Zen or Itouch?

Looks like I’m going to go with the Itouch 8Gb. The Itouch will let me surf the net as well (Where ever there’s a hot spot.) plus I can hack the device and play some games on it. The Zen will let me expand it’s memory where the Itouch has a fixed amount but there’s no way I have over even 500 songs. Plus I can go right there to YouTube and later when I get into stocks I can check my stocks.

Yesterday afternoon I shut er down and locked it up and waited to catch my bus. Lots of people were heading out to K-day’s yesterday afternoon. JT was saying that because Northlands is expanding on site K-Day’s grounds were about half of their normal size this year. Because he only goes when he needs to take his mom, he was disappointed that there weren’t a lot of things for seniors to do. It’s mostly for kids and young families anyway and ever sense the City decided to change the name to “Capital Ex” from last year (first year) the whole K-Day’s flavor is gone. We used to have a Sunday Promenade up and down Jasper Ave for the first K-Day’s Sunday but since there’s no more “Klondike” flavor they dropped that out as well. Edmonton has really changed over the last 30 years. Some changes are good like Churchill Square park. Some are not so good like changing the Klondike theme. The only reason why people are here now in the City is for the local economy. And when this boom goes bust most of these people will migrate out of here.

Anyway, I got Gary’s dialer (used to be mine) and good thing I did. That dialer is a CC magnet. I got about 5 in the first half sitting beside JT. He was off ready to go on his vacation, probably on the road right now barely out of the City. He said he has a 10 hour drive ahead of him. I’m not sure where he’s going but some place in BC for a week. He’s most likely clearing $500/week not including bonuses. But he puts in 44 hours/week. He got the hourly rate he’s getting because he was management at one time. Unless your ex management or a foreign worker is the only way to get beyond $10/hour at where I work. But I ended up with a record 7 CC’s last night and a $550 total. Also since we were playing the team CC bonus, our team got 19 CC’s to the other team with 15. So we got a $20 bonus each. Plus I got a $10 bonus earlier during the week. Not bad. I should get $410 on my vacation pay next week plus $265 regular pay (with bonuses) That should give me $675 on my cheque before taxes. I think the Feds will take out about $75 to $101 or something silly like that. In which case I’ll either get $600-$574. Anne gets the first $200 out of that so anything over $200 is mine. I should be able to keep between $400-$375. In which case after work next Saturday, if everything works out ok, I’ll be picking up my external hard drive and the Itouch. Also, if I get at least 4 CC’s today, then I’ll be able to keep the CC bonus as well as any CC team bonus we get today. I should have put in a few extra afternoons this week and I would have at least 20 CC’s if not a few more.

The important thing today is Rob has my vacation pay release form on his desk when he does payroll Monday morning. I think I want to go in for Monday afternoon just to get a head start on the CC race for this week. Even a few afternoons won’t hurt. If I get my 20 CC’s this week, that’s an extra $40 onto my pay cheque. Right now, I’m on top of the Vacation pay percent food chain at 6%. That’s for 5 years of service.

There’s a lot of things going on this weekend. First K-Day’s is wrapping up tonight. doesn’t look like we’re going to get there this year. At $10 admission fee and the price of food is so expensive and we’re not big on rides. If that’s not enough, there’s the Edmonton Indy. Our City is only the third City in Canada hosting this event. If that’s not enough, there’s “The taste of Edmonton.” This is a nice event but again it’s going to be really crowded. Anne suggested I go out and get myself a fast food treat this afternoon and I think I will.

After this weekend, we’ve got Heritage day’s coming up and if that’s not enough to wrap festival season off there’s the “Caraway Festival” and the big one “The Fringe.” Then it’s time to think about hockey with “The Edmonton Oiler’s.” Speaking of pro sports and all, the Eskimos finally won one on the road. Their record is 3-2 right now. Second in the West. Next Thursday BC is here.

After work last night, I went out to Audrey’s. It was very warm, most likely +25C. I went and picked up 2 of the “Stardoc” books. What’s this “Vector Prime” book #1 in “The New Jedi Order” was already there? How did I miss this? Great, I didn’t need to pick it up out of an Omnibus format. All that’s left there for me now is “Mission Earth” book 1 and one of the Stardoc books. I picked up those 3 and went to special order the last two in the series and 2 others oh S.L. Veigh’s Bio Rescue series and the other Timothy Zhan’s sequel to “Night train to Rigel” is in, so I ordered those and the last 3 of Karen Traviss’s Wess'Har series “Matriarch, Ally, Judge.” I’ll get tore ad them eventually.

I went home with my purchase and this time I took the stairs down to the LRT concourse. I was rewarded with a nice little cool back-draft wind rushing up the stairs. I caught the train home and did my admin stuff and settled in to watch Smackdown. Anne came home about 11pm and made me a hot hamburger with instant mash potato and a side of peas. Good. The only thing is I should have bought a bottle of diet Pepsi max for this morning.

For today, it’s off into work for my Saturday shift and put my 4 hours in. It’s no big deal. Then if I’m feeling ok, it’s off to the City Center Food court for some Taco Bell and maybe a look into Chapters and home. Not much going on for tonight. Just relaxing.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim