With my holidays almost over and with

4 days off, so in a sense its almost like a long weekend.

Despite having a cold and sick over the last 10 days I was able to watch some hockey get some reading done and sleep in a bit but all the coughing kept me awake lying down in bed. Lying on the couch I felt a little better. We figured it out that with the humidifier on keeps things warm and dry. I was able to get some sleep.

This morning I was up at 11:00am and out the door by 11:45am in my new coat Anne had bought me for Christmas. It was slippery out there from the freezing rain the day before. I got my pay check including the $150 bonus, which will help. I said my "Happy new years" to everyone at the office and headed out to Audrey's books. I bought my 20th book of the year, "Back to the moon" by Taylor/Johnson. I'll get to it eventually. I went up to my bank did my banking and after paying my ticket missed the first train back to Clairview. The trains were loaded with hockey fans enjoying the World Juniors. I got to my bus stop and as I was getting off there was Anne flagging me down. She went and got us an A&W burger combo. That was 7 hours ago and I'm still full. It was really good. I gave her a little extra because of my bonus money and enjoyed my burger/fries and watched the last 2 periods. Team USA/Chez. Finale outcome was Team USA 2 Chez 5 and tomorrow night is the Oilers and Anne is working all night from 7-9, yikes.

I'm a little bit soured on my Lodge dues. I know we voted on an increase but I didn't think the increase would be until this time next year. It's almost like a cash grab. Kind of cheesy the way the rammed it through, so I'm paying mine at the February communication. There are no penalties for late payment of dues. Other wise I wouldn't be able to take Anne out for our New Years Dinner tomorrow. I've also got it in my calendar Edmonton #7 (2nd Tuesday) at Freemason's Hall is having a crib night, so this is something I want to check out. More then likely I'll post Sunday January 1st. "Happy New Year" everyone. See you in the New Year. Anyway, that's about all for today.

As of today I still have

six more days off!

But if were still going to be doing this political stuff and bugging us about line hour, I may be out of there by the end of January, if not earlier. I mean it's bad enough the customer (so were being told) wont get a tax receipt but I find that hard to swallow. Any contribution to a political party is always tax deductible. If it's not then I'm out of my current job. I'll try the ccc job first and if that doesn't pan out, then I'm off to Pizza. Worst part about this is, I put 11 years into that place and you think they'd honor my wage review that I passed? Also I lose that seniority as well. Bonus money? With this thing forget it. Eleven years and I'm still at minimum wage. And I was voted the most cost effective employee of 2011 and one of the top 3 bank in the office. All of this and they still can't pay me an extra buck an hour. I think it's time to leave but I'm going to see how the week goes and then if there's no change by the end of next week, then I'm putting my name in for Pizza and I can work part time where I am now and part time at Pizza. I've got to give the company notice. i don;t want to burn my bridges or anything as I want to go out on a nice way.

All Tuesday afternoon I worked on my Lodge material for the EA exam and my music. I had a nap at about 8pm but it didn't help much. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Doctor Who "Widow and the wardrobe" was great. Matt Smith with his interpretation of Doctor Who is making it his own. You can tell he's having fun with it. I hope he goes on this series for a long time.

I knew Friday night leaving the office, I was catching a bug. The early signs were there. I think it's going to get worse before it gets better. When I go back to work this time next week, I should all be but done with it.

Coast had a good show on for Christmas night, which is odd because most of the time they have canned Christmas music and Coast is suspended for about 3-4 days. I'm glad they (630 Ched) realize that the Coast audience doesn't stop for Christmas. I'm sure there have been a lot of times over the years that stranded Christmas eve airline passengers wish Coast was on. Lots of people still have to work the night shift.

This year we lost some major celebrities. I gathered a partial list out of this site. There is very little love lost here in the West over Kim Jong Ill. one caller on Coast this morning suggested that the North Korean dictator was murdered by his son who is now occupying the seat of power. Some believe that the military was behind his murder. Then there was just recently 12/18/11: Playwright and President of both Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel died in his home at the age of 75. I felt especially sad over the passing of Harry Morgan but he had a good life living well into his 90s. Although I never read her books she was a literary heavyweight 11/21/11: Notable author of such Science Fiction book series as "Dragonriders of Pern" , Anne McCaffrey, died from complications due to a stroke. She was 84 And it was a real shocker when Bill Kane passed away on 11/8/11: Creator of the long-running newspaper comic "Family Circus", Bill Keane passed at the age of 89. I wasn't a fan of Boxing but Joe Frazier will be well remembered in the boxing world. Andy Rooney was more of an American thing and even though I caught many of his commentaries they made me laugh and ponder 9/10/11: Oscar-winning actor Cliff Robertson, best known to modern audiences as Uncle Ben from the "Spider-Man" films, died just one day after his 88th birthday. Then there was Betty Ford, founder of the Betty Ford clinic. We lost Peter Falk from the Columbo series. My mom always used to like him, me to. Another shocker for me was hearing the news in the Spring about Macho man Randy Savage. Then there was Jackie Cooper from the Superman films. Osama Bin Ladin (yeaaaa!) I hope that fucker rots in hell. I'm saddened by the loss of Elisabeth Sladen starred as the beloved companion to the Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith, in the long-running Doctor Who. She passed away at 63. She had returned to the Doctor Who franchise during David Tennant's run as the doctor and spun off into her own series, The Sarah Jane Adventures. We lost Elizabeth Taylor. Michael Gough or--as most people know him--Batman's butler Alfred Pennyworth in the Batman films died at the age of 94. Jane Russel passed away,Best known for her roles in the 1950s science-fiction film "Forbidden Planet" and the 1960s television series Honey West died on complications from pancreatic cancer. She was 80 and of course who can't forget losing Steve Jobs. There are a lot more I could name, like Amy Winehouse lots of rappers but these people did not make an impression on my consciousness.


Anne went out to get some things like Christmas cake and other treats because it was boxing day. There are a lot of good deals out there. If the sale is still on tomorrow, I'm going to run over to the Clareview Pharmacy and pick up a couple of plugins Image line has on for 50% off for all registered Image line customers of which I am one due to buying FL. Studio in August and Groove Machine in October.


Tonight I'm watching a bit of the Oiler game and some wrestling. I'll switch back and forth. Anyway, that's about all for tonight.

around midnight I get to open

my gifts Anne bought me. There's no fun stuff its just cloths and things like socks and underwear, stuff like that. Stuff I need. I bought Anne an Olive Garden dinner and a Royal Pizza dinner for possibly New Years day if it's open.

Tomorrow, I'm relaxing taking it easy but I need to do a couple of things: First, work on my EA exam memory work as I'm doing the exam for the candidate upgrading to FC. I've done this a couple of times before so I know what to expect. Then I want to make some progress on my book.

Earlier I went and downloaded a demo of Sugarbytes "Turnado." It's got some possibilities. There's a lot you can do with it.

If this looks like my last year on my job (now that were doing this political stuff) I'm thinking about going to the call centre in the building. Its a credit card place of some kind and I'm thinking it pays a lot m ore money then where I'm working now.

I'm thinking about getting that Korg SOS but I also need a faster laptop for music production. I'm also looking at getting BPM from MOTU and Mach 5/3 but I need a fast laptop with more memory. When I go this 2 years ago, I didn't know I was going to get into music production.

I went to bed with a slight tickle to my throat. It's just a passing virus, nothing to worry about.

But if the job looks like its not going anywhere, then the credit card call centre is my next option. My last option is where my wife works at Pizza. At least its an in bound call centre. It has its moments but it can get kind of lax as well.I'd ask for Wednesday's and Thursdays off because this way I can go to Redwood Lodge Anne says that if I work full time the hours start at 11am. I can be off at 7pm. Actually Freemason's Hall is right behind where Anne works and I can go directly from there to Lodge. As long as I can get 38-40 hours/week.

What I like about Pizza is their hours are flexible. So say one day I want to work from 11-10 and go home with Anne and come in say on Lodge night and work from 11-6:00pm change get a bite to eat downtown and head out to my Lodge. But I'd arrange to have my 2 days off to be Wednesday and Thursdays, so this way that first week in the month I can go to Lodge normally. During the week because Freemason's Hall is right downtown, has it's advantages.

My current job looks like its going nowhere. I think a lot of people are are on their way out. But before it gets out of hand at my job and I they either let me go because the line hour isn't there or for example, I don't get my raise (promised last October 18 10 weeks ago) I think it's time to go.

So in the New Year, I'm going to check out the credit card company call centre (ccc). If I can get onto that and it looks good, then I'll give my company 3 weeks notice and leave. How I'll do this is work days at the ccc and work bare min part time at my current job for 3 weeks and leave under good terms. Assuming I can work at the ccc. If I can't get hired on, then there then I'm off to Pizza.

What I like about Pizza also is say after Lodge on a Saturday, I can go straight from there to the office. As long as I can get 8 hours/week, that's perfect. Also, there's no having to worry about when the boss is going to bring the checks on a Friday night because the checks are direct bank deposit into my account.

I don't mind at my job as long as I'm making line hour, then that's ok but I'm barely making that. To be fair to the company, this is the worst time of year to be asking people for money for political campaigns. But if I'm having the same kind of trouble in the New Year as I am I'm on my way out. I can read the writing on the wall anyway but I;m going to give the company a chance. If I'm having the same trouble in the New Year, then I'm paying the ccc upstairs a call and to put my name in. One of the people where I work said she will help me work on a resume and as soon as I get back, I'm going to take her up on the offer. She said all you do is "cut and paste" and take it from there. If I'm struggling for the rest of the week like I did the first couple of days, then I know my time is running out and I'll be dropping into the ccc with the resume and see what happens. If I don't get a call or an interview then I go to Pizza. At least there, I'll have work, more or less. Anyway, that's all for now.

Over the next 10 days I

plan on getting a lot of reading done on my book and working on the EA exam for January 6th.

At the moment I'm following about 103 on my Twitter account and I think 66 are following me.

If all works out ok I should have my Korg Sound on Sound about the middle of January.

On my song demo I've got the first 8 bars but I need a drum Chorus and I have a few ideas but I can get better dynamics playing drums on my midi keyboard controller by mapping the drums from my Addictive drums software then using GP6 drum notation editor.

The Oiler's are in Vancouver on Monday, which means another loss for the copper and blue but you never know. Anyway, that's all for now.

After doing a bit of

research and checking on Mobilicity, the low end priced phones are crap while the higher end priced phones are too pricey. I can't see myself spending $300 on a phone. For that kind of money I'd rather get some Government ID andapply for an Iphone on a 3 year contract. At least I'd get some ID if I didn't get the phone. I like their laptop data plans though at $40/month, which is a good deal.

Today is my last working day for the year as I'm as of midnight for 10 days. Bring it on. That's all for now.

I had a decent day

today.

We began calling the political campaign today as we had a fellow from our parent office give a talk. Very nice guy and knows his stuff. We didn't get to do any calling until about 2:30pm. The pitch is a bit wordy but simple enough. I had a nice lunch break even though it was kind of crowded in there. Anne provided me with a nice "Fireside" type frozen entre. In the evening I didn't get anything until after break but I got (with help from the 'trainer") a $235 sale and a $30 one after that, then it was time to shut off our dialer's and head for home.

Just outside there it was very nice and mild with a gentle snowfall. No wind. I met one of the staff from Audrey's books at the corner and had a chat while my light was changing. I had a brief wait at Corona and got a train and road in, a seat to myself and got a bit of reading done at Clairview. At my bus stop just out front here the snow was coming down heavy but there was no wind. Temperature was about 0. Very nice out there, I love it.

I guess I forgot to give Markus this "pick up number" he needed to get the funds on the Western Union form or whatever the proper number is called. I emailed it to hi when I got his email.

I'm really enjoying this "A game of thrones" series by George RR Martin. It kind of takes me back to my SCA days, everything so Medieval-ish and all. It's not a Harry Potter/D&D thing at all. Not even close. So far there's no magic or sorcery of any kind but plenty of intrigue. Lots of stuff on Knights and Squires. Excellent stuff, and I have another 4 big books in the series yet to read.

Well, just when I thought Doctor Who is in hiatus, Space channel has another episode coming up and of course the Doctor Who Christmas special is Thursday. I got my pvr revved up and ready to go for some Doctor Who goodness. Anyway, that's about all for now.