Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

Mosaic was lots of fun again this year. More Pavilions! They’d have to add more days though, because even with the 3 nights, I was still unable to make it to 3 of them, taking the bus to well over half.

The bus was plugged up at 10:15 at the Italian pavilion, and it was raining cats and dogs after 5 minutes of standing at the bus stop. I think I managed to fit about 6 and a half people under my umbrella. The drunk high school girl who was trying desperately to land in the gutter by swooning backwards, was not invited, and seemed oblivious and accepting of her perilous situation anyway.

We ran inside, and after a quick second bite in the Italian club, we caught the bus and made friends with a very drunk man who ended up in the north end when he was looking to be south. We hopped off at the Poltava Ukrainian pavilion, and enjoyed the closing dancing and live orchestra. I’ll probably put a clip of it on YouTube later, it was fantastic. The food had already been put away, so Jesse was disappointed by that, but he got some kybassa at the Kyiv pavilion earlier.

On the bus ride home, I spent some time asking/telling high school kids to put their cigarettes out while we were on the bus. After saying loudly “PLEASE PUT YOUR CIGARETTES OUT!” the bus driver pulled over and I fingered a few of the culprits who had hid it in the mean time, but he didn’t do anything except yell for a second and glare at them for a few more. If he’d tossed even a couple off the bus it would have fixed the problem organically. Naturally, the chain smoking junkies lit up again within 5 minutes. At least I had an open-window seat with some air.

The Chilean pavilion had a punch drink that was a lot like sangria - it was good. The prices for bottled water varied though from place to place ($2 at Chile, and $1.50 elsewhere), and few of the pavilions had drinking fountains available, which is kind of sad. I spent way too much on food (like last year, only less this time), but it’s a once a year kind of thing, and the travel cost can’t be beat, even with the smoke filled night buses. The German pavilion had the biggest dinner for the best price, and I bumped into Nicole who I’d never met before, but have spoken with through blogs for a couple years now.

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Here are some very funny pie charts. I think I could come up with a few more like some of these.

A National Aboriginal Day Special with a twist

CBC is celebrating National Aboriginal Day early. You’re invited to a night of hilarious comedy with The Almost Ready for Self-Government Players and toe-tapping country music by Shane Yellowbird.

Monday, June 9th, 2008
8:00 p.m. (doors open at 7:00)
CBC Broadcasting Centre - Galleria REGINA, SK
2440 Broad Street

–
Hat tip to a friend on Facebook.

Today was another convocation ceremony for the University of Regina.

It was the front page story on the Leader-Post. I attended, and before I even got inside, Mike asked if I was going to put it on my blog. I told him no, sincerely, but changed my mind, partly due to him asking. So if he was hoping to persuade me not to for some reason, he had the opposite effect. In any case the honourary doctor, violinist Eduard Minevich, was an entertaining speaker and played the violin at the end of his talk, so it was all good.

The jokes about the KGB, his wife telling him to speed up, and his family all being doctors so he might as well open a private clinic, were good fun. His message that you can be world famous and make a career (even in arts!) right here in Regina, was a good one for people to hear. He was invited to play for Putin not long ago, and was found in Regina and invited east to the event.

I put my iPod into one of my ears for the last row of graduates and closing talk by someone. I finally heard the episode of the Murray Wood Show where Stephen Glauser picked up the trivia prize for the most right answers. One of the answers was “marijuana”!

I also ran into another of Saskatchewan’s fine bloggers, and his look was priceless when I suggested I could send him the video of him walking across the stage. Needless to say I won’t be posting the video on my blog, but I bet you could guess who it is I’m talking about. There were quite a few other people I knew doing the hood-carry-shuffle, about a dozen, which isn’t surprising since I’ve worked, or lived with either them, or their siblings.

Anyway, it feels like it is Saturday night for some reason. Maybe that’s because I was just out having fun at Mosaic (the annual cultural pavilion festival in the city).

I ran into several friends at different pavilions throughout the city. It’s a good idea to take the bus, because parking at the Ex is $5 a night. The adult passport is just $12 (up from 10 last year) and includes bus fare on the Mosaic routes.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a computer, I’m sure the MAFIAA will find a way to sue you anyway. Maybe they’ll get Jim Prentice to do it for them.

Do you happen to know anyone who has managed to fill even a 4GB iPod with purely purchased music (even transferred from CDs they bought)? Who knows, maybe it will become a crime to move songs from your CDs to your iPod after this bill passes? IF it passes.
And if you ever go over the border, when (if) you come back home, the custom copyright police will be sure to poke through your iPod and laptop for any files that don’t have a digital signature from an authorized music distributor. Next, watch for the Conservatives to ban street music, lest you get entertainment for free. OK, I’m exaggerating. Or, am I?

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Hat tip to Jeff

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A little math for you:
MP3 song ~= 5MB
4GB ~= 4,000MB

4000 / 5 = 800 songs

song ~= $1 iTunes price

$800 to fill a midrange iPod minus some room left for free podcasts and FREE videos. Does that actually happen? Do people actually spend $500+ on a music collection that can’t easily be moved to another device?

$500 / ~$25 Walmart CD price = 20 CDs. Oh, so it’s not unreasonable I suppose, except that with CDs they have a lifetime from 2 - 100 years, while an iPod might last 5 years.

So, keep in mind that if the max is $500 per infringement as the rumour suggests, what’s to stop the CRIA (MAFIAA) from going after someone who *might* have a 800 * $500 goldmine in their pocket? Did that person with the full iPod inflict even a significant FRACTION of $400,000 worth of damages on artists? Artists who have told the MAFIAA lobby to shove it?

I have a couple press releases in my inbox that I thought I’d share. One is about the Sask Greens, and their candidate for the Cumberland riding. The next is about an exciting movie project in Regina. If the Greens win Cumberland, they’ll have to make a movie about that triumph too!

GREEN PARTY OF SASKATCHEWAN ANNOUNCES PROGRESSIVE POLICY FOR THE NORTH

For Release: Thursday, May-29-08 – La Ronge, Sk

The Green Party of Saskatchewan has announced Tory McGregor as their candidate for the Cumberland by-election called for June 25.
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When spam does get through my Hotmail account to my Bulk folder (usually not my inbox anymore these days), it can have really amusing titles. There’s one from Friday for instance. “100% real watch copies” Ooh, a real copy, eh? A genuine replica. Awesome!

So, would genuine fakes be taken at the border along with iPods once ACTA is implemented by Canada’s New World Order Government?

We’ve been blocking the front door to Parliament, so the Conservatives and the copyright lobby are attempting to get in the back door through the Department of International Trade. In secret, and revealed by a leaked document, the government is looking at having border guards act as copyright police — searching your iPods and digital devices when you cross from the States (or elsewhere) back into Canada. You’d then be fined, and/or have your device confiscated if they deem material to be of an infringing nature.

The guards would also be responsible for determining what is infringing content and what is not.

The agreement proposes any content that may have been copied from a DVD or digital video recorder would be open for scrutiny by officials - even if the content was copied legally.

Police state!

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Hat tip to Troy

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I watched “Invincible” [7/10] this evening. It was alright, but I certainly wouldn’t cross the border with it, it’s not that good.

Since before the last election, Stephen Harper was going on and on about a Made in Canada solution to deal with greenhouse gases. That mantra has fallen down since he revealed he doesn’t really care about greenhouse gases or air pollution, but the point is he wanted a solution that we made. It would be ours, and in theory it would be best. Well, people who know what he really meant, was that he wanted a Made in America solution to greenhouse gas emissions, and he has been working on implementing it since he came to power.

Now he’s made the mistake of fixing Canada’s (food) labeling law. This change requires that products with “Made in Canada” or “Product of Canada” are actually mostly Canadian in origin and content. If he doesn’t relabel his “Made in Canada” pollution strategy to “Made in USA”, will he be violating his own law?

Seriously, the food law is a good change. I just had to bug him about his “Made in Canada” crap he’s fed us before. The King of Carbon has a lot of experience with the poop slinging. When he’s not insulting Canada, he does a fine job of saying every other country’s government with a carbon tax is just out for a cash grab.
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