This morning after I woke up I went to get water for my coffee

This morning after I woke up I went to get water for my coffee and no water from the taps. As far as I know, we never received a "24 hour Shut down water notice." Lets try the bath room sink faucet. No water there. Anne never filled up the kettle or get a reserve of water anywhere else. This place where I live has about 6 scheduled plumbing maintenance episodes/year. So many so that "#203 can figure it out," The water comes back on about noon-1pm.

Ok so far this year, my 12 year old pc died, we had to put our 17 year old cat down last month, I lost my job, all this and I turn 65 next week. Wait now, I've got enough material in this paragraph to make my own country music song. Can I get a "C" please?

Speaking about country music and such, Elvis Presley was in that genre. I was never really a fan. Elvis was still relevant music wise in the '60's even with the British invasion going on. I liked a few of his songs and I've seen most of his 13 movies. The announcement of Elvis's death is one of those history defining moments, where you knew where you were when the announcement of a major personality died. For JFK I was 12 years old at what is now called Miller park school in Coquitlam. That event for me and in my class was the start to an early weekend. Then when the announcement came on about Elvis's death, I was more aware and in tuned with that event. A young wargaming colleague of mine were going to play 'Wellington's Victory." The game was what we'd call at the time was a "monster game" because it was huge with thousands of pieces. We had the game all set up then a break for lunch by the pool. This was in West Vancouver. I was a bit stunned to hear this before lunch was served. My young friend wanted to continue the game tomorrow. I remember coming home where I was living uptown New Westminster coming home to my room in the Anderson house. I can't recall exactly where the house was but on the news they were talking about it, the long lines at Graceland to see the body. I remember that vividly. Years latter when I had internet access, I discovered some references that Elvis was a Rosicrucian but I doubt that. Then there was his friendship with Muhammad Ali the boxer. Hard to believe that for a music icon like Elvis that had For a laugh there's always the conspiracy theory that Elvis faked his death at the age of 42. If Elvis is alive he'd be 82 years old now. Its hard to believe that with 10 #1 US albums, 18 #1 US singles, 13 movies, Elvis had earned him more then a billion dollars but had around $10 million at the time of his death. I just hope I'm alive to blog about Elvis and the 50th anniversary of his death.

Not much going on right now. I'm expecting 2 things in the mail: A card from Anne's sister. She's a close friend of the family. She sends me something every year. I'm also expecting my blue cross for seniors card. That's got to be in the mail this week if I'm supposed to have this by Monday. Yesterday, Anne bought me some Metformin (first time using it) and that's a $30 hit every 3 months. When I get the card my diabetic supplies should be covered by about 80%. Anyway, that's all for now. Jim has left the building. 

Its overcast out there

at -7 but it feels like -12. We haven't had an -30's this year but February is one of the colder months of the year. 

The Oilers were playing shit hockey last night. They can't win all of them, and I'm saying the above from a fan's pov. The Oilers usually suck almost all the time returning from the All star break. I'll be at lodge doing my thing Thursday.

On my 5pm break I needed to get outside and get some air and play some blackjack scratch n win. I bought a candy bar for later and a bottle of the diet cola for $4 and 2 blackjack tickets. I played card 1 and got a 21 on $2 the other card I got a free ticket. The free ticket didn't produce anything but that episode paid for my candy bar and cola. Can't complain. I'll go over at my break and play again, just the $4.

After dinner last night I wanted to do some recording and test out my "new tripod," on my iPad. So on goes Audio share, activating Novation launchpad 2. IPod touch to shoot the video and lets have a play with launchpad. I recorded about a 3 minute improve. Then I uploaded the audio/video to my Dropbox account. I wish I could afford to upgrade. So I've got both items in my Dropbox account. I love Dropbox. 

Anne made me a double rack of baby back ribs last night. I couldn't eat the other one so its in the fridge with potato paddies for my lunch. I live such an exciting life. So, I'm off to post this, see how far I got with my recording and try to upload this to YouTube after post. Once in post I can sync audio and video together as best as I can. I better upload this before Trump fires me. Anyway, that's all for now.

My sleep overnight was not an easy one

but I think I got about 5 hours, even with that Malathion in me. I woke up about 9am, fed the cats and went back to bed, with the pill doing its work in my system. However, my restless leg syndrome (RLS) had other ideas and I kept tossing and turning. I think I get about an hour in after about 11:15am or so.

Before bed I discovered while looking for free video screen capture software (I uninstalled Camstudio as it wasn’t working for me) in Windows 10. After a brief search I was awarded a bunch of options. Hypercam 2 was one of the first ones I tried. Its similar to Camstudio and I was able to record my screen and it gave me the option to record in Windows Movie maker, slick. I’ll be fooling around with this later. Windows 10 has a Xbox button as part of its Windows Essentials and I learned there is something called Game DVR. It’ll record the screen after pressing the Windows key and G at the same time. Hard to do that with a mouse controlled on screen keyboard. Three things I need for my Lenova: micro sd card, Sony bluetooth speaker, and a mini keyboard/mouse setup. Probably a sequencer would be a good idea to record the screen and sync the audio. What I’d like to do is to screen record a visualization as the movie into win movie maker, then sync the audio and publish. I haven’t checked Hypercam 2 (hyp2) will record my voice from the voice recorder built into windows essentials. I’ll be doing all of this after lunch, latter today.  

I have a night off again but I hope by this time next week, I'll be at the job working out the last hour. Well that's the idea. if I have work over the next 2 weeks, I'm saving that cheque for July's rent. If I'm working the full month, the cheque for the end of June will be for August. And if I'm invited back for September we should be ok from there. Anyway, that's all for now.

No sooner had I left the lab

Tuesday (I just discovered last night) that they had called me moments after I had left. Maybe my phone # was on the paper at intake. I'll be leaving out of here at 1pm for my Doctors appointment. Its not a physical.

One of the biggest projects in the Edmonton currently under way is the Rogers place arena. This is going to be the new home of the Edmonton Oilers. It needs to be ready for September but there is a lot of work not only on the outside, but on the inside as well. At the moment crews are assembling the massive scoreboard. Rogers place arena will have a seating capacity of over 18,600, when its all done. The winter garden work is currently underway as well but the plaza with the 2 cranes wont be open until a year after the building officially opens in September. The building is impressive and will also host concert events as well. The cost of the building is                          

The downtown arena is all part of what's called the "Ice district" as there will be about half a dozen large towers surrounding the arena with a LRT link on the North side of the building. There's even a community rink and a casino attached to the arena as well. The cost of just the arena is close to half a billion dollars. You can join in on the discussion here.  

Anyway, after the Doctor's appointment, I'm home for the evening and I want to catch the Eastern conference game. Should be a good one TB/Pittsburgh. Anyway that's all for now.

We had a bit of rain about

6:45pm last night but it was barely enough to wet the pavement. Most of our rainfall occurs in June and September anyway. Hopefully we'll get some rain overnight. They could sure use some in Fort McMurray.

While its not breaking news apparently CBS has announced a new Star Trek TV series. There's just one caveat: Its going to be streaming at $6/month. Probably $10 here in Canada. I'd probably go for it if it was ad free. This new Trek will have new characters, new villains and heroes, new worlds. The new Trek is rumored to be a anthology, which could mean new crews every season. The new series takes place after Star Trek VI. I am cautiously optimistic. Streaming just begs the show to be pirated. I'd be surprised if its going to last beyond 2 seasons. Nobody knows what the new Trek will be called. I'd like to see a Voyager type series, kind of like an "In search of Voyager" type angle. There is a trailer for the new Trek on YouTube. The new Star Trek is slated to come out January 2017. I'd subscribe.

My last night at the other job tonight. I need to call the boss at break to see if there's going to be a shift after the long weekend. Most likely the project we started Saturday is almost winding down. Anyway, that's all for now.

Life is moving along here one day at a time

with work and all that other stuff. I'm waking up with my first coffee this morning trying to get my brain in gear. I like this time of morning as I have a few hours to myself before I get on with the day, and its going to be a long one.

I've been using my little pc stick for the past couple of weeks now. Its pretty good, I like it and I'm enjoying Windows 10. I like how I can mark up any web page like google maps and 1 button gets to my email. I don't like the 32 Gb hard drive space but I knew that when we bought this device. I've seen 64 Gb micro sd cards locally here on sale for about $20. I also don't like the 1 usb port and I wish that this device had a audio jack. My sound card works if its plugged directly into usb port of my pc stick but won't work over a usb hub and the audio isn't that good when my soundcard is plugged into the stick. My usb mouse works ok over the usb hub but I'm constantly swapping the mouse between the pc stick and my desktop. My current keyboard is a ps2 serial port keyboard. I've seen ps2/usb keyboard dongles but I'm not sure if this will work through my usb hub, like my soundcard. I've been using the pc stick's on screen keyboard, and it has its limitations obviously. However my pc stick comes with bluetooth 4. The only compatible bluetooth devices we have is our 2 Apple products. This means if I want to use bluetooth, I'm going to have to get a bluetooth mouse, keyboard, headphones and a speaker etc, which increases the $130 investment. What I'd like to do is to have a way where I can boot 2 different operating systems on the same monitor like tab browsing. KVM switches are good solutions that have been out for awhile now but my Lenova plugs into a hdmi slot into my monitor. I've seen hdmi vga ports before. There's no vga port on my pc stick. Lots of stuff to consider here moving forward.

I'm out of here at 9am for my commute. By 5pm with a hour to go, I'm pretty wiped out. I like to have my 3rd Saturday break about 4:45pm, just to go out for a breath of fresh air. Anyway, that's all for now.

It was into work for a easy

4 hours. Joyce gave me a ride home and I was inside the apartment by 9pm. I think I'm going to do the 2nd job first and do that 3 days a week when I go on pension. Four more months and I can apply. I snagged this image from Dan Mullet's Face book page, thanks Dan.

                                               

I'm at this job for the rest of the week including Saturday as I need every hour I can get to get a ei claim. I'm going to work as much s I can at the 1st job and work anywhere for the summer. I;ll pause the ei claim when I need it the most, next summer. Anyway, that's all for now. 

Sitting here in front of my new

monitor just beginning my first coffee of the day. At the moment, its sunny with a few clouds at +5 degrees.

A national carbon tax is making news but do we really need one? Canada is carbon neutral. All CO2 emitted by industry and consumers is absorbed back into the Canadian land mass. (Soil, trees, water.) PLUS an additional 36% or something. Canada is doing it's part and more just by having a massive untouched land mass. Russia is also up there.
Carbon tax = a new form of taxation for governments. It's a complete farce and only about money. Our Premier is bringing it in on the grounds that it will make our oil look more favourable for out of province pipelines. How's Keystone XL? Northern Gateway? Energy East? Canada's land mass absorbs most of our co2 emissions anyway. This is little more then another Liberal Boondoggle. 

 

In other words its another tax grab that could bring billions into Government coffers. After all they have to pay for that middle class income tax break the rest of us working poor don't get. I don't mind if its a tax like the GST, which is revenue neutral and we get some return on that tax back. 


I'm out here at my usual 3pm time in for my 4:15pm job After the 15th of this month, I wouldn't mind a break from the other place for a week or 2. I still think I have enough ei hours "in the bank" for another claim. One thing is for certain: Sunday April 3rd is Wrestlemania and both of us are taking that day off. I hope to have my Ntendo 3ds by then. Anyway, that's all for now.