Earlier I was playing around with Elastic

drums. This was one of my Black Friday apps. Elastic drums is a synth/sampler/drum app for our iPad. Its got a lot of control and is really useful. I want to have a demo but I don't want to use just modify some presets. 

I take it all back, that 2016 has been a pretty good year. Sure in January, we lost our cat Sporty. I also read my first Western novel and I was still working between both jobs up until the end January, and the other place in February. In March I began work at the other job and working the other place and got the new Nintendo 3ds Zelda addition, and began ahem, using the seniors bus pass. It saved us over $700 this year alone. April still working both jobs. In May work slowed down but I got the Lenova pc stick, while the Fort McMurray fire was making big news. I was unemployed in June and looking for work, with no income coming in and Anne fighting with me but we were able to get our free city rec pass. Still reading lots of Westerns. In July I found more family closure thanks to a heavy email exchange with my sister getting the odd interview here and there. August I turned 64 and still more episodes of Anne fighting with me but I secured my other job for September. I didn't need to apply for my pension in because its automatic. I worked a bit between both jobs but more at the Southside location then anything. in early October the Oilers began their inaugural season at Rogers Place arena opened. In November Trump was elected President and we lost Boots. I took advantage of Black Friday and we had great weather all November. I also made a friend but I'm glad she stopped communication with me. I think I dodged a bullet there. Lots of memory work for Lodge as I was appointed Chaplin for 2017. Very little work in November at the West end job but we discovered the Hopalong Cassidy series, which we're enjoying. December, both jobs concluded for the Christmas within a day of each other and I had 11 days off. Also, what's this? The Oilers are in 4th place in the West? Thus, here we are December 31st. So despite a few losses and some setbacks, 2016 was a good year. I also broke the 40,000 page views on my blog, and gained 2 subscribers on my music channel. I thank God for small blessings. I almost forgot about our latest acquisition our new member of the family Rusty earlier this month,this guy:

So now Sunday is January 2017. I'm back to work at the West end job. Looks like its more or less steady until mid February. I'll be setting up the Southside job. When I'm on pension, I'll still work 4 days a week. Anyway, Happy New Year everyone. That's all for now.

Over the past couple of days

I've been doing some family genealogy on my mothers side. My grandmother was Mina Hoy Johnston. Her and her husband Henry Hoy lived at 53 Elliott street in New Westminster. Henry Hoy was a contractor and Mayor of New Westminster in 1894. Mina Hoy married E.L. Johnston. They had 3 children, my Uncle Ed, Francis and my mother Elizabeth. Their residence was one of 3 historical homes the City of New Westminster moved in the summer of June 1990, to preserve the homes  from the wrecking ball. The moving of these 3 homes was a major undertaking. In our case to move the home to where it sits now at 202 3rd street Second Ave. in New Westminster BC. In order to move the home, the city put the home on a flatbed truck, removed power lines and trimmed trees to get it up to where it is today. My mom was invited to attend a city event when the home was settled. They named it Hoy house. I believe it's now a rooming house. Its the big blue house on the corner of Second & third street. The link to the above story is here type in moving houses.

http://www.nwheritage.org/database/heritage.php

Last night on Coast to coast, the topic was about The Egyptian Sphynx and the pyramids. The Sphynx and the Egyptian pyramids have long been a fascinating topic of mine. I've always had this notion that the Egyptian pyramids were built from the top down from a mountain of the same limestone material. One caller had the right idea but didn't mention the use of hot air balloons. My variation is on the hot air balloon theory, which advances the notion that crews had to carve the limestone blocks on location. The granite rock is another matter. Place stone block A on top of stone block B & C. Wrap rope between stones. The balloons could be controlled by rope or pulleys as crews on the ground and guided in place according to the design. The engineering would also account for the way there was no gaps between each stone because they could be just dropped into place. The ancient Egyptians didn't need to lift the blocks very high. The whole operation might need just a handful of people. Some rooms in the Gaza pyramid show hieroglyphs that suggest balloons. How they would heat the air I don't know. Its just a silly theory of mine that has a few holes. Here's a better way of explaining some of what I mean it somewhat supporting my theory.
      
                              

The Oilers just came off their long break hosting the LA Kings that played the night before. A fresh LA Kings team I'm sure would have walked all over us. Like Arizona the Kings have owned the Oilers but not yesterday. I purposefully missed the first period because usually nothing happens. I was right. The Oilers won 3-1 earning 2 points. The Oilers play Vancouver Canucks Saturday. Anyway, that's all for now.

It took me long enough but the book that

I began reading August 13th, was finished yesterday afternoon. It took me almost 20 weeks to read "Space Vulture." At the moment, I can't see myself reading a trilogy. So I opted instead for Greg Bear's Darwin's radio instead of Larry Niven/Brenda Copper's "Building Harlequin's moon." It logs in at 5380 pages. I hope to finish reading it around Family day weekend.
                          
One of the children's toys trending this year is Hatchables. There's a You Tube video where it appears the toy is saying something naughty: "F--- me." In local news a family was concerned about this and Tweeted the company about this strange anomaly. The parent company that makes the Hatchables toys says they are aware of the video but the local parents did not get a response. When our local news got in contact with the company they replied that the toy is not saying anything inappropriate. Like they are going to make a toy that says that right out of the box, yeah right. But it is funny.

Anne and I are having a couple of lazy days, at home lately, still processing yesterday. Its nice having this time off and when I go on pension in September, I can see working 4 days/week and a long weekend every week. I'm on YouTube a lot watching documentaries and reading. We go to bed about 4am these days. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Our household was stunned when we heard the news that

Star Wars Carrie Fisher had a heart attack but she was recovering. When I opened my email moments ago there was the "Famous lives led" thread. Now what? That's when I learned about Carrie Fisher dead at the age of 60. Oh my god. What a shocker. If losing Bowie and Prince this year wasn't enough, now this. Carrie Fisher was here in Edmonton at Our Edmonton Expo in September. I remember all the media hype leading up to the movie original Star wars movie in the Spring of 1977. Gord and I were keen on seeing it but the only place where it was shown was at a drive in located in Surrey lower mainland. There was so much going on in my life at that time. I was 25 when I saw the first Star Wars movie the week it opened and it was love at first sight. Hearing about Carrie Fisher, saddens me a great deal. Like Bowie, that was part of my youth. Now here I am at the age of 64 being diabetic, a heart attack could happen to me. Heart attacks are the #1 cause of death for people that are diabetic. Carrie Fisher, very sad news indeed. Losing our cat Sporty in January, hearing about David Bowie, Prince and losing Boots and now Carrie Fisher. Its been a rough year in this household. Anyway, that's all for now. 

I hope to finish this

Space Vulture novel this week. Up next I'm reading the Star Trek series "The Vulcan's soul." I think I might have read a few Trek books from the Alan Dean Foster series way back in the day. I've got the complete "Vulcan's soul" trilogy, so I may as well, most likely this will take me up to March. 

I had such a hard time trying to install Linux lUbuntu on my Windows Xp system last night. I got the iso but I'm not able to install it along Xp. I even tried to install it on my laptop, with no success. A colleague I'll be seeing next week at work knows Linux very well and I'll ask him if he can with "Team Viewer" go into my system and install from it from there, and Wine. One things is for certain when it comes to installing Linux: I don't know what I'm doing. 

Its been quite a year with losing so many pop stars. First (if that wasn't enough) we lost David Bowie. Then Prince, and then George Martin. The other day we lost George Michael. I was never a fan Michael's work. The real shocker for me was losing Bowie. With the Rolling stones up there in age, I got a feeling we're going to lose one of them soon. 

I also wanted to Home brew my new Nintendo 3ds and that looks very complicated. Since I've owned this device last March, I have yet to buy 1 game. I've got a demo of "Bravely Second," and the game cards that came with the system. It's not that the games are that expensive, I've just been buying music apps lately. I've seen some pre owned games at Best buy for like $15. Not much going on for the rest of the day, although I'd like to make a Gadget jam after wrestling, when Anne is done with face time. Anyway, that's all for now.

I'm on day 2 of my 11 days off

as this is a bit of a primer for when I'm on pension this time next year. I'm still going to work 3-5 days a week even then otherwise I'd be board. I like the Southside job because both projects amount to about 26 weeks, even though its harder to get to it gives me a nice balance. That and it pays better. At the other place I feel somewhat under paid and over worked. 

I don't know if my iPod Touch 5th gen is jail broken but yesterday it died on me. This was strange because there was still enough battery in the device. So I was checking on the Best buy website before the Oilers/Sharks game, for a AV lightning add on for my i0S device and what's this, they are open to 11pm? I'm not going to miss anything in the first period of the game anyway. So I made my way over to Best Buy across the street and bought a usb lightning charger and returned home opened the package and began charging the iPod and watch the rest of the game. There was no score in the 1st period so I was right, I didn't miss much. Intermission. How come my iPod isn't charging? Did I break the iPod somehow when I tried to jail break it? Did I buy a bad charger? I tried our iPad charger with the new cable, and tried that and went back to the hockey game. The Sharks scored in the 2nd they got another one and I thought, well, can't win them all. Then we scored 2 goals to tie the game in the 3rd at 2 each, wow. At this point I was resigned to assume the iPod was broken and I'd have to use the old iPod Touch 3rd gen. The Sharks scored in OT bringing us 1 point behind them in the standings and that's the last game until the 29th. The Oilers also advanced to 4th in the West. The Oilers hadn't been this far in the standings since the 80's. I tried to find a online solution to my dilemma. There were several. Turn Home button on/off rapid fire for 10 seconds, then hit power button on top, all kinds of different things. I tried once more holding down the power button. Then the white apple logo cam on. Success. That was scary there for a moment. 

Over the past several months I've been researching how these You Tube music producers get the results they do when recording a iPad screen. I know about Elgato screen capture. My results with my iPod Touch always come out looking poor. One of my favorite producers/channels Jakob Haq directed me to one of his play lists that demonstrate how he makes his video's. All he's using is his 2nd gen iPod Touch mini and his iPhone. Then he shows how he's using a "light box." A what? So he places the iPad on the fabric inside the home made light box, and his iPhone with Pinnacle studio (which I have) on top with the camera facing down in a cut out hole for the iPhone camera. He also uses "Cute cut pro as well." The light box diffuses light around the iPad screen, which in turn "manages" the contrast of the iPad in the iPhone. He uses some external lamps as well. Before he begins, he has the iPad using Audioshare, then I'm sure he uses a bluetooth switch to control the iPod's on and off video. Pinnacle Studio has more then one lane for audio. He probably has the same Audioshare account on his iPhone. He said he uses Airdrop for audio. I have Airdrop only for my iPod touch. For voice overs he uses a IK multimedia app and mic solution but what I'd like to use is a Lav mic and a audio interface/sound card which I have. Just a few things and a bit of trial and error probably next month or so I'll have more professional looking video's out there. I tried making a beat using Korg gadget but the battery went on both devices. Gadget really needs an undo button.

Anne went crazy buying a cat perch and running here and there for various things.

We're going to have a nice Christmas eve and Anne's going to midnight mass. We'll have a nice supper, here with Silky, Rusty and Skippy. We're opening gifts around midnight while we're watching "Hopalong Cassidy." We'll be in bed by about 4am with a sleeping pill and staying in as its snowing pretty heavily out there. Merry Christmas everyone, that's all for now.

Winter solstice arrived here in

Edmonton at 3:44 this morning. After today the days get longer by seconds and then by minutes moving into January and February. With the weather warmer then its been some time off and some income coming in, I feel pretty good about myself.

On my commute home from work last night I began getting mild blood sugar shakes. I had a cookie left over from my lunch at Belvedere station and felt a bit better. I had one thing on my mind pulling into Clareview and boarding the #183 as it was ready to pull out: Getting my $15 iTunes gift card. I picked that up at Shoppers and headed home. Anne was making us a kind of "Shepherds pie." I make mine better in layers and put more cheese in the mash potato and some dried onion in the hamburger with a mix of regular and lean ground. Anne had to go across the street to Shoppers for cream corn and I had a couple of cookies to boost up my sugars. Feeling better I redeemed my iTunes card, and bought Elastic Drums, and Bilbao for Korg Gadget. I'll be playing around with these over the holidays, installing Linux on my laptop, finishing my book and relaxing.

My Westend job's last day of calling before they break for the holidays is today. That's when the cheques are ready. Last day of calling for my Southside job is tomorrow. So I'll be out of here at 2pm later today to run over and get my cheque, then swing into work. I need to have my iPod charged so I can catch the scores on the Oilers/Anaheim game tonight. Then Friday, the Oilers are in San Jose. As for this afternoon, I'm going to suggest to Anne because I have the extra days on my Southside job, that I should just leave my 2 day cheque at the other place for the New Year. Saves me a bit of running around this afternoon. If it was left up to me, I'd say ok. I might anyway. 

I'll have another blog post over the weekend, most likely Saturday as I'm getting into my Christmas holidays. I had such a good night on the job yesterday, I'm hoping for about the same today and tomorrow to close out the year. Anyway, that's all for now.

Heading home after work

last night I felt good completing almost a full day on the job. Even the weather on my commute home felt good and I got work (more or less) secured for January and February.

This morning before bed, I thought about hacking my iPod Touch 5 gen, since i0S 9.3.5 there will no more os updates after that for this thing. A bit of YouTube research later, I came across several jailbreak options. All without the use of a computer. One video, (August) for i0s 9.3.5 demo a 4 step process. I did everything right but no Cydia. There were no changes on my iPod. Oops, I forgot to turn off the application (which wasn't made clear in this process/video. It was made clearer in another video) before shutting off my iPod. I tried again and the first attempt kept refreshing the process. I tried (properly this time) and still nothing. I found another video and a different process, which was more complicated but it works, more or less. When I use the Cydia app, the second process states this is a Cydia alternative (clone) My iPod still isn't jail broken and when in "Cydia" the first process keeps refreshing with other apps to try. Later on I'm going to delete all this stuff and try again back to the first attempt. Its a easy process as long as the instructions and the one hacking knows what they are doing. I hope hacking my new Ntendo 3ds is as easy. I'm trying to find a screen recorder my 32 bit iPod can handle, since Airshou wont work and Vidyo won't work on my 32 bit iPod. I'll be doing stuff like this over the Christmas break.

This week I'm at the other place on the South side until Thursday. I just have a out of my way stop to pick up my cheque for the 2 days. Then after Thursday, my Christmas break for 11 days begins. Excellent. Anyway, that's all for now.

Other then the weather this Saturday morning

I don't mind heading off to work. I had about 4 hours of sleep and Thursday/Friday I had about 6 hours. So its just out the door at 9am, in by 10am.

Not much going on this weekend. The Oilers are entertaining Tampa Bay Lightning at Rogers place tonight. The Oilers are slowly sinking out of a playoff spot. They are still playing 500 hockey but better teams like San Jose Sharks are leaving the Oilers in the dust. I'm about 10% confident the Oilers will squeak into a playoff spot. I'm not very confident the Oilers will win against Tampa tonight but I'll watch. 

We began 2 projects at work yesterday (I can't name of course) but one needs about a 100 completes and that's our only project for today. In other words I'm hoping for a short shift and out by 1pm. At least I have steady work for January. Not much more then that this weekend. Anyway, that's all for now.

I like overcast skies heading on my

afternoon commute. That Sun even while wearing sunglasses can be glaring in my eyes. At least we're no longer in that arctic vortex that's held a ice grip over the city for the last ten days. Right now its -16/-23 wind chill.

So Trudeau is ramping up its national legalize marijuana (pot, mainly to tax it) campaign promise. I'm split over this whole thing. Just the ethics of legalizing pot alone gives me pause. On one hand by legalizing pot and having pot sold at specific retail vendors, will have a significant impact on crime. Also, by legalizing pot, pot users will know what their getting. Buying pot by a dealer, could be laced with anything. What I don't like about this, is that I might be faced with breathing in unwanted 2nd hand pot smoke. I live here in Capital place apartments, and have been doing so for the last 16 years. Use street view and zero down the first building across the street from the Dollarrama. You see that strange wooden thing on the main floor? I go past that everyday. My wife and I suspect pot users. More so in the summer, but now we'll be breathing in 2nd hand pot smoke. I imagine a lot of my colleagues will be "high,"during their shift. I can see companies installing a periodic work place drug policy, that could affect me as well. Many people I know in the trades face that already, now with this even more so, and what about the legal snags surrounding that? Who can I trust now getting behind the wheel of a car that drives me to Southgate or from the lodge home? Also, what about the dealers that are going to target their customers? "You continue to buy from me or else," threats, and the collateral damage that can cause. Pot gets on peoples cloths and smells bad. What about quantities and price? There are other issues as well such as mothers smoking cigarettes around their children. Now children will be exposed to 2nd hand pot smoke. What about the ramifications of that? Since pot (depending on who you talk to) is addictive, how is that going to affect the household? Again price. "But Jim, as a teenage from the 1960's didn't you smoke pot?" Once and I got nothing out of it. Since JT and this plan to legalize pot is in uncharted waters, there's just too much we don't know, like how will this affect the Canadian US boarder for the states that have yet to legalize pot? There's all kinds of legal snags to get around over the next months ahead.

So, today I'm in at my South side job as that's winding down next week. I expressed my desire to work in January if there is any clean up work. I have a few things I'm looking at for January. I'm hoping to go in on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the market research job, and 3 days at the South side job to wrap up the year. Anyway, that's all for now.

Heading into work Saturday morning

wasn't too bad. I was happy to get out for the "weekend" when I did. At the moment, its -13 with a -19 wind chill. Coming home will be a bit different but we should be out of that extreme arctic cold snap for a few days. By the weekend the long range is about -1, which is going to be nice.

This week is going to be busy. I've got a full week's worth of work between both jobs. I didn't get that iM1 app this last weekend but most likely I'll order it on the weekend coming up. The highlight for this last weekend was watching the Winnipeg/Oilers game last night. Kassian on a breakaway scores into the jets net but Jets coach called a challenge saying the play was offside. Kassian's foot was in the air on the blue line. Good call by their coach. It was Patrik Laine of the Jets that scored our 3rd goal. He was trying to clear the puck making a defensive play that went into their own net. Charlie Huddy (on their bench) might have reminded Laine about our then rookie defense Steve Smith goal in 1986 during a game 7 that helped the Flames to get their one and only Stanley Cup. Laine should be grateful that goal wasn't in a playoff game. I think Winnipeg was the better team last night, tbh. Late in the 3rd, Laine banked the puck off a stanchion that hit our goal post, and had our goaltender fooled. McDavid once again tries to score into a empty net and can't beat the clock and scores on 0=0 time. 

So, I'm on my 2:30pm commute to my South side job today and same for Tuesday. Then its my West end job for a couple of days in the middle of the week and then next week, on the 21st my West end job breaks for the year and the day after my South side job breaks. So I get 11 days off, wu who! Anyway, that's all for now.

The theme for my opening blog this morning is

weather. At the moment it's -23/-28 out there. Its the 2nd number that concerns me at -28 and it supposed to get colder as the morning progresses to -41. The good news is its supposed to warm up over the next ten days to about -8. I can handle that. 

Yesterday during my commute I bought a blackjack scratch n win ticket at the redimart, and played on the train as it was waiting to pull out of Clareview. I won $10! Wu who. What the hell I can always catch the next train. I went down to catch it and there was a line up as there was this one person two down from me tying everyone up for five minutes. Then there was a debit card, yeesh. Finally my turn. I got my $10 and went to get my next train there waiting upstairs. I knew I was going to be late, what the hell? At least it was bright and sunny on my way in. I got to Southgate and from the platform I could see across 109th my #52. Would I make the connection? I began to pick up my pace in the pedway and hurried down the stairs. As soon as I got outside the doors the bus was raising its entrance and opened its doors for me. Any longer I would have missed it. Whew! 

I was able to make it into the office right on time. I got the Metro, the area manager said, "Hi Jim, cold enough for you?" "Oh, yeah," as I'm taking off my face mask, scarf etc. I told her a brief story as she was heading about where my wife is working and how I tried and failed to write a test to work their. "So she's working this weekend," She said "Well, your a better fit here, have a nice weekend," That was nice. I felt good about that. So I got a hot chocolate, settled in and signed in. By 4:10pm we had 6 people. Looks like a short crew as others began to show up, eventually. At least I never handed in a empty recap at the end of the shift. A colleague from Brazil and I walked down to the bus stop and joined by one of the new girls as we waited in front of Tony Roma's there on 51st Ave and Calgary Trail but the bus was delayed or it felt like it was a long wait because of the weather. Five minutes can seem like 15 in this weather. At Southgate the new girl and I were on the pedway there was our early Clareview train ready to pull out, crap. I checked on the Edmonton/Wild, nhl game tied at 2 ready to go into ot. I'll catch this oncoming Nait train to someplace further up the line where its warm but my iPod Touch battery was in the low red. At Grandin, I checked the game and Minni scored in ot. We're losing too many of these ot games now. That's 5 points we let go. Next game will be a Sunday event I'll watch tomorrow. I got home shortly before 10pm after leaving out of the office before 8:30pm. That late #6 was the difference maker last night. After dinner I was able to watch a bit of the "Late show," shut the computer off and I went to bed.

I'm out of here at 9am. I'm sure its going to be very chili. At least I'm not in at the other job. Their shift for Friday was cancelled and the office is closed for today. At least I have my other job I was at yesterday. I'm in the market research job office on Wednesday at 3:30pm and for Thursday hopefully Saturday. I need those 3 days. The market research job is done for Christmas break on the 21st and the South side job where I'm at today, closes on the 22nd and resumes in March. My 4 hour shift today is done at 2:15pm and I think Mark is there today. He usually drives me and Brazil to Southgate, which makes a difference in this weather. 

So after work its my commute home and I'm going to buy a iTunes card at Shoppers so I can get iM1. If I can make it across the street in 1 piece. I'm home all day Sunday and I have the Oilers game to watch Sunday night. Anyway, that's all for now.

Since May 12 1980

I've been writing a kind of daily journal. I'd write this out on hard copy, sometimes going on for pages at a time. Those hard copies are still here and there could be about 20,000+ pages. Just things going on in my daily life, the women I've been interested in my ahem, "encounters" with them etc. The journal was to be a kind of "occult journal", a documentation of the "The great work" whatever that means. I wanted it to be like Aleister Crowley's diaries, however, it never got to be that way. I hid each "volume" here in my office as best I could until September 2005 when my wife found my diary and read my musings about this woman I had a passing interest in. That interest evaporated within a month but as that interest was sputtering out Anne read the entry. Since Anne and I have been married December 6th 2000, I have never had a external relationship with another woman. Anne occasionally rubs salt in those wounds.

So as of 2005 I've had a electronic copy of my diary on 2 different computers. The first was a custom made pc in 2001. The PC came with about 10Gb of hard drive space. There's nothing on that pc worth saving. Thanks to the Ralph Kline resource cheques in 2005 I bought a Windows Xp media centre pc. Right after Anne discovered that journal entry September 2005, I went from that to my blog in 2005. I can't recall if my journal went electronic on my old pc. It was a ATX tower and I recall I had both of them running together, so most likely I was running a journal on the old ATX machine running Windows Millennium 2005-2010. I still have the original millennium cd. Since I took out the ram of the old pc for a colleague and I don't know where it is  to reinstall it. It might be easier to take out the hard drive from the old ATX and install it into one of my empty drive bays into the Windows Xp machine to see if I can still use it.

Okay, so where all this is going (finally) this morning when I tried to open my diary pt. 2 Microsoft Works wouldn't open it. I had pt.1 on a usb flash drive and pt.1 was a longer document and it opened for me, no problem. Pt. 2 on the flash drive went until May of this year but there is 6 months of a journal gap. I tried downloading Abiword but there are some programing issues and Open office with the same. Works, fits best for me but now I don't know if I can trust it any more  to open a new document. I need to eventually migrate from that platform anyway, eventually. 

At the moment my commute weather this afternoon is going to fell like -27. I wore a t-shirt under my sweater and that worked ok. I don't mind cold, it's just the ice. Coming off the curb just by Shoppers here is a stretch of ice where vehicles have been packing it down. So its better to cross a few paces before where there is less ice. otherwise I need to where cleats for that one little area.

Anyway, I'm out of here in an hour to Southgate on the lrt, for my short bus trip into work. As long as I'm dressed for winter, it doesn't bother me too much.

Here I am shortly before 9am looking at my bedside

clock. Huh, its 9am. Shit, I'm going to miss my 9am bus to work and I didn't have supers phone # to call in. I'll miss my shower, I'll fill my empty pop bottle. Friday night I can leave my work file and box of pencils, etc on our stations reserving our spaces if we're in on Saturday, so at least I have my spot reserved. I'm up out of bed feeding the cats, scrambling, wait now, its Monday morning. I'm getting too old for this. I went back to bed.

About 4pm yesterday we got this huge snowstorm. It was howling out there my friends. Long range weather showed -20's never mind the wind chill. Looks like its going to be boots and my open face balaclava mask for me from now on. So this morning I'm up just before noon, fixing my coffee and it's -17 out there now. The thing is we got ourselves a dusting of snow (again) here in the Edmonton area, that's it! The long range is anywhere from -18, to -22, with an average of -20. Still not too bad. Last so called blizzard we got, was just a dusting of snow like this one but we get the change of temperatures instead. Over the last number of recent years, our snow accumulation in the Edmonton area hasn't been very much anyway. Usually we'll get maybe 2 inches of snow that stays packed on the ground and melts in late March. Besides I'm not working outside, so weather doesn't affect me that much. The only hardship winter has on me is waiting for the bus and if I time it right my wait is 5 minutes maybe 10. The only thing I don't like about winter is the freezing rain. I'd take this weather over freezing rain any day. 

My wife has her sister here in town on a working visit, so Anne might be leaving with me. She can ride in with me to University station. Her sisters hotel room isn't that far away. As for me, this week, its my South side job until Thursday. Friday and Saturday its my market research job. If I can get the next 2 weekends in at that place and my South side job goes until December 22nd, then we should be ok from there for January. About the only exciting thing for me this week, is getting my iTunes card for iM1 for Gadget and one of the 3 "Space marine battles" books I have waiting for me at Audrey's. Anyway, that's all for now.

That so called blast of winter Wednesday

was just a dusting of snow. If anything it feels like Spring out there. Yesterday morning it was nice and sunny but my commute was under overcast skies, with a dusting of snow. Heading in this morning should be ok. I'll be at my South side job because my shift was cancelled for last night and today as the market research office job is closed. They have nothing going on. My weather heading into work this morning, should be ok. I almost feel like heading into Tim's for coffee, we'll see.

Thanks to YouTube I discovered before bed this morning a Korg Gadget a "Ah, so that's how it works," moment. Gadget kind of looks like a digital audio workstation (daw), and can be played that way but it seems to me the real value is in the performance of this tool by muting and un muting tracks as parts, intro, Verse, Chorus, etc. I'd like too see as a possible future upgrade where a track could have more then one gadget on it but where each gadget is its own track, might be hard to do or even redundant. Since, there's no CFL football or Oilers hockey, Sunday, I'll be playing around with Gadget etc.

This morning I'm on my way to the job and if I run into Dave, I'll head straight into work. If not I'll pop into Tim's at Corona station. I don't mind being 10 minutes late. They wont mind either but we'll see. After work I'd like to get my free flu shot at the Rexall drugstore on my way home and pop into Audrey's and on my way home. Anne has a frozen thing in the fridge for me. If I'm tired I'll have a bit of a nap and for latter watch the Oilers game at 8pm. Anne is out with her sister Sunday night as she is making a rare job appearance here in Edmonton. Anyway, that's all for now.