I’m in a hurry, jotting this stuff down after reading it again boy do I make spelling mistakes. That’s why I mention in the “Welcome block” about an editing disclaimer. I usually try and edit these blog posts latter. Especially if I’m in a hurry.
I went to bed at my usual 4am time this morning. I did a bsl reading at that time and it read 12. Not good. Around 2am my bsl was 14.2. My bsl reading is usually high over night anyway.
Today is Halloween and we here in Canada set our clocks back an hour this weekend. We used to do this 3 weeks ahead of the Americans but since last year we moved Daylight Savings time (in the Spring) back 3 weeks to March 9th. So now we have Halloween tonight and Saturday night Sunday morning we set the clocks back. Halloween is the last occasion of Summer/Fall and once we set the clocks back an hour, we’re heading officially into winter. Well by my reckoning at least. It makes for a short winter, only 4 months. In March here it begins to warm up, in theory.
Also this weekend in Calgary they are having their World Fantasy Convention. I’d love to go but the job thing and lack of funds holds me back from attending. Best I can do this weekend is to buy a book.
Also, there are a few Oiler games on TV this weekend I‘d like to catch. Saturday afternoon at 1pm and then again Sunday morning at 11am. Yeesh. I want to get up to watch the Sunday game and I’ll be able to see the first hour of the Saturday game on our last hour of the shift.
So tonight is the last Eskimo game. I think its at Commonwealth. A football game on a Halloween night no less. The last game of the season. Next week is the CFR Rodeo and that’s going to be for I think 8 days. It’s a big event for the City along with Farm Expo. But getting back to this evening, after work, I’m going to head over to Audrey’s and pick up a book. Hopefully I can get home before the game is over and get into Smackdown.
November isn’t as full as October. Sure we set our clocks back, I have step up night at the Lodge, We have Remembrance day Nov. 11th and other then that, November will be a lame kind of a month for me. I like months like this.
Anne and I decided not to go to the office (if there is one) Christmas party this year, my place of employment usually puts on. Christmas day itself is on a Thursday. I might take Thursday and Friday off. Well see. In December our rent goes up $70 to almost $900/month.
Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now
e. Jim
Friday, October 31, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Yesterday afternoon
I got onto my bus to Clairview station as Anne was home doing the laundry. It wasn’t bad out there. Very pleasant. No wind. So I found a seat and began to read a couple of pages of Icewind Dale. I read again at my dialer a couple more pages and even as the shift was underway I read in between calls. I must have got 3 days reading done in the first half of the shift. In the 2nd half we had the Indiana at Tennessee football game. It was me vs. JT in the pool since there was no Oiler game on except PPV. When I left the office at 9pm (with 4 CC’s and top total for $765 not quite line hour for the bonus) the game was tied at 14 in the 3rd quarter. I’m really starting to enjoy the NFL. It’s a better product then the CFL. I’ll still watch the Eskimos. We can barely get 35,000 fans at a CFL game here and that’s even in the summer. Moe said I’d be better off watching high school football then the Eskimos. He might be right. The way they’ve been playing this year? Even in US College football they can get 70.000 fans out each game. To be fair this is all proportionate to the density of population. I don’t have a favorite NFL team and the closet one to us here would be Seattle.
Moving along here, I got in about 9:30pm. I had a good night reading my book, getting top total making money for me and the company and watching almost a 3rd of the football game. When I got home I watched Monday night Raw. Good show and Anne made me a nice lunch of enchiladas. Not quite as good as mom used to make them.
After Raw and catching some of the entertainment news I went off to do some research finding out information of a school I attended I think in the early 1960’s: I used Google Earth before and I have a pretty good idea where the school is located: Austin Ave and Schoolhouse road in Coquitlam BC. When I got using Google Earth when it first came out (I guess that’s what most of us did. Look for old schools and our house we used to live in.) Austin Heights school was one of my first Google Earth destinations. I was shocked to learn the school wasn’t there. What happened? For years later I had no idea what happened to the school. Reports from nice people giving me sales on my job that lived in the area hinted it was torn down but that’s about all I got. No details.
Over the years since using Google I tried various search terms but came up empty. I only attended Austin Heights 1 year. In that year (as we lived on Reagan and Hailey) the school was at the end of the 1300 block of Austin Ave. A Google Earth glance of Coquitlam from where I used to live for those 10 years in the 1960’s and where I had to go to school was pretty significant for an 8 year old or so kid. Since we only had one car in the family dad used it to go to work, I had to use my bike to school. We had no bus service in Coquitlam in the 1960’s. I was considered to be a slow learner at the time and placed in what was called Occupational studies. We were low on the food chain as far as kids go in public schools. The other kids in the family went to Porter street in the public school system. Growing up in the 1960’s in Coquitlam I went to 4 Occupational public classes either because those schools closed down the Occupational program due to low enrollment or some other factor I wasn’t aware of.
It wasn’t like I had fond memories of Austin Heights because I’m not even sure what year it was I attended. So today I’m going to use the phones at work to call long distance to the school district office and see if I can get a complete transcript of the schools and grades I completed from when I first went to school I believe was Mountain View 1960. Maybe I can get class photos of each year. If I can actually speak to somebody.
Okay to wrap this long topic up, early this morning I tried a different search term: Austin Heights elementary. Sure enough I was lead to a Facebook page from people that went there. Still no specific details but one commentator said he watched it being torn down and retrieved a couple of bricks from the school as mementos. He said it was torn down in the early 1980’s. That’s a little bit of closure for me.
Most of my childhood growing up in the 1960’s was somewhat murky. I can recall specific events of course but not things that played out season by season. One thing that struck me odd was that where we lived there were no major sidewalks. It’s amazing anyone of us weren’t hit by a car on the way and back from school. The main streets had sidewalks like Blue Mountain and Como lake road. Even today from Google Earth there are no sidewalks on Regan Ave.
On the Facebook page they talked about a little diner that used to be there on the corner of Schoolhouse and Austin Ave. I recall in the early 1970’s Gord, Dave and Bob and I would go there occasionally. I forgot the name but it was called the “Luxury freeze” I think. I recall they had great fries and milk shakes.
I’m onto my first coffee. Anne’s sleeping away. I’m almost in the middle of Icewind Dale. I came across a lot of nice colorful phrasing in the story last night and throughout the book itself. I’m impressed with the writing.
Next Oiler game is Thursday in Nashville as the boys are on a 7 game road trip. Rolly was in goal last night and he has yet to give his team a win in this season.
Hey I just realized I missed Star Wars Clone Wars Sunday night. Damn, what was I thinking?
Ok so for today it’s off to work. Put my 4 hours in. come home and relax out the rest of the evening. Other then that not much going on.
Another big game comes out today “Fallout 3” I’m not really into these kinds of games. They don’t do anything for me. Give me good old D&D any time.
Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now
e. Jim
Moving along here, I got in about 9:30pm. I had a good night reading my book, getting top total making money for me and the company and watching almost a 3rd of the football game. When I got home I watched Monday night Raw. Good show and Anne made me a nice lunch of enchiladas. Not quite as good as mom used to make them.
After Raw and catching some of the entertainment news I went off to do some research finding out information of a school I attended I think in the early 1960’s: I used Google Earth before and I have a pretty good idea where the school is located: Austin Ave and Schoolhouse road in Coquitlam BC. When I got using Google Earth when it first came out (I guess that’s what most of us did. Look for old schools and our house we used to live in.) Austin Heights school was one of my first Google Earth destinations. I was shocked to learn the school wasn’t there. What happened? For years later I had no idea what happened to the school. Reports from nice people giving me sales on my job that lived in the area hinted it was torn down but that’s about all I got. No details.
Over the years since using Google I tried various search terms but came up empty. I only attended Austin Heights 1 year. In that year (as we lived on Reagan and Hailey) the school was at the end of the 1300 block of Austin Ave. A Google Earth glance of Coquitlam from where I used to live for those 10 years in the 1960’s and where I had to go to school was pretty significant for an 8 year old or so kid. Since we only had one car in the family dad used it to go to work, I had to use my bike to school. We had no bus service in Coquitlam in the 1960’s. I was considered to be a slow learner at the time and placed in what was called Occupational studies. We were low on the food chain as far as kids go in public schools. The other kids in the family went to Porter street in the public school system. Growing up in the 1960’s in Coquitlam I went to 4 Occupational public classes either because those schools closed down the Occupational program due to low enrollment or some other factor I wasn’t aware of.
It wasn’t like I had fond memories of Austin Heights because I’m not even sure what year it was I attended. So today I’m going to use the phones at work to call long distance to the school district office and see if I can get a complete transcript of the schools and grades I completed from when I first went to school I believe was Mountain View 1960. Maybe I can get class photos of each year. If I can actually speak to somebody.
Okay to wrap this long topic up, early this morning I tried a different search term: Austin Heights elementary. Sure enough I was lead to a Facebook page from people that went there. Still no specific details but one commentator said he watched it being torn down and retrieved a couple of bricks from the school as mementos. He said it was torn down in the early 1980’s. That’s a little bit of closure for me.
Most of my childhood growing up in the 1960’s was somewhat murky. I can recall specific events of course but not things that played out season by season. One thing that struck me odd was that where we lived there were no major sidewalks. It’s amazing anyone of us weren’t hit by a car on the way and back from school. The main streets had sidewalks like Blue Mountain and Como lake road. Even today from Google Earth there are no sidewalks on Regan Ave.
On the Facebook page they talked about a little diner that used to be there on the corner of Schoolhouse and Austin Ave. I recall in the early 1970’s Gord, Dave and Bob and I would go there occasionally. I forgot the name but it was called the “Luxury freeze” I think. I recall they had great fries and milk shakes.
I’m onto my first coffee. Anne’s sleeping away. I’m almost in the middle of Icewind Dale. I came across a lot of nice colorful phrasing in the story last night and throughout the book itself. I’m impressed with the writing.
Next Oiler game is Thursday in Nashville as the boys are on a 7 game road trip. Rolly was in goal last night and he has yet to give his team a win in this season.
Hey I just realized I missed Star Wars Clone Wars Sunday night. Damn, what was I thinking?
Ok so for today it’s off to work. Put my 4 hours in. come home and relax out the rest of the evening. Other then that not much going on.
Another big game comes out today “Fallout 3” I’m not really into these kinds of games. They don’t do anything for me. Give me good old D&D any time.
Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now
e. Jim
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Backing up a
hard drive data for years had been a mystery to me. I knew it was important because I had several computers crash. I back up every Saturday or Sunday now. My little 500G external drive serves me well but no Future Shop in the same configuration has a 1 Terabyte external hard drive going for under $150! That’s significant when 10 short years ago external hard drives were way smaller in memory size and cost about the same as an external HD today. I recall my buddy and I going to Compusmart in the mid 1990‘s about once a month to look around at their West end location.
October is one of my favorite months. It’s Halloween month. I’m in my mid fifties and I still get a kick out of the costumes and the energy Halloween brings. The excitement level is high. October is our last summer/fall hurrah before the dreading turning of winter. The company I work for over the years used to have an event called “Halloween O’ Ramma” (HOR) on the legislature grounds but this year we didn’t do it HOR. We lost a few campaigns due to the Lawsuit. I used to like this event. Speaking about Halloween SF Signal has a link to some cute short films on the topic out of today’s “Tidbits”
I’m not hearing anything over at AGF about the move to Multiply. I’m going to miss the format of MSN groups. I opened up a multiply free account and its another one of these free web space platforms like Myspace. The thing I don’t like about Multiply is that it is slow to load but AGF is working on moving everything over to Multiply. So February 1st the AGF link wont work. Multiply also has a paid upgrade account as well.
It’s not bad out there. I’ve got my window open and it’s only +0C. It’s sunny but the difference is there’s no wind.
Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now
e. Jim
October is one of my favorite months. It’s Halloween month. I’m in my mid fifties and I still get a kick out of the costumes and the energy Halloween brings. The excitement level is high. October is our last summer/fall hurrah before the dreading turning of winter. The company I work for over the years used to have an event called “Halloween O’ Ramma” (HOR) on the legislature grounds but this year we didn’t do it HOR. We lost a few campaigns due to the Lawsuit. I used to like this event. Speaking about Halloween SF Signal has a link to some cute short films on the topic out of today’s “Tidbits”
I’m not hearing anything over at AGF about the move to Multiply. I’m going to miss the format of MSN groups. I opened up a multiply free account and its another one of these free web space platforms like Myspace. The thing I don’t like about Multiply is that it is slow to load but AGF is working on moving everything over to Multiply. So February 1st the AGF link wont work. Multiply also has a paid upgrade account as well.
It’s not bad out there. I’ve got my window open and it’s only +0C. It’s sunny but the difference is there’s no wind.
Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now
e. Jim
We've had a windy week
this week with winds howling around 75-100 mph. I got up to go to the office out there at 9am and almost got blown over.
Despite the Esks and Oiler's losing last night I'm having a pretty good weekend. Now it's time for bed. I might have a longer post up on my website later today I don't know.
Facebook had no updates on Pure Speculation 2009. Some people were saying they had a good time. That doesn't tell me if organizers are ging to plan a Pure Spec for '09 though I hope so.
Hey, Star Wars Clone Wars is on this evening. Excellent.
I'm still reading through Icewind Dale and having a good time with it. The way I'm going through with it, I should have it read by the end of this year. More later....
Anyway Bloggers that's all for now
e. Jim
Despite the Esks and Oiler's losing last night I'm having a pretty good weekend. Now it's time for bed. I might have a longer post up on my website later today I don't know.
Facebook had no updates on Pure Speculation 2009. Some people were saying they had a good time. That doesn't tell me if organizers are ging to plan a Pure Spec for '09 though I hope so.
Hey, Star Wars Clone Wars is on this evening. Excellent.
I'm still reading through Icewind Dale and having a good time with it. The way I'm going through with it, I should have it read by the end of this year. More later....
Anyway Bloggers that's all for now
e. Jim
Friday, October 24, 2008
Last night
I got my cheque including my stat pay and my cheques was bang on. Rob was running the crew and said to me that if I get high total he would get me a $15 bonus. Ok. I had a slow start as we were doing Magic all night. Then we switched to CPA. Greg had the cable installed for the Oiler’s at Denver. I had a great view. It was like watching the game at the bar. It’s tough for any team to play back to back games and expect to win after a loss the night before. They should have put Geron in goal Wednesday night and Rolly in last night. I got the top total pulling in over another $1,000 night and I got the $15 bonus for next week. That should make it $45 in bonuses this week and the week isn’t even over yet. When I left the Av’s were up 3-1 and I knew the Oiler’s were going to lose this one. I barely got to the bus on the corner of 107th and up to my bank. We have all our rent for November, we don’t need any groceries. Things are looking good. I did my banking and cracked my book open to read on the train home. I’m currently in the early stages of Icewind Dale Trilogy, book 2. I’m enjoying this. I got home and sure enough I missed the 3rd period. The finale score was 4-1 Av’s. Anne and I erupted into a bit of a brouhaha over the cable at work which left her pent up heading to Superstore. Everything was under control when she returned. I should have keot my mouth shut.
While looking over some YouTube piano vids I came across some acoustic guitar lessons. I don’t know if I’d like to play guitar but it doesn’t look that hard. The examples I looked at said most beginners have trouble with the B and F chord because the finger has to cover over all the strings. Most beginners the vid said give up guitar because they can’t play this chord. I was thinking what I’d like to try and do is visit a pawn shop and try out a guitar. How it feels in the hands and see if I can play the B and F chord. If I can I might buy something used, get it tuned and learn how to play the guitar as well as piano. Half an hour a day at each an hour reading and a couple hours writing. I watch very little TV as it is.
We went to bed at our usual time 4am although Anne was half an hour behind me. I got up around 8:30am to use the bathroom and came back to find out I couldn’t sleep. I must have got 4 hours but I’ll sleep better over night for sure.
So at 4pm I’m out of here for my 5-8:30pm shift. Anne just left out of here for her job. She starts at 2-10pm so she’s going to have a long night and our cell phones aren’t topped up, so we’re without cell phones this weekend. After work tonight I’m going to Audrey’s and pick up that Everquest book and the last of my Karen Travis books for tonight then home to watch Smackdown. Tomorrow if I don’t decide to go to the pawn shop to test a guitar it’s just straight home for my nap. Saturday night it’s another Oiler game.
Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now
e. Jim
While looking over some YouTube piano vids I came across some acoustic guitar lessons. I don’t know if I’d like to play guitar but it doesn’t look that hard. The examples I looked at said most beginners have trouble with the B and F chord because the finger has to cover over all the strings. Most beginners the vid said give up guitar because they can’t play this chord. I was thinking what I’d like to try and do is visit a pawn shop and try out a guitar. How it feels in the hands and see if I can play the B and F chord. If I can I might buy something used, get it tuned and learn how to play the guitar as well as piano. Half an hour a day at each an hour reading and a couple hours writing. I watch very little TV as it is.
We went to bed at our usual time 4am although Anne was half an hour behind me. I got up around 8:30am to use the bathroom and came back to find out I couldn’t sleep. I must have got 4 hours but I’ll sleep better over night for sure.
So at 4pm I’m out of here for my 5-8:30pm shift. Anne just left out of here for her job. She starts at 2-10pm so she’s going to have a long night and our cell phones aren’t topped up, so we’re without cell phones this weekend. After work tonight I’m going to Audrey’s and pick up that Everquest book and the last of my Karen Travis books for tonight then home to watch Smackdown. Tomorrow if I don’t decide to go to the pawn shop to test a guitar it’s just straight home for my nap. Saturday night it’s another Oiler game.
Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now
e. Jim
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
A nice couple of days
Anne convinced me I should stay home tonight because my BSL reading was so high previously. I checked it again about 3pm this afternoon and it was back down to a more manageable level but I hadn’t slept well this weekend.
Hey, I’ve got a decent ad now on my Adbrite block. I don’t know if its generating me any cash at all. According to my stats counter I received 27 hits so far today. The day before close to 60.
One thing I’ve been thinking about recently is the fact that I’ll be 60 years old in another 4 years. Uggh. What it means is under the Canada Pension Plan, I can take early retirement at the age of 60. Most people get about $500 but there are provincial supplements. The thing is, I might be able to claim a medical under Social Services due to my scoliosis and diabetes. Plus I can also work a bit as well even without Social Services. The reason why Social Services would be a benefit to me is because SS would cover my diabetic supplies like insulin and test strips etc. plus I might even be able to work part time 3 days/week with SS but because I’m married without children I doubt SS would work in my favor. I’d rather be married anyway. But taking early retirement and the supplements would helpmy wife and I out a little.
Anne called me about 8pm last night saying how she called my place of work and Rob picked up the phone. “James who?” and she let him know I wouldn’t be coming in. She said something under his breath, “well I’ll let the big wigs know.” Like I should be concerned. After that BS the worst he could do would be to suspend me and for what because I called in sick? I’ll go in at my regular time and yeah, he’ll be there squeaking giving me a dirty look. Yeesh. He was making a reference to the heat call I got 2 weeks ago. But I’m here every Friday night/Saturday Rob.
I got my pizza meal. It was really nice except for the crust, I got 10 chicken peices and these were realy nice the size of chicken balls. It came with a handful of curley fries. it was quiet a meal. I watched Raw and had a good night off by myself.
Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now
e. Jim
Hey, I’ve got a decent ad now on my Adbrite block. I don’t know if its generating me any cash at all. According to my stats counter I received 27 hits so far today. The day before close to 60.
One thing I’ve been thinking about recently is the fact that I’ll be 60 years old in another 4 years. Uggh. What it means is under the Canada Pension Plan, I can take early retirement at the age of 60. Most people get about $500 but there are provincial supplements. The thing is, I might be able to claim a medical under Social Services due to my scoliosis and diabetes. Plus I can also work a bit as well even without Social Services. The reason why Social Services would be a benefit to me is because SS would cover my diabetic supplies like insulin and test strips etc. plus I might even be able to work part time 3 days/week with SS but because I’m married without children I doubt SS would work in my favor. I’d rather be married anyway. But taking early retirement and the supplements would helpmy wife and I out a little.
Anne called me about 8pm last night saying how she called my place of work and Rob picked up the phone. “James who?” and she let him know I wouldn’t be coming in. She said something under his breath, “well I’ll let the big wigs know.” Like I should be concerned. After that BS the worst he could do would be to suspend me and for what because I called in sick? I’ll go in at my regular time and yeah, he’ll be there squeaking giving me a dirty look. Yeesh. He was making a reference to the heat call I got 2 weeks ago. But I’m here every Friday night/Saturday Rob.
I got my pizza meal. It was really nice except for the crust, I got 10 chicken peices and these were realy nice the size of chicken balls. It came with a handful of curley fries. it was quiet a meal. I watched Raw and had a good night off by myself.
Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now
e. Jim
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Convention Saturday today
Friday afternoon at 4pm I was out there waiting for my bus. Temperature wise it was +16C. Pretty good for mid October. I had a nice ride into Corona station and went right up to Audrey’s books and to the special order desk. I picked up the 2 Karen Travis books and into work. I took my end dialer and no surprises. Surprisingly I had a good start to the shift and a $100 CC. I was at about $465 by break and thankfully Chris wasn’t barking beside me in my ear. These totals of course is money I raise for charity. It’s not for me or anything. I also had 2 CC’s on by break when Anne called. We had a nice chat. The 2nd half was just as good and I got 1 CC. I just wanted out of there to go home and catch the last part of the Oiler’s/Calgary game. Someone on the phone had told me that the Oiler’s were ahead 3-2 in the 2nd. Great. There were a lot of Eskimo fans on the platform at Stadium when Anne called on the last of her breaks.
When I got into our apartment to fire up the TV the Oiler’s were ahead 4-2 with about 12 minutes left in the 3rd period. Then. Calgary scored. Mac T decided to have rookie goal tender Drouin-Deslauriers in goal and for his first game he looked like he did all right for himself. Not just that but the Oiler’s have an unusual 3-0 win loss record and 2 of those wins were on the road. The Oiler’s and Flames play here tonight.
After the game I watched Smackdown. It wasn’t bad. Anne came in about 11pm and made me some perogies and a smoky. Good stuff. By the time ECW was just about done, I was exhausted. I kissed my wife goodnight and went straight to bed. When she came in sometime around 2:30am it woke me up and all I could do was to just lie there and toss and turn. I know after work I’m going to be exhausted and I want to go over to Pure Speculation. Maybe take some photographs. I’m sure "Darth Vader" and some "Wookies" and maybe even some "Storm Troopers" will be there and maybe even some Super Heroes and D&D types as well. I know what bus to take and if my camera cooperates mybe I can get some good pictures. Then it’s home to have a nap and a snack and watch the Flames at Oiler’s rematch game on at 8pm.
Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now
e. Jim
When I got into our apartment to fire up the TV the Oiler’s were ahead 4-2 with about 12 minutes left in the 3rd period. Then. Calgary scored. Mac T decided to have rookie goal tender Drouin-Deslauriers in goal and for his first game he looked like he did all right for himself. Not just that but the Oiler’s have an unusual 3-0 win loss record and 2 of those wins were on the road. The Oiler’s and Flames play here tonight.
After the game I watched Smackdown. It wasn’t bad. Anne came in about 11pm and made me some perogies and a smoky. Good stuff. By the time ECW was just about done, I was exhausted. I kissed my wife goodnight and went straight to bed. When she came in sometime around 2:30am it woke me up and all I could do was to just lie there and toss and turn. I know after work I’m going to be exhausted and I want to go over to Pure Speculation. Maybe take some photographs. I’m sure "Darth Vader" and some "Wookies" and maybe even some "Storm Troopers" will be there and maybe even some Super Heroes and D&D types as well. I know what bus to take and if my camera cooperates mybe I can get some good pictures. Then it’s home to have a nap and a snack and watch the Flames at Oiler’s rematch game on at 8pm.
Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now
e. Jim
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
I got up around
noon and did my stuff. Anne made me a nice lunch and we headed off to vote. She brought the digital camera along and took a couple of photo’s of me. These 2 are the best in the bunch. That’s my ball cap I’m holding in my right hand on a rather windy day. We took these waiting for our bus. It passes by the orange barricade you see in the background.
The bus stops right in the narrow portion of the road. It’s called the trap and were just in front of the main doors to Sifton school. Shortly after we took those our bus came whizzing by and we ended up missing it. We parted our separate ways just out back of our place as I went onto work. I missed that bus as well but I got the other one and even though the day was partially overcast it was a nice day.
I got into the office a bit on the early side and the boss had left and the staff were just about to leave the afternoon shift. The only thing on my mind was the election results. I had a good start to the afternoon. I ended up with 3 CC’s and a pretty good night but towards the midway point of the 2nd half I had a difficult customer that said something unpleasant. “Do you want to talk to my supervisor?” The guy said “Sure,” as the floor manager went by me he looked at me funny saying I was supposed to trouble shoot the call. Yeah and waste my line hour time? So my “Supervisor and I glared at each other and he had some choice words for me. He’s been on my case for awhile now. I did get some election results near the end of the shift and it was PC something like 139 seats. They were saying to me all night that the Conservatives will be having a minority Government again. I just hung up on the guy waiting. I was glad to get out of there. I made my way to Corona and waited for my train and read on the way home feeling somewhat relived that at least the Liberals didn’t win. The Bloc won most of their seats in Quebec of course. The NDP came in just behind The Bloc.
The bus stops right in the narrow portion of the road. It’s called the trap and were just in front of the main doors to Sifton school. Shortly after we took those our bus came whizzing by and we ended up missing it. We parted our separate ways just out back of our place as I went onto work. I missed that bus as well but I got the other one and even though the day was partially overcast it was a nice day.I got into the office a bit on the early side and the boss had left and the staff were just about to leave the afternoon shift. The only thing on my mind was the election results. I had a good start to the afternoon. I ended up with 3 CC’s and a pretty good night but towards the midway point of the 2nd half I had a difficult customer that said something unpleasant. “Do you want to talk to my supervisor?” The guy said “Sure,” as the floor manager went by me he looked at me funny saying I was supposed to trouble shoot the call. Yeah and waste my line hour time? So my “Supervisor and I glared at each other and he had some choice words for me. He’s been on my case for awhile now. I did get some election results near the end of the shift and it was PC something like 139 seats. They were saying to me all night that the Conservatives will be having a minority Government again. I just hung up on the guy waiting. I was glad to get out of there. I made my way to Corona and waited for my train and read on the way home feeling somewhat relived that at least the Liberals didn’t win. The Bloc won most of their seats in Quebec of course. The NDP came in just behind The Bloc.I got home to catch the other results and Harper won with something like 142 seats. Other then that minor crap with the floor manager I had a pretty good night.
So, it’s come to my attention that Pure Speculation is This Weekend. Oct 18th- 19th Whew. Also, I get another $20 and I have COH $35 on hand plus another $20 for Saturday. So this is good news.
Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now
e. Jim
Monday, October 13, 2008
Thanksgiving day is done
I’ve been having a great couple of days off here. I’ve been tinkering around with my website. The Eskimos won Friday night in BC and the Oiler’s won their season opener last night. I get a kick how the hockey world outside of Edmonton and Northern Alberta hates the Oiler’s. The announcer at the conclusion of the game had said “They got a dirty win,” making some under the breath reference to tar sands oil. But if the reverse occurred for any other team, “A win is a win and they’ll take it.” I don’t know if that’s true or not, that’s just the impression I get.
Well it’s Thanksgiving day here in Canada. I’ve a lot to be thankful for. I live in the best place in Canada. I got a job and a beautiful wife and 4 cats. Sure I know we’re just getting by but we’re a lot better off then a lot of other people. And I’m thankful for that. People might hate Edmonton, but they sure love the jobs and the money it brings them.
Last night I took advantage of the new Download feature (well new to me) from YouTube. I must have downloaded a good 20-30 videos so far. I’m not done yet. Just because I’ve downloaded them doesn’t mean I wont go to YouTube. These are songs for on the go when I‘m away from YouTube.
Earlier I began looking at some vintage musical keyboards and even though playing the keyboard was in my consciousness as early as the early 1970’s if I took up playing say in 1974, while I had a lot of time on my hands as a young man in his early 20’s, I’d probably have some thing like a Yamaha YC-30 or even a YC-25D Combo organ. Those organs in 1974 would have cost around $4k. To rich for my blood back then or even today.
I’m slowly closing to the end of Book 1 in the Icewind Dale trilogy. It’s pretty good and has some engaging scenes. The world building is pretty good as well. R. A. Salvatore put a lot of work into what the preface says was his first novel.
Tomorrow is election day. Uggh. According to the news lat night we’re short of electoral officers. Apparently it pays anywhere from $1-$200/day and they provide free training, so I think I’m going to sign up for the civic one. We get the Civic election, provincial election, Federal election.
This week, it’s a chalk full week. Of course today its Thanksgiving, tomorrow is the election, Thursday is lodge night. Our next stat holiday is Remembrance Day and that falls on a Tuesday.
Anne made me a great dinner of baby back ribs, beans and a backed potato. For desert a nice piece of pumpkin pie. Man was that good. All while watching a pretty good show of Monday night Raw. Anyway that’s been my weekend. I would have liked to have gone out to Pure Speculation to say hello to Robert J Sawyer. He’s off to Calgary for their World Fantasy Convention October 30th I wouldn’t mind attending that one but Yeesh, I have trouble just making it to across the river.
Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now
e. Jim
Well it’s Thanksgiving day here in Canada. I’ve a lot to be thankful for. I live in the best place in Canada. I got a job and a beautiful wife and 4 cats. Sure I know we’re just getting by but we’re a lot better off then a lot of other people. And I’m thankful for that. People might hate Edmonton, but they sure love the jobs and the money it brings them.
Last night I took advantage of the new Download feature (well new to me) from YouTube. I must have downloaded a good 20-30 videos so far. I’m not done yet. Just because I’ve downloaded them doesn’t mean I wont go to YouTube. These are songs for on the go when I‘m away from YouTube.
Earlier I began looking at some vintage musical keyboards and even though playing the keyboard was in my consciousness as early as the early 1970’s if I took up playing say in 1974, while I had a lot of time on my hands as a young man in his early 20’s, I’d probably have some thing like a Yamaha YC-30 or even a YC-25D Combo organ. Those organs in 1974 would have cost around $4k. To rich for my blood back then or even today.
I’m slowly closing to the end of Book 1 in the Icewind Dale trilogy. It’s pretty good and has some engaging scenes. The world building is pretty good as well. R. A. Salvatore put a lot of work into what the preface says was his first novel.
Tomorrow is election day. Uggh. According to the news lat night we’re short of electoral officers. Apparently it pays anywhere from $1-$200/day and they provide free training, so I think I’m going to sign up for the civic one. We get the Civic election, provincial election, Federal election.
This week, it’s a chalk full week. Of course today its Thanksgiving, tomorrow is the election, Thursday is lodge night. Our next stat holiday is Remembrance Day and that falls on a Tuesday.
Anne made me a great dinner of baby back ribs, beans and a backed potato. For desert a nice piece of pumpkin pie. Man was that good. All while watching a pretty good show of Monday night Raw. Anyway that’s been my weekend. I would have liked to have gone out to Pure Speculation to say hello to Robert J Sawyer. He’s off to Calgary for their World Fantasy Convention October 30th I wouldn’t mind attending that one but Yeesh, I have trouble just making it to across the river.
Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now
e. Jim
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Meh
Frost appeared for the first time this fall. Not that it was cold or anything going into work. It was bright and sunny out there and I had a nice relaxing ride, trying to wake up on the train heading into work. My battery for my MP3 player died out on me. Twice and I’m out of batteries. I think I need an IPod. This little Rush player is still useful but well over 4 years old. Time for a new one with a bit more functionality. I must have spent close to $100 bucks on batteries. I know there are AAA battery rectangle kits out there. But before I get one of those I’m giving this player to my wife. I’m going to get the IPod.
Yesterday I picked up 2 books from the backlog of books I have waiting for me at Audrey’s. I got the “Warcraft Archive” and a Warhammer 40K omnibus: “Blood Ravens.” Should be a couple of good ones. I have 10 books there now waiting for me. They want me to pick up the rest of those before I special order or even pick up anything new from their stock. I wanted to get Roger Zelaney’s “The Great book of Amber.” collection but Trevor said the book is still in stock. Good.
I got to my end dialer and looking forward to having a great morning half of the shift and my first sale was a CC. Things were looking good. Not. I had another CC but my total was low. The floor manager kept me there for as long as his line hour would allow, however before I got moved to the other side at only about $400 (everyone else was at about $480-$680) However I had 5 CC’s and that’s all I cared about. Anne called me from her job as I had 30 minutes in m y shift. Last night with the same source at the same location I had over $1,000 in a 3.5 hour shift. Even the boss showed up to do pay roll and asked me why was I sitting in the cheep seats? “I’m having a slow shift.”
I was glad to get out of the office. I have 27 CC’s on the week and some of those were at $3-$5 each. I could have about $50-$60 for bonuses next week on a full cheque. That’ll buy me a few Science Fiction books at Audrey’s next week. If Rob pays me.
Outside on the street leaving I had a decision to make. Do I want to go to Pure Speculation or home? Most of the panels scheduled there were for today. I’d miss the main RJS ones anyway because I was at work. Of course there’s always the Sunday panels. It’s a meet and greet photo op with RJS etc. I might still go but my camera isn’t working properly and this couldn’t have come at a worse time. Right now the costume shindig is under way. The last one of those I ever attended was back in 1979 at Non Con and I remember how much fun I had then. I wish I had the interest to take photo’s for prosperity back then.
Meh, so I went home on the train. I didn’t even read, I was that wiped out but when I got home I fired on the computer and had at that for awhile then I went for a snooze for a couple of hours. Anne’s phone call woke me up around 5:30pm and I got involved in watching this Paul Newman movie “Sweet bird of youth.” I hadn’t seen it before, not being a Paul Newman fan or anything but I liked the movie. Anne called me shortly before her 6pm break was over and she wants to get Pizza tonight. Wuwho! I took my insulin about 8pm fed the cats and Anne’s off work at 10pm. Pizza will be here in about 2 hours.
Yesterday I picked up 2 books from the backlog of books I have waiting for me at Audrey’s. I got the “Warcraft Archive” and a Warhammer 40K omnibus: “Blood Ravens.” Should be a couple of good ones. I have 10 books there now waiting for me. They want me to pick up the rest of those before I special order or even pick up anything new from their stock. I wanted to get Roger Zelaney’s “The Great book of Amber.” collection but Trevor said the book is still in stock. Good.
Anyway, I have 2 days off and I’m happy about that. Recently I’ve been tinkering around with the website. The first thing a casual observer will see is the change in the photo block. I’m not done with that yet either. Also accidentally gone is the Google ad. Apparently the ad was place on a static page called “Welcome to my website” etc. Now this is its separate block. The idea was to have “currently reading” and reading next in their own block but the images are 2 small for the middle column. Trial and error. I’m thinking I’d like to have the website “mission statement” back in the logo. It looks better there and will tighten up the photo block to make room for “currently reading” etc in there. Google add a bit of color to my site and “revenue.” but the ads for content haven’t been working for me lately. For instance, when I talk about and supporting Harper for PM I get these silly derogatory remarks about Harper. Like I said previously, I’m not a Progressive Conservative kind of guy if anything I’m a center libertarian but in my humble but accurate opinion Stephan Harper at this time is the right way for Canadians to go. Half the time with Dion nobody understands what’s coming out of his mouth. We all know Dion and May want a carbon tax. The NDP want a cap and trade, which amounts to the same thing. Ok lets get off that rabbit trail. Ads for content doesn’t work for me. Not like there’s a lot of money in Adsense anyway and this site isn’t about making money. Its not content for the masses. However, I still wouldn’t mind making a little money from this site even if it’s just enough to have the ads pay for the site. I’m working at getting a tower ad on the right sidebar. From Amazon or something else, I’m not sure yet. Website tinkering goes on.
Sunday, I’m relaxing. The Oiler’s have their season opener on and Monday I’ve got Raw and Anne is making me up a nice set of baby back ribs instead of turkey for holiday Monday. I’ve got enough to keep me busy, When Pure Speculation rolls around next year, I want to have my first professional sale and my teeth all done. And my camera working for me. I want to do it up right. No doubt the organizers of Pure speculation are already planning for next year. This might not get edited right away so maybe tomorrow.
Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now
e. Jim
Friday, October 10, 2008
Having a
busy couple of days here but in a nice busy sort of way. I'll have a larger post for later on.
Anyway Bloggers, that's all for now
e. Jim
Anyway Bloggers, that's all for now
e. Jim
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Sunday was spent
lounging around doing a lot of piano theory, reading and JFK assassination research. You can read my musings over there on the JFK Lancer board. I don’t take any official version on the case. I've got a post there called "Another rifle."
Today I left out of here at my usual time. I got to my dialer and Cathy mentioned how one of us tap shooters is making $14/hr. She's been here for about a year now, the woman Cathy is talking about. I wont mention her name but she flirts with management. She’s nice enough and all but guess how she got $14/hr by giving the boss head. Among other things. She even said as much to me. “I just suck (you know what) and I get what I want,” and she laughed about it. I didn’t think too much of it at the time some months back when she said this out of the blue. Now after hearing she makes $14/hr this really set me for a spin. And I went out and cut the legs out from underneath me getting that $50? But oh know I had to say the right thing and short change myself $50.
And it took management at XL 5 years to get me to do taps and 8 years to get to $10/hr. So this really made me upset. From now on when it comes to work, no more “Mr. nice guy.” I’m going to take what I can get. I ended up with a slow night and but got a couple of CC’s and just under $400 by break. I got 7 CC’s and a $720 total at the end of the shift, and a $25 bonus and I became back to my old self with MS-ahem. She makes $14 at this job and $21 on her day job and has the gall to ask me for change. My wife called saying that she came back from the bank and cashed my GST cheque.
After work all I wanted to do was to get to the LRT train, read on the way home and watch my Monday night Raw. The show was really good this evening.
I haven’t been watching much of any local/national news lately. The world financial markets are sliding and people are saying that this recent economic turndown has similar hallmarks to the crash of 1929. There’s a lot of emotion out there but I don’t think a $700B bailout package is the answer. I’m not a stock guy even though I wouldn’t mind getting into the stock market. I just don’t have $10K to invest.
Other news politically speaking here in Canada, all the main political parties here are still attacking Harper. If the election were to be called today Harper would have another minority Government. If you care about the economy, don't vote Dion or Layton. Lots of people are saying we need change, well thing is change costs money. The Liberals are in panic mode over the economy and all the Greens and NDP want to do is tax everyone. Yeesh. Now I’m not necessarily a Progressive Conservative kind of guy. I’m more of a center Libertarian then anything. I’d vote Jack Layton but he’s in favour of a cap n trade system on the oil industry and this will only slow down our economy here in Alberta. I hate to admit it but the only way for Canada to go is for Harper.
I’m really enjoying this “Icewind Dale trilogy.” R.A. Salvatore’s writing is awesome but maybe its to early to tell in the book but I get the feeling that the characters have it too easy in the fight scenes. The plot is first rate although and the writing is tight and crisp. I wont give away too many details. I should be at page 300/1040 by Friday.
I’m going to go to Pure Speculation on Saturday even i come in the middle of a panel. I won't go for both days. It's only $10 bucks.
Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now
e. Jim
Today I left out of here at my usual time. I got to my dialer and Cathy mentioned how one of us tap shooters is making $14/hr. She's been here for about a year now, the woman Cathy is talking about. I wont mention her name but she flirts with management. She’s nice enough and all but guess how she got $14/hr by giving the boss head. Among other things. She even said as much to me. “I just suck (you know what) and I get what I want,” and she laughed about it. I didn’t think too much of it at the time some months back when she said this out of the blue. Now after hearing she makes $14/hr this really set me for a spin. And I went out and cut the legs out from underneath me getting that $50? But oh know I had to say the right thing and short change myself $50.
And it took management at XL 5 years to get me to do taps and 8 years to get to $10/hr. So this really made me upset. From now on when it comes to work, no more “Mr. nice guy.” I’m going to take what I can get. I ended up with a slow night and but got a couple of CC’s and just under $400 by break. I got 7 CC’s and a $720 total at the end of the shift, and a $25 bonus and I became back to my old self with MS-ahem. She makes $14 at this job and $21 on her day job and has the gall to ask me for change. My wife called saying that she came back from the bank and cashed my GST cheque.
After work all I wanted to do was to get to the LRT train, read on the way home and watch my Monday night Raw. The show was really good this evening.
I haven’t been watching much of any local/national news lately. The world financial markets are sliding and people are saying that this recent economic turndown has similar hallmarks to the crash of 1929. There’s a lot of emotion out there but I don’t think a $700B bailout package is the answer. I’m not a stock guy even though I wouldn’t mind getting into the stock market. I just don’t have $10K to invest.
Other news politically speaking here in Canada, all the main political parties here are still attacking Harper. If the election were to be called today Harper would have another minority Government. If you care about the economy, don't vote Dion or Layton. Lots of people are saying we need change, well thing is change costs money. The Liberals are in panic mode over the economy and all the Greens and NDP want to do is tax everyone. Yeesh. Now I’m not necessarily a Progressive Conservative kind of guy. I’m more of a center Libertarian then anything. I’d vote Jack Layton but he’s in favour of a cap n trade system on the oil industry and this will only slow down our economy here in Alberta. I hate to admit it but the only way for Canada to go is for Harper.
I’m really enjoying this “Icewind Dale trilogy.” R.A. Salvatore’s writing is awesome but maybe its to early to tell in the book but I get the feeling that the characters have it too easy in the fight scenes. The plot is first rate although and the writing is tight and crisp. I wont give away too many details. I should be at page 300/1040 by Friday.
I’m going to go to Pure Speculation on Saturday even i come in the middle of a panel. I won't go for both days. It's only $10 bucks.
Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now
e. Jim
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Hey, it's the first Saturday of October
I shut the place down around 4pm and I had a brief wait under clear blue autumn skies. I think it was about +21C out there. Very nice.
I recall this time 1979 I wasn’t quite at the Meyer place yet but living out there with Larry & Hubert at the Riverside towers. If you go to Google earth you can see the twin towers by the stadium. I lived in the one facing North-East, 17th floor near the top. The 2 red brick Boardwalk buildings weren’t there yet. Anyway no delays on the train today. I read about 3 pages of Ice and had a good time then into work. Rob asked me about Thursday night, He was in a good mood I said, “This was an arrangement between me and my night room manager.” I didn’t like how that came out. “First Thursday of every month, you know Lodge meeting?” He Didn’t put up much of a struggle.
So we merged our “tap shooter” with the front 20 and Rob gave a kick off and I was doing and feeling comfortable with the disclaimer doing CRF. I got a $50 and a lot of $25. Rob doesn’t like the $25’s but there’re cold calls Rob. Moe showed up about 6pm. I was feeling good. I got my cheque early and all my hours. Not quite a full cheque. Anne called on her break and I talked with her. I was having a good time even though the person next to me was rather loud. Finally break and I was sitting at about $200. Other then Monday this whole week was cold calling. I don’t mind it. I’m comfortable in my pitch and my technique. I ended up with $365. Not bad for a slow Friday night. And we had a decent crew there as well. We were playing this guess a number from 1-75 on the white board. For each $25 guess we get $5. I had about a dozen chances but I didn’t get 1 number. I was a bit pissed off as well because the person next to me near the end (not using the disclaimer) got 1 number guess near the end. I shouldn’t complain because I did the same thing before the DNC list and year to date I received about $1,000 in bonus money. So I shouldn’t complain over $5 bucks. We ask for the CC’s but it’s almost impossible to get CC’s doing cold calling.
Everybody was getting a good job, well done etc but ignoring me. I felt pretty low. But I was glad to get out of there. “What do I care as long as the cheque don’t bounce.” It was nice and mild heading across the parking lot to get my bus and a brief wait. I should have called Audrey’s while I was waiting but I’ll be going in for this afternoon after work to pick something up. I’m looking at that “Everquest” book as I‘m really enjoying this “Icewind Dale“ trilogy.
I took the bus up there to my bank with Shashank, one of the 30 something East Indian kids that somewhat befriended me. I got to my bank did my banking and took out $100 my wife needs to pay bills with. Somethings got to give here because we need that subsidy. I think we’ll work on getting it out this weekend. Right now we’re waiting on the gst cheque and that’s going to help pay for my Pure Speculation weekend. I’m thinking about a weekend pass. I’m trying to get Charles to go with me but he might be working that night afternoon. But Pure Spec wont be held until Oct. 18th and 19th. So we’ve still got some time. So, I did my banking and down the stairs at Central Station and I heard my train pull in. Good stuff. I was home by 9:15pm.
Speaking about Pure Speculation, Robert J Sawyer will be there and I want a picture taken with him. I have one from before when he was here in late April of ’07 but it wasn’t a very good picture of me. Also, Minister Faust will be there as well. I’ll be bringing my camera this time.
That week of Pure speculation will be an action packed week. Firstly its right on the heals of the Thanksgiving Day long weekend. Then there’s the Federal election October 14th. Plus there’s the FC on that Thursday. So, I’ll be working that morning. Or at least trying to. And if Rob cuts me off because I’ve got $50 bucks at 11am, fine its just gravy money anyway. Then that weekend after Thanks Giving day is Pure spec. So this will be a busy week for me.
Last night I had a good time watching a special wrestling evening. It wasn’t a live show like Raw but they had all of Raw and Smackdown and ECW put into one show. It was pretty good. Anne came in about 11:30pm made me some Pizza pops and fries. I developed a bit of a toothache again on my lower right side. It wasn’t a deep pain more like a burning sensation. But I took a pill and it felt a bit better but getting some sleep sure was tough. I never sleep well over night Friday/Saturday if I got a lot of sleep overnight Thursday/Friday. I pay for it Friday/Saturday but I’m feeling alright now. I’ve got another pill for tonight if this thing doesn’t go away. Right now it’s just a dull minor annoyance. Other then that I don’t feel to bad.
Today, it’s going into work this morning and I’ll bring my cash and after work I need to go into Audrey’s pick up a book, then call Nathan to see how things went from Thursday night and the elections for my Tyler position. Then I want to call Charles and see if he would like to go to Pure Spec with me. He’s got the wheels to get out there and Pure Spec is enough of a head start he can make plans with.
What else? Oh about 3:30am this morning I couldn’t sleep because of the toothache pain so rather then disturb my wife I got up to watch some TV on the couch. She last had the TV on Space (Sci-fi for my American readers.)
They had a half hour spot on the making of Star Wars “The Clone Wars.” This was really a fascinating look into the effort that went into making this production. The Clone wars begins October 10th and I’ll be watching. It looks really good. I made a comment about this in SF Signal saying something like “It looks hokey to cartoon-ish.” for me. Wow was I ever wrong. Likes Like I’ll have to pay SF Signal a visit and eat Crow. I’m really excited about this series. I’m not a big fan of Anime but this one looks good. Sorry for any typos or edit’os. I’ll fix it up latter after I come home and have a nap.
Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now
e. Jim
I recall this time 1979 I wasn’t quite at the Meyer place yet but living out there with Larry & Hubert at the Riverside towers. If you go to Google earth you can see the twin towers by the stadium. I lived in the one facing North-East, 17th floor near the top. The 2 red brick Boardwalk buildings weren’t there yet. Anyway no delays on the train today. I read about 3 pages of Ice and had a good time then into work. Rob asked me about Thursday night, He was in a good mood I said, “This was an arrangement between me and my night room manager.” I didn’t like how that came out. “First Thursday of every month, you know Lodge meeting?” He Didn’t put up much of a struggle.
So we merged our “tap shooter” with the front 20 and Rob gave a kick off and I was doing and feeling comfortable with the disclaimer doing CRF. I got a $50 and a lot of $25. Rob doesn’t like the $25’s but there’re cold calls Rob. Moe showed up about 6pm. I was feeling good. I got my cheque early and all my hours. Not quite a full cheque. Anne called on her break and I talked with her. I was having a good time even though the person next to me was rather loud. Finally break and I was sitting at about $200. Other then Monday this whole week was cold calling. I don’t mind it. I’m comfortable in my pitch and my technique. I ended up with $365. Not bad for a slow Friday night. And we had a decent crew there as well. We were playing this guess a number from 1-75 on the white board. For each $25 guess we get $5. I had about a dozen chances but I didn’t get 1 number. I was a bit pissed off as well because the person next to me near the end (not using the disclaimer) got 1 number guess near the end. I shouldn’t complain because I did the same thing before the DNC list and year to date I received about $1,000 in bonus money. So I shouldn’t complain over $5 bucks. We ask for the CC’s but it’s almost impossible to get CC’s doing cold calling.
Everybody was getting a good job, well done etc but ignoring me. I felt pretty low. But I was glad to get out of there. “What do I care as long as the cheque don’t bounce.” It was nice and mild heading across the parking lot to get my bus and a brief wait. I should have called Audrey’s while I was waiting but I’ll be going in for this afternoon after work to pick something up. I’m looking at that “Everquest” book as I‘m really enjoying this “Icewind Dale“ trilogy.
I took the bus up there to my bank with Shashank, one of the 30 something East Indian kids that somewhat befriended me. I got to my bank did my banking and took out $100 my wife needs to pay bills with. Somethings got to give here because we need that subsidy. I think we’ll work on getting it out this weekend. Right now we’re waiting on the gst cheque and that’s going to help pay for my Pure Speculation weekend. I’m thinking about a weekend pass. I’m trying to get Charles to go with me but he might be working that night afternoon. But Pure Spec wont be held until Oct. 18th and 19th. So we’ve still got some time. So, I did my banking and down the stairs at Central Station and I heard my train pull in. Good stuff. I was home by 9:15pm.
Speaking about Pure Speculation, Robert J Sawyer will be there and I want a picture taken with him. I have one from before when he was here in late April of ’07 but it wasn’t a very good picture of me. Also, Minister Faust will be there as well. I’ll be bringing my camera this time.
That week of Pure speculation will be an action packed week. Firstly its right on the heals of the Thanksgiving Day long weekend. Then there’s the Federal election October 14th. Plus there’s the FC on that Thursday. So, I’ll be working that morning. Or at least trying to. And if Rob cuts me off because I’ve got $50 bucks at 11am, fine its just gravy money anyway. Then that weekend after Thanks Giving day is Pure spec. So this will be a busy week for me.
Last night I had a good time watching a special wrestling evening. It wasn’t a live show like Raw but they had all of Raw and Smackdown and ECW put into one show. It was pretty good. Anne came in about 11:30pm made me some Pizza pops and fries. I developed a bit of a toothache again on my lower right side. It wasn’t a deep pain more like a burning sensation. But I took a pill and it felt a bit better but getting some sleep sure was tough. I never sleep well over night Friday/Saturday if I got a lot of sleep overnight Thursday/Friday. I pay for it Friday/Saturday but I’m feeling alright now. I’ve got another pill for tonight if this thing doesn’t go away. Right now it’s just a dull minor annoyance. Other then that I don’t feel to bad.
Today, it’s going into work this morning and I’ll bring my cash and after work I need to go into Audrey’s pick up a book, then call Nathan to see how things went from Thursday night and the elections for my Tyler position. Then I want to call Charles and see if he would like to go to Pure Spec with me. He’s got the wheels to get out there and Pure Spec is enough of a head start he can make plans with.
What else? Oh about 3:30am this morning I couldn’t sleep because of the toothache pain so rather then disturb my wife I got up to watch some TV on the couch. She last had the TV on Space (Sci-fi for my American readers.)
They had a half hour spot on the making of Star Wars “The Clone Wars.” This was really a fascinating look into the effort that went into making this production. The Clone wars begins October 10th and I’ll be watching. It looks really good. I made a comment about this in SF Signal saying something like “It looks hokey to cartoon-ish.” for me. Wow was I ever wrong. Likes Like I’ll have to pay SF Signal a visit and eat Crow. I’m really excited about this series. I’m not a big fan of Anime but this one looks good. Sorry for any typos or edit’os. I’ll fix it up latter after I come home and have a nap.
Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now
e. Jim
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Yesterday afternoon
after I locked everything up and waited for my bus, I felt ok and got to Clairview station. A brief wait. I got to read for a bit and we were underway. However just before the train crossed the Yellowhead highway it stalled saying there is some kind of situation ahead on the line causing LRT delay. We waited there for about 20 minutes. I cracked open a can of diet pop and read my book. When the driver said we were allowed to proceed the train limped along to Rexall, then Stadium. Just after Stadium crossing I think 92nd the Police had a large area of track tapped off and a squad car. When we got underground we sped up normally and I missed my stop and got off at Grandin. I called My Supervisor at the Office and said to Moe that I’d be detained. I ended up getting in at 5:15pm. First time I’ve ever been late. I ended up with $350 as we weren’t doing Magic. Thank God. I had a pretty good night pulling in a $10 bonus.
I woke up around 11pm figuring I’ll sleep until about 12:20pm and catch how the afternoon markets are doing since the new US bail out plan was accepted-first part. But when I woke up it was 2pm! Yikes, I didn’t mean to sleep in this late. So I fixed a coffee. Anne’s off today as well and since she figured I’m not at lodge tonight, there goes my $5 and I won’t get a full pay cheque Friday for missing last Monday. However we have just enough to keep things going month-by-month but next week Anne is going to be applying for rental subsidy. Even though we don’t have rent controls here in Alberta like they do in other Provinces, we have subsidy. It works out to be about 30% of ones income up to $33K/year. We might get $500 extra a month. Hopefully we’ll get that going this fall. We’ve got the paper work, we just need to fill out a few things and we’re ready to go with it.
I told Moe I wouldn’t be in for tonight because of the Lodge meeting. I’m calling Nathan to let him know I’m not feeling well and I’d like a night off. He doesn’t need to know that last part. I read a bit while waiting for my train. Two cars meant no Oiler home game. I was able to read on the way home and I got my #183 and got off at Sifton school and walked home. Anne tried calling but my cell phone had been reduced to about 2% battery so we got cut off.
Over the past several days I’ve discovered a nice series of piano tutorials. Very generous ones as well that explained Major, Minor diminished and augmented chords and show how to build them and various scales as well. There’s about 69 individual lessons.
Work last night wasn’t so bad. I ended up sharing top total with Melody who doesn’t use the disclaimer. As she left for the elevator Moe gave her a thumbs up and mentioned what a great job she did (never mind me that had the same total. I’m just glad I have a day off today even though it’s a payday. I get my cheque on Friday and October’s rent is paid, I got my insulin for the month and our transit passes. The cable/Internet bill is all paid up. I’m broke with barely $7 to my name but that’s ok. Anne mentioned that we will be getting our GST cheque this month. Probably next week. In which case I need to get some Provincial ID at the registry where we got our marriage license. With the ID I can get secured Visa.
If, Lord forbid, Canadians elect Dion, goes to show me Canadians are idiots. Fortunately, I have enough faith in my fellow Canadians to reelect (PC) Harper. Dion’s platform is the (Liberal) Green shaft. This screws all Canadians. Jack Layton wants a cap and trade and this screws Alberta.
The Green party of course, well they don’t count. I don’t know what I’m going to do if Dion is elected. Maybe Keith has some room on that island property he wants to by and we can all weather the storm on it together.
So it seems now that some scientists and AGW people are saying that methane trapped as solids on the ocean floor in the artic might be responsible for global warming. So it looks like the environmentalists are about to change their “It’s all mankind’s fault,” tune. Yet at the same time in the news there is supposed to be a large pile of floating garbage the size of the state of Texas looming about a hundred miles off the coast of Hawaii. Don’t get me wrong folks, I’m not against “saving the planet.” I just don’t think we need to save the planet at the expense of losing jobs and carbon taxes and other social engineering schemes wont save the planet either. We need to develop alternative energy sources but not at the expense of the economy and jobs. Oil isn’t going to be around forever and 80 years worth of oil before its gone is just around the corner. I believe were sitting on some technology that will allow for unlimited energy. But the LHC isn’t going to be the be end all scenario that will save us. Yeesh, they can barely get this thing to work.
Speaking about the LHC after hearing how China's space program acllerating and their plans for landing a man on the moon, I thought wouldn't that be funny if the LHC finds traversable worm holes at the same time the Chinese begin to land on the moon and out walks onto the lunar surface from a wormhole in preasure suits someone from Nasa, Canada, Europe and waves at the Chinese team as they are getting off their lunar lander. That'd be funny.
Apparently the reason for the big tie-up on the LRT yesterday causing me to be late for work was somebody walked into the oncoming train on 95th street about 20 meters before the tracks go underground. Someone committing suicide in other words. Something like this happens every couple of years. I feel sorry for the driver who most likely is in shock over something like this.
We’re enjoying a beautiful fall afternoon and an evening off. Our birds are chirping away on our balcony. All thins considered, we’re not doing to bad. I just wish there was an Oiler hockey game on but next one is tomorrow. Sigh. They’ve hired to waivers a Steve McIntyre as a bit of an “enforcer” just to let other teams know that they can’t take liberties with our skilled players.
Unfortunately because tomorrow is my pay cheque day, I wont be able to get my SFF book for Friday night. Instead I’ll go to Audrey’s on Saturday afternoon and pick up something. There have been a few Nancy Kress books I want to pick up and other books on Ebay “Forgotten Realms” etc. Kind of a long entry for me today, but you might not get anything from me until maybe Saturday or Sunday, we’ll see.
Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now
e. Jim
I woke up around 11pm figuring I’ll sleep until about 12:20pm and catch how the afternoon markets are doing since the new US bail out plan was accepted-first part. But when I woke up it was 2pm! Yikes, I didn’t mean to sleep in this late. So I fixed a coffee. Anne’s off today as well and since she figured I’m not at lodge tonight, there goes my $5 and I won’t get a full pay cheque Friday for missing last Monday. However we have just enough to keep things going month-by-month but next week Anne is going to be applying for rental subsidy. Even though we don’t have rent controls here in Alberta like they do in other Provinces, we have subsidy. It works out to be about 30% of ones income up to $33K/year. We might get $500 extra a month. Hopefully we’ll get that going this fall. We’ve got the paper work, we just need to fill out a few things and we’re ready to go with it.
I told Moe I wouldn’t be in for tonight because of the Lodge meeting. I’m calling Nathan to let him know I’m not feeling well and I’d like a night off. He doesn’t need to know that last part. I read a bit while waiting for my train. Two cars meant no Oiler home game. I was able to read on the way home and I got my #183 and got off at Sifton school and walked home. Anne tried calling but my cell phone had been reduced to about 2% battery so we got cut off.
Over the past several days I’ve discovered a nice series of piano tutorials. Very generous ones as well that explained Major, Minor diminished and augmented chords and show how to build them and various scales as well. There’s about 69 individual lessons.
Work last night wasn’t so bad. I ended up sharing top total with Melody who doesn’t use the disclaimer. As she left for the elevator Moe gave her a thumbs up and mentioned what a great job she did (never mind me that had the same total. I’m just glad I have a day off today even though it’s a payday. I get my cheque on Friday and October’s rent is paid, I got my insulin for the month and our transit passes. The cable/Internet bill is all paid up. I’m broke with barely $7 to my name but that’s ok. Anne mentioned that we will be getting our GST cheque this month. Probably next week. In which case I need to get some Provincial ID at the registry where we got our marriage license. With the ID I can get secured Visa.
If, Lord forbid, Canadians elect Dion, goes to show me Canadians are idiots. Fortunately, I have enough faith in my fellow Canadians to reelect (PC) Harper. Dion’s platform is the (Liberal) Green shaft. This screws all Canadians. Jack Layton wants a cap and trade and this screws Alberta.
The Green party of course, well they don’t count. I don’t know what I’m going to do if Dion is elected. Maybe Keith has some room on that island property he wants to by and we can all weather the storm on it together.
So it seems now that some scientists and AGW people are saying that methane trapped as solids on the ocean floor in the artic might be responsible for global warming. So it looks like the environmentalists are about to change their “It’s all mankind’s fault,” tune. Yet at the same time in the news there is supposed to be a large pile of floating garbage the size of the state of Texas looming about a hundred miles off the coast of Hawaii. Don’t get me wrong folks, I’m not against “saving the planet.” I just don’t think we need to save the planet at the expense of losing jobs and carbon taxes and other social engineering schemes wont save the planet either. We need to develop alternative energy sources but not at the expense of the economy and jobs. Oil isn’t going to be around forever and 80 years worth of oil before its gone is just around the corner. I believe were sitting on some technology that will allow for unlimited energy. But the LHC isn’t going to be the be end all scenario that will save us. Yeesh, they can barely get this thing to work.
Speaking about the LHC after hearing how China's space program acllerating and their plans for landing a man on the moon, I thought wouldn't that be funny if the LHC finds traversable worm holes at the same time the Chinese begin to land on the moon and out walks onto the lunar surface from a wormhole in preasure suits someone from Nasa, Canada, Europe and waves at the Chinese team as they are getting off their lunar lander. That'd be funny.
Apparently the reason for the big tie-up on the LRT yesterday causing me to be late for work was somebody walked into the oncoming train on 95th street about 20 meters before the tracks go underground. Someone committing suicide in other words. Something like this happens every couple of years. I feel sorry for the driver who most likely is in shock over something like this.
We’re enjoying a beautiful fall afternoon and an evening off. Our birds are chirping away on our balcony. All thins considered, we’re not doing to bad. I just wish there was an Oiler hockey game on but next one is tomorrow. Sigh. They’ve hired to waivers a Steve McIntyre as a bit of an “enforcer” just to let other teams know that they can’t take liberties with our skilled players.
Unfortunately because tomorrow is my pay cheque day, I wont be able to get my SFF book for Friday night. Instead I’ll go to Audrey’s on Saturday afternoon and pick up something. There have been a few Nancy Kress books I want to pick up and other books on Ebay “Forgotten Realms” etc. Kind of a long entry for me today, but you might not get anything from me until maybe Saturday or Sunday, we’ll see.
Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now
e. Jim
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