Pioneer on the Internet – Sean Gursky

I have uploaded a few more sets to my Flickr account. I added my December ’04 trip to Vancouver for which I took a bus there and back to see a World Supercross race. Also our June trip to Jasper that Jenna and I took in ’04 which went to Angel Glacier, Edith Cavall, Athabasca Falls, Jasper Park Lodge and had our cabin right on the river.

I tried using FAlbum to enable viewing of my Flickr images on the blog (rather than going to the Flickr site) but it appears to break the tables I have on the theme. It isn’t pretty, right now at least, but give it a look here. Perhaps I will work on it and see if I can make it better’but I may just scrap the idea all together.

11/16 Update: I tested the FAlbum link in IE6.0 and it actually works. So whatever the problem is it seems that mighty Firefox can’t handle it. I was under the impression that Firefox was superior to IE in every aspect, and that FAlbum didn’t work well in IE. Back to the drawing board”

I have two weeks until my baby (a fully loaded 2006 Jetta) comes into town and something has gone terribly wrong. I went with the TDI model because I commute into Edmonton, and diesel is better for mileage and cheaper than gas. The way gas prices were in the summer I thought I was really smart. I was going to be on easy street with a car that took fuel which was 20 � less than gas. I lived in that happy bubble until I saw the price of diesel at the pump the other day. It was a 103.9!

I was under the impression that diesel prices were always cheaper than gas. All of you in your fancy gas vehicles may not be concerned but I did some research and came up with a few interesting reasons for this. A majority of the articles were from American sources but I imagine the same reasons still affect Canada.

? Historically, diesel prices rise in the fall/winter as refiners shift to making more heating oil and less diesel. This continues even as gasoline prices come down.
? Hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused a number of oil refineries to close, which caused the price of regular gasoline to skyrocket. Those refineries are coming back on line and are concentrating on gasoline production, which is dropping the price of gas but raising the price of diesel.
? Diesel vehicles are much more popular in Europe and Asia than in the U.S., which means there’s greater competition for diesel fuel.
? The demand for diesel is traditionally higher at this time of the year as trains and trucks bring more of the fall harvest to market.
? Separately, the weekly price for diesel fuel fell 9.6 cents to $2.60 a gallon, the lowest level in 11 weeks but still up 47 cents from a year ago, the agency said.
one, two, three

So I have a favor to ask. If you are ever going on HWY2, give me a call and maybe I can arrange for you to tow my Jetta behind your vehicle because I won’t be able to afford the cost.

Although if you are going further south (say’to America) maybe I can come along because of this:

The price advantage gets even better in 2006, when diesel buyers will qualify for a tax deduction of as much as $3,400. cnn

Don’t worry, while I’m in America I will be productive. I will write George a letter and ask him to make friends (invade) with a country that has a large diesel supply so prices will drop and maybe do some gambling. Why not, right? I have $3,400 to spend so might as well buy a smart part of Detroit or Philly or something.

In other news, get over to Threadless.com and order some new shirts for your wardrobe because they are having a $10 sale right now and that is a steal of a deal.

Over a week later I am back online with a new host and everything else was saved. It took some time, but here I am, and hopefully with more reliable uptime.

What have I been up to in the last week? Well I started with Statusfirm last Monday, worked a short week because of 11/11. And with my extra day off I helped Dad clean out the basement (third full trailer to go to the dump), and watched Vanilla Sky. And then I hung out with Jonathan (from Dell) on Saturday.

Also on Saturday I won a game of bowling with an amazing score of 92 against Jenna, Steph, Kelly F. and Kelly T. where we did a post game recap with a pretty amusing server at Denny’s (he gave us a free plate of nachos). And then Sunday went condo browsing with Jenna and watched Crash. Unfortunately Internet children, you haven’t missed much, but it feels great to be back.

10:24PM : Updated with links!

As most of you have noticed, this page has been down for some time. What I understand happened was that the server lost a hard drive and this last week has been spent replacing it, loading the OS and most importantly, rebuilding the data.

I wasn’t sure how long my host would be down for so last night I went ahead and signed up with another company that offered comparable stats for cost. Just my luck, the next day this place comes back around.

Although with the down time problems now (and in the past) I think I will jump ship. So over the next few days I will export my table data (so my blog will not lose any data) and other important information and set up camp on the new place. Expect things to get a little wonky until I get set up on the new server.

I feel like I have ignored my Friday plans, after three Matthew Good shows I just didn’t feel there was anymore left’oh boy was I wrong. I am about to get my soul handed to me by corporate-government-kickin” punk music tonight. Bad Religion and Anti-Flag will set the stage for what can only be considered my first punk show. I have been to a lot of concerts but these guys will show me what punk is, just like Scott and Slash from Velvet Revolver showed me what a true rock “n roll show is.

This will be the end of my week off since I quit my job for rock and roll and feel like I haven’t done a lot of anything. Attending four concerts is pretty sweet though and gave me an excuse all week long because, I’m unemployed. I don’t have to do any work today, I’m unemployed! It’s the gift that keeps on giving really.

Since I wrote about the sludge living in our fridge things have gotten a little better around the Gursky house. We have removed two chairs, one couch, a washer and a dryer as well as two trailers full of trash. Over the last few years I have been trying to relocate my Sega Genesis. Now while all you kids were growing up with Nintendo’s, I was raised on Sega. I didn’t have many games, never got to enjoy the epic structure of Mario or Zelda, but I made do.

With the XBOX 360 and PS3 changing console gaming I have wanted my Sega for nostalgia but also functionality. I don’t have enough free time to play a $500 console, so I would prefer to pick up an old Sega or even an N64 or Dreamstation to pass the time. Well, today my search was finally complete. After we removed the washing machine a bag containing the Sega was found! I have found games, controllers and power adapters but no console’today is a great day! I also wanted to see how Mortal Kombat 2 or NHL97 looked on our 65″ TV. So, excuse me while I go and relive my 16-bit youth.

Having gone a day without going back to the Starlite Room I have had a chance to reflect on the good times in line and at the show. Chelsey’s verbal fight with someone about line placement, pigeons and their ability to terrorize people, Ladies and Gentlemen comming onstage the first night to the tune of Astro from The White Stripes, Pat joining the L&G’s onstage each night for one song by adding in a cowbell, meeting Stephanie again after our first crossing of paths six years earlier during summer school as well as kick fights and whoopin” corporate ass Chad style!

There are only a few bands I would religiously wait in line for, and over the last eight years there have been some great people I have met. Back in ’99 while waiting for autographs from the MGB Bradly and I met three girls also waiting outside well, I can’t remember where it was, but it was somewhere in West Edmonton Mall. This was early, I think we showed up at 8 AM and autographs began at 1 PM. We had a good chance to know the girls and after we all got passes to the “win-to-get-in” all ages show later on that evening at The Rev we spent the rest of the day with the girls. I can’t recall their names, but I know one had a flight out to somewhere east at 5 AM and this was her sendoff.

Anyway, there was one girl from the three that I continued to run into while out and about. The first time was again in West Ed, but the next time was waiting in line at Bearfest in 2001 and Bradly and I were able to catch up on the last several years. When Matt pulled people on stage to enjoy a drink and play PS2 during Suburbia she was one of the girls to go up; oddly I haven’t seen her at a show since.

While I can’t remember what Matt said during the ’99 Rev show I can remember the three girls and riding around in my Jeep late at night attempting to get back to the west end. The events of a concert may get blurry but those you wait in line with really make the times count. So, a round of sky kicks and see you all at the next show.

And when the dust settled it was all over. The three night stand of Matthew Good has come and gone and it was well worth it. It was a great time and last nights show rocked really hard. It was nothing compared to the Sunday show but was all around awesome. Put Out Your Lights and Poor Mans Grey made it into the setlist, and Matt also played around with songs as Buffalo Seven was to be played but was replaced by Alert Status Red. A tough call because Alert Status Red is one of my favorite live songs but Buffalo Seven has such an addictive riff and with it rarely played makes it that much better. At least we were able to hear it played for the Rogers Wireless people Sunday evening, even if we were outside.

Also, waiting in line with the usual suspects of Chad and Chelsey made the three nights more enjoyable too. Knowing that there are others out there as equally as passionate about the same thing you are is a great feeling. You get into such a routine that I feel like I should be getting ready to head out again in three hours.

The week of rock is not over though as I still have Anti-Flag and Bad Religion on Friday night. Between now and then I may start working at Statusfirm or I could have a few more days off to enjoy the November weather.

What’s this, another song sample? You bet! This time it’s from the second last song of the night with Alert Status Red. Enjoy and rock out safely when you Right Click > Save As.

Edit: Audio removed after WordPress 2.0 upgrade and /Downloads folder was not archived.