That's right boys and girls! Believe it or not (and if the answer is "not" then I have bad news for you, since this blog's archives validate my contention), after just over 11 months of blogging I have now accumulated 500 posts! From baseball to extreme right wing politics, from slandering local musicians to uncovering dead chicks, Third Edge of the Sword has been your one stop shop for all sorts of stuff. I'll shut up about this and get onto the good stuff, a 1 year retrospective next month is a better time to cover this sort of territory.
Post #400 was barely a month ago. In the rest of October, 59 posts were added over 19 days 11 hours and 25 minutes. That's a post every 0.33 days (ie. every 7 hours, 55 minutes, 20.33 seconds). Not bad, not bad.
So far in November (not including this post), 40 posts in 18 days 15 hours 23 minutes for a post every 0.466 days (ie. every 11 hours, 11 minutes, 4.5 seconds). Talk about your healthy posting rates! Typically if you visit this site once a day, you'll have 2 new posts worth of content to peruse...every bloody time!
New features
I haven't added much, but there are a few developments.
Live weblogging: Game 4 of the World Series was live weblogged, and it turns out I could have done the same for Game 5. Similar events, such as other sports events, may be possible. Or TomKat's wedding.
Home-spun graphics: Having pulled my old copy of Jasc's Paintshop Pro out of retirement, I've had the ability to make several graphics that have helped to illustrate points. Particularly during the live weblog: photos were available for every contingency. This sort of thing gives me just another tool to express myself. I try to limit it, I don't think all text or all photos is a good thing to try on a blog.
AlbertaBlogs: I am now on the AlbertaBlogs server, which means that my regular updates keep this blog located at or near the top of the list, meaning more and more people will find it possible to come here. More people means more exposure means more comments means more exciting developments. And that's win-win for everyone!
Best reads
- Baseball
- You can't win 'em all, and my NLCS predictions certainly bear that out
- The rain delays and work and social commitments put the live weblogging of a WS game in jeopardy. It also gave me time to discuss MLB's commercials for the postseason on FOX
- Naturally, the peak of my baseball posts on this blog to date was my live weblogging itself. Spanning almost 6 hours, 51 sub-posts, and 9 graphics. Very good, very good.
- I was around for Game 5, but didn't live weblog. I also congratulated the Cardinals on their win hours before it happened, because I'm so smart.
- Politics
- North Korea went all crazy with nukes. Does anybody else remember this? The U.S. election seems to have removed the meme from our attention. Anyways, I covered it with musical accompanyment and then as a followup wondered what the U.N. did to piss Kim Jong off.
- The Alberta PC Leadership race didn't reflect enough, I feel, on the crap that Rona Ambrose went through last month.
- Canadian healthcare has been ignored by the media for a while now, which is odd since the health of a Canadian became big news during the fight over a Missouri proposition.
- Mark Steyn met the (real) U.S. President. Stan and Kyle met the (fictional) U.S. President. Yet both Bushes made the same comment. I get to the bottom of which came first.
- On Stardate 43015.7, Jack Layton, clad all in black, hid in the dining chamber and awaited the arrival of the man he wished to take prisoner. If this seems pretty much like how you feared the Layton "environment chat" with Harper would end up, you'll understand this. Wait until you see Belinda in the gold bikini tied up to a grossly overweight Paul Martin.
- Albertans, when dissatisfied by their governments,
take immediate and decisive action to change how the government operateswastes time and energy starting up a new political party. - George Bush looks like a monkey. Monkeys are stupid and uncivilized. Therefore George Bush is stupid and uncivilized. Also therefore, asians are disgusting retards. Discuss.
- The U.S. had elections that turned out badly. This post quotes a story of sorts, and probably has the most haunting title of any post I've ever done.
- I defended Peter MacKay against Belinda. I defended enviro-weenies against Rona. I am proud of both of these.
- I'm also proud of a discovery that Bush himself gave a speech that resonated for the wrong reasons in the minds of American voters.
- I also defended Ralph Klein against Belinda. My internal consistency just knows know bounds!
- The Harper government closed a loophole on income trusts that they promised that they wouldn't. Alberta Treasury Branches has its own opinion on the matter.
- Jim Dinning seems poised to be Alberta's next premier. Watching these videos might change your mind.
- Comedy
- A mysoginist Arab has a video explaining why women don't think. I observe his drawing skills.
- Captain Capitalist defends fat girls. I poke holes in the theory.
- Good old Belinda. I correct an error in her Wikipedia entry.
- Snoop Dogg is in trouble with the law again. I suggest that it would serve the purposes of the law better if they kept him out of trouble with the law and got him into trouble with his fans and therefore in trouble with his accountant.
- A recent post on a nightclub closing doesn't translate well. At least, not when ran through babelfish three times for no particular reason.
- Who polices the police?
- Edmonton Police take bribes during domestic disputes involving young children.
- The Secret Service takes down 14 year old blonde girls and Texas cops get sexually excited by dead bodies.
- Three letters to three papers that never got printed on the subject of police violations of privacy laws, violent tendencies, and CSIS incompetance.
- Calgary cops steal guns when a program is created where people bring their guns into the police station. Surprised?
- EPS is so corrupt, even the Russians are offended by the flagrant power abuse.
- EPS is quick to investigate when there's a case of wrongdoing. The ACS kickbacks? The young girl beat up on Whyte by the cops? Taser-fest 2005? Nah, somebody dropped their lunch in front of a mosque!
- On a personal note
- I happen to be in a hockey pool with several friends this NHL season, and figured I'd share my team
- In this first part of a two-part series during the past 100 posts about finally revealing to the world what I look like, I plug my face into a generator that compares me to celebrities. This is what the results look like.
- I took a trip to Calgary in late October, and pondered a few restaurants (and even got reader suggestions!)
- If you're name is Megan and you're a bartender in Grande Prairie, Alberta, then there's an IM conversation about you that you might be interested in.
- I rant about the lost art of obtaining Halloween candy.
- Upset over a missing feature on the Sonic 102.9 website, I write them a letter.
- Upset over a missing feature on CityTV's late night programming, I write them a letter.
- I challenge readers (and still do) to figure out these NHL trivia questions
- Do I write like a woman? Much of the time, an algorithm says yes.
- In part two of the "what my face looks like" series, I basically just morph one half of my posting handle into the other, with interesting results.
- I spent last Friday partying with Dust My Broom's Darcey. Except I was in a different city. And he doesn't know I exist. And its not as creepy as it sounds
- Crime and bars
- In one evening, three men were murdered at the same Edmonton bar. My early morning reactions are available here.
- A little online digging and suddenly I again beat the Edmonton newspapers in revealing some information on the deceased. I also get into a lot of trouble in this thread for quoting somebody as characterizing the club where 3 black men were killed by another black man in what may be related to last month's shooting of a black man by another black man as "a black club".
- Edmonton was big news that day, and completely filled the Google News page on Canada.
- A Canadian boxer is murdered in Jamaica. I'm the only person to notice that finally we're sending some people over there to be murdered as opposed to the other way around.
- Barry T's has reopened under yet another new name. I complain about the factors that got the original, and the now defunct 2nd edition, closed down in the name of progress.