Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

This first appeared on SaskVotes.com

(Caution, I’m going to let a little of my partisanship slip out in this post. Debate is encouraged, and I won’t even turn my back on you, because unlike Lorne Calvert, you’ve got a shot at being Premier in the future.)

What kind of person from Saskatchewan hasn’t heard the term, “beer run” before? I guess border townies hear it more often. It refers to the tendency of raucous young men (mostly) making day trips to the US, simply to drink their inferior beer. Anyway, that has been the loudest complaint about Sask Liberal leader David Karwacki’s performance last night. There has also been a lot of comments on Brad Wall’s tie, and Lorne Calvert’s plain suit. Who are these witty debate fashion pundits anyway?

It seems the online opposition to David Karwacki has voiced their complaints about his behaviour loud enough that he’s the talk of the debate. And I can’t help but feel good about that, because the Sask Liberals have most of the best policies, and the best shot at changing the back-room dynamic that has infested the Legislature for far too long. Who was asking questions about Victoria Park Capital’s transparency before Calvert started poking at Wall’s “Enterprise Saskatchewan”? And who was pointing out the hypocrisy of the Sask Party and NDP MLAs taking “gold plated” health care packages?

From the Leader-Post:

While Karwacki generally evenly doled out his criticism (he accused Calvert of having to raise the PST two-percentage points to meet NDP spending and scolded Wall for using Ontario Conservative leader Mike Harris’s economists to balance the Sask. Party platform) a couple of the Liberal Leader’s comments and gestures towards Calvert may have been especially damaging.

One such quip was suggesting to Calvert that his universal prescription drug plan should cover truth serum.

However, the most damning thing Karwacki did — one of the lasting images from the debate — was constantly turning his back to Calvert and addressing remarks to Wall who Karwacki kept saying will be the next Premier of Saskatchewan.

It often seemed as if Karwacki was the only one fighting this debate with both gloves off.

It just can’t get much better for a 3rd running leader. That is, until election day, and the province decides they don’t want a two party system when a third party presents such a forceful alternative to the bi-partisan bickering of Wall and Calvert. Why have bi-partisan disagreements, when you can have a third party to state the obvious, with no fear?

I’ll make no excuses about it, my generation is the quiet generation. In Saskatchewan it’s uncommon to be a teen, 20-something, and even a 30-something who is active in politics. It’s quite the shift, and it could create profound complications in our lives in the not so distant future when we are the experienced tax payers.

Are our lives just too comfortable that we’ve lost the wide-spread drive to make things better for other people too?

I joke a lot about how much Television is hurting our society, but blogs/My Space/Facebook aren’t much better. While they are excellent vehicles for individuals to push a message, there may not be any solid evidence that anyone listening takes the virtual struggles listed on blogs, and implements fixes for them in our law, company policies, or sidewalk-level courtesy.

Happy Halloween everyone. Yesterday I was at the CUPE rally on the UofR campus. There were a lot of reporters there, and I met Patrick Book of CJME.com

I’m going to be wearing my chicken costume to the party in the Archer Library, and hoping I won’t have to use it to stay warm outside later in the week.

Murray Wood shakes a finger at Hallow’een Grinches. Kids only get to be kids once, and they need supportive adults to hand out sugary snacks.

From: Saskboy
Sent: Sun 10/28/2007 4:10 PM
To: Elections Info OCEO
Subject: Walsh Acres

Hi,
I’m wondering what happens now that the Sask Party candidate is not running in Regina Walsh Acres,
Does he remain on the ballot?

If he does, what happens if he wins the vote? Are votes for him counted, or are they spoiled ballots?
——————————————————————————–

It is too late to change the ballots and his name will appear, however any votes for him will be invalid since he is no longer running. They are not counted so he cannot win the vote.

Thank you for your interest in Elections Saskatchewan.

This is why I think it’s a mistake for rural voters to assume the only party that can represent them is the Sask Party.

University of Saskatchewan political scientist John Courtney:
Courtney [...] said the outcome of the rural vote is a foregone conclusion.

“The Sask. Party has a stranglehold on rural Saskatchewan. The NDP recognizes that, so there’s really no incentive for the Sask. Party to try to develop that base further,” he said. “Lost in the shuffle has been the voice of agriculture and of rural Saskatchewan.”

If the voters want an opposition to Wall’s coming government, they are going to find no sympathy in the NDP. And they are going to have no NDP to represent them anyway. By not electing Sask Liberals, rural voters are dooming themselves to whatever choices Brad Wall wants to make in the next 4 years – unopposed by sober second thought.

You have a lot of Audacity, what with your do-it-yourself attitude, and cooler than thou 8-Tracks!

Actually, Audacity is the free program you’ll want to convert sound on your LP, 8-track, or audio cassette tapes into digital MP3s or Compact Discs.

That’s the audio program I use to record from audio tape, or edit audio files.

Find a wire that goes from your tape player headphone, to the computer mic input (which is usually pink).
Your dollar store may have one.

[Optionally, and for best results, check your computer's sound setting so that the microphone is selected as the audio input.]

You press record on Audacity, then Play on the tape player and should see a large, but not flat-topped, audio wave appear on the screen. Test how you’re doing by stopping after one minute, saving the file to your computer, then open the sound file to listen on the computer. If there’s a problem, adjust the volume on the tape player to a mid level or different level. Experiment, see what volume sounds best. You also can try using the Line In jack instead of the Microphone jack.

STEP 2
Record the newly saved sound file of the tape, onto your AUDIO CD for use in all CD players. If you make MP3 files, you can make an MP3 CD which stores ~740 minutes instead of just 74 minutes like an Audio CD. MP3 CDs only work in new CD-MP3 players, DVDs, and computers.

STEP 3
Enjoy your new CD.

STEP 4 (optional)
Thank me for giving you these instructions if you found them useful.

From an ad on SaskVotes.com:

SaskVotes2007 : The Leaders’ Debate.
6:30pm Tuesday MDT – with analysis to follow by Murray Wood, John Gormley and Joe Garcea.
Can’t listen live? Visit SaskVotes.com after the debate for on-demand access!

I’ll be at a car share meeting, so I’ll be tuning in to the Internet afterward to see what came up in the cheapest TV advertising money can’t buy a party. I’m disappointed that the Greens, and PC Party, etc. were not invited or given an alternate debate time slot. It’s another sad day for democracy in the province. The broadcast media has let the people of Saskatchewan down.

My 5 year old digital camera made nice work of the latest comet exploding into view on earth.

- Comet Holmes

It looks like a fuzzy star, and its super easy to spot in binoculars if you look north west, high in the sky a couple hours after sunset.

I used various settings, including 15 second exposure, 100 through 800 ISO to experiment, and RAW and superfine JPG compression modes on a 3MP Canon camera. If you haven’t done night photography before, make sure you have a tripod, or stable prop for the camera. Then set the 2 or 10 second timer so you don’t shake the camera as you press the shutter button.

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More Homles.