A couple of things going on

this month. First off it's the Edmonton public library's main branch Centennial year, nice. Too celebrate the City of Edmonton is handing out free library cards to any city resident. It's a good deal. I haven't used the library in years but it's free right. why not?  

Yesterday I found out my job isn't permanent. It's on a project by project bases. I have these hours for at least the middle of June. After that I don't know. If near that time, I have no conformation of anything, say like a week or 2 off, I can live with that. If however things are shut down for a couple of months, then I have a few other options. If all we have is evening work, I can live with that. I'd rather work part time where I am now then full time out out on 124th street with the gang. Maybe I'd do it next year when the Nait line opens up. In that case it'd be a train to Churchill and connect to the Nait line out to Kingsway board the #12 out to the job site. That might be easier, but we'll see. I don't want to give up on my present job for just a few dollars more an hour.

This caught my attention from i09 earlier: Should we put criminals under surveillance instead of in prison? The thing is putting criminals under surveillance wont prevent crimes. And how are we going to apprehend these criminals once they figure out that resources are so stretched it's going to be very hard to catch them? Read more here:

The other thing I want to do one of these Saturday's this month is head out to the Telus World of Science for the Star War's "Identities" show before it leaves by the end of the month so maybe next Saturday night. I really want to see this before it leaves. I can get a bite to eat at Westmount and take the #5 to Corona station from Westmount and the train home before Anne calls.

The other thing is our local landmark, the High level bridge, has a built in attraction called the "High level bridge waterfall."  It's normally an event for the summer, usually around Summer long weekends. There are lights that shine from behind the waterfall hooked up from just under the bridge. It's nice at night but the event has been shut down over the past couple of years. Forces at City Hall want to bring it back but with Redford's cutbacks and all that affect the City, it's hard to come up with the funds to justify opening it again. What's odd about this project is the water wasn't pumped from the river below and recycled. It was treated water. Now City councilors want to use the water from the river. They should have done that years ago.  

On Coast this morning the topic is about how scientists have succeeded in developing the first living cell to be controlled entirely by synthetic DNA. Cool. Looking forward to listening in on this for a bit. Anyway, that's about all for now.
 

My wife had her outing

all day Sunday and I stayed at home. That was ok because she used her staff discount and ordered me a small meat lovers pizza that came with curly fries and chicken bites. So I had that around 5pm while watching "Looper:"

I really enjoyed this. I got to watch it for free, thanks Telus! On a scale from 1-10, I'd rate it an 8. I also kept watch over how the Oiler's were doing on their first game on the road in Vancouver. They ended up winning in a shoot out 3-2 giving the copper and blue their 1st W of the season. They entertain the SJ Sharks tonight for their home opener. I got 3 games on TV I can watch this week. They may be doing ok now but lets see how well they'll do at the end of March. I think with the group they have this year they will make the playoffs.

Thanks to my friend Dennis Hurd for pointing me in the direction of Google books. I signed up for a Google player and downloaded a Western by John Fox Jr. "A Cumberland Vendetta." I just started reading it yesterday morning. I just read the first chapter and it's building but engaging.

In the interest of being made aware of department, as most of you know the original 1960's bat mobile went up for auction over the weekend. The anonymous buyer paid $4.5 Million for it. More then likely he'll use it as an investment. "Want the original bat mobile for your show & shine or convention? Just $5,000/day. Your guests can actually sit in this piece of nostalgia for $100 photo op etc," It's a pretty good investment for that type of thing. Anyway, that's about all for now.

According a company called DSI they have plans to begin mining nearby asteroids in 2015. Their first attempt is to send a laptop size device then larger devices later on. The idea is to target small asteroids and work from there. They say that many of these asteroids not only have iron,nickel ore that sort of thing but also precious metals like gold and platinum. There is some speculation that these asteroids might even have water and oxygen. DSI invented the The technology, called MicroGravity Foundry. This printer is really cool

Well, I didn't win last weeks $16M lotto 6/49 but a man just North of us in St. Albert did. A lot of Albertan's have been winning the 6/49 over the years. That's good to see. Anyway, that's all for now.  


  

I slept in late this morning

getting out of bed by about noon.

I wasn’t watching the news Friday night, kind of watching Smackdown instead. I heard about a shooting in the US but I didn’t hear any details. I heard nothing about it until the news  at 11pm. What a shocker in Newtown Connecticut for the whole world, 20 year old kid snaps gathers weapons his mother had in their house, kills her goes to nearby Sandy Hook elementary school bursts his way in and starts killing children, 20 kids and 6 teachers including the principle and himself and his mother. 28 homicides. Something like that could happen anywhere, tragic.
 
I was so wrapped up in my own world about losing my job running all over the place Friday the thing I was concerned about was what I was faced with. The shooting incident occurred about 9:30am Friday. What made the gunman go to the school and go on a killing rampage, only he and God know those answers and I don’t even think the killer knows. Unbelievable.

Earlier I was fooling around with FL Studio’s FPC. It’s a very powerful drum machine, which can be linked up to a midi controller and also linked up to the piano roll to lay down an easy drum beat. With this I don’t really need Machine. I’d rather have the studio monitors first but I’m more or less committed to buying Machine now.

Apparently the Doctor Who Christmas special wont be on today like I thought I heard. It’s apparently going to be aired Christmas Day and the episode is called “The Snowmen.”

Finally I have a label cloud on my site. I’ve always wanted one but never knew what it was called but it balances out my sidebars.

On my 6/49 I got 2 numbers but that wasn’t with the bonus number for a free ticket. I got 2 numbers right though!

I also added 2 new links to my blog: Cern, and the OTO phenomena, I just titled OTO, its a huge resource.

Anne was supposed to be home an hour ago but because Walmart is open 24/7 during the holidays and all she loses her track of time.
 
It’s -9 out there but there’s a bit of a wind chill. I’m working on a sample track in FL Studio putting together my drum sounds and I have a verse and chorus part. Trouble is I’m experiencing a lot of clipping and I can’t figure out how to eliminate it.

My first CPP cheque in February is going right for my Lodge dues unless I get a good job between then and now. None of this $10-$11 hour crap for me unless that's the only thing out there. If I don't come up with anything substantial then I might have to take anything.

I'm kind of sorry I missed seeing Dave Gross this afternoon but I don't want to spend anything major until I know what I'm dealing with by Friday. Anyway, that's 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.

I'm having a pretty

good weekend

Yesterday was ok as well except sales were low. I got 1 all day worth $200 but it wasn't line hour I need. I could have used 2 more sales on card or a $100 on card. I don't understand why I was having so much trouble and other people on similar source were getting all the sales.

After work yesterday I went over to have a beer with the guys and a few laughs. After about 2 hours in there, I was hungry to gets something to eat but BP's food is a bit lame. I ended up going into Tim's for a bowl of their new lasagna. It was really good and it hit the spot. I went home after that.

Over the weekend I’ve been Tweeting here and there about my Proline Sports select CFL games. I had a ticket for all 4 games. Two of these games were picked as ties and they came in causing a bit of a stir in the office. Then when Edmonton won in BC, my ticket was causing a bit of a buzz. If I would have won on this ticket, I would have won $682! Yesterday at BP‘s I was following the game from my iPad as they didn’t have the game on where we were sitting. The game was about half way in the 2nd  Q 10-22. I know my Proline ticket boat was taking water. On my way home from Tim‘s it was late in the 3rd at 39 something for Hamilton. I should have picked a 2nd win on this ticket. Picking 3 games is a lot easier to win on then all 4. From now  on its just 3 games. My ticket sank faster then a iron anchor. But it was an interesting run to say the least. 24-39. There was about 8 minutes left in the game but Hamilton was too much for Montreal. Week #5 is Edmonton/Winnipeg (W) Argo’s/Montreal, Hamilton/Saskatchewan(T), BC/Calgary(T) I’m not even going to touch the Argo/Montreal game. Forget it. 

Coast has a lame show on over night: Greed/ Media Manipulation. There's only so many UFO shows you can do I guess. Tuesday nights show is better: Redefining Space & Time Nassim Haramein.

I've been kind of delaying the guitar because of the difficulty in transporting it home. It comes in a cardboard box Tim was saying. So I thought, why not put it in a garbage bag and carry it home that way? This is a good idea actually, so I'll call ahead first and ask if they have the Fender Squire bullet strat. If so I'll run down and pick it up and ask for a guitar to amp cable, some picks and take a look at the Mustang 1 Fender amp. I have the usb cable that will go right from my amp into my laptop. Until then I can plug the guitar into my audio interface and utilize my Guitar Pro 6 that I bought last November. I also want to take a look at the Fender Mustang 1 amp as well, while they're tuning my guitar. 

The other main concern I have is the Lodge BBQ. Dan said he had a back up cook for me if he can't make it due to work constraints. We also need propane and a BBQ lighter and of course any fixings. I'm calling Mike tomorrow as he's in charge of entertainment. I'll be glad when I'm done this  post. It's interesting but it sure is a lot of work and when you don't have a vehicle your at the mercy of everyone else. I'll be really relieved when I'm done being IPM and I can maybe do the Registrar again but the way things are going in our Lodge, we might end up merging with another York rite lodge in which case, we'll most likely merge with Strathcona #77 or something like that. But I'll be relieved when it's September. Anyway, that's about all for now.