As 2011 comes to an end very soon, I would like to wish everyone who reads this blog a Happy New Year!
And since I'm able to talk about my boring life since my last blog update, I will.
Yesterday, I spent most of the day at home watching movies I hadn't been able to watch before. I did briefly step outside for a walk, before coming back home to go to work.
Well, that officially concludes my last blog update of 2011.
With less than one minute left, I'd like to wish everyone who reads this blog a happy new year and all the best in 2012! And remember: don't get ripped by the riptide!
Hello my Internet friends! It has been a very long time since I've last
updated this immaculately-coded blog. As such, this may be the longest blog
update you ever read from this crazy guy. So if you're ready to waste a whole
lot of time reading this blog update, you're going to need a lot of time. This
means that Nathan's dad may end up spending months and months reading this blog
update, as it is the first blog update in almost six months (or more).
When I last updated this blog, I was about to hit Ottawa, which is Canada's
beautiful capital city. However, I am not going to discuss that right away,
instead, I am going to discuss current events, the news, and all sorts of weird
things that have been bugging me since my last blog update. After that, I'll
start talking about my trip to Ottawa, Montréal, and Québec City.
The first thing I would like to talk about is long weekends. Long weekends are
great, aren't they? Sure, if he has something to do. For me, personally, I
dislike long weekends very much. Why? Well, it's a matter of finding something
to do. As you know by now, I like to spend my time with my evil cousins. So when
I do, we usually have fun. But more than often, during the weekends, they often
leave town to visit my crazy aunt, who lives in Calgary. That fact often leaves
me with nothing to do here in Saskatoon. But as it turns out, I'm not really one
that feels that way about long weekends. For more information on this, please
consult
this article.
On NBC on September 23, 2010, the
same day
Blockbuster Inc. announced that it would file for voluntary Chapter 11
bankruptcy in the United States, there was a new
show called Outsourced. It
was a good show while it lasted, before it was cancelled this past summer.
However, I'm glad the show is over for various reasons. For starters, some of
the characters, such as Gupta and Charlie, were only hilarious from the start.
As the show's first season progressed, the show got more and more annoying.
During the last episode of the season, I started to question whether I would
continue to watch the show. Now, that decision has effectively been made easier,
thanks to NBC. Usually, I like to give a show a few more months of consideration
after I feel that the show has "jumped the shark."
As you all know by now, I hope, Blockbuster Canada Co.'s operations ceased to
exist as of October 1, 2011. Before you assume that the pathetic Netflix
service killed it, I am going to walk through you the timeline of the situation.
On September 23, 2010, Blockbuster Inc., the company's former parent,
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Prior to the bankruptcy proceedings, and as
far back as April of 2010,
Blockbuster Inc. announced new agreements with Twentieth Century Fox Home
Entertainment LLC and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Inc. Previously, they
had an agreement with Warner Home Video as well. The agreement is essentially
kept the shelves at Blockbuster Inc.'s stores filled with new releases. In
exchange, the studios were provided with a "first lien" on Blockbuster Canada
Co. In the event that the company failed to pay up any cash it owed to these
movie studios, these studios would be allowed to extract that cash from
Blockbuster Canada Co., in whichever way possible. This was acceptable to the
studios, as the company's Canadian operations were stable and profitable. On
February 21, 2011, Blockbuster Inc.
eventually conceded to the whole Chapter 11 deal, and announced that it would be
selling itself at auction. On April 6, 2011, Blockbuster Inc. announced that
it DISH Network Corp. was
the winner in an auction for the assets of Blockbuster Inc. It's important
to note that this sale did not include Blockbuster Canada Co. During the
bankruptcy proceedings, Blockbuster Inc. had substantially reduced its debt from
as high as $1 billion to somewhere below $100 million. I guess whatever was left
to pay was owed to the movie studios. This is where it got interesting... all
the debt was left to Blockbuster Canada Co. On May 3, 2011, one day after
Canadians elected a strong, stable, national, majority Conservative government,
Blockbuster Canada Co. was placed into receivership by the Superior Court of
Justice in Ontario. Within weeks, the company's court-appointed receiver, Grant
Thornton Ltd., announced that it would close as many as 140 stores, while it
attempts to sell the company to prospective buyers. The final number was
eventually 146. Blockbuster Canada Co. GiftCards were no longer being sold and
would no longer be accepted at stores that were closing. As for Blockbuster
Rewards customers, their memberships were not going to be renewed. Eventually,
statements on Blockbuster Canada Co.'s website told visitors to head to
www.grantthornton.ca/blockbuster. As for Blockbuster Inc., its assets were
transferred to a new company, called Blockbuster, LLC. When DISH Network Corp.
bought the company out of bankruptcy, they were given the choice to either
accept or reject contracts that Blockbuster Inc. had signed with other
companies. Conveniently, they decided to reject two contracts between
Blockbuster Inc. and Blockbuster Canada Co., with one of them being an agreement
for Blockbuster Canada Co. to use the BLOCKBUSTER name, logo, or whichever
trademark it was entitled to before. As such, Blockbuster LLC decided to send
"cease-and-desist" orders to Blockbuster Canada Co., informing them that they no
longer wanted Blockbuster Canada Co. to continue using the name, logo and/or
trademarks of Blockbuster LLC, which was now owned by DISH Network Corp. On
August 31, 2011, Grant Thornton Ltd. announced that despite offers being made, a
satisfactory offer that satisfied the movie studios could not be made, or so
they claimed. As such, the receiver said that it would obtain a court order to
close the remaining 253 Blockbuster Canada Co. stores. Sales began at the stores
before they closed, and all stores ceased to exist after September 30, 2011.
That's sad, and I am quite upset with the events that unfolded, especially since
the stores were still profitable. Interestingly enough, Grant Thornton Ltd.,
in its press release, said that New Blockbuster, referring to Blockbuster,
LLC, "plans to begin offering Canadian customers exciting new ways to access
movies and games before year end." Not explaining itself, I'm going to
assume that the "new ways to access movies and games" will be in the form of the
recently-announced
Blockbuster Movie Pass, which is currently available in the United States,
and to DISH Network Corp.'s customers. As for
Nathan, who said
that Blockbuster Canada Co. stores are useless and was happy to hear that they
would be closing, this message is geared specifically towards him, and any
person who may think like him: Blockbuster Canada Co. employed thousands of
people. When a company employs people, it contributes to a lower unemployment
rate. A lower unemployment rate means a better economy. A better economy means
that it benefits the Conservative Party of
Canada. When something benefits the Conservative Party of Canada, it helps
them get re-elected with a strong, stable, national, majority Conservative
government. When Canada has a strong, stable, national, majority Conservative
government, I am happy. And when I am happy, everyone else shall be happy as
well, because I won't be so annoying to them. With Blockbuster Canada Co. now
gone, as well as my refusal to rent movies at
Rogers Plus, I now have limited options
when it comes to movie rentals. Occasionally, I will rent movies a
DVDPlay kiosk (Blockbuster
Express in the United States). Ultimately, however, I am now signed up over
at Zip.ca, which isn't as cool as I remember it
being. In fact, they've just raised the prices of their monthly plans. The plan
I had prior to this month was $24.95, which allowed an unlimited number of DVD
shipments each month, while keeping three at a time. Now, that same plan is
$29.95?! So, without Blockbuster Canada Co., I am left with few options. Sure,
video on demand services, streaming or downloading is apparently where it's at,
but I enjoy obtaining copies of physical media. Now, the only thing I wonder
is... why did Blockbuster Inc. end the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards back in
the day? I enjoyed those events, even if the last time I ever watched that award
show was in 2000. The last time I ever rented at a Blockbuster Canada Co. store
was on September 7, 2011. To see a copy of the receipt,
click here. To see one of the last emails the company sent me,
click
here. I miss Blockbuster Canada Co. more than I miss
CompuSmart, which closed all of its stores before being acquired. As for the
last 253 stores that closed in September, 53 stores closed on September 25,
while the remaining 200 stores closed on September 30, 2011 at 5:00 pm. I find
this situation unfair, as Blockbuster's U.S. stores get a second chance at life
while killing off profitable Canadian operations. In fact, the company even
announced that
it would save approximately 1,500 stores.
This year alone, there were seven general elections for provincial governments
across Canada. For the most part (or all), every province that had an election
re-elected their governments. In Manitoba, under the leadership of
Greg Selinger,
the NDP was re-elected for a fourth
consecutive majority government. In that province,
Progressive Conservative leader
Hugh McFadyen has
since announced that'd
he'll resign as that party's leader when a replacement is found. In Prince
Edward Island, the Liberal
government under
Robert
Ghiz's leadership was re-elected. In the Northwest Territories, where no
provincial political parties exist,
Floyd Roland is now the premier. As for Ontario,
Dalton McGuinty's
Liberals were re-elected, but with a
minority government (I believe they were short one seat from a majority
government). The province's Progressive
Conservative leader Tim Hudak,
has not resigned. Over in Newfoundland and Labrador, where
Danny
Williams has resigned, Kathy Dunderdale
led the Progressive Conservatives to
electoral victory. Here in Saskatchewan, on November 7, 2011,
Brad
Wall led the
Saskatchewan Party to a second majority government, winning 49 out of a
possible 58 seats with approximately 64% of the popular vote, which is quite
unprecedented. As for the NDP, they won
nine seats out of a possible 58. The party's leader, Dwain Lingenfelter,
has since resigned. Speaking of failed elections for the NDP, I encourage
you to scope out this video of someone destroying an NDP lawn sign that was
located on the lawn of Nathan's parents' lawn. Also, I'm glad this
particular candidate
failed. In the Yukon,
Darrell Pasloski,
who hasn't led the
Yukon Party for a very long time, got his party re-elected.
At this point, I would like to congratulate all premiers on being re-elected or
being elected for the first time since taking over from previous leaders.
However, I am particularly proud of
Brad Wall and
The Saskatchewan Party.
Earlier this year, FOX had decided to cancel one of my favourite Saturday night shows, America's Most Wanted. The show was eventually picked up by Lifetime. As a result of their decision, I can no longer watch that show. The only time we can see that show in Canada on FOX is when they air those quarterly two-hour specials on FOX. As such, I will miss the show... but at least I have more free time on Saturday nights now, as I don't watch Cops very much.
As you know by now, if you live in Saskatoon, the
City of Saskatoon is taking a big step
with the
Circle Drive South Project. The Circle Drive South Project will finally
complete Circle Drive, which will allow me, as well as other motorists in
Saskatoon, to complete a loop of the city without taking alternative routes. The
project consists of:
A new six-lane bridge.
Five new interchanges (Idylwyld Drive, Lorne Avenue, Valley Road, 11th
Street West and Preston Avenue South).
Ten kilometres of freeway/expressway from Clarence Avenue to Clancy
Drive.
Access requirements of surrounding lands.
Three railway grade separations.
Sound attenuation walls.
Pedestrian and cyclist facilities.
This will be the biggest single project in all of Saskatoon's history at a
cost of $300 million. Once the project is complete, which is projected to be
September 30, 2012, I plan to circle the city... simply because I can. My friend
Kojo has expressed interest in coming along, and I would be glad to have him
come along. Hopefully, the same goes for Nathan, as well as my evil
cousins Ky and Tho. To see the project's current progress so far, head over to
www.circledrive.ca. I look forward to
this useless endeavour.
Before May 2, 2011, when the Conservative government won a strong, stable,
national, majority Conservative government, the governing party promised that it
would combine all failed legislation during the minority Parliament into one big
omnibus bill that would be passed within 100 days of Parliament resuming. The
government has so far kept that promise. While I am in favour of most of the
bill, I am concerned with one aspect: the minimum prison sentences. Although I'm
for minimum prison sentences, the minimum should be a little bit lower. The bill
in question is
Bill C-10: An Act to amend the Criminal Code (minimum penalties for offences
involving firearms) and to make consequential amendment to another Act
(if it were up to me, this bill would have a much longer name... one where you'd
have to 'abbreviate the abbreviations.'). For starters, the bill does amend the
Criminal Code for new offences, such as breaking and entering to steal a firearm
or robbery to steal a firearm. The new bill does not impose minimum sentences on
those crimes. However, importing or exporting a firearm, prohibited
weapon, restricted weapon, prohibited device, prohibited ammunition or component
or part for an automatic firearm knowing that it is unauthorized, which
currently has a minimum prison sentence of one year, will be raised to a minimum
of three years. Alright... maybe I haven't found a flaw yet, but I am somewhat
concerned some minimum sentences... but not all. I am still mostly in favour of
minimum sentences. However, I still think that the government should do more to
punish those who commit crimes against children. But aside from that, I am glad
the Right Honourable
Stephen Harper is the current Prime Minister
of Canada. As such, I agree with this
opinion piece, which
says we should somehow rid ourselves of this cumbersome democracy once and for
all and finally establish Stephen Harper as the supreme monarch of Canada. I
have been attempting to contact this Martin Turczynowicz fellow, but to no
avail. I have a feeling him and I could be best friends, if he weren't attending
the University of Manitoba.
On September 22, 2011, the
Right
Honourable David Cameron, Prime
Minister of the United Kingdom, paid a visit to Ottawa and addressed
Parliament. But more importantly, he praised Canada on a lot of aspects. But
something as important is that Mr. Cameron paid tribute to the late Jack Layton,
who had died exactly one month earlier after losing his battle with an unknown
cancer (he wouldn't reveal it because him and his wife, Olivia Chow, believed
that it was inappropriate, as it may dampen anyone's hopes of fighting their
type of cancer if it were the same as Mr. Layton's cancer). Admittedly, I never
liked Mr. Layton's political views or the New
Democratic Party of Canada for that matter. However, as a person, I enjoyed
his personality very much, and I did cry when he died on August 22, 2011. It
touched me personally, and I'm sure his death has touched the lives of many
others. Mr. Layton was considered to be the rudest person during question
period, and
that's pretty impressive.
Something I would like to personally talk about is the death of Jamie Hubley,
the son of Ottawa city councillor Allan Hubley. Jamie was openly gay and
attending A.Y. Jackson Secondary School. He was 15 before
he killed himself. Living the homosexual lifestyle can be difficult, whether
you're open about it or not. As a gay person who hasn't come out of the closet
yet, I would imagine that your friends and family are often wondering why you
don't seem to be interested in women, and that makes life difficult. You're
probably thinking about what relationships, connections or other aspects of your
life may be affected. As such, it may be difficult for a homosexual man to
reveal that he is indeed homosexual. But, what happens if you reveal that you're
gay? I'm not gay myself, but I would assume that coming out of the closet as an
adult would be easier than coming out of the closet when you're in... say, high
school? I like to believe I have a little insight to this, since a couple of
jerks from high school assumed that I was gay in grade 9. In grade 9, Reverend
Nathan lived near Mount Royal
Collegiate, where we both attended high school. As such, he often went home
during the lunch hour, and I often hung out at his home. Eventually, I started
ditching two other guys I often hung out at the school. Those two guys shall not
be named... except, I will tell you this: one of them was laid off from The Pita
Pit in downtown Saskatoon, and the other guy now lives in Fort Qu'Appelle.
Anyway, I began hanging out with Nathan on such a regular basis that the two
often assumed that we were attending Gay-Straight Alliance meetings. When I
attended that school, a new program was launched for those who may be gay, or
those who may question their homosexuality, or for any other reason related to
their sexuality. Both Reverend Nathan and I vehemently denied the accusations.
But more than seven years later, one of us would turn out to be gay, and it
wasn't me. Based on my own experiences, even though I'm straight, it takes one
brave high school student to openly declare he's gay. But based on my
experience, and the seemingly homophobic environment in most (or all) high
schools, I probably would have waited until after high school to reveal that I
was gay, if I were him. However, the fact that he was openly gay at the age of
15, is downright courageous, and I commend him. Unfortunately, his life didn't
work out so well afterwards. For a time, he chronicled his daily life on his
blog, previously located at
http://catchmeblondy.tumblr.com. From what I've read, so far, Jamie
desperately wanted a boyfriend as well. Now, the blog is gone, and so is he. I
really don't know where I'm going with this subject, so I'm going to stop here,
before I continue to say things that may get me physically hurt. However, the
reason that I say it's better to come out after high school, is because of my
friend Nathan, who revealed that he is gay as of December, 2010. According to
him, "Gays have it made in Canada." So, as you can see,
it really does get
better, according to people who are already openly gay. My friend Larry and
I have added our own personal opinions to a Newsfeed
blog entry. Please read that post. As for Nathan, he now considers himself to be bisexual as of this past fall.
Since we're still on the subject of romance and sexual orientation, there is
something I'd like to talk about that's similar: dating. Dating is tough, and
for the last couple of years, I've been saying that dating is for suckers. So,
what happens when you start to have feelings for someone, despite your assertion
that dating is for suckers? Well, that was something I began to wonder, when I
realized that I may like a girl... who we'll call "Mysterious Woman," since it's
not a good idea to reveal names like that on the Internet, where everyone can
see. Anyway, I first met Mysterious Woman in my
POLS 204: Governance of Canada class. I had been sitting near her for almost
three months before I even started to talk to her. So, at first, nothing came
out of the encounter, and I just lived my life as I usually do. The only reason
we ever started to talk was after a snowstorm and most students had refused or
were too lazy to come to class. So, she said "Wow, this place is empty," and
that's when we started to talk. Eventually, our friendship progressed and we
became good friends. Eventually, spring came, and so did a federal election that
resulted in a
strong, stable, national, majority Conservative government. We both agreed
that the election results were "epic." But over time, she got to know me and my
usual eccentricities, particularly the one where I call everyone who isn't me a
"sucker." In this opinion
piece, she was able to identify which part was my favourite. As the summer
progressed, she worked... at an actual workplace, and I still worked from home.
On numerous occasions, I would drop by her workplace to harass her, mainly to
call her a "sucker." However, on the day before classes resumed at the
University of Saskatchewan this year, I forgot to do something important: call
her a sucker at work. As time progressed, my feelings got the best of me. On
September 27, 2011, the day of her 21st birthday, I put my nonsensical plan into
action. Of course, I had to admit to being a sucker before I could put my plan
into action. So, I planned on asking her out on that day in person, but ended up
calling her instead, on the evening of September 27, 2011. So, when I called
her, I told her that there was something I had wanted to ask her for a
while, but had not done so, because I would be in direct contradiction to what
I've been saying for the last couple of years. Eventually, I asked her out in a
way that would allow me to say her decision on whether she would or would not go
out with me would be based on the fact that I drive a metallic grey XV20
generation 2001 Toyota Camry LE.
Eventually, we came to an agreement that dating is not the best idea, and we
have not gone out since that time. Unfortunately, as of November 25, 2011, we
are no longer on speaking terms. So, will Reverend Huy Dang ever find someone to be with?
Well... I've dated before... but I hope that the meeting of my next girlfriend,
when/if that happens, will be preceded by a chain of hilariously awesome events
that will be good enough for a sitcom of some sort. Until that happens, I will
be back to my "dating is for suckers" self again. But right now, I'm starting to
feel like
Ted
Mosby from How I Met Your Mother. Despite saying that dating is
indeed for suckers, I have been more open to dating in recent months, but not
enough to actually to date anyone at the moment.
Not long ago, my friend Peter Poorman, who has historically roamed the mean
streets of Saskatoon in a variety of transit buses in style (ranging from a 1995
New Flyer D40LF all the way to a 2011 New Flyer D40LFR, as I'm assuming he
only took low floor buses), recently completed the required training in order to
eligible for a
class 5 driver's licence in Saskatchewan. It is unclear if he has obtained
his class 5 licence yet... but he did recently purchase a
Toyota Tercel (year
unknown, but it can't be newer than 2000). I would like to take this time to
congratulate him on the purchase of his first car, but I will always find my
bought-used-from-my-mom
metallic grey XV20 generation 2001 Toyota Camry LE better than his
mysterious Toyota Tercel. The only thing that upsets me is that he has decided
to name the car Ginger. If you're going to give your vehicle a nickname, you've
got to name it something really, really long... and it must be so long that you
need to "abbreviate the abbreviations."
The next thing I would like to talk about is winter. It's not quite winter yet,
but snow has existed in Saskatoon since the Remembrance Day weekend (as far as I
remember). Winter this year officially begins on December 22, 2011. Now,
although it's not quite winter just yet, even though there's snow, there are
some pros and cons to winter and the supposedly-terrible weather that it brings
(I live in Canada, and I'm used to snow). Sure, there are cons, and we'll start
with those. When it comes to the cons of the winter season, there are two things
I dislike about the winter, or whenever there is snow: driving and shovelling.
Driving is a pain in the butt, especially in Saskatoon when there is snow. Then,
there's shovelling. It stinks as I have a huge, but
fake driveway to
"shovel." It's fake because I park on my lawn. Now, it's time to talk about the
pros of winter, or snow in general. Something I always enjoy is hearing
virtually everyone around me (on Facebook or strangers, in person) complain
about how
winter is upon us. For those people, you live in Canada, and you should
accept it. But, what I really enjoy is seeing most (the beautiful ones, anyway)
women wearing surprisingly-fashionable (to me) boots that are a little longer
than I would expect. I never paid attention to this, until the most recent
winner, when one of my friends, who we shall call Nathan, said that women who
wear boots, or fuzzy boots (he hates them more than anything, as it seems) are
clearly indicating that they are... straight.
Recently, one of my friends, named Chelsea, who now lives in Ottawa, asked me an
odd question. That question was "Who do you find more attractive?
Michelle Obama or
Laureen Harper?"
That is a question I refuse to answer. However, I will point out something
important when it comes to Chelsea. She now lives in the federal electoral
riding or district of Ottawa West-Nepean. The Member of Parliament for that
riding is the Honourable John Baird, who
is now the Minister of Foreign Affairs. As such, I am quite jealous of her. I
don't know about you, but I'd rather have John Baird as my MP than
David McGuinty or
Paul Dewar, who are both Ottawa-area MPs
On Thursday, September 22, 2011, the
Right
Honourable David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom,
addressed
the Parliament of Canada on Thursday,
September 22, 2011, and had nothing but praise for Canada. I thoroughly enjoyed
his speech, especially the remarks about the
Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and how they get to see all sorts of places
before he even gets to visit those same places. But ultimately, what's more
important, and touching, is that he began his speech by paying tribute to the
Honourable Jack Layton, who died on
August 22, 2011. Don't believe me? Check out the video, below...
Moving on... I would like to talk about how old-fashioned I am, especially when
it comes to technology. As a dude, I enjoy using technology as much as the next guy. In fact, I love
technology. However, I am not crazy enough to keep up with the latest
technology, and will only upgrade my existing technological items once they've
died off, or they've become unbearable to work with. For starters, I bought a
now-obsolete
Zune HD on eBay (because this particular
product was not offered in Canada... and the Zune is no longer produced, but can
be found within new
Windows
Phones) this past summer. After that purchase on
eBay, I wrote an
article chronicling my previous MP3 players. The reason I had to replace my
old
Zune 8 was for the following reason, which I wrote in the aforementioned
article: "That Zune lasted me for well over three years. Eventually, at some
point this year (2011), the screen's back-light stopped working properly. So, in
other words, I had to look really, really hard to see what was playing on my
Zune. So, watching video podcasts on the Zune was virtually impossible. And if I
were in the dark, I were out of luck." The reason that happened, which was not
mentioned in the aforementioned article, is because some evil relatives ran over
it with a vehicle, which will also remain a mystery. Had the Zune 8's
lack-of-light hadn't occurred, I'd still be using the Zune 8 right now. By the
way, that aforementioned article (writing about technological failures... or
happiness, getting your
picture taken outside a store, etcetera) helped me win $20 in gift cards
from Future Shop's "Tapped
In" promotion (they even had a fancy Facebook app for it). So, basically, my
point so far is that if I buy something new in terms of technology, I will try
to use it for as long as I can before I switch to new and emerging technology,
which seems to be happening every day now. In fact, that's what the
International CES in Las Vegas is for.
Then, we've got E3 in Los Angeles. Moving
on from my MP3 player, another big purchase I made this summer was the
Motorola ATRIX 4G
on eBay, after I got fed up with the lack of apps I had access to on the
Android Market because I was using old
Android software on my previous phone (Motorola QUENCH, which is old and no
longer offered). Despite being an old phone, that Motorola QUENCH phone has
served me well. Because of my decision to purchase that phone (I give credit to
this decision for mysterious reasons), I won a $2,400
phone bill credit, which was actually paid in cash instead. I've also taken it
with me to some awesome Canadian cities. In fact, here's a list of where that
Motorola QUENCH phone has been (outside of Saskatoon, and the cities below are
only listed if I've actually placed or received phone calls in those cities):
Magic 9 Ball (I usually use this app when talking to my mom... I ask "Is
my mom a loser?" before shaking the phone, and when the app tells me that
she is indeed a loser, she calls me a "bastard")
Now, just in case you're wondering, I do have some suggestions for some
useful apps too, even if they're slow, or usually unresponsive. Here is a list
of apps that I frequently or occasionally use, in no particular order:
Moving back to technology... anyway, my point so far is that I don't like to
upgrade to new technological items, unless it seems absolutely necessary. Now,
despite having access to some of the latest technology, I do occasionally like
to perform some tasks "old school." For example,
Groupon is an interesting website, and
many websites similar to it have since launched. If you are not familiar with
Groupon, it is a "group buy" website. A local business, website, or national
company, depending on which city you're set to, will offer a deal that seems too
good to pass up. Users pay the advertised price for a certificate or voucher,
and then take it to the retailer or business to redeem the deal. However, there
is usually another condition to it, such as requiring a specific amount of
people to pay up and purchase that same deal, before it gets "activated." So,
assuming that you've got the deal and it has been approved, you will either
print off a Groupon certificate, or you
can use a smartphone app on a
BlackBerry device,
iPhone,
Windows Phone (requires the Zune software),
Android phone,
iPad...
or any mobile phone, as a mobile
version of the website does exist. As a guy who can't make up his mind on
whether he wants to use a cool smartphone app or paper certificate, I often
print off Groupon certificates, because I like wasting paper.
The same goes for bill payments. Sure, online banking services exist that allow
you to pay your bills... but there are usually other options. My cell phone bill
to Rogers, for example, has many different payment options. I can arrange for a
payment through my bank, online. Alternatively, I can pay my bill at my local
Rogers Plus store, pay online through their website with my credit card (or from
my mobile phone), mail in a cheque, call their automated service and pay by
credit card... and there's probably a lot more that I don't know about. But,
usually, whenever I'm bored, I often write a cheque and mail it to them, despite
knowing that it may get lost in the mail, or the fact that it would take four
business days for them to even receive the cheque in the mail. My
mail-in-a-cheque-for-payment plan often goes for credit card statements and
utilities as well, depending on how I feel during any given month. Yeah... I'm
crazy, aren't I?
Moving on... there is one person I'd like to talk about:
Herman Cain. For those
of you who don't know who Herman Cain is, Mr. Cain is a Republican presidential
candidate who was running against others for the Republican nomination for
president. Whoever receives the Republican nomination would be the Republican
candidate that will officially attempt to replace
Barack Obama as president
during the 2012 election. Herman Cain is a businessman and was once involved
with Godfather's Pizza (a really cool
name for a pizza chain). Eventually, sex scandals rocked his campaign, thus
forcing him to "suspend" (I don't know if this means he's done for... yet).
There were allegations by various women that he
sexually harassed two women during his time at the
National Restaurant Association during
the 1990s, which may have started the sex scandals. The scandals got so bad that
Mr. Cain eventually said that he would
take a lie detector test to prove his innocence. Eventually, he ultimately
suspended his presidential campaign,
not long after another woman accused him of having an affair with her. That
was a shame, as I was really hoping that Mr. Cain would be the frontrunner the
entire time, for various reasons, as listed below:
Mr. Cain is more interesting than Barack Obama.
Mr. Cain has a way cooler voice than Barack Obama.
Mr. Cain is sane, unlike his Republican competitors.
Mr. Cain speaks faster than Barack Obama, therefore making him more
interesting than Barack Obama.
Mr. Cain is more interesting than Barack Obama.
Mr. Cain wears cool glasses, as proven in
this video.
Mr. Cain is bald, therefore making him look cooler than Barack Obama.
Barack Obama may be cool on television, but Mr. Cain is way cooler than
Mr. Obama on television.
That is all for my reasons as to why I like Herman Cain. Most of them were
obviously nonsensical, but I guess it was to make this blog update even longer
than necessary. While you're at it, I highly suggest that you read
this article.
Have you ever seen the show Extreme Couponing
on TLC? That show features many average
American citizens who spend a considerable amount of time looking for coupons
online, in flyers, or in local newspapers. In fact, the trend has led to newspapers mysteriously disappearing around the United States.
But, when these "average" Americans go to the grocery store, they load up on
hundreds or thousands of dollars in groceries, and end up paying next to
nothing. In fact, there's a 16-year-old who spends 30-or-so hours a week
clipping coupons. Don't believe me?
Click here. Although I do consider myself cheap, I do not spend anywhere
near as much time as these people clipping coupons, but I do spend a good amount
of time looking for coupons. These people are also dedicated, and many of them
may know each store's coupon policies by heart. In each one of these shopping
trips, it may take many hours to browse through the grocery store, and these
people often have stockpiles of the same items. In fact, some people have even
turned their guest rooms into rooms for their stockpiles, while others have
converted guest rooms into rooms for their stockpiles. I'm all for using
coupons, but I don't like the idea of having a stockpile for my groceries,
particularly perishable goods or junk food. Some stores, such as
Walmart (in the United States) have
toughened their coupon policies in an effort to prevent people with so many
coupons from shopping at their stores. Here in Canada, "extreme couponing," is
possible, as
shown in this news article, but is still a lot more difficult than it is in
the United States, due to many restrictions that are in place by Canadian
retailers, as they do not face as much competition as retailers in the United
States do. However, if I had more time, I would probably find more ways to save
money before I go shopping, as I love using coupons (in paper form,
specifically). As of recently, there was a good deal that I didn't post to
this blog, because I didn't think
it'd be relevant to everyone. Recently, I printed multiple copies of
this coupon. The coupon, when presented to any retailer that accepts the
coupon, allows you to save $5.00 when you purchase any
LISTERINE Whitening product listed on the
coupon itself. This was good because the
Real Canadian Superstore located at 2901 8th Street East here in Saskatoon
was selling the 473 mL bottles at $5.99 each (with a limit of six at this
price). With the coupon, it would be $0.99 (before taxes... you had to pay the
tax associated with the $5.00 though). There are various reasons as to why I did
not post this little deal. First off, only that location was selling the bottles
at $5.99. When I paid a visit to the store located at 411 Confederation Drive,
the selling price of the identical product was $6.77 and was as high as $8.99,
which was price that I was used to seeing. Secondly, the "Sweet
Deals" blog
located on this website is more about freebies, rather than almost-free. Anyway,
back to the usage of coupons... some people are embarrassed to use coupons.. and
I'm not. Using coupons save you money, so why not use them? Also, now, there's a
Saskatoon connection!
In fact, before
Blockbuster Canada Co.'s court-appointed receiver obtained a court order to
shut down the company's remaining stores after being placed into receivership,
almost every visit I made to their stores included using coupons. Let me explain
the process to you. At the beginning of the month, I would grab a copy of their
"News & Previews" magazine either online or in-store, which informed customers
of new release movies and their release dates. Then, I would circle which movies
I'd like to rent in that given month. Prior to the summer of 2009, my strategy
was different. Back then, it did not matter which day of the week I paid a visit
to the store. What I knew was that new release movies were a set price, with
brand new movies due within three days (up to eleven days before the item was
sold to you, as part of the "No Late Fees" policy they had). As a Blockbuster
Rewards member, it was important to me to get as much value out of the package
as I could, as it cost $9.99 per year, in addition to the coupons I got in my
"Entertainment Pack." So, before every visit to the store, I would plan out
which movie(s) I wanted to rent, and I would go through my existing coupons in
an attempt to use as many as I could, and which coupons were most practical to
use, given the situation. Back then, there were also a lot of emails that the
company would send out that would include value-added coupons. The important
part was that you couldn't double them. A lot of the coupons were either "free
new release" coupons, "rent one, get one free" coupons, "rent two, get one free"
coupons, "$1 off" coupons, or even "$2 off" coupons. There is a "$2 off" coupon
for every month in your Rewards booklet. Let's just say I had a huge batch of
them and I wanted to rent three movies in any given week. If all these coupons
were available to me, I may decide on using a "free new release" coupon and a
"rent 1, get 1 free" coupon in one transaction. If I ran out of those, I may use
a "$2 off" coupon and a "rent 1 get 1 free" coupon. I think you know where I'm
going with this already. In addition to this, Blockbuster Rewards members often
received mailings with additional coupons. In 2009, Blockbuster Canada Co.
changed their pricing structure on all new release movies. That year, all
new releases were priced as follows: $3.99 for a 2-night new release, and $5.99
for a 7-night new release. This came with a modified "No Late Fees" policy. For
the 2-night rental, they would charge you an additional viewing fee of $1.00 per
day. For the 7-night movie rental, you can keep it for up to seven additional
days after the due date, without charge. The Rewards program was also modified
and renamed Me-wards. What didn't change for Rewards members is that they got a
free rental (either a movie or game) for every five new release movie or game
rentals every month, as long as they were paid for. But in 2009, a change to the
Me-wards program meant that every rental you made counted as two rentals, if you
paid for those rentals on Wednesdays. When the program first rolled out, I had a
class for the most part on Wednesdays, thus making it inconvenient for me to
visit the stores. In 2010, during my second term of the 2009-2010 school year,
it became convenient, and I took advantage of the program whenever there were
good movies available to rent. Eventually, my game plan changed during the
2010-2011 school year, and I had to strategically plan my visits. By
strategically planning my visits, I had to decide what I wanted to rent on
Tuesday nights, and I would draft a list. Once that list was drafted, I would
decide on what coupons to use. Once that was decided, I would write up which
movies to pick, based on reverse-alphabetical order, and whether it was a
"Critics Pix." In most stores, movies were often placed alphabetically from the
left to right with "Critics Pix" placed somewhere in between. In order for my
plan to be successful, I had to familiarize myself with the layout of
Blockbuster Canada Co. stores I would often visit. At the store located at 1505
8th Street East, next to Westgate Books, you entered on the right, so any movies
beginning with the letter "A" would be to your far-left. As such, it was more
economical to browse in reverse-alphabetical order. At the store located at 105
Confederation Drive, you entered the store on the left, which mean that movies
starting with "A" would be the first things you saw on the wall of new releases.
However, what's important to note is that the success of Blockbuster
(originally) was that the stores could be customized to fit in with their local
neighbourhoods. Because of this, I did not like the layout of the Confederation
store, and I stopped going there altogether at some point in early 2010. Another
reason I chose to visit the 8th Street store more often was because of its
proximity to the University of Saskatchewan
campus, and the fact that the store was conveniently located by four bus stops
served by two different bus routes. This has served me well from all directions.
Coincidentally, all directions gave me a 12-or-13 minute window to visit the
store, do my business, get out and catch a
Saskatoon Transit bus to wherever I wanted to go. Anyway, because I made my
list of movies to rent in advance, and in reverse-alphabetical order, I would
start from the right side of the store and end up on the left side of the store,
before I conveniently paid for my rentals and left the store. In fact, I've been
so fast that I've had enough time for chit-chat during my weekly visits that
occurred only on Wednesdays. The only time my plan backfired was in February of
2011, and that was because a transit bus arrived three minutes too early and
didn't even stop for a layover. As such, I had to call a cab and barely made it
on time for my
POLS 237 (Modern Political Theory) class. The biggest change
after the 2009 price structure change is that the coupons that came with the
emails were becoming irrelevant, as they were no longer related to movie or game
rentals. Some of the coupons made gaming accessories really cheap, but those
coupons did not interest me at all. Eventually, those coupons disappeared
altogether, and the emails only became informational emails to me. At some
point, Blockbuster Canada Co. began working with
SPC Card, and some awesome printable
coupons were emailed to me. In the fall of 2010, Blockbuster Canada Co.
officially became a retailer listed as an SPC Card retailer. The deal was that
you would receive a free bag of microwaveable popcorn with a paid new release
movie rental, if you were an SPC Card member. This meant that every Wednesday, I
came home with new release movies, as well as a bag of Blockbuster's
microwaveable popcorn, which eventually started stacking up. In fact, I still
have four packages of the stuff, and they have "best before" dates of January,
2013 right now. At some point this year, I paid a visit to the 8th Street store
on a Wednesday night, when bus schedules didn't matter, and used eight coupons
in one transaction, thus making that a record for me. Unfortunately, Blockbuster
Canada Co. was placed into receivership on May 3, 2011 (one day after
Canadians elected a strong, stable, national, majority Conservative government),
and ultimately announced the closure of their remaining 253 stores on August 31,
2011, after being forced to close 146 stores. For those of you ignorant people
who still think Netflix killed Blockbuster Canada Co.,
click here for a
refresher. Here's something interesting: the last time I ever rented at a
Blockbuster Canada Co. store was on September 7, 2011. To see a copy of the
receipt,
click here.
Now that I've finished talking about using coupons (specifically at Blockbuster
Canada Co. stores), let's move on...
The next thing I would like to discuss is people's reliance on horoscopes.
Horoscopes are fun to read, because they always seem reassuring. However, they
aren't always exactly the best guide, since there does not seem to be any
scientific evidence that horoscopes can be correct. As such, up until recently, I
had not read any horoscopes since 2009. But recently, I read a
yearly horoscope for Aquarius for 2011 and some of the things I read were
eerily coincidental, which is starting to scare me just a little bit. For
instance, in that link, under the heading "Aquarius 2011 Love, Family and Social
life Horoscope," the website stated the following: "Often, the Aquarian avoids
romantic or intimate relationships on a long term level in favor of
independence." That is often true... but many have known that, as I've been
saying "Dating is for suckers" on/off over the last couple of years. It was then
followed by the following: "Thanks to the movement of Neptune in the Aquarius
2011 yearly horoscope, your sensitive nature will long for the life lessons a
commitment to love can bring." That... was eerily true. This past fall was when
I decided to ask someone out, despite my insistence that dating is
indeed for
suckers. To top that off, this part just creeps me out: "Come fall, the ability
to open your heart to forever is strong. Do not be afraid to take risks with
your heart during this time, Aquarius. It might be uncomfortable to open
yourself to the probing interests of another but it's time. Your peaceful nature
this year will aid in your ability to achieve this transition into
togetherness." I was rightfully afraid, as it turned out, but I did express my
feelings to someone, and it felt great, even if things didn't work out in the
end. This is the only part I disagreed with: "Your peaceful nature this year
will aid in your ability to achieve this transition into togetherness." Another
eerily-coincidental part of that website was under the heading "Aquarius
September 2011 Horoscope," which stated: "You may get surprising and exciting
news from relationships around the 23 rd." But under the heading "Aquarius
November 2011 Horoscope," the website linked states the following: "There is a
possibility of misunderstanding with close aides or friends, be aware and you
may be able to minimizes the chances." Well... November was the month where I
lost a friend because she thought it would be best to stop talking to me
entirely, as of November 25, 2011. If an opportunity ever arises, there are a
few things I would like to tell that person (it would be how I feel about that
person now, after the fact that she is no longer talking to me, but it probably
won't ever happen). Based on the events that have occurred this year, I hope you
can see why horoscopes are starting to scare me. But interestingly enough, the
December section states the following: "With Venus entering your sign on 20 th
your powers of attraction will increase immensely. Committed couples will
reconnect in a new way while singles may end a relationship or begin a new one."
It would be really, really scary if that became true... but so far, it
hasn't been true. But... there's still time. But at the beginning of the
horoscope, it did state the following: "In the Aquarius 2011 yearly horoscope,
this is the year of past labor resulting in fruition." This is somewhat true, as
I was named "Associate of the Month" back in July
(and that made me proud of myself... particularly because of the reasons I was
chosen... check out the email), and I got to go on one of my
most favourite vacations, ever (my return to Ottawa and Montréal, as well as my
visit Québec City, which I'll talk about later in this post). Again, this is a
little scary. But, if horoscopes are to be believed, the
following will happen
to me in 2012:
Something exciting will occur during the months of April through June.
I will be provided with opportunities and chances that will allow me to
attain goals that I did not accomplish in 2011. As such, I should be
pleasantly surprised.
Work may require me to move from my present residential address to a new
home.
I will have my chance to meet and form a special relationship with
another person in 2012 and will likely occur during the second half of the
year.
I might experience added monetary benefits.
In fact, there's even a video on that website, which I have posted below:
Please note that I am still very sceptical of this whole horoscope thing. If
2012 turns out to be what that website says it'll be, I'm going to become a
major believer... I think. We'll have to see how 2012 goes, since none of us can
tell what the future has in store for us. But, if I do find love in 2012, I hope
the series of events leading up to it are good enough for a sitcom, as I imagine
it would be a funny story to tell anyone.
Moving on...
As you know, I dislike labour unions. Speaking of that, you may or may not know
that British government workers were on a general strike recently and took over
the streets of London and other parts of Britain to protest the fact that they
will finally have to work longer to qualify for pensions as the
Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government is looking for ways to trim
its massive debt. Sure, I understand their reasons for striking, and their
reasons for protesting. However, what I don't understand is this:
That red symbol with a line across the perimeter usually means "no." So, by
putting the phrase "NO CUTS" behind that symbol, isn't their message
counter-productive, as that would make them in favour of government cutbacks?
That makes me wonder if all union members are always contradicting themselves...
Since I'm complaining about left-wing movements, I might as well discuss other
left-wing issues. Let's start with Members of Parliament associated with the
New Democratic Party of Canada. You already
know that I dislike the New Democratic Party of Canada with a great passion and
am a huge fan of the Conservative Party of
Canada, which received a
strong mandate for a strong, stable, national, majority, Conservative government
on May 2, 2011. Anyway, I'm sure that the NDP has some fine MPs that work
hard for their constituents, as all MPs do, but there is one NDP MP I can't
stand hearing, or seeing for that matter, and that person is
Jinny Sims. Have you heard her speak? Her
voice is so unbearable that I can't stand her. Don't believe me? Just watch one
of her lame videos. Oh yeah, speaking
of the Conservative Party of Canada, I
have given them
too much money as of June.
Moving on and continuing with my tradition of complaining about the left, the
organization I would like to discuss next would be
The Sheaf, which is the
University of Saskatchewan's student-run
newspaper. Recently, StarPhoenix
columnist
Les MacPherson wrote a column on the December 3, 2011 issue of the
daily newspaper regarding the search for a new president at the school,
since Peter MacKinnon, who has been the school's president since 1999, will be
resigning as of June 30, 2012. In his column, Mr. MacPherson hilariously
suggests that Mr. MacKinnon be replaced with any of the following people, and
listed his reasons for his picks: Kent Austin (from the
Saskatchewan Roughriders), Kevin O'Leary
(from the CBC), Mike Holmes (contractor),
Conrad Black (who once owned The StarPhoenix),
Clive Weighill
(Saskatoon's police chief), Brad Wall,
Dr. Janice MacKinnon (Peter MacKinnon's wife, as she would save moving costs),
Vianne Timmons
(president of the
University of
Regina),
Michael Ignatieff and Russ Marchuk
(simply because he
knocked out former NDP leader Dwain Lingenfelter in the last election, which
saw the Saskatchewan Party government
re-elected with a
strong majority government). I usually find Mr. MacPherson's columns quite
entertaining, and I am surprised that anyone would take offence to them. Now,
what I do find offensive, is the behaviour of whoever maintains the
Facebook page of The Sheaf. On December 3, 2011, at
2:22 pm here in Saskatoon, someone who maintains that Facebook page posted
a link to
the aforementioned column. However, the comments that were attached with the
link contained some questionable text. Here is a screenshot of that questionable
"description:"
I think it is an absolute disgrace that a student-run paper, which is usually
expected to be ideologically neutral, would use the phrase "They include Conrad
Black, Kevin O' Leary and Mike Holmes, among other right-wing weirdos." Really?
What kind of paper is this? What disturbs me is that the paper is
usually-and-obviously... left-wing. What's funny, however, is that whoever made
the posting, can't seem to the spell the columnist's name correctly, or the name
of the paper that it is referring to. That's a shame...
In 2013, Target will be opening its first
Canadian stores. However, what still isn't clear, to this day, is how many
stores the Saskatoon area will have. The only thing we know so far, is that the
Zellers location at
The Centre will be converted into a
Target store. As for media reports, even
those reports are unclear as to what will eventually happen to the stores at
Market Mall and the
Mall at Lawson Heights. But
regardless of how many stores will be open in Saskatoon, I am still excited
about the arrival of Target's first Canadian stores. The only thing I wonder
is... what will happen to the
old-school Zellers store
on Sparks Street in Ottawa?
Back in July, Maurice Neault, who served as the city councillor for Ward 3 down
at City Hall here in Saskatoon,
suddenly passed away. Mr. Neault was credited by the mayor for the growth on
the west end of Saskatoon in recent years, including the development of the
Hampton Village neighbourhood. To make things worse, his replacement is
someone that I have a problem with:
Ann Iwanchuk, who is the wife of
Andy Iwanchuk,
the Member of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan for Saskatoon Fairview,
who failed to get defeated in the last provincial election that saw the
Saskatchewan Party get re-elected with
an even
stronger majority government. The problem I have with Ann Iwanchuk is her
ties to major unions. The only thing that really relieves me is that her ties to
major unions will not matter in her position.
The next thing I would like to discuss is the stupid "Occupy" movements that
have occurred across Canada. First of all, I have failed to understand why they
even exist, since what they've been doing at parks across North America is...
squatting. As for "we are the 99%" slogan, it sounds stupidly annoying. Instead
of taking up parks that were meant for the public to enjoy, they should find
more things productive things to do with their time. "Protesters," as they have
been calling themselves, do indeed have a right to protest. They just don't have
a right to camp on public property, as it becomes squatting. Here in Canada, the
movement appears to be largely... over. Sure, some may still have those "online"
protests, but does anyone really pay attention to such lame protests unless huge
companies are behind them? I doubt it. Now, although I have a pittance of an
opinion on this matter, there is one person I agree with: Phil Hoffort from
North Battleford, Saskatchewan. You should read
this letter to the editor regarding the "Occupy" 'movement.'
As of this most recent educational term, I had a class with Dr.
Jason Zorbas, who
was the instructor in my
POLS 248: Foundations of American Government class. The class had
interesting content, and I was fully immersed in American politics, which is an
area I generally don't pay attention to. So, as a result of this class, I found
myself more interested in American politics than in previous years, especially
since I started to slightly understand American institutions. I've also learned
that a good amount of Republicans are hypocrites, thus making them even more
awesome than they were prior to this class. So, when it came to evaluating him
as an instructor, I gave him extremely high ratings on all aspects of his
teaching. When it came to feedback, my comments were full of praise. My two
friends that usually sit next to me, who shall remain unnamed, also gave him
high marks in all aspects of his teaching. Prior to the evaluation, however, one
friend said the following: "I trust Jason with my life. If he were to tell me
the sky were green, I'd probably believe him. He's the only reason I wake up
every morning." So, if you thought I went too far with giving Dr. Zorbas high
marks in every aspect, I obviously haven't gone far enough. In January, once a
new term begins at the University of Saskatchewan, I will have another class
with Dr. Zorbas. Right now, I would like to register in his
POLS 376: Issues in Canadian Foreign Policy class, but have not met the
pre-requisite requirements for the class:
POLS 375 (Canada and the World). One of my friends, who trusts Dr. Zorbas
with his life, claims he has already obtained permission to take the class,
despite not having credit for the pre-requisite. Unfortunately, for me, his POLS
376 class is scheduled during another one of my classes.
Moving on... I'd like to talk about safety when it comes to driving in
Saskatoon. To start off this discussion, I must note that there is a
considerable amount of construction along Circle Drive, particularly from the
area north of Clarence Avenue South to south of Preston Avenue South. In this
area, the speed limit is 60 km/h. Before Preston Avenue South and Circle Drive
was split into two separate signalized intersections, there was a strip of
Circle Drive that did not seem to be utilized at all, mainly by the Preston
Avenue area. Now, I haven't really noticed a difference in speed, but that's
because I haven't been out very much in recent months since school started. But
during the summer, I felt like I was the only person who was travelling at the
speed limit, while it seemed like every other vehicle around me sped past me,
including some who have flipped me off. Upset by the lack of police in the area,
I wrote a letter to Saskatoon Police Chief Clive Weighill about the matter. To
read the letter,
click
here. The Saskatoon Police Service did respond, but the response was not a
personal response from the chief himself. To read their response,
click here. Not
satisfied, I wrote a letter to Premier Brad
Wall. To see that letter,
click here. Premier Brad Wall did respond, but the letter simply stated that
he forwarded my letter over to the Minister of Corrections, Public Safety and
Policing. I did eventually receive a letter from the Honourable Yogi
Huyghebaert, Minister of Corrections, Public Safety and Policing. As it turns
out, Premier Wall forwarded my letter to
the incorrect department. The letter then informed me my letter had been
forwarded yet again. This time, it was forwarded over to the Honourable Tim
McMillan, Minister Responsible for SGI. His
response was
kind of useless, but did note that my interest in traffic safety is commendable.
But now, I don't feel as unsafe when driving in Saskatoon, but it's probably
only indicative of the current driving conditions. I am sure that once the snow
melts, the crazy drivers will be back on the mean streets of Saskatoon. Speaking
of mean streets, one of my Facebook friends said the following when comparing
Willowgrove to College Park, where he lives: "I'd rather be in Willowgrove than
have to travel the mean streets of College Park where I live. It's ghetto.
Nothing but ghetto Vietnamese people and Ghanaians left and right." It's funny,
because I'm Vietnamese, and he's Ghanaian.
One
day this past summer, when my friend Taylor Martens visited Saskatoon after
moving away to Burnaby, British Columbia two years ago, we had a discussion
about how life is outside of Saskatoon. He, for one, does not like living in
Saskatoon and seems to despise it. Unlike Taylor, I do love Saskatoon, for very
odd reasons. For starters, I like the way most of Saskatoon's traffic signals
are set up... they're fairly simple, and cool-looking. And up until recently, I
thought that the Real Canadian Superstore
located at 2901 8th Street East here in Saskatoon, was one of the more unique
locations, until its renovation in 2010. Previously, I've always said that I
would miss visiting that specific location and the traffic signals in Saskatoon,
if I were to ever move, as I had expressed interest in moving to Ottawa, our
nation's beautiful capital city. But now that I no longer include the Real
Canadian Superstore on that list, it occurs to me that I forgot something very
important and unique about Saskatoon:
Fuddruckers. Fuddruckers rightfully claims that they have the world's
greatest hamburgers, and I love that place. But here in Canada, there is only
one location, and that location is in Saskatoon. There were other locations in
Canada, but they've all closed across Canada, with the exception of Saskatoon.
Therefore, if I were to ever move to any other city in Canada, I would miss the
seeing the traffic signals in this city, and the fact that there was a
Fuddruckers located conveniently at 2910 8th Street East. If you haven't picked
it up already, I'm a die-hard fan of Fuddruckers... just not enough to trust
them with my life.
After professing my love for Fuddruckers, I would now like to talk about Silvio
Berlusconi, Italy's former prime minister. Mr. Berlusconi was the previous prime
minister of Italy that often faced allegations of sexual harassment and was more
recently accused of having sex with underage hookers at "bunga bunga" parties
that he hosted. However, that's not why I liked him. The reason I liked him was
that for his age, he looked pretty young. He was also well-dressed and the fact
that he owns a good number of media outlets in his country made him a legend to
me, as it allows him to control the main media messages in his country. Sure,
some would say that's unfair, but we do live in a "survival of the fittest"
world, don't we? Now, Mr. Berlusconi is gone... and even though it may be good
for his country's economic well-being, I am going to miss him. I do know one
friend, who is Ghanaian, that would agree with my statement.
Does anyone really watch The Office anymore, especially after Steve Carell (Michael Scott) left the
show? I know that I gave the show a few chances after Mr. Carell left, and then
continued to watch the show for a few weeks once the current season commenced.
Unfortunately, the show has gone downhill so quickly that I have given up on the
show as of October 27, 2011, the same night Beavis and Butt-head
returned to television on MTV. As for the
return of Beavis and Butt-head, I couldn't be happier to see them back on
television, as I've missed them dearly. There is another show that I recently
started watching, and that show is Allen Gregory, which airs on
FOX. That show's
first season is now over, as of December 18, 2011, and I'm kind of glad it is
over, as I already watch too much television as it is. The show was kind of
stupid at first, but then it got funnier, and I was just starting to enjoy it as
of this month. Maybe it'll come back for another season... maybe it won't. Right
now, I'm looking forward to seeing the animated versions of Napoleon
Dynamite and The
Flintstones, which will be produced by Seth MacFarlane (again). As for
New Girl, that show looks
stupid. How about I
Hate My Teenage Daughter? Have you seen that show? It's stupid,
but that's enough about television shows... for now.
Let's skip my complaints for a bit, and move onto talking about some news. For
starters, we can talk about the "West Memphis Three," who
were convicted of
murdering three Cub Scouts over allegations that the grisly killings were
allegedly part
of a Satanic ritual, and were eventually released, after pleading guilty to the
crimes in a subsequent trial in order to be released from prison. However, what's important to note is that the three
convicts always maintained their innocence. Investigators found no physical
evidence to connect the three men to the murders, and DNA testing, which was
only done recently, led to two different individuals. If there is no evidence
linking them to the crime, and family members of two victims are coming out in
support of the three men, was justice really served, even though they were
released? After all, in order to be
released and to be sentenced to the 18 years they spent in prison, rather than
life sentences, they had to plead guilty to crimes they probably didn't commit.
How is that fair? It is cases like this that make me an opponent of capital
punishment. However, I am still a proponent of minimum sentences, and as such, I
still support the passage of
Bill C-10: An Act to amend the Criminal Code (minimum penalties for offences
involving firearms) and to make consequential amendment to another Act.
On September 22, 2011,
an article appeared on The StarPhoenix that talked about those who
wanted the federal election boundaries in Saskatchewan to change, suggesting
that Saskatchewan's federal electoral boundaries are divisive. The article
quoted professors and former electoral commission members that suggested
Saskatchewan's major cities be split into bigger sections that also included
strictly-urban ridings, rather than have them lumped with surrounding small
municipalities, such as Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar. Right now, Saskatoon's
ridings include Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar, Saskatoon-Humboldt,
Saskatoon-Wanuskewin and Blackstrap, which all include a chunk of Saskatoon and
some small towns nearby. Some want change, but some don't. For instance, the
article stated that by splitting between city-only polls and rural polls during
federal elections, the only Saskatoon-area riding to notice a difference was
Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar, citing election results from 2008 and 2011:
The black sheep of the blended ridings is Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar, where in both elections, NDP candidate Nettie Wiebe "beat" Conservative MP Kelly Block in city-only polls.
The article continued to state, however, that in an interview before the May,
2011 federal election, Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar NDP candidate Nettie Wiebe said
that "she does not support a redrawing of boundaries that would pry Saskatoon
away from its rural fringe." Nettie Wiebe failed to get elected in this year's
federal election. In 2008, she lost to Kelly Block by approximately 220 votes.
This year, she lost to Kelly Block by about 950 votes (these numbers are based
on estimates I heard on the news, and have not been verified). Based on the way
that the paper analyzed the results when separating the results of polls within
city limits and outside city limits, I feel that the federal election boundaries
in Saskatchewan should not change anytime soon, thus making it easier for the
Conservative Party of Canada to win
most of Saskatchewan's seats. In addition, it will be easier for them to
continue forming subsequent strong, stable, national, majority, Conservative
governments. Another reason for my belief is my personal experience as a Deputy
Returning Officer for Elections Canada on May 2, 2011.
Based on my own poll that I administered, in which I was required to count all
votes, Conservative candidate Kelly Block received about 36 votes.
NDP candidate Nettie Wiebe received 64 votes.
Meanwhile, the Liberal candidate Lee Reaney
received five votes. As for the Green Party
of Canada's candidate, she received one vote. Based on my own results and
similar results at polls around me, I was devastated to learn that
Kelly Block may be indeed defeated. But
as it turns out, she won the election in our riding by an even wider margin than
her previous win in the 2008 election. So, does Saskatchewan's federal electoral
boundaries need to change? My answer to that is a resounding no.
Speaking of the Liberal Party of Canada, as
I did in this paragraph, former prime minister Brian Mulroney has warned about
writing them off entirely, suggesting that the party has ways of reviving
themselves.
The next thing I would like to talk about is the kind of people that we are
turning into in today's society. For instance, in public, if someone were lying
on the side of the road and injured, it seems like most people would just
continue to drive. If they don't plan to pull over, they should at least use
their cellular phones to dial 911. That way, help will be sent to that person.
Instead, everybody seems to be under the assumption that someone else will
eventually do so. As it turns out, that is rarely true. That leads me to
this article, in which a two-year-old girl named Yueyue in China gets run
over by two cars and is left for dead, while other passersby continue to walk
past her dying body and some even avoid her entirely, as seen in the video. This
makes me wonder what kind of society the Chinese, as well as us here in Canada,
live in. If I saw an injured person somewhere, I would at least call for help.
Thankfully, that hasn't happened to me... yet. Now, if something could be done
about it, I would call the police and rat out every driver who talked on their
cellular phones while their vehicles were in motion. As a pedestrian, I see this
more often than not. If I remember correctly, I read somewhere that as of the
summer, more tickets have been handed out for cell phone bylaw violations this
year than 2010 alone. If that's true, that's sad. Unfortunately, I can no longer
find an article regarding that number. If you don't believe me, there is a video
below...
Moving on to another topic...
When was the last time you went to a strip mall? You probably don't remember. A
strip mall is different from a big-box power centre. Here in Saskatoon, we can
compare strip malls to power centres, such as Preston Crossing. Strip malls are
usually found in residential neighbourhoods and are often surrounded by houses.
Unfortunately, strip malls are a dying breed these days. Why? Well, people are
flocking to local shopping malls or big-box power centres, thus contributing to
the slow and agonizing death of strip malls. Most strip malls
in Saskatoon, I've noticed, usually have a small family restaurant, laundromat
or drycleaner, and convenience store that is usually a local business. Then,
depending on how big the strip mall is, the rest of the spaces are... empty.
Some strip malls have been more successful than others, because of their
surroundings. But for the most part, strip malls are a dying breed. In fact,
some neighbourhoods in Saskatoon that have strip malls that I can think of
include Meadowgreen (on Avenue W South), College Park (on Acadia Drive) and
Eastview (on Arlington Avenue). When I was younger, and living in Calgary, my
neighbourhood was Applewood, which had a small strip mall on the corner of
Applewood Drive Southeast and 68 Street Southeast (68 Street has since been
widened). That strip mall, even though it was
kind of a dump, included a Mac's store, a
video store and a hair salon. Although it was a dump, it was convenient, because
the closest Blockbuster Canada Co. store was still three kilometres away, closer
to, but still far from my
school at the time. So, this may be another reason as to why strip malls are
closing. Because strip malls are only truly convenient to punk kids such as
myself these days, perhaps their clientele is shrinking to punk kids. For
example, if you had to go out and get milk, what is your first instinct? For me,
it would probably mean a trip to your local Real Canadian Superstore or Shoppers Drug Mart... in your car.
Sadly, many people have forgotten about the strip malls down the street from
their home. Well, there's a strip mall near my own home too, but I refuse to
visit them. For starters, I feel unsafe at that strip mall. Secondly, the
shopping malls and big-box stores have ample parking and have a lot of other
general merchandise, making it more convenient for me to shop at the big-box
stores, as I can often do all of my shopping in that big-box store. So, most of
the time, I forget about the local strip malls. The only way a strip mall can be
memorable to me is if they have a really good restaurant or something... but due
to strip malls becoming irrelevant, that isn't likely to happen. So, would I
miss my local strip mall if it disappeared? Sure, I'd notice, but I don't know
if I'd miss it. And now, I really don't know where this long paragraph is
heading, but it does lead me to
this article, which I've referenced. Although strip malls are becoming lame,
there are two strip malls in Saskatoon that I occasionally go out of my way to
visit: the Churchill Shopping Centre (by Clarence Avenue South and Taylor Street
East across the street from Aden
Bowman Collegiate) and the Avalon Shopping Centre (on Broadway Avenue near
Cascade Street). When I drive my cousins home, I often use Clarence Avenue
instead of Circle Drive or the Idylwyld Freeway if we're bored, and I stop by
the Mac's store on Clarence Avenue. As for the Avalon-area strip mall, there is
a SARCAN recycling depot there that I often go out of my way for, because I
have a car, and I can. The closest recycling depot to me is the one located on
22nd Street West (which is also part of a strip mall with a few
somewhat-successful businesses and vacant spaces between those aforementioned
businesses... which is near a strip mall that has almost no stores whatsoever,
unless the spaces are rented out during election campaigns). However, sometimes,
when I'm bored, I like to go to the Broadway Avenue location because they have
automatic doors that are from Gyro Tech. So... if there are any
strip malls I actually enjoy visiting, those would be the two. As for the rest
of the strip malls in this city, I don't really care for them. Well, that would
be false, as I did care about Lakewood Common, as it included a Blockbuster
Canada Co. store, which closed in June. Now, although strip malls truly are a
dying breed, they can be repurposed, interestingly enough, according to the
aforementioned article. But aside from that, when was the last time you paid
a visit to a strip mall in your local neighbourhood? In conclusion to this strip
mall matter, I do enjoy visiting strip malls, as they do have a home feeling
attached to the stores you visit (if the strip malls are located in residential
areas and/or seem to have only "mom-and-pop" stores), but I don't really know
how I would feel if they were to suddenly disappear from the face of the earth.
I do, however, find it sad that strip malls are becoming a dying breed, even if
it's slow, thus giving people time to adjust to a life without strip malls.
Again, check out
this article, as it is indeed an interesting read. I know I'm all over the
place in this discussion, and I apologize for that, as I don't even know what my
argument is anymore. I don't know if I'm sad that strip malls are dying, or if
I'm trying to say "good riddance" to them. Although it's sad that strip malls
are dying, I don't know if it's that sad. But interestingly enough, the
vacancy rate at strip malls in the United States is about 11%, according to the
aforementioned article.
Now, I'd like to shift back to politics. Here in Canada, we have a
first-past-the-post system, where a government could be formed in a
parliamentary system by a political party that received the most votes, or
plurality. That is simple, and needs no change. The system is almost a replica
of the system that is used in the United Kingdom. There are some good reasons to
keep Canada's first-past-the-post system, as it is simple, as I've already
explained. The first-past-the-post system is also effective, as it is easier to
throw out governments that are unpopular... like that time Pierre Trudeau was
finally thrown out of office in 1979, only to come back in 1980. As I
type this, I have discovered that David Cameron, the Prime Minister of the
United Kingdom, agrees with me on this front (to be honest, I read this a long
time ago, and I really agree with
his position). As a proponent of Canada's existing first-past-the-post
system that elected a strong, stable, national, majority
Conservative government, I am
"enraged" that Elizabeth May, the
lame leader of the Green Party of
Canada, has chosen to join a legal battle that seeks to change the way
Canadians elect their governments. I believe she should butt out, but I guess
it's impossible for her to do so, as the first-past-the-post system is
apparently unfair to her lame party, even though it somehow managed to get her
elected in the riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands in British Columbia, defeating
Conservative incumbent Gary Lunn.
Since I've already mentioned Pierre Trudeau, I should mention that his son
Justin is just as foul-mouthed as he is! On
December 14, 2011, during question period, he called the
Honourable Peter Kent, the Minister of
Environment, a "piece
of shit." I think it's an absolute disgrace that anyone would use that in
the House of Commons, even if the actions that led to the outburst are
hilarious. Also, is it just me, or has the government been limiting debate a lot
lately? Well, either way, I like it. Listening to the
NDP bicker about bills that are going to be
passed anyway is like listening to someone's empty threats. It's just... sad.
Limiting debate appears to be the only way to get things done... and with a
strong, stable, national, majority, Conservative government, that proves that
the government wants to get things done efficiently as possible in order to move
onto more important business.
The next thing I would like to talk about is the
Saskatchewan
Information & Library Services Consortium. The system is part of a "One
Province, One Library Card" initiative that will essentially allow a user of any
public library in Saskatchewan to check out/return materials at any other public
library system in Saskatchewan. For example, I live in Saskatoon... but have
been known to travel far and unnecessary distances to do things that can be done
closer to my home. An example is me visiting a
CIBC branch in University Heights when I could easily visit the
Confederation Drive branch in Saskatoon and do the exact same thing: deposit
cash money. Anyway, having this system may be a good idea, but it spells trouble
when I'm dealing with it. Since I've been known to travel long distances for no
apparent reason, I thought of something totally pointless, just to say that I
did something totally pointless. The new system allows a library user to borrow
books from another library system if their own library system doesn't carry what
they're looking for. For example, if you are in Saskatoon and were looking for a
book that isn't anywhere in Saskatoon, you can request that a copy of that book
be placed on hold for you and then sent to a branch of your choosing so that you
could pick it up, as long as another library system in Saskatchewan carries that
book, thus eliminating the need for an interlibrary loan. Prior to the fall of
2009, you had to resort to an interlibrary loan. Prior to 2009, every library
had their own individual systems. In the fall of 2009, the
Saskatoon Public Library began
moving to the current provincial library system, followed by every other library
system. So, if you were bored one night and decided to drive out to Prince
Albert like I did in September of 2009, and decided to check out the
Wapiti Regional Library, and then found
something so intriguing that you had to borrow it before coming back to
Saskatoon, where would you return it? Well, prior to the fall of 2009, you'd
have to drive back to Prince Albert just to return it. Now, if you were in that
situation, you could simply return that intriguing book here in Saskatoon. Do
you see where I'm going with this yet? Probably not. But, given these options,
you would have to be crazy not to believe that I wouldn't take advantage of
them, even if it does not serve me with any real advantage. So, given these
options, I've been telling myself that someday, I would like to borrow a book in
Saskatoon and return it in another municipality somewhere in Saskatchewan, then
borrow a book in that municipality and return it in Saskatoon, just to say that I
did just that. When I went to Regina back in August, I totally forgot about it. So, at some point in the near future,
I plan on doing just that. But instead of Regina, it will be Martensville, which
is part of the Wheatland Regional Library
system. However, it is important to note that the Wheatland Regional Library has
a branch in Saskatoon as well, located on Duchess Street. Does it count if I
visit the Saskatoon branch on Duchess Street? After all, it's like I left town,
as my library card says "Saskatoon Public Library," but I'll be using the
services of another regional library system... so it's like I left town, right?
Well, although that may be true, I think it's better if I actually leave town,
so I can say I left town to borrow a book at a library, and vice-versa. And on
December 23, 2011, I did just that, with the help of my friend Nathan.
This summer, a local Saskatoon-based band called
the Sheepdogs won a
magazine cover contest. Although I am happy that a Saskatoon-based (let
alone Canadian) band won the contest, I have yet to listen to their music.
This past summer, the media introduced most Canadians to a guy named Michel
Thibodeau, who lives in Ottawa. This
specific article claims that Mr. Thibodeau and his wife have "filed
some 100 complaints over the dearth of French language services against the
federal, provincial and Ottawa municipal governments-everyone, he says, except
the police." How convenient. As a 43-year-old father, doesn't he have more
important things to do, such as take care of his two kids? The media first
introduced many Canadians to Mr. Thibodeau when it came to light that he
successfully lodged a complaint against Air Canada about 11 years ago about the
lack of French service on an Air Canada
flight. The article suggests that the trouble began when he ordered a 7UP and
got a Sprite instead. Man, if I ordered a
7UP and got a Sprite instead, I would be totally happy, as
7UP sucks in comparison to
Sprite. But, apparently, he was upset because the airline's subsidiary's
announcement couldn't make an announcement in French on his flight, and that's
what apparently ticked him off. In fact, he then took the airline to court and
won in 2005, after filing suit in the
Federal Court
of Canada in 2002. This situation is so ridiculous that it seems like a
waste of time. I would be a lot happier, however, if he
were
to lose. And if I thought I were done, I'm not... as the article further
states: "In 2009, Thibodeau filed seven complaints after trips to Atlanta and
the Caribbean for a lack of French services, including being served a Sprite in
English." I've always thought that I had too much time on my hands. This guy
redefines that belief. If you don't believe what I just said,
just
read the article.
In recent news, there were
media reports of parents buying/ordering/obtaining lollipops licked by children
that already have chickenpox. Once they received the aforementioned
lollipops in the mail from other parents, they would give it to their own kids
to infect them with chickenpox at a young age so that they wouldn't have to deal
with the chickenpox when they get older. In fact, there's a
Facebook page for it. On the page, parents post where they live and ask if
anyone with a child who has the chickenpox would be willing to send saliva,
infected lollipops or clothing through the mail. Medical experts say the most
troubling part of this is parents are taking pathogens from complete strangers
and deliberately infecting their children. One concern is that they are sending
the virus through the mail. I believe it's quite dangerous, illegal and a little
bit odd. If you are a parent who is willing to infect your own kids with
chickenpox, then I believe you are morbid.
On December 15, 2011, America officially ended its Iraqi mission that began
under the presidency of George W. Bush. The only question is... did
anyone really notice?
Up next, I would like to talk about
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in January and miraculously
survived. Her recovery has progressed well, and someday, she may be able to
speak normally again. Until then, I wish her and her husband Mark Kelly the
best. The story of her recovery has been amazing and if you haven't seen her
interview on television yet, I suggest that you
watch it online. Since the video is only available to those within the
United States, you will also need to install
Hotspot Shield. The couple have also
penned a book together, and I know that it will be
worth a read. I just don't have the time to read it, yet.
Some of my own friends have suggested that I should attempt to become the
Prime Minister of Canada. That, thankfully,
will never happen. However, there is one crazy friend of mine who keeps
suggesting that I somehow take over Canada and become the dictator. Now, that
will also never happen, so the only thing to do is dream about it. So, I imagine
that if I were the supreme dictator Canada, a lot of odd things would occur:
Toyota owners would benefit dramatically. I would introduce major tax
credits to existing Toyota owners, and raise taxes on those who do not drive a
Toyota, as people should only be driving vehicles from Toyota. However, I have
not come up with a plan as to what to do once Toyota's demand goes up and they
get overworked.
You shall be able to claim your vehicle(s) as dependant(s) on your
annual tax returns, provided that you treat them like humans. This means you
will be able to claim your vehicle(s) as dependant(s), provided that you
take proper care of them.
That's all that really comes to mind right now... and please keep in mind that I am not serious about these ideas... I just think they're funny ideas.
Up next, I would like to talk about 2GETHER.
It's the name of a show and spoof boy-band with the same name. It was hilarious,
but was cancelled not long after the death of
Michael Cuccione. However,
rumours have surfaced on the Internet that the remaining four members of the
band (Kevin Farley, Noah Bastian, Alex Solowitz and Evan Farmer... or Doug
Linus, Chad Linus, Mickey Parke and Jerry O'Keefe, respectively) are interested
in getting back together and speaking to MTV about making a comeback, including
a movie. There's even a
Facebook page promoting the idea. I hope this idea does indeed come into
fruition.
In recent months, former Saskatoon mayor
Henry Dayday has been
asking for an explanation from the City
of Saskatoon regarding borrowing and funding for major projects that are
being constructed or in the process of being constructed, and has been quite
critical of the city, stating that it has been borrowing too much for those
projects. He recently said that he is considering running for mayor in next
October's municipal election. I hope that he is, as it may finally shake up
local politics in Saskatoon. When it comes to politics, I love the federal
scene, as I find it quite intriguing, and entertaining. But when it comes to
provincial politics, I don't find it as interesting. And when it comes to
municipal politics, my interest is virtually non-existent.
The next thing I would like to discuss is the government's efforts to dismantle
the Canadian Wheat Board's single-desk monopoly.
Bill C-18: Marketing Freedom for Grain Farmers Act, received royal assent on
December 15, 2011. This will allow the government to finally end the monopoly
held by the board, thus giving Western Canadian farmers
marketing freedom. This is good for Western Canada, as farmers in Ontario
have had that freedom for a very long time. This is good, and the Honourable
Gerry Ritz must be hailed! After all, he's our boy from Saskatchewan!
On Wednesday, December 14, 2011, it was announced that
Marriott International Chairman and CEO
Bill Marriott will be stepping down from his position. Although I have never met
Mr. Marriott, I will certainly miss hearing about him through my immediate
management team here in Saskatoon and in Salt Lake City. Even though he lives in
the D.C. area, and the fact that the company is based in the D.C. area, it has
always given me another reason to want to visit Washington, D.C., as I have not
been there before. And yes, I understand that my chances of meeting Mr. Marriott
will now be even slimmer than it was yesterday, but it's still worth a trip to
Washington, even if there's just an illusion of meeting him. Although he is
stepping down,
he reiterated that he is not retiring.
For those of you who still question my brand loyalty when it comes to
Microsoft Corp., I would like to assure
you that I am still a very huge fan of the company, particularly their
Zune, Xbox
360, Windows operating systems and their computer hardware. As for
Google, however, I am a huge fan of most of
their products, particularly their Android
operating system and their search engine. However, when it comes to cellular
phone brands, I am quite brand loyal to
Motorola Mobility,
which coincidentally, will be owned by Google, thus making my brand loyalty to
them even more rewarding, and much easier.
To be honest with you, I'll never be able to make up my mind between the two
companies, as they both make excellent products. As for Apple, you will
never see me with one of their products, ever.
On November 18, 2011, I learned that Kim Jong-il and Václav Havel had died. For
Kim Jong-il, he was the dictator or North Korea while Václav Havel was someone
that started a quiet and peaceful revolution in Czechoslovakia that ended
communism and began a democracy, as well as capitalism in his country. For Mr.
Havel, his passing brings sadness to me. As for Mr. Jong-il's passing, perhaps
his passing will bring positive change to North Korea, which is highly
considered to be an impoverished state. Now, for all of those people who were
publicly weeping, I wonder if their weeping was sincere or staged... it seems so
fake that
it's just sad. This reminds me of
Jack Layton's death here in Canada... but Jack Layton wasn't a ruthless
dictator, and the emotions that people in Canada showed was probably genuine.
For those of you who are opposed to the Government of Canada finally scrapping
the ineffective long-gun registry, you should be ashamed. Why? For
starters, the government is finally following through with their promise, now
that there is a strong, stable, national, majority
Conservative government. In fact, many
police chiefs and front-line officers have spoken out against the long-gun
registry. Among them are Calgary Police
Chief Rick Hanson and
Abbotsford Police
Chief Bob Rich. And yes, I do have
proof of that.
Now... do you think a long-gun registry could have stopped that guy who
shot up four people near Claresholm, Alberta? Speaking of more government
spending, let's talk about the health accords between the federal government and
the provincial governments. Right now, the Government of Canada and its
provincial counterparts have a health accord that will expire in 2014. The feds
have agreed to continue on its path of 6% increases per year in spending beyond
that accord by three years. After that, the increase will be limited to 3%, but it's still an increase. And yet, several
provinces are calling that a "decrease." Obviously, some finance ministers need
a basic math lesson. The only thing I'm curious about is... why is the federal
government even funding healthcare when healthcare is provincial jurisdiction,
as set out by the Constitution?
Moving on... I'd like to talk about Chiquita
Brands International Inc., which recently decided that it would
stop using fuel formed from Alberta's oilsands in their fleet of vehicles
and even pledged to work with a lame organization called
ForestEthics. This has led to a
campaign by EthicalOil.org to launch a
boycott campaign against the company, and I agree with EthicalOil.org's
position, as Chiquita itself isn't exactly "ethical" themselves. Luckily, I have
no problem with boycotting Chiquita, even though they seem to be the only
company that sells bananas to the grocery stores that I actually shop at...
because I hate bananas, despite their apparent nutritional value. As for their
other products, I don't really eat fresh pineapples... so there's no problem there. The
company, however, has
responded to the controversy.
Despite my long blog update, this year has certainly been an interesting year
for conservatism in Canada. I know I may have mentioned this already, but it's
worth mentioning once again. For starters, we had that historic May 2, 2011
election that resulted in a strong, stable, national, majority,
Conservative government, and the first
Conservative majority government since 1988. Then, people in Saskatchewan
re-elected our current Saskatchewan Party
government that almost wiped out the NDP. But
more importantly, the Saskatchewan Party won with 64% of the popular vote.
If only we had conservative city councillors and a conservative mayor in
Saskatoon. I imagine that the city could fund its free-spending ways by actually
having police officers enforce speed limits in construction zones around
Saskatoon. The unfortunate part is that
Jack Layton passed away on August 22, 2011. But regardless, 2011 was
certainly a good year for conservatism in Canada. In fact, the Conservative
Party of Canada's president John Walsh has an
important
message for you.
Now that I've talked about things that been bugging me, we can now move on to a
detailed description of my life since my last blog update.
When I last updated this immaculately-coded blog, I was getting ready to leave
for a nine-day vacation that would include
Ottawa, Montréal and
Québec City. So, let's go back in
time to the morning of June 28, 2011.
On the morning of June 28, 2011, my mom dropped me off at the
Saskatoon John G. Diefenbaker International Airport.
Upon my arrival, I
was greeted
with a long line for the WestJet
counters, as the company does not have
self-serve baggage check-in terminals, yet. Eventually, my flight to Toronto
was a pleasant one, as I got one of the seats at the very front of the plane,
even if I didn't know what the gate number for my next flight to Ottawa would
be. Once I arrived at Toronto's Pearson
International Airport, I finally knew that my next flight would be at gate
C25. I found it odd, however, that even the walkways to the planes
have
advertising on them, but I thought it was really cool that their
gates had
automatic sliding doors. Eventually, I arrived at the
Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International
Airport, where I saw a
full-body scanner. I
would end up stepping into one of those before heading home. Eventually, before
leaving that airport, I had
lunch...
at Harvey's. The meal was quite satisfying,
as it was the first I had food from them in over a year (plus, they don't ration
ketchup supplies like they do at Saskatoon's only location). It was eventually
time to pick up my rental car. Although I reserved a
Toyota Prius, I was provided with a
2011 Toyota Corolla for my travels.
Although I was somewhat disappointed, it did give me a chance to test drive the
newly-redesigned Corolla for my own pleasure. Along the way, I saw some things
that reminded me of home, and my mom, such as a
Giant Tigerstore.
At this point, I was starting to get homesick... but this trip was important to
me, personally. Once I arrived in the Montréal area, specifically Dorval, I
spent almost 15 minutes trying to figure out where my
hotel was. Eventually, I found the
Montréal-Pierre Elliott
Trudeau International Airport, but had problems navigating the walkways and
roads (plus, this was the busiest airport I've seen in a while), adding another
20 minutes or so to the process. Then, once I found the hotel, I had problems
finding another place to park, until a helpful hotel employee told me where to
go to find parking. That took another 10 minutes. Eventually, I found the hotel
and checked in, and
my room was
quite nice and large... especially for a standard room at the hotel. Best of
all, it was only $60.24 per night (before Québec's ridiculous tax rate kicks in,
which ranges from 13.5-13.925%, as that province actually taxes taxed items).
Once I arrived at the hotel, I showered and then headed out to cause some
trouble with Nathan. However, before I headed out to Montréal from Ottawa, I
made a tweet that said the following: "Now
headed to Montréal to visit my racist friend Nathan..." In a
reply made
to me by the Peel Pub on Peel Street,
I was tweeted the following: "You should come to Peel Pub while you're in
Montréal :) Leave Nathan behind though! LOL." Although that was some good
advice, I forgot to go there. Hopefully, they'll be there the next time I visit.
After visiting some joint called Le
Gourmet Burger (they were unhappy when Nathan ordered a veggie burger, as it
probably wasn't popular with a lot of people), we drove 20 minutes to a
sketchy-looking place I discovered back in Saskatoon when I used Google to
search for "Burger
restaurants in Montréal." So, there was one restaurant that looked really
sketchy and was located at
1855 Rue de Salaberry. In the
Street View images provided by Google, the restaurant was still a burger
restaurant that looked really, really small. So, we spent more than 20 minutes
driving there from downtown Montréal, only to discover that it had become a
curry restaurant. I was certainly disappointed. To see all of the pictures that
I may have taken that day,
click here. Anyway, to end the night, we had a nonsensical discussion over a
cup of surprisingly-tasty tea, or at least that's what I'm assuming, as I don't
remember what happened after that pointless venture to that shady burger
restaurant that turned out to be a curry restaurant.
On June 29, 2011, I did a lot of cool things. To start off the day, I drove 20
minutes away from my hotel to Cora for
breakfast.
This would officially be the first time I had visited such a location, before
doing some things I should have done in Saskatoon, such as
depositing
a cheque. I eventually paid a visit to St.
Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal. After that, I walked around the area near
the Canadian Centre for Architecture. I bet
that George Costanza would hang out there if he were in Montréal. But while
walking around, I stumbled upon an unusual Toyota dealer in an unusual location:
Président Toyota. But as it
turns out, there was free parking at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, while
I spent money parking three blocks away from the institution. I eventually drove
around for a bit and drove around the McGill campus. After a brief pause, I
drove through Old Montréal and paid a visit to the
Montréal History Centre,
which was previously a fire station. After taking another break, I went to a
random Loblaws store in Pierrefonds. Eventually, I headed downtown and checked
out the Quays of the Old Port of Montréal before checking out the
Montréal
Science Centre, which has an
idTV exhibit, where I created a video about how
cars are awesome... as seen below (it was uploaded to Facebook exclusively, and
the video had audio problems to begin with):
Anyway, after visiting the science centre, I had an excellent poutine from a
place called Montréal Poutine
before hanging out with Nathan.
We both ended the night by watching an episode of How I Met Your Mother titled "The
Stinsons."
To see all pictures that I took on June 29, 2011, please
click here.
On the morning of June 30, 2011, I drove out to
Québec City, which took
approximately three hours. On my way there, I stopped at a
Tim Hortons
location in Saint-Hyacinthe and ordered something in French. But more
importantly, I
saw
a Toyota dealer called
Angers Toyota. Upon my arrival in
Québec City, I saw a
really
cool bridge, but was also pleasantly surprised to
see
a Microsoft office. Then, I drove
through some pretty cool parts of town before finally finding a parking spot
near the National Assembly. Once I
found a parking spot, I walked around for ten minutes looking for a
washroom, after dealing with a guy who said "I don't speak English." Then, I
checked out the National Assembly, before visiting
Les Galeries de la Capitale,
a mall that includes an indoor amusement park, where I had
lunch...
at McDonald's. On the bright side, I
had a... poutine with my meal. While out and about, I drove by the arena
where the Nordiques
previously played before becoming the
Colorado Avalanche. Eventually, it was time to leave town, and I did
just that. On my way back, I took a picture of a
place
that I saw earlier, where I was confident my cousin Tony would want to
stop. Once I returned to Montréal, I found myself stuck in traffic for
almost two hours... and slowly made my way back into the city. Once I
did that, I spent 40 minutes trying to
Schwartz's, a famous smoked beef
restaurant. However, the place looked like it was closed early, and I
couldn't find a parking spot nearby. So... I moved on and stopped by the
oldest Canadian Tire store
I've
seen in a long time. Eventually, I dropped by Nathan's house, very
tired, and we went to a restaurant across the street from his apartment. I
no longer remember the current name of the restaurant, but a
Google Street View image is available. I do believe, however, that the
restaurant is called "Super Noodles," or something like that. Eventually, I
returned to my hotel, as the next day would be a big, big day. I did stop at
a Future Shop store to buy a
dual-port DC adapter for my rental car (with 14.5% tax) before leaving town.
My only regret is not visiting the
Krispy Kreme location that
I saw,
as there weren't any locations in the Montréal area. To see all photos that
I took on that day, please
click here. As for the Super Noodles restaurant, I found a business card
that I took from them back then:
On July 2, 2011, I went to the
Canada Aviation and Space Museum, which was
totally awesome. Of course, I did start my day off at
Cora, next to a closed
Blockbuster Canada Co. store
on Rideau Street. Then, I went to the
St.
Laurent Centre for lunch, where I ate at
Taco Bell, and felt terrible after
that. Then, I went to the Canada Agriculture Museum, where I saw a bunch of
cool animals. Eventually, I headed out to the
Real Canadian Superstore in
Kanata on Eagleson Road... because I can. In the same day, I also visited
the Real Canadian Superstore in Westboro on Richmond Road, as well as a
closed Blockbuster Canada Co. store on Carling Avenue,
John Baird's
constituency office, IKEA (for lunch), as well as
Pierre Poilievre's
constituency office. Overall, it was an excellent day. The places I listed
prior to this sentence are in no particular order, as I no longer remember
the exact order. Anyway, after visiting the Real Canadian Superstore on
Eagleson Road, I noticed that it was 3:30 pm or so, so I decided to drive to
downtown Ottawa to check into my next hotel: the
Ottawa Marriott, where I
would spend my nights until my return to Saskatoon. Once I arrived at
approximately 4:00 pm, I was told that my room wouldn't be available for
another 20 minutes, and was asked to wait around. Eventually, it got
ridiculous and I was told that it still wasn't ready, so the front desk
associate treated me to some appetizers at the Spin Kitchen & Bar, located
within the hotel. I was served by a bartender who thought he was a hot-shot.
While there, I got myself some crab sliders and mini-burgers, which were
both the most expensive menu items. The food was good, and I ordered a piña
colada, which may have contained a little too much alcoholic content for my
own good, as I felt wiped out once I checked into my hotel room. I fell
asleep and woke up again at around 7:15 pm. Still feeling really dizzy, I
decided to call it a night and spent the rest of the night sleeping.
Eventually, I received an allergic reaction, possibly because I was allergic
to the crab (but usually, I'm fine after eating crab... so this was a
mystery). That night, I wanted to check out the
Bayshore Shopping Centre and
eat at Milestones for the first time before doing some actual shopping at
IKEA, instead of just having lunch there. That didn't happen, and all I did
was continue to try to sleep. Eventually, I had a huge craving for some sort
of carbonated drink and tried to get some pop through room service. The
front desk had told me that it would take 35 minutes or so to get a glass of
pop to me... so, I decided to go downstairs to the front desk and purchase
some pop... at $2.50 per can. Surprisingly, I saw a few cans of
Sprite Zero
available, which was odd, as all Marriott hotels
supposedly only carry Pepsi
beverages and other associated products. Being the
Coca-Cola fan than I am,
I decided to buy two cans of Sprite Zero, and they were really, really good
for some reason. Of course, after getting those two cans of Sprite Zero, I
called my mom back in Saskatoon, like I do every day when I travel. As for
the bartender, the reason he seemed like a big shot is because of how he
acted like a know-it-all. While I was dining, someone that looked like the
head chef at the restaurant said: "Alex, I hear you make a mean piña
colada." Then, the bartender responds: "It's not my specialty, but I do what
I can. Oh... what the hell, I make the best piña coladas out there," while
making a facial remark that made it like I was a major inconvenience to him.
On July 3, 2011, I started my day out by driving along Wellington Street,
only to find that that the stage on Parliament Hill had
yet to
be dismantled. Then, I had breakfast at
Cora, again. The location that I
visited however, just happened to be across the street from the area where
all OC Transpo buses are
stored
overnight. I also saw an open Blockbuster Canada Co. store (at
the time), as well as a restaurant called
Fat
Albert's. After driving around doing nothing, I paid a visit to the
Canada Science and
Technology Museum. I particularly enjoyed the
broadcasting exhibit in regards to television. But more importantly, my
absolute favourite exhibit was called "In
Search of the Canadian Car," which was sponsored by
Toyota Canada and featured a
20th
anniversary edition
2008 Toyota Corolla and the very first Toyota Prius. Eventually, I left the museum, but did see a
vintage
rail car outside, and you could even purchase tickets. Once I did
leave the museum's grounds, I decided to head to the
Real Canadian Superstore on Innes
Road for some allergy medications, where I bought a pack of ten
Reactine pills for $9.99, plus 13% HST
(harmonized sales tax). Don't believe me? I've
got
proof. I needed the stuff, especially after having an allergic reaction
the day before. On the way there, I saw two Petro-Canada gas stations across
the street from another (one location was previously a Sunoco location). For
those of you who care, Petro-Canada
was acquired by Suncor Energy in 2009.
Eventually, the decision was made that all
Sunoco gas stations would convert to the Petro-Canada name, which would
explain why I saw two locations of the same gas station across the street
from another. I also noticed that
Value Village on Innes Road had
automatic sliding doors, while the
roundabout at the
intersection St. Joseph Boulevard and Jeanne d'Arc Boulevard was
surprisingly easy to navigate, as there were signs that clearly indicated
what you had to do as a driver. After all that, I paid a visit to a dim sum
restaurant all the way in Kanata at a place called Fortune Express
Restaurant. The food was...
mediocre at best. While driving along Highway 417 on my way to the
Canadian Museum of Nature, I saw an XV20 generation Toyota Camry (the same
generation as my XV20 generation 2001 Toyota Camry LE)... but what was
important was that it had licence plates
registered in New Mexico. However,
as the car was registered in New Mexico, the car was likely built in
Georgetown, Kentucky as opposed to Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. Eventually, I
paid a visit to the Canadian Museum of Nature, which I enjoyed greatly.
However, I imagine that it would have been more interesting if my cousin
Tony were with me. When I left the museum, I
drove byStornoway, where the
Leader of the Opposition in Parliament lives. At the time,
Jack Layton was
still alive. After scoping out Mr. Layton's Ottawa home, I returned to the
Canadian Museum of Civilization (I went there last year), which had a new
exhibit: "JAPAN: Tradition. Innovation," which featured artifacts and other
things regarding Japanese culture and innovation. I took a limited amount of
pictures before being told I couldn't take any. Once that museum's
interest faded from my mind, I drove by the
Embassy of Socialist Republic of
Vietnam in Canada, which seems to have a reduced budget on actual security, as
they were using a
bike lock to lock their gate. Eventually, I had dinner at
Swiss Chalet (the server was a
jerk, so I took away her tip), before visiting an interesting grocery store associated with
Loblaw Cos. Ltd.: Your Independent Grocer.
That store
felt like a cleaner version of Extra Foods. I also sawBel-Air Lexus Toyota while
driving around, so I had to take pictures... because it was in a
neighbourhood called Bel-Air Heights (at one point, I had an idea: launch a
Canadian version of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air with Peter Poorman
being the star of the show). Before heading back to the hotel,
I paid a visit to the
T & T Supermarket on West Hunt Club Road. In 2009,
Loblaw Cos. Ltd. acquired the chain of Chinese supermarkets. However, when I
visited the store in 2010, it wasn't very obvious. This time around, it was
very, very obvious. In fact, they
even had a
President's Choice Financial
bank machine. To see all of the photos that I took on that day, please
click here. Also, as for my
meal at Swiss Chalet, I was with a friend named Chelsea Colborne, whom I
have known since childhood. The location I visited was located at 4290 Innes
Road. Sure, I could have visited a location on Bank Street that was much
closer to the hotel, but would I get to drive along Highway 417 for 20
minutes just to see the Real Canadian Superstore from my table? Obviously
not. So... I'm glad I made the longer drive just for kicks.
On July 6, 2011, the last day of my nine-day vacation, I found that most
tasks that I had set out to perform were essentially complete. So, what was
there to do? Drive around and find things to do to kill my time. One of
those things involved me attempting to meet the
Honourable John Baird, Minister of Foreign Affairs. As you know, I am a
big fan of Mr. Baird, particularly during
question period. However, prior to that, I drove around and eventually
dropped into a Cora location for one
last meal before heading back to Saskatoon, as I knew that it would be last
meal at a Cora location for a very long time. After doing so, I set out to
meet the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who was at the new Ottawa Humane
Society's headquarters with
Prime
Minister Stephen Harper. Upon my arrival, I attempted to meet Mr. Baird,
but was prevented from doing so by the prime minister's security team. As
such, my dream of being able to meet John Baird failed to come true. I
eventually went for some lunch and had
some
shark fin soup for the first time, ever, at a nice restaurant called Sea
King Shark Fin Seafood Restaurant on Merivale Road. After eating a "small"
bowl of shark fin soup and having a few dim sum items, I left the joint and
wondered what I should do next. I visited a nearby
XS Cargo location before noticing
a sign along Merivale Road that directed motorists to the
Nepean Museum. So, I decided to go
there, and it was a
nice
little museum for the city of Nepean, before it became a part of Ottawa.
Eventually, I returned to Chinatown for some last minute food, as I wanted
some of the "weiner
buns" that were being offered at Kowloon Market. The very last picture I
would take in that city before coming home would be of a dedicated place for
a fire hose or fire extinguisher within a public parking facility owned by
the City of Ottawa. However, instead of an actual fire hose or fire
extinguisher, someone wrote the following on the glass: "IN
CASE OF EMERGENCY YOU ARE SCREWED." Eventually, I decided that it would
be fun to gamble... so I did, by travelling to the
Rideau Carleton Raceway.
The drive was long, but fun. After losing $25 in cash, I decided to leave
the place and drive around Ottawa some more, and lost track of time.
Eventually, I filled the rental car's gas tank with regular gasoline from
Petro-Canada on Hunt Club Road and
headed towards the Ottawa
Macdonald-Cartier International Airport. On the way there, I noticed two
construction sites that would be future sites of a
Residence Inn
hotel, as well as a
Courtyard hotel (both by Marriott).
Now that's progress! Eventually, I made it to the airport and returned the
car, leaving myself only 35 minutes left to actually check-in, go through
security and board my flight. The check-in process wasn't so bad, as it only
took ten minutes and I was greeted by a really nice-looking WestJet employee
named Angela. Then, security moved surprisingly quicker than I assumed. As I
was in line, officials from the
Canadian Air Transport Security Authority were pulling random people
from the lines as they tested them for chemicals (at least they got to skip
long line-ups). Coincidentally, they were all white. Then, when it was my
turn to go through the metal detectors, I had a feeling something would
happen: the metal detector would sound off. I was right. Sadly, I was
wearing sandals shorts and a t-shirt and had removed any metal objects I may
have had on me. Coincidentally, this seems to only happen to me in Ottawa,
as metal detectors have never gone off when I wore similar clothes while
going through security in airports in cities such as
Vancouver,
Calgary,
Edmonton or
Saskatoon. When I was pulled aside for
additional screening, the handheld metal detector continuously beeped as it
went around me. I was then given two options: a physical search or I can
step in a full-body scanner. Being almost late, I decided to opt for the
full-body scanner. Eventually, I did make it on my flight at the last
minute. But as the captain was preparing for take-off to Toronto, someone
felt sick and was pulled off the plane, meaning that I would potentially
miss my connecting flight in Toronto to Saskatoon. As soon as I found out
which gate I would need to visit upon my arrival in Toronto, I ran to the
appropriate gate (C27) for my flight to Saskatoon, which was also delayed
because of my previous delayed flight from Ottawa. When I arrived in
Saskatoon, I was a little unhappy, as I felt like there was some unfinished
business in Ottawa... but I was honestly glad to be back home, as I missed
sleeping in my own bed. However, the hot weather in Saskatoon didn't exactly
help. As for the weather in Ottawa, it finally rained just before I left
that city, which is the type of weather I had been wanting the entire time I
was there.
If there was anything I regretted during this trip, there are two things:
not visiting Krispy Kreme while I
was in Québec City (I assumed they had the donuts somewhere in Ottawa,
based on this page) and not being able to meet the
Honourable John Baird, Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Government of
Canada. Aside from that, I believe my trip was a complete success. Would
I return to the city if given the opportunity? Hell yes! I love that
city, and would love to live there in the near future. As for Nathan,
he was still in Montréal at this point, and I would continue to ask him when
he would "return to Canada." If you are wondering why Nathan was in Montréal
for the entire summer, it all dates back to February, when he got stranded
in Montréal overnight and decided to go out. While he was out, he met some
guy named Médric, and they got together and Médric agreed to come visit
Nathan in Saskatoon. Eventually, plans changed and Nathan was to visit him
in Montréal. The relationship soured and I guess Nathan spent the entire
summer working in Montréal, like a sucker. However, his love for that city
really annoyed the hell out of me. That city may be nice to visit, but I
would never want to live in that city, unless someone paid me a lot of cash
money (that'll never happen). And as far as annoying Facebook status updates
go, this one particularly annoyed me.
From here on in, however, I won't be going into a lot of detail, unless I
plan on talking about something big. So, after getting back from Ottawa,
these were among the highlights in the month of July (in no particular
order, and this includes news, etcetera, regardless of whether or not it was
good):
My cousins Ky and Tho used the "Songify" app on iOS (iPhone, iPod
touch). The app turns something you would say normally into a song. So,
my cousin Tho said "Tony likes Natalie," and created a song titled "Tony
Likes Natalie." To listen to the final product,
click here.
I watched the episode of Gene Simmons
Family Jewels on A&E in which Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed
visit Saskatoon.
I saw my former French 103 professor
Dr. Michael
Tobin (from the University of
Saskatchewan) at the Real
Canadian Superstore on July 22, 2011, the same day the terrorist
attacks occurred in Norway. Wondering how he got to the store, I said,
"I thought you didn't have a car." Dr. Tobin's response was: "I don't.
My friend drove me... he's over there," before pointing to a random area
of the store. To explain this nonsense, I must mention that Dr. Tobin
often said during his lectures that he did not own a car and walked
everywhere that he went. He also says that he refuses to board transit
buses and gets rides from his friends whenever a specific place may be
too far to walk to. Coincidentally, Andrew Pang finally turned 22 years
old that same day.
Taylor Martens returned to Saskatoon to visit his family. However,
we were able to hang out that month and we saw Horrible Bosses
together at
Galaxy Cinemas. My favourite character in that movie will always be
Jamie Foxx's character.
That would officially wrap up the month of July. The month of August would also be an important month.
For the month of August, at least two significant events occurred. Here are
the highlights of that month (both good and bad, and not in any
particular order):
I watched the episode of Murdoch Mysteries
featuring
Prime Minister Stephen Harper. I enjoyed his character because he
was a real prime minister in real life that is playing a man who doesn't
recognize Wilfred Laurier.
I earned $20 in Future Shop
gift cards with their "Tapped In" promotion, where you do things that
they may specify, which were either cool or odd, such as taking a
picture of yourself outside of one of their stores. For each task,
you would receive a certain amount of points. For every five points that
you received, they would mail you a $5 gift card (up to a maximum of
$20).
I went to Calgary to see my cousin Jeannette's baby Isabelle, who
has grown a lot since she was born in May. That trip occurred from
August 12, 2011 until August 14, 2011. There was even a party in her
honour! To check out all of the pictures I took, please
click here.
The
Honourable Jack Layton, Leader of the Opposition in the House of
Commons, passed away during his battle with an unknown cancer (he
wouldn't say, as he wanted to give hope to those who were fighting any
type of cancer). Less than a month ago,
he vowed to fight it, and beat it. Unfortunately, he lost that
battle, and I miss him. His death affected me personally, but I cannot
elaborate on this at this time.
I
ate
at a Harvey's location in Saskatoon
for the first time in nearly seven years, as a new location opened in
Lower Place Riel at the University of
Saskatchewan.
On August 24, 2011, my three evil cousins (Ky, Tho and Tony) and I
travelled all the way to the capital city of Saskatchewan, known as
Regina. We would spend the day causing trouble at places such as the
Saskatchewan Science Centre, both Real Canadian Superstore locations on Rochdale Boulevard and the other on Prince of Wales Drive, Royal Saskatchewan Museum, RCMP Heritage Centre, Cornwall Centre, as well as other places. Before leaving town, however, we all ate at Applebee's for the first time,
and Tony drew "cannons" on his menu, but those "cannons" looked like something else... that
didn't necessarily look like "cannons." To see all of the pictures I
took from that nonsensical trip, please
click here. The only thing I didn't get to do that day, because I
forgot, was borrow some library materials in Saskatoon and return it in
a public library in Regina (and then vice-versa) because... I can. I
eventually did just that, but in Martensville instead of Regina. For my
reasoning behind this odd venture, please
click here.
On August 26, 2011, I was in the Administration Building at the
University of Saskatchewan waiting
for someone to sign my student loan documents. I overheard someone
mention a program offered by the
Government of Saskatchewan that offers a certain amount of money for
graduates who reside in Saskatchewan after they receive their degree. I
interrupted and told them about the
Graduate Retention Program
offered by the government, and explained that those who live in
Saskatchewan or move to Saskatchewan qualify for a rebate of up to
$20,000 of tuition fees paid by eligible graduates that choose to make
Saskatchewan their home and file a Saskatchewan income tax return. So,
his mother, who was also listening, asks: "Who in their right mind would
want to do that?!" As much as I love Saskatchewan, I had to laugh.
August 28, 2011 was a legendary day in Saskatoon, as all elementary
and high school students in Saskatoon returned to school. This day,
however, was particularly important for my evil cousin Tho, who started
his first day of high school.
Nathan bought a Ford Taurus SEL with a seat that pops up from the
trunk that faces traffic behind the vehicle. I got
my
picture taken in it.
An automatic door at the
Confederation Mall
became a manual door, to my chagrin. Also, have you been to that
mall lately? There's only one restaurant left in the food court:
A&W.
My cousin Nathanial
came to visit from Calgary and we went to Canada's only
Fuddruckers location (I would love it if more people would open more
franchises in Canada that aren't in Saskatoon, as mentioned before).
A high school student sues her school for "Wigger
Day."
Some of the Chilean miners that were trapped in a mine for 69 days
reunited.
Rowan Atkinson, best known as Mr. Bean,
was hurt in a crash involving one of his really expensive cars.
Speculation was rampant on what would happen to Charlie Sheen's
character Charlie Harper on Two
and a Half Men. There were rumours that Charlie Harper
would be killed off.
September would be an interesting month, and would also be the month
that starts a period of time I would love to forget. Here is a list of
things happened in the news, and in my life, whether they were good or bad,
in no particular order...
In terms of pictures, September was a somewhat interesting month. Here are
some highlights of the pictures I've taken in September:
Blockbuster Canada Co.'s closing sales began that month. I took a
lot of pictures,
starting on September 9, 2011. On September 10, 2011, I began taking
pictures of the
Confederation store in Saskatoon. On September 11, 2011, I began
taking pictures of closing sales
at the Erindale store.. "10 for $10" sales began
Blockbuster, now owned by DISH Network Corp., introduced
"Blockbuster Movie Pass" to the public. For now, it'll only be available
to DISH Network Corp. subscribers for $10 a month.
Lame.
Apple confirmed a "Let's talk iPhone" event, which later became an
event for the
introduction of the current iPhone 4S. Sadly, Steve Jobs
would
unfortunately die shortly after that event.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie did something sensible by
deciding to veto a tax credit for that stupid show Jersey Shore.
The first 53 of 253 Blockbuster Canada Co. stores slated to
close
were closed as of September 25, 2011. The remaining 200 stores closed as
of 5:00 pm local time on
September 30, 2011. Before store 07084 (105
Confederation Drive) closed, I talked an employee named Len, who had
been working there for four years or so. I told him how much I would
miss the stores, and he said it was nice to hear what I had said. To see
all of the pictures of closed stores I've taken to date, please
click here.
A
video of an elderly couple trying to figure out how to set up their
webcam became viral, after it was posted on
YouTube by someone evil within
their own family.
As for my personal life, September was a month I would prefer to forget.
It started off on a sad note, and ended on a somewhat happy note. When the
month began, I had to contend with the fact that Blockbuster Canada Co.
would be
pulling the plug on itself (I eventually got some good deals at the
store, including ten movies at $1.00 each, including some new releases).
But, I did get a
new phone... even if I had to deal with a lame courier named
DHL. I also shelled out
some serious cash money for a new mattress, but it was beneficial, as I now
have an extremely comfortable mattress for the time being. I also bought a
copy of The Breakfast
Club for $3.99 after using a $1.00-off coupon at my local
Blockbuster Canada Co. before Grant
Thornton obtained a
court order to shut down the company's remaining stores (and yes, I
already explained that
I miss
Blockbuster Canada Co.). Then, on September 8, 2011, I learned that the
television show Outsourced
was cancelled. But, I did get to see my cousin Duy's son Alexander for the
first time.
But at some point in life, the
Canadian Tire app on my phone actually came in handy when I was at the
Confederation store, and the sign indicating the price for a certain item
was incorrect... so I used the app's ability to scan barcodes to check the
price on something. The best part of the month was the season premier
episodes of How I Met Your Mother
(particularly the episode when Ted ran into Victoria and the one with
"Punchy's" wedding) and Two and a
Half Men (even if the way they killed off Charlie Harper was lame).
Not long after that, parking your
Toyota
Tundra on your lawn
became an official
trend in my neighbourhood. I also watched Lethal Weapon for
the first time that month, as well as the remaining three movies by the end
of that month. I even discovered
footage from a
videogame based on the show Full House modeled after those
Street Fighter games, which looked like it could have been a huge hit.
I was then mentioned in this
blog update by writer Brittany Kemp from Erie, Pennsylvania. I also
stumbled upon something I
hadn't
read in a while, which was introduced by
Martin Sargent on TechTV's The
Screen Savers more than years ago!
But on September 27, 2011, I announced my intentions to do something in
direct contradiction to what I had been saying for the last two years
("dating is for suckers"):
By making the above aforementioned status update, I announced my intentions
to ask someone out on a
potential date. However, it wasn't clear to anyone... yet. The woman I
had wanted to ask out was also turning 21 that very day. Throughout the day,
I had tried to find the perfect opportunity at school to ask her out in my
own nonsensical way. I did, however, give her a nonsensical birthday card
with a nonsensical gift, but even that moment seemed impossible. After going
home without actually asking her out, I decided: "Nuts to that. I'll just
call her tonight." So, just before 9:00 pm on September 27, 2011, I called
her and asked her if she would go out with me in my own
unique-and-nonsensical way "within the next 25 years," and I was really,
really nervous, as it had been a very long time since I had asked anyone
out. So, when she said "Sure, we could try that." It is important to note
that we were friends prior to this occurrence and/or development. So,
surprised by the fact that a woman (a beautiful one, too) would even say yes
to the idea of going out with me, I then made another Facebook status
update, as follows, with the support of important Facebook friends:
At the time, I was quite proud of myself, as I managed to get a cool-looking
woman to go out with me. So, I was confident, even if I became a sucker.
However, I would later regret this task, as little did I know, things would
fail to work out in less than two months and we wouldn't even be friends
anymore. So, this is why I say that
dating is for suckers.
More about this mysterious woman can be found by
clicking here.
So, if you are wondering why September is a month I'd like to forget, you
now know why. The thing I disliked most about that month is the loss of
Blockbuster Canada Co. Well, there's something else, but I'd rather not talk
about that other thing.
The month of October was a better month, but nothing really special
happened. By this time, Blockbuster Canada Co. had just disappeared from the
Canadian landscape, and there would about be about 400 empty stores across
Canada. But, it would also be the start of another dreadful month (to me,
anyway). The cool thing, however, was that there was a provincial election
in five provinces and/or territories. In Ontario,
Dalton McGuinty's Liberal
government was sadly re-elected with a minority government. In Newfoundland
and Labrador, incumbent-after-taking-over-from-Danny-Williams premier
Kathy
Dunderdale's government was re-elected with a majority. In Prince Edward
Island,
Robert Ghiz's Liberal government was re-elected with a majority
government. In the Yukon,
Darrell Pasloski's Yukon Party government was
re-elected with a majority government. In Manitoba,
Greg Selinger and his NDP government got re-elected with a fourth majority
government. And... in the Northwest Territories,
where no political parties exist,
Bob McLeod was chosen as the territory's
premier. Basically, everyone got re-elected. Meanwhile, Conservative MP
Michael Chong decided to renew
his efforts to "improve" the decorum during question period. I think he
should give it up, especially since
question period is fine just the way that it is. But on the bright side,
The Simpsons was renewed
for two more years, giving the show an end
after 25 years on television. My evil cousin
Tho, meanwhile,
turned 14 years old on October 8, 2011. Thanksgiving, however, was
excellent, as I got to see some family members I don't get to see very often. I also took my cousin Tony to a Blockbuster Canada Co. store, knowing that all
of their stores had closed at 5:00 pm local time on September 30, 2011. I
told him that I would buy him anything he wanted within the store. In fact, I told him I was
willing to buy him the entire store. Of course, by the time I got
there, the store was... closed forever,
and Tony... cried like a little girl. However, I believe I have taught him a
valuable lesson... and that lesson is:
if it
sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I also parked in the middle
of parking lot to
prove a pointless point. I also decided that
Franklin D. Roosevelt had to be the coolest U.S. president in that
country's history, as he managed to nominate eight judges to the
Supreme Court of the United States
as well as re-nominate a judge that had resigned... kind of like how prime
ministers in Canada stack the Senate with their buddies before they retire.
The only person who wouldn't do that is
Prime Minister
Stephen Harper (he's got way too much class to do that). But on October
17, 2011, I was on a 2008 New Flyer DE40LFR (0818), and I may have been the
only one on the bus wearing sandals. I also bought cheap
non-alcoholic beer at the
Real Canadian Superstore at $0.98 for a six-pack. However,
throughout the entire month of October, for the most part, I had problems
sleeping... but I'm still not comfortable telling the entire world why,
despite telling you about my life in great detail. But... my uncle, who I
think is now going through a "mid-life crisis,"
bought a scooter. There was
also
an auction for most of the items that were still left within the
Blockbuster Canada Co. store (store 07109) located at 1505 8th Street East,
including the store's old computers and point-of-sale terminal equipment. I
also watched the
leaders' debate on October 25, 2011 in the lead up to the
provincial election here in Saskatchewan, but it was like watching something
that took place during the 1980s... and it was also incredibly boring.
However, the election resulted in the
Saskatchewan Party winning a huge majority government. But
on October 27, 2011, I actually made it a point to tune into MTV Canada for
the first time, ever, because America's favourite losers Beavis and
Butt-head officially made their return to television in a television show
simply titled Beavis and Butt-head. That night was a night to
remember. In addition to this, however, Saskatoon Transit schedules are
finally available through Google Maps as a supplement to the
Saskatoon
Transit's Click & Go service. And by the end of the month, four separate
women had made outrageous claims of sexual misconduct against Republican
presidential candidate Herman Cain. He has since
dropped out of the race.
I also took advantage of a
great deal more than once. However, one day in the Thorvaldson Building,
I was eavesdropping when there were two women who were talking about their
relationships. Here's a "transcript" of the conversation:
Woman #1: "I think I'm going to fly out there and meet him."
Woman #2: "How long have you guys been dating?"
Woman #1: "Three months! I can't wait... I haven't met him before!"
That situation reminded me of someone I know.
Now, in terms of Flickr pictures, I took 211 photos. To see them all,
click here. But in terms of highlights, look below:
On the
morning of October 1, 2011, I took pictures of all
Saskatoon-area Blockbuster Canada Co. stores that had closed either on September
30, 2011, or back in June. The
Lakewood Common store had closed in June, while
the remaining three stores in Saskatoon closed as of September 30, 2011. For all
pictures from all periods of time since the company was placed into
receivership,
click here.
Someone performed a useful public service by "correcting"
a sign.
I went through an
old high school yearbook and noticed that the only
person who hasn't really changed in appearance since graduation is a guy
named Willy.
I saw a
Toyota RAV4... but more importantly, it
was from Montana.
This is important to me, as I had never seen a Montana licence plate
prior to October 28, 2011.
The NDP in Saskatchewan has
no consideration for our self-interested
desires, as proven by this
campaign poster found at the
University of
Saskatchewan. The party's slogan is: "Positive Change Where You
Benefit." Well, as a first-time homeowner, how would rent control
benefit me?
Obviously, that slogan is a hugelie.
But in the news, some interesting things did happen, but in no
particular order, both good and bad (remember that this is stuff I care
about, and that all general news can be found on
this blog):
It was
announced that a TV show based on the Beverly Hills Cop
movies would be created. The cool part is that Eddie Murphy will come on
the show now and then. Sadly, Beverly Hills Cop IV will never
happen.
After deciding to split its mail service from its streaming service,
Netflix
changed its mind.
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay was chosen to star
in a fourth show. This time, the show features failing hotels,
rather than failing restaurants, like Kitchen Nightmares.
Bernard Madoff only regrets bilking his own family. As for the
clients he ripped off, he
could care less. Maybe it's not a bad thing he's spending life in
prison.
The Conservative government introduced a bill that will
add 30 seats to the House of Commons that will benefit British
Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and sadly, Québec.
Last month was certainly an interesting month... I think. Let's start off with a bunch of pictures I took,
which totals 165 pictures.. Among them, there are some awesome pictures,
as listed below:
I wanted to see how creepy my facial hair would be if I didn't shave for
the entire month. Here is the
before,
"before
the start" and "after"
picture.
Two
new
temporary signalized intersections to re-route traffic around
Preston Avenue South and Circle Drive opened up. These intersections act
as a detour around the construction site of a new interchange that will
likely open in late 2012.
Many people in my neighbourhood didn't carefully read
their garbage collection schedules. As such, a lot of people rolled
their garbage container
carts to the curb, only to be disappointed, as there was no garbage
collection on November 9, 2011. That was the week bi-weekly pick-ups
began.
I got more than
one free
block heater timer from
SaskPower. I rarely plug in my car in the winter, so this free item
wasn't really useful, especially with the warmer weather Saskatchewan
has experienced in recent weeks. So... I guess I just like free stuff,
even if I have no use for the free stuff.
As for the news, there are some interesting highlights (that matter to me). Here they are, both good and bad, and in no particular order.
Remember that devastating fire that destroyed most of Slave Lake, Alberta?
As it turns out,
arson may be the main cause.
Two women stole too much liquor from an
ASDA store and got help stuffing it in their car's trunk. Then, they ran
out of gas and had to push their car to the nearest gas station.
They failed, especially since they tried it again.
Overall, the month of November wasn't a bad month, if you exclude the last two weeks of the month.
For starters, it was snowing on November 1, 2011, and I was still wearing
sandals, so I was proud of that. I also took
advantage of this deal more than once. But more importantly, my cousin
Jenny had her first baby, after being told that she would never be able to
have kids. She gave birth to a baby girl named
Cadee on November 7, 2011.
The only problem is that she lives in Alabama, and I refuse to ever visit
that state. In fact, November 7, 2011 was overall, an excellent
day. On that day,
Conrad Murray was found guilty in connection with the
death of Michael Jackson and the
Saskatchewan Party government got
re-elected with a massive landslide majority government. I also managed to
write a decent 10-page paper for my
POLS 364: International Terrorism class,
even if I wrote the paper one night before the due date. I wrote the paper
about the rise and future potential-fall of the al-Qaeda terrorist
organization, and even compared the terrorist organization to
Blockbuster's
rise during the 80s and 90s and its
fall from grace in recent years. But,
another important development that occurred the was the destruction that had
occurred on the lawn of Nathan's parents, who proudly displayed a
contagiously-disgraceful lawn sign supporting
Cam Broten, the
NDP candidate
wanting to be re-elected in the constituency of
Saskatoon Massey Place
during the November 7, 2011 Saskatchewan provincial election that resulted
in a
massive majority government for the Saskatchewan Party. Sadly, he got
re-elected. Prior to the destruction, the original sign that was at the
house had already been
vandalized by some
punk(s). Conveniently, this destruction was caught on video, as shown
below...
Sure, my metallic grey XV20 generation 2001 Toyota Camry LE can be seen in the video, but that's just coincidental...
so you can just ignore that.
Now, also in November, I bought a copy of
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.5, which helped me compose a good part
of this really long blog update that isn't anywhere close to being over. I
also hung out with my traffic-signal-loving friend
Ryan Harder for the
first time. During that same weekend, however, I had to travel to and
from Willowgrove three times in under 24 hours. And despite getting a good
night's rest, I felt very grouchy when I woke up, and even made a point
about it on Facebook:
Through one of the comments, however, I learned that the "mean streets" of
College Park neighbourhood in Saskatoon is filled with nothing "ghetto
Vietnamese people and Ghanaians left and right." If that is true, I should
move to that neighbourhood, as I am Vietnamese, and would probably fit right
in.
But on November 14, 2011, I made an important discovery: I have a favourite
tire brand, and that brand is Michelin. It will remain that way until
Toyota
Motor Corp. starts making tires... then I'd just get Toyota Genuine Parts
when it comes to tires. Now, what I found funny was this article that
explained how a
bunch of kids created their own version of To Catch a
Predator in an attempt to lure an actual predator, just to humiliate
them. At some point during the month, however, I started to listen to
2NE1,
despite suggestions to do so as early as four years ago. But as of November
23, 2011, my mom got into the business of impersonating me. Although it only
happened once, it quickly got out of control as of that moment. On November
21, 2011, I attended the funeral of a gentleman named Clive Ebanks, who had
died from complications from liver cancer. What bothers me about his death
is that I talked to him just less than eight hours before his death, and he said
he was feeling "fine." In fact, he had told me that he planned on asking out
a woman that he really liked (sadly, that woman will never know how he felt
about her). That just makes things worse, and really scares me, as we all
know someone who has been affected by some sort of cancer. As for Clive's
Facebook profile, he never had one. Why? In 2009, when I called him up, he
said that "Facebook is for hipsters and white people." It would be at least
two years later before I knew what the term "hipster" even referred to. On
November 22, 2011, I returned to school after skipping for a day. On
November 23, 2011, someone I asked out
back in September informed me that
she was seeing someone now, and I overreacted (not by yelling) and asked her
who she was seeing. When she said that it didn't really matter, I acted
strangely for two days... and on November 25, 2011, we both (more like her)
decided that it was best to stop being friends altogether, and we went our
separate ways, and the timing could not have been any worse. Although I felt
"angry" that she decided to end any sort of affiliation with me, with the
exception of school-related issues, I felt upset, and somewhat sad. But now,
I have moved on from that friendship, and sadly, any feelings I had towards
her, even as a friend, have now been replaced with feelings of resentment.
On November 27, 2011, exactly eleven years since the last time the
Liberal
Party of Canada won a majority government in Canada, I was writing a 14-page
paper for my
POLS 261: Introduction to International Politics class.
Thankfully, the professor had extended the paper twice, and I managed to get
a "decent" mark (one over 50%).
And on November 30, 2011, I wrote an
in-depth article for University of Saskatchewan students on how to
access your list of classmates through the old PAWS Course Tools software.
As of this school year, the school has switched to
Blackboard Learn as a
replacement for Course Tools. You will be able to see class lists only if
your instructor has enabled the feature that allows you to send emails to
all student users. For the most part, most instructors have, but some have
made it a point to not enable the feature. As such, the article shows you
how to gain access to that list of classmates/members through the old Course
Tools software if your professor has not enabled the email feature within
Blackboard Learn. The article was mentioned by
The Sheaf, but to
negative
feedback, as it appears.
Well, that is all for the month of November. The part I dislike about this
month was that I lost two friends (one I'll never see again, and one I will
see... again).
Well, my recap of the month of November is done, which means that I can talk
about December, which means this blog update is almost done... not.
For the month of December, not a lot of things have happened between the
beginning of the month and today, December 29, 2011. So, we'll start off
with the pictures I've taken so far this month.
The following are the highlights of this month's pictures, so far (both good
and bad):
I found a reason to visit the Real Canadian Superstore at
between 12:01 am and 6:00 am. I then visited the store located at
2901 8th Street East after 12:01 am on a Saturday morning. It's usually
not worth visiting
at
that time. But on the bright side, they did find an unconventional
way to fix a problem with an automatic sliding door:
add
another sensor.
When it comes to the news, a lot of things happened this month too.
Here is my list of highlights from the beginning of this month up until
today (the stuff I care about), December 29, 2011:
Well, this month has been interesting, despite not having to go to school for long. Now,
it's time to talk about my life in as-close-to-excruciating-detail as
possible. On December 1, 2011, students such as I were asked to evaluate our
POLS 248: Foundations of American Government instructor. I, as well as
two other students, gave him high marks on every aspect of his teaching.
One student actually even said the following about our professor: "I trust
(professor's name) with my life. If he were to tell me the sky were green,
I'd probably believe him. He's the only reason I wake up every morning." I
agree with that statement. December 2, 2011 was our last day of classes at
the University of Saskatchewan.
Just after 12:00 am on Saturday, December 3, 2011, I went to the
Real Canadian Superstore to buy
specific "door crasher" items. I even had food from
Burger King at 2:02 am. Later that
day, my friend shared this video with me, which I found hilarious:
Although the idea may be cool, I'd rather not have one of Mr. Obama. But
if I were to have one of Mr. Obama, I'd try to grow an afro, and then shave
the Chia head in this manner:
Earlier this month, I was given a link to an interesting video in which a
"Wall Street CEO" gives a bunch of "Occupy" squatters the "smackdown," as
displayed in the video below:
Between the last exam and the next one, I basically did nothing but watch
movies and procrastinate until my next final exam, which would be on Friday,
December 16, 2011. Between that time, I did get to spend some quality time
with my evil cousins. However, once final exams did roll around, eventually,
I would write my
POLS 364: International Terrorism on December 16, 2011 and my
POLS 236: Classical Medieval and Renaissance Political Thought final
exam on December 17, 2011. All political studies students at the University
of Saskatchewan must take the following classes in order to receive
their degree (as well as other courses for credit):
The political theory courses listed above are a nightmare. Sadly, we
political studies students are forced to take them at some point.
So, once that
POLS 236 class came to an end for me, I was quite happy. What I found odd,
however, was that the final exam for my POLS 236 class was in the Engineering
Building. As for my final exam on Friday, December 16, 2011, I waited for my
friend Larry Chen,
who decided to ditch me in favour of another friend... so I waited around for an
hour for absolutely nothing, and that really ticked me off.
During the weekend (December 17-18), two people died. First, we had the death of
Václav Havel,
who I consider to be a hero. Then, there's Kim Jong-il, whose passing I hope
brings positive change to North Korea
once and for all. On December 19, 2011, I started mailing out nonsensical
letters and pictures to select friends and family members in addition to
greeting cards I may have already mailed. To see what I mailed out,
click here.
On December 20, 2011, I wrote my last final exam for this semester. The class I
wrote the exam for was
POLS 248: Foundations of American Government. By 11:00 am, I was free from
final exams, and I guess that's the feeling Western Canadian farmers will soon
have,
when they get marketing freedom. Later that day, I paid to have my XV20
generation 2001 Toyota Camry LE's regular maintenance performed, and that hurt
me, financially... but was required. This same day was the last day of school
for those annoying elementary and high school students around Saskatoon.
Not long after the last of my final exams, my evil cousins came over and made my
house smell funny, temporarily. I don't remember much from December 22, 2011.
But on December 23, 2011, which was also
Festivus, I drove out to
Martensville to take advantage of
the flexibility provided by the
Saskatchewan Information & Library Services Consortium, as explained
here. Meanwhile, on Christmas Eve, I took my mom out for dinner after
work... and we went to Red Lobster,
thanks to a gift card that was provided to me by my workplace. Before that, I
mailed my friend Jesse Finnman in Calgary some gifts as a housewarming gift
(ketchup, beans and "overpriced" liquor). For the ketchup and beans, I was even
considerate enough to get him gift receipts. As for the "overpriced" liquor, I
bought him a bottle of wine for $12.99 at a liquor store owned by the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority (SLGA). Eventually,
I did my Boxing Day shopping at Future Shop...
online. The only thing I bought was this
Android tablet computer.
December 25, 2011, known as Christmas Day, was a day I spent at my home,
enjoying the things that I don't usually get to do: mindlessly surfing the
Internet and going through a stack of movies that I should have watched when I
first bought them (particularly the ones that I bought at Blockbuster Canada
Co.'s store closing
sales).
As for Boxing Day, I went to a number of places, with my mom. We started off
with Sears (which wasn't as busy as previous
years), before heading to the Real Canadian
Superstore. At the Real Canadian Superstore, I bought myself a
Blu-ray player for $88.00, a flash drive for $5.00 that came with 50 free
prints from PhotoLab.ca, and a DVD copy of Zookeeper. We also made stops
at the Saskatoon Co-op Marketplace,
Walmart,
Canadian Tire and
Costco. Eventually, I spent some time at
home, before going out with my evil cousins Ky and Tho to see a hilarious movie:
A Very Harold & Kumar 3D
Christmas. What's cool about the movie was that it was in 3D. But more
importantly, the movie was hilarious. Of course, with 3D glasses,
there's always the possibility for fun, as seen
here
and here.
As for Tuesday, my cousins came over to my house,
and stunk
it up, again. However, they didn't get to spend much time at my house.
Yesterday, I spent most of my time at home, except for that time I went to
Burger King. Then, I spent some more
time at home before meeting my old friend Jennifer (from high school) at the
Mall at Lawson Heights. We
talked for almost two hours over coffee, and it was great to be able to actually
hang out with her for the first time since Halloween... in 2010?! Yeah... that's
how sad it has been. I'm glad we did get to see each other again though, as
there was a lot to catch up on. She told me that I would get along with our
friend Carmen's boyfriend, Richard, whom I have yet to meet. She explained that
Richard believes schools should be privatized, and that he has no solution for
those who cannot afford it. By the sounds of it, he may be more conservative
than I seem to be. Eventually, I ran some errands last night after hanging out
with Jennifer, and I hope we can do that again sometime soon. It was an
excellent time. In fact, she brought her had with her because she didn't have
enough time to drive him home after having lunch with him. So, he left us alone
and said: "Well, I'm going to go do some monkey business and you guys can do
your own thing." Out of my friends' parents, her dad is one of my favourite. My
other favourite is Nathan's mom, since I am able to make fun of her so freely
without any serious consequences. Eventually, I spent the rest of my free time
working on this blog update before watching a whole lot of television.
As for today, I spent all of my free time working on this blog update, except
for that awesome lunch I had today: boneless chicken wings, cheesecake and a can
of Coca-Cola. Aside from working on this
blog update, I was happy to see that Canada
Post recognizes how important it is to
park on my
lawn. Earlier tonight, I watched a new episode of Beavis and Butt-head
on MTV.
Well, that's it for today...
Now, it's time for forward-looking statements...
This year has certainly been an interesting one. We've seen change in countries
like Greece, Italy, Egypt and Libya. But as for me, I'd say this year was a
neutral year, even if I lost some things and people that were important to me.
Things I am happy about that occurred in 2011 include the election of a majority
government for the first time in 11 years, as well as my return trip to Ottawa
and Montréal (as well as my visit to Québec City). What I
didn't like about this year was that Blockbuster Canada Co.
disappeared, I
got some lingering bad news (sometimes, I cry when I'm alone, or when I'm trying
to sleep), I lost a couple of friends and had my heart broken.
However, 2011 was an important year too, as I started to get into How I Met Your Mother, as I watched the first six seasons in under two weeks.
As for the current season, Ted Mosby had stopped believing in himself, and I
feel the same way. In fact, I've stopped believing in myself in recent months.
This applies to my love life, and anything else in my life right now. Given the
opportunity to pursue love again in a serious relationship, I would be open to
it, if anyone is actually willing to date a crazy guy like me, whose odd
interests include traffic signals, transit buses and automatic doors. As for the
show, the latest episode revealed that Robin Scherbatsky could not have
children, which made it mildly depressing. At this time, watching this show is
one of the few things I look forward to at the beginning of every week, as the
current events that occur on that show seem to strongly reflect my own life...
and that's kind of scary, and sad at the same time. However, that show is rather
interesting and funny. We've all seen the characters mature over the course of
the show... Barney Stinson is no longer the womanizer we're used to seeing.
Meanwhile, Ted Mosby became the youngest person in New York to design a
skyscraper, but his quest for the perfect woman is driving him crazy, as he
can't seem to find the woman that's right for him... yet. Marshall and Lily
haven't changed by much, but they are having a baby. And as for Robin, it's
obvious that she has feelings for Barney, who broke up with Nora for her, only
to see her reject him for Kevin (Kal Penn). At this point, it's hard to predict
where the show will go, but I look forward to its return on January 2, 2012. For
some spoilers of the next episode,
click here.
As 2011 comes to a forced end in a number of days, I would like to take this
opportunity to say the following, in case I don't make another blog update by
the end of Saturday: happy new year! Yes, I am serious when I say that I hope
you have a happy new year! Although 2011 was a good year (I guess), I am hoping
for a better year in 2012. In addition, although I was absent for a considerable
period of time, this recent term of classes (Term 1) at the
University of Saskatchewan has been one of my
best (especially since I had two classes with my friend Kojo). For the first
time in my university career, I have managed to obtain a final grade of over
90%, and I am extremely proud of that fact. However, because of the ups and
downs of 2011, I am ready to put this past semester of school, and to a lesser
extent, this entire year, behind me. I look forward to a new semester at school,
even if my friend Kojo won't be in any of my classes (he is a good friend and I
enjoy being in the same classes with him, especially when we engage in 'friendly
racism'). Although the last few months have been tougher than I'd like them to
be, I do value my friendships very much. Over the past few months, Kojo, Nathan, Jennifer, Larry Chen, David Couchman (and someone I'm no longer
friends with) have been extraordinarily helpful to me by providing me with
support that I have never dreamed of, and I will never be able to thank them
enough. They have been there for me when I needed someone to talk to. They have
been there for me when I needed help, physically... and they have been there for
me when I needed notes from classes/lectures that I have missed. Again, I will
never be able to thank them enough for the help that they have provided me with,
but I do have one thing to say to them: thank you very much for your concerns.
It's also times like this where I truly appreciate family members, particularly
my mom, despite the fact that I say that she's "evil." Although she may be
"evil," especially when she calls me a "bastard," or impersonates me, I do love
my mom very much. As for Kojo, he is currently in Mexico, and told me a
fascinating story that may involve racial profiling. Coming from him, those
types of stories are usually quite hilarious, and I look forward to seeing him
again upon his return to Canada, where he belongs.
It is now past midnight as I finish this really long blog update, so please
replace anything that happened "today" (December 29, 2011) with an imaginary
"yesterday," as if it technically happened yesterday, since it is now December
30, 2011, and no longer December 29, 2011. If you've managed to read any part of
this really long blog update, or the entire blog update, like some people do,
I'd like to thank you for reading this really long blog update, as it would be
my first blog update in more than six months. Anyway, I am looking forward to
2012, as well as a new semester of school. I hope that you have a happy new
year, and I would like to extend my best wishes to you in 2012. Please don't
drink and drive, and I hope you have fun on New Year's Eve. As for me, I am
forced to work on New Year's Eve. As of today, however, I was invited to a New
Year's Eve party that I wouldn't mind attending. The only problem is that...
it's in Regina, and I work until 11:00 pm on December 31, 2011 here in
Saskatoon. Anyway, I hope you have an excellent 2012... and remember,
DON'T GET RIPPED BY THE RIPTIDE!
Hello my Internet friends! It has been a very long time since I've last
updated this immaculately-coded blog. As such, this may be the longest blog
update you ever read from this crazy guy. So if you're ready to waste a whole
lot of time reading this blog update, you're going to need a lot of time. This
means that Nathan's dad may end up spending months and months reading this blog
update, as it is the first blog update in almost six months (or more).
One
day this past summer, when my friend Taylor Martens visited Saskatoon after
moving away to Burnaby, British Columbia two years ago, we had a discussion
about how life is outside of Saskatoon. He, for one, does not like living in
Saskatoon and seems to despise it. Unlike Taylor, I do love Saskatoon, for very
odd reasons. For starters, I like the way most of Saskatoon's traffic signals
are set up... they're fairly simple, and cool-looking. And up until recently, I
thought that the 
When was the last time you went to a strip mall? You probably don't remember. A
strip mall is different from a big-box power centre. Here in Saskatoon, we can
compare strip malls to power centres, such as Preston Crossing. Strip malls are
usually found in residential neighbourhoods and are often surrounded by houses.
Unfortunately, strip malls are a dying breed these days. Why? Well, people are
flocking to local shopping malls or big-box power centres, thus contributing to
the slow and agonizing death of strip malls. Most strip malls
in Saskatoon, I've noticed, usually have a small family restaurant, laundromat
or drycleaner, and convenience store that is usually a local business. Then,
depending on how big the strip mall is, the rest of the spaces are... empty.
Some strip malls have been more successful than others, because of their
surroundings. But for the most part, strip malls are a dying breed. In fact,
some neighbourhoods in Saskatoon that have strip malls that I can think of
include Meadowgreen (on Avenue W South), College Park (on Acadia Drive) and
Eastview (on Arlington Avenue). When I was younger, and living in Calgary, my
neighbourhood was Applewood, which had a small strip mall on the corner of
Applewood Drive Southeast and 68 Street Southeast (68 Street has since been
widened). That strip mall, even though it was
As 2011 comes to a forced end in a number of days, I would like to take this
opportunity to say the following, in case I don't make another blog update by
the end of Saturday: happy new year! Yes, I am serious when I say that I hope
you have a happy new year! Although 2011 was a good year (I guess), I am hoping
for a better year in 2012. In addition, although I was absent for a considerable
period of time, this recent term of classes (Term 1) at the
