Charles E. Frees-Melvin's WebHome

This morning I was reading the Political Blogger Charles LeBlanc’s site when I came across the following little gem.

Worker was confronted by a nut with a Machete because he was making too much noise while shoveling snow on Regent Street in Fredericton.

Doesn’t that just make you want to say OMG! The sad thing is that this is not the only recent event like this. Last week there was the 15-year-old Hampton NB native charged with 2nd degree murder for bringing a kitchen knife over to an alleged sexual assulting drug dealer and killing him in the back or side.

Then about a year ago the guy chasing after another down the streets of uptown Saint John with a freaking broad sword.

I once heard that you are more likely to get stabbed than shot in Canada, does that really make you feel any better?

In the view of what may be in line for Canada over the next year in the camps of the Fee-for-carriage debate between “Save Local” and “Stop the TV Tax.” Although this seems unfathomable in the current landscape, the near future will see broadcast, cable, and satellite a thing of the past to internet based distribution methods.

Why pay for 100’s of channels that you do not watch? Why can the creators of the content not just distribute themselves? With devices like the Roku player, Apple TV, PS3, Xbox 360, and many others, we can feasibly get HD to your TV. Problems with getting broadband will als be a thing of the past soon as 4G LTE cellular networks with 51 mb/s connections will make getting fast internet to people easier and cheaper. Even more so in less that 5 years with 5G

“In the last 12 months talks between cable operators and program providers have become even more tense. Programmers have been seeking better affiliate fees as they have seen advertising revenue hurt by the U.S. economic downturn and remain uncertain about the future of TV advertising as more marketers turn to the Web.”  Yinka Adegoke for Reuters.

Fox, Time Warner Cable reach deal to avoid blackout – Yahoo! Canada News.

Today I am going to post another gripe post. This week’s victim is CTV Atlantic late night news, last night I sat down to hear what was happening. There was 13 stories from Nova Scotia, 1 from PEI, 3 from NB and 3 from elsewhere. Like WTF! To make it even worse of the 3 stories they were flood relief from the northwest New Brunswick, a boil order from Oromocto, and an algae ploom in Moncton.

It is like nobody cares about what is happening in New Brunswick, but to add insult with the lack of caring by dumping on us by adding an algae story to boost your NB news content.

I never really expected to see this, this morning the DVD Forum is about to abandon HD-DVDs. Once again a format can be added the Hall of “you never had a chance” along with other failures like Beta, 8-Track, and not to forget LaserDisk.

I still think that most of you don’t have a brain in your head sometimes. But, we will see. Come the next election I hope that there will be enough good candidate running in every ward so that we don’t end up like Miramichi.

Doesn’t anyone remember why in 1980 the ward 198 years of a ward system was brought to an end? Because the council was too focused on the day-2-day of the city rather than setting policy and advancing the city forward. We were doing that, this is going to be another nail in the coffin of Saint John. This is going to strip away the progress foreseen in the last 4 years.

The next council is more likely than not going to pit one against the other for; who gets a rink, I want my sidewalks plowed. And attention is diverted away from the future and placed on the present.

I was just reading my e-mail and I received one about the effort against the plans to convert UNB Saint John into a polytechnic university or do a merger with NBCC Saint John. The e-mail linked another site http://livingininterestingtimes.wordpress.com/ and I thought I would just post about it here. On one hand I think that losing a full university such as UNB Saint John could be a bad thing, but the polytechnic university concept might be interesting, there doesn’t seem to be a University in the area like the caliber that some polytechnics like Ryerson have.

The Dominion Institute National Citizenship Exam Survey Of 2007

-Six In Ten (60%) Canadians Fail Mock Citizenship Exam Similar To One Immigrants Take To Become Canadian Citizens

-33% More Canadians Fail Test Now Than 10 Years Ago

Okay this survey I find really hard to believe. Do to the one of the statements.

“Fewer than two in ten (16%) could name the four provinces that joined together in Confederation in 1867. ”

This question is worded wrong and really annoys me everytime I hear it. It should read.

“Fewer than two in ten (16%) could name the four provinces that were created by Confederation in 1867. ”

Because of the plain and simple fact that there were four provinces (NB, NS, PEI, and Canada) at the meetings in Charlottetown, Quebec City and London conferences buy one PEI declined to join until 1874. Therefore only three provinces joined together in Confederation in 1867 (NB, NS, and Canada) and in the Constitution Act of 1867 the first sentence is “Whereas the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick have expressed their Desire to be federally united into One Dominion under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with a Constitution similar in Principle to that of the United Kingdom:” clearly defines the fact that there were only three provinces to join confederation at that time.

It is Sections 5, 6, and 7 that divide up the three provinces into four provinces upon joining confederation.

5. Canada shall be divided into Four Provinces, named Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick.

6. The Parts of the Province of Canada (as it exists at the passing of this Act) which formerly constituted respectively the Provinces of Upper Canada and Lower Canada shall be deemed to be severed, and shall form two separate Provinces. The Part which formerly constituted the Province of Upper Canada shall constitute the Province of Ontario; and the Part which formerly constituted the Province of Lower Canada shall constitute the Province of Quebec.

7. The Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick shall have the same Limits as at the passing of this Act.

People just need to be getting their details strait before making these bogus claims. I wonder how many of the 84% that got that question wrong knew the truth that there was only three.

And for the people that say that Canada East and Canada West were 2 different colonies then I must refer you to the 1840 Act of Union.

From Wikipedia:

“The Act of Union (3 & 4 Vict. c. 35) passed in July 1840 and proclaimed February 10, 1841, abolished the legislatures of Lower Canada and Upper Canada and established a new political entity, the Province of Canada to replace them. This act effecting the political union of The Canadas was similar in nature and in goals to the other Acts of Union enacted by the British Parliament.”

I remember watching this guy on TechTV Canada, before it go switched the G4 TechTV. I remember him showing off the photos of his family when showing off using a Digital Camera. It is a sad loss to the world on his passing.

Body of CNET’s James Kim found | Crave : The gadget blog

While it is finally winter like to song goes "It’s the most wonderful time of the year." It could be a little less windy and cold but in general I just love the winter.

So, I just upgraded my cell phone 2 weeks ago (Samsung d807) and now I must bring it back. It broke the cardinal rule of all cell phones it did not ring when 80% of calls came in, and then would not let me know that I had messages for hours after words. It does not to e-mail (vary well) and was very hard to navigate through the menus. It seemed as though the simple functions we very hidden in the menus.

One such case was the alarms it took many menus to find it and would not be loud enough. I sleep heavily and I need a loud (and annoying ringer) to make me get up to turn it off. For those that are interested I am currently using a Crazy Frog mixed MP3 as the alarm.

Work has been very fun so far although I am still not sure what I will do after the holidays. I kinda want to go work at a call centre again but definitely won’t be taking another year off. Although I have used this year to brush up on my French and Typing speed so maybe the year has not really been as bad as my last post made it seem.

A couple of posts ago I made note of weird response letters while I had one from shortly before receiving my current retail job. The second paragraph of the letter reads as follows.

We were pleased to review your credentials and work experiences. However, we regret to inform you that you must have your high school graduation or equivalency in order to be considered for employment.

Like WTF did you even read my application, or even my past employment record with your company. I did graduate, I did go to university after (requires high school.) This is really one of the best letters I have received yet. It made me laugh really hard and restored my faith in the term "HR Nitwit" that I coined in the old HiredGoonz forums.

I usually don’t talk too much about the shows that I do at Rogers Television but I want to plug this one that was advertised in the Telegraph-Journal today. I am ver excited about this and the new season that starts next weekend (24th).

Alcohol use helps boost income: study – Yahoo! News

Well, I guess I don’t drink enough. So to recap….

No Drinking = Poor Sober and Depressed.

Some Drinking = Rich and Happy.

Lots-o-Drinking = Poor and Homeless.

I’m gonna miss this guy.