Sitting here unable to get around

because the wife needs the bus pass to go to work. I've got this pent up anxiety over this typing test thing when I go in for training Tuesday. The wife is threatening to cut off the cable, power etc until I get a pay cheque. Money is tight and so far I haven't heard anything on my ei claim and even if I get one its going to be 2 weeks away. 

Yesterday our Premier released the long awaited 2015 Alberta provincial budget. For decades Alberta relied on oil royalties since the 1950's. In 1982 Liberal Leader Pierre Elliot Trudeau and then prime minister, imposed the national energy program or nep. Alberta suffered the worst. I was working during the 1980's and temporary permanent in the early to mid 1990's. Our economy grounded to a halt in 1982. Alberta was in a recession from 1982-1996 when the price of oil eventually rose. The recession of the 1980's took billions of dollars out of our local economy. Alberta's economy is cyclic, boom and bust. In 2008 the price of oil went to about $32 barrel responding to the market money crunch. We experienced a mini recession. Oil prices per barrel rose in late 2009 is when we finally got out of that recession. What this budget is supposed to do is to set a 10 year plan to get our economy off the reliance of oil royalties. This budget will hit some people hard but for this household it wont affect us. Some of the highlights: A return to health care premiums for Albertan's making over $50,000 (not us) annually. Its called a health care levy. A sin tax on tobacco and alcohol. I have about 1 beer a month, if that and I'm not a smoker. No Alberta sales tax. The Alberta Government under all Albertan's is also expecting to spend almost $30 Billion over the next 5 years on infrastructure projects etc. its a pretty good budget. More about Alberta's 2015 budget here.

Over the last few months the thought of not using a computer to make/process my music has held a lot of appeal for me. Not that there isn't anything wrong with using the computer to make music. Most EDM/techno is made this way. Its just that my laptop memory where most of my vst's and programs live is at 80% full to capacity, and has a lot of adware on it rendering the laptop all but useless for accessing the Internet. When I get back to work and once we're caught up with our bills,  I'm looking at getting an affordable synth. I'm looking at either the Yamaha MX49, or the Roland Juno Di. I like the guitar sounds on the Di. I haven't heard many of the guitar sounds on the Yamaha MX yet. The MX is cheaper and newer. I can use the iPad and for $18 I can buy Yamaha's Mobile studio sequencer. That's all I need.

So tonight I'm watching the Oiler's entertain Dallas and this weekend trying to fend off the wolves and attempting to keep our marriage from falling apart. Anyway, that's all for now.

Sundays

I had a great evening last night. I managed to work on Maschine and I got it to work with my hand held mic by changing the sample rate and the Asio settings. It’s not as good as a condenser mic with a pop filter in a treated room but in changing the sample rate I got rid of a lot of static.

Yesterday here in Edmonton, local pot smokers got together for their annual smoke in or whatever it’s called. I smoked pot maybe once in my life. It never did anything for me. Still doesn’t.

Apparently the powers that be are mulling over a tax on the use of using plastic saying that merchants are losing about 10% on transactions being made every time at the point of sale someone needs to uses a credit card or a bankcard. The Bank of Canada will make the decision by the end of the week. The ramifications of this could be huge. Namely I feel it will impact the economy in an adverse way and perhaps slow it down. It also means that those Scene rewards points wont be worth much if there is a 10% surcharge on every time consumers use plastic. If that‘s to stop people from using them, banks will see their profits dwindle and that‘s another aspect to consider. It‘s not going stop the use of plastic all together if the decision to do this goes ahead. We’ll know by the end of the week what’s going to happen here. Maybe it will only apply at the till. So for example if the consumer wants to use plastic to pay for anything online, it wont affect it. I can still use my bank card online by paying for that book at Audrey’s and then going down to pick it up. That type of a thing for specific. It smacks of another tax grab. 

Speaking about music earlier in this post vinyl records were in the news again. Yesterday was international record store day. I bought many vinyl albums back in the day. The first album I ever bought I think was in 1971, when I could afford to by music but the first 45 I ever bought was The Beatles “She loves you” but remastered cds and dvds sound a lot better to my ear but you feel you actually got something for your money. Vinyl sales have gone up as well, in 2006 vinyl sales accounted for something like $36M. Today they are selling something like $171M. The last time vinyl had sales like this, Bill Clinton was President. The last vinyl album I bought was in 1988: Kansas “Power.” I remember it vividly buying it here in Edmonton Woodward’s to be exact.

Not much going on today and that’s the way I like it. I’m going to work on my music and do some Lodge memory work, have brunch watch Doctor Who and the Duck’s/Oiler’s game check my email watch the news have dinner and go to bed. I‘m working all week 9-5pm all week. The only thing pressing is to go to the library check why my un and pw are not working properly. Anyway, that‘s about all for now. 

Yesterday after work

I went out and got my free library card. What I like about it is that it gives me access to the Edmonton Public Library’s data base. I got it mostly for Anne to download music and stuff.

I09 is asking: What's the absolute worst space movie ever made? What is the very worst movie about space adventures? Weigh in below! Please make sure to include a picture of your choice. Read here. Personally the worst space movie ever made was “Starship Troopers,” and I thought “Saturn 5” was bad. Some think that. “Ice Pirates” pretty bad:


But I kind of liked it. I also liked “Buck Rogers in the 23rd Century.”

By now almost everyone has heard of “Bitcoin” the virtual currency. It’s a cashless system not controlled by any bank. This last week Bitcoin made the news because it was hacked by speculators trying to drive down Bitcoin’s value and fearing a “Bitcoin bubble” as a result. Some interesting points though about Bitcoin: Is it legal? Can it be enforced in any jurisdiction? Bitcoin on the other hand are not issued by any Government or Central bank and Bitcoin transactions do not go through banks or clearing houses. Bitcoin is an encrypted currency and now has a worldwide circulation worth of $1.4B. But Bitcoin’s book is still in chapter 1 and bitcoin has it’s challenges, such as disputes etc. I don’t know enough about Bitcoin to invest in them but they are interesting. 

Will we ever have Spring? Even now we’re expecting to have about 10cm of snow on the ground by this time tomorrow as it’s snowing right now all day today and all day Sunday. In all my 35 years here in Edmonton I’ve never seen April like this before.

Tonight I’m watching the Flames/Oiler’s game and having a cold beer and being a couch potato for most of tomorrow night. Then I have  Lodge practice Sunday night. 


One of my favorite comedians of the 60's Johnathan Winters has passed away. He was in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and recorded many comedy records. He died at the age of 87 of natural causes.

Not a lot going on this weekend and that’s just the way I want it. I’ve got some memory work to tackle for my Lodge this up coming week and I’ll be glad when its this time next week. I’ll be focusing on my lodge stuff this week. Anyway that's all for now.