Hello my foreign friends! December is now upon us, and November went by really quickly. Well, to me, it did. Days seemed shorter and we are going to experience that for weeks to come. And as for this blog update, it will be considerably shorter, as it has only been two weeks or so since my last blog update. This should make Noelle very happy, as she wonders how I can write so much. Well, I can't even answer that, and I'm the one who types up this incredibly-long blog updates. Yeah, it's all a mystery...
Things haven't really changed much since the last time I updated this blog. The next day was another day of school that was followed by a night of work. But, I did download Ubuntu 9.10 later that day, and eventually installed it on an old hard drive, and eventually played around with it. Eventually, I got bored and returned to using Windows 7.
November 21, 2009 was a totally different weekend. It was different because my cousins moved, again. They used to live next door to me. They eventually moved to the new Stonebridge neighbourhood and lived around here. Eventually, they moved to another house in Stonebridge, as their house on Lynd Crescent was a temporary house because my uncle sold his house before his new home was even complete. So, during that weekend, my cousins Ky and Tho were spending their time at my uncle's friend's house. Later, I decided to take my cousins to my house, but only Ky was allowed to come with me, because my uncle forced Tho to stay at the house, to attend a birthday party later in the day.
Eventually, I headed to Future Shop. With nothing cool to purchase, I decided to leave and go home. But, later in the day, I required some vital vehicle fluids, and being the picky person that I am, I chose to go to Ens Lexus Toyota to buy genuine Toyota-brand fluids. There, I purchase some transmission fluid and some brake oil (just in case). I also bought anti-freeze while I was there. After that, I decided to head to the Walmart store at Preston Crossing. While I was there, I saw a toy 'police siren' that could potentially be used to cause some trouble. If you have seen the movie 17 Again, you should know what I mean. Eventually, I had to go to work.
After a night of work, I drove home. But on the way home, I dropped by the Real Canadian Superstore on Confederation Drive as I saw some interesting vehicles. As it turns out, the store was in the process of being repainted. I managed to 'snap' a few "decent" pictures.
November 22, 2009 was the beginning of a new week. But, on that day, I spent a good part of my time searching for a VPN that would allow me to access Hulu. Eventually, I found a way. For more information, contact me. Keep in mind that my solution right now only works for a PC. However, if you use a Mac, you may be able to figure it out yourself. If you would like to try it, contact me. But on the other hand, I was happy because HP finally released a driver that is compatible with the new Windows 7 operating system for my HP LaserJet P1005 printer. Later that night, I watched a very enjoyable episode of The Simpsons when Bart met a legendary prankster that was better than him. That episode was pretty good.
Later that week, I found out that one of my high school friends works for Saskatoon Transit and is a mechanic that services transit buses. According to my friend, who should probably be unnamed, New Flyer buses are of low quality. He also says that at any given time, the ratio of New Flyer buses on a hoist being serviced when compared to older buses that Saskatoon Transit currently has in its fleet is 4:1. If you don't know what a New Flyer bus looks like, perhaps you should take a look at this picture. Anyway, one Monday morning (November 23), I took a bus to school and was on a 1995 New Flyer D40LF. Man that bus smelled like crap. Eventually, I transferred at the downtown terminal to a better-smelling bus, which was a 2007 New Flyer D40LFR. Later, I had this strange craving for a steak, which would later be satisfied. Eventually, I got my political studies paper back, and received a pretty decent grade. The paper I wrote essentially argued that the unelected Senate in Canada was useless and should be abolished. However, Prime Minister Stephen Harper believes in the Senate, but only if they are elected. As a result, he has made Senate reform one of his priorities at some point.
Now, going back to the weekend, I did hang out with the Reverend Nathan Dutnall at one point. After going through a list of awful links at SomethingAwful.com, we found a website called FarmersOnly.com, which is a dating website exclusively for farmers.
November 24 was another boring day. The only concern I had that day was the firebombing that had occurred in Montreal. Later that night, I watched a question period proceeding in the House of Commons on CPAC. That would signal an end to that Tuesday evening.
November 25, 2009 was an interesting day to do things. I had a little bit of free time (40 minutes or so). At that time, the Saskatoon Health Region was hosting a two-day clinic for free H1N1 vaccinations. So, I went there and encountered an interesting sign that stated there would be a 30-minute waiting period. I proceeded to line up and saw that the line was moving faster, but I didn't realize how many people were already inside the Education Gym. I later went to class, and returned at about 12:40 PM. At that time, there was virtually no line-up. And by the time I had registered, there were seven health region workers that were prepared to give me my shot and were readily available! Sure, I could have gone to any public clinic, but the one at school allowed me to be lazy. The two clinics at the University of Saskatchewan were open to the general public. After that was my dreaded three-hour History 259 class, which actually went by pretty quickly, which completely struck me by surprise...
The 26th of November was another interesting day. Well, it started out as a day that involved riding on a 1995 New Flyer D40LF that didn't exactly smell so good. Or, as Willy Boldt would describe it, it smelled "like old people." At this point, I started thinking that it would be funny to see a federal election campaign that consisted only of smear campaigns (like this one). For instance, the Liberal Party of Canada can run on a campaign of how Prime Minister Stephen Harper's nose is so big, as opposed to his government's supposedly-terrible "record." In return, the Conservative Party of Canada can run on a campaign that involves his age. Do you get what I mean? But, with the interesting ads that were run earlier this year, I'm sure the Conservative Party of Canada has already hired someone a lot more creative than I am. At this point, it was also Thanksgiving down in the United States, and my cousin, according to her Facebook status, cooked up some good food. At that point, I was wishing that I was in Moody, Alabama for the day. Later that day, I discovered that CIBC introduced CIBC Mobile Banking, meaning that you can now bank online from your regular cellular phone, if you have a browser. So, I checked it out. If you would like to browse through CIBC Mobile Banking, fire up your cellular phone and head on over to the following website address: www.cibc.mobi.
On Friday (the 27th), I had one hell of a strange craving: I really wanted a steak. Being too lazy to stray so far from the campus, I decided to stop at Alexander's Restaurant & Bar on Cumberland Avenue South for lunch. First of all, that restaurant is small. Well, on the plus side, for them, it's usually busy. So, while I was there, I ordered the steak special that they had. Sadly, the steak had flavouring that wasn't exactly good. Eventually, it got dry really quickly. I also had the calamari as an appetizer, as well as a glass of Coca-Cola. Overall, the meal was considered 'mediocre.' On the plus side, all of the food only cost $22.50 (including the 5% GST, but excluding the tip). To see why I said it was "small," you should click here and see for yourself. After a day of doing 'unproductive' things, I decided to go home and sleep, before having to go to work at 6:00 PM. What I totally forgot about that day was that there was as Christmas party at work. While I was there, there was turkey, and my absolute favourite: stuffing! Sadly though, there were no cold drinks. And as boring as that day was, I came home to learn something incredibly kick-ass! Martin Sargent, one of my favourite former television personalities, finally got engaged! If you don't remember who Mr. Sargent is, you should be slapped. But, for those of you who don't, Mr. Sargent was originally featured on ZDTV, which later became TechTV. He eventually became popular through The Screen Savers. Eventually, he got his own television show, which was called Unscrewed with Martin Sargent. The show originally made its debut on TechTV, before it was merged with G4 to create G4techTV. Unfortunately, in November of 2004, the show was ultimately cancelled (possibly by Charles Hirschhorn). Exactly one year after the cancellation of his television show, he started a podcast in conjunction with Revision3, titled Infected by Martin Sargent, which had the most kick-ass commercials, ever! Sadly, that show was eventually cancelled. Fortunately, that show was 'continued' as Internet Superstar, which eventually got cancelled. Anyway, I would like to congratulate Mr. Sargent, as he will be marrying Molly McDonald. And three years ago, Mr. Sargent said that once I got into the girls and the cars, I would forget about him.
The 28th would be more of an interesting day (except for the part where I had to help take a couch home from Leon's (that fact that the store is near my workplace isn't exactly comforting). Of course, my evil cousins Ky and Tho were over at my house, stinking up the joint. Later that day, after returning a truck to my uncle's home in Stonebridge, I ultimately decided to go home. During the drive home, on the Idylwyld Freeway, just after getting off of Circle Drive, I started to see a black truck, with a driver that was starting to speed up in an attempt to look cool because they think that driving as fast as possible is going to get them to their destination faster. The "speed limit enforced by aircraft" signs do nothing to slow down speeding, which is good and bad in both ways. However, I am still wondering how much it will cost to operate the aircraft over Saskatoon's roadways, and how many tickets will be written. Ultimately, the City of Saskatoon should install photo/video radars, even if it is an apparent "cash grab." To screw with the driver of that truck, I adjusted my speed accordingly. When I noticed that the driver was going to attempt to cut me off, I sped up until I was driving next to the driver in the other lane. Once there, I slowed down to the normal speed limit of 90 kilometres per hour. Eventually, I continued to travel at the speed limit, but the other driver slowed down for some reason. This was an opportunity for the other truck driver to speed up, drive beside me, and eventually cut me off. Eventually, at this point, I believed that my fun was over. It was not. Immediately after thinking that, a semi-truck entered the freeway from Adelaide Street. Almost hitting the semi directly, the truck eventually changed lanes really quickly, almost sliding off the freeway. At this point, I saw the anger on the driver's face through my rear-view mirror, and I decided to get out of his way, as he would probably get out of the vehicle to kick my ass at some point. After a day of spending time with my two evil cousins, it would ultimately be time to go to work. As unhappy as that made me, I was still slightly-motivated, as it would be the last shift before my three-week 'vacation' from work, as I do not return to work until December 25, 2009. Before the end of that shift, I got a call from a Marriott hotel in California from a woman who said she was the front desk manager. She then said that she had a guest at the front desk who wanted to speak to a reservations agent, but only if the reservations agent were a woman. Therefore, she had to disconnect. Before she did, she concluded the call by saying, "Yeah, I know that's odd. Sorry." Eventually, the shift came to an end, and I said "good day" to a few people at work. Sadly, that seemingly-mean-spirited guy Aaron Arnault wasn't at work. Maybe it was because I told him that I took a three-week 'vacation' to spite him. But, eventually, the shift came to an end, and I was ultimately happy. The really cool thing was that I was able to sign up for "advanced downtime," thus making my shift only a total of 3.75 hours. Yeah, I was pretty damn lazy. So, not only was it my last shift before Christmas, it was also a short shift.
Last Sunday was an 'interesting' day. A good portion of the day was spent going to people's (about five) homes with the same computer problem, and I thought it was ridiculous. But during the day, I also made a stop at one of my favourite stores: the Real Canadian Superstore located at 2901 8th Street East. While I was there, I dropped by the President's Choice Financial pavilion to get myself a new bank card with a chip. Sure, it may be cool, but when I insert my card into a CIBC bank machine, I receive a message that says "Verifying your card" for a few seconds, before it changes over to a message that says "Welcome to President's Choice Financial." At some point during the day, I was finally able to watch America's Most Wanted on Hulu. And yes, I live in Canada and am able to access Hulu. If you are interested, you can email me for more information. And of course, that day was a very important day for Saskatchewan Roughriders fans across the country, as it was the day of the Grey Cup, which was being hosted in Calgary. The Grey Cup was a plus for Calgary as well, as it brought in a lot of money for the local economy. And, it was pretty cool to see Roughriders fans swarming the streets of Calgary. But, what I wonder about is... the watermelons. A lot of Roughriders fans like to turn watermelons into 'hats,' and a lot of grocery stores ordered more watermelons while alcohol establishments ordered more Pilsner. So, what I wonder is... with a lot of exciting things to do, did the fans actually take the time to eat the watermelon before turning it into a hat, or did they just dump the edible parts? It seems like a waste to me, if you ask me. Besides, with those thousands of extra watermelons, it made me think about reviving the old idea of dropping watermelons from the top of a building. However, I don't think I'll do that again, as it does require a considerable amount of work that I don't really want to do. In the end, however, the Saskatchewan Roughriders, and our team became the laughing stock of the Grey Cup. To see the penalty that pretty much cost Saskatchewan the game, again, click here. If you are a Roughriders fan, you probably won't want to see that. But, as someone who doesn't care much about football, I laugh every time I see that! And, seeing that guy remove his hat and throwing it in anger makes me smile. But on the bright side, there were new episodes of favourite FOX shows. Sadly, the episode of The Simpsons was disappointing. The Cleveland Show, however, was interesting. Family Guy was hilarious though! But, sadly, American Dad, sucked, as usual, and I believe FOX should just cancel that show completely.
Monday was another odd day. I started the day believing that I had made it through the month of November without incurring extra charges for text messages to cell phone users outside of my phone numbers on MY5. At the present time, I have 500 text messages included as part of a value plan. As of Monday, I was two messages over that included limit. November 30 was also an important day for me because it was the day a senator was forced to resign. In this case, Marcel Prud'homme was required to retire, as Prud'homme turned 75. Later that day, I tried an excellent product for the first time, and I have decided that I will indeed try the other flavours. The product in question was the PC Mocktail Margarita (Lime Margarita). Later in the day, I was also bored and saw that Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide was on. That show, although ridiculous, is hilarious, and I wished my life in junior high school was like that, instead of this. In fact, I went to that school with jerks like Anthony Khow (who called a lot of people morons), Jesse Finnman and Thomas Martin. And, I guess you can't forget that other time I met David Couchman (who calls too often), or Chelsea Colborne. Yeah, they were all...evil, and some of them still are. But anyway, thanks to that boredom, I now watch the show almost on a daily basis. And according to Miss Colborne, I am a pain in the ass. Sadly, she isn't the only person, as Chelsea Breher believes I am just a 'pain.' That would eventually end the day. However, something else would happen. Earlier in the evening, I went to Walmart at the Confederation Mall, and somehow, I forgot my MasterCard at the store. I was in a hurry to get home, and the clerk somehow "forgot" about my card and placed it in the till. According to the issuer, no activity was recorded at all. I eventually got the card back on Tuesday.
Tuesday was an ultimately-important day, as I removed a bunch of people who don't like to text from my list of ten phone numbers that I can talk/text with without incurring extra charges. I eventually replaced those ten numbers with ten "new" numbers, which ultimately resulted in two people being replaced. Sure, I could have just said that I replaced two numbers... but where is the fun in that?! But, on my way to school, I witnessed something totally screwed up while I was riding in a Saskatoon Transit bus. From the downtown bus terminal, I boarded a bus that being used as route 70 (Silverspring), which heads to the University of Saskatchewan on the way via 23rd Street, Spadina Crescent and then ultimately, College Drive. As the bus headed east on College Drive and approached a bunch of empty lots near Munroe Avenue, there was a pedestrian travelling by foot, on the roadway. The transit operator, who may have been thinking that it would be funny to honk the horn, decided to do so. As the transit operator kept honking his horn, the pedestrian kept running or walking slowly. That lasted for a good ten seconds. And when it came to making a left turn at the "intersection" at Bottomley Avenue, the driver almost hit twelve pedestrians. Tuesday was also the first day of December, and I've got to say that November went by a lot quicker than I had expected. However, it seemed pretty nice, as there was no snow, yet. Later in the day, the snow would eventually start to fall, and by midnight, there was a thin layer of snow on the streets of Saskatoon. Sadly, it is too cold for the snow to melt. So, it looks winter is officially here, and that makes me unhappy, as I was really hoping that it would be a green Christmas in Saskatoon! Eventually, I played around with Ubuntu 9.10 some more, before calling it a night. Eventually, I "hit the hay," whatever the hell that means. And, it is important to note that I had a strange craving that required me to drive to Burger King to order some food. What did I order? Well, I ordered myself two WHOPPER sandwiches, as well as a poutine. Well, that meal may have been great, but I had some stomach cramps later that day.
Wednesday was a long day. However, it was also an exciting day, as Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Edmonton and other exciting Canadian cities were finally available for viewing through the Street View feature on Google Maps. My first order of business was to scope out the Real Canadian Superstore located at 2901 8th Street East here in Saskatoon, even though I shop there on a regular basis. Later in the day, I eventually scoped out of all the Real Canadian Superstore locations in Winnipeg. Eventually, it would be time for my dreaded weekly three-hour History 259 class. But, this day would be different, as it would be my History 259 class, ever! It would also be the first time I ever bought something from the Arts Buffeteria on campus. That day effectively came to an end when I decided to "hit the hay."
Thursday was a pretty boring day, as it was just another typical day of school. However, it was only different from other days, because it would be the last day for Tuesday and Thursday classes, meaning that sociology would be over after Thursday. In the mail though, I did receive a 2010 Sustaining Donor card from the Conservative Party of Canada, as well as a solicitation for a financial contribution. Later in the day, I would miss a staff meeting at 1:00 PM. However, at 2:30 PM, I received an interesting phone call from an immediate supervisor at work, informing me that I would lose my job effective March 26, 2010, as the workplace has decided to shut down the physical call centre. Jobs will be offered to those who are willing to work at home, or the company will help its employees find new jobs. This means that I must find a new job by that time, or I can work at home. So far, I have not made my decision yet, based on a lack of information. But, I must say that this does suck. And despite this misfortune, my own cousin Tho laughed at me. Of course, I wouldn't have it any other way, as he is an evil little man. What? You don't believe me? Take a look at his face. Sure, he may look 'cute' and possibly innocent, but behind that face, there is an evil force. I have always enjoyed it when he makes funny faces, such as this one, when his brothers were tickling him. Eventually, I came home, without my usual Iced Coffee with Milk from the Starbucks Coffee joint on campus. Desperate, I made some of their instant coffee and chilled it. I then added milk. Although it was good, it just wasn't the same. As for the news of the potential lay-off, I am still crushed today, as it jeopardizes my planned trip to Ottawa and Montreal as well. But, that will be a matter that I will deal with in early 2010. The rest of Thursday evening would eventually become a blur, as I worked on this blog update, and other things regarding the website.
Friday was an interesting day, as it was the last day of classes for most students at the University of Saskatchewan. However, it was also significant to me because I usually work on Fridays, and on this day, I did not. And of course, my cousins Tho and the evil Tony did not have to go to school. Eventually, I went home, and tried to relax, by taking a nap. Eventually, deciding that I could not sleep, I woke up and called Tho to bug him about laughing at me. Eventually, that jerk convinced me to come to his house and hang out with him because he was bored. I eventually agreed. But, earlier in the day, I tested my "Hulu solution" on Andrew Pang's MacBook Pro, and it worked! Assuring myself that it worked, I called up Cailin Fisher and arranged to meet him at his house. That guy's house was pretty cool! Eventually, I had to leave, because my cousin Tho, who thought he was the boss of me. He essentially annoyed me enough to get me to leave. Eventually, I spent the evening in the comfort of my own home, with my cousins stinking up the joint. Yeah, they wanted to come over because their new house didn't have a television set. On another note, I mailed a Christmas card to one of my friends, who are spending at least a year in Australia, even though she was coming back to Saskatoon for Christmas as of Friday evening. After spending months away from Canada, she now thinks Canadians speak funny. The evening essentially came to an end when I drove those two evil jerks home. Mr. Fisher has suggested that we do lunch again, and I would totally like that. Friday was an interesting day. And before the end of the night, I saw the movie Funny People.
Sure, Friday was fun, but yesterday was just beyond weird, and the word "interesting" would be like sugar-coating hell. It started unusually. I left the house in the morning and did a little grocery shopping at Sobeys, as they were selling select items at $1.00. To check out the deals at your local Sobeys location, click here. By the way, the store is now open from 6:00 am until midnight on a daily basis for the holidays. Eventually, I headed on over to the Real Canadian Superstore located at 2901 8th Street East to buy a few select items. But, before I left, I was heartbroken to see... this, as it was my favourite set of automatic sliding doors out of all the automatic sliding doors in the store. Well, my favourite set of doors in the store used to be located in the basement, until they were removed in 2003 to accommodate the installation of an elevator. Since the elevator required more space, that meant that my favourite automatic sliding doors had to go. I remember how heartbroken I was when I first saw the removal of those doors. For weeks, I assumed that the doors would be re-installed at some point. But, when I took a closer look and realized that the mechanisms and the electronic components of the doors were also removed back in 2003, I had come to realize that my favourite set of doors would never return. Eventually, the other set of automatic sliding doors were re-installed, but it just wasn't the same. And to this day, I still think about those lost doors every time I park in the basement when I shop at the Real Canadian Superstore located at 2901 8th Street East. I also felt the same way when they removed the automatic sliding doors at the Real Canadian Superstore located at 411 Confederation Drive early in 2003 to accommodate the construction of an addition along the front of their store. In fact, they were in the process of removing the doors when I was there. It was heartbreaking. Now, the only reason I care so much about these automatic sliding doors is because they were Gyro Tech doors being removed. I also care about Stanley doors as well, but only to a certain extent. But, it was in part, location and Gyro Tech doors that made me suddenly love the Real Canadian Superstore in 2001, when I decided that it was true that I did in fact, love the chain of stores. Now, had it been any other brand of automatic doors, such as Horton Automatics, I would have praised the removal and/or replacement of the automatic sliding doors. But, since it was Gyro Tech, I was heartbroken. And yes, I know that I am a weird person for making such a long speech about how much I love certain automatic doors. Continuing on with Saturday, I eventually left the store and went to Market Mall. Bored, I left and went to my cousins' house in Stonebridge. This is where the day would start to become "interesting." It started off with my uncle, who wanted me to help him bring a saw that is located in my garage over to his house. In the end, I didn't have to do that, which was a sigh of relief. The cool thing was that he gave me money for lunch, as well as money to distribute among Ky and Tho. Ky would eventually go to the movies with a couple of girls. Yeah, he is in grade 9. Something like that didn't even happen for me until grade 12 (and it kind of just happened, it was not planned). Today, however, for me, one of those girls refuses to talk to me now, and looks the other way when she sees me. As for the other girl, I spent about a year ignoring her until she apologized for an insensitive comment she had made. When I had talked to her about it, she just made fun of me and denied any involvement. That was a shame, as we had a close friendship, I guess. We recently started talking about a month ago. Eventually, she apologized about a month ago, and I started talking to her about a month ago. Recently, I called her and talked for a bit, but it was clear that she didn't really care all that much... and I'm totally fine with that. I made an effort to revive the friendship, and if it was useless, so be it. Anyway, I agreed to pick up these two girls at one of their houses and then I dropped off Ky and his friends as The Centre Mall, after having a pretty crappy lunch at Burger King. Obviously, I should have stuck to my usual WHOPPER. Anyway, once those kids were gone, this left me with one evil boy, named Tho, who would eventually go to a birthday party. Usually, my uncle would perform all of this driving if my cousins were to go elsewhere, but it didn't work out, as he was working at the Sundog Handcraft Faire at Credit Union Centre. Anyway, Tho eventually came to my house and stunk it up for hours, while using my computer to play Combat Arms. At home, I watched a movie, even though I saw the movie back in August at Rainbow Cinemas with Jennifer Rospad and Taylor "Juan Pedro" Martens before he moved to Burnaby, British Columbia. That movie was Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Yeah, that movie was pretty enjoyable. Eventually, I convinced the evil little jerk (Tho) to get out of my house. So, I took him to the Midtown Plaza (and he convinced me to buy him a $30.00 Nexon game card at the Shoppers Drug Mart store). While I was there, I saw Cailin Fisher and his buddy Andrew. Before I had said "good day" to him, Mr. Fisher stated that he had to finish his Christmas shopping, as the mall was busy. Immediately after saying "good day" to him, Mr. Fisher and his friend Andrew walked directly into La Senza. This is still questionable, as of today. Eventually, I left the mall and paid $0.75 for parking. As I got outside, I used the 23rd Street exit to leave the Midtown Plaza parking lot. As I exited, I saw a ticket stuck to the machine with a stamp that said "NOT VALID AT CASHIER." Bored, I took the ticket and inserted into the machine. The result: the machine recognized the ticket as a "valid exit card" and allowed me to exit, thus making my $0.75 payment useless. Sadly, there was no way I could have found out earlier. After that, I took the jerk back to his house for a brief period of time (we could not get in because there was no key... I assumed that his dad left the garage door unlocked), before heading to the Real Canadian Superstore located at 2901 8th Street East. At the intersection of Arlington Avenue and 8th Street East, I said I wondered how this traffic signal post got bent over. He suggested that it was because I leaned on it, and followed that evil remark by an evil smile. Therefore, he was making fun of my weight. Once I was in the store, I walked around, and eventually purchased batteries. The batteries I purchased came with a coupon for a free box of Mini Wheats. I eventually left the store and filled up the gasoline tank in my vehicle with gasoline at the Petro-Canada on 8th Street East at Cumberland Avenue South at $0.949 per litre. I filled up and it cost me $42.00. After that, I had to drive the jerk to his friend's house, and then I went home. Eventually, Ky called me and I had no choice but to pick him up, because the genius had no key to his own house. So, I had no choice but to take him with me wherever I went. Bored, I went to Sundog Handcraft Faire and snuck through the back door to the Vietnamese Catholic church's venue. Eventually, my uncle informed me that the key to his house was under the welcome mat. Damn it! So, I drove all the way from The Centre Mall to Credit Union Centre for no apparent reason. Eventually, he asked me to pick up Tho from his friend's birthday party at the Harry Bailey Aquatic Centre. Eventually, I dropped off the two jerks at their home, and I headed home at 9:40 PM, tired. On the way home, Ky asked me if I could pick him up today at school at 3:30 pm at his school (via text message). I refused. Eventually, when I got home, I called it a night and ended the night by watching COPS and America's Most Wanted. Yeah, Saturday was one hell of an 'interesting' day, and I'm glad that it is over! Now, what I almost forgot to mention was that I did briefly hang out at Reverend Nathan Dutnall's house last night. While I was there, he pointed out an interesting glitch on Google Street View, and how you could just travel through a brick wall like Superman. To see the glitch, click here. That's pretty funny, isn't it?
As for today, I woke up, brushed my teeth, ate lunch and eventually showered, despite Tho's claims that I do not do so. Eventually, I did a little studying for my political studies final exam on Wednesday, December 9, 2009. After hours of studying and getting almost nowhere, I decided to take a break to finish up this blog update once and for all. So, here I am now, typing up this blog update. Anyway, you are now up to date when it comes to my boring life. However, before I conclude this blog update, there are a few things I would like to talk about, again.
The first thing I would like to talk about is the smear campaigns that people are waging against each other. The "smear campaign" I am referring to is the "Local TV Matters" campaign being waged right now by Canada's broadcasters, and the counter-campaign from cable operators such as Shaw Communications Corporation. For me, the thought of paying extra for local television will vary based on where I live. I now live in Saskatoon, and there are of course, three major television stations: the CBC, CTV and Global. Global Saskatoon, for all intents and purposes, sucks. Their news coverage sucks, and their reporters are... boring. As for CTV, I don't watch it enough. And for the CBC, I could never find myself watching that channel again. They have removed The Simpsons. Well, I probably could watch that channel again, but Rick Mercer Report isn't always funny, and therefore, watching the actual CBC channel on television isn't worth it. But, the show that ultimately made me watch the CBC was Royal Canadian Air Farce. Without that show, the CBC just sucks. Now, when I watched local Global TV channels from other cities in Canada, their local coverage was pretty good, and their newscasters weren't annoying. So, if I lived in Saskatoon, and you were to ask me to support local television, I would say "Hell no!" But, if I lived in another city, where there is decent local television, I may have a mixed opinion and you would easily be able to influence me. Now, just because I don't like the local television in Saskatoon, it doesn't mean I hate Saskatoon. In fact, I love Saskatoon, and maybe I'd watch Global Saskatoon too if the newscasters weren't so annoying, or if they were better-looking! If Global Saskatoon hired better-looking people, maybe I would tune in more often... and perhaps a format change for the local news would be a good idea.
In other news, Oprah Winfrey is ending her show in 2011. Yeah... that's a shame. I kind of liked her show, occasionally. But, if you were to ask me to watch an entire episode of her show during my free time, it would never happen. However, despite that, I must say that she is a highly-influential woman (perhaps too influential).
Another interesting development is that there were reports that Britney Spears was going to get married. Sadly, that was followed by a rejection. Had she not been rejected, this would have been her third wedding in less than five years.
Up next (this is pretty funny), I've always thought of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as somewhat of a celebrity. He is funny. He also likes to hug people and is mired in scandal. In fact, his wife is so fed up with him that she publicly announced that she wanted a divorce. Unfortunately, she now wants more than 3.5 million Euros a month. Well, that's a shame...
And last week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited China, and was scolded for taking his sweet time before visiting the country. The funny thing was that Mr. Harper decided to unveil the Government of Canada's fourth report on Canada's Economic Action Plan in China. Although odd, it does show Canadians that Mr. Harper does indeed love Canada and cares about Canadians, even though he is busy abroad in China on a business trip! During his trip to China, despite the upset Chinese president and premier, Mr. Harper did achieve two wonderful business ventures. The first one is that Canada finally received "approved destination status" from China, which the Government of Canada has been trying to accomplish for about ten years. Why didn't the Liberals accomplish this goal ten years ago? All it took for the Conservative Party of Canada was one visit to China. The second thing that Mr. Harper achieved was that he got China to lift the ban on Canadian beef, which came into effect after the mad cow disease issue in 2003.
Roman Polanski, who raped a 13-year-old girl back in the '70s, was released from prison last week and transferred to house arrest, but only as long as he wears an electronic monitoring device. If he removes it, or leaves his house, he will be wanted and will eventually return to prison. When he was arrested, many people 'demanded' his release and they also 'demanded' that the charges against him be dropped. Mr. Polanski fled the United States prior to sentencing. Now, I have one question, are these people out of their freaking minds?! He raped a girl when she was 13, and he should be released?! Why? That was a serious crime and I hope the United States will finally get their hands on him, soon, as I believe he deserves to be sentenced to prison for a long time. Sadly, there are rumours that he will only be sentenced to be in prison for a couple of years or some absurd amount of time like that. That leads me to a case that has been bugging me for a while...
Recently, a Saskatoon man admitted to raping his own daughter throughout her childhood. Yet, he's not going to have to spend any time behind bars for it. The 57-year-old, who was unnamed, for obvious reasons, was actually convicted for sexually molesting someone else at the Lakewood Civic Centre about 20 years ago and was allowed to serve his sentence on weekends, whatever the hell that means. Last week, Justice Dan Konkin rejected a Crown recommendation to ban the man from public places where children hang out while he serves a one-year conditional term in the community for the crime against his daughter. Now I'm starting to wonder, what the hell is wrong with this judge? And which crack-head appointed him to become a judge?! I could never imagine doing something like that to a young child. But, in the past, I have thought about being a father, and how difficult it will be, should anyone actually decide to have kids with me. I thought about it, and I also thought about child rapists or molesters (whichever term you prefer)... and my cousin Tony. So, if you were to use my cousin Tony as an example, I actually love him. Although he is evil and sometimes annoying, he is still cute. And despite his annoyances and the fact that I think he is evil, I can never imagine anything bad happening to him. And if someone was to harm him physically, and I was to find out about it, I would totally want to kick someone's ass (even though I most likely wouldn't, but as humans, we don't know what we are capable of). If not, I would still want that person to be in prison for as long as possible. Doesn't Judge Konkin have this type of view? Doesn't he have kids? What if someone raped his daughter? Wouldn't he want them to be in prison for a long time too? What about the victim? The victim would have to go through life being traumatized from the situation, both emotionally and physically. I find Konkin's decision very selfish, disgusting, upsetting, and disappointing, and I hope that the Crown appeals his decision (and wins that appeal) very soon! At this point, I have lost confidence in Canada's justice system, even though there are now tougher laws being proposed with legislation already being introduced, including legislation that requires Internet service providers to report child pornography to the proper authorities if they have any information regarding it. So far, that is a step towards the correct direction, and I love the fact that the Conservative government is doing something about it. In fact, I love the Conservative government and I hope they stay in power for many years to come! When I do have the time, however, I will be writing letters to politicians regarding this case. Some of the people included will be the Honourable Rob Nicholson, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, NDP Leader Jack Layton, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, and Don Morgan, the Minister of Justice, Attorney General and Minister Responsible for SaskTel here in Saskatchewan. As you can see, I am taking this situation seriously.
And by the way, Noelle is not going to be happy, as this blog update ended up being a hell of a lot longer than expected!
Anyway, you can expect another blog update (at least one more) before the end of the year! And, as for 2009, it has been an interesting year so far!
But, before I leave, I have one last thing to say to you all: I can't wait until tax-filing season in 2010! For this tax year (2009), I have a lot more things to claim than when compared to 2008.
As for tonight, however, there are no new episodes of my favourite FOX shows. But on the plus side, there will be a new episode of Two and a Half Men on television tomorrow night!
On a final note, for those of you who take Saskatoon Transit, please be aware that routes 5 and 60 in Briarwood have changed.
However, before I actually conclude this blog update, I must mention two important events that occurred on December 6. The first significant event was on December 6, 1989, at École Polytechnique de Montréal, when fourteen women lost their lives in a stupid act of violence that changed Canada forever. Unfortunately, violence against women still occurs to this day. In memory, please take a moment to remember the women lost to such a stupid act of violence. And, again, this reminds me of the ceremony held on Parliament Hill in honour of the women. Unfortunately, the opposition parties decided to boycott the ceremony. That decision was very disrespectful on their part, and as a result, I only have one thing to say: shame on them.
The second significant event that occurred on December 6 was in 1917, which was named the Halifax Explosion. Before darkness fell on that night, more than 1,000 people died, with another thousand to follow in what would become the world's worst man-made disaster at the time. And whether you want to believe it or not, that was 92 years ago.
Well, that is all for now, my foreign friends. I'd like to thank you for taking the time to actually read this far. Events that are coming up soon include final exams for me, which begin on Wednesday, with my last final exam being on December 17, 2009. Christmas will be upon us this month, as well as Boxing Day (when my workplace will be closed) and New Year's Eve. And after this month, the year will come to an end. At this point, in case I don't update again, I'd like to wish you a Happy Festivus and a Happy New Year, as I don't like to celebrate Christmas as much as others do. And if you're planning on shopping this year on the 26th, happy shopping! Meanwhile, there are numerous things to look forward to in 2010, including the Olympics. But speaking of the Olympics, the Olympic torch is scheduled to make a stop in Saskatoon on January 11, 2010, which is not really far away, and I am excited! Anyway, to those of you who are writing post-secondary final exams this month, good luck to you all! And remember, DON'T GET RIPPED BY THE RIPTIDE!
