It the May long weekend

and other then the Oilers losing 2 in a row during the 1st round of the playoffs, its been an interesting couple of days. The Oilers are off to Winnipeg for 2 back to back games. They are in trouble.

I was able to get another You Tube video uploaded to my Jim Shannon on Sounds You Tube channel. And I'm now at 75 subscribers. I'm hoping to reach 100 by the end of the year. Its a long shot but I'm working on new content and hopefuly get 2 video's upload a month.

We've been geting some below seasonal weather lately.  We have a couple of rain days including holiday Monday next week. Also this weekend I'm going to fill out our census and work on a miRack upload. I've got enough to keep myself busy. Anyway, that's all for now. 

Anxiety over the pdf email was lifted

from my shoulders when I came home last night to see the pdf in my inbox. Now I hope I have enough hours for my rent for July. If I was working at my Xentel job (now long gone) I wouldn't be worried as much over this. I'm working for July's rent, now. 

Yesterday was ok going into work. Coming out of the building I was met with a torrent of rain. I was worried about my book in my bag because I had no rain gear. The Matrix hotel's Starbucks offered some shelter as I found a better spot in my bag. I should have just waited the rain cell out with a decaff or something. I checked at Corona station and the book was ok, so was my camera. I was soaking wet on the train coming home. After the train got out of the tunnel the storm clouds were exposing blue sky and drifting apart. Just coming off my bus I took this photo of the sunset about 9:45pm It was a lot lighter out there then this photo

Tonight could be the Stanley Cup hockey game as LA hopes to win it in 4 games in New York. Although it would be nice to see a Stanley Cup game Saturday night. Tonight it's game #4 and if there is a game #5 it will be Saturday night in LA and let it be done there. Bring on the off season!

We got a beautiful day out there, for now. if my hours get dropped from my current job, then I'll try out another advertizing job. I like the job I have now but it's not steady and that's where the problem lies. Anne's just got to get something going. She's beginning to make an effort and she wants to go register at another employment agency this week but I have the bus pass but she's got tickets. 

Tonight, it's a 4 hour shift. If I can work all hours in this pay period, I'll have enough for at least 2 thirds of our rent for July. I hate this. The other day at the tm job I asked a colleague who's more or less steady there, if he misses Xentel. His response was "no way." Consider the stress he's under and the source he's calling, I doubt he's getting $375/week like I was. A lot of call centre jobs are promoting their work from home option. Where my wife works, they are doing that, which is why she's only getting 2 days/week. OAS can't come early enough for me. Anyway that's all for now.

I’m up early unable to

sleep but I had a good 5.5 hours of sleep so I’m ok for the rest of the day.

Yesterday I ended up with just under $300 with $70 on card. Fran comes in from 5-9 and ends up getting sale after sale on WR. I was on TD run CPC tap list that for about half an hour got nothing for me until the last 20 minutes I ended up with a C note and a $25 but nothing on card for this evening. At least it bumped up my sales near the end there. Part of my poor showing was the fact that I had to get up early to go to the Registry yesterday for my Government ID and even though the process was nothing at all, it was still part of my day that showed up in my effort. The perfect day for me is if I have nothing on my mind, no fights with Anne and a source where I get to pitch somebody at home. I don’t think I got my first sale until after break yesterday.

I’m thinking about taking some baby steps in the markets with iTrade. Nothing spectacular just a few investments to get my feet wet with no expectations. Some iTrade stocks.

We’re supposed to get some hot weather on the weekend heading up to the +28-30 range. Not good for me. I like it just like where it is now. We‘re supposed to get a lot of wind later this afternoon with gusts of up to 55 knots. Not good for the trees out behind us.

I‘ve got a couple of calls to make before I head on out of here this morning. I need to call Scene and get more details and to finish setting up my account. If we can earn 1 point for every $5 like it says, then we can earn about 175 points paying our rent every month, 17 points for getting a bus pass, 120 points for getting our groceries, etc. The only problem is I get only 12 debit transactions/month. 24 points for paying our Internet and these points are every month plus every time Telus extracts from my preauthorized flex plan for Telus every month I get 2 points for that. Thing with our groceries is, Anne buys a little for what she needs each week. I‘m sure thought I can get more debit transaction packages. Right now I have the Power checking account to which I pay $3.95/month for. I‘d like to utilize Scotia because RBC has had their credit rating lowered and it‘s a little out of my way to get to. Scotia holds every check for I think 10 days unless the customer has A $1,000 monthly balance or something like that. RBC I don’t need a balance to cash my checks. The other thing that kind of nags me about Scotia (at least at my location across from Audrey’s) is the entrance. Customers have to use their client cards to get to the ATM inside the “lobby.” The thing I don’t like about RBC is to get their by train I have to use three flights of stairs to get up to street level, where before all I would need to do is to take the bus but that end of Jasper Ave is reduced to 1 lane of traffic  and buses are routed to just outside of the Bank of Montreal. RBC has its financial section across from “Rickies” and I think there‘s a street entrance for ATM use but I‘m not sure. I‘m going to check into this on Friday.

Anyway, no other news on the Oiler front NHL wise Devils Richard Brodeur has signed with the Devils. We have to play NK out for 1 year. So much for making the playoffs this year for the ‘12-13 season. isn’t going to happen until we deal with NK.

I’m currently working on

the Ontario PC Party campaign. We’re (some of us) raising funds for a bi-election in Kitchener/Waterloo riding (KW). The Liberals who are the minority Government (barely) thought that if they could get 1 riding it would push them over the edge from minority Government to a Majority. By doing this, they need a bi-election. What they did was pick a riding and “bought off” the current MPP of the riding. Nothing pisses people off more then their elected officials jumping ship for another party. Most people I’ve talked to said there ought to be a Law against this sort of thing. But the MPP left her post immediately after the election and “accepted” the job, essentially leaving that riding with no representation in the Ontario Provincial Legislature or “Queens Park.” So now, Elections Canada has to call a bi-election within 6 months. Said MPP left her post April 23rd. Almost a month ago. Most people in Ontario I talk to are concerned but they live in a Province with high unemployment thanks to the Liberals who have held 2 Majority terms and every term when an election is called, guess what? They rack up the debt every year they try to pass a budget. Most people I talk to about this are sympathetic but they‘re unemployed. If you have someone actually listening to you, chances are they‘re unemployed or a senior dangling the senior card in your face as if that‘s supposed to mean anything. It‘s like they‘re exempted from life or something. So call after call I carry on and maybe I‘ll get 2-3 sales in a 4 hour shift or about $100 on a week day, $250 on a mild day, $600 on a strong day. I get a lot of people saying: “I don’t live in that area so why are you calling me?” When I explain most of them understand but like most people in Ontario, they‘re broke and or they think that a political party has all the money or why don’t they have one of their $200 plate dinners and fundraise that way. My afternoons are good but the evenings suck because I have James and Warren watching hockey and laughing all the way to their bank with their $200 taps. The taps are harder to do because the Line Hour expectations are higher on politics then they are on cold calling which is what I‘m trying to do with OPC. If I‘m having a slow afternoon sales wise, management will put me on taps to make my day look half assed decent good.

Somebody/group won the Lotto Max $50 jackpot over this last weekend. Sure wasn’t me. I’ll get a quick pick for Wednesday’s draw which is worth $11M. If I won I’d show up to work only until I actually collect the prize. Then I’d say something like “After 12 years on the job, it’s time for me to retire. I’m collecting CPP and AISH and I’m going to say sayonara to the work force. I‘ll give them a weeks notice of course.

The sequel to the 2009 Star trek movie is in full swing but I haven’t heard much on Star Wars television series that was hinted at 7 years ago after the last movie. Star Wars is more concerned with animation projects like “Clone Wars.” Animation to me is for kids and not very credible. In the meantime, I‘m reading the Jedi series. Anyway, back to bed.

I didn’t get a lot out of that back to sleep for an hour and a half but I’m awake now. Looks like we got a bit of a drizzle of rain coming down. I’m about ready to tuck into a cup of coffee here.

On the news just about every night of the week we get to see pent up Quebec University students out there protesting the Provinces proposed tuition fees. By contrast a undergraduate full time study degree here in Alberta is the most expensive in the country at 5,318/year for this year according to stats Canada. In Quebec thanks to transfer payments by Alberta and BC Quebec university students pay now $2,175. Quebec Government wants to increase their fees an extra $1,625, over the next 5 years to a maximum of $3,800 even after that, the lowest in the country, which us an extra $325 more/year. Even after the hikes, Quebec will have the lowest University education fees in the country. What’s the matter with these people? They’ve got an 8% Unemployment rate, Ontario 7.4% and Alberta is the lowest with 4.9%. Most likely after Quebec University students graduate, they’ll come out west anyway.

I’ve got a full 8 hour day ahead of me here, not that I’m or anything. It’d be nice to know how many of us across the country are doing OPC. All our supervisors are able to tell us what the previous days line hour was. Last I checked I think the campaign was running at a $40 line hour and that was Saturday. Anyway, that’s about all I have for now.

Since Monday night

its been really depressing around here what with losing Sparky Monday.

This year so far hasn't been very good to me/us. For me, it starts off with moving into this new office and I'm having trouble getting used to it. Then I go on holidays and I get this bronchial thing or whatever it is. When I come back from "vacation"I get a large amount of vacation pay and a voice in the back of my mind was telling me to hang onto as much of it as I could. Then my laptop breaks down (my fault) Then Anne loses some of her hours and then Sparky gets ill and dies on us. What has God got in store for me next? I believe it's going to get wore before it gets better.

I've got a full day of work today and I'm not feeling all that great with the death of Sparky still on my mind haunting me. the "good news" is I've got only 3 days and I'm off for Sunday and Monday.

This week I'm calling AW too see if we can get some income support and or some health benefits for me. My wife wants to find another job as well so maybe we can utilize their resources for us. I'm going to set us up an appointment for Monday.

Yesterday we had the inspectors here checking things over. They want to come in and fix up the taps and things.

If you have just joined this program in progress you might have seen some new window dressing. I added a photo of me in the description and added a couple of photos of my dearly departed: Pledges and Sparky, I love them so much.

I'd like to fix up the blog description and fill up a lot of the blue empty space there and add some photos underneath that. I'll ask the forums for some help soon. Right now, I'm still not over Sparky.

Hey, hey, I've got my 2nd follower to this blog. Welcome aboard. There's no words of wisdom to this site or anything but welcome just the same. I hope you find it entertaining. Anyway, that's all for now.

It was raining while

waiting for the bus this morning to take me to Clairview station. Though trying to get downtown was difficult. There was some kind of emergency at Churchill station which caused a long delay. The train started and stopped and dragged all the way to Churchill. On the lower concourse at Churchill a small crowd of people had gathered over somebody lying down by the escalators. I got to Beans and bought a coffee and headed upstairs. When I came off the elevator the place was empty, except for James. Apparently Super decided to have everyone start at 10-7pm so I wasn’t late by the delay after all. I made arrangements with Super to get off at 6pm for today and tomorrow and he agreed. Two short nights but I’ll make up for it Thursday and Saturday, so I’ll have 34 hours in by the end of Saturday. I had some time to waste so I went and got a 6/49 ticket read the paper and waited for the shift to come in. This means that I can stay up late and sleep in for an extra hour. I had a slow start to the morning but we were doing small taps. Lunch hour was the same as always although there was nobody to play foosball with, which kind of sucked. The second half after lunch was even slower then the first half. I was glad to get out of there by 6pm and it had stopped raining sometime during the day so on the way home was nice and dry about +16. Anne had supper waiting for me as she was doing the laundry. It was a nice easy day today even though it was a bit long. Anyway, that’s about all for now.