Drunk and alive

I, too, hate the small talk that turns into self-validation, especially if it is done without humor, and it can be exhausting to listen to if only from the disappointment it brings. But how about these times when you have a conversation with someone and you are just on, both of you, to the point where you feel elevated from the shared understanding, from the flow of articulate thoughts and words coming at you faster than you thought you could ever process? In conversations like this, my thoughts become clearer than they’ve been in days, I sense a direct connection not only with the person in front of me (or persons, but that is rarer), but also with her ideas and mental images, and I feel like I am almost physically transported into her perspective and she into mine. It is the greatest buzz, one I can sense all the way through my fingertips, and I feel dizzy when I get up after such a talk, drunk on words and images. “Could this feeling be what they meant when they talked about being alive?”, I tell myself, as I stumble home… I’m not sure, but the promise of this buzz makes the rest of our emptier exchanges a bit easier to bear.

In response to a post made by Rachel about the drama of human relationships.

I just wanna be your teddy bear

Je viens de recevoir dans mon courriel une alerte au virus qui est en fait un canular, comme la plupart des alertes au virus le sont. On me demande d’effacer un fichier nomm� jdbgmgr.exe qui se d�marque par son ic�ne toute mignonne en forme de nounours. Il s’agit en fait d’un fichier Windows utilis� pour des fonctions obscures reli�es � Java, sans intention malicieuse (bien qu’on puisse �ventuellement y installer un virus, comme dans bien des fichiers ex�cutables). Le canular est d�crit en d�tails sur les sites de McAfee et Symantec.

Ignorez donc le message si vous le recevez, ne l’envoyez � personne d’autre (�a cause plus de probl�mes que �a en �vite) et n’oubliez pas de mettre votre logiciel anti-virus � jour.

Mon dieu, on croirait entendre parler ma m�re…

I’m glad that this article from Salon used Valentine’s Day as an excuse to remind us about the fact that almost all the chocolate one finds on the market these days involved the work of children, most of them slaves.

“The existence, and the plight, of these children were publicly acknowledged by chocolate companies in 2001 after high-profile stories in the media — most significantly, a documentary by the BBC and a prize-winning series by Knight Ridder reporters — had exposed the horrific details of the children’s lives, and their connection to the chocolate consumed, often by unknowing consumers, in this country.

And yet, despite committing themselves 16 months ago to a highly publicized four-year plan to abolish child slaves and laborers from the cocoa farms with whom they do business, the chocolate industry, worth billions a year in U.S. revenue alone, has managed to continue making and selling products without demonstrating any discernible progress in solving the child labor problem.”

Some people think that a solution is to send inspectors to chocolate farms across the world to monitor the work done there by children. But it looks like they might not be as successful as UN inspectors in Iraq:
“Anti-sweatshop activists have found that opening factories to inspectors as a means of monitoring is ineffective. “It’s impossible because of the sheer number of factories around the world,” says Jason Marks, a spokesperson for Global Exchange. The money is better spent, Marks says, on worker empowerment — giving workers a living wage and allowing them the right to form trade unions. Worker empowerment is what makes Fair Trade collectives easy to monitor — they’re more invested in maintaining the criteria that a FLO inspector comes to check on once a year.”

So what are chocolate lovers to do until they can make sure that no slaves were involved in the production of their favorite drug? The best solution right now is to buy fair trade chocolate. And you won’t even have to compromise on taste. I found this fabulous 71% cocoa chocolate bar produced by a fair trade co-operative called La Siembra. The bar is part of a product line called Cocoa Camino, and you can find it in a lot of places across Canada ( about 4.25$ for 100g ).

I was able to find it in Montreal at Rachelle-B�ry’s stores, but also in the small fruit and vegetable markets on Mont-Royal. One piece of this divine dark poison, and you’re in paradise. And it smells SO good, I want to bottle its perfume and wear it all day long. It is one of the best chocolate I’ve ever tasted, bitter yet sweet enough to make me go “oooh”… guilt free.

Je t’aime, me neither

To mark this freezing Valentine’s Day, I thought I would offer you the
Top ten things that act as daily reminders that you are sharing your life with a true anglo
(that is, an english-canadian man submerged in a sea of francophones)

# 10 He thinks you are cute and exotic even when you swear.

# 9 He dated every anglo girl in town or closely knows somebody who dated them.

# 8 You hear him whisper the words “devil talk” every time you’re chatting on the phone with a member of your family.

# 7 You find yourself saying strange things like “Baby, we only have dep wine left”.

# 6 You see him turn red like the canadian flag when somebody says that canadians are just americans with a funny accent.

# 5 He didn’t watch La Vie la vie, even though he’s a young urban professional who lives on the Plateau.

# 4 He’s never been to a cabane � sucre and he’s never heard of drinking maple water straight from the bucket hanging from a tree.

# 3 He doesn’t know who Daniel B�langer or St�phane Bourguignon are and you have to explain to him the title of this post (Je t’aime, me neither).

# 2 No matter how good his French may get over time, he will never, ever understand a word of what Louis-Jos� Houde says.

And the number one reminder that you are sharing your life with a true anglo:

# 1 You wake up one morning and you find this box of Kleenex in his bathroom…

Awwwwh, but nothing beats them canadian boys, hey?

La droite n’est plus ce qu’elle �tait

Alors qu’une guerre est imminente et que nous remettons en question nos concepts de la droite et de la gauche, certains se penchent sur des th�mes un peu plus frivoles, mais qui sont tout de m�me sujets � controverse. Une �tude allemande vient de d�montrer que la grande majorit� des gens inclinent la t�te vers la droite quand ils s’embrassent. �a aurait � voir avec une dr�le d’habitude prise par le foetus dans le ventre de sa m�re. (via Wired News)

Si vous �tes c�libataire et que vous vous emmerdez demain soir pendant la St-Valentin, pourquoi ne pas vous rendre dans un lieu public, comme l’ont fait ces chercheurs allemands, et prendre des notes sur les baiseurs � droite vs les baiseurs � gauche? Des heures de plaisir scientifique en perspective…

Faites l’amour, pas la guerre, du moins c’est ce que pr�nent ces gens.

En caravane allons � la cabane

Un �change sur le site du Capitaine Bonhomme des fran�ais me donne une id�e: en mars prochain, nous devrions faire une classe verte (ou plut�t blanche) avec le groupe de YULblog � la cabane � sucre. Il y a plusieurs anglophones dans ce groupe qui n’y sont jamais all�s et puis quelques n�o-qu�b�cois qui n’ont pas eu leur bapt�me de sucre. J’ai de nombreux souvenirs de mitaines mouill�es qui sentent la vieille laine, de balades en skidoo et de batailles � la tire d’�rable qui finissent avec du sirop plein les cheveux. Une merveilleuse tradition, je vous dit, ces parties de sucre! Il faut cependant manger la tire avec des b�tons de bois, pas avec des cuill�res, comme le font les gens sur les photos de cet hyperlien. Incultes!

On pourrait louer un mini-bus et chanter:
En caravane allons � la cabane
Ho, h� Ho!
On n’est jamais de trop pour go�ter au sirop
Pour go�ter au sirop
D’�r� � bleeeeeeeeee!
(J’ai un peu mal au coeur juste � me rappeler cette chanson.)

Le probl�me c’est que les cabanes authentiques se font rares et qu’il faut souvent r�server des semaines � l’avance…

In a part of town not too far from me, Steph is reading under the dim light of a lamp.

Later that night, I finally settled on the couch with a book, very close to the heat of the fireplace. I turned all the other lights off in my place and kept a dim light on. As I started reading and struggled to form the words in front of me, I heard the voice of my mother. She said: “Tu vas te briser les yeux � force de lire dans le noir, ma liseuse!”

She used to worry about my reading habits, claiming I would ruin my eyes. She would walk up to my reading spot and turn a lamp on, or get it closer to my book. More than the weak light, I think she worried about the fact that I was very, very far away, and she wanted to bring me back to her world, if only for a second.

Tonight, as I heard her voice, it was my turn to be glad she was back. For a second.

H� Michel, tu me dois une bi�re au prochain meeting de YULblog!

Enfin, un point de vue int�ressant de la part d’un journaliste sur l’histoire dont j’ai parl� la semaine derni�re � propos du canular mont� par un reporter am�ricain qui s’est fait passer pour un terroriste. �a ne m’�tonne pas que cet article ait �t� publi� dans un magazine europ�en plut�t qu’am�ricain.

Et pourquoi le service de nouvelles Wired News reste-t-il silencieux � propos de cette affaire (du moins je n’ai pas r�ussi � trouver d’article � ce sujet)? Est-ce parce que le journaliste � la base du canular couvre le beat “s�curit�” pour eux et que �a pourrait ternir la r�putation du magazine et de ses produits d�riv�s?

J’ai mis � jour mon Coin des carnetiers (Blogging Spot Project) avec de nouvelles photos. En primeur, le bureau de Karl, sans censure et sans m�nage!

Je ferai un index quand j’aurai davantage de photos. Mettez-les sur le Web ou faites-les moi parvenir par courriel.