My life's Adventure

I got called into work tonight

I woke up at 1 PM in the afternoon after working on some statistics homework last night/early this morning. I saw my psychiatrist today. I also got a bass amp home from the store. I gave a lab at 18:30 PM and came home and now am on my way to my other job for a night shift. I will also attend school tomorrow morning for a seminar and then a lecture in the early afternoon. Then I will sleep at 16:00 PM.

I don't have any extra work lined up for coming month.

I just have my usual teaching assistant work and my other job with no work scheduled there yet. I also have some web mastering to do this month. Next month we could be lacking funds which is another reason to pay monthly bills a lot now so they are less next month. In other words I may over pay some bills because of my recent record levels of working and income.

I paid a lot of money on bills this end of month.

I am paying a fair amount on bills this month. I am trying not to buy new stuff but instead pay for stuff we have already gotten. I also might pay some of the over payment balance that we have with the government disAbility office.

Quiet night here. We bought my wife a songbook today.

We had a quiet night alone tonight. We bought a songbook earlier in the day. Well it wasn't really a quiet night we both listened to music fairly loud. I explored widgets on my Mac and read some math studies and some internet studies. I am going to sleep now having taken 6 mg of risperadol and my vitamins.

Work yesterday was good. I managed 16 hours of work.

I managed to work for 16 hours yesterday. I came home and did a little banking. I ate a salad my wife had made and then slept for 11 hours.

One of my uncle's email me me to today to tell me his news.

I think in terms of family communication the internet still has a lot of potential for me. I got emails from a cousin this month and now her father my uncle. These were just emails telling me about their jobs and their lives. It is nice to get emails like this.

I am just preparing to go to work now.

I am just writting some entries in my pen and ink journal and then getting dressed and packed up for work. It will be a long day but I should be able to sleep at 20:00 PM tonight.

I did some volunteering on Thursday and working that day. I am working 16 hours tomorrow starting at 3:00 AM.

I did some volunteering on Thursday. I am also volunteering a bit tonight/this morning. I will be volunteering with this group a bit more later in February. I also facilitated a web design meeting for our peer to peer group. We planned a blog and a downloads web site. I helped some professional psychologists understand the web and what's involved in having a web site. I helped with the job description for the help wanted add that will in the end employ a consumer/survivor as the web master to help document the peer to peer support project.

I gave a lab at 9 PM on Thursday. I gave the basic introduction to the SAS statistical software. This is the software that makes me buy Windows computers. I ended up trying to do some coding in SAS for the student's assignment. But because I could not figure out the code, I did not give the answer to the students, which would not have been fair.

I also did some tutoring of linear algebra where we looked at linear dependence and span concepts for vectors. The student paid me a fair amount of advance payment for this tutoring. So I got some bills paid today and also paid some more on a small practice bass amplifier. I should pay off the layaway totally next week at the beginning of the week. I also bought us more cigarettes. I also bought us some household supplies. I also bought a corduroy suit jacket on sale and some nice red shoes. These fashion items are for my stock market job and my teaching work. I also got gifts for friends and a GO game in a tube. I chatted a bit at the Strategy game store about Chess software.

I got called in to work tonight to replace someone who had to go to the hospital. I will work 16 hours tomorrow starting at 3:00 AM to 19:00 PM. My scheduled shift was 7:00 AM to 19:00 but I will work the extra four hours to cover for the worker who had to go to the hospital. I have been up and awake since 2:00 PM so by 20:00 PM Saturday when I finally sleep it will have been a 30 hour day. I will have Sunday off though to be with my wife.

R, C and J came over again. We watched a Stargate Episode.

My friends came by again. R and I paid for pizza. We watched a DVD of a TV show. We watched the second, second season show where Samantha Carter is infected with a Ga'ould worm. We then chatted a little about the election and work. R left at about 10 because he had worked today at his new job. C and J stayed and C had a toothache. She is also depressed about her dad passing away. Then by 11 PM C and J left.

I am working this Saturday at one of my jobs.

I got called into to work this Saturday for a 12 hour shift. I will miss some volunteering this weekend. But I have not been working much at this job so must take this shift.

Volunteering today

I am volunteering today and have some office duties this morning. I will also attend a web planning meeting of our new peer to peer program. This meeting is later in the afternoon.

I attended class today.

I attended class today. I also dropped in on the professor in her office. I chatted a bit about R and GRASS with the professor. I also attended a union related meeting where I presented an item on the agenda. I came home at 15:30. I am now going to sleep early at 16:00.

Canada's election and school work today.

I am at home getting ready to mark some statistics homework. I woke up late after staying up watching elections news. We did get a social democrat elected in our city centre. This means we can expect continuing support for the disabled locally and continued strong local social fabric. My own green party candidate continued to improve in the polls this election. Our green party candidate had about 10% of the vote yesterday. The business agent of my teaching assistant's union ran as the communist candidate. Democracy continues in Canada with minority governement nationally. This year in November we have a city election. I know one of this coming city vote's mayoral candidates and she is a social activist. I am not sure I will be able to help her with her campaign.

My wife is seeing her psychiatrist today.

Last week the roads were too icey for my wife to get to the hospital. She rescheduled for today and is out now as the weather is milder.

Worked as a boss.

I managed some other workers yesterday and did a good job of it. I can't really write any details about this work, sorry.

Spamming comments etc.

I am not so sure I should keep all the comments here. Some students keep asking me for help with their statistics homework and as I said that is not the point of this blog. Also there seems to be some people pushing some textbook web site. I will keep these comments for now but if they continue I will just delete them all.

Managed to sleep at 6 PM last night.

I managed to get to sleep at 6 PM last night and woke up at 3 AM this morning well rested. I am working today for 15 hours. I will start early this morning around 8 AM. I will not finish until 11 PM tonight. I am supervising people today. So this is a new degree of responsiblity for me. I am checked in with all my staff yesterday and Saturday. We should have a good day today.

I worked a lot yesterday. I stayed up too late last night.

I stayed up to about 4 AM this morning. I was trying to sleep at 6 PM yesterday but could not. I did some late night grocery shopping. I am almost done my work for today. I can relax once one more phone call is done. I may go out and about town. I am broke though so can not really even get a coffee while out.

I spent the morning surfing the net instead of studying

I spent the morning surfing the internet looking at music gear, TV sets, and computer stuff. I bought some replacement black ink for the new printer. I just did a little union web mastering. I am now updating my iPod. I have not been studying but may do a little now. I also need to go out to the store and at the same time meet R at the store and loan him 10$. I need to buy pop today. I also should do some grocery shopping today and might do that this morning.

I woke up at 2 AM and prepared for some work for next week.

I looked over some paper work for work next week. I now need to study more. Work next week should be fine. I am also working at school as a TA for two hours next week. I have some marking to do today and should get this done by Tuesday afternoon. So I will do this marking this weekend. For now I will start to study for my first assignment in my statistical design of experiments course.

I will also relax and play some music this morning and listen to some music on my iPod. I will also shop for some guitar stuff on-line.

L just called to tell me about a TV show.

We have a TV show called Body and Health. L called me just now to tell me they were featuring an outpatient schizophrenia program today. Today they are featuring a look at Going Beyond a program for people with schizophrenia where outdoor climbing and rope work is done. This is a physical activity program that occurs outdoors. There is also a program called Healthy Living where cooking is explored. This is also a life skills course. The Healthy Living program also has music therapy which is intended to help people relax.

Speaking of living skills my wife cleaned up the recycling yesterday with her act team worker. I just cleaned the cat litter this morning. I have also been reading newspapers and getting the pile into the recycling this morning. It is still fairly messy here. One thing I was doing for entertainment this morning was attempting to get my iPod photo slideshow to show up on the TV. I could not get this to work. I turned the air cleaner on this morning. I have adjusted my wife's niacin dose to 250 mg in the morning and 250 mg at bedtime.

I am continuing to study the Internet

I read another paper in Alberts, David S. & Papp, Daniel S. Information Age Anthology Vol 1 : The Information and Communication Revolution (Washington, DC: The Centre for Advanced Concepts and Technologies, 1997). This paper looked at the changes being brought about by the Internet. I think the idea that our routines and schedules are changing was the most important part of the paper I read. The world has become a 24-7-365 world. Always people working. I chatted a little at yahoo this morning and ended up having to explain myself and my schizophrenia by being questioned by another chatter.

Reported my income by fax

I got my income reported for another month. Right now we are officially cut off because I was late reporting November to December income. But that has been reported now as well I have just reported December to January income. I need to call the government disability office this morning and check things out with them. They called us yesterday.

I am just waiting for the morning paper to come in. I am no longer helping deliver the paper. But I like to read it so I have had to subscribe now rather than get a free copy for helping with the delivery.

Working plan working

I managed to get the documents to one job. I also gave a lab last night. I did some reading over the past two or three hours. I completed reading Wajcman, Judy. Techno Feminism (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2004). I am working again in the morning as a tutor. I will tutor from 11 AM to 1 PM but miss some other work. The tutoring actually pays better though and it was scheduled first. Some of these jobs I can not write about on the Internet because they involve confidential information. School work is going well. This morning I will study experimental design and do the final calculations for my monthly income report to the disability people. I woke up at 5 PM yesterday and will sleep at about 3 PM or 4 PM today.

Work is taking priority over therapy today.

I am chosing to do tasks for three jobs today and skip therapy in the music group. This morning I will deliver some paperwork to one job at 7 AM then bus back to another job office to pickup some paper work. I will then sleep all afternoon. I hope to wake up at 5 PM today and then do some actual work tonight at school. Then I will stay up marking or studying my own course and then do some tutoring in the morning and sleep again tomorrow afternoon at 3 PM. I will update this blog again later this afternoon or tonight after the lab. I will be on the bus this morning for almost 2 hours so will bring my gadgets and my textbook to read.

Starting internship job on the stock market.

In February I am starting an internship at a stock market company. I will be a day trader intern. This could be exciting work. But I am also seeking other work especially as a policy analyst with the government.

My wife is seeing her psychiatrist today I need to buy her some bus tickets.

I am up only at 9 AM today. I got some pay for private tutoring with our students with disabilities centre. But I need to deposit the cheque. I will do this in the next hour and buy some bus tickets for my wife's psychiatrist appointment. I have class again today in one of my favorite classrooms. This classroom is a small ampitheatre with carpeted floor. In fact my criminal law course last fall was in this class room too. Today's class is in experimental design. I also have some self help group duties today. I was supposed to work tonight on an overnight shift but it was canceled.

I picked up 7 labour songbooks for the music therapy group.

It looks like I will attend the music therapy group this Thursday. I had promised them some labour songbooks and just now purchased 7 books for the group. It looks like this is done now. I did try to copy some but thought that it would be easier and possibly cheaper to buy the books rather than use a lot of printer ink. I might also find it cheaper to make copies at a print shop and it would certainly be eaiser than printing them myself.

I am looking into buying my wife an acoustic guitar.

My wife has said she wants a guitar. I am usually dropping by a vintage guitar store that is near where I buy cigarettes in bulk. I will be looking at what sort of guitars they have for sale in the next little while.

I am printing a union songbook out.

So I joined a music therapy group a few weeks ago. I haven't been back yet. I am preparing to participate some more though. I am considering buying a small amplifier I could play my electric bass through at the music therapy group. It is Kustom amp for about 130$ with a Celestion speaker. This used to be a very good make of speaker. I have been reading some of Patti Smith Complete and becoming inspired to pratice some rock and roll fashion and write a little poetry.

I am printing out a union song book with my new printer. The original songbook is a small 4" X 6" book. I am using the copier to enlarge the pages. I promised the rest of the members of the therapy group I would provide some copies of the union songbook. This will take me some time but I have started this project this morning while waiting for my computer software to install itself. We sang mostly religious and folk tunes last time I was at this therapy group and I would consider these union songs to fit this therapy group well. On second thought it may be cheaper to actually buy everyone copies of this union songbook rather than copy it. It might work better too.

My computer adjustments are still fine.

I got a lot installing software done now for the new eMac. Not everything is done but things are moving along as planned basically.

Success with my new eMac and re installing Mac OS X.

Following some back up tips from Apple I was able to import my web bookmarks and my passwords. I also am importing my old email. I am also adding all my old iTunes files to my new iTunes library and then I will update my iPod including installing the new iPod updater. I will be using this eMac now and might not use the old eMac that much. I will of course set up my Palm and my new printer. I willl also install Mac OS 9 and X Code. I will also install X and various open source softwares like R, Neo Office and tex also Texshop. These last steps will wait for a bit.

I bought some more computer equipment.

I have been having trouble faxing with my Macintosh computers. I need to fax the disability office once a month with my pay stubs and this has always taken a couple of hours. Last night I finally bought a Brother all-in-one network printer that can fax just like a basic fax machine. I faxed this latest reporting period's pay stubs in less than five minutes using our new machine. I also spent about three hours getting the network printing working but it works now for the Mac. I still need to test my Linux computer with this but already I am happy and I bought it on sale too.

I also waited until some old refurbished Penitum IV IBM Intellistations went on sale, and bought one to be my windows machine and run SAS. I will also set this machine up as a Linux/Windows dual boot machine before using it at all. I ordered it from a department store so will have to wait about two weeks before I can go downtown and pick it up.

I am still reading the textbook this weekend

I continued to read my textbook. I followed some proofs in this book concerning unbiased estimators of variance and the mean of a distribution using a sample. I may have to show these proofs to other students so I need to be able to write them on a blackboard.

Starting to read my winter term textbook.

I was able at the professors suggestion to use this web site http://www.addall.com/ for searching for my textbook at a low price. I got the textbook on Tuesday in the mail from the UK and have now this morning read the first chapter.

Up over night planning on sleeping at 3 PM this afternoon.

I stayed up late and did some studying over night. I also did some chatting on the internet. I have to mail some postal mail this morning and will be leaving for the post office in the next hour. Then I have to go downtown and submit our income report for the last month. I then have some work tutoring linear algebra at noon to 1 PM. I then can come home and sleep.

I helped R wake up for work this morning. I will not have R, C and J over tonight. I will be asleep instead.

My new eMac is still not working but I found out that I have three years of Apple Care for this computer which means phone and email technical support.

I completed my statistical consulting work successfully.

I was able to do the job of statistical consultant successfully. I am really having a good term this term at school what with this work and encouraging signs from the graduate student personnel at the school of mathematics and statistics. Next year graduate school could be fun.

Time to do some recycling.

My wife and I just changed the garbage in the kitchen. We have a lot of recycling literally piling up in cardboard boxes in our entrance hallway. I will recycle these in the next three hours.

I again slept about 14 hours.

I like this. By this I mean working long hours. Because working long hours is what normals do to make money. I worked about a 12 hour shift yesterday on my own, at home, and on the computer. I was working as a statistical consultant. This means I was also using my school learning directly in a work environment or work application.

I then attended a health care meeting I had volunteered to attend. I participated in the meeting and then came home and slept at 6 PM. I woke up at about 8 AM this morning. So I managed to attend two out of three volunteer tasks/meetings yesterday. I did miss attending another info session for our self help groups new peer to peer support program.

I will be volunteering the next few days with the green party hopefully. But tonight I am volunteering in law enforcement for about a two hour meeting. This volunteering in law enforcement is going great.

Working more than 8 hours this morning.

I worked more than 8 hours this morning on my statistical consulting job. I stayed up over night and am nearing a 24 hour day. I have to go to school to report this work and get paid. I also have a volunteer meeting as a consumer this afternoon. I also have another volunteer gig that needs some meeting today. Actually besides paid work I have three places I have to be at today. I will also have some preparing for my TA work to do but that can probably wait until tomorrow. I may be able to sleep at 5 PM today or 7 PM at the latest for a 33 hour day. So far 18 of these hours I have spent at home. I also worked yesterday for 1 hour tutoring another student with a disability. I have two hours of volunteering tomorrow night and a few hours on Friday. But that is it for volunteering for the rest of the week. This statistical consulting may be over today if I can get the job done this morning but I am forcing myself to take a one hour break right now. I took 3 mg of risperadol to help me stay calm and not get too wired.

Successful volunteering/ Successful working

I got some work doing statistical consulting. I was worried that I could do it. But I managed to produce some work and get some money for this work. I have some more work to do now and will earn some more money tomorrow.

I did another three day volunteer on call shift. I actually manage other volunteers when I do this, so this is more senior volunteering. I really enjoy this work and the paid staff treat me well and with respect.

I have class early this afternoon. I then will work as a tutor for one hour then come home and do more statistical consulting at home this evening.

Another quiet Saturday night.

I slept at 10:00 AM until 4 PM or so. I am volunteering on call this weekend. I now have to stay up until Sunday evening early before sleeping. I will deliver the newspapers Sunday morning. I will also do some statistical consulting work for a grad student who is paying me for this work.

The night is quiet here with my wife watching TV and me working the computers trying to get my new eMac working. My work and internet surfing are continuing on my old eMac. There is a chance that I will finally get the clamshell iBook this week that I bought on ebay four or five months ago.

Going onto night shift hours. Computer not working earlier today.

My new eMac would not work earlier today. I may have to get it looked at. It seems to be working again this evening. I used my old eMac-1 today instead. I thought of buying another IBM laptop and really need a windows computer for home use. I need to use SAS for windows for my winter term course. I may go buy an older used desktop or laptop from a local used computer seller so I can install and use SAS. I might spend no more than 750$.

My wife and I did some late night grocery shopping together.

My wife had gotten a Christmas exchange vocher for the grocery store in our neighbourhood that is open 24 hours a day. We bought some ice cream, bread, green beans, and cerial. We too a short bus ride there and back and with the help of the bus companies web site to look up schedules we made some good timing and it was a good adventure.

Otherwise we had a quiet evening. I researched some files for our health care group and I have my first meeting of this group as a consumer representitive this coming Tuesday. I also have a meeting of our disAbility coalition this Monday. Also Wednesday I think is our next information session for our new peer to peer support project. In fact I planned a lot of my schedule this month based on the self help group calendar which is why I made it out to the music therapy today and may do music therapy group for another two weeks this month.

I attended a music therapy group today.

I attended a music therapy group today. We sang and played old and 1960's folk favorites. I took my electric bass out in the winter storm in its new gig bag which let's me wear the bass in a backpack.

I had my first class today. It went well.

Things are going good again today. Yesterday I was a little down because my first choice for grad school supervisor could not be done. She is too busy. But within fifteen minutes I found perhaps a better supervisor by chatting with him in the mailroom. I will contact him later this month and see if we can work together. I also have a co-supervisor as of today. Also today I had my first class in design of experiments and it went well. I also got hired to tutor a student in first year algebra and that pays well and is fun work. I also got an offer today to become a stock trading intern this term with some investment company and it is only 4 hours per week. It looks a like a good term this winter but I still have to get my TA schedule before I know how good this term will become.

Things are looking good for graduate school.

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when the workers got back to school. I only talked with adminstrative staff yesterday. But I confirmed that my chances of getting into graduate school in statistics are good. I also cleaned up some details for studying this winter term. I put my law studies behind me now with my BA completed with a B+ average. I am now only going to check out two courses both of them statistics courses. I will not study any law courses this winter. I am waiting for my father to give me some money to buy a textbook. The textbook costs about 150$ after taxes.

I am up over night studying

Strange how my studying now involves blogging. One of the professional associations I belong too has a blog on-line. I just did some writing at that web site. I also practiced a little statistics computing using R, the statistics software. I am really enjoying this time off. Also my school degree is done so I am not having to worry too much about school work but can relax more these days and in fact for most of this winter term. Winter term courses start on Wednesday this week and I am slowly getting ready for this term. I am spending more time with my wife over the holidays and this is important.

Trying to scan math books for faster reading.

I tried scanning some math books yesterday morning for faster reading. Some of these math books I am borrowing are over my head. I will try reading some more math books this morning.

I am doing some successful computer programming tasks.

My computer tinkering is successful at the moment. I was able to install a library of C routines for scientific computing called the GSL. I was able to install this on the older Compaq Debian laptop. I am going to next prepare a talk for our local Linux user group on the software R. I will give this talk later in the spring.

My wife watched three movies today.

My wife watches a lot of movies. Today she watched three movies. I spent time on the computer and also did some reading of the newspaper and got out to the store.

Happy New Year

L and R were over for new years. Also J called to wish me a happy new year but I think he was just returning my call. My dad called too and I called my mom. But happy new year to all you readers.