It's a busy looking Halloween eve

morning out there along 137th ave this morning. if I could live for the next 500 years, I wonder what 137th/45th street might look like in say a 100 years from now. I'm pretty sure Capital Place apartments, will be long gone in a 100 years from now. The buildings are at least 35 if not pushing 40 years old right now. I don't even know if there will be even anyone living around here in a 100 years from now. This place might be a ghost town once the oil dries up.

I'm off on another 5 hours on the job today, uggh. It's been 6 days for me but only 38 hours this week because the cut off was yesterday. This is a new work week, with by 5pm 5 new hours in the bank. We'll be doing the "magic n' miracles" campaign, cold calling, uggh but it's mostly for around the local Edmonton area here. It's a Christmas magic/comedy show, so were selling tickets to the event. It usually takes place around the 28th of December but this year it's on the 13th & 14th of December. Magic, will be in every major city here in Canada and all of our offices will be selling tickets for their own event. So, essentially if you count today's hours, it would have been 43 hours straight without a break.

I'll be on the train coming home, tired and exhausted but when I come home, Anne will have our Sunday brunch on the table for me and there will be an Oiler hockey game on for tonight while I'm having my brunch. After that Anne and I are going to search for in our ISP's video on demand the recent "Captain America" movie after the hockey game and that should take us up until about 11pm for the news.

Then I can work on doing some sampling for my version of "Louie Louie." I've got take 1 of the main vocals and the midi lines but I'm going to try and do a sample to drag underneath the main tracks. So, its going to be a busy day,with Monday off. I might do a Twitter update in between the 2nd period of tonight's Oiler game. Anyway that's about all for now.

Yeaaa, its Friday

I think the diabetic term is “restless legs.” That’s when diabetics toss and turn in bed. That’s what happened to me almost everyday this week. And even with a “Sleepy tea” Anne and I take before bed, sometimes works. I went to bed about 3am after I had set the external hd to do a windows back up. I left the laptop unattended by where I normally rest it when not in use, so the cats don’t climb all over it. I was going to get up around 6am if I needed a bathroom break but forgot to check the back up. The computer was left unattended for about 7 hours! The back up however wasn’t successful as Windows said it missed some of the files. Normally in the dialogue box when the back up is complete green, this time it was red.

I’ve got most of my photos and music on Itunes, all I just need is links to my diary, Youtube, my website, Blogger and Google for my Gmail, and I can restore my laptop to factory default status. Other then the links above, all I want this laptop for is to be used as a dedicated music device. Until I get a new laptop in the Spring.


Speaking of music lately I’ve had maracas on my mind and mic stands. So Saturday after work, I’m heading over to L&M to see about a floor model mic stand/pop filter, maracas and a tambourine. The whole thing might cost me about $80. If that works out ok, then after that, I might pop into the BP lounge for a beer and head home with my wares and grab a nap and prepare the laptop for a systems restore and reinstall my applications. That’s going to be a bit of a headache.


Today is another full day ahead of me.. Another 8 hours but we’ve got the CFL game to look forward to for tonight and my pay check to see if my pay raise is on it. I might just buy a 6/49 ticket as well this afternoon. Anyway that’s about all for now.

About 8:30am or so

this morning I woke up having trouble sleeping, diabetes most likely letting me know its still there.

In the early 1970's nobody could convince me that drinking Coke was going to affect me latter in life. I was 22 years old and just existing basically, content with just working and living a sheltered life of independence. I had no social outlet in those days, I was a complacent loner. I saw nobody but my co workers, I worked from 8:30am until about 4:30pm and went out for dinner at the Fraser cafe after work and home to cocoon watching black and white TV. For those 2 years 1974 and 1975 I didn't get out much. I don't even remember cooking much or even buying my own groceries. I was heavily into reading Archie comic books back then. I don't even recall where or if I even did my own laundry. My usual haunts were the Fraser cafe, Royal books and the Royal bank up the street the corner store over there on 6th street a few doors away from where the Masonic Hall is now and of course The Army and Navy department store, where I worked on Columbia. Not the location where it is now. They moved there in 1978. I worked in the Trapp building in those years. I think a 6 pack of a Coke was $1.25. In comparison in 1982 a 1L of Coke was 99 cents. We buy the generic stuff today and for a 2L bottle its about $1.25 including deposit and tax.

Anyway, I just wanted to share a few things here this morning as I'm drinking my coffee, waking up, anyway that's about all for now.

Today was pretty good

to say the least. I was doing great. I did about $750 and a $10 bonus for the afternoon and $975 for another $10 bonus, which is so far $20 for today and $10 added on for the week, wow. I'm going to have a great pay check next Friday.

In Gp6 I sampled the "rock demo" and I'm really impressed with the guitars and drums in Gp6, it's pretty awesome. On Tuesday I'm definitely getting the gift and I'm ordering Gp6 and all the sound banks.

This morning I was so tired getting up, I was ready to call in and climb back into bed. I was that exhausted. Anyway, that's all for now.

Even though its a Monday

Its still my Sunday afternoon here.

Yesterday was a washout. The whole day actually. Welcome to marital bliss and I'll leave it at that. We're ok for now but barely.

Sorry for the lack of photos on this blog but my digital camera is old even though still operable sucks up rechargeable batteries like a pig. I'm considering the new 4th Gen Itouch or an Iphone before the end of the year but I'm lacking a Government photo ID card plus my S.I.N card. I know my SIN number, I just don't have the card. Service Canada has the application forms and they cost about $10 but in order to get that, of course, you need photograph ID. (so they can do a credit check on you for a 3 year contract.) So it's kind of like a run-a-round but I'm thinking about buying the Iphone out right and hust running a pay-as-you go type thing.  

Today's a new day, Boots is flying in and out of here through the crack on the window of the window frame, its a beautiful sunny day with a cool breeze flowing against what little autumn leaves are left on the ground. I'm enjoying my coffee trying to wake up.

I don't know what to make use of Groove Machine, my new VST plug in. I haven't played with it enough yet to really exploit what it can do as there are very few tutorials on the net about it. I still think "Battery 3" is better but it comes bundled with NI's Komplete 8. Next week I'm getting Guitar Pro 6.

Today is my only day to myself this week, as I'm in for Tuesday 8 hours (maybe) Wednesday 8 hours, Thursday 4 hours, (Lodge night) Friday 8 hours, Saturday 6 hours for a total of 34 hours on the week. I'm expecting no bonus money this week for next pay check so missing 1 hour to qualify nothing I'll receive, wont matter. Plus, next Sunday is my Sunday shift. But I'm thinking about taking Thursday off. I'm trying to get it where I work Sunday for Lodge night but with yesterdays debacle, no way. Next time when it's Lodge week I'll put in the obligatory every 2nd Sunday. Anyway, that's about it for now.

Still working on a

Saturday night here.

I went in this morning (Saturday) thinking its going to be a clear ride into Corona station, but no such luck. They (ETS)kicked everybody off the train at Churchill so I walked following the heard up to street level at the Winsphere and caught hte connecter to Corona and was at Tim's by 9:20am with very noticible time lost. I bought a coffee and headed back tot he office. It was a nice morning. Warren sat with me facing the TV to "watch" Montreal game. The whole shift up to 2pm went by fast and I wasn't feeling fatigued at all. At 2pm I waled as far as Audrey's books with Warren on his crutches, He was heading down to his bank. Audrey's didn't a have anything for me, so I went down to Burger Baron and got a bag of fries for about $3.50. I split half of them with Warren at the office latter. The last half went by slow and finally 4:30pm 43 hours latter, "let the weekend begin."

Warren, Kyle and I went to BP's and Doc was waiting for us. I had a beer as we split a pitcher. We stayed for an hour. I decided to take the #2 bus instead of hobbling all over underground trying to find where the Churchill train was. I had about a 10 min wait for the #2Clairview bus and I was at the Church at 50th & 136th Ave by about 6:30pm as the Sun was just setting. I got inside the apartment by. I was ready to head East along 137th with a full bladder (really needing to pee) when the #183 heading in my direction was coming towards me. I boarded that and the driver while the lights were read, let me off at the curb and I was in about 6:30pm.

I wasn't that tired and I had some diet cola and watched the rest of the BC/Hamilton CFL game. I had a sandwhich left over and I took a shot of insulin. I dozed off on the couch for awhile when Anne called and then I went to fire up the laptop.

I tried the Visa Gift card to oder Image Line's (Fl Studio) "Groove machine." It was an easy proccess but I didn't have the demo and had some difficulty in activating the plug in. I installed the demo and activaed the TOS and there it was in my channels "GM" I played around with it for awhile and I can't get the samples loaded properly. I'll ask for some help. All in all, it was a pretty good expereince using the Visa gift card. I don;t think Groove machine though is worth the $99 (on sale, latter $149 in November. I'm sure once I get my own samples to load and play properly it'll be better. The main thing out of all of this is that the gift card works with Image line.

Anyway, time for bed. Anne and I are going over to Royal Pizza over there on the South Side, despite problems with ETS and the LRT this weekend.

Dilemma’s are fascinating

things. The one I’m under at the moment isn’t earth shattering or anything like that but it’s a bit of a problem. I went to the bank and deposited $120 in my Scotia account. At 4:30pm Tuesday I went to the pharmacy to check out the gift card and I was about ready to get one and they couldn’t take my debit card because they didn’t have a ATM machine to accept it. Also, the gift cards aren’t any more or less reliable then the Vanilla gift cards, you take your chances basically. Sadly it looks like Pay Pal is still the way to go. I don’t mind using pp, it just takes so long to get what you want. The dilemma here is my laptop’s hard drive space is gradually running out of room. I was looking at the 3.5” Sata hd but according to Memory Express, the internal laptops are in several different sizes of the 2.5” drive. When I got home and checked on Memory Expresses website, they had a 750Gb drive, which isn’t to bad for under $100. Essentially, I’m going to need to bring my laptop in and see what’s available and I’m also, even before that, will need a back up copy of Windows 7. First, back up my hd. Then get a back up copy of Windows 7 and then the hd and see if it fits properly. Install the new hd and load Windows 7 and restore my back up. After the back up I should have roughly 650Gb of space available. Way more then what I had previously. I‘m not going to be able to do that this weekend. I‘m 2 weekends away from that because I work on alternate Sundays. Most likely November 6th Sunday because I‘m off then. This gives me a bit of leeway. I‘m really thinking about getting “Battery 3.”

The other thing, I’m considering is getting the 4th Gen Itouch with the new OS and the camera and video features. It’s in White and Future shop (Fs) has it for October for $199. Great deal, considering I paid $240 without the camera. Now if Fs has a good stock of them in stores, I‘ll get one Saturday on my way into the office. This way, Anne can have the old one and I‘ll have the new one.


The other thing I was thinking about with the gift card is testing it out on Itunes. With the Itunes gift card, you can’t get apps, without a credit card here in Canada If Itunes accepts the Visa gift card, then great, one venue at a time I guess. To buy a Visa gift card is $20 so add a $3 app onto that is an expensive proposition to test the card out.


Ok switching gears here our local chapter of the 99% gang is hanging in there at a local park here downtown Edmonton. Don’t these people work or anything?


Also several US officials went and visited our Alberta oilsands and found nothing wrong with them. In fact, they are saying its still friendly oil.


I had a big day on the job yesterday. I got my raise and had a decent total as well although no bonus money. I was able to ride home alone, just the way I like it.


An interesting news item last night, a JFK story. I’ve known about Judith Baker for a long time. She’s been in hiding in fear for her life since the assassination. Her story is that she claims to have a love affair with Lee Harvey Oswald. The only problem with her story is that most of Oswald’s time is accounted for. Especially from the time Lee and Marina left New Orleans. Lee and Marina were estranged since leaving NO and almost all the time from when Oswald got the job at the Texas Schoolbook Depository Building October 15th his time was accounted for. On the weekends Oswald spent his time with his wife. Now its possible that he could have had a lot of time during the weekdays and all but that‘s unlikely. Anyway, that’s about all for now.

Interesting weekend

This last weekend has been interesting full of surprises and shocks. The Oiler's and Esks won on the same night and the Oiler's won last night as well. Also this last weekend at the Aviation Museum was the 11th annual "Edmonton pop culture fair" took place on Sunday but I had to work that day. Another event I'll have to wait until next year. This weekend was interesting.

This evening I discovered Pure Data or Pd. Its an interactive open source multimedia computer music platform with some useful tools. I downloaded it but can't get straight or angle lines. I'll be playing with this over the next few weeks. Also something I've never done before: Using a Visa gift card to order something over the Internet. It's a $100 item and I'm buying this evening "Music maker mx." This is going to be something of an experiment, so we'll see how it goes but Music maker 18 is now Mx and there is no 17. Sigh. I think it was a better program.

I've got a full work week ahead of me on the job, working 8 hour days in there until Friday and 6 hours Saturday. Saturday at 4pm, I'll have 43 hours in. It's going to be a long week. Anyway, that's all for now.

I felt bad about

Dan letting him down about Lodge this afternoon down but I needed my sleep this morning. I've been going hard all week and next week, I'll be working, Sunday 5 hours, Monday off, Tuesday 8 hours, Wednesday 8 hours, Thursday 8 hours, Friday 8 hours, Saturday 6 hours for a total of 43 hours. Yesterday I got 41.5 hours in on my check for last week and this week, I'll have my stat pay on my check for next week. So next week, I'll have another healthy check. The week after an even better 1 with 43 hours and what ever bonuses I'll have, nice.

It's a good looking day out there, even though it looks like its about 8* degrees. Again I felt bad about turning Dan away, but I've been so run down this week getting up half an hour 15 minutes before my alarm and I had a few rough mornings around 8am where I couldn't sleep. This morning I was in by 4am but woke up around 12:30pm. I had a good 9 hours of straight sleep. I'm refreshed and ready for the day.


I'm not too happy with the vocal take of "Louie Louie" but I can do more. I've been having some kind of cold or reaction lately tossing my speech all out of whack. Vocal wise my vibrato is out of sync but the take isn't bad. After I add some effects and music it should be decent enough. I definitely need a pop filter for my mic and I can get those at Long for under $20. Also this morning I had a midi file FL couldn;t accept. Then I realized, wait now.. it's not in Wav format. So I uploaded the file to itunes selected the file in my itunes library and in the advanced tab you can convert the file to Wav format. I draged the file out of my itunes onto my desktop and boom, FL recognixed it in my Edison sampler and a one touch button latter and I got the piano part onto my play list in FL. Now I need to turn both tracks into an automation clip and sync the automation tracks together so their BPM's match.

I took a long shot on the Calgary/Argos game last night and at first I wanted to pick a tie game then I thought, screw it. Argo's to win. And what do they do? Tie the game! 29/31 Argo's. I night go down to Superstore about 6pm and get another proline but fuck it. Argo's won last night but it wasn't the result I wanted. Anyway, that's about all for now.

A busy couple of days ahead of me

Sometimes inspiration comes from all sorts of directions. This morning before I went to bed and shit the computer off while in Guitar Pro 6 (GP6), I had an idea. Firstly, would GP6 in its current demo mode be able to save a file WAV format? I strung some chords and notes together, about 5 measures long of a meaningless distortion electric guitar at 120BPM 4-4 timing. That worked as I knew it would. Then under file, save as WAV save on desktop. Second, close out GP6 and launch FL Studio 10 open the mixer and activate Edison, the sampler. Open a file find my WAV files and there was the GP6 file I had just made. Open it in Edison (so far so good) I switched from mono to stereo, normalized the wave form and had a listen. One more step. I was getting excited. Is GP 6 going to be my one stop guitar sound? On the panel above the sampler window Edison has a bunch of options and one is to send it to the play list. I did that and boom! There was the WAV file in FL Studio! I listed and it sounds great. Very happy. The only thing is the sound quality changes slightly. FL Studio’s default guitar settings champion electric guitar option is called Slayer and it’s ok but not the sounds I’m looking for. I’m thinking by default does Slayer take over all electric guitar sounds? The other way to test the sample is lets load it in another application like Sonar. See what happens. I went into Sonar but there is no way I can find where it lets me open up an Exported WAV file at least in this version. Maybe there is a way to do this in other more recent Sonar versions like the X1 series but that’s another topic for another time. Anyway, I got a full 8 hours ahead of me. That’s all for now.

From yesterday

The first part of the shift didn't work that well as I ended up having a slow start. At break I called Anne and had a brief chat with her. At the half I went down to the pharmacy and the Proline CFL odds were posted. I got my ticket on all 4 games. The 2nd half was a little better and they began “Magic.’ Its December 13th and 14th so we’re calling late and early. I did better in the 2nd half and after the shift one of the guys helped me with my 1Tb external drive as I wanted to reformat it because it was running out of space but upon inspection we found that it had over 750Gb free and 200 something on the drive used. It saves program files as well (applications) except I just can’t launch from the drive. Still it told me what I needed to know
I'm 75% there leaning towards Guitar Pro 6 on Monday. It looks pretty good.

I was kind of having discussion yesterday about the environment and what issues I'd get behind. Well several stand out. Firstly over fishing. This is a big concern of mine why I don't eat seafood anymore. There are animals in the Oceans that need it (fish) more then I do. I think it's selfish for humans to consume this un renewable resource. Farm fish is another matter. Second: Oil tankers. It bothers me that we as consumers still have to send oil by sea. The 3 major contenints have an abundance of oil, why do they have to ship oil by sea? How often is it that we see on the news an oil tanker disaster and the millions of creatures that are affected by this. pardon the detour but I don't have a problem with the Alberta oil sands. It's good for us here in Alberta and good for the Americans. Ethically, "dirty oil" outweighs "conflict oil" in my opinion. We don't need to ship oil to Asia but if the Keystone Xl pipeline doesn't get built, because of some rich environmentalists then by all means, lets ship the oil to China or better yet North Korea.The Americans want "conflict oil," so bad lets give it to them. But in the meantime, there are other markets for our oil even if it means sending the oil by sea to China.Third: Global Warming. I've never been a proponent of GW and this junk science, which for me means I'm a comfortable anti GW'st. Finally, space junk. There's so much crap in orbit its almost becoming a hazard to us all. Instead of spending money on GW alarmists and crazy environmentalists lets put some money towards space junk and how to get rid of it. Now there's a problem Greenpeace should tackle. Just some of the issues that really bug me. 

Last night on Coast the topic was Planet X and the Zeta's, the ET's some believe are from Planet X and have visited us before. Coast had pol asking "What do you believe about the Zeta's?" Out of the 4 topics and 8,654 votes later, the majority believe that they are ETs/interdimensionals with a mixed agenda. Over 2,500 (likeme) don't believe they exists but its a fun topic.


Also, at work in the 2nd half we had the Vancouver/Flyer's game on and I needed the Flyers to win. The only thing that might make my Proline ticket invalid is the shootout win with Ottawa the other night. A shootout might be a Proline tie but I don't think there are any tie games in the NHL. I have $6 riding on the game! Anyway, that’s about all for now.

Today wasn't bad

I got in the office feeling a little blah this morning. Despite having to sit beside this fellow that was very loud, I did ok. I was asked to move at 7:00pm break time and I did a lot better.

Tonight on Coast the topic is about Planet X. I love stuff like this, although I don'nt believe the aliens aspect, its fun stuff.

Yesterday FL. Studio rleased its Groove Machine. Its a sampler/Beat box, seqwencer all in one package and its pretty cool. I don't know if I want to getitright away or anything but it's something to think about for later..

As you can see from above it's got a lot of cool things one can do with this gadget. They have a free demo and before i buy I'd like to have a go at it. It looks fun.

.

I'm still thinking about buying the "I'm watch," only to get Twitter NHL feeds on it. I bought a Proline NHL ticket and I think 2/3 teams won last night. I need tomorrow's game and I get $8 on a $2 ticket but the I'm watch would be great if I can get NHL Twitter feeds on it. Anyway, that's about all for now.   

Ahh, routines

I’m just enjoying a coffee this morning before I head out of here in about half an hour. I had a good sleep overnight. A glass of warm milk helps me to sleep.

Not much going on around here over the next couple of days except work and puttering around on the computer. I‘m still trying to read “Thorns” but its been slow going lately.

This morning I checked my email and made a rare posting on my facebook page. I’ll post this and get dressed, pack my things and get ready for work. I’ll leave the office at 9pm tonight and a commute home by about 9:50pm. I’ll watch a little news and putter around on the computer, read and do some Lodge memory work. I like to be in by 2:30am up by 9:50am to shower-shave have a coffee and, repeat above. That‘s going to be my routine until Friday. I know, not very exciting, sigh. Anyway, that‘s about all for now.

On a scale from 1-

10, I'd rate Monday night raw about a 6. The show had it's moments but there was a point I dozed off on the couch there for about half an hour. I didn't miss much. Its starting to get lame again.

Earlier this afternoon, I watched the 2nd half of the Argo's/Montreal CFL game and history was made: QB Anthony Calvillo made history today with a record 72,429 passing yards. That's over 18 years! Then I watched the Riders lose to Edmonton 1/17 Esks! So, I had 2/4 on my weekend Pro-line ticket come through. The only outcome I almost picked to tie was the Calgary/BC game but I picked Calgary in BC to win. Well they did by 1 point but that's a Proline tie. The out of the blue, Winnipeg shows up in Hamilton. There are 4 weeks left in the regular season and I hope I hope I win at least 1 of them.

I had a nice couple of days off what with the Oiler's winning their home season opener and the Esks win. I got MuseScore figured out and Anne went to get me some pizza with her discount. She gets 25% off. So the order would have been something like $25 I got for about $13!

I've been thinking about getting a 2nd Xbox 360 hiding it nearby in the office and hook it up to my laptop. There are several good solutions on You Tube that show how this is done. It's mostly a Windows 7 networking type thing but the operation seems to have mixed results.

I have a full day tomorrow ahead of me and Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, it's 8 hours each day for 32 hours. I'll have my stat pay for today on that check so I'll have another good check next week. Saturday I'm getting a ride at Southgate to Baseline Lodge and then working next Sunday. So I won't have much of a weekend next weekend. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Its one of those days

where nothing seems to want to go my way. This morning I'm trying to open Sibelius 1st and I can't find it in my system. It's there in my control panel, so I know I didn't uninstall it. So I tried installing it again and I still couldn't find it. I did this twice and I gave up on it. A $130 program I can't use now. Pisses me off. Add to that only one of my NFL teams won on my Pro-line today. The Cardinals/Minni? What was I thinking? So I'm trying out MuseScore which is pretty good but at first the sound quality sucks, without Soundfonts.

The good thing about today was I did see another great Doctor Who episode, which was awesome, as usual.

After doing a bit of reading I discovered MuseScore works good with Jack. It's an audio protocol similar to ASIO but I cant get it to work and there's not much background info on Jack other then for Linux.

So now, I'm watching the Pens/Oiler game as its the Oiler's regular season opener it looks pretty good for the Oiler's even though they are down by one going into the 3rd. Monday I have the Riders visiting here playing the Esks and Monday night Raw.

My Google Chrome evaluation ended today as I couldn't find a website URL and I noticed Chrome took out my spell check. So much for Chrome. Anyway, that's all for now.

Two years ago about this time

my cat Pledges was on his last legs. Like an outgoing WM for Pledges, he was living on borrowed time. A month later we had to put him down, when noticed a blob of blood coming from his mouth. He was trying to get water from the bathtub sprout. I miss him a lot and always think about him.
Another 8 hours are ahead of me here today and you know what? I say bring it on, I‘m ready for it. I need the hours. Several things to watch out for going on today. First, there’s the Winnipeg/Hamilton game tonight. Then I get my check. A few things to look forward to.


I’m having my usual morning coffee. Normally this time in the morning, I’m reading but lately I’ve had some things going on. I’m just over the 102 page mark of what I’m currently reading but today I felt the urge to put a blog post together.


Last night was a great meeting. I‘m not installed yet but next year I will be the lodge’s new Junior Warden. Its an active chair. At least I don’t need to worry about a Robbie Burns night in January but one of the guys suggested I put together a Saint George‘s night in April. I need some tickets printed up but first I need to know that I can have the hall booked for April and I need to know how much is in the JW fund. There‘s a lot of responsibility in this chair as I‘ll be responsible for the entertainment and I have some flexibility. Last night we had 3 tables full at the festive board as the Grand Lodge officers were there. Last night Dan (incoming Lodge secretary) invited me to come out with him to Baseline Lodge on the 15th, which is next Saturday. That’ll be in Spruce Grove. I’ve never been to a Lodge outside the city before so it’ll be a new thing. They will be doing an installation that afternoon. So I’m meeting Dan at Southgate again by the Kiss drop off area. You can do a Google earth for Southgate and its by the big McDonalds clown feet, just across from that. I’ll be there meeting him at 11:30am.


It’s been a crazy week what with Greece on the brink of economic collapse and losing Steve Jobbs. I was thinking about what he said about dying. “You won’t live forever.” Or words to that affect. What I’m trying to do is to leaving some of me behind when I go that will help others long after I’m gone. Something in a meaningful way. What that is, I have no idea yet. Have a nice Thanksgiving weekend everybody. Anyway, that‘s about all for now.

Getting up at 6:50 this

morning (from Monday) wasn’t the easiest thing to do. The bus connecting to Clairview was ok and the train heading to Corona wasn’t bad either. I was surprised to learn there were only 8 of us for the shift. I had a good day even though the calls were slow. I read from my book this afternoon. One of the guys got a $1,200 CC sale. Good for him. I had a good day even though the afternoon was slow. The boss let us out at 4pm.

Warren mentioned that today was the 16th anniversary of OJ Simpson’s trial. I was never a fan of OJ Simpson, much less an NFL fan at the time but I remember vividly the trial date and how at AVC continuing ed we were all gathering around the monitors on that Tuesday afternoon. I was in my last few weeks at the bachelor apartment. I felt sorry for OJ, I’m one of the few that believe he didn’t commit the murders. Hard to believe that he’s still in jail on the robbery charge. According to Wiki, the trial cost over $400 million in terms of lost production, because everyone was glued to the TV.

In the latest SF Signal podcast the panel asked what are some of the essential SFF films every fan should watch. For this, I direct the reader to the above, my top 20. Of course I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Star Wars as #1 and for TV it’s always Star Trek but lately the new Doctor Who has been my recent favourite.

October is Pure spec month here in Edmonton. This time around though Pure Spec is November 18-20th at the Grant MacEwan Robbins Health Centre. They’re having a Skype interview with Mike Resnick. Now that’s pretty cool. Jo Walton is the GoH. There’s a Starcraft live demo. They’ve got a lot of guests this year and I think I’m going to check it out this year.

I‘m really enjoying “A game of Thorns” (Agot) Apparently there are 5 books so far in the series. This looks like its going to be another Steven Erikson type of a Malazan series. There are some parts in the book that give me pause. For example, there’s a part where one of the characters (Bran) is out riding in the hunt recalling of his time in the castle called “Winterfell” climbing around and he ends up falling off a balcony and breaks his back to end up a cripple. Or so the story goes at this point. But if that was in the past he’s in the saddle riding. Latter there is another chapter from his POV, so perhaps this will be resolved but for now could this be a narrative flaw, a oops in the story? The writing is to good to have this as a narrative oops. Anyway, that’s about all for now.

As a young man in

in my early 20’s unemployed in New Westminster at the time, there was a place I’d go to occasionally that I’d go and pick up my comic books and have a burger. I liked the place because it had booths and the burgers were good. I think it was along 10th & 3rd streets in between downtown and uptown New West. At the time I was heavily into reading Archie comic books and I was looking for a place like “Pops” or like “Arnolds” from Happy days, but a bit laid back. A place that could have been right out of the 1940’s drugstores.. I tried looking for it on Google Maps and found a place similar to it. Well, the building looks familiar but that was something like 37 years ago. I‘d give anything to be able to go back in time and live my life over from that time I got the Army & Navy job with Lou April.

There were a lot of places I used to eat at back in the early 1970's. My favorite place though (long gone now) was the Fraser cafe across the street beside where "The Keg" is now. Across from The Fraser cafe was a little greasy spoon called The Pacific cafe, although I mostly ate at The Fraser cafe in those days. Both establishments are long gone.


I met James at Tim’s this morning and walked with him to the office. We did a tap campaign, fresh. I ended up with over $800 and about $200 on card. Apparently according to Jattan staff can’t receive any bonus money if they don’t put in a minimum of 35 hours a week. He’s going to give them to me this week because I’ll have 42 hours in at the end of the week. I ended up with a $10 bonus and in 4th place as far as the tap shooters go.

I rode home alone on the LRT after a bit of a sprinkle I guess we had about 4:30pm. I’m glad because there are some people there that I don’t get along with and one in particular always seems to latch onto me as I’m heading into the office on my commute at Rexall. All I want to do is to wake up and ride in alone. I called Anne at Clairview and she had breakfast/brunch ready for me when I came in. Good stuff.

This week, I’ll be working Sunday 5 hours, Monday 7 hours, Tuesday 8 hours, Wednesday 8 hours, Thursday Lodge, Friday 8 hours, Saturday 6 hours for a total of 42 hours. This works out great because next weekend is Thanksgiving weekend. All I have to do is to go in for Saturday and I have the 9th & 10th off. Great. Anyway, that’s all for now.