Why NBC Sucks

So I’ve recently found out that NBC has canceled Andy Barker PI after four episodes. FOUR EPISODES!!!!! They have also pulled The Black Donnellys after six episodes, and numerous other shows. It is ridiculous. NBC seems to have become the new Fox, canceling shows left, right and center. They don’t even give a show time to become popular. If it doesn’t have good ratings right away, it’s gone. It took Seinfeld four seasons before it broke into Nielson’s Top 30.

I just think that they can’t judge how a show is going to do why the ratings, viewing of four episodes. What makes it even worse is that they replace these shows with crap, like The Real Wedding Crashers, another stupid reality show. I hate reality shows, I wish they would stop making them. Or with that new comedy one with the really dumb name. I watched part of it last night, and it was retarded. It was not funny at all. I watched CSI Miami instead, which bugs me too.

What gets me about CSI Miami is that it seems like Horaito has a personal connection with every single case. And his stupid one liners, and the glasses and how he stands when he talks to people, and how he talks to people. Yet I watch it anyways. I rarely watch new ones, yet I always seem to watch the ones on A&E or Showtime.

Well, that got off topic pretty quick. Well, NBC sucks.

Nikon and I are Friends

Well, it’s true. I like Nikon, and I like to think they like me. After all, I do give them my money. Anyway, that is beside the point. The point of this post really is to tell you folks, yes the three of you, that I went to the auto show on Friday and Saturday and it was awesome. I took about 350 pictures, which I got down to around 300. I then posted these on flickr for all to see.

I then organized them into manufacturer, and that can be seen here.

Insert Your Title Here

Well, this is going to be a short blurb because I was going to write something worth reading, but I had some unexpected difficulties with a site I was updating, and ran out of time. I finally finished the new Maple Design site. Well, it is not finished entirely, but enough to let it roam free. I still need to add some things, and some text, but other than that it is finished. I have also finished the Smith Drilling website. I didn’t really do a whole lot on it, but whatever. Precious Portrait is also finished, except for a few galleries which are coming later.

I am going to the Calgary International Auto and Truck show tomorrow evening, and I am taking my camera, so expect pictures Saturday. I am also leaving for a Marine Biology trip on March 26. That should be really fun. More details on that in a later post.

Arrival and Day 1

We had one of those small two-two planes, and we sat in front of the exit row, so I didn’t have a window, even though I sat in a window seat. It sucked. That plane was so small, like small. We had a 175 MPH tail wind, so our 3 hour and 7 minute flight turned into a 2 hour and 20 minute flight, which was pretty sweet. Once we got there and got to the Rental Car Center, and upgraded to an SUV, we went to go and pick which one we wanted. We went to the row and there was an Infiniti FX35. My dad didn’t believe that it was for us to take, but he asked the guy and he said yeah. We got loaded up and one of the guys who cleans the cars and brings them back came up to us and told us that it shouldn’t be here. He then gave us a sticker that would allow us to take the car. So we have like a fully loaded Infiniti FX35. It’s pretty sweet.

So today we went out to the Glendale Arena (officially called Jobing.com Arena, but I hate that name) and got our Coyotes tickets. That will be fun. We then drove out to Usery Mountain Recreation Area to take pictures of the sunset, which can be seen at my Flickr page. Anyways, we took the pictures and came back to our hotel and found the Border Patrol. It turns out that they didn’t like us coming into the country and we are being deported tomorrow. Just kidding, we don’t know why they’re here, but they are. Anyways, I’ll be updating Flickr and here over the course of my vacation.

Oh, and on Friday night, we went to the mall across from our hotel and guess what is in there. An Apple Store. How awesome is that? An Apple Store right across the street. This is going to be fun. And I found out that the Coyotes Den does lettering and stuff, so I think I’m going to do that with my jersey. It will be really cool once all is said and done. We got some pretty good tickets for the game Thursday night, like row 16. We could have had row 13, but my dad didn’t want to sit on that end of the ice.

Adventures in Photography

So, here’s the deal. On Saturday night, I went out to go take some pictures of Downtown Calgary from the top of Broadcast Hill. I arrived, took the photos, and was putting my camera away in the bag and everything, and had turned the light on in my truck. I had put my keys down on the seat, and then out everything away. I then closed the door, and started to walk around to the driver’s side door. About halfway there I realized that the driver’s side door was locked. I thought, “oh I need my keys” and walked back to the other door, only to find it locked. So, there I was on Broadcast Hill with my keys locked in my truck. Luckily, I had my phone in my pocket and was able to phone my mom. She brought me the other set, and I got in to start my truck, only to find that the battery, while not dead, was not enough to turn over the engine. Thanks to Amy’s truck dieing like a week earlier, I had booster cables in my truck, and was able to boost it and get it home.

The pictures turned out a lot better than my evening. The one I posted with this, is one of the ones that I took that night. I also discovered on Saturday that the Flash for the old Minolta X700 35mm SLR works for my D50. Now all I need is the remote (and more lenses of course).

Oh, and about the site thing, yeah, that isn’t happening. What I wanted to do was to have a picture of cool Christmas lights every week, but I decided that that was going to be to difficult, so I’m not doing it.

Three Red Lights of Death

Yeah, so the inevitable happened. I got the three red lights of death on Saturday night, and my Xbox 360 was toast. I have gotten them before, but I was able to restart and everything was fine. This time, however, it is done for. I was not very happy, but yet I wasn’t as mad as I thought I would be. I had always imagined what I would be like if such a thing occured to me, and it was not a happy Joel, let me tell you. Anyways, I called them up on Monday and they said that they would send out a coffin (okay, so they didn’t actually call it a coffin, but I think that it is appropriate). I then pack in my 360, just the unit (my hdd stays with me, YES!), and send it away to them.

Now, the guy on the phone said “exchange,” so I’m hoping that is what it will be. He said they would have it for a maximum of three business days, which is really good. Now I just have to wait for the coffin (box, if you don’t like my terminology). I was actually really impressed with Microsoft on this one. The last time I dealt with them, it was not a pleasent experiance. You can read all about my last encounter here. Well, I’ll give you an update when I know more.

Oh and look for something fun on my blog in the next week or so.

National Parties and Politics

So, there was an article in the Calgary Herald today about how the Bloc are willing to pull the plug on the Conservatives if they don’t do these certain things. This got me on to that think process of national politics, and the anger that I have for the Bloc. Oh, and just so you know I am a card-carrying member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta (it’s at the provincal level, so no, I’m not contradicting myself) and I’m planning on getting my Conservative Party of Canada membership too, so this may be biased, to an extent.
First off, for you non-Canadian readers or uninformed Canadians, the Bloc Quebecois is a national party that has one goal in mind, to use federal money to seperate Quebec from Canada. Nice national party huh?  The Conservatives have a minority government right now, so they have to work with other parties to keep a float. It was less than a year ago that the Liberal minority government was brought down (thankfully). The Bloc only has people running for election in Quebec. That is where my problems begin.

I mean, how can you have a “national” party that only runs in one province? You can’t. It is so stupid, especially since they only care about Quebec. It just makes me so mad. I think that we need to change the election laws so that if a party wants to run in a national election, they have to have a representative in at least the majority, if not all, of ridings in Canada.

Well, when I thought about writing this earlier today, I was a lot madder about the whole situation, and had a lot more to say. Now that I am here writing it, I can’t think of all the things that I wanted to say, or how to put them down in writing. So, basically what I am saying is that there maybe a part two to this.

Long Distances Charges

Okay, so it has been a long time, so in order to make up, there will be two blog posts

I got my cell phone bill today, or rather I looked at it today, and I noticed I had long distances charges. Now they don’t tell you what number you phoned, or who phoned you on the paper bill. If you want that, you have to go to the internet. So, I looked it up and it turns out it was Mike phoning me when I was in Kananaskis Country a few weekends ago. I just think that it is so cheap and unfair that they charge me for a call that I didn’t make, someone else did. The same applies to text messaging. If you recieve a text message, it cost you money. How is that fair, you didn’t choose to recieve the call/text message. With text messaging you don’t even have a choice, it is just there. I think that it is so ridiculous. Grrr stupid phone companies, ripping you off since 1877 (or whenever).

It’s Like Cheese You Can Drive Around In

I just had to share. Yes, I’m still on vacation, but this was too good to pass up.

Off to Hawaii

Well, I’m leaving for Hawaii tomorrow morning. I’ll be gone for two weeks, and I’m not too sure about an internet connection in Hawaii. This could be the last post for a while. Well, have a good rest of August all, and I’ll try and write in Hawaii. If not, see you in two weeks.