September's weather is usually on the cooler side as at the moment its overcast

with some patchy clear breaks and a few dark clouds. Sunsets at 8:17pm I like this time of year. It's not to hot or cold. Nice mix of Sun and rain. Gone are the +30's. Thank god.

Friday I had a few things to take care of like my Doctors office first. I arranged this over the phone with the reception a few days ago. I needed to pick up some sample meds over the counter in and out. I left out of the apartment under threatening skies and rising humidity to my Doctors office about 1:45pm. So far so good. I had 3 items to take care of yesterday afternoon: Doctor, bank, Service Canada in a small 2 hour window. Travel time would eat up a lot of that window. The reception at the Doctors office said something like "Oh the Doctor wants to take your blood pressure before he gives out the samples," "I don't have time for this now. I thought this was a just over the counter pick up like in our phone conversation a few days ago. I have less then a 2 hour window and its already 2:10pm, alright." I was becoming anxious. Experience has taught me that seeing a Doctor on a Friday afternoon (especially on the start of a long weekend) is going be awkward and could compromise my window. I spent more then a few times waiting up to an hour in his office. After the 2nd blood pressure reading, I had enough of this and unhooked myself off the blood pressure machine and headed out of the waiting room to the reception counter. "I don't mean to be rude, but I don't have time for this, can I re-book this for next week?" All they had were morning openings until the week of the 12th so I got a 1:30pm on the 15th. I can go without for 2 weeks. It's not like I need penicillin or anything like that and I have a bit left over. Its not life or death. At first they wanted to send it over to my pcn but that's another appointment and something about email? Don't they know that C means confidential :) The 15th will do. Its entered in my calendar. I walked East along the South side of Jasper Ave up to my RBC and got the form I needed. Then I worked my way up past the renovated Alberta Hotel. I thought about ducking in for a beer, maybe later. At Service Canada there was a line up but I had my iPod touch and some offline reading I could do in the mean time. Very little waiting and I was able to see somebody right away. All my details were in order for my oas, bank form etc. I didn't know I could apply for my GIS in the Spring when our Notice of Assessment's came in. That's pretty cool. I was out of there at 3pm and I thought maybe I should try the Doctor's office again but I was sweating like a pig and all I wanted to do was to get home.

I was able to buy the Filmora Go remove watermark license for just a few bucks (My gopro alternative) for my iPod Touch from the app store the other day. Works great. Then I discovered Pinnacle Studio for the iPad. It's like iMovie but more robust, more options. iMovie won't work that well on my iPod Touch 5 Gen and barely on our iPad 2. Pinnacle is pricey but I'm seriously thinking about picking it up. 

Learning Pinterest is a bit of a struggle. There's lots on you tube but its old and out of date. I've got a blog board and I'm going to pin a couple of other items to my wall soon. I don't know how I was able to get over 390 page views (Pintrest) and 16 followers last week but maybe that was a fluke. Since on my blog I have 1 follower. It'd be cool to have some of those Pinterest followers as blogger followers. Anyway, that's all for now.

I've often wondered what would happen to this blog

after I pass on? Is it dependent on my isp account? No because its web based. It'll always be 'out there.' That means that as long as Google keeps Blogger going people will have the opportunity to read this blog for a long time after I'm gone. This blog is my legacy.

The Oilers finally snapped a 3 game losing streak beating the New Jersey Devils. Eberly, Pucell, and Draisaitl are scoring a goal/game. The Oilers won last nights contest Rexall 4-1. Now after the weekend the Oiler's go on a 5 game road trip. My expectations for this road trip will be 1 win out of 5 games. Monday the Oilers play in Washington DC. I'm still hopeful that the Oilers will finish 9th ot 10th in the West at the end of April.

I called the office and there is no work for me this weekend. The boss is hoping for mid next week. Our staff Christmas party will be next Thursday. I've got a couple work from home options I'm about to look into. I hope I'll be able to get the ball rolling on one of them next week. I'm also following up on a security guard job as well. If Anne and I can survive between now and mid December, we should be ok. Anyway, that's all for now. 

From the looks of things

there doesn't seem to be any kind of a schedule for the weekend. We're supposed to be having our staff Christmas party next week, which suggests to me that there won't be work of any kind, at least until the first week of next month. I'm looking for another part time job, anything. The job I have now is ok for when I'm on pension but as for now, its so unpredictable and we cant live like this. I'm checking in about a job in a totally different industry other then call centre work. I've done the work in the other industry before but that was like 15 years ago. I have 2 different resumes for two different industries..

Obama has decided to shut the doors on Syrian refugees most likely a decision based upon last Friday's tragedy in Paris. Yet JT wants to bring in 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of this year? Bordering on asinine. The cost of this program over 6 years will be $1.2 Billion. No doubt there are some of these refugees that would just as soon as kill us then escape the trouble in Syria we don't know. Here in Alberta we're going to be accepting about 6,000 of them. Personally I think it should be the Muslim community that should be looking after these people. Give them tax breaks. They're used to having 8-12 of them in a household aren't they? Personally I think these refugees are a low security risk but one never knows.

Earlier I was able to put up another video to my new YouTube channel. So many "Jimmy Jam's" out there, I decided to drop that and create a new YouTube channel. I'm now a entity or a band, called "Amok Thyme." Its a play on words and a bit of a shout out to a Star Trek tos episode of a similar name. I'll be working on this over the weekend. Anyway, that's all for now.

Its been over a month now

since I had any meaningful work. Thirty eight days exactly. I had 1 shift July 24th and even if I didn't have the lodge bbq all I would have got out of that last project would have been about 2 days. I'll be putting more resumes for other part time work. The idea is for 3 and 3 days. 

Last nights Stamps Riders game was close but not the outcome I was hoping for: 34-31. The Riders had a costly penalty and too many turnovers. Now the Stamps are first place in the West. Its Redblacks/Argo's at about 1pm today. So, that was week 9 in the cfl.  

With my new yahoo email account I was able to have installed a feature on my iPod touch absent since I got the iPod: A new Flikr account. Now, I can upload photo's and video's directly from my iPod to my Flikr account. Of course I need a wifi connection but there's no shortage of those around on my commute, so I'm happy about that.   

Anne wants to take me out for Sunday brunch today over here at Humpty's. We really can't afford it. We haven't been there in years. I'd rather have brunch here because if we got out time wise could compromise my Summer slam. We have a Cora across the street but it hasn't had great reviews. Hopefully Anne will change her mind because of Summer slam. I'm going to let her sleep in as much as possible. The longer I let her sleep, the "its too late to go" she'll say. Anyway, that's all for now.

Over the past few days I've been busy

around here what with X-rays and blood tests. I thought fasting was no food but apparently it meant no drink as well, so they turned me away at the X-ray because I had a coffee from McDonald's in my hand. I got to go back next Tuesday, yeesh. 

I grew up in Coquitlam is a very active face book group and very special to me. I've been on it for a few years now. I got a lot of information, first hand knowledge of events that relate to my past. It helped me with some closure etc. Also, my siblings and family that I haven't seen for years are on Face Book (FB) and its fun connecting with them. A lot of the activity on this group are people asking similar questions, "Does anyone remember so and so?" I posted a few names of people I grew up with and liked but life being what it is people lose touch over the years. Those posts went largely ignored because they were not stand alone posts but were embedded in replies. The other day I thought I'd post names on FB of old friends I grew up with in the 1960's and a few under its own post: "Does anyone remember so and so?" Dave and Bob were two of the names I had on that list. I was getting nibbles. One poster knew Bob and it was the same Bob by association of other events that confirmed this. I had his last name miss spelled which is why he never came up in a FB name search. I sent Bob a FB pm containing my email and as far as I know I got no nibbles back from him, yet. We weren't really that close. One poster knew Dave as her ex husband actually works with him. Unfortunately Dave is not on FB. After a few replies back and fourth she sent me a pm containing Dave's phone number. Before I left for work yesterday thanking her so much, I said I'd try the number on Sunday after Anne went out for shopping. I'd have time alone by myself to make phone calls. When I got back from work last night, the group member did me one better on my behalf she called Dave on that phone # (I haven't seen Dave since 1991 almost 25 years ago) Dave told her that it would be great hearing from me again. I replied back to her thanking her profusely. That's the power of social media.

Yesterday I got some ei cash from what I set up on Tuesday and my pay last night got me a decent amount towards bills etc. I was happy about that. Anne was to. So now I'm able to go to the bbq today feeling good. The only two snags this week was the x-ray and I got written up at work quite severely. The project is only for a few days but the supervisor said he'd be calling me Monday or Tuesday for the next project and said see you next week. I'll try and take a few pictures of the bbq and post them here. Anyway that's all for now.

I'm still not sure how best to use

Periscope. I just made another broadcast (my 2nd) about reading my book in the Horus Heresy series. I forgot to save the broadcast to my camera roll but my iPod was running low on battery. I'll be playing around with this more and more over the next couple of days.

The Montreal Canadians lost their series against Tampa Bay 4-2. There are no Canadian teams now in the playoffs. Essentially this means that's hockey for for 2014-15 is over. Bring on the Oiler's off season.

Anne took a call for me while I was out. My Doctor called and said he wants me to go in for a X-ray as I believe I have early dysphagia. Hopefully I can treat it and its not a prelude to throat cancer. I'll be calling him when I get up out of bed later.

I missed my CTV news as they were running a 2 hour "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." broadcast. I'm not really into this series as much as I think I should. I was really into the comic books in the 1960's. This TV series is nothing like the original Nick Fury agent of Shield. That's my S.H.I.E.L.D. This series looks good but I just can't get into it. Anne and I aren't even into Doctor Who since Mat Smith left. Anyway, that's all for now.

My father was born in

El Centro California 1922. I mentioned this to one of my colleagues that has dual American/Canadian citizenship on his Facebook page. He said if I was interested I might be able to hold dual citizenship and asked how old my father was when he came to Canada. I kind of knew I had this option decades ago. I don't know if I can do this now at my age and what would be my responsibilities and what value this would have for me If I had this option. The window might have closed a long time ago. It might be worth investigating though.

I like social media and I try to keep up with the latest and greatest. I was too late with Instagram and only heard of Periscope on the news last night. Some people are using it to film copywrite broadcasts, such as TV etc but its not the same thing as actually watching it live on a stable screen. I downloaded the app from the app store and took a short video from my iPod Touch as a test drive. Its added to my camera roll. Periscope probably has some uses as long as the phone/iPod is connected to the Internet. The video doesn't stick around for very long. I think 12 hours at the most. I'll play around with it for a bit. Periscope is a Twitter app. I can just imagine how periscope might be used to stream pornography and use the app for other malign purposes. 

I watched game #5 Calgary/Anaheim and Anaheim won in OT. I kind of knew they would. Anaheim was the better team. My father was a Chicago Blackhawks fan. It would be great if Montreal and Chicago would meet in the finale and Montreal won. 

Anne had this conversation with a Chinese colleague at her place of work Saturday night. Somehow the conversation got around to how we were having trouble sleeping. Anne's colleague mentioned we should try ginger in our sleep tea as a sleeping aid. I did a bit of research on ginger root and there could be a possible benefit for Type 2 diabetics like myself. So we'll give it a go this morning.

I've got a full week ahead of me this week. I'm still on probation so I don't think I'll get stat pay since I don't have any deductions up to this point taken off my cheque until after the 3rd month. This upcoming weekend is the Victoria day long weekend. I think I better work Saturday just the same. If I don't get paid for Victoria day I'm not going to have a seiser about it. Anyway, that's all for now.

I'm out of here about

2:30pm as I have a Doctor's appointment at 3:30pm downtown off of Bay Station. I was a no show twice before and any more of these and I could lose this Doctor. I need to get a pcn referral renewed to help cover for my insulin and some medication refilled.

I'm in for a 4 hour shift but beyond Friday I don't know whats going on. I might have to take short term telemarketing job for the next 2 weeks. If I don't have any work for the next two weeks and rent for March is looming we'll be in trouble. I have  a small cheque for the 20th. Plus we have our household bills to pay. We have an ongoing project but when that's getting under way is anyone's guess. I heard Tuesday but the schedual is really thin this week. Something is going to have to give. I don't like living like this. I'm being patient but my patience is wearing thin. I miss the old Xentel days where I was more or less guaranteed my hours and I didn't have to submit a schedule for my availability every week and I got a pay cheque every Friday. The job I have now is good, when I'm on full pension but that's a few years away. 

I'm messing around with Instagram and I included a widget but I might remove it because it's stretching out the band width. I'm not sure if I like Instagram but my Flikr account is broken. This will do until I get it repaired. Anyway, that's all for now.

Yesterday we got this notice

under the door about bed bug inspection. Another crisis ahead. Pest control came in here in 2013, did what they had to do and gave us a clean bill of health. There is a lot of work to be done but we have the weekend to do it. 

I didn't get another lotto 6/49 free thicket. Not that I was expecting one. I knew I was pushing my luck. However because each draw is $5M that gets added on and carried over if nobody wins. I'm buying a ticket for Saturdays draw for $35M. If nobody wins Saturday that $35M gets increased to $40M and so on. If we ever won, we'd take our personal stuff, our pets to a motel, and this place can go you know what.

Yesterday the legendary Roxy theatre here in Edmonton, made National news because it burned down. I've never been in the Roxy theatre before. Lately it's used for live theatre. It was quite a landmark there since 1937. It even predates the Garneau theatre built in 1940 as one of Edmonton's oldest theatres. 

Most recently I managed to get my iPod Touch to work with Facebook. Now I'm trying to get it to work with Flikr. I need a connecting Google account to do this. Anyway, I'll be relieved when we're here in February and we can put this current crisis behind us. That's all for now.

The world owes me absolutely

nothing. That's my family, my wife, my colleagues my lodge etc. I'm fortunate to have Facebook that lets me connect to my family. They have busy lives. We all do. I love my brothers and sister. We might not be able to face to face with each other but they are always in my heart and prayers. I always think of them in a positive way. I don't expect anything from anyone, anymore then they expect from me, which is why I removed when my birthday date on Facebook sometime ago. Last thing I want is all my friends and brothers and sister is to acknowledge my birthday every year. It means I have to reciprocate. When I'm on their Facebook page I try to send birthday greetings etc. One of my brothers has been dead for sometime and one of my brothers doesn't use social media, my sister barely. That just leaves Jeff and me. 

Moving forward. I caught my #137 bus at Northgate to specifically get out at 170 and 107 street for lunch at Harvey's. I had a double bacon and cheese burger combo. It was ok. I walked to work from there. 

My shift yesterday wasn't the greatest. I have 7 days left. By this time next Friday I'll have a better idea if next Saturday is my last day or do I continue with this job. If not, at least I have my market research job and I'm in all day this coming up Sunday and Monday night. The idea was to work my day job 3-9 Tuesday-Friday and Saturday 9:30-1:30 and bus it from wem downtown work 3 hours Saturday and work all day Sunday and Monday night. That didn't materialize until this weekend. Except Saturday. If the 3-9 job doesn't work out, then at least I have the other job 5-9 Tuesday-Friday, Saturday afternoon 2-6 and all day Sunday and Monday off. That's 55 hours in a 2 week period. Good enough and I wont have to travel so much to the West end. Either way I'm ok with it 3-9 or 5-9. West end or downtown. Anyway, that's all for now.

Anne and I both have 3 days off

together. She wants to go out for Pizza on the South side this afternoon where I'd rather just stay home. Last time we were out anywhere was I think in April. Our only day for this is today because as far as I know the LRT is shut down Sunday and Monday and its going to be a hot one today but I had a good 9 hours sleep, so lets go. 

Its not like I don't want a image for the new book I'm reading but Google wont let me. I can't even add a gadget today. I think they are doing maintenance but keeping running lights on. That's why I'm even able to post today but yes I finished reading "The Flight of the Eisenstein." Now I'm reading book 5 of the Horus Heresy series: "Fulgrum." I hope to have it read by the end of the labour day weekend, so hopefully Google will have their issues resolved this weekend and I can get my new read graphic up.

My wife says I got a call from the other job something about forms. I called the other office and my security clearance came through ok. I don't know when we start but my current job my 3-9 is my bread and butter job. The part time one is something for weekend pocket money, and music production gear since I don't want to give up either job. I would have been working this weekend but I failed to put in my availability. I need to go in for Tuesday to fill out the forms for Victoria. The part time job is basically Saturday afternoons from 3-6 and Sunday 12-8. Until I get funds saved for my iMac I'm including Monday nights in there as well. Anyway, that's about all for today.

A quick glance at this mornings

  # Twitter feed, the casual observer will go, wtf? +25 at 12:30am? Here in Edmonton? Yes, it's true. Surprisingly if with temps like this and yesterday, I slept very well with the fan on last night. Our AC crashed on us but we're coping ok with just the fan on.

I'm going to start saving for my iMac when my other job resumes from its "summer break." Next weekend however, I'm going to be getting the the Yamaha MX49 midi keyboard and the Samson Go mic for my Maschine. What I like about this keyboard is it can act as a controller surface and has a built in audio interface and has 1000 Roland motif sounds. The Go mic can be scanned wight into Maschine After I get this account paid up, I'm getting either the m-audio trigger finger pro or Maschine studio.

My daily journal began back in may 1980 and I'll blog until I cant. But the hard copies of my diary remain and I'm wondering what to do with them and my books. Then it dawned on me; if I bought a nice glass case maybe the lodge will let me put them in the library. At the moment I'm scanning my diary as it's a ongoing process. The hard copies of my diary stopped September 2005 as I moved everything onto my computer. I'm thinking about uploading them as jpeg files to Google pw. Unfortunately even the hard copies wont last forever even in specially treated acid free comic bags. My original diary from 1980 is still in good shape. So if I put them in mylar bags, they might last beyond 75 years, maybe. but it's something to think about. 

Update: For the benefit of fam and friends about 5am this morning I started getting the shakes.Its what happens when my diabetes blood sugars get way to low. I tested my blood sugar after I took some some chocolate paste and even then it was 5.6. Anne made me a fried egg sandwich and that helped a lot. A reading of 5.5 is steady and normal for non diabetics. Fast Forward 5.5 hours later my sugars are 13.5. I'd rather they be around 6-9 in that area. When I get on metformin   

So will the NFL Buffalo Bills ever come to Canada? It's hard to say but it's an interesting story and the top runner buyers have Bon Jovi in their court. If it's going to happen, I think it's going to be 2-3 years away. Speaking about football, I managed to get my cfl picks yesterday morning. If all three come in I get about $17 and some change. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Often people will ask me

why do I blog? Since I don't have any children to remember me by or any major achievement history will remember me by I feel a need to tell my story. Blogging lets me do this. I may be dead 10-20 years from now but I'm pretty confident Google and Blogger will still be around after that time. "But Jim, your blog will be like a needle in a haystack." Sure but its my needle in a haystack. Will this blog be around 25 years from now? I don't know. I hope so but in all honesty, I can't say. I hope it is, not just for me but for all those like me out there that have taken the time to post to blogger. 

Yesterday just before I left out of here it began raining and then as I was getting ready for my commute, it began to rain pretty heavily. Uh-oh. Then I realized, wait now I have that blue honcho rain gear in my bag. I packed everything, locked up and wearing my blue honcho, I braved the elements. My bag got wet and so did my feet but for the most part I was dry. When I got into the building my feet were soaked. I took my shoes off in the bathroom and and my drenched socks. I left my socks draped over my cubical and even before close out at 9pm they were still wet. See how they are when I pull into the office later. Note to self, always bring a dry pair of socks in a plastic bag next time it rains like this. The rain didn't let up until my commute home. Next week the weather forecast is calling for +25 + days as we close out of July. 

Today I'm about ready to clean up and in a hour I'll be on the road and out of here in 45 minutes. We'll get our breakfast at McDonald's and start at 9:30 and after a 15 minute break (not this 10 minute break shit) After work I'm getting the bus to wem and the #100 Express bus to the lrt downtown and then home to Clareview to meet Anne. Then I got to go into Superstore to get some pop and then home for my weeknd. Anyway, that's all for now. 

Just one more day off of my 5 day weekend

but there will be others. What I like about this job is that it's steady. Sure I could have booked as much time off as I need at my last job. However, because it's project based if I lose a day and if the project ends during that time, I really feel the loss. Especially weekends are felt the most because they are full days. The other nice thing about the new job (if I work out) and plan it right, I might be able to take off a full summer. Lots of options.

It being July first, Canada's new Canadian Anti Spam Law takes place, other wise known as CASL.This piece of legislation is supposed to put a big dent in email spam. It allows someone to "opt out" of unsolicited emails. I've been getting emails from businesses I have actually subscribed to but the Government says they must give me the option to "opt out." It's actually called "Unsubscribe." How CASL works is a email that I have subscribed to asks me if I want to further continue receiving emails from them, to "opt in." They send me a link to which I'm supposed to click on to accept and continue, to give my consent to further send me their emails. It's kind of silly really but it's just another step for business I want email from to show they are CASL compliant. To read into it further here's a CASL link. 

There's been some discussion around the blogosphere of a strange cube discovered from a photo of a Mars rover. Just YouTube cube Mars as key words but its intriguing. I wonder if there is any connection to the white light that has also been noted recently on Mars. Mars no doubt about it has some strange anomalies. Like this one from Curiosity:

Monday night Raw last night was awesome. I actually thought Seth Rawlin's was going to cash in his "Money in the bank" briefcase. At the last minute Dean Ambrose comes in and foils that idea. Love it. 

Today COE is demolishing the 102 Avenue Groat Road Bridge which will be closed to traffic for 15 months as the City constructs a replacement bridge. 



The 102 Avenue over Groat Road Bridge serves as a major east/west corridor into and out of Edmonton's downtown. Constructed in 1910, the bridge has reached the end of its lifespan and will be demolished and replaced with a new bridge to better serve Edmontonians. There's even a webcam available here to watch the construction progress.  Happy Canada Day everyone. Anyway, that'.s all for now. 

I'm beginning to figure out how

this YouTube Google+ comment thing works: When I open my gmail there is a bell icon in the top right hand corner of my computer screen. When it shows numbers on the bell that means that there are you tube comments. I click on this bell and a drop down box shows me icons or pictures of YouTube posters. I click on the highlighted box and up comes the comment under the video I left a comment on. It's slick

Now I really wanted to go to Lodge last night but it was hard to justify to my wife why I should be attending last night. My wife is jealous and insecure of me having a "social life" while she doesn't. She hasn't actually come out and said this but I know this is how she feels. Just attending my monthly lodge meeting is challenging enough as it is, and Anne barely tolerates me going to this. Lately she's been warming up to me visiting other lodges but that took years of her realizing that me going to my lodge is benign and not a threat to her. We're a small lodge and some of us were at the practice Sunday 2 days ago and some of us do not have supportive spouses in Masonry. Apparently nobody was represented at this memorial lodge meeting from our lodge last night. To be fair the lodge last night at Freemason Hall was out of our district. Even though the brother that got killed over the weekend was a steady visitor of our Lodge, yes someone should have been there representing our lodge last night. I received an admonishing email directed to all of us that our lodge was not even represented at last nights lodge. I don't remember what the guy looked like. If I attended last night I would not have been able to make any phone calls, conducting lodge business to get our installation invitations out. I caught bits and pieces of the Oiler hockey game but most of my time was making phone calls. I'm still not done yet. I am however going to go to lodge next Wednesday for an installation put on by another lodge. I certainly can not find fault with the contents of the admonished email I received our senior brother put fourth. The sender and the other guy from this Lodge was representing other lodges other then our own. I had other duties that were lodge business that kept me away. 

Oxford Dictionaries has released its 2013 word of the year, and, like last year, it has gone with a tech-savvy term: "selfie." It basically means people who take pictures of themselves with a camera phone. Yeesh.

Well, the Edmonton Oiler's finally won a game at Rexall but it took a struggling Columbus Blue Jacket team on the road to do it. It was a convincing 7-0 win. Lets see the Oiler's do that with a team like LA or Vancouver. Last nights win was a fluke but it was a badly needed shot in the arm for the copper and blue. Anyway, that's all for now.