Snow fell on my way into work and on my way

back.

Having 2 part time jobs has it's moments but the scheduling is the tough part trying to juggle everything. My first job has me inked in for Friday and Saturday that's my fault because that's when my 2nd job has me back as well. For my 2nd job I'm Thursday, Friday, Saturdays. Except this week its Friday/Saturday at my first job. So, I'm thinking about calling in my first job this Friday saying I wont be in that day but in on Saturday. Then whey I'm in on Friday at my 2nd job I'll say I won't be in Saturday. That way everyone gets my time. it's complicated I know.

This morning my wife says upstairs in the hallway somebody left 2 apparently working TV's. At least according to the note left behind saying for anyone to help themselves. Somebody obviously got a new TV for Christmas. I helped Anne bring one of the TV's in and we set it up in place of our TV that isn't getting any audio. Strange this one isn't getting audio as well. Something tells me for some reason we're not getting any audio in because it's something our ISP is doing. Anne called our ISP tech support and they suggested it's most likely our cable into the TV that needs upgraded (after 10 years) They're sending in a new cable in the new year.

2013 started off with uncertainty. I was just getting my severance package finalized by my previous place of employment. I had all of December 2012 off and all of January 2013 off, and the NHL went back to work. I paid off on my Maschine account at LM. Read 2 books. Then I got a job offer. I received a nice income tax return in the Spring. I bought a wifi camera a couple of computer music programs. Anne and I saw a couple movies from our Scene reward program and "Money in the bank," a WWE PPV at West Edmonton Mall (WEM). We've been out there 2-3 times this year to WEM. I probably should have bought the 2 studio monitors instead of the 2 computer music programs and the camera and I could have got a desk as well or I should have got the monitors on the account because shortly after buying Maschine Mk2 Native Instruments brings out Maschine Studio! I had steady employment for much of the Spring but then at the end of July the bad news blow to my hours cut back to a couple shifts/week but my income tax return helped soften the blow that Summer. LM moved its 109th street location out to the West End. I applied for my CPP and got it. Then there was the civic election. We lost a budgie bird we almost got evicted because of bedbugs, which we had tested negative for. My local Tim Horton's was closed for renovations. I got "elected" WM of my lodge for 2014 and I started another part time job. One of my top moments for 2013 was reconnecting with family after a 12 year absence. Out of that I was able to find more details on mom and dad adding a bit of closure for me and that's where we are now. 2013 had it's ups and downs. 

I've got another glorious 3 days off. One of them with pay. Thursday my first real night as Lodge Master. I'm looking forward to it but that's a couple of days away. Anyway that's all for now.

heading into work yesterday at noon wasn't so bad despite the snow coming down

and it certainly wasn't cold at all. I got to Subway for my  morning coffee and buzzed to get upstairs. Besides the supervisor, I was the only one there at 12;45pm. Alright. By 1pm I proceeded to log in and work went well. It was about 1:15pm and I was still the only one there. When 3pm rolled around I asked if we should go the whole shift. The boss called the supervisor and suggested we close the day out at 4pm. Worked for me. 

After work I went over to Audrey's to order the Warhammer 40K books but the 3 "Horus Heresy" books in my format for this series wouldn't be in my format until late 1st quarter next year. I placed the order anyway. I also ordered "Path of the Elder" and Molodrax Space Marine Battles book #13. I'll get these in January. At least that part was successful. 

I had a bit of a wait for the train but I was reading my book "Space Wolf." I got home by about 5:15pm. It was a tough day.

Anne wasn't home when I got in. Probably out shopping. Two hours latter she still wasn't in and when 8pm rolled around she finally came in saying she was at the medi centre up the street over there by Sobe's. She said the Tim's store there still had lasagna. Some Tim's have it some don't.

Today I'm in from 6-10pm. So it's going to be a short week there but this week is also Lodge week. It's my first month as Lodge master. Anyway, that's all for now.

It was a long 6.5 hour shift and I was struggling

with my cold the whole time through. Today is about the same only we're starting a bit latter and I can sleep in latter.

I didn't get out to Audrey's to order those Horus Heresy books yet. I hope to do this Monday before my shift. Then I get another 3 days off so I hope I can finish "Space Wolf." Then I'm going to try and tackle the Horus Heresy series and read one about once every other month. 

The Oiler's started out good holding a 2-0 lead going int the 2nd. They took t bad penalties and the flyers tied it in the 3rd. Then the Oiler's pulled ahead and the flyers tied it at 3 each. OT didn't decide anything but I passed out on the couch while Anne was across the street shopping. I woke up during the shoot out and the Flyers won 4-3. We're in Phoenix on Tuesday to wrap up 2013. With half the season almost over at 41 games we're at 13 Wins 24 losses 4 points in OT for a total of 30 points. That's with 3 number 1 forwards! The Oiler's are the worst in the West. Only Buffalo in the East has us beat.. 

Anne broke out her juicer she got for Christmas and we tried it out. It's not too bad. I'm going to ask her to make us a glass each every night.

Coast last night had one of the most boring shows ever, "Curbing cussing." I put it on for like 10 minutes before I passed out. The host was good but the topic was dull. Tonight the topic is Spirit Encounters/ Weird World. Anyway, that's all for now.

Now I've got the

coughing and hacking thing going on but at least I can eat, which is a good thing. Anne is still coughing like I am. I'm almost tempted after work to go across the street to get a flue shot. Better safe then sorry.

In case you hadn't read on Twitter, I update my post on music production. I included a video of my workstation/studio and a couple of videos of the tools of my trade. I'm 
eventually getting a better desk as well as my desktop upgraded.

If finally had to happen. My old 1990 Magnavox TV as seen here lost it's volume. I Tweeted a photo of it just now. It's a 20 year old TV that Anne mostly enjoys while in bed. Hopefully in May I'll get a nice refund from RC to pay for my computer upgrade. In the meantime I'm saving up for a smart TV so we can transfer our front room TV into the bedroom. I'm not even going to look at boxing day week specials because I wont have the funds until March but its going to make a nice birthday present for Anne.

I had a great night last night watching the Oiler's win in Calgary. This years "Battle for Alberta," is 2-1-3. Meaning the Oiler's won 2/5 and the Flames won 1/5 and it took a OT victory to do it. The Oiler's play Phillie tonight at Rexall.

This upcoming week, I have Saturday (maybe Sunday) Sunday, Monday then 2 days off and then I'm at the 2nd job Friday and Saturday. Though that depends on what the new project is. I'm not going to miss lodge to do any training, that's for sure. Anyway, that's about all for now.

First it was Anne and now

me that got the flue, or something. My flue symptoms occurred Monday night after work. A little tickle in the throat. Anne got her's Christmas eve after she came back from mass. I got mine Christmas afternoon but I didn't begin to feel it until yesterday. But I called in sick just to make sure. 

Apparently there will be 3 new high rise buildings going up in our downtown core, besides the Fox and Ultima towers currently under construction. One of which is the Ramsey block and 2 other high rises to be mentioned in the new year. Downtown Edmonton (activity wise) will look like 1980's boom.

I figured out what went wrong with my Cubase plug-ins being all grayed out. Reason for this is because its an affect  found in the affects tab not in the menu tab! In the Cubase "Inspector" left of the track lanes there's a noticeable blue e After clicking on that another screen comes up and it's all in there, sweet. After I get my computer upgrade I'm getting HAlion 5 and upgrading to Cubase 7 and then 7.5.

So I took the day off away from work and so did Anne. Hopefully I'll be at work tomorrow morning. I'm sure I'll be ok. Besides, I have some books to order at Audrey's, 3 Horus Heresy novels, a Space Marine Battles and Path of the Elders Omnibus. Great stuff. Anyway, that's all for now. .

Other then my wife being sick with

the flue, one might think I'm on the other side of 'marital bliss.' Or on the other end of a strong case of PMS. Wait now, its almost the same thing. She's reacting the only way she knows how, its not her fault. I have one more day with this and back to work Friday, yeaaaa! It's only for 4 hours though.

Anne tells me we have a couple of Doctor Who episodes in the ol pvr, I'll be catching one of them today and Saturday after work.  

For the most part I was working on a track in Cubase 6 Christmas day and getting bogged down in clipping issues. My 31st attempt at finally figuring it out and mostly using it correctly. I'm still having issues with some programs grayed out. I'd like to use the limiter under the dynamics tab but it's grayed out to. The forums aren't much help here and neither is Google. 

My mom and dad married in their late 20's and too old to be part of the early rock n' roll scene going on at places like the Hollywood bowl in New West, then the Grooveyard. When my parents were teens they were most likely into Swing music. Jimmy Dorsey, Martha Tilton, Benny Goodman,that sort of thing. My parents as teens would have gone to Vancouver in the 1930's. The Hollywood bowl was mostly a place for 1950's teens to hang out. It was way before my time but the Grooveyard would be just taking over in that location with the sounds of the R and B scene in the mid 1960's. The Hollywood Bowl earned a "rough reputation" in the 1950's, which most likely carried over into the 1960's generation. I would be like 14 when the Grooveyard was in it's prime but we were out in the "sticks" in suburban Coquitlam. The only time we got out to New West was to visit Grandma and to pick out my first bike in 1959 at Caps. But that was in Sapperton on the way to New West as everyone calls it. I'm sure before the club then called "The Hollywood bowl" and Metro today it was another dance spot in the 30's.

Today is Boxing Day and it's going to be crazy busy in about another 8 hours. I'm glad I'm not out there. Anyway, that's about all for now. 

About 3pm

yesterday Anne and I headed out to Earls. Swiss Chalet closed at 3pm but Earls was closing at 4pm but they wouldn't turn anyone away if they got there before they closed their doors. I had a cheese burger/fries but no beer. Earls is pretty easy to get to from here. It's just around the block at the lights by the church and across the street. We walked home from there.

 Since we don't have a lot of money our Christmas's are somewhat lame. We don't need a lot of things though. We just buy each other small things, like socks, or coffee mugs and chocolates and I got a 6 pack of beer, that sort of thing. One is in the fridge now. Anne got herself a juice extractor I got a designer cup with of a photo of my first cat Pledges I'm drinking some lemon relief now:

Space Station crews yesterday went out for a "space walk" to repair a cooling system for the ISSS. It was reported the the space suits they are using are 35 years old! Wow. This was the 177th "space walk" for the crew. 

Anne had a bout of flue and asthma and wasn't feeling too well and I got a bit of the flue earlier as well and I'm not feeling all that great. It's probably the mild air that brought it on.

I'm just wating for Anne to come back from midnight mass. She's Catholic not that she goes to church every Sunday or anything like that. She's most likely on her way home now.

Anne and I have been so busy working over the last 3 weeks we even forgot our wedding anniversary: December 6th  2,000. Anne brought it to my attention about an hour ago.


.

Finally its now Christmas eve

and I'm about to have a bit of down time for myself. Anne is watching her shows. We got Christmas snacks and 3 days off! I'm back Friday, Saturday.

Anne's going to check it out of course but we're going to try and go to our local Swiss Chalet just down the block. I'm having a burger and a beer. Then we're coming home having a relaxing night and open presents.

I09 has a great video response to Michio Kaku's surprisingly weak critique of Alcor's life extension foundation, cryonics. I'm no expert on this but I find it a fascinating topic. Kaku thinks that cryonics is mainly for the rich that want to live forever. According to Alcor's spokes person, it doesn't work like that. The idea is that after a doctor has tried everything to treat a patient and failed as part of said patient's life insurance policy at just a few dollars/day can have their body frozen. The idea is when the science is there at a future date say 2-3 decades out that person can be revived or thawed. The problem now is that we can't as far as I know actually freeze much less thaw a human body. It hasn't been done, yet. Or even if it can be done. Then there's brain and cell damage in the meantime. However, science has been able to clone a sheep. There are some interesting questions about freezing a human being for future thawing out. Where do we keep the hundreds, perhaps millions of bodies? There are lot of unknowns and conditionals, like cell ice expansion. Yet these are problems of today, not 2-3 decades away. Also, what if companies like Alcor fall victim to economic downturns and file for bankruptcy? Also, how much power would it cost to keep one individual frozen for a day, month or decades? Where are they going to be stored? What happens if there is some kind of natural l disaster?

Work yesterday went by ok I fucked up on the job a couple of times but nothing serious. On my way out by Starbucks I slipped on some black ice and skinned my knee as we were receiving a bit of freezing rain downtown on my way home about 10pm. 

I fixed my blog intro above and I want to make a better banner to reflect what I'm currently into. If I covered everything in the intro just  below the banner it would take almost a whole page by itself. Anyway that's about all for now.

Monday it feels like Friday today what with this being Christmas week and all

as I'm going in for 4 hours today.

Saturday night at Rexall a fan (in protest) through a Oiler jersey on the ice after the game! Six straight losses. I don't blame the players or even the coach. The problem goes a lot higher up the chain of command then just the coach. For a fan to toss a $240 jersey on the ice after the game, that's a pretty drastic statement.

In principle the Northern Gateway (NG) pipeline has a green light to go ahead but only if it can meet about 215 conditions. Enbridge must also have a cash reserve of about $100 million in response to any environmental mishaps should anything go wrong. Then NG has got to fight all the foreign funded native groups using them to hinder NG as well. The NG has been in legal quicksand for the last 4 years and even though they have the green light to go forward, I doubt it ever will.

Once I get my hours stabilized or a different job that has steady hours, I'm seriously considering another LM account for Maschine Studio after I get my computer upgrade. Not that my current version of Maschine (Mk2) isn't good enough. I barely got MK 2 before native Instruments came out with Studio.

Finally we get a break in the weather as we're sitting now about -8 and it's to get warmer. Eastern Canada was hit with a massive episode of freezing rain This one rivals even the huge freezing rain storm that hit Quebec in the late 1990's

Tonight after work I'm going to catch some of Monday night Raw and enjoy my 3 days off. Anyway, that's about all for now.

So much for my Saturday off

though it had it's ups and downs. On the down side the Oiler's lost (again) dropping their 6th straight. On the plus side I got a free ticket on my lotto 6/49. Speaking of, which somebody here in Edmonton won Friday's $50 million Lotto Max millions! Usually these large amounts are won by a group of people at the workplace. On my 2nd job it was announced for those that have signed up for the lottery they didn't play this round because the office broke for Christmas  on the 20th. It's ironic that the office that didn't play is living in the city that won the $50 million. Saturday nights 6/49 draw was for $5 million but because nobody won, it climbs to $11 million. Winning $11 million would be a great way to start the new year. I'd split half of that with my wife, give all my immediate siblings something and live off the rest.

This photo was taken of me at the Florida Panthers/Oilers in early October 2011. 

I'm discovering more interesting details about my family all the time. I learned my father was married twice before. My mother was his 3rd wife! I was kind of worried I was conceived out of wedlock but my parents were married a year before I was born. I thought my father grew up in El Centro California but he grew up in Vernon BC during the 1930's.

Today I'm up at 11am just to go over a bit of email and out there door shortly before noon so I can be at the office by 1pm. I'm there from 1-8 today but I get a half hour and 2 ten minute breaks. Add a couple of bathroom breaks in there to stretch my legs and it'll be a fast shift. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Work went well yesterday other

then a case of mistaken identity from a volunteer. Most of the volunteers where I work at my 2nd job are women. About 2 thirds of the way into my shift my supervisor pulled up along side my desk and told me this story how one of the volunteers claimed to have seen me rummaging through files on her desk last Saturday. What? I was a bit stunned by this to say the least. The volunteer made the allegation to my boss and since there had been no documentation he relayed the allegation to my supervisor to "get my side of the story." Apparently I was the only male there on that shift. Since the incident last Saturday 5 days had passed. I denied the allegation to my supervisor against me of course. I don't do things like that. Then long after I had been at home last night I remember last Saturday at break looking through the cupboards in the kitchen to find a plate for my sausage rolls that were cooking in the microwave oven. I didn't go through the other side to handle papers on a desk in somebody's cubical that didn't belong to me. This person must have made a connection between me going through the cupboards and somebody going through her files. Other then that little mishap I had a good night. I'll have to deal with it when I get back January 3rd.

Finally after about 3 weeks, I have a day off and I have 3 days off in the middle of the week Christmas week.

At this moment I have enough to pay for my Lodge dues but I can pay them anytime in January. Anyway, that's all for now.

On the South bound train at Rexall about 3pm

yesterday my train kept stopping and waiting and that's when I thought, well do I get off here at Rexall and try and catch the #5 waiting here or wait for it downtown by the Money Mart on the same side of the street at the end of the block where Audrey's books is? Meh, may as well stay on the train because sure enough as soon as I get off at Rexall and go topside on the other side of the tracks my bus will be gone. My train stopped for about 5 minutes 3-4 times all the way to Corona. I ended up waiting 15 minutes there anyway for the #5. I got on the #135, which the driver said stops at the same stops as the #5. I didn't want to take that chance, in case he was unsure so I thought I'd get off at about The Pearl highrise and wait for the #5 there. I got off at my stop at 4pm and they didn't close the doors. Today I'm going to get the #5 at Rexall and even though it's a long ride, at least I'm not in the cold for 20 minutes. Actually it wasn't all that cold this afternoon and even coming back. It was like -14 but there was no wind, which was a bonus. I got home about 9:30pm. 

I was watching a very compelling documentary on YouTube this morning called "The Elvis Files." I'm not suggesting I believe that Elvis is still alive or anything like that but there is some very compelling evidence to suggest he is. If so he would be 78 years old. Like many of my generation we remember where we were during important historical events. I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news that JFK was shot. I remember exactly where I was when John Lennon was killed. I remember where I was when I first heard over the radio that Elvis died. I wasn't exactly a fan of his music. I was too young for Elvis but just right for the Beatles in a appreciation of popularity and music wise. We've all heard or possibly said the joke, "Elvis has left the building, or his famous, 'Thank you, thank you very much." type phrase. We laughed at the "Elvis sightings" etc. Well, after watching this documentary on Elvis, I'm rethinking about this. In 1970 Elvis was on his plane to Washington wanting to visit with then President Richard Nixon. About this time he wrote a letter to Nixon, writing about the concerns he had over the state of the country. Elvis researchers years later obtained this letter and noticed some similarities between that letter and the hand writing on Elvis's death certificate. Hand writing experts super imposed the Nixon letter on top of the death certificate and found both "matched!" During the 1970's Elvis had a lot of death threats upon him and some researchers believe that Elvis's death was due in part to Elvis being on a Government witness protection program. There were polls taken at the time of "The Elvis Files"during the late 1980's and early 1990's suggesting that about 85% of Americans believe Elvis is still alive. I'm sure those that do support that notion based those opinions on "The Elvis Files" etc. So where could Elvis be? Anywhere. It's widely known that Elvis was into Gnostic beliefs and paid many visits to the Rosicrucian park in California and I believe that if he is still alive that could have been one of the locations  where he was stayed after his death. 

So today it's another 4 hour shift on my 2nd job and then at last I have a day off. Saturday! Wow. Then a long day Sunday on my 2nd job and then Monday and I get 3 days off. 

*Update: I called about my hours on my 1st job moments ago and I'm working Sunday, Monday, off for 3 days, back on Friday and working the following Saturday. That's for the first part of this pay period. I also have 2 stats within the upcoming pay period as well. The hours and stats are going to be a ok start to the New Year. Not great but ok.

Still in keeping with the update I'm considering taking on a 3rd part time job! I'm looking at Sundays, 7-12:30am, 5.5 hours and Mondays 9:30pm-12:30pm. If I'm working days Mondays I'll ask if I can start at 6pm-12:30am. But I'm thinking Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays. Friday it would be after my 2nd job 9-12:30am. I'd be looking at 32 hours in a pay period. My 2 other jobs would be for my obligations around here and the other possible 3rd job would be for my own use and I'm considering another bank account as well. Where the 3rd job makes sense form an hours standpoint is when my 1st job is only able to provide me with part time hours, since my hours on my first job project based. My 2nd job hours are static and so would be the 3rd job. The 3rd job Anne doesn't know about yet but over the holidays I'm going to open another bank account. I like  TD because the Edmonton Centre branch is open Saturdays. The thing is, none of these hours are in conflict with each other or my lodge and even the lodges I want to visit. I'm going to keep this going until I retire and then just before retirement take a leave of absence from all jobs and go on a "medical unemployment" and take some time off until my full pension kicks in. Then I'll decide from there what will be my one and only part time job. I've got 3.8 months to decide. Most likely it'll be a combination of my 1st and 2nd jobs. Anyway, that's all for now.

Enjoying a bit of down time this morning

but it looks like I could be getting hours next week at my 1st job. Today I'm out of here at about 3pm for my 2nd job for 4 hours and 4 hours Friday.

The Winter Solstice is Saturday December 21, 12:11 P.M. EST. It means the days will "get longer," sort of. After this month we've got about 2.5 months of winter, more or less.

Making some good progress in the Warhammer 40k book I'm reading "The Space Wolf" 2nd Omnibus. I should have it read by the end of the month if all goes well and I can start in on the Horus Heresy series early in the New Year.

We're in the middle of a cold snap but by Christmas we're into some milder weather like about -2's and such. Anyway, that's all for now.

Yesterday was a long one but one of the more productive

days on the job I've had in awhile. I've got a 4 hour shift today and I'm going to see about working at my 2nd job Thursday and Friday for the 2 full 7.5 hours each day. Also, Friday I'll need to see if there are any holiday hours posted for the 22nd, 23rd and the 27th but I doubt its going to happen.

I pulled this very interesting article by Ezra Levant from today's Edmonton Sun: This week, an independent review panel will release its ruling on the proposed Northern Gateway oil pipeline. The Joint Review Panel - operating on behalf of the National Energy Board and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency - started its review in 2009. For four years, a company called Enbridge has been ready to build the pipeline, ready to spend more than $6 billion - of their own money, not tax dollars - on the largest construction project in Canada. But for four years it has been gummed up in a bureaucracy. If built, the Northern Gateway would finally break Canada free of the stranglehold that the U.S. has over our oil market..read more here:

Tonight's show on Coast is "Future Space Technologies," here's the excerpt: History professor William R. Forstchen will discuss the time he's spent at NASA looking at research and development of various future technologies such as space elevators. It should be a great show.

Today I'm out of here at about 4:45pm to get to work by about 5:30pm for my 7pm start. Anyway, that's all for now.

My signature needed to be on

our ALCB liquor license as our lodge secretary and I arranged to meet me outside my office building down town. So in between red lights I was able to sign the ALCB form on the dashboard in the front seat as he drove me home. Normally I wouldn't get home until about 10:45pm when we're doing BC. I got home at 10:45pm last night. In record time, wow!

The payroll officer of my 2nd job emailed me yesterday saying something to do with my tax form. I probably messed up somewhere. Doesn't surprise me. I'll call her in the morning.

*A blog update: I called payroll in Calgary and I messed up on my tax form when I had filled that out when I got hired on. It's all corrected. My 2nd job doesn't send out a pdf pay stub like my first job does.

*At the moment I'm enjoying my first coffee. I had 7.5 hours of sleep but the hot chocolate Anne offered me before bed and the sleep time tea before that had me going to the bathroom about 6 times over night but I still got the sleep I needed.

*This has been on my reading list radar for awhile now: Warhammer 40K Space Marine Battles: "Malodrak." It's available in Trade and I'll probably order it when I have time off. There's also a new Horus Heresy book in there as well "Vulkan Lives" hopefully will be released in paperback in the Spring and same with "The Unremembered Empire" and  "Aurelian."

I wasn't much of a Peter O'Tool watcher but did enjoy him in "Lawrence of Arabia." I was sad to hear of his passing yesterday. We're losing a lot of great Hollywood stars.  

The schedule wont be posted for my first job until Friday so before I go into my 2nd job, I'll call to see if I have any hours over the holidays. Every bit helps. Anyway, that's all for now.

For the most part

I'm holding out from a straight 8 days on the job of no breaks. The scary part is, I'm actually getting used to it.

Doing some more reading over Canada Post and the gradual ending of to the door service. The main problem is pensions. Public service pensions are crippling this country. There's a movement that's trying to have cpp increases for all Canadians. Yeah at what cost? Mostly its Eastern Provinces are in favour of this but the West are not and for good reason. Guess where the money is supposed to come from? You guessed it, the oilsands. I don't mind if cpp goes up for all Canadians as long as the funds are coming out of the public sector. There's more to it of course then that mainly the many baby boomers like myself turning 60 claiming early retirement. It's a huge concern but I have a solution that will make everyone happy, cut back by say 75% the amount spent on Immigration. Canada spends about $23B annually on this bloated elephant. Since we're talking about a expanded pension for All Canadians, why don't we use the public pension contributions. It shouldn't be fair that the public sector not only be allowed to collect cpp but their own bloated pensions as well. Sure I'm all for pension reform as long as everyone plays by the same rules, that its the same for everyone and not just a few. So if Canada Post folds overnight (which it wont) I say good riddance. 

This weekend China has landed a rover on the moon. Its called the Jade Rabbit.The 120kg (260lb) Jade Rabbit rover can reportedly climb slopes of up to 30 degrees and travel at 200m (660ft) per hour! That's fast.

I'm reading more of "The Space Wolves" 2nd Omnibus. Hopefully the Black Library will come out with a 3rd Omnibus. In the meantime, I'm missing about 6 other Warhammer 40K Omnibus books to add to my collection.

Anyway, I've got another 3 days of long hours this week and maybe 3 days off before we return back to work on the 2nd. Anyway, that's all for now.

Since the main box stores

like Walmart and Superstore are open 24/7 for the holidays, my wife has been out there (like now) shopping saying she'll be in by 1am, yeah right. If she's not back by 1am, I'm going to bed.

Looking at memory express website they have a lot of mATX motherboards and a lot of them are Intel based. I  might have to rethink this now. Intel is more pricier but I have more options but at the moment I'm just window shopping.

It seems that at most LRT stations, escalators are down for maintenance. At the end of my commute the escalator on the upper concourse to street level has been shut down for maintenance way to much lately. It seems to me like it's a City make work project. I rarely see any of these "mechanics" at work. My IPM/JW for instance is a ETS (Edmonton Transit System) mechanic but I don't think he works in escalators/elevators. 

I'm up in about 6 hours to got to work. It's a full day ahead. I took a replacement LRT bus from Corona after my 2nd job and it parked on the East side of Stadium station. This was about 3pm. I'll have to go that route in the morning as I want a Tim's breakfast since they didn't have lasagna. They pulled it from their menu again, its a seasonal product it seems. After boarding the train back to Clareview I decided since I'm only going to Corona in the morning I'll go to Stadium instead of taking the #5 and get the bus there before work. It's a full 7.5 hour day. At least I'll be able to catch some of the Oiler/Phoenix game when I get home (maybe). Anyway, that's all for now.

This is my straight 8th day working 2 jobs like this and I have another

week to go plus 35 hours between both jobs. It basically means a pay cheque every Friday between now and the end of May. 

I'm not about to give up on my laptop just yet for music production. I've known about laptop cooling trays for awhile now. Laptops are notorious for giving off to much heat. programs like Guitar Rig in my laptop crash on start up and I think it's because of my cpu and not my hard drive per se. AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor TK-42. Speed : 1.60GHz. I'm thinking about upgrading the laptop's cpu to a Turion 64 X2 TL-68 at 2.4 GHz. Its a significant upgrade that can fit in this Acer but more on this later.

Edmonton Alberta is the go to place for anyone wanting a job here in Canada. Our unemployment rate is about 5% and the housing rate is something like 1.6% In other words it's easy to get a job here but hard to find rental accommodations. Anne and I are lucky to have what we have. The Oiler's may be losing and the weather is cold but I wouldn't want to live anywhere else in the world. 

Today I'm in for 4 hours and Sunday for 7.5. It's a full day tomorrow but the weather is warming up for a bit but by next weekend the weather should be back to where it is now currently at -15, which isn't that cold.

This weekend ETS has the LRT shut down from Clareview to Stadium station. I'm taking the train down to Rexall and catching a #5 there, which means  no breakfast stop at Tim's but I'll do that tomorrow morning. After work, I'm considering some lasagna at Tim's for my dinner and then home . Anyway, that's all for now.

I had a pretty good night on the job last night for my 4 hour

shift for my 2nd day of calling. 

I left out of here yesterday about 3:30pm as it was snowing and -24 wind chill. It wasn't very nice out there but I got into work at 4pm. Starting at 4:30pm. I had a productive shift. 

Coast2Coast has a fun show on tonight "Martian Ruins & Freemasons." I'll listen in for a bit. I love this stuff, not that there's much stock in it but its a fun show.

Today I'm in for another 4 hours and I'll be watching Friday night Smackdown. Next week, I'm going to try and work 10-2 on my 2nd job and then work 3-10 on my first job. It's only for that week as my 2nd job breaks for Christmas.

My weekend is going to be busy as I'm working Saturday on my first job and a full day on my 2nd job. I'm going to be busy. Anyway, that's all for now.

Today I'm off to my

second job, which means I'll be home to watch the last period of the Boston/Oiler's game. Even though my 2nd job has a higher rate of pay I'm currently losing money because my first job is giving me more or less full time hours. But for how long? We have another project about mid January that is days and this works out good in February because my 2nd job breaks for that month before starting up again March to the end of May. I don't know what I'll be doing at my first job in March. They might be just working evenings, I have no idea, neither do they at the moment.

The Alberta Government is stalling on LRT funding because they still think Edmonton's priority's are hockey arena's. We don't need money for that anymore. That's all taken care of. City of Edmonton (coe) yesterday made LRT (Valley line) their number 1 priority. This was made loud and clear and the Province is saying "wait until our Spring budget." Yeesh

On the Federal front Canada Post is downsizing big time. They're saying that within the next 5 years, there will be no more home delivery. Over the next 5 years through attrition, they are cutting 8,000 jobs. There still will be a Canada Post and mail but mail will now be moved to community mail boxes. These moves will save Canada Post $billions. 

Lately I've been doing some research on building my pc for music production. I'm looking at the AMD A10 as my cpu on a aMATX Gigabyte motherboard (mb) with 32 Gb Ram and 7.1 audio. I'm buying a new case as they don't cost that much and neither does the optical drive. The case I'm looking at has a built in 650W power supply. When I'm ready, call the vender and make sure they have the parts and have the time ready to see me. "So, I just go in and order the parts over the counter?" All I have to do make sure the funds are ready in my Scotia account the Friday before. Make an appointment and take a Saturday off, pack up my laptop take the train to Southgate and the shuttle bus to the vendor and hopefully get the whole thing done in about an hour. The big job is going to be in cloning my laptop onto the new drive. Anyway, that's all for now.

I took my suit and apron along as I made a decision to go to Lodge

last night anyway. Anne caught me heading out the door in my suit, "oh your going out to Lodge anyway." Then she went back to bed. I felt good about making the decision, I'd "pay for it later." I called the WM elect at Corona, saying I'd be there. I mentioned to my boss about leaving at 7pm. We had training at 6pm doing a BC project, which means I'd be at Clareview station at station at 10pm as my options for catching a bus home would be less at that time. I'd get home about 11pm. 

There's been renewed interest in a high speed bullet train that would travel between Edmonton and Calgary. They ought to do it right with a Hyper-loop concept. 

The above would be better then high sped rail but it has it's share of problems. Just check out some the comments from YouTube.

Today before work I'm calling my 2nd job to see if I can get some extra hours. Hopefully I can work Thursday, Friday for 7 hours. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Obtaining the extra

hours is a good thing. Maybe taking this extra job in hindsight was a bad move but I'm looking long term. My 2nd job breaks for the month of February. For today however I'm at my first job 3-10 today. I'm there for 7 hours but I get a half hour break and 2 tens and some training. I'll have this same schedule for tomorrow as well and I'm going to call my other job to see if I can work 1-8:30 so I can get 7 hours in Thursday and Friday. At least the hours are there so that's a good thing.

The main casualty in this is that I wont be able to attend our mother Lodge's installation tonight. I got the ok from the boss at my first job but in keeping with my behavior of being upfront in my marriage and mentioning to my wife "if there is no training tonight I could be at Lodge tonight." She didn't go ballistic or anything but at 6:30am while I was trying to get a few hours sleep, she vehemently put cold water on that idea. So now I've got to contact somebody before I leave out of to pass my regards of my absence for tonight. I'm only (from "my office building") a few blocks away from Freemason Hall Anyway, that's all for now. 

Finally Sunday night Monday morning is here

as its been a full 4 days for me. I'm working over the next 15 days without a break but then I'll have 10 days free. Ten days with all of the major bills pad off! 

Yesterday I got down to Tim's at about 9am and had my Sunday morning breakfast. I had the sausage egg sandwich with hash browns and coffee before a prearranged meeting with Frank from our Lodge for a 9:30am-ish meeting. He had left his cap and apron behind at the Lodge from last Thursday, which I had managed to save for him. Being WM I'm the last one to leave and lock up. Frank showed up shortly after my breakfast. We had a nice little chat and I headed to the office for my 8 hour day ahead.

I'm a little early doing this but 2013 has been an interesting year to say the least. From 2012 I received a nice severance pay package that was just a little over what my weekly rate was. I had a couple of months off. Then I paid off a account at LM for Maschine, NHL hockey resumed and I took a job offer. I bought a wifi Samsung camera. Also, I took out my CPP. We lost a budgie bird and got a new one. We almost lost Sporty due to a bout of jaundice he had in September. If that wasn't enough I took out a 2nd job and latter became WM of my Lodge for 2014. It's been quite a year. I'll write a expanded version of this more closer to the end of the year.

This week, I've got a 4 hour shift at my first job. Tuesday I hope to have a 4 hour shift from 10-2 at my 2nd job then run down to my first job and work from 3-7 and head out to  Lodge after work. Then hopefully I'll work 10-2/3-7 for Wednesday and then Thursday/Friday 12:30-8:30pm and Saturday 10-2. It's 34 hours. Anyway, that's all for now. 

Saturday morning

Edmonton was the coldest place on the planet with a wind chill at -41! Waiting at the Money Mart at 9:30am yesterday on 108th street and Jasper, I could feel the wind chill go right through me. I got that 9:35am bus and was at work about 9:50am.

Everyone there felt the cold even in the building and there was no hot water for coffee. I did ok my first day on the job. I had to dodge traffic at 109th there and 124th to get the oncoming bus that was waiting for me. Thanks. I wanted to get home in time so Anne could get the bus pass. I got home shortly before 3pm. I tried having a nap but that didn't work for me. I answered email and relaxed most of t he night until the Flames/Oiler's at the Rex.

This week a very important anniversary is about to happen: December 8th 1980 was the day John Lennon was murdered. That was 33 years ago. More closer to home: December 12th 2012. The day I lost my job. It was on a Wednesday last year coming up this week. I don’t know if what my colleague at the other job is saying is truthful that it was only Edmonton that was closed. That’s consistent with other Edmonton call centre operations that were closed due to staffing shortages.

One of our older lodge brethren the other night at lodge,left his cap and apron, so he's going to meet me at Tim's at Corona station 9:30am in the morning. I'll be there at 9am getting out of here at 8:20am. The wind chill is expected to be -32 or something like that. I'm also going downtown because I'm working at the other job 10-6pm. I should be home by 7pm.

It's supposed to "warm up" a bit over the week  and our extreme winter is supposed to be retreating. We're going to be at -12's that sort of thing. Apparently long range is even looking at some +2's in that area. So on the CTV National news based what I said our temperature is, CTV totally ignores us and mentions Calgary at -38 (including the wind chill) National news doesn't like Edmonton because of our proximity to the Oil sands, we always get a "cold shoulder." I'm sorry but -41 is a lot colder then Calgary's -38! Anyway, that's all for now.

Thursday was quite a bit stressfull.

yesterday was a bit less so. 

Our office Christmas party at my first job was pretty good. I even got a present of a tin of chocolates, I gave to my wife. 
I was waiting for my Clareview commute home and I boarded the train and I realized in between Corona and Bay Station I forgot to get myself a ticket. The ticket Police came on at Corona and said "Tickets or passes please." Crap. Fortunately for me the ticket police was 1 officer and he had been at the front of the car making a "potential sale." This bought me enough time to get off at Bay Station to go upstairs and get a ticket. I got my ticket and waited for the next train. No "police." If I got picked up it would have cost me a $250 fine. I avoided a big headache. Somebody was looking out for me. 

This week is a big week, I'm pretty much working straight through until the 23rd. Then I get 10 days off. Hopefully I'll have our rent covered and my Lodge dues. Better income will come mid January to the end of May. So from January to the end of May it's going to be good. 

So today I'm at my other job from 10-2pm and trying to get back to Clareview Station by 2:30pm so I can meet Anne there at Clareview before 3pm. That way I can transfer the bus pass to her. Anyway, that's all for now.

I was the first 1 to arrive last night

but after doing my SW opening for some reason I totally I fucked up. I couldn't get any words out of my mouth other then gibberish. The DOC helped to bail me out. I rallied after that though. It was a special night, something I'll never forget. During the closing I did much better. The festive board was great. I had 2 pieces of lasagna and a cold can of beer. I was the last one (after shutting all the lights) to leave and locked up. 

About 5pm I'm off to our office Christmas party at my first job. I'm thinking about going out to Lodge tonight because. They Tyle at 7:30pm so I might just stay for an hour 6-7pm and head over to Lodge. Since I don't have to shut down or anything I'd be home or on the same train as Anne. If I get home before Anne she'd never know but I'm undecided on that. I'm up early Saturday for work at my 2nd job from10-2pm tomorrow. I might pop in for a beer at BP's Saturday later afternoon and come home and watch what's left of the Oiler/Flame's game. If that isn't enough I'm working Sunday 10-6pm for 7.5 hours and Tuesday it's off to Lodge again for another installation. Plus on the 16th we're having another Christmas party at my other job but I'm not that comfortable going to a Christmas party for a job I began only 2 days before.

On a more serious note, by this time the world has learned of the passing of Nelson Mandela. This was a man that fought for the freedom of his people. Upon his being jailed he would be an instant martyr. Maybe his jailers hoped Mandela would die in jail but world public opinion was enough to have him released. In his later years he saw that freedom realized. The yoke of apartheid and tyranny had been evaporated. Hopefully never more to manifest again. Attitudes like apartheid do belong in our society.    

Ok speaking about the Oiler's after Tuesday's horrible loss they bounced back last night big time beating Denver at Rexall 8-2!. It was a real blow out. Lately the Oilers win a game then lose a game. Following this pattern they'll should lose Saturday in Calgary. I hope I'm wrong. At least I get to sleep in today. Anyway, that's all for tonight.

I didn't get any hassle getting a

dbd form at my RBC branch earlier. I was at my destination by about 4pm up near 124th street and about 109th. I got the initial paper work done and did some training. There were some people from my previous place of employment. I got an update and apparently not all offices were closed down, only Edmonton because of staffing issues. They couldn't fill the phone room. This has plagued Edmonton call centres for a long time. In other words I was a victim of Edmonton's success. Apparently other officers in the country are still operating.

I'm off today except for my installation tonight, then I can relax a bit. Friday night I have the staff Christmas party going on at the other job but because I'm at work Saturday. 

Waiting out there for my 8:30pm bus wasn't that bad. I had with others a 10 minute wait. It sill took me an hour to get home. Anyway, that's about all for now.

The new Edmonton downtown

arena will be called Rogers Place. City council still has to approve the overall budget of $600 million if it goes over that then it has to go back to City council but even if it goes over budget it's the contractor that has to pick up the tab for the over runs. If all goes well, then shovels could be in the ground by March 2014.

Yesterday on the news they were making fun of a proposal by Amazon to drop small packages to customers by helicopter drones. The idea is to get small packages in the customer's hands within 48 hours or something like that. I can just imagine the skies being littered by these drones and Anne and I trying to leave our apartment having these things swarming like misquotes all over the front door, lol.

I mentioned to my boss that I have another part time job and he said he was surprised it took me so long. So that's a relief. I start my new job today as I'm off at 8:30pm tonight. I'm working at my first job Sunday (If they have a Sunday shift) Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. My 2nd job, Thursday, Friday Saturday. Of course my first Thursday of the month is out because of Lodge commitments. Both jobs unfortunately are not steady full time jobs. My 2nd job I'm off in the month of February, June, July, August. August at my 1st job is usually slow and my 2nd job isn't activated until September. My first job pays me less then my 2nd job by an extra $4/hour. So tonight I'm starting at my 2nd job, tomorrow is Lodge night and Friday my 1st job is having their annual "holiday party." I'm working Saturday morning at my 2nd job. Sunday I'm at my first job from 10-6pm. Then I'm Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday at my first job. Then Thursday, Friday Saturday at my 2nd job. So from Saturday December 7th until Saturday December 14th but it's only 4 hours. Sounds confusing? No kidding. 

I was at my bank before my shift yesterday afternoon trying to get a DBD form for my 2nd job and then they asked me my address. What? Then they asked me my date of birth. I began to get suspicious. Then at work I began to realize what's going on. When I opened my account I didn't use my original mailing address as I didn't want any mail from a bank getting to my residence because I wanted this account private account so I could save some money. So this means I need to leave out of here about 2:30pm today to explain whats going on. The bank is under new management and I didn't recognize anyone behind the teller there that would know me. Anyway, that's about all for now. 
 

Just enough time for a short blog post

before my bath and I'm out there door.

My pay cheque will be short next week but I have enough to take my wife out for a Christmas dinner. Our rent and bus pass is covered for December and my Lodge dues in January as well. Today is an early day in and out kind of a thing. I get home to watch 90% of the Oiler's game.

Not only is Edgewater going up but so is Ultima 2 and Fox Towers, and the Corner 1 & 2. There’s a lot of building going around, the Pearl, The Beth Shalom across the street, J22 (Phase 1-2) Glenora Skyline (Phase 1) Kelly Ramsey Rebuild Seventh Street Block, The Encore, 102 St Centre, AED Tower D  Hyatt Quarters Hotel, Clareview Rec Centre. There are some 36 Building projects most of which are condos and office towers. Not to mention the downtown arena and the Nait LRT line opening up in April. The 71 story Edmontonian highrise is slated to go up adjacent to the new downtown arena as well in a few years. There's between 2-5 Billion dollars worth of projects underway or about to go underway. I haven't seen this level of activity downtown since 1981.   

It looks pretty cold out there at the moment. We could get more snow tonight on my 7:30pm commute home. Then we go in for a cold snap for about 3 days. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Snow days are nice days as it doesn't bother me too much

I like snow days. We're having a good go right now for today. They say its supposed to let up by the time I come home tonight about 7pm.

This week I have that appointment Wednesday afternoon. Thursday its my big night. The secretary in a email was saying that this could be our last Installation. It very well could because a good portion of our membership are in their 80's. We're a trade Lodge, which means work is keeping most of the guys who would love to come out away because of the job. There's only 1 guy who's climbing up the chairs but he's at least 4 chairs (years) away. I'd probably stay on another year just to be installed as IPM. After that, if it goes that way I'm affiliating with Edmonton #7 and joining our local Royal Arch chapter. But if this is it for our Lodge, then the above will be set in place.

Today should be pretty easy but I have a book at Audrey's I need to pick up after work then home. It's Monday night Raw but that's been boring lately. I'll watch the opening and the last match that's about all I need.

I don't want to spend a lot of money right now as I think I have 1 more cheque until Christmas. My cheque coming up next is going towards paying my bills and taking Anne out to The Sawmill.

Yesterday Anne went out and bought that cat toy "Cats meow." It's about a 3" disk that has a extended arm with something that the cat "thinks" is a mouse and it spins just underneath a yellow cloth type material in random directions. The cats go nuts over it. Except Silky he's a bit to old for it but Sporty and Boots love it. It takes the big round batteries and overheats and shuts down occasionally. It's only $15 at Giant Tiger. Anne thinks it'll be a couple of bucks just before Christmas at the dollar store across the street. Anyway, that's about all for tonight.

if your a casual reader of this blog

you might have noticed some cosmetic changes here. It's got nothing to do with this being the "2nd month of winter" but rather I just got tired of the skin of this blog.

My laptop wasn't suffering from a password reset. It was suffering from a "User Profile Services" failed login. After a bit of checking (Thanks YouTube) I came across many fixes for this including this one. I tried systems restore, and going into user accounts to create a iso pw fix and user accounts, all kinds of things and the one in the link worked the best. So what would cause this to happen? About a year ago my laptop received a virus. One of the Supervisors at at work helped me out but said my OS was pretty much toast but he would see what he could do. A few days latter he came back saying he installed a copy of a popular OS. So imagine my surprise when I got the error message above. It looks like I'll need to get a copy of Windows. I know there are hacks out there and I might keep this long enough to save for Windows 7 64 Home ed. It's only $120 at Memory Express.. 

I was doing a lot of reading about Jack Ruby the man who shot Oswald. The more I read about Ruby the more I realize that he had no ties to the mafia or organized crime. Ruby wasn't a gun smuggler or mafia errand boy or anything like that. I'm not saying he was an angel but he wasn't a criminal. If anything he was an asshole and a bully, someone to stay away from. If I was Oswald's age in Dallas in 1963, I stay away from Ruby's night clubs.  

Sometimes I can get a little slow here. I recently rediscovered Flikr. Apparently everyone that signs up for a free account gets a Terabyte of storage. Pictures taken with a 6.5 megapixel camera can store something like 537,731 photos. The higher the mega pixels the less storage space. My 12MP (Mega pixel) Samsung camera for instance 291,271 pictures, which is amazing. I  only have about 6 photo's but I have something like 16Gb of photo's I want to upload. More or less. 

I've got a big week ahead here. I've got to try and negotiate some hours with my boss while still keeping this current job and balancing that with my new job. My current boss is flexible but between both jobs it means my hours are back to where they were before my hours were reduced. Then I've got to get a direct bank deposit form (or dbd) as I call them for my 2nd job and I start that Wednesday and on Thursday I'm being installed as Lodge Master. It took me 6 years to get here where it should normally take 8. I skiped a couple of chairs (Senior Steward & Junior Deacon.)  All this and we have this big winter storm developing and the cold weather to go along with it. Saturday morning heading in is going to be cold! 

So today, it's relaxing reading and watching the Oiler game on TV. Monday and Tuesday is going to be tough. Wednesday as well because that's when I start my new job. I was with this company before, so I know what it's like. It's in a rough area of town but I'm not alone going home. I might get the 9pm train heading home at Clareview. Anyway, that's about all for now.