My wife should have had her week off this week

then last week as this is her birthday week yesterday. She bought us Maximus pizza, which I paid for at the door from cash she left before she went to work.

I've changed this blob post title colour to indicate Saint Patrick's day. I'll reset it back tomorrow. I wish there was an easy way edit this just for one day without having to go into any complex css code. 

  
I left for work at my usual time and caught the bus to Clareview. I had a quiet trip to Central and upstairs/street level. I caught the #3 bus to work. I made good timing and had a good shift. I got home and went to visit my friend down the hall and asked her about her laptop. She mentioned that she doesn't use it all that much but she said she uses it for important things. Ok, no big deal. Anne came  in and she said because she got some birthday money from her sister, I could keep my new toy:

Anne picked up the new Ntendo 3ds xl at Eb games (Games stop) for me Monday night. The Hyrule edition. She also bought me the accompanying charger as well. the reason why it took me an extra day to open it because she didn't know if her other sister would be sending her any birthday money. I don't have any games for it yet except for the AR cards. I want to get the Korg Ntendo ds-12 music app but that's next month and I have a bunch of books that are coming. 

Anne suggested that because I've been going strong for 7 days I deserve a unscheduled day off. I'll call in later today. Having the day off will allow me to play around more with my new toy. Anyway, that's all for now. 

Finally I have a day off

today. Seems every time I have a day off, I'm doing something. Or I have an event of some kind to go to. Tonight I'm heading out to a reading and book signing event at Audrey's books at 7pm. Canadian Science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer is coming out with his new book "Quantum Night."
 
                       

While I was at work last night, Anne was investigating the new channel rules advanced by the CRTC. By March first cable and satellite providers must provide a basic cable package for $25. In addition to the basic package providers must offer a pick and pay package model. Or offer small bundles of channels. the basic package must include, CBC, CTV, Global, and aboriginal and minority English or French language channels. In addition a group of U.S. channels could be included, usually CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX and non-commercial channel PBS. At least 10 of the channels must be local or regional, including the community channel and the proceedings of the provincial legislature, if available. TV viewers will then be able to supplement this with either individual channels or small bundled channel packages. The CRTC also ruled last year that consumers should have access to more choice in their cable and satellite packages as well as cheaper basic packages. So after a bit of tinkering, and keeping my WWE network, Space TV, Sports channels, TCM, AMC, our total package including Internet and phone is down to $140. It was $170. We lose some movie channels she wasn't watching anyway, and we got a $10/month credit off of our home phone. Plus we got a preview package the above for about $130 for 6 months. Sweet. With so many options out there like online streaming from computer to the TV, Netflex or VPN, there are many choices out there for the consumer. Our free trial offer takes into affect on the 16th.  

We're getting some fog out there at this hour, and Saturday night Sunday morning we set our clocks to daylight savings time hours. We gain an extra hour of light making the days longer. Anyway, that's about all.

I'd be rushing out the door about this time of day

or on the train heading to Corona station. Feels good to have a night off. I could go to lodge but I want to catch the Oiler's season opener. The best part about having the night off is I get to be by myself. I'm in the office for tomorrow and Saturday. Then I have Sunday and Monday off. Monday with pay. 

So far the office has yet to put a blurb out about the provincial minimum wage going up. As of October 1st I don't know what my current rate of pay is. At my last job I was getting paid .55 cents/hour more then I am now. The minimum wage is supposed to increase to $11.20/hr. I have a feeling I could get about what my last job paid me or just a bit more. At this point in time I'm just guessing. Anyway that's all for now.
 

Enjoying my Sunday afternoon and evening off

here today. That's what I like about working at this place. No Sunday shift and starting at 4pm Monday I get a bit of a weekend. I can also sleep in Monday morning and during weekdays. At least my cold seems to be about 90% on the mend.

I don't know, the Oiler's must have lucky horse shoes up the ass because yesterday with about a 11% chance of winning the NHL draft lottery, they get the #1 pick, again! Arizona and Buffalo had better odds due to their win loss record then the Oiler's at getting the #1 pick. Lucky or what? That's 4 #1 picks in a row. Unprecedented in the history of the NHL draft lottery. So this year the hype is all over Connor McDavid. The hype machine is saying this guy is a generational player like Gretzky or Crosby. Yeah right. It doesn't mean that's who the Oiler's will pick but that would be total folly if they didn't pick him at the June draft. The Connor McDavid sweepstakes is creating a lot of buzz around town this weekend. 

Anne and I were going to go out for a bite to eat today but the lrt is shut down and she has a few errands to go on anyway. Just as well as I wanted to check in on what's going on at Musikmessa 2015 this weekend. Europe's version of NAMM. Lots of great looking gear coming up. Roland is coming out with a modular AIRA type synthesis unit? Wow. So I'm glad we didn't go out today. Even though its +13, it doesn't look very warm out there to me. 

I filed for my ei claim February 26 and as of next Friday it will be almost 8 weeks since my claim has been filed with ei. The problem is (or part of it) with my last place of employment. They claimed on the roe I started April 2011 when I was still full time at iMark at the time working 1-9 Monday to Friday and Saturday. If ei can find any bank deposits from my last place of employment for 2011, good luck. Also, when I was working at Crime Watch about this time last year for 3 days before I got fired (as I submitted that roe to ei as well) The roe said I quit the job, which is a crock. If the claim is approved I'd like to keep the claim going without getting any ei money because I'm on a probationary period at the new job. So if the job doesn't work out I'll have the ei claim to fall back on as I look for something else. 

The downtown arena is progressing nicely. They put a huge adjoining truss between the egress of the winter garden and the arena this morning. Anyway that's all for now.

My interview yesterday morning

paid off and I got the job. Its an ad job, which basically means if I can sell, I'm in. If I can't, I'm out. If I get a paid week, out of this place, I'll be happy and like everything else, move on. If I last longer then a week, great. It is what it is. If I don't last there, then I go on to the next ad job. Rinse and repeat until my ei claim is finalized. They said by the end of this month. Then depending on how many weeks I have, I take courses until the economy improves. I start this job Monday as its from 8:30am to 5pm. I like the office its a nice place.

Monday is my wife's birthday Monday and we're going out Sunday. As luck would have it the city has shut down the lrt and has contingency buses instead. Or as they call it "replacement" buses. It limits our options where we can go out to eat. We might go to Capital Pizza which has nothing to do with the lrt. They have a Giant Tiger and a Dairy Queen. Love their ice cream.

Have you been following this controversy over Robin Thick/Marvin Gaye "blurred lines" issue? Crazy. As I understand it, anyone can cover any song so long as they either ask permission from the copywrite holder, or if they are not making money from the song itself and credit the original artist. When I cover Louie, Louie (eventually) I'm pretty sure I'd be in the clear as long as I state that I am not making money from this and credit the original artist.

Because I got the job and I start Monday, I'm sleeping in today and watch the Oiler game tonight. I have 4 days off. So over the course of those 4 days I'm going to work on a beat. Anyway that's all for now.

Lots of people hate winter and I

can't find fault with any of that. I like winter when its around -20 and no wind chill and walking conditions are good. I don't like the ice. Other then that, I like winter. Its a nice time of year. I brought my face mask with me during my commute and last night coming out of the office was very cold and icy just before 9pm walking to Corona station. It was icy just out here by the cross walk. I'm wearing my cleats to work Sunday.

I'm not going out today. I'm just staying home to work on my beat and chillin. I wish I had 3 days off, hopefully over the holidays.

The new Star Wars movie trailer "The force awakens" was released yesterday. It looks really good. Apparently the full movie will be released December 18th 2015. I'm really excited about this movie. Hopefully this movie will rejuvenate Hollywood and bring back a revival of science fiction like it did in the late 1970's. I remember the original movieStar Wars movie "A new hope." My friend Gord Kalvic and I went to see it at a drive in theatre in Surrey BC May 1977. It was, and still is the greatest film of all time in my opinion and best of the original trilogy. When "Empire Strikes back" came out, with all that was going on at the time with Ellen and Richard, the SCA etc was a special time in my life April-May 1980. The 3rd movie with the "Ewoks" didn't do anything for me. It thought the movie was dumbed down, appealing to younger audiences. When the other movies came out 1999-2005 I was into them as well. "Revenge of the Sith" was the best of the 2nd trilogy. Now with episode 7 about to come out a decade after the last movie, I'm excited as ever. I'm hoping this will be a trilogy as well.  

One of my favorite shows on cable TV was "Attack of the show." ATOS had it all that was relevant to me: Science fiction, gaming, the works. It was a great show. They had great interviews. I was saddened when the show ended last January it went from 2005-2013.

The Oiler's are still on the losing side of things, again. They were in Saint Louis last night and lost 3-4 in OT. At least they are getting better. The Oiler's road trip is over and they're back at Rexall Monday night. Anyway, that's all for now.

I have a day off

today, which is ok because I can make some phone calls tonight and watch the Oiler's game on TV. If the game looks bad I can always switch the channel. 

We got a note under our door from management saying how Friday they're going to be installing new windows. It means we have to remove drapes, clear stuff away from the walls as work will begin 8:30am-5pm. I'm not sure if the window frames will need to be removed but it seems likely. Anne's going to read the note and she'll go ballistic. I'm not removing my computer desk. I can move the hutch and remove my laptop and Maschine and a few other things. We can move stuff on the balcony and leave it on the balcony. So the bedroom window gets done first and the office window we can move stuff at the other end to the bedroom window area. I'll be here before that. It depends on what they want to do first and if they'll need to come inside. At any event that ruins our Friday. I'll be leaving out of here at noon, Anne out of here by 3pm. Hopefully by the time she leaves out of here most of the work will be done. 

When Anne leaves I'm going to research Fan Duel a little bit. I signed up a few weeks ago and uploaded some funds to play. I'll be doing that later today. Depend on the sport I'll need to fill out a roster and try out a game or two. I'm not going to go crazy, maybe $20 month. Its mostly for fun.

I'm still thinking about a cell phone as I can keep track of my fan dual (fd) games and sports scores in general. Getting a cell phone has been on my mind for awhile now. There are lots of different plans out there but I'm not going with Telus and I'm not sure about a iPhone. Average plan that I've been looking at has been about $90 for 2 Gb/month. Most likely its going to be a android phone, something that can fit in my pocket. With a cell phone I'm never away from my email and there have been many times where I needed to get to my email when I was away from my email. A cell phone makes sense, I'm just not sure I can afford $100 month at this point.

Anne took that well. She doesn't like it but she took it well, which is ok. So, we'll be working on that Thursday night. The bedroom drapes will be the last to come down I suppose.

Not much going on other then that. The weather is holding out ok as we're into +13's and +15's, which is pretty nice for this time of year. We'll be in low single digits by the end of the month. Anyway, that's all for now.

Slight change of plans

as I asked the boss for today off instead of Saturday because there are more hours for Saturday. I get 7, instead of 4. Besides, if the Stanley Cup game is tonight, I'll be able to see it and if that's not enough, there's the Esks first pre season game and Smackdown. I have the night off to myself as a bonus.

My train yesterday arrived about 4:20pm at Corona station so I decided to take advantage of the patio at Subway and read out in the warm Sun before I headed into the office. After reading the paper in the lunchroom I logged my hours in and got right into it. I'm working from a Excel spreadsheet, so I don't need to log into a server. Work went by very slow as I didn't get one completion the whole night. I wasn't the only one. Closing time couldn't have come soon enough. 

Ahh the memories, it was this weekend 34 years ago, was the first Sherwood park "Medieval days." This was a defining moment in my life because of that weekend I was able to resolve the weekend before when my girl friend dropped me. That was part of it, but it was also special because as the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) was the guest of honor at the event. I was flirting with the SCA, not that I was a member or anything. I was asked by the head of our dignitaries to lead the parade as hundreds of people watched. Why I was signaled out I don't know. Later the SCA was asked to meet in a huge nearby city building. We didn't know what to expect but we were surprised when we entered the building in darkness. The lights came as we looked up and saw thousands of people gave us a standing ovation. I always thought this was the Sherwood park arena but it was the leisure center. We sat down at specially designated tables and apparently they had a nice buffet arranged for the SCA and the organizers. Many of my colleagues at the time were disappointed shortly after organizers of this event began to play contemporary music and people would get up and dance. Some of us walked out in protest. It was quite a weekend. After looking at Google maps, the whole area where we had "Medieval Days" has changed drastically. The main grounds is now a man made lake. There's the Sherwood park arena, a baseball diamond, a foot race track, Festival Place and residential development. Thirty four years can do that.

Fast forward to 2014. I got home last night shortly before 10pm. Anne made me a burrito platter, we watched the news and I'm enjoying my Innis-Gunn original beer. 

I'm going to try and read my book for a bit before bed and get up around noon today. Anyway that's all for now.

Firday was sort of a good news bad news kind of a day

I left out of here about 10am and it was sunny, clear and very windy. Not a good day to wear a hat. I got to my 11am ok but I forgot to ask the night before if the job was outside or inside sales. My bad because its outside sales. The interviewer didn't waste my time. I did. So I went to the employment place up the street and got shown how to open a account and how to use the system. I sent out a few resumes. Gone are the days when you'd have to knock on doors. Now all you do is send out a resume over the Internet. That's the job search. I felt ok on the way home but knowing I would need to call the office where I'm currently working only to have them tell me, "no work until the foreseeable future. In other words, "Don't call us.." type thing. After I had a talk with Anne about what was going on the phone rang. Here it comes. Instead I was told what my hours are from 2-9 and Thursday off so I can go to that funeral! In other words a sigh of relief. I got my hours back.

Anne made me a chicken burger and got me a candy bar and a bag of cheese plessers. I watched most of the Rangers/Pens game and had a great night.

Because next Sunday is Mother's Day Anne and I decided to go out to Rickies for Mothers Day, this Sunday. Also, she's going to buy me the Space Marines Omnibus (Warhammer 40K). That's if I that to have work next Sunday. Despite yesterday being a good news bad news kind of a day I was able to read some "Galaxy in Flames" and do some music production as well. Anyway, that's all for now.

Well

I "survived" Monday. I have a day off today and I'll take what ever the rest of the week has in store. If they want to get rid of me, I'm ok with it. I'll survive. It's on them not on me. I've got 4 more years left in the work force and I'll be glad when it's all over and done with and I can do my stuff go to Lodge and work on my music etc. Ok enough of that. 

I love Halloween week. It's something for all ages. There's office parties for the adults, trick or treat for the kids. There's something for everybody. It's a fun time of the year.

I think it was hearing about Lou Reed and the above office bs that put a damper on my shift yesterday. I was glad to get out of there when I did and on my way home. Anne left a note for me saying she had to go to the medi centre up the street. She left half of a papa John's Pizza for me but she came in as soon as I had my coat and shoes off. 

Today I'm sleeping in for as late as I want and this evening Edmonton Oiler fans turn into Leaf fans. Very scary kids! Even though the game is at Rexall place its a Leaf home game. Might be a good time to get a Proline ticket. Anyway, that's about all for now.

I have a

unscheduled day off today, lucky me. Not. That's 3 days I missed this week off this pay period, not good. So, tonight I'm following the Washington/Oiler game on TV later on this evening and I'll catch bits of Impact wrestling in there as well. 

I was going to make a visit to Service Canada today but I don't know if they can do anything for me. Other then use the computers to access their job bank, which I think I can do at home anyway. I got about 3 and a half years left in the "rat race" before I can "fully retire" at 65 and work part time just to get out of the apartment a couple nights/week and go to Lodge the rest, "living the dream" oh well.

During the game tonight I'm taking the files off the flash drive I bought yesterday and putting them back onto the iPad. The iPad can't read the flash drive because it needs more power. So, I'll be doing that this evening while following the hockey game. The other thing I'm trying to do is after backing up my 3rd Gen iTouch is to jailbreak (jb) it. Apple doesn't seem to support this device anymore with any new updates. There's a lot of ways to do this online and I'm about to do that today. I'd like to get a program called iFile I've been seeing so much about. 

This has been all over the Internet recently but apparently Nasa is expected to make a huge announcement with earth shattering implications November 13th 2013. There's all kinds of speculation about this. Some are saying it's a asteroid, or even space aliens. Posters on Youtube are saying it's a hoax that if anyone clicks on the link they collect data from your computer.  

I was going to go to the District Lodge on Saturday but with my shift changed today, that definitely makes that decision for me. So much for that idea. I'll be making a call tonight to let my colleague know I won't be able to make it. With Friday and Saturday's hours in there I barely have enough hours to meet my obligations this pay period as it is. I need a full time day job, or something that can give me better hours. Anyway, that's about all for now. 

I'm enjoying a nice cup of sleepy time tea

before bed.

I don't know if this is true or not but some of the staff were talking about it yesterday. Apparently when your using Apples "Face time," the application shares your email address. I searched YouTube and found  nothing about this.

I came across a great article in i09 how Winston Churchill in the Second World War, wanted to build these aircraft carriers made of ice. It was discovered that ice melted a lot slower in the cold waters of the Atlantic ocean. The idea was to make a difference in the battle for the Atlantic, which Brittan was on the losing end due to Hitler's U-boats. Geoffrey Pyke, an eccentric scientist who was working for Combined Operations at the time envisioned sculptured icebergs in the Atlantic that could contain airfields or at least fueling depots for ailed for aircraft. However his ice experiments became to week. After a process of trial-and-error, he threw some sawdust into the mix — and the ensuing difference in strength was dramatic. This Pyke named the material Pykrete. Churchill ran with this experiment and dubbed it Operation Habakkuk. They actually began building a prototype in of all places Jasper Alberta on Patricia Lake. There's even a lake shore plaque on the site of the prototype still there today. You can read more about this fascinating piece of history here:

So I have today off but then I'm hard at it Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I think I'm going to opt out for Sunday though, that's a lot of hours. Anyway, that's all for now. 

We’ve got some very

nice mid October weather out there. It’s about 12:40am and my window is open. Humidity is at 67%, which is why its so mild out there.

I’ve had a great Sunday. I got up about 11am and watched some of the Cowboys/Ravens NFL game. Ravens won but it would have been a Proline tie.

By accident, while being redirected by some hiccup in the Connect 2 Edmonton forum, I stumbled upon another thread about that sometime in the wee hours By accident, while being redirected by some hiccup in the Connect 2 Edmonton forum, I stumbled upon another thread about that sometime in the wee hours of Friday morning, Sandy Lane strip mall was burnt down. Cause of the fire has yet to be determined. Sandy lane was a small strip mall about 2 blocks from where I lived in the 1980‘s 1990‘s. It was built sometime around the 1960‘s. I have fond memories of gaming at Adventure gaming supplies in the early 1990's. It was at that strip mall I remember calling Helga about Ellen when we tried to go and pick her up at Richard's place that Friday April 25th 1980. The pay phone (long since gone) was on the same property in front of the access road where the ETS bus stop is. Another piece of my past up in smoke.


Most of the day I’ve been on my laptop fooling around with my new program. I’ve tried Studio drummer, Guitar Rig 5 and the Scarbee Bass program.

It was a historic occasion yesterday to see the amazing freefall jump by Felix Baumgartner stepped into the void nearly 128,000 feet (39,000 meters) above southeastern New Mexico Sunday at just after 12 p.m. MT. What an amazing feet.

This afternoon I’m out the door by noon and I’ve got to head over to the RBC do some banking there and then take the train down to Corona and do some banking at Scotia then if the hold on my funds is ok, I run down to LM make a payment and then I’ll take the #2 and maybe get a bite to eat at city Centre mall for some Chinese or something. Anyway, that’s about all for now.