It all began

Monday with a visit to Provincial to se up the financial end of my Provincial supplement. All we need is my oas letter of entitlement and my wife's ID. While on the phone with a oas rep, he said I can just bring the letter of automatic enrollment, and that's good enough to get things going.

The Edmonton Eskimo's have 1 more preseason game left to play. Sunday's game hosting Calgary was a nail biter. They'd pull ahead, we'd tie. We tied with 1 play left on the clock in the red zone. We had 1 of 2 choices: Kick a field goal to tie or go for the 3 point convert to win. We went for the convert but our receiver fumbled and couldn't catch. Finale score was 36-35. We have one more pre season game left against Winnipeg. It was either have Thursday off or Saturday. 

I've got a few days of work left here, possibly up to the 21st of this month but Anne doesn't want me to do anymore Saturdays. After that, I hope that's it for me. I need a break. Anyway that's all for now.

Looks like

I'm back to work Tuesday. For how long I don't know but this could be the last project for the summer, I hope. I think its going to be a short project but I'm not working it Saturday. Anne wants me to take Saturday's off.

At five pm this afternoon, the Esks are hosting Calgary Stampederes at Commonwealth. Game #6 Penguins/Nashville, wont be underway until about 6:30 anyway until after all the preliminary stuff commercial breaks etc are out of the way.

Sad news out of Hollywood. Adam West (Batman) passed away Friday. He was 88 and suffered a brief battle with Leukemia. He was always my favorite Batman tv/film actor. It was only for a brief cameo but in one of the Batman TV shows where Batman and Robin are climbing a wall of a building. A window opens out pops Colonel Klink from Hogan's Heroes and Batman has a brief conversation with the Komandant, ~ 20 years removed. Cute. Adam West was here in Edmonton at the comic book Expo a few years back. Very sad. R.I.P Adam West. 
        
I had a great Saturday. I had to change my One Drive's password because my video editing software on my iPad has One drive as its media sources. It works pretty good with our camera roll. Anyway, that's all for now.

In this country we

call unemployment insurance Ei (employment insurance) Most people when I mention Ei don't collect it. In the past Ei used to be called Unemployment insurance Commission or Uic. I think I collected Ei, 6 times in my life. Once I'd applied for Uic (Ei) it'd take 4-6 weeks to get the first benefit. Uic used to send these 4X11 reporting cards in the mail every 2 weeks and a business reply envelop. There were about 8 questions. I still recall the format: No (x5) Yes No, No. The "Yes" response would be asking me if I was ready, able and willing to work? For the most part Uic was timely in getting a cheque out. I recall one time here in the early 80's when we had a postal strike, Uic cheques would be picked up in a area just East and over what was then the 105th street over pass. Every time when I got my first Uic cheque there would be about 4-6 weeks of back pay included. I got such a large cheque in 1989 when was let go from the Army & Navy department store. Even in the late 1990's I'd have to wait 4-6 weeks. So, Last week I applied for my Ei May 31st and when I asked when my 1st cheque would be in, they said by the end of this week. Yeah right. I was shocked to learn I received my first week of Ei over night into my account. Wow! So much for waiting 4-6 weeks. I won't need the whole 24 weeks I have left on this claim but it will get us by for the summer until after labour day when I'm back at my other job. And even then I'll be on pension and its either Ei or pension, not both. My CPP is Ei exempt but I still need to report my earnings and my pension. At least my account for Circuit is secure and I won't miss any payments and I'll have Circuit paid off by September. I'll still need to do a jobs search and do my 2 week report as part of my Ei obligations. Unlike last year now I have an income into the household so there is less stress on Anne. 

Speaking about Circuit and audio recording, one of the contributors to a thread I had running explained one way I could set Circuit up to record a Circuit session. He suggested I would need a dual 1/4" jack to plug into the back of Circuit. The other end of the cable would have 2 RC ends that go into the output of my M-audio fast track. The Fast track's usb end would go into a apple camera connection kit (cck) and that into the iPad and opened up in Audioshare. No background noise no squeaky chair or room noise. I'm waiting for a reply from this poster or from anyone else in the Circuit user group that can confirm this approach. The cable is only ~ $13 so its not a big hit if it doesn't work. The other thing music production wise is my video/light box. I've had the roughly 16 x 16 x 10 inch cardboard box for awhile now as in this photo: 

In this image I'm using our old iPod 3rd gen. The reason why the iPad is closer to the left side is because te iPad is closer to the power cord. The white pillow case should off set the semi darkness of the inside of the box. I'll be playing with the contrast a bit as well. I tried a sample and it seems to work ok. I need some kind of a bluetooth remote so I can activate the camera hands free. I know a solution is out there.

I called the boss earlier today he said there is a soft start date for a new project next week. I'm too call tomorrow for a scheduled. When I make my Ei reporting I'll have to report these new hours but I think this is the last project for the season. At the moment we have +27* out there so its a hot one today. Anyway, that's all for now.

Time moves the days at a steady pace

and I'm getting things done. Sunday was relaxing. Monday was contacting the boss, hockey and wrestling. Yesterday, setting up ei and my income for the summer. Everything is set up until the end of October but I'll be on full pension before that happens and my other job on the Southside (hopefully)

Last night a bunch from our lodge went out to Freemason Hall but I forgot my IPM apron. One of the guys took this photo of me. It was a special night and I got a ride home.

                                   

I've got a bit of a rash on my forehead and this photograph really brings out the scoliosis in me. Its not a very favorable photo but its not bad either. 

I like the words coming out of the mouth of our foreign ministry: “On the military front, Canada’s geography has meant that we have always been able to count on American self-interest to provide a protective umbrella beneath which we have found indirect shelter,” she said. But she added that to depend totally on the U.S. Protective umbrella would make Canada a “client state.” I'm all in favour of increasing our military spending. Investing $31 billion. At the moment Canada spends $15.5 Billion. If we could double that, would be great. Just 1 aircraft carrier would cost about $13 Billion and take about 11 years to build.more or less. One of our tanks is about $7M. It'd be great to have say 4 aircraft carriers 2 on the East Coast and 2 on the West Coast. It wont ever happen in my life time if at all but I'm just window shopping :) 

Wait now I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge Sunday: Its Calgary/Edmonton for a training camp CFL game. Sad part about this season is we lost Derel Walker to the NHL Tampa Bay. We still have Bowman and McCoil in the line up for the receiving core. I'm looking forward to getting away from hockey and into the CFL. Also, it was announced this week that Edmonton will host the 2018 Grey Cup. Some cool stuff coming up. That and we haven't even seen Wonder woman yet.

Today I'm calling the boss again to see if there is anything going on for this week. At this stage in the month we might have a few days in but beyond that it's our slow time. Probably this week I need to go down to Provincial and set that all up. Anyway, that's all for now.

Its not that I don't have

anything to do today, I'm just being a bit lazy. In the spirit of that a friend of mine asked me if I'm ready for retirement? He sounded like an advert but by being ready he meant, what will I be doing with my time off? I had to remind him that I'm low income and that I'll still be working but not as much. Maybe 3 days a week. With so many lodges in the City there's enough lodges to keep me out and visiting at least once a week. However, I can only do this because of my wife. 

I can cover my monthly payment on Novation Circuit for June and I hope to be on unemployment before my July payment. I have enough for July just in case my unemployment  doesn't come in before my due date. In the Circuit Facebook owners group, a member has developed an iPad app for Circuit. It probably wont work on my iPad 2. I asked the developer if there's any chance that this app will allow for recording a track fro Circuit right into the iPad? If the app is successful he said he could add more functionality. My only problem with Circuit is in getting audio onto a sd card, or uploaded to the cloud, or even a daw. On the sd card, I need a audio recorder. Into a daw, I need a 2x2 audio midi interface. The cloud? Not sure but that might need a back end of some kind from Novation. 

I'm kind of following the hockey game tonight. Its on at 6pm, Pittsburgh/Nashville. Most likely this series will go 7 games. I'll watch a bit of the 1st and doze off here and there on the couch. If all goes well, Anne could get me a Red Robin burger from across the street. She has a half price coupon for their specialty burger. She's out of here from 4-10 for today. Anyway, that's all for now.

I had a great time at

lodge last night. I got stuck on one word. I had 5 speaking parts to do. I was busy. Anyway, I'm done, I can relax, so let the summer begin.

When I got ready to leave I heard about a Casino bank robbery in the Philippines. Nothing was mentioned at lodge last night. I had other things on my mind. When I got home I was aghast at the tragedy. A single gunman tried to hold up the Casino and 36 people died. At first I thought, uh-oh another terrorist attack. After a bit more reading, it was revealed that most of the victims died of smoke inhalation. So this was not a terrorist attack where the usual suspects admit responsibility. The incident was the work of one man, nothing like Manchester. My heart goes out to the victim's families of this tragic incident in Manila.

This weekend I've got game #3 of the Stanley Cup finale for Saturday night. Plus, we have WWE's Extreme rules. At least I have my entertainment. Also, Anne's got a 50% off coupon on Red Robbin as they have 50% off on their specialty burgers for my wrestling since its just across the street. I have a box inside my closet that might be suitable for a light box. Anne said she'd dig it out for me in the next couple of days.

Monday or Tuesday next week I need to get down to Provincial to set up my Provincial supplement. I'm also waiting on my ei claim and that's 4-6 weeks away. Anyway that's all for now.

Most of my lose ends are

wrapped up. I got my Federal pension plan set up. My ei is more or less set up. All that I need do now is to get this speaking part done up for lodge tonight and that's a wrap. 

On this day in my personal history, 37 years ago a mentor of mine and I were on a Greyhound bus to Vancouver. Richard had researched a place where we could buy some rattan wood. Rattan in the late 1970's early 80's was a coveted item for making "practice fighting swords" within the Society for Creative Anachronism, or the SCA. We couldn't find any rattan in Alberta. The bus trip was 18 hours there. We had made a contact to sleep over at the residence of of the SCA in North Vancouver for Friday and Saturday night. We were also looking for Crowley books as well that Friday afternoon when we arrived before we hooked up with our contact. The idea was we could hold up at the host's place if we attended an SCA workshop. It was an all day Saturday/Sunday event. We only stayed for a bit of Saturday and took our hostess out to dinner. Richard was infatuated with her the young attractive lass but I was in his way. It was a nice weekend and we got a nice haul. 

I'd like to do more You Tube iPad performances with the apps I have. I have this annoying overhead bedroom light that shines on the screen. Awhile back I came across something called a light box Jacob Haq from Haq Attack uses. His light box is a bit elaborate for me. He has some fabric in the cardboard box under the iPad, a portion of the box cut open on the right hand side and some diffusing paper taped on the outside and a light from a lamp shining through the paper in the light box. On top of the light box, positioned just so is his iPhone that takes the video of the action going  on the iPad screen. Its a slick process but finding this diffusing paper might be a challenge. One of the channels I subscribe to "Pants of death," had a video box in his last video. Same as a light box but no side cut away. His iPad is right in the box and he gets great results. Slick and easy. All I need is a cardboard box from say Superstore across the street about 16 x 16 x 12 inches tall. That's all I need. Most likely while I'm at lodge and Anne is on her way home from work (she usually drops by Superstore for pop etc) I'm going to ask her to get me a couple boxes of this dimension. 

Its June. I got 3 months to go until I turn 65 and 4 months to go until I get on pension. As soon as I get conformation I'm 65 and on gis, I'm applying for the seniors low income bus pass. At the moment I'm in a covfefe state of mind, that's all for now.