Bit Torrent Links

I’m downloading the latest Ubuntu Linux OS to try it out. It’s a free alternative to Windows, and comes in very handy if Windows ever quits working (for one of its various usual reasons).

To download quickly, safely, and without errors, even if there’s an interruption, Bit Torrent provides those features. Here’s a review of the most popular and effective clients. I’d not heard of qBitTorrent until today, I’ve more typically used uTorrent or BitComet years ago.

This way I also found Jamendo, which has free albums for download and sharing. It’s like the old software known as “shareware” where you could try the full product before you bought it.

Technologies like Bit Torrent help the Internet remain a place where anyone (in places without SOPA style laws) has equitable access to distribute their work for others to share it. That’s why the Pirate Party of Canada promotes the use of Bit Torrent.

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Also free, and very useful, is LibreOffice. It’s a replacement to Microsoft Office. Most people will not need to buy Word, Excel, or Powerpoint if they use LibreOffice. Install Java as well. If Java asks you to install a toolbar, just say no.

Election Stockholm Syndrome

Conservative Canadians are sympathizing with their captors.
Just happy to have finally kicked the pesky 2 year election cycle with a Conservative “stable” majority government, the fact that it was tainted (more correctly “stolen“) by rampant electoral fraud doesn’t seem to sway everyone into calling for justice.

Fortunately there are still Canadians willing to Stand on Guard for Thee.

Tens of thousands of Canadians are getting active. Forgive us if, as Canadian citizens who have known overwhelmingly free and fair elections for decades, if we’re a little rusty in figuring out how to respond to a government that earned its majority thanks to a centrally-directed criminal conspiracy of electoral fraud.

To expand on Ross K’s (no relation to me) idea that Canadians are learning to like being cheated and abused:

Because if we all just decide to shrug our shoulders in the end?

Well, the entire country could become one big Saanich Gulf-Islands, circa, 2008 wherein all involved parties get to walk away smiling, and shaking hands, and assembling war chests for the next time.

Ya.

Next time.

Think about that for a moment…

One riding in 2008…

Thirty-one, or sixty-two, or ninety-four ridings in 2011…

So.

How many, then, in 2015?

The Borg are here. The rise of the robocall machines. “Borg? Sounds Swedish.” – Star Trek character remarks. Stockholm is in Sweden (just a coincidence, I assure you ;).
“The line must be drawn HERE!” – Captain Picard in Star Trek: First Contact

But they really have no escape. They’ve repeated the “in-and-out” scandal [unexplained $15,000.01 transfers to Quebec ridings]. They’ve had American election strategists campaigning for them [from Front Porch Strategies]. They’ve got people testifying that they were told to lie and say they were from Elections Canada and that they were giving out information they later discovered was fraudulent.

(links added)

Kate and Time

Watched “Kate and Leopold” [7/10] an older movie about time travel. Been having good days, but the boiler quit.

Good Luck Hangover

“Good Luck Chuck” [3/10] was on Netflix, and it’s every bit as uncomfortable as the critics said it was. It’s a mean spirited Hollywood vehicle to show a lot of topless women to actor and comedian Dane Cook. If you like a movie with a lot of boobs, and tortured reasons to show them off, watch this movie.

“The Hangover II” [4/10] uses the same gags as the first. It’s Home Alone II basically, but with adults encountering an unlikely situation, again. Watch this movie if you’ve seen The Hangover and want to see it again.

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And the blog year couldn’t begin unless we talked about a list. The weather has been quite unusual for most of the year, especially in Regina where it’s been hovering around zero degrees Celsius through most of December! Reality deniers will try to say these sorts of extremes happen all of the time, or happen naturally, and they’d be correct except they are happening in the context of humans polluting the atmosphere at an increasing rate never achieved before in human history.

Oh Nuts

“Mixed Nuts” [6/10] was on after Scrooged, so I tried watching it. I also finished watching “Taken for a Ride” [9/10] which is a documentary explaining how GM destroyed public transportation systems.

Pointless Gossip

What good is a blog if you don’t talk about what you’ve done?

Last night I attended a bachelor party. First we went to Laser Quest and shot up a bunch of kids in good fun. I finished second for the night, and the groom fifth overall (fourth in the game). Then we headed over to Envy, but didn’t see anyone going inside, so we went to Habanos from my rockstar parking spot between the two clubs. I’d never been to any of the bars on Dewdney Ave. besides McNally’s and Bushwakkers, so I didn’t know what to expect. There was a $5 cover charge, plus $2.25 coat check, and the virgin cesar I had (designated driver) was $2. After “packing the pole” and losing, and spending maybe half an hour at Habanos, someone in the group talked us into going over to Envy. Envy didn’t charge a cover, which I thought was great, until we got downstairs, and there were no patrons. A very attractive bartender was just arriving [or coming back inside] (this was about 11:00) and our group decided to stay for a drink, possibly without coincidence. It turned into two drinks for most, as we ditched the plan to head to the Serbian Club at 11:30 where there was cake and games. Virgin cesars were $3.50 there. The music was alright, but the same as anywhere (Pitbull in every other song), and I recognized Tommy Douglass from the UofR in the bar. Apparently the reason the place was so empty was that finals are being written and many students have left town or are studying.

The groom was getting decidedly more drunk, and rebellious, so instead of meeting up with the women of the wedding party as initially planned, that was tossed aside for a trip to another bar. We hopped over to Gabbos, where there was coat check and cover combined at $5. The virgin cesar was a horrific $4.75, and the bartender was apologetic for the price and offered to put something else in it which I of course declined. I was encouraged (but not sincerely convinced) by another partier to drink until I was buzzed, but not drunk, and I nursed my non-alcoholic drinks along enough the rest of the night that he was easily convinced I’d had enough alcohol to have a good time (even though I need none to have a great time, and had no buzz that wasn’t from dancing and mild dehydration from the Clamato’s sodium).

I picked up some of the women, including my wife of course, from the other party where things had gone sideways at some times in the night, but made our ways back home safely and a great time was had by most. The puke from those who were over-drunk even ended up in washable locations, so it was all good.

And tonight is another party, a Christmas party this time. Fingers crossed it’s as fun as last night, and this time there’s no cover charge, or coat check fees, and the drinks are (next to) free. Party on!

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A few nights ago I watched “Friends With Benefits” [7/10] and it was a better movie than I thought it would be.

Movie Time

I watched “Tower Heist” [7/10] which was done in the vein of the Occupy Wall Street and Bernie Madoff scandals. I liked it. Meanwhile a real life OWS situation is underway in the Queen City, and I spent the rest of the evening there talking with people and lending a hand.

Harry Potter in Syndey

Just after looking at the Sydney tar ponds, April and I watched another sort of dark magic: “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2″ [8/10]. I even had to stand in a lineup in the theatre for a few minutes. The crowd seemed to like it, and it was okay, but made for fans of the movies and I missed some of the middle movies so some parts didn’t make a pile of sense. Watching them in order over a week would be the best thing, if you have that many free hours to burn.

After the movie we ate at Governors pub, and April saw Michael J. Fox walking up the stairs to the top floor. I didn’t get a good look, so can’t quite say I saw him too, but believe she knows what he looks like.

The next day we walked around the partially reconstructed town of Louisbourg Nova Scotia, circa 1744. I had pea soup and bread for lunch, and it was served with only a bowl and spoon and big serviette. We took off and drove past the Bell museum in Baddeck, and camped at Inverness.

Thursday night, tonight, we’re at a bed and breakfast in Winsloe outside of Charlottetown. We watched some live music by John Redher and the chef on the piano, at The Alibi restaurant. Tomorrow we’ll probably hit a beach, and see some parks and a haunted mansion.

Battlefield Earth

Vancouver is Canada’s latest battlefield. I don’t think Regina’s population would easily riot, not even over the Riders. We’ve come to accept losing the Grey Cup pretty well, and when we won, the party didn’t get out of hand. Sure, the Regina Riot is famous, but that was a bunch of out-of-towners pent up and beat down by Ottawa. No more passenger trains in Regina, so no more problems.

I watched “Battlefield Earth” [5/10] tonight, and it was no where near as bad as the reviews make it out to be. Sure it’s not very realistic, but it’s sci-fi.

Gone Movie’ing

I caught most of “When Harry Met Sally” [7/10] this weekend, and would like to see it all, but it looked pretty good.

I also went to the new Pirates movie “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” [7/10] and enjoyed it more than the second in the series, because I went in with lower expectations.