Francos

Quick note before I go shopping.. cause this is important!!!

I have a friend (Mui, the black cadillac :P) who sings... I mean REALLY sings! Last night at Francos she tried the karaoke.. and of course she rocked... even though we had screamed like mad at Anonymus just before.

Her performance is great, but she can be even better when you give her some Janis.. or any actual good song ;)

So go and vote for her!!!! vote HERE (you click on the little yellow stars under the video.. make sure all 5 are yellow! :P)

In the news these days

A couple of good/fun facts that I gathered from the papers in the last few days...

The Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco has gathered enough signatures to submit his idea to popular vote come Fall : to rename a wastewater (sewage) treatment plant "The George W Bush Sewage Plant"...

They feel it's important to honor political leaders in a historically accurate context, and since the Us will still be cleaning W's mess in 10-20 years from now...

The republican party is not amused... I wonder why ;)

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For your parties, BBQs, picnics and other gatherings involving lots of food but no time to clean... here's a very nice way NOT to use evil Styrofoam or plastic plates/cups.

Plates made of sugar cane fibers:
"completely disposable, compostable and biodegradable plates made from 100% bagasse, the sugarcane fiber that remains after extracting the juice from the sugarcane. Sugarcane is not only a readily renewable resource, but the sugarcane fiber can be turned into products normally made from plastic and paper and prevents the pollution from the normal burning of sugarcane waste after juice extraction."

they're CHEAP!!! and eco-friendly... get cooking people!

You can find them, in Montreal, at Coop La Maison Verte or order them on the net HERE for the rest of North America (don't know about Europe, but if you google "sugar cane plates" you should find a place easily)

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An oil tycoon is building the biggest wind farm of the Us near his ranch in Texas... and has proposed a multi-billion dollars project to reduce by a third Usa's oil importation in the next 5-10 years. The project involves the construction of wind farms from Texas to North Dakota, a corridor he calls "the Saudi Arabia of wind".
for more infos about this less than typical Texan google T Boone Pickens.

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(if you don't get what follows you need to update your Hollywood musicals database)

Last but not least... The Von Trapp Manor, in Salzbourg, Austria, has opened to the public. It is now an hotel-museum, where you can stay for 100 euros a night (not too bad a price to be able to sing "the hills are alive" in context :P). They even serve cakes made from an original recipe of Fraulein Maria!!!

But the real kicker is that the hotel will host a traditional Austrian Summer Ball every year, starting in 2009. (I have to go to one!!!!!!!!!!! a real ball!!!!!!!!! in Austria!!!!!!!! waltzing in the garden like the captain and Maria!!!!!!!!!!! HMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the hard part will be to find a guy willing to go with me :S)

Disclaimer to prevent disappointment : all scenes inside the manor were filmed in Hollywood studios' sets that didn't look at all like the real one...

grasping at feeble straws
wishing for peace of mind
another day wasted in rain
another night wasted in vain

and again it's raining... today was the Jamaican festival at Parc Jean-Drapeau, from noon to 11pm... it was a beautiful sunny day until 1pm.. now it's one thunderstorm after another
*insert, yet again, liberal amount of swearing here*

I wanted to go danciiiiiiiiiiiiiing!!!!!!!!! :(

holy shit now it's hail and howling winds! can't even see my neighbors house anymore!

Even if it's stops storming this evening, what are the odds that there will be more than 2 people there? ... or that any of the stands will still be up? ...

That's the result of about 5 brush strokes on the back of my puppy... next summer you are so gonna get shaved! I'm thinking of keeping the hair to make a pillow (or another dog) with it :P

TA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA! BATMAN!!!!!!!!!!!

that's all I have to say... if I spoil any surprises I'm gonna get murdered by my friends who haven't seen it yet...
but ho shit man... the joker?! WOW!!! S-C-A-R-Y dude... a true free electron scaryscaryscary!!!!

et les BB au Francos etait drole en maudit.. ah the good ol' days ♪ "Pourquoi t'es dans la lu-ne? pourquoi t'as salé ton café?"♪ hehehe :P

... and I just sliced my finger open with my chef's knife... ok that's it, I'm going to bed! >:/

is this a joke?

Ok, seriously, who did I piss off to get bad luck like that?! I rented Prison Break season 1, disk 1-2-3 Monday, I finally have time to watch it... and disk one's not there, it's #5 instead!!! WTF?!?! So now I can't start the serie, and the videoclub is closed so I can't go yell at them >:(
*insert liberal amount of swearing here*

screw this... I'll get cooking instead...

Miss meteo will burn in hell

Why why why is it still raining??? thunderstorms watch, gray and cold...
The FrancoFolies are opening tonight!!! Enough of this crappy weather! I want to go to Marco's show, outside, tonight and not end up soaking wet, freezing and sick... or pocked in the eye by an umbrella (even though I demonstrated last night that I function well in the dark... again, karma, NOT a reason for me to go blind ok?!)

grrr, who knows a good sun dance?

An evening in the dark

Group pic of the "wannabe" visually impaired, at our table, from left to right:
Sonia, Sam, me, Mui :P

The girls and me (plus Sam.. who kinda counts as a girl :P) tried the O.noir restaurant last night.
O.noir means "in darkness"...
The entrance is lit, so you can look at the menu and order food and drinks but after that, you go in the dining room... which is kept in total darkness. You place one hand on the left shoulder of the person preceding you (the waiter is going first), and you walk single file to your table, feel your chair and sit down.

The main point is to experience what it's like to be blind... to see (haha!) how it makes all your other senses more acute. I'd never realized how hard it is to use a fork and knife when you can't see where the food is on your plate! We ended up eating with our hands! Lucky that it's pitch black... no one could see our terrible table manners :P

Miraculously, none of us made a mess! No stain on the shirts, no trail of sauce of the arms... Sam dropped his napkin twice on his plate and got butter in his hair but that's it!

It really is great fun! The food is excellent and the experience, unique. I realized that I have a good sense of space (spacial memory?). After a short while I was able to reach for my glass of wine, fork and knife without thinking about it, and didn't knock anything over! I just remembered where it was by the movement I made to put it down before.

I'll definitely go back...

For more info about the place and its social vocation check the website here

Ho yeah, and I found my potato hanged in the bathroom... don't try to understand, it's a "you had to be there" thing... unless you know your summer camp scary stories very well, then you might get it if I say I thought it was a potato but turns out it was a turnip... nah, even with that you wont hehehe :P

A day at the movies

The super-heroes: Sonia, Mui, (not) me, Maya...
I don't qualify cause I think 3D is for real and get scared :P

There's so many good movies out this summer, we decided to try and keep up by doing a double feature yesterday, with Wall-E and Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Wall-E is just too cute!!! The guys at Pixar must have had a blast making that movie! With barely a word, they convey a whole story... and all the references to 2001: a space odyssey were hilarious, considering that 2001 was one of the most boring movies I had to suffer through. (It was the price to pay for a degree in cinema and communications :P).

I was very impress by the quality of the 3D glasses we had for Center of the Earth! They must be expensive, because we couldn't keep them after, and they had an anti-theft detector at the exit to make sure we did give them back... go figure.

And the movie... wow!!! Really, really awesome! I love 3D!!! except that I get a bit carried away sometimes... I must have been a cat in another life, cause I can't resist trying to grab the things close by (like the little glow-in-the-dark bird... he escaped, so I surely can find him somewhere!!! no?). The freakin jumping fish almost gave me a heart attack! especially the one dead on the beach... godamnit... Maya will be laughing at me forever now :S

Special mention to Brendan Fraser...rrrrr... :P You've played in many crappy movies babe, but this one rocks!

Next on the list : Batman!!! (on Imax screen!!!), Hancock, HellBoy II, Wanted (hooo Angelina!!!) and Mama Mia (gotta have at least one chick flick in the mix!)

my head hurts

small update... sspro replied... all clients want a minimum of 20 hours offshore, and at least 1 trip offshore (meaning you've slept on the boat)... which is not a lot, actually it's a ridiculously low demand... that doesn't solve my problem the least bit :(

How can I get offshore hours if I need to have been offshore to go offshore? It's not a catch 22 anymore, it's a fuckin Sphinx riddle...

but on the bright side, they did say, "as soon as you have that please DO call us" ... so if I can pass the Sphinx I have a job... anybody seen Indiana Jones or Harry Potter recently? I have a question for them...

All play and no work make Blue sumtin sumtin...

I re-read the emails I received from different companies for ROV jobs, trying to boost my mood. I didn't realize so many of them said they would contact me in July or August... I guess this week will be time to rewrite to them and ask where they're at in the contracts department.

I've never worked so hard to work... some websites are so depressing, especially UK ones, saying that if you're not an engineer or have a master degree in electronics you'll never get a job. But it has to be bs, there's loads of people working now who had no previous experience, they were just at the right place at the right time. And I know I'm more competent, serious, dedicated and... well... smarter than a lot of those clowns out there also applying for jobs... but now, how do I convince a company of that?

I am being denied everything I want in life... and I hate it. Yes I'm a spoiled brat. I got used to getting what I want with relative ease (except when it comes to guys, but that is a completely different issue), and this situation right now is driving me bonkers.

More about the german white lion cubs

Pictures and details about why they are being hand raised...

check it here

Nemi always gets it right II

Click on it for bigger (readable) image

prrffff

I am getting really tired of this bullshit...
Got another email from sspro saying:
"URGENT!!! NEED ROV PILOTS BADLY!!! We are in deep shit.. too many jobs not enough pilots!!! if you're available PLEASE say so quick!!!"

errr.... HELLO?! how about.... ME?!?!?!

I already emailed someone from there twice this week, with not much results... didn't get turned down, but got no interview requests either.

I know agencies only want pilots with experience, because the companies they supply people to want an efficient team and not random blokes (that'd be why they ask an agency instead of taking care of the hiring themselves), but this situation now is what my teacher said I should hope for.

He said that when there's too much work, not enough pilots, the companies will end up hiring a bunch of trainees because they can't find anyone else... and that's how you get your first job and go from pilot trainee to pilot tech II... so... WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!?! I'M HERE AND WANT TO WORK AND I'M FUCKIN GOOD AT IT!!! :(

I'm in a bad mood and it's raining... right now, life sucks...

Send good vibes

I just applied for a short contract in the UAE... they ask for a pilot/tech with Seaeye Falcon experience... that's me alright...
Hopefully being a girl wont play against me like it did in Brazil (still waiting for them to fix the accommodations problem).

more white lions :)

A zoo in Germany has 6 new lil white cubs!!!

In a year or two it should be our turn!!! (and, hopefully, me holding the bottle!!!)

check it out here, the cute factor is through the roof... seriously...
*update, seems like the video wont play on all computers :S sorry bout that, hope you'll be lucky

Stolen from Mui

Wouhahahahahahahahaha!!! XD

From Mui's blog :

"The Marmoset Song, with the autor's apologies to the Shirelles... see how far misunderstanding lyrics can take you!"

A day at the Parc

Ho.. errr.. hi there! sorry, don't have any apple left... ho ho...

As we usually do every summer, Sonia, her kids and me went to Parc Safari today :D

We couldn't have asked for better weather!!! sunny, some clouds, just cool enough so the animals are active but we still want to go in the pools.

I never get tired of walking around this place. It keeps getting better every year, as the new projects take shape... and it's just so nice to be able to get really close to animals you'd only see on tv otherwise.

My buddy Limba is back from Bowmanville, so the contest with my sister is on again to see who she'll love more :P (I should specify that Limba is a lovely 35yo Asian elephant, born in Thailand, but who now resides in Ontario during the winter, and at PS in the summer.) It's easy to win her heart really... ice cream, jelly beans, watermelon, apples... and a bit of trunk patting.

Robert, her keeper, asked me to bring Balou (my big fluffy white dog) one evening. Limba likes other animals... so it could make for some pretty wild pics! I know my dog has no problem with animals (he wanted to play with the Arctic wolfs!) but he's never met anything so big... should be interesting. :)

I took a bunch of pics today, of course, ... see the album on the right,
and if you want to see my zoo, go here

lazy Sunday

aaah, this gray rainy weather is perfect timing! Now I can just watch movies all day without feeling that I'm neglecting my social (so-called) life.

No Tamjams, no piknik electronic, no coffee on a terrasse, just a pint of home-made iced coffee, a bowl of cherries and a bunch of Hollywood crappy action films, yay!

I've added pics from the weekend in the album Fest Smorgasbord too.

The rain sucks a bit for the Haitian music fest though... their last big show tonight will be in the mud...

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARG

You'd think that after 20+ years of living 5 minutes away from LaRonde (host of L'international des Feux Loto-Quebec*) I would remember that the Jacques Cartier bridge closes at 8pm every Saturday of July and August... Seems that this fact hasn't penetrated my thick skull yet, and what was suppose to be a 15min drive to Mui's place turned into a 45min obstacle course, cause I didn't leave home early enough.
Victoria bridge was loaded with people like me trying to get on the island, and since half of downtown is closed to circulation because of one festival or another (plus a street sale and the whole "firework zone") it looked like a gigantic parking lot.

Add to that a freakin moron who started yelling at me because I looked pissed while he was crossing the street on a red light (i.e. his was red, mine was green and I was 2 inches from his shorts as in "move your fat ass you fuckin twat")... and I arrived at Mui's place begging for a Uzi.

St-Denis Street, aka center of my universe, has been taken hostage by the annual Just for Laugh Festival... the only fest I don't like. Mind you, the shows/galas are ok, it's all the street animation I can't take. I hate mimes! and I'm scared of clowns... and for some reason this festival attracts the worst kind of people... bunches of idiots from the suburbs, all excited to be in the big city to see the funnies. :S They just take too much space and act like drunken frat boys.

Passeport's entrance has been buried under a stage, where a dj was playing the Super Mario soundtrack without bothering to mix it... lovely... I have pics, I'll put them up tomorrow, now I'm going to BED!!!

Good news is, it only last a week so my universe should be back to normal next weekend :D


*For those of you, outsiders, who do not know, it's a massive fireworks competition that takes place on St-Helene island. A different country every weekend, 30 minutes of bangs that can be seen from the JC bridge, the Old Port, loads of parks on the south shore and the roof of my house :P

Hurricane

Holy shit I'm glad to have seen that!!! The show last night was insane! I hurt all over from dancing and jumping for 3 hours, and my voice has gone byebye, due to my screaming like an hysterical fan (no I am not a groupie... ok maybe just a little :P).

First the pot, than the flowers...

Ok, seriously, Bell Center, you HAVE to get organized and deal with the whole waiting in line without moving for 2 hours!!! For fuck sake! it makes no sense that people end up shoving and destroying the fences to finally get in, 30 minutes AFTER the show is suppose to start, creating complete anarchy outside. I've heard that it's always like that... it makes NO SENSE!!! especially when there was no security control whatsoever! (which is my other subject of frustration! Tabarnak, I could have sneaked in my camera so easily.. but I didn't bring it cause I thought they would strip search everybody like they usually do in big venues... live and learn they say)

So I took a couple of crapy pics with my cellphone. Some turned out ok, but considering that I was on the floor, 5 feet from Wyclef and Akon for half of the show, I can't imagine how many great poster quality pics I would have got with my real camera! grrr :S

The show opened with Sean Paul, who admitted having enjoyed the girls and clubs of Montreal the previous night... it became obvious quickly that he wasn't lying. The guy was hangover and.. well... sucked. He kept changing songs halfway through, couldn't remember the words... Yelling "yay Montreal" is fun to hear, but it's not enough to carry a crowd into hysterics. Too bad, I like his songs, but that was crap. It didn't help that the sound was awful too, all blurred and badly mixed.

Wyclef took over, he was his usual self, i.e. A FREAKIN GOD!!!! He arrived on stage with a Montreal Canadiens' shirt and a hockey stick :) Which he later give to a 7 yo boy he saw in the seats not far from the stage... he saw the kid, went in the bleachers, took him back on stage and traded shirts with him!

His show lasted about 5 seconds! (or it seemed to... my cell said an hour but I think it's lying). He climbed on his bodyguard's shoulders and went through the crowd for half of it. Confettis fell all over for Carnival and the whole Bell Center was dancing, jumping and going nuts!
He revisited the Fugees, and all in all did about two and a half songs from his albums, the rest was free style (even in Spanish! :P) and a big party that charmed everybody.
I heard girls in the bathroom afterward saying "That was incredible, Akon is gonna have a hard time keeping up... who was that Wyclef guy?!"

So way too quickly it was Akon's turn... it began with a movie about him being turned down at the border and then highjacking the plane to come back. He dropped on stage from the ceiling with a parachute :P

The show was good, a balanced mix of old and new songs, but all the tech stuff was a bit of a rhythm breaker. He flew over the crowd in a harness, to go from platform to platform (one was right beside me, which he flew onto for Mama Africa yay!) and a stripper pole, stripper included, came down from the ceiling for "I wanna love you" (yes, I wanna LOVE you... the censored version!!! wtf?!?! who cares if the show is not 18+, you're in Canada man, people don't care about the word fuck!!!) Must admire the double message here... singing "love you" instead of "fuck you" not to shock anybody, while an almost naked woman is shaking her ass on a pole in front of him... what-ever.

Over all it was great, and what a piece of eye candy that guy is!!! He got seriously molested by a crowd of girls every time he got close to them (on the platforms, flying over us and on his bodyguard's shoulders). He can sing and entertain too :P but he has obviously realized that the money is with hysterical girls and he's milking it for all its worth.

Wyclef joined him for the end of show party (to performed "Sweetest girl" the way it was meant to be) and brought back some of that Carnival spirit with him. That turned the floor into a huge dancefloor, arms in the air, screaming and jumping (and some cat fighting to get closer to the guys :P).

All in all a very good show, worth more than the price of the ticket!

South Africa comes to Hemmingford

My new pet :P

Today was the official ceremony to present our new white lions to the medias and public. Even with the rain, more than 1000 people came to see it, plus 6 tv stations, from Quebec and the USA!

It was nice, everybody was happy and there should be a good amount of Parc Safari in the news this week :P

Linda Tucker talked about her organization in South Africa that protects the white lions (see here for the web site) and how great it is to have Parc Safari as a partner in the breeding program. In the next few years, our lions should have cubs, and some of them will be sent to the Timbavati Game Reserve, to live in a wild, but protected, environment. (Which might mean a trip to SA for me!!! woohoo!)

Those lions are so magnificent! There is all sort of stories and legends about them. You can found the most common ones on the net, but also in Linda's book Mystery of the White Lions.

Never mind retail therapy!

I'M GOING TO SEE SEAN PAUL, AKON AND WYCLEF TOMORROW NIGHT AT THE BELL CENTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOHOOHOOHOO!!!!!!!! *happy dance, back flip and mad laugh*

When they announced the show I so wanted to go, but none of my friends wanted to follow so I didn't buy a ticket, cause going alone would suck (and I was half hoping that in July I'd be on a rig somewhere in the middle of the ocean too :S) .

Then today I saw on Facebook (yay FB!!!) that my cousin had an extra ticket. I called him right there and put my name on it! :P The tickets are on the floor!!! general admission!!! Everywhere else in the Center is assigned places, but they keep the floor general, cause there's no point in putting chairs, people go nuts and scrap them :P

Hoooooooooo I can't wait!!!!!! (the tricky question now is how do I smuggle my camera in there with all the mad security there's gonna be?)

Retail therapy

Nothing cures the blues away like a day of shopping :P

I went to the new Sephora store with my mom and sister... we got a bit carried away... got new eye shadows, lip gloss (though my candy cane from Vicky Secret stays my favorite :P) and a selection of body wash, the best ones being dark chocolate (ayayay!) and a mix of tropical fruits that actually smells more like green apple.

I also found a lovely dress, black with lil white and yellow dots, rockabilly style... now I only need yellow shows to complete the outfit hehehe...

In the dead of night
I still see your face

In the dead of night
I still hear your voice

Even though you're gone
Even when months have passed

And you don't see me
And you don't hear me

I still talk to you
In the dead of night

how to massacre a classic

Time keeps on slippin slippin slippin
into the summer
time keeps on slippin slippin slippin
and I'm waiting

I wanna fly-y my Falcon
in the sea
I wanna fly-y my Falcon
let its thrusters carry it
I wanna fly-y my Falcon
till I'm rich
Oh, Lord, through the Caribbean

It's official, I've gone mad from the wait for that first f***** job. :P

trading conscience

Fuck Jiminy Cricket, I want mini-wheat as my shoulder conscience!!!

Naturally 7

from l. to r. : trumpet+vocals, turn tables, drum, guitar, vocals, vocals+flute/trombone, bass

Last show I saw at the Jazz Festival was Naturally 7, on Wednesday. Man these guys kick ass!!!
A cappella, beat box, R&B with a twist.. call it what you will, they are excellent!

No instruments of course, it's kinda impossible to describe it, you have to listen to it. Sadly, their albums are a bit of a let down. The energy on stage didn't transfer to the studio and the songs are too mellow :S

Anyway, CHECK THOSE LINKS!!! and if they ever come to town for a show GO SEE THEM!!!

"Say you love me" is now part of my top 5 of the most beautiful love songs ev-er! I recorded it at the show, only half the song cause I thought I'd find it on the cd... but it just doesn't sound as good (how many time do you actually say that? it sounds better live?!?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPGyfwnzB7w


update! I found the complete song live... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai2FHoUGuKk


The song that made them famous worldwide, recorded in the metro de Paris, a cover of Phil Collins "in the air tonight". Ho how I wish I'd been there... a serious case of "I don't care that we're at my station, I'm not getting out of here until they finish!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF-KagTq7qY

more update... to see the coolest guitar solo... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFfyJ2y2RdA

a rose by any other name

Weird but pretty... or pretty weird? :P

Last night I went to see Bran Van 3000 at the Jazz Festival. The show was great, especially the beginning... thought the end dragged on a bit too long but anyway that's not what I want to talk about :P

As usual, I'd parked my car on the corner of St-André, where Muï lives. When I got back to it, at 2:30am, I found a rose on my windshield, the stem stuck under my whipper.

I looked around and inside the car, in case there was also a psychopath holding an axe and waiting to finish me. :S But there was no one there, only a black cat looking at me intently, that didn't want to tell me anything.
I know it's probably just someone who was walking by and didn't want it that put it there but I still looked a bit more often in my rear-view mirror going home to make sure no one was following me.

I think I've had too many psychos/stalkers in my life....

Anyway, to whomever left it there, thank you, it's very nice, but next time leave a note or something.