Monday is done

I left in a really foul mood out the door at 4pm. Anne was all upset about the amount of money the Feds were taking out of her RRSP and basically taking it out on me. Coupled that with her doing laundry and not feeling well sort of set her off a couple of times. We got our rent money for October that’s the main thing. At 4pm all I wanted to do was to get out of the apartment and get on that train for an end of the line ride and back again to the office. I decided I’d walk my anger off to the LRT being nasty to someone that wanted directions to Bo Didlies pub across the street. The train ride in and the nice +25C weather mellowed my mood somewhat and I headed over to the office and upstairs. I had a chat with the fellow about the markets and the big thing everyone is talking about, the US economy. Speaking of, which on the news tonight in between Raw, they were saying that the US economy represents 25% of the Worlds economy. That’s no chump change.

I decided to call Anne at home. “I’m sorry,” blah, blah, blah type thing. All was forgiven. I forgot my pop and sandwiches. So it’s official, finally Rob is saying we have to use the DNC rules. I got 3 DNC’s myself but if someone other then the name on the screen says “Take my name off the list” its a TD 9. It doesn’t count. So that ok. Also I got top total again and a $10 bonus plus 3 CC’s. Good deal. I had a pretty good evening. Most likely on the news tomorrow night the DNC will be the talk of the town and I’ll get a dozen of them. The thing is I don’t know just how many numbers Xl has to work with but we get to call Canada wide, so that’s a lot of numbers. Today we get to do cold calling uggh. So there is a real probability that I could be out of a job sooner then latter. It’s not that I don’t have any options. I wouldn’t mind working 5-9 security guard work have Wednesdays and Thursdays off type thing. Or even say work Piazza 10-2am. Saturday’s it’s 10-3 but that’s not a regular shift. Before I do anything drastic I want to see what’s going on in the Federal election. If Canadians vote a Harper or Majority or minority, then fine, I’ll stay the course with my present job-for now. If it’s a carbon tax then I’ll be bailing out of my job so fast it’d make me dizzy. Dion is so low in the polls anyway so I doubt anything drastic will happen.

Anyway I had a relaxing train ride home and Anne called my cell phone on the bus waiting at Clairview. She put my wrestling channel on for me and when I got home, I watched Raw, which was just great. DX showed up tonight. Good stuff.

That’s about all for now. Not much going on. This week is lodge night and I’d like to go show up. Should be a lot of fun. I tried calling my buddy Charles earlier but he wasn’t available. I’m still reading Icewind Dale. Good stuff. My goal is 100 pages/week.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

At least the weather is nice

Yesterday was totally laid back. I did almost nothing but a bit of computer, reading and a lot of TV. Anne made me a nice breakfast even though it was at 5pm. She went out to get Chinese food. That’s ok, as it gave me more time on the computer.


I was looking for a Canadian distributor for the Nord C1 combo organ. it’s a Hammond B3 clone and from what I was listening to on YouTube, it sounds identical in every way to the original B3 without the drawbars. To top it off I’d like a Nord Wave synth and behind me a Roland Hpi-7 arranger piano and I’d be in business. But we’re talking about 6k just for the Hp alone. Altogether about 12k. I like everything about the C1, its sound retro feel.


Still working through Icewind Dale and I’m having fun with the story. Its taking on some interesting turns. So far I’d say this trilogy is well worth reading but I’m a long way from writing a review to say the least.

Yesterday I ended up watching a highlight hour long show of the past weeks highlights of Raw/Smackdown/ECW. I used to have something like this when I couldn’t get cable to watch Raw back in 1993. I think the show was called (today) WWE “Extreme.” Now I can’t always sit there and watch 2 hours of Raw and Smackdown every week. 4 hours is just to much especially when the Oiler’s are about to kick off their regular season. A one hour package deal while having my brunch fits in really good.


By now we’ve all heard the $700B wall street bailout didn’t go through. And this reflected badly in the markets today. Oil took a $7 hit and things were down across the board. I believe though that oil will move up towards the $100 mark by the end of the week. As far as “Decision 2008” goes Dion is really low in the polls. He says Canadians will change their minds when the first English language debate is under way. I think this is Thursday. Dion could be the most eloquent and likable guy in the world but he’s selling his carbon tax and nobody in their right mind wants that.


Today, I’m back on the job thing putting my 4 hours in. So far there hasn’t been a big announcement about the DNC list and that takes into effect Tuesday. All day Saturday I was using the disclaimer and it didn’t affect my sales at all.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now


e. Jim

Almost the end of September

Thursday night Anne was applying some color dye to grey out her hair and suggested what’s left over would remove the grey in my hair as well. She’s been hinting at this for awhile now, So I let her work the color in my hair and half an hour later, it really looks good except the grey in my mustache gives my age away. Other then me getting a haircut it looks pretty good. If my camera was working properly I’d do a before and after type thing.

Last night after I shut the place down I was out there by just after 4pm catching my bus. It was a beautiful autumn day out there. I barely followed the train operator up the elevator as the Clairview escalator is broken again. Well the driver took the stairs I took the elevator. I know sooner sat down and the train was underway. Clairview station’s escalator is always either under maintenance or shut down for some reason. I got a seat on the train cracked open my book and began to read Icewind Dale “The Crystal shard.” I read all the way through to the end of the line and back again to Corona. I found my dialer and Rob was circulating around but in a pretty good mood even joking around with me. Three of the regional managers were there coveting around the floor managers monitors with Moe. I recognized the Vancouver guy Steve but I couldn’t tell who the bald guy was or the other guy. As far as I know they stayed until about 6pm. There was no announcement or anything regarding October 1st. Moe again stressed a $200 line hour. Yeah right, on this? I was doing really well surprisingly at $400 by break and 1 CC and at line hour. Apparently the managers are supposed to be in for today (Saturday). Anne called a couple of times but the first time I couldn’t talk to her. The 2nd time I could about 8pm. I was sitting with Lev in the back there at JT’s dialer. Which is why I did so well.

After work it was over to Audrey’s and picked up “The Soul Drinker’s” omnibus Warhammer 40K. There’s also an Everquest novel in there for me as well. I could have picked that up but it would have left me too short. I paid US pricing for the book and went to catch the train home and had a pretty good rest of the evening “watching” Smackdown. I say “watching” because I was tired and dozed off there for a bit on the couch.

Anne came home about 11:30pm and ordered Pizza for us, which was better then the last time. I watched ECW and went to bed. I slept odd hours in the night and my alarm didn’t go off this morning, which is why I’m late.

I wanted to go into the Casino on m way home to take a look around but I didn’t have any money with me. Weather wise it was really nice and is not to bad out there holding at +12C. I’m not doing to bad right now as tired as I am.Some 12 hours later I walked down to the other bus shelter this morning just West of me to avoid the dumb-ass at my regular Saturday stop. I had a nice wait and a reading time-train ride into the office. I got my end dialer and Bud was saying how there’s about 10 of the big bosses in there for their big meeting from other offices. I was onto my disclaimer all morning and surprisingly had another great start pulling in $440 by break and 2 CC’s. One of the big bosses shook hands with me when I introduced myself as he was coming around looking at totals. I think he said his name was Marty or something. Rob was in a good mood as well. There were so much Xl brass, I felt I was in the army at an officers meeting. Anne called me at home before she left and just before we got out of the office. I hope she has a good day as well. Again for the 2nd time I had top total. I hope the big guys there noticed. I also had 3 CC’s for the end of the day.

All in all I had a pretty good week what with taking Monday off and all.
I went to bed about 4:30pm for a nap. I didn’t fare to well, resting more then napping. I think I got an hours snooze so after a frozen entrée and desert thingy later I feel pretty good and enjoying my 2nd coffee of the day.

I like what liberal Dion is saying. Or rather not saying. He’s saying that Harper is doing absolutely nothing for the economy in light of what’s going down in the US with the $700 bail out. The thing is even though our economy isn’t affected that much if the US takes a nose dive and goes into a recession, we can more or less weather the storm. The last thing any of the 3 main political leaders want to see happen is a slow down in the economy. According to Harper our economy is looking really good, posting a $1.5B surplus for July. Also, in the works the Feds are making moves to supply bitumen to some countries not affected by GHG emissions. This could be worth billions. He’s talking about selling oil to China, which is good. Meanwhile, Dion wants a carbon tax which really will translate into a recession felt nowhere more so then here in Alberta. He says his Green shaft plan will generate Billions into the economy. Everyone except Alberta that is. Yet Dion needs a Majority Government in order to do this. A new poll out by the Toronto Star puts Harper at 40% Dion and Layton at 21%. So if an election were to be held tomorrow 40 % of all Canadians would vote Harper into a majority Government. However there are still 17 days left and anything can happen. Harper is right for Canada and thank God most Canadians feel the same way. At a PC convention here in Edmonton the other day, there was good ol Mike Hudema protesting outside with his “stop Alberta Tar sands.” What an idiot.

That’s about it for me for today. Anne called me at about 8pm. She’s off work at 11pm. That’s 9 hours for her. She says she’s feeling a bit tired. She was a bit disappointed from hr pay cheque the other day but read her pay stub statement to find they took $50 off for an elevator pass key to get into the building after hours but she’ll get that back when and if she leaves Pizza.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

On the cool side

today hitting +10C out there but local weather people are looking for +14C as a high for today. So I’m up working on my first coffee. I was in bed just after 3am and up at 6 to do the cbi thing. I read for a bit and went back to bed, no problem until just after noon to watch the markets. Oil up at $107. Good news.


This evening I get my pay cheque. At least where Anne works they direct bank deposit it right into the employees account. She gets her first pay cheque Friday and that goes towards October‘s rent. After work tonight I get to go to the bank and this time I have the right pin number for Anne’s account. My cheque goes towards the cable bill and I get $20 out of it for a couple of books, while on the order invoice they are still at American pricing.

Last night on the job we were working on “Comedy Fest.” Unlike the majority of the people working the taps on this campaign, I like this campaign. Sure if your sitting at “0” your going to get shuffled to the front 20. Most of the totals were sitting around $300-$400 by break. Me, I’m pulling up the rear but on the other side of my station they have got some big taps to work with. I didn’t get any CC’s but I sold 4 tickets and got $246 to show for it on my recap at the end of my shift. With extra cars on the train I was happy to catch my 9:20pm train to Clairview and read on the way home. Again today, I’m going straight to the end of the line/South Side and take the train back to Corona and wander into the office about 4:50pm. I’m taking my sunglasses with me because while reading on the way across the bridge over the Saskatchewan river, I couldn't open my eyes the Sun was so bight in my face. Arriving as early as I’ve been doing over the years made for a long night for Jimmy.

This “Icewind Dale” book I’m reading is pretty good and I’m enjoying it. I’m about 120 pages into the book I began last Wednesday. A good sign because by now the book would have strained on my nerves if I couldn't get into it and I would have tossed it aside for something else. I was worried about this, especially for a series. So far so good.

Last night on YouTube I came across “Featureman” (one word) doing some basic piano chords. He’s an older guy that obviously knows what he’s talking about but I have a couple of issues with him: Right hand black keys are Sharps not Flats. There are no flats on the treble clef-usually. At least from my understanding of piano theory. The other is his chord fingering. He uses his thumb, pointer finger and pinkie for chords. This is wrong. Your supposed to use your thumb, index finger and pinkie, 1-3-5. But he explained nicely what a diminished chord is and how to play diminished chords in any key. His tutorials are long and generous and he‘s a great singer.


My wife is off work tonight taking it easy. The next Oiler’s are playing tonight against Florida. Two games back to back. At least the city has extra cars on the trains on the way home. The Oiler’s have been playing a game every night since training camp opened.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now


e. Jim

Another Wednesday

Not much going on today. Anne’s leaving for her job at 3pm as she starts at 4pm, she’s gradually getting the hang of things at her new job. Weather wise here it’s about +12C here and should get up to +14C when I leave out of here at 4pm. It’s a nice time of year.

Of course the big news is the volatile market place and how US President Bush wants to hand out over 700B to bail out Wall street. I think this is a good idea, like everyone else here’s my opinion: I think the $700B should be doled out in bits at a time so they can see how the money is being spent, if it’s actually doing some good. This makes sure that Wall street is being held accountable. Meanwhile oil is still (at this writing) sitting at $106/barrel.

Somewhat in the realm of science fiction (or at least it was maybe 50 years ago) one of the major US auto names will be grinding out the first electric car in 2010 or at least that‘s the idea. These electric cars will most likely cost a fortune, not that I’m holding my breath or anything to see one roaring down 137th Ave. As most of us know the technology for an electric car has been around for decades. This recent electric car idea might just be a concept model and many of these electric cars may not even see tires on the pavement for many years if at all.

Also, I heard on Coast last night that the LHC will be shut down until Spring of ’09 as they are trying to find out what caused a leak in a helium tank. This could be another 6-8 months down the road delay before they resume testing. You know because of all these LHC red and green lights, all that remains for me now is but a glimmer of interest in the LHC.

The Oiler’s are in training camp and have lost their first 2 training camp games. The real season begins October 12th Is it just me or has the NHL training camp and the NHL regular season seems to be starting later then usual? The last Oiler game is April 11th or something like that. They still play 82 regular season games. I think the Oiler’s are home at Rexall, which means extra cars on the train on the way home tonight. Wuwho!

As for me this afternoon, I’m out of here at 4pm. I like to take the train to the end of the line (for now) to the Health Science Center. It’s nice to see the fall colors out there in the river valley and maybe get a bit of reading in as well then take the train back to Corona and wander into the office about 10 minutes to 5pm like everybody else. It being a Wednesday and all is usually a slow day for me but hopefully we work on CF again and that means no line hour stress. As far as this DNC list goes, the only thing I need to change is I have to say the disclaimer and that’s about it. If management keeps things the same, other then the disclaimer, there should be very little change. I’m hoping.

One of the new guys and I were talking about stocks and markets and he said how he’s been investing for years and showed me a glimpse of his statements. So I’m going to have a chat with him when he gets in and at break. He’s into real estate and finance and he said he’d have a talk with me, how he got started and what I can do to get started.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

Getting back

Looks like another nice day out there even though the temperature is on the cooler side.

Yesterday I thought it would be fun to travel with Anne and her sister but traveling is not high on my "list of priorities" right now. If were offered the chance sure but we’re quite comfortable right here set in our ways. Right now, my job is #1 on my “list of priorities” and making sure that I keep it due to all of these outside influences and such. I’m concerned about this DNC list coming into play next week and if my status quo will be affected. At the same time, my wife is doing well at her new job and I could see myself, pulling in 31 hours/week. The only thing is Pizza has limited morning hours. I think Friday and Saturday. I could do Friday 8 hours (Friday night and Saturday off) Sunday 8 hours, Monday 8 hours, Tuesday Off X Wednesday 8 hours Thursday Off X = 32 hours and 3 days/nights off. I could handle something like that. But, well see.

Today I’ll go in and Rob will hem and haw at me for taking Monday off. I wont say anything to him. Just smile and nod. As for right now I’ve got until 9 days until October 1st when the DNC list comes into affect and I’ll know more about what’s going on, maybe even this week-today, 2nd hand.

Earlier I downloaded Shaw secure which was a long installation. They had a conflict with Norton, which needs to be uninstalled.

Still reading and enjoying Ice.

Last night was Monday night Raw’s 800th episode. It would have been nice to see some old clips sprinkled into the show from their first year, which began in 1993. I didn’t watch the show in the early days because I didn’t have access to it.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

Last night Anne

wanted me to take today off, so I’ll call in using Moe’s phone number or call in about 6:30 while he’s on shift. I still might swing downtown when Anne gets up to check that City Hall job board or even do that tomorrow on my way into the office.

For some reason that isn’t quite clear yet, Google Earth (GE) wont connect my account to their servers. They say I need Java enabled, which it is and to pass their 3 levels of server testing, which I did and passed but again, I still can’t connect. I’m thinking it’s a denial of services attack on my computer. I’ve tried a question into their help forums and I’ve gotten a few posts with the same problem but the moderators haven’t answered them yet. The other thing is, it could be a bug fixed in their new beta version of GE.

Also this morning I figured out the side-by-side image code thing. The reason why I had broken images was because I had no URL to the image code in my HTML table. Thanks to Markus for referring me to a program that stores images for me in my directory.

It doesn’t matter. It’s with any book I begin to read, it starts off slow and then I build momentum after about a third of the way. This book “The Icewind Dale Trilogy.” will most likely take me 10 weeks to read. Maybe by November 15th. I’m enjoying it. Then when I’m done with Ice, I can start on Lou Anders “Fast Forward” #1. This is interesting because I began the year reading “The New Space Opera” an anthology of short stories, and I end the year reading an anthology. I prefer reading anthologies with an assortment of different authors rather then a collection of short stories from a single author. Now I’m just guessing here but in a collection of short stories from a single author, the author is a little biased towards his stories that he would consider his “darlings.” In an anthology of assorted stories the author doesn’t have that kind of control. The editor might say “Not good enough, have you got anything else?” The editor of the anthology might have really high standards. With this anthology “Fast-forward” the editor has collected some pretty big names. I haven’t read any short stories from Elizabeth Bear but I have read one of her novels. I liked what I read. I haven’t read any short stories from Robert Charles Wilson either but I liked “Spin” but I’m still a slow reader, but with any luck at all, I’ll finish “Fast-forward” before the end of the year.

This next hour Anne’s going down to pay on the cable bill. We would have had it in Thursday night except for the pin login change fiasco at her bank. So I hope she’ll be doing that today, so I can watch Raw tonight.

It was nice yesterday to finally meet my wife’s sister after all these years. We kept the marriage from the her family because her mother at the time was going through a couple of strokes and wasn’t feeling well. We didn’t want to cause any undue stress in the family but her mother passed away a few years ago. So, it’s about time the family knows.

Anne’s out the door after having a long talk with Shaw Customer Service. Apparently Shaw is hiring. I’m sure they pay about $12/min hour and not just that but it would improve my Internet tech skills as well if I got hired on. A couple of things; they are located in the west end and they might have some kind of math test in the interview process. It might be something to think about but I’ll be calling up Shaw today for more information on how to submit my resume. If there is a math test then I’m screwed. If it’s out in the West end getting there could be problematic but for a job like that, might be worth while for me. It’d be great if I enquire today submit my resume over the Internet and get a call this week to go in for an interview and start the same week. But the dreaded math test (assuming there is one) might put the kibosh on the idea working for Shaw. Most likely Shaw is looking for employees with a background in IT. There wasn’t a math test as far as I know When Anne applied at Pizza.

In conversation waiting for our dinner last night at the Olive Garden, Anne mentioned about when Donna is going on another Cruise. And she said she’s about due, but doesn’t have anyone to go with. I wouldn’t mind but I just met her yesterday. Maybe in about a year or two. On the way home from the airport Donna mentioned about the time just before Anne and I got married how Anne was invited to spend a weekend in Miami but Anne got air sickness over Denver and had to take a plane home. Her mother had even given her $500 spending money. It kind of left a bad taste in Donna’s mouth but I said I love to fly and that in most places there is more turbulence riding on an ETS bus or Subway. Another thing is Donna goes to New York City a lot. Keith’s territory. Maybe in a year or two there’s a chance to meet Keith in person but that wont be for a couple of years yet.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

About noon

our buzzer kept ringing and ringing. Anne said “Don’t answer it,” thinking it was dial-a-dopers or something mistaking our apartment number for #303. It’s happened before. So after about the 10th ring she went to the intercom panel to listen in and discovered a knock on our door. It was her sister Donna from Winnipeg. I finally met her but she hadn't checked into her hotel room yet downtown and wanted to take Anne out to do some shopping at Value Village. It’d be 2 hours for me but I was invited to go out to the “Olive Garden” when they returned. A couple hours later they came back and we got underway out of here about 4pm. Donna is a health science advisor with a pharmaceutical company, She used to work with Roche but now with another firm. So we went out to the Olive Garden south side in her rented car with a dashboard mounted GPS system. I sat up front,


I should have brought my camera along but the friggin batteries aren’t working properly. Dinner was nice even though a little on the late side. I had their stuffed ravioli, which was really good and some potato soup as well and endless diet pop. Thanks Donna. After dinner we went for a drive as Donna wanted to show Anne the south side of the city of Edmonton and how much that section of the city has grown. We were losing daylight fast but we ended up being taken to the Edmonton International Airport. The place is huge. We drove back home and Donna said she’d be coming back to visit us more often. It was nice to get out even if it was for just 3-4 hours.

Anne wants me to have Monday off and I’m thinking about taking the day off. Well, sort of. I’m going to use it to go down to City Hall job board and see if they have any job openings for ETS transit information. I’d love to get onto that. So I’ll most likely get up around 9am and grab a coffee and get out the door and go to City Hall in the morning. The other thing I’d like to do is to go to Northgate and check on the job bank. I want to get out of Xl by the end of this month-in theory.


Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

It's been a couple of busy

days around here lately. I got my pay cheque last night. Anne wanted me to deposit the cheque into her account but the bank wouldn't take her pin number. So one of the customers let me use his cell phone to call her at home. She came down to intercept me at Clairview and we rode the bus home for me and to the bank for her. At first I thought I'd have to miss a day off work because I'd have to go to the cable company to deposit a $100 cheque. But she's got an alternative idea.

I finished reading JU the other day. There's a "review" of the book on my website which is getting a lot of spam comments lately but we're monitoring this ISP 200. Watch out for this thing. It's not hazardous or anything. Were dealing with it.

Also the other day I started reading the "Icewind Dale." trilogy (omnibus) It looks like a good book. But this one is even larger then the other one by about 42 pages. I anticipate another 12 weeks of reading.

What else? I'm a bit behind on my book covers/"currently reading' project. "Library thing" doesn't seem to interface very well with Blogger. I need a better idea to place 3 images together. I'm open to suggestions if anyone had any.

Weather wise here were suposed to be having some changes and that means down to +10C, that sort of thing.

Anyway Bloggers, that's all for now.

e. Jim

Anne made me a nice

lunch yesterday afternoon. I had a small wait for my bus in a beautiful autumn like Monday afternoon. It was warm out there I had to take my jacket off in the train on the way in. I did some more reading on JU. It’s coming down to the wire now with about 50 pages left to read. I should have it read by Friday if not sooner and a “Review” of sorts by Saturday. I got to my station in the office and settled into have a nice day. JT is still pouting and has been very quiet when I’m there. I’m still finding this funny. I wonder who’s going to cave in first. It certainly wont be me. I had a slow start and managed to get a CC and up to $360. I tried calling Anne on my break but she wasn’t answering. I didn’t get a chance to check on my CC total to see if they all kicked in. The first hour after break was really slow. I got 2 more CC’s and even closing in on a CC as well for 3 on the night. There was a $20/$40 up for grabs. Not for a $640 total. But I left feeling happy with that.

It was warm when I left out of there at 9pm for the train at Corona. Down at the lower concourse I was trying to read my book when a couple of mothers with small children were jumping all over my immediate space. I wanted to catch the first train home for wrestling. Any train home but the University train came so I caught that one and just to get out of the way of the kids. Sure it was the long way home but I did get some more reading in. I ended up getting in around just after 10pm missing a bit of Raw. Anne made some great lasagna (frozen but it was good.) I was having fun with Raw when I developed a toothache. It was really hurting me bad but Anne gave me an Advil. I mean it wasn’t scoring pain but pain bad enough. Finally after about 20 minutes the Advil worked and I felt a lot better. I still feel better. And Anne bought me a big old bag of cheese pleasers as well.

Work was tough going last night. I wasn’t having a very good go of things and I so much want to get out of Telemarketing, even if it’s just an inbound call center. I don’t like security because I’m always on my feet. This is why I’m going to book for an appointment this week for a employment councilor. I don’t see going back to school at my age but I need to get out of the company I’m currently employed with. I want something else but I want something that is easy, pays well and lets me work days. No evenings/weekends. So I’m going to call a number this week.

Some 10 hours later from the above, I checked the markets and oil took another $4 hit bringing it down to $91/barrel. It's still got about 6 more months before it drops to as low as it can go befor making any seasonal adjustments. If there is such a thing.

As for right now, I'm nursing my first coffee. Anne is sleeping away. She goes back to Pizza tomorrow. I've still got to call an employment councilor. The office is open until 4:30pm. but I'll most likely get up early tomorrow.

Anyway Bloggers, that's all for now.

e. Jim

I'm trying to

replace The Library thing with my own block. I think I have the html tags for this. it's a work in progress folks.

Anyway Bloggers, that's all for now.

e. Jim

Saturday 2nd half

I just watched an excellent Eskimo win at Commonwealth stadium Vs Hamilton. It was really close.

I had left at 9:05am and caught the 9:25am train into Corona getting into the office at 9:45am. I’m going to take this train more often now. Makes more sense. I had a slow start. JT is still pouting over the shot I gave him about 3 weeks ago. All I can do is smile and nod my head unfavorably, very childish on his part. I wasn’t doing to badly. I got 1 CC in the first half and I ended up with 3 for the shift, which gave me my 20 CC’s. Moe bought donuts for the staff. So this next paycheque if all things work out ok and none of my CC’s decline, I should have: $8 + $12 + $25 + $40= $85. Now watch Rob will see my 20 and say: “You need 25 CC’s to qualify.” Sigh, we’ll see. Oh also, there was a team CC bonus

I felt better leaving the office. I put a full week in and I got my 20 CC’s and a lot of bonuses as well. While I was waiting at Clairview I read a bit more from JU. I got in the apartment about 3pm feeling tired but I needed to listen to some YouTube, music. I like watching the old B&W Beatles videos.

I tried going in for a nap but I couldn’t sleep so I got up to watch the football game. There were 10 interceptions in the game. 5 each. The Esks QB was pretty banged up from playing last Friday but still managed to pull a rabbit out of the hat. 38-33 Eskimos. All-in-all, this was a pretty good week. We had the activation of the LHC, Anne started a new job. Not much directly happened to me of course but, it was a decent week.

Anne called me at her 6pm break at the half and we had a chat for a few minutes. She’s not feeling very confident because she’s learning her system but she’s on her way home competing against football fans for a space on the train. Luckily she boards the train before Stadium station.

I’m enjoying a coffee but just after the game I did a bsl reading and I’m 12.1 mainly because I kind of skipped lunch hoping I could save a can of stew for latter not feeling that hungry and I had my sandwiches I didn’t eat from earlier.

Weather wise its been really nice out there getting to a high of +19C for the evening and next week is about the same. There’s even some +24C’s in there, which means this is our Indian summer. I’m going to try and get some writing done this evening, I hope.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

Finally it’s Saturday

Last night I went to work and read a bit of JU on the train going in. I’ve got about another 150 pages left before I move onto my next read. I got into the office found my dialer and all 6 of us began work. I had a slow start. Moe wasn’t pushing l/h as much as other days. I did get a couple of CC’s and I need another 3 more to get my 20. I hope to get 4 today because of the slow start I had yesterday.

I was glad to get out of there at 8:30pm and over to Audrey’s. Trevor had made a list of the books I have on order. I think he said I had 5 books coming. I picked up 1 book from the special order desk. I ordered 6 more books as well last night before the official American pricing is removed and Audrey’s reverts back to uggh, Canadian pricing. Anything ordered before the change October 15th, will be honored. I have on order: Warhammer 40,000: “Ultramarines” by Graham McNeill. The omnibus. “Space Wolf.” The first omnibus. Warhammer 40,000: “Gaunt's Ghosts”: “The Saint” by Dan Abnett and a whole bunch more. I think about 12 Warhammer 40K are being ordered and or are coming in. My pick for the night was “Night Shift” by Lilith Saintcrow. I love the last name.

Happy with my purchase I headed out to the LRT and found a seat on the train and read on the way home. I got in about 9:30pm did my admin stuff and settled into watch wrestling. I was expecting my wife home by midnight. Sure enough after a great show, she comes in saying “Hello pizza goodbye the other job.”She said she’s starting to pick up on it and felt a little more confident on the phones. Good for her but you’ve got to be fast. She’s not quite fast enough and most of the people there are so fast they put calls through in less then a minute. During ECW, she made me a bowl of Raman’s and a grill cheese and I was in bed by 1:20am and I had a good 5 hours sleep. I’m good to go for the day.

This morning, I’m out there catching my train into the office for my four hours. After that it’s home for a couple hours nap and I’m watching the CFL Saskatchewan at Edmonton game on Sports net. My entertainment for this afternoon. Anne’s working from 3pm-8pm. I like these hours she’s keeping because it gives me some privacy at home. I can focus on doing my writing, which I’m going to get to this evening.

Thursday while realizing I forgot my Cola at home and waiting for Anne, she got off the train nearest me and took this photo. I'm naturally crooked and having the bag on my shoulder doesn't help. it's kind of dark in the background but Bay Station is a bit on the "Dark side."

One of my online friends, (a successful small press SF novelist out of Denver) in one of his recent blog posts was saying how he always seems to fall short of the words he’d like to have for an 80K novel. I don’t have that problem. Partly because I seem to be one of the few writers (working to get published of course) that works from a scene by scene outline. I know what’s going to happen in every scene. The only thing I have no control over is the subplots and action. I know who’s in the scene and where it takes place and in many cases even the outcome of the scene. Working from that aspect, I feel I don’t have a problem with word length. Matter of fact my last novel currently in rough draft hibernating needs to be expanded. I have enough material to do this to expand it to 140K while I‘m working on the scene structure of my current project. I’m a firm believer in working from a storyboard approach rather then flying off by the seat of ones pants and to see what happens.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

Wow, were at +23C

out there and it’s warm in here. I’ve got to have the fan on. Right now I’m working on my first coffee trying to take stock of what I’m going to do after October 1st. So far, nobody at the office is saying anything, which I find surprising. This morning though I had a closer look at the “Do Not Call List” (DNCL) registry rules. I think its more for those telemarketers that are trying to sell a product like tickets, which affects some of our campaigns. In that respect it compromises my job, somewhat but the company I work for is third party. Now I’m not a rules lawyer or an expert on legal jargon but I read from Part 2 of the rules and if your “calling on behalf of” a registered charity then your exempt from the DNCL. So to keep it legal, all I just half to say is something like this: “Jim calling from XL on behalf of registered charity:” If I read that sub-section correctly, then this shouldn't’t apply to us. I asked Anne to take a look at it and she agreed with me. I did the 3:30am cbi thing. I felt better about my job going to bed spending some time with my wife as we listened to a pretty good Coast show about the LHC.

Yesterdays LHC experiment was to test the beam in the tunnel and it works. The question that seems to be asked the most from conversations I’ve heard and been a part of are, “What real world benefits and applications are there as a result of this experiment and others like it?” Well for one thing, I tell people is that the whole concept of the Internet was developed out of Cern. Without the Internet Cern physicists had no means to process and exchange the information they gathered on the scale that was/is needed. Now with the LHC Cern is already working on The Grid, which is the Internet a thousand times more faster then it is right now. Not only that but physicists at Cern using the LHC will have a better tool to use to delve deeper into our understanding of the Universe at a Quantum level. Maybe the LHC when activated at full power will be able to create mini black holes and traversable wormholes. Apparently it wont be for another couple of months yet before the LHC is fully activated. But if they find wormholes at Cern, think about those implications

I took some more cute cat photos and one of my wife. This one is of Sparky watching the fish wondering where the other fish has gone. We lost a budgie bird and a gold fish this summer.

I had a good sleep after that. I got up about 12:15pm and watched the markets. Oil again sitting at $101 and some change. I figure it’s going to go right down to about $50 in February of 09 and after that it’ll climb back up to the $130 level, stay there for a few weeks and drop again. At the moment our Unemployment rate here in Edmonton is sitting at 3.4%, which is pretty good.

I took this photo of Sporty. His eyes are actually blue but he's guarding over my Diet Cola. Anne got a good price for a 12 pack, $1.63 something.

After reading JU, I’m looking forward to “The Icewind Dale” trilogy. The first book in this 1997 Omnibus is “The Crystal shard”, which originally came out in 1988 followed by “Streams of Silver.” and “The Halflings Gem.”, which came out as I was getting into “Adventure gaming supplies” and all these books were flooding onto the shelves of the store. I love the omnibus format. While on the topic of books and stuff, I haven’t yet been able to call Audrey’s and ask Trevor if he could get me a print out of any books I have on order. This will be a “Note to self” reminder. I wish I had a cell phone application that alerts me at any given time and rings, in my own voice at 8pm: “Call Audrey’s, or call blah, blah, blah, etc.” This would be great because I don’t remember what books I ordered and I need to order more from my favorite vendor across the street. Especially more from the “Forgotten Reams” series. Cover flow would be pretty good as well for a book organizer.

And finally I couldn't resist taking this photo of Anne as she's walking up to the bus bench towards me.

This afternoon, Anne and I go into work. She’s going to try Pizza one more time and see if she can go back to work for her other job Friday. Pizza doesn’t sound that bad actually. Sure they might be a lot of work involved in it and it certainly isn’t easy money but there are bonuses. Most of their calls are from people that have already placed an order before and want to renew the same order. But occasionally and this happens, Billy says- “I had Pizza at my Uncles place and I forget what sauce they used.” Then you’ve got to do some research and that takes time. They don’t have any quotas but their big stickler is time. They would prefer the order to be completed within 30 seconds and if you make 3 mistakes in a 4 hour shift, they send you home. I mean lets face it most people no matter how fast or good they are will make mistakes the first time out until they learn the system. But once all the bugs have been worked out most people there Anne says say the job is pretty easy. They were telling her that the average dialer gets about 200 calls in a 4 hour shift. At 50 calls an hour and if most of those are repeat orders.

Anne’s going to be going in tonight and I get my pay cheque and then it’s off to the bank. I get my $20 bucks and maybe I’ll meet Anne on the train coming home. Nothing much going on after that.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

I caught a bit

of the Coast show about Cern and the LHC, which will come online tomorrow. The guest a Doctor Warner L. Wagner was essentially negative towards the LHC project proposing to shut it down until we know its safe to use. I think the people at Cern have looked at all of the possibilities and ran all of the simulations towards a safe conclusion. I don’t think they are that irresponsible. We’ll know tomorrow though if they are wrong.

I passed out easily enough after the cbi thing and I got about 7.5 hours of sleep. I got up to fix a coffee and watch the markets. Some of us at work last night were talking about the big US Federal Govt. buy-out of “Fannie Mae” and “Freddie Mac.” (not their real names of course.) Fannie Mae was created in 1938 after the depression years and Freddie Mac in 1970, if memory serves. Now, I’m no expert in these kinds of things but basically Mae and Mac are institutions set up for banks that if anyone defaults on a mortgage loan the banks can turn that loan over and sell it to Mae or Mac. We don’t have that here in Canada. So recently Mac and Mae have fallen on hard times causing the US Federal Govt. to essentially take them over again. Of course I was watching the price of oil and it’s down to $104 and some change/barrel. Just like last year, it’ll bottom out to about $50 and climb back up.

I’m closing in on page 800/1008 of “Judas Unchained.” It’s a pretty good book for its size and has surprisingly very little padding. I’m looking forward to be reading some fantasy for a change. Not that I’m getting all SF out or anything but I began this book July 14th, almost 2 months and I‘m near the last 200 pages only now and I‘ve been reading it every day.

Well, it’s now official. Harper called for a National election this morning and we go to the polls October 14th. Uggh. Well, the Tuesday after holiday Monday, I’m going to go vote before I go into the job. Will I be at Xl or Pizza? I haven’t got a clue. Apparently from what one of the East Indian kids that have more or less befriended me that has Robs ear is saying that the afternoon shift wont be cut until mid October but nobody really knows. But another national election? Good Lord, I hope the Canadian people are not going to return us back to the days of Liberal boondoggle’s. Oh and here’s another good one. The Federal Green party leader is whining about being locked out of the national political debate, crying conspiracy. The reason why she’s been blocked is because she can’t speak French. The debate has to be in both official languages. Dion’s “command” of the English language wont win him any points for clarity either but at least he can speak the other official language.

Also, this earlier morning I was going over some piano theory. I’ve got some simple piano scale exercises I can learn. I already know the Major C scale but I now have the Minor C scale and how to do it in the reverse and also the Harmonic and Melodic Minor scales ascending and descending. And if that isn’t enough to work with I also have the F Major scale as well. I hope to tinker around with these over the next few days if Cern doesn’t blow us all to Kingdom come.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

Another Monday

We were in bed by 4am listening to a bit of Coast. I slept until noon to catch some weekend news and some markets. Raw is on tonight.

Speaking about wrestling, yesterday WWE had its big “Unforgiven” PPV in Cleveland Ohio. Seems initial ticket sales were not going so well before show time. The Quicken Loans Arena max capacity holds something like 20,000 people but the week leading up to Unforgiven about 6,000 tickets were sold. To make it appear less empty local radio stations were apparently giving tickets away. Personally I think the WWE has way to many pay per views. They should have 4/year and concentrate on their tv shows. They are stretching themselves to thin. Now if the Raw announce table says that Unforgiven was sold out, this would have really left a bad taste in my mouth about the WWE. I liked wrestling when it was the WWF but thanks to the environmental group World Wildlife Fund’s lawsuit, they had to change the name to the WWE. The name WWE is more accurate anyway. I really enjoyed wrestling back in my early 20’s living in Coquitlam with the NWA. Me, Dave, Bob and Gord would pile into Bob’s car and the 4 of us would drive over to BCTV studios (still in that location) and watch the show almost every Monday night when I had money. I even recall attending the larger shows a the Gardens. I recall it cost $2 to get into the BC TV studio wrestling shows. The crowds were small, no flashing lights or pyrotechnics and intro music in those days. Ron Morrier would host the show and he’d always start off by saying something like “Hello to all the seniors and shut-ins..” Gene kiniski was the Triple H of his day. But back then and even when good ol Ed Whalen was running Stampede wrestling, wrestling was fun. The story lines were good and engaging. You felt a part of the going’s on. I recall how Ron Morrier would have this little old lady around his announce table hassling him and some of the wrestlers. She seemed to be a fixture to the show and always getting mixed up in the show somehow. When Stampede wrestling folded in 1989 I got into the WWF but I didn’t have cable so all I got was s magazine type hour long show.

Ok, moving along, today is the day we here in Alberta go to 10 digit dialing. I don’t know if we can load the 10 digits into our cell phones. The other thing is, how is this going to impact where I work? In the 80’s and most of the 1990’s we here in Alberta had just one area code (403). Then it was moved to (780) North of Red Deer. Now another area code has been introduced. I think it’s 587. But now we need to dial the 1 (area code) and then the number for local calls. Should be an interesting day today. At work were an outbound call center so I wonder if the tech guys have addressed this issue? I haven’t seen any tech guys in the verifiers room. Maybe this is just a software upgrade and we won’t notice anything.

I’m not much of a video gamer. These days being a gamer means someone that plays video games on the Xbox etc. If I was going to play these console games, it’d basically be in the SFF genre. Most action adventure games are first person shooters like “Doom” and “Halo,” they don’t do anything for me. I’ve had my eye on the new “Elder Scrolls” series for awhile now. I was enjoying the “Ultima” series a lot in the early mid 1990‘s and the “Bards tale” computer games before that. I even have a couple of the earlier “Elder Scrolls” games here for the PC but my graphics card at the time was hardly up to speed to enjoy the game. I enjoyed playing “Everquest” but it was to expensive playing this online game every month. I wouldn’t mind getting “Morrowind” and its sequels and “Oblivion.” But I only have so much time in a day. When Sony released its PSP I thought, “Hey, Everquest mobile.” But the tech to play Everquest on the PSP isn’t quite there yet. I’ve seen the YouTube hacks for this. People insisting they’re playing Everquest/Oblivion on their PSP. Yeah right.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

I'm having a nice weekend

Last night we went to see the midnight showing of the recent Indiana Jones movie “Crystal Skull.” The movie’s budget was something like $187 million but it grossed almost $781 million. We enjoyed the movie in a stadium seat like theater, which I really like. When the film first came out in May it was $12. We paid $3.50 each and smuggled our own snacks in. I enjoyed the 4th installment of the franchise. Is it just me or did the movie seem a little smoky looking? I don’t think there will be another Indy movie after this. On a scale from 1-10, I’d rate it a 7. We walked home under very pleasant mild conditions and even stopped in at the drive through window at Wendy’s for a burger and fries for me. We got in about 3am and at 4am I took my insulin and went to bed.

I got up about 1:15pm and I wanted to catch the Carolina/San Diego NFL football game. Anne made us our usual late meal/brunch. What a game, 24-23 Carolina. I have Carolina in my pool at work.

A couple of things I’m watching for this week is to see how Anne is able to handle her new job and of course this week is when the LHC’s first beam experiment come online.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

Some photos

I'm trying out this evening

Anyway Bloggers, that's all for now

e. Jim

Another Saturday

I had an uneventful ride into work yesterday afternoon. Work went slow for me. Greg brought me my cheque. All my hours were on it and my bonuses. Good stuff. By break I had just over $200 and 3 CC’s. Anne called me shortly before 8:30pm closing time but I was in a hurry to get to the bus and to the bank and home. She didn’t have the score for me for the CFL Calgary/Edmonton game. I got the bus to the bank and made the deposit and took out $20. That’s for the 2 books I’m going to buy at Audrey’s this afternoon. Since I didn’t get my Thursday night pay cheque there was no Audrey’s bookstore visit for last night.

I got the train home and read a bit and read a bit on the bus home. Anne was fixing dinner but had to go out. I still had no idea what the score was on the football game. Ched radio carrying the game said Calgary was leading 21-20. Close or what? Anne went out to do her thing and I ended up watching Smackdown. It was a pretty good show. I also watched ECW as well and enjoyed that then went right into bed. Before bed I learned that Calgary won 38-33. Still it wasn’t anything like the thrashing the Esks gave the Stamps last weekend: 27-16. Usually the Labour Day classic and the split the Friday following is rarely a double win.

I think I slept for about an hour and rested the rest but I’ll be all right for the day. I need another 10 CC’s to qualify for my 20 CC bonus. Yeah right. 10 CC’s for today? I don’t think so.

While having my dinner at 3pm before I leave for work, I like to watch Space and whatever they have for their 3pm time slot offering. Lately it’s been “Star Trek The Next Generation.” I love this show but it seems all they have are about 12 episodes before they repeat. “Encounter at Farpoint” and “All good things,” and the few episodes in between. This afternoon was “Encounter at Farpoint,” again. Yeesh. Space apparently is supposed to air all 5 series, although I don’t think that means the Animated Series (1973 – 1974). Phase 2 would have been great if it went into production. But if Space is going to do all 5 series then that’s 704 episodes. I haven’t heard if Space is going to do this or even if I heard this right. As much as I didn’t care for Star Trek “Deep space 9,” it’s worth watching. I thought it was a bit whiny and preachy and the characters lacked substance.

October could even be worse. We’re struggling with out rent and I don’t know what’s going to happen with my job what with this stupid DNC list. The NHL season is starting up-hey I like that. We’ll be having another stat holiday with Thanksgiving day and a long weekend and a strong possibility we’ll have a Federal election coming up, not good. Actually the Federal election (if its called) follows the day after the Thanksgiving weekend day long weekend. Dion was in Alberta today speaking to University kids about how great his “Green Shift” program will be for Alberta. Yeah, we can all feel good about the “clean air” we can breath while we’re living under a bridge because we wont have any jobs. The “Green shift” is another Liberal Boondoggle we can all do without. And according to an excerpt from today’s National Post about the “Green Shift”- “This seems more than a little dubious. If the plan were so great for consumers already, why did Mr. Dion feel the need this week to add almost $1-billion in annual subsidies for farmers, truckers and fishermen to offset their anticipated losses?” Yeah and guess who’s going to pay for that? Albertans. This smacks too much of social engineering. What the hell does poverty have to do with the environment? And whoopee we get back $100/year. Dion can shove his “Green shift” up his you know what.

As for me, not much going on this weekend. Some of the things I’m watching for this month of course is Anne starting Pizza. The LHC’s first beam experiment September 10th. I hope to follow Anne into pizza, try it out for a bit. September could be a pretty good month.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

We're back at it

tonight. Lodge opens after the break with a bang. It seems we got us a bunch of new FC candidates for tonight. It's a nice evening out for me. If Neil is going I want to be able to ask him about the notation anomaly I found in some sheet music since he's our Lodge organist he'll be able to help me out.

We were in bed by about 3am listening to Coast. The good stuff was before we went to bed. I slept really good from 3:30am until about 7am to get up to do the cbi thing. I read JU for about an hour and went back to bed about 7:45am and got up at 1pm. I remember Anne heading out to get some business done. I've been reading over the last hour or so, waking up with a coffee. I'm closing in on page 700/1008 of this novel. Amazingly I'm making good time. I figure at the rate I'm reading I should have this book done by the end of September.

Before bed I got to tinker around with the Geoweather counter. It's fixed now and unlike the Weather Pixie on my website, it doesn't ask "What town is this?" The only thing not fixed is the time and I haven't found within the skins a way to modiy this properly. I think I do and I'll get to this shortly. I'd like to add this Geoweather counter to my website. It's a pretty cool looking widget.

Other then Lodge, not a lot going on tonight. At least Moe and Rob are aware I'm off for my regularly scheduled night off. I'm not like some of the AISH people that can leave at any time because like one of them said in their own words, "I don't really need to be here." Add to all of that and I got my part of our rent subsidy form filled out, I think we're going to have a nice couple of days. So tonight, I'm off to Lodge. I'm going to participate and at the festive board have a beer and enjoy the camaraderie.

Anyway Bologgers, that's all for now

e. Jim

I had a nice

trip into work and did a lot of reading over the last couple of days on JU. I took my employer part of the subsidy form to be signed out. We’ve had these forms for about a year now. I got to work and of course JT was still pouting. Gary though was nice to me and he fed me some details of what went on today. We did CRF taps. With these ones, they took the dates away. I ended up with $755 and 3 CC’s. No bonus at all. I had a nice reading trip home as well on the train and the city fixed the trap at Sifton school, which means the #183 bus service route is normal. Anne made a nice pirogue lunch with a smoky.

Well, is Stephen Harper going to call a Federal election for October 14th? Dion thinks he’s politicking because he put into Law that elections have to be called ever 4 years. Except when there’s a minority Government. Now that I think about it, if Dion’s whole political platform rests with his so called “Green shift,” then he may as well kiss his PM bid goodbye. Just what this country needs is another tax. The other thing I’m thinking about is even if Dion goes through with his scheme there might be a loophole with Ed Stelmach’s plan to implement a carbon capture route. No emissions no tax right? I doubt it’s going to be as simple as that though.

Over there at SF Signal they’re asking: “How do you think media tie-in novels affect the genre of sf/f?” This one is easy enough to answer. Fan-Fic. Or fan fiction. For example, take the “Star Wars” franchise. At the moment there is something like over 300 “Star Wars” novels published. I have a lot of those novels on my own book shelves as it is. Writing for these franchises in someone else’s Universe is Fan Fic. The original author created the Universe with everything already there. We know what a light saber is and what a Jedi Knight is so these terms need not be explained. In Star Trek, we know what the phrase “Beam me up.” means. “Energize” we mean anything after the original series. Everything is all laid out for us. And that’s not for just “Star Wars” and “Star Trek“ its for any franchise. I’m not saying media tie-in novels are bad but we know what’s down the end of that road: Fan-Fic. And it’s not just movies or television although these mediums basically corner the media tie-in novel market. So what’s my point? Media tie-in novels are great for the sf/f genre because they get more people reading. I wonder how many people that loved the original “Star Wars” when I first saw it in 1977 ventured to get their “Star Wars” fix through the novels? How many “D&D” players got their “D&D” fix through the many “Forgotten Realms” series or “Dragon Lance” or even “Indiana Jones” in the novel format? I wonder how many new “Iron Man” fans there are because of the movie and these fans decide to delve into the comic book? It works both ways.

At least we’ve got the rent paid for September with $100 owing on the balance. I’ll cover that with my next cheque and I even get a $20 allowance as well this Saturday so I can get a couple more books. Now we're worried about October with my wife essentually out of work..

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim