059 - Bangkok Dangerous

059 - Bangkok Dangerous
Year: 2008
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Charlie Yeung
Director: Danny Pang, Oxide Pang Chun
Plot: A hitman becomes personable.
Rating: 4 stars

058 - Rush Hour 3

058 - Rush Hour 3
Year: 2007
Stars: Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker
Director: Brett Ratner
Plot: Police partners fight triads in Paris
Rating: 3 stars

057 - Alien vs. Predator: Requiem

057 - Alien vs. Predator: Requiem
Year: 2007
Stars: Stephen Pasquale
Director: Greg and Colin Strause
Plot: An American town gets invaded by Aliens and Predator
Rating: 3.5 stars

056 - The Spirit

056 - The Spirit
Year: 2008
Stars: Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson
Director: Frank Miller
Plot: Superhero vs villian.
Rating: 2.5 stars

055 - Knowing

055 - Knowing
Year: 2009
Stars: Nicolas Cage
Director: Alex Proyas
Plot: Precognition to avert disaster
Rating: 5 Stars

054 - The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

054 - The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Year: 2008
Stars: Brendan Fraser, Jet Li
Director: Rob Cohen
Rating: 3 stars

053 - The Dark Knight

053 - The Dark Knight
Year: 2008
Stars: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger
Director: Christopher Nolan
Plot: Batman faces the Joker and Harvey Dent
Rating: 3 stars

052 - Pineapple Express

052 - Pineapple Express
Year: 2008
Stars: Seth Rogan, James Franco
Director: David Gordon Green
Plot: Running from a drug lord
Rating: 4 stars

051 - Hancock

051 - Hancock
Year: 2008
Stars: Will Smith, Charlize Theron
Director: Peter Berg
Plot: Superhero with negativity
Rating: 2.5 stars

050 - Live Free or Die Hard

050 - Live Free or Die Hard
Year: 2oo7
Stars: Bruce Willis, Justin Long
Director: Len Wiseman
Plot: national terrorist.
Rating: 3 stars

049 - Two Lovers

049 - Two Lovers
Year: 2008
Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Gwyneth Paltrow
Director: James Gray
Plot: love triangle; 2 paths
Rating: 4 stars

048 - Star Trek

048 - Star Trek
Year:2009
Stars: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto
Plot: revenge in an alternate time line
Rating: 5 stars

047 - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

047 - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Year:2008
Stars: Brad Pitt
Director: David Fincher
Plot: aging unlike others
Rating: 4.5 stars

046 - Angels and Demons

046 - Angels and Demons
Year: 2009
Stars: Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor
Director: Ron Howard
Plot: Large Hadron Collider; blackmail; Vatican
Rating: 5 stars

045 - healthy stir fry fast food

045 - healthy stir fry fast food

U-Grill (Metropolis)
312-4700 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC
Tel: 604-435-2320

This is probably the healthiest fast food stir fry you can get.
The uncooked food bar has fresh ingredients & you get choose what goes on your plate. This is always a busy stand and there are ample staff in the front in the back (to accomodate the business volume!). Service is acceptable, but it is inline with this assembly line type of operation. The price of your meal is based on the weight of your platter. It is competitive but if you are very hungry or very frugal, you may want to try another venue for that day. This certainly is a refreshing change from your mainstream food court places.

food 5 stars
service 3 stars
value 3 stars
ambiance 4 stars
overall rating ... 3.75 stars

http://www.dinehere.ca/restaurant.asp?r=4542#43811

044- Link List

044 - Link List

The Link List (the Blogger gadget on the upper right hand side of this blog) contains some of these links/topics.

guestbook
photobucket
picasaweb
JianChomeshiMemoirs
RavinderChomeshi.blogspot.com

043 - Photos of "20090607bus" album

043 Photos of "20090607bus" album

in Picasweb:

20090607bus

in Photobucket:

http://s556.photobucket.com/albums/ss4/jcpma/20090607bus/


There are links to more of my shared photos at Picasaweb and Photobucket on the Link List on the upper right hand corner of this blog.

042 - links to some classic/old TV shows

links to some classic/old TV shows

Beyond Reason
http://archives.cbc.ca/science_technology/unexplained/clips/4344/

CBC game show with a paranormal twist

Broadcast Date: Feb. 21, 1977
Tapping in to the growing interest in the supernatural, CBC Television airs Beyond Reason, a psychic take on the hugely successful CBC game show Front Page Challenge. The panellists include an astrologer, graphologist and a clairvoyant. Armed only with a birth chart, a handwriting sample and a personal possession, the psychic panel tries to guess the identity of the hidden guests.

Mr. Dressup

The Beachcombers

The Friendly Giant

041 - La Viena Italian Restaurant

La Viena Italian Restaurant

2139 Kensington NW Calgary
403 283 3063

june28

=============

Home Made Taste

One of the best kept secrets in Calgary.

Open for Lunch Tues to Fri.
Reservations strongly recommended for suppers.

Are you looking for down to earth Italian dining experience at affordable prices?
Do you enjoy home-made pasta, bread, desserts, & entrees?
This is the restaurant for you.

From the outside, it doesn't look like a restaurant. It looks like a convenience store, but appearances are deceiving. Once you cross the threshold the environment changes significantly. This is a cozy restaurant with a very thoughtful decor. Fresh flowers & simplicity make this a very pleasant family eatery. Service is delivered by very professional and patient servers.

I had a very rich Lobster bisque to start off with. Just the right menu item to go with the fresh/warm baked rolls. My entree consisted of Filet of Sole, with baby shrimp & a garlicky tomato sauce. This is served with side of potato & mushroom/garden pepper veggie medley. The bisque is very very rich and flavorful. I think it is one of the signature dishes, if it is not, it should be. Be fore-warned, this is a very filling soup. The entree was perfect. Appearance, smell, and flavour. It is a well balanced dish. The red sauce compliments the seafood perfectly with just the right amount of garlic. The veggies are seared and retain the garden crispness. The teramisu is another signature item. A delicate desert with light blend of flavours. This needs to be slowly enjoyed and each bite savoured.

Here's the breakdown:
.service 5
.food 5
.ambiance 4
.value 5
overall rating... 4.75

040 - earbud Surgery

earbud surgery (ie, the headphones)

June28 2oo9


after months of sleeping with my earbuds on listening to mp3s, my left bud finally succumbed to mechanical damage. that is, the left wire bent so often that it finally torn inside its insulation resulting in periodic/frustrating audio pulsations.

i have repaired other earbuds before, but this one requires some surgery as the housing of the phone is sealed and has no user servicable parts. This earbud set is OEM. The casing of the miniature speaker is sealed shut in a plastic housing.

Being careful with my sharp pocket knife I proceeded to stab the perimeter of the plastic seal respecting the blade. 10 seconds before I broke the seal, I stabbed my left thumb just near the nail and broke the dermal seal. Evidently the red fluid indicator in my thumb seeped through to show that not enough respect was given to the blade. The plastic seal was broken shortly after. I removed 4-5 inches of the old wiring and soldered on the fresh exposed wiring. Glued the housing back together and 24 hours later I have a usable set of earbuds again.

Moral of this story:
When you force a hack/repair on a non-repairable item, you are at a great chance to injure your thumb!!

039 - Chinese Character Dictionary links 中 文 字 典

Chinese Character Dictionary links 中 文 字 典

Maybe for about 1 year now, I have done my Chinese to English translations of Chinese characters with paper and electronic references.
One of the best paper dictionaries is the Oxford Chinese-English/English-Chinese dictionary. In the middle of this book is a character/radical table to help with the reverse translation.
On-line resources are speedier but they too require a knowledge of Chinese pronunciation, definition or characters to be useful. User input is by keyboard. Searching for the character or the building elements of the character was very (very) time consuming! I have always wondered why no-one has come up with a program where you would write with a stylus on a computer/electronic tablet, the Chinese character and then have the computer come up with the exact character and definition.

I used these resources painstakingly for years. When I got stuck/frustrated, I would resort to entering my query (usually in the form of an image/jpeg) in a forum often half a continent away and hope some merciful/friendly soul would assist me! ... that is until today.

I stumbled on this wonderful website, where not only can you find a character by: certain code, or meaning or pronuciation, but also by drawing. You click on the "brush" icon and use your mouse to "draw" the chinese character. It works very well. This is almost like getting a birthday present! (Note, your browser needs to have java abilities enabled.) The website is
http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=chardict

Links to other chinese character dictionaries etc:

Software:
dimsum mandarintools.com http://www.mandarintools.com/dimsum.html
hanzilookup http://kiang.org/jordan/software/hanzilookup/
firefox browser addon MandarinPopup https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9931 __(other addons include PopupChinese, and Cantofish)
kanjibrowze http://www.stackz.com/KanjiBrowze/kbr.htm
njstar products http://www.njstar.com/
pablo http://ehaton.blogspot.com/2007/02/learning-chinese-pablo-my-personal.html
wakan http://wakan.manga.cz/ (this is the one I understand the most)

online translation sites:
google translate http://translate.google.com/
babelfish http://babelfish.yahoo.com/
PopupChinese Chinese characters to english: http://www.popupchinese.com/tools/adso

Online chinese character/radical dictionaries; Handwriting input:

• chineselanguage.org http://www.chineselanguage.org/dictionaries/index.php?module=ccdict&lang=en
• chinese-tools http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/sinograms.html
• chinese-tools http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/mouse.html
• kiang.org hanzidict http://kiang.org/jordan/software/hanzilookup/hanzidict.html
• mandarin tools http://www.mandarintools.com/chardict.html
• mdbg.net http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=chardict (click on the brush icon 畫筆 to enable handwriting input)

• nciku http://www.nciku.com/
• popupChinese single character dictionary http://www.popupchinese.com/words/dictionary
• purpleculture.net http://www.purpleculture.net/Chinese-Handwritten-Input.asp
• zhongwen http://www.zhongwen.com/zi.htm

Forum:
chineselanguage.org (this is not a typo) http://www.chinalanguage.com/forums/index.php?

Etymology of a single character:
chineseetymology.org http://www.chineseetymology.org/CharacterASP/EtymologyHome.aspx

Study tools:
chinese mac [study] http://www.yale.edu/chinesemac/pages/study_tools.html
stroke order Dylan Sung http://www.sungwh.freeserve.co.uk/sapienti/bihua.htm
stroke order wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroke_order

.

038 - Pit Pub Burger Bar

AMS Pit Pub Burger Bar is simple and solid!

This burger bar is located at UBC, at 6138 SUB Boulevard.
It is a big grill kitchen behind a small counter service window.
There are no frills, but the service is prompt and friendly.(80) [4 stars]
The burgers are 1/4 pound patties. Side orders are fries and chicken strips. They also have veggie burgers. Food Quality = 80 [4 stars]
Atmosphere = fast food/food court (80) [4 stars]
This is the type of place Fred Flintstone would go to. Simple. WYSIWYG.
Prices are competitive.(70) [3 stars]
Overall rating = .......%78 [3.75 stars]

http://www.dinehere.ca/restaurant.asp?r=5825#42763

037 - Moon Noodle Bar

The Moon Noodle Bar is "a fresh taste"
http://www.amsubc.ca/index.php/businesses/category/the_moon

In the SUB UBC food court, next to the Pit Pub, this fast food chinese food/noodle bar provides good value & speed for lunch. I had fried noodles, green beans and beef with black bean sauce, and spicy tofu. The food quality earned 4 stars. One star was deducted because some of the noodles were chewy and rubber-like. (To be fair, perhaps this was just a one time thing).
Service & Ambience was inline for a fast-food place.
The menu had many items. You can also create your own combo as I did above. This place is a hidden gem. For authentic Chinese fast-food taste head toward the Moon Noodle Bar and stay away from the boring mainstream fast-food outlets.

food 4 stars
value 4 stars
ambience 3 stars
service 3 stars
Overall rating .... 3.5 stars

http://www.dinehere.ca/restaurant.asp?r=3286#42761

036 - a few shopping centres on No.3 Road in Richmond

a few shopping centres on No.3 Road in Richmond

1. Richmond Centre is a classic mainstream shopping mall. The decor/atmosphere is vibrant.
(The Skytrain, Canada Line, at the time of this writing, has completed the track concrete foundation from the North next to Richmond Centre.)


2. North several blocks, and just west off of No.3 road, is the new location of XS Cargo.

A store, selling discounted and refurbished items.

3. Around the 4600 block on the west side of the road is The Real Canadian Superstore.


4. Across the street is Hon's Wun-Tun House restaurant.



5. Next to (North of) Hon's is Parker Place (百 家 店), an Asian retail mall.



Photo by Arnold C and Buchanan-Hermit
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Parkerplace.jpg

6. Across the street northbound fom Parker Place is the Aberdeen Centre,
時 代 坊 another Asian mall.

Photo by Christopher Dewolf; cross reference with http://www.urbanphoto.net/blog/2007/03/08/gung-hay-fat-choy-notes-from-vancouver/

This mall has your typical Asian retail boutiques much like Parker Place. There is a neato food-court on the 3rd floor. Two stores caught my attention though.
--i) Daiso http://www.daiso-sangyo.co.jp/english/ is a Japanese version of a "dollar store". If you have 5 or 10 bucks burning a hole in your pocket, then, this is the store for you. Actually, not all of the (cra*), I mean goods, are a waste. There are many items which are practical. However, if you can't tell what a product is for and you can't read Japanese, then the best advice is not to buy it. Funny though, all these Japanese labeled goods are made in China. No surprise here as the cost of labour/manufacturing is lower.
--ii) Cube inc. is the other neat store. http://www.cubeinc-bc.com/ I am so mad at myself for not being able to come up with a retail concept like this store. It is a paradigm shift for me. This store is on the 3rd floor. It rents/leases clear plexiglass cubes to other retailers. The store staff have keys for each locked cube. When a customer sees an item he/she is interested in, the staff opens up the cube and sells them the item. All the proceeds go to the cube renter. The store itself just makes money on the rental fees. If you just have to see one store in Aberdeen Centre, make it this one.

7. President Plaza 統 一 廣 場 is 1 block north on No.3 Road at Cambie Road.

Photo by Arnold C and Buchanan-Hermit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pres-ext1.jpg

-
It is comprised of retail and professional services including the 2 main companies T and T Supermarket 大 統 華 超 級 市 場, and the Radisson President Hotel.



8. North of President Plaza is the Yaohan Centre 八 佰 伴 中 心


Photo by SqueakyMarmot
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37804160@N00/285237963/

.
(These pics come from their website http://www.yaohancentre.com/) . This mall is best summarized as: "An Asian supermarket with an adjacent Asian food court beneath some small shops."
The supermarket here is called OSAKA Supermarket 大 阪 超 級 市 場
It is a sister store of T n T Supermarket 大 統 華 超 級 市 場. It is a busy place. If you like Chinese/Asian fast-food, this is one the best place to go for variety.

9. North of the Yaohan is Canadian Tire near Capstan Way.

035 - Hon's Wun-Tun House Restaurant in Richmond

Today I read some poor reviews of Hon's Wun-Tun House restaurant 漢 記 麵 家 (http://www.hons.ca) in Richmond on the internet.


image source http://www.menunette.com/?q=node/3044 <-- click here for current menunette.com viewing

I have eaten there before, a long time ago, and I can't believe the poor reviews.

negative reviews:
http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/14/180842/restaurant/Vancouver/Hons-Wun-Tun-House-Richmond-Richmond#
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~crowley/restaurant.html
http://www.tasteof604.com/1/8/Default.aspx?dmdid=22&rid=13286
http://www.dinehere.ca/restaurant.asp?r=448
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/107507

positive reviews:
http://chowtimes.com/2007/09/10/hons-on-no-3-road-revisited/
http://www.yelp.ca/biz/hons-wun-tun-house-richmond


There were several statements about the poor quality of the food, the service and the hygeine.

So, armed with my bias, I went to Hon's today for lunch and I am happy to report I am 1 satisfied customer. I had the Wor Won Ton soup (ironically, the spelling on the menu, Won Ton, is different than the restaurant name, ie. Wun-Tun,). It is a well balanced dish with won ton, bbq pork and small bok choy.
It was filling and the price was reasonable. I would return there again.

One staff seated me promptly, and another quickly got me some tea. Another took my order. For the type of restaurant that Hon's is, the service is appropriate. It is a busy Hong Kong style type soup and noodle house and the staff need to be fast and efficient. I didn't find any rudeness at all.


Photo by Steve Portigal
http://www.flickr.com/photos/steveportigal/3289047158/

The washroom cleanliness was o.k. Certainly it gets a passing grade. I think the negative reviewers don't understand that it is a fast food environment and not a fine-dining venue.


food 4 stars
service 4 stars
value 4 stars
ambience 4 stars
Overall rating ... 4 stars
My grading of this eatery is... a Passing grade and then some: %80

(this review now posted at http://www.dinehere.ca/restaurant.asp?r=448#42762)

034 - Dyson Air Blade

Dyson Air Blade hand dryer (from the maker of the vacuum cleaners?)
http://www.dyson.com/airblade/caen/

I seen 2 of these so far. The first one in Alberta (Calgary??) and the second one in Aberdeen Shopping Centre in Richmond B.C.

They dry your hands in 12 seconds, with unheated air at a speed of exceeding 640km/hr!

Before this I was impressed by the Xlerator.
http://www.exceldryer.com/products/xlerator.asp
This device claims to dry your hands in 10-15 seconds.

033 - my path in Lower BC June2009

my path in Lower BC June 2009

June21 Sunday: Richmond | shopping along No.3 Road
June20 Saturday: Surrey | Central City & Guildford Shopping Centres
June19 Friday: ******* Wild Goose Chase day
June18 Thursday: Burnaby, rough one Vancouver
June17 Wednesday: New Westminster
June16 Tuesday: Vancouver | rsch
June15 Monday: Abbotsford, Langley, Vancouver

032 - Army & Navy Stores (Canada)

Vancouver Army and Navy Store
photo from http://ryanchen-wing.com/2008/12/19/working-in-aunt-vs-yard-on-my-monday-in-vancity/

Army and Navy Stores (Canada) are still thriving in Canada!

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Army_%26_Navy_Stores_(Canada)&oldid=292276498


It was such a treat to discover an Army and Navy store in New Westminster. It is located next to the Burr Theatre.
For some reason, I assumed the last remaining store was the Calgary location. To my surprise, it appears there are six locations operating: Vancouver, New Westminster, Langley, Calgary, Edmonton South, an d Edmonton Londonderry Mall. http://www.armyandnavy.ca
--Photo by DennisSylvesterHurd
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dennissylvesterhurd/3487397114/sizes/l/

.

This photo is from Christine R.
http://www.yelp.ca/biz/army-and-navy-department-store-ltd-new-westminster


Photo by JMV
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmv/2666242627/

The New Westminster store has traditional decor. It has 4 levels and a working escalator. Photo prints of vintage store locations are hung up throughout the store: Vancouver, Regina?, Moose-Jaw, Saskatoon and others. The interior orange and black store signs are new but they retained the classic font. ... what you call "Army and Navy" font.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lilphotodevil/354244857/

Wikipedia says the location used to be an Eaton's store. There doesn't appear to be any Eaton's atmosphere at all. The shelving and color scheme and merchandising are classic Army and Navy.

Other Army and Navy links:
http://collectionscanada.ca/mailorder/029006-150.1-e.php?uid=029006&uidc=CollectionCd&sk=31&&&&PHPSESSID=kv7bg03hakugj2p6obu70p3p05

http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/cpm/catalog/cat2401e.shtml#1247636

http://www.axionet.com/bcreport/web/990913f.html

031 - Tower1 of Trays

Tower1 of Trays
From Dec2008 to June2009
This is the first stack of trays that Steven and I built:

Here are the rest of the pics:
http://s556.photobucket.com/albums/ss4/jcpma/20090602vTrays/

030 - gasoline update 2009-06-09 final

gasoline update 2009-06-09 (**final)

The last price change, a 2 cent decrease, happened on May 28 (twelve days ago).

↑ 3 cents| On 2009-06-19 I noticed the gas price at "Safe-way" and "Co-op" was increased 3 cents from
$ 0.969/Litre to $ 0.999/Litre



** note: this is the last gasoline price update for Calgary

029 - Puck Monster hand held electronic game by Gakken

Puck Monster hand held electronic game by Gakken

This is the international version of the North.American table top electronic "Pac-man"

http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Gakken/Puck.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuxapYRrxEk

028 - the definition of WASP

the definition of WASP

This posting is for my toy friend (grammar?) Outdoor Josh.
On an older radio broadcast of Terry O'Reilly's advertising program, The Age of Persuasion, the demographic term WASP was used. When I seen Josh I asked him if he knew what it meant. He thought it could mean White and Socially Priveleged, definitely not White and Sexy Person. I had taken some advertising classes in skool, but I forgotten what the term WASP stood for.

Josh was very close! Here is the term from dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/wasp) :

WASP
  /wɒsp/ Pronunciation [wosp] Sometimes Disparaging and Offensive.
–noun
1. a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant.
2. a member of the privileged, established white upper middle class in the U.S.
–adjective
3. Waspy.
Also, Wasp.

Origin:
1955–60

===

on Google book search (http://books.google.ca/books?id=0f5Grm_DkCoC&pg=PA61&lpg=PA61&dq=demographic+term+wasp&source=bl&ots=J3OF7ECVAk&sig=hLE2_mp4T6lUb7ZeAcCSlc1Dgq8&hl=en&ei=_9QqSq-EFY_ItAPjkZnvCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10#PPA61,M1)
Eric P Kaufmann's book Rethinking Ethnicity mentions the abbreviation: (page 61)
... White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) Americans ...

==

so there you have it. probably not the most politically-correct term as it may encompass elements of prejudice, racism & reverse racism.

027 - A woman missed her shark fin soup in Hong Kong 我要食魚翅呀

A woman missed her shark fin soup in Hong Kong 我要食魚翅呀

ok i can't resist.
From a cbc radio broadcast (dnto), I learned of the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbVw7entkxg of the chinese woman who missed her flight on youtube. Here is a parody on youtube already: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYVfBpMUe4E

I clicked on a related link. And this is even funnier than the airport video. It is funnier because the adjacent customer is laughing, and then at the end of the clip she realizes this tantrum is being recorded.

This lady is having a tantrum because the restaurant ran out of soup!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im7W1AnDmgA ,




(i'm reading the comments on youtube; this sharkfin soup video could have been staged.)

026 - Inouk winter boots

here is my bit on INOUK brand of winter boots


-


- I purchased these Inouk brand of winter boots in the early 1980's. I can't remember what store they were from, but I believe they are made in Canada! (Most shoes and clothes nowadays are made in China.) The retailer was either one of these: Woolco, Eatons, Sears, SAAN, MacLeods, Zellers, Kinney, Gallenkamp. I don't believe they were from Army & Navy's department store. My memory fails me.

Check out the neat logo that will be left in the snow by the sole of the boot:


These shoes were put into storage until Autumn of 2008. They were in pretty good shape (Canadian-made quality of course!) but I started wearing them again in a warehouse environment and they are scuffed up now.


The photos are here in Photobucket.com:
.

http://s556.photobucket.com/albums/ss4/jcpma/inouk-boots/
-
-

The only website that I found another pair of Inouk boots are here:
http://daggerdebs.blogspot.com/search?q=inouk

(Search engines also point to ebay.com, but the items' auction has already expired or the shoes have already been sold).

025 - gasoline update 2009-05-28

gasoline update 2009-05-28

↓ 2 cents|on 2009-05-28 the gas price at "Co-op" and "Safeway" gas station was posted at
$ 0.969/Litre. This was a 2 cent decrease from May 20th's price of $0.989/Litre.

The last price change was a 7 cent increase 8 days ago (May 20th).

024 - gasoline update 2009-05-20

gasoline update 2009-05-20

Two days after Victoria Day (Monday 2009-05-18) the price of gasoline went up at the pumps. (The last price changes happened on May 07th and May 15th.)

↑ 7 cents| On 2009-05-15 I noticed the gas price at "Safe-way" and "Co-op" was increased 7 cents from
$ 0.919/Litre to $ 0.989/Litre!

023 - gasoline update 2009-05-15

gasoline update 2009-05-15 strange

Something strange happened today. The gasoline price went up and then back down. This morning, Friday, the radio announced gasoline prices were starting to increase in time for the Victoria Day long weekend. Sure enough, the price at Safeway and Co-op went up 4 cents (since the last increase 8 days ago on May 07th).

↑ 4 cents| On 2009-05-15 I noticed the gas price at "Safe-way" and "Co-op" was increased 4 cents from
$ 0.919/Litre to $ 0.959/Litre!

However, later on that same day, in the evening, the gas price went back down.

↓ 4 cents|on 2009-05-15 the gas price at "Co-op" and "Safeway" gas station was posted at
$ 0.919/Litre. This was a 2 cent decrease from this morning's price of $0.959/Litre.

This is strange.

022 - vcd rot

vcd rot & Bruce Lee the Game of Death

I have a movie which I purchased on VCD format maybe 5 years ago? The complete movie is spanned over 2 cds. This is typical for a VCD movie.
Yesterday, I went to watch it but neither disc would play past 5 minutes. There were no scratches nor markings on the surface, but I could see abnormal/irregular concentric rings.
Perhaps this is a type of media disc rot.
Now I have to look for another copy. (note; my VHS copy is still good! and it is much older).

on a similar note
last month on you tube i looked at this fight sequence with Kareem Abdul Jabbar fighting bruceLee. :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGcQ0cGOG0U

ok. awesome;

last week i dig up my vcd of the movie. It wouldn't play. It has been victim if disc rot! (both discs).
so, next i dig up my archive vhs copy of the Game.of.death & it plays like a charm.

The producers edited the Kareem A-J fight totally different than the youtube link above. They spoiled it. The other thing they did wrong was putting at the end, the fight level was with Stieger (the guy with the walking stick). This should have been the proper sequence:

A. Steiger
B. Judo Guy
C. Dan Inosanto
D. Kareem

if you look around on Youtube you can find much lost/unused footage for the game of death. I just found some more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNvdSbMW_F8 ;this is the fight with Inosanto. look at the 2 extra fighters. There must also have been a change in the plot from the released version of the movie.

021 - gasoline update 2009-05-07

gasoline update 2009-05-07

↑ 7 cents| On 2009-05-07 I noticed the gas price at "Safe-way" was increased 7 cents from
$ 0.849/Litre to $ 0.919/Litre!

020 - gasoline update 2009-04-26

gasoline update 2009-04-26

↓ 2 cents| earlier this week 2009-04-22? the gas price at "Co-op" gas station was posted at
$ 0.849/Litre. This was a 2 cent decrease from $0.869/Litre.

019 - gasoline update 2009-04-20

gasoline update 2009-04-20

(late posting, from memory):
↓ 2 cents| approx 2009-03-22 the gas price at "Co-op" gas station was posted at
$ 0.869/Litre. This was a 2 cent decrease from $0.889/Litre.

018 - gasoline update 2009-03-20

gasoline update 2009-03-20

↓ 2 cents| 2009-03-16 the gas price at "Co-op" gas station was posted at
$ 0.839/Litre. This was a 2 cent decrease from $0.859/Litre.

↑ 5 cents| On 2009-03-19 I noticed the gas price at "Co-op" was increased 5 cents from
$ 0.839/Litre to $ 0.889/Litre. This happened 3 days after the last price change. (see above).

017 - energizer duo charger

energizer duo charger

model CHUSB

purchased 2009

UsbCharger_setup_V1_1_1.exe = installer software for windows
software that lets you monitor charging progress from your
computer screen (this software is NOT portable)

Energizer_Charger_DriverAndTools(ppc_intel).sit = installer software
for the mac computer (same idea as above)

CHUSB_E_F_S.pdf = owners manual


nickel review:
*this charger is for NiMH batteries only.
*you can charge 1 or 2 batteries, either 1 AA or 2 AA cells,
or similarly, 1 AAA or 2 AAA cells.
*sometimes when charging 2 batteries, the green led flashes rapidly indicating
a bad battery. The way to get around this is either:
- remove the batteries and reinsert OR
- remove a battery and charge only 1 battery at a time in slot 1.
*this charger is small and allows charging by AC or usb port.

* i give this product a rating of 6 out of 10.
-it is handy & is of good value
-software needs to be installed and is not portable
-charging 2 cells sometimes results in a charging error

016 - gasoline update 2009-03-03

gasoline update 2009-03-03

↓ 2 cents| On 2009-03-03 the gas price at "7-11" was posted at (the same as Safeway gas station)
$ 0.859/Litre. This 2 cent decrease happened 1 day after a 6 cent increase.

↑ 6 cents| On 2009-03-02 I noticed the gas price at "7-11" convenience store was increased from
$ 0.819/Litre to $ 0.879/Litre

015 - notes on a few rss services

notes on a few rss services

bloglines.com nice and simple; allows creating anonymous email mailboxes; saved searches

http://www.bloglines.com/login

{{30d14135671890c266ced1edb44844c0aca8d4e21c22b7754aa76aa2de9e3b0

d66bafa4ac1ab2c4f3c297f91c1fd633c160d3a968bba1847d2a44a7bc8ba24601

29646af8a709aecb33f3bea9142555448e48edd73e81947b93e4e295e5e2cb84

294967292}}jj@s

my.yahoo.com userfriendly

(http://ca.my.yahoo.com/)

alerts.yahoo.com alerts of feeds can be sent to email or messenger or mobile

newsgator.com 3 saved searches = aka "smart feeds"; podcatching; fwd feeds to email or mobile is possible (but labor intensive; ie, need to setup individually for each feed)

{{b5e44419043f4032a8d051c90ef246916abe335a3f6e1dbb0b6188618d03b

9381640a3d076d5af5107ec0130bf39afe68738c1b437ef246deb0cb69066fa0

bc3fbd02a9d575da4443234086674cbddb4643d5e292da1a6f8a61d7792c410

bcb74294967292}}jo

netvibes.com customizable main page; "add to clippings" feature.

{{572ea7c90167cf606622acd2a80399e919b7745b31363630bffa9fe93dc069

4d2789fe113a791d1db63c839a070899c35a3c6c71acd237adef77ff970050ef5

24294967293}}jj@s

a couple of portable downloaded software rss reader clients are:

nf reader 1.37 .easy to use; small footprint

(you can add your own .wav file to its main folder to customize the notification sound.)

Author website http://www.gaijin.at/

Download http://www.gaijin.at/getit.php?id=nfreader

abilon 2.53 portable rss reader .easy to use; small footprint

"rssitem.templ" in "Themes" folder and add "<>" at the bottom of this file. This should show links to enclosures at the end of the feed.

Author website http://abilon.org ... broken link?

Download at softpedia.com http://download.softpedia.com/dl/47aaa6d15227e8b8642f2584bbb54203/499c9e21/100079400/software/portable/internet/news/PortableAbilon.exe

feeds

{{40caf5b9e525b1bd72abb387d6b34088a5e7325e97dd64f6548dd22c269c

6954e55462ad54143ba80b100ba723da6691335acee7e9c1535b235605a5e

6e98aa3159f9fc7d929425ec8bd7c081f4aa2dc7c8ff80aaa9c686e6ad90f509

0a794f1bf4c8475dd6a880cbe2f4215069e58e8ac1b5e8fc93bbb4f7e9464b8

aa7e5e42d05808cccaaec4f74001b36eb4869e1ec5bd10017f1ff905bc3a6ed

fc43e1a834b7352b9748bd1c6bc63e201a663f858458d5815c731938c043df

f4cc93802c6a1382f57108bfde269a42048cf8aa14fcd57f17ef8e68d80f4ae2

83a70c9dab757214b5344038a86db2d60550e7e8615b45bb01353d45de0

efd6a2b531d833b355a29a960aae7ec86ebbc94f2dc653dcb3127927bce86d

bd6f1975b3a0abdf31e882783495592dfc041d8dba6ee706fb3695e756851f

392b4ee377b8830013dd5b62acdf1c20f90de68f1c6ee6fc4a20901b5ed11a

638163d247de4726fe2aecf0953a43183f682aecc1aaee5bd96e0f1f32ecac9

e094108982ff3461619c8902442e71578e931273978645e46a076880f4528

423f4fb283abdcb054755885f8f869b1d922cb3d88a650c27514f6582455c

4e7844193a329b4d319c19214472b4294967281}}

014 - gasoline update 2009-03-01

gasoline update 2009-03-01

↓ 2 cents| i'm late again with my update. within the last 3 weeks , the gasoline price has dropped from $0.859/L to $0.839/L,
↓ 2 cents| then again to $0.819/L. (once again gas stations = safeway & coop). summary: a drop of 4 cents in 3 weeks.

013 - untried portable vista tweakers

These portable vista tweakers have not been tried by me.

http://www.ajuaonline.com/software/vistatweaker/ is the home of version 0.5 Beta Released on: 2007-10-25 portable vista tweaker

It looks promising; it appears to use microsoft.net?? (obviously it is not for use on windows xp).

Vispa is another popular Vista tweaker. http://vispa.whyeye.org/

It is from the same maker as xpy (see also http://jcpma.blogspot.com/2009/01/010.html)

McAfee antivirus says it is an "unwanted program"?? (see below)

It is probably a very good program though.

012 - gasoline update 2009-02-21

gasoline update 2009-02-21

↑ 4 cents| The last 2-3 weeks saw gas go up by 4 cents/Litre. That is, from $0.839 to:

$0.879/L. (Gas station = safeway or coop)
↓ 2 cents| This week, the gas dropped by 2 cents/Litre to

$0.859/L.

This screenshot is from the FPS "cube" August 29, 2005 game.

http://cubeengine.com/cube.php4

011 - I tried Ultimate Windows Tweaker 1.0 Beta

I tried ultimate windows tweaker 1.0 Beta from WinVistaClub

Feb06-2009
As you can see Ultimate Windows Tweaker (UWT) will not work on Windows XP. It is made for Windows Vista.

The interface is simple. It has a similar feel to Power Toys' TweakUI for Windows 98 or TweakUI for Windows XP. Each category of tweaks is selected via the left hand
panel; there are 8 categories. (I include the "about" section as a category as it appears there are a few tweaks available in that pane.) Hovering the mouse-pointer over a checkbox results in balloon tips explaining the tweak. You either check the desired box or move a horizontal slider. It does not take long to enhance Windows Vista this way. It however took me more time to read about the changes and to decide if I wanted to apply them.
With my limited knowledge of computers and Vista especially, I still proudly was able to improve the OS to my preferences. I only changed the settings, using UWT, which I understood. If the explanation of the tweak was still foreign to me, I just ignored it. That probably is a good general rule to follow.

My mission was to make Vista less "pretty" & to free up some computing power/ resources that most-likely were being eaten up by services/features that were not needed nor necessary. The enhancements I undertook included some of the following:
Launch folder Windows in separate processes (Thus if 1 folder crashes, the others should remain ok)
Menu show speed
Taskbar settings
Internet explorer
Turning off the Aero appearance
Adjusting shutoff wait times dealing with apps/non-responding apps/services
Unload DLLs from memory
Turning off un-used services (eg.s):
Disable file indexing service
Disable Automatic Folder View discovery
Readyboost
Superfetch
Error reporting
... others etc. ...
Disable automatic restart after Windows Updating
Tab Browsing



It worked like a charm.

Pros:
It is a small, portable app (384 KB). It does not require installation.
(lower left) there is a button to create a System Restore Point before you begin tweaking. This is quite thoughtful!
Intuitive user-interface
Balloon tips explain the tweak.

Cons:
You must hit the "apply" button for each category. if you navigate to another category before doing so, you will lose all your choices for that pane.
The descriptions are short. not all tweaks are explained adequately for average "dummies" (like us).


download link for Ultimate Windows Tweaker:
http://www.winvistaclub.com/download/Ultimate%20Windows%20Tweaker.zip

010 - some windows xp tweakers

some windows xp tweakers (most here don't require installation)
These allow you to tweak the operating system, or certain registry settings, or some security vulnerabilities.

Startup Control Panel 2.8 by Mike Lin: very very nice.

seconfig XP 1.1 - easy: (2007) secures some common threats to a windows xp machine & some ports too. very user friendly.

safe XP 1.57 - medium: a tweaker with a medium friendly interface; still, .. it is quite easy to use. This version is a little dated (July 2005) but I still recommend it. On its status bar, beside the pics of the international flags, is the area which holds the description of the tweaks if you hover your pointer over the item.


tweak ui 2.1 for XP - easy: This app is from Power Toys. It is elegant & excellent. most items are explained.


xp antispy 3.97 - medium: good explanations; colors of checkboxes can be confusing though. I think the green means profile choices, the check mark means what will be applied when you click the button; I think red means it does not match the profile. (other colors exist too.)


xpconfig 1.1 - medium: (May2008) This may appeal to some people. There is lack of description or help files/documentation, although the ui looks promising. (I haven't used it.)


xpy 0.10.9 - easy: This one is elegant too! On first run it saves an undo point. The colored check boxes indicate whether the parameter is already activated. the explanations are ok. i think green means the tweak WILL be added and red means the tweak is already in place. A white checkbox is neutral.