I had a great Sunday

I love the weekends.

Earlier I went and developed a bit of a plan that could get
me a 2nd job while working at my current one.

This plan also allows me to work additional hours as well

Anyway gang that's about all for now

Jim

We're getting a heavy wind storm out there

this evening that began about 4:30pm Saturday, it died down a little.

I'm happy to report that I've reached a decision about which Smart phne I'm going to buy: The Iphone 3Gs. I like the S because it can shoot and upload video to YouTube right from the phone. I like it's other features as well and now there is "Documents to Go" for the Iphone. Also, with Viigo I can listen to AM radio. This is great for listening to Edmonton Oiler broadcasts while there's say half an hour left in the game and I'm heading home. The data/phone plan is $60/month for a half Gb and unlimited evenings and weekend calling time. Plus theres a direct link to Apples Itunes. Those are just some of the features that brought me to this decision. THe only thing I don't l ike is that its a 3 year contract.

I'm just over the half way point of "The Space Wolves" Omnibus. With about 60 pages remaining in the 2nd book. I'm finding this part a little bit of a yawn with a lot of SF cliches. I'm going to try and finish the 2nd book today. At Goodreads there are 63 ratings and 8 reviews on this Omnibus. I'm enjoying this book but it seems a bit stillted in parts. I also want to read Joe Abercrombie's "First Law" series. Audrey's has the first 2 in Trade.

Friday I ordered the 1st 3 of John Ringo's "Poslene war" and the New Space Opera 2. But I hink on Monday I'm going to call and order 4 of Steven Erikson's "Books of the Fallen." I need "House of chains," "Midnight tides," "Reapers gale," and "Toll the hounds" is already there in the shelves.

Anyway gang, that's about all for now

Jim

It's a nice looking Friday out there

Looks like a decent enough day out there.

I’m going in at my usual time and I’m going to bring my pay stubs with me and bring everything together for bm this afternoon. He’s got a lot to go over there so I don’t expect I’ll get my VP next Friday or anything. But I’m going to put the VP request in for the full amount, YTD. Not a friggin $34 crap either. I’ll write on the release pay I should be getting back the full amount as well from this cheque. There was no overpayment. I never had anything like what the amount that last Dec 19 email said, on any of my pay stubs. But I’ll bring this all in for bm this afternoon. I’m not expecting any bonus money this cheque. I’m only expecting my full 23.5 hours. But I’ll go in see what I can do and get my cheque and the empties. Anne says I don’t need to go to the bank because she got paid today. If I get my $20 I’ll have enough for a book. If my vacation pay comes back in full next week then I’ll be able to get all my special order books there.

I’m going to try the new Lotto max soon. If there’s still time to get the Friday draw or get the draw for Saturday’s 6/49. Since nobody won it Wednesday it’s an estimated $8. Wednesdays draw was $3,441,246.00. Not quite $4M but I’ll take even 2nd place.

Anne’s out spending our rent money. Good thing we have a bit of savings but those savings are dwindling fast and we haven’t yet heard from CRHC. No doubt our application is still in a slush pile in somebody’s intake tray. And most likely since Anne had changed her jobs a couple of times we had the employment details filled in, once intake does receive it then its going to have to come back for revision. Hopefully we won’t have to go through another 2-6 months of waiting.

Ok lets get onto some Science Fiction. Robert J Sawyer’s FlashForward pilot debuted the other day on I think ABC. Unfortunately I missed it. I’m working nights so I miss all the good stuff. Entertainment tonight the other night was talking about it. Even though I haven’t seen the show yet, it’s based on the Robert J Sawyer novel of the same name and I’ve been following the threads in his email group. It’s nice too see fresh original Science Fiction for a change. I think its airing on this Sunday night at 8:30pm. I’ll look around the listings for it tonight.

Last night we were able to watch the Oiler/Tampa Bay Lightning game broadcast out of Winnipeg. And this was by accident. TB was the Home team. The game was in the MTS center and there were a lot of Winnipeg Jet jersey’s in the crowd. Also a few “Bring back the Jets” banners hoisted here and there in the arena. The game was tied at 3 until our own D decides to take a foolish penalty during the closing minute. TB scored 4-3.

Excellent! I got my $20 and $3 for a 6/49 ticket and I don’t need to go up to my bank. Good stuff. I can go get my ticket bring that VP stuff into bm and hopefully get that in motion, get my cheque and then hunt for the empties put my 3.5 hours in and head over to Audrey’s and get one of the Star Wars books and head home.

Anyway gang, that’s about all for now

Jim

Not a lot going on

which is why I've been posting so seldom here and even on my website blog. All I'm doing is reading, writing and watching a little TV sleeping and going to work. Exciting huh?

On my website I did post a cute cat photo today.

I've been having a headache all evening even while on the job. Speaking of which that went well Monday. I ended up with a total of $415 and 2 cards. Not bad for Semies.

We had a great day weather wise Monday at +20C. For late September, this is pretty good. I'm enjoying the fine weather but I fear it's going to drop in a few days and by mid October we'll be seeing +8C's things like that. I'd take anything from -10C-+10C this time of year.

I'm still reading "The Space Wolf" Omnibus, and it's pretty good. It's actually inspiring me to do a bit of writing on my own. I'm putting together a fantasy novel. I've already got 2 Chapters written. There's no title for it right now. So far it's about a female bard and an Ork. I have no idea where this story is going and no schedule or deadline but I have a few good action scenes in it so far. I don't even know if I'll be able to finish it. I'm writing a bit each day...

Last night's "Monday night Raw" wasn't half bad. I didn't care too much for the guest host. Announcer Lillian Garcia delivered a heart wrenching goodbye address to the fans. She had a 10 year contract. She offered no explanation as to why she's leaving the show.

Otherwise not much is going on right now. I'll post this and get back to you Bloggers latter this week.

Anyway gang, that's about all for now

Jim

Working through the work week

I'm just working out the week. I go to bed about 3am up about noon, read my book go through my email and blogs have lunch and off to work for 4 hours come home about 10pm and do my stuff before supper and read until about 3am or listen to YouTube music. That's about it, nothing spectacular.

Work went well, some new fellow asked if what I was reading was "The Space Wolf" omnibus. I think his name is Connor. He said he liked it and we talked about the book for awhile. That was kind of nice. I had no cards and a slow start to the shift. I pulled out of the hat $255 in sales on the night. Not great but I'll take it.

Anyway gang that's about all for now

Jim

It's only Wednesday already?

Lack of sleep overnight made me cranky and sullen. I needed to read and get a something to drink. The 2nd book in “The Space Wolf” Omnibus is picking up. Way more dialogue and I’m enjoying this.

On the job last night the shift was slow. Super divided the room up 3 ways: The front 21 was more or less full doing CF Calgary. HO isn’t doing it because their doing (USS) CRF taps from our efforts calling cold. Then in the back about 8 of them were doing ASRAB.

Last night Anne went to the Empire half price Tuesday movies. For $6 she got popcorn a candy bar and a card from Empire’s recent “Songo.ca” music file system for 3 free downloads. Not bad. I’m looking forward to seeing “Surrogates.” I think it’s out now. But their half price Tuesdays are a pretty good deal. It’s not like the good old days where movies were $2 even though movies were about $8.

I called Anne after the shift with my bag of empties and let her know I was on my way home. I got home to an empty house and fired up the computer. I heard this crash from the balcony. Immediately I’m thinking the birdcage. Sure enough it fell off it’s stand. I panicked and in a frenzy hurried to the balcony hoping Sugar was still in her cage. A wave of relief fell over me. What happened? I have no idea. But that table she uses for sugars cage is very unstable and I don’t like it at all.

Of course when she came home that incident developed into another one causing bad feelings as she blamed me for it. Anyways that was blown over.

I went to bed about 3:30am this morning feeling rally tired and drained but couldn’t sleep this morning even getting up at 1pm.

I got another reply from the New Westminster public Library about the New Courthouse under construction email correspondence I’m having with one of their librarians and archivists. She said to have the photo emailed to me costs $10 but it’s not a very good photo. She said it was dated February 16th 1979. I wonder where it was taken? My guess from the best vantage point possible, the flat roof (then) of the Bench & Gavel building. I replied back asking how I can pay for this photo without a credit card and my Bench and Gavel inquiry. So far no reply yet. But this confirms some suspicions I have about the area and that the New Courthouse (NC) was under construction in 1979 and she said February 16th. It was being built throughout most of 1979 and all of 1980. It was opened in September 1981. The whole process from February 16th 1979 September 1981 a total of 32 months. Almost 3 years, so chances are this photograph could be of the parkade being ripped apart and the surrounding sidewalk protective covering and possibly equipment in a muddy field. I’d love to have this photo.

So tonight I’m in for another 4 hours of most likely CRF. Tonight is the 6/49 $14M draw.

Other then this, not much going on. I’m about to have some lunch and then it’s off to my 4 hours. Already it’s been a long week and it’s only Wednesday.

Anyway gang, that’s about all for now

Jim

I had a great Sunday....

and I would like to have at least another day off before I go back to work but I'm lucky I have a job. What with so much unemployment around here. Right now our jobless rate is at 7.4%. A year ago we were at 3.5%!

The recession first broke here in Edmonton around October but the signs were there around August of last year. How long will this recession last? Hard to say.

Alright, enough of that. SF Signal yesterday had a great YouTube clip on Steampunk. I always thought Steampunk was a sub genre of Cyberpunk. Boy was I wrong. In a way Steampunk is alternate history what with merging the industrial revolution with SF elements. Some would say Jules Verne is Steampunk.

The only down side to Sunday was that I kept on getting this eye irritation like having an eyelash in ones eye.

Anyway gang that's about all for now

Jim

Yeesh, what a week

More economic bad news on a smaller scale here in Edmonton/Calgary. Telus is closing down it’s 911 call center operations laying off 50 employees each in Calgary and Edmonton. I’m sure some of them will be applying at my place of employment. We’ve lost a lot of call center work here in Edmonton over the last 2-5 years.

Today is the anniversary of 9/11, or in other words the tragic incident of Tuesday, September 11th 2001. On this date 8 years ago marks the anniversary of bombing of the World Trade Center where terrorists took control of aircraft and slammed them into the twin towers causing thousands of deaths there and at the US Pentagon. This incident changed the world forever. I’m going to have an article on this in my “For what it’s worth,” section.

I’m still reading “The Space Wolves” Omnibus and just about closing in on the first book. William King is a good writer. This may be a bit of a spoiler but I’m finding that the book lacks dialogue between characters. I‘d say the book is about 20% dialogue and the rest description. I don’t know what‘s ahead in the second book Regnar‘s Claw but my guess is more of the same. I’m enjoying this book but I’ll be relieved when I’m done with it and at my reading rate should be 1st week in October.

The job goes ok. We’re doing CRF and a lot of people aren’t saying the disclaimer netting themselves more and larger sales. The new guy beside me speaks so low I could hardly hear him but he was getting sales after sales as well. I could hear the girl on the other side of me not saying the disclaimer getting large sales. I made a point of this to Jerry and he made sure people got the word.

Tonight, I’m in for my 5-8:30pm but I’m going in for Saturday. Before the cold weather sets in I’m going to talk to my Doctor and get my Saturdays off. I mean I’ve done it a lot of times before but I’m tired of getting up at 7am on a Saturday morning when it’s -20C for work. Being diabetic it’s hard on me.

Apparently Spider Robinson won’t be at our Pure Speculation event coming up October 2-3-4th. Seems his wife is under going chemo treatment. My heart goes out to them. I’ll still pop in as there could be other people I need to see there as well.

Anyway gang, that’s about all for now

Jim

I forgot to post this from last night. Maybe because today is 999..

I just finished taking out the trash and I decided to get some mild evening air out behind us here and I hear this rustling of grass and leaves. Some white and dark. “Boots?” He cries back to me and I’m walking slowly and he catches up going from tree to cover to tree and he follows me. I stop and he rubs up against me and follows me back around to the front door waiting to get inside but I can’t let him up right away. I buzz our intercom hoping Anne will answer and she just buzzes me up instead. So I hurry upstairs and let her know Boots is by the door. He followed me to get inside so she’s down there now trying to collect him. despite after coming down from a long weekend.

I'm still reading "The Space Wolf" and enjoying it immensely. Not much is going on at the moment though.

What's this? Sony is bringing the price of their PS3 down to $299? I knew I should have waited because this is the price I paid for my Xbox 360. Not that I'm not glad I got the Xbox in December I am. I think there's more bang for the buck with the PS3. I think this price is for a limited time only though.

SF Signal has a Mind meld for the best bad guy in SFF. Of course it's Darth Vader hand down and according to my top 20 list of SFF Villains. Some would say Lex Luthor but Darth all the way.

Coast to Coast was pretty good last night talking about Atlantis. Now I would have never have known this but apparently today is .09.09'09. The 9th day of the 9th month of the 9th year. Kind of interesting because of the animated movie 9 coming out, and the Beatles video game and the song "N0.9" (Song on the video game?) lots of references to #9. Of course a lot of people relate 999 to the opposite of 666, there's that to. Maybe I should buy another 6/49 quick pick. It's strange numerology for sure.

Anyway gang, that’s about all for now

Jim

Its been a busy couple of days

this week at work we got new management. Out goes, Moe, Brendin, DC and in comes Jerry from Vancouver. He's a pretty good guy so far.

This morning I went in for a rare Saturday morning shift and I'm glad I went in holding out on an hours sleep over night. I wasn't feeling all that badly and I got a Tim's breakfast sandwich with my coffee and my insulin. It was day 2 of CF for me and I did a lot better pulling in 5 CC's for $230 and $360 in sales. It wasn't top total but I got $15 in bonus money out of the deal and a modest collection of empties to take home. BM was there doing payroll for a bit also. Most likely checking in who was and wasn't there for their stat pay.

After work I headed over to Audrey's and bought another Star Wars New Jedi order book. I've got 5 left in the series with 7 books remaining in my special order.

I needed to be home about 3pm as Anne needed to get the bus pass for her job, I think she's working until midnight tonight. I hope so.

Other then that, not much going on. I get 2 days off and Monday with pay because of Labor Day. We had a pretty good crew at work today.

Hey, hey I won on the 6/49 lotto! That's $5 bucks! I got 2 numbers plus the bonus number. All right. I can roll that over and buy another ticket on Tuesday. I think this is the first time this year I won anything on the 6/49. Wuwho! Hehehe.

Anyway, that's about all for now

Jim

Monday wasn't that bad as days go......

I had a decent enough evening on the job Monday night. Monday night Raw was a blast. Even Anne enjoyed it. Currently I'm just starting a Warhammer 40K book and it's not bad even though the font is hard on the eyes. Weather wise it's been hot around here. I don;t mind the heat. Thursday is Lodge night and I'm all geared up for that.

Pat's fantasy hotlist is talking about co-author of the malazan series in an interview from Clocksworld. At SF Signal they've got a lot of links to free SFF stories. So much to read......

Anyway gang, that's about all for now

Jim