Stupid Gas Station dropped their prices again. I just filled up on Tuesday. What else is new?

Yesterday I had to stay home with the flu. Staying home from school and swim practice is fun, but it's only fun if you aren't actually sick. Being sick sucks. Glad I'm not sick anymore. Anyway I finished writing my philosophy paper this morning which is due in about 10 minutes. If you ever have the chance to not take philosophy, I say go for it.

So in conclusion, things that suck:
-Gas Stations dropping their prices after I fill up and raising them before I fill up
-Being sick with the flu
-Taking Philosophy class

No big news so far this week, I had the feeling this would eventually would happen. Post all my rants, then have nothing to say. Anyway, the weather here has been snowy and cold.

Actually there is one fun piece of info: SATURDAY!!!! SATURDAY!!!! SATURDAY!!!! AT THE CALGARY EXHIBITION AND STAMPEDE CORRAL!!!!! ONE DAY ONLY!!!! I am going to the XTREME FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIP here in Calgary. It's basically going to be a kick boxing championship. Apparently I get ringside seats, free and so I'll be taking photos and probably writing a story with one of the photo volunteers. I have to pick up the tickets from some kick boxing club. I'll post a photo when I get some. Here is a link to the Xtreme Fighting Championship: Battle for the Belts World championship Muay Thai and Kickboxing. There are 10 fights, and each fight has at least one Canadian fighter. The fights are being televised for TSN, and some other pay-per-view company, so maybe I'll be on tv, seeing as how I'm going to be ringside. The title bout sounds like it will be a real doozie!
5 rounds of 3 minutes of Full Muay Thai - WMC COMMONWEALTH MUAY THAI TITLE
TREVOR 'T.N.T.' SMANDYCH (Calgary, Canada) vs. KURT 'KILLER' FINLAYSON (Australia)
Apparently TNT's foot has broken 32 bones over the course of his career, if you could call kickboxing a career, but don't worry folks none of those 32 bones belonged to good'ole Trevor 'T.N.T' Smandych.

My swim meet was great. Aside from the power going out and delaying the meet for an hour and a half, I think it was a great day. I competed in the 50 breast and the 50 free. Breast was great - lane 4, heat 4. I was the fastest in my heat with a time around 34 seconds. In the 50 Free, I came out with a 26.4.

It snowed today which sucks, but gas prices are low and I can finally take advantage of it. With my luck prices will be back up before I get out of class and have a chance to go. That's life I guess.

I was riding the bus to the university the other day, and a bunch of highschool kids got on at the stop after mine. A kid in the seat in front of mine refused to let another kid sit down beside him so I said, "Let him sit down." As he was moving over I added, "Jackass." The kid looked a little offended that I would call him a jackass, and the guy who was about to sit down said, "It's ok, we go to the same school. I know him." I said, "I don't care, I wasn't sticking up for you. There are two seats, two people should be sitting down."

Lipping off highschool kids is really fun. Especially when they are trashy kids. I overheard the 2nd kid bragging that he was kicked out of 65 classes in one month. At my highschool, that would be almost 70% of your classes.

While I'm on the topic of lipping off highschool kids, about a year and a half ago, I was going in one of the back doors of the college in Medicine Hat and there were 4 kids smoking at a picnic table. One of the younger kids (probably 15 or so) threw a empty cigarette box on the ground. He was sitting less than five feet from the garbage can. I said, "Pick that up and put it in the garbage. A kid with down syndrome could have thrown it in from where you are sitting." He picked it up and threw it out, and all his so called friends laughed at him. That was quite possibly my favorite burn of all time, although there haven't been many.

I just finished the first day of my first meet swimming for the U of L. I am dead tired. Today I swam the 100 Breast (1:18), 100 Free (1:01), and 50 Fly (32.5). I took a few pictures on my digital camera but I don't think they are going to turn out to well. It's too dark in the pool area, but if there are any worth it I may try to improve them in Photoshop.

Happy birthday Jackie 'O Lantern! You know I always wished that your birthday was on the 31st.

Tracie and I opened a savings account today. I went to a teller to find out what you had to do. (at my old bank, we had an information desk) Anyway the teller said two pieces of id with my address on them. Well, I had my drivers licence, my SIN card, 2 different visas (one from the bank in question), student id and any number of club cards. But she wanted something with my address on it. Like a bill. Like a bill. I'd just like to point out that you call what ever company up and just tell them your address. You just tell the driver's licence people your address. That's how you get your address on anything! You just tell someone and they put it on. That's how the bank knows we moved. We just told them our address, and they typed it into the computer. Well Tracie happened to go to another teller at the same time who didn't think that we needed another address id, and so the tellers had a little discussion about the importance of having two pieces of address verification. Anyway, we got sent back to a personal banker, who gave us another account and offered us a $10,000 line of credit. All without having any piece of Id with a current address. (We haven't updated our driver's licences since the last time we moved.) Anyway, I hate banks and dumb tellers.

Happy Birthday Jackie! Just like that "Walla!" she's 21! It's my sister Jackie's birthday today. I was going to call her, but I realized that she wasn't going to be home so instead I just sent her and email and dedicated this web log to her. That's right Jack, this is all for you. So what I'm going to do is list some of the things I like about you, Jackie, and some of the things I don't like.

Things I like about growing up with my kid-sister Jackie:
-She's always been a easy scapegoat, it's her own fault really.
-that time she stole a pack of hubba bubba and shared with everyone
-all the my little ponies that she had for targets for my GI Joe
-never complaining to mom and dad all the times that Gary and I tied her up with ropes just for the fun of it.
-never asking me to give you my Christmas spending money so you could buy a present for me and then turn around and buy headphones for yourself.
-also never whining about not wanting to go on the Dumbo ride at Disneyland and then monopolizing the controls.
-someone to talk to through the vents in my ceiling.
-always being a good sport about all the nick names you've been given over the years.
-bringing over friends...(don't ask why)
-hmmm, I guess that's about it.

Things I dislike about growning up with my kid-sister Jackie:
-that time she squirted ketchup on me just to prove that she would.
-that time she borrowed risk for her boyfriend and never returned it (still)
-all the times that she decided she would like to play monopoly but then either quit 10 minutes into it or the equivilent by just letting us roll for her.
-telling me that you love me when you know I am angry at you and then saying that you only said you love me to impress people at church.
-hmmm I guess that's about it too.

So, I'm sitting through a classmate's presentation, when he gets to the big finnish and says, "And walla!" Nobody's sure if he's making a joke or if we should laugh or not, this being the instant right before his amazing finnish. He clicks to the next slide where in big bold all caps it says, "WALLA!". He could tell that we didn't get it and so he says, "You know, Walla! Walla! Here it is!". We're still confused so he turns to the French kid here on exchange for a semester and says, "Explain Walla to them."

Anyway, I took a picture of a knight yesterday. A real knight, but not a real knight. I mean he didn't have any armour or a sword or anything, but everyone prefaced his name with Sir, and apparently the Queen had knighted him. He won the Nobel prize for work in genetics. I think he made a half rhino, half elephant. It's called an elefino. When the new Gauntlet comes out, I'll post a link to the photo. Although it's not that great on account of the lack of swords and armour.

Conspiracy theories aside, here is an email I got today. I realize its just a silly forward, but it made me laugh.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE TRAILER TRASH WHEN:
1. The Halloween pumpkin on your porch has more teeth than your spouse.
2. You let your twelve-year-old daughter smoke at the dinner table in front of her kids.
3. You've been married three times and still have the same in-laws.
4. You think a woman who is "out of your league" bowls on a different night.
5. Jack Daniels makes your list of "most admired people."
6. You wonder how service stations keep their restrooms so clean.
7. Someone in your family died right after saying: "Hey watch this."
8. You think Dom Perignon is a Mafia leader.
9. Your wife's hairdo was once ruined by a ceiling fan.
10. Your junior prom had a daycare.
11. You think the last words of the Star Spangled Banner are: "Gentlemen, start your engines."
12. You lit a match in the bathroom and your house exploded right off its wheels.
13. The bluebook value of your truck goes up and down, depending on how much gas is in it.
14. You have to go outside to get something from the fridge.
15. One of your kids was born on a pool table.
16. You need one more hole punched in your card to get a freebie at the House of Tattoos.
17. You can't get married to your sweetheart because there's a law against it.
18. You think "loaded dishwasher" means your wife is drunk.
19. Your toilet paper has page numbers on it.
20. Your front porch collapses and kills more than five dogs

The conspiracy continues. My gas tank is still three quarters full but gas dropped to 25.4 cents yesterday. On top of that Safeway gives 3.5 cents off per litre so all I can say is at least I'm happy that I don't have to wait in line for cheap gas.

Yesterday, Tracie and I went to see a play in Lethbridge. It was, "You Can't Take it With You". Anna Maria Onomatopoeia was in it. She Played Penny. It was very funny. Afterwards, we went to Boston Pizza. To end off the night, we drove all the way to Medicine Hat.
Today, we visited Mom and Dad, and had dinner at Tracie's parent's house. At 5:30 we went to the pool party at crestwood pool. Dad went in Corry's Kayak so did mom, but I never had a camera.

I think there is a conspiracy going on in Lethbridge. Actually I think it's all across Southern Alberta. Every time my gas tank is full, the gas stations drop their prices. When it comes time for me to buy - they jack them up like crazy. It's as if they actually know when I need gas and change their prices just to screw me over.

By the way, it's Kyoto, not Keyoto. The interesting thing about Kyoto is that, from the sounds of it, you might think it's a small town or even a medium sized city. This, however, is not the case. Kyoto is in fact a major metropolis. An easy way to remember how to spell Kyoto is to just switch the letters of Tokyo around. Kyoto means number two and I guess that was the deal - Tokyo is number one, Kyoto well it's number two because it's just a rearrangement of letters. Also interesting about Kyoto, I think that they sure produce a lot of poisonous gases themselves to be bossing everyone around. But thanks to Kyoto, we now have the Kyoto Accord and now everybody's got to reduce their emissions. I wish the kid next to me in this computer lab would reduce his emissions. That's all for me.

The Gauntlet staff had a dinner meeting last night. The first half of the meeting went really well. Kris (the Editor) told everyone what he felt that they were doing well, and what they were doing not so well at. Pretty much everything is going ok, with the exception of people making booby traps, people fooling around with the fire extinguisher, and people blowing up pop bottles with dry ice. Oh yeah, don't forget shooting people in the eye with rubber bands and licking the microwave plate. (I dislike using the microwave because the inside of it is so nasty.)

Kris is very worried about getting sued. Myke things that if you like the microwave plate and die from food poisoning it's your own darn fault. I agree with Myke, it is your own darn fault. Lawyers agree with Kris. If you lick the microwave plate and die from food poisoning, your parents can sue the office for not doing anything to stop it. I agree with both of them. A line has to be drawn somewhere to mitigate the liability of the paper.

Anyway, I have to come up with a system of archiving the photos by January, but hopefully I'll get it done before then.

I had the 2nd funniest dream ever the other day. Mom and I were in some grand stands watching the Queen do something. Mom was going to takes some pictures, but I said don't bother. I went down to the corner of the stands and started taking pictures. The Queen was about to get into the driver's side of a pick-up truck to scoot over for the driver to get in after her. As she was getting in, her foot accidentally hit the accelerator and the truck starts to zoom away with the Queen all by herself half in the truck. Somehow she manages to get into the truck, but she doesn't know how to drive because she has had chauffeurs all her life. The truck careens out of control speeding up and slowing down, as she travels in a circle around the bleachers. I shoot tons of amazing pics, and I'm thinking to myself, "I'm going to make tons of money! These pics are amazing and nobody else is shooting them!" Anyway the Queen made about five laps of the bleachers and managed to stop or slow down enough that her body guards could get into the truck to stop it for her.

Last night I went to Student Union meeting. It's a miracle that anything actually gets done by them. They spent the first 10 or 15 minutes debating on whether or not the crowd of spectators (5 people, including 3 from the Gauntlet) should be allowed to pass notes to the council members. Then they had a vote to see if they would have a vote on the issue, then they voted on the issue, and as it turns out, spectators are still not allowed to pass notes to the council members. Why anyone cares, I don't know.

Another interesting bit of news from me is that most of the photo stuff for this issue of the paper is done. I may have to take a picture of the meeting about the Kyoto accord, but it will be running online in the e-Gauntlet

I watched The Tuxedo on my computer the other day, and well it's a Jackie Chan movie, but that's about it. It's not even a good Jackie Chan movie. If I only had two words to describe it, they would be "Ho Hum" or is that just one word? Hohum.

Tracie is writing her RN exam right now, it's a two parter. The first half is in the morning and the second in the afternoon. It's the type of test that is hard to study for. but I'm pretty sure that she will do alright.

Nothing funny or amusing to report today. So instead of a funny or even slightly amusing story, I'll relate the lame pun I heard on CBC Radio last night while driving home to lethbridge:
"[With increasing threats from George W. to Saddam Hussien Canada is left between Iraq and a hard place.]"
I think it would have been better if Canada was left between Iraq and a hard-ass. But that's just my opinion.

My love affair with public transit is losing it's luster. I used to really enjoy taking public transit. Now my eyes are opening to the fact that riding the bus SUCKS.

I got invited to Kris and Vero Jensen's for Thanksgiving dinner today. At noon I realized that Tracie had taken the car to work and that I needed to find a ride to Bowness. I fired up the Calgary Transit website and found out that the #40 bus goes from the corner by my house to the corner by the Jensen's house, and that it would arrive at my stop in just about 45 minutes. I hopped "like a bunny" into the shower and when I got out there was still 30 minutes to the bus. I got dressed, and there were still 15 minutes to the bus. I arrived at the stop 10 minutes early and 5 minutes go by. 10 minutes go by, 15 minutes go by, 20 minutes go by and no #40. The only bus that went by was the 91 and it doesn't go to Bowness. Finally I hear the sound of a bus, but it's the #20. I decide to get on and ride to the bottom of the hill. At least at the bottom of the hill I can catch the #40 or the #1 and those both go reasonably near where I wanted to go. So I waited at the bottom of the hill for another 10 minutes and my beloved #40 is still nowhere to be seen. Fortunately the #1 showed up and it took be with in 4 blocks of the Jensens and I was only half an hour late. Luckily the meal wasn't quite ready, and so it was ok.

Dinner was quite good. Since I'm neither my Mother nor my aunt Mary Ann, I am not going to give you a list of all the things I ate or how delicious each item was, other than to say it was quite good.

This thanksgiving I am thankful that I got invited over somewhere to eat. (Since tomorrow is not Thanksgiving anymore, I may list a few things I am no thankful for if I remember)

Since I can't think of anything better to post, I've decided to write about my new computer. I purchased a 19" monitor but had to take it back. The picture on it was compressed at the top. I got a new monitor - same model (NEC AccuSync 95f) and it has the same problem. Since I live in Lethbridge and the computer store is closed for Canadian Thanksgiving, I've decided to let my parents take it back and I will get a new one in Lethbridge.

My house is far enough away from the University, that I can ride the bus. My house is also close enough to the University that I can walk. This shouldn't be a dilemma for a guy like me. I can wait for the bus or I can walk. In fact, there are two busses that both go right past my house straight to the University of Calgary. However, they both come every half hour. First one, then 10 minutes later the other, then another 20 minutes and the next bus arrives. This is the dilemma, I don’t know how much time has passed since the last bus has come and gone, and it is only a 15-minute walk to the university. One might suggest that I simply walk along the bus route and get picked up at the next stop. Apparently this is a common thought because Calgary Transit has made sure that these two buses don’t duplicate too much of the same route. Therefore the bus that comes first turns off at the corner before the next stop does a one block jog east then joins back up to the same route 2 blocks north.

You may have correctly guessed that I have decide to walk the last few trips and paid the price for my impatience. It seems as if the bus is at least 3 or 4 minutes faster 90% of the time, unless I just barely miss the second bus in which case it is about 1 or 2 minutes faster to walk.

So, I was watching the Queen on TV yesterday, and she's walking down a long aisle at the CBC, and all these little kids have flowers. The Queen goes to the edge of the red carpet and takes the flowers from the kids. As her arms get full of flowers, she passes them back to the peons behind her. To put in water obviously, or the garbage, we might as well say what really happens to the flowers.

Anyway, Tracie says, “What makes the Queen think those flowers are for her? They could just be holding the flowers for somebody else.”

That makes me think that if I were holding flowers and the Queen made a grab for them, I would pull them away just in the nick of time and maybe say to the Queen, “What the hell are you doing? These flowers aren’t for you!” Then I’d shout out, “Police! Police! The Queen just tried to steal my flowers!”

Maybe it would be better to just say, “Too slow!” or “Too bad sucker!” And after all the dust settled, I’d be on every TV in the Common Wealth for at least a few minutes as the crazy guy of the day.

Just to get the ball really rolling here is a joke:

President Bush and Colin Powell are sitting in a bar. A guy walks in and asks the barman, "Isn't that Bush and Powell sitting over there?"
The barman says, "Yep, that's them." So the guy walks over and says, "Wow, this is a real honour. What are you guys doing in here?"
Bush says, "We're planning WW III ". And the guy says, "Really? What's going to happen?"
Bush says, "Well, we're going to kill 20 million Iraqis this time and one blonde with really big breasts.
The guy exclaimed, "A blonde with really big breasts? Why kill a blonde with really big breasts?"
Bush turns to Powell, punches him on the shoulder and says,
"See, smart ass?! I told you no one would give a damn about the 20 million Iraqis!"