I'm getting a bit ansty what with being off work for

almost six weeks now. Anne says, relax and enjoy the break. She's probably right but I have bills to pay. Things I need.

2017 has been one heck of a year for me. In January I was working some crazy hours. I got a small mixer from Long and McQuade. February I was working right after family day at the other job. March I had some terrible abdominal pain that took me into emergency for 15 hours. When I felt better I got that account for Novation Circuit. April I had difficulty setting up my pension back and fourth several times. May my other part time job ended as the Edmonton Oilers made the playoffs. I was surprised how fast I got on unemployment. June Orange Crush and Oiler fan frenzy. July I lost my job at the Heart and Stroke, my 20 year old cat Silky died, my computer died out on me as well. July had a lot of bad news. I also got my Roland Go Mixer. August I had my 65th birthday on a total solar eclipse, while volunteering at Fort Edmonton Park. Total cool. September, I officially became a senior citizen, collecting a small pension. October I got back to work at my current job and I went and got my Focusrite audio interface, paid my lodge dues and paid off on my Circuit account. Lots of hours. November, still lots of hours, I got my new iPad with i0s 11, work slowed down. December no work at all. I bought a Lav lapel mic for smartphones. Near the end of this month we're facing off severe cold snap. And that's the way it is for 2017.

The Oilers are hosting Winnipeg this afternoon at 5pm. Anne's getting me some Chinese take-a-way being delivered. We haven't tried Skip the dishes yet. Not that I'm too keen on that.

I'd like to thank anyone who has ever visited my blog in the past and this year. I hope there was some take away value for you. As long as Google keep s this service up and running, I'll keep blogging on Blogger. Happy New Year everyone. Anyway, that's all for now 

The top story for

this country is the weather. At the moment here in Edmonton its -28* with a wind chill of -34. It's so cold that even though Maximus Pizza is just up the street, order taking said they are not sending their driver out tonight in this weather. Not jus that but about 5am the temperature is supposed to be -31* so the wind chill will be about -38-40. In other words, its cold out there.

Other then business with ei this morning and since my place of employment is shut down for the holidays, my day today and the weekend is more or less open. I got a feeling I'll be working Wednesday at the earliest. So for  my entertainment this weekend, I have an Oilers hockey game on tv tonight and another one Sunday. I'm hoping the Oilers can start another winning streak. I'd be happy even if it was just for a few games. I'd be happy with a win 4 lose 2 type thing. Oilers need 95 points to make it into the playoffs. Anyway,  not much else is going on. Anne and I are hunkering down doing the best we can. Anyway, that's all for now.

Canada has been hit almost nation wide with a bitter cold snap.

over the last several days. Its been like -25 with a -32 wind chill. its not like we haven't been expecting it. I've been hunkering down here since the last time I went out was for that Northgate mall trip Saturday. I have a Doctors appointment tomorrow afternoon. Our local temperatures are supposed to be back in the -single digits next week.

Recording my 3ds xl Nintendo gameplay activity has been occupying my idle thoughts occasionally. Some people go through elaborate camera angles, capture cards, all kinds of things to record their game play activity to their You Tube channels. I got caught up in that as well debating the Home brewing possibility of my 3ds xl device as its an easy process. No R4 cards required. The most popular way to capture gameplay on a 3ds is to use a camera on a tripod. I don't have a tripod. All I have is my iPod Touch and a couple of iPads. Then it occurred to me: Anne brought me a cardboard box to use as a light box to record my i0s screen awhile back. After a bit of modification it worked. The concept of a light box is to have a self enclosed container accessible where the iPad screen can be played with, including a hole cut on top of the box aligning with the i0s device like a birds eye view. Then I thought why not transfer this concept over to my 3ds xl?  After a bit of measure twice, cut once, it works' kind of. My hands still move the 3ds around and even with the device laid as flat as the screen can go and still play a game. I need to tinker around with this concept a bit but this could be my first game play on my gaming channel: Jim on game. I might keep a set up like this if it works for me.

On my way back from the Doctors office tomorrow, I'm going down the block to Audrey's, get my book and head home. I might buy another iTunes card for a few more apps I need while I have the funds. Then its home to watch the Oilers/Winnipeg game. Anyway, that's about all for now. 
                                             

Its a chilly one out there today

folks. Temperature is -25 but with the wind chill it feels more like -34. The good news is after this month, half our winter season is over with. We just have January, February and in March we're on the edge of Spring.

I got a pretty good Christmas hall this morning. I got a WWE 2018 Calendar, a $25 iTunes gift card, a new belt for my genes, underwear, Selsun blue shampoo (I hears it can cause hair loss as a side affect in some people) a box of diabetic chocolates, a 10 pack of scratch n' win tickets, plus 4 blackjack tickets. Anne tried to get me a $17 million 6/49 ticket but the due time was past 6pm and someone got the winning number. But coincidently, I won $17 on the scratch and win stuff.  With that, I can add to the iTunes and get another $25 iTunes card for $50 to get AUM and a couple other synths. Also, I got 2 games for my new Nintendo 3ds XL, Kirby Mass affect, and Lord of the Rings Leggo Hobbit. Actually my sister-in-law paid for the games for me, I just had to go pick them out, and that was Saturday. So yeah I did ok. until I went across the street to Shoppers to try and cash them in. "Oh that part of the store is closed today," I made the trip for nothing. I wasn't very happy.

Anne has her turkey already cooked and I'm having my baby back ribs tonight, while watching a rare Christmas Monday night Raw episode. So, I'm having a pretty decent Christmas weekend. This week, I have a follow up afternoon appointment with my Doctor to go over some lab numbers. Nothing serious. Other then going back to Shoppers but I'll probably do this Wednesday on my way back from my Doctors office in the Baker clinic building. Anyway, I hope everyone is having a great Christmas, that's all for now.

A trip to Northgate mall

this morning, had me going upstairs to the food court for some Tim's breakfast. I enjoyed that. Very nice. I even took a after breakfast selfie as well. I got my business done at my PCN and lost playing 2 black jack scratch n wins. I stopped in at one of our local Game City stores on my way out. They have a lot of titles not just for my Nintendo XL but others as well including many for my Xbox 360. I joked to the clerk, "nice store, I'll be back." A brief wait for my bus, which let me out by my place, good day.

Anne was just getting up out of bed when after our talk about my outing and Game City. At first she was going to give me $ for a new game at Best buy to put under the tree for Christmas but upon hearing about Game City, if I can get 2 used games instead of one. So she gave me enough for that and Taco time in the food court. Looks like I'll be back tomorrow. I also got a email from Audrey's and 4 books of my order came in. So, I'll leave out of here at noon tomorrow for Audrey's take a bus East along Jasper get the #109 to Northgate run in to get a few games and Taco Time for dinner and home to watch the hockey game. If this is semi retirement I could get used to this. As long as I have my health of course.  Anyway, that's all for now. 

Last nights

wrestling pay-per-view "Clash of Champion's" was fun. The only title that changed hands was the US title. Beyond that it was a shorter then usual pay-per-view. I'd rate the show 3.8/5. Time well spent.

Our local radio station that airs Coast to Coast has holiday programming in place. It's not a real corker but other then local sports, the news, its all pre recorded. Fortunately Coast still broadcasts the first hour on YouTube.

As for tonight, I've got Monday night Raw and if the Sharks/Oilers game looks like its going South, I'll resume wrestling etc. Other then that the only other thing I've got to do is pay a visit Friday morning to my pcn. Then its rinse and repeat. Anyway, that's all for now.

The wife is at work

and I'm having a quiet night off to myself "holding down the fort." I might make another ambient style track for my channel tonight as I'm feeling a bit creative. Tomorrow is WWE's "Clash of Champions," which should be fun.

The other day when I heard like most of us, that Disney went and bought some of the Fox empire for ~ $52 Billion my jaw dropped. And when I heard about the end of net neutrality, I breathed a sigh of relief. All of this good news during the release of the Star Wars movie no less. Its been a good week.

So what with no work for the rest of this month my options are open. I like having some time off but a month during the busy season? Maybe another part time steady job that I can do just 2 days/week would help, like I had with the other job, I'd fill in the space when one job had nothing but at least one job did. I need my old job back. I tried where my wife works but it didn't work out. There could be a window of opportunity to get my old job back around February, maybe. Anyway, that's all for now.

Over the past few days

I've been having these sudden frequent stomach convulsions. Its more of a feeling of bloatedness, I think brought about to the Metformin I've been taking. Anne made me a Agnes beef cheese burger and her home made fries earlier and I had apple crumb pie topped with strawberry ice cream. I'm stuffed and feeling bloated. Uggh.

Update: I'd be totally in remiss if I didn't say "Happy Star Wars," day everyone. When I first saw the original Star Wars A new hope 1977, wasn't in a theatre. The hype for this movie was building all year at the time. I saw the movie at a Drive in in Surrey. My friend Gord and I got to the movie early that day in May. After the movie fans honked their car horns in appreciation leaving the movie. I always new this was going to be a trilogy but since then there's been a prequel trilogy, and a sequel trilogy, and a anthology. Hard to believe the original movie was 40 years ago.  

Even though the Oilers lost last night 4-0, they put up 44 shots against the Visitors back up goal tender. I'm sorry for saying this but, our current back up goal tender is not a NHL goal tender. I'm hoping Talbot will be ready for tomorrow's afternoon game against the Wild.

Still now work for this week and the boss doesn't suspect anything will be taking place until early in the New Year. I wish I had my other job back but I got fired by way of an email. Very professional huh? other then that, I uploaded a bit of an ambient track to my You Tube channel, using the new Garage band. Tomorrow is the hockey game, Sunday is WWE's night of Champions. Its not like I've nothing to do. Anyway, that's all for now. 

Just waiting for

my pcn to call so I can set up an appointment to see my pharmacist. The process is I call reception, they put me through appointments (which is 99% voice mail) then I leave a message and my phone number and they call back. I did all of that, so now I'm waiting for them to call me. They close at 8pm week days.

There's been some talk about how the i0s screen recorder doesn't capture stereo audio. It captures audio but not stereo. The work around this would be to open say Beatmaker 3 in Audiobus, let Audiobus record the audio and screen record the video as usual. When screen recorder sends the video to the camera roll, Audiobus has captured the audio. So in the camera roll, mute the audio of the video. Then upload to whatever file sharing is being used, upload both the video and audio to the same file sharing source and open in a video editing program line up the video/audio in sync. Pan right and left just to test. That should work. 

Tonight I'm watching the Oilers/Columbus game. Thirty games in and the Oilers are not even playing 500 hockey. Other then that, I'm working on a Beatmaker 3 track, reading "Way of Kings," almost to book four. I'm kept busy. Weather is good at +9 although a bit breezy. No calls in yet from the office about work. I think they are going to call me this week. Anyway, that's all for now.

At first I wasn't expecting a lot

from last nights Oilers/Montreal game. So I came in late and it was 1-0 Oilers then, 2-0 going into the 2nd. The Home team got a goal, then we got 2 in the 2nd and 2 in the 3rd. Montreal got 2 in the 3rd but it was a case of too little to late for a score of Oilers 6-Habs 3. I was surprised but the Oilers play Toronto later today. I'm sure lightning wont strike twice.

I was never a fan of Johnny Hallyday but he sold 110 million albums. He was dubbed the Elvis of France. The only entertainer I know of from France in the pop music industry is Jene Michael Jarre and even then I'm aware of him but I wouldn't know anything he was known for. Hallyday had quite the career spanning over 50 years.  

No news from the boss from Friday about work this week. If it happens, I'm thinking Thursday/Friday. Anne and I hope to leave out of here at about 2pm for Londonderry Mall/Albert's for their all day brunch. Hopefully its not going to be packed. Knowing my luck it will. Anyway, that's about all for now.

My ride picked me up about

4:20pm yesterday as it was so nice outside, I didn't think I'd need a coat. I helped set up lodge and I did my thing. I tried to get a ride back home but most of the guys were staying behind for festive board. I was getting tired, so I packed my things and got ready headed out for the bus stop, maybe 100 feet away. I had a 5 minute wait and I got home about 10:15pm. it was a great night.

Now let me get this straight: Outgoing Premier Brad Wall is saying that any Alberta vehicles at a Saskatchewan job site will be fined unless those vehicles are registered with the Saskatchewan Government because there are claims that Alberta is doing that to Saskatchewan workers on Alberta job sites?  From my understanding, this is far from the case. It seems that Saskatchewan isn't giving other Provinces like Manitoba and BC the same treatment. Look out for that one.

          

I'm heading out of here about 2:30 to get my cheque before the boss closes the office. If things go well later today, I'm picking up a iRig Lav mic. One thing's for certain, I'm not paying for my purchase with Bitcoin. I wish I'd got into that back in 2009. Anyway, that's about all for now.

In a way I hope I have the rest of the

month off. Most of these seasonal call centres break just before Christmas. Heart & Stroke does that, Malatest and us. We're going to get really busy in the New Year though. I hope so because I want to get into Eurorack modular and get the Xbox before summer break.



Having the IOC ban Russia from the Winter Olympics is huge. Only the "clean" Russian athletes can compete. All this on a possible Trump impeachment vote. I wonder if the 2 are some how related? Its my conspiracy mind at work folks. Trust me, I am  not a crook. Hmm, where have we heard that before?

So tonight, I'm doing lodge work, watching the Oilers game and working on a beat this afternoon. I'd like to work with Blocks Wave and Novation Launch pad for the i0s. I've got a couple of ideas to work with. Anyway, that's all for now.

Anne will be out doing a

bottle run and getting me a double Wendy's Baconator combo. Biggie fries of course. Hopefully back in time for the early wrestling show. Anne does a bottle run a couple times/month.

At the moment, I'm considering a Facebook fan page for my music channel, hopefully I'll have that up and running at the end of the day, and a you tube gaming channel as well during my time off. I have memory work to do in the lodge about 8-10 lines I need to memorize between now and Thursday. Its a speaking part. So I hope I can get my Facebook fan page up while I'm off work but I got up shortly before noon today, so I'm a bit behind on things today. Its December, sigh. Anyway, that's all for now.

The highlight of my Saturday evening was

watching that Oilers/Calgary game. One of our goals was disallowed. The score was 5-1 Oilers at the end of the 2nd. Leads like that seldom hold up for long. Sure enough, the Flames got 4 goals in the 3rd. Yikes. We got 2 more in the 3rd for a 7-5 win. Our goal tending was mediocre, on par with the Oil Kings. We only won because we outscored the Flames. 

I'm gathering some samples for a beat for either Cubasis or Beat maker 3. Not sure which yet. For this video, I'm trying out Luma Touch Picture in a picture. I'm going for an ambient kind of vibe here. In keeping with this paragraph's theme, I'm eyeing a gaming headset. Not for just for games but because of the mic and I need a headset with an old iPod style cord. One that doesn't get all bunched up, since I need a mic anyway. I'm kind of leaning towards the Astro A10's over there at Walmart, I'll call first to see if they have them in stock before I head over. We'll see. 

My social media usage is about maybe 30% on the meter. This post gets to Tumbler, Pinterest, and Google +. I'd also like to eventually get this to Reddit and Instagram and even Twitter. Oh wait, I use Twitter all the time and I don't let my attorney use my Twitter account, whatever that means.

This evening I have some lodge stuff to do, leaving out of here at about 5:30. I'm going to see about a ride there. Tuesday, my place of work is having their annual staff Christmas party, starting at 4pm, should be fun. Then there's Lodge Thursday and I'm in the office Friday and over to Walmart. Of course all this could change if I got work this week. I'm thinking we do, Wednesday? We'll see. Anyway that's all for now.

I've had a nice couple of days off

since last Saturday. I'm back on the job today 4-9. I had one shift since last Monday so its been 9 days off and 1 day of work last Friday. I don't mind going in this afternoon and hopefully Saturday from 10-3pm, works for me. At least I'm not tracing my penis getting into trouble.

About 8 takes later I had what I thought was a decent You Tube video for my channel explaining how I use the Roland Go Mixer in my set up. I'm learning Luma Touch on my iPad at the same time. The other day however I had some Luma Touch trouble with audio in my video editing tracks. The volume meter was locked on mute. Not my iPad volume. I did 2 takes tonight which didn't do anything for me. I even had a couple of overlays as well. I had another project up and I guess when I deleted a project I got the audio back. I was doing all of this while watching the Leafs/Oilers play at Rogers. I'm using my iPad to shoot the video. I'm looking at getting a GoPro camera from my music store on an account. I like its voice activation but there are i0s options for voice control as well, but I like the compactness of Go Pro. I'm probably going to get one in the new year. The video I'm trying to shoot is taking a long time. Some of my You Tube subscription people spend dozens of hours, doing things like setting up white balance, camera angles, making scripts for voice overs, and video editing. There's a lot involved.

Management of our place here was telling my wife while paying the rent, that Atco is doing a city wide upgrade of its pipe/infrastructure set up. Then in the Spring, Telus is doing an upgrade here setting up their Fiber Optic service in our building. I'm looking forward to that. Anyway that's about all for now.