Father's Day

My Dad loves trees.
When I was too young to go to church, I would go just for the pleasure of his company. We would walk to church and he would name all the trees we passed by and tell me about them.
He still goes to church. I live in the countryside, surrounded by trees.
Thanks for sharing your love of Nature with me, Dad. Happy Father's Day.

Summer Reading

For summer reading, I recommend "Heat". That's not true, though it's all about being very hot (think polar caps melting), it is not a light, fun read. On the contrary, it talks about the very serious issue of global warming. Between this and a thriller, Heat is scarier. It is also a "dry" read (no pun intended) and a slow one because of the topic.

I am not done but will start commenting on Heat now as there will be time to write other posts about it. If I don't post now, I will certainly forget what moved me, because it is such a slow read and my memory span is... well, as short as ever.

The net effect of this book is that I have started paying attention to what politicians say about global warming. I look for articles on global warming to try and make up my own mind on what is going on. Monbiot, the author, exposes where disinformation is coming from and who benefits from it.
Examples of government neglect are taken from the UK - for the Canadian edition, a virulent attack on Harper's ineptitude was added. This covers the first few chapters.

After identifying CO2 as the main culprit, we learn where the bulk of it comes from and what needs to be done to remedy that. In the UK, for example, houses are badly insulated and so people heat and heat throughout winter, burning coal and releasing tons of CO2 in the atmosphere. The author goes on to explore ways to "fix" the houses as well as alternate means of generating clean energy: nuclear power? wind mills? he goes through the list and shares his findings with us.

It is quite a disheartening and sobering read. A needed one too. The least it did for me was raise my awareness (as An Inconvenient Truth had done before) of things I can do on my own to make a difference. And so I read on and urge you to do the same.

(Add subliminal message here: Buy the book! Buy the book! jk - Blues bro lent me a copy. I am sure your local library has it.)

Sens fever

It seems a lot of fans believe that what they do influences the outcome of the game (for those not paying attention, I am talking about the hockey finals for the Stanley Cup between the Senators and the Ducks).

I heard first- or second-hand stories of magical thinking told by the most balanced people. For example: "Don't yell at them (the Senators), you will destroy their confidence." Or "If I pay too much attention to the game, the other team scores. If I go to another room, the Sens bounce back." Those people are watching the games on tv, in their homes, and are otherwise quite rational. Why do they admit to this magical thinking? I can only surmise they believe it works that way.

Babies with little experience in life will believe that they control curtains blown by the wind. We teach them about the wind and they drop that idea. Suppose we're wrong? We go to great lenght to recapture the innocence of our youth. Religions and philosophies expound on the clarity of a child's simple mind that sees things as they are. Some are based on the premise that we are all interconnected : if that is so, then every fan's doubt or vote of confidence trips his hero or sends the puck flying in the net.

The Senators won 5-3 last night. I, for one, think the fans were doing something right...

Beijing

I just came across this wonderful blog of this American student living in Beijing. She writes about her experience there and she is funny and writes so well she puts me to shame. In one of her posts, she mentions a "translation" by Ezra Pound. The word translation never applies when it comes to Pound because he was so innovative and creative in his work that they were really another creation inspired by the original. Anyway... the blog is a delight and makes me hanker for my linguistics classes - the only ones that really ever got my full attention for all the possibilities that they harboured (my bilingual dictionary is failing me).

I started a little personal blog on the side - it contains letters by my dog to Paul's mother. She keeps saying I should publish them because they make her laugh. That is my backup for them and I also intend to do little experiments with pictures and layouts, RSS feeds and whatever catches my fancy. When I figure things out, I will port the new technology over to this one... It's like going to the moon - the technology benefits related spheres (or not!)

Yes!

That's how it feels to be back amongst the living. I knew as soon as I awoke that I was better. My head was not as woozy and my ears were almost unplugged and the slight headache was only present when I blew my nose.
Two days ago I almost posted a blog on breathing - I knew only the absence of it at that time and was longing to breathe through my nose. I had a nanosecond of panic when I thought I was out of Breathe Easy strips - little strips that pull your nostrils out and help you breathe through the nose as you sleep.
I read in a book on yoga a few years back that you breathe through one nostril at a time. Something like a 90-minute cycle on one nostril and then the next cycle on the other. You were supposed to become aware of the cycle and control it, if I remember correctly.
I am thinking that if that is true, then you might be oxygenating one side of the brain when you breathe with one nostril and the other when you breathe with the other. Now, how does that affect your dreams? Are they more creative when your right side is oxygenated? What about if you are wearing strips? Does that affect the quality of your dreaming? Of your sleep? So much research to be done still...

This is my brain on cold medicine

Started a new cold. Finished a book* (yeah, they are related items: reading keeps me still.) My other brother is showing off his latest works both at the Galerie Graff in Montreal (I couldn't find my brother's name there so there's not much point in going - as well their site is still under construction - the English link doesn't work yet) and at the Musée de Joliette in, well, Joliette, starting next week. I promised I would go to the Montreal opening on Thursday so that cold better go away. Since I slept most of the day, I am hoping to be rid of it soon.

So - not much to talk about. I had a busy week working and when it's not raining, we are enjoying our BBQ...

* The book is Anna Gavalda's Ensemble c'est tout

Beauty is in the eye...

Dandelions have taken over the backyard. So how do we respond to the invasion? Depending on who you are:
a) You take pictures - and rant about the fact that busloads come to see tulips but no one bothers with dandelions. You just hate discrimination...
b) You cut them and bring them to the banks of the creek. You seed them in the hopes they will fight erosion.
c) You harvest them and macerate them and work them into a decent wine concoction.
d) If you live in my household, you do all of the above!

Mother Day story

We never ate grapes when I was a kid.
Years later, as I was grocery shopping with my Mom, she told me that she had lifted her boycott when apartheid in South Africa was finally officially over. I was puzzled. She explained that the grapes came from South Africa and she did not want to fund apartheid. So she fought apartheid by denying them her money.

One woman standing up to apartheid. I am proud to call her my Mom.

Happy Mother's Day all!

Spring

Spring has sprung a thousand leaves
in shades of light and tender greens

Spring has sprung a thousand colors
from daffodils to trilliums galore

Spring has sprung a thousand songs
Creeks and frogs and birds

Spring has sprung a thousand flies
A buffet set for one and all

Reality is overrated

I had this interesting conversation last night with a friend from Montreal who was puzzled by how our "realities" differ. She was engrossed in the debate of the French candidates and I was busy cheering the Sens. The Habs did not make the playoffs so , basically, hockey season is over in Quebec. On to other things. That is just the latest in a series of disconnects we have been experiencing. It doesn't help that I am not very interested in politics in general or specifically in Quebec politics.
I can't relate to people who always seem to be talking to themselves about themselves - hum, a bit like a blogger, if you see what I mean. But that's a different story.

Anyways, reality is overrated. I believe we each have our reality, our own world and relate well to people who share our world view.

Life is a state of mind is my all-time favorite quote from the movie Being There. It totally captures my reality...

In Praise of the Ordinary

I went looking for inspiration on my favorite blogs and am back here, clueless.
I had a vague idea of talking about the close race in France for the election of the first female President of the Republic and make parallels with Hillary Clinton's race...but I figured, what do I know? It would not be a factual analysis, just me and my prejudices in favour of women in power. What's the point, really? We can debate all we want about differences between sexes and the imbalance of power and the way women/men use power... we are really just blowing smoke. I think I want women in power 'cause we're on the same team! Rah! Rah!

A bar-b-q is not a snowblower

I was reluctant to start assembling the bar-b-q with Paul because my previous experience with assembling something with metal was mounting the snowblower on a tractor. Do they even test the instructions? Anyway - the instructions for the bar-b-q were strictly illustrated - no text whatsoever. If everybody were so clever, translators would roam the streets begging.
But - needless to say - they are not and so I make a decent living.
The pictures worked for us. No mistakes, we ended up with a sturdy bar-b-q and we even got to try it for the first time (the word is "étrenner" and you should get used to it because I won't use the English circumlocution anymore) the same evening with our friend Steve.

Steve brought a nice bottle of South African white wine and his lovely beagle to keep our dog company. Those two had a lovely time and ended up swimming in the creek - and then a bath! I am glad to have had a chance to taste the South African wine - we are usually partial to French or Italian (with some incursions into Latino ones or Californian).

I think summer started today (and I'm not saying that because of the black flies!). Sweet...

Tenth of a picture

The point of blogging is to write, right? In my case, I want to share news with friends and family I don't often see. I haven't been writing much for fun lately and I want to get back to it so I decided I would blog every day because I lurk at this one blog just cause the guy writes everyday. I like the variety. I figure if you stuck with me so far, I should at least make an effort. So I will post short blogs - no pictures, that's cheating - well maybe I will discover I like cheating?

We've been watching the Senators play against Brodeur. Brodeur is awesome. I have always had a particular fondness for goaltenders, a certain kin-ness if you will (the newly discovered spell checker did not allow "kinness" and doesn't seem to keen on this new version either. I hope you will tolerate it).

I know I have had a relaxing day when I actually read through the Saturday paper on the same day. Quite an accomplishment. I actually enjoyed a few articles so it was worth my time.

Oh - we bought a bar-b-q today to replace our old one. Tomorrow we plan to assemble it and hopefully try it for the first time. "Try it for the first time" actually translates in just one word in French. It's funny how languages differ. I guess it shows francophones like to try new things - so much so that they invented a word for this action.

Well, I will try a new thing and write more often...

Zen garden metaphor

I used to have a little zen garden at work, complete with sand, rocks and a little rake. I would come in in the morning and reflect on how I was feeling, then trace my design for the day. It was a fun thing to do and my colleagues who dropped by would sometimes offer creations of their own.

Now the funny thing is, a colleague I didn't like produced a garden absolutely not to my taste. After seeing that creation, it occurred to me that such a garden would be a great psychology test... She had piled the rocks in a corner and the lines from the rake were unequal. To me, this was the antithesis of calmness. I didn't think of it at the time and will never know if that pile of rocks had, for her, positive things associated with it. What is certain is that the creation was distasteful to me and I wasn't sure if it was because of the author or because of the creation. In any case, I found my reaction to it quite interesting and wondered if there was something fundamental in the reason why we did not get along. Perhaps our views on life were so opposite that we did not enjoy working together?

On the other hand, I was always pleased with my friends' efforts. In their uniqueness, there was always something I could relate to. And I guess that is the essence of friendship: the acceptance of the other in his/her uniqueness.

The Soul Attractions

We had a blast last night at the Tech Rocks watching the performance of Adobe's The Soul Attractions. The guys and gals were great if you judge by the reaction of the crowd (lots of Soul Attraction tees out there) but the judges went for "rockier" bands.
Unfortunately, I didn't stay for the whole show this time around: there were seven bands in all. Nevertheless, I hear the level of competition was quite high (higher than the previous week). I had lots of fun filming the whole thing (with Steve's awesome digital camcorder - I need one!) and mingling with my ex-colleagues. I was in a very festive mood and was just generally excited at being there. The Soul Attractions played 2 original songs and one soul song which I didn't know. I am told that all the Tech Rocks performances end up on You Tube so you might want to check them out later today or tomorrow to see what you missed. You will hear excellent solos from the members.
They are playing again at the site update meeting in Adobe tomorrow. It is not a public event but it will give a chance to the Adobe people who missed it to cheer the band.

Surprise!

This is what we woke up to today. April 16. What kind of a joke is this anyway? The stoic Canadian is turning into the weary Canadian.
Bring on summer already...

Tech Rocks

Two of my best friends are participating in Ottawa's Tech Rocks as part as the Adobe Systems band "The Soul Attractions". For those not in the know, this is an annual event showcasing Ottawa's tech talents. Bands from local tech companies compete for fun and a chance to win a recording deal.
We're going to size up the competition next Wednesday (details here) and of course I will be cheering them on the following week.
There's lots happening in our little town...

The Easter Bunny Rocks!

Yseult and Minuit went for a walk and saw bunny tracks around the house. THis has never happened before. They end in fron of the house (I guess he was looking for the door). Lo and behold, this morning we had a little basket with chocolate animals - an owl, a cat and a bunny! Sweet

Have yourselves a heppy Easter!

Bloody Cold

My head will shortly explode. It's when you can't breathe that you realize how precious breathing really is.
Man, I miss the good old days when I could keep my mouth close and breathe through my nose. Tell me they will come back? Actually, maybe the people around me will miss the good old days when I was breathing through my mouth and not talking so much... Le bonheur des uns...
So - just wanted to complain and let you know if I am not blogging it's because I am busy sneezing, coughing, napping, and all that jazz.
Don't worry, you can't catch it via blog.

Knick knacks

My cousin gave me a book on Pilates exercises with a ball - I will give it a try because:

Ckeaking knees
Going down
Creaking stairs

Minuit smells good on cold nights when he comes in from outside:

Winter smell
Bare feet under
Cold fur