Darren's point of View

Regina Sun??

2007-04-10T21:00:00.000-06:00

Where is the Regina Sun when you need it? I'm not talking about the weekly news that comes out but the 7 day a week paper that so many other cities in Canada have access to. Why isn't Regina included? Regina does have a daily news paper called the Leader Post but it does NOT publish on Sundays nor on any holiday. The Sun publishes 364 days a year - just Christmas Day they take off. The Leader Post publishes stories that are days old and never has current sports scores unless the game is played the previous afternoon. Most NHL scores are NA even the ones out east. That is totally unacceptable. The columnists aren't very interesting or smart either. One columnist, who I won't mention, wants Saskatchewan to go to Daylight savings time - even after being told we are on Daylight savings time all year round, he doesn't care, he still wants to do it again, so we would be on double daylight savings time. This same columnist was incensed that Saskatchewan got a holiday in February. Everyone has wanted a holiday in February forever, but when it happened he didn't like it. Now I realize that he has his own opinion but we people like this writing we need something else to read and get more accurate information.

The main reason the Leader Post is still in business and can get away with lackluster news is because there is no competition in the Regina and Saskatchewan area. The Sun chain of newspapers has to launch in Regina. We need to have our on views, information and a newspaper you can read without have sections lying all over the place.

So I am asking everyone to please write the Sun Chain of newspapers at gnorrie@edmsun.com and have them forward to the person who can get this done. Thank you!

That's my point of view.

CBC is going insane on this Monday!

2007-04-09T11:20:00.000-06:00

Well what is the CBC going to do? This is the 2^nd year in a row that their beloved maple leafs have not made the playoffs. I usually like Don Cherry and his words of wisdom, but you could see in his eyes Saturday night, that he just didn’t have the confidence that they would make the playoffs. He was begging and pleading for NJ to play Marin Brodeur instead of resting him for the playoffs. He was giving excuse after excuse that they should play him and not rest him. Then he states after Calgary is in the playoffs that they should rest Kiprusoff, because they are in the playoffs and don’t need to win Sunday night.

What’s up with that? You know that Cherry and the rest of the CBC will be crying that NJ didn’t give 100% on Sunday and that they screw the leafs etc. etc. CBC needs to end their love affair with the leafs, it is totally sickening. The leafs are on national TV every single Saturday night and that is NOT right. Nobody outside of Toronto could care less about the leafs, yet they shove them down our throats. Ottawa has had the #1 team in Canada for years, yet they are hardly on TV, the leafs haven’t don’t anything of note in the past 40 years, haven’t made the playoffs in 2 years and they are still rammed down our throats.

Of course it’s not going to matter, Bob Cole and Harry Neil will still talk about the leafs no matter who they show. So it will still be a leaf game. But this is the year 2007 now, not 1967. There are 6 teams in Canada, not 1, so please get over your love affair with a team that could care less if they win or lose.

The common person in Toronto can not afford a ticket to the game, they are all bought by corporations, thus they are sold out every game, whether they win or lose. The leaf owners, management and players know this, so they don’t care if they win or lose. They are going to be on TV every Saturday if they win or not. So the CBC in their new agreement with the NHL, must make a change and not have Toronto on every Saturday night. Montreal and Ottawa have a lot more to play for and deserve to be shown, just like all the West teams.

That’s my point of view

Darren

How I Met your Mother

2007-04-04T19:56:00.000-06:00

There is word going around that CBS, in their wisdom, may not renew the comedy "How I Met Your Mother". This is one of the funniest shows on TV. It's on Monday Night's at 8:30 Eastern Time on CBS. The premise is how Ted tells his Kids how he met their mother in the year 2030. It's all done in flashbacks and the actors they have are incredible. You probably know a couple of them - Alyson Hannigan from the American Pie Trilogy and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The other one you might know is Neil Patrick Harris, who was everyone's favorite Doctor in the 80's - Doogie Howser! Neil plays Barney Stinston, one of the friends and he has the best lines on TV. He's Barneyisms are in the same category as Norm from Cheers!

Even if you just start watching the show this coming Monday, you will be right into it from the beginning. Please help save this show.

Please write to www.cbs.com and tell them to keep this show on the air.

You can get information on this show at the following links:

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0460649/

http://www.tv.com/how-i-met-your-mother/show/33700/summary.html?tag=login;dropdown

That's my point of view!

-Darren

Downloading Music

2007-04-02T16:17:00.000-06:00

I wrote this a while ago, but I still think it's relative in today's environment!

What is the big deal about downloading music from the Internet? Why are people up in arms because other people down load their favorite songs? Why is it “illegal” to download music? Now before you write in saying it is stealing let me give you two examples on why it is NOT stealing!

First example – libraries; they buy a book and hundreds of people can read that book free of charge, but the author just gets paid for the purchase of it once! So why is that NOT stealing? Libraries have been around for probably 100 years and it’s not stealing when you go in with your free (except in Alberta) library card and check out a book and read it.

Second example which I believe is even a better example, why aren’t newspapers and magazines up in arms about people reading other peoples papers/magazines? You don’t hear a paper saying, please don’t show this newspaper to anyone else, please make them buy their own copy. In fact for advertising sake they do polls on the average amount of people who look at each bought newspaper. So if you have ever read someone else’s newspaper then you have no right at all to say downloading music is stealing, because it’s the exact same thing!

Remember when you were young and tapes were the way to listen to music, everyone, taped songs from one tape to another. Everyone had mix tapes, why, because it wasn’t stealing; it was listening to other people’s music for your own enjoyment. That is the exact same thing as downloading music off the Internet except you have more than one or two friends you can borrow from.

Another reason people download music is that the price of a CD is way too expensive when there are only 1 or 2 good songs on the CD and the rest is just filler. Why buy the entire CD. Someone has bought it and you are borrowing that song to add to your mix CD for your personal enjoyment, just like in the 70’s and 80’s with the mix tapes. Once a person buys a CD it’s only his or her choice what they do with that CD. That person can keep it for their own use, they can give it away, throw it in the garbage or if they choose to do so, they can share it.

Just like a person who buys a newspaper if they want to share it, they can and the law should not make them a criminal because of it. Artists are not losing money because of this; maybe record companies might be losing a few dollars but not all that much. People will buy the CD if it’s a good CD, but if there are only one or two good songs on it, it’s a waste of money. The artist gets paid before the record is even produced so that will be the same no matter what. So just like the library and newspaper, borrowing music from the Internet for personal use is not stealing and should not be illegal. Will someone please wake up and the law back on the track.

That's my Point of View

Darren

CFL's 2nd bad decision

2007-04-01T15:47:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I commented on the CFL using only 1 National network for televising future CFL games, today I will comment on their next bad decision: Renaming the Grey Cup. I have commented before about not liking buildings being renamed - ie Taylor Field to Mosiac Stadium, Northlands Coliseum to way too many different names in Edmonton - it is ridiculous. Now the "Brain-Trust" at the CFL wants to sell the name of the Grey Cup. It's been the Grey Cup for over 100 years and now they want to change it. That's disgusting. We are going to be the joke of all major sports because it will keep changing names every 2-3 Years and no one will ever remember what it actually is called. So I really hope the CFL doesn't do it. Keep the name and keep everyone happy. Let's NOT sell out to advertising. There is way too much of it and the CFL can not be a part of it.

That's my point of view!

CFL's bad decision

2007-03-31T18:06:00.000-06:00

I know this is late in being writing but I was asked by a few people to start writing again, so I decided this would be a good topic. It’s another TSN rant – TSN aka the Toronto sports network! Someone from the CFL fell on their head and decided it was in the CFL’s best interest to have only 1 national network carry all the CFL games from 2008 to at least 2011. Of course who did they pick – the highly unreliable TSN. Now I will say that TSN puts together a way better product then CBC, BUT TSN has been known to move things around and not show what they say they are going to show.

Two examples come to mind right off the top of my head – an Edmonton Oiler/Calgary Flame game was dumped in 1996 in order to show the Toronto maple leafs Vs LA Kings in a battle for last place over all. The other and more important to this conversation was dumping a Labor Day Saskatchewan Roughrider/Winnipeg Bluebomber game in 2005 for NASCAR. Now I know there are a lot more examples then that, but this shows that they can not have exclusive rights to the CFL. TSN has way too many commitments to NASCAR, Baseball, CFL, NFL, NHL, dog shows and National Spelling bees that they can not show four games every single week. It just can’t be done.

TSN claims every game will be shown and I believe them however they have only 2 options, both will not fly with CFL fans. One is to have more games played during the week. I can see Hamilton in Saskatchewan on a Wednesday night – maybe 12,000 people show up for the game but TSN shows the game and it is blacked out in Saskatchewan. Reason is, people come from all around Saskatchewan to go to the game and they can not come in for a Wednesday game, but it’s not Toronto so who really cares? Right TSN?

The other option and I think this is what will eventually happen – they will tape delay the games. A game will be on Sunday at 2pm, but there is a NASCAR race so they will end up showing the CFL game at Midnight Eastern time. Now does that make any sense from a Professional sports stand point - NO! So why did the CFL do this to their fans? Money I guess, but for the next 3 years, after this season, it’s going to be touch and go for the fans of the CFL and the future of the CFL. Hopefully the new commissioner can put a stop to TSN's plans before they start!

I believe they could have done it better with either keeping CBC in the game for at least ½ the season or give some games to Rogers or the Score. Either way every game would have been shown live and they wouldn’t have to rework the schedule for mid week games.

That’s my point of view!