If the place I work at calls me in September they

better make it quick because I'm not waiting on anyone. The plan is to take on another part time job, before my ei is about to expire. Its all in the timing. If the job calls me back between now and the end of next month, the new part time job is there to make room for them. If they don't call me back, I'm moving on. This current job is something I can save for when I'm on pension. I wont burn my bridges. If I get a full time offer, I'll take it but right now there is no income other then ei coming in.

Bare with me as I go down memory lane here. The best job I ever had was when I was working at the Army and Navy department store (AN) in the 1980's over 25 years ago. I dropped the ball on that one and it pains me to this day. The pay was min wage. I was transferred from my comfortable job at the Cobogo warehouse (now lofts) behind where the Ultima building is being built. I was at AN from 1982-1989. 90% of my tenure at AN was at the warehouse the rest at the North side store. While working at the store my hours were pushed ahead and I needed a second income. In 1988 I worked a bit for Associated Canadian Travelers (ACT) for about 3 months but it was a short project for the ACT Telerma. That job was on 149th where the tennis courts are at Coronation park, across the street from there. After that I was working for awhile with Xentel (it was called great west entertainment gwe) back then but I had to give it up because the store had me working from 10-5 when gwe was 5-9. AN was across the street from the Law courts building in those days. I had to get from AN to behind the Associated Engineering building on 110th Jasper. I probably could have made some arrangements to arrive a bit later but space was at a premium at gwe and the economy in the late 1980's wasn't that great here, basically first come first serve. One day I had a Doctors appointment in late March of 1989 out when my Doctor was in the Tera losa shopping centre out in the West end. While out in the West end after seeing my Doctor I thought I'd go see the ACT phone room supervisor Gavin and see when their summer project would begin. I didn't have a phone at the time. I should have said something like,"I'll call to follow up." My mistake was to mention where I was working. When I left ACT I thought nothing of it and went to begin my shift at AN. While working upstairs in the stockroom, I was called to see the general manager. "Your other employer called. I'm not having anyone on my watch look for another job when they should be working here. You can pick up your cheque on Friday." Or words to that affect. I was devastated in complete shock. No matter how hard I tried to protest to explain it fell on deaf ears. I even had a few colleagues speak on my behalf. They'd return shaking heads. I worked at gwe after that for awhile and then for a few other places, including Rainbow productions. I even tried Security guard work but there was a snag in that. Life in the 1990's was hard. I had odd jobs here ad there and on welfare once in a while. My problem was (still is) to keep my mouth shut. If I did and kept cool and not give Gavin any indication where to contact me, I probably would have continued on with AN through out into the 1990's. No doubt I would still work Xentel when they moved to 124th street out by Stony Plain Road in the 1990's. I would have even stayed with them up until I met Anne and got married. I would have stayed with gwe and Xentel for just 3 nights a week. Its not like AN was good income. It was steady income. Something badly missing from today. Now I'm on ei and I haven't been on ei since 2000 just before I got married.         

The highlight of my day today is heading out of here at 6pm for practice night at the lodge. We get the space for free that first Sunday before lodge. After I get up I'm gathering some phone numbers of places I can send my resume to for the week. Anyway, that's all for now.

Next Thursday is

lodge night. I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things again. Its been a long summer.

One of my favorite television shows as a teen was F-Troop. It lasted 2 seasons,1966 and 1967. I was saddened to learn Melody Patterson who played the "love interest" role to Captain Parmenter (Ken Berry) Wrangler Jane had passed away August 20th at the age of 66. Just 3 years away from my age. The rest of the story is here.

Last nights Argo/Eskimo game was a real home team blow out: Argos 15, Esks 38. Next weekend will be different because its the labour day classic. Its always in Calgary and we get the rubber match the following Friday. Should be a good one. Anyway, that's all for now.

At least if anything the

weather is nice, although we could use some rain. That's been the big story around here over the past few days and haze from forest fires. We really need a good steady rainfall. 

My father had psoriasis. I don't know if its hereditary but I've had it all my life. Just recently as of a few years ago thanks to my diabetes, I acquired a rash about the hairline of my forehead related to psoriasis. It get really flaky and spread. I had to wear a hat. My Doctor gave me this sample stuff about a  year ago:

 
When I tried it the first time about a year ago it didn't work for me. The Doctor told me to use it like shampoo but its such a small bottle. I heard all the old wives tales and when I applied Vaseline that worked to a point. Then just last week, I thought maybe I'm using it wrong. Lets read the instructions. There's a novel concept right? According to the instructions, your supposed to shake the bottles contents and apply it on the tip of a finger and rub it into the affected area. My Doctor said every day. So, that's what I did and am still doing it, every day. Over the last weekend I noticed it working. No itching, nothing. The problem I've had for almost 2 yeas is now a memory. Its gone. I've got a few more bottles left and I need to see my Doctor before I go back to work. The product is by prescription only apparently.  

Not much is going on around here but just some odds n' ends: I'm just waiting to be called back into work. I was in the office about 2 weeks ago to get a update. I haven't had too much ambition to take on anything else right now. They said September but I'm not just going to jump on them the moment the calendar changes at midnight Tuesday. I've got some business to do Monday and Thursday is Lodge. Most likely I'll go in next Friday put in my availability see if there's a schedule posted get an update and go from there. I'll be looking if nothing develops from that update next week. I need something steady 2-3 days a week that isn't dependent on anything. The job I have now is great when I'm on pension but as it stacks up now, well at least its something.

So, tonight I'm watching the Argo's/Eskimo's game. Its military appreciation night at Commonwealth. Saturday its more football and Doctor Who. I'm hoping to get back into the stream of things. I enjoy the time off, to a point. The breaking point of that threshold is almost here. Anyway, that's all for now.

There's been way too many of these types of

incidents where clumsy people inadvertently wreck valuable objects of art. Its not necessarily the perpetrators at fault here. The real blame is with the careless way these objects are displayed and exposed by the very venues themselves. To get more of what I'm talking about go here.

Forest fires close to the Canadian boarder in Washington state are causing complications in Southern Alberta. So much so that the City of Calgary has issued a health advisory warning. Even the Calgary Stampeders football club were having trouble on the practice field yesterday. With a full moon out tonight the moon, thanks to the fires will be almost blood red.

I'm not a huge TV watcher. I might do 15-20 hours a week. Now that I have this time off I'm watching more CFL football. Looks like I'll be watching a bit more TV because this Saturday on Space, begins the new season of Doctor Who. We missed last season due to work that sort of thing. I hope to catch more episodes this year then last year.

In my current line of work, I'm like a contractor. I have a job but there's just a shortage of work until the next project. What do most contractors do between contracts? They go on ei and wait by the phone or call to see if anything is is happening. That's essentially what I'm doing now. So today I'm calling the office to get a update. If there's no answer then I'll go in on my own about 8pm to see if anyone I know is leaving the building around closing time. Then go in the next day. I'm sending my resume out again today. Anyway, that's all for now. 

With the markets

reacting the way they were yesterday sent the price of oil to $38 a barrel. As I understand it with my limited knowledge on the topic this all has to do with the slowing down of the economy in China and the low demand for oil world wide. Even our dollar slipped to a 10 year low to .75 US. The lowest the price of oil bottomed out at was 2009 when it was $35, then oil bounced back up from there. I just hope we don't have another meltdown like 2008. 

The economy took centre stage on the election race today. Some people are saying better a devil we know then one we don't. The NDP were saying that if elected they'd increase the gis. That's not the issue. The issue with that is more Canadians need to be able to access the gis then increasing the amount they receive. In other words the qualifying threshold needs to change.

Hard to believe that lodge resume next Thursday. I've got just a few more months to go with this ipm chair. I think what I would like to do is take over the registrar's chair instead of the JW. Too much work to do in that chair. Anyway, that's all for now.

You know summer is over here in this city

when the last of the festivals is over. In this case when The Fringe is over, summer is over. Our problem is we have May and June are still 2 good months of summer but the city of Edmonton likes to cram everything into July and August. Even if the city just went with June, July and August would work. There are just way too many festivals and always a chance on missing some. I always miss "Taste of Edmonton." For the most part for me at least the summer is over at the end of August. With this summer I don't mind what with all the hot weather forest fires and lack of rain its been a really dry summer.

I was watching the National news Sunday night and they were talking about the Tens of thousands of migrants escaping Iraq and Syria. The people are fleeing the trouble and civil war plaguing that part of Middle East heading for Europe. They were saying on the news that there hasn't been this much refuge exodus since the 2nd world war.

Last nights Summer slam was really good. Anne is watching the encore version now. On a scale of 1-10 I'd rate it a 9. We're not sure if we are going to keep subscribing to the wwe network. We're mostly interested in their pay per views like "Money in the bank," "Summer slam" and "Wrestlemania" anyway. We tried it out and kicked the tires but we're not sure if we're going to keep ths subscription especially now since I don't have steady work. Besides I can always watch the smaller pay per views like "Pay back" "Night of Champions," those kinds of things up at the bar where there's a real crowd that gets right into it.

Speaking of my new eating out place isn't Wendy's anymore it's Red Robbin. Mainly because they are across the street and I don't have to go there for just food. They've got a great burger selection and their fries are the best here in Edmonton and I can go there for a beer if I want and just have a order of fries. Plus I signed up for their eclub and I get a free burger on my birthday, which is pretty cool. Anyway, that's all for now.

Its been over a month now

since I had any meaningful work. Thirty eight days exactly. I had 1 shift July 24th and even if I didn't have the lodge bbq all I would have got out of that last project would have been about 2 days. I'll be putting more resumes for other part time work. The idea is for 3 and 3 days. 

Last nights Stamps Riders game was close but not the outcome I was hoping for: 34-31. The Riders had a costly penalty and too many turnovers. Now the Stamps are first place in the West. Its Redblacks/Argo's at about 1pm today. So, that was week 9 in the cfl.  

With my new yahoo email account I was able to have installed a feature on my iPod touch absent since I got the iPod: A new Flikr account. Now, I can upload photo's and video's directly from my iPod to my Flikr account. Of course I need a wifi connection but there's no shortage of those around on my commute, so I'm happy about that.   

Anne wants to take me out for Sunday brunch today over here at Humpty's. We really can't afford it. We haven't been there in years. I'd rather have brunch here because if we got out time wise could compromise my Summer slam. We have a Cora across the street but it hasn't had great reviews. Hopefully Anne will change her mind because of Summer slam. I'm going to let her sleep in as much as possible. The longer I let her sleep, the "its too late to go" she'll say. Anyway, that's all for now.

I always seem to be blogging yesterdays

events but its all good. 

In just 365 days I'll be 64. OMG, I can't believe it. Who would have thought back in 1969 I'd get this far? 

All last week I was looking forward to last nights big game between Hamilton/Edmonton. Two teams 5-2, East vs West. I didn't have a Proline ticket but I would have picked a tie game. What was I thinking? The T-cats kicked our ass 49-20. Two many turnovers and points based upon them and ball security did us in. All I can hope for is for the Riders to beat the Stamps at Mosaic. That way it still keeps the Esks tied for first in the West if the Riders win today.

I'm progressing further into "The Descent of Angels" the Horus Heresy book I skipped over due to spoilers a few years ago. It kind of reads young adult but I'm still enjoying it. I'll be reading more before the game today. Note to self: Don't read reviews of a book before reading it as the reviews may contain spoilers. Other then Robert J Sawyer or if there's something that strikes my attention, Horus Heresy,  Space Marine Battles and Warhammer 40K Omnibus books are about the only books I'm buying lately. The Black Library publishes about 3-4 Horus Heresy mass market paperbacks a year and about the same for Space Marine Battles. I buy 1 hard cover book a year and that's only Robert J Sawyer's book and the matching RJS ebook. The Space Marine Battles books are trade and cost $18 a book. I pop into Audrey's or Coles at least once a month. I'm waiting for the next Horus Heresy book "Legacy's of Betrayal," it should be out next month in mass market paperback.   

The Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo (Sept. 25-27, 2015) Special guest will be Stan Lee. At 92 this might be the one and only time he'll ever come to Edmonton. A Saturday pass is $30, which isn't that bad. I'd book off work to see Stan Lee. There's a lot comic book artists as well. More guests will be announced in the next few weeks leading up to the event.

Not much going on for today. I'm hoping sometime after labour day weekend I'll be back to work. Anyway, that's all for now.

When I got to the Baker

Centre yesterday first thing I did was to see if Jack's barber shop was opened. It wasn't Jack but a new guy. He said half an hour? Fine.

That info session yesterday answered some basic questions I had. It's called the "Links information and resource centre." They offered coffee in a Tim's kind of take out cup. They were pretty busy. Lots of tiny offices. Links is located in the old Xentel location Baker Centre 2nd floor. There was about 25 others with me in a large room. They retained some of the original fixtures the old Xentel office like the carpeting and lighted panels. I almost felt a bit of a home coming. People were asking questions. I listened waiting for mine to be asked. Links helps those find steady part time work, within 4 months. That's what I'm looking for in tandem with my current job so when one shuts down for the Summer or is in between stuff the other one is still active. Even management has their own part time work outside of the office during slow times. I didn't qualify for Links because I have a job even though I have (at the moment) no work Links still considers it a job. That would have come out anyway because they ask what my current situation is (AISH,ei etc.). I find that these types of job finding schemes are all fine and well but like the Alberta job corps in the late 1990's I ended up finding my own job and most likely even with Links, I'd find my own job regardless. I'm emailing my resume out this afternoon when Anne leaves for work. I know what's going to happen though. Just like when I was at this other company (X) last September my main job called me back but X said I had to work a minimum of 4 days/week to get paid for training. My other job had a big project with the Federal Government that paid a bit more. I should have stuck with X. Its not that they didn't pay well, its just they didn't have the hours. I didn't even stay long enough to get paid for my training as their policy was I had to be there for those 4 days as well and the Government project orientation/training session was to start on the 3rd day of that X training period. I had no choice but to leave X a vm message. I felt bad about that. They were nice people. Out of the Government job though before I knew I wanted to get into producing live techno/house jams on YouTube, I bought a ebook reader that I seldom use and that would have been about the price of a Korg Volca and I bought a 32Gb iPod touch 5th Gen to replace my iPod Touch 3rd Gen because I thought the iPod Touch was being discontinued. Just the 5th Gen for the new 6th Gen 8 months later. Then 2 months later I end up losing my job. It didn't take me long to get this job but now I'm back to where I started. This time though, this company I'm with now doesn't care if I work 2 shifts a week, which will be great if I make it too full pension. However I don't want to go back to X because they shut down before Christmas for 4 months but that's prime time season for my current job. I'll get 3 months with X if they take me back this fall. I might consider going back to X after the new year 2016 but this economy wasn't as good as last years. X might have a full house next Spring. So after the info session I took my coffee and went to get my haircut. I felt good about that. Then I went to get a 6/49 lottery ticket at the pharmacy still in the Baker Centre on my way out and worked my way back to Corona station enjoying the weather. 

I got my train home and I began to realize that 37 years ago this week my little brother met me at the Via rail train where it used to stop at the CN building downtown Edmonton. Mom was kind of hoping I'd move and settle here and I should have done so 5 years earlier. After spending a week here in Edmonton, I decided since I'm a young man I can start over. I began to like Edmonton. It would have been too costly to transfer what I had at my New Westminster residence and I was late on my rent there before the RM would release my stuff anyway. My parents had no place for my things in their 3 bedroom Westmount/Baycrest apartment at the time. I just left everything behind. I had a new colour tv and stereo, a lot of world war 2 books (probably would have been sold to a used book store anyway in the 80's.) a lot of wargames. I learned just a few years ago that my last residence in New Westminster where I had all mys stuff met with the wrecking ball and the building was demolished in 1980 to make way for the Douglas College location. The only memories I have out of that place was the large ei back pay I received during their waiting period. I look back too see myself then as a young man of 25 losing my youth. I had all my teeth, I was thin, and wearing glasses. 37 years does a lot to a person.  

Other wise, not a lot is going on today. As of tomorrow, I'll be 2 years away from pension. last night I won a free 6/49 ticket from the lottery. I'm not doing anything tomorrow for obvious reasons :) I'm waiting until after labour day weekend or that Friday to see if work is starting up again. I've got ei until the end of September. After this weekend I'm following up on the resume I'm sending out today. I've got some other irons in the fire but nothing work related and nothing I can talk about right now. Friday is the Esks/Hamilton cfl game and I'll be looking out for that Anyway, that's all for now. 

This is now day 16 of the 78 day

October 2015 Canadian national election race. On Harper's campaign trail he's constantly being berated by the Mike Duffy scandal and the $90K cheque cut to Duffy out from the PMO's. Under oath Harper's chief of staff said Harper had no knowledge of the cheque cut to Mike Duffy. I'm looking forward to when this story peters out and its the NDP's turn, when the media is going to reveal more of the $2 million the NDP has yet to pay back. NDP Target of New Conservative Attack Ad: Pay It Back!On July 28, 2015, the Conservative Party launched this ad targeting the New Democratic Party for using "2.7 million taxpayer dollars." That's more scandal for another time.

When I first saw this at I thought it was a joke. Seriously? After reading more into this it makes more sense. Thor a Canadian company has been given a US patent to build a space elevator with a infallible tower. Cargo would travel up the tower via a elevator and launch from high altitude or low-Earth orbit. It could cut the costs of rocket fuel by 30% or more. The owner Ben Roberts thinks a version that could reach 20 kilometers above sea level, starting from the top of a five-kilometre-high mountain, could be built within 10 years at a cost of about $5 billion US. This concept was initially unveiled in 2009. Most likely it wont be built and in use in my life time.

Today I've got a appointment downtown in the Backer centre in the old Xentel location. Its called Links career information resource centre. They help people with disabilities find work. I've got a 1pm appointment. I've got to be there a bit early probably to fill out forms. I'm hoping this is something I can use to gain meaningful employment in tandem with my other job. I've got enough ei to last me until the end of September. I'm also looking to see if I can remain on ei while attending to expand my ei. If nothing transpires out of this and this appointment is a dead end waste of time then I've got a few other options. It's my 63rd birthday on Friday and I've got the Esks/Hamilton game to look forward to. Also I received the other day a nice birthday card from my wife's sister Donna including a Tim's card and a little something extra. Also I have Summer slam on Sunday so this is turning out to be a good week. Anyway, that's all for now. 

No rain yesterday and its a lot cooler out there

now 8 degrees. We're supposed to get a high temperature of 18 today. So with a temperature like 8 makes it nice for sleeping.

Not much going on for today. I'm trying to finish "Tales of Heresy" book 10/30 in the Horus Heresy series, and then go back to read book 6 in the series. I got influenced by spoilers and I'm not going to let get to me again. I'm going to finish that book if it takes me the rest of the year. Normally I find series books boring because they are almost written by the same author. With the Horus Heresy series almost every book is written by a different author which keeps the series fresh.

I was about to get into some good CFL action with a double header. Game #1 was the BC Lions/Hamilton game. In the first quarter it was BC 0 Hamilton 21. I was waiting for something BC's way to happen but it didn't until way later  in the game. BC 22 Hamilton 52! Boring. Then there was the Ottawa/Calgary game. I thought this one should be a lot better. That game ended up 3-48, even worse. Ottawa didn't show up! I really hate games like that. Even when my team has a commanding lead. Makes for a boring game. Anyway, that's all for now.

Three days ago I was bathed in the

cool air of a fan in my office here at home. We're sitting at +15 when the other day this time of day we were at +21. The cooler air is most welcome here in the city and at the moment we're getting some much needed rain. I hope it rains all day.

I haven't heard from my employer all week, which leads me suggest there's been no work for anyone or the office is shut down for August. So, I decided why not go there and see whats going on. I took the bus/train bus uptown to 124th and 107th street and into the office. I made pretty good timing only to find 2 of my colleagues there. One was doing coding and the other working on a focus group. There hasn't been a schedule posted all week. The boss and super were out having lunch. I couldn't even fill out a calendar as they never had any printed. I hung about for 15 minutes. They said they'd let them know I was here. Its the usual story line: steady shifts return next month. Unless they call me before hand I'll just wait until after the labour day weekend and call. That is if I find something else by then. My wife is right I need a 2nd part time job that is steady that has no lay offs until I get pension. I'm going to try something in the security guard area. The hardest thing about that line of work is just trying to stay awake. I've done security guard work before I got married. I wouldn't mind doing that on weekends and the market research job 2 days a  week until pension. 

Some major breaking City news. The 3km Metro lrt line apparently will be online Sunday September 6th ready for the school year. The City is using what's called a line of sight approach to signaling with slightly reduced frequency times. In other words after 15 months, this long awaited and delayed system will finally be operational. As a side note, The 27km Valley line from Mill Woods to downtown (phase 1) is in its early stages of preparation, getting 29 buildings along the 1st phase of its route ready for demolition. By this time next year the Valley line should be in the early phases of construction mode.  

I'm up around noon today and at 1-3 I'll watch Smackdown and then I've got a couple of cfl football games to watch. I got BC/Hamilton and Ottawa/Calgary. Other then that, not much going on this weekend.Anyway, that's all for now.

Tomorrow morning about

9:30 I'm on the road to my pcn and then to my place of employment to confirm any work for next week. While there I'll check my availability for this month and fill out a calendar for September. While downtown I'll pop into the 109th and Jasper employment agency to see about taking a possible course this fall. Other then that, not a lot going on this week. Also Thursday night while I'm at home I can watch the Esks/Al's game. That's the highlight of my week. 

There's been no word so far as to when and if our 15 month delayed Metro LRT line will open. There was supposed to be a audit report August 1st. Monday the Mayor said "Eventually." Huh? Apparently there is something about this August 17 so maybe we'll know what to expect from there. That's not a opening date. The City is still testing cars on the Metro line. The city is also hard at work on the early stages of the Valley line with building demolition at key areas along its route. By this time next year, Valley line lrt construction will be well under way. 

Anne's working this evening. We've had to put up with each other and the heat for the last 3 days. I'll be glad to get back to work because being held in limbo like this isn't doing any good for my self esteem. If the office calls me today, great I'm there. This is why I'm looking forward to pension folks. I'll  be out of the rat race. Anyway, that's all for now.

If I didn't know any better

I'd say at this point in time, the company I'm working with is playing me. For now I'm just going to site tight and see what happens. The boss said they will be back with more regular steady shifts in September. The super said pretty much the same thing. In the meantime they are running a skeleton crew doing something and with new hires. That's why I get the impression they are playing me. This company never fires people. If they don't like certain people, they just won't give them shifts and hope that they'll move on and find something else. As for the new hires since my 1 day on the 24th of July, they might be giving new hires a shift here and there type thing just to keep them hoping they wont bail. When I was there on Friday people were asking me where I've been, "Did you quit the job for something else?" The Super said that was his 2nd shift since the 24th of last month (that was the last time I worked) as of last Thursday and Friday. Out of 18 days the Super has worked 2 days? We have 2 supervisors. Where I work they have 2 pages of employees names on the sign for your cheque sheet as there are lots of people that show up periodically. I should have taken a photo of this weeks schedule when I was there Friday. Some people work a few days and I don't see them for a month. There's always that. I have enough ei to last me until that first week in September. Apparently there is another project coming up this week or next week. I'm calling in to find out Wednesday and I hope I don't get hung up on. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt. Until then I'm not to worried, at the moment.

Some good news on the tech front, in my search for getting rid of unwanted audio on my video, there has been success. Thanks to YouTube. In Windows movie maker I can use the edit panel, go to the volume sound icon. Click on that and a sound meter appears. Scroll the volume knob to mute, go to save video and save as computer (low resolution.) It renders the file into a Mp4 file and I can add my own voice over music from there. The upload options like Youtube don't work very well with Windows music maker. All I do when I'm at my You Tube page is upload the video from there. Slick. I uploaded the new video last night with crappy music. It was just a test anyway. Very happy. The new video is in landscape mode and you can watch the new video here.
When I get some hardware after the computer, I'll be doing more music video's. These music video's will be of my hands adjusting knobs playing with various types of hardware. Once hours at work are more or less steady, I can take out an account at LM for the new Electribe Sampler.

Later this afternoon, Anne is taking Skippy in for her needles. I'm home until further notice. So tonight I'm watching Monday night Raw trying to beet the heat suffering through this cold. The long range weather this week is calling for 29's-30's up until Friday. Uggh, too hot for me but this might be our last heat have of the year (thank God) I'm not going to worry about my job situation just yet. If they can't give me a schedule by the 21st then I'll be looking for something part time to complement this job, 3 days/week until this job has more steady hours. I can see 3 here and 3 days there type thing. What I'd like is something part time steady so when this job has slow times I can work more hours at the job that's steady. At least until pension, then as long as we have our health, I'll work a 1 week a month where I am now. If I get steady hours this fall, I'll build up enough hours for another ei claim for the future and put it on hold (pending another part time job of course.) The idea is when this job has another slow time and I have 2 months before my pension clicks in, I'll activate the ei until pension. They won't let me collect pension and ei at the same time because they are both Federal Government programs. Anyway, that's all for now.

Since January of this year

I've had 2 colds and I've got something that just activated over night Friday. If this gets developed then this will make 3 for the year. Ordinarily I just get 1 cold a year. The blood test I took a few weeks ago yield up nothing. I'm at a loss here for an explanation as to why I've got 3 colds.

This week's forecast is in the 30's. It's not official or anything as far as I know but I'd say we're in a drought here in Alberta. Especially if farmers have to get hay from other provinces. Here in Edmonton, we've had under 40mm of rain since July 1st. Hopefully we'll get some rain soon.  

Update: I had a decent sleep overnight and I'm feeling better. Still having episodes of phlegm through out the night. My scratchy throat is less scratchy and I'm about to have my first coffee for the day on this. The downside is my voice is rough and hoarse. Other wise, no worse for wear. 

My 10 year old Xp computer as pictured here life cycle is almost at an end. I'm looking at a refurbished system for about $200. It's an Intel pc with 4Gb and whopping 160Gb!
 
  Friday I walked into the office and the super said the boss has the cheques. They had a small crew doing clean up The boss said if I call Wednesday he'll know with more surety what the week of the 18th will be like. August usually slows down. They will be back in September with more frequency. 

Since last Thursday I've been I've watching a lot of CFL football. Three games so far and one more today. I also watched Smackdown (wrestling) I've been watching a lot of sports over the last 3 days. Anyway, that's all for now.

Our 78 day Federal election

is heating up. Harper has been playing stupid over this Netflix tax thing. Its been making the media rounds all over the place and is sort of a running joke. You can read about it here.

Lon Milo DuQuette will be on Coast 2 Coast later this morning. While I have a luke warm interest in ceremonial magick and the occult these days, I still consider myself sympathetic to Thelema but in no way active. This "interest" is kept at arms length as a casual observer, mostly brought about through nostalgia. It's always interesting listening to Lon discuss Ceremonial magick, Crowley and the Tarot.

It's been somewhat of a annual tradition. Every Spring Canadian science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer would release a new novel and take it on tour across Canada and arrive every April to Audrey's books to do a reading from his recent novel. He is the only author I'd ever buy a hard cover book from. His last visit was April 2nd 2013 at Audrey's. I always get a autograph copy. His last novel was Red Planet Blues. That was 2 years ago. He announced recently on his blog that his upcoming 23rd novel will be Quantum night. Of course, I'll order a copy and I hope to get it autographed again.

Yesterday morning I called the x-ray to cancel. I called my pcn to confirm my next appointment on the 13th at 10:15am. I'll be calling ei after I wake up to find out when I can report again. I'm joining Anne on her 3pm commute riding partway in with her parting ways at Bay Station. I'll be heading into the office to pick up my whopping 4.5 hour cheque and to get an update (if any) for work for next week. If all I get is a non committal response, then I'll be looking for something part time. I need something steady. I'll be doing the job search thing at the employment agency Monday if there's nothing forth coming. After I pick up my cheque today, I'm off to get a bite to eat at the food court. Anyway, that's all for now.

At the moment our overnight low

is 7 degrees. That's as cold as its going to get today but it also makes it good for sleeping and I'm wiped out not having slept much over night last night.

Anne's nephew Steven and his family came to visit my wife from Moose Jaw. Nice family, Steve and his wife, their teenage daughter and family friend arrived about 4:30pm. I never met them before. Steve works for a railway company and his wife works at Sask tell. Their daughter is into show horses. It was mostly talking about Anne's side of the family. They were more interested about Anne then me and catching up. Its all good. Anne made us a great roast beef dinner, which was well received by all. They stayed for a little over two hours. I'm glad they paid us a visit, nice people.

This morning I'm up at 8:30 to call in and cancel the x-ray I forgot. I had to fast and having Anne's company over put that on the back burner. Then I can go back to bed. I'm hoping after Anne leaves for work I can call about my school transcripts and get that ball rolling before the Esks/Lions game. No calls in yet from the job front but I'm going in tomorrow anyway to pick up my cheque. Anyway, that's all for now.

Weather wise its much cooler

now then it was this time last night. I was breaking a sweat this time last night. Next week the forecast is calling for 25-27's that type of thing. Usually about this time of year we get a big storm like the storm that had my place of employment power shut down and sent us home half an hour early. We haven't had anything like that yet. I'm just grateful we don't have the weather complications they have in California.

Its 2am on a August Wednesday and I'm off work this week week eating left over pizza, yeesh:

 


I decided to call into the office about 1pm yesterday and I get a click/click type of a response on the other end. On and off type thing. What the? I think the boss was in a conference call and didn't want to be disturbed, which is why I didn't bother to call back later that afternoon. They'll call me if they have something. Or Friday I'll get called into the office picking up my cheque, "As of today how long have you been with us James?" Type thing. It all stems down to no deductions as being my first clue.

Yesterday a call came in from Anne's nephew and he said he is coming to the city from Saskatchewan. The family wants to take the kids to West Edmonton Mall. Anne's out buying roast dinner, treats and snacks, cleaning up around here. Yeesh.

 

I tried configuring my Samsung wifi camera to take video and disable the on board mic. That didn't work too well and the camera can only take .30 seconds of video. I recall St.Joe from Sounds and Gear reviewing the Zoom Q4 video camera. I'm reviewing this on YouTube. St. Joe did a great re view and Long has this going for $375. I'm sure I can take more then .30 seconds of video. Anyway, that's all for now.

Sparky must have been

given a notice by the rm because we have yet to hear from him all night. Keep fingers crossed. Or else he's just resting up for round two coming later this morning. 

I've had 1 shift worth of work since July 15th. If I don't hear any update today, my next opportunity will be this Friday when I pick up my cheque. If I still get no update I'll be doing a soft job search. What concerns me is they are not taking deductions from my cheque as its been a month after their mandatory 3 month new hire probation policy. This tells me a couple of things. They are going to call me into the office and fire me on Friday. Or they don't have any work for the balance of the summer. "We'll call you if we have anything." And they will. Or I could be told the super will call me Saturday for something coming up next Monday. If I'm looking at the 3rd option, then fine I can live with that and ride ei out for another 2 weeks after this one. I can ride this out until about my birthday August 21st. (I'll be 63) After that I'll be in full job search mode. I don't want to give up on this job. I just need 3 days at something else and 3 days at this job until I get full pension.

If I have this week off, I'm going to book some studio time at the sound booth. I'm thinking of booking for a 2 hour morning slot. This way I can shoot the video there in a clean environment. Its a good time because I have the bus pass. Anyway, that's all for now.

I'm enjoying my time off more so now then I did last year this time where my main job

I worked at this time last year as projects all but fizzled out last summer. I was fortunate to grab the job at Direct buy for July and August 2 last year. When I left my last market research job in February this year, I was left wondering what to do. Situation normal. I applied for employment insurance immediately (ei) and sent out two job searches and got the job I'm doing now. It didn't take long to find work. However work is slowly drying up at this job as well. They said around the end of June there would be projects over the summer even though work could be somewhat spotty at best. If I don't get confirmation of another project coming up this week, then I'll be out there along with the rest of of the unemployed masses looking for work. I need something else to fill in between short term and something steady 3 days there 3 days at the current job. Ideally the way things are going now, that'd be my best situation. The economy was a lot different this time last year then now. Or even more so April then even now. I've got a few call centre job options to pursue and being on ei at least I have some income until about the middle of September. After that, I'm back to where I was at the end of February. I'm not that desperate but by the middle of this month if I'm not working, I'll be feeling the ice buckle beneath my feet.

Switching gears here and a bit of a rant to follow. Now I'm about as tolerant of other religious beliefs as much as any Caucasian Anglo Saxon male can ever hope to be. There are so many religious beliefs out there as there are race and nations behind them. I welcome diversity but over this weekend there is this person (I'll call him Sparky) above us in the corner suite of my apartment building to the left near the street on one of the top floors that in this case give me pause. I mean my patience can only go so far. So Sparky is shouting out to what exactly I have know idea. We know who Sparky is. We've seen him independently of each other. Sparky is an old man with thin shoulder length bushy hair. He wears robes. When I'm waiting for my bus out here, I'll often see him squatting by the curb smoking some kind of tobacco at the set of lights or out in front here smoking, squatting. Because its a long weekend Sparky decides he should be shouting again to who knows what. He's speaking English from what we know. Its not in a monotone voice so its not like he's speaking in tongues. I'm not even sure Sparky is motivated out of some obscure religion. After Sparky makes a statement or whatever it is, he'll pause for a minute and something else comes out of his mouth and he's very loud. He'll go on like this until 3-4 in the morning. He went from about 3am to and started again about 9 this morning waking me up. Ear plugs helped for a bit. I'm sure we're not the only one's that hear this shouting. On our side of this unit we have 5 suites per floor of four levels. That's 20 suites including us, I'm sure somebody has made a complaint and has said something by now. I'm also certain our resident manager (rm) knows about this. Now because Sparky has been able to go on like this all weekend and even before this, its been going on, tells me a couple of things. 1.)He's either allowed to and is ignored by our rm. 2.)Or my neighbors are afraid to make a complaint. 3.)Or if my neighbors have complained to rm by now (and I'm sure since this has been going on through out the weekend they might have complained multiple times) and the rm shakes head "Its a religious issue," my neighbors simply gave up in frustration. 4.) Sparky is has Schizophrenia condition and is off his meds and the rm sites that as a answer. It has to be one of those 4 things. How come we haven't made a complaint? We need to keep a low profile here as well because we're paying about $300 less for our 2 bedroom apartment then the going rate. If we begin to make waves around here and bring undue attention to ourselves we could be faced with a rental increase so we don't dare complain. We avoided a rental increase last month but there's always this month. The security guard hasn't been seen for days and maybe that's another reason why Sparky isn't being challenged. Or if my neighbors have complained the rm might just say, "You'll have to take this up with on site our security after the weekend. If we hear anything from security then we can react accordingly." The other thing is as this is a long weekend the rm is unavailable. It's now going on to 1pm and I've been up composing this since 10am and Sparky is still going at it but easing up a bit. Hopefully tomorrow morning he'll get a notice under the door. 

Yesterday PM Harper had dropped the writ and has called for a formal National election. October 19. This is the longest pre election campaign in Canadian history. It will cost $500M. Since the bulk of the election will be decided over Ontario and Quebec because close to 80% of our Nation's population resides between those 2 Provinces. Our votes don't count for much beyond Ontario and Quebec and our votes out west wont decide which party gets elected. All our votes do is to decide which MP gets a seat in Ottawa. There are 338 seats this year from the 308 last election. This time I think I want to vote for the issues and not the party. I'm thinking our mission in the middle east is very important.  The NDP take that to lightly. I'm also voting with lrt funding in mind and the Liberal's have Amarjeet Sohi here in Edmonton. He worked with Mayor Mandel at City council. He's going against heavy hitter Tim Uppal. Lots of time to decide yet. 

Yesterday afternoon while the 4th floor man from upstairs gave us a break, I shot a video iPod Touch video and apparently (as I thought ) I took the volume down so low on the iPod, the volume sound icon had a slash for sound. I put together another little tune out of Maschine and sequenced it in Cubase. Then I did a mix down of a 2 minute song to a wav file. After uploading the wav file to iTunes and synching to my iPod Touch came the moment of truth. I could hear the kids from out back over the audio. Fail. The audio (more or less) is clean. My only other option is to book some time in the sound booth studio downtown and shoot the video again from there. Also, I'd be in a position to use some of the equipment in the studio like the video camera and use the Mac with Ableton. if they have monitors even better. Anyway this post has been over an hour in the making and that's all for now. 

My 2 minute iPod video with my

iPod I made Saturday night wasn't to badly handled. I even "synched" some of my own "music" to it. I just need to mix the audio better in Cubase. it could use some normalizing and some, and some compression. Also it could use some text. I'll be working on another video this weekend with different music. The iMovie format isn't bad and does the job but if I was going to do this more professionally, it would be with something like a Nikon d5100 on a tripod mount or take some gear and record it over in the sound booth. You can listen to it here.

The Stamps won on home turf 25-22. That last play the Al's had and they fumbled the ball. From the highlights the game was a good one. Thursday we're in BC and that's going to be a good one. 

Even though I'm more or less caught up with all 4 novels (I  haven't got the 5th one yet). I was over joyed to read in i09 that Ian McShane (sorry i couldn't resist) is getting a bit of love as a character in the "Game of thrones." I read one of the books and I found that I got a good idea how the series is going to play out. Anyway, that's all for now.

My Internet settings

put up this fire wall by proxy earlier. A quick call to tech support and everything works great. Because of the recent Windows 10 release I won't be able to have something else done with my laptop but I'm off Monday. 

Tonight I'm following the Al's/Stamps game later. If the Al's defeat the Stamps then that puts the Stamps 1 less loss in te West win loss column. Al's are 0-17 in the lead right now in the 1ts Q. Since our Esks are on the road next week Lets go Al's, for obvious reasons! 

I'm usually at work on a Thursday night to catch Smackdown. It's on again Saturday at 1pm-3pm. So, I'm going to have Anne use our pvr to record it so I can watch it after I come home on a Saturday evening after work. I can watch 1 half Saturday and the other half Sunday while we're having our late brunch. Anyway, that's all for now.