Ratsofrass

Highly recommended reading:

When Pigs Fly: The Death of Oink, the Birth of Dissent, and a Brief History of Record Industry Suicide.

I am not a huge music fan. I used to buy the occasional CD, occasional becoming even less so due to my frustration with a)Finding any music I liked b)Price of said music found. A good part of my old music collection is stuff that I recorded on radio or copied off of friends because I wasn’t going to pay for collections that were steaming piles of crap wrapped around one good song. It didn’t help that the only way I was going to find out about the crap was to buy the album, because I don’t listen to the radio - they are not going to play most of what I buy anyways. The last two CD’s I bought were from artists who directly burned their own stuff and collected all the profit as a result. Previous CD’s were from MP3.com - which was an early victim of the music industry’s heavy handed tactics to maintain control. (more…)

Another predicable boring election is over in Calgary - other than Helene Larocque being voted out of my former Ward, the rest of the results I mostly don’t care about. But there were some good signs - voter turnout up to 33%, still dismal but not the pathetic last election turnout of 20%.

The story of this election is that 19 year old Jeremy Zhao spending a total of $1853 gets 8007 votes (unofficial City of Calgary numbers) - good enough for 5th out of 9 candidates while Alnoor Kassam spends around $1.2mil and gets 35443 votes. Bronco still won by a large margin, at 128111 votes, 61% of the vote.

The big deal is, when you do the math, Alnoor spent a whopping $33.85 per vote received, Jeremy spend 23 cents per vote. Bronco comes in at $7.81 per vote - I am assuming here that he spent about a $mil for his campaign, and Alnoor was at $1.2mil for his campaign. Jeremy, as per his website is at $1853 - the only website I could quickly find his donator list and spending easily. It would seem Jeremy is the only one that gets that open accountability promises start with how you run your campaign.

Occasionally, a politician does something so monumentally stupid that with a single act, they kill any hope of their being elected. Sometimes they just do something to honk me off and permanently loose any chance of getting my vote. I don’t know quite where this falls yet.

I first heard of Alnoor from his attention grabbing posters at LRT stations talking about building west LRT now, not years from now. Smart move, promising LRT improvements and talking about it in the exact location where people would be sympathetic.

So I check out his web site Seems pretty reasonable, not too much detail at the time, but this was early in the campaign. Perhaps some reasonable alternative to vote for come election day.

Then I start hearing about his previous business dealings in Kenya - not exactly a shining “Business Leader”. Furthermore, his line on his site “A city is no different than a business: it has an annual operating budget of $2 billion, 12 thousand employees and 1 million customers.” doesn’t exactly strike me as very compassionate - so as a “business” should Calgary kick out anyone that is not paying there way in this city?

The final straw is he’s just honked me off by leaving a phone spam message on my answering machine, showing a total lack of respect for my private phone line, which I don’t care to have turn into an auditory spam repository like, say, email these days. If that’s how Alnoor runs things when he’s trying show how great he is, I don’t want to even contemplate how he’d be if he was running the city. As far as how big a mistake this is, well, then depends on how many phones he’s left his message on - anyone out there get one of these on their cell phone?

Yet another post on the C Trains. Here I am yet again on a packed train and lo, what happens as we hit the zoo stop - another train problem. This is like the third time - I’m beginning to suspect some bad train karma coming from that station. It’s the usual - door that won’t stay closed. You never heard about the last one because the operator got it closed in short order.

This time it’s a little different again. Trains were running late today - not like it happens all the time, but it is becoming more frequent these days. I didn’t even try to get on the first train downtown as it was packed already without me trying to squeeze on. The next train was possible to get on, but was packed by the time we got to the end of downtown, with all the people who had not been able to get on the previous train.

We get to the (cursed?) zoo stop and the train sits there. The usual “please stand clear of the open doors” announcement heralds the beginning of the problems. The usual play commences - operator comes down to see what is happening. I can’t really see what’s going on this time, but since I’ve seen it twice now I can only assume its some variant of door goes open / door goes closed. The operator goes back to his cab in front.

I expect the usual - cycle the door open lights, perhaps the power on the train again, but no - this guy has to subscribe to a different fixit camp. You know that standard technique to fix all things, if you be without tools, time or energy? Just give the item at hand a good wack and hope it fixes things. Well, this guy suddenly wrenches the train forward, and brings it to an equally quick halt, tossing us about inside like a Caesar salad. He didn’t even turn the light off on the doors first, which for veteran riders means get ready for the jolt that comes when the newer model of trains get going.

So I’m standing there pissed off - moving my sore shoulder about to assess the damage (no lawsuit this time) when the operator comes on and asks the people in the back by the possessed door to try it again. After a short pause, door lights go off and the train lurches forward.

I guess that old ‘whack the CD-ROM drive’ to get it reading again trick works on trains in some form too.

Last post here, I was witness to a C-train malfunction causing mayhem with the system. This time it was people breaking that leads to posting. Perhaps this will be a trend - every time I have a C-train story I post. I’m just glad not to be posting on that poor person that was pushed in front of a train - not something I ever need to see.
It was a late arrival at the station with a co-worker - just missed the previous train, but wasn’t in a particular big hurry at that point. When the next train arrives (not mine) some guy is blocking the door preventing it from closing. At first I think there is something wrong with the door (understandable considering my previous experience) then the C-Train operator comes over and goes in the train, ignoring the door entirely. Then I realize there is a guy seated just inside having a seizure of some sort. He didn’t seem in any immediate danger of dieing, but it was call the ambulance time and have him checked out. Awaiting the ambulance provided some side amusement. Watching people come madly sprinting up to the train and cram into whatever door was open at the time, then realize that they were going nowhere fast was amusing.
The paramedics arrive and check the guy out, then a couple go and get a stretcher as pictured. They carry the guy off the train onto the stretcher. He seemed okay, other than looking confused as to what was happening. What was interesting is that people were actually being courteous, trying to make room for the paramedics and get out of the way of their comings and goings. Nice to see some shreds of decency still exist in these parts. What else was interesting is that it only took 20 minutes from train stop to train resumption of service. Too bad it took the controllers over 15 minutes to get around to announcing that there was a delay.

I’ve been watching on the web cam at Glenmore and 14th on and off today as they build the last bit of road to switch the traffic over to the new lanes:

Should’ve taken more captures. Oh well. It is interesting to watch them build the road in a day. And they can’t sluff either being viewable on a web cam for everyone to see.

Okay, this isn’t exactly about two “cities”, Fort Saskatchewan (hens forth, “The Fort” as the locals like to abbreviate) is not exactly a city, but close enough when talking about “small cities” (15K as of 2006) compared to Sarnia, of around 75K.

We are talking about two places: one that acts as the regional focal point in south west Ontario, the other a suburban annex of Edmonton Alberta. The differences, me thinks, are more due to the suburbia effect.

To illustrate with pictures, here are what I feel are the four best pictures I took in each city:

the four best of Sarnia

the four best I took at The Fort

For Sarnia, I had a hard time picking four pictures. For The Fort, I had a hard time taking four pictures. The old part of the town seems to be dieing out , with what little charm there is mostly being around the river, and downtown, such as it is. The new developments are exactly what you would see in any new Calgary suburb: a wasteland of parking space with trademark stores and big box retailers to drive between. It is sad that in ten minutes of walking I passed four liquor stores, three fast food places and not a single restaurant. Then again, I had no business walking in that parking lot in the first place. The only thing I found of interest was this:

Calgary needs some of these rather than the flashing hand so you have an idea how many seconds before death cometh forth in the form of rumbling steel chariots to smote you down. But it certainly ain’t a pretty picture - just shows the same suburban character that you would see anywhere on the outskirts of any city here.

Sarnia had more places to eat than I could try within walking distance of my motel. The Fort had a bunch of franchise places, with a few restaurants in the downtown core. The one place I tried that looked at least somewhat promising was okay, but nothing I would want to eat at more than once in a while. In Sarnia, I found a nice classy place to eat (attached to a Super 8 motel - go figure) and a great pub with good food, good beer, good price. Try finding that in Calgary these days.

Sarnia had some nice old buildings in it’s downtown core. I’m not sure what The Fort ever had. The mall (currently deserted, to be renovated) gobbled up a fair bit of the old town area, along with some new buildings of bland design. Speaking of deserted, I decided to try the Smitty’s for dinner (being the best and only restaurant choice within 20 minutes walk) and found it to be closed due to lack of staff. When I end up hitting the McD’s for lack of better choice, I know things are grim.

Now, I’m not ragging on Ft. Sask. here in particular, Airdrie, or any suburb community in Calgary is no better - they all have these mega-shopping areas that are suited only to driving your car to, from, and between stores, with no charm, or unique character that would tell you where you are. I have no idea why people shop at these things. At least in a mall, you’re inside from the elements - here you need to shop, walk to your car, drive through snarled traffic to the next store 2 minutes away, and walk to your next store, repeat. Hell, I’m sure Sarnia has one of these shopping places tucked away somewhere I didn’t get to, thankfully.

I can forgive the lack of character and walkability for the Fort, I can forgive the liquor store on every corner (this is Alberta), but I cannot forgive the total lack of anything approaching an interesting restaurant. It just seems insane that the only way to go and have an interesting dining experience is to go into Edmonton. But perhaps that is exactly what the Fort is tailored to - literally a bedroom community where any quality time is spent back in the big city. Doesn’t do much to foster a sense of small town living, which is what these ‘burbs are supposed to be about.

Article on CBC: Visa to launch global cellphone payment system

Well, finally something comes along that has the potential to replace cash for all transactions. Interac and credit cards work to get rid of most cash transactions, but what about person - to - person transactions? Nothing beats cash right now for transactions between individuals. Yes, you can do it over a computer, but it is a pain compared to just handing some cash over.
Cellphones, that’s another story. It’s pretty much getting to the point where pretty much anyone could have a cell phone, and having it on you is the point of the thing, so rather than having to pull out $10 for that funky lamp you want to buy at a garage sale, you’ll pull out your cellphone instead.

Now, as to if this will catch on, well, it depends on how VISA pulls this off. There is little detail right now as to how it works, but I can tell you right now what the criteria for success will be: It’s going to have to be universally usable - from vending machines to car dealers. It’s going to have to be fast and easy. I shouldn’t have to wait even one minute to confirm payment before handing over the goods to someone I’m selling something to. Lastly, it’s going to have to be cheap. Very cheap if I’m using it to buy a pop, cheap if I’m using it to sell something - similar to the three cents on a dollar a typical merchant pays when you whip out your VISA right now.

We will see. I don’t expect cash to go away tomorrow, but I could see cellphone payment putting several nails in the cash coffin if it’s done right.

It is rare that governernment comes out with something new that actually improves “the system” - the methods in which we get service from the government. Well, Canada Post has introduced permanent stamps - the idea being that you buy a stamp for one domestic postage - not 51 cents of postage, for which you need to buy 1 cent stamps when the price goes up a penny.

It’s about time. Not that this is an original idea, but at least Canada Post has the good judgement to see a good idea others are implementing. No more having to go online to see if the postage rate has changed since the last time I mailed a letter. No more having to keep stupid 1 cent stamps around to use up the rest of my “old” stamps.

Now if only Calgary transit could do the same thing for its bus tickets.

So I was driving home last night from the bar when I run across a check stop. Now, since I’d been drinking, my first panic reaction was ‘oh shit, I’m screwed’. I pull up to the officer and immediately mis-understand the first two questions he asks, in the process of him determining where I was coming from, and if I’d had had anything to drink. Of course, between that and my admission that I’d had three beers I wasn’t surprised to be asked to pull over for a breath sample.

Now, I’ve never been checked before on the road - the few times I’ve been stopped, I’ve always been waved through, or if they asked me, I’d never had anything to drink. So I really had no idea how close I was to being legally impared. Sure, I’d had three beers, starting at 6:30, finishing at 9:30, with a meal thrown in and it being 10pm now to boot, so by the standard one-drink-per-hour wisdom, I should be fine, right?

But I don’t feel completly sober, so I’m worried a bit, I calm down thinking it through, while waiting for the officer to come test me. After a few minutes, he arrives and we go through the routine - not routine for me - I’m just hoping that all is well. Then we have the wait a minute for the unit to process the result. Great - more waiting.

Finally the unit beeps and the officer says everything is okay, while the unit does show some alcohol in my system, I will be allowed to drive away when we’re done. He shows me the reading - “30″ is what it says, which I take to be 0.030%, (=30mg/100ml, which is the legal use) well within the legal 0.08 % limit. He then says that I’m free to go after one of the MADD people talks to me.

I’m relieved at this point, but a bit annoyed about getting a potential lecture from the MADD people. But it turns out that they are just giving out goodie bags - I can handle that! So I drive off, feeling I’ve had a valuable lession - but not the one the Police / MADD people would like I suspects.
I have a yardstick to follow now - in that I know the drinking I did that night was well within the legal blood limit. However, don’t think for a second that I’m going to be drinking more based on the fact I was well under the limit. I consider myself from my own personal feeling, to have been “borderline”; at least now I know my borderline is well within the law. Also, consder that According to the government, you can be charged even below the limit. Based on how I felt at 0.03%, I don’t think I’d be fit to drive at double that, even though that is still within the limit. Also to consider these days, since a first charge nets you a criminal record, one year driver’s licence suspention, and a hefty insurance increase - it is way, way, way better to stay well on the safe side of the line, now that I have an idea where that is.

Oh, and there is some pressure to lower the legal limit to 0.05% If you can be charged at below that amount anyways, I’m not sure I see the point. I’m pretty sure at this point they’re taking away your keys for 24hours if you blow 0.05%, although according the Safety Councel link below not in Alberta, Considering how severe the penalties are, I think I’d rather see things stay the way they are - the Canada Safety Councel seems to think so too, which I found surprising. But what they say makes sense - countries with 0.05 limits have much less severe penalties for driving over the limit, often just a fine.

MADD would like to see the limit lowered to 0.05%. What they’d really like is a zero tolerance policy. I say if you’re going to have that, you need to remove radios, block off passengers, and have all controls not related to driving be dead while the car is in drive. Oh, and no driving allowed if you have not had at least 8 hours of sleep in the last 36 hours, and yearly driver tests. All of the above is too constricting. Let’s just let the officers have the judgement to make the call. I didn’t look like the most alert driver in the world so I got tested. Had I not seemed reasonably coherent while I was doing my test, I’m sure the officer would’ve impounded my car for 24 hours.

The system works. I just think about how I hardly see any drunk drivers anymore over the holidays - there used to be many more. No matter what, you’ll never get rid of drunk driving - people make mistakes, some people are stupid, no law is going to fix that.