Tupperfan: Story of a Long-Awaited Kick in the Ass...

Nobody reads blogs anymore...

2010-12-18T00:09:00.003-05:00

And that's okay, I never maintained this blog for readership. But I just don't need to express myself this way anymore.

I'm finally over what started it all...

Thanks.

Until the next existential crisis, time to live, and die...

Another busy season in the bush

2009-07-01T20:30:00.001-04:00

Been busy, working in an isolated fly-in camp...Not much, and too much to report, but the season is going very well and I still have quite a lot to go.

Will post pictures and longer posts when I'll have time, probably meaning after the season...

Again, and again, and again...

2009-05-06T11:11:00.001-04:00

Time to get this blog out of hibernation!

Leaving for Edmonton this afternoon, getting ready for another tree planting season.

There's a few days of pre-season work at the Spruce Grove yard, then we're driving up to Grande Prairie to set up camp. Planters will show up on May 12th, and the season officially starts the following day.

Should be a good one.

Time to leave on a jet-plane...

Canadian Politics: All Hail the Conservatives!

2009-03-18T09:52:00.009-04:00

Last week, Canadian Heritage Minister, James Moore, nominated to that position in the hopes of mending fences with Québec's cultural scene, among others, failed a pop quiz where he was asked to identify not only Québec cultural icons, some of them internationally known, but also famous Anglo-Canadian artists.

If this is unacceptable for someone holding a cultural portfolio, his colleague, Federal Science Minister Gary Goodyear, wins with his unwillingness to aknowledge he believes in evolution.

All of this puts a new spin on a funny video done by some Québec artists during the last federal elections, which I humbly contributed to spread among Anglo-Canadian medias by adding subtitles...

I don't consider myself particularly intelligent, so it emphasize how frustrating it is to have idiots run my country.

Life's Cool...

2009-03-05T04:58:00.002-05:00

Life's cool, life's good. Been too busy to write anything recently, but there's some decent stuff that happened so I'll try to get something written down soon.

Also, I'm getting restless, I'm looking forward to get out of the city and back in my backpack.

Smash Talk

2009-02-04T14:18:00.022-05:00

Montreal lives and breathes hockey. Some, as it happens often when fanaticism borders obsession, dare to call it a religion.

A religion with blasphemy, vilification and false idols.

Hockey Montreal gets in an uproar after a few losses. Hockey Montreal always speculates about the next trade, what should the coach and the general manager do, what can be done to bring the Saint Graal home. What Hockey Montreal would be without these rumours and assumptions?

It's in that setting and spirit that the following story takes place.

A friend of a friend (Given the number of times I've read this rumour today, I need to stress out this part: I AM NOT THE PERSON WHO DID THIS), an incorrigible prankster, grew tired of the neverending speculations of the "connaisseurs" and decided to act on it. He picked an english-sounding name, Tim ******, opened a free email account and contacted a sports talk-radio host that sometimes doubles as a journalist. He sent the following email, in broken french (translation in english, when needed, follows in italics):

From: Tim ****** [mailto:tim******@live.ca]
Date: Tue. 2009-02-03 3:00PM
To: Michel Villeneuve
Subject : CKAC Sports

Message :

Bonjour M.Villeneuve,

Je suis plafinicateur financier pour son famille Richards. Étant un partenaire d\'affaire avec le G***, (Brad Richards père), j\'ai été contacted samedi pour connaître les lois fiscales au Canada pour son fils. G*** m\'a dit son fils sera trade à Montréal et qu\'avant de canceller sa non-trade clause, de verifier la fiscalité au Canada. J\'ai regardé le dossier de Matt Niskanen, un american pour les Dallas Stars.

Merci

(Hello Mr.Villeneuve,

I am a financial planner for the Richards family. Being a business partner of G*** (Brad Richards' father), I was contacted Saturday to research Canadian fiscal law for his son. G*** told me that his son would be traded to Montreal, and to verify fiscality issues before he waved his non-trade clause. I also looked at Matt Niskanen files, an American-citizen playing for the Dallas Stars.

Thanks)

Mr. Villeneuve's reply:

Subject: RE : CKAC Sports
Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2009 3:47:56PM -0500
From: michel.villeneuve@********
To: tim******@live.ca

Comment vérifier l'exactitude de vos propos ?
(How to confirm the exactness of your claims?)

Here, the prankster goes full throttle with a simple, yet daring plan. He already looked up Brad Richards' bio to find his father's name, he just needed to get a number from a web-based phone directory:

From: Tim ****** [mailto:tim******@live.ca]
Date: Tue. 2009-02-03 4:00PM
To: Michel Villeneuve
Subject : RE: RE : CKAC Sports

You can call G*** Richards

at: 902-***-***

Merci

Oh, wait, there's a missing number!

Subject: RE : RE : CKAC Sports
Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2009 4:12:10PM -0500
From: michel.villeneuve@********
To: tim******@live.ca

je n'ai pas le numéro complet de monsieur Richards
(I don't have Mr. Richards' full number)

"Honest" mistake.

From: Tim ****** [mailto:tim******@live.ca]
Date: Tue. 2009-02-03 4:15PM
To: Michel Villeneuve
Subject : RE: RE : RE : CKAC Sports

sorry
902-***-****

Of course, Mr. Villeneuve, as a competent journalist, needs to verify the info. He calls the given number, and replies to "Tim":

Subject: RE : RE : RE : CKAC Sports
Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2009 4:44:34PM -0500
From: michel.villeneuve@********
To: tim******@live.ca

this is a recording machine. I will try to speak to mr Richards but it's make sense.

Why the Stars let Brad go ?

To my knowledge, "Tim" didn't reply. Seems that this was enough for Villeneuve to cancel his planned programming for the radio show he'd host later that day, and focus entirely on speculations surrounding this credible "news item".

Serious and professional journalism at its best.

Most sports medias didn't take the rumour seriously, but many message boards debated the story and some sports websites spent time covering it, as shown here and here (with many more examples in french).

The rumours about Brad Richards being traded to Montreal will be old news by tomorrow, yet, the priests will keep preaching their gospel.

Time to go pray at the rink.

Slightly Ridiculous

2009-01-22T17:09:00.008-05:00

Here's a dumb experiment.

I am not superstitious. I laugh at people trying to bring luck on themselves and their endeavours, or at people that avoid places, situations or objects that could fuck their luck up.

But every time I get a zit on the right side of my nose, which is probably the only place where I get acn. It was also the source of important awkwardness back in my teenage years as it was the only place where it would reach such epic proportions. Back then, it seemed like it would always pop out when I'd be about to meet a cool girl, so, being a pavlovian creature, I ended up associating this particular skin defect with meeting the next girl of my life.

As I grew in confidence, if not in size, I came to accept such temporal skins imperfections. But everytime the zit would be back, I'd be convinced the next girlfriend was around the corner.

I thought I wasn't superstitious.

Today, the zit is back, and my first thought was of the girl I'll meet (probably this weekend, as I'm interviewing a bunch of university students for tree-planting jobs), but my second thought was to doubt the actual accuracy of my prophetical acne, for you see, I can't remember if it actually works or not. Seems like it did, but I can't put my finger on one encounter predicted by the magic zit. A little like when you have a feeling of déjà-vu, but you can't remember when it happened because, well, your mind plays tricks on you as it never occured!

So here's the little experiment, and the reason why I'm blogging about it. Recording my actual skin outbreak will allow me, in the future, to confirm or infirm the nose zit/girl theory and finally free myself from this rather ridiculous superstition.

And if it actually works, well, cool, but I'll have to test it again next time. In a world where such zits actually predict potential sexual/romantic encounters, I'd rather not think about the implications of a nose zit when I'll be married. Note to self, never allow future wife to read this blog.

"Yes your honor, I'm requesting a divorce as my husband cheats on me. Proof? he has a huge zit beside his nose!"

Now that I'm done with this experiment, let's remain on the teen theme. I'm not a fan of McDonald's, I eat there about once a year and I usually regret it soon after. But this McDonald's France advertisement does convey teenage awkwardness very well, and I find the girl's struggles to find her style rather cute, fitting with the French slogan, "Come as You Are". Oh and I love the song too (Time Machine, by Rinôçérôse)...

Yeah, it's weird, I know, but fuck it, the marketers got me this time! Here's the vid:

Arghhhh, shame, shame on me! I'm posting a multinational junk food chain ad here!!!

Time to go check my brain, then my zit, then my online dating account.

Obama's Inauguration: As Seen Down There By Someone From Up Here

2009-01-17T07:05:00.018-05:00

Here's another translated Pierre Foglia column, originally published in La Presse's Saturday Edition, January 17th 2009.

Sad, Sad Song

(Greensboro)Winter is a little bit here as well. They are not used to it. You should see the lady of the Bed and Breakfast, wrapped like an Eskimo when she went to open her hardware store – she owns a hardware store in the neighbouring town. You’re going seal hunting, Anne?

We left at the same time, but I was heading towards the countryside, I was going to Annie Lee’s, who is Anne’s housemaid. Black, obviously. It’s written in Obama’s book, in Dreams from My Father, page 45: “...black women come to white people houses to wash their laundry or clean their houses. Blacks are there without being there, indistinct presences, silent.” Indistinct and silent, that’s exactly Annie Lee.

Housemaids are not people that give great interviews. I know them well: my mother has been a housemaid all her life and, thinking about it, she was a little Nigger too, my mom, more than Obama’s mom anyways.

So, I was going to Annie Lee’s, a few miles from the Bed, by the countryside that used to be cotton-filled, now dug with aquaculture lakes where catfish are raised. We are in the Catfish Capital of the World.

Annie Lee, I started to wheedle her one morning while she was working at Anne’s. Beautiful floor! You’re doing it on your knees? Then, another time: you have kids? Seven, she said. Then I saw her hesitate, recount mentally. Huh, eight she corrected. I don’t know if this explain that but, when she got married at 17 years old, she already had two, one when she was 14 and one at 15. Curiously, the man with whom she lives, Dayton – they don’t have kids together – hesitated as well over the same question: six? Huh, seven. No, wait: eight, I have eight!

This detail says that this is not the same Blacks as usual. No Black reporters, no Black artists, no Black cabbies, no Black Presidents of the United States. Southern Blacks, like there is not even in Obama’s books. In Obama’s books, Blacks are all urban. Here, they are still in the cotton fields, even if there are no more cotton fields. I’ll say something terrible: they are still slaves even if there are no more slaves. Sad, sad song.

They are on long broken country roads, many in trailers. Not Annie Lee, who lives in a big 18-rooms house on three or four acres of wooden land, a horse in a pen, walnut trees behind. Told like that, it sounds like a “Country farm for sale in a charming setting”. Not at all. A tinkered hovel, not a dump, but not far, with car carcasses and old tools lying on the ground here and there.

Dayton wasn’t there. He was hunting, at the end of the property. Come for dinner tonight, invited Annie Lee, Dayton will be there, and there will also be Jasmin, my grand-daughter.

When I returned during the evening, Dayton proudly showed the deer he killed that morning, hung by its legs to a tree. Half was already missing, given to friends. His first deer of the year. There was a lot of firsts, that day. I was the first White invited to their table, but it wasn’t race that made the biggest difference. You won’t believe it: It was religion.

I had questions prepared, one about religion that I asked first, to get rid of it: You’re a Baptist?

Yes. You?

Huh, me? Huh... I’m nothing. Oh I shouldn’t have. He came back to that all night long. Nothing? How is it possible? You’re the first one I meet. He even said at one moment: I really am in shock.

Well, you didn’t go out much!

But he did. He worked for 15 years in Detroit for GM. He used heroin long enough to see terrible things, but apparently never as terrible as an atheist. He wouldn’t let it go all night. We were talking about something else, he would bring it back suddenly:

Who makes the day? Huh? Huh? Who makes the night? Why are you getting up in the morning?

Would you believe it, old man, I get up in the morning to go interview creationist Niggers. I just thought it. In terms of civilities, it went rather well. Dinner was decent, chicken with beans, the sweet potatoes mash pie was amusing, we drank tea. The grand-daughter, Jasmin, who is huge, didn’t say a word. Annie Lee, not much either. It was between Dayton and me. A messy interview. Anyways, I would have done my column with everything else, as I always do. Still, I was really destabilized by two...what shall we say? Two holes in the conversation, two abysses that opened abruptly below my feet.

First abyss: Italy. He asked where I was from. I said Italy. I saw to his face that neither he nor Annie had the slightest idea of what I was talking about. Italy? I could have said Moldavia or Tatarstan.

The second abyss was when Dayton cell phone rang. Instead of a ringtone or a little tune, we heard the voice of a TV announcer on the election night: The next President of the United States...Then it cuts, and on a rap rythm, Ho-Ho-Ho-Bama, bam-bam-bama...

I jumped on that one. I said: It’s an incredible victory.

For once, Blacks voted together, said Dayton.

And a few Whites too, I added.

We don’t care about Whites. We just needed Blacks to hold together.

Oops friend! We have a little number problem. You are just 12%.

How come 12%? We (the Blacks) are in majority in this country.

I was flabbergasted. I didn’t imagine this misinformed, disconnected misery to be that culturally, socially disorganised. Sad, sad song.

Like many Whites, I knew of racism only its folklore, not its real effects. All night, by my fault, we never got out of the folkore. My booklet was full of folk notes. How was it when you were a kid? Tell me, Nigger. Tell the white reporter, tell, so that he could make a little Erskine Caldwell, maybe a Steinbeck of himself.

And the Nigger to tell: can’t drink at the same fountain as Whites. Can’t go out with a White woman. Can’t go to the same school. Can’t sit in the front of the bus. Can’t pass by the front door when we would deliver something at the White’s houses, or to be paid for a job.

And the Ku Klux Klan? Tell, Nigger. Tell to the white reporter a few horror stories about the Ku Klux Klan.

No said Dayton, I didn’t witness horror stories with the KKK. There was a KKK chapter here, we knew them, it was just like another social club, ordinary racists.

Whites don’t know anything about Southern ordinary racism that holds the Southern Blacks to the bottom and keeps them there. Marching for rights doesn’t matter. Tell me, Dayton, what did change in your relations with Whites between now and then?

He never heard about Italy, he doesn’t know how many Blacks there is in the United States, but on this, he has encyclopaedic knowledge.

What changed? Everything. And nothing. What changed is that they don’t treat us like shit. What didn’t change is that they think exactly like before that we are shit. What didn’t change is that everything is organized exactly like before so we remain shit.

You think Obama can change that?

I don’t know. You know what you should do? Greensboro’s largest employer is a fish factory, Heartland Catfish, where every aquaculture farm in the region delivers their catfish. You should visit it.

And what would I see?

Everything.

I went.

Fishes are transported by tank trucks to the factory, a chute dumps them on a conveyor where they go, open mouths, towards mechanical knives that will thread them alive one by one, to finish, at the end of the chain, in bins filled with ice. All along the path, workers sort, remove the slag, cut with frightening speed fins that were missed by mechanic knives. You know, the theatre of Japanese cooks? This, but eight hours a day. Workers often cut their fingers. Straight cuts.

There is 150 of them on the chain. Apart from a few Latinos, all of them are Black. The factory is a freezer, below the freezing point. Water everywhere. Earning $6.25 an hour, 40 hours, $250 gross at the end of the week.

The few Whites in the factory are foremen, accountants, shipping managers. The same work structure than in the cotton fields before the abolition of slavery.

Holiday Spirits

2008-12-25T02:45:00.007-05:00

Some people hate Christmas and the holidays. To their credit, there’s probably as many reasons to hate them as there are humans celebrating the same damn fucking holidays!

Despite the previous line, trust me when I say I don’t hate the holidays. I’m just at the level where I won’t care one way or the other. Sure, I like to gather with family and friends, or the girlfriend’s family (if applicable), but I wouldn’t mind just doing nothing, sleeping, maybe drinking, watching a movie or fucking. You know, stuff like that, ending with “ing”... without me looking too stupid!

And believe me, I’m not one of these guys complaining about Christmas being too commercial and shit. Sure it is, and listening to my roommate almost breaking off with her boyfriend over presents prices did bother me when I was trying to handle my hangover without having to stand up and run to the toilet (It’s probably been the theme of my last weekend, thankfully, and happily, in various settings, from trains to Chinese restaurants, passing by friend’s places and buses), but I still think presents are indeed in the spirit of the holidays. It’s just that most people don’t have any clue of what spirit means...

But, thanks to all that, an amazing brain and another crazy Christmas story, I think I have a decent theory as to why some people hate Christmas that much, even if in the end, it's only the celebration of a hero’s birth...legend or not.

And here I am, going back in time. Back to when I was too young to be cynical, but too old to be naive, or to believe in a Santa Claus hanging out at the local mall for a month, asking us if we've been naughty or nice (as it turned out, every kid has been a little of both)...

One Christmas eve, at my maternal grand-parents very hospitable, welcoming home (as only grand-parents homes can be), not able to sleep for that weird nap French-Canadians (Following Catholic traditions they don’t believe in anymore) adults force their kids to have until midnight’s mass, Christmas dinner and all, I was just waiting for my mom to come wake me up. I’d pretend to wake up, get my nice clothes on, go to church, read the little prayers booklet out of boredom, then finally come back home to...what? Eat?!? At, like, one in the morning?

Granted, the food was always amazing, but I just couldn’t wait to unwrap those presents, with my uncle playing Santa, always joking about getting a kiss on the cheek from awkward teens, just to make them feel uncomfortable (Years later, in adulthood, offering to kiss him would be way more hilarious).

I’d unwrap my presents, thank everybody, start to play with them until I’d fall asleep. Next morning, while English-speaking kids all over North-America would discover what they’ve got, I’d be waking up earlier than any adult in the house to play with all these goodies.

My brother, much younger, and at this moment in life when you think you should stop believing, heard bells outside that convinced him Santa Claus might actually be real. It took him two more years to stop believing, probably becoming the equivalent of that ridiculous girl in my 4th grade class that still believed in Santa, reincarnation and magic, but knew how her parents conceived her by fucking like animals...

And back then, we'd even celebrate Epiphany!

Then my parents got divorced.

“More presents for us!” Said the lil’ brother. He was right. It also started to fuck Christmas up for all of us.

As the idea of a parents’ union went down the shitters, so did the idea that Christmas was a family holiday. Separating everything, but doubling the obligations, things got worse when we got girlfriends with their own set of separated parents. What used to be a simple, enjoyable, gratifying party became a logistical mess with ramifications transcending the traditional holiday season, or, god forbids if the relationship lasted long enough, years!

Years of telling bad jokes in the middle of a bunch of people wondering what you’re actually doing there, unless they realized you could be a good hockey coach to their son, that suddenly became your nephew.

So, the gratification was obtained through other means: A stressful job with a shitload of money, and therefore, a shitload of debts. What was the job? Dealing with other people’s debts. The result: Thinking I’d die from a heart attack on my first holiday day off, drinking way too much cola in a crowded theatre, watching a fucked up movie. I woke up on Christmas Eve’s eve at the hospital, a worried girlfriend asleep in that uncomfortable chair beside my regularly beeping bed. I spent Christmas Eve at mom’s looking for my pulse, and the next day looking for an opened restaurant as my mother was enjoying Christmas day at her then-boyfriend’s parent’s home.

Thinking I'd die on Christmas Eve...

Fast forward through mom’s tears and dad’s disappointments, spending many Christmas mornings unwrapping protestant presents in Southern Ontario, getting upset at the girlfriend when she told me her orthopaedist father could help me with my flat feet and some very shitty Boxing Day shopping, to us coming back to our downtown Montreal apartment for New Year’s Eve. That trendy holiday that became more about friends than family. Us, a trendy multicultural couple, center of many people’s social life(mostly her though, I was merely an accessory), shitting alternatively because we've got sick beyond belief, exchanging each other New Year’s wishes through a washroom door, asking the other if he/she was about done...

Usually, we were not, and in the end, it was a great night!

Later, I traveled through the holidays, as far away as possible. Trying to forget the ex-girlfriend, but only upsetting my mother for not being around. I had good times, things were different, but it contributed to make Christmas less family-friendly.

Years later, I made it back home, enjoying Christmas with mom and her very nice boyfriend, and his daughters that, well, at least looked like they despised me, their respective boyfriends (one very pretentious geek and the other being the “boyfriend of the week”), and a brother with a new eager girlfriend.

Me? Happily single!

This year, the story is quite simple, I went to Toronto for my tree-planting employer’s Christmas party, got wasted with friends, then with more friends over the weekend. Good times and train rides.

And here I go again with the silly hats and amazing sweaters!

Then, I came back home for a simple, dual Christmas dinner over a few days with my two sets of parents. Two days before Christmas, I was having lunner (a lunch-dinner mix) with a tree-planting friend who was stuck in Montreal for a few days after her Toronto-Halifax flight was cancelled midway (Blame Air Canada) when I got the shitty call:

My mother was in the hospital.

So, here I was, calling my brother to plan a visit, getting updates from my mom’s fiancé (they are set to get married, and I fucking hope they will). As we visited the crowded suburban hospital, the whole idea of Québec’s (Or Canada’s) healthcare system being similar to third world countries went down the drain. I could witness first-hand how well my mother was treated, despite the late hour and the busy time of the year. It looked like a Scrubs episode; Competent, relatively good-looking staff all-around, funny and sad, lots of losers. Plus, I'd hit a few of the girls working there if it wasn't that creepy and innapropriate!

The good news was that my mother would get out on Christmas Eve. The bad news was that, just like Scrubs, it doesn’t always have a nice ending. My mother will indeed stay at the hospital for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and, thankfully, Boxing Day, but at least it will allow the very competent staff to run every test they can to make sure my mom’s condition will improve or will be completely resolved.

With such a background, you'd understand it could be easy to hate the holidays. Instead, here I am, alone in my apartment on a shitty Christmas morning, writing that story, and feeling happy about the current outcome.

Why?

Well, strangely, it’s all about being thankful, for you see, all of these Christmases could have been much worse. I never asked why all this shit happens to me because, ultimately, I know I’ve been bad. Quite bad, this year included, still the asshole, still the occasional liar.

Yet, I’ve never lost a family member, never experienced death and always been smiling though the worst times. I always knew it’d get better and I still believe so.

You know why?

Because Christmas isn’t about Santa punishing bad kids, it’s about faith, no matter what you make out of it.

Because if there’s something I’ve learned, it’s that if you believe in the power of prayer, it shouldn’t be wasted on your own little person, winning more money or keeping the traffic lights green while you’re passing through. Instead, pray for these poor dudes in real deep shit, in third world countries, the sick kids, all the lonely people you don’t know. That’s sharing, that’s giving, that’s being generous.

So, I don’t really know if it’s because someone actually died for my sins thousands of years ago, or out of plain, sheer luck, but I’m thankful for all that stuff I didn’t enjoy enough.

And I’m glad I didn’t pray for my sole purposes...

Get well soon mom. Je t'aime.

And Merry Christmas!

56%

2008-12-09T01:47:00.003-05:00

We should be ashamed...Yes it was a boring, uninteresting, not exciting, opportunistic election. It was cold outside, the same altogether...

But a 56% participation rate?

Bande de losers!

And congrats to Amir Khadir for his historic victory!

All This Has Happened Before, and This Will Happen Again

2008-12-08T17:09:00.004-05:00

So, I went voting today...again!

This time it was a provincial election. Despite an uneventful campaign with uninteresting candidates, I was looking forward, as always, to go cast my vote. As I went out of the third age residence where I had to vote, I couldn't refrain a proud smile. No matter the lack of excitement for an election, there's always a huge feeling of achievement that comes with voting.

And no it's not lame, despite its flaws and sometimes being disappointing, democracy, remains the greatest system that was ever applied. And for once, a simple pencil mark on a piece of paper, what you have to say, will be read.

Piece them together, it makes for a great story.

Harper's words and Dion's reaction

2008-12-04T00:51:00.004-05:00

Here's Prime Minister Stephen Harper allocution to the nation.

And here's Coalition Leader Stéphane Dion pre-recorded, but delayed reaction. (Warning: It hurts, on many levels)

I've read that the Liberals are pissed. An angry, anonymous Liberal said "Dion looked like the opposition leader of Zimbabwe".

"Someone should be fired, full stop" said Liberal blogger Warren Kinsella.

Or maybe someone should just resign...

Ambivalences

2008-12-03T19:18:00.009-05:00

I'm not quite sure where I stand in regards to the current political crisis in Ottawa.

If I don't really like Harper, didn't vote for him and was upset by his decision to cut funding to political parties, I'm also not sure I want to go on the slippery slope that would be this idea of a coalition between the three parties of the opposition.

It seems like there's not enough precedents, and that it seems to give way too many powers to the Governor General. And if there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that I'd be more than happy to get rid of any symbol of monarchy in Canada.

The Governor General of Canada, "Her Excellency The Right Honourable" Michëlle Jean.

It's not about the Bloc Québécois supporting the Government: First, I used to be a sovereignist (a separatist for my anglo friends) and even if I'm not sure it's a wise idea anymore, I do remain sympathetic to the cause. Many opponent to the possibility of a coalition must remember that the Bloc was democratically elected and fulfill its role givinf a voice to the Québécois population that elected them (A majority of Québécois are for a coalition government). Second, the Bloc's leader, Gilles Duceppe made clear he didn't want to have any ministry for his party, they offered to support the coalition for a limited time, and under conditions, so there wouldn't be any "separatists in the government".

It's not about the NDP. I voted orange and share most of their ideas and values, and I'm not surprised that they could form a coalition government with the Liberals and the Bloc. If the NDP is a little more left-leaning than the Liberals, they are very similar in ideology to the Bloc, Québec independance notwhitstanding, and the Liberals would make sure that they govern center-left, as almost any Leftist party would do.

It's about the Liberals. If I did respect some decisions made by the Liberals while they were in power, I've never been a big fan, and even less of actual, but demissionary party leader Stéphane Dion.

The leaders of the three opposition parties, Gilles Duceppe, Stéphane Dion and Jack Layton.

Here's the problem: How could a revoked leader that keeps the job in the interim, while the Liberal party elects his successor, could become Prime Minister? And how his replacement could pretend to have any legitimity, not having been chosen by the people and, probably, the result of a controversial decision by the Governor General?

Because that's the other main issue: The Governor General, Michaëlle Jean, has to follow the government's decisions, unless there's a vote of non-confidence. The Harper government wants her to prorogate Parliament to delay the non-confidence vote, an action she, according to traditions, she has no choice but to accept. But the opposition wants her to refuse the prorogation, claiming the government lost the confidence of parliament. The problem is, it hasn't happen yet, since we need a vote to confrim such an accusation.

So where do we stand? An affront to democracy, or an affront to democracy?

For more information on what's at stake:

David Frum's National Post column.

Globe and Mail article: The Governor General's options

Prime Minister Stephen Harper December 3rd address coverage on CBC.

New York Times article.

On a sidenote, I find this image very funny, with the Bloc Québécois light blue colours included in a Canadian maple leaf symbol...somewhat ironic(but not at the same time, since maple trees grow in Eastern Canada, from Nova Scotia to Southern Ontario, passing by Québec, and are absent from the rest of the country, dominated by the conservatives...):

_____________________________________________________

Mumbai Blues

2008-11-28T20:49:00.004-05:00

My thoughts to the victims and their families.

And here's an interesting article on the topic:

Is this the Age of Celebrity Terrorism?

Dr Paul Cornish, Head, International Security Programme and Carrington Chair in International Security, Chatham House

Quite apart from the scores murdered and the hundreds injured, what the Mumbai terrorists really wanted was an exaggerated and preferably extreme reaction on the part of governments, the media and public opinion. In these terms, the attackers received as much attention as they could possibly have hoped for, and the Mumbai outrage can only be described as a very significant terrorist success.

The attack received saturation coverage in the world's media from the outset. Almost within minutes, television screens showed harrowing scenes of pools of blood where people had died or been injured, hotels ablaze, Indian army snipers firing at distant targets, and CCTV images of the attackers. Especially disturbing, hostages and survivors reported that certain nationalities had been identified by their passports and taken away for execution.

No matter how obscure, every detail of this multi-point, sustained attack was soon being pored over by terrorism experts, trying to fit the carnage in Mumbai into one template or another. So the speculative and often tendentious questioning began. What were the 'tactics' of the terrorists? What weapons did they have (reporters seem to love the way 'Kalashnikov' rolls off the tongue), and where could they have got them? How much planning and preparation would have been necessary for a 'military-style operation' of this sort? Who were the terrorists - where were they from (Pakistan? Were some of the gunmen British?), and what did they want? Who was the 'mastermind' behind the attacks? And did the attacks have the 'hallmarks' of an 'al-Qaeda-style' operation; was it all part of the 'global jihad' against the West?

This is precisely how terrorism is meant to work. The terrorist's action must always be complemented by the target's reaction in order to complete the scene. How the attack is carried out, and what is done to whom, matters no more (and often rather less) than the way the attack is received, and the impact accorded to it. The impact has indeed been instant and extensive, reaching into the worlds of politics, business and even sport, and on all levels - internationally, regionally and nationally in India.

But for all the horror of the Mumbai attack, there might have been much less to it than first met the eye, and a hasty and exaggerated response might have played more of a part, and given more meaning to the attack than it should. Nobody appears to have heard of the Deccan mujahidin - perhaps because they have never existed. Perhaps it wasn't so difficult after all to plan and execute this attack: small arms and hand grenades are not hard to find; boats are scarcely specialised equipment; and Mumbai is a vast, open city with more than enough soft targets. Perhaps we don't know enough about where the perpetrators are from, because they could have come from almost anywhere? The terrorists were willing to show their faces on CCTV: was this suicide for martyrdom (as in New York and Washington in 2001, and London in 2005), or suicide for celebrity (as in Columbine in 1999 and Virginia Tech in 2007)? And perhaps so little is known of the terrorists' cause, because they simply didn't feel the need to have one.

The attack in Mumbai was obviously planned - but 'military-style planning' (whatever that means) is probably not necessary for the mass murder of unarmed and unsuspecting civilians going about their business in crowded railway stations and restaurants. This could also have been a plan which had a large gap where 'mission', 'cause' or 'vision statement' ought to have been. But no matter; the terrorists might have assumed, quite correctly as it happens, that the world's media and the terrorism analysis industry would very quickly fill in any gaps for them.

The character of modern terrorism is widely understood to have been shaped by a mid-nineteenth century idea known as the 'propaganda of the deed'; a strategy for political change in which the message or cause is contained within, and expressed by the violent act. In a novel twist, the Mumbai terrorists might have embarked on 'propaganda of the deed without the propaganda', in the confident expectation that the rationalisation for the attack - the 'narrative' - would be provided by politicians, the media and terrorism analysts. If so, then Mumbai could represent something rather different in the history of terrorism, and possibly something far more disturbing even than 'global jihad'. Perhaps we have come to the point where casually self-radicalised, sociopathic individuals can form a loose organisation, acquire sufficient weapons and equipment for a few thousand dollars, make a basic plan of action and indulge in a violent expression of their generalised disaffection and anomie. These individuals indulge in terrorism simply because they can, while their audience concocts a rationale on their behalf.

Welcome to the age of celebrity terrorism. The invitation to the world's D-list malcontents reads as follows: no matter how corrupt your moral sense, how contorted your view of the world, how vapid and inarticulate your ideas, how talentless you are and how exaggerated your grievance; an obsessive audience will watch your every move and turn you into what you most want to be, just before your death.

Is Canada Becoming a Digital Ghetto?

2008-11-28T00:06:00.002-05:00

Good question!

Here are three things that suck about being Canadian right now:

1. Last week the CRTC sided with Bell against a group of small Internet Service Providers who want to offer their customers unthrottled connections where what they download is their own business and not subject to interference.

2. In last week’s throne speech the Conservative government renewed their intention to “modernize” Canadian copyright law. Their effort to do so last session was Bill C-61, a woefully unbalanced and retrograde piece of legislation that led to the greatest citizen backlash to any proposed bill in recent memory. Yet there has been no indication from new Industry Minister Tony Clement that a much-needed public consultation will take place. The best he has offered is the possibility of a “slightly different” version of the bill.

3. Twitter has just announced that they are killing outbound SMS messaging in Canada due to exorbitant and constant rate hikes from Canadian cell providers (former Industry Minister Jim Prentice vowed to get tough on SMS price gouging, then backpeddled). Cell phone rates in Canada are among the highest in the world, and the result is that mobile penetration is pathetically low and that emerging new cultural platforms like Twitter are being hobbled.

This growing list of backwards policies is already creating a sense of digital isolation: Canadians can’t stream the videos Americans stream, download the files Americans download, remix the media Americans remix, or tweet the way Americans tweet.

With the election of Barack Obama, digital culture in the U.S. hit a tipping point, where a robust online public sphere proved itself capable of changing the world. Meanwhile, here in Canada we’re approaching our own tipping point, where a series of ignorances and capitulations threaten to turn our country into a digital ghetto.

Let's Hope They Can't Go Any Lower...

2008-11-27T13:16:00.004-05:00

This is not only disgusting, it is plainly anti-democratic.

I am speechless.

So, bearing in mind that the Conservatives are a minority government, they might submit this project as a confidence vote. If it's accepted by the other elected parties, they, among with all the minor parties that get votes but no seats, will lose substential funding. The Conservatives would lose the most siginificant amount of money, but it represents less than 40% of their funding. Other parties are counting on this method to a bigger degree. For exeample, the Liberals accounts are funded at 63% by this methof.

If they refuse, we're going back in elections, again. And, apart from the Conservatives in power, almost no party has any money to go back to the popular vote for a fifth time since 2000. Furthermore, the Liberal party is looking for a new leader.

The federal funding to political parties is a program that was established by Jean Chrétien in 2004, copying Québec's own program, created by the late René Lévesque. It consists of $1.95 per year per vote to a political formation. Chrétien's program, opposed by the Conservatives' predecessors, the Reform party, also limited corporate and personal donations by imposing a cap. Ironically, the Conservatives adapted by establishing a strong network of small private donations, while the Liberals, counting on large donations from corporate sponsors, had a hard time adapting to their own program.

Let's just say the timing sucks big time, and the conservatives are laughing their asses off.

Not the population though...

EDIT: There's a possibility that a confidence vote defeated by the opposition could put a Liberal-NDP coalition government in power. But this is still a premature supposition.

Interesting...

Treeplanting Motivational 2008

2008-11-20T13:27:00.007-05:00

This is the time of the year when my seasonal job comes back to haunt me. As a friend once said; "the day I won't miss planting when the winter approaches, I know I'll be done with it." Funny enough, I absolutely hated the experience during my first year. Now, every year, I miss it more and sooner...Guess I'm not done just yet!

Here's my treeplanting motivational posters for the 2008 season:

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Electric Sheep Dreams

2008-11-18T23:46:00.012-05:00

I have written about this before, but I'm currently working on a virtual series project, titled Krossroads. It has great potential and the credit goes to my friend Jeremy Grunloh, whose creativity in many artisitc fields makes no doubt. His other virtual series, a Star Trek re-imagination, would really deserve to be adapted for the small screen.

Here's an update on how Krossroads' opening credits would look like if there was any chances of this show being real:

Thanks and kudos to Jer for the efforts and talent put into this video.

And what's the story about? Well, it basically revolves around the somewhat conservative Kross family, running a strategically-located space station (akin to a truck-stop) in a star system rich in natural resources. If I'd consider it a character-based drama set in space above anything else, it remains part of the science-fiction genre. It's closer in style, approach and themes to the re-imagined Battlestar Glactica and what I assume the upcoming Caprica will be about than shows like Lost in Space and Star Wars.

I'm quite involved in this project, and therefore biased, but the story outline along with this vid really makes me wish this could ever appear on my TV...

Challenges

2008-11-16T22:32:00.010-05:00

Ever heard someone saying that life sucks?

I'd rather say it's challenging. Of course, some challenges suck. And sometimes, these fucking challenges last quite a while (examples: Your whole childhood, teenagehood, marriage, life), but I do believe that it's a question of attitude and how you act and react to life's blows.

Recently, I've been procrastinating my fare share and I actually became apathetic and satisfied with the nothingness of my life. I was filled with contentment over simple pleasures and a stress and worry-free life.

So much that I became bland.

No, wait, not bland. FUCKING BORING!

A life wasted doing the same routine, repeating the same useless actions, a brain amorph, without virtually any stimulations despite hopes and ideas waiting to be developped.

I did hurt others, not intentionally of course, and felt basically nothing. But then it happened to me. My ego was bruised, my contentment with my little existence ceased as one of the few exciting moments of my trouble-free life, one of the few activities I would do outside the cocoon I've settled into, was suddenly cut down.

I was somewhat expecting it: The stress I had in the afternoon prior to this change was palpable. I knew something was going to happen and that I had to act accordingly. I made a small effort getting ready. That was a good start.

Then my actions realized before my brain that it was too late. So I stopped caring and had a political discussion over a few drinks with a friend I haven't seen in months.

Then I went back home and took the expected blow. Stayed on the ground for a day or two.

And now I'm standing on my two feet. I learned something, I've felt something. That's good, I was getting a little worried about that part.

I've got a kick in the butt, again. That's the way I live, that's the way I need to live. It's been written in this blog's title for years, because I always wait for one to get me to the next step. I need a motivational jumpstart to learn, adapt, grow, improve.

Therefore, I think I would need more challenges, more often.

Donc, merci pour le coup de pied au cul. Ce n'est jamais agréable, mais ça empêche de s'asseoir dessus, pendant un temps...

That's Why it's Called Evolution...

2008-11-12T16:30:00.005-05:00

Why the KKK is disappearing, apart from being blatantly anachronistic?

Because they kill their recruits during their initiation ritual.

The funniest part: She was supposed to go back to her home state to recruit more people!

I'd like to quote local Sherrif Jack Strain:

"The IQ level of this group is not impressive, to be kind, I can't imagine anyone feeling endangered or at risk by any one of these kooks."

Nice try guys, what about quitting now?

Bloggin' Nothin'

2008-11-10T20:17:00.006-05:00

You know, there's an upcoming election for me...again! Québec's Premier, Jean Charest just threw us a provincial election. Nothing too interesting on this front for now.

So I figured I'd talk a little about my personal life, since it's been a while.

The problem is that it might have been a while, but there hasn't been a lot...

So, just got out of between a rock and a hard place. Or actually, I've kept people there with me. I basically held other people's feeling in hostage.

Now I feel like my life's all over the place, with no clear focus...and no, I don't want to be clearer, for now.

But I think I owe apologies to my past and present. As for the future, let's wait and see...But fingers crossed, there's a bright and shiny one there. Just hope I didn't affect such a future already with the consequences of recent past choices.

Wouldn't be a first, I just hope I already have seen the last...

Cryptic, eh?

Nah, people will read what they need there...

Here We Go Again...

2008-11-05T15:23:00.001-05:00

In case you're just not sick of elections yet.

Elections overdose for some, withdrawal, at the end, for some others...

Hope Returns

2008-11-04T23:26:00.002-05:00

Geekiness candy:

History in the Waiting...

2008-11-04T22:26:00.003-05:00

A Quebecker in Chicago's Grant Park tonight:

"It's a rock show ambiance. It's like waiting for U2! Everybody's wearing Obama t-shirts. When you get to the park, in the streets around, there's a lot of items for sale: t-shirts, buttons, CDs of Obama speeches. Everybody smiles! But security is very, very present. I had to go through four checkpoints, showing my ticket, my ID, they searched me, went through the metal detector...

(...)

Every US flag you'll see on TV, wavered by the crowd, was given by the Obama campaign."

McCain Upsets the Maverick Family

2008-11-04T16:17:00.007-05:00

As translated from Montreal's La Presse

AGNÈS GRUDA
La Presse

Not easy to hold a name that becomes a political or social slogan. After the upset caused by the French Bougons against the European country's adaptation of the famous Québec TV series, it's now the American Mavericks who are protesting against the use of their patronym to describe the political style of the Republican candidate John McCain.

John McCain likes do define himself as a "maverick"; a sharp-shooter, a free man with independent thoughts. He is an "absolute maverick", as Vice-President candidate Sarah Palin dared to say during her debate with democrat counterpart Joe Biden. according to the New York Times, she said it at least six times.

What is a maverick? The word entered the American political lexicon thanks to Texan Sam Maverick who, at the beginning of the 19th century, went against the flow by refusing to brand his cattle. Since then, the word is used to describe people who are not afraid to voice their opinions, despite all odds and no matter who is against them.

But a grand-daughter of Sam Maverick thinks that John McCain doesn't deserve to hold to her family name to promote his candidacy.

"How does he dare to say he's a maverick when he voted for Bush in 90% of cases?" outrages Terellita Maverick, an 82 years-old lady that we contacted in San Antonio, Texas.

"The word inspired by our name describes someones without owner or master. It is not the case of John McCain", added Mrs. Maverick.

Maverick or not, John McCain won't be able to count on the vote of this retired teacher, who is resolutely democrat. "I will vote for Barack Obama, absolutely. He will win, the future is ahead of us" she exclaimed.

The abuse of this noun derived from the name of a Texan family was, of course, not missed by Barack Obama's campaign. "He was so independant that he almost always voted with Bush" constantly repreated the democrats. A maverick can have a boomerang effect...

Being Racist Against a Nation is Okay... as Long as They Are Not a (Free) Nation

2008-10-30T01:58:00.004-04:00

This is low, wrong and in the end, the accuser is guilty as well! (But there's actually no crime, at all! Not even anything morally reprehensive!)

Since when working with a Palestinian ACTIVIST and SCHOLAR is a bad thing?

Be it McCain or Obama, since when being Palestinian is a sin? Should we all put them in a huge reservation or concentration camp?

Oh yeah, true... they already are!

The World is Their Battleground...

2008-10-27T14:31:00.003-04:00

Meh, fuck national sovereignty and international law, we're going in!

What would the US do if another country would do the same in their country? We're not talking about job-seekers here...

When You Have Friends Like This...

2008-10-21T02:30:00.000-04:00

McCain's vietnamese torturer supports his campaign.

Crazy World...

2008-10-17T12:27:00.004-04:00

Strangely enough, this might not help Obama WITHIN the USA...

Alberta is Not a Tory Stronghold Anymore.

2008-10-15T11:45:00.004-04:00

A NDP candidate was elected in Alberta!!! Wow...just wow!

She won by just 400 voices!

For outsiders, Alberta is known as the heartland of the Conservative Party. Every electoral district in the province has been represented by Conservatives for years. This is, in my opinion, the most impressive victory of the campaign.

The Edmonton-Strathcona riding is where I lived when I was in Edmonton this summer. This place just got a bigger place in my heart!

Canadian Elections...Go Vote!

2008-10-14T18:56:00.001-04:00

You didn't vote yet? It's not too late!

Politicunts: American Elections, Part III

2008-10-13T06:58:00.003-04:00

This guy might soon be victim of a road rage accident:

I'm flabbergasted. McCain-Palin supporters are classier every day!

Politicunts: American Elections, Part II

2008-10-12T22:04:00.005-04:00

A good american:

Speechless..."Un imbécile heureux" (A happy idiot) as we'd say in Québec...

Shitty Trucks, Big Trucks, Good Luck!

2008-10-09T18:09:00.008-04:00

The first two photos are not mine, but I couldn't resist stealing them, mostly since we see the great times I had dealing with an over-heating truck on Canada Day Eve.

It started the week off on the right step, taking 6 hours to get to a city 3 hours away...

And this is the giant trucks we had to deal when we were replanting land in the middle of a gigantic open-pit coal mine.

But the best truck I had to drive this season was the rollogon. The slowest machine to ever roll over earth, and sometimes, mud. Contrary to my supervisor's original beliefs, it won't go over a crevasse though. I'm doing the classic John-John pose there.

Alright, guess I just wanted to post pictures of shitty and/or big trucks. I'll leave you with this one:

Politicunts: Canadian Elections, Part V

2008-10-08T10:53:00.008-04:00

In the spirit of the Sarah Palin Debate Flow Chart, and by recent news that they are invited to not answer questions from national media journalists, here's a flowchart I've done to help Conservative Party candidates when they are dealing with the medias:

(click on image to enlarge)

Life...Na-Na-Nanana!

2008-10-07T10:52:00.010-04:00

Hey reader, did I tell you about my life, nowadays?

No?

Weird, I'm sure I did...Oh well, it's probably because I have none. It consists mostly of sleeping at really weird hours, doing nothing, procrastinating, getting to bed at even weirder hours because I'm doing nothing, but I don't want to go to bed yet as I have been procrastinating and unproductive. Then, I read on politics, visit the same 5 websites, revisit the same 5 websites to see if there's anything new (turns out, there's nothing new, the world seems to stop moving when you stop moving...Or maybe it's just that visiting the same website every 20 minutes doesn't give quite a lot of time for the webmasters to update their content, mostly when the subjects treated are limited or heavily specialized)

Huh... where was I? Right, in my room, doing nothing.

I do things though. Saturday, I went to see the Montreal Canadiens' last pre-season game. They lost 3-0, they didn't push it to avoid injuries, quite boring.

I also go for a few drinks once in a while, but my favourite neighbourhood bar, La Promenade just closed down as it has been bought by a trendy bar owner from the Plateau Mont-Royal to get it a little hipper. I hate how they are slowly "gentryfying" my neighbourhood. I fled the Plateau for that exact reason 7 years ago and now, just like a bad Zombie movie (where the Zombies would wear stylish thickly-rimmed glasses and palestinian scarves, thinking they reached the ultimate of cool despite not being able to sustain a conversation for more than 5 minutes, spending their school loans on expensive beers and hit the food bank to save a few bucks), it keeps coming back to kill me, slowly, softly, fashionably. (Yep, I'm judging...)

Granted, Chez Baptiste is not the most bourgeois of establishments, but it does have that "Plateau" feel (nothing against the Plateau itself, it's just that some people made it a parody of itself), with foosball tables instead of pool tables, slightly more expensive beers and cluttering the place with a shitload of busy tables. I do appreciate high quality beers, but I already have a pub for such drinks, with the best terrasse(patio) in town and I don't like my next door tavern to be full of people full of themselves screaming while holding metal rods...

But hey, back on doin' nothin'.

So, there's actually a few things I ought to be doing. First, I should write back to my treeplanting regional manager to send him my non-production day hours, as it's basically worth $2,500 and it should have been paid a month ago by now. But the fact it hasn't is completely my fault (And Microsoft's fault, as my new computer didn't come with Office and I couldn't open my boss' Word document. Also, I love to blame Microsoft for random stuff, I mean, they kind of replaced God, right? Oh, no, wrong, that's Apple that does the religious sect stuff...My bad!)

Funny story. This morning I was too lazy to get out of bed but I wanted to visit the 5 websites, so I extended my arm to my table and dragged the laptop in bed, forgetting that my iPod and my camera were attached to it. Both fell off the table, which stands higher than the usual table. I was quite disappointed to see that my iPod was not broken and my camera was slightly broken. In the iPod's case, because I can't wait to dump this fucking Apple product in the recycling bin and get another company's mp3 player, but I was still relieved I wouldn't have to spend money just yet, and in the camera's case because it's such a solid and efficient camera, despite getting slightly outdated, that I'd never expected I'd break the little battery cap thingy. Nothing some scotch tape wouldn't repair, but I really did expect the expensive, disposable, unreliable and fragile piece of crap that is an iPod to break first.

Did I ever tell you how much those things cost to replace batteries, hard drives and earphone jacks? Oh, I hear you, "might as well buy a new one!"

Sure, that's what they actually say and do, they'd rather replace than repair. But aside from the fact that a battery or earphone jack should be cheaper than a brand new iPod, they know that their shit is so cheaply built that it costs nothing to replace it, and the only reason they can overprice such pesky things is because they market them very, very well to naive young kids with money to waste since they can't drink yet. I was caught too...

If objects could be douchebags, they'd be iPods.

Funny how I'm actually not pissed, but reading this post, it looks like I am. Actually, I'm in a really good mood (Doing nothing remains awesome, mostly when you can rub it in your friend's faces) and I have great people around. Won't say much on that side though. Besides, shitty stuff makes for funnier stories!

Oh well, back to bed, it's noon soon.

Vote Story

2008-10-02T19:11:00.005-04:00

I have a friend who's on Québec's version of Big Brother, ineptly called, like France's version, Loft Story. There's another person on the roster that I know a little. I'm not bragging here, these people are actually the only reason why I'm watching the show and I'm currently talking about it, but don't expect me to reveal their names, post embarassing pictures or tell juicy stories. One's a good friend, the other's a friend's friend and friends don't do that kind of shit, I think. I'll cheer for them though, even if the show is sometimes, I must admit, somewhat insufferable.

But I just wanted to talk about this show in regards to a politically related, albeit trivial, point. Out of the 14 participants, only one, Arcadio, made an issue of the incoming elections and his worries about not being able to vote. The show's host gave him an absentee ballot form. This is admirable, and it doesn't mean the others won't vote, maybe they were just not as vocal about their citizen's right, but I sincerely doubt it. I still need to publish another Youth Voices post, but a lot of messages I received tell me young voters are generally disheartened by politics.

It cost some money to cast a vote on the show, and they'll still get thousands of votes, some people even going as far as doing fundraisers to get more votes for their favourite. Federal elections are free, if not, nobody would vote. Those kids want people to vote for them, but they probably won't vote for anybody themselves. I've heard one say that they were "models", I think that would have been a good place to start...

There's a favourite bar of mine closing down tonight, I plan to be there for the last call.

Big Brother

2008-10-01T17:10:00.003-04:00

I love calling the government. I had to make sure my name was on the electoral district list as I was living in a different one in the last federal election. It was quite the adventure.

First, I called Elections Canada and I was greeted by a wonderful IVR (Interactive Voice Recognition) system. Don't get me wrong, I have worked with those systems for years and I have no problem using it as they are usually faster when it comes to basic operations or information requests. The problem with that one was that it actually didn't recognize my voice. Now, I do have the pretention to think I speak decently well in both french and english, but the IVR system made me doubt myself.

After many attempts that would invariably send me back to the main menu after every swear word, I was told by the IVR that I needed to call my local office. After trying to get a local phone number with the directory assistance (They said they usually get a number during an election, but not this year...), I called back my new friend, IVee, and finally got to speak to an agent that recognized that they had a lot of comments on the limitations, to be polite, of their IVR system. He also understood every word I said, which is pretty cool! But he told me I didn't call the right place as I had to call my local elections office.

Back to step one. "Wait, do you have the number?"

"Sure, what's your postal code."

I gave him my postal code, he gave me a number. I called that number.

Wrong number. "This is the office for the Hochelaga district, your postal code tells me you are in Rosemont-Petite Patrie."

"Yep, I knew that, do you have the number?"

"No, sorry."

Calling IVee back. "For French..."

"French"

"To..."

"Elector's card"

"If you..."

"Register"

Speaking to a human being again, I explain that I need the number for Rosemont-Petite Patrie.

"What's your postal code"

I gave him my postal code.

"Oh, well, we don't have any listings, that's probably why you were referred to the wrong number before."

"You refer people to wrong numbers when you don't find them?"

"Well, not really, it was probably an educated guess..."

"Educated, eh?"

Then, he gave me a number. I called that number.

"Hi, I want to make sure I'm on the list."

"Were you on the list in the previous election?"

"Yes, in a different district."

"Well, you'll have to show up at our office to make the changes, we can't do them by phone."

"I guess I can do that on election day?"

"Yes, but I hope not everybody will do that, could be long"

"Oh well, with the participation rate, shouldn't be too much of an issue..."

Then, I had to call a provincial medicine insurance plan for some athlete's foot medication reimbursement, as I'm currently eligible, being unemployed (but not on unemployment benefits, I want to add). Here's another IVR:

"Please know the exact date when you became eligible for our plan"

I hung up...enough shit for a day.

P.S.: Bonne fête Stéphane!

The Secret Lives of Hasidims

2008-09-24T03:48:00.012-04:00

I'm straying away from politics today to offer another newspaper translation. I read the column a few days ago and promised myself to translate and post it, but the rare sight of a hasidim jew enjoying Monday Night Football in a sports bar on St.Laurent street convinced me to get on it ASAP.

Rima Elkouri is a La Presse reporter and columnist. She writes a lot about city life and the various cultural communities and minorities one will find in Montreal. I always loved her stories and topics.

I also have an insatiable curiosity for hasidic jews that goes back to my teenage years in the suburb of Boisbriand, where an important isolated community of hasidims live. I previously wrote a post referencing them.

Here's my translation of her very interesting paper on a "hasidic superwoman."

The Secret Lives of Hasidims

Rita is a woman as strong as she his private, who raises her seven children in the Mile-End. But we could have the impression that it's on another planet. Rita is a hasidic jew, and she respects to the letter the precepts of her religious movement. This does not stop her from having opinions on life, on the world. With one week to go before Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, our journalist visited her on her balcony.

"It's okay with you if we sit on the balcony?"

"It's perfect."

Rita is my hasidic jew neighbour, well, almost. We are neighbours without actually be. Even if I see her almost every day on her balcony, even if we walk the same sidewalks, her universe is for the most part alien to mine. Our lives are skimming on each other without really touching.

On a summer night, while she was sitting on the balcony with her daughters, I introduced myself to my neighbour and asked if she would accept to open her door to me. Her immediate neighbour, who has known her for a long time, had already probed the terrain for me. Rita had a shy smile. I felt that she was too polite to say no, too modest to say yes. She first said she was not the kind to spread her life on the public place. But after a few hesitations, the mother of seven finally decided to meet me. "Come back in two weeks", she said, explaining that her daughter would be giving birth within the next few days and that she would be too busy to receive me during that period.

That's how I ended up in front of Rita's door on a Monday morning. I was a few steps away from my home. Yet, I felt like I was at a foreign country's border. In the land of "sirs with round hats", as observed on a saturday morning by my 4-years-old son while seeing a hasidic man wearing his traditional sabbath fur hat. A secret country that issues very few visas to foreign tourists.

I rang. It's the 7-years-old son that opened the door. In his "Sunday best", wearing the kippah, his payots neatly smoothed. I asked to speak with his mother. "One moment", he said. The house was busy. A teenager with long red hair came back to talk to me. "It's the baby's circumcision today, she said in a low voice, in english. Mom is asking if you can come back Tuesday or Wednesday."

I said I would come back. "I wish you a good day", politely said the young girl before closing the door.

The next day, I had an appointment with Rita at 2:30PM. She appeared on her balcony wearing a navy blue tunic with blue and pink stripes. She was wearing opaque stockings and a gray headband. A make-up free face, glasses sitting on the nose. She unfolded two chairs.

Inside the house, the newly circumcised newborn was crying. "Is it because of the circumcision?"

"No! said Rita with the reassuring tone of a grand-mother that has seen a lot. It's a baby that was already crying a lot before. But he has been affected for sure. He will get over it!"

An elderly man, black hat and white beard, exits the house while saluting Rita. "It's the rabbi that did the circumcision. He came to make sure everything was alright."

Hasidic Superwoman

I spent two afternoons on Rita's balcony talking circumcision and breastfeeding, man-woman relations and hasidic marriages, of the contrast between her community and the society surrounding it, the silence of the ones and the curiosity of the others, of good and less good neighbourood, of tensions and temptations.

While talking, Rita appeared as a pragmatic woman, a strong character, who is not afraid to voice her opinions. A mother hen and a watchful neighbour that knows all the neighbourhood gossip. A kind of superwoman as we see more and more in the hasidic community, reconciling work and big family. Conservative to the nails, yes, of course, but on many levels more open and respectful than I first thought. A secret woman, also. Rita's name is not Rita. It was out of question to talk about all these subjects while revealing her name to the public. I could have insisted. But I was afraid I would lose my visa.

Rita is 43-years-old. She is the mother of seven children, but in fact, she had eight. One of her firstborn twins died when she was 5 of a chronic lung disease. "She had her last sigh sitting on my knees, she says, the voice strangled by emotions. Sixteen years later, the wound still hurts. She suffered so much that I tell myself that she's better now. This is my consolation", she says in a low voice.

Children are Rita's whole life. Her firstborn, already married, is 21-years-old. The youngest one is 3-years-old. Between the two, there is a 20-years-old daughter, also married, 14-years-old twins (a boy and a girl) and two other sons, aged 11 and 7. "They bring me so much happiness. When I hold my 11-days-old grand-kid, it just makes me want more" she says, moved.

She recalls, laughing, that time when she was transporting her kids in her triple stroller that she called her "tchoo-tchoo-train", non-jewish neighbours stopped her to say: "You know we admire you?" Why? she wondered. For Rita, there's nothing more natural than having a children swarm around her. "Is there any other way to live?"

Respect the Other's Culture

Born in Israel, Rita landed in Montreal while she was very young. She always lived in the Mile-End. Her mother was from Romania, her father, from Poland, both were Holocaust survivors. She teaches yiddish and religion. Her husband too. "For me, the two only options were either to work as a secretary for a religious person or to teach. It was the only way to respect the Jewish calendar."

There was a time where it was almost impossible for a majority of hasidic jews to pursue college or university studies. Because in an inward-looking community where man and woman live parallel lives, mixing sexes is not encouraged. But since 1985, upon a request by the Ministry of Education, Marie-Victorin Cégep administers college level programs offered in Montreal jewish schools. That's how Rita's older daughters both got a college degree as youth education technicians without ever stepping in a real Cégep.

Even if non-jews always talk to her in english, Rita speaks french well. "Before, I was shy to speak french. I can't say that I master the past perfect! But I tell myself: 'We live in Quebec. We want to be respected. If I want my culture to be respected, I must respect the culture of others.'"

Love Behind Closed Doors

I talked for a while with Rita of what she refers as the "invisible border" between
her community and the rest of society. On both sides of this border, there is a lot of misunderstanding. She remembers a conversation she had with a man who addressed her in the bus. He started talking about the Outremont hasidims, about the fact that they buy more and more houses in the neighbourhood. Rita answered that houses were for sale for everybody and that, if people didn't want to sell them, they didn't have to. The man kept going, saying his hasidic neighbours were not saluting him, she tells. "Did you try to salute them? asked Rita, who has a personal rule to say hello to everyone that wants to salute her, jews or not

That said, it's important to know that, inside the community itself, there is strict rules regarding the conduct between men and women. You can't salute anybody, anywhere. "Men can't socialize with women that are not in their immediate families. Myself, if I meet my son-in-law, I can't say hello. It's a question of modesty.

Even between husband and wife, modesty is required. You can't show emotions. You can't hold hands on the sidewalk. Let's not talk about kissing in public. "Love is lived behind closed doors. There's even couples that won't sit on the same couch if their kids are there.

Keeping Children Away from Temptations

The cocoon voluntarily created by hasidic jews is linked to their need to perpetuate an heritage which rules are numerous and rigid, says Rita. "To keep children away from temptations, it must be that way. It has all to do with our beliefs. It's not because there is something negative with the others.

What are those "temptations" she refers to, by the way? It goes from consuming pork or non-kosher food to premarital sex. "It's so common that we have no choice but to protect our children, says Rita. My 11-years-old son saw his two sisters become pregnant. He doesn't know how they became pregnant, but he knows it happens right after being married."

Rita tells me how embarassed she was when her children heard a man on the street refer to the mother of his children as his girlfriend. "They asked me a ton of questions. I told them he just called her that way..."

At the same time, she makes sure to explain to her kids that rules that apply to hasidims do not apply to all. "When my children ask me why the neighbour drives his car on a Saturday, I explain that the neighbour was not born jewish and that he's allowed to drive his car on sabbath."

Despite everything, Rita has always allowed her children to play with the neighbours. The electric car that she won in a contest, every little kid that wanted, jewish or not, was allowed to try it and push the invisible border a little further.

The worst, according to Rita, would be to have a kid that would turn his back on the community. There's more and more, she says. "For their parents, it's worse than if they were dead."

TV Forbidden

To maintain the cocoon undisturbed, it's impossible for the majority of hasidim to be exposed to TV, radio or internet. You never listen to the news, then? "People that want to listen to the news do it in their car."

It's also out of question to risk eating non-kosher food at the neighbours' place, as sympathetic as they seem to be. "Even if we are served only fruits, if those fruits have been cut with a knife that was used to cut pork, we have a problem."

What kind of problem? What happens to someone that eats a non-kosher fruit? A rational question in an universe that is not. "We are born in this tradition and we believe it, simply. If it happens, there is a terrible feeling of guilt. We tell ourselves that we were not cautious enough. We feel that our soul has been spoiled and that we will need to atone our fault. If not, we'll be punished. And if you sin voluntarily, there is hell."

How does Rita see the future of her expanding community in a society that looks so different? Even if she is conscious that tensions exist, Rita believes in peaceful cohabitation. Live and let live. It's out of question to impose hasidic rules to society, she says. But it's out of question to abandon her heritage. Hence the invisible border, that intrigue some and irritate others. It doesn't mean that we can't talk. "I wish that people would ask me more questions!"

We can talk. We must talk. But we can't be friends? I asked Rita, while guessing the answer. She looked puzzled. Then, philosophically, she answered while looking in my eyes: "If there is 26 rocks in front of us and that there is 25 on which we can't walk, how can we do it? There is too many differences in our respective lifestyles. And who can say: I am strong enough to resist temptations?"

I left Rita with her cauldrons and her kids protected against "temptations". I went back on the other side of the border, a little less ignorant but as curious. I will need more than one visa to discover the secret of my hasidic neighbours.

Canadian Columnist Pisses Off the American Right, Fox News Leads the Charge

2008-09-21T16:51:00.009-04:00

Fox News, and all conservatives on this continent, the Canadian equivalent included, are pissed about this column:

The Alaskan who went 'outside'
Heather Mallick

I was born in a northern Canadian settlement so small it was accessible most of the year only by a Bombardier, a sort of huge military tank built for passengers. It was like a transport plane, a big iron bulb with caterpillar tracks. I swear we had a paddle-steamer for supplies in the summer.

Take that, Sarah Palin. The place was six times smaller than Wasilla, Alaska, the town that birthed John McCain's strange vice-presidential "soulmate", as weird as that disconnected eerie smile that floats on his face as he stands next to her.

My credentials are solid; Palin cannot out-hick me. Until I fled at 18, I never lived in a northern town of more than 12,000 people. My towns were full of Sarah Palins. These types are fine, such as they are, until they leave town and turn fraudulent. They label themselves "the salt of the earth". It's when they try to make that a qualification for a greater glory that things turn unpleasant.

I never claimed a higher moral standing for coming from a great big empty on the map. Small towns are places that smart people escape from, for privacy, for variety, for intellect, for survival. Palin should have stayed home.

Canada has lots of hockey moms. They're called Fran and Nancy. They have cruel haircuts and their voices shake the rafters of the rink as their rink-rats play. How can I translate the hearty, jollying-along Palin for British audiences? She's a working class Joan Hunter Dunn. It's those volleyball shoulders and field-hockey thighs, the energy, the bullying, and the utter self-confidence in every lie she tells.

Salt-of-the-earthers don't lie! But Palins do. I watched Palin last night, my mouth open, my eyeballs drying out, my hand making shaky notes. I read them aghast.

Did she really joke, "You know the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? Lipstick."?

Did she just blow kisses to the audience?

Did she just say, "We need to produce more of our own oil and gas. Take it from a gal who knows the North Slope. We've got lots of both."?

Yes, she did lie about billion-gallon slurps of oil and gas available for Americans to blow, about her support of Alaska's notorious pork-barrel "bridge to nowhere", about which particular citizens will see tax increases under Obama (only the richest, and she knows that).

She also lied when she slobbered over small-town folks (an American version of British farm life, except British farmers have a point). The granite honesty of hicks is a cliche, a fantasy, a meme of American life, as much as the working-class solidarity of Tony Blair was in 1997, and where did that get anyone?

But most of all, she lied about the north and the virtues it supposedly confers on citizens. Canadians watch this with horror. To us, Alaska is the back of beyond. Americans feel the same way. Alaskans are a bunch of Ted Stevens, that enraged screaming old senator who explained that the internet was not a big truck, it was more like a "bunch of tubes". He was arrested and charged with taking bribes, but handily won the August senatorial primary.

We love our own north to the point of covering our eyes and humming as it melts (yesterday the BBC headlined the collapse of Canada's ice shelves; Canadian papers and websites missed the story) but Alaska is different from our north. We share a 1,500-mile border with a frontier state full of drunks and crazy people, of the blight that cheap-built structures bring to a glorious landscape. Canadian firms invest billions in the place and mine its ores. One hundred thousand Canadians visit Alaska every year, and we like to pass by in cruise ships. But it never goes further than that. Alaska is our redneck cousin, our Yukon territory forms a blessed buffer zone, and thank God he never visits. Alaska is the end of the line.

Palin got her first passport last year. (Americans didn't need a passport to enter Canada until recently). She seems to have visited us precisely once, not surprisingly since Alaskans regularly refer to the rest of the world as "outside". We are so foreign to her, this woman who might become US president.

What is native to her is smugness, her certainty that what's good for Wasilla is good for the world in all its infinite variety. It's a variety that Palin will never begin to grasp.

Since it was released in the US, she was subjected to various death threats and message boards were flooded with reactions, insults and the usual and repetitive anti-Canadian ramblings, which are sometimes funny.

Let's agree she went too far, and there's a fair share of "redneckness" on the Canadian side of the border, but the core of the subject remains; Palin is not "presidential", vice or not.

Also, the right has to stop using the small-town values as a symbol of virtue. Small towns are fled by people who can't share the town's "core" values because they would never fit in, being marginalized for being different.

It's not that the values themselves are fundamentally wrong, just that the population is smaller, the jobs variety more limited, hence limiting the diversity of lifestyles, and, by extension of point-of-views and values. Therefore, ending with a more uniformed, one size-fits-all set of values, it kicks the "odd ones" to the "wicked life" of the cities, where sheer population size and actual diversity in lifestyles, jobs and origins will allow people to find others that share their views and interests.

There's nothing basically wrong with city virtues, the same way there's nothing basically wrong with small town ones, but neither can pretend to any actual form of moral high ground. People will be people, no matter where they are from, no matter where they fit best, for better or for worse.

Politicunts: Canadian Elections, Part III

2008-09-19T21:16:00.008-04:00

This video, titled Culture en Péril (Culture in Danger) was created by a few Québec artists and posted on YouTube to denounce the cuts in cultural funding by the Conservative governement, led by Stephen Harper.

When Beau Dommage's Michel Rivard visits a newly formed governmental committee overseeing cultural financing, language gaps and cultural misunderstandings abounds, mostly when Rivard plays his classical song, "La Complainte du Phoque en Alaska" (The Complaint of the Seal in Alaska)...

I think its relevant for Anglo-Canadian and US audiences as well. I added english subtitles to facilitate the understanding of this sketch. Hope it remains faithful and funny!

Canada Votes: Youth's Voices, Part I

2008-09-18T19:50:00.013-04:00

I asked a bunch of friends and aquaintances about their views, thoughts, worries and opinions on the current Canadian election.

Here's a sample of what they told me (comments in french were translated in english, with the original text in parentheses):

"I am only scared of one thing; a Harper/Conservative majority government. Where I live a conservative or liberal is going to win. Consequently, I am more likely to help stop a conservative majority if i vote liberal. I probably will vote liberal dispite the fact that I usually vote NDP or Green party. It looks like the liberals are doing poorly though so it might be another few years of unbridled right wing agenda served with fake smiles and bad sweaters."
-Dan

I'm sorry, but I'll sound like a little rebellious punk: Politics suck, because it's administerd by technocrats anyways...Better to work heart to heart! (J'suis desolée, mais j'vais avoir l'air dune p'tite punk revoltée: La politique c'est d'la marde , parce que, d'une manière ou d'une autre, c'est géré par la technocratie...better to work heart to heart)
-Catherine

Let's just say that I'm not too preoccupied with politics and the current campaign, always promises that politicians won't keep. (Disons que ça me préoccupe pas trop, la politique et la campagne actuelle, toujours des promesses que les politiciens ne tiennent pas.)
-Danick

I think people need to look passed the messenger and see what the message really is...who cares if Dion can't relate intimately with people, he is a brilliant man, with good ideas. Harper scares the hell out of me, and has some really dubious plans for Canada, and Canada's role in the world. Also, allowing May into the debates was the right thing to do...it should not been seen as a favour to anyone, but the RIGHT thing to do.
-Jesse

It's shit, one or the other, it ends up the same(C'est de la marde
un ou l'autre c'est du pareil au même)
-Yannick

Cynical, the kids? Let's not jump to conclusions, it's a small sample, but it's interesting. Please, keep the emails coming!

Poll Suggests Conservative Lead Softening

2008-09-15T20:53:00.005-04:00

As you can read here, the Conservatives are, for the first time since the beginning of the campaign, below 100% in the vote intentions...

Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton on Sexism...

2008-09-15T17:43:00.002-04:00

...as performed by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler for SNL.

Great sketch! Watched it many times in the last few days.

Did You Say Irónico?

2008-09-13T18:03:00.003-04:00

A nice find by my friend Sam:

The text says:

City of Barcelona
Guarded area in a radius of 500 meters.
Place George Orwell

George Orwell being, of course, the author of the dystopian novel 1984, which is set in a world where every action done (mostly by a party member) is monitored by cameras, the police, or your own children...

Politicunts: American Elections, Part I

2008-09-13T17:47:00.006-04:00

I really like McCain. His hypocrisy, lies and dirty campaign gives a lot of material for dumb blogs like mine.

And the great thing, I don't even have to modify a iota of what he says to make it outrageous.

But Richard Hétu, a french-canadian journalist who is LaPresse special correspondent in New York always have interesting tidbits on the US presidential campaign on his newspaper's blog. Here's a video debunking some "facts" stated in various McCain ads:

About a Cunt

2008-09-10T04:27:00.004-04:00

You probably noticed that I have been using the word "cunt" quite often in the last few days.

You are cunting right.

Well, it's partly because I just noticed how vulgar, obscene and blaphemous it is to say such a word in the english-speaking world.

Well, actually, according to sources, mostly in North America.

Therefore, I decided to use it as much as possible, but never in the actual context where it would actually be offensive.

But John McCain did so:

Cunt-acular!

Politicunts: Canadian Elections, Part II

2008-09-09T18:51:00.005-04:00

Continuation of my new series on election coverage, Politicunt. Which, "honours" already obnoxious/stupid/indecent political comments and articles. (The original articles are available by clicking on the title links). The second edition covers the upcoming Canadian election.

Harper apologizes for 'tasteless' bird-excrement attack ad on Dion
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
CBC News

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper offered a rare apology to his rival Stéphane Dion on Tuesday for an online campaign attack ad that featured a bird defecating on the Liberal leader, which Harper called "tasteless and inappropriate, yet hilarious."

The ad appeared to deflect attention from the Liberals' Tuesday launch of a website aimed at revamping the image of their, at times, bookish leader, where he is shown reacting to the Two Girls One Cup video.

The Tory web page, which was active until Tuesday morning, featured an image of "Professor" Dion at a school blackboard, followed by puffin flying over his head and dropping excrement on Dion's shoulder.

The puffin was mentioned last year by then-leadership candidate Michael Ignatieff as a potential mascot for the Liberal party because the "noble" birds "hide their excrement", in what many took as an awkward reference to the sponsorship scandal.

After selecting Dion, the Liberals instead chose the ostrich as their mascot.

When asked about the site, Harper said he had seen it late last night after receiving an email from a friend, but had been assured by his national campaign manager that it was promptly taken down from the party website and uploaded on youtube.com and funnyordie.com

"We're shitting enough on the Liberals without getting into that kind of thing. Bestiality is not a conservative value. Let's keep it to a human level!" Harper told reporters at a campaign event in Winnipeg.

The Tories said the bird was created by an overactive web designer and not noticed by his parents. While the puffin is still flying on the site, it is no longer defecating on Dion, who said he accepted Harper's apology.

"He went far too far today and he had to apologize," Dion told reporters outside his campaign bus during an unscheduled stop in Napanee, Ont., to empty the bus' septic tank

"I accept the apology, but this is the topping of the turd when it comes to their decade-long "shitting-on-liberals" campaign." he said.

For her part, Green Party leader Elizabeth May called the puffin ad a reminder of the importance of guano in some ecosystems and said she hoped Canadians would remember her.

"Well, here's a story where our party can actually get involved in the debate, well not THE debate per se, but I mean the race, and yet talk about our platform. I think it's the first time it happens in a media other than our website. By the way, we've got fifty hits yesterday! I was checking the stats while rewriting some HTML codes and I was so pleasantly surprised!"

Politicunts: Canadian Elections, Part I

2008-09-09T16:23:00.012-04:00

Here's my new series on election coverage, Politicunt. Which, "honours" already obnoxious/stupid/indecent political comments and articles. (The original articles are available by clicking on the title links). The first edition covers the upcoming Canadian election.

Taliban Weighs In On Canadian Election
Tuesday September 9, 2008
The Canadian Press

A Taliban spokesman says he's well aware of Canada's looming election and he supports whichever party is more likely to pull Canadian troops out of Afghanistan, "even the damn Bloc!"

Encountered at Kandahar's Tim Hortons, where he was enjoying a double-double and a bagel, Qari Muhammad Yussef says the fact they weren't included in the debate is why insurgents have stepped up attacks on Canadians in Afghanistan.

"We were hopeful the Greens would get in. Because you know, if the Greens are in, everybody's in!"

While he doesn't know which party is most likely to withdraw Canadian troops from Afghanistan, the spokesman says such a platform will be "good for that party and for their nation and for the Canadian people, but mostly for the soldiers, as they'll kinda stop dying."

He says he's familiar with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, stating that the Talibans "are really disappointed and disillusioned that Mr. Harper has taken a party whose roots were in grassroots democracy and populism and turned it on its head into a top-down control machine that wants to run over everyone", but isn't sure about the other candidates or parties vying for the country's top job.

"I think there's an important issue in the fact that the left is divided, but the right is united. That, and the fact that regionalism prevails, some provinces are marginalized and the federal government seems to have no real power over some tribal areas."

As for the impending U.S. election, Yussef says he doesn't care much for American politics and believes the next president, regardless of who is chosen, will be just as Christian as the current one.

"When it comes to influence, the US are not what we'd call, a "major power". Obama would be decent, I've learned recently on Fox News that he was somehow related to Osama Bin Laden AND Saddam Hussein, which is pretty neat, despite being a little surprising, but he's definitely not experienced enough to deal with core American issues that are so important to the middle-class crusader."

As for McCain, Yussef issued a friendly warning:

"I'd bet twenty bucks he wouldn't last a year in captivity with us!"

Woah, I Missed the Blogosphere, But Mostly, the Blogosphere Missed Me...Right?

2008-09-09T04:21:00.012-04:00

Wrong.

Couldn't care less (I was talking about myself, but hey, guess it works for you as well, sole reader, if you exist) but I'm back nevertheless.

Why?

Well, first because I'm actually back from the bush, which was especially tight this year. And after a few weeks of complete rest (and waking up around 4PM in average), I feel relaxed enough to be completely useless in my productivity (Let's admit that writing an unread blog is not the summum of efficiency. Yet, it's a step up from total procrastination).

But secondly, and mostly, because there's a SHITLOAD of elections around! First here in Canada, where it will be (thankfully) as short as it is bland, and then in the US, where it is as spectacular as it is dualistic and shameful (as everything else down there...yeah, you can quote me on that, for now)

So, Tup, how was planting? Oh, good, good. I'll post pics later, kinda takes forever. Here's a preview, showing the first station of my personal cross (towards...blasphemy!):

Then, how about politics? Well, here's how it goes: I'm planning to translate as many french-canadian blogs as possible on the US and Canadian elections, change my mind dozens of times as I read through various analysis(or is it analasyses, analysii?), blog about it, edit, then remove posts, and finally let my brother convince me that I was wrong all along because he's in University and, better yet, he's an original who'd never get influenced by teachers and the medias.

Sounds good? I mean, until I leave for Central America (quite soon, actually), I have nothing better to do...

Alright, deal! But, I don't feel like writing tonight, it's quite late and I'd rather browse the web to find some free porn that "does" it, which takes increasingly longer, which means I'll probably end up on facebook, using my imagination while stalking pics of friends of a friend...

Wish me luck!

Time to go facefuck! (Damn, I even disturbed myself with that one!)

P.S: No, I'm not intoxicated.
P.P.S: I'm aware some old photo links are broken, due to my cuntastically (my new word of the day, I love it since I learned that cunt is even badder than fuck!) fucktarded image server, maj.com, who decided to become majhost.com just to piss us all over again. Too bad they didn't improve anything on the 1999-ish, fast, user-friendly interface!)

Busy But Alive

2008-06-08T22:23:00.001-04:00

Working hard, slept in only two beds in a month and today was the first actual day off I've had (And I've been forgotten in Rocky Mountain House as the cook took my truck to go get the food order and left for camp, so no one picked me up and I'm still sitting in the hotel lobby...Awesome!)

The Saskatchewan contract lasted three weeks and was quite difficult on everybody, but we now moved onto the beautiful Rocky Mountain House area for our spring contract there. We planted about half of the prescribed trees in the shift that ended yesterday. Been working a lot, with not much rest, but it is less demanding physically and emotionally than last year and I have had a few very easy days (including heli slinging duty which mean 10% work and 90% wait). Also, we started with three crews and are now down to two since a crew left to plant oilfields in northern Alberta. We still have two tree deliverers, and delivering one crew is not a difficult job most of the time. Mostly when you're used to deliver three crews alone. We might lose another crew in a week or so, so I'll be delivering one crew plus additional planters from Ontario as their spring season ends. Then, towards the end of our summer contracts, all the original crews should be back together for the final stretch.

I've been writing daily entries about the season so far, but I won't post them until the season ends as I have nop time and internet fares are prohibitive.

Until then, keep pounding!

time to go wait...

Getting There...

2008-04-29T21:08:00.009-04:00

So I'm at work and I'm bored. I'm also slightly pissed at the Montreal Canadiens.

I've been asked, for the last few weeks, to do follow-ups and supervisor calls to angry/unsatisfied/abusive/plain crazy customers. So I dont walk the floor, helping/assisting fellow agents anymore, I simply sit at my desk, looking into problematic accounts, resolving situations and calling the customers to inform them or to let them vent about their expectations versus what we actually offer and what they have accepted upon agreeing to the Terms and Conditions of Service (My usual approach is to press mute and wait. When they're done complaining/yelling, I wait one more second, as it makes them uneasy. Then I explain everything with a really calm, quiet voice. Usually works everytime!)

Sometimes it sucks, as the customer is actually right and there's nothing I can do, other times, the customer is either an arrogant douchebag who tought he could circumvent the information given by the agent who took the call and get preferential treatment or unjustified credits (usually through lies or self-important crap like "I built the Surrey Sports Complex!") or a customer who was given the wrong information by the first agent. But most of the time, I resolve the problem. I'm actually quite good at what I do. I don't like it, but I'm good.

So good that it takes me an hour to do all the daily scheduled follow-ups (Might also be that there isn't that much to do). My multiple bosses don't seem to realize that yet (Good luck! I have only two days to go and I'm calling off tomorrow), so I enjoy the rest of the day browsing the web, reading, writing or simply doing fucking nothing, waiting for the clock to get to the point where I punch-out.

But damn, I can't wait to get out and go back to my tree-hugging, $60,000-worth truck-idling, shitloads-paying tree-planting job! In a few days I'm off to exciting Edmonton, Alberta for some yard work before getting to inappropriately-named Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan (probably an old Hudson's Bay trading post) to start the season and really bust my ass.

Until then, I'll sit on it.

Also, maybe, I'll pay a visit to my dentist, book a flight out west, send a few documents to the treeplanting company's offices, pay a fine, get some supplies, try to sleep and see family and friends.

Maybe.

RE: I Will Tell You...yeah...

2008-04-20T18:38:00.003-04:00

Oops

Well, I always disliked fans who would be too confident, selling the skin of the bear before killing it. I have been arrogant, and I look somewhat dumb today, mostly since it's coupled with bitter disappointment.

But I don't care, I spent the afternoon in a park, hungover, enjoying snacks and sun with a amazing girl.

So yeah, fuck it, life is good!

And we'll win the next one!

I Will Tell You I Told You So

2008-04-19T17:17:00.003-04:00

Mark my words. The Montréal Canadiens will win tonight's game and eliminate the Boston Bruins from the NHL playoffs.

That's it.

Go Habs Go!

мир

2008-04-19T00:34:00.021-04:00

мир: Mir is the russian word for peace, also the modern russian word for society (The alphabet was "simplified" after 1917's Bolshevik revolution).

Here's an interesting news item, not so much for the political celebrity gossip, but what it tells about Vladimir Putin's strong grip on power in Russia:

Russia’s Putin denies he plans to marry gymnast.

"So what?", some would say. After French President Nicolas Sarkozy (who recently got divorced, to then quickly wed supermodel-turned-singer-composer Carla Bruni. She's great at both by the way), it might just be Putin's turn in being struck by some midlife-crisis demons.

Maybe, maybe not.

The thing is, the Moskovsky Korrespondent, the small newspaper that originally published the story suddenly doesn't exist anymore!

I always had an interest for Russia, from my younger days of fright at their potential (and highly devilized by anti-communist propaganda) capacity for doom, to their space program, passing by their incredibly rich culture, architecture and land. I am still learning Russian, and I am by no mean functionnal, as it is both simple and complicated to learn.

Just like its language, I love and fear the country, and this is another example of what frightens in regards to Putin's reign; A return to Russia's worst, yet most efficient habits: A small elite becoming extremely wealthy and/or powerful while the country's head of state holds to (extreme) power, by now becoming his political party's leader and Russia's prime minister after being forced by law to stand down at the end of his second term as president. A presidential reign where he kept the press under leash, gagged dissidents and opponents and succesfully reasserted Russia's place as a political, but also as an economical power. With Putin, Russia has firmly set its foot on the arena's ground, in preparation for the 21st century upcoming challenges, from the fight for natural and human ressources to religious and nationalist tensions, passing by alimentary needs and climate changes.

A Tzar is born? A dictatorship? No, but there's again a class system in Russia, the rich gets richer, sometimes in the shadows and protection of a powerful government that can close any business working against the Kremlin's interests. The real question is, does Putin acts in what he thinks is his people interests, fighting corruption and terrorism, maintaining social order and peace as he claims, or at their expenses, while improving his friends' finances and his place at the top? Is modern Russia a turbulent society longing for peace or the setting for a slowly burgeoning revolution?

Only time will answer these questions.

Tupperfan's Guide to Useless Knowledge: The Red Army Choir once performed american southern rock classic "Sweet Home Alabama" with a Finnish rock band, the Leningrad Cowboys.

время есть китайский...

2.0

2008-04-16T04:02:00.006-04:00

Same shitty, irregular and erratic content, new design!

I've regularly done minor modifications in the past, but this is my first real update on my web design. I didn't change the basic colour scheme, but I balanced the page by adding some contrast here and there. I also changed the font and got rid of a few useless features.

Now the question is, do people care? Obviously not, but as an important fraction of the people who visit this site, my opinion is important and I approve of the new look.

Tupperfan's Guide to Useless Knowledge: Did you know that you didn't care?

Time to go make other worthy changes to the World...

GO HABS GO!

2008-04-09T23:57:00.010-04:00

The National Hockey League's playoffs officially started today. My hometown's (and favourite) team, the Montréal Canadiens will begin their series against their longtime rivals, the Boston Bruins, tomorrow in Montréal's Bell Centre.

In order to watch the game, I had to trade my work shift, as I was working until midnight. Exceptionally, tomorrow will be an early day for me. It's also a shorter, four hours shift, but I'm willing to live through those sacrifices in order to be drunk and watch the game. Hehehe...

If I want to believe my beloved Habs will go far, I was not sure I should say they'll go all the way.

Then I realized I was playing it safe. One must believe.

Last time they won, in 1993, I was one of the very few who was 100% sure they'd go through. Call it youth fervor. I've also been saying for years they'd win in 2009. So, what is a year early, really? Therefore, rooting for the home team, I'll say the bleu-blanc-rouge will win the Stanley Cup.

So, starting tonight, and just like the players, I will let my beard grow without trimming until the Habs either win the big salad bowl or are eliminated. If they do not win, I will sport a mustache for a week, in mourning for the loss.

As for the Boston Bruins vs. Montréal Canadiens series, here's an inspiring video:

(click on image to watch video)

The real hockey season starts now, enjoy!

Time to get that beard going!

Images Server Down

2008-04-02T01:56:00.007-04:00

Kinda sucks...Been faithful to maj.com for years, even though it's far from being the best picture uploader nowadays, but it might be the time to change...As soon as I get my pictures back (a lot of them are not on my computer anymore!)

Strangely, maj's sister website, brickshelf.com, is still working well...

Time to go get my pics!

EDIT: Maj.com works properly again. Backups done.

They Are Talking About You

2008-03-20T02:06:00.009-04:00

Pierre Foglia, the famous Montreal columnist whose first column about the American Primaries I translated and posted a few weeks ago, wrote a few paragraphs, in a column written a week later, about a weird moment he shared with his Bed & Breakfast host in Middleofnowhere, Alabama. In his words, translated:

Internet
"The Bed's lady, (where there was no computer, therefore no web access) asks me what I do for a living. I told her I was a journalist. Nothing else. No details. Next day, I'm reading outside when she comes back from work in the neighbouring town (where she owns a tool store), she holds paper sheets and hands them down to me:

That's you, right?

It was my first Alabama column, translated in english, don't ask me by who, don't ask me on which site, don't ask me why, an excellent translation by the way. On another sheet, from another site, my résumé, my age, where I was born, where I worked, the kind of articles I write, with details as precise as my taste for sports, etc. The kind of epitaph that ones read with the feeling of being dead.

It amused me. Nevertheless, where shall one hide? With the Dowayos in North Cameroun? Not sure. I can already see the village chief approaching with his wood rabbit hat: You small bicycle Foglia? You engaged with an Ibe'ville girl?"

Well, after many verifications, and only to brag (as he didn't ask), I'm the guy and the site who did the excellent translation for your enjoyment. One takes every compliments, mostly from such instances, and I hope the dude won't keep the feeling that his wikipedia entry is an epitaph, but rather a sign that others have enough of their lives to waste to write about you.

Time to go see where's my epitaph.

What The Frak?

2008-03-20T01:06:00.013-04:00

Below are a few videos I order you to watch, because I'm too lazy to post original content and also because I happen to like those shows and would like to share.

Heard about BSG and its goodies, but too lazy to go through a three-season marathon? Well, you miss quite a bliss. Meh, frak, here's a funny, very quick recap:

(click on image to watch)

And here's OSS 117, France's most mysoginist, racist, bigot, colonialist and dumbest spy. He's good though!

Probably one of the best French comedies of the last few years. The movie is more than a parody, it's an hommage to 1960's spy movies, up to the cinematography.

A must see. Here's a few clips with english subtitles (except for the last two ones, but they are hardly necessary)

All Tied Up:
(click on image to watch)

Meeting Other Spies:
(click on image to watch)

The Hookah:
(click on image to watch)

Bambino:
(click on image to watch)

Jack:
(click on image to watch)

(Translation of the few spoken words in the last clip)
Scene 1:
French Official: "Very sad news"
OSS 117:"Jack! Jack..."

Scene 2:
OSS 117:"Jack...Jack.
Larmina:"What are you doing Lucien?
OSS 117: "Huh?"

Scene 3:
OSS 117:"Jack, my friend, my brother!"
Jack: "My friend? It's not how I remember it."
OSS 117: "Hahahahaha, 23-nothing! You're an amateur Jack, you don't know how to play, Jack! You suck!"
OSS 117: "Hey, Jack!"
Jack: "No, really not how I remember it!"

Did I say you guys need to go over the fact it's a foreign film with subtitles? It's simply hilarious!

Time to go watch my dreams, with subtitles (I swear it happened once)!

Knock, Knock...

2008-03-15T00:18:00.009-04:00

"Who's there?"
"Me!"
"Me Who?"
"Me, God."
"You again? I thought you were already here!"
"Well, I am! I'm everywhere, everyone and everything!"

In regards to the story about Barack Obama's former pastor and his controversial comments (here and here): Why does God always walks into U.S. Politics with its/her/his muddy boots?

Religion, sex, fear and slander are American politics' old ghosts...

*sigh*

Guitars Around the Camp Fire

2008-03-10T23:38:00.009-04:00

A treeplanting-related musical project?

That's the idea behind Peppermill Records' album, Hi and Ho, We Plant Trees, a "collection of old and new songs done by treeplanters, about treeplanting, and for the most part, for other treeplanters."

Check out their website, you can get the music and artwork for free. There's also plenty of other treeplanting goodies, from a lingo dictionary to a video gallery, passing by the rare, remarkable animated short by Frédéric Back: The Man Who Planted Trees.

Definitely worth it. As for me, it will be part of my playlist for the long drives between Eastern Saskatchewan and Western Alberta this spring/summer.

Tupperfan's Guide to Useless Knowledge: There's a higher percentage of artists, visual arts, cinema, photography, litterature and music students in a treeplanting camp than in the general population. There's also (generally) more pot and booze, making for really interesting camp fires jams and discussions.

Hi and Ho, We Plant Trees website:
http://www.peppermillrecords.com/pm007

Time to go plant words...

Stop the Fucking Bullshit.

2008-03-05T19:29:00.017-05:00

Ok, I must admit I'm a little pissed. I needed to get it off, somewhat. Granted, it's not the most elegant piece of writing. But it never was the goal and besides, really, fuck off!

-Stop telling me I'll get laid if I smell better by using a certain spray deodorant or breath strips toothpaste. I'm ugly as shit, I'll still look like shit. I'll just smell like mint-perfumed shit.

-And, stop letting me think whiter teeth will get me a promotion. Same goes with any other gadget, basically new needs created to rip me off my money.

-Hey, Obama, I really like you. Just a little head's up though; Canada's president is not a president. A tip: it's two words and it rhymes with "Crime" and "Sinister".

-Don't tell me you decided to support the minority government so that "the will of the people is respected. Besides, the budget sounds not bad at all". We all know your election fund is in the red and that the polls are pretty shitty for you right now.

-No, your network's french version of "Deal or No Deal" is not newsworthy, please don't interview tonight's winner during evening news. Why won't you tell us about that thing known as "The World" instead? Same thing applies for the first non-celebrity to appear on that little improv show you have on Sunday. Got it TVA? NOT NEWS!!!

-"I'm not racist but..." Yes, you are, stop lying to yourself, but mostly, stop talking to me.

-You're a big shot at my job? Working at the corporate HQ and visiting our center once every six months? Dont' give me that little "overconfident, in control, condescending smile" (you're fat and ugly after all), offering to address any question to you when a guy comes to listen to my calls to see if we're worthy to get his company as a client. First, you never took a damn call in your life. Second, I'm among the best guys you have, I'll never have questions for you, just complaints and suggestions.

-You're the other boss, the one directing my call center? You have enough power over me already, even if you don't know my name. Did you ever speak to me? So do you need to get as low as to tell me not to leave my jacket in the reception wardrobe when I just want to run to my desk to get something I forgot (You told us we couldnt wear our jackets in the center in the first place), instead of making a huge detour to leave it in the locker room? I mean, what kind of chickenshit, anal, power-hungry stunt is this? No caps? No chocolate bars? No newspaper? Fuck you, what about improving our conditions and our salary and resolving the huge quality discrepancies instead of sitting at the reception waiting area speaking italian with your friend during work hours? Eh? ANSWER!

-Seven agents told you you couldn't get Pac-Man on your damn cheap phone! Do you need to keep bugging every agent, shouting personal attacks because the game doesn't download? Here's your fucking credit, is there anything else we can do for you, apart from being yelled at? Of course not, don't call back. Yes go with the competition. Oh you didn't know? This specific competitor is actually the same company, the incompetent technical support you talked to before, those are the guys from that "better" company! (And yes, they are indeed incompetent, and no, that company is not better. Want to know which company I'm talking about? It's rhymes with tell, starts with a "b" and ends up with either Canada or Mobility...) See you around, no-life bitch!

For christ sake's, Pac-Man...

-"Hi, I want to activate my phone." "Sure I can do that for you, congratulations on the purchase of the phone!" No, I don't really believe it, and if I sound cheerful while licking your balls for a cheap phone (Hey, good job on buying this lettuce!), I'm also throwing as many middle-fingers as I can at my computer screen right now.

-You can't give me the manager job. Just tell me. Don't tell me I've got it, tell the same thing to my friend, let us wait three months because "there's an employee shortage right now" to then realize that another department's manager got the job when his department was laid off...

-You don't pay me when I don't show to work, therefore don't ask me for a doctor's note! I'd need to pay 10 bucks for it, and I'm not planning to go to the doctor. Why? Because gastro requires sleep and lots of water. Don't need to be a doctor and jam an emergency room to know that! Besides, I wasn't really sick, if only of this job. Also, it's illegal if I'm not getting paid to request such a note, so piss off!

-You want to emulate 1984 with the bureaucratic, paranoid, obsessive, life-controlling shit? Dude, you're 24 years too late!

-Yeah, my "I Hate YOUR life T-Shirt" is really funny. The thing you're trying to ignore is that it's true. And you hate your life too!

-"Woah, what are you reading? War And Peace, what a brick! And the captions are small! Have you read Harry Potter? It's really good!" Have you read other books? Probably won't find better than Potter, but hey, let's try! Oh, no, you don't want to? Yeah, books are frightening...

-When you say "your company sucks" and I say "I wholeheartly agree, sir", you must stop yelling.

-Yes, treeplanting is hard. No, no matter how ready you are and what you did in your life, you won't be ready for what is to come until you've been there. Yeah, it is somewhat condescending. But hey, I did it, did you? Don't try to convince me, convince yourself!

-For fuck sake's, B-C tree-planters are not better than other provinces' planters, they are just usually better paid. Period. You still need to bust your ass, to work under shitty condtions and the terrain is sometimes a little tougher, steeper. Doesn't mean it's always flat or "easy" out East. I know plenty of planters who sucked out east and made decent money in B-C. Might say something about other provinces' planters intelligence though(me included), but not necessarily...

-Yeah, you can show me how to play pool, but if I kick your ass, don't be pissed, dude, you crossed the line.

-No, I don't want to join your Facebook "Fire Bob Gainey" club. Bob Gainey is the general manager for the NHL's Montreal Canadiens, they are second in the Eastern conference right now, fighting for the first place. Didn't happen in 15 years. So if someone should be fired, it's you, from whatever job you hold, for being a total fucktard that can't face reality.

-Oh and by the way, the only Facebook application I'd join is one that'd allow me to shoot or burn every other one, for anyone, forever. Yes, some might call such a thing a "virus" or a "crime", I'd say the thousands invitations I get is plain simple harrasment, so we're even. I keep Facebook for one reason only: To keep some basic, non-commiting, casual communication with long -distance friends, high school pals, my mom and my friend when we lost each others in a bar. If you know my friends, you're not necessarily my friend(it'd help we saw each other at least, like, once), and if you're my boss, I'll definitely not accept you.

-Okay, you want me to piss in a bottle so I can be part of management in a treeplanter camp, you have to expect me to get pissed drunk the night before. It'll help me piss more, and it's legal, so you're fucked. Besides, in Canada, you can't refuse a job on the basics of an urine test. Also, I'll be in Edmonton, also known as EdMONOTON, so what else can I do if you stop me from doing crystal meth?

-"Well at least he died doing something he loved". True, every soldier strives to die in a pool of oil and blood on a desert road because his "armored vehicle" was struck by a RPG...

Aaaahhhhhhhh, feels way better!

Time to go see a movie. Oh yeah, reminds me! France citizens need to learn to pronounce the english "th" sound properly, instead of that damn "z"! Yesterday, while talking movies with an expatriate, in french, he told me how good "Zerwyl Bebluud" is. After thinking it was an Egyptian movie, and confirming the name for a third time, I came to agree that "There Will Be Blood" sounds like a great movie.

So yeah, movie-time with a no-bullshit girl. She only fakes orgasms. But hey, can't lie to myself. With me, who wouldn't?

Rooted Lives

2008-02-29T01:44:00.005-05:00

I'm slowly getting in treeplanting mode and I found this interesting video. I usually post this kind of stuff on my planting blog, but this desserves a little more attention.

Below is a trailer for Rooted Lives, a documentary directed by Erika Drushka, depicting the lives of three British-Columbia career treeplanters, known in the business as "lifers".

Here's the website, a better-quality Quicktime version of the video is available here.

Tupperfan's Guide to Useless Knowledge: B-C's treeplanting season can start as early as February on the Pacific Coast (highly rainy at that time of the year) and last over 6 months, thus earning the workers wage highly sufficient to not work for the rest of the year if they want to, allowing them to pursue any personal interests and venue, ranging from arts to travelling, passing by full-time parenting. (Some treeplanting outfits gathering to veterans and lifers will even offer children daycare services)

Who's the Boss of Me?

2008-02-25T20:11:00.006-05:00

Been a while I posted about personal stuff.

Not that there was nothing to blog about, just that I really don't have much time. Strange how it's always when you don't have time to write that you have plenty of things to talk about. Then you wish you had tie to take a break to write everything down, and then...nothing. Because nothing's happening anymore.

That's why sometimes you have to call in sick at work.

And then blog about your job.

Allright, I'll probably quit this job in a few months, when it will be time to pack my planting gear and head up west to deliver some trees in Alberta, but I don't want to bash it senseless, so let's call this international call center company "Planetary" and it's Canadian branch would be called, hum, "Polar".

So I work for Polar since November, taking customer service calls for cell phone sold by a major grocery chain. Basically, they selected a phone company to sell their cell phone service using that comm company's network, who, in turn outsourced it to one of their subsidiaries so it would be way cheaper. And here we are!

Interestingly, I was contacted for an interview at the communication company two days after starting to work at Polar, but they couldn't hire me as they have an agreement not to steal their subsidiary's employees, which would be easy since the pay is better.

The job is not hard, and I worked in plenty of call centers, including in the cell phone industry so I quickly became a "floor walker", helping agents with answering questions, solving problems and issue, taking supervisor calls or approving credits. Decent work, pays a little better. A little later, about a month and a half into the job, my team manager suggested to apply for the opening team manager position, which I did. And I got the job!

Yay!

But I'm still an agent! Why? Because our workforce is thinning so fast, due mostly to inflexible hours and low wages that it's somewhat useless to lose a good agent and have an additional TM when there's less agents taking calls than ever before, so they told me to wait until we get more employees.

So here's the funny part: Our call centre has three different contracts. Our grocery store cheap cell phone customer service, relay services for deaf people in a major, sunny, populated, celebrity-governed American state and a third contract, also for relay services for a major telecommunications company in the US. Let's call them "Hori-Zon", a service we'll call "GoUSA". Hori-Zon decided it was costly to operate its relay services in North America so they closed all the GoUSA call centers on the continent, operated by Planetary, and moved them to Planetary's Philippine centers, which are, let's agree, way cheaper to operate! So the GoUSA agents here in our Montreal center will find themselves soon without a job. Contrary to the US where the agents are simply laid-off, GoUSA agents will be transferred to new operations, including our cell phone customer service. Most of those agents are not billingual like our current staff, but 80% of our customers being anlglophones, it shouldn't be a major issue.

The issue is personal, as the TM job I've been promised, which will be necessary when all those new agents will make the move, will probably be given to one of the current GoUSA team managers. Basically, the job I've been promised by Human Ressources will be taken from me.

Not that I care, as I was thinking of going back to the bush even if I'd get the job...But let's admit it was easier to take the decision.

So, here's my situation: I have a team manager. I'm supposed to be one of them, but I'm equally bossed by the three managers in my department, as they share duties, and soon I'll be bossed by other TMs who dont know shit about the job they are being dumped into and that I would be supposed to be doing. I work for a service which is being outsourced by an outsourcer, making sure we don't have only one client to report to, but two, not counting our own hierarchy of people who never took a customer call in a call center before. I'm also being bossed by Service Assurance, who puts me back as an available agent, making sure I receive an unwanted called at the wrong time while I'm doing some follow-up for a major problem, as requested by one of my managers. And if I'm floorwalking, I'm being bossed by the same Service Assurance people to make sure my agents don't stay to long on "not ready" or taking too much time to take a call. Also, customers have a tendancy to try to get as much as they can from you, even when they know their requests are completely unreasonable.

So that makes about 8 different bosses.

Then I started getting ready for the planting season, so I first contacted last year's camp supervicor and regional manager, two bosses, to ask if they needed help. They referred me to Alberta's regional manager, as the camp superisor I went to help last summer wanted to have me. That's two more bosses. I talked to Alberta's regional manager who offered me the job, and then I got a email from one of the company's administrators to fill a bunch of online forms and training documents and send proofs of my various licenses and certification, and then report for training in Toronto at the end of april with the company's owners. That's three more bosses.

So I currently have about 15 bosses. Isn't it great? And then they wonder why everybody is stressed and pissed!

At least that girl I've met doesn't boss me...yet!

In the end though, I have the luck to be able to make choices, as I'm not bound by slavery or a mortgage, so I'm still somewhat in control of my life. But I admit I would love if I didn't have to report to that many people in my professional life. At least in planting, I might have a few bosses during pre-season, but as soon as we'll be in camp, I'll have one, a smooth dude who knows his shit, so everything should be okay.

Tupperfan's Guide To Useless Knowledge: Did you know that phone center agents never hold their headsets in real life? But you'll often see beautiful, professional-looking people do so in ads. Do they think readers/viewers are dumb enough to not realize they are talking on the phone?!?

Time to go boss my cat. And time for her to not listen to me...at all!

Didn't watch the Oscars...

2008-02-25T00:48:00.000-05:00

So...

The American Primaries: As Seen Down There by Someone from Up Here

2008-02-08T16:30:00.004-05:00

Pierre Foglia is a character among French-Canadian journalism. Born in France from Italian parents, he first came to Canada "by accident" while on his way to Australia, after his military service in Algeria. Moving to Canada, he became, among other things, a sports journalist, a satirist, a journalism teacher, an international reporter who went to Iraq (before and after the fall of Saddam, he got in by the backdoor at least once...) and plenty of other hot spots. He covered a shitload of Tour de France, usually by reporting more about the life around it than the Tour itself, despite being a cyclism afficionado.

Not politically-correct, agree or disagree with him, the guy makes you think, makes you feel and live his journalistic adventures. His employer, La Presse, just sent him to cover the American Primaries. Here's a homemade translation (it was an interesting exercise, I tried to stay as faithful as I could to the original text and I think I was decently successful into bringing Foglia's colourful prose) of his first column on the subject, released on Saturday:

Obama, Omama, Olabama

Auburn, Alabama – I like his name : Obama. Three short syllables rolling like smooth, hard pebbles. And starting with this “O”, inviting extasy: Oh-bama. I think it would be great on me as well: Oh-foglia.

I know what you think: When he starts a paper with this tone, it’s because he has nothing to say. It’s not false, but follow me and don’t worry, we’ll find plenty of things to say. Little ones, but hey, that's some! Let’s start with this one, at the US Air desk in Burlington Airport (Note: Pierre Foglia’s is living close to Québec-Vermont border), the lady punches her keyboard: You don’t have a reservation for today, sir…

Come on!

But you have one for tomorrow! She didn’t add: Hey grandpa, a little confused? But it was in full letters in her compassionate smile. My fiancée brought me back to St-Armand. Next morning, the coyotes showed themselves at the end of the field, it seemed to me that they were waving handkerchiefs to say goodbye. It was one of those beautiful mornings where the frost crystallize the head of trees in a delicate rustle, one of those mornings when there’s absolutely no reasons to go somewhere else. Even the U.S. customs officer was in a good mood, you have friends in Alabama?

I have friends everywhere, sir.

We were eight in the plane that got full in Philadelphia. In Atlanta, I was fucked in the ass, again, by the car rental company, Hertz this time, but they all are rascals; It’s never the model we reserved, there’s always an extra for this, one for that and a third to laugh at you, what to do? You’re there, entangled in your luggage, your bike box…you want a car or not? No choice. For those people, I support the death penalty, the one by injection that the Supreme Court just suspended because it hurts too much.

Atlanta is the biggest airport in the world., you need to take the subway to go get your luggage, like if landing in Dorval (Note: Montreal’s international airport), you need to go get your stuff in Longueuil (Note: a Montreal suburb on the other shore of the St.Lawrence river), I don’t even exaggerate. I know the Atlanta airport very well, I was sent there against my will to cover the 1996 Olympics Games. Every time a plane would lift off, I would a little too, it was taking me 3 hours and 12 minutes to get to the trampoline finale; I want my epitaph to read that I had a passionate life, sometimes even a skippy one.

So, I somewhat got the bike in the trunk, left the Atlanta airport on the 85 South (the same one I was taking when driving to the trampoline finale) and I drove towards Oh-labama,.

I like his name, Obama. I don’t like his first name as much, Barack, barrack like a shack, it’s African I know, African first names suck, Mamoud or Kipchongué, I ask you…But then, I had a friend who was named Léontin. Léontin Obama, that would be good, but you know what would be great for an American president: Léontin Trampoline.

Seriously, I like Obama. But he does fuck the outlooks. Take as an example when he says: Between Hillary and me, it’s not a racial choice, and if I become the Democratic candidate, it wont be a racial election. A white guy couldn’t say that. More Obama is defending himself from campaigning on the race issue, more he’s placing the race issue straight in the middle of his campaign. There was, in yesterday’s Atlanta Journal, a sharp analysis of his discourse, particularly one of his favourite expressions, Cousin Pookie, as in: I need you to grab Cousin Pookie to vote. A Pookie, in ghetto language, is a dumbass, a retard, the brother-in-law. A racial election or not, Obama does send negro-insiders-only messages, saying: Hey, can you help me? Bring the idiot brother-in-law to the voting station.

For the last 10 years, African-Americans almost totally disappeared from the important American issues – example, there was no “black” position on Iraq, 9/11 – but here they are now, really visible through Obama. Now Americans worry every fifth minute about what they think, what they want, how they vote, to the point to think they are more numerous than they are, 12.8% of the US population. Ah you see, you too, you thought African-Americans were more numerous.

I came to Alabama with this idea of civic rights and of Rosa Parks, of Luther King’s march, which started here. I didn’t even check, for me Alabama, like Mississippi and Georgia are all-black states. I told myself: I’ll walk around, people will tell me about Obama with huge smiles, here we are…

So, Thurdsay, I was in that little college town, Auburn. I went to bike in the morning under heavy rain. Wet, cold, the rain doubling in intensity, I found shelter in a café inside a little shopping mall by the campus. A students’ café, like in the seventies, same communal tables, old couches, except now the students have their laptops on their laps. I ordered an espresso at the counter, with some apple thing. I bothered practically everyone with my questions, the Blacks here, the Blacks there, and first, how come Blacks are voting in vast majority for the Democrats and yet Alabama has been Republican for the last 40 years?

How many African-Americans do you think there is in Alabama? asked, with a little impatience, an employee of the neighbouring contemporary arts museum, who was having breakfast while reading his paper. And he went to answer himself: 5 million people in Alabama, 75% Whites who vote Republican in the same huge majorities as the Blacks vote Democrat, this is why Alabama will be Republican again come the next election, Obama or not.

Now this old lady (white), at the entrance of a huge park (Callaway Gardens) where I biked Wednesday: Beware of primaries. Primaries are about emotions. We want emotions so badly…When the real deal will begin, will come those who will say that security is not a question of emotions, economy is not about emotions. Then, we’ll vote against our emotions. Because we’re afraid of our emotions.

The Crossroad Store guy (white) where I had my first granola bar break of the season, the bike resting on the bench: Anyone but Hillary, I hate her and her whole family.

My TV was not working. I’ll send you someone right away, said the woman at the front desk. An African-American came in, sixty-something. Excerpts of our conversation:

-Nice guy, okay, but does Obama have the qualities required of a president?

-You think Mrs. Clinton has those qualities?

-I hate that woman

-You think Bush has those qualities?

-This Bush, no, but his dad was a great president.

Phenix City, border town, twin of Columbus (Georgia), I was searching for a restaurant to eat Black, I mean by this deep-fried, breadcrumbs, baked beans, catfish (I didn’t find happiness). Two Black kids in the street, amused by my accent and my questions on Obama: Hehehe, hahahaha, hohohoho, Obama Obama. And they start to dance, Oh mama, Obama, Oh mama, Oh daddy, I’m the nigger in the alley, want some weed?

Sure. Been a while.

I'll translate the next column tomorrow.

Time to go enjoy my non-sick day off!

The American Primaries: As The World Sees Them.

2008-02-05T01:30:00.001-05:00

A week or so ago, someone asked a German friend how Europe was seeing the race to the primary elections in the United States. My newspaper, Montréal's La Presse which is AWESOME (Hey, I'm preachin' a little, but I've been a paperboy for it when I was a teenager, it did win many international prizes and it's heavy as a motherfucker!), allotted the five first pages of its Saturday Edition to the American primaries (And the next two to Kenya's soon-to-be genocide. I'd personally switch them around, but hey, Africa's way too far off the radar!)

Here's a few (american) pie charts I've done (a pain in the ass, as I was sick and slightly drunk when I did this chart, using the highly-advanced MSPaint), faithfully copying La Presse's charts(I couldn't find them online). It shows the media space occupied by both parties and their respective candidates on every continent.

(click for larger)

Of course, there's plenty of room for interpretation, but I think some of you might appreciate this.

By the way, on any given continent, the primaries' share of all the published or broadcasted news never reached 2.20% (it's still substential)...Europe and Latin America are leading the way in coverage (Roughly, Democrats take 1.30% in both places, Republicans a little over 0.80%).

But seriously, this was not what I was supposed to do with a sickness/drunkness buzz!

Time to go rest my painful whole.

50 Years of Plastic Bricks

2008-01-29T16:31:00.001-05:00

Another item too good to be missed...

The LEGO plastic brick celebrated its 50 years yesterday. It was on January 28th 1958, that Godtfred Kirk Christiansen (son of the LEGO company founder) was granted the patent for the stud-and-tube design of the automatic binding brick. World happiness ensues.

Medias around the world marked the occasion. For instance, Google (whose creators once used LEGO bricks as casings for their hard-drives) had a LEGO-made logo:

For the last 50 years, LEGO bricks have been used by kids of any age for creations as diverse as their backgrounds and ideas. From children's multi-coloured houses to "corporate workshops" passing, of course, by visual arts:

And here's Michel Gondry's award-wining White Stripes videoclip, Fell in Love with a Girl:

(click on image to watch)

So, happy birthday, multinational's patent! It seems that the anniversary of an inanimate, celebrated icon of mass-consumerism and globalization is indeed worth more of my time than very basic human problems!

Time to go play with my bricks...

Tupperfan's Guide to Useless Knowledge: LEGO is the second largest tire manufacturer in the world!

Good Old 1980's Advertisement Classic (and a parody)

2008-01-19T16:15:00.000-05:00

Couldn't resist posting this.

Here's an old TV ad for Distribution Aux Consommateurs (Consumers Distributing), a company whose outlets would never have the inventory in stock, relying on catalogue orders, even in their stores. The concept failed and the company bankrupted, a few years short of the revolution brought by the "Information Highway" (internet).

The following videos are in french, but I posted a home-made english transcription:

English Translation:

It has to be worth my money.
(chorus: "C'est DAC", the french initials of the company, also somewhat meaning "agreed"...)
I'm working hard for my money.
(chorus)
It's worthy of my money.
Consumers Distributing!

The "C'est DAC" Catalogue
(chorus)
The quality, the prices, we agree
It's worthy of my money, Consumers Distributing!

Oh yes, we all agree, yeah, I do agree, agree!
Consumers Distributing, "c'est DAC!"

And now, the RBO (Rock et Belles Oreilles) parody, Distributors Contributing:

And here's the parody's english translation:

It's worthy of my money.
(chorus: It Sucks!)
I'm doing ads for the money.
(chorus)
Yeah it costs shitloads of money,
Distributors Contributing!

The catalogue is poorly translated
(Huge twit!)
It's full of cheap shit, oh yeah!
They are fucking ugly, Distributors Contributing!

Oh yes we all suck, yeah I do suck, suck
Distributors Contributing, It Sucks!

Time to continue my productive day-off!

Sic Infit (So It Begins)

2008-01-13T21:10:00.000-05:00

I'm very excited about this:

(click on image to download)

Oh, did I say I was involved? And did I say this was (only) a virtual project? I should have had before, shouldn't I?

But it does look awesome! Kudos to my friend Jeremy Grunloh for the nice work and for the project's idea. You can find more of Jeremy's goodness here.

And I'll post further details about the Krossroads project soon.

Time to go write a fantasy TV series and think of hippie girls...

Waking Up...

2008-01-12T06:06:00.000-05:00

You want to leave, because you'd really love to stay.
In her eyes, bright lights are reflected and you can't see any further.
You get out, you need to, so tired of trying to be interesting.
She runs down the stairs asking for a hug.

You'd like to say no, because you're so hard to get, distant and cool,
You almost say no, trying to be funny, being only silly,
You want to say no, because you really don't know what to do,
You're afraid to do too much.

Later, when the embrace ends and you rush out, while thinking of rushing in,
You're afraid you didn't do enough.

Sporting a dumb grin, you fly back home.
You're exhausted, but you won't find solace in sleep,
Nor in cheap words written thousands of times.
All those feelings, good and bad, you thought you lost a while ago.
It pisses you off to be so human,
But she's not a goddess, just a woman at the gates of heaven.

Good things are happening...

Bon Voyage Stéphane!

2008-01-09T19:27:00.002-05:00

My friend Stéphane left for a 3 month trip to Thailand. I was supposed to go with him but I spent all my money doing nothing when I unexpectedly came back to Montreal.

Here's a few pictures from his last night in Montreal, chilling and doing stupid things like a MSN messenger fistfight(It looks really boring, but rest assured, we didn'T saty on our computers for more than 15 minutes. I think someone went to check her messages and we all went to insult each other for doing such a thing):

And a classic John-John pic(Yes, the shirts tugged in the pants and jogging pants are on purpose...I'm quite self-conscious today, am I not?):

Happy New Year and All the Other Stuff!!!

2008-01-03T04:44:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year!

Can't believe it's already 2008! The year 2000 is so not the future anymore!!!

Anyways, must post a little more often on this blog. I abandoned the place a little, but hey, I've been busy and I'm struggling to get a promotion, so wish me luck, and I should be back here soon! I'll tell you about everything boring I've been through and all the shit I've been thinking of talking about for months!

'Til then,

Time to go kick some ass in an internal interview.

Yay!

2007-11-23T18:59:00.000-05:00

Finally got internet back at home!

And I also finally got a job I can accept, unlike the two other jobs I was offered since I've been back. One of them was utterly boring and repetitive as hell, the other one I couldn't get to in time (6AM) without a car (the metro and bus system would get me there at best 20 minutes late...), which I don't have as my brother uses "our" old piece of junk and lives about 10 blocks away from me.

Anyways, I feel like my life's getting back on track. Good thing as I spent every cent I made this summer.

Now I feel connected and employed again and it feels damn good. Therefore, it's about time I update a few things on this page. I'll start with my intro picture and I'll see what needs to be changed or removed (I'm a fan of simplicity: If there's something I can't stand, it's those myspace or facebook pages, clusterfucked with a shitload of stuff), I guess the same applies to my life.

And I missed internet porn!

Time to go waste some time on the web...

Bad Product Awards

2007-11-19T15:39:00.000-05:00

Been a while I haven't posted. I'm still busy and without a regular internet connection, so blogging is a low priority. I should get internet within the next week, so I'll try to resume my useless ramblings...

But here's a press release that caught my attention, as I'm quite interested by everything that touches consumerism.

In regards to Dasani, I used to laugh at tourists in Banff who would drink those expansive bottles when the town's tap water is actually coming from a source in the surrounding glaciers...

Global consumer movement announces winners of International Bad Products Awards

CI Press Release - Congress 2007

The world federation of consumer organisations, Consumers International (CI) today announced the winners of the International Bad Product Awards, to be presented at CI’s World Congress in Sydney, Australia, 29 Oct – 1 November 2007.

The awards aim to highlight failings of corporate responsibility and the abuse of consumer trust by internationally recognised brands. The announcement comes as 400 delegates from national consumer organisations and governments, convene in Sydney to attend CI’s World Congress.
This year’s winners* are:

Coca-Cola – for continuing the international marketing of its bottled water, Dasani, despite admitting it comes from the same sources as local tap water.

Kellogg’s – for the worldwide use of cartoon-type characters and product tie-ins aimed at children, despite high levels of sugar and salt in their food products.

Mattel – for stonewalling US congressional investigations and avoiding overall responsibility for the global recall of 21 million products.

With the overall prize going to:

Takeda Pharmaceuticals – for taking advantage of poor US regulation and advertising sleeping pills to children, despite health warnings about pediatric use.

Richard Lloyd, Director General of Consumers International, said:

"These multi-billion dollar companies are global brands with a responsibility to be honest, accountable and responsible. In highlighting their short-comings Consumers International and its 220 member organisations are holding corporations to account and demanding businesses take social responsibility seriously."
Download the CI press briefing

*Full details of each nomination can be found in the accompanying CI Press briefing, which can be downloaded here.

Time to go wish I was a kid again, so I could eat, play and sleep thanks to all that good stuff!

Update

2007-10-17T17:30:00.000-04:00

So, I finally moved in my new appartment, with my friends as roommates and neighbours. It's just great. But I'm still looking for a job, getting things settled and I have no internet connection, so no long, frequent bloggings for now. Should happen soon enough though!

Until then, here's a little drunken video of the stupid things we'd do at the staff accomodation, back in Banff. It features Sam as the Triceratops and me as the Bear, Carl the Cop is filming. It's in french so I translated the dialogue below.

Here's what it says:

Me: Oh no, a triceratops charge, I'm only a bear! Ahhhh, ahhhhh!!! I'm dead-ish, I'm dead-ish
Sam: Did you get that? Did you get that or what? You're still filming?
Carl: Yep, still
Sam: Oh well...
Carl: Always trying to get the attention, eh Tup?
Me: It's only 'cause it's fun!

Allright, time to go find a job (again, always again!)

Back in Montreal, my Computer is Fucked...

2007-09-27T18:21:00.000-04:00

...says everything, will post again, and regularly (since my life should be quieter) when my computer will be wiped of viruses/all it's memory/all the stuff I've created (except for a few texts I could salvage...)

'Till then, time to go find a job!

Tourista!

2007-08-29T06:45:00.002-04:00

So it's been a while, again. But I've been busy and the internet connection at the staff accom is frustrating, to be polite. Here's a few pictures from my first weeks back in Banff. I'll stick to a few scenic pictures for now, next post should be about my efforts to reinvigorate my staff accomodation house, the good old 426 cougar!

Me at Lake Bow

Lake Louise's vista

J-P and Stéphane on top of Tunnel Mountain

Stéphane, P-A and J-P by the Bow river, accross from the hordes of tourists

P-A and J-P overlooking the Bow rapids and the tourists by the Banff Springs Hotel.

Lake Louise, recreating a picture taken by my brother two years ago

Moontains...

A John-John picture(Long story short, a few years ago, we found a picture of a japanese family called the John-Johns who would stand like this) with Sophie, Stef, Cyn and me)

Rocky Mountain House

2007-08-02T20:18:00.004-04:00

Here's a few more pictures from my planting contract near Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. I'll post pics from Banff tomorrow.

Waiting...baiting

Hats: J-B, Jonathan, Lukas and Marie-Claude.

Vincent playing frisbee across the highway...

...with Scott!

Waiting for more vans to come. Yet another vehicle I drove this year.

L-P

Vince backflipping from the crummy.

The mess and office tents at camp, with some shitters.

The steepy block by the shitters.

And so I'm back in Banff...

2007-07-31T00:31:00.002-04:00

Wow, I really need to start posting more regularly, you stop and it's hard to get back on track!

I needed some rest before heading to yet another contract, this time delivering/crewbossing a tree spraying (with pesticides, so the trees that were planted a few years ago don't die too early) contract, so I asked my supervisor to leave the actual contract early so I could have actual down time. Since I didn't feel like heading all the way back east, I decided to go back to Banff.

And since Banff is an expensive place, mostly when you have about two weeks to kill, I found a job back at my old hotel, in order to save/make money and have a place to sleep. So what can I say about it? Well, it was th best/worst idea I ever got, as I'm having a blast, seeing old friends and meeting new people, but leaving will be hard, even if I'm scheduled to come back for a little longer in a month. It also sucks that one of my good friends will be in Banff for two weeks, only days after I leave back to the bush!

I took a few nice pictures, but I'll leave that for tomorrow as I want to post a few pics from my Alberta contract:

The land as it is between Edson and Hinton, in between Edmonton and the Rockies. The bush beeing heavily industrialized, thanks to the oil industry, you can see an oil well in the background, in front of a tarped cache where we'd plant trees(Where I had to plant a "finger" of really shitty land that became known as "my finger"...)

That's what you might run into while planting trees in the middle of a forest.

The FIST (Fiberglass Insulated Seedling Transport) unit and float trailer I had to use for most of my stint as a tree-deliverer in Alberta. A different experience.

A "crummy", a weird hybrid between a pick-up truck and a bus. As you can see from the pic, it's relatively sketchy and you won't be surprised to read that it got pulled over by the police. They asked us to get it inspected so I drove it to town and it failed for many reasons, including the deer remains on the hood, so we couldn't transport planters in the back anymore). Once, I also got locked inside the passenger area while getting my water bottle, I had to get out by a very small window...

Daily management meeting. Conrad, Matty and a beer bottle.

Aaron, Andy and Mel planning the next day.

Flip Cup Tournament.

The shirtless team had a girl who was unwilling to go farther than halfway... and a half!

We even got a referee!

Polish Luke will show up anywhere, as long as there's a decent party and some booze!

Victory!

Lost in thoughts.

Summer Plant

2007-07-12T15:58:00.000-04:00

Usually, summer planting is a little more casual, chill. I signed up for a summer plant contract in Alberta in order to be a regular tree planter, not have any responsibilities and be done my day by 7PM max.

I showed up in Edson a week ago, not knowing anyone in my new camp. After planting roughly 100 trees and making an awesome 10 bucks, Byron, the camp supervisor came to me to ask me to help with tree delivery, as his tree runner needed some time off.

So I took on the delivery duties for the week, accepting many repsonsibilities, stress and very long days. Their work area is gigantic, and it's been normal for me to drive for 45 minutes to get to a few planters, then drive another half hour to get to the tree cache, then another 30 minutes to get to another crew. I logged at least 400 kilometers a day this week!

The other interesting part about the forest between Hinton and Edson is that it's heavily industrialized, with pipelines and oil rigs everywhere (Alberta having the second largest reserves of oil in the world after Saudi Arabia, mostly in the oilsands of the north of the province) and I've never seen so much heavy traffic on bush roads! So we basically have to radio our position every 5 kilometers or so, to make sure not to be hit by a wideload in a turn!

I got some pictures, but I didn't take the time to load them unto my computer. As I should have more time this week, going back to regular planting duties, I'll try to upload them so I can post some next week. Interestingly enough, Steve, a crewboss who just arrived from another Alberta camp in Fort McMurray and visited this blog before noted how blogging while planting finally ends up being apologetic for not blogging and not having time to post pics.

Well sorry guys, that's about all the time I've got, more next week!!!

Time to go lie to someone else...

A Few Pics, Quick

2007-06-13T13:47:00.002-04:00

Crazy day off, as it was my birthday. Crazy couple of weeks, shitload of equipment breakdowns. We lost 4 quads in three days (Yes, it is possible to break three quads when you only have three), one truck, one water pump and more! The weather was not really on our side as well. We got snow (15 centimeters!!! Half an foot!), the most I've seen in planting, we got two weeks of rain, roads washed out!

Here's some pics, four or five of them were stolen from HP, as she uses my computer to stock them:

Winter plant!

Jesse and Emily hiding under the tarp

Freitas, Gibby and I, proud members of the mustache club!

Cal's bus in one of many ditches created by a week of rain

My tow strap, didn't survive the attempt to get the bus out of there. We had to use a huge Volvo truck that looks like a Tonka.

As seen form the driver's seat.

Biff and Travis pulling it out.

Jordy passed out

Guess who had to ignore the warning to go get a quad on the other side, as we would desperately need it?

Here's what I had to boat through

A stressful one, it could have fucked the truck, stuck in a lake...

The waterline on the truck...That was fucking high!

Cal and I kicking ass at rod hockey. Much better than fooseball!

Really nice stream.

Intense Jer

Classy Gibby

And to finish, pics from the forest fire I saw a few weeks back when clearing a planting block, after the planters left for day off.

Looks like a nuclear mushroom. Quite impressive

A water bomber diving for a refill at a nearby lake.

For more pics of the season, you can also hit Adam Krohn's blog here

Hope it was worth the wait, Charlotte! ;o)

Time to go drink something with no alcohol in it...

Still Alive...

2007-06-06T15:40:00.001-04:00

...but absolutely no time...besides, my computer is fucked and I just took a minute at the busy library of Hearst.

Had another though week, we are under-staffed, our equipment broke a lot this week so it meant I had a lot of long days, including a ferw ranging from 6:30AM to 11:40PM...

So, basically, I'm exhausted...

Will post pics and longer post when I'll have time, meaning probably in July...

Allright, I'm out, time to have no time!

Quick One

2007-05-08T14:43:00.002-04:00

The first shift went by fast, as the planters had a quick start and kept me busy, so we were able to wrap the first part of the Northshore contract in 3 days and a half instead of 5 as planned.

So we're in Elliot Lake, also known as the Florida of the North because of it's huge retirement community. Needless to say we got a bunch of nasty looks, but people have been very nice. The cops gave a few tickets last night to planters pissing outside, but in retrospect, it was a pretty good day off.

Tree delivery is great, altough it's stenuous, as I've been working an average of 14 hours a day and it doersn't really stop on day off as there's a bunch to do in town like getting some supplies or the vehicles serviced.

So I'll just post a few pictures from the week and will try to catch on the next day off...

The management team busy at night. In this picture, from left to right, Callan and Maggie, crewbosses, and Linn, our camp supervisor.

Me and one of my work tools...Pretty sweet, eh?

Our first camp, the Wilderness Lodge. Really nice setup, management had the priviledge to sleep in cabins while planters were sleeping in their tents. We also had the rare luxury of eating inside, but the weather has been so nice this week that it wasn't that useful...We're already gone to another camp for a week, which should be as good as this one...

Maggie directing some rookies

From the truck

A moose skull Codie found in her piece. The thing is massive and really heavy.

Allright, I'm out, time to go get some stuff at Canadian Tire...

And There We Go Again!

2007-04-28T21:51:00.002-04:00

And I'm up north, in Matheson, Ontario more precisely, at one of Outland's regional yards for some pre-season work and training, before getting up to our respective camps to get things ready for the planters. So we basically pack trucks up once in a while, watch videos about chainsaw safety and get back to the motel at 5PM for some beer and joints...

Good life, but it'll get busy soon! Here's a few pics I snapped today and yesterday:

Toronto-North Bay: Another ride up north in an old beat up school bus...Hopefully for the last time of the season!

A flat-deck and some Northern Ontario skies

The Matheson yard.

Tila's fetching it...

Packing up a truck for camp set-up.

Deliverers being good at doin' nothin'...I'm also really good

Our classy motel in Matheson: Vi-Mar!

But before getting there, I was in Southern Ontario, Fort Erie, Niagara Falls and Toronto, seeing planting buddy Kenny and doing some office training:

The Fort that gave it's name to the city of Fort Erie...Guess where it is located?

A mall in town..

The town from the mall...Kenny admiring.

The Glen: A gorge downstream of the world-famous Niagara Falls. On the other side of the river, the United States.

Apparently...

True!

Me kicking Kenny's ass at climbing the spider rock!

Mah, there's just a lot of water! (It was raining as well)

Niagara Falls has expended quite a lot. Last time I came, when I was about 14 years old, there was only the Minolta Tower standing (the one that looks like a drumstick)!

Kenny with Buffalo in the background. Fort Erie is basically a Canadian suburb of Buffalo.

Some windmills. I love windmills...but mostly testing my camera's zoom!

Time to go share a bed with a dude...

Here We Go Again...

2007-04-19T07:32:00.000-04:00

I usually post treeplanting videos on my planting blog, but this video, shared by an user on Replant.ca's forums is just amazing! Besides, the season is upon us!

I don't know if it's a real trailer, but it's a funny and spectacular video showing the craziness of treeplanting...and treeplanters!

You might wonder why there's some public pool footage. It's simply a popular activity on day-off. The music featured is Clint Mansell's Requiem for a Dream.

The original video can be found on YouTube.

Time to go pack my gear...

A Letter I'll Never Send to a Girl I Never Called Back

2007-04-18T03:10:00.000-04:00

Hey Kat,

Tonight, while browsing my usual websites and generally wasting my time, I thought of the short time while we did so together.

And in life, there's productive waste of time, and then, there's the "I'd rather be doing anything else, even nothing at all as long as it doesn't involve the other one" waste of time!

It's mean. But that's a thing I understood: There's times in your life when anything you'll do will result in you being an asshole.

One of those moments when nothing worked. While still in the heart of the moment, everything is allright, it'll get better, it's just a rough time. But when it's over, these same things will be the other one's fault.

I'm older than you, I had more experience than you. In the end, it was obvious. I understood the situation a tad earlier...

I was honest when I told you I'd never do that, when you were afraid I'd never call back.

But it freaked me out!

And I called you back.

I really wanted to reassure you when you freaked out because the pot was too strong, getting afraid of basically everything, including my brother!

And you calmed down.

But it freaked me out!

I was really excited when I got in bed with you. It was a little robotic, there was no vibe, no instincts. We were thinking too much.

I calmed down...

And it freaked me out!

I really wanted to get a nice breakfast to take it easy and chat about anything that morning. But I reached the bottom of your well too quickly.

There was no water there.

It really freaked me out!

Then, you called me when I was sick. Really sick! I told you it wasn't the best time to talk. It was completely honest. A few days later, coming back from my Christmas party in Toronto, I got a message from my brother. You called. I didn't call back. I figured I'd call later.

I reported the call until now. Until it wasn't necessary.

You probably thought and told your friends I was one of those jerks who said beautiful things, got what he wanted and dumped the girl.

Besides, you laughed, I was impotent half the time!

And you were completely right.

We didn't fit. To every level. It simply didn't work. So many hints, yet it took me time to realize it. I decided not to call you anymore. It wasn't worth it.

It was so obvious that you didn't call back. I wasn't worth it.

We were right, just not for each other.

Tabarnak!

2007-04-13T13:24:00.000-04:00

For your information, the title is a classic Québec swear...

Yesterday morning, after my night shift, I went to take my Class-4 (taxi and minibus) driving license test, in Laval, a suburb city, as the SAAQ (The government office responsible of everything related to cars...) branch is less busy than the one on the island of Montréal.

So I got there by bus, as my brother needed the car to get to work. I wrote my test, then I anxiously watched the examinator correct it. Let just say I have a tendancy to rely on my intelligence/logic/sheer luck to get away with anything, including University exams, without studying much. This time was no exception as I never read anything about taxi/minibus specifics. It was a mistake.

But I passed nevertheless, and I got my licence! Happily, I got back to the bus stop (three metro stations will desserve Laval soon, opening at the end of the month, including one right in front of where I was) and then learned that the Laval transit employees were on strike (I learned later they went on strike to protest a blown tire)!

You don't want to be stuck in Laval, where parking lots take at least half of the size of the island (Laval, like Montréal is an island), which probably helps you imagine what it looks like...

So a few frustrated users got together and we shared a taxi to the closest Montréal metro station. Our cab driver was a caricature of the typical driver with an opinion on everything but no actual knowledge of what he's talking about. There's a TV show in Québec that plays on the stereotype, I thought it was exagerated...I was wrong! The taxi ride cost me as much as a bus ride, but only half the time.

Back in town, I decided to finally go get my iPod, who has been at the repair shop since I dropped it in the toilet on Halloween night. They didn't have a replacement harddrive for my model and they were apparently really hard to find, and they finally called me last week to tell me it was ready.

So I got there and asked for a rebate, which was abruptly refused. You should see the place, it's a really thin building, so the small piece makes for the whole width of the building. The repairshop is located over the store, so the guy looks down to me from the third floor (I'm on the second, there's an ice cream place on the first) and basically yells at me. I've been in the customer services long enough to know that it should be the other ay around, and despite understanding why I need to pay that much for replacing an 30gb video iPod, the point I was trying to make was that they should have at least called me once in a while to update me on the status (I'm not saying every week, but say, at least every two months!)

He finally relented and gave me an appreciable rebate.

I got home relatively late in the afternoon, which didn't make for a long sleep before work(it didn't improve today, as I did a cleaning contract this morning and I'm still up at 2PM), but a potentially shitty day turned down being quite satisfying!

Time to go get desperately needed sleep!

Not Happy!

2007-04-09T09:52:00.001-04:00

The Montréal Canadiens won't make the playoffs, eliminated by their arch-rivals on the 82nd and last game of the regular season, the damn Toronto Maple Leafs, which prompted me to redisign the Habs(One of many nicknames for the Canadiens) logo:

The good news? Toronto were eliminated after playing their 82 games as the New York Islanders won in overtime against the New Jersey Devils, thus barely making the cut to the 8th position in the Eastern Association!

Karma is a Habs fan...

International Politics and Climate Change

2007-04-06T20:11:00.000-04:00

Apparently, IPCC stands for International Politics and Climate Change.

Well, as long as we keep playing on words, removing statistics and possible outcomes for our own nations, climate changes should remain a problem only on paper:

"According to delegation sources in Brussels, the last-minute obstacles,
which had to be resolved in drafting the final text, came from Saudi

Arabia, China and Russia insisting on a watering-down of the text.

During ongoing negotiations in Brussels, experts from 130 nations had yielded to demands from the United States and China.

The sections removed included one on the expected climate damage in
North America, sources said. The draft had originally said that
tornadoes, drought, flooding and fires would increase as a result of
climate change and was removed at the behest of the US.

During negotiations, China had insisted that one part of a text be
removed according to which damage 'with a very high likelihood' would
occur. Scientists attending the negotiations had then demanded that
this particular part of the text be retained. A compromise was then
sought.

At the start of the conference, it became known that at least one-fifth
of animal species and plant species were in danger of extinction. Heat,
smog and malnutrition were making more and more people ill. Floods and
droughts are becoming more frequent."

Here we are again: Assuming our planet follows human rules. Let's count on bureaucrats and diplomats to solve the problem!

Link to article cited above.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) website

"Consensus grows on climate changes", BBC article regarding IPCC's Work Group 1 (WG1) summary release (February 2007)

"Stark picture of a warming world", BBC article regarding IPCC's Work Group 2 (WG2) summary release (April 2007)

WG1 summary for Policy Makers (PDF)
WG2 summary for Policy Makers (PDF)

To Spit Or Swallow?

2007-04-04T22:21:00.000-04:00

Is there a better way to fill a rainy day than unfilling your stomach in a garbage bin?

I don't think so.

Yep, vomiting bile, feeling like your head is vice-clamped (or vise, but I prefer the british pronunciation for this word, mostly in this context...) and the fun of thinking you are a farmer in a post-nuclear Jericho, Kansas (The fictional town of the eponymous TV show), in some half-awake hungover delirium, are things I should definitely be doing a little more often!

Time to go fill my stomach and unfill the bin...Hmmm, appetizing!

Family

2007-04-03T01:11:00.002-04:00

My grandparents are amazing! You couldn't have more different families than my father's and mother's parents.

My maternal grandmother, Céline, was a high school teacher that went to become, upon her retirement, the mayor of the town of Forestville, in Eastern Québec. Since then, she remained politically involved, being president of her regional SADC (Société d'Aide au Dévelopement de la Collectivité, or Collectivity Development Aid Society) as well as a member of various boards of directors within the North Shore (her home region, the Higher North Shore of the St.Lawrence River, that looks more like a sea than anything back there) health care system and the regional advisory committee for Canada Economic Development, a federal government agency. And when I say "region", it means an area bigger than England!

Until recently, she was regularly playing curling and badminton! Just thinking about all her achievements makes me want to kick my own ass for being such a procrastinator.

Then there's her husband, my grandfather, Guy. Upon retirement from being an executive for a paper company's logging operations, he took upon himself to learn everything about computers. He knows more than anyone in the family, keeps in constant contact with everyone over the web, with audio messenging services and webcams, gives technical advice to his grandkids about softwares and built several websites. There is two computers in their home, forcing me to watch what I write on my MSN Messenger, as there is usually at least on of them online. But they are so busy they aren't actually there most of the time!

An avid gardener during the summer, he spends most of the winter on the wonderful cross-country ski tracks surrounding his hometown.

They had 5 kids, four daughters and one son, raised in comfort, travelling a lot. Both are members of the Federal and Provincial Liberal Parties and are federalists to the core. I had a few heated ideology arguments with them back when I was a teen, but I was quite stupid.

Céline and Guy back then...

...and now (well, about 5 years ago, my most recent pic hadn't many people smiling...), with my brother and I.

And now, my paternal grandparents: A force of nature at 81, grandma Diana, is still volunteering in her community, the beautiful town of Bonaventure, in the Gaspé peninsula (An incredible place where you can fish salmon in great rivers, run in the farm fields, hike in the mountains, take a walk in the woods or swim in the sea within a few kilometers!). She even helps people younger than her at the old age club! She learned how to drive a car in her sixties, and then drove all the way to Montréal(an 11 hours ride)! A strong character, most of her sons, daughters and grandchildren probably inherited their tempers from her. She's been slowed down recently by an ankle injury and I wish her all the best in getting better!

And finally, Gérard, my father's father, also as strong as a rock. I remember when I was a kid, he'd show us his huge biceps (I called them apples), quite surprising for a man who was in his seventies back then. An old lumberjack (funny how both my grandfathers' jobs involved cutting down trees and I'm replanting those...) and farmer, my dad even bought some woodland for his use 15 years ago. I also remember the little house he built for me and my cousins when we were young, with everything to our scale!

Now, he's 90 years old, suffering from a degenarative muscle disease. He should be in his weelchair, but he actually pushes it around, asking anybody if they want a lift, as he's constantly rebuilding his muscle mass by exercising. Possessing incredible insight, he highly impressed my brother a few years ago by the way he correctly gauged him. The same night, at my cousin's wedding, my dad had to take care of his drunken son(not me, I was up north planting trees)...and dad! Apparently not an angel back in his youth, he's now the most serene person I know and he loves to tease his grandchildren. My dad stopped saying it was his father's last Christmas about ten years ago, as he started to sound ridiculous.

They had 11 children, nine sons, two daughters. They had good and bad years, living on farms. Every winter, Grandpa would go away to lumber camps, the sons easily getting into trouble as they were getting older. A sovereignist family, even my Newfoundlander aunt became in favour of Québec's independance, despite years living out west in Québec-hating Alberta (well, not necessarily hating, but at least heavy disliking).

My grandma Diana(right)...

...and grandpa Gérard.

I love my grandparents. Despite not seeing them often, as they live pretty far away, I'm glad and lucky that they are still around. I wish a very long life to every one of them.

Time to go start doing something...

Coming Soon to a Forest not Near to You!

2007-03-23T16:56:00.000-04:00

The damn city is getting to me quickly, it pushes me to the bush.

Soon it will be time to leave the confines of human piles for miles of pines.

From the constant concrete parkings and skyscrappers to scorched earth and vast variable skies.

Thoughts from the Chinese Food Aisle

2007-03-19T11:16:00.002-04:00

Why is there some detergents with a "clean laundry" smell? Isn't it the whole point?

Who would buy a regular drain cleaner when you can get the extra-strength version for the same price?

Why so many beverages have weird names? Fruit Integration, Solar Burst, Giggly Grape? That's not original, it isn't hip and nobody cares about those lesser trademarks (We shouldn't care about ANY trademark)! So give me a break!

While on the flavour topic, why do Coca-Cola and Pepsi keep introducing new flavours? I'm not talking about the "healthier" versions, but those special ones. Do they think that the new Meatloaf Coke or the Clean Laundry Pepsi will be inviting to new, non-soda drinking customers? The people that bought Vanilla Coke, Pepsi Blue and Apple and Cinnamon Doctor Pepper (no, I don't think it exists, but it would be good, wouldn't it?) are, in the vast majority of cases, the ones who ALREADY BUY the originals. They usually just want to try something new. In the best of cases, some will switch to the new flavour on a regular basis, but you'll still have the same number of buyers with a more diversified, thus more expensive line of products. This is why those new flavours are usually discontinued within a year, sometimes under the false pretense of being seasonal or limited edition flavours. I know, I worked for Coca-Cola!

There is a major problem with the economic growth model, as not everything can follow this trend. Many products, not only colas, are still desperatly trying to make us buy more and more of the same stuff. Sony introduces at least 30 TV models a year! Home Depot currently have a series of ads where wives will go to any length to convince their husbands to make some changes in the house and replace perfectly functionning, albeit not the most up-to-date appliances.

Then you wonder why nothing lasts...

And to finish with the grocery-themed questions: Why do night-shift and day-shift employess always diss each other? Both groups seem to think that the other one doesn't do anything! Guys, you're not there! It's not because you don't see them doing anything that you must assume they do nothing!

Now on the main topic (yes, this was only an appetizer):

Québec is in the middle of an electoral campaign. It's an interesting one as three partys are practically even right now, but it remains boring as I feel none have much relevant things to say (Well, less than usual)!

André Boisclair, leader of the Parti Québécois(PQ), a sovereignist (or "separatist") party, was recently caught in a controversy in english medias through Canada (The PQ is frequently the target of such attacks, due to their stance on Québec political future). Here's a brief excerpt from one of those articles:

Parti Québécois Leader André Boisclair refused to apologize yesterday for referring to Asians as having "slanted eyes," even as he faced criticism from Asian-Canadian and other groups that the comments were offensive.

Very first of all, let's say that André Boisclair is the least racist of those three leaders. He was the first one to not only take his distances, but to condemn Hérouxville's "Code of Life" (I posted about the subject here). He is always talking against any form of discrimination; sexual, racial, religious and based on sexual orientation (To put things in perspective, Boisclair is homosexual and made a very emotional discourse about the whole subject of intolerance recently), sometimes even to the point of putting on everybody's nerves.

Secundo, "slanting eyes", which is definitely a deregatory term in english, was a translation of his french speech which used the expression yeux bridés. Litterally, it means the same thing, the same way black is translated into negro in spanish. But, just like negro in spanish, yeux bridés doesn't have the highly pejorative weight of it's english counterpart. I'm not saying that there isn't any racist terms for Asians in french, just that this isn't one. My Asian friends use the word and are never offended when someone else is. There's no weight to the word and it was never a debate in Québec. An Asian PQ candidate, responding to the emerging controversy said she considered "slanting eyes" a "reference of beauty" (I agree. I've always been attracted by almond-shaped eyes, regardless of a person's origins).

Tertio, Boisclair's speech was in FAVOUR of immigration, multiculturalism and minorities increasing implication in our society. Talk about taking something out of context!

I don't really like Boisclair, I think he's disconnected from his electorate, snobby and a little stiff. I do prefer him to the two other "main" candidates, as he's leaning more to the right, but my vote will go to a lesser party, Québec Solidaire, as I prefer their political platform.

My riding is a PQ fortress, the current MNA (Member of the National Assembly), Louise Harel is a 25 years veteran who had a minister seat on many governments and got huge majorities in every election. I have a lot of respect for Mrs. Harel, she reminds me of my politically-involved grandmother, a former mayor (and a Liberal Party member).

Despite all of this, my vote for a minor party won't be wasted, as $0.50 will be given to the party I voted for by the Directeur Général des Élections (Chief Electoral Officer), the institution responsible for the administration of the electoral and referendum system in the province.

So I finally can put a value to my voice in the system!

Time to go see what I can buy for 50 cents...

St. Pat's

2007-03-17T20:58:00.000-04:00

I was a little drunk when I wrote the last post. On retrospect, I definitely over-reacted, but their was definitely some frustration and I still believe my brother acted as a jerk. Did he learn a lesson? Of course not! Was I right to punch him? Of course not!

St. Patrick day is on and I can't celebrate, as I'm working a night shift tonight. My Irish side is completely pissed and trying to convince my French-Canadian part, already a heavy drinker, to show up drunk at work. They worked together and they came up with this solution: Buy some Guinness or Kilkenny (probably the latter) right at work, as they are available at the grocery, a then drink WHILE working.

My neutral, wise and independant brain is still considering...

Time to go start drinking!

Right and Wrong

2007-03-15T03:55:00.001-04:00

I feel kinda shitty...Nah, I fell really shitty!!!

For the first time in my life, I punched my brother!

I felt like it was the strongest punch I ever gave, yet the weakest one ever!

It was also the most deserved one...

For you see, my brother should have got that lesson...the way he acted...the way he behaved.

But he was, and he's still my bro!

Tonight, we went to a pool club, played a few games. He won them all. I thought I was rusted, but hey, I lost! Fair game. He decided the gamble would be some kind of humiliation with one of the girls considered as ugly/fat as possible. I tried to delete it, pretending a practice shot. Still. I lost. Obvious loss...

I used to be good, really good at pool. But there was no way pretending. Still, I think it's not because you win that you're right.

My losing bet, after much arguing, was to go see the waitress, tell her I'd pay her 75 bucks to...well...to whatever...

She said she didn't understand. I'm glad she didn't. She told me she was living in the suburbs. Her boyfriend didn't come to get her as expected. It'd cost her a lot to get back home...I stayed, I listened to her sad story...my bro came by to confirm his bet...I tought it was getting cruel. I stayed, as I thought she was a cool girl in a shitty situation...

Some time later, we were thrown in the street, friendly expelled by the bouncer as we were getting obnoxious, me and the bro. While walking back, Oli went again on the poor girl's case. I tried to fight him lightly, but he was able to avoid my weak attack. He started laughing; In his opinion, I had no chance to get to him.

He didn't finish the sentence.

The rest of the walk back home was in complete silence. I felt like shit. I offered him many times to get back to me.

He never did.

When we got back home, I told him how bad I felt, but how much I thought he deserverd the punishment.

I still believe it. And I still think he couldn't get back to me. He desserved everything he got...It was about time he learned that life lesson...I know, I've told him a few times...Just didn't think I'd be the one doing so!

WARNING: Geek Content!

2007-03-11T09:27:00.001-04:00

I don't really post about my passion for LEGOs because, like Star Trek, those are things I learned a long time ago interest few people, and none in my vicinity. Battlestar Galacatica is the latest addition to my nerdy interests.

Therefore, I enjoy those things on my own or in special circles focused on one of those subjects. I assume and completely enjoy my geekiness and will never put on "regular" people's nerves about it, except in very rare instances.

Today is one of those exceptional moments, as I'm too excited to be kept silent! LEGO released an jem of a model that I MUST have:

I'm amazed.

Time to go save a lot of toy money!

Jesus Said

2007-03-07T01:59:00.000-05:00

A dude, in whom many believe, but not as many listen to, apparently said: "He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone..."

But he didn't say "Simon says"!

Time to go raise the thermostat, it's damn cold in here!

Famous Anonymity...

2007-03-06T01:16:00.002-05:00

Here's a private message I got on Facebook (A guilty pleasure, I used to laugh at people using those networking sites...Now I dread and like it all at once):

Subject: i recognize...
Message: your naked picture from the one on the wall at the staff accom from the voy lol

i was looking at the group banff bitches and had to tell u ur famous lol

In Banff, I had the idea to create a wall of fame. We would take a picture of the leaving ones and add it to the wall. That's what it looked like about a week before I left:

Well, I know I'm puttiing on some people's nerves with those unclothed pics, but I love it so here's mine again (if you're observant, or reading this parethesis, you'll notice it's the last one on the wall on the previous pic):

Apparently, not only the pics are still on the wall, but people kept the tradition and are still doing so, now printing huge pics on a computer, which covered most walls in the living room quite quickly, as there's a huge staff rotation in Banff hotels.

Well, it's nice to know I'm a celebrity for the right reasons! The legacy survives!

I got a wekend night job in a grocery to make a little more money before going back to the bush, as I lost my most lucrative housekeeping contract about a month and a half ago and times have been hard since then. Funny how easy it is to find such a job. It's boring, it's sucks, but it's reliable and relatively lucrative for what it is (11 bucks an hour...). Every time, I get those night clerk jobs as a temporary thing and the day I quit, I'm sure I'm done with that kind of work. And here it comes again!

Well, only a month and a half, then I will never have to do this again.

I've watched two interesting movies in the last two days. The Departed, and Factotum. Both movies left me with a strange taste in mouth, but I enjoyed both.

If I'm glad Martin Scorsese finally won an Academy Award, I think he should have won for something else, years ago. The Departed is a good movie, but not a great movie, not even the greatest movie of 2006 nor Scorsese's best movie. If one thing, I just really want to see the original Hong Kong version, Internal Affairs.

As for Factotum, I liked it, despite my brother constant comparisons with Charles Bukowski's real personality (The movie is inspired by his eponymous novel, and the main protagonist is his usual alter-ego, Hank Chinaski), but there was something missing in the character's portrayal. I don't think it came from Dillon, most likely from the direction or screen adaptation. There was some vulnerability missing, a slight, but relatively disturbing thing. Interestingly, the story felt like it was stuck between to different time settings, our present and Bukowski's original novel present.

Time to go mock a bird, wish me luck...