Tonight is the last day of the project before

going into Canada day long weekend. For my co-workers and I it means we get a 4 day weekend :) Also, Friday night its the season Home opener at Commonwealth Al's/Esk. I think that's when the fireworks show should go off not just for football but in general. And if that's not enough its "free agent frenzy" Saturday in the NHL. Lots of trade rumors etc. July 1st Connor McDavid is about to sign a 8 year deal worth something like $13.7 million/season. I'm going to relax do my stuff. I think Friday night is also Chinese food night as well.

Some important events for our family coming up. Anne's sister is about to pay us a visit while she's in her official job Tonight is the last day of the project before capacity. it might be the last time we see her because she plans on retiring next year. Her job takes all over North America and this year she's been in Anchorage, Vancouver, Toronto, San Jose, Florida, she just came off of a 10 day pacific Cruise. Her job is in the medical field. When she comes out to visit us, she's here mainly for work but she can squeeze in a bit of time a couple of times/year. She's been doing this since Anne and I have been married. Either this week or next week when she gets out here she's taking Anne out to her favorite place to eat and me out to mine across the street. That will be nice and sad for us at the same time. Anne always uses face time on a weekly bases to chat with her and her other sister Monday and Tuesdays. Next year though Anne and her sister plan on going on a Alaska cruise. 

The other event coming up is my place of work has a draw for 2 Eskimo football tickets for Friday nights game. Warren isn't a Eskimo fan but depending on what his plans are and if I win tonight, I'll message him to see if he wants to go. If Warren can't make it, then I'll give them to somebody else in the office. Also coming up is "WWE Great Balls of fire"and I believe I still have a episode of Smackdown from Tuesday to watch reordered on our pvr.

If all goes well when we get out gst cheque in a few weeks, Anne said I can have it to not just get my Zoom h1 audio recorder but also to get my haircut. The audio recorder will help me get my music from Circuit etc out to You Tube, Facebook, Twitter etc. The haircut will keep me going until my next one, which should be about October. Anyway that's about all for now.

That was a good

10 days off and I'm happy I have work over the next few days. They're shutting it down Thursday for the long weekend, Canada day Saturday. 

I'm making some good progress on my Everquest book. I don't think I'll have it read by the end of the month. 

We had a huge wind storm that went through here about 11pm last night. The wind was so heavy Anne thought it was a Tornado. It lasted about half an hour and brought down a lot of branches. Anne went out there and removed the branches from the affected area, worried that with the many branches left on the ground might inspire management to have the trees cut down, "safety concerns." They do that and I'm leaving out of here. 

This works out great having Friday off because of the Esks season home opener. I have a front row seat on my couch. Plus its our nation's 150th B-day. So, other then the 3 days of work 5 hours/shift, my long weekend begins. Anyway, that's all for now.

Most of the memory consumed on

our iPad is photos and videos. Video takes up more room then photos. When I tried to use Garageband and Gadget together, there was no room to make a video. All I need is to have about 1Gb of the 11Gb of video off the iPad temporarily to iDrive. That's easy enough. Its restoring the video back to its original date. 

In last Saturdays traffic fatality where the woman and her dog was hit, the city made some intersection improvements, like removing shrubs apparently obstructing the view and other modifications. Earlier Friday while 2 kindergarten age boys were playing on the grass outside the family home at the end of their culdesac, one of the boys chases after a out of control ball between 2 parked cars. Meanwhile another vehicle was making a right hand turn and collided with the child. The child was killed instantly. It wasn't anyone's fault per se but another family left devastated. This happens all to frequently in this City. When will this stop? I know how it can stop in a heartbeat. I know how pedestrian collisions involving death can end. Autonomous vehicles. They don't have to be any single brand name. The City could manufacture their own and even lease them to individualizes like a bus pass. No need for buses for that matter. The collision rate causing fatalities would cease almost immediately. Autonomous vehicles are coming. Maybe not in my lifetime, but they are just around the corner. 

I fell asleep on the couch watching the 2nd quarter of last nights Eskimo/BC game. Mostly I dozed off here and there. The game got interesting in the 3rd quarter. We got the go ahead score but they came back to tie it at 27-27. They had a 2 & out. We got the ball within seconds on the clock. With 2 seconds left we were in goal and the field goal over the uprights to score 30-3. We play our first Home game at Commonwealth on Friday before Canada day, cool.

If we get the green light for this project, it'll most likely be Tuesday. There's usually a small crew testing the project opening day of the project. It means I could be working Wednesday/Thursday. We're off the weekend because its Canada day. Most likely I'll be working it next week. I'd like to do just 3 days next week. The hours isn't going to help us all that much. The rent is paid for July and the bills to follow. As long as Anne has these hours we should be ok for July. My last July before I officially become a senior, sigh. Anyway, that's all for now.

This is a bit old

(Wednesday) but wow, Connor McDavid stole the show at the NHL awards/draft expansion. We knew McDavid would win the Art Ross trophy, but he also won the Ted Lindsay, and the Hart trophy.  And if that's not enough, McDavid, got his face in full Oilers Orange Crush gear on the cover of EA's NHL 2018 and named Captain of the All star for 2018, cool.

I left out of here about 2pm for Provincial, since I've been putting it off for the last few days. I called before I left to pick up my pay cheque after I finished my business with Provincial. Apparently we might have something else coming up next week and I'm to call Tuesday. I got home about 4:30pm. Other then that, not a lot going on. Tomorrow night is the first Eskimo CFL game in BC, so that should be a good one. Anyway, that's all for now.

We had a storm blow by here

about 7pm yesterday. All we got out here were a few branches on the grass, some medium rain and gusty winds. They got it worse off in Red Deer, where shingles were torn off roofs, trees downing power lines where 20,000 people are without power over night. 

By now the news is out about the 75 Nazi artifacts uncovered in Argentina. What's cool about this is that the find was in a secret room behind a bookcase. Apparently there was a silver plated Ouija board, mugs, and a bunch of other stiff. There were also some photographs as well.

This is interesting: On August the 21st, there is a Total solar eclipse. Unfortunately for yours truly, I wont be able to see  it, since its path is way to the South of me in the US. Why is this interesting? My 65th birthday is August 21st. How cool is that? This might be a good omen to play some black jack.

I was going to go down to Provincial pension to submit a form the other day but since I need to pick up my pay cheque on the way, I might aw well do both at the same  time. I hope not but because the way I've been going this might be my curtain call for this company. Anyway, that's all for now.

I'm having a great weekend just

the wife and me. I was in bed listening to a bit of Coast this morning, the topic "Kurt Cobain's death." I wasn't a fan of the band Nirvana and while their appeal ran deep within the grunge music scene, really didn't do anything for me. Twenty three years ago, I was 41 just surviving day to day. If You Tube was around at that time, I might have took a listen to and left the music under the Meh file, (by the same token, my music isn't even meh worthy) so this Coast topic wasn't of much interest for me. Not my generation. Now if this was about Brian Jones or Prince or even John Lennon, then yes of course. Tonight's show will be on UFO disclosure.

Well the Oilers didn't do anything or say anything over the weekend, other then sign Khaira. On Wednesday, they'll release the names of players they are obligated to put up for the expansion draft. Some un-official lists have cropped up but I wouldn't trust the source. It would come of no surprise to me if Jordan Eberle's name was on our list. He's an asset for the team but his contract makes him a liability as well. I'd be surprised if Kassian and Caggiula's name is on that list. Now if it was left up to me to make the expansion team's decision on which players my team needs, I'd want to pick names that are salary cap friendly, and players that have some Stanley cup experience. Preferably recent Stanley cup experience like guys that were in the 3 round and the finale. Hopefully the Oilers will come out of this relatively unscathed. Each team is allowed to protect a number of players. I'd imagine the teams the hardest hit are going to be Pittsburgh, Nashville, Anaheim, and Ottawa. We'll know more on Wednesday. I imagine Khaira will be protected because they just signed the guy.

Around town there are 2 more towers in the early building stages. The MacLaren (124th/102nd Ave) a 25 story residential tower has more or less wrapped up its excavation phase, and a construction crane is apparently supposed to go up today, or already up now. Other then the Groat rd bridge fiasco, nothing of the MacLaren's scale has been developed in the area since the High Street condo project. The other condo tower just getting under way is the Encore project:

                              

The image above from JSkye's post Connect to Edmonton

The above image is just a few days old. This  residential tower apparently is supposed to be about 43 floors. Substantially taller then the two white Fox towers in the background behind the brown Boardwalk buildings in this image behind those 3 trees. The Valley line lrt 2nd phase will be going right between the Encore and the Boardwalk. That's going to be very interesting to see that.

On tap for today? I'm going to try and make a short video for my music channel using Korg Gadget either today or this week. Then its brunch watching WWE's "money in the bank" pay per view latter this afternoon. I'm calling Brian Corbin or Shinsuke Nakamura to win it. Money in the bank is one of our favorite WWE ppv's. That will take me to about 9pm. As for this week, Super never called me yesterday for a Monday shift. A Monday shift on this project was just to wrap the project up anyway. There was no projects posted when I logged in Friday night, and I don't see my higher ups with a new project this late in June. Its even unusual to have work at all this late in June. Then, I'm anticipating no work this week. Other then running down to Provincial to get them that oas automatic enrollment form and Anne's I.D, photo copied and picking up my pay Friday, I've got a easy week ahead of me. I'll be doing a bit of a daily job search to satisfy my ei obligations but yeah other then that nothing just 2 quick outings. Anyway, that's all for now.

This week has been a long week

too say the least. Monday I had that stuff to do with Provincial and on the phone with oas Tuesday before work. Work in itself has been a series of mishaps on my end. Wednesday I covered 2 payments on Circuit. Yesterday all kinds of errors on the job from my part.

                            

Kori John Truckers wall of shame.

Yesterday I got called into the office and just about got fired. Too many details to get into but I feel my job is on thin ice. The "good news" this time, is I'm on ei to get me through the summer and (hopefully) I can go back to my other job after labour day. Right after that is my oas but I need another to go along with my pension. My pension wont do it alone.

The Eskimo's were playing their last pre season game in Winnipeg. We took them to a tie game 38-38. I didn't think in CFL a tie game was possible during the pre season. Our first regulation game is against the BC Lions next Saturday afternoon. I'm looking forward to that..

I got some urgent ei business later this morning then after a bite to eat, its off to the job. No more Saturdays for me and on that note, that's all for now.

It all began

Monday with a visit to Provincial to se up the financial end of my Provincial supplement. All we need is my oas letter of entitlement and my wife's ID. While on the phone with a oas rep, he said I can just bring the letter of automatic enrollment, and that's good enough to get things going.

The Edmonton Eskimo's have 1 more preseason game left to play. Sunday's game hosting Calgary was a nail biter. They'd pull ahead, we'd tie. We tied with 1 play left on the clock in the red zone. We had 1 of 2 choices: Kick a field goal to tie or go for the 3 point convert to win. We went for the convert but our receiver fumbled and couldn't catch. Finale score was 36-35. We have one more pre season game left against Winnipeg. It was either have Thursday off or Saturday. 

I've got a few days of work left here, possibly up to the 21st of this month but Anne doesn't want me to do anymore Saturdays. After that, I hope that's it for me. I need a break. Anyway that's all for now.

Looks like

I'm back to work Tuesday. For how long I don't know but this could be the last project for the summer, I hope. I think its going to be a short project but I'm not working it Saturday. Anne wants me to take Saturday's off.

At five pm this afternoon, the Esks are hosting Calgary Stampederes at Commonwealth. Game #6 Penguins/Nashville, wont be underway until about 6:30 anyway until after all the preliminary stuff commercial breaks etc are out of the way.

Sad news out of Hollywood. Adam West (Batman) passed away Friday. He was 88 and suffered a brief battle with Leukemia. He was always my favorite Batman tv/film actor. It was only for a brief cameo but in one of the Batman TV shows where Batman and Robin are climbing a wall of a building. A window opens out pops Colonel Klink from Hogan's Heroes and Batman has a brief conversation with the Komandant, ~ 20 years removed. Cute. Adam West was here in Edmonton at the comic book Expo a few years back. Very sad. R.I.P Adam West. 
        
I had a great Saturday. I had to change my One Drive's password because my video editing software on my iPad has One drive as its media sources. It works pretty good with our camera roll. Anyway, that's all for now.

In this country we

call unemployment insurance Ei (employment insurance) Most people when I mention Ei don't collect it. In the past Ei used to be called Unemployment insurance Commission or Uic. I think I collected Ei, 6 times in my life. Once I'd applied for Uic (Ei) it'd take 4-6 weeks to get the first benefit. Uic used to send these 4X11 reporting cards in the mail every 2 weeks and a business reply envelop. There were about 8 questions. I still recall the format: No (x5) Yes No, No. The "Yes" response would be asking me if I was ready, able and willing to work? For the most part Uic was timely in getting a cheque out. I recall one time here in the early 80's when we had a postal strike, Uic cheques would be picked up in a area just East and over what was then the 105th street over pass. Every time when I got my first Uic cheque there would be about 4-6 weeks of back pay included. I got such a large cheque in 1989 when was let go from the Army & Navy department store. Even in the late 1990's I'd have to wait 4-6 weeks. So, Last week I applied for my Ei May 31st and when I asked when my 1st cheque would be in, they said by the end of this week. Yeah right. I was shocked to learn I received my first week of Ei over night into my account. Wow! So much for waiting 4-6 weeks. I won't need the whole 24 weeks I have left on this claim but it will get us by for the summer until after labour day when I'm back at my other job. And even then I'll be on pension and its either Ei or pension, not both. My CPP is Ei exempt but I still need to report my earnings and my pension. At least my account for Circuit is secure and I won't miss any payments and I'll have Circuit paid off by September. I'll still need to do a jobs search and do my 2 week report as part of my Ei obligations. Unlike last year now I have an income into the household so there is less stress on Anne. 

Speaking about Circuit and audio recording, one of the contributors to a thread I had running explained one way I could set Circuit up to record a Circuit session. He suggested I would need a dual 1/4" jack to plug into the back of Circuit. The other end of the cable would have 2 RC ends that go into the output of my M-audio fast track. The Fast track's usb end would go into a apple camera connection kit (cck) and that into the iPad and opened up in Audioshare. No background noise no squeaky chair or room noise. I'm waiting for a reply from this poster or from anyone else in the Circuit user group that can confirm this approach. The cable is only ~ $13 so its not a big hit if it doesn't work. The other thing music production wise is my video/light box. I've had the roughly 16 x 16 x 10 inch cardboard box for awhile now as in this photo: 

In this image I'm using our old iPod 3rd gen. The reason why the iPad is closer to the left side is because te iPad is closer to the power cord. The white pillow case should off set the semi darkness of the inside of the box. I'll be playing with the contrast a bit as well. I tried a sample and it seems to work ok. I need some kind of a bluetooth remote so I can activate the camera hands free. I know a solution is out there.

I called the boss earlier today he said there is a soft start date for a new project next week. I'm too call tomorrow for a scheduled. When I make my Ei reporting I'll have to report these new hours but I think this is the last project for the season. At the moment we have +27* out there so its a hot one today. Anyway, that's all for now.

Time moves the days at a steady pace

and I'm getting things done. Sunday was relaxing. Monday was contacting the boss, hockey and wrestling. Yesterday, setting up ei and my income for the summer. Everything is set up until the end of October but I'll be on full pension before that happens and my other job on the Southside (hopefully)

Last night a bunch from our lodge went out to Freemason Hall but I forgot my IPM apron. One of the guys took this photo of me. It was a special night and I got a ride home.

                                   

I've got a bit of a rash on my forehead and this photograph really brings out the scoliosis in me. Its not a very favorable photo but its not bad either. 

I like the words coming out of the mouth of our foreign ministry: “On the military front, Canada’s geography has meant that we have always been able to count on American self-interest to provide a protective umbrella beneath which we have found indirect shelter,” she said. But she added that to depend totally on the U.S. Protective umbrella would make Canada a “client state.” I'm all in favour of increasing our military spending. Investing $31 billion. At the moment Canada spends $15.5 Billion. If we could double that, would be great. Just 1 aircraft carrier would cost about $13 Billion and take about 11 years to build.more or less. One of our tanks is about $7M. It'd be great to have say 4 aircraft carriers 2 on the East Coast and 2 on the West Coast. It wont ever happen in my life time if at all but I'm just window shopping :) 

Wait now I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge Sunday: Its Calgary/Edmonton for a training camp CFL game. Sad part about this season is we lost Derel Walker to the NHL Tampa Bay. We still have Bowman and McCoil in the line up for the receiving core. I'm looking forward to getting away from hockey and into the CFL. Also, it was announced this week that Edmonton will host the 2018 Grey Cup. Some cool stuff coming up. That and we haven't even seen Wonder woman yet.

Today I'm calling the boss again to see if there is anything going on for this week. At this stage in the month we might have a few days in but beyond that it's our slow time. Probably this week I need to go down to Provincial and set that all up. Anyway, that's all for now.

Its not that I don't have

anything to do today, I'm just being a bit lazy. In the spirit of that a friend of mine asked me if I'm ready for retirement? He sounded like an advert but by being ready he meant, what will I be doing with my time off? I had to remind him that I'm low income and that I'll still be working but not as much. Maybe 3 days a week. With so many lodges in the City there's enough lodges to keep me out and visiting at least once a week. However, I can only do this because of my wife. 

I can cover my monthly payment on Novation Circuit for June and I hope to be on unemployment before my July payment. I have enough for July just in case my unemployment  doesn't come in before my due date. In the Circuit Facebook owners group, a member has developed an iPad app for Circuit. It probably wont work on my iPad 2. I asked the developer if there's any chance that this app will allow for recording a track fro Circuit right into the iPad? If the app is successful he said he could add more functionality. My only problem with Circuit is in getting audio onto a sd card, or uploaded to the cloud, or even a daw. On the sd card, I need a audio recorder. Into a daw, I need a 2x2 audio midi interface. The cloud? Not sure but that might need a back end of some kind from Novation. 

I'm kind of following the hockey game tonight. Its on at 6pm, Pittsburgh/Nashville. Most likely this series will go 7 games. I'll watch a bit of the 1st and doze off here and there on the couch. If all goes well, Anne could get me a Red Robin burger from across the street. She has a half price coupon for their specialty burger. She's out of here from 4-10 for today. Anyway, that's all for now.

I had a great time at

lodge last night. I got stuck on one word. I had 5 speaking parts to do. I was busy. Anyway, I'm done, I can relax, so let the summer begin.

When I got ready to leave I heard about a Casino bank robbery in the Philippines. Nothing was mentioned at lodge last night. I had other things on my mind. When I got home I was aghast at the tragedy. A single gunman tried to hold up the Casino and 36 people died. At first I thought, uh-oh another terrorist attack. After a bit more reading, it was revealed that most of the victims died of smoke inhalation. So this was not a terrorist attack where the usual suspects admit responsibility. The incident was the work of one man, nothing like Manchester. My heart goes out to the victim's families of this tragic incident in Manila.

This weekend I've got game #3 of the Stanley Cup finale for Saturday night. Plus, we have WWE's Extreme rules. At least I have my entertainment. Also, Anne's got a 50% off coupon on Red Robbin as they have 50% off on their specialty burgers for my wrestling since its just across the street. I have a box inside my closet that might be suitable for a light box. Anne said she'd dig it out for me in the next couple of days.

Monday or Tuesday next week I need to get down to Provincial to set up my Provincial supplement. I'm also waiting on my ei claim and that's 4-6 weeks away. Anyway that's all for now.

Most of my lose ends are

wrapped up. I got my Federal pension plan set up. My ei is more or less set up. All that I need do now is to get this speaking part done up for lodge tonight and that's a wrap. 

On this day in my personal history, 37 years ago a mentor of mine and I were on a Greyhound bus to Vancouver. Richard had researched a place where we could buy some rattan wood. Rattan in the late 1970's early 80's was a coveted item for making "practice fighting swords" within the Society for Creative Anachronism, or the SCA. We couldn't find any rattan in Alberta. The bus trip was 18 hours there. We had made a contact to sleep over at the residence of of the SCA in North Vancouver for Friday and Saturday night. We were also looking for Crowley books as well that Friday afternoon when we arrived before we hooked up with our contact. The idea was we could hold up at the host's place if we attended an SCA workshop. It was an all day Saturday/Sunday event. We only stayed for a bit of Saturday and took our hostess out to dinner. Richard was infatuated with her the young attractive lass but I was in his way. It was a nice weekend and we got a nice haul. 

I'd like to do more You Tube iPad performances with the apps I have. I have this annoying overhead bedroom light that shines on the screen. Awhile back I came across something called a light box Jacob Haq from Haq Attack uses. His light box is a bit elaborate for me. He has some fabric in the cardboard box under the iPad, a portion of the box cut open on the right hand side and some diffusing paper taped on the outside and a light from a lamp shining through the paper in the light box. On top of the light box, positioned just so is his iPhone that takes the video of the action going  on the iPad screen. Its a slick process but finding this diffusing paper might be a challenge. One of the channels I subscribe to "Pants of death," had a video box in his last video. Same as a light box but no side cut away. His iPad is right in the box and he gets great results. Slick and easy. All I need is a cardboard box from say Superstore across the street about 16 x 16 x 12 inches tall. That's all I need. Most likely while I'm at lodge and Anne is on her way home from work (she usually drops by Superstore for pop etc) I'm going to ask her to get me a couple boxes of this dimension. 

Its June. I got 3 months to go until I turn 65 and 4 months to go until I get on pension. As soon as I get conformation I'm 65 and on gis, I'm applying for the seniors low income bus pass. At the moment I'm in a covfefe state of mind, that's all for now.