Having all kinds of

"fun" trying to get a short Maschine audio clip to sync with Cam Studio. Making some progress with Cam studio though. I'm missing a few components to have audio sync with video.

This weekend is Heritage day long weekend here in Alberta. Every Province calls it something else but here in Edmonton its just called Heritage days held at Hawrelak park over the last 40 years. Anne and I went together a few years back but there were few places to sit down. Another 5 pavilions will be added this year. So with having what looks like another 5 more days off I'm getting spoiled I worked 1 day in the last 15. Add to all of that, there's a out of market CFL game on tonight and I'm considering a trip across the street to have a beer and watch some of it on the big screens. Friday is the Riders/Eskimos and that's going to be one I'm looking forward to. What I like about Heritage days from a community point of view is that this is one of the largest drives for the food bank, which keeps them going until winter.

With no work over the next 5 days, I hope I get something soon. This coming up pay cheque will only net me about $50. I'd be in real trouble if it wasn't for me ei. Anyway, that's all for now. 

Comic con is well underway

this weekend in San Diego. There was no casting information available in a upcoming Dr. Strange movie. That's understandable, sure but what in the name of the Hoary Hands of Hogarth is up with that?

On my way home yesterday at Corona station, I ran into a colleague of mine from the old Xentel days. It was nice to see little James again. We rode with each other all the way to Stadium and he filled me in on other colleagues we worked with.

I had a relaxing night following my cfl picks but BC lost. So much for week 5. I should have played the favorites. Next weekend I'm going to do just that. 

The World of Warcraft movie has wrapped up its filming a couple of months ago. According to i09 the WOW movie (out 2016) is supposed to be loaded with action and imagery. They want to turn this into a origins movie how the world of world of Azeroth falls into conflict between orcs and humans, or Lord of the Rings meets Avatar. This leaves me to wonder if the wait has more to do with damage control or getting the marketing machine in full gear.

This upcoming week I have only 4 days but they are all within this pay period. It's a short week this week and next week. I still get my 63 hours in for this week and on the long weekend, Anne wants to go Saturday out for Pizza. Sounds like a good idea. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Working the hours I have

5-9 has it's plus and minuses. On the plus side, I can stay up late as its going on to 4am as I write this. I can sleep in late. I can do business in the mornings if I have any. Also because my schedule is "tweak-able," I can take any night of the week off (if I can afford it), which is why I have penciled in Saturday and Sunday off. I'm having a long weekend off (I hope) but if my hours get "tweaked" again. I'm still taking Saturday and Sunday off, regardless! On the downside, I'm working just about everyday and I'm not getting enough hours.

Last night I downloaded this free program which can produce midi files into notation/sheet music. It works great but somehow it over took my YouTube channel and I cant get any sound out of my main computer, which kind of puts me off. It's probably a default thing. A online colleague of mine mentioned to me a few days ago that Ram isn't as important in music production is cpu. So this now opens up a whole bunch of possibilities. AMD computers usually have faster cpu speeds then Intel. I've seen AMD cpu speeds around 3.0Ghz, and that's in a laptop!

Yesterday I had to go to the blood lab to get some work done. I didn't know I had to take a pee test as well. Sorry but I can't just open it up like a tap or anything. They need me to go back to do the pee test and because I had a muffin on the train in they can't check for glucose readings. I also went and applied at a local employment agency that specializes in finding work for persons with disabilities. I'm trying to find something stable that pays good from noon-4pm Monday/Friday. Most of my colleagues have other jobs.  

So today I'm in at my usual 5-9 and then 3 days off! Plus I get my pay check this weekend as well. My wife gets it, I don't. Anyway, that's all for now.

Having a great day although the only

sour spot as the Riders gave us another beating.

I read some more out  of Warhammer 40K and making some good progress. One of the characters in this book is named Gabriel and aparently if it's the same one shoes up in other Warhammer 40k novels. I've got 2 Warhammer 40K audio books and I'm picking them up after work Tuesday. 

Ok, it's beginning to sink and there isn't a week that doesn't go by where one of the caller's on the phone or a colleague nice comments how I have a voice for broadcasting. Maybe I should apply for some voice over work. I wonder if I'd get a job. Anyway, that's about all for now.

I left out of here about 11am and caught the #2 bus downtown

getting off a bus stop to early I met 2 guys walking towards me obviously from the Lodge I said something Like "Commercial right?" They recognized my case and me in a business suit. They were heading out to get a coffee at 2nd Cup. It was a beautiful warm afternoon. We sat outside for a bit as it was about 12:10pm sitting on the patio there just where Anne is working now above. The meeting was short because they had a "table lodge," with spouses around  below. The meeting was short and it was nice to have a Lodge with an organist and a piper. I can't get into it much more then that. I was the only one representing our Lodge out of about 100+ guys from all over Northern Alberta. I was kind of disappointed that we didn't get enough of our guys out other then myself and our DC.

We were out by 2:30pm and I headed up the street thinking about getting a bit to eat where to catch the Contingency bus back to Clareview. I went into 7-11 and got some potato wedgies and a 3 for $5 crispy beef burrito's or what ever they were. A bus was about 50 feet away saying Clareview. I at my wedgies on the way to Stadium. I thought about waiting for Anne on the West side of Clareview where the contingency buses were but after about a 10 minute wait told me I must have just missed her.

I've been home for about an hour now having snack. I had a good afternoon but it's time for a nap, anyway that's about all for now. 

This up coming

Easter weekend could be busy but in a nice way: Saturday I'm off for the last showing of Star War's Identities. I hope to provide pictures. Sunday Anne and I are heading out to West Edmonton Mall (WEM) to the movies. I want to see the new GI Joe movie and she likes the horror stuff but if she wants to see GI Joe with me, that's OK as well. At WEM I also want to visit Games Workshops by the ice palace on our way to Silver City movies to look around at the Warhammer stuff. 

My expectations were not very high in January when the season began. All I could hope for was the Oiler's would be playing meaningful games down the stretch and they are.  Some good news yesterday, the Oiler's scored 1-0 over St. Louis. Like that was going to hold up. Then Eberle scored his 2nd goal of the night. I produced a skeptical smile. Then on the rush Eberle was about to score again he shot the puck dragging the goaltender away and there was Hall to pick up a juicy rebound. There was a goaltender change (obviously) after that and the Oiler's won 3-0! Nice.They play again Thursday at the Rex as Columbus is in town, with 18 games remaining in the regular season, not bad boys. Not that they are going to make the playoffs or anything but you never know.

I'll have Good Friday off Saturday to sleep in and I'm off to Telus World of Science (TWOS) for Star Wars, then Sunday out to the movies. Because we're calling businesses and most places are shut down Easter Monday, we might be off for Monday as well, which would mean a nice 4 day weekend. We don't know yet though. Anyway, that's about all for now.

So my

wife decides to go to "the truck" over here by the U-Haul. It's like those industrial park trucks that bring coffee sandwiches that type of thing. In this case she get items she can't get at Superstore across the street. She gets our sausage rolls hash browns other items cheaper, so it's worth it for her to go once every other week or so. 

We missed the #11 bus and because it's running half hour Sundays we took the #182. We waited at Londonderry Mall and then she decides she needs a Albert's breakfast at 3:55pm when the Mall closes at 5pm Sundays. I went along with that. We we're going to wait for the #2. I felt ok with that. Then she decides she wants a Albert's breakfast.

The good news is in Sportcheck on our way to Albert's I noticed they have the real Oiler Jersey's. If I can find Ryan Smyth's or Hemsky's  XLG, I'll pick it up. For $240 plus tax, that's a good deal.

Breakfast was good except they only gave me 1 egg instead of the 2. I'm not going in there for breakfast anymore. I like Londonderry Mall because on the way home the bus stops right outside our place. No busy street to cross after I've had a beer or 2 on a Friday night. 

As for tomorrow, I'm not sure if I want to go to Happy Harbor comics or just go across the street to get my haircut but we'll see. Anyway, that's all for now. 
      

busy couple of days here. 

I had a great day on the job last night. Tuesday slow, Wednesday great, Thursday slow (I had to duck out at 7pm as my knee was causing me some greif and I was having a long day as it was.) First time that's ever happened. I'm hoping for a solid day today.

I'm out of here in about an hour, then over to Tim's for some breakfast and in the office for 6 hours. I arranged to have one of my colleagues to drop me off after work this afternoon so I can make a bill payment at Long & McQuade on my program. I'm ahead by 3 payments, today will be 4.

The guys asked me over to BP's for drinks after work today but I think I'm just going to go over to Wendy's by LM have a bite to eat and catch the #2 to Corona and head home.

I was in bed by about 12:30 this morning giving me about 5.5 hours of sleep.

Anne’s giving me the silent treatment, fighting with me this weekend. Most likely because it’s a long weekend. It means I don’t have to call her today but she’ll call me this evening on her break.

I had a better day on the job yesterday. I got a $400 sale that went through on a Visa (I was told it went through last night) I think I ended up with about $1200 or so and about $400 on card doing CPC all day.

In doing some more family tree stuff, Robert Wacaser suggested it might have been Richard Martin Shannon (James Blaine Shannon’s brother, which would make him my father’s uncle) that paid us a visit that summer in 1968 but that wouldn’t make sense because he died September 26 1955. Thirteen years before the visit  He was born 1891, which would put him at 64 years old. If he lived until 1968 he would have been an old man at the age of 77. I know JBS had another brother as well but that would have put him at about the same age by 1968. According to Find a Grave.com, All of JBS’s brothers had no children resembling 2 boys. Even when I was 16 in 1968 dad would have been 46. My brother Mike might know. By 1968 though, Florence Shannon Monsees would have been 22 years in her grave already.
    The other thing Robert mentioned was that in 1940 Florence was very sick, which might have been the motivating factor for them to come up to Canada. From 1926-until 1940 I wonder how much contact Richard and Evelyn had with Xel and Florence? It’s quite possible that Xel invited Richard and Evelyn to Vernon in 1940. Perhaps Ken Grandbois himself was a member of the Knights of Pythias and was initially from Vernon. He was born in 1915. He’d be 97 if he’s still alive today.
    Apparently Evelyn and Ken have a daughter Carol Round and even gave me a phone number to call. So I’m going to call when I get home tonight. Maybe she can tell me more about Ken and Evelyn if she’s open to it. She might even tell me if Ken was a member of KOP, where they got married where they lived in N Vancouver. I vaguely remember in the family car in the 1960’s paying Ken and Evelyn a visit in North Vancouver. I assume it was in North Vancouver. I don’t remember much about this visit. I think we were told to wait in the car.
    The other thing I’d be interested in knowing is where did Evelyn and Richard go to school in El Centro? John Elder was in El Centro and I think he might have met Alta there 1935 because by 1954 they were married. Alta had Dorothy Jean Shannon.
    Getting back to dad’s uncle Richard Martin Shannon (RMS) his only wife was Roxie Paralee Marlin Shannon (1893 - 1979)* She died at the age of 86. This would have been dad’s aunt. RMS and Roxie had 2 girls, Margaret Laura Shannon Holmes (1915 - 1995)* Margaret never had any children and she would have been 53 in 1968. Lola May Shannon Coon (1921 - 2001)* These were my dad’s cousins. Both of these girls would have been about the same age as dad. Lola May might have had a child as there is a photo from “Find a grave” of her holding a baby. So far I can’t find any link to any member of dad’s family that had 2 twins. I guess I was wrong about the JBS having 2 other brothers, he only had 1 and that would have been RMS. His two girls have no twins. Roxie had never been married before Richard. So then was this on Ken’s side of the family? There was nothing significant going on in Vancouver in 1968 that would compel those people from coming to Vancouver. So who were they? 

I'm off for 2 days, 1 with pay. However I got the wife fighting with me this weekend. It's going to be one of "those" weekends. Sigh, what I don't go through with. Anyway's that's about all for now.

Its been a nice long weekend

but for me, it's just another weekend but one with pay, so I can't complain.

I was able to pick up my Komplete 8 from Native Instruments at LM Saturday and get the fiasco of Saturdays Tim's slomasal straitened up heading in after LM and home for the weekend. I was thinking on my way to Corona from Long, we could stop off at Rexall Drugs over there by Subway but there was 7-11 and I could accomplish the same thing there but I forgot to get my 6/49 ticket and Tim hadn't had enough time to pick his wife up and everything.

Yesterday I spent most of the day with Komplete 8. I played around with Guitar Rig 5 and had a good day off. Today it's CFL football and back at it for a full week for me.

Last night Anne did a rearrange on our bedroom so the stereo next door wouldn't bother us as much. After the Riders/Argo's game its more on Komplete 8 and Anne's doing laundry and I'm settling in to watch Monday night Raw.

That was a lame football game. 36-10 Riders. I was hoping for an Argo's Win. 

So lets see Felix Baumgartner is about to make a historic free fall drop from 120,000 feet tomorrow, wow!

Two movies this fall I'm interested in: James Bond "Skyfall" and Bruce Willis "Looper." I think the JB one is out in November but Looper should be in theaters this fall and I also want to see Batman: Dark Knight as well.

Anyway, it's another 3 hour Monday night Raw coming up soon, should be a good one. 

I'm having a nice Thanksgiving weekend then in about an hour Monday night Raw. Anyway that's all for now.

Wow

Monday night Raw ended with a bit of a wow factor. CM Punk riding in the front of a black car with the driver being Paul Hyman!

Sometime in the afternoon tomorrow I’m calling Service Canada to book an appointment to set up my CPP. I don’t think this is like a walk in service or anything. With so many Baby boomers like myself out there reaching 60 the more they can discourage, delay the Government from paying us out what we can get the better. I have no idea how many people will be turning 60 this year but my guess it’s probably a lot. Ottawa already delayed the OAS so what’s to stop them from delaying CPP next budget? I better grab it while I can.

Hard to believe that the CFL this year is celebrating it’s 100th Grey Cup in November and also this weekend the province is celebrating it’s 100th year as well. Two milestones. Sunday at the “Ledge” (Legislature as we here in Edmonton refer to call it.)

I had a nice Labor Day weekend with lots of Football a chance to winsome money and a nice relaxing day off. Anyway, that's about all for now.

I’m in bed at 1:30am and up at 7am giving me about 5.5 hours of sleep. Then breakfast at Tim’s and in for a full day (6 hours) and my 9 days off begins. Wu who! 
 
Anne came up with a great idea for me for the Lodge Festive board for next week: Deli Pizzas. She’d pick up 4 for me from Superstore ($25) we heat them up here in the oven and nuke them in the mic at the lodge and there we go. Next month (October) I get sandwiches November: soup and buns, December: (chili and rice again) There’s my festive board and I’m done.

As of yesterday the NHLPA’s Friday offer came three days after the NHL made its first counterproposal. After asking players to cut their share of hockey revenue from 57% to 43%, the NHL altered its proposal to have players receive a 46% share over a six-year deal. This is over and above what players would be getting from their original base wage. They’ve already settled on a salary cap issue. The NHL believes that the revenue sharing should be 50-50. The NHLPA needs to come down and the owners need to bargain up for the deal to make sense. That’s not unrealistic. The NHLPA also wants to help struggling markets, Canadian teams are doing well but Canadian teams in my opinion should not be subsidizing US teams with low attendance records. Both sides will meet next week. They have common ground though, so that’s a good thing.

Not much on my plate toady, looks overcast when it might be raining in some parts of the City. Today I’m off to work and then over to Wendy’s for lunch and then home by about 6:45pm. I don’t mind  the Wendy’s location by LM across Grant MacEwan next door to Future shop but the floors are kind of messy but maybe that was just that one time.

Getting 1 or 2 sales/day doesn’t help my cause very much. I know I said I’m not going to worry about it anymore but in all honesty getting 1 sale/day doesn’t make me feel very good but me keeping my job. I got a feeling when I come back that week, I’m going to be called into the office. When the boss calls you in it’s ok but when the boss and a manager calls you in together, then that’s where it hit’s the fan. I got a feeling that’s where sometime this month I’m going to get called in. When that happens, J said he’d give me 6 weeks notice. That will give me lots of time to look for something else. But it’s not just me, there were about 4 of us possibly 5 of us yesterday that got 1 sale or less and I bet other offices doing what we’re doing aren’t doing any better. I’d like to see what some of the other staff are doing. Lets say take a look at anyone that has been there for say a year and see how many of them did about the same as me. It’s not the clients that are negative it’s the customer not want to part with any money and I don’t blame them. People are just tired of telemarketing and it’s a fading industry. I got my 1 sale early yesterday making it for a long day. If my first sale is anywhere from $100/200, after that I’m going to ask big expecting nothing. I’m glad I got a week off but I don’t know if I’ll be there for December for a week off. I hope so but that’s a decision for my higher ups. It‘s not a good climate to work in if your worried about your job all the time. I try not to worry about it but when I’m getting 1 sale/day, doubt creeps in so does self esteem. Anyway, that’s about all I have for now.

Victoria Day Monday

I love this time of year. A day off with pay and a full week ahead. This check wont be very big but next week‘s will. Weather wise out there, it’s +20 out there.

This summer I‘m going to get on the phone and call up Telus and find out how I can turn iPad into a hot spot. My iPad is great for music and games and internet and with the NBA/soccer crowd the Oiler games this next season will be a low priority. The other thing is when 2 of my colleagues sit on the other side of my cubicle to watch TV they‘re pretty loud and I rarely make sales when those two are on the other side of me. During the afternoon, fine or if there‘s no hockey. So this summer I‘m going to get the iTouch 8Gb just to add as a hot spot device so I can put it in my pocket to get the scores. When it‘s 5pm for the evening shift and there‘s hockey, I‘m moving to a more quieter part of the floor.

If you‘ve been watching Canadian National news, you might have seen the massive amounts of student protesting university tuition fees. Most people outside of Quebec here in Canada are aware that Quebec has the lowest university tuition fees in the country. These student protesters are an embarrassment to the rest of the country. Quebec has introduced new Laws that if students don’t inform the Police they are holding a protest then Police have the right to make arrests. Good. I hope they get criminal records for life and let them try and get a job with a criminal record, bunch of scumbags are what they are. They were even talking at one point how Quebec university students deserve free education, only because its through Alberta transfer payments that pays for what they have now.

This morning our Telus service was down for about half an hour including my 3G. Including my iPad tablet flex plan. It was a service wide shut down obviously.

One of the hottest products out on the market is the electric car. Early automobiles were electric as early as the late 1800‘s. But the development of the internal combustion engine in the 1920‘s made the electric car obsolete. Today the electric car such as the 2 passenger Reva and hybrid vehicles are gaining in popularity but the initial costs of these vehicles are so expensive not everyone can afford them. They still need to be charged up and that‘s going to cost as well. Abut half of our electricity comes from coal and coal is dirtier then Canada‘s so called “dirty oil.” There was a story in our local news how this character plugged his electric car into the jack at his apartment building and wondered why on his electric bill was up by 75%. I‘d rather take the LRT to work over an electric car any day. Anyway, time to watch some hockey.

Yesterday after getting off at

the LRT I’m opening the doors to my Scotia bank expecting a large noon time line up. Surprise, surprise, nobody in line. I went right to the teller explained my situation and they wrote me up a preauthorize statement to give to Telus mobility (Tm) I also topped up my account a little as well just in case service charges kick in over the weekend. So far my data usage for my iPad for the 3rd part of my billing/plan is up to 286.17mb. I think I’m at 500mb before the Flex plan kicks in. I  have  up to 25 iM’s (instant messages) I can use and I haven’t used any so far. I’ve got the account active for that but I think I might have sent 1 test message to one of my colleagues.

I’ve got to get on the phone this weekend for several things: First to call Tm and ask about my bill. I’ve got the preauthorize billing set up but after the process was complete it said that it may take a complete billing cycle for it to activate. So what happens to my account in the meantime? Am I cut off for failure to pay my bill past its due date? Or will they see a preauthorized payment set up for my account in progress?  The other call I want to make is to Neil to make sure that in his up coming master’s message in the June bulletin that he marks in there the Lodge BBQ on the 19th of August. Then I need to call Dan our lodge secretary to see about this email he was supposed to send me about the BBQ and a few contact names as far as getting the fixings for this thing. I want to have all of this set up before the end of this month so the members know the who, what, when, where. Then it’s just up to them to come out. Of course I’ll be there.

This morning after I lock up and get out of here I’m getting a lotto Max ticket. There’s still $50M up for grabs. Also I have 7.5 hours on the phone ahead of me. There’s also the NJ/Rangers game this afternoon at 5pm. LA won game #3 of their series last night 2-1 and lead the series 3-0. Phoenix is in real trouble. If they don’t win tomorrow, this will mean LA has not only swept the #1 and #2 seeded teams in the West and about to do so for the #3 rd seeded team to get to their 2nd conference finale appearance. Their 1st was LA in 1993 when the last of the Canadian teams won the Cup. Looks like it’s going to be NJ/LA this year. But I wont be able to watch the game because I’ll be in Lodge Saturday afternoon (I hope)

Sometime Saturday morning, I want to go try out Cora restaurant over here that opened up this Spring and then run over to Moore’s and get a dress shirt and a tie. They have a 2 for one sale and I could use a couple of short sleeve dress shirts and a clip on tie. After that it’s come home and get dressed out of here by 11:20am and hopefully into Lodge by noon. I’m going to bring my iPad along just in case and of course my apron. After Lodge, I‘m on my way home and once home, I‘m going to check on the scores and have a nap. Hopefully, with any luck at all I can pop into the Empire theaters over here and see the new Avengers movie. Most likely if it starts at 8:30pm Anne should be just about getting to Clareview station. We might end up meeting each other, but we‘ll see. I might be too exhausted after Lodge. Not that I have any work there or anything to do. Anyway, that‘s about all I have for now.   

Family day weekend had come and

gone. 

Family day is perhaps my favorite long weekend of the year because Spring is just around the corner. Anne was sleeping through most of it. I was on the computer from the time I got up at around 12:30pm until now.

Other then having the day off the only highlight of the day was watching Monday night Raw.

I'm having some trouble getting into the flow of this book "Stardoc" not that the narrative isn't good or the premise sucks, it's just making time to settle down to read it. Seems it's going to be one of those commute reads. I might have it read by the end of March the way I'm going.
Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of John Glenn's historic flight into space. I was 9 years old when that happened. I remember watching the event as a kid but it never made an impression on me at the time. It showed the capsule with people nearby it and I can't believe how small it looks. There are more electronics in today's cars then there were in the Glenn's vehicle. The Apollo space program ended up costing $25B while the Space Shuttle Program ended up costing about $450B over the course of its lifespan. The Orion space program seems to be a step backward rather then forward but is slated to begin it's first orbital launch in 2014. I'll be dead and gone by the time humanity first steps foot on Mars.

I have a full week ahead of me as I'm working today 8 hours and the rest of the week. I'll have 37.5 hours on my check and stat pay next week, if I still have a job that is. If all works out well, I should have Cubase 6 by the end of this month.

I was reading on ATS how an alien base was discovered on the dark side of the moon but I don't believe it for a second, Here's the video and a link to the story.

. 

The Oiler's are playing in Calgary tonight. Hopefully a loss because they are 9 points from sharing last place, which could mean another 1st round draft pick depending on where we place in the lottery pool but at least we'll be in the lottery pool at the rate we'll be going. I don't see any Taylor Halls or RNH's but we might be able to acquire somebody as trade bait in a package deal. The top picks won't be released until April, anyway that's about all for today.     

Two years ago about this time

my cat Pledges was on his last legs. Like an outgoing WM for Pledges, he was living on borrowed time. A month later we had to put him down, when noticed a blob of blood coming from his mouth. He was trying to get water from the bathtub sprout. I miss him a lot and always think about him.
Another 8 hours are ahead of me here today and you know what? I say bring it on, I‘m ready for it. I need the hours. Several things to watch out for going on today. First, there’s the Winnipeg/Hamilton game tonight. Then I get my check. A few things to look forward to.


I’m having my usual morning coffee. Normally this time in the morning, I’m reading but lately I’ve had some things going on. I’m just over the 102 page mark of what I’m currently reading but today I felt the urge to put a blog post together.


Last night was a great meeting. I‘m not installed yet but next year I will be the lodge’s new Junior Warden. Its an active chair. At least I don’t need to worry about a Robbie Burns night in January but one of the guys suggested I put together a Saint George‘s night in April. I need some tickets printed up but first I need to know that I can have the hall booked for April and I need to know how much is in the JW fund. There‘s a lot of responsibility in this chair as I‘ll be responsible for the entertainment and I have some flexibility. Last night we had 3 tables full at the festive board as the Grand Lodge officers were there. Last night Dan (incoming Lodge secretary) invited me to come out with him to Baseline Lodge on the 15th, which is next Saturday. That’ll be in Spruce Grove. I’ve never been to a Lodge outside the city before so it’ll be a new thing. They will be doing an installation that afternoon. So I’m meeting Dan at Southgate again by the Kiss drop off area. You can do a Google earth for Southgate and its by the big McDonalds clown feet, just across from that. I’ll be there meeting him at 11:30am.


It’s been a crazy week what with Greece on the brink of economic collapse and losing Steve Jobbs. I was thinking about what he said about dying. “You won’t live forever.” Or words to that affect. What I’m trying to do is to leaving some of me behind when I go that will help others long after I’m gone. Something in a meaningful way. What that is, I have no idea yet. Have a nice Thanksgiving weekend everybody. Anyway, that‘s about all for now.

I have about half an hour here

before I take off to work enjoying a morning coffee. Its +20*out there at the moment. A beautiful day. We got The Works/Jazz festival going on right now and I'm thinking maybe Saturday just as Anne is going to work I might want to leave with her and get out at Churchill and bring my camera along and explore the sites and sounds of the festival. Should be a lot of fun.

Also going on this weekend (Sunday) is the Esks hosting game #1 of the 2011 campaign. I hope they have a better showing then they did last year. The Esks have 20 new faces in the line up this season.

The other day in Kelowna BC city residences were having their dogs attacked by over protective fawns. Video captured this one fawn using its hind legs to kick at a border collie under the fawns feet. The dog owner saved the dog but man talk about aggressive deer. Sure they're only protecting their young most people get that but wow.

SF Signal is asking their readership if they read short SFF. I normally don't only because if I'm going to read a larger work I like a but more character development over the course of a longer narrative. Most short SSF reads over the head of my reading level. I can get right into RA Salvador or Peter F. Hamilton, Robert J. Sawyer, Karen Traviss etc but short stories are hard to get into. There's not much pure sf anymore as it's mostly take over by fantasy these days I'm finding. More on this latter, I got to go to work. Anyway, that's all for now.

Why do these

software developers need to make software so difficult to register? The Addictive Drums install was a lot easier then I thought. To get it going inside FL Studio 9, I ad a channel click on Addictive Drums and it pops up in my Step Sequencer. I click on this and the AD panel pops up. The trouble I'm having is I authorized the demo ok but when I call up from my step sequencer in FL I see the AD panel behind the authorization process. They have my regkey. I enter the special number they generated for my computer and a Remove button pops up. I ignored it and began again and they say I have registered this product for 2 computers and the 10 day grace period countdown is under way.

Last night I watched Star Trek 3 "The search for Spock". I really enjoyed it. The only Star Trek's I didn't like were Deep Space 9 and the animation TV shows. I loved Enterprise and was disappointed when it was taken off the air. Other then the STOS and STNG, this has been the longest gap between any Star Trek TV shows since stos and next gen. I hope we don't have to wait 13 years for another television Star trek, or in this case 8 more years.

We're in the middle of a long weekend here in Canada and I'm loving it. Yesterday I felt my first bumble bee whizing along side my ear. I protected it making sure the cats didn't get at it and positioned the fan towards it in hopes the wind would blow it outside. It worked but it got trapped between the screen door the window cell and the frame but it found it's way outside after I closed the screen all the way.

What I like about Addictive Drums is on the Beats page, you can get a loop that you like in Verse, Chorus and Bridge modes. Plus FL Studio's Edison can record the loop into the piano roll and the loop can be edited from there. For example if there's too much open high hats I can edit them out as needed. I really like this product if only I can stabilize the Authorization process.

Today its brunch, Doctor Who, Game #5 of the Canucks/Sharks game. If the Canucks don't win this, they could be in big trouble come game #6 and could be faced with elimination. What screwed it for them was in game #4 when a Canuck forward took that stupid penalty behind Sharks goaltender. the Sharks took advantage of that and it was all Sharks in that home game. The Canucks really need a win on foreign turf tonight to get back in this series or up next Wednesday night they could face elimination.

Its so nice outside, little wind, warm about 20C although we could use some rain over night Anyway, that's about all for now.  

That was a nice long weekend

I couldn’t sleep the last 2 hours there, so I’m up now. Sorry no graphic for the post today.

Most of the time our local media (Global) is pretty good when it covers world events. But our local media at the same time occasionally doesn’t get it right either. Yesterday we had here in Alberta something called Family day, which corresponds to presidents day in the states. Local news media through out the weekend kept making reference to Family day as something that began in 1980, when in fact it began by then Premier Don Getty because his son got into a driving accident which was influenced by cocaine. He was so torn up by this that it caused him not only to call an early election (3 years then needed) but to have a day just for families. This was in 1989, not 1980 as local news media would have us believe. Lately a lot of the Global news anchor people have been coming from other Provinces and don’t do their research properly. I‘ve also noticed the quality of the coverage slipping since Global was taken over by Shaw, it‘s gone down hill lately.

Well, that was the “Family day” long weekend. I had a nice 3 day weekend. I watched a couple of Oiler victories and a game on for tonight. Should be a good one. We’re at Minneapolis tonight at 6pm then Colorado Wednesday. Today it’s a full day. I’ll be wandering into the office at about 8:30am. The morning usually goes by fast but the afternoon drags on especially the last half hour

Last night I discovered Cubase has released their 6th edition and they’ve got an incredible suite of tools and accessories in their recent application I’m seriously thinking about getting. I was going to go for FL Studio but FL is in between things. They are in beta testing 9.8, then its going to be 9.9, 9,9 A, B etc. As soon as I buy 9, 10 will come out. I’ve tried Cubase before and I liked it. Cubase 6 is a higher end suite then FL studio. It’s kind of like in the area of Pro Tools. A Kegan version of Cubase 6 isn’t available yet but by the time it is, I’ll have the funds to get a licensed edition anyway. Anyway, work today, hockey tonight and that’s about all for now.