More blogging woes..

I’ve been up since about noon doing some disc utility cleanup on my C drive. I cleared up almost 1Gb of space removing some programs I never use anymore. Some of these programs like FL Studio were 175Mb and another one about 400Mb for a game server. This makes my computer a little faster to load.

I’m having a snag here with my Blogger system, as Atom wont recognize the change I made to my Blog name “Baby boomer Sci-fi geek in…Clairview.” So I figured I’d begin from scratch and create a new blog only to learn that Blogger has now only about 6 Template designs and most of them are right column. My original theme is gone. I reverted back to my current theme and deleted the newly created Blog “Baby boomer Sci-fi geek in…Clairview.” the other one had a slight variation on but with an A at the beginning. I’ve got that registered with Atom but for some reason I can’t use this theme. So when I go into page info and click on Atom or RSS feed neither of these according to Blogger say the blog exists but the original name does and I can register that. I can go into Settings and change the name but even still it wont recognize it. I want to keep this theme because the other Blogger template themes suck. The Blogger help forum isn’t very good. They do what they can but the Help forum gets post request several times an hour. Many posts go left unanswered like 2 of mine but they also answered two of my questions, so I can’t complain.

The Oiler‘s put 3 players on waives over the lat few days. Ethan Morrow O‘Sullivan, Neilson. I liked all these players but a lot of them were not performing as well as they could. Pisani is a UFA as of tomorrow. I hope the Oiler’s don’t sign him. Also, I was reading how O’Sullivan went to Phoenix for Jeff Vandermeer. They got rid of Sully who know doubt was a good guy but the Oil got a good D to work along side Ryan Whitney. However Mike Comrie is an UFA and I hope the Oiler’s work on getting him signed over the next few days.

Anne got some promising news from CRHC about our subsidy they wrote us back asking how come I wasn’t on the original lease? The thing is I moved in here after Anne had sign the lease and as a result I’m not on the original lease. But this could be the only snag even though we could be accepted we’ll be on a waiting list. Questing is, how long is the waiting list?

I’m about ready to head into work for my Wednesday night 4 hours. Then I get all of Thursday off. Some time off on my own. Anyway, that’s about all for now.

We're having excellent weather lately

I had a good night on the job last night sales wise. If this campaign lasts us until the end of the week, I’ll be surprised. AS I’m looking for my empties, I see Steve the big boss, in Robs office greeting me in the threshold saying hi. We talk about the weather. Then I learned that Rob was suspended. I don’t know if this was for a few days or what the details were or anything. I had a good night on the job pulling in 4 CC’s and a lot of empties.

A group of us walked across the empty lot to the LRT and I ended up with Sarah and Wendy. Not the Sarah from Audrey’s books. They sat on either side of me waiting for the Clairview train with me. Sarah noticed my Itouch in my hand and grabbed it from me fixing back the time. Sarah got out at Churchill and Wendy rode with me to Belvedere. Nice ladies. Not that I‘m looking but one was spoken for and the other one not looking. Both know I‘m married and settled in and not interested, which is true.

Monday night Raw was pretty good last night. On a scale from 1-10 I’d rate it an 8.5. I don’t get all these Nxt’s beating up on everyone. It’s all part of the storyline. They were doing the same thing on Smackdown the other night. Now, with week #2 of Raw’s anonymous general manager. Strange.

I think I’m going to take X minus 1 play list with me into work today and listen to the first episode. For some reason I can’t sync the X minus one play list but I can sync the other play list. Strange. Episode one of X minus one was a story by Ray Bradbury I wanted to listen to.

My I pod speaker doc I ordered from Tech City/Ebay on the 15th earlier this month has been in Vancouver Customs waiting to be cleared for (hopefully) finale delivery. How do I know this? Tech City sent me a tracking number and I followed the prompts to Canada Post and the tracking number led me to the location of my item. I’m patiently waiting my first Ebay order. So it’s been in Vancouver Customs since the 23rd which has been for 4 business days now.

If this works ok and I’m sure it will, I want to upload to PP some more funds and get a couple WWE T shirts. Anyway, that’s all for now.

Yesterday was one of those WTF moments.

I got the look and feel of this blog exactly right only trouble is my url isn't registering with any of the RSS or Atom feeds and this disturbs me. The link in my website lists work alright. I certainly like the title of this Blog as well.

Tonight its another 4 hours on the job and then home to watch Monday night Raw. I was looking for WWE T shirts earlier before Doctor Who on EBay and they've got some really nice ones.

Speaking of Doctor Who, this episode The Doctor meets up with Vincent Van Gogh the painter. "Vincent meets the Doctor." The trouble I have with this episode is just before the Doctor departs with Gogh he takes him to the modern day Louvre to see his paintings and get the opinion of the curator (unknown to the curator of course was the original(disillusioned Van Gogh.) Van Gogh received high praise from the curator (of course not knowing Van Gogh was a few feet away. The Doctor was trying to install confidence in Van Gogh who was ready to pack it in(His painting of course.) So here's the problem, in the departing scene Van Gogh is all happy with purpose and excitement with what the Doctor had reveled to him. Of course history tells us of what really happened to Gogh and the gunshot wound.Was the gunshot wound accidental or did Van Gogh commit suicide? In Doctor Who, I'd say it "was" accidental. I really liked this episode and on a scale of 1-10 I'd rate it a 9.5. Doctor Who is very deep on a lot of levels. The downer for me was Shaw was having technical difficulties 15 minutes into the show and I missed a good 35 minutes of it, which really pissed me off. That's why we have summer reruns right?

About an hour ago I was trying to get my new URL working on this Blog but Google accounts took over my existing account and I thought I had my whole Blog wiped out. For awhile it was but then I realized that this was another version of my blog. I was able to go back from my link on my website. Close call.

I'm back reading "Odd girl out," even though I read it for just a few pages. I'm closing in on the end of Chapter 5. Anyway, that's about all for now.

I'm having a great weekend.

Also if that’s not enough our home phone isn’t working. I think it has something to do with the battery in the phone itself. I’ve been wanting to call Pat an older fellow that I used to work evenings with. Pat’s a cantankerous character but we co existed and later before he retired kind of warmed up to me. Pat was the only one that called me when I was recovering in the hospital from diabetes. He rings me up every so often. I said I’d call him after the NHL playoffs and that’s been about 2 weeks now but I misplaced his phone number but with our home phone not working, so much for that.

I’m slowly changing things at my website to a kind of SFF podcast magazine. Basically your one stop shop for all SFF podcasts and what’s going and what people are talking about. But we’re also looking at a new theme design as well. I’ve had the current theme going on for well over 2 years now. I’m still going to do a diary kind of thing over here at my Blogger blog though.

We’ve got a beautiful day out there in the City. This week I want to do a shit load of hours in at work before the Thursday July 1st Canada day holiday. If I can do 3 8 hour days, and Friday 7.5 hours plus Saturday, I’ll have 35.5 hours in and that’s full time. But today is a nice looking Sunday and I might go for a walk later after Doctor Who.

One of the guys at work that befriended me brought in 2 Star Trek action figures next gen of “Data” and “Lafarge” and put them up at his dialer. During the break as I was looking for empties when he came back somebody had tampered with them and put the figures in a pose other then beaming up, if you know-ahem, what I mean. It was kind of funny and even thinking about it now I still chuckle over it.

In keeping with the above theme, I‘ve been noticing more then a few co workers personalizing their stations before the shift. Nobody has a permanent dialer or anything but it‘s kind of nice to have something of yourself nearby. I kind of like the idea of bringing in photo‘s of Star Wars or a coffee cup maybe even wear a Star Wars T shirt kind of thing.

The other thing I’ve been wanting to do lately is to have a screen saver on my Itouch. I have Pledges on my PW protected screen but I want to personalize the theme have it more Star Wars-ish type theme but most likely I'd need to jailbreak the ITouch and it seems kind of complicated. I'm not sure I want to do that just yet. Since this summer is the 30th anniversary of “The Empire strikes back.” At Rexall currently playing is "Star Wars in concert" undergoing now. I wish I was there but I can just imagine what the tickets are priced at. Anyway, that’s all for now.

As Fridays go, this one was exciting

I had a great sleep overnight for a change getting up about 11:30am and fixed my coffee. I went right to work on DS and concluded the session just now with putting in 1,500 words. I liked what I have as well. Good stuff.

NHL Draft day starts today at 3pm but the Oiler’s wont make their pick until about 5pm. The best thing the Oiler’s could do is trade their number 1 guy for anyone that wants him. Personally I’d trade the number 1 pick in a package deal that would get rid of Horcoff and Souray.

My wife left for her job an hour before I left for mine and on the train ride home there was a line up of the Oiler faithful outside of Rexall and a near full parking lot. Fans were probably getting ready to watch a simulcast of the draft on the big screens from LA. I had a better night then last night still no CC sales. This campaign isn’t that good for me CC wise. We had the NHL draft thing going on and Oiler’s picked Tyler Hall, first overall. I hope they use him as leverage in a trade with Boston July first.

After work I bolted out of the office so fast I think I almost tripped but I made it to my bus stop just outside Tim’s there in record time, the to my bank and home. Anyway, that’s about all for now.

That's what I like about

Blogger they keep adding new things and all for free. Picasa, Google earth, Google maps, docs and many more apps, free. Well, not free but still interesting is the Google cell phone. Not only all the above but Google is about to launch their version of Apple's Ipad.

I have one Apple product and that's the ITouch. Its a cool device but with the ITouch I think Apple failed to miss the mark on a few things they could have added that would have made the ITouch better then it is but for some reason, they didn't. I think the ITouch is a gateway device for the Iphone. In a perfect world I would have liked to have seen on the ITouch with: A camera to shoot video and still images with all models of the ITouch 8Gb and up. Camera's are on almost every device these days. Apple has a camera on its IPhone. Ok, maybe its a marketing or price thing, I can understand that but Apple has a camera to shoot video on their Ipod nano and an FM radio included! Granted the nano doesn't have wifi, well you get the idea. The ITouch would have greatly benefited from this but sadly the 3rd Gen ITouch doesn't have this feature, why? The ITouch also could have included a microphone added right onto the device like a lot of smart phones and similar devices do but instead consumers need to buy either the 16Gb and up to get a microphone/headphone device. The pricing point (as of this writing) between the ITouch 8Gb and the 32Gb is like $100 more and Apple includes the head/microphone piece. It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out that Apple wants to sell individual consumers all their products. "You want this feature? Then you'll need to buy this device," type thing. Apple's ITouch could have had a external speaker like their own Iphone or like on the Sony Walkman. Apple could have added slot for an external memory card but Apple is a propitiatory company. I would also like to have seen on the back of the ITouch, a little kick stand and maybe a stylus-wand option for those of us with less then nimble fingers. Also, I would like to see the ITouch support for a 3G network. Just a few of the features I'd like to have seen on the ITouch, but its not a perfect world.

I was going to go into work for the 12:30pm shift but Anne kind of wanted me home for today as we're short on a few things. I need to put one day in so I'll go in Friday for the early shift. This way, I'll have 27.5 hours in on my next check.

I wanted to get a bit more writing on DS today but with Anne all over the place and what limited time I have this afternoon, any writing on DS will have to wait until when I come home. Maybe I can get a 1,000 words in. Anyway, that's about all for now.

Well I'm back here daily

more or less. It's not that I'm dissatisfied with my website. I'm just leaving it in a semi hiatus stat. Regulating it to once or twice/week. But for now this will be my bread and butter.

I should be going to bed soon because I'm up early. Like around 9am to get some writing in. Now that Blogger has "Pages" I think this will be my blogging portal.

Well that worked out reasonably well

I'm still tinkering around with this, trying to change things around here. I came to the sober conclusion that I no long want my website to be nothing more then a daily diary. I can do that here at Blogger.

I had a great night on the job last night. We had game #6 on TV and I had a great night, making sales and credit cards coming in left right and center. I wanted the Flyers to win to take the game back to Chicago so they could win it at home (and I could watch the actually Stanley Cup game in the comfort of my own home Saturday night.) The game went into OT and Chicago scored and the rest is history. If a Canadian team can't win then let it be an original 6 team. So, no more hockey for another 15 weeks. Well except the off season that is and draft day is on June 25th and the Esks start their first training cup game this Sunday but I don;t know if its on TV, probably not.

I kind of like the My Tweets in my Welcome block on my website.It looks better this way.

This morning I couldn't sleep so I started to read a bit from "Odd girl out." I found the audio book edition available as well. It's a 7 hour long book for $7.50 or so at audible.com. When I was listening to a slice of sci fi last night one of the hosts was commenting how they have the audio book in ear and the real book in hand so they can read along and drop out now and then. Most likely if the book drags on for awhile, you drop out of reading and listen. I actually like this idea but it makes the book $7.50 more. But if I can read the book in 7 hours, then great. I could read 4 books/month that way.

Last night I was going through FL Studio and discovered only the basic template is free and there isn't a lot you can do with it. The full version is $299 but still for a full recording studio on the computer, $300 isn't bad.Anyway, that's about all for now.

A bit different today

as I'm only having just a small snippet of my Blog text on my website but the bulk of my diary here Or once this is done I can try and copy and paste a Tweet as a single item and replace it because it has the link there as a result of the "Tweet this" feature in Twitter.

This was composde Yesterday, but better leate then never right?

Ok, a couple of things today. I’ve made a few changes to this blog. Note, that the Greenpeace announcement is gone. Most people know by now that GP Canada is for what it is. Also, I moved the Google ad to the bottom of the page. I heard that it can scare visitors away even though since the ad went Live, it eared over 24,000 hits ad over 15,500 page impressions for a Adsense total of $3.90, wu-who! The real power in Adsense is through Keywords and Keywords can be pricey. Also, I put the stat counter code in a some of my other pages and added a PayPal donation button so if you like my blog, you can make a donation or tip, it would be greatly appreciated-thanks. Some other exciting changes to this blog/site are going to happen soon. If you haven’t noticed a-hem, there is a free ebook offer by my photo.

A few years ago FL Studio caught my attention but it was kind of lame back then. I stumbled upon it through YouTube (now turning 5 years old this year) and was immediately impressed with how rich and robust this program is and the basic version is free is.

Last night I found a way how to put documents in my Itouch. Especially short stories. Yesterday SF Signal had about 25 story links to many books. Net. I downloaded 5 stories in rich text and select all and pasted them in a new email to myself for offline reading when I‘m not near a wi-fi connection. I created a folder called SFF stories and moved them in there away from my in box. This way I can read the stories during my commute. It‘s a good hack.

Shortly Anne and I are going to have brunch and then watch “Doctor Who” and after that it’s Game #5 of the Stanley Cup finale. Philadelphia@Chicago. That’s basically on my plate for tonight and I hope I can get a bit of reading done as well. Anyway, that’s about all for now.

The big wheels are turning but slowly.

My wife was successful in getting the forms from CRHC and apparently if we’re accepted they pay for half the rent. We were turned down last year because our assets exceeded over $7,000. So now I’ve got to bring my form in and get Gerry to input in things like my hourly wage, annual income that type of thing. But Anne will get her employer to do hers tomorrow as well. With any luck at all we’ll have the forms ready and processed and she can go back into the office Monday afternoon. Hopefully if we get subsidy we’ll be a little better off.

Neil was working last night according to his wife so he wouldn’t be at lodge. I took the bus down to Clairview station and the train heading out was not in service, the train coming in was not in service. Finally, the train out was. I had a brief wait at the bus stop at Rexall for the #8 and I almost missed my stop. But it’s easy to get to Lodge by bus. I signed in and had a chat with a circle of the guys I took my EA degree with. We were talking about positions of officers etc. I mentioned I’d like to be JD. This means I will be in “the big chair” (if all goes well) in 5 years before I turn 65. Dale agreed and has no problem me being JD for his term because he’s going to be WM in December for next year. We had no music, but it was a great night. I was put back into the Tyler chair because Andrew took over the festive board last night and as a result was our MC. I had a great time. I don’t know what the details are for me attending fort Edmonton park but I think it’s next weekend. At the festive board, I had 2 Stella. I left one in the fridge for Anne for later. Apparently our BBQ looks good for August 28th.

Yesterday, right on the mark, my Paypal (PP) funds were in my account. Excellent. So then it works. I wanted to obtain a service and I needed $40 and $20 is going in today but it takes 8 days here in Canada pending funds to arrive as a balance. But over the last few days the service I wanted to order through PP increased to $100. Yikes. couldn’t they wait for at least the end of the month?

Ok, finale and only plug here: If your new to this blog or have been reading for awhile, you may have noticed over the last few days a link in my Welcome block near the bottom of my photo image. I’ve stumbled upon a great marketing concept that looks really good. No it’s not an MLM, been there done that. I’m not sure if the link is active yet. I’m waiting for a response from a tech support ticket. The link is for a free Ebook talking about this concept that is so simple it will blow your mind. I’m not answering any questions about this. The link is up and the subject closed. Anyway, that’s all I’m going to say about this so check it out if you want.

Tonight I’m out of here at about 4pm for my afternoon commute. Yesterday my wife asked if I would ask if she could work at my place of employment as they are hiring like crazy. Part time is 16 hours/week and full time is 35 hours/week. Thing is Anne can only put in 3 days week: Monday, Tuesday’s, Thursdays, or something like that. She worked with me before. That’s how we met 10 years ago this coming up October. We have people here that come in whenever they want to so why not my wife?

I’m still trying to read “Odd girl out” but I’ve been so busy lately, it’s been hard. On my way into the office I’m depositing $10 into my account for PP and I’m taking about $12 or so for a book at Audrey’s. Anyway, that’s about all for now.

Having a great day off

here. Anne's making me a burger and fries for my supper and in about half an hour I'm calling Neil to go to Lodge and after our regular business meeting, I'm having a beer and I'll take one home for Anne.

Earlier I discovered one of the greatest marketing ideas of all time, you can check it out here, but I'm going to provide a link to it in the sidebar later.Anyway, that's about all for now.

I posted a

brief review of "Night shift" on my website. I'm now reading "Odd girl out" Timothy Zahn's Frank Compton series. I like this series.

I'm considering letting my LJ account languish. It's not as robust as Blogger or even WordPress. Speaking of which I opened up a WordPress blog account earlier this morning. I like WordPress because it allows you to have categories. Even my website wont let me have that. Its getting harder and harder to keep my website going at $100/year. Hard to justify that when Blogger and WordPress are free. Yes WordPress is plagued with "Upgrades" same like LJ but even the basic WordPress addition is more robust then my website. Besides I've got everything more or less backed up with Blogger and everything is on my diary anyway. I'm almost 95% certain this is the last year for my website.

Tonight it's Montreal/Flyers,game #5. i think this is it for the Habs.Anyway, that's all for now.

I love the May long weekend

It’s been about a year now that I’ve signed onto Goodreads. It’s pretty good. I’ve got about 8 friends reading the same book or types of books I’m reading. I Haven’t figured out how to work the “follow” feature.

Looks like its trying to clear up out there. The Sun seems to be poking out through the cloud cover. It’s going to be a cooler weekend.

But at least I got some hockey to watch even though CBC has the game on at 1pm today. I’ll be able to catch some of it from 1-2pm and miss a good chunk of it on the way home but at least the Chicago/SJ game #4 is on Sunday. I’d love to see Chicago sweep SJ. First time Chicago in the finale since 1991.

According to my stat counter I’m getting about 20 hits/day this month. Since this isn’t content for the masses, that’s not to bad. I might be moving that Google ad somewhere else on the page and removing that Spot ad altogether since it’s not making me any money.

The contingency buses were running this morning. Oh, I had forgotten that the LRT would be shut down from Clairview to Corona. For the last few weeks ETS was adding new track from the tunnel entrance at 91st street. ETS was providing shuttle service from Clairview to downtown but at the Library the driver in broken English mentioned Churchill station. I ws on the street at this time. Something inside of me said I should have taken the day off. I walked over to Jasper Ave by about 99th street and decided I’d walk the rest of the way down to 106th and hang a left. I strolled in shortly before 10am and even got a preferred dialer 6 feet in front of the TV to watch the game at 1pm. Or what I could watch of the game. We did MF again (uggh) but I was getting sales. No credit cards. The second half as a bit easier. JT was there and we were tossing paper balls around having a bit of fun. I was contemplating working the afternoon extra hours but they canceled it. Just as well.

I walked with Will as far as Corona and I was going to wait for a #2 bus but a contingency bus arrived. I boarded that since the busses are more or less express. I listened to my Itouch along the way home. All the Lilac bushes our out in full bloom now. The driver wouldn’t let me out along the stop by my place so I had to go to Clairview. I got a regular bus and at the corner here I saw Anne across the street as I was waiting for the light to change. She didn’t see me.

I got inside taking the stairs as she was just coming off the elevator. I got the last period of the Flyers\Habs game. 2-0 Philadelphia. Yikes, the Habs are in trouble. They could be out by Monday night. Yet this playoff season they’ve been the comeback kids, coming back from Washington and then Pittsburgh. So never say never. At least I’ll be able to watch the Chicago/Sharks game at 1pm tomorrow. Crazy time of day for a hockey playoff game. I remember seeing the NY Islanders this day 30 years ago today take out the Flyers and it was over by 4pm.

Speaking of which it was 30 years ago today Richard, Ellen and I saw Star Wars “The Empire strikes back.” That was a special weekend. I’m glad I recorded that time in my original diary. I wish I was into photography and had a Polaroid back in the day. I would have asked a passerby; “Scuze me sir, would mind snapping a photo of us three?“ I’d have loved a photo of us 3 in the movie line up. Where have all the years gone?

That’s another reason why I’d like the Iphone because it can take video and photos. I’ve been hearing on places like YouTube and Cnet that an Itouch with a camera is coming this summer. I don’t believe it. I’m surprised Apple didn’t include a camera in the 3G version of the Itouch in the first place. Maybe they want to see what the success of the Ipad will be like. Anyway, that’s about all for now.

This week is just cruisng along

We’ve got a scorcher of a day going on today at +27 at this hour. We’re going for a +29 even though a +30 is being called for. That’s 86 F for my American readers. That’s hot. In the interior of BC like Hope etc, they usually get +40 in July and August.

I’m off tomorrow because Anne has relatives coming from Sydney NS and they want to take us out to dinner. Anne has the whole week off except for Saturday. In which case I’m watching game 4 of the NHL Conference finales and trying to get over this cold.

Tonight I’m in for 4 hours and we’re doing FFAB. Uggh. It’s not that bad though. Last night I got $200 and a $20 card. Nothing much to speak of but we don’t have taps until we do Cops sometime in June.

Today in SF Signal they announce a new SFF podcast: The Skiffy and Fanty show. All things SFF. I checked out there Home page to see if the show is available in Itunes. I’m also downloading the last issue of LibrVox. Also from SF Signal they announced a cool anthology: “Before they were giants.” It comes with 15 stories and Interviews from the authors and anecdotes of the stories they tried to publish and about writing in general. This actually is a cool idea. The anthology is edited by James L. Sutter. I’m going to ask for it next time I’m in Audrey’s.

I’m finishing off my first coffee here for the day and this entry is going to be published before I tackle my email. Anyway that’s all for now.

trip heading into work this afternoon. I bought a 6/49 ticket and had left over Pizza from last night for my lunch and a large diet Cola. Good stuff. The guys were doing FASB and the women were doing Rainbow. We had the game on and I watched a little of it following the scores. Jerry and I had a $2 bet. I took the Flyers. I won 4-3. Boston was up 3-0 and then the Flyers came back. They even had a game that was dissalowed. It took the officials a long time to decide if the Flyers go ahead goal was allowed but it wasn't. Philadelphia got the go ahead goal and the 8th place in the East (Flyers) make it in.

I headed up to my bank barely catching the bus. I did my banking and got all my vacation pay on my paycheck. Excellent. I headed home on the train without incident.

Anne was on the balcony planting flowers getting ready for summer and the cats out and about.

As for me, I'm going to do a bit of reading and have some supper and then try and go to bed. Anyway, that's about all for now.

I'm enjoying the weekend

I got up early having the usual 2 hours sleep overnight for a Friday night. Although I was feeling good heading into the office. I was actually feeling happy, knowing I had just the 4 hour shift ahead of me. It was partially overcast out there under somewhat sunny skies. I bought some Tim's on my way into the office.

Work went well. We had a light shift. Maybe 12 tap shooters and about 8 in the back. We covered 3 campaigns and I got 5 cards for $145 on card. Jerry brought in a couple of bags of empties for me. I was glad to get out of there with about the lowest total I had for the week.

I went to my bank got my $20 for my book for latter and the train home. It was mild going home. Not warm but mild. I got home as Anne was getting ready trying to clean up before she left for her job.

The only casualty for the day was not being able to go see RJS as Anne needed the bus pass to get to work. Anyway, that's about all for now.

I had a decent evening tonight on the job

and I'm grateful I'm able to just sit by myself on the train ride home.

We were watching the Chicago/Vancouver game. When I left the office late in the 2nd period it was Cicago 3/Vancouver 1. Yikes. Hawks lead 2-1 in the series.

I'm off work tomorrow night as I have an oral exam I'm giving one of our Lodge brothers tomorrow night. I know my material and I'm looking forward to it.

I think on Friday night I'm going to put my bid in for my vacation pay and this way I'll have it on my pay check next week for something special. Anyway, that's about all for now

We got snow in May

couple of days here. Yesterday afternoon I finished reading "Crossing the line." I enjoyed it and I'll return back to the Wes'har series later this year. I'll have a bit of a "review" of this book later tonight when I get home from work.

Right now I'm reading something a little out from my usual comofrt zone of SFF. "Night Shift" by Lilith Saintcrow is my first stab at reading urban fantasy and as I'm 20 pages into this thing, its not too bad. I like the writing and its in first person.

Over night we had a whack of snow on the ground. We're getting what Calgary had over the last weekend. I'll try and get a photo up. This early May snow storm is not uncommon this time of year around here, anything can happen.

Podcasts are great. I've got about half a dozen on my ITouch right now. I'm subscribing to "Starship Sofa," "Mysterious Universe," "Aware," "Logans run," "Slice of Sci-Fi," and of course "Puck daddy." I like Starship Sofa the best and ITunes lets me subscribe to these podcasts. I hook my ITouch to my PC and after a brief sync ITunes opens up and searches for new episodes and downloads them right to my ITouch, for free. I haven't figured out how to delete podcasts I no longer need to free up space on my ITouch. I've got about 6.5 Gb/7.1Gb of space left. I think when I get a second part time job I'm going to get the 64Gb ITouch.

This weekend Robert J. Sawyer is coming to Audrey's books for a reading and a signing. I'd like to get Robs's "Watch," but I'm so short of descretionary funds this year and I'm lucky if I can get 1 book/month. Anne wants me to put in the extra 2 hours for Saturday but even though I can't buy "Watch" at least I can to go to the reading after work. I'll try and do the Friday afternoon shift to make up for Saturday afternoon. It's the Lodge night thing that is getting in the way of things this month. .

Speaking of podcasting and the playoffs, Montreal won game #2 with the Pens, their series is tied at 1 as they go into the Bell center tonight. Go habs go! Last night Chicago split a home at home and they tie their series at 1. The Flyers and Boston are I think tied at 1. Red Wings/Sharks, Sharks are leading that series 2-0. If the Habs can take out the Pens -yeah, right- and SJ can take out Detroit, then we got new Stanley Cup champs this year. I'd love to see a Habs/Vancouver match up in the finale.

Tonight, I'm at the 5-9 for a snowy Spring evening but luckily for me we got monitors all over the place so I can get an occasional glimpse of the playoffs in between calls. I had a great site line to the monitor above Jerry's desk at the end of our tap dialers but for some reason as soon as Patrick left that dialer and I settled in the last 2 systems went and crashed on us. Something to do with the power grid. Why those two systems, I don't rightly know. Maybe its because we're using very old computers. Anyway, that's about all for now.

It's been a busy couple of days here

Most of my free time over the last few days has been eaten up by trying to get the wifi on my Itouch to get fixed up. I opened up an ITunes account. I’m checking YouTube and the Forums and learning a lot of information on routers. My router did not come with a password when I got it last November. It’s a Belkin N150. For the most part it’s a decent router but has the tendency to suspend my Internet Explorer occasionally. I’m using my laptop to type this with my router on Wifi. I’ve tried all kinds of things and all kinds of password schemes. I tried admin, 1234, take my system off line for 30 seconds and reboot. Since my router didn’t come with a password, it allowed me to make one up. Nothing. I even went into the routers admin page and got the Wep key and typed that into the Itouch. I tried a dozen different things but still I can’t get onto Safari I even toyed around with changing the DSN settings. All I get is incorrect password for my network. The thing is the ITouch at least recognizes my network name but no matter what I do, I access the Internet from my Itouch. I got the 3rd gen version. I know this works because other people I’ve met and know, tell me it does and I‘ve seen the browser work on YouTube.

Other then that not much else is going on. Weather wise here it’s been very dry here in Northern Alberta and on the rest of the prairies. We really need rain. Back in the 1980’s we used to get a lot of rain. Sometimes it would last for 2 solid days or more, now we’re lucky we get a weeks worth of rain in a year.

Anyway, I’m going back to play around with this thing. Vinny from work says there’s a free says there’s a free program he wants me to download. He’s going to gain access to my laptop (the one I’m using now that he fixed for me last month) from home. I guess I’ll be plugging in my ITouch USB cable to call up ITunes and he’ll help me set things up from his location. We’ll probably do this on Sunday or Saturday night. I hope. Anyway, that’s about all for now.

I love Sundays, even though I

with a spitting headache.

Anne gave me an Adville and a few minutes later I felt a lot better.

Seems Boots had jumped off again over the balcony about dusk this morning. He loves doing stuff like that and most likely he will be doing a lot of this during the summer.

Anne and I were about how the Mp3 player I want to buy but the Pay Pal way/EBay might take a month or more to get here. So shes going to give me the $200 to go over to Future Shop when she comes back from the bank tomorrow and I'm getting the 8 Gb version. I mostly want this for the pod casts I subscribe to and listen to a bit of music and play a few games from the apps store. I discovered that the Itunes gift cards don't work here in Canada but are sold here. Go figure. I can access the app store and download content using one of those disposable credit cards anyway. Well I'm pretty sure I can. I'm almost certain that I'll be getting my Itouch tomorrow. I'm looking for ward to it, although I wont have much time to play with it.

An update on the UFO story from yesterday. Ian Punnet had Nick Pope on the show last night and the guest said that the video seemed to be a hoax. He sited the almost perfect condition of the trucks in the photo, the absence of people nearby etc.

The Penguins/Sens game wasn't bad. I was hoping for a Sens win so now the Pens lead the series 2-1. I'm happy that Phoenix is leading 2-1 in their series with Detroit.

Despite having too much hockey I had a good day. Anne made a nice breakfast brunch. I'm going to post this and get some of my music converted over to the Itouch for later. Anyway, that's all for now.

I love Easter weekends

Yesterday I got my pay check and was having a decent night. Gerry let us out at 8:30pm. I was hearing we were going to work until 10pm but I kept on hearing this voice in my head that this was April fools day. I got my check as right as usual but still no bonus money. Last year I made an average of $25/week in bonus money, now I’m down to about $16/week. In this line of work where its sales related you need a bonus structure of some kind to keep the staff motivated. Gerry’s been giving out $20/night in cash but of course we have heavy hitter Patrick who gets over $200/night in cards. I was lucky to get 2 cards last night for $45. But the $20 isn’t just for the night shift it’s for the whole day. But if you know how to get into the lists on the computer in the back, you can skim through the source and pick out the large taps that pay on card. That’s why I see so many blanked out names. Somebody’s been tampering with the lists to get the large credit card taps. You write down the information on an off sheet and then erase the name and then during the shift you use the land line phone to call the customer back and then you get the credit card # write everything down and then the next call you get on the computer say a 2006 $10 tap, you erase the screen info (F6=edit) insert the new info phone numbers etc and enter the credit card. I don’t have the capability to accomplish this back end stuff but I know the people that do.

After work I took my bag of empties and went into Audrey’s and couldn’t find Trevor. He special orders my books for me. Apparently he left Audrey’s for other opportunities. I was in shock but I picked up C.S Friedman’s Book 2 of the Magister trilogy. I still have my Fantasy Rich Horton anthology there, nothing else came in for me. I also noticed a huge tick hardcover: George RR Martin’s “Warriors” anthology. I’ll wait until it comes out in Trade. Also, SF Signal released a table of contents Jonathan Strahan’s new anthology “Wings of Fire.” I guess Russell taking over for Trevor will order my books for me. He’s pretty good at doing this. Sigh, it’s the end of an era.

This weekend promises to be a pretty good weekend. I‘m off today as it‘s a paid stat holiday as long as I work tomorrow, which is penciled into my calendar anyway. Tonight the Oiler‘s have a pay-per-view game on TV in Dallas but Saturday night the boys will be playing in Phoenix. They have 6 games left to wrap up a disastrous season that (mercifully) ends Sunday April 11th on the road in Anaheim.

So, we‘re getting ready for bed earlier this morning. It‘s 4am and am I hearing this right? I already had one shocker yesterday and at the and on Coast they were talking about a major format change to a radio call in cooking show. WTF, am I hearing this right? I‘m thinking it has to be an April fools joke. So I went to bed with that. This morning in my Inbox I scanned for the Coast Zone email newsletter I get every morning that recaps the show from the night before. Apparently George said in the last hour of the show, he reminded everyone that it was April 1st. Relief. That was a pretty good April fools joke. I love this show and I’d really feel empty inside if the show was dropped or changed in any significant way.

Over the next several days Coast has some great shows: Tonight they are going to be discussing the return of “V” the TV series from the 1990’s. Saturday Ian has another boring show: Man’s brain vs. Women’s brain. Yeesh. Sunday: The Shroud of Turin. I love stuff like this Monday: Xenothon returns about spirituality 2012 black holes etc. Tuesday: TBA Wednesday: The economy and military hot spots: Thursday: Science and the Cosmos, Friday with Art Bell life on other planets. So Coast is pretty decent this week. Of course when we go to bed we listen to the first hour where we get the news of all things strange, weird and great.

And finally, say, if you need a laugh check out today’s SF Signal. There’s a funny YouTube video “Advice from Aquaman.” Lots of fun. Anyway, that’s about all for now.

I finally got my laptop back.

laptop back and in working order thanks to Vinny from work but I'm so cautious about downloading anything other then YouTube material and websites I trust. Just the thought of anything popping up with a "security shield" spooks me.

Yesterday when I left Vinny's place at 5pm (by NorQuest) after work with my laptop it was +14 out there. Very nice. I love this time of year.

Thursday night Anne ordered Wrestlemania 26 for me for this afternoon, excellent. I always look forward to Wrestlemania. I order 2 wrestling pay per views/year. Wrestlemania and Summerslam for my birthday.

Next month the City of Edmonton is going to open a new Light Rail Transit (LRT) line to Southgate shopping Center. This has been in the planning stages since the LRT first went across the river to the University. It's been the talk of the town for awhile now. As the Epcor tower is under construction the LRT extension from Churchill Square station to Grant MacEwan college is also under construction. Pending funding City planners timeline has the "Nait Line" as its called completed by 2014 at a cost of $850M. After that there's the West LRT line. Most people agree that this line should have been developed before the South line due to West Edmonton Mall. I don't know when the timeline for the WLRT is supposed to get completed. It wouldn't surprise me to see it out to WEM in maybe within 10 years.

I'm still reading Karen Traviss's "Crossing the line". It's not bad.

Last night's Coast show wasn't too bad. The topic was on cloning and human cloning. Art Bell was hosting the show for a change. Tonight Ian Punnet has another boaring show. "Adventures of an Undertaker." As soon as I get some extra cash, I'm getting Streamlink and the ITouch. I'm tired of missing the good shows in the middle of the week for the soft shows Ian does on the weekends. Anyway, that's all for now

I'm having computer mouse troubles

We’ve been getting this strange weather system in lately. Strange by meaning for the first few days of Spring, it’s sure letting us know it’s winter around here. Remember I predicted March came in like a lamb and out like a lion? That’s exactly what’s going on right now— except the snow had stopped falling. Weird.

Anne’s going into do our taxes tomorrow and because we file our return electronically to Revenue Canada, I should get my tax return around the end of April if not earlier. If my return doesn’t end up going towards going rent, then I’m getting the Itouch. I don’t ant to be locked into a bill for 3 years.

While I was in the office just as shift was changing one of the relatively new guys heard from somewhere that I was a Mason and that he is very much interested in joining. I’m not very comfortable with this fellow. The first question I ask that shy younger people away from the craft is when I ask them if they believe in God. He had to think about that one. He asked back the question that he thought Masonry isn’t a religion. It isn’t. A belief in God doesn’t have to mean you believe in Jesus. This bloger doesn’t. There is no requirement in any Masonic body’s constitution or bylaws that stats a candidate had to be involved in some sort of belief structure. We call this organized religion. Most Messianic Jews don’t believe in the New testament but they believe in God. My Spider senses immediate red flagged the guy. Then he said after the break that he was in jail that he needs some direction and asked me if we do a criminal record check. I was more or less ok with this guy. He seems like a nice sort. Then I mentioned our Lodge fee. No problem. What’s the first thing that happens next? He asked. I bring this to the attention of the investigating committee and they call the candidate to set up a meeting in their home. “I’m living in a situation that won’t let me have visitors.” Then my Spider senses were really tingling. I’m not really comfortable with this guy. So I’m going to mention that he should go down to the Masonic Lodge and ask down there for a tour and meet with somebody. I’ll just say I don’t really like to sponsor people I work with, something like that. Who’s ever the manager at The Freemason hall will direct him. Or maybe I should talk with our current WM and seek advice from him. I’ll do that this evening after I leave the office.

I’m still having trouble with this computer mouse. One of the guys at the office said they have a bunch of PC equipment that isn’t being used and that there could be a mouse he might have he can donate to me. Anne said they have computer mice at the dollar store across the street. Any PS/2 mouse is all I need, we’ll try this out first.

I’m still plugging away at the sequel to “City of Pearl” “Crossing the line.” The chracters are more defined even if their goals are not clear at the moment. 63 pages into the book the plot isn’t that defined yet but the writing sure is good.

Hey-hey, the Oiler’s won their 3rd game in a row at home last night against Vancouver. Anaheim Ducks are here Friday and I have the night off. I’m putting in my full day Thursday after Anne comes back from doing our taxes. Then I go in for 3.5 hours Friday get my pay check and home, have a nap and get ready to watch the Ducks/Oiler game, if it isn’t on PPV that is.Anyway that's all for now.

I had a nice weekend.

Anne's going to her Doctor this afternoon. This frees me up so I can work my 5-9 shift. Anne's going to facilitate for me moving my files from my old Doctor out in the West end to the new Doctor downtown. Then we're going to order Pizza and watch Monday night Raw. this way I can sleep in for a bit.

I finished reading "City of Pearl" by Karen Traviss about an hour ago. I gave it 3/5 stars but I'm going on to read "Crossing the Line," book 2 in the series.

Other then that, not much going on today. I'll post a "review" of "City of pearl" later today on my website. Anyway, that's all for now.

Today was not to bad

I went to the job this morning with no complications. The shift began ok but went South on me in the 2nd half. I got my pay check and a 6/49 ticket for Saturday's $30M draw and up to my bank. So far today's holding out alright, except for a slight hic-cup with Pay Pall but I'm working on it.

I have this evening off and with no hockey or other distractions, I plan on reading "Pearl" and maybe even finnish the book off this weekend if all goes well.

Speaking about books, over there at Pat's I put my name in for 2 more book give-a-way's: Peter V. Brett's "The Warded man" and Col Buchanan's "Farlander." I like the cover of Farlander. It has a kind of Steampunk/Goth feel to it. I entered both contests. I hope I'm not un eligble for winning again because I won a book last November.

Tomorrow I'm in the office for a full 6 hours. That's alright the day goes by fast. It's just the last 2 hours that drag. Anyway, that's all for now.

I had a slow start to the job last night

Firstly, I had trouble with the monitor not working. Then I had trouble with the headset. Then I had to let about $85 worth of sales go because I couldn't verafy the addresses and I lost a sale because I asked for the credit card. it was one of those nights that put me on the low end of the board. I did get $95 worth of cards which was nice. I was in an owley mood all night.

The nice thing about the weather, for the first time since last November I was able to put my sneakers on instead of boots. That felt good. I was able to read about 4 pages of "pearl" on my commute there and back for 8 pages or so each way. I'm actually enjoying this book and most likely I will work my way through the series.

YouTube is such an amazing resource. I was mentionng this to my wife earlier and I said how it's probably the greatest application the Internet has ever seen since the introduction of Google and Pay Pall. I go on YouTube many times during the week. Earlier I checked out some Advanced Squad Leader set up scenaries. There are a few. I'd love to get back into ASL and play a couple times/week.

Yeesh, Coast has another boring topic on this evening: Hypnosis. last night they were talking Thyroid disease. I think today (Thursday) it's on remote viewing.

I've been seriously thinking about delving into audibooks. I like audible.com but you can't use pay pall to buy books. They charge $7.95/month for the first 3 months and $14.95/month there after. What so you can buy and download their books? Am I reading this right? Ok normally I buy 1 SFF book/week which basically works out to about $650/year on paperback books. But I'm cutting down and buying just 2 books/month. However I like a book to listen to at night and I can get a audiobooks on ITunes, without a subscription service including podcasts etc. Anyway that's about all for now.

A nice looking Monday out there

We had pest control come into the suite this morning. The guy looked around to feel for bed bugs etc. Our suite passed inspection. As if there was any doubt.

I'm off for my 5-9 shift and then wrestling when I come home. Wrestlemania is in a few short weeks. I always order Wrestlemania and Summerslam, good times.

My laptop is still out of action not just because of Security Tool, which I can get rid of easily enough now, but I have to get an update on my anti virus program. I hope to be back online with my laptop by the Easter weekend. on the topic of laptops, I was watching an interesting YouTube video on how to install a laptop graphics card. It's pretty intense.

What inspired me to watch this video is because I want to upgrade my little Acer with a new graphics card capable of playing D&D online. I opened up a DDO account yesterday and discovered the "graphics card" in my desktop wouldn't meet the system requirements to play the game Besides I have extra Ram requirements in my laptop and I'd rather play it there.

Still trudging through "City of Pearl." I'm not sure I want to invest a lot of time in this series. There's not enough action and things going on in it for me and I'm gradually losing interest in "City of Pearl." The multiple POV switches in mid scene is unnerving and whacky. The novel is too British for me. Sod this and sod that and Bullock this and Gov'nor that. I don't even know what Bullock means! Nothing against the British. The best music of my generation came out of the UK. I love everything about the British and the UK except the slang and maybe the obvious "class structure." And I've read books and stories by other UK authors (Peter F Hamilton, Neal Asher) and I don't get the British slang in those authors. This is not a review or a blight on the author and I'm hopeful the novel will pick up but so far, but "City of Pearl" isn't working for me. I wish it would. Anyway that's all for now.

I'm having a decent weekend

but I'm glad it's Saturday night.
This morning I got out the door 10 minutes early and waited for my bus under sunny skies. I got down to Tim's and again no hash browns but once inside the lobby of out building I was able to get a haircut. I met the guy in the barber shop and he took me in right away. I got the whole thing done 10 minutes before shift and had my breakfast sandwich as well.

I sat with JT in the back as we did OTH. I got 4 cards on the day but I didn't know how what my total was. I got a couple more cards and closed out with $205 on cards and a $600 total for the day. For this I get a $5 bonus but I got a much needed and long awaited haircut. It was $15 and I gave the guy a $2 tip.

I was so exhausted on the train but I didn't want to fall asleep as well so I read more from "City of Pearl." It's not bad, I'll most likely read the next one in this series after all as I hope to complete the midway part by this weekend if not the book by the 15th. If this was a novel that grabbed me right away, I'd be done with it by now.

I got into the apartment shortly after 5pm and watched WWE Vintage. I'm going try and grab 40 winks before Anne comes home, so that's about all for now. I'm half awake, so there could be spelling errors.

I had a bit of a power snooze and feel somewhat refreshed. Anne's had something in the oven from when she left and from when I got into the apartment. I don't smell smoke so nothing seems to be burning.

A couple of days ago I've been trying to find the page to Ad Astra radio but the link I get gives me a blank page with the words Ad Astra radio in bold letters on the upper left hand corner. I can't seem to find a link to this station. It's all things in the Science Fiction Fantasy genre like gaming novels movies etc. But I did discover "Hour of the Wolf" which I was able to listen briefly to. What's this Kage baker passed away? I didn't know. What was a surprise to me was she was born the same year as me and Joe Strummer. Baker was born in June of that year so that made her older then me by 2 months,sad.

Speaking of SFF radio though I did discover "Hour 25" and "The voice of Science Fiction." I'm sure there are others. I know blogs like SF Signal cover similar ground but I like having something to listen to at work in between calls.

It's been a productive weekend, Paypall and the haircut and getting my book "Fantasy. The years best 2007" by Rich Horton. It's been a great weekend.

I have a day off today

at the moment. My wife is begining to pay atention to the Oscars coming up soon. I hope Avatar wins one. Also I signed up on TweetDeck. Not exactly sure how to use it but I'll figure it out.

This book "City of Pearl" is an effort to read. And to think I bought the series. The premise looked good and all and I'm about 140 pages in but man is it's tough going. I hope I can finish this by the 15th. I don't know whatto read after Pearl. I know You can never go wrong with an RA Salvatore novel.

I had a good shift at work and I got a $125 card which bosted my card output and qualified me for the bonus. I ended up with a $10 bonus and some empties of course.

Over there at Pats Fantasy hotlist I entered my name in for the chance toWarriors, a new anthology edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois. If I don't win this I'll probably buy a copy.

Tonight o Coast the thopic is on anthropology and Shamanism. Anthropologist, author and primary investigator of the Early Man sites in Ethiopia. Hank Wesselman will give an update on the latest discoveries in anthropology as well as the oldest and most reliable human technologies for accessing the realms of spirit. Yeah, this is more like it.

The other day a co worker sent me a shared YouTube video. Thanks Lou. Whilst not my musical genre I can appreciate the thought behind it. I sent him (first time doing this) a shared YouTube video of The Modern Lovers "Roadrunner" hehehe.

I was reading over there at New Scientest how Nasa is looking at using inflatable spacecraft etc. This is an initiative of Bigelow a company in Las Vegas and have been developing these technologies for some years now. Art bell had the owner of the company on Coast a year or so ago. Bigelow is looking at a test vehical called "Sundancer." Then they'll launch a node and propusion bus later. Two moduals will provide more room then the entire ISS now. Bigelow hopes to have inflatible moduals in space in about 3-4 years. I've been following this company for ahwile and I like what they are trying to do.

I also heard that Cern at the end of this month is going to crank up the LHC so this is good news. I hope they find the Higs.

And the Oilers were in Chicago last night. They actually took the lead 2-1 there fore awhile but then the hawks came back and won 5-2. Yikes. As long as the Oiler's can keep loosing then we have a good chance of getting some great players next year. The Oiler's in yesterdays Trade deadline dumped about $7M off of their payroll and got a few good players as well. I like the deals the Oiler's got today, good stuff.

My activity in RuneScape seems to have been languishing. I'm looking at playing Dungeons & Dragons online Or DDO as it's called. Not that there are any more players but I might play both as well. One of the guys last week was telling me that I can use toothpaste as a way to clean off scratches of my Oblivion CD. The nice thing about Xbox Live is that you can download an app that lets you save the game your playing to your hard drive. No more swaping and worrying about cleaning disks. I like this idea. Anyway, that's all for now.

Canada, Gold!

Canada Gold! What a game. I got up about 12:45pm settled in and watched the best Olympic hockey I’ve ever seen. Team Canada got the first goal in the first period and then the 2nd. Team USA got their first goal in the 2nd and in the 3rd with 24 seconds left scored to tie the game. Then Overtime. As if that wasn’t a nail biter in itself then Iginla to Crosby and a wild shot on Miller and it’s in. Team Canada won Gold. The first time ever on Home soil. Amazing. Sydney Crosby won in the last 12 months a Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh Penguins and now a Gold medal for Canada! I love it. And there’s more hockey yet to come. The mad scramble on the March 3rd trade deadline is on Wednesday and then there’s a good chance that the Vancouver Canucks will be in the NHL playoffs in April and who knows— maybe even in the Stanley Cup finale and wouldn’t it be a great story if the Canucks won? I’d love it.

Earlier this morning I played some more on RuneScape. I finally got some gold and able to make a bit more progress in my character. I play a little bit each day.

Right now at 10 before 5pm it’s +6. Excellent. We’ve been having some pretty good weather lately. But I don’t think even though we have a month left of winter, were out of the woods yet. Next week it’s looking like we’re going back to some +1’s and 0’s but still above normal. It’s an El Nino winter this year.

I’m enjoying this book “City of Pearl.” CP. It’s actually pretty decent for a début novel and there’s another 5 books sin the series. This should keep me busy till about the end of May or June.

Tonight Anne and I are going to be watching the closing Olympic ceremonies. It’s been an interesting 17 days as this winter Olympics have opened my eyes to some sports and the Olympics in general. I never used to watch the Olympic hockey because I always used to think it was like watching junior hockey. Now with most teams having a lot of NHL players on their teams and using an NHL rink and NHL format makes it almost like an NHL Stanley Cup playoff series. The other thing I liked about this Olympic format is that there was no corporate advertising along the rink boards. Made the games feel like old time hockey. Oh and this 2010 Olympic round makes this 14 Gold medals for Canada. That's more then any country for any Olympics both Winter and Summer. The best part about this game earlier this afternoon was, we won it at home! I'm a happy man. Anyway that’s about all for now.

I'm having the mid week blahs

Anne was compelled to go out around 3pm too get KFC. For this she needed my bus pas. She called about 3:43pm as I was trying to finish up my book. I was to meet her outside and like a relay race she was to transfer my bus pass. At the crosswalk set of lights. There was her bus. We waved. I was getting a bit pissed off at this time. Then my bus came and she was at the light’s across the street. Another bus was coming by. I was holding my breath for the light to change, other wise I’d be waiting for a good. The light changed just as the bus was at the light. So here comes Anne strolling along oblivious to everything. I grabbed my bus pass in her hand and almost got run over by the damn thing. I love my wife but she can be so lame sometimes.

So that was what basically put me off for the evening. That and I sat beside another loud person. Most of these loud people are women. Never fails. I struggled all night to get $350 and was the last to get on the board with a credit card sale for $10 and my last sale for $30 also a credit card sale. By about 8pm my blood sugar level was dropping. I was struggling and even the empty pop cans were in short supply.

Alright, I think I finally narrowed my MP3 media players down to two models. I can get both of these locally. The first one is the Coby 4Gb touch screen the second is the Hip Street 8Gb touch screen. Both of these players have an external speaker and supports an SD card slot and can be picked up locally for under $100. The MP3 player is my first short term goal. Coast to Coast Streamlink my second. This way we can get the show and put the good ones on the media card and listen to on the weekends when we have more time.

Also I finished reading “Science Fiction Best of the year 2006” when I got home this evening shortly before 11pm. I liked this anthology but the stories could have been more evenly dispersed. Most of the better ones were near the end of the book.

Review Summary: Science Fiction “Best of the year, 2006 edition” A collection of Science fiction stories by some of the biggest names in the genre.

My Rating: 6.5/10

Pros: 6/15 of these stories were good or better, with 4 of them being Excellent. “The Policeman’s daughter” was the best of the bunch

Cons: Too many mediocre stories in this collection by writers that could have provided better stories then they did. There were some long stories in here as well, which were long and uninspiring. Pacing of the stories was poorly handled. I would have paced the better stories early in the book or at least spaced them out a little better then they were

Bottom line: This is a fine anthology of some good Science Fiction stories. It took me longer then I wanted to get into this book because the stories started off to be so lame. Things didn’t start picking up until about halfway through the book, then after Will MCCarthy’s story was I excited about what else lay ahead.

Would I recommend this book? Yes despite the way the material was presented, it’s still a pretty good offering.

So now I’m just beginning to read Elizabeth Bears Dust. It goes up the queue to currently reading. I hope to finish this by at least March 15th.

Today is day 13 of the winter Olympics. I’m really going to miss it. Mainly because it’s so historic for my country in many ways. Mainly because it was the first time our athletes won gold at home. Second because Wayne Gretzky got to light the external Olympic torch and because it’s being held in my home city. Where I’m from not where I live. Also this Olympics has opened my eyes up to some different kinds of sport. I like snowboarding and cross skiing now and I have a new respect for figure skating. Anyway, that’s all for now.

There's a photo of the book cover of the above "review" over there on my website

I love weekends

I had a tough time getting out of here this morning but I got downtown and hooked up with Dwain, a fellow I work with a few years younger then me. We met little James as well, on our into Tim’s. Yes they had hash browns. I got my breakfast and walked over with the guys to the office. Sure enough we were locked out but one of the team India came along with a key. I ate my breakfast but I forgot my coffee so I decided to move near the other end. It was slow getting started and I didn’t get my first sale until almost 45 minutes into the shift. My first sale was a credit card sale. I did alright the first half but it was after break that I got bogged down with too many dropped calls and F3’s. In the late second half things got better. Actually in the 2nd shift I did really well getting 2 credit card sales and I ended up with a total of $810 but no bonus money.

I had a great evening as I needed a few hours by myself. I could have had a nap as well and I don’t think I’d need a nap this evening.

Tomorrow Day 10 of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics is Team Canada/USA men’s hockey and I’m going to be watching that. Should be a good one.

Nobody won the $42M Lotto Max last night so it goes to $50 and I’m going to get myself a ticket. I got one number. Somebody won the $7.6M 6/49. I was going to get a ticket but the Redimart at Clairview was closed when I was going through the lower concourse.

I didn’t get a book at Audrey’s this weekend but I’ll get my 4th book next Friday. I’m looking at dipping my hand into Ebay/Pay Pal in the books category as I’ve got my eye on the old Piers Anthony “Cluster” series. Piers Anthony has always been one of my favorite authors.

I’m not a big paranormal fan but I do have the first 2 Jill Kismet novels by Lilith Saintcrow. There is a 3rd and 4th installment in this series out. I like the cover art of this series. The reason why I mention Lilith Saintcrow is because over there at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, they reviewed one of the Kitty Norville’s series: “Kitty Raises Hell.” I’m considering ordering the an Omnibus of this series. The Kitty series and the Kismet series in some ways cover about the same ground. After I read Karen Traviss’s Wes’ Har series, I’m going to read the Jill Kismet series. Or at least try to.

The first hour of Coast this evening is like this: UFO expert Nick Pope will comment on the newly-released UFO files from the British Ministry of Defense. The 2nd hour is another soft topic. Tomorrow George Knapp has a UFO Stargate kind of show. Good stuff.

I’m really enjoying following and watching the Vancouver 2010 winter Olympics. I’ve never been a fan before. The one in Calgary in 1988 kind of turned me off but this one if Vancouver I like.

Later I might play a bit of Runequest. I’m trying to develop my level 2 cooking skills. As one of my main objective. Now I got a free bronze sword but no armor or anything.

As I was on the bus at Clairview yesterday afternoon I was considering going over to Century Casino and checking out the black jack tables but I was really tired going through the doors. I’ve never been in there yet. I pass by there every day. Maybe when I have some more cash to work with. What I have on hand is going right to the bank on Monday.

Lately I’ve been using the Real player SP media player which lets me download YouTube videos. I’ve got something like 2,500 files. I’ve been noticing though lately a large red X on many of my downloaded files. The original files are still there and the file size is the same, so I can’t figure out why the files disappear on me. Anyways that’s about all for now.

It's getting busy now

I had a pretty good night on the job as I pulled in $580 and $70 cards and of course I got a whack of empties to take home.

Weather wise it was mild on the way into work. About -6. On the way home it was foggy and around -3. As far as winters go, the ‘09-’10 has been really good.

Yeah Canada! We won another Gold, this time in the women’s snowboarding. What really pisses me off are all these masked protesters taking objects and smashing them through windows of businesses downtown. Most of them are from out of the country and if caught should be charged for terrorism, the bastards.

I managed to play a little Runescape and figured out how to equip my character sword. What I like about this game is that it saves where you left off. To pay for a members account is $60/year. I think I’m going to like this game. Apparently these are tutorials I’m about to play before they get into the campaign game.

Ok I’m off to bed and listen to a bit of Coast. I’m about ready to finish another story in SF ‘06: “The Inn at Mount Either.” By James van Pelt. I’m enjoying this one. So far I rate this an 9/10. I really enjoyed this story.

I had a pretty good night on the job as I pulled in $580 and $70 cards and of course I got a whack of empties to take home.

Weather wise it was mild on the way into work. About -6. On the way home it was foggy and around -3. As far as winters go, the ‘09-’10 has been really good.

Yeah Canada! We won another Gold, this time in the women’s snowboarding. What really pisses me off are all these masked protesters taking objects and smashing them through windows of businesses downtown. Most of them are from out of the country and if caught should be charged for terrorism, the bastards.

I managed to play a little Runescape and figured out how to equip my character sword. What I like about this game is that it saves where you left off. To pay for a members account is $60/year. I think I’m going to like this game. Apparently these are tutorials I’m about to play before they get into the campaign game.

Ok I’m off to bed and listen to a bit of Coast. I’m about ready to finish another story in SF ‘06: “The Inn at Mount Either.” By James van Pelt. I’m enjoying this one. So far I rate this an 9/10. I really enjoyed this story.

***

I slept later then I intended today but I needed the sleep. I’ve been so tired lately. I probably could have slept until 2pm today.

Lately I’ve been trying to do some research into a local 500 Kilovolt power Heartland transmission project just NW of Edmonton. It’s an overhead high voltage line stretching from lake Wabamun to Fort Saskatchewan and is the largest power line of it’s kind here in Alberta. It’s going to provide about 2,000 jobs for people. The towers are going to be 60 high and 80 meters in width. These overhead power lines look ugly and there is some evidence that they make people living near them sick. Local residences are not against having the benefits of the power, they just don’t want it above line. It’s not that hard to do to burry the cables underground. You dig a trench and plant the cables. How much does that cost? The Province etc says burying the project under ground will and 5-8 times the cost of the project. Huh? You get several backhoe’s together and you got the trench done in a month. More on this later. The project apparently is supposed to cost $350 million and proponents of the project say to build the line underground would cost about $2 billion. What to get the cable and dig a trench? Also why not put in wind turbines instead? wouldn’t that generate equal amount of power?

I slept later then I intended today but I needed the sleep. I’ve been so tired lately. I probably could have slept until 2pm today.

I wanted to go in for this afternoon but I was kind of wiped out. I’m going to try for 1 extra shift/week and build up to two. We’re all caught up in our February rent. We’re now working for March. With the extra shift, and a full day Saturday gives me 28.5 hours. Another shift would give 31 hours. Anyway, that's about all for now.

I love Family Day Weekends

Couple of days off here. I was invited to come down for extra hours from 11am-7pm for time and a half but that‘s a long day. I‘m not quite used to that yet. I said, I‘d try and make it down but I kind of reneged on it about 4pm yesterday afternoon.

Over the past couple of weeks I‘ve been researching various Personal Media Players. Or PMP’s as they‘re called. I‘m looking for: Wi-Fi, external speaker, removable memory/media card slot. I’ve looked at Coby, Iriver, Zen, The Archos 5, and the Itouch and a lot of others. So far the Archos 5 is the best. I can get the 160Gb version for $315. But I got to go to Best Buy to get one and the easiest BB for me to get to is the one on 99th Ave and 19th st. As of April 24th that is. That’s when ETS is opening up it’s next LRT station at Southgate. If I’m going to BB for the Archos I may as well go there and get my laptop fixed up and have the Geeks look at removing the bug. I can accomplish both in the same trip. I kind of like the Itouch as well but I don’t like the fact that I have no removable memory. The Itouch 65Gb is nice but over priced. When I’m at BB getting the laptop fixed up I’ll un box the Archos and get it ready. Make sure I don’t take home a lemon.

Over there at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist they had another book give-a-way, which I of course entered. Pat usually has 2-3 book give-a-ways each month.

The other day I touched briefly on Coast to Coast’s Streemlink. I also discovered our local radio station that carries the show has something called “Audio vault.” They have the whole day on file for up to 30 days. Including Coast. The only thing is, the audio content isn’t all that great. The weekend shows at Coast are pretty boring. There are other shows similar to Coast like Jeff Rense, Laura Lee etc. I like her show and even Whitley Strieber’s Dreamland. All these are great shows.

Even though yesterday was Valentine’s day the Oiler faithful were not getting any love from the Copper & Blue last night. Anaheim 7 Edmonton 3. I like the way Ryan Potulny is playing though. He’s got his 14th and if he keeps going like he has been, He could get 20 goals this year.

I’ve been wanting to try out Runescape this weekend and I think I might open an account and try it out. Jessie from work says he’s got a paid an account and he plays it all the time. The map looks very extensive. I recall all the fun I had playing “Well of Souls” some years ago.

Anne went out to the manning Safeway just up the road here and looked around for me. She found out where Happy Harbor comic/games store is: A few doors down from the bank. That’s good to know. She says the #182 stops off right there but the only thing is, they play Heroclix on Sundays.

Tonight because it’s a rare Monday night off, I get to watch Monday night Raw at the earlier time. But Anne usually likes to watch it with me so I’ll be leaving it for later when she comes home from work.

And finally, over there at SF Signal they have a movie review of the latest Wolfman movie. The review doesn’t look that good. Personally this kind of stuff doesn’t appeal to me at all. Anyway, that’s all for now.

I had a full day today.

desktop and I took the liberty trying to fix my laptop and I was able to get into safe mode but I cant utilize wifi in safe mode. This means I need to call Shaw and get my laptop calibrated for the Internet. Pain in the ass.

I had a pretty decen day on the job almost had somebody trying to put words in my mouth thinking I'm the Police. I quickly made sure they knew I wasn't. Other then that though I did pretty good for the first half. I ended up with $885 and 5 cards for a $10 bonus on my nect pay check.

Gawd, Coast has another boring show on this evening. Exotic foods. Please get me Streamlink. We miss so many good Coast shows during the week, we're stuck with this crap. It must be some kind of plot to get listeners to sign up for Coast that don't get a chance to hear all the good stuff during the week. Monday they have a Valentines day show. On Tuesday an FBI show and Wednesday a Stargate type show. Now Wednesday's show would be perfect for this evening and Sunday when Ian has his soft shows in.

Around the Blogsphere: Ok, Pat from Pat's Fantasy Hotlist is over there in Thialand. He had short post about Joe Abercrombie's latest "The last Argument of Kings." Looks pretty good. At SF Signal they're posting a list of the contents in David G. Hartwell/Kathryn Cramer's Years best SF 15. I prefer my anthologies to be in Trade although I have a few of these in MMP editions.SF Signal also has a review of Alison Sinclair's Darkborn, which has me intrigued and finally Elizabeth Bear is talking about the writing life and Holly Lisle is talking about why she hasn;t posted any Blog enteries lately. Anyway, that's all from me, for now.

Middle of the week blahs

at work was pretty good. I got the end dialer on the other side. I had over $200 by the first hour and they moved me over to the big taps. Shortly after break I got a $300 credit card sale and by the end of the night I ended up $740 and $405 on card for a $17.50 bonus. Plus a whack of empties to take home.

Lately over there at Pat's Fantasy Hotlist I've been going crazy with entering his book give-a-way contest since winning that signed copy of that Alastair Reynolds hardcover last December. This year I'm determined to win again. Also in keeping with the Blogging theme, over there at Holy Lisle's site "Pocket full of words" she's got a cool contest going, on how you could be a character in her book. This is a great idea and unless I'm missing something, I wonder why other SFF writers don't do this for their fans. it's another way to pay forward.

Oh, I had a bet going with Jerry with my $4 I owed him at a double or nothing on the line. Thank God it wasn't the Oiler's playing tonight. I picked Ottawa Sens over Calgary. I won my double or nothing so I owe nothing. Love it.

Earlier I was listening to some good old Third Wave Ska. I discovered "Undercover Ska." These guys are awesome. I believe from the Bay area. Good stuff.

I got an email from my Lodge's WM yesterday about a brother that's in the Royal Alex hospital. The more senior Lodge officers in my Lodge are always encouraging the brethren to visit sick brothers in the hospital etc. I'd like to do more of this myself, visiting sick brethren in our Lodge. It spreads good cheer and friendship. The thing holding me back from doing this is I work evenings. but if I get any advance notice and find a brother in the hospital and there are brothers going out to visit, I'm going to ask if I can tag along. This is one of the main aspects of Masonic charity I really need to do more sick and visiting. Anyway, that's all for now.

Yesterday wasn't bad

I got a huge virus on my laptop: Security Tool. It hijacked my desktop and wont let me run Windows. I've got some suggestions on how to get rid of it and I mentioned this to one of the Team India guys at work and he "said bring your laptop in and for $50, one of them will get rid of it." I'm skeptical but that means my laptop will be doormat for a couple of weeks. Be very careful of Security Tool, it's badware.

I had a slow start on the job but ended up around $200 by break. I got the cans and empties and such and in the 2nd half I did a lot better with $520. Actually I was tied for third. Again no bonus money. The Oiler game was on one of the other monitors about twenty feet away. I couldn't see much of the game. When I got home shortly before 10pm it was Pheonix 6 Oilers 1. I truley hate to say it this year but-"Oiler's suck." but I'm stuck with them.

Last nights Monday night Raw was really good. I don't know who the guest host was, some Nascar race care driver, but the show was one of the better Monday night Raw's in a long time. Anyway, that's about all for now.

A Sunday afternoon alone and I love it

Yesterday morning I was left scrambling to get my 9am bus. I locked everything out and I was out the door. I got a breakfast sandwich at Tim’s and 1 hash brown and a diet Pepsi to take with my insulin and a leisurely stroll to the office. I got my dialler 15 and I should have taken one of the tap diallers but I didn’t want to have Tammy sit beside me. She’s loud and over powering. My first call was a $35 sale and slow after that. I think I had about $200 by break. I was determined to go home at 2pm. I ended up with a $30 card and a $470 total and some empty cans to take home.

At Audrey’s I noticed this box Phillip K. Dick hardcover collection. 1/3 but they were asking $110 for it. Instead I bought Book 4 of the “Recluse” series. L.E. Modesitt Jr. I hope to get into this series next year. That and David Weber’s “Honor Harrington” series.

Well, the Oiler’s are back to their losing ways again. They lost in Denver 3-0. I feel bad for the team. This is almost like the year they lost Ryan Smyth. They went on an 18 games losing streak. Then last year with all the injuries the team had losing the playoffs, the Edmonton Oiler’s had lost their starting goal tender and their leading goal scorer out for the season. The Oiler’s have got to do something but they don’t have a lot to work with. Best they could do is unload some expensive players and make some cap room. They might get a 20 goal scorer but not a big name like a Danny Heatley. I can see them getting rid of about four-five players for a couple of draft picks and mostly save some cap room but no more then that before the trade deadline March 3rd.

One of my projects is to research a paper for my Lodge. The topic I have in mind is on Occult Masonry. Mainly how I can tie in the 4 elements, of Earth, Air, Fire ,and Water and how they relate in a philosophical way into the WT.
At the moment his is just an idea germinating in the back of my mind. I’ve been thinking that maybe each lecture will be 15 minutes long spread over the course of four months. I’m also thinking about a WT ritual for each tool and the speculative relationship to occult principles. Most likely this is something I can work on in the summer and I’ll write the paper dividing it up into 4 parts. I’ll even record it as I go.

Today is Super bowl Sunday. I’m not a fan per se’ but I’ll channel surf to see what’s happening. I’m mostly into CFL and the season for that is usually about July first until about November 22nd.

I’m seriously Thinking about the Archos 5 Internet tablet but I also like the 64Gb ITouch as well. Cost comparison wise, they’re about the same but the Archos 5 has expandable memory while the ITouch isn’t expandable I like the IPhone as well but I don’t like being locked into a $65 month fee for 3 years. The ITouch’s drawback’s are the expandable memory and no external speakers is Anyway, that’s about all for now.

***

Continuing with the closing theme from above, at last I’ve narrowed it down to the Archos 5 Internet Tablet and the ITouch. One or the other. I’m leaning towards the ITouch. Firstly because it uses the ITunes market place for Windows and the Mac. The only drawback between the two, for the ITouch, there’s no expandable memory—bummer. Archos 5 No ITunes and there doesn’t seem to be (at the moment) a lot of Apps being written for the Archos. One thing the Archos has going for it is the expandable memory. I’ve got one file folder on my desk top and in this file folder I have 1,355 files comprising of 11.9 Gb. I’ve got another batch of about the same number of files on my old desktop I’m slowly trying to transfer over to my laptop. The thing I like about ITunes is that ITunes is available for the Mac and PC. Archos 5 is PC. Also the Price factor. Archos 5. Best Buy has the Archos 5 160Gb version for $329. That’s 105Gb more. Plus both have wi-fi. The ITouch 65Gb version is $397 at Best Buy. The winner: Well your going to have to come back tomorrow and see. Anne’s calling me for lunch and I’ve got a crap load of other things to do today.

My first of two early days

I was dressed and ready to go waiting for Neil when I suddenly realized at the last minute, Anne had taken my apartment keys that were attached to my bus pass holder. Yikes! I had no way of locking up. Wait, the caretaker’s office is open until seven. I rushed to the caretaker‘s suite on the main floor beside the entrance to our building. I was able to get a copy of the suite key from the caretaker and I rushed back up the stairs to lock up and outside. They said I could return it later today as I will after work. It was closing in on the time for Neil to pick me up as I rushed outside and he came by with about five minutes to spare.

I had a rough start holding down the Junior Deacon chair but because there were no other EA’s or FC’s at the Lodge my bit was relatively easy. DOC and WM each gave a paper. WM even with a laptop and a projector. We had a small turnout as well. Only 15 guys showed up. Nathan receive his Past Masters Jewel. Nice. Unlike me he went right through the first three degrees during the same WM term. We got in at the same time. It took me three years to go through all three degrees for my own reasons. The current WM took his EA after I took my FC. Nathan, Reg and myself all took the EA at the same time, September 2002. Nathan took all three degrees that fall. When he was Tyler January 2003, I was still FC. If I proved up the same as him I’d most likely be WM instead of our current WM. If I can skip the SS/JD chair and go right into the SD chair. That way I’m two chairs away from being WM or four years instead of 6 years. What’s to my advantage is my regular attendance —

After we closed Lodge WM said that Guy would most likely be in Fort Mac for possibly a good three months, in which case I’ll be filling in for him, perhaps for March and April. That’s be n ice if he could be a washout and this way he night want to take another crack at the JD chair next year where then I can move up to Senior Warden-Maybe

By about 1:30am this morning I thought I was tired enough for bed. I tossed and turned and got nothing. No sleep at all through out the night. Mainly because last Wednesday/Thursday afternoon. In other words I’d overslept the day before. I’ll certainly feel it this evening.

Last year, I was able to read 12 books including an Omnibus. This anthology is taking me way to long to read. I hope to have it read by the end of this month.

After work this afternoon I’ll get my pay check and then do that other thing and then up to my bank and home. I’m opening a Scotia account across the street from Audrey’s strictly for Pay Pall use. One of the guys at work is letting me use his PO box number so Scotia can send my passbook/ATM client card to him and he’ll give it to me when it comes in. Anyway, that’s all for now.

I don't like Wednesdays, I really don't

Wednesdays are not usually good with me. Good news is I'm off today except for Lodge duty tonight, but I'm going in covering for a fellow member absent because of work so I'm filling in for him and I'm paying my Lodge dues. So tomorrow is going to be a good Lodge day. There is no “junior member” for the Senior Stewards chair except for me.

Gasp! The Oiler's were playing Philadelphia at Rexall last night. The score was 0-0 when I was glad to get out of the office. More on that latter. When I got home the TV sports ticker showed Oiler's 1 Flyers 0. Wow! Apparently from the highlights Deslauriers was amazing. That was his first shutout and The Oiler's second straight win. Plus I come out even in my double or nothing with Jerry.

Despite all of that I had an ok evening except the woman next to me was so loud, I'm sure that's all my customers heard was her loud voice. Her voice was overpowering my attempt to converse with my customer it was hard to concentrate. I walked out of the office in a bad mood taking the other way around on the upper concourse of Corona station. I know the woman sitting next to me and I had forgotten how loud she can be. She was actually giving me a headache.

A most disturbing incident. About 11pm 2. 5 hours after I had left the station Tuesday night. These two teens a boy and a girl approached 3 men it seems in their 20’s begging them for change. This happens all the time. Some character last night tried hitting me up for change on the way into Corona as well. The guy Tuesday night apparently didn’t have any change or whatever and the “boy” pulled a knife on him and stabbed him. The teens wouldn’t do this if Corona station was crowded with people at 9:15pm. But the station after 11pm on a weeknight is sparse of LRT riders. The “girl” jumped on the security guard who was right there seconds after the stabbing and was trying to wrestle the “boy” down and the girlfriend or whatever jumped on the guard. The “kids” were quickly arrested and the man stabbed was taken and treated at the hospital with non life threatening wounds. The Grey Nuns Hospital (The General) is a block away. A couple of things come to mind here; firstly, I wonder what’s going through the minds of these kids parents? They must be reeling with concern. I know I would be if I was a parent. Secondly, I wonder if these kids worked where I work? What if Jerry fired the teens earlier that night? That could have easily been me there, pretty scary night. However though this kind of thing rarely happens in LRT stations even though there‘s been a string of LRT/ETS violence lately. My wife is often with a few co workers or even alone at about 11pm at Bay station, the next one up from Corona. That could have easily been her. Her place of work is moving out of the downtown area sometime in the Spring time and I’m kind of grateful they are moving around Stadium area.

I’m still working my way through “Science Fiction best of the year 2006.” The story I’m reading right now “The Policeman’s daughter” by Wil McCarthy is very good. So far the best story in the bunch. This is so far the 8th story in the bunch and its been the best 0f 14. I hope the stories will get better here on in. Anyway, that’s all for now.

That was a nice weekend

as I'm getting ready for my Thursday night. I got a call the other day from our WM that there's a slight chance our regular JD won't be at our regular business meeting and asked if I wouldn't mind filling in for him. That's 2 chairs away from where I am now. There's a lot to say but it will give me the chance to see what's ahead of me. I might be able to pass the SS chair altogether. I don't like the Senior Stewards chair. Also on Thursday I get to pay my Lodge dues.

Yesterday Anne went downtown to catch the Airport bus to the International Airport to meet her sister Donna. Donna works for a major pharmaceutical company and work takes her all across the country. The other place she worked at took her all across North America. Donna gives lectures and talks to Doctors and Nurses on how to use various forms of new medication. She comes here to Edmonton at least four to six times/year. She racks up huge air miles points and often gives them to family members. She wants to take my wife on a cruise as Donna is going to Panama this month on a 14 day cruise. So Donna called me from the airport asking when Anne had left and I said she should be there soon, I heard Anne's voice in the background and they said they'd be an hour away to pick me up. We wanted to go over to the new Swiss Chalet over here between Manning and 50th street. From the back end while on the LRT cruising by, we watched the thing being built over the past couple of months so last night we finally got to go inside. The place was packed. There were people waiting for a table. We were lucky to get a booth. I ordered the bacon double cheese burger/fries. Excellent. The ladies ordered the quarter chicken/baked potato. My burger was very good. I could have ordered a beer and I could sure have used one but thought better of it.

Donna drove me back to our place and went back with Anne to her hotel. That was a pleasant dinner. They have of course chicken, what they specialize in, burgers, ribs, chicken ribs, sandwiches soups, a very nice menu. The waitress said they're busy every night for the past two weeks that they've been open. I thought the apple crumble looked a little lame. Boston Pizza makes a way better one. Or at least they used to the last time I had one about 10 years ago when Anne and I first got married.

Over the past couple of days I've been copying music video files etc from my old PC to my laptop. I've got some 1,200 files of music documentaries, piano tutorials etc and I'm about at the half way point. The thing is I'm using a 2Gb SD media card to transfer the files and it's a slow process. I could do the whole thing and transfer all my data to my laptop with an Easy transfer cable. I cleared just over 11Gb of music files (video etc) over to my new laptop. I could get the transfer cable at Future Shop but they only have a 6 foot cable. Way to long for me. The cable I'm speaking about at Future shop is $60. Too long of a cable for too much money. They might have other shorter cables at the store, this one was what they had online.

Tonight I'm in for my Monday afternoon commute and put my four hours in. Then I come home for Monday night Raw. I'm just thinking that if this was timed properly, we could have had dinner at say the Elephant castle next door to the Empire Theater holding the Royal Rumble. Then the sisters could go back to Donna's hotel room while I'm watching the Royal Rumble Then Anne could come pick me up and we catch the LRT for home. That would have been ideal but Donna's flight came in at 5pm and after acquiring the rental car (her company pays for that.) and getting me and a fifteen minute wait for a table there was no time. Anyway, that's all for now.

A slow day yesterday

My wife returned from the bank with a Wendy’s “Baconator” combo for my lunch. I got my coffee everything I needed and locked up and out the door waiting for my bus for the commute into work. Only 4 of us did OTH and best I could do was $220 but I got 2 cards. I felt ok going home. One of the younger fellows rode home with me on the train. He‘s a nice well mannered young fellow 17 years old. This is his first job. I mentioned to him about the DeMolay society figuring this might be something he’d like to do. I didn’t realize he should ask his dad first, but I doubt he’ll look it up. I don’t ordinarily look for possible candidates. I Haven’t seen many people that would take advantage of this kind of thing, which is why I don’t solicit/recruit anyone.

Anne had a deli pizza and soup for lunch for us and for the past hour or so I’ve been listening to and downloading Allan parsons .FLV You Tube video’s. My favourite APP albums were “Eve” and “Vulture Culture.” Among others.

One of the guys at work beside me was getting ready to fill out a replacement SIN card. It costs $10. I’ve memorized my SIN but I don’t have the card. You can got to Service Canada and get a new card and pay for it there at Service Canada human resources. I’m thinking about going there one of these Friday afternoons and get the 3 week process going. I have a birth certificate. I need both of those pieces of identification to get an Alberta Government picture ID.

My co-worker friend Lou emailed me yesterday afternoon about a new Apple device: The IPad. It looks real big and fragile. I’d hate to drop it. I’d rather get the Archos 5 Internet tablet as it's easier to carry around but the Arcos 5 is missing a camera. The Archis is small and can fit in the pocket and is half the price of the IPad. Anyway that’s all for now.

Another Monday washout

Yesterday blogging wise was a wash-out. I went into work with a bit anxiety due too a fellow staff employee I had a run in with Saturday. But that got blown over quickly. Everything’s all right on the job front now. A minor hiccup.

Monday night Raw was great. Next week William Shatner will be guest host. I’m looking forward to that one. Last night Raw was hosted by one of the guys from Phsyc. Everyone is getting “Psyched up“, pardon the pun. Apparently John Cena had something to do with the show. Or maybe he was just featured in one episode I‘m not sure. I haven‘t seen the show so I can‘t say.

Today it’s a Tuesday night on the job. It’s also game day as I’ll be “watching” the Oiler game in between calls. No Oiler rumours about any trades. Though there has been mumblings about trading Sheldon Souray to a Southern California team.

We’re -15/-22 wind chill out there. Not looking good. Time to breakout the old face mask and scarf. That’s ok, Day light savings time is just 8 weeks away, March 11th. And April is just around the corner from that.

Now that I have Friday nights off, once a month I can go Lodge visiting over there at Strathcona Lodge at Acacia Hall every Second Friday. I didn’t know this but Ye Old Craft meets there on a Saturday. Most likely they tile at 7:30pm like most Lodges. Lodge Saturday’s I can work just half days. I can leave about 5:30pm go to Chapters, get a book relax over an Apple Cider. I’d like to go to Lodge at the festive board saying how I visited Redwood(date), Strathcona (date) and Ye old craft (date) One of the big parts of Masonry is visiting other Lodges. Now that I can mix and match my mornings/evenings, I can go out to more Lodges. Next week, I’m working Wednesday morning and maybe the afternoon for Redwood and Thursday morning for my own Lodge and Friday. But I’ll also be working Friday morning as well for my usual.

I’m still reading 2006 Best of SF and a real long story about some kids getting Polio in the 1950’s. I mean these stories are well written and all but don’t do anything for me. I don’t like reading 2 books at once because it slows things down but the way I’m reading this thing, I probably won’t have it read until mid February. If that.

Tonight, or I should say later this afternoon, I go in for my afternoon commute for the 4 hour job thing. I need to work some serious afternoons as well this week for a special project I’m working on. Anyway, that’s all for now.