Just Won Baby!!!

It's a great day in Rider Nation. Congrats to the boys for a job well done. We may not have won pretty... but we won and that's the whole point!!!

You Say Saskatchewan is What?

Wait a minute... those extra 14 pounds aren't going to kill me?

So having a little of that "baby fat" hang around until you are in your 50's maybe ain't such a bad thing after all! Isn't great to live in such mixed messaged times! :)

Please take a few moments now for your daily devotional

Yes, it's the unofficial Franzl Lang Appreciation Week.

It doesn't get any better than this.

Darwin was Wrong - It should be Survival of the Community-est

How to Be a Hobo

Finally, an article for a career choice that many teenagers should consider considering their complete lack of initiative!

Finally, the Emergent Conference That Makes Sense

Blast from the Past: The Time Ryan Falls Off a Horse...and Doesn't Break his Arm

No Wonder I'm in Last Place in my NASCAR Pool

A rare two post day. WOO HOO.

NASCAR Coach Reveals Winning Strategy: 'Drive Fast'

The Internet Has Crashed!

Breaking News: All Online Data Lost After Internet Crash

Houston, we have gotten rid of Vista!

OK. So I installed Vista on my sweet LG S1 laptop (OK, it's not mine... but I like to think it is).
This list of problems forced me to go back to XP!

1. Somehow Vista sucks video signal out of the machine making our 100ft run of VGA cable from the projector suddenly too long. Vista magically sucks bandwidth out of the signal going out on the external video port. Weird. (Yes, I turned off all of the eye candy on Vista to no avail). The projector image was glitchy every 3 seconds or so... and, sometimes, Vista would go nuts blinking on and off trying to find the external monitor and then not finding it and then finding it... etc. When I put XP back on.... everything was fine again.
2. Video editing sucks. My Ulead software just wouldn't work (I have subsequently found some updates that I could have tried). Nero 6 just plain won't work (7 apparently does but I don't want to buy it). Windows Movie Maker looked promising but it won't accept MP4 videos! Unreal. So I installed some codecs to make it work and all exported video was garbelled and useless. I quit trying right there.
   
3. File transfer speeds were slower! Whether I was copying across the network or on the hard disk things were slower.... noticeably slower.
   
4. My webcam didn't work.
5. My office printer kept saying it was "unavailable"... I quit right there.

There are some things I liked too... but, unfortunately, these were game breakers. Now, do I try to send it back and get my Shipping and Handling back?

Houston, we have Vista!!!

Yes, it's true. My Vista disk came today.... 6 months (almost) after I ordered it. Next time I'm gonna walk and get it myself.!

When the Artist gets Attacked by the Art

I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me!!




Animator vs. Animation

Vista Upgrade from LG... and waiting.

Still... we have no joy with our Vista upgrade from LG and Microsoft's folks at Moduslink. We're now well in to the fifth month and they still have my $68.

I did call LG today, yet again and they promised an email response tomorrow.

In the meantime.... enjoy this:

Carrot Juice is Murder

Building the better Motorcycle

Yet another video that answers life's toughest questions. This time... "how do they build a Rocket 3 Triumph motorcycle?

Yo Yo My!

To the Victors... the Spoils

Way to go Anaheim. The team formerly known as Mighty and pulled it off. Makes me proud to have recently lived only 3000 kms away in Kitimat. Wow. So close.

How to cross the street in India (and most other nations)

This looks harder that it is. Or... it looks easier than it is. You pick!

The Prairies Rejoice!!!!

While the popluation of Saskatchewan continues to hover just under a million people... the population of gophers continues to skyrocket!! WHO WILL SAVE US?

My buddy Lee has invented the better gopher trap. Easy to use. Humane. Works! Farmers are starting to the light at the end of the gopher tunnel as people snap up Lee's gopher traps as fast as he can make them.

Check Lee's Gopher Trap out here.

While I'm still waiting... a golf lesson

....and waiting...

NOT!
Still no Vista lovin here... nor refund. ARGH!!!

Just in case you were wondering about this today...

Since it is snowing here today I thought this story would be helpful.
How to avoid and, if necessary, survive an gator/croc attack.

Click Here

So... how long is too long!???

OK. So now it has been over a month and a half since my order... featuring FEDEX topping shipping prices. Really though. Is this not too long?

Someone else told to pay $68... but they were smart and didn't do it

Click here for a review of an LG laptop where the person was somewhat wiser than I.

It's the 80's (OK, was) where's our rocket packs?

I have this album... somewhere I think.... Here's a nifty fan video taking classic sci-fi movie clips.

Oh, they overcharged me.... like 8 bucks!!~

You've got to be kidding. They said they overcharged me... I was thinking "yes, like by about $50". Well, take off a digit and you are close.

ARGH



Upgrade Redemption Website

Order Status
COA number Product name Quantity Unit price Tax price Final price Windows Vista Business 32-bit CD/DVD 1 CAD 0.00 CAD 0.00 CAD 0.00

Shipping CAD 68.48
Taxes and Duties CAD 0.00
Total CAD 68.48

Bart's Chalkboard -- all of them in 4 minutes

Vista Upgrade Update

Well, still waiting. Still don't know what the price ended up being.

Sigh.

Vista Upgrade... Update

Got an email today:
Dear Valued Microsoft Windows Vista Customers:

The website on which you placed an order for an upgrade to Windows Vista for your Microsoft Product experienced a technical problem whereby your estimated tax due was overstated. Your credit card has not been charged. The corrected amount, plus any applicable local taxes, will be charged to your credit card when ModusLink ships Microsoft Windows Vista to you.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact the fulfillment center directly at MSTUPVISTANA@ModusLink.com.

We apologize for any potential confusion and look forward to fulfilling your order.

Sincerely yours,
The Upgrade Redemption Center

No amount was given.... I'll have to check my bill.

Microsoft Vista "Free" Upgrade Scam -- Shipping and Handling $76!!!

So I bought a new laptop a while back for work (a nice LG S1) which came with the free upgrade for Vista when it came out. Well, it has come out now and I quickly applied online to get it. After completing the incredibly overly complex system (there have been many in the blogosphere complaining about this so I won't bother) to apply for the upgrade I finally managed to get to the shipping info and cost. I assumed it would be about $12.00 (cdn) which I had seen advertised in various places. To my horror I found that it was, in fact, $76!

So, who's getting the $76 bucks? MS or LG? I'm actually not too sure.

So, it's now obvious that I'm not that bright. Thinking it was a glitch of some kind, I went ahead and ordered it. It wasn't a glitch. My bulb grows dimmer.

(Click the picture for the high resolution version).

Obviously MS or LG has figured out that many more users are as dumb as I am and will be milking them for exorbitant S&H prices. This is straight out of the back of comic book type scamming.

By the way. After going through this process I was still not done! I had to fax/scan my original receipt and the MS confirmation number (was on the form above...at the top). I fear that many folks are going to think they are done and not do that last step.

I must go kick myself some more now.

Ouch ouch ouch ouch... a million times ouch!

The Amazonian fish the size of a toothpick that can cause giant sized pain!

In Loving Memory

No, someone isn't dead in this story. However, someone does have a hard time remembering stuff for more than 10 seconds. How do you love someone like that?

Finally, a family tree website that makes sense

Here's a really nice new website for creating and maintaining your family tree. The neato features are: 1. All trees are private and only people who are actually on the tree (with an email address) can see it. 2. Layout is really cool. 3. FREE!

What to do if you find out that you are dead

In 1976, a farmer in northern India became alarmed when he was informed of his own death. Lal Bihari was in the process of applying for a loan when the bank representative delivered the bad news, and it wasn't just that his loan had been denied.

Read the article here.

Ditch Acrobat Reader ASAP! Get Foxit Reader

Faster. Stronger. Higher. (well, you know what I mean).
Stop using Acrobat Reader to view PDF files... it's slow, bloaty and tries to take over your system. Go to Foxit and download their free reader.

More evidence that jogging is evil

My kind of magic show!

Hinterland... on drugs

Click here for the movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzdsFiBbFc