I’m writing a lot these days (upcoming deadline for the new screenplay) so my blog is a little more quiet than usual. Still, a few things caught my attention in the last week:

-The potential of destruction of alcohol and the strange attraction it has on people still manages to amaze me, even though I’ve witnessed it all too intimately since childhood. It has to be one of the most painful way to kill yourself, not counting the damage it does around you. Now I read that girls across college campuses are the new casualties. One of them managed to survive and wrote a memoir about it. Smashed, it’s called. It’s a strange word. It almost sounds funny it you don’t think about it too much.

-The gorgeous pictures that Karl brought back from his trip to Asia make me want to travel, though I know it won’t happen for a while.

-Instead of traveling these days, I use the Amazon Yellow Pages. By typing in the name of my favorite neighborhood Thai Restaurant in San Francisco, I get a series of pictures leading up to the restaurant. As I click, I recognize the houses and can almost feel the familiar smells of my old home, as if I was suddenly transported there and got a chance to walk around for a minute. This is the closest thing we’ll get to teleportation for a while.

Someone came up with a program that pastes all these pictures together. Take a walk on the old hippie hang out, Haight Street, from Golden Gate Park to the Civic Center area. Man, I could really use a good San Francisco burrito right now. (via Darren Barefoot)

-There’s also a new guy in my life (black and hairy) but I’m not sure if he’s going to be around for long so I’ll talk about him later. I’m sure Laurent is dying to know.

Must write. Must forget about the cold. Must resist the temptation to jump in bed with this guy. Must ignore his imploring eyes. Must work on the new screenplay.

Un romancier qu�b�cois, nouveau venu dans la blogosph�re (tout comme elle), offre quelques conseils en clin d’oeil � ceux qui entretiennent des r�ves de succ�s litt�raires.

(via CFD)

J’ajouterais � ses conseils:
-S’assurer, � tout prix, de passer � Tout le monde en parle, et brandir fi�rement son manuscrit ou son roman oubli�.

Tr�s cool, cette technique pour cr�er des albums photo Web. On a l’impression de tenir les photos entre nos mains! �a marche tr�s bien avec les superbes images d’Andr�

R�gle num�ro 1: Quand vous faites une pr�sentation en public et que vous �tes branch� � un r�seau, n’oubliez pas de fermer votre logiciel de messagerie instantan�e.

Oups.

(Trouv� gr�ce � Darren Barefoot)

Quand on travaille � la maison, recluse, face � l’ordinateur, les petis �v�nements de la journ�e prennent une importance consid�rable. C’est le cas par exemple de la visite quotidienne du facteur. J’adore le petit tonk m�tallique fait par le couvercle de la bo�te aux lettres que le facteur laisse retomber, press� de repartir dans sa course de maison en maison. Je me l�ve de mon bureau et je le regarde tracer son chemin dans la neige vers les maisons des voisins. Ses empreintes se m�lent � celles de l’affreux chat orange que Spiff d�teste tant de m�me qu’� celle d’un li�vre qui vient de commencer � se promener sur notre terrain. La banlieue, c’est parfois la jungle.

La visite du facteur m’est fort utile pour une autre raison: selon ce que le facteur porte, je peux conna�tre la temp�rature sans avoir � sortir. Des gants l�gers marquent une belle journ�e douce, presque chaude. Le bonnet bleu qui couvre bien les oreilles m’indique qu’il y a du vent. Le passe-montage lui, me dit de rester bien au chaud � la maison et d’attendre � demain pour aller faire des courses.

Quand il est reparti j’ouvre bravement la porte d’entr�e et plonge mon corps dans la froidure, le temps de faire trois pas pour atteindre la bo�te aux lettres. La plupart du temps je ne retrouve que des factures dont la vue me fait trembler davantage que le froid sur mon corps sans manteau. Mais je continue � me rendre � la bo�te � tous les matins dans l’espoir de trouver un des magazines auxquels je suis abonn�e ou encore, joie ultime, une lettre ou un paquet.

Je fus donc tr�s heureuse de trouver cette enveloppe la semaine derni�re! Un paquet rempli de reproductions des oeuvres de l’artiste suisse Albin Christen, rencontr� sur le Web gr�ce � mon blogue. Albin a cr�� une des affiches du festival de jazz de Montreux (2000), de m�me que quelques posters de films. J’ai m�me eu droit au livre pour enfants qu’il a illustr�!

Je ne pourrais plus me passer du courriel mais recevoir une lettre gardera toujours quelque chose de magique. J’ai 3 amis avec qui je pourrais correspondre facilement par courriel mais qui insistent pour le faire par la poste r�guli�re: une � Lyon, une � Sydney et un � Qu�bec. Leurs envois sont de vrais petits g�teaux tout chauds qui font fondre le givre sur ma bo�te aux lettres.

“I see cooking for someone as maybe the most selfless thing - short of oral sex - you can do for somebody.”

An interview with chef Anthony Bourdain in the February\March issue of Maisonneuve.

The organization committee of the yet to be named bilingual blog conference, which will take place in 2005 in Montreal, had a first meeting last night at Zeke’s Gallery. (Thanks for the space and the great ideas, Zeke!). Of course, there are photos (1, 2, 3) of the meeting on Flickr. Yulbloggers are serious Flickr freaks.

People who added their names to the wiki for the conference will soon get an e-mail with more information. If you have no idea what I’m talking about but are curious, take a look at the wiki where ideas are coming together. (Here’s a definition of a wiki.) We’re thinking about a day of talks, something rather informal, true round-table discussions (vs panels), not too much geeking and, well, a fair amount of mingling and partying. Something a bit like the Northen Voice conference in Vancouver but with a Montreal touch.

I send a personal invitation to women interested in blogs and their use. Go have a look at the wiki! Show your interest! Let’s get some girls in there!

Before we even make eye contact, I realize I hate the man walking down the grocery aisle toward me. He�s never kicked my dog, I�ve never slept with him�in fact, we�ve never even met. But in bold white letters, the word �VEGAN� is printed across his black T-shirt. Staring at his malnourished frame as it hovers over the seasonal produce, I clutch my package of extra-fatty bacon and feel as though we�ve had an argument.

I�ve been having this reaction more and more frequently as the streets of Toronto turn into a silent battleground of the slogan. Cheap pastel Ts are usurping the button, the blog and the bumper sticker as the vehicle du jour for pop-cultural identification. And it�s not just here. Every city in North America has been inundated with these bold, reductive catchphrases. They are the passive-aggressive accessories of a mute generation.

From The Clothes Make The Man, by Siri Agrell, in the February/March issue of Maisonneuve.

A remarkable new computer software programme is being piloted to teach children about the genocide, about citizenship and about the tough choices adults often have to make.

The new simulation - it sounds wrong to call it a computer game given the subject matter - runs a series of dilemmas similar to those the UN peacekeepers faced during the genocide.

An informant tells the students, who play the role of UN officers, that hidden arms caches are about to be distributed to Rwandan government militiamen who may commit genocide.

The students have several choices. Do they risk confrontation and raid the arms caches? Or should they ask for advice from UN headquarters in New York?

From BBC News.

Thanks to Blork for the tip