Well i gotta say work went by pretty smoothly today.  Did a lot of sweeping around the shop, had to drive to the other end of the city to pick up parts for the broken down mulcher and had a couple of safety people come in to get ideas of what we do around the shop so they could make up proper hazard assessment sheets for us, that pretty much sums up work.

When i got home from work today, my daughters mom called me up.  She was really upset that it didn't matter how much she disciplined all of her kids, they still rebel and get into trouble.  I really don't know why some kids will listen to their fathers or anyone else but when it comes to listening to mom, its all a joke.

Took a walk to the store to grab some more coffee cream.  Before doing so i stopped  by a KFC to grab a bite to eat.  Was really craving chicken for some reason.  While i was there, one of my old coworkers from a past company i worked for stopped in to grab some food.  Basically talked about where we were sitting at for jobs after we both left or got laid off.  Told him my story about how I was going through a lot of places who didn't teach me very much about my trade.

I'm still losing my mind in this little box that i'm living in.  Still waiting for the weather to warm up so i have good reason to go outside for more than 10 minutes.  To soak in some rays and be in a better mood.  There is so much i could be doing right now.  Reading my Guitar for dummies and learn some music theory, playing guitar in general or even cleaning up my little shoebox of a room.  I guess i'm just one of those kinds of people that if stuck in a small area for a long peroid of time will have a harder and harder time focusing on one thing.  I hate this so much.  Until another day when i whine about the weather.  Wouldn't be surprised if its tomorrow :-S.

I'm Bi-Winning

Still not an exciting day.  Until this now clears and the weather warms up its gonna be dull for the next few weeks :-S.  Last week i was watching the Charlie Sheen interview about how he is going to sue CBS for cancelling the show.  Anyway, someone had made some kind of song from pieces of the interview and it was hilarious.  I probably watched it at least 10 times today, and I garuntee i'll have it stuck in my head at work all day tomorrow :-S.

Went over to my moms for dinner later on and learned how to make some awesome tortellini.  basically all you do is cook up the tortellini, steam some broccoli and add some Alfredo sauce.  Good thing I'm quoting this to because i know i will possibly forget about it somewhere down the road.  Definatley going to have to make some of it next week.  It was awesome :-).

Caught a Flames game on TV for the first time in a month.  Really happy that they beat Nashville and i'm hoping they can win enough games to stay in the position to qualify for the Stanley cup play-offs.  They didn't win it back in 2004 when they lost to Tampa Bay, now is their time to rise back up and win it this year.  I also won't be disappointed if Vancouver or Chicago win either, but no matter what I'll always cheer for the Flames before any other team.

Mezmerize

For any of you out there who haven't heard the news yet, and i'm sure there are a few of you.  System of a Down has gotten back together again.  they are even doing a few shows around North America.  Sucks i can't afford tickets for the show at the moment, by next week i should have money.  But knowing my luck i bet it will be sold out by then :-S.

I'm amazed that i never knew about System of a Down until 2005 when they released their Mezmerize album.  After getting into them a lot more, i found out that i knew a couple of their songs i just didn't know it was them singing them.  The two main singles that I know off the top of my head on this album are "BYOB" and "Question?".  I have no complaints on this album, just about every song is awesome.  Some of my favorites include "Radio/Video", "Violent Pornography" , and "Old School Hollywood".  If you haven't heard the songs before or just want to get another awesome song stuck in your head again, here are the links below to the songs...

Radio/Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX-kJKIRyhM
Violent Pornography - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w10tu0zcE7Q
Old School Hollywood - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgcJ1A9xrI0&feature=fvst

I haven't heard anything yet if System of a Down is releasing a new album yet, but if I hear any news, I will defiantly make a post and let all of you System fans know.

I Feel Like A Cab Driver

Slept in this morning, didn't wake up till 1 PM.  Always feels like the day is shot way too soon when i sleep in, thats why i hate doing it.  Whenever a day rolls by that i don't have to be up for anything, then i won't get up at all.  For all i know that will probably be the case tomorrow even if i set an alarm to get up or not.

So a friend texted me when i got up, one of her friends needed a lift 30 minutes outside of town to gether some belongings.  Well i had stuff to do today, its a pretty sweet deal that i'm getting a full tank of gas out of the deal, but at the same time, your using up some of my time that i could be using so im gonna need a little extra for my time.  I didn't get any laundry done or practicing in, its gonna have to wait till tomorrow, but even then i visit my daughter tomorrow so won't get anything done then ugh, i live such a busy life :-S.

Its a friends birthday tonight so i'm gonna be going to the same bar as last nite.  I guess that bar wasn't cracked out as much as we thought it was.  It will never be like the old hangout.  So our search continues for a nightclub that has a dance floor and they play a mix of classic rock and heavy metal, and not just hard techno or house music.  Thats why i loved the place and a lot of places around the city don't have that kind of feel to them.

Come on people, get it together

So i really don't know how much longer i can put up with how slow my workplace is.  Seriously, for most of the day the three of us in the shop were inspecting an excavator.  We needed some filters to do an oil change along with swapping out all of the other filters as well.  We don't have a sufficient parts department, so if we need parts, we have to wait a few days for them.  Sometimes i think the higher ups need to get organized so we can run a faster and more efficient company.  The service truck has been out of service way before i even started.  Its needs a whole new engine.  The service manager thought he had one at a scrap yard, we waited a couple of weeks to see if it was the right one and no dice :-(.  Another company thought they had the right one and still no dice :-(.  If they would have just ordered up a new or rebuilt engine from a dealership of some kind, we would have it way sooner, the truck would be up and running and we would get a lot more business.  Maybe i would be able to tag along for a few "Field Trips" and actually gain some experience in my trade.  Honestly if this keeps up i might go seek employment elsewhere.  It can't be that hard to find someone who will keep you around and allow you to work side by side with a journeyman who will teach you everything you need to know.

Well i think i need to go out for awhile.  Some friends of mine found a new bar to hang out in and i need a drink or two to drown my sorrows in this crazy work day i had.

Is It Spring Yet?

Another cold morning on the way to work today, thankfully it wasn't windy like it was yesterday, went out to brush the snow off my car didn't take long for my hands to go numb.  I would wear gloves if i didn't lose them awhile back feel kind of stupid for doing that, so i'll have to go buy another pair here on the weekend.  Or maybe there won't be too much of a point since spring is almost here.

It was another one of those not too exciting work days.  The loader i worked on for awhile finally got picked up and an excavator got dropped off because an inspection needed to be done on it.  Besides that i spent the rest of the work day cleaning components out of final drive assemblies on the mulcher in the shop.

Traffic still sucked today, took me an hour to get home once again.  I didn't feel like cooking dinner today, so i picked up a sandwich at Subway.  At the end of the work day I still felt pretty energetic and i thought i would be that way when i got home..... nope, felt like someone had sucked the life right out of me :-S.  I've been feeling that way since Monday.  I don't know what it could be thats making me feel so drained.  Possibly the cold weather or being cooped up inside, who knows.  Maybe if i could get outside and go for a walk i could possibly feel better, but i don't wanna step foot outside in - 20 C weather :-S

The rest of the day wasn't too much of a waste, i managed to get a good 1-2 hours of guitar playing in, i even made a template on MS word so i could starting creating tabs for all of the songs i've learned so i don't forget them down the road.

Revolving Door

Sometimes i think that some people who cross the street deserve to get hit.  On my way to work today driving down a road a pedestrian comes right out of no where and decides to cross the street without looking both ways to ensure the way was clear.  Its below -30 C with the windchill today so the roads are still icy.  I slam on the brakes to stop for this guy and almost slide right into him.  Don't need to be doing that in my lifetime, i've had my license for 10 years now and don't need to lose it over something stupid like that

Basically the biggest highlight of my workday today was going with another one of the techs to the other side of the city to another dealership to pick up parts for the mulcher we are fixing up.  We had to do a good couple of hours of reorganizing at the place in order to get at the components we needed.  Then loading up the truck afterward with the -30 something with the bad windchill wasn't that fun :-(.

So doing all that took up most of the workday.  I was talking with one of the techs and learned that out of all the staff at the branch i'm at from the executives to the techs.  One of the receptionists has been there longer than all of us and shes only worked for the company two years.  Made me realize how much of a revolving door the company is that i work for.  I was told theres lots of BS to deal with at my company, just haven't come across it yet.

The weather was terrible on the ride home.  What normally takes me 20 minutes to drive home took me an hour.  Thats how bad the roads were.  Some wern't too bad, but for some people if its snowing its a good idea to drive 30 km/h on a main road and not care about the people behind you.  Frustrates the hell outta me :-S.

Thought it would turn into another lazy day when i got home, i played around on my computer for a good 3 hours until finally getting up to make my weekly chili.  Afterward i managed to pick up the guitar for a good 45 minutes and practice those audioslave songs i learned parts of over the weekend.  I looked up a decent tab and after half hour i was able to get most of "One and the Same" down, except for the solo, there are some parts of it i don't know what Tom Morello does, but i just can't figure it out.

Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace

Similar to the last post I made about Rise Against, the Foo Fighters will also be putting out a new album shortly for all you Foo Fighters fans out there who haven't heard the news yet.  The album is called Wasting Light and will be released on April 12th.

While were on the topic about the Foo Fighters, I will also talk about one of my favorite Foo Fighters albums.  Two of their biggest singles off of the album were "The Pretender" and "Long Road to Ruin".  The songs even had awesome music videos to go along with them to.  I was really into "The Pretender" for the longest time, gave me a good adrenaline rush lol. A couple of my other favorites off of the album were "Erase/Replace", "Let It Die" and "But, Honestly".  Let it Die was also another song i listened to for the longest time, until it became a single on the radio and was played everywhere i went.  That just killed the song for me :-(

Here are the links to Let it Die, Erase/Replace and But Honestly:

Erase/Replace - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1DenjYj_tg
Let It Die - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC9fQhEHw2o&playnext=1&list=PL4F6B46F1F86E8AE5
But, Honestly - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liOu6uYE7ig

I even have a link to the first single off of Wasting Light.  Its called "Rope"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At3rZUgQsh8

Double Post

I was getting pretty late to make an entry of my day yesterday, so i'm gonna post yesterday and today in the same post, starting with yesterday...

February 28th

woke up at 4:30 this morning, tried to get back to sleep since i usually wake up at 5:30.  Didn't end up falling asleep and ended up waking up half hour earlier than usual.

We finally got around to finishing up the loader that has been in the shop since i started working for the company.  There were moments I was afraid that the couple of us didn't do the job right and we would be stuck on it for a few more days.  The quick attach cylinder head exploding and oil spilling all over was one instance why i would think that.  In the end we checked it out and realized that the machinists who we sent it out to didn't do a good job at repairing it and one of the grooves where a snap ring was rounded so it would not sit in properly.  Plus the bores where the locking pins slide in needed to be honed out some more which probably caused the cylinder to blow due to excessive pressure in the cylinder from too much resistance.

After honing out the pin bores and reassembling the cylinder, everything started working the way it should have.  As for the rest of the day, i cleaned a few parts on another machine and touched up the paint on the bucket we fixed up.

After work, i stopped by to visit my daughter and to pick up my laptop.  I really didn't want to go another day without a computer in my small living space.  I went out to grab a few groceries afterward.  I ran out of supplies to make my simple affordable chili.  Seems like the perfect food for me to survive on when i don't have much for funds.  I also picked up some yogurt, strawberries and granola.  I've had the thoughts go through my head that i wanted to start eating granola with yogurt and fruit for breakfast, i decided now would be the time to start.

March 1st

So I started off the morning by eating that granola, yogurt and fruit mixture i talked about earlier, its was pretty awesome, i was hoping it would be filling enough, but after working for an hour i was starting to feel a little peckish, maybe i'll try having some peanut butter toast to go along with it tomorrow morning.  I don't like feeling hungry when i'm working, don't feel like i can perform as well on an empty stomach.

Friggen cold and icy out this morning, checking the thermometer on the dash it was -29 C outside.  Almost got into a couple of accidents on the way to work as well because some people love to follow way too close behind me and when i have to make a sudden stop they don't know what to do when they can't come to a complete stop on an icy road.  Thank god i didn't get rear ended because i really don't wanna stand outside and exchange information with someone else when its that cold :-S.

To start off my work day i had to get the loader all squeaky clean for the customer.  I washed the outside and cleaned the cab out.  Since we still had a lot more time till the customer would come to grab his loader, my service manager wanted me to put another coat on the entire bucket.  After doing all of this painting i've gotten the nickname "Da Vinchi" in the shop now lol.

Later in the day, a couple of us had to go out to one of the machines in the yard and remove a drive line from one of the trucks in the yard.  There were no spare parts of that kind in the building for the customer so we had to steal one from one of the machines.  The job wasn't too bad besides having to work out in -30.  Sure made the day go by pretty fast to.  There are times the day goes by so slow when all your doing is sweeping the floor or picking up garbage.  Can be frustrating sometimes.