Some days are better then others

We retired for bed about 3am this morning listening to a bit of Coast. I certainly was ready for sleep but when 5am rolled around, I was still wide awake. By 7am, 8am, 10am, I was still just lying in bed. I might have got an hour or so of sleep but that’s about it. Too much sleep on the weekend is what did it. I think this evening after Raw, I’ll have no trouble falling to sleep.

I’m on my desktop typing this right now, as for some reason not entirely clear to me at the moment why I’m able to access Google Earth on my desktop but not on my laptop. I had it running on my laptop before but I can’t access Google earth/Google maps street view. I used a work around and was able to get at least Google maps/street view up and running. A Google earth globe icon is in my uninstall programs directory using Windows 7 but I can’t find A Google earth globe icon anywhere else in my laptop. I think running a laptop from a router could have something to do with it.

This week it’s back to work and the last week of the year and Anne is encouraging me to just stick 5-9 this week. It‘s next week I have to buckle down to get my website dues paid up. I‘ve got a bit of wiggle room for my Lodge dues but they are due now. I‘m seldom ever late with them.

I was going to chuck Science Fiction “The years best- 2006” and begin reading Elizabeth Bear’s “Dust.” I decided to make “Dust” my reading priority for January and the anthology as a filler. Maybe read 1-2 pages of that/day. That’s in between all the other stuff I want to do.

Weekends books and Oiler games

I went to bed immediately after ECW and listened to a bit of Coast. Art Bell wastakining over for George. I listned for about 5 minutes having got a drift of the topic: Intention. I slept until about 3am and got up to pee and Anne not able to see me in the dark and on the toilet collided with me. I wasn’t able to get back to sleep after that so I got up about half an hour ago and in back pain and went back to sleep but couldn’t and rested my back. I got up about 6:35am feeling a little better but not so taking a look outside to a blanket of snow out there.

We had Boots in overnight with my office window openand it looks like he jumped off the balcony or is under the lawn reclainer.

Anne’s working from 4:30-10pm and I’m in from 10-4:30pm. That will get me 25.5 hours in. Most hours I’ve had in a week since over 2 years ago.

I’m not one for abandoning books but what made me feel bad about abandoning “The Family tree” by Sheri S. Tepper, was I actually liked one of the characters in the book. The other book I casted adrift into the couldn’t read pool was Julie E. Czerneda’s, “In the company of others.” Hopefully I won’t get any more books like that this year.

Last night after work I went over to Audrey’s. The pill I just took for my back was kicking in.
When I went through the doors I noticed they had an author signing. I felt my blood sugar level dropping and asked the clerk there if they had anything left over but there was nothing soft. I’d get a donut from Tim’s across the street on my way home. I didn’t want to get “The New Space Opera 2” just yet as even though I had enough to cover for it, I didn’t want to break the bank and I would have and nothing in case I needed breakfast Saturday morning. Instead I picked up Brian Ruckley’s Winterbirth. Book 1 in the trilogy as book 2 is already on Audrey’s shelf. I took that to the counter and after paying for it I asked Trevor to order me the first 3 books in LE Modessit Jr.s “Recluse” series. I was almost going to pick up book one of John Ringo’s “Looking Glass” but I’m still working on his Posleen war series.

After Audrey’s I went to Tim’s and got my donut and coffee and relaxed in no particular hurry to get home. But I waited for the LRT with my empties and got home with no Anne there. So I did my admin stuff. So far this week alone I banked $850 in cards. Wow. I bank for the company 4 times more then what they pay me and probably at least 8 times more that’s not banked on cards, in total. And so far this week, I’ve got 18 cards in and it’s not even Saturday.

The big game on tap tonight is Chicago/Edmonton. I’m looking forward to this. The Oiler’s have played 22 games so far and enjoy a 9-10-3 record. Next year we get Jason Erbele in the line up and that Sweedish defence player. Chicago has just come off that win with Calgary the other night. Also, Sunday is the CFL playoff finale: Calgary/Rider’s. Should be a good one.

The only Lodge thing I‘ve got to do is the FC WT for Dec. 3rd. It’s a short piece I’ve done before. As for today, I’m glad I got my book last night what with all this snow out there and my bad back might make things very icey out there. I might stay for the extra 2 hours after all depends on how I feel. If my back is holding up ok, then I will.

I’ll snag a photo of the first snow fall out there when I go to work late and post it in this entry.

Not a heck of a lot going on for

today. I still have Pledges on my mind. I still have a broken heart but it's mending faster then I expected.. At least I'm reading a lot out of "The Space Wolf." I'm really enjoying this book and I think I should be finished with it by the weekend. It's really good. There is a second Omnibus coming out or is out this year. I began reading this book while we still had Pledges alive here. I'll return to Rangar and his antics as a Space Wolf next year.

But I've got my mind on "The New Space Opera 2" anthology. That should be on it's way or even at Audrey's books right now waiting for me in the Special Order section to pick up, hopefully on the weekend.

This morning I woke up with a headache. Not that I even got much sleep. Around 7am I decided to do some more reading and then at 8am I slept on the couch "watching" the weather channel. I went back to bed about 10am and slept until about 12:40pm. I got a couple of hours so I can't complain and its my usual short shift today. My voice feels stronger and I'll be alright as long as I stay away from that loud mouth kid that sat beside me last night.
　
Anyway gang, that’s about all for now

Jim

This was from yesterday and I had to change the font because it was

hard on the eyes to read so I‘m switching back to Comic Sans on my website. Blogger doesn't seem to recognize Comic Sans so I need to go into HTML and do this manualy but I'm too lazy to do this now. Not that anyone was complaining.

I woke up this morning about 7:10am and couldn’t get back to sleep after that. I tossed and turned and had a terrible time. I rested mostly after that and got out of bed about 11am. I could haves slept a lot longer. I did some reading and got ready to get out the door. By 12:45pm I was all packed up and ready to leave and I had a brief wait outside. It was really warm. It was 1:20pm when I got to Audrey’s and I picked up instead of the CJ. Cherryh book, I got book #5 of the Crown of Stars, “The gathering storm.” I have 14 special order books left on hold: Seven of those complete “The New Jedi Order” Star Wars series. I have the CJ Cherryh book, 2 Jim Butcher Dresden books. 2 more “Crown of Stars” books, The Ben Bova “Sam Gun” Omnibus, The RA Salvatore Drizzt Omnibus to complete what’s waiting for me at Audrey’s. However after leaving the store and halfway to the office, I realized they didn’t give me my receipt.

Nobody was there to greet me outside the office, so I called Greg’s number and he said he was on his way. Sure enough in Danny’s passenger seat their they were. A few minutes later or so Greg let me in. After getting all the empties (not many) I got to dialer #15 and a headset but noticed JT coming in and decided to take 12 instead because that’s a good CC dialer for some reason. Maybe but I had a lousy first half. I had about $115 at the break and everyone else $200-300 totals according to the screen. Greg was giving $5/credit cards and $40 for anyone that had $800. After break I still wasn’t doing well and finally I managed to get a few sales and even 2 CC sales for a total of $50 and a $295 total. For that though I got a $10 bonus.

I was glad to get out of there on my way to Corona station and to the train platform. I was getting kind of antsy waiting for the train not exactly sure when Anne needed to get out of here. But I was making good connections all day. I got home about 7:50pm as Anne had brunch waiting for me as she was pushing it to get out of here for her shift. I hope she made it in time.

I’ve been reading “Conquest” and its picking up. I’ll have it read by the 15th. This has been about the longest so far its taken me to read a novel. Usually I can read a novel in about 2 weeks but for some reason its taking a lot longer to get through this one.

Markus and I are trying to see if we can have a Twitthis icon for my blog posts so it shows up automatically like in Blogger. Well, that’s the idea. Blogger is just auxiliary to my website/blog anyway. I’d rather have more traffic come to my website then Blogger.

Thanks to weather the space shuttle is grounded again. Strange that the shuttle is grounded so many times within the last 30 days. Today it was because of lightning.

Tomorrow/Monday I’m in the office from 1-9pm. it’s going to be a long day for me. I’m going to take my insulin shot about noon before I leave and have it again about 11pm tomorrow.

Anyway gang, that’s all for now………

Sunday, Monday and yesterday had left their toll on me. A lot of things went down at once.

Just before my shower, I called Audrey's books and I asked Trevor if he could order the 1st several novels of “The Dresden files” by Jim Butcher (Urban Fantasy) for me and the next 3 in Elizabeth Haydon’s "Symphony of Ages series": Requiem for the Sun, Elegy for a Lost Star, The Assassin King. He did that and I should have those books this month sometime.

My wife had left to Superstore across the street to get me a sandwich for my lunch about 3:30pm yesterday as I was getting ready to leave for work. Just as I was leaving she comes in and packs my lunch away for me. I barely get my bus and I got myself a 6/49 ticket with the extra for today’s draw and a bottle of diet cola at the Redimart. I’m on the train relaxing and reading “The Legend that was Earth,” or TLE heading into the job.

I got off at Corona and crossing the parkade there it began to rain a bit. We need the moisture as its very dry out there. But the rain didn’t amount to very much.

I had a decent night on the job. I think I pulled in around $700 and 2 CC sales and I got a lot of cans and bottles in the 2nd half. DC paid everyone a visit and I got him to settle up with me. Greg’s working evenings now so I don’t have to fight with Subvere for the hockey game for his NBA. So I settled in and watched the Vancouver at Chicago NHL game. At break it was something 2-0, then 3-0 and then 3-1. From what little I did see I it looked like a pretty good game. I had Dave R sit beside me in JT’s day dialer. I got a lot of bottles and cans and hurried for the train after I packed everything up. If I do this I can get the early train shortly after 9pm, like I’ve been doing for the last 2 nights now after work.

There was a lot of smoke in the air from what Anne told me when I called her on my cell on the way to Corona. My train came and I read for a bit on the way home. I was able to call Nathan from the Lodge and to let him know, Anne didn’t know about the Eastern Star and that’s understandable. I’m already for my part for tomorrow night. The FC is a short ritual even with the exam.

I was able to catch the last 2 periods of the Wings at Anaheim game and the Ducks are leading the series 2-1. Odds look pretty good for a Vancouver/Ducks Western semi final. Vancouver and Washington in the finale? Quite possible.

On Coast to Coast this evening George Noory has Richard C Hoagland on this evening. Good stuff.........1:32am> About 40 minutes ago I checked my BSL reading and my BSL was ay 18.9! Yikes. So I got some cloths on and I decided to go out for a bit of a run in the park just beside us here. I was out there for about 20 minutes or so but the air quality was bad due to smoke from grass fires in the area. I built up a bit of a sweat so in about an hour my bsl should drop, I hope. 2:10am> I took a bsl reading just now and what a difference 20 minutes of exercise can make and 45 minutes later. My bsl has dropped down to 10.5! Better then it was at 18.9 an hour ago. What I need to do is when I go into the office I should walk down to Clairview station and then take my bsl reading after lunch. I can even run down to the train but I don’t like going into the office all sweaty and like. 1:05pm> Ok, it seems Phoenix Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes has filed the hockey club for bankruptcy protection. Jim Balsillie out of “Research in motion” (RIM) steps up to the plate with a $216M offer to buy the team and relocate it to Southern Ontario. It’ll never happen. Not because of Gary Bettman, the Commissioner but because the NHL board of Governors doesn’t want a team in that market. The 2 factions against this would be Toronto maple Leafs and the Buffalo Sabres. Reasons for this is the fan base that would be divided between the 2 clubs if a 3rd club would be in that region. However there is a 50 mile rule that states there can be no 2 teams within 50 miles of each other. Even New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils are at least 50 miles apart. Also, moving a team is a last resort. They’d rather fix the problem then move a team out of a city. That‘s what happened with Nashville a few years ago.

Also, I heard today that Ebay is closing it’s Vancouver office to consolidate and as a result 700 jobs there will be gone by September. Wow. But on the other hand oil has reached up to $55 so that’s a good sign. The TSE has reached the 10k level. Yet in the US 1-9 homes are empty. That translates into 19 million homes in the US left vacant. Another wow.

My wife ran out of here to her job for her 2-10. I’ve got a few hours here by myself to Blog and maybe read a bit before I need to get ready to get out of here for my job. I’ve got to let Super know I won’t be here for Thursday because of Lodge, which suits me just fine.

Anyway gang, that’s all for now

e. Jim

Here we go with 3 days off.

Yesterday was relaxing. I had a blog post ready to go but by the time Anne got home to make dinner and all, we’re into Saturday. So I’m starting fresh.

I’m up with my wife to head out with her to “The Bay station” where she gets off for work. I get off at the next stop and I’m buying a couple of books and then it’s off up to City Center mall phase 1 for some crisp meat burritos from Taco Time. I’m taking them with me to phase 2 food court to Taco Bell for their fries supreme. I might buy 1 book at Audrey’s and another 1 at Coles, then home. I don’t know about getting my haircut Saturday. I might just go ahead and do this Sunday.

I’ll come home have a bit of a nap and then get ready to watch the last Oiler game of the 08-09 season. Last night the boys won 5-1. Not much of a game for 2 periods but in the 3rd the Oiler’s scored 3 third period goals. Tonight’s game in Calgary will be a little different.


Over the last few weeks my wife has been running into an ex co worker from another job site of hers. Apparently she was telling my wife about the security guard job she has but it’s working at the Royal Alex hospital. An old friend of mine did that with another guard company. He told me a few horror stories about that. You get gunshot, stabbing, victims crack heads all kinds of crazies rolling in. Well it’s a big hospital in a major city. But she told Anne the name of the guard company and she said to Anne how they are always hiring. Nope just give me a nice site Friday,

Saturday and Sunday nights where I can do a ten minute patrol and sit down on my but for 50 minutes. The rest of the time, I can read work on a little netbook mini. I’m looking at getting the HP mini for under $500. Mainly to surf the Internet, do my writing and play Warcraft. I’m getting about $400 for my vacation pay and I’ll get that at the end of June. Anne might get it for me, if I get the job. But at least I know the name of the other guard company. She said to Anne, “their always hiring.”

I read from my book “Blood red harp” earlier. I’m liking this book. Today I’m looking at whatever if anything is in my special order file at Audrey’s, If nothings in there then I’m going to be getting the first 2/4 of the Terry Brooks. I think “The Druid Keep” is there. I’ll check it out though. At Chapter’s I might just pick up another David Weber “Honor Harrington” book. We’ll see.


Anyway gang, that’s all for now

e. Jim

April 1st came in like a lion.

I spent the afternoon reading the rest of “The third Lynx.” I read on the train even as much as I could at work before kick off. I had about 4 pages left and I completed reading the book about 9:30pm. The 2nd part of Timothy Zahn’s Frank Compton series “The third Link” took me a little longer for me to read then I wanted. I’d hoped I’d finish the book off in 2 weeks.
Review Summary: Continuing the adventures of detective Frank Compton and his companion Bayta as they battle their enemy the Mordhri.

My rating: 4.5/5 e. Jim’s.

Brief Synopsis; Murder on the Orion express. Compton and Bayta race the Mordhri from Quadrail station to station in search for a sculpture called the Lynx. The Lynx fits into a special weapon the Mordhri need further his plans for expansion. Our traveler’s is joined by another Detective who doesn’t get along with Compton that provides a thorn in Compton’s side the whole adventure.

Pros: Very accessible in the first person with interesting character development.
Cons: The book kind of lags around details and is slow to get going.

Bottom line: I really enjoyed this book but it was hard for me to get into. The characters moved around to much and the action points could have been better. Still this was a great book and I’ll be buying the next one when it come out in MMP.

I got in shortly before 10pm and did some admin stuff about my dismal performance on the job this evening. I had my coffee thermos and book out and a sale which we now have to have them all verified. So, Super comes over to my station to verify a sale and knocks over my thermos wipes out my coffee and damages my book and stumbling through all of that costs me a sale as well. That didn’t exactly put me in a very good mood, which is why I got only $55 by break as others were pulling in CC sales and well over $200. Super said though that my bank was 5th over all in the office. That made me feel a lot better. He gave me some tips as well and I did a bit better. I collected some cans and bottles but my total was the lowest in the room. While everyone was doing great I suffered. I can’t have good nights all the time.

I was glad to get out of there. I couldn’t wait to get to Corona and read the rest of my book which I finished on the train.

Thursday I’m off and it’s Lodge night, and I’ll be glad to spend time in Lodge. It’s a regular business meeting but I’ve got to request WM that I bow out for the prove up in May. Manly because I won’t have the time to do my memory work and I don’t want to leave my Tyler post as well.

The book I’m reading now is an Everquest novel, “The blood red harp” by Elaine Cunningham. So far it’s not bad.

Anyway, gang that’s all for now.

e. Jim

Yesterday was a reading day

Sunday was mostly a reading day although I did do some more assassination research. I’m looking into the General Walker shooting.

The Nashville at Edmonton game was a darn good one. The Oiler’s don’t have to win every time for a game to be good but last nights game Oiler’s 5 Preds 2 was fun to watch. The fans needed a win at Rexall. I did that from 6-9

Also last night and Anne went out to Walmart and mentioned there was something under the tree. It was in a Christmas wrapping bag. OMG the Xbox 360! What she said she did basically was buy it out of our January rent money but she’s going to make an appointment to the bank and get the balance later this week for rent and my website/lodge dues. Wu-who now I can play Elder scrolls on our 42” LCD wide screen. We haven’t opened it yet because we want to get the funds out of our RRSP for 2009, in case there are some complications so we can get our money back from Walmart. Now I can play Elder scrolls. At least its in a box under the tree:

Finally, I completed reading “Fast Forward #1” Here is a “brief review:”

Brief synopsis: This is an annual anthology from a master anthologist. Lou Anders knows his stuff and brings to the table some good offerings.
Pros: 19 stories and 2 poems. 5 stories were Very good, 7 stories were good, 4 stories not bad.

Cons: 3 stories were poor. Plus 2 poems I had to add a wtf?

I liked most of the stories in this anthology except but there were a few that I found boring as hell. I’ll be reading FF#2 later on this winter On a scale from 1-10 I’d give this a good 6 e. Jim’s out of 10.

Now it’s onto Eric Brown’s “Helix.”

This week is going to be interesting. Firstly I go into work tonight and then I’ll be watching Monday night Raw. Tuesday same thing just into work but that’s my last shift of 2008. There’s a shift Wednesday but that’s in the morning only. Since I don’t work mornings that doesn’t apply to me. Hence: Day off. Also, Anne’s at work and there’s an Oiler game Wednesday December 31st here at Rexall with Ottawa Senators. Right after the game or just before midnight I’ll be scrambling for a train downtown to meet my wife. She gets off work at midnight. We’re going to try get to see some of the fireworks but chances are we might not. Thursday January first the Oiler’s are in Calgary giving the Flames some New years “cheer.” I’ll be watching that one. Anne’s at the bank January 2nd hopefully with good news and I’ll have my lodge dues and my website funds.

Here’s another photo of the stack of books I read this year. Icewind Dale the 2 Peter F. Hamilton books were all over 1,000 pages each. It’s my goal to read at least one book/month.

And at last what wouldn’t the season be without another cat photo? This one is of Silky. I’ve had him for well over 10 years now. He’s also my dinner guest sitting beside me hoping for a taste of my supper, which I always oblige. Silky is extremely shy. Except with me and Anne.

Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now

e. Jim

Not too bad of a day out there

this afternoon. We've got about 8 hours of daylight left these days. This photo was taken shortly before 9am as I'm waiting for my Satuday bus into work.

Yesterday at work we had the CFL footbal game on but we missed the first half because of some TV listing foul up. The score was something like Esks 13-Montreal Montreal Alouettes 19. There was a key play on a kick off return that caused Montreal to increase their lead from 19 to 27 something. It was all Montreal after that. Too little to late and the Esks are out of the Grey Cup. If they would have won it would have been Edmonton and Calgary. CFL history in the making.

This week I'm going to try out for a few afternoon shifts now that I know how to manage my insulin for a full 7 hours/12 hour day. If Anne can do it I should be able to do it. The idea is I'll go in at my regular time Monday (hopefully Ms will call me about the inbound call center job. I'd love for that to happen.) work Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday afternoons and my regular Friday and Saturday shift. But if Ms calls Monday I'll ask for an interview for Tuesday afternoon before I head into work.

I'm still working through Icewind Dale and in Book 3 of the trilogy. As good as it is, I's like to move onto something else.

Anyway Bloggers, that's all for now.

e. Jim

Meh

Frost appeared for the first time this fall. Not that it was cold or anything going into work. It was bright and sunny out there and I had a nice relaxing ride, trying to wake up on the train heading into work. My battery for my MP3 player died out on me. Twice and I’m out of batteries. I think I need an IPod. This little Rush player is still useful but well over 4 years old. Time for a new one with a bit more functionality. I must have spent close to $100 bucks on batteries. I know there are AAA battery rectangle kits out there. But before I get one of those I’m giving this player to my wife. I’m going to get the IPod.

I got to my end dialer and looking forward to having a great morning half of the shift and my first sale was a CC. Things were looking good. Not. I had another CC but my total was low. The floor manager kept me there for as long as his line hour would allow, however before I got moved to the other side at only about $400 (everyone else was at about $480-$680) However I had 5 CC’s and that’s all I cared about. Anne called me from her job as I had 30 minutes in m y shift. Last night with the same source at the same location I had over $1,000 in a 3.5 hour shift. Even the boss showed up to do pay roll and asked me why was I sitting in the cheep seats? “I’m having a slow shift.”

I was glad to get out of the office. I have 27 CC’s on the week and some of those were at $3-$5 each. I could have about $50-$60 for bonuses next week on a full cheque. That’ll buy me a few Science Fiction books at Audrey’s next week. If Rob pays me.

Outside on the street leaving I had a decision to make. Do I want to go to Pure Speculation or home? Most of the panels scheduled there were for today. I’d miss the main RJS ones anyway because I was at work. Of course there’s always the Sunday panels. It’s a meet and greet photo op with RJS etc. I might still go but my camera isn’t working properly and this couldn’t have come at a worse time. Right now the costume shindig is under way. The last one of those I ever attended was back in 1979 at Non Con and I remember how much fun I had then. I wish I had the interest to take photo’s for prosperity back then.

Meh, so I went home on the train. I didn’t even read, I was that wiped out but when I got home I fired on the computer and had at that for awhile then I went for a snooze for a couple of hours. Anne’s phone call woke me up around 5:30pm and I got involved in watching this Paul Newman movie “Sweet bird of youth.” I hadn’t seen it before, not being a Paul Newman fan or anything but I liked the movie. Anne called me shortly before her 6pm break was over and she wants to get Pizza tonight. Wuwho! I took my insulin about 8pm fed the cats and Anne’s off work at 10pm. Pizza will be here in about 2 hours.

Yesterday I picked up 2 books from the backlog of books I have waiting for me at Audrey’s. I got the “Warcraft Archive” and a Warhammer 40K omnibus: “Blood Ravens.” Should be a couple of good ones. I have 10 books there now waiting for me. They want me to pick up the rest of those before I special order or even pick up anything new from their stock. I wanted to get Roger Zelaney’s “The Great book of Amber.” collection but Trevor said the book is still in stock. Good.

Anyway, I have 2 days off and I’m happy about that. Recently I’ve been tinkering around with the website. The first thing a casual observer will see is the change in the photo block. I’m not done with that yet either. Also accidentally gone is the Google ad. Apparently the ad was place on a static page called “Welcome to my website” etc. Now this is its separate block. The idea was to have “currently reading” and reading next in their own block but the images are 2 small for the middle column. Trial and error. I’m thinking I’d like to have the website “mission statement” back in the logo. It looks better there and will tighten up the photo block to make room for “currently reading” etc in there. Google add a bit of color to my site and “revenue.” but the ads for content haven’t been working for me lately. For instance, when I talk about and supporting Harper for PM I get these silly derogatory remarks about Harper. Like I said previously, I’m not a Progressive Conservative kind of guy if anything I’m a center libertarian but in my humble but accurate opinion Stephan Harper at this time is the right way for Canadians to go. Half the time with Dion nobody understands what’s coming out of his mouth. We all know Dion and May want a carbon tax. The NDP want a cap and trade, which amounts to the same thing. Ok lets get off that rabbit trail. Ads for content doesn’t work for me. Not like there’s a lot of money in Adsense anyway and this site isn’t about making money. Its not content for the masses. However, I still wouldn’t mind making a little money from this site even if it’s just enough to have the ads pay for the site. I’m working at getting a tower ad on the right sidebar. From Amazon or something else, I’m not sure yet. Website tinkering goes on.

Sunday, I’m relaxing. The Oiler’s have their season opener on and Monday I’ve got Raw and Anne is making me up a nice set of baby back ribs instead of turkey for holiday Monday. I’ve got enough to keep me busy, When Pure Speculation rolls around next year, I want to have my first professional sale and my teeth all done. And my camera working for me. I want to do it up right. No doubt the organizers of Pure speculation are already planning for next year. This might not get edited right away so maybe tomorrow.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

Last night Anne

wanted me to take today off, so I’ll call in using Moe’s phone number or call in about 6:30 while he’s on shift. I still might swing downtown when Anne gets up to check that City Hall job board or even do that tomorrow on my way into the office.

For some reason that isn’t quite clear yet, Google Earth (GE) wont connect my account to their servers. They say I need Java enabled, which it is and to pass their 3 levels of server testing, which I did and passed but again, I still can’t connect. I’m thinking it’s a denial of services attack on my computer. I’ve tried a question into their help forums and I’ve gotten a few posts with the same problem but the moderators haven’t answered them yet. The other thing is, it could be a bug fixed in their new beta version of GE.

Also this morning I figured out the side-by-side image code thing. The reason why I had broken images was because I had no URL to the image code in my HTML table. Thanks to Markus for referring me to a program that stores images for me in my directory.

It doesn’t matter. It’s with any book I begin to read, it starts off slow and then I build momentum after about a third of the way. This book “The Icewind Dale Trilogy.” will most likely take me 10 weeks to read. Maybe by November 15th. I’m enjoying it. Then when I’m done with Ice, I can start on Lou Anders “Fast Forward” #1. This is interesting because I began the year reading “The New Space Opera” an anthology of short stories, and I end the year reading an anthology. I prefer reading anthologies with an assortment of different authors rather then a collection of short stories from a single author. Now I’m just guessing here but in a collection of short stories from a single author, the author is a little biased towards his stories that he would consider his “darlings.” In an anthology of assorted stories the author doesn’t have that kind of control. The editor might say “Not good enough, have you got anything else?” The editor of the anthology might have really high standards. With this anthology “Fast-forward” the editor has collected some pretty big names. I haven’t read any short stories from Elizabeth Bear but I have read one of her novels. I liked what I read. I haven’t read any short stories from Robert Charles Wilson either but I liked “Spin” but I’m still a slow reader, but with any luck at all, I’ll finish “Fast-forward” before the end of the year.

This next hour Anne’s going down to pay on the cable bill. We would have had it in Thursday night except for the pin login change fiasco at her bank. So I hope she’ll be doing that today, so I can watch Raw tonight.

It was nice yesterday to finally meet my wife’s sister after all these years. We kept the marriage from the her family because her mother at the time was going through a couple of strokes and wasn’t feeling well. We didn’t want to cause any undue stress in the family but her mother passed away a few years ago. So, it’s about time the family knows.

Anne’s out the door after having a long talk with Shaw Customer Service. Apparently Shaw is hiring. I’m sure they pay about $12/min hour and not just that but it would improve my Internet tech skills as well if I got hired on. A couple of things; they are located in the west end and they might have some kind of math test in the interview process. It might be something to think about but I’ll be calling up Shaw today for more information on how to submit my resume. If there is a math test then I’m screwed. If it’s out in the West end getting there could be problematic but for a job like that, might be worth while for me. It’d be great if I enquire today submit my resume over the Internet and get a call this week to go in for an interview and start the same week. But the dreaded math test (assuming there is one) might put the kibosh on the idea working for Shaw. Most likely Shaw is looking for employees with a background in IT. There wasn’t a math test as far as I know When Anne applied at Pizza.

In conversation waiting for our dinner last night at the Olive Garden, Anne mentioned about when Donna is going on another Cruise. And she said she’s about due, but doesn’t have anyone to go with. I wouldn’t mind but I just met her yesterday. Maybe in about a year or two. On the way home from the airport Donna mentioned about the time just before Anne and I got married how Anne was invited to spend a weekend in Miami but Anne got air sickness over Denver and had to take a plane home. Her mother had even given her $500 spending money. It kind of left a bad taste in Donna’s mouth but I said I love to fly and that in most places there is more turbulence riding on an ETS bus or Subway. Another thing is Donna goes to New York City a lot. Keith’s territory. Maybe in a year or two there’s a chance to meet Keith in person but that wont be for a couple of years yet.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

Last night Anne

wanted me to take today off, so I’ll call in using Moe’s phone number or call in about 6:30 while he’s on shift. I still might swing downtown when Anne gets up to check that City Hall job board or even do that tomorrow on my way into the office.

For some reason that isn’t quite clear yet, Google Earth (GE) wont connect my account to their servers. They say I need Java enabled, which it is and to pass their 3 levels of server testing, which I did and passed but again, I still can’t connect. I’m thinking it’s a denial of services attack on my computer. I’ve tried a question into their help forums and I’ve gotten a few posts with the same problem but the moderators haven’t answered them yet. The other thing is, it could be a bug fixed in their new beta version of GE.

Also this morning I figured out the side-by-side image code thing. The reason why I had broken images was because I had no URL to the image code in my HTML table. Thanks to Markus for referring me to a program that stores images for me in my directory.

It doesn’t matter. It’s with any book I begin to read, it starts off slow and then I build momentum after about a third of the way. This book “The Icewind Dale Trilogy.” will most likely take me 10 weeks to read. Maybe by November 15th. I’m enjoying it. Then when I’m done with Ice, I can start on Lou Anders “Fast Forward” #1. This is interesting because I began the year reading “The New Space Opera” an anthology of short stories, and I end the year reading an anthology. I prefer reading anthologies with an assortment of different authors rather then a collection of short stories from a single author. Now I’m just guessing here but in a collection of short stories from a single author, the author is a little biased towards his stories that he would consider his “darlings.” In an anthology of assorted stories the author doesn’t have that kind of control. The editor might say “Not good enough, have you got anything else?” The editor of the anthology might have really high standards. With this anthology “Fast-forward” the editor has collected some pretty big names. I haven’t read any short stories from Elizabeth Bear but I have read one of her novels. I liked what I read. I haven’t read any short stories from Robert Charles Wilson either but I liked “Spin” but I’m still a slow reader, but with any luck at all, I’ll finish “Fast-forward” before the end of the year.

This next hour Anne’s going down to pay on the cable bill. We would have had it in Thursday night except for the pin login change fiasco at her bank. So I hope she’ll be doing that today, so I can watch Raw tonight.

It was nice yesterday to finally meet my wife’s sister after all these years. We kept the marriage from the her family because her mother at the time was going through a couple of strokes and wasn’t feeling well. We didn’t want to cause any undue stress in the family but her mother passed away a few years ago. So, it’s about time the family knows.

Anne’s out the door after having a long talk with Shaw Customer Service. Apparently Shaw is hiring. I’m sure they pay about $12/min hour and not just that but it would improve my Internet tech skills as well if I got hired on. A couple of things; they are located in the west end and they might have some kind of math test in the interview process. It might be something to think about but I’ll be calling up Shaw today for more information on how to submit my resume. If there is a math test then I’m screwed. If it’s out in the West end getting there could be problematic but for a job like that, might be worth while for me. It’d be great if I enquire today submit my resume over the Internet and get a call this week to go in for an interview and start the same week. But the dreaded math test (assuming there is one) might put the kibosh on the idea working for Shaw. Most likely Shaw is looking for employees with a background in IT. There wasn’t a math test as far as I know When Anne applied at Pizza.

In conversation waiting for our dinner last night at the Olive Garden, Anne mentioned about when Donna is going on another Cruise. And she said she’s about due, but doesn’t have anyone to go with. I wouldn’t mind but I just met her yesterday. Maybe in about a year or two. On the way home from the airport Donna mentioned about the time just before Anne and I got married how Anne was invited to spend a weekend in Miami but Anne got air sickness over Denver and had to take a plane home. Her mother had even given her $500 spending money. It kind of left a bad taste in Donna’s mouth but I said I love to fly and that in most places there is more turbulence riding on an ETS bus or Subway. Another thing is Donna goes to New York City a lot. Keith’s territory. Maybe in a year or two there’s a chance to meet Keith in person but that wont be for a couple of years yet.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

It's been a couple of busy

days around here lately. I got my pay cheque last night. Anne wanted me to deposit the cheque into her account but the bank wouldn't take her pin number. So one of the customers let me use his cell phone to call her at home. She came down to intercept me at Clairview and we rode the bus home for me and to the bank for her. At first I thought I'd have to miss a day off work because I'd have to go to the cable company to deposit a $100 cheque. But she's got an alternative idea.

I finished reading JU the other day. There's a "review" of the book on my website which is getting a lot of spam comments lately but we're monitoring this ISP 200. Watch out for this thing. It's not hazardous or anything. Were dealing with it.

Also the other day I started reading the "Icewind Dale." trilogy (omnibus) It looks like a good book. But this one is even larger then the other one by about 42 pages. I anticipate another 12 weeks of reading.

What else? I'm a bit behind on my book covers/"currently reading' project. "Library thing" doesn't seem to interface very well with Blogger. I need a better idea to place 3 images together. I'm open to suggestions if anyone had any.

Weather wise here were suposed to be having some changes and that means down to +10C, that sort of thing.

Anyway Bloggers, that's all for now.

e. Jim

I'm trying to

replace The Library thing with my own block. I think I have the html tags for this. it's a work in progress folks.

Anyway Bloggers, that's all for now.

e. Jim

Finally it’s Saturday

Last night I went to work and read a bit of JU on the train going in. I’ve got about another 150 pages left before I move onto my next read. I got into the office found my dialer and all 6 of us began work. I had a slow start. Moe wasn’t pushing l/h as much as other days. I did get a couple of CC’s and I need another 3 more to get my 20. I hope to get 4 today because of the slow start I had yesterday.

I was glad to get out of there at 8:30pm and over to Audrey’s. Trevor had made a list of the books I have on order. I think he said I had 5 books coming. I picked up 1 book from the special order desk. I ordered 6 more books as well last night before the official American pricing is removed and Audrey’s reverts back to uggh, Canadian pricing. Anything ordered before the change October 15th, will be honored. I have on order: Warhammer 40,000: “Ultramarines” by Graham McNeill. The omnibus. “Space Wolf.” The first omnibus. Warhammer 40,000: “Gaunt's Ghosts”: “The Saint” by Dan Abnett and a whole bunch more. I think about 12 Warhammer 40K are being ordered and or are coming in. My pick for the night was “Night Shift” by Lilith Saintcrow. I love the last name.

Happy with my purchase I headed out to the LRT and found a seat on the train and read on the way home. I got in about 9:30pm did my admin stuff and settled into watch wrestling. I was expecting my wife home by midnight. Sure enough after a great show, she comes in saying “Hello pizza goodbye the other job.”She said she’s starting to pick up on it and felt a little more confident on the phones. Good for her but you’ve got to be fast. She’s not quite fast enough and most of the people there are so fast they put calls through in less then a minute. During ECW, she made me a bowl of Raman’s and a grill cheese and I was in bed by 1:20am and I had a good 5 hours sleep. I’m good to go for the day.

This morning, I’m out there catching my train into the office for my four hours. After that it’s home for a couple hours nap and I’m watching the CFL Saskatchewan at Edmonton game on Sports net. My entertainment for this afternoon. Anne’s working from 3pm-8pm. I like these hours she’s keeping because it gives me some privacy at home. I can focus on doing my writing, which I’m going to get to this evening.

Thursday while realizing I forgot my Cola at home and waiting for Anne, she got off the train nearest me and took this photo. I'm naturally crooked and having the bag on my shoulder doesn't help. it's kind of dark in the background but Bay Station is a bit on the "Dark side."

One of my online friends, (a successful small press SF novelist out of Denver) in one of his recent blog posts was saying how he always seems to fall short of the words he’d like to have for an 80K novel. I don’t have that problem. Partly because I seem to be one of the few writers (working to get published of course) that works from a scene by scene outline. I know what’s going to happen in every scene. The only thing I have no control over is the subplots and action. I know who’s in the scene and where it takes place and in many cases even the outcome of the scene. Working from that aspect, I feel I don’t have a problem with word length. Matter of fact my last novel currently in rough draft hibernating needs to be expanded. I have enough material to do this to expand it to 140K while I‘m working on the scene structure of my current project. I’m a firm believer in working from a storyboard approach rather then flying off by the seat of ones pants and to see what happens.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

Wow, were at +23C

out there and it’s warm in here. I’ve got to have the fan on. Right now I’m working on my first coffee trying to take stock of what I’m going to do after October 1st. So far, nobody at the office is saying anything, which I find surprising. This morning though I had a closer look at the “Do Not Call List” (DNCL) registry rules. I think its more for those telemarketers that are trying to sell a product like tickets, which affects some of our campaigns. In that respect it compromises my job, somewhat but the company I work for is third party. Now I’m not a rules lawyer or an expert on legal jargon but I read from Part 2 of the rules and if your “calling on behalf of” a registered charity then your exempt from the DNCL. So to keep it legal, all I just half to say is something like this: “Jim calling from XL on behalf of registered charity:” If I read that sub-section correctly, then this shouldn't’t apply to us. I asked Anne to take a look at it and she agreed with me. I did the 3:30am cbi thing. I felt better about my job going to bed spending some time with my wife as we listened to a pretty good Coast show about the LHC.

Yesterdays LHC experiment was to test the beam in the tunnel and it works. The question that seems to be asked the most from conversations I’ve heard and been a part of are, “What real world benefits and applications are there as a result of this experiment and others like it?” Well for one thing, I tell people is that the whole concept of the Internet was developed out of Cern. Without the Internet Cern physicists had no means to process and exchange the information they gathered on the scale that was/is needed. Now with the LHC Cern is already working on The Grid, which is the Internet a thousand times more faster then it is right now. Not only that but physicists at Cern using the LHC will have a better tool to use to delve deeper into our understanding of the Universe at a Quantum level. Maybe the LHC when activated at full power will be able to create mini black holes and traversable wormholes. Apparently it wont be for another couple of months yet before the LHC is fully activated. But if they find wormholes at Cern, think about those implications

I took some more cute cat photos and one of my wife. This one is of Sparky watching the fish wondering where the other fish has gone. We lost a budgie bird and a gold fish this summer.

I had a good sleep after that. I got up about 12:15pm and watched the markets. Oil again sitting at $101 and some change. I figure it’s going to go right down to about $50 in February of 09 and after that it’ll climb back up to the $130 level, stay there for a few weeks and drop again. At the moment our Unemployment rate here in Edmonton is sitting at 3.4%, which is pretty good.

I took this photo of Sporty. His eyes are actually blue but he's guarding over my Diet Cola. Anne got a good price for a 12 pack, $1.63 something.

After reading JU, I’m looking forward to “The Icewind Dale” trilogy. The first book in this 1997 Omnibus is “The Crystal shard”, which originally came out in 1988 followed by “Streams of Silver.” and “The Halflings Gem.”, which came out as I was getting into “Adventure gaming supplies” and all these books were flooding onto the shelves of the store. I love the omnibus format. While on the topic of books and stuff, I haven’t yet been able to call Audrey’s and ask Trevor if he could get me a print out of any books I have on order. This will be a “Note to self” reminder. I wish I had a cell phone application that alerts me at any given time and rings, in my own voice at 8pm: “Call Audrey’s, or call blah, blah, blah, etc.” This would be great because I don’t remember what books I ordered and I need to order more from my favorite vendor across the street. Especially more from the “Forgotten Reams” series. Cover flow would be pretty good as well for a book organizer.

And finally I couldn't resist taking this photo of Anne as she's walking up to the bus bench towards me.

This afternoon, Anne and I go into work. She’s going to try Pizza one more time and see if she can go back to work for her other job Friday. Pizza doesn’t sound that bad actually. Sure they might be a lot of work involved in it and it certainly isn’t easy money but there are bonuses. Most of their calls are from people that have already placed an order before and want to renew the same order. But occasionally and this happens, Billy says- “I had Pizza at my Uncles place and I forget what sauce they used.” Then you’ve got to do some research and that takes time. They don’t have any quotas but their big stickler is time. They would prefer the order to be completed within 30 seconds and if you make 3 mistakes in a 4 hour shift, they send you home. I mean lets face it most people no matter how fast or good they are will make mistakes the first time out until they learn the system. But once all the bugs have been worked out most people there Anne says say the job is pretty easy. They were telling her that the average dialer gets about 200 calls in a 4 hour shift. At 50 calls an hour and if most of those are repeat orders.

Anne’s going to be going in tonight and I get my pay cheque and then it’s off to the bank. I get my $20 bucks and maybe I’ll meet Anne on the train coming home. Nothing much going on after that.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

I'm having a nice weekend

Last night we went to see the midnight showing of the recent Indiana Jones movie “Crystal Skull.” The movie’s budget was something like $187 million but it grossed almost $781 million. We enjoyed the movie in a stadium seat like theater, which I really like. When the film first came out in May it was $12. We paid $3.50 each and smuggled our own snacks in. I enjoyed the 4th installment of the franchise. Is it just me or did the movie seem a little smoky looking? I don’t think there will be another Indy movie after this. On a scale from 1-10, I’d rate it a 7. We walked home under very pleasant mild conditions and even stopped in at the drive through window at Wendy’s for a burger and fries for me. We got in about 3am and at 4am I took my insulin and went to bed.

I got up about 1:15pm and I wanted to catch the Carolina/San Diego NFL football game. Anne made us our usual late meal/brunch. What a game, 24-23 Carolina. I have Carolina in my pool at work.

A couple of things I’m watching for this week is to see how Anne is able to handle her new job and of course this week is when the LHC’s first beam experiment come online.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

Interuptions...

is what's been keeping me away from posting here. Just when I get a post compiled in Word, I get distracted. Then before you know it, the job thing gets in the way, supper, life in general.

I did a bit more writing on a "secret project" I'm working on. Yeah right.

I just came back from work this evening. I hate the company I'm working for. I like the people I work with and even middle management are ok. The Charities are great and for the most part so are the customers. I feel bad for Alberta Easter Seals. They started AES here in Alberta in 1951. Over the years various groups adapted the term "Easter Seals" out of the original, The March of Dimes, Alberta Easter Seals Society, Alberta Lung Association Easter sticker drive (the older public associates what we're doing with all the rest.) I'm tired of fighting with Mrs. Jones/public who is just as oblivious as our management about the different types of "Easter Seals" groups out there. I even think Alberta Easter Seals and all the rest are just as oblivious. I don't know how many times I've had lost a sale because of the various "Easter Seal's" groups Mr.s Jones had said she just responded to. It's really pathetic. The waters are really muddy with all the various Easter Seal like groups out there. I'm fed up with Alberta Easter Seals. I had a customer said something to the affect that "I got your calendar today." WTF? It just makes our job harder to do.

I gave Anne a call just before I left out of here. Meatloaf for supper. When-1am?

However on the way into work and home I was able to get a good bit of reading in. I reached just over the half part of "Judas Unchained" and I'm 13 days behind reading schedule. I should be around page 645/1008. So much for reading schedules, otherwise at 15 pages/day. Even at 15 pages/day I won't have this book read until about the end of September. Most likely I'll have it read about Mid October. It's a long but entertaining read. Then I can go onto read the "Forgotten Realms" trilogy. (see website block of books I'm reading.

Anyway Bloggers, that's all for now.

e. Jim

Not a lot going

on for today. The usual go into work at 4pm home by 9:30pm, that sort of thing.

Weather wise, it's been a lot cooler lately. It's nice getting that break from the +30C we had earlier during the week but the temperature is supposed to warm up for the weekend. That's alright.

I received my Lodge newsletter last night on my desk, and it's hard to believe Lodge is only a few weeks away. I always enjoy Lodge nights and this time I'm going to try and put an extra shift in while I can for that week. Maybe I'll sneak a morning shift in as there are no emergent meetings this month.

I got a facebook message from my niece Jenn wishing me a happy B-day. All of my immediate family is in Victoria. Jenn is out from my only sister's kids and now Lea is a grandmother. Wow at 56 sure makes me feel old.

One of the big social problems we have here in Edmonton facing mostly businesses is tagging. You know the graffiti that's placed all over any bare space imaginable? I was thinking about this recently. The City says (in its "infinite wisdom") that it's up to the business owner (that is the real victim of being tagged) to clean it up the mess or face a fine. What? The area in question is the LRT corridor from Rexall place to Stadium but it could be anywhere. Usually the offenders that do the tagging (mostly) are teens. One business along the LRT corridor said last night how they spent roughly about $5000 on paint to paint over the mess. An alternative? Use the "Mosquito." It's a device that is no bigger then a 5 lb bowling ball but repels teens away with its screeching audible only to teens. They can't stand it and won't linger around to take the amount of time it takes to tag a wall. Of course it's not just teens that do the tagging. Young adults in the 20's do it as well and it is a criminal offence. I'm sure business are aware of the
Mosquito. I mean for the $1,500 price tag, it's a teen deterrent that might eliminate some tagging.

Anyway, as for me not much is going on for today. Yesterday afternoon I went into Audrey's books and bought L. Ron Hubbard's "Mission Earth" book 1. These are all special order books.I also picked up Timothy Zhan's "The third Lynx." Most of these new novels i picked up recently won;t be read for a couple of years yet. For example I bought "Judas Unchained" last October and "Pandora's Star a year before that. but these are huge books. "Judas Unchained" for example has 1008 pages. I'm at 400/1008. My next book after this is the "Icewind Dale" trilogy Forgotten Realms Collectors edition. This one has 1023 pages! By the time I finish "Judas Unchained" at the rate I read won't be until the end of September. Maybe. The "Icewind Dale" trilogy will take me the rest of the year. I should order another copy because it says "collectors edition."

Anyway Bloggers, that's all for now.

e. Jim

Laid back Sunday

Not a lot going on got today. Sunday I got some reading in and learned how to play Fur Elise. Well the right hand part.

Anne made us a really nice rotisserie BBQ chicken, potato salad baked potato and corn on the cob. We watched an hour of the “Honeymooners.”

Last night we had a good thunder and lightning storm out here. We got a lot of wind and a bit of rain but that was about all we got out of it.

Nobody won yesterdays $4,671,103.00 million, so this gets carried over for Wednesday. I’ll buy a ticket. I’d be happy if I got 5 numbers plus the bonus round for $166,825.10. Two winners won that one. Most of the winners win “The Big One” in Ontario or East of Manitoba. That’s where most of the population lives.

Still reading “Judas Unchained”. By this Friday I wanted to be at the books halfway point, which is around page 505. Instead now I’m only on page 272. Barely a quarter of the way through. I’d like to have the book read by the end of August but it looks like I’ll have this book read by the end of September. If that.

At 4pm it’s off to work and hopefully I’ll have a good night. If the boss is going to pick on me, I’ll put my name in at Pizza. I want to do this anyway before the end of the month is up.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim