Not a lot going on today

just taking it easy after waking up on the early side of 1pm. With that sleeping pill in my system, it really knocked me out. I slept for a good 9 hours. When marijuana is legal here I'm going to try inhaling some depending on cost after work to help me with my rls. I'm in the middle of my first coffee, to help me wake up here.

A bit of a rant coming up: City low floor buses have a kneeling feature where upon request, the operator flips a switch or presses a button to lower the front door of the bus so those with mobility issues like myself can board easier. its called kneeling the front door. Most bus operators do that for me anyway but the bus driver yesterday morning when I asked "Please lower the front door." Just looked at me. I asked again and he did nothing. It was a difficult step for me to board the bus. Also the driver wouldn't like most do, pause for a bit or merge into traffic slowly. The driver was just being a dink because the bad weather was pissing him off. Human nature at work. I exited the bus at Clareview by the front door. "Have a better day." I knew that would bug him. ETS always rotates bus drivers and most of them are pretty good but if its the same bus driver next Saturday morning I'm going to put one step on the front door show my seniors pass and ask to kneel the bus door again: "I have mobility issues, please kneel the front door." If he refuses again, once inside I'm going to ask very nicely as he is just about to pull into Clareview and I'll look right at him as I'm halfway out the door: "Excuse me Mr. bus driver, I don't mean to give you attitude, and I'm asking nice but I thought you are supposed to kneel the front bus door upon request, or am I missing something here?" If he refuses to answer then I'll say as I'm leaving halfway out the door: "Alright, since now your giving me attitude, and I'm asking in a nice way a reasonable question, I'm calling ETS to make a formal complaint about you. You can chew on that for the rest of the day, have a nice day."

So that incident soured my mood for the rest of the way to Central station and into work. I wasn't late for work or anything. Actually I had a good start to the day as the project's flow rate was calling for 1 complete an hour. I had 4 by my noon break, 6 by my lunch break and 10 by 5:45pm. That's when I need to manage my time better near the end. As my colleague would say "sand bagging" I knew my last call would be a complete (usually always is) just as super was calling for time sheet. That's on me not on him. With this weather everyone wants to get home at a decent time. The survey kept me in the office long enough where I missed that 6:10pm #5. I went to the store and bought a blackjack ticket and played the ticket in the shelter waiting for my bus. In the cold even 10 minutes seems like a long time. Normally if I can catch the first bus I can get into the apartment by 7pm. I got home at about 7:35pm.  

Other then the commute in and after the job/commute back, I had a decent day yesterday. I was able to catch the Oilers/Devils just starting OT with the Oilers winning in OT. I had a great night. Anne called me on her break. This week I'm in 3-9 so I get (hopefully) a full 30 hours in before Sunday cut off I'll have a strong cheque for mid January. My commute both ways were just minor incidents. Moods can easily be affected in this weather. Anyway, that's all for now.

We are on the bit of

a "cold trend" so to speak at 0 degrees. For this time of year, nobody is complaining. During a normal February we'd have at least 18 inches of snow on the ground, and it'd be about -15 about now and a -20 wind chill.

                       

Rant time: I share my commute with people I see all the time. I don't make friends with anyone on my evening commute, especially at night. Most people after 9pm just want to get home, without incident. I'm much the same way. Occasionally if I had a good shift and I'm in a good mood I'll smile and nod to somebody sharing my booth on the train. I see this one guy, middle eastern looking all the time and he gets off at the same stop as me every night. One night at Clareview station, I smile and nod and I thought that was the end of it. Only recently as of this autumn I've been taking the 3pm bus out here to Clareview station. The same guy shows up. He lives somewhere in our building complex, apparently. While waiting for the bus I begin to engage in conversation. He works as a custodian at WCB downtown, married etc. How does he like the weather here etc. He never asks me anything. So, I thought that was the end of it. When he shows up out here he makes eye contact with me, and now I feel obligated to say something to the guy. Like now he's my shadow. Gees mister, I'm not trying to make friends here. Not just that but he follows me around now. Yesterday while I'm getting off the bus at Clareview to catch the elevator to the upper concourse to catch the train he's in the elevator. There are usually 2 trains at Clareview station and its hard to tell, which one pulled in last. I'm deciding which one to take, and I see out of the corner of my eye, he's doing the same thing. So I make a decision and he follows me. I get up and leave one train for the other on track 2. He follows me. He doesn't sit with me but he's up ahead of me by a few booths. The train I was on pulled out and left us waiting there for 10 minutes. I was ok with that because I can catch the #3 or #5 from Central. I realized this morning that the call boards should have shown which train to catch. It wold have said, "just arrived" while the other one should have read Century park, 2 minutes or something like that. The other thing to shake this guy off my back is to leave a few minutes earlier, but I shouldn't have to do that. Its not like he seems to be a bad guy or anything but now I have a unwanted guest. Unless there's a way I can shake him off by making him feel uncomfortable to be around me. I've got a few ideas.   

What I liked about Xentel was I'd go in and I didn't need to sign in and or sign out. I didn't need to fill out a time sheet. We have 2 supervisors and one is 4 days the other 2 days. The 4 day super always announces what time to pack up and through your time sheet in. Its all done on computer screen by project number, hours etc. I almost forgot to fill out my time sheet last night because the 2 day super doesn't announce when to do that. My #5 bus was heading towards the 124th/107th street intersection. The light was green, traffic both ways light so I looked both ways and crossed before the cross walk. As soon as I got to my stop, the lights went amber and then red. If I miss that one, I'd be home at 11pm. 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. 

Getting off at 8:30 last night was good and I made all my connections and as a result of all that I was able to get

home in under an hour. And I wasn't pushing it as it was, wow. Even when working downtown near Corona station it would still take me an hour from the time I left the building to wait after just missing the train for about 10 minutes. It takes  me about an hour to get there and an hour to get back.

Speaking of which just as I got off the bus about 9:30 just out here across from us, traffic was idling at a red light. There was nothing coming and people were slightly ahead of me. I had my head phones on, my shades and the music playing loud "The Clash." I was in no dire straits to get home but others were on the marked cross walk. The cross signal was flashing red not white. Without conscious effort I proceeded to cross and whipping out of traffic was a B&W one of those not quite SUV type vehicles but kind of a boxy looking cop car just shot out cutting me off leaving traffic and a stunned me in its wake. I just about got hit by a speeding cop car out to catch a speeder. Sure I was in the wrong but that could have been at anytime. What if the cross walk was in my favour and I got hit and Anne gets a devastating phone call? Or it could have been a senior with a walker. If I was caught by a accompanied cop car I could have been pulled over and charged for J-walking and most likely "obstructing justice." Or if I did get hit and killed they might have charged Anne as an accomplice. I have a lot of respect for city Police as much as the anyone but that was a little over zealous of the cop to catch a speeder to make quota. The light was changing anyway as traffic my way would have let me cross. It was a bit of a scary few seconds there and one that gave me pause.

I'm just about ready to check on some email and to head out of here for my commute. I only need to cross one street on my way in and that's 107th & Jasper. Anyway were going to get a +28 today and 5 days of that and a couple of 30's in there as well. I'm off again at 8:30 tonight. She's going to be a warm commute on the way home. Anyway, that's all for now.

Another long day

today but at least I'm getting some hours. I got to get something else during the day if all I get are 23-25 hours a week type thing. These hours don't pay the bills. We have a day project coming but I keep hearing different days. 

The Oiler's last night we're looking good until the end of the 2nd. In the 3rd period it was all Flames. This team is the worst Oiler team ever. All these first round picks are doing nothing for this team. Three 1st round draft picks in back to back years and all they can do is manage 13 wins out of 50 games? Only Buffalo has a record and they don't have any recent 1st round picks. I hope they get the 1st round this year, we don't deserve another one but we can sure shell out 650M for a new arena. I'm holding on until the 2nd year of the new arena. If this team doesn't make the playoffs the 2nd year after moving into the new arena, I'm giving up on this team. That would have been 12 years of not making the playoffs. One of two things between then and now need to happen before I even think about supporting this team after the above: 1.) Get rid of Kevin Lowe, 2.) hire a high profile winning coach like a Babcock or a Sutter.

I'm trying to show Anne some very basic things on the iPad and still trying to get my things done. Anyway, that's all for now.

I had a great night last night on the

job but my blood sugar was dropping. I'm on the busy Corona station platform waiting for my train 9pm Clareview train home. It was pact as usual. All the University students At that time of night as Track 2 Clareview always has more passengers then track 1 Century Park heading South. I was lucky to find a window seat so I could doze off here and there.

I'm waiting on the 129 Northgate bus to clear out of Clareview nodding off here and there. There's that character standing at the front of the bus driver again. I pull the cord for my usual stop request. And a "Sorry." What? That character distracted the driver past my stop by about 100 feet. He let out about half a dozen of us onto windrows walking back to the lights. I was pissed off. So much so that I made a rare complaint to ETS complaint line and explained to the operator what had just happened. The bus driver is a  nice guy and all but its that distracted driving. The complaint line lady said this was something worth complaining about and asked if that was a ETS off duty driver standing there talking to the driver? I didn't know but he didn't look like that to me. If it was, the off duty guy should have known better. I wont be on that bus tonight but she took down my false name and my phone number and will put the complaint forward. Around mid December before I got off at my usual stop, I yelled out: "Thanks for distracting the driver bitch." I told that story to the complaint line operator. If the bus driver had not missed my stop obviously I would have never any reason to make a complaint. 

We have management coming in for a annual inspection of the premisses in the morning (we hope) If not by 1pm if they are not here, one of us should remain behind to go to Southgate Apple store to get our replacement iPad. Most likely that'll be me, because Anne needs to work this afternoon. "I have a day off." If I'm successful with the iPod I might just go to Bo Didlies across the street for a cold one. Although I'm having this craving for a shot of Sambucca. We'll see. Anyway, that's all for now.

What the iPad 5 is coming out later this

month? Yeesh. My iPad 3 is barely 18 months old and there is no way I'm going to break down and buy the latest and greatest. If apple decides to bail on their previous gen iPad's and stop their os upgrades at the iPad 5, Apple loses my credibility. They did this with my iTouch 4.2.1 3rd gen and I can't upgrade the software beyond what I have. As long as we can access iTunes and do face time and I can access the net that's all I need. That doesn't mean I'm going to go onto Android. I'm about to wash my hands with the whole mobile tabs phones everything. All I need is my home internet especially after my iPad was hacked. Our Big 3 service providers wont put a usage cap freeze if the account goes over it's limit. Please Verizon come into Canada we need competition. The real value for me for a tablet is reading eBooks and I can get a Kobo for about $150 and Kobo supports ePub. 

On Coast this evening they have a great poll: "How would you prefer to be paid "Cheque or Direct bank deposit?" That's the way I'd like to go. DBD all the way. Most respondents felt the same way.    

I had a pretty good day today even though the file I had looked like there was about an hours worth of work in it. I thought, great, maybe I can ride the train for awhile and have a nap before the next shift starts. Sure enough the boss comes back with another large file. Rats. That's good though because that and what I had this evening gave me a full day. By 7:40pm I was played out but I had a break ahead of me and I went to Subway and got a coffee. They had the "Tour Alberta" bike race and part of the route went by our building. After work I was relieved to catch my train home and a bunch of "tour" fans boarded my train at Churchill station. Its all good.

Spider man does it again! Thanks to Coast for this. A 69 year old man was concerned about the cost of his daughters wedding. He remembered a old box of comic books he had stored away. Inside there it was The Amazing Spider-man no.1! He paid 12 cents for it in 1963. He sold it for $7,000.The story gets even more interesting but you can read about it here.

I got 5 hours tomorrow and some banking to do, going in with my wife. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Just for the record

I'm not gay but I'm not going to come out and bash gay people because they are, it's their business. A bit of a rant coming up. The only problem I have with gays is this preoccupation every year to hold a Pride parade. I know why they have it. I don't understand why they need to have a parade every year to celebrate they're sexuality. Last year when I was working on a hot Summer Saturday afternoon I watching the Pride parade on my way to Corona station to get the LRT for home. I made eye contact with someone on a float and I gave a thumbs up. As I left I heard someone behind me say the F word in my direction. That's just a sample of hateful people in this world and the cretins we have that can't let others different then them live in peace. Your Gay, so what and if anyone says you can't do this or be this because your gay, is not what I'm about. In Russia they have a zero tolerance policy for their gay people. That's not a country I'd like to live in. Our country is inclusive of every religion and sector of our society. If my gay friends are persecuted I'll stand shoulder to shoulder and support them in anyway I can. I thank God I was born in this country.

I found this story in today's i09. A Bulgarian archaeologists have unearthed a medieval bronze ring that might have been used for political murders some 700 years ago. You can read about it here.

Yes, I know. I had the Al's to win on my Proline ticket and in a real thriller, they won based on a field goal at the last second: 38-39! I needed the Al's to win but by more then 3 points. I've got another chance to redeem myself as tonight it's Calgary at Toronto, maybe I should pick them to tie. The Argo's might win 34-37, that's a tie Proline win. I'm going to pick all ties. Better odds as well, better payout.

Thanks to Coast For this: On this day in 565, the Irish monk St. Columba is said to have made the first sighting of the Loch Ness "monster." I'm surprised the monk wasn't executed for witchcraft for reveling his assertion. The monk was probably staying at Urquhart Castle.

I was going to go into Canada place this afternoon but we have to give Sporty his fluids before Anne leaves for work. He took them well yesterday. When the bag is gone he should be ok. I'm up about 10am to go down to the Superstore get my Proline ticket for the last 3 CFL games this weekend and maybe a bag of chips as well. Minimum games on a CFL Proline ticket is 3. 

Uh-oh another rant. "What's he going on about this time?" There's a movement in Quebec that's trying to ban all forms of religious head gear such as hijabs, turbans and kippas. The rational is to separate religious groups based upon what they wear so that they are Quebecker's first and religious supporters second. A lot of businesses don't allow t-shirts with sports logos, or mussel shirts, that sort of thing. They have a dress code. I don't agree with it this kind of behavior. If someone wants to wear a turban so what? Their not trying to convert anyone. The worst offenders of that behavior are Christians, especially people that have bibles at their desk. So now Quebec Premier Pauline Marois is looking into it, yeesh. Can we hold another referendum on Quebec separation please? It's been known to happen. Anyway, that's about all for now.

This weather has been

getting me down lately and that's saying a lot because not much gets to me. After decades of doing telemarketing I've developed a thick skin and an abundance of patience with people. However I'm losing patience with this weather here in central Alberta. We have been for the last 10 days or so way below seasonal by at least 10 degrees. 

The way the Oiler's played last night, they deserved the loss they got. My teeth (or what little I have of them left) have been bothering me and I've got the makings of a soar throat and lodge later this evening and Thursday. So with this crappy weather the Oiler's playing like shit,I've had better weekends then I'm having now. Its not a lack of funds or anything I'm ok in that department. It's just everything else is pissing me off.

And I thought after getting my library card after work Friday and that nice Wendy's baconator after work, I'd have a good weekend. At least I have a cold beer here and hey life isn't so bad. 

On the news last night the end story had to do with a Roman archeological dig in London. At a construction site in the city workers began discovering more remains of an ancient Roman London. This is where the original city was when it was called Londondinum. At that time the City had about 60,000 inhabitants on about 360 acres of land and thriving port some 2,000 years ago before the Iceni led by their queen Boudica. Anyway, that's all for now.   
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I left out of here yesterday

 just before it began to snow. I got down to Tim’s, lots of places to sit. I had my breakfast and even iM’d a evidence photo.

I went over Audrey’s and got book #5 of the Space Marine Warhammer 40K series. I also ordered the 2 Imperial Guard Omnibus books as well.

I had a cold walk trudging in the snow blizzard to Freemason’s Hall. This was my 3rd visit to Commercial and I’m going to affiliate with them this Spring. I had a great afternoon. I had a new beer I hadn‘t tried before New Castle. I like it. They had a Robbie Burns dinner festive board. Sorry I won‘t try Haggis. Yuck. The festive board even served up shooters of whiskey. Now I don‘t know what brand this was but, it was smooth. I need ask the JW what brand that was but I think it was Drambuie. I had a great afternoon. I got home slightly on the tipsy side and had a nap before Anne called.

So I had the Lodge‘s secretary take this photo of me earlier. The lighting from my left is from some stained glass windows causing me to squint here:


 
Not much on my plate today. I‘m reading watching “Looper” on our VOD and following the Oiler/Canuck game. The game isn’t on TV but there are 3 games on TV this week. Cool

I was considering Wendy's for a bite to eat while I was at Clareview station on my bus but I'd have to wait for another 20 minutes and a block to Wendy's on 50th street (in this weather) and a brief wait across the street from the church. (no bus shelter) I wouldn't have had to cross the street out here on my way home getting off the bus like earlier when some asshole cut me off as I trying not to slip in the middle of the road with the pedestrian light in my favor. Next time I'm carrying a golf ball size rock in my pocket and a little bit aware. This has been about the 4th time this winter I got cut off by these creeps and I've had enough. I'm not going to target the glass just the back or side of the vehicle. I don't think I could ever do such a thing but these creeps don't care if they run you over either. Giving them the finger doesn't do them any good they just speed off along their way. Maybe I should have gone to Wendy's Anyway that's about all for today.

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Despite the cold spell coming in for the weekend

and this evening, I decided against going to Lodge this evening as I'm not known at this Lodge and instead I'll go to Lodge on the 19th at Commercial, where I am known. Besides it's a Saturday afternoon Lodge, I can run down to Tim's at Corona get a quick brunch and make my way over to Freemason's Hall by 1pm next weekend. That makes more sense to me. I can't justify to Anne visiting 2 Lodges but I can with 1. Besides Anne's got me running around late tomorrow morning/afternoon doing a bunch of banking and stuff is going to be too much in 2 days. 

 The City is out there with Bobcats and graders removing windrows piled up along street curbs. They hope to have the job done in a couple of days.  

Is anyone tired of this Gangnam Style thing yet? A year from now like all crazes, it'll be pass`. I appreciate the Dubstep qualities of this craze or whatever you want to call it. Very interesting. I like Deadpool's version of this better though.

This “idol no more movement” is increasing it's tempo. Now “First Nations” (FN) are preparing formal letters to have an audience with the Queen of England! There are two sides to this thing going on you can read one point of view read more. and here's another point of view you can read it here.        

I got another set of 4 Warhammer "Space marine Battles" books email notice that came in from Audrey's yesterday morning. My only outing this weekend and maybe a Wendy's as well. 

As for the NHL, the owners voted in favour of the deal now it's the players turn and most of them want to play anyway. If all things go according to plan, the NHL could drop the puck January 19th. I hope I get to watch an Oiler hockey game this month. That's be great. Anyway, that's about all for now.

For most of last night

 I’ve been having a hell of a time trying to get Anne an email and then it dawned on me that since I already had Gmail and Yahoo mail accounts on my desktop, I was without a yahoo email account on my laptop. I got that set up for Anne but I’m having a hell of a time with Apple ID but I’m closing in on it. I’ll get her up and running shortly.

Just as an after thought actor Jack Klugman died Christmas Eve from throat cancer. Klugman played Oscar Madison next to Tony Randal as Felix in the Odd couple. I remember seeing the Broadway production of the first episode as it was on tour and I saw them on stage. That would have been 1976, a few months after that I migrated to Calgary to find work. But the show didn't feature Klugman as Oscar, I believe that was with Walter Matthau. Walter Matthau died 12 years ago. The Odd Couple, Mash, All in the family, we don't have shows like that today. With all of this politically correct bs a show like All in the family would never get by the sensors. I don't think I never heard Archie used the N word for (Jefferson). The Odd Couple never went that direction but Hollywood and they're politically correct obsession would probably (if the show were produced today) have made one of the roommates Asian or something. My only beef when it comes to Hollywood casting like this is the show was conceived as it was, if Hollywood made a remake of The odd Couple by tinkering with it to appease this political correct climate nobody cares about, would ruin the show. That's one thing I didn't like when Marvel changed the character of Nick Fury agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Hate to break the news to you kids, but Nick Fury originally in the Marvel comics was "Sargent Fury and his Howling Commandos." Look it up. Nick Fury was a white man not a black man. When David Hasselhoff played Nick Fury (1998) last time I checked I don't think Mr. Hasselhoff went from white to black in a decade. No disrespect to Samuel L. Jackson. He played an excellent version of Nick Fury and I think he did a great job in that role but casting of the movie Iron Man in 2008 was an obvious move to appease the politically correct climate plaguing us to this day. I'm happy when I was watching sitcoms back in the 1970's we didn't have this politically correct bs. Partially why these days I don't watch that much TV. How about this pc scenario: James Bond after Daniel Craig will be a Jamaican Bond with a British accent. I'm just sayin.   

Coast 2 Coast this morning is about Christmas movies but the next half of the show is about the Urantia. I did a brief study about this curiosity some 20 years ago. With about 2000 pages and going through a bit of it myself, kind of went over my head. At least Ched is back to normal. Tonight the show on Coast is about “Planet X.”

We just came off of watching the latest Doctor Who Christmas special “The Snowmen.” This was a great special. I liked this one better then last years and I hope they keep the supporting cast. On a scale from 1-10, I’d rate this a 9.

Earlier before I got into getting Anne an Apple ID I set myself up a Sound cloud account. I even set up a mobile app for it but it doesn’t look like the app is that well received.

Today being Boxing day is going to be a madhouse out there. If I had any Boxing day funds I’d wait until Friday for the end of Boxing day week.

As for me, I’m relaxing over the next couple of days as I don’t think I’ll be heading out anywhere until Saturday. Anyway, that’s all for now.

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.

So much for my weekend

now onto a new work week.

I've got a few things going on this week not much. I've got to go to my bank and make a deposit tomorrow and then get my 6/49 ticket. Otherwise its go to bed about 1am up about 10am read for about 40 minutes get ready for work, in the office about noon, work 8 hours, home by about 9:30pm relax have some supper watch the news, up for about an hour and into bed about 1-1:30am, rinse and repeat Tuesday through Saturday.

Rant alert: Wildlife and game people in BC are mental. A bear was protecting her young cubs and a resident got to close and the bear went for the resident. So what do the officials do? "Duh, we got to kill the bear." So because of some A-hole who got a few scratches a mother is dead and two babies without their mothers protecting her young. How are these cubs now supposed to survive in the wild without their mother? We do things a bit differently here in Alberta. We're more civilized. (having lived in Vancouver for 25 years I can say this :-) We tranquilize the animal and deposit the animal back in the wild. This happened lately in Spruce Grove just West of us. It makes me angry when so called "Wildlife officials" have to do this sort of thing. Same thing with those nut cases in Spain that turn the bulls lose in the streets. I'm cheering for the bulls every time. And now this nut case is going to swim to Cuba (shes got a device to keep the sharks away. I hope the sharks get her. Idiot, moral of this rant? Your going to flirt with nature where there's wild animals your going to get hurt. Stupid, stupid people. Anyway, that's all for now.