I had a bit of a wait at Clairview for my train but I was able to get 5 pages in on “Runner.” Also, the new look cars on the LRT the City ordered last year, finally made an appearance. If I knew they were rolling them out I’d have brought my camera

I got to work on time and got my dialer ok. Some changes on the job. We are not to use a tally sheet anymore to keep track of our totals. And, we are not to keep any pens or pencils at our dialer. Nor are we allowed to have cell phones at our desk for any reason. It seems there is some identity theft Lawsuit going on somewhere in Ontario about credit card sales over the phone. Anyone can keep CC numbers on file. We aren’t allowed to have totals anymore but I open up word pad and type them in just to keep track and put an * by a CC sale. Oh and the Oiler’s were hosting Buffalo Sabers. DC mentioned a trade rumor that Vincent Lecavalier is coming to Edmonton for Sheldon Souray. Yeah right. Yes wife or girlfriend wont let him move here because of the weather (my opinion) I had a $2 bet on JT and DC. The first period in it was like 5-1 Sabers. Uh-oh. After the shift I copied my total down for my own records. I ended up with $1,225 and 3 CC’s for a lousy $3 bonus. I called Anne at break and had a chat but missed my lunch. Lots of changes all to make our worthless jobs even harder. First it was this nasty DNC list in October. Then Rob watering down the credit card bonus a few times. Then, if that wasn’t enough DC says we are to return our headsets. That idea sort of went by the wayside. Now this BS.

I was glad to get out of the office and on the train home I read another 4 pages on the way home. Anne made us some perogies for lunch even though it was a bit earlier. On the aftermath of the Oiler/Saber game Buffalo 10 Oiler’s 2! Ouch. The announcer was saying this was the Oiler’s worst loss since joining the NHL. The Oiler’s sucked tonight alright.......1:50pm: We went to bed late. 4am and listened to a bit of Coast. The Subject was “The weird US.” We listened for a bit. I tried to sleep but the half beer I had before bed gave me a headache more then anything else. It was difficult to get to sleep. Sparky (taken about 2:20pm today is a bit stressed out over Boots in the house.

I got out of bed about 11am to get some reading done. “Runner” is turning out to be a decent read after all. Anne initially wanted me to wake her up at noon. I did but that failed. “1pm.” Ok. So I watched the noon news

The good news is that the Liberals will accept Harper’s budget. Actually it’s a $50B budget and not $30B but it’s over 2 years. The best part I like is that for the most part this dissolves the “Coalition” government and the Liberals said they will watch how the stimulus package is being spent “like a hawk.” It also means that we won’t go to the polls again. Maybe. But at anytime the budget isn’t being handled the way the liberals say the Tries should handle it as in their outline proposal, they we could go back to the polls. I imagine there will be a lot of consultation. The thing is, it’s going to take about 2 years before any of this money gets back into the hands of the consumer. I like the tax break for lower incomer earners and the infrastructure package. This could help Edmonton. Iris Evans says that the money will go towards a 1/3rd times 3 way initiative between City, Province and Federal support for big projects like the North leg of our LRT system. The best way to get money flowing into the economy (imo) is to give consumers a mail in rebate on consumer spending, like groceries and rent. You buy 1 bag of groceries you get the 2nd one free type thing.

Enough of that. After the news I caught “I prophesy, Dude where’s my flying car?” Featuring Robert J Sawyer. I really enjoyed this half hour program. Sci-Fi prophet? Sure why not? On a scale from 1-10, I’d give this a solid 8/10 only because it’s the first broadcast of a 17 part show. I enjoyed it and I’ll be coming back for mere. It’s on for 17 weeks. Good stuff. Anyone that has ever been to a Robert J Sawyer book reading/signing knows what a great speaker he is.

As for me, I get another 4 hours on the job thing tonight. Uggh. Oh well someone’s got to do it.

Anyway Bloggers, that’s all for now

e. Jim