it we were told that the house sold. Yay! We can start unpacking again. Everything was back to normal.

I now realize that this feeling of relief was premature. Our combined rent is covering a $90,000 mortgage but the house sold somewhere north of $185,000 and probably quite a bit north. So we wait for the ultimate conclusion of the rent increasing. Never do business with family.

If I knew they were going to sell the house we wouldn't have moved or at least not into this house. I can't imagine someone decides to sell a $200,000 house completely on a whim.

Depending on the rent increase we will probably be able to absorb it. I'm making more money and Lindsay has a new job so this should be no problem. But. Well Lindsay isn't getting as many hours as promised and true I am making more money but we now have to pay more utilities and the rent is higher than the apartment already. Why is it that everyone always has to live to the edge of his or her means? I used to think that I wasn't one of those people, I could accept living in a small apartment if it meant that I was more comfortable, well the comfort hasn't increased. On which side of the line is the quality of life better? Do we plan for the future or live in the now? It would appear to me that the now is more important to most people.

A wise man once told me to live without regrets. I can't say I've done that and now I've got another one to add to the list.

I regret moving.

Let the unpacking commence

2007-05-21T15:30:00.000-06:00

Sweet zombie jesus, its been 20 days since I posted last!

Well its been kinda stressful around here lately. We moved into a new place and then two weeks after being here our land lords told us they were selling the house. We have since found out that the house has sold and the new landlords want to keep the current tenants at the current rent. We'll see about that last one. I don't know if our rents will cover the mortgage on $185,000+.

I can now start getting back into some hobbies. I've been suffering lantern withdrawal since I didn't want to haul anything over here if I wasn't sure we'd be staying. Now I have a garage and a workbench I should be able to catch up on some projects. I was able to put together a rocket in the last few days. My uncle got my a rocket kit for my b'day last year, it is a cluster rocket. It uses two engines instead of one so I'm really interested to see it fly.

It is the white one in the center. If you look closely you can see two engine retaining clips.

Shipping on eBay is really starting to piss me off. I got a couple 500mhz P3 processors for free and I was thinking I'd find a cheap dual proc motherboard and make a dual system. I've found lots on eBay for $20 and under but they want $20-40 USD for shipping. How can it possibly cost $40 to send a motherboard from California to Canada?! It's ridiculous. I've had lanterns shipped for less than that. Needless to say my dual processor system is on hold for now.

I've been promising to put some pictures of the new place online but it won't be today. It is raining out and I don't want to go out there in the rain and take some pictures. I guess the teeming masses will have to wait a few days longer.

Have fun and stay dry.

TV and internet withdrawl

2007-05-01T20:03:00.000-06:00

Well we're moved and I finally have tv and internet again. I don't have any pictures for you and I'm dissapointed that I didn't take any of the move because it was the best move ever. Actually the second best, you should ask mark about the best.

Anyways I have to send out a big thank you to everyone that helped, it was described as a small army. We rented a 16ft cube van and had 12 people helping us. The move was complete in 2 hours. Too bad for everyone who left early because my grandmother made lunch for us and it was spectacular.

I'll post more later as well as some pictures but I just wanted to post now that I have the internet again. Mmm.... internet.

Been Gone

2007-04-24T20:28:00.000-06:00

Well I know I haven't posted much lately but its been busy. We're working on getting ready to move on Sunday so its been pretty crazy around here.

Work has been busy as we try to get this solar crap off the ground. WSE Technologies. We have an interesting meeting coming up on next Friday with a customer who wants to build a solar house in Dundurn. I'm not convinced this is a good idea yet as you only get about 20% of the power you expect. Now that isn't saying that this isn't an interesting technology but its hard to justify its price if you already have a connection to the grid.

So I haven't had a chance to put my nitro car back together or work on anything Coleman but I do have a new body coming for the nitro car. Basically all the hobbies are on hold until after the move.

I'll have to post some pictures of the new place after we move in. Speaking of that anyone who wants to help move show up here Sunday at 9:30am. Did I mention that I'm sick of packing?

R/C car fun

2007-04-07T18:55:00.000-06:00

Ever wonder what happens when a Traxxax Tmax uses a Nitro sport as a jump ramp? Well I found out and here are the results.

Here is the front end being held together with 5 zip ties and some epoxy.

This is with the zip ties removed.

Here are the parts that were broken. The front shock tower, the left front shock, the steering servo and one of the tie rods was bent.

The collision pulled one of the screws out of the steering servo.

In the end I'm going to have to replace about $20 worth of parts and I'm lucky that I have another servo around. It was quite a sight to see though. My nitro sport and Paul's T-maxx hit head on and his T-maxx got about 2 feet of air off of my car. Needless to say his came out as the winner.

Red Colemans

2007-03-26T21:39:00.000-06:00

Are you getting sick of lantern pictures yet? Well here is another one but this time they are running.

The one on the left is a run of the mill 200A and the one on the right is a Canadian 220E. The 220E isn't the rarest lantern but not everyone has one and one of the most obvious differences from the US version is the colour. The more common US version is green and this one is obviously red.

The China Syndrome

2007-03-16T23:46:00.000-06:00

Better late than never but I just watched the China Syndrome and I have to say that it is a pretty powerful movie. I've always been interested in nuclear power, both the good and the bad side of it. This movie takes nuclear fear a little too far I think. Recently I read a book by Bernard Cohen that a friend lent to me that tried to look at the dangers of nuclear power from a scientists stand point. It was really interesting to hear from a scientific point of view that nuclear power isn't as dangerous as the media would have you belive. Reporters only want to report the bad news. The China syndrome that the movie is named after is an exaggerated result of a nuclear melt down. The idea would be that the nuclear core would get so hot that it would burn its way through the earth and come out the other side in China. Needless to say this is perposterous for many reasons and very unlikely. The movie recieved a fair amount of criticism because it falsly makes the nuclear industry look much less safe and more accident prone that it actually is.

The biggest boost to this movie was the fact that the Three Mile Island accident happened a mere 12 days after the release of this film. This is unfortunate as it makes the movie seem all the more realistic and gave the anti-nuclear people a real boost. The ironic thing was that the Three Mile Island accident happened in much the same way as the accident in the movie. There was a failure of the coolant supply and the core partially melted. The main fact that people seem to avoid is in the TMI accident the highest dose recieved by anyone was only one third of what they would naturally get in one year. A China syndrome would be unlikely because the containment building of the reactor is designed to contain a meltdown. In the only full melt down the world has seen, Chernobyl, the core didn't pass through the earth and pop through the other side. The reactor had a large positive void coefficient which means the reactors power increases as coolant boils away.Now a large amount of radioactive material was released but Chernobyl did not have a full containment building around the reactor. Considering the number of reactors in the world this just goes to show that nuclear power can be safe if it is designed to be safe from the start.

Another point the movie brought up was the disposal of nuclear waste. Everyone is afraid of nuclear waste from reactors but they create far less waste than a coal power plant. A coal fired power plant may release as much as 5.2 tons of uranium per year. The energy in nuclear fuel is very high compared to the size of the fuel. "One uranium nuclear fuel pellet the size of the tip of your little finger is equivalent to the energy provided by 1,780 pounds of coal; or 149 gallons of oil, as much oil as fits in three 50 gallon drums; or 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas." this means that in 40 years of nuclear power there has only been 50,000 metric tons of waste produced. The would be enough to fill "a football field to a depth of about six yards". You have to remember that Uranium is very dense so it is very heavy compared to it's size. We aren't in an urgent situation to find new places to store the waste. When we have to start putting the waste undergound there is a process being considered called "Vitrificaiton" which basically turns the waste to glass which makes it less reactive with other materials. it is still quite radioactive but it will not react with ground water etc.

You may be wondering why we do not have nuclear power here in Saskatchewan but that is a discussion for another time.

I guess I got on a bit of a tangent there but I had to get that out. In summary I liked the movie for it's movie characteristics but take the science with a grain of salt.

Wedding Vegetables

2007-03-06T12:00:00.000-06:00

Well another series of Top Gear has come and gone. It was good, but not great. I must say the last few episodes have had some great quotes coming out of them.

I was a little disappointed in Richard Hammond in the last episode. His head must still not be right because he can't figure out how HP numbers on a chassis dyno work. They tested the new Mustang GT-500 against his 68 GT 390 and put them both on a chassis dyno. He was disappointed to see the GT-500 only produce about 450 hp since it was supposed to have 500. He failed to realize that it produces 500 at the crank and a 10% loss to the wheels is normal. I thought a "car guy" on tv should know this. He was more disappointed to find his 68 had about 250 hp at the wheels. Well considering the original HP reading was a gross reading at the crank this is probably about right. I'm disappointed as it seems these guys get to drive the fancy cars and smash shit but they don't seem to know much about cars. That said, Top Gear is still one of my favorite shows.

Just a little update on those 2-way FRS/GMRS radios I bought. It would seem that their range in the city is about 600-900 metres. That's a little below their claim of 10 miles but I didn't expect to see anything close to that. I was hoping to get 1-2 kms though. I'm sure on the flat prairie they would do much better but through houses, trees, cars, powerlines and the like they only give 600-900 metres.

I put up some pictures of my last lantern but I noticed that I haven't put any up of my 242B that I rescued from a pawn shop for $14. Notice the metallic green paint on the vent, it makes a nice smell when its running.

This is a nice little lantern. It is built like a mini 236 or 237.

Well that's about all for this update but I will leave you this great link to the real live Calvin and Hobbes Snowmen.

Antique and Gun show

2007-03-04T19:47:00.000-06:00

Today I was out at the Collectors show at Prairieland to check out the antiques. I had a couple of things in mind while I was out there and did actually find something. As usual I'm on the look out for Coleman lanterns and stoves but I'm also trying to find a radioactive fiestaware plate. I packed my trusty russian geiger counter and I was off.

It is amazing how much junk can be put in one place at one time. I guess half the fun is too look through the junk and find something worth while, it's like finding a diamond in the rough. I was amazed as there was only 2 Coleman lamps in all of the antiques section but I did manage to find a fiestaware side plate that was indeed radioactive but the guy wanted $20 for it, why do I need a $20 plate? So I moved on. After finishing the antiques side I almost left, I'm not much into guns and I don't know a lot about them but I decided I might as well look around. I'm glad I did as I found a 5/64 220E in the back corner for $20. This 220E is made in Canada which makes it a little special as I don't think there were that many made and they are red instead of green as the American ones are. Here are a couple pictures:

I think it looks good along side my 200A in the living room. I need something to balance out some of Lindsay's decorations.

I'm not a huge fan of the double mantle lanterns but I couldn't pass this one up. I prefer Canadian made single mantle lanterns so if any of you spot a cheap one at a garage sale let me know ;)

Shaving 8 months later

2007-02-25T22:52:00.000-06:00

Back in June I posted about my new Double Edged Safety razor and 8 months later I'm still using it. As a test a few weeks ago I tried using my Mach 3 and I was amazed at how bad it felt. I got an OK shave from it when I was done but it felt like it was pulling my skin off. I couldn't believe the difference. I'm happy with the shave I get from my DE razor and very happy with the experience. My girlfriend loves it too, she just wishes I would shave more often.

Back in June I pointed out the difference in price and today, 8 months later, I finally ordred some more blades for $20 CDN shipped. I'm getting 25 high quality blades for $20. Try that with your Mach 3 or Fusion, I dare you but I won't bail you out. Now I do agree that the initial cost of supplies is higher but as the leisure guy points out it is not that bad. A good starter set will run about the same cost as a Gillette Fusion and 27 cartridges. That does seem to be a lot of money but this set up will probably last you until you are too old to shave yourself.

He has another good article about how to shave without butchering your face.

I would reccomend anyone who wants to get started with a DE razor check out the two above articles as well as the links in my previous post. They are chalk full of good information and the MSN wetshavers group can answer any question you might have. If reading isn't your thing there is a good series on youtube that will teach you all about wet shaving.

One thing I have learned in 8 months is that I'm still learning. I'm going to try some differnt blades to see if I can get a better shave and I just learned a few pointers about how to improve my technique. This is a process of forever trying to better yourself and get a better shave. If you want to stumble in the bathroom at 6am half asleep and hack the hair off your face, this is not for you. You should stick to your Mach 3.

Whats next? Well I plan on getting more great shaves and eventually I'd love to learn how to use a straight razor but first I have to find someone who can teach me. I think trying to learn that through trial and error might be a bit dangerous.

I'm back

2007-02-21T21:42:00.000-06:00

Ok I know its been a month since I posted last but it's been a busy/borring month. I thought I would share my latest bargin with all of you. I've wanted a set of FRS radios for some time now but I have never been able to justify it... until now that is. I've purchased two Uniden GMR1038-2 for $9.99, they're regular price is 39.99 I believe.

If you go to Uniden Direct's site they have the radios for $9.99. Yes they are referbished but so what. I've had good luck with referbished stuff in the past. Now I would recommend most people purchase the radios with the rechargable batteries and charging base as they are only $24.99 and these radios use 4, yes 4, AAA's each. Ouch. Now luckily I was able to pick up 24AAA Nimh rechargables from eBay for $12. Check out all-battery.com's eBay store. This should give me 3 full sets of batteries for both radios.

Well how do they work?

I just recieved them today but I've tested them from my Mom's house to my uncle's house and they work fine. That is across two streets and the next block down. I would say about 200 meters. I've also tried them with Lindsay in the apartment and me two parking lots away. Probably about the same amount of distance. They have nice clear reception and are easy to use. The real test will be this summer when we go camping in the mountains. I picked them up mainly for car to car communications. I'm going to take the radios to work tomorrow so maybe they'll get more of a workout.

Well thats it for now but I do hope to start blogging more often again.

Wardriving

2007-01-16T20:59:00.000-06:00

The subject of wireless security comes up a lot in discussions and it is interesting to see that more networks have security but it is still only about 50%. Here are some wardrives* that I have done over the last couple years from 10/11/05 to 01/16/07

The Green names are open, red are using WEP and Purple are using WPA. You should be using WPA with a long complicated password. If you think that annoying 128bit hex key for WEP is secure I suggest you watch this video

If you want a cool way to view my latest wardrive download this file test.kml and it will open in Google Earth. Another interesting file for you is found here Kismac Google Earth Plugin. This will let you view networks that people have uploaded for your area.

*Just a note, there has been some arrests and legal action regarding wardriving lately. These networks were found with my network card in passive mode so in no way were they accessed by me. It is not illegal to listen.

And it got worse

2007-01-10T15:26:00.000-06:00

Here is an update on the blizzard of 07. The pictures below are taken off of my balcony facing west at about 3pm CST. Current conditions according to environment Canada are:

Observed at: Saskatoon Diefenbaker Int'l Airport 3:00 PM CST Wednesday 10 January 2007
Condition:
Snow
Temperature:
-18.7°C
Pressure / Tendency:
100.5 kPa / rising
Visibility:
0 km
Humidity:
91%
WindChill:
-35
Dew Point:
-19.8°C
Wind Speed:
ENE 61 km/h gust 78 km/h

http://www.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/city/pages/sk-40_metric_e.html

Blizzard!

2007-01-10T09:09:00.000-06:00

Here are a couple pictures for your enjoyment. The top one was taken this morning at 9am out of my office window. The second one is an older picture I took after a previous snow storm. The difference is amazing.

Hmmm... Putfile.com seems to have changed the size of their thumbnails. Well you'll have to survive.

We are expecting the blizzard to last for today and tomorrow

I should have stayed home today.

Coleman 237 Empire

2007-01-08T19:15:00.000-06:00

Here is a picture of my latest purchase. It is a 237 empire that I bought from a collector in Esterhazy. It looks spectacular.

Here it is alongside my 236. Don't they look good together?

I can't remember if I've posted these pictures. I got a new globe for my 200A that will prevent me being blinded while BBQing on the balcony. It is originally from a Winchester Trail Blazer propane lantern.

I've also got a Coleman stove coming from Regina. It is a 500 Speedmaster. If you look on Terrence Marsh's site it is about half way down. It is a nickle plated version. It doesn't look nearly that good but it will after some time. The only bad side is the generator is worth $30 USD. I only paid $24 for the stove. I'll put some pictures up when I get the stove.

Radioactivity

2006-12-29T12:42:00.000-06:00

Just a quick post with a video I made. I borrowed George's geiger counter and thought I'd see just how radioactive a lantern mantle is.

The mantle registers about 4 micro sieverts per hour. This is about 1 half to 1 days worth of radiation depending on where you live. In the US the average annual radiation exposure is about 3600 micro sieverts or 360 millirems. In Canada we get exposed to about half of this at about 1800 micro sieverts per year. This works out to about 9.8 and 4.9 micro sieverts per day for Americans and Canadians. These numbers are just averages and your local radiation count can vary greatly.

In the video you can see the geiger counter has to be almost touching the mantle to get the max reading and at a foot away it isn't reading anymore than background so these mantles are pretty safe. I wouldn't want to tuck one inside my hat and wear it around for a long time or have a stockpile of several thousand under the bed. The real danger is the smoke from these when they are first ashed. If breathed in the smoke can leave thorium and its decay products in your lungs which will sit there slowly irradiating your lung tissue. In turn this could very slightly up your chances of lung cancer.

Newer mantles are made with yttrium instead of thorium because it isn't radioactive.

I'm ready for Christmas to be here

2006-12-14T11:57:00.000-06:00

I'm almost finished all of my Christmas shopping. I was out last night and picked up a few things but it made me realise that I'm ready for Christmas to be done already. This is a surprising two weeks later than when I worked in retail but I'm done. I want some time off, I want to give people their crap that I've been hording for months like some cold war, bomb shelter owning American. I want my stuff too, people have been asking me for weeks "what do you want for Christmas" and I'm tired of it, I have no ideas left. I just want to see what they bought.

We bought a tree on Monday and decorated it it on Tuesday. I got taken to the cleaners by the tree guy. $30 for a 6.5ft Douglas fir? Damn if I wasn't so lazy I'd go down to mayfair hardware and buy one for half that. Probably in better shape too. This is Lindsay's first real tree in quite some time and I think she was a little disappointed in the Charlie brown that we have. I think people get spoiled by fake trees, there's no sap on you from sawing the bottom off, there's no needles and it is perfectly shaped. Where is the fun in that? I think its all worth it just for the smell. In reality there isn't much mess, after you get the decorations on and stop playing with it the needles usually stay put pretty well. At least I have somewhere to put my stash of presents.

One thing that makes shopping difficult is the lack of vehicles. Yes Lindsay's car is still in the shop. Its been there for a month now and I'm getting tired of it. When she is closing at work, which is most of the time, I have no car. Sure I've got the truck but be damned if I am going to drive that downtown and deal with parking. I could probably get things delivered for the same price as gas and parking. My mom is in a worse place with vehicles, the truck is her only vehicle in the winter. The car is parked for the winter. She's getting ready to revolt and just take the truck back. I wouldn't blame her.

I'm looking forward to some time off but I have a feeling that I won't actually get any time "off". Let see... on Friday the 22nd we are going to Moosejaw after work and then back on Sunday morning. Sunday is going to be spent at my mom's house and we'll do Christmas then. She has a party there that night with my family and then on Monday I'm with Lindsay's mom's family all day. Tuesday is back with my family at my grandparents. *sigh* did I loose you there? I'm sure by Tuesday night I'll be ready to shove myself in a dark hole somewhere and not come out for a few days.

Well that's enough complaining for one lunch hour. Hopefully everyone elses Christmas will be just as busy and crazy as mine. I don't want to be the only one.

This might brighten up your day... or make you feel guilty

2006-12-06T11:23:00.000-06:00

I'm loaded.
It's official.
I'm the 661,752,624 richest person on earth!

How rich are you? >>

Car stuff

2006-12-05T12:20:00.000-06:00

Well it looks like Lindsay's car is going to take a little while longer in the shop and should be so expensive she'll have to be buried in the car. I was talking to her dad and I was told a little bit about what happened to it. Apparently there is an oil pump between the two cams at the front of the head. It looks like a bolt fell out of this pump fell to the bottom of the timing chain and got tangled in the gear. It managed to chew up that gear and consequently the chain and other gears causing the timing to get screwed up and making valves and pistons meet violently. I guess we're still waiting on some parts. Joy.

At least my car is still running. It decided to scare us the other night by not wanting to start but its been running fine since, even in the -30 weather we had.

In other news James and Jacqui had us over for supper on Sunday night and it was fantastic. We had pork chops in some sort of sweet and sour sauce that were really good, veggies, salad, fresh olive oil bread and desert. They really went all out. After supper we played UNO attack. Its a fun twist on UNO because it has a card shooter instead of a deck to draw from. It adds an element of chance to the game because you never know how many cards are going to shoot out.

Well that's it for now. Hopefully next time I post it will be about getting Lindsay's car back.

Perhaps the tide is turning

2006-11-23T12:02:00.000-06:00

My last post was overly negative in reflection of the crap going on lately but it seems to be changing. I took my truck to Kal-tire this morning before work and they fixed my tire for free. I know that if you buy your tires there they will fix flats for free but I don't think they had to do this for free as I didn't purchase the tires there. Plus they gave me a ride to work.

Now if only Top Gear was back on the air everything would be good again.

Too borring to post

2006-11-22T18:53:00.000-06:00

Well its been a while since I've posted and I don't want to be labeled as an "absentee blogger" so I thought I'd throw something up here.

Have you ever just had a week that was total shit even when there are good things happening? I've been too busy to post but at the same time I'm not accomplishing anything. Lindsay's car broke down so we've been sharing vehicles and I've been driving her around a bit. I'm stuck driving my truck to work now and it sucks. I want my car back. To top it off one of the truck's tires has a good leak in it and someone is parked in my parking space. Its getting really fucking tiring having people always in my spot. I think I've wrote my last note, from now on I'm going to call to get them ticketed. 975-8344 will be forever burned in my memory. Work has been abnormally annoying. I don't like customers yet I can't get away from them. Everyone is getting awfully needy at work too. Yes you are the 12th person to tell me the printer is broken. Maybe it will magically fix itself when number 13 comes along.

To top it off I wasted $7.50 at the movies on Tuesday. The guys at work wanted to see Borat so I went with them and it was horrible. If it had been a regular price night I probably would have tried to get my money back. Sure there were a couple of funny parts but overall it was just fake and annoying. I expected so much more out of it. Borat was a whole movie of some guy making fun of people for being Jewish and getting away with it because he pretends to be from Kazakhstan. I feel sorry for the people of Kazakhstan.

Now every once in a while in this river of shit a little nugget of corn comes along and something good happens.

Dad and Nigel were in town on the weekend for a football game. His peewee team won the Alberta provincials and the Saskatoon falcons who won provincials here challenged them to a game at Griffiths stadium. It was damn cold but they had a good game. Nigel's team lost 30-28 but that only made them 11-2 on the season. The falcons improved to 11-0. Here are some pictures

I picked up a really nice Coleman 237 Empire from a collector in Esterhazy. I haven't got any pictures of it yet. I haven't fired it up yet either as it had a leaky valve when I got it, I think I've got that fixed now and I'm hoping to fire it this weekend.

That's about it for now. I'll have to try harder to do some more exciting stuff so I'll have a post worth posting. I did like the corn nugget line though :)

Halo movie has a director

2006-11-10T13:46:00.000-06:00

Well there is good news and bad news. The bad is that the Halo movie is going to be delayed until atleast 2008. The good they've found a director. Neill Blomkamp. He does short films and commercials. I think they might have found just the right guy. Here are a few examples of his work. Plus he's Canadian. Thats always a good thing.

Snow

2006-11-09T12:24:00.000-06:00

Here is what it looked like in Saskatoon yesterday at about 4pm

We recieved about 13cm of snow or almost 6 inches. Driving sure was fun, I watched countless people get stuck. I don't know why more people don't get a good snow tire. I've got Kumho power grip mud and snow tires and they dig like crazy. I'll get through most things that other people get stuck in. Ah well they'd rather spend the money on a car starter than on their safety.

Good morning to you too

2006-11-07T22:24:00.000-06:00

Now before I begin I must post a little disclaimer. I am not a lawyer. If this is somehow going to get me sued I'll take it down immediately but I don't think I'm in the wrong.

1. If you leave a message on someone's voicemail you must know that it is being recorded or what is the point of voicemail then?

2. I would imagine that since it is recorded on your voicemail equipment the message becomes your property.

3. I am posting this unedited and un-molested. I am not going to say anything about the person that said this, I am merely posting it for you to hear. This is not slander or libel.

Again if these assumptions are wrong please let me know. This is a message that I recorded this morning off of my voice mail. It awaited me when I got in.

This customer purchased a solar light and was un happy with it because it wouldn't work for him. I tried to help him over the phone but I could not solve it. I offered him a refund or replacement of the non-working light. he chose a replacement and I sent it to him with the message that if he is still not happy I would refund his money. The light is very similar to this one I found online. After working with him to resolve his problem this is how he chose to respond.

Putfile Link **NSFW** This message isn't G rated.

I'm sorry but putfile doesn't seem to offer an embeded audio player, just click on the link.

Oh. My. God.

2006-11-01T13:02:00.000-06:00

I knew it seemed cold today, but I thought that was because it was becoming winter, I have now discovered the truth. Hell has frozen over. Yes you read that right, I know its hard to accept but Bob Barker is leaving The Price is Right. He's been hosting it for over 3 decades, that's longer than I've been alive. Here is the story I read.

I'll admit I haven't watched the show in a while, but I love it. They never play Plinko enough though, for such a simple game I don't know why everyone loves it. So the axe falls in June and you will no longer her the familiar "Come on Down!" or "Its a new car!".

I just hope and pray that they don't replace him with someone who sucks. Bob Barker is the Price is Right but the show is too popular to let it end with his leaving. It should be interesting to see who they replace him with. I have no idea who would make a good replacement, what do you think?

Oooooh parts

2006-10-24T18:38:00.000-06:00

Well I'm sure that everyone is getting tired of RC related posts... but I'm not so here's more pictures. :D

I got my new shocks installed and they are fantastic. I haven't had a chance to bash the car but they sure work nice on the bench.

Those with a keen eye and memory will notice the shocks are now grey and not black. I have no idea if that makes a difference but they are new and spectacular.

Here you can see the little bit of fuel tube I've put on the shock shaft. This will cusion the shock if it bottoms out and this should help it live a long life. It will prevent the cap (on the top) from popping off on a hard landing.

And here is a picture of my nifty new tackle bo.... I mean RC Tool box. It is a Flambeau Night Ranger. It has an LED light in the lid for evening use. Dunno if I'll ever need the light but it was the right price and size at Canadian Tire.

Well thats about it for now. I have to go back to work, yes it is 6:45pm, and finish some work. Ah well its for extra money and we all like money.

I am unique

2006-10-19T12:21:00.000-06:00

Well atleast in the US I am. I found this over at Breakfast Meat

HowManyOfMe.com

There are:
0
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

nobodyswatching.tv

2006-10-17T12:53:00.000-06:00

Its happening again...

2006-10-16T21:04:00.000-06:00

I find it quite fitting that on the day of the first snow fall of the year the second installment of Canada's Worst Drivers premiers. I love to hate this show, I can not miss it yet it enrages me to watch it. This season looks to be no different.

I can't believe how bad some of these people can be. Somehow they seem to have the same cross section of bad drivers as last time. There is the teenage girl who doesn't give a shit, the middle aged man who drives way too fast, the middle aged housewive who breaks down on the track and the engineer to over analyzes every move. I even think it is going to go the same. I think the first to leave will be the guy with the license plate "SPEEED" because he is exactly like the guy who played bumper tag last time. He can drive, he just chooses to be a moron. I think Canada's Worst driver will be the woman from Manitoba who strangely reminds me of Mark's ex Chantel who used to close her eyes while driving if something bad happened. She could have been on the show. The one I dislike the most on the show is the young girl who likes to hit stuff. She'll scrape the side of a car in a parking lot and giggle then drive away. Nevermind that she just caused hundreds or thousands of dollars of damage but she causes everyone else's insurance premiums to go up. These people shouldn't be allowed to drive. She is from Calgary and has wrecked 5 or more cars in her life, her cars usually last 3 to 6 months before she totals them. She is 22 and I would love to find out how much her insurance costs in Calgary. I would also like to slap her and her parents until my arm falls off.

I could rant all night about bad drivers but I won't bore you to death. Watch the show, it is on Monday evening at 8 on Discovery, thats 26 on shaw, 51 on Sasktel.

Carnage and Snow

2006-10-15T21:48:00.000-06:00

I had the nitro sport out on Saturday and finally broke something. I was running around on the street when I hit a bump and the truck did a summersault. I guess it must have landed on the rear body mount because it snapped the rear shock tower.

A simple $6 part and 10 minutes and it was up and running again.

Well it snowed for the first substantial amount tonight... well its still snowing but here are a couple of pictures off of the balcony

We'll see how much we actually get but it may make the drive to work interesting tomorrow.

Have fun and stay warm.

Its been a while

2006-10-11T12:22:00.000-06:00

Well I've been busy lately and haven't had a chance to post. I'll catch you up.

Over the Thanksgiving long weekend I was out in Edmonton visiting Dad and Nigel. That was a lot of fun. I saw them and we visited Sonia and her kids as well as Wendy and her kids came out. We had thanksgiving supper on Sunday with Nigel's Mom's family and it was awesome. On Saturday night we went to the peeler bar which was a blast and I'll leave the details out to protect the guilty. On Sunday Nigel had a football game at the U of A and they got to play on the artificial turf. Wow it was nice, felt just like real grass. It was a blow out, Nigel's team won 43-0. The poor other team couldn't even manage to get the snap count right most of the time. Ah well a win is a win. Nigel's team is in second place I believe and their next game decides first. I got a really good view of the game as I volunteered to run the down markers with 2 other guys. That was nice as I never got bored and I was always right by the action.

My Nitro Sport is still out of action. I took it apart when I got home and one of the clutch bearings is boned. This gave me an excuse to buy a ball bearing set to get rid of the wheel bushings. So I'm waiting for those as well as two sets of shocks, suspension pins, axle pins and drives as well as some various other parts. Parts for the nitro sport are so cheap on eBay. The Nitro Sport, Nitro Rustler and Stampede are all basically the same car so there are lots of parts out there. I would like to get a pro ball diff but its $50. $50 on a $100 car is a bit much. I'm going to pack the diff with some heavier grease so that it acts more like a limited slip for now. I also picked up a nice tackle box to store all the parts. While I was in Edmonton I stopped in at Great Hobbies and bought some Proline Dirt Hawg tires and some rims. Hopefully these will work better than the bald old tires I was using. :)

That's about it for now.

It lives!

2006-10-03T20:34:00.000-06:00

Henry Frankenstein: Look! It's moving. It's alive. It's alive... It's alive, it's moving, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, IT'S ALIVE!
Victor Moritz: Henry -- In the name of God!
Henry Frankenstein: Oh, in the name of God! Now I know what it feels like to be God!

Here are some pictures of the Nitro Sport all cleaned up after its first run.

Now it doesn't look as amazing as I had hoped but if you compare it to the other set of pictures it quite a bit cleaner. It took me 3 hours on Sunday to clean and re-assemble the car.

I haven't had a chance to tune the car much but I did take it out to the park and run it around a baseball diamond. Without being tuned, having a poorly set up suspension and bald tires it was a real handful. I was barely able to get to WOT. The funny thing is I don't have any pictures becuase all my batteries were being used in the car. Besides with just me out there it would be hard to drive and take pictures. But hey atleast it runs.

Happy Birthday to Me

2006-09-28T18:10:00.000-06:00

You may have wondered where I've been lately, I've found a new obsession. I've discovered nitro R/C.

Well Paul had one and Tristan was buying one so not to be out done, even though I can't afford to pay attention, I bought a Traxxas Nitro Sport off of eBay. Here it is with the body and wheels on shortly after I got it.

Its been well used and it looks kinda dirty. I had no idea until I started taking it apart of just how dirty it was.

Everything is caked with dirt and oil. The only ray of sunshine is that after I am done this I will have a really good idea of how it goes together and comes apart. This should help me fix it in the future.

I'll keep you guys posted on its and my progress. Oh and incase you are interested here is my putfile album for the car. New pictures will go there.

Saskatchewanese

2006-09-20T09:20:00.000-06:00

There is a great article posted over at Prairie fire about the unique vocabulary in Saskatchewan. I suggest you go have a look whether or not you know what a bunnyhug and vico are.

Rain and ATF

2006-09-19T19:56:00.000-06:00

Well its been a while since I posted so I thought I'd throw up some updates.

From Wednesday the 13th until Sunday the 17th it rained 4.5-5.0 inches, depending on who's rain gauge you listen to. I am very glad the rain has stopped but the weather has thrown us another curve ball. It froze last night, got down to -2C and I had to scrape my windows this morning. I'm not too concerned about the windows but I am worried about my peppers in the garden. Hopefully they have survived.

In truck news it looks like the rear seal in my truck wasn't the problem. My uncle fixed it for me, it turns out that who ever fixed the U-joints is a bit of a moron. The drive shafts were out of phase so I had a nasty vibration and the bolt that holds the drive shaft to the transmission was loose enough that ATF was able to leak out. That makes me feel good *cough*sarcasm*cough*. So its all fixed now and he also fixed the kick down linkage so it shifts so much smoother now.

I've been thrust into a new hobby, RC Nitro cars. Two weeks ago I was at Turtle lake with some guys from work and one of them brought his Team Losi XXXNT out and it was crazy amounts of fun. Now I've bought a Traxxas Nirto Sport. No I didn't get that money tree to germinate, I bought a used one off of eBay. Hopefully it gets here soon. I've also purchased 3 Estes Alpha rocket kits on eBay, so lets just say I'm all hobbied up.

This weekend is the annual Potatoe Dig and that means I've had this blog for a year now. The arrival of the potatoe dig means that my birthday must be near and what do you know it is! I'm turning 24 on the 25th. I guess that officially makes me mid-twenties. Here are my birthday demands... uh I mean birthday list :).

A brand new nitro car - Team Associated RC10GT, Team Losi XXXNT2 or Traxxas Nitro Rustler would be acceptable
Estes Comanche 3
Tea pot
More lanterns!
More Corelle classic cafe blue dishes
Quality forged steel chefs knife. German if possible.
New shoes

Sunday is the last day of street legal drags at SIR this season and hopefully I'll be out there with Tristan and his malibu. He and his dad flushed the trans, put the new converter and the 4.60 gears in. It should haul some ass now. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Have fun people and enjoy blogger beta.

Someday it'll come to this

2006-09-13T16:27:00.000-06:00

Thought I would share this funny video with you. Funny and scarry.

Karma is a bitch

2006-09-06T22:11:00.000-06:00

I'll start with the good. That 236 runs like a dream. All I had to do was oil up the pump leather, oil the valve and tip cleaner and give it a general rub down and she lit right up. It runs solid as a rock, I would say a person could easily read by it. That is they could read by it if they had welding goggles on because it is rediculously bright. It lights up my whole back yard.

I didn't get a chance to take any of it running at night but I wish I could have. Now I must get my 237 empire running. It is the kerosene version of this lantern.

Now the bad. I went out to Tristan's to put the torque converter in his malibu and the transmission is full of water. The ATF is pepto-bismal pink and cloudy. Just fricken great. So we got it taken apart but not put back together because he doesn't want to put the brand new converter in until the water issue is figured out.

Second. I'm just about to pull up infront of my mom's house and I notice a big spot on the road. The truck is leaking something, but what? ATF. Looks like the rear seal is gone. If anyone knows how hard it is to change a rear seal in a 727 trans let me know.

Third. I think the clutch is going in the Jetta. It seems to be spinning it at high revs when it is in the powerband. I'm going to have to watch it more closely but I wouldn't be surprised if it needs a clutch.

Its a bad fucking day to be a transmission around me.

My long weekend

2006-09-05T21:22:00.000-06:00

We finally got a chance to visit Lindsay's Dad's Cabin at Emma Lake over the long weekend and look what I found in his shed. It is a 1/54 236. It should go nicely with my 237 empire, that is if I ever get it running. The 237 is in a lot worse shape.

We were up there for her Grandpa's 70th birthday so it was kinda like a mini family reunion for them. It was a lot of fun. I drank too much and ate too much. Now the picture below has nothing to do with drinking but the drinking definitely helped keep the pain away afterwards.

Everyone knows I loved to ride ATV's and sometimes I do dumb things. The last one was getting Tim's quad stuck in the mud, that's a great story for another time. Now Melissa and I were out on the neighbors quad at Emma and the end of a trail was the golf course. Instead of turning around I just ran across the edge of the fairway and hopped on the cart track. I didn't cause and damage but that didn't stop some old woman from running and yelling after us. I though this was the only stupid thing I would do on this quad.... I was wrong. Lindsay and I were running through the ditch when we came across a large mud puddle and I tried to go around it. Well the side was pretty steep and we flopped the quad onto its side. Lindsay got a little muddy but she was ok, I on the other hand got my foot stuck under it. That is what this picture is of. Too bad the photo doesn't show the swelling.

On top of that I've got a bruise farther up my leg as well as a lump on my ribs. Nothing is broken but it makes getting out of bed in the morning a stiff and painful experience. Was it stupid? Yes. Was it fun? Hell yes. We pushed the quad back over, fired it up and rode home waiting for some shit. Lindsay's dad laughed at us because we were covered in mud and stagnant water and even more importantly Frank didn't care. Frank is the owner of the quad. When I told him that we had it on its side he laughed and said that's what quads are for. I'm just happy that Lindsay came out of it ok. I hurt myself, well its my own stupid fault but I wouldn't forgive myself for hurting someone else. Remember children, don't do what Donny don't does.

Ah laziness

2006-08-30T13:00:00.000-06:00

I am lazy and I'm also a gadget freak so when I saw the new Scrubbing Bubbles shower cleaner I had to have one. I didn't expect that it would work very well because of the poor performance of gimmicky things in the past. Well I was very surprised by it.

I wish I had taken before and after pictures now because the difference would amaze you. I moved into a new apartment on June 1st and I've been using the shower cleaner for about the last month. The shower is the typical apartment shower that has seen a lot of use and a lot less cleaning so it wasn't looking the best. The chrome was covered in hard water spots and my poor cleaning had resulted in a good soap scum build up. That is all gone now.

I noticed about a week ago that the shower seemed shinier and thought it was my imagination but Lindsay agrees with me. Now the tap shines and reflects light. The tiles near the bottom which normally would be dull from soap scum are showing reflections like they were new. Even the caulking is bright white again. It is very easy to use, just press the button after your shower and it sprays solution all over to clean your shower.

Now it isn't without its downsides. I can't use my shower caddy anymore and that annoys me. I like having everything in easy reach and I can't have that with the cleaner hanging around the shower head. This isn't a huge problem as the cleaner makes sure that no mold or anything grows on my shampoo bottle that is constantly in the wet now. It also leaves a bit of a chlorine smell in the morning. This is a little unpleasent but isn't a deal breaker.

When I bought mine there was a special deal on with a $5 coupon on the website as well as a $5 coupon on the box so it was half price for me. I noticed that the $5 coupon is no longer on the website but I'm sure some of the boxes still have a coupon on them. There is also a $5 coupon included in the box so the first person who can guess what number between 1 and 10 that I am thinking of can have it.

So while the automatic shower cleaner isn't Rosie the robotic maid from the Jetsons, it's one step closer.

Pluto, you're still a planet to me.

2006-08-24T13:13:00.000-06:00

So its official, Pluto is no longer a planet. Well that isn't exactly true either, it is a dwrarf planet, not a classical planet like the other 8. It falls under the umbrella of being a planet but it isn't really.

Now I grew up with people teaching that Pluto was a planet, but we all knew all along that it wasn't really. It is much smaller than the other planets, it doesn't really fit in where it is. Jupiter through Neptune are "Gas Giants" and pluto is this little rock smaller than our moon. Even if you ignore that you can't ignore its orbit. Which is off the plane of the other planets and even brings it in closer than Neptune sometimes. This really doesn't seem like a planet.

I am kind of sad to see it loose its planet status though, I think it should have been grandfathered in as a planet since it has been considered one since the 1930's when it was discovered. It just doesn't seem right to take that way from Pluto now.

CNN has a pretty good story about the whole situation here

I was a little dissapointed that they did not rename Pluto as a double planet with its moon. Charon is about half the size of Pluto but it is large enough that they actually orbit a point in space between each other. I thought it would have been pretty cool to have a double planet system in our solar system but it was not to be.

If you want more information wikipedia has a great article on Pluto and its moons.

Oh and incase anyone is wondering, Pluto is not named after a cartoon dog. Pluto is the Roman god of the underworld.

My spoon is too big

2006-08-22T13:09:00.000-06:00

Now I'll admit that I may not have the most "normal" sense of humor but I found this hilarious. If you have around nine minutes to spend watching some great animation, watch this. Afterwards look around on youtube and google video for some more. I recommend "Genre"

For the love of god and everything holy my anus is bleeding!

Drag racing Rox0rz

2006-08-18T22:02:00.000-06:00

I'm not a complete stranger to the drag strip, I've even gone down it about a half a dozen times, as a passenger though. It is fun as a passenger but it doesn't even come close to driving. Over the last few weeks I've been stealing away evenings, hence the lack of posts, to work on a car with Tristan from work. He had an 80 chev malibu with no motor. He also had a 350 from the junk yard so for about $500 total we put together a low 14 second car. Well I helped build it that is, I didn't put any money in. It was a great learning experience but I don't know how much I actually helped, I probably just slowed down the whole process. Either way I had fun.

So tonight we went out to the Friday night street legal drags and got a few runs in. Tristan did a couple of shake down runs and then it was my turn. I was nervous and sweating and shaking but I got up there and did it. I even cut a good light and if I wasn't a moron I would have beat my first competitor. I saw the mph trap line and let off... too bad the finish line is another 60ft after that. Damnit. Here is my time slip from my first run (I was in the left lane both times)*:

(I ran a 15.366 @ 89.473 mph with a 0.128 light)
* the dot matrix printing doesn't scan worth a shit but you can still make out the numbers if you squint and tilt your head to the left a bit.

OK I'm primed now and raring to go. I've got all the starters signals figured out, I can keep the car running and I'm feeling pretty good. I'm still shaking but for a different reason now. I'm not nervous at all. I'm pumped. I pull up beside this neon and destroy him on the tree, at 60 ft I've still got a narrow lead and I beat him by almost a full second at the other end. Man this is fun.

(I ran a 14.864 @ 95.838 mph and a 0.207 light)

After all this all Tristan can talk about is what needs to be done to the car. It's got tons of power from 3000 to 6000 but is a real dog off the line. The next steps will be some 4.60 gears and a 10" converter. He figures that the car can get into the high 12's. I can't wait to see that.

So what have I learned from all this? Well you can put a car together for $500 and a few evenings and go run with almost anyone out there. I think this really burns some of the guys asses but others are impressed at how well the little oxidized yellow malibu runs. The other thing I figured out is that I'm going to have to ride my uncles ass to get his '64 belvedere 440 sixpak running. I'm shaking already.

New addition to the family

2006-08-08T20:56:00.000-06:00

Ah don't worry, I just meant I got a new lantern. Here are some pictures.

It is a 3/70 200A made in the USA. I purchased off of eBay. I wanted a ready to run 200A because I'm getting a bistro set for the balcony and I wanted this lantern for that. I do still want to get a frosted globe for it, but that'll have to wait until next month.

As you can see we are in the apartment. That was also part of the reason I bought a ready to run lantern as I have no where to work on one right now. Lindsay wouldn't appreciate solvent all over the kitchen table!

On the upside the A/C now works. Before it was just a handy shelf outside when I was BBQing, but no more. Now we can enjoy artifically cooled air at home, albeit just in the living room but it helps take the edge off.

2006-08-02T12:07:00.000-06:00

For some reason I like doing these and I found these ones over at Breakfast Meat

You Are 70% Evil

You are very evil. And you're too evil to care.
Those who love you probably also fear you. A lot.

How Evil Are You?

Your IQ Is 115

Your Logical Intelligence is Below Average

Your Verbal Intelligence is Exceptional

Your Mathematical Intelligence is Exceptional

Your General Knowledge is Exceptional

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

Your Penis Name Is...

Prince Charming

Penis Name Generator

Your 2005 Song Is

Feel Good Inc by Gorillaz

"Love forever love is free.
Let's turn forever you and me."

In 2005, you were loving life and feeling no pain.

What Hit Song of 2005 Are You?

Your Political Profile:

Overall: 70% Conservative, 30% Liberal

Social Issues: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal

Personal Responsibility: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal

Fiscal Issues: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal

Ethics: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal

Defense and Crime: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal

How Liberal Or Conservative Are You?

I hate spam

2006-07-26T12:00:00.000-06:00

At work my email address is on one of our websites so I get a lot of spam. I get about 100 spam emails a day and for me that seems like a lot. Lately it seems to be mostly about stock insider tips and of course there is the usual stuff about free software and enlarging my penis. I know how to use bit torrent and my penis is large enough thank you very much.

I had been using Norton's antispam and I wasn't very happy with it. I deal with suppliers in china and customers all over the world so I do get many strange emails that I actually need and Norton wasn't able to distinguish those from the spam messages. I was getting too many false positives and this was pissing me off.

I found my solution a while ago but I thought I would share it with you. My solution is a program called spambayes. It is an open source program, we all know how much I like free stuff, and it works amazingly well. It does take a bit of time to get going as you have to train it to reconize spam from ham but once it is going it is almost perfect. I would guesstimate that it catches 98% or more of the spam with less than 0.1% false positives.

There are a couple of catches with this program.

- You pretty much need to be running Outlook, not outlook express or Thunderbird. This is not to say you can't use it if you aren't useing outlook, but it is the easiest way.
- If you don't have a large amount of spam and ham available to train it the training takes a lot longer

Now I use Outlook so spambayes was easy to install and it is easy to use. If you don't use outlook you have to install it so that it sits between(logically) your email client and your email server. I haven't done this but I'm sure it isn't too hard. The other thing you want to do before installing it is to make sure you have lots of email and lots of spam saved up to train it. When you install it, it will ask you for the location of your good email(ham) and bad email(spam) then it will go through and learn what it is you consider spam. If you don't have this it will put almost all your email in a "suspected spam" folder and you have to go through and tell it what is and isn't spam. It is easier than it sounds.

After its been trained it pretty much runs hands off. I can fire up outlook and watch as my email is automatically sorted between spam and ham without worrying that there is something screwed up. Most of the time I don't even look at my spam folder before I empty it. That is the best part.

So if you get lots of spam, use outlook, are cheap, and lazy this is the answer you were looking for.

ITS DONE!

2006-07-17T22:16:00.000-06:00

After 3 days of screwing around I finally got the camping post finished. Look down, way down and I'll call rusty.

VLC

2006-07-17T21:04:00.000-06:00

Hey guys I'm back from camping but I can't post about it because blogger keeps f$#king up and won't let me post images. Its very frustrating, I've been trying for two days and it will let me do one a day. Damn shit.

Keep your eyes open for those but in the mean time I want to talk about VLC. VLC is an opensource media player that will play anything you can throw at it, well pretty much anything. If you have a file that is damaged and windows media player won't play it try VLC, it probably will. It also doesn't require extra codecs for the most part so if you have a video that you don't know what it is try playing it here first. Another tip on that one is G-spot. Now get your mind out of the gutter and pay attention. If you've ever had a video that won't play and you don't know what codec it is using, open it in g-spot. It will tell you what video and audio codecs the video needs and whether you have them installed. Its great.

Anyways, back to VLC. I was told that it was good at streaming video and I thought that would be perfect for my torrent downloading. I like to download shows and then play them through my TV on my laptop but I have to transfer them to it first and that takes time. Now with VLC I can just stream the video to it and all is well. Did I mention that my laptop is an iBook? Well VLC runs on almost everything. Windows, OSX, Linux, Unix, you name it. Good stuff.

A little local news for you

Saskatoon Man Faces Internet Child Exploitation Charges

2006-07-14
Author: Lindsay Rabyj- CJWW News

A Saskatoon man facing charges of Internet child exploitation made a court appearance Friday.

33 year old David Hubbard was arrested Thursday night after allegedly making contact with a 12 year old girl though a web chatroom and setting up a face-to-face meeting to engage in sexual activity.

Police intervened before the incident could take place and the man was arrested.

He's been remanded in custody and will make another court appearance July 17.

Now why would I put this on my blog? Because I know this guy and he lives down the block from me. This does not surprise me at all. This guy used to be a customer of mine at LD and he was very annoying. He would always come in with strange questions about hardware that he bought somewhere else or software questions that were too vague to answer. He was always kinda shifty looking and just seemed too weird. An example would be that he always wore a leather jacket no matter what the weather. I saw him a week ago walking home in 30C+ in his black leather jacket. Something is not right. I guess I shouldn't bash people too much as I am a bit strange myself but I had to yell at my tv when I saw him on there. It was me telling my brain, "I knew there was something strange about that guy". The absolute funniest part about this was what happened a month ago. I was in LD talking to one of my former co-workers when I saw this guy working there. I almost shit my pants but I was soon calmed down by them letting me know he was only a work-ed student or something. I couldn't find a picture for you guys, not that blogger would let me post it anyways, but if you've watched the news the last couple of days you've seen him. You also saw Pete my land lord as he also manages the building that David lived in.

Just thought I'd let you know that it is a small scary little world out there.

Back from camping

2006-07-15T22:11:00.000-06:00

As I mentioned in the last post we went to Moose Mountain Provincial park to do some camping. Here is the link to google maps. The green arrow on the map is pointing at the resort town of Kenosee Lake. I couldn't get google maps to show the campground. To the left of the town is the campground. We were staying between the large lake (Kenosee lake) and the smaller one to the left. That smaller lake is little Kenosee lake. It is amazing how many smaller lakes there are around there. They were left behind when the glaciers receded.

Day 1:

Make the long drive. It is around 500kms to get to Moose Mountain from Saskatoon and it took us 5 hours. Most of the way is good highways. Leaving here you drive to Regina and then take the trans-Canada for a while. There is only about 50kms on the #9, which wasn't that bad really. We got there about 3 in the afternoon and set up camp.

Now being the gadget freak that I am I had to try to see if I could pick anything up on my weather radio.

We didn't do too much that evening. Finished setting up camp and cooked up some smokies for supper on the fire. After supper we got a bit bored and went for a walk. Not too far from our camp was a nature trail that went though the woods along little Kenosee lake. We saw a deer when we were on the walk but we didn't bring the camera along. We were able to get within 25-30 feet of the deer without a problem. Then something spooked her and the flag was up and she was gone. Other than the deer there was a lot of wild life around. This is the resident squirrel that hung around our camp site cleaning up after my messy peanut eating. He would come by quite often and would even fight off the other squirrels that were trying to move in on his territory. He ate quite good while we were there. As well as the peanuts he got raw carrots and potatoes and cooked carrots and potatoes. I don't know if squirrels will eat those but atleast they will decompose on their own. There was also a rabbit that frequented the campsite but neither of us could get a picture of it as it was quite skiddish. It was usually sniffing around in the morning, perhaps knowing that the squirrel was smaller than him.

Day 2:

This was our exploring day. We started it off with a swim at the beach.

We drove around the park and went into the village. I found some cheap micro brewed beer there that was quite good. I was going to bring some home but I drank it all and forgot to buy more. 500ml for 2.25 isn't bad for beer that doesn't suck. While driving around the park we found a great look out point above Kenosee lake.

We also made the trip into Carlyle because we read in a local news paper that the Carlyle Bakery's cinnamon buns kicked ass and they were good. A dozen for 3 bucks. Not too shabby considering that they were great and didn't have any raisins! I hate raisins. The trip to Carlyle took us through the White Bear First Nation and we found some odd Road signs. When you enter the white bear territory there is a sign that welcomes you and shows off the attractions like the casino etc. and right behind that is a sign that reads "Watch for pedestrians Next 10 KMs" and then you get one of these signs every 2 kms through the reserve. They appear on both sides of the road but only inside the reserve. I cannot figure this out. Why is there all this pedestrian traffic in this area? Do the natives not own vehicles or do they have some death wish and insist on walking on the highway? It baffles the mind. By now the whole day was pretty much done so we went back to camp and ate some cinnamon buns and made the supper fire.

Day 3:

Time for the slides! I didn't get any pictures of the Kenosee Super Slides but you can visit their website. I didn't want to take my camera in there and leave it unattended and risk getting it wet so you'll have to use your imagination as you read. I apologize if my writing sucks but I'm not a writer so too bad.

The good:
The free fall was a blast. 80 feet straight down and it only takes 3 seconds! Now when I first saw it I didn't think it was that bad. From the ground it looked pretty tame but when I got up there I had to lean out to see the slide. The first 20ft is actually vertical. You fall for the first 20 ft and then the slide catches you. The fun begins after that because you start to go faster than the water and I kicked up a huge bow wave/spray. It must have been over 6 feet high. You also get a monster wedgie from it.

There is a nice slow canal you can float around in on tubes to relax and recharge. This is nice but it does not replace having a pool.

The other slides are good if a bit violent. I hurt my elbow on the tube slides and Lindsay hurt her shoulder on the bonsai. The Bonsai was a fun one for me though as you go fast enough to get air but if you aren't prepared the landing can hurt. Lindsay hurt her shoulder and the first time I went I hurt my ass. Still fun somehow.

The other slides are pretty normal.

The bad:

The paths to the slides are concrete that was brushed to make it non-slip. This also turns it into a cheese grater for soft pink feet. I had to give up before I was completely exhausted because it hurt too much to walk to the top. Speaking of walking that sucked all the fun out the free fall. You walk way up this hill for a 3 second ride down it. Atleast the tube rides took long enough that you didn't feel ripped off.

No pool sucked on a hot day. There was a shallow canal and a hot tub. The canal was fun but it was hard to cool off in. Also you have to rent the tubes to float around the canal for $5. I'm already paying $20 a head to get in I think the tubes should be free.

Overall I would give this park a 7. They were no where near as fun as the Atlantis waterslides in Vernon BC.

Needless to say we were pretty tired after that so we just hung around the campsite most of the afternoon. After supper that night we went back to the nature trail in search of that deer. This time we were armed with my camera. We did not see the deer but we got some awesome shots of Little Kenosee lake at dusk.

Later that night it decided to storm on us. It started off as some nice distant lightning but soon moved upon us and sent us into the tent. Lindsay was afraid the tent was going to blow down but I assured her that with my fat ass in it the tent wasn't going anywhere. It rained on and off all night but thankfully it stopped in time for us to pack up. All that was left was the drive home and that was pretty uneventful.

Would I go back to Moose Mountain? Probably not. I'm glad that we went and that we experience one of Saskatchewan's oldest provincial parks but I didn't really like it that much. When we went to Green Water we didn't start the car for 3 days because we could walk everywhere. At Moose Mountain the store and beach were 5km's away from the campground so it seemed like everytime we wanted to do something we had to start the car and plan our trip. The slides were outside the park and down the highway, definitely not in walking distance. I guess this all made everything feel less relaxing and more rushed. Even with that I had a ton of fun and I think Lindsay did too.

Sweet Zombie Jesus

2006-07-06T12:07:00.000-06:00

It has been hot and busy around here lately. The apartment was 33 last night when we got home from my final tux fitting. From that you can probably infer that Kerri's wedding is on the weekend. We have the rehersal tomorrow night, the wedding saturday and the gift opening Sunday. On top of that I've got holidays next week so we are trying to get our shit together for camping and I'm trying to get work ready for me to leave. We had our freezer delivered on tuesday and got our bbq tuesday eveing, so it has been a busy week.

Where are you going camping?

Ah I'm glad that someone is interested in knowing. We are going to Moose Mountain Provincial park. Hopefully we will be there from monday evening to thursday sometime. The only thing that sucks a bit is the drive. It is a 6 hour drive give or take a bit. Atleast it is on good roads. We go through Regina then follow the #1 for a while and have to drive on a secondary highway for ~50kms. One of the reasons we are going is the Kenosee Superslides

I can't wait to be there with a beer, a fire and my lantern. I'm still deciding which one to take but I may take more than one if there is room in the car. 3 days with no phones, no computers, no people and no cares. Well Lindsay will be there but I'm kinda used to her being around ;)

Other than that there is not too much going on around here. It seems like I am busy but nothing exciting is happening. I guess its a case of regular life.

Here are a couple video's for you. WARNING these are NSFW, NSFYC (not safe for young children) and NSFPW (not safe for pregnant women)

http://www.nailmaster.ru/fuck.html

http://home.pacbell.net/diana_do/knowjack.htm

And then there were bruises

2006-06-27T11:57:00.000-06:00

The Edmonton trip has come and gone and now I am back to the grind. The bad part about the trip was the lack of a weekend. Sure I had two days "off" but after getting back Sunday night I really didn't feel like I had any time to relax. Thankfully that paled in comparison to the joy I had from shooting little kids.

The main reason we were in Edmonton was for Nigel's birthday party which consisted of a few hours of paintball and some other less important stuff like presents, friends and BBQ.

Grimes: But.. but this was a contest for children!
Lenny: Yeah, and Homer beat their brains out!

I don't know if I've ever had more fun while paintballing than this last time. Well I guess I shouldn't say more fun but different fun. We didn't have any structured games, we just ran out and shot everyone until the round was over. When I've gone before we played capture the flag and protect the president. There is a certain visceral thrill to just shooting people, especially the ones that won't shoot back. Most of the kids wouldn't advance, they would just stay behind the first piece of cover and take pot shots. This "strategy" did work out for some of them once in a while but usually it just resulted in myself or my dad shooting them in the face or ass. I know I got a few ass shots because I would come up from the side and the only thing showing around the edge of cover would be their butt. One of the kids had a real tough time of paintball because he was not the most adventurous and he actually had something like shell shock on the field. I found him hidding behind some cover too scared to advance but I think he was peer pressured into going. Some people aren't cut out for it I guess.

There were two women playing too. Lindsay came with full intentions to have some fun and Nigel's Aunt came aswell. Lindsay's day came to an end quickly when she was shot in the head twice in the first round. One was freindly fire. I don't know if she was mistaken for the enemy or if she crossed someone's line of fire but she was not a happy camper when she got back to the safe area. Nigel's aunt didn't fare much better but I think that was partly my fault. I think I scared her a bit in the car ride out there with stories of welts and bruises. It was only fair though as her driving scared and annoyed me. I made her surender without firing a shot and she high tailed it off the field relieved that she was not in pain.

At the end of it all I wasn't in much pain. I'm used to getting shot quite a bit but without too much paint flying my way I only got hit 5 times but one of them was a neck shot that wasn't too pleasant. The worst was two close range shots by Nigel into my love handle. One of those bled a bit but I got him back with a shot to the kidney.

The other reason we went to Edmonton was for a TV. Dad gave us his old 27" TV and it is soooo much better than the 13 we had been using. He also gave us a little Sony surround sound system, a slow cooker and will be getting us a deep freeze. I think it was quite generous of him to give us all that stuff and it is very appreciated.

We had lots of fun but it was a long way to go for two days. My car saw more kms in one weekend than it would in a month or more. I was impressed with it though, it cruised along at 120ish Km/h at 3700 RPM without a hiccup and used about $80 worth of gas. We averaged 38mpg, 37 there and 39 back. I would be interested to see how it would do if it had a sixth gear but I guess I'll never get to find out.

970 KG

2006-06-18T22:16:00.000-06:00

I've got a bit of a reputation around work for being good at breaking stuff and I finally got to break something that needed to be broken. Anytime I have an excuse to use a sledge hammer I am a happy camper. This weekend I finally got to smash the brick planter at my grandma's house. She's been talking about wanting it gone for some time now and this weekend was the time. My grandfather and I got to work on it Saturday morning in the rain and it took us about 3 hours to get it done but its done. We used my truck because it doesn't have a cap and it has overload springs. Well it needed them that day. We took it all to the dump in one load and even the dump guy was impressed with the load we had on. We put 970kg or about 2140 lbs in the back of my old Dodge. Amazingly enough it didn't seem to have much trouble with it, the only time I noticed the weight was under braking.

I haven't had much time for blogging lately but I'll try to keep some content up here. We are getting our kitchen table tonight and we're off to Edmonton for the weekend to do some paintballing. I may have some good bruise pictures after that ;)

Happy early birthday

2006-06-15T12:20:00.000-06:00

I got my birthday present from my Mom yesterday and its spectacular. She got me all the supplies I need to wet shave. What is wet shaving you ask. Well its the way shaving was done when it was a skill and not a chore to lazily and sleepily hack your way through. Here is an excellent article explaining wet shaving.

For my birthday I got a Merkur Hefty Classic Double Edged Safety Razor, a badger brush, some soap and a jar. I've always wanted to be able to shave with a straight razor but I don't know where to learn and the razors are expensive. Around $100 or more for the razor plus you need a leather strop and you need to know how to sharpen it. I figured a D/E safety razor was interesting enough and fairly cheap too.

I wanted to give this a try for a couple of reasons. I've heard that you get a much better shave with these and because it is only one blade edge you can make multiple passes without irritation. Cost is also a big factor. 10 good quality Double edged razor blades are around $5 US verses $32 CDN for 8 Gillette fusion blades or $25 for Mach 3 blades. At the end of the day I feel like I'm doing something for the environment aswell. I'm not throwing out plastic blade cartridges, I'm only throwing out metal blades that will eventually decompose. The last reason is it just seems more manly to do it this way than to use a bright orange plastic gillette fusion razor.

Even if I was going to stick with my Mach 3 I think I would have switched over to a brush and soap to shave with. I have been using Prince saving cream from Lush and been happy with it but the badger brush is much nicer for working the lather into my face. Either work well but I'm going to stick with the brush. I've actually found the Prince makes a great aftershave. I put it on my face like a lotion after shaving and it soothed and smoothed my face.

If you are tired of paying through the nose for razor blades then check out a D/E safety razor. Here are some good links:

www.classicshaving.com - They sell everything you need plus there is a great howto section
http://groups.msn.com/thewetshaversgroup - a good group about wet shaving. They can answer any questions you have
http://www.shavemyface.com/
http://www.qedusa.com/

I think its broken

2006-06-13T20:06:00.000-06:00

So on a whim I made a purchase today. I went over to staples and bought this:

It really hasn't made my job any easier. It has made it funnier but the button is very loud. When pressed it says "That was easy" just like the commercial but it would be too loud for most offices. I was considering modding it to have it say something else. One of the electrical engineers has a micro that can hold 2 seconds of audio so we were going to put that on the board and record something else to it. The micro in the button has that black potting compound over it so you can't tell what it is or change it. We would have to make a whole new circuit board for the button. I kinda doubt that is going to happen but the button is fun. It would be more useful it if went "Oh crap!" or something like that. Oh well, it was only $6 and the money goes to support the special olympics.

Blogging and bachelors

2006-06-12T19:21:00.000-06:00

Those two titles aren't related but I've been noticing a strange trend in blogging lately, people are worried about their blog being interesting to the readers. I'll level with you, I don't give a crap if you enjoy this blog or not. I'm just here to keep all my friends up to date on what's going on and maybe vent about some crap that bothers me. If you find it boring go somewhere else.

Now that I have that off my chest I'll tell you about Scott's stag. I was invited out with some of Scotts friends to Redberry Lake for some good old soggy drinking fun. Its been raining for the last week straight so everything was a little soggy out there but we were too drunk to notice. We got there Friday evening and set up our tents. Straight after that we got drunk around the fire and eventually found our way to bed. Not before Scot puked though. He was drinking Baja Rosa so his puke was peptobismal pink. Not a pretty sight. I'm glad I decided to bring my propane lantern because all they had were a couple flashlights and a weak ass battery lantern. You know I like lanterns so don't get me started on the battery ones. I think that most people are afraid of fuel powered lanterns. Its too bad really because you can't beat them for light.

Saturday was a bunch of fun. We started out by playing a game of Texas hold'em and I won! I've never had the patience to win before but $20 was on the line so I ended up winning $80. How about that eh? I still have to collect from Scott, I guess I'll have to go break his legs later if he doesn't pay up. After the poker game we ate some breakfast sausages but we didn't have any cutlery or plates so we all stood around the fire with sharpened sticks and ate sausages. It was really quite funny. We had some hot dogs after cuz we were all still hungry then we set up a big tarp over one of the picnic tables. That worked really well and we were able to play some cards outside. Terry and I beat Brian and Shaun(sp?) at a game of Kaiser... well I'd say that Terry carried me but we still won. We played some more cards and then tossed the foot ball around for a bit. They came up with a drinking game called Long Bombed. Someone runs out for a long pass and if they make it everyone else drinks but if they don't make it the QB and receiver drink. It gets you pretty drunk because of all the running. By the end there were people running into trees and diving into bushes. I'm actually quite surprised that no one died because right after that we started to see who could throw the axe and get it stuck in the tree. Four drunk guys and two axes, that's a recipe for lost limbs if I ever seen one. While most of this was going on Scott was cooking our steaks. I ate an amazing amount of beef. I had a big T bone plus half a big chuck steak and then later ate another one. It was so good. Scott did a good job considering the steaks were still frozen and he was cooking on a fire. After supper we sat around the fire drinking again and the lantern was again a hit. It started to rain again that night around midnight or 1 am but overall the weather really wasn't that bad. It was drizzling for a large part of the time but there were enough trees to keep us sheltered and out of the wind but it did rain a bit. Saturday during the day it rained for about an hour but we were under the tarp playing cards and it rained Saturday night but we were all blitzed and kept warm by the fire so we didn't really notice. I have to say that I wasn't nearly as wet inside the tent as I thought I would be. I have to commend my cheap walmart tent as it did a good job of keeping me dry. I did spray the crap out of it with a silicone waterproofing spray last summer so that may have helped. The other guys didn't fare so well with the rain. Brian's tent got pretty wet inside and his wool blanket ended up weighing about 20 pounds but Terry took the cake when he left his shoe outside for the night. That must have sucked to wake up to.

Sunday was uneventful as all we did was pack up and go. We stopped for breaks at McDonalds and played some Settlers of Catan at Scotts house. The whole weekend was a bunch of fun inspite of the rain. Just a bunch of drinking, stupidity and gay jokes. Good time for all.

Created by Beelzebub himself

2006-06-02T10:56:00.000-06:00

I know I said the next post would come from the apartment, but I forgot to bring my laptop. We got Sasktel Max installed yesterday and we get to watch it in all its glory on my 13" tv. Nothing beats it.

Anyways 2 days ago I purchase these metal shelving units from Walmart for our store room. I thought they were a fantastic deal at $16 per unit and they hold 60lbs per shelf. Great that'll do just fine and they are half the price of the plastic ones. It took me 2 hours and most of my sanity to assemble them. I realize why they are so cheap now. They were assebled in a Russian Tractor factory under forced labour conditions. Nothing lined up and everything was a little bent and of course they had HAD to use flat head screws for assembly. What sick peverted bastard would decide to design it with flat head screws? I would like to know so I can shove a screwdriver up his ass. Philips would have been so much easier to use or for the love of god get on the robertson bandwagon. Hex bolts would have been a god send, even torx or alan key bolts would have been fantasic. But no I'm stuck with flat head screws. By the end I was starting to lose dexterity in my fingers. Now that they are together they are good shelves and they fit perfectly in the store room but I don't think the ends justify the means in this case. Spend more money people!

Keys!

2006-05-30T12:45:00.000-06:00

Well I've been pretty busy lately so I haven't been able to post much but I thought I'd give an update. We are getting the apartment keys tonight. I've been busy cleaning out and packing and now the move is getting closer. I'm starting to get sick of this I just want it to all be over with. On Thursday Sasktel is coming to hookup phone/tv/internet so we'll get to sit there waiting with no tv, no furniture, nothing to do but wait. They better be on time.

Not too much else going on. We just finished 40 days and 40 nights of rain, well hopefully it is over, and I'm looking forward to some sun. I haven't bought anymore lanterns but I am waiting for some parts for the ones I have now. I missed an ebay auction for a 222B. I was hoping to get an apartment sized lantern but what can you do.

Well have fun, next post might be from my new apartment!

I was a best man

2006-05-24T12:20:00.000-06:00

Wow lots of updates, its been a while since I posted. James and Jacqui got married and it was a busy ass three days. On Friday I left work at 1 to help decorate the hall then we went to Jim's house for a big party. I ate so much I was having trouble breathing but it was great. The secret to any BBQ is to stake out a spot near the BBQ's so you can get the hottest freshest food. A little advice there for you wannabe fat people.

Saturday was wedding day and it started bright and early. At 10 we had to haul all the booze into the hall. Hey thats bright and early for a Saturday. The wedding was at 1 and it went great although I've never had so many cameras take my picture all at the same time. Of course that wasn't the end of the pictures, we had to go for studio pictures at Picture perfect and then we were off to the university for outdoor pictures. My eyeballs got a little singed from all the flashes.

You'll all be happy to know that my speech went very well. I recieved a lot of compliments on it and I was generally happy with the way that it went. Man was I nervous though and afterwards I was so relieved to have it over with I almost fell asleep. The food was spectacular too, and as a fat guy I know food. It helps that my Dad used to own a catering business so I've been around lots of banquets and weddings. The dance and booze followed and Mark won the contest as to which of the bridal party could drink the most. Jacqui's sister came in second about 12 drinks behind. If you are wondering Mark used in the neighborhood of 30 drink tickets. Mmmm... free booze.

All in all it went very well.

In other news I recieved my lanterns in the mail.

This is the 321B with the 321C in the background, it is in pieces.

This is the 237 Empire from 1946, also in pieces. It is complete but the globe is cracked. I hope to get it running soon but with moving I don't know how long it will take.

As you may or may not know I sell things through work and I recieve emails from all over the world. This Strongbad email pretty much sums it all up.

How did you spend your rebate check?

2006-05-17T12:15:00.000-06:00

For those of you who are not from Saskatchewan I'll let you know what check I am talking about. Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) insures everyone's cars when you license it. We are a bit socialist as you do not purchase the insurance from a separate company, it comes on your plates. One good thing is that you are very unlikely to get in an accident with someone who does not have insurance. Anyways they had a good year and everyone gets back 8% of what they paid on plates in the last year (or something like that, I stopped paying attention a while ago).

So I got home yesterday and tore open the envelope to see what I recieved and SGI gave me back $72. Now this is $72 that I have already spent so if I didn't have it I wouldn't miss it but since I do I thought I should buy something that makes me happy. As it turns out I had my eye on a couple lanterns one eBay and the government supplied me with guilt free money to purchase them. Now I have 3 lanterns coming in from Winnipeg and my addiction should be filled for a while. It will have to be as I suspect there will be little money to feed it in the near future with the whole moving out thing. I'll post some pictures later.

James and Jacqui's Wedding

2006-05-16T12:44:00.000-06:00

Is it odd that I am getting nervous about them getting married? I shouldn't say about them getting married but the wedding has me a bit nervous. I've never been a best man before so I am not quite sure about what all I have to do. I am almost done my speech but I'm still making changes to it. There is some pressure to make sure it doesn't suck.

I have to admit I have lost some sleep over this whole thing. It seems like it was a long ways off and then all of a sudden its this weekend. I've only been to a couple weddings and never in the wedding party. I can't imagine what they are going through.

I was helping James move some stuff around for the wedding and it really sunk in that it is close now.

Crap I just remembered I'm going to have to get a crash course on dancing. Ah well atleast no one will be looking at me they'll all be looking at those two crazy kids.

Ah well my lunch hour is over. Have fun people.

Lantern

2006-05-12T19:59:00.000-06:00

Well I said I was going to show off my new lantern and I finally took some pictures of it.

This is my 11/68 220F

There are a couple of things wrong with it. It is missing some paint, but I think that is the lantern's character so i don't want to repaint it. The other problem is the valve is backwards. The valve wheel should be above the decal.

Here is the whole lantern family. On the left is a Canadian 200 from 4/52. It was pretty beat up when I got it. Mark's family had used it for 20 years on the farm or something and I have replaced pretty much everything on it except the vent and the fount(tank). In the center is a 335 from 11/73. It is all original. My grandpa had it and lit it once. I have the box for it and it is even using a mantle from the 70's. Its my favorite. On the right is the 220F pictured top.

I was talking about my car and putting the summer tires/wheels on it so I thought I would show off some pictures of it. It is a 1992 VW Jetta.

The list

2006-05-12T12:47:00.000-06:00

Well Kal-tire is dangerously close to making the list. The list of companies that I will not do business with. Who is on this list so far? Sobey's and Sony. We all know why Sony is on the list. Cue wavey flashback effect.

It all started yesterday when I decided it was time to put my summer tires and rims on my car. It was a day like any other so I'm not sure what made me decide this but I wanted to be kind to my winter tires and get them off before the warm weather. I leave early that morning so I can drop my car off and walk to work and everything seems normal. They are going to swap my tires for me and I'll pick them up after work. The walk to work was ok except that like normal Jordan passed me and didn't offer me a ride but its only 5 blocks so I am not too concerned. Rory was kind enough to give me a ride to Kal-tire after work so I could pick my car up. I hop in it and it is pulling the left a bit, well I'm not used to the tires I tell myself, they do like to follow the ruts in the road. By the time I get to Circle and C I don't think this is right so I stop for gas and check my tire. It has less than 10 pounds of air in it, not good considering how short the sidewall is. I filled up with gas and air and went home thinking it must just be a rim leak. Over supper the tire looses 2 pounds of air so I think that my suspicions were valid and let it sit overnight to re-check it in the morning. Morning comes and I get up 30 mins early to change the tire but discover that it is sitting at 30 psi so it only lost 4 psi all night. Hmmm... if the tire was almost flat at Kal-tire after sitting in their lot for 8 hours then why didn't it go flat after 14 hours of sitting in my driveway? I'm beginning to think they didn't check the tire pressure when they installed it. I feel this is a big safety issue. Not only can I be injured but it could also do a lot of damage. To their credit they did fix it for free but they got very defensive when I claimed that they didn't check the air pressure.

"Oh well it may have been fine until the car sat on it and changed the shape of the tire"

I didn't feel like getting in an argument with the guy because I can't prove they did anything wrong and he can't prove they didn't. Atleast there doesn't appear to be any damage to the tire or the rim.

I have trouble hating a company that does so much free stuff for me. Everyone gets a free rotation every year and free balancing. They fixed my truck tire which I didn't even buy from there. If the people in the back shop cared as much as the people up front it would be a great place. What can you expect from a bunch of people making 8 bucks an hour to patch and balance tires. They just can't be bothered.

In the end I will continue to shop there but I can't recommend anyone else to start shopping there. I'll probably take my truck somewhere else when it needs tires to see if anyone else is any better. Its a pity really.

2006-05-11T12:26:00.000-06:00

Ok just a short one here for you. I've got a couple of links that are too good not to pass on to all of you.

http://www.avirginsplea.com/

http://antiotter.livejournal.com/144625.html

My Lantern Lives!

2006-05-10T23:08:00.000-06:00

A few days ago I mentioned that I stripped out a part on a Coleman 220F I was rebuilding and it's running fine now. I am quite excited that I got it working. I spent too much money on it but it was worth it to see it run properly. When I received it in the mail I was able to get it running by fiddling here and jiggling there but it didn't run well at all. It was running dim, yellow and pulsating. Not good at all. So a few parts and too many bucks later its running like a champ. I was surprised at how bright it actually is. I should have taken some pictures but it was getting late and the dog got into the mud so I was preoccupied. I'll put all three of my lanterns up here soon. Its becoming quite the little collection.

Tomorrow I'm going to take my car in and get the summer tires and rims put on. I've grown tired of the slow turn in and sidewall rollover of my winter tires. I want some sharp steering response and I'll have it after tomorrow. I find it funny that I always reach this point in spring. By the time that winter is over I want my summer tires on for the performance but by fall I am happy to get my winter tires on for some ride comfort. If only there was a tire that did it all. C'est La Vie.

Have a good night everyone.

We got it!

2006-05-09T12:08:00.000-06:00

Yay we got the apartment. We should be getting the keys on May 29th. Ah I feel much more relieved now and much more excited all at the same time. Its pretty cool to have your own address.

Now the spending of the money begins. We've already given the damage deposit and I'm going to get the money for first months rent but there is many things to do yet. The first grocery run is going to be expensive. There is power, phone, TV and internet to hook up plus undoubtedly a huge number of things that I can't think of.

On the other side of the coin is the free stuff. I can't believe how generous people can be. We should probably try to figure out how to thank people. My mom is giving us a couch, love seat, chair, kitchen chairs, kitchen stuff like bowls and probably a bunch more. My uncle was using that couch, love seat and chair so they are kinda donated by him too. Lindsay's mom is giving us an electric frying pan, slow cooker, some other kitchen stuff, and some groceries. My dad is giving us a 27" TV. Lindsay's grandma is giving us a kitchen table. My grandparents are giving us a microwave. Lindsay's friend is giving us an entertainment unit for the TV. There is probably a bunch of stuff I missed but its tough to keep track of it all. A big thanks to everyone.

Now I just need to find some lackey's to help move. I know I've moved quite a few people and now its your turn. I'm looking at Mark, my uncle and Kerri and Scott. Too bad Mark won't be in town, although he doesn't have a truck anymore. I'm sure there will be no problem as there really isn't' that much stuff to move. Vehicles shouldn't be a problem as I have a truck, so does Tim, and my grandfather. My uncle has a minivan and Tristan at work offered up a 3-ton cube van if we need it. So everyone keep in mind the weekend of June 3rd and 4th because I could always use some movers.

Apartment

2006-05-08T12:33:00.000-06:00

We might be closer to an apartment now. Lindsay phoned the guy in charge of Wilbeldon Terrace and I guess he has an apartment for us. We're going to look at it after work today. I got quite excited when Lindsay told me, in fact I had to pee. Anyways I have no idea what this is actually for as I did not talk to him. Is this the damage walk around and stuff or is this just to say yep this will be available for you for June 1st? I dunno. Hmmm... I seem to be rambling more than normal.

I am also getting excited about paintball in Edmonton on the 24th of June. For Nigel's birthday we are going to go paintballing. I can't wait to shoot him and Dad. I'm sure that I'll get lit up pretty good too as I will be the biggest target and possibly the most out of shape. Ah well it will be fun none the less and besides the bruises heal eventually.

Wish us luck.

Non-stop Gonging

2006-05-02T12:13:00.000-06:00

No I'm not getting gonged at work, whatever that would be, it is a reference to the Gong Show. Everyone next door is out on service calls so I had to set up a site computer and I have no idea what is going on. I was told to install dos, a modem, our software and the config file. I was with them right up to our software. I wasn't even born when this software was developed. So I muddle my way through the land of DOS and floppy disks all the while getting asked questions that I don't know the answers to. Rory and myself manage to get everything working much to the surprise of Rainy and then we go for lunch. On the way out I mention to Rory that we need a large gong that we can ring whenever it gets this way around work. He laughs and tells me it would be non-stop gonging if we did that. I tend to agree.

So in other news I broke my newest lantern. I bought a 11/68 220F off of ebay and I was almost done rebulding it when I stripped out the tip cleaner assembly. Damnit. So I've got those on order but it could be a while before I see them, not to mention that the parts are worth as much as I paid for the damn lantern. Ah well atleast it is a fun hobby. I've got 3 lanterns now and I may have spent $100 rebuilding them which is pretty cheap as far as hobbies go. I'll put some pictures up when I've got it running next week.

Feeling down? You might just need some sex.

Political Map

2006-04-25T19:02:00.000-06:00

Well I stumbled across this over at Bated Breath and I fell about where I thought I would. I've always known I was a bit of a socialist but its interesting how close I am to totalitarinism. By far the most interesting part of this test was the distribution of Kerry vs. Bush voters on the map. They actually fell where they voted, democrate and republican. Anyways its made for americans but give it a shot.

You are a
Social Moderate
(41% permissive)

and an...
Economic Liberal
(36% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Centrist

Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid
Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Humble Pie

2006-04-25T12:47:00.000-06:00

Well I'm going to have to eat a big humble pie sometime in the near future. The anti Christ, aka Sony, fixed the laptop for free. Now before all you Sony fanboys start cheering I think that Sony actually had little to do with this. I would give the praise to Westpeak Electronic Service in Calgary. I'm sure they somehow managed to trick sony into paying for the new screen. Don't ask me how they did it but I was amazed that they did.

Two posts in one day, that's odd. But what's even more strange is this. I wish I could figure out how they did it.

Best Man Toast

2006-04-25T11:12:00.000-06:00

Well as many of you know James and Jacqui are getting married on the May long weekend and I have the daunting task of being James' best man. They say being the best man is like kissing the Queen mum, it's a great honour but no one wants to do it. I think this is mainly because of the speech/toast that the best man has to make. So here I am, completely honoured and amazed that someone would ask me to be thier best man but also completely freaked out at having to write a speech. Now don't start to doubt me just yet, I said I'm freaked out but I am glad I have the chance to do this. I am a little concerned because I don't know anything about how weddings work, I haven't been to many, and I'm not sure how the toast is supposed to work either. I was looking online and the best man speech is supposed to thank the bridesmaids on behalf of the groom and tell some fun stories about the groom. About.com has a pretty good page about how to write the speech and what should be in it. There are lots of examples of speeches but I don't want to use someone else's ideas, I want it to be original.

Now on that note I was trying to think about all the stuff I know about James and Jacqui and I was kind of surprised by myself. I've know James for 20 years, since kindergarten, and I really don't know that much about him. How weird is that? We've lived 5 blocks from each other the whole time but he seems to keep his personal life to himself.

Scratch that, I do know James. As I was writing this I got thinking and I know a fair amount about the kid its just been buried under 15 years of school and other stuff. Its hard to just think about a person, you have to put it in context. As soon as I started thinking about stuff we've done or experiences I started to remember all sorts of stuff. I feel much better about this speech now.

I'm sorry to have subjected all of you to my raw thoughts but thats how the creative process works.

Anyways if anyone has any interesting stories about James and/or Jacqui that they'd like to share for my speech email me. If you have any suggestions or pointers for writing a best man speech send those my way too.

A little update on the apartment hunting. We dropped off our applications to get into the wimbledon terrace on reindeer and pinehouse. Hopefully we'll be able to get in and I'll be able to ride my bike to work. Ah the gas savings. It would be grand. I'm going to have to make some time to go garage shopping for stuff. We're getting pretty close to having most everything we need and the best part is most of it has been donated. Its amazing how gernous people can be when they are trying to get rid of 70's furniture that is just taking up space. Now if only I could find a queen sized bed for cheap. Ah well I'll work on that one.

I don't wanna move out

2006-04-19T23:28:00.000-06:00

So its begun, Lindsay and I are going to go look at an apartment tomorrow. I can't say that I share her excitement about moving out. She can't wait to get out because her family pisses her off. I think she's being a little hard on them but then I don't have to live with them. I on the other hand don't see the things that I am gaining by moving out, all I see are the things that I am losing. I won't have a back yard to have a fire in, I won't have my dog to play with and I won't have my garden to go putter in. I am not excited I am sad. I won't have a drive way to park in, I'll have a parking space with morons on either side of me. I won't be able to sit in the back yard and read, I'll have a noisy balcony at best. I'm not looking forward to this, I'm looking down on it.

Perhaps I am being too negative about this, but I am having problems finding the positives. I'm going from coasting through to having to make an active effort to live. No more free cable and meals made for me. I'll have to pay for everything now and Lindsay doesn't cook. I'm going to have to learn to share a living space with someone instead of merely existing in the same house with another person.

I think my biggest problem is that I am scared. Scared of change, scared of the new and uncharted. Maybe these are just excuses because I am scared. Maybe they aren't.

Well we'll see how it goes tomorrow when I push off in search of India.

Long Way Round

2006-04-18T12:08:00.000-06:00

Lately I've become disenchanted with regular primetime television. It used to be that you would have season premiers in the fall and then you would have new shows all winter until the season wrapped up in the spring. Summer was a time of re-runs and we accepted this. Now it seems like they are producing fewer and fewer new episodes of shows to air durring the winter and we end up with a bunch of re-runs mid season. I like certain shows but it is hard to remain faithful to them when they go on hiatus for a month. Grey's Anatomy did just that and we don't get a new episode until April 30th. Now I know I will go running back to it when the new ones start but I'm on the look out for new shows in the mean time. My search for things that don't suck has lead me away from the regular television that I normally watch and I've found things like Top Gear and Survivorman.

I recenty found a mini-series called Long Way Round and I've been transfixed by it. I can't stop watching it. I was enjoying it so much that I downloaded the whole series just so I wouldn't have to wait for more. I'm seriously considering buying the DVD and I've already downloaded and watched it. The story is Ewen McGregor and Charley Boorman take two motorcycles and ride the "long way round" from London to New York. They go east through Europe, asia, Canada and finally into the US. There was actually three bikes, them plus a camera man and they had two 4x4 support vehicles following behind them to help at border crossings and with other difficulties. They did get to ride the sweetest dual sport bikes though, the BMW R1150GS Adventure. At one point the camera man had to ride a Russian made bike because they broke his and oddly enough it performed better than the BMW's in places. I think the RS1150GS's were a little too big and heavy for the trip. They may have done better with lighter bikes especially when the roads got bad. They said that Mongolia only has 80 miles of paved roads and now I would believe them. I was amazed at how friendly everyone was. Before they left they were warned about the mafia in Russia and all the bad things that could happen in Kazakhstan or Mongolia but everyone was helpful and friendly the whole way. The only bad thing to happen was one bag got stolen near the end of the trip. It is a really amazing story that makes you feel good about humanity. If you want to check it out it is on mininova.org or go buy it at amazon and send a bit of money their way for the next trip.

Well that's it for now. I'll leave you with some advice, try to get a hummer in West Virginia.

Worst. Customer service. Ever.

2006-04-12T12:55:00.000-06:00

So I have this Sony laptop on my desk that needs a new LCD screen. Someone, who shall remain nameless, picked it up by the LCD screen and cracked the screen. Now obviously this is not covered under warranty but since the laptop is only a month old I need to send it to Sony, aka the anti-Christ, for repair. Now I know from experience that the fastest way, usually, is to phone the manufacturer's 1-800 number and send it to them for repair. Usually what happens is you phone, they warn you that it is not covered under warranty and they send you a pre-paid return box, you put the laptop in the box, return it and 3-10 days later your laptop comes back all fixed up. Sony seems to have a different approach to this system. They think that if they jerk me around enough I'll get fed up and just buy a new laptop. Here is how the last hour of my day went yesterday.

I phone 1-888-4SONYPC and talk to some guy. This guy takes my info and puts me on hold to talk to a tier 2 for 10 minutes. OK I can be patient after all I'm getting paid to sit here on the phone. He comes back on and gives me a story about how since I'm Canadian I have to phone the Sony number for Canada. Well ok but it took 10 minutes to find this out?

So I call 1-877-899-7669 and get an automated system. I tell it I have a problem with a VAIO computer and it automatically forwards me back to the first number. Now this is getting stupid.

Ronald helps me this time and I'm pretty sure Ronald took the short bus to school. Anyways we do the song and dance again and Ronald tells me the same thing, I'm Canadian and I have to phone a Canada[sic] service center. George is getting mad!

I dial the number Ronald gave me, 403-219-5336 and it is not in service. Fucking hell.

I phone the Canadian number and fool it into giving me a real person. This guy, Sean, doesn't have a clue. Not a sniff of what to do. He gives me 2 numbers to call. 403-291-1672 and 1-877-779-9929. The second one is for a place in Ontario that fixes spas. This is where I quit. I take it back to London Drugs and let them deal with it. I'm sure it will take a month but atleast I don't have to phone Sony.

Some how Sony took an easy idea like prepaid return boxes and turned it into this steaming pile of crap. I shouldn't have to call this many numbers or take the computer to calgary. Yes Ronald wanted to know if Calgary or some place in Quebec was closer. I told him Calgary was and he said I should just drop it off there. Yeah I'll just drop it off on my way home but Calgary is SIX hours away. I guess that is closer than driving for 26 hours to Quebec but its still not that close.

In conclusion I will never purchase a Sony product again and I can't wait until they go out of business. Which should be soon considering they are bleeding money like someone hit an artery.

Fuck you very much Sony.

UPDATE

Here is the letter that I wrote to Sony support. Hopefully they can pull their collective heads out of their asses and do something to help their customers.

I am writing to tell you that you have the worst phone support I have ever experienced. Lexmark's outsourced support in India is more helpful. I phoned yesterday (04/11/06) to try to get a laptop fixed that has a broken LCD. This should not be a problem as it is only 1 month old. I phoned 1-888-4SONYPC and was told, after a lengthy hold time, that I would have to phone 1-877-899-7669 because I was calling from Canada. I phoned that number and it automatically forwarded me back to the US number. They again told me that they couldn’t help me because I am in Canada. I was told to phone the service center directly and the number they gave me was out of service. I managed to trick the Canadian number into giving me a HUMAN to talk to and he didn’t have a clue how to help me. He gave me two more numbers to try. One of which was a place in Ontario that fixes spas. This is too much. I should not have to phone 5 different times to try to get service. I realize that the LCD is not covered under warranty and that we would have to pay for it to be repaired. Any competent company would have sent me a prepaid shipping box next day for me to return the laptop for repair. I should not have to waste an hour of my day being told that they don’t know what to do. I can not be the only one in Canada trying to get a Sony laptop fixed and I should not have to jump through this many hoops for a simple problem. I have dealt with the support lines for Apple computers, HP, Dell, Lexmark and many others out side of the computer industry and I have never come across such incompetence. I sincerely hope that you are able to fix your phone systems so that the people on the other end can actually help customers. I would hate to see what they actually do all day if they weren’t sending customers in circles and laughing loudly in the background of service calls. I gave up after an hour of not getting anywhere on the phone and took the laptop back to London Drugs where it was purchased in the hopes that they can manage to get it repaired. I do not wish to be contacted by anyone from Sony. If you want to help phone Craig at London Drugs #65 in Saskatoon at 306-975-3846 and help facilitate the timely repair of our laptop.

So much church

2006-04-11T12:29:00.000-06:00

I know its been a while since my last update, but I've been busy.

I was thinking the other day that this year will more than double my total visits to churches. I've already been to two in the same day and I've got two weddings to go to this summer. I was actually amazed that I survived. I attended the service at Meewasin Valley United Church a couple of weekends ago in order to get some pancakes. I was a little concerned that I had just joined a cult. It was Jesus this and jesus that, it all felt a little too preachy for my tastes. The pancakes weren't that great either but they went to a good cause. Melissa was in Costa Rica some time ago and this breakfast was to raise money for an organization that builds schools and houses. I felt good knowing that I didn't suffer in vain.

You may notice that my writing has a bit of a negative bias towards organized religion and that's because I just can't understand it. I don't get how people can put their blind faith in a book. A book that some person or people wrote hundreds of years ago and for all we know could have been just another story. Its been passed down through many people and re-written who knows how many times. How close could it even be to the original? What would have happened if someone decided to call a different book the bible, would we all be worshiping Santa Claus?

Now I do see a good purpose for the church, but it is not religion. Just look at how many people it brings together and money they raise for good causes. It is just too bad that religion causes so many people to do so many horrible things across the world.

I have long considered myself an athiest or atleast an agnostic but one day I tried to actually classify my beliefs and I almost got lost. There are so many options.

Agnosticism - belief that the existence of god is unknown (weak agnosticism) or unknowable (strong agnosticism)
Ignosticism - the view that the concept of God as a being is meaningless because it has no verifiable consequences, therefore it cannot be usefully discussed as having existence or nonexistence
Atheism - a lack of belief in god
Nontheism - is the absence of belief in both the existence and non-existence of a deity
Antitheism - a direct opposition to belief in any deity

These seem to be the major ones plus each has a few dozen sub catagories and it all gets quite confusing. Not nearly as confusing as religion itself but close.

After all this am I any closer to figuring out where I fall? Not really, but I would still call myself an atheist because I don't believe that any got exists. I have never seen any reason to belive that a higher power has played any part in my life. I have never seen any proof of existence of a god and I don't think I will ever see any.

This is a dangerous subject though, most people have a problem if you tell them you are an athiest. I could jump out and tell everyone that I'm gay (I'm not) or just about any other crazy news and people would say "Well aslong as you are happy" but tell them you don't think there is a god and there reaction will range from "Really? You don't think there is a god" to weird chanting with a cross and splashing holy water on me.

The worst thing about all of this is people trying to push their beliefs on you. I don't go around telling people that they shouldn't believe in god but for some reason religion gets pushed on me. If its not the JW's at the door its someone telling me that I'm doing something wrong in the eye's of god. Why would I care if god thinks I'm doing something wrong? I really don't but for some reason you think that I should. You have your beliefs and I have my lack of beliefs and thats that. Well I shouldn't say that I lack beliefs, I believe that we evolved from single celled life on earth and that when you die you become worm food. I think that some people need an easy answer for the hard questions so they fall back on religion.

Now before the hate mail starts flowing in remember that I'm not telling you not to be religious. I can respect the fact that people can believe whatever they want to, just respect my right to not believe in the same things you do.

Well that's my rant for today. I hope you enjoyed it and maybe learned something by following the links. Just remember that science and religion can live together.

All quiet on the western front

2006-03-28T20:23:00.000-06:00

During highschool I read a book called "All Quiet on the Western Front" about a german soldier in World War One. I found it to be very interesting because it told the story from the "enemy's" side and I realized that we're pretty much all the same. They had the same problems and worries that the allies had and I really liked getting to see the war from that perspective. Considering the winners write the history books it is hard to find out what happens on the other side of no mans land.

We have a similar problem with the current war in Iraq where we have to try to dig through the propaganda to find out what is really going on. Being in Canada we are sorta neutral in the Iraq war but most of the news we get comes though nations in the war and I don't think we get the whole story sometimes. Now I could go to aljazeera and hope that it is not biased in the other direction but I'd still be missing something. I think I found that something today, I stumbled across a blog called Baghdad Burning. It is the story of a woman in Baghdad and all the things that happen to her and her family. Sometimes it is nice to get a reminder of how many things we take for granted. They have 1 hour of power for every 6 without, they don't have phone service and most other services are hit and miss. There is a really troubling post about the Iraqi security forces doing raids on civilians houses and stealing from people. How strange it must be to not be able to trust any government, yours or the Americans, or anyone except for your family.

Car Etiquette

2006-03-23T12:35:00.000-06:00

I know that most people don't really care about their cars. Infact if it starts that's good enough. Routine maintainance is just a pain in the ass and who wants to wash a car that's just going to get dirty tomorrow anyways. I am part of the group that cares for my car, I enjoy having a clean car and I like to know that putting the extra money in synthetic oil will help it last longer. I have noticed some disrespect for peoples cars lately so I thought I would give these helpful tips.

1. Its spring time and cars are dirty so don't set anything on the car. I know that the roof is a convienent place to put your bag or purse while you open the door but its not a good idea. Did you notice that your once white car is now brown? Yes that brown stuff is dirt and it basically just turned your purse into a giant sanding block. If your purse or bag slides along your car it has just sanded some of your paint off. This goes for sitting on the car as well. Not only is your butt giant sanding block but its got your body weight to help remove the paint off of the hood. This also applies to car keys. When unlocking a door hold the keys and keychain in your hand so that they don't scratch the side of the car. The sound of the remaining keys slapping against the side of the car is one that will make most car guys break down and cry. Please be careful putting the key in the lock. This isn't rape, take your time and aim so that you don't scratch the car while trying to put the key in the hole.

2. Speaking of dirt, go wash your car. Yes I know that it is melting out and that your car will get dirty in a matter of minutes but it is still a good idea. Do you notice that in with the dirt is some white residue? That is road salt and combined with water and oxygen it is doing its best to rust your car. Not only will our car look better when it is clean it will also last longer.

3. Slamming the door. This is very disrespectful to someone elses vehicle. Yes I realize your first car was a 1975 Mercury Grand Marquis that had doors that weighed 300 pounds each but my car isn't a land yaught. I realize that the first time you get out of someone's car that it is hard to judge how much force will be required to close the door but do your best. Try to use just the right amount of force so that the door will close but it won't blow all the windows out of the car when you close it. If you close your door and everyone who is still inside the car suddenly starts bleeding from the ears you may have used too much force. A secret is to leave your hand on the door as you close it. This way you can use less force and your hand will stop the door from bouncing off the seals and not latching. After a few times being in a certain car you should get a feel for how to close the doors. The owner will thank you.

4. Stop complaining about the car. Yes I know my car is 14 years old and it may not have power locks and windows but you know what? It is managing to get your fat ass from point A to point B so unless you want to walk, shut up. Unless the owner has set a precident by naming his car "Shit burger" or "Ford" you shouldn't start complaining about the car. Don't compare it to someone else's that is brand new or that has leather seats, just sit down, shut up and be thankful that you didn't have to walk accross town.

5. Food or garbage in the car. Just don't do it. I know that your own car is filled to the gills with old McDonalds wrappers and Tim Hortons cups but please don't lump me in with you. Yes I know my car doesn't have cup holders, that was a selling feature for me, please see point #4. So don't just show up with a double double and expect to get in the car. I know you are responsible and you won't spill but it will happen eventually. I've seen the aftermath and I know that a hot cup of coffee is a ticking time bomb in a car.

6. Backseat driving. This is a popular one and I know I do it too. As you may have noticed in previous posts that I think I'm a pretty good driver. With that I have a habit of trying to tell people how to drive. If you need to make yourself heard atleast know what you are talking about. I've almost thrown a few people from a speeding car becuase their backseat driving wasn't even right. If you are going to shout directions from the back or passenger seat make sure you know your way.

7. Nervous passengers. This is a no win situation for anyone. I am an aggressive driver and you should know this. Please stop flinching, wimpering and clutching at stuff. I don't need nail marks in my dashboard. If you know in advance that you will be riding with an aggressive/crazy driver then either learn to shut up and keep it under control or drive yourself.

8. Muddy/snowy shoes. Yes I know sometimes it is inevitable that you will have large amounts of snow or mud on your shoes but please try to minimize it. I personally don't care that much as long as the snow or mud says on the floor mats but pay attention to the owner of the car. If someone is a bit more anal about this then I have a suggestion for you. Sit down on the seat and with both feet still out the door bang them together to knock the dirt off and then swing your feet into the car. Hitting them on the sill or rocker panel is not acceptable. You might as well get out and start kicking the car.

9. Smoking. This is usually a bipolar topic. People either don't care at all that you want to smoke in their car or they would rather rip their own skin off and roll in salt before letting you light up in the car. I'm in the latter group on that one. My car smells like a car, it doesn't have that new car smell but atleast it doesn't smell like an old ashtray. The heat of summer will usually bring out the smells in a car interior and there is almost nothing worse than hot stale ciggerette smoke. So please ask first or else you may be walking, but hey atleast you can smoke on your walk.

10. Touching the radio or hvac controls. This is a no-no unless you know that you can. Most people work by the rule that the driver gets to choose what to listen to and I aggree with that. If you don't like the radio station or you are too hot/cold then ask the driver. Don't go fiddling with the controls because you might get your hand slapped.

There you go, I've given you ten tips to keep you on the drivers good side. Not everyone is going to care that you just slammed their car door into next week but some people do.

First day of spring

2006-03-20T12:27:00.000-06:00

Ah winter is finally starting to release its icy grip on us. March 20th is the vernal equinox this year. That means the day and night are equal length, well not exactly but its close. Being from the great white north it will be a while before it really starts to feel like spring but at least it is getting warm enough to wear spring jackets instead of winter parkas. The daytime temperature is about -5C lately, positivly balmy.

All this warm weather has got me thinking of camping. Yeah its a little early but I can't help it. I haven't had any extra days off since new years and its starting to get to me a bit. I found a new tool I want for camping. Its the Woodmans Pal, I was thinking of getting a knife but I saw this in Popular Mechanics. I'm still going to look around for a knife but this is only $80US and if a good knife is going to cost me close to that I might as well get the woodmans pal. Now the only problem is finding the money. Damn money.

I finally found out why people don't use their turn signals! 7 percent say it adds to the excitement. And all along I thought they were just fat useless twits. Shows me.

Gillette Fusion

2006-03-14T11:53:00.000-06:00

Wow its been a week since I posted last. How the time flies.

Anyways I thought I'd try out the new Gillette Fusion razor since I was running low on blades for my Mach 3. I am not impressed by this latest razor and I almost crapped my pants when I saw the price of new blades. I tried the non-powered version and I can't say it shaves any better than my Mach 3 does, if anything it pulls at my face more. For anyone who doesn't know what the Fusion is, it is Gillette's new 5+1 blade razor. Yes that is 5+1 not 6 because it has 5 blades on the front and 1 on the back to help you trim side burns. It comes in powered and non-powered versions, the powered version having a motor in it that causes it to vibrate. I didn't really think that would do anything so I bought the regular one but I should have done some reading first. This review I found says that the vibration didn't make for a better shave but made the razor glide over his face easier.

The price of blades for these things are atrocious. I was at London Drugs and 8 blades are $32! The powered version has its own blades and they were $35, thats more than $4 a pop and I doubt there is a difference. Hopefully this will mean the blades on my Mach 3 will come down in price, I doubt it but a guy can hope. On the other hand the older blades are getting really cheap. 10 blades for the sensor excel two blade razor are $12 and the old double edge razor blades are 10 for $10.

While looking at reviews and info on the Fusion I noticed there was a lot of talk about going back to the old ways of shaving. Here is an article I found about wet shaving. This is the old way of using shaving soap with a brush and a DE safety razor. So I looked around some more and found a great site full of information about wet shaving and the tools you need. There is a good How to guide about shaving. They even talk about straight razors and how to use them and maintain them. That would be the ultimate to be able to use a straight razor. I've always wanted to find an old barber and get shaved. An added bonus of the DE safety razor is the blades a much cheaper and it is much more environmentally friendly. No plastic is getting thrown out and the blades will just rust away.

If you want to try out the Fusion razor I would suggest giving the powered one a shot but I don't think I'll be buying any blades for this one. I'm happy with the Mach3 Turbo blades and I'm going to seriously consider trying a double edged safety razor.

V for Very Slow

2006-03-07T22:53:00.000-06:00

Around here the veterans can get special license plates to celebrate what they did for our country and I agree with that. Unfortunately most veterans are old and that means they drive like they are piloting their model "T" around bumfuck nowhere in their small town driving style. These license plates have the ability to let you know when you won't be going anywhere fast. I'm glad that you are retired and fought in WWII so now you have all the time in the world, too bad I don't. I'm not retired, I have places to go, people to see and things to do and I would like to get their some time this week. Why would I say these things?

Well tonight I think all the stupid useless drivers in Saskatoon saved it all up and unleashed the fury on me in one night. Yes I am an aggressive driver but you know what? I follow the f*#$ing rules. I am not a left lane hog, I've mastered the art of signaling to lane change and I can even shoulder check. I know these are all very difficult ideas and they are even harder to implement but they are important. I don't understand how people can drive without knowing simple things like "slower traffic keep right" and that the person on your right has the right of way at a stop sign. You did learn these at one time and you have been driving ever since you learned them but for some reason most people chose to forget these simple rules.

It all started with a van that was lane challenged. I realize in winter it can be hard to find the lanes but when there are four defined tracks it should be easy to figure out. The solution is NOT to just pick two tracks and drive in them. It just happens to work out that the left track of the right lane and the right track of the left lane line up to your van but that does not mean you are in a lane. Did you fail to notice the two people side by side in your mirror? Why does it not click that something is wrong? Kramer did not create extra wide lanes just for you. You are a moron.

Ok the van is gone and I want to go home but OH NO! There are some puddles. I agree it is a rather large puddle but it doesn't come into your lane and its a freakin puddle not a fjord. You don't have to idle through it at 30 in a 70 zone. Speed the hell up. Alright past that guy lets roll.... o wait I can't. There is a left lane hog ahead. What do you think "slower traffic keep right" means? I think it means unless you are going the speed limit get in the right lane. Do you? Nope, you shadow the slow ass in the right lane so no one can do the speed limit. Why do you do this? I have no clue, maybe its the puddles but it sure as hell isn't slippery out anymore, all the ice melted. Breath, count to 10, you're almost home.

Is that Santa Fe driver outside his SUV at a green light? Yep he sure is and who knows what he is doing. Perhaps he had to rub a quick one out before he could continue. Maybe he is broken down, oops maybe not. He found the right shade of green and decided to go just in time to hold me out of the lane so I would miss my turn. No problem I can turn at the next street. Sweet merciful crap, a veteran plate! Well now I'm stuck doing 15 below the speed limit for the next couple of blocks. Here comes my turn and oh no he is turning to, well I'll go to the next turn and still get home faster. Second last turn before home and.... some jackass decides to do a U-turn right infront of me. It looked like he was parallel parking but nope he was just waiting for me to get there so he can block the whole effing street and make me stop. I swear if I had my truck he would have got 5000 pounds of Dodge in his drivers side door. So while swearing and flipping the guy off, he is yelling at me. Yep I'm in the wrong with my dreams of driving in a straight line on a straight road. Obviously he had the right of way with his illegal U-turn. Yay I got home. What an adventure.

I wish we had better driver training, or even cops that gave a shit about traffic rules. I realize that a murder will get your name in the paper but did you think that car crashes kill four and a half times as many people as murder?

Statistics show that 2,730 Canadians died in traffic accidents in 2004, compared to 622 who were the victims of homicides, The Globe and Mail reports.

Who cares about the 16 year old girl who kills a whole family because she is inexperienced, homicides are exciting. They get your name in the paper and advance your career. Forget that a blind one armed retarded monkey could get his license in this province. There is no driver training here. You get 4 in car sessions with an instructor, totaling 4 hours, and you have to do a 15 minute road test. 5 rights, 5 lefts, a couple lane changes and a parallel park and your a driver! That's it, no real show of skill, just $22 and some of that elusive common sense and you can pilot a 3000 lbs weapon of mass destruction around with no fear of any further testing or reinforcing of your skills.

They wonder why road rage is becoming a problem

Buy my stove!

2006-02-28T21:24:00.000-06:00

All of you in Saskatoon that read my blog, well ok there are four of you, but one of you must know someone that needs a stove for cheap.

Check out my ad at www.usedsaskatchewan.com

It works fine and its only $50 OBO. You know you want it.

More Cops Abusing Their Power

2006-02-28T12:19:00.000-06:00

I've written before about the police abusing their powers to run red lights and now I've read that it isn't an isolated occurrence. I guess in Tennessee its a normal thing too. It was good that the judge in the case let the kid off with a warning instead of a fine.

"I expect officers to follow the rules like everyone else," judge Bean said

The problem is that they don't.

Acts of Gord

2006-02-27T12:30:00.000-06:00

While stumbling around the internet today I remembered a couple of sites that I have not seen in quite some time. If you are interested in a good laugh you should check out Acts of Gord or another classic Bob the Anal Fissure. Have fun.

Dumb customers

2006-02-26T22:55:00.000-06:00

I used to work in a retail computer department and I thought I would share some customer stories of mine. We would get lots of dumb customers, I don't mean the people who didn't know computers but the people with a complete lack of common sense. I posted these at a friends forum but I thought I would share them here.

1.
"My ink cartridge is empty", Customer
"Ok, they do that", Me
"The package says its good until October (six months away)", Customer
"Thats the expiry date", Me
(insert 10 minute explanation of expiry dates)

2.
"My mouse doesn't work" Customer
"Ok, is it wired or wireless" Me
"Its wireless and neither one is working", Customer
"You mean your old one isn't working?" Me
"No, neither one in the box is" Customer

Basically he thought the wireless reciever was a mouse because it had a button on it. He absolutely refused to read the manual. I tried to direct the conversation there a few times and every time I did he would change the subject to some other trouble shooting step he had tried. If he would have read the manual he would have known to push the connect buttons but instead I had him yelling at me for 10 minutes about his new mouse that didn't work. FINALLY I got him to look for the buttons and push them and his mouse was suddenly fixed.

3.
Customers don't read anything. A woman came to the counter with some CD's. So I ring them in and the copy levy shows up on the screen. By now I expected everyone to know about that but she didn't and she's mad. She thinks I'm trying to pull the wool over her eye's and gets quite mad about it. I try to explain to her what its about and she snaps at me that we should have a sign about it. Ok lady I'm tired of your crap.

"Oh you mean like this big sign beside you on the wall? Or the 6 little signs on the shelf? You had to move one of them to get these CD's"

"Um.. oh I... ok." She said really sheepishly and just left.

4. My personal favorite

Guy comes in and is already yelling at me before I get over there. His new scanner doesn't work. It never worked right out of the box. He's spent 5 days trying to figure it out. He's had his IT friend over (never a good sign) and even he can't figure it out. They've been on HP's website and tried all the tests on there. It just makes noise but the scan head doesn't move. He's getting really mad because I want to look at it. What could I possibly know that he and his IT bigshot friend don't know. Blah blah whaa whaa fuck this screw that I'm a moron yadda yadda yadda. I'm getting ready to shove this scanner up his ass so I grab it from him flip it over and flip the lock switch on the bottom. I plug it in and it works first try. I've never seen someone go from red faced mad to suck my balls sorry so fast. I ask him did he not see the giant yellow sticker that actually holds the lid shut that tells him to unlock the scanner. "I uh must have missed that one". He then asks me not to tell anyone because it is so embarrasing. I've been telling everyone.

Ah google video

2006-02-23T21:23:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I temped you with the harddrive with a window and today I've got the video. I appologize as it seems my digital camera isn't quite fast enough to get all the movement but you get the idea.

Anyways now that that is out of the way, some sad news... the hard drive has died. Yes I know we shall morn its death but it was expected. It had a terminal illness before I ripped it apart to show everyone its still beating insides. I'm not sure if its dead dead but it only runs for a bit then it starts slapping the heads back and forth and the computer freezes. Last night it ran for a couple hours before that happened but today it only ran for about 30 mins before it started the click of death. I'm not sure what is causing it, dirt, the fact that it was dying already or perhaps static buildup on the lexan. Who knows I'm not a hard drive engineer.

In other news I have a cold that hit me like a truck. I got up this morning with a bit of a sore throat, I thought nothing of it, perhaps I had slept with my mouth open. At work I'm cold, then the chills start, by noon I had body aches and by 3 it actually hurt to sit in my chair. This is odd as I usually get one cold a year and this isn't the usual time. Perhaps my desk job has somehow weakened my immune system. Back at home I eat and then drink 4 big cups of tea and I'm feeling a bit better, well except that I'm peeing every 20 minutes and I can't believe that there was that much fluid in me. What to do... hmmm... too sore to go anywhere and TV sucks so... O wait I have 2 episodes of Top gear on my laptop and an episode of Mythbusters!

I stand by my previous statement that Top Gear is the best show on tv. Why can't I get BBC two?! Anyways Jeremy had a Bugatti Veyron on there. It has 1001 horsepower from a 4 litre W-16 and has an electronically limited top speed of 252mph! That's 387ft/sec. Insane. It will use up its tank of fuel in 12 mins at that speed. 0-60 goes by in 2.5 seconds. If you raced a McLaren F1 you could give it a head start to 120 mph and still beat it to 200 mph. All I can say is I want one of those cars and I will probably never be able to see one in real life. He was racing Captain slow and Hampster and they were in a Cessna 182. The race was from just south of Turino Italy to London to deliver a truffle to a restaurant. The car won but it was rediculously close. The other episode was the Top gear winter Olympics and that was insane. They launched a Mini, the old kind, off of the ski jump. Thats pretty impressive in itself but they put rockets on the back and gave it more thrust that a F-16 fighter. The best part was the car stayed upright and landed perfectly. Those are 07x05 and 07x07 and you should go download them. I also watched the newest version of Mythbusters, it wasn't as exciting. They were trying to see if a helium filled football would go farter and if you can really catch a bullet in your teeth. I did find out that my laptop will run for 3 hours straight playing divx and xvid movies. I found that amazing considering it has to do quite a bit of decoding to play those. Long live the iBook!

So you've made it through that long post about nothing really but this is how I really feel today.

Good night everyone.

New Monitor!!

2006-02-22T19:10:00.000-06:00

It finally came! On Friday I ordered a LG 1950SQ 19" LCD monitor. I was expecting it to take a couple of more days but the Purolator gods smiled upon me and I had it today. It is glorious. Here's the nerd specs:

19", 1280x1024 resolution, 8ms, 700:1 contrast, 0.264mm

Its so sharp and amazing. I watched the car chase scene from iRobot and I couldn't see any ghosting and it looked... amazing. Ok, ok, I need a thesarus.

I've also got a cool hardware mod for you. I put a lexan window in the top of a hard drive. Here is a picture but you'll have to wait for google to verify the video before I put that up.

It looks like there is dirt on the inside but thats just what is on the lexan on the outside. There is some silicone smeared on the inside but I don't care. I did this to see if I could do it not as a beauty contest. I am a little concerned as to how long it will last as it was having SMART errors before I modded it. O well.

Here is your link of the day. I totally agree with the authors #1 pick.