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

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

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

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

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

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

It's only Wednesday already?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anyway gang, that’s about all for now

Jim

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anyway gang, that’s about all for now

Jim

Must be a Wednesday

In business news the CBC is about to lay off 800 people. Something is wrong with this picture. Do not adjust your set. They (the CBC) site dwindling audience and lack of advertising dollars. And other networks are going to feel the same pinch. I heard CanWest Global could be next. The problem stems from what choices people have to watch on TV, when 80% of modern programming is reality TV type programming or rehashing game show ideas or spin off’s of The Simpson’s. I don’t watch a lot of TV anyway, except the Oiler’s the evening news and wrestling. The only thing I like to watch on CBC is when there’s an Oiler game on. But I smell a Boondoggle here with the CBC, with their expecting layoffs and maybe closing down stations and insignificant programming the CBC still receives about a $1B budget from the Canadian Government.

Also Stats Canada went and released unemployment numbers but these were reflected at least here in Alberta by the downturn in the construction industry. I don’t know what March unemployment numbers are like but for February we were at 4.4% yet with about 550,000 people are on EI and that’s a significant number. Meanwhile oil dropped down to $52/barrel. Everything else like the Dow and the S&P is went up. But with the US Government now owning about 80% of AIG there is very little good economic news on the horizon. Except Saskatchewan, go figure.

More closer to home, our office still isn’t full after 7pm. We have a good 4-8 empty dialers. It’s still nothing like it was a year ago when we had a crew of about 8 tap shooters after 7pm.

I played some more Oblivion last night but the game froze up on me and I haven’t played it since around 3am this morning. I was trying out the bribing tool in the game and at the end one of the characters just went nuts attacking people. The guards came out and killed them. So once again I need to go back to an earlier saved game.

In SF Signal they are talking about the most funniest authors in SFF. I didn’t comment yet but for the most funniest SF author would have to be L. Ron Hubbard and his “Mission Earth” series. It was meant to be funny. I’m not a huge fan of comedy in science fiction literature but if I stumble upon something that looks good I wont turn it down because it‘s a comedy. I’m not a funny kind of person. I mean I consider myself likeable and I’m always friendly to people but I’m not one that has a library of jokes I can pull out of a hat. That’s not my personality but comedy and SF somehow kind of goes hand in hand. When “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” came out in 1978 it gathered a bit of a cult following but hardly registered a pulse beat under my thumb. I did like “Ghostbusters“ and “Back to the Future” and of course “Austin Powers” while not really science fiction, it has some SF concepts in the series etc but that’s Sci-Fi. As for the written word there are lots of SF comedy going around. I hear Terry Prathcett’s “Disc world” is supposed to be pretty good and Robert Sheckley is also pretty good from what I hear. I’m not about to turn down a good book because it’s a comedy yet I haven’t read a good SF comedy since Mission Earth.

L.E. Modesitt, Jr in his blog post yesterday had an interesting entry called permanence. He began by various upgrades of Word and how technology changes can often lose data. He also made a good point about paper and how we can read scrolls hundreds of years old but who in say 300 years from now will be able to even find my blog entries and email’s? He also talked about how in the US medical records will be made electronic but those medical records can be venerable no matter how much safety encryption measures are in place. And what about medical bracelets and even pacemakers and other items electronically connected to the hospital. Imagine if say terrorists broke into a universal set of standards for hospital wards and launched a virus into hospital equipment currently being used. Thousands of people could be at risk. It seems the more and more we use computers in our everyday lives the more venerable we become.

This got my warped imagination to think that this current economic crunch the world is currently in is brought to you from the folks at El Qaeda. What’s my basis in this? The fact that the economy changed so abruptly makes me believe this was a terrorist attack on a global scale.

My wife left out of here about 3:30pm and I left out of here at my usual time at 4pm. I was able to read a bit on the way into work.

I collected a good amount of cans and bottles before the shift began. DC wasn’t into work and apparently JT is on stress leave? Must be nice work if one can get it. Super wanted me and a few others in the back to do CCSD taps and I was about $230 and a CC by the break. I made another pass at the cans and bottles during the break. In the 2nd half I did a lot better doing CBF and I got another CC sale and a total of $530. No bonus money for me at all but that’s ok.

I got my 9:20pm Corona train into Clairview, another curling event? I just about missed my bus as the thing pulled out of Clairview making an exit but I was able to catch the bus on the exit swing and home.

Everything was as I left it and I turned off the radio and began to get into playing some “Oblivion.” The game after it crashed this morning worked just fine and I found a couple of new areas as well on the map. According to Yahoo answers there are about 330 different locations like Temples, caves, shrines that sort of thing. It’s a big game. Then there is the expansion pack “The Shimmering Isles” and that’s already available.

And finally no we didn’t win the big one on Anne’s 6/49 quick pick draw tonight. Somebody won $3.9M however.

Anyway, gang that’s all for now.

e. Jim

Uggh

I had a brief wait for my bus and there were a crowd of kids loitering around at the front. I just elbowed my way through. Nobody said anything. I was able to read on the way into work and I got there just as the afternoon shift was leaving. Again it was a full house. The early hockey game was SJ/Boston, in home jerseys. I ended up with $265 by the end of the first half and 1 CC sale. I collected a lot of cans and bottles as well and called Anne and said hello. Super asked me and Chris if we wanted to go in the back and do ASRAB. Good stuff. $20 for most bumps and $10 for most CC sales. I got the $20 and Chris got the $10. Also, my total was $868 for the night. I had a great evening and I got a $100 sale from a bump (increase) I left out of there with a bunch of bottles and cans feeling pretty good about the night I had.

When Chris and I were sitting in the back there doing ASRAB in the 2nd half of the job last night I asked him (if he’s in on Saturday) if he wouldn’t mind giving me a lift out to Fergeson’s. He knows where the Harvey’s is out there on 118th Ave. I used to stop in there after buying my Christian Ska CD’s in the mid 1990’s. I discovered Ska while I was a flirting with Christianity there when my father passed away 1996. Fergeson’s is about a block West of Harvey’s. This afternoon, I’m going to call Fergeson’s from the office, after I’ve gathered all my bottles and cans and get some more info on buying back the instrument your using. You need to take it home to practice. I want to find out how that works. But the other reason why I’m going out to Fergeson’s is to take a look at their Alto Saxophones. I Haven’t given up on the piano and I might still take lessons. I’ve been reading testimonials from people saying their fathers/uncles, brothers etc have taken up the sax at the age of 55 68 etc. I’ve been hearing phrases like, “It’s never to late,” “Age is not a requirement to play,” etc. Since Ska has always been one of my favorite musical genres I’d like to learn how to play. Of course this is depending on if I can actually play this thing and get some early encouragement. I can’t play guitar because arthritis has taken it’s toll on my fingers. Piano I can do and I know how to read a bit of sheet music. The only problem with Sax for me is living in an apartment but there are mute bags and I’ve been reading that they are quite good and cut down up to 70% of the external noise. Apparently they are pricy as well but I want to check into all these things at when I call this afternoon and when I go out there to Fergeson’s on Saturday. I mean if Chris is in on Saturday that is. But if for some reason I’m having difficulty with the Sax, I’ll switch back to piano instead.

It was a crowded LRT heading home and I read for a bit. After dinner and the local news and Anne had watched her stuff and I was donng my blog rounds, she was cleaning up “Hamsterland” as she calls it with her 2 new female Hamsters I settled into playing Oblivion. Sure enough the alcove one of many adorning the room revealed a darkened entrance into a tunnel of unexplored territory. I was in the sewers battling Goblins and rats. I found some gold and a few more doors I could have explored but I was itching to get “outside.” The key was useful to get into the sewers and ahead what looked like a long tunnel and light at the end. Anne sat with me to watch as we headed outside to a night sky. Of course every new area, I’m saving away as I go. I even got into the Imperial Palace where there are a lot of people to talk with lots of shops and things to do. I found a ship, horses to ride and buy but couldn’t afford. The Imperial Palace is a huge place unto itself. I could have gone on for hours exploring but at 4am it was getting late and as we were lying in bed Anne had got up to use the bathroom and looked out the window and saw a familiar shape out there in the cold.

“Boot’s is coming in.” She put some things on and five minutes later we have him back inside. After Boots was settled a finale cat roll call, we were in bed listening to the last of Coast.
I got up shortly after noon today to catch the markets graphic. Everything was up, just a little but that was up from yesterday’s huge losses on the DJIA, etc. Even Walmart and Nike are feeling the pinch it seems but Walmart is restructuring closing some stores and opening others.

Weather wise, it’s changing here over the next 4 days. It’s a smaller cold snap. Nothing like -20C or anything. Saturday will be the coldest it being -18C and a wind chill. After next Monday it’s going to warm up to what around the -5C average we’ve been getting. I don’t mind the -18C stuff. This time of year weather like this will only be for a few days at a time.

Still reading “Logos Run.” Very enjoyable but it’s going to take me the rest of the month to finish it. If I were to give the book a rating now, at page 67, I’d give it 10/10 e. Jim’s. I’m having fun with it.

Anyway, other then that, things are going well. Tonight it’s into the job thing. Most likely it’s CPA the first half and then hopefully ASRAB in the 2nd. Management is opening up more of the back area near business. There’s about 10 stations there that are not getting used in the evenings that for just a few are. When times are tough the locals flock to my company. Half a dozen are being tossed into the revolving door like so much cannon fodder at least once a week now. If that was me, I wouldn’t have survived the cut each week.

Anyway, Bloggers that’s all for now.

e. Jim

Another Wednesday

Not much going on today. Anne’s leaving for her job at 3pm as she starts at 4pm, she’s gradually getting the hang of things at her new job. Weather wise here it’s about +12C here and should get up to +14C when I leave out of here at 4pm. It’s a nice time of year.

Of course the big news is the volatile market place and how US President Bush wants to hand out over 700B to bail out Wall street. I think this is a good idea, like everyone else here’s my opinion: I think the $700B should be doled out in bits at a time so they can see how the money is being spent, if it’s actually doing some good. This makes sure that Wall street is being held accountable. Meanwhile oil is still (at this writing) sitting at $106/barrel.

Somewhat in the realm of science fiction (or at least it was maybe 50 years ago) one of the major US auto names will be grinding out the first electric car in 2010 or at least that‘s the idea. These electric cars will most likely cost a fortune, not that I’m holding my breath or anything to see one roaring down 137th Ave. As most of us know the technology for an electric car has been around for decades. This recent electric car idea might just be a concept model and many of these electric cars may not even see tires on the pavement for many years if at all.

Also, I heard on Coast last night that the LHC will be shut down until Spring of ’09 as they are trying to find out what caused a leak in a helium tank. This could be another 6-8 months down the road delay before they resume testing. You know because of all these LHC red and green lights, all that remains for me now is but a glimmer of interest in the LHC.

The Oiler’s are in training camp and have lost their first 2 training camp games. The real season begins October 12th Is it just me or has the NHL training camp and the NHL regular season seems to be starting later then usual? The last Oiler game is April 11th or something like that. They still play 82 regular season games. I think the Oiler’s are home at Rexall, which means extra cars on the train on the way home tonight. Wuwho!

As for me this afternoon, I’m out of here at 4pm. I like to take the train to the end of the line (for now) to the Health Science Center. It’s nice to see the fall colors out there in the river valley and maybe get a bit of reading in as well then take the train back to Corona and wander into the office about 10 minutes to 5pm like everybody else. It being a Wednesday and all is usually a slow day for me but hopefully we work on CF again and that means no line hour stress. As far as this DNC list goes, the only thing I need to change is I have to say the disclaimer and that’s about it. If management keeps things the same, other then the disclaimer, there should be very little change. I’m hoping.

One of the new guys and I were talking about stocks and markets and he said how he’s been investing for years and showed me a glimpse of his statements. So I’m going to have a chat with him when he gets in and at break. He’s into real estate and finance and he said he’d have a talk with me, how he got started and what I can do to get started.

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