Some Ramblings from Mr. Gueguen

Shirt And Shoes Wouldn't Help.

2012-01-27T14:56:00.002-06:00

This afternoon I was walking past the Granma Lee's at the corner of 3rd Avenue and 25th Street. There was a magpie looking for stuff on the sidewalk. At one point he walked up to the doors of the restaurant and sqawked. I'm not sure if he saw his reflection and thought it was another magpie, or if he thought they'd let him in for something to eat. Unfortunately for him magpies are known not to carry money on them, so they wouldn't have much incentive to open the doors.

Population: 1

2012-01-26T16:05:00.000-06:00

Just how wacky can Republican candidates get? Newt Gingrich has called for a huge ramping up of US space exploration, including a permanent Moon settlement by the end of his second term as President. I suppose that's possible if the American people get so pissed off at him they load him into a rocket for a one way trip to the Moon. Or his second term as President is 50 years after the first. This also brings to mind the old saw about amateurs and logistics.

Not Gas In Saskatoon.

2012-01-20T15:54:00.001-06:00

Riding the bus down 8th Street this afternoon I noticed that the sign for the '7/11 at 8th and Clarence had the price of gas at 179.9 cents a litre. My joking thought was that someone had declared WW3 without me finding out. If the price of gas jumped 65 cents a litre at one go it would surely be a sign that we are all seriously screwed.

Regular readers will note that I missed posting the last increase in Saskatoon gas prices. Missing one had to happen sometime.

Friends Do It Too.

2012-01-16T18:22:00.000-06:00

It's been a while, but another espionage case has hit the public eye in Canada. Royal Canadian Navy Sub-Lieutenant Jeffrey Paul Delisle has been arrested on two charges of violating the Security of Information Act. Hearing this on Global's supper hour news cast I was a bit annoyed at their use of the term "foreign eneny" in discussing the case. At the moment who Delisle is believed to have spied for has not been revealed, so it's a bit premature to claim he was spying for a supposed enemy of Canada. Allies spy on each other as well. It has even been alleged that Canada has used its intelligence gathering capabilities to spy on our friends. And even those foregin powers that aren't our allies don't automatically fall into the category of enemies either. Of course if Delisle was spying for say the United States or France you'd think the case wouldn't have gone to trial, thus avoiding embarrassing a foreign ally and causing a diplomatic incident.

Should Delisle be convicted it will be a long time before he can enjoy his ill gotten gains. The charges he faces carry a sentence of life in prison, with parole eligibility presumably at the discretion of the judge.

The Good Run Ends.

2012-01-15T12:32:00.000-06:00

It had to happen sooner or later. The unusually balmy weather we've had here in Saskatoon has ended. Today is apparently the nice day of the week, and it's cold and windy. The high on Tuesday is predicted to only be -28, and Wednesay will be even colder with a high of -31. I hope you enjoyed the warmth.

No Need For Hording.

2012-01-11T14:22:00.000-06:00

Some snack food fans may be a bit on edge today, as American junk food kings Hostess, makers of the Twinkie and other goodies, have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US. Hostess says their plants will remain open for the moment. But it seems Canadian Twinkie fans have even less to worry about. The Hostess name, and the plants that make their products, in Canada is controlled by Saputo. So there's no chance of production being disrupted here. Even if the US parent can't restructure itself and goes out of business I would guess there's someone who would buy up the iconic Twinkie. And in the worst case scenario maybe the Hostess brand name would continue to be active in Canada if it vanished from the US.

Godly Gigabytes.

2012-01-10T17:22:00.000-06:00

Christianity generates a lot of business activity, especially in the US. You can fnd all sorts of Christian oriented products, ranging from the expected, like numerous Bible printings, to the surprising, like Christian sex toys. So when I noticed an ad over on a couple of the Freethought Blogs blogs today for the Puritan Hard Drive my curiosity was piqued. Was it someone's clumsy attempt at selling computer parts to a captive audience? Clicking on the ad revealed that the Puritan Hard Drive is actually a hard drive filled will all sorts of religious material. The producers did go to rather more effort than simply rebranding a standard hard drive and selling it at a markup.

I do wonder about a couple of things. Firstly, what would the actual Puritans think of computers? Assuming you could convince them they weren't some form of magic would they think them an appropriate tool for the faithful? Even their usefulness for Biblical scholarship might not be enough to convince them. A more imporant question may be whether any of the material on the Puritan Hard Drive is under copyright, and did they get permission to use such material? Some people may feel they deserve to be properly paid for their hard work, no matter what the intent of the creators of this product might be.

As for why ads like that pop up on the atheist oriented Freethought Blogs it's simply a result of the keyword algorithm used by the ad service that provides their ads. Certain words and combinations of words will result in certain ads appearing, even if said ads seem at odds with the editorial stance of the site's conttributors. In the end it still benefits the site, and non-believers clicking on the ads doens't help sell the product.

2X4

2012-01-04T22:59:00.000-06:00

More poker fun tonight. I'm playing a 10 cent sit and go on Pokerstars, and I've had two sets of quads. The first was quad 7s, then a while later I had quad queens. We're nearing the end, and at minimum I'll make 43 cents off it. Can't complain about that.

Rambling Nostalgia.

2012-01-01T13:54:00.000-06:00

Instead of some profound statement, or an attempt at one, for the first post of the year, here's some fun.

First of all, we have Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians doing "Auld Lang Syne." Poor Guy, he did all sorts of other things, but he's best remembered for this, which used to be a staple of New Year's Eve parties and programs. But not so much anymore, so for some of you younger folk this may be the first time you've heard it.

And since the song, and New Years, are often about nostalgia, I thought I'd bring back something I haven't done in a long time. Admittted it was inspired by this post by PZ Myers. In any case, we have Kim Kardashian, Paula Deen, cooking show. Yep, long time readers, it's time for some shamless hit mongering after a long absense.

Not that it ever seems to work.

Taunted.

2011-12-31T09:15:00.001-06:00

Does Pokerstars taunt people? I'm currently playing in the Saturday morning Weekly Round 2 Freeroll on Pokerstars. I had 6-10 of clubs in the small blind, but folded to a raiser, since it's not a great hand and it's early in the tournament. The flop came 7-8-9, all clubs. I would have had a straight flush if I had called! Arg!. It would have been my second straight flush in the last 12 hours, as last night I was playing an Omaha Hi/Lo freeroll and hit a Ace to 5 straight flush, and with clubs no less. So, it makes you wonder, but only briefly of course. Given the number of players and the number of hands in any 24 hour period it would be ridiculous for them to waste valuable computer coding to set things up to tease players.

Way Too Fast.

2011-12-28T16:53:00.000-06:00

When I went into Safeway this morning I noticed they already have a Valentine's Day section set up. How ridiculous. Boxing Day sales are still going on, and they're shilling a holiday that's more than two months away. I seriously doubt anyone is thinking about Valentine's Day yet.

When I Rule The World 12.

2011-12-27T17:58:00.000-06:00

All the incessant screaming on TV, at public events, and so on will be prohibited. Seriously, it's damn annoying! Enough already.

Another Unwanted Present.

2011-12-25T18:13:00.000-06:00

I received something I didn't want for Christmas. My computer's CPU fan quit. How annoying. At least I have access to other computers until I can replace the fan, but it's no fun not having access to certain files.

Gas In Saskatoon, December 23, 2011.

2011-12-23T20:32:00.002-06:00

This week we got an early surprise for Christmas, and not one that anyone wanted, an increase in gas prices. Gas in Saskatoon is now 115.9 cents a litre at most locations.

Hot Christmas.

2011-12-23T16:44:00.002-06:00

Depending on what the weather is like where you live you may wish you were celebrating Christmas in Saskatoon. Looking at the latest forecast Environment Canada is predicting a high of 4 degrees Celcius for tomorrow and 5 degrees for Christmas Day. Yep, April type temperatures in late December. Definitely not what you expect in this part of the world at this time of year.

It Won't Happen Anyway.

2011-12-22T22:04:00.001-06:00

I was recently thinking about another one of my When I Rule The World ideas, namely that no one will be allowed to sit beside me on the bus. But of course such a post would be silly. After all when it happens I won't be riding public transit, so making such a proclaimation is unnecessary.

Klan Kanned.

2011-12-22T17:21:00.000-06:00

I recently posted about finding a Ku Klux Klan page on Deviantart. I speculated that the account would soon be banned. Sure enough I checked it today and the user has been permanently banned. I presume Deviantart has some way of keeping banned people from simply creating a new account, but I'm sure they'll try. And of course they'll whine about censorship. Too bad, fools. Deviantart is a private website and can kick off anyone they want. Their behaviour regarding bans has often been arbitrary, but I doubt too many people will disagree with this one.

Visual.

2011-12-20T08:09:00.001-06:00

What's your visual prescence online? To the best of my knowledge there are only two photos of me online, one I took myself, and my accidental capture when GoogleStreet View scanned Saskatoon a few years ago. You can't see my face in either, which has been okay by me in the past. All you can tell is that my hair is brown, and I could do to lose some weight. Other people have extensive photo collections of themselves on places like Facebook and Flickr. They're obviously more physically comfortable with being seen than I am. In a way it's funny given how many people are paranoid about their online security. There are people I've never met who I might recognise if I ever ran into them, merely because I saw their Flickr feed. Of course it's a big world, and that's not likely to happen, but it is something to think about.

Open The Door, Mr. Kim.

2011-12-18T22:52:00.000-06:00

Greetings, Kim Jong-un.

I have no idea how you feel about your father, Kim Jong Il, passing away. You might be happy, sad, or indifferent. But I suppose one thing you definitely are now is scared. If things go as your father desired you are about to become the leader of North Korea. And therefore you've inherited one hell of a mess. At the very least you probably have to worry that you'll be promptly overthrown by whatever factions are competing with yours. Should you hang on to power you've got a country full of starving people, a backwards economy that pretty much exists at the whim of the Chinese, and various foreign powers that are just waiting for you to screw things up.

It's time to open the door. Let the world in. Sure, you'll probably want to do it slowly, But you have no choice. Your regime isn't going to last even as long as your dad's unless you save North Korea. And the only way to do that is to find a way to end its isolation. North Korea is far enough behind as it is, and it's only going to get worse. You've seen the outside world, you know what it's like. You can see what your people could have if they're allowed to. So give them the chance. Find some way to make a peaceful change, before everything comes crashing down.

A Very Rare Bird.

2011-12-17T17:14:00.002-06:00

Today I received something that must be very rare for the typical blog. A hit from Andorra. I would suspect there might be some visitors who have never even heard of this tiny European country, which doesn't even have half the population of Saskatoon. Very cool.

Will It Please The Cosmic Lord Of Death?

2011-12-14T15:47:00.001-06:00

I'm sure I've come across this page before. Assuming I did it certainly didn't state we might see a new book featuring Joseph Rosenberger's infamous creation, the Death Merchant. I'd remember that. I must say I'm surprised, as there can only be a tiny handful of people clamoring for new adventures featuring Richard Camellion. I can't help but wonder about the legal status of this new book. Dell was the last publisher to release Death Merchant books, and Rosenberger died in 1993. So who owns the rights to the character? Dell? The Rosenberger estate, assuming there is one? If the book isn't officially licensed, would the current rights holder think it worth the time to sue? It's apparently being published by Kerodina Press, which sounds like it's a vanity press, so don't expect to see this in your local bookstore. As for the title it doesn't really sound Death Merchantish. It should be something like The Ressurection Strike.

Klansmen On Deviantart.

2011-12-11T20:23:00.001-06:00

You can imagine my surprise when I came across this on the popular art site Deviantart. According to the account info this one has been up for a month, which surprises me even more. You'd think DA would have pulled their account already. An obvious question is which version of the Ku Klux Klan this one is, given that there are at least 5 rival versions running around the US right now. Of course the person who created this page may be a member of none of them. In any case don't be surprised if you click on that link and there's nothing there but the announcement of a banned acount.

Cross Promotion.

2011-12-08T15:40:00.001-06:00

Time to promote my other blog, Saskatoon at Seven Megapixels. Today's entry is about the Rusholme Pedestrian Tunnel on the west side, which was in the news in November over crime concerns. Take a look.

When I Rule The World 11.

2011-12-07T15:56:00.001-06:00

The term keytar shall be banned, for the term is an abomination. The proper terms will be strap on controller or remote keyboard.

Another Sighting.

2011-12-06T14:08:00.001-06:00

Following up my last post this morning I rode 0601, again a DART bus, and it too was equipped with an electronic sign. Besides the time and "Stop Requested" message this one also displayed the upcoming stop. There was no voice announcement, so perhaps this can be turned off by the driver if they find it annoying. Interesting that the two buses I've encountered so far with these signs were both 2006 purchase date vehicles.