First snow

It took me by surprise. I must admit, I did not expect to see snow on October 22nd. Yet there it was!! For about 3 to 4 hours, it was falling nicely, heavily enough to start accumulating on the dryer parts of the deck.
Of course it didn't stick, and by the time I went to bed a fine rain was coming down. But still it got me really excited.

If you think it's early to get snow, picture this: the first time I was aware of a snowfall this year was on September 9th. We went to the local bar to get a bite to eat and they were showing a Canadian football game in Calgary, and it was snowing over there!!! Now Calgary is about 1 1/2 hours driving frpom the rockies, but it's not high up in altitude or anything, it's actually in the middle of the immense flat plains of Alberta.

Anyway, if the weather 'holds', it will keep snowing sporadically for the next few weeks, and we could have the first lasting snows by mid-November. Oooooh the excitement!

My trip to Montreal

On tuesday morning I woke up at 6am, quite early considering my average of 8:30am. The reason: a work trip to Montreal. Sweet, two days of very light work and the chance to spend some time with ol' Karim (ok, ok, he's younger than me, but he looks older)
Soon I am cruising down the highway, rock 'n' roll playing on the stereo and a cute blonde chick dozing next to me. Things are definitely looking up.

The first hint of a less than perfect day came about 40km from Montreal: crazy morning traffic forces everyone down to 40km/h. Alright, I'll be a bit late, no big deal.
45 minutes later, we're driving down Rene Levesque about 2 minutes from our destination. The phone rings - my boss just want to make sure I'm fine. I am but I can't find a parking spot to save my life. So we turn around for 10 good minutes. Isn't there room for just one more car in this town?! Finally, I find an underground parking lot that's not full. $15 a day?!? That's twice what I would pay in Ottawa! I don't care, I'm late, and that's going on the expenses bill anyway. This place is like a labyrinth, but I eventually find my way to a free spot; it's tight, I need to realign. Shklonk! What do you mean, 'Shklonk!' ? Transmission's gone. Sweet. I'm half-parked (well, three quarters really), I'm late, and by this stage I'm already a little pissed off. Now the freaking car breaks down. Fuck.

Alright, call the boss, let him know you're going to be even more late, then find the parking manager - last thing I want now is a ticket because I'm badly parked. Once everything is settled, I set Natalie free and make my way to my client's offices. People back home are asking around for a recommended mechanic.
I arrive at my client's - an office full of women, should brighten up my day. They're very nice and understanding - maybe because they need my help - and I set down to work. This should take me no more than 10 minutes. I whip out my cd, stick it in the drive and ... nothing. Take it out, dust it off, try the second drive ... nothing. Cool, the damn thing doesn't work on any computer here. Good thing Nico put some backup on ftp. Didn't put everything though, so 10 minutes turn into an hour. No big deal, everything is working. All I have to do is stay on call for the rest of the day, in case things turn sour.

With that, I can now turn my attentions to my car. I have a couple of names now. There's only one problem though: the car needs to be towed, but it's in an underground parking. Takes me over an hour to find someone to tow it out. The guy shows up, asks me what's wrong. "The transmission is dead" I tell him. He squirms: if that's true, it'll cost me the best part of $2,500 to replace it. Lovely. I spent $550 just last month on that car, might as well make it a nice, round 3 grands. Not to mention $600 in April.
Thankfully, the guy knows his stuff, and it turns out it's only the transmision cable, a much less expensive outlook. Good. We tow the car out, and set out on our merry way. Turns out I don't need to go to the transmission specialist that was recommended to me - it's 30 km away - so the guy drops me at a nearby garage. The car should be fixed by tomorrow morning.

Finally I can relax a little, and look forward to spending the evening with Natalie, Karim, Leila and Nadim. The night is indeed fine, we get ourselves a nice little Mexican meal and have a good laugh.

Morning comes, and like yesterday it seems promising: not even a half-day's work, France-Italie in the afternoon, and my car returning - by then I have accepted the fatality of having to pay for repairs. 5pm and I'm doing good (beating the Italians 3-1 lifted my spirits). A little game of 'Settlers' and we're 'out-the-door'. Get to the garage... WHAT THE FUCK?!? The car's been broken into! Company laptop gone, money gone, wallet gone (there was only souvenirs in it though)... No forced entry. I'm pissed. Next to me Karim is ready to gut people, and Natalie's intentions are only remotely softer. I don't know what the hell to do; sure, the mechanic is the primary suspect, but I don't know for certain. Besides the woman behind the counter - the only one left in the garage along with 2 apprentices - probably has nothing to do with it, I can't decently smack her head open on the counter. So I call the cops, tell them what happened. I need to go to the nearest station for that, they don't come out themselves. Alright. I pay my bill, step in the car and go. Or not. What the hell is going on??? The gearstick goes from one gear to next freely. Is that what they call fixing my car?!? I storm back in; "Your car is fixed, I tried it myself". Well you tried it like a monkey cause it sure isn't working right!
I'll cut it short here - about an hour later my car is finally ready. I go to the cops and report the incident. Not much they can do, I know, but a meagre source of consolation. Luckily my boss is completely cool, no worries about the laptop, in fact he was apologising for sending me to Montreal!!

It's late now and I'm aggravated. Karim is nice as ever and offers me to stay over again, even though he has a pile of work to do. I feel bad in a way because I don't want to distract him, but I take up the offer.

The evening was nice actually, the Salibas and Natalie all doing their best to cheer me up. We ended up watching Hot Shots, which was just what the doctor had ordered. A decent night's sleep and a few 'eggo's in the morning saw us back home. Just in time for Lasagna.

It looks like this week will end up better than it started...

Problem solved

Well, I made a complete fool of myself at the interview. I won't even give you details because some of it was quite frankly shameful. The answer will come in the mail in about 2-3 weeks from now, but I know enough that there will be no pursuing this any further. So now I can concentrate on my job... until next year when I can apply again!

Why is it always like this?

OK, so here I am, with a new job (well, 2 and a half months into it), good prospects, interesting... Nice. And then I get a phone call, from the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police).
Now for those of you who don't know I applied for police work back in december after a lot of thinking and money spending (it wasn't that much really but when you don't have a job $400 have a way of making themselves felt). I kept hoping and trying until after 6 months of not hearing anything and other agencies turning me down, I told myself "Nico, my boy, forget about that cop-idea of yours.". Fair enough, I'd just been lucky enough to land a decent job anyway.

Yeah but. There I am, and this lady tells me they want to interview me. First second reaction: "Sweet!". Second second (hehe) reaction: "Damn, what about my new job?!". And that's just before she hits me with: "Have you kept your physical up to date?". Have I, off course not!! I thought you guys didn't want me (it's only been 8 months...). "Well, if you don't have your physical up to date we can't interview you.". Precious. "Well sister, how about I call back tomorrow to confirm all that?"

So here I am for a day, pondering whether or not to go through with it. First factor: physical is made by a company that 'travels' through Ontario, and the only test dates before my interview are in Toronto. 5 hr drive from here. Not the end of the world, but roughly $100 on gas round-trip (turned out to be $70 but how was I to know speeding saves your gas? :oP ), plus a hotel room (it's at 8 in the morning, and it's a test of strength and endurance, don't want to mess it up by not sleeping the night before), plus $100 for the test itself. And a bit of food. I'm not the greedy type but that's $300, and I already spent over $550 this week to get a new radiator on my car.
Second factor: my new job is cool, and there are some good possibilities for the future. Plus the team is small and real nice, and they've included me in their plans. So I don't want to 1- mess it up if the OPP-thing doesn't work 2- screw these nice guys over.
Third factor: with the OPP, I could be positioned anywhere in Ontario, even though they try to place you where you'd like. But that's not always possible. And being positioned 6 hours driving away from here would prove problematic to say the least with Natalie.

Now these are the 'negatives' in terms of OPP. The positive is that it's just something that I can really see myself doing as a career for a long long time. Something meaningful... You get the picture.

The decision was made to go to the interview - it can't hurt right?. So on friday night Natalie and I hoped in the car and cruised down to TO. Of course we nearly couldn't get a hotel (where would be the fun if everything worked as planned, huh?) and ended up eating at McDonald's. I still bear the shame.

The physical was a piece of cake. Now I'm just waiting for the interview on thursday, half-hoping it will work and that ultimately I'll get through and will get a position offered, the other half hoping that I'll get turned down and it will make the decision for me.

To think that a week ago I was getting fat and content in my new job...

Ups and downs

A dream start and a masterpiece. A game that kept it's promise, with elegant, engaged play, even after that terrible header. Hope was the prevailing emotion, the French gamealways bringing danger to the Italians who concentrated on mounting a superb defense.Tension took its toll on my heart and my fingers, but still the show proved worth of a World Cup Final.

Then disaster struck when one of football's Gods lost his head, and in that one act put a dark mark on what should have been the consecration of 4 weeks of one of the greatest spectacles on earth. Then came the final blow, as the team wearing blue lifted the trophy, the men in white staring around in disbelief or openly crying. I didn't cry like I did 8 years ago. I just could not believe it...

That was 3 days ago, yet still it is still all around me. The excitement still runs through my veins, only to find that there is no match today. In spite of the loss I still feel really proud of those men that fought for me. And millions of others, but also in part for me. They were told too old and lacking in passion. Can anyone claim that now?

I wish that is all I could take from this, but the images haunt me. Images a man - yet more than a man? - running at another. Images of a missed penalty. And worst, images of everything that has been said since. Even as I speak, people are eagerly awaiting a speech from Zizou, rumours abunding of how Italy could be stripped of its title. What nonsense! Let the Italians celebrate their victory the way we surely would have celebrated ours. Let those regretable events not further stain what has been, by and large, a great World Cup.

World Cup Fever

To most of you who read this blog, the World Cup is just something that makes noise and warrants way too much media attention.
To me it has been pretty much a life-sustaining substance for the last 3 weeks, and it's only getting better.
Off course I hear you say, with France making it to the quarters against the odds, and facing Brazil in what promises to be (maybe falsely) a classic in the making. That would be ignoring that I have watched probably 50 of the 58 matches played so far. Kinda crazy, I know, but to me ultimately delightful. And tomorrow, for another 4 hours (2 matches), I'll be glued to my TV screen. When the final whistle sounds for the Brazil-France game, I may be laughing and jumping or hanging my head and crying, but no matter what my heart will beat to the rhythm of a bouncing football. And it will until next sunday when the final is eventually played.

It may seem weird or illogical to you all, but it is so.
So if you think of me tomorrow, just whisper this one sentence and we'll be just a little bit closer:

'Allez les Bleus!'

Luck of the (French-)Irish

Hello one and all!

You are all right, an update is long overdue! You must all be wondering what’s wrong with Ol’ Bourgui that he can’t find 3 minutes to post up a little something to his friends.
Well, the truth is life has been good, and thrown so many things at me that I got too lazy to type a few words. Lame I know, so a big ‘Sorry’ to all you guys.

Now let me move on to what’s been good. In fact it all came with that job I finally got a couple of months ago. Now that I have some cash I am actually able to do stuff, on top of the things I was already doing before.
The last few weeks have hence consisted of a lot of gaming, training (I’m back doing taekwondo after seriously hesitating with muay thai), enjoying the beautiful spring weather, indulging in the playoffs season…etc. Good times all round.

And as if this good fortune wasn’t enough, I have more great news: ok that may not be news to any of you, but Natalie has come back and we’re going to be moving in in the coming 2-3 weeks! Needless to say this has me a tiny bit excited and puppy-like happy.
In other developments I will be quitting my job in 2 weeks. For another one. You see currently I am only filling in for a lady who is seriously sick; while there are some good chances she will never be able to come back, the folks here are - rightly - not ready to give me a permanent position. In the same time, the director here has left for another, small, company and wanted to take me onboard. To keep it simple for this blog, there are a few risks in there but I decided to take my chances and give it a go.

All in all things are looking decidedly positive, reunited with my girl and life in the right tracks, not to mention I’m still over the moon with this country.
So forgive my long silence and spare a smile for Nico’s riches. I haven't been this happy in a while!

Still kicking

Well, hello there folks!

I'm sure you'd given up hope of me ever posting anything this side of new year, but SURPRISE! Bourgui points its nose!
So, I got both a lot and not much to say. It's great to have a job, or more to the point it's great to get paid. With the arrival of Natalie just around the corner, I need to refill the coffers a little ;o) It's also pretty nice not to have to worry about things like 'hmm can I take the car tonight? I may not have enough gas tomorrow'.
So for all that Canada was great, it's even better now.
A couple of weeks ago I was pretty pissed that the winter was finished. I mean, my first winter in like, what 8 years, and I could only ski once - being broke does that to people. But now it ain't so bad, we're having beautiful weather and instead of going to walk the dog in the snow I go walk the dog in the grass and in the sunshine, or go play some ball in the school yard behind the house. The garden table is back on the deck too and outdoors meals will soon resume, not to mention the swimming pool! So things are definitely positive.

And to top it all off, Karim is coming to Ottawa this weekend and we'll have the whole night for ourselves, steamy stuff in perspective. Almost a year here and still loving it!

'Later all, scrubs time!

El Nico

It's a boy!

Well, didn't know what toput in the title. So you can all relax, there is no kid in my life.
So, good morning everybody, I'm glad to be back. As my last post said I have been very busy painting, to the point where I did little else except for going to work, walking the dog, and eating. The grand finale was friday night when I spent 13 hours straight painting till 7:30 in the morning, which left me with a wealthy 1 hour sleep before I had to go to the tournament. I guess some people love their hobbies a bit too much (me?). But anyway, I got the job done, and the tournament itself was a real blast. I got my ass handed to me for the first three games though (but always very politely), before somewhat salvaging the remnants of my pride and stomping on someone in the last game. But everyone was a great sport and it was an overall great gaming day.

As an added bonus, the Ottawa audition to 'Canadian Idol' was taking place in the same mall, and several thousand hopefuls had made it there (one of our gaming friends went too!). While some seemed like they actuallly knew how to sing or play an instrument of some kind, the vast majority did not, and a sizeable portion were simply ridiculous, either in their attitudes or attire, and we got a good few laughs out of them. Oh cynical, cynical Nick.

Anyway, Last night was the first in 3 weeks that I didn't have to paint, so I watched scrubs and went to bed. Felt pretty good, but I miss my brushes already. I'm giving myself one more day, and I'll get back to it tomorrow - without a deadline this time! Although there is this tournament in a month and a half...

In my car

Something comes over me every time I get in, with my hands on the wheel and my eyes straight ahead. An impulse to just take the next wrong turn, hit north on the highway until it stops a few miles before Wakefield, then take the first road west to where I've never been. Find a quiet town and stop my car, get off and take a walk down the main street there as the last rays of sunshine run through the leaves and branches.
I'd walk into the local bar and everything would go quiet, not many strangers come around here and it sure isn't the tourist season. But I'd sit at the counter and order a drink, probably start chatting to a few regulars, three or four names in my pocket by the time last orders are called. I'd find out Jim at the convenience store is looking for someone, or maybe Francine at the old Moore's farm, her old man can't put up with all the work anymore. She speaks French too, she'd be glad to trade a few words with me.
I wouldn't need much more than that, easy for me to drop my bags and leave the rest behind. Forget about before, well, most of it anyway. Forget about deadlines, fast food and traffic jams, the rushing and racing, just take with me the love, friendship and good times, the rest doesn't matter.
Life would be rough, unsophisticated and slow, but life would be good. Every now and then an old friend would come by and stay for while, whenever the world would let them. We're only 26 and already we seem not to have much time for us all, just wait till everybody gets settled... But we'd have that, a few days or weeks for us to pretend we're kings and queens again, a chance to enjoy life without a clock, just like when we were kids. And when they'd leave they'd be refreshed and rested, but still they wouldn't quite get it, why on earth would I stay here, so far away from everything? Me, I'd just smile and watch them go, holding my girl in one arm, praying whatever local god to bring them back sooner next time - but hey, why would a god give me anything? Later we'd fall asleep to our favourite film, an old rerun or halfway through the chapter of a book.

This goes through my head every time I get in the car. So far I've always turned south onto the highway, but as each day goes by the pull gets that much stronger, to carry on straight over the bridge, or miss the exit on the way back home. I wasn't driving today, but still I could feel it, and I started wondering, who of you would understand, who of you would drop their heads, and who of you would smile and nod. Not that I'm looking for answers, mind you.

That's what happens in my car.

Back to work...

Well, tomorrow I'll be starting my new job. System administrator and overall friendly and helpful new guy in the office. Turns out I will be working for the same company as my mom - not for the first time. Maybe it's a sign we should open a business together, I don't know.
The irony in all this - there must be some irony, of course - is that the day after I accepted the job, I get a phone call: " Hi, this is Jennifer from company X. We would like to hire you!". In those words. Well, sorry sister, you're 21 hours too late.
Funny though, everytime they call to say you've not been chosen for the job, it's George or Frank on the line. When they want to hire you, it's young, sexy Jennifer... I thought I would feel good turning down the job, seeing as I've been turned down a few times myself, but not even. All I could think was "What a waste, where were you 3 months ago?"

Anyway, I'm happy. Especially since Natalie has announced she would make her way to Ottawa sometime in May. It's been 4 months now, but May is just around the corner. All we have to do is find ourselves a little lovenest now and we should be rocking!
Times could be worse huh?

So I'm gonna leave you on this happy note. And for those who asked, Rob's story is coming. Although I'm going to be busy painting like a mad dog for the next three weeks (yes, mad dogs have compulsive paintings tendencies) as I've somewhat optimistically signed up for a tournament on the 25th. Gotta get the army ready now. Ah well, it'll give me something to do when I come back from work everyday... I got 1 guy done, 20 more to go!

Lost

First came the pain, lancing through his skull in white, agonising flashes. Panic quickly followed, as he struggled to fully regain awareness and re-awaken his dulled senses. Questions flooded his mind, where when whys that seemed to have no answers, what and hows that he just… couldn’t remember. Fear finally struck when he realised he couldn’t see, nor hear. The cacophony in his head became worse, his instincts screaming at him to curl up, roar, run away and cry all at the same time. And then it stopped; all that was left was the headache and the shivering of his weakened body. He remained frozen for a while, wishing only to faint or fall asleep and relieve his throbbing head. Respite never came. Eventually he decided to sit up, only to find his left arm too frail to support his weight. His hand went from under him, he slipped, fell from where he was lying and with a flat ‘thump!’, smacked his head on something hard – the ground maybe. His headache faded away, his consciousness too…

He woke up this time to the absurd sound of a heavy door being unchained and unlatched. His face felt wet and sticky, his body cold on the rough tiled floor. Two footsteps, then someone flicked a switch. For a second or so, he could make out the distinctive buzz of neon tubes charging up. Then bright light flashed, bringing back the pain that now also radiated down his neck. Maybe blindness hadn’t been such a curse after all. He rolled off to his side, trying to take in his surroundings, while the door was being closed again, somewhere behind him. The room was large but mostly empty, from what he could see a rectangular space about twice as long as it was large, with two opposite pillars rising across the centre. The walls and floor must have been white once, though a yellow-greenish taint had spread to most of the room, reminding him of an old subway station. A stainless steel table rested behind him, which probably masked the door. He gathered he must have fallen from it earlier. Blood had pooled where his head had been in front of him and had started to flow between the floor tiles in little rivulets. Most of it was dry though. With a few reverberating steps a man came into view and nonchalantly squatted in front of him. The two men observed each other for a few seconds, the stranger seeming almost bemused, his head tilted slightly to one side.
-“Didn’t like the table, Rob?”
In other circumstances, Robert – it was indeed his name – could have appreciated the dry humour. Now however, most of the wit was lost on him as fear clamped in a knot around his lower gut.
-“Wh - who are you? Where am I? How do you know my name?”
-“Who I am”, replied the stranger “is of no importance. As for this place it is my own, my… realm of some sort. I never named it, for few need ever talk about it, and fewer still even remember it. Let’s call it… ‘Here’. And how do I know your name? Well, I’ve been keeping an eye on you for long enough to know all that there is to know about you.”

The man got up and started pacing in front of Robert, taking slow, deliberate steps. Six-foot tall, maybe more, he walked with a grace that was both alluring and menacing. His age was lost in a face that could have been twenty-eight or forty-five, sitting on top of wide yet slim shoulders. He stopped suddenly, staring at Robert with what could have been raging contempt or the deepest sorrow.
-“Tell me Rob, when did you lose it?”
-“When did I lose what? WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!?”
-“I want you to answer my question, for the moment. When did you decide to give up, what made you decide to renounce what had guided you for so long?”
-“What are you talking about? What is this, how – how did I get here?!”

Weak, helpless, lying on the floor, Robert fought tears of despair from running down his cheeks. None of this made sense, he felt too stunned to piece it together. Who was that guy and what was he playing. If only he could remember how he had got here, where was he before, what was he doing? His memories escaped him, at least the recent ones, everything was a blur, an insane patchwork of pictures and voices. And still the throbbing in his head, the pulsing that prevented him from thinking, from concentrating on anything. He tried to massage his temple with his right hand, but his fingers met with blood and open flesh. Terror overtook him then. He screamed.
-“My God! Please, you have to help me!!” Tears flowed freely down his bloodied face now. “Please, I beg you! What happened to me?!”
Robert reached out frantically, trying to grab on to the stranger, trying to get a hold of something that would make him feel safe. But he was too weak to drag his body across the floor; the stranger simply stepped out of reach, his eyes never leaving Robert’s, unshaken. Terror made way to rage and injustice, cries and screams, as Robert vainly tried to right himself up, to get up and leave and get someone to help. He finally collapsed, sobbing, helpless and dying in front of this sadistic witness.

-“Don’t worry, you’re not going to die yet, not until I see it fit.” Robert could barely hear him through his weeping. “You truly don’t remember, do you? I should have expected that. You shot yourself, Rob, right through the temple. Did you know that is a mortal sin? Of course you knew”. The stranger had Robert’s full attention now.
-“Yes, you should be dead now,” he continued, “but I prevented that – albeit for a while. I haven’t decided of your fate yet. In fact it will depend on you, and the answers you give me, so be sure to think them carefully. But you will need your memories for that, and you seem to have blown off too much of your own head. I suppose I will need to assist you then.”
Without warning, he bent down a grasped Robert’s head with icy fingers whose touch pierced to very soul, then wrenched it and tore it apart. In an incoherent distortion, Robert’s world turned into a chaotic maelstrom of sounds and impossible colours as time unfolded backwards. For the ensuing hours the room was filled with Robert’s screams of agony as his body suffered through this most unnatural of process.

I know, I know

It's been far too long, and I apologize. Not much has happened in my life however and there wasn't any point in me just posting - nothing -
Anyway, I've been playing with several little things these past couple of weeks, but I'm not happy with them yet. I'm still posting this one, as I think it's not too bad. I can always fix it later. I'm hoping to post the end someday soon, but I'm not making any promises... You all kow me...

Nico

Snowfall

Part of the magic is in the silence. As I walk among the trees, the night is only disturbed by the soft crunching of my steps. As if the snow wrapped around every sound and smothered them to no more than a whisper. Even the dog follows quietly, like a fiery little ghost in the white stillness.
It is late at night, yet I can perfectly see where I am going; the snow blanket and the smooth cloud cover give the scene a strange illumination, the light seeming to come from nowhere yet everywhere at once. Hues of blues and silver dance around as my eyes wander through the park around me.
I sit down for a while, my doggy cuddling on my side. Both our breaths drift lazily through the cold air, unperturbed by the snowflakes that are now falling thick and soft. For just an instant time is frozen. I am one with this scene and there has never been anything else, nor will there ever be. In this eerie quietude, all those I love and miss are here with me. I wish I could find something to tell them all but I can't, so I simply stay there and enjoy seeing all those faces and smiles for a moment.
A small shiver brings me back after a few minutes, or maybe an eternity. It is cold out here tonight and I didn't put on my jacket. I enjoy a few more frosty breaths before picking myself up, sending light chill tremors down my arms and spine. One by one people are getting up too, going back the way they came with a nod or a wave. I watch the last one leave then start on my way home, the dog lopping ahead, eager to go snuggle up in front of the fireplace. And all around me the snow is falling.

Fruitful Weekend

Well good evening young acolytes,

Indeed it has been quite an eventful weekend. To get things started I actually got a game in (wargames for those who wonder...) on Friday. That was good because 1) I don't usually have a game on Friday 2) it was a big, big game 3) I won. So happy all-round.

Then over the weekennd I had a 2-day First Aid and CPR course. Saturday we concentrated on CPR. That was quite instructive, and a bit of fun too. When we were finished I got to hang around with Karim for a couple of hours - that was too short but it felt good to see the big guy. I then happilly proceeded to put on the Marseille soccer game I'd recorded during the day. They got trounced by the worst team in the league. Yay! So I went to bed kinda pissed off, which probably explains the weird and violent dreams that I had (OK, my dreams are always weird, but not always violent...).
But anyway, I woke up bright and early this morning - that's right, on a sunday... - and made my merry way to the first aid class, where once again I learned a good bit and had some fun times.
And at the end of the day, a few bagels and a passed test later, I had my certification. Hoo-Rah! ( ;o) ). It's actually like a business card that I will need to plastify quickly if I don't want to damage it. I feel a little something at having that in my back pocket, some sort of confidence or something, I don't know.

But hey, it's sunday night and I'm happy I did what I set out to do for the week end, I can now sit down and relax until tomorrow morning. Gotta love sundays...

Intelligent Design - Complement to Nono's post

Good evening audience,

For those of you who don't know him, Nono is my oldest friend, and one of the great thinkers of our time. We are but a few privileged ones to know that however, we can only hope that his glory will not come post mortem. There is a link to his blog on the right, for all the French speakers (or readers) among you.

His latest ramblings concern an article published recently in a French 'volume' magazine about 'Intelligent Design'. This article apparently proceeded to mock and discredit the 'Intelligent Design' theory, all the while putting forth the unshakeable virtues of 'Science', which should be held as ultimate Truth.
Nono didn't like that. Not that Nono believes in any way in 'Intelligent Design', far from it. But the outright refutation of anything 'non scientific' seems wrong to him. All science-head that I am, I agree with him here, if only on the premise that 'just because it's not a scientific subject yet, it doesn't mean it never will be'. (For having studied advanced maths myself - and not even that advanced - I know that you can quickly reach a point where matters become almost more philosophical than mathematical. Maths then simply adapt and adopt new models to cover the new ground and be able to deal with it scientifically.)

I do however have several problems with I.D. being taught in school - which fortunately should not happen in the foreseeable future.
The first one being that evolution - Darwinistic or other - as is it taught now is not incompatible with the idea of I.D. . There is a point beyond which science says 'we don't know' where ID could find a very comfortable spot. Most religions so far refuse to go that far; after all, they have been preaching for several thousand years that Man was created 'as is' and hasn't changed since. Old habits die hard, but the world is changing, and slowly even the most conservative are becoming more flexible as their followers' faith is being shaken - mostly because of eduction and science, actually. So who knows...
The second problem that I see with ID being taught in school, is that it comes from a movement that is almost entirely catholic. Had it come from an oecumenical body, I might have shown some - not much! - more leniency towards it. It didn't, and I am certain that divergent views would clash very rapidly and create yet more tensions between religious communities. All that the world needs, really...

One thing about the push for ID being taught in school leaves me wondering: why? Why is it so important that ID be taught in school? School doesn't categorically refute religion, it simply does not teach it. On top of that, the idea of evolution as presented by Darwin is presented as just that, an idea: 'Science says evolution blahblahblah, because suchandsuch...' (well, that's what my classes were like). It does not say: 'Religion is wrong, and that's how it happened...'. Since there are plenty of places to learn about the creation theory of a particular religion - church/temple/mosque/other for example, text studies classes, etc... - why is it so important it is taught in school? I don't know...

I'm back

Yeehaa!

So I've been away for a while - well, from this blog at any rate.
As I said before, I went skiing, armed with my video camera and all. However, after only 5 minutes of use, the battery died :( . I did charge it all day, so I don't know what happened. Anyway, all I could get was one - small - run from my brother, and one from my novice-skiier step sister, Ruth. And unfortunately nothing outrageous happened in 5 minutes (Well, Ruth fell of course, but it's just not as funny with debutants. Or is it?). Ah well...

I also promised you pictures of my brother. Now for those of you who don't know him, he's quite a shady character, and doesn't like to be pinned on pictures. I did however manage to sneak in at one of his decadent 'parties' and steal this shot. I think images speak for themselves...

Finally done!

So yesterday was a day of mixed fortunes - but hey, that happens. But 2 good things happened: first my brother came back (ladies stay tuned, I'll try to post some 'shocking' pix of him later!), and that's good because I missed the little nuisance. And today we're going skiing!! OH YES BABY, old school style! Hopefully I'll also have pictures of that to show later on.
The second good thing that happened? Well, those of you who know me - other than through reading some stranger's blog - will also know of my addiction to little models and wargames. And yesterday I finally finished a unit I have put more or less 40 hours of work on. And I'm happy enough with the result, considering I'm not the best painter in the world. So for those of you who care, here are bad quality pictures of what they look like...

Dogs have a right to slippers too

Yeepee Kay Hey! The snow is finally back!! We now have about 20/25 cm of fresh powder on top of the old snow! Much better let me tell you! The end of troubles for Macha? Weeelll... not really. When the snow is very powdery and soft and fluffy (you get it, the ultimate cream-dream...), it builds up between her 'toes' very quickly, and then she can't go for more than 5 metres without having to stop to get it out. It seems to hurt her as well (hell, if I had snow between my toes I'm sure it would hurt bad enough!).
The solution? Doggy slippers of course! No more snow between the toes for Macha, and the added bonus for me that she looks extremely comical (and for some reason, she looks even more cute to passer-bys... "Oooh, lookit the cute little doggyyy!!" She's a real star out there!). Anyway, I thought I'd share with you people, so enjoy!

How does this blog work?

Well, it seems the genial plan the makers of this blog had is working: I created my blog just so I could post a comment on someone else's blog, and now 2 friends of mine have done the same just so they could post comments on mine...
Question is, why? As far as I know it's made by google, who already provide their cool email service. But at least there they seem to have some sort of advertising going on - albeit discrete - whereas I've seen very little external advertising on this blog service. Granted, I haven't spent my days looking for ads, but still. What they have going on is the possibility to add AdSense to your blog, which lets them put some ads on your page. However they pay you for all clicks and referals, so their own margin must be minimal.
So now I am left wondering, what do they gain from this? Reputation? Webmaster experience to put on their CVs? Good Karma? This is intriguing to me, especially in the evening as I'm getting tired...

Happy New Year!

Well the title says it all, wish everybody the best for 2006!

It started not so good for Macha though. I went to walk my dog this morning - like every morning. However, a couple of days ago we had what is know here as 'ice pellets' or 'freezing rain'. That's like tiny little snowflakes/hailstones that melt on impact with the ground but freeze almost immediately after, leaving you with a very smooth layer of ice on the ground.
Apart from looking beautiful - especially on tree branches which now have a smooth, transparent yet reflective coat of ice - it's also quite slippery. Now on top of that we've had some very light snowfall since last night, with wee little flakes of snow. Since it's -10 outside they don't melt, but instead make a very thin cover over the ice sheet, kinda like makeup dust on a woman's pocket mirror. And this my friends is lethal.
I managed not to fall mostly thanks to my level-10-ninja skills, and partly thanks to good luck. Macha - my dog - has yet to master kung fu though, and she was flying all over the place. Towards the end I had to encourage her to carry on, as it took the poor scared animal more time to get up after each fall. I couldn't carry her either since my own balance was precarious enough; I didn't want to fall on top of her and end up crunching her hip or something. Finally we made it home, and somehow this time Macha was a little more eager to come in and lay by the fireplace. Go figure...