Anne has a Doctor's appointment at our

shared Doctor Wednesday. She suggested we go together but I can wait in the empty food court below. Another casualty of the pandemic. After that, since we're just off the Capital line LRT, we may as well transfer to the #704 at Southgate and head to IHOP in the South Park shopping centre, next door to the Walmart there. Sounds like a good idea. 

Since there is no work, no BoB, and no lodge, this is going to be a dull summer. I can't even go to the North East Seniors Centre since NESA is being shut down for renovation. Since I have no distractions, I may as well Game on my Nintendo Switch, work on my YouTube channel, and watch CFL football. 

Speaking of which there was a good article on why coach Chris Jones believes in Taylor Cornelius so much. It's a pretty good article. Anyway, that's all for now.

Friday at last

and the weekend. There may be a new video upload to Jim Shannon on Sounds this weekend as well, idk yet.

This week I've been getting one too many robocalls. Call control is a way to screen for unwanted calls since we don't have voice mail. As I understand it when somebody calls something that sounds like an answering machine comes on. "This number has call control. Press # (random single-digit number) to get through." I can add a number onto a list like a Do not call (DNC). Most of these robocalls are sophisticated to use a different number each time. Anyone I know, whether they are struggling with me or not that has my home phone # can call between 10-3pm. If I know you, I'll pick up. I won't be rude. We're night Owls, so our bedtime is like 4am. 

I booked my Covid booster shot. I'll be at the Kennedale Shoppers Drugmart on the 21st at 1pm. If Mcdonald's is open I'll get a bite to eat.   

I spent half my shift yesterday

cleaning up a project. The other half on our recent project. Both are pretty good. This current project should go until about mid March, which doesn't sound right because its such a big project. Its ok either way because I go back to my other job March 1st.

Blog update: 
We went to Cora's and I just got in (3:50pm). Anne took this photo of me finishing my coffee:

                 
 On Coast tonight currently under way the topic is about alien abductions. More specifically about a couple of campers out in the Mojave desert that claim they were abducted by aliens in 1989. Recent history has no shortage of these kinds of tales. The alien abduction tales that fascinate me the most are the ones where the abductees are under hypnosis. I'm not that familiar with the Hess brothers case. There are certain steps in the case against hypnotherapy in this regard. Some of them include; A person is predisposed to accept the idea that certain puzzling or inexplicable experiences might be telltale signs of UFO abduction. Or    Alternative explanations of the experiences are not explored. There are others as explained here. The other tests that could be used would be a polygraph such as the Thomas Walton UFO polygraph test. There;s also the Betty & Barny Hill case, which is fascinating in its own right. There are other ways to uncover the truth such as voice stress analysis, or VSA test. I'd like to put all of these recent Cosby casses under a VSA test to see how well they stand up against VSA results. Years after the JFK assassination researchers took the Oswald interrogation tapes over to a VSA specialist and apparently Oswald passed a VSA test but would he would have taken a VSA test if such a test were available in 1963? Even VSA tests has its critics as well. Getting back to the Hess story, would their story hold up under hypnotherapy or a VSA test or both? The results might be interesting to find out.

Early this afternoon Anne and I are going across the street to try out Cora. Its a restaurant cafe chain that's popular here in Edmonton. We have a location right across the street. 

                     
as its been there for a couple of years now. Anne's sister in Winnipeg says its good and so do the people on the Connect 2 Edmonton forum. They close by 3pm but even if we arrive late they wont turn us away. After that later that evening, I've got our finale lodge practice for our degree coming up on Thursday and we're going to rent the last James Bond movie "Spectre" when I come back from lodge practice.

This week after holiday Monday, I'm in the office 4-9:30pm, Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday off for Lodge and in Friday, Saturday and I hope Sunday. I missed checking the schedule on the way out of the office. I'll know when I get back to work Tuesday. Anyway, that's all for now.

Monday afternoon I got out of the house to

check in at the job hung around for a bit and left out of there about 5:30pm for home. It was a drive by basically. I'll be getting my haircut before lodge after I get up.

Planet X. Does it exist? Planet X isn't the 10th planet but the X stands for another planet. Caltech researchers have found evidence of a giant planet tracing a bizarre, highly elongated orbit in the outer solar system. The object, which the researchers have nicknamed Planet Nine, has a mass about 10 times that of Earth and orbits about 20 times farther from the sun on average than does Neptune (which orbits the sun at an average distance of 2.8 billion miles). In fact, it would take this new planet between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make just one full orbit around the sun. Through mathematical modeling and computer simulations the Caltech researchers have made this discovery. Astronomers have been looking for planet X for a long time. So what do we all this 9th planet? Pluto 2? Interesting stuff. The other theory is from Zecharia Sitchin and the "Anunnaki" in Sumerian mythology. The differences between the two theories/planets are their orbits are vastly different. The Caltech people believe the 9th planet is on a orbital trajectory 10-20,000 years out and could be part of a binary star system or a brown dwarf. Sitchin believes that the planet "Nibiru" is on a 3,600 year old journey. Sitchin wrote a series of books called "Earth Chronicles volumes." There's also, Nancy Lieder, David Icke, among others that are all over the place on the topic. Personally I believe the Caltech theory over Sitchin's work but for entertainment value Lieder and Icke are most amusing and at the same time thought provoking. I wont dismiss Sitchin's work because he has some great stuff. I have a lot of it on cd, cool stuff. 

Caltech researchers have found evidence of a giant planet tracing a bizarre, highly elongated orbit in the outer solar system. The object, which the researchers have nicknamed Planet Nine, has a mass about 10 times that of Earth and orbits about 20 times farther from the sun on average than does Neptune (which orbits the sun at an average distance of 2.8 billion miles). In fact, it would take this new planet between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make just one full orbit around the sun.
- See more at: https://www.caltech.edu/news/caltech-researchers-find-evidence-real-ninth-planet-49523#sthash.k8JTOujz.dpuf

Caltech researchers have found evidence of a giant planet tracing a bizarre, highly elongated orbit in the outer solar system. The object, which the researchers have nicknamed Planet Nine, has a mass about 10 times that of Earth and orbits about 20 times farther from the sun on average than does Neptune (which orbits the sun at an average distance of 2.8 billion miles). In fact, it would take this new planet between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make just one full orbit around the sun.
- See more at: https://www.caltech.edu/news/caltech-researchers-find-evidence-real-ninth-planet-49523#sthash.k8JTOujz.dpuf

I'm hoping to get my haircut across the street before I head out to lodge this afternoon. They are serving cocktails are at 6pm, dinner at 6:30pm (free for me because I'm a guest) we tyle at 7:30pm. Should be a good night. Anyway, that's all for now.

Star Wars the force awakens has reached over

$1.760B dollars and that's just at the box office. And that's just in its initial release. And it hasn't even hit the dollar theatres or video on demand (vod) yet. Merchandising is going to propel profits through the roof. I've been hearing that the movie is very loud, which is kind of turning me off from seeing it. I'll wait until it comes to video on demand where we can adjust the volume at home.

On Coast this morning the topic is artificial intelligence or A/I (ai) as its referred to. It is similar to Transhumanisim. . 

 

What is Transhumanisim? In a Wiki nutshell: Transhumanism (abbreviated as H+ or h+) is an international and intellectual movement that aims to transform the human condition by developing and creating widely available sophisticated technologies to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities. It is not to be confused with Secular Humanism. I've done a bit of reading on the topic of Transhumanism over the years. There are quite a few Transhumanism videos on YouTube. Artificial Intelligence and Transhumanism are two different things. 

Yesterday I was able to contact a job lead and I send a resume out there to them. Well sort of as my email kept bouncing. My contact said ok to copy and paste it in the email. They'll look my resume over and if they are interested, they'll call me for a interview. I'm trying to get out of this market research job and get into something that's more steady. I'm sure after Saturday they probably hope I find something else as well. I'm in 4:15pm-8:30pm at my other job today. We're having a bit of a Pizza party. Now watch, they'll order 2 meat pizzas and 6  vegetarian pizzas and nobody will eat the vegi pizzas. I'll be lucky if I get one slice. Anyway, that's all for now. 

My Sunday morning commute

yesterday will be my last for awhile. There were a few people in the line up ahead of me at Starbucks. So much for my coffee. I could have waited but to my surprise a #3 bus arrived. I could have picked up my coffee after all. Next Saturday (if I'm put back on the schedule) I'll get my coffee at Starbucks and my #3 into work. This way, I wont have to wait for an extra 15 minutes. 

Coast has a couple of good show coming up Wed 11-04  Anomalous Star & Space News• Seth Shostak
Thu 11-05  Clandestine Operations & Secret Societies

• Kris Millegan I like stuff like this. The biggest space news this last weekend was that skull like asteroid Halloween night: TB145. Very scary kids.

My day yesterday was slow. I think we must have had a handful of people in the office. Some work just a few hours others work the full 7.5 like I thought I was on for. I always work 7.5 on a Saturday/Sunday. I even took my 12:45 break thinking my half was at 2pm and my other break was at 4pm. However I failed to look at the schedule properly Friday night only to learn I'm off at 4:30pm Sunday. Ok. Not the end of the world. I need to talk with the boss later today to find out why I'm not on Saturday's shift and could I be placed back on. Once knowing that, I'll be able to get some gear. I'm looking at the Korg Volca sample, the Korg Kaoss pad mini 2, and the Zoom handy audio recorder and possibly the Korg Monotron delay. I'll want to do this Wednesday. 

On my way home, I caught the Eskimo fans leaving the game. Score was Al's 22 Esks 40. This means that pending what Calgary does next weekend we could be first in the West. Anyway that's all for now.

My employer called me

last night. The bad news is the client is stalling. The good news is it looks like we will be back to work next Thursday with a project I worked on this last May. It's a good project. 

Earlier I was able to transfer one of my music Jam video's to my new You Tube channel dedicated to my music video jams. I'm calling this channel "Jim's Jams" for want of a better name. I posted a "music video" I did some months ago from my other channel. The "trick" is to go to the YouTube video. In the url between WWW.YouTube, type in ss. It goes to a sight called Savefrom.net. It takes the video and converts it into a Mp4 for further processing. It's slick, easy and free. Anyway, that's all for now. 

For the most part since about

4:30pm yesterday afternoon, I watch CFL football. First there was the Riders/Winnipeg game and then the Stamps/Esks game. That took me up to about 10:30pm.I've had enough football for this weekend.

The other day i09 had a amusing article called: "10 Historical People Who Were Real-Life Magicians," by Rob Bricken. Some of the people I've read about before like, Roger Bacon,John Dee and Edward Kelley etc. Any narrative about magic would be remiss if it didn't include Aleister Crowley in the mix. My history within the OTO and Thelema from 1980-1992 is well documented. When the article mentioned that practitioners of Thelema allowed them to see the future and travel astrally, well I must have passed out during that conversation, damn!

Skippy in this photo is having a nap because she's going out bug hunting later tonight. She needs to conserve her strength.

I was almost ready to buy the Logitech HD C525 webcam the other day. At $30 seemed like a low cost solution to capture my music video jams. A slight change in plans as I noticed on the Best Buy website they increased the price to $60. I might get it again or something better when I get back to work hopefully before the end of the month. I'm just using Windows movie maker, which is pretty good for audio and video. A few months ago I discovered a open source program called "Blender," which has some pretty good editing features.

On my agenda this week, I'll be doing business with ei and then my bank to set up my Provincial adult health benefits. I'm setting up and or calling on a few part time job prospects this week as well. Yet before that happens I need to get some information about the upcoming project when I go into the office to pick up my small cheque Friday. If the office has no update on the next project, I won't wait on them. I'll be calling some of these prospects Friday or earlier. I'll leave the door open for them of course.

Next Thursday is

lodge night. I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things again. Its been a long summer.

One of my favorite television shows as a teen was F-Troop. It lasted 2 seasons,1966 and 1967. I was saddened to learn Melody Patterson who played the "love interest" role to Captain Parmenter (Ken Berry) Wrangler Jane had passed away August 20th at the age of 66. Just 3 years away from my age. The rest of the story is here.

Last nights Argo/Eskimo game was a real home team blow out: Argos 15, Esks 38. Next weekend will be different because its the labour day classic. Its always in Calgary and we get the rubber match the following Friday. Should be a good one. Anyway, that's all for now.

I always seem to be blogging yesterdays

events but its all good. 

In just 365 days I'll be 64. OMG, I can't believe it. Who would have thought back in 1969 I'd get this far? 

All last week I was looking forward to last nights big game between Hamilton/Edmonton. Two teams 5-2, East vs West. I didn't have a Proline ticket but I would have picked a tie game. What was I thinking? The T-cats kicked our ass 49-20. Two many turnovers and points based upon them and ball security did us in. All I can hope for is for the Riders to beat the Stamps at Mosaic. That way it still keeps the Esks tied for first in the West if the Riders win today.

I'm progressing further into "The Descent of Angels" the Horus Heresy book I skipped over due to spoilers a few years ago. It kind of reads young adult but I'm still enjoying it. I'll be reading more before the game today. Note to self: Don't read reviews of a book before reading it as the reviews may contain spoilers. Other then Robert J Sawyer or if there's something that strikes my attention, Horus Heresy,  Space Marine Battles and Warhammer 40K Omnibus books are about the only books I'm buying lately. The Black Library publishes about 3-4 Horus Heresy mass market paperbacks a year and about the same for Space Marine Battles. I buy 1 hard cover book a year and that's only Robert J Sawyer's book and the matching RJS ebook. The Space Marine Battles books are trade and cost $18 a book. I pop into Audrey's or Coles at least once a month. I'm waiting for the next Horus Heresy book "Legacy's of Betrayal," it should be out next month in mass market paperback.   

The Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo (Sept. 25-27, 2015) Special guest will be Stan Lee. At 92 this might be the one and only time he'll ever come to Edmonton. A Saturday pass is $30, which isn't that bad. I'd book off work to see Stan Lee. There's a lot comic book artists as well. More guests will be announced in the next few weeks leading up to the event.

Not much going on for today. I'm hoping sometime after labour day weekend I'll be back to work. Anyway, that's all for now.

This is now day 16 of the 78 day

October 2015 Canadian national election race. On Harper's campaign trail he's constantly being berated by the Mike Duffy scandal and the $90K cheque cut to Duffy out from the PMO's. Under oath Harper's chief of staff said Harper had no knowledge of the cheque cut to Mike Duffy. I'm looking forward to when this story peters out and its the NDP's turn, when the media is going to reveal more of the $2 million the NDP has yet to pay back. NDP Target of New Conservative Attack Ad: Pay It Back!On July 28, 2015, the Conservative Party launched this ad targeting the New Democratic Party for using "2.7 million taxpayer dollars." That's more scandal for another time.

When I first saw this at I thought it was a joke. Seriously? After reading more into this it makes more sense. Thor a Canadian company has been given a US patent to build a space elevator with a infallible tower. Cargo would travel up the tower via a elevator and launch from high altitude or low-Earth orbit. It could cut the costs of rocket fuel by 30% or more. The owner Ben Roberts thinks a version that could reach 20 kilometers above sea level, starting from the top of a five-kilometre-high mountain, could be built within 10 years at a cost of about $5 billion US. This concept was initially unveiled in 2009. Most likely it wont be built and in use in my life time.

Today I've got a appointment downtown in the Backer centre in the old Xentel location. Its called Links career information resource centre. They help people with disabilities find work. I've got a 1pm appointment. I've got to be there a bit early probably to fill out forms. I'm hoping this is something I can use to gain meaningful employment in tandem with my other job. I've got enough ei to last me until the end of September. I'm also looking to see if I can remain on ei while attending to expand my ei. If nothing transpires out of this and this appointment is a dead end waste of time then I've got a few other options. It's my 63rd birthday on Friday and I've got the Esks/Hamilton game to look forward to. Also I received the other day a nice birthday card from my wife's sister Donna including a Tim's card and a little something extra. Also I have Summer slam on Sunday so this is turning out to be a good week. Anyway, that's all for now. 

If I didn't know any better

I'd say at this point in time, the company I'm working with is playing me. For now I'm just going to site tight and see what happens. The boss said they will be back with more regular steady shifts in September. The super said pretty much the same thing. In the meantime they are running a skeleton crew doing something and with new hires. That's why I get the impression they are playing me. This company never fires people. If they don't like certain people, they just won't give them shifts and hope that they'll move on and find something else. As for the new hires since my 1 day on the 24th of July, they might be giving new hires a shift here and there type thing just to keep them hoping they wont bail. When I was there on Friday people were asking me where I've been, "Did you quit the job for something else?" The Super said that was his 2nd shift since the 24th of last month (that was the last time I worked) as of last Thursday and Friday. Out of 18 days the Super has worked 2 days? We have 2 supervisors. Where I work they have 2 pages of employees names on the sign for your cheque sheet as there are lots of people that show up periodically. I should have taken a photo of this weeks schedule when I was there Friday. Some people work a few days and I don't see them for a month. There's always that. I have enough ei to last me until that first week in September. Apparently there is another project coming up this week or next week. I'm calling in to find out Wednesday and I hope I don't get hung up on. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt. Until then I'm not to worried, at the moment.

Some good news on the tech front, in my search for getting rid of unwanted audio on my video, there has been success. Thanks to YouTube. In Windows movie maker I can use the edit panel, go to the volume sound icon. Click on that and a sound meter appears. Scroll the volume knob to mute, go to save video and save as computer (low resolution.) It renders the file into a Mp4 file and I can add my own voice over music from there. The upload options like Youtube don't work very well with Windows music maker. All I do when I'm at my You Tube page is upload the video from there. Slick. I uploaded the new video last night with crappy music. It was just a test anyway. Very happy. The new video is in landscape mode and you can watch the new video here.
When I get some hardware after the computer, I'll be doing more music video's. These music video's will be of my hands adjusting knobs playing with various types of hardware. Once hours at work are more or less steady, I can take out an account at LM for the new Electribe Sampler.

Later this afternoon, Anne is taking Skippy in for her needles. I'm home until further notice. So tonight I'm watching Monday night Raw trying to beet the heat suffering through this cold. The long range weather this week is calling for 29's-30's up until Friday. Uggh, too hot for me but this might be our last heat have of the year (thank God) I'm not going to worry about my job situation just yet. If they can't give me a schedule by the 21st then I'll be looking for something part time to complement this job, 3 days/week until this job has more steady hours. I can see 3 here and 3 days there type thing. What I'd like is something part time steady so when this job has slow times I can work more hours at the job that's steady. At least until pension, then as long as we have our health, I'll work a 1 week a month where I am now. If I get steady hours this fall, I'll build up enough hours for another ei claim for the future and put it on hold (pending another part time job of course.) The idea is when this job has another slow time and I have 2 months before my pension clicks in, I'll activate the ei until pension. They won't let me collect pension and ei at the same time because they are both Federal Government programs. Anyway, that's all for now.

Our 78 day Federal election

is heating up. Harper has been playing stupid over this Netflix tax thing. Its been making the media rounds all over the place and is sort of a running joke. You can read about it here.

Lon Milo DuQuette will be on Coast 2 Coast later this morning. While I have a luke warm interest in ceremonial magick and the occult these days, I still consider myself sympathetic to Thelema but in no way active. This "interest" is kept at arms length as a casual observer, mostly brought about through nostalgia. It's always interesting listening to Lon discuss Ceremonial magick, Crowley and the Tarot.

It's been somewhat of a annual tradition. Every Spring Canadian science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer would release a new novel and take it on tour across Canada and arrive every April to Audrey's books to do a reading from his recent novel. He is the only author I'd ever buy a hard cover book from. His last visit was April 2nd 2013 at Audrey's. I always get a autograph copy. His last novel was Red Planet Blues. That was 2 years ago. He announced recently on his blog that his upcoming 23rd novel will be Quantum night. Of course, I'll order a copy and I hope to get it autographed again.

Yesterday morning I called the x-ray to cancel. I called my pcn to confirm my next appointment on the 13th at 10:15am. I'll be calling ei after I wake up to find out when I can report again. I'm joining Anne on her 3pm commute riding partway in with her parting ways at Bay Station. I'll be heading into the office to pick up my whopping 4.5 hour cheque and to get an update (if any) for work for next week. If all I get is a non committal response, then I'll be looking for something part time. I need something steady. I'll be doing the job search thing at the employment agency Monday if there's nothing forth coming. After I pick up my cheque today, I'm off to get a bite to eat at the food court. Anyway, that's all for now.

My 2 minute iPod video with my

iPod I made Saturday night wasn't to badly handled. I even "synched" some of my own "music" to it. I just need to mix the audio better in Cubase. it could use some normalizing and some, and some compression. Also it could use some text. I'll be working on another video this weekend with different music. The iMovie format isn't bad and does the job but if I was going to do this more professionally, it would be with something like a Nikon d5100 on a tripod mount or take some gear and record it over in the sound booth. You can listen to it here.

The Stamps won on home turf 25-22. That last play the Al's had and they fumbled the ball. From the highlights the game was a good one. Thursday we're in BC and that's going to be a good one. 

Even though I'm more or less caught up with all 4 novels (I  haven't got the 5th one yet). I was over joyed to read in i09 that Ian McShane (sorry i couldn't resist) is getting a bit of love as a character in the "Game of thrones." I read one of the books and I found that I got a good idea how the series is going to play out. Anyway, that's all for now.

I've got another day off

today as I need to go downtown to do some personal business and then to get a couple of beer for the weekend. I've got some other business to take care of at home its over the phone stuff.

Hard to believe it was 28 days ago today in 1987 that we here in Edmonton experienced Black Friday. It was a massive tornado that caused the deaths of 28 people. When it touched down about 3pm I was working downtown at the Army & Navy just where the Ultima highrise is being built. I was 34 years old at the time.  

One of my favorite YouTube channels is sillySUPERPOP It's all things WWE wrestling. Mostly action figures and he uses some colorful expletive language. Very entertaining comedy. Even if your not a wrestling fan, its hilarious stuff

There's so many but one of my favorite comic books has always been the Fantastic four. I'm very happy that Marvel Studios is releasing a reboot. I'm very happy that another 
 
movie is coming out. My favorite artists drawing the Fantastic Four. His attention to detail always amazed me. Every time I think of the Fantastic Four I think of George Perez. He has a Facebook page as well.                                                 

Other then that, tonight its Riders visiting Esks at Commonwealth. I'm looking forward to this one. Eventually the Riders have got to win one and I think our luck has run out. We don't fare to well when "Rider nation" comes to town but we're just as banged up as they are. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Anne made us a nice left over roast beef

sandwich with fries n gravy for dinner and a homemade yogurt fruit medley, yum. 

This is cool: Stephan Hawking and Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner are to work together with SETI to fund $100 million to search for not just radio waves but optical laser transmissions from other star systems. Its called Breakthrough Listen. They akin to a piano with just 88 keys now using billions of keys. Its a 10 year project and the first observations will begin early next year. Its the largest search for alien life ever. This will all be open to the public. Here's a link out of the Scientific American.

The Edmonton Oiler's finally announced today the last great act for Rexall place will be to hang Glen Sather's name up to the rafters alongside with that of Wayne Gretzky, announcer Rod Phillips, Mark Messier, Grant Fhur among others. That will be 10 banners now. Its about time for Slats. The Oiler's will be doing this in September. I hope to see Connor McDavid's name up there some day.

Since Anne is home,today is my best chance to go to the lab and get a couple of bank statements for our health benefits claim for the provincial government. Then home to check my messages to see if my place of employment called about the next upcoming project. If I don't hear from them by Wednesday, Thursday I'm activating my ei. Anyway, that's all for now.

Back at it today

heading out of here about 2pm for another 5.5 hour shift. I'll be doing that all week. Saturday 10-6pm.

Over there at Connect 2 Edmonton forum there's an interesting topic on Minimum income vs Minimum wage. The for minimum income would be that everyone wold be getting a minimum income or "mincome." It would cut out a lot of paperwork but also at the same time where is the incentive for people to work if they don't have to? This mincome notion was advanced by Trudeau sc in the 1970's. This is why even when I'm on pension I need to work. One does not retire from life. Anyway, the discussion is here.

I just caught this on the Coast site: Will the leap second on June 30 break the internet? Experts fear added time could cause computer chaos On June 30, at 23:59:59 GMT, the world's clocks will add an extra second. This is to account for discrepancy between 'Earth' time and 'atomic' time. But experts warn it could wreak havoc to systems powering the internet. It may cause some systems to crash while others will be half a second off. Its an interesting dilemma. As a result the computer sees a leap second as time going backward, causing a system error and the CPU to overload. Most of the above was taken from this site, you can read here.

Since I started this job I usually am out by 9:25pm and I can get the 9:30pm bus to Corona station. I'm usually home by 10:30 in which case, I'll miss the first half hour of wrestling. Anyway that was a good week off.

At least I'm sleeping a little better

over the last couple of nights. Saturday/Sunday night because I had that sleeping pill and this morning because I had that beer. Also, I backed off on the Coversyl because I feel it might have a side effect, which could be why my circulation in my lower right leg has been bothering me over the last week. Before I got married when this blog was just a hard copy diary in my own hand writing, (1997) I had a security guard job. It was then my sciatic nerve really acted up on me causing pain along my right side. I don't know how I was able to cope in doing that job. That was when I was in Amway at the time and I recall a trip down to Calgary. I felt every bump in the road there and back. I haven't felt body pain like that in a long time and that was way before the diagnosis of my diabetes was confirmed in 2004. So I'm also thinking this could be sciatic because I can feel it all along my right side but its not as severe as it was back in 1997.

Switching gears, I'm really enjoying this Horus Heresy series. "Mechanicum" is the 9th book in the series and the only one that I haven't read is "Decent of Angels" book #6. I just couldn't get into it. I can always come back to it. The book kind of strayed from the story line. Up next is "Tales of Heresy." Its a collection of 6 short stories.I hope to begin that one at the end of this month. 

The Metro LRT line is in testing mode. Posters on the Connect 2 Edmonton forum have uploaded some photos of cars on the track. Not that I'd use Metro much but it would take ridership pressure off the Capital line and make my commute more comfortable. I'll be able to find a seat easier on the way home at night and often Anne and I go out to the Ramada at Kingsway for brunch. It'll make it more convenient to get out to Kingsway mall.

Its a short work week this week because of Victoria day. July 1st falls on a Wednesday so our next long weekend wont be until August 3rd. Not that this was a long weekend because I was working Saturday. Two days off for me is a long weekend. As of this August I'll have 1 more year until I can apply for pension and as long as we keep things together here and I have my health, a year after that I'll be on full pension. Most likely I'll work 3-4 days a week. Anyway, that's all for now.

Our freak Spring snowstorm

yesterday lasted until about 7pm. When I had left out of work at 9:25pm (well exceeding "my quota") My bus was on the other side of the 4 way cross walk. Looking both ways catching a break in the traffic, I was able to make that connection to Corona but barely.

I met Anne at Bay station and we rode home together on the train to Clareview. We walked parting ways as she needed to go to Superstore and I headed home. 

Ok so I almost bought into it. A story was released recently on a Internet forum that Eagleworks (Nasa) lab said they had what could appear to be an electromagnetic propulsion drive. Or em drive that uses microwaves in an enclosed space. The story made claims that a possible drive could send crew to the moon in 4 hours and interstellar space travel or warp drive was almost here. It said that they tested the drive in a hard vacuum and got some momentum out of it. Its junk science and you can read more about it here.

I'm "off today" but its busy as I'm out of here at 2pm to see my Doctor and then a bite to eat and home to change and then to Lodge. Looking forward to having a great night.What with lodge practice and the election the other day, Doctors appointment and lodge tonight, its been busy. Anyway, that's all for now.

Sitting here unable to get around

because the wife needs the bus pass to go to work. I've got this pent up anxiety over this typing test thing when I go in for training Tuesday. The wife is threatening to cut off the cable, power etc until I get a pay cheque. Money is tight and so far I haven't heard anything on my ei claim and even if I get one its going to be 2 weeks away. 

Yesterday our Premier released the long awaited 2015 Alberta provincial budget. For decades Alberta relied on oil royalties since the 1950's. In 1982 Liberal Leader Pierre Elliot Trudeau and then prime minister, imposed the national energy program or nep. Alberta suffered the worst. I was working during the 1980's and temporary permanent in the early to mid 1990's. Our economy grounded to a halt in 1982. Alberta was in a recession from 1982-1996 when the price of oil eventually rose. The recession of the 1980's took billions of dollars out of our local economy. Alberta's economy is cyclic, boom and bust. In 2008 the price of oil went to about $32 barrel responding to the market money crunch. We experienced a mini recession. Oil prices per barrel rose in late 2009 is when we finally got out of that recession. What this budget is supposed to do is to set a 10 year plan to get our economy off the reliance of oil royalties. This budget will hit some people hard but for this household it wont affect us. Some of the highlights: A return to health care premiums for Albertan's making over $50,000 (not us) annually. Its called a health care levy. A sin tax on tobacco and alcohol. I have about 1 beer a month, if that and I'm not a smoker. No Alberta sales tax. The Alberta Government under all Albertan's is also expecting to spend almost $30 Billion over the next 5 years on infrastructure projects etc. its a pretty good budget. More about Alberta's 2015 budget here.

Over the last few months the thought of not using a computer to make/process my music has held a lot of appeal for me. Not that there isn't anything wrong with using the computer to make music. Most EDM/techno is made this way. Its just that my laptop memory where most of my vst's and programs live is at 80% full to capacity, and has a lot of adware on it rendering the laptop all but useless for accessing the Internet. When I get back to work and once we're caught up with our bills,  I'm looking at getting an affordable synth. I'm looking at either the Yamaha MX49, or the Roland Juno Di. I like the guitar sounds on the Di. I haven't heard many of the guitar sounds on the Yamaha MX yet. The MX is cheaper and newer. I can use the iPad and for $18 I can buy Yamaha's Mobile studio sequencer. That's all I need.

So tonight I'm watching the Oiler's entertain Dallas and this weekend trying to fend off the wolves and attempting to keep our marriage from falling apart. Anyway, that's all for now.