With my holidays almost over and with

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

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

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

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

As of today I still have

six more days off!

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

around midnight I get to open

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Over the next 10 days I

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

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

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

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

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

After doing a bit of

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

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

I had a decent day

today.

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

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

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

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

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

For some reason

unknown to me, my Blogger link was removed or replaced and it took me almost half an hour searching for it. Waste of time or what?

Ok, the Oiler's are back to their losing ways again. They'll be at the bottom of the conference by February. Why so negative Jim? Well, they've won only 2 games on their last 10 and they always get these long breaks in between games and they either get injured or a game suspension. It's not so much the team its just in general. Watch, in 2012, they will be last place again and will get another first round pick. They play again I think on Thursday (Wild) Boxing day.

At least the weather is nice. This time last year we had a foot of snow on the ground and around -20. Now we have a little snow and I can see grassy patches and its about +1 out there. Crazy.

The environmental movement in the US and in some cases here in Canada are trying to axe the Keystone pipeline. What I don't get is why do they want to stop a oil resource that's friendly to the US, will create jobs and a steady supply of oil, something they need anyway. The Republicans are in favour of it. It's good for Americans and us. Everyone wins in this. The US environmentalists think that by acquiring Alberta oil the process of researching alternate clean energy types will be suspended but what they don't seem to get (or maybe they do) is that until those alternate forms of energy can be found, they still need energy/oil. Talk about clueless. The other thing is this current movement is obviously orchestrated by the big oil companies because they'd lose revenue from middle east oil. One only has to follow the money but these environmentalists can't see the forest for the trees. When gas at the pump is like $5/gallon, then they'll want our oil. Meanwhile, we're in nogotiations with China to sell our oil and I think we got the green light to build a pipeline to Prince Rupert.

Well, at at it for another 8 hours. I've already got 5 in the bank and 32 on the way. Anyway, that's about all for now.  

Its 2am and i'm finifhing up a

can of beer before bed, waiting for Anne to return home from Walmart. During Christmas Walmart is opened 24/7.

At noon I'm up and out of here for that 12:20pm bus to Clairview and then down to my Scotia bank so I can pay on my website.Ok, I  know Blogger and the website do pretty well much the same thing I need them to do. Websites are basically used for selling something. I don't have anything to sell but I like to have the website because most of my Twitter followers know me from that. Keeping it up and running costs me about $2 bucks/week. No big deal. If Anne knew that Blogger can do the same thing, it'd start a fight I'd hear for a week and I don't need that over the holidays. ng

I don't know if any of you have seenthis at all but on the news last there was this story about apples falling from the sky in Coventry UK. Some say its got to do with everything from freaky weather to a plane leaking out contents to witches. The whole story is here..

The only thing preventing me from going to bed is that Boots is around, so I'm going to have to bring him into our bedroom because it's his turn tonight. We alternate between him and the other cats so tonight, it's his turn.

So after my trip to the bank I'm having the afternoon off and I can relax tonight there's an Oiler game on TV. Also, I'm buying a Proline ticket tonight as well.

My next toy for my music is the Korg Sound on Sound. I can't wait to get it and play with it. Anyway, that's about all for now. 

It was a bit of a scramble trying to get out of here

about 11am this morning. We had a bit of freezing rain/snow overnight but the Sun was shining and it was mild, really nice out there.

I got down to Tim's about 11:30am and didn't go inside but instead I went straight to the office. I waited for a bit and nobody showed up but James was inside and let me in. We had 6 of us there and ended up with 10. Lowest turnout on a Sunday I think we had. I had a good start and a better first half. I had my lunch Anne made for me and tried to call but she was more then likely out at "The Truck" as she likes to call it. We get discount food items like burritos potato patties sausage rolls that sort of thing.

I had a slow 2nd half but it went fast and I was ready and packed up when the F5 shout came on (station shutdown) I worked my way to Corona station and got a bus ticket because Anne needed the bus pass. I had about a 10 minute wait reading my copy of "A game of thrones." I'm slowly closing in on the half way mark.

I got home shortly before 6pm and Anne had dinner ready (perogies) very nice and I have whole evening and a day off tomorrow for myself.

Tomorrow afternoon I'm running down to pay my website fees at my bank and home to enjoy the Detroit/Oiler game and some Monday night Raw. This week for next week I have 38 hours in and on the 23rd of this week (Friday) I'll get a full check and 10 days including 2 stat days. Sweet. Anyway, that's all for today.

I first began to

compose my diary in electronic format when I had my first word processor and that was in 1996 but I wasn't comfortable with the experience. My first attempt at Blogging was in September 2005 when Anne read something I wrote that implied I was considering a relationship with another woman on the side. Of course I was thinking out loud at the time. She read and thought I was cheating on her and it started a 3 day fight that almost broke us up. I began blogging with another company, I can't recall the name. Then I found Blogspot and worked from there. I keep all of my personal things on my MS Works diary. Anne kind of knew the other woman who at the time lived next in the complex adjacent to us on the corner of 50th and 137th. Of course I would never cheat on Anne but that's what lead me to my electronic diary and eventually blogger. Six years since that incident, Anne and I are still together everything is fine. No one is cheating on anyone. I don't role that way.

This is my first week at the new office and I'm fairly comfortable learning the software. There's a lot of mouse movement. So far we're just making the sale and then calling over a supervisor to go through the payment process. The older system had the address right there on the screen. The new system does as well but the user has to first get a sale then moves into another page for payment options and then another page for the address. I'm not comfortable with this yet. But the main functions are ok. I like how I can hit the break key and it begins a countdown until I log in. No more will I need to log in with Family, EBXG and my initials.

Today is getting my first check at the new place, then I go to my bank this evening cash my check. Anne comes home at about 11am and I'm up until about 1am and up at about 8am for another 9 hours. I want to see if I got my bonus/raise.

The Oiler's lost last night but that was only because our goaltender let in a soft goal and they got an empty net. Hall got 2 goals. I think we're about 4 spots out of a playoff spot. Anyway, that's about all for now.

I like our new office

but its the software set up I don't like. I feel like I'm in a sweat shop. They've got 3 security cameras and each one has 4 lenses each. Not only that but it's live feed. The calls are all VOIP calls. Nothing dialed by phone. Other then that, I like the office but it's going to take me some time to get used to it.

If all works out well over the next few days, I hope to have my website fees paid off and my wife that Olive Garden gift card she wants for Christmas. Her sister sent us in the mail today a $100 Superstore gift card for groceries and 2 Tim's gift cards loaded for $20. very nice of her.

Tonight's Coast is an all paranormal show. It's got UFOs Bigfoot and haunted houses, the whole 9 yards. It's not my type of show but it's got a lot of paranormal topics.

I'm still trying to digest this big CFL Ricky Ray trade. Ray was for almost 9 years the face of the Eskimo's. I feel bad he was traded to the Argo's. The 100th Grey Cup game will be in Toronto next year. I'd like to see a Eskimo's/Argo's East/West match up next year. That'd be sweet.

In a press release last night on Coast, they were saying that they are closing in on the Higgs particle. Ok, what are they going to do with it when they find it? Probably study it to death is my guess. If by chance you've come across this by accident a 100 years (2111 assuming humanity is still around) from now, you might laugh at my comment. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Short on topics this morning

as I'm a little stressed out over the new office but in another 2 hours, I'll be in there.

I was going to go to my bank this morning but I can do this latter on. All I want to do is check out the office.

We're supposed to have an all new computer system. Since we got computers to do the calling and the management aspects our calls, we've been using something called "Anzio." I liked it as it was clean and simple. Almost everything was done using the option keys. F1 called up the invoice details, which included customer name and address and how much they were going to give and the sale type XD was always a ticket sponsorship, X for a ticket, CT (contribution) D for donation. M for mail and F1 again if they were going to do this by a Visa or Master Card. V for Visa etc.Then you'd hit F9 to print and wait for the next call. What I liked about this was we'd often be able to chat with the customer if we found a common bond. Quite often I would hear Mr. Smith say, "I support the Shriner's." I ask back: "Are you a Shriner yourself Sir?" If they say yes then I announce my Lodge/Rite etc and we'd have a nice talk. I'd get into these conversations if I wanted to kill some time off the clock and had a decent total. But this new system isn't anything like the above. Apparently according to our unofficial tech guy everything is supposed to be set up by pages and we use a mouse instead of just pressing a key. So this part of the process is supposed to be a bit different. Watch, when I get started this afternoon, we're going to be doing CFK and everything will be on Anzio. The only big changes are no eating at my dialler and sharing bathrooms with other offices.

Getting to the office is a bit of an "obstacle course." previously in the Baker Centre, I'd get off at Corona station and then take the covered walkway beside the street sidewalk to the steps to the sidewalk further on up ahead of the block (helps to avoid pedestrians all heading to Tim's during lunch break on the sidewalk) cross the street up there by Jasper and 106th, turn right at the bank and walk down to the Baker Centre and through the doors. This new way, at the corner instead of turning right, I turn left and wait for the light too change and cross another street. It'll be ok at night.

Also, I want to scope out the place, find out where the lunchroom is, where the TVs are get a good seat so I can see everything or as much as possible. I'll need to find the bathroom, check out the store/kiosk there, find the cordless phone all of this should take like about 10 minutes. It'll be different. Anyway, a full report when I come back tonight. Anyway, that's about all for now.     

Saturday was my last shift

in the good old Baker Centre. My place of employment moved in there the first week of January 2006. The building itself was built in 1969 42 years ago, 9 years before I moved to Edmonton. Jack (the barber) is the original tenant of the building. I had a lot of good times in the Baker Centre but this new place might not be all that bad. I'm going to have an odd sense of melancholy tomorrow morning.

Tonight is another episode of Monday night Raw. Lately it's been stagnant, same wrestlers all the time. Wrestling was at its best in the Hulk Hogan era and Stampede wrestling. Anyway, that's all for now.

I could have slept for another hour

but Anne woke me up because I was snoring.
I emailed Markus Friday morning and I'm surprised with it being Sunday he hasn't got back to me yet about my website fees. I have Blogger, so I don't really need the website, especially if (Lord forbid) something happened to the guy but I'll try to keep it going as best I can. If not, that's ok. I'd hate to lose it because he's not checking his email. I put a lot of time and energy into that and so did he by making the new logo for me earlier this year.

I got the guitars sounding good in GP6. Especially it makes a difference when you use chords instead of individual notes but I can't find the pitch bend and I'm wondering if that's because I'm missing an update.

The next thing I'm getting music wise is that Korg SOS and that will be in January. Then I go on to save up for the computer. I'll need $1,700 when I'm ready to buy, which probably wont be until September. 2012. I'm going to have bonus money but the best I'll be able to do is about get $85/week for me or $50/bank. If I can get 43 hours/week, no problem but best I can do (if I want to go into Scottish Rite) but I think I'm going to join in September (if I get my pension). I have 1 week in January where I can put in 43 hours. One week in March. The only way I can put in 43 hours is if I do the Sunday-Saturday. Most weekends, I'll be lucky if I can claim $80 for myself and put away $50. So, I'm thinking about joining SR only when I'm done my IPM. I'll visit when I can. I'll go in January, maybe in April, that type of thing. I'm trying to juggle it where I can alternate so on my Sunday's I have to work, that week I'll have 43 hours which it looks like will be once or twice/month. I'm hoping this year with the new campaigns and all the bonus money will be better but even if I can have 2 43 hour weeks, best I can do is save up $350/month. I should have the new laptop within 5 months. January is a wash out more or less because I want to get that Korg SOS. So, I'm looking at about the end of June. Then I'll get BPM and Mach Five 3.

This is the start of a new week and we're in a new building. The Baker Centre is in the past. I had 6 good years there and had a lot of fun. Here's the photo Kingsley in haste Kingsley took of me. Notice the clock in the background above Fran's head. Anyway, that's all for now

The worst in all of

The worst of all this is I probably could have gone to Lodge this afternoon but right up until yesterday I didn't know we were only going to work just half the day, I would have worked last Sunday if I would have known this. That would have given me 37 hours in the bank on my next check and still have Sunday off because of the move and a 3 day weekend. Anne had the right idea, to start in the New Year and on the 17th, that’s what I’ll do.

At the moment we’re just about out of a full lunar eclipse. Anne said she was out there about 6am observing part it. It’s probably coming out of the penumbra part of the eclipse now.

This is the last time for me in the Baker Centre this morning. I had a lot of good times in that building. Our first Spring in the Baker Centre the Oiler’s we’re going on to win the Stanley Cup. I recall Moe putting little James up on the Coke machine and he couldn't get down. I've been hit on by a couple of people that were “after me.” Pledges was put down while we were in that building. I had a lot of laughs some good memories some not so good like the manager dragging me in to his office threatening to fire me and then a year later he was fired himself. Tuesday we’re in the Energy Square building but I’ll be going back and fourth to the Baker Centre to get Proline tickets, hair cuts and credit cards.

In yesterdays metro there was an interesting article on eBooks, so I thought I’d share some stats. Ebooks in our public library came on stream in June 2009. In June 2009 there were 5000 books checked out for ever eBook. In June 2010, there were 500 books selected for every eBook and this year there were 50 books checked out for every eBook at the Edmonton Public Library. Ebooks are really gaining in popularity. The thing about ebooks is the older titles aren't as accessible as the new ones obviously.

Today my last Tim’s breakfast at station 8. My last shift. Then at 2pm I’m heading down firstly on the way, on the same street, the 7-11 to get myself a 6/49 ticket and a bag of chips and then a Proline ticket for this evenings games, then over to LM to get my GP6 and from there over to Harvey’s to get a bit to eat and catch the #2 about 100 feet away there from Harvey’s to Corona station and then home. I should be home by 4pm, have a little nap and then download GP6. I’m going to upload $20 bucks to Pay pal as well today so I can order 3 sound banks. There’s 2 guitars and a bass sound bank I want.

Update: I got my Tim's breakfast and headed to the Baker Centre one last time (well for the job part). The first half of the shift wasn't bad. Tim showed me what the Korg Sound on Sound unit looked like. I was a but interested. The shift was going only until 2pm today but J got me the release form for my vacation pay (finlay). Management had a crew of helpers this afternoon pulling out furniture and and other stuff into a U haul out on the street. I don't know what I did sales wise, and to be honest I didn't care. I got Kingsley to take a photo of me (he was chancing it with management around of me with the clock behind me showing the time about 1:45pm. After work I headed out to Audrey's and took a look around. They didn't have anything for me. So I walked over to the 7-11 on 109th street. It wasn't bad at all. hardly feels like winter. I got a Proline ticket and a bag of lays BBQ chips for the game tonight and headed to Harvey's at the end of the block. Their West End location is bigger. I got what I wanted. I still think Wendy's is better. After lunch I worked my way over to the street to my bus stop and there was the #2 a few car lengths ahead of me. I got off at Corona and went into Tim's for a blueberry fritter but all they had was apple. No thanks. I caught my train to Clairview and the 3:35pm #183 came by right away. I was home about 3:50pm.

So now I have a couple of days off. Great. I could have (if I would have known) could have easily come in for 2 hours (34 hours on my next check) As it is I have 36. So, everything is set up for my vacation pay and my vacation, which I begin, December 24th.

Also, while at LM I asked about the Korg SOS and this is the next piece of hardware I want. It can even accept keyboards as well and record them automatically and load into any DAW but I probably wont be able to get this until the new year. Imagine this working with any VST! it has a lot of potential. Here's a vid on it:

Also what's cool about this is I can speak into it and capture that sound in an infinite number of ways and make loops of any sound. It's priced at $199. If I would have known about this over Sibelius 6, I would have take this.

Actually I'm kind of excited about moving into the new office and doing new campaigns, eventually. Anyway, that’s all for now.

Hey, hey

my GP6 is at LM. I tried to leave early this morning to pick it up but no such luck but I'm picking it up on Saturday after work.

Not that I'm ever the one that needs to always look at himself but Kingsley caught me reading my book while there was a break in the calls and he emailed this for me. I could stand to loose a few pounds in the middle, I know.

So, I'm working, Friday 8 hours, Saturday 6 hours and thankfully Sunday 5 hours, then I'm taking 2 days off. During my break I hope to have time to finish my book I'm reading, which if I can finish reading this  one, will give me a total of 6 books read this year. I'm looking at my "friends" list on Goodreads and I see them reading like 20-30 books/year. This tells me that either these people are in prison or security guards. Nobody can read that many books and get something out of them.

So, Saturday afternoon, I'm going to run down to LM and get my GP6 program. I'm working Sunday for 5 hours and then I'm off for 2 days, yeaa! That's 2 days. I'm going to fool around with GP6 and get to know the program a bit and then cut song with it. Anyway, that's about allfor now.

We're having

some nice weather here in Northern Alberta lately. Right now it's about -2 with a bit of a windchill but it could just as easily be -25! This nice weather trend is supposed to last until about Christmas. It'd be great if it lasts until the end of the year.

I had a decent first start to the shift but the evening was slow and I wasn't alone. Word has it we]re supposed to be in the new office by about the 21st, which is ok with me. It's supposed to be a smaller office but we were lucky if we had 12 tap shooters this evening and 2 of them were "on loan."

So the NHL is trying to re-invent itself again with 4 Conferences instead of a "Division." The out come for the playoffs, pretty well mean the same thing. There were not many Proline games to choose from that interested me this evening so I opted out.

Tonight on Coast is another bang on episode: Wartime UFO's and Dr. Michio Kaku. Michio Kaku is a physicist and a wonder speaker. He talks about the "Multiverse." He's one of my favorite speakers on Coast.

Announced recently, Kepler part of Nasa's "Planet finder" mission has located another earth like planet apparently twice as large as Earth and is 600 light years away. I read that if the space shuttle were to travel to this planet would take something like 22 million years to get there! Also this planet is in the Goldilocks region, not to hot and not to cold. Anyway, that's all for now.

Not a lot of time today

to compose a post this morning, not that there's a lot going on for today.

So why bother?

Well, firstly I haven't been in here since Sunday and I've got about 15 minutes to ramble on before I get on with my day and reading is too much for me to grasp right now just waking up and all.

I've got my first coffee here this morning and I had about 6 hours of sleep. Although I could use another 3 hours but I also need to put in some hours this week at work but at the same time I want to go in for Saturday at Commercial Lodge at Freemason's Hall. They Tyle at 1pm and it's their Installation and my friend Neil and (our Lodge WM) will be the organist. Not just that but if I put in the full week, this is my Sunday shift week. Sunday afternoon would mean I'd put in 43 hours and I'd be wiped out. Taking Saturday off only gives me 32 hours but next week I'll be doing a 43 hour shift, which will show up on the 23rd. That's when I break for 10 days. But then because we lost our regional manager I'm wondering if the RM has to sign it. In, which case I might not be able to take my vacation this year. I should talk about this with J. Our RM resigning might conflict with with me taking my week off like it did with my raise, which I didn't get yet. So, I need to bring this to J's attention today.

Yesterday while checking on YouTube for VSts and drum machines, I came across a cool piece of kit called BPM by Mark of the Unicorn. Other wise known as MOTU. I wanted to check at our 2 most popular music stores and their online sites to see if it's available here, instead i found Cakewalks reissue of their Z3ta synth priced at $103! I'll most likely pick this up in the new year as well as BPM. I don;t think they have the new version, that has the larger sound library. I'm also looking at Akai's Mpd32 drum and sound bank pad. It complements the BPM. Here's what the BPM looks like:

Anyway, that's all for today.

I took a sleeping pill

about 2am this morning and I was ready to hit the sack at 1am. By 3am I was listening to a bit of Coast and I passed out. Nine hours latter I’m up having my 1st coffee.

This afternoon, the plan is to walk down to Swiss Chalet for a bite to eat. I usually get my traditional cheeseburger and fries free refills of diet Coke. The burger is about $12 and so is the chicken. The whole thing should cost me about $30.

I had a 2 minute instrumental with a B3 organ solo, but the “song” was just a bunch of organized noise. I’m working on a shorter instrumental of about a minute and 10 seconds or something, anyway more later…..

That was nice. We had a nice walk to Swiss Chalet (SC‘s), leaving out of here about 3:45pm. I had my bacon cheeseburger and their fries are nice. I prefer their bacon cheeseburgers over BP’s any day. BP’s are too spicy and cost to much. Anne had the chicken and fries for $11.99. It was a good deal. After dinner we walked up to the Tim Horton’s Express, in the same “mall.” I need a new thermos for work and they have a n ice small one with a spout for about $12 and their China mugs are red this year. Just giving her some Christmas gift ideas. I think for myself this year, I want to get this Oiler hoodie I saw in a local add at “Game on Sports.” Kingsley said they are upstairs from the skating rink. I think I know exactly where they are. I can probably get my Eskimo’s hoodie there as well. I bought Anne and I a medium coffee and I bought a blueberry fritter. We were home shortly after 5pm. I’d be waiting for my bus at Clairview if I was working right about now, and I have the whole evening here too myself. Anne’s right, I think I’ll have that nap.

I’m thinking if we have that big TV mounted above the offices where everyone can see it, then fine. Or the other ones we currently have so I can at least catch the sports scores. I think this office is going to be good, if I have access to a TV and or wifi.

I worked on another brief instrumental last night and this afternoon using GP6‘s drum notation and put together a basic beat and had it exported as a Wav file format so Edison in FL Studio could pick it up, which it did. I fixed it up a bit and got 32 measures. What I like about this is the drum notation, etc is all on one file. No splitting verse and chorus parts up. The only problem is the fade in and fade out parts. There‘s no vocals or anything. It‘s about a minute long I just need another guitar and a bass. I already have the organ solo. I hope to put it up this weekend as a test. Anyway, that's all for now.

I've been home for

about 3 hours now.

The idea was for Anne to meet me at work and then we go to the Oliver Square location Sawmill after that but Danny told me that the Sawmill is closed down. So much for this idea. I'm feeling kind of wiped out anyway. She called about ten minutes ago on her break and we tossed a few ideas around and I suggested Swiss Chalet. It's just down the block. She likes that. We don't have to get on a train and run all over town. I decided not to go to the installation only because I'm wiped out. Besides, I'm going to go in the New Year and put my affiliation in.

Kingsley brought in his new Iphone 4S. It's got new features like "Face Time" and "Icloud" and has an 8Mp camera in it. I was wiped out this morning but I asked him to take this photo of me in the office. It's hat day Saturday and that's my friend Warren with the Montreal Canadians took on. I was feeling ok, I think I just look a little worn out in this photo.

That's the TV in the corner we watch. You can see I'm slightly away from it so I got to leave my station to check on the sports scores.

Yes, I have 2 beautiful days back to back. I'm going to miss this office in the Baker Centre. Apparently we're out of here Tuesday December 13th, next week. I learned that we're going to have security cameras but not at every station but apparently we're not having the monitors anymore. Maybe we'll have the big screen 70" TV mounted for everyone to see. Apparently it's going to be in the lunch room, which doesn't make sense. It's like you buy a new car and you drive it only when it's sunny. Anyway, that's all for now.

For some reason

I find it hard to sleep during that last hour.

So I'm up having a coffee here before I get cleaned up and ready for work. When exactly we're moving, I'm in the dark. all I know is, we are just working with a local event and a national one that seems to be on its last legs. For all I know I could be laid off for a couple of weeks until we get into the new place. I still got 3 weeks to go before my holidays. So if we're laid off for awhile, let it be from December 23rd to January 3rd. At least I'll get my stat pay in there and a full week and a weeks pay when I come back.

One thing I do like about "Magic" this current campaign we come back and fourth to this time of year, is when I can I get to talk to some interesting people. One fellow I talked with last night for example said he supports the Shriner's. My response is: "Are you a Shriner yourself?" The fellow said without hesitation, "Yes" and I said I'm a Mason in my Lodge as well, and announced my Lodge # and we had a good talk. I mentioned about Commercial Lodge installation and he said he'll try and be there. He said he knows Neil and had a talk with him the other night. Probably at Redwood. I asked if he knew Eugene Plawuik (He was lodge master at Nepthyse Lodge before it went under in 1995 but he took a demit, my caller made some reference to "Satanism," which most would equate the OTO as being a part of. I'm not an OTO member anymore, since about 1993. My caller also said something about Eugene passing away. He knew Eugene because he was in his Lodge when he was master at Norwood in the early 1990's. My caller knew what Lodge he was in by making a reference to Norwood. My caller even knew another colleague of mine. Well, his father because his father was a Mason as well and would only know him because my caller and I knew the same information. So it was a very interesting. My caller said something about my friends father being an Anglican priest and he was, or is. That's my family's religion. Or at least my mother's family was Anglican. If it wasn't for working every other Sunday, I'd be going to Sunday service as well. Neil is Anglican.  

Not much going on, which is why I've been making tweets here and there in between blog posts.

At the moment, I'm enjoying a coffee. I'm cleaned up and ready to go. I'm going to make my proline picks for this evening before I head out of here and get some breakfast to begin my 6 hours. Anyway, that's all for now.

Its a new month

today.

Local news has been covering this story about "Jetman." This is not like the James Bond jet pack thing but a real jet where the man is flying horizontal. Yves Rossay is our flyer here. I don't know if he's the inventor or what but here's the video:

Coast is about Mars, with Richard Hoagland. This is going to be an awesome show. I'm going to listen in on this one.

An interesting story out of "Cosmic Log" about Stonehenge. Researchers using radar have found 2 long pits near the site. Each pit measures about 16 feet long. This excerpt from the original story: Positioned within the Cursus pathway, the pits are on alignment towards midsummer sunrise and sunset when viewed from the Heel Stone, the enigmatic stone standing just outside the entrance to Stonehenge. For the first time, this discovery may directly link the rituals and celestial phenomena at Stonehenge to activities within the Cursus.

My Lodge brother Neil is picking me up at my place tonight at 6pm and we're off to our installation. I'm being installed as Junior Warden. If our Lodge can survive and I can keep my health, I should be Lodge Master 2014 at the age of 61. IPM at the age of 62. anyway, that's all for now.