Last night on the job was a real struggle

as I elected to do CWF instead of the CPA thing. By 7pm I had 1 sale and a few near misses and some interest and I lost a sale. By 7pm I had $20 bucks. Surprisingly though Super kept me where I was and in the 2nd half I did a lot better and even a CC sale on CWF no less. I got a lot of empties as well and ended up with $120 by break. I was glad to get out of there, despite having a better time of things then the last time I did CWF.

Anne made us some taco's for Monday night Raw. On a scale from 1-10 I'd give Monday night Raw an 8. It wasn't the greatest.

On "Coast to Coast" currently underway, they have Planet X special. Good stuff. I like shows like this. It's with Gilbert Eriksen, instead of the other guest talking about Planet X and space aliens.

My attention lately has been on the NHL UFA season. There's lots of talk on places like Connect 2 Edmonton about various players and who's going to go where etc. it's a very exciting time right now for NHL hockey fans.

Over there at "Pat's Fantasy Hotlist", Pat's got the proofs of Steven Erikson's latest "Dust of Dreams." Book 9 of the Malazan series. I hope Erikson keeps going with this series. I have to ask, how come he gets the actual proofs of the story and not the book itself? I don't think the book is out yet. Ooops, I think I just answerd my own queston.

Anyway gang, that's about all for now.....

Before Anne came in I had a good solid

2 hours of reading "In Conquest Born." Tight writing good space opera.

I'm off to bed in a few minutes as I'm up around 11:am to have a coffee and to wake up. My BSL has been relatively high yesterday. Despite getting up around noon Saturday I had a nice relaxing day even though I didn't go out at all.

Today I'm out getting a book from Audrey's from my special order. I'm trying to dwindle my stack of books waiting there for me as I'll be out of here shortly before 1pm. After I get my book, I'll be heading off to work its only 4 hours and it should go fast. I'm thinking about getting another "Crown of Stars" book.

Over the past several weeks I've been trying to find anything on the subject of Blockquotes and I found some good examples for Blogger. I'll probably tinker around with those later today and read a bit more out of ICB.

Oh I also added a "Jim's shared items" widget to the sidebar underneath Followers. I like this widget.

I'll most likely post again later.

Anyway gang, that's about all for now.....

I left out of here about 3:45pm yesterday in very

windy conditions and like everyone else waiting for the autopsy news report on Michael Jackson. I picked up my 6/49 ticket at the pharmacy, as it was still very windy out there. I didn’t get anything new until I went into the office. I got a lot of empties and DC handed me my cheque. Everything right except the missing 1 hour but that’s alright. I sat at station #15 hoping Super wouldn’t move me. “James, in the back.” Disappointment. I got an end dialer and sat with one of the newer people. I had nothing for almost half an hour then I got a $100 and a $50 and I was at line hour by 6pm. Then almost nothing after that until about 6pm I had $265. I collected more empties during the break and within the finale 20 minutes Super moves me to station #15, Finally it was all over and I ended up with $320 and no cards but I got 10 on the week.

I was glad to get out of there even though the wind was still gusting. I waited for the bus just beside Tim’s feeling bad I didn’t have cash to get my Friday book. Joan one of our staff that’s in crutches met up with me saying she was in at 4pm. Once when I begin steady hours I’m going to ask bm if I can come in during the afternoon say around 1-2pm and get my cheque. This way I’ll be able to do my banking early and I can still go to Audrey’s for my Friday night.

I had kind of a scary incident at the bank. Thank God I have over draft protection. I deposit my cheque and in the envelope and the ATM spit out my balance. It’s the same banking ritual I do every Friday. The cheque didn’t show on the news balance slip and the money didn’t come out. I began to panic. I thought I lost my cheque! These are new ATM’s and this is the first time this has ever happened to me. So I put my card in again and punched a button in the amount and I heard the machine cycle through and it spit the cash out for me and generated a new balance slip. Every ATM is different but in most cases works the same. When I do a deposit a box pops up on the screen with a field to enter specific amounts for deposits and withdraws. I have to enter the amounts manually using the touch pad and decimal key. There are also buttons on the side with graphics showing option amounts that can be drawn when a withdraw request is made. I picked the last button and I got my cash out. The balance was the same. I don’t like that machine. The last thing I want to do is lose a 6/49 jackpot that way. Something went wrong when I entered the amount. The bank room where the ATM’s are held gets a steady flow of customers. I suggested this fellow not use the same ATM. He did his banking and I showed him my 3 slips. He thanked me for the heads up on that machine.

I left out of there feeling alright but I missed my train just leaving as I was halfway down the stairs. If I had left when I did I would have been home earlier. But I didn’t mind waiting at Central and read. I had a can of diet pop and a good book to read. I was feeling a bit more relaxed. I had a quiet ride to Clairview with my bag of empties and my book and I got home about 9:50pm. My usual time.

I wasn’t in the mood to watch Smackdown. I did some computer work instead and had my supper, which Anne made for me earlier. I enjoyed that and watched the news and then went to Smackdown’s main Event. After that I did some more computer work. Anne came home saying she got a tote bag and a hot cold thermos thing plus $5 off her next pizza order for putting through the most pizza “Mega meal” orders. She’s always winning things like that. I get bonus money on my cheques occasionally and she gets little performance gifts and things. She got me that Best Buy coupon which I Haven’t cashed in yet but I will next weekend. The nearest Best Buy to us is the one on the other side of 137th Ave. it’s several bus rides away and takes a whole afternoon to get out there. I’ll most likely go next Saturday and get a game and I can if I leave early enough get a few books on the way home. A video game, books a bite to eat. That’s a nice outing for me. Yawn

Speaking of video games, I Haven’t been playing Oblivion for some time. Mainly because the controller needs new batteries. Most likely I’ll get to playing it again possibly next weekend. I’m not a big video game player but I don’t mind spending a few hours a week on my little Xbox 360.

It’s a beautiful summer day out there and I’m glad I was able to sleep in and I’m not on the phones getting TD’d and F3 out the ying yang. I got up around noon as Anne went out the door with her shopping cart and I’m by myself doing my thing. She’s got a 4 hour shift today and a bank appointment for Monday or Tuesday so we can get part of our rent and she’s got her vacation pay coming in and her cheque. We’ll be a few days late but we can always give the office a post dated cheque for July 3rd. I also have enough here for July’s bus pass as well.

So far year to date, I’ve gotten $630 in bonus money over the last 28 weeks or so. Some of the guys during the afternoon shift are pulling in $100+/ week in bonus money over and above their pay cheques. Going in from 1-9 is worth it. I may as well get on that shift while I can before this DNC list wipes out the afternoon shift. I think this is going to go next. Pretty soon we’ll just have the evening shift. But they still have the business room and that seems to be going strong. They’ve got close to 32 stations running from 9-4pm but nobody likes the business room manager as she takes all the better taps for herself. Also, “team India” works business on the other side of the morning tap crew. I think if HO is going to do any more cutbacks, it’s going to be the morning shift. People from the morning crew are gradually moving to afternoons/evenings. The other option for them is business. When they cut the morning tap shooters then the room will be full coast to coast.

That’s enough business talk for right now. My friend Keith Graham is doing a John Brunner novel reading project lately. You can check out how he’s doing on his Blog. Cant say I’ve ever read Brunner but after some looking around he had quite a body of work. He published over 60 novels in his career. Sadly, most of these editions are long out of print but they can be picked up at Ebay as vintage books. The condition of these books aren’t pretty but they are readable. I wonder if any publisher has scanned these books and is going to republish them? I’d like to try a John Brunner book. One fatal flaw about science fiction is its ideas can become dated but the stories are timeless.

And finally in i09 today they have an interesting post on Science Fiction books that launched their own careers. For example, Military Science Fiction. The post talks about the origins of the sub genre and its believed that HG Wells first brought military SF to the light of day but Robert E. Heinlein with his book “Starship troopers” kind of brought this sub genre towards popularity. When I think of military Science Fiction I think David Webber.

Anne’s running a bit late here as she has to be at work by 4pm if she wants to make us a bite to eat she should be pulling up pretty soon. Speak of the devil.

This weekend is the NHL draft and sure enough NYI took their expected pick and same with Tampa bay. The Oiler’s took 10th overall and the kid has another year to go where he’s currently playing. The draft was a real let down for the Oiler’s. Lets hope something good will come out of the UFA offerings next week. There’s some big names out there. I’d like to see the Oiler’s get Jay Bouwmeester but at almost $5M/year is he worth it? The Oiler’s however haven’t the cap room to sign these big name players. They let Kyle Brodziak got to the Wild for a 99th round draft pick so that will clear some cap space. Brodziak was only getting half a mil but obviously the Oiler’s are trying to create cap space. They could get rid of Nilson for $2M> I wouldn’t miss him. The thing is a lot of teams don’t have cap space for these big names and even though cap space this year is at $56M, next year it could drop to $50M


Anyway gang, that’s about it for now…..

having a pretty good afternoon so far although there isn't much going on

at the moment. It's been pretty quiet around here and dry.

Anne left out of here for the Pet Smart store just down the street for cat food. Most likely I'm going to try going into work for Thursday and Friday. Bm might just put me in the cold area for now but maybe next week move me over to taps.

I'm also looking at other part time work doing market research to see if the company I'm looking at can fit me in from 12-4pm Tuesday-Friday. if this works out and my current evening job goes bust on me somehow or they get rid of me, then I'll have something to fall back on. If I can get hired on the research job I wouldn't mind just afternoons Monday-Friday. I'm going to look them up next week.

What's this Wayne Gretzky is willing to take a pay cut in order to keep the Phoenix Coyotes in Phoenix? I heard he makes $8M/year and the Coyote's want to cut his salary down to something like $1.5M. I don't know if that's his idea or somebody else's since the team's owner has filed for bankruptcy protection recently. He also said that there should be an NHL team in Hamilton, this Blogger agrees. Apparently there is another offer about to or is on the offering table to make a bid to buy the struggling Phoenix NHL team.

Anyway gang, that's about all for today

Jim

All kinds of crazy crap going on for today

I left out of here yesterday afternoon at 4pm feeling pretty good almost thinking that bm is going to jump me over Friday but bm wasn’t even there. I collected my cans and bottles etc and got a pretty good haul. Super went and put me over to CPA taps. “Can I do $180 a l/h?” I’ll try. There were 5 of us and nobody did very well the first half but I had about $145 and that was enough to keep me. Plus I got all the cans and bottles during the 2nd half and went back to work. I did pretty good during the 2nd half and I got a CC sale. I learned a few tricks from other people saying that if they really feel uncomfortable I can call my supervisor over and the customer can give the number to my Super. That’s interesting.

After work I rode home with a Portuguese brother and sister team that‘s been working with us. We talked shop that kind of thing. I got home to find my wife not home and just in time for Monday night Raw. She came in saying she was sitting at the bus bench facing me watching me from the furthest intersection. She said she tried calling after me but I was oblivious. Anne made us a nice Angus beef burger supper and fries and we settled into watch a pretty good show of Monday night Raw, commercial free. And it was. What a great show. Especially the last man standing match. Near the end Vince and Trump were haggling for control of Raw. Vince bought back Raw “for double” what Trump paid for the show. Whatever the amount was, is undisclosed. I would have done the story line with a real jaw dropper. “I can’t sell Vince because I sold my share to somebody else.” Out comes Shane McMahon doing his little money dance thing. Now that would have been a better ending to the story line. At 63 Vince is still going strong and most likely will be doing this well into his 70’s.

One of these days, I’m going to get off at Belvedere station and poke around and ask what’s being built there. There are 3 construction sites where land is being cleared on my way into work, adjacent to Belvedere station, south of Belvedere station, and just before Rexall place. I know that Station Pointe is going in where all the digging is. I don’t know what’s being built in the other 2 locations.

The good folks at SF Signal have another Giveaway, season 5 of Stargate Atalantis DVD package. I’ve always liked Stargate Atlantis. I put my entry in.

I’m not a fan but apparently according to the Rexall Place website we’re having Fleetwood Mac here on Wednesday. My wife will like the Jonas brothers here July 2nd.………….12:50pm> my wife’s off today but most likely she’s going in on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. At least we get enough to pay the rent.

I couldn’t help but gently admonish one of the posters at Pat’s Fantasy hotlist writing a comment. I wasn‘t trying to create controversy or a thread or anything like that. In the body of his text he writes about Fantasy saying that “Fantasy can get away without historical background.” Well I’m no expert but it seems to me that without historical background in any story makes a story kind of thin and lifeless. Real life just doesn’t happen in a vacuum. My response was not a put down or an insult but mealy a statement of fact in fiction. The thing about SFF is that it needs world building of some kind to give the story depth and credibility relevant to the story. Any story of fiction needs world building: A sense of time and place otherwise it doesn’t seem believable. It’s all about suspending disbelief by making the impossible seem possible. I’m not talking about reams of historical background but enough historical background to give the characters in a story depth and meaning.

I’m back in the office this afternoon. Nobody won the $9M over the weekend but it goes up to $15M. I’m buying a ticket but not the extra. Hopefully I’ll have a quiet night like last night but a good one.

Anyway gang, that’s all for now

Jim

My evening started out good.

I headed out of here at 4pm and I felt good heading on into work. I'm heading towards the pharmacy and I noticed these 2 Edmonton Police squad cars parking in an unusual manner and for some reason I head into the lobby of the The Baker Center and the sliding side door to the mall area is losed. So much for getting my 6/49 ticket tonight. The security guard didn't even know or notice anything going on. Some security guard. Upstairs the guys are there greeting me with some more empties. Wanda wasn't there today. I mentioned to Gary as he was leaving about the new Iphone S coming out. he says he's on his way to go get it but the thing is, it's not availible until June 21st. I got Greg to give me my cheque and lo and behold everything on it was correct, even my $50 in bonuses.

So I'm collecting the empties and ready to settle in for a good evening. Super needs a looney for a pop and we find the vending machine company went and increased the prices to $1.25 but he also squared up with me for $5. It came out to roughly that with all the $1 here .50 cents there etc. At least I got $5 out of someone today. I didn't get such a good selection ofempties but I settled in and had a coffee and the calls came in steady enough but I just couldn't get a sale. About 6:30pm I finally managed to get a lousy $20. I can't figure out twhat the heck is wrong with me? At break, 7pm Brendin called a bunch of us over and had to send a lot of us home including yours truley.

I collected the rest of the empties and headed on out. I'll be back on monday if I havn't got anpther job by then. I'm considering trying out a couple of market reserch jobs. We'll see. I get paid a little more. One job I like is right across the street from where Anne works. If I get hired on I'm going to try for an afternoon shift until I can break into the job slowly. if it's good I'll consider working mornings only. I need a break from my present place of employment.

After work I met Brendin out in the back and nodded. No big deal tonight was just one of those nights. I worked my way through the parkade and over to Audrey's. I bought the Dragonlance book and the Jim Butcher book. Total package to me was $22.50. I felt good about that and headed across the street to wait a few minutes for my bus and headed up to the bank then a brief wait and I was home by 8pm. Anne doesn't need to know I got dissmissed early.


Anyway gang, that's afll for now

Jim

A day in the life, welcome to summer

Ebay has some interesting book collections up for sale. Since I missed out on the “Babylon 5” books when they came out (rats) and they were available at “Adventurer’s,” in the early 1990’s (my favorite game store) at the time. But I was too busy chasing after Mary. What a waste of time that was. Getting back to Ebay, I have never purchased anything online before but people in the office I work out of from 5-9 say Ebay is good. No problems. Same with Craig’s list and Amazon. So, the other day people were talking about these credit card gift cards they can be used anywhere, retail or online. No ID is needed. News to me (I don’t get out much) I think there is a small activation fee but I‘m not sure about this. When I get all these special order books at Audrey’s paid for I might buy a gift card and purchase something from Ebay. I’m looking at a “Buy it now” item of books. But this is going to be a summer experiment.

I had a slow night on the job last night but I got moved around twice. I had a good first hour doing CWF and a CC sale. I was at line hour then they moved me back over to taps and I slowed right down. I got a CC sale though. Then they pulled everyone off taps and shut taps down. Back over to CWF and I got another CC sale. I did $95 in CC sales. If they would have kept me at CWF then I would have had a lot more. But because during the week and they are pretty busy it’s hard to get a chance to hear what other people are saying: Greg listens to and records calls and I need to hear what others are saying so I can copy some of what they’re doing right and get rid of what I’m doing wrong. Super’s always encourages us to do this: “Nobody asks to listen to some calls.” I try but management is out or always busy. On Sunday, I’m going to ask Greg if I can listen to some of the past weeks calls not only on CWF but on taps. I need to get a selection of calls from different people to see how they’re doing it, what makes them successful at it. I’m I talking to fast (CWF) am I not saying the right things, are they saying the wrong things? Maybe they’re writing wood (fake sales) I don’t know. On CWF they want $65 line hour. Despite being moved around I did $210 but some of those sales were n taps but most of them were on semies or cold.

Anyways I got a nice bag full of empties and they’re getting harder and harder to get especially since the day staff from business are spilling over into family and taking the cans. But I’m there tomorrow and Friday and a few more days next week so when we’re on our break I‘ll be collecting. Previously while I was on taps last night Brandin and Super were talking about an Eskimo CFL game coming up. I thought I heard them say Saturday but the game is tonight. A year or so ago Nathan from our Lodge had a spare ticket and emailed the guys if anyone wanted to go with him. I think he still does have season tickets and had an extra one but I was working that night. So on the train ride home I was talking with him but he said he only has his and doesn’t have an extra. I’m not sure how much tickets cost. I haven’t been to an Eskimo game since 1988. So much for that idea. Having Saturdays off would have been great to go to a Saturday afternoon game.

I called Anne after I got off at Clairview and walking to my bus. I love this time of year when it’s still light outside at 9:45pm. I got inside and did some admin stuff and computer work and had supper and watched the news. After all that I ended up doing a lot of piano theory and that took me until about 3:30am and we were asleep by 4am but this staying up late is getting hard on us.

Anyway gang, that’s all for now

e. Jim

I've been having a few busy couple of days here as I'm breaking into my new Sunday shift.

Huh? I mean couldn’t McMahon come up with a more convincing story line then to sell Monday night Raw to Donald Trump? Nobody is buying this one. I’d believe it if they got down to business in the ring with lawyers and papers signed and a whole bunch of new belts like a new Monday night Raw title, and a Diva’s tag team title. Then I might be convinced.

Last night Coast had a great spot on the paranormal with UK radio host Ross Hemsworth. He’s kind of like the George Noory of the UK. But they were talking about Aleister Crowley and the Loch ness monster all kinds of good stuff. But it was getting late and I couldn’t sleep (most likely due to the extra coffee I had in my system) Sleep came really hard for me overnight. I think I got about 5 hours if that.

Tomorrow I’m going to go in for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for a 32.5 hour work week. I haven’t pulled one of these in for quite awhile. It’ll help cut down on the stack of books I have at Audrey’s that’s for sure.

So it seems that the judge in the Jim Balsillie/Phoenix Coyote saga to buy and move the team is over, for now. From my understanding is that if Balsillie continues to move this forward for the June 29th deadline, the door will be closed. If he wants to pursue “long term” then the door is open. I can understand it from the judge’s POV. There’s issues like anti-trust, relocation fees, no other offers on the table and a lot of other issues that can’t just be resolved in 14 days. This whole saga might eventually oust Bettman as commissioner. Bettman began his NHL career as Commissioner in February 1993. It’s been 16 years since a Canadian team had won the Stanley Cup. My gut feeling is that as long as Bettman is Commissioner no Canadian team will ever win the Stanley Cup as long as he is Commissioner. The Oiler’s had a chance to win it in 2006 but Carolina took out Rollison in game 1 of the finale. If Rollison wasn’t taken out I believe the Oiler’s would have won the cup that year.

Still in around the middle of “In Conquest born” by C.S. Friedman. At the rate I’m going I probably wont complete this book until the end of the month and a bit after. This duology is my summer read I guess.

Tonight I’m in for my 4 hours but by this time tomorrow I want to be in the thick of it into my first afternoon in a long time. It’s trying to take my insulin and juggling all that around that could through me off.

Anyway gang, that’s all for now

e. Jim

I'm having a pretty good weekend even though it's interupted by 4 hours of work

Hard to believe I’m actually going into work on a Sunday. Our company has only begun a Sunday shift as of recently since we got to this office.

I didn’t win the $24M yesterday but 1 winner did for $24,202,155.00. These large amounts are usually won by a group. 14 winners won 2nd place for $45,660.80 which is kind of small for a 2nd place prize this round. And 234 $2,253.70. Still small amounts this round for 2nd and 3rd place. On Wednesdays draw for $15,264,390.00, which nobody won 2nd place was $153,139.10. Of course that’s probably why the 2nd place draw was so high was because nobody won first place but there were 3 2nd place winners. Ahh, fun with numbers. Wednesday’s draw is reset for $4M and as usual I’ll get my ticket.

Yesterday afternoon I went down to Audrey’s and got the book I wanted. Kate Elliott’s “Crown of Stars” Book 2. I came up from the Audrey’s side of the Underground and good thing I did because in progress was the gay pride parade. If I would have known I would have brought my camera. They had some nice floats and the costumes were colorful. Despite the parade it took me an hour to get to Audrey’s from my place and back.

I had a decent night last night. I did some reading, some piano practice and theory and even got a bit of writing in as well. I had a great night and I even had a bit of a nap. I got my book, had a chance to win $24M yesterday was a good day. In about an hour and a bit, I’ll be out of here to go into work. Anne made me some sandwiches for later this afternoon and I’ll take my insulin pen in with me. I think we’ll break about 4pm for 10 minutes. I’ll be home about 6:45pm while my wife is at her job until midnight. I’ll have another 5 and a half hours or so until she gets home.

Anyway gang, that’s all for now

e. Jim

I had to pick a new template because

the other one had a serious unexplained bug in it. This template seems to be just as good.

Star Trek's movie outing last Sunday netted us in getting a couple of free passes. So, if it comes out to the Empire theater, I'm going to try and go see GI Joe. I thought it was going to be a Stephen Spielburg production. I think of Spielburg and I think Disney, shudder. Now if it was a John Woo production, I'd see it without hesitation.

Thus with today being Friday its the end of the week for me. Thank God. It was a week of ups and downs that's for sure. My new week begins on Sunday for 4 hours but on Wednesday I'm going in for the afternoon/evening and same with Thursday and Friday. I've got books to get about 20 waiting at Audrey's for me.

Thanks to SF Signal I've come across an old online friend from my old A God's Fight days, AGF (there's a link to this on my webpage list of links) the return of Zen Tiger. I'll be placing a link to his site here soon. You can visit his site from here or go to my web page in the welcome block near the bottom.

Anyway gang, that's all for now

Jim

Trying to work things out

Yesterday I got out of the house and missed my nice low floor bus that was waiting for me but I was out of breath as it was boarding passengers at ( I was running down the stairs and out to the street) my usual stop. I looked for another bus towards my left down 137th st behind the bus that was just pulling out and guess what was pulling up? You got it the old Jimmy. That’s when my left leg slightly cramped up on me as I was climbing those steps into the old clunker. I think the City puts these old buses in service just to piss off the public. It’s never at Clairview after 9:30pm when I‘m there. I’ll try and snag a picture of it this afternoon.

Anyway I got out of that old bus and onto the train and settled into read a bit but couldn’t get into the story so I put the book away in my bag and watched the world go by on the way into work. The “Station Point” infrastructure is coming along fine. The City yard warehouse frame is up. Just before Rexall Place the land there has these tall poles sticking out of the ground. I’ll try and snag a photo of that too.

I managed to grab my end dialer and went looking for Rob while he was doing some clean up work having a bit of a meeting with DC and Brendan. Super mentioned that he got my Victoria day stat pay fixed up with Rob. So I had a chat with Rob about work etc. It was relaxed. He confirmed my stat pay and then I asked about my vacation pay, so he emailed payroll and we’ll see what happens. Also the best part I talked with him about trading Saturdays for Sundays. I’ll have my Saturday offs off and that means no more getting up Saturday mornings. He said he’s good with that. I’m committed to go in for Sunday and that’s from 2-6pm. Some other things going on. We had the hockey game on and as soon as the first period was over the game got hijacked for the basketball playoffs. Subvere says “I’ll change it back for you. I respect you,” I let them watch the game anyway. Gord with his young good eyes sitting beside me was able to see the game from the other monitor 20 feet away or so behind me. The Pens won 2-1 and forced a game #7 and that’s Friday night. Bastards. They couldn’t wait when I’m off put it on a Saturday night for me could they?

I got my bag of empties and at the half called Anne to let her know of the good news. It might be even better news.

I don’t get what’s going on with my vacation pay. From last December 19th they claim I was overpaid. Then when I requested my vacation pay from last year last week they pay me $34? They say now there’s $16 and some change in there now. Since January there’s supposed to be based upon 6% of my gross pay vp accrued $314. So that means $314 from last December and another $280, I owed payroll almost $600? I never saw any overpayment increase in my cheques. They never gave me an explanation as to where the overpayment came out of. Income tax? Some other department? Yes I had bonus money last year to the tune of something like $1,200. To say I’m confused about all this is an understatement. I think they’re seeing bonus money as an overpayment because maybe part time are not qualified for bonus money. Only thy know and they’re not talking.

Anyway I had a decent start to the shift at about $515 by break and 1 $100 CC sale. That’s when I called Anne to let her know about my switch from Saturday to Sunday. Friday night I can stay up late without worrying about it Saturday morning. I don’t think my stat pay will be on this cheque but it will be on the next one. I hope. I also don’t think Rob has anything to do with my vacation pay being screwed up. I think it’s HO doing this on their own obviously. If and when they find where they went wrong, then they owe me about $600. And what’s to suggest that when I’m ready to take out a vacation pay draw in December that they won’t do this again? I bet if I didn’t have my vacation pay accrued this wouldn’t happen. If they do this again in December then I’m going to defiantly get out of the vp accrued business and have it back showing on my cheque each week. The thing that bothers me is that nobody else is experiencing this problem. It’s only the people that have had their vp accrued like me.

I got the last of the empties and I ended up with $875 for my daily total, which wasn’t bad. Then we got all the small taps. I confirmed with Super about me not in on Saturday “I will be missed,” yeah right. I was feeling happy leaving out after work while it was still light and mild out there. I had Anne on my cell phone and as I was just about on my way into Corona I realized I had forgot my knapsack. I worked my way all the way back huffing and puffing and fortunately for me the security guard was around and he let me up stairs and there was Super doing his paper work. I got my bag sitting on my chair and I was back on my way to Corona with Anne in my ear and I barely got the train as it was pulling in. of course with the extra 2 new stops South at the end of the line the new arrival time is about 9:25pm.

It feels good to have my Saturdays off. Actually what I’m going to do as of next week is work Wednesday Thursday and Friday, 1:30pm-9pm. This way I’ll have my cheque in the afternoon before 4:30pm and I’ll be up the street at my bank if I time it good enough and back before 5pm or a little after. Also, I might be able to drop off an envelope to the security desk in her building with the bank card inside and my pay stub. “For Anne.” That could work out as well. This way she gets the card and what’s left over after my “allowance” and I can head over to Audrey’s as usual to get my books and if I need to grab a burger at Burger King or something, that would work out as well.

This way with having Saturdays off after Anne leaves for work I can swing over to Happy Harbor and get in a couple of rounds of MTG. The #11 swings right by it. I’ll remember to bring my cell phone with me. Especially when I get the new I phone. Only if the Iphone can hold Viigo. If it can’t I’ll get the Storm or something.

Usually Anne’s out of here by the time I’m home on a Saturday as she starts her shift at 2pm so she’s out the door by 1pm. When She leaves. I’ll leave for HH. So I’ll put in Thursday and Friday afternoons. This way I’ll have 26.5 hours in. Next week I’ll have 32.5 hours in.

Anyway gang, that’s all for now

e. Jim

What the heck happened to my blog?

I was able to contact the call center. I also had contacted payroll and the fellow spoke broken English. I got the feeling he was feeling uncomfortable with me asking about the state of my vacation pay. His Super intervened the call and was very aggressive towards me. “Your supposed to take this up with your branch manager.” “He told me to call,” is what I should have said to her. Because he did. Payroll said he’d look into this for me. I think somebody made a mistake with my vacation pay last December and they don’t want to be held accountable because they aren't giving me any details about the so called overpayment. I went in feeling good and I picked up my 6/49 ticket for Wednesday’s big draw and I got my old end dialer in the front 20. Nobody came out after me. I had a slow start doing CPA and at break barely at line hour and 3 CC sales. I got cans and bottles and at break called Anne. I got the rest of the empties and in the 2nd half I got $650 in 2 hours and 3 cards for a total of $1,085. $325 of that was on CC sales pulling in 6 for the night. I’m back. That ought to shut Rob up for awhile. I changed my pitch around slightly by shortening it up and it helped a lot. Apparently I even got a $20 bonus. I’ll believe it when I see it. I also talked with Greg about substituting Friday’s for Sunday’s and he said he hadn’t talked with Rob yet but he will. He didn‘t think there would be a problem. It means I’m still down at the office every day even if it’s just to pick up my cheque.

I got a small assortment of empties added to what I had from Saturday to take home. I’m getting competition now from Brendin’s wife as DC’s collecting cans for them. They’re having a baby. Then there’s Fran going around taking cans from our tap section. I was lucky if I got half a bag full this evening. Slim Pickens.

I was feeling pretty good getting out of there and I barely missed my train so I read for awhile waiting for the next one. This oriental lady across from my “booth” was reading a Jim Butcher “Dresden” novel from the Library. I got in about 9:45pm just before Monday night Raw and wow. It was a good one. On a scale from 1-10, I’d rate it a 9.5. It had everything in it. Anne made me some supper and went up to Walmart to get my coffee. Despite everything, today wasn’t bad. Even the markets picked up Monday…….. ………..1:05pm>I had a good 7.5 hours sleep or there abouts. I got up on the late side of the noon hour today although I missed the markets but on the CNN ticker showed the Dow up by about 21 points and finally from another source oil is just at $70! I remember when it was floating around $30 last November.

Another economic indicator things are improving: We’re back to around 8 tap shooters in the office at night but that could change tonight and tomorrow.

When I first began reading science fiction books, it was in the early 1970’s reading Ace doubles and Perry Rhodan novels. I sold a lot of books in the early 1990’s but now that things have been more or less stable I’m looking at getting back the Ace doubles. I didn’t have all of them. I think the publisher had something like 280 books of the science fiction line. Many of them from various Ebay sellers are in pretty good condition. I used to have a lot of the Doc Savage novels as well. As many of the original Dark Shadows novels. The one’s with the gold colored covers. Those were great reads. All of the books mentioned above are in various states of condition on Ebay.

I was mentioning about ASL (Advanced Squad Leader) last night to Anne when we were talking about what we‘d do if we won the Big one on Wednesday. I’d buy all of the modules I don’t have since “Multiman publishing” took it over. I filled Anne in what the game was about while we were lying in bed listening to a bit of Coast. Even though I find it hard to get the time to play ASL, I’d like to get back into it again. I have many great memories playing ASL in the 80’s and 1990’s and other wargames as well. I got involved in war gaming when one of the neighborhood kids back in Coquitlam had a game board set up in his bedroom. Dave Galloway and Jim Martin and a few others were moving these things called counters around the board and rolling dice. They were playing “Blitzkrieg.” I didn’t know at the time what the game was called or even where one could buy a copy but I liked what I was seeing. The last time I gamed an Avlon hill game was around August 1973 with Dave Galloway at the old (long gone now) Burard Bible institue. My favorite Avlon Hill game before Squad Leader was “Stalingrad.” I found “Strategy & Tactics” (SPI) magazine from I think Alfred. I had some cash and around 1972 I bought a 2 year subscription to S&T. You got a game in every by monthly issue. They had some great game topics along with in depth historical articles on the game. SPI released non magazine games later and I bought a few of those from Burnaby Hobbies. It’s still there today in the same location. I lost a lot of those old science fiction books and war games when I moved from New Westminster to Edmonton in 1978. I could have kicked myself for not arranging with the caretaker of the last place I lived in there, to send my stuff up to Edmonton by UPS or something. It might have cost me a paycheque from the guard company I was working with. I decided to stay in Edmonton the weekend of August 19th 1978. I'm sure for a small fee my caretaker would have shipped my things for me.

Weather wise we’re getting some cooler weather later for June. I don’t like it too hot. This is just right. And all the leaves are back on the trees. If I have a decent night this evening, I’m going to show up for Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. And when I begin working Sunday afternoon the only times I’m coming in will be on Fridays is to pick up my cheque.

I’m worried about my wife. She’s been having some discomfort in her foot lately causing her some grief. She’s worried about her job as they are cutting back in her hours etc. other then the odd grief I’m getting from my job and my payroll troubles I’m coping as best I can. Yet with all the layoffs around the Province/City, our office isn’t full. Maybe things are improving. With oil at $70/barrel things ought to.

Anyway gang, that’s all for now

e. Jim

Hmmm....

I got into work yesterday just fine and read some more of ICB. I got a lot of empties between the shift although I had a slow start to the first half. It was one of those disasters of an evening last night. I got a CC sale and Super and his “lieutenant” left me alone along with about 8 of us in the back. We got moved in the 2nd half to the other side. I got the rest of the empties to fill my bag. I also let Super know I’d be gone from this evening night due to Lodge night. Most of my calls last night were either not home or hit by the recession. But one of my callers was telling me when we were talking about EI that it takes about 1-2 weeks for a client to get their first cheque. EI has sped processing of claims up quite a lot over the years. I recall it would take up to 6-8 weeks of being on welfare before the first cheque arrived and you’d get something like about $800 on about 6 separate cheques depending on what the rate was. Then your off assistance and collecting UIC. At one time while if working part time, you could have your claim on hold and still work temporary. You simply mark on the card that your working but temporary. UIC didn’t pay anything but when the job ended it was a matter of a two week turnaround and your claim continues. I did that a lot from 1990-1994 before the Feds “reformed” UIC and now call it EI. Also I think the caller said they give 41 weeks but It’s different from Province to Province. The thing about that is I wont need to go through the job search while on a medical. It works out to be 10 months and if Anne got us that subsidy that could be a nice bit of time off for me. Not like this is something to look forward to but it’s hoped that the economy will turn around by then for people that will have to go on EI. I hope going on EI is in my forecast. I need to be working. I did get 2 CC sales though. I got a $!00 sale from my 3 levels of support to finish off the shift. I ended up with $400 on a slow night. But at least they got $150 in CC’s out of me.

I was glad to get the train and a seat by myself to read more of ICB and at Rexall Place who boards on the train but my wife. She said she got pulled off because the ticket police were checking for tickets and she couldn’t find hers. She did of course find it when she was on the platform and they let her back on my train when she saw me pull up. She said Pizza wasn’t hiring so she couldn’t get me an application, which was too bad. But she said the Summer is usually slow for them but it will pick up again. Who knows maybe in the Fall. We had a nice chat on the way home.

Greg runs a Sunday shift and I was thinking out loud yesterday when he was talking about it with Edgar and sitting beside me and in kind of a passing reference I mentioned how I’d like to swap Friday’s for Sundays as long as I can get my cheque on Friday. This might be a good idea but right now I’m on thin ice as it is. Greg said if he can set it up with Rob would I like to attend that shift? I said I’d have to see about it with Anne. I Anne and I talked about it and she’s warm to the idea. But we’ll see. Anne likes the idea but not this weekend but next weekend. This weekend if I get my vacation pay I’d like to get a whack of books and take my wife out to Red Lobster for dinner and go see Star Trek.

What I like about this idea of having Friday’s off is I can go in and get my cheque and go to the job bank on my way in and look around for another job on Fridays. This has potential, if Rob lets me off Fridays for Sundays that is. It’s really hard on me Friday night/Saturday morning because I get very little sleep Friday night. I could try it out for the summer at least. If I still have this job.

I was kind of disappointed to hear about Pizza not hiring. I know I want to get out of where I am now but on my terms. Because this last Monday I came within a hair of being terminated and what with me writing such a low total last night stacked against Subvere’s 11 CC’s in a 4 hour shift and his $1,000+ total did nothing to raise my profile in the bosses eyes last night. My chances of me keeping this job are slim little alone changing my hours around. My back up plan should I be terminated? Right now I don’t really have one but maybe I can get hired on the old guard company I used to work at. That office is located on 124th st. I know exactly where it is and I might investigate that option one of these Friday afternoons if Rob lets me tweak my current schedule and swing up that way with my resume possibly in September. That would coincide with my 9th anniversary of this job. For the time being I’d like to stay low. Anne came up with this idea: Ask Rob for a week off. Come back on a Sunday. Friday-Sunday. In that week apply at the guard company. If I get the job then I run up to the Police station, put in for my guards license, “can I wait to see if I get my guards license before you place me?” type thing. If I get the guards license I’ll ask for the Pacific Rim Mall site again. Weekend guard work. They give their employees that don’t have a vehicle a ride home after 2am. Or at least they did at that time back in 1994. If all that works out then I’ll leave this job. It all hinges on A.) I get a week off, B.) I get the guard job, C.) I get the guards license.

I was thinking that if I ever won the Big One (which I didn’t last night) I’d like to go to SF Conventions or a Con as they are often referred to in the genres. This is where to meet editors and agents and others in the industry. The last Con I went to was Non Con here in Edmonton 30 years ago this October. From what I recall of it I had a great time. I especially enjoyed the costume shindig that came later that night. But the best part is meeting with all the different authors that attend these things, especially he bigger Cons. I’d like to go to World Con in Montreal this year.

Speaking of authors in the genre by now most of you have heard that the SFF genre lost another heavyweight: David Eddings (1931-2009) has passed away. In all honesty I never read any of Eddings work. I now wish I had hearing about his death and his more known genre work like the “Belgariad” and “Dreamer” series makes wish I had paid more attention to this author of 20 novels. I believe there are recent Omnibus collections of his work still available. The achievement of writing and publishing 20 novels is in itself amazing. News of this sad event has already hit the Blogsphere. Eddings wrote all his novels longhand and I kind of like the idea as well. I have 25 years of writing my diary longhand. Eddings died at the age of 77. RIP Mr. Eddings.

And if that weren’t enough actor David Carradine passed away today. I have fond memories watching his performance in “Master of Kung Fu.” To me that was his breakout roll. Seems Carradine committed suicide. He was 72. RIP Grasshopper.

Last night on Coast we were listening about the Loch-Ness monster. Of course of interest to Thelemites is where “Boleskine House” sits. I did a Google earth search for Crowley’s home but it just points to a marker. But the premise of the program was more about “krypto zoology.” I didn’t hear any reference to BC’s own “Ogogpogo.” The Ogogpogo is Canada’s answer to Loch Ness monster or “Nessie” which contemporary culture nick names it. The Ogogpogo hasn’t really got a nick name but still it’s one of the most famous “draws” of it’s kind in British Columbia.

Ah the markets are up again. The DJIA is sitting just around 8700+ points. Oil lost a lot yesterday but is now just under $70. I doubt oil is going to climb up to $90 like it did last year. I’d be happy to see oil around $60-80 between now and mid October.

I’m off work today but I’m curious to see if Rob put my vacation pay bid in on Monday. Most likely why he brought me into the office or that’s probably what inspired him to pull me in because of my vacation pay release request. I doubt it but it just seems slightly ironic timing. Or am I going to have another repeat of last December 19th where payroll is going to hit me up with an unexplained “overpayment” again like the last time. If that happens then I’m going to get on the phone next Friday when I pick up my cheque and I’m going to try and get a hold of HO payroll: “Don’t make me call in Albert Employment Standards on this. I will if I have to.”

I’ve got an easy Lodge night this evening. I’m going to enjoy tonight at the Lodge and not worry about payroll my job or anything. It’s going to be a nice relaxing night off.

Anyway gang, that’s all for now

e. Jim

I downloaded Internet Exploere 8 and it took out the Paste function

in the right click compose window. The past function is there but not highlighted. Strange.

Anhow I have a long post on my website. I'll be looking for a work around this soon. Sorry about this

Anyway gang, that's all for now

e.Jim

I can't believe how fast this summer is going

we're already into June now. I'm still reading ICB by CF Friedman. The POV at first was a bit jumpy but its settled down now.

Coast looks like a good show this morning all about conspiracies, like JFK etc. I like shows like this, they help fuel my imagination.

On the way home from the BBQ we were discussing video games and the game I was looking to get next is "Mass affect" and Nathan said he has a copy he can lend me. He said he'd bring it by on Thursday. Can't argue that.

Earlier after the hockey game I was doing a bit of research on alchemy. My knowledge of alchemy is about a thimble size full but I know it's more then just turning metals into gold type thing. I think the definitive website on alchemy would have to be Adam McLean's site. You wont get a taste of alchemy by reading Harry Potter that's for sure and let me tell you this is heavy reading. But it all fits into a special project of mine.

I'm quite excited about the new Sherlock Holmes movie coming out with Robert Downey Jr. Should be a good one. Though my favorite Sherlock Holmes character of course was Jeremy Brent. I think Brent played the best ever Holmes. Downey is a good actor even though I haven't seen him in Iron Man yet. You can get some of Brent's acting as Holmes on YouTube.

Anyway gang, that's all for now

e. Jim