Well we're back to winter at long last

which could be good or bad, depends on your point of view as a resident here. At the moment its -7 and if I was on pension, I'd call in sick. I'm not yet, so I can't. Next week we're supposed to go into the -15's. It's been a rough month for us what with losing Boots.

The Oilers went from 2nd place in the West just a few days ago down to 5th in the standings. This team's main problem is they have only one line that can score goals: Connor McDavid's line. The rest of the guys aren't scoring. I knew this would happen to us eventually. Its my feeling that the Oilers will be hovering around 9th in the West in March, in and out per game. The last game of the 2016-17 season will be a back to back weekend pair of games with the Canucks. Just a gut feeling but the Oilers will squeak into a playoff position but just by 1 game and 1 goal down to a shoot out. 

I'm more or less happy with the PM's decision yesterday that saw approval for a couple of pipelines. It was the right decision to pull out of the Northern Gateway. He gave the green light for the Burnaby Trans Mountain pipeline, and the Edmonton/Wisconsin pipeline. There are a lot of hoops to go through first and I'm not holding my breath the 2 pipelines will get underway, anytime soon. Its good news for Alberta though. 

Ok, my schedule for the rest of this week, is looking good. my last day today at the South side job for this week. I got my 3 days in. Then I got lodge tomorrow as its our installation. Then I'm working at the West end job Friday and Saturday, and that is confirmed. Hopefully I can get a full day out of Saturday. I've got possibly 3 weeks to go for December. Anyway, that's all for now.  

The only problem with blogging

once a week, is there are events that unfold in the world, that go missed in this blog. I'd like to cover as much as possible. While I'm not a socialist, my eyes cut to the death of Fidel Castro. His death and legacy brought the attention to the world stage. Castro was a friend of Canada (not of me) but this country. There are many in my generation remember the Cuban missile crisis. Later many Cubans left Cuba and fled across to Florida in what's known as The Mariel Boatlift. It wasn't until recently US President Obama brought the two countries closer together.

Closer to home, a few yards away from us on our side of 137th ave, there was a Police presence and first responders flashing lights just as Anne was coming through the door. This is just across the street from "Chianti's." Its a dangerous heavily marked 4 way. We latter learned during evening news this was another traffic fatality but there were few details. So, this morning I'm checking local news and the fatality indeed occurred at the 4 way on 40th and 137th involving another ETS bus. The fatality involved a 13 year old girl as she was crossing alone as she must have done dozens of times before facing South crossing to the other side of 137th. The bus apparently was crossing as it must have done hundreds of times as well at about 7:45pm last night. The girl might have been shopping at Walmart. Apparently the bus was found at Coliseum station later that evening. So the bus was apparently trying to cross 137th facing South on 40th turning onto 137th Eastbound and the driver doesn't see the pedestrian in a marked crossing? The driver's field of view covers a wide area and ETS is blaming the bus's blind spot? Is this just a case of careless driving on behalf of a ETS bus driver or something else? The bus driver might have been about to go on a shift change most likely at Abbotsfield and didn't know he/she hit somebody until ETS informed the driver. However, another ETS bus driver that was involved in another collision last month involved a collision with a 83 year old woman and the bus driver was charged in that situation? Something doesn't add up here. This doesn't look good for ETS that's for sure. Most of these bus drivers are okay and are good at their jobs except when they become distracted by bus patrons standing behind their shoulder chatting away at them. I'm not sure but I think that's what happened in this case last night. Many of these bus patrons stand right behind the fare box, blocking the driver's point of view as the driver is trying to make a lane change. I've done it myself and often chat with the driver as well. If anyone is to be charged, charge the person distracting the driver. The "blind spot" has nothing to do with this case, its distracted driving. This is a real eye opener for me today.  

My day yesterday was a lot better on the job, however I missed my bus after work as it pulled up by Tony Roma's. Even if I wan for it, I'd not have made it. And I missed my train at Southgate. A trip that should have taken me an hour, took me almost 2 hours to get home. I had a great night playing with the Korg Gadget app. I need to get the sampler as a in app purchase called Bilbao. For $7 its a good deal. There's not much bass options without Bilbao. Also, I'm trying how to see if the sequencer can have the play head scroll across the tracks and down the scenes. Gadget's sequencer options are limited.

Anyway, I sent a email out to lodge saying I won't be at the practice tonight. I'm not required to do anything at installation anyway. This afternoon in about half an hour is the Arizona/Oilers rubber match game. Also, I'll be following the Grey Cup game as well. I think that's a 4pm start as I'm enjoying my weekend. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Its often hard for me to get any sleep

overnight when I need to go into work on a Saturday morning. I might have got an hour and a half sleep. Usually when listening to some ambient music on YouTube can put me to sleep. Not earlier at 4:30am. Its hard getting up to go  into work on a Saturday morning but once I have my first coffee, I feel pretty good going in. 

Over the last couple of years I've been wanting to get Korg's digital audio workstation or daw, for the i0S called "Gadget." At $54 its an expensive app. Last summer Korg had a major update for this app and made it available across all i0S platforms, including our iPad2 and my iPod Touch 5Gen. Plus its 32 bit. However, I never had the cash even when it was reduced in price at that time. Since I was able to save a bit of cash from my blackjack winnings earlier this week, and it was black Friday, would Gadget be at 50% off again? It was. I hurried over to Shoppers Drug mart across the street got x2 $15 iTunes cards and hurried back home across the street. I opened up iTunes on our iPad and let the camera do its thing to take the picture of the code and I bought the app. It works great, very happy. 

That set me off feeling good about black Friday and I headed into work and I figured, eh, why not buy 2 more $2 blackjack tickets. At my station settling into the free hot chocolate, I played and got nothing. My shift wasn't great either. But at least I got a ride to Southgate, and I feel good about that, and the Oilers were winning in Arizona. Happy days. The supervisor at work doesn't like me at all. She's a young 25 something, loaded with tattoos. But my ride encouraged me that the offer to drive me to Southgate goes beyond just me. I know Super goes to Southgate. I asked her on the way out at the end of the shift if she wanted a ride to Southgate. She said "I'm good," mainly getting in a car with me even with another person in the back with us (I take the front seat anyway because I'm the old guy) is not agreeable to her. I'm on the Southgate lrt platform and I can see the #6 bus roll in and Super in her familiar red coat. I know she needed this Clareview train and it was coming my way. She'd have to take the escalator and run through the over pass run down the stairs beside the escalator to catch it. I knew she was going to miss my train. I had to smile at that. When I got home, to catch the last 5 minutes of the Oilers game it was tied at 2 and went into over time. McDavid scored but fractions of a second went down. The goal was under review. Even colour commentating said the goal wouldn't hold up. The ruling was no goal. Into the shoot out. We got 1 goal but lost in the shootout, 3-2. Wait to Sunday when they come to our barn. By then the 104th grey cup game (hopefully) will be over. Lets go Ottawa. 

Except losing at blackjack, my negative performance and the Oilers losing. I felt good about yesterday. Today, I'm going in for my south side job and out of there at 2:15pm. I might go get my Space Marine Battles book at Audrey's on the way home, go to BP's and have a drink at the bar and head home. Maybe pass out on the train. Anyway, that's all for now.

Its been overcast for about a week now

which is really strange. We're supposed to get a bit of sunshine today. I recall when living in the lower mainland in the 1970's, we'd go through a week or two with straight rain. So this week kind of reminds me of that.

Tuesday I got $12 bucks playing Blackjack, scratch 'n win. Then another $10 Wednesday. I bought 3 tickets yesterday and not one winner. 

Basically I'm at the South side job all weekend (which is good) I need to call Monday to see whats going on for the market research job. 

The Eskimo's lost the Grey Cup, but the Oilers won Saturday again on Monday and again last night. This is unbelievable. We're #2 in the Western conference. I caught the 3rd period and where most of the goals occurred. Anyway, that's all for now.

Having a nice Sunday

and Sunday evening. I watched the CFL Eastern finale Edmonton/Ottawa. They were playing in a snow blizzard. The first half it was Ottawa 17/Esks 3. Finale result was Esks 23, Ottawa 35. It got interesting near the end when we scored 13 points in the last Q. 

I between the football game, I was in chat with a friend and doing some research on running virtual Linux and answering email. then Anne made a late brunch and at 6:20pm, here I am. While having brunch the BC Lions were in Calgary to decide who is in the West. it was a pure blow out but with better weather. BC lost 15-42. It was 32-0 in the half. BC Lions barely showed up. So, next Sunday its the big show. The 104th Grey cup in Toronto, Ottawa Red Blacks/Calgary Stampeders. Should be a good one. So this afternoon was a lazy Sunday, just the way I like.

Over the last few days The City of Edmonton issued a presser saying they want to install 200 electric vehicle (EV"s) charging stations across the city. The city wants to get a Federal grant worth 1.2 million. The City will match that grant to have the 200 charging stations in place by 2018. Its a important step in climate change. Its a step in the right direction. Some of the more advanced charging stations could recharge a EV in half an hour. The charging stations could be installed along major roadways like the Yellowhead or the Anthony Henday, or along the Whitemud. The article is located here. 

This week it could be (or I hope it could be) my South side job, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. My West end job, Thursday and Friday. Saturday I'm back at my South side job. No Doctors appointments, just straight work. Anyway, that's all for now.

Overcast skies around here usually signify

warmer weather in the winter. At the moment its -3 degrees C. Tomorrow is looking very similar as it is now. However we're warming up a bit to -2 or +1C for much of next week. Its still sneaker weather as there's no snow on the ground but its cold enough where it could. I could wake up tomorrow morning and there could be 2 inches of snow on the ground. It could go either way.

Both of my places of work could be taking a Christmas break around the same time. My South side job (where I'm heading to later this afternoon and for tomorrow 10am-2pm) could be done by December 22nd. Some of us speculate we could be done by the 15th. My West end job could be done by the 15th as well, but I'll have decent cheque for the end of the month from both places. Plus, even though both jobs could be done by Christmas, the South side job takes a break January and February. My West end job resumes in January but there could be some spotty work for both months but I'll have enough for a ei claim I can open and put on pause. My South side job resumes March 1st and I hope to have at least 12 weeks of ei on pause before my South side and West end jobs ends mid May, end of June. Then activate my ei for over the summer, and slide right into pension at the end of September. By that time, I hope to be at my South side job. This way, my wife has my pension money, and I have my money from my jobs. Well that's the plan.

This weekend is the Eastern CFL finale Eskimos/Ottawa. Whoever wins this is in the Grey Cup finale. For the West, its BC/Calgary. The 104th Grey Cup game is next weekend and apparently no CFL crossover team has ever made it to the finale in CFL history since 1986. So, I'll be watching this. Its win and your in the finale. So should be a good one. Anyway, that's all for now.   

Its been 1 week now since we had to put Boots down

and I'm still crying over losing him. I'll get over his loss in time. Now its just Silky and Skippy. Boots was always the cat of the house and made that clear. 

Sunday while following the Esks/T-Cats CFL game, I was in Jakob Haq's chat room. It was a good 2 hour long YouTube Live session. Good energy among those of us in the chat room. Too bad in most casses music production is predominantly a male kind of a thing. There are a few ladies into this kind of thing but not many. Over the weekend I got to tinkering with how I could make YouTube Live work but I had trouble making this work with my Lenova PC stick. Its just the encoder doesn't work too well with this device. I thought maybe its time to find how I can wipe my own hard drive clean. I need to permanently wipe out the whole hard drive. Then all I do is get Linux and install from there. If it works that way. So the other good news is The Esks intercepted the ball while the game was tied and kicked for a field goal to win with seconds on the clock. The Oiler game on the other hand was another loss for the Oilers. Last nights 4-1 loss in Anaheim was brutal. That's 4 straight losses for the Oilers. looks like they are up to their old tricks again. Then there's the game in LA tomorrow night. Most likely a similar outcome.  

I'm up out of here at 1:30pm for my eye Doctor's appointment. He wants to check for diabetes damage. I'm a bit concerned. Anyway, that's all for now.

I’m trying to use YouTube Live Streaming but its not working for me on

my little Lenova PC stick. Actually I even lost audio from my sound card. Most likely its got to do with my OBS encoder as my Lenova can't keep up. Next up is to try and see how this would work with a VCL player iPod onto iPad. 

 

To expand on the above, I think the pc stick couldn't keep up with the YouTube live stream or the OBS encoder was too sluggish. I have the 32 bit one even

 

Switching gears here, after work Friday I picked up my Space marine Battles book at Audrey's last night. They were in the middle of a book signing and had a lot of people in line blocking the way in. "Pardon me, excuse me," type thing. There was Barry at the other station by the basement stairs. He went and got the book for me from below. I was going to order a few more books in that series that are about to be released this year but they looked pretty busy.

 

The lrt Corona station North/West entrance a few short paces from Audrey's has a steep set of stairs leading down to the upper concourse below. This entrance is visible from street view. As I was about to come through this character was in my way coming towards me swearing and cursing at the 2 lrt security guys. His foul mouth was chirping at them as I worked my way down. I couldn't believe how big these guys were. They were like 2 feet above me. I shook my head at the guy cursing the 2 lrt security showing my bus pass. One of them said "At least we didn't get spit on." They were friendly people just doing their jobs but last thing I wanted trying to get to the sub concourse was to get in between something I didn't start.  

 

I'm enjoying my day off. Apparently Remembrance Day is a stat holiday here in Alberta. It works on the last 5 days it falls on. In this case, the last 5 Fridays, which doesn't apply to me because of the other place and my Friday/Saturday shift there but its a nice day off. Tomorrow I'm at the South side (ss)job at 10am-2:15pm because the market research (mr) job has had no work all week. I need to be working somewhere. In some cases the mr job is better then the ss job but the place where I'm at might pay me for today. I won't know until the end of the month. My ss job, I can work a minimum of 3 hours/day, 3 days a week. I like the lrt train ride going in for a Saturday as it gives me a chance to have my coffee and wake up along the way.

 

As for today I have some time off to myself. I slept in with a melatonin pill in me, which I took early this morning. I got up at 12:30pm today, which is going to make sleep overnight Saturday tough. This evening I'm watching the Oilers/Dallas game. Anyway, that's all for now.

So, after 2 days

I'm more or less ok with the results of the US election. I find it interesting that about 50% of America didn't come out to vote. A lot of people in my circle were Hillary supporters but are now ok with a Trump win. 

Tuesday afternoon at 3pm while I was on my commute South, Anne was en route to the vet. We had to put Boots down. Boots was our first outdoor cat that Anne had brought in about 2007. He would always get into what Anne would call a tumble and tuck with the other cats. He would always find a spot between Anne and the headboard of our bed and always sleep with her. He made me laugh when he would drag his bum on the carpet with his front paws. He was pretty much the cat of the house but over the last year he had been ill. He wasn't that healthy to begin with (I suspect he was in a lot of dental discomfort.) During his last year Anne was giving him fluids and he was being aggressive with begging for human food. He was also losing a lot of weight. When Anne found him under the reclining lawn chair , apparently he was on his back, twitching. Most likely going  into shock. With the passing of Boots has left a empty space in our hearts. 

The vet down the street was very good to us and charged Anne only $60. Anne didn't have enough funds to have him cremated, so she took what was left of Boots and stored his body in the freezer. She'll have him cremated with her Christmas money. I'm still crying over Boots and its going to take me a while to get over him. We got lots of photos and video of him on Anne's iPad. This is one of the first I found of both him and Skippy together. Boots really loved Skippy and bonded well together. I'm getting another photo of Boots for my Blog but this will do for now. This has been a tough week.

I'm trying to do some You Tube Live streaming but there are a few technical issues I need to deal with. I'm trying to post something on my music channel with my webcam. I had it working at one point, so I'll try and do something tonight when and if there is time but its still in Beta at the moment. Once I have it set up on my Windows 10 device I'll post a sample. Lots of music producers are beginning to use You Tube streaming.

So, this afternoon I'm in for my South side job. The pay cheques at the other place wont be there until about 4pm but I'll be at work. I'll call the boss and ask if I can pick it up early Monday afternoon on my way to work. Because tomorrow is a day off, the office has decided to let the staff go an hour early with pay, which is nice. My Space Marine Battles books came, so I'll pick up one of them on the way home. Anyway, that's all for now. 

Earlier this morning I finally got a chance to

play with the iPad on a more or less full charge. First thing I did was play around with Samplr. I got the camera angle figured out to record the iPad screen, and when I'm ready to record the audio, Audioshare will be recording the audio in the background. Then the video gets synced up with the audio in something like iMovie. I hope to have a video uploaded to my music channel (see pages above) on Friday. Remembrance Day. I'd love to get a audio recorder. I'm looking at the Zoom H2, not the cheap one.

Another beautiful day is shaping up out there under blue skies. Now that we're in Daylight savings mode its going to be dark at about 5pm. So its going to be nice heading into my Southside job today. I enjoy the lrt commute on the train, as it gives me a chance to wake up, then I catch the #52 bus at Southgate, and if there's time, I'll buy a Blackjack ticket, or get one at the Redimart at Clareview. Well see. I'll most likely be at the Southside job for the balance of the week.

The Oilers won 2 weekend road games back-to-back, wow. They go into Pittsburgh tomorrow for a 5pm game. There's been a bit of hype generated over this game because of the McDavid/Crosby match up. I'll be at work when the game is underway but my neighbor in the cubical next to me usually gives me the scores on her phone when I ask. Next year I hope to have my own cell phone with a data plan. I'm getting tired of always asking: "what's the score on the Oilers game?" etc. Right now the Oilers are in second place in the Western conference with almost identical records with the Chicago Blackhawks, except their plus minus is better then ours. Looks like we'll be (I hope) chasing these guys for the balance of this campaign. On another sports note, Our CFL Eskimo's blew out the Argos Friday night here at Commonwealth. Ricky Ray's last CFL game? The score was 41-17 for Edmonton in the last regular season. Twenty weeks went by so fast. We now represent the East thanks to the crossover format. This last weekend was a great day for Edmonton sports fans. This CFL season had its controversy with our head coach Jason Mass. The league fined coach Mass with a $15,000 hit to his wallet due to not complying with his mic not being on. This time he obeyed the ruling. The ruling didn't say when the mic had to be on. So instead of calling the plays with the mic on he turned the mic on and said stuff like "Good job, here" and "Good job there," type thing. Its a stupid rule. But the way the plays were called that last time there was a lot of technical chatter, "Alpha, to Beta, run wide, copy," Sounds like air traffic controller jargon then football plays.  

So tomorrow is the big election day in the US. Personally, I'll be glad when its all over. Whoever gets in wont matter too much to my bottom line. They'll be one term Presidents. If I was a US citizen, I'd probably be a Republican but not with Trump. I was hoping Jeb Bush would get in. Bush kind of reminds me of Premier Brad Wall of Saskatchewan. Anyway, that's all for now.

My public speaking last night went by

ok, although my nervousness showed in my voice. I did 23 Palms but I read from that. I had the odd infliction in my voice. The closing prayer I couldn't get the first line out but after being prompted, it came to me clear enough except for when I got stuck in the middle there. Nobody said anything. 

I can't believe this weather we're getting. Yesterday we got up to +19 as a high. For November? Today we're at +14, which is pretty good. We got sunny skies and looking at temps around the +12 for the weekend. Tonight its a sweater and my windbreaker. Last time we had temperatures like this was 1978! Its mainly the way the jet stream is as its around the Beaver lodge area. This warming trend is expected to go on until about next Friday. Great weather for Remembrance day. It means this could be a short winter.

I'm hoping for a short shift tomorrow that we're done this project by 3pm. That way I can make it back for the Oilers game which is on at 5pm. I need this job because my South side job has no work in January and February. I'm hoping I get more work at my market research job this month and over the next 3 months until at least the end of February and I'm welcomed back my South side job for March. I'll apply for ei in February and put that on hold for when work between both jobs slows down to a stop in the Spring and I can go on ei over the summer and into pension. That's the idea. Then I can have more time for music production and lodge. As for now, I'm out of here at 3pm for the market research job. The boss says our current project will be done this weekend. I'm there tonight, 4-9, home by 10pm. Anyway, that's all for now.

At my market research job

(wont name the company/or project for security reasons) we're down to the demographic wire: Males born after 1962. Good luck with that when playoff baseball is on. Even at my South side job last night, I had trouble while calling into Grand Prairie. I'm not a baseball fan but I like watching the highlights. I'll be glad when that's over.

Yesterday my Doctors office called but I was on my way out the door to work. I returned the call this morning before noon and they said I have a eye Doctors appointment November 9th 8:30 appointment. The eye Doctor wants to scan for diabetic eye damage. I went there 2 years ago and there was none present in the scan at that time, ten years after being diagnosed with Diabetes. I'm getting floaters but nothing serious. I have maybe 10% vision in my right eye anyway. I can read a book while holding a book out stretched full arms length. Ask me to read a eye chart might be tough and if I can qualify for seniors benefits I want to get glasses anyway. But a Doctors appointment at 8:30am? Yeah right. I'm in bed by that time thank you. November 16th is a day off because my South side job has a open house event that night. I can go to that but I'm not required to and its a day off so that's probably a better date on the calendar but not at 8:30 in the god damn morning. My market research job, might have a project at that time underway but I clocked my availability for the weekends at that job. I just called the eye Doctor's reception desk, and they can slot me in for 2:30pm on the 16th. Eight thirty in the morning, yeesh.

I thought all I had left was a $10 bill after the weekend this time yesterday. I bought a Blackjack ticket yesterday and both dealers hand was 20. Good luck was all I got. So last night out of my backpacks front pocket where I pull out my Sun glasses, where I keep my book a couple of candies (when I have low blood sugar) I found another $10 bill. It's middle of the week, in between pay cheques and I have just under $20 remaining. Plus its lodge night tomorrow, sweet. This means I can have a Sleeman's after I do my public speaking bit in lodge at the festive board. This year I'm the Chaplin and I "had to" memorize the opening and closing prayer. Both parts are about 15 lines long. I just had 2 weeks to memorize the parts. I go Live tomorrow. 

In an hour I'll be on my commute to Southgate for that #52 bus. I'll have my usual 4 hours of work tonight. We're supposed to be in for a bit of a double digit warming trend, leading right up to about November 20th here in the Edmonton area. That's balmy for Edmonton. Its pretty much hoodie and sneaker weather, possibly even between now and the end of the month. Anyway, that's all for awhile. Possibly on Sunday. Anyway, that's all for now.