Still at it working these

1-9 hours. Because my breaks are 2 hours apart, makes the day go by faster. Unless things change drastically, I'm still 1-9 all week and possibly going into next week as well. So my routine is: Go to bed at about 2am, listen to a bit of Coast, get about 5.5 hours of sleep,up at about 8am, to wake up do whatever until about 10:15 have my first coffee. About 10:15 have my bath and clean up. About 10:40 begin to pack up put a frozen thing together. About 10:50 I'm eating a can of pasta, stew, or frozen thingy. By 11am I'm all dressed and ready to go with my iPod charged. I'm usually out there about 11:15am (when working these 1-9 hours) waiting for my bus to Clareview, train to Central, bus to work. I'm usually in the office by 12:35-45. Sign in, find out what I'm doing log into my terminal. My breaks are 15 minutes, 30 minutes and 15 minutes. About 5-5:30pm I'm on my lunch or my half hour. By 8:45pm I'm cleaning up my work area. Time sheet is usually called at 8:50pm and I'm all packed out and out the door for my bus across the street. Its usually there just before 9pm. If the trip is just smooth sailing heading East on Jasper Ave, I can be at Corona station about 9:10 as my Clareview train is just pulling in. If I make good connections I can be home by 9:35. There might be a Oiler game I can catch up on, do some computer stuff before Anne gets home. She'll make us a bit to eat, as we're watching the national news and local news and a bit of The Late Show. Then I have a few hours of whatever. Its all of the above, rinse and repeat. Sounds glamorous? No? I Completely agree. Anyway, that's all for now.

I left a bit early Saturday morning

so this time I wouldn't be late for work, I was at 124th street and 107th Ave by 9:30am. It was a beautiful morning. The city has a couple of back metal bunches I like to sit on when the weather is good. The wind picked up so I thought I'd head inside.

The US travel ban against dual Muslim/American's gives me pause. These people are not terrorists. They might not be Christian but many of them are hard working people that just want to live in peace. Now Trump is signing executive orders almost as much as he's Tweeting. In contrast to Trump George W Bush did not sign 1 executive order while in his term of office and Trump so far has signed 12 of them. Its a crazy world we live in.

So Justin Bieber was at the NHL All-star celebrity shootout game. The Beibs was apparently keeping up as well, playing some good hockey. Maybe he might earn a NHL contract. The Las Vegas Golden Knights might need a guy like the Beibs.

Anne and I are going to watch The Royal Rumble this afternoon. Should be fun. This week I'm at the job 1-9. Thursday I have a 1:30pm Doctors appointment, then I got to get ready for lodge. Friday its 1-9 and the new schedule for the 2nd week in February. I'm working Saturday. The only thing distractions from the work week are the hockey games/lodge. Anyway, that's all for now.

I figure as long as I'm in bed by

2am I can get up at 8 for 6 hours of sleep. As slow as calls were last night, I thought I'm not going to be able to make it out to my Doctor's appointment for 10am this morning. I need time to have some breakfast and there's nothing near there to eat that early other then Tim's and I'm too rushed anyway. I'm going to cancel for next Thursday as I have the day off (sort of) for lodge. I'll call about 8am and re-book.

I managed to hit all the connections on my commute home last night and thanks to the Oilers/Anaheim hockey game on at 8pm I was able to see the 2nd and 3rd period and more importantly the Oilers winning 4-0! Wow. Up next is San Jose Sharks. Two time lucky? I don't know.

Update from earlier this morning: I went and cancelled my appointment for today and re booked for 1:30pm next Thursday, when I'm off. Its just a pick up anyway. At least that's out of the way.

I want to listen to a bit of Coast 2 Coast this morning as well and pass out. Anne is trying to find a taped airing of the Golden globes from the other night. Trump "attacking" actress Meryl Streep? Overrated?  Trump seems obsessed with his popularity, or lack there of. I'm listening to Coast as it makes more sense then Trump. Anyway that's all for now.

Waking up with the

good old cup of coffee this morning to help me take on the day. Its another long one and continues through the week. 

I don't know what to make of this. Week one of Trumps term of office, he appeals Obama care (not good) and then gives the green light for the controversial Keystone pipeline, which for us here in Alberta, could be a good thing. I underline "could" because there could be conditions: One of those early leaked conditions is to have US steel in the ground. The pipes are already in place on our side of the project already. Any left over pipe can be used for the proposed Transalta East pipeline, no big deal. However if one of those conditions is to have domestic workers on our side of the project replaced with foreign workers, no. If the end product in the pipeline is going to be heavily taxed, leaving Canada with a 40-60 split in revenues, no. The US is a nice market to ship our product to but we can also ship our product to other countries like China and Europe. I'm all for negotiation as long as its balanced: "You want that, we want this," type thing. Give and take. Keystone is a nice side income for our oil and will create a lot jobs for both countries and much needed income into the Alberta Government's coffers. The wild cards in all of this is of course, the environmentalists and litigation. Both could tie up Keystone for the length of Trumps term of office.

Meanwhile, the Valley line lrt project is slowly moving along. I'm surprised there hasn't been any webcams installed yet. TransEd keeps sending me my email progress reports I subscribed to. The first length of the project from Mill woods to City Centre, is supposed to be completed by 2020. The only "visible" progress made so far has been the removal of the controversial the footbridge. Now that, its been removed, there is apparently work on the tunnel leading just North of the footbridge to above the river valley on 95th street underneath St. Boniface there and I think the tunnel is supposed to emerge out onto 102nd street by the Edmonton Chinatown multi cultural centre. At the moment TransEd is preparing for lane closures for having the Harbin Gate removed. The removal of that in itself has been controversial. Some of the things I don't like about Valley: First; I don't like how its cutting through my old stomping grounds of King Edward park. Its a mature neighborhood. I don't like how TransEd is using Bombardier as its provider for the trains. I don't like how long its taking to get things underway. Just some of the issues I have with this project but overall I think its going to be good for the city.

I find that getting out of here at 11:15am gets me into the office about 12:35pm. Makes for an 8.5 hour day. Lately if its not that cold, I'll go for a walk to the store just to get some air. Mostly on this project is working on the no answer and answering machine calls. We're about halfway through this project. lots of work coming up. I like these hours and my breaks are spread out 3, 5, and 7pm. Because of the source I don't have to be concerned too much with missing time sheet and that early #5 just before 9am. I get to put my 7.5 hours in right away and "see you tomorrow" type thing. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Yesterday morning it was very foggy out

here. At 8:50am I barely could see across the street. ETS bus tracker showed my #11 to Clareview was 8 minutes away. That was about the only thing on my Saturday morning commute that went right for me. So yesterday my train leaves out of Clairview at 9:15am, yeesh. Normally it leaves out of there about 9:10am. I knew for the 2nd time this week, I’d be late, then the train has to stop at the garage, and then the train has to waddle in between Coliseum and Stadium and even stopped for about 30 seconds at one point by Inland Cement there. Then just before Churchill station, an announcement: “We’re going to be a bit delayed while the Metro train clears out of Churchill.” That’s a five minute wait. Then at Churchill, “We’re going to be delayed as we’re on 1 track waiting for the train from Bay station,” I knew I was going to be late for sure now. What the heck is going on? Finally at Central I'm working my way up the concourse levels and I’m met with what seems to be a "phalanx of panhandlers" in my way, (seldom ever see any) and then every bus but mine appeared at Central station, street level. Finally when the #5 did arrive, it pulled out of Central about 9:40am. Ordinarily I'd be just pulling up to about where the Jewish Sen agog is and I'd be in the office for the Saturday morning briefing by 9:50am. I ended up being 15 minutes behind schedule but another colleague was late also and slightly ahead of me heading into the building. Her reason for being late was different from mine, (next Saturday, I'm leaving out of here to catch the 8:20 bus. I'll be downtown by 9am and I can even get breakfast if I want) I was just a few minutes behind her. At my only break (it was a 6.5 hour shift) I asked Super in light of what happened all this week and my commute, if I could book out at 3pm. I was in a cranky mood and had no energy for anything. Super emphasized with me. I put 5 hours in on my time sheet and left at 3pm.

The first thing I wanted to do was to head over to Long and McQuade to their downtown location,107 and 101st, just a few steps away from The Brick. I picked up my little Mackie Mix 5 mixer and a double end xlr 3.5 audio cable. My bill was $80. This is my first mixer. Its going to be great because it will allow me to hook up gear like the Korg Volca's right from the mixer into the iPad/Audioshare. I had a brief look around and headed to catch a bus to Jasper Ave. I got off just before Jasper Ave and took the lrt entrance by the RBC bank building there. Again the train was late. 

Just outside crossing the street, I had another vehicle cut me off. I got home by 5 pm to unpack my goodies. The mixer works great, right out of the box. I ended up watching the8pm Oilers/Flames game. Anne came in as the game was just winding down and I could tell she was moody about something. 7-3 Oilers. The Oilers haven't had 60 points since the 1980's. After a meh dinner of a pork chop and foiled potatoes, and Anne's sour mood on me I watched "Hopalong Cassidy," got my sleeping pill and went to bed about 3:30 this morning and woke out of bed at about 12:30pm, to write in my journal and compose this blog post. Of course my first cup of coffee. 

At the moment its overcast with a hint of fog left over from yesterday in the air. It feels more Spring like then winter. Not too hot or cold. The trees have this dusting of frost on them. It looks very nice out there. If the weather holds like this until the end of February, great. Not much else going on right now. Anne's out shopping. She just left without a word, mumbling something about Walmart. Other then our late brunch, I've got nothing planned. I'll be playing with Gadget a bit after brunch and messing around with that and the winding down of NAMM 17. All this next week ahead its 1-9pm and 4:30pm on Saturday. I need the hours. Anyway, that's all for now. 

I'm still here

but last night right after work, I got cut off by an oncoming vehicle in a marked cross walk. I was steps away into the 3rd lane when out of nowhere this vehicle came right out in front of me. Its a dangerous crosswalk.

Yesterday was the big Presidential inauguration day. All the pomp, ceremony, balls, red carpets, and on the other side pandemonium, riots in the streets. Donald J. Trump is the 45th US President. He took office at a very low approval rating and one of the most polarizing Presidents in US history. He's already made enemies. At 70, I'd be surprised if he makes it to a 2nd term. Obama was 47 when he took office, even George W bush was about 54 when he took office. There's already a movement to have Trump impeached. If he even gets that far. The first thing Trump did was appeal Obama care, sad. Its going to be an interesting 4 years.

On my break I'm calling Long and McQuade. I'm off work at 4:30pm (its going to be light out, wow) and over to Long and McQuade. I can catch the #3 as the bus goes right by the shop and I get off at 107a and 101st. I cross the street, and its a few blocks West (street view it) I'm hoping to get my Mackie mix 5 mixer. Its a 5 channel mixer for $65, and I'll have a brief look around at all the gear I can't get, just yet. 

Today, its day 6/6 of my 44 hours. Next week I have the same for 44 hours. I didn't get a chance to get the Oilers scores last night as my train to Clareview at Corona was just pulling in. At Clareview it was 2-1 Nashville. When I got into the apartment, the Oilers tied the game. I got to watch the OT period and the Oilers lost in the shootout 3-2. We're still in 5th place but there's a 8pm game tonight. I get a day off tomorrow and back at it 1-9 all next week. Surprisingly, I don't feel that bad. Anyway, that's all for now.

A ten minute wait at Clareview on my way

into work caused me to be late by a few minutes, so they wrote me up for that. If the lrt had left a few minutes earlier I would have been safe. While I'm waiting for my #5 at Central along comes a #120 heading West along Jasper. I thought about taking that to Corona station, pop into Audrey's for my book. Be patient Jim. 12:40pm, at last here was my #5 bus. I was going to be late for sure. I have no cell phone to call the office. It was a milk run all the way to the office.

My new Nintendo is just less then a year old and soon Nintendo is about to release "Switch" in March. Apparently (and its all over the place in YouTube) Switch is going to have a "share" button. I'm not sure what that means but most likely its an evolved version of their "street pass." Some people are speculating the share button is going to be able to live screen record game play. If that were the case the price of the "Switch" would be through the roof.

Yesterday was the prelude to NAMM #17 (National Association of Music Merchants) Day #1 of the event is today. There's nothing so far that jumps out at me. The new mpc's are interesting. All the main manufacturers are there. I like all the new gear manufacturers release. Last year there was a lot of guitar stuff.

So far, I'm holding out ok, after 3 full days. I thought I'd be fatigued but I'm hanging in there. I'm on day 4 of 7 of my 7 day full days here. Ask me  how I'm doing this time Saturday. Anyway, that's all for now.  

I've been trying since Sunday to

compose a short music video using Gadget but these hours are really draining me. I don't mind project when I'm actually able to talk with someone and do a survey but with the afternoon sample rate we have 80% of my calls are all not in service and or answering machines. And its not just me, its my colleagues as well. They're going through the same thing as me. And when I do get someone they don't qualify. It gets better after 5pm. Its not the project its the sample that they give us, uggh. I hope I get these hours next week but I wont know until Friday. My wife keeps saying to me, its not forever.

While growing up in the 1960's in Coquitlam BC, I don't recall ever going to the circus. I'm sure the circus came to Vancouver. I was shocked when I heard that Ringling brothers circus is about to cease operations and close its doors. They have about 140 shows remaining. Operation costs are squeezing the show down. I'm sure that's happening to WWE. . 

Our fantastic mid January weather keeps on going. At the moment its +2 and the forecast for this afternoon is a high of
+6, And it looks tomorrow is going to be good as well but slides off for the weekend at around -3 -1 then the weather picks up next Wednesday to about +4. So January roars in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. February could be cold but if its like under -10, that's ok to take.Sun sets at 4:50, so the days are getting a bit longer.

I've been trying to get out of here a bit early to get my Space marine Battles book. If I can get the just before 9pm bus I can hook up with one of the guys from Audrey's and ride in with him. We're the same age. He's February and I'm August. I'm hoping to leave out of here at 11:30 and catch something about 11:45. So tonight, I'm following the Florida Panthers/Oilers game. I've got a small window at Corona to get the scores. The 3rd period should be underway as I'm waiting for my train. Anyway, that's all for now.

At the moment

here in the Edmonton area, we're sitting at +3, which for this time of year after that near deep freeze month, is welcome relief. This week we're calling for about the same. it would be nice if this could go to the end of the month.

So Twitter is musing the idea of banning Donald Trump. Finally, some common sense in all of this. Don't get me wrong, for the most part I like Trump, its just his reckless off the cuff Twitter comments give me pause. You don't see other world leaders behaving like this.

Finally, ETS has fixed their lrt call boards and has the eta back on. Yesterday, before my morning commute I downloaded the ETS bus tracker app. This is really handy as it gives almost an exact time of my incoming bus. The app doesn't give a gps reading though, which would have been nice so I can see where the bus is. Five minutes away though is isn't bad, and gives me a rough idea where the bus is in relation to where I am. Especially when its like -25 on a cold start to the winter commute. 

I'm thinking about getting a iPhone in September, when I'm on pension. Not just for the ETS bus tracker app when I'm, on the go, but I don't like having to ask my colleagues for sports scores. I'm off work in the summer, so its not an issue but in the autumn, its different. When I'm at lodge, its nice to have something like that handy or even the apple watch tethered to the iPhone. Usually the Oilers are always playing on that first Thursday of the month. 

So yesterday on my 2pm lunch, I'm over to the store across from where I work. The store owner (a little Chinese guy) had Smackdown Live on his little tv. He's a nice guy. I bought 2 Blackjack tickets and got a free ticket on a 18. I cashed in ticket to play once more, nothing. I bought a quick pick for the 6/49 for last nights $20M thinking I may as well since I'm on a roll. I checked the numbers earlier and I got 2 numbers for another, wait for it.....free ticket, LOL. 
  
I'm going to call ahead on Wednesday to Long & McQuade, to see if they have the Mackie mix 5 mixer in stock. At $65, I could afford that. Its about the same size as my little Nintendo. If it's in stock, I can leave out of here about 11am (its on the #3 bus route on another way into work) get the #3 at Central, get off at the stop on 101st/107th ave and pop in, pick it up and look around. Then head into work. I'm also looking at the Korg Electribe 2 Sampler for around June.

And finally, this week, I'm 1-9 everyday except Saturday and  its 10-4:30pm because of the hours per week cap here in Alberta. the Alberta Government caps it off at 41 hours in a week. Anyway, that's all for now. 

Yesterday I popped into the

little orbit store at Central station and picked up a blackjack ticket. I was determined to slap Friday the 13th in the face and win something today. I got upstairs and there was my #5 bus pulling away. I was early so, I wasn't going to sweat it. After a bit of a wait I got the next #5 and I got to work on time. At my 3pm break I played my blackjack ticket and won $5! I was having a good start to the shift. At my 5pm break I headed over to the store across the street, put an extra buck in and bought and played 3 games. When I saw an 18 appear I knew I was going to win. Wu who, $50! Then I bought to more tickets and another $10. So that's $65 for $12. Not bad. Thank you Friday the 13th!

So yesterday Justin Trudeau was out on his country wide tour. He said off the cuff something about phasing out the Alberta oilsands. This ruffled a few feathers hear in Alberta. Especially with Jane Fonda coming here early last week.
Robbie Picard, founder of the local booster group Oil Sands Strong, he said to Fonda: “Are you aware that Jim Boucher from the Fort McKay First Nation just (invested) $250 million into the oilsands? Are you aware there’s 289 aboriginal businesses?” Most likely Fonda zoned him out. Why Trudeau would make such a statement when just weeks ago approved two pipelines here in Alberta? Strange.

I'm out of here at 9am for a full day. After my break at noon, the shift basically becomes a an afternoon shift. On my lunch break I'm heading back over to the store to buy 2 more blackjack tickets. I think my luck has run out but its fun to play. I'll get my last break at around 4pm. The shift slows down on a Saturday after 4pm and drags out by this time I'm struggling to power through the balance of the shift. Then I'm heading home to have a nap and watch the Flames/Oilers game. All next week, I'm 1-9pm except Saturday I'm off work at 4:30pm. I'll have 41 hours on the week and hopefully the same for next week but its just week-by-week. Anyway, that's all for now.

I'm out there at the light standard across the street from

Shoppers under sunny skies and there goes my #11 bus yesterday morning between 8:45-9am. I thought, Just great, now I'll freeze to death waiting for the next West Northgate bus. Five minutes later, here comes another #11. What luck. I was at Northgate at 9:15. I hobbled over to the mall watching my step with ice most of the way to the mall and joined the line up at Tim's upstairs from pcn. What was a breakfast egg/sausage/cheese sandwich on a biscuit with hash brown and medium coffee a year ago for about $5.50 something has gone up a $1.Yikes. Ok, I need breakfast. I had my breakfast enjoying that and I still had half an hour too spare. I thought about getting my flu shot but I was still half awake. Instead I just went downstairs to my pcn and booked in. Half an hour later my pharmacist met me. I got my supplies and feeling good, I decided to buy another blackjack ticket at the kiosk underneath the escalator. I scratched and got x19's on the dealers table. Yeah good luck with that. But I ended up with x5 20's beats 19 for $2 each. Would it have killed them to put 1 of those 20's from table to to claim at least the $5 prize in table 1?

Well, at least that paid for my breakfast. Yet $10 bucks is $10. Kind of makes up for all the times I played and lost. I felt good going home and got inside by 11:45am. I probably should have had a nap for an hour.

The "lo pass pod cast" began at 1pm UTC-1 +7 Calgary time. I had a bit of lunch and sat in for about 40 minutes before I had to cut out for work. My commute heading in was ok. No drama, just the way I like it. 
  
I'm still trying to process all of this Trump/Hooker mish-mash. Personally, I don't believe a word of it. It all smacks of fake news and tabloid journalism. Yeesh.

So, I'm out of bed about 9am this morning so I can wake up a bit and get ready for a 7.5 hour full day. I'm wondering if I should buy another blackjack ticket on a date like today? Anyway, that's all for today.

We had snow for the most part all day yesterday

and it only began to taper off just as I left the job site. However the good news weather wise is that after about Wednesday, we're going to be around +2 to about +5, which is a welcome relief around here, what with the cold snap we have been under since mid December.

Not much going this week. I'm working 3-9, which is a long shift. I got my appointment for my pcn Thursday. There's a couple of Oilers games in there, 1 tonight as they're in San Jose. We're supposed to get our carbon rebate cheques in the mail this month. Its based upon our income from last year. Other then that, not a lot going on.

I just caught this from Boredom Therapy:

                  

Did anyone else see this? Too funny.

I think the job is going ok. I'm not screwing up or anything. I think I've got work for this month. At the moment I'm just taking it 1 day at a time. Anyway that's all for now.

Not a lot going on today

just taking it easy after waking up on the early side of 1pm. With that sleeping pill in my system, it really knocked me out. I slept for a good 9 hours. When marijuana is legal here I'm going to try inhaling some depending on cost after work to help me with my rls. I'm in the middle of my first coffee, to help me wake up here.

A bit of a rant coming up: City low floor buses have a kneeling feature where upon request, the operator flips a switch or presses a button to lower the front door of the bus so those with mobility issues like myself can board easier. its called kneeling the front door. Most bus operators do that for me anyway but the bus driver yesterday morning when I asked "Please lower the front door." Just looked at me. I asked again and he did nothing. It was a difficult step for me to board the bus. Also the driver wouldn't like most do, pause for a bit or merge into traffic slowly. The driver was just being a dink because the bad weather was pissing him off. Human nature at work. I exited the bus at Clareview by the front door. "Have a better day." I knew that would bug him. ETS always rotates bus drivers and most of them are pretty good but if its the same bus driver next Saturday morning I'm going to put one step on the front door show my seniors pass and ask to kneel the bus door again: "I have mobility issues, please kneel the front door." If he refuses again, once inside I'm going to ask very nicely as he is just about to pull into Clareview and I'll look right at him as I'm halfway out the door: "Excuse me Mr. bus driver, I don't mean to give you attitude, and I'm asking nice but I thought you are supposed to kneel the front bus door upon request, or am I missing something here?" If he refuses to answer then I'll say as I'm leaving halfway out the door: "Alright, since now your giving me attitude, and I'm asking in a nice way a reasonable question, I'm calling ETS to make a formal complaint about you. You can chew on that for the rest of the day, have a nice day."

So that incident soured my mood for the rest of the way to Central station and into work. I wasn't late for work or anything. Actually I had a good start to the day as the project's flow rate was calling for 1 complete an hour. I had 4 by my noon break, 6 by my lunch break and 10 by 5:45pm. That's when I need to manage my time better near the end. As my colleague would say "sand bagging" I knew my last call would be a complete (usually always is) just as super was calling for time sheet. That's on me not on him. With this weather everyone wants to get home at a decent time. The survey kept me in the office long enough where I missed that 6:10pm #5. I went to the store and bought a blackjack ticket and played the ticket in the shelter waiting for my bus. In the cold even 10 minutes seems like a long time. Normally if I can catch the first bus I can get into the apartment by 7pm. I got home at about 7:35pm.  

Other then the commute in and after the job/commute back, I had a decent day yesterday. I was able to catch the Oilers/Devils just starting OT with the Oilers winning in OT. I had a great night. Anne called me on her break. This week I'm in 3-9 so I get (hopefully) a full 30 hours in before Sunday cut off I'll have a strong cheque for mid January. My commute both ways were just minor incidents. Moods can easily be affected in this weather. Anyway, that's all for now.

I was in bed by 1am this morning

and I woke up shortly before 5 feeling refreshed. Even though I have a full 8 hour day ahead of me, I should be ok for the day despite the cold weather, I wont even mind heading in later this morning. By 5pm this afternoon, however, I'm going to feel pretty wiped out. By "time sheet," I'll be more then happy to head home. It looks like I'll be 6-9pm all next week, including another day like today, uggh.

I'm trying to process what happened in yesterdays Florida shooting. I don't have a lot of info, just from what's out there. So how does a man of middle eastern decent, even admitting to internal security forces, that he hears voices in his head of wanting to join terrorist causes, with a history of criminal activity and mental illness (PTSD) isn't in custody or at least on a watch list? Maybe he was. There is obviously more to this story then is out there at the moment. Yes everyone has rights, and Santiago (the killer) hasn't yet committed a crime until as of yesterday, we all know this. Authorities knew Santiago was in Iraq on a tour of duty and has a history of mental illness. I'm not apologizing for Santiago's actions yesterday but this was a man asking for help. A time bomb waiting to go off. Not just that but he boards a plane with a handgun lands in a popular airport produces the handgun and starts shooting and killing 5 people injuring many others! Yet apparently even in this country its legal to transport a "secured" handgun on a airplane. The Fort Lauderdale gunman surrenders to authorities on location without incident. Unbelievable. So he is finally in custody and should have been in custody all along. This is the ultimate scenario of what could happen when PTSD is left ignored. I feel badly for Santiago's victims and families of yesterday shootings, and for Santiago's family. They're victims as well. US Presidential leader elect Donald Trump responds with a Tweet to the state Governor ending with Stay safe, yeesh. So how many more untreated for PTSD Santiago types are out there left untreated before authorities lets another one lose? These people need help. They are not criminals. The easy unpopular answer is make it illegal to transport handguns in a airplane. That may sound like a quick fix but the root cause is the symptom itself. As of the morning of January 5, 2017, the number of shootings in the US has risen to more than 500 total, resulting in at least 113 deaths and 288 injuries. The victims include six children ages 11 or under and 28 teenagers  and that's just in the US on one day. Unbelievable. Yet that can happen anywhere, and not just in the US. So now authorities are looking for a motive. Um, Santiago has PTSD symptoms and maybe this was his way of getting help? Maybe we should build a wall here in Canada and make Trump pay for it. 

Anne made me a fried egg sandwich and hash brown patties to go with my morning coffee for breakfast this morning. She seldom does that but I have a full day ahead. Just before boarding the train at 9am this morning here at Clareview, I'm going to keep my eyes open and look for a colleague that used to take the Saturday morning train with me to Southgate at the other job. If I see him heading in it will tell me that he has some kind of work going on at the other place for a few Saturdays anyway. He'll tell me if I join him on the train to at least Central station. Management said there isn't any work for anyone working the phones after the 22nd. So lets see if he's on the train this morning. Sorry for the sloppy blog post this morning. I'm just waking up. Anyway, that's all for now.

Here I am with the I'm so old jokes......

Ok I'm so old, I've seen Bell bottom pants come in and out of style 3 times. For more old age jokes you can go here but when I heard that men's chokers are back in style, I thought here we go again. I thought men's chokers went out in the early 1980's? Sigh....

On Coast this morning the topic was space exploration. They talked about dead satellites in earth orbit, many of them risk colliding into each other. Kind of reminds me of a artificial asteroid belt. Even the space station apparently has pot marks all over it due to space debris, some the size of a corn flake whipping around up there. When its time where this space junk loses orbit, most of the smaller pieces burn up in orbit. If ever there is a asteroid on collision course with earth, our space junk will probably slow it down

Its a day off today. The idea was to go out to pcn and my Doctors. I'm at my pcn January 12th. I'll be setting up a Doctors appointment for next week. I'm down to the last 4 Coversyl pills, so I'll try and get a to the pharmacy on my way home from lodge to take a blood pressure reading. I'll be leaving out of here at 6pm for Highlands Hall. My wife has a few 3 hour shifts and I'll be 5 hours Friday and I hope a full day on Saturday. Anything can happen with market research. I hope I'll have a full week next week. If I can get past this month and I have the other job confirmed, great. We'll see how it goes. Anyway, that's all for now.

I made one of my

appointments with the pcn, so that at least is ok. I got my pay cheque and my shift was ok until a "uh-oh" on my part near the end of the shift. I only did this study once on the first day and that was about 3 weeks ago. I'll correct it today. So, other then the oops, I had a good day. 

Anne finally did it. She ordered a $7/month subscription to Netflix. That's a pretty good deal actually. It really expands our television viewing palate a lot more. So on her night off she's been Netflix binging all last night and even now into the morning. 

Poor Mariah Carey. She can't catch a break. If the bad sound at her New Years eve event wasn't enough now she's being vilified as a lip sync fraud, in the same camp as an auto tune cheap shot artist. Excuse me but almost every artist live on stage lip syncs to a track, to be heard above the din. Yet because some people wanted to create a viral moment about this, its now a trending hot topic. Hashtag, lip sync. I'm not a fan of Carey but I respect what she does. Putting Mariah Carey down like what they are doing is a taint to all musical artists.

I got my Space Marine Battles book after work, "Plagues of Orath" and headed home. Anne didn't want to cook so she ordered us a Maximus pizza. We watched the news about Russian hackers, whacky terrorists, something about a dog in Denmark? Yeesh. Anyway, that's all from me.

I don't know how much

blogging I'll get done this week as I'll have a bit on my plate. Especially with the job, lodge appointments and the rest.

So now this North Korean dictator claims they will have a ICBM nuke missile that will reach the US mainland in five years. What's with these whacky dictators, are they suffering from Gangnam style, or Pokémon Go withdraw symptoms?    

I've always been fascinated by the Titanic. I have this book on the topic:

There is strong evidence that suggests a fire aboard the ship. Researchers are suggesting that a fire left unattended for 3 weeks in the hull of the ship might have been responsible for its demise. There is photographic evidence of 30-foot-long black marks along the front right-hand side of the hull which suggest this area was damaged before the iceberg struck the ship’s lining. You can read more about it here.

I'm out of here at 2pm as I need to be at work for 3pm. I've got a few things to do to get set up and at for 5 hours. Of course I'll get the Oilers score before I leave and my book on the way back. Its actually like 4.5 factoring a break and close out to log off to catch my bus. Anyway, that's all for now.

My wife Anne has been

binging lately, watching Mrs. Brown's Boys episodes. Her sister Donna has turned her onto this series a few weeks ago. I can hear her laughing hysterically from my office. Now she's watching past episodes on YouTube draining the iPad battery. I'm sure its outstanding comedy but its not my thing but as long as it makes her laugh, good for her. I posted a brief New Years message on my music channel the other day and that's about as far as I got with anything music  production related because Anne has been draining our iPad battery watching Mrs Brown's boys episodes. I need my own iPad.

I just realized I can't do anything about Doctors appointments today. Most places are shut down ready to open Tuesday. Besides the appointment setting clerk at PCN isn't there until Tuesdays anyway. I doubt even my Doctors office is open today. However, since I'm off work at 8pm tomorrow and my #5 bus should pick me up heading towards downtown, I should be at Corona station by about 8:45pm. When I'm there, I can just scoot upstairs get my Warhammer 40k book and pop downstairs for the next Clareview train home, easy. 

Anyone reading this use services like Yelp or Glassdoor? I use Glassdoor all the time when looking to apply at various places. The reviews are varied and its my go to source before I send out a resume. Quite often when my colleagues ask about the place I'm working at, I direct them to services like the above. This way I save face for myself and the company. These services let you post reviews anonymously, which are more honest. On tap for tonight is Monday night raw. Anyway, that's all for now.

Today is the day that

Today is the day that we get a new "carbon tax," er I mean levy here in Alberta. Its basically a Provincial sales tax dressed up as a "carbon tax," ooops, levy! It means that now everything is going to cost a bit more, then it already does. We haven't been outside yet to shop for anything so we don't know if the carbon tax will show up on the bill after checkout or is hidden. My guess is the latter then the former. Depending on one's income at tax time, will determine which household gets a carbon tax rebate. The cheques (apparently) are going out this week between $100 and $200 like the gst 4 times a year. What I know is that households more then $95,000/year wont get a carbon tax rebate. Those under will. Gasoline will go up as of today but how much of a tax is on that bag of chips we buy once in a while? What about lottery tickets and such? We won't know the specifics until March. A carbon tax is just like saying a Provincial sales tax because that's what it is. The "carbon tax" (levy) depending on who you ask is supposed to generate about $9.6B over 5 years and is supposed to go back into the economy, in theory. Apparently though there should be very little increase in our power bill according to this. Its better then a "carbon tax" being imposed on us by the Federal Government.

I don't watch much television these days but a heavy "aww shit," escaped my lips when I heard about William Christopher passing away yesterday. I watched MASH as it unfolded on a weekly basis in the 1970's and 80's. I thought once McLean Stevenson's "Henry Blake" was written out of the show, MASH was more or less done. Enter Henry Morgan, and over time he grew on me. William Christopher worked off Broadway, television and later in feature films as well. I always liked the character William Christopher played on MASH. He died at the age of 84 From Bill Ross's FB page.

                            
Tomorrow I need to make a few appointments for Thursday to see my Doctor (downtown) and my PCN Northgate. Tuesday and Wednesday this week, I'm at my market research job as the project is calling for a 3-8pm weekday shift. I've got a cheque on hold there to pick up as well. Thursday is the (I hope) Doctor then Audrey's and then the #16 bus across the street from Audrey's to Northgate for my PCN, then home for a bite to eat and then Lodge (that's "my day off"). I'm working Friday 3-8 and Saturday 10-6pm. On top of all that I'm following the Oilers and NHL games, reading my book and working on a Gadget track. After midnight, I like to go over all of my YouTube subscriptions and answer any email from Connect 2 Edmonton, etc. Anyway, that's all for now.