Usually I sleep over my 8

on Sundays but today I over slept from 4am this morning until about 10 minutes ago. If Anne had a day off, I'd still be sleeping until about 2pm.

The only downside about this 2nd job is that there is no bus out of Clareview after 1am. The last bus out is about 1am and I'm on the train. When I get to Corona station at 9pm and if I miss the first train at about 9:10pm, there's always another train. If I miss this train at 1:20am I'm stranded downtown until 5am. I should have went from 6-12:30 but I'm locked into these hours for three months. If I pass the 3 month probation period then in the new year I'll go for the 6:12:30am shift. If our lodge goes back to Thursday nights that'd be great because after my WM chair I'm considering Royal Arch (also meets on a Thursday). RA is a concordant body of York Rite Masonry. With this new job I might even affiliate with Commercial. The nice thing for me after January is I don't need to take a chair. With Commercial its a nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon before I walk to my job a block away. With my job if my calls are slow I can check out my Sports scores on my work monitor and get my proline at the 7-11 next door. 

As for Lodge, this Friday is going to be a busy night, what with receiving GL officers official visits, balloting. Once the balloting has been completed I'll breathe sigh of relief and the close out is easy. Then it's retire to the festive board have a beer and relax. My position is almost like a part time job in itself but the pay off means after next year I'll get a IPM certificate and lay claim to the prefix wm James Shannon. That's what my prefix is now but then I'll I wont have the duties as a wm. I still have after Friday, its our elections and the district meeting but that's in October on a Saturday afternoon. After that in November we have Remembrance day and then installation. After Installation in December, is when I can really breath a sigh of relief

Tonight, I have a easy 4 hours 5-9 and if all goes well, I hope to have Sunday off. Gives me a chance to recharge the batteries after that long day Saturday. Sunday, I might be able to even watch some Doctor who and some football as well. Anyway that's all for now.

I left out of here at 3pm

yesterday afternoon not yet letting Anne know about Wednesdays shift being cancelled. I went into the 7-11 on Jasper and got our May bus pass and to my Doctors office building. I had a brief wait time and got a coffee by one of the shops that was just about to close. There's a small food court on the main level and I had a coffee in the near vacant food court. A brief wait in the waiting area and my Doctor finally came in to see me. He wanted to draw to my attention is my blood sugar count. He wrote me up a strong recommendation to AW how I should be on Metformin and recommended to AW that that I get on a medical benefits plan that would cover everything, including dental. I'll be doing that Thursday after my 1:30pm Pharmacy appointment at Northgate. I'm just thinking maybe I should go in my suit tomorrow and bring my lodge gear with me. That way I can go right to the lodge from Northgate. After lodge downtown I can meet Anne coming out of work and ride with her on the way home.

After my appointment I worked my way to the office. It was very warm out there. Beautiful day. So I got in the office and the supervisor was saying to those that got the email/phone call, whatever got their shifts cancelled for today, it was mainly due because of low survey completion rates the night before. I wasn't the only one. I think 3 is the threshold because I had 3 completions many times before and still had my shifts the next day. On my break I made a couple lodge related calls to see who is all coming out for early opening/closing Thursday. Doesn't look like I'm going to have a big turnout tomorrow night. I still have some calls to make tonight though. I ended up changing my availability for next week to include Sunday. So I'm busy on the job from this Friday-to-Thursday,if they let me that is. I ended up with 3 completions and not feeling very good about my future with this company. Short or long term, it doesn't look good. Any more shift cancellations and I'm requesting a roe. Shortage of work. There doesn't seem to be any other projects on the immediate horizon either.

I'm up at 10am for noon out of here today to use the computers and to do a job search. This employment agency is supposed to be a place that specializes in getting persons with disabilities employment. I think they use the same job bank that everyone else uses but its easier to get to then AW. It's a block West of Corona station. I have my resume all ready to go and so I'm going to be doing that this afternoon. Ideally I'd like something that I can do 3 days/week and 3 days where I'm working now and do that until I retire. If diabetes lets me live that long. 

The other thing I'm considering after my job search today if there's time is heading over to Axe music and look around and head home from there. Anyway, that's all for now.

I didn't get any hassle getting a

dbd form at my RBC branch earlier. I was at my destination by about 4pm up near 124th street and about 109th. I got the initial paper work done and did some training. There were some people from my previous place of employment. I got an update and apparently not all offices were closed down, only Edmonton because of staffing issues. They couldn't fill the phone room. This has plagued Edmonton call centres for a long time. In other words I was a victim of Edmonton's success. Apparently other officers in the country are still operating.

I'm off today except for my installation tonight, then I can relax a bit. Friday night I have the staff Christmas party going on at the other job but because I'm at work Saturday. 

Waiting out there for my 8:30pm bus wasn't that bad. I had with others a 10 minute wait. It sill took me an hour to get home. Anyway, that's about all for now.

My toothace pain is reduced down to a dull mumer

but I called in to cover my butt and I'm still sleeping in and going to Lodge. A previous colleague where I used to work gave me a left over tube of Orajel, which helps a bit. I usually get toothache pain maybe twice a year.

This week the world lost actress Annette Funicello who died at the age of 70 from complications of MS. Her husband was her care giver. Annette Funicello was just 10 years older then me,sad. Also, the man known as Raveen also passed away.complications from diabetes and dementia at the age of 77, said his daughter-in-law Cathy Raveen.” As a youth he was a stage magician, but he later studied hypnosis and developed a show that emphasized audience engagement.

I think what I'd like to do when I retire in 4 years is to work at my current job 3 days/week (evenings) and enjoy my time off what little I have left. 

Tonight is Lodge night as I'm heading out to Mystic tie Lodge to visit and promote our upcoming event. Then I got a Lodge practice on Sunday, the Lodge next Thursday and next Saturday as well. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Yeesh. That's about all I can say for now

I can't site any details but yesterday I lost  my job. I spent 12 years and 3 months at it. I was always on time for all my shifts. I did the best that I could. It's the end of an era. The worst part of all of this is I worked with some great people that I'm going to really miss. They were like my family. There's an empty feeling in my stomach right now. I'm not going to dwell upon it here as I can't say anything. Suffice to say I'm going to be ok, no need to panic or anything.

One thing is understood: I'm canceling my website until I can obtain something steady. My website saw me post 1723 blog posts. Many of those entries were excerpts out of my diary and or  copies from Blogger. Of course I'll keep my Blog open here. Maybe I'll come back to the website this time next year, we'll see. As for my 2Gb internet tablet at $37/month, I cancelled that yesterday afternoon. I'm back to the Flex plan at $5/month for 10Mb but I have wifi and my home internet. 

This morning I'm back in the office with some papers to sign and I'm picking up my last cheque on Friday. Next week, I'm applying for my CPP. I didn't want to do this so soon but it's necessary to get on it right away. I'll probably do this Thursday and next week I'm going to register for Alberta Works and get that thing going. 

I have 2 big bills to pay off, LM and my Lodge dues and also my current bill for my tablet. Not the $5 one.

One thing, I've got some time do get some reading done, that's for sure and maybe even go to Commercial next Saturday. I'm also learning the WM opening and closing charge, which is quite substantial but with all this on my mind it's going to be tough to sleep tonight. Anyway, that's about all for now.

I had a better day of

I had a better day of things sales wise today and about half of what my total was on card. Five minutes before 9pm, I already had my coat and stuff packed. The LRT is running only 1 side of the tracks from Churchill out from the tunnel. Here’s a video I took of the moment inside the train. The big tan yellow building with the white structures on top is tower A of Riverside Towers. Tower B is slightly to the left. There was a person sitting in the seat beside me preventing me from capturing the other building identical to this one. I used to stay I the other building in 1979. There was only me and the other guy on this part of the train. I'm at a loss as to how to get rid of these big black bars in these videos. I'm sure the settings aren't managed properly.

I’m in for half a day tomorrow as I’m ready for Lodge and by this time tomorrow we‘ll be winding down the festive board and I‘ll be cleaning up. Last meeting I forgot to empty the coffee pot so I‘ll see if I‘m going to get any flack about this tomorrow. Most importantly though, we have a festive board and 2 candidates and I have a significant part to play near the end of the degree. I‘m going to be busy.

On my way home, I checked my email and I got a response from Itunes. I got the full number back from my gift card I got last week. Good stuff so I‘m going to buy iPhoto and Garageband.

We were watching the NHL NYR/ Caps game and it‘s in double OT tied at 1 with 5 minutes left to go  in the 3rd OT period. Yikes. Warren and I had a bet for $2 and the Rangers just scored bringing it to 2-1. Crap! Rangers lead the series 2-1.

I had a good day today and tomorrow looks good. I just hope there‘s no snags in my vacation pay for Friday, that‘s what I‘m really worried the most here. Anyway, that‘s all for now. 

There's an old

song by an 80's song called "everybody's working for the weekend" by the band called "Loverboy" and there's a lot of truth in that. My favorite times of the week is when I get that paycheck and 4:30pm on a Saturday when I'm out the office door and away from the job for a couple of days. However, I have a couple of more d ays ahead to get there.

 

Yesterday my first day getting back after "the weekend" (for me it's mostly Saturday night Sunday/Monday). After this weekend, I'm working Mondays because I'm off in a couple of weeks for a week off (10 full days) including weekends and a stat in there I get paid for because I'm on "holidays." Not that I'm going anywhere or anything but I need 10 days just to sleep in lounge around the house and to take care of other business.

 

The other night they were talking about the Starchild project. For the "WTF" of us out there I'll bring you up to speed. This from Wiki: The Starchild skull is an abnormal human skull allegedly found in Mexico that is claimed to be the product of extraterrestrial-human breeding or genetic manipulation. Tests conducted utilizing mtDNA recovered from the skull have established it as human. A fellow by the name of Lloyed pie received the skull by a couple in the 1950's and he's held it ever since. it's believed that the Starchild skull is about 900 years old. Pie believes it is a human alien hybrid because the way the teeth are formed and I'm on board with this. He makes a strong case for it. Interesting stuff.

I just learned that Tia Tequila (the woman who for years has been trying to expose a "illuminati" presence in the music industry had a suffered an almost fatal aneurysm Monday and might have permanant brain damage. Over the years she really believed there was an "illuminati" conspiracy. People have been exposing Illuminati symbolism in music videos for a while now, not that I personally believe in any of them but it is interesting how some people use the "illuminati" as cruch something to blame for all the things wrong in their lives, pathetic really.

I've got a full day ahead of me. Last night I got the  idea to go  into Tim's on my way home at Corona station and this university kid gets in front of me. Most of the staff are cleaning and all I just want is a decaff before my train gets there. So the kid starts ordering all  kinds of stuff. I said screw this and went to catch my train. I missed the first one and had a 10 minute wait for the second one and as I was waiting for my train I'm thinking that kid is probably still ordering. I was pissed. All I wanted was a small coffee to go and that was it. A 30 second order. I'll try it again and if the kid is at the door same time as me, I'm going to rush in ahead of him. It's probably an illuminati Tim Horton conspiracy ;-) Anyway, that's about all from me today

I got access to my

pay pal account and I think I can add funds with a credit card. I’m going to call pp and see if I can add funds using the gift card. I’ll need them in US funds. If so I might be able to get this taken care of via pp. There is a way how I can link to cc in my pp profile but I don’t know if I can upload funds to pp through this way. It’s no big deal to wait 8 days but I’m going to call pp in the morning and ask if by linking to cc I’ll be able to upload funs and how long would it take? But I'm half inclined to just call LM in the morning and order GP6 over the phone. At least I'd get the hard copy.
On Coast tonight from their site: Longtime researcher and explorer in alternative realities, John Michael Greer, will discuss his new work demonstrating how history has proven that apocalyptic and revolutionary notions such as the Rapture and Singularity will never happen, but are used to control the masses. Sounds like an interesting show. Anyway, that's about all for now.    

I admit I got up on

the tired side of bed this morning and I brought my laptop with me because Keith said at lunch he said he's help me with some software but I didn't have this program called "ISO magic." He also suggest I download something called "Team viewer." I remember using this before when my ISP asked if they could take control of my desktop via remote with this software. Hopefully we'll get this done before the weekend. I'm also trying to install on Linux, "Rosegarden" which is a combination DAW score editor. The major DAW's need this kind of tool and I wish FL Studio would incorporate a musical score editor like "Finale" in its package. That's be cool.

I had a rough day today. My performance wasn't on par with anything even though I got a good report from yesterday. In the morning my report wont be so good. I wish I was back in the business room.

My wife enjoys watching on TV "America's got talent." Its co hosted by Howie Mandel. The audience knows Howie's Canadian right? So is William Shatner and most of the crew from Star Trek TOS.

At SF Signal, they have had this feature called "What is an e-book anyway?" Its been getting a lot of responses. Will the paper book ever go away? Personally, I don't know but I kind of doubt it will go away anytime soon. Maybe 10-20 years. But look at the growth of the "tablet." It took the cell phone about 30 years before they caught on and became as ubiquitous as they are today. The tablet by the same token was introduced by Microsoft in 2011. Then when Apple launched it's Ipad last year tablets appear to be out selling laptops in by 2015 and it seems that Apple is leading the pack. So the paper back book seems to be going the same way as the cell phone 30 years ago.

Speaking about things that are slow to be accepted, we here in Canada are currently experiencing a nation wide postal strike. Reason for this is, Canada post is losing a lot of ground to things like email, Twitter, Facebook, texting etc. The postal service is almost an endangered species. The only ones that really need conventional mail are charities and maybe at Christmas. I can't recall when it was the last time I ever used a stamp. My place of employment relies on the post office. Without Canada post my job would vanish. No money, no Internet. No Internet, no blog. So, the Canada post employees union are striking because their jobs are in jeopardy as well. They want of course more money. Everyone does. This strike though is what's called a rotating strike, meaning that one major City service would be suspended one day and active the next. Both sides, the postal workers and Canada Post aren't budging. Courier companies like Fed ex etc, are having a field day. Is this going to be the straw that breaks the camel's back? It could be a long summer.

It's twilight out there at the moment and not even dark. I love this time of year. Sorry I don't have a graphic for this post. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Not a lot going on right now

My wife brought to my attention a pretty good deal the ISP competition is offering us: We get 2 pvr’s, plus an modem-router wifi combo and phone for about 40% less the first year. This deal also includes 10 free active HD channels. We need to add a few packages to get what we’re currently getting plus we get 89 channels. The 2nd year we also save $30/month off our bill. It’s a better deal then what we‘re currently getting. We could be signing up but we‘ll pay our current bill off in full before we sign up.

Trying a little experiment with street view. I lived in this building in 1999 just when Y2K was all the buzz. See the corner suite above the entrance on the top floor? That was my suite from 1996-99. 9812 156th street Edmonton. In 1999 I was paying $380 for this suite. Right now its probably renting for about $800.

It was the Oiler prospect development camp held just up here at Clairview arena yesterday. We’re a five minute walk from here and the new prospects including Taylor Hall will be back again at 10am this morning. Its an exciting time for Oiler fans again.

Today in my email subscription to the Robert J. Sawyer newsgroup, one of the members posted a rumor about Johnny Depp taking over the role of the Doctor in an upcoming Doctor Who movie. Talk about a poor casting job over that one. Anyone but Johnny Depp.

Thanks to SF Signal for the pointer. There’s a new Dragon Page podcast interviewing Tracy Hickman. For those that don‘t know who Hickman is he writes fantasy. He has written over 25 novels, many with Margaret Weise. He broke into novel publishing in 1987 with the “Darksword” series. So I’ll be downloading this podcast in the morning.

Uggh, I couldn’t sleep very much at all over night then at 6am the people next door decided that it was a good time to blast up their tunes for 2 hours.

Looks like another beautiful day out there. I’m sitting here with my first coffee trying to wake up. Anyway, that’s all for now.