TV Warnings

I have been watching the odd episode of Man vs Food lately on OLN and noticed something. OLN airs a disclaimer about language being offensive to some viewers on the show. Every time they come back from commercials the disclaimer is aired.

The strange things is ... there is no swearing on the show. Unless they are worried that a vegan might see it and meat is a four letter word after all I can't understand why they would put up the disclaimer. Constantly. On ONE show where he had prairie oysters he made a ball joke. That is it.

Now while watching the show, and just before supper time, an ad comes on. It is a charity looking for donations to help lepers and fight leprosy. They show some pretty graphic pictures of what leprosy is and does. VERY graphic.

The show has to have a language disclaimer but there is nothing in front of this very graphic commercial? What the hell? Talk about taking political correctness to the point of insanity.

Facebook yet again.

Ok, this time the stupidity that is Facebook is actually hitting me and not a friend.

An old co-worker, 9 or so years ago, sent me a message to say hi. We decided to re-connect and I sent a friend request. Or rather I tried to. I got a message from Faebook saying I COULD NOT send them a friend request!

I had to ask contact Facebook and ask THEIR fucking permission to to be friends with someone. What the bloody hell?

So, I follow their link to request THEIR permission to send a friend request to my old co-worker. I have to say what I am trying to do and explain why AND tell them about my recent friend request activity. What the fuck? All they have to do is check their fucking logs and they can see my friend request activity or lack thereof.

How do I know they have logs? They have used them to temporarily ban my friend from sending friend requests. you know, my other posts bitching about the stupidity of Facebook. About the only thing I have done lately is suggest some friends to other friends.

Then there is the kicker, a warning message of sorts. The warning is that it could take a while for them to see and address my "request" because they are so busy. Of course the fucktards are busy they create so much extra work for themselves!

All I wanted to do was send a friend request to an old co-worker. They were an adult when I worked with them 9 or so years ago so i assume they haven't regressed and are still an adult. Which means I am not some pervy adult trying to send friend requests to kids they don't know. Why the blue hell do I have to go through so much bullshit just to send a friend request? Because the powers that be at Facebook seem to be a bunch of fucking assholes that like to micromanage everything.

A friend of mine is taking a month off of Facebook. If I run into more bullshit like this I will just be tossing Facebook. It isn't worth putting up with such rank stupidity.

Just tell China to piss off!

Damn. Once again someone backs down from China.

This time the Japanese are releasing the Captain of a Chinese fishing boat that ran into Japanese patrol boats. Instead of prosecuting him they are kowtowing to China's demand to release him.

A couple of years ago Chinese fishermen illegally fishing in Korean waters murdered a Korean Coast Guard officer. It was one in a long line of problems the South Koreans have had with Chinese fishermen. The fishermen come into Korean waters armed. They have kidnapped coast guard officers. Beaten them. Murdered them. And the South Korean government did jack shit to back up the Coast Guard. They refuse to arm them and not much happens to the Chinese fishermen.

Hell, even George Bush blinked after the Chinese ran into a US patrol plane and forced it to land in China.

If you are just going to let China ram it up your ass you may as well hand your country over to them now. It makes me shake my head to see countries just take the shit China is shoveling.

Shannon Park

Halifax and Dartmouth have always been military cities. Maritime Command, the naval part of the Canadian Armed Forces, is based here. When military spending cuts are made this area usually felt them.

This is what happened when personnel cuts were made in 2004. Shannon Park and Wallace Heights. Defense cuts in the late 90's saw some of the housing was made available on the civilian market in Wallace Heights. A friend of mine, serving in the forces at the time, lived there when this was starting to happen. Eventually all of Wallace Heights was made into civilian housing.

Shannon Park wasn't so lucky. The housing there was shut down as the military personnel were reduced. Those who weren't let go were relocated to military housing in Willow Park, Halifax. Shannon Park has pretty much sat empty since then. The High School became an Elementary School. The hockey rink is still used. Everything else is closed down.

The apartments that could house, I read 300 families, sat empty. There were plans to convert the area into an athletes village if Halifax got the Commonwealth games but that went the way of the dodo. Now, the area is a health hazard. The apartments can't be used due to mold. They are now a toxic mold health hazard.

What a waste! Think of all the people that could have benefited from the housing there. Instead it sat empty until it became uninhabitable.

Below are some photos I have took of the area, from the outside.

Don't you hate it when ...

... you run into stupid people and don't have our camera?

Today is a good example of that. I was out walking the dogs with my mom. We are coming up to a crosswalk and there is woman, kids in the car, yapping on her cell phone as she makes a turn.

I was just commenting on it to my mom, and the fact that I didn't have my camera, when another car pulls up. The guy driving is yapping on his cell phone and his dog is half out the back passenger window. He also makes the turn yapping away. I said to my mom"He is on a bloody cellphone. Jackass."

He heard and took offence. He slammed on his brakes, just out of the intersection, and shouts "What did you say?"

"I glared at him and said "I said 'He is on a cellphone. What a jackass.' Why?"

He huffed and drove off. I don't know why he was upset. It isn't like I lied or called him a racial epithet. I called him for what he is, a jackass. He is lucky my mom was with me or I would have told him he was a fucking moron. (I try not to swear around mom.) If he is that sensitive to jackass his head would have exploded at that.

He proved just how much of a jackass he is by slamming on his brakes and stopping where he did. His dog could have gone flying out the window or he could have caused an accident.

I guess my answer satisfied him. He didn't lip off. He just drove off. Truth hurts eh? Jackass.

Parking Wars?!?!?

I had trouble getting to sleep last night and nothing good was on TV. So, I went channel surfing. Lo and behold what monumental craptastic show did I come across? Something called "Parking Wars".

Parking Wars is an A&E created reality show that looks at the Philadelphia Parking Authority. Basically, cameras follow them around as they issue parking tickets, put boots on cars, deal with people who have come to pick up their impounded vehicles, and of course heaping abuse on them for doing their job. It lasted three seasons and they are talking doing a fourth season?!?!?!?

"Who's Your daddy" is probably the lowest reality TV shows can go. Parking Wars is setting the bar pretty low though.

Hmmmm ... I have some great ideas for reality shows. Bus Wars where they fol,low bus drivers around. Mail Wars where we see the trials and tribulations of the letter carrier. Hobo Wars where they can see the life of the homeless and let end each episode with a no holds barred fight where the winner gets $20 and a card board box.

They actually pay people to do drek like tyhis? Damn. I am in the wrong job.

Where was the outrage?

I see all the international outrage and condemnation taking place because a small church of whackjobs has threatened to burn the Koran. Where was this same outrage when Islamic whackjobs in the US threatened death to the makers of South park and FOX?

You can't turn the news on right now without seeing some international figure spouting off about how stupid the Christian whackjobs are. How their actions could lead to the death of Americans. Main stream Christians are scrambling to be seen as against the burning of the Koren. Even the US State Department, which concerns itself with things OUTSIDE of the US, has issued statements condemning the whackjobs.

Yet, when Islamic whackjobs made threats in America against Americans where was the outrage? Oh, there was coverage of it. Lot's of coverage. Even international coverage. Most of it just presenting the situation. Some of it giving voice to the person who posted the threat saying it wasn't a threat just evidence about what happens when people mock Mohammed or show his image.

Where was the outrage then? Domestic or international? The threat to burn a book is worse than a threat to people?

Yes, the Christian whackjobs are a bunch of morons and it is good to see others of that faith quickly speak out against them. It would be nice to see the "mainstream" Muslim community speaking out against their extremists and maybe even trying to stop them. Just don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen.

Mook of the Week

After Hurricane Earl died down I went for a drive to look around. I ended up in Cow Bay at Silver Sands beach. They have a nice little parking lot there. It wasn't full when I got there, and there were some empty spaces when I left.

Some asshole driving a piece of shit white Camry, Nova Scotia license CDJ 182 decided he could park wherever he wanted. Of course that would require parking in an area clearly marked no parking. Parking in an area that people have to BACK UP INTO in order to get out of their parking spots. Ignoring the second little lot that had some empty parking spaces. That is quite a bit to ignore but hey CDJ 182 was clearly the mook for the task.

CDJ 182 is a pretty common mook. These are the idiots you will see that park in fire zones, handicapped spots, or any where they want to. The kind of idiots that flout not just the rules but also common courtesy.

CDJ 182, you are just a common mook and will probably never achieve anything better in life.

Storm Watch 2010: What the blowjob?!?!?!?

Around 11:20 M we lost power. It came back at 12:50 PM. Luckily we had flashlights and a radio.

Listening to the radio I was struck by the stupidity of some of the "reporters". One went on about how it is too dangerous for people to be out ... as they were down by the waterfront in the storm. another idiot talked about how the hurricane hadn't touched ground yet and a minute later was rambling on about how we were now in the eye of the storm. Pretty fast storm.

By 12:30 PM NS Power was announcing, via the radio, that 115,000 households were without power in the province. They went on to say the outages weren't anything major, just normal wind damage.

I saw a city bus running! The buses are still out? The police are telling people not to go out and the buses are running?

Oops ... power went out for a about 10 seconds there .

I better post this and see if the power stays on. :)

Hurricane Earl Arrives

Earl is making himself known and he hasn't actually made landfall yet. Some rain and heavy gusts of wind are lashing the city. CBC is reporting that some morons are on the rocks at Peggy's cove. Bloody mooks. The police have had to close off the road heading in to Peggy's Cove because of these idiots. So, some poor cops have to be stuck out in the hurricane because of mooks. Let the mooks drown I say.

We have the first damage of the hurricane in our yard. A branch is down off of a tree on our fence. Funnily enough, it is at the exact same spot as the branch that ended up on our fence from Hurricane Juan.

Last night mom and I went out to Lawrencetown beach to see the waved before it got bad. It wasn't that impressive. There were a LOT of people out at the beach though. A few in the water. Traffic heading to the beach was heavy.

GOD DAMN! A branch just ripped off of a tree and went sailing by my window! And I don't mean a little sapling either.

The Weather Channel is now saying Earl could make landfall in Halifax. 26,000 households have no power. Ten minutes later and they are saying 29,000.

The lights just flickered. I hope the power doesn't go out but won't be surprised if it does. Time to log off and batten down the hatches.

Memories of Juan

September 29th, 2003. I will never forget that day, or the night before. I had finished my second contract in South Korea and was once again home for a month. When I left Korea I had just missed Typhooni Maemi.

Maemi devastated parts of Korea, as well as other parts of Asia. Originally I was supposed to be going to Jeju with friends but i ended up going home for a month. They didn't have a fun time because of the typhoon. The image I remember the most is of the cruise ship on it's side in Busan harbour. It left at least 95 people dead and more missing. I wasn't unhappy that I missed it.

Hurricane Juan hit 2 days before I was supposed to fly back to South Korea. It would be the worst storm to hit Nova Scotia since about 1893. As with Maemi, the storm surge was devastating. Juan made hit at the time of the highest tides of the year. This intensified the storm surge.

The night it hit was one of the longest nights I have ever had. My bed was in a corner of the room with windows on both sides. It was hard to sleep because the wind was actually making the glass BEND in! I thought both windows were going to blow in. My dog, sheba, hated storms. She spent the night under my desk. Probably the safest place.

Come morning the power was out all over the province. We were lucky, mom has a gas stove. so at least we could cook. The power was out for a week on my street. In some parts of Nova Scotia it was a month or more before they got power back. The army had to be called in to help with the cleaning.

Stupidly, I went for a drive in the morning to see what the damage looked like. It was pretty bad. Trees were uprooted. Trees were hanging over roads just waiting to fall. Power lines were all over the place.

Around a coastal road I saw a car that had been abandoned. The road had gave way a bit. One of the tires on the car was shredded and the car itself was partially in where the road had vanished. I hope the person driving it made it to a nearby house.

Even areas that were up hill were safe because of the storm surge. Barrington Street in Halifax is a good hike up from the water but the storm surge reached that high. It flooded buildings and left debris on the streets.

A tall ship in Halifax harbour was sunk. The water just swamped it and sent it right down. It would later be raised and sail again.

My brother only had two trees in his yard and both were blown down. One of them ... across the front of his classic Mustang. Amazingly, the 'stang only ended up with some scratches.

We were lucky. One tree broke onto our fence and bent it. Other trees had branches broken off but nothing did any damage.

Some of our neighbours weren't so lucky.

The devastation of the forest was ... impressive and scary. In areas whole forests were just flattened. Literally. The wind was so strong it just pushed the trees over. Point Pleasant Park in Halifax was hit really hard 75% of the trees were KNOCKED DOWN!

The park will be recovering from the loss for a long time. Hell, the Province still has problems because of Juan. Most of the trees knocked over weren't cleared. That left an inordinate amount of dead wood on the ground all over the province. This lead to a couple of huge forest fires in the last few years. Just walking the on the paths behind our house you still see large araes with no trees and lots of dead wood on the ground.

The digital camera I had at the time wasn't that good for making video. The videos were short, 15 seconds, and had no sound. I did make some during the hurricane. The one I am putting below turned out the best. You can see how hard the rain was coming down, and how strong the wind was.

Leaving home to go back to Korea was always a little hard. This time is was extremely hard. When I left my street still had no power. As I said previously it would be a week before they did. Many roads were still blocked. Trees down. I felt like I was abandoning my family and friends even though there was nothing I could do.

Hurricane Juan was the worst one I have ever been through, and I have been through a few. It doesn't look like Earl will be as bad as Juan, but you never know.

(Most of the pictures are mine. A few were sent to me by friends or (the Point Pleasant Park ones) are from Environment Canada.)

Hurricane Earl

Maybe not the best thing to do if you are a worrier and a hurricane is coming but I am watching a Channel 4 (UK) special "Katrina Caught on Camera" about hurricane Katrina.

Holy shit. Hurricane Juan was in 2003 was horrible but we didn't get the flooding New Orleans got. Hard to believe that they are STILL cleaning up from it. Some of the scenes just break your heart to watch. I thought Juan was tough until I saw scenes from Katrina.

A lot of people are freaking out over Earl. Massacussetts declared a State of Emergency before the hurricane even reached North Carolina. A storm watch is in effect across the Maritimes in Canada.

As with most hurricanes before they hit, or blow by, it is already losing strength. Some forecasters are saying it will be a tropical storm by the time it reaches the Maritimes. After living through hurricane Juan that doesn't sound too bad.

I just hope it gets rid of some of this damn heat and humidity.

Weather

Holy Hell it almost feels like Korea here!!! We have had a beautiful summer but in the last week it has gotten HOT. Damn hot. And humid. It was hard to sleep the last couple of nights because of the humidity. My kingdon for an air con!!!!

Today it was 31ish but with the humidity it was pushing 40C.

The weather is going to change tomorrow. Hurricane Earl is heading our way. I hope it relieves the humidity.