I was thinking about

voting Wild Rose in the upcoming Provincial election but after hearing Smith say supporting any funding for a downtown Oiler arena and the new Royal Alberta museum is not on their agenda, I immediately did an about face and said "No!" We're not voting for her. I'd even vote NDP if they said they would at least look into it. 

The Edmonton Journal on the front page this morning said that in a recent poll from a marketing group here in Edmonton, 67% of Edmontonians said they would rather have the LRT go to Mill Woods then to a new downtown Arena for the Oiler's. The poll surveyed in 3 days this week 1,215 "Albertan's" (I recon a special interest group with a Mill Woods agenda probably hired the marketing group to do the "survey" and said call into the Mill Woods area. They do this to try and sway public opinion. "Well if 67 % said no it must be a bad idea." The poll also said about 30% said they would support the arena. But that's just out of 1,215 polled. Personally I don't think the LRT to Mill Woods is as much as a necessity as the LRT to West Edmonton Mall. obviously if you live in Mill Woods having the LRT go through there would be a good idea, anything else that would take funding away from that is a bad idea. The Journal is a leftest media anyway. The article this morning is biased. 

Over the weekend I'm going to be looking for any candidate in the 2012 election who's platform is sympathetic to the arena. anyway, that's about all for now.

Next Tuesday after the weekend I'm almost attempted

to drop $100 into my Scotia account towards my new laptop as I have no firm date ahead when Revenue Canada (RC) will send me my tax refund. I want to have at least $700 available for the new laptop before I'm ready to buy it. If RC has a check in the mail for me say next week, I could have the funds for the laptop by the end of the month but everything is subjected to the whim of the mail. However, I hope that say I get the funds the before the weekend I want to order. I'll call Best Buy ask if they have any in stock. If so, I'll go after work on a Saturday get the laptop and make sure that the connector plug is working, last time it wasn't even threaded in. I want to check out the hard drive capacity, the webcam mic and then make my purchase. I don;t think they'll let me do that because it will void the warranty. 

Often I like to check out the Beatles on YouTube and there is this outdoor shot of them doing a song from the album "Help" from 1965 and it looks like they are on a military range. I did some research about this and they were at a place not even on the map called "Knighton Downs and woods." The Beatles did this location for 3 days Monday May 3rd, Tuesday 4th, Wednesday 5th. I was 12 years old when that film (Help) was being made. What was remarkable was that at the time, the story goes that on that Sunday late at night a black limousine pulled up to the Antrobus Arms hotel and parked the car in the garage and the Beatles checked into the hotel where they would stay for those 3 days. Somehow the word got out that the Beatles were there and apparently the limo was looted of Beatle hats cloths etc as hoards of teenage girls blocked the way the Beatles needed to get to to do the filming for the movie. How did these girls know that the Beatles were even coming to their town? It's not like they had Twitter or anything like that. That was 47 years ago, crazy.

Tonight on Coast the topic is about Science breakthroughs such as biology and astronomy and later on artificial intelligence (AI) Should be a good show. As for me, I'm about ready for bed soon.

It was slow going for me in the afternoon yesterday but others were at $50-$80 somewhere in there. Best I could do for the first half was $25. All I got was seniors and the unemployed and answering machines. I did better in the evening as most of my sales were done after 5pm. I got a $100 sale and $50 on card, all day. Anyway, that's about all from me for today.          

The other night I

went and downloaded from Itunes about 4 Podcasts that I haven’t listened to in about a year: Starship sofa and SF Signal. That’s what I like about Itunes, you can upload your own music and videos and get free stuff like podcasts. I like the “Star ship Sofa’s” because they have free readings of short stories.

Because of Sparky passing away from us last month and lodge stuff this month, I haven’t been able to read as much as I would have liked. I just started reading short SF from my Itouch from “Daily Science Fiction” or what ever its called and I’m reading a flash piece of SF fiction every day on my commute.

I’ve also been doing music production research and acquiring various pieces to my library of noise. I’m working on tweaking my drum sounds and I’m almost there when I get the new laptop at the end of the month. Hopefully this summer I‘ll make my Youtube début with an EP.

Last night most of us on the campaign I’m working on were struggling. We have 1 guy doing taps I ended up just short of line hour for the day by about $5. I closed yesterday at the end of a shift with a $100 sale, which is always nice to close a shift on a sale. Or as I call it “Close on money.”

Another typical day today although tomorrow I need to break up the routine and make a detour to the barber for that haircut for the last 2 weeks I keep telling myself I need. I need to tell the boss the day before I could be 5 10 minutes late, anyway that’s about all for now.

I had a nice couple of days off

Sunday & Monday despite Anne and I having our little episodes (mostly her) of marriageable bliss."

This morning I was woken up shortly after 9am to gather my ID and everything to head down to the Edmonton Public Library. Anne and I filed for our taxes. I'm getting about the equivalent of half our rent. It's about 85% of what I need to get the laptop I want. As of this week, I'll need 2 more checks and I can pick it up and some logitech speakers. I should have my return by about the end of April. Providing they have our address right. 

It was overcast heading out this morning and nice to get out as it was a little bit crisp in the air but nothing as chilly as Saturday morning. 

I found a couple of un-boxing YouTube videos of "Critical Hit." A 3rd party ASL company that has some intriguing products. I'm thinking about uploading some Paypal dollars and getting a couple of them next month after my laptop.

The laptop I'm getting is the Acer Aspire 15.6" AMD Quad-Core A6-3420M (AS5560-7476) blue, I need this for my music production and it can play games as well. I'm not big on video games. Anne's getting the laptop in my header photo above. 

Tomorrow is my first day back at work for the week and I hope to have another 37.5 hours in, which is a full week for me. 

This afternoon Anne ordered Wrestlemania 28 for me, which is Sunday 5pm April 1st. It's a 4 hour wrestlemania and she's making me a plate of baby back ribs to go along with it. It's going to be about a $60 hit but we only order 2 WWE pay per view events/year: Wrestlemania and Summer Slam because Summer slam is close to my birthday. 

Anyway, not much is going on through out the week. It's just up at 10 out the door at 11:15am into work from12:30pm-9pm home by about 10:45pm have a bite to eat catch the news and answer my email do some stuff on the net and then into bed. Cycle the above Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday except Friday night is my banking night and I'm off half an hour earlier. Saturday I'm up at about 7am and out the door by 9am for a 10-4:30pm shift. other then Lodge night (in which I work half a shift on Thursday) The above is my weekly daily ritual. Next month I'm tweaking this a bit because I want to begin going to my Saturday Lodges Ye old Craft (second Saturday) and Commercial (third Saturday.) Other then the above and heading out with my work colleagues after a Saturday I'm not at Lodge, that's my life. 

I'd love to get back into playing ASL again and once I apply (if I get it) for my early retirement I can take a couple of Lodge Saturdays and head out to play some ASL. The first Saturday Lodge is in the morning and done by about noon and I can head out to play some ASL somewhere. My 2nd Saturday Lodge on the 3rd Saturday is Commercial and they're usually done by 5pm. Time to head out to an evening of ASL. Ideally that's what I would like to do in theory. 

The other thing I want to do in September (the date I should have my first CPP check) since I have Sunday and Monday off (pending Lodge of course) is get involved in a senior bowling league. I know of a couple. I've always liked bowling but never found the time. 

The only time I have to myself to do any music production, Lodge memory work or reading etc, is after supper and the late night evening news. I have about 2 hours to do my stuff. Anyway, that's about all for now.

I had about 6.5 hours

of sleep, so I got out of bed about 9:50am to do my thing: Kettle on the stove with water to boil, turn on the computer, shave, shower fix coffee and about 5 minutes after 10am, I’m at my diary. Now I’ve got about 40 minutes to myself.
I had a decent day yesterday, although I had a slow start and was last on the board total wise but at the end of the shift I had a call and the caller talked a lot. Why couldn’t I have had this call at 6pm? But she was able to stay on topic even though she kept me on the phone as most of my colleagues had left but she did make the sale and James got her on a card as well. Good stuff. It wasn’t anywhere near top total for HDI but I was 10 away from line hour. I had about $190 I think on card as well for the day.

Here we go with another franchise in the making of a book series for young readers: “Hunger games.” It’s about a bunch of teenagers out to kill each other. Here’s a synopsis of what the books are all about from Fantastic fiction: Katniss (there’s never any female protagonist with names like Martha or Jane or Susan) is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat's sister is chosen by lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place. The Hunger games is causing a hysteria among teens because that’s it’s target audience. There’s already a movie that made its red carpet debut the other day. Not my type of thing mainly because of its intended age group, but looks like. Kids love it especially teenage girls but at least it has them reading, so that‘s a good thing. If I had children (that I know of) I‘d rather they be reading stuff like this then going out to a Rave taking tainted ecstasy.

I‘ve got another full day today as it‘s a Friday and that means after work run up to my bank cash my check and head home or better yet, out to eat. I‘m thinking about going over to Bo'diddly's Pub & Grill across the street after work tonight. Mainly because Anne doesn’t get home until about 10:40pm then she’s out at Superstore buying us a deli pizza or something and it’s not ready until 11:45pm by the time I want to eat. I have trouble sleeping if I have a heavy meat on a late Friday night especially when I’m up at 8am Saturday morning for work but I‘m not sure yet. I might just come home anyway.

So rather then going out Saturday for a bite to eat after work and since I need a USB hub at Future shop so I’ll get that instead and head home for a nap and get Anne’s “on her break at work phone call” I get around 8:30pm to wake me up Saturday night.

Tonight is another Oiler hockey game as they are in Florida again for a back to back game. Then they play on Sunday at 1pm, so I want to catch that game.

Doesn’t look like I’m going to make it for Lodge this tonight. I’d like to go but I want a full 37.5 hours on my check this week. I want to be able to go to both of my Saturday Lodges next month so I’m working the next 3 Saturdays including this one. Anyway, that’s about all for now.  

Not a lot going on.

I woke up about 5am and couldn't get back to sleep.

Last night I wanted to talk to my boss about having Friday off to go to Strathcona Lodge for their MM degree this Friday but throughout the night I began thinking that, I already went to 3 Lodge events this month: My mother Lodge, practice, March 15th MM degree. If we didn't have the MM degree this month I would have made it out but I need the hours and because of the above I can't justify going. 

I don't know about heading out to RJS April 11th as well either. I mean, I'll get the book and all but i might miss this reading. He'll be back next year.

Last night I discovered this page called "Desperation moral." All things Advanced Squad Leader (ASL). It's a huge resource of third party ASL products and 1 I like is Critical Hit. So much so I made a link to their site on my list of links in my Blog sidebar. They've got a lot of good things, most of it all ASL. Speaking about I checked and made a list of all the ASL official products that had come out over the last 12 years and there's been quite a few. Multi Man Publishing's most recent offering "Festung Budapest" is a historical ASL modual. I'd like to get this product but at a $130 for something I might not ever play is a huge waste of money. 

I want to go to Ye old craft lodge and if I work the 2nd Monday and the rest of the week, I'll have 37.5 hours and off on that Saturday. Then same with the 3rd Saturday, work that Monday and I can take that 3rd Saturday off. I'm allowed 2 Saturday's off/month. I've been working every Saturday so far this year and I've missed a lot. I can go any night I wish as long as I put the Monday night in. Anyway, it's back to bed, that's all for now.      

My wife being off from her job

today was in bed by about 5:30am. When I have a day off and I'm in bed by 4am that's not a good sign for the next day having to much sleep on the 1st day getting back to work. She was up tossing and turning in bed waking me up at 8am this morning. I wasn't happy but I managed to get back to sleep, barely. I could use another 2 hours as it is. 

Looks like a nice day out there, sunny and -3C. I remember the day I moved into my first apartment here in Edmonton, March 15th 1985. I found the apartment that week and when I got my check on that Wednesday (working for the Army & Navy warehouse) right in the middle of the '80's. The Oiler's were winning Stanley Cups just about every year and it was  like one "big party." I was 32 years old having the time of my life. Well, sort of. Hard to believe that was 27 years ago. Weather wise it was a little warmer then we have it now but not by much

I was in bed by 1:30am this  morning listening to a bit of Coast. They were talking about Egypt and the pyramids and how researchers of today tried to recreate the moving of stones of similar size and they couldn't do it. They were even talking about this huge boulder excavators were trying to move recently and they couldn't move it without heavy duty equipment. How did the ancients move these huge stones? Some believe in the traditional method of thousands of workers painstakingly moving them inch by inch. Some have really esoteric ideas like sound waves, hot air balloons etc. I've heard a lot of different ideas. I even had the notion that the workers chiseled out the stone into pieces and it was melted down to form a cement like substance and poured into molds. But who today really knows? Anyway a full l8 hours from me today, so that's about all for today. 

Lately I’ve been

on a “Monkee’s kick,” way even before Davy Jones passed away a couple of weeks ago.

The only thing I have for this afternoon is to take Anne out down to Earls just over here for her birthday dinner.

Tomorrow afternoon, I’m making some phone calls before I head off to work. I’m calling the Shrine cub to see if we can book Biffs lounge for Sunday August 19th. Then I’m calling Neil to let him know the date I have to put that in the masters message for April. Then I’m calling one of my other colleagues asking him if he could print off some tickets for the BBQ. I’m sure there is a deposit on the lounge. Then I’ve got to call our secretary and find out where we can get the meet. Maybe I can make the call out at the regular meeting to see if anyone has the space to have the BBQ at their place. WM said in our chat over the phone yesterday he had it at his place at one time and it saves a lot of money. I’m sure Biff’s lounge isn’t going to be cheap even if it‘s only going to be an afternoon.

Still on Masonry, with our ranks at our regular communication dwindling, I‘m wondering when it‘s my turn to take the big chair, who am I going to get to take the JW chair? Guy is here but he has yet to take a chair beyond JD. He might be asked to do the SD. Andrew has been here for 1 month. If we can get our new MM to take a chair when I’m SW, it’s going to free up our current Tyler to maybe take the JW chair but that’s not my decision to make, I’m just thinking out loud. When you’ve been through all the chairs, you can go into any chair, you don’t need to go in any kind of order. Anyway, that’s about all for now.

Anne had mentioned this

morning (when I talked about Robert J Sawyer coming to Audrey’s April 11 for his usual Spring book signing.)and she said I’ve been doing that for about 4 years now. Then I realized, just look at how many hard cover RJS books are on my shelf. They are all signed first run editions, unread. I want to get paperback editions of Rollback, his WWW trilogy and this Spring he’s bringing out “Triggers.” That’s going to be about a $30 hit this Spring.

I was going to do some recording this morning but I’m a little wiped out. Most likely I’ll do this when I come home after work on Saturday after BP’s. I’m going down to LM and get a mic cable and then walk back to Bp’s have a drink with the gang and then take the train home for a nap and after Anne calls do some recording and watch a bit of the Flames/Oiler’s game.
This morning during my commute I want to get a lotto Max/6/49 ticket. The Max is worth $50m and the other $13M or something like that. Then I want to pop  into my Scotia bank and drop in a $20 for service charges. I want to keep that account open because I want to get that “Electricity” program and my Paypall account going, by uploading $10 this weekend.

If I get about $1000 on my income tax return, I’m going to get a new laptop. I tagged it’s a Gateway 15.6" AMD Phenom II Quad-Core N970 Laptop for $569. It’s got only 6 Ram but that’s all I need. For the most part after that it’s mye 2.0, Electricity, Komplete 8. There’s a few other programs I want other then that like Xfexpansion’s Tremor etc.

This morning it’s off to Scotia bank drop in that $20 do the 8 hour job thing, off to my RBC bank and home. Anyway that’s about all for now.   

On my way home

after 9pm, I usually like to stop in and have a decaff black small Tim's coffee to take with me on the train. I did last night and managed to hook up with 2 of my fellow employees Darryl and Karen. They're usually at the back of the train because it's closer to where they have to get off at Belvedere station. Belvedere station is the one before mine at the end of the North line in Clairview. Normally I'm boarding just under the escalators as the train rolls in about 9:10pm. Yesterday I rode in with them because Darryl hooked up with me on my way into work yesterday morning. 

Okay, so here we are riding home and at Stadium some kids are begging for money from local passengers. Where's ETS Security when you need them? So this other fellow boards our car about where these 2 kids were bothering people for money. This didn't sit well with this new passenger who told these kids in no uncertain terms to stop what they were doing. I heard the new passenger mention how he's a MMA fighter and he wouldn't want to mess with him because he fights for a  living. "Your getting out at the next stop," he said before the train was ready to board out of Stadium and his buddy got off right there wanting no trouble. One of the bigger kids that didn't get off while the getting was good was involved in a verbal exchange of some kind and I saw the kid mouth off to the guy and the guy came up to him and wrestled him in his seat and to the floor. Darryl looked around to see this and the MMA guy who had this kid pinned to the floor asked somebody to get his bag for him as he was heading out and essentially taking out the trash along with  him. This all happened really fast, within the span of 2 stops. The kid the MMA guy had pinned to the floor of our car I could see was laid out on the concourse floor as the car pulled out. Hopefully that will teach the kid a couple of lessons; 1, don't go trying to panhandle for money on the LRT (you never know who your going to meet) 2, don't go bad mouthing people you don't know in public, you just never know what your going to get. 

So that bit of drama was interesting. On the last leg of my ride in at Clairview on my bus home I rolled up my rim on my Tim's cup I won a donut. That's 2 coffee's and a donut. Last year I didn't win anything. Anyway, that's about all for now. 

I didn't get much sleep overnight

having so much sleep,12 hours Saturday/Sunday and about 8 hours Sunday/Monday. Last night I was lucky if I got 4 hours and I've got a full day today, yeesh. 

I managed to get a practice vocal track for the song "Louie, Louie" but it's clear I need a better mic and even better mic control. My vocals are ok but I've got to find that spot between "just right" and where it cracks up on me giving me static. I need a condenser head set mic set up.

Other then that, not much going on for today. I could use a year off but on my terms, if I ever got the money. I know the year before I'm on full pension, (If I last that long) I'm taking that year off, so realistically I've got about 3 years of working full time. Then it's off to do a different kind of telemarketing, recruiting canvassers or gathering stats on a part time basis. I don't know yet but it's not going to be full time. Anyway, that's about all for now. 

Anne's trying to run the Iron

Man 2 DVD one of the guys from work went and lent me out of his collection Friday night but we have the older (2008) Xbox 360 where before Microsoft updated Xbox Live, we could watch DVD's. When I got the video game "Fable 3 as a Christmas present" 2 years ago Microsoft went and updated the "Xbox live" automatically which took out all that I had gotten used to before the update. The update failed to run Fable 3 as a result of that Anne was fortunate that Walmart allowed us to refund her purchase. We may have to rent it "Iron Man 2" on pay per view, if it's still available. 

We went and ordered Iron man 2 after all on pay per view and for the most part I was enjoying the film. Rule #1: Never watch movies I want to watch while Anne is around because she does nothing but cause distractions, has to comment or ask questions every 10 minutes, or gets up walks around talks to the cat and totally wrecks the movie experience for me. Near the end of the movie I reached over and tried to pet our cat Sporty on the couch beside me something I've done a lot of times and I startled him causing him to jump and he clawed my left middle finger almost taking it off the bone in the process. I've got this nasty inch long gouge/cut that looks like it might need stitches to show for it. I blame myself for all of this because I should have known better. I should have tested the DVD on my laptop Friday night then let Anne order the movie Friday night and watched it this evening letting her watch the movie on her own time. But I thought the Xbox might play DVD movies but I should have known better. Also her big blow up Friday night wouldn't have let me order the movie anyway. For the most part I did enjoy the movie. I thought on a scale from 1-10 I rated it a 9. Thor I rated it a 9.5 Captain America a 9. This has been the 3rd Marvel Studio's movie I've seen since last August and so far none of them have failed to disappoint.
 
I almost have my Fast Track audio interface hooked up to Cubase. I've got a test track in mono playback on a stereo track but at least it has all my connections and I'd reading them as active. The test track is just testing my voice but the wave form is in 2 parts on top of each other along a single lane. Sigh...it can be tough sometimes when your me. 

I've had enough silliness for this weekend. Friday night Anne exploded on me because a bit of ketchup landed on her new rug, then I had a lousy day on the job yesterday and then Anne's blowup this morning and at 7pm Neil is picking me up for the Lodge practice tonight and Monday I'm leaving early to go get my haircut. Anyway, that's all from me this morning.

I bring my laptop into work

and then over to get my Tim’s breakfast and there was James in the line up while I was paying for my order. I walked with him to the office and upstairs to find my place. There was Tim and I had my breakfast as he wanted me to listen to some stuff from Ederson Prado and I listened to this one metal track I liked. I’m not a metal fan per se’ but I liked that. I showed him a drum track I was working on. The only thing I don’t like about these DAW’s is that if your in one project and you need to switch to another one you got to shut down the program you can’t switch projects on the fly in the  program. I’d love a DAW like that. So back on the phones and I got a call back right away and I got a $30 sale out of that on a card and it would stand as the only sale for the whole day. Obviously I wasn’t a happy camper and the guy never came along to install that program for me but I don’t think any of the 7 of us got anything got anything over $200 except Carmine. But it was brutal. I called Anne and she gave me an update on the game at 2:30pm. She apologized about last night. The best part was when I was packing up to leave but the elevator wasn’t working so Carmine and I too the stairs and I headed down to Corona and sat out there for about 20 minutes waiting for the #2 but a nice bus ride later and I felt my bladder stirring. I got my stop across the street from Wendy’s and went inside to order a “Baconator combo” and enjoyed that checking up on the Oiler game. Oiler’s lost in a shootout. 3-2 Avs. Smyth got his 19th and Hall got his 25th. There’s 14 games left and Smyth could get 25, Eberle possibly 40, Hall 35, RNH possibly 20. We haven’t had a team like this since the 80’s. Anyway I enjoyed my meal and began walking home and paused at about 6pm looking at Sifton Park Vet where we took Sparky just over a month ago and I felt sadness. I hadn‘t been that close since the day we left him there. At that time the Setting sun broke through cloud over the roof of that building almost as if Sparky was saying goodbye to me one last and finale time. I love you Sparky. Ruefully I smiled and nodded goodbye back and continued on my way in sadness thinking about my baby boy. The Sun setting behind me. I love him so much every day and his picture is on my Itouch player

Then it hit me about how Anne was looking at some other cats about the age of Sparky and Sporty earlier this week. Now I think it’s too soon to get a couple of other cats but if I get that income tax refund around the time I go on holidays, if she says something “I just saw the 2 most beautiful kittens etc, they look so cute for $150.” “We could pick them up tonight if you want?” “Sure.” I’d go down with her before they close and I’d pick out my guy and she can pick out hers but (USS) we’d head in the back way because of the caretaker and all. Even though say if I get my income tax return in May, I can see taking on a couple of cats but it is too soon. Maybe around Labor day. It took Anne 3 years to get over Pledges and I’m still not over him.  Anyway, that’s all for now.

IIt's getting busy again for me but I felt ok heading into

work this morning and headed into the office feeling ok. I had a slow start to the afternoon and got my first sale just before break but got it on a card, after that it was uphill all the way. Just before lunch I felt a headache coming on and I knew I couldn't last much longer after that. I asked J if I could leave and get my check.He said no problem because I seldom ever cut out on a Friday night but I knew I had to get out and get some air. I headed up to my bank cashed my check and go home around 5:45pm. 

I had a relaxing night trying to get my audio interface connected up in Cubase and having a hell of a time with it. I still haven't got it set up properly. I even downloaded the update for my "Fast track" and it was showing up but I couldn't get any response in any audio track meter's. The Quick start guides don;t offer much help. VST connections don;t even show up. So I went to FL. Studio and opened it up and activated "Rewire." it works on some of the VST's but I'm not hearing anything. I'll get it checked over the weekend.

Anne said my T4's came in and I checked out my income tax deducted and it looks like I could get back almost $1200 in which case, I'm going to get "Electricity and Komplete 8" I'm kind of hoping I'll get $1200 but I think I might end up owing this year. 

Saturday morning I want to be up at 7am to get ready and out the door by 8am and get down to Tim's for my breakfast and then run over to the Baker Centre and see about getting my haircut before I head into work, then after that over to Wendy's for supper and then home for a nap I'd have liked to have watched the Oiler game but its another early Saturday afternoon game that I'm going to miss. With 15 games left in the season, the Oiler's still have a chance for last place, again. Anyway, that's about all I have for today.

There's an old

song by an 80's song called "everybody's working for the weekend" by the band called "Loverboy" and there's a lot of truth in that. My favorite times of the week is when I get that paycheck and 4:30pm on a Saturday when I'm out the office door and away from the job for a couple of days. However, I have a couple of more d ays ahead to get there.

 

Yesterday my first day getting back after "the weekend" (for me it's mostly Saturday night Sunday/Monday). After this weekend, I'm working Mondays because I'm off in a couple of weeks for a week off (10 full days) including weekends and a stat in there I get paid for because I'm on "holidays." Not that I'm going anywhere or anything but I need 10 days just to sleep in lounge around the house and to take care of other business.

 

The other night they were talking about the Starchild project. For the "WTF" of us out there I'll bring you up to speed. This from Wiki: The Starchild skull is an abnormal human skull allegedly found in Mexico that is claimed to be the product of extraterrestrial-human breeding or genetic manipulation. Tests conducted utilizing mtDNA recovered from the skull have established it as human. A fellow by the name of Lloyed pie received the skull by a couple in the 1950's and he's held it ever since. it's believed that the Starchild skull is about 900 years old. Pie believes it is a human alien hybrid because the way the teeth are formed and I'm on board with this. He makes a strong case for it. Interesting stuff.

I just learned that Tia Tequila (the woman who for years has been trying to expose a "illuminati" presence in the music industry had a suffered an almost fatal aneurysm Monday and might have permanant brain damage. Over the years she really believed there was an "illuminati" conspiracy. People have been exposing Illuminati symbolism in music videos for a while now, not that I personally believe in any of them but it is interesting how some people use the "illuminati" as cruch something to blame for all the things wrong in their lives, pathetic really.

I've got a full day ahead of me. Last night I got the  idea to go  into Tim's on my way home at Corona station and this university kid gets in front of me. Most of the staff are cleaning and all I just want is a decaff before my train gets there. So the kid starts ordering all  kinds of stuff. I said screw this and went to catch my train. I missed the first one and had a 10 minute wait for the second one and as I was waiting for my train I'm thinking that kid is probably still ordering. I was pissed. All I wanted was a small coffee to go and that was it. A 30 second order. I'll try it again and if the kid is at the door same time as me, I'm going to rush in ahead of him. It's probably an illuminati Tim Horton conspiracy ;-) Anyway, that's about all from me today

Saturday after work I went

and bought the full retail version of Cubase 6 and I'm having fun with it, except registering this software is a real pain. I had to send a support ticket to Steinberg, which could take up to 48 hours to answer.

Last night while listening to Coast, Dr. Sky was on talking about how in 2013 an asteroid is heading this way and could be within 16,000 miles of earth. That's way to close. They were saying that if it hits the planet it'd be like a nuke the size of Hiroshima and if it lands in the ocean the tsunami could take out a small coastal city. What if though the date of arrival of that asteroid is off and it hits in late 2012? They said February of 2013 but that could easily be December 2012, I'm just saying.

Unlike a lot of people that don't like Mondays, I love my Mondays because I have the day off of course. This afternoon, I'm playing around with Cubase 6, Anne's making me some lunch and then it's the Oiler game against the Ducks on at 8pm, then it's another Monday night Raw. I had a decent weekend what with playing around with Cubase.

This week is a full week, as I'm working Tuesday-Saturday, which will give me 37.5. I was considering making a Saturday morning trip to Ye Old Craft Lodge but I need the hours. Next week is going to be hectic on me, I have a Lodge practice on Sunday March 11th then a MM degree on the 15th (off that day) as it's a 5:30pm start then it's my wife's birthday that Friday and I want to take her out on Sunday for a birthday dinner. I'm going to miss Ye old craft on the 10th but maybe not. I'm taking that Saturday off. I wont be able to go to Commercial though but I'll get 36 hours in that week. There's an installation or something I want to go to on the 23rd of this month as well but I'll confirm that with one of my Lodge colleagues later on this afternoon.

I've got a busy week and a busy month ahead but I like being kept busy like this. Keeps things interesting. anyway, that's about all for today.

Since I began

this HDI campaign about mid January of this year, I had always on any given shift been able to score some money on this campaign. At least something. Yesterday however, not one sale. I could go nuts trying to figure out what went wrong, I mean not one sale in a 4 hour shift? As soon as I got outside into the brisk early March air heading for Corona station, a kind of weight just lifted from my shoulders. The only thing on my mind was to head home and get ready for Lodge. Neil’s wife said he’d be picking me up. Great, I had a little bit of time, chance for a bite to eat from the can of stew Anne had prepared for me and shit, shower, shave and change into my suite and wait out there for Neil. Right on time.

I had a very good night last night except I had forgotten the Lodge keys. Only the 3 principle officers are suppose to have keys to the building and the building custodian that sets everything up for us. I was also shown where the spare key to the cabinet was. We had our District Deputy Grand Master pay us a visit and there were a few members there from Grand Lodge. I did my part and pulled it off without a hitch, no problems. I was having a good night. The energy  in the Lodge was good. The festive board just as good and crib night afterwards. We had 5 guys playing crib and I won one game playing on a 3 lane board. I want to set up a bit of a tournament.

Next week I want to go to AW on Monday with Anne and put 4 hours in that Monday night, then work the full week. I’d also like to go to Ye Old Craft Lodge which is early on a Saturday morning, they tyle at 9am but they serve a lunch and I’m up early anyway on a Saturday morning, so why not? I’ll be home by 3pm time for Anne to make me a bite to eat and 35.5 hours on the week. Then on that Sunday we have our Master Mason degree practice, which I want to be there and that‘s on the 11th. Then I’m working Monday night through to Friday night and I’m going to be at Commercial Lodge on the 17th (if all goes well.) So that’s going to be our regular communication (last night) Ye Old craft on the 10th Lodge practice on the 11th and Commercial on the 17th. it’s a busy Lodge month.

Today I hope to make up for lost ground from my dismal non show yesterday and then to my bank and home. Tomorrow, it’s a full 6 hours and then I’m off to either LM or Axe for a product I want to buy but more  on that Saturday. Anyway. That’s all for now.

February was a rough

month to say the least. First we lose Sparky, I almost lost my job, Anne lost some hours, then hearing about the passing of Davy Jones of the Monkees. Sorry I mean no disrespect but I couldn't care less about Whitney Houston but Davy Jones was from my generation. I mean Whitney had 3 #1 hits. The Monkees had 4 #1 albums and 3 of them in 1 year. In 1967 they were more popular then the Beatles and Rolling stones combined. The Monkees had 3 #1 hits and yes they could all play (they were under contract not to) musical. instruments except Davy. The only Monkee that was "allowed" to play anything was Mike. Sure I like other bands and artists more then the Monkees. To me the Monkees were in my top 10 of musical acts/. I might make a page about this on my website. I feel really bad for Davy, the 3 active Monkees were about to go on a June UK tour, very sad. I'm glad February is over. Anyway, that's all for now.