It was sure a

lot colder going in yesterday afternoon, but not bitterly so. I read a bit out of FF on the way in and decided to go straight into the office to grab my dialer because of all the “new tap shooters.” New because all the East Indian kids that were Robs darlings a year ago are now out because Immigration/Service Canada says it’s illegal for them to work at my place of employment. Rob is elevating staff for “promotion.” Yet DC said for me to go to the back to the business section. Meaning more of the CFK campaign, because I got a $1,100 total Tuesday. I sat in-between JT and R. Both were not using their 3 levels of support. This tells me that “management” singled me out because with the high total Monday night, I stood out. So I was listening for the “Do t Rob’s way,” approach and JT or R were not. That boarders on harassment.

I had a slow start last night pulling in $230 something and 1 CC sale before the break. I rallied with $440 and another CC sale for 2 on the night. The best part about the evening was the Oiler’s were leading 3-1 when I left and I got a $5.00 bonus. I should be getting $35 in bonuses next week. Yeah right. I rode in on the train with one of the recent kids I was taking upon myself to train. I prefer riding in alone.

Ok, speaking about hockey everyone is all up in arms over Sean Avery’s comment in Calgary the other day. The league ought to chill out. And here’s everyone like Don Cherry jumping on the band wagon. Personally I “love the guy,” Sean Avery. He’s a great hockey player. He’s young and abrasive and I like that. The Oiler’s should get rid of Penner and the other goal tender talk to Dallas and make a trade for Avery. He might be a great fit for the Oiler’s.

I’ve got Lodge this evening and I’m looking forward to that. Its our installation night where everyone steps up for real. My first chair.

Everyone’s talking about Harper suspending Parliament because of this coalition thing. Reality check time. When Harper was opposition he tried doing the same thing with NDP and the Block to get rid of the Liberals. This whole thing is a bunch of crap.

One movie that looks really good (another remake) “The day the Earth stood still.” The 1951 sci-fi classic. There’s 4 movies I want to see, the above. And also the new James Bond, and the new Star Trek movie. There’s also another Transporter movie coming out. Hollywood has a good crop of sci-fi movies coming out this year. Or what’s left of it.

Other then that not a lot going on. I’m still waiting for that simulation from Ms. I might have t call them tonight around 4pm.

Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now

e. Jim

Work began

on a sour note but I turned it around. I was called into the office. All of management was there listening to my calls. They just don't want me to reload taps. They're right. I turned it around and ended up with one of the best nights I've ever had, and another $15 bonus.I took this photo outside about 4:10pm on the way in. It's looking South at the Manning bridge over the LRT tracks. To the left of me is the ETS bus platform. It wasn't that bad out there although this camea akes photo's about 10% darker then usual.

Anyway Blogger's that's all for now

e. Jim

Yeesh we're

back at it again. Seems next Monday the Harper PC Government, here in Canada needs to bring out a budget. That in itself isn’t bad but what is bad news for us here in Canada is that the Liberals and the NDP have joined forces to bring down the Tory Government in a non confidence vote. Keep in mind that Harper has a minority Government. He’s at the mercy of the other official party leaders. If they don’t like a major bill like a budget they can call for a non confidence vote. In other words we’re most likely going to the polls again. With all the political instability here in this crazy country is there any wonder investment and consumer confidence is down. A 3 party system is the way to go but this ganging up on one leader because he has a minority is simply wrong. We’ll know next week sometime if and when there will be a major election-again.

Not much going on at the moment. I’m enjoying my first coffee for the day. We’ve got our rent ready (more or less) for today. My wife gets paid on Friday. Christmas looks good. This week I’ve got lodge night. It’s my turn to be Tyler. Should be fun. Hopefully in the new year, I’ll have a new job and I can have every Thursday night off without having to explain to management where I am every other Thursday night.

Its grey out there and windy but holding at +6C. Our snow is supposed to get here this week sometime. Most likely as I’m going to lodge. Oh well its about time. I also noticed that the book cover images on my Blogger Blog are broken but the same images are intact on my website. Most strange. I think it might have something to do with a passwaord change where I upload my images to get a URL. I'll try and fix it up after Monday night Raw tonight.

Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now

e. Jim

A rough couple of days

I met up with M on the way in the elevator and he wasn’t much interested in talking with me. “Grab a dialer if your working. I’ll talk with you later,” is all he would muster. Ok. At kick-off he asked me to wait for him in the back. I got that signal mixed up. He meant computer room. He left me hanging there for awhile and came back and towered over me giving me a lecture about disrespecting him etc. I came close to getting fired. I wont go into the details suffice to say M and I are not on any terms these days and for the foreseeable future. I hope to be in that new job within the “foreseeable future.” I got my dialer and went back to work doing CRF in the tap section. We had a few taps. I had a decent total by break with about $195, then we all got moved over to the front 20 and I had a $100 sale but no CC’s. Only 4 this week. At one point M shut my system down wanting me to listen to one of my recordings for a technical issue for “not doing my job properly.” Put it this way, the job isn’t fun anymore since we began to do CRF. I suspect we’ll be doing much the same today as we did last night.

I was glad to get out of the office at 8:30pm and out onto the street. It was mild heading over to Audrey’s and I made my regards with Trevor. I picked up one of the last special order desk Warhammer 40K Omnibus novels at American pricing. I’ve got FF #2 there for me, the last of my US pricing books. I got a bus up to my bank did my banking and a brief wait for my train. Feeling better about what went down earlier. I suppose M talked about this with Rob because he would need to explain why he shut me down yesterday at 6:30pm. M most likely said to Rob that he would handle it.

Weather wise it was even raining lightly last night. I got home and breathed a sigh of relief I wasn’t fired. That was a close one.

The other thing is Thursday when I called Ms they said my testing score on my simulation was low but the good news is they don’t want to give up on me. F wants to send me another simulation that I can do on my own time and work towards getting a better score. I can work on my own time and get ready for the training course that starts in January. I’m under some stress at my current job and I’d like to get out of it asap. On my terms.

Not much going on today. Except the job thing. All I want to do is to get that over and done with and home. I watched my Smackdown and ECW but acquired a bit of a toothache while watching my show. Anne came in late. She had a busy night at Pizza. We had a late supper and I was in bed by about 1:15am or so with my toothache and all. Anne gave me something but it wasn’t as good as Advil. Tylenol 3 is better but that’s a 2 hour wait in the midi center and a Doctors prescription. I got about 3 hours sleep overnight. I could have slept in until 11am. My toothache is still lingering about but it’s not as bad as it was last night.

This afternoon it’s the Oiler’s playing in St. Louis. Starts at noon. Then there’s another game Sunday in Dallas at 4pm. Anne didn’t know this but she suggested if I didn’t want to go out with them for dinner I didn’t have to go. With the game on TV it’s tempting to stay home. Hopefully her flight will be here around 1pm. We’ll have dinner and I could be home around 4pm not missing much of the game. If it wasn’t for my bonehead mistake Thursday night with M I would have taken today off. We’ll be able to watch the first part of the Oiler game at noon, maybe. I might get home in time to get the last of the 3rd period.

FF #1 is turning out to be, interestinghad a feeling of much anxiety leaving out of here at 4pm for work. All kinds of things were playing out in my head. I couldn’t even read FF on the train. I met Shank out front and he said Rob wasn’t there. Really? Ok. I mentioned about the incident with Greg and nothing much was said beyond that. I get Greg to give me my pay cheque. He did. I went downstairs to get some “cheese pleasers.” Two bags for Smackdown.

This evening, I’m going to learn how to play the rest of “When the Saints go marching in.” Maybe do some writing and play out a quiet evening.

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now.

e. Jim

A short one today

My wife was knee deep in laundry when I left out of here at 4pm. Weather was actually pretty mild. No incidents, just go in get a seat on the train, crack open my book and read all the way to the end of the South LRT line and back.

OTH day 1 last night. I dread doing that 4 four months. The event itself is March 18th, We were calling ‘04 and ‘05 taps no less. The 2nd hour we got to call AES/CCSD/DIH. Apparently it’s some of the East Indian kids last month. We’re going to lose 2 tap shooters. Me if I get that ICC job.

I was happy to catch my train for home and watch an excellent Monday night Raw. What a show. Anne brought Boots in for some warmth overnight. I was doing my stuff and we went to bed about 4am after all the laundry was done.

Over the last few days I’ve been reading a lot of my “Icewind Dale” trilogy. My copy is getting pretty beat up. That’s the trouble when transporting large books. I’ve got about 50 pages left to go and with any luck at all, I’ll be able to start on my next book to read: “Fast Forward #1” by Thursday. I have #2 waiting for me at Audrey’s.

Not much going on this week. I’m still waiting to hear from Ms and when I got to Anne’s phone this morning, there were 19 messages on her phone. WTF? If it was Ms trying to reach me, they would have emailed me but so far nothing going on with that. I’ll call before I leave out of here.

Anyway Bloggers that’s all for now

e. Jim

A laid back Saturday

I locked everything up here, and left at my usual 4pm time for the bus yesterday afternoon. Then to Clairview for the train down to Corona reading along the way to the end of the line and back to Corona. Crossing through the parkade, and between stalled heavy traffic of 106th I noticed M having a smoke outside the entrance to our office building, so I had a chat with him about why I missed yesterday. We went upstairs and I to my dialer. I got off to a good start the first hour, but bogged down the rest of the way before break. The 2nd half was no better, but I got my pay cheque such as it was. After work I hurried back through the parkade to wait for the #5 bus that would take me to my bank. I did my banking and waited for the train back home at Central station. If I had $20 I would have been over at Audrey’s getting a book.

Actually the weather was surprisingly mild going in and coming home; almost spring like in a way. This morning I’m out of here at 9 for another 4 hours. Saturday’s are usually pretty good and time moves fast. After work I’m going over to Audrey’s and get one of the “Star Wars” books. I’d like to get the “Warhammer” book, but that would leave me short of cash.

Not much going on after my nap when I get home this afternoon. There’s no Oiler hockey and in a way I’m Ok with that. I’ve got other things to do tonight. Firstly I want to get some reading done, piano practicing and some writing. I’m learning how to play “Simple gifts.” it’s not that hard of a piece to play. I’ve got the first (both hands) part down.

Yesterday after Anne left for work I had a bit of time to call our service provider about our home phone and the problems we’re having. The first guy said he’d reset the phone and try calling me back to confirm. Some of the lights on the modem we out. The tech guy walked me through the steps to reset the modem. That done he’d call me back. Ten minutes later no one had called. I called again and got another tech support (Ts) guy. Each time I do this I have to go and explain the problem again. Still no one called back. I gave up. Tonight Anne is supposed to call on her break so we’ll see if the phone is working. If not I’m going to arrange for a service call to get this resolved once and for all. The thing is we have 0 time on our cell phones and I can’t use my cell phone to call our home phone to see if it’s working. All this at a time I’m trying to get that Ms ICC job. Our phone has to go out at a crucial time.

About the ICC job I was able to get a hold of somebody Wednesday and even went down to Ms and did some testing. my interviewer even sent me a link to a simulation test, which I took early Friday morning. It was a fun and interesting simulation. I called the following Friday morning talking with F. The downtown for the ICC training wont begin until December first. The only way F can reach me until I resolve our Home phone issue is through email. Of course, I can call out but nobody can call in.

I had a chat with my Ms referral working at the location where I’d like to work and she said that Ms is paying her and it’s weekly. Every Friday just like where I am now. Cool. If I get hired on, then I’ll be getting 2 weekly cheques.

And this morning/today:

It wasn’t too bad out there going into work at 9am. Almost like an early spring like day out there:

This is unusual for November. Usually we should have about 6 inches of snow on the ground and -20C. Even out behind our building (right) in this photo the walkway would be cleared but shouldered in snow:

I got my Tim’s breakfast and brought my insulin along. I got in and realized someone had taken my headset. That kind of pissed me off. I had a slow start but after my first sale I eventually rebounded and by noon I had a pretty good total. I ended up with $485 and 2 CC sales in there as well. All our lists are pretty beat up. At 1pm all I wanted to do was to go in and get one of my books Audrey’s. At the special order desk a few more books came in added to my pile. I picked up one of my Everquest books ordered in at US pricing. Also Fast Forward #2 is there.

It was really breezy heading home. I think I must have got inside about 2:40pm and into bed shortly after. I had a good hour and a half nap and listened to some “Uriah Heap” on YouTube, good stuff.

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