Not much going on this week

as August is about to close. It's been an interesting month. Still no word about any work projects. 

Earlier this evening Anne wanted my help to get our old AC out of storage. The idea was to take it to the pawn shop over here on 50th Street. It's not that we needed the money. It was just taking up space in the closet. The old AC was a 2 person operation. We had to use that small hand truck to walk it down the 2nd-floor steps to the outside and then to an awaiting Superstore cart she "enlisted" for the transport of said AC. When she returned she said she got $25 for it. Not bad.

Still working on my flash fiction piece. I have an editor in mind who will do a line edit proofread and story development for $54 USD. Not bad. Anyway, that's all for now. 

Finally, the losing streak

is over! Elks finally won a Home game at Commonwealth. Changing the QB made all the difference. Tre Ford delivered the goods. The finale was Ottawa 20- Elks 30.

For week 11, we're 2/9. One W next Monday at McMahon Stadium. (seldom ever happens) We would share last place with Calgary

I received part of my Amazon order yesterday. The camera cage cold shoe mounts. The order came in at kick-off. 5pm. I messed up on the initial order. It was being fulfilled out of Seattle? So I got customer service and they canceled the order for me and I ordered the cables from our local Amazon centre. They will arrive tomorrow. 😀  

Also, Anne ordered us each a Pizza 73 using her discount. Elk's win, Amazon straightened out, Pizza. Yesterday was a good day. Anyway, that's all for now.

My Amazon order

should be arriving at about 2:45 p.m. this afternoon. I'm expecting the 2-pack cold shoe camera mount kit plus x2 10' USB C to A cables. One cable for the mic is attached to my Sony, and the other from the Sony to the computer so I can use the Sony as a webcam. I hope they call on arrival or at the door as per our instructions. Next up is a battery bank and a 10' micro hdmi>USB A cable. I'll be placing that order when I get my "allowance" this week. What the micro USB> cable does is go to the computer. It gives a clean signal to get all of the info off the camera's flip screen. The shorter cable (of the same) was okay when I had my tower on my desk. That tower is in a floor caddy ~ 8 feet away now.

Also on tap for today is the Ottawa/Elk's game at 5 p.m. as Anne is serving up our Sunday brunch. Hopefully, with Tre Ford as QB, we can break the jink today and win one at Commonwealth.

Hard to believe it's approaching September already. Days are definitely shorter. Not much going on for this week. Last year my job resumed work on September 12th. Most likely the same project. It's a project I'm good at. It went on for 100 hours. It means I can pay off a big bill. My Amazon order should be here in ~ 15 min. Anyway, that's about all for now. 

My pay pal funds

arrived in my account this morning. I bought my product and it works as advertised. I bought an app called DouWon that lets my iPad screen display in OBS. It works great. I'm charging my Sony ZV-e10. I just need a longer USBA-C cable. I'm considering buying x2 10' lengths of these cables. So far, they are just in my shopping cart.

I have a new video uploaded to my channel. Piano Motifs with Speldos and FRMS to give the track some texture. The track is trending upwards already. The track already has 5 comments/Likes.

I think I found a good critique service. They charge CAD $54 for a 500-word story. I can do one of those a month, and more when I'm working. I don't like these communities because, for every story of mine that gets critiqued, I have to critique somebody else's. I'm not qualified to critique anyone's work and do it justice. It sounds like a part-time job.

I ordered the above cables but I realized I need another HDMI>Micro HDMI of the same length: Ten feet. Silly Jimmy.  The 6-foot one is ok for now. That's another order but this one will go out next week. Anyway, that's all for now.

It's an overcst day

out there today. Later this afternoon, Anne is taking Skippy over to the vet for her monthly needle. Rian is in the forecast. Spotted showers.

Pay pal in their initial blurb said it takes 3-5 business days to transfer funds from a bank to my PayPal account. Then they said in an update my funds should be in my PayPal account on the 26th? Funds were transferred on Friday. This is. 2023. We have e-transfers now. It was only $20 but come on already.

I was looking into doing some copy editing for a short piece of flash fiction ~ 500 words. I spoke too soon. Apparently, the service is ~ $500 US. I could see this if I were writing a novel. Anyway, that's all for now.     

Too be honest

I never thought I'd make it this far. I'm 71 as of today. Do I have any regrets? Heck yeah. I'll list off a few: I regret getting addicted to Coca-cola in my early 20's. I regret moving to Edmonton when I did. Nothing against Edmonton or my time here. I thought my parents would retire here. I regret not having an interest in learning to drive a car as a young adult. I doubt many of the choices I made in life. I regret giving my work phone number about a part-time job. I regret not joining Freemasonry early in life as many other regrets. I'm 71, and I'm feeling good

Anne and I are going out tomorrow for a bite to eat. We're not sure yet. Anne's sister's husband is in the hospital. He's not on life support or anything. 

I have my most recent video posted. It's gaining a bit of traction. If you want, you can watch it here.

Other than that I'm having a quiet birthday at home. I received a lot of happy birthday wishes over the phone and on Facebook. Other than today & tomorrow not much else is happening this week. That's about all for now. 

Anne ordered us a

Royal pizza for dinner last night. I thought it was alright but it didn't sit very well with her. I watched WWE wrestling enjoying my pizza. A last hometown match with Edge and Sheamus. I enjoyed watching Edge win.

The HDMI cable I ordered earlier this week worked ok and displayed my iPad screen on my computer monitor perfectly. It just didn't deliver audio. I haven't tried it with my Camlink capture card to OBS yet. However, I discovered a piece of software that lets me deliver video/audio (AV) from my iPad to my computer monitor into OBS. The only caveat (even though it's free) displays a huge watermark and gives 2 minutes of recording time. The company has 2 other payment plans: 6 months & 1 year. I can't recall what the 6 month plan was but the 1 year plan is only $10. The only problem (again) is they only accept payment via PayPal and some obscure credit card I've never heard of or seen before. I uploaded Cad $20 to my Pay Pal account but because here in Canada it takes 3-5 business days to transfer funds. The whole idea is to get a webcam overlay on my iPad screen with real-time audio. So I have to wait until Tuesday at the earliest or Thursday at the latest just to buy this. Yeesh. I'm also aware of i0s 17 Beta which allows the use of mirrorless cameras to act as an external webcam for pip. That's not what I want for now. 

I have another new subscriber. #193. On the immediate horizon, I'm looking at the printer I mentioned previously. I'll be giving my Patreon's things like T-shirts; cups, hats, stickers, shoutouts all kinds of things at various tiers. This is once I get to 200 subscribers. This is a project for next year at least. Anyway, that's all for now.   

I'm having a nice couple of days and no place to

go 😀.

Yesterday we got up to +30* and after that we get thunder rain and lightning. 

Wednesday President and chief executive officer Victor Cui was sacked. I think it was a knee-jerk response because the fan base was looking for a scapegoat. In hindsight, the head office should have waited till the off-season. It was not a very classy move Elks. Last night the Elks were in Hamilton and the game was delayed due to rain for an hour and a half. Elks won 24-10.

Yesterday I bought a USB C HDMI cable from Amazon so I can output my iPad Pro to my computer monitor into my Elgato Camlink. This way OBS can recognize my iPad. I should be getting that on Monday. Anyway, that's all for now. 

Nobody answered my request in chat to pick me up

for the Lodge BBQ. It was a lousy day to have it on anyway. Traditionally it was always held on a Saturday. I haven't heard anything about the BBQ. Oh well.

Even though my recent video <here was uploaded Saturday, it earned me 2 new subscribers, 2 comments, and 2 likes. Not bad. I'm about ready to get some merchandise or merch for my channel and open up Patreon. I need 2 items. A decent printer to print out T-shirt transfers and a dry presser. I'm looking at one that they have over at Michaels. The other item is a Brother MFC J6959DW printer. It's a bit pricey but has a lot of bang for the buck. I can also print custom stickies for cups etc. 

My first Flash fiction sci-fi story in the rough draft is done. I'll be aggressively revising the story over the next week or so and when it's ready send it out to the editor. The story is 425 words. Anyway, that's all for now.

I managed to get my video uploaded

to YouTube this morning before bed. It's about 10 minutes. There are some interesting moments.

Not much going on all day. I put the call out for a ride to the lodge BBQ. If anyone East of Northgate could pick me up. Doesn't look like anyone East of Northgate is going. We used to have the BBQ on a Saturday. If there is a low turnout, I think that's why. 

Earlier I did a rough draft of a flash fiction piece. Under 500 words. I'm just about finishing up the ending. I'll send it for editing, and submit it. Most likely sometime next week. We'll see how that goes. Anyway, that's all for now.    

That was quite a storm

that passed through here last night. According to the Edmonton Journal, we received 51 ml of rain. it came down so hard and fast like a monsoon. It lasted for maybe 3 hours. Seems like not much rain for such a storm, but that's the Journal reporting

Right now it's a mix of Sun and clouds on a beautiful summer afternoon. Game time is at 7pm as Winnipeg is in town. Hopefully, with a new QB, and offensive coordinator re-assigning duties this could be a win for the Elks. We usually start strong but falter closer to the half and sputter for the balance of the game. If we're like 21-7 and at the 3 min warning in the 4th Q, then I'll get excited. We even have an Indigenous-enhanced logo on the field for good luck.

Maybe with this logo, it will give us some positive vibes, or is this the season that Chris Jones is trying to get Edmonton a 0-19 loss by design

🤔Why?🤷‍♂️

I think there could be one last me working full hours at the job thing. After that, it's 3-hour shifts if they'll have me. Oh well, that's all for now.  

Unless I get offered a

ride, most likely I'll be a no-show at the Lodge BBQ Sunday. I suggested to Anne that we might be able to get a ride from Dan but we'd have to meet him at Southgate at Ronnie's feet. She didn't like that idea. The lodge knows I'm interested and my transportation options are limited. ETS has no buses out to the Woodhaven area. Possibly a NIMBY thing. Even if they did it might take ~ an hour to get out there.

That's ok because Anne and I have an early birthday outing for me planned for next week. If the new Mission Impossible movie is still playing at Manning, the goal first is to try out 5 Guys' fast food place, then to the movie and home. Well, in theory. So I'm not too worried about making it to the lodge BBQ.

I got 3 new documents uploaded to my family tree at Ancestry. My birth records I received from BC Department of Vital Statistics. 11:08am August 21st, 1952; my Master Mason degree, and my IPM degree. Are all posted on my Ancestry page. This way future generations of the Shannon clan can see what I've been doing, say 1000 years from now. Yeah, good luck with that. Planet Earth might not be around 100 years from now, little alone 1,000. Besides I'd be a needle in a haystack. Anyway, that's all for now.

Not much going on this week

except making music video's for my youtube channel. I had one idea I was working on using Ampify Studio but all the sounds were so heavily processed. I wasn't using the account as much as I would have hoped. I liked the workflow though. So now I'm back to Loopcloud. Same concept as Splice but Splice is double the cost.

This weekend is the lodge BBQ. I haven't been.

since pre-Covid. Danny puts on a good spread. Hopefully, I can get a ride out there. I'll be calling around today.

Also, this week is the Winnipeg/Elks game Thursday. Is this the game we beat the Home losing streak? other than the above, I have nothing else to do. Anyway, that's all for now.

My first day at

Fort Edmonton Park Masonic Museum was good. My ride had a bit of trouble getting us there. That was a long way back. We got a lot of visitors. Jordan was there as usual. I'm in the blue.

They took out the fridge from last year but it was a good afternoon.

Yesterday Louis picked me up and we went to McDonald's for my morning breakfast instead of Tim's yesterday. Louis found the Fort Edmonton Park Christmas Market entrance, which is near the river. There's volunteer parking behind the Hotel Selkirk, where Louis and I parked. I suggested he call me from where we parked because it's easier to get to the museum from there. This time it was just Jordan and I. We had a steady stream of visitors. Also, I discovered that the park has Open City wifi. 🙏 Louis called Jordan's phone @ 3:30pm. I walked over to meet him and home. It was a nice couple of days. 

This week has been a good week. Anne bought me a new computer chair from Costco. We ate at the deli. She also bought me a new fan for my office and a hoodie as a birthday present for my birthday later this month. Add that and the two days at Fort Edmonton Park. Good week. 

I've got a video for my channel I'm working on for next Saturday, plus there is an Elks Home game Thursday. Plus some video editing. The usual. Anyway, that's all for now.

This morning I'm

doing my annual Fort Edmonton Park volunteer gig. The Masonic Lodge museum is open to the public. I try to get a day every August. My day is today but because we're so short staff I'm also there for tomorrow from 10-4. Historically, we usually buddy up. 2 of us. We're there to answer questions from the public about Freemasonry.  It's actually a good time. Last year it was so warm outside, my buddy and I took the train back to the park entrance. Sadly there isn't any ETS bus to Fort Edmonton Park.

The Elks are on a bye week. Meaning they are not playing any games. Now that there is a coaching and quarterback change maybe they'll improve their record at home when they resume play next Thursday entertaining Winnipeg.

Tuesday late afternoon Anne and I went to Costco because she wanted to show me the Laz Boy chair she wants to buy me. I needed to test it out. Anne showed me how to use the scooters Costco for low-mobility customers. I caught on to how to use it very easily. I did and I like it. The wheels move well on the plastic mat. I like how the armrests fold back. The back is high enough that it acts as a privacy screen from prying eyes behind me. And the chair is comfortable. Anne also bought me a new zipper hoody and an office fan. Plus she bought us Costco hot dogs and fries from the deli. Good time. Anyway, that's all for now.

Anne returned from Costco about 9:30

and brought me back a Sunday. Very nice. She mentioned this chair by "Lazy Boy" she wants to get for me as a birthday present. The one I'm currently using is really hard on my bum. We're going back to Costco tomorrow so I can test it out and get a hot dog and fries. If I like the chair, she said she'll buy it. Sounds like a plan. 

July has been a long month. Getting that blue screen was scary. However, it was nice to get out to Memory Express and iHop. Next up I think is the Razer webcam. I'm still not giving up on my Sony though. The Razer works well in low light. My use case. Anyway, that's all for now.