Its been a somewhat

busy couple of days, what with bank and pension stuff, holding down 2 part time jobs. Not to mention following and watching Oilers hockey games in between all of that. It's been, interesting.

On my market research job we're just wrapping up fascinating survey on Electric Vehicles (ev's). Wednesday night when the Oilers/Anaheim game was on after 8pm the flow rate on this survey just dropped. So my higher ups decided to call the shift at 8 instead of 9pm last night. I was in the office by 3pm yesterday so I could get the full 5 hours. on my cheque I got an unexpected surprise of stat pay from Good Friday. The City of Edmonton is about to launch a Electric Vehicle Strategy Campaign. We need a 50/50 gender split. No age quotas. Some of the main concerns are charging the battery of a ev. Ev battery's don't work very well in Edmonton's often -20* winter weather. Other concerns are about charging time. I can fully charge my iPod with about 10% into the red in about 40 minutes. Some common questions in the survey are what about charging stations? The City of Edmonton (coe) has about 30 charging units scattered all over the city. I'm sure there will be an app showing the charging stations in use. Other concerns are, parking stalls for charging. So do ev owners charging their ev's just sit there and wait for an hour have a nap or whatever? It's not very efficient use of one's time. Most likely charging stations will be at one's place of employment,eventually. The survey asks about ev rebates as ev's are about $12,000 more expensive then non ev's. If a ev and charging station rebate were offered, would that shape a potential buyers decision to buy a ev? What about traveling between destinations, like from Edmonton/Leduc, or Drayton Valley/Rocky Mountain house, or Edmonton/Swan Hills? How well will the ev battery charge hold up? The survey also addressed ethical concerns like coal to produce electricity that charges an ev or renewables to charge an ev. Its all fine and well to have ev's but there's a price to pay somewhere. Autonomous cars make more sense to me, especially in this climate. But asking people to give up their vehicle driving control, is kind of like asking a senior to give up driving because they are too old. For seniors its like taking away one's independence. About halfway into the shift. My phone number came up in the sample rate with the appropriate case #. We don't do this all the time and in the last 2 years I've been there, I've never been asked to do the survey from my point of view. I didn't know how to do this. one of my other colleagues was in the same position I was, so I'll ask her next week when we have another project. I still know the 4 digit case number. At the moment ev's are not mainstream enough for the consumer. Ev's right now are like where cell phones were in the 1980's. The last day of calling on this project is today. 

With a bit of this and that this morning, I'll be waiting in our (finally) completed city bus shelter to head out on my Saturday morning commute. The bus bench is still blocking the bus patrons inside from the driver seeing anyone inside from the street. Thanks to ETS bus tracker I can track my ride within a minute. So this morning I'm at my other job on the South Side. Its a easy 4 hour shift ending at 2:15. I'm considering picking up my Horus Heresy book at Audrey's. I may as well. My LM account isn't due until the 15th and I still have another pay cheque to cover that and a small cheque to cover June's payment. I just need to watch my spending. I'm trying to save enough for 3 payments, that will take me through, July, August September. I might have birthday cash late August. I want my credit to be in good standing with this place. I'm considering another account for my first synthesizer. I'm really leaning towards the semi modular Moog mother 32, or an Eventide H9 effects pedal. I plan on using the Eventide with my Novation Circuit. I like the Eventide's harmonizer.

This weekend I have WWE's payback, on Sunday and Anaheim/Oilers game #3. I'm sure Sunday's game outcome will be a lot different then last nights game. The other thing about the job I'm going to this morning, is the last day of calling is on the 19th. Anyway, that's all for now.

I had a decent night on the job

but at first I thought, why am I getting the dregs as everyone else has better files. Then I realized its not all bad considering where we are in the campaign. I got a ride to the Dollarama just across the street.

Just before leaving here at 3pm I had my Lenova PC stick under reset mode. When I came back the set up screen was waiting for me. I had the 27.8Gb hard drive full and I couldn't even uninstall anything. I couldn't use YouTube, or even access my email. Since there was nothing I wanted to keep on the hard drive anyway, the only option was to reset. Now I have almost 14Gb of free space. I'm only using the stick for YouTube and this blog and I can get to my email from my blog.

I meant to get out of here at 2pm today to get at my Federal supplement, but I wasn't managing my time that well. It was about 1:40pm and I was just eating my lunch. So, I'm up at 10am tomorrow, out the door at noon for Canada Place/Service Canada to get my Federal supplement done and Anne's cpp set up to process, and down to Provincial office to get my supplement done. After that it's back to Central street level as I want to try heading to work via the #52 from Central. See if that's going to make a difference. Anyway, that's all for now.  

My 9am commute weather wasn't that bad heading into work

this morning. I met my old colleague from other jobs and this one, at Southgate. We were a bit late getting in but I got a hot chocolate and my "tools" and started calling. We had a low turnout. I had a great day and caught my #6 bus back to Southgate but the weather turned ugly fast with a rain and snow mix. Plus the wind had picked up. Even though it was about +1*  There was my Clareview train heading away from me. It was bitter cold, as it felt like -20* on the lrt platform. so I caught the Nait train to University station and out to Clareview and home. Anne was making me a nice lunch, the good oven macaroni and cheese with chicken fingers and a few of those spicy potato circle patties I like. Very nice. Then she went off to work and I proceeded to watch a recording of Smackdown Live. That fast forward is a life saver.

I've been following US President Donald Trump's rhetoric about blaming Canada for diary farmers woes in Wisconsin this week. In fact its not this country's fault here for diary woes in the US. Wisconsin has more milk cows then in all of Canada. As of January 2016 Canada (including Alberta) has about 956,000 Wisconsin has according to the Wisconsin marketing board 1,279,000 dairy cows that in 2016 produced over 30,000,000 pounds of milk. Wisconsin's economic diary impact provides over $43 billion annually. Even in 2016 we were buying about $200 million of American milk. By the same token our diary industry puts about $6.7billion back into our economy. I feel bad for Wisconsin farmers that could lose the family farm but blaming Canada isn't the answer here. You can read more here from Wisconsin farmers themselves but hold on, that's not the real issue here. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is crying foul from a deal made (including Canada) some 20 years ago. The real issue is this country and unfiltered milk. Trump may have something here.

My Oilers Sharks game is about to get underway. If my team wins, great. If not its game #7 here in Edmonton. Win or lose, I'm happy with the result of this playoff round this time. There's always next year. Anyway, that's all for now.

My other job has yet to call me

saying they have work. My last contact was Good Friday week and I said I'd go into the office to pick up a small cheque. Its only for 4.5 hours. When I called the boss last week he said one of the projects they are hoping for are currently in negotiations with. So far I haven't been called back. I don't want them to think I quit or anything. So I've got to call them today.

I felt bad for Calgary Flames fans because they got swept playing Anaheim 4-0 last night after an amazing run down the regular season home stretch. The score in last nights contest was 3-0 Anaheim. Don't worry Flames fans, the way we're playing lately we're not that far behind. The only differences is we finished better then you did in the regular standings and our team Captain Connor McDavid won the Art Ross award. And we lasted a bit longer then you guys did. Its not do or die for us just yet. No need to panic. Our series is tied but the visitors this evening have momentum.

It seems like when ever I buy something like hardware, shortly after that the company makes a better version. This happened when I bought Native instruments Maschine Mk2 about 5 years ago. Shortly after that NI went and brought out Maschine Studio just as I was making my last payment on Maschine Mk2. Now its happening again with Novation's Circuit. Now they are about to release Circuit mono. Its kind of like a modified bass station with Circuit pads as an after thought. I don't know if Circuit mono is better, its not even  in stores yet.  

After I call the boss this morning, I'm out of here to get some bank forms for my 2 pension supplements, then off to work. The good news is the lady that drives my buddy and I home after work will be in tonight, so I can make it back in time for what's left of the 1st period and we'll have the game on in the car radio. Anyway, that's all for now.

After having 4 days off

I'm ready to get back to work. This week I've got a lot of running around to do and busy with an errand of some kind every day.

I tried to do some music production even if its just a iPad video but even while using Audioshare, I get background audio with my recording. A ticking clock or squeaking chair doesn't sound so good in the mix. Especially when the app wants to access the microphone. Even then background audio is prevalent. In this case, Audioshare is useless.

When I heard how the missile that N. Korea launched over the weekend failed, that it might have been the "victim" of a cyber attack, my initial reaction was "wow!" Talk about smart.

Anyway, this could be another busy week but once the gis and Provincial supplements are set up properly, everything else will be handled via my income tax at tax time. All this week, I'm working Tuesday through Saturday. Its a short week for me.  Anyway, that's all for now.

I've got 2 more sleep in

days here and a short week this week. Anne wants me to work 3 days a week when I'm on full pension, and this way, every week will be 4 days off. Add that and the 2 weeks off during Christmas holidays and the 2 months off between campaigns and the 3.5 months off over the summer, life is good. Plus with the extra time off I'll have more time to go out and visit other lodges, and more time to do music production and squeeze in a bit of gaming as well.

Speaking of which, occasionally I get asked: "Hey Jim are you going to get the new Nintendo Switch?" My answer? No. Why? Because the games aren't there yet and I like the classic console look and feel of the original system. There are enough pre "Switch" games I haven't played yet, little alone any new ones that could be slow in arriving. Besides, I'm not that big on video gaming. I haven't even bought any games for my New 3ds xl yet and I've had the system for over a year now. I'm just to involved in other things like work, my lodge etc to be bothered with any gaming. Maybe in the summer I'll get back into it. I think if I had to chose and prioritize my gaming time and there were opportunity I'd rather game ASL instead. However, I like the Mario, platform and some Indie games that might be kind of fun. 

I'm not looking forward to the day when the Federal Government will legalize Cannabis. Its not so much the idea to make it legal but the impact it will have on various issues: Besides travel across the US boarder, and under the Cannabis Act, which was introduced in the House of Commons this week, people over the age of 18 would be able to grow as many as four marijuana plants in their homes, as long as the plants aren't taller than 100 centimeters. The Canadian Federation of Apartment Associations, which represents landlords that manage rental units across the country, said that allowance goes too far.
"Fundamentally we want marijuana growing to still be prohibited in rental units and in multiple-dwelling units, [which] include condos [and] co-operatives," federation president John Dickie told CBC News. From that point of view, there are impacts on apartment neighbors and
Health, safety concerns as well. Some of the issues would be
- Mould problems caused by the humidity required to grow marijuana, which could erode drywall and window seals.
- An overtaxed electrical system due to the grow lamps needed to keep marijuana plants alive during the winter
- Increased fire hazards due to people drying marijuana in a household stove.
- Odours from plants getting into other people's units and fire and building code rules would also apply here. The majority of the Cannabis act should be controlled by the Provinces. Most of this piece was taken up by the fair use act and the original article can be found here. The author of this story has a valid point.

This week I'm off today and tomorrow. I have the Oilers/Sharks game on TV tonight. Monday, Anne and I are going to go to the Clareview Rec Centre to get our rec Centre free pass photo's taken and the pass renewed. Then there's Monday night Raw. Tuesday I need to run down to my bank and get 2 direct bank deposit forms for the gis and provincial supplements. Since game 4 of the Oilers/Sharks game is Tuesday night odds are high I could get a ride home to catch 90% of the game. Wednesday before work its off to Canada Place to have my gis filled out and to drop Anne's CPP application. Thursday, its down to the Provincial to have my form filled out there work, and game #5 (if it gets that far). Friday I need to get to the other job and pick up a small cheque double back to get the train to work. Saturday its a short 10-2 shift and game #6 (maybe) So I have a busy week. The good news with all this pension form filing it only needs to be done once. Anyway, that's all for now.

The copper and blue came out hitting

last night. The Oilers meant business. My hopes for a Oilers win hung by a thread but after the McDavid shorty, I was a believer. The Oilers go into the Shark tank with momentum. Oilers were in San Jose just over two weeks ago and beat the Sharks there 4-2, but its the playoffs and anything can happen. Watch, Joe Thorton will be back for game 3. In other NHL playoff news St. Louis blues are 2 -0 in their series over the Wild, wow.

Wet big flakes of snow fell over the city all day. We're in for a wet rain/snow Easter weekend. Its April and anything can happen.

Earlier I put together a little Gadget number with four tracks. All but the first track is muted and the others get muted at various times in the track. My problem with doing this on our iPad 2 is I'm getting cpu underruns. These are little clicks and artifacts that don't make the track sound very appealing. I just read that by using the "freeze" function can conserve cpu. I'll be fine tuning this later this morning as I'm trying to put a video up this weekend. I'm onto 11 subscribers, which is nice. Anyway, that's all for now.

Usually on the night before

on the long weekend we'd leave an hour earlier. It means my weekend can start Thursday night rather then Friday. We still get paid for the extra hour, which is good. However I have no conformation this will be the case this time.

The first period of last nights Sharks/Oilers game was all Oilers in the 1st. I was able to listen to most of the 1st period in the car on the way home. The game fell apart for the Oilers in the 2nd and 3rd. The game went into OT and the Oilers had a bit of a rush but after that it was all Sharks. They won in OT. I'm still calling for a 5-1 Sharks win.

The other day my Doctor told me I have what's called Chronic venous insufficiency or CVI. Which is strange because when I was in the emergency Saint Patrick's day weekend, the ultrasound showed no blood clot. So now I have to wear these suspension stockings. May 8th I go in for what's called a PDA for imaging. CVI is not dangerous but it can be painful. I'm going to be wearing these suspension stockings for the rest of my life. Read more about CVI here.  

Korg Gadget had a nice update of 3 new gadgets this Spring: A "tape recorder" to tape audio, a drum machine/sampler, and a guitar affects processor. I haven't had much of a play with these but I hope to have a video upload of Gadget, this weekend. I'm going to and get even a mono sound out of Circuit and then play it in Audacity. From there make a copy of the track and pan one right and one left to see if I can make the sound a bit bigger. Anyway, that
s all for now.

Its going to be a busy morning for me

this morning. I'm out of here in about 20 minutes, as I have a 11:30 Doctors appointment in the Baker clinic. Then its upstairs for blood work, then downstairs on my way out its applying for the provincial supplement, which is mostly just medical benefits. I'm gradually getting myself ready and sorted out to leave. This will be a early commute into the office. I can spend a bit more time in the Provincial office filling out whatever form I need. It should be pretty basic. 

At least I'll have a few Oilers playoff games to watch. Game 1 is tomorrow here in Edmonton, game 2 on Friday, game 3 in San Jose Sunday, game 4 Tuesday. I'm suspecting SJ will take this in 5 games but the Oilers exceeded my expectations this year: they were playing meaningful games in April, they made the playoffs and as a bonus Connor McDavid gets the Art Ross trophy. Anything beyond that is gravy. 

Thursday, just before the long weekend, I'm heading over to Canada Place, Service Canada to get the Federal supplement filled out, that's going to be basic as well. Then after that let the weekend begin. Anyway, that's all for now.

I'm enjoying my Sunday afternoon

off here today. At the moment its +8* out there under partial cloudy skies. It feels like +7* and the winds are light at 11km/h. Quite a nice day for going for a walk, with a sweater and a hoodie.

There was a observance of the battle of Vimy Ridge at the actual site of the battle near the monument. Its a Very important event in Canadian/Commonwealth history. There's even observances of this event underway at City hall here in Edmonton. 

I'm hoping I can get to Service Canada tomorrow before work and the Tuesday I have my Doctors appointment and I can take care of the Provincial supplement, which is in the same building on my way out before work. Other then that I have a short week because Good Friday is this week as well. Its also the first round of the NHL playoffs and I'll be able to watch some of the first and most likely only round the Oilers will be in this year. Not that I care too much. I'm just happy we made the playoffs this year.The last game of the regular season is tonight as the Oilers are entertaining the Vancouver Canucks. I just hope we wont play Calgary in this stupid "Battle of Alberta" hype thing, uggh. Also this week is my first payment on Novation Circuit. Anyway, that's all for now.

I arrived to my place of employment

late yesterday afternoon at 4pm under overcast skies. The weather forecast was calling for a rain and snow mix over the weekend. Well it is April, and anything can happen. On my 6:30pm break, the skies opened up and reports from others coming in from a smoke break said it was teaming with rain. My buddy and I were grateful that our ride was there. She rarely shows up on a Friday night.

Since the Oilers have clinched a playoff spot for the first time since 2006, with 2 back to back games remaining (all on this weekend) all that remains is which position do they go for. Do the Oilers want to face the Sharks in the first round or Anaheim? The only thing this weekend Oilers wise that I'm hoping for is that Maroon and or Draisaitl closeout with 30 goals. McDavid is already at 30. Otherwise, I don't care what happens after this weekend. I'm just happy the Oilers made the playoffs.

So far there's no work at the market research job. Since next week is a short work week, I don't suspect there will be anything until after the Easter weekend. That's ok with me. Even better if work slows down. The new ei numbers wont be released until after the weekend. As it stands now I have more then enough hours for ei between both jobs that could end in May. My market research job most likely will have enough work in June but will slowly phase out of work mid June. That's ok with me as long as I can make my monthly payment for Circuit. My first payment is for next week. I'll have enough to keep that going based upon my ei claim for the summer. So, I'm hoping work slows down at the market research job mid June. Its going to take a month to process ei anyway. Well, that's about all for now.

Over the last number of days

I've just been working and going to my PCN yesterday. Not a lot going on. I'm off tonight for lodge. I'm delivering the Saint George's day Grace at the festive board.

There's a lot of buzz over this Pepsi commercial lately. Hmm, didn't Coke do something similar in 1978 with their "I'd like to teach the world to sing," commercial? Yes I know its a different cause and all but...

I'm wondering why I'm having this shortness of breath lately. I thought maybe thyroid? Then after a search for some causes online, it came to me: Obesity. I'm over weight by about 60lbs. So after work Saturday I'm going to go the gym. I've got a free pass after all.

Next weekend is Easter weekend. I get 4 days off, so I'm excited about that. I'm going to work on a Gadget video, so it should be a lot of fun. That and watch hockey as the playoffs will be underway next weekend. Anyway, that's all for now.

My weekend was kind of a

unplanned "long weekend." Work at my West end job ended Thursday night. I still had an errand to run Friday to pick up a small cheque there. The boss said call back this Thursday to see what's coming up for work. I had a short 4 hour shift at the Southside job. That was a easy in and out kind of a shift. I didn't bring enough cash for my Space Marine Battles book but I'm picking that up today on my way into work. It was great to see the Oilers clinch the division playing Saturday night. Sunday was Wrestlemania 33 in Orlando as Anne was out getting Chinese food for us. The show for some reason went off the air as John Cena was going to ask Niki Bela to marry him. In a way that break was good. Anne was monitoring the station when it came back on about 45 minutes later. We didn't miss much. Anne brought out a rack of baby back ribs about 11:30pm. I ate them, what the heck. Because the show went off the air and there was no earth shattering event on the Wrestlemania card, I'd rate the show 3.5 out of 5. There were too many promo's. Nothing going on between Mick Folly. It was kind of a lame show to be honest. I thought the Triple H/Seth Rawlins match was the best of the bunch. The only down side to my weekend was not getting my book. I went to bed around 4am this morning. 

I got a lot going on this week: Before I leave out of here I need to call my Doctor's office to reset tomorrows appointment for next Tuesday. Then its off to my Southside job this afternoon. Tomorrow I need to call my PCN to set up an appointment for my pharmacist to arrange for insulin and to see a foot Doctor. Tomorrow I'm in the lab above my Doctors office for blood work, that was supposed to be done February. The Doctor needs some time to be able to read the blood work results. Then I need to visit the Provincial office (main floor just underneath the Doctors office) about applying for a Provincial pension/subsidy. I'm thinking the Provincial subsidy works very similar to the Federal one, I also need to get at before Easter. Then Wednesday before work its to go to Service Canada and get my Federal pension/subsidy started. The two enhance my OAS but like CPP take a year to process. I can apply for the Federal subsidy 6 months before I turn 65. I'm thinking same with the Provincial one. The Provincial pension also has medical benefits associated with it. Then Thursday night its lodge night. I'm doing a special prayer as lodge Chaplin (which I can read). About 4pm I'll call the West end job to see what's coming for work. If I get a "We might have something next week, call Wednesday." Ok fine, but I'm thinking if they don't have anything for next week to offer me this week, then its probably going to be Easter week they'll have something. maybe on the 12th. And of course follow the Oilers in the last week of regulation play. After lodge, its just to work out the rest of the week. So blog entries might be sketchy this week. but I'm still here. Anyway, that's all for now.