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  • Maple Leafs 3, Devils 1.

    written by

    james

    For the first time this season, I missed the game not because I slept through it/forgot it was on, but because they saw fit to air it on a channel we don’t get over at the parents’ place. And, because they generally frown on me hiding out in the basement all evening, I didn’t see fit to stick around down there to stream it. Too bad, really, seeing as I hear I missed a good one. Including at least one more powerplay goal from the department of nonexistent powerplay goals. Nifty. Couple more like that and we’ll bt almost back to .500.

    • Wins: 7
    • Losses: 11
    • Shootout Wins: 0
    • Shootout Losses: 2
    • Points: 17

  • Warp 1, engage! No, seriously.

    written by

    james

    This is kinda nifty. Scientists apparently may have just found a way to contain antimatter. For the trekkies among the readership, you already get the references. For everyone else, have this as an explanation.

    “This is science fiction become science fact,” he said in an interview Wednesday.

    Antimatter is one of the mysteries of science.

    Matter is essentially anything that has mass and occupies space — basically everything on Earth.

    It’s believed matter and antimatter are identical, except that they have an opposite charge and antimatter destroys itself almost immediately.

    Now that they can see antimatter, scientists might be able to answer some of the questions about any differences between the two.

    Pavan said the amazing device may give some insight into what happened after the Big Bang created the universe.

    The wicked that adds to the nifty? All the scientists involved are Canadian–from BC and Alberta, to be absolutely precise. I feel kinda special now. See? And they say you never learn anything from TV.

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  • Sorry, the TSA just did what?

    written by

    james

    Okay, I get it. Terrorism’s everywhere and you can never be too safe, yada yada yada. But was this really required, Transport Security Administration?

    There certainly are a lot of TSA search stories these days but it’s an important topic, so we’ll keep covering it as long as there are interesting stories. The latest, found via Slashdot, is of a three year old girl who got a full pat down while screaming at the TSA agents not to touch her. Apparently, she was initially upset at having to send her teddy bear through the machine and she then refused to go through the scanning device herself. Her actions somehow set off the scanner’s alarm, leading to a TSA agent trying to do a forced pat down. The girl’s father is a reporter and caught 17-seconds of the pat down on his mobile phone.

    Um. Why, on God’s green and blue planet, would you put a 3-year-old through this crap? Is the US government that overly paranoid that they’ll traumatize a kid for the sake of national security? I mean, I know politically the place has gone straight to hell in a handbag the last 10 years or so. Really, I do. But I always figured even that broken system had its limits. Apparently, if it does, we haven’t found them yet. Talk about your perfect way to up the anxiety level. If that kid ever willingly boards a plane again, I’ll be freaking amazed. Meantime, I’m really hoping for a lawsuit or something. Just goes to show ya, any good idea can be a very wicked nightmare in the hands of an asshole. Thanks for that, TSA. Now, please, go die.

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  • Taking being pissed off at the media to a whole new level.

    written by

    james

    I’m not exactly world’s biggest Sarah or Bristol Palin fan, but I don’t think I’d consider going quite this far. Upset at the fact Bristol Palin advanced to the finals of “Dancing With The Stars”, a Wisconsin man took matters into his own hands, and promptly put his TV out of his misery. Apparently, Bristol wasn’t exactly a very good dancer–she’s been getting consistently low scores, but because of the popularity of her mother, the public voted her through anyway. Instead of voting for Brandy, who apparently actually *could* dance. Ah, but I keep forgetting. The way things are shaping up politically if it’s got a trace of Sarah anywhere near it, it automatically classifies as godlike. Yeah, that must be it. Suddenly, I’m having a little trouble blaming this guy after all.

  • Clive Doucet doesn’t get the meaning of “Stop emailing me”. Again.

    written by

    james

    In 2009, I had a very short, two email long conversation with Ottawa councillor Clive Doucet during the OC Transpo strike. The exchange quite literally consisted of one email in each direction. And the email coming from his direction pretty much told me and my valid–and not disputed–criticisms of the city’s handling of the strike to escentially screw off. Flash forward a few months. I get an email from Doucet related to his position on 2009’s municipal budget. This one contains no unsubscription option–so it gets a reply from me, telling him to kick me off whatever distribution list my one email to him in January of 09 seems to have landed me on.

    Flash forward another few months. I get two more emails, in the span of two weeks. They both get replied to, with the same request. All goes quiet, so I figure this time, it worked. Flash forward to late in 2009. I’ve moved out of Ottawa by this point. The first of the emails re: actually doing something with Lansdowne Park besides stare at it come across my desk–for the record, the project was brought up in the media in late 2008. Once again, emails get replied to–this time, with the added note that I’m no longer living in Ottawa and would really like to not have to resort to technical methods of blocking these emails. All goes quiet, until municipal election talk starts up. Then, emails start coming to me from Doucet’s election-related mailbox. This one, thank Christ, has an unsubscribe option. I made very quick use of it. Then, I wrote this entry. I didn’t hear anything more from “Clive Doucet for Mayor”, at least.

    Flash forward to today. I was introduced this morning to yet another mailing from Doucet’s city of Ottawa mailbox. And, surprise of surprises, it’s back to discussing the Lansdowne project–which they really can’t be doing much about until the new council takes over in December anyway. Also surprise of surprises, this one doesn’t have an unsubscribe option. Time for yet another reply to a soon to be former councillor.

    Another small note to Clive. I already opted out–multiple times–of both your mailing lists. That’s usually an indication I don’t want to be emailed. Please, for the love of everything good and all that, say no to spam. We still don’t like opt-out mailing lists.

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  • Maple Leafs 5, Predators 4.

    written by

    james

    I’m not exactly sure which hockey game I watched. Seriously. That sure as hell wasn’t the team I was used to seeing. Okay, I’ll admit it. When we were down 3 nothing near the end of the first, particularly after Nashville had scored two ten seconds apart, I kind of got that “we’ve already been there” feeling. Hell, I had that feeling even after we ended the period down 3 1. Then 4 1 in the second. But what the royal fuck happened? Did the old team leave and call in replacements? Since when do we walk away with goals on the power play? Most noteably, 4 unanswered ones? And no third period implosion–even after Giguere left the ice with some kind of groin thing going on? Since when? No, seriously. I wanna know. I also want good things like this to keep happening–but I know better than to ask for such things. But, hey, if it could possibly be that we were that good rather than they sucked that bad, I’ll take it. Hell, it’s a couple points we didn’t have two days ago–I’ll take it anyway. But I’ll keep my dilusions, thanks.

    Related: Why the hell is it every time we play like we might actually want to give not collapsing in on ourselves a try, one of us gets banged up? I swear it’s an NHL conspiracy.

    • Wins: 6
    • Losses: 11
    • Shootout Wins: 0
    • Shootout Losses: 2
    • Points: 15

  • Not just for dudes anymore.

    written by

    james

    Gotta give Kristina Ross a little credit for creativity. She managed to dream up the persona of a plastic surgeon, and then give at least two women in a Boise, Idaho bar a fake breast exam. There was only one very small problem. Well, okay, two. The fake name she borrowed? If there’s such a doctor named Berlyn Aussieahshowna in existence, she didn’t exist in Boise. Then there’s the small matter of the lack of a license on Kristina’s account. Okay, scratch that. Turns out that’s a big problem–one that carries jail time. All that just to play with another chick’s boobs. Clearly, it’s not just for guys anymore.

  • Email is dead. Unless you don’t use Facebook. But then you don’t care.

    written by

    james

    Every so often, something will come along that threatens to kill email. And nearly as often, that ends up dying instead. And now, as of yesterday, Facebook has its own answer to email–and it’s even being advertised as something to give Gmail, Microsoft etc a run for their money. Before you start thinking that sounds vaguely familiar, read this.

    Google tried its own email killer, only it was also supposed to take out Facebook. It fell over dead. Now, Facebook’s coming out with its own supposed email killer, aiming at Google–among others. Just one problem. Nearly as many people don’t use Facebook as didn’t use Google Wave. And at the moment, it’s not looking a whole lot like their new messaging platform is going to do entirely too much to draw in more usage. So I have to wonder if email will only be dead if you’re on facebook and/or care enough to switch. Since I don’t, and since my resistance of the service is kind of still there, I’m going out on a limb and making a prediction. Email is dead. Unless you’re not on Facebook. But then you probably don’t care.

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  • Popular posts (October, 2010(.

    written by

    james

    Finally, only halfway through this month, I have a chance to take a quick glance at what folks found of interest last month. It wasn’t as busy for me as this month is, but that didn’t mean a lack of the mockworthy. It did, however, mean I actually got this thing done on time. Something interesting of note: through the month of October, it looked like you folks following the blog on Twitter might become my most active readers. Sadly, you lost to Google. So, here’s what you and the googlers read about last month, as always, courtesy Google Analytics.

    • Airlines are paranoid creatures. Justifiably, some might argue, after 9/11 and then the failed bombing attempt on Christmas day. Some, like the young man who had to surrender his cane, might question that viewpoint. I, personally, wouldn’t blame him.
    • The next version of MacOS is said to be coming with its own app store. I suggested, much to the irritation of one reader, that this will more than likely open the door to Apple doing with it what it’s done with the iPhone. I still haven’t seen any evidence to the contrary yet. Anyone?
    • Cell phone companies piss me off. That’s probably the world’s–or, at least, my–worst kept secret. Wind Mobile is no exception–and I’m not even a customer. After encountering one such off-pissing aspect of Wind’s service, and in looking it up, running smack into a much more irritating aspect of said service, I decided to talk to them about it. They still haven’t responded. Hello, Ken Campbell? Anyone home?
    • When I was in school, unless you were really justifiably sick, you were probably using headaches/tiredness/lack of concentration as an excuse to stay home from school. That was your fault. Today, it’s wi-fi’s fault. Not sure in what universe, but any excuse to sleep in. Now where was wi-fi to blame 20 years ago?
    • October has always meant something very special to me. At least, always in the sense of ever since I was old enough to develop an appreciation for it. October meant hockey, which meant many nights sitting in front of the TV, optionally with a large pizza and a coke, with or without alcohol, and cursing my hockey team. I wrote about it about an hour before the first game of this year’s season. And if I could, I’d go back to that day and slap myself for writing it.

    That was October, in a nutshell. Now to go find my way through the hellish chaos that is not October. Happy reading, folks. And happy giving of thanks to those of you cellebrating it this month. Those of you not, consider it an excuse to crack open the booze. I am.

  • Canucks 5, Maple Leafs 3.

    written by

    james

    And we were doing so well, too. Two quick goals in the first, and early. And we actually played like we wanted to win for a change. At least until the second. Then we lost the lead, lost the tie, got back the tie, and lost the game. I’m really developing an alergy to being a Toronto sports fan. Oh well, maybe next time. But probably not.

    • Wins: 5
    • Losses: 11
    • Shootout Wins: 0
    • Shootout Losses: 2
    • Points: 13

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