I'm going to have a easy week

this week, sort of. I'm at my South side job over the next 3 days. Thursday I'm at lodge. I'm not looking forward to lodge because the DDGM will be here and a bunch of strangers/guests, and I have speaking parts. Then Friday and Saturday 2 full days at the other job, plus its a pay week for me as well.

Despite the controversy in the 3rd period, the Oilers penalty killing didn't do them any favors. In a 4 goal game the Oilers should have won that one. Not only did the on ice officials screw up but they even screwed up at the Oscars. Up next its Saint Louis and they'll try it again.

Anne came back with a pair of Velcro sneakers for me from Walmart. I used to like wearing these kids of running shoes. I'm very happy I have them. We might get a new television this week. Anne's calling our tax guy so hopefully this week we can file our taxes. Anyway, that's all for now.

Recapping yesterday

Recapping yesterday my morning commute was easy despite the rare panhandler hitting on me by the Orbit store Central station by the stairwell. It was cold but not that bad. I boarded the #5 bus and I was in the office about 9:45am. My day was slow. My two coworkers on either side of me did way better then I did. More on the day later on.

I'm not sure if this was Garth Brooks last show here in Edmonton on this tour but I thought that was a nice gesture by Oilers brass to give Garth Brooks his own banner. I'm not sure if its going to be among the greats like Gretzky, Messier or Rod Phillips but it was a nice gesture. I like Garth Brooks. I'm not a country music fan but that was a nice gesture.

I got a chuckle over the falling ice story that crashed into an old couples home in Calgary. A West Jet Boeing 737 has a flight path over this couple's home. The aircraft's lavatory water was discharged and it froze on its decent and crashed through the roof of the couple's home as they were watching a hockey game. Calgary fire department firstly reported the incident as an explosion. The ice crashed through the ceiling through the living room floor and into the basement. I wouldn't have laughed if the couple got killed and that could have happened. The couple even smiled over this incident as well. West jet said they would pay for the damage to the house. You can read more about the story here. 

My Oilers/Preds game is on at 3pm. I don't usually watch the 1st period. Nothing much happens, then about 5pm Anne is going to make us our brunch as the game should be about over by then. After that she's going to watch the Oscars. I have a lodge practice tonight but its my only day off even though we have our DDGM and his entourage, I still have speaking parts. This is my last year for a chair. I'd just rather be on the sidelines for a year or two. Next year: Royal Arch. This March 21st I'll be coming up for my 15th year as a Mason, wow. This week I'm back to my Southside job, which is a bit easier on me. Then Lodge Thursday and my market research job Friday/Saturday. I headed out to the bathroom about 5:15 (still at work) or so and on my way back to my station, I could see the "blizzard" and snow collecting on the street. Yikes. My commute home would be interesting. I had to opt out with Stan for our "burger date," as I was full from lunch Anne made for me earlier. Next weekend. I got home by 7pm and played around with Blocks wave and relaxed all evening. Anyway, that's all for now.

My first week at the other job

We're having a small crew but I left out of here about 2:30pm, to Audrey's and got my 2 Hours Heresy books. I'm all caught up. What with it being reading week at the U of A, the commute in wasn't that loaded with kids. I bought 3 blackjack tickets but didn't win.

So Nasa's big announcement yesterday was they discovered infrared wavelengths in a star 40 Light years away to indicate there could be about 8 planets orbiting those stars in the  TRAPPIST-1 star system. Apparently this star is a brown dwarf. Its the first time that planets have been discovered around a star system. Is this humanity's best chance at finding ET? You can read more about it here. I'd have better luck getting into Amber Rose LA strip club then seeing detailed pictures of these planets anytime soon. 


                             

I'm looking forward to Coast to Coast on the weekend with stuff like the "Illuminati," UFO's and other entertaining tidbits. I'm not big on the Oscars and fashion, so this and the Oilers game Sunday night are my kind of entertainment.

I'm about to get ready for bed, listen to a bit of Coast. I got a full 7.5 hour day ahead of me today but I'll be following the Oilers@Washington. Then I'll have another full day ahead Saturday, uggh. Anyway, that's all for now. 

My cold is fighting a losing battle

its line of defence is crumbling. I smell a route about to happen at any minute and I'm taking no prisoners.

My commute into the office at my South side job, and absent without leave were the usual plethora of students. Its a bottle neck just to get into the escalator hub at Southgate to the overhead ramp. It was a mix of cloud, fog and sunny breaks hinting at an unstable weather trend waiting for my #52 bus. I got into the office at my usual spot and the super came in, then the manager. Only a handful were invited to come in. The official launch of the project goes. We had a meeting/orientation that took aver an hour and a half. We didn't get on the phones until about 6pm. One of my colleagues kept me updated over the Oilers/Tampa game. It was 2-0. I knew it wasn't Talbot in net. This wasn't all on Brossoit. Our D was atrocious. At least we don't have a pie eating roly poly goalie. I wouldn't have bet on Brossoit doing our defence any favours. We should have had that game. Winning that game might have been a pie in the sky exercise. Ok, I'll stop now. At least this household isn't in Sweden. Oops. I couldn't resist. Oh and the Oilers dropped another one.

It was nice getting a ride home and inside before 9pm. So, I get a melatonin before bed, listen to a bit of Coast.  

Occasionally I get a bit of a

cold virus when the weather changes. This virus came as no surprise to me Sunday morning as we received some rain and snow mix over night. My eyes a bit watery, my throat a bit scratchy and I'm having episodes of coughing. Its nothing serious. It should be over and done with by the weekend.

So this weekend we've got Garth Brooks, in town and he's giving 9 sold out performances. Why is it that there is always a cowboy theme that kicks the Oilers out of their own building for 6 games every February? Yes I know other NHL teams have the sa me problem. The only time when its not a cowboy theme sending the Oilers packing is when we host curling. No disrespect to Garth Brooks but I thought this was why the Oilers got the new Rogers Place arena in the first place.

When I'm on my way to work at my West end job, Thursday, I'm popping into Long and McQuade music store to open a account on the Korg Volca sampler and the iRig lav mic. Yes they are small items but they are item's I've been wanting for a long time. The account is $61 down and $24 month. Its an account just to get me started. I have had 2 other accounts there a few years before. My credits good with them. Anyway, that's all for now.

Earlier Anne went out to do some business and then reeturned

from Wendy's with a baconator combo, biggie fries for lunch. After that she went to Mass. I don't usually watch the first period of the Oilers game because usually nothing happens. Anne went out swimming at the Clareview arena up here and that's where she is now.

Earlier I called LM to see what the procedure is for taking out a account. Same as before, so Friday on my way to work a bit early (I'll take the #3) to LM and set it up. I want to get the Korg Volca sampler and the iRig lav mic. It takes about a week to get the iRig mic but then once they call the following week, I can go in and pick up my stuff. Its $24/month. I can handle that this Spring. Lodge dues aren't due until October anyway and my account with LM will be paid off before work slows down. This way, I can set my account up for latter in September, when I can get something more substantial.

I'm having a decent day, what with Anne out there swimming. I'm holding down the home fort. I got a call from Numeris. They do surveys for radio and television. I took part in one over the phone in the 3rd period of the Oilers game. The score was 2-1 Oilers with five minutes remaining, why not? They are going to send me a hard copy of the survey. I settled in, to watch the rest of the game and McDavid scored into the open Blackhawk's net. Oilers win 3-1. Sweet. Anyway, that's all for now.

I got a email from the other job

Tuesday night and they want me back for the 21st after the Family day long weekend. So next week its 3 days at the South side job and 2 days at my West end job. Then after that its 3 and 3 respectively. With the other job set up it means I have income guaranteed for March, April and May. Whatever work they have at my other job after that is gravy.

While I can't get specific about a project I'm working on one of the questions has to do with autonomous vehicles or driverless cars. Most respondents don't like them and hope that the Alberta Government wont let them on Alberta roads anytime soon. One respondent had a interesting take on autonomous vehicles for example the Google car.

The respondent "R" basically said that autonomous vehicles would cut down on distracted driving, speeding, and fatalities. This got me to thinking especially with all the near misses I've had out here lately that much of what I've been going through taking my life in my hands would not occur if autonomous vehicles would be allowed on Alberta roads. Yet, how would these vehicles handle Alberta winters? The plot thickens.

So I'm in the office today 1-9 and same for Friday. Friday works good on several fronts: Its the eve of a long weekend what with Family day coming up. Plus I get a nice pay cheque. In other words I won't mind working 2 full days. Actually the entire office is closed for the weekend. Anyway, that's all for now. 

Somebody is sending my blog some

Valentines day love. However over 1,100 page views? I usually get about 20 page views a day. Probably mentioning about the Bob Crane murder show on Coast to Coast, or reading Darwin's Radio but I'm putting that on the shelf for an old Everquest book "Ocean of tears." So far its not bad. All of the above might had something had to do with my page view overload today. That's whats known as a fluke. 

I hope the Oilers get a bit of love tonight hosting Arizona. This time having watched the film from Calgary playing these last night, the Oilers can make some adjustments. In previous years when a team on the road plays 2 back to back games, the 2nd game is their Achilles heal. That's not been the case for the most part. Teams on the road playing their 2nd team usually play better. The Oilers have a chance on capitalizing the Flames loss last night. By the time I leave out of the office tonight, the game will be all but over. 

The first half of last nights Coast to Coast was by far the best, from what little I listened to the show. The 2nd half on "Miracles" didn't do anything for me. Sorry but these soft topics zone me right out. The 2nd half of tonight's show according to the Coast website is about Spirituality and technology. I like the weekend shows because I can sleep in.

I got Anne's photo frame up and running. Its just now getting some video on it. I've got another folder on my USB flash drive of more video to sift out. Last night after wrestling i found a free online video converter and changed the .MOV file to a AVI one instead. The video is a bit choppy but that's probably because the frame rate needs to be changed. So tonight I'm in from 4-9. Its a easy 5 hour shift. Thanks for the love (I think). Anyway, that's all for now.

Saturday I spent trying to get the

photo's and video off the iPad. At first I tried iCloud but it wouldn't take anymore files even after I cleared out about 3.5 Gb. Then I tried Dropbox but that wouldn't work. Anne made me a lunch before she headed off to work and I had a bit of a nap and finally got the files off the camera roll through family sharing and onto my laptop.

I took a break from that and went through my YouTube subscriptions waiting for the first period of the Chicago/Oiler game to end. It was 2-1 in the 2nd and the Oilers fell apart from there thanks to the by week. Oilers lost 5-1. After the news, dinner and Hopalong Cassidy. I did a bit more of getting the files off the iPad camera roll. Then went to bed about 3am and listened to Coast 2 Coast. Topic was the murder of Bob Crane. Very fascinating episode. Usually on a Saturday night they have soft topics.

I made a effort to get into Greg Bear's Darwin's radio but it wasn't going anywhere and I just couldn't get into it. Instead I'm reading an old Everquest book "Queen of tears." I haven't read any fantasy for a long time and I remember playing the game years ago. I read one of the other Everquest books "Blood red Harp," and enjoyed it. They're just stand alone novels. I've got about 4 Warhammer books on order but I want to get a few things before they come in.

In all of the 16 years I've been here I've never eaten in Bo Didleys across the street. They have an all day breakfast. So we decided to go in and give it a try. They have free wifi which was nice. We had the 3 sausages, hash browns, 2 eggs toast and coffee. The service was great. The meal was good. I rated it 4-5. I watched Smackdown's "elimination chamber," to 9pm. Then I separated the video from the files on the usb drive. I have another folder to do tomorrow night then see how I can compress a file and then convert the file since the photo frame wont take Quicktime.

So today its 4-9 ( I get to sleep in and get 5 hours on the cheque. Tuesday and the rest is 1-9, so I still get my 7.5 hours and home by 10pm. Then its the family day weekend. Anyway, that's all for now.

My first official Saturday morning

sleep in while employed. Now that I'm moving into pension, and if it makes sense, I'll be taking most Saturdays off. I'm also off next long weekend. Once my wife's hours are restored then I'll have more time off and I'll work more when she goes through slow times like this. More about this later. 

Yesterday, Anne had picked up her digital photo frame from Staples. I did an un boxing of this, which gets uploaded today on Shannon sounds. My channel is still a work in progress. What the photo frame will do is free up a lot of iCloud video and photos onto a 16 Gb usb flash drive. I had the flash drive formatted to fat32 for awhile now. Anne's (ours) iPad has about 8Gb of cat video, every day video and I have 5 Gb of that in the cloud. I'm trying to transfer those photos/video to the usb flash drive, which will free up space in the iCloud. However with over 200 files in iCloud and just Mb of space on my pc stick, I can't transfer the iCloud files onto the desktop. They need to be transferred into the flash drive one at a time. I'm thinking about speeding this process up by going to the laptop because I have more space available on that for this task. There is a select all mouse right click, but iCloud only lets you select one file at a time, regardless of what it says. The good news is that once all this video and photos are off iCloud, I can add more from our iPad freeing up 8 Gb of these pictures and video's. Its a labour intensive process. Once I have all that off the iPad the iPad almost becomes like a new iPad for my music apps and video editing. The build quality of the photo frame isn't bad. Yet for $100 cnd, for something that feels like it was made in China, could have been better. What I'd ultimately like to do is get a Chrome cast and put all the video etc onto that so we can watch this stuff from our TV. We're up against another situation here as well, because our old Sanyo 46 inch flat screen, video died on us about a year ago, and this "Elements" tv doesn't look like it has a usb or even a hdmi slot. The other thing with the video is I have to compress most of it and then convert the unrecognized .MOV to a file format the photo frame can recognize. There's nothing in the manual or even set up that says which video file formats are recognized. More on this later.

The only fall out to having this Saturday off is I can't go to Drayton Valley lodge's "Crazy tie night." The guys are traveling there now and I cold have got a ride but Anne doesn't want me in a car out there on those winter country roads. I can see her point. It looks like a fun afternoon but this will be an all day event, and I have a Oilers game I want to watch tonight and tomorrow is Smackdown Live's "Elimination chamber" pay per view. Too much going on too little time.   

Ok, so here I am happy I have a weekend off for a change and Anne comes in at her usual time. She drops a bombshell saying that she's down to just one day this week before Family day long weekend. She's hoping that her hours get reinstated next week. She also has enough banked vacation pay hours. She's pretty much top of the food chain where she works. Its just the manager, "HR" and her. All the rest don't have as much seniority as she does. I won't say the name of the company. Its a good company. I get the impression they want her out of there because she's been there for over 10 years now. I get the feeling they want her to quit so they don't have to pay her severance pay. I'm encouraging her to get another non talking job and still keep this one. She doesn't want to do another talking job but there's not a lot out there for her to do. That's where my job and pension comes in. It can lessen the  load during times like this. Anyway that's all for now.

When I got my shift for this afternoon

adjusted last night, I thought 4-8 is a good shift and a nice break to the weekend. It also means I don't have to get up at 8am and I can sleep until noon. Anne's got a melatonin pill for me and I can pass out listening to Coast 2 Coast. Pre Columbian Americans. Saturday nights show looks good: Werewolf sightings/Who killed Bob Crane?

I'm not a fancy dresser. Winter its just a sweater and jeans and my winter coat. In the summer its a t-shirt with front left pocket, jeans and a windbreaker. Most of the time I'm in sneakers unless we have a heavy snow day. Once a month I'll dress in my suit and tie for lodge. So, with that in mind this 65 year old fat guy isn't going to shop for a clothing line from Ivana Trump. Not even for my lovely wife. We're strictly Walmart or Value Village. Sorry Nordstrom and I don't need to be counselled by this.

Staples called us and that means Anne has her photo frame waiting for pick up. She's going to try and pick this up before work. This way I can free up a few gig of photos/video off the iPad so I can use it again and upload a better Launchpad 2 iPad video. Still no word from my other job. I'll call again next week before the Family day long weekend. Anyway that's all for now. 

When I heard last night of the

passing of Richard Hatch of Battlestar Galactica fame, my heart sank. Oh shit! Galactica 1980 was one of the main reasons why I would venture over to Ellen's place at the time. I recall many winter nights in January where I'd walk all the way from behind Peoples church to the Woodstock area of Collingwood "After dinner." They never would have me over for dinner. Yet Ellen, her mom and I would have a nice hour watching Battlestar Galactica. Or Galactica 1980. Occasionally Ellen and would slip away for some privacy after the show. Those days would about to come to an end when another Richard appeared on the scene. That winter 1980, we're good times and Battlestar Galactica would play a role in my life back then. I didn't like the remake. So when I heard yesterday about Richard Hatch, a name buried deep in my memory surfaced again and brought back those memories of 1980. 1980 was a crazy year on so many different ways for me. My daily diary was conceived May 12th of that year. I still have the hard copy of that diary and many more volumes of those years in the 1980's and 90's and even into the 2000's. In 2005 those diaries gave birth to this blog.

With so much electrical tuff plugged in, we overloaded the breakers. That brief power outage is causing my relatively new monitor some grief. I wanted a monitor with a built in web cam and usb ports but it would have raised the price significantly. I was really looking for a 18 inch monitor, but they're not made anymore. Apparently. 

Other then Richard Hatch's passing not much else is happening. We're still in a cold snap but its warming up by the weekend. My noon-8pm shift is still going strong. I'm curious as to what that shift will be like next week. Today I've got to call the other job asking if I'm able to call back and if there was a invite letter sent out to me for March like last year. Anyway, that's all for now.

Just a short one

for today. 

I'll be relieved when this project I'm on (can't say the name of course) is done and I'm back to 4-9:30pm. For the most part though (if it makes sense) I'm done with Saturday shifts. Even at the other job. I'm just waiting for a letter from them asking me if I would be able to accept the appointment. Of course, I not only need the other job for this Spring but in the fall. If I'm still alive by this time next year, I'll do one job in the fall and this job in the Spring. Its difficult to do any music production. 

I'm going to be making a few calls today to see if they have the iRig lav lapel mic. I just called Axe music and they have them. So, looks like I'll be heading over there Saturday on my day off. Sounds good. Anyway, that's all for now.

Our line hour on the job was sinking faster then

the Titanic Saturday. My higher ups pulled the shift 3 hours earlier. After a long week of that, I was grateful for a early start to the weekend. I had enough hours on the clock and if that was the sample rate we had to work with, so be it. I was able to pick up my Space Marine Battles book as well on my way home. I had a relaxing evening leaving all the drama of the day behind me. I was considering uploading another video but one a month is good.

I'm not a fan of American football. I prefer the Canadian football league (CFL) I decided I needed sleep more so I slept until noon yesterday and watched what was left over from the Oilers/Habs game. There was no score heading towards the end of the 2nd period. Wow! The 3rd period had lousy officiating. McDavid drew 3 power plays in the game and would have earned more. The 3rd period went to OT. Nothing was decided in OT but the Oilers scored once in the shootout and Talbot stopped 3 Montreal shooters earning the W. Now the Oilers are required to head into a bi week at a crucial stage in the campaign down the homestretch. At the moment the Oilers are in 5th place in the Western conference. They don't play again until Saturday. The coaches hate this bi week. Especially just coming off the All Star break. It slows down momentum. If the Oilers don't make the playoffs this year, I'm blaming the bi week! If the Oilers are still in 5th, I'd be surprised. However I did watch lady Gaga's at the Superbowl halftime show. "This land is your land," is hardly apolitical.

Also on the weekend (last night) I watched "Casablanca", and "Hopalong Cassidy," which is always a good time. I'm cutting too early by leaving out of here at 10:35am for my commute to the 12:00pm shift. If I leave out of here about quarter to 11, I should get to the job just before noon. I made good timing on Saturday leaving at 9am. I should be home shortly before 9pm tonight. We should have a better sample rate today. My shift this week is 12-8pm, which is good for 37.5 hours. I'm having Saturday and Sunday off. I might even post another video over the weekend, hard to say. I almost forgot I also branded my You Tube channel as well and nobody has used "Shannon Sounds" according to the rankings. Anyway, that's all for now.

Am I missing something here

or is it just me in my idealistic bubble? What's wrong with the world these days, with all of this hatred? I'm a product of the 1960's and that's not what we we're about. Killing people because they do not practice the same religion as you or their culture is different, is myopic, divisive and counter productive. It shows cave man thinking at its root cause. People need to grow up and quit behaving in a Neanderthal manner. Where and how do we make good men better, and by this I mean better husbands, better fathers, better members of the community? It seems to me we need to make the world a better place for all. Here is one way as a man, you can do this in your community.

I've been tinkering around with a online video editor for making You Tube intro's to my music channel Shannon Sounds. It was my super that came up with the name. That's 2 things to improve my music channel recently: iPod camera stabilization and movie intro's. The intro I have posted is in its early stages of development. More on this later. 

I don't know what's going on with the Oilers. They are on a 3 game losing streak on the road and a bi week ahead of them. They play on Sunday in Montreal. With 25 games or so left, it doesn't take much to go from 5th-9th. If the Oilers are still in 5th place in the West, I'd be very surprised.  

Anyway, I've got a long day ahead of me but the way things were going last night I could have a shorter day then I thought and to be honest,  I wouldn't mind a early start to the weekend. Anyway, that's all for now.

At this point I could use a couple

months off but that won't happen until the summer. That's when lodge "goes dark" and projects at work are being phased out. Most likely for lodge, this is my last chair I'm occupying. Let somebody else have a chair.

At the moment the Oilers are more or less locked into 5th place in the Western conference. Tonight is game night and Nashville is on home ice so its a 8pm game, and of course I'm at lodge missing this one. Nathan usually updates me. I'll be catching my bus by 10pm. Most likely I'll miss the game. The Preds are about 8 points or 4 wins behind us. We need more wins to leave them even further behind us. There's no game Saturday night, so I'll be able to work on my You Tube channel. With 30 games left heading down the home stretch is going to be interesting.

I found a nice free online video editing site, called Panzoid. There's thousands of templates all customizable. Since this is all free, its going to be a good place to start to get a intro for my YouTube channel. It doesn't take long from the You Tube tutorials I've seen to create a 9 second intro/outro. I'm trying to make my site more professional. Hopefully Saturday night I'll have a channel intro and a new video. I like using Dropbox to upload files but it takes a long time. A 3 minute video can take up to half an hour to upload.

I'm out of here for my 1:30pm Doctor's appointment downtown in about an hour. A pick up scheduled appointment is never easy as a in and out process. I might sign in at 1:30pm, but I'll be lucky if I get out of there by 3pm and home by 4pm. I got a couple of hours to myself before I need to clean up and dress in my suite and tie, and head to lodge. Uggh, so much for my "day off." Is it summer yet? Anyway, that's all for now.  

Its overcast out there

at -7 but it feels like -12. We haven't had an -30's this year but February is one of the colder months of the year. 

The Oilers were playing shit hockey last night. They can't win all of them, and I'm saying the above from a fan's pov. The Oilers usually suck almost all the time returning from the All star break. I'll be at lodge doing my thing Thursday.

On my 5pm break I needed to get outside and get some air and play some blackjack scratch n win. I bought a candy bar for later and a bottle of the diet cola for $4 and 2 blackjack tickets. I played card 1 and got a 21 on $2 the other card I got a free ticket. The free ticket didn't produce anything but that episode paid for my candy bar and cola. Can't complain. I'll go over at my break and play again, just the $4.

After dinner last night I wanted to do some recording and test out my "new tripod," on my iPad. So on goes Audio share, activating Novation launchpad 2. IPod touch to shoot the video and lets have a play with launchpad. I recorded about a 3 minute improve. Then I uploaded the audio/video to my Dropbox account. I wish I could afford to upgrade. So I've got both items in my Dropbox account. I love Dropbox. 

Anne made me a double rack of baby back ribs last night. I couldn't eat the other one so its in the fridge with potato paddies for my lunch. I live such an exciting life. So, I'm off to post this, see how far I got with my recording and try to upload this to YouTube after post. Once in post I can sync audio and video together as best as I can. I better upload this before Trump fires me. Anyway, that's all for now.