H1N1 Vaccine Day

Well, today is the day that the H1N1 vaccine is available to the public in Alberta. Kind of a big deal, I suppose after the frenzy that every government health organization on the the planet has put us through. Obama has put the Excited States into 'State of Emergency' which means that his health secretary can do whatever he wants to prevent the spread of the virus. Obama strongly recommends that Americans get the vaccination. Although apparently his daughters won't be getting the inoculation.

I'm not sure if I will get the vaccination...yet. Maybe by the time the week is done, some of guinea pigs that get it done today will have negative or no symptoms & be alive at the end of the week.

Comrie?!?!? WTF!!!

Well it appears that the one & only Wanye Gretz has amazed us all! Mike Comrie coming back to Edmonton?!?! Well even the skeptics are amazed that events have unfolded this way. Robin Brownlee can't believe it - after something resembling the bitter split on a television show like this....

Maybe it wasn't quite like this, but it wasn't pretty. The aftermath of the Comrie/Lowe drama might have caused us some grief in attracting free agents. Who knows, but mending this bridge may make life easier for the Oilers come July 1st 2010.

If Comrie signs for <2mm he should have no problems meeting or exceeding his contract. Not many Oilers can say that.

My Summer 2009

Boy blogging is tough. Especially when it is summer & there are other activities to waste my time besides writing a blog. Between spending time with friends, family, participating in events like golf & slo-pitch the summer blows by pretty quick. I guess getting married takes up some time too. All in all it was a great day. The weather was good, considering we got 1" of rain the day before. What else can you say - it was a wedding. Lots of visiting, can't see everyone who showed up but that's how it goes I guess.

Hockey season is a aound the corner & I have paid for my Oilers tickets yesterday. I hope that I am not disappointed like last season. Around the time when teh Oilers hit the ice for the regular season we might be doing the other annual ritual of Fall in Canada - Federal Election.

What a fucking joke. I am sick of liberals wanting everything & thinking they can wipe out deficits without raising taxes. I am sick of them thinking they can do a better job running our country. Rumours on the web say maybe they are calling the election to prevent the conservatives from gaining a majority in the senate. The Senate is a fucking joke - the Liberal run senate has been slowing down the passing of Conservative bills most of the past year. We need an elected senate.

*whew*

Back to hockey,

THe Oilers annouced a revamped Coaching staff this upcoming season, lead by Pat Quinn (IQWT), Tom Renney, Wayne Flemming & Kelly Buchberger. Yesterday an announcement was made that Mike 'Suitcase' Sillinger as director of player development.

An announcement was made about a new arena downtown earlier this past week as well. I am looking forward to a new barn, maybe not looking forward to paying new prices at the new rink. I have watched games in Raleigh& Montreal - both have fabulous rinks. Lots of room for us to ge beers, REAL food & bathrooms galore. We need a new rink, it will happen the final touches on a the partnership & location will be worked out by the end of the season one would think.

Dany *fucking* Heatley...I think this has been commented on at naseum. He is a douchebag.

Hopefully I can make some time to write more in the next little while.

August Long Weekend Cocktails & Weather

During the past long weekend a person in the group we were camping with made mention of a cocktail made popular during ball tournaments in Saskatchewan by a group of her friends. Immediately I wanted to try this concoction. She called it 'Moose Milk'.

• 1 x Typical Camping Cooler


• 1 x 40 oz Vodka


• 1 x 40 oz Rye


• 1 x 40 oz White Rum


• 2 x 2 L Cola


• 1 x 4L Vanilla Ice Cream


• 1 x Pot of Black Coffee


• A couple bags of ice

Mix the booze, pop, & ice cream in the cooler. Pour hot coffee over the ice cream to help it melt. Stir furiously then add the ice. Ladle the drink into a cup & enjoy.

It doesn't sound very appealing, but it does taste surprisingly good. It tastes like Kahlua & it got like 15 of us pretty hammered. It cost about $150 for everything.

The other interesting thing that happened was the big storm that whipped through Camrose over the weekend. As most weather in Alberta seems to go from West to East, we were at the start of the storm at Alder Flats around 16:30. After loading up our ATV's in the short down pour & after getting pelted with raisin sized hail we traveled back to our camp at Em-Te Town around 4 or 5 miles SE of us we saw the grape sized hail that pelted our camp site.

One positive that comes after a hail storm is that you can sweep up the hail & drop into the beer cooler for ice. Fortunately we didn't get the wind that wrecked a bunch of trees in Wetaskiwin or that ruined the stage & the weekend at the Big Valley Jamboree.

Alberta's Promise

PSAC is coming out with an advertising program to try to lobby the Alberta Conservatives to review the competitiveness of the Alberta Oil Gas Industry. PSAC is an industry association for oil & gas service companies engaged in the exploration, drilling, completion & operations related industries.

The Fraser Institute released a survey June 24th 2009 & had this to say about the state of investment in the Alberta Oil & Gas Industry.

“Populist anti-energy ambiance copied from Alaska; unskilled, uneducated,and inaccessible leadership with out-of-control regulatory expansion.”

“Surface access driven by rural wealth transfer policies.”

“Royalties too high, basin over-drilled. Royalties must be reduced.”

“The government has placed punitive royalties on production within the province. The companies enjoyed a few good years of profits and in turn get nailed with punitive royalties.

The government has an acidic relationship with firms … it must return the royalty rates to the original levels and look at adding incentives for the unconventional resources.”

“They take the industry for granted and don’t look for ways to encourage activity.”
“The royalty changes were made without consultation and without understanding the potential consequences.”
“Alberta needs to reverse the New Royalty Framework if it wants to have any credibility as a business friendly province that honors existing agreements with energy companies.”

Needless to say, the Alberta government has many bridges to mend with the industry in the province. Having an active exploration industry provides many other opportunities for citizens of Alberta. People who have jobs will spend money earned in their communities on goods & services to help our province cope during this global recession.

Hopefully the citizens of Alberta can convince our elected politicians that they need to fix this mess they made.

Province sees drilling revenue plummet

Province sees drilling revenue plummet:

"Low natural gas prices have had a disastrous effect on revenues the province earns from selling drilling leases to energy companies, new figures show.

Sales to date are only a fraction of what they were for the same period in previous years.
So far this year, the province has taken in$46.2 million in petroleum, natural gas and oilsands rights compared to more than $247 million in the same period last year.

A May 2009 Alberta Finance report on industry performance and prospects warns of bleak days ahead.
'Plunging oil and natural gas prices have forced companies to rein in exploration and development spending,' says the report."

Alberta acknowledges changing energy environment

Alberta acknowledges changing energy environment: "

Ed Stelmach was elected leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative party, and thus premier, in December 2006, and he moved quickly to meet a campaign promise to fully review Alberta's oil and natural gas royalties.

In February 2007, the six-person Royalty Review Panel was formed and the members were portrayed as industry experts. The oil industry quickly discovered that the panel was stacked against them. Headed by a former forestry executive, a natural foe of oil companies, the panel included two academics, an economist, a retired petroleum manufacturing executive, and a technology executive.

Concerns about the panel membership grew stronger when major companies were allowed as little as 10 minutes to appear before the panel with 20-page reports."