I never saw this coming

Taylor Hall traded for Adam Larsson. New Jersey got a great player, we got a good player. The deal was a straight 1-1. Sure Larsson filled a need. I'd rather have seen RNH or Yak go then Hall. At least when the Canadians traded Subban to Nashville, they got back Shea Weber. Time will tell if this is a good trade or not. Now watch, Hall will hoist the Stanley cup next year and it'll be against the Oilers. Eventually McDavid will be traded as well within 6-8 years. Lets hope Oilers have a few more surprises yet between now and Friday to wash down this bad medicne.

Since I've got nothing to do this evening after Anne heads out of here, I'm thinking about heading over to the rec centre. Maybe stay for about an hour. I'll swim in the lazy river, enjoy the hot tub and the steam room. I might even work out for a bit, we'll see.

I called the boss before the Oiler trade came down and we have work in July. I know the projects by name. One I even did during my first month on the job. Its not like last year when we didn't know any details before the summer shut us down. I recall I worked until at least mid July last year. I'll have to call back Tuesday to get more information. I doubt that answering service sales job will call today. The expiry date for that according to last Thursday will be today. If this place calls me in for training, its only 2 weeks I'll go. Something like over 200 applicants applied for this job. They need 2 positions to be filled. I hope I don't get called but until I get back to work, I'll have about a week off. Anyway, that's all for now.

A short post this morning

My shift last night didn't last as much as I was counting on, and I've got nothing going on between now and possibly mid next week but there are things coming up for early next month. In other words, I got no work tonight or tomorrow. Of course I wont put a name to anything coming up including the company I'm currently working with but it looks good for next week, work wise. Not much else is going on what with our lodge shut down for the summer. Redwood has a Klondike lodge July 20th and I'm welcome to attend that. The dog days of summer are upon us. Anyway, that's all for now.

I thought the previous version of

Connect 2 Edmonton was a bit cleaner looking then this new version. Most likely I just need to get used to it. The site came back up Sunday night. I launched a new thread on the demise of the old Jasper Place theatre being demolished on Friday but otherwise I'm very happy c2e is back. All the posts I have been subscribing to are back.

The new Rogers place arena is getting its lettering on the outside of the building done. They were working on it last week. The old Greyhound bus terminal building was demolished Friday as well. Interesting how the end seating of Rogers Place is done on portable grand stands. They unfold to fit, and then the seats go in. Looks like the Zamboni is coming through the East end of the arena. That makes sense because of the community rink close to where there outside Metro lrt line emerges from underground. The scoreboard is raised but not finished. There's a lot to do on the outside, and the edges around the roof but pcl should have the arena on time and on budget within the next two months. Oilers training camp might still be at Rexall, hard to say. Opening game day for the regular season is October 12th against Calgary Flames. I'll be watching that one. You can join in on the Rogers place arena discussion and see new photo's here.

I woke up about 11am. I'm out of here at 3:30pm today for my 4:30pm shift. Hopefully I'll have enough hours to last me until Thursday and then I have Friday off for Canada day, and that means in the NHL its Free Agent Frenzy. I get to watch everything unfold, who goes where, which team are buyers and sellers, who gets traded. Fun times. As far as work goes, I'm just taking it one day at a time. Anyway, that's all for now.

When I'm not working it Sunday is

my favorite day of the week. Especially if I have nowhere to go, like out with the wife or lodge practice. Not that there's nothing wrong with any of the two. It's my day to relax. The last time I worked was June 9th and I'm going a bit stir crazy sitting around the apartment. I've had enough relaxing.

This morning I came across Twitter analytics. This was a look into a aspect of Twitter I didn't know existed. In the last 28 days,I’ve made 3 Tweets. Not including the recent ones and my photo change. Out of those 3 Tweets (according to Twitter analytics) I’ve had 944 Tweet impressions, 28 profile visits, out of 776 followers. No likes in the last 28 days. I’m averaging 34 impressions/day. I went and put a blog link in a recent tweet earlier. I need to establish a permanent embedded blog link like a email signature in all my Tweets. I know about monetizing Twitter but I don't know how to go about it, in a discreet manner. I think I'd like to do a cpc (cost per click) kind of a campaign but my Tweets are generic, and not specific to any brand or niche market. At the same time I don't want to get heavy into anything like buying ad words. The Amazon book cover ad top right of my blog is mostly for information purposes. Since I signed up with a Amazon "store" about 2007, I don't think those ads have generated me a penny, and I'm ok with that. I see Twitter as tool to eventually embed one of my music production YouTube video's. I'm sure I can have multiple Twitter accounts for different topics. 

By accident I learned The old Jasper Place theatre was demolished Friday, wow. I think the only movie I saw in there was "Return of the Jedi" in 1983. Tickets were something like $5 back then. Also, I discovered while using Google maps, Boston Pizza moved out of the strip mall just behind the theatre and the lot Burger Baron was on is gated off sitting empty. Like the empty lot that was across the street from our place most likely will turn out to be another Shoppers drug mart. They're popping up all over the place like Bart Simpson and the Starbucks shopping mall scene. I'm hoping the city of Edmonton buys that land, if they haven't already, and uses it for a future phase 2 Valley line stop. That wont happen for at least another 5-8 years out though.   

Other then that not much else is happening around here today. I might have some work this week for a few days but I won't know anything until Monday. As its a short week this week as it is what with Canada day July 1st. We're carefully watching our spending in our household as we're holding back on any outings book buying stuff like that. This summer is going to be hard on Anne and I. The last time I had a $100 to myself was last October and that went to pay lodge dues. I'm hoping we can keep the basics together, and I get work in September. Anyway, that's all for now.

I slept ok up until about 9:30 this morning but after that

my rls got in the way. I think I got 5 hours of sleep, and I'm ok with that. At 9:30 it was time to feed the cats anyway. When rls gets in the way, sleep comes slow. I have my first coffee and I'm ready to take on the day. I got out of bed by 11:30.

I didn't think it would happen but the impossible, did. I'm referring to the UK referendum this week, leave or remain part of the EU. The decision was made: Leave. David Cameron resigns to take over the duties of phasing out of the EU. The markets reacted of course. Cameron will remain as Prime Minister, until the fall. I'm still in shock.

Its slightly overcast out there. C2e is still struggling with some real old vB code for the new upgrade. I've got week 1 of the Red black/Esks game tomorrow. I missed the Argo's game as that was on last night. I'm out of here in a couple of hours to go get my cheque. Not much going on. Anyway, that's all for now.

Anne came up with the idea that it would be nice to

order a Maximus pizza. We might have 2/3rds of the rent covered and the balance in 2 weeks for July, could we justify a luxury like that? I was reluctant but ok since I had enough to pay for it. It was a 2 for one 10 inch. I have half of it left for later.

This referendum in the UK about to take place today reminds me of the Yes/No 51+ Quebec referendum in 1995. A yes vote basically said Quebec would leave confederation (Canada). I was really right into this at the time watching the nail biting drama about to unfold. Oh no, what if this breaks up the country? It would spell disaster. I voted No. Quebec must remain part of Canada. Knowing what I know now about the Billions $ Quebec receives in form of Transfer payments every year from Alberta, I would have voted Yes for Quebec to leave. If such a Quebec referendum to leave Canada occurs again inspired by the British referendum now underway, I'd vote yes, leave. If such a referendum occurred to leave Canada it would be over this notion Quebec has of being a distinct society. In that case Yes, leave and don't let the door hit your butt on the way out. These types of referendums are one shot affairs.    

I'm up at 10am tomorrow morning to get ready to leave for my job interview. I have no expectations. I'll be leaving out of here about 11am bring my book. Its a bit West of Kingsway Mall. Another call came in yesterday and I got that number to call as well. If I leave with nothing, I'm ok with that. Anyway, that's all for now.

Here I thought it was just me being a slow reader that maybe I just never

developed a skill for fast reading. I finished early (this morning) "Scream of Eagles," (soe). It's 319 pages in length. There's enough action to keep me turning pages. I read this book in 6 days! That's the main story for me as I write this. I've read a lot of science fiction, fantasy etc, and a lot of it for me at least reads very slow. It's not uncommon for me to read a book like this in 2-3 months. The Horus Heresy books for example. An average Horus book can take me 2 months to read. I finished soe within a week. The previous book "Talons of Eagles" took me over 3 months but that was because I stopped reading it. I'm going to continue on reading the books I have in this series. The writing is so good.

This morning I missed a call that came in from one of my resume's that I had sent out the other day. I missed the call and called an hour later to get switchboard. She took my name and number down, and said I can either wait for them to call me back or I can call back after 1pm. I'll wait until 1:30pm as a courtesy to them, and so I have something to report back to Anne when she gets up ready for work. The important thing is these places are calling me back. I usually get good luck from Kijiji and other online search engines. I remember in the pre internet days to look for a job,I'd need to go to the job bank see whats posted and make phone calls. Now I can do this right from home, upload a resume and its in the employer's hands in seconds. Next to my wife, the Internet is my best friend. 

How apropos is that old "Clash" song now: "Should I stay or should I go." I'm referring to the UK vote to keep the UK in the European Union. Its a referendum coming to a head tomorrow. Some key issues of the Brexit (Brittan exit) is Britain's self determination from the EU, terrorist suspects remain in the UK, immigration among others. Big business wants to remain in the EU because its easier to move money and people around. In theory anyone in the EU can work and travel anywhere within the 28 nation club. If the Brexit forces win it would mean, the first time since the Second World War the UK would remain in control of its own destiny. Its a major referendum. More about this here.

The place I applied for called me back an hour ago and I have a interview at 1pm tomorrow. Cool. Other then that I'm off tonight and a night by myself. Last night Anne bought us each a beer. I like any beer that's at least 5.5% alcohol content. Mostly I like craft beers when I can get them at least 5.5%, like Alley cat, or Sleaman's or Molson Dry. Molson dry being my favorite but they don't have individual cans at the liquor store across the street.  

The other good news is c2e is coming back. I haven't checked my email yet so I can't confirm that its up and running today. On the "Go fund me" page, it raised $8,000, which was the target goal. The last update said that c2e should be back in 48 hours. C2e is a very popular website and I'm happy its returning. Again, I'm known as Envaneo. I'm not very popular there at c2e but I like the forum and some of the posters. Anyway that's all for now. 

Lets see, with 4 hours of

wrestling Sunday with "Money in the bank" and 3 hours of Monday night Raw, last night-I'm a bit burned out with TV wrestling. So much so, I've been missing out on some major stories and events to report my impressions on.

When I heard Sunday night that actor Anton Yelchin (Star trek's Chekov) died Sunday, while watching the news Sunday night after wrestling, I couldn't believe it. His own suv vehicle killed him at his home. He was 27. Brian Jones, Hendrix and Morrison each died at the same age. The suv he was driving was one of the vehicles that had been set up for recall. The actor was getting out of his suv in his parking lot at home. He was behind the vehicle when the suv rolled and pinned him against a brick pillar. It was the trauma of the incident that killed him. Another celebrity dead at the age of 27.

I began "Scream of Eagles" 5 days ago and I reached the half way point of the book, yesterday. It took me 4 days to read half a book? I'm wondering why? Is it the genre maybe? I'm thinking that's the case because a lot of science fiction stories are slow. Fantasy, even slower. I'm going to have this book read by the end of the month.

I've been sending out 2 resume's/day, and so far the fish aren't biting. I'm thinking summer will be over by the time I find a part time summer job. We're not quite at rock bottom but I can see the wolves through my "field glasses" as it were. They're bivouacking on the horizon. It looks like my market research job is about to shut down for the summer. I'm hoping my other evening job will hire me back in September but after this month, its going to make July and August seem very long. At least we have July's obligations more or less taken care of. August is going to be tricky. I tried to remind Anne that my family and I aren't that close. Except for my parents, we lost contact with each other in the 1980's and 90's until Facebook. They are in no position to help us out. We just have (for the most part) August to worry about and mid September. In early August I have to get my other job set up. They are off for the summer as well. The day of my birthday, I'll be applying for my oas. I'll get that at 65. I could still get a couple of weeks of work at my market research job but I'm not holding my breath it'll happen. I'll be in on Friday to pick up my cheque. Anyway, that's all for now.

My Riders Esks pre season game

ended up 11-25 for the Esks. That means we're 2-0 in the pre season. Because the game wasn't televised I had the broadcast over 630 Ched local radio on the TV I passed out on the couch missing most of the last quarter but the Esks we're running away with it anyway.The real season starts next weekend.

Last night I began removing a lot of stuff off my laptop's hard drive. The laptop has a 350 Gb hard drive with 33 Gb remaining. I uninstalled Komplete 8, Fl. Studio, Cubase 6, and some other stuff and all I could get off of it was about 105 Gb? So I began uninstalling even further, I took out all the Maschine stuff as well. At the end of it I still had about 240 Gb's taken on the hard drive. I can't for the life of me figure out what's taking up the rest of the hard drive space. Where did all that 240Gb come from? I even took out all the stuff in the recycle bin and still no difference. There's a lot of stuff under programs in the start up and maybe I should look there. My problem is that not genuine Windows 7 Ultimate build installed in 2011 when the laptop was only 2 years old. I'm probably going to have to bite the bullet and get a hard copy of Windows 10. This Lenova has no cd tray so I doubt there is no recovery cd. I still have the original license key for Windows Home premium but I don't think I can recover from home 7 underneeth a upgrade. I might if I have a dvd but I'm so broke for the next 3 months, I can't even afford one of those right now.  

Anne's been on the phone with Telus tech support with Telus
and corrected our modem connection. Tech support said the there was a lose cable on the modem, and Anne corrected that over the phone. Last thing I want to have happen is the Money in the bank broadcast freeze up on me later this afternoon. Anyway, that's all for now.

Other then the football

game kick-off at 2pm and "Money in the bank," Sunday that's my entertainment for the weekend. No TV, again. My boss yesterday said its only blacked out for training camp games. Oh and of course "Scream of Eagles." I should be at the half way mark in the book for another Goodreads update. I'll have this read before the end of the month.

Sometime today or this weekend, I want to remove Komplete 8, a heavy Gb program off my laptop. That's 120Gb program, almost half of my hard drive space. I've got a lot of wav samples I don't need as well, so they're coming off. All I need is my keyboard controller and my sound card software. I'll keep Audacity and a few light programs. If I can remove about half of my laptop hard drive space with unused programs, it'll really speed up my hard drive. Maschine mk2 came with all that I need for that type of music production. Native instruments is still supporting Mk2, with the new update. Taking out half my laptop hard drive space should speed up my video editing as well. I'll go to work on that after game time. 

Other then looking for work next week, the main event for me is to pick up my cheque on Friday. Once I get the other job confirmed in early August and I'm invited back, that's 5 months of work for me. Its only part time but it'll pay the bill. I'll do 5 days at the 8:30pm job and one at the market research job on Saturdays. They're good with that, they've allowed it with others the same way. Anyway, that's all for now.

Just finished reading Talons of Eagles

and after a bit of a hiatus from when I began February 10th, I'm glad I completed it. Out of the 3 in this series I liked this one the best. However I want to go onto reading others in this genre that are just stand alone novels. 

Earlier about 2pm I called the boss and the office is shut down over the weekend. Not good. I've been sending out resume's every day and so far no one is biting. I can't even get a work from home job because of my old computer. I thought before Xentel, I'd apply for my cpp when I turn 65 and work just 3 days a week. RIP Xentel 2012. I'll be 64 in a few months and I've already taken out my cpp. I was hoping like this time last year, I'd be working the month of June and into July. Looks like that's not happening. I've got two events to keep an eye on this August. First to shore up work in September for the charity job. The other apply for my oas August 21st. The only good news this month is we got our rec centre passes.

This weekend, I'm following the Riders/Esks cfl game and that's at 1pm at Brick field (no longer Commonwealth Stadium) The other event is Sunday, WWE's Money in the bank. Should be a good one.

When I first got into chat rooms

was about 1999. MSN had a lively chat room called A God(s) Fight. Or AGF (see side bar) AGF chat was really lively lots of politics and religious talk. That chat room fell by the way side when MSN brought a message board style kind of discussion forum to AGF. It was still really lively. Then MSN got out of the message board business for what ever reason, I can't recall, and the owner of AGF brought the message board to the Yuku platform. The Yuku AGF message board was developed in 2008, and since then AGF gets a few posts/year. I usually go under the name of sebek and post updates about me a few times/year. About 2008 I discovered a local message board/forum called Connect 2 Edmonton (c2e). It was is all things (mostly) about Edmonton. It started in 2003. I got on as envaneo. Envaneo was an old occult Fraternal name with some Latin meaning, which I don't want to get into now. What I like about c2e is how it was robust and current with topics not just Edmonton but the Oilers, Eskimo's etc. and I liked the "Must Try" for all the restaurants in the area. It ran on a vbuiltin platform. I especially like the NHL and Oilers off season threads, and all the various construction projects going around town. I never would have known what half of these projects were if not for c2e. C2e would be my first go to email after I woke up. Early yesterday afternoon when I went to answer my c2e subscription messages, and logged onto the threads I had subscribed I was shocked. Assaulting my visual senses up comes a splash page saying how c2e was a 10 year project, and the owner didn't know if c2e needs to be retired or reworked in some way because the interface was old. I didn't like where this was going. The other option was for the board to still be up and running because its such a huge resource with a lot of historic and current photos of Edmonton. Uh-oh. The owner of c2e said he had some decisions to make between now and the weekend. I hope he doesn't retire c2e. I'd hate this to be another AGF. C2e was to me like a family. We seldom ever got along but did agree with each other quite often. C2e was engaging, informative often humorous. I got to know some of these people. Some people used their real names, most had nic names, like Top Dawg who always referred to himself in the 3rd person. There was Moahunter, Sonic Death Monkee, IanO, The Cat, Noodle, Edmonton PTR, Legion, Drumbones, Edmonton Cowboy, EavB, KC, and many others. C2e has over 35,000 subscribers. There were always lots of photographs, links etc. I began a few threads myself. Posters could also receive private messages from other posters, and c2e I discovered to late would be a good place to do local networking. I felt really connected to the city with my time in c2e. If I liked someone's post without replying, I could hit the "Thanks" button. If the owner of c2e decides to retire this board I hope somebody else picks it up. Or at least keeps it up for people to say goodbye. One of the long time posters started a "Go fund me page." If I had the money, I'd make a contribution. I love c2e. I hope it doesn't go but gets better. 

I'm really enjoying this "Eagles of Talons" Jamie MacCallister saga. There's lots history in these books. If this is historical fiction, its now one of my favorite genres. I like reading these Westerns because they read so fast. The only trouble with Audrey's is they have no Western section. If it wasn't for Fantastic Fiction, and in my email "Any new books" I would not know what new books are up and coming. One of the guys that works at Audrey's that I directed to Goodreads, talked about a series of books from a local Edmonton author Janice MacDonald. She writes the Randy Craig mysteries. My colleague said its set in Edmonton and many of the books include reviews of local restaurants. This would be a good post for c2e's "must try." I hope I can still post this there.  

The other day I discovered Twitch, live broadcasting for players that like to play video games. Now, I'm not big on video games. From my initial look at Twitch its hard to pick out what broadcasts are in English, and which ones aren't. Some of the real popular new games have audiences of up to 300,000 subscribers. Of course depending on what time of day it is and what time zone it is. Streaming live where the broadcaster is shown inside a picture in a picture small window at the corner of the screen is appealing to me. Twitch also looks like it could have a live chat feature in the broadcast in real time as well but I'm not sure. I'm not sure if Twitch is just for pc, console or hand held devices. This would be so cool for i0S devices and other hand held devices. Ntendo 3ds has a forward camera. So does i0S devices. Anyway, that's all for now.

Yesterday was a bad news good news kind of a day

what with the bad news being, a local work from home option from a local charity said they have all the telephone agents they need. Its a closed shop kids. That and no work scheduled for this week at my other job doesn't look good. I applied at another local survey house but like most of these local market research jobs, they shut down for the summer.

The good news yesterday was just as I was going to ask Anne to call about our city centre rec pass we get a form in the mail saying we've been approved for our low income rec pass. 

After dinner we gathered our swim gear and headed over to the Clareview rec centre, to get processed. After checking us in we each got one of the above, and a wrist band in case we want to come back if we need to leave. Normally these passes would cost us about $450/year. It gets us into all city pools and rec centres, Fort Edmonton Park, Valley zoo, Muttart conservatory (pyramids in the river valley) the art gallery and lots more. We went to get changed and it's .50 cents for a locker. I met Anne in the pool area. Lots of wet tile. I didn't care too much for the lazy river. Anne liked it. I liked the hot tub but its not as good as East Glen by Rexall. From the hot tub if you look up you can see the glass enclosure and people using the work out equipment. I can use that as well. The library has the iMac but that is by booking an appointment only. All of it free for me to use. Its a good deal. They have a steam room but it was currently running at half power. The staff seem knowledgeable and friendly. The rec centre gets 4/5 reviews. I like it and we'll be going back again this month. Our rec centre pass is good up until June 14th 2017.

After the rec centre we went across to Walmart to the McDonald's for a Sunday and we walked back home. It was a nice little outing. Its a bit of a walk for me but the #11 bus out here gets me to between Walmart and the rec centre once it leaves Clareview station, and its about a block in from Walmart. I'd like to book some time for that iMac, bring my headphones and screen record a beat. I'd need more then an hour to work on it. I might be doing that over the next few days. Anyway, that's all for now.

Not much going on around here

Monday. It was a laid back kind of day at home. Anne brought me back a couple McDonald's quarter pounder burgers and fries for my 5:30pm supper and I spent 3 hours of watching wrestling. Then browsing the job ads on Kijiji, then supper and more job browsing. I found a work from home job but I doubt I'll get that but I uploaded my resume anyway. I'm calling the boss this afternoon to see what's coming up for work as things are slowing down. Anne's shifts are restored but mine are still in limbo.

The massacre in Orlando on the weekend at the Pulse club was senseless, most of these shootings are. Was it a hate crime or inspired by a terrorist organization? I don't know. Banning Muslims from entering a country isn't the answer either. There are about 3 million peaceful Muslims already in the US. The FBI dropped the ball on the Orlando shooter file. Maybe Muslims in the US and here should have certain rights suspended. Maybe banning Muslims from bearing arms is the way to go. Maybe better surveillance of Muslims needs to be tightened. I don't know what the answer is. All I know is hate is not the answer. 

Over the weekend I learned of a new Star Trek movie, called "Star Trek Beyond." Its news to me. Its going to be released July 22nd. I really am enjoying JJ Abrams Star Trek. This is his 3rd Trek movie. Also this year is year in December is Star Wars Rouge one. The last time there was a Star Wars and a Star Trek movie in the same year was in 2002 with "Nemesis" and "Attack of the clones." My 2 favorite movie franchises of all time. Marvel Studio's is a close 3rd. Anyway, that's all for now.

This weekend the cfl is playing black out TV football

which means my game Esks/Calgary is blacked out. I can watch any other games across the cfl (out of market) in that 7pm time slot. By the same token, BC lion fans wont be able to watch their game for the same TV black out reasons we have here, and so on across the league. It kind of sucks but as far as I know the regular season is still good to go tv wise. Why the cfl wouldn't just black out local coverage instead Province wide I don't know? Its not like the cfl hasn't done this before. Most likely I'll just follow up on the "local game" scores through out the night. The Esks/Stamps game is on local radio anyway. I might go across the street and get a $3 Pro-line ticket. I didn't win the draw from work to next weeks Chris Jones and his Riders return.

I was for the most part trying to see how I could take advantage of the free Windows 10 upgrade on my laptop before the July expiry date. The problem is even though my 2009 Acer laptop came with Windows 7 Home Premium oa and the license key is on the back of the laptop I had a serious virus with this machine a few years back. I didn't build a install disk when had the chance. So one of my colleagues from East India said he'd be able to do a clean wipe, and he installed a un genuine copy of Windows 7 Ultimate. He said this os has a limited time limit until you go out and by another os Windows license as soon as possible. Around 2012 when I lost my Xentel job this laptop crashed, and I got the "Not a genuine Windows build" message at the bottom right side above the task bar. For the most part I would use the laptop's system restore when it would crash after about 4 uses. Then I got lots of adware on the machine. The adware doesn't affect apps as my 320 Gb hard drive began to fill up very fast. I've got something like 33 Gb of space left, not good. Its time for a upgrade. When I saw the 4Tb laptop hard drive, I just about fell out of my chair. What for $250? I'm left with a bit of a problem. I don't mind losing everything on this laptop. I'm willing to do a complete wipe but what do I do with the original oa product key for Windows 7 Home Premium? I need to be calling the Microsoft store this weekend to get some advice. Or do I? I'm looking at getting that 4Tb hard drive, before the end of the year. In the mean time do I do a system wipe of my current laptop and upgrade to Windows 10 or just hold off and by a license for Windows 10 and the 4Tb hard drive? I'm sure my local hardware vendor can install the new drive and the software for me on a Saturday afternoon while having lunch at Wendy's. I'd be looking at about $400 for the upgrade (not the lunch). I'm kind of leaning towards the 4Tb hard drive approach, that's if my laptop can support the physical dimensions of the new drive and system requirements. I'll be researching this to see if my laptop can support the drive this weekend.

 

This morning about 7:30am I got woken up by a squawking magpie just outside on our balcony. I thought my earplugs would help. We had the window open because Anne wanted the air. Sorry but I had to shut the window, 10 minutes later I was out like a light. I think I'm a fan of green tea with a dash of ginger. Its the ginger that helps me sleep. I never heard the bird after that, so I guess the damn thing moved on. When I got up just before noon Anne had the window back open, and its raining lightly out there. Stupid bird. Anne's heading out to work in a few hours, I'm home today enjoying a Saturday afternoon off. Anyway that's all for now.

Not that the boss could confirm but just from what I could see

after loging in and out last night there is work coming up. I'm to call Tuesday, and he might have a more definitive answer for me then. I was surprised on my pay, and I felt good heading back home stopping off briefly at Audrey's. I let the them know I'd be picking my book up at the end of the month. They're ok with that. Always have been. 

Mr. Hockey aka Gordie Howe past away. I got the news in my email today. Gordie Howe was a bit before my time and many consider him the greatest that ever played the game of NHL hockey. Making his NHL debut for Detroit on Oct. 16, 1946, against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Howe played 32 professional hockey seasons, more than any other man. He also was the oldest player to score in the NHL and made hockey a family affair when he skated with sons Mark and Marty. I never met the man but his post death accolades obviously are significant to the hockey world. He passed away at the age of 88.

On local news last night there's a scam going around, how some scammers are claiming to be from Canada Revenue Agency. They call unsuspecting people claiming they are from the CRA, and that they owe a specific amount of money. They bully and harass their victims over the phone even threaten them that if they don't pay up with iTunes gift cards, they will be arrested. From this Global report: “We are currently investigating a file where a woman was convinced she owed the CRA $22,000. The woman visited two grocery stores and purchased $10,000 worth of iTunes gift cards at the first location and then purchased and additional $12,000 in iTunes gift cards at the second location. The woman then sent photos of the cards to the scammers.” The Canada Revenue Agency doesn't make phone calls to their clients nor ask people to pay up using iTunes gift cards or requests prepaid credit cards. My first clue something was wrong would have been iTunes gift cards? 

Well, it looks like I have a few more days off but I'm hoping to get back to work this week. Its still a pay period and I could use as many hours as possible. So I hope there's something sooner then later. I'm still going to followup on plan B on Monday. I'm not risking anything to chance. Anyway, that's all for now.

Initially I thought I was just having the 2 days

this week, then Tuesday night Super asked me if I wanted to come in last night, sure. Then last night, if I could come in tonight, ok. There could be a shift Friday but I doubt there will be one Saturday. If there's nothing next week, then I'm going for plan B.

We applied for our low income rec centre pass, that would have been early April. We have yet to hear back from the city for Approval. We're expecting something in the mail at any time. When it arrives we need to go get our photo id at the rec centre etc. I'm looking forward to using the hot tub, work out equipment. I've got a feeling we're going to hear from the city this month.  

In my email I got a notice of a Audrey's book arrival: Space marine Battles "Damos." There's a few more in this series I missed: "World Engine", "Sanctus Reach" ,"Blades of Damocles" (April 2016) "The Plagues of Orath" July 2016 and "Crusaders of Dorn" in September. That's 5 of these between now and September. As if I don't have enough on my shelf.

I'm looking forward to the first CFL exhibition game. The Eskimos (Esks) are in Calgary on Saturday at 7pm. I'm hoping Pittsburgh can wrap up this Stanley Cup series tonight so I won't need to go channel surfing Saturday night. Anyway, that's all for now.

We've got a nice looking day out here

clear skies on a windy day. So at least my commute into work should be without any complications, weather wise that is. Of course there's that old saying around here that goes something like: "If you don't like the weather here in Edmonton, wait ten minutes, it could change." Quit often in June (since its our rainy season) we get a lot of "Sun showers." That's when the Sun is out in one location but a cell rolls over and rains for a few minutes. I like a good late night Thunder storm, while Anne and I are sitting on the balcony with a couple of coolers watching the show. Good times.

The term "virtual reality" (vr) has been out for awhile now, but these vr devices or headsets have not been so readily available in the commercial market place. We've all seen the clunky head sets and for the most part they look pretension and monolithic. Its like they're saying this is where the future could possibly take us, like cell phones were in the early 1980's. Lately these vr headsets have been entering into the commercial market place. Last night on the news they had a story of a roller coaster with vr sets. The roller coaster acted like a prop to "simulate" zero gravity and the vr head sets put the viewer in a type of cockpit engaging the viewer in a combat roll of some kind. These headsets are not of the standard clunky type we've seen before. There's a twist. The viewing screen is actually a smart phone aimed at the eyes of the viewer attached to the vr set. For the most part vr is about playing games. Google wants to get involved in vr in a big way and has or will be releasing vr sets of their own as in this article last month. Its hard to say where this technology will go but vr as we know it today won't be anything like Star Trek's holodeck. Vr would be great for sporting events or learning how to drive a car or even as a tool for medicine. I can also see a "darker" side to vr in this fashion. When vr headsets become as easy to wear as sun glasses, then I'll get excited but it is interesting to see where this technology will go. Virtual reality (in this instance) is about to emerge out of the Victorian era. So is vr a fad or an application here to stay? Or is it the next big thing?      

Today I'm out of here at my usual 3pm time. I'm sure there will be some kind of a 4pm briefing about hours cut from Saturday etc. I'm wondering if it was just me or others have had hours cut on this project? I have a theory but I'll hold off on that for now. On the other project (focus group) staff have had their hours reduced as well. This might be addressed in a briefing this afternoon. I hate living like this but its only temporary. One of my main reasons why I can't wait for pension but I've got just over a year left to go before I get there. If something like this happens (if I'm still alive) while on pension I would just laugh it off. This job would be perfect as it would be for pocket money anyway. "Oh I have a few days off? Great I can sleep in watch hockey." But until then every hour is important. I'll be applying for full pension at the end of August, then wait out the year. However today, I hope I get a full shift in. Anyway, that's all for now.

I'm slowly moving all my stuff from Windows Xp over to

Windows 10. Today I got my sound card working properly in my usb hub. Happy about that and I've got my diary transferred over as well using Windows Word pad. It has a few features that Works Word Processor didn't have, which is nice to have. I've got Paint built right in. 

Some sad news today. Canada lost another celebrity. Few people under 30 probably haven't heard of Bobby Curtola. He was one of this country's first Canadian teen idol's. He's best known for his song "Fortune teller." Curtola was popular here in the 1970's. I remember when he was here doing one of the ACT telethon's, the ACT Telerama back I think it was 1990. He had a home here in Edmonton. He died at the age 73. Cause of death unknown.

Despite all of what happened yesterday with work and all, my week ahead looks ok. I'm just taking it one day at a time. Anyway, that's all for now.  

I think I got about

4 and a half hours of sleep, which is about what I would normally get on a Friday night Saturday morning when I need to go in for a Saturday shift. The shift goes by pretty fast until about 4pm and drags a bit after that. Not that I'm complaining. When I get home tonight about 7pm, the first intermission of the hockey game will be underway and I can nap a bit on the couch watching some of the game #3 Pens/SJ NHL playoff game. 

I had the LMMS (lmms, Linux multi-media studio) digital audio work station (free version) on my Windows Xp machine before. Any software developer today wont develop software for Windows Xp (xp here on in), including lmms (for windows and mac) Microsoft wont let them. Microsoft lets anyone with Windows 7 and 8 have Windows 10 for free but obviously not xp and up. Since most of my daw's are on cd and this pc stick doesn't have a cd burner obviously, my options have been limited and most of the free online daw's are meh at best and are limited. I don't know how light lmms is on the cpu but last night just before Anne came home, I installed lmms on my pc stick. When I get some funds, one of the main things I'm getting is a class 10 micro sd card. If I get any birthday money in August, I'm getting the micro sd card and a bluetooth speaker. Then I'm going to uninstall lmms and reinstall it onto the micro sd card once that's inside the Lenova. Before Anne came home, I got a chance to get under the hood as it were of the lmms. I was quite surprised. Its a full feature daw with a lot of sound font samples, which can be tweaked. Then it dawned on me. Can this thing handle wav files? It can and the lmms community talks about this in its knowledge base. There's also a pro version of the lmms. I think the free version limits the end user to five minutes. Which is ok, just save re start. However where it "gets you" (I think) is one is limited to a five minute track. There's a work around for that as well. There are probably other limitations such as no midi keyboard control etc. Since I'm going for more hardware base live music, I'm not going to be a heavy user of this product. Until I get my iMac (2 years away), to help process the audio and do video editing, the lmms will foot the bill in the meantime. So, other then hockey tonight guess what's on my plate tonight? :)

At the moment, I'm just waking up with my first coffee. On my 2pm break I'll be heading across the street for another diet cola refill. After my first break at noon, the shift becomes a afternoon shift until about 5:45. That's log off and time sheet time. Got to log those ei hours in. If I can work every day (Sunday's for Mondays) I will. Lets hope there are Sunday shifts. I can always watch WWE's "Money in the bank" in progress and play catch up with what I missed but on the other TV but that's another 3 weeks away yet. If I can work all of this month, and the week after Canada day, I'll have enough to cover rent for July and August. Also, enough for a ei claim in August before (I hope) I go back to work in September. That first ei (if approved) should cheque should kick in just before I go back to work in September. Then the claim gets put on hold from my end, and activated again if we need it over the Christmas holidays but more importantly if work slows down by this time next year, I'll have this ei claim to cover us until pension kicks in. That's the plan anyway. Anyway, that's all for now.

Since I've been seeing my wifes family

Doctor in 2010 my weight gain has gone up by 6 lbs. I'm weighing in currently at about 246 lbs. Since I'm drinking less sugar pop and more water, in 6 months from now (my next Doctors visit) I'm sure my weight will go down. My previous Doctor was in the West end Terra Losa shopping centre. A long way out from Clareview. My Doctor's office today made the transfer at that time. If it wasn't for this doctor, I never would have known about the PCN and how without adult health benefits get free insulin. Canada has recently a shortage of family Doctors over the years, so I'm lucky i was able to get this Doctor.

That's one thing I never developed was a drive for success when I was younger. My life was almost like in a daydream state growing up. My scoliosis and the subsequent back operation when I was 15 pretty much sucked the life out of me. I just went with the flow before that. When dad had work I'd get a allowance of $2/2 weeks would be like $20 in value today. I learned in a hurry after my condition would determine my life. I'm sure if I was surrounded by professional people, I'd turn out that way as well, maybe a Lawyer, who knows? In the early 1970's my folks moved here to Edmonton. I thought I'd stay behind, finally out away from the nest, and carve out a life for myself. Our family was working class, and with 5 kids in the family, my marks in school were average, I had no desire at the time to excel in anythig. I thought school was something you had to go through with in life. There would be lots of time to figure the rest out later. My back operation in 1967 determined my course in life. before my back operation I didn't know what my options were, but I think I wanted to join the navy. Marks and school were not important right? They'd train you for everything in the navy. How hard was it to be a deck hand? That summer of 1967 when mom noticed me hunched over, determined her worst fears. I don't blame her for that. That was the hand I was dealt.1969 was my recovery year. I was going to school grade 8 in a body cast from my waist to my neck. Life however has been kind to me. Sure I have regrets and chances that I've blown, stuff happens in life I get that. Life doesn't owe me anything. I often imagine what might have happened if in my early grades I woke up out of the day dream I was in and said to myself something like, "This is important. What I do here today will have a bearing on my life." Ah, what might have been.

Yesterday while doing some networking I got a job lead. I had my resume but it was a MS Word doc. I needed to register at this place and set up a profile. Apparently I needed to upload my resume to the profile. That's when Anne had interrupted me on Face Time. Yesterday afternoon I found a online pdf converter program. So, I converted the program to a pdf refreshed my desktop and uploaded the resume to the profile. The job is days. If I get called in for a interview, and hired for the training, I'll do their minimum of 20 hours/week and my evening job, which should (fingers crossed) come to an end by the end of June. Then work the new job. Its unionized as well. I doubt I'll get it but, who knows? I'm not holding my breath. In the meantime, I'm good to go in for tomorrow morning, its a full day. Anyway, that's all for now.   

What this pc stick didn't come with

was a mouse and a keyboard. When I went to lodge practice Sunday night our lodge master brought with him a usb keyboard and mouse because I mentioned at the last meeting I could make use of one. He said they were going to go into the recycle bin otherwise. That was darn nice of him. it makes my experience using this Lenova PC stick easier, especially composing my first blog post on this thing. Up next is a micro usb card. Hopefully I'll get one this month.

Tuesday I went to go get a haircut from a coupon. The place is under new management, just North of the Boston Pizza a block away from us. The 2 stylists were busy with clients saying these were big jobs and would take another 2 hours. Seriously? I was a walk in anyway. I re booked for Wednesday at 2pm but I had slept in and rescheduled for 6pm. I decided to leave at 5pm maybe they'd receive me earlier so I could get home in time to watch the hockey game. She charged me $10.50 cents and did a good job with a coupon. She said she's considering Wednesday senior days priced at $13. I can live with that. So, I'm ok until my next haircut about 4 months from now.

I didn't get a lot accomplished last night except watching the hockey game. I don't need to go anywhere today, and with Anne's sister in town on a rare Edmonton work assignment its good to have this time off to see family. The girls are out this afternoon as Anne is having a paid week off because her sister is in town. They are picking up Chinese food for dinner, then going out Value Village shopping. Other then that the only other thing on my plate is to call the office in another hour or two, and see if I got any work over the next few days. I hope I get a green light for Monday because that's the start of a new pay period. I need at bare minimum of 2 weeks to cover July and the last 10 days of June can cover August. Anyway, that's all for now.