It never stops

its one thing after another. Two weeks ago management had roofers replacing shingles, before that they replaced the original carpeting. Now (and we were told about this in advance) there's a construction crew replacing the ground level concrete that passes for a patio. Over the past to days they've been ripping concrete digging what looks like a 12 inch pit. I assume gravel goes in next as a primer and then they are replacing the concrete with decorative tiles. Yeesh. What's next re siding the outside of the building? Oh, wait that's next summer. 

I'm sure glad I never bought a Galaxy note 7. I think I dogged a bullet. I might buy a android phone one of these days only because they have music apps exclusively for the android platform. Since the trouble with their latest and greatest cell phone's battery exploding, I imagine consumer confidence might be on shaky ground. Lots of android users are switching to iPhone's, including the guy at unbox therapy. I suspect the trouble with the note 7 is the screen causing the battery to overheat.

This weekend we're having our Edmonton Expo. Carrie Fisher and others are expected. Its a massive 3 day sci-fi, comic book, panel, everything con. Average price is about $30 a day for a ticket but there are 3 day paces available 

        

I'm not sure if there is a Saturday costume dance like the  old Edmonton non con but this looks like a lot of fun. I'd go if I had some spare cash just to meet Carrie Fisher and Alex Kingston. So, between now and the next Expo, I'm saving up some cash and taking the weekend off for just this event. The above image is from the Edmonton Expo website and used under fair use.

Earlier this week the market research job called me while I was on my way home from the work. I answered the call yesterday and asked if I could work Thursdays and Fridays. the boss there said he's fine with that. This will give me a few more hours because the shifts are longer. Also, when our place breaks in February the 2nd job often has work. Then I resume in March. This job in March ends around mid May and the market research job about May. Then I go on ei and slide into full pension one year from now and I'll have time to enjoy the Expo. I'll work 3 days a week during the steady job. However, if this place increases the rent because of all these upgrades, we're moving. As for tonight, I'm in at 4:15pm to 8:30 and on the train tonight home. Its all good. Anyway, that's all for now. 

Up and at

er for another day. I'd rather be sleeping in this Sunday morning with my lovely wife but I also need the hours. So I don't mind going in. Its going to be a long afternoon.

The Rogers place arena is about to open in 6 months. It just seems there is a lot of work left to do. At the moment they are adding the seats to the stands. Seating capacity is supposed to be something like 20,000. The cost is about $650M. The image below is from the Live rink cam taken about 7:30 this morning. 

 

There's very little parking around the area as most hockey fans will take the LRT from Bay Station or Nait line just behind the building or via the Winter garden plaza, which will open in about a year after the arena has been active. The Oilers are in Winnipeg at 5pm this afternoon, so I'll be getting an update on the scores before I leave.

I'll be waiting for my #5 bus at 6pm to Corona station. I've got about 2-3 minute wait for my train where I can get a game update. The 2nd period will be well underway. I'll most likely see maybe the last 10 minutes of the game, if I'm lucky. Anyway, that's all for now.

I'm surprised that it took

under an hour to get iTunes to help me edit my security questions. I picked up my DM1 drum machine and its pretty cooI and I also picked up another app called "Bassline" and it does some really nice acid analogue bass sounds. 

It was a beautiful pc sunny day yesterday afternoon about 3pm as Anne came out with me to my 1st job. I got my cheque and I'm ok to go in for this morning. I've got a full day. I met Anne inside the stairwell waiting for me and I handed her my pay. We were at the corner and there was my #3 bus to my charity job. I hobbled across the street and just made it. One of my colleagues was on the bus with me to work. Nice. My wife has some time off so she went to the bank then home to pay on the rent right away. I have everything I need for my taxes. I've got $20 bucks to my name for 2 weeks, but at least all the bills are paid up. I headed into the other job. I had a decent day getting 4 "sales" at the charity job. They only wanted 1 per hour anyway but then that depends on the area. Some are better then others.

This week I'm 10-6pm today and Sunday, then I'm at the charity job Monday and Tuesday 4:15pm-8:30pm. Wednesday, I'm at Robert J. Sawyer reading and book signing event at Audrey's. Thursday I'm at the charity job, Friday I'm at the market research job. I'm on the go all day. Anyway, that's all for now.

For some reason I needed to find out what kind of video

camera the downtown Library Makerspace uses. I was "shopping around" for a Go pro video camera. Searching on the web, I came across a bit of a list of equipment, and software the studio uses. They have Wondershare and Blender? Nice. These are popular computer video editing and screen capture software tools. It means I can make a beat on a sequencer like FL. Studio and screen capture (with audio) and upload it to You Tube. I'm going to try and book some studio time over the next few days.

Connect 2 Edmonton is a forum I visit everyday. Its all things Edmonton. A popular thread is Station Pointe. Station Pointe is a designated lot located just South of the Belvedere lrt station or more appropriately 129th Ave 66 street and Fort Road. Its been a bit of a running joke as its been more or less a empty lot. The developer seems to like hole in the grounds as in Corners 1. The City built this long decorative retaining wall along the lrt tracks about 2011. That's about the last time anyone has seen or heard of Station Pointe (other then on the c2e forum) until I noticed a couple of backhoes on the site the other day on my commute into work.

                             

The idea behind this concept was supposed to be a geothermal, totally green shovel ready project. Yet the developer has been dragging its feet for a long time on this something to do with a Government grant. Station Pointe was initially part of a Fort Road revitalization plan, which was original conceived in September of 1980. I'm not sure what the current status of this plan now. Is it ongoing or in hiatus or what? Station Pointe was to be the anchor of the Fort Road revitalization plan. Not that I could see anything from my vantage point on the train as in the above image but there has also been some hoarding done on Fort road, and maybe along 129th as well. I hope those backhoes I saw on site are the harbinger of things to come for this project

I have a day off but I'm going steady as of tomorrow. I've got Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday at my market research job. Tuesday, Wednesday I'm at my other job and Thursday I'm at lodge. Friday at the other job and Saturday and Sunday I'm at my market research job. The above will be going on like this until mid May, yeesh. As for tonight, I'm home watching the Oilers/kings game. We'll see how far I get with that but that's another story. Anyway, that's all for now.

I don't often talk about

religion here but hearing the Pope talk about Trump and saying that he is not a good Christian because he want's to put up walls instead of building bridges. First of all Pope boy, no Christian has the right to tell another Christian how strong his faith is or if he's a good Christian or a bad Christian. That's between man and God. You of all religious leaders should know better. Second, if you want to talk about building walls the Vatican is all about walls. We call that hypocrisy. I'm not a fan of Trump or the Pope, but I can almost smell the Vatican damage control team wheels working overtime. 

Blog update:
What with our very unseasonably warm weather this year (since November 2015) we've been having it pretty well off temperature wise. Normally though for this late in the month we should be about where we are at this hour. Since January we've been holding steady at 0 - 5 more or less. This has been one of the coldest starts to the day for this time of day in a long time:
                      

By now the world has seen the baby Dolphin selfie shot taken on a beach in Argentina. Beachgoers the other day crowded around a baby Dolphin passing the poor thing from one of beachgoer to the other. Too stupid to see the Dolphin in distress that needed to get back into the water to breath, these idiots continued to think it was a joke. These turds crowded for selfies on the beach not thinking of the animals needs and eventually the baby Dolphin died. The carcass left to rot. What a despicable bunch of turds on the planet, stupid people. I hope Argentina gets world wide condemnation.

Well that was my day off yesterday. Lodge was good. I got a ride home after it was over, and home shortly after 10pm. I'm in the office today from 4-9:30pm, all day Saturday but I want to leave out of there by 3:30pm Sunday for Fastlane. Anyway, that's all for now.

I barely caught that

#5 bus at Central if not for the lady that caught the bus drivers attention just as the bus front right wheel was about a foot away from the curb waiting on a red light that just turned red. The driver said by rights he didn't have to open the door to let us on. I would have been late other wise, thanks lady. Thanks for nothing scumbag bus driver

                                                                   

I met one of my colleagues that rode in beside me to work. It was a beautiful sunny day and about +6 heading in. All in all I had a great night on the new project.

               Today I'm up about 8am for a bit of breakfast and out the door at 9am for the job. I'm back to more consistent hours on the job and about to get busy. I'm in from 10-6pm today and off Sunday but out of here to lodge for a practice. Then home. All next week I'm 4-9:30pm. So in other words I'm going to be busy. I'm about to post this and shut it down as I want to read for a bit, and listen to Coast open lines. I'm up at 8am and out the door at 9am for 10am. Anyway, that's all for now.

My heart just broake as I write this

learning about the passing of David Bowie. Bowie died from cancer he was battling over the last 18 months, and died peacefully at the age of 69. I followed his career as a fan from his album Pin-ups. When I bought that, I bought others when I could. Pin-ups is in my top 10 albums. After pin-ups he released Diamond dogs and so on. Those 2 albums are his best work. I was 20 years old when Pin-ups came out that came out and even today it stands the test of time. Diamond Dogs still resonates with me and I'll go back to listen to it on YouTube all the time. R.I.P. David. 

On that note: Not to add insult to injury but this book I'm reading took so much time I even forgot there was a Oiler game on television. I checked the score and the Visitors won, again. Our D gave up they puck and they scored on the breakaway. Hall scored but their coach challenged the play saying they our guys were off side and the officiating love flaky calls like that. They'll call them every time. This hockey team is embarrassing.

                                        
I snagged this from one of my colleagues from his Face book page before I posted about David Bowie. I couldn't resist posting this to add a bit of mirth over over such a downer.

Since I don't know if my 1st job will have any work this week, I'm going to alter my availability slightly on my 2nd job. At least this week, I'll have a full week one way or another. Today its my 2nd job all week. Maybe my first job Saturday. I have my Doctors appointment Tuesday and that's about it. Anyway, that's all for now.

Other then struggling with this cold and

episodes of bringing up phlegm Sunday, I had a decent day. I got out of bed about 12:30pm, fixed a coffee and turned on the computer. Later I went to the dollar store across the street to get some items for my wife. My left leg felt better and I wasn't hobbling about like Saturday.

 


Our Edmonton Expo with Stan Lee here over the weekend ended on a Sunday where we have a blood moon. Talk about special. There's been only 5 of these kinds of lunar events since 1900. The next one wont happen for another 18 years. What with the Saskatchewan Rough Riders football club and today's lunar event, could that have been the reason why the Riders were able to win only their 2nd game of the season yesterday?

I got to call into the office this morning to find out when my shift starts for today. I've also got to get another fax off to Alberta monitoring. I'm calling another job lead before I leave for work. There's a chance my old school district found my transcripts and I might get something back from them this week in my email. Anyway, that's all for now.

Monday I spent indoors and about the only thing I

accomplished was reporting for my ei pay for Friday. I could get so used to this. When I get pension I could see working 2-3 days week and off the rest. Once this month is over, pension is 22 months away. I'm counting the days, if I live that long.

The #1 topic on the minds of most Canadians these days is the economy. A poll was conducted and 95% of respondents said the economy was the #1 issue in the country, not the Syrian refugees or the Mike Duffy scandal, or even terrorists. Locally, Alberta has the 2nd lowest unemployment rate in the country. Even with $44 oil.

   

I took the above from a colleagues Facebook page the other day. I had to laugh because it rings so true. 

I was going going to do my banking yesterday but I'll be at one of my banks Friday anyway. A few days won't make much of a difference but it gets me out of the apartment. Anyway, that's all for now.

When I was out there reading my book

Wednesday afternoon underneath that nice red tree as seen below

 

(my usual spot) I read my Warhammer 40K book "Tales of Heresy." I'm just over the halfway part. I had an enjoyable time just reading occasionally glancing up to watch the girls go by in the +29* hot afternoon Sun. Actually it was mostly overcast and even the breeze was warm air. Inside it was a lot better.

As I was about to cross the marked crosswalk this time where the incident happened yesterday with the cop car the car had to jump the meridian to get into the lane cutting me off to get in front of the cars waiting at a red light. The cop car was about where the car is in the other lane is facing East. There's no way that the cop car could have seen whether or not the light was any color. His only indication that there was any light at all was that traffic in the East bound lane had come to a stop. So the cops reckless driving almost got me killed Tuesday night. I was where the blue dot was. By the time the cop was where the end of the arrow was the traffic was still at a stand still.

  So there was no way that the car could have stopped in time as it was committed to go. No what if there was a bunch of  us in that cross walk. It's been  known to happen. Also, last night I had pressed the light and I was barely across the street over the meridian when the light changed. 

Today is the day Greece has to provide a debt proposal in order for them to stay in the Euro. We're feeling that country's economic woe's even over here. In Athens It's sobering stuff as shops are all boarded up. People can't buy day-to-day necessities. We're seeing what happens when a country goes bankrupt. Yet they said "no" to austerity on Sunday. They have a chance to save themselves today from their creditors. We'll see what happens.

Finally after having a bi-week, the Eskimo's play their first CFL home opener game tonight at Commonwealth The home opener should have been week 1 but because of FIFA the Esks had to play up there in Fort McMurray. I miss having the games on the weekends when CBC was hosting them.

We have another hot one today as we're sitting at +29* at noon! Yikes, now that's hot. Its going to get even warmer by the time I leave out of here. Good news for me today is not only do I get off work a bit early but I have nice cold Heineken beer in the fridge waiting for me and a cold shower. Its expected to get up to 32 today Anyway that's all for now.