I had a great long weekend even though it was not as long as I‘d like, it went like warp speed. Another 2 days off would be just great. I need 2 weeks off is what I need.
Today I got out of bed on the really late side: About 1:40pm. That gravel pill does that to me almost like I’ve been mauled by a Zombie or something. Anne made our brunch about 4pm, kind of late for a brunch. I did some piano work and learning “Another year older?” I’m learning 8th notes.
Also this weekend I read a lot from BRH, I hope to be at the half way point of the book by the 18th of this month. Despite the Lodge work I’m doing for the exam next meeting.
Depending how this week goes and all, if it’s going to be a depressing week economically and my job then I might still go ahead with the guard job. I’m still waffling over this. With all the rules and regulations my job is being bothered with both Federally and within the company, I can see this job falling into a black hole really fast.
I suppose by now everyone in the SFF universe has heard about “Starlog” magazine suspending it’s service. It’s no longer a magazine but will focus on it’s web presence. Too bad. I really enjoyed Starlog when it came out before the advent of the Internet. The Internet killed Starlog in it’s magazine form. Most of the info the magazine contained lately was made obsolete with sites like SF Signal, Suvudu and Sci-fi chick.
Tonight of course is Monday night Raw, always a good time.
Anyway gang, that’s all for now
e. Jim
Sunday, April 12, 2009
I got up with my wife around noon Saturday. I decided I’d go later and I played Oblivion for awhile. Anne left me with
a bus ticket. I left out of here shortly before 2pm. It was a beautiful afternoon under clear skies. There was a nice breeze blowing while I was waiting for my bus. On the way to Clairview station, I didn’t know with 100% certainty that I had no kettle on the stove element at home. Usually I measure twice cut once kind of a thing. I got off the bus at Clairview station and onto an awaiting bus to go back the way I came and back into my apartment. The kettle was actually on an element but nothing was on. Whew. I left feeling good about that and on with my day. But I had a long wait until my next bus came by and the bus bench was all dirty to sit on so I was warming up in the bus shelter actually perspiring. Finally my bus came and I was on my way, for good this time.
I got my lottery ticket for Saturday night’s draw and a diet coke and broke open my book to read on the train to Audrey’s. When I got to Corona and upstairs then inside the staff had the basement roped off. Another reading? But this time it wasn’t poetry. One of the staff escorted me to the basement special order and there waiting for me was Book one in Steven Erikson’s massive “Malazan series.” All the SFF book cases were moved around but I was able to sort my way through long enough to see C.S. Friedman’s latest “Feast of Souls” from the “magister trilogy.” This works. I paid for my books and headed over to Tim’s.
I bought a coffee and a blueberry fritter. Good stuff. Of course I never won anything in Roll Up. I enjoyed my treat and relaxed but figured time was running out on my bus transfer as Anne had my bus pass for work. I bought for the first time a ticket from the 12 foot tall ticket machine and punched it to validate it. I took the South train and read my book back home and a bit under blue skies back at Clairview. It was really nice out there.
Once inside I was waiting for my wife to call me on her 5 pm break while I was researching books I’d like to buy. She didn’t call until about 7:30pm and she ended up raging on me because I hadn’t had anything substantial to eat all day. So I decided to go over to Burger King and get a double bacon cheese burger. They looked pretty busy and 4 customers had ordered and received their order while I was waiting for mine. “Are you still waiting?” Someone said behind the counter. I was getting a bit peeved off. Finally the guy brought my order. At one time I was so discouraged I asked for my money back but he ignored me and brought the order. I was ok with it.
Once back home and inside I took my insulin and wolfed my meal down. It was really good but pricey. $7.45 for a burger the width of a SF novel, including large fries and drink. I really enjoyed this and I called back BK saying something like, “You’ll get my business again.” All this before the Oiler/Flames game.
Again no goals in the first period. The Oiler’s scored a wrap-around by Tom Gilbert. Then right after that the Flames scored. It was all Calgary after that. I felt bad for Coach Craig MacTavish, Charlie Huddy, Billy Moores as the players left the bench leaving a stunned Oiler staff under the red lights watching the Flames fans, then they move on. But that was indicative of the whole Oiler season. They take one step forward and 2 back. So what does coach MacT do now? Will he resign? I hope not, MacTavish, Huddy, Moores make a great combination. They also have a $23M D to get signed up as well and look to resign Roloson and Kotalik this summer. Kotalik says he likes what he sees and likes playing with Hemsky. But with half of the Oiler’s salary cap on their D, they don’t have a lot of wiggle room unless they clear payroll. I see them getting rid of Penner, Horcoff and Brodziak in a trade for a big name goal scorer during the off season. But the Oiler’s are done for this year. The Oiler’s ended up with 85 points on the season. March 20th the Oiler’s held 7th place but lost 7 of those 9 games that was the difference maker for them missing the playoffs this year. Now it’s time to cheer on any Canadian team in the playoff’s. That leaves only Calgary, Montreal and Vancouver and the playoffs begin Wednesday. I know Calgary will face Chicago in the first round.
Some interesting stats here. Calgary scored 254 goals and Edmonton scored 234 goals but goals against were identical at 248 each. The Oiler‘s needed to have scored 20 more goals and a big part of them not scoring those goals are players like Dustin Penner. The good things this year were the Oiler‘s great road record and Roloson who basically carried the team. If the playoffs began today, it would be Montreal (93) points in 8th spot vs. Boston Bruins (114) in 1st in the East. In the West it’s St. Louis (90) vs. SJ (117) for 1st in the West. In the middle of that is Vancouver (100) and Calgary (98) It’s going to be an interesting playoff race.
The big 6/49 draw was won last night for a total of $15,267,589.50. Now that doesn’t necessarily mean that 1 person won the jackpot. It sure wasn’t me but it could mean that a group of people shared the winnings. 2nd place was won by 2, for a total of $207,645.50. I’d settle for that. That would mean 5 numbers plus the bonus number. So Wednesday’s draw is an estimated $3.5M. Anne gets the quick pick for that. This time I didn’t get any of those numbers but the spread of those numbers is interesting: 5,6,7,11,17, 34, 48. The bonus number was 48. Now, I’ve picked spreads like that before. I usually do a random pick. Same as a quick pick but I like to have some control over the numbers.
By now most of you have heard the news about Dungeons & Dragons Co creator Dave Arneson passing away. I first played D&D in the early 1980’s. I’m playing it now in another incarnation called “Oblivion.” Oblivion isn’t the same as D&D of course. Strange how last year Gary Gygax passed away and now Dave Arneson.
Well, my Easter weekend is almost over. I think what I’m going to do is to see about working Monday 5-9 Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 1-9pm and Friday morning for 29 hours and skip Saturdays. This kind of like gives me 3 days off. Providing there aren’t any more cuts to shifts. As for the security guard job, I decided to milk what I have right now and wait for the bottom fall out of this company. I think the next set of cuts (if there are any) will most likely be in the summer some time, around the end of June or there a-bouts and in which case I think head office will have just “Business” and the evening shift. I might still survive off of that until the economy is improved. A sure sign of this around here is when oil is about $60/barrel and it looks like this might happen before the summer. In 1997 oil was around $25 at the beginning of that year and the economy was just picking up. It’s predicted that Alberta will lose about 15,000 jobs during this recession.
In other local economic news in the Provincial budget last week, The province is going to increase a carton of cigarettes up to $3 a carton, which range in from $60-$80 depending on the brand is a lot of money for smokers. A case of beer will cost an extra $1.30 more. A case of beer in bottles is usually more then in cans but I’m not much of a beer drinker. But a case usually costs about $25 for a doz. My favorite beer is Stella Artois. A case of this will cost about $30! My wife wanted to go out and buy me a case of beer but it’s hard to get a beer down when I take my insulin so early.
And finally Sci-fi chick is actually talking about science fiction. Gasp, What no Urban Fantasy? Seriously though, the site is posting some new Stargate Universe trailers on the website. The show looks good. Links to Sci-fi chick are in my link section.
Anyway gang, that’s all for now
e. Jim
I got my lottery ticket for Saturday night’s draw and a diet coke and broke open my book to read on the train to Audrey’s. When I got to Corona and upstairs then inside the staff had the basement roped off. Another reading? But this time it wasn’t poetry. One of the staff escorted me to the basement special order and there waiting for me was Book one in Steven Erikson’s massive “Malazan series.” All the SFF book cases were moved around but I was able to sort my way through long enough to see C.S. Friedman’s latest “Feast of Souls” from the “magister trilogy.” This works. I paid for my books and headed over to Tim’s.
I bought a coffee and a blueberry fritter. Good stuff. Of course I never won anything in Roll Up. I enjoyed my treat and relaxed but figured time was running out on my bus transfer as Anne had my bus pass for work. I bought for the first time a ticket from the 12 foot tall ticket machine and punched it to validate it. I took the South train and read my book back home and a bit under blue skies back at Clairview. It was really nice out there.
Once inside I was waiting for my wife to call me on her 5 pm break while I was researching books I’d like to buy. She didn’t call until about 7:30pm and she ended up raging on me because I hadn’t had anything substantial to eat all day. So I decided to go over to Burger King and get a double bacon cheese burger. They looked pretty busy and 4 customers had ordered and received their order while I was waiting for mine. “Are you still waiting?” Someone said behind the counter. I was getting a bit peeved off. Finally the guy brought my order. At one time I was so discouraged I asked for my money back but he ignored me and brought the order. I was ok with it.
Once back home and inside I took my insulin and wolfed my meal down. It was really good but pricey. $7.45 for a burger the width of a SF novel, including large fries and drink. I really enjoyed this and I called back BK saying something like, “You’ll get my business again.” All this before the Oiler/Flames game.
Again no goals in the first period. The Oiler’s scored a wrap-around by Tom Gilbert. Then right after that the Flames scored. It was all Calgary after that. I felt bad for Coach Craig MacTavish, Charlie Huddy, Billy Moores as the players left the bench leaving a stunned Oiler staff under the red lights watching the Flames fans, then they move on. But that was indicative of the whole Oiler season. They take one step forward and 2 back. So what does coach MacT do now? Will he resign? I hope not, MacTavish, Huddy, Moores make a great combination. They also have a $23M D to get signed up as well and look to resign Roloson and Kotalik this summer. Kotalik says he likes what he sees and likes playing with Hemsky. But with half of the Oiler’s salary cap on their D, they don’t have a lot of wiggle room unless they clear payroll. I see them getting rid of Penner, Horcoff and Brodziak in a trade for a big name goal scorer during the off season. But the Oiler’s are done for this year. The Oiler’s ended up with 85 points on the season. March 20th the Oiler’s held 7th place but lost 7 of those 9 games that was the difference maker for them missing the playoffs this year. Now it’s time to cheer on any Canadian team in the playoff’s. That leaves only Calgary, Montreal and Vancouver and the playoffs begin Wednesday. I know Calgary will face Chicago in the first round.
Some interesting stats here. Calgary scored 254 goals and Edmonton scored 234 goals but goals against were identical at 248 each. The Oiler‘s needed to have scored 20 more goals and a big part of them not scoring those goals are players like Dustin Penner. The good things this year were the Oiler‘s great road record and Roloson who basically carried the team. If the playoffs began today, it would be Montreal (93) points in 8th spot vs. Boston Bruins (114) in 1st in the East. In the West it’s St. Louis (90) vs. SJ (117) for 1st in the West. In the middle of that is Vancouver (100) and Calgary (98) It’s going to be an interesting playoff race.
The big 6/49 draw was won last night for a total of $15,267,589.50. Now that doesn’t necessarily mean that 1 person won the jackpot. It sure wasn’t me but it could mean that a group of people shared the winnings. 2nd place was won by 2, for a total of $207,645.50. I’d settle for that. That would mean 5 numbers plus the bonus number. So Wednesday’s draw is an estimated $3.5M. Anne gets the quick pick for that. This time I didn’t get any of those numbers but the spread of those numbers is interesting: 5,6,7,11,17, 34, 48. The bonus number was 48. Now, I’ve picked spreads like that before. I usually do a random pick. Same as a quick pick but I like to have some control over the numbers.
By now most of you have heard the news about Dungeons & Dragons Co creator Dave Arneson passing away. I first played D&D in the early 1980’s. I’m playing it now in another incarnation called “Oblivion.” Oblivion isn’t the same as D&D of course. Strange how last year Gary Gygax passed away and now Dave Arneson.
Well, my Easter weekend is almost over. I think what I’m going to do is to see about working Monday 5-9 Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 1-9pm and Friday morning for 29 hours and skip Saturdays. This kind of like gives me 3 days off. Providing there aren’t any more cuts to shifts. As for the security guard job, I decided to milk what I have right now and wait for the bottom fall out of this company. I think the next set of cuts (if there are any) will most likely be in the summer some time, around the end of June or there a-bouts and in which case I think head office will have just “Business” and the evening shift. I might still survive off of that until the economy is improved. A sure sign of this around here is when oil is about $60/barrel and it looks like this might happen before the summer. In 1997 oil was around $25 at the beginning of that year and the economy was just picking up. It’s predicted that Alberta will lose about 15,000 jobs during this recession.
In other local economic news in the Provincial budget last week, The province is going to increase a carton of cigarettes up to $3 a carton, which range in from $60-$80 depending on the brand is a lot of money for smokers. A case of beer will cost an extra $1.30 more. A case of beer in bottles is usually more then in cans but I’m not much of a beer drinker. But a case usually costs about $25 for a doz. My favorite beer is Stella Artois. A case of this will cost about $30! My wife wanted to go out and buy me a case of beer but it’s hard to get a beer down when I take my insulin so early.
And finally Sci-fi chick is actually talking about science fiction. Gasp, What no Urban Fantasy? Seriously though, the site is posting some new Stargate Universe trailers on the website. The show looks good. Links to Sci-fi chick are in my link section.
Anyway gang, that’s all for now
e. Jim
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Here we go with 3 days off.
Yesterday was relaxing. I had a blog post ready to go but by the time Anne got home to make dinner and all, we’re into Saturday. So I’m starting fresh.
I’m up with my wife to head out with her to “The Bay station” where she gets off for work. I get off at the next stop and I’m buying a couple of books and then it’s off up to City Center mall phase 1 for some crisp meat burritos from Taco Time. I’m taking them with me to phase 2 food court to Taco Bell for their fries supreme. I might buy 1 book at Audrey’s and another 1 at Coles, then home. I don’t know about getting my haircut Saturday. I might just go ahead and do this Sunday.
I’ll come home have a bit of a nap and then get ready to watch the last Oiler game of the 08-09 season. Last night the boys won 5-1. Not much of a game for 2 periods but in the 3rd the Oiler’s scored 3 third period goals. Tonight’s game in Calgary will be a little different.
Over the last few weeks my wife has been running into an ex co worker from another job site of hers. Apparently she was telling my wife about the security guard job she has but it’s working at the Royal Alex hospital. An old friend of mine did that with another guard company. He told me a few horror stories about that. You get gunshot, stabbing, victims crack heads all kinds of crazies rolling in. Well it’s a big hospital in a major city. But she told Anne the name of the guard company and she said to Anne how they are always hiring. Nope just give me a nice site Friday,
Saturday and Sunday nights where I can do a ten minute patrol and sit down on my but for 50 minutes. The rest of the time, I can read work on a little netbook mini. I’m looking at getting the HP mini for under $500. Mainly to surf the Internet, do my writing and play Warcraft. I’m getting about $400 for my vacation pay and I’ll get that at the end of June. Anne might get it for me, if I get the job. But at least I know the name of the other guard company. She said to Anne, “their always hiring.”
I read from my book “Blood red harp” earlier. I’m liking this book. Today I’m looking at whatever if anything is in my special order file at Audrey’s, If nothings in there then I’m going to be getting the first 2/4 of the Terry Brooks. I think “The Druid Keep” is there. I’ll check it out though. At Chapter’s I might just pick up another David Weber “Honor Harrington” book. We’ll see.
Anyway gang, that’s all for now
e. Jim
I’m up with my wife to head out with her to “The Bay station” where she gets off for work. I get off at the next stop and I’m buying a couple of books and then it’s off up to City Center mall phase 1 for some crisp meat burritos from Taco Time. I’m taking them with me to phase 2 food court to Taco Bell for their fries supreme. I might buy 1 book at Audrey’s and another 1 at Coles, then home. I don’t know about getting my haircut Saturday. I might just go ahead and do this Sunday.
I’ll come home have a bit of a nap and then get ready to watch the last Oiler game of the 08-09 season. Last night the boys won 5-1. Not much of a game for 2 periods but in the 3rd the Oiler’s scored 3 third period goals. Tonight’s game in Calgary will be a little different.
Over the last few weeks my wife has been running into an ex co worker from another job site of hers. Apparently she was telling my wife about the security guard job she has but it’s working at the Royal Alex hospital. An old friend of mine did that with another guard company. He told me a few horror stories about that. You get gunshot, stabbing, victims crack heads all kinds of crazies rolling in. Well it’s a big hospital in a major city. But she told Anne the name of the guard company and she said to Anne how they are always hiring. Nope just give me a nice site Friday,
Saturday and Sunday nights where I can do a ten minute patrol and sit down on my but for 50 minutes. The rest of the time, I can read work on a little netbook mini. I’m looking at getting the HP mini for under $500. Mainly to surf the Internet, do my writing and play Warcraft. I’m getting about $400 for my vacation pay and I’ll get that at the end of June. Anne might get it for me, if I get the job. But at least I know the name of the other guard company. She said to Anne, “their always hiring.”
I read from my book “Blood red harp” earlier. I’m liking this book. Today I’m looking at whatever if anything is in my special order file at Audrey’s, If nothings in there then I’m going to be getting the first 2/4 of the Terry Brooks. I think “The Druid Keep” is there. I’ll check it out though. At Chapter’s I might just pick up another David Weber “Honor Harrington” book. We’ll see.
Anyway gang, that’s all for now
e. Jim
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
I'm having some modem technical support issues with my ISP but I hope to have them ironed out in a few days.
Last night Super moved 3 of us in the back to do taps. I had a slow beginning and very few cans and bottles were up for grabs. I learned the Oiler’s/Kings game was on PPV. Lovely. Their last game at Rexall place of the ‘08-09 season will be Friday night with the Flames and of course I’ll be watching that. Since I had a slow start I got few sales. It was me, D and JT. In the first half I got a CC sale and bout $245 in sales doing CBF. In the 2nd half I got another CC sale and a $100 sale and I closed out with a $75 sale. I love closing on money. Apparently we’re supposed to have some of the people from the DNC list to make sure we’re doing our jobs properly and they will be joined by some of the people from Vancouver. The boss is on a 1 week Easter break and it’s drying up out there. Some bad news though on my way out the office the Oiler’s were losing 2-1 in the 3rd. There could still be a slim chance. I knew LA would do this. I headed out to catch my train with a whole whack of bottles and cans I got during break. I read from my book before the train and on my way home as there were extra cars on the train tonight due to the Oiler game.
When I got home there was still no Internet activity. I called Shaw to find out what’s going on and they pulled my service because of a slower modem. I’ve had this thing since August 1999. There’s nothing wrong with the modem except since then Shaw’s come up with an even “faster” modem. My modem is helping to slow the network down I guess is what they were saying but all I have to do is bring the modem and cables to any Shaw outlet and swap it for a new one at no charge to me. Anne confirmed all of this when she came in from her outing from across the street as I was talking with tech support getting the address for their West End location. Anne said she’ll do it for me Thursday on her day off. I should be back online Thursday night if all goes well.
But we have a Wednesday 6/49 ticket for tonight’s draw and we might win the big draw of $9M! Yeah right I usually like to check the numbers at their online site from my list of links but there’s a machine that checks for winning numbers, the guy scans in.
Hype for the new Star Trek movie “Academy” is revving up its gears for the big release May 8th. From the trailer’s I’ve seen the film looks really good.
Tonight Anne is on the job and tomorrow we get our cheques as usual. They might even come in for tonight, hard to say. But I owe DC $10 from about the first of march to see if the Oiler’s would get into the Playoff’s. I owe him $10. I was in the running. Last week the copper and blue were in 7th place. I’m in for Thursday off Friday and in again on Saturday. So Saturday I’ll go in and get my book
But it looks like my service provider is giving me a bit of grace here. So if I’m offline for a few days, you’ll know why.
Anyway gang, that’s all for now
e. Jim
When I got home there was still no Internet activity. I called Shaw to find out what’s going on and they pulled my service because of a slower modem. I’ve had this thing since August 1999. There’s nothing wrong with the modem except since then Shaw’s come up with an even “faster” modem. My modem is helping to slow the network down I guess is what they were saying but all I have to do is bring the modem and cables to any Shaw outlet and swap it for a new one at no charge to me. Anne confirmed all of this when she came in from her outing from across the street as I was talking with tech support getting the address for their West End location. Anne said she’ll do it for me Thursday on her day off. I should be back online Thursday night if all goes well.
But we have a Wednesday 6/49 ticket for tonight’s draw and we might win the big draw of $9M! Yeah right I usually like to check the numbers at their online site from my list of links but there’s a machine that checks for winning numbers, the guy scans in.
Hype for the new Star Trek movie “Academy” is revving up its gears for the big release May 8th. From the trailer’s I’ve seen the film looks really good.
Tonight Anne is on the job and tomorrow we get our cheques as usual. They might even come in for tonight, hard to say. But I owe DC $10 from about the first of march to see if the Oiler’s would get into the Playoff’s. I owe him $10. I was in the running. Last week the copper and blue were in 7th place. I’m in for Thursday off Friday and in again on Saturday. So Saturday I’ll go in and get my book
But it looks like my service provider is giving me a bit of grace here. So if I’m offline for a few days, you’ll know why.
Anyway gang, that’s all for now
e. Jim
Sunday, April 5, 2009
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
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
Thursday, April 2, 2009
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
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
April 1st came in like a lion.
I spent the afternoon reading the rest of “The third Lynx.” I read on the train even as much as I could at work before kick off. I had about 4 pages left and I completed reading the book about 9:30pm. The 2nd part of Timothy Zahn’s Frank Compton series “The third Link” took me a little longer for me to read then I wanted. I’d hoped I’d finish the book off in 2 weeks.
Review Summary: Continuing the adventures of detective Frank Compton and his companion Bayta as they battle their enemy the Mordhri.
Review Summary: Continuing the adventures of detective Frank Compton and his companion Bayta as they battle their enemy the Mordhri.My rating: 4.5/5 e. Jim’s.
Brief Synopsis; Murder on the Orion express. Compton and Bayta race the Mordhri from Quadrail station to station in search for a sculpture called the Lynx. The Lynx fits into a special weapon the Mordhri need further his plans for expansion. Our traveler’s is joined by another Detective who doesn’t get along with Compton that provides a thorn in Compton’s side the whole adventure.
Pros: Very accessible in the first person with interesting character development.
Cons: The book kind of lags around details and is slow to get going.
Cons: The book kind of lags around details and is slow to get going.
Bottom line: I really enjoyed this book but it was hard for me to get into. The characters moved around to much and the action points could have been better. Still this was a great book and I’ll be buying the next one when it come out in MMP.
I got in shortly before 10pm and did some admin stuff about my dismal performance on the job this evening. I had my coffee thermos and book out and a sale which we now have to have them all verified. So, Super comes over to my station to verify a sale and knocks over my thermos wipes out my coffee and damages my book and stumbling through all of that costs me a sale as well. That didn’t exactly put me in a very good mood, which is why I got only $55 by break as others were pulling in CC sales and well over $200. Super said though that my bank was 5th over all in the office. That made me feel a lot better. He gave me some tips as well and I did a bit better. I collected some cans and bottles but my total was the lowest in the room. While everyone was doing great I suffered. I can’t have good nights all the time.
I was glad to get out of there. I couldn’t wait to get to Corona and read the rest of my book which I finished on the train.
Thursday I’m off and it’s Lodge night, and I’ll be glad to spend time in Lodge. It’s a regular business meeting but I’ve got to request WM that I bow out for the prove up in May. Manly because I won’t have the time to do my memory work and I don’t want to leave my Tyler post as well.
The book I’m reading now is an Everquest novel, “The blood red harp” by Elaine Cunningham. So far it’s not bad.
Anyway, gang that’s all for now.
e. Jim
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