Trip to NV at Trump's Time (5): What happened in Vegas on Sun. Night?

Labour Day long weekend is a crazy time in Las Vegas. There are so many people that some services would not be available unless you have booked them much earlier. However most of the action is in the boulevard. You go two blocks away, everything is normal. I was not aware of this much crowd. However, I had booked everything in advance. The crowd was overwhelming at points but again, it was only on the boulevard, I would imagine. People were out in heat and talking pictures or going to business such as bars and restaurants. I was not much far away from my hotel. I had done a small purchase from a CSV and I was at the corner of the boulevard and Flamingo Road, on the overpass pedestrian going back to the hotel when I heard sirens blaring and all of a sudden saw people are running toward me! I stopped and saw that security forces has somebody on the ground and are pointing their service guns at him! I stopped. More police vehicles were coming to the scene and access to the hotel was blocked. 

I had to go north and turn to Caesars Palace Dr. to get to the hotel but everything was normal later. I read on the news that there were acts of violence and brawls but I personally didn't see anything. The only thing I saw was the guy on the ground, surrounded by the cops. After all I'm not surprised if there were assholes beating on each other because who else goes to Las Vegas anyways?! Rather than a bunch of families who want to take pictures with water fountains and statues(!), cheapskates, drunkards, gambling addicts, the other people who go there are young couples who tend to enjoy their youth and of course there always be fights between this group! For me, I'm sure I will go to Nevada again but I won't go to Las Vegas unless my brother wants to and I will take him. He told me he wanted to see Madame Tussaud's, the main one in London, a few years ago and I haven't had time to take him. Besides no one is comfortable sitting on a plane for 10 hours. So I thought I might take him to this one nearby in Las Vegas and then take him to other places and perhaps have a nice meal in Hell's Kitchen as well but I will have to talk to him about it, first to see if he likes that. I personally have no issue going to London. Nevertheless that would be the only reason for me for going back to Las Vegas and that would definitely not be during a major holiday!

(Photo: Multiple police vehicles are seen on Flamingo Road. It seems they have responded to something. I took this from the pedestrian overpass on the northeastern corner of the intersection. A suspect was on the ground just less than 50 m. from me with the officers pointing their guns at him)

Gondek the Donkey

If you have lived most of your life or are a new generation young fella, you most likely have never heard of Catherine the Great. She ruled the Russian Empire in the 18th century for more than 30 years. She is known as one of the Russian rulers who led the country to become European. But we're not going to talk about her here but we barrow part of her title to assign a new to this idiot who has become the mayor of Calgary, Gondek the Donkey! 

Some people wanted to oust her out of her throne a few months but did not succeeded, mainly because they didn't have enough number of people to support them. They were not even close which I could have seen that. In the country that people are either busy with Alcohol, Marijuana, gambling, their stupid social media profile, who pays attention to an asshole who runs the city the way she wants?! They have enough things to be busy with! Then it came the incident of a main water feeder of the city rapture and water became scarce. Businesses were affected and people were worried about their lawn and little gardens in the backyard. However, I don't think many were worried about the drinking water because not many drink water here! Coffee, Soda, different alcoholic beverages, mainly Beer in summer, disgusting and nasty sugary and caffeine and chemical loaded beverages such as Gatorade and Red Bull-shit(!), are amongst the favorites that people drink on regular bases but that still does not give this stupid, ugly, donkey to tell people to drink Beer instead of water! 

What this pile of stinking crap doesn't understand is apart from religious reasons, many do not and cannot drink Beer! For example I cannot drink this beverage because I suffer from Gout! Many foreigners and elderly as well as kids and infants don't drink Beer and again that doesn't have religious reasons, let alone Muslims and some other cultures followers. The interesting thing is that Muslims who always object to the things that they do not like were all quiet and said nothing to this ugly idiot!

(Photo: The stupid mayor of Calgary poses for a photo in her backyard! Many have fallen in love with her by simply having a glimpse at this Gondek the Donkey's picture!)

Rogers' Silence over the possible Cyber Attack

My phone was down this past Fri., from the early morning, when I was leaving for work, until I came home and after that. It was fixed the next morning. It was said in the news that nearly 10,000,000 cellphone customers and almost 2,000,000 internet users had been affected. The problem was later fixed in  the early hours of Sat.
How has the power to cripple one of the largest communication systems in North America? It can't be a lone guy sitting at his desk in a small town the US or alike. I'd say that was a planned Cyber Attack. Rogers called it Downtime for Maintenance and Repair! Who are you fooling? Canadians?! Yes! You can do it! After all as long as their cellphone and service is back on, they don't even care what happened since they can update their profile status and post more photos of themselves!

Fancy cars are part of Stampede. You can see really nice cars in Downtown Calgary. I think the rich collectors just brings them out during this time of the year! Not entirely true! This one, which I don't even know what it is was parked on 17th Ave., SW also called the Red Mile. There are so many beautiful girls that you can't even believe your eyes but I don't have any photos to post. I certainly don't post any photos without any consent but taking it first is a challenge. I certainly believe that you can find a quite number of the most beautiful women in the world during Stampede. 

The reality is Americans and Canadians, following them, think they can fight everyone in the world, defeat them and rule! That's not how it is! Many nations fight back. The Chinese now are so powerful that they simply parlays  the entire North America by stopping the supply. Iranians, despite a number of gaffs have become experts in many fields. Remember the American drone that was flying over Iran a few years ago? They got the control of it and landed it in their own airport! Russians are strong too. They would have captured the entire Ukraine, if dogs such as busted Boris Johnson and fools such as Joe Biden had not sent millions of dollars of weapons and ammunition to them, instead of takings care of the problems of their own countries! 
I understand that Rogers doesn't want their customer to panic but they could ease into it and be honest. But the fact that cuber attacks occur every 3 seconds in our daily lives now and that's not what I'm saying. It was a radio interview yesterday at the time that everyone was enjoying themselves during Stampede!

(Photo, top: People are walking to Stampede Park near Downtown Calgary for the first time in the past 2 years. All the restrictions are lifted and people seem to be having a good time. Who do you think even care about the source of downtime!? They are all happy that their phones are working. That's what matters. And they don't care about the $80 and something or $100 and change that they pay! The last time I participated in Stampede was 2015 and it most likely be the last time of my lifetime!)

A Subsequent Outage: Internet!

When I came back home after the power was back on last week, I realized that the internet was down! Now that the entire half of the day was wasted and that was the only think I needed! So I got on the phone with this Shaw guys! What a hassle! These guys nowadays encourage you to communicate with text message which is awful but I had no choice because I would have had to wait for the phone for more than 1 freaking hour! So I started exchanging text messages with a guy and with no exaggeration, I spent 1 hour without a result! The guy eventually related the internet outage to power outage! I don't know how their relationship could be except for the period that the power is out! 

I checked the modem the next morning and same problem. At the end of the working day when I came home, again Internet was down but I used any opportunity I got, at work, to send them a message! It was working in the afternoon and I sighed but again the next day when I came home it was down! I got really mad but what could I do? I have a stupid contract with these guys! So I contacted then again and this time their step by step instruction worked and I haven't had any issue ever since!

(Photo: Lack of connection to the worldwide web usually comes with a message and a small dinosaur! I never knew what the dinosaur might indicate! Does it mean that lack of internet would take us millions of years back to the era that dinosaurs were roaming around?!)

The Disaster of a Power Outage in Canada

I was on the phone with a Financial Advisor from my bank, after a short visit to a branch, and just when he said that he had sent an e-mail to me I realized that there was no power!! I had never seen something like this, in fact since the old days in the old country. There were, at times, power outages in the old country and there were result of two phenomena:

1- During the war years, 1980-1988: During these years there were at times blackouts or power outages as this was considered a defense mechanism when the enemy planes would show in the skies. I don't know how effective it was. As well there were power outages due to shortage of fuel for power plants. Also there was this rummer, once I remember clearly after all these years, that the enemy bombers have bombed, for example, this power plant! I don't know how true it was. There was never an official explanation or alert

2- After the war: The power outages were very rare but occurred. The reason, if I remember correctly, was indicated as some technical difficulty.

An oil lamp similar to what I, at times, used in the old country to study. Something similar to this goes for $100 or more on websites

With that in mind when I saw the power outage I was not prepared because an incident of such here in Canada could be fatal while in the old country you only lose a couple of hours or more of TV program! As unimportant as that! I remember that there were even night that I studied using old oil lamps and it was okay. Here as soon as the power is out, if you don't get out of the house, if you can(!), you're dead! You cannot cook and eat because the damn stove or range is powered by electricity. You cannot check anything because both your computer and internet are powered by electricity and you might even not be able to get the hell out of the house because your garage door is powered by electricity as well! 

I was lucky on that day because I had parked in front of the house. So I jumped in the car and went to the first McDonald's but before that I called to report the outage and I was told, after calling the Calgary area number, that I should have called Fortis. I was given the number and I reported the outage to a, of course, automated system! In the McDonald's I realized that Fortis Alberta handles the power generation and supply at parts of the province and I saw a map with good detail including the time that the power would be back on: 18:30. 

So I said to myself that the entire afternoon is gone! I wanted to do some job searching and application and instead I contacted Lazy Ass and went to his place. This time though, unlike the other times, he took me to damn Burger King and I had an awful meal. We were supposed to watch a movie on his big screen TV which he had recently bought but a buddy of him called and he ditched me with some bullshit story but I think it had something to do with an illegal way that he makes money! I said: f*ck it! I headed back home and luckily, as the website had said, the power was back on but the damn internet was down! That is the subject of the next post! 

(Photo, top: A resident, with the help from a military person, is covering their windows during the WWII in the US in order to protect the property from the anticipated Japanese bombing in California. I remember that we did the exact same thing during the devastating 8-year war, especially the first year) 

Impersonator Murderer

I and Farzin were in the lobby getting ready to go out a couple of weeks ago when two CPS officers showed up at the main entrance and one of them knocked on the window asking me to open it for them. I opened the door and said: " What can I do for you officer? ". The police, a young Caucasian lady who was being accompanied by a male officer, with dark skin, said: " Nothing ". They both approached the stairs without anything else to say. Farzin turned to me and whispered: " Why did you let them in?! ". I looked at him and said: " What do you mean? They are police officers in CPS uniform! ". I added: " Why are you whispering ?! " He said: " They might know Persian! ", referring to the language we were speaking. The dark skinned fella officer could be a guy who could speak Persian but I never thought of that! He repeated: " Why did you let them in? " I said: " I told you they are police officers in CPS uniform. Didn't you see that?! " He said: " How could you be so sure?! " They could have been police impersonators!! " 

The argue went on by him saying that he had seen a movie a few year ago that an impersonator in police uniform commit horrible crimes! I eventually had to make him stop by saying that I knew the lady officer(!) from before but he didn't buy it and kept bothering me for the next few days!

With that in mind, I just read that this maniac in Nova Scotia who killed the innocent people had committed his horrifying crime  by impersonating an RCMP officer! He not only was in uniform but also drove a vehicle! It's impossible to understand how he managed to get the stuff and what his motive was to massacre innocent people including a female officer who served the force for 23 years. That is what Nova Scotia RCMP says. They believe the investigation would be very hard, lengthy and complex. 

(Photo: Constable H. Stevenson, mother of two is amongst the murdered people in the shooting rampage in Nova Scotia. Deepest condolences to the family of this late strong lady)

A Beautiful Accident

I went to The Chef's this past weekend to see him and also cook something together and eat. That was when I realized he's in worse shape than I had thought. Not that's I'm happy about it or I'm in a better shape but he said that he owed some $5000 on one of his credit cards and pays some $100 every months! I always thought he was doing well. He never buys extravagant cloths. Never goes to movies or trips. Has a steady job which doesn't pay him badly. Has two tenants who almost pay his mortgage but I know he drinks a lot and waste too fucking much on food! 

Our plan for the day was to get some lamb which I will have it in another post later but when we came back we cooked some Eggplant Stew which came out excellent by the way and enjoyed it. We had a little rest after eating that with some Whisky he had bought and he wanted to by something from a nearby shop. So we headed out. On 52 St. heading south I realized a congestion and thought something must have happened. When we approached I learnt that I was not wrong. There was an accident and luckily for us a beautiful one! There were police cars and fire engine and pieces of the cars and traffic light were scattered all over 52 St.! A big crowed had been gathered and it was obvious that it had not been long since the occurrence of the accident because police just started to tape the area around the scene after I parked and we got out to see what had happened. 

There were at least 5 firefighters trying to get one of the drivers out. I saw him a young man in a white shirt wearing a chain, one of these fake one that many wear these days and looks like a leash! It was very easy to figure out what had happened and I hope what I'm writing help the police although I believe our police here in Calgary, CPS, have awesome officers who possess every skill to investigate and find out the cause of accidents similar to this and put some preventive actions in to process!

The answer is very easy: The neighbourhood is the home to many refugees who come to this country from lives with no electricity, no education, no fun, no car, no nothing. The kids as soon as they grow up enough and get their driver's license, they buy a used car for $500 and since many of them or their so-called cousins have hands on car, they fix it and start driving up and down the road. What most of them do is they go to Pick N Pull and get pieces for the car and pimp it up! That's the term they use. They then buy a shirt from Value Village or Dollarama  and get a chain from I don't know where and That's all they need to ride their 1996 Honda Civic around the neighbourhood and show off! My guess is one of these millionaire refugee guys with his chain around the neck was speeding when an old car, as seen in the photo, probably an old Chevrolet or Cadillac was trying to turn and they hit it! Boom! 

It was written in a local newspaper that two of them have not improved since the accident day. We'll see whether they survive or not. Of course it was a weekend day and the road was not very busy and they decided to try their refugee Lamborghini-like 1996 Honda Civic (!!) but they forgot that the chain around their neck would not save them and had that accident. CPS please do something. I'm worried about the time that these guys might want to try that out of the Ghetto. That would not be so pleasant, I assume.

(Photo: Firefighters are trying to get one of the guys out of the crippled car. People were standing their with their cellphones in their hands, taking clips of the scene. I decided just to have a picture)

After the Flood

It has been more than a month since the flood in Calgary and I have written enough about this and how incompetent and irresponsible these people who run the City are. In fact what pisses me the most is the bastard who originally approved of having such a stupid bridge over Bow River, the very fucking Bronconnier. The millions of dollars which was paid to that motherfucker piece of crap Spanish piece of dung could be easily used to rebuild the City and help the victims. It's just that I cannot get it out of my mind. Rather than that I just wanted to share these two photos which compare the time and after the flood.
(Photo: Louise Bridge which connects Downtown west end to Memorial Dr. and Kensington is shown on the top in 21st of June and on the bottom, in today)

A Night in Flooded Calgary

I wanted to have a walk in Downtown to see what was going on after 2 days so I left home at around 22:45 hours. I first wanted to get on the train but I was not sure if the train was in service. Besides that I wanted to have a walk because I have had so much during the day. 

So the west side of the downtown was almost OK and the closer I got to the east the darker it got. Police cruisers were seen here and there with the officers watching for the opportunists, the fucking looters. 

When I got to Eau Clare Market I the entire area was blacked out and I am not sure if residents were in their  apartments or not. There was a police car parked at a corner and I guess as soon as they saw me they directed their light at me. I quickly rouse my hands and started walking the other direction but the car started coming to me so I turned around and walked toward them. After greeting they asked me what I was doing there. I told them that I was checking to see what was going on. Then he asked me where I worked. My prompt answer was a good sign that after a few more minutes I said goodbye and added that I was going to a train station to go home.

Water is being pumped out of the residences adjacent to Bow River. This was around 23:45 hours last night

Just 3 blocks away from where I saw the first pair of officers another cruiser just stopped in front of me and after exchanging a few words and answering a few questions I carried on. It is really good that CPS has everything under control because there are lots of people who are just waiting for something like this to loot the evacuees belonging. Just remember Katrina in New Orleans a few years back or the recent disaster in the US where looters took people's belonging and looted stores. By the time I got home it was almost 00:20 hours.

(Photo: On Louise Bridge looking at west, it's easily seen that half of downtown is experiencing a power outage. The C-train is not in service and will not be for the next 2 weeks or more due to damages to two or more station in McLeod Tr.)

Flood in Calgary: Night 2

The second day of flood alert has passed peacefully but there are still road closures in the City. I wanted to go for jogging and considering the situation I thought I'd be better go to Nosehill but then I reconsidered going to the Bow River Path. So I crossed the river over the Louise Bridge and parked somewhere at the north side of closed Memorial Dr. and went to the path.

parts of the path at both sides of the river were still under the water but I managed to run for a few minutes. In the afternoon we had a stroll around the east side of Downtown. Most of the roads were closed and most of businesses or may be all were closed as well. There was no electricity for the traffic lights and I assume for the residential and commercial buildings as well.

We checked both Safeway and the Company of Over-rated Pirates. They were fairly empty of customers for a Sat. afternoon. Some of the sections in Co-oP were half empty meaning they had not received their supply. We were there for fruits mostly but found nothing worth spending money on but a couple of Pears, a few Royal Gala and pair and Bananas. Some jackasses were seen carrying bottled (tap) water but City of Calgary has indicated that the quality of water is good and there would be no need for boiling water. So the situation seems going back to normal gradually.

(Photo: Memorial Dr. and Downtown Calgary in a beautiful sunny day is shut down. You can clearly see that the level of water is so high. A cruiser can be seen at the westbound blocking the traffic)

Flood in Calgary

The amount of rain in Alberta this year has been significantly increased compare to the all previous years that I can recall. It started even before we went to Innisfail. I wanted to have a post and say how it looked like B. C. here but postponed it until all the rainfall resulted in flood. 

So at work today more than 80 per cent of the people were missing. The level of water both at Bow River and Elbow River was so high that the City ordered mandatory evacuation in many neibourhoods around the two rivers. I got a chance to walk by Bow River shortly after 01:00 PM yesterday (Fri.) and it was amazing how fast and up the river was. Memorial Dr., Crowchild Tr. and many other roads to the Downtown were shut and the C-Train service was cancelled. I guess we are among a few Downtown neighbourhoods which were not included in the evacuation plan. 

High River I heard has been even worse and in the City again it is said that the Saddledome and the entire Stampede Park has been drowned! I try to see what I will see this morning. 

What shocked me the most was not the flood or the amount of rain. It was the way that people were reacting to that. At work people sending e-mails and had the radios turned on. One of them sent a map of the City indicating the road closures! My answer to that was that I would be paddling my Kayak back home and neither of the road closures and flood would not affect me.The other one was talking about storing clear water and in fact I saw an idiot with plastic bags full of bottle bottles when I came back to the apartment!  I eventually told one of the colleagues that they just were making too much of it and I added that I never had left were missing were landing in my hometowns years ago and this flood was nothing compare to that. 

(Photo: Bow River, the bank where Memorial DR. follows it and Louise Bridge. You can see the set of stairs on the bellow left of the photos. The stairs leads to the pathway where I usually run and it is completely hidden under the water in this photo. The photo was taken between the hours of 13:00 and 14:00 of yesterday)

Foreclosure House

My new colleague is an American-Chinese-Vietnamese(!) fellow from San Fransisco, a former SFPD constable. He's here because he's recently married and his wife lives here with her family. I never knew someone who had a well-paid job down the States, leaving it just for a woman but love happens. He says that his pay-stub used to be as much as $6000 every two weeks(!) I wonder why he quit that job. He says the job is too stressful and talks about 20 hours straight shift, chasing suspects down the road or running after them, going to suicide scenes where someone chopped off his own head using a chainsaw.

" I bought a big foreclosure house for $250,000 by putting down just $15,000. The house originally worth about $1,000,000 and could be sold as much as $400,000 because of the slight recovery" he said. " It's rented out for $1,700 a months now" he added. He receives a total of $1,500 every month as his pension for the next 10 years. I still don't understand why he's here. How would someone who lived like that, works a security guard in a commercial building? That's what he used to do back in Aug.? He's trying to go back to policing business but he says that he has to stay in Canada for three years before they let him do that. That's again odd. I know British police officers who came to Calgary 3 or 4 years ago and all CPS asked them was to do POPAT. Other qualification exams of course will be performed but I don't think they had to stay until they get their citizenship. He said: We train Canadian police but he had no idea what POPAT is! That all lead me to not believe whatever he says. He's a nice guy after all! That's what is important.

Fire Alarm

I was about to get ready to go to bed a few minutes ago and suddenly: Rrrrrrrrrrrrring! That was the fire alarm. I said: Damn! No again! Someone's playing the stupid game! This, actually is the third time since I moved to this damn place.

The first time something was really burning in a kitchen in the first floor but the second time it was someone who pulled the lever and started the alarm. He or she has been already warned but I don't think they can find him or her. There's no surveillance camera and it usually happens at the quiet time of the night.

Interviews

I met Bob in World Satffing Solutions yesterday morning and although I was on time that bastard made me wait for about 20 min. That usually doesn't happen in Canada. Then he explained the position to me and told me the interview time with the company. It's a QA Manager position with a salary range of $60 to $70K. I'll have the interview with a lady in HR, I guess, tomorrow. He was quite optimist but that's how usually recruiters act because they send the employee for most of the positions that is related to his background.

In the afternoon I went to Springwall. I had to wait there for about 20 min. again and I'm surprised because it has never happened to me anywhere in Canada esp. in interviews but the interview was good. Sprinwall started about 40 years ago in a city in New Brunswick and then started another plants in Toronto, Winnipeg and finally Calgary. Winnipeg and Calgary plants were combined a few years ago. Right now they are looking for a self-starter to take care of their quality needs while they have nobody in position. What made Dale (A mid-aged handsome Canadian guy with blue eyes and very intellectual personality) to call me is QMS (Quality Management System). This is what they want to establish in the Calgary plant and this is the first thing is seen in my resume. So If I'm lucky, I'll get the job.
When I asked him how busy they are in the plant here and how the business is, he showed he's an expert (He's the vice president of the company) He mentioned that Canada has faced several disasters in last few years:

1. Drought in Prairies which led many farmers to deep huge debts.
2. Mad cow disease which almost killed beef industry.
3. The US put too much tariff in Canadian lumber.
4. Flood in Manitoba.

and the mentioed problems had (and still has) serious effect on their business and all other businesses as well.

HMCS Chicoutimi

Canada has recently bought four used submarines from Britain. Last week when Canadian sailors were heading home, navigating one of them, HMCS Chicotimi, something went wrong and the boat was on fire. The outbreak cost one of the submariner's life, Lt. Chris Saunders, a 32-year-old of 2 little boys (it's terrible when someone loses his father when he's just a few month old, poor kids) from New Brunswick.
Navy investigators r still trying to find out the cause of the disaster. There r some guesses but the final answer is not there. One says that sea water could be a cause of fire when contacts wires inside the submarine. And it happens - we all know - when water is leaking inside. Submarine commander said that when the fire started there was a very thick smoke which he was not able to c his turned on flashlight from an inch! Lt. Saunders died of smoke inhalation. Canadian Navy asked all four submarine to stop operating before the investigation gets to a clear result. One of the boats, Victoria is docked in the Pacific (Victoria) and the three other in the Atlantic (Halifax)
The story reminds me of what happened to SSGN Kursk, the nuclear Russian submarine in 2000. Of course Chicoutimi is nothing compare to Kursk and the disaster was much worse (All the 118 crew were killed) but they share something: No one knows what caused the catastrophe.
(Photo: The submarine is being brought to a base in Scotland)

Note: use the following links for more information about Kursk:
1- http://www.aeronautics.ru/nws002/kursk001.htm
2- http://www.yenra.com/russian-submarines/kursk/

Mad Cow Crises is Still a Concern

As Alberta's and also some other provinces' economy is relied on beef industry, I listen to the TV news every night. Beef industry and related businesses like tracking, dairy, ranching and many many more is in jeopardy. The thing is Canadians think they are smart and claim they are a G8 country but see what they did to their cattle industry? The latest news shows that only 1 out of 3000 cows in Canada is tested for possible diseases!!!!!
Smart people!! Educated!! Civilized!! Genius!! Oceans of wisdom!! That's what Canadians are!! Traceability which is one of the requirements of ISO 9000:2000 standard is being performed by French in their slaughter floors. It was shown on CBC and I saw that every single piece and carcass has a paper attached like an I.D. card shows where the animal was born, when it was slaughtered and other useful information to find where the infection comes from if there's any.