I'm having a pretty good weekend even though it's interupted by 4 hours of work

Hard to believe I’m actually going into work on a Sunday. Our company has only begun a Sunday shift as of recently since we got to this office.

I didn’t win the $24M yesterday but 1 winner did for $24,202,155.00. These large amounts are usually won by a group. 14 winners won 2nd place for $45,660.80 which is kind of small for a 2nd place prize this round. And 234 $2,253.70. Still small amounts this round for 2nd and 3rd place. On Wednesdays draw for $15,264,390.00, which nobody won 2nd place was $153,139.10. Of course that’s probably why the 2nd place draw was so high was because nobody won first place but there were 3 2nd place winners. Ahh, fun with numbers. Wednesday’s draw is reset for $4M and as usual I’ll get my ticket.

Yesterday afternoon I went down to Audrey’s and got the book I wanted. Kate Elliott’s “Crown of Stars” Book 2. I came up from the Audrey’s side of the Underground and good thing I did because in progress was the gay pride parade. If I would have known I would have brought my camera. They had some nice floats and the costumes were colorful. Despite the parade it took me an hour to get to Audrey’s from my place and back.

I had a decent night last night. I did some reading, some piano practice and theory and even got a bit of writing in as well. I had a great night and I even had a bit of a nap. I got my book, had a chance to win $24M yesterday was a good day. In about an hour and a bit, I’ll be out of here to go into work. Anne made me some sandwiches for later this afternoon and I’ll take my insulin pen in with me. I think we’ll break about 4pm for 10 minutes. I’ll be home about 6:45pm while my wife is at her job until midnight. I’ll have another 5 and a half hours or so until she gets home.

Anyway gang, that’s all for now

e. Jim

I had to pick a new template because

the other one had a serious unexplained bug in it. This template seems to be just as good.

Star Trek's movie outing last Sunday netted us in getting a couple of free passes. So, if it comes out to the Empire theater, I'm going to try and go see GI Joe. I thought it was going to be a Stephen Spielburg production. I think of Spielburg and I think Disney, shudder. Now if it was a John Woo production, I'd see it without hesitation.

Thus with today being Friday its the end of the week for me. Thank God. It was a week of ups and downs that's for sure. My new week begins on Sunday for 4 hours but on Wednesday I'm going in for the afternoon/evening and same with Thursday and Friday. I've got books to get about 20 waiting at Audrey's for me.

Thanks to SF Signal I've come across an old online friend from my old A God's Fight days, AGF (there's a link to this on my webpage list of links) the return of Zen Tiger. I'll be placing a link to his site here soon. You can visit his site from here or go to my web page in the welcome block near the bottom.

Anyway gang, that's all for now

Jim

Trying to work things out

Yesterday I got out of the house and missed my nice low floor bus that was waiting for me but I was out of breath as it was boarding passengers at ( I was running down the stairs and out to the street) my usual stop. I looked for another bus towards my left down 137th st behind the bus that was just pulling out and guess what was pulling up? You got it the old Jimmy. That’s when my left leg slightly cramped up on me as I was climbing those steps into the old clunker. I think the City puts these old buses in service just to piss off the public. It’s never at Clairview after 9:30pm when I‘m there. I’ll try and snag a picture of it this afternoon.

Anyway I got out of that old bus and onto the train and settled into read a bit but couldn’t get into the story so I put the book away in my bag and watched the world go by on the way into work. The “Station Point” infrastructure is coming along fine. The City yard warehouse frame is up. Just before Rexall Place the land there has these tall poles sticking out of the ground. I’ll try and snag a photo of that too.

I managed to grab my end dialer and went looking for Rob while he was doing some clean up work having a bit of a meeting with DC and Brendan. Super mentioned that he got my Victoria day stat pay fixed up with Rob. So I had a chat with Rob about work etc. It was relaxed. He confirmed my stat pay and then I asked about my vacation pay, so he emailed payroll and we’ll see what happens. Also the best part I talked with him about trading Saturdays for Sundays. I’ll have my Saturday offs off and that means no more getting up Saturday mornings. He said he’s good with that. I’m committed to go in for Sunday and that’s from 2-6pm. Some other things going on. We had the hockey game on and as soon as the first period was over the game got hijacked for the basketball playoffs. Subvere says “I’ll change it back for you. I respect you,” I let them watch the game anyway. Gord with his young good eyes sitting beside me was able to see the game from the other monitor 20 feet away or so behind me. The Pens won 2-1 and forced a game #7 and that’s Friday night. Bastards. They couldn’t wait when I’m off put it on a Saturday night for me could they?

I got my bag of empties and at the half called Anne to let her know of the good news. It might be even better news.

I don’t get what’s going on with my vacation pay. From last December 19th they claim I was overpaid. Then when I requested my vacation pay from last year last week they pay me $34? They say now there’s $16 and some change in there now. Since January there’s supposed to be based upon 6% of my gross pay vp accrued $314. So that means $314 from last December and another $280, I owed payroll almost $600? I never saw any overpayment increase in my cheques. They never gave me an explanation as to where the overpayment came out of. Income tax? Some other department? Yes I had bonus money last year to the tune of something like $1,200. To say I’m confused about all this is an understatement. I think they’re seeing bonus money as an overpayment because maybe part time are not qualified for bonus money. Only thy know and they’re not talking.

Anyway I had a decent start to the shift at about $515 by break and 1 $100 CC sale. That’s when I called Anne to let her know about my switch from Saturday to Sunday. Friday night I can stay up late without worrying about it Saturday morning. I don’t think my stat pay will be on this cheque but it will be on the next one. I hope. I also don’t think Rob has anything to do with my vacation pay being screwed up. I think it’s HO doing this on their own obviously. If and when they find where they went wrong, then they owe me about $600. And what’s to suggest that when I’m ready to take out a vacation pay draw in December that they won’t do this again? I bet if I didn’t have my vacation pay accrued this wouldn’t happen. If they do this again in December then I’m going to defiantly get out of the vp accrued business and have it back showing on my cheque each week. The thing that bothers me is that nobody else is experiencing this problem. It’s only the people that have had their vp accrued like me.

I got the last of the empties and I ended up with $875 for my daily total, which wasn’t bad. Then we got all the small taps. I confirmed with Super about me not in on Saturday “I will be missed,” yeah right. I was feeling happy leaving out after work while it was still light and mild out there. I had Anne on my cell phone and as I was just about on my way into Corona I realized I had forgot my knapsack. I worked my way all the way back huffing and puffing and fortunately for me the security guard was around and he let me up stairs and there was Super doing his paper work. I got my bag sitting on my chair and I was back on my way to Corona with Anne in my ear and I barely got the train as it was pulling in. of course with the extra 2 new stops South at the end of the line the new arrival time is about 9:25pm.

It feels good to have my Saturdays off. Actually what I’m going to do as of next week is work Wednesday Thursday and Friday, 1:30pm-9pm. This way I’ll have my cheque in the afternoon before 4:30pm and I’ll be up the street at my bank if I time it good enough and back before 5pm or a little after. Also, I might be able to drop off an envelope to the security desk in her building with the bank card inside and my pay stub. “For Anne.” That could work out as well. This way she gets the card and what’s left over after my “allowance” and I can head over to Audrey’s as usual to get my books and if I need to grab a burger at Burger King or something, that would work out as well.

This way with having Saturdays off after Anne leaves for work I can swing over to Happy Harbor and get in a couple of rounds of MTG. The #11 swings right by it. I’ll remember to bring my cell phone with me. Especially when I get the new I phone. Only if the Iphone can hold Viigo. If it can’t I’ll get the Storm or something.

Usually Anne’s out of here by the time I’m home on a Saturday as she starts her shift at 2pm so she’s out the door by 1pm. When She leaves. I’ll leave for HH. So I’ll put in Thursday and Friday afternoons. This way I’ll have 26.5 hours in. Next week I’ll have 32.5 hours in.

Anyway gang, that’s all for now

e. Jim

What the heck happened to my blog?

I was able to contact the call center. I also had contacted payroll and the fellow spoke broken English. I got the feeling he was feeling uncomfortable with me asking about the state of my vacation pay. His Super intervened the call and was very aggressive towards me. “Your supposed to take this up with your branch manager.” “He told me to call,” is what I should have said to her. Because he did. Payroll said he’d look into this for me. I think somebody made a mistake with my vacation pay last December and they don’t want to be held accountable because they aren't giving me any details about the so called overpayment. I went in feeling good and I picked up my 6/49 ticket for Wednesday’s big draw and I got my old end dialer in the front 20. Nobody came out after me. I had a slow start doing CPA and at break barely at line hour and 3 CC sales. I got cans and bottles and at break called Anne. I got the rest of the empties and in the 2nd half I got $650 in 2 hours and 3 cards for a total of $1,085. $325 of that was on CC sales pulling in 6 for the night. I’m back. That ought to shut Rob up for awhile. I changed my pitch around slightly by shortening it up and it helped a lot. Apparently I even got a $20 bonus. I’ll believe it when I see it. I also talked with Greg about substituting Friday’s for Sunday’s and he said he hadn’t talked with Rob yet but he will. He didn‘t think there would be a problem. It means I’m still down at the office every day even if it’s just to pick up my cheque.

I got a small assortment of empties added to what I had from Saturday to take home. I’m getting competition now from Brendin’s wife as DC’s collecting cans for them. They’re having a baby. Then there’s Fran going around taking cans from our tap section. I was lucky if I got half a bag full this evening. Slim Pickens.

I was feeling pretty good getting out of there and I barely missed my train so I read for awhile waiting for the next one. This oriental lady across from my “booth” was reading a Jim Butcher “Dresden” novel from the Library. I got in about 9:45pm just before Monday night Raw and wow. It was a good one. On a scale from 1-10, I’d rate it a 9.5. It had everything in it. Anne made me some supper and went up to Walmart to get my coffee. Despite everything, today wasn’t bad. Even the markets picked up Monday…….. ………..1:05pm>I had a good 7.5 hours sleep or there abouts. I got up on the late side of the noon hour today although I missed the markets but on the CNN ticker showed the Dow up by about 21 points and finally from another source oil is just at $70! I remember when it was floating around $30 last November.

Another economic indicator things are improving: We’re back to around 8 tap shooters in the office at night but that could change tonight and tomorrow.

When I first began reading science fiction books, it was in the early 1970’s reading Ace doubles and Perry Rhodan novels. I sold a lot of books in the early 1990’s but now that things have been more or less stable I’m looking at getting back the Ace doubles. I didn’t have all of them. I think the publisher had something like 280 books of the science fiction line. Many of them from various Ebay sellers are in pretty good condition. I used to have a lot of the Doc Savage novels as well. As many of the original Dark Shadows novels. The one’s with the gold colored covers. Those were great reads. All of the books mentioned above are in various states of condition on Ebay.

I was mentioning about ASL (Advanced Squad Leader) last night to Anne when we were talking about what we‘d do if we won the Big one on Wednesday. I’d buy all of the modules I don’t have since “Multiman publishing” took it over. I filled Anne in what the game was about while we were lying in bed listening to a bit of Coast. Even though I find it hard to get the time to play ASL, I’d like to get back into it again. I have many great memories playing ASL in the 80’s and 1990’s and other wargames as well. I got involved in war gaming when one of the neighborhood kids back in Coquitlam had a game board set up in his bedroom. Dave Galloway and Jim Martin and a few others were moving these things called counters around the board and rolling dice. They were playing “Blitzkrieg.” I didn’t know at the time what the game was called or even where one could buy a copy but I liked what I was seeing. The last time I gamed an Avlon hill game was around August 1973 with Dave Galloway at the old (long gone now) Burard Bible institue. My favorite Avlon Hill game before Squad Leader was “Stalingrad.” I found “Strategy & Tactics” (SPI) magazine from I think Alfred. I had some cash and around 1972 I bought a 2 year subscription to S&T. You got a game in every by monthly issue. They had some great game topics along with in depth historical articles on the game. SPI released non magazine games later and I bought a few of those from Burnaby Hobbies. It’s still there today in the same location. I lost a lot of those old science fiction books and war games when I moved from New Westminster to Edmonton in 1978. I could have kicked myself for not arranging with the caretaker of the last place I lived in there, to send my stuff up to Edmonton by UPS or something. It might have cost me a paycheque from the guard company I was working with. I decided to stay in Edmonton the weekend of August 19th 1978. I'm sure for a small fee my caretaker would have shipped my things for me.

Weather wise we’re getting some cooler weather later for June. I don’t like it too hot. This is just right. And all the leaves are back on the trees. If I have a decent night this evening, I’m going to show up for Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. And when I begin working Sunday afternoon the only times I’m coming in will be on Fridays is to pick up my cheque.

I’m worried about my wife. She’s been having some discomfort in her foot lately causing her some grief. She’s worried about her job as they are cutting back in her hours etc. other then the odd grief I’m getting from my job and my payroll troubles I’m coping as best I can. Yet with all the layoffs around the Province/City, our office isn’t full. Maybe things are improving. With oil at $70/barrel things ought to.

Anyway gang, that’s all for now

e. Jim

Hmmm....

I got into work yesterday just fine and read some more of ICB. I got a lot of empties between the shift although I had a slow start to the first half. It was one of those disasters of an evening last night. I got a CC sale and Super and his “lieutenant” left me alone along with about 8 of us in the back. We got moved in the 2nd half to the other side. I got the rest of the empties to fill my bag. I also let Super know I’d be gone from this evening night due to Lodge night. Most of my calls last night were either not home or hit by the recession. But one of my callers was telling me when we were talking about EI that it takes about 1-2 weeks for a client to get their first cheque. EI has sped processing of claims up quite a lot over the years. I recall it would take up to 6-8 weeks of being on welfare before the first cheque arrived and you’d get something like about $800 on about 6 separate cheques depending on what the rate was. Then your off assistance and collecting UIC. At one time while if working part time, you could have your claim on hold and still work temporary. You simply mark on the card that your working but temporary. UIC didn’t pay anything but when the job ended it was a matter of a two week turnaround and your claim continues. I did that a lot from 1990-1994 before the Feds “reformed” UIC and now call it EI. Also I think the caller said they give 41 weeks but It’s different from Province to Province. The thing about that is I wont need to go through the job search while on a medical. It works out to be 10 months and if Anne got us that subsidy that could be a nice bit of time off for me. Not like this is something to look forward to but it’s hoped that the economy will turn around by then for people that will have to go on EI. I hope going on EI is in my forecast. I need to be working. I did get 2 CC sales though. I got a $!00 sale from my 3 levels of support to finish off the shift. I ended up with $400 on a slow night. But at least they got $150 in CC’s out of me.

I was glad to get the train and a seat by myself to read more of ICB and at Rexall Place who boards on the train but my wife. She said she got pulled off because the ticket police were checking for tickets and she couldn’t find hers. She did of course find it when she was on the platform and they let her back on my train when she saw me pull up. She said Pizza wasn’t hiring so she couldn’t get me an application, which was too bad. But she said the Summer is usually slow for them but it will pick up again. Who knows maybe in the Fall. We had a nice chat on the way home.

Greg runs a Sunday shift and I was thinking out loud yesterday when he was talking about it with Edgar and sitting beside me and in kind of a passing reference I mentioned how I’d like to swap Friday’s for Sundays as long as I can get my cheque on Friday. This might be a good idea but right now I’m on thin ice as it is. Greg said if he can set it up with Rob would I like to attend that shift? I said I’d have to see about it with Anne. I Anne and I talked about it and she’s warm to the idea. But we’ll see. Anne likes the idea but not this weekend but next weekend. This weekend if I get my vacation pay I’d like to get a whack of books and take my wife out to Red Lobster for dinner and go see Star Trek.

What I like about this idea of having Friday’s off is I can go in and get my cheque and go to the job bank on my way in and look around for another job on Fridays. This has potential, if Rob lets me off Fridays for Sundays that is. It’s really hard on me Friday night/Saturday morning because I get very little sleep Friday night. I could try it out for the summer at least. If I still have this job.

I was kind of disappointed to hear about Pizza not hiring. I know I want to get out of where I am now but on my terms. Because this last Monday I came within a hair of being terminated and what with me writing such a low total last night stacked against Subvere’s 11 CC’s in a 4 hour shift and his $1,000+ total did nothing to raise my profile in the bosses eyes last night. My chances of me keeping this job are slim little alone changing my hours around. My back up plan should I be terminated? Right now I don’t really have one but maybe I can get hired on the old guard company I used to work at. That office is located on 124th st. I know exactly where it is and I might investigate that option one of these Friday afternoons if Rob lets me tweak my current schedule and swing up that way with my resume possibly in September. That would coincide with my 9th anniversary of this job. For the time being I’d like to stay low. Anne came up with this idea: Ask Rob for a week off. Come back on a Sunday. Friday-Sunday. In that week apply at the guard company. If I get the job then I run up to the Police station, put in for my guards license, “can I wait to see if I get my guards license before you place me?” type thing. If I get the guards license I’ll ask for the Pacific Rim Mall site again. Weekend guard work. They give their employees that don’t have a vehicle a ride home after 2am. Or at least they did at that time back in 1994. If all that works out then I’ll leave this job. It all hinges on A.) I get a week off, B.) I get the guard job, C.) I get the guards license.

I was thinking that if I ever won the Big One (which I didn’t last night) I’d like to go to SF Conventions or a Con as they are often referred to in the genres. This is where to meet editors and agents and others in the industry. The last Con I went to was Non Con here in Edmonton 30 years ago this October. From what I recall of it I had a great time. I especially enjoyed the costume shindig that came later that night. But the best part is meeting with all the different authors that attend these things, especially he bigger Cons. I’d like to go to World Con in Montreal this year.

Speaking of authors in the genre by now most of you have heard that the SFF genre lost another heavyweight: David Eddings (1931-2009) has passed away. In all honesty I never read any of Eddings work. I now wish I had hearing about his death and his more known genre work like the “Belgariad” and “Dreamer” series makes wish I had paid more attention to this author of 20 novels. I believe there are recent Omnibus collections of his work still available. The achievement of writing and publishing 20 novels is in itself amazing. News of this sad event has already hit the Blogsphere. Eddings wrote all his novels longhand and I kind of like the idea as well. I have 25 years of writing my diary longhand. Eddings died at the age of 77. RIP Mr. Eddings.

And if that weren’t enough actor David Carradine passed away today. I have fond memories watching his performance in “Master of Kung Fu.” To me that was his breakout roll. Seems Carradine committed suicide. He was 72. RIP Grasshopper.

Last night on Coast we were listening about the Loch-Ness monster. Of course of interest to Thelemites is where “Boleskine House” sits. I did a Google earth search for Crowley’s home but it just points to a marker. But the premise of the program was more about “krypto zoology.” I didn’t hear any reference to BC’s own “Ogogpogo.” The Ogogpogo is Canada’s answer to Loch Ness monster or “Nessie” which contemporary culture nick names it. The Ogogpogo hasn’t really got a nick name but still it’s one of the most famous “draws” of it’s kind in British Columbia.

Ah the markets are up again. The DJIA is sitting just around 8700+ points. Oil lost a lot yesterday but is now just under $70. I doubt oil is going to climb up to $90 like it did last year. I’d be happy to see oil around $60-80 between now and mid October.

I’m off work today but I’m curious to see if Rob put my vacation pay bid in on Monday. Most likely why he brought me into the office or that’s probably what inspired him to pull me in because of my vacation pay release request. I doubt it but it just seems slightly ironic timing. Or am I going to have another repeat of last December 19th where payroll is going to hit me up with an unexplained “overpayment” again like the last time. If that happens then I’m going to get on the phone next Friday when I pick up my cheque and I’m going to try and get a hold of HO payroll: “Don’t make me call in Albert Employment Standards on this. I will if I have to.”

I’ve got an easy Lodge night this evening. I’m going to enjoy tonight at the Lodge and not worry about payroll my job or anything. It’s going to be a nice relaxing night off.

Anyway gang, that’s all for now

e. Jim

I downloaded Internet Exploere 8 and it took out the Paste function

in the right click compose window. The past function is there but not highlighted. Strange.

Anhow I have a long post on my website. I'll be looking for a work around this soon. Sorry about this

Anyway gang, that's all for now

e.Jim

I can't believe how fast this summer is going

we're already into June now. I'm still reading ICB by CF Friedman. The POV at first was a bit jumpy but its settled down now.

Coast looks like a good show this morning all about conspiracies, like JFK etc. I like shows like this, they help fuel my imagination.

On the way home from the BBQ we were discussing video games and the game I was looking to get next is "Mass affect" and Nathan said he has a copy he can lend me. He said he'd bring it by on Thursday. Can't argue that.

Earlier after the hockey game I was doing a bit of research on alchemy. My knowledge of alchemy is about a thimble size full but I know it's more then just turning metals into gold type thing. I think the definitive website on alchemy would have to be Adam McLean's site. You wont get a taste of alchemy by reading Harry Potter that's for sure and let me tell you this is heavy reading. But it all fits into a special project of mine.

I'm quite excited about the new Sherlock Holmes movie coming out with Robert Downey Jr. Should be a good one. Though my favorite Sherlock Holmes character of course was Jeremy Brent. I think Brent played the best ever Holmes. Downey is a good actor even though I haven't seen him in Iron Man yet. You can get some of Brent's acting as Holmes on YouTube.

Anyway gang, that's all for now

e. Jim