I finally got my laptop back.

laptop back and in working order thanks to Vinny from work but I'm so cautious about downloading anything other then YouTube material and websites I trust. Just the thought of anything popping up with a "security shield" spooks me.

Yesterday when I left Vinny's place at 5pm (by NorQuest) after work with my laptop it was +14 out there. Very nice. I love this time of year.

Thursday night Anne ordered Wrestlemania 26 for me for this afternoon, excellent. I always look forward to Wrestlemania. I order 2 wrestling pay per views/year. Wrestlemania and Summerslam for my birthday.

Next month the City of Edmonton is going to open a new Light Rail Transit (LRT) line to Southgate shopping Center. This has been in the planning stages since the LRT first went across the river to the University. It's been the talk of the town for awhile now. As the Epcor tower is under construction the LRT extension from Churchill Square station to Grant MacEwan college is also under construction. Pending funding City planners timeline has the "Nait Line" as its called completed by 2014 at a cost of $850M. After that there's the West LRT line. Most people agree that this line should have been developed before the South line due to West Edmonton Mall. I don't know when the timeline for the WLRT is supposed to get completed. It wouldn't surprise me to see it out to WEM in maybe within 10 years.

I'm still reading Karen Traviss's "Crossing the line". It's not bad.

Last night's Coast show wasn't too bad. The topic was on cloning and human cloning. Art Bell was hosting the show for a change. Tonight Ian Punnet has another boaring show. "Adventures of an Undertaker." As soon as I get some extra cash, I'm getting Streamlink and the ITouch. I'm tired of missing the good shows in the middle of the week for the soft shows Ian does on the weekends. Anyway, that's all for now

I'm having computer mouse troubles

We’ve been getting this strange weather system in lately. Strange by meaning for the first few days of Spring, it’s sure letting us know it’s winter around here. Remember I predicted March came in like a lamb and out like a lion? That’s exactly what’s going on right now— except the snow had stopped falling. Weird.

Anne’s going into do our taxes tomorrow and because we file our return electronically to Revenue Canada, I should get my tax return around the end of April if not earlier. If my return doesn’t end up going towards going rent, then I’m getting the Itouch. I don’t ant to be locked into a bill for 3 years.

While I was in the office just as shift was changing one of the relatively new guys heard from somewhere that I was a Mason and that he is very much interested in joining. I’m not very comfortable with this fellow. The first question I ask that shy younger people away from the craft is when I ask them if they believe in God. He had to think about that one. He asked back the question that he thought Masonry isn’t a religion. It isn’t. A belief in God doesn’t have to mean you believe in Jesus. This bloger doesn’t. There is no requirement in any Masonic body’s constitution or bylaws that stats a candidate had to be involved in some sort of belief structure. We call this organized religion. Most Messianic Jews don’t believe in the New testament but they believe in God. My Spider senses immediate red flagged the guy. Then he said after the break that he was in jail that he needs some direction and asked me if we do a criminal record check. I was more or less ok with this guy. He seems like a nice sort. Then I mentioned our Lodge fee. No problem. What’s the first thing that happens next? He asked. I bring this to the attention of the investigating committee and they call the candidate to set up a meeting in their home. “I’m living in a situation that won’t let me have visitors.” Then my Spider senses were really tingling. I’m not really comfortable with this guy. So I’m going to mention that he should go down to the Masonic Lodge and ask down there for a tour and meet with somebody. I’ll just say I don’t really like to sponsor people I work with, something like that. Who’s ever the manager at The Freemason hall will direct him. Or maybe I should talk with our current WM and seek advice from him. I’ll do that this evening after I leave the office.

I’m still having trouble with this computer mouse. One of the guys at the office said they have a bunch of PC equipment that isn’t being used and that there could be a mouse he might have he can donate to me. Anne said they have computer mice at the dollar store across the street. Any PS/2 mouse is all I need, we’ll try this out first.

I’m still plugging away at the sequel to “City of Pearl” “Crossing the line.” The chracters are more defined even if their goals are not clear at the moment. 63 pages into the book the plot isn’t that defined yet but the writing sure is good.

Hey-hey, the Oiler’s won their 3rd game in a row at home last night against Vancouver. Anaheim Ducks are here Friday and I have the night off. I’m putting in my full day Thursday after Anne comes back from doing our taxes. Then I go in for 3.5 hours Friday get my pay check and home, have a nap and get ready to watch the Ducks/Oiler game, if it isn’t on PPV that is.Anyway that's all for now.

I had a nice weekend.

Anne's going to her Doctor this afternoon. This frees me up so I can work my 5-9 shift. Anne's going to facilitate for me moving my files from my old Doctor out in the West end to the new Doctor downtown. Then we're going to order Pizza and watch Monday night Raw. this way I can sleep in for a bit.

I finished reading "City of Pearl" by Karen Traviss about an hour ago. I gave it 3/5 stars but I'm going on to read "Crossing the Line," book 2 in the series.

Other then that, not much going on today. I'll post a "review" of "City of pearl" later today on my website. Anyway, that's all for now.

Today was not to bad

I went to the job this morning with no complications. The shift began ok but went South on me in the 2nd half. I got my pay check and a 6/49 ticket for Saturday's $30M draw and up to my bank. So far today's holding out alright, except for a slight hic-cup with Pay Pall but I'm working on it.

I have this evening off and with no hockey or other distractions, I plan on reading "Pearl" and maybe even finnish the book off this weekend if all goes well.

Speaking about books, over there at Pat's I put my name in for 2 more book give-a-way's: Peter V. Brett's "The Warded man" and Col Buchanan's "Farlander." I like the cover of Farlander. It has a kind of Steampunk/Goth feel to it. I entered both contests. I hope I'm not un eligble for winning again because I won a book last November.

Tomorrow I'm in the office for a full 6 hours. That's alright the day goes by fast. It's just the last 2 hours that drag. Anyway, that's all for now.

I had a slow start to the job last night

Firstly, I had trouble with the monitor not working. Then I had trouble with the headset. Then I had to let about $85 worth of sales go because I couldn't verafy the addresses and I lost a sale because I asked for the credit card. it was one of those nights that put me on the low end of the board. I did get $95 worth of cards which was nice. I was in an owley mood all night.

The nice thing about the weather, for the first time since last November I was able to put my sneakers on instead of boots. That felt good. I was able to read about 4 pages of "pearl" on my commute there and back for 8 pages or so each way. I'm actually enjoying this book and most likely I will work my way through the series.

YouTube is such an amazing resource. I was mentionng this to my wife earlier and I said how it's probably the greatest application the Internet has ever seen since the introduction of Google and Pay Pall. I go on YouTube many times during the week. Earlier I checked out some Advanced Squad Leader set up scenaries. There are a few. I'd love to get back into ASL and play a couple times/week.

Yeesh, Coast has another boring topic on this evening: Hypnosis. last night they were talking Thyroid disease. I think today (Thursday) it's on remote viewing.

I've been seriously thinking about delving into audibooks. I like audible.com but you can't use pay pall to buy books. They charge $7.95/month for the first 3 months and $14.95/month there after. What so you can buy and download their books? Am I reading this right? Ok normally I buy 1 SFF book/week which basically works out to about $650/year on paperback books. But I'm cutting down and buying just 2 books/month. However I like a book to listen to at night and I can get a audiobooks on ITunes, without a subscription service including podcasts etc. Anyway that's about all for now.

A nice looking Monday out there

We had pest control come into the suite this morning. The guy looked around to feel for bed bugs etc. Our suite passed inspection. As if there was any doubt.

I'm off for my 5-9 shift and then wrestling when I come home. Wrestlemania is in a few short weeks. I always order Wrestlemania and Summerslam, good times.

My laptop is still out of action not just because of Security Tool, which I can get rid of easily enough now, but I have to get an update on my anti virus program. I hope to be back online with my laptop by the Easter weekend. on the topic of laptops, I was watching an interesting YouTube video on how to install a laptop graphics card. It's pretty intense.

What inspired me to watch this video is because I want to upgrade my little Acer with a new graphics card capable of playing D&D online. I opened up a DDO account yesterday and discovered the "graphics card" in my desktop wouldn't meet the system requirements to play the game Besides I have extra Ram requirements in my laptop and I'd rather play it there.

Still trudging through "City of Pearl." I'm not sure I want to invest a lot of time in this series. There's not enough action and things going on in it for me and I'm gradually losing interest in "City of Pearl." The multiple POV switches in mid scene is unnerving and whacky. The novel is too British for me. Sod this and sod that and Bullock this and Gov'nor that. I don't even know what Bullock means! Nothing against the British. The best music of my generation came out of the UK. I love everything about the British and the UK except the slang and maybe the obvious "class structure." And I've read books and stories by other UK authors (Peter F Hamilton, Neal Asher) and I don't get the British slang in those authors. This is not a review or a blight on the author and I'm hopeful the novel will pick up but so far, but "City of Pearl" isn't working for me. I wish it would. Anyway that's all for now.

I'm having a decent weekend

but I'm glad it's Saturday night.
This morning I got out the door 10 minutes early and waited for my bus under sunny skies. I got down to Tim's and again no hash browns but once inside the lobby of out building I was able to get a haircut. I met the guy in the barber shop and he took me in right away. I got the whole thing done 10 minutes before shift and had my breakfast sandwich as well.

I sat with JT in the back as we did OTH. I got 4 cards on the day but I didn't know how what my total was. I got a couple more cards and closed out with $205 on cards and a $600 total for the day. For this I get a $5 bonus but I got a much needed and long awaited haircut. It was $15 and I gave the guy a $2 tip.

I was so exhausted on the train but I didn't want to fall asleep as well so I read more from "City of Pearl." It's not bad, I'll most likely read the next one in this series after all as I hope to complete the midway part by this weekend if not the book by the 15th. If this was a novel that grabbed me right away, I'd be done with it by now.

I got into the apartment shortly after 5pm and watched WWE Vintage. I'm going try and grab 40 winks before Anne comes home, so that's about all for now. I'm half awake, so there could be spelling errors.

I had a bit of a power snooze and feel somewhat refreshed. Anne's had something in the oven from when she left and from when I got into the apartment. I don't smell smoke so nothing seems to be burning.

A couple of days ago I've been trying to find the page to Ad Astra radio but the link I get gives me a blank page with the words Ad Astra radio in bold letters on the upper left hand corner. I can't seem to find a link to this station. It's all things in the Science Fiction Fantasy genre like gaming novels movies etc. But I did discover "Hour of the Wolf" which I was able to listen briefly to. What's this Kage baker passed away? I didn't know. What was a surprise to me was she was born the same year as me and Joe Strummer. Baker was born in June of that year so that made her older then me by 2 months,sad.

Speaking of SFF radio though I did discover "Hour 25" and "The voice of Science Fiction." I'm sure there are others. I know blogs like SF Signal cover similar ground but I like having something to listen to at work in between calls.

It's been a productive weekend, Paypall and the haircut and getting my book "Fantasy. The years best 2007" by Rich Horton. It's been a great weekend.

I have a day off today

at the moment. My wife is begining to pay atention to the Oscars coming up soon. I hope Avatar wins one. Also I signed up on TweetDeck. Not exactly sure how to use it but I'll figure it out.

This book "City of Pearl" is an effort to read. And to think I bought the series. The premise looked good and all and I'm about 140 pages in but man is it's tough going. I hope I can finish this by the 15th. I don't know whatto read after Pearl. I know You can never go wrong with an RA Salvatore novel.

I had a good shift at work and I got a $125 card which bosted my card output and qualified me for the bonus. I ended up with a $10 bonus and some empties of course.

Over there at Pats Fantasy hotlist I entered my name in for the chance toWarriors, a new anthology edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois. If I don't win this I'll probably buy a copy.

Tonight o Coast the thopic is on anthropology and Shamanism. Anthropologist, author and primary investigator of the Early Man sites in Ethiopia. Hank Wesselman will give an update on the latest discoveries in anthropology as well as the oldest and most reliable human technologies for accessing the realms of spirit. Yeah, this is more like it.

The other day a co worker sent me a shared YouTube video. Thanks Lou. Whilst not my musical genre I can appreciate the thought behind it. I sent him (first time doing this) a shared YouTube video of The Modern Lovers "Roadrunner" hehehe.

I was reading over there at New Scientest how Nasa is looking at using inflatable spacecraft etc. This is an initiative of Bigelow a company in Las Vegas and have been developing these technologies for some years now. Art bell had the owner of the company on Coast a year or so ago. Bigelow is looking at a test vehical called "Sundancer." Then they'll launch a node and propusion bus later. Two moduals will provide more room then the entire ISS now. Bigelow hopes to have inflatible moduals in space in about 3-4 years. I've been following this company for ahwile and I like what they are trying to do.

I also heard that Cern at the end of this month is going to crank up the LHC so this is good news. I hope they find the Higs.

And the Oilers were in Chicago last night. They actually took the lead 2-1 there fore awhile but then the hawks came back and won 5-2. Yikes. As long as the Oiler's can keep loosing then we have a good chance of getting some great players next year. The Oiler's in yesterdays Trade deadline dumped about $7M off of their payroll and got a few good players as well. I like the deals the Oiler's got today, good stuff.

My activity in RuneScape seems to have been languishing. I'm looking at playing Dungeons & Dragons online Or DDO as it's called. Not that there are any more players but I might play both as well. One of the guys last week was telling me that I can use toothpaste as a way to clean off scratches of my Oblivion CD. The nice thing about Xbox Live is that you can download an app that lets you save the game your playing to your hard drive. No more swaping and worrying about cleaning disks. I like this idea. Anyway, that's all for now.