My quest to find a

way to convert Mp3’s to WAV files has been solved, thanks to a YouTube video and my Itunes account. This way I can take some of my old favourites and convert them into a WAV format that FL Studio’s sampler can load and edit. I’m next looking for a solution that can turn midi files into a musical score. Thanks to YouTube, I found “Notation Musician” and its only $22 bucks. So this means I can get sheet music for all of the songs I like and I can get the piano leads as the skeleton frame for my versions of all my old favourites. Cool.


Coast has a great show this morning on Space news with Richard C. I‘ll be listening in for an hour or so. Last night they were talking about the Cash-Landrum UFO case that took place in 1980. This week on Coast has some decent topics.

This weekend I’m shopping for new Apple headphones. I want the ones that have the mic already on them but all of Apple’s Itouch/pads/phones have built in mics but they want almost $100for them. When I tried on V’s pair at work Saturday the sound blew me away. I had the track on my Itouch full and just with only one ear bud in my ear the music was blaring. I can bring the volume to about half and the sound would still be full. I don’t like the price though. I’m thinking over the labour day weekend this weekend Future shop will have their annual labour day weekend sale and I’ll wait until then. If they reduce the price to something like $70, then I’ll get them, otherwise, I’m looking at saving 2 weeks for $100 to get them.

An interesting storey today on the news as they were talking about how most Canadians feel they won’t be debt free by the time they turn 55. That old buzz phrase “Freedom 55” thing. As for me I’m pretty well debt free. I don’t have a student loan. I don’t have a car loan or a bank loan. I don’t have a mortgage or refinanced a mortgage, I don’t have kids to put through college. I’m debt free. I’m also poor by Canadian standards. But without going into details, I have more disposable cash to put aside for my toys and what not then most people. Of course, I couldn’t do this if I wasn’t married. All my money would have to go towards rent and food with very little left over. I couldn’t buy books and programs like this if I was on my own that’s for sure. I’d be lucky if I could maintain my cable and Internet connection.

Monday night Raw was really lame last night. So much so, that I’m considering going on a Raw hiatus for a year or two. It was very boring. On a scale from 1-10, I’d rate it a 5. I’ll tune in next Monday but if the show is about the same, forget it. I like the concept of the Raw “Super show” where some of Smackdown’s roster are on and some of Raw\s roster will be on Smackdown’s “Super show.” We’ll see how it goes.

Finally in closing I’ve got a full 8 hour day ahead of me here today. The only break I get in the week is Lodge night Thursday. Anyway that’s about all for now.

I'm having

fun with my FL Studio X Signature bundle. Looptalk responses were saying that all Signature bundle means is you get a few more plugins but basically FL Studio 10 “Producer” is the “highest” you can go with FL Studio. My product contains only a few plugins but I could have gone with just “Producer” and I could have saved over a $100 bucks just getting “Producer.” L&M also has Loop for $99. It doesn’t give much of an explanation.

The other thing I did this morning was to configure Movie Maker 7. I put together a instrumental song in FL studio export it to the desktop and opened mm7. I put a photo of Sporty and Silky and a title and added the music and everything synced perfectly. I need something like what Windows media player has or even Real player that has multi color animation patterns that pulse to themusic. Anyway I put together a little 9 second video. It’s not much just some noise. But at least It works.

Next weekend is the labour day weekend and I’m taking Sunday and Monday off. I was told that as long as one works either the Saturday or the Sunday, I’d get paid on the Friday night. I need to confirm that with the boss though. Because it’s a Lodge night, I’m going to only get 34 hours instead of my usual 36. 38 now that they have the extra extended shift. This week I’ll have 34 hours. I should have worked yesterday because of me missing Thursday but I wouldn’t have much of a weekend. So for the next 2 weeks I’m only going to have 34 hour checks.

I kind of did a stupid thing Saturday. I brought my insulin with me after I came back from buying my FL Studio. I bought my breakfast at Tim’s about 11am and went to use the pay phone at Corona station. I called the office and asked Dan if he and the Doctor wanted anything. I got them an order and carried to the office. in the office I realized, “don’t forget about V and the novelin pen. When he saw me taking insulin he asked about it because his father in India is diabetic as well. So, I said I knew I had a spare one at home, he could have the one I was currently using. Fast forward Saturday night, I checked on the pen ready to take a shot and somebody (when I had the pen in the business room fridge) had broken the plunger part of the pen rendering it useless. Uh-oh. Now I had to make up a story to Anne what had happened to the pen. She forewarned me that we night have to get a prescription, which meant waiting in medi clinic for several hours. I called Walmart pharmacy Sunday afternoon when they opened at 1pm and they said no prescription necessary. I asked if I could get two pens. No problem. Anne had to go to Walmart anyway and she picked them up for me. My camera batteries are being charged up today so I can’t make any more movies for awhile.

That movie maker 7 is a really slick piece of software. I‘ve had it before but it didn’t work very well for me. I like how once the user has a finished it’s a one step process to upload directly to ones YouTube channel.

In a way I‘m kind of disappointed with FL Studio Signature Bundle. I didn’t know that all the features I wanted from it were demos. The unregistered version of FL Studio 9 I had earlier was a lot better as the software I had like Gross Beat and Toxic were full versions and not demos. My version has Sytrus which is a full version, which itself has almost 500 presets in its own. Plus there‘s a lot of other tools and stuff I can use. My project today is to get my midi controller up and running. So that‘s about all today.

I’m so tired I could

pass out right now but I’d be up to early.

I’ve got a full day tomorrow. The good news is I’ll get my vacation pay and I hope I get a full check. One of the guys in the biz room, got about a third less then what he said he was expecting because of a payroll error. I hope that doesn’t happen with me latter today.

Coast tonight Comet Elenin with the manager of NASA's Near-Earth Objects program at JPL, the building blocks of DNA discovered in carbon-rich meteorites, and her interview with Alec Newald from New Zealand about his 10-day missing time episode. Should be a good one. In the first half their going to talk about Roswell and on Monday night the shows topic is on Secret Societies. Cool.

Underway this weekend is the 18th annual Fan Expo in Toronto. This year its Robert Englund and Lance Henricksen. I don’t know who is going to be the keynote speaker this year. Fan Expo is billed Comic con North and last year had 64,000 visitors. Anyway, that’s about all for now.

Good morning bog posts

along with my first coffee are always helps wake me up after a shave and a shower. I didn’t sleep very well this morning but I know I got 5 hours of really good sleep.

A couple of signs signify the summer is winding down: First yesterday I get my Lodge newsletter. Second it gets darker earlier. In June, the Sun sets around 10pm. Now the Sun sets about 8:45pm and as I’m leaving for home after a full day in the office, its twilight. I’ve got a full day of it at the office.

Yesterday afternoon I managed only 2 sales and I only go “on board“ shortly before break. I tried tweaking my script but nothing seemed to help. I kept on getting not interested, hang ups and “Don’t have the funds” type of responses and in all of that, about every other call was an answering machine. V said that once we switch over to the new system we should in theory get better campaigns. I doubt that.

Since I couldn’t sleep about 2am this morning, I was able to read my Star Wars book. I’m noticing on other page the characters always smile too much. Luke smiled, Jacin smiled, Mara smiled. There’s this kind of thing 2-3 times on every page. Uggh, If I were to rate this book now, I’d give it a 5/10. I’m sure it gets better.

I went to bed after having enough of he/she smiled on every page and listened to Coast. The first hour was on UFO’s, which is always a fun topic. Anyway, that’s all for now…

We gad a bit of a scary moment

here yesterday morning just before I had to head out to work. I heard somebody from ground level outside (we're on the 2nd floor) a good 12 feet below is the grass, in aloud voice: "Hello? Uwho, Hello?" At first I ignored it and then the voice got louder. I looked up from my Star Wars book and saw outside of my office window onto our balcony some guy hanging on the outside of our balcony. He said he didn't know which suite his girlfriend lived in. I said something to the effect of "Not here, you shouldn't be here." He said sorry and jumped off. Anne was sleeping through all of this. So I let her know what was going on. Its a bit disturbing because in all the 11 years I've lived here this was the first time that something like this has ever happened here, that I know of. Like "I believed" his story. Yeah right. But it was a pretty scary incident and very brazen of the guy to do this in broad daylight, at 11am. So what if I had left and he did this say around noon. Anne still asleep. From the vague description I had, she has an idea who it is and what suite (in this building) the person is from. She hasn't decided what to do yet, if anything at all.

If things work out ok, it looks like I'll have a licensed copy of FL. Studio in my hands by Saturday morning. I hope, but anything can happen to toss a monkey wrench in those gears.
Coast is kind of lame this morning but Wednesday's show is about Elenin, Meteorites and Missing Time, should be a good show.
In SF Signal today their "Mind Meld" topic is on "What is the role and place of maps in Fantasy novels? Which are your favorites? Why? I don't have any favourite maps or anything like that but its one of the main things that separates the difference (besides the obvious) between SF and Fantasy. I haven't seen that many maps in SF novles other the Star Wars books of the map of the Galaxy. I look at a map in a fantasy book maybe once or twice as I'm reading and I seldom ever view it again. I'll have more on this later today. Anyway, that's about all for now. Time for bed.

So much for my week off

Monday night Raw from Rexall place was sold out. On a scale from 1-10, I’d rate it a 10. Awesome. Not because it was here in Edmonton but because of the content of the show. WWE Superstar John Cena every show comes to the ring wearing his t-shirt and tosses it to the audience. This time one of the crowd tossed it back, twice. Too funny.

Yesterday NDP leader Jack Layton lost his battle from prostrate cancer. He was only 2 years older then me. I never was a fan of the NDP (rich people) Layton was in favour of labour unions. Again Rich People. The only thing Jack wanted was to take money out of Alberta, same with his Alberta MLA rep, Linda Duncan. I feel bad for Layton. I liked the man I didn't like his politics, I hope he didn't suffer.  

I wanted to check on the Axe website saw under vst’s 2 vst’s I’d like to get after FL studio or if somebody bought FL Studio out fro underneath me: Plug sound Pro for $65 and another program by Sonivox for $95. The Sonivox program has a 8Gb sample library but I’d also like to get their “Sampla” I might just get both Sonivox programs if FL studio 10 is gone but if its there I’ll get these 2 next week.

Coast tonight has a decent show on:2012 and the Golden age of humanity. Its premise is after the end of the world (2012) humanity will emerge in a new Golden Age. Should be fun.

Anyway, my week off is over, sigh. Most of it was spent ill with this cold I still have. The other thing I’m thinking about doing is going back to business. I’m not exempted by this every other Sunday thing and Saturday 4:30pm shift. The caveat to business is I’m up at 7:00am for 8:30am and my totals are low and no bonus money. If the boss doesn't want me back to business then, I'll explore what my options are.

I barely caught my

I barely caught my#183 bus that pulled in about 50 feet away from me. Despite it being an early Sunday morning there were a lot of people on the train into Corona station. I bought a regular size coffee breakfast egg sandwich, sausage. I had a brief wait for Dan as he pulled into the Kiss/park area. If you Google earth Southgate, you’ll see what looks like to McDonnell’s clown feet. Across from that is the “Kiss/drop zone” as its called. Dan picked me up right on time We were a little early as Fort Edmonton Park opens at 10:30am on Sundays.

This marker is one of first things visitors encounter when they arrive. There‘s a lot to see and do there at fort Edmonton Park. A day pass is $15.00, which isn‘t too bad. It took about an hour before our first guests arrived. I had a good time. Dan and I played a lot of crib. He won about 80% of the games. He drinks a lot of tea.

I think we had about 25 visitors for the day. We’re competing with the last days of the Fringe and I think it got +30 Anne was saying earlier. She decided against going to “Olive Garden” but instead opted for going to Rose Bowl to get us a birthday Jim Pizza. Her plan was to time it so if I’d be off at 5pm and home by about 6pm. Dan wanted to stay until 6pm so I was scrambling to find another way home. He had his wife call ETS “Trip planner” to find out any ETS bus arrives, but I was able to (and this is by pure chance) able to call Rose Bowl and reached Anne by my cell phone and explained how we’re going to be there until 6pm so I should be home just after 7pm.

So we locked things up about 5:55pm, handed in the Lodge keys and made way to the car. Anne called and I gave her an update and said to Dan, I’d see him in 2 weeks September 1st.That Thursday is our first regular meeting. My Clairview train pulled into Southgate as I had Anne on the phone all the way University station. I forgot to pay my fare and was on edge the whole way through, ready to bolt out the doors if the ticket police came on board. Heading underground I lost Anne’s signal. I walked home as it was clouding up out there but very warm. I was sweating like a pig when I got home but the pizza was good if not a little dried out this time. In this photo we're on our way out of Fort Edmonton park. Anyway, I had a great time.

Dan and I were talking as well about some aspects of Masonry I didn’t know. Most guys in a York rite lodge like me, decide that if they want to go on in the York rite and join the Royal Arch they must admit to have a belief in Jesus Christ as they’re Lord and saviour, that he died on the cross for our sins. In other words one must be a Christian. Most York rite Masons decide that if they want to move on in the craft, they go via the Royal Arch. Now I don’t have a problem with the above. But I can right now if I want, continue on for the next series of degrees in the Scottish Rite and that’s what I’m going to do this year. September 17th I’ll be having the Saturday/Sunday off. Pictures coming, Anyway, that’s all for now.

I'm about ready to head out of here

in about an hour.

I was listening to a bit of Coast this morning and ok, I take it back, at least the first hour was decent.

The other day I was watching this news bit how there will be more baby boomers retiring then ever before. A baby boomer is someone like me born between 1943-1964 but sources very. I was born in 1952 and as of this Sunday will  be 59 years ago for me. Anyway, the report went on by saying were 6.4 workers/every retired person at the age of 65. Now when all the baby boomers are ready to retire at 65 the ratio will be something like 3:1 Some countries like Germany are increasing the age of retirement to 70. We might be doing that here in Canada as we might be having a labour shortage soon. Meanwhile (I hope) I'm going to try and get early retirement at 60. Another Federal election though could change this.

As for me, I'm relaxing here in about 20 minutes I'm getting ready to leave out of here to get my check go to my Scotia bank cash Donna's B-day check and my own back up to the pharmacy cash in last weekends Pro-line get a Visa gift card and a 6/49 ticket and over to Audrey's by the first book and get the next 2 free. I might be able to get 3 books by spending a bit more for the difference on 3 by $4, so I hope to be able to walk home with 4 books. Anyway, that's all for now.

I had a good day today just goofing off relaxing

but tomorrow, I have a few things to take care of.

This evenings Rider's/Argo's game had some last quarter drama but ended up with the Riders losing their 6th straight. 18-24. I could have bet on that game but I would have had to pick a MLB game or something that in the past hasn't been very good for me. If it was a NHL training camp game or even an Oil King's game, then maybe.

Coast's topic for this evening is alien "abductions." "I was abducted by aliens and they shoved something up my..." (Rolls eyes to ceiling) These abduction stories are so bogus their becoming so pathetic. They're almost pathetic as Ghost stories." This sounds like a lame show. Usually Coast's Thursday night shows are pretty good.Anyway, that's all for today.

Back in

1977 I had returned from a 5 month working experience in Calgary still waiting for my unemployment and living at the Anderson house in New Westminster BC. It was a shared accommodation type environment. There were 3 milestones within those 5 months. I discovered the music of The Clash, Then on the heels of that, Star Wars. And not that I was a fan or anything but I recall August 16th 1977 the day it was announced that Elvis died. I was lounging around a swimming pool on that Tuesday afternoon over at a gaming colleague's place in the North Shore of Vancouver. My gaming colleague was a teenager and we were both into SPI wargaming. Wargaming opponents were hard to come byin the 1970's. I had time on my hands that summer and his parents were ready to fire up the BBQ. We were going to play a "Monster" SPI game Wellington's Victory" and having a break durring setting up the game. That's when I heard on the radio by the pool about the death of Elvis. I don't even recall the teens name now 34 years latter. I was just 24 years old at that time. But when I got home latter that day I turned on my TV and was soaking in the event of Elvis death on that historic day. Hard to believe how the years have gone by. Three years latter was the death of John Lennon in 1980.

I'm beginning to feel a bit better today. I've got my voice back, sort of. Dan from the Lodge contacted me by email yesterday and I'm meeting him at Southgate (easier for him) Sunday morning about 9:30am. I guess we need to be there 10am as we'll be there until 5pm. I'll be home by about 6pm. I'm sending Anne to the "Olive Garden." This is going to be a busy but fun weekend.

Even though its a Bi-week in the CFL I think there could be a pre season NFL game on I can add to make at least a min of 3 games. I'm not big on the NFL

When I'm at the office picking up my check Friday I've got to first go to my Scotia bank cash that and some b-day money and back to the pharmacy to cash in my Pro-line winnings from last weekend. Then get the Visa gift card and head home.

Last night on Coast they had a great show on ancient cycles. its amazing how sophisticated the ancients were especially building Stonehenge. All those stones had a positive negative charge to them facing in opposite directions. Negative facing positive, that type of thing in a circle of 66 stones. Amazing. All in all Coast was a great show last night. Loved it. Anyway, that's all for now.

My cold is causing me some grief

on this my week off but I'd rather have it now then when I'm on the job affecting my performance.

Though I am feeling better even though my voice is rough and scrappy.

I wonder if this blog will even exist in say 100 years from now. I often wonder what this world will look like. Not the world at large but just my little corner of it. What I see every day. This building is already close to 50 years old so in another 25/50 years this building will have a date with the wrecking ball. What will be here in it's place? Most likely a newer apartment building reflecting the design and needs of our time. The owner of this building is an old man and when he goes his kids will take it over. His grandchildren are (if he has any) probably will take it over. He might have a clause in his estate something to the affect that they will only get money if they have Capital Place. Something like a newer version of Capital, which probably would cost around half a $B in a 100 years from now. A 2 bedroom suit would probably cost around $5,000/month. Minimum wage will be around $45/hour. Assuming even if the economy will be based on the dollar. More then likely people will be driving around in "Smart cars." Meaning no biodiesel, everything will be electric. There are prototypes that the Big 3 are beginning to introduce even now. Before I pass away (72? Which is in another 13 years from now) there will be electric cars on the road. More then likely everything here will be the same except more modern. People might have computers embedded in their brains with a portal on the brain stem of the neck so they have Internet access wherever they go but people will still need a place to sleep and food to eat. As long as Google will be up and running so will this blog and Google Earth, as long as these 2 things will be around so will my Blog and my writing and music. I may be long gone but there will be a part of me that will still carry on into the future.

The thing that makes me realize there won't be a lot of cosmetic changes made around here. 35 years ago, other then to the land just North of us across the street was empty from 50th street up to Victoria trail is now. Even those new apartments behind Superstore didn't go up until about 2007. This area will most likely be as it is 50 years from now with the idea Capital place will be up for a building renewal.

As far as planets in other solar systems go, I don't know anything about that. I can speculate though that the star system known as Alpha Centauri (4.5 light years away from Earth) has a yellow Sun similar to our own. Its possible there is a civilization there similar to our own. There may be other star systems out there that are like those above, hard to say. I hope though that science will be able to find away where we might be able to discover such a thing. Physics is our best hope if we're not taken over by the Taliban or crap like that.

I got a birthday card in the mail from Donna (Anne's sister in Winnipeg.) Very nice of her and so was the gift in the card. Donna thinks more about me then even my own family does. So tonight I've got to call Dan about Fort Edmonton Park and our volunteer time there this Sunday (My birthday) I'm sending Anne to Olive Garden restaurant, she'll like that and I'm going to get Music Maker 17 and Rock edition 4 on Friday. Hopefully I'll feel a lot better by then. Also, Saturday afternoon (Still a bi week for the CFL) I'm going to go out for drinks with the guys. I want to go to Audrey's first get my book and 2 free books then have a couple of drinks and out of there by 6pm home by 7pm fool around with MM 17 get my call from Anne and then get ready for Fort Edmonton Park and get the details about our Lodge BBQ. I'll have Monday off before I go back to work a week from now. The other good thing about this, is I'm going to be able to afford Melodyne editor in September. Anyway, that's all for now. 

I think

I made a blog post Sunday but didn’t write in here.



Over the weekend all 4 of my CFL games paid to win. Last week I won $30 and this week $35. This weekend is a bi weekend. The CFL calls it this to even out the schedule which means week #8-#9 have only 2 games. Half the league doesn’t play on bi weekends. The other thing I think I feel why I’m winning is because I’m not getting greedy and placing large bets like $10. I go 4 games, usually played out over the weekend and bet a min of $3. Having won 2 games doesn’t make me an expert in Proline, I’m just having fun and I’m making a little pocket change along the way. But I was sweating big time when Toronto and Hamilton were so close. It was a field goal that was the difference maker.

It’s overcast out there I’d say about +23. Seems we had a bit of rain as well out there. As for me, I’m enjoying a nice cup of coffee.

The idea was to go down to the pharmacy at the Baker Centre and get the Visa gift card this morning. But I knew I’d feel like shit thanks to this cold. Anne needed the bus pass this afternoon but she’s not even out of bed yet. I’m going in though tomorrow and pick up the card come home call Magix tech support and get them to help me out with the ordering/install process.

Yesterday I took Anne out to brunch at Rickies. “Thanks Pro-line.” She ended up going to a Dollarrama then after brunch to Shopper’s drug mart. I was checking in at the Virgin Mobility (Rickies is in City Centre West kiosk as Anne had to make another side trip) to see if they had a couples plan for the Iphone 4. They didn’t have such a thing and their plans for the Iphone 4 are $170 on a 3 year contract. They have lots of Android phones. Then Anne caught up with me and she had one more trip to make to another Shoppers Drug mart or what ever it was called. While she did her thing I noticed on a couple of stand racks they had Visa/Master gift cards there of various denominations along with other gift cards like Itunes etc. But the one at Canada post lets you add what ever ammount you want up to $200.

After that my throat was bothering me. I needed ice cream. They must have taken out the Laura Secord stand but Anne was over at another stand and I ordered a dish of 1 scoop ice cream (pricey at $3) But I needed it now eating it waling along the causeway to the Churchill LRT. My Itouch said the time was 4:05pm while we were waiting for the train. There were a lot of people out there on a Sunday because of “The Fringe” it being their 30th year. On the news last night they were saying they had record crowds out Saturday night about 200,000 people.

Tonight, I’m watching Monday night Raw after the fall out of Summerslam from LA last night and I got a bit of an update. So. I’m looking forward to the show tonight.

I’m having some trouble with my Itouch. I charged it up last night with a full charge and this morning, the battery was dead. So, something is draining my battery. At first I thought maybe it’s a song that is still on pause. But I recall that if the unit gets shut down by the off/on button, that can drain batter as well.

I’ve got to call Dan to see about Fort Edmonton park this Sunday. I’m giving Anne $25 see she can get lunch over there at Olive Garden. Dan and I are Hosts for the afternoon at the Masonic Hall Lodge. It’s open to the public so we’re there fielding questions about Freemasonry, what it is and isn’t.

Image Line is releasing something in beta Groove Machine. I watched a couple of videos. It’s a (might be) vst plug-in for FL Studio 10. I could find only 2 videos about it on YouTube.

And finally, not much going on this afternoon/evening. I’m struggling with this cold. Most likely I’m reading and taking it easy as tomorrow I’m up about 7:45am to catch the 8:20 bus to Clairview station. I want to be at the pharmacy about 8:30am when it opens and get the gift card and my 6/49 ticket and then head home back to bed. Anyway, that’s about all for now.

What a great way to

begin my days off: All 4 of my CFL games came in to win by more then 4 points. I won $35 on a $3 bet. if I would have played say $6 I would have won $72! But I find the more games I pick and the more money I bet, I usually lose. I had on one of my Pro-line CFL tickets $188 to win. But I'm a happy guy. Now I can get my program and go see Captain America.

At Audrey's books yesterday after work, I picked up the following books above. I have about another 40 cents or so and I can get 2 more books. One more book and I can get 2 free (mass market paperback books that is. Not hardcover or trade.) There is a recent James P Hogan novel, one of his last before he passed away 2010 and another A. Lee Martinez book I want to get. I'm sure there's another novel I can pick up when I go next week.

Anne and I have been back from our brunch for about an hour now. I bought a large diet cola 2 coffees andour lunch and a side order of shredded hash browns for $30 including a tip. I also got a dish of ice creamefor my soar throat which helped a bit. A plastic bowl of ice cream 1 scope almost $3. But I needed it at the moment.

Tomorrow I'm heading down to the pharmacyin the morning firstly to cash in on my CFL winings and then get the Visa gift card for MM17, then head right home and back to bed for an hour or so and then call Magix's tech support line.

On the way home somebody across from our seat on the train was wearing headphones and heavily into reading a Warhammer 40k book: "Ultramarines." I mentioned it to Anne. "Don't interupt that man, he don't want to talk to you." Me? Interupt a Warhammer 40K session? Never!

So if all goes well I'll be playing around with MM17 tomorrow night after Monday night Raw.

Anyway, I'm done blogging for the day. There's no CFL football on (I miss Sunday afternoon football) no hockey, so its time to shut this down maybe go have a nap.

About 5:45am or so I had trouble sleeping

and after tossing and turning around in bed for half an hour or so I decided half an hour ago to get up fix a coffee and maybe read for a bit. I got Boots here sleeping peacefully and I'm only in for 4 hours today. After 36 hours, I'm played out. I've got a week off and cash to get the Visa card Monday so I can order Music Maker 17 and Rock edition #4 so I can make some rock n' roll music.

Up until when our office moves October 1st, this job used to be fun. It still is (for now) and I'll hang around a bit longer to see if its still fun. When the job stops becoming fun is the day I say "its time for something else. It's time to move on."

There's a lot of speculation going on. I heard the office is going to be one big room with a lunch room, bathrooms and the boss's office. The other rumor I heard is our stations will be shaped in the size of rings within rings with the first inner ring for business and we'll have our own little cubby holes. Basically isolated from everyone. There will be ceiling cameras everywhere to catch people breaking rules, like having cell phones and pens out or food at their stations. Our Supervisor kind of laxes those things now because coming October 1st, we wont have that luxury. I don't know even if we'll be allowed to read at our stations. Why I don't know why the company just doesn't put up a recording. "To speak with a representative press 1."

I don't know if I'll have funds for "Rock edition #4" this week as I want to go see Captain America on cheep Tuesday movie night. Normally I'd be working on a Tuesday night but I can always sub a Monday for a Tuesday.

Anyway, its 4 hours for today, then over to Audrey's and get a couple books and then home. No Tim's breakfast today, Anne's made me a bowl of cereal and I have a couple of sandwiches here and I'll bring my own coffee. Anyway, that's all for now.   

Yeesh, what a day yesterday

Now the boss wants to shut down Monday and activate Sunday as a full 8 hour day. WTF's up with that? "If you don;t work the Sunday, your pay checks will be given on Saturday." Maybe its time to get another job. I'm going to take advantage of this during my week off. A nice easy security guard job would be nice right about now.

Coast tonight has another show similar to the one the other night on mind control. Even Ian has a decent show on Apollo missions and on Tuesday the topic is on Binary Stars and ancient cycles. Cool.

So the Dougherty sibling gang were finally caught the other day in a manhunt that ended in Colorado. They said they weren't out to hurt anyone. Yeah right and Winston Blackmore thought his behavior was acceptable too. Yeesh.

Some interesting tech changes ahead: Firstly, Walmart has announced they are (after 7 years) dropping their online music service. I have all the music I ever need, so now its time to make my own. Apple has regained its position as the #1 company in the world sitting at I think $333 Billion. Wow.

Anyway, I got another full day ahead of me for Friday. I did a bit better doing ASRAB. Anyway, that's all for now.

The steel toed boots fit but she forgot to

bring her charger, so she will bring it (she said) today. its a good trade, I don't wear the boots anymore anyway and I didn't pay anything for them and I get the charger for my Itouch more or less for free. Good deal.

The first half of Coast is decent, on alien implants. but i hope to be fast asleep by then.

One of my projects is to back up my computer hard drive (done already) and keep only my essential files and applications on it. MM17/music, My blog and website and diary. Every thing else goes on on my external hard drive. but I don't want to have to reinstall a lot of these applications. The primary reason for this is because I want my PC to be used mainly for making music.

According to my laptop specs I have 4 Ram, I'm running Windows 7 64 bit OS but my laptop claims I have a hard drive capacity of 320Gb but my system says just over 200Gb. What happened to the other 120Gb? Where did that go?

What I'd like to do is get an internal 2Tb drive. The one pictured above is a 1Tb drive and it cost me under a $100 bucks and its a great back up drive. I'd like to get a laptop with at least 2Tb but I'm sure they cost more money then I want to spend right now. Anyway, that's about all for now as I want to get some reading before bed.

   

I'm a day late for this but better late then

never.

It was yesterday to the day 23 years ago the hockey world learned of the Big Trade: Wayne Gretzky to LA Kings. That was when hockey went from being a game to a business. I was 35 years old and I had just come in from my 3pm coffee break working with the Army & Navy department store warehouse. I think I had ordered some lunch at Joe's, a cafeteria in the basement of The Boardwalk market. When I heard the news coming through the back sliding doors at Cobogo I was devastated. It was Bob Kennedy that told me as I was walking through on that hot August summer day. I cried that day. The Oilers have won the Stanley Cup only once after that in 1990. A very sad day for Oiler fans and the end of an era. How odd everything seemed to end at once within a few short years of that incident. The year after, I lost my job at the warehouse. Even music for me changed what with the emergence of Rap in 1990, which disenfranchised me. My world changed forever August 9th 1988.

Fast forward to the present: I got to my bank at noon yesterday and made the deposit and then right after that went to the pharmacy to collect my Pro-line winnings. No snags. I called Anne at 4:30pm said she could have $25. I had my lunch: Rice and a teriyaki processed BBQ riblet type thing. It was good. I even had a great day sales wise as well.

Coast's topics tonight are about why the US is in Afghanistan and about a defence attorney defending John Gacy. Yawn.

Well the flash mobs in London England have been at it again. I don't understand why the Government doesn't just shut the Internet down? Seems simple on the surface, just pull the plug. So what's the root of the problem? Personally I think its boredom. Kids are bored. Their music isn't exiting not like the punk movement back in the mid 1970's, so kids can't rally behind something like the music. Punk rock wasn't about social anarchy, back then Punk was about rebelling against the state of the music industry of the time. Back then fashion was the banner of the punk rock movement, the music drove it to make a point. Sometimes unconsciously (The Ramones) .Sometimes consciously (The Clash/SexPistols)  Today the kids are using social media. They say their unemployed they got no direction. I believe it brings us back to the music. It's that simple. Since Rap and Hip-hop surfaced some 25 years ago, that's all the kids have had as an outlet to release its angst. Even punk rock died in 1982 when the winds of music changed direction. The perpetrators of rap/hip-hop, kept their sound alive longer then they should have and as a result kids today are paying the price for their transgressions. The youth culture has always been centered around the music of the times. contemporary music reflects attitudes of the street, always has. Even music of the Elvis era lasted roughly 10 years before it gave its last gasp and made way for the music of the 60's and the British invasion, which lasted about 8 years. When the Beatles split in 1970 music of the youth changed again. Disco, barely lasted 5 years on the musical radar map until Punk/New Wave surfaced. The music of the 80's had its own sound but after the 1980's everything was Rap/hip-hop. And that's been around now for 25 years. Now the kids are paying the price.

I've got Magix's tech support number and they seem to be out of the US (Nevada) which means no currency exchange (I think, which is good news.) I've got the number just in case and they even have a tech support line to help me with the install. Cool and I'll be going to get the credit card next Monday and place the order. In the meantime, I'll use the demo of Melodyne editor. Any way's that's all for now.

So much for my weekend

now onto a new work week.

I've got a few things going on this week not much. I've got to go to my bank and make a deposit tomorrow and then get my 6/49 ticket. Otherwise its go to bed about 1am up about 10am read for about 40 minutes get ready for work, in the office about noon, work 8 hours, home by about 9:30pm relax have some supper watch the news, up for about an hour and into bed about 1-1:30am, rinse and repeat Tuesday through Saturday.

Rant alert: Wildlife and game people in BC are mental. A bear was protecting her young cubs and a resident got to close and the bear went for the resident. So what do the officials do? "Duh, we got to kill the bear." So because of some A-hole who got a few scratches a mother is dead and two babies without their mothers protecting her young. How are these cubs now supposed to survive in the wild without their mother? We do things a bit differently here in Alberta. We're more civilized. (having lived in Vancouver for 25 years I can say this :-) We tranquilize the animal and deposit the animal back in the wild. This happened lately in Spruce Grove just West of us. It makes me angry when so called "Wildlife officials" have to do this sort of thing. Same thing with those nut cases in Spain that turn the bulls lose in the streets. I'm cheering for the bulls every time. And now this nut case is going to swim to Cuba (shes got a device to keep the sharks away. I hope the sharks get her. Idiot, moral of this rant? Your going to flirt with nature where there's wild animals your going to get hurt. Stupid, stupid people. Anyway, that's all for now. 

I took this AVI of Boots

on Saturday, he's our stray that Anne found one winter and took care of him, then brought him in as part of the family. The only thing is, boots doesn't get along with the other cats and has a tendency to charge after them for a little go. Around Anne and I he's a real sweaty. Pardon the squeaky chair.

I'm having a great weekend although at the moment I'm getting a bit of a headache.

One bad habit my wife has which really ingrates me is she's constantly forgetting her keys, so I end up being a butler. We've developed a little "It's me" intercom ring identification. Three buzzes on the intercom and its me. It usually works well but Anne went out to get a few things and will be right back from across the street. Our intercom buzzer buzzed a few times then it got really fast and desperate. As soon as any button is pressed on the intercom within a suite it releases the outside door. Then I heard 3 rapid rings figuring ok that's Anne forgetting the signal. I released the door inside waiting for her to come in. Standing there about 4 feet behind waiting for her to come inside but nothing happened. Damn, they did it to me again. I'll ask her if she was buzzing earlier and decided to go back out again. Ordinarily I'd go down one flight of stairs to see who it is and 9/10 times it's Anne glaring at me from beyond the glass door outside looking in.

Anyway, other then the intercom door buzzing I'm having a good day. I keep telling myself, next time I'm going down and investigate who it is. Its most likely some crack head or drug dealer.

I'm not feeling very good about our office moving away from our current location in the Baker Centre. We've got new equipment new layout, new everything. We're also going to have Big Brother security cameras everywhere watching our every move. Our call centre used to be a fun place to work in but once head office moves its going to be a very uncomfortable place to work in. if they could they'd have security cameras in the bath rooms but that's against the law. I hope I'm over reacting but on the outside if its warranted, my whole personality is going to change. I'm going to be very stoic and looking to get out of there as soon as I can. Anyway, that's all for now.



In theory the idea was to go out for brunch

this Sunday afternoon but I had gotten up to late. I was up about 1:15 to an empty bed, realizing I was supposed to wake Anne up at noon, which would have given her time to go to the discount food truck (or truck) as she calls it.

I wanted to be out there catching the 2:20pm bus that would get us downtown by 3pm, where we could enjoy our brunch without being rushed. Anne didn't get in until 2:30pm and I didn't want to walk to Clairview station. We would have got to Rickies by about 3:45pm and would have to rush. So Anne made us brunch here and she got a call from her sister and they talked on the phone for awhile.

Anne had a good idea: Have a nap. It will give me time to back up my hard disk. Anyway, that's about all for now. 

Hey, hey

all 3 of my CFL games came in this weekend. I won $28 bucks so it looks like Anne and I are going to brunch Sunday. She'll be happy.

I fixed up the post from earlier so it reads a little better.


I had a decent shift this morning sitting beside Warren as James was out. I ended up pulling in close to $400 on card this morning and got $10.

Apparently the extra hours is now a mandatory shift if I want to get my check on Fridays. That's starting on August 21st. I'll be having my week off but I'm taking the train that day to go down to the office to meet Warren and the others after work for a couple of beer.

Anyway after work I headed over to Audrey's and got book #2 of the Simon Morden series and if the 3rd one is still there next Saturday I'll pick it up. There's also a new James P Hogan book I want and 2 of A Lee Martinez books on the shelf I want to pick up.

So, in the 2nd quarter Hamilton and the Stamps are tied at 10. Should be an interesting game. If I win on this ticket Anne and I discussed us going to Rickie's for brunch Sunday. I lost last weekend. Update: Its Hamilton 17 Calgary 13 near the end of the first half. Anyway, that's about all for me for today anyway.

Signs were posted all week about a disruption in

LRT transit service for the weekend. I tried calling Anne yesterday at 2:30pm and got no response. So after I got off work and went to my bank and got the train the intercom at Stadium came on saying that Coliseum station was out of service and contingency buses were set up. So I got off at Stadium thinking the train would be going back to Century Park. The bus went all the way to Coliseum (Rexal) station and to Belvedere station. The trains were running (or so I thought ) from Belvedere station to Clairview. Despite the train from Clairview pulling into Belvedere station where I was waiting, I figured that train even though it said Century park would probably go back to Clairview. I got on the train and it continued on South to Century park. WTF? Then I realized "wait now," Just because trains are not stopping at Coliseum station doesn't mean they are not going through. I only realized this while I was on the bus doubling back to Coliseum station. I finally got to Belvedere station (again) around 10:30pm and after a 10 minute wait reading my Star Wars book sure enough the train "Clairview station" pulled into Belvedere station.

I got on it and when I pulled into Clairview I immediately got to a phone and I called Anne. She was all worried thinking the worst, ready to call hospitals etc. She was really relieved when I called and we agreed to meet at Superstore. I handed her $50 and she bought us a deli pizza. It was so hot and humid out there I was sweating like a pig and even the shower I had when I got home didn't help much. Anne cooked the pizza and I enjoyed that as we watched the news for the Riders/BC game. I was elated when BC won. one more to go.

Anyway, I'm going to negotiate leaving at 2:30 this afternoon and still get my check for Friday night. Other wise I'm at the office until 4:30 this afternoon.

We're getting some distant rumblings out there. It's overcast this morning and rain is in the forecast. Not a good scenario for the 31st edition of the Edmonton Folk fest. I remember exactly when the first one was, Friday June 6th 1980. Its now in Gallagher park but back then it was by the gully on East Jasper Ave. Anyway, that's about all for now. 

Not a lot going on around here

lately, not a lot going on. Its just been getting up at 10am read for 40 minutes get ready for work put my 8 hours in and leave for home at 9pm have supper watch news play a little on the computer and then go to bed for 6-8 hours and repeat process. That was Tuesday and today and most likely for the rest of the week.


I bought a 6/49 ticket this afternoon and a bag of chips at the pharmacy. I asked at the post office about the Visa gift cards. They don't cast anything. There is the $3 activation fee and of course any foreign currency exchange adjustments. MM 17 is within my grasp.
The other day while leaving for work I forgot to put the makeshift latch hair braids women use that we use to tie the door knob to a hook that helps to lock Boots inside, because the door can be popped open very easily. Boots popped the door opened and got out and went for Silky. Silky was just trying to defend himself but Boots being an outdoor cat with that "Wild" still in him, went for Silky. My wife calls it a "Tumble and Tuck" and as a result of this, Boots got himself a cut on his front paw that is swollen. He's had this happen before and it cleared up. Poor Boots, this photo was taken only a few moments ago.

Anyway, not a heck of a lot is going on. I've been looking at a lot of YouTube videos on a product called Melodyne editor. It's not only for vocals but it's cool for any kind of audio.

So if all things work out ok, I might be in a position to get MM17 next Monday. The good news is these Canada post gift cards (non reloadable) do not have any initial fee like the pre loaded gift cards so I save $20. All I need is $115, plus the $3 activation fee and the currancy exchange rate difference, which the clerk said could cost anywhere between $5-10. Or $130 and I could have MM17 to play around with after this weekend.

I'm most likely going to get this next after MM17. Anyway, that's about all for now.

After I get MM17

I'm getting Melodyne editor. I think before the year is over, I'm going to have a couple of tracks up on YouTube.

I had a great weekend, even though I didn't win on my Pro-line ticket thanks to the Riders losing 18-22 vs Calgary.

Monday night Raw last night was predictable, no doubt about it. on a scale from 1-10, I'd rate it as a 6.

Also this year I'm going to try and get my PC upgraded or just out right buy a gaming platform. There are a lot of cool games just for the PC alone. "Shogun 2 Total War" looks pretty good. "The Witcher 2" is another game I'm drooling over. Star Wars: The old republic is another awesome looking game. Most of these games have been out for awhile now and there are others. I haven't even begun dabbling in the Mass effect game series, so many games, so little time.

Well that's about all for me for today. I win on a bit of coast.ant to get to bed and listen. Monday night/Tuesday mornings show is about colonizing Mars. I got to post this to my website and then it's off to bed. Anyway, that';s all for now.

I had "fun" trying to figure out how

to install and work Buzzmachine, its even worse then Linux but I did manage to have some real fun with LMMS. Now its off to bed.