A walk in the park in late September

Today was the time to relax. In the morning, I read a pile of couple of weeks-old newspapers (mostly The Gazette) while listening to smooth jazz on the internet. Then, in early afternoon, I went for a walk in the park with my lovely wife. It was a beautiful day of late September!

The deep blue sky was dotted by luminous clouds. There was still plenty of colours in the field and a great variety of flowers: a few Sweet William, many Asters and Sunflowers, Thistle and Chicory, those tall Dandelions like in spring, some Mint and plenty others that I couldn’t put a name on. It was full of life as grasshoppers and crickets were jumping all over in front of our steps, bees and bumblebees buzzing in the air, as well as blue and orange butterflies dancing around in the wind. We also saw a dead rat, a murder of crows and even a flight of Canadian geese flying high toward warmer skies in the south. A great day — even if we could smell in the air that rain would come later…

I took many pictures. Unfortunately no camera could render the richness of details that the human eye can capture. And the memory is fleeting. We have no choice but to rely of those imperfect pieces of frozen time to remind ourselves of this moment: the blue sky, the green grass and yellow flowers…

[ iPhone 8+, Parc Frédéric-Back, 2018/09/29 ]

About reading

Each time I see a new book I am taken by the deep desire to read it. However, if I try, I find out that I often don’t have the energy or the attention span to do so anymore. Why reading has gotten so hard? Is it because of age? The fact that I have less energy now? Or that having such a large field of interests makes me too busy (or being too spread out) and I have difficulty adding more activity to my schedule? So many books, so little time!

Reading is extremely rewarding but it is also very time consuming. So, I guess I am losing patience after a while, taking the lazy path of watching TV instead. Also, if I am reading, I am not writing about books. And if I am writing about some books, I can’t read other books. I really have to work that out and find the strength and patience to keep reading. There is so much wealth and experience and pleasure in each story! How can I be so weak that I find myself passing on this?

As I often say, I cannot wait to retire and have more time to read. I don’t understand how people can have a job, kids or pets, go out, travel, go run a marathon or train and still have time to read books (without burning out, of course) ! My house (and the world!) is filled with marvellous books waiting for me to appreciate, discover and love them! Well, there’s only 3158 days left before I am liberated from my obligation to work productively for society. Maybe sooner if I manage my stuff well (or if I am lucky). I just need to be a little more patient. And maybe read a book to spend the time…

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About [not] reading

GreatAmericanReadI just watched The Great American Read on PBS, a show that searches for the “100 best-loved books and explores the many ways in which these novels affect, reflect and connect us all”. People are invited to vote for their favourite book in the list. It made me want to read more and wonder why I read so little.

I used to read a lot. As far as I can remember I often read books (novels, comics, books about space, about lost civilizations, about extra-terrestrials; all sort of books). My parents always encouraged us to read. I was spending long nights reading (and sometimes writing), particularly in the summer, when I didn’t have school the next day. I remember going to the public library (first, the one in the basement of our elementary school, and then the city library on top of the fire station). In my last year of high school, I remembered reading over a hundred books, mostly cheap science-fiction novels (space opera that freed my imagination and made me feel that everything was possible). Why did I stop reading so much? 

I was still reading a lot in college and in university (undergrad and grad school). That’s when I started reading also in English (first with L. Niven’s The Ringworld Engineers and Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings). Ironically, it’s only when I got busier with my publishing company that I seriously reduced my reading habit. Working hard (even at the library) takes much of my energy. Now I barely read twenty to fifty books a year, and it is mostly manga or comics. I guess I got lazy and life doesn’t leave me enough free time to read. I cannot read in the bus/subway anymore, I’m too tired. I read sometime on the weekends and more often than not before going to sleep. Mostly, I watch too much TV. It’s much easier to watch the movie version than read the novel; but it’s also an unfortunately diluted experience. A book is so much more than a movie. You can create your own visual of the story while the movie provide it for you…

On that Great American Read list, I’ve read only a dozen books: 1984 (G. Orwell), And Then There Were None (A. Christie), The Da Vinci Code (D. Brown), Dune (F. Herbert), Foundation (I. Asimov), A Game Of Thrones (G. R.R. Martin), The Grapes of Wrath (J. Steinbeck), Jurassic Park (M. Crichton), The Pillars of the Earth (K. Follett), The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (D. Adams), The Little Prince (A. De Saint-Exupery) and The Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien). There are many that I think I might have read, at least partially, or maybe I just saw the movie… I am not sure… But there are many, many more I just wish I had read. I will. I still have time. 

I just can’t wait to retire and I have the entire day to myself, with a nice cup of tea and a book!

I wish my entire life was only about books. Wait! It is: I work in a library and I write a blog (partially) about reading! Gosh! I should dedicated even more time to books…

Unfortunately, I cannot vote for the Great American Read. First, I am not American. Second, I haven’t read enough books in that list. And finally, I would have really a hard time deciding which book is my favourite… Each one has its own value and it’s difficult to compare one to another. They all had an impact on my life, because they all transmitted to me a valuable experience one way or another. But I have such a bad memory for those things… Maybe Dune, La nuit des temps (R. Barjavel), Neuromancer (W. Gibson), or Lord of the Rings ? I don’t know… Anyhow, you can follow my readings on Goodreads

And you, what are your favourite books?

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Dimanche à la ferme

FarmerFair2018-logoNous avons décidé de passer notre dimanche aux Portes Ouvertes sur les Fermes du Québec qui se déroulaient (entre autre) au Parc Olympique de Montréal. Nous avions déjà visité cet événement l’an dernier et, comme nous avions bien apprécié, nous avons décidé de récidiver cette année. C’est l’occasion pour les différents producteurs agricoles de la province de présenter et de promouvoir leur production au public. On peut donc y découvrir les différentes variétés de vaches qui sont élevées au Québec (Holstein, Ayrshire, Jersey, Suisse Brune, Canadienne, Limousin) ou les différentes variétés de grains qui y sont cultivés (Maïs, Soya, Orge, Blé, Canola, Avoine). Il y avait même une petite ferme avec une grande variété d’animaux que les enfants pouvaient caresser (chèvres, âne, Alpaga, etc.). C’était fort amusant… (quoique c’était exactement la même chose que l’an dernier!)

FarmerFair2018-map

J’y ai découvert quelques nouveaux produits intéressants comme la bière bio artisanale Boldwin, l’huile de Caméline, les produits de la cidrerie Lacroix, la boutique de produits de laine Merlaine, etc.

Album photos:

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FarmerFair2018-banner

About writing (3)

Sometimes, when I start writing a comment on a book or a movie, I have no idea what I will be writing. It just comes along, one idea bringing the next and the whole comment is slowly taking form. Sometime, I have a pretty clear idea of what I want to say and I have to make a plan, a structure, detailing the basic elements of each idea or concept I want to cover in order not to loose the tread of my thoughts (which happens sometime if I wait too long before putting it down on paper or on the computer).

I don’t have a good memory, I usually don’t remember much about a book I’ve just read or a movie I’ve just watched after a little while. When I want to remember, I just read what I’ve written about it. In fact, that’s one of the reason I write.

Sometime, when I don’t know what to say about a book or a movie, I just sleep over it and it usually helps a lot. But I must not wait too long to write after that. If not I might just end up with some sketchy notes and not much substance…

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Electoral conundrum

On October 1st the population of Quebec will have to vote to put their favourite candidates in the National Assembly. I find myself in quite an electoral conundrum since the lack of leadership makes it impossible to find anyone worth of my support. Every party has good ideas, but also so many stupid ones. I began this reflection when my union started a campaign advocating not voting for either the Liberals or the CAQ because “they are all the same” and that “we deserve better”… But if not them, who?

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About writing (2)

Strangely, the more touched I am by a book or a movie, the more difficult it is to write about it. It seems easier to write about something I didn’t like so much… Maybe I am so overwhelmed that I just can’t organize the zillion things that I want to say. Or maybe I am just afraid to mess up something that I really like. I don’t know. I just find this strange…

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Italian week 2018

SettimanaItalianaDiMontrealLike last year, we have visited the Settimana Italiana di Montreal (the Italian Week), festival held all over Montreal (but mostly in Little Italy, on St-Laurent street between St-Zotique and Jean-Talon streets) from August 3rd to 12th.

This year the festival celebrated its 25th Anniversary with many activities: an exhibition of all its promotional posters, a Fiat 500 car exposition, guided tours, a film festival, an opera presentation of Puccini’s “La Bohème”, a parade of the Sbandieratori Borghi e Sestieri Fiorentini (a group of Italian flag-throwers keeping alive the old military flag-waving tradition), and lots of food, musical displays and entertainments. Each local Italian association has a booth to inform about their activities. It was very interesting.

Here is a photo album and a short video (15 mins) as a memento of this year’s festival:

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Wild Coyote !

IMG_1324This is a video showing a wild coyote coming down my street and stopping by the neighbour’s driveway before continuing on its way (toward the Émile-Journault entrance of the Frédéric-Back Park)… It was taken on August 10, 2018, at 22h44. If you think that they are NOT coming into your neighbourhood you are wrong. Keep an eye on your kids and your small pets!

They are here… but it doesn’t means that we cannot coexist with them [PDF in French]. We have to be vigilant (some might have agressive behaviour but, like here, most will avoid human contact). However, I am against the current city policy to kill the urban invaders. After all, aren’t we the one who are destroying their habitat?

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Pour en finir avec les tournesols

A sunflower finale

If you have followed the sunflower theft / case / saga, you’ll be glad to know that the case is finally closed (I hope). After nearly a month, the police finally intervened by visiting the culprit. He confessed his crime and said he was sorry. Apparently, he was so shocked & surprised to be caught that he was shaking. He also promised to return the stolen property to all the places he had taken them. Our stolen pots and sunflowers were returned by the police. I noticed the next day that the flowers stolen from the city’s flower beds were back. We didn’t press charge, but if he ever do us wrong again he would be in serious jeopardy. It was a great occasion to demonstrate my detective skills (elementary my dear Watson!), but now I can finally relax and start to enjoy the flowers again!

 

Si vous avez suivi le vol / l’affaire / la saga des tournesols, vous serez heureux d’apprendre que l’histoire est finalement close (j’espère). Après près d’un mois, la police est finalement intervenue en visitant le coupable. Il a avoué son crime et a dit qu’il était désolé. Apparemment, il était tellement choqué et surpris d’être pris qu’il en tremblait. Il a également promis de rendre les biens volés à tous les endroits où il les avait pris. Nos pots et tournesols volés ont été retournés par la police. J’ai remarqué le lendemain que les fleurs volées dans les parterres de la ville étaient de retour. Nous n’avons pas porté plainte contre lui, mais s’il nous faisait du tors à nouveau, il se retrouverait vraiment dans le trouble. Ce fut l’occasion idéale de faire preuve de mes habilités de détective (élémentaire ma chère Watson!), mais maintenant, je peux enfin me détendre et recommencer à apprécier les fleurs!

Notable News (w23-w31)

Since the last update, over two months ago, so much has happened. 

On the domestic front, it seems that I ran out of karma points because a series of unfortunate events kept happening to me, including frustratingly bad customer service experiences: I had trouble getting my bag of weekly flyers delivered, after eight long months the contractor finally came to finish the landscaping work in the backyard so I could work (hard) to set up the garden, and then the water heater broke down! Everything was just a big pain in the ass! I ended up so stressed and distressed by the whole ordeal that I forgot to do the accounting and pay the bills! This had never happened to me in fifteen years!

UltraBlinking

Out of energy !

However, that was not the end of it. Work is usually a real nut house where we have to run around like crazy, doing absurd stuff. Under normal circumstances it is already demoralizing and exhausting. But we had to go at it during a heat wave, for a whole week! We had a few days of respite and then, the air conditioning broke down—for another week! We were working at temperature between 27° C and 30° C, with relative humidity of 50-55% ! If you calculate the humidity factor (the way that it’s normally done on weather channels) it felt like working at temperature between 35° C and nearly 40° C ! (Of course, according to the charts used by management, it was barely over 33° C and we shouldn’t even brake a sweat! For them it was just uncomfortable conditions!). Damn it, we are working in a library, not a sweat shop! Management brought huge fans, but if you move hot air, it is still just hot air — in a very noisy environment. 

If it was just working at a desk with a fan in the face it would probably be tolerable, but we are standing up and moving around a lot to serve customers (lending, shelving and processing books, etc.) — contrary to what most people believe it is a very physical work. At my age and with my health I cannot work in such conditions for a long duration. One day, I was tired and feeling dizzy (the head-librarian had already left and a couple of colleagues were not feeling well either) so I decided to also leave work early. We were threatened of “consequences” (disciplinary measures) by management for doing so. We endured for the rest of the week, but, in the end, I couldn’t take it anymore, I was exhausted (completely out of energy), having sore throat, migraine and ear ache, so I took a day off.  I just don’t get it: why’s this obstinacy to force employees to work in unbearable conditions? Where is decency and respect of the workers? That’s what upsets me the most: absurd decisions and disrespect… I get it that there is nothing in the labor law (health & security) that prevent work in extreme heat conditions, but it is just common sense and thoughtfulness not to subject your employees to such suffering! Then again, why should I be surprised of such contempt for the workers?

At the same time, I had to deal with some garden theft which became “the sunflowers’ affair” and evolved into a real saga. Finally, as I was ready to blow a gasket, my blood pressure medication was recalled due to contamination with a potential carcinogen (the generic version is made in China, no wonder)! I had trouble at first to get the pharmacy to replace it for free, but now there is a class-action lawsuit being organized

Japon instantané

My mind elsewhere !

Thankfully, there was a few positive events to brighten my mood, like an occasional trip to the botanical garden or the park, Apple announcing their incoming new operating systems (iOS 12 and macOS 10.14 Mojave) or finally being able to finish watching the latest seasons of Poldark and McMafia. Strangely, as I handled all the bad karma with relatively great zen, I managed to write comments on quite a bunch of stuff (books, TV series and movies): The Dark Tower, The Terror, Crapule, American Made, Victoria & Abdul, Un simple monde, Le chat du louvre 1-2, Black Panther, Isabella Bird: femme exploratrice 1-2, Alien Resurrection & Alien: Covenant, Pline 5, Ad Astra 4-5, Justice League, Batman v Superman, Jumanji, Giacomo Foscari 1, Nos yeux fermés, Your name., In this corner of the world, and The Mummy. Fortunately, reading (or alternatively watching TV) and writing (comments, rants or even poetry) is a great help to bring my mind elsewhere!

On the world stage, we saw the usual fires, floods, volcanoes, storms, kids trapped in a cave, a couple of summits (G7 & North Korea), the World Cup, water was found on Mars and each day kept bringing more Trump insanities. If I wouldn’t know better I could think that Trump is the antechrist and that the end of the world is near! But, no, it’s just our daily lives in the 21st century… I just don’t understand: in 1953 the Rosenberg were tried and executed simply for spying for the Soviets; now, some politicians conspired with the Russians to interfere in the U.S. elections, make their own businesses profits, as well as contribute to undermine western democracies and absolutely NO uproar is being made about it? Delirant isti americani !

Through all this I did my best to stay (sane?) acquainted with the affairs of the world and gathered over two hundreds notable news & links — which I now share with you (in both french or english, slightly categorized, but in no particular order — note that, to save on coding time, the links will NOT open in a new window beyond this point), after the jump.

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A quiet minute of relaxation

Sunset on the parc / Couché de soleil au parc

This video offers you a quiet minute of relaxation at the Parc Frédéric-Back as the wind makes the grass dance under the sunset… Enjoy! / Cette vidéo vous offre une minute de détente au Parc Frédéric-Back alors que le vent fait danser l’herbe sous le soleil couchant… Profitez-en !

[ iPhone 8+, Parc Frédéric-Back, 2018-07-08 ]

A quiet minute of relaxation

Botanical garden’s pond
Étang du jardin botanique

This video offers you a quiet minute of relaxation at the botanical garden as the birds tweet around the pond… Enjoy! / Cette vidéo vous offre une minute de détente au jardin botanique alors que les oiseaux gazouillent autour de l’étang… Profitez-en !

[ iPhone 8+, Botanical garden, 2018-06-26 ]

The sunflowers saga / La saga des tournesols

The sunflower theft” and “The sunflower case” continue into a real saga… There was no theft on the third night but in the morning the suspect, while walking his dogs with his partner, strolled down the street to survey his future targets! Many sunflowers are about to bloom and I am afraid that he will be back soon! I don’t have much hope that the police will do anything soon, so what can we do to stop him ? (I mean beside welcoming him with a two by four — I know: we must not take justice into our own hands; maybe we could scare him by saying we are on to him?). We have a better view of him during daylight. It’s definitely the same miscreant. I noticed he had the right leg in a cast (no wonder he was walking funny). [la version française suit le vidéo]

My wife went to have a look near the lair of the suspect and positively recognized her flowers and pots. There is very little doubt in my mind now that he is the one who stole and vandalized our property. Here are pictures of his front and back yards and we can clearly see sunflowers and many flowers in pots (mostly in the backyard).

To be continued?

Le tournesol volé” et “L’affaire tournesol” se poursuivent en une véritable saga… Rien n’a été volé durant la troisième nuit, mais au matin le suspect, tout en promenant ses chiens avec sa conjointe, a descendu la rue pour repérer ses prochaines cibles! Plusieurs de nos tournesols sont sur le point de fleurir et je crains qu’il ne sévisse à nouveau très bientôt. Je n’ai pas grand espoir que la police fasse quoi que ce soit de sitôt alors que peut-on faire pour arrêter l’hécatombe dans notre jardin? ( à part, bien sûr, le surprendre avec un deux par quatre dans la face — je sais: ce n’est pas bien de se faire justice soi-même; peut-être que lui dire qu’on l’a à l’oeil lui ferait peur?). On le voit mieux durant le jour et c’est définitivement le même scélérat. A noter qu’il a la jambe droite dans le plâtre (ça explique sans doute sa démarche bizarre).

Ma femme est allé faire un tour l’autre soir près de l’antre du suspect et elle est positive qu’on y trouve ses fleurs et ses pots. Je n’ai plus beaucoup de doute qu’il s’agit bel et bien de la personne qui a volé et vandalisé notre propriété. Voici des photos de ses cours avant et arrière; on peut y voir clairement des tournesols et quelques fleurs en pots (principalement à l’arrière). 

À suivre?

The Sunflower case / L’affaire tournesol

Following “The sunflower thief”, this video shows security footage of the thief coming back the very next night (2018/07/14, 3:02 am) to steal more sunflowers! Two days in a row! What a real scoundrel! Nobody respects anything anymore, that’s sickening! [ la version française suit ]

This time, I noticed the rascal seems to have a slight beard and a man bun (also he sometimes walks funny). If you know this scumbag, please contact me or the police (a police report has already been filed at station 30 — although the clerk didn’t seem enthusiastic). The varmint is plaguing the whole neighbourhood and I am not the only victim (as seen on the video; I also heard some neighbours complained about it). This type of theft / vandalizing of our property (flower or vegetable gardens) MUST NOT be tolerated no matter how small it may seem! I also think I might have localized the bastard: a neighbour looks A LOT like him; more so he had yesterday a sunflower in his backyard in a pot that looked quite familiar and a few more pots and sunflowers appeared today… Citizens of the neighbourhood, lets act to protect not only our properties but also the greenery that embellishes our environment!

Suite à “Tournesol volé”, ce video montre une séquence de caméra de sécurité où le voleur revient la nuit suivante (2018/07/14, 3:02 am) pour voler plus de tournesols ! Deux jours de suite! Quel vilain gredin! Les gens ne respecte plus rien, c’est désespérant!

IMG_2833

Disparu ! / Gone!

Cette fois, j’ai remarqué que le voyou semble avoir une légère barbe et un chignon (il a aussi une démarche bizarre). Si vous connaissez ce salaud, veuillez communiquer avec moi ou avec la police (un rapport de police a déjà été déposé au poste 30 — bien que le greffier n’ait pas semblé enthousiaste). Cette vermine sévit dans tout le quartier et je ne suis pas la seule victime (comme on peut le voir sur la vidéo, j’ai aussi entendu des voisins s’en plaindre). Ce type de vol / vandalisme de notre propriété (jardins de fleurs ou de légumes) NE DOIT PAS être toléré, peu importe son importance! Je pense aussi avoir localiser l’ostie d’BS: un voisin lui ressemble beaucoup; de plus il avait hier un tournesol dans sa cour arrière dans un pot qui avait l’air assez familier et quelques pots et des tournesols de plus sont apparus aujourd’hui … Citoyens du quartier, agissons pour protéger non seulement nos propriétés mais aussi la verdure qui embellie notre environment!

Sunflower theft / Tournesol volé

My wife finds solace in gardening. Last night (2018/07/13, 2:42 am), some miscreant stole her first blooming sunflower of the year from our front yard in St-Michel borough. It was about 1.3m / 50″ tall, in a 25cm / 10″ green pot. The suspect looks like a white male, skinny and medium height, smoker, waring baseball cap and shorts. If you have any information please contact me. It’s really a shame! People nowadays definitely have no scruples!

Ma femme trouve du réconfort dans le jardinage. La nuit dernière (2018/07/13, 2:42 am), un scélérat a volé son premier tournesol à fleurir cette année dans notre cour avant de l’arrondissement St-Michel. Il mesurait environ 1,3 m / 50 po de hauteur, dans un pot vert de 25 cm / 10 po. Le suspect ressemble à un homme blanc, mince et  de grandeur moyenne, fumeur, portant une casquette et un short. Si vous avez des informations s’il vous plaît me contactez. C’est vraiment une honte! Les gens de nos jours  n’ont décidément plus aucun scrupules!

Le jardin en juin

Le jardin avant s’est extrêmement développé dans le dernier mois. Il semble que, cette année, les tournesols auront le dessus sur les cosmos… Ce sera très beau à voir.

On y constate là aussi une explosion de couleurs florales.

La plupart des plants de tomates sont sur le balcon avant pour des raisons d’ensoleillement. Il y retrouve déjà quelques petites tomates cerises…

IMG_2735

Le jardin arrière est maintenant terminé. On y retrouve quelques fleurs (principalement en pots mais aussi des Hostas, des rosiers et des Belle-de-jours), de la vigne, des fines herbes (ciboulette, persil, basilic, menthe, shiso rouge, etc.) mais surtout des légumes: bette à carde, tomates, piments, poivrons, plusieurs variétés de fèves et de cucurbitacées (courges spaghetti, melon kabocha, concombres). Je ne suis plus trop sûr des variétés qu’on y a mise mais on verra bien quand ça poussera…

Vive l’été est les joies relaxantes du jardinage!

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The garden is (almost) done!

After a couple of trips to the garden center and a long day of hard work, the garden is finally (almost) done… And, I must say, it looks darn good!

We’ve come from a long way…

And now I am quite happy with the result !

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Customer service is dead!

It seems that wherever we go these days companies don’t care about customer service. Either they have a quasi monopole and it’s irrelevant or, despite a competitive environment, nobody seems to pay attention to the need or satisfaction of the customer. It must be really bad in my area — or I am a VERY unlucky customer — because I keep having those horrible experiences with customer service.

Beside the notoriously bad customer service of telecom companies like Bell (about which I have talked many times — their Fibe TV is superb but their wi-fi is quite shitty and their tech service doesn’t seem to care — unless they can sell you extra service or device that supposedly would improve the situation) I can easily mention three or four companies that gave me bad service just in the last couple of weeks!

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Début juin au jardin botanique

Hier après-midi s’est avéré la journée idéale pour aller faire notre première promenade de l’année au jardin botanique. L’objectif était de visiter la roseraie, le “monumental Dougherty” et un pâturage de moutons dans l’arboretum [voir le plan]. On pourra toujours revenir pour voir le reste.

Malheureusement, il était un peu trop tôt pour les roses car la plupart des parterres n’offraient encore que des rosiers sans fleurs. Toutefois, il y en avait assez d’écloses pour que l’on puisse dire avoir pris le temps de sentir les roses… (mais elles n’étaient pas toujours bien identifiées)

Sur le chemin de l’arboretum, nous sommes passé par le jardin japonais et nous nous sommes, bien sûr, arrêté au Pavillon Japonais où se tenait une exposition sur la ville de Hiroshima (jumelée à Montréal). On y présente, malheureusement trop brièvement, la vie quotidienne dans cette ville, plus de soixante-dix ans après l’infâme bombardement.

On fois dans l’arboretum, qui occupe toute la moitié supérieure du jardin botanique, nous n’avons pas tardé à découvrir le monumental Dougherty (dont il ne reste plus apparemment que deux des trois composantes). Il s’agit de deux sculptures végétales monumentales créées en 2017 par Patrick Dougherty et composées de tiges de saule tressées. L’une est intitulée “Architectural Folly” (Havre de fantaisie) et l’autre “Celtic Knot” (Dédale étonnant). C’est à la fois beau et fascinant…

Tout près de là, nos pas nous ont amené au jardin Leslie-Hancock où nous avons découvert une explosion de rhododendrons et d’azalées (i.e. des Éricacées). C’est très beau mais, ma foi, très mal identifié. Dans cette pléthore de couleurs, il devient difficile de savoir qui est quoi et surtout lesquels sont des rhododendrons et lesquels sont des azalées. Ces termes semblent interchangeables mais apparemment l’azalée est un rhododendron “à feuilles caduques ou semi-persistantes portant des fleurs à cinq étamines” alors que «rhododendron» “désigne habituellement [ceux] possédant des feuilles persistantes ainsi que des fleurs à 10 étamines ou plus.”

Après avoir escaladé un petit promontoire, nous nous sommes retrouvé dans ce qui pourrait être l’alpage gazonné de l’arboretum… où broutaient deux moutons! (barres-toi de mon herbe, humain! Je me serais cru dans Le Génie des Alpages de F’Murr!). Un peu plus loin, une bergères gardait un oeil attentif sur son menu troupeau tout en discutant avec les passants fascinés. Sous l’ombrage d’un arbre, une demi-douzaine d’autres moutons se reposaient. J’étais comblé! Il s’agit de «Biquette à Montréal», un projet d’éco-pâturage en collaboration avec le Laboratoire d’agriculture urbaine (AU/LAB). Du 15 mai au 2 juillet, neuf moutons broutent au jardin botanique de 10 à 19 heures.

C’est relaxant de regarder un mouton brouter! (Mais ne vous endormez pas…)

Finalement, notre randonné a culminée à la maison de l’arbre Frédérick-Back où nous avons visité une exposition d’arbres miniatures nord-américains. Au delà de l’étang, nous avons pic-niqué dans un magnifique petit gazebo et observé des oiseaux…

Quelle belle journée !

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Notable News (w13-w22)

In the last couple of months (ten weeks!), there was really nothing new on the domestic front. The same old routine. Spring finally came, the air warmed up and (after a little icy setback) the buds started to open, quickly blossoming into a late summer. I experienced, again, some health problems which kept my moral down for a while. I had my old computer repaired and finally got a new one, which meant lots of hardware and software installations, reorganizing the working area, etc., which made many onomatopoeias come to mind (Aauugh!, *whimper*, *Phew*).

PearlsBeforeSwine-20180106I tried to apply to a couple of new jobs in order to get out of the nut house where I works but with no luck. To make things worse, the company we hired to repair the balcony & backyard keeps dragging their feet and nothing seems to get going. I want to prepare the garden for the summer but will we be able to do any gardening? My life seems on hold. I have many new project ideas to keep me busy but there’s so little time, so many things to think about and to do, all at the same time, that’s overwhelming, mind-crushing, depressing even…

I spent so much energy running like crazy at work (and for a whole week the temperature in the library was between 24 and 28 ºC!), coming back completely exhausted, hoping for a new job (or some sort of fairy god-mother intervention), waiting on the contractor (I took some vacation in order to rebuild the garden after the works would be done, but I feel I wasted my time…), stressing about health problems, reorganizing my computers and my network (extending ethernet to compensate for Bell’s weak wi-fi for example) that I really didn’t read or write much. Again, getting caught with life so much that… I forgot to live! It seemed that time was slipping through my fingers like sand. I felt (and still feel) tired all the time…

When I am at work I feel miserable but, when I am at home and look at this house — this little and comfortable nest, or safe-house, we have set-up for ourselves — I feel pretty good and content. I have everything I need and could ask for (okay, maybe not that marble bust of Lucius Virus or a more quiet and pleasant job — but, who knows, it might come someday). So, I have no real reason to be unhappy (beside watching the news, of course). I just have to tell myself that, again and again, and repeat it,  each time I have to face the darkness…

However, I was not completely idle. I wrote a little (commenting on Le secret des vietnamiennes, Venise and Bug, as well as a few movies). I also attended the Congrès Boréal, went to Ottawa to watch tulips and to the annual book sales of the libraries (so far I bought a few novels and about thirty-five manga!). Unfortunately, I mostly kept myself entertained: I finished to watch The Durrells, some old favourites TV series like Homeland or The Expanse, and tried some quite excellent new series like the remake of Lost in Space, Little Women or The Good Karma Hospital. I even discovered a new TV service, BritBox, but haven’t had time to try it yet.

PearlsBeforeSwine-20180111On the world stage we find the usual disasters: Trump ramping and raving (blaming everyone but himself), floods here, volcano there, many more sexual scandals, ups and downs in North Korea, war looming in the Middle East (Gaza, Iran), add another ebola epidemic, or an occasional school shooting and you have the picture. But there are also some good news, like a very Royal Wedding! [See detailed day by day events for April and May]

Through all this I tried to stay acquainted with the affairs of the world and gathered a few notable news & links — which I now share with you (in both french or english, slightly categorized, but in no particular order — note that, to save on coding time, the links will NOT open in a new window as usual), after the jump.

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Images du mer-fleuri

Tulips under the rain in Ottawa

Yesterday, we went to Ottawa to admire tulips under the rain. The famous Ottawa Tulip Festival was already over but the tulips were still there, in pretty good shape — although many were quite past their prime. In the beginning, it was rather deserted but as soon as the sky cleared, the crowd came back.

The tulip created for the one-hundred-fifty anniversary of the country, the Canada 150, was still omnipresent. I guess it represents well how Canadians see their country: it’s pure-white anglo with a streak of bloody French!

This year, considering the weather, we visited only the Commissioners Park around Dow’s Lake — although when it cleared we also went for a walk on Parlement Hill. But there was not only tulips to admire. There was many other plants and flowers, as well as a few critters.

Like in the past, I deplore that the tulips were badly identified: there was a sign telling which tulips are planted in each flower-beds, but nothing to let us know which tulip is which! Fortunately, there’s Google…

I took three-hundred-and-seventy-three pictures. Here I offers you a ten percent sample… Enjoy! (They can also be seen on my Flickr album and I’ll add some more in future flowery-wednesday pics)

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[ iPhone 8+ / Nikon D3300, Ottawa, 2018-05-22 ]

*Phew*

I seems now, after nearly a week, I am finally done with the computer set ups. Of course, it wasn’t without pain and efforts.

First, despite the promises of the “Genius” that served me at the Apple Store, the technician had installed the *previous* macOS (10.12) instead of the latest one (10.13.3). It speaks volume on the heaviness of High Sierra when Apple’s own technicians want to save time (and cut corners) by avoiding its installation! Therefore I had to spent the first evening with my brand new/refurbished MacBook Pro (June 2017) updating the operating system. To add injury to the insult, Apple pushed the 10.13.4 update the *very* next day, so I had to go through the whole updating process AGAIN!

The next step was to order a stand, a bunch of cables and hard drives to install the MBP at my desk, with a larger monitor, wireless keyboard & mouse, as well as a Time Machine backup and a clone of the hard drive (just in case…). Finally, I had to install all the necessary software for my work (Norton Security, MS Office, LibreOffice, Photoshop, GIMP, VMware Fusion, DropBox, iMovie, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, etc.) and set up iCoud (because the 250 Gb SSD storage of the MBP is a little tight for me; from now on I will store all needed (texts, images) files in iCloud (200 Gb) and be able to access them from ANY devices!).

Then I moved the old iMac from my desk to the salon where it will become the new, more performing, media center. I needed a new HDMI cable to hook it up to the TV and had to install all the necessary software needed to perform that task (VLC, Kodi, Transmission, RipIt, Flixter, PopCorn, Toast, etc.).

The Mac-Mini was then moved from the salon to the bedroom to serve as secondary media center, along the Apple TV, for late night viewings. Not much install needed there besides hooking it up to the TV and to a wireless keyboard and trackpad (instead of a mouse).

It was a long process and I encountered only ONE major problem. At some point, and without any obvious reasons, all the pinned notes (the most important of course!) in the Notes app simply disappeared without a trace. They were not deleted. They just disappeared. And I couldn’t recover them. Very annoying! I had to performed a convoluted recovery process where I isolated the iMac from the internet (to prevent Notes from synching) and copied all the vanished notes into TextEdit in order to recreate them in Notes. Then the MBP Notes refused to synch with iCloud, so I had to turn it off and on, causing it to erase and re-download all the iCloud content again. Nothing more was lost and now everything seems to work (but, still, now I’ll maintain a backup of the notes, just to be sure).

And voilà! Now I can finally write.

Unfortunately (since I also tested my new media center by catching up on my viewings [The Walking Dead S08 eps 13-15, When calls the heart S05 eps 5-7, Homeland S07 eps 4-8, The Durrells S03 eps 3-4, Little Women eps 1-3 and The Terror ep 1], did the laundry and took at least one walk in the park) I don’t have much time left to write anything… As usual.

The next step: solving the damn weak and spotty wifi problem, do many projects around the house (spring cleaning, prepping the backyard for the summer, start gardening, etc.), read more, and, of course, try to catch up a little on my writing!

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*whimper*

Just to recapitulate: in the last month, I’ve been locked out of my blog a couple of times (it seems to have been a browser issue but a computer reboot solved the problem), fluctuation in the electricity made the lights flickers like all hell was breaking loose (called Hydro Q and so far it has stopped), the WiFi keeps being weak and spotty (it just Bell; I tried just about everything [like extenders and Bell’s pods] without success) and sometimes just stops completely (until I reset the marvellous Bell Home Hub 3000), my computer became slow and unresponsive until the hard drive completely died (I had the HD changed but nevertheless bought a MacBook Pro to replace my aging iMac), the toaster-oven caught in fire (had to replace it) and my absurd and insane work place is making me nuts (but I’m dealing better with it)!

As a result I’ve spent the last three week-ends trying to solve problems and not at all relaxing (like sleeping, writing or watching TV). I don’t sleep well, I have various digestion’s problems, it hurts all over (my back, my knee, my ankle — as well as in unmentionable places — as the stress piles up). I am exhausted, fed up, at my wits’ end… 

I need to rest!

Hopefully an extra day off spent doing a little writing, TV watching and tending of the yard will do the trick.

Happy Fish Day and Holy Rabbit to all!

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Some spring in my steps

Soon parks and gardens will awaken
From their  hivernal slumber
And there’ll be bees and flowers !

… but now it’s mostly wet and muddy…

I took a walk around the neighbourhood this afternoon to see how spring is affecting the parks and gardens. I was pleased.

The park

The garden

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Aauugh!

(The entry’s title is a quote from Charles Schulz’ Charlie Brown)

The lights keeps flickering… The WiFi is often spotty and unreliable… And now my iMac is a zombie! Isn’t there anything working properly anymore ?!!

Ever since the last major OS update, the iMac started freezing now and then. Actually : almost every hour! So, I was suspecting a problem with Time Machine (it was freezing just as TM was about to start an incremental backup). I turned TM off, which didn’t totally solved the problem but considerably reduced its frequency.

Then, yesterday night, out of the blue, the iMac started to freeze again every few minutes. It slowed down to a slow pace and all applications refused to start and giving a “this application is not responding” instead (well, Safari was painstakingly loading).

My computer is a late 2012 iMac, with a 21.5 inches screen, 2.9 GHz processor, 16 GB RAM, 1.12 TB Fusion Drive and it is running MacOS 10.13.3. I admit, it’s already more than five years old. Any suggestion to solve this problem?

I unplugged all peripherals and restarted several times with no change. Finally, I decided to restart in Safe Mode and ran a few diagnostics, repaired the drive, checked for virus with Norton Security, but everything seemed normal save that the problem was PERSISTING even in Safe Mode !

Therefore, could it means that’s an hardware problem rather than software? Maybe the last update didn’t play well with the Fusion Drive, like I’ve heard on some board?

Until I fix this (or replace my iMac with something new — not better, you can’t get that these days), I am stuck working on my even older Mac Mini (Mid 2010) or on my iPad ! I guess I know now where this year’s tax return will go…

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Notable News (W43 – W06)

So much happened in the last four months (since the last notable news entry), that I wouldn’t know where to start. I’ll try to recall the highlights, but I’ll try to be brief.

On the domestic front we had a bout of extreme cold (while in the opposite hemisphere they had the hottest weather in nearly eight decades!). For the rest of the time we had the (now) usual cycle of freeze (snow) / defreeze (rain) with more snow than usual (at least more than last year; 195 cm so far). At work it is the usual hell, but I guess I came to term with it, becoming more zen (i.e. no giving a f**k) but I am still set into trying to find another job (in a quieter library, some place closer to home, maybe some desk job but I would rather prefer to keep working with books).

My blog was hacked and I finally made a move to a proper WordPress hosting. It is still a work in progress (still lots of repair to do), but I am now very satisfied with the look of the new blog. Of course, I’ve been more busy working on the blog itself and I didn’t write as much as I would have liked (but, still, I kept busy with some reviews, an essay on the art of reviewing and some articles like a biographical notice, a bibliography update, indexes, etc).

I had lots of trouble to have the city cut a branch of the tree in front of our house because it was touching the electric wires. The expensive repair/renovation in the backyard & balcony couldn’t be completed before the arrival of the cold weather (bad planning and lots of wasted time). The stupid contractor didn’t even provide an invoice so we cannot file our subsidy demands and he didn’t even bother to respond when we demanded that the work be completed in a timely manner in spring!

The digestion problems I’ve had since the beginning of the year convinced me to finally submit to tests and I had to endure a coloscopy (the test itself lasted just fifteen minutes but the two days of liquid diet and “preparation” were hellish!). They found that I was suffering from fatty liver and a sigmoidal diverticulosis (which could complicate into a diverticulitis). More stuff to be careful about…

This string of problems made me rather depressed. What’s the purpose to constantly fight if it is to simply eat in order to work, and work in order to be able to eat? I felt like the entropy of the world was catching up to me: the world was stopping making any sense, I was getting tired and weaker, everything was crumbling around me! Fortunately, writing and working on the blog was some sort of therapy for me and I now feel much better. Spring will be arriving in a little more than a month (despite mixed signals from the groundhogs) and we’ll be able to enjoy flowers under the sun again!

In the news, Catalonia declared independence from Spain, Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital (killing all chances of peace in the Middle East), Disney acquired most of 21st Century Fox, the #metoo social awakening happened, the U.S. government shotdown twice, the Dow Jones droppedSpaceX launched its Falcon Heavy rocket with a Tesla car as payload (!), there was a missile false alarm in Hawaii and Japan, we had various disasters (wild fires in California, mudslides, earthquakes, floods in Europe), and the usual Trump craziness makes me despair for some sanity. Finally, there nothing much on TV since it’s the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics!

Despite everything, I managed to stay a little acquainted with the affairs of the world and gathered many notable news & links — which I now share with you (in both french or english, slightly categorized, but in no particular order — note that, to save on coding time, the links will NOT open in a new window as usual), after the jump.

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Does that ring a bell?

Bell offers a notoriously bad service to its customers. In fact, as I mentioned recently, the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services  tells us that 32% of all complaints from Canadian consumers are related to Bell! I experienced this personally numerous times (I once had five services with them [phone, cellphone, internet, web hosting and satellite TV] and cancelled it all because of a really bad customer service!). Recently, after switching internet & TV service from Videotron to Bell, my VoIP phone from a third party stopped working properly and, when I called Bell technical service, I was told that they didn’t support VoIP phone and that if I wanted a good phone service I should use theirs! Also, as soon as I started using their wi-fi, half my numerous devices using internet (computers, iPhone, iPad, VoIP phone, thermostat, WeMo Insight & Switch, Philips Hue lights, printer, garage door opener, security cameras, etc. — I have over twenty different devices requiring wi-fi!) wouldn’t connect properly through their WPS and it took me a long time to figure a way to have everything working in a decent and almost stable way (using a combination of DMZ and MAC filtering — as well as using my sister’s Videotron‘s wi-fi!). Clearly, this bad service thing is not a myth… At least it has a ring of truth, but I am sure many other people can confirm that.

I always wondered how come that a company with such a bad reputation would, first, manage to stay in business and, second, never make any attempt to improve either their service or reputation. This week, I just figured it all: why improve your crappy service when you can just charge your customers for an improved premium service ?!

For instance, if you are not satisfied with the crappy-almost-inexistant technical service, you can simply subscribe to their “Bell Tech Expert” service for only $6.00 per month! There’s no incentive for them to offer a good service if they are making money with the premium service option!

Screen Shot 2018-02-08 at 20.04.03Or, if you find their crappy, unstable wi-fi service unbearable, you can simply subscribe to their “Whole Home Wi-Fi” service that uses a network of pods plugins that works with the Home Hub 3000 to strengthen and optimize the wi-fi! Only for $5.00 per month extra!

Some people will put up with the crappy service and some will pay up for the extra (real) service. You subscribe to Bell because (you think) they offer more than the competitor for a much cheaper price, but you end up paying more anyway for what should be standard service…

Quite annoying!

Unfortunately, I could never go back to Videotron’s TV service because Bell’s system is really amazing. It’s only their wi-fi (and customer service) that’s totally crap. Unfortunately, this makes their offers of Wi-Fi pods very tempting…

But at least, now, the Bell’s secret is out of the bag!

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