Three years later, same stunt by media

There's supposed to be a leader's debate on TV, and because the Green party currently does not hold any seats in the government, the leader of the Green Party Elizabeth May was not invited to the leaders debate.   They tried that back in 2008 and after a public backlash, they grudgingly let her participate.

You'd think 3 years later people wouldn't have to get upset again over the same thing. I mean if the green party of Canada managed to get nearly 1 million votes, seat or no seat in parliament, she should be allowed to answer questions on the leaders debate. It's a democracy and while maybe the news media don't care to hear what she has to say, I know other Canadians feel differently. 

The green party is taking their exclusion from the leaders debate to court. I hope they win their case. 

It's everyone else's fault.

I'm surprised no one has yet blamed Justin Bieber, Charlie Sheen, groundhogs, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan or the Easter bunny for the unrest in the Middle East. Some have blamed social media's, the internet, and cell phones.

Various leaders have already blamed just about everyone but themselves for the state of their respective countries. It is not Al Queda's fault if Gadafi is nuts! It's not anyone else fault but Gadafi's if most of his country is fighting to depose of him.

Now you have Assad in Syria trying to blame "conspirators" for the unrest in Syria, but it's definitely NOT his fault. He's perfection. How can his people not see that? 

I mean seriously, how can these poor desperate people in the Middle East not see that their rich powerful leaders are perfect and all the problems in these countries is the fault of everyone else but these leaders. I mean the mere fact they've been in power most of them for around 40 years should prove to the people that they are perfection and nothing needs change. The fact that most of these countries are still in the dark ages in terms of education, health, gender equality, human rights and other aspects is not relevant. 

Dentist time

You know, it's funny most people don't like to go to the dentist. I'm about the same, despite fact I really like my dentist. I first saw him when I was 15 years old. He was the first dentist I saw in my life who wasn't a quack. He didn't take one look at my mouth and tell my mom that most of my teeth would have to be pulled out because the enamel was chipped or because I had massive cavities.  He's also the only dentist who does not leave me in agony or with fevers due to unresolved problems.

As it goes I have "sugar teeth". I eat sugar my teeth rot.  My dentist advised me of this when I was fairly young and while I still get the odd cavity every couple of years, mostly they are from damage that happened to my teeth when I had braces or around that time frame. For instance, old fillings get damaged with time and need redone.

I've not been lucky when they passed out teeth. As it goes adults have 28 teeth, 32 if they haven't had their wisdom teeth pulled out.  Well I never had wisdom teeth. A blessing really after seeing others having to get them pulled out.  I also never got all my adult teeth. I've never had more then 23 teeth. But due to this good dentist, I'm nearly 50 and I still have the same 23 original teeth that my mom spent so many years investing in.  She would be so proud. She ended up with dentures in her upper mouth fairly young and one of her biggest accomplishments she felt were my teeth.

So all that to say I have a dentist appointment today. Although I really don't want to go, I know the twice yearly checkups and cleanings keep my teeth in good condition, and I'm honoring all the efforts my mom put in my teeth.  So I can keep smiling a big toothy grin. Say CHEESE!

I should add my dentist is now 70 years old and I really don't look forward to the day he retires.  His receptionist who's been there easily 20-25 years tells me patients of his come from as far as Toronto for appointments. He's that good and well liked. Everyone in my family ended going to see him. Including my hubby, who loves him too.

Spock and Ziva - is it Love?

Sometimes I catch Spock and Ziva in what can best be described as intimate moments. It's not like they can do much more being both "its" by virtue of being 'fixed' or made sterile.

 

I find them so cute!

 

And one last one :) 

Spock is such a Casanova!

Babies are our future

A woman and her baby were kicked off a bus in Australia because her baby was laughing too loud. I can't believe a FEMALE bus driver did this. Click here for story  I mean if you choose a job that requires working with the public that means also putting up with crying or giggling babies. 

Shame on that bus driver and shame on the bus driver in Ottawa that kicked out my gf 7 (or was it 8) years ago off an Ottawa bus because her baby son was crying after a doctors appointment. 

People like that should get their ass kicked to the moon. Don't work in the service industry if you can't tolerate children or babies.

What is it with me and army shows?

First it was NCIS - which I started to watch because nothing else was on at that time slot on TV and I thought Abby rocked. The show grew on me and now it is one of my favourite shows. I'm not as crazy about NCIS LA but I don't dislike it either.

I figured I might check out the original show, JAG. Judge Advocate General. I didn't think I'd like it, but I got hooked too. I don't think the show is realistic. I mean they really stretch the idea of what a Navy lawyer does, but the show is entertaining. I do look forward to seeing the two JAG episodes that introduce Leroy Jethro Gibbs and launched NCIS. But I have several seasons of material to watch before I get there.

Of course I'm also fond of M.A.S.H. and China Beach.  Of course those are older and different.  For some reason I keep finding some similarities between Dana Delany and Catherine Bell. Dressed in uniform they look so alike. Yet clearly Dana Delany on Desperate Housewives, and Catherine Bell on Army wives look very different. But I can't help compare them on China Beach/JAG.

While I wrote this I was watching JAG, the last episode of season 2.

March dampened by the weather in Lebanon today

From what I've read only a few hundred people braved the downpour of rain to march for secularism today. Not enough showed up to make much impact or the news.  I know it's not the last time the Lebanese take to the streets sick of the sectarian system.But there will be a next time. You can count on it.

For some reason someone is determined to undermine civil peace and fuel problems in Lebanon. Early this morning there was an explosion near a Church in Zahle,  which caused a lot of damage to St Mary's Syriac Orthodox church, in the same area as the Estonian tourists were kidnapped. Thankfully no one was hurt, but strangely no one has claimed responsibility either.

Things are getting uglier in Syria and 2 Reuters journalists have gone missing Saturday after travelling to Syria from Lebanon. Hopefully they will be found shortly.

Canadian Election - for the 4rth time in 6 1/2 years

I don't care much for politics, but I've had it with Harper. I've had it with him saying it's HIS government as opposed to the Canadian government. I mean a government in a democratic country is supposed to represent the people. So it's never HIS government. It is the PEOPLES government.

I'm glad in some ways that the conservative government has fallen and hopefully we get a different leadership this time. One that is not led by Harper or the Conservatives. It's done nothing good to Canada. 

As I said I don't care for politics and honestly if someone would ask me what party I favour I wouldn't have had a clue. On CBC's website there's this link called Vote Compass.    It asks you questions and tells you what party you seem to be the closest to.  I don't know how accurate it is.   But it was interesting. 


Of course I live on the West Island of Montreal in a riding that is almost always represented by the Liberal Party. In the 20 years I've lived here, it's always been Liberal. I rarely ever feel that voting in a Canadian election has much impact, however it was grilled into my head by my Belgian step-dad that one should vote in a democracy, so I vote.

Montreal orders cab inspectors to stop fining drivers over religious items

This is definitely one order I can stand behind. I can't believe Montreal cab inspectors have been singling out cabbies who have religious objects on their dashboards for fines. This smells of discrimination and possibly racism.

I mean how many of us have pictures of our kids, husband and/or wive, pets, diploma's, plants and possibly artwork at our desks? Some may even have religious artifacts like a cross.  Personally other then pictures of my kids and husband I happen to have a large garden gnome on my shelf. I also have an inflatable Linux penguin, and there is an award our company won from ETS for being in their circle of top employers of interns hanging near my desk. I also have 3 plants, a few stress balls, and multiple pairs of shoes. I mean each person personalizes his work area. 

So in my mind so long as the safety of passengers isn't at risk and the items being displayed are not highly inappropriate, like porn for instance, I don't see why it should matter to anyone what a cabbie has in his cab which is his work environment.  I mean there is no rules that prevent motorists from hanging tacky fuzzy dice on their rear view mirror  or equipping it with lights that are reminiscent of a 70s disco, so why should cabbies not be allowed the same rights? 

Those who argue about the religious symbols - in my mind it makes total sense to have religious symbols in a vehicle where you spend most of your day in.  Many Christians will hang a rosary on their rear view mirror or a bumper sticker that lets the world know they are Christians. Many religious people feel safer in their car being protected by something that they relate to God. 

I'm not particularly religious but I have a native piece of artwork  and some sweetgrass hanging from my rear view mirror, which I believes protects me from harm while I drive.  I would have no issue with a cabbie who was carrying prayer beads or other symbols of his faith if it makes him more comfortable to drive. 

Winds of change

Headline this morning is that the leader of Yemen might be ready to step down. This is step in the right direction.

Surprisingly in Syria, despite their lousy record for killing protesters, they are actually willing to take down the emergency law from 1963 and make changes to improve the situation of the people. However the people are taking more and more to the streets. What seemed to be isolated protests in Daraa, now seems to have spread and the Syrian's are marching in numbers in "days of dignity rally".

As the UN imposed the no fly zone over Libya it doesn't seem like Gadafi is ready to step down.  The biggest fear people have is will it be enough? Will those involved be stuck in an endless crisis in Libya? Will it help the country achieve peace or are they contributing to more problems ahead?

In Amman Jordan, protesters have established a protest camp and won't leave until the prime minister leaves and they get wider public freedom.  From what I've read they have been clashing with government supporters.

The weirdest news from the middle east is the 7 Estonian tourists that got kidnapped from the Bekka Valley near Zahle in Lebanon.   One of the stories I read about it was a spoof by a Lebanese going on about how Lebanon should market "terrorism" vacation packages. Gotta love Lebanese humour :) Hopefully the Lebanese army will find the  7 tourists unharmed. This is not good for tourism in Lebanon.

Despite crushing the protestors in Bahrain, they are not detered. They are calling for a day of rage on Friday and nine demonstrations appear to be planned, across different parts of Bahrain, despite the fact martial law was imposed last week.

People will not be ignored.

More marching for Secularism in Lebanon!

My mom in law protesting on march 20th!

My mom in law says that 20 000 people marched on the 20th of March for secularism, including women and children. New protest on the 27th of March. Hopefully twice as many people will march!

Cats get to smell spring air

The best way for me to get all 4 cats in a picture is to open up the patio door, wait till they congregate and take photo's. I figured since it was a warmish day for March on Sunday, I would open the patio door.

Jethro, Spock, Ziva and Pixie spot a bird.

Pixie, Ziva, Spock and Jethro's seen from behind.

The Lebanese keep marching for secularism

For the 3rd Sunday in so many weeks, thousands of  Lebanese are marching for ending the sectarian system. My mother in law has been marching, she says because her children are not here to march themselves. God/dess bless her soul. Our Lebanese friends have been marching for secularism. How can they not?

One of the things that keeps Lebanon consistently unstable is the different rules for different religions. A political system based on confessionalism, a power-sharing mechanism based on religious communities - which might have been fair when Lebanon became a republic in 1943, but not so much in this day and age.  I'm wondering if the French influenced  and encouraged this system on purpose to ensure long term instability in the region? [ You know that colonial arrogance - "See they can't rule themselves" ]

I suppose at the time it seemed like they were treating people from all different religions fairly. But it would have been more fair if all Lebanese had the exact same rights, regardless their religion or gender.  For instance, after being married for 5 years to a Lebanese man I can apply for a Lebanese passport.  If I was a man who married a Lebanese woman I could never get Lebanese nationality.  Lebanese men can pass their nationality to their wives and children. Lebanese women who marry foreigners have no such rights.

People want the right to have a civil marriage if they so chose, and be able to do it in Lebanon instead of being forced to go to Cyprus to do it. People want to be able to go to a civil court for divorce instead of religious courts.

This is the 3rd such march organized and this one has attracted the most people yet. I don't know if the next march is the Laique Pride March scheduled for April 17 2011 or if there will be more protests before this date. Either way I'm with my mother-in-law in spirit each time she marches!

Middle East - still protesting as spring arrives in 2011

The western media has been more quiet about the continuing protests in the Middle East. It's not over in Libya by a long shot. Crazy Ghadafi is still thinking he can crush his people and continue the status quo. Here's hoping the rebels win! Hopefully the no fly zone helps the rebels.

More than a month of daily protests calling for political freedoms and an end to corruption have presented President Ali Abdullah Saleh with the  biggest challenge to his 32 years of running Yemen. Sadly here much as in Libya, they are shooting to kill protesters.

Things aren't better in Bahrain where the Saudi's are helping the Sunni Bahraini government to push back the Shiite rebels and Qatar looks like it may help as well. Thankfully the Kuwaiti's aren't sending troops but doctors to help out the injured. The government has also taken down the monument in Manama's Pearl Square because it had become the symbol of the protesters.

In Iraq, the people are protesting in support of the Shiite people of Bahrain and against King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. The Iraqi's feel the Saudi's are puppets of the US and are afraid that the clashes in Bahrain will fuel sectarian violence throughout the region.

In Algeria President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has promised all sorts of political reforms while security forces blocked planned protests in the capital Algiers. The Algerians keep trying to set up protests but keep being blocked. 

In Iran  thousands of people in Tehran marched in support of  the protesters in Bahrain, Libya and Yemen.

In Jordan there was a peaceful protest in Amman, to demand constitutional reforms and to dissolve the government. King Abdullah II is hinting there could be early  elections in Fall 2011.

As for Saudi Arabia, they are also preventing all protests and the majority Sunni country has sent troops in it's Shiite areas to prevent any protests from starting there either. But the rulers are on edge. It's just a matter of time really before the Saudi people take to the streets like the rest of the middle east. 

Egyptians turned out in droves at polling stations to vote in a constitutional referendum in their first taste of democracy after president Mubarak was forced to relinquish his 30-year grip on power last month after mass protests. 

In Lebanon, yesterday you have the head of Hezbollah, Nasrallah, who held a rally to support protests across the middle east with the exception of those going on in Syria  and Iran. Last week it was thousands of Lebanese marching at Martyr's square to demand the disarming of Hezbollah.

There's even protests in Dakar, Senegal for change.  Dissent has been mounting in the moderate West African nation, where the 80 something president wants to run for a 3rd term. Someone else who should retire and let someone younger rule the country.

Then there's Syria, which undoubtedly holds one  of the worst human rights record in all of the Middle East, where people were killed protesting yesterday. They sealed off the city where the protests are happening.  President Bashar Assad claims that Syria is immune to the cries for change that have already toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia.  I'm not so sure. The people there are so poor and oppressed they have nothing to lose. I can't believe Syria is still under a 1963 emergency law which bans demonstrations.

Here's something amusing. This morning in my email I had a message from the Embassy of Canada in Damascus, Syria. It was telling me things are looking dangerous in Syria and if I don't need to be there, to not be there.

Why they emailed me? Each time I travel to the Middle East I register myself to the Canadian site for people who travel abroad with my specific dates of travel. I had registered in September 2010 specifying I was going to Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.   There have been protests in Lebanon and Jordan in the past months and no one sent me any warnings. Hell I've been to Lebanon 5 times and registered on the site each time. All sorts of events have occurred in Lebanon since 2007 and never was I sent an advisory about Lebanon!

Which points out how EVERYONE knows how bad things can get in Syria - when my government will give me travel advisories against Syria just because I've been there once. My husband would agree. Syria scares him. Anyone who knows my husband knows he does not scare easily. After all he lived close to 30 years in Lebanon and through the civil war. [Dunno why they call it civil war, there is nothing civil about it]

Where's the fun?

I went to Walmart today in my monthly kitty litter run, and didn't see anyone looking particularly weird. I mean other then the goth chick, but she was a very tame goth. I'm so disappointed. I should know better that the Walmart in Kirkland, being in a reasonably well-off area of Montreal is not the place to see the real "People of Walmart".

At least it was a sunny day, I'm in a better mood then I was when I woke up this morning, where all I wanted to do was crawl under a rock and hide. A buddy to whom I emailed this, took it literally and suggested that perhaps it was the gardening spirit in me that was pining for spring.

I'm probably going to make some hummus balila and some form of 8-bean salad with the Berbere spice.  I'm so addicted.

Great balls of fire!

Most of the collection of cat toys found under furniture.

This morning Ziva came to complain that she had no toys. This is typical. She has dozens of balls all over the house but loses them under furniture.

So I made a thorough sweep of the house, for all places where she might have lost her plastic balls with bells. I figured looking for her balls I'd find Spock's fuzzy balls. 

Well after doing a complete search, I found 15 plastic balls and 11 fuzzy balls, as well as a couple of fuzzy mice and maybe 4-5 less liked toys. I hid half of each pile so I can give them back to the cats slowly. I even found several parts that would have made 2 more plastic balls, but that had broken and presumably landed under the basement couch.

SuperMoon Rising!

Tonight the moon will be at one of it's closest points to the earth and the moon will look bigger then usual. I hope the sky is clear and I can manage to take some pictures.

I hear the tides will be higher then usual because the moon is closer. 

It makes me cry but I love it anyways

I just recently discovered the show Army Wives.  The mere fact it's from "Lifetime" I should have known better.  :) I mean it screams chick show. I watched a few episodes and got hooked. The down side is that each time I watch an episode I cry.  In some ways it's good, it's very therapeutic. It helps me deal with my emotions. My bottled up emotions. It's in it's 5th season and I hope it lasts 5 more :)

Eyefinity 6 - revisited

I've been running the Eyefinity 6 on the Dell T7500 for a few weeks. Mostly it's been great to compare bugs we find with M9188. I'm sure the EyeFinity 6 kicks ass in gaming and is a high-performing card, but I still find it highly annoying for running in 6 displays. I was going to use the word "performant" but apparently it's not an English word. [It's a perfectly good French word however]

Other then the issues I've already complained about, the fact it requires active displayport to DVI adapters on 4 of it's 6 heads when you use DVI, it has other really annoying behaviors.

Lets say you trip over a cable and one of your monitors get unplugged. Then all your monitors go black while it and Windows 7 decides how it's going to reconfigure your displays. So if you had display 1 on a particular monitor, now it might be display 5. Because 1 and 5 are really the same to windows, I mean who cares if monitor 5 is at the other end of the bench far away from  your mouse and keyboard. Unplugging and replugging to get the layout you want might be a waste of time because each time you change something around it also changes things around for you.

With M9188 if I unplug 1 monitor, that monitor goes black. It doesn't matter if I was  using displayport, dvi or analog. I can even swap between the 3 and it will not affect the config of any of the other outputs. They will continue to display and the monitors will stay exactly how  you configured them.

Each time anyone of us touches anything with the Eyefinity 6  it takes 2 of us to figure out how to get it back in the config we want again.Their drivers aren't particularly intuitive to install or to uninstall for that matter, and the features they offer aren't as useful as the features offered on M9188 to manage the desktops. Ati's idea of desktop management is where you put your displays. M9188's idea of desktop management is to help you manage your applications on layouts with more then 2 screens.

Anyone who uses an M9188 who complains about how to configure it has never used an Eyefinity 6. Sure the M9188 does not have great 3D performance, but this isn't it's market. However the M9188 is highly configurable and very user friendly. The features offered are aimed at making a multiple monitor layout a pleasant experience and offers features to help in that respect.

Part of ATI's mistake is letting Windows 7 handle most of the work. You'd think Microsoft would realize that no one runs with 1 display anymore, and in fact if there is a gaming card out with 6 displays it means it's client base wants good support for multiple monitors. However this is not the case. It was obvious the first time I put a pair of ATI FireMV 2400 PCIe x1 card in a system, attached a monitor to each of the 8 heads and let Windows 7 load the driver that was already in the OS. The screens flashed on and off for over 15 minutes.  By the time it finished the third head of one of the two cards was the primary display.  I had to reboot 3 more times to get a usable layout.

When do you dump a friend?

I blogged about 2 weeks ago about an ex that really hurt my feelings calling me totally drunk. It's been close to 3 weeks since this incident and I'm still really hurt and upset about it.

When do you call it quits on a friend? When do you decide to never talk to someone again?

This is what I'm pondering tonight. I have so much unresolved anger relating to my relationship to him and when he drinks and becomes an ass, it brings up all this anger to the surface and then it becomes all consuming.

Week-end Spot

After a month and a half of not being able to draw or finish the few drawings I did start his week-end I did 3 new pastel drawings, more abstract then what I normally draw. The important part was just to draw so I did draw and finish 3 pastels:


Welcome to a spotty future

The spots of time

Without a spot of a doubt

Cooked today

I made an 8 bean salad with Berbere spice. I love the tang these spices adds to the salad.  Of course making bean salad, the only thing I'm cutting and cooking are the green & yellow beans. I could use canned, but I find they are way too salty. 

I also made a veggie Moroccan style tagine in my slow cooker. That should be ready around 9pm. It's interesting. It's made mostly out of root veggies but also includes orange juice and prunes.  It's full of all sorts of spices too.

The last dish I made today was a form of eggplant chickpea curry. That smelled really awesome. I'm currently cooking brown rice and millet to accompany both the curry and the tagine.  I made the house smell really good :)

Lately all I want is spicy food, and hot food. None of the food served here seems ever hot enough. I hope both my dishes come out with enough oumpft otherwise I'm going to have to learn to add cayenne to everything.

What is it about March?

It was March 17th last year when my gf's husband burned their house down with a kitchen grease fire, he was making french fries.  Well she got a George Forman Fryer, just like I did, thinking it would be safe, and prevent fires.Well tonight without warning, the element just shorted out and burned through the plastic and caught on fire.  Thankfully, it was caught on time and major disaster was avoided.

It wasn't her day for small appliances. Her electric kettle also decided it would be a good idea not to auto-shut off until it was devoid of water. Thankfully, that didn't cause a fire either.

About disasters, my prayers goes out to the Japanese people affected by the nasty earthquake.

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Do not molest the alligators!

It had to crack me up that 2 students were arrested during spring break in Florida for alligator taunting. I always wondered why in one of the parks I went to in Florida with my dad, there were signs that said "Do not feed or MOLEST the alligators". I kept asking myself who would want to molest an alligator, but I guess I'm not an 18-25 year old male college student who drank one too many beers.

Pothole shuffle

The last bout of snow/rain combo we got really brought out the potholes. My biggest complain is about the St Regis Street between Deacon and Sunnybrooke. It used to be that the city of Dorval would give prize for the person who found the biggest pothole, not anymore.  The potholes are becoming so big that people zigzag around them in a dangerous way to avoid damaging their vehicle.

One of our interns destroyed 2 of his tires this past Saturday by driving through a puddle, it was dark and raining. He was one of 4 who destroyed his tires in that pothole near St Eustache.

My eldest also had a flat last night because she drove into a puddle hiding a pothole on Decarie. Poor kid had to wait till her dad could help her change her tire.

Yemeni hero

Tawakkul Karman

 My new hero is Tawakkul Karman, a Yemeni female human rights activist. She is an inspiration. It is surprising to see that against all odds it is a woman who is bringing change in Yemen.

I had more to say about women and human rights but I lost my train of thought. 

Plant's source still unidentified.

Mini Bell-flower

This is the plant that appeared at my desk yesterday and I still have no idea who it was from.  I was amused when looked at the picture in it's full resolution. It's hard not to see I work for a hardware company. There's a graphics card on the left of my desk and a stack of hard drives on the right. One of the cable bags seen holds a bunch of audio couplers.  In the far right top  background you can see the edge of an oscilloscope.  

Interns, interns, interns.

This morning while stopped watching the pedestrians crossing the road, I realized one of them was I gone of my interns so I honked to get his attention [My windows don't open if it's been cold overnight] and gave him a lift to work. The same intern I saw walking down St Regis yesterday [where he was almost at work - he got to door before I did walking from parking lot].  I told him about how I wished I'd had my camera because the guy walking made a nice contrast with all the whiteness of the snow.  Told him that I realized when I got closer that it was him.   Also told him years ago I used to wait for the bus at the corner where I picked him up and randomly on some mornings someone from work would see me waiting and give me a lift to work. So that if I see him I'll stop again next time.  He's a nice intern.

I get to my desk this morning and there's a plant on my desk. A purple mini  bell-flower. It was just weird, no note, nothing. Don't know if it was for International woman's day or if it was for another reason. Really I'm puzzled. I asked a couple of people, and no one knew. So I guess I'll never know.  It's quite pretty. I just have to remember to bring a plate and find room for it. Of course, it's also something once summer comes I can plant outside.

I got an email late today from a Coop university coordinator asking me if I could tell him how one of the students I interviewed did on her interview and if there were reasons why she wasn't chosen.  As it turned out, no reason other then luck of the draw. I interviewed around 20 students and out of that number I liked 8 and I had 3 positions to fill with different requirements.   I had first and second choices and even third choices for some spots. 

If my first and second choice for my 'person friday student' had both been from that particular university  he would have seen she had been picked as 2nd choice. Unfortunately my first choice was from another university and I'd been waiting over 2 weeks for a confirmation that he'd accepted the offer. We had given him the deadline of today for an answer and then I would have contacted 2nd choice to make an offer. 

Why I chose the intern I did? I connected better with the first choice. Of all the students I interviewed several weeks ago, he was the one I was instantly at ease with. He had all the skills I was looking for, and a perfect GPA. I figured he'd get lots of offers based on his GPA alone and I would probably not be his first choice with my very junior position.

On the other hand the 2nd choice student I really liked too. She was eager, had enthusiasm and wasn't afraid of hardware, something rare in female internship candidates. She had all the skills I was looking for too. One weakness was that she has zero French, but  she doesn't need it to work in my team. She is taking French classes so keenly aware of the fact it's needed to work in Quebec. English, her second language is still not 100% but I understood her fine.

I wrote back to the coop coordinator that I liked the student and that in summer we get twice as many applicants and it was just luck of the draw.  I also told him why I liked her.  It could just as easily have been her who got the job.  I suspect that the student asked the coordinator why she didn't get the job.

Common sense isn't so common when it snows....

We've probably gotten 25-30cm's [10-12"] of snow in the past 2 days accompanied with intense winds this morning. It's not that much but if left on your vehicle it is enough to completely blind the guy behind you  when it leaves your car/truck as you pick up speed.

I thought that the law that brought about mandatory winter tires between December 15th and March 15th also had a rule regarding clearing your vehicle of snow.  Unfortunately I haven't seen any of these new rules being enforced. I wonder how many people don't use winter tires? I mean they should have random checkpoints like they do for drinking and driving or seat belts.

There was a police supervisor on the corner of de Salaberry & Sources this morning, it seemed to keep traffic from blocking the intersection. With all the cars going by that are still full of snow he could have pulled over dozens  and given them tickets.

I'm five foot nothing and I have a telescopic windshield cleaning brush so I can clear even the roof of my Grand Vitara. If I didn't the snow would hit my windshield and I'd be driving blind. I even hate it when the little bits left over land on the back windshield. It's something I used to stop on side of road to clear when I still drove the Protege. I love the fact the Grand Vitara has a windshield wiper on the back window. I can keep it clear and clean and see out the window. With the Protege, I'd stop at the gas station several times a week just to clean the rear windshield in winter.

I wish I'd had my camera with me when I drove down St Regis this morning.  The trees on both sides of the road heavy with snow,  the road was all white and it was hard to see where the road stopped and the sky began, the lone person walking all in black, contrasting with everything being white, since it was snowing hard at that point. Turns out the person was one of my interns, who also happens to be dark skinned. Would have made a nice contrast.  I should learn to keep a camera with me at all times. Someone suggested that my cell phone has a camera. This is true, but taking a photo with a camera on a 4 year old cell phone compared to a SLR camera... well... for artistic photos, the cell phone will not do.

The Lebanese march on for Secularism

Yesterday there was more protests in Lebanon for  secularism. I hope the protests encourage change. Things have gotten even nastier in Libya. It's amazing what Gahdafy will do to stay in power, including lying and killing his own people. What a crazy despot!


The Canadian government is warning Canadians to get out of Yemen so things are getting ugly there too. Saudi Arabia have forbidden any protests calling it un-Islamic. I doubt Mohamed, peace be upon him, ever thought that peaceful protests are a problem. But what do I know?

I'm thinking this year will not be a good year to travel anywhere in the Middle East. Too much likelihood of protests and civil disobedience. I don't disagree with either, but I know when you go to protest anything can happen too.

Who will Charlie Sheen piss off today?

Who's been in the news a lot lately and not because he kicks ass in Two and a Half Men? Why Charlie Sheen of course.  It's funny to see his antics as Charlie Harper, but I suspect in real life Charlie Sheen is even crazier then the part he plays on TV. 

His brain is so pickled from the alcohol and drugs it's any wonder he can function. Then again Keith Richards still functions.. so when you're rich it's amazing what you can get away with. 

Today apparently he pissed off members of the pagan community. It's not really worth for anyone to get their britches in a knot over Sheen. He probably can't remember what he did 5 minutes ago, never mind yesterday.

On that note I'm going to get ready to go shopping with eldest daughter. I think we're going to go to Carrefour Laval. I would have shopped with both daughters if I hadn't wanted to go so early. It's just there are less people in the stores at 9am then at noon. 

Goofy Maine Coon

Stop with the pictures and take this stuff off me!

Jethro like most Maine Coons can be pretty goofy and we can all use goofy, especially after reading the news. Everything in the news is so depressing lately.

The first picture was taken as a joke, I don't think Jethro was amused but it makes me giggle. He's wearing a tiger striped turquoise bikini with gold decorations.












 The second and third picture are incredibly cute. Jethro with a very young Ziva, being very paternal. It's so adorable. 

Will you stay still girl!

You really need a bath. Stinky!

Apparently it's ok to fire on unarmed women...

At least that's what they did in the Ivory Coast. Gahdafi has someone rivalling him for the biggest douchebag in Africa at the moment. The regime of Laurent Gbagbo refuses to go away though he was not re-elected 3 months ago.

In a country where usually it's the woman's marches that reign in the army, this time they fired on unarmed women killing at least 6 point blank. The women marching had assumed that the army would be too ashamed to fire on women. They were wrong.

Gbagbo is right up there with Gahdafi firing on unarmed civilians instead of listening to common sense.

Libya, things getting uglier by the day

At first both the rebels and pro-Gahdafy people were saying no outside world intervention in Libya. "It's our country, let us figure it out."  Today some of the rebels are starting to say they may need outside help to get rid of Gahdafy. It seems that he is well entrenched in Tripoli and the surrounding area and removing him may prove more difficult then the rebels can handle. Fears abound that Libya will become the new Somalia.

I hope not. I also hope things improve around Somalia and that piracy decreases in the high seas. People keep saying that others are idiots to go sailing near Somalia, but one must realize that if you're going to use the Suez canal you have to pass in the gulf of Eden and this is where Somalian pirates are hijacking ships. This is a high traffic shipping route.

Still I hope the levelheadedness the rebels have shown in Libya prevails and that they succeed in ousting Gahdafi and establishing some form of democratic system truly run by the people. It would suck if instead the country descended into civil wars for years on end.

Another stupid law... thanks to

Yes... you guessed it Arizona. I'm surprised it doesn't have it's own tag on FARK like Florida!

This time the wonderful legislators in Arizona decided it would be a good idea to ban Karma!

I'm going to sit here and shake my head and move on.

Diet to be helpful with some children with ADHD

Article suggests that some children with ADHD would benefit from a diet where food they are allergic or intolerant to is removed.

I believe in this as in myself the removal of refined sugars and flours originally, including alcohol, chocolate and caffeine and now also removing casein and gluten has made huge differences in how I feel and how hyper I am.

Give me food colouring or any form of refined sugar and I'll talk so fast I'll make you dizzy and bounce off ceilings to the point you'll send me outside to wear out. I've been like this as long as I can remember.

I get a major buzz from eating sugary foods. The most intense buzz I'd get was after drinking a 2L bottle of either Cream Soda or Root beer.  They used to be my favourite soft drinks. 

All those who hang out with me will be happy to know I haven't touched soft drinks in over 15 years.