Yesterday we got up to

+30 and I'm glad I got out of lifting that hide-a-bed out of here because I had a heat stroke in the morning that lasted pretty well much all afternoon. It was brought about by my sinus condition bit I feel a bit better although we could have used the AC unit on. I was in bed before midnight. 

Still working on my Warhammer 40K Space Wolf summer read and wondering if I should get the online or print version of What dwarf magazine. I'll probably get the online version because I own an iPad anyway.

Currently on my mind is a major decision city council is going to vote on Wednesday. It's to decide to borrow the money for a new downtown arena. People don't realize that Rexall place was built with public money. At the moment it wont be the end of the world or anything if city council votes "No." The Oiler's will still be at Rexall. It means the Oiler's will still have the oldest arena in the league and about 2-3 billion dollars worth of projects in the area that would not be developed if the arena does not go through. Plus if we don't build it now, it's going to cost a lot more a year or even 2 from now. Also, the tax benefits to city coffers is huge, like about $160 million/year. 

Anyway, it's a regular back to work day for me. I wish we could start at 8:30am and leave at 4:30pm but I'd lose an extra half hour. Anyway, it's a long day ahead for me. That's all for now.

I could go back to bed for another hour but I’m up anyway. I don’t want to be scrambling at the last minute here.

Looks like a overcast day out there not nice, one of those days to stay inside but I’ll be in the office all day anyway. At +5* it’s a bit below average for this time of year.

I’ve also been looking at getting some kind of video screen recorder software. The mother of all of these kind of products is called Camtasia studio but they want about $300 for their package. There are a lot of free ones out there but they attach things like tool bars and crap and add other things as well like price gongs etc. I downloaded one but it was so heavily add supported, I had to uninstall it. There are a few others out there I’m looking at. I tried to even upgrade my free recorder but it’s not working. 

Since we got onto the Scotia Scene in August we’ve got 386 points. We got 60 for paying part of our rent yesterday 17 on the bus pass and 10 points for my insulin. We get 173 points just on our rent. That’s 2 free movies right there at the end of the year. We usually go in the summer but if there’s something that looks interesting we’ve been known to go in February if the weather is fair.

I just transferred about $40 from my pp account to my bank as it should take a few days but it saves me a trip into my bank this week.

This week, is a regular work week but I a short pay one because of my Lodge night but I’m going to go in for 4 hours Thursday. Anne’s getting 3 cans of chunky soup and a can of bacon been soup because I have 3 in the cupboard at the Lodge. She’s getting some cookies and buns and that’s the festive board. I’ve got a brief “financial” bbq statement prepared to read out loud.

I’m going to cash in on my free lotto Max ticket today for a free ticket for Friday’s $50M! Plus if they’re posted I’ll get my CFL Proline ticket as well.

And finally, it looks pretty easy to fill out my CPP online. They want me to fill out the form and then submit and then make a printed copy to mail. If I can get it done this week, then I might be able to get my first check in early November. The amount I’d be receiving is about the cost of a Ntendo DS. More or less. Anyway, that’s all for now.

A huge change in the

 weather. During our recent heat wave, by this time of the morning we’d be about +18 but this morning we’re at +10. A lot more comfortable.

I can only wish for the same on my job. To be fair they actually lowered the line hour requirement for the source I‘m on. I didn’t make line hour (lh) as I was out only by $15 but the bulk of my sales were on card. For the last 3 weeks I’ve been working only 33.5 hours though. Any day though can be different then the next.

Looks like there’s another provincial by election coming up in BC now. An NDP MPP there has resigned. That’s 3 now, Kitchener-Waterloo, and the other in Vaughn.

Lately I’ve been doing some research on Hanna Reitsch. She was a test pilot for the Nazi’s in WW2.  She was the first woman to ever receive the Iron Cross (medal) first woman ever to fly a helicopter and to fly one indoors. She was also the first woman ever to fly a jet plane. What made her exploits even more fascinating to me being a WW2 buff, was how she flew under heavy Soviet fire General Von Griem in a small a Fieseler Fi 156 Storch improvised airstrip in the Tiergarten near Hitler’s bunker April 28th 1945 a few days before the end of WW2. The Storch had a damaged fuel tank before it landed. Reitsch and Von Griem used an Arado Ar 96 trainer to leave Berlin but who’s to say that the Hitler’s were not in that plane? A very interesting woman. She died young at the age of 67 in 1979.

My 4 games/Proline ticket last night died as Hamilton/Montreal tied. I had Montreal to win. I’m getting another Proline for the remaining 3 games and picking ties.

Well, today is another full day on the job. I hope I have a better go of things then I did over the last couple of days but I’m  not that far away from having lh for the week. Tonight after rework, I’m doing my banking and home. I’ve got a “X-Wing” Star Wars book to pick up at Audrey’s Saturday. Anyway, that’s about all for now.
 
Yesterday I had a problem with my Google account but the issue is fixed now, so no problem.

I was in good spirits earlier but still only 2 sales all day. I didn’t even get $100 on the day. I might have $600 on the week. I think the reason why I didn’t do that well was because it’s a Friday.

Ok, I got the place

Ok, I got the place booked up. I contacted a lot of people and confirmed about 10 couples and others. I got Nathan to cook, I got Frank to bring the backed potatoes and propane, Dan’s bringing the bar to Neil, Neil has to get the key within the next 3 days. I’m calling him Thursday about the key to see if he’s got it and then to give him my list of what and how much. If so, then we’ll have the bbq. Unless he knows of a back door to get the key I don’t know about. Then if all goes well Neil might even be able to get the meat etc then we’re going to have a nice day Sunday. We’ll be done by 6pm and home by 7:00pm then I can breath a sigh of relief.

Last night our dialers were going off line several times through out the evening shift. We got a 20 minute break and then off for about half hour break as we were about 40 minutes or so away from packing it up and I had just got a $200 sale. So it was decided we all pack it up and go home. Works for me.

Tonight on Coast: Channeled Messages Author, researcher and expert in Edgar Cayce and ancient wisdom, Wynn Free, will discuss how he found himself in the middle of a series of dialogues with a channeled source who claims to have created the physical universe. Should be a good one.

The NHLPA and players/owners etc all got together in Toronto to discuss and avoid the possibility of a NHL players strike like they did in 2004-05. That season was the first time in history that a pro league shut down an entire season. If this happens it will be for the 3rd time since Gary Bettman took over as Commissioner. If this happens I don’t know if I want to support the NHL any more unless the Oiler’s make the playoffs. Other wise, I might not watch the Oiler’s anymore if the NHL has another repeat of the 2004-05 season and then resume in 2012-14 even if they have a new arena. It’s not something I’m willing to entertain altogether and I really need to rethink this.

Week #8 of the CFL is almost upon us and the schedule is this:  Thursday: Hamilton/Winnipeg. Friday: Montréal/EdmontonW     Saturday: Toronto/CalgaryT. Sunday: Saskatchewan/BC.T  I’m picking only 1 win and that’s the Montréal/Edmonton game and I’m going to put $5 on it and $5 on the lotto max.

After work I went and got myself a donut and a coffee and checked my email about the bbq. Nothing in at the time. I was able to catch the early train and caught the #112 Northgate a bus that would normally get me home as of July 1st 15 minutes early. After Labor day weekend that schedule returns. When I got home I noticed this big box in my room and Anne putting together a new office chair for me and it’s a huge improvement and feels a lot better. About 2am I’m going to pamper my wife a bit and I hope to be in bed by about 2:30am and listen to Coast for a while.

Earlier this morning I cashed in my $10 6/49 winnings the Redi mart had yet to post the CFL Proline picks but I was able to check my email and relax on my way in under some overcast hint of rain skies.

Update: Before break I had a chance to mention to James that I won’t be in until 5pm for the 4 hour shift, so I have a few hours for myself this afternoon. Anyway, that’s about all I have for now. 

I thought I was going

to have a day. I got my bus ok and all. No problems heading to work I had a little trouble with Tim’s because as noted on my Twitter feed, they were training a new counter girl. First she short  changed me, then she didn’t get me diet cola then she short changed me from a $20. I got everything that I wanted. I had my breakfast, very nice and worked my way under clear skies to the +21 heat. I got a $50 on card and that was about it until after break then I got another $50. All doing OPC. I stuck with it all afternoon and called Anne at 2pm and LM and yes they had the Vari-grip and even the Spider capo. I didn’t have enough with me to get both and have enough for Wendy‘s. I got my Star Wars, the vari-grip and Wendy‘s and I missed out on the 6/49 ticket anyway. I didn’t get any sales from after 2:30pm, nothing. Not that I blame anyone I mean who wants to talk politics on their day off? I think I pitched maybe about a doz people. We have to stop calling Ontario after 4pm on Saturday afternoon. At least I got all my sales on card. I might have got about 2K all week, maybe which is line hour. Barely.
But half of my total was on card. I had a couple of slow days but I made up for it Tuesday and Wednesday. I got the #2 bus about half a block away from Wendy’s and caught the #2 to Corona and took the train back to Clareview and home by about 6:45pm.

I tried to have a nap but any sleep I tried to get failed to materialize. I think I got more rest then sleep. Anne called on her break about 8:15pm she’s on her way now and should be in shortly. So that was my day today. Despite my mediocre total on the job today and the last couple of days, I had a decent week.

Tomorrow I’m up at 7am to leave out of here about 8:20pm to get the bus and to Southgate. No Tim’s in the morning because I had it today and Anne is most likely going to make our brunch and I’ll have all of Sunday night and Monday. Anyway, that’s about all for now.  

to tie, did. I picked the Riders to win but that game was tied and the Argo game last night was tied. A tie game in Proline/CFL is within 3 points and now it's half time and BC/Calgary and this game looks like its going to be a 3 point game. I'm picking all ties next week.

What a day I had today doing OPC and I got $30 bucks worth of bonus money last night and $10 today, so I'm going to have a nice check next week. Other then a few days of low totals and the couple of fights Anne and I had and made up, this week has been really good. I needed that solid day today.

I haven't got things firmed up for Fort Edmonton for next weekend but I'll call tomorrow just to make sure that my volunteer partner and I are on the same page here for next weekend.

After work as I stated briefly in a Twiter post I went Audrey's said I'd pick up  my 2 Star Wars books and after that I went to Rexall Drugs to get a 6/49 ticket then to Tim's for some of their lasagna and it was really good and it filled me up. I just took the train after that and of course the usual 5 minute wait in the tunnel. All in all today was a great day except that last hour where nothing was going my way sales wise.

Now I have a couple of days off to relax and work on my music now that the last of this CFL week is underway now.

The gang after work went down to Victoria Park for a get together and Tim brought a whole bunch of KFC for the gang and of course in a "responsible but controlled manner," lots of beer but I didn't go because I didn't want to get eaten alive by the bugs out there.

So, the Northern Gateway pipeline could be stalled because of this war of revenue sharing between BC and Alberta. I can see both arguments but this is something bigger then royalties. The whole pipeline is worth about $82B over a 30 year period. Crazy. Anyway, that's about all from me for today.

Yesterday after getting off at

the LRT I’m opening the doors to my Scotia bank expecting a large noon time line up. Surprise, surprise, nobody in line. I went right to the teller explained my situation and they wrote me up a preauthorize statement to give to Telus mobility (Tm) I also topped up my account a little as well just in case service charges kick in over the weekend. So far my data usage for my iPad for the 3rd part of my billing/plan is up to 286.17mb. I think I’m at 500mb before the Flex plan kicks in. I  have  up to 25 iM’s (instant messages) I can use and I haven’t used any so far. I’ve got the account active for that but I think I might have sent 1 test message to one of my colleagues.

I’ve got to get on the phone this weekend for several things: First to call Tm and ask about my bill. I’ve got the preauthorize billing set up but after the process was complete it said that it may take a complete billing cycle for it to activate. So what happens to my account in the meantime? Am I cut off for failure to pay my bill past its due date? Or will they see a preauthorized payment set up for my account in progress?  The other call I want to make is to Neil to make sure that in his up coming master’s message in the June bulletin that he marks in there the Lodge BBQ on the 19th of August. Then I need to call Dan our lodge secretary to see about this email he was supposed to send me about the BBQ and a few contact names as far as getting the fixings for this thing. I want to have all of this set up before the end of this month so the members know the who, what, when, where. Then it’s just up to them to come out. Of course I’ll be there.

This morning after I lock up and get out of here I’m getting a lotto Max ticket. There’s still $50M up for grabs. Also I have 7.5 hours on the phone ahead of me. There’s also the NJ/Rangers game this afternoon at 5pm. LA won game #3 of their series last night 2-1 and lead the series 3-0. Phoenix is in real trouble. If they don’t win tomorrow, this will mean LA has not only swept the #1 and #2 seeded teams in the West and about to do so for the #3 rd seeded team to get to their 2nd conference finale appearance. Their 1st was LA in 1993 when the last of the Canadian teams won the Cup. Looks like it’s going to be NJ/LA this year. But I wont be able to watch the game because I’ll be in Lodge Saturday afternoon (I hope)

Sometime Saturday morning, I want to go try out Cora restaurant over here that opened up this Spring and then run over to Moore’s and get a dress shirt and a tie. They have a 2 for one sale and I could use a couple of short sleeve dress shirts and a clip on tie. After that it’s come home and get dressed out of here by 11:20am and hopefully into Lodge by noon. I’m going to bring my iPad along just in case and of course my apron. After Lodge, I‘m on my way home and once home, I‘m going to check on the scores and have a nap. Hopefully, with any luck at all I can pop into the Empire theaters over here and see the new Avengers movie. Most likely if it starts at 8:30pm Anne should be just about getting to Clareview station. We might end up meeting each other, but we‘ll see. I might be too exhausted after Lodge. Not that I have any work there or anything to do. Anyway, that‘s about all I have for now.   

I was in good spirits on my morning commute into the office and the weather was pretty good as well,

all things considering, despite it being slow, it was a good day today.

Out of the gaming world, Diablo 3 was released yesterday. I imagine there was a line up of gamers to get the game. I played the first one but I didn't think much of it at the time. The game designer also did Warhammer 40K among others.  

This is fairly common place in Europe but talking surveillance cameras are apparently coming to the US and Canada. Seems like there's an invasion of privacy issue going on around here.

The other day on the news they were talking about the Google wallet how smartphone users would be able to use their smartphones to pay for items at the retail level. Consumers are already used to electronic banking. I'd be a little worried about hackers getting into the system.

Wednesday before work I'm heading over to Audrey's to pick up my RJS book that's been there for over a month. I've got the cash for that and enough to last me until payday Friday. Anne got my insulin this afternoon and some needles. 

On the job after 7pm I watched bits and pieces of the LA/Phoenix game #2 and LA is leading in the series 2-0. Phoenix is in real trouble here and the way LA is going they could sweep this series as well. It could all end Saturday night for Phoenix. 

Yes, I knew it was coming: Disney is making an animated version of Tron. Yeesh. I loved the first 1, the 2nd one was pretty good but an animated version? Anyway, that's enough silliness for today. 

Not a lot going on for

today. I had a killer day yesterday pulling in $880/550 on card. Two awesome days in a row. I like credit cards because that’s bonus money for me, if I hit line hour and work my full 37.5 hours in for the week. It’s just into work for 8 hours and home. There’s no NHL hockey this evening but I think the IIHF (team Canada) are playing this afternoon. Tonight they’re watching is Basketball. Well, the TV on behind my station that is. Me, I’m not interested in it.

I’m thinking what’s the best way to get the word out about my blog, so that it has a permanent mark on the world? One way I thought was pretty clever was to upload a photo onto Google earth. I might not be able to advertise on the photo but what about after the photo in the frame of the boarder itself? In my little part of the world where I am now, there isn’t a lot of Google Earth photo activity, I could for example label the photo icon “eJim’s place.” But it’s still a Google app. You don’t get to see that until you roll the mouse curser over it. But 1 photo standing out in the middle of nowhere would link to me and a photo showing our balcony in the summer full of flowers would in the container give a blog address. In the photo’s container has a link to the name of the photographer etc. Chances are Google will still be around outside 25 years from now maybe even 50-100. I also need to write a Wiki page on me as well.

One thing I need to do is to start saving some money and after I get Melodyne editor, I’m going to start putting about $50 away in my account each week after this week. This will be week 19 so starting at week 20. At $50/week I could have about $1,600 set aside and have that as an RRSP I could have a nice little bit of stash when I do my taxes next year.

I found some good royalty free dubstep production track intro candidates for my track I’m working on. I should specify non commercial tracks. My music is a cross between old school punk and modern debstep. Kind of like The Clash meet the Stranglers meet dubstep. Anyway, that’s about all for now.

It's coming down now, our first

blast of winter, well heavy snow flurries. This will keep up for the night and this will stay until April.

I took a sleeping pill over night and I woke up around noon and went back to bed. Tonight it's another Monday night Raw. hopefully its a better show then last week. The Oiler's don't play until Thursday.

So US President Obama has decided to bow under pressure from the environmentalists and put a pause on the Keystone XL pipeline.The rational for doing this is to study any environmental impacts on the project. The environmentalists in the US would rather acquire their oil from the middle east/conflict. They say it all has to do with researching alternate green fuel sources but in reality that's a smoke screen for the oil companies that stand to lose billions if Keystone goes through and provide a lot of badly needed jobs in the US. So meanwhile our Premier of Alberta is in Washington trying to figure (More likely a junket get-a-way) out what went wrong. Redford knows what went wrong: The environmentalists put pressure on Obama. End of story. However all is not lost. Harper is even now negotiating to have China buy our oil but with this Asian free trade pact in negotiations, if Harper isn't careful we could lose out on that too. But all we need is to sign on with China and China doesn't look like they're any more warmer to this then we are. Its all politics. So lets see how Americans react when gasoline becomes $7! I hope they choke on it. They don't want our oil why should we cow tow to them when there are other markets?

The other thing going on is this 99% movement. Remember Anonymous a few years ago who's agenda was based on the Scientology ticket? Well in Toronto the other day Anonymous surfaced again saying that if anything happens to the 99% Occupy Toronto squaters that Anonymous will cause cyber havoc in the city They say they are all set up and could take down Toronto's website immediately. I'm wondering if it wasn't Anonymous that took down Sony's PS3 site during the summer? 

Last night's practice went reasonably well even though we had only 4 of us. It lasted for about 2 hours and I was home by 8:30pm. Anyway, that's about all for now.

What a great way to

begin my days off: All 4 of my CFL games came in to win by more then 4 points. I won $35 on a $3 bet. if I would have played say $6 I would have won $72! But I find the more games I pick and the more money I bet, I usually lose. I had on one of my Pro-line CFL tickets $188 to win. But I'm a happy guy. Now I can get my program and go see Captain America.

At Audrey's books yesterday after work, I picked up the following books above. I have about another 40 cents or so and I can get 2 more books. One more book and I can get 2 free (mass market paperback books that is. Not hardcover or trade.) There is a recent James P Hogan novel, one of his last before he passed away 2010 and another A. Lee Martinez book I want to get. I'm sure there's another novel I can pick up when I go next week.

Anne and I have been back from our brunch for about an hour now. I bought a large diet cola 2 coffees andour lunch and a side order of shredded hash browns for $30 including a tip. I also got a dish of ice creamefor my soar throat which helped a bit. A plastic bowl of ice cream 1 scope almost $3. But I needed it at the moment.

Tomorrow I'm heading down to the pharmacyin the morning firstly to cash in on my CFL winings and then get the Visa gift card for MM17, then head right home and back to bed for an hour or so and then call Magix's tech support line.

On the way home somebody across from our seat on the train was wearing headphones and heavily into reading a Warhammer 40k book: "Ultramarines." I mentioned it to Anne. "Don't interupt that man, he don't want to talk to you." Me? Interupt a Warhammer 40K session? Never!

So if all goes well I'll be playing around with MM17 tomorrow night after Monday night Raw.

Anyway, I'm done blogging for the day. There's no CFL football on (I miss Sunday afternoon football) no hockey, so its time to shut this down maybe go have a nap.

With this extra time on my hands

this weekend I'm finally able to put a big dent in my Star Wars book. I think I have about 40% left of it to go but I should finish it this weekend. At the moment I'm taking a break.

Anne's out working this evening, as it's nice to have a night alone. She made me a great burger earlier with fries and I have a CFL game to watch tomorrow night: Esks/Riders. Should be a good one.

Should I decide to abandon my website in favor of this blog (which pretty well does the same thing) I went and added another link: Gamesquad forums. I also need to add a few more links as well.

Speaking about Advanced Squad Leader, this evening would be a perfect opportunity to game something small. A back-back scenario where we each have a chance to be one side or the other.

By this time next Saturday I'm going to have Battery 3, providing they have it at the Axe and I can snag a copy. I'll get FL Studio X Signature bundle in July. I'm glad I got Addictive drums but sometimes the drum loops bleed into each other. I just need to put them on a different track is all but Battery 3 is so much more with a sampler and a huge library of sounds. I can't wait to get it.

The City last night put on a great fireworks show for Canada Day. It was a good 12 minutes long. Very nice. I love the Canada Day long weekend. Anyway, that's about all for me. 

For a short month it

has been way to long.

I had a nice Saturday off here and just hunkered down all day. I tried looking on TCM or AMC for a movie this evening but there was nothing that I liked.

This isn’t exactly new news but I find it sad in a way that Nasa is finally going to retire the space shuttle series. There’s 2 more shuttle launches before this happens but the system will be retired by the end of the year. I hope the space elevator gets built to replace the space shuttle but I doubt that will happen in my lifetime.

I’ve never been a big fan of shooter games but “Bulletstorm” from EA looks interesting. That and “Little Big planet 2” are the 2 console games I’m looking at getting for two different platforms. I’ve been seeing reviews and promos for Lbp2 for awhile now and today X play had a special dedicated to Bulletstorm. Also, there’s the sequel to Oblivion coming out in November. After I get Cubase 6 my next tech toy is going to be the IPad (2nd gen) when it comes out only if it comes with a camera of course. I think I want to wait a bit and abandon the Itouch for the IPad or get both.

Despite the cold weather out there I suggested to Anne that we go out for brunch (if there’s no contingency buses) at Rickies in City Centre mall. it’s a very busy establishment on a weekend but we like Rickies and I can get my book on the way out and Anne can get us our bus pass for March. I also want to get my Pro-line ticket for 3 NHL games today and I‘ll update this when we come back before the Boston/Oiler game this afternoon while Anne is watching The Oscars on the other TV. Anyway, that‘s all for now.