Even though it's Friday, I still

have 3 more days ahead of me.

Yesterday was ok, except now we have to read the script word per word, which for the last 11 years for me, was unheard of. I felt the phone room was really now regulated to a boiler room but later on as I got into it I felt a bit more comfortable reading the script word/word. The only problem with this is that there is no "flow." Also the boss was showing off a blueprint of the new office, we're going to move into next month. For me it's the end of an era. I spent 6 years in that office and have seen a lot of people come and go. Our first year in the Baker Centre that Spring Summer the Oilers made it to the Stanley cup finale. Pledges died while I was in that office. I'm on my 2nd computer now from within that office. I saw an Oiler game, a CFL game out of there. Lots of history.

The new office, doesn't sit well with me but it's probably to early to tell. The lunchroom from the blueprint looks about the same size as our current one. We can't eat at our dialler's in the new place. So from 4:30pm-5pm the lunch room will be full in the middle of winter. So, I  might want to sit close to the lunch room that way I can pause my dialler a few minutes before break to pop something in the microwave. The thing is, though the business room will be gone by 4:30pm and there will just the 12:30-4:30pm people there. That's usually about 20 of us but most people will be out having a smoke more then anything. Lots of changes coming. None that I'm really looking forward to.

So this Saturday I learn that our district is having it's business meeting and the WM has asked the senior officers to be there I'm not a SO yet but hope to be by January. They guys are meeting for breakfast before the district meeting. I'm unable to attend because I'll be working.

Ok, here we go again. Another Oiler owner, giving the City another deadline. I'm sick and tired of these Oiler deadlines. If the owner of the team (Katz) feels he needs to move the team, then good riddance! I'm sick and tired of having the Oiler's always being held hostage by these owners. If I'm going to watch NHL hockey, I'd rather support the Canucks from my home town before I'd support the Flames. We still have the Esks and the Oil Kings if the Oiler's move, I could care less now. At least with the Oil Kings, I can afford to go to the games. Anyway, that's about all for now.

The pharmacy had the

the CFL games posted for the weekend but for some reason didn’t list the Montreal/Winnipeg game. Why I had no idea. I had a good first half as I tried calling Anne at the first break but nobody was answering the phone. I even got a $5 bonus for next week. At 4:30pm I decided to go down and buy a Proline ticket anyway and I have Esks/BC Esks to win, SKS/CGY to tie and HAM/Argos, Argo’s to win. I’m thinking about going to get another ticket Friday same games but have HAM/Argo’s to tie. I had a lousy 2nd half but so did everyone else.


I’m getting into “A game of thorns” and after 40 pages, it’s not bad. I’ll finish the book until the end.

I decided what I’ll do if L&M still have the software I want at that price, rather then leave myself short, what I’ll do is lay some money down this Saturday, say half of it and go get a bite to eat at Harvey’s kind of across the street (assuming L&M haven’t moved.). This way it secures the item at that price and I don’t have to shell out 90% of what I have to leave myself broke for a week. Then after I eat, I’ll go over to Century casino over there on Fort road and play some penny slots and a some blackjack and a couple of rounds of roulette. I might even walk away in the black. Anyway, that’s about all for now.

I'm running behind a little bit today, going in for the late shift

Thing with Yellow Tools is there’s not a lot of support. But the price is pretty good. But I’m still drawn back to MM17 and earlier just before the news I noticed “Pop rock guitars” from “9 volt audio.” I still think though that “Electricity” is the way to go but this pop rock guitars looks pretty good.


I got a long day ahead of me today. In some ways I’d like to take it off but that’d only give me 30 hours on my next check. Sigh. More on this later….

.....Including today I got 6 days ahead of me. So, I decided today I’ll go in for 5-9 leaving out of here at 4pm. I’d still get 34 hours in on my check for next week.

I’m kind of flip flopping between Yellow tools or MM17. If I get YT I can get it for this weekend. If I get MM17 (premium) I won’t be able to get it until this time next weekend even though I’ll have the “cash in my pocket” for 4 days. I still think MM17 is a better deal even though I’ll be in un- chartered waters with the order process, which is online using a prepaid credit card. MM17 can handle Rex files and has a whole bunch of other features including Elastiaudio similar to FL Studio’s Newtone. MM17 supports Rex2 files, which (?) can be triggered (played?) by a midi controller. Rex files are sample loop files designed by Propellerhead (Reason)


On my website, I‘ve introduced another item, which is a list of National and local SFF Conventions. But there are a few more I forgot to include such as Dragon Con and Vancouver’s convention as well.

One nice thing about my place of work having Monday’s off is I can visit Norwood Lodge, which is what I’m going to do next Monday night. Then next Thursday I have my own Lodge and next Saturday is Commercial again. So I’ve got a busy week ahead of me. Speaking about Lodge and all, there’s an agreement within our ranks to go “dark” January and February. Dark, is a Lodge term which means there is no lodge during the summer months. But we’ve found out that there are members who are in the city/area during July and August. And not just from our Lodge but other Lodges in the Edmonton area. It would make more sense to have our Lodge go dark January-February to accommodate those that are in the city during the summer months. As far as I know, we would be the only Lodge in our district/city that will be dark in the winter. I kind of like this because it will give us a chance to hold Lodge outside someplace, something our Lodge has never done. .

Having the ability to sleep in another day late, failed to materialize this morning. Mainly because I was restless and so was Anne and we got woken up by the lawnmower/tractor out back here. Oh well, tonight is just a short shift.

Yesterday I began reading George RR Martin’s “A game of thorns” book. I’m enjoying it but I think it‘s going to be a long read.

Yeesh, the Oiler’s are injury prone again and the regular season hasn’t even begun yet. I’m a little disillusioned with the Oiler’s right now. Sure I’ll watch the games if they are on TV and all but I’m not going to go out of my way to watch them or anything. I’ll follow the team in the papers and the highlights but this season will again be like last season. As long as the starting goaltender is in goal, I’ll have the Oiler’s to lose on my weekend Proline ticket. Anyway, that’s all for now.

This afternoon I finally got around to

finish reading Star Wars "Darktide 2." I really enjoyed this book but I had so much stuff going on I got distracted, which is why it took me so long to read this thing. Now I'm reading George RR martin's "A game of thorns." It's even longer then a Forgotten Realm's Omnibus book. This one closes out at 807 pages not including the appendix. I figure this book will take me until the end of the year to finish reading at the rate I've been going lately.

Since the family 2 doors over on the main floor moved in last month there's been nothing but screaming kids out there. Now I like kids but I also like quiet as well. I'll be glad for winter when the kids won't be out so much.

Bioware (here in Edmonton) has According to "The Attack of the show" released some details on its upcoming online "The old republic." to be released December 20th 2011 and the game will be on almost all platforms.

I was considering a trip this morning over to L&M to see about "Independence pro" by Yellow tools. I like the price but I'm going to wait until Friday to see if they have it still at the price on the website. if they do, then I'll pick it up after work. Anyway, that's about all for now. 

I'm having a nice weekend

for this weekend.


I'm trying to finish this Star Wars book, that's been taking me so long to read. It's not that it's a boring book or anything. Far from it. After this, I'm going to try and get into George RR Martin's "Game of Thorns."

This weekend's Doctor Who was really good. On a scale of 1-10, I'd rate the show at an 8 but there seems to be trouble brewing for The Doctor. What else is new?

So, The Oiler's starting goal tender finally won a game even if it was pre season game. I'm still following the Oiler's but they are a few years away from making the playoffs.

This weekend, my Proline ticket was another letdown. The first game won, so did the 2nd game but 3rd game Bombers/Argo's was a tie and the game this afternoon saw Calgary/Hamilton playing on neutral turf in Moncton for the Touchdown bowl. I forgot about this. The T-cats won 55-30. Oh well there's always next weekend. Anyway, that's all for now.

I had a good day for a saturday but it's been long

I felt good heading into work this morning. Dan is a supervisor/colleague of mine and I met him at Tim’s and he walked with me to the office getting to the elevators at 9:30am. At 2pm we were watching the BC/Riders game and the Riders were losing big time. I think I got about $200 by the end of the first shift and I tried calling Anne at the break bit she wasn’t answering the phone. The last 2 hours went by slow. I was so glad to get out of there and the 35 hours in the bank and about $30 bucks in bonus money on my check for the week next week.


After work Big James, Kyle and Warren and I went over to BP‘s for some drinks. I bought a pitcher of beer for the guys and I bought a bottle for myself. We watched the game from the big screen TV‘s as BC was winning something like 42-5! We had the Winnipeg/Argo game on as I was munching on my cheeseburger. Our food took a long time to get to the table. When we left our separate ways out of there at 6pm.

I walked over to the LRT entrance beside Audrey’s. The Argo’s were leading when I left BP’s, uh-oh. I got to Clairview and there was my bus pulling away. I barely caught it and home by 6:30pm. I watched the last of the Bomber/Argo’s game as Argo’s won, 25-24. That’s a tie game in the CFL. Earlier before the noon break we were watching Manchester/Stoke City play to a 1-1 tie. Soccer is gradually beginning to grow on me.

Yesterday I blogged about how Darth Vader and a collection of Storm Troopers went on the pitching mound and Darth Vader himself made the first ceremonial toss! don’t believe me? Here’s the proof:

I have a couple of days off here, thank God. I need it. I’m going to work on song that’s been brewing in my head for awhile now. Anyway, that’s all for now.

yesterday was my first

day getting back after a couple of days off. I got a $15 bonus for my efforts on my check next week yesterday and $10 to that Sunday for a total of $25. Not only that but next week will be a full week. I should have a decent check next week.

By about 8pm I was getting burnt out and was glad I was out of there. Apparently the office I spent 6 years in, as we’re going to be moving October 15th. Apparently we have a huge lunch room, but no more eating at our stations. I’m not going to like the idea that my arm is going to be attached to a mouse all day.

This afternoon the pharmacy went and posted the CFL Proline picks for all 4 games. I’ve got Montreal/Edmonton. Montreal to win. BC/SKS, BC to win. WPG/TOR, WPG to win and finally I got CGY/HAM, Calgary to win. Odds for this ticket are 22.87 on a $5 ticket will pay out $114 to win. I bought another $5 ticket with a few changes for $118 to win.

We’ve got a really tasteless pool going on at work the guys invited me to join: How many murders will Edmonton will bottom out with at the end of the year. We’re already at a record high at 37. Highest in the country. I think it’s a $5 pool. I picked 44 but that might be too high. I think it’ll be about 39 by the end of the year.

By now most of you know about comet Elenin I dug up this excerpt from “Godlike Productions” about comet Elenin; “It’s supposed According to a 1/11/2011 article in Space Obs, Elenin will come close to the Earth in the middle of September of this year. What is interesting here is that the perihelion falls on September 11, 2011 (9/11). What is really weird is that in Jewish Gematria, the word "ELENIN" is equal to 119, the reverse of 911. Elenin's orbit resembles that of the purported theories of "planet x" or "Nibiru"... A planet sized object that cyclically enters our Solar System on a elliptical orbit about once every 3,600 year, I have heard 3,552 as well. This is said to bring about a doomsday scenario on Earth and the inner parts of the Solar System. And then NASA says, Betelgeuse is becoming a Supernova this year and the creation of a "second sun" in our skies.. I don’t know about Planet X or anything like that but the excerpt above continues on for some further interesting reading

Also in keeping with a space theme, the UARS climate satellite is supposed to break orbit and break up in earths atmosphere but there are parts that might not break up completely. The chance of anybody getting hit by this thing is something like 1 in 3,200. Anyway, that’s all for now.

Around 11am this

morning I still felt tired. I’m taking today off as well because so it wasn’t much of a conclusion for me to reach and say , I need another hour or so of sleep. I woke up about 8am with a bad dream. It wasn‘t really bad, just kind of something that left a bad taste in my mouth, other then morning breath.

Over the past couple of days it seems we‘ve been having some trouble with our land line phone from Telus. Telus is a good service provider but I must admit that previous to Telus we were with Shaw for a good 10 years until they kept charging us for a set box we already owned. They were charging us the same $100 on our bill every month. I was watching the deals last summer Telus was offering for new subscribers and I figured we may as well break from Shaw and go with Telus last August. We got 2 PVR‘s (Tevo‘s) wifi and a router to go along with my laptop and full internet. Telus has given us a lot of grief but not lately until our phone this weekend gave out on us. Other then a bit of grief and their tech support staff off shore, I‘ll stick with Telus. The mobile tech support though is here in Edmonton and the guy just called saying he was outside and there must have been a lose connection in the box outside. Mobile tech support is really good even though their phone tech support is a bit hard on the ears due to the language barrier but for the most part the tech support overseas is ok as well. Our complete cable package is $140/month. Shaw was about the same but better tech support from them. Also Shaw began hounding us by phone to pay up the $100, even if they would have said $20/month until the balance is paid off, I would have said sure. Also, with Telus we can pay our bill online.

I’m enjoying my first coffee here on my 2nd day off. This week I’m back hard at it, 8 hours Wednesday, 8 hours Thursday, 8 hours Friday and 6 hours Saturday. That and Sunday’s 5 hours will give me 35 hours. Add the $10 bonus to that I get on my check next week and I’ll have a decent pay check next week.

I‘m looking at keeping a few things on my memory stick and then resetting everything back to factory default. It‘ll make a clean break with my current hard drive and I‘ll keep Linux but reinstall my FL Studio 10 and my other plugins that I have. it’s a bit of work but not something I‘m going to do right away.

I’ve been doing some research on the Illuminati recently. It was a “Secret society” founded May 1st 1776 by Adam Weishaupt. He taught cannon law at the University of Ingolstadt Germany. The original group of the Illuminati had 5 members initially but at it‘s height had almost 2000 members from all walks of life. It was Karl Theodor who was ruler of Bavaria at the time and a proponent of the enlightenment in his edict he imposed a band on secret societies. The Illuminati chapters of Europe at the time drew a lot of its members from Masonic Lodges and even used the initial degree structure of Masonic craft lodges. With the edict of Karl Theodor in place Weishaupt fled and leaving behind the groups documents and correspondences. The Government of course ransacked his house and found said documents and papers. From what I inferred from Wikipedia Weishaupt joined Theodor zum guten Rath Masonic lodge in Munich 1777 at the age of 55. The Lodge formed in 1723 a year after Weishaupt was born. The original Illuminati group was a benign organization that had nothing to do with a so called “New World Order” much less taking over the world. There are lots of conspiracy theories on the Illuminati, which began by Scottish inventor and philosopher John Robinson and Agustin Barruel. Barruel independently of Robinson set forth the conspiracy of the Illuminati and the Jacobins. My sources are Wikipedia and the Grand Lodge of British Columbia’s website article A Bavarian Illuminati Primer. More on this another time.

Anne’s currently doing laundry at the moment and I’m having an unscheduled night off. I scheduled the afternoon off but I worked Sunday and if I get my check on Saturday, that’s ok with me. Anyway, that’s about all for now.

Since about 1997 while

all my front teeth were falling out and before I had my cat Silky I’ve had a piece of artificial tooth. Until this afternoon when I got out of bed just before noon. I’m glad it’s gone because it looked awful stuck in my mouth like that. The Dentists said it would last about 20 years. 14 years is a long time. I was using it to eat on.

I’m working on this pop/punk song on FL Studio. The drums fit, I had a baseline going until CPU usage kicked in over the limit and crashed my computer. I was working on this thing at about 2:15am this morning, and I said “Fuck it, I‘ve got this afternoon to do the baseline again.”

I‘m having my first coffee of the day and it tastes good. I love that first coffee of the day. I usually have 2 in a day, one when I get out of bed and the other.

My vision isn’t as bad as I thought it‘d be. Saturday while waiting for my 9am bus immediately beside my place at my usual bus stop, some bicycle guy was carrying 2 garbage bags one in each hand holding the bicycle grips while peddling down the sidewalk behind me. His load seemed light enough I assumed were full of cans and bottles as he was working his way towards the bottle depot adjacent to the Fort Road Bingo. I pass by it every day on the train. At the time I was watching for my bus coming up and over the overpass. I wasn’t tracking the bicycle specifically but I could see black movement on the same stretch of sidewalk some 2,000 feet away in my same line of sight. The above story indicates that if I can pick something out some 2,000 feet away, my eyes (aside from my floaters) aren‘t all that bad. Of course I could only spot the black movement amongst vehicles and cloud formations blocking sunlight in light and shadow.

Just before Monday night Raw, I‘m sending Anne out to get us some pizza as she can use her employee discount even though we had deli pizza Saturday. Anyway, that‘s about all for now.

Now that I've had bit of sleep behind me

its time to get back at it. The day ahead that is

Ok, its a nice looking day out there, Sun is shining with a bit of yellow on the leaves. A promising day is in the works.

I've got this song idea I'm calling "Sitting in my chair." One thing that sticks out in my mind about punk rock music is the songs are short. Anything more then 3 minutes is way to long. Usually but not always. There are no hard or fast rules to anything music wise. I'd like to have this one have the usual 3 verses 3 chorus's. I'm going to write the songs lyrics this weekend.

Yesterday the boss and one of the office girls were looking at a piece of paper on his desk and from what they were talking about showed the floor plan of the new office. Its rectangular in shape and has 3 rows or banks of stations. There's a row of about 16 stations (Now I'm just going by the brief glance I had) then a middle of the room set of stations running in parralel to that. Two rows back to back and another set of stations like the window ones on the far side of the room.Anyway, more on this latter. I'm running late. Sorry about the spelling.

Before my back operation took me

out of high school late 1967-late 1968 I built a couple of things in "Shop" as we called it. I remember building this chair. I was really proud of it. I used a wood lathe to fashion it and used nails and wood glue and vices. After it was done I stained it. It was a professional piece of furniture and could have been sold in a store if it was a brand name. I then later or before, I can't recall which in metal shop (Winslow?) I built a fireplace set stand and all. My parents used it on our fireplace on Regan ave. I don't know what became of the chair or the fireplace set. I think the fireplace set had 4 pieces to it: A poker, a shovel and a couple of other pieces as well. I painted it mat black. I only thought about the chair today. For some reason the memory only came through today after maybe decades. I'd say both pieces were done in Winslow, 1967. 

I had a decent day yesterday

and I think this week I’ve got 2 $5 bonuses for next week. The “bonus structure of the week” is for every $50 cc sale, you get $5 as long as you have $200 total. I lucked out on one Tuesday. How long this will last, remains to be seen, management is always tampering with the “bonus structure.” My Proline odds were published in the paper yesterday, so I’m making my picks today. One ticket all V (visitors) will be over $300 if it wins. I’m buying one more ticket with Edmonton to win as (V) and the rest H to win is over $110 each for $5, not bad.

While I’m kind of a console gamer (at least I’m a sympathetic gamer) I don’t get much time to play as I’d like. I‘ve had since 2008 the Xbox 360 and I haven’t played it much over the last several years. Some of the guys at work are playing the new NHL 2012 game and there is the new Gears of War 3 collectors console that looks really cool. Best buy has it, which includes 2 controllers but the price is almost $400! I‘m not a big fan of the “Gears of War” franchise that’s only because I haven’t had time to play any console games. I’ve got a few things I’d like to unload at kijiji: My old keyboard and the old Xbox I have. I’d let the whole set go for $150. Or sell them each independently. $100 bucks for the Xbox $50 for the keyboard towards a new console and start fresh.

Switching gears here, Nasa yesterday went and released their new rocket ship design called the SLS, or Space Launch system. It looks something like a cross between a space shuttle and the Apollo program rocket booster. Nasa wants to launch this thing in 2017, which is just a little over 5 years away. At a cost of $35 Billion, I’m thinking God, what a piece of crap and a band aid solution at best. More for keeping 14,000 people employed then anything else at that cost can America even justify this thing under their current economic situation? If so they’ve got money to burn. Anyway, that’s about all for now.

I got up on the late side of

2pm and it caught up with me about 5pm what with having this sinus like headache that came upon me. I thought uh-oh, what if its that Safeway brand diet Caffeine free diet Cola Anne bought? And this was at the time she spent a good several hours having the baby back ribs being cooked on the barbie. The ribs tasted great but the headache became worse. Not like it was last January. Anne was coming and going all night and I ended up spending a bit of time lying down the fan a few inches from my head to "cool me off." About a 2/3rds of the way from the end of Raw I began to feel a lot better. Now its almost gone. So the ribs will have to wait for later for lunch.

Monday night Raw was very good. On a scale from 1-10. I'd rate it an 8. Near the end of the show in a face off between the new COO HHH and CM Punk. Punk said near the end of the show something like. "This isn't CM Punk talking to HHH, this is Phillip Brooks talking to Paul Levesque." That's the first time I think any Wrestler in WWE has used their real name, other then the characters that use their real names: Steve Austin, Cody Rhodes, etc. Somebody kept on turning Punks microphone off, hehe.

Coast has one good show this week on "Evocations and the Occult." I like shows like this. They had a good topic last night about 9/11 and the guest was suggesting that Osama Bin laden had nothing to do with the attacks known as 9/11. He was on the FBI's short list. Also, interesting was the CH-47 Chinook helicopter downing by an RPG in Afghanistan. The occupants were Special Forces from the same branch that killed Bin Laden. Not the same people involved in the operation to kill Bin Laden but what a coincidence. Did whoever shoot down that helicopter knew there were Seal personnel aboard it relying on faulty Intel thinking it was people from the same unit?

I don't know if I mentioned this at all but Saturday while on my 2-2:30pm break I went out to get some air and went over to BP's across the street from the new building. I wanted to see if I could access BP's Wifi network just outside it's doors but it locked me out. My boss thinks that we're going to have wifi on the new building but nothing is confirmed yet.

I'm back to work tomorrow for a full 8 hours and same for the rest of the week. I'm working from Tuesday-Saturday and Sunday I'm working as well and having next Monday off. Anyway, that's about all for now.

I couldn’t sleep from

about 6:30am until I got up about 20 minutes ago. So I thought I’d make a coffee and make a post at the same time.

So much for my first $5 Pro-line ticket. I kind of figured though that Calgary wasn’t going to be swept a season after the shellacking they got from us last Monday. But a $5 bet on a 4 game CFL ticket is a good thing to do. I was hoping to see an Eskimo win last night. I might have stayed but I also wanted to get an early start and beat the crowd. They had 47,000 fans out there last night. Next home game, they’ll have less. But my $3 Proline ticket is still alive thanks to the Stamps win. If this ticket comes through I could win $66 bucks. On a $5 ticket, I could have won $111.15. The games selected on the $5 ticket were Subvere’s picks. He won $155 bucks last weekend. If the Esks won last night, the ticket would still be live and I could still be in the running for the $197. I was even winning on Proline when I started late in the NHL season as well, $10 bucks here and there.

So today I’ve got a 6 hour shift with a half hour break. So it’s actually 5.5 hours. The first half goes by fairly quickly. It’s the 2nd part that kind of drags. I’m not buying a Tim’s breakfast this weekend because I’m trying to not spend any right away. I’m considering paying a visit to Century park casino for a few rounds of Black jack and a beer and then home for a bite to eat and a nap. If I ever get to the casino, that is. Depends on how I feel at 4:30pm this afternoon. .

I’m still working my way through “Dark tide 2” my Star Wars book. I read a little while waiting to go to the game at Stadium. I like going to Eskimo games because they let you bring in outside drinks like pop and stuff through the gates.

Tomorrow its an easy 5 hour shift. Usually when I get to Clairview LRT (Clairview) there’s no buses there and most people that live in the area end up walking home or to whatever nearby. Once that‘s over I get Sunday night and all day Monday and on it goes again Tuesday-Friday. This upcoming Friday 16th I‘m having a “long weekend“ I would have put in 37 hours and I have next Saturday off because of Lodge and I‘m taking Sunday and Monday is an optional day anyway. Anyway, it’s time for a shave and a shower and pack my things up and ready for work, that‘s all for now.

I decided to go to the

game after all in an unusual turn of developments, I was told the boss had tickets for the game. So I asked him if I could have one. I’d get my check at 4:30pm. Just as well because Anne had only about 20% of a 2 L bottle of diet Coke for me. I bought a half litre (barely) at the pharmacy. I didn’t do to badly on CFK and I called Anne to let her know that I’d be going to the game. She asked me to come up to Pizza and get her bank card, deposit her share into her account and leave $50 at home. It was a beautiful warn +30 day on my way up to where Anne works and I could feel my bsl dropping. I got to the 17th floor of her building and got her card and the bank teller was open. I did my banking through that and I got what was left over equal to what Anne would have. I went to Starbucks across the street and got some kind of a chocolate thing and coffee and after about 20 minutes of that I went to Central station and caught the train to Stadium. It was about 5:30pm when I called Warren and he said they’d be about an hour away. So I read for awhile at Stadium and then caught the Clairview bus. I bought at the Redimart I bought a candy bar and die coke and caught the train back to Stadium as it was nearing 6pm. I hung around waiting until about 6:30pm and headed out Commonwealth where Warren said he’d meet me. I hung around outside for awhile as the crowd poured in. They checked my bag at the tables outside before the doors and I asked if I could sit by the disabled section. I haven’t been inside Commonwealth in over 22 years. I didn’t know my way around. I called Warren inside Commonwealth at the pay phones and he said they were just leaving the bar. I waited for about 20 minutes. In came my Lodge brother Nathan who shook hands with me in the crowd as they were calling names of the Esks team. I said a few things to him. I waited a bit more asking a stranger wearing Esks colors if there was more then one entrance as the National anthem was about to play. Gerry came in next and made eye contact with me. He headed somewhere else and I hung around for Warren that caught my attention. We got settled into where all the wheelchairs were, underneath the upper bowl in the corner slightly behind the uprights by the North end zone.


The first half wasn‘t all that exciting. The Esks were losing 7-3 in the first quarter. Then 10-6 and it went lopsided 16-6 after that. I left in the middle of the half and headed for the train. It was about 8:30pm as I waited for my train to Clairview listening to some of the game the bus driver had on his radio. Esks 9 Stamps 17 late in the 3rd. I was home shortly after 9:15pm to catch the last of the 4th quarter. The Esks just couldn’t make anything happen. I watched the last bit on TV and it was something like 13-20 Calgary. Calgary made another TD and the Esks I think made 1 TD when the finale score was 30-20. So much for my $197 ticket but my $66 ticket is still alive. Anyway, that’s all for now.

It was nice and warm out there

out there when I left for work this morning. I had a bit of a wait for the train so I figured I may as well get a Proline ticket but there wasn’t a pen to fill in my ticket with and the train came along anyway. I got into the office ok and heard that the boss was going to begin a morning shift just for the guys going to the game. I had no way of getting to this bar where the bus would be leaving. I couldn’t get a ride. I don’t want to getup at 7am and I had no way of getting to the bar, so I figured I’d opt out. Besides I need the hours so I decided not to go. I want to work all day tomorrow and the 6 hours Saturday and even Sunday because I want to go to Lodge for next Saturday. This means I’ll be putting in some hours.

I had time to run downstairs to go get a Proline ticket from the pharmacy and I met B who was about to fill out a form so he handed me his picks, which he hadn’t completed so I used his picks to pay for a $5 ticket. Odds were 39.40. Total to me if all 4 paid correct would be $197. The only pick of his I didn’t like was the Riders to beat the Bombers. No way oh and Hamilton to beat Montreal at home. Later at break I bought a bag of cheese pleasers and a $3 ticket with my adjustment My $3 for the odds of 22.23 would net me $66.69. I’ve got on this ticket, Calgary/Edmonton, Calgary to win, Argo/BC, BC to win, Hamilton/Montreal, Montreal to win and lastly, Riders/Winnipeg, Bombers to win.


I had a good night and got a $5 bonus. Every bit helps. I forgot to check to see if Proline was going to have any of the Oiler games on or to see if there‘s an Oiler training camp game this weekend. I think the Oiler‘s play Vancouver. Starting goal tender Nikolai Khabibulin, then the Oiler‘s will lose for sure and that means I can make some money. I might go an Over/Under for that.


I’m glad I’m not going because I need the hours and I want to go to the Lodge next Saturday anyway. Anyway, that’s about all for now.

I love YouTube

and here's another reason why:


Monday while I was trying to catch the 4th quarter of the Esks/Stamps game I get this guy sounding East Indian-ish in broken English. He was trying to tell me that he is or his connections are Microsoft Certified technicians and they are advised to inform me that my computer is loaded with viruses. Remember the Security Tool virus I caught a few years ago? That pest took out my laptop for almost a month. So I went through some of the procedures they were asking me to do. The first hint I felt a scam coming on was when they asked me if they could have access to my desktop. I've used Team Viewer on more then several occasions and I know a bit about remote desktops and how to use them. I wasn't worried because at anytime along the way, I can pull my Internet connection. I wanted to see how far these guys would go. The guy that had me on the phone as I was missing my CFL game showed me these "error messages" and claimed they were detrimental to my computer. I noticed the date was May 12th 2011. The last date was May 12th. That's when I knew they were setting me up to be scammed. I thought "Wait now, if these things have been "on my computer" since then, obviously it's not that urgent." They were trying to sell me some kind of antivirus protection package. Then I knew it was a scam as soon as I said I have no credit card. They asked me if I had a bank card. I said no. That's when I broke the connection real fast. Since then they've called several times today even after Anne yelled at them and said take this number off the list. After checking on Youtube I learned of the Ammy scam. Fortunately for me, I had from the beginning of the first call an inkling in my head this didn't sound right. So just a heads up to all my readers, be careful of the Ammy scam. But please when you get the call keep them talking for as long as you can, they're the ones that have to pay for the call. I love YouTube.

I'm having a nice day off. I got up late and had an enjoyable afternoon playing around with my FL Studio 10. And now I have the whole evening off with nowhere to go. Taking Wednesday off is a good thing to do.

We've had so much rain in May and June we didn't get any warm days above 28. We had 1 day above +30 and that was the day I was at Fort Edmonton Park a few weeks ago. Today as we're having our Indian Summer, we hit another +30 degree day. Actually the local forecast is going to be +30 over the next several days. Anyway, that's about all for now.

I left myself enough time (from yesterday)

 to leave out of here in the morning arriving into the office at 11:50am. Perfect. Upstairs I got things together and went to the Pharmacy to check Proline and the CFL odds were not posted for the weekend. Just as well. In the afternoon the boss was coming around asking CFL fans in the office if any of us wanted to go to the rubber match Calgary/Edmonton as the company is paying for it. There’s about 13 of us going. So we leave out of the office after work with our checks and I’m going to my bank and then we’re going to go to this bar that has the tickets and it comes with a bus ride to the game that starts at 7pm. Perfect. I haven’t been out to an Eskimo game since 1989 and I wasn’t into it as much as I am now. This should be fun.


I had a really slow start to the evening. There were about 6 of us on BOB and I had no sales all night. Now I know how Henry Burris must have felt, my favourite QB player in the CFL. Unfortunately he plays for the Stamps. Finally it was about 8:30pm I got my first sale for $25. No problem. Whenever I sit beside Chris, he usually jinks’ me. Also, to complicate issues, I had a crappy headset that kept on shorting out on me and the guy on the other side of our diallers kept on kicking the paneling which shut my system down a couple of times. He‘s the same guy that swiped my headset just before the 5pm-9pm shift began as I went to call Anne.

I was glad to get out of the office at 9pm and I walked with one of my coworkers along Jasper heading West to Corona and had a chat with him. Some of the guys were waiting for the train. I rode with them as far as Belvedere station. I rode home the rest of the way alone and had a wait at Clairview on the #183 and home. .

I explained to Anne because we have that big Epcore bill to pay I thought maybe it wont be a good idea for me to go to the game Friday but Anne talked me into it. I have my stat pay and we also have out GST check soon. I‘m paying Anne a bit more out of my weekly check for the next 3 checks so that should be ok. I probably wont be able to get anything for my music until about October. Unless of course I win big on my CFL picks.

Speaking of which there‘s somebody in the background sharing my facebook photo a co-worker also into Proline and he picked BC/Toronto, BC to win and Winnipeg/Riders Riders to win, and Montreal/Hamilton Hamilton to win. He also added a College football game in there with Seattle. He was considering the Edmonton Calgary game with Calgary to win but decided against that game for the College one. His odds were something like 31. something and he bet $5 which all for paid out correctly to win $155 bucks. Not too shabby. From now on, I‘m betting $5 on my 4 CFL games. He should have picked Edmonton to win and I knew he was thinking about it but thought better of it. He would have won big time on it.

Anyway I have a day off tomorrow. I mentioned to Jay and he agreed. What a way though to go out with 1 sale on the board. Ok, that’s about all for now.

I had a good day

today for a labour day.

I got out of bed about 1pm still groggy from that sleeping pill I took about 2am this morning. I watched the 2nd half of the Montreal/Hamilton game. What a blow out: Hamilton 42/14! I had them to win. Then after that I had the Edmonton/Stamps game. At the half it was Esks 24 Stamps 7. About a 3rd of the way into the game I get this phone call.

It had something to do with Microsoft and my system getting errors. I smelled a scam. I figured I would see what it was alluding to. The first guy spoke very little English. The 2nd guy his "Supervisor" the same I was on the phone for about an hour as they ended up trying to sell me some package that would clean up my computer of viruses. Some company called Ammy wanted to gain access to my bank card and they would charge $1 for an intro system package. As soon as I heard that I got off the phone right away. Something to do with Error messages and stuff. The first one appeared May 12th of this year. He said they could harm my computer. They've been there since May, I don;t think it's an urgent matter. Besides, I'm about to keep a few applications on my system and then I want to do a system restore. Set my computer back to when I first got it out of the box.

After I got off the phone with that fiasco, I went back to check on the game: Esks 35 Stamps 7! That was a shellacking and a half. The return match will be Friday. I had a Proline ticket but only one of my teams won and that was Hamilton. I picked Argo's to win, Winnipeg to win, Hamilton to win and Calgary to win. I didn't have enough cash to get another ticket. But Friday's game is the Stamps coming up here for revenge. Then its Argos/BC, Hamilton/Montreal, Sask/Winnipeg. I like the stamps to win here and get revenge. Argos to win on the road in BC, Montreal to win at home and the Riders to win on the road. 

All in all, I had a decent labour day weekend despite how I had to work and all 6 hours Saturday and 5 hours yesterday. Anne suggested I go in for my regular 8 but take Wednesday off. Sounds like a good idea. Anyway, that's about all for now.

I barely managed to catch my bus outside

my apartment this morning.


What kind of bugs me on my first commute on the way in is when co workers decide to join me as I’m trying to read. At least they carried the conversation. I managed to get a Tim‘s breakfast of a breakfast egg sausage muffin 2 hash browns and a diet cola. I had that in the office and preceded to begin the shift. Danny and I did taps for the morning and “Bob” semies all afternoon. I was happy the first 4 hours were over. One of the guys and I were going over Proline picks, I‘m going to get mine at the 7-11 just near the office a few blocks away from Audrey‘s. My first ticket didn’t do very well but I‘m hoping to win on my 2nd ticket tomorrow. All 3 CFL games, $4.

At the break after I went over to Audrey‘s for some September afternoon Sun and I got 2 books. I was happy George RR Martin‘s book 4 of the “Game of Thorns” series was there and I picked up the last of the A Lee Martinez book. Just before the 2nd half I quickly called Anne and had a brief chat and worked the last 2 hours out. Kingsley let me try his headphones and I wrote down the brand name. They seemed to be ok. I was considering heading over to the 7-11 a few blocks away to get a another Proline ticket before I head out to Wendy’s but I was kind of wiped out. I got the #2 bus but the driver said it was only a downtown $2 and it wasn’t going to Clairview. I got off on Jasper Ave across the street from Soby’s for a 10 minute wait and a leisurely ride in to 131 Ave and 50th street where I got off the bus and walked at the set of lights Wendy’s. I ordered the Baconator again only this time with their cheddar cheese instead of their regular cheese. The cheddar one is nothing to write home about, that’s for sure. After my meal I went to the lights at 136th and 50th and at the church there I noticed the bus by Sifton school. The driver said my transfer was good and it took my around 50th street and East along 137th Ave. The set of red lights by my place let the driver give me the OK to get off before the light changed. That was nice and easy.

After a quick bath room break I called Future shop. They were open until 9pm and had the headphones I wanted. I grabbed $40 in case they were $21 with tax. I hurried home and opened the package. They work great but the only problem is I need the volume at almost 90%.

I had a great day. I had a nice Tim’s breakfast. Work went along smoothly. I got 2 free books from Audrey‘s, a nice meal at Wendy‘s and a new pair of headphones. What would have been even better would be to have 2 days off. I‘m only doing this Sunday shift because of the stat pay Monday as I don’t want to lose it. It‘s going to be worth about $70 to me add onto my check. I‘d like to save up for Melodyne editor. There are other programs I want to get also, like Mixcraft 5 because it is one of the few DAW‘s that include a notation component to it. And I want MM17 and a few other programs. I‘m tired but no worse for ware and a short 5 hours shift for Sunday and home all day Monday and half a shift Tuesday.
5 hour shift ahead of me today but it should go fast.

Facebook seems to have been "fixed", if it was ever broken from the beginning but it didn't seem to want to work for me.


Yesterday I put in a 6 hour shift and today I'm putting in 5 more and Tuesday as well only for the stat pay. Any Other time, I'm anticipating my checks Saturdays.


There's been lots of talk lately about the Keystone pipeline proposal in Washington. Hollywood stars have been protesting, people as young as children to seniors as well have been taken away in handcuffs. They're trying to stop the pipeline that would send them millions of barrels of oil from Alberta to Houston to be refined there. Some Americans like Al Gore (remember him?) are calling Alberta "dirty oil." He came out to greet some of the protesters and shook hands on the protest 2 week stand. Americans it seems would rather get their oil from the Middle East, which is "Conflict oil." One just has to follow the money to see whats going on here. The opponents of the Keystone pipeline don't seem to have worked this through: If they stop the pipeline, where will they get the oil they need? I mean 1+1 still = 2 right? Celebrities that are protesting are obviously doing it to raise their own profile, that much is obvious. So lets examine briefly some of the elements behind the protest of the Keystone pipeline. Firstly there's Israel. Israel needs to have the Americans in the Middle East. Buying oil even from Israel's enemies is still good business for Israel and means that Israel is still relevant in the Middle East. Second: Oil companies have invested huge amounts of money in places like Libya and Iran. By obtaining oil from Alberta is bad for their bottom line. Finally, there are local environmentalists here like Greenpeace who feel that if they can't get anything locally, then they'll go internationally. The thing is I don't think these protesters have worked this out in their minds. They're just going through the emotional aspects of oil and not looking at the big picture. Personally I don't care if the pipeline gets built or not. Alberta is also planing on building a pipeline across BC to Vancouver and Prince Rupert in the next few years to Chinese and Asian markets like North Korea.


Anyway, I'm up at 10am this morning as I want to leave out of here a bit early so I can go get my proline ticket for the Bomber/Riders game, and the other 2 Monday games, so that's about all for now.

There hasn't been much to report over

the last couple of days.

I went into work this morning for 4 hours and off at 4:30pm. I barely got inside the apartment at 5:10pm to call Neil about a ride. We had about 18 guys there, including our regular member and a visiting Grand Lodge officer. Our elections are next meeting and step up night is November and our installation is in December.

Today, I'm having a full 8 hour shift and the first game of my 4 proline labour day classic CFL game will be tonight plus I get my check and Sunday (maybe) Monday off. If I work Sunday September 11th I'll be able to get my check Friday night and take the weekend off (Saturday,Sunday,)Monday is optional but at least this way I can go to Commercial Lodge on the 17th.

I'm still fooling around with FL Studio. I have "Sample Tank" 2.5 but its not showing up as a VST in my FL Studio 10 yet Addictive drums is. FL Studio has this cool plugin called hardcore which is a guitar amp simulator and works great with Slayer but I don't like Slayer. Its too cheesy and I don't like any of guitar sounds, plus I can't do muted keys.The guitar program I's really like to get is "Electricity." Its got a 52Gb library but its a $400 program.

Coast is really good tonight: UFO's, Gravity and energy. Should be a good one.

Anyway, that's about all for tonight.