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Showing posts from September, 2008

Way to shut down Fort St.

Sunday afternoon was wild in downtown Victoria. A disgruntled man was on top of the Custom House building on Fort Street. He was drinking beer, smoking, peeing onto the onlookers and negotiating with police. He cilaimed to be rigged up with his explosives. His beef? Custom House. He hung a banner for his WordPress site: Custom Heist.com Eventually, the police accepted his surrender and allowed him to come down and into custody. Chek 6 News did not know who the man was. I do not know who the man arrested was but the registrar of the site is : John Cavanaugh (YCZZK) jcavanagh@telus.net 1155 Oxford Street Victoria, British Columbia V8V2V2 Canada Phone: +1 (250) 385-9905

High Toll for No Tolls on the Coquihalla

Gordon Campbell came out of his rebuke at the Union of BC Municipalities. Then he proudly announced that the Coquahallia toll booth would no longer collect fees. The news surprised a number of people-- especially those who worked with the toll booth. They were unaware of the move, nor was the Ministry of Transportation informed of the move prior to Campbell's proclamation. The message is clear: Campbell needs to make sure he can get re-elected. So, we hit the Sticks and started doling out goodies: grants, discounts and public works. If his timing is right, the ribbon cutting cermonies will happen just months prior to the election campaigns. Campbell and his cronies will be able to fly into the hinterland on BC Govvernment "business." Then, they may come back to get re-elected. In the meantime, the staff who used to work the tolls will have to find other work in Merritt. When Campbell is blasting through the toll booths (which will not be dismantled-- you know-- in case th

Guess Who's Got the VCE Mailing List?

In 2007, the Victoria Civic Electors (VCE) disbanded. The farm team for the NDP-- their civic face in Victoria closed up shop. They had elected Dean Fortin and Pam Maddoff so that Maddoff could stop progress and Fortin could, uh, do what he does best? Fast forward to the current municipal election. Dean Fortin is out stumping for his favourite candidate (himself). Last week select people around Victoria began to recieve begging letters from Dean Fortin's campaign. This wasn't a scattershot approach going out randomly. No: it appears that many former VCE supporters are receiving these letters. So the question to put out there: how is it that the VCE was dissolved but Dean Fortin is mailing people from the VCE list? The better questions that recipients are asking range from "Why is my privacy gone?", "Did the VCE sell the list?" to "If the VCE didn't sell or volunteer this list to Dean Fortin, how is it that the campaign has a list of addresses of peo

Decision 2008: Canada rolls a D4

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What's More Popular?

What do people enjoy more on Youtube OPTION A: A city councillor running for mayor of the capital of British Columbia OPTION B: A claymation frog riding a can of shaving cream 35 hits 177 hits Sorry, Deano. At least you'll be lucky on election day: the plasticene frog is not running in the election. Otherwise his warmer deameanor and intrisinic honesty would beat the pants off of you.

Contextual Advertising Gone Wrong

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The Times-Colonist cares... they really do... Too bad their web site hints at their true colors and intentions.

Let Advertisers know you wanted to watch Dave and Simi

I have kicked the BTV habit in the wake of the Dave Gerry and Simi Sara booting. I thought I would share that with their few remaining advertisers. Here is my comment to the makers of Mini-Mini-Mini-Mini-Wheats (and sponsor of Breakfast Television in Vancouver): I wanted to let Kellogg's know that I have given up on the show you sponsor: CityTV Vancouver's Breakfast Televsion. After their firings and staff cutbacks, the morning show is no longer enjoyable. If your goal is to reach customers through advertising, I think you will find that Breakfast Television is a poor way to spend your advertising budget. For me, I've given up and I'm happy to be watching A TV's Morning show. It's local (for Vancouver Island) and it's entertaining. If you want to pass on that you've passed on BTV, why not let Kelloggs or Charles Bilash ( 2 ) know?

Travelling Eldritch Terror : Cthulhu's Tour

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cthulhu's_voyage Originally uploaded by triviaqueen In preparation for the sale of our lovely townhouse-- just a block away from the ocean near downtown Victoria, I had to dispense with my sculpture project : the fibreglass water fountain of Cthulhu ( 2 ). Dion , a friend of mine, was good enough to volunteer up his backyard as short term storage. The trick: getting it there. Like its creator, Cthulhu has undergone a slow but steady weight gain. It started out as a BBQ stand on a plank of wood; add in the forming and armature elements; then the plastering; MANY layers of fibreglass and resin; then some mortared stonework. He moved from an easy to shuffle 40 lbs. up to approximately 250 pounds plus. First challenge: getting it off of our property. I tried the patio door. Hah! Despite some strident ressistance (resistence is futile), I removed one of the fencing sections and trucked out on rollers. I was going to wheel around to the parking lot but the walkway was too narrow. So, Ch

Quick Thought on Gary Lunn

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In the interest of electoral fairness:

Quick Thought on Briony Penn

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In A Frakking Quandry?

What happens if you're addicted to Battlestar Galactica, but your timing is too bad to watch it on Space; and you're too moral (or fearful) to download the episodes via BitTorrent? Now you can download BSG episodes from Amazon:      

If you can't spare an article, could you spare your opinion?

For a few months now, I've been trying to get traffic to some sites I've started up. No dice. They are a fizzle-- I do not have contributors or traffic. Can you help? Can you take a moment to fill out a questionaire on this topic? Click Here to take survey Update: the survey form glitch has been de-glitched. Sorry and thanks for the early-adopter reports.

Sarah Palin : Dickless Cheney

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Quick Thought on Sarah Palin

Palin is like her state of Alaska: remote, white and frigid

Quick Thought On "Family"

I have it figured out. SC Johnson is a "Family Company." Steven Harper is a "Family Man" Family = Christian and Heterosexual That's a great code word. - Mike DeWolfe, A man in league with goats...

Dave and Simi are sleeping in

I start my morning with Breakfast Television. The insufferable perkiness of most morning shows makes me wretch. BTV was different because of acidic and thoroughly amusing Dave Gerry and his foil, the competant Simi Sara. For the last couple weeks, Dawn Chubai and Kyle "someone stole my eraser!" Donaldson have helmed the show on CityTV. I thought, "oh well-- those two deserve a vacation." Three weeks later I thought, "how much vacation do these guys, get?" Then I looked up BTV's site: No Dave. No Simi. They were booted on August 14th. I have to think this was because of two big factors: they were veterans who likely fetched high salaries; and CityTV is desperate for ratings. If they can't get the rating at least they will lose on the cheap. If you look at CityTV's advertisments it says it all: lots of spots going to the CityTV advertising department (Charles Bilash dances for the people who he pays money too-- likely there is an onslaught of co