Not a lot going on for

today. I had a killer day yesterday pulling in $880/550 on card. Two awesome days in a row. I like credit cards because that’s bonus money for me, if I hit line hour and work my full 37.5 hours in for the week. It’s just into work for 8 hours and home. There’s no NHL hockey this evening but I think the IIHF (team Canada) are playing this afternoon. Tonight they’re watching is Basketball. Well, the TV on behind my station that is. Me, I’m not interested in it.

I’m thinking what’s the best way to get the word out about my blog, so that it has a permanent mark on the world? One way I thought was pretty clever was to upload a photo onto Google earth. I might not be able to advertise on the photo but what about after the photo in the frame of the boarder itself? In my little part of the world where I am now, there isn’t a lot of Google Earth photo activity, I could for example label the photo icon “eJim’s place.” But it’s still a Google app. You don’t get to see that until you roll the mouse curser over it. But 1 photo standing out in the middle of nowhere would link to me and a photo showing our balcony in the summer full of flowers would in the container give a blog address. In the photo’s container has a link to the name of the photographer etc. Chances are Google will still be around outside 25 years from now maybe even 50-100. I also need to write a Wiki page on me as well.

One thing I need to do is to start saving some money and after I get Melodyne editor, I’m going to start putting about $50 away in my account each week after this week. This will be week 19 so starting at week 20. At $50/week I could have about $1,600 set aside and have that as an RRSP I could have a nice little bit of stash when I do my taxes next year.

I found some good royalty free dubstep production track intro candidates for my track I’m working on. I should specify non commercial tracks. My music is a cross between old school punk and modern debstep. Kind of like The Clash meet the Stranglers meet dubstep. Anyway, that’s about all for now.

A week with nothing pressing

 on the agenda. Just the way I like it. The only thing I have in fact this month is Commercial Lodge on next Saturday and after that “my calendar” is open.

With nothing pressing and no memory work ahead of me I can now relax and work on my music and a track. I got a percussion line going from a WAV file and after I figured out how to use buses and channels from my audio interface, it plays back my Wav files, which I’m told are the basic audio blocks in Cubase.

I’m also back on track with my reading as well as I’m back into reading Stardoc #1 but I’m not going to read the whole series in one go. I hope to finish this book this month. Next up maybe I’ll read a RJS novel.

This evening I was watching the Caps/NYR NHL game #5 and flipping back and fourth to watch wrestling. I didn’t miss much but I did see the “main event.”

On Coast tonight Amygdala/ Messages from the Dead Mon 05-07 In the first half, brain researcher Neil Slade will talk about his research into the amygdala, a part of the brain believed to cause increased creativity, intelligence, and paranormal ability. Not my area of interest but I’ll listen for a bit.

My wife was kind of hoping to see the weekends “Super moon” but then after it was explained on local news she realized the event was mostly hype and kind of a let down. Especially since we had partial cloud cover that night here in Edmonton.

I’ve got about $7 on my iTunes gift card and I’m considering some marvel comic books. I just downloaded the Marvel comic book app. I don’t know if this lets you read the comic books. Anyway, that’s about all for  now.
 

I’m about to do something I haven’t done since the 70’s, decades ago: Grow a beard. The trouble with me and beards is psoriasis and grooming. Beards itch, with most guys and they are hard for me to keep a decent shape. Nathan at the Lodge has a nice beard and it looks good on him. I know there are grooming kits for men out there.

I decided having 2 days off

was more important then YOC Lodge next Saturday anyway. I’ll take next Saturday off because I like Commercial Lodge. I’m right downtown and I can go to Audrey’s before I visit the Lodge.

I was trying to figure out how I can get the “guitar sound” out from Garageband and export it as a Wav file and apparently it can be done but I need to have my apps synced to iTunes. So I got music on my iPad, my apps synced and now my photos. This gives me about 6Gb free. Eventually I’m going to upload my music to iCloud anyway. At the moment I’m downloading my photos and my download session is 240/922 files. There’s lots of cat photos.

Next cheque is when I begin saving up for Melodyne editor. I’m saving up $400 ($365) of that is for Med. I’ll be able to pick it up at LM about mid June.

This morning I watched the LA/St. Louis game and LA won the series in 4. They beat out the 2 top seeded teams in the West. Tonight I’m watching Phoenix and Nashville. There’s lots of hockey to watch. Anyway, that’s all I have for today.   

Finally everything since the beginning

of the week has come to a head. Yesterday, I got the dinner figured out and my parts in the lodge figured out. Too  make matters worse Anne calls me just before break and makes a change of plans for me. I hope she said she wanted me to put my check (what I give her) in my account. Otherwise I would have brought cash. Up until they began handing out checks to everybody at 8:15pm, I was wondering if I had a check at all. And if so how much was it going to be? I’ve seen them dicker me out before and others. Ok, I got my check and opened the envelope, $325 Whew, almost a full check. Instant relief. I headed up to the bank cashed my check and left the $265 like I hope Anne wanted me to do. All of it the festive board, my part in the Lodge, my check all came out ok. Thank God. I even have $100 to play with as well which means I can get my RJS book and a bite to eat after work tomorrow. The only downside to all of this today was I had only $25 on sales but it was all on card. All I can say was, what a week! I even got my iTunes card fixed up. All in all, this week turned out great. It could have been a disaster.

Music over the years has changed so much not only in genres but how music has been produced. It used to be from the beginning a collection of musicians or one person with a flute or plcucked instrument of some kind. In the "modern era" the phonograph was introduced in the late 1800's. Music was then recorded in a control room on a 4 track device and then evolved to 100 banks console to digital music on the computer making the art of producing music open to anyone. So along comes the iPad, which is becoming a serious music production tool. It's going to be a long way off before the iPad will replace a 4 piece band or anything or even someone with an iPad on stage. But with Digital Audio Workstations (DAW's) so accessible for hobby musicians IPad's/Apple's Garageband Gb isn't quiet there yet. I'm a hobby musician. The only instrument I can play (barely) is the DAW, which is an instrument in itself. Gb isn't even like the same thing of it's Mac big brother. For example, I paid $500 for Cubase 6 2 months ago. Gb comes free with every Mac computer but for the iPad it's a $5 app on a $700 device. I haven't produced any music yet but I'm about to as soon as I get over this bout of laryngitis or what ever it is. Here's what the interface of Garageband looks like: 

I gave Anne another $50 to help cover the rent last night. We we're only $50 short of rent and I did want to get that RJS book. Looks like I'm going to have to wait another week

This weekend is a short weekend. I'm paying for it now because next Saturday I want off to go to Ye Old Craft. We start Monday at 2pm, which is ok. It will still give me 37.5 hours on my check next week and more importantly give me an opportunity to visit other Lodges. Me being one of the 3 principle officers of our Lodge I should be visiting m ore and that's what I'm about to do this month. 

Today however, I've got 6 hours ahead of me and I hope J will put me onto "Harper" and not OPC. At  least I can make money on "Harper." After work I'm considering going over to Audrey's to pick up something. It wont be an RJS book but something within my price range. 

The next project for my music is going to be Melodyne editor for my voice as I'm going to need an affect on my voice. I'm  not a singer but I want to "sing" or create noise with my mouth. I want to save up $450 but the product itself is about $350. I don't want to leave myself short. So $75 over the next 6 weeks will do it. So I hope by mid June I'll have it. Anyway, that's about all for now.

  

Another Friday at last

Today is the last day of the Canadian penny. Canada mint says the coins cost more to make then their value and believe they will save $11 million/year. The coin box at Tim Horton’s is full of pennies and lose change. Charities like the Salvation Army will take a hit from the absence of the penny.

I’m enjoying my morning coffee before I head out to work. Hopefully it will help my voice. It’s not soar or anything, its just raspy. Most likely a change in the weather but coffee should help.

I’m having (and I’m not alone) trouble with these black bars that keep showing up on the sides of YouTube videos. At first I thought it could be a bandwidth issue or perhaps my display like 720P etc needs to be adjusted in my YouTube settings, but this video “ghosting” is showing up even in my own videos I make on my iPad. Its really strange but I suspect its in my IPad settings. Anyway, that’s all for today.

I had a better day of

I had a better day of things sales wise today and about half of what my total was on card. Five minutes before 9pm, I already had my coat and stuff packed. The LRT is running only 1 side of the tracks from Churchill out from the tunnel. Here’s a video I took of the moment inside the train. The big tan yellow building with the white structures on top is tower A of Riverside Towers. Tower B is slightly to the left. There was a person sitting in the seat beside me preventing me from capturing the other building identical to this one. I used to stay I the other building in 1979. There was only me and the other guy on this part of the train. I'm at a loss as to how to get rid of these big black bars in these videos. I'm sure the settings aren't managed properly.

I’m in for half a day tomorrow as I’m ready for Lodge and by this time tomorrow we‘ll be winding down the festive board and I‘ll be cleaning up. Last meeting I forgot to empty the coffee pot so I‘ll see if I‘m going to get any flack about this tomorrow. Most importantly though, we have a festive board and 2 candidates and I have a significant part to play near the end of the degree. I‘m going to be busy.

On my way home, I checked my email and I got a response from Itunes. I got the full number back from my gift card I got last week. Good stuff so I‘m going to buy iPhoto and Garageband.

We were watching the NHL NYR/ Caps game and it‘s in double OT tied at 1 with 5 minutes left to go  in the 3rd OT period. Yikes. Warren and I had a bet for $2 and the Rangers just scored bringing it to 2-1. Crap! Rangers lead the series 2-1.

I had a good day today and tomorrow looks good. I just hope there‘s no snags in my vacation pay for Friday, that‘s what I‘m really worried the most here. Anyway, that‘s all for now. 

At 4am I knew I was going to be in for

trouble, sleep wise and sure enough I couldn't sleep and when 4:30am rolled around, well at least I'd get 5 hours. I was lucky if I got that and I could use another 6 hours. I'm exhausted at the moment but I got an 8 hour day ahead of me.


I'm thinking maybe I should pick up one of those "5 hour energy" drinks but I heard somewhere they're not that good for diabetics. But after reading a few comments on the forums, nobody is saying anything bad about them. Maybe one sip is all I need but if they cost around $10/per bottle, no. I can see $5 yes.


We're finally getting a little bit of Sun out there after a weekend of overcast (Thursday-Monday)


Whats up with the LA Kings? A last place seeded team in the playoffs taking out the Vancouver CanucksPresidents trophy 1st over all in the league get taken out by the bottom dwellers? They go into Saint Louis and I figure well that was a one hit wonder with Vancouver. Now they're up 2 games to 0 in St. Louis's own building. The way the Kings are going (They've never won a Stanley Cup) could ended up with a sweep with the 2nd seeded team. I think St. Louis though will bounce back in game #3 Wednesday. If though the Kings keep going like they're on 5 hour energy and win all for games and sweep St. Louis in 4, they might go to the finale. It could be LA/Washington. Like I said elsewhere the only time that a Canadian team is ever going to win the Cup will be if there are an even number of teams in the NHL. Say 12 Canadian 12 American teams and to make it truly a National hockey league "league" have the American teams have a cap "like" in the CFL 80% domestic players and 20% Import players. Like that'll ever happen. 


Ok time to start packing up my things and getting ready for the day. It's going to be a long one. I'm going to post Twitter tweets through out the day.  


If you see some strange text, it's only because my laptop mouse wasn't frozen. Anyway, that's all I have for now..