Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

I went to see the movie “300″ [8/10] and was impressed. Had it come out before the movie Gladiator, I’d call it “groundbreaking”. If my History 262 Ancient Greece and Rome class had featured that movie, it would have been even more interesting than it was.

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I was going to show Margo, SK photos to someone from that area, but I discovered I didn’t have them online. So I put a few on Flickr.

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- Saskboy and Ryan

Last week Ryan Androsoff, of the Prairie Fire blog, and I sat down for a visit. We talked about things the Saskatchewan Liberals should be doing to attract voter attention in the coming election. My suggestions included a plan that would see the province’s focus move from casinos, to health care equipment. It would be nice to see a major party focus on recruiting enough women candidates so they make up ~50% of the elected representatives.

UPDATE:
Tornado watch has ended for Regina.

Tornado watch for Regina Saturday June 23, 2007. Towns near Winnipeg were hammered yesterday by the bad wind bringers.
It’s not a warning, just a watch. A warning means a sighting has been made, and you should take shelter immediately.

City of Regina
11:31 AM CST Saturday 23 June 2007
Tornado watch for
City of Regina continued

Tornadoes are possible over southeastern Saskatchewan this afternoon and evening.

Conditions are favourable for the development of severe thunderstorms with the potential to produce tornadoes.

These severe thunderstorms will also have the potential to produce very large hail..Flooding rain..Deadly lightning and powerful winds. Use this time to secure outdoor property and to ensure family members and co-workers are prepared to take action should the severe weather approach.

At least the SaskParty has stepped up with an idea to keep rural schools from being closed by the NDP.

I sent this email to David Kirton on Friday after he mentioned that distance education may need to be developed more. It’s already developed, but sadly ignored by these school boards that have voted for school closures.

Hi David,
There’s no need to develop more technology in terms of distance education in Saskatchewan. We are leaders in that field, and in 1998 I took a distance education satellite calculus course in Limerick Highschool, taught out of Campbell in Regina. The teacher running the course then, is still doing it today, and the technology has only become better since 1998. I finished near the top of my class in my first university calculus course, so the quality of that type of education should not be in dispute.

[Saskboy]

Unfortunately I don’t see a plan from the Sask. Liberals to counteract the NDP dismantling of rural Sask., but I’ll ask if they are working on a plan.

A caller [Frances] to the John Gormley Live show had a fantastic idea, and suggested that instead of building more city schools for lots of money, you could use the same dollars to bus city kids into the country where they’d have a better learning environment with smaller class sizes. It makes much more sense than busing kids into the city schools which are already too crowded.

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The other day, some Toon towners and Queen City lovers got into a tiny spat about which Saskatchewan metropolis is finer than the other. Some harsh words like “poo” and “bad” were tossed around, and I wonder if anyone has a concrete (or completely funny) reason why one city is better than the other?

I live in Regina, but I’ve also lived in Saskatoon, and while each city has its perks, I think Regina can’t be beat for its overall atmosphere and features. Go Riders/Rams!

A couple weeks ago I wrote about SaskTel’s ExpessLink, which is a telephone system to pay Sask[Tel, Power, Energy] bills and order Sasktel services. I like its ability to work over the phone, and I control how much and exactly when my chequing account is raided by the crown utilities. SaskPower until just a few months ago, did not have an online billing option, or well publicized online/telephone payment system.

I spoke with Sherry at SaskPower, and she had to admit that until I made an inquiry about ExpressLink, she was not familiar with it at all. In fact, during my interview with her, she mistakenly referred to it by another name once. SaskPower has an agreement with Energy and Tel to wire money to the right Crown when a customer makes a payment to another Crown utility on their behalf. This is why ExpressLink works at all for making SaskPower payments, but it’s entirely administered by SaskTel. This shows that SaskTel needs to train their customer support staff better on the features of ExpressLink, since they are sending people on a wild goose chase by directing people to call SaskPower when they have questions about ExpressLink SaskPower payments or account numbers.

SaskPower’s My Power Account is their long awaited online system to deal with the problem of paper bills. Unfortunately it doesn’t address the benefit of ExpressLink where you can avoid automated debit (which can sometimes rob you blind at inconvenient times). However, you do have the nifty feature of comparing power usage over different months, and viewing your bills online.

Sherry said she’d educate her staff better as to what ExpressLink is, so the ball’s in SaskTel’s court now to stop misdirecting customers who are looking for ExpressLink help.

Woo Hoo, welcome to Summer. If I were in another location other than Canada, there’d probably be some big festival today on the Solstice. But here, we’re just glad when it’s Spring and the snow goes away and the nights get warm enough to go outside without a jacket (to get chewed on by the bugs).

Go outside and get some Vitamin D from our old friend the Sun, Sol, who is here an equal amount of time to how long we miss it this night. It’s all down hill from here, where days just get shorter and shorter…

- This is why Saskatchewan kicks butt in the Summer.

- Drinkwater, SK is not just a suggestion.

Former Roughrider cleared of charges against him pertaining to the murder of his girlfriend. Curry still faces charges of abuse.

- Previously mentioned on Abandoned Stuff.

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Couger threat in Saskatoon. It’s probably from the University of Regina.

There was an I Love Regina festival in Victoria Park on Tuesday at lunch time. I took my lunch kit (and forgot my camera) and walked over. When I got there, the line was about 125 people long, and I was at the very back, which never got longer than about 10 people behind me. I stayed in line anyway while I ate my lunch (moved about 10 meters the entire 20 minutes), and listened to the musical entertainment of Jack Semple (who was awesome). Michelle Higley of NewsTalk980.com was speaking for a few minutes before the music started, and I saw Mayor Fiacco being interviewed by the TV news.

I should have maybe butted in line where my friend Alvil was standing, but there were police everywhere, and I guess I couldn’t have gone to the front of the line and snatched a free bit of cake.