Yesterday

I left out of here shortly before noon for my 1-8pm shift. Weather wise it was just recovering from a rain earlier in the morning. Apparently the City had all of it’s attractions available free for the public yesterday. I gave a nod to Edmonton Fan Expo as the train went by Rexall. I got into the office thinking I’d like to opt out of the full shift. I began to get into it and felt a bit better. I began to follow the Riders/Al’s game. By 5:30pm I had my half hour and a chicken TV dinner, which was surprisingly tasty. Al’s beet out the Riders 17-12! I had 2 hours to go and I worked that out ok. Despite all of that, I was feeling ok. In fact, not to bad. I even got my train on time at Corona. I even got inside at 8:30pm!

Anne was “face timing” her sister when I walked in and had a small chat. I said something on how I’m considering the iTouch 4th Gen in November. Anne got all defensive but Donna stool up for me.

Anne made us our Sunday brunch latter and we watched the news and just before local news our other Budgie, Sugar passed away.  She’s been looking listless lately and still. When I called Anne about 5pm she was saying Sugar was feeling a lot better. Then Anne noticed Sugar not moving and that’s when she said she died. She took it hard. Me, not as much because I don’t know how many birds over the last 3 years we lost. Beaker is our last. So as sad as it’s worth mentioning, I’m not feeling good about her loss. I feel more bad for Anne then the bird. Sugar of course yes, but more for Anne. No More birds! Famous last words, and I’m sure if we get another one, it’s fate will meet more or less the same way.

Well, that’s September. It’s been rough on me hours wise and losing pet’s wise and thank God that’s over with. I had a nice healthy stash in August and that was gone over night.

I’ve got a relatively easy week hour wise (not that I like it that way) Thursday I’m paying another visit to Service Canada and I’m going to see about some career counseling and get myself a second job or a better paying job. As much as I like the job, I can’t live on money like this. I’ll either have too get another part time job or another first job. Something has to give. I might get my cpp November 1st which will help, a bit. Anyway, that’s all for now.

It was a bit unusual not leaving out of the office

slightly before 9pm last night, and my last completion was just before closing. I was tracking the BC/Winnipeg CFL game all night and "my team" pick lost, BC 53 Winnipeg 17! What was I thinking? I was lucky to catch that train and I met Anne at Bay Station. It was staff appreciation day at her place of work and she won a $5 Tim's card she gave me which I'll be using towards my breakfast this morning I got home to check on what was left of Smackdown. 

I got a full day today and I'll be able to get home in time to watch the Argo/Eskimo game. Anyway, that's all for now.

I'm kind of disappointed that

iGoogle has until the end of October before Google retires it November 1st. I don't like Chrome enough to have it as my go to site but I like the gadgets on my iGoogle site, like Science Shot and Trek today, and on the top there's a YouTube, Gmail and maps link. Maybe Firefox has something like iGoogle. I kind understand Google's reasoning for retiring iGoogle November 1st 2013. I suppose my alternative would be using my blog as my portal to the above sites. I'll be sad to see iGoogle go.

 I'm in the office from 6-10 this evening, so I still have a few hours left here before I leave out of here at 5pm. Then on Saturday I'm from 11am-6pm. That's a good 6.6 hours so in my half hour break I'll pop in over to Audrey's about 3pm or so and pick up a book on my special order shelf.

Last night while working on a track on Maschine, I was wondering why my music was clipping. There's a status bar where it says CPU and a volume meter. When the  status bar reads read, that means it's clipping causing static in my music. At first I thought, maybe it could be part of my routing in the audio to midi preferences. Or whatever it's called. I checked in there, and even increased the sample rate from 4100 (standard) to 4800. I still got clipping. After doing a bit of research I found that I needed a limiter. Limiter's help prevent clipping. Fortunately Maschine is so versatile that it has a limiter on its effects (FX) channel but it was recommended that the limiter be at -0.0db. Best I could dial it in was at -0.4db but I put one on Master, Groups, and Sounds. I still got the clipping. Then I figured that it's got to be my slow laptop but in checking earlier projects clipping is fine. So before bed I thought, "oh well, I'll do some more research over the weekend. Then this morning it came to me. I keep getting these pop up menu's at various times of the project that say "Sample(s) can not be found, ignore, ignore all, find cancel. I've been hitting cancel because in previous instances when this has occurred "find" points me to an empty folder on on my hard drive. So, this might tell me that these samples were just "one shot uses." I'm going to see what the forums have to say about this. But that's where I think my issue lies with clipping.

Yesterday I got into doing some more research on how to upgrade my Acer laptop. I thought, well maybe all it needs is a 2.5 hard drive (hd) upgrade. I need a internal hd running at least 7200 rpm to run the programs I use for music production. Most laptops hd's run at 5400 rpm. Not good enough for my needs. Then I looked around the Memory Express website (There's a link in my blog sidebar) and they have a few notebook hd's at 500Gb/7200 rpm. That would be a major upgrade. Basically its bring my laptop in clone my existing hard drive and install the new one copy the contents of my cloned drive back into the new hd. I'd probably need a copy of Windows 7 64bit as the copy of Windows 7 Ultimate is set at 32 bit. Including parts and labor it's about a $300 upgrade. If it doesn't work when I get my new PC in the Spring I can always use the OS and the hard drive. The upgrade will also allow a online Ram scanning service to scan to see if my system can take any more Ram. At the moment the scan won't work in a Windows 32 bit environment. Hence the Windows 7 64 bit install. I know that Windows can be reconfigured from 32 bit to 64 but it's a process that takes more time then I can give it and the earning curve is a bit steep for my skill, and patience. Best any Ram laptop upgrade can do is 16Gb Best desktop Ram is 32Gb but there are some 32Gb Ram kits that are slowly entering the market. That's x2 16 chips. I doubt my laptop's CPU would even run them little alone a 7200 rpm hd upgrade. The other thing I was thinking about getting is a 500Gb SSD upgrade, but that'd be almost as much as my laptop cost in 2009 dollars. My best option for music production is buying a desktop but that's going to be in the Spring if I get a income tax return. Then again, I might just book a appointment and get the hd install anyway just to see what if it'll work. If not then I can always reverse the procedure there at the time..

We're having a bit of a problem with our budgie bird we named "Sugar." He feathers are fluffed up and she's very quiet I don't think she's sick at all. This is called "Roosting." Sometimes birds do this to circulate heat or to keep warm.

Before I get on that train at Clareview I'm getting my Proline/6-49 ticket for this weekends games and draw for Saturday night. Saturday after work I'm going to try Burger Baron again to see if they're open and get some fries to take home. Anyway, that's all for now.

I stayed up late yesterday morning because I had Wednesday off

so with that I went to bed about 4am yesterday morning. I get my coffee ready in the morning shave and fire up the computer. First thing I do is check out my email. There was a email from my supervisor at work. Uh-oh, that can't be good. I called the office and they wanted me in for Wednesday and Thursday I can have off. No penalty on me if I opt out. It was short notice. They wanted me in to start at 3 work to 9. That  in itself is ok. So, I opted out. Then I get another call saying that Thursday's shift was canceled. So I was able to work Wednesday after all. Sounds like they pulled one over on me but that's ok. I need the hours and I'm glad I went in, I love my job. I just wish the hours were better. I got today off instead and I'm not picking up the phone today and I'm ignoring my email except for personal email. Not work related.

I've been hearing a lot about "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," the upcoming TV show based upon Marvel's comic book. I'll watch a bit of it but I doubt we're going to see S.H.I.E.L.D.'s bad guy groups like A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) or Hydra. That was the 1960's S.H.I.E.L.D, gasp! I'm hoping to eat my words but I doubt the series will fly beyond the 2nd season. The original comic was called Nick Fury agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Nick Fury was a James Bond type character. This is going to be a CSI kind of a show but a bit jazzed up.

Multi Man publishing is about to release a very ambitious addition to their ASL core modules: "Rising Sun." Its a "Monster" ASL game coming out soon on the World War 2 Pacific theater. With the modules I'm missing I could easily spend $500 on ASL games, I'd probably never play. The price is a bit steep but if I had the money, I'd probably get it and I still might, after I get my computer. The last ASL game I bought was Kampfgruppe Peiper I back in 1993 while ASL was part of Avlon Hill. I'm missing 8 games and the "new" rules book.. 

Despite all of what went down yesterday, I had a decent shift but it was slow. I had a 30 minute break shortly after 6pm and a 10 minute break about 7:45pm. I had a colleague to ride the train home on and I caught my bus and home. 

Friday I'm starting at 6pm and off at 10pm. I'll miss some of Smackdown but tonight I'll be home able to watch all of Impact wresting. Saturday I'm in at 11am and I can get my morning breakfast at Tim's. Since I'm off at 6pm, I'll be able to get home in time to watch the Argo's/Eskimo's game and check in on the Oiler game.

Speaking of which, the Oiler's made another dumb assed move yesterday. They put Ryan Jones on waivers. It means that a team can pick him up before training camp. I'd take Ryan Jones over 4 goals RNH and his $7M a year salary any day. I'm hoping RNH will prove me wrong but this year, because of the huge CFR road trip and the Olympic 10 day lay over, the Oiler's again wont make the 2014 playoffs. They won't get in the playoffs until they get out of Rexall Place, which will be for the 2017 season and that's another 3 years away. Anyway, that's about all for now. 

I'm enjoying a nice cup of sleepy time tea

before bed.

I don't know if this is true or not but some of the staff were talking about it yesterday. Apparently when your using Apples "Face time," the application shares your email address. I searched YouTube and found  nothing about this.

I came across a great article in i09 how Winston Churchill in the Second World War, wanted to build these aircraft carriers made of ice. It was discovered that ice melted a lot slower in the cold waters of the Atlantic ocean. The idea was to make a difference in the battle for the Atlantic, which Brittan was on the losing end due to Hitler's U-boats. Geoffrey Pyke, an eccentric scientist who was working for Combined Operations at the time envisioned sculptured icebergs in the Atlantic that could contain airfields or at least fueling depots for ailed for aircraft. However his ice experiments became to week. After a process of trial-and-error, he threw some sawdust into the mix — and the ensuing difference in strength was dramatic. This Pyke named the material Pykrete. Churchill ran with this experiment and dubbed it Operation Habakkuk. They actually began building a prototype in of all places Jasper Alberta on Patricia Lake. There's even a lake shore plaque on the site of the prototype still there today. You can read more about this fascinating piece of history here:

So I have today off but then I'm hard at it Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I think I'm going to opt out for Sunday though, that's a lot of hours. Anyway, that's all for now. 

I'm up for an hour and then

in bed by 2am up t 10 and out the door shortly before noon. I got a full day tomorrow, then Wednesday off.

Tonight on Coast the topic is about Technology Frontiers. They're going to talk a bit about nanotechnology, synthetic biology. Also they're going to talk about the Mars Arctic 365 project. Should be a good show. 

Monday night Raw wasn't bad. On a scale from 1-10, I'd give it a solid 7. I almost missed it last night because I thought I was working until 10pm. I'd get home about 11 as the show would still be in progress by the time I got home.

Edmonton Oiler's Sam Gagner received a broken jaw and some missing teeth from a elbow shot to the head by Vancouver goon Zack Kassian. Gagner will be out indefinitely because of this. The "good news" is that Kassian will be suspended for the rest of training camp and 5 games into the regular season. He should have been fined as well..
Anyway, that's about all for now.

About 4pm Sunday my

wife came back from her shopping with a new addition for the family, meet Beakie:

Beakie has a slightly unusual anomaly by his tail feather. These iPad in house close ups are not that great. Beakie is the same color as Chirpy that passed away last week.

I'm considering the new iPhone 5c and on a 2 year agreement I think it's about $229. At first I thought, why would I need a cell phone? Several reasons present themselves: Hockey season is here and I'm working mostly nights so it'd be nice to have access to the scores. Also, it'd be nice to have for personal and business calls because many times I can't get to a phone to call my wife on my break. Also, if a potential employer wants me in for a interview and I'm on the road I can respond right there. This would be a real asset. It's not a must have item but this iPad camera is the pits for taking photos and my Samsung camera doesn't take very good pictures either. We've been talking about a cell phone for awhile now. Anne can have the iPad because she uses it to Face time her sister and likes the internet for her American idol type shows and to take pictures of our cats etc. A iPad is bigger and harder to lose then a iPhone/iTouch likes she did in January. Most likely I'll get this in November and on a Bell account, not Telus. 

Tonight on Coast the topic is about: Shamans & Voodoo/ UFOs. Should be a good show for a Sunday night. George Knapp usually has good shows for a Sunday night.

Earlier I was watching the BC/Rider's game and I'm happy the Riders took another loss. It's panic nation. Anyway, that's about all for now.    

Summer is officially

over and it's been a short one arriving about mid May. Our summer usually runs mid April to the end of September but we still haven't had our "Indian Summer" yet. 

Friday the Esks won and there's a slim chance they could still make the play offs or cross over to the Eastern conference based on their points at the end of the regular season. Also last night the Oiler's were facing a Vancouver Canuck team that had most of their training camp roster. Their big stars were out of the line up. Still it was a nice 5-2 win for the Oiler's. 

Looks like I'm not going to be putting any serious music together except for instrumentals until I get a better computer that can actually handle the programs I have. A computer for music production. My little Acer laptop with 4 Ram keeps crashing. I bought it before I wanted to get into music production. I obviously need a desktop computer and I hope to get one mainly for music production, soon. I'm looking at a aTMX mother board with a quad core i5/7 processor, 32 Gb ram, 4Tb internal hard drive. I'm buying it locally and I'm getting my laptop hard drive cloned for the new PC. I'm hoping to get it before the end of the year or in early January, depending on what's going on with my Lodge.

Not much going on today. I've got a couple of Lodge calls to make and I'm watching Thursday's Impact wrestling and some football. Anyway, that's about all for now.

My hours for next week are a little

choppy. Not 1 day is the same but at least I'm getting the hours in. I'm off today as I can sleep in and watch football, hockey and wrestling. Sweet.

Speaking of football on my $2 Proline ticket, I had Edmonton/Winnipeg to tie. I was tracking the scores all night in between calls. A tie in Proline is a 3 point game. There was 2 minutes left in the last quarter. The score was 24-27 Bombers. I stuck around until the last minute but the supervisor wanted to leave. I got home and the score was 27-35 Eskimo's! That means the Esks got 11 points in 2 minutes. Unbelievable.

I had a pretty good night on the job last night and if the schedule holds up I'll have Wednesday off a more or less full cheque. It means I'll have some cash for myself for a change. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Enjoying a cup of sleepy time tea

reflecting on the day that was Thursday, September 19th yesterday.

I woke up about noon yesterday and dragged myself into work about 3:45pm. It was a good and productive 5 hour shift. Probably the most productive I've had all week. 

In i09 they are asking the question "Which Science Fiction or Fantasy Character Deserves a Spinoff?" This is across all genres. There are so many choices. I'm thinking The Dalek's from Doctor Who. The post is here:

Tonight on Coast the topic is: Twin Telepathy/ UFO Phenomenon. Should be a good show this morning.

On local sports TV, Oiler's management announced that Ryan Nugent Hopkins, or "RNH", who hasn't played a full year and has only 4 goals to his credit and is on the injured reserve list until November signed for a $6M a year salary. WTF? I thought Shawn Horcoff's deal was bad but this makes my head spin. I'd say wait a year and see how well this kid does. Hall and Eberle, $6M sure but they more or less have "proved" they're worth it. Ok speculation on my part but watch, RNH will reactivate his shoulder injury the first month and be out for the rest of the year. This sounds like another Khabibulin deal to me. RNH is not worth this kind of money. No way. MacT, what are you smoking?

I'm still reading "Space Wolves", Warhammer 40K and I'm at the half way mark of this book, at last. I began reading it in January no less. At the rate I'm going I might not get to finish it until the end of the year. Anyway, that's about all for now.

City work crews finished paving the intersection out

here, which is about time. Some people at City Hall are trying to make roads a October 21st election issue. If there's any election issue it should be LRT expansion. Namely the Mill woods SE/W LRT line.  

What lotto Canada did with the New 6/49 was not only increase the weekly prize draw to $5M from $3M but increased it by $4M every week the prize goes unclaimed. Plus they added another draw for a chance to win $1 for a $3 ticket. This weeks prize package goes to $9M for a $3 ticket. I'll buy one this weekend as I'm giving Proline a bit of a break. 

I've still got a bit of work to do in my Lodge as to try and arrange positions for our own elections in a few weeks away and I'm almost there. I've got a few contacts yet to make and to go over the constitution and review "Robert's rule of order" on how to run a meeting.

Yesterday was the last day for our out going Mayor Stephan Mandel. This was City council's last session before the upcoming civic election October 21st. I'm voting for Karen Leibovici. She worked closely with Mandel on the homelessness issue and supported the downtown arena from day one. Mayor Mandel did so much for the city, such as a new LRT line, his work for homelessness, the downtown arena, which will revitalize the downtown core (if it ever gets built) and re development of the airport lands, he's made the city stronger. The best Mayor we've ever had. If we get Leibovici or Iveson we'll be ok. If we get Dottie uggh, he'll set our city back by 20 years.    

Because my work is mostly in the evenings I'm going to miss a lot of Oiler hockey games on TV. Just in scanning over their 2014 schedule including this Saturday nights game I'll be able to catch mostly weekend games. That's about 25 games I'll be able to watch on TV. If however I get a couple of day projects that last us a couple of months each, I'll be able to watch more Oiler hockey games on TV. Then there is the 2 week break in February for the Winter Olympics, then it's down the home stretch in April and the Oiler's can get ready for team Canada.  

My hours are going to be ok this week. I'm working today, Friday and Saturday for 31 hours on the week so far. If everything goes well for next week, I could get another 31 hours. It means I haven't seen hours like this since the end of July. If it holds, I might be able to get something for me and save for that computer.

Anne had taken our budgie bird that passed away the other day to the vet and the vet said his beak was too long. These things can grow like fingernails and if the beak is too long the bird can't eat. It needs it's beak to crack open seeds for the morsel inside. Chirpy's beak was way to long and the poor thing starved to death. Anyway, that's about all for now.  

I'm on the phone this afternoon trying to reach my contact but that failed to connect

and it's been derailed until later this morning.

On Coast this morning the topic is JFK! About time something good crops up from this show but I support this theory.

Then Anne gets up and says she has bad news. Our green budgie bird Chippie died. We had him now for almost 2 years. We lost 3 birds in about 5 years. Just as we're trying to come to grips with this, I get a phone call from the office. I've got x2 5 hour shifts and a 7.5 hour shift added on for this week. That's for this week. At least that's good news. I'm off Saturday/Sunday. But Friday's shift means, I miss the Eskimo game. So I'm in the office and then just before shift starts I get some more bad news: The quota's are back and if we don't make quota we could be sent home. In all my 13 years at my other job I've never been in a position like this. I think I was sent home once and that wasn't because of the boss but because of the manager. Now it's Déjà vu all over again. Not even during my previous job's "ghetto projects" cold calling in a recession was I ever sent home. Sure I had low totals but we were always of the premiss "as long as the effort is there." On one hand I get the hours but on the other it could cost me. So I didn't even take a break because every call was important. I got a "pick it up" warning and I ended up with just a bit shy of quota. I told my wife this when I got home and she said she's getting me an application where she works. I'm going to try for at least 1 day/week there so I can at least get my foot in the door. Earlier I said $10/hour jobs anymore just don't cut it? I'd rather work $10 steady then $11.54 and the stress part time and 2-3 shifts here and there.

City paving crews are finally out there getting our side of the street done. Hopefully it's going to be a quiet weekend for a change. Anyway, that's all for now.

I had a decent night on the

job last night.

This was from last week but It's Official: Voyager 1 has Left the Solar System. Voyager 1 is about 102 astronomical units (AU) away from earth. Or 15.3 billion miles away. It's traveling at 57,600kph. So for something that's over 35 years old, Voyager 1 is holding it's own.

Wednesday on my day off I'm heading over to Service Canada to see what career counseling options I have available. I cant live on these hours. I'm not putting anything on notice or anything like that. I miss my other job where I was getting $100/week spending money and that was after I paid my bills. Right now I'm not getting anything but barely paying my bills, that's barely. I haven't been in this bad shape since before I got married 13 years ago and $10/hour jobs put me no further ahead. It's frustrating.

The other thing I've got on my plate tonight is a Lodge phone call I'm making at work latter on today. But I'm thinking about calling in the afternoon before work to leave a message on the answering machine, something like, "I'll be  calling from work about 7pm. Look for this name "----" its going to be me calling from work etc." Now if I can speak with my contact before I leave, even better. It's a crucial call. Anyway, that's about all for now. 

I've got a few hours before I head out of here

this afternoon. It's a 5 hour shift, so it should be a good one.

Last night I was finally able to watch Star Trek "Into darkness." This has got to be the best Trek ever. On a scale of 1-10, it's a 10! I like how they used a landing party as an "Away team." That's a Next Gen term. If JJ Abram's can produce a movie like that every 2-3 years, I'd be a happy camper. 

The SE/West LRT has a council meeting today to see about buying the land they need for the route. The next meeting is on November 20th on how to proceed with the project. The first leg of the project will cost about $1.8B. The City has earmarked $800 million into the project. The Federal portion of the P3 should be made available in the new year. The Province (hopefully) will kick in the rest. It looks like its going to more or less start on time. Completion date is 2019 for the first half of the SE/West line.

It doesn't look like the City will get to paving the intersection outside our place this week. Hopefully they'll do this on the weekend.

I'll be home tonight shortly before 10pm for another round of Monday night Raw. Otherwise, not much is going on. Anyway, that's all for today..

I had a decent day yesterday despite thinking I had to get out

early because of the paving City crews were doing over night. I was actually at Corona station and in Tim's at about 9am ordering my breakfast Saturday morning.

This is awesome: In an i09 article recently talks about the worlds largest Star Wars collection. The Guinness book of world records recognizes Steve Sansweet's Star Wars collection. We had this guy here in Edmonton a few years back. Sansweet's Star Wars collection contains about  300,000 items at Rancho Obi-Wan in Petaluma, Calif. and was recognized in the Guinness book of records for 2014. I can't display the video thanks to Google screwing things up. So here's a link to the video:

Ok, so back to business: Work went well Saturday and despite it being a 6 hour shift and all I worked through it with just 1 break. By 4pm though I was getting a bit played out and could have a few extra hours. After work I went to Audrey's and got my book asked if I could wait until the end of the month and begin to pick up the other 3 items. The owner said sure as I said my hours have been cut but Anne and I have a bit of a plan ahead, so we'll see. Burger Baron is a few doors down from Audrey's and I wanted to get a large order of fries to take home but the place was surprisingly locked up. So I caught the train to Clareview  instead and walked home from the station through "Clareview Mall." It was very warm and I was sweating by the intersection by our place right where the paving crew had laid down that sticky primer tar. By this time all 4 lanes had been opened up. I had to walk around and fight through breaks in the traffic to avoid getting tar on my shoes.
 
Finally at home in the elevator to our 2nd floor. Check my shoes, no paving tar. I was grateful I was home and I found the Bombers/Eskimo game on TV halfway through the 1st quarter. I had my left over lunch, put the fan on and relaxed and enjoyed the game. It was a monkey off the back for the Eskimo's 7-24 victory! A much needed win but the rubber match is next Friday in Winnipeg and they want this one back. Both teams now share the 2-9 record. There were also 2 Oiler pre season games. Oilers/Flames and Flames/Oilers taking place at the same time. We lost here at the Rex but won there at the saddle dome.

Not much going on today, I'm relaxing working on a track and having brunch. We're going to order Video on Demand Star Trek "Into Darkness." For $6 its a good deal. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Most of the time

Friday the 13th works out pretty good for me, not that I'm superstitious or anything. Yesterday, I didn't even know until it was mentioned on Coast that yesterday was Friday the 13th. So I'm buying my 6/49 ticket as usual and after I get off the train at Corona on a beautiful Sunny mid September day, I'm walking over to the Baker Centre. I got my extra strength Motrin and made it to work with half an hour to spare. Notice I never mention where I work.

I was shocked to see my hours, or lack there of. I got 2 shifts next week. I talked to the boss and asked what happened to the project that was supposed to go to at least the end of September. He said we're launching it September 23rd. Next Monday. Even then its part time but we've got another project for October. In other words from here on in I'm working part time and that translates into not making any money. If I'm  not making money, I'm not happy. So he said I might be able to get in on the training for next Thursday, which would include test calls for Friday. 

I'm not a quitter at anything I do. I never give up. I don't give up on my marriage or compromise my marriage. I don't give up on my friends or colleagues even if they let me down. I won't give up on my Lodge even if they wont support me. I don't give up on anything I do. Some dreams may get put on hold but I never give up.

Yet something's got to give here. I need some hours and I'm not getting them at my current place of employment. So after talking to the boss of this other company I emailed my resume. I asked if I could follow up and he said next week. Hopefully I can do 4 hours at 1 place and 4 hours at the other.

So yesterday at work, things are going along ok. I have no dental pain. I actually had a decent shift and I checked in on the scores of the CFL game between Hamilton/Calgary. I'm having a good night for what we had to work with. So after work I thought maybe I had a bit of time to check in at Audrey's and Trevor was just cashing out. So he looked at me and through the doors he said "Sorry Jim." I said I'd come back tomorrow. So up until Clareview, everything is fine. Then the bus gets re routed and on 137th the city has got all the roads and everything blocked off to just 1 or two  lanes. They're paving and I don't know how I'm going to get to work this morning. Anyway, that's all for now. More latter..

Over the last several days I've been having some dental pain that's been

taking its toll on me. Wednesday I had to duck out 2 hours early and come home early. I had a break in the pain today and I feel ok right now.

Wednesday on Coast they had a great show on the events that took place on 9/11 2001. I didn't listen to all of it but I'm of the opinion shared by the guest that this was a conspiracy. I don't normally buy into conspiracies but this one is hard to just dismiss out of hand. 

Our weather yesterday was +30, which was a record. Usually for mid September, its about +20. October can be nice as well. 

Looks like I wont be able to get my computer until Spring. Tax return time. It'll give me some time to save up for it and get it done right.

I think there's a 50-50 chance that I'll have my year in the East next year. It depends on some last minute scrambling and a bunch of phone calls. 

Today I've got a 5 hour shift and before work I'm going to Audrey's and get my book and then some extra strength Tylenol. That usually works.

I'm thinking about working with my wife's company but from home so I can get some extra hours. I can work from 10-1am and that might be an option to make up some extra hours. I'm working Saturday from 10-4:30pm and I'm off for almost 2 days after that. Anyway that's about all for now. 

It was a good day getting back and all

but crazy. Now in this line of work, we all have expectations, I get that. Hours are short at my job as it is but by placing further demands on my job is adding insult to injury. Its called flow rate quotas. Some clients get real anal over it and they're saying that if the average flow rate isn't met then hours will be dropped. Sorry but I don't work that way and my wife is encouraging me get some pick up hours where she works. I'm beginning to to see where this makes sense. I don't need the aggravation.

Yesterday Apple went and introduced the 5C and 5S. The C comes in different colors the the iTouch. The 5S has fingerprint lock technology and slow motion camera movement. The 5S comes in various colors such as gold, silver and I think platinum, I think. I'm in no hurry to get one. I don't even have a steady job, little alone enough to get a cell phone. Not that getting a cell phone is a big deal for me anyway.

I'm still going to keep my job and all but I'm going to go all out and get some pick up hours. If they want to play hard ball with me fine, I'll be able to absorb the losses. I appreciate the job and all. Anyway, that's all for now.

I'm back at it today

but if things don't pick up I'm going to get the extra hours someplace else. I'm running out of my savings. If I can work 4-9 Tuesday-Saturday, that'd be ok until my early retirement comes in around November but I need something steady.

I get asked all the time,"Jim your in Alberta, whats your take on the Keystone pipeline? Its a accident waiting to happen. This thing is mapped right through Hurricane alley. Its a recipe for disaster. The best way to get our oil to the US is by rail. Just 1 DOT-111 tank car can carry 20,000 US gallons of oil.The  DOT-111 tank car was involved in the Lac-Mégantic derailment earlier this summer in Quebec. There were 72 of them in that disaster. Transporting oil to the US is safer then the pipeline.

I'm having some issues with Google+ and YouTube. My YouTube channel is ok but my YouTube inbox is missing. Also I can't change my profile picture because of size issues. Even after I change size of my photo. I might have to open a new Google+/Hangouts or what ever it's called. It might take me awhile, but I'll figure it out. 

Another thing I get asked all the time is what I think will happen to our society. I don't think we'll have any major wars or anything because our society will be very prosperous. At the same time Earths population will be down to the levels of the 1920's due to over population levels. Et will still be in the realm of science fiction. There will be settlements on Mars and other planets moons etc. There will also be synthetic programmable human like robots. Cloths will be holographic and resistant to the environment. At the latter half of the century physicists would have found alternate earths like in sliders but without humans. That's about all I "see" right now. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Well I've got another 3 days off

and that's not good. I'm going to see what's happening for next week then, I'll be making some adjustments. Most of the people I work with have a 2nd job and I might be forced to look for a 2nd job as well. I have about another 3.5 years before I retire anyway and then I'd keep this job part time. For now though I'm not quite there.

Yesterday Nasa launched "Ladee" a lunar mission from Wallops Flight Facility on the Virginia shore. The mission is to measure the thin lunar atmosphere and lunar dust. Also this mission is to demo laser communication. It's going to orbit the earth 3 times. It's going to arrive in the lunar orbit October 6th. It's a 6 month $280 million mission. .

Not much on my plate today. I'll be watching the BC/Hamilton game about to get under way, in about an hour after that, I'll probably work on a track after that. 

I don't think the Eskimo's respond to well under pressure. It's kind of like Cody Rhodes being "fired" by Triple H when he lost his match with Randy Orton. Sure the Esks are struggling but they've got to play better then they did last night. Our first chance at the ball on a kick return, it gets fumbled recovered and points made on that turnover. Our field goal kicker had 2 field goals a high school kid could have made and he missed both of them. Our QB's go to receiver that accounted for almost 27 points in 5 minutes Monday had double coverage all night giving us a score of 12-22 Calgary. We're 1-10! We hadn't had a record like this since 1971. That was the year we had to fly a bunch of NFL players up here. Even at the moment we're running with only 3 imports. At least NHL training camp is coming up next week. 

In a interesting "turn of development" from a story from the national news. It seems there are more then one "opposition" group in Syria. The National news source said there could be as many as 4-6 different groups with various agenda's. But what if terrorist groups have managed to acquire chemical weapons brought them into Syria and used them to draw other countries like the US into the conflict? Arming these groups is a bad idea because for all we know we're arming terrorists organizations. I'm pretty sure US intelligence knows what they're doing but you never know.

At the moment, I'm enjoying a coffee trying to wake up. Next weekend (I hope) I'll be working 10-4pm.

Alright the BC/Hamilton CFL game is about to get under way. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Yesterday as I was getting ready to leave for Lodge

I got a call from the office saying Friday and Saturday's shift is out so I'm to call in about 5pm. They have a good reason and at least I'll be able to catch the Stamps/Esks game, so that should be ok. I've got a long weekend but the hours aren't there. Hopefully I'll get them back again for next week.

Tonight's Coast is going to be pretty good: The Illuminati and "Hip-hop." I love shows like this. Obviously this is a attempt to discredit hip-hop. It's not my style of music but it's going to be a fun show.

Over the past couple of months on the Connect 2 Edmonton Forum, I was kind of ragging on the upcoming Nait Line. I thought that because the current bus station to gain access to Kingsway Mall will be demolished and the new bus station will be North of the Royal Alex Hospital, I'm not going to traverse 4 lanes of traffic to get to Kingsway and then I realized, "wait now" the end of the Nait line is going to be right behind the mall. No lanes of traffic to cross. Cool.

We had a full house of visitors and Lodge dignitaries and even though I'm missing 1 chair, I could be missing 2. We're just going to fill them night by night, but we're still going to have my year. Barely. I'm still going to have my year in the East, somewhere.

About noon I'm heading across the street to Superstore to get my Proline tickets. It's week 11. This time I've got Friday night Stamps/Esks (T) Esks to win by 3 points. Saturday: BC/Hamilton (T) Sunday: Argo's/Al's (T) Riders/Winnipeg, Riders to (W) That's 3 ties and a win.

The city's paving crew has been hard at it all night. Anyway, that's about all for now. 

What the iPad 5 is coming out later this

month? Yeesh. My iPad 3 is barely 18 months old and there is no way I'm going to break down and buy the latest and greatest. If apple decides to bail on their previous gen iPad's and stop their os upgrades at the iPad 5, Apple loses my credibility. They did this with my iTouch 4.2.1 3rd gen and I can't upgrade the software beyond what I have. As long as we can access iTunes and do face time and I can access the net that's all I need. That doesn't mean I'm going to go onto Android. I'm about to wash my hands with the whole mobile tabs phones everything. All I need is my home internet especially after my iPad was hacked. Our Big 3 service providers wont put a usage cap freeze if the account goes over it's limit. Please Verizon come into Canada we need competition. The real value for me for a tablet is reading eBooks and I can get a Kobo for about $150 and Kobo supports ePub. 

On Coast this evening they have a great poll: "How would you prefer to be paid "Cheque or Direct bank deposit?" That's the way I'd like to go. DBD all the way. Most respondents felt the same way.    

I had a pretty good day today even though the file I had looked like there was about an hours worth of work in it. I thought, great, maybe I can ride the train for awhile and have a nap before the next shift starts. Sure enough the boss comes back with another large file. Rats. That's good though because that and what I had this evening gave me a full day. By 7:40pm I was played out but I had a break ahead of me and I went to Subway and got a coffee. They had the "Tour Alberta" bike race and part of the route went by our building. After work I was relieved to catch my train home and a bunch of "tour" fans boarded my train at Churchill station. Its all good.

Spider man does it again! Thanks to Coast for this. A 69 year old man was concerned about the cost of his daughters wedding. He remembered a old box of comic books he had stored away. Inside there it was The Amazing Spider-man no.1! He paid 12 cents for it in 1963. He sold it for $7,000.The story gets even more interesting but you can read about it here.

I got 5 hours tomorrow and some banking to do, going in with my wife. Anyway, that's about all for now.

My last day off today

and my football game Bombers/Riders was almost a tied game up to the half. Then today I got the Esks/Calgary game and Monday night Raw to wrap up my evening and my 5 days off

Last night about 10pm the city paving crew decides to turn the street out here into a construction paving zone. It was bumper to bumper traffic out there as the city decides to bring in te heavy equipment. I got a bit of sleep but then about 4am it was beep-beep all night. It was giving me a headache. Finally the beeping stopped about 7am. Maybe someone complained. I slept on the couch and feel a bit better.
 
I've got my first day back to work having tomorrow after having almost a week off. Thursday I'm off because of Lodge night. Friday is a short shift and I'm working on a rare Saturday, then I'm taking 2 days off after that. Its not that busy a week but I got some stuff going on. Anyway, that's about all for now.

My 5 and a half days

off are coming to a close. I've got Sunday, which is a Winnipeg/Riders at 2pm today. I've got 2 more sleep-ins and on Tuesday I'm back to work for a short week and Thursday off. I had just about all of August off. Thursday is my Lodge night, which is going to be interesting. I'm also going to work on a rare Saturday next weekend.

If everything works out ok, I should have the computer the Saturday of November 1st. It's a i5 quad core, 32 Gb Ram and I'm going to upgrade the hard drive with a 4Tb hard drive. This computer comes with Win 7 running at 64 bit and I'm going to bring my laptop hard drive along and get that drive cloned over to the new drive. I hope to accomplish that on a Friday afternoon, that's the idea

I've got football today and Sunday with the Esks/Calgary and to end the evening with Monday night Raw. I wish I had more long weekends off like this Anyway, that's about all for now.