Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

“Charlie Bartlett” [7/10] There’s something disturbing about this film. A lot of things actually. However, it’s not a bad teen movie.
“The Producers” (1968) [5/10] Not sure if it’s good, because some parts are so bad they are good.

My friend Robert finished his thesis defense on Monday, so a group of us went out to celebrate. We started out at an empty Habanos for pool, and played for an hour. Next we hit Dairy Queen, and I cashed in my “free small Blizzard” card on an Oreo fudge earthquake sundae. It wasn’t too sweet which surprised me in a good way; Blizzards sometimes give me a sugar headache. Then we drove up to Galaxy cinema to see the new movie “Iron Man” [8/10]. As I turned into the cursed parking lot, my power steering started to groan. Oh oh. I pulled into the closest parking stall available, right beside a CIBC (which I was going to head to later that night anyway — more good fortune) and popped the hood. There was a fluid leak all over the passenger side. In the growing darkness I couldn’t tell the colour, but it looked like orange coolant had sprayed onto the accessory belt, and I reasoned that it was due to the coolant work done last week at RMP. So we walked across the parking lot to the theatre, and enjoyed the very good movie.

Returning to the car a couple hours later though, there was a bit of a puddle under the car, and the power steering was not working. Getting a better look at the fluid, I saw that it was more like oil, and realized it wasn’t coolant, and a power steering fluid leak had started (finishing my car off). So I phoned CAA and the tow truck arrived within half an hour as promised. It was now after midnight though, and we thought we’d call a cab from Brewsters but they were locking up, and so were all of the other places within sight.

We saw a city bus, one that would go right by my place as luck would have it! Except it was the last bus of the night, and wasn’t going the other direction! Darn, eh?

Walking across the street to a pay phone to get a number of a cab company turned out to be in vain as well. The Yellow Pages where “Taxi” was, had half of the page ripped out! The only number completely intact was for “Premiere” which sounded expensive, and besides they were the company with the driver that tried to intimidate friends of mine in the UofR strike in November. I then remembered I had a number for Capital Cabs in my wallet (from a job last year with the Gov’t that used them) and gave them a call. The cab took almost 30 minutes to arrive, and we killed time talking at a bus stop beside a different Dairy Queen. As model citizens, we didn’t pee in the bushes of the Dairy Queen. I just thought I’d mention that.

So to recap:
Bike front wheel: stolen
Car coolant: repaired at $1150 + damage to power steering???
Car steering: disabled + $untold cost EDIT: fixed for $147 power steering line with hole from belt rubbing + $16 cab ride

Vehicles suck.

UPDATE: RMP refunded me both the repair that Capital did, and my $16 cab ride. Thank goodness finally something went right.

I’ve got nothin’.
Actually I have a link to an explanation of power usage in Ontario, or “hydro” as they call it there. It’s interesting if you like that kind of thing.

Saturday I watched the B-movie (literally on the B side of double sided The Arrival DVD) “The Arrival II” [3/10]. The acting wasn’t up to par, the writing wasn’t very good, the sci-fi had obvious errors in it, and there was a plot hole someone noticed, but besides all that it was about as good as could be expected for a sequel to a Charlie Sheen movie.

I now have a partial bike, after some jerk took my front wheel some time in the last few days. The other two thirds of my bike (my quick-release seat I’d taken indoors thankfully) were U-locked to a bike stand, and remain (last time I checked). So now after riding just twice this year, I shall ride no more (until I buy a replacement wheel).

If I find this partial-bike thief, I’d like to make him a partial bike-thief. This whole incident reminds me of this, because of Derek’s story, and also I see it’s when I first bought this bike, just over 2 years ago.

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On Friday I went to “Vantage Point” [8/10] with a couple friends, and then we went to see Linger at the UofR Multipurpose room. I got an invite from Jeremy who’s in the band. We also took in the two acts prior to Linger taking the stage. The one with “death” as the lead singer was very good; I liked the guitar playing especially. Jeremy had the crowd going while playing bass guitar from laying on his back during one song. It looked like over 50 people turned out for the CD launch party. I didn’t win the door prize.

WWNPHD? I had to click to find out what it meant. If you’ve seen the first movie, you’ll think this is pretty funny. Find the link on the horse on this page for the Harold and Kumar movie sequel.

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My blog is back up to lucky number seven in the top 25 political blog list in Canada. I had a feeling I had gained in some Page Rank, after I got a few new emails from SEO nuts looking to score links to their spammy sites.

I’ve seen a message go out on Facebook and appear from a couple of my facebook friends now, which is obviously a virus.

“You guys gotta to check this out, this nifty little website tells you exactly your secret crush: http://who-is-your-match-SPAM.info”

Even if it’s not a virus, if a message like that goes out to your friends with or without you knowing, there’s something wrong with it. There are few exceptions, but when I see .info, I think “virus”. Sorry Stageleft :-D

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I watched “Scream 2″ [5/10] on Monday night. It felt pretty much like a rerun of the first. I also borrowed some CDs from the RPL, after I discovered where they were, on the 2nd floor. I hadn’t been up there before.

I had another close call with a four legged Bambi today. After noticing a loner antelope on the way into Saskatoon the other day, it made no attempt to cross the highway in front of my car; it was never a danger. But coming home in the dark tonight from Saskatoon, I had a close encounter, of the four legged kind. I saw a flash of fast moving fur hurtling into the ditch from a field, on a collision course with my car, and another car was quickly coming up behind me to pass. Fortunately it was a divided highway, and the car behind me didn’t smack into me from behind when I braked sharply, as I laid on the horn. The deer threw on its brakes too, it’s legs looking almost parallel to the ground at the mid-point of the ditch, and it avoided the looming fight with my fender as it took off in the opposite direction.

It can be very important to avoid collisions with animals.

That was the end of my excitement (and hopefully the deer’s too) for the ride home. I had a new Bon Jovi CD to listen to, and got part way through, because the new Saskatoon radio stations were interesting to listen to. Rawlco has a new one called Wired (I think) and Hot 93 is now The Bull 92.9. Rock 102 was surprisingly good while I was there as well, and there was an oldies station, and 95.1 too. I never even bothered with the AM stations.

I finished watching “Splash” [5/10] the other night, and wasn’t too impressed. It had a very weak ending. And a weak middle.

-Chamberlain’s church for sale

Today was a good way of spending a day. For lunch I ate with my cousin, and Huffb1, Jadon, and Dani at the Park Cafe for a little SaskBlogs party.
The afternoon disappeared, and I went to supper at Passage to India (very fast service, and great food).

After supper my friend and I saw “Smart People” [8/10] at the Galaxy. It had a lot of intelligent humour, sort of rare for a Hollywood movie. After going home for the night I watched “Vacation” [8/10] with Chevy Chase. And now I’m part way into “Splash” [5/10] which I’ve also seen before, but not for decades.

Having an XO laptop might change the way I blog. I’ve “live blogged” twice today. Maybe it just seems that with a wireless laptop you can blog even while things are happening away from your “main” blogging station.