I had an excellent night on the job.

this evening. I checked in and got the empties and my dialer. We did Magic and wow what a night. I ended up with $390 on 6 cards with a $1,170 total for a $20 bonus and 10 % on cards. That's my race track money next week and "The New Space Opera 2" book. I sat with 3 others with us and headed home. I had a great night.

Jim

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

It's been an intersting couple of days here as not a lot is going on

I didn’t sleep very well last night. I had a blog post ready to go but I never got the chance to post it. We got some more crazy weather all day. It was snowing like a blizzard then Sun and snow mixed. The snow was even at some point blowing sideways. I got to my bus stoop and met Anne coming from across the street to meet me. I forgot the cell phone and she began threatening to get rid of them and wanted to start a fight. Uh-uh. I don’t need this on my way to work. I read for a bit on the train and noted the activity North of the Wayne Gretzky overpass just North of the Rexall place East parking lot. Something’s going on in there, plus we got the 23rd Ave interchange all geared up and ready to go and there’s Station Pointe (parkade ready to go) plus under construction is the Epcor tower. Also, there’s construction at the U of A and the parkade beside the LRT Health Sciences Center. And that’s just the projects that I know of. Not to mention the Southgate/Century park LRT leg development and the Century park development itself under construction. Despite the recession there’s lots of stuff still going on around the city.


I got into the office to the pharmacy to have the girl check my ticket. I signed it and she put it through. It makes a little “Wuwho” noise indicating a winner, I got $5 bucks. Upstairs I got my dialer. We got new headsets now. We’ve been told each one costs $129. I got a lot of cans and bottles. Super wanted me to do taps for ASB. The first hour I got absolutely nothing. Everyone else was getting $35’s here, $50’s there, CC sales left right and center. By 6pm I had nothing because I wasn’t reloading taps. I should have just to get some sales under my belt. At 6pm I asked Brandin to move me to WCS, which he gladly did but that was after all the big taps were gone from that. I ended up with just under a $100 bucks by break. I got the rest of the bottles and cans and made a $2 bet with DC on the Chicago/Flames game. I got a $10 CC sale and $165 for a lousy total but I didn’t feel to badly. Also the Flames were losing at the end of the 2nd period 3-0. I was happy about that when I left. Yet unlike a lot of Oiler fans happy for the Flames loss, I was rooting for Chicago because my father was a Hawks fan back in the 1960's before we got the Canucks in Vancouver. I have fond memories of mom serving us hamburgers sitting around with pops watching "Hockey night in Canada" on our trusty Black and White TV. Dad hated the Habs and we had a friendly rivalry going with our neigbors across the lane behind our house. During the playoff's especially if it was Montreal and they scored across the street they'd break out pots and pans aiming at our direction. When Chicago scored a goal, my mom would return the favour getting us kids to join in the fun. Saturday nights were pretty noisy around Coquitlam in our part of the neiborhood. It never got out of hand but it was a lot of fun. I can't recall what their last names were. They were more friends of my parents then the were of us kids but they came over often when the weather was nice during the summer I recall.

I was glad to get out of the office and I met up with Trevor, my book ordering guy at Audrey’s and he asked me how I enjoyed the evening with Robert J Sawyer last week. It was a blast. I caught my train and didn’t feel much like reading on the way home. It’s usually pretty noisy going back and I‘m considering earplugs just so I can read. When I got home I watched the last of the Hawke’s taking out the Flames. I loved it. I also won that $2 bet from DC. And the 8th place Ducks beat out the first place SJ. I loved that too. That could have been the Oiler’s in place of the Ducks. I got in and Anne was out so I watched Raw. On the heals of “Backlash“, Raw was pretty decent last night. I’d rate it an 8/10. Anne laughed at it as well with the Divas. Anne made us a nice roasted potatoes and bbq chicken breast supper and I read more from BRH. I should have this read by the end of the month.


Despite the economy and all here, Anne and I are doing alright. This last weekend she confirmed the Best Buy gift voucher she’s getting, and she’s giving that to me. Plus she got a nice thank you letter from a customer. My job is going ok and her job is doing fine. We have our rent for May already and most of our bills caught up. Also, I’m comfortable in the Lodge EA exam work I need to do in 2 weeks, Things are going good here.

Yesterday in Strangeness: The writer Frank Belknap Long was born on this date in New York in 1903. He push boundaries of writing weird fiction, fantasy, and science fiction in such classics as The Dark Beasts: And Eight Other Stories from the Hound of Detective (1949), to name but a few of his numerous work. He died on January 3, 1994 in New York………………1:55pm> We’ve got kind of a mixed bag out there weather wise. No snow but we got very unstable weather and I like it this time of year.


Anne got me up earlier then I’d have liked as she had to go out and do some shopping with my bus pass. I hope she doesn’t think this is a weekend an ends up getting here late. We got Boot’s in from overnight and he’s sleeping comfortable beside me.

I have a coffee going here and I’ll be blogging this and off to do other things. The big 6/49 draw is $32M on Wednesday and I’m considering getting another ticket with the plus entered. The game came out in 1982 and in the 80’s and 90’s I played occasionally. I didn’t have any money during those years. I still don’t but the draw amounts are so large now.

Anyway gang, that’s all for now


e. Jim

I got some new photos up on my website. There's a link in the sidebar.

Monday was quiet. I got up about 12:30pm and watched the Dow & oil tumble. I worked on my special project (msp) for awhile and that brought me around to about 2:30pm. I had my shower and got ready, Anne made us a bowl of chilly. I headed into the office and got myself a seat. Super wanted me to sit with the 4 tap shooters I was 1 of 4 in the front 20 not in the back as we usually collect ourselves. I got JT to go get us a Tim’s coffee. I got some bottles and cans and I had a slow start but then things picked up. We began All Star Baseball. By 7pm I had $515 and 3 CC sales. JT’s dialer is good for CC sales. My total for the end of the night was $860 and not one bonus. First $800+ total I had in 5 weeks.

I got my gear and headed out into the mild night air and read for a bit from BRH. I should be at the half way point by the end of the week. It’s really good. I got home, as Anne met me at the door. She was upset with Pledges or for him I should say. What he’s been with me since 1991. Hard to believe I was in my late 30’s at that time. I noticed Pledges was slightly favoring his back paw. I thought and still think it’s just a cramp he’s going through. Hard to believe that was 18 years ago. That’s him in the photo above taken minutes ago.

Hopefully I’ll have him for a few more years yet. But it’s going to be a sad day around here when he goes. With all the things that can go wrong with a cat at his age, I’m grateful I’ve had him for so long. He’s been a good friend.

Last night’s “Monday night Raw” was out of London England. The show started off slow. It picked up a bit with Santino and the match with Triple H and Randy Orton was a real barn burner. On a scale from 1-10, I’d rate Raw a solid 7.

I did a bsl reading and I’m running at a high 11.7! I had that chop and foil wrap potato plus corn on the cob earlier about 11:30pm. When I go to bed about 4am, my bsl should be down about 8.

This week I have the RJS reading to go to and I’m looking forward to it. This time I’m bringing my camera and I’m going to have a proper photo up and running. I missed Rob when he was here for Pure Speculation. Also, I hope to pick up a copy of “Wake” as well.

Anyway gang, that’s all for now

e. Jim

That was one hell of a close call for me. I'm glad that's all over with.

I feel like a great weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Anne walked out of here with me and I forgot my bus pass. She offered to fetch it for me and the light changed as she kissed me off. I got to Clairview and onto my bus to read for a bit. It was very windy out there.


I decided despite things I’d read anyway on the train in. I was expecting the vultures to descend on me but to my surprise, nothing happened. Rob came in and smiled at me, “Hi James how was your weekend type thing?” Steve was there smiling. I felt really good. He mentioned about my CC sales but that was about it. “Did you talk with M about your CC sales yet?” Very anti climatic and I felt really good about that. I gathered a bunch of cans and bottles and JT was going to Tim’s and I said “I’ll buy us both one.” I sat in S’s dialer as he was heading home. I had a good first half pulling in $145 and a CC sale. D was with me. The 2nd half I had a terrible start. No sales for over an hour then I got a $50 and a few more sales for $240. Not quite line hour. I asked M about my report card as Rob calls it and M sat with me in the back room and had nice things to say about me. My CC sales need to pick up but he said I was one of his top sales people and he doesn’t want to see me doing this source. They were actually doing taps for WCS in the afternoon.

I got a few more cans and bottles and called Anne to let her know everything’s all right before I left. I felt really good leaving out of there. I read some on the train going in. There were a few emergency vehicles in the parking lot. Fire crews were holding up florescent signal sticks backing a truck out the lot between the rows of yellow posts from yesterdays photo. I asked one of the crew and he said it was a false alarm.


Anne wasn’t home when I came in. She’s probably shopping at Superstore from across the street. She said she’s cooking shepherds/cottage pie. Good stuff. One of my favorite dishes. Real comfort food.

Last night when Anne and her sister were out shopping at Ikea Anne said how they were looking at a nice glass book case, Anne said that would be just perfect for my books. She said she wants to get it for me when her income tax money comes in. I’d like that. She said it can go right in the living room beside the wall unit.


Ok here’s the long term plan: I’m going to stick with the company I’m working with now. So long as the status quo is kept up, things should be alright. I’ll continue to work at my present job. It’s going to give us a bit more income. Not much more.

I’m trying to work my Feedburner RSS feed into my Blogspot blog posts. I tried doing this earlier but I wasn’t very successful at it. I’ll try this again latter on.


Anyway gang, that’s all for now

e. Jim

I had a nice day today even though I didn't get outside to enjoy any of the weather.

I got up about 1:45pm did some more EA exam memory work. I’m comfortable up to 60% of the whole thing. It’s easier then I thought. I also read a bit more from BRH, this book like Helix is very accessible. Anne left out of here about 4pm for Rose bowl pizza and I was doing some more books to order research before Wrestlemania XXV. At 5 pm my wrestling didn’t come on and I was getting all frustrated with this. I decided to call my service provider and I got through almost immediately.

The problem was that Anne ordered the show in high def. We don’t have HDTV hooked u yet, so the voice on the other end put it on for me immediately. I missed the first 20 minutes but that’s ok. I enjoyed all the matches. Anne called from pizza saying she’s just waiting for it to come out of the oven. There was about an hour and a half of Wrestlemania when Anne came in with pizza. She watched that with me. The best match was the Undertaker and Shawn Michael’s. I enjoyed this Wrestlemania, despite the little hic cup from our end. It was as good as last year. They announced the attendance at 72,174, I think is what they said. On a scale from 1-10, I’d rate it as an 8/10.


After Wrestlemania I decided to have a bit of a nap. Anne went across the street to Superstore and just now up to Walmart. She’s sort of watching the Country music awards.


I’m looking at the Blackberry Bold over the Curve. I think the Bold has a bigger screen and even though the phone is more or less an entertainment device for me then a telephone for $60/month, I can justify this expense but I might end up changing jobs soon anyway this Spring if I have my way.


I’ve got a few security guard companies I’m going to try out for and if I can get a license and work at a site that allows me to bring in a small laptop computer to work with, then great. I’d probably work my current job from 9-3pm and security 5-9 every day except Wednesdays and Thursdays I’d take off of both. All I need is one day off. Maybe the guard company might let me work 3 days/week like the old WH. I’d love the PRM site again. I’d work my company from 1-9 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday’s, Fridays and Saturdays off. Except when there’s a lodge night. That’s give me 35 hours and 24 hours at the guard company. 59 hours is a lot of hours. But Friday night Saturday morning I’d be so wiped out, I’d just crash as soon as I get to bed. The whole idea behind this is to have something to fall back onto in case my job goes under and I can get into position to ask the boss for more money. I’ve done security before and it will pay me a lot more then where I’m working now but this wont be until about May.


The “nice thing” about retirement money is one can continue working without penalty. CPP won’t provide me with a lot because the jobs I’ve been on have been on minimum wage or not that much more. Very few companies pay just minimum wage anymore. The Alberta Government is going to increase minimum wage up to $8.80/hour. This is what I was getting while working for ACT in the early 1990’s pulling in 12 hour days. Personally I think increasing the minimum wage here in Alberta is a bad move, especially in these economic times. We’re in a recession right now and Stelmach wants to increase minimum wage? I wonder what he’s smoking?


At least the markets are increasing so that’s a good sign. When oil climbs back up to $70/barrel as I feel it will in May, then the economy here at least will be booming again. Right now at $53/barrel, if the markets continue to be inspired by this upswing, $60/oil could be a reality by the end of this week. But I said that last week as well when oil fell to around $40 again. Still that didn’t last long. $70 oil May-October is good.

Anyway gang, that’s all for now

e. Jim

Despite how it reads on my

Librarything widget, I'm currently reading "The Blood red harp" by Elaine Cunnigham and not the book depicted first. I'm trying to figure out an easy way how to cue these titles in order.

Tonight is Lodge night and I'm going to call Neil to see if I can get a ride as the Secretary asked me if I would be able to bring the registrar's material I've been sitting here on for about 2 years doing nothing with it. I was Lodge register for a year but nobody showed me how to do the job.
Also, I'm going to try and get a copy of a Lodge book for learning the EA exam. All that stuff is in The blue Book, which I had at one time. No doubt my wife moved it in one of her clean up binges, God love her.

I'm looking forward to reading "The blood red harp." I like the cover and the topic. Can't go wrong with Elves's right? Elves's and magician's are my 2 favorite topics in Fantasy.

Speaking of fantasy I haven't been playing "Oblivion" lately. It's not that I'm stuck or anything in the game, I have other things going on that take priority. I'll get back into it a bit more over the Easter break. Right now I'm at level 5 and just closing in at level 6. The only nuisance about playing this game is my armor and swords keep breaking. For instance a longsword that began with an attack capability of 4 can be downgraded to a 2 in a hurry. Same thing with armor. So I'm constantly spending gold on repair hammers or having merchants repair everything. That can get costly. Highest armor class rating I've had was +18. The other struggle I'm having to deal with in the game is crashes. I've had the game crash on me about 3 times so far. But keep in mind this is a used game. I'm looking at getting "Fable" next and that should be a lot of fun. I've heard some good things about it. At the moment I'm playing an Imperial. I've got about 14 quests and I've completed 4. Quests make the game.

It's a laundry day for my wife and she's going on a bottle run on her day off in a bit. We usually do laundry every other Sunday around here. It's nice to have our own washer and dryer. Apparently upstairs the washing machine is $2 a load same with the dryer. We usually have about 8 loads so to do the laundry once a month can cost us about $35, not to mention the cost of soap etc. Plus we have to take the laundry and haul it upstairs and keep an eye on it in case some other tenant decides their laundry is more important then ours and they take out our cloths shove them onto another machine. Also you have to watch out for crack heads as well that want to break into a machine desperate for money,ahh life in an apartment.

So when my wife goes on the bottle run she's got enough to pay for a pocket book and a coffee at Tim's. I mean that's not what she's going to do with it but that's about what she'll have from the bottles and cans I've collected from work

With 5 Oiler games left in the regular season the chances the copper and blue getting in are slim to none. They play SJ this evening The thing that bugs me about Oiler fans is that they blame the Coach. You don't blame the Coach, if anyone is to blame pass blame onto the top. I'm talking a bout the GM. Why did we lose Ryan Smyth? Because of the GM. Not to mention all the other great players since the '06 playoff run that have left. Why did we lose Garon? Yes I'm just blowing smoke but Oiler fans including this one are frustrated that a great team is playing so poorly.

Anyway gang, that's all for now

e. Jim

it's in the little things

My wife and I got out of here about 1:20pm yesterday and we road the new look LRT train, she tripped getting on board but recovered ok. We rode the train into Central station, then to the bank I got a replacement debit card and was able to talk with someone about investing. RBC has something called Self-directed investing. I got some pamphlets and then we went into City Center phase 1 Mall food court. Weather wise it was very nice out there. Warm and Sunny and I wore my runners for a change. We decided to go to Ricky’s but after Anne sat down and looked over the menu didn’t see anything she liked so we ended up going over to Taco Time instead. We took a very crowded train home and I did some Internet stuff and called Neil about 5:30pm. His wife said he’s going to Lodge and would pick me up. Sure enough he came by at about 7pm.

We got to the Lodge and some of it was already being set up. I got to work on helping set up of what was remaining and because we were receiving a high District official, I was given a few lines to say to announce him and his entourage into the Lodge. I screwed up getting the Tyler sword. Receiving those lines sort of caught me off guard. I began to make the announcement but thy weren’t ready inside. After a bit then I was. We did some balloting as well and I screwed up there but it was no big deal. Also I was last to ballot and the WM had me in the spotlight informing me who was being balloted etc. It was kind of scary. I screwed up in that part to. J who was our master of ceremonies in his British accent took me aside and admonished me properly in a nice way and taught me how to do a few things. I’ll know better next month. I helped put the Temple furnishings away and went out for the Festive board. I bought a Stella (beer) and a can of diet Coke. I even got up to say a few things and got a nice round of applause. We had a great turnout of guys there tonight. It was a fun night. G took it upon himself to ask me if he could drive me home because Neil had some other things going on and I felt better about that. All in all, everyone felt really good about the evening. Sure I embarrassed myself a few times but it was a learning experience. I had a great time. A lot of guys that are in trades are feeling the effects of the economy.

If anything what this crisis is going to do is force people to be more productive to keep their jobs. It’s the little things that count. Anne and I were talking about this as well on the train ride downtown yesterday that some people at her place of work are more productive on a 4 hour shift then she is on an 8 hour shift only because they “sell” more Piazza’s products. And she’s conscious of this and she realizes she’s got to sell more. That’s what this economic crisis is going to do, is force people to work harder. Be better performers on the job. It’s not going to be the magic bullet that will keep my job but at least it will help me to contribute to the overall climate of productivity. That’s what’s going to pull us out of this economic mess not me alone but all of us together being more productive. Ask yourself what did I do today on the job that I can improve upon tomorrow? Focus on one thing and do it as best as you can. It’s the little things that count.

As for here in Alberta this current economic crisis might last us a another year or even 5 years but it will also force companies to keep their costs under control. They can separate the wheat from the chaff. Get rid of the slackers that don’t want to work that are only in it for a pay cheque.

Earlier yesterday afternoon when we got home from our trip downtown, I stumbled upon Ferguson’s music here in Edmonton. They’re located by the Inglewood area on 118th Ave. They’ve got an interesting teaching music concept and that is you take lessons to buy out your instrument. I already have a piano but I wouldn’t mind a full 88 Upright piano. Mostly I’d love an upright piano like a Mason & Risch or a Baldwin but theses uprights new would cost around the $5K range easily. Even if I took weekly piano lessons for 5 years it would take me about 250 lessons to pay for it. But Ferguson’s said I might be able to go in Saturday’s after work. Not just that but in five years I’d not only get good value for my money but also if I keep going for 5 years at $18 a half hour that’d be enough to get me a new upright piano and lessons as well. In theory. I’ll have more to say about this on Saturday. The other thing I’m seriously thinking about doing is diversifying my skill level in what I can do job wise. Sure, nothing is safe from an economic downturn but one thing I’d like to do is to take a few courses in Accounting bookkeeping. Academy of learning has course for 2 hours each Saturday morning. I can always sub a Saturday for a Sunday. Like I’ve said that before.

As for today, it’s into work and off to buy a book and get the MM forms for my website. Then Saturday I go over to Ferguson’s and check that out and on my way home, I go to MM and pay off my website then maybe go get a bite to eat somewhere and home for a nap. There’s an Oiler game Saturday but it’s an afternoon game on at 1pm. We’ll be able to see the first hour but then there’s a Sunday game in Minneapolis vs. the Wild. The Oiler’s won Thursday night…….. 12;55pm> Again I was in bed early this morning and awake about 9:30am. I laid in bed and dozed off here and there. It was my wife’s noon alarm that woke me up for the news and markets. Only oil was down by a bit.

Around the Blogsphere etc on Coast tonight: In the first two hours, researcher and lecturer David Wilcock talks about 2012, as “the year our DNA changes.” Oh…K. Over there at Fantasy magazine, Naamen Gobert Tilahun is talking about Stargate Atlantis and has some interesting things to say. Also, I added Scifi chick to my list of links page. Right under Scifi guy, naturally. Now back to reality again:

Angus Watt doing the markets and more was talking about the Obama stimulus package. Right Obama is trying to appease the Republicans to make the bill a bipartisan bill both sides can live with. In order to get the economy rolling again the banks need to feel more comfortable lending money. Obama wants to cover the banks losses (if any) That should encourage the banks, like City Group, Bank of America, etc to get money circulating and get credit moving again free up credit. I think it’s good strategy.

The other day, I mentioned in my “Runner” review high hopes for the sequel “Logos run” would be better. It sure is. I hope to have this book read in about 10 days or so.

I’m writing this on the fly as this afternoon I’m out to the job thing and because I didn’t get my cheque last night I’ve got business to take care of tonight.

Anyway bloggers, that’s all for now

e. Jim

Not a bad day today at that

Lets see, I was up about 6:00am to post a blog entry on my website. Also writing for myself basically.

I went out there to catch my 9am bus. Weather wise, it wasn't that bad out there. There was a definite change in the air since having those -20C+'s/wind chills whilst waiting for my Saturday morning #11 to Clairview and then to Cororna. It felt lonely walking to through the parkade. inside the office I met u with Supie and we talked about the holidays stocks etc.

By 10am when Moe came in to run the floor we had 12 people for the whole floor. I moved to the back and had K sit with me. JT was there along with Bud. The lowest turn out of the shift. Rob's going to let the shit fly on Monday. I won a $5 Nevada and won a $1 on a bet Moe and I made.

I even did well on the job. Moe complimented me on Anne's haircut job. I got my cheque plus my $25 bonus. So I got anything over $200. So I took out $40 for me including the $25 I brought with me. I walked up to the City Center Mall looked through Coles book store. There are some nice Trade David Eddington editions and some Starcraft novels I want to get into. I got a $10 pre-paid pay-as-you go Telus receipt for my cell phone. TD bank is open on a Saturdays now? That's pretty convenient. I've been wanting to try one of those KFC chicken bowls. I got one to take home and after a 10 minute wait at Clairview in the -4C weather. You read that right. -4C!!! That's darn near--balmy. Right now it's -6C but there is a -11C wind chill, which still isn't all that bad. Sunday is supposed to be a bit colder -12C. Even that isn;t too bad. We're to get 2 days next week, Tuesday and Thursday, which are supposed to be around -21C--25C . Weekend weather looks warm.

I got home about 3:45pm watched a bit of TV, did some Internet stuff and then went for a 2 hour power snooze. I badly needed that.

Anne called me at 6pm for ten minutes and I started my KFC meal. These things aren't bad. on a scale from 1-10. I'd rate them an 8/10. I'll get them again. I hope to complete reading FF #2 this weekend. After this, I'm going to read Eric Brown's "Helix." looks interesting.

Anyway Bloggers, that's all for now.

e. Jim

Big post Saturdays

I‘m having a real struggle obtaining my vacation pay. This fiasco began because I have my vacation pay accrued. I take out 2 draws/year. 1 in the Spring and another this time of year. Makes for a nice Christmas. I called last week to have the reception hold a form for me on Gregg’s desk. It was in a large white envelope: “This for James;” I left it on the boss’s desk in the envelope over the last weekend because he was in Vegas. Thursday night imagine my surprise when I found no vacation pay on my cheque. Wtf? The boss said he never saw a form from me and I should get another form from Greg, re-submit it for him and try again for Friday morning (yesterday). It‘s still not to late. However Greg was away from the office last night. Shit. I thought I’d have to make a special trip in etc. I later saw Greg out the corner of my eye when he came in an hour before the shift was ready to close (Thursday night) He produced the envelope. I received $80 in bonuses based upon CC’s et. The boss thinking it was for me gave it to the management station on the same floor. I’ll provide a photo of this area for later. This was my mistake for not opening up the envelope for the boss’s attention.

Last night I’m feeling pretty good heading into the office. Partially overcast etc. Cold. No sooner do I get off the elevator Greg hands me this notice: It’s an email reply to the boss from head office saying there was an overpayment (of some kind) almost equaling the 2nd half of what my vacation pay was for. WTF? I was livid, crushed. The Grinch that stole Christmas you hear about had stabbed me in the back. I brought this letter to the boss’s attention while he was still in his office and he asked me if I’m coming to the Christmas party. What, after this? He wrote down a phone number I should call Monday, yeah right because head office (Calgary) conveniently left for the weekend. All kinds of things wee running through my head and I had a slow start to the shift based on that and felt terrible. I knew this would cause me some grief at home with Anne later as well. I was expecting this money to buy the 120 Gb Zune media player as a Christmas present for myself and to take Anne out for a nice Christmas dinner. So much for that. In early January Anne’s going to take out of her RRSP for my Lodge dues and my website. My vacation pay accrued allows me to buy one big ticket item/year. Now if I don’t get this thing fixed up, I’ll have to rethink this vacation pay strategy and maybe have it on my weekly pay cheque like most people do.
I wasn’t in a good mood, obviously, heading home. Even though the Oiler game was on I still felt let down. I didn’t even go buy a book at Audrey’s as I wanted to buy the “Night’s Dawn” trilogy, book #2. I came in shortly after 9pm last night, listened to the Oiler’s/Ducks game in progress. 2-1 Ducks but the Oiler’s scored their first in the game in the 3rd just as I was coming in the door. They tied the game up but lost in the shoot out. Good news for us Oiler fans is that the Flames lost, on their home ice yet.
After the game I watched a bit of Smackdown and Anne came in and I showed her the form and she was level headed to work it out with me what might have happened. Then the fighting dinner, some of Smackdown, more fighting. I went to bed then got up to do some computer stuff in the office. Anne came in with some chocolates for me (peace offering) We’re all right for now.

I’ve had a tough week, what with hearing all of this economic gloom and doom going around I had some potentially explosive stuff that could have occurred with another employee at work (shades of Lucian but with somebody else) The Oiler’s lost a game earlier this week, my vacation pay, plus some problems with my teeth. There hasn’t been a lot to get excited about. Anne gave me back $15 from the other day so I still had my original $80. In which case I’m going to go get the book and a bottle of Christmas wine for us for next week.

We’ve got a lot to be grateful about considering the trouble in the world and the economic meltdown. We’re not in a recession quite yet here in Edmonton but unless things change we could be in one by the Spring. Then again the economy could change on a dime. We had a recession in 2004 that completely escaped my radar. I never even knew we were in one at the time! That recession came and went and some are suggesting (here at least) its going to be like 2004.

The good news; the US has given the green light for another bail out package. This time it’s for the big 3 in the auto industry. We’re essentially doing the same thing here in Canada announced yesterday a multi billion dollar stimulus package that includes our own auto industry most of which is back East. Thing is, you can toss around Billions of dollars if the banks aren’t going to lend credit to customers no matter how good the car is, nobody will be able to get one. In Europe I’ve heard they have had (or have?) this 2 for 1 deal. Buy one vehicle get a 2nd one free. Good idea. The other thing is our auto industry is just a spin off of the US auto industry. We produce the overflow. Also, the auto industry needs to produce vehicles that people want to buy, Hybrid vehicles could become a lot cheaper for one thing. It’s not good news for the Alberta oil industry but there is the larger picture here. More about the economy here, the Feds are talking about reforming the UIC (Unemployment Insurance Commission) program again by bringing it back to the level of the early 1990’s. The Coalition is really squeezing the Tory minority here, which is good. Especially if Harper wants to keep his job. The recent EI (Employment Insurance) is no better then Union strike pay.

I’m really blessed in some ways because in my line of work, I am recession proof. Also because I’ve diversified some years ago I can always work in Security as a security guard, also recession proof. Plus my wife is working and we could qualify for a rental subsidy program in the new year and there are all kinds of things the Feds can do to strengthen and improve our economy, things look optimistic. Plus, I’m going to “fight for my vacation pay.” We think it’s a clerical error on their part. Plus the Oiler’s play on Monday, we get our cheques on Christmas eve, I get 2 days off and the Oiler’s play again on Boxing day.

As for me, today it’s into the office in about an hour. I’ll be out there in that -28C weather waiting for the #11 bus to creep over the Manning bridge. No Tim Horton’s for me this weekend and once I put my 4 hours in, it’s off to get my book and a bottle of wine and I’ll have a nap later. I feel pretty good about things around here after all.

Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now

e. Jim

Having a slow

couple of days here this week.

As for the ICC job no calls this week and when I get home last night after work my wife calls her cell phone on her break which has about a minute left on "the clock," before it drops. So I'm calling our service provider and apparently calls can go out but not come in due to a power fluctuation of some kind. They'd reset the phone and call me back to confirm I had full service but not yet.

Anne brought "Boots" inside as it's bitterly cold out there. He took to that water we have at various spots in the house for the cats.

I had a slow night tonight pulling in just over $220 and a $50 CC sale as well. Of course doing Magic. Going home was cold. I was able to read more out of Icewind Dale. I'm within the last 205 pages. I hope to read the whole thing by the end of this month.

Saturday on Coast to Coast is their big annual JFK show. I look forward to this each year. Most likely Jim Marrs will be on. I hope they have a round table format.

Anyway Bloggers, that's all for now

e. Jim

Having a

busy couple of days here but in a nice busy sort of way. I'll have a larger post for later on.

Anyway Bloggers, that's all for now

e. Jim

Monday is done

I left in a really foul mood out the door at 4pm. Anne was all upset about the amount of money the Feds were taking out of her RRSP and basically taking it out on me. Coupled that with her doing laundry and not feeling well sort of set her off a couple of times. We got our rent money for October that’s the main thing. At 4pm all I wanted to do was to get out of the apartment and get on that train for an end of the line ride and back again to the office. I decided I’d walk my anger off to the LRT being nasty to someone that wanted directions to Bo Didlies pub across the street. The train ride in and the nice +25C weather mellowed my mood somewhat and I headed over to the office and upstairs. I had a chat with the fellow about the markets and the big thing everyone is talking about, the US economy. Speaking of, which on the news tonight in between Raw, they were saying that the US economy represents 25% of the Worlds economy. That’s no chump change.

I decided to call Anne at home. “I’m sorry,” blah, blah, blah type thing. All was forgiven. I forgot my pop and sandwiches. So it’s official, finally Rob is saying we have to use the DNC rules. I got 3 DNC’s myself but if someone other then the name on the screen says “Take my name off the list” its a TD 9. It doesn’t count. So that ok. Also I got top total again and a $10 bonus plus 3 CC’s. Good deal. I had a pretty good evening. Most likely on the news tomorrow night the DNC will be the talk of the town and I’ll get a dozen of them. The thing is I don’t know just how many numbers Xl has to work with but we get to call Canada wide, so that’s a lot of numbers. Today we get to do cold calling uggh. So there is a real probability that I could be out of a job sooner then latter. It’s not that I don’t have any options. I wouldn’t mind working 5-9 security guard work have Wednesdays and Thursdays off type thing. Or even say work Piazza 10-2am. Saturday’s it’s 10-3 but that’s not a regular shift. Before I do anything drastic I want to see what’s going on in the Federal election. If Canadians vote a Harper or Majority or minority, then fine, I’ll stay the course with my present job-for now. If it’s a carbon tax then I’ll be bailing out of my job so fast it’d make me dizzy. Dion is so low in the polls anyway so I doubt anything drastic will happen.

Anyway I had a relaxing train ride home and Anne called my cell phone on the bus waiting at Clairview. She put my wrestling channel on for me and when I got home, I watched Raw, which was just great. DX showed up tonight. Good stuff.

That’s about all for now. Not much going on. This week is lodge night and I’d like to go show up. Should be a lot of fun. I tried calling my buddy Charles earlier but he wasn’t available. I’m still reading Icewind Dale. Good stuff. My goal is 100 pages/week.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

On the cool side

today hitting +10C out there but local weather people are looking for +14C as a high for today. So I’m up working on my first coffee. I was in bed just after 3am and up at 6 to do the cbi thing. I read for a bit and went back to bed, no problem until just after noon to watch the markets. Oil up at $107. Good news.


This evening I get my pay cheque. At least where Anne works they direct bank deposit it right into the employees account. She gets her first pay cheque Friday and that goes towards October‘s rent. After work tonight I get to go to the bank and this time I have the right pin number for Anne’s account. My cheque goes towards the cable bill and I get $20 out of it for a couple of books, while on the order invoice they are still at American pricing.

Last night on the job we were working on “Comedy Fest.” Unlike the majority of the people working the taps on this campaign, I like this campaign. Sure if your sitting at “0” your going to get shuffled to the front 20. Most of the totals were sitting around $300-$400 by break. Me, I’m pulling up the rear but on the other side of my station they have got some big taps to work with. I didn’t get any CC’s but I sold 4 tickets and got $246 to show for it on my recap at the end of my shift. With extra cars on the train I was happy to catch my 9:20pm train to Clairview and read on the way home. Again today, I’m going straight to the end of the line/South Side and take the train back to Corona and wander into the office about 4:50pm. I’m taking my sunglasses with me because while reading on the way across the bridge over the Saskatchewan river, I couldn't open my eyes the Sun was so bight in my face. Arriving as early as I’ve been doing over the years made for a long night for Jimmy.

This “Icewind Dale” book I’m reading is pretty good and I’m enjoying it. I’m about 120 pages into the book I began last Wednesday. A good sign because by now the book would have strained on my nerves if I couldn't get into it and I would have tossed it aside for something else. I was worried about this, especially for a series. So far so good.

Last night on YouTube I came across “Featureman” (one word) doing some basic piano chords. He’s an older guy that obviously knows what he’s talking about but I have a couple of issues with him: Right hand black keys are Sharps not Flats. There are no flats on the treble clef-usually. At least from my understanding of piano theory. The other is his chord fingering. He uses his thumb, pointer finger and pinkie for chords. This is wrong. Your supposed to use your thumb, index finger and pinkie, 1-3-5. But he explained nicely what a diminished chord is and how to play diminished chords in any key. His tutorials are long and generous and he‘s a great singer.


My wife is off work tonight taking it easy. The next Oiler’s are playing tonight against Florida. Two games back to back. At least the city has extra cars on the trains on the way home. The Oiler’s have been playing a game every night since training camp opened.

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 caught a bit

of the Coast show about Cern and the LHC, which will come online tomorrow. The guest a Doctor Warner L. Wagner was essentially negative towards the LHC project proposing to shut it down until we know its safe to use. I think the people at Cern have looked at all of the possibilities and ran all of the simulations towards a safe conclusion. I don’t think they are that irresponsible. We’ll know tomorrow though if they are wrong.

I passed out easily enough after the cbi thing and I got about 7.5 hours of sleep. I got up to fix a coffee and watch the markets. Some of us at work last night were talking about the big US Federal Govt. buy-out of “Fannie Mae” and “Freddie Mac.” (not their real names of course.) Fannie Mae was created in 1938 after the depression years and Freddie Mac in 1970, if memory serves. Now, I’m no expert in these kinds of things but basically Mae and Mac are institutions set up for banks that if anyone defaults on a mortgage loan the banks can turn that loan over and sell it to Mae or Mac. We don’t have that here in Canada. So recently Mac and Mae have fallen on hard times causing the US Federal Govt. to essentially take them over again. Of course I was watching the price of oil and it’s down to $104 and some change/barrel. Just like last year, it’ll bottom out to about $50 and climb back up.

I’m closing in on page 800/1008 of “Judas Unchained.” It’s a pretty good book for its size and has surprisingly very little padding. I’m looking forward to be reading some fantasy for a change. Not that I’m getting all SF out or anything but I began this book July 14th, almost 2 months and I‘m near the last 200 pages only now and I‘ve been reading it every day.

Well, it’s now official. Harper called for a National election this morning and we go to the polls October 14th. Uggh. Well, the Tuesday after holiday Monday, I’m going to go vote before I go into the job. Will I be at Xl or Pizza? I haven’t got a clue. Apparently from what one of the East Indian kids that have more or less befriended me that has Robs ear is saying that the afternoon shift wont be cut until mid October but nobody really knows. But another national election? Good Lord, I hope the Canadian people are not going to return us back to the days of Liberal boondoggle’s. Oh and here’s another good one. The Federal Green party leader is whining about being locked out of the national political debate, crying conspiracy. The reason why she’s been blocked is because she can’t speak French. The debate has to be in both official languages. Dion’s “command” of the English language wont win him any points for clarity either but at least he can speak the other official language.

Also, this earlier morning I was going over some piano theory. I’ve got some simple piano scale exercises I can learn. I already know the Major C scale but I now have the Minor C scale and how to do it in the reverse and also the Harmonic and Melodic Minor scales ascending and descending. And if that isn’t enough to work with I also have the F Major scale as well. I hope to tinker around with these over the next few days if Cern doesn’t blow us all to Kingdom come.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

Good news bad news, I guess...

Overnight we went to bed at our usual time but I woke up around 6:20am to do the cbi thing. Feed Cats, Breakfast, Insulin. Then I read for a bit. This usually tires me out enough to sleep. About 7am I went to bed and still couldn't’t sleep. I tossed and turned about. So, I got up again and did a bit more reading. Then my wife gets up and makes some popcorn to feed the birds across the street. About 9:15am I’m sufficiently tired enough to go back to sleep. But now I’m worried about our rent money for September. Or lack there of. My next cheque wont be until next Friday because of the long weekend and Lodge night. Also, my wife’s place of employment wasn't answering their phone yesterday so she could go get her pay cheque. We need that cheque today. Our rent is due Monday/well Tuesday. Nice thing to have on my mind while trying to get some sleep right?


Then I’m in bed sleeping soundly at last. I look at the clock and it’s 1pm, “Honey you want to call work?” mumble-something-mumble. WTF? Next thing I know the lights flash on and there’s Anne flinging a piece of paper at me. “our rents gone up.” I’m half awake and Anne is going into panic mode. I put the water on for coffee and my reading glasses on to take a look at the notice. Our rent went up by $50. Big deal. We’re panicking for that? It’s kind of like a good news bad news thing. Bad news the rent went up by only $50. Good news is that it could have been a lot worse. Some more good news is that because of the new Laws, they can only raise the rent once every 12 months. So we won’t have to worry about increases like over $100/200+ Tuesday I’m going in early to put a few extra hours in and to get the note there for Rob to fill out so we can apply for our subsidy. Yet she's got 2 jobs now. She goes in for training on her new job in 2 weeks and even though her current job often cuts her hours that's not sustainable. Now she has an opportunity for another job, which has better and more stable hours.


Anne managed to call her work and they have the cheques ready. Whew, our rent is covered. Plus the full Cheque I gave her last night. When she gets out of here and goes off to her job to pick up her cheque she’ll figure this thing out. It could have been a lot worse. It’s tough trying to be a science fiction-writer. But I’ve learned a long time ago, that life is a struggle. It’s all about paying ones dues I suppose.


Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

yesterday was still

warm when I left out of here to go to work but it wasn‘t like +28C or anything. I managed to read a bit of “Judas Unchained” on the train in.
I got a dialer and settled in. We ended up doing CF. I mentioned to one of the staff that we should be doing “Halloween O Ramma” soon but she said we lost that campaign. What a shocker! I rather liked doing HOR. Also Rob gave his kick-off yesterday morning she said and said something like how the whole office will be revamped in October. “Only the best will be working.” Whatever that means. He was lamenting about a 3-10pm shift a few weeks back. Anne’s going to put her name in at Pizza, she’s off this whole week. Right now we’ve just got my income coming in. I’m going to be very surprised if I have a job at Xl to go to by the end of the year. It’s not because of the economy it’s because of the lawsuit last year on our company and the new regulations against telemarketing. I ended up at the break with $78 on CF and Moe sends me over to the other side and I do CBF. I ended up doing $500 in 2 hours and 2 credit cards. I had a better night.

I was glad to get out of the office when 9pm rolled around. It was comfortable weather wise leaving with Tom (One of the recent semi employees that takes the train but goes the other way.) I got a seat on a packed train and read. Lots of people taking in “The Fringe.” “The Big Kahuna.” Sounds like a great name for a Starship doesn’t it? Anyway, the #11 bus was pulling out and waited for passengers at Clairview when I got off the train. For a 9:35pm bus on a weekday night, it was packed. I got home and there was my wife with the Vacuum cleaner on. She went to get her B-Bell cake earlier. She gets about 3 of them/year. One for my Birthday and one for hers and one for Christmas. They cast about $20 each and are really nice, good quality.

I like my evening meal around 11pm while I’m watching the evening news. My dinner consisted of (my favorite) instant mashed potatoes, 2 processed rib-let racks (Nice product from Presidents choice) some pees and even dressing and a big glass of diet Coke. I was set. Then after I finished dinner, Anne brings out a Happy B-day slice of cake for me with lighted candles. It was really nice as we sang “Happy Birthday” for Jimmy! Hehe. Anne got me a Polo t-shirt but it was a bit small on me and a badly needed mouse pad. Yesterday was a pretty good day.

Some National news: It seems there’s rumblings of a fall election. The Tories are slightly ahead in the polls of the Liberals. If the Liberals get in then they’ll introduce a very unpopular National Carbon Tax. An NCT will seriously slow down our economy. The plan is called “The Green shift.” More like “The Green shaft.” Even after the National Energy program (NEP) introduced by Trudeau in the late 1970’s, it took Billions of dollars out of our local economy. The NEP sent thousands of people unemployed and devastated our economy. When PC leader Brian Mulroney was in power in 1989 he abolished the NEP program but it took almost 10 years before Alberta recovered from the NEP economic devastation. Now if the Liberals get elected and Dion introduces his NCT, it will be another version of the NEP which was nothing more then a tax grab anyway. This is essentially the same thing. In July the BC government (Liberal) introduced a Provincial carbon tax. Sure each BC resident got a $100 out of it but the program cost something like $440 million. The tax is very unpopular in BC. And it seems only a few Provinces are exempt (Ontario and Quebec of course.) from the NCT. Dion’s plan calls for $15B in taxes he says are "revenue neutral." Yeah right. All that for a $150/year rebate cheque to fight “global warming?” Thanks Dion but no thanks. Who’s going to be paying for this “Green shift?” Albertan’s. So this is why a NCT plan is a bad idea. So I can only hope that if Harper is going to call an election this fall, he’ll be able to win another minority Government.

I had a couple of hours on the computer before bed after midnight and worked on a test static page to try some basic HTML CSS. In my test page (as I was following along from a YouTube video tutorial) I got lost with positioning a CSS element. It’s an absolute position but the command string was lost and when the new one was added it wiped out the previous command, obviously. I’ll try it again tonight after work.

I also did some piano practice as well before bed. I’m going to have trouble with the C chord on my right hand because of my 4th finger is broken or sprained or something. I can lift it but not that far off a black key. I can do broken chords of course. I’ll get better as I go along but to implement the C-chord with proper right hand positioning is going to be hard. My left hand is fine.

This morning I got up about 5:45am and did the cbi thing and read more from “Judas Unchained.” The author makes some obvious cliché’s but this is understandable as these are part of the characters thought processes. We all use cliché’s to some degree in everyday language. Are these cliché’s or just worn out phrases?

I haven’t been doing much fiction writing of my own this summer as I had hoped to do. Mostly it’s been Blog writing. I’ve been doing piano work, reading and website stuff. That sort of thing. I’ve been working a bit on a short story but nothing on that over the last few weeks. I still want to get out a hard copy this fall. I need to really work on the language and turn that up a notch. I’ve got a couple of ideas for longer pieces of writing and I’ve been hashing at them as well.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

Zen or Itouch?

Looks like I’m going to go with the Itouch 8Gb. The Itouch will let me surf the net as well (Where ever there’s a hot spot.) plus I can hack the device and play some games on it. The Zen will let me expand it’s memory where the Itouch has a fixed amount but there’s no way I have over even 500 songs. Plus I can go right there to YouTube and later when I get into stocks I can check my stocks.

Yesterday afternoon I shut er down and locked it up and waited to catch my bus. Lots of people were heading out to K-day’s yesterday afternoon. JT was saying that because Northlands is expanding on site K-Day’s grounds were about half of their normal size this year. Because he only goes when he needs to take his mom, he was disappointed that there weren’t a lot of things for seniors to do. It’s mostly for kids and young families anyway and ever sense the City decided to change the name to “Capital Ex” from last year (first year) the whole K-Day’s flavor is gone. We used to have a Sunday Promenade up and down Jasper Ave for the first K-Day’s Sunday but since there’s no more “Klondike” flavor they dropped that out as well. Edmonton has really changed over the last 30 years. Some changes are good like Churchill Square park. Some are not so good like changing the Klondike theme. The only reason why people are here now in the City is for the local economy. And when this boom goes bust most of these people will migrate out of here.

Anyway, I got Gary’s dialer (used to be mine) and good thing I did. That dialer is a CC magnet. I got about 5 in the first half sitting beside JT. He was off ready to go on his vacation, probably on the road right now barely out of the City. He said he has a 10 hour drive ahead of him. I’m not sure where he’s going but some place in BC for a week. He’s most likely clearing $500/week not including bonuses. But he puts in 44 hours/week. He got the hourly rate he’s getting because he was management at one time. Unless your ex management or a foreign worker is the only way to get beyond $10/hour at where I work. But I ended up with a record 7 CC’s last night and a $550 total. Also since we were playing the team CC bonus, our team got 19 CC’s to the other team with 15. So we got a $20 bonus each. Plus I got a $10 bonus earlier during the week. Not bad. I should get $410 on my vacation pay next week plus $265 regular pay (with bonuses) That should give me $675 on my cheque before taxes. I think the Feds will take out about $75 to $101 or something silly like that. In which case I’ll either get $600-$574. Anne gets the first $200 out of that so anything over $200 is mine. I should be able to keep between $400-$375. In which case after work next Saturday, if everything works out ok, I’ll be picking up my external hard drive and the Itouch. Also, if I get at least 4 CC’s today, then I’ll be able to keep the CC bonus as well as any CC team bonus we get today. I should have put in a few extra afternoons this week and I would have at least 20 CC’s if not a few more.

The important thing today is Rob has my vacation pay release form on his desk when he does payroll Monday morning. I think I want to go in for Monday afternoon just to get a head start on the CC race for this week. Even a few afternoons won’t hurt. If I get my 20 CC’s this week, that’s an extra $40 onto my pay cheque. Right now, I’m on top of the Vacation pay percent food chain at 6%. That’s for 5 years of service.

There’s a lot of things going on this weekend. First K-Day’s is wrapping up tonight. doesn’t look like we’re going to get there this year. At $10 admission fee and the price of food is so expensive and we’re not big on rides. If that’s not enough, there’s the Edmonton Indy. Our City is only the third City in Canada hosting this event. If that’s not enough, there’s “The taste of Edmonton.” This is a nice event but again it’s going to be really crowded. Anne suggested I go out and get myself a fast food treat this afternoon and I think I will.

After this weekend, we’ve got Heritage day’s coming up and if that’s not enough to wrap festival season off there’s the “Caraway Festival” and the big one “The Fringe.” Then it’s time to think about hockey with “The Edmonton Oiler’s.” Speaking of pro sports and all, the Eskimos finally won one on the road. Their record is 3-2 right now. Second in the West. Next Thursday BC is here.

After work last night, I went out to Audrey’s. It was very warm, most likely +25C. I went and picked up 2 of the “Stardoc” books. What’s this “Vector Prime” book #1 in “The New Jedi Order” was already there? How did I miss this? Great, I didn’t need to pick it up out of an Omnibus format. All that’s left there for me now is “Mission Earth” book 1 and one of the Stardoc books. I picked up those 3 and went to special order the last two in the series and 2 others oh S.L. Veigh’s Bio Rescue series and the other Timothy Zhan’s sequel to “Night train to Rigel” is in, so I ordered those and the last 3 of Karen Traviss’s Wess'Har series “Matriarch, Ally, Judge.” I’ll get tore ad them eventually.

I went home with my purchase and this time I took the stairs down to the LRT concourse. I was rewarded with a nice little cool back-draft wind rushing up the stairs. I caught the train home and did my admin stuff and settled in to watch Smackdown. Anne came home about 11pm and made me a hot hamburger with instant mash potato and a side of peas. Good. The only thing is I should have bought a bottle of diet Pepsi max for this morning.

For today, it’s off into work for my Saturday shift and put my 4 hours in. It’s no big deal. Then if I’m feeling ok, it’s off to the City Center Food court for some Taco Bell and maybe a look into Chapters and home. Not much going on for tonight. Just relaxing.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim

It's a beautiful

Monday out there. As for me it’s the same old Monday routine: Into work come home watch Raw. I woke up with a headache this morning and went to bed with another soar tooth in my lower right side of my mouth. At the moment I’m working on my first coffee feeling pretty good.

I got up late so I missed the markets this morning. I think Oil is still at around $145/barrel. I recall back in 1995 Oil was at $17/barrel and we were in the heart of a recession here. My father was still alive in 1995 and I was still living in my bachelor apartment. Despite all that the 1990’s were good to me. I liked everything about the ‘90’s except the music. I was working most of the time from 1990-1994. I had to use welfare the odd time in between unemployment cheques to get that started. 1995-1999 I had about half a dozen different jobs and did some post secondary education while on UIC. I went on a weekend Amway trip to Minneapolis in 1997 and that was fun. I was working with Royal Oak furniture at the time but it was only a temporary project. I could have got on with my current place of employment right after that but I thought they had nothing but part time hours. I got Pledges and Silky in the 1990’s. I had Veronica as my girlfriend. I should have kept her longer then I did. The Oiler’s won their last Stanley Cup in the 1990’s as well.

Coast has another boring show on tonight. A medium and “healer.” Oh brother. The LHC will be activated today. The most anticipated scientific event in the world and Coast has a flakey medium on? Maybe they might preempt the show for this important occasion but I doubt it. Maybe George will have something about it the first hour.

Even despite the challenges of the 2000’s I’m doing a lot better then I did in the 1990’s or at any other time of my life. The local economy is a lot better. I got married and joined the Lodge, I’m even learning how to play piano. I’ve got a better computer then I’ve ever had before. We got Sparky and Sporty within the last 8 years and I published a short story last year as well. The down parts of the 2,000’s have been my vision loss. We didn’t know what was going to happen until last June when the laser surgery worked. Before that I had learned I have diabetes and I was in the Royal Alex hospital for a week. I’m taking 2 shots of 18 units of insulin everyday. Sure I miss living in the 1970’s and 1980’s and who wouldn’t want to live at a time when they were younger but for what it’s worth life in the 1990’s and in this decade have been a lot better.

I think we all have had events in our lives where we wish we could go back and maybe change something. But by changing the past (even if we could) we could miss out on the good things that have happened as well. I need a connection with my past but not to dwell on it. My past helps me appreciate what I have now. If that makes any sense. The only things I miss about the 1990’s is gaming with my friends over “Starfleet Battles” and playing “Advanced Squad Leader.” I’m missing one ASL rule book change and about 8 modules. The last ASL module I bought was Croix de Guerre and that was in 1995. Alright enough of that.

I’ve been checking the LHC countdown clock on their website over the last few days but it’s been down lately. Today is ground zero anyway for the activation of the LHC. It’s not going to be the end of the world. The real-world spin-off application of the LHC will be “The Grid” and that excites me more then the remote possibility of finding the Higgs particle. I’m not suggesting that they won’t find the Higgs or even find traversable wormholes but I’m not going to hold my breath expecting any big news like: “We have found wormholes and are finding ways to keep them open for longer then a billionths of a second.” They’ll be turning the LHC on today but we’ll never be updated about it until the make an important discover, whenever that’ll be. So don’t hold your breath waiting. “Bring on the Grid for the rest of us,” is all I can say. I’m still trying to find a site that says “We’re activating the LHC in one minute.” But so far nobody’s saying anything about it.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim