I got a lot of sweaters and garments

and diabetic chocolates and an Oiler cup. I bought Anne our traditional Shriner calendar, a perfume set and a large double box of chocolates and a photo frame, which she's going to get during Boxing day week. Also, I took her out to a Swiss Chalet, and a breaky and Sunday a Sawmill as part of her Christmass as well over the last 2 weeks.

In my email yesterday Audrey's books reminded me that I received the recent "Space marine Battles" (Warhammer 40K) book. That's another Christmas present I'm picking up Boxing day as I can go in with Anne as she heads into work. They only published 1 Space marine Battles book for 2014 but I think they published a some short stories and special editions.

For a few days over the holidays Superstore hours were around the clock. Anne got some last minute goodies for us and was in the lineup when somebody in front of her was in a hurry and gave his Superstore points left over to Anne. That bought her about $30 worth of groceries because some shopper wanted to "pay it forward." That was a nice gesture. 

I discovered a company called Drumdrops and wow, they have some nice sample libraries. I'm interested in a couple Kontakt 5 sample libraries they have like the Ludwig Super classic Kit that has almost 5,000 samples plus a ton of mixing and mastering instruments to go wit it. There's another sample library in the Kontakt 5 format (which I have) They also have a Gretsch kit with something like 18,000 samples. I'm not a drummer but these will go great in my productions. They are reasonably priced as well and don't take up a lot of room on my hard drive. 

Anne and I are in bed all morning sleeping. I have 8 more days off. Sunday we're going out to the Saw Mill for a Sunday dinner. Sounds good. Merry Christmas everyone, 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 had a good day yesterday.. This

morning while watching “The Attack of the Show” (ATOS) I heard what thought of the last ATOS but as I checked on my morning commute I got some  more info. Apparently     Kevin Pereira, the shows host for the last 10 years or so is leaving to pursue other interests. He has a production company called “LeeUp” and another endeavor called  “Super Creative” or something. His last show is from E3 in early June. I got in about noon and did some internet stuff on my tablet on Kevin Pereira and it looks like he‘s going to be well taken care of but he‘s going to be a tough act to follow.

I had a pretty good day on the job and got about $200 in card and about $500 in sales, not bad on a cold campaign. We watched a little bit of hockey to see the Rangers lose game #5. I was thinking about heading over to BP‘s for a beer and meet up with Anne at Bay Station as she‘s getting off work. I still might do that tonight when I get off work. Instead I popped into Tim‘s for a Boston cream donut and ate that and played with my iPad on the way home. I have 3 days on and I‘m off for 2.

I didn’t win on my 6/49 ticket, not that I‘m ever expecting to. Nobody claimed the prize of $11M anyway, so that‘s ok.

Also, Edmonton Oiler ex coach was in town today to give a press conference type thing. He said he didn’t feel too bad about being let go but kind of felt that he got cheated out of getting to the good stuff. Tom Renney coached 600 games with the Oiler’s, and this was his 3rd NHL coaching job. He said he has other NHL teams talking to him, so lets hope he’ll get another coaching position.

On Coast Author and lecturer on Magick and the occult, Lon DuQuette, “will discuss his recent work on spirit evocation for the purposes of self illumination and life mastery, as well as The Book of Enoch, one of the first ancient texts that describes a hierarchy of spiritual beings, angels and demons, who interact with humanity.” This guy has been on before and is an old favorite of Coast. DuQuette follows in the tradition of Aleister Crowley. Should be a good show. Anyway, that’s all for now.

Interesting weekend

This last weekend has been interesting full of surprises and shocks. The Oiler's and Esks won on the same night and the Oiler's won last night as well. Also this last weekend at the Aviation Museum was the 11th annual "Edmonton pop culture fair" took place on Sunday but I had to work that day. Another event I'll have to wait until next year. This weekend was interesting.

This evening I discovered Pure Data or Pd. Its an interactive open source multimedia computer music platform with some useful tools. I downloaded it but can't get straight or angle lines. I'll be playing with this over the next few weeks. Also something I've never done before: Using a Visa gift card to order something over the Internet. It's a $100 item and I'm buying this evening "Music maker mx." This is going to be something of an experiment, so we'll see how it goes but Music maker 18 is now Mx and there is no 17. Sigh. I think it was a better program.

I've got a full work week ahead of me on the job, working 8 hour days in there until Friday and 6 hours Saturday. Saturday at 4pm, I'll have 43 hours in. It's going to be a long week. Anyway, that's all for now.

Since Sunday, its been

a crazy couple of days. First the surprise of the decade was the death of Bin Laden. That was a shocker. Then last night the dreaded of all Federal election. Harper won a majority which I was kind of hopeing for. Also yesterday I had trouble again with my income tax return. They had (again) sent my tax return to my old address on 156th street, across from the Jasper Place Legion. Anneand I were wondering why it’s been taking them so long to send me my return. They sent it to my old address on 156th street. So it was returned. After some securiy questions reconfirming my current address, (they have it correct now-I think.) so they said they will send out to my current address Wednesday and I should receive it in about 10 days. I hope.

I couldn’t sleep well early this morning so I read about a dozen pages from my Star Wars book, which take place long after the last movie where Anakin and his brother Jacen are the Sons of Han Solo. At least in the New Jedi order timeline. But this is not a spin off what if, as to my knowledge the franchise hasn’t taken that route yet. I’m enjoying this book.

I had a just slightly under a 50-50 day. Durring the afternoon as I got up to go to the bathroom my left ankle cramped up on me and it was hard to walk. The problem continued again when I left out the building. Its been windy all day with some strong gusts. I was so tired I almost slept on the train.

I’m kind of watching the Vancouver/Nashville game tied at 1 and I thinkk Vancouver is going to lose this game. Speaking of which in our office pool, I went from 1st place Saturday down to 7th place today, crazy. Anyway, that’s all for now.