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  • Got some spare change? There’s a tax for that!

    written by

    james

    This is clearly the year of the overtaxed Canadian, nevermind what the Chinese say it is. And as always, it starts from the top down.

    first off, Canada’s New Democratic Party (NDP) wants to tax any and all new MP3 player purchases. Or purchases of iPods, possibly external hard drives and laptops. Because, you know, everyone who buys one’s a bloody criminal. You’ll note the MP who’s pushing the bill in question calls it a levy. Which, really, is just another way of saying pirate tax. We already have one on blank CD’s and casette tapes, just in case we’d dare buy one and use it for all those songs we legally bought off iTunes. And people wonder why I’m of the opinion free shit’s good shit.

    Relatedly in the WTF column, everyone’s favourite Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has decided to allow broadcasters and cable/satelite providers to negotiate a fee for carriage. Which, escentially, means cable and satelite subscribers will be paying for the local TV stations we’d be watching anyway. Because, you know, Rogers and company won’t be letting it cut into their profits if they can help it. I don’t know that I’d call it a straight out and out tax, like some of the advertisements I’ve seen about it proclaim, but it’s definitely at the very least an unneeded user fee. And, well, very naive to think any price the two sides agree on won’t be transfered to the consumer. Tax or not, though, it’s not doing a thing to change my mind about watching most of my television for free. But then, maybe that isn’t the point. Oh well.

    Not to take the spotlight entirely away from our friends over there in Ottawa, though, but over in the other direction–in Toronto–we have even more reason to scratch our heads and give serious thought to going just a little tiny bit insane. Ontario’s liberals, not exactly known for being easy on our already taxed–literally–wallets, are up to their usual tricks again. This time, in the name of conservation and green energy programs, they’re instituting a tax on electric bills to the collective tune of $53000000. No, my finger didn’t get stuck on the 0. That’s how much they’re thinking will be pulled in by this new hydro tax. The reason for it?

    Ontario electricity customers will soon be slapped with an additional tax to cover $53 million of the Liberal government’s new conservation and green energy programs, the Star has learned.

    So, it was Dalton McGuinty’s idea to go all energy conservation on us in the middle of a recession, and now residents of Ontario get the bill. Meanwhile we’re still watching the course of the HST torpedo, which is scheduled to hit both Ontario and BC in July and do I have no idea what to the usual household budget. On top of the fact that someone living on a disability pension budget because multiple dozen attempts to get employed somewhere doesn’t make close to minimum wage–there’s a rant in there for another entry later. And people wonder why I’m not a very big supporter of the natural governing party at the moment.

    I get that Ontario’s in a little tiny bit of deep crap financially–I have no idea what the NDP’s motives are federally, beyond their favourite word is “tax” (sorry, “levy”). But this just stinks of wicked cheap. Yes, our government’s in the poor house. So are the voters. This one in particular would love a break. Say, like an equal playing field financially. How ’bout it, Dalton? No, didn’t think so. Thanks for trying, though.

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  • Maple Leafs 2, Thrashers 1.

    written by

    james

    It wasn’t much of a high-scoring affair. And, in fact, if Atlanta was actually up to its usual level of halfway decent play, we’d of probably been sunk. As it is the difference between the narrow margin and how the game should have gone, given Atlanta’s state during Thursday’s game, was their goaltender. Otherwise, overtime would have been something they wished for. No matter, though. One of us still has a shot at the playoffs. And it won’t be Toronto. I’m gonna go cry now.

    Last time

    We managed to lose the last game against them in January, albeit barely. And even then, it probably should have been a whole lot different. But, as they say, that’s how the cooky crumbles in Toronto. There’s always 2010-2011. Maybe. Say, Boston, can we steal another player?

  • Panthers 4, Maple Leafs 1.

    written by

    james

    Well, we tried to stay semi-awake. Tried, that is, for all of about 5 minutes. At least it wasn’t a shutout, I guess? Yeah, we’ll go with that. Our shutout-less streak has been extended. Hey, when your team’s hanging out in last place, you find your highlights where you can.

    Last time

    We didn’t do any better last time, either. In fact, we didn’t do anything last time. We were shut out in January, 2 nothing. And back then, I still felt like there might be the smallest of chances. Yeah, definitely holding on to our shutout-less streak.

  • Yes, but does it have a place to put my eyebrows?

    written by

    james

    Why I should not be awake at this hour: I end up getting sideswiped by amusing things posted to Youtube. Like this from “Who’s Line Is It Anyway”, the UK edition, that was tossed at me on a chat server. By the way, Lea, I still can’t breathe. Here, have a video.

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  • Best. Week. Ever.

    written by

    james

    Some of you already know Jessica was up here for the week, having escaped back to Rochester this past Sunday. Mostly, we had her up here because we could, but a small part of it had to do with the fact it was the week of St. Patrick’s day. Naturally nothing overly spectacular was planned, but there was still fun to be had.

    Saturday and Sunday were pretty much written off, on account of she just got here Saturday and well, needed all the rest she could get. Monday meant time well wasted with the family–we killed part of the afternoon over at mom’s, which has become pretty much routine for me anyway. We got to spend some quality time with my nephew at the same time, which is never a bad thing. I still need to post pictures up here–somebody needs to prevent me from forgetting. Or I need to stop being lazy, whichever. Tuesday was more of the same, except minus the nephew and plus a much needed trip to what passes for a grocery store in Petawawa.

    Wednesday was when the party really got started. We got together for food and booze with mom, my aunt and uncle. A few beers and a couple vodka and cokes later, and we weren’t quite feeling it. So we came back to the apartment afterwards and picked up where we left off. There was music, the occasional slow dancing, we decided to pick right around that point to start fiddling with Gold Wave–because learning to edit audio is the thing to do when you’re buzzed. And, of course, there was interesting/amusing/entertaining conversation to be had. Although, it’s very likely it was only really interesting/amusing/entertaining to us, but oh well. We threw on Minority Report (2002), seeing as I hadn’t seen it and she liked the general description of the movie. And I’m considering seeing it again just because it’s on the computer now.

    Thursday was our recovery day. We slept in fairly late, got up, and took it easy all day. Neither of us were hung over, but we weren’t about to pick up where we left off the night before either. We’d save that for Friday. And, naturally, we did just that. On Friday we cracked open what was left of the vodka, finished most of it, and I introduced her to 50 First Dates (2004). Because really, no Adam Sandler fan can make a claim of being just that without having seen that movie.

    Saturday we took her into town so I could show her one of my favourite things about living where there isn’t really a whole lot of anything–the local pizza place, who’s quality I’ve not been able to match anywhere else. She took the opportunity to pick herself up a book as well–not knowing it was abridged, which still cost her damn near $40. I’ll be making an attempt to exchange that particular novel tonight hopefully. Then, because I kept saying I would, I took her to the local Mexican restaurant, the Santa Fe. As usual, I skipped dessert. Needless to say, the only thing we were considering doing when we got back was flaking out, relaxing, thinking about packing her up to leave on Sunday, then going to sleep. So we did.

    Sunday was departure day. We got her packed and ready to go by 10, more or less. And we were gone by 11. Her bus didn’t pull away until 2:30, but we had no idea what to expect trafic-wise, and Ottawa has a nasty little habbit of always being worse than we plan for. Not an issue if I’m living in Ottawa. A huge issue if I’m just visiting temporarily. We did manage to get to the station just fine, though, and she got off with no problem whatsoever–at least until she got to Toronto, but that’s a whole other rant for another time and probably on her blog. I went to mom’s for supper, then back here to keep an ear to the ground and make sure she got to Rochester in one piece. She did, and after that point, it became pretty much back to business as usual for both of us. But, we did manage to learn something halfway interesting–again, probably only to us–in the process. The next time we do this, we really aught to not make it another 3 months from now. A week is just too little time to catch up.

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  • The trekky in me just squeed. A lot.

    written by

    james

    I’ve been a Star Trek fan since I was, like, tiny. Not entirely sure exactly how old, but I do remember coming home from school, watching the usual cartoons, then changing the channel to CHRO–this was obviously way way back before things like A Channel and the like–to watch TNG. I caught my fair share of flack for it–“Star Trek? Again? You’re not grown out of that yet?”–but I didn’t really care. Hell, I still don’t. Which is why I have an external hard drive with everything from TNG to Enterprize sitting on it. Well, okay, that, plus I have an interest in commercial free TV.

    Still, with all my interest in Star Trek, it never occured to me to do anything beyond watch the shows, play a video game or two, and later–meaning in present day–take up roleplaying in the genre. So I didn’t do the trivia thing until recently.

    Now, though, I’ve decided I might as well go about the doing of that. And, in just an hour of doing so, I discover Vulcan does actually exist. No, not the planet, per say. But rather a town in Alberta that was originally founded in 1910, 50 or so years before the concept of Star Trek was even a theory on a piece of scrap paper. And it’s now Canada’s Star Trek capital.

    Holidaymakers are being urged to ‘boldy go’ where they’ve never gone before with a visit to the Star Trek Capital of Canada.

    The town of Vulcan in Alberta was granted the official title earlier this month and is now being billed as a ‘logical year-round destination for science-fiction enthusiasts and Star Trek fans from across the galaxy’.

    The trekky in me is having a very small heart attack. Excuse me for just a minute. Okay, that’s much better. Now, to go see if I can’t bribe someone into taking a vacation.

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  • Maple Leafs 3, Canadians 2.

    written by

    james

    I had to read the score twice to make sure. And a third to make double sure I wasn’t losing my mind. We actually managed to pull off a win. In the shootout. Against a team that tries very hard not to suck. We still don’t have a chance in hell at a postseason, but I think I’m starting to find a little tiny bit of that excitement again.

    Last time

    We played them back in December, when I’d originally thought we might still have a chance at playing at least into the first round of the playoffs. We lost. By the same score, though–that has to count for something, right? Work with me, here. If I’d known then what I know now, that loss might have felt a little differently. No, no it wouldn’t. It was against Montreal. Nevermind.

  • Maple Leafs 2, Devils 1.

    written by

    james

    It took overtime to barely squeak out a win against the Devils on Thursday. And it was only kind of meh at that–though, likely, that’s more to do with the team. Kessel does that scoring thing again, and we’re actually winning more than we’re losing for a change. Okay, I can be surprised at that.

    Last Time

    We weren’t quite so lucky in February, losing by a goal. But then, that’s the way this Leafs team rolls, apparently. On a positive side, however? We’re slightly less likely to lock up dead last in the league. Now if we just had our first two draft picks back.

  • Maple Leafs 4, Senators 1.

    written by

    james

    Okay, so I’ve been kind of unavailable for the last… well, several days. Okay, more like a week. Okay, a week exactly. The why is coming. As for right now, it’s all about the hockey. Because I said so.

    And, right now, it’s all about the Ottawa Senators, and how much excitement should be present during a game in which Toronto beats up on them but good. But, surprise of surprises, there wasn’t any. In fact, and I’m shamed to admit it, I didn’t even watch the game–okay, so part of that was to do with my unavailability. Deal with it. To me, the season’s already done. Even if Kessel managed to score his 26th goal of the year. And even if we made Ottawa’s goaltending look bad–well, okay, worse than it’s been looking. That would have been fun in November. Or next season. But right now? Back to catching up on what I missed being offline for a week.

    Last time

    We managed to pull something off 2 weeks ago, as well. How, I’m not sure, but we did. And, just like now, I got nothin’. Thanks for the two points, boys. Now let’s golf.

  • Making the case for a single timezone.

    written by

    james

    After a recent thread on Twitter–not one, thankfully, I was involved in–I thought it might be fun to air out a theory of mine. specificly that of one timezone. I don’t see why, beyond the method of keeping track of where the sun’s at at any particular moment. It’s noon, which means you look straight up and you’ll pretty well go blind. It’s 9:00 in the middle of July, so if you hurry to your window you’ll be able to see it setting. While all the while someone in England’s watching it come up.

    With businesses going global anyway, and just about everything happening across national and continental borders, it only makes sense to consider the elimination of timezones. Businesses in Canada and the US send their call center jobs to India. Britain sells things to businesses in Mexico. China has arangements to ship things back and forth between several countries–including Canada and the US. And all of those would run much faster, and be a whole lot more eficient, if 9:00 in New York equated to 9:00 in London. Sure, it means some places would be lacking in daylight, but well, we already have that already–see: Alaska.

    If we’re gonna make everything global anyway, the world should at least try to keep itself on the same schedule. If it’s midnight in New York, folks won’t be calling their sister/cousin/friend/whatever in California because they might not be ready to call it a night yet. Conversely, I won’t get a call from the east coast at 5:00 in the morning from a family member who happens to be staring at a clock that says 9:00 AM instead, and thusly not be required to later plan to beat them to a fine paste for the unwelcome wake-up. And life would go on just as usual–except maybe not as brightly in some parts of the world. But folks are already dealing with that–see Alaska, as mentioned above. If they can handle it for as long as they do, so can we stronger folks.

    There’s really no reason I can think of to keep timezones around, except to keep track of when the sun’s up and where. We move to one timezone, and anyone with any reason to keep contact with folks on a global basis is happy. Also, converting 3:00 PST to anything not remotely asociated with my timezone or GMT is a real pain in the ass. Let’s kill that, like, now.

    In short, timezones are evil. If we didn’t have to worry about that, we could concentrate on things that could actually be made much better by removing them. Also: daylight savings? Gone. That can’t hurt anyone. Well, okay, so it maybe wouldn’t hurt me. Then again, it’s my blog–naturally all my ehtories will be me-centric. And sometimes, they even possess an almost normal sense of logic.

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