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