Grazing Rites

An open letter to Care Point clinics…

I have repeatedly been unable to get help for myself or sick members of my family due to your locations being closed when hours posted on your website and even posted on the doors of your locations say they should be open. The reasons have varied but the result is the same, no help for me or my family.

For example as I write this (July 31st, 5pm) your Commercial Drive and Victoria locations, which according to your website are open until 9pm, are currently closed and does not have a doctor although someone is still answering their phones. The FAQ on your website states:
“Do you have medical physicians on at all times? Yes….Care Point Medical Centres take pride in the quality of our medical teams who are on duty at all times, including male and female physicians.”

Your homepage boasts:
“facilities that operate 12 hours a day, seven days a week, 364 days a year.”

Can you please explain this contradiction to me? Is your website in error?

On previous attempts to see a doctor I have encountered locations closed without reason, locations with hours printed on the door or window that do not match the website with a paper sign indicating even more limited hours all 3 claiming to be posting standard operating hours. I really should have taken a picture but at the time I was too concerned over the health of my sick son. Once at your Victoria location I arrived hours before it should have closed according to any signage or website only to discover it closed due to having reached a government-mandated daily quota of patients that can be seen. What is this quota and by what part of government is it imposed?

Suffice to say I find your ability to meet the standards and hours set forth on your website nearly criminally lacking and would like to know why, who is responsible, and what can be done about it.

Thank you for your time.

Yesterday was the hottest day ever in my fair city. Not just the hottest July 29th, the hottest day ever recorded. Prior to yesterday the hottest day on record was August 9th, 1960 at 33.3°C.

Don’t believe me? Hit up this fact check:
http://www.news1130.com/news/local/more.jsp?content=20090729_160129_6332

So what are we going to do about it?

Are you going to continue following the consumer culture of indulging in every creature comfort never to be inconvenienced in the slightest?

Well I WOULD buy an air conditioner but there’s simply no where to put it – even a stand-alone unit could not work in any room of our house. But even if I could get one, that’s not all I would do.

First off I plan to re-commit myself to a strict recycling regimen. I’m embarrassed to say that we only recently got proper paper recycling at my work and I’m slightly ashamed to say I’ve only about half-implemented it in my area. In the past we had recycling bins but there was no pickup mechanism so we used them as garbage bins. Well today I converted those back to their intended original purpose especially now that there is a procedure to back them up and make them functional.

Here’s something else you can do: Shut off any computer you’re not using. Obviously different circumstances exist so different approaches are needed. At home you should probably shut it down if you’re not going to be using it within the next half hour. At work you likely need them on during the day but once you leave you should be able to shut them down – this doesn’t just save power but is very good for the computer.

Do you leave a computer running 24/7? Let me explain why this is a horrible idea, unless of course it’s some kind of server or something that people would access remotely.

When your computer is running heat is generated, heat cuts down on the lifespan of physical components on the computer. A CPU that may otherwise last 5 years might only last for 3 if run nonstop.

Also as a computer runs, a variety of temp files are created many of which are deleted at shutdown – this can impact that amount of available RAM and the size of the pagefile. To this day many operating systems are dynamic in one direction only when it comes to pagefiles – that means they can only get larger over time. The only way to cut down on the pagefile size once it’s ballooned is to shut down the computer. To put this in simpler terms when the RAM which is about ten times faster than the hard drive gets full it has to put stuff on the hard drive but since the hard drive is so much slower it slows the process of accessing that information down. Plus in order to properly install many updates a restart is required, shutting down at the end of the day and booting up fresh the next morning is a restart. So don’t just shut down your computer to save the environment and keep the heat down, do it to save on your electricity bill, to help the computer components last longer, and help the computer run faster with all the latest updates. Speaking of updates, leaving a computer running and online for no reason at all means it’s just sitting there for hackers to attack; even patched it may be vulnerable to brute force denial of service attacks.

So while you try to beat the heat as best you can, try to attack the root cause while you’re at it.

Heat Wave Pro Tip: Shut the crap off

So when the lesser heat wave hits stop being a cheap pirate and actually buy stuff you want to watch on Blu-ray so you don’t have to have the computer on at the same time as the TV.

But when that crap gets real you need to respond in kind. When it’s 31°C or higher out and you can’t get your place below 26°C in the middle of the night you’ve got a problem. So here are some tips to beat the heat.

Shut down everything you don’t absolutely need. Nothing uses power perfectly; everything in the expenditure of power to perform work creates heat either intentionally or almost as a waste by-product.

Even CF lights generate some heat; you can’t have light without heat. Although thankfully CF lights produce much less heat that incandescent bulbs we’re going for maximum heat reduction here so shut it all down. Everything you can get away with. Make like its Earth Hour. Think about it this way, not only will it help the environment and the power grid but it will also help your electric bill stay down. Keep the fans running and if you’ve got A/C, well, can we be friends? I’ll bring over Rock Band to play. But for those of us who don’t have A/C the ideal situation would be to shut off all your lights and then use a hand-crank powered flashlight for when you need it. It’ll be fun, like camping.

But that’s not all. The biggest sources of heat are probably your TV and computer. Again LCDs limit this to a great degree but if you want to mean business you’ve got to shut that stuff off completely whenever you can. For me we watch Countdown, Rachel Maddow, Daily Show, and Colbert Report and then shut it down. If there’s 10 minutes or more between shows, shut it down. For the computer I check my e-mail, Twitter, Facebook and maybe a couple message boards and then power down.

But then what?

Well, inspired by the Final Fantasy Marathon, which by the way raised over $50,000 for Autism, I picked up a used copy of Final Fantasy III (Japanese numbering, not North American so I’ve never played this game before and neither have you, mom) for the DS for $20 at EB. The 3-D nature of it takes a little getting used to but after Mario Marathon and the Final Fantasy Marathon I think I need to finally get over my hatred of 3-D environments for games that don’t need to be 3-D. This will be easier for me firm in the knowledge that New Super Mario Bros Wii is due out this holiday season and sounds like everything I’ve ever wanted in a non Star Trek video game. So now I can love both 3-D and side-scrollers as they seem to be able to coexist in this brave new world. Apparently the original non-remake versions of Final Fantasy I and III (Again, Japanese numbering) are going to be released on Virtual Console sometime in the near future as well. But I digress. The point is the original DS generates almost no heat and the battery lasts freaking forever. That thing’s been sitting on my nightstand for months and hasn’t lost practically any of its last charge. So sitting in the dark playing a Final Fantasy game I’ve never played before that only cost $20 and doesn’t generate practically any heat is a total win. And let me tell you the music is fantastic and the graphics are amazing for a handheld. Lots of fun, I’m very impressed.

Vampire power is also a concern, not just for the environment and your power bill either. Ever picked up a large adapter that’s been running for awhile? Cold isn’t the right word to describe it. Go Scrooge; unplug everything that won’t create a massive pain in the butt to plug back in. Do it for yourself, do it for the environment – fight global warming to the max when it’s at its hottest, you’ll be able to sleep better at night for a couple of reasons.

Okay, having now seen it twice I figure I should sit down and review this thing. There’s a lot to say and I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about all of it. I’ve been putting this off because I knew it would take forever so get comfortable, at over 1,500 words this review is essay-sized.

First off, it’s not as good as the first one. Let’s just get that out of the way right there. With more Transformers, less stupid human screen time, and freaking Devastator you’d think this would easily beat the first but it doesn’t. Now that said, it’s still a very good film.

Lennox and Epps were so badly underutilized that they felt almost like cameos, which is truly unfortunate because after all the painful Shia-Fox scenes I was really hoping we could trade some of their screen time in for these far more interesting and realistic characters. As if that wasn’t enough they threw in some Brit who had maybe all of three lines. Don’t get me wrong, he seems an interesting and compelling character but with absolutely no back-story a Brit in the American-run and overseen NEST just doesn’t make sense.

Oh and don’t get me started on NEST. There’s ALREADY a real-life group called NEST: Nuclear Emergency Support Team. So when they say they’re calling in NEST I immediately wonder where the nuke is. And NEST in Transformers apparently stands for Networked Elements: Supporters and Transformers…are you freaking kidding me? If you’re going to steal someone else’s acronym your version should at least make sense. The only letter in that acronym that says anything is T for Transformers. Why not just call it Military Autobot Command Operations – MACOs? I’m sure Enterprise won’t need that acronym again anytime soon. Or the National Autobot Security Administration? I’m sure NASA wouldn’t mind. Hey, we could re-brand the Autobots as Government Sanctioned Transformers. People would say things like “thank god for the GST”.

I trust I’ve made my point.

And I don’t want to be one of those guys who see politics in everything but I also can’t help but notice how the view of the government changed sharply since the first film and 2008 election. In the first Transformers movie the government was embodied by a heroic SecDef, portrayed by a Republican supporter. Now the government is embodied by cowardly National Security Advisor. Now I’m not saying this is right-wing propaganda or anything – Bush was portrayed as a moron in the first film and the actor who played the National Security Advisor is openly gay – but I found the unaddressed shift in government priorities and portrayal to be somewhat jarring.

Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox’s characters have both grown over the intervening years but also remained true to themselves which is a good development and makes them more enjoyable to watch…whenever they’re not on screen together. The fact is they’re both 23 and they both look 23 and watching them try to play this 18-year-olds-can’t-say-the-word-love thing is just painful.

And the parents, what can I say? Kevin Dunn is fantastic and is given more to play with this time around for fantastic results. However every inch of improvement of the dad is outweighed by a massive decline in the already disappointing mother character. Can we please kill her off early in the next film? No seriously, it would provide Sam with some serious emotional motivation and provide some great moments for Shia and Dunn to show off their acting chops.

John Turturro waffled from awesome to caricature in the first film, for all but his underwear he spends almost all of his time in this film on the awesome side of things. Which given the fantastic range of Turturro (just see Clockers and Mr. Deeds to see to wonderfully disparate examples of his range) is great to see.

Not to end my review of the human characters on a bad note but I really could have done without the Leo character – he really served no purpose and brought almost nothing new to the table but a whimper.

Now, on to the Transformers…

The Autobots are great for the most part.

I’m not going to get into the whole controversy over the twins except to say that small poor choices in the characters like one having a gold tooth resulted in an overblown backlash – they were supposed to be juveniles and someone tried to make it even more funny without thinking it through so let’s move on.

Bumblebee really shows off his stuff in this film making me think he could one day take over for Prime when the time comes. Ratchet was painfully underutilized as well, having maybe 3 lines in the whole film. Jetfire was a fantastic character. Sideswipe is pretty awesome, although he could have done with more character development and was far too similar to Sideways, the Decepticon car in Shanghai – same colour, similar looks, almost identical names…did someone’s imagination take a vacation or something? Maybe they used up their creative juices on Wheelie because man is he awesome – I like to call him the Buscemi-bot, he could not have been any better except perhaps skipped the leg-humping…I mean seriously, it doesn’t even make sense for a robot.

Alright, on to the Decepticons…and boy were there a lot. In fact there were so many it was impossible to keep track during the battle scenes. I would have much preferred fewer more unique and established Decepticons. But let me start off with the positives…

Hello Soundwave! Frank Welker is back and doing a fine job. It’s truly unfortunate that Soundwave didn’t get to do more in the film however it felt like they were establishing him now so that they could do more with him in the next film which would suit me just fine. Call the next movie Transformers 3: Soundwave Attacks! And I’ll line up on opening day, no questions asked. Ravage was fantastic and not just a little bit terrifying. The Fallen was some fantastic voice work by Tony Todd.

The Constructicons confused the hell out of me – at least two of them appear to be in two different places at the same time during the final battle. Speaking of which, did they have to have another helicopter nearly identical to Blackout? Sure there may be subtle differences but the way these films are shot you’re lucky if you know who you’re looking at, much less able to distinguish subtle detail changes. And I saw this in IMAX with my new glasses so it wasn’t me.

Alice. Wow. What an unnecessary complication and an unnecessary character. Does Bay just insist on having attractive Australian women in his Transformer movies? And is it just me or was she based at least in part on the cardboard cutout the Will Smith shoots in MIB? I think her name was Tiffany.

This brings me to perhaps the biggest fault of the movie: a needlessly complicated plot. They try to do so much in this film that they end up doing too little of it very well. Eliminate Alice, Leo, and the can’t-say-love subplots and put that time towards flushing out all the new characters like the British member of NEST and Sideswipe and also trim the run time a bit. Then you would have one fantastic movie up to the challenge of the first.

There’s one other thing that I feel the need to comment on. When the Constructicons submerge to revive Megatron they suddenly turn on and attack one of their own, presumably for spare parts to rebuild Megatron. This is shockingly disturbing in my opinion. Frankly this makes me doubt that I want my son to see this film before he’s a teenager. I get it that the Decepticons are evil but it’s just a suddenly and jarringly dark moment and it’s given no context, no explanation, and no comment. Let me describe what they do in simpler terms: they kill their friend because they’re more loyal to another friend – and the friend they killed was no different than they were. Did they just suddenly decide to do it? Spontaneously attack one of their own? Or was it planned? Whose idea was it? Did anyone feel any remorse? How did they decide who would die? And it was just so unnecessary – if they wanted spare parts why not make use of all the navy vessels floating around? It’s gratuitous and disturbing and while it COULD add quite a bit to establish how evil the Decepticons are the few seconds of screen time it gets is hardly sufficient.

I’ve read the complaints about the twins being racist characters that children shouldn’t be exposed to and I can’t agree – however I don’t ever want to have my son turn to me and ask “why did they kill their friend, daddy?” and me have to respond “he didn’t do anything wrong, they just liked their other friend more”. I don’t care if they were evil; the casual brutality of it goes too damned far for this kind of movie.

Now I don’t want to leave you with a sour taste in your mouth but all that needed to be said. Having been said I did find this on the whole to be a fun film, if a little long, that leaves me wanting more and excited for the next installment – and if they learn their lessons from this outing then Transformers 3 promises to be something special.

So we have officially added a day to our trip to check out some of the Oregon coast. I know where I want to go dune buggy riding and I have booked our hotel for the night before at Grant’s Pass but before I book the last hotel of the trip I need to know what direction we’ll be coming from and to determine that I need to figure out how much of the coast we want to do. Do we want to do everything at top speed or be choosy and really enjoy what little we do? I’ve broken it down into 4 possible options…

Option A: Just The Dunes, Ma’am
Distance: 534.2km
Driving Time: 5 hours, 51 minutes (shortest drive time)
We drive from Grant’s Pass to Reedsport and then up the coast to Florence and then back to the I-5.

This would show us about half of the dunes and a taste of the coast and we can maximize our time at Sandland Adventures with Dune Buggies, Bumper Boats, Go Karts, and Mini Golf.

Option B: Coos Bay
Distance: 585.3 km (longest distance travelled)
Driving Time: 7 hours, 4 minutes
We take a less direct route to the coast and hit Coos Bay and Lakeside before hitting Reedsport

This would show us all of the dunes and give us a bit more of the coast plus my Uncle recommends Lakeside but would add over an hour of driving – less time for activities.

Option C: Maximum Coast
Distance: 570.5 km
Driving Time: 8 hours (longest drive time)
We go all the way from Coos Bay to Lincoln City before heading over to Portland

We would see almost the entire coast but with yet more driving time we wouldn’t be able spend much time on activities. This would be the sampler option, see it all but not in much depth.

Option D: Lord Love A Hypotenuse
Distance: 519.4 km (shortest distance travelled)
Driving Time: 6 hours, 47 minutes
Reedsport to Lincoln City and over to Portland with no backtracking, always moving north

If we let geometry be our guide the most efficient route is this, we miss Coos Bay and Lakeside but see a whole lot of coast with the second shortest drive time in theory.

What would you do, or want to do, and why?

Yesterday I was going to write about how heat waves really inspire belief in global warming and efforts to curtail same by recycling and energy efficiency but I was really busy yesterday and it also occurred to me that I really didn’t have anything new to say. I just would have been retreading old ground so just recycle more and turn off your damn lights when you don’t need them.

So today I come across this article over at Yahoo!
http://ca.news.finance.yahoo.com/s/21072009/2/biz-finance-bank-canada-tantalizingly-close-declaring-recession-brightens-outlook.html

It turns out the recession is almost over. In words of Stephen Colbert, “I did it”!

A little extra consumer spending on electronics and automotive, economic bellwethers, and some travel and here we are, economy fixed.

You’re welcome.

Now what have we learned? Don’t spend what you don’t have. Don’t risk hard earned money on things that sound too good to be true. Save when and where you can. And when your money isn’t doing anything for you, spend a little.

I was at Superstore yesterday and noticed what could only be called a price collapse on some mainstays like apple juice and bananas. This was much more significant than a price drop. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it at the time. The price of bananas was so low they were having trouble keeping the produce section stocked to meet demand. Was this deflation? Or was it the dreaded stagflation that haunts economists’ nightmares? Well it looks like it was the harbinger of stabilization.

Fuel prices have been on the decline of late, a trend I read about beforehand but frankly didn’t believe. Gas was edging toward $1.20/liter not so long ago only to slide yesterday down to nearly $1.01/liter and that after a hike in the gas tax. It’s just the market correcting itself I suppose.

Economies can almost always be described as periods of stability and instability – or boom-bust if you prefer. Government agencies and automatic adjusters like unemployment insurance help cut down on the bust and the severity of the rollercoaster ride.

Unemployment insurance is great. It’s the set-it-and-forget-it of economic controls. You put it in place and it automatically does exactly what the economy needs. When things are booming the tax keeps things from booming too big too fast and puts on the brakes a bit to inflation while rebuilding its coffers. Then when things go bust it’s automatic mandatory government spending that generates economic activity that otherwise might not be present. It’s brilliant. I don’t know how intentional it was, it probably had its origins in compassion or practical need but I doubt few economists don’t see it’s brilliance if they were to be completely honest with themselves. But I digress, enough of the unemployment insurance love-in.

Obviously this recession won’t end over night and even if the fed says it’s over, which it hasn’t yet, that doesn’t make it so. However, when it comes to things like the stock market, the currency market, and the commodities market belief is often far more important than reality. Why do you think consumer confidence is such a key indicator? The point is, good news stories like this one can only serve to fuel and accelerate a recovery so tell your friends: the recession is almost over.

The true test of a company is what they do when they screw up.

So a few days ago I bought a couple previously viewed blu-rays from Rogers Video. The next day I go to watch one of them and there’s no disc inside.

I figure I might just have an epic battle on my hands. I had it all planned out – they question my veracity once and I ask for a manager, the manager questions my veracity once and I go to war.

All for naught I am happy to say, they replaced the blu-ray with a minimum of delay and paperwork.

Like Best Buy before them Rogers Video hasn’t earned my loyalty by getting it right all the time but by fixing the mistakes perfectly.

Never screwing up is nice but doing the right thing when you do really stands out and builds confidence because now I know when I go to these places no matter what happens I’ll be treated right.

Recently Meghan McCain called Joe the Plumber a dumbass and I think she deserves recognition for that. It’s a two part victory. First it’s a republican recognizing reality, and second having the guts to say it on the record even if the party faithful (read: right wing Christian nut jobs) don’t like it. Its news for a republican to acknowledge the obvious - they do it so rarely.

But my liberal brethren seem to have their dial stuck on attack when it comes to any republican so I’d like to argue in defense of Meghan McCain against those stuck on autopilot.

I think she’s a real republican - we just haven’t seen one in awhile. You know fiscal responsibility and smaller government intruding less into the lives of people.

Some of those on autopilot have said they’ll never vote republican and despite my inclination to agree, never say never. Depends on the contest though doesn’t it? A decade from now, her against Burris for example…

I also think Meghan deserves credit for not talking about Sarah Palin despite the low hanging fruit of an easy target she represents. It’s a losing game for anyone with a seat at the table. Its great ratings for TV personalities but in the world of politics engaging Palin just drags us all down and wastes time that could be spent on real issues and real thinking people. Biden and Obama won’t bash Palin either. Maybe it’s about class. You don’t fight someone in a lower weight class. Let’s compare…

Meghan McCain: Bachelor’s Degree from Columbia University, Interned at Newsweek

Sarah Palin: Transferred 5 times to 4 different schools to get her Bachelor’s Degree, Sports reporter.

I have to give this one to Meghan I think.

If John McCain had listened to his daughter during the campaign, well, I don’t think he would have been president but it would have been much closer.

With people like Joe out there some have begun to wonder why people like Meghan are still republicans. It could be that they understand the core values on which the party was built rather than the hateful circus it has become.

Some see little difference between Joe and Meghan but there is a vast gulf between Joe and Meghan. You could probably fit an entire university in there - say, Columbia.

Some claim she’s coasting off of her daddy but her 15 minutes from her daddy ended awhile ago, now she’s gaining attention for using her brain and her university education and having the guts to speak out.

Not enough people are thinking critically about Joe whenever he grabs some spotlight. ‘Joe’ was held up as the everyman and when you scratched even lightly beneath the surface you found he was a lie. Is America similarly just surface impressions with no substance or did they just pick the wrong everyman? It’s a valid question - I just think they picked the wrong everyman.

All that said her recent tweets about Las Vegas seem to be rebranding her as a party girl – not helping.

Well all of these events like Torchwood and Mario Marathon have provided a nice diversion but I thought I’d make some more progress on vacation planning today; specifically I bought our tickets to Six Flags.

Here’s how it broke down (all prices USD):
2 tickets at $29.99 = $59.98
City Fee = $1.50
Shipping = $5.00
Total: $66.48

At no point did it appear to add any tax so I’m more than willing to pay the City Fee, particularly since Vallejo the city and California the state are both bankrupt. I’m just doing my part.

The shipping fee is a little outrageous given that nothing is being shipped, they e-mail me the tickets, I print them, and bring them to the gate. I could understand some sort of processing or ticketing fee – the website that holds the tickets for printing needs to be paid for as do their support people, I get that. But $5 seems far too much, $1 would be much more reasonable especially when you consider how much Six Flags saves by people buying online instead of at the gate (fewer ticket sellers to pay, fewer tickets to print) and the rule of thumb that says 10% of all tickets purchased online are never used and are therefore that 10% is nearly 100% profit. Plus I’m paying for tickets today that I won’t be using until September so they can use those funds as they see fit when in theory I could have earned some interest on that money in the interim – not much interest but still.

But I’m not upset.

Had I bought the tickets at the gate it would have broken down thusly:
2 tickets at $44.99 = $89.98
City Fee = $1.50
Total: $91.48

So I saved $25 versus buying at the gate.

But that’s not all, let’s compare to what I paid in 2002:
2 tickets at $43.99 = $87.98
Parking = $10
Total: $97.98

Now let’s not forget inflation. $97.98 in 2002 dollars is $112.72 in 2009 dollars. So I saved $46.24 versus what I paid in 2002.

Am I good at this game or what?

But that’s not all. I’ve already built the file on Six Flags identifying the 9 rides I want to do while we’re there – possibly multiple times. In no particular order: Boomerang Coast To Coaster, Hammerhead Shark, Kong, Medusa, Roar, Tony Hawk’s Big Spin, V2: Vertical Velocity, Monsoon Falls, and White Water Safari. And let me tell you once you ride Medusa you’re never quite the same. When I think of big-ass rollercoasters, it’s always the Medusa I think of – it’s the tallest, fastest, and longest rollercoaster in northern California.

And I’m now one step closer.

Things definitely get much darker in the conclusion. It may seem harsh but so is reality, so an in-depth look into this kind of What If seems more complete having looked into the darker corners.

Humanity is at times disturbing and ignoring it and its possibilities doesn’t make it go away. Gwen’s observations about The Doctor make a compelling case.

The reason for the 456’s demand is incredibly shocking but again, if we can imagine time-travelling Terminators, planet-busting bombs, and phone booths that are bigger on the inside this really doesn’t seem quite so farfetched.

Frobisher’s conclusion is quite disturbing, made doubly so because Peter Capaldi’s performance was so strong.

And Jack…what can you say about Jack? Both Harkness and Bauer are from a similar cloth in that practical considerations in extreme situations always tend to lead them towards the utilitarian solution – the most good for the most people with certain moral absolutes thrown in. In the real world you’d want them in an extreme crisis but you’d never want them to be role models. You can never completely agree with them but the gift of television is that you don’t have to. It’s just fascinating the problems they face and the solutions they find, right or wrong.

Its television that posed unique, fascinating, and sometimes important questions with no straight answer but lots of ideas – let’s see America Idol do that.

No one is likely to agree with every decision in this miniseries but at the end of the day it was television that made you think and made you feel and that’s a special gift in a time of such vacuous superficiality.

Ratings slipped from the fourth episode down to 5.8 million making the most watched episode the fourth which was unquestionably the best of series. At this point I think some form of a fourth season is all but guaranteed, the only question being the form it will take but I think it is undeniable that this miniseries has raised the bar significantly for Torchwood and it finally feels as if they have hit their true stride. They’ve dropped the sex appeal they seemed to rely so heavily on during their first season and have begun to take risks and make hard choices. I can’t wait for the next chapter in this saga.

Ben Rawson-Jones of Digital Spy put it very well when he called Children of Earth “a powerful human drama, reliant not on special effects but incredible acting, direction and writing” that was a “massive success.”

What more is there to say? What more is there to do but wait for the award nominations to come rolling in? Oh, and buy the DVD or Blu-ray when available.

And fear not, Captain Jack will be back in Doctor Who later this year.

So beginning on Friday I noticed a trending topic on Twitter that read ‘Mario Marathon’, I figured it was probably something a little silly like someone going for a world record or maybe just a bunch of people across the internet playing Mario at the same time…I didn’t really give it much thought.

On Saturday I again saw it trending and decided to take a look at the tweets, they were all pointing to some video streaming website but I had heard about a lot of bad links on Twitter lately so I decided not to chance it.

Then on Sunday Wil Wheaton tweeted about it. Okay, it was time to check this bad boy out.

What I found was actually pretty amazing. It wasn’t just a marathon; it was for charity - Penny Arcade’s Child’s Play charity in fact. Child’s Play donates video games to children’s hospitals across North America.

So I watched for a bit and found it oddly entertaining. Eventually I closed the window and lay down to watch a movie from 1988 because I was home sick while my family was out having fun at Granville Island. After the movie ended I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to watch next but I had been thinking about checking out Lethal Weapon on the new TV with DVD upconvert but I checked my messages first and again saw Mario Marathon trending so I checked back in, ostensibly for a few minutes. An hour later the family came home as the kid was due for a nap. I told Mindi all about it and was going to shut it off when she seemed to find it interesting as well.

We ended up watching it for most of the rest of the evening. I even donated $10.19 USD. Their total had included 81 cents for hours and it was driving my OCD round-number -loving brain a little nuts. Plus I wanted to make their Yoshi Level donor list although for some reason my name appears in ALL CAPS.

Eventually their Twitter-Reader, or TwitFace as we like to call him, Mac Guy had to leave and the show became much less interesting. I checked in one last time before going to bed shortly after midnight and they were at $22,500 and needed to reach $24,576 to continue beyond Mario Galaxy. I honestly didn’t think they would make it as donations had slowed significantly. This morning I discovered that they had passed $25,000 and were now on to Super Mario Sunshine. They had other goals set before, topping out around $96,000, but after reaching their Sunshine goal they eliminated most of those I suspect simply because they physically won’t be able to handle the strain and they would probably have to start missing massive amounts of work eventually.

So now they have a goal of $250,000 at which point their friend will fly in from Australia. I think it’s safe to say THAT won’t happen. Unless of course Bill Gates or Warren Buffet have a mean streak…a philanthropic mean streak to be sure.

As I write this they are at $25,557 with 1195 donors. I guess that makes the average donation $21.39. If they last until later tonight I may just consider making another donation.

It’s actually quite entertaining (particularly when MacGuy/TwitFace/TwitterReader is around) and it’s for a good cause and frankly it’s just so innovative I feel like I’m really taking part in an event. Not Torchwood level but still something special and unique.

So check out http://www.mariomarathon.com and make a donation if you can. Also feel free to follow MarioMarathon & FunnelFiasco on Twitter and tweet away with #mariomarathon tags. They also have a couple articles you can digg to show your support.

This is the best Science Fiction I’ve seen on television in awhile. Not to disparage other programs but I mean true Science Fiction where the imagination opens the door to difficult yet fascinating questions and explores possible answers. Gene Roddenberry would be proud. So would Ray Bradbury. On Day Four this miniseries entered that caliber of writing. I predict Hugo and Saturn award nominations at the very least.

Day Four is also the first time Torchwood cracked the 6 million mark for viewers, specifically 6.2 million.

This really is the rebirth (or second coming if you prefer) of Torchwood. They gave up on using sex to sell their product and instead focused on the stories. Little Torchwood is growing up…and being rewarded for their maturity.

Talent has never been Torchwood’s problem – they regularly kick Doctor Who in the teeth at the BAFTA awards but this hasn’t translated into ratings as Torchwood tends to only garner about half the audience size of Doctor Who (on a good day!) but I think this could be the point at which that tide begins to turn.

They’ve truly created something special here. An event as I said before. If I was asked to say what the 5 most important events this year so far were I would probably say (in no particular order):
Obama Inauguration
Star Trek
Torchwood
Iran Election
US Troop Draw-Down in Iraq
If it were a top 10 I’d probably include Honduras, celebrity passings, Swine Flu, North Korea, and the recession (again, in no particular order) so don’t freak out if something important to you didn’t make the top 5. But I digress.

This is the first time that Torchwood has grown its audience over a season and it’s well deserved.

Of course it’s probably worth noting that Children of Earth are the first Torchwood episodes Russell T. Davies has written since the first episode.

So you’ve probably noticed I’m talking about everything but Ianto. The mind races trying to find ways to bring him back. Maybe the virus only simulated death. Maybe Jack can fix his vortex manipulator and travel through time to save him. Maybe there’s another life knife or risen mitten. At this point only Day Five will give us any firmer indication but I think we all need to admit that Ianto’s chances are not good.

Until tomorrow.

I can’t help but wonder if this is what it was like when V aired in 1983. This is a television event. Guessing at what will happen next, what happened before, what does it all mean. It’s a damn shame it’s not more international.

Regarding Jack’s statement at the end my theory is the 456 demanded a dozen children in 1965 and when the government said no they caused some sort of ‘natural’ disaster. Upon my speaking that thought aloud Mindi hopped on her blackberry (little Tosh in training I guess) and found a variety of possible disasters in 1965 that could have been the 456 flexing their muscles – particularly cyclones and the like which I theorized could have easily been created by tractor beams. Then Jack, ever the pragmatist, gave in to save the planet. I guess we’ll see.

Thinking about Hub 2 I have to wonder if perhaps the recession caused them to cut their production budget and given that the Hub was a very large and likely very expensive standing set, Hub 2 could basically be built anywhere and struck and later rebuilt giving Torchwood a more economical base of operations. But would they stay in London? Maybe move in to Canary Wharf?

It was pretty funny when the Torchwood team had to put on their Hustle hats…dare I dream of a crossover?

Lois’s character again takes a dramatic shift in this episode, now’s she’s hugely reluctant when yesterday she was almost overeager. I find her lack of consistency disturbing.

Once again the whoniverse reminds us all of the proper definition of decimate. Make some room behind the couch.

Also the ratings climbed back up to 5.9 million.

In my post yesterday I was going to comment on how Gwen looked much more confident in the first episode but I forgot to mention it which sucks because had I said it yesterday I would have shown foresight and insight but then she got into the ambulance at the beginning of episode two and made what would have been smart observations yesterday into Captain Obvious award potential today. So, suffice to say Gwen kicks some ass.

Oh and for those of you concerned about my comments regarding pacing yesterday, forget it. Day Two has a perfect pace, and before you know it it’s over and you’re screaming at the TV “No! Don’t make me wait 23 hours for more!”

In other words it’s getting good…nay, awesome.

Watch out for those Twitter spoilers though. Before I got around to watching the episode I saw a tweet about seeing Barrowman’s behind when he broke out of a concrete coffin – it kind of took some of the fun out of it.

Gwen’s disparaging of England was not well received. A little funny though.

With the hub destroyed I’m left with many questions likely not to be answered by the miniseries such as…What about all the weevils in the basement cells? What about Gray’s body in cryogenic suspension?

If they kill PC Andy there’s going to be hell to pay. He’s the very definition of underutilized.

Rhys is pretty good in this episode, he fills a unique role within the team now of looking at the practical stuff and leaving the others to look after the big picture. He’s a details man. He’s…well he’s kind of like Ianto in the early days – you know, making sure people eat.

This episode also answers some fascinating questions regarding Jack’s condition. Part of me wonders if you cut Jack in half, and separated the halves would each half regenerate into a separate Jack or would just the largest part; because it would be impossible to perfect split him in equal halves, regenerate? What if there were other parts of Jack left in the rubble? What if there are 2 Jacks out there?

Nah, that’d be too complicated.

Lois’s rate of development from the first episode to the second is suspect. Either the writers just decided to have her become Torchwood material overnight or something’s afoot.

Ian Gelder seems to be channeling the late John Spencer of West Wing fame.

So, the 456…they could be almost anything, couldn’t they? Something new or something familiar…

Ratings for the second episode only slipped slightly, dipping from 5.9 million to 5.6 million. Torchwood was also one of only two trending topics on Twitter to break through the Michael Jackson memorial wall.

Last night 5.9 million viewers sat down to the first episode in the new Torchwood mini-series, Children of Earth. So far this is good news for Torchwood – the first episode of season one only had 2.5 million viewers and the first episode of season two pulled 4.2 million, both the highest rated episodes of their respective seasons. So clearly the Torchwood fan base is growing. Torchwood also spent most of the day as the third most highly trending topic on Twitter despite all the Michael Jackson handwringing.

In general I thought it moved a little too slowly around the middle of the episode but it ended strong and I appreciated the lack of Torchwood’s patented sexual content. I was also impressed with the character of Rupesh Patanjali, although disappointed in his departure I take heart that this leaves a spot open for Martha when she gets back from her honeymoon. Colonel Mace being relocated to Vancouver was cute, no mention of Sir Alistair unfortunately. I honestly never thought I’d hear Vancouver mentioned in Torchwood.

Regarding the pacing, I think as a fan of the franchise I probably found it a little slow because they needed to re-establish the characters and their relationships for new viewers and that resulted in several character scenes some of which work very well while others feel a little forced.

By and large I enjoyed the episode but it didn’t really have that Torchwood feel until the last 20 minutes or so but now that the housekeeping is out of the way I’m really looking forward to Day Two tonight.

If someone says something that does not make sense or is demonstrably false, does pointing out this fact make you an ‘attacker’?

If you’re at a dinner party, sure it would be bad form, impolite. But let’s say the person in question has some kind of executive political power and wants more.

Let’s say in trying to gain more power this person keeps mentioning their family. Does mentioning that person’s family in reply seem out of bounds or part of the conversation?

If you believe that Sarah Palin is right, and her so-called ‘attackers’ are wrong what else MUST you believe?

You must believe that being a rape victim is taxable.

You must believe that Katie Couric has an agenda to trick Palin by asking her softball questions.

You must believe it possible to read ALL newspapers and yet not remember the name of a single one.

You must believe it possible to see Russia from as far away as New York City if you had a sight line.

You must believe that stopping a project because the funding falls out is the same as turning down the project. Want a fact check? In 2006 she ran on, among other things, a platform supporting the ‘bridge to nowhere’. Here’s a link from a local paper:
http://www.adn.com/politics/story/511471.html

You must believe asking people to lie for you to cover up the associations of your husband is a moral way to behave.

You must believe that David Letterman is a pedophile.

You must believe that some parts of America are real, while others are not.

You must believe she was right to put a $150 bounty on the head of every wolf in Alaska, even though a state judge said she didn’t have the authority. I guess we can put the state judge in the ‘attacker’ column.

You must believe all of the multiple ethics complaints are in the wrong, including the Branchflower report which stated “Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit: to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired” and “permitted Todd Palin to use the Governor’s office” was wrong. More ‘attackers’ I suppose.

I could go on but this could easily become my life’s work. In short let me ask you to apply the reasoning of Occam’s razor. Which is more likely? Everyone must believe everything listed above or her so-called ‘attackers’ might just be describing reality or at the very least have legitimate grievances.

So here’s the deal, put all your debit and credit card purchases on an Excel sheet and see where you’re money’s going. Use that knowledge to set goals.

Rent/Daycare/Medical: 27% (down 11%)
Entertainment: 21% (up 5%)
Car: 14% (nearly tripled!)
Fast Food: 10% (down 5%)
Dining Out: 10% (doubled!)
Groceries: 9% (down 3%)
Gifts & Merchandise: 6% (slight increase)
Transit & Grooming: 3% (slight decrease)

This month’s numbers are going to be heavily skewed by 2 factors: concert tickets and car repair but I still think some useful information can be gleaned.

Rent/Daycare/Medical is down just because other areas are increased. Entertainment is up due to concert tickets although not as large an increase as I expected although that’s partly due to free movies from my Scene card. Car is tripled due to repairs. Fast Food is down I would like to believe due to better diligence on my part. Dining out doubled because it’s that part of the year where everyone and their dog have something to celebrate. Groceries are down care of Mindi taking on some of that burden which is nice.

So for goals I think getting Entertainment and Dining Out costs down is a good idea however this probably won’t require much action from me. Entertainment was inflated by the concert tickets and I’m now working full-time so I have less free time to be entertained. Dining Out was inflated due to a seasonal slew of celebrations which have now come to a close, and again working more means less time to eat out.

So overall it was a weird month that produces goals that will largely take care of themselves.

My goal from last month was to cut down on fast food spending, mission accomplished both in terms of percentage and dollars spent – yay me. Had I not done that I’m sure I’d be much worse off than I am now. My secondary goal was to cut Entertainment spending…but who could have predicted the Pet Shop Boys concert?

Are you sick of posts about Travel? How about some Economics to mix things up?

Yea, I’m sure you’re thrilled. Don’t worry; I’ll get around to reviewing Transformers 2 shortly.

So I’ve noticed I’ve been using my credit card a lot more than I used to, largely this can be attributed to buying gas. Always wanting to be aware of my fiscal situation I thought I’d look at my plastic usage…

Average amount charged to credit card per month: $590 (wow, this was a surprise)

Average number of credit card purchases per month: 16

Average credit card purchase: $37

Average number of debit card purchases per month: 47

That average amount charged per month is inflated due to purchasing a new(er) car in February as well as my consumer electronics online bonanza on Boxing Day. I fully expect this number to come down some although vacation spending may limit the decrease since I’ll be paying for two people this year rather than just myself.

Average number of credit card purchases is accurate if increased over last year but this is mostly about gas.

Average credit card purchase is also likely to go down now that the major purchases of the car, TV, blu-ray, and hard drive are behind me but again vacation may monkey with this a little.

Number of debit purchases is high but that’s because I use debit for everything including my Subway lunch every day I work. To quote R Kelly “I don’t see nothing wrong”.

I pretty much use my credit card for 3 things: Gas, restaurants, and online purchases. Also on vacation depending on circumstance, location, and exchange rate (if applicable).

With the economic crisis we’ve been experiencing over the last year everyone seems to think it especially important to be aware of, track, and control not just how much you spend but where and how you spend it. I think I don’t have much to worry about though.

California on the other hand, what a cluster that’s become - Issuing IOUs, legislative impasses…it’s somewhat worrying really. People are quick to blame Arnold for all this but I’m man enough to admit he’s done a far better job than I would have expected from any actor this side of Martin Sheen. You can’t pin the global financial situation on the Governator any more than you can blame him for the rigid process for taxation increases and spending cuts that have been put in place by voter initiatives. Californians wanted to make it nearly impossible to raise taxes and almost as difficult to cut spending and when trouble struck they ran out of money – it’s sadly no surprise and cannot be laid at Arnold’s feet. He tried to cut spending but the legislators wouldn’t let him. You tie his hands and then blame him for not pulling a rabbit out of his hat? Not cool.

I feel good about my choice of vacation destination this year in that they clearly need the money but it is a little bit worrying that we’re planning a trip to a bankrupt state.

So Jon thinks the key to picking the right hotel from this point onwards is location. If that were the sole factor Columbus Motor Inn wins in a landslide.

Identifying the 3 major things I want to do in San Francisco, other than Golden Gate Bridge related activities which would require a car anyways, they would be:
The Concert
Hard Rock Café
Ghirardelli’s

Columbus Motor Inn is within easy walking distance of 2 of those and we would likely want to take transportation to the third, the concert.

Vertigo is within easy walking distance to the concert, but a challenging walk to one other attraction and we would likely want transportation to the third.

Plus Columbus is on the route we’d want to take to just about everything whereas the Vertigo is a little off to the side.

Columbus is close to the Fisherman’s Wharf which has a lot of various attractions in addition to what I’ve already mentioned so if it’s a war of location Columbus wins handily.

Vertigo is stylish and the HD content is a big draw for me but the more I think about it the more I reluctantly think I need to take a step back from the idea. For one thing HD programming is a novelty now but in a couple years I’ll have it myself as will many people. The design is nice but it seems to come at the cost of space. Who cares if everything looks nice when you don’t have any room to move around? Plus I almost feel like I wouldn’t properly appreciate the Vertigo since I have not seen and have no intention of seeing the movie.

The 216 Trip Advisor reviews of Columbus brake down thusly:

Excellent: 100 (46%)
Very Good: 98 (45%)
Average: 13 (6%)
Poor: 4  (2%)
Terrible: 1 (less than 1%)

Curious about the worst case scenario I checked out the Terrible review, it was complaining about their website – I honestly don’t think the person even stayed at the property and the review is 3 years old.

I also looked in on the Poor reviews. One person was upset that they only had feather pillows, one person didn’t like the tone of voice when the person at the front desk gave them bus information, one person was upset because their online price was only valid with online bookings, and the last one was just incomprehensible.

So absolute worst case scenario I don’t like the website, get a feather pillow, get bus information in a funny voice, and have to book online. Well damn. Looks like I’d have a less than 3% chance of having a bad experience.

To put that in perspective here is the breakdown of the 191 reviews of the Hotel Vertigo:

Excellent: 40 (21%)
Very Good: 82 (43%)
Average: 38 (20%)
Poor: 19 (10%)
Terrible: 12 (6%)

I’d take a less than 3% chance of having a bad experience over a 16% chance any day. This really could be the Flic Flac of San Francisco or the Fred’s Automotive of San Francisco accommodations – if there’s one thing I learnt recently is the value of a good recommendation and review rating.