Intervention in Syria is well overdue

I've been feeling that someone should intervene in Syria and that's what the Emir of Qaatar seems to be saying as well.

In the past couple of days some of the worst destruction they have done in months has been done in Syria.

There has to be a resolution soon before there's nothing left but bodies in rubble.

To our servicemen and servicewomen...

Imelda's shoes

Hush Puppies Bewilde Ankle Boot_BW in black

To any shoe amateur Imelda Marco's shoe collection is legendary. Imagine my dismay when I found out a percentage of her shoes had gotten water damage or termite damage. Last news I read is that they were going to restore the shoes.


Tonight I went to Fairview to shop. It sucked because I had no one to go with. My best shopping buddies aren't in Montreal and the few other female friends I have don't care much for shopping. 

The only thing I ended up buying was a pair of black Bewilde ankle boots.

Motion 312 got defeated!

Canada hasn't had an abortion law since 1988 when the 1969 law was struck down as unconstitutional.  There is no need for an abortion law.  This is an old worn out topic and I'm not sure why people try to keep bringing it back up.

The thing that pisses me off is often anti-abortionists are male. It's easy to decide for others what they can do with their bodies when it's NEVER going to affect them.

The good part is that some conservative MP tried to pass a motion to bring up the debate as to when life starts as a way to bring up the abortion debate and the motion was defeated.  This is good. At least women of reproductive age in Canada are not going to lose the ability to decide for themselves whether or not to get an abortion.

Besides the presence of an abortion law does not prevent abortions. I had an illegal abortion at a Morgantaler clinic in Montreal in 1986, a few years before the law was struck down.

This is your gnome of the day

I'll be sharing a random "Gnome of the day" from time to time. So I just picked a card at random from the deck. This is what popped up today.

Breakfast place

Saturday September 15th,  we had breakfast at this place in St Jovite called Eggspress Matin on la rue de St Jovite.  I had the spinach and cheese omelette which came with pan fried potatoes. The potatoes were to die for.  The place was rather large but wasn't crowded. The service was excellent. The food was excellent, I don't think we left anything in either plates.

When I went to the bathroom to wash my hands I noticed that they had an area for children, with a TV that was playing a disney movie and  an area for children to sit down and hang out. I thought that was a really good idea. They also have a counter for those who want breakfast to go.

Canada - UK embassies make sense

Yes as Canadians we like to get away from the fact we were once a British colony, and I suppose this might be why some find the notion of sharing space with the UK for some embassies offensive.

Personally I think it makes sense. Besides I've seen consular offices be in other offices abroad. The person is  for instance a lawyer and also the consul. Sharing space with the Brits will mean that Canadians will have more services abroad because they won't have to open completely new branches. They will be able to send a few staff to an office already run by the Brits and vice versa.  It doesn't take away from Canadian sovereignty.

There are more offensive things this government are doing then sharing office space with the UK. Like wanting to trample on women's rights!!!!

Everyday I still cry for Syria

Not a day goes by that I don't check what goes on in Syria. It's sad that such a beautiful country is being completely destroyed because a select few don't want to let go of power.  I can't help but think about the millions of Syrians who are stuck in this civil war now with no place to go.

I can't help but think about an entire generation of children growing in this. Seeing their families, relatives, neighbours, homes, towns, cities, way of life and I could go on about the things that are being destroyed. 

I know the 'rebels' have no choice. They have lost too much to stop fighting now.  The fight must go on. I support the rebels cause realizing that there are abuses done there too. How that will affect this society once war is over?

I think of Lebanon that was embroiled in civil war for the better part of 20 years and the shattered souls it left. It scares me to think that what is going on in Syria could very well spill over into Lebanon, as it has multiple times already, it could also spill into Turkey, and Jordan.  It probably scares the living daylights out of Israel as well.

I don't know what to think anymore.  I see more victims and more rage and the vicious cycle of violence rears it's ugly head.  I see that Bashar Al Assad is nothing more then a chip off the old block. A butcher just like his father. And like Gadaffi, he will not stop until he is dead.

I still cry for you Syria and keep hoping that there is soon an end.

Quality of products go down as quantity goes up

The race to get your product out of the door faster to be the first with a product out to get the share of the market is making for very sloppy products.  I've been noticing that big companies like Microsoft, Apple, google, release products way too early without having fixed most of the problems.

One of hte biggest problems I've been noticing of late, is poor support for larger fonts. And here's the amusing part, the western world is full of baby boomers, who now all suffer from from presbyopia.


Last night blogger forced their new interface on me and the size of fonts I was using in firefox made me run into a plethora of bugs that made blogging a real PITA.  Today as I squint to write this in a smaller font size, I'm not running into 1001 bugs.

I have to admit though, being a QA specialist for the past 20 years, no one ever tests anything other then in small fonts in Windows [with the exception of me that is].  It's obvious when you use large fonts with some apps. Never mind the new "extra large fonts" in windows 7. 

I remember years ago, we wanted to develop a product with high DPI, where we were going to use an extra large font. I believe it was 150 DPI [small is 96 DPI and large is 120 DPI] or maybe even larger, and I did some research for them.   I remember finding that most applications did not function well in such large font sizes, and that developing a product to support such font sizes was just going to be nightmarish because we would get blamed for the fact 3rd party software was not functioning well with fonts that large.

And I bet most people who do QA aren't in the age group who need to use larger fonts so they never think about it.

And for the record I'm not anymore impressed with Windows 8 now then I was back in June. I also have no desire to own any apple products!

Ah everyone wants to be first

I don't get the appeal of standing in line to get product X on the day it is released. I hate crowds. I don't think I've ever lined up for tickets of anything.  Apparently today there were line-ups at Apple stores around the world.

I wonder if the Apple stores in Montreal called the police to warn them about gatherings around their stores and I wonder if they had busloads of riot squad police waiting on side streets a few streets over the main apple stores ready to disperse the crowds like they do when people assemble somewhere to protest.

Things that make you go HmmmMmmmm.

La Macaza covered Bridge dates from 1904

While I'm not too fond of crossing some bridges, I do like taking photos of bridges. Since this one was on our path I took photo's.

Macaza covered bridge

Macaza covered bridge on the Rouge river.

Misophonia

New word of the day - Misophonia - or the hatred of sound.

This is the main reason I have a hard time sleeping if I'm in a room with anyone else. The sound of their breathing will prevent me from sleep!

We stopped at La Macaza

On Saturday we stopped in La Macaza to take a few photos. We did NOT go to the penitentiary. Apparently there is a prison for sex offenders in La Macaza.  We had no clue, we went there because it was one entrance to the Rouge-Matawin wild-life reserve.

Fog in the trees early morning

Nice representation of a boat on the side of a house

The church of La Macaza

Mmm crackers and cheese

Lately I've been enjoying crackers and cheese. Mary's organic gluten free crackers with Kashkaval cheese, a Bulgarian goat cheese. Yummy.

The Occupy movement turns one

I don't know what to say - it's been a year since protesters took to occupying Zuccotti park in NewYork, and I'm not sure if the Occupy movement made any difference or if it's still just the beginning? 

Occupy Kitties wish the Occupy movement a Happy anniversary!

Notice the shift in the protests?

Last year, many countries in the Muslim world were still involved in Arab spring protests. They were asking for their rights and freedoms. This seems to have changed in some countries like Tunisia and Egypt, where the angry protests are now against a film no one has seen!!!  It's so far just a trailer on the internet. But all the anger that should probably go against the problems in their country is now aimed squarely towards the west.

It's obvious those who put this trailer up want to inflame the those who would get offended at this sort of thing. I don't know who's behind it, but it's really turning part of the Muslim world against the west and this is bound to have a backlash for us Canadians.

It really sucks because the level of hatred showed in some of these protests is disproportionate to a movie. I mean 4 lives were lost in Libya and the people who died had nothing to do with the movie trailer. I mean going to a protest and saying all those who offend Islam should be beheaded makes me wonder what kind of world we live in. You want others to respect your religion and prophet how about respecting other people's right to have an opinion too? 

What happens to those who get over coddled?

I was amazed that in the US, some parents are being reported as negligent for letting their children play outside in the yard unsupervised. Long gone are the days where parents let their children go to the grocery store to pick up some milk before dinner. It seems people think if a child is outside alone, he is in grave danger of being hurt or kidnapped. 

Yet statistics does not show the rate of strangers hurting children has gone up. Generally children are hurt by people they know, rarely by strangers.

I wonder about this world. I remember in 1968 taking the city bus all by myself at age 6 to go to my ballet lessons. I was a 2 minute walk from the bus stop and the bus came along every 5 minutes and was 2 minutes walk from my ballet classes.   I also used to go to the grocery store, the bakery, the five and dime store and the convenience store to help my mom. I was hyper and my mom didn't have the of health. What better way to utilize my natural abilities and get exercise all while helping my single mom. I used to even go and deposit my mom's paycheck at the bank starting at age 6.  

My mom considered me to be resourceful and dependable. I brought back receipts and exact change.  I don't remember ever being harassed as a child while running errands for my mom. I was also allowed to ride my bicycle around the neighbourhood once I mastered the art of riding it.

I also remember walking to my swimming lessons by myself from age 6 to 10.  That was a long walk and sometimes I scared my mom by talking longer then I should walking home. I'd run into a dog or cat and follow it for a while, until I realized I needed to go home. Or I'd get lost in games inside my head and take forever walking.

I let my kids be kids and got chastised for it a lot.  When I split up with my ex-husband I moved to a low rent housing complex that was on the edge of one of the few big wooded areas left in Montreal, Le Bois de Liesse.  I liked the fact our apartment building was on the edge of the woods, so there was at least a place for my children to play outside the street. I told my kids that they could go in the forest so long as they saw the buildings so they would not get lost. Of course with time and hanging out with other kids they got to learn the woods really well.  The worst incident that happened to them that I know of, is my youngest falling through the ice of a small pond when it was close to freezing. But she was close enough to home and with her sister, that nothing bad came of it.

I pity those who aren't allowed to leave their homes unless accompanied by a parent.  By the time they turn 18, they won't know how to get around and imagine having these coddled children as work colleagues?  How resourceful do you think they will be?

Le Lac Jamet, on n'y est jamais arrivé

Many things that could go wrong went wrong and we never made it to the lake we expected to camp at. Our experience in the reserve faunique Rouge-Matawin was so poor that we were back home by noon today.   

It was quite an adventure, I like offroading, and I've been to quite a few places this summer that were off the beaten path, but this was undoubtedly the worst kept trail ever. Between the fallen trees, and the unmarked rocks all over the place, and in some places ditches and ravines on a road barely wide enough for SUV, and the trails were not marked at all once we got on the 41. The place to get information closed at 4pm and would not re-open till 8am the next morning.

After hitting what my companion called a 'bear claw' in the road which may have damaged my vehicle and almost sent the canoe flying off the truck, breaking the brand new straps we got to put the canoe on the truck, we backtracked to a Y in the road and pretty much parked and camped there for the night because it was wide enough to accommodate a tent. By then it was pitch dark and I didn't want to end in a ravine. Oh did I mention there was torrential rain pouring the entire time we went looking for this lake and the last hour was almost in complete darkness.

The punster in me can't help noticing that this lake is called Lac Jamet - which is French and sounds like jamais, which is the French word for NEVER. So... we never made it to lake never!

 
Worse camping week-end ever. Never canoed. Took us over an hour to put up tarp in rain and I couldn't sleep because we were camping on the trail and I was afraid some drunk idiot would come barrelling out of nowhere and kill us. What the irrational mind thinks after being stressed out.... We didn't see a soul the entire time we were on the off road trail. Well except for 3 cotton tail deer, 3 regular deer, a partridge, a loon, a raven family and several chipmunks.

I did not know shoes are a metaphor for the vagina

Learn something new every day.  I wonder what it says about women who must have hundreds of shoes? Personally I've been mostly buying really comfortable shoes and still trying to find some that I find sexy too... but I still wonder what shoes have to do with vaginas?

I ended up with these thoughts after reading "Is the vagina the new penis".

and stumbled into this series of photos and thoughts "The tale of two burka's"

While we're discussing vaginas, what about women who feel the need to get vaginoplasty, that is plastic surgery of their vagina!!! I mean how often does one look at your vagina? Who sets standards on vagina beauty? How do these women come to conclude that their vagina needs surgery? Have they looked at too much porn?  Where else are they going to see a large sampling of close up female genitalia? And even then, most of these photos are airbrushed!!!

I don't know what to think about Naomi Wolf's new book "Vagina", but I'll reserve that opinion for after I read it.  However I can tell you I will not read "Fifty shades of grey", just saying...

And last but not least, the strangest things hidden in women vaginas

Some people like pushing buttons

Some yahoo in the US decided that it would be a good idea to be offensive to Muslims with a movie. The trailer has been around online since mid july but was recently translated into Arabic for maximum effect.  Sadly for some reason, large crowds of Muslims in the middle east like storming the US embassies to get the point across. Sadly for the  US ambassador to Libya it was fatal.

Keep the neighbors guessing!

Share this cow - for absolutely no reason at all!!!

My brain runs on Pagan OS

Miss some old shows

The past week or two I've been watching Homicide: Life on the streets. I love that show.  When I start watching it again I remember how much I really miss it. There's not other show quite like it. I loved how real the characters were. It was far more realistic then say NCIS;LA.

The music chosen on the show was also really nice. For instance I recognized in one of the episodes one of the Garbage songs I hadn't heard in years and it was neat to remember it. Other music that was played was also a welcome change.

Most of my favorite crime shows are no more. Of those series, City Homicide, Law & Order, the original, Without a Trace, In Plain Sight [Series finished this summer], NY City undercover, NYPD blue and of course Homicide: Life on the streets.

I miss them all.....

Art and Poetry exiled from Syria

Things are not looking good in Syria at the moment. Hala Muhammad, a Syrian artist exiled in Paris shares her vision.

This does not stop Assad and his regime from air bombing neighbourhoods in both of the countries biggest cities, Aleppo and Damascus. I keep praying for this conflict to end and it keeps getting worse :(

Don't you hate it when you throw out your back *coughing*

I know I hate throwing out my back by coughing. But it happens frequently enough. It hurts like a mofo too.  I was getting out of my chair and coughed. I was just at a wrong angle. And bam there goes my back. 

So I did not get to visit my daughter's ship. I couldn't move comfortably enough. I hope my back is going to be fine for work on Monday.

We're out of Za'atar

This is a deja vu. In fact I have another entry with this exact same title. Where's it's amusing is that it was someone else who was fussy about the Za'atar not me. 

Now it's me. I went to Akhavan to pick up Kashkaval and a whole bunch of other things they carry that I enjoy. I did not find Za'atar Halabi. And apparently for me it isn't Za'atar if it's not Za'atar Halabi.

On a completely unrelated subject, my daughter, the sailor, is in port! She dropped by briefly last night with a ship mate to say hello. Today we shopped. I left work at 12:15 and picked up her. We first went to Carrefour Laval where I got to find the same trench coat that I lost sometime in June, and I got it cheaper the 2nd time around then the first time around at Simons. That was the only real purchase I made today. My daughter mostly wanted accessories, so we went to 2 different Ardene's. She picked up 4 pairs of flats, and some bling for when she goes out.  I dropped her off at the hair dressers on our way back from shopping.

Tomorrow I get to visit the ship that's she's been on for the past few months. And take photos.. WooT and meet some of her mates.  The last time I was on a Navy ship in port I was younger then she is now.

Speaking of young, some kid today mistook me for my daughter's sister. So we both burst out laughing. Then we said, no we're mother daughter, he mistook me for daughter and her for mother. Like seriously, maybe get new glasses? But at the same time it makes me feel like young.  

Provokative ad gets people talking.

This is new ad for an eye wear company :) I found it clever.

I'm wondering what country I woke up in this morning.

I know politics can mean heated debates. But seriously, some douchebag thought it was a good idea to go to where Pauline Marois was having her victory party, as her party won the Quebec elections and are going to have a minority government, and shoot into the crowd, leaving 1 dead, 1 injured and 1 in total shock.  Then as police arrested the idiot he mumbled in broken French "The English are waking up". 

Since when do the "English" take guns and shoot people in Quebec? You're not happy with the Election results, there are 9 other provinces and 3 territories for you to move. Killing someone because they got elected is not an option dumbass!!!!

There is something wrong with society when you get this kind of level of violence. It's gratuitous. What did the man expect? That he was going to kill Marois and it would change the election results? It's sad that it was employees in the club in charge of security that got hurt. However they can be thanked for doing a wonderful job keeping Quebec's first female premier safe.

I can't say I'm exactly thrilled that the PQ came in, and I don't care much for Pauline Marois. But we needed some change from Charest and the Liberals. I used to be a huge PQ fan back in the day of Rene Levesque. He was my hero. This party isn't close to what it used to be under the leadership of Rene, but at least it's change and after the spring and summer of protests I'm sure this is a welcome change. Will it make a difference in my life, probably not.

I learned doing this quiz on CBC that my current political leanings put me closest to Quebec Solidaire and the Quebec Green party.  I'm not surprised, I'm not so main stream.

What I love the most about this Election is that Charest did not even get elected in his riding.  :)

Election in Quebec today

Grand Vitara gets along well with canoe!

Back in June, on the same day my I went to see my youngest daughter get her diploma from McGill, I had roof rails put on my Grand Vitara in anticipation of the canoe we were going to buy to go canoe camping in early July. 

Grand Vitara is right at home in Mastigouche wildlife reserve

You've got to admit, it looks pretty comfortable with the canoe, we picked up from Tony in St Leonard for $300 from an ad on kijiji. 

Grand Vitara posing in front of Lac Sorcier after we spend the day canoeing

Groundhog you!!!

Groundhog looking at me taking a photo of him at Parc National Plaisance.