Working Sundays at my job

is good. It's like a afternoon shift and 2 hours near the end. I'll be getting home tonight about 9pm.

Today is Grey cup Sunday in the CFL. It's Hamilton/Calgary. I was watching on TV yesterday as they were saying the next CFL Commissioner (after Mark Cohon leaves after today) needs to focus on making the CFL more appealing to younger fans. The average age of CFL fans is 54. So they need to make this more appealing to younger audiences during the off season. That's going to be the next challenge of the new cfl commissioner. I'll be following the scores during my day. I get 2 ten minute breaks and a half hour one. It's a 6pm Eastern start or 3pm BC time, 4pm Edmonton time. I'll take my 1st break at 4:30pm and half at 5:30pm hopefully after half time and my last ten about 7pm. Its a long day but at least I have the Grey Cup game to break up the day.

It's a full day today 7.5 hours and even though its -22 out there with a strong windchill making it to feel like -32. I put my cleats under my boots and I'll be packing this up and ready to leave. 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.

Making predictions is something I'm not very good

at doing, however after hearing the news about Opec and oil dropping to $69 and how this is going to affect our economy, buying a big ticket item doesn't make sense right now. I got work up until possibly the end of next May. Then I'm reduced to 2-3 days a week, if that. Then what? I can't predict beyond that. Even though Alberta's unemployment rate is currently at 4.4% by Spring we could easily be at 6%. I can't justify a new computer now, what with Lodge dues coming up. This new computer might have to wait until spring or maybe even on hold. I can make minor upgrades to my laptop like Windows 8.1 and a 1Tb sshd hard drive. That's all I need for now. If I can hold onto as much as what I have and save some until if and when I get a tax return, then I can survive the summer until work at my current job resumes again in September. 

Right now we are having a blizzard out there like you wouldn't believe. At this hour its -20 with blowing snow. It was tough trudging through the snow howling and blowing shortly before 9pm yesterday when I left the office for Corona station

The Oiler's lost their 8th in a row against Nashville last night but held the Preds to a 0-0 contest until the home team won in ot. That's a positive step forward.Tonight they play in Saint Louis and it can only get worse from there. The longest Oiler's winless streak was in 1993 when the Oilers had 13 losses and 1 tie. If the Oiler's continue like this, they will match their winless streak record Wednesday December 10th and beat a new winless streak record December 14th. I doubt that will happen but they have some tough teams to beat and there is never a easy night in the NHL.

I'm in the office today from 2-9 and Saturday I have off. Then I'm on for next week, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday off, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Anyway, that's all for now. 

Snow days are here again and

we're getting it good. Were supposed to get about 20 centimeters or about 8" when its all over. It's suppose to let up sometime Friday. Its nothing like they have had in Buffalo last week.

Since its Thanksgiving day in the US there is NFL football. I put another Fan Duel line up together for 4 games this afternoon, I'm going to be following. Plus the Oilers are at Nashville for another beating. I'll be following this one. If they lose tonight, its going to be their 8th loss in a row. How Lowe can they go?

I've been following this Burnaby mountain pipeline story for awhile now. In Tuesday's Edmonton Sun, Sun commentator Ezra Levant published a expose of the "protestors" against the pipeline. I would have had a measure of respect for their efforts if the protest was a grassroots movement, however its anything but. These are professional protestors. Their beef against the Trans Mountain pipeline which would take Alberta oil to load oil onto tankers for market would be disastrous. Thing is Kinder Morgan has had a pipeline there since 1953. The protestors hate fossil fuels as they all drive up Burnaby mountain and fill the Simon Fraser University parking lot. These Pro protesters are funded by their non Canadian bosses, foreign interest's groups. Tides foundation and Forest Ethics (or their Canadian affiliates) fund tens of millions of dollars on their war against the Alberta oilsands but never against OPEC or Russian oil. Even the famous Canadian environmentalist for hire David Suzuki made a cameo appearance last weekend. Suzuki runs about $8 million/year out of Tides "charitable" number. He even took a jet plane from Malaysia to give a anti capitalist speach before returning to his multi million dollar home in Vancouver during last weekends protest. This was not a grassroots protest, it was a foreign funded attack pure and simple. Odd how we don't see the protestors during the week, only on the weekend. If I was still living there and able I'd carry a sign for for the camera. This protest funded by Tides.

I tried calling Best buy computer department but everyone is busy. Yep they (customers) all came out to pick up the computer I want in a snow storm. Most likely they are all out at lunch but if they don't have it I might have to wait until next paycheck. The only quad core pc's Future shop has are either $1000 + laptops or desktops. They have a few in stock and I'm about to put one on reserve. Anyway, that's all for now.

If everything works out ok between now and

Friday morning I'm off to buy the new computer. I'll probably
 get it at Best buy because of the price and its hop on the #137 Friday morning get my purchase call a cab and from almost one end of 137th ave to the other. The cab ride is a straight line from point A-B. I should be home about this time and ready to leave for work. This way I have my day off Saturday to play around with my new pc. The computer will need at least 2 major upgrades in the new yeaar: a 4Tb hard drive and 16Gb of ram. The motherboard only has 2 Ram slots. I know there are 16Gb Ram sticks available but they are probably sold in pairs. Ram is expensive now 16Gb will cost about $200. At least from here that's the plan for Friday

Today its mid week Wednesday. Nothing going on today its into work in about 45 minutes for 6.5 hours. For the first 2 hours we're mostly doing quota fills and that's boring. Then the other project from 4-8 and then back to quota fills for the last hour but we're usually gone by about 8:50pm. Anyway, that's all for now.

I didn't sleep that well overnight but

I got what I could. I think the reason why i couldn't sleep was because my bed sheet I sleep on was not smooth but had wrinkles from my knees to the edge of my bed. It was hard to get that sweet spot. I'm such a light sleeper as it is. 

Since the summer Native Instruments (ni) has brought out these midi controllers they call the S series. The keys light up by where they're attache to the frame and merger with their komplete series. Akai has had their mpc 25 which has the pads like in Maschine and a screen and touch based mod and pitch wheels. The Akai mpc has 25 keys, which have adjustable octaves. I initially want to get this controller but local venders didn't have a copy, which s why I got the M-audio Oxygen 49 as nobody had the 25 key version at the time. In my email this morning ni has a major Maschine update to 2.2. I know that, ni eventually will be merge their S series controllers with Maschine like the Akai, and this will most likely be ni's next step with Maschine but at the moment Maschine is still at 2.2. When they get to 9.8 or something, then that's when I feel they will merge their S series controllers and Maschine to a new Maschine after Studio. Maschine came out I think 2010. Then in 2012 out came Maschine Mk2 (this is the one I have) and shortly after I bought it, ni brings out Maschine studio. I usually like to upgrade tech stuff after every other release. I'm hoping ni wont wait until Maschine studio 9.8 to merge both products. Maschine studio came out last October and I've been resisting the urge to upgrade because with my luck I'll get studio and then ni will release the next version of Maschine. They're about due for another version if 'history" is any indication. NI likes to do these major releases near Christmas for obvious reasons. Maybe by this time next year I'm hoping. The Mk2 set me back about $600 back in the day when I had a steady income not that long ago. I knew then that my steady income was nearing an end but Long & McQuade let me take out a account on MK2, which was nice of them. 

Anne mentioned yesterday that Pat Quinn past away. He coached the Oiler's a few years back, when the Oiler's had a string of head coaches they kept letting go thinking that was the answer to their problems. After Quinn they had Tom Renney and then Kruger. In hockey news a lot of media insiders are saying that MacT is about to make some significant moves. All players are on the table (except Hall) they need to make a huge change because MacT says the coach is not the problem and I agree. This means that, players like Perron, RNH, Eberle, Yakapov, lots of guys. Pat Quinn didn't have the best line up to work with either but like Kruger after him,Quinn was well respected. RIP Pat.

Today I've got another full day. What I like about this project about food that we're doing is that it's a 30 minute survey. it also means I get that train before 9pm. The other thing about this survey is that it's month-by-month and a parent can proxy for a child member in the family, which s nice. It's a full 6 hours today (in theory) Anyway, that's all for now.

Finally it looks like were getting

sunshine out there  at -3. Next Saturday we could be in for a -21/30 wind chill kind of a day. November weather wise, was a nice month. Real winter begins December-March anyway. 

Looks like the Kinder Morgan Burnaby mountain pipeline project is moving forward despite the protesters. Special interest groups tried to block the Northern Gateway pipeline and delayed that. At least the Burnaby mountain pipeline in its early development could go through despite the protestors and the Trans Canada pipeline could get underway soon and when the Republicans get into office in th US they will approve Keystone. 

With the Oiler's losing badly Saturday night and with the CFL Eskimo loss to Calgary yesterday, this weekend was not a good weekend for Edmonton Pro sports teams. It gets worse for the Oiler's because they still have another 4 more months of this to endure. The Eskimo's in 2013 came off of a 4-14 record to this years complete turnaround of 12-6, they have nothing to be ashamed of. The only reason why Calgary won like they did was because of home field advantage.

I'm in for a full day 2-9 for 32.5 hours on the week as we begin a new project. I'm home about 9:40pm to watch Monday night raw. Anyway, that's all for now.