We're getting a bit of an

Indian summer here, up until about Monday. After that we're in for a single digit "cold spell" of sorts, followed by a mild recovery to double digits. We're not getting 25's or anything but 12's and 13's are ok by me. I'll take 'em.

I was never a reader/voyeur of Playboy magazine. When Hugh Hefner passed away yesterday, it was met with a kind of meh moment for me. Hefner/Playboy never really did anything for me as I was more into Penthouse because it ahem, revealed more. Not that I ever bought a Playboy/Penthouse magazine. Oh don't get me wrong, before the Internet, I bought more then a few porn mags in my day. I still have a few of them around here, somewhere. Penthouse was "more hardcore" then Playboy. Even up until maybe 2012 I recall when I was working for Xentel in the Baker centre, the barber shop on the main floor had these mags scattered around the coffee table. While waiting for an empty chair, I'd sift through an issue of Playboy and Penthouse every now and then. Every customer would go straight for the centerfold. So when I heard of Hefner's death, I really had no sense of nostalgia or anything, just meh. I get the same reaction to  this Kim Kardashian and Caitlyn Jenner thingy, meh.

I got my 5 hour shift for tonight but then I'm off Saturday and there's the Bombers/Eskimo game. I hope nobody takes a knee here. I don't like politics getting in the way of sports but mercifully TSN doesn't show that stuff and maybe the Oilers are in there someplace. Sunday is lodge practice and Star Trek Discovery. Monday, work/Wrestling, Tuesday is work, Wednesday, Work, Thursday night Lodge, Friday night work etc. So, yes. I have some stuff going in.

I haven't been out of the house now since

Sunday night! I've got no plans to go anywhere today either but I'm going to try for that lodge gathering at our WM residence Sunday. Its a bit of a planning session for the upcoming year. It's way out West of the city in a private home. Maybe I can get a ride out there from one of the guys at Southgate. Its a (early for me) 11am Sunday morning gathering. It's not our regular business meeting.

I'm not much of a gambler. I don't play vlt's or go to Casino's or to the race track or play online poker. I even gave up plying the lottery. However I like to play Proline CFL and I've won small amounts here and there over the years to buy a hard cover book, that type a thing. When I tried Fan Duel (fd) a month ago, I played some NFL and I won about $8. My 2nd time playing NFL I lost what I won but it was my own fault for not studying my picks. I've been thinking about playing fd this week, only again this time nhl. This afternoon I picked 1 game: Dallas/Calgary and I added a player from another game just to meet the players from 3 team rule requirement. That same rule is in football as well. So I picked 3 $2 contests and 1 $1 contest and thought no way am I going to win just into game time. Half hour in I was in the $ game! My $2 bets were winning me $3.60! Even my $1 game was winning me $1.80. By the end of the night, I won $12.60. A net return of $5.60. It's not going to pay my rent or anything but I had fun. Once fd adjusts my new balance, I might play that way again, see what happens. The $2 entry's were in 40 player "leagues." I ended up in 5th, 4th and 3rd place respectively in the prize pool and 9th in the $1 contest. Lots of fun.

So now it was North Korean hackers that hacked into Sony pictures. President Obama was saying Sony made a mistake by not releasing the movie. Imagine some dictator telling Hollywood what to do. At the time though and in hindsight I think Sony over reacted. Now the decision not to release "The Interview" movie is going to cost Sony hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue because of a dictator.   

Today I'm working on my track as I want to use a Reactor ensemble called "Rollodeck Pro." I bought this little plug in for about $70 a year ago and haven't used it that much but its a cool glitch type vst perfect for Maschine. There's videos on this plug in on YouTube. I might not be able to afford a Octatrack yet but this will do in the meantime. Anyway, that's all for now.

I missed my bus this morning

and had to walk down to Clareview about 10:50am. If I had to wait for another bus that might have been another half an hour and on a Sunday morning, that wasn't going to happen. But I enjoyed the walk to Clareview station just the same. Fortunately the train was there for me and I got to Corona station about 11:30. It was nice and Sunny and almost Spring-like walking to the office and unlike Saturday morning the sidewalk was dry.  

There was only me and another of my colleagues and the supervisor in the office for the shift. I figured I'd be out of the office about 4pm. There were 1200+ numbers in the calling cue. I thought, maybe between myself, Victoria and Ottawa offices we'd breeze out of these by 4pm, yeah right. When 4pm rolled around there was still 900 + numbers remianing. I didn't bring a lunch because I thought I'd be in and out according to the boss yesterday. Not having a good sleep the night before, and no lunch and I had about $5 on me, I was going to be in for a long day. However, there was food left over from the night before in the fridge so I felt good about that. The extra 7.5 hours is going to help the bottom line. 

I was tired when I left the office about 8pm. I tried doing face time with Anne because she was home today but I couldn't get through. I got home shortly before 9pm and Anne was on the couch in face time with her sister. She later said she saw me trying to reach face time with her.
 
Ok I don't know what's going on with Sony and these so called  "Guardians of Peace," hackers. Personally I have no interest in anything they do nor will it influence my decision to see the next James Bond movie. Some people are saying its an inside job, meh.

Anyway, I'm in the office from 4-9 today (or earlier) and off Tuesday. Anyway, that's all for now.

Yesterday after work

I went out and got my free library card. What I like about it is that it gives me access to the Edmonton Public Library’s data base. I got it mostly for Anne to download music and stuff.

I09 is asking: What's the absolute worst space movie ever made? What is the very worst movie about space adventures? Weigh in below! Please make sure to include a picture of your choice. Read here. Personally the worst space movie ever made was “Starship Troopers,” and I thought “Saturn 5” was bad. Some think that. “Ice Pirates” pretty bad:


But I kind of liked it. I also liked “Buck Rogers in the 23rd Century.”

By now almost everyone has heard of “Bitcoin” the virtual currency. It’s a cashless system not controlled by any bank. This last week Bitcoin made the news because it was hacked by speculators trying to drive down Bitcoin’s value and fearing a “Bitcoin bubble” as a result. Some interesting points though about Bitcoin: Is it legal? Can it be enforced in any jurisdiction? Bitcoin on the other hand are not issued by any Government or Central bank and Bitcoin transactions do not go through banks or clearing houses. Bitcoin is an encrypted currency and now has a worldwide circulation worth of $1.4B. But Bitcoin’s book is still in chapter 1 and bitcoin has it’s challenges, such as disputes etc. I don’t know enough about Bitcoin to invest in them but they are interesting. 

Will we ever have Spring? Even now we’re expecting to have about 10cm of snow on the ground by this time tomorrow as it’s snowing right now all day today and all day Sunday. In all my 35 years here in Edmonton I’ve never seen April like this before.

Tonight I’m watching the Flames/Oiler’s game and having a cold beer and being a couch potato for most of tomorrow night. Then I have  Lodge practice Sunday night. 


One of my favorite comedians of the 60's Johnathan Winters has passed away. He was in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and recorded many comedy records. He died at the age of 87 of natural causes.

Not a lot going on this weekend and that’s just the way I want it. I’ve got some memory work to tackle for my Lodge this up coming week and I’ll be glad when its this time next week. I’ll be focusing on my lodge stuff this week. Anyway that's all for now.