I missed my coffee container and rushed out in the January rain. That’s right rain this afternoon. The streets were already slick enough. I got my bus but had a bit of a wait for the train. That’s why I bring my book. I went the other way up Jasper Ave a block because the weather felt almost like late March. I met Gary outside saying no cheques today and the Regional manager is in. I scooped up some coffee from Bud. Once a year our “General manager” would do the pay roll calling everyone in only this time it’s the Regional manager.
Also, Super was running the phone room like a real boiler room. An employee was only as good as his/her last hour. L/h was $200, which by break I was able to meet and 3 CC sales. I was at $405 by break actually and the boss and his boss left for the night. Good! I ended up wit a record 8 CC sales for a total of $370 or a $37 bonus to me on my cheque next week. I ended up with $980. This week so far, I have $65 in bonuses and there’s still today and Saturday yet. This campaign has been very good to me.
But I was glad to get out of the office and I took a wrong turn and found myself along a sheet of watery potted pavement of ice for about 20 yards. Amazingly, I didn’t slip and fall. I had a chance to read while waiting for the train. Of course no Oiler’s or football meant only 2 cars on the train and Mike rode with me with my bag of cans and bottles and my backpack. At Rexall the Edmonton Rush were piled out on the platform and it was standing room only. Worse then an Oiler game some nights and the City only has 2 cars? WTF?
I caught my bus home and it was very icy out by the lights crossing. I hate weather like this. I’d rather have it -20C with some snow to walk on then warm wet icy and rainy then what we’ve had last night and will have more of the same today.
Ok, 2 years ago our Edmonton “Tent City” was making National news. Mainly because of the then (and up until this time last year) due to our hot economy. But as good as our economy was then at the time and given the fact our vacancy rate was so high, that didn’t prevent thousands of people coming here looking for work from other Provinces. Apartment conversions and condo s were being built faster then people today are leaving. The tent city had about 200-300 people in tents on an empty lot. The City has about 2000-3000 homeless people, today-still. Some people have been homeless for years. Now because of the ugly tent city scandal our Mayor has a plan to eradicate homeless within in 10 years. This plan has been hinted at over the last 8 months or so along the decline of our economy. Now the Mayor has a 10 year pan to eliminate homelessness in 10 years and it’s going to cost a billion dollars to do it. What, for 2-3000 people? Pst: I got news for you Mr. mayor, there will be another 2-3,000 homeless people here in Edmonton even 10 years. At 1 Billion dollars those are going to be really nice homes/condo’s. but what about low income earners now? My wife and I can’t really work extra hours more then what were doing now and we’re barely making it as it is.
The other thing on the news they had an item about assisted animals/dogs and their owners are allowed to go anywhere into any building/restaurant etc. The announcer was talking about how dogs are better indicators for diabetic when finding out if blood sugar level is low. In this fashion because I can’t afford all my test strips, a dog would be the next best thing. Actually I’d love a little mini American Eskimos dog like the one J Rock had about 4 months ago. They can be trained to use the litter. I might get one when Pledges goes………….12:55pm> My wife and I are real night owls due to our jobs. This gives us time off as we both have health issues. We were in bed by 4am listening to a bit of Coast. The topic was on regression therapy.
Mainly dealing with “alien abductions,” the topic on Coast was compelling. The abduction cases I’d be interested in would be the repeat cases. How many times Mrs. X had claimed she was abducted and if there is a pattern here. If so it’d be interesting if the regression therapist had the ability to plant suggestions in the form of questions that would be activated when such an encounter occurred again. If the abductees got the chance to ask questions o the behalf of the therapist. Some questions I’d be asking would be, “Who are you?” “Why abduct me?” “What star system do you come from?” There could be other factors preventing abductees from speaking. I’d also like to know how many of these are similar. How many people claim to have been abducted by tall green aliens with one eye? That sort of thing. What’s amazing about these alien abductions is why would a race travel light years to get to here only to abduct our people “play doctor” and deposit them? Unless of course the aliens run into Earth by accident. It’s interesting stuff.
Big topic locally here today is the weather. Right now it’s +5C but icy and breezy. Anne left out of here about 1o minutes ago for work. She’s going to get a Tim’s before heading to her job. I have picture ID here to get my cheque because I’ve got to go through some hassle to get it. I’m curious as to what if any bonuses I’ll be getting, if any.
Still working on the last 100 pages of “Runner.” After this I’m going to read “Logos run,” the sequel to “Runner.” I know the characters of the book now and it should be easier for me to get into the story.
Anyhow I get my cheque tonight and then it’s off to Audrey’s and then over to my bank and then home. I might even go up the street to get a Wendy’s or something after my bank because Anne wont come home until after 1pm. Take that home with me and maybe get back in time for wrestling and catch the PPV results of the Oiler’s game. If I get those bonuses and from what I have from Anne’s money, I’ll have enough for my website, this weekend.
According to Supie (not Super) this new budget will put about $300/year into my pocket. How all this is supposed to be implemented and doled out, I’m not sure. But it won’t be for this year it’ll be for the next year. This might mean a new computer for me around Christmas. We’ll see.
And finally, on the local news there might be a case going to BC courts over the “Queen of the North” ferry accident that happened a few years ago. The ferry sunk near Hartley Bay March 12th 2006. But this segment is about BC court fees and not the QON as tragic as the accident was I was shocked to see that court fees in BC are astronomically high. I saw $40k and $25k for legal fees and even jury fees were something like $10K. These fees were exposed due to the frustration the plaintiffs from the QON accident face when trying to bring this case to the courts. These fees apparently are typical in BC. So who pays for them? Are they being written off or what? Jury fees in Alberta are something like $800 and even less in Ontario. There needs to be a set standard fee structure for everything across Canada and the Supreme court needs to re examine this. I recall a few years back my wife was selected for jury duty. She had to decline because she didn’t feel comfortable going ahead with It. I could feel how much anxiety she had but she was able to call whoever selected her if she could get out of it. And she would have been paid $50/day. I wonder how much money jury duty pay is for BC residence? So in light of all this, what about the QON and when will there be a trail. If ever?
Anyway bloggers, that’s all for now
e. Jim
Friday, January 30, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
I added some new links in the Resources section
I thought I'd share.
Not much going on over the last couple of days except Blogging and paying attention to the federal Budget.
I'm about 80% of the way through "Runner." It's not a bad book but I want to go onto somethng fresh. Most likely I'll be reading Timothy Zahn's "The third Lynx." Sorry the book cover images don't work as they do on my website. We're using "mimages," what ever they are.
Anyway the Federal Budget was past barely but is on "probation," the Federal Liberals say. What a bunch of crap.
I wanted to ad more links to my blog rounds, here but Blogger unlike my website wont allow me to copy and paste a large ammount of URL's. I have to do this one at a time and it's very time consuming.
Anyway Bloggers, that's all for now
e. Jim
Not much going on over the last couple of days except Blogging and paying attention to the federal Budget.
I'm about 80% of the way through "Runner." It's not a bad book but I want to go onto somethng fresh. Most likely I'll be reading Timothy Zahn's "The third Lynx." Sorry the book cover images don't work as they do on my website. We're using "mimages," what ever they are.
Anyway the Federal Budget was past barely but is on "probation," the Federal Liberals say. What a bunch of crap.
I wanted to ad more links to my blog rounds, here but Blogger unlike my website wont allow me to copy and paste a large ammount of URL's. I have to do this one at a time and it's very time consuming.
Anyway Bloggers, that's all for now
e. Jim
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Tuesday and the weather is nice
My wife had to leave out of here earlier then me, so I locked the place up after packing my stuff and headed out of here. I didn’t feel to much like reading on the train in and I had a bit of a wait below at Corona Station. I don’t want to be too early. But Rob was there and never said anything to me.
I got my dialer and had a chat with JT about Politics we’re both mad as hell that a treasonable party like the Bloc has any business in Canadian politics and what business does a Provincial Party have to do with the House of Commons anyways? The NDP and Block can’t call for a Non Confidence vote on their own or even together. At least the Liberals are willing to give the budget a look see.
Wow, did I ever have a good shift this evening. I ended up with 5 CC sales and a total of $1,760 on the night. We haven’t had a total like that in the new office and since the old office. Especially not on our current Super’s watch. I got $350 of that on CC’s alone for a $24 bonus. I felt really good leaving the office with one of the guys for the train and home. And all that and the weather is nice Here are 2 images. The first is the short range weather and the second is the long range. I had a great evening, made some money for myself and I had a good time.
Anne made me a cheeseburger and fries for lunch as I was watching Monday night Raw. Another Great show. Raw keeps getting better and better and the weather is warming up a bit out there as well. Here’s a shot I took off our weather this afternoon before I left out of here for the job.
Hot dog. The Oiler’s are back in action this evening. Buffalo Sabers are in town and JT and I made a friendly $2 wager. I always take The Oiler’s to win but the 6th place Conference team (for now) are beginning to play better now that Hemsky’s back.
You know it amazes me that even though there is a lot of gloom and doom in the economy and all people are still willing to make donations. This evening I got 2 $100 CC sales and a $300 sale. I’ve had 7 days this month over $800, and have so far $1,750 in CC sales. I’m no big deal in the office either. Sure I know my job and how to fundraise and we still get people saying “TOL” but after all of that I’m surprised there is a lot of money out there. At least here in Canada anyway.
Earlier I found by way of SF Signal a list of interesting links, I thought I'd use as part of my daily website Blog rounds (eventually on Blogger) so here they are: Big Dumb Object Suvudu Revoltion SF Nuketown Geekdom Science Fiction Fantasy Media Science Fiction and Other ODDysseys The Wertzone Fantasy and Sci-Fi Lovin' Blog Fantasy Magazine Pat's Fantasy Hotlist These are just some of the links out of the many available I listed. Lots of these sites are Super Hero/comic book sites, I’m not to fond of. I love Fantasy Magazine and Pat's Fantasy Hotlist just to name a few. Suvudu looks especially good and will be apart of my daily reads. There will be more links coming latter.Also, thanks to SF Signal and Jessica Merritt I was able to gather a large list of assorted links to some interesting Blogs that I think you folks would enjoy browsing through.
Earlier I mentioned the national Budget Stephen Harper and his cabinet plan on presenting for a vote today. Now I’m no economist but the stimulus package is $30B, which most of it will go back East or to business. But I don’t think stimulus packages are the only way to get money into the economy, it’s a bi-partisan budget and a generous one. People need tax cuts more then stimulus packages. Sure stimulus packages get money flowing into the economy right away, I understand this. It’s just money down a black hole. Tax cuts get money back to everyone and not just for special interest groups. It seems to me though we need a balance of tax cuts and a stimulus package in this budget. I hope Harper recognizes this………1:45pm Hey, at least it’s warming up out there.
Not much going on. I got up about noon and made my way to the living room put water in the kettle on the stove for coffee and watched the markets. Oil was down by a couple of bucks. I brought my coffee into the office and spent an hour reading “Runner.” I’m going to post this on both blogs and do my blog rounds. That’s all from me for today.
Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now.
e. Jim
Sunday, January 25, 2009
A nice day off
The Saturday shift went well. I ended up with $37 worth of bonuses, when it was all over. If they pay me everything I should get $83 in bonuses and a full week on my next cheque. I even got 6 CC’s which helped me get the bonuses. I was very tired heading home on the train in the biting cold weather. I couldn’t resist another lottery ticket (I didn’t win of course) at Clairview.
When I got home I had a bit of a nap. Anne made me a plate of something. I did a lot of reading on “Runner” and almost at the halfway part of the book. I’m starting to really enjoy this novel. I’m not sure what I want to read next out of the 3 books listed but I haven’t read any James P. Hogan for awhile.
I had a relaxing night off and Anne made a little something to eat for, latter. The whole idea was to come in for today’s optional Sunday shift. Friday afternoon with Rob there, I said I’d try and make the effort to come in. Anne talked me out of it as we need to go to my bank Monday and get a new bank card she lost the other day. But I’ll need to go in for next Sunday because Lodge is next week and I want to make up for missing that Thursday. All in all, it was a good week but we had a few setbacks, even though they were minor ones.
For awhile now I’ve been following along Jerry Cornelius’s Blog in the links section and for the longest time, he has no blog entry for a Saturday. Most likely this is due to a Gnostic mass or something at a Lodge he attends in the Bay area. I enjoyed the Gnostic Mass when we had it here in the 1980’s. The last one I attended was I think was January 1996. I really miss the Mass and I’d go again if I knew there was one being conducted here on a Saturday night. Jerry’s Blog is one of the few daily Thelemic Blogs out there.
Sunday is going to be a reading and piano day. A day for just me. I put a full week in and I need to unwind. I might get up at noon with no where to go. On Coast from Saturday night they were talking about myths and folklore but later tonight they are going to be touching on UFO’s and ET. Should be a great show.
Anne gave us our sleeping pill for the night and I'm about ready to pack it in……….2:20pm Sunday. I’ve been out of bed for about an hour now with a bit of the runs for some reason. Anne couldn’t find Boots in our apartment earlier this morning but at the last moment from the corner of her eye she watched him squeeze out and went through a crack in our balcony sliding door. It gets really warm on our floor even without the thermostat on. Anne tried to go out after him, what with it being really cold out there but couldn’t get to Boots in time as she watched the cat leap off the balcony into the snow some 12 feet below. Boots tried to chase after Carl a rabbit we’ve named that likes the park area out here at night but Carl bolted off into the darkness somewhere the moment Boots landed in the snow nearby. About 4 this morning Anne went out to check for Boots as sometimes he likes to wander around but she couldn’t find him. That’s our boy.
Dennis Hurd (See friends links) wrote a good post about traveling on his blog today. I’m not much of a traveler myself. I suppose if I won the “Big one,” sure but I’m not much for leaving home. Some years ago before my wife and I met (when my sister-in-law “D” worked for a major pharmaceutical company) D had wanted Anne to meet her in Florida for a weekend as she racked up huge air mile points. D still racks up the points due to her job with another company. She racks up huge points every year. It was a bit of a hassle for my wife to find someone to look after her 4 cats 2 budgie birds, a plethora of hamsters and other assorted critters she had at the time. Anne was a bit reluctant to go but the allure of Florida in February was hard to resist. D had Anne’s tickets a place to stay and everything was all set up for my wife to spend a nice weekend in Florida and soon Anne found herself on a plane to the Sunshine state. Flying over the Rockies my wife felt the turbulence hit the plane too often for her liking and got scared. Filled with anxiety and freight when the plane landed at Denver she called the rest of the trip off and headed back to Edmonton. D said never again. Which is sad really because since then D has racked up more air mile points, she cashes them in every year or so. She’s sent family and even extended family to places like Paris France and Caribbean cruises etc. D herself goes on several cruises/year. Up until October of last year Anne and I kept our marriage secret from her family because she didn’t want her ailing parents to learn about our marriage thinking knowledge of this would be too much of a shock and could affect their health. But Anne's mother is no longer here as of 2004. When I got to meet D when she was here last October Anne had let the secret of our 8 year marriage out of the bag and it didn’t seem to phase D at all, much to the relief of my wife.
So is there a chance for me to travel? Maybe and I won’t turn it down if D instead of asking friends asks me instead if I’d like to go along so she doesn’t travel alone. I wont turn the opportunity down. D and I are the same age. But there’s nothing keeping me here for going to some place nice. I’d like to visit the Azores but the job and lack of money kind of keeps me away, plus there’s the hassle of it all as well.
It’s a pretty cold day out there. -15/24C with the wind chill. The wind chill is the number right of the/ of course. My wife’s up across the street to do some shopping and I’m enjoying my afternoon off and about to Blog this on my website and on Blogger and then it’s “Runner” time. Oh and I found the story about the Goat. You can read it here.
Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now.
e. Jim
When I got home I had a bit of a nap. Anne made me a plate of something. I did a lot of reading on “Runner” and almost at the halfway part of the book. I’m starting to really enjoy this novel. I’m not sure what I want to read next out of the 3 books listed but I haven’t read any James P. Hogan for awhile.
I had a relaxing night off and Anne made a little something to eat for, latter. The whole idea was to come in for today’s optional Sunday shift. Friday afternoon with Rob there, I said I’d try and make the effort to come in. Anne talked me out of it as we need to go to my bank Monday and get a new bank card she lost the other day. But I’ll need to go in for next Sunday because Lodge is next week and I want to make up for missing that Thursday. All in all, it was a good week but we had a few setbacks, even though they were minor ones.
For awhile now I’ve been following along Jerry Cornelius’s Blog in the links section and for the longest time, he has no blog entry for a Saturday. Most likely this is due to a Gnostic mass or something at a Lodge he attends in the Bay area. I enjoyed the Gnostic Mass when we had it here in the 1980’s. The last one I attended was I think was January 1996. I really miss the Mass and I’d go again if I knew there was one being conducted here on a Saturday night. Jerry’s Blog is one of the few daily Thelemic Blogs out there.
Sunday is going to be a reading and piano day. A day for just me. I put a full week in and I need to unwind. I might get up at noon with no where to go. On Coast from Saturday night they were talking about myths and folklore but later tonight they are going to be touching on UFO’s and ET. Should be a great show.
Anne gave us our sleeping pill for the night and I'm about ready to pack it in……….2:20pm Sunday. I’ve been out of bed for about an hour now with a bit of the runs for some reason. Anne couldn’t find Boots in our apartment earlier this morning but at the last moment from the corner of her eye she watched him squeeze out and went through a crack in our balcony sliding door. It gets really warm on our floor even without the thermostat on. Anne tried to go out after him, what with it being really cold out there but couldn’t get to Boots in time as she watched the cat leap off the balcony into the snow some 12 feet below. Boots tried to chase after Carl a rabbit we’ve named that likes the park area out here at night but Carl bolted off into the darkness somewhere the moment Boots landed in the snow nearby. About 4 this morning Anne went out to check for Boots as sometimes he likes to wander around but she couldn’t find him. That’s our boy.
Dennis Hurd (See friends links) wrote a good post about traveling on his blog today. I’m not much of a traveler myself. I suppose if I won the “Big one,” sure but I’m not much for leaving home. Some years ago before my wife and I met (when my sister-in-law “D” worked for a major pharmaceutical company) D had wanted Anne to meet her in Florida for a weekend as she racked up huge air mile points. D still racks up the points due to her job with another company. She racks up huge points every year. It was a bit of a hassle for my wife to find someone to look after her 4 cats 2 budgie birds, a plethora of hamsters and other assorted critters she had at the time. Anne was a bit reluctant to go but the allure of Florida in February was hard to resist. D had Anne’s tickets a place to stay and everything was all set up for my wife to spend a nice weekend in Florida and soon Anne found herself on a plane to the Sunshine state. Flying over the Rockies my wife felt the turbulence hit the plane too often for her liking and got scared. Filled with anxiety and freight when the plane landed at Denver she called the rest of the trip off and headed back to Edmonton. D said never again. Which is sad really because since then D has racked up more air mile points, she cashes them in every year or so. She’s sent family and even extended family to places like Paris France and Caribbean cruises etc. D herself goes on several cruises/year. Up until October of last year Anne and I kept our marriage secret from her family because she didn’t want her ailing parents to learn about our marriage thinking knowledge of this would be too much of a shock and could affect their health. But Anne's mother is no longer here as of 2004. When I got to meet D when she was here last October Anne had let the secret of our 8 year marriage out of the bag and it didn’t seem to phase D at all, much to the relief of my wife.
So is there a chance for me to travel? Maybe and I won’t turn it down if D instead of asking friends asks me instead if I’d like to go along so she doesn’t travel alone. I wont turn the opportunity down. D and I are the same age. But there’s nothing keeping me here for going to some place nice. I’d like to visit the Azores but the job and lack of money kind of keeps me away, plus there’s the hassle of it all as well.
It’s a pretty cold day out there. -15/24C with the wind chill. The wind chill is the number right of the/ of course. My wife’s up across the street to do some shopping and I’m enjoying my afternoon off and about to Blog this on my website and on Blogger and then it’s “Runner” time. Oh and I found the story about the Goat. You can read it here.
Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now.
e. Jim
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
It's going to get a lot colder out there over the next few days and being spoiled over this last warm spell is going to be tough to get "used to"
which means we're back to, uggh...winter.
I'm still reading William C. Dietz's "Runner" and its picking up. Actually the characters have a lot more depth then I gave the author credit for. Good thing I have book 2 of the series here.
I have a larger post over at my website blog today.
I'm happy the Oiler's are going into the All star break on a high note. If the playoffs began today then the Oiler's would be in at 6th place. Whether that remains that way in April is a different story.
What else? I'm in at the job thing tomorrow and Friday for a 1-9pm shift. I have a few bills to pay.
I haven't been playing any "Oblivion" as I wanted to today because I didn't get much sleep over night. Oh well.
Anyway Bloggers, that's all for now
e. Jim
I'm still reading William C. Dietz's "Runner" and its picking up. Actually the characters have a lot more depth then I gave the author credit for. Good thing I have book 2 of the series here.
I have a larger post over at my website blog today.
I'm happy the Oiler's are going into the All star break on a high note. If the playoffs began today then the Oiler's would be in at 6th place. Whether that remains that way in April is a different story.
What else? I'm in at the job thing tomorrow and Friday for a 1-9pm shift. I have a few bills to pay.
I haven't been playing any "Oblivion" as I wanted to today because I didn't get much sleep over night. Oh well.
Anyway Bloggers, that's all for now
e. Jim
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Well its a Tuesday, what else is new?
At last the Obama inauguration is over. Apparently his speech was about 20 minutes long. One of the shortest inauguration speeches in Presidential inauguration history. But he touched on some interesting things, the usual like health care and the economy but what struck me as interesting was job sharing. This concept was brought to the table here in Alberta about 20 years ago but the idea didn’t catch on during tough times then. If it does in the US then we here in Canada will most likely adapt it.
For some reason over night I had this feeling as an end of an era was closing for GW Bush. I’m not a fan of Bush or a even a Republican or Tory supporter. For a glimpse of my political affiliations see the photo of me in my Welcome block on my website. There is a link as to where my political (or lack there of) affiliations lay. Getting back to GW I began to wonder what’s been going through his mind. It is a new era and a past President leaving the job he’s been doing for the past 8 years. I felt kind of bad for him. If anything he was fun to kick around over the years. GW or “W” as everyone knows moves to his ranch outside of Crawford Texas and most likely fades into a life of quiet obscurity, kind of like Jimmy Carter.
But I’m happy for Obama. The markets were all down today of course. Oil is trading at $40/barrel. But the guy on our local markets program Angus Wat said that markets are always down on inauguration day. Most people I talk to are saying this “recession” will be over in 1-2 years. This is reflected in the volatile of the market place itself. The recession may be over in 1-2 years but it’s going to take awhile yet to recover from it. Locally here in Edmonton people are beginning to utilize Plan B. But all you Nova Scotia oil sand workers that fled Alberta for home, don’t get to comfortable just yet. You’ll be back to ride the Alberta gravy train in the Spring. Thing is these trades people make too much money to collect EI. I forgot to mention this in my rant on the topic last week. Why spend all that money to fly back home? Why not just stay put where you are and wait it out when things improve like everyone else does?
But enough of that. I’m still reading “Runner” its not bad but nothing to write home about. Its reading a lot better now but I’m still barely into the first 100 pages of the story. I’m sure it’s going to pick up. The author uses a lot of diversions in the story. So far I’ve counted 3 of them. If I had to rate this novel based upon the first 100 pages I’d give it a 5. I’m hoping for better things down the road. The writing so far is holding my attention (such as it is) and is steady if not a tad banal in places, I’ll say that much for the book. At least I haven’t chucked it.
One of my online friends Dennis Hurd, is using Twitter and Facebook. I’ve tinkered around with Twitter a few times but I didn’t have much success with it. With Facebook on the other hand, my family was able to contact me and I talked with my brother Mike after an 8 year absence. So, in this regard Facebook was more beneficial for me then Twitter. I’m not giving up on Twitter just yet. I’d like to see a one button application like a social networking button on site where I click on a Twitter button and it automatically takes the title and a few lines of my Blog and publishes it. Ok, I obviously don’t use social networking but if Twitter can be custom made to work like that, I‘d use it.
Tonight on the job is the Oiler’s hosting Columbus game at Rexall place. This is a critical game for the Oiler’s tonight and apparently the last game before the All Star break. No hockey for almost a week after that. But if the Oiler’s win tonight’s game we can share 6th spot with Phoenix. That’s a good spot to be in before the break. Oh yes and I’m going to be doing the job thing as well. 4 hours Uggh. And I want to do extra shifts to pay off some bills? I’m thinking Wed/Friday.
I haven’t played much of “Oblivion” but I’m going to crack it open tonight, see how far I get on it. The up down controls are hard to get used to.
Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now.
e. Jim
For some reason over night I had this feeling as an end of an era was closing for GW Bush. I’m not a fan of Bush or a even a Republican or Tory supporter. For a glimpse of my political affiliations see the photo of me in my Welcome block on my website. There is a link as to where my political (or lack there of) affiliations lay. Getting back to GW I began to wonder what’s been going through his mind. It is a new era and a past President leaving the job he’s been doing for the past 8 years. I felt kind of bad for him. If anything he was fun to kick around over the years. GW or “W” as everyone knows moves to his ranch outside of Crawford Texas and most likely fades into a life of quiet obscurity, kind of like Jimmy Carter.
But I’m happy for Obama. The markets were all down today of course. Oil is trading at $40/barrel. But the guy on our local markets program Angus Wat said that markets are always down on inauguration day. Most people I talk to are saying this “recession” will be over in 1-2 years. This is reflected in the volatile of the market place itself. The recession may be over in 1-2 years but it’s going to take awhile yet to recover from it. Locally here in Edmonton people are beginning to utilize Plan B. But all you Nova Scotia oil sand workers that fled Alberta for home, don’t get to comfortable just yet. You’ll be back to ride the Alberta gravy train in the Spring. Thing is these trades people make too much money to collect EI. I forgot to mention this in my rant on the topic last week. Why spend all that money to fly back home? Why not just stay put where you are and wait it out when things improve like everyone else does?
But enough of that. I’m still reading “Runner” its not bad but nothing to write home about. Its reading a lot better now but I’m still barely into the first 100 pages of the story. I’m sure it’s going to pick up. The author uses a lot of diversions in the story. So far I’ve counted 3 of them. If I had to rate this novel based upon the first 100 pages I’d give it a 5. I’m hoping for better things down the road. The writing so far is holding my attention (such as it is) and is steady if not a tad banal in places, I’ll say that much for the book. At least I haven’t chucked it.
One of my online friends Dennis Hurd, is using Twitter and Facebook. I’ve tinkered around with Twitter a few times but I didn’t have much success with it. With Facebook on the other hand, my family was able to contact me and I talked with my brother Mike after an 8 year absence. So, in this regard Facebook was more beneficial for me then Twitter. I’m not giving up on Twitter just yet. I’d like to see a one button application like a social networking button on site where I click on a Twitter button and it automatically takes the title and a few lines of my Blog and publishes it. Ok, I obviously don’t use social networking but if Twitter can be custom made to work like that, I‘d use it.
Tonight on the job is the Oiler’s hosting Columbus game at Rexall place. This is a critical game for the Oiler’s tonight and apparently the last game before the All Star break. No hockey for almost a week after that. But if the Oiler’s win tonight’s game we can share 6th spot with Phoenix. That’s a good spot to be in before the break. Oh yes and I’m going to be doing the job thing as well. 4 hours Uggh. And I want to do extra shifts to pay off some bills? I’m thinking Wed/Friday.
I haven’t played much of “Oblivion” but I’m going to crack it open tonight, see how far I get on it. The up down controls are hard to get used to.
Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now.
e. Jim
Sunday, January 18, 2009
I slept well overnight
I was up about noon and I got dressed and headed out and over to EB games a couple blocks up the road from here. It was a good 10 minute walk in the warm sun. Yes we’ve had one of the warmest days I think on record for a mid January day: +8C and on a nice Sunny day felt like Spring out there. It was slippery going as I walked all the way up to Victoria trail. Since there was no exit lane or a path I had to make my own through the snow. I got to EB Games noticing a bench I could sit down on. People must have thought me nuts dressed in my winter parka. I was sweating as well looking for a copy of “Oblivion.”
A few minutes later I found a copy used. After five minutes in a line up the clerk checked for scratches on the disk. The copy was badly scratched. She had to go in the back, with me holding up one of 2 servers at the counter for 20 minutes with a line forming behind me. Much to the people’s relief behind me I was able to get a clean copy of the disks. Most likely all she did was go in the back and ran a cloth with some CD-scratch-disk removing paste. $60 for a used copy yet. Most of the games for the Xbox 360 are still being made for the 720p format.
I sat on the bench and rested enjoying the nice warmth of a Sunday Spring like afternoon, That was a nice taste of Spring after that 15 day cold snap of -24C. Tomorrow it’s supposed to get up to +13C! Unreal for January. And to think we’ve got about another 12 weeks of winter yet. Usually by the first week in April the snow is sitting there piled up in shopping center lots all across the city. I enjoyed the walk back except for the odd bit of ice patches here and there.
Anne was still sleeping when I got in. I was disappointed there was no Oiler free telecast hockey this evening but the Oiler’s won their special Glen Anderson evening 6-3 over Phoenix. Hemsky’s back from his injury so the Oiler’s can get going again. They play a key critical game on Tuesday against Columbus.
Anne made us a breakfast/supper brunch and after that I played “Oblivion.” I built a character and got started learning the controls that sort of thing. This is going to be one fun game to play.
Other then that not much going on. I’ve been listening to some Beatles studio outtakes of their music. Some interesting stuff. They were a hard working band. I had a bit of a dream about John Lennon and where I was when I heard the news that he got killed. I was stunned. It took me a week to recover from the news. As much as I love classic rock, other then The Clash, the Beatles were one of my favorite bands but what did it for me was the music of The Clash. It brought back a sense of excitement of hearing Rock n’ roll for the first time. This was a band that had something to say. I could relate to them. It wasn’t until I got onto the Internet years later I discovered Joe Strummer was born the same day as me. August 21st 1952. I kind of share a bond with Joe Strummer. So The Clash and The Beatles did it (music wise) for me.
I’m still reading “Runner” and it’s a good read. I'm talking more about it over at my website's blog. Similar to this blog but it gets more atention. It’s getting a lot better and my goal is to try and finish it before the end of this month before I move on to the sequel “Logos Run.” “Runner’s” breath of language isn’t as strong as “Helix‘s” was but “Runner” still has a charm of its own. I’ll stay with it.
One of my Online friends J face booked me the other day about a game he’s working on. I haven’t been able to get to him yet or I’m not sure I want to get involved to a large degree. Maybe a small degree I can get involved. I’m waffling here.
Ok, moving right along, Tonight on Coast their going to be talking about “Stargate files.” Great. I’ll be in early for this. Since hearing about Cern I’ve thought that Cern could be like Stargate. Cern might not have the power to be like Stargate but Cern could be our next best thing.
Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now.
e. Jim
A few minutes later I found a copy used. After five minutes in a line up the clerk checked for scratches on the disk. The copy was badly scratched. She had to go in the back, with me holding up one of 2 servers at the counter for 20 minutes with a line forming behind me. Much to the people’s relief behind me I was able to get a clean copy of the disks. Most likely all she did was go in the back and ran a cloth with some CD-scratch-disk removing paste. $60 for a used copy yet. Most of the games for the Xbox 360 are still being made for the 720p format.
I sat on the bench and rested enjoying the nice warmth of a Sunday Spring like afternoon, That was a nice taste of Spring after that 15 day cold snap of -24C. Tomorrow it’s supposed to get up to +13C! Unreal for January. And to think we’ve got about another 12 weeks of winter yet. Usually by the first week in April the snow is sitting there piled up in shopping center lots all across the city. I enjoyed the walk back except for the odd bit of ice patches here and there.
Anne was still sleeping when I got in. I was disappointed there was no Oiler free telecast hockey this evening but the Oiler’s won their special Glen Anderson evening 6-3 over Phoenix. Hemsky’s back from his injury so the Oiler’s can get going again. They play a key critical game on Tuesday against Columbus.
Anne made us a breakfast/supper brunch and after that I played “Oblivion.” I built a character and got started learning the controls that sort of thing. This is going to be one fun game to play.
Other then that not much going on. I’ve been listening to some Beatles studio outtakes of their music. Some interesting stuff. They were a hard working band. I had a bit of a dream about John Lennon and where I was when I heard the news that he got killed. I was stunned. It took me a week to recover from the news. As much as I love classic rock, other then The Clash, the Beatles were one of my favorite bands but what did it for me was the music of The Clash. It brought back a sense of excitement of hearing Rock n’ roll for the first time. This was a band that had something to say. I could relate to them. It wasn’t until I got onto the Internet years later I discovered Joe Strummer was born the same day as me. August 21st 1952. I kind of share a bond with Joe Strummer. So The Clash and The Beatles did it (music wise) for me.
I’m still reading “Runner” and it’s a good read. I'm talking more about it over at my website's blog. Similar to this blog but it gets more atention. It’s getting a lot better and my goal is to try and finish it before the end of this month before I move on to the sequel “Logos Run.” “Runner’s” breath of language isn’t as strong as “Helix‘s” was but “Runner” still has a charm of its own. I’ll stay with it.
One of my Online friends J face booked me the other day about a game he’s working on. I haven’t been able to get to him yet or I’m not sure I want to get involved to a large degree. Maybe a small degree I can get involved. I’m waffling here.
Ok, moving right along, Tonight on Coast their going to be talking about “Stargate files.” Great. I’ll be in early for this. Since hearing about Cern I’ve thought that Cern could be like Stargate. Cern might not have the power to be like Stargate but Cern could be our next best thing.
Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now.
e. Jim
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Busy couple of days
Yesterday, Anne left for her 2pm shift. And after locking up I headed out the door for my 4pm shift. I read a bit more on “Runner.” I’m barely under 70 pages in this thing. I wanted to be at the half way mark by now. I’m still going to try and finish this thing by the end of this month. I brought a $20 with me and I cracked that at the pharmacy and paid Greg $10 for my share of the cable. There was an Oiler at Denver game on later. I wasn’t sure of the exact time. But the weather is warm and I’ve plans to go out and get a book for latter.
Anyway I had a pretty good shift. Before the first hour was about half over I did some tinkering around in between calls. I figured that if I can work 3 years and work my last year full time, I can go on EI for a year and take early retirement. Right now I’m barely making a little over a subsistence living as it is and that’s where I’ll be when I turn 65 unless I make it good in the markets. What early retirement will mean for me at 60 will basically be the status quo, except I wont need to put the hours or the bullshit involved in a part or full time job. I’d be more or less out of the rat race. But if I can “get out” at say 58 (and that’s only 2 years) then all the better for me. I can claim being diabetic and having scoliosis to work in my favor. Having this in mind I felt really good, hey it was Friday and Saturday I have my website money and enough to get a fast food treat at the food court and “Morrowind” at EB games. So I can get a bite to eat first, head to Clairview EB games and get my game and walk down to MM and get the Euros and wire them off to my web guy. Go home have a nap and wake up about 6pm and crack open the game. I felt pretty good. Just 2 more years of this crap.
By break I was at about $300 and 1 CC sale. I felt pretty good about this. Then we did OTH and I got $105 on OTH and 2 CC sales for the evening. No bonus money for me this week but you know what? I don’t care now. Even with Early retirement I might need to put in 3 days a week part time and I could handle a Friday/Saturday/Sunday type arrangement. That’s 11.5 hours. I’d be on I/S along with my CPP and the weekend hours would be just enough to keep me semi retired. Hell, I know people working past 65.
Anyway, I left the office with the Oiler game 2-1 Oiler’s and went to get one of my Star Wars books. The guy (I think one of the owners) said that because both books were ordered around the time of when they removed the at par pricing, he gave me both at American pricing,. very nice thank you. So I picked up the thickets of the 2, “Star by Star.” This book has 605 pages and is almost like an Omnibus in itself.
I had a seat to myself on the train home and a Northgate bus just pulled in. I was at my apartment door about 9:30pm hearing the Oiler game on 630 Ched at the door. I got everything off including banging the snow inside the stairwell and settled into watch the last 10 minutes of the Gilbert goal. Oiler’s were leading 3-2. Could they hold on to win? The Av’s were pouring it on. Garon in net. I was holding my breath counting down the seconds. They won that one 3-2 was the finale. Then I watched Smackdown checking in on Boot’s thee for a bit.
I almost dozed off on the couch when I heard the buzzer to let her up. She gave me $40 and I have enough for my website and a food court treat and now that my game “Morrowind” is just under $12 today should be a pretty good day.
Last night D provided me with some very interesting information about someone else at my place of employment. B had her vacation pay ripped off as well sighting the same thing they told me. Over payment. D told me her husband got on the phone and said a few choice things and her vacation pay was straightened up the following week. B’s husband probably threatened head office with an Alberta Employment Standards investigation claim following a review. Monday, I’m going to call head office and I’m going to get some answers. Only I’m going to ask for a review of my vacation pay last year and ask where it was that I’ve been “overpaid?” The things I don’t go through with huh?
After a nice lunch and ECW I headed straight off to bed. Coast was mostly open lines but they had a haunting of the Queen Elizabeth ship show/guest. This kind of thing does nothing for me.........7:45pm: I had a quiet ride into the office this morning and got myself a Tim's breakfast. The whole shift was quiet but I ended up with 4 CC's and $670. I almost slept on the train to Clairview and I got off by the theaters and walked over to EB games. They said that "Morrowind" probably wouldn't work with the Xbox 360. They had just the collectors edition on the shelves for about $50. The store was busy. I left empty handed and headed home. At least the weather was nice. I took a look for Boots out back here by the tree but he wouldn't be out there. No sign of him anywhere about.
Having done that I went for a nap and slept until about 5:45pm. Anne called and I gave her an update on my failed attempt to get a video game today. at least the one I wanted. After I talked with her I called Future Shop and they didn't have a copy of even "Oblivion." that would have been my next choice. Maybe Walmart has a copy. I'll get the number from Anne when she calls at around 8pm. If Walmart doesn't have it then some other EB games store might have it.
Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now.
e. Jim
Anyway I had a pretty good shift. Before the first hour was about half over I did some tinkering around in between calls. I figured that if I can work 3 years and work my last year full time, I can go on EI for a year and take early retirement. Right now I’m barely making a little over a subsistence living as it is and that’s where I’ll be when I turn 65 unless I make it good in the markets. What early retirement will mean for me at 60 will basically be the status quo, except I wont need to put the hours or the bullshit involved in a part or full time job. I’d be more or less out of the rat race. But if I can “get out” at say 58 (and that’s only 2 years) then all the better for me. I can claim being diabetic and having scoliosis to work in my favor. Having this in mind I felt really good, hey it was Friday and Saturday I have my website money and enough to get a fast food treat at the food court and “Morrowind” at EB games. So I can get a bite to eat first, head to Clairview EB games and get my game and walk down to MM and get the Euros and wire them off to my web guy. Go home have a nap and wake up about 6pm and crack open the game. I felt pretty good. Just 2 more years of this crap.
By break I was at about $300 and 1 CC sale. I felt pretty good about this. Then we did OTH and I got $105 on OTH and 2 CC sales for the evening. No bonus money for me this week but you know what? I don’t care now. Even with Early retirement I might need to put in 3 days a week part time and I could handle a Friday/Saturday/Sunday type arrangement. That’s 11.5 hours. I’d be on I/S along with my CPP and the weekend hours would be just enough to keep me semi retired. Hell, I know people working past 65.
Anyway, I left the office with the Oiler game 2-1 Oiler’s and went to get one of my Star Wars books. The guy (I think one of the owners) said that because both books were ordered around the time of when they removed the at par pricing, he gave me both at American pricing,. very nice thank you. So I picked up the thickets of the 2, “Star by Star.” This book has 605 pages and is almost like an Omnibus in itself.
I had a seat to myself on the train home and a Northgate bus just pulled in. I was at my apartment door about 9:30pm hearing the Oiler game on 630 Ched at the door. I got everything off including banging the snow inside the stairwell and settled into watch the last 10 minutes of the Gilbert goal. Oiler’s were leading 3-2. Could they hold on to win? The Av’s were pouring it on. Garon in net. I was holding my breath counting down the seconds. They won that one 3-2 was the finale. Then I watched Smackdown checking in on Boot’s thee for a bit.
I almost dozed off on the couch when I heard the buzzer to let her up. She gave me $40 and I have enough for my website and a food court treat and now that my game “Morrowind” is just under $12 today should be a pretty good day.
Last night D provided me with some very interesting information about someone else at my place of employment. B had her vacation pay ripped off as well sighting the same thing they told me. Over payment. D told me her husband got on the phone and said a few choice things and her vacation pay was straightened up the following week. B’s husband probably threatened head office with an Alberta Employment Standards investigation claim following a review. Monday, I’m going to call head office and I’m going to get some answers. Only I’m going to ask for a review of my vacation pay last year and ask where it was that I’ve been “overpaid?” The things I don’t go through with huh?
After a nice lunch and ECW I headed straight off to bed. Coast was mostly open lines but they had a haunting of the Queen Elizabeth ship show/guest. This kind of thing does nothing for me.........7:45pm: I had a quiet ride into the office this morning and got myself a Tim's breakfast. The whole shift was quiet but I ended up with 4 CC's and $670. I almost slept on the train to Clairview and I got off by the theaters and walked over to EB games. They said that "Morrowind" probably wouldn't work with the Xbox 360. They had just the collectors edition on the shelves for about $50. The store was busy. I left empty handed and headed home. At least the weather was nice. I took a look for Boots out back here by the tree but he wouldn't be out there. No sign of him anywhere about.
Having done that I went for a nap and slept until about 5:45pm. Anne called and I gave her an update on my failed attempt to get a video game today. at least the one I wanted. After I talked with her I called Future Shop and they didn't have a copy of even "Oblivion." that would have been my next choice. Maybe Walmart has a copy. I'll get the number from Anne when she calls at around 8pm. If Walmart doesn't have it then some other EB games store might have it.
Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now.
e. Jim
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Not busy lately
It was kind of hectic heading out of here Tuesday afternoon. On the bus turning left onto 45th here as I sat on the side seat in the center of the bus I could see Anne trudging her way through the snow covered sidewalk working her way home from her KFC run. The City still hadn’t plowed the roads downtown.
At least I didn’t have M & L sit near me. I had Gary sit with me instead and just as loud as the Oiler’s at Washington game was getting under way. The Oiler’s scored first. Surprise. I had a real slow start to the shift. I didn’t get my first sale until about 45 minutes in. Too many customers were associating the charity with wheelchair basketball."I allready paid." That and writing up more TOL's slowed me down. The Oiler’s were leading 2-0. Wow. I gradually did a lot better and ended up getting a lot more sales, by break the Oiler’s were leading 3-0! Holy smokes. I called Anne at our home phone number and we had a chat. After break the fellow that mentioned about AW was talking about something else about AW and his friend filled in some gaps for me. Washington finally scored in the 2nd and The Oiler’s scored making the game 4-1 Oiler's. AW doesn’t look good for us. Again it’s seeing a worker. I felt better when the Oiler’s finally won 5-2. I really enjoyed that game from what little of it I was able to see and I won $2 off of JT.
I called Anne just before I left out of there and had a brief wait for the train. The train usually rolls in about 9:20pm at Corona station. I should have taken the train headed to HSC- South, away from me. The Clairview train seemed late and I was thinking about taking the HSC train and double back but the Clairview train finally arrived, packed with University kids on 2 cars. I barely found a seat. At “Bay station” (next stop) the announcement came on saying the train was out of service. Are you kidding me? “Everybody board on the other side of the tracks.” After a 5 minute wait and the train was the last one heading from the HSC and packed (2 cars) came by. A lot of us groaned when that one came in from earlier. I was lucky to get a seat. All that and we got shortchanged and late missing my bus to get home at 9:45pm. And the train took its sweet time getting to Clairview. Of course we missed any Northgate busses at Clairview. I was 45 minutes late because of this snag and really pissed off to say the least. There were Transit people around ready to receive questions from what was going around but I didn;t hear anyone ask. I called Anne at a Clairview pay phone saying I’d be a bit late. I could have walked back but it was too slippery out there. I sat tight and read “Runner” waiting for a Northgate bus to come in.
When a Northgate bus finally arrived and hauled us out of there it was 10:35pm by the tune I got home and inside our apartment. Did I say I was PO’D? Anne was apparently right behind me after I had to clean off my boots in the stairwell.
The good news tonight was the Oiler’s won and I ended up with top total for the room. $510 was top total? Anne made a great perogie lunch for us with a couple of smokies.
In light of this news about AW I‘m going to call my Doctor to book a cancellation scheduled for today. After that I’m going to call AW and get more information. What’s at stake, does it help me being employed needing income support? Is it for transitional workers only? Would I qualify in my position etc? I have these and other questions I need to have answered. So in other words, this I/S from AW doesn’t look good. In a way I’m kind of glad about this because I really didn’t want to go out to the West end this afternoon and take time off work. Last time I went out to the West end was Saturday May 24th to West Edmonton Mall to get the piano book.
I felt kind of bad for a coworker friend of mine last night. Supie was feeling pretty low losing a good friend of his Sunday morning and he came up to me before shift wanting to talk. He was clearly shaken up over this. I feel bad for him.
Lately this last weekend I saw bits and pieces of Star Wars/Empire strikes back and Jedi. I always thought that “Jedi” was the weaker of the first 3 Star Wars movies. I recall paying $4.50 for my share of the ticket. Helga, Ellen, Charles and I went out to see it together. They picked me up at my place living at Trudy’s rental house at the time on that first Saturday since it’s release. We went up the road to the Jasper theater in Helga‘s car. I remember that warm sunny Saturday May 28th 1983. I paid for everyone. I think it was $20 and I still have the ticket in my 1983 diary. Hard to believe it was 25 years ago this May. Ellen and Charles were barely 2 years into their marraige. I was 31 years old, and thin LOL!
Okay some 12 hours latter have passed and it’s a bleak looking day out there. Temperature reads -14C/23 wind chill. In other words folks, its cold outside.
I called my Doctor to cancel the appointment and I haven’t called AW yet. Most likely I’ll do that this afternoon when Anne leaves for work.
One thing I’ve been thinking about lately is early retirement. Early retirement for me, simply means my income wont change. But I still have to work a little and more time off, in theory. So when it comes time for me to take early retirement, I’m going to go for it. Early retirement is at 60. This means that anyone that has been making CPP (Canada pension plan) contributions can access this pension at 60 years of age with a penalty for not taking it out at 65. The penalty is you don’t get the full amount. Usually the full amount is $500 at 65. For me, I’ll be lucky if I get about $200-300/month but I might be able to qualify for income support from AW, which could bring my income up to where it is now. Or near to where it is now. I’m still going to have to work part time but maybe 3-4 days a week instead of the 6 that I am putting in now. Of course early retirement is just speculation on my part and its still 4 years away. By September, it’ll be just 3 yeas away.
While everyone this January is fired up for the Obama inauguration (yawn) yours truly couldn’t care less. No disrespect to my American readers but there is another event that is way more important to me then watching Obama: This Sunday, the Edmonton Oiler’s proudly raise the retired sweater/number “9” Glen Anderson to the rafters of Rexall Place this coming up Sunday January 18th. For those of you not in the know, Glen Anderson helped the Oiler’s to win 5 Stanley Cups. He’s won 6 Stanley Cups and earned 498 goals over the course of his career. Glen Anderson is the last of the Edmonton Oiler glory days and possibly the last sweater to retire above the rafters at Rexall place. Glen Anderson was known for his reckless play and a real fan favorite. Obama? Gimmie a break.
When trying to talk with the Super leaving out of the office last night one of the younger kids was waiting in line to talk with him holding a black hard cover book. S her and me were talking about the book “Twilight.” it’s another Harry Potter kind of a thing. People trying to be the next J.K. Rawlings. A lot of writers are trying to cash in on the Young Adult fad going around.
Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now.
e. Jim
At least I didn’t have M & L sit near me. I had Gary sit with me instead and just as loud as the Oiler’s at Washington game was getting under way. The Oiler’s scored first. Surprise. I had a real slow start to the shift. I didn’t get my first sale until about 45 minutes in. Too many customers were associating the charity with wheelchair basketball."I allready paid." That and writing up more TOL's slowed me down. The Oiler’s were leading 2-0. Wow. I gradually did a lot better and ended up getting a lot more sales, by break the Oiler’s were leading 3-0! Holy smokes. I called Anne at our home phone number and we had a chat. After break the fellow that mentioned about AW was talking about something else about AW and his friend filled in some gaps for me. Washington finally scored in the 2nd and The Oiler’s scored making the game 4-1 Oiler's. AW doesn’t look good for us. Again it’s seeing a worker. I felt better when the Oiler’s finally won 5-2. I really enjoyed that game from what little of it I was able to see and I won $2 off of JT.
I called Anne just before I left out of there and had a brief wait for the train. The train usually rolls in about 9:20pm at Corona station. I should have taken the train headed to HSC- South, away from me. The Clairview train seemed late and I was thinking about taking the HSC train and double back but the Clairview train finally arrived, packed with University kids on 2 cars. I barely found a seat. At “Bay station” (next stop) the announcement came on saying the train was out of service. Are you kidding me? “Everybody board on the other side of the tracks.” After a 5 minute wait and the train was the last one heading from the HSC and packed (2 cars) came by. A lot of us groaned when that one came in from earlier. I was lucky to get a seat. All that and we got shortchanged and late missing my bus to get home at 9:45pm. And the train took its sweet time getting to Clairview. Of course we missed any Northgate busses at Clairview. I was 45 minutes late because of this snag and really pissed off to say the least. There were Transit people around ready to receive questions from what was going around but I didn;t hear anyone ask. I called Anne at a Clairview pay phone saying I’d be a bit late. I could have walked back but it was too slippery out there. I sat tight and read “Runner” waiting for a Northgate bus to come in.
When a Northgate bus finally arrived and hauled us out of there it was 10:35pm by the tune I got home and inside our apartment. Did I say I was PO’D? Anne was apparently right behind me after I had to clean off my boots in the stairwell.
The good news tonight was the Oiler’s won and I ended up with top total for the room. $510 was top total? Anne made a great perogie lunch for us with a couple of smokies.
In light of this news about AW I‘m going to call my Doctor to book a cancellation scheduled for today. After that I’m going to call AW and get more information. What’s at stake, does it help me being employed needing income support? Is it for transitional workers only? Would I qualify in my position etc? I have these and other questions I need to have answered. So in other words, this I/S from AW doesn’t look good. In a way I’m kind of glad about this because I really didn’t want to go out to the West end this afternoon and take time off work. Last time I went out to the West end was Saturday May 24th to West Edmonton Mall to get the piano book.
I felt kind of bad for a coworker friend of mine last night. Supie was feeling pretty low losing a good friend of his Sunday morning and he came up to me before shift wanting to talk. He was clearly shaken up over this. I feel bad for him.
Lately this last weekend I saw bits and pieces of Star Wars/Empire strikes back and Jedi. I always thought that “Jedi” was the weaker of the first 3 Star Wars movies. I recall paying $4.50 for my share of the ticket. Helga, Ellen, Charles and I went out to see it together. They picked me up at my place living at Trudy’s rental house at the time on that first Saturday since it’s release. We went up the road to the Jasper theater in Helga‘s car. I remember that warm sunny Saturday May 28th 1983. I paid for everyone. I think it was $20 and I still have the ticket in my 1983 diary. Hard to believe it was 25 years ago this May. Ellen and Charles were barely 2 years into their marraige. I was 31 years old, and thin LOL!
Okay some 12 hours latter have passed and it’s a bleak looking day out there. Temperature reads -14C/23 wind chill. In other words folks, its cold outside.
I called my Doctor to cancel the appointment and I haven’t called AW yet. Most likely I’ll do that this afternoon when Anne leaves for work.
One thing I’ve been thinking about lately is early retirement. Early retirement for me, simply means my income wont change. But I still have to work a little and more time off, in theory. So when it comes time for me to take early retirement, I’m going to go for it. Early retirement is at 60. This means that anyone that has been making CPP (Canada pension plan) contributions can access this pension at 60 years of age with a penalty for not taking it out at 65. The penalty is you don’t get the full amount. Usually the full amount is $500 at 65. For me, I’ll be lucky if I get about $200-300/month but I might be able to qualify for income support from AW, which could bring my income up to where it is now. Or near to where it is now. I’m still going to have to work part time but maybe 3-4 days a week instead of the 6 that I am putting in now. Of course early retirement is just speculation on my part and its still 4 years away. By September, it’ll be just 3 yeas away.
While everyone this January is fired up for the Obama inauguration (yawn) yours truly couldn’t care less. No disrespect to my American readers but there is another event that is way more important to me then watching Obama: This Sunday, the Edmonton Oiler’s proudly raise the retired sweater/number “9” Glen Anderson to the rafters of Rexall Place this coming up Sunday January 18th. For those of you not in the know, Glen Anderson helped the Oiler’s to win 5 Stanley Cups. He’s won 6 Stanley Cups and earned 498 goals over the course of his career. Glen Anderson is the last of the Edmonton Oiler glory days and possibly the last sweater to retire above the rafters at Rexall place. Glen Anderson was known for his reckless play and a real fan favorite. Obama? Gimmie a break.
When trying to talk with the Super leaving out of the office last night one of the younger kids was waiting in line to talk with him holding a black hard cover book. S her and me were talking about the book “Twilight.” it’s another Harry Potter kind of a thing. People trying to be the next J.K. Rawlings. A lot of writers are trying to cash in on the Young Adult fad going around.
Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now.
e. Jim
Sunday, January 11, 2009
A good day today
We turned in about 3am last night. Anne had given me a sleeping pill to help me sleep. It did the trick. Other then getting up to use the bathroom I slept pretty good and woke up about 1:30pm with a slight headache. Anne mentioned she was going out and I thought it was to Superstore across the street. Ok. About an hour later the buzzer rang. I was dressed only in my shorts. Usual state of affairs for a stay at home all day. About an hour after Anne had left I heard the intercom buzzer go off. Anne forgetting her house keys, again. I buzzed her up and as I opened the door, it was Donna, Anne’s sister. WTF?
I said in the opened door, I’ was “slightly in disposed. Hold on a minute.” I put something on to receive her inside. I explained what happened to Anne as I thought she went across the street to get a few things so I “entertained” Donna as best as I could as we waited for Anne. Donna asked not to say anything that she was here She wanted to surprise her. About an hour later Anne comes in wondering what these shoes were doing by the door. Why am I dressed up, “WTF is going on?” She was totally surprised. Donna took us out over to Applebee’s here on 50th st and I had a burger. I think they had chicken cacciatore or something. They weren’t impressed, We had a nice cheesecake cup desert had a chat for awhile and off to Tim’s drive through. Donna always pays for dinner while she’s here because it’s on her company’s expense card for family.
Donna drove me home with my medium Tim’s coffee taking Anne back with her to Donna’s downtown Hotel room where the girls get together. Anne takes the train back. Most likely she’s still at the hotel room. The Oiler’s/St. Louis game was just getting under way. I said hello to Boots all locked up in there during intermissions. I still have a slight headache. The Oiler’s finally won a game at home. Good stuff.
So I’m having the rest of the night off to myself. Good stuff.
I couldn’t get into Mary Rosenblum’s “Horizons.” Its Cyberpunk and I hate Cyberpunk. It’s too over the top, too exaggerated. Real people don’t talk like that. One thing I’ll say for the sub genre is that the style is consistent. So right now I’m reading William C. Dietz “Runner.” So far it’s turning out good. I don’t read a lot of military fiction but I enjoyed Joe Haldeman’s “Camouflage” a few years ago. That was good. All in all I had a pretty good weekend. There was the Lodge on Friday night, then into work Saturday morning. I had a great night last night to myself. I worked a little on my short story. Donna came in from Winnipeg and took us out to dinner. I watched the Oiler’s win. This was a nice weekend.
Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now.
e. Jim
I said in the opened door, I’ was “slightly in disposed. Hold on a minute.” I put something on to receive her inside. I explained what happened to Anne as I thought she went across the street to get a few things so I “entertained” Donna as best as I could as we waited for Anne. Donna asked not to say anything that she was here She wanted to surprise her. About an hour later Anne comes in wondering what these shoes were doing by the door. Why am I dressed up, “WTF is going on?” She was totally surprised. Donna took us out over to Applebee’s here on 50th st and I had a burger. I think they had chicken cacciatore or something. They weren’t impressed, We had a nice cheesecake cup desert had a chat for awhile and off to Tim’s drive through. Donna always pays for dinner while she’s here because it’s on her company’s expense card for family.
Donna drove me home with my medium Tim’s coffee taking Anne back with her to Donna’s downtown Hotel room where the girls get together. Anne takes the train back. Most likely she’s still at the hotel room. The Oiler’s/St. Louis game was just getting under way. I said hello to Boots all locked up in there during intermissions. I still have a slight headache. The Oiler’s finally won a game at home. Good stuff.
So I’m having the rest of the night off to myself. Good stuff.
I couldn’t get into Mary Rosenblum’s “Horizons.” Its Cyberpunk and I hate Cyberpunk. It’s too over the top, too exaggerated. Real people don’t talk like that. One thing I’ll say for the sub genre is that the style is consistent. So right now I’m reading William C. Dietz “Runner.” So far it’s turning out good. I don’t read a lot of military fiction but I enjoyed Joe Haldeman’s “Camouflage” a few years ago. That was good. All in all I had a pretty good weekend. There was the Lodge on Friday night, then into work Saturday morning. I had a great night last night to myself. I worked a little on my short story. Donna came in from Winnipeg and took us out to dinner. I watched the Oiler’s win. This was a nice weekend.
Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now.
e. Jim
Thursday, January 8, 2009
I've had a
busy couple of days recently, accounting for my sparse blog input here at Blogger. I'm more active at my website then here but I'm going to strive to blog here at least 3 times/week.
The book cover images wont work with Blogger for some reason, so I'm going to have to remove the currently reading and reading next.
The job has been real hairy lately. Monday we find the boss has changed the CC qualification/bonus (again) Now its 1 CC/hour in a week work, so say you put in 40 hours/week you need 40 CC sales to get the bonuses. The more hours the fewer CC's. Then the other day we got us an evaluation sheet. Super was basically addressing the back 20. So stupid. This was Calgary's (HO) idea. Yeesh.
Also on Monday we got our Xbox 360 set up at last. We were playing "Indiana Jones Leggo." Its kind of hard on the eyes.
I finished reading "Helix." You can read a "review" (of sorts) here.
Anyway Bloggers, that's all for now
e. Jim
The book cover images wont work with Blogger for some reason, so I'm going to have to remove the currently reading and reading next.
The job has been real hairy lately. Monday we find the boss has changed the CC qualification/bonus (again) Now its 1 CC/hour in a week work, so say you put in 40 hours/week you need 40 CC sales to get the bonuses. The more hours the fewer CC's. Then the other day we got us an evaluation sheet. Super was basically addressing the back 20. So stupid. This was Calgary's (HO) idea. Yeesh.
Also on Monday we got our Xbox 360 set up at last. We were playing "Indiana Jones Leggo." Its kind of hard on the eyes.
I finished reading "Helix." You can read a "review" (of sorts) here.
Anyway Bloggers, that's all for now
e. Jim
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Its a cold one this morning folks
Yes it’s -32C out there. Without the wind chill. It’s going to be pretty chilly heading out this morning but the good news is it’s also supposed to warm up this week to just under about -10C. That’s not to bad.
I don’t like to talk money here but Anne was successful in getting the funds for the balance of our January rent, so the Xbox 360 is mine and it‘s brand new out of the box, not a refurbished or bought from a pawn shop unit. It was supposed to be a Christmas present but we didn’t know if we were going to be able to get at our dwindling reserve funds due to this credit crunch and all. Credit isn’t our problem since we don’t rely on it even if we had access to it. LOL! Its mostly Anne’s fund not mine anyway. I have nothing to do with it. But I have most of the funds for my website thanks to my wife. At least January’s rent is paid and we’re both employed.
So Anne had to rush out of here for work and as I was about to compose an entry about 1pm when she comes rushing back saying the LRT (train) isn’t working. I might want to leave earlier. She left right away. Latter according to local news on the radio at 2pm they said it was a broken wire or something at Churchill station. Everything from Churchill to the Health Sciences Center (HSC) was running fine. It was just the East leg that LRT crews were working on. An hour after that they were still hard at work. Even while I left out of here after shutting everything down, crews still hadn’t fixed the problem yet but Anne said they had contingency buses available. I left out of here about 10 minutes earlier and boarded a #2 bus at Clairview (knowing it’s route) and I was across the street from Audrey’s about 4:35pm. I made it to my dialer plenty of time before the start of the shift.
Greg came up to me right away and brought me my pay cheque. He said he gave the $20 last week (before my vacation (VP) pay fiasco) to JT. Other casualties in that VP incident besides my website are my Lodge dues. Fortunately I have about 80% of my website funds available. Add that and working extra hours next week (Jan 5th) will get me the necessary funds for my website balance. Since at my job I’m always one week behind. Anything I work for this week for instance won’t show up until the week after. It’s always been like that where I work. I’ll work another 3 extra days for my Lodge dues and pay that off in early February.
I had a ten minute chat with my friend Supie and he gave me a few decent mid risks low cost-shares-market leads to look at. I’m going to try and follow through with these next month or so. I’m going to try and test the market waters with about $500 to lose. If these stocks go up great if not and they remain steady, fine. Live and learn but their mid risk and non US Canadian companies. Ok enough of that.
I had a good start to the shift feeling pretty good about the calls I was making. My CC sales were up as I ended up with 7 CC sales on the night and top total for about $775 on a first night back from the holidays. Good start to the year. Also, our phone room wasn’t full. I mean for a Friday night and pay cheque night. Well that’s the main reason for that.
I even received a $15 bonus for on my cheque next week, Wuwho! Okay that in mind I needed to head over to Audrey’s, what with the fact I’m going to be behind on everything for about 2 weeks regardless and I don’t want to leave myself broke for 2 weeks either.
So I went book shopping at Audrey’s. At the special order desk I wasn’t in the mood to pick up the 2 Star Wars books waiting there. The guy at the desk said they could put them back on the shelves if I didn’t want them. I ordered them and I’ll honor that order. So after browsing around in the brief 20 minutes I had left in the store before closing I found one of the “Dragonlance” novels. A book #1 of no less and I had it in my hands still looking around for something science fiction to buy. I came across John Varley’s “Titan” out of the old (mid 1970’s) Gaea trilogy. It’s being reprinted. They have all 3 books there but I only had enough for book #1 Titan. I read some of Varley’s short fiction and I liked what I read. Since I’m going to be 2 weeks behind on my bills anyway I picked it up.
That said I went down to the LRT. I wasn’t sure yet at this time if the LRT had been fixed yet. While waiting, I read a bit of “Helix.” I’m on page 115 something and enjoying this. So far about 20% into this thing and all I can say is, what a ride. I’m loving it. So sure enough the Clairview LRT came by. Would it stop at Churchill and I’d have to take a connecting bus home? Churchill came and went. Stadium. By this time I figured I was in the clear. With my new book and home I did my admin stuff and settled into watch Smackdown.
Anne came in about 11:30pm and made me a nice lunch for ECW. I was able to watch a bit of this and turned it off when the wrestling character “The Boogyman” came on. I hate this character. Ok enough of this and I said my goodnights to my wife and went to bed listing to a bit of Coast and I passed out.
I got up about 5 hours later feeling alright and ready to take on the day. I’m out of here about 9am and I’ll go into Tim’s and get my breakfast and bring my insulin with me. After that it’s over to Audrey’s to get the last of the trilogy. I’ll hop on a bus to City Center mall get a bite to eat at the food court a bag of chips and head home get some admin stuff done and answer some email and go have a nap for a few hours. Anne’s got a plate of something for me for later. I’ll get up about 5:30pm get some stuff done and settle into watch the Oiler’s hosting Dallas. I like to read during intermission.
Tonight when Anne gets home after she’s settled in we’re going to set up the Xbox and get that underway. Also if there’s time, we want to order “Dark Knight,” perhaps on Sunday. We’ll see.
Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now
e. Jim
I don’t like to talk money here but Anne was successful in getting the funds for the balance of our January rent, so the Xbox 360 is mine and it‘s brand new out of the box, not a refurbished or bought from a pawn shop unit. It was supposed to be a Christmas present but we didn’t know if we were going to be able to get at our dwindling reserve funds due to this credit crunch and all. Credit isn’t our problem since we don’t rely on it even if we had access to it. LOL! Its mostly Anne’s fund not mine anyway. I have nothing to do with it. But I have most of the funds for my website thanks to my wife. At least January’s rent is paid and we’re both employed.
So Anne had to rush out of here for work and as I was about to compose an entry about 1pm when she comes rushing back saying the LRT (train) isn’t working. I might want to leave earlier. She left right away. Latter according to local news on the radio at 2pm they said it was a broken wire or something at Churchill station. Everything from Churchill to the Health Sciences Center (HSC) was running fine. It was just the East leg that LRT crews were working on. An hour after that they were still hard at work. Even while I left out of here after shutting everything down, crews still hadn’t fixed the problem yet but Anne said they had contingency buses available. I left out of here about 10 minutes earlier and boarded a #2 bus at Clairview (knowing it’s route) and I was across the street from Audrey’s about 4:35pm. I made it to my dialer plenty of time before the start of the shift.
Greg came up to me right away and brought me my pay cheque. He said he gave the $20 last week (before my vacation (VP) pay fiasco) to JT. Other casualties in that VP incident besides my website are my Lodge dues. Fortunately I have about 80% of my website funds available. Add that and working extra hours next week (Jan 5th) will get me the necessary funds for my website balance. Since at my job I’m always one week behind. Anything I work for this week for instance won’t show up until the week after. It’s always been like that where I work. I’ll work another 3 extra days for my Lodge dues and pay that off in early February.
I had a ten minute chat with my friend Supie and he gave me a few decent mid risks low cost-shares-market leads to look at. I’m going to try and follow through with these next month or so. I’m going to try and test the market waters with about $500 to lose. If these stocks go up great if not and they remain steady, fine. Live and learn but their mid risk and non US Canadian companies. Ok enough of that.
I had a good start to the shift feeling pretty good about the calls I was making. My CC sales were up as I ended up with 7 CC sales on the night and top total for about $775 on a first night back from the holidays. Good start to the year. Also, our phone room wasn’t full. I mean for a Friday night and pay cheque night. Well that’s the main reason for that.
I even received a $15 bonus for on my cheque next week, Wuwho! Okay that in mind I needed to head over to Audrey’s, what with the fact I’m going to be behind on everything for about 2 weeks regardless and I don’t want to leave myself broke for 2 weeks either.
So I went book shopping at Audrey’s. At the special order desk I wasn’t in the mood to pick up the 2 Star Wars books waiting there. The guy at the desk said they could put them back on the shelves if I didn’t want them. I ordered them and I’ll honor that order. So after browsing around in the brief 20 minutes I had left in the store before closing I found one of the “Dragonlance” novels. A book #1 of no less and I had it in my hands still looking around for something science fiction to buy. I came across John Varley’s “Titan” out of the old (mid 1970’s) Gaea trilogy. It’s being reprinted. They have all 3 books there but I only had enough for book #1 Titan. I read some of Varley’s short fiction and I liked what I read. Since I’m going to be 2 weeks behind on my bills anyway I picked it up.
That said I went down to the LRT. I wasn’t sure yet at this time if the LRT had been fixed yet. While waiting, I read a bit of “Helix.” I’m on page 115 something and enjoying this. So far about 20% into this thing and all I can say is, what a ride. I’m loving it. So sure enough the Clairview LRT came by. Would it stop at Churchill and I’d have to take a connecting bus home? Churchill came and went. Stadium. By this time I figured I was in the clear. With my new book and home I did my admin stuff and settled into watch Smackdown.
Anne came in about 11:30pm and made me a nice lunch for ECW. I was able to watch a bit of this and turned it off when the wrestling character “The Boogyman” came on. I hate this character. Ok enough of this and I said my goodnights to my wife and went to bed listing to a bit of Coast and I passed out.
I got up about 5 hours later feeling alright and ready to take on the day. I’m out of here about 9am and I’ll go into Tim’s and get my breakfast and bring my insulin with me. After that it’s over to Audrey’s to get the last of the trilogy. I’ll hop on a bus to City Center mall get a bite to eat at the food court a bag of chips and head home get some admin stuff done and answer some email and go have a nap for a few hours. Anne’s got a plate of something for me for later. I’ll get up about 5:30pm get some stuff done and settle into watch the Oiler’s hosting Dallas. I like to read during intermission.
Tonight when Anne gets home after she’s settled in we’re going to set up the Xbox and get that underway. Also if there’s time, we want to order “Dark Knight,” perhaps on Sunday. We’ll see.
Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now
e. Jim
Thursday, January 1, 2009
The holidays are over at last
I’m doing a lot of assassination research lately. Today it was researching Major General Erwin Walker and the Walker incident. Lots of fun. I also sis a bit of piano practicing and some writing. Very little on the writing part. I did however fixed up my “writing goals” in my “To do list” for 2009.
I’ve made a couple New Years resolutions this year. 1st: Get my dental work fixed up. This is a life making decision. 2nd: get a story out and have it actually published. 3rd: Put more hours at work. 4th: get a better job. That’s good enough.
Not much going on for today. I’ve been suffering through a bit of toothache pain but I feel better now. Tomorrow it’s back to normal and back to the job. I’m kind of waiting for my wife to come back with good news from the bank Friday so we can get into our Xbox on the weekend. After I do my writing of course. I’d rather play Morrowind and its about $30 used.
Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now
e. Jim
I’ve made a couple New Years resolutions this year. 1st: Get my dental work fixed up. This is a life making decision. 2nd: get a story out and have it actually published. 3rd: Put more hours at work. 4th: get a better job. That’s good enough.
Not much going on for today. I’ve been suffering through a bit of toothache pain but I feel better now. Tomorrow it’s back to normal and back to the job. I’m kind of waiting for my wife to come back with good news from the bank Friday so we can get into our Xbox on the weekend. After I do my writing of course. I’d rather play Morrowind and its about $30 used.
Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now
e. Jim
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
