Winter's Back?

Check out my local weather forecast . . . and don't forget about the winter storm watch. This is seven shades of bullshit if you ask me . . . but you didn't did you. But come on feel my pain, I just pulled my Camaro out of storage and I've got my bike sitting there begging to be ridden. Oh well it can't last . . . can it?

But enough of the weather, how about something that might be of interest to business travellers? You'd best hope that your company doesn't follow the Deutsche Bank's suit as according to this article (as an added bonus it taught me a new phrase) they've told their executives that they can't claim trips to whore houses and hotel room porno on company expense accounts. All I can say is that I hope that my boss doesn't get any ideas from that article.

It seems that I've got a few more weddings on the horizon, and here I thought I was done with that. I guess I must've made some new friends or something? No matter, I'm just concerned that the receptions just won't be the same now that I've learned none other than Mr. Bob Kames, the creator of the Chicken Dance, has died. He was 82 and I have to say he must've had a good life, or at least made an important and long lasting impact on the world, even if it does usually end up with someone's drunk aunt ending up on her ass with dress all up around her face.

Ahhh good times.

Now this is pretty cool, it's a video that someone cobbled together of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" with all of the references in the song illustrated. I'm no fan of the Piano Man, but I've always liked this song, and if you're anything like me you love being able to identify pop culture references in anything, so maybe you'll learn a thing or two watching that vid.

I've got time for one last bit, so I'd like you to meet the Superhero of Singapore, none other than Mr. Batman Bin Suparman. And no I didn't meet him when I was there.

Well that's all we have time for today, so we'll see you next time and help control the unwanted pet population, have your pet spayed or neutered.

Happy Birthday Bettie

If you didn't know today is none other than the Girl With the Perfect Figure, Bettie Page's, 85th birthday. She was born in Nashville in 1923 (wow Bettie's one year older than my Gran) and is attributed with saying "I was never the girl next door", and thank Jebus for that.

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The Notorious Miss Page may be well past her sell by date but she's still a cultural, or at least marketing, phenomenon. Just look at all the gear bearing her likeness you can get from eSell. I wonder if she sees any royalty money from companies using her likeness? I doubt it, but that's how it goes I suppose.

I'm know I've flogged this artist before, but if you're a Bettie Page fan or a fan of pin ups in general, and really who isn't, go check out the art of Olivia.

On a decidedly unsexy note, sorry to spoil the mood here, but yesterday afternoon I came to sobering realization that I cannot discuss municipal affairs any more. It just makes me mad, and I don't mean the kind of ranting that fun to do. More like the we're proper fucked ranting and the people who should be steering the boat are busy drilling holes in the bottom of it instead.

Although . . . apparently at a town council meeting last week for a rather unpopular parking by-law (I won't pretend to know all the details, but it had something to so with businesses having to provide minimum parking spaces and those that didn't have would have to a pay a significant fee to the Municipality or something like that) a local businessman made our Mayor cry. I wasn't there I don't know if it's true or not, just the small town rumour mill you know.

But didn't I say I was going to talk about these things any more? Yeah so onto something completely different . . . I wonder if this would be better or worse than watching midgets fight? Probably worse. But I'd probably still watch. Yeah I'm a bad person.

And one last bit - boo yah - last night I said I was going to check my YouTubes for Hulk Hogan's Rock N Wrestling and there it is. Sooooo good . . . . sooooooooo-oh bad.

Survey Says . . .

If you're a Sioux Lookouter I urge you to fill out the Sioux Lookout Downtown Revitalization - Resident Survey. Thank the Willow for providing me the link, because I wasn't smart enough to find it on my own. I've been flogging this thing all over the place, but if the town wants real feedback I want them to get it. I mean we all have beefs with how things are done at least this one way to make your voice heard, right? But then I guess it's up to the town itself whether or not it gets to count.

That's enough of real world things and stuffs, how about something chock full of awesome? I'm sure that the Homestar Runner fans already are well aware of this, but how about some live Limozeen! Thanks to the YouTubes. And holy crap! Strongbad is getting his own Wii game, Strongbad's Cool Game for Attractive People. So if you're attractive you're going to want to rush out and get this one.

And now some something with even less realism to it than Strongbad emails, check out this article about Jenna Jameson and whether or not she can make a go of it in mainstream media/entertainment with some good examples of others from the porn industry who've tried with varying degrees of success . . . okay pretty much only one degree of success and that isn't very successful (the only person with success after/outside of porn I can think of is America's Sweetheart Miss Traci Lords, check out her autobiography it's totally worth the read). But good luck lady.

And of course Jenna has a new movie coming out or maybe it's already out starring along side Robert Englund called Zombie Strippers, you can check out the trailer here if you want to . . . and I know you want to. I mean with sweet dialog like,

"They're zombies!"

"They're strippers!"

"They're Zombie Strippers."

And a title like that this one is bound to be a big hit.

With more news on the movie front, looks that Sacha Baron Cohen is dusting off another character from Da Ali G Show, Gay Austrian TV host Bruno, to make another film. Here's a little news coverage of them going to town in Wichita Kansas airport and some nice video of the event.

It seems that Bruno was also able to nail Ben Affleck for an interview for the film. I have to wonder how can he still get away with this, especially after the success he had with the Borat film? No matter it's good to know that I can always count on Mr. Cohen for a little entertainment at the expense of others.

And one last thing before I go - seems like the people over at Disney are trying to make the Hannah Montana thing international, check some of these test screenings, I'm especially fond of Hannitoba Manitoba. Although there didn't seem to be any mention of car thefts or drinking Slurpees in the dead of winter . . . no matter it still made me laugh and excited exclaim "Manitoba!! I been there! I get jokes!"

Or maybe not. All right that's it for now, later.

PS Happy 82nd Birthday Liz.

You're not my father!

So it's been a while again eh? Well I at least have a couple of good excuses for my absence lately:

1. I gotta put miles on my bike
2. Was out of town for work
3. Am lazy.

So far the bike is good, thanks for asking. Where was I, man you're nosey, but I was in the River City (the city in Canada where you're 334% more likely to have your car stolen than the national average and where it's as likely you'll have your car stolen there as in Detroit, Michigan) to keep up my WETT certification. I also bought a new bike helmet and sampled some Argentinean food (try the Milanesa, Empanadas and Humita). A busy few days.

Anyway that's not why you're here is it . . . so how about some news for Star Wars loving friends, like the leaked trailer for the new Clone Wars animated series. I have to admit it looks pretty cool, let's see how it actually stacks though. It might just be another polished turd lifted off the lawn of Skywalker Ranch like Episodes 1 - 3.

If that's not your thing, how about these Steampunk Star Wars figures. Pretty cool eh? Or at least I think they are; if you think so too you may want to check out a few books by China >Mieville like The Scar or The Iron Council.

Or maybe you're more into customizing action figures to make super action figures? Then this is for you, check out these Star Wars circa WW2 action figure customs. Pretty sweet eh? I don't think I have close to that level of talent or creativity for something like that. But I can tell you some requirements for putting a woodstove in your house.

Perhaps that's not your thing either, and you're a Star Wars geek from way back and are busy raising your very precious little snowflake to follow in your footsteps that you dress up as an ewok or Yoda for conventions and are looking for a way to encourage them in school and the threat of Hayden Christensen coming into their class and killing them all just isn't working, but maybe this will. Seems that a rogue band of teachers has made their own Star Wars film where Math Solo and Princess >Reada encourage kids to do well on upcoming state test.

All I can say is fuckin' geeks.

Well I best be going, so I'll leave you with some classic Manowar. Sadly the video isn't half as awesome, but pretty much just as homo-erotic, as their album covers.

Viva la Redolution!

If you like that one, check out the rest of the new M&M ads over here.

Not really sure what to write about this morning, but I will share this site with you. Check out the Uncyclopedia, it's a site like Wikipedia, but unlike on Wikipedia where occasionally things aren't correct even thing on the Uncyclopedia is supposed to be untrue.

Just check out their entry on Canada, it literally had me laughing out loud. And that was just the intro. But sadly it seems like their Winnipeg page is bone dry, someone should do something about that.

I've got to say I've never really had the urge to travel to Mexico, but this article has me thinking otherwise. I mean who wouldn't like to watch an angry mob of punks and rockabillies (hopefully with a few rockabetties mixed in for good measure) beat the refried beans out a bunch of emo kids . . . well other than Mexican emo kids that is.

And in case you're wondering no I didn't kids from Emo I mean those kids you see at the mall wearing their little sister's jeans with a white belt and sporting Hitler's haircut . . . and we all know who else had Hitler's haircut.

But that's enough of the hatin', how about this for the rock fans out there, looks like the Stone Temple Pilots have announced a 65 date North American tour. They haven't announced all of the dates/cities yet, and so far the only two Canadian shows are in Quebec City, Toronto and Vancouver, but I'm hoping for something in Winnipeg. Although I did see the Stone Temple Pilots play once, they opened for Megadeth at the Winnipeg Convention Centre when Megadeth was touring in support of the Countdown to Extinction album in I dunno late 92 or early 93? Now that was a good time.

Well gotta go, but remember, the bathroom cats is watching you pee.

Never Gonna Give You Up

Seems that nothing is sacred and no icons are safe from the Internet scourge that is the rickroll, not even the Muppets.

I'm sure you're aware that there are whacks of celebrity blogs out there, and well now you can add Darth Vader to the ever expanding list . . . it's all right, but it's no Chad Vader that's for sure. Since we're talking Star Wars, how about a sweet documentary about the love hate relationship that fans have Mr. Lucas aptly titled The People vs. George Lucas. Here's the film's official website if you're interested, and unless you have an asthma inhaler, pocket protector, taped glasses, many multi sided dice and spend a lot of time in basements you probably aren't. But most of my friends will be clicking the link.

Like the guys in the movie Fanboys that will hopefully some day be released. If you haven't heard of this movie yet you're probably a cool kid who gets out and has a lot of friends and spends very little 'pwning noobs' in the interwebs, but it's about a group of friends who try to sneak into Skywalker Ranch to steal an early copy of Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace to fulfill a friend's dying wish. Here's the trailer, check it out yo. Don't hold your breath, this movie was supposed to come out last year and the year before that.

Personally I think that George Lucas isn't much of a movie maker, but he's a god damned marketing genius.

AAAAAhhhhh, come on fuckin' guy!

What does it cost you to flush your toilet?

I'm wondering because the water rates in my lovely municipality are going to be going up considerably over the next two years to address the requirements of Ontario Bill 175 the Sustainable Water & Sewage Systems Act, and I'm curious if it's in line with other Municipalities in the area, and everywhere else, are paying.

I would assume it's standard operating procedure, but presently we have a minimum monthly charge for the sewer and water service of $64.11 per billing (not per month per billing, no guarantee that your water meter will be read on the first of every month or every 30 days) and for this minimum we are presently allowed up to 18 cubic meters (18000 litres or about 4762 US gallons or about 3965 Imperial gallons) of water, but as of June 1st our minimum charge will be lower to $64.10 per billing. Oh an in case your wondering I'm pretty sure that our water bills show consumption in gallons, probably US gallons, but I'm not positive of that. Something to check into.

Sounds good doesn't it? Well as they say on the informercials, but wait there's more. You see the amount of water that we will be allowed for the minimum rate is being cut to 12 cubic metres (12000 litres or about 3175 US gallons or about 2643 Imperial gallons), so you see we'll be getting 2/3's the water for the same price. What a deal, nearly 1.5 times the present water & sewer minimum charge, provided you don't go over the cap that is.

But like any good sales pitch of course there's more; in 2009 the minimum rate will climb to $80.77, nearly 1.89 times the present minimum charge, still for 2/3's the water, and in 2010 the minimum charge will shoot up over $100 to $101.37 per billing for about 2.37 times the present minimum charge.

And the municipality's CAO actually had the nerve to say that if residents consciously make and effort to use less water it will be cheaper in March 26 edition of the local paper. How? I guess if I can invest the 1 cent that I can potentially save each month if I can reduce my water usage from my last year's average of 3263.33 per billing, I can use that money to help offset the jump in rates that's coming.

Ah now I'm pissed off about this all over again . . . but maybe some others will be now to . . . but then of course I'm sure that's still a fraction of what people in Arizona pay for water and sewer services, but that's a desert. My town is situated on the shores of a lake, that is connected to other lakes that is surrounded by lakes.

Ah what the hell, just one of the finer points of living in Sioux Lookout, like $1.10 a litre for heating oil or $1.28 a litre for regular gasoline (most expensive listed at OntarioGasPrices.com).

But hey enough whinging for now, eh? Let's leave on a high note, like this picture that easily combines of two of the greatest things ever invented . . . or maybe it's three depending on how you want to count it.

Hopefully next time there'll be less pissing and moaning and more not quite news and infotainment for you.

Later.

She's Got the Way to Move Me

You'll notice the video I put up today is something that is more than a little out of place for what I'm normally rocking, but the other day I really thought I needed to listen to some Neil Diamond, I don't know . . . misplaced romanticism maybe? No matter, he's got a few songs that I enjoy, but I have to admit I prefer Urge Overkill's cover of Girl You'll Be A Woman Soon featured in the film Pulp Fiction.

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I brought my bike home yesterday, it's licensed and insured and so am I . . . now all I need is a helmet and the snow to melt so I can practice driving it around, seeing as I only stalled it out about 5 times driving it around the car park at the dealership yesterday. Should be fun.

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In other unrelated news, we've got floor tickets to see Iron Maiden in Winnipeg on June 9 as part of their Somewhere Back in Time Tour. The tour's wikipedia page says that all 15, 015 tickets are sold for the show and I can't find tickets on the Ticketmaster website. I can't wait to see this one, it's going to be a great show and the crowd is going to be awesome.

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If you're a geek who's at all worth his salt you'll know that there's a movie adaptation of Alan Moore's graphic novel Watchmen in the works. Well this is a little different, seems that an artist ran with the idea what if Charles Schulz created the Watchmen? And this is what he came up with. If you aren't already familiar with the book that won't mean much to you . . . and all I can say to that is that you should go out and read the book.

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And while we're geeking it up, new episodes of BSG are going to be starting this Friday on Space at 9:00 PM Central time with a couple half hour shows about the show airing prior to that starting at 8:00 PM. All I can say is about damned time . . . and who's the fifth Cylon? Needless to say I'm looking forward to this even if it's the last season of the series, but there's supposed to be a 2 hour TV movie prequel in the works called Caprica, so maybe that will spin into a new series like BSG did. Here's to hoping.

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While we're in the BSG vein, I have to admit that this news makes the fan boy in me sad. Ah well no matter I'm sure that Katee Sackhoff might not be playing Starbuck again, but she'll be at comic-con and sci-fi cons signing autographs and being stared at by a whole host of basement dwellers.

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I think I'll sign off now, I got shit to do eh, but since BBQ season is fast approaching here are some beef basics from the good folks over at All Recipes. I don't know about you, but I can't wait to fire up Propane Elaine and put the heat to the meat.