Tuesday, November 28, 2006

This is not an official resignation or anything and I still will use my Blogger account a couple of times/month but for the most part my new daily Blog and all Blog activity will be here:
Or here at E.Jim Shannon.com it just makes more sense to have everything at one location.

To all of you that have read this blog and have posted comments, I thank you. See you at the new site..

e.Jim

Monday, November 27, 2006

we braved
the cold weather and walked down to Clairview, very cold out there. After a bit of a wait we had a cold walk to the office and inside upstairs. We didn’t get to see my Doctor until about 40 min later and I had

drops in my eyes he made some scans and I have the yag booked for Jan 10th which is on a Wednesday. I could have had it this Wednesday but it was too late. My vision should be about the same until then. It’s a day in day out kind of thing and he’s going to do both eyes at the same time.

So we braved the elements again and stepped outside and headed to Tim Horton’s and got a coffee. The train came by right away and after a brief wait inside the bus shelter at Clairview our bus came by and I got off the stop just behind Future Shop. I didn’t have enough for the David Byrne CD I wanted but next time. I checked on the memory card readers, $30 bucks. Good to know. I checked on their laptops and they’ve got some nice systems up and running for just under a grand. Beauties. Then I thought to ask tech support about the current state of my Compaq and he said bring it, they’ll scan for hard drive damages if they can salvage anything they’ll do it for $40 bucks. So, I’ll save this $20 and if I get another one this Friday, I’ll take the machine in and get it serviced if the tech guy can save all my files then great, what a relief, What I could really use then is a KV switch so I can hook up booth computers. Use the W98 machine for writing and the Xp machine for research. But as for the laptop I wont be ready to by until this time next year.

e. Jim

My vision
is progressively becoming more and more hazy but that’s why I’m going over to see my Doctor today anyway. Most likely to give me a yag orientation and finale yag scans. I’d like to go in for it today but I don’t suspect it’s going to happen until next week about this time.

Having my first coffee of the day here.

Currently it’s –23/33. That’s cold. Last year, our winter never really hit us until after January. Even then we hadn’t got up to –20 during the day like it is now. It’s supposed to warm up but then we got that windchill, so even a –3 could have a windchill making it feel like –12* and that’s cold enough as it is. I think we’re in for a couple of days of Chinooks next month but for the most part, this winter kind of reminds me of back in 1979.

Anne and I are going out to brave the cold winter in a couple of hours. I’m going to wake her at 1pm so we can get ready to leave out of here at 2pm. I want to be in that office at 2:35pm. I’ve got some anxiety over this stage of my vision woes. I wish I could stay inside all afternoon but I’ve got to get this thing done.

Last night I worked some more on the extension scenes for “F” and I like what I got, some good stuff developing there. I completed the middle. Now I’m going onto the end. I’m also going to use some tricks I learned from Bickham and Swain, I’ve got 112 scenes and the work should be 144k. I’ll be in full writing mode Jan first. I’m also excited about the next novel project after this one. “MF” But I’ll probably finish “F” about the end of March. Then I should have “MF” outlined out by the time I finish “F” and I’ll start “MF” right after “F”, “MF” will have about the same number of scenes and if all goes well, I’ll be in the 2nd rewrite stage when “MF” is done. “MF” should be completed by about the end of June. I’m going to do about 2 more drafts of “F” and the ms both “F” and “MF” should be ready to market by this time next year. Nut I’m going to write a few short stories as well and send them out. Last time I looked “Crosshairs” had over 125 views. I don’t know what the number of views is now or even if the story is still up on the site.

But that’s all for now..

e.Jim

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Wow.
Add the gravel pill and the lack of sleep I’ve had the night before and the past couple of days, I slept for 11,5 hours. I recall going to bed at 1am right after Hogan’s Heroes. I might have stayed up to listen to Coast and it looked like Art had a pretty good show going on. By 1:30am I was asleep, I woke up at about 7:10am to do the cbi thing and in bed about 7:25am or so. I think part of the reason why I’m not sleeping well is because I’m not putting in a full day of work. Because I had all the sleep from the night before I’ll have trouble getting sleep overnight.

Last night I was spending so much time on the Fantastic fiction site I forgot about my TNA wrestling. I only realized this as I was watching the news. Shit. I was so involved preparing a special book order for Audrey’s I forgot the time. Other then specialty books on writing; Audrey’s doesn’t carry a good selection of SF books. Not like Chapters and even then their selection is small. I placed a special order on Peter F Hamilton’s “Judas unchained” and that won’t be out until the spring. For all the food it does me, I might as well special order from Chapters but I’m going to special order from Audrey’s and by my books at Chapters.

Not much on my plate for today. I’m feeling the gravel pill still in me working away. I’ll probably work on “F” some more and flesh out the main characters. There are some ideas I need to work on and the story subplots. I’ll tinker around again on my website. I added a topic “My Favorite Science fiction Villains.” Last night. I’m going to add another list on heroes soon.

Anne made us a nice brunch now she’s got a huge clean up ahead of her there. Also, if I can keep up the new work schedule I’ll have enough to qualify for the company medical plan. By the end if March if not sooner I’ll have enough to qualify. What I’d like to do for April is get my rotting teeth out and get dentures installed so I’ll have a decent summer without eye problems and teeth problems.

This weekend in Alberta has been the PC leadership election to see who will replace Ralph Kline. Nothing has been decided yet because in order for there to be a winner, the winner must have 50% of the vote. At the moment when the polls closed at 7pm last night, the front-runner had 30%. Jim Dinning is the front-runner but in all the 35+ years or so the Conservatives have been in power the PC membership has only elected 3 Premiers from Northern Alberta. Usually in these things one of the other members will through their support over to the leader or their favorite. So lets say the 2nd place winner doesn’t like the 1st place winner will put their support over to the 3rd place winner so the 1st place guy doesn’t get in. So far there are 3 winners in the first ballot and the 2nd ballot is next weekend. In order to vote all you need is a PC membership card and they’re $5 bucks each. I’ll probably go buy a membership card just to vote for an Edmonton/Northern Alberta based Premier.

Anyhow, that’s all for now..

e.Jim




Saturday, November 25, 2006

okay, I
done all my cbi and shower.. I just got to pack my thing sup and get my coffee before I’m ready to head out the door. I don’t mind heading out to work this morning. I went to bed about 3am and I got up at a bit after 7am, so I had a good 4 hours sleep. I’m okay to go for the day. I think what I’ll do because Anne needs the bus pass to do her thing this afternoon, is I’ll go over to Audrey’s see if they have what I’m looking for and then down to Money mart. I want to check on some banking services but that’s another story. Then I’ll come home.

Early this morning I figured out how to add Amazon book images to my sidebar. I think I might place it over by the other side of the main page because that side is getting to busy. I already have “currently reading” and coming up next. Since I took out the wip bars it seems like “Books I recommend” should be on the other side. “Or recommended reading.” I also want to have a recommended listening as well.

Anyway, it’s –23/31 out there. So I’m not looking forward to that 10 min wait or so in the cold. That’s the only thing I’m not looking forward to doing this morning but once that bus comes by, then fine. I’ll go over to Tim’s get the staff donuts and then I’ll get myself a breakfast sandwich walk across that frozen parking lot and into that warm office for 4 hours. Then I’ll do my stuff after work and come home for a couple of hours of sleep while Anne is out doing her thing.

Oh the Oilers won as well last night, 5-1. Good job guys.

Don't think I'll have enough time to move this over to my website this morning. Later when I come home and grab some sleep.

That’s all for now.

e.Jim



Friday, November 24, 2006

I was
in bed by 3an but I couldn’t sleep of course, so I got up for a bit and worked on “F” some more and some website stuff. I think it was around 5am I finally went to bed after I did the cbi thing. I had a similar sleep experience as yesterday. I got up around noon and slowly made my way to the couch. I was dead tired. So I slept a bit on the couch for half an hour and that helped substantively.

Having my first coffee of the day. It’s a good one.

So, this afternoon I’m going onto work and I’ll be listening to the Oiler/Chicago game on the radio. JT usually puts it on and it’s a short 3.5 hour shift. After that, I’m considering heading up to Chapters again to see if
They have the sequel to Pandora’s star in stock. If not my alternative is Julie Czerneda. They’ve got book 1-2 of the Species Imperative series there. It’s easier to get to Audrey’s and I don’t have to be standing out in the cold waiting for a Chapters bus. I think I’ll go to Audrey’s tonight instead.

Speaking of the weather it’s currently –19/32. The windchill is bitter mostly because it’s a clear day out there making it even colder. I’m not dreading that early morning wait for the bus in the morning when I have to go in. I’ll be wearing my gloves for sure.

So that’s about all for me today.

e. Jim


Thursday, November 23, 2006

I stayed up
listening to the whole Coast show last night and after that I did the cbi thing and went back to bed. Again I’ve been up making hourly trips to the bathroom. I think this is a prostrate thing going on. So, I’m trying to not drink anything today but I need a coffee. Maybe that should be nothing to drink after 9pm.

Not much going on this afternoon. Its pretty cold out there –17/20 and we got some snow over night as well and the weekend we’re going to get a few days over –20. I haven’t seen –20 yet during the middle of the day but it’s coming.

My first coffee of the day, ok, I’m trying to read Neal Asher’s Gridlinked but I find reading anything like a novel, tough until I get this vision cleared up. To read email and websites I need reading glasses but to write in my diary and see the letters on the keyboard is okay. Well even the keyboard letters look a bit blurry. I’m typing this in Comic Sans MS 12, which is almost like bold without being bold. I can see all right to get around but for work most names on the screen I need these reading glasses on and they’re hard on the eyes as it is. Anyway that’s about it for me for today.

e,Jim


Wednesday, November 22, 2006

I tried
to access the JFK newsgroup again, but the news server blocks me out allowing me to read posts only. I’ve been down this road before.

Yeesh, I didn’t get to bed until 3am and I had trouble sleeping. It was 4 am and I figured I’d get up and fool around online for a while and read some of my blogs. Catch up on that reading. The cause of my sleep troubles mainly was all that extra sleep from the day before and a couple of cups of coffee at the office where I work last night. I finally ended up in bed after I did the cbi thing, which was about 5:30am.

When Anne and I were at the specialist’s office Monday the receptionist was sending me back to my Doctor. I heard her say book a Yag, which is the laser surgery they do. They wanted to book me in for Thursday but I was missing time from work. Now I don’t know if this is just a follow u from the last time so he can continue the pre-yag work. He most likely has to take some readings to set things up etc. I could have the yag in his office as early as Monday’s visit or as late as next month. It’s hard to tell with these kinds of things.

I’m up earlier then usual for the, can’t sleep thing mainly. But I’m onto my first coffee of the day. Not that I need it but I’m enjoying it.

I still haven’t tried to call Compaq tech support yet as to how to get my other system back. I think it’s lost. What bugs me about it is I have a years worth of diaries and some stories and other stuff online including the reworking of NW plus almost 100 or so photo’s mostly of cats and home life. All of those are gone as well. I’m never going to get a Compaq again. The best computers to buy are the ones a friend builds for you if you don’t know how to do it yourself at least in my experience. That is if you don’t mind spending a bit of money on the operating system and the components. Your, not going to be saving much money because if your friend is building a computer from scratch for you, chances are he’s doing this out of his business. Also, chances are he has a volume license on his operating system. What this means is that you will get a recovery disk. Of course all of this is in some cases. My problem was I didn’t back up when I should have. Next computer I get, I’m going to make sure it’s fast and the clerk shows me how to back up step by step.

Another cold day out there here in Edmonton. Right now it’s –17* out there, More like –17/-20 the other number on the right of the temperature reading is the dew point, opposite to the humidex reading in the summer. How hot it feels. In this case, it’s how cold it feels. Similar to windchill, so when I write –17/20, it means the temperature is –17 degrees Celsius but it feels more like –20. I don’t care what the temperature reads. I care how it feels. Right now its –17/20 out there. I think this has been the coldest day of the season. Tonight when I came home it’s going to be a lot. Even going to work a lot colder then it is now.

Also, last night I began the character sketches for some of the main characters in “F”. I should have them fleshed out by the end of the month. I hope to be writing the rough draft by Jan 1st if all goes well. I should have the rough draft completed by the end of March. It’ll be done when it’s done is all I can say. And as that work is being written, of course I’ll be designing characters for my space-opera series but this is a long-term project.

Well, the Oilers won last night, 2-1. Good stuff, they beat the Flames and ended their winning streak. That’s a good thing. The Oilers play Chicago on Friday night and don’t play again until the 28th. Anyhow, that’s about it from me today.

e.Jim


Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Still reeling

from the best possible outcome from yesterday’s doctor appointment with the specialist. It feels real good knowing that I don’t have MD and there is no diabetic damage to the retina.. Before the year s out I’ll have my vision restored and back to normal.

Last night I was in bed by 1:30am. I slept and barely heard Anne come in. I clocked her coming into bed just before 3am. I passed out and slept until 7am. So I got 6.5 hours from that. I stayed up a bit after the CBI thing and worked a bit more on “F” and reading a bit more on Marshal. I need a book on subplots. I know what they are and their purpose I just don’t know how many per viewpoint characters. Is a VP character it’s own subplot? Is that all a VP character is for is to advance the subplot? I don’t think so. I tinkered around with this for a while and about 7:40am I went back to bed and slept until 11:20am. That’s another 3 hours 20 min. So I’d say about 10 hours al in all, to make up for yesterday.

Not much on my plate today. I’ll be tinkering around with “F” and then Anne and I will go into work and JT and I will be listening to the Oilers at Recall Place Hockey game. They are hosting Calgary tonight and the Flames have been on a 7 game winning streak now. The Oilers are sitting at 21 points on the season and 4 points away from Calgary under the play off cut. So any night the Oilers play Calgary is an important night. And the City will be adding extra cars onto the trains as well. Wuu whoo.

Pardon me here if I get into the philosophical rant/mode here but over the weekend we’ve had 2 murders by knife stabbing and the same guy that looked like he stabbed one guy in a Whyte Ave bar stopped a truck at an intersection pulled the drive’s door opened it and stabbed him and drove off in his truck. Then there was another tragic stabbing of a 17 year old having a private birthday party at a community hall and 4 knife-packing teens killed the kid and took off. There was another stabbing in the City as well over the weekend. These make it Edmonton’s 34th homicide of the year. What’s gotten into this City anyhow? Just about every weekend someone is getting killed. I know what the problem is. One common denominator is responsible for it all.

But I’ll leave it at that.

e.Jim

Monday, November 20, 2006

Raw wasn’t
bad tonight. I think the best match was the ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship. Jeff Hardy won that one but what a match. On a scale from 1-10 I’d rate Raw tonight about a 6. Not great but not bad either.

Anne got short changed $15 bucks at the Petsmart store and recovered it abd came back with our Pizza just at the time of HGWT. After Pizza I had a 2 hours power nap. I needed it badly. So, I’m good to go tonight.

One thing that has been lacking since my vision problems over the last few months has been reading time. I’d like to spend at least an hour/day reading books. When my vision clears up Ii hope to be doing just that. I figure if I can read 100 pages/week, that’s not bad. I can read 1 book/month. What with my writing and other items/work etc, that’s not bad.

But the best news is my vision is ok. It’s not 20/20 because of my right eye, but having the posterior capsular haze thingy is the best possible news that could happen for me. And if this is just a Doctors office visit then I could have the laser surgery done next week but I think it’s a hospital visit and I have 2 more visits to work with including next week. But at least my vision can be restored to its post cataract surgery phase. And that’s splendid news.

e.Jim


whew! ! ! !
So, Anne and I boarded the bus out here just after 8:30pm and we got to the Coliseum station and then we boarded a bus to Kingsway Mall and another bus to the Royal Alex hospital and the driver let us off where to go, easy to get to one block in. So we went to the 7th floor and to the Doctors office. I checked in and we had a long wait. It was just after 10am when one of the nurses gave me some eye drops to dilate my pupils. It was 10:15am and no “James Shannon?” It was about 10:45am before they called my name. I went right away to this little room and the same attendant that out the drops in my eyes made some initial eye tests and look into the eye chart type thing, then the laser scanning machine. “Look into the eye piece. Look at the green dot.” I saw a laser beam shoot up at various angles and smaller dots. The nurse checked into the monitor as she was doing this. I had to get another nurse to use a cue top to keep my left eyelid open. Ok. “Here’s some literature we give diabetic clients,” That was done back out to see Anne again, after a brief wait I was called in again and this time to see the “big guy herself.” The head honcho, She did some scans and said there is no retina damage. So I confirmed, “do I have what’s called a posterior capsular haze?” “Yes,” And I’ve got another visit 20th to my doctor in the building where I work. This time it’s an afternoon visit. And they are going to book me for a Yag. So, long story short, my vision is fine. No diabetic damage. Matter of fact I think after that visit my Doctor will probably book the Yag sometime early next month. And probably before the staff Christmas party my vision will be restored where I can read normally again. But let me tell you that it was quite a scare. I though I have macular degeneration but there is, no damage to the macular. Whew! ! ! What a relief.


e.Jim

Sunday, November 19, 2006

last night
I watched the Oiler game here at Rexall place playing Detroit. The Oilers won in a shoot out. Good stiff. But mostly as I was flipping back and forth between channels I was watching TNA wrestling. I love TNA. Excellent stuff. I also fleshed out the middle of “F” and working on what scenes I can expand on in the ending portion. Having a great time. I’ve got 5 more scenes to go and I’m just about ready to do the character sketches and that’ll be fun. Then come scene timing, each scene in chronological order. Scene one Ten am Wednesday type thing and some of the scenes will change depending on what I come up with for the various vp characters. But I’ll be working on “F” for the balance of the day.

So, this morning I went to bed about 2:15am after having that gravel pill and

I passed out in due order. Other then waking up to use the bathroom I slept well until about 7:10am. I did the cbi thing and went back to bed and slept until 1am. A good 6 hours and 5 hours before that. A good 7 hours sleep. Wow.

Also last night I began the early preliminary work on my Space Opera. I’m planning a 10 vol. set. Each book will be around 155k, 120 scenes in each book. I might just write the whole thing before I release any of it and work on my other projects.

I’m still working on my website as well and that’s a work in progress.

Tomorrow is the big day. I’m not looking forward to going in but I hope I get answers right away. If I am in the early stages of MD then I’ll face up to that. Like I have a choice, If all I have is that posterior capsular haze thing, then I’ll be breathing a sigh of relief. I’ll have an update tomorrow afternoon. Right now my vision is hazy. Strait lines are strait. I can read this from 12 inches away. It wasn’t as bad as before where I had to get right up to the screen and read, But MD is mostly an age/hereditary thing. Diabetes can be a factor in MD as well and that’s another condition I have.


e.Jim


Saturday, November 18, 2006

I tried
going back to bed after that but no such luck so I figured I’d get up, have a coffee and play around on the computer for a while.

So, then today I’ll be heading into work just before 9am and I’ll get the staff donuts and one for my wife and I’ll get my breakfast sandwich and settle into work.

What’s after “F”? I’m going to work on my space-opera series I call EOS

Going into work was easy. I got the donuts for the staff and a breakfast sandwich for me. I got a donut for my wife and a non-glazed one for me and I ate my breakfast sandwich, Very tasty. I had a great start to
the first half and slower in the 2nd half. JT was there providing some entertainment. By the time the last hour was upon us I was feeling wiped out. I was glad to get out of there and home. Anne hadn’t even been out of bed at all and I came in and we talked for a while then she got up to go out to do her stuff and I tried having a nap. I don’t think I got very far though, Perhaps an hour.

Tonight I’m watching the Oiler/Detroit game and some more work on “F” and that should be about it. I’m kind of worried about Monday.

My email is slow and behaving erratically all week. I’m gradually receiving emails from Markus. Right now working with blocks. He seems to think that individual Topics in automatic Topics menu can be changed. The blocks determine the overall structure of the page. But that’s only for blocks in the block management area not for individual Topics because he went and changed the front page to a 3 column layout for me and now everything is in 4 columns.

e.Jim


Friday, November 17, 2006

Ok, I got
up just before 6am and did the cbi thing. I answered Markus’s 2 email and shut off the computer and went to bed, I think I got maybe 4 hours of sleep in after that, I’m alright for now. I won't post my big adventure from yesterday here but you can read it on my other Blog titled "What a day" as I slowly phase out of Blogger.

Anyway I’m onto my first coffee for the day.

I’ll be going into work on my regular time with my wife and after work I’m heading over to Chapters and picking up a couple of books. There SF selection is a bit better the Audrey’s but not by much. Of course Audrey’s mixes their SF with Fantasy and their 2 different genres in my opinion. Fantasy (Lord of the Rings) is not Science fiction or even speculative science fiction. Some even think Star Wars is a Fantasy. Not. So, I’ll be going over to Chapters and maybe pick up the first 2 books in Stephan Baxter’s “Destiny’s Children” series or possibly try out Julie Czerneda’s books. Nut if I’m going to get series I’d rather start the series from the first book not pick up something in the middle like I did with Baxter. But I really prefer stand-alone novels. Any author will say oh they can be enjoyed as a stand- alone book, (sucks you into buying the series,) Another thing I don’t care for as far a retail stores go, is that they don’t stock older works. Like, I’d be very surprised if Chapters has anything by Clifford D Simak or Andre Norton. One thing I like about Audrey’s is they at least can special order for you at $1 more/book. But I’m going to Chapters tonight to see if they have that Clash on Broadway CD there. There’s a used cd place just down from where my wife works and I can get used CD’s there. But I’d be surprised that Chapters even has it at all, if they do. I doubt it but we’ll see.

e.Jim


Thursday, November 16, 2006

I was in
bed by 3am and I don’t mind that. Coast was pretty good, on UFO’s and I like shows like that but I’m not going to be up until 5am. I’m up at about 6am and I think I got 2.5 hours before I did the cbi thing and up until 7am checking out my website from the new link Markus had given me.

And I find that my email client is blocking my email inadvertently. Now I’ve got to give them a call and ask them to correct that. More headaches. So I think I slept form maybe 7:30am until about 11.00am. I’d still be in bed if it wasn’t for my wife restless and up now doing a bottle run. I don’t mind that so much as I minded the cats but it was just one thing after another and my Markus email being blocked, I’m not in a good mood this morning. Normally I’d love to be snoring away in bed.

Anyway, I’m having my first coffee here.

It’s a nice looking day out there. Tomorrow night I’m thinking about going to Chapters again and buy a few more books. I might even be able to get myself that breakfast sandwich from Tim’s as well Sat morning. Nice.

But I still have to contact my isp and find out what’s going on with my email. This is really annoying me because I want to be able to do some more website stuff with Markus this weekend. I really like GL because it’s so easy to use except that text editor is lousy. I’m thinking of a 3 column layout for the front page of my website and the Blog 2 column the way my Blog is laid out now. Everything else 2 column and all in the same color scheme type thing, I also added this morning My top to SF TV shows, Even though I didn’t watch the show very often I thought Babylon 5 was by far the best SF tv show of the 1990’s.

Also, I worked on more scene expansion for the beginning of “F” and I’ll begin work on the middle today, All that’s really needed is to go with the scenes that have a lot of detail in them already and expand upon them, So the beginning, middle and end look something like 28/56/28. So if I need to make this work, 8/16/8. This makes it to be 112 scenes in all. With 6 Viewpoint characters, that breaks down according to Marshall, 67, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9 scenes. The bulk of these scenes are of course the lead. Now the minor characters don’t need full blown scenes in themselves. I can always have their scenes a scene within a scene but the sequel will always be left for the hero and the villain. Only the villain and the hero get their own scenes. The secondary characters I think I’ll have them with scenes but no sequels. I’m not sure yet but the above will be the basic layout for “F”

But that;s all for now

e.Jim


For some
reason my website is down and I wanted to go in and play with it. I think this is because Markus transferred everything over to Iowa, most strange.

So I emailed Markus about this. It’s probably 9am over there in Germany right now since they are about 8 hours ahead of us. I’ll get more info when I get up around noon.

I took a ride out to the end of the lrt line. Very nice out there It’s about +4* but was +6* around 11pm. Just as nice heading out this afternoon.

I waited for a bit so Rob would be out of my hair. I went in and there was Tony and I just said something like how the appointment went okay yesterday and it could be one of 2 things, Macular Degeneration or Posterior Capsular haze. Tony even said that he has a friend with MD and he can see to get around, he just can’t read unless he blows everything up. I can live with that. So he had us tap shooters over to the other side and I did okay, $220 and the top total was $400 something and that was Jeff, one of the new guys. It was really nice coming home and I caught the train. The City had extra cars on the train tonight because of the Hockey Hall of Fame game we did on tonight art Rexall Place. Looks like they had a good crowd on hand.

e.Jim


Wednesday, November 15, 2006

I’m blogging

at my website and Blogger for the time being. Yesterday I managed to get a stat counter project going to view stats so that’s a good idea.

Anyway I got to bed about 2am and slept off and on but got up again about 5 to do the cbi thing. I took a bsl reading last night, at 15.3! Yikes. I haven’t had it that high in a long time. I went back to bed after the batteries were charged up in my battery re-charger. The green light was off. So now I can start using my digital camera again. But what I need instead of books this pay cheaque is back up disks. I might be able to buy one book and a set of back up disks. On this computer I’ve got one folder for everything. I went back to bed around 5:30am and slept off and on all morning getting up to go to the bathroom. But I’m sufficiently refreshed now as it is.

I’m finishing up my first coffee here.

Just a short Blog entry today as I also want to go onto work more on “F” and post this to Blogger and then to my website.

e.Jim

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

I ended up
not going to bed when I wanted to at about 2am. Instead I was fooling around with my website now that I can get access to

the admin area again. I wanted to stick with OS Empire but I’m not getting the kind of support I’m getting with Markus. So, when I get my holiday pay taken out I’ll put the request in Dec 22nd and I should get the full amount added onto my pay cheaque Christmas week Dec 28/29th. Most likely on the
28th depending on Christmas being a Monday and how head office issues out
Cheaque. If I get it on that Thursday night then Friday afternoon or Saturday afternoon, it’s probably better if I do the WU baking thing that Saturday afternoon. After work, then I can go to Chapters and pick up my Christmas present. So, if all things work out well, I will be moving this blog over to my website, This morning I already transferred most of the links over.

Also last night I was able to move some Amazon book covers over and I almost had a bit of a scare when some of the code pushed my whole front page over. I’ll still keep Blogger up and running, as it’s not costing me anything. Almost everything that goes there to Blogger is being typed on my msword account anyway.

I also want to get Msword Student Teacher edition and have a copy of that I can move around between systems and I hope to get that asap.I’m onto my first coffee.

Anne and I were talking today saying that because I didn’t sleep very well over night and she’s off tonight, I’m going to have tonight off. So I’ll be going over to Bo Didlies call Tony at 4:45pm and let him know my diabetes is acting up and I’m not feeling well. Which is true, I’m not. But I’ll surprise him and show up Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoon, Saturday as well.

Sorry for the inconsistencies here folks but ms word and blogger don't mix very well.

e.Jim



Monday, November 13, 2006

Anne’s been
doing laundry and vacuuming all day and not having a very good day of things, accidents do happen. On the other hand I’ve been having a relaxing day, watching the Oilers lose and watching then the West semi finale.

After that I went to work on the rest of “F” and I have the outline completed at last. I still need to do character sketches and I’ll be doing the lead Character Paul. Donna is the love interest; the sidekick is really Paul’s younger brother Billie. The bad guy’s name is Jonathan. Paul plays a detective as the story is set in present day. Oh there is also Donna’s sister Stacy. The theme of the story is based on transhumanism. The novel is slated to be 100k but I might even make it around 140k so it might not be done just yet, but that’s about all I’m willing to say on the story. I might have about 112 scenes in the story by the time I’m done. I think I’ll be working on the character sketches this week and I hope to have them all completed by the end of the month. I’m really thinking that 100k is too short. Most SF novels it seems are about 100k-150k. I like shorter novels myself.

It's 12:40pm as I write this. I woke up this morning about 5:30amm and did the cbi thing. I was ready to go back to bed but I got some nifty ideas for not only expanding the story but while still keeping with the original theme turned it up a couple of notches. I wrote this stuff down on paper. I went back to bed about 6:30am and got up as more ideas came to me. I think I got up about 3 times. By 7am I had enough and I went back to bed for good. I got up to use the bathroom a couple of times and Anne left to go to the meat market and I think that was around 8:30am. She probably had enough sleep as well. So I slept until 12:30pm and Anne was home doing her stuff. She closed the bedroom door and I had a great sleep from 8:30am 12:30pm. That was a solid 4hours plus the 2 hours after Coast. I think I got enough sleep.

I’m only now having my first coffee on the day.

Okay, some news finally on why my blog woes and why the sidebar is all screwed up. I got a reply from Thur over there at Blogger forum. I’m known as Envaneo and most other places on the web. Anyway, Thur suspects it’s a browser issue. Firefox doesn’t display css as well as IE, which is why things like the weather pixie and my stat counter and other stuff are at the bottom of the page. So until I go back to IE, I’m pretty well stick with this.r>

Snowing out there. Nice. I like snow days. Drivers don’t but I do, as long as I don’t have to shovel the stuff.

But this City is cheap. Seniors bow have to shovel their own walks in front of their homes in the winter when its snowing. In the past if they didn’t nothing and the City went out there with a bobcat backhoe. Now the City will fine them for leaving their walks unattended and won’t remove the snow. A lot of these people can’t do the job so they get relatives or do it themselves if they’re able. The snow isn’t so good on that respect. When I was living over there at the “villa Maria” Tea the caretaker was out there constantly shoveling the snow from the front sidewalk to the street sidewalk. It’s the City’s sidewalk they should maintain them. This City is cheap. At 9pm the university students one stop before the end of the line get on heading towards Clairview and the people that work downtown in Call Centers like me get on and the City only puts 2 cars on the trains to handle all that traffic. From Sept- the end of June when the kids get out of school the two car/train is full to the rafters and many tomes, I’ve got to stand from downtown to Clairview. The only time the City will have 3 cars on the train is when there’s a sporting event like the rodeo in town or an Oiler game. Sometimes they will when there’s a concert. But this City is cheap.

Anyhow, this afternoon Anne and I are going into work. I’ll put my 4 hours in and Greg will have the hockey game on as the Oilers are away in Denver. Then I’ll come home to watch wrestling and that will be my evening. Sp I’ll have a full plate this evening.

Damn this Blogger compose window sucks. Its not behaving well. I can't align left in some cases. I'm likeing Gl more and more.

That’s all for now.

e.Jim



Sunday, November 12, 2006

We went
to bed about 2am and listened to a bit of Coast. Art Bell made an interesting announcement from a news article that scientists have been able to restore sight in mice and has nothing to do with Stem cell research but the treatment won’t be ready for another decade so Art read from the report. I read the report as well and it didn’t give a timetable for when transplanting cells can be used in humans with eye disease. Stem cells could play a part in this later on of course. But I would say Art’s Timetable for when this could be available for humans is at least 10 years away. I’d say sooner.

Anyway, Anne and I shared a beer and I was asleep by about 3:30am and passed out. I woke up at 6am and went back to bed. I think I got p just before noon and watched the Oiler game, I think a brief break from that to answer Markus’s emails. There’s a good chance that I will be moving away from Blogger because I want a website and a blog all in one presence. Plus the tech support is better. So I returned to the Oiler game and had a nice egg benedict brunch watched the Oilers lose. After that I watched the West CFL semi finale Saskatchewan at BC Lions. It was all BC. So it will be BC at Montreal for the Grey Cup next weekend.

Anyway that’s been my afternoon. It’s been mostly sports. Hockey at noon and football after that, it’s been a good day what with that marathon writing day yesterday. I’m up to scene #62 now and on the way to finishing up the outline. Then I’ve got to work on character sheets for the characters. I won’t be ready to write this thing until Jan. 1st anyhow. That’s a long weekend.

If I do decide to go put the website up and move away from blogger it wont be until the New Year anyway. I’m considering a Wordpress template and I won’t need to worry about any FTP. What I will probably end up doing is making an announcement on my blogger site and provide the new address as my last blogger post. If I can.

There’s also the possibility I have the early stages of macular degeneration and I won’t know for certain until next Monday on the 20th. But in the event I do, and I will be losing my vision central vision, I can still use my computer. Widows has, Jaws for those with vision problems like mine. I can answer and compose email etc even though it’s brail supported. I can probably use a brail keyboard and with speech recognition software, I can still use MS Office and it’s applications. So I want to set the website up ASAP before (if) I do have MD. Again, I won’t no for sure until the 20th. But if this is just something they can do with lasers and its just scar tissue on the membrane then I’ll be okay. I hope.

There are lots of things to consider and at the same time I don’t want to take on a major project like a website that will tie up a lot of my resources. Not like $100 bucks a year is a big deal. But I’ve got to consider the real possibility that I could be going blind. Even MD is not total blindness. If I can see peripheral vision blurriness like I have now maybe I can live with that. And wait 10 years for the possibility that the treatment for restoring sight may be available in my lifetime? And on it goes. The other thing I think I have is posterior capsular haze and this happens to about 40% of cataract patients months or even years after and this what I think I have. The reason why I think I have this pch is because MD is an eye disease that is genetic or related to aging. Other factors play into it as well such as smoking diet etc. The reason why my Doctor sent me to the retina specialist was because he couldn’t see back there inside the retina because (I think) it has to do with this pch thing. Also being diabetic might play a roll in MD as well nut diabetes is not in my family.

Anyhow that’s all for now.

e.Jim



Saturday, November 11, 2006

Anne came
in an hour ago and brought me Chinese but she wasn’t very happy with it. Since this was the first thing I had to eat today, I appreciated the meal.


While I was working on “F” this afternoon Anne had left the TV . Music videos. Sure enough Rap but then I heard another band and it was something interesting “Black Parade” My Chemical Romance. I liked the video. Then, the Killers. I have hear of them but first time I listened or seen them. I like them and another band called Billie talent. Good music. Yellowcard I like and bands like them. I was really impressed with MCR though and The Killers. There is some good music out there if you can sift through the Rap. I was going to go get a haircut tomorrow but I’ve got the hockey game on at noon and I want to watch that and work some more on ”F”.


Speaking about ”F” I got up to the end of the middle of the book all “scened” out. From scene #1 - #60 and I’m not done yet. More work on that tonight and tomorrow. I have another 20 scenes left to go. If all works out well, I might be able to start work on this Dec 1
st.

Sometime maybe last year I can’t recall but Anne had bought me this terrible product: A paste like substance that is supposed to remove scratches from CD’s. I tried it on all thereof my Clash on Broadway 3 cd set. Even when I bought it in the early 1990’s it was used. I applied the paste on all 3 CD’s and as per instructions tried to remove the paste after it dried. I put the CD’s in my cd player on my computer and all 3 CD’s won’t work anymore. They were ruined. I was resigned to maybe never getting the package again. Until I stumbled upon Chapters and they have it there According to their website. Excellent. It’s a $40 item. So I think what I’m going to do as a Christmas present for myself is to get, The Clash “On Broadway,” My Chemical Romance, “Black parade” The Killers, and Yellowcard. So that’s 3 CD’s and some books. With the other half I’ll sign up for Markus web hosting and turn my GL site over there but so far he’s not really doing anything.

Blogger Beta is really awkward to use right now. This is not a clean system.

e.Jim


Hows that
for sleeping in late? We got to bed about 4am and listened to a bit of Coast. I had taken the gravel pill about 2am. I ate those sandwiches and Anne had something to eat. It was getting on to 5am so I figure I may as well stay up until 5am and then do the cbi thing. A bit after 5am I was asleep and I slept well up until I had to get up several times to use the bathroom. I only got out of bed about 12:25pm.

I’m waking up with my first coffee here.

Well, the Sun is out probably the first time all week.

I worked some more on “F” last night and I know the direction I’m going with the next 15 scenes of the story up too the 3rd crisis point. I don’t get into shock value like J Alan Erwine does but that’s his style even though he says they’re done not do this for gratuitous reasons but I think the reader would get board with too many of these shockers fast.

Anyway it’s Remembrance Day out there in the City.

The Oilers won one last night in Columbus 4-1. Good stuff. It breaks a 4 game losing streak and they go into St. Louis Sunday to play an afternoon game. They are off to about the same start they had last year. I’d be happy if the Oilers just make the playoffs this year.

e.Jim



work went
rather well last night. I walked in business as usual and everything reset back to normal. I brought my cash with me to go to Chapters to get my books. Overcast about –7*C, I did $236 something like that. I caught the train to the University and a bus down Whyte Ave was waiting for me. I got off on a 105th st and crossed the street there by Canties and upstairs. Their SF section was about the same size as Audrey’s for all the good it did for me to go out there. I bought 2 books. “Grasp the Stars” by Jennifer Wingert. I made sure there it wasn’t part of a series. Then I bought “Transcendent” by Stephan Baxter. It didn’t look like a series either. I felt happy as I paid for my books and after a long wait outside I Caught the bus to the University and then after a long wait for the train I caught that out to Clairview and a wait at Clairview and home. I got in at about 10:20pm as Anne had misplaced her keys and was waiting for me for 10 min. When I got inside and got comfortable and counted my change and all I looked over my books and I got sucked in again. The “Transcendent” book is book 3 in the “Destiny’s children” series. I should have looked inside. Live and learn. So next time, I’m going to look all through the cover and back cover for any indication this is part of a series. I should have asked the clerk if it was part of a series. Live and learn. Not only that but this Chapters has escalators. 2 floors. Even the kids corner was larger then the SF section. I’d say the SF section was about 5% of their overall store. But they have a music/dvd section and Starbucks.

e.Jim

Friday, November 10, 2006

Not a bad
day out there even though its overcast and most likely pretty cold. If you call –7 cold.

Last night I was in bed by 2:00am and past out by 2:30am. I woke up at 6:15am I had just over 4 hours despite being in a bad mood. I’m over it now though. I decided to stay up until 6:45am and work on my outline for “F”. I’m about half way done the outline for the novel and onto my 2nd crisis point of the story. Good stuff. I slept a bit around 9-12pm when I got up and. I got my coffee and here I am. Sort of.

I fired up my computer and checked my email and I got one from Markus. It seems my ejimshannon.com is canceled. Markus can host it for me for the same price as what mark was hosting and Markus doesn’t mind helping me out. So, I think I’m going to set things up with Markus, not Mark.

Also, I may be faced with the realization that my Compaq files etc are gone forever. I think I’m going to stick with W98 until I can save up for a fast laptop next year.

So tonight I’m going to go to Chapters on the South side and pick up a couple of books and come home. I won’t be able to get my hair cut until Sunday because everything is closed Saturday because of Remembrance Day. Well except Walmart and other American companies.

e. Jim

Thursday, November 09, 2006

They. I got
an email from Markus. Good stuff. I hope we can work together on building my website.

So, my wife and I went into work just fine. I got my cheaque and a $30 bonus. Pat, Tony and JT were picking me on all night but I ended up putting my headphones on and ignoring them, listening to my music. I ended up doing $707. Not to shabby. Anyway, I was happy I left and I was in a bad mood leaving but I understood its source and tried to forget about it, I’ve been home for like maybe 20 min or so. I’ve got to go back tomorrow and then the weekend. Friday night after work, I’m heading over to Chapters and I’ll be picking up some books and a nice weekend.


e .Jim


That kid
upstairs is still at it. Like a fucking wind up toy, you think I can get any sleep around here with that racket going on? It's not really their fault though because just before they moved in above and the older couple moving out the caretakers put in a sub floor in their suite. Whatever that means. JT knows more about that then me but the people upstairs don't know this. I think it's a tactic to get us to move out because we've been here so long and they can come in gut the place and up the rent by a couple of hundred bucks. We've been here for over 10 years and me here for 6 and we barely heard a peep from the couple upstairs until the family with a toddler moved in.

The reason why 2 days are missing from my journal is because I bloged my journal. For some reason Bloger/betta wont let me paste onto the compose area. It changes all the time of course. I don’t see any real value in blogger beta personally. They didn’t really improve it much. Okay I can past now but I get this space between the date and my title in blue.

Anyway, I didn’t go to bed right away. I turned in about 5am after the cbi thing. I wanted to work on “F” some more is what kept me up until 5am. I slept until 9am when that brat upstairs began running around all over the place Anne and I getting up a few times to go to the bathroom and the cats roaming around.

Anyways I’m onto my first cup of coffee.

My wife got her pay today and I’ll get mine later. Plus we had that GST cheaque that came in handy. So that’s $600 or so just this week alone. Not bad.

I was also up looking in Fantastic fiction around 4am as well to find some books I’d be interested in over there at Chapters. After I post this, I’ll be browsing in that and calling Chapters from work and asking them about titles. I’m very picky about my SF reading preferences. I don’t like series. I don’t particularly like military fiction. I don’t particularly like hard sf. I don’t like young adult, I don’t like alternate earth history novels. I don’t like SF comedy. I also don’t like long SF as well. The longest book I’ve read this year has been Robert J Sawyer’s mindscan. I’m currently reading Neal Asher’s Gridlinked. Not much dialogue in it but it is fast paced and I'm enjoying it. So, I’m rather picky on what I like to read.

Anyway, that’s all for now so for any typos as I'm still trying to get a handle on Beta and of course my vision woes.

e.Jim

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Good grief,
what a night. We we're doing MM and I wasn't doing to badly. I think I got about $145 on that. I got into a tirade there with some of the people I work with. It was kind of a fun tirade but I was also being serious because I was wondering out loud why do smokers get to go on x2 5min smoke breaks when us non smokers can't? But I'm going to have a rants page on my website and just link to my rants for anyone interested for my opinions. Why I don't know. So I got to thinking maybe I should start that now. I went over to my website (see sidebar) and my friend Markus in Germany has helped me last year doing some website stuff blasted a message to me.

Hey Markus, I hope you got my email. :-)

Alright that said after the break we had a bit of a shutdown problem and JT and I listened ot the Oilers hockey game from Detroit. They got beat badly 3-0. Ouch. We did CCSD and I ended up with $585. I ws glad to get out of the office. Extra cars on the train tonight. I got my bus and home. Yeesh. Weird night.

Okay, the reason why I want to move my rants to my website is because I want to be known for my fiction writing not for my opinions, such as they are. My opinions don't matter anyway, and my rants are only references to observations in my daily life and the things that affect me. But I'm going to utilize my website more fully and that's what I'm going to do as I'm planning this novel.

e.Jim



Here we go,
I was in bed by 2:30am listening to a bit of Coast. Not my kind of topic on psychic development. Pretty lame stuff. Tonight is a lame topic as well on US economic forecast. But they got a good show on Thursday night before open lines, on "Aliens and Giants" before another open lines show. Anyhow I went to sleep and woke up at 6:30am and fed the cats. the ol cbi thing. I think I got about 2.3 hours sleep and then I went back to bed and I slept fairly well until noon. Other then getting up a few times to use the bathroom. I think I got 7 hours sleep.

Sometimes over at WWE on Raw, "rapper" Kevin Federline has been boasting how he's married to Britney Spears and bla, bla, bla. and seems to have a "vendetta" on John Cena and challenges Cena on Raw the other night. Big fucking deal. "K-Fed" is a little weasel anyway, the guy is a braggart. Why does the WWE even give this guy any attention? I had to laugh last night when on "Entertainment Tonight" it was announced that Britney Spears has filed for divorce from "K-Fed.". citing "irreconcilable differences." Can you say prenup K-Fed. "Ching ching." Normally I don't pay much attention to Hollywood but because there is a wrestling cross over storyline, I had to mention it. I like John Cena. Even when he was a rapper because he never took himself too seriously unlike this "K-Fed" idiot. That's why I had to laugh about the divorce news.

Speaking about music (uh-oh I feel another rant coming on. Read at your own risk.) but since the emergence of "Rap/hip-hop there" hasn't been a new musical genre since 1990. Not that I consider Rap, real music or anything. Lets take a brief look at pop music.When "pop music" as we know it today first emerged on the scene in the 1950's. We can go further back then that according to Wikipedia. But for the purposes of my observations pop music began in the 1950's so we'll start there. The emergence of pop music contained musical acts like Buddy Holly, Elvis, that sort of thing. In the 60's we had the British Invasion and the hippie generation. I roll that as one category. In the early 70's, we had the 60's hangover and pop music softened. Then we had Disco, Glam and Punk/New wave. The 80's had a distinct sound unto itself and basically the 70's party continued. Music in the 80's was great. So in the 70's we had three different musical styles, Disco, Glam, Punk/NewWave. Then in 1990 kids started wearing baseball caps backwards and running shoes with the shoe tongue over the pants and in 1990 Rap "music" came out with MC Hammer and that opened up the flood gates. It's been Rap ever since. From 1990-2006. 16 years of the crap. The artists that I liked were still doing their own thing, like Midnight Oil, Kansas, Alan Parsons etc. I first heard about Ska in the 1990's and I was hoping that Ska would break the back of Rap but it didn't. So I ask myself if there is ever going to be a new "sound" that will sweep Rap music under the rug of time like Glam and Disco. Why do I hate Rap? For one thing it disenfranchised me as far as contemporary music was concerned. Rap/Hip-hop was/is mostly a black thing that grew out of the Bronx in New York.There is no musical "talent" involved as the "music" is mostly sampled. My generation did it better in the beetnick period but even back then it was underground. Rap was still underground for many years but since I'd say about 1998 or so Rap is now mainstream. Not that there was any great musical talent in 70's Punk but everyone knew this. The lyrics in Rap turn me off as well, as they are mostly about drugs and Ho's and crime and guns. Wow, something to aspire to. The music of the 60's and to the most part of the 70's was about sex, drugs and rock n' roll. We didn't think how cool it was to knock off a 7-11 or gun play and selling crack. Music of my generation was fun music. God, Now I'm sounding old. But music of my generation wasn't about glorifying crime, guns and Ho's. Rap is not nice "music" I'm not trying to sound like a preacher here and pardon me if I am but its my Blog. When Rap came along, music died and it's still dead other then a few artists that are trying to make real music like the Dixie Chicks, Prince, U2, Franz Ferdinand, Green Day. Thank God there are still bands out there making music. The Who and the Rolling stones, haven't sold out to Rap music, even though the Stones did a discoesque Lp track "Miss you" in 1978. I think Prince has done one Rap song and has flirted (rarely) with rap but him and Michale Jackson I have a lot of respect for because they haven't sold out to the Rap crap "genre". Good for them. They have more or less stayed true to their roots. I'm not saying that some Rap artists anent good singers. They are and some even play their own musical instruments. Even our Rapper where I work, Will has an excellent voice. There is a lot of talented people in Rap imo languishing their ability on such nonsense.

Anyway, that's my rant for the week, and my blog post for the day.

e.Jim

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

You just
never know who your going to run into on the phone where I work.Today I came across a name that sounded familiar. Egyptian. And so I enquired to the other party as to the etymology of the word and I realized who I had on the phone. Could it be Anna? David's Anna? "Do you know a David M?" "Yes, who is this?" I identified myself and we had a grand old time chatting away about the old days. She's still with David after all these years and she said she saw Eugene about a month ago but not active in anything OTO anymore. So I have her email address and the 3 of us might get together just to go through old times. I wanted to let her know what happened to Russel.and if she knew anything about Richard. I spent a good 20 min on the phone but we agreed to meet, all three of us as she works downtown she said.

Well, the thing is that was a good news story but didn't help my evening at all. I think I had the lowest total in the room pulling in a measly $305. I beat out Doug's low total yesterday :-) I was glad to get out of there.and I caught the train home.

It was nice and mild weather coming home on the train. I got home 20 min ago.

Also, I asked Rob what's going on for Remembrance Day and we're taking Saturday off and I'll get the stat pay he said if Sat is my regular working day. Which it is and I work the day before and the Day after type thing. I then called Chapters 82nd Ave location and they are open on Saturday, the stat holiday. Good stuff. That way I can buy some more books. Chapters has a better selection then Audrey's and it's easy to get to Chapters. I take the train to the University station, take the escalator up to the street level and board any bus heading down Whyte Ave and I'm there.

Other then my total I had a pretty good night tonight.

e.Jim

.

The folks at
Blogger help forums have got my request for some technical assistance on how to correct my sidebar and profile. I also want to clean up all the spaces in the the profile and sidebar as well. One of the main culprits has been the "Works in Progress" bar. I've never been able to use that successfully. I can get the program from the owner and I was going to do that last year but some stuff came up and I never got around to it and I don't even know if Blogger beta can accept it. (if its something built into the Template or a program/code external to it.

We were going to go get our hair cut today but the weather report talked about freezing rain and that stuff is hard to get around in so at 11am I opted my wife, we should do this Saturday, after work. Might even go tomorrow instead as I don't know whats open or closed for Saturday's Remembrance Day holiday.

Raw was pretty good last night. On a scale of 1-10, I rate the show an 8. Good stuff.

As for last nights show on Coast, I listened to a bit of it. I was so exhausted I just went to sleep about 2am and I woke up at about 5:30am did the cbi thing and went back to bed. I slept until maybe 8am when the cats started to roam on the bed again disturbing my sleep. I just dozed in and out of sleep from there. I think I got 7 hours, I'm not sure.

One thing I'm considering is getting a Satellite radio. XM radio to go. It would be better if the units had a record feature like Pogo radio. I've been following Pogo radio for the last few years. It kind of looks like an Ipod and has am/fm local radio and has an external speaker and head phones great for hockey games. I don't know yet if this is something I want to commit to right now.

I do know that if I can keep my health going and work I want to save all my vacation pay like I'm doing now, put some more hours in and save up enough for a new laptop. Of course by the time I'm ready to buy, Jan 2007 all PC laptops will be Vista ready. But I'm going to do more buyers guide research on the next machine. When I bought the Compaq my buying decision was based on the price was right. Well, a bit more then that. I bought the Compaq because it had Wxp preinstalled and a 5 in 1 media card reader. I also bought it because all the USB ports and speaker connections were up front on the case and of course the price was right. But the Compaq was the slowest computer I've ever owned and the noisest. I've owned 5 computers since the Compaq. My first computer was the Atari 130xe. I had to plug it into my tv set to use it. Lol. I bought that from Curtis at "Electrolights" in West Edmonton Mall and I recall making weekly payments on a layaway plan basis. Actually Rob and Crissy with my last payment I gave them to give toCurtis the store owner and they brought it to work for me and drove me home after work. Very nice of them. I don't think I had any software when I bought it. Oh wait, I think I bought an Ssi game called "Wizzards and Warriors" something like that. I couldn't as far as I know do any word processing on the xe. I did buy a modem a few weeks later and I was able to do some bbsing on Bulletin boards. This would have been Dec 1987. Then the following year I bought the Atari ST. I bought a word processing package called ST writer and I wrote "Gems at Oriel's bridge." and "Meltdown" on that computer. I would use the ST for the next several years until I traded it to Uve's son for the 386sx. But on that computer I was able to do some word processing. I used that up until 1996. I'd take the 3.5 floppy disk into AVC and use their computer labs and print off my stories. When my father passed away in 1996 I got my first real computer and a monitor. It was an AMD chipset. I think it had a 10GB hard drive with W95 as its os. This was my first Internet computer as well. I used that right up until I got married and upgraded it with a CD burner. Big time. After that in 2000 I got the Wme machine from Mark at OS Empire (See sidebar) but that bombed out on me a few years later and gave me the "blue screen of death." I'm still using that PC but with W98 which he installed for me. I'm still using that PC from 2000 and it works fine since the Wme us removed and installed with W98. Fastest computer I've ever owned. I think it uses SD Ram. Then prior to my signing on with Blogger I got the Xp Compaq machine. I love Wxp. Great OS. I have had very little complaints with any of Microsoft os's. Other then Wme. Shudder. What a headache that was. This is why when I'm going to buy the laptop (hopefully) I'll do my research. First priority is the laptop starts up fast. I don't want to wait around 20 min before I can gain access to my desktop like I did with the Compaq NAV. Secondly, I want as much Ram as possible. I'll even take a preinstalled os if I have to. I also want the memory card reader as well, a dvd.cdwriter optical drives etc. Probably a high end graphics card but that'l drive the price of the laptop up. I want 100gb hard drive. That's about standard these days in a a laptop. A 17" display. USB 2 etc. But I will not buy a Dell or a Mac Although I'm considering the Mac Minni for other purposes. I'm also going to research the battery as well. For obvious reasons. Also, where I plan on buying the computer. I don't know about Future shop yet. Just because it's right across the street from me doesn't mean anything if buying the Compaq from them is any indication of things to come. I think I'm prepared to spend $1000-1800CND on the laptop. I'm even considering asking to boot it up out of the box before I buy. And I won't buy a refurbished item as wellor anyting buy mail. But this won't happen if I can't keep my health as in my vision going.

Anyhow, that's all for now

e. Jim



Basically I know
I have a problem with my sidebar. I hope to have it corrected by the weekend, which includes my profile as well.

Raw was excellent last night. The aftermath of Cyber Sunday. On a scale from 1-10, I'd rate last nights show a 7. Good stuff.


I actually like the beta version of Blogger. I don't like tagging the Title of the Blog because the title sticks out like a sore thumb. But I like everything else about the beta version. It's still in the fine tune angle.

e.Jim

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Monday, November 06, 2006

I had a pretty
good evening for a Monday night. We were doing M&M and had a pretty good list to work with. I ended up with $653 and a $50 credit card. I felt good leaving and the air felt nice once I left and walked towards Carona station.I got a seat to myself on the way home and I re wrote the opening scene idea for scene #1 for "F" Now I'm about ready to watch Raw and wind down the evening.

Tomorrow, Anne and I are going to go get our hair cuts and maybe a little treat as well for lunch. I might have enough to by a couple of books even. But I still plan on putting in a couple of afternoons this week. Most likely Wed, Thu, Friday.

e.Jim

Didn't sleep
to well over night what with cats jumping on my feet and getting up to use the bathroom almost every hour on the hour. Add to that my wife doing the same, getting up all the time. So by about 11am I had enough and I went to the couch and put my feet up and dozed off here and there. Except for the noise upstairs, I slept fairly well even though I have a slight headache.

I don't know what my place of employment is going to do for Saturday, what with it is Remembrance Day and all. I'd like to Not work Sat and get paid for it and work the day before and the day after like we usually do for a stat Holiday. Have a weekend to work with. What with all the controversy with our troops dying at least one/week in Afghanistan lately, showing some respect for them seems appropriate on Remembrance Day. Well, any day really. I have a lot of respect for our troops and they are doing a great job in such awful conditions. I think we'd take a lot of flack because if we opened up our call center Saturday morning. So, I elect to take the day off. If it were up to me that is.

I got up at about 4:45am and I did a cbi thing and got a good idea for an opening part for the first scene of "F" and I wrote that down.and read some more in Bickham. Fascinating stuff.

Then I went back to bed and that's when the cats started to visit. I got some sleep but not a full 7 hours or anything like that. But I'm onto my first coffee and soon to Blog this and work a bit more on "F" and get ready to go into work for tonight. JT will be there and we'll talk about last nights Cyber Sunday and wrestling etc. No hockey on tonight but the boys play in Montreal Tuesday.

About Friday nights Oiler/Dallas game which Fans and local media are still a buzz about the misplaced call by referee Mick McGeough. Some people say, big deal it's only one point. Well, last year the Oilers got into the playoffs barely by one point and look where that one point got them. Right to the Stanley Cup finale. And here's the kicker, because Oiler Coach Craig MacT said something on camera as a reaction to that bonehead call MacT got fined $10G for his comment. I mean what was he supposed to do grin and bear it? He stood up for his team like players do for their team mates. The league does not like the Oilers. These types of referee shenanigans have happened before. There was another misplaced call as well during the Stanley Cup finale itself that could have cost the Oilers that Stanley Cup itself. And then McGeough apologizes for the call after the game. How big of him. Meanwhile, Dallas still was able to walk away with the win. Nothing against Dallas. I bet McGeough can sleep better tonight. What do we want? For one thing at least award a point for an obvious goal that tied the game with just under 5 seconds remaining in the game. That's good for starters and how about some accountability from the on ice referee's? The other thing is we want to have an second opinion and the ability to review the goal. They do that to a degree when the goal is up for review but not for miscalled goals like this one. was Okay, Jim..get over it.

That's my Rant for today :-)

The good folks at SF Signal (see sidebar) wants to let us know of their top 20 favorite SF films and they've got a pretty good list of them to. Just as an aside here's my list of my Top 20 SF/F films.


Woo Whoo. I got my gst rebate cheque in today

e.Jim.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

We were
talking about it for a couple of weeks now about ordering WWE's Cyber Sunday. So I mentioned it to my wife about 5:30pm and she ordered it for me. She made me a nice supper and I really enjoyed tonight's show especially the main event. Frigen K-Fed. Rap music bores me to tears. I'd rather listen to country. I hate Rap. One of these days I'm going to open up a Rants page and just link to the things that piss me off. Also, my wife ordered me a big old bag of smokey bbq chips and I ate some of them and just enjoyed the show. On a scale of 1-10, I'd rate tonights Cyber Sunday a 7.5.

Earlier before supper I was looking at the Future Shop Website for Laptop computers. I want a Media Center PC laptop that has a built in memory card reader and loaded with software. That is if my vision ends up being okay. I want to use my vacation pay towards one, so I might just end up saving my vacation pay for a whole year, 2007 and take it out just at the end of the year and work a full last week and then collect it all together and wait for the Boxing Day sale week and buy. I still want to get the printer and MS word of course as well.

I also worked on a few scenes in "F" and I'm going back to that after I post this.

e.Jim