Friday, June 30, 2006

I ended up going
back to bed about 5am. I never really managed any sleep after the br. I laid in bed there for about 40 min and watched HGWT and The Rifleman. These shows open up new story ideas for me as well. Many of, which might be altered or blended even to suit an sf type story.

Anyway, I’m onto my first coffee and I watched the News, which because of Wrestling I missed last night. Hockey trade news starting up now as we’re beginning to hear of players being moved and contaracts made. Will George Laroque be traded? The Oilers have 10 Unrestricted Free Agents to resighn, if they want to and of course there is Chris Pronger and Roloson. If the Oilers can keep these two players and Pisani and Jason Smith and Peca then they’ve got a good chance of making the playoffs in ‘07.

I got up at around 11am and watched HGWT and The Rifleman again and fired up the computer. So I’ve got an hour before I get ready for work.

So it seems that the Space shuttle is redy to go again, since the Columbia disaster of 2003. The Space shuttle program certainly has its critics but it’s still a good program and despite it’s old technology, I’m surprised the Space shuttle program hasn’t been retired yet. But STS-121 Discovery is set to launch tomorrow July 1st. It seems though that the Space shuttle program will end 2010 when the Space Station program is over with. So another 4 years.

Anyway, another 3.5hrs ahead of me on the job tonight. But it’s a Friday night and a full weekend coming up as we’re off tomorrow. Good stuff. I’ll get my book this afternoon, and that will keep me busy for the weekend. I might get Bickham after all and order the Work book so I can goet both TMP and the work book together. Oops, I think I mentioned this already.

That’s all for now.

e.Jim

I haven't been
to bed yet. I tried to sleep but failed. About 3:15am I came out to watch HGWT and The Rifleman. I'm going to read a bit more Swain and then go to bed.

I haven't been reading any fiction recently since Robert Sawyer's "Mindscan" in Jan. I've been to involved with working on CH and Swain. Plus being ill for a week 2 weeks ago sort of side tracked me. CH might be ready to go out around the end of July. Maybe.

e.Jim

Wrestling wasn’t bad.
On a scale of 1-10, I’d rate it a 6.

Well, this is the last day for June. June saw a lot of mini event anniversaries. Such as the big break up June 7th. Then Sherwood Park Medieval Days June 13th and of course the Meyers move out. June had a lot of memorable events.

Anyway, to recap this evenings events. We caught the train into work without incident. I picked up my cheque and everything was right as it should be, including he $31 in bonuses. The first 40 min us tap shooters took a semie dialer Wheel Chair Sports. I did okay doing $55. Some people didn’t even have that. Then at 6pm we did CBF and what a list. I ended up getting a $200 verified sale a couple $100’s some $50’s and I ended up doing $1,365 and a $25 credit card. One of the guys got a $500 credit card sale. I got the 2nd top total tonight and a $5 bonus. Well, $5 bucks is $5 bucks. What a night. I love having nights like that. So after work I caught my train and met Anne at The Bay Station the stop after mine and we rode home together,. I gave her my cheque and she rode with me on the bus and I took her bag in. She went further on to the bank and I settled in to watch wrestling.

And that led me to where I am right now. When Anne came back she gave me $30 and that will give me enough to buy one of the books tomorrow afternoon. I’m nopt sure which one to buy yet. Depends on which one has more in it. I might buy Bickham and order TMP workbook so I can buy both TMP and the Workbook together. Anyway, that’s all for now.

e.Jim

Thursday, June 29, 2006

I’m onto my
first coffee. We had the air conditioning unit on all through out the night. Just like the weather forcasted yesterday, temps are a lot cooler out there. +18 and should go up to 21 as a high today. Just the way I like it.

We went to bed about 3am and I got up just shortly before 7am to do the cbi thing. So I had about 3.50hrs of sleep. I took a bsl reading and at 8.5. I went back to bed and had a rough go of it. Sleep came by hard. I think maybe another 4 hrs but I can't be sure. But I got enough sleep. I’ll do my bsl reading again just before supper. Then into work for 4 hrs. Enjoy it while I can because when that extra $300 stops coming, I’ll be looking at getting another job or putting more hours in on this job. I don’t see myself putting in more hours here on this job. I think though, beginning next week, I’ll be putting in a few afternoons.

Because I had a br break again last night I ended up placing a few buttons in my sidebar. I have an Atom Feed button I subscribed to and it works and a few other buttons as well that work, except they don’t seem to want to all lline up properly. I think the problem is there is no
between the Powerd by Blogger button and the first new button. I’ll try and implement that before I leave for work this afternoon.

I had a nice "Chat" with Esper at AGF yesterday about Xbox 360 Oblivion. Now I wouldn’t mind getting a 360 and playing this thing but is it HD TV compatible? Can I play these games on my non HDTV monitor and when I’m ready to get the HDTV later on as we hope to get later during the year will I be able to play 360 games (Oblivion) in HD format? I don’t want to get the 360 and find out it’s not HDTV ready. I’d be wasting my money.

My first priority is my writing but I’m not really a TV person except for maybe the Westrens and watching TV while we’re having supper and of course Oiler hockey games and wrestling and of course the news. I’d rather work on a story and do my Blogging then watch TV. Except sometimes on 49 the old movies, there sometimes is a movie I wouldn’t mind watching once in a while. Most of the time I’m in front of this monitor.

In a rush, check for spelling later and I repositioned that html code so the buttons line up bettter now.

e.Jim

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

I had a fairly
good sleep until Anne turned off the air conditioner but I had to get up and do the cbi thing. I went right back to bed and slept until 11:30am got up and watched The Rifleman some of the news, which other then the international news local news for the most part at noon is a repeat of what went on yesterday.

Today not much going on. I’m leaving out of here for work at 4pm with Anne. I work until about 8:55pm and that gives me enough time to go get my train connection back to Clairview and I’m usually home at around 9:30pm. I’m going to do my Blog rounds and then work on CH some more before I head on out of here.

Back latter.

e.Jim

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

I had a
slow night tonight. We started off doing Alberta Easter Seals, then we did CBF in the 2nd half.

Historically on this day, 1980, the last week in the month of June I was ready to move out of the Meyers. I had found a place a few blocks North of the Klondike Hotel. I recall how what an ugly scene it was leaving the Meyers. I paid Mr. Meyer. I gave him $51.75, I recall as is in the duplicate copy of a letter I gave dated the same night I moved out. My rent for that room at the time was $110/month which was pretty good but there was a lot of hassel living there and I can se why I moved out the way I did. Tomorrow would be the day. The 25th anniversary of moving out. I stayed at the new location barely a month. There was some disagreement about me there. I think it had to do with somebody already taking the place and somebody got their wires crossed. I found myself back over at Richards place August and sometime at a Transit Hotel. It’s a highrise apartment building now, but back in the day this hotel was a real rundown building. But living there was cheap even though there was no shower facilities. I think I stayed at Russels old place for a month. Then back at Richards and then we moved into that duplex in Riverdale. We Richard Ray and I stayed there Nov Dec and I moved down to Calgary and stayed with Charles from Jan-April. I came back to Edmonton 1981 and stayed with Richard at his place that Summer until about August when I met Theresa and I lived with her August 1981-Sept 1982. I moved over to Kind Edward Park shortly after that, Then I moved from there to the West end in Trudy’s home and the “head bangers.” I stayed there My 1983-1985. In 1985 is whee I had my first real apartment. I loved that old bachelor apartment. I stayed thre from 1985-1995. So today of course was the day I moved out of the Meyers. I got to get my camera hooked up so I can post some pics.

Anyway, I don’t know what the temperature is now but it’s pretty warm out there. If I had my camera working I’d go out on a Saturday and take some pictures after work but right now, I want to get one of those books.

Anne suggested I not bother working the extra hours this week. I’m going to do that next week though. I have a real hankering to get some proper bateries for my camera and post them. Sounds good to me. I also want to get a 1Gb SD media card. They certainly are cheap enough.

e.Jim

According to
the weather channel, we reached 30* today. Wow.

Still no change in my bsl, sitting at 8.9. Strange seeing as how this is what it was at 6am this morning.

I should mention about Raw last night. I really enjoyed it. I would rate it about a "9" out of 10. It was a fun show especially seeing Vince and Shane and the Spirit Squad getting a pile of human waste dumped all over them from a portable construction site toilet. Too funny. What they won't do for ratings.

e. Jim

Did I ever
have a great night on the job last night. I ended up writing $1,870! A record night on the job total wise. We were doing Canadian Burn Foundation. I got a $150 sale the first 10 min into the shift and x3 $100 sales later that night. A fantastic evening. Did I get anything to show for it? Nada. I got to $960 in an hour and a half. This was an exceptional night.


It’s another beautiful day out there. Temps this afternon should reach 30+ Very warm out there. We went to bed around 3am and I got up about 5am to do the cbi thing and I went back to bed. I took my insulin at 8.6. Still relatively high. I’ll take it again just before 3pm supper.
Obviously I’m not taking the afternoon shift today. Not because of the heat but because I’m a bit ambivalent working extra hours that could slow down my performance. Even by 8pm, I’m getting tuckerd out because of all the energy I spend in the first couple of hours. Mostly because most of my turn downs occur after 7pm-8pm. My best hours are from 5-7 and 8-9pm. But I’m going to give t a try Thursday afternoon and see how that goes. The afternoons are usually slow but when Rob introduced CBF Don Smith and others were getting $800/900 totals. In 4 hrs. I was at $965 in an hour and a half but this wont be sustainable much longer. Maybe another $G night after that, we’ll see. In other words, don't expect to see much of me tomorrow.

I was watching a news item about the Harry Potter books and JK Rawlings has plans for only 7 books/movies in the series. It seems maybe 2 characters in the series are going to be killed off. She wants to end the series so others can maybe take it over where she left off. She made her Billions. I think the first book came out in 1997. It’s an amazing literary success story for sure especialy in an age of Steven Kings and George Lucas’s. Not much on my plate today.

We’re in the bowels of the dog days of summer folks.

In hockey news there’s a big meeting here in the City about a possible WHL franchise developing here. And of course more news could develop on the Chris Pronger front out of this meeting. I don’t think that anything will come out of that story today. My guess is there is still lots of summer left before any kind of a trade news is done. This Chris Pronger story is very similar to the Wayne Gretzky story when he got traded back in 1988. Seems there's always a woman in the background. I don’t think Gretzky wanted to go so much as his wife wanted him in LA to further her career. If there was no JJ in the equation what would have been Gretzky’s chances of him remaining here for a few more years? Probably pretty good. What good did it do for Gretzky after leaving the Oilers? He got the Kings into the finale in 1993 and that was about it. Montreal won that year. I’m not in any way comparing #99 to Chris pronger, no way but there are some similarities to Prongers leaving here and Gretzky.

Anyway, this is all for now. I want to do my Blog rounds and read a bit more from Swain before I head into work this afternoon.

e.Jim

Monday, June 26, 2006

I got to
bed about 3am and slept until 6:15am or so and did the cbi thing. I was back in bed by about 6:40am and I slept until Anne set the alarm waking me up at 8am. And for no apparent reason but I was able to sleep until about 11 am. So I got 7hrs sleep. I think the alarm was set from Saturday when I got up to head off into work,

Well this August will have been 28 years ago I left quiet New Westminster for Edmonton. My brother Mikes wedding. I didn't think I'd stay. August 19th 1978. I arrived that week I think I left on that Wed August 16th 1978. It was at the Via Rail train station. The building is still there today even though the area has been built up quite a bit. It's been quite a ride over the last 28 years and as far as I know, Mike and Doris are still married and have Grand children.

Not much going on today. I'm going into work for 4 hours. It's very warm in here and I'm perspiring. Temps should reach up to 28* today which is 82F. This doesn't happen very often here. Maybe 2-5 times a year. When it gets to 30C that's 86F. I think those are normal temperatures for places like Dallas. 20C is their "winter"

By now most of you have heard Billionaire Warren Buffet has donated the bulk of his wealth to the Bill Gates charitable foundation. Why give it to Bill Gates I don't know. Apparently he gave the bulk of the money to Gates but other charitble orginizations got some of the cash as well it seems.

So, on my plate today will be Blogging, Swain, I'll have my shower and shave as I get ready for work and my supper and we'll leave out of here for our jobs, Then I'll get home about 9:30pm and watch my wrestling to close out the rest of the night.

I'm currently working on CH and fine tuning that and planning my next story. I'm attempting to pin down the more subtle aspects of the story and developing stronger characterization. And of course getting the word count down to just under 5K

There's also another post of mine on the Hawkings debate. This will probably be my last post on that thread. See the link below on one of the other posts.

e.Jim

That was
a nice relaxing day today. I watched 2 movies. Danny Kay "Up in Arms." and "Buck Private" with Abbot and Costello. Anne made a nice prime rib and I did some more reading on Swain.

Earlier I did another draft of CH and I have the story down to 5050 words. I want to cut it down to just under 5000. So far it's going good.

I'm going into work at my usual time today but I'm going to try and put 3 afternoons in this week and I'll bring my insulin in with me so I can take my 3pm shot and store it cold in the staff fridge. I'm just a little concerned about my insulin being tampered with or down right stolen on me. If that happens I won't do any more afternoons.

The great Hawking's debate at AGF still goes on. I made another comment here. My nick name is Sebek93

e.Jim

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Well, I’ve been
working on subject verb agreement in CH I made the first pass and I need to do a lot more work. The basic story is there.

I took the garbage out about 30 min ago and it was very warm out there. Right now it’s still about +18.

The above occured kust after midnight this morning. man did that travel pill ever work on me last night. It was working within the hour I took it and by 2am it was lights out. I slept from 2am until 8am, a good solid 6 hrs. I tried going back to bed after I did the cbi thing but sleep came hard. I had this notion about if I go in tomorrow where can I store my insulin? In the fridge in the kitchen? I’m not very well liked amongst the staff I work with. Many of them are jelouse of my life style. They’re jelouse of me because I don’t need to work 9-9 hrs like most of them do. So if I leave my novelin pen in the fridge, how long would it be until either someone steals it or tampers with it? Our place is very transiant. But I’m going to go in anyway and work from 1:30pm - 9pm. If my insulin Pen remains fine, then okay. I’ll put more hours there. At least for now Will no longer has his stereo blarring away. So this was bothering me when I came back to bed. Another thing I was thinking about was to ask the Pharmacy on the main floor if they could hold my insulin Pen for me. But I’m not a customer of theres, yet.

The whole idea for putting in the extra hours is so I can not only earn some extra cash but so I can get on the company medical plan. I won’t have to worry about paying I nsulin out of pocket. AHC doesn’t cover that. Also, I can get fresh needles and test strips and I can do my testing 4 times/day like I would anyway.

The only thing about this is will my writing suffer? I use the time from 11am-2pm for my writing and Blogging. I’d be up at 10am so I have from 10-12pm for my blogging and I have when I come back. I can write from 9-11pm when it’s time for lunch and of course on the weekends. When I’m ready to write the Real version of Et, it will be just after the Labor Day. My goal will be 1,000k/day and 2k weekends > to 10k/week. I should have the novel rough draft written by the Remembrance Day weekend. Leave it alone for a month and then work on it through out the Spring. I should have the complete novel ready to go by July first. One year from now actually. That’s the goal.

Anyway, I’m onto my first coffee. The people above us have their kid running around above us. These people are not good neighbors. The older couple we had before those idiots came in were always quiet. We’ve never had a problem with them and they were here living upstairs since I moved in here with Anne in 2,000. The place was quiet. Anne thinks it’s a cat running around up there but that’s a kid. No cat makes that kind of noise.

Working the extra 9hrs/week Rob will put me up to $X/hr. Since were no longer utilizing the bank rate bonus anymore. The base @ would be $X./week. $X and change. Vp would be around $16/week. Now if I can get that held back and take it out in one lump sum at the end of next year, by this time next year I should have a good $X @. Plus a cheque of $X there abouts, that would be a Gross @ of $X M/l. Of course the Feds are going to take their lb of flesh. They’ll take that $X+ off the top.

I’ll be left with probably just under $1,000. Anne will get her $X @ out of that and I should be left with maybe $X @. Also, if I end up getting $X @ less Vp $X, Anne gets her $X. I’d get $X to me. I’ll keep the $X and bank (uss) $100/week. Now if I can do that for a full year, there’s $X not including the interest, Not including the Vp ever Dec. So, $X. I’d like the first year of that to be my own. Then the second year after that in ‘08 with $X we can think about moving out of here to some place that’s a little more quiet. I know all the X and the @ sounds confusing but it's too personal. The real stuff is in my diary.

Anne is up and brunch will be starting soon. I'll watch Daneil Boone and I want to go over to FS and compare Ram pricing. I don't know if I want to do that or just call them from work and get a quote over the phone. I want to work more on CH this afternoon.

Speaking of Daneil Boone Tv show Fess Parker was on Annie Oakly last night in a supporting role before he started as Daneil Boone. That was cute. One reason why I like watching the old Westerns. Not only are the stories good but you get to see these old stars before they made their acting name.

e.Jim

Well I've
been working on subject verb agreement lines on CH all night. I made the first pass. Still a lot of work to do but I'm having fun. I think I'm at the 40% mark.

I took a travel pill to help me sleep. Hopefully I can without all the banging and crashing going on up there. Anne thinks it's an animal but those foot falls are not the sounds of cats but if they keep us awake at night, I'm going to complain. I've had enough of this bs.

Coast has nothing but replays all week and I thought these were new shows.

e.Jim

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Another great
day on the job. I got another $10 bonus. My third one this week. Work went well I got the top total again. Not much going on. I tried to have a nap but too much talking and I have small "ahem" in my throat making sleep awkward. That and my back is soar.

Anne's out and about shopping. I never made it over to FS. I'll probably go tomorrow but Ram at Memory express is $40/256k. To max out the Ram on this machine will run me about $300 including tax. So I'm a little ways away from getting my Ram. I'll get it this July. Books/Ram July. Toner/lodge dues August.

Tonight, I'll be working more towards CH after supper.

That's all for now.

e.Jim

Now it seems
that Chris Pronger wants out of Edmonton. First Monday and now this. So far it's only a "rumor."

Anne made me a nice lunch. A clubhouse sandwich and soup and we're going into bed at 1pm for the br and I hope to pass out by 2am. This way, I'll get 6hrs sleep but I can get by on 5 for a Saturday. I want to listen to a bit of "open lines" first on Coast.

A couple of things I'm considering doing for the blog here is to get a Poll box. I can get a free one at Bravenet. I'd also like to get a digital clock but the most popular site for clocks/html really bog down for me. I'd also like to get a scrolling "Welcome" message type thing as well. I'd also like to get a calendar that shows the days I Blog and the days I don't as well as getting that program from Margaret Fisk for the Work in Progress bars. So there are a few things I'd like to tinker around with here.

Tomorrow, it's work from 10-2pm and home by around 3pm. I'm going to try for a nap and then read some more Swain. So this weekend not a lot happening.

Seems Star Trek 11 rumors won't go away, according to Scifi Wire.


e.Jim

Friday, June 23, 2006

I had a
decent night. Anne and I went into work feeling pretty good. She made me a nice bowl of chile and rice for lunch. I brought my sandwiches, coffee and pop in for the night. We had 5 tap shooters but I ended up with $648 and a $10 bonus for the first to hit $600. I was one $20 sale away and I got it. So that's $20 bucks for the week. $20 is $20. I also brought in a $50 credit card. All week, I brought in, $150 in credit cards alone.

Right after I got off the train I went to Audrey's books and my order is in. One book is $17 and the other is $24 so I'll get one book next Friday. The cheque with my stat pay on it will be less $130 will be mine. If I work Mon-Fri afternoons then with the stat pay and vacation pay, I should have a decent cheque and half of my Ram and a book covered for. I'll be on pace for the Ram for July 15th.

I got home without incident and fired up the computer. Anne called me about 30 minutes ago saying she would be late. I'm pretty tired so I might have an early night tonight.

e.Jim

I ended up
watching Adam-12 and I tried going back to sleep but Anne's Hamster was chewing away at something so I got up to read a bit.Then I came in about 3am and slept until about 6am as I was fending off cats jumping off the dresser landing on me because Anne put that stupid plant vause up there. I got up around 6am to do the cbi thing and I was back in bed shortly after. I slept okay after that so, I think I got a full 7hrs. At least once I removed the vause.

Not much going on today. Into work and that's 3.5 hrs. I might pop into Audrey's books and see if any of my order has arrived. At least I can find out how much the book/s cost. I've got $10 here towards one of them for next week. I'll probably get the MP book first before Bickham. Bickham the following week. We'll see.

In the news today there was a bit on Edmonton's Nanotechnology center. Apparently this is supposed to be the quietest lab in Canada. Nano tech is supposed to eventually be a Trillion Dollar + industry by 2015 the report said. Why Edmonton needs a Nano Tech Center, I don't know braisesrasies Edmontons high tech profile and that's good.

Coast over the weekend has replays but next week, Monday: Black budgets, Tuesday: Alien abduction, Wednesday: The Illuminati with David Icke (Alex Jones would fit right in there with Icke) Thursday: Parallel Universes. Wow, not a paranormal or horror element in the whole week. I missed the bit on the Red rain but I didn't want to stay up until 4am.

Anne is off up the street over at Walmart.

We're going into work tonight. Probably doing more on Comedy Fest. This campaign has been a real tedious exercise and I'm surprised were still getting the tap totals with it. Last night I wrote $606. That in itself is still quiet a feet but tonight it's only 3.5 hrs so at least I put the full week in after Sat. I want to put the full week in next week because of the stat pay. I was talking about this with Anne before she left about how in the New Year or just before, I'm going to have my holiday pay acured. If I can start putting in 3hrs starting next week, my vacation pay increases by a percentage every year. I think I'm at 5% right now. The thing is, head office places that on the pay cheque so I'm left with a chunk of that going towards taxes. Still, If I can get a cheque for about $600 at the end of the year, that's my rainy day start up money. but that's all for now.

The great Hawking's debate over there at AGF continues.

e.Jim

We went
into work without incidednt and I got to my dialer. Don Brown of all people showed up wanting to borrow some money from Fran because his room-mate wasn’t working for awhile. I did okay today pulling in $606. Out of the top 3 in the taps. I got my 4 hrs in. I caught my train after work home and when I got in about 9:40pm I watched some tv and Smack down. Anne came in about 10:40pm and we had a bit of a blow up but made up for it. Were okay now.

e.Jim

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Anne received
her holiday pay and her cheque in our account today so that's okay. She's out now spending money but from working this week I'll get my cheque next Thursday and that will fall right on the end of the month. I'm going to have a full week in. 23.5hrs but that's got to go for rent. Next week though, I'll not only put in another full week, but I want to go down and work the afternoons. At least 3 of them. That will give me 32.5hrs. I should end up getting X. The feds will most likely take $24 out of that so I could end up with about X@ or X for myself. I'll save $ towards Ram and then next week, I'll repeat the above and I should have another and a bit towards actually buying the Ram. If all goes well, I should have the Ram bought and installed in this machine by the 15th. I'm going to go ats to FS first to see what their pricing for Ram is. If it's consistent with Memory express then , I'll buy it ats rather then going all the way out to the south side and buy it there. Then, I want to buy some of my books on order and of course Toner. In July I should have my Ram and Toner.

I didn't get to bed until 3am last night and I slept until 6am. I got up to do the cbi thing and went right to back to bed. I slept until 11 am so I got up to watch HGWT and The Rifleman. Both very good shows this morning. I think I got 8hrs sleep. That's enough for me.

Last night on Coast they were talking about the ancient Egyptians and the Sphinx. In the opening part of the broadcast, which I get at 3am they were talking about how the odds are becoming greater that the St Andres fault line is about due for The Big one. They've been predicting that for years now. But I liked the part about the Sphinx and how it seems that the Sphinx has been partially eroded by rainfall and through seismographic scanning have discovered there is a hollow cavity underneath the Sphinx. Very interesting show. Tonight they are going to discuss Morgellons disease and the story about the red rain that fell over Kerala India 2001.

Other then that, not much is going on. I'm going to go through Swain's once more and take out some of the fine points. So, I'll be going over that during the next couple of days. Still tinkering around with CH.

Odds and ends:

I've been reading an interesting bit on cyropreservation about freezing the body and reviving it later. Crystallization has been the biggest hurdle in that area but researchers believe they discovered a new method using a special kind of water, which doesn't do any cell damage. However the process is still in it's early stages of development.

A pretty good debate going on at AGF about mankind going into space. My contribution is post #24.

e.Jim

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

I went to
bed about 3am and slept until 5am and did the cbi thing and went back to bed after that but slept until about 9:30am and couldn’t get back to sleep after that. I got about 6.5hrs.

My wife is out and about doing a bottle run. I was considering going in for a couple of afternoons but not this week. I will next week. I want to put in at least 3 afternoons in. Hopefully by July 21st I’ll have enough for that extra Ram.

It was this time 26 years ago in 1980 I left the Meyers house. I was still working at the Army and Navy Department store/Cobogo warehouse. Now called the Cobogo lofts. The last story I did, the one I've been talking about over the past couple of weeks takes place in that Warehouse. The link might be slow to open.

At work lately Will's been leaving his stero off. Good. Makes the job a lot easier. Past couple of night s we've been doing Comedy Fest. It was slow going yesterday so hopefully it will go a bit better tonight.

e.Jim

Still working on
CH and Brian storming my next short story idea. I've got some pretty good stuff but I'm still revising CH and I want that to go out the door at the end of July before I begin work on my next story.

Coast is boring tonight. Topic is on pharmaceuticals and food but the first hour will be about Dan Druda's plan to defeat asteroids. Should be the best part of the broadcast.

Back to writing, I figure I should have my other book by next week and read and if this looks good then I'll start Et (again) and work it according to the MP and I want to begin work on that, like I said Labor Day.

That's all for now

e.Jim

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

okay, what’s on
my plate today? Not much. Working on CH a bit and into work this afternoon. I’d like to go into Audrey’s and see if my 2 books I ordered are in but I’ll probably do that Sat.

This week I want to work the whole week plus also have a few afternoons in there as well. I want to go in Wed/Thur afternoon. That would give e 29.5hrs in. That would give me $100 left towards getting those books.

I went to bed last night about 1:30am but Anne’s Hamster kept me awake sawing wood there and pretty loud as well until it moved on latter. So I got up about 2:50am or so. I might have had 2 hours. I got up to watch HGWT and I stayed up until about 4:45am doing some work on CH and to do the cbi thing. I think I was in bed by 5am and I slept until 11am and dosed off but up by about noon. I think I got 8hrs in there at least.

My project for June is to get those books. July some more Ram and Toner but like I said, I need extra hours to do that. My goal this week is to get a least 2 afternoons in. The only problem is that I'm diabetic and I need to take my insulin shots at specific times of the day. I could bring my insulin with me and take it at 3pm. I don't need much with it. A sandwich will do. I'd need to leave out of here around noon and it's only 2 days of the week. Say Wed/Thur.

That's all for now.

e.Jim

Well,
So much for the Oilers. They came so close. Carolina came out hitting and that's where the Oilers should have came in, right off the bat but they didn't. Well, there's always next year.

Rather sad due to all the adversity the Oilers over came just to get to a Game #7. They were a long shot even to make the playoffs little alone the finale. 8th place Oilers upsetting first place Detroit, then if that wasn't enough they take out San Jose, then Anaheim to get out of the conference. Then losing our net minder in game #1 the Oilers were a right-off. Add all that to the last 13 Game #7 finales in NHL history, the home team has won 11/13 times. The odds were against them from the start. The Oilers might not get this far again. At least not in my life time, but it was an incredible run. The Oilers are going to raise two banners this year: Mark Messeir's retirement number 11 and the conference Championship.

I'm currently going over the initial rewrite of the CH story. At work, I'm planning for my next story. I got the working title for it even but I'm going to ge this done up first before I work on the next story.

e.Jim

Monday, June 19, 2006

I was in bed
by 1:30am listening to a bit of Coast. Art Bell last night, Et, God and Man. Well, I won’t go there today. I think I had slept through most of what I did manage to listen to and turned it off around 2:30am and passed out and slept from 2:30am-5:30am so I got 3 hours sleep. Maybe 4 off and on. When I got in at 6am I had trouble sleeping. I tossed and turned from 7-8am and dozed off here and there. My wife got up about 8:30am off to do some shopping and hasn’t been back yet. She received that black sheep money from home and is out spending money again. She gets her holiday pay and she won’t spend all of it and I get my pay cheque (I hope) today and if things go okay with the job and all, I’ll get a cheque, not next week but on the 30th. (I hope)

Today, I’m going into work and I feel pretty good, except with this pall of dread hanging over me. Well, I missed a week without phoning in too much. I called Will Tuesday night and that’s when I puked up on the train in my bag. Wednesday was a wash out. I had the runs all day. I probably should have called in on Wednesday but I was really out of it. I had stomach cramps and at one point Wednesday night I even had Anne call me an ambulance I was feeling that bad. Thursday rolled around and we were in the medic enter hoping to get some penicillin or something. I got a Doctors note. Friday, I was feeling a bit better but still feeling week and woozy though the stomach cramps were all gone. I was ready to go in on Saturday but Anne suggested I stay home. I still wasn’t feeling well. I needed those two days, Sat and Sun and here I am. I’m ready to go into tonight and face the music. Hopefully not much will come out of this sickness episode I had and I can just pick up where I left off. I’m going into work on my own without my wife this afternoon. I’m going to bring my walkman for the Oiler game but why bother? If they win, I’ll know about it from the people on the phone, my co workers and finally leaving out of the office tonight for the train. Now that I think about it I did Rob a huge favor by not coming into work even if I could. If I was there while I had the flue I could have take out half his phone room.

Last night I got the idea for another short story. it’s not an idea really but an inkling of a thought. Something just on the edge of an idea. I wan to polish and refine this story first. If all goes well, I hope I can have it finished and ready to be sent out Labor Day weekend. I still need to work on some minor character development in the story.

Anyway that’s all for now

e.Jim

Sunday, June 18, 2006

I haven't
had a writing day like that in a long time. I finished off CH the short story and it came in at just under 5k. I was thinking maybe 6-7 at least.

I have a finale thing to say about tomorrows Big game. Some interesting factoids. It seems that in all the 90 years in NHL history, there have been only 13 Game seven's. Out of all those Game #7, the Home team has won it 11 out of 13 times. This was no doubt why Calgary lost to Tampa bay in 04. Another interesting stat, only one time in NHL history has a team ever come back from a 3-1 deficit to win the Stanley Cup and that was the Leafs back in something like 1943. That and the Oilers won their last 3 games to even get here. I don't give them much of a chance to win the Stanley Cup tomorrow night. But even if they lose, they should be proud they got to this point at all.

Things don't look good for the Oilers tomorrow night if History is a reminder.

e.Jim

I got up about
10 min ago with a bit of a burst of energy to see what my bsl reading is going to be like after the donut and all the chips and dip celebrating the huge Oiler win. I went to bed at midnight and passed out here and there. I recall listening to Art on Coast for a bit but I turned it off and passed out. So I’m awake right now wanting to do some writing in Ch for an hour.

Some 5 hrs later: I got back to bed about 6am and slept until 11:45am. I got up to watch Danger Bay and an old show on Ghost Towns, adventure stories bassically. Good show too about old prospecting stories in BC. durring the gold rush in the late 1800's. I just came off of watching one now around the old Camp McKinney mine area just Wast of Osoyoo’s BC south of Penticton. Somewhere buried in that area near the Camp McKinney site off the old stage coach road are a couple of gold bars. The last guy to have them back in the day was killed returning back for them and had nothing more then a candle and some string to measure how far in the mine he had come out of. I think 1892 something like that. Apparently the story goes is that the guy was in a three way double cross originally set up by one of the managers of the Cariboo Mine. There are hundreds of abandoned mines and caves and holes in the ground the story teller said and that sow was told some 15 years ago as it was. Some of those caves have sinced caved in as well over the years. There was also a forest fire in 1931 that destroyed most of the town. It’s a big treacherous area but it was a fun story. I imagine most of that land today is Privately owned. Still it was a fun story.

Anyway this morning I spent about an hour on CH and did another scene. I’ll be doing some more after Daniel Boone and the haircut Anne wants to give me and work on that the rest of CH for the day. But now it’s off to do some Blog rounds. I'm making good progress on the story and I'm excited about it. I can't wait to win I can post it.

e.Jim

Saturday, June 17, 2006

The Oilers have
forced a game #7 in a decisive Victory to even up the series. On Monday night someone will win the Stanley Cup. I'll be working but that's okay. The place outside is going crazy. Horns are tootin. It's an amazing run. The Oilers played their last game of the 05-06 season with a convincing 4-0 shutout leaving Carolina to what was it 11 shots on goal? I'm a very happy camper right now. I just hope Monday night, I'll have something even more to feel excited about.

Also, I ended up completing the first scene of CH and I like what I got. Just about 1300 words on the day. Not too shabby. I'll do some more tomorrow and I should have the rough draft done by the end of the month.

e.Jim

I’ve got some
water boiling on the stove for a cup of coffee. I shaved and I’m getting ready to go into work this morning even though Anne wants me to stay home but she convinced me to remain home anyway. I tried calling the answering machine at work but the voice mailbox is full. So I’ll stay home today and the weekend. Monday morning I’ll go down to A and fill out the application. So then today, it’s back to bed and then this afternoon, Anne is going to cut my hair and get my chips and dip for tonights Big Game and that will round out my weekend.

The only thing I want to hear this weekend is The Oilers have forced game #7. And if they can force a game #7 after this series, then that in itself is an unbelievable acomplishment. The fans tonight are going to go nuts at Rexall Place after Pissani’s SH OT game winner the other night. What a thing of beauty that was.

I’m really having some difficulty starting this CH story. Is there some conflict with my 7 point plot outline and structuring a scene? I’ve written this story a half doz times before. Why am I having trouble with it now? What was wrong with it before? It wasn't much of a story before.

I went back to bed about 8:30am this morning. I had slept without too much trouble even with the coffee in my system and if it wasn’t for the phone ringing I would have slept some more but I dozed off and got up around noon. I had another coffee and started writing CH with little success. I get 2 pages done, the copy stinks and I start again. That sort of thing.

I had to poop and my stool is still yellow. Flue is still in my system obviously and Anne had a good idea taking this weekend off. I’d only get $30 on my cheque next week anyway and that won’t do us any good. Anne gets her cheque this week coming up anyway. We got plenty of food in the house our bills mostly caught up and we’re so far doing okay. Not great but surviving. Existing really but we’re not complaining. We’re more worried about this flue getting out of our system then anything else.

This is a good story. I can visualize the scenes in my head. They are well framed. The characters need more fleshing out but that will come during the story and revision to follow. I’ve even got a pretty good outline. I know what happens at the end but I’m spinning my wheels here.

Maybe it’s just getting over this flue and my current problems with work. I’m going to call A this weekend and see if I can get anyone on the phone and find out where for sure they are located. If I can change my job and get some better conditions and get out of X maybe that will help. I don’t think though my writers block has anything to do with my current woes. Maybe the flue in my system but exterior stress, not at all. This is just a temporary setback. It's probably a combination of this Oiler series and the flue that's getting on me.

e.Jim

Friday, June 16, 2006

I'm beginning
to feel a lot better. I was able to crawl into bed around 3:45am this morning and I passed out and Anne stirred to wake me at 8:45am. I slept for a good 4hrs but couldn't get back to sleep after I did the cbi thing but I'll get back to bed after I post this. I'm concerned about my job at the moment what with me just phoning in only for Tuesday and not the other days and today. But I'll go in Saturday morning and they'll get the idea that because I'm not there today and all to pick up my pay cheque I must be ill. I'm still not out of the woods yet though and I'll be off today at my wife's request.

Also, I want to go into Audrey's books tomorrow and see if any part of my order is in. Anne gets her cheque next week and money from home at the end of the month plus I'll get a full pay cheque (not next week obviously) at the end of the month. If I still have my job. All things considering, we're not doing to bad but with both of us being ill and all this week we're slightly behind. We'll bounce back.

Once my books are in the next thing on my want list is Ram. This computer is very slow to boot up after security does it's thing, it almost takes a good 15min before I can do anything. I still have the original Ram that came with the system. A min of 256k. It can barely process web pages. To bring the machine up to full capacity of 2Gb Ram will cost me just over $215. But I have a lot of crap on this computer slowing it down. After the Ram, I want a better printer but of course I need a cartrige for this one. D0 I pocket the $100 for the ink cartrige and continue using this crapy printer or buy a new printer? I'm leaning towards buying the new printer but that won't be until the fall at the latest. This printer was bought used from a co worker last November for $50 and came with almost half a cartrige of toner. It was a bitch taking it from the old office home on the train. A new printer is a looming priority on the horizon.

All these things are fine and well but costs money. I have a job but the thing for me is I've been growing lazy in my middle age. I put enought time in at work just to get by but that's got to change and will before the month is out. Even if I just put in 2 afternoons. I hope to do that begining this week. Seeing as how other then CH I'm not working on any big project at the moment.

Anyway, that's all for now.

e.Jim

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Tuesday
afternoon on my way into work I wasn't feeling that great. I mentioned this to my wife as she lay there in bed still feeling ill. But I got a bus to the train and waiting there at Clairview station I felt ill. My stomach ached. I knew something was up. I felt worse at Belvedere and no improvement at Stadium. I was still determined to go into work. At Churchill I was getting worse and figured I'd call in. I got off the train and called the boss much to his dismay that I wouldn't be coming in tonight. I decided to take the train to the University end of the line and got as far as Bay station and boarded the Clairview train to double back, thinking enough of this business. I was feeling so bad I puked in my little knap sack on a crowded commuter train home.
I wasn't feeling any better. I was able to get a bus and wandered home much to my wife's surprise. Anyway, I was puking later that night and pooping it out and puking at the same time. I had the runs all Wednesday and even though I was able to watch the Oiler game :-) I was still running back and forth to the bathroom. Last night I had sever stomach pain and my stomach inside felt like some witches cauldron but Anne gave me some of these gas relief pills and that helped. It still feels bad. I had the runs all night long. At one point I was in such pain I was asking Anne to call me an ambulance but I felt better and pleaded with her to call it off. She did. False alarm. She was feeling ill as well beginning Monday night.

This morning I felt better but still woozy. Anne made me some scrambled eggs around noon and I ate half of them. We decided we should go to the medicenter nearby in the rain and we ended up after a long wait before seeing a Doctor. We got a note for work and we we're suggested to take something like Gator-aid and soup because neither of us had an appetite over the last couple of days so we're losing salt and water. So we went to the McDonald's in the same strip mall and I managed to eat a Jr. bacon cheese burger, she a chicken burger and we shared some fries and I had a coffee while she went to the bread market on the same property.

I waited for the bus as she wanted to walk home and I got off just before the 50th st/137th Ave corner and walked the rest of the way home in the spitting rain. The air was refreshing. I took my insulin getting in at just after 5pm and watched wrestling. I didn't know it was on at 6pm. I'm still not feeling well, and Anne said for me to stay home tomorrow night as well and if I'm up to it go in Sat morning. Which I will.

Well, there you have it. On the weekend after I feel better I'll be working on CH.

That's all for now.

e.Jim

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

I was listening
to Coast last night. Good show talking about the Egyption Pyramids. Richard Hogland was on talking about the Pyramids of Giza Pyramid and it being about 200,000 years old. Of course I’m talking about the 3 main Pyramids or what is called the Giza Necropolis. Most Egyptologists believe the Giza pyramids are approximately 5000 yrs old. But Georges’ guest wasn’t Richard Hoagland but Wayne Herschel. Still it wa a pretty good show for the little I listened to.

I listened to the show with my walkman because Anne didn’t want the big radio on I think I passed out with most of the show still in my headphone. I woke up around 2:45am. I was in bed by 1:30am and I think I listened for 15min, dozing in and out of the show. I turned the radio off at 2:45am and went back to bed and woke up about 5:10am. So I got about 3.5hrs and then slept from 5:30am after I did the cbi thing and went back to bed. I slept right through getting up at 11:40am. So I had agood 8hrs sleep went out to watch a bit of the Rifleman and the news and here I am.

Some nut has got that weed eater outside. They sound like a mortor cycle going. Noisy buggers.

Not much going on today. Anne is still sick but feeling a lot better and will use her vacation pay to help cover her sick days off. I’m going in tonight to face the fall out of missing yesterday. No doubt Will is going to have that stero on and blarring away. If that goes on tonight, then I’ll go back to mornings. I’m up anyway at 6amish or so. But if that stero is on tonight then I’ll be working mornings and if Rob wants to send me home because I’m at $40 bucks on the shift, I’ll be more then happy. I can go out and look for another job, which I’m going to do anyway. Working mornings makes more sense to me anyway.

I was cruising the Space Channel listings last night trying to find when they are going to broadcast ECW but so far nothing. They go up until Fri but they've got some good shows coming up. Of course all the Star Trek shows, Relic hunter, Seaquest DSV, Angle. I never could get into that one nor the Outer Limits ("new series") They also have Stargate Atlantis, which I've never seen yet. Some pretty good programming during the week. But wrestling? I'd be interested in how long the show (ECW) will be on for?

Speaking of wrestling, if I do get the job at Pizza (going in on Thur morning) and I work the 5-midnight shift, which Anne agrees, then I can watch Raw Wednesday morning at 1:30am. This way, I won't miss the show, even though it's not live. Smackdown is on Thursdays and if I get the pizza job I'll work the day shift. This is all tenative of course but we'll see how things go tonight. If the stero is on tonight, I'll be putting mornings in begining tomorrow. I'll be up at 7am do the cbi thing and clean up get ready and I'm out the door by 8am. In the office by 8:30am. Work the shift and this way when I'm out at 1am I can go to the job bank across the street and look at the new job postings and make some phone calls. Set-up appointments. but this year, I'll have a new job and I'll be out the current one.


That's all for now.

e.Jim

Monday, June 12, 2006

The Oilers lost
tonight 2-1. They are down 3-1 in the series and they kept it to a 1-1 tie into the second but the observer could easily tell the Oilers were running out of gas. They're pretty well much done for and they go into Carolina Wed for game #5. It's pretty well, all but over. At least they'l get a Confrence title banner and they are going to retire Mark Messier's sweater in the fall at Rexall Place.

Anne's been feeling a little better but not by much. I'm still going in for the morning to check in on that job. If they'll give me an interview and I like the job and I qualify, then I'll take the job. I'll work out the rest of the week at X and call it a career there. I'll probably start my training on the weekends and work Mon night.

I don't know about my wrestling though. I could always have Anne tape it. I'm going to have to do some juggling. I think Raw is on at a latter time as well. Sat night I believe. Speaking about wrestling, it seems that ECW wrestling debut on space channel tomorrow. They've had a poll at SF Signal (see link in sidebar) and the majority respondents asked if they would watch wresting on Space said, "No." It's probably on for an hour anyway.

e.Jim

tonight could
very well be the last Oiler game at Rexall place for the season. The series heads for two games at Raleigh NC, Wed and probably Saturday. Firstly the Oilers need to win tonight. I won’t even go beyond tonight.

I got up about 5:30am to do the cbi think after Anne got up a few times feeling ill so I didn’t sleep that well. We think it’s a local thing and nothing like bird flu or anything like that. Just a virus that went through her system. Bird flue hasn’t (here and in large massive numbers) reached that mutated phase yet where it’s human to human transmission. At least in pandemic proportions. I think there may have been some extreme case where it has mutated into the H5N1 virus many watchers feel will wipe out half of humanity. I don’t think it will come to that. But my wife has got something, so I’m staying home. She was crying and feeling miserable. She’s on the couch moaning and groaning. She thinks it was food poisoning and crying.
My wife come first before the friggin job does. Even though there is an Oiler playoff game tonight, I’m still home. It still works well in my favor. The job can go to hell. I can always get another job. I get no respect there anyway. Will has his big stereo on making the job even harder to do then it already is. Nobody likes me there. I’m still stuck at $8/hr after 6 yrs. Yeah I’m really pissed off. But I’m still going to call in at 4:50pm to say to Will my wife is sick. At least I deserve the job that much.

Since I'm home, I'm going to work on my writing a little this afternoon. Do I feel guilty not coming in tonight? No way. And after the game I'll watch RAW.

Well tonight could be the last Oiler game at Rexall Place for the season. What a run. Upsetting the first place Detroit Redwings, 8 playoff wins back to back. Our starting goaltender Roli taken out in the first game of the Finale. The first ever successful penalty shot in the NHL playoffs, not too mention 17,000 fans singing the national anthem making front page news, the riots on Whyte Ave. It’s been quite a playoff run and this could very well be the last playoff game of the 2006 season. What a run indeed. If the Oilers don’t win tonight, then they deserve high praise for all their accomplishments. I have a feeling they will win tonight.

Go Oilers Go!

e.Jim

Sunday, June 11, 2006

I got
most of CH worked out. I just need to work on character devlopment a bit and motivation and recation. Then write the story. I can do that in a weekend. I like the premise and it seems to work okay.

Wow, 7 returning visitors today. I think that's a record.

Anyway, I'm just about done here for the night.

e.Jim


Thought I'd
share an image of my workplace. Blogger went down the last time I had this iamge up in February. That printer on the left is still there and it's a real work horse but it's out of toner.

e.Jim

I went to
bed with that travel pill in my system. We were done the back rub just after 1am. I think I was asleep by 1:30. I woke up at various times to use the bathroom of course but I wasn’t paying attention to the time until I got up and thought. Uh-oh. I got to do the cbi thing. What time is it? 9:40am! Yikes. I slept 7.5hrs strait. I don’t think I slept that long in a long time. I went back to bed for a few more hours and I got up just before noon to fire up the computer and make my coffee. I think all in all. I had close to 9,5 hrs of sleep. I needed that.

Not much on my plate this after noon. I’m still trying to find an easy way to resize those Amazon book cover thumbnails. Someone from the Blogger forum gave me some code but my sidebar, even though it looks like I can fit two images side by side, I can’t place them because the curser link for that image stretches all the way from right to left of the sidebar. So, I’ll be tinkering with that all afternoon most likely. As well as write some more CH. Basicly it’s going to be brunch, Daniel Boone, computer, supper, computer.

If this Carolina/Edmonton series goes 2 games there two games here type thing then and if there is a game #7 then game #7 will be here on Monday June 19th. That is if the Oilers can win the next game and tie the series up. They need to win one in Carolina. If they can win one there then I’ll be able to see another Oiler game next Saturday. If the Oilers can win the next 3 games, they’ve got the Cup. But Carolina is way too strong. But at least the Oilers can beat these guys at least here in Edmonton on home ice. The Oilers hadn’t played Carolina all last season. But if the Oilers can win Monday night, then this series could go the same way the Sj series did. If the Oilers can take it Monday win the next game in Carolina, then they could win the Stanley Cup next Saturday and that game will be here but they got to win Monday before I believe they can go the rest of the way. If the Stanley Cup is game #7 here a week from Monday (if they win this Monday) then I’ll take Monday night off.

This week, regardless I want to put in some afternoons. I’d like to put a full week in and of course Thur morning so I can go into the lodge for Thur night. And this time, I’m going to make sure Frank is there so I can pay my dues and get them out of the way.

My goal this week then is to put in 32.5 hrs including Fri afternoon and Friday night of course. I should have $284.54. The Feds will take maybe $31 out of that. I should be left with $253. Around there. I should get $123>$125 after Anne gets her share. Now with that, I’ll get the post office box and then open up a bank account so the bank card comes to my box # I’ll deposit $50 in my account and keep $25 for spending cash. Because if something ever happenes to me, at least Anne will be looked after for the short term. The rainy day isn’t just for me, it’s for Anne as well. But if I can work those hours 32.5 then that will not only cover my insulin but also it will cover my other medical expenses. If I can deposit $100/week in one year including interest I’ll have a nice sum of cash by the end of the year. I’ll do this for about 3yrs. For as long as I can. I might even just do 2 afternoons after this week. We'll see.

So this afternoon, I'm going over Swain a bit more and review what I missed and organize my notes. Maybe even write another scene on CH. The whole idea is to get this story done by the end of the month. Work on it in July and have it go out the door maybe even by the end of August. I like the webzines in some wat's because in some cases they'll accept longer works but they don't pay very well. After I get Marshall and Bickham, I'll get the Marshall workbook later. These two books should be in by the end of the month.

That's about all for me today. Anne's working on a late brunch and I'm going to post this and make my Blog rounds. I'm really in the mood for playing some D&D on the computer but this PC isn't set up as a gaming platform. I'll need a graphics card to do this. I hear World of Warcraft is pretty good but I don't have the capabilliy to play it on this machine.

That's another thing about a private bank account. I can get a secured Visa credit card and have it mailed to my Box#. I don't really need the credit card to play WoW because Furture Shop and others have 3 month gaming cards availible. They've been out for a few years now.

That's all for now.

e.Jim

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Yeaaaa, the Oilers won.
Game #4 is Monday. If they can tie the series. Man. I was getting worried there when Carolina came back to tie it. But with a few seconds left Ryan Smyth came along and crashed the net and they scored, making it 2-1.

Alright, I’m about to have a coffee soon and just winding out the rest of the evening. When the br is done, I’m going to pass out. Tonight on Coast will be Greg Breden on the Power of paryer. Kind of a Spiritual realted show. But then tomorrow Cost has another rebroadcast of Dr. Michio Kaku. He’s always pretty good. But after I take that travel pill, I’ll be too exhausted anyway. I'm feeling it right now.

So tonight I'm going to work through my Swain notes and re-read some of the Chapters. Especialy on scene and sequel and charachter motivation and development. I mean how much character development is important in a short story.

I've been watching the trailers for the new Superman movie coming up later this month. MI3, X-men, Superman and James Bond in production. December 06? The year looks promisng for sci-fi movies after all. Of course what would make my year would be if the Oilers win the Stanley Cup.

I'm going to watch the news at 11 and catch all of the antics going down on Whyte Ave. It's raining at the moment so the rain might put a damper Oiler win celebrations. Hopefully passify things down there.

That's all for now.

e.Jim

Just thought
I'd do some blogging before the Oiler game, which starts at 6pm. I was tired heading into work but the donuts were there and I got mine and a coffee and settled in. We did AES and I had $430 by break. I ended up with $965, which I think is pretty darn good. By 1:30pm I was pretty wiped out. All I wanted to do was to get on the train and home.

Anne was still sleeping and I crawled into bed and tried to sleep. I think I got an hour after she left to get her things done. I couldn't sleep beyond that but tonight about 2am I'm going to take a travel pill and pass out listening to a rebroadcast of Coast. As for now, I want to make my Blog rounds before the Oiler game.

After the game I'm going to work CH. I finished reading Swain. Excellent stuff. I'm going to pick out the fine points and organize my notes.

Despite the outcome of tonight's hockey game and despite the way the Canes took out our goal-tender, the Oilers had a remarkable run. If we had Roly in there for the whole part of Game #1 the Canes would not be where they are now. or at least the series would be tied.

Anyway, that's all from me for now.

Go Oilers Go!

e.Jim

Well Frank
was a no show this afternoon and that put me off. I need a cell phone. I've been trying to avoid getting one because I'm not in contact with a lot of people. Other then work, my wife, my lodge. My social life is dismal to say the least. A typical day will be- up around 6 to do the cbi thing go back to bed until about noon. Watch the noon news until about 12:30pm after the markets and go on the computer until 2:30pm. Get my shower and get ready for lunch (supper) at 3pm. We usually watch Hogan's Heroes. By 3:30pm we're getting ready to pack up our bags, lunch etc and by 3:50pm I'm catching the bus out here for work hauling Anne's bag along with my own to meet her at the lrt. We're usually on the train by 4pm. She gets off a The Bay, I get off at Carona. I'm usually in the office just before the 4:30pm shift changes. I have a coffee scout for a newspaper and realx until 5pm. Then I'm at the computer/dialer/station from 5-6:45 when we get a Big 10 min break. Whoopie. Then the second half and work until 8:55pm, call my Total and I'm out the door asap to Carona for the Clairview train back the way I came. I'm usualy home by about 9:30pm. Except Friday, we get off a little earlier and I'm home about 9pm. Sat, like tomorrow, I'm up at 8am and out the door just before 9am. I work from 10-2pm. I usualy get home Sat around 2:45pm. If I work the full week, I'll get 23.5 hrs. But next week I want to put a few afternoons in.

Sunday I have off.

Then Monday, it's back to the whole routine again. The only diviation from that is when I go to lodge the first Thursday of each month or sometimes the 2nd Thursday if we have an emergent meeting. Pretty exciting life hey? Like I need a cell phone.

Most of my off time, I'm in front of this computer, writing. I make no meals for myself. I haven't changed a light bulb since I got married. My wife does all the chores in the place and she vacumes the carpet everyday. She doesn't complain at all. We have a great life here and for the most part things are quiet around here. We have our 4 cats, 2 budgies, a few hamsters but they belong to my wife and we also have 4 gold fish. Can't forget about them. Life is good. I have a job and even though sometimes I hate it especialy when Will has his stero turned up. I can't stand working like that so Monday, I'm going to complain to Rob.

But lunch is made for work and I'm about to go to bed after I post this and listen to Coast and George's crazy Open lines. Yeah, like I have it real tough here. Not.

Sorry for any typos, well not really.

e.Jim

Friday, June 09, 2006

I cleaned
up my side bar a bit by deleting code that wasn't functioning properly. There are still a few things I need to delete as well. I want to add more works in progress bars but it's hard to go back to FM and update them. I need to get Mary's program. It's such a small expense and the gains far outweigh the expense.

blogger is a great program but it needs the ability to add signatures like it's excellent forum. Also, I'm having some difficulty with the spell check. I get that funny ASCII code when I type "I'm." The ' gets replaced with a funny A.

When I get ready to play some online FRPG's I'd like to have it where I can chart the progress of my character. Kind of like a movie/record of all the places the character has been. That would be cool. but I'm a way's from playing any games. It's not a high priority item for me at the moment.

It was 25 years ago this Friday Ellen and I went out to look for a b day gift for Richard. She bought an clay plant-pot holder for for him at a flea market in Westmount. I recall how I fumbled with it after she bought it and I broke it. She was pissed off and I think that was idea for the fuel or at least the nail in the coffin for our break up at the time. The next day is when the break up happened. I wasn't expecting it. It came out of no where, inspired by Richard of course. This weekend just brings back those memories. Not that I have any great love for Ellen or anything. It's just a turning point in my past

Oh well

e.Jim

I went to
bed around 2:20am and I passed out from about 2:30am, since I had a break. Other then to get up and pee the odd time, I slept until 7:30am So that was a good 5 hours right there. Then I went back to bed after the cbi thing and I had trouble falling asleep. I think by 8:00am I was passed out just waiting for the noise upstairs. Thank goodness it didn't come. No hammering this morning. I fell sleep and I woke up to pee and back to bed again and I woke up and it was about 11:30am. I slept another 3.5hrs. All in all I had about 8.5hrs of sleep and I feel pretty good right now having my first coffee.

Lately we’ve been getting a lot of rain over the past number of days. I like the rain but we do need a few hot days in there as well. Maybe on the weekend.

As for CH I figure I’ll use what I have and for the first 2 scenes and work on the story this weekend. I hope to have a competent story ready for submission to some paying print markets by the end of July.

Other then that, not much is going on at the moment. This afternoon I’m going into work a tad early to catch that train to meet Frank so I can pay my lodge dues this afternoon and get that out of the way. Then it’s just work, 3.5hrs today and home and up again early tomorrow.

Alright, time to post some of this and make my blog rounds.

e.Jim

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Blogger's
been down for maintenance off and on yesterday and today and I can't seem to post links to my Blog. Strange

e.Jim

that hammering
has been going off and on since 7:30am this morning. I had just got back to bed after getting up to do the cbi thing and off it goes. They are “working” on the vacant suite above. Hammering what I don’t know. But it stops for a few minutes then a few minutes later five bangs a long pause then a few more then a bang. It’s sporadic hammering but enough to wreck my sleep.
Well, I had 3 hrs. Watch as soon as I go back to bed, it’ll happen again.

Anyway, one of my favorite TV shows when I was growing up was The Wild, Wild West. Not the movie. I hadn’t seen the movie yet and I will when it comes to cable. I liked the original TV series. They had well over 100 hour long episodes. I mention the WWW because this is the shows 40th aniversary. Good stuff.

Well, the hammering seems to have stopped. Watch, I’ll go back to bed and it’ll start up again. I mean these people have all afternoon to do this. In the afternoon, I don’t care. At least it’s a reasonable to do all this crap and not at 8am in the morning.

On Anne her way out the door Anne was talking to somebody in the hallway. I looked through the crack in the opened door and it was one of the cleaning girls and Anne asked about upstairs and yes people did move in there with a couple of kids. If they do it again, complain. So I got 1.5 hrs in after that. I think an after the hammering stopped I went back to bed at 9am and that’s when Anne got up . I think maybe I slept a total of 5.5 including dozing off while Anne was and still is at Superstore. At least we know now, that it isn’t work crews. I can tell these people are not going to be good neighbors.

The rain is coming down very nice now. I did a bsl reading at 8.8. I can live with that. It’s still high but livable. So today, Anne got her pay and I get mine later. I like how she and millions of other Canadians get their pay and even Welfare cheques get everything direct bank deposit. Except where I work. If I could work after 9pm, until say to midnight, I would. But we don’t have that option. They do at Pizza. I could work from 1:30pm-4:30pm but then I’d have to get up early and I’d miss the markets and Rob would still not pay me. I’ve been in X way to long now and I think it’s time for a change and plus it’s important for me to have my weekends off but that's all for now.

e.Jim

that was a nice
lunch, a beef casadia type thing and Mexi fries. So I caught the aftermath of the hockey game and the Oilers are confident. They were in this position before even with Roli, down 2 games with Detroit and also in SJ. The Oilers came back. They also knew they played lousy as well. Sure, the Oilers have their work cut out for them Sat and they know it. I think they’ll bounce back. They have their home fans and that’s a plus.

On that note, I went and added a new book instead of Allan Dean Foster’s book because this won’t be available until at least Oct. Weber’s book is out now and besides he’s born the same age as I was. I also added a link to my side bar. Check the folks out at OS Empire web hosting. It’s a great service for affordable web hosting and a great community and I highly recommend them.

e.Jim

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

I slept okay from
3am until 6:45am to do the cbi thing but sleep came hard after that. I think by 7:45am-ish. I was woken uo by a loud bang and running of feet above me, which woke me up. So I got an hour. I laid in bed trying to get back to sleep and Anne nudged me as I was just falling asleep and woke me up. I had to get up to pee anyway and she comes in not thinking I’m there doing my business. So it’s 10:30am or so. I think I slept from about 10:30am to noon. So all in all, I might have got 6hrs sleep. I don’t feel to bad though all things considering.

Last night as the 3 of us were doing hard copy Comedy Fest, Tony was training 5 new recruits and he said almost as if mocking me, that “We start you off at "entry level". That’s what I’m getting now and I’ve been here almost 6 years. John was even peeved off saying how he’s been here 17 years and even running the business room for a few years and he’s only getting $12/hr. Tim Horton’s is starting people off at $12/hr. So if this is the best Rob can give me, then I’m just wasting my time here. I’m not getting any further ahead. I get a $2 donut every Saturday and the chance to do taps and 50 cents as an attendance bonus if I put in all my hours. I think after all the years I’ve put in there I’m worth a bit more then an entery level wage for God sake. If I hadn’t got that raise I’d still be making $7/hr. What the hell is wrong with me? So, that means this Friday morning, I’m going to get off my fat ass and go into Pizza. If they can pay me at least a dollar more then what I'm getting. I’ll take it no questions asked. And I’ll start right away. If I can get on there right before the kids get out of school then fine.

Otherwise, tonight, there’s an Oiler hockey game going on. We still won’t know until game time, who the starting net minder will be. But I’ll be bringing my radio in and listening to the hockey game when the puck drops at 6pm.

Pizza might not be the first place I’ll be asking about either. Advanis is the other. So, it’s a toss up. I like the Pizza hours as it’s evening and I can work if I want to say 5-midnight 7hrs, Mon, Tues, Wed, Thur and Fri I work 7hrs but that’s morning/afternoon and No, positively No, Sat or Sun. It’ll be the same thing if I work at Advanis or Pizza.

Last night I was listening to Coast and their 666 night and open lines. One called in saying that the real 666 date already happened and this 6,6,06 isn’t really a true 666 date because of the 0. The caller said how the first 666 date was really the 6th day of the 6th month of the 6th year AD, which occurred 1994 years ago. Makes sense to me. Other then this not much going on. That’s all for now.

Sigh, my internet connection is down again. This is the 2nd time in as many months its been down so I can’t blog this entry. I still got the green light going but nothing is flashing green right now. Looks like I might not get to blog this until tonight.

Then again when I think about it, Xentel isn’t so bad. I mean take tonight for instance I can listen to the hockey game in between calls and Pizza etc might not let me do that. The evening shift is a lot more relaxed even though I have to come in for Sat. The bottom line of course is the hourly rate and the fact I can start fresh and have my weekends off. That’s more important then listening to a hockey game I can’t watch. But also with Pizza I can go to lodge every Thur night and I like that. If I can get 62hrs in a week, at $9 (?) that’s about $520 every two weeks. Anne gets $260 every two weeks and I get $260/every two weeks. I like the sound of that but only if they can pay me $9hr to start. Plus I get my weekends off. Okay so much for X. Go Oilers Go.

This when I got home:
God that was awful tonight. The Oilers lost 5-0. But the Oilers have been down this road before, behind 2-0 and they bounced back. Anyway, I ended up doing $675 baseball Winnipeg and Edmonton taps. My last sale was a $75 tap which I got. There was extra cars on the lrt tonight because of the fans watching the big screen inside Rexall Place. Okay, lets see if Blogger is back online.

Okay, we're good to publish. Lets see if this works.

e.Jim

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

I had an hour
sleep until Anne came in and woke me up just after 3am. I tried to get back to sleep after that but no dice. So at about 4am I came out to watch some tv and I completed a Swain chapter and I went back to bed around 5am after the cbi thing. I slept off an on mainly getting up to pee. Still slightly haunted by the Oiler loss last night didn't help me sleep much either. Not just the loss per se' but about the Oilers losing Roly and of course the lousy play of Ty. The game was tied at 4 and just 32 seconds left on the clock to OT the Oilers blew it. It wasn't that Ty played badly stopping shots it was just his play behind the net. Of course losing Roly was devastating as it was. Also, the team played badly as well. A tripple whamy.

Now it's pay back time for me today going into work for missing last night without phoning in. I'm going to go into Audrey's to order my books and pick something up before I head into the office anyway. Now watch because today is 6,6,06, I'll end up getting fired for playing hooky last night. I doubt it though. The economy is too strong here and we can barely fill up a quarter of a section in the phone room as it is at night. We're lucky if we got 12-16 people atnight. During the day it's a little better but school is letting out soon and Rob is probably betting on a hoard of teenagers to work evenings. But since we moved into this new office, we've never had the section full. But that's also good or bad. Personaly I like it like this.

On another note about 6,6,06 today also marks the aniversary of another crittical date in history, June 6th wise. The allied invasion of Normandy in WW2. Otherwise known as D-Day. The date 666 is all nice and fun and all but to me June 6th has a more specific and relevant meaning. Next year will be 777. :-)

Other then odering my books today and try and pick something up out of my sidebar not much is going on. I colleted my notes out of Swain and put them all in a lose leaf binderthis morning. When I'm done I'm going to go over my notes and read the book again to pick out stuff I missed until the new books come in. Then like I said, I'll be ready to write CH from a new perspective. I can have the story written in one week. Then its just a question of fine tuning the details of what I learned.

Right now Anne is off on a bottle run and there's a kid running around upstairs because the caretakers are preparing the suite after that nice quiet old couple left. We got the bird cage hanging up behind the netting inside the ceiling of our balcony. One of these days I'm going to get a picture.

It's a sad day in Oiler land but the team feels confident that they will get the job done. Most fans here feel that, it's all but a for gone conclusion. Over. But remember, the Oilers only acquired Roly just after the Olympic break. Roly will heal and get stronger in the off season and when training camp rolls around Sept 16th the Oilers will be back in business. We may not win the Cup this year but the most hated team in the NHL (Oilers) will be back. I'm still optimistic that the Oilers will pull off a miracle. We'll see.

That's all for now.

e.Jim

Monday, June 05, 2006

Well,
looks like the wife talked me into staying home tonight :-) I mean working 6 days is enough. I put my time in and I write good totals. Sorry Will. Besides the bills are all caught up and paid for. Also, I'll be paying my lodge dues on Friday. I've got the $100 for that (which includes money for the festive board.) Besides, I might not get to watch an Oiler Stanley Cup finale playoff game this year because most of the games are on the week days. Game #4 is next Sunday. I can watch that one but the actual Stanley Cup game itself won't be until (if it goes 7 games) June 17th. And that will be on a Saturday night. I'll be able to watch at least one game. Besides it's summer and I haven't had two weeks off in years. So I don't feel bad for missing tonight.

So tonight, I'm going to watch the Oiler game and wrestling after that. That should make me all tv'd out.

Anne's making hamburgr helper for lunch right now. That's okay. The game starts at 6pm tonight when they drop the puck.

Also, since the lodge dues are already earmarked for this week Anne says it looks good that I'll get some extra cash, Ram for my Computer after the lodge dues are paid up. This machine is very slow. To slow to play games on but then it's not a gaming platform anyway. I didn't buy it for that.

Speaking about games I'm considering getting a next Gen Playstation (PS) when it comes out but I haven't heard much about it. What I'd like to do is to get a PS that I can hook up here to the PC and get the Xbox for the big screen. But there are other issues like HDDVD formats etc. It's quite a mess. But before I get the Xbox, I want to wait until the bugs are worked out of the system. Over heating is one of the main ones. More on that later.

Go Oilers Go

e.Jim

anyway
Anne asked if I wanted to stay home tonight but I'm going in regardless. Besides I can bring my little radio and I can go in and buy and order my books and listen to the game at work. I feel well rested despite getting into bed late about 4am. I got up at 6:35am and I did the cbi thing. 2.5+ 5hrs= 7.5 hrs. Not to shabby.

So the Oilers are playing their first ever Stanley Cup finale playoff game since 1990. Wow. but as much as I hope the Oilers will win this series and bring the Cup home, I don't think it's going to happen. I hope they do and it will be nice to see Ryan Smyth raise the Stanley Cup over his head. I believe the Oilers will win the Cup, but not this series and not their first time into the finale but their second time into the finale. Of course by that I means since the recent CBA. Same with the Flames. I think the Flames and Oilers will win the Cup within the next five years. Right now the Hurricanes are the favorite to win because they've been to the finale before and it would be kind of nice to see Doug Weight win a Stanley Cup. Somebody this year is going to win it. I hope it's the Oilers obviously but I'm not going to get my hopes up to high.

Last night I watched Contact and I really enjoyed it. I read the book some years ago and the movie played pretty true to the book.

When I come home, I'll be watching the hockey game highlights and of course wrestling. HHH to join the Vince kiss my ass club? :-) I can tell today is going to contain some interesting surprises. I'll be back later, oh yeah....

Go Oilers Go.

e.Jim

Sunday, June 04, 2006

It’s very warm
in here. I’m having my first coffee. That gavel finally kicked in about 4am and I slept for 2.5hrs and got up around 6:35am and did the cbi thing and went back to bed. By 7am I was sound a sleep. I did a bsl reading and sitting at 10.4. I slept until just after Noon here. Uggh. That gravel pill is still in my system.

Alright, what’s on my plate today? Brunch, Daneil Boone, more Swain and possibly going out for my walk. I’m also going to plan CH armed with Swain. Not much going on today. This gavel in my system is making me lethargic. I did another bsl reading and I'm at 9.9.

Tomorrow, I'm going to order a couple of books Bickham/Marshall (bm) and pick something out from my sidebar. Also, I think Tues/Wed, I'd like to work some afternoon shifts so I can get that PoBox # ready, money for that. Then the next week open up the bank account and have the bank card sent to my box #. The reason for the private /secret bank account is so I can start saving for a rainy day. My "big project" for June.

July I'm going to write CH the short story and I hope to have that done by the end of June. Then plan for CH the novel this summer. Et, I'm going to place on hold until after. I'll have bm and Swain and then plan for CH the novel. I'll probably start CH Labor Day weekend. I already have more or less the story idea in my head and writen down. CH rough draft should be written around the end of Oct. Ready to be sent out Jan 07.

Anne's going out to the dollar store up the street here and I might go for a walk after Daneil Boone. I like the hour long action adventure tv shows like that. The older ones. I can't get into Andromeda or even the new Battlestar Galactica. It's silly and has too much political corectness in it for me and the camera is all herky-jerky. Also, BG is too dark. Nothing like the original. It's coming into it's 3rd season this fall I believe. I wish it all kinds of success but it's not my kind of sci-fi. The older BG, now that's my kind of sci fi.

Thats all for now

e.Jim

Saturday, June 03, 2006

it was breezy
but sunny going into work this morning. Feeling strange without my morning coffee. I had my Mp3 player and Clash tunes going on. Things were going along just fine until at Belvedere one of the new young fellas recognized me on the train. He smiled my way and joined me. Rats. I was friendly and felt okay and he went on and on talking about his time in jail and just giving me the big run down about his “jail-time adventures”. If you can call it that. Anyway, the first half of the shift was going slow but I was on pace with just about everyone else. The second half was a lot better doing “Winnipeg Police All star baseball.” I managed to talk to some nice people and got a $50 credit card and ended up with $750. I think I was the 2nd top total but no bonus for me. But I did get my $2 donut. However I never did manage to call anyone from the lodge about the bbq so it doesn’t look very good for me going tomorrow. I was really wiped out on the way home and I wanted to walk hone but I abandoned that idea and I got in about 2:45pm.

Anyway big news on the National front. Seems our intelegence community here in Canada went and uncoverd a massive Al Queda inspired plot by home grown muslim extremists. Apparently these 17 men and teens had something like 30tons of amonia nitrate (fertilizer) and cell phone detonating like devices. Pretty amazing bust.

Dinner was pretty lame and barely filled me up. I had $30 bucks but Anne took $10 of it today. I think I will buy myself a book Monday and order another book on writing. There’s two more I want to pick up. Bickham and the Marshal Plan. And I’ll order those 2 books Monday and pick up something (if any are in) out of my sidebar.

e.Jim

just took my
insulin and did a bsl reading of 13.3. Not good but then it’s relatively high in the mornings anyway and a long as I stay away from sugar, in the quantities I’ve been accustomed to before my bsl will drop.
Anyway, time for my shower.

Getting ready to leave shortly. My clock time here on this computer is behind by a min or so, but that’s okay. The weather channel called for rain all day. Yeah right. It’s a beautifull but rainy Saturday morning, I don’t mind going into work but I’d rather be in bed. Just getting ready to post this and get my hot water for coffee for work. I’ll have my first coffee when I get in.

That’s all for now.

e.Jim

Friday, June 02, 2006

We went to
bed about 3am and I slept until 6am, I slept again until 9am when workers began moving and doing something to the suite above us. I asked Anne to put the air conditioner back on and I was able to fall back to sleep and I woke up suddenly 10:45am and the door was locked. Okay, I needed to pee and from there back to bed. I don’t know how long I slept because the time still read 10:45am. I got out of bed realizing Anne set the alarm at that time. Froze it. When I checked on the time, it was 12:40pm. So actually I slept from 9amish until about 12:40pm. Almost 4 hrs + the 3 I got earlier=7 hours. M/l. But I feel refreshed. First time this week sleep has left me feeling refreshed. Still reading Swain and planning for my story.

So Caolina and Edmonoton will be facing each other off on Monday. The Oilers won't win the Stanley Cup but that's another rant of mine left elsewhere. Speaking of which I should get ahold of Markus and get my website password. I seem to have lost it. This way I can post my rants and link them here for anyone that wants' to read my dribble.

Well, there's a good chance, I will go to the lodge BBQ on Sunday. Anne is incouraging me to go. I don't have my calendar handy so I don't have the exact time here but if it's on Sunday afternoon, then I'll go. Nice to get out with the guys and maybe have a few beer and a couple of burgers or whatever. It's just like a giant Festive board.

That's all for now.

e.Jim

Thursday, June 01, 2006

My bsl
has come down a bit to 8.4, Not good but it'll spike again after supper and drop through out the evening. When I get home, my bsl will probably be about 6. For those of you that are not diabetic, 5.3 is normal.

e.Jim

Okay, welcome
to a new month. This Spring has gone by incredibly fast. The big news here is the Oilers are in the Stanley Cup finale.

But on a distressing note, well it wasn’t really distressing but a bit alarming. I found out today that we at X start new people off at just above min wage and that’s what I’m getting paid after working there 6 years. And I'm a tap shooter. But Anne made me realize that even though I’m at an entry level wage, I’m not under a lot of pressure and not just that but if I need to take a day off once or twice a month, they aren’t going to come down on me. So in essence, I really have it a lot better off then new people. But the minute they start new people off more then the entery level, what I'm getting now then I'll be asking for the going rate if not more. The average call center wage is $12 hr.

For now, I don’t feel to bad. I went back to bed about 5:15am and I T&T for about an hour. I think I slept maybe 5hrs. If I’m lucky, and I can live with that.

Did my bsl reading this morning, sitting at 12.9. Very high. It’s been high over the last several days here. So from now on, I’m walking home from the lrt. I should even try to walk from here to the lrt but I’m carrying Anne’s bag and my own. Would be very hard to carry both without breaking up a sweat on the way in to work. I don’t mind sweating on the way back, that’s alright but not on the way in, unless Anne has the night off. Then walking to the lrt should be what I want to do. Exercise keeps my bsl down.

Good thing today is another hot one. I like weather like this but it’s tough to sleep overnight because the high temperatures outside heat this place up like an oven. It could be +10* out there overnight but still 25 in here or about 80*F. We only have the one fan in the bedroom but we also have that air conditioner and Anne is probably going to set that up as well latter. That will help.

Still working on a better version of Cross-hairs. I got some good stuff in the story and even though this will be about my 8th version now when I get it finalized, I think this one will get my foot in the door.

The new version of Superman opens to theaters soon and I'm looking forward to it But it's probably just another origins movie. Speaking about supreheroes I miss my old comic book collecting days. I stopped collecting after comic book prices went to $1.00. I think at one time I had well over 30 titles every month. The stories were good and the art for the most part was awesome but the stories still had that juvenile teenage appeal to them and at that time in my 30's I outgrew them. That and the soaring prices made me gag. I was spending $30 bucks a month on comics alone. Today a comic book just off the shelf is about $3.00 for a current issue. Of course the content has expenaded but factor in the gst the comics become $3.21/comic. If you live in other parts of Canada there's a sales tax as well. I really don't know how Marvel and DC can stay in business at the prices they charge for these books. And I used to think .35cents was high. Welcome to inflation.


More on that later.

e.Jim