You know summer is over here in this city

when the last of the festivals is over. In this case when The Fringe is over, summer is over. Our problem is we have May and June are still 2 good months of summer but the city of Edmonton likes to cram everything into July and August. Even if the city just went with June, July and August would work. There are just way too many festivals and always a chance on missing some. I always miss "Taste of Edmonton." For the most part for me at least the summer is over at the end of August. With this summer I don't mind what with all the hot weather forest fires and lack of rain its been a really dry summer.

I was watching the National news Sunday night and they were talking about the Tens of thousands of migrants escaping Iraq and Syria. The people are fleeing the trouble and civil war plaguing that part of Middle East heading for Europe. They were saying on the news that there hasn't been this much refuge exodus since the 2nd world war.

Last nights Summer slam was really good. Anne is watching the encore version now. On a scale of 1-10 I'd rate it a 9. We're not sure if we are going to keep subscribing to the wwe network. We're mostly interested in their pay per views like "Money in the bank," "Summer slam" and "Wrestlemania" anyway. We tried it out and kicked the tires but we're not sure if we're going to keep ths subscription especially now since I don't have steady work. Besides I can always watch the smaller pay per views like "Pay back" "Night of Champions," those kinds of things up at the bar where there's a real crowd that gets right into it.

Speaking of my new eating out place isn't Wendy's anymore it's Red Robbin. Mainly because they are across the street and I don't have to go there for just food. They've got a great burger selection and their fries are the best here in Edmonton and I can go there for a beer if I want and just have a order of fries. Plus I signed up for their eclub and I get a free burger on my birthday, which is pretty cool. Anyway, that's all for now.

For the most part

the header above is looking good. I could have centered my name over a bit to the right, other wise I like the look of the header. The photo of me was taken December 2013 from our iPad pulling into Belvedere station.

On Coast tonight, the topic is past lives, which is an intriguing topic bordering on reincarnation. I'm not sure if I believe in past life regression or not but it is compelling stuff. I wrote a bunch of junk earlier on this post about it so I'm rephrasing this post. Sorry about that. According to Wikipedia:Scientific consensus is that the memories are the result of cryptomnesia, narratives created by the subconscious mind using imagination, forgotten information and suggestions from the therapist. 

On a sad not actor James Garner passed away at the age of 83. I always liked him in "Maverick" and  "The Rockford files." Garner was also a huge L.A. Raiders NFL supporter. He was also an avid golfer. I miss TV from the 60's and 70's. The TV landscape of today is littered with reality based TV shows like Survivor, and stuff like Amazing Race, and America's got talent. The only good thing about CSI was their theme song. Now if there was ever a new Star Trek TV show, I'd be tuning in. We used to watch Doctor Who but we never know when it's on. That's why other then news and sports, I don't watch TV anymore. The other thing I don't like about TV are the many car commercials. With the millions of vehicle recalls I wouldn't buy a car today. It's sad to see great actors like Garner leaving us but he looked like he had a good long life. Mr. Garner died of natural causes yesterday. R.I.P. James.  

About MA flight 17 as tragic enough as it was this is my statement on the tragedy: Somebody needs to be held accountable. I wont name any names but that's my 2 cents I'll Put in. Anyway, that's about all for now. 

Amazing

Esks are 4-0! They beat the Bombers in Winnipeg. My $14 proline ticket I spent $2 on is still alive! I got two games today and no way to check. I wish I had the night off. This is where a cell phone would come in handy.

I'm still stunned by the rocket attack on Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 yesterday that killed 289 people. What's really odd is that this is the 2nd incident that happened with the same airline in less then 6 months. I was listening to Coast earlier this morning and someone had mentioned to that he plane looked like it was MA 370 because it was touched up etc. They were not suggesting any kind of time travel nonsense but that the airplane might have been re routed. MA 370 is still an unsolved mystery. The black box of MA 17 had been recovered.   

I'm in 3-9 all day home about 9:45pm for a few hours and then in bed  by 1am. Saturday I'm in the office 9:30-1:30pm, then I've got to hustle to my bus and get the #126 to Westmount and then the #5 for 3.5 hours at my mr job. I should be home by 6:45pm for a few hours, and hopefully I can watch some football. Sunday, I'm in the downtown office mr job from noon-8pm. I have Monday off but I have a 11:30am Doctors appointment, with a bit of running around to do.

The taste of Edmonton (ToE) is running at Churchill square all week and on Monday I might go check it out after my Doctors appointment. Sample a few items, have a beer take some photos enjoy some Sun. I've been to ToE once when the City combined it with the Jazz festival. It's a great local event/exhibit. I haven't been to ToE since Churchill square had the new makeover. Before it used to be just a grassy park, now it's all filled in with steps and concrete. It's still a nice facility. Anyway, that's about all for now.

There's a lot of things going on this weekend

here in the Capital City. There's the Carry West Caribbean festival and the folk fest. There's Rock fest (Loverboy) There's a baseball tournament and the Embridge Ride for cancer. Never a dull moment here in Edmonton.

There's a massive Rainbow gathering on Vancouver island this weekend. It's this generation version of the hippie movement of the late 1960's early 1970's. Basically this group might be called "neo-hippies." You can read about it here.

I had a relaxing day holding down the fort while Anne was working. She's got a few days off and plans on following up for a medical subsidy for me for my insulin. While I have some time off I'm applying for my CPP early retirement. It takes about 4 months before it's activated.

Thanks Coast for this: On August 10, 1966, a daylight meteor was seen in the sky from Utah to Canada. It's said to be the only known case of a meteor entering the Earth's atmosphere and leaving it again. I was 14 at the time and living in the lower mainland. We were probably camping at Emery Creek just outside of Hope BC at the time. 

Anne and I are leaving out of here about 3pm for the Clareview LRT and over to the South side for Pizza. I usually like to run into Chapters before they close. Anyway, that's  about all for now.

ComicCon is one event I'd love to go to before I depart planet earth

but unless I win the 6/49 lottery between now and the next one, its not going to happen. Even "Dolph Ziggler" from WWE was there over the weekend! 

Finally the big baby moment arrived yesterday as Kate had the Royal baby of the decade. It's a boy. They haven't named the baby yet but they can't go wrong with a name like James, right?

I'm still kind of waffling with what to do with my pc upgrade issues. I think I'm just going to leave things alone right now. There's no rush.

There's some exciting research out of the UK about blindness using stem cells. This could be a revolutionary breakthrough but before it's widely available might be before my life time but you never know.

Anyway, I have a full day ahead. Yesterday I put in my hours for the next 3 weeks. It doesn't mean to say I have work, it just means my hours are in. We'll see what happens. That's all for now.

Ever since YouTube went and upgraded

itself to "YouTube One Channel" I've been having trouble uploading my videos from my YouTube channel to Blogger. I'll figure it out over the weekend when I have more time.

Tonight on Coast the topic is on Consciousness & Dimensions. This sounds like a pretty good show.

So the UN wants to lft the arms embargo to the Syrian rebels. This imo is a bad idea because it means more bloodshed in that civil war. Already Russia has sent missiles to Syria capable of striking Israel. These missiles have fallen in the hands of the terrorist organization of Hezbollah. If they are used to attack Israel, Israel will destroy them and then what? 

My City of Edmonton, has developed a new type of material that will within ten years make potholes a thing of the past. It's a special kind of asphalt/rock binding agent. COE actually has a lab made for this purpose. It could actually work.

Not much going on for the week. I've got a big meeting Sunday, that I can't get into talking about now but I'm looking forward to it and at the same time, I have a little anxiety is creeping in about it. Anyway, that's about 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. 

I had a good day yesterday

despite this crappy weather.

Finally, it took a game away from the Rex but the Oiler's won in Denver 4-1 Oiler's. Even though the Oiler's are out of the playoffs they can still play for conference position. If they can finish 9th and a point away from a playoff spot,I'd say that was a good but short season. Hall and Eberle could get 20 goals.

Not being all that well,I booked off for the rest of the afternoon and headed for home. Anne had something similar to what I got and after she called in she stayed home with me this evening.   

I was going to go to Commercial but I'm still not well and I was out the other night besides, I really want to go to their 100th celebration. That's the big one.

It looks like state officials and the FBI caught the younger brother of the 2 brothers responsible for Monday's Bombings of the Boston marathon. But the I think it was the mother of the brothers that said, they had no motive. But their behavoir up to this point doesn't exactly bode well to support that notion. 

In doing some BC transit research history this morning I came across a huge LRT project that's going on called the Evergreen line which when completed in 2016 will connect to the existing Millennium line. It's all automated but it's on the outskirts of Coquitlam. It doesn't pass through the heart of Coquitlam By that I'm referring to Blue Mountain Road/Austin/Como Lake road. Most of the Evergreen line is serviced by bus anyway If they had this as a kid in the 1960's I might not even know it existed as we never got out to downtown New Westminster that much except maybe twice when they had a bicycle museum there and when dad paid a visit to the union hall now known as local UFCW 1518. I have a fragment memory in the car waiting on a sunny day as dad gave me a bag of bbq chips. I recognized the back end of the building from Google maps. When that memory came to me I used to think that there was a bar there and there might have been one on that location in those days. I thought dad was going in to have a drink but in all reality if that had been a union hall at that time, dad might have been going there to check up on a job. I have no idea how old I was. So those were about the only 2 times I can remember ever being in downtown New Westminster as a child. At the corner of Como lake/Clarke road there was Super Value food chain. Similar to Safeway. Mom used to get groceries there and if this Evergreen line was there in 1964 I would have been slightly aware of it. I'm sure this new line will help some people but for the majority of folks in Coquitlam this doesn't help much because you still need a bus to get from central Coquitlam to the Millennium line. In looking at this now, it reminds me of a make work project and it's going to be an eye soar in some places. If the train was at grade fine but it's on a pillar type system similar to what Calgary has to their west end. Anyway, that's all for now. 

It's been an interesting couple of days

first of all by now, most of the world has heard about the Boston marathon Bombings. Despicable. Most likely those responsible will come forward or the FBI will expose the ones responsible. 

Since Sunday night I've been having sinus problems and all day today. Hopefully they'll go away by Thursday night but in the meantime, it's causing me some grief.  

One of my favorite topics is the sinking of the Titanic. Check in my "Topics" section.  

 A few years ago I thought about writing a paranormal/historical fiction/romance novel about the Titanic and I used the above book for research. I never wrote the story. It's not that good of a picture,sorry about that.

So, the Edmonton Oiler's fired Oilers finally fire Steve Tambellini, name Craig MacTavish new GM. I knew the move was coming when Mac T was brought on board. Other then Glen Sather Craig MacTavish won more games then any other coach in Oiler history. This was a good move in my opinion. Anyway, that's all for today. 

I had a bit of relief

from my dental pain earlier. if it persists throughout the day, then tonight after work I'm going into the medi clinic to get some 292's or something. 

So North Korea is on the verge of trying to incite a nuclear war. It seems that they have 2 missiles ready to launch but weather they are armed is anyone's guess. The US has anti missile defenses in the area to knock anything down. Many think that Kim Jong's military posturing is a show to win support over the N.Korean military. Anything is possible but what if those missiles are armed with nukes aimed at say South Korea or Tokyo? 

This is interesting. A mysterious stone structure found beneath Sea of Galileea The circular structure was first detected in a sonar survey of part of the sea in the summer of 2003.Rising nearly 32 feet (10 meters) high, it has a diameter of about 230 feet (70 meters). To put that in perspective, the outer stone circle of Stonehenge has a diameter just half that with its tallest stones not reaching that height. It appears to be a giant cairn, rocks piled on top of each other. Structures like this are known from elsewhere in the world and are sometimes used to mark burials. Researchers do not know if the newly discovered structure was used for this purpose. The above excerpt is from this site.

I didn't go out to Lodge last night opting to stay in although I'm considering Lodge tonight. I'm not sure yet depends on this dental pain I'm going through and I've got some memory work to do yest so I might just come home work on that instead, depends on how I feel.

Sigh, the Oiler's are on another losing streak,again.Thisis their 4th straight loss and their playoff picture isn't looking good. Matter of fact it looks dim! They have 8 games left, there is still a pulse beat. The good news is that 6 out of the 8 games are at the Rex. Also earlier yesterday City council approved the master agreement. They will put in 50% of the missing $100M if the Province puts in the rest but the Province has always said "no" to these kinds of things. Why not just take the other $50M out of the "Winter garden" portion of the arena and build that latter? It's almost a no brainier. I mean isn't the arena more important the a  "Winter garden?" Anyway, that's all for now.