Cosine Thoughts

Picked up a Pixel Watch 2 because: It was on sale I had Google Store credit Was interested in the experience Total after taxes and shipping was about $75CAD. Pretty good I would say for a brand new smart watch. Concerns I had were largely limited to battery life and how usable the screen was. The PW2 only has the smaller 41mm size and the closest thing I've owned in the past was a Nokia/Withings watch with a lot of the trackers but no smart/touch display. My most consistent thought is that I'm glad I didn't splurge on a PW3 or wait for a PW4. I'm not disappointed in the device or anything. But, it would be pretty hard to be disappointed for the price I paid. I think I would have been disappointed at a higher price point. This is obviously subjective and dependent on a lot of personal factors, but I'll get into that in a bit. First up; I don't use always on display or gestures. I haven't worn a watch in over a year. And, when I did I can't say that I actu...

I've been practicing Kyudo for over a year now. Started in early April of last year officially. This November I'm hoping to attempt for sho-dan. And, I wanted to take some time to reflect on a few things: Why I started and why I continued. General lessons learned. Current progress and goals. As to why I started, I can't say that there is a single, clear answer. I was thinking about joining "something" and I had been somewhat intent on it being some Japanese Martial Art. Aikido was the only thing I had taken which I had remembered enjoying when I was young. I discovered Kyudo through the anime Tsurune , but I had already attempted contacting and joining the dojo in the past and that show was no longer front and centre. Then, I saw that they were sponsoring a local event which made me curious. I checked their Facebook page and they were having intro sessions later in the year. I signed up. Attended. Joined the beginners program. Completed it. Applied to join the reg...

A lot of people are hoping that, since the cancellation, WoT will be picked up by another network. I don't think it will happen. I didn't mind the show and while I have some beef with it, even the quality of the show isn't the reason I don't believe it will be picked up again. This could have been the best received series of all time and no one would touch it now. Why? Because it is an unknown factor now. Basically, WoT is a show based on an existing IP with an existing fanbase. What was completed of the existing TV Series drifted so far from the books that it alienated that fanbase. This is a problem because there is no built-in audience for what comes next. The book fans have no reason to come along because the storyline from the books is no longer recoverable. And, even the TV show fans aren't a guarantee. In fact, they are especially not guaranteed here. Another unique factor here is that WoT was on Prime Video. This is a streaming service many people simply get...

Only about half done the series so far and my thoughts are not what I expected. I expected to either love or hate the adaptation and I don't feel either. I understand those who are disappointed. I had similar frustrations with the LotR and Hobbit movies. As many have pointed out however, my expectations don't make the movies bad. They just make it difficult for me to enjoy them.  Most of the complaints I've read fall into similar pitfalls. From my perspective, all of the changes made, make sense. The original TV series was a cartoon and it was aimed at a younger audience. Animation makes special effects trivial, but also makes goofy interactions more acceptable. Trying to take a character like Sokka and bringing them to live action without some serious character overhaul was never going to work. Similarly, some (artificial) constraints, like series length have an impact on story telling. One such change is a scene in the opening where Aang is "flying" (according t...

I'll start with "bad idea" and "won't go as planned". What makes the Alberta plan so enticing is also why it will fail. Basically, a study concluded that Alberta could be entitled to as much as 53% of the funds assets. And IF that were paid out, then Alberta would be able to start it's own pension fund and pay out more for less. The problem is that they won't get that much, and they aren't realistically entitled to that much. To frame the problem better, under the most loose and beneficial interpretation, the same company ended up at a number which was 118% of the funds assets. That's right, the wording of the act is so flawed that it can create interpretations of it such that Alberta could be construed as being owed more funds than the pool has. Clearly. CLEARLY that is insane. Alberta's relative share of the contributions is 18% and their population is about 16% of the people's involved. But, if they only take 16-18% it is NOT a bet...

I read this article  and now I'm convinced that people do not think before they speak. First, I don't know exactly HOW to read the article, but I can divine two possible interpretations: Not cleaning after each night increases odds of improperly cleaned rooms Sense of entitlement to ritual cleanings combined with a lack of understanding of economies of scale I don't know which is implied because there are elements of each which are complimentary and at odds with each other. Either you're mad because YOUR filth is not being cleaned up nightly or you're mad because the hotel ITSELF is generally filthy. While neither is mutually exclusive, the act of changing rooms nightly as a way of avoiding one issue or the other IS mutually exclusive. And so using both arguments for the same complaint makes little sense. To tackle that inconsistency; if you're changing rooms for both reasons you're A) creating more work for the cleaning staff and thus reducing their capacit...

I think the idea here is simply to be polarizing. Then again, maybe the Premiere of Alberta is actually an idiot. Let's start with the simple; creating a separate Provincial CPP replacement is a gamble. Period. The strength of CPP comes from the size of the pool, both in terms of money and participants. Yes, an aging population hurts. But it hurts more slowly with a larger pool of people. Alberta's population will eventually age as well. Their birth rate is lower than 2 and changes like this make it immigration a harder sell which is how most Provinces are currently offsetting aging populations. With a smaller pool of contributors this shift will hit harder and faster. The other problem is the "ask". The claim that Alberta is owed more than 53% of the pool is absurd. That number is an inaccurate fantasy. There is quite literally no way it represents the actual, relative contributions of Albertans to the fund.  Some quick Googling yields the following results: Canada...