About 1:30am this morning I decided to test my bsl. It was up 15.1! What could have made it climb so high I had no idea. However I did know of a way to bring that number down: A good walk around the block. Getting out of here though was not without a casualty. Anne was tired I was tired and she stumbled against the wall trying to dodge cats and hit a glass wooden mirror frame we had hanging up since I moved in. It’s been in the same spot in the hallway since I moved here in November 2000. The frame is still intact but the glass is shattered. I don’t recall if the glass had decoration etched on it or not.
I took the glass out in a garbage bag she had got for me and I decided I’d go for a walk from out behind us here to Sifton School and down to the church to 50th street and up along 137th Ave and home. I was starting out pretty good too. I was down by the old traffic trap by the school and I did not need to sit down at the bus stop there. It was so dark out there I could have used night goggles. The sidewalks in the area are some 30+ years old with large cracks and ruts running down some of them. I could see and avoid those while keeping a brisk pace. I was at 50th and 137th by the church and at that bus stop I still didn’t need to take a break. What with my hunched over back and all it being close to 2 am I thought I’d be pulled over by the Police. I took one sit down break by the bus stop before the one I wait at every day and sat there for a few minutes and moved on. There, pulling into Superstore and the Clairview shopping mall area was you guessed it, a Police car. It was going the other way and I was just about ready to head to the front door of our apartment and inside.
I had built up quite a sweat from that little walk and tested myself almost immediate. In that short 40 minute walk my bsl went from 15.1 down to 9.0! That’s quite substantial. I took my insulin and went to bed after that. I woke up about 4:35am and I could never get back to sleep again after that. About 7:30am I read for about 20 minutes and that made me drowsy enough and I slept somewhat better after that.
This morning I was up at about 11:50am and watched the markets and our local news. Wow, the Dow moved up about 190+ points. I went back in history February 15th 2008 the Dow was sitting at 12,348. It’s highest before the recession slide was May 16th when the Dow was sitting at 12,960. Then the news about Fanny Mae and Freddie Mack broke and the market slid to it’s lowest recession point March 6th at 6,626. It’s lowest since January 2nd 1997. The highest the DJIA was on October 5th 2007 when it was at 14,164! Wow. Some other interesting economic news locally is that the big merger between Petro Can and Suncor is going to result in lay offs of some senior officials. This time a year ago Petro Can reported earnings of over a billion dollars. Now they’re barely pulling in about $77 million. Some other economic news about 50 of the major top 500 companies/corporations have reported (not to me) they have met or exceeded their expectations so far this year so far. As for Capital X it seems that 717,966 took in this years 10 day event. This was slightly down from last year at 743,375. The fair's all-time record 10-day attendance was 810,503, set in 2005. The main reason for the drop in attendance and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out: We had the Edmonton Indy raceway going on at the same time but a contract between the Indy race track organizers and Northlands say Northlands can’t release Indy attendance figures. Why I don’t know. No news of what the Edmonton unemployment rate is at the moment. Stats Can Won’t have those figures for July until about mid August but I think it‘s around 6%. And finally about the economy: I think I now know what Microsoft’s big announcement was at this weeks Comic Con. It’s a limited merger with Yahoo and Microsoft. Yawn.
Head on the heals of Comic Con of Course is World Con and that’s in Montreal this year. I’d love to go. Maybe when I win the $23M on Saturday right?
We’ve got a bit of a light rain going on in the City right now to cool things off a bit. They say we’re supposed to get some thunder and lightning activity later this afternoon. Poor Denise Hurd is suffering through +34C degree heat today. I don’t know if it will ever get that hot. In all my years living in the lower mainland in the 1970’s I don’t think it ever got that hot. According to weather data history though the record high was in July 1951 at 91F or +33C a year before I was born. We began to employ the metric system here in Canada September 6th 1977.
Last night I began playing around with my Google News Reader. it's a cool application and I think I'm going to begin using it more and more. Also when I get the Iphone I'll be abole to intergrate the two together. Last night I fooled around with the "Bundles" application in the Google Reader. it's got some bugs.
Finally, tonight, I’m going in for the 5-9 thing. I’m going to get as many empties as I can and work out the shift. The highlight of the night is the Edmonton/Montréal CFL game on tonight at Commonwealth. That’s about the only highlight of the night other then I’ll have some time to myself because Anne’s working from 5-midnight. Other then that, not much going on.
Anyway gang, that‘s all for now.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Today was a good day but more on that later
It was a nice warm afternoon while waiting for my bus yesterday. What a difference in air quality from the platform at Clairview station and the air conditioned train down to Corona.
I bought my 6/49 ticket and headed upstairs and got to station #13 as Super said my usual hole. I got the empties and prepared my self for the first half. It wasn’t a bad night. Nobody got moved. We had a full house. In the 2nd half I got the rest of the empties and had a decent total but 1 card for $25.
I hope I get a decent sleep tonight. I’m really tired and I’m about to pass out but I want to read a bit before I hit the sack and listen to a bit of Coast.
Anne says I don’t need to go to CRHC just yet. But as long as I go this week and I don’t need to take a day off to do this…….1:20pm> I went too bed this morning about 2am thinking I’m tired enough, Anne put the AC on the fan was running it was dry dark and cool and I had Coast on for a bit as well. I turned off the radio about 2:30am and tried to pass out. Again I couldn’t sleep. I got up while Anne was watching something on the Food Network and sat with her for a it and we turned in at 4am. Still I couldn’t sleep. Panic as setting in. Would I ever fall asleep again? Will I get an hour here and there like I’ve been hearing diabetics get sometimes? I got up to read thinking when I went to bed earlier I should have taken a pill and maybe that would have helped. I checked my bsl and it was sitting at 6.2, Not bad. I watched a little TV as dawn was already passed. I did manage to pass out a bit and that was the sign I needed to try this one more time at 5am. I slept better except for bathroom breaks.
Alright, if I don’t spend any of the cash I have on hand and I get a $20 on Friday I can go in and get the Ben Bova Sam Gun Omnibus and enough for my 6/49 ticket. Unless I win tomorrow’s $15M draw that is. I wonder if the 17 workers that won the $49M are still at the job today. They each got $2.8M. That’s enough to retire on. Someone the other day said that when you see lotto customers with complete boards filled out on the card, that’s most likely a group. We have a group at the office that does it. I should get on that because I’m a long standing employee. But I might not be at my current job in September.
I’m still working on reading CS Friedman’s “The Wilding.” it’s really good but it’s taking me a long time to read this book. I’ve just passed the first 100 pages. At this rate, I should have the book read by the middle of August before I can read the next book in the queue.
On the news earlier there was a story about the dangers of “texting.” unless you’ve been hiding out under a rock over the last five years or so texting is sending short bursts of messages out to friends and enemies in general people you know via a cell phone. I’m just going to post some random thoughts here about “texting,” this isn’t really a rant. Texting is especially dangerous for drivers texting behind the wheel. Accidents have been known to happen. First thing I’m going to ask if I’m offered a ride, is ask for somebody not to text while I’m in the car but what about the other nut cases on the road out there texting behind the wheel? Worst part is while on City buses and some idiot driver is texting at a red light. There was that train wreck recently where a number of people were killed because the operator was texting. The worst is these massive cargo trucks rolling down the highway or an ambulance or fire truck driver texting away. Most of these drivers are responsible enough people, or you assume they are responsible enough. But texting sounds almost scary and the imagination doesn’t have to go very far for worst case scenarios. Oh and that teen texting and walking over a manhole cover and falling in? It seems texting is becoming a real problem. I see pedestrians on the sidewalk texting and walking at the same time. Pretty soon we’re going to have hoards of text zombies walking around bumping into walls. Personally I wouldn’t be a “texter.” I don’t have a lot of people in my “inner circle.” We’re not allowed to have cell phones at work but I can imagine kids at church texting back and fourth. I’m sure it happens. Students in class texting test answers to their friends. Most likely the teacher says, “all cell phones off.” or might even collect cell phones at the start of the class, crazy. I could see myself texting a blog post or answering email and stuff. I’m just wondering how prevalent is texting on the job? I mean if your working in a warehouse type thing?
Anyway gang, that‘s all for now.
I bought my 6/49 ticket and headed upstairs and got to station #13 as Super said my usual hole. I got the empties and prepared my self for the first half. It wasn’t a bad night. Nobody got moved. We had a full house. In the 2nd half I got the rest of the empties and had a decent total but 1 card for $25.
I hope I get a decent sleep tonight. I’m really tired and I’m about to pass out but I want to read a bit before I hit the sack and listen to a bit of Coast.
Anne says I don’t need to go to CRHC just yet. But as long as I go this week and I don’t need to take a day off to do this…….1:20pm> I went too bed this morning about 2am thinking I’m tired enough, Anne put the AC on the fan was running it was dry dark and cool and I had Coast on for a bit as well. I turned off the radio about 2:30am and tried to pass out. Again I couldn’t sleep. I got up while Anne was watching something on the Food Network and sat with her for a it and we turned in at 4am. Still I couldn’t sleep. Panic as setting in. Would I ever fall asleep again? Will I get an hour here and there like I’ve been hearing diabetics get sometimes? I got up to read thinking when I went to bed earlier I should have taken a pill and maybe that would have helped. I checked my bsl and it was sitting at 6.2, Not bad. I watched a little TV as dawn was already passed. I did manage to pass out a bit and that was the sign I needed to try this one more time at 5am. I slept better except for bathroom breaks.
Alright, if I don’t spend any of the cash I have on hand and I get a $20 on Friday I can go in and get the Ben Bova Sam Gun Omnibus and enough for my 6/49 ticket. Unless I win tomorrow’s $15M draw that is. I wonder if the 17 workers that won the $49M are still at the job today. They each got $2.8M. That’s enough to retire on. Someone the other day said that when you see lotto customers with complete boards filled out on the card, that’s most likely a group. We have a group at the office that does it. I should get on that because I’m a long standing employee. But I might not be at my current job in September.
I’m still working on reading CS Friedman’s “The Wilding.” it’s really good but it’s taking me a long time to read this book. I’ve just passed the first 100 pages. At this rate, I should have the book read by the middle of August before I can read the next book in the queue.
On the news earlier there was a story about the dangers of “texting.” unless you’ve been hiding out under a rock over the last five years or so texting is sending short bursts of messages out to friends and enemies in general people you know via a cell phone. I’m just going to post some random thoughts here about “texting,” this isn’t really a rant. Texting is especially dangerous for drivers texting behind the wheel. Accidents have been known to happen. First thing I’m going to ask if I’m offered a ride, is ask for somebody not to text while I’m in the car but what about the other nut cases on the road out there texting behind the wheel? Worst part is while on City buses and some idiot driver is texting at a red light. There was that train wreck recently where a number of people were killed because the operator was texting. The worst is these massive cargo trucks rolling down the highway or an ambulance or fire truck driver texting away. Most of these drivers are responsible enough people, or you assume they are responsible enough. But texting sounds almost scary and the imagination doesn’t have to go very far for worst case scenarios. Oh and that teen texting and walking over a manhole cover and falling in? It seems texting is becoming a real problem. I see pedestrians on the sidewalk texting and walking at the same time. Pretty soon we’re going to have hoards of text zombies walking around bumping into walls. Personally I wouldn’t be a “texter.” I don’t have a lot of people in my “inner circle.” We’re not allowed to have cell phones at work but I can imagine kids at church texting back and fourth. I’m sure it happens. Students in class texting test answers to their friends. Most likely the teacher says, “all cell phones off.” or might even collect cell phones at the start of the class, crazy. I could see myself texting a blog post or answering email and stuff. I’m just wondering how prevalent is texting on the job? I mean if your working in a warehouse type thing?
Anyway gang, that‘s all for now.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Actually this was from my day yesterday..........
last night. It was very warm in the apartment and I drank the non caffeine free cola which did not help much. I did manage to grab a hour of sleep from 11-12pm. I felt somewhat refreshed and got organized to leave after locking it all down. A brief wait later for my bus and I was downtown at Corona at 1:15pm.
This morning as I was online for a bit I managed to get some of the items going around on the web and this link from SF Signal caught my attention: Hubble reawakens, snaps image of Jupiter scar, they were talking about this at length on Coast last night. And i09 was talking with the cast of Stargate Universe at Comic Con earlier about the upcoming series and it seems that Stargate Universe Is So Dark They Kill Off The Whole Cast WTF?
I went to get my book at Audrey’s. That completes the “Crown of stars” series. I have 12 books left. Ten of those are mass market paperbacks. The other 2 are Omnibus books. The stack was originally 23 books in May. I had a look around the shelves and they’ve got a few nice anthologies I’d like to get my hands on and also in trade all three of Joe Abercrombie’s First Law’s trilogy are on the shelves as well. Drool.
I walked over to the office and had a can of pop while I was waiting for Greg etc to show up to let me inside. I got upstairs gathered up all the empties from Saturday and got myself ready for the shift. The first half wasn’t too bad. I got 1 card for $20 but no cards after that, I got a few more empties and ended up with $540 in sales. Out of all the above not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
I called Anne who answered as I was leaving out the door that I’m on my way. I’m going to see if I can meet with that fellow long enough to get his phone number. My cell phone charge had 1 battery life on it. She didn’t call back on my way from Corona to Clairview. I had a ten minute wait looking around for this guy but he was a no show, just as well. I got in and Anne had brunch ready for me as she was getting ready to leave for her 4 hours. She’s there as I write this from 8-12pm.
I was exhausted after brunch and had a little nap for 40 winks, I feel a lot better now. The only down part of Sunday was the sleep I had this morning. Otherwise I had a day I can’t complain about. Even the weather cooperated with it being a little more on the cooler side today.
I’ve got a few things to take care of this week. Mainly get our rental subsidy and get that process started. Anne was talking with a co worker about this before she called me on her break just now and she said it’s a yearly renewal form for those that qualify.
Well, I’m off to go do some reading
Anyway gang, that‘s all for now
This morning as I was online for a bit I managed to get some of the items going around on the web and this link from SF Signal caught my attention: Hubble reawakens, snaps image of Jupiter scar, they were talking about this at length on Coast last night. And i09 was talking with the cast of Stargate Universe at Comic Con earlier about the upcoming series and it seems that Stargate Universe Is So Dark They Kill Off The Whole Cast WTF?
I went to get my book at Audrey’s. That completes the “Crown of stars” series. I have 12 books left. Ten of those are mass market paperbacks. The other 2 are Omnibus books. The stack was originally 23 books in May. I had a look around the shelves and they’ve got a few nice anthologies I’d like to get my hands on and also in trade all three of Joe Abercrombie’s First Law’s trilogy are on the shelves as well. Drool.
I walked over to the office and had a can of pop while I was waiting for Greg etc to show up to let me inside. I got upstairs gathered up all the empties from Saturday and got myself ready for the shift. The first half wasn’t too bad. I got 1 card for $20 but no cards after that, I got a few more empties and ended up with $540 in sales. Out of all the above not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
I called Anne who answered as I was leaving out the door that I’m on my way. I’m going to see if I can meet with that fellow long enough to get his phone number. My cell phone charge had 1 battery life on it. She didn’t call back on my way from Corona to Clairview. I had a ten minute wait looking around for this guy but he was a no show, just as well. I got in and Anne had brunch ready for me as she was getting ready to leave for her 4 hours. She’s there as I write this from 8-12pm.
I was exhausted after brunch and had a little nap for 40 winks, I feel a lot better now. The only down part of Sunday was the sleep I had this morning. Otherwise I had a day I can’t complain about. Even the weather cooperated with it being a little more on the cooler side today.
I’ve got a few things to take care of this week. Mainly get our rental subsidy and get that process started. Anne was talking with a co worker about this before she called me on her break just now and she said it’s a yearly renewal form for those that qualify.
Well, I’m off to go do some reading
Anyway gang, that‘s all for now
Saturday, July 25, 2009
I love Summertime in the City......
Last night just before bed Anne and I got into a little scrimmage but we’re ok now. She went out shopping as she found last night when I got home she had a $100 in her account she forgot about. We could have gone out to the taste of Edmonton last night after all. She came down to my place of work to get the cheque and I got all my bonus money all my hours. Perfect. So she went to get the coolers and to order us pizza. When I got home she was just ordering us piazza. We had that watched Smackdown and some news. It was after our coolers we got into a little scuffle. Mainly I was having a heat stroke.
Hey, before I forget, the folks at i09 are talking about Tony Stark's On The Firing Line In First Iron Man 2 Footage! impressive or what? While I have yet to see the last Iron man movie, I’m inclined to have my wife run over and rent it out for me while I’m at work. Iron Man has always been one of my fav marvel comic book Superhero’s.
Anyway, Anne went out to do her shopping this afternoon and just as my Eskimo/Riders game was getting underway and technical difficulties from the network and with the Esks losing badly (not even on the scoreboard) Anne calls asking where the bus pass was. I was getting all pissed off thinking she lost our bus pass and all. I had to listen to some of the game on CHED radio for the first quarter. The game was back at the end of the 2nd quarter that’s when Anne came in. She was all happy and we had a great afternoon. She made me some chicken fingers and curly fries and that nice Superstore cheesecake. Very nice. All that and the +31/88F heat here in Capital Place apartments. Let me tell you folks it’s a hot one today. Still is. I’ve got both fans going and Boots is hunkered down in our bedroom with the TV slightly on. The other cats are around here someplace. My wife is at work in a nice air conditioned office.
On Coast lasts night Ian had a really boring show. I could not even tell you what it was about. Anger management or some damn thing. Tonight however, Ian has the Historian, author, and the librarian at the New York Lodge of the Theosophical Society, Michael Gomes as they will discuss the works of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky who paved the way for ideas on the origin and evolution of the universe and humanity itself as well as the occult. I had at onetime the whole set of Blavatsky’s “Secret Doctrine.” I was more into Alice Bailey’s work then Blavatsky’s in the early 1980’s. So this promises to be a great show.
My football game this afternoon was a real barn burner. For the first quarter the Esks look like they were a struggling football team just trying to stop the Rider offence and get on the board. Near the end of the 2nd quarter the Esks manage a field goal 3-22. Then near the end of the 2nd quarter the Esks came back and the rest of the game was all Edmonton. 38-33. The Eskimo’s really needed that win.
At SF Signal they have clips from Comic Con of the new TRAILER: Tron Legacy movie from Disney. I don’t know when this movie is coming out but wow I’m excited. Speaking of movies I still have the free movie pass and I’m thinking about using it to see the new GI Joe movie when it comes out August 8th I think.
My wife is working tonight and tomorrow I’m off over to Audrey’s for a couple of books. I want to get that CJ Cherryh book and maybe the last of the “Crown of Stars” series. Should be $18.46 since Audrey’s has that 20% off SFF book sale going on until the end of this month. Then it’s into the office and I’m off collecting all the empties left over from today and whatever is available from Sunday before my 4 hour shift.
Anne’s heading over to Capital X fair grounds later tonight as we missed going to “A taste of Edmonton” last night. She asked me if I wanted to go with her but I’m not up to walking around all over the place on a hot Saturday evening. It’s a $10 admission. She wants to have a look around as the last day is Sunday night. The Edmonton Indy is also on Sunday. I love summer in Edmonton.
After work tomorrow night I’m meeting a fellow from Jamaica I met on the way home yesterday. We didn’t have anything to write down and trade phone numbers with or anything but he says he has an internet based business. He wasn’t pushy and was being honest. No it’s not Amway but I’m going to meet with him if he remembers and hopefully I’ll be able to take a look at the plan. I know it’s MLM but it is internet based. I haven’t seen this plan before. No harm just taking a look see. I’ve been through Amway twice, been there done that. Nothing wrong with Amway but you need lots of money to keep your business going. I was on welfare at the time and my sponsors upline basically told my sponsor to dump me. Although just before Anne and I got married I took her to our local Amway meeting. She wasn’t impressed by my sponsors pushiness. I quickly resigned after that.
The big 6/49 lotto draw is on for tonight. The website hasn’t revealed the winning numbers yet.
Anyway gang, that‘s all for now.
Hey, before I forget, the folks at i09 are talking about Tony Stark's On The Firing Line In First Iron Man 2 Footage! impressive or what? While I have yet to see the last Iron man movie, I’m inclined to have my wife run over and rent it out for me while I’m at work. Iron Man has always been one of my fav marvel comic book Superhero’s.
Anyway, Anne went out to do her shopping this afternoon and just as my Eskimo/Riders game was getting underway and technical difficulties from the network and with the Esks losing badly (not even on the scoreboard) Anne calls asking where the bus pass was. I was getting all pissed off thinking she lost our bus pass and all. I had to listen to some of the game on CHED radio for the first quarter. The game was back at the end of the 2nd quarter that’s when Anne came in. She was all happy and we had a great afternoon. She made me some chicken fingers and curly fries and that nice Superstore cheesecake. Very nice. All that and the +31/88F heat here in Capital Place apartments. Let me tell you folks it’s a hot one today. Still is. I’ve got both fans going and Boots is hunkered down in our bedroom with the TV slightly on. The other cats are around here someplace. My wife is at work in a nice air conditioned office.
On Coast lasts night Ian had a really boring show. I could not even tell you what it was about. Anger management or some damn thing. Tonight however, Ian has the Historian, author, and the librarian at the New York Lodge of the Theosophical Society, Michael Gomes as they will discuss the works of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky who paved the way for ideas on the origin and evolution of the universe and humanity itself as well as the occult. I had at onetime the whole set of Blavatsky’s “Secret Doctrine.” I was more into Alice Bailey’s work then Blavatsky’s in the early 1980’s. So this promises to be a great show.
My football game this afternoon was a real barn burner. For the first quarter the Esks look like they were a struggling football team just trying to stop the Rider offence and get on the board. Near the end of the 2nd quarter the Esks manage a field goal 3-22. Then near the end of the 2nd quarter the Esks came back and the rest of the game was all Edmonton. 38-33. The Eskimo’s really needed that win.
At SF Signal they have clips from Comic Con of the new TRAILER: Tron Legacy movie from Disney. I don’t know when this movie is coming out but wow I’m excited. Speaking of movies I still have the free movie pass and I’m thinking about using it to see the new GI Joe movie when it comes out August 8th I think.
My wife is working tonight and tomorrow I’m off over to Audrey’s for a couple of books. I want to get that CJ Cherryh book and maybe the last of the “Crown of Stars” series. Should be $18.46 since Audrey’s has that 20% off SFF book sale going on until the end of this month. Then it’s into the office and I’m off collecting all the empties left over from today and whatever is available from Sunday before my 4 hour shift.
Anne’s heading over to Capital X fair grounds later tonight as we missed going to “A taste of Edmonton” last night. She asked me if I wanted to go with her but I’m not up to walking around all over the place on a hot Saturday evening. It’s a $10 admission. She wants to have a look around as the last day is Sunday night. The Edmonton Indy is also on Sunday. I love summer in Edmonton.
After work tomorrow night I’m meeting a fellow from Jamaica I met on the way home yesterday. We didn’t have anything to write down and trade phone numbers with or anything but he says he has an internet based business. He wasn’t pushy and was being honest. No it’s not Amway but I’m going to meet with him if he remembers and hopefully I’ll be able to take a look at the plan. I know it’s MLM but it is internet based. I haven’t seen this plan before. No harm just taking a look see. I’ve been through Amway twice, been there done that. Nothing wrong with Amway but you need lots of money to keep your business going. I was on welfare at the time and my sponsors upline basically told my sponsor to dump me. Although just before Anne and I got married I took her to our local Amway meeting. She wasn’t impressed by my sponsors pushiness. I quickly resigned after that.
The big 6/49 lotto draw is on for tonight. The website hasn’t revealed the winning numbers yet.
Anyway gang, that‘s all for now.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Its the Dog days of Summer, again
I got up a little on the late side of bed today. Actually I was up at 11am and I should have stayed up but I needed the extra 1.45 minutes or so of sleep.
Last night I’m in the office just as the afternoon shift ends and I’m looking for empties. I’m at station #!5 but Super wants me in the back. So I’m scooting up over with the rest trying to get the end dialer. Beating out one of the staff like a ball player trying to make it to plate before the baseman tags him and the Umpire says “Safe.” I felt bad about being rude to one of the girls that I kind of took the dialer from. I apologised to her before we got started. later I took the next dialer over and there was this wallet lying on the table. It was one of the day staff people and it was opened up. There was money inside credit cards etc. Dave said it was probably Tasha’s, Subvere is his best friend one of the other staff that worked with us. I picked it up and handed it over to Subvere who thanked me for it. A few minutes later as I was right into making calls and in between calls Tasha and Subvere came over and thanked me for rescuing his wallet. I recall how Dave sitting next to me had his wallet stolen the same way a few months back and he had $500 in it from his cheque he just cashed. Tasha handed me $5 as a reward but I couldn’t take this. He kind of shoved it into my top pocket, It wasn’t necessary, but the event kind of made me the hero in the office for the evening. I felt kind of good about this. That news will spread around. We were doing Cops again and I ended up pulling in $480 by break and I got more empties and I thought because Dave and I came upon the wallet more or less at the same time, I’d split the $5 and give Dave half. He could use it towards a pack of smokes.
Anyway I rode the train to Clairview with one of the other tap ladies I work with and caught my bus home. I was about 5 min away from Raw but I wanted to go outside to annoy the people that treated my wife badly the other day. I talked with Anne from the grass to the balcony as she was leaning over and I saw one of them up there. Anne came out to see me and we made it look like we were looking around she glanced up a few times. The character was sitting with his back towards the wall and his legs up so he couldn’t see us. We went back inside and I watched Monday night Raw. It wasn’t a bad show.
Yesterday was pretty good. One of the day staff sitting to my right was telling me that they’ve stopped the practice of having vacation pay accrued. Too many people coming and going around here. Our place is full most nights but if bm ever wanted to he could open business and have lines going in there. There’s another 20-30 stations there.
Other then that, not much is going on. It’s the “Dog days of summer.” I’m still working my way through “The Wilding.” Still working on that short story which I’ll be getting into later tonight when I’m home.
Speaking of changes and all at work, Dave was saying that he and his mom got their dialers shut off at 3pm because the other day because they were not at line hour. The afternoons are tough. But at the same time, this well give me a an hour or so of time to read or go across the street to the job bank and look around for another job something better. If I’m shut down at 3pm I can be at the job bank in 5 minutes. I used to go there and hang out read the paper look for jobs use the phone etc before I got married.
Unemployment around here is modest. Lots of people are still flocking to Edmonton as the place to be. Especially now that the Capital X is in full swing and all the activities around here. Walmart up the street is still open 24 hours. Oil is climbing up again not at $66 something. The markets are bouncing back almost reaching the 9k point. I’m not a 100% sure on this but what a year ago you could get a job in a matter of days. Now it’s a matter of weeks. Despite the downturn in the economy things around here are picking up but I'm still hearing how people are being laid off here in Alberta and Edmotnon and all around the country. Thing is people are still spending money. They're still driving their cars going to bars and shows. I noticed another construction project of some kind getting started on just on the other side of the manning overpass on my way to work last night.
Anyway gang, that‘s all for now
Last night I’m in the office just as the afternoon shift ends and I’m looking for empties. I’m at station #!5 but Super wants me in the back. So I’m scooting up over with the rest trying to get the end dialer. Beating out one of the staff like a ball player trying to make it to plate before the baseman tags him and the Umpire says “Safe.” I felt bad about being rude to one of the girls that I kind of took the dialer from. I apologised to her before we got started. later I took the next dialer over and there was this wallet lying on the table. It was one of the day staff people and it was opened up. There was money inside credit cards etc. Dave said it was probably Tasha’s, Subvere is his best friend one of the other staff that worked with us. I picked it up and handed it over to Subvere who thanked me for it. A few minutes later as I was right into making calls and in between calls Tasha and Subvere came over and thanked me for rescuing his wallet. I recall how Dave sitting next to me had his wallet stolen the same way a few months back and he had $500 in it from his cheque he just cashed. Tasha handed me $5 as a reward but I couldn’t take this. He kind of shoved it into my top pocket, It wasn’t necessary, but the event kind of made me the hero in the office for the evening. I felt kind of good about this. That news will spread around. We were doing Cops again and I ended up pulling in $480 by break and I got more empties and I thought because Dave and I came upon the wallet more or less at the same time, I’d split the $5 and give Dave half. He could use it towards a pack of smokes.
Anyway I rode the train to Clairview with one of the other tap ladies I work with and caught my bus home. I was about 5 min away from Raw but I wanted to go outside to annoy the people that treated my wife badly the other day. I talked with Anne from the grass to the balcony as she was leaning over and I saw one of them up there. Anne came out to see me and we made it look like we were looking around she glanced up a few times. The character was sitting with his back towards the wall and his legs up so he couldn’t see us. We went back inside and I watched Monday night Raw. It wasn’t a bad show.
Yesterday was pretty good. One of the day staff sitting to my right was telling me that they’ve stopped the practice of having vacation pay accrued. Too many people coming and going around here. Our place is full most nights but if bm ever wanted to he could open business and have lines going in there. There’s another 20-30 stations there.
Other then that, not much is going on. It’s the “Dog days of summer.” I’m still working my way through “The Wilding.” Still working on that short story which I’ll be getting into later tonight when I’m home.
Speaking of changes and all at work, Dave was saying that he and his mom got their dialers shut off at 3pm because the other day because they were not at line hour. The afternoons are tough. But at the same time, this well give me a an hour or so of time to read or go across the street to the job bank and look around for another job something better. If I’m shut down at 3pm I can be at the job bank in 5 minutes. I used to go there and hang out read the paper look for jobs use the phone etc before I got married.
Unemployment around here is modest. Lots of people are still flocking to Edmonton as the place to be. Especially now that the Capital X is in full swing and all the activities around here. Walmart up the street is still open 24 hours. Oil is climbing up again not at $66 something. The markets are bouncing back almost reaching the 9k point. I’m not a 100% sure on this but what a year ago you could get a job in a matter of days. Now it’s a matter of weeks. Despite the downturn in the economy things around here are picking up but I'm still hearing how people are being laid off here in Alberta and Edmotnon and all around the country. Thing is people are still spending money. They're still driving their cars going to bars and shows. I noticed another construction project of some kind getting started on just on the other side of the manning overpass on my way to work last night.
Anyway gang, that‘s all for now
Monday, July 20, 2009
Its been an intersting weekend to say the least
Yesterday when I went into the office there were after effects of Saturday nights storm by The Days Inn. A good chunk of fallen tree lay on the sidewalk. Even out here there were branches broken on the ground. None of these trees were up rooted out behind us here but many trees in various parts of the city were. Lightening caused a house fire not far away from us. Wind were gusting 100K at times. A pedway connecting to the CN tower was destroyed. Capital X was shut down sending patrons scattering for the LRT at nearby Coliseum station. There were hundreds of people lining the stairwell and stairs trying to get to one of the many contingency buses the City had out there. Many of the trees that got uprooted or were split apart stood for about 70 years. In my wife’s place of work on the 17th floor they could feel the window panes shake and curtains move. The storm shut down Whyte Ave, the Capital X and a few local businesses and even parts of the LRT. Even lights in our place dimmed a couple of times. Luckily thee wee no injuries reported and no fatalities. For awhile there the storm got so bad that even Tweeter featured Edmonton as one of the top key words. It was quite the storm. We usually get about one of these every couple of years due to a hot summer day when the temperatures get to above +28C. We got 1 day that’s about +28-+30C this week yet. Good thing Anne had brought Boots inside.
You know there are a lot of flakey people out there, Earlier Anne was telling me how she went out behind us here and looked up at the other suits to see about that squirrel if she could spot it. People were out on their balconies enjoying the night air. Then she mentioned how on her way to work this crazy man came aggressively towards her in broad daylight in her face yelling at her for her not to look up at their balcony. He swore at her called her a name. This person has got to have a mental problem. She asked me, when I come home for me to go outback stand there and look around and glance up to the balconies. She recalls now there were two guys sitting on their balcony. She said it must really annoy them. But tonight is Monday night Raw but I can always catch what I miss Tuesday afternoon. Anne said don’t go and stair at those guys but just stand around and occasionally glance up as if I’m looking for something. Apparently it annoys them anyone looking up at them. Good, if they are there I’m going to annoy them. I said Anne should have told the caretaker, but the caretaker and my wife are on shaky ground at the moment. Some people really should seek mental help and if I annoy them I’ll make a point of saying they need help. Are they the balcony police or something? Yeesh, some people.
In about half an hour were going to call Revenue Canada and have them issue us another gst cheque. Most likely we’ll get the cheque sometime next week.
I’m still reading “The Wilding.” Again it’s a slow go (on my part) There are 2 basic story arcs going on. This is still the first 50 pages. The writing is flowing better then the previous book and is a little more accessible. I’d like to finish this in August.
Well, ZZ top is guest host of Monday night Raw. I don’t know if I like the way this is going. I like the idea of a guest general manager and all but let it be somebody that is on the inside. One of the “hall of fame” for example. They could have Jerry Lawler for example or Jake “the snake” Roberts or Mean Gene, or anyone of a dozen others.
Last night while watching “Attack of the show.” Or AS, they were talking about Blip. Fm and how it works with Twitter etc. You set yourself up as a DJ search for songs/videos you like of your favorite artists and blip them. Some DJ’s have lots of listeners. I thought this would be a great way to fill up the “My Music” block. Music is very important to me as a writer. Initially I opened a free account and began toying with this and had 14 tracks of The Clash loaded up or Blips. Then I found a nifty widget I could put in the block and it works fine except I realized I had to change my DJ name but when I did I lost all the Clash blips recorded earlier. But I don’t want just The Clash tunes, I want The Beatles, David Bowie, Kansas, Sweet, Abba, etc in there. This is why widget reads empty and I'm going to install the code for a widget here soon as well. I’ll be playing around with it after Raw tonight.
And finally SF Signal has some cool SFF book covers on display today. I like Enigma by SF Bently the best. Cool looking cover.
Anyway gang, that‘s all for now.
You know there are a lot of flakey people out there, Earlier Anne was telling me how she went out behind us here and looked up at the other suits to see about that squirrel if she could spot it. People were out on their balconies enjoying the night air. Then she mentioned how on her way to work this crazy man came aggressively towards her in broad daylight in her face yelling at her for her not to look up at their balcony. He swore at her called her a name. This person has got to have a mental problem. She asked me, when I come home for me to go outback stand there and look around and glance up to the balconies. She recalls now there were two guys sitting on their balcony. She said it must really annoy them. But tonight is Monday night Raw but I can always catch what I miss Tuesday afternoon. Anne said don’t go and stair at those guys but just stand around and occasionally glance up as if I’m looking for something. Apparently it annoys them anyone looking up at them. Good, if they are there I’m going to annoy them. I said Anne should have told the caretaker, but the caretaker and my wife are on shaky ground at the moment. Some people really should seek mental help and if I annoy them I’ll make a point of saying they need help. Are they the balcony police or something? Yeesh, some people.
In about half an hour were going to call Revenue Canada and have them issue us another gst cheque. Most likely we’ll get the cheque sometime next week.
I’m still reading “The Wilding.” Again it’s a slow go (on my part) There are 2 basic story arcs going on. This is still the first 50 pages. The writing is flowing better then the previous book and is a little more accessible. I’d like to finish this in August.
Well, ZZ top is guest host of Monday night Raw. I don’t know if I like the way this is going. I like the idea of a guest general manager and all but let it be somebody that is on the inside. One of the “hall of fame” for example. They could have Jerry Lawler for example or Jake “the snake” Roberts or Mean Gene, or anyone of a dozen others.
Last night while watching “Attack of the show.” Or AS, they were talking about Blip. Fm and how it works with Twitter etc. You set yourself up as a DJ search for songs/videos you like of your favorite artists and blip them. Some DJ’s have lots of listeners. I thought this would be a great way to fill up the “My Music” block. Music is very important to me as a writer. Initially I opened a free account and began toying with this and had 14 tracks of The Clash loaded up or Blips. Then I found a nifty widget I could put in the block and it works fine except I realized I had to change my DJ name but when I did I lost all the Clash blips recorded earlier. But I don’t want just The Clash tunes, I want The Beatles, David Bowie, Kansas, Sweet, Abba, etc in there. This is why widget reads empty and I'm going to install the code for a widget here soon as well. I’ll be playing around with it after Raw tonight.
And finally SF Signal has some cool SFF book covers on display today. I like Enigma by SF Bently the best. Cool looking cover.
Anyway gang, that‘s all for now.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
That was my day off
We had a nice thunder & lightening storm go by here around 8pm last night. Winds were gusting very heavy out there with lightning flashes but no thunder, yet. In some places the winds were gusting up to 100k. Anne called to have me bring the bird cages inside it got so bad out there. Then we got thunder. About 8:30pm the wind picked up so strong it was blowing wind and rain taking down this orange plastic panel Anne had put up for me here in my office on top of the AC to keep the cold air in. I was afraid that the plastic would have been blown out and would have hit me. Probably would have to if I hadn’t taken it and the AC out of the window frame.
I had a decent evening watching the Hamilton Tiger Cats CFL game against the Winnipeg Blue bombers. After that I began working on as yet an untitled short story. It’s a medieval fantasy type yarn that’s going to be about 5,000 words. I should have the rough draft knocked off by this evening when I come home from work if all goes well. This is going to be my summer writing project. I usually do two short stories/year. I haven’t sent anything out yet since 2007’s “Zombies of sleep” to "Static movement" (See science fiction online) I don’t mind sending my work out to these kinds of web zines and all but eventually I have to try and sell a piece to a print publisher to turn pro, (I know what I‘m up against) you know like 2-4 cents a word or something like that.
The 6/49 draw had their winner this evening for $4,377,298.00. There were in addition to that 2 $156,332.00 winners. That’s for 2nd place. 5 numbers including the bonus number. For 3rd place there were 101 winners for $2,557.30. You need 5/6 numbers for 3rd place. The jackpot for Wednesday is for an estimated $3.5M. Sure I’ll get a ticket. I spend $4/week or $208 bucks/year. I’ve seen people buy a whole card of 6 blocks at $2 game is $18/week.
I wanted to spend all night reading “The Wilding” but I got to watch the CFL game and answering calls from Anne and the storm instead. So much for that idea. I did manage to read for about an hour last night and I’ll be reading some more later today but I want to finish off that story first.
I just read a great article on Visa/MC gift cards. These things can be purchased at places like Shoppers drug mart/Money mart and 7-11’s. I can even get them from my bank as well. They are not reloadable but they can be used online. Especially at places like Itunes and Amazon. ca and EBay. These gift cards have been around for awhile now and what I read, only confirms they can be bought at the above venues. There’s been a couple of things I want to buy online but because I didn’t have a credit card I was shut out. The only problem is they need to be registered. No big deal.
Anne called on her way home on the train saying that the City shut down the exhibition early because of the storm. For the most part the storm is all but over.
Again over there at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist he’s got a poll asking the readership what book to read next. I suggest “The Kings Dragon” as it’s part one of the Crown of Stars series. I've had this book since around 2002 sitting on my shelf. Most of you reading this know that I’ve been buying one of these books/week over the last 5 weeks now. I’ve got one book left in the series to buy.
I was watching G4’s Attack of the show and on the ticker they were talking about how Microsoft is going to releasing an announcement of something big at Comic Con this week. Also on the show they mentioned how Tweeter was hacked into. I think this was an older show though.
This afternoon I’m headed off to do my 4 hour shift. Anne suggested I put in 3 shifts this week. I’m going to get them all out of the way beginning Monday. I wanted to do a few more because we're so behind and all but she said we can get by on me doing 3 extra shifts. We're just going to have to give the caretaker a post dated cheque is all for August rent.
Tonight Coast right now has a really boring show titled Food Secrets. I don’t know, Ian’s Saturday night shows have become really boring lately. Even on the Jeff Rense site there is nothing going on but archive shows.
Well, that was my day off kids. I got up around noon, Anne made me a great prime rib cheese burger and fries before she left for work, she got home in about midnight.
Anyway gang, that‘s all for now.
I had a decent evening watching the Hamilton Tiger Cats CFL game against the Winnipeg Blue bombers. After that I began working on as yet an untitled short story. It’s a medieval fantasy type yarn that’s going to be about 5,000 words. I should have the rough draft knocked off by this evening when I come home from work if all goes well. This is going to be my summer writing project. I usually do two short stories/year. I haven’t sent anything out yet since 2007’s “Zombies of sleep” to "Static movement" (See science fiction online) I don’t mind sending my work out to these kinds of web zines and all but eventually I have to try and sell a piece to a print publisher to turn pro, (I know what I‘m up against) you know like 2-4 cents a word or something like that.
The 6/49 draw had their winner this evening for $4,377,298.00. There were in addition to that 2 $156,332.00 winners. That’s for 2nd place. 5 numbers including the bonus number. For 3rd place there were 101 winners for $2,557.30. You need 5/6 numbers for 3rd place. The jackpot for Wednesday is for an estimated $3.5M. Sure I’ll get a ticket. I spend $4/week or $208 bucks/year. I’ve seen people buy a whole card of 6 blocks at $2 game is $18/week.
I wanted to spend all night reading “The Wilding” but I got to watch the CFL game and answering calls from Anne and the storm instead. So much for that idea. I did manage to read for about an hour last night and I’ll be reading some more later today but I want to finish off that story first.
I just read a great article on Visa/MC gift cards. These things can be purchased at places like Shoppers drug mart/Money mart and 7-11’s. I can even get them from my bank as well. They are not reloadable but they can be used online. Especially at places like Itunes and Amazon. ca and EBay. These gift cards have been around for awhile now and what I read, only confirms they can be bought at the above venues. There’s been a couple of things I want to buy online but because I didn’t have a credit card I was shut out. The only problem is they need to be registered. No big deal.
Anne called on her way home on the train saying that the City shut down the exhibition early because of the storm. For the most part the storm is all but over.
Again over there at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist he’s got a poll asking the readership what book to read next. I suggest “The Kings Dragon” as it’s part one of the Crown of Stars series. I've had this book since around 2002 sitting on my shelf. Most of you reading this know that I’ve been buying one of these books/week over the last 5 weeks now. I’ve got one book left in the series to buy.
I was watching G4’s Attack of the show and on the ticker they were talking about how Microsoft is going to releasing an announcement of something big at Comic Con this week. Also on the show they mentioned how Tweeter was hacked into. I think this was an older show though.
This afternoon I’m headed off to do my 4 hour shift. Anne suggested I put in 3 shifts this week. I’m going to get them all out of the way beginning Monday. I wanted to do a few more because we're so behind and all but she said we can get by on me doing 3 extra shifts. We're just going to have to give the caretaker a post dated cheque is all for August rent.
Tonight Coast right now has a really boring show titled Food Secrets. I don’t know, Ian’s Saturday night shows have become really boring lately. Even on the Jeff Rense site there is nothing going on but archive shows.
Well, that was my day off kids. I got up around noon, Anne made me a great prime rib cheese burger and fries before she left for work, she got home in about midnight.
Anyway gang, that‘s all for now.
Friday, July 17, 2009
It's been a slow couple of days lately
I had a pretty good day even though I woke up on the late side. That’s why I wasn’t able to get a blog post going Thursday.
I felt pretty good going into the office and I got a few empties and settled into dialer #15. A lot of the staff left to attend the magic show we were working on earlier. I had a decent first half pulling in line hour and 1 card. I got more empties and had a chat with Anne and made a $2 bet with DC over last nights Eskimo/lions CFL football game. In the 2nd quarter things were not going good for the Esks. I had a great night making sales watching the game. I ended up with line hour and another card for a $12 bonus and there’s always this evening for bonus money. I felt good about leaving even though things didn’t look good for the Esks. I got home and Anne surprised me as I thought she was out. I took out the trash had an early supper watched the news.
I didn’t win Wednesday’s big $32M 6/49 draw but 3 winners split the big prize for $10,772,510.00, nice. There were also, 4 winners that won $191,455.90. I could sure use that this evening. Lastly there were 315 winners that won $2,008.30.
About last nights Eskimo game, the Esks were in retro uniforms from 1965 and they played like the team that year 40-22 BC. Yikes. Fans on the train I spoke with, were getting really down on Rickey Ray our quarterback.
Tonight I’m back in on the job for 3 hours. Anne’s going to give me my allowance to take in so I can get my book and pay off DC for the bet but I might just give him that Monday instead as I’m getting another 6/49 ticket and my book tonight……………..2:10pm> I got up around 10:30am and checked the markets then went back to bed. Anne got up around 11am because her cheque came in. I got up around 1:30pm. Holy shit.
We found out what had happened to our gst cheque the volunteer at the income tax service in April did not put the suite number for the gst cheque. This is strange because we each got our tax returns in early May. So now we’ve got to call back on Monday morning and request another cheque with the proper mailing address. Why Revenue Canada couldn’t figure this out based upon our tax returns I have no idea. We should get the cheque by next Monday.
The City released a controversial website yesterday. It’s a crime watch site that reports crime in various areas of the city. They show colored dots of various crimes in neighborhoods. So for example I can find out how many rapes or stabbings in a given area in the City. Winnipeg has had this for a number of years now. Edmonton is so far behind the times, it was just a couple of years ago that we got our first police helicopter. Yeesh, they could have had this 25-30 years ago.
My 2nd favorite site on the net i09 is talking how a Big screen “Doctor Who” movie may be announced at Comic Con next week. I’ve never been a fan of the Doctor. His books are very popular. I almost had an interest in picking up the series in the 1990’s when Ellen had a Doctor Who scarf. Apparently she was a big fan of the TV series, I couldn’t keep up with all the different Doctors playing the same character. That sort of spoiled it for me.
The temperature out there was really humid this afternoon while I was waiting for my bus into work. I read a bit and got to the drugstore to get my 6/49 ticket for Saturday’s draw for $4M! I got to my dialer collected all my empties and got my cheque. All’s right on my cheque. Anne gave me some cash to go get my book at Audrey’s, Book #6 of Kate Elliott’s “Crown of Stars.” I had a brief wait for my train and got home about 9:20pm
Anyway gang, that‘s all for now.
I felt pretty good going into the office and I got a few empties and settled into dialer #15. A lot of the staff left to attend the magic show we were working on earlier. I had a decent first half pulling in line hour and 1 card. I got more empties and had a chat with Anne and made a $2 bet with DC over last nights Eskimo/lions CFL football game. In the 2nd quarter things were not going good for the Esks. I had a great night making sales watching the game. I ended up with line hour and another card for a $12 bonus and there’s always this evening for bonus money. I felt good about leaving even though things didn’t look good for the Esks. I got home and Anne surprised me as I thought she was out. I took out the trash had an early supper watched the news.
I didn’t win Wednesday’s big $32M 6/49 draw but 3 winners split the big prize for $10,772,510.00, nice. There were also, 4 winners that won $191,455.90. I could sure use that this evening. Lastly there were 315 winners that won $2,008.30.
About last nights Eskimo game, the Esks were in retro uniforms from 1965 and they played like the team that year 40-22 BC. Yikes. Fans on the train I spoke with, were getting really down on Rickey Ray our quarterback.
Tonight I’m back in on the job for 3 hours. Anne’s going to give me my allowance to take in so I can get my book and pay off DC for the bet but I might just give him that Monday instead as I’m getting another 6/49 ticket and my book tonight……………..2:10pm> I got up around 10:30am and checked the markets then went back to bed. Anne got up around 11am because her cheque came in. I got up around 1:30pm. Holy shit.
We found out what had happened to our gst cheque the volunteer at the income tax service in April did not put the suite number for the gst cheque. This is strange because we each got our tax returns in early May. So now we’ve got to call back on Monday morning and request another cheque with the proper mailing address. Why Revenue Canada couldn’t figure this out based upon our tax returns I have no idea. We should get the cheque by next Monday.
The City released a controversial website yesterday. It’s a crime watch site that reports crime in various areas of the city. They show colored dots of various crimes in neighborhoods. So for example I can find out how many rapes or stabbings in a given area in the City. Winnipeg has had this for a number of years now. Edmonton is so far behind the times, it was just a couple of years ago that we got our first police helicopter. Yeesh, they could have had this 25-30 years ago.
My 2nd favorite site on the net i09 is talking how a Big screen “Doctor Who” movie may be announced at Comic Con next week. I’ve never been a fan of the Doctor. His books are very popular. I almost had an interest in picking up the series in the 1990’s when Ellen had a Doctor Who scarf. Apparently she was a big fan of the TV series, I couldn’t keep up with all the different Doctors playing the same character. That sort of spoiled it for me.
The temperature out there was really humid this afternoon while I was waiting for my bus into work. I read a bit and got to the drugstore to get my 6/49 ticket for Saturday’s draw for $4M! I got to my dialer collected all my empties and got my cheque. All’s right on my cheque. Anne gave me some cash to go get my book at Audrey’s, Book #6 of Kate Elliott’s “Crown of Stars.” I had a brief wait for my train and got home about 9:20pm
Anyway gang, that‘s all for now.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Yesterday wasn't half bad
No snags getting to work.
I finished "In Conquest born" and I went and put a "review" of sorts on my website.
Speaking about books though, I've been using "Good reads" and I really like this interface they have set up with Blogger. It makes all my editing changes does all the FTP and everything right within Goodreads. The interface is really slick. All I have to do is edit the shelves. I remove what I'm currently reading when I'm done a book and when I add a new selection within Goodreads that selection reflects on my Blogger page. Slick. Also Blogger aligns up nicely with facebook notes and Twitter.
In my 20's I wanted to become a comic book artist but I had no talent in drawing. Sure I got the odd "how to" book and such and had a drafting drawing table and I got pretty good at it for awhile even though my work was unpolished I was going some place with it. It was developing and I could see some improvement developing as an artist. I realized early the odds of becoming good enough to work for Marvel or DC were almost impossible. The competition was stiff. Still is, even for good artists. My favorite medium was pencil. By that I mean color pencils. I could draw faces ok but I was really week in drawing full human forms. I also had no goals or path to take. Like writing how do I build up a portfolio? How and where could I expose my work? Well, life sort of got in the way and I left my drawing table behind when I moved from my little bachelor pad in New West in 1974. That dream like others evaporated. I used to like building Historex Napoleonic 54 mm figures. I'd build say for example a Austrian foot soldier and then study the anatomy from various angles and sketch them out. I had no formal art training. Now I think I'd like to take an art course. Building those models helped me to draw. This time though I'd like to draw simple things with SFF themes. Maybe draw from Warhammer models, stuff like that. I'm seriously thinking about taking a formal art course, part time evenings or on a Saturday and get that drawing table again.
Of course this would mean I would need my evenings off. might mean a job change for me as well. A distinct possibility.
Anyway gang, that's all for now..........
I finished "In Conquest born" and I went and put a "review" of sorts on my website.
Speaking about books though, I've been using "Good reads" and I really like this interface they have set up with Blogger. It makes all my editing changes does all the FTP and everything right within Goodreads. The interface is really slick. All I have to do is edit the shelves. I remove what I'm currently reading when I'm done a book and when I add a new selection within Goodreads that selection reflects on my Blogger page. Slick. Also Blogger aligns up nicely with facebook notes and Twitter.
In my 20's I wanted to become a comic book artist but I had no talent in drawing. Sure I got the odd "how to" book and such and had a drafting drawing table and I got pretty good at it for awhile even though my work was unpolished I was going some place with it. It was developing and I could see some improvement developing as an artist. I realized early the odds of becoming good enough to work for Marvel or DC were almost impossible. The competition was stiff. Still is, even for good artists. My favorite medium was pencil. By that I mean color pencils. I could draw faces ok but I was really week in drawing full human forms. I also had no goals or path to take. Like writing how do I build up a portfolio? How and where could I expose my work? Well, life sort of got in the way and I left my drawing table behind when I moved from my little bachelor pad in New West in 1974. That dream like others evaporated. I used to like building Historex Napoleonic 54 mm figures. I'd build say for example a Austrian foot soldier and then study the anatomy from various angles and sketch them out. I had no formal art training. Now I think I'd like to take an art course. Building those models helped me to draw. This time though I'd like to draw simple things with SFF themes. Maybe draw from Warhammer models, stuff like that. I'm seriously thinking about taking a formal art course, part time evenings or on a Saturday and get that drawing table again.
Of course this would mean I would need my evenings off. might mean a job change for me as well. A distinct possibility.
Anyway gang, that's all for now..........
Sunday, July 12, 2009
This was from yesterday and I had to change the font because it was
hard on the eyes to read so I‘m switching back to Comic Sans on my website. Blogger doesn't seem to recognize Comic Sans so I need to go into HTML and do this manualy but I'm too lazy to do this now. Not that anyone was complaining.
I woke up this morning about 7:10am and couldn’t get back to sleep after that. I tossed and turned and had a terrible time. I rested mostly after that and got out of bed about 11am. I could haves slept a lot longer. I did some reading and got ready to get out the door. By 12:45pm I was all packed up and ready to leave and I had a brief wait outside. It was really warm. It was 1:20pm when I got to Audrey’s and I picked up instead of the CJ. Cherryh book, I got book #5 of the Crown of Stars, “The gathering storm.” I have 14 special order books left on hold: Seven of those complete “The New Jedi Order” Star Wars series. I have the CJ Cherryh book, 2 Jim Butcher Dresden books. 2 more “Crown of Stars” books, The Ben Bova “Sam Gun” Omnibus, The RA Salvatore Drizzt Omnibus to complete what’s waiting for me at Audrey’s. However after leaving the store and halfway to the office, I realized they didn’t give me my receipt.
Nobody was there to greet me outside the office, so I called Greg’s number and he said he was on his way. Sure enough in Danny’s passenger seat their they were. A few minutes later or so Greg let me in. After getting all the empties (not many) I got to dialer #15 and a headset but noticed JT coming in and decided to take 12 instead because that’s a good CC dialer for some reason. Maybe but I had a lousy first half. I had about $115 at the break and everyone else $200-300 totals according to the screen. Greg was giving $5/credit cards and $40 for anyone that had $800. After break I still wasn’t doing well and finally I managed to get a few sales and even 2 CC sales for a total of $50 and a $295 total. For that though I got a $10 bonus.
I was glad to get out of there on my way to Corona station and to the train platform. I was getting kind of antsy waiting for the train not exactly sure when Anne needed to get out of here. But I was making good connections all day. I got home about 7:50pm as Anne had brunch waiting for me as she was pushing it to get out of here for her shift. I hope she made it in time.
I’ve been reading “Conquest” and its picking up. I’ll have it read by the 15th. This has been about the longest so far its taken me to read a novel. Usually I can read a novel in about 2 weeks but for some reason its taking a lot longer to get through this one.
Markus and I are trying to see if we can have a Twitthis icon for my blog posts so it shows up automatically like in Blogger. Well, that’s the idea. Blogger is just auxiliary to my website/blog anyway. I’d rather have more traffic come to my website then Blogger.
Thanks to weather the space shuttle is grounded again. Strange that the shuttle is grounded so many times within the last 30 days. Today it was because of lightning.
Tomorrow/Monday I’m in the office from 1-9pm. it’s going to be a long day for me. I’m going to take my insulin shot about noon before I leave and have it again about 11pm tomorrow.
Anyway gang, that’s all for now………
I woke up this morning about 7:10am and couldn’t get back to sleep after that. I tossed and turned and had a terrible time. I rested mostly after that and got out of bed about 11am. I could haves slept a lot longer. I did some reading and got ready to get out the door. By 12:45pm I was all packed up and ready to leave and I had a brief wait outside. It was really warm. It was 1:20pm when I got to Audrey’s and I picked up instead of the CJ. Cherryh book, I got book #5 of the Crown of Stars, “The gathering storm.” I have 14 special order books left on hold: Seven of those complete “The New Jedi Order” Star Wars series. I have the CJ Cherryh book, 2 Jim Butcher Dresden books. 2 more “Crown of Stars” books, The Ben Bova “Sam Gun” Omnibus, The RA Salvatore Drizzt Omnibus to complete what’s waiting for me at Audrey’s. However after leaving the store and halfway to the office, I realized they didn’t give me my receipt.
Nobody was there to greet me outside the office, so I called Greg’s number and he said he was on his way. Sure enough in Danny’s passenger seat their they were. A few minutes later or so Greg let me in. After getting all the empties (not many) I got to dialer #15 and a headset but noticed JT coming in and decided to take 12 instead because that’s a good CC dialer for some reason. Maybe but I had a lousy first half. I had about $115 at the break and everyone else $200-300 totals according to the screen. Greg was giving $5/credit cards and $40 for anyone that had $800. After break I still wasn’t doing well and finally I managed to get a few sales and even 2 CC sales for a total of $50 and a $295 total. For that though I got a $10 bonus.
I was glad to get out of there on my way to Corona station and to the train platform. I was getting kind of antsy waiting for the train not exactly sure when Anne needed to get out of here. But I was making good connections all day. I got home about 7:50pm as Anne had brunch waiting for me as she was pushing it to get out of here for her shift. I hope she made it in time.
I’ve been reading “Conquest” and its picking up. I’ll have it read by the 15th. This has been about the longest so far its taken me to read a novel. Usually I can read a novel in about 2 weeks but for some reason its taking a lot longer to get through this one.
Markus and I are trying to see if we can have a Twitthis icon for my blog posts so it shows up automatically like in Blogger. Well, that’s the idea. Blogger is just auxiliary to my website/blog anyway. I’d rather have more traffic come to my website then Blogger.
Thanks to weather the space shuttle is grounded again. Strange that the shuttle is grounded so many times within the last 30 days. Today it was because of lightning.
Tomorrow/Monday I’m in the office from 1-9pm. it’s going to be a long day for me. I’m going to take my insulin shot about noon before I leave and have it again about 11pm tomorrow.
Anyway gang, that’s all for now………
Friday, July 10, 2009
Friday, at last!
By this time next Friday I hope to be in the office working both shifts and leaving for Audrey’s with 38.5 hours under my belt. My wife lost about half of her hours on her job so I need to pick up the slack.
The unemployment numbers for June came in yesterday. Nationally here in Canada the unemployment rate is 8.6%. Here in Alberta we’re at 6.8% and here in Edmonton we’re at 6% Saskatchewan still has the lowest number at 4.5%. A year ago we were sitting at 3.4% when oil was sitting at $145. Now oil is struggling to keep about $60 peaking at $70.
Onto other things. On John’s SF Signal book shelf he’s reading “The New Space Opera 2.” I’ll most likely order this in the fall if it’s in Trade. I’ve got the first one and I enjoyed it enough to get Vol. 2. I’m still looking at getting Ellen Datlow’s recent horror anthology from last year “Lovecraft unbound.” My next special order is going to be mostly anthologies.
Yesterday my online friend Dennis Hurd was talking about buying an ebike for getting around town on short trips. I checked into the City45. Walmart has them for under $1,000. They go at 32 mph and weigh 5.5lbs. These 500 Watt ebikes might be a good sollution for my wife that has to go all across this end of town on her soar foot for groceries. Our sidewalks are generous along the main roads so she can get around easy enough on one of these things. If I was going to use an ebike for my commute I’d need a dedicated bike path from here to the office and so far I‘m out of luck. Ebikes can only be used here from about April-October anway but in many cases local sidewalks are even clear in January.
It seems that HBO is working on a George R.R. Martin adaptation of Martin’s fantasy series “A Song of Ice and Fire.” I hope this expands into a mini series. I haven’t read the seires yet but it’s something I’ve been looking at reading eventually. I always thought Martin was like Brooks, young adult/children’s fiction it seems I wrong. This seems like a series worth looking into.
Tonight I’m off to my bank and maybe even before that over to Audrey’s to get myself a book Kate Elliott‘s “Crown of Stars” book 5. We’re still waiting for our gst cheque to come in and its almost the middle of the month. Strange it’s so late. If we get that in today I might be able to get my book tonight or at best Sunday afternoon before work. However one thing is for certain, before I go into the office I’m getting a 6/49 ticket for Saturday nights draw worth $22M! Yeah right.
Anyway gang, that’s all for now………
The unemployment numbers for June came in yesterday. Nationally here in Canada the unemployment rate is 8.6%. Here in Alberta we’re at 6.8% and here in Edmonton we’re at 6% Saskatchewan still has the lowest number at 4.5%. A year ago we were sitting at 3.4% when oil was sitting at $145. Now oil is struggling to keep about $60 peaking at $70.
Onto other things. On John’s SF Signal book shelf he’s reading “The New Space Opera 2.” I’ll most likely order this in the fall if it’s in Trade. I’ve got the first one and I enjoyed it enough to get Vol. 2. I’m still looking at getting Ellen Datlow’s recent horror anthology from last year “Lovecraft unbound.” My next special order is going to be mostly anthologies.
Yesterday my online friend Dennis Hurd was talking about buying an ebike for getting around town on short trips. I checked into the City45. Walmart has them for under $1,000. They go at 32 mph and weigh 5.5lbs. These 500 Watt ebikes might be a good sollution for my wife that has to go all across this end of town on her soar foot for groceries. Our sidewalks are generous along the main roads so she can get around easy enough on one of these things. If I was going to use an ebike for my commute I’d need a dedicated bike path from here to the office and so far I‘m out of luck. Ebikes can only be used here from about April-October anway but in many cases local sidewalks are even clear in January.
It seems that HBO is working on a George R.R. Martin adaptation of Martin’s fantasy series “A Song of Ice and Fire.” I hope this expands into a mini series. I haven’t read the seires yet but it’s something I’ve been looking at reading eventually. I always thought Martin was like Brooks, young adult/children’s fiction it seems I wrong. This seems like a series worth looking into.
Tonight I’m off to my bank and maybe even before that over to Audrey’s to get myself a book Kate Elliott‘s “Crown of Stars” book 5. We’re still waiting for our gst cheque to come in and its almost the middle of the month. Strange it’s so late. If we get that in today I might be able to get my book tonight or at best Sunday afternoon before work. However one thing is for certain, before I go into the office I’m getting a 6/49 ticket for Saturday nights draw worth $22M! Yeah right.
Anyway gang, that’s all for now………
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
I got some new photos up on my website of
our trip to Jasper on Sunday. I'll post a few more of them here over the next few days. This shot is of some jagged pe
aks on the way into Jasper Alberta. They look really alien to me like they belong in a Star Trek movie or something:
This one is of just me in Jasper Alberta. The camera is looking West. It was really warm on a Sunday and we played tourist for awhile. We had a good time. I like everything about Jasper but we were kind of pressed for time.
This photo is of Anne and I with a bear. I'm holding a bottle of diet pop in my hand clinging on to my hat.
This one is of Anne and I with some kind of animal. I'm not sure but it's kind of cute:
This is a shot of Mount Robson, one of the talest mountains (13,000 feet) in the BC Rockies. The Jasper sky Tram goes up to that little protrusion on top to an observation post. We would have liked to have gone but the price is $28 for a 20 minute ride. Maybe next time.
aks on the way into Jasper Alberta. They look really alien to me like they belong in a Star Trek movie or something:This one is of just me in Jasper Alberta. The camera is looking West. It was really warm on a Sunday and we played tourist for awhile. We had a good time. I like everything about Jasper but we were kind of pressed for time.This photo is of Anne and I with a bear. I'm holding a bottle of diet pop in my hand clinging on to my hat.This one is of Anne and I with some kind of animal. I'm not sure but it's kind of cute:This is a shot of Mount Robson, one of the talest mountains (13,000 feet) in the BC Rockies. The Jasper sky Tram goes up to that little protrusion on top to an observation post. We would have liked to have gone but the price is $28 for a 20 minute ride. Maybe next time.Anyway gang, that's about all for now...........
Saturday, July 4, 2009
I'm having a pretty good weekend
so far.
Yesterday after work I went over to get my book at Audrey's. then I ducked into Tim's for a donut and then caught my bus up to my bank. I caught my train at Central Station, 1 up from Anne's Bay Station. She was looking for me and I was looking for her but I spotted an empty seat I had my eye on and so ths train moved up to its last stop underground: Churchill station. I noticed this woman across the isle and a seat up from me with a limp looking very familiar. Wait it was Anne getting off but what if it wasn't her? She recognized me as I got off my train at Clairview. Too funny.
I watched a bit of Smackdown. Anne was over at Superstore and then made us some supper. I took a graval pill to help me sleep and we wee in bed by 3:30am. I even had a good day on the job.
I bought Kate Elliot's book 4 of her "Crown of Stars" series as Audrey's was having a 20% off on their SFF books. Their sale is all for this month.
Sunday Anne's sister Donna is flying out from Winnipeg work related and she wants to take us out to Jasper for the day. We're out of here at 8am Sunday morning then its off to Tim's for breakfast and we should be in Hinton by about noon and in Jasper by about 1:45pm or so. We should be there from about 2pm-5pm. We'll stop in for a bite to eat and then head home. We should be downtown at her Westin Hotel lodgings by about 9pm and home by about 10pm. Should be a good time and I'll post some photos here and on my website.
Anyway gang, that's about all for now.....
Yesterday after work I went over to get my book at Audrey's. then I ducked into Tim's for a donut and then caught my bus up to my bank. I caught my train at Central Station, 1 up from Anne's Bay Station. She was looking for me and I was looking for her but I spotted an empty seat I had my eye on and so ths train moved up to its last stop underground: Churchill station. I noticed this woman across the isle and a seat up from me with a limp looking very familiar. Wait it was Anne getting off but what if it wasn't her? She recognized me as I got off my train at Clairview. Too funny.
I watched a bit of Smackdown. Anne was over at Superstore and then made us some supper. I took a graval pill to help me sleep and we wee in bed by 3:30am. I even had a good day on the job.
I bought Kate Elliot's book 4 of her "Crown of Stars" series as Audrey's was having a 20% off on their SFF books. Their sale is all for this month.
Sunday Anne's sister Donna is flying out from Winnipeg work related and she wants to take us out to Jasper for the day. We're out of here at 8am Sunday morning then its off to Tim's for breakfast and we should be in Hinton by about noon and in Jasper by about 1:45pm or so. We should be there from about 2pm-5pm. We'll stop in for a bite to eat and then head home. We should be downtown at her Westin Hotel lodgings by about 9pm and home by about 10pm. Should be a good time and I'll post some photos here and on my website.
Anyway gang, that's about all for now.....
Thursday, July 2, 2009
It’s been quite a day yesterday
what with watching all of the Unrestricted Free Agent moves in the NHL. Out goes Roli and in comes Nikolai Khabibulin. The Dany Heatley soap opera continues. I think Tambi and Lowe are running out of patience with this guy. I say wash our hands with him already. Lets go after Antropov.
Anne’s almost on her way home from a grueling 7 hour shift. I hope she was able to see a little of the Canada Day fireworks celebrations from her position on the 17th floor of her building. I saw about a 20 second clip of the fireworks from Global news.
My 6/49 numbers didn’t come in but that’s almost to be expected. The payout was $3,522,241.00. Nobody won the jackpot this evening so it goes to about $8M Saturday. I’m buying my ticket tonight for Saturday. No extra of course.
Tonight it’s into the job for my 4 hours. I’ve got 2 more days and Friday night I’m off to get a book at Audrey’s and then I get 2 days off…..1:05pm>
My wife is a little upset when she went to pay the rent earlier. The caretaker walked towards Anne pointing a finger saying for her not to feed the birds around here because it’s attracting squirrels that come out this time of year. It’s got nothing to do with my wife. This caretaker, she’s a nut case. Apparently the caretaker is pissed of the squirrels that jump the trees and land on the roof. It’s nature lady, they come out this time of year. If they tamper with the trees out here then it’s time to move. I think that’s what they are looking at doing. One of the best things that could happen to us is if we get to win the 6/49 jackpot and or rental subsidy. Rental subsidy will come first before the other thing does. If we get subsidy then we can take our leave of this place, find something better and get the hell away from that nut case woman. They don’t like us because our 2 bedroom apartment is about $45 cheaper then the others of its class but when the rent goes up in October, most likely we’ll be paying a lot more. That means I’ll have to work extra hours. I don’t mind putting the extra hours in but not at the job I’m currently at.
Something weird, piano playing wise. I’ve got a song here called “Another year older.” Otherwise known as “Happy birthday to you.” its nit a difficult piece but the sheet music I have the piece starts on the left hand. Every tutorial on YouTube shows the piece starting on the right hand. In the “Another year older” version of this song, there is a stretch from the A-B that makes the piece seem awkward. In “Happy birthday,” with the left hand all the finger positions are covered by the notes. The Happy birthday version seems cleaner to me. It’s the same tune just a different hand positions. I’m going to stick with the right hand. Makes more sense to me. This is basically grade 1 piano.
And finally, last night on Coast they had a killer of a show with Jim Marrs talking about UFO’s, JFK all kinds of great stuff but unfortunately (the good stuff) was on from about 1-3am. We missed it when we went to bed and they start off with open lines the first hour. Well, I’m off to read some more of “ICB” after I post this.
Anyway gang, that’s about all for now.
Anne’s almost on her way home from a grueling 7 hour shift. I hope she was able to see a little of the Canada Day fireworks celebrations from her position on the 17th floor of her building. I saw about a 20 second clip of the fireworks from Global news.
My 6/49 numbers didn’t come in but that’s almost to be expected. The payout was $3,522,241.00. Nobody won the jackpot this evening so it goes to about $8M Saturday. I’m buying my ticket tonight for Saturday. No extra of course.
Tonight it’s into the job for my 4 hours. I’ve got 2 more days and Friday night I’m off to get a book at Audrey’s and then I get 2 days off…..1:05pm>
My wife is a little upset when she went to pay the rent earlier. The caretaker walked towards Anne pointing a finger saying for her not to feed the birds around here because it’s attracting squirrels that come out this time of year. It’s got nothing to do with my wife. This caretaker, she’s a nut case. Apparently the caretaker is pissed of the squirrels that jump the trees and land on the roof. It’s nature lady, they come out this time of year. If they tamper with the trees out here then it’s time to move. I think that’s what they are looking at doing. One of the best things that could happen to us is if we get to win the 6/49 jackpot and or rental subsidy. Rental subsidy will come first before the other thing does. If we get subsidy then we can take our leave of this place, find something better and get the hell away from that nut case woman. They don’t like us because our 2 bedroom apartment is about $45 cheaper then the others of its class but when the rent goes up in October, most likely we’ll be paying a lot more. That means I’ll have to work extra hours. I don’t mind putting the extra hours in but not at the job I’m currently at.
Something weird, piano playing wise. I’ve got a song here called “Another year older.” Otherwise known as “Happy birthday to you.” its nit a difficult piece but the sheet music I have the piece starts on the left hand. Every tutorial on YouTube shows the piece starting on the right hand. In the “Another year older” version of this song, there is a stretch from the A-B that makes the piece seem awkward. In “Happy birthday,” with the left hand all the finger positions are covered by the notes. The Happy birthday version seems cleaner to me. It’s the same tune just a different hand positions. I’m going to stick with the right hand. Makes more sense to me. This is basically grade 1 piano.
And finally, last night on Coast they had a killer of a show with Jim Marrs talking about UFO’s, JFK all kinds of great stuff but unfortunately (the good stuff) was on from about 1-3am. We missed it when we went to bed and they start off with open lines the first hour. Well, I’m off to read some more of “ICB” after I post this.
Anyway gang, that’s about all for now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
