I love the Canada Day long weekend

because its a summer long weekend. This weekend beginning today I have 4 days off and I'm back Tuesday.

I went and played some more blackjack on my 5:30pm break and out of 3 tickets, I got a 21. It means that whatever the prize was/is doubles. In my case it was $2😊, which meant I got $4 bucks for 2 more plays, which I got nothing. So, i'll stop playing for awhile.

Tonight we're hosting the BC lions CFL team. We need a win. We need ball control on offence and our D needs to get better. The game is on at 8pm tonight. other then that, not much going on. I'm just enjoying my 4 days  off.

At least I'm getting the hours but

I had to cut back on hours because it compromises the benefits I get. Super didn't like to hear this but I'm still putting in 4 days/week. At least we're no longer in that heat wave. We're down to +20's that sort of thing.

I had a busy day thought yesterday. I went to Long & McQuade to take care of some business and I got a double pop filter for my mic. On my 5pm lunch break I went over to the store to buy some black jack tickets I won $25 bucks so essentially the pop filter was "free". I had a pretty good 7.5 hour shift. I like this 7.5 hour shift but it cuts into our bottom line. We finished a huge project and making a nice dent in another one. I'm back 1-9 today but next week and from here on in I'm 4-9, Tuesday-Wednesday. I was supposed to work Friday for a few hours but the idea was to not work Friday because most people will be out doing the Canada Day long weekend thing. The shift is short anyway. Besides I got to go to the lab Friday as well among other things, yeesh. 

Next week, I'm 4-9 Tuesday-Friday. I'm grateful I got hours in. My next piece of gear I'd like to get is an Elgato screen capture device. I'm having trouble with obs and Nvidia experience (ne). I can get ne to record my screen but I'm not getting audio. I think it has to do with my sound card and basic "routing." Anyway, I'm up at 10 out the door by noon. Anyway, that's all for now. 

Its been a busy week

what with working from 3-9 for most of it and getting the new computer up and running. This week as of tomorrow, I'm 3-9 again as we're trying to wrap up this project. I don't mind. Its just the commute in during those warm +28 days gets a bit stressful. Unlike the new buses, these ones have no AC. My #5 at that time of the day, is standing room only from Central station to about 116th street. I'm aggressive getting on the bus because I couldn't stand for 15 minutes. The #5 is a milk run from when I board until I get off across the street from Alberts.

So far the new computer is working fine. memory Express suggests to wait for about a week before activating Windows 10 to make sure I'm happy with this computer. When I was going through the parts inventory from a quote, the motherboard I was going to get was not in stock. A minor price increase got me a B360M DS3H intel Gigabyte motherboard. The Asus board, had only 2 lanes of Ram this one has 4. I can max this out to 64Gb of ram. The i5 Hexacore cpu seems to be holding out pretty good starting out at 3Ghz. So far no issues. The gpu is a EVGA GeForce gtx 1060 with 6Gb of memory. The reviews on this card are pretty good. Some say this card gets hot, but its not meant for gaming for my purposes. I'm impressed with how fast this build boots up. I also got from EVGA some under the hood software tools. I haven't tried them out yet but when I get back to work steady in the fall, I'll upgrade this machine before Christmas. From watching various You Tube video's installing a gpu seems pretty basic. This pci card was priced at ~ $400 but it just has a single fan. The computer case came with a 500 Watt ps but I'd like to upgrade that to a 700 Watt ps. 

Last night I began working on getting obs to work on this system. Its not this system's fault its not working but getting obs to work isn't that straight forward. It has to do with the black screen. After about 4 hours of this I gave up and felt resigned to get an Elgato capture card. I have the cash on hand to get one now if I want from Best Buy across the street. I might have enough work to get me to the middle of July. At this time I can't justify laying out $225 for a capture card. Its tempting, but I have other obligations. Then after looking for a online or a competitive solution to obs, (Xsplit etc) I found Flashback Express. Its free for the basic edition, and there is also a paid edition as well. I tried screen recording one of my recent videos and it captures system audio. I need to tweak the screen resolution and the hot keys, which I'll be working at latter among other things.

So after this round of projects at work in the fall, I need to work just 3 days week. We get some health benefits and perks from the Province/City because I'm a senior. Regardless a seniors bus pass for me is $15/month as opposed to the regular adult monthly pass at almost $100. If we can keep the household income low and sustainable enough we can each get a $800/year rec centre pass for free. Plus Anne gets her monthly bus pass to $35 instead of $96 or what ever they cost. Also once I file for my gis, when work slows down, I'll be able to get the Low income senior bus pass at $57/year.

In wrapping up here, the Sun is going behind the clouds. I'm hoping for a afternoon shower to cool things off around here. I'm drinking my coffee, enjoying my afternoon off. I'm getting back into NI's Maschine as their most recent update will accommodate my Mk2 device. I need to contact their customer service too see if I can get this device up and running again but I'm having Service Centre issues. After 6 years of use the hardware still holds up. As for this week, I'm in the office from 3-9. I should mention before I go, the passing of a Xentel colleague. I worked with Dave Ross for years. Another "Xentelian" said he passed away just this last month. Privacy prevents me from saying more. As for me, things are running ok around here. I've got a full week leading up to the long weekend, which (fingers cross) could be 4 days off for Jimmy. That's all for now.    

Its been a whacky couple of days

around here. Tuesday I got my new computer. Anne picked it up for me as I needed to get ready on my commute. I began to unbox the case, briefly set it up but I needed a DVD-d to VGA adapter. Anne picked one up for me. Works great. This whole PC works good.

So today, I'm out of here at 2pm to work from 3-9. Its not too bad. Work could be wrapping up for the summer as things in my industry slow down this time of year (I hope) if there's no drama around here, this could be a good summer. Anyway, that's all for now.

I got my business done yesterday

all by about 12:30pm. I hung around in the store for about an hour or so as well and it took me about an hour and a half to get to Northgate. I was in there by 2pm. I had some lunch and after about an hour and a half lay over trying to cancel a "date" with a friend, because my time was not my own. I hung around anyway and was done with my outing about 5:30pm. I was home by about 6:30pm. It was a long day but good until I got home.

So, my new computer is being assembled. It has a 6 core i5 3Ghz processer. 16 Ram, a 2Tb Seagate 7200 hard drive with a Asus motherboard, and a GTX 1060 3gb graphics card for some game play plus it includes a 120Gb ssd. The guy there said I'd get a email notification pick for tomorrow. This is not a high end pc but its a hundred times better then what I have. I forgot to include a fan but I think the cpu comes with a stock fan. The main attraction here is the 6 core processor. The best part about the pc and where I got it from is it easy to get to, plus I can upgrade this at anytime. At my age this will be the last computer I will ever own. I see a 32Gb ram upgrade soon before Christmas. 

I missed "Money in the bank" because of a family dispute having to do with my day yesterday so out of rage my wife changed our channels. It's ok. I'll get the results tomorrow after work. I didn't like how this is now a co branded ppv so any brand gets the "contract." 

This week I'm picking up the computer, the NHL awards are on, its Summer solstice, and the Eskimo's are hosting Hamilton Friday night. So there is a lot going on. Despite all the trade wars going on this is going to be a interesting week. Anyway that's all for now.

I'm up earlier then usual for a Saturday

morning. I have some business to take care of this morning then out to get some lunch then home. Maybe there's a CFL game on TV. I wish Mothers/Fathers day would be a long weekend.

Speaking of which Thursday nights Eskimo season opener, was quite the historic event. This was the longest CFL game since the "Fog bowel," dating back to 1962. In the case of the other night it was the longest weather delay (2 hours 55 minutes of torrents of rain and lightning) in CFL history. The game was (apparently) so up and down in the score, the Esks won by a 2 point convert. the game ended at 1:17am! 

So after i do my business on the South side, and a couple of cab rides later, I'm running over to Northgate for Taco Time/McDonald's fries. Then home. Tomorrow, Royal Pizza and "Money in the bank." Anyway, that's all for now.

Not much going on

except we had a bit of rain about 9pm as I left the office. I made all my connections for home.

I got all caught up in the world events about Trump and North Korea. Something about a Racoon? I don't know. More Nafta stuff. Apparently Edmonton could be one of the Canadian stop overs for FIFFA. Wont that be interesting? Another Xbox console in 2020? Scarlett? Fantasy It girl, why should I care? Stan Lee. Ok, that's about it. Anyway, that's all I know for now.

Our weather has been so up and down

here in Edmonton lately. We're getting a nice downpour. Reminds me of my Vancouver days growing up in the '70s. Yesterday was hot and muggy. Not my kind of weather. Weather wise we're supposed to get around +17-+24* all week and that. 

Yesterday I was feeling cold all the time, despite the muggy weather. After a bit of research, I discovered this feeling of being cold all the time could be Diabetic Neuropathy. Today is ok as I'm just wearing a T-shirt and my fleece. Last night even at +19 I was wearing a sweater.

So, this week I'm just working out the week. Friday I'm ordering the computer. I just take the #70 bus there and that same bus goes too Mill Woods shopping Centre, then back down town. They have a maximum 3 day build period, depending how far along I'm in the queue. Other then that not much else is going on. Most likely, I'll make another post between now and then. Its the dog days of summer. Anyway, that's all for now.  

We've had another warm day today

at +27 but right now the temperature has dropped significantly. Sunday is supposed to be a cooler day out there and the rest of the week the same.

Feels weird to have no hockey on a Saturday night. No sporting events at all as far as it goes for me. Not much going on next week. Its just work but Friday I'm ordering the computer Friday. I got no Doctors appointments nothing. Other then the computer its just work and home. If all goes well I should have my computer by this time next week.

My wife hasn't been feeling well as of last night so she's been home today. The heat has been making me sleeping. Anyway, that's about all for today. 

Hard to believe I haven't done a

blog post in almost a week. I've been going to Doctors appointments and working earlier hours last week. Add it all up and I've been busy. At least I didn't burn down the White House. Actually Canada wasn't even a Nation at the time, and it was the British that burned down the White House. I wont take a knee for that!

So tonight its NHL Washington at Vegas. I'll be in Lodge tonight so I'll miss the game, which is why I hope it goes to a game 6 on Saturday. This way I can watch the game. Other then that, not much else is going on. This afternoon is supposed to be a hot one going up to +27, same for Friday and Saturday. Back to normal +20-ish temperatures next week. I'll post again on the weekend. Anyway, that's all for now.

So 2 games have already been

played in Vegas as game #3 is about to get underway tomorrow night shifting over to Washington. Finally, I'll be able to watch this game. I'm going to miss game 2 of the Eskimo's pre season game which is tonight due to work but I've been hearing we could have an early night, but I doubt it.

This is huge (no not Trump's trade tirade) but a company called Audio Kit, is about to release Synth One. Hundreds of volunteers and developers have got together to develop code for this project over the last few years. The premise for this is that there are thousands of free iPad's that have been distributed to schools, the poor in foreign countries etc. Many of these people can't afford apps, to make music. This bridges that gap. Its open source and the code will be released to the public free. It was written in C++ on Apples Swift platform. Its not quite out yet but will be ready in a few days. Since its open source it means it has full customization capability 👀 I don't know if code can be written to it from an iPad. I'm looking forward to seeing this released. 

We might have a early night tonight, so some of my colleagues have lamented about last night after work. If that's the case and I'm ok with this, I get an early start to the weekend, and that's a good thing, but we'll see. Anyway, that's all for now.