Mike DeWolfe : The Daily Edition

What's my beef? I have two beefs: 1) BC Hydro. The storms that hit people in Victoria in the last month have knocked down power in the region. The real storm that created this suffering hit over six years ago. Enron screwed power suppliers like BC Hydro-- it left them holding the bag on millions of dollars in unpaid bills. BC Hydro had to keep its books in order. So, their budgets skewed in favour of black ink and the expense of preventitive maintenance Preventitive maintenance does mean replacing cables-- but in the tree-filled region, it largely means trimming trees that lie near power cables. Trimming keeps a safety margin between trees and cables. Trees grow slowly. You have several years grace before tree branches close in. In well trafficked areas like Victoria's Cook Street Village, the lines have a visible halo of tree-less-ness. In remote reaches like Metchosin and Langford, trimming stayed on the BC Hydro's to-do list. Add in three storms back-to-back and suddenly...

In one corner, you have the Downtown Business Victoria-- the champion of Victoria businesses in the downtown core. In the other corner: the "Lighen Up In Langford" campaign and its renaissance of strip malls and big box stores. It looks like the gloves are off in competing campaigns: vs . * courtesy Flickr

EUGERIA - I will start putting this in half of the birthday cards I fill out. EYESERVICE - Working from home-- it's hard to do this. IATROGENIC - What I get from the Doctor's office on most occasions. MEUPAREUNIA - Like I'd be so lucky to even get the better half of this one. NEANIMORPHIC - I will put this in the other half of the birthday cards. ONIOCHALASIA - We did this about three times a week until we ran out of floor space. PARNEL - Chews bubble gum and collects Hot Wheels. RESISTENTIALISM - Every computer comes standard with this feature. LIBBERWORT - This is all that the Golden Arches sells. CLISTER - A great insult ca. 1200. E.g. "You're a clister to humanity." SUPPEDANEUM - See: it's not all bad.

The US Presidential race is two years away. That's lots of time for a change in the politicial landscape. So, let me hang out my political guess, so that someone can come back and laugh at me and how wrong I was. Democrats Presidential - Howard Dean Vice-Presidential - Barak Obama Republicans Presidential - Rudy Gulliani Vice-Presidential - John McCain Gulliani will win by trucking out the 9/11 corpses. Dean will win if Congress and the Senate and go into overdrive to show off all of the skeletons in the Republican closets (e.g. Uncle Bandar and Saudi's ties to the bin Ladens). My odds are on a Gulliani/McCain bid. When the Republicans engineered the Iranian hostage crisis in the late 1970s, they got away with it because the body count was low. When the Republicans pushed the spotlight off of Saudi Arabia, the resulting body count was huge (3,000 dead Americans civilians; and more than half a million dead Iraqis and Afghan citizens).

I get the feeling that Alec Baldwin is an A-hole. But, wow do I enjoy his performances. Here are two examples of his spectrum. Drama: (psst. Check this out, too . I said, PUT THE COFFEE DOWN. And check this out .) Comedy: If you need a regular dose of the least sleazy Baldwin (that's like an Albert Spear award), you can always catch him on 30-Rock

A few months ago, I was convinced I was stuck in an alternative universe . The events of the last 24 hours have thinking that the switch was thrown and we're back in our intended universe. I had all of this evidence that we were in a dystopia. Let's review my waypoints and how they've changed: Donald Rumsfeld (Rumsfield? Nahapa-- not gonna work here anymore): The Secretary of Defense is out on his ass. The Democrats control the House of Congress: A woman, Nancy Pelosi, is going to the be Speaker. The Democrats control the Senate: 51/49-- while it would havee been funny to see Cheney have to lumber is spotty ass down to the Senate all of the time to fill out his role as President of the Senate, it looks like he can stay home and shoot relatives. Britney Spears dumped KFed via a SMS Text message. The best part: MuchMusic was covering the Rap supastar and got footage of the precise moment when he read the e-dump . Great! I turned on the noon news. The Victoria Police are stopp...

Dear Messrs Dhillon and Coté , I want to lodge my opinion with regard to the proposed Two-Laning/Traffic Crippling of 800 Block Esquimalt Road (Dominion to Head Street). In short, this plan is a mistake. Other examples of two-laning and the addition of bike lines (namely, 2800-3000 blocks Quadra St.; Fort St. above Cook; and Bay St. from the Point Ellice Bridge to Government) does not “calm” traffic. It creates traffic density. The addition of bike lanes does not provide a safe place for bicycles and small engine motorcycles (mopeds, scooters, electric bikes, etc.) to travel. The majority of the bicyclists continue to use the sidewalks and force pedestrians to dodge the vehicles. As the number of electric bikes and mopeds has climbed in the last year, I have seen their numbers on the sidewalks. In many of these incidents, the bicyclists are using sidewalks adjacent to bike lanes. In some cases, I have seen bicyclists using bike lanes and running counter to the flow of traffic creating...

Maybe Halloween isn't my Thing (get it?)... maybe I should try St. Patrick's day...

Thing, stony golem, you name it. I am still working on the video, but I have recorded MUCH of this process. When I get the time, I will put together a how-to video for how to make your own massive costume for Halloween. tags: Fanatastic Four Fantastic_Four FF Thing Ben_Grimm costume Halloween

Yesterday, there were two protests, one in Victoria and Vancouver. In Victoria two common archetypes collided: old people with money and young people who pretend to have no money. In one corner: Clara Beatrice "Trixie" Kramer , owner of the Janion Hotel on Store Street. This building has sat vacant for my entire life. Word has it, Kramer was left the building by her husband and for some batty reason, she has held onto it and done nothing with it. Potentially picturesque, this is an example of Victoria in a nutshell. I have had the dubious fortune to listen as realtors purposefully keep spaces vacant like a some prom queen clutching her chasity. The remaining space in town goes for a premium because there is so little of it. In the other corner, are Victoria's "poor" and "homeless" and "down trodden." (If I could have used more quotes, I would have). Their champion d'jour is Ben Isitt , opportunist and rabble rouser. While he lives in a ni...

Does anyone know what is being shot at the Broad/Yates Serious Coffee this morning (Wed Oct 18th)? When the 1990s opus, Free Money was shot in Victoria it jammed up the Johnson St. Bridge during rush hour for days. I heard then that Victoria had given the movie crew free use of the bridge because of all of the business it would bring. Really, I think the City has stars in their eyes. I was at the council meeting where CHUM made its application to put a TV Channel across the street from City Hall. Moses Znaimer attended to plead his case. The council bobbed and giggled like school girls. I have a concern that Victoria is hands over the keys to the city to anyone with an LA post office box and a gaggle of grips and dollies. As a taxpayer. I more concerned that the city streets are being jammed up for free. I remember an unhappy anecdote from the manager of Eugenes on Broad Street. During the shooting of Little Women in 1990, he used to park his car in spot he rented by the month up on Vi...

Thing - first coat of paint 2 Originally uploaded by dewolfe0001 . This halloween I am working on a costume of the Thing from the Fantastic Four comic book. I am not going to try to do the suck-ass movie version. (did I mention that Michael Chiklis (sic) sucks?). I am likely very behind time-wise. So here's to hoping I can pull it off. Last year I went as Hellboy. In 2007 or 2008 I will be going as a centaur. Really. Or Kosh. I have been trying to record my steps as I go along build this costume. My hope: to publish a website in the next month or two so that by next Halloween, a whole bunch of people can go as their favorite stone dude. Oh, and if you want to know what my inspiration was:

On my tech blog, I have posted a piece about how Shaw swallows up messages . I guess that's one way to control bandwidth. Also, how their CSR's available via telephone cannot use telephones. My suggestion: if you're on Shaw go somewhere else. They are intercepting, filtering and blocking your email. Don't believe me? Go to my post, cut one of my two example messages and send it to another mail account. See if it gets there. I dare ya. tags: Shaw, Shawcable, Rogers, Telus

I found this via the best tech podcast on the web, Technorama . It's an amazing example of perspective work. If this isn't enough for you, you could always be Batman, with the help of the Batman Handbook .

I have a guilty pleasure of a movie: Incubus. It was released in 1965, starred William Shatner and filmed by a lot of Outer Limits crew. What makes it stands out is that was performed entirely in Esperanto. What's weirder: it's the second movie made in the Susan-B-Anthony-dollar of languages. In 1964, Angoroj , came out: scooping this lost Shatner epic by a whole year. The irony: more people speak Klingon than Esperanto. Kapla! What could be worse? There's your answer all the way from the 1978 Sci-Fi Awards.

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Too much time on my computer makes me angry. It gets in the way of my life. I was slapped in the face with how much computers intercept my life last week when I learned that friend of almost 18 years died. I spend so much time working and some time blogging so that some whole days disappear into the computer. Whenever this happens and I realize it, it's like I've come off a bender-- a digital drunk. When I was desperately trying to save my family from financial ruin, entire months disappeared into desperate attempts to earn my way out of ruin. During this people, I stayed at home. My daughter got secondhand attention. I used to see my friends every day of every week. That changed into one every week or so. Then once every couple of months. Before I knew it, friends were piling up the anniversaries, their parents and grandparents were dying, they were moving on with their life. I wasn't a part of their lives, so their lives moved on without me. I went from being frequent ...

With all of the unconfirmed rumors that Osama Bin Laden has died of typhoid, one question that comes up: what is typhoid? It's basically food poisoning and one of the most common causes of death in the South / developing world. Here's what the people at Wikipedia have to say about typhoid (which for the balance of the weekend I will be calling, Osama bin Squirts): Typhoid fever (or enteric fever ) is an illness caused by the bacterium Salmonella Typhi . Common worldwide, it is transmitted by ingestion of food or water contaminated with feces from an infected person. [1] The bacteria then multiply in the blood stream of the infected person and are absorbed into the digestive tract and eliminated with the waste. Symptoms After infection, symptoms include: a high fever from 39 °C to 40 °C (103 °F to 104 °F) that rises slowly chills bradycardia (slow heart rate) weakness diarrhea headaches myalgia (muscle pain), not to be confused with the more severe muscle pain in De...

Here's what you can do if you have nothing but time, noodle bowl ingredients and some large sheets of waxed cardboard... Cook up some Noodle bowls. Put them in your home-made Chinese takeaway box. Enjoy.

Poor William Shatner. There’s talent and there’s celebrity. Talent is a subjective call: one man’s ham is another man’s Hamlet. Celebrity largely amounts to staying in the cross hairs of media. What happens if your notoriety has inertia? You did a show 40 years ago and it’s still popular. Then you’re a superstar, a superstar who has to either keep dancing or live like us schmoes. Even if your new work is good—even better than that stuff from the 1960s—you get rear-ended by the dump truck that keeps rolling. To personify this phenomenon: William Shatner. The icon of pop-culture outshines the man, William Shatner. There's a split between the public persona and the person. Do you want to shoot the breeze with Bill? Well that’s all swell, but who the Hell are you? Because Captain Kirk was beamed into our living room on a frequent basis, it seems like he’s a part of the family— on par with the brother-in-law we see a couple a times a year—heck, Bill is there for us all of the time. ...

The Star Trek Legacy has my curiosity piqued. I've found that most of the games from the franchise are duds, technically: buggy, limited and made for the outmoded PC you just sold. Well, what does the Shat say about this new game voiced by him and the four other captains? Let's just say he plays a better captain than he.. er, plays a better captain.

William Shatner at the award Show #1 Originally uploaded by dewolfe0001 . We came back from the CAEAA Awards show. The host was William Shatner. We got to meet him for but a moment. Expect a much longer blog post on the experience later. If you want a visceral and honest account of the "award" "show", follow this link . For me, I'm not going to wax negative. I ate 14 oz. of lox; that smoked excelllence mutes my annoyances with the process. I will say this, however: I would love to find out how some people can weasel cash out of the Province of BC. Not to stem the gush of cash-- but to put my bucket under the outflow. Some of the reviewers of the event has used the terms "circle jerk" and "sham" (with accuracy I might add). The Province chipped in a huge amount of cash to book a room; fly in William Shatner ( Check his website for his list of appearances . This event doesn't appear); have an open bar before the event and an open bar af...

Tonight we are off to the Canadian Awards for Electronic and Animated Arts. The host is Boston Legal's William Shatner. Stay tuned for a full report.

Do you live in Victoria? Do you know where Sean Macleod works? Do you know where he is living? If you don't you're in my boat right now. That needs to change. This criminal kidnapped a 6-yr old girl out of her bedroom and molested her. Now he's coming to our neighborhood. He's coming to your daughter's bedroom. Criminals learn from prison. Has he learned that a missing child may never get pinned on him but a rape victim could testify? Are you willing to roll the dice that isn't going to attack your children? I'm not. If you know where he is living; or where he is working, leave a comment. I will verify it and approve the post, so that everyone can know where this dangerous criminal is lurking. Of course, if he chooses to leave the Capital Region (or Vancouver Island), he's out of our hair. By the same token, if he goes back in prison, that would be fine. If he decided that his life was not worth living, I would not argue the point. More on what this crim...

Many years back, I mashed "Fire on Bablyon" to a bunch of B5 clips. Now, I've posted it on YouTube. Enjoy!

On November 4th, before the 2000 election, SNL ran this brilliant piece: the future with robo-president Al Gore or coked out dufus, Dubya. The writers of this piece got it more spot on than Nostrodamus. Take a look at this transcript tell me that we're not living it now... A Glimpse Of Our Possible Future I President George W. Bush.....Will Ferrell Voice of Don Pardo : America, Election Day fast approaches, and with the Presidential Race still too close to call, "Saturday Night Live" would like to present "A Glimpse of our Possible Future". [ open on Scenario I ] Announcer : And now a Message From the President of the United States: George W. Bush. [ open on the Oval Office - beer cans on desk, socks hung on the lamp, a barbecue grill burning on his desk ] Voice of Advisor : Mr. President, get out there! President George W. Bush : [ from under his desk ] No! No, you can't make me! You're gonna yell at me again! Voice of Advisor : Mr. President! Presiden...

Paris Hilton was arrested early this morning for DUI. Hilton was pulled over driving home in her Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren. She didn't utter an anti-semetic rant, but she did blame the Germans for engineering her Mercedes; she blamed the Italians for expensive fashion; and the Swedes for setting the bar for porn so high. A police spokesman said: "The officers observed that Hilton exhibited the symptoms of intoxication. A field sobriety test was conducted at scene, and the officers determined she was driving under the influence.” Hilton was booked on suspicion of misdemeanor DUI and released. Elliot Mintz, a spokesman for Hilton, said police detected a 0.08 blood-alcohol level, the minimum to warrant an arrest. Mintz says she was driving home from a charity event where she had just one margarita (what, a 64ouncer). Hilton says the real reason she was driving erratically was because she had been "working" for almost 24 hours straight and hadn’t had anything to eat ...

So, I am watching this Made-To-TV movie about the trials of the Diff'rent Strokes cast (not the be confused with Different Strokes ). There are interludes to the surviving cast members to add a dimension. This movie is cast in the vein of the Three's Company TV movie; and the Charlie's Angels TV movie. Maybe it's something about shows with apostrophes in the title. Lots of schlock, callous studio executives and greedy actors wanting more of the pie. Blah, blah, blah. I decided to go out and look for links to juicy crap about Dana Plato and Tood Bridges. They spell out in the movie that the two had a relationship-- why not? It was the 1970s, they were teenagers spending 18 hrs./day x 6 days/week together. That search got me to this site, called, " Minor Consideration " about child actors and exploitation. A few links down the TOC is a link to an article called, " The "Rape" of Dakota Fanning ." I thought that's the next creepy destina...

choking_hazzard Originally uploaded by triviaqueen . What's more important? The stupid music playing out of a Fisher Price display stand or keeping children safe from electrocution? At Toys R Us in Victoria's Mayfair Mall, the answer is clear. Shocky Shocky.

The FVZA is a little known government department that tracks historical cases of zombie and vampire attacks. It also works to counter current VZ (Vampire-Zombie) incursions. For those with the stomachs for it, they can enroll in the virtual academy. If you like the paranormal enough but are still able to scoff at it, you may like this site full of tongue-in-cheek news about zombies, vampires and the paranormal goings on around the world. Kind of X-Files light. Oh and if you want the "official story" about William G. Harding: here it is . Oddly enough, the press referred to Harding as "Gee" in all of the newspapers. This led to calling George W. Bush, "Dubya" Also, the "Gee" stuck from its inception in the 1920s and by present day, "Gee" has come to mean, "man in charge" "leader" and "president" (hence, "What up G?"). That's why FBI agents were also known as G-Men-- they were Warren G. Harding...

I was watching Regenesis and they were talking about bacteriophages-- viruses that target bacteria. What a cool idea. With antibiotics being countered at every turn imagine that one day your pills were not made of some variant of penincillin, but a whole colony of anti-bacterial viruses. What's more, this isn't a new idea. The Soviets have been working with it since the 1940s! More on this comes from Wikipedia: A bacteriophage (from ' bacteria ' and Greek phagein , 'to eat') is a virus that infects bacteria. The term is commonly used in its shortened form, phage . Like viruses that infect eukaryotes (plants, animals and fungi), a large diversity of phage structure and function exists. Typically, they consist of an outer protein hull enclosing genetic material . The genetic material can be either RNA or DNA, but is usually double-stranded DNA between 5 and 500 kilo base pairs long. Bacteriophages are usually between 20 and 200 nm in size. Phages are ub...

I love how many people whine in my direction and then take my advice: 70% of my advice. Our web page doesn't work! Fool: why did you change all of your settings then call me? I don't have any money! Idiot: you're spending 40 hours per week creating content and posting on stupid-ass websites for free; the same content can be sold for money, like in the old days. Like someone said recently, the crap you see on Youtube.com used to be schilled by Fox and America's Funniest Videos. Pap is still currency. Until someone gets tired of a monkey washing a cat, it always will be. When I wish to, I will post a long list of how-tos for making money on the web on my own website . I have to get to an online meeting/post some material. Schmuck: you're leaving a gathering of real people for digital output that simulates people. It's like leaving a party to go to a portrait gallery. The difference with the portrait gallery is that the portraits have artistic merit. Your plan...

I remember in the winter of 1976 watching New Yorkers try to chip the ice in their toilet out with broom handles. They predicted another Ice Age (or was it the Nippy Era?). Thirty years later my latest sculpture partially melts on the weekend. What if there is a cycle that we cannot influence, but ride it out like a wave. That's what Khabibullo Abdusamatov thinks is going on: MOSCOW, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- A Russian scientist predicts a period of global cooling in coming decades, followed by a warmer interval. Khabibullo Abdusamatov expects a repeat of the period known as the Little Ice Age. During the 16th century, the Baltic Sea froze so hard that hotels were built on the ice for people crossing the sea in coaches. The Little Ice Age is believed to have contributed to the end of the Norse colony in Greenland, which was founded during an interval of much warmer weather. Abdusamatov and his colleagues at the Russian Academy of Sciences astronomical observatory said the prediction is base...

I like going to see things cold. I’m dropped into a room and voila the event starts. When I did a lot of movie reviews, most of them went like this. My wife caught word of this play coming to the Fringe play, called Bolloxed . We decided to go. I had a busy week and I didn’t have a chance to look up what this play was about. So, we sit down in this dimly lit room. If you’ve been to a Fringe play, you know what they’re all about, impromptu locations and Spartan sets. Our Fringe play was held in a private school auditorium. Out comes a guy that looks like an IT guy—kind of hip clothes, kind of lousy physique and he’s itching his balls. It’s quickly revealed that this play is all about the balls, namely our protagonist, Jack, and his aching balls. What’s wrong with them? Could it be cancer? Could it be something even worse? A play about genitals (e.g. Vagina Monologues) is a ticket to low-ball humor (no pun intended) and squeamish introspection. Correction: that’s the case with a play ...