Anne mentioned something

I hadn’t thought of: Today is Easter Sunday. How much of West Edmonton Mall will be open? The theaters obviously but what about the rest? I went to the mall’s website and today they are open from 11-6pm. If we leave out of here at 2pm get the train from Clareview to Southgate and the bus from there. We should get there by about 3pm. We can find a nice restaurant maybe Moxies will be open. I think the best way out to WEM is go downtown and get the #1. There’s a bus running ever 20 minutes. If we miss the Southgate bus that’s a further delay. That trip last November to go see James Bond took about 90 minutes. The other thing is Jack might not be open Monday as well. Anyway that’s all today. 

For the most part yesterday

I was not watching any TV. Overnight this morning Anne comes in saying former Alberta Premier Ralph Kline had died at the age of 70. I knew that he wouldn't last the year being in palliative care recently. He was suffering from dementia and more recently emphysema and bronchitis. He was a heavy smoker and drinker for most of his life. Even early as Wednesday he was quoted as saying “I’m not dead yet,” he said with a chuckle. Ralph Kline from Calgary Alberta was Alberta's 12th Premier for 14 years. It's been quite the week for Calgary, what losing in a trade Jerome Iginla, their franchise hockey player with the Calgary Flames and now Ralph Kline. 

Tomorrow Anne and I are out off to the movies and I'm looking forward (for "free") the 2nd installment of the new GI Joe movie:
 
 I mean come'on, The Rock, Bruce Willis, how can anyone turn that down? Also, I'm making a pit stop into Games Workshop to see if there's any Warhammer action going on and dinner (not in the food court this time) then the movie and or even Chapters if there's time.

I've been cultivating an interest in basketball lately. Obviously I can't play it but I appreciate the athleticism from watching these guys run up and down the court and pulling off these amazing moves like they do. When basketball highlights come on I don't turn the channel anymore. Being Canadian I support the Toronto Raptors but otherwise I like the "Miami heat" for obvious reasons. 

In the 1960's growing up in Coquitlam BC, our family lived a few blocks away from the Vancouver golf course. The VGC in the 1960's was a great place to get the red huckleberries (these were very plentiful at the VGA and they would be nice and ripe about now.) until they put a fence around it. I'm not a golfer but would like to play as some of the guys in my Lodge play Saturday's in the summer and maybe practice with them a bit. The only problem is it's an expensive sport. A set of clubs (new) can cost about $600+ never mind the cart, balls, shoes and tee time. Frank encouraged me last year to come along to play but I was working Saturdays. I might go out with the boys for a few rounds of golf this summer. Now that I'm not working Saturdays. I have such a history with golf I even worked at the VGC for a couple of weeks back in 1973 but that's another story.    

Last night on her way to work Anne bought from the Dollar ramma across the street these pair of headphones pictured below. This is what I'm looking for a microphone headphone setup with a mic line in. The only problem after trying to figure out how to get my voice sample into Maschine, I'm getting a "shushing sound." I think it's because my threshold was too low. I'm going to tinker around with that for awhile tonight.  

  Monday is the last day of my 5 day weekend and I'm going downtown to Jack's in the Baker Centre and get my haircut and it's Monday night Raw/Oiler's. Tuesday night I'm going to Audrey's for a book signing and pick up my annual hard copy of Robert J Sawyer's new book "Red Planet Blues." The book is going to cost me (90% off due to my Audrey's book club membership) about $10. I've been seeing Rob at Audrey's every year now since "Rollback." I still want to get "Triggers" signed as well. Wednesday/Thursday are 2 more Oiler games but Thursday is Lodge night, that comes first. Friday is about the only night not tied up with anything,so it's going to be a busy week. Oh and there's an Oiler game on tonight, good stuff. Anyway that's about all for now.

A little business to take care of first....

if this offends some people, so be it. I'm not here to make friends. Let me break it down for you in plain English guys: I believe in God and that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. I don't wear my religious beliefs on my sleeve or anything and neither do you have to either if you like. It's for the above I give pause today because on this day Good Friday. Jesus died for us. I'm not a Church goer or read the bible everyday but just to let my readers know that if you don't have God in your life, your nothing. Everything I am or lack there of comes from one source, that's God.

Yesterday morning I had circulation trouble in my legs due to problems with diabetes, Anne suggested I have an extra long weekend so I called into the office regretting my situation. At least I called in sick.

This is really not new News. Google announced that it is shutting down Reader. I like Reader but there are alternatives. One site I'm liking is TheOldReader thanks to i09 for posting this.

At the moment I'm trying to sync 1107 songs from my iTunes library to clear off all the music from my iPod Touch. I hope I'm doing this right. 

Ok, I'm switching back to Firefox. It's so easy to download photos Chrome always seems to have my photos turned sideways after I download as I'm about 40% synced. This could take all night. Finally, I've got this done. I cleared about 3.5 Gb space for the iTouch.
  
The Columbus/Oiler game at the Rex last night was a quite the game. It was a nice thing for the Oiler's to do win on the eve of a long weekend. They get 2 points and are just 3 points away from a playoff spot. With 17 games left anything can happen. It was a fun game to watch. 

Not only was yesterday notable in above but also I got my income tax return,which means I'm going to pay off Maschine,which is about 60% of my return but the rest is going to be saved for a rainy day. I'm hoping in a way though that I get "laid off"briefly and go on EI with a medical. I've done it that way last time 15 yers ago. The rational behind this is that while it may take 8 weeks to get my first check if it's approved. Next week sometime,I'll make my availability
less half a shift so I can apply for my CPP. This takes 4 months to activate, which means my first CPP check wont come in until about the time my first EI check comes in. If I can get social assistance for those 2 months, the Province will pay for my dental work,such as dentures etc. With the amount of hours I have, I might be able to have about 38 weeks off or just about 6.5 months off. That will take me to 61. Then by that time, I'll have other places set up. I'm trying to time it so that I have work during those 3 years 61-64 will be a tough 3.5 years but from I hope to be on EI for maybe half of that year I'll retire with full CPP and OAS and work where I am for 3 days/week. But that's the long term game plan. Anyway, that's all for now.  
 

Yesterday morning was easy going into

work and I got my morning coffee at Subway. Unlike the herd I skip Tim Horton's as I come off the escalator at Corona station and it's long line ups. I even pass by Starbucks on my way as it's pretty busy there as well. However across the street on the corner is Subway and they're coffee (for a medium) is $1.25. No line up's. 

I like my job, it's just the afternoons are slow and after 3pm,I'm watching the clock a bit. Most Owners/managers/HR people, I need to talk with are usually gone for the day after 3pm and all I'm doing is leaving messages. I like it when I actually get a case I can get right into. HO thinks I'm doing a good job but the coding of my calls is inconsistent but I'm getting better at this. About 3pm is when I get a little played out and then I draw some energy from some unidentifiable place and get right into it and that and a bathroom break to  splash some cold water on my face helps make the afternoon go fast. 

All this week I've been having issues with my diabetes,normally in my legs as I get this kind of "numbness" or circulation trouble. That's what I got this morning when I called in sick. It's not very cool to do that especially on the day before a stat holiday. There's only a crew anyway for the weekend and Monday and I'm not trained on any current study except what I'm currently doing, which is why the boss isn't expecting me there Monday night and I called in a few minutes ago to leave a message on his extension. I always do that to cover my butt.   

This is really cool by the folks from Above Top Secret.com. This link takes you to a story about  Ancient Maps That Shouldn't Exist  it's a post by "smyleegrl." 

Wow, big news in the hockey world: Calgary Flames announced that they've traded franchise icon Jarome Iginla to the Penguins for Pittsburgh's first-round pick in the 2013 NHL Draft and the rights to unsigned draft choices Kenneth Agostino and Ben Hanowski! At least Iginla who lives just up the road from Edmonton in Saint Albert will be in the playoffs. Iginla is the face of the Calgary Flames and has scored at lest 30+ goals in every season in the only NHL team he's ever played with. The fans in Calgary must be stunned.

All last night I just relaxed and listened to some YouTube music and reading from a website about the Vancouver music scene in the early 1960's. I was too young to get into the music scene at that time. I missed a lot of bands like the "Vancouver Epics" and the "CFUN Classics." There wasn't much for a 10 year old to do in the early 1960's but it was fun reading about all the bands and the club scene in the Vancouver "lower mainland" area. Here's a link to the site I was enjoying.   

My long weekend picture is a bit less foggy. I've got Friday,Saturday,Sunday and Monday off. The reason why I have Monday off is because they're only running an evening crew and I haven't been trained on that study. I lose a day but I'd also appreciate an extra day off, so it means I get a 4 day weekend, wu-who! Anyway, that's about all for now. 

This up coming

Easter weekend could be busy but in a nice way: Saturday I'm off for the last showing of Star War's Identities. I hope to provide pictures. Sunday Anne and I are heading out to West Edmonton Mall (WEM) to the movies. I want to see the new GI Joe movie and she likes the horror stuff but if she wants to see GI Joe with me, that's OK as well. At WEM I also want to visit Games Workshops by the ice palace on our way to Silver City movies to look around at the Warhammer stuff. 

My expectations were not very high in January when the season began. All I could hope for was the Oiler's would be playing meaningful games down the stretch and they are.  Some good news yesterday, the Oiler's scored 1-0 over St. Louis. Like that was going to hold up. Then Eberle scored his 2nd goal of the night. I produced a skeptical smile. Then on the rush Eberle was about to score again he shot the puck dragging the goaltender away and there was Hall to pick up a juicy rebound. There was a goaltender change (obviously) after that and the Oiler's won 3-0! Nice.They play again Thursday at the Rex as Columbus is in town, with 18 games remaining in the regular season, not bad boys. Not that they are going to make the playoffs or anything but you never know.

I'll have Good Friday off Saturday to sleep in and I'm off to Telus World of Science (TWOS) for Star Wars, then Sunday out to the movies. Because we're calling businesses and most places are shut down Easter Monday, we might be off for Monday as well, which would mean a nice 4 day weekend. We don't know yet though. Anyway, that's about all for now.

The best part about

wrestling last night was the Rock/Cena panel near the end that had Bret Hart, Dusty Rhodes,Booker T and Mick Foley.

With this being the 130th year of the typewriter, not much has changed in the standard qwerty style keyboard. Especially when one is trying to text message on a cell phone. Along comes something new called Minuum. Minuum condenses all the keys on a traditional keyboard down to one line at the bottom of a touchscreen device, leaving acres of precious space left to view apps. This is pretty cool:

What's on my plate today? I'm getting a 6/49 ticket this morning as it's a $20M draw Wednesday night. I'm in the office from 9-5 for another long day. After that it's home I'm working on some Lodge and some music stuff. Anne's doing laundry all night, Anyway, that's about all for now.

Not the best of weekends but

Anne got me the beer last night which was nice.

I’m seriously thinking about getting that wifi Cannon camera this week. For something under a 100 bucks the price is right and this will be perfect if I ever get a chance to get to the Star Wars identities this Easter Weekend..

Again I missed the Edmonton pop Culture Fair at the Edmonton: 

It's now in it's 11th year.Aviation Museum. It made the evening news and it looked like they had a huge crowd. Since they now have a Facebook page, that’s, going to go in my list of links later today. I am however going to make a note to self to go to the fan expo in October. To think I went right by the Aviation Museum last Friday taking Anne out for her birthday supper.

Next week is Robert J Sawyer’s annual Spring book tour. This time with “Red Planet Blues.” That’s when I cash in on my Audrey’s club member points. 

Tonight, it’s another round of Monday night Raw and the Oiler game. I’m channel surfing tonight folks! Anyway, that’s about all for now. 

          

I'm having a nice weekend

other then helping Anne with the new box spring mattress's she got in this afternoon. If she thinks with my back I'm moving that hide-a-bed sofa, to make room for the new sofa, it ain't gonna happen:

Ok this week looks pretty good. I'll know Tuesday if I got a new job, so far the signs are right. How the job offer came about was from a previous colleague that befriended me at the old place in the Baker Centre where we worked. We had maintained a off-and-on-dialogue on Facebook since he left and a couple times a year he'd say hi, that sort of thing. When I mentioned on Facebook from an older post he discovered while playing catch up awhile ago, how I was looking for work after 12 years. That's when he sent me a PM about the job offer. If that doesn't pan out then I'm going to apply for unemployment and take some time off on a medical. I've done it before that way. I've got enough hours on EI where I could take 6 months off and with my CPP (when it comes in) I'll be in good shape. Most likely I'll get the job though.

Tomorrow night is Monday night Raw and the Nashville/Oiler game,I'm going to be playing channel surfing all night.

But since Anne is going to go out for beer and then out to Walmart where she'll be an hour or so doing that,which means I'm going to take the box spring out myself and wait for Henry a friend of mine out here that said he'd take them off my hands for $20 as he's heading out to the landfill himself in the morning. I paid him $30 as I helped him load it in his truck. All before Anne got home. Anyway,that's about all for now.

Yesterday's snow storm tapered

off about 7pm. In its wake it left us with about 23cm worth of snow, which is about 10 inches. This was the heaviest snowfall of the season, which began mid October. Usually our snow is just about gone by this time of year. 

Before the blizzard the idea was to go see Star Wars identities, but ETS is experiencing delays so my best chance will be over the Easter weekend next weekend, which is the last weekend of the event. Anne went to see her Princess Diana collection and I'm going to a see Star Wars event. Heck,I might even go Saturday anyway taking the bus with Anne as far as downtown. I can take the #5 to Westmount and the #121 out of Westmount as I doubt the grounds from Westmount to the TWOS will be cleared but I can always check to make sure when I'm at Westmount ETS terminal to save some time. I've done that many times working in the building across from the lawn bowling courts in the early 1990's every morning. So it's not like don't know where it is. 

It's been a crazy couple of days anyway, that's about all for now. Cold weather or no cold weather, I'm going to see Star Wars identities this weekend, anyway, that's about all for now.

It's a near white out

weather system we got coming in right now. I haven't seen it snow with such intensity since last October. 

I didn't sleep well after 5am so I lost 2 hours of sleep. Today isn't going to be that good of a day but we'll see.

In io9 this morning they've got this cool article: When the nerds go to war with the geeks, who will survive?  i09 sets the stage up like this: Well, first we’re going to have to agree on what “nerds” and “geeks” actually are. I personally believe nerds are people who are obsessed with anything, be it math, science, Star Wars or He-Man, while geeks are those who have no basic social skills in a benign but massively uncomfortable way. I love the definition of a Geek. Not that I agree with it but it's an interesting article. Check the link to read more.

Monday my wife went out with her sister to see the Princess Dianne dress collection. They were not allowed to take pictures inside for obvious reasons. 

Sloppy defense work about 5 minutes into the 3rd period, SJ scored making it 3-2. They got another marker shortly after that. The Oil couldn't get it done in OT and SJ won in the shootout. Anyway, that's all for now.

The weather wasn't as

bad as I thought yesterday morning. The only parts that were slippery was heading up the stairs at Corona station and South along 107th there heading towards the Matrix hotel. Coming back wasn't that bad and the intersection was hardly worth wearing cleats over. So in the morning, I should be OK. 

Planet X & Prophecy Mon 03-18  Author and publisher Marshall Masters specializes in Planet X and ancient civilizations. He'll discuss Edgar Cayce's visions of a pole shift, as well as evidence for an object on the other side of the sun, which could be Planet X, and how it ties in with Hopi prophecy. I love shows like this. I wish though they were on a Friday/Saturday night! 

Not much on my plate over the next couple of days. I’m considering a VST from Twisted tunes called S-layer. It’s pretty decent. It means getting a gift card and purchasing it as a download into my laptop. Should be a lot of fun and something I can use with my Machine. 

So after I get about 6 hours of sleep,I'm up and out of here over to the Baker Center. I also want to try Subway's breakfast sausage sandwich in the morning, so I might leave out of here a bit early Anyway, that’s about all for now.

I'm heading out of here

in about half an hour enjoying my morning coffee.

Weather wise, its about -11* but it's the wind chill and it's very slippery out there. Looking outside from my window, you wouldn't think the first day of Spring is on Wednesday!

The photo I just Tweeted may be a bit overkill but I'm not taking any chances until my pathway is cleared this morning and of course there will be the usual ETS LRT delay in the tunnel. But once I'm under way, I should be good to go.

On a news segment yesterday Doctor Oz is promoting  an anti smoking in the work place campaign titled "non smokers need not apply." His rational is that smokers cost a company time and money. I can see what he's getting at not that I agree with it but it makes sense. I recall the last job I had in the Baker Centre my colleagues were more concerned with who's turn it was for a smoke break then the job. Consider that for every 5 minute smoke break once an hour, is 40 minutes of lost time in a 8 hour day. In my that office 80% of my colleagues were smokers,when you add it up that's a lot of lost time and money but there's more to it then that.   

Otherwise, it's a typical Monday morning. Anyway, that's all for now.

Anne went all the way out to the

airport to meet her sister in town for a couple of days but due to the weather fights have been delayed. It means she wont get in until about 8pm,so that ruins her day with her sister. Well one of her days.

By the end of this month we should be out of this cold snap. It means I'm during my commute tomorrow morning,I'm wearing my cleats.

I decided to change browsers and go with Chrome over Firefox because Google is retiring iGoogle after this November. I really liked iGoogle because everything was right there on the same page. I discovered the Google webpage similar to iGoogle where I have my email, Twitter, YouTube, Google maps, Docs and Drive on the same page and I can even put my blog header icon there as well. Google is also getting rid of it's news reader service. All I need now is a Facebook icon link on my Google page. My next step is to sync this with my mobile device and I'm good to go.

I was going to head out yesterday get my haircut, my book, some Tim's breakfast and over to LM and pay my bill and head for Lodge. That would have been a productive morning/afternoon but the weather kept me at bay. 

Nothing special going on this week. If the weather improves then I think I'll be able to get all the above done on this coming up Saturday anyway. 

In a couple of hours, it's Nashville at Edmonton. Should be a good one. Anyway that's about all for now.
  

I woke up yesterday morning

and a blanket of fresh snow on the ground! It was cold waiting for the bus.

*An overnight update; Anne said the guy that is doing our taxes called yesterday. Maybe it's to say he wont be in today (most likely the weather) but I'll call this afternoon before she leaves to meet me later today at the office. I'm so exhausted I could call in and cancel for today, but it's on with the show.

This one is just too weird, suddenly being swallowed up by the earth on a golf course's fairway drove a wedge between Mark Mihal and a stellar round. The 43-year-old mortgage broker was counting his blessings Tuesday and nursing a dislocated shoulder sustained four days earlier when he tumbled into an 5.5 metre deep sinkhole on the 14th hole of the Annbriar Golf Club near Waterloo, Ill. Read more here:

At work this morning I need to ask the boss if I can book off half an hour early so Anne and I (she’s meeting me at my office) at 4:30pm can go to her building to see if we/I owe Revenue Canada this year or if I get a break as one of her co workers does taxes as a business. Now I won’t mind if I owe something like $50, $100 something like that. We need it paid off to get that GST check every 4 months. We might not even qualify for that. Then after that, we’re boarding the #12 bus by The Bay out to the Kingsway Ramada Inn for her birthday dinner.  She’s got some shopping to do and I’m heading back downtown catch the train home to watch what’s left of the Oiler/Wing’s game and watch Smackdown. I’m up early to get my haircut, Tim’s breakfast, Audrey’s for my book down to LM pay off Machine bill at LM catch the #2 bust to The Bay and walk down to Freemason Hall. So, I’ve got a busy next couple of days.

 Another one for my WTF files: One of Britain's most famous "madams" announced in January that she was coming out of retirement to set up a brothel exclusively catering to disabled people and the terminally ill. An ordinary brothel would be illegal in the town of Milton Keynes (45 miles from London), but Becky Adams insists that the government could not shut hers down without illegally discriminating against the disabled. [Milton Keynes Citizen, 1-11-2013] Unfortunately I don’t have a link for it but that’s why we have Google, right?

This is good local news: Yesterday the Ottawa announced $250M in LRT infrastructure money for the Millwood’s/Downtown LRT. The line will begin in 2015 and will be open for business by 2017. It’s the 2nd route over the North Saskatchewan river. This means the City of Edmonton has $1.050B, they still need about another $800M and the City hopes to get that much from the Province (despite current cutbacks) We don’t need the money now, we can get it in 2017. By that time the current Government might not be around. Anyway, that’s about all for now.

A couple of things going on

this month. First off it's the Edmonton public library's main branch Centennial year, nice. Too celebrate the City of Edmonton is handing out free library cards to any city resident. It's a good deal. I haven't used the library in years but it's free right. why not?  

Yesterday I found out my job isn't permanent. It's on a project by project bases. I have these hours for at least the middle of June. After that I don't know. If near that time, I have no conformation of anything, say like a week or 2 off, I can live with that. If however things are shut down for a couple of months, then I have a few other options. If all we have is evening work, I can live with that. I'd rather work part time where I am now then full time out out on 124th street with the gang. Maybe I'd do it next year when the Nait line opens up. In that case it'd be a train to Churchill and connect to the Nait line out to Kingsway board the #12 out to the job site. That might be easier, but we'll see. I don't want to give up on my present job for just a few dollars more an hour.

This caught my attention from i09 earlier: Should we put criminals under surveillance instead of in prison? The thing is putting criminals under surveillance wont prevent crimes. And how are we going to apprehend these criminals once they figure out that resources are so stretched it's going to be very hard to catch them? Read more here:

The other thing I want to do one of these Saturday's this month is head out to the Telus World of Science for the Star War's "Identities" show before it leaves by the end of the month so maybe next Saturday night. I really want to see this before it leaves. I can get a bite to eat at Westmount and take the #5 to Corona station from Westmount and the train home before Anne calls.

The other thing is our local landmark, the High level bridge, has a built in attraction called the "High level bridge waterfall."  It's normally an event for the summer, usually around Summer long weekends. There are lights that shine from behind the waterfall hooked up from just under the bridge. It's nice at night but the event has been shut down over the past couple of years. Forces at City Hall want to bring it back but with Redford's cutbacks and all that affect the City, it's hard to come up with the funds to justify opening it again. What's odd about this project is the water wasn't pumped from the river below and recycled. It was treated water. Now City councilors want to use the water from the river. They should have done that years ago.  

On Coast this morning the topic is about how scientists have succeeded in developing the first living cell to be controlled entirely by synthetic DNA. Cool. Looking forward to listening in on this for a bit. Anyway, that's about all for now.
 

Well a Yesterday on the job

had it’s moments but I did about 8 completions. Usually by about 4pm most business owners have left for the day meaning for the most part my day is spent leaving messages. That part makes for a slow afternoon.

The great Tohoku earthquake in Japan two years ago was so big its effects were even felt at the edge of space.  Scientists say the Magnitude 9.0 tremor on 11 March 2011 sent a ripple of sound through the atmosphere that was picked up by the Goce satellite. On Coast last night they said that magnitude of the earthquake was so powerful it even set the planet off it’s axis by a few degrees.

With all of the Catholic Cardinals in the Vatican getting ready to elect a new Pope, many of the faithful believe the Papacy should begin dialogue on women as Priests and or admitting women as Cardinals. Make’s sense. At least to begin a dialogue.  

Slight change of plans for Anne’s birthday. Instead of going out Saturday night, she’s going to feel to wiped out to go out with me and her sister Sunday. So, I’m going to Lodge Saturday and home Saturday night. Makes sense.

Now this is interesting: Drugs that could combat aging and help people to live to 150-years-old may be available within five years, following landmark research. The rest of the article is here.

No change of plans for me this week. Nothing could go off the rails. So it’s pretty well, business as usual. Anyway, that’s all for now.

Well as short as it was, that was my weekend.

This past Friday night I got Machine and I’m playing around and having fun with it. I watched the Oiler’s lose 0-7 Friday night played around with my new toy all day Saturday. Sunday another Oiler game but with Shawn Horcoff (team Captain) is back! The Oiler’s won 6-5 and playing around with Machine and here I am.

My wife went and took our T4’s down to her building because at her job site there is a semi retired guy that works in her office building Sunday & Friday’s. He prepares taxes part time but last year Anne and I qualified for the free tax service at the library. This year (collectively) we don’t. So her colleague said his going rate is $50/couple as we’re filling separately. If I don’t owe the Feds anything then after work if I can get down there by 6pm to LM I’m going to pay them off for Machine. Anne was saying before I open another account I need to have an RRSP. I can see that.

From my WTF files (in case some of you missed it) comes today's strange date: March 11th 2013. Omit the 20 take away the / and the numbers read 31113! Those have to be winning lottery numbers for sure.

This week, its Monday night Raw and the Oiler’s are on the last leg of their 9 game road trip Tuesday in Denver. For me this week, its work and playing around with Machine. Anne has a week off and wants to replace the couch we‘ve had for 13 years. Friday night after work I hope to meet Anne at her place of employment to sign the forms as the guy doing our taxes is filling them electronically. If I owe the Feds like more then $200 or so, I‘ll be paying LM on my account. Saturday, I‘m heading to Freemason‘s Hall again for Commercial Lodge and because it‘s Anne‘s birthday after Lodge, we‘re heading out to as I‘m taking her to dinner. So, that‘s more or less my week. Anyway, that‘s about all for now.

I'm having a lot of fun

with Machine. I discovered Machine has a built in mic but I can't use it's external features because my laptop didn't come with a internal mic. My iPad though has one and I can without too much difficulty with iTunes file sharing, can convert most audio to Wav files.

Saturday was my day to relax and "enjoy" figuring out how to use Machine. It's a pretty cool device I'll be using for a long time. If I don't owe the Feds any income tax, I'm paying it off in one lump some. 

Other then that the Oiler's are in Chicago this afternoon for another loss. I'm no expert or anything but something's not right with the Oiler's. Other then Glen Sather, Craig MacTavish had won more games as head coach then any coach in the Oiler's organization history. All of this (Oiler's situation) is on the coach. I can see 1 or 2 of the big players like Hall, Eberle and RNH's in a slump, but all of them? This season is another write off. The Oiler's will get better when they get rid of Steve Tambolini, Kruger and get a better goal tender and move out of the Rex. With the worst loss this seasons on Friday. I think other turning points were when Kruger benched Smitty for a couple of games and Horcoff got injured.   

Premier Redford released the Provincial budget Thursday. The Government spending "deficit" is after they borrow about $40B with be a "deficit" of $2B. Redford say's this will be the status quo for years to come. Yet, the Tories won't flinch at giving themselves pay raises, while making cutbacks in essential services because of the Tories "bitumen bubble" syndrome. They want us too think the Sky is falling. Not. 

Hey, we just changed the clocks ahead due to Daylight Savings time. The day's are getting longer. Anyway that's abut all for now.

I had a pretty

decent night last night. After Lodge, I went up to Bay station and after about 10 minutes, here comes Anne down the escalator and we talked while waiting for the train. At Clareview we walked home but the pavement was clean from any ice. I was still in my street shoes. At home Anne wanted to order Pizza and i insist not to go out for it. She checked on a lot of places but most of them after 11pm were closed,except Pizza73. I was hungry as I didn't stick around for festive board. Piazza was good and so were the chicken bites and curly fries. I was in by 1am. 

Today although now I could easily crawl back into bed for a few hours, I'm going to be busy. First of all I have an 8 hour day ahead of me. After work, it's over to Audrey's for another Warhammer book. Then down to LM and pick up Machine. Then home for the Oiler game. Anyway, that's about all for now.

A couple of days a go at the age of 77 a Canadian icon had died: Legendary Stompin' Tom Conners. He died of natural causes. He's best known for his "hockey Song" but in his career had put together over 60 studio recordings. Not my genre but I respected the man. Anyway, that's all for now    

This was from yesterday:

This morning as I was running behind and Anne kind of in the way as I was leaving the apartment, I couldn’t remember turning the kettle on the stove off. I think I got a look at it just before I locked up but at Clareview under sunny skies and a crisp late winter morning I thought, lets grab this #12 and double back home. I was even on that #12 waiting for the bus to leave but I thought, eh, I’m sure I took the kettle off the stove, so I opted for the bus to work.

My new backpack. Out goes the old blue, in comes the new red. The blue was better because it had better build quality until just recently the zippers got stripped:

I had an ok day, despite having to record my voice on my own with a little dictation device, the boss set up for me. It was about the size of one of the new iPod’s. Some of the other staff did it yesterday so this afternoon was my turn.

I had managed 7 completions today and just before I called Anne I tore off a hang nail that turned out to be a real bleeder and required 2 bandages!

I’ve got a rare night off by myself tomorrow night and after work I’m heading over to City Centre mall get a bite to eat at the food court, get that Warhammer Omnibus book and a bite to eat at the food court and head home. Thursday Lodge and Friday it’s off down to LM and pick up Machine. Can’t wait!

The Oiler’s have got 2 more games before Friday. I just don’t get it. What‘s wrong with the Oiler‘s this season? With all that talent and they are again in the near bottom of the pack. Hall isn’t playing well, Eberle is a shadow of what he was last year. Smitty isn’t playing well and Yakupov, forget it and the Nuge hasn‘t even shown up. Our goal tending suck. Hemsky is playing meh. Now I can see maybe 1 or 2 of the guys not scoring but like all of the 1st round picks? I think it has to do with several things, like this long road trip, their team Captain out meh goal tending a lot of things. The worst of it is even if the Oiler’s get a lottery ticket and draft 1st place for the UN-precedent 4th time. I think the problem isn’t the Oiler’s themselves but they’re coach. I think it’s time to replace Kruger bring back Craig MacTavish.Anyway,that's all for now. 
      

I’m awake, sort of.

Despite asked to leave early yesterday due to this cold (I could have stayed longer and it probably wouldn‘t have killed me) but my voice was cracking out.

I just rested up the rest of yesterday afternoon and evening but I’m back at it today for a full day and for the rest of the week.

Ok so now I get what our Alberta Premier’s Redford means by “Bitumen Bubble.”  It basically means that we need to get our Bitumen out of Alberta more then we already are. That means pipelines. To that extent I agree but here’s the other thing about this so called “bubble” every one-cent decrease in the Loonie against the Greenback puts another $247 billion in Alberta’s back pocket – so if the dollar stays at about 95 cents, there’s another billion in the treasury! This is a financial crisis?  Redford’s bitumen bubble is a tactic to keep Doctors and Unions at bay and to justify cutbacks. The way Redford wants Albertan's to believe is the sky is falling, it’s panic mode, we’re in a recession. Which we’re not. We need to get our oil to market fast and that means pipelines. The Keystone pipeline is a decision that US President can make on his own. Yes or no.  
          
I just rested up the rest of yesterday afternoon and evening but I’m back at it today for a full day and for the rest of the week. Overnight Anne put the dehumidifier on and I didn’t hack or cough at all over  night. Anyway, that’s all for now 

With all the medical issues I have

it's amazing I'm not sick as often as I should be. So when my yearly cold bug came upon me this weekend,in a way I was relieved. Normally I get a cold like this around December. I'm going to see how things go this morning and if I can stay for the afternoon, great. If not Anne says come home. That, I can live with.

Yesterday I was able to figure out how Reaktor's Lazerbass works. With all of Reaktor's synths you've got to "go under the hood" and connect things. That's how I got it to work. Well sort of. I got a lot of static when inputting data but that's because my Cubase routing wasn't fully configured. 

I'm not much of a video gamer and I'd rather read then watch a movie then watch TV. I'll watch The Oiler's, Doctor who, Wrestling, CFL and of course the evening news. Other then that, I don't follow a TV series. I haven't done so since Lois & Clark the adventures of Superman in the 1980's and then latter Star Trek's Enterprise and Voyager. After Enterprise other then Doctor Who, that's about it for "following TV" but Monday night Raw is tonight. Anyway,that's about all for now. 
 

I had a decent day off yesterday

I was able to configure my usb set up as before I figured this arrangement out my Cubase dongle wouldn't function on my usb hub

Now I've got the hoarse voice to go along with this cold. Lovely. Hopefully it wont be as bad as the one I had last year. That took me out of action for about 2 weeks before I got any strength back to my voice.

At work I write down the date of every time I make a notation. So, when I began writing the dates down Friday I thought, WTF? It's 3/1/13. Here in North America we write the date out month/day/year. In Europe they write it out day/month/year. When the slash is removed Friday's date was 3113!

Next month in Calgary they are having their annual comic and entertainment expo. We had ours last October.I wanted to meet John de Lancie but I didn't know about the show until the last minute.artist Michael Mateyko created this poster, featuring minimalist portraits of the myriad Avengers members throughout the years. He created the poster for April's Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo, but it's already available at Komboh's Society6 store. Some of this was from the i09 site. It's s nifty poster to celebrate 50 yers of the Avengers. 

 

On tap for this week, Sunday Oiler hockey game, Monday night Raw, Tuesday Oilers/Wild, Wednesday is open, which means I can bus over to City Centre mall get that Warhammer Omnibus book and a bite to eat. Thursday it‘s book off work at 4pm head home clean up, get ready, head out to Lodge to get there by 6pm and then we go to Freemason‘s Hall for a Lodge to Lodge visit. With any luck, I‘ll be done by about 9:40pm and will meet Anne after she gets off work. Friday after work I do my banking and pick up Machine. Can‘t wait. So the above is my week next week.

We're supposed to get about 15cm of snow overnight just to remind us that winter hasn't left. Even though Spring is only 2 weeks away and daylight savings time is next weekend. 

If possible when I get my copy of Machine Friday night I'll try and get one of the guys to take a video of me un-boxing it. I'm also going to get some of the Reaktor ensembles from Twisted tools.I like "Rollodeck" and "S-layer". Anyway, that's all from me for now.

Friday, our favorite day of the week....

for  most of us its 2 days off. As for yours truly this weekend is going to give me a chance to recover from a scratchy throat. All need is a couple of days to rest it up before I get a cold. It makes for a long day. If I see a message left within 2 days, I'm not leaving another one. And I'm not sure if I even mentioned my availability is half days Fridays.

I was reading in my Coast to Coast newsletter "today in Strangeness," the other day that in 2006 the world's population was at 6.6 Billion people. We're now at 7Billion people. The birth rate is roughly 21 million so far and it's barely the first of March. The death rate as of today is about 9 million according to the world population clock.

Planet earth needs some kind of strategy because even by today's population standards how sustainable is a population like that? Us science fiction enthusiasts have been suggesting for years that space is one answer for  addressing population growth. There are others and I'll talk about this over the weekend. Anyway, that's about all for now.