Friday, June 06, 2008

Yeesh, Thursday

Sleep didn’t come very well for me Wednesday night/Thursday morning and I ended sleeping late. We Didn’t get our pay cheque’s last night, some difficulty with the courier but we are assured they will be here today.

So because my team won the Stanley Cup game the other day, I won the pool. Or my share of it: $35. I got $10 out of that today from JT.

I got a call from Audrey’s books saying 3 of my “Mission Earth” books came in. Anne says I can have the pool money and my bonuses.

Police Air 1 is out there trying to catch the bad guys. I can hear the chopper doing it's thing. Early this morning City police were out here in the back and this concerned my wife. She put on her hous coat about 4am and went to take a look out front and some crack head had bashed the inside lobby door in. Police cars were out in the front. Something was going on.

Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now

e. Jim

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

I got out of here

not needing to shut the place down as Anne went out for a bottle run. I got to the train platform as there was no train yet but one was coming on it’s way. I boarded the last car and read some more. Maybe 2 pages. Possibly 4 so far this evening. I had a slow start to the shift. On the bonus sheet, I’ve got $15. No credit card sales? I had about $300 at break. It was a slow night doing multi files all night. I got 1 credit card sale. Anne called in the 2nd half and I got another credit card sale. That’s half of what I qualify for. I got Greg’s attention and all the credit cards I got 16 last week, all went through ok. Most likely what happened because I took Saturday off Rob accidentally Rob “forgot” my credit card bonus this week. He’ll correct it again for next week so they’ll show up next week. Typical. Moe and I made up and were friends again. That’s good. He said he’d look into the missing credit card thing for me. So next week, I should have 12 more credit card sales for this week plus the 16 from last week. That’s $56 plus this week when this Stanley Cup playoff finally ends that’s another $35. That’s $91. I can use that towards my external hard drive. I walked across the parkade and down to my train. There was J, the other East Indian fellow that said hello to me. Nice fellow. He’s living in Clairview now and in a 2 bedroom Condo forking out $1300 month to rent. And Anne’s complaining about our $815?

Of course as we got on out of the tunnel and passing by Richards place, I was mindful of the event 29 years ago. Funny, by the end of the week Ellen broke up with me. The week after that was Sherwood park Medieval days.

I boarded my bus at 9:40pm and I was home as Anne was cleaning in the apartment. Everything is right with the world. Other then what she has to do tomorrow.

Over the last week the Weather Pixie has been turned off. They say they are having troubles with their hosting company. I hope they will be back online soon. It’s a nice service.
My 56th Birthday will be August 21st this year on a Thursday night. My wife wants to replace the money she used from my income tax return and add a bit more to get me a PS3 as a birthday present. Also, Summerslam this year is August 17th. Hopefully I’ll have the pay per view and a Rosebowl Pizza. And a PS3. That’s a nice birthday present.

Some 12 hours later: I didn't go to bed this morning. I was kind of stressed out over my wife’s mammogram today. She returned moments ago. She said it wasn't as bad as it sounded. No worse then taking ones blood pressure. She knows what to expect for next time.
So tonight it's do or die for the Pens. I hope they win tonight and force a game 7, if they do then I get to watch the Stanley Cup game Saturday night. That'd be great. Let's go Pens. It doesn't matter what teams are in the playoffs. It's excellent hockey.

I decided not to go to Lodge Thursday as I want to go to our annual Lodge BBQ on Sunday. I've never been to one of these before. I also want to put a full work week in as well while I can.
I‘m enjoying a nice first coffee here today. Speaking of, which it‘s Tim Horton’s Camp Day today and I think I‘ll go get myself a nice medium size coffee and a donut. This is one charity I really feel good about supporting. Among others but this one is kind of special.

It’s a beautiful sunny spring afternoon. Anne‘s going to her job at her usual time, rent‘s paid up and bills are taken care of. Now if the Pens win tonight I‘ll be able to watch the Stanley Cup game on Saturday.

Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now

e. Jim

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

I left out

of here at 4pm and caught the train. I think the train driver is playing games with me because he can see late arrivals coming up the escalator from his rear view mirror. So if I turn to catch the last car, he’ll shut the doors and take off. But if I go right off the escalator a few feet away he’ll wait. Yesterday on the commute into work, I tested out this theory and went for the car right off the escalator. I noticed he hung around and didn’t leave right away but allowed others to catch the last car. This afternoon, I’m going to attempt to catch the last car, see what happens.

I got my seat and cracked open my book, Ps. Just slightly past the halfway mark. I’m most likely going to get into the 2nd part as soon as I complete reading this. “Judas Unchained.” Another monster book at 1,008 pages. I should have Ps, completed b the end of this month. I hope. “JU” by the end of September. The that’s it for huge books for awhile.

So far I’ve read:

1.) The New Space Opera
2.) Undertow
3.) Solar winds
4.) Night Train to Rigel
5.) Pandora’s Star
I hope to read next:
6.) Judas Unchained
7.) Helix
8.) Fast Forward
9.)
10.)

I hope to read 10 books this year. I read about 1/6th of what I actually buy. Three out of those 10 books were short story collections. Most likely the last 2 books will be Fantasy because I haven’t read any Fantasy this year. I’m eyeing on my shelf a Forgotten Realm’s omnibus trilogy but it’s a huge book and after Fast forward, I think I’m going to get right into this series.
Now if I had a security guard Job I could certainly read a lot more. In theory that is.
So, last night I got into work a little bit early as the shift was just winding down. Nobody said anything to me but in Moe’s kick off he said something about missing Saturdays etc. I told JT Pittsburg was going to win tonight. He said something like “they look like they have nothing left in the tank,” I had a pretty good night, pulling in a couple of credit card sales. I called Audrey’s books asking if they could stop the Vanguard order but he said if I continue to cancel book orders they might request a deposit on future orders. Good point. Let em go. I don’t need to continue with them. I ordered the 4 EverQuest novels and 4 of the Warcraft novels. And some others but they weren’t available. The first 3 Stardoc series were in by S.L. Viel. I ordered those. I continued on with my work. At break Anne called and we had a talk. With half an hour to go in the shift, I was flying, pulling in sales left and right. One caller updated me on the game, going into OT, tied at 3. I knew it. I called Audrey’s back and some of the book series I had to say no to because they were broken series. I ordered the 2 EverQuest books because they were stand alones. I ordered the first 4 Warcraft books and the 3 Stardoc books. So far at Audrey’s I’ve got 16 books on order. I’m still waiting for the Jack Vance books. A lot of these books won’t come in all at once. I’ve got 2 of the Star Trek books there. At American pricing, I may as well take advantage, right? I doubt even Amazon books are US pricing.

I ended up with a pretty good night pulling in 4 credit cards and $485 for top total. I doubt I’ll get the $15 bonus from last week. If all credit cards kick in from last week I’ll have $32 from credit card sales plus $15 for $47. If I get $47, then great. Now watch because Rob uses me as a yardstick he’s going to say something like, “In order to qualify for your credit card bonus you must be hear for all your shifts.” That’s the next water down in this credit card thing. He already watered it down by saying we need 12 for part time and 20 for full time to qualify. The 2nd water down will be based on attendance. And that will probably be announced this month sometime. He likes making it harder and harder for people to get bonuses around here. This is a good job. It’s fun and easy to do and for the 4 hours I put in, I’m half expecting the bottom to fall out at anytime. I’ve been on the gravy train for the last several years.

I was glad to get out of the office. I hadn’t got a lot of cans or bottles along home with me except for what Lucianne gave me. He’s been extolling the virtues of Ebay for awhile now and apparently they are safe and secure. He says so is Amazon and most likely cheaper then Audrey’s with free shipping. Yeah but still at Canadian pricing. I got the train home, ever mindful on my way past the old five oaks location and the party we had afterwards upon our return from Vancouver 29 years ago. We didn’t have our big celebration until Tuesday night of that year. I recall light rain in the evening.

Tonight it’s off to work and I’ll put my 4 hours in. No hockey book ordering or anything like that. It’s just 4 hours in and out.

Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now

e. Jim

Monday, June 02, 2008

I did a lot of

JFK research Sunday. This is not a site for JFK assassination research. See "mission statement" in photo block. I found the address of the Oak Cliff Library Oswald would have attended but the Police dispatcher reports give the 500 block of Jefferson but the library was at Marsalis and Jefferson. If the Oak Cliff Library Oswald went to was indeed at M&J then Oswald (if that was him that killed Tippit) Oswald was heading to one place and one place only: Jack Ruby’s apartment. There is the story that Jack mailed photographs of Dallas Police cars to Traficanti in Chicago I think the story goes and apparently had a car built for the sole purpose of transporting it to Dallas to transport Oswald? But I think that story like James K Andrew's is a bit far fetched.

I really wanted to go in for this morning but I’m lazy and tired. Besides nobody cares if I’m there at work or not. Just as well. Anyway, it’s almost time for bed.

Almost all day I’ve been doing JFK research. I’ve got back a few replies about the James K Andrew’s thread. I’m inclined to discount his story. O also think I narrowed down the Oak Cliff public library for 1963 as it was apparently on Marsalis and Jefferson. This was one of LHO’s regular haunts in Oak Cliff in 1963. Yet if he was somehow mixed up in the Tippit shooting to place him at 10th & Patton what was he doing there if not going to the Library? He’s in the opposite direction if the theater factors into this part of the case. He’s way off base. That leads to only one possible conclusion. But I’m not ready to admit that yet. I also posted on JFK Lancer a post about Troy Lee Davis. Husband of Virginia Davis.

I wanted to go into work early for this morning but I don’t know. I think I’ll just go into my regular hours. One thing I’ve got to do for today is to stop the order for those Vanguard Star Trek books. I want the Warcraft EverQuest novels over and above the Star Trek books.
Speaking about posting and such, I’ve got a thread on Edmonton Connect about Edmonton Photo’s for downtown Edmonton from 1975-1980. I would prefer aerial photos for the area of where I work.

Also while doing JFK research yesterday it dawned on me to check the New Westminster Library telephone book for 1974-75 for tax businesses along Carnarvon street. This would get me the name of the income tax business that was living on top of. I’ve got a 1948 image of the Bench and Gavel building and it looks like nothing like it did in 1974-5. But I need access to telephone books for those years.

Some 12 hours later: A really nice looking day out there. I got about half a dz responses to the Edmonton photo’s. A really old one which looks like it’s from the 1940’s and one from the era I need but to far East for my use. Some good resources as well. Anne kind of wants me to stay home tonight. We have our rent money, she just need to go to the office and take care of that before she goes to work. What with me missing Saturday and all I can’t realistically justify missing 2 days off even though my wife has to go in for that mammogram tomorrow.

I had a lousy sleep over night. I ended up at 5am to do the cbi thing. I’m no worse for wear. Tonight could be the Stanley Cup game and I have $70 bucks riding on this thing. Greg and I agreed we’d split the difference anyway. Also, Raw is on tonight in the aftermath of No Way out. So I don’t mind going to work. Greg will pay me tomorrow if the Red Wings win the Cup tonight.
I got up about 5am like I said and did the cbi thing only to read more from Ps. It’s really getting good at this point. Speaking of, which I just passed the halfway point of the book. Also tonight, I need to call Audrey’s. If I can cancel those Vanguard books I will for the Warcraft ones. Get the early Warcraft books before they go out of print while I can.

Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now

e. Jim

Sunday, June 01, 2008

hey, it's a new month

and the lilacs are still in bloom. Meteorologists are calling for rain for most of next week, I love it when it’s raining and the lilacs are in bloom.

It would be about this time Richard and I would be in Vancouver 29 years ago attending SCA classes with our packed luggage and our booty. Our hots (I can’t recall her family’s last name but her name was Kelly) provided us with breakfast and we went to the SCA classes on siege warfare or something. I took notes and was attentive as much as I could be. Richard and I barely caught our bus leaving the greyhound bus station with a few minutes to spare. I think he wanted to remain there. He was kind of into Kelly. She might have been the same age as Ellen and by now Kelly would be in her early 40’s. I got to thinking as I got up out of bed about 20 minutes ago, if Richard ever looked her up and if they got together when he settled in the Kitsilano area of West Vancouver in 1983? Funny, I’d only thought about this now.

On tap for today: See if any enquiries as to my JFK newsgroup community came through on my James K Andrews topic. Check my blog rounds, have brunch, download that Open Source program mentioned yesterday, do some more reading on PS. I’ve just reached the halfway part of the novel. I want to do some piano stuff as well.

Right now, I’m onto my first coffee. Mostly cloudy out there with some sunny breaks.

Tomorrow, I hope the Wings burry the Pens and end this playoff round. Before the game began yesterday Ron MacLean had a sit down chat with Gary Bettman about the stat of the NHL. Interesting. I came in around the middle of the interview so I didn’t hear him say anything about Canadian NHL expansion. Especially now with our dollar on par with the US.
Canadian NHL expansion isn’t even on life support anymore. I would love to see: Winnipeg, Hamilton and Quebec City get franchises. Even Seattle and Portland to make it 35 teams. Lets be done with hockey so we can get on with the draft and the trades and the rest of summer.
Tomorrow I go into work. I’m almost inclined to go in for Monday morning just so I can stay home and watch the Stanley Cup game and all this week do mornings. I can always do an evening shift if Rob wants to send me home because my totals are low. Or the afternoon shift. Maybe tomorrow, I’ll go in for the morning shift.

I knew stat counter was down on my Blogger account and now it's down on my website. Most likely undergoing maintenance. Weather Pixie has been down all week same over at Blogger. Strange.

Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now

e. Jim

Saturday, May 31, 2008

I locked everything up

out of here heading into work but I missed my bus and I got to the train and the train took off as soon as I pressed the button to open the doors. That’s the 2nd time this week. I got to work late but that’s ok. Again Moe’s taking the silent treatment pretty hard. Not that I haven’t made an effort. I’m off for an unschedualed Saturday and you know what, I don’t give a damn. I had a good night sitting with JT. I ended up with $385 on the night and a couple of credit card sales. I won’t get the $15 team credit card bonus because I’m off today. Other then my insulin in the morning, I’m sleeping in.

I got a small collection of bottles and cans after leaving the office I headed out to Audrey’s and got my only Star Trek book. I tried to order the Hall Spacejock books but the postage is going to kill me. I already have The Demon Princes books on order and they as omnibus books and the postage on those will kill me even more when they come in. We checked the Bard’s Tale books and unfortunately they are all out of print. I ended up ordering instead The first 3 Star Trek Vanguard series. They are not the original characters or anything but the books are in the same Universe. I’m also going to collect my Star Wars (books) again, less the Young Jedi Knights series. Actually, I’m going to forgo the Vanguard series for Timothy Zahn’s Star Wars: Thrawn Omnibus instead. I tried ordering Star Trek Enterprise but the series is partially out of print.
I had a nice quiet train ride to Clairview and Anne called again as I just got on the bus. I wanted to do some reading but no such luck. I got home did my admin stuff and Anne called saying she put the rent money in the bank. The first month since we got married that we didn’t have the $300 allowance. This helped pay for half our rent. That’s gone. But we’re okay. We both have jobs and getting by. Also we have $300 sitting here stored away for next month.

Blogging for me was a washout yesterday. I ended up doing some JFK research. I’m researching James A Andrew. This fellow tells a story of how a JD Tippit (moments before the policeman was killed) moved his Police car ahead of Andrew's car to block him off. Tippit ran out of his car holding up his hand looked in the front of Andrew's car through the glass and in the back seat and proceeded to get back in his car and move about his business. Whatever that was. Odd how this fellow wasn’t called to testify before the WC. Andrew said he recognized Tippit's name plate on his uniform. Even odd still how come nobody eve asked what kind of car Andrew drove? Odd even still was the location of this incident. If we knew what kind of car Andrew had at the time, this might have given us some insite as to the finale moments of JD Tippit's life. That would have given us a clue as to why Tippit pulled over this car above any others. I wonder if the newsgroup knows anything?

I don’t think I’ll take the pill over night. I’m tired enough as it is. I’ll save that for tonight and I’m going to head into bed as soon as I can.

Another book series I’m considering is the Everquest and Warcraft books. I've played Everquest about 5 years ago and really enjoyed it. Warcraft looks good but the characters look a little cartoony for me.

Twelve hours later: Anne gave me that pill about 3:45am and I took it after all. I went to bed and after 3am listened to a bit of George and Richard Hoagland. Good stuff. The space shuttle is supposed to launch today at 5:02pm EDT. They were talking about that today. This current module is named KIBO and the payload fills up the entire shuttle bay. It’s the size of a school bus.

On tap for today, I’m working on CH a bit and some more research on James Anderson and other stuff. I need to call Audrey’s books to cancel an order for another one instead.
I woke up about 5:30am to do the cbi thing and stumbled back to bed. At 6pm I’m watching game #4 of the Wings/Pens game. Of course a Pens victory. The Stanley Cup series is so predictable.

Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now

e. Jim

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Another Thursday

Relic Hunter was pretty good this afternoon. I had some trouble locking the place up getting all the cats inside. Anne forgot to make me a lunch but I think she didn’t have time. I got outside with a brief wait. I catch the bus just after 4pm. This way I avoid all the kids getting off school. Weather wise it was a bit on the humid side of things this afternoon. I got in and scooped up my end dialer. Rob was a bit shaken up because his Son had his Ipod stolen right from his desk. Lucianne keeps asking me if I called the Dentist from the number he gave me. I got some bottles and cans. I thought I’d be the bigger man and kind of come to Moe and carry on like nothing happened asking him if he would make an announcement about the Ipod incident but he just gave me a dry cold stare of contempt and walked away. I got to get out of that place. Kick off. I had a pretty good start with Winnipeg ASB and no credit card sales. JT and Sundeep weren’t there. Anne called me at break and had a decent total at break. I collected more cans and bottles.

After the brake I began to get credit cards. I got 3 on the night for my 12+ Actually 14 on the week, so if any of them kick out, it gives me a cushion and there’s always Friday night to get a few more. But if the $15 bonus from credit cards comes into play and the $28 in credit card bonuses, that should be $43 in bonuses, so far but because I’m taking Saturday off Rob might not pay me. The thing is, Once you collect 30 credit cards, that becomes $4, which could be $120 in bonuses. Some of those guys are getting $800 pay cheque’s for one week! Of course they’re like getting $11/hour but they are working like 62 hours/week, clearing $5-600/week. That’s like working every shift/day. Crazy but they’re getting a lot of crap from Rob in the process. Getting those credit cards sales isn’t easy.

I was glad to get out of there 9am and had a bit of a ride with Smarky to Central and a seat by myself back. There was a concert there at Rexal of some kind. It’ll show on the news. If I get $20 for my allowance, then great. I’ll have enough for the festive board for Lodge next week. I met the Security guard Moe on the bus at Clairview on the way home. The clouds were just beautiful this evening, covered in dark gold and blue backgrounds. Moe said he’d get me an application from the guard company tomorrow. I’m just thinking, what I’d like to do is work, Monday-Friday at Xl, but afternoons only and do the security guard job evenings. This way I still keep Xl and my weekly pay cheque. Anyway, that’s all right now. I’ll most likely edit this post before work.

Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now

e. Jim

Labels: